Groove is in the heart

Today my outfit made a dude burst into song :)

When we were taking these pics he passed us with his pit bull terrier and started singing  the chorus to Deee-lite's Groove is in the Heart.

I guess there's a wee nod in the direction of the fabulous Lady Miss Kier in this get-up ;)

90s T-shirt dress (Benetton), Tie-dye footless tights (Indiska), Clogs (Buffalo), Aviator sunnies (American Eagle), Handmade Turkish necklace (gift), Frocktasia earrings + handmade bag  & loadsa colourful bangles.

 On Monday I met up with Jo again, one last time before she headed back to the US yesterday. She very kindly treated me to a spot of lunch and then took me to a secret location.

Before lunch we popped into Traid in Dalston and both of us were sighing in unimpressed unison as we perused their rail of overpriced, crap quality quasi-vintage garb. I did like their Traidremade stuff but their vintage sucked!

 After lunch, a short train journey took us to Rotherhithe (don't worry I can't pronounce it either) and the secret location that Jo's lovely partner had stumbled upon recently and that Jo wanted to share with me, what a fabulous friend she is...

The Rotherhithe Picture Research Library is a tremendous treasure chest of inspiration. A vast collection of visual references for sets, costumes and a wide array of other subjects.

It is open weekdays 10am till 4pm and as an educational charity it offers free access to all this magnificent material, all you pay for is if you want to take photocopies.

Jo asked if we could have a look through some of their vintage fashion magazines and the lady in charge let us grab a whole heap of them before perching ourselves by the glossy green table.

We spent a couple of hours pouring over Vogue magazines from the late 60s and early 70s, chatting quietly and taking pics of anything that we deemed inspiration folder worthy. Jo was keeping her eyes peeled for hand-painted shoes, belts and bags and I was thrilled to come across several wig adverts.

I sent these pics to Sam and wrote that I'd love to see a Tangled Wigs advert in a modern issue of Vogue.

You could easily spend an entire day there and not even make a dent in their stash of thousands of books and magazines. This will be my go to place from now on, whenever I hit a bottleneck creatively and need some inspiration to get things going again, what an amazing place. Thank you Jo for sharing this fantastic "secret" location with me, you are a star :) 

Before getting back on the train home, we took some sneaky outfit pics. As I was giving my closet-goth tendencies a good old airing on Monday I thought it was rather apt for Jo to take my pics in a tiny graveyard. 

Jo will come back over in a few months time and hopefully there will be many more days out and dress-up fun on the cards then :)

This one is for groovy bloggy pals...

 Loads of love,

Jennie

xXx

Summertime

What a week it has been, my feet have hardly touched the ground.

Both Mark and I were completely zonked out after last weekend but thankfully managed to grab a reasonably restful Monday before charging full steam ahead into Tuesday.

We still try to squeeze in our daily jaunt to the park cause it lifts the spirit and is a great energy booster.

Fabulous 70s block print maxi frock, 80s sunnies & platform Hawaianas.

After a smashing Sunday at the Dandy pop-up market, I decided to treat myself to something I've been after for ages...

When my mum went to Morocco in the late 70s she brought back one of these fabulous robes and I remember playing dress-up in it as a kid. Sadly it disappeared in one of our many moves and I've been hankering for another one ever since. It is totally trippy hippie and I can't wait to wear it.

Whilst on the subject of hippies, I've decided to go with a "Far Out" theme for my rail at The Sunday Mini Festival next month. I am currently going hole punch bonkers making one-offs to bring along on the day.

Here's a fringe waistcoat that I made from a 90s suede dress...

I met up with Mike who is organizing The Sunday Mini Festival last Wednesday at the Biddle Bros pub in Lower Clapton for an evening of  beer & fabulous singer-songwriter performances by Allegra Shock , Jaime Wyatt , (fellow Swede) Emil Lager and Meg Cavanaugh. Meg is also one of the acts at The Mini Festi  :)

Then on Thursday I had another delightful visit from Jo. She came to try on some frocks for a friend in The States. I'd primed my rail with floaty creations and hippie style dresses galore. I even let Jo try on my favourite ever maxi that I was sent by Helga some years ago, she was smitten :)

I still have another meet-up with Jo before she heads back to the US. We are going for a spot of lunch tomorrow and afterwards Jo is taking me to a "secret location"...I'm very intrigued & excited:)

This was the beautiful view outside my home office window on Thursday evening...

On Friday I took some pictures of the geese. This is The Grey family, look how big Baby Grey is now...

There are two pairs of Canada geese, both with two young ones each. The goslings are loosing their down now and two of them are starting to look more like the adults. They are still adorably cute though...

Friday was also Summer Solstice or Midsummer as it is more commonly referred to in Sweden. It is much more of a big deal over in Scandinavia and people like to really celebrate it. I marked the day by wearing this very colourful and summery frock that I wore to my sixth form college graduation back in '92.

It had been raining in the morning and there were lots of snails that had been and still were trailing across the graveled path. I saved a couple by airlifting them to safety and putting them down in the high grass ;)

Happy Midsummer :)

Barbara our friend from Berlin came back from her shiatsu course in Wales and we had a lovely night in with veggie fajitas, red wine & a bunch of old photographs :)

The midsummer moon was magical...

