A BBQ and some random bits

Hi all! So much for my nice free summer of doing whatever I want, I've just been working non-stop! I need to save up for a last minute holiday in September and all my uni stuff, but hoo ha. It'll be worth it in the end.

So on a rare day off this weekend I went along with the boyfriend to a BBQ hosted by a couple he used to work with at our local radio station Time FM. It happened to coincide with their 1 year wedding anniversary so it was a big party with everyone they know - the drinks were flowing!
Here is what I wore.

 Yellow hair flower: Primark

Pineapple print dress: Simply Be

Yellow belt: Primark

Gold peeptoe slingbacks: Tesco

Somewhat sneakily, the dress is actually my Mum's and is a size 24! She has lost loads of weight so had never worn it and I loved the print so I nicked it. It's supposed to be a kind of smock tunic style thing but I've cinched it in with the belt - the sleeves now have a kind of bat wing effect. I don't think you can tell very easily that its actually almost 5 sizes too big for me! 

The print up close:

I was stressing over what to wear for ages as the weather has been pants but in the end it was lovely and sunny so I needn't have worried! This outfit is also really bright but I fancied it after being stuck in my work uniform for days on end. Here is my face:

Foundation: MaxFactor Lasting Performance in shade 101 Ivory Beige

Eyeliner: Soap & Glory 'Supercat!' 

Eyeshadow: from the MUA Heaven and Earth palette

Mascara: Collection 'Supersize'

Eyebrow pencil: Rimmel in black

Blush: Maybelline Dream Mousse Blush in 'Pink Frosting'

Lipstick: Rockalily 'Rockette Red'

Now for the random bits side! I was given this book by my boyfriend's Mum as she noticed that I like to collect recipes and want to get more into cooking. It's so cute! It's a book for you to make a note of your favourite recipes in order to keep them all in one place, and it has some already in there for you to get started with. 

I also purchased yet another red lipstick in a blog sale at Paperbacks + Postcards, I simply couldn't resist it. It's Revlon's 'True Red' and not very dissimilar to my classic Rockalily liptick in colour. The packaging is gorge and it's quite longlasting, although you definitely need to wear lip liner with it and it can slide and smudge quite easily.

 Not a terribly flattering photo with me wearing my Carolina Panthers NFL shirt and my hair scraped back with a bandana but you get the idea of how the lipstick looks in relation to my whole face! And Rosie and the Guinness toucan are in the background :)

 How cool are these sunglasses?! White with blue polka dots and a slight cats eye shape and all for £2 from Primark. I will probably live in these. (And go back for the brown leopard print ones...)

 Finally, I am a freak for slippers, I hate all kinds of slippers except for ones that are like ballet shoes. I couldn't find any in the shops or online that I liked so I literally just bought some actual ballet shoes! They are really comfy and great if you don't like fluffy things on your feet like me. Only five quid as well, from eBay.

That's all for now! I have some more videos of Sweete Harmonie's Diamond Jubilee Celebrations gig in Wennington that I should be putting up soon, and also stay tuned if you are a tattoo fan as there may be Tattoo #3 on my horizon very soon! I hope you're all well!

Much love x

Charity shop haul #1

Hi all, hope you're all having a good week!
I hadn't had a good shifty around my local charity shops in ages, so I jumped at the chance to go and have a good root around in the next town over's PDSA shop, which is managed by my aunt. She'd called me and said she'd been saving behind all the 'retro and vintage' items that had been donated to have a 'Retro Special' day and to get down there quickly! These are my spoils.

Two handbags, a tea set, a blouse, a Polaroid and two books!

I absolutely love the tea set. I think its quite quirky and I haven't seen another one like it. At only a fiver for 5 cups and saucers I had to snap it up. I'm going to enjoy having little tea parties, I'm such a dork haha! 

This shirt is pink and its got a polka dot pattern. And it was £3. Enough said!

These two books are amazing. The cookery book will give me some great easy to make but retro dinners and deserts and this 1950s housekeeping book is simply divine. It's Newnes 'Better Home Making'. It has tips and information on everything from how to keep your house clean to how to do your own manicure! The pictures and photos are lush. I'm going to consult it for any house-related problem I have in future :)

These two photos are taken from 'Better Home Making', the left on how to do your make up and the right on how to furnish your house!



I also got a 1940s style handbag and this white bag for £6 and £3.50 respectively. The white bag is perfect to use on nights out as the longish strap is attached by poppers so it can be used as a clutch! Genius. The black handbag is a great staple for when I'm dolled up in my vintage gear.

My favourite item is this Polaroid camera - its a Swinger Colour III which dates to the late 1970s or so. It still has film in it! It also still had some really old Duracell batteries in it which had leaked everywhere. I've given it to the boyfriend to see if he can sort it out but I'm also going to pop in to a camera shop and see what they can tell me. Even if we can't get it working it will still look cool sitting on my bookshelf, and it was only £7, can't go wrong really!




 All in all a good haul! Much love x

Update! Its been a long time...

Wow, it's been so long since I posted anything, so much has been going on! I'm happy to say that my work placement for the year is over and now I have the entire summer to enjoy before I go back to university at the end of September. I was working 7 days a week, weekdays in central London and weekends at my part time job so I've been knackered, and there has been a lot of stuff going on at home too so no time to dedicate to my blog! But now this can all change and I can relax and have fun!

The first exciting thing that has happened since I finished my placement last week is that we, we being Sweete Harmonie, had our first gig of the summer! It was at Rainham Village May Fayre in Rainham, Essex, on the bank holiday just passed. Here we all are dressed in our Fifties gear! 

From l-r: Belinda, Phillipa, me, Nikki, Charlotte, Sue & Kath

We need to do a bit of work on our overall look but you get the idea! In my opinion we need to match a bit more and our hair needs to be much more styled! Three of us are wearing Vivien of Hollway dresses and Nikki is wearing one of my original vintage dresses so we are on the right track at least. What do you think?

We only had about 3 proper practise sessions before the actual day so we were all nervous, especially as this is new territory for us and completely different to our usual madrigals of Tudor and medieval origin. Although we did do a set of that as well, meaning we ended up rushing all over Rainham having to quick change from Tudor to 50s! Also, I haven't sung in public for quite a while so I had a bit of stage fright, not helped by the fact the boyfriend's parents had come to see us! Eek. Here is us mid-song wearing our Tudor get up, complete with Rebec, recorder and various percussion instruments.

You can't see my dress but never mind! 

Overall, I'd say the gig went well. The only problem we had was that the weather was a bit grim so were were freezing in our summer dresses and there was some issue with all the acts on before us overunning so were rushed on and off and the placing off the microphones was completely off. But hey ho it's our first time so we know for the future! We only did 4 songs for the 50s set but we had such a good reaction from the crowd that we are definitely going to expand it to fill 30mins, like our Tudor set. 

Overall a good day was had by all, and I managed to browse the many stalls on offer and purchase some homemade clotted cream and Baileys flavoured fudge and some homemade strawberry jam. Yum!

I'll leave you with our rendition of 'Lollipop' by The Chordettes. Forgive the lousy sound quality, my camera is just a normal digital one, nothing snazzy! Hope you like it!

I have a load of blog posts coming up over the coming week, including a charity haul, a clothes and make up haul, a FOTD and a post dedicated to my winnings from Ruby at Wake up, Make up! 's giveaway. So stay tuned if you're interested!

Much love x