Then along came Saturday and another eagerly anticipated colab with Tangled Wigs.
Sam has just launched her fabulous new Happy Feelin's Collection and a new issue of Tangled Magazine is in the making. Sam brought along four absolutely stunning wigs and I'd put together four festival inspired outfits for the photo shoot. Beautiful Natasha did a grand job modelling  and Sam & I shared the camera responsibility. The pics came out brilliantly and I can't wait to see them in the magazine. I had a wonderful time and I absolutely adore working with these fabulous gals :)

After waving Barbara off, I spent the afternoon editing pics. Mark had a boys night out planned with two of his best friends and headed out late afternoon. The three of them came back to the house around 9pm, laden with pizza and beer. We stuffed our faces before heading to the local watering hole for a quick one and then ended the evening by having a wee drinking session in the house before crashing.

I was incredibly happy that unlike last Sunday we could just kick back in the house all day and that is exactly what we've been doing. Mark and I perched ourselves on the sofa, "watched" a couple of DVDs and lazed the day away, blooming marvelous :)

So tomorrow I'm meeting up with lovely Jo and then I have to crack on with preparing my rail for the forthcoming Dandy Lion Market and organizing & promoting the vintage market for The Mini Festival...no rest for those who want things to be wicked ;)

To sing us out here's Janis, enjoy ;)

Hope you are all doing grand?!

loads of love,

Jennie

xXx

Absolutely Fabulous

On Saturday night Mark and I went to celebrate Sue's big birthday at The Bull in Highgate.

We've only known Sue and Mark (of Gorgeous Jewellery) for a few months, so we felt very honored when they invited us to attend this special occasion. Leslie and Aiden were there too. It was really great to meet so many of  Sue and Mark's lovely friends and family.

 Frocktasia effortlessly blending immaculate ladylike with common as muck. Sod the champers, this old girl prefers pints of bitter ;)

The party was fabulous, Sue's son and Mark delivered brilliant speeches, Sue treated us all to an awesome poetry reading, they'd very generously made it a free bar all evening and there was gorgeous finger food, sweets and cakes for all to eat. A special playlist with all Sue's favourite tunes had been made up and after a few brilliant ales from the pub's very own micro brewery I was hitting the floor like my name was Dancing Queen.

I bagged the dress that I was wearing from eBay the other week, it's labelled 'Global' and I think it's probably from the 50s. This is a perfect frock for dancing in, so much lovely swishtastic fabric!

We had such a brilliant time and I feel so incredibly blessed to have met such wonderful people as Sue and Mark, they ROCK!

On Sunday morning, I had promised Leslie that we would be at Talacre Road by eight at the latest to help set up. At half seven the alarm went and I waded through a gloopy mist of dancing pink elephants to the bathroom, steeped my bedraggled body in a bath, applied a generous dollop of slap onto my festering features and proceed downstairs to peel Mark off the kitchen sofa. Neither of us could face the bus journey so a taxi was ordered and we arrived just in time to put up the 100 meters of bunting that Leslie had spent days making.

It took me a good few hours and a hair of the dog to get back to some semblance of normality.

Thankfully Leslie and I were stall neighbours and that was not only a joy but a blessing too cause all the things that I'd completely forgotten about, brilliant Leslie had remembered, like rain covers for instance.

I also got to borrow her deluxe rail again, what a star this fabulous woman is...

Friend of the Year? You bet! 

Mark had to shoot off at lunchtime to collect Barbara a friend from Berlin who was stopping with us for one night before heading on to Wales.

There were loads of fun goings on at the Carnival all day :)

No Dandy post is complete without mentioning my fabulous fellow traders, as always they rocked my socks off and filled even my hungover riddled mind with awe :)

I fell in love with London's History Recycled, the brainchild of the super talented Amelia Parker. She makes stunning and unique pieces of jewellery from fragments of clay pipe stems collected along the banks of the River Thames. How awesome is that!

Lionheart Stationers specialize in hand illustrated and bespoke stationary but also design beautiful handmade clothes. You can peruse their creative wares in their well stocked etsy shop. 

 Full Stop Shirts is a brilliant concept T-shirt company that create unique Tees designed to be a reflection of the wearer. Their 'Me-shirt' comes printed with a list of the wearers favourite things and can be ordered from their awesome website.

 I was chuffed to bits to be trading next to lovely Claire of Bright River and her fab fella. Not only was Claire selling her wonderful original photographs and art prints but she had also brought along a rail full of wearable goodies too, I was eyeing up a fabulous Bavarian style frock on her rail.

 Vicky of Dolly Plops was working flat out all day putting her face-painting and henna tattooing skills to good use.

DBUN Designs sell fabulous greetings cards and smartphone covers and behind this small company lies a very inspiring story.

We were blessed with some awesomely sharp looking carnival revelers too. Just check out this stunning chick...

Sporran handbag, simply ingenious!

We'd had a few light showers but in the afternoon the sun decided to make an appearance and there was much rejoicing. The rain covers could come off, the umbrellas put away and exchanged for sunnies.

With the sun came Jo who was wearing the fabulous frock that she picked up from the Frocktasia stockroom when she visited last week. Here she is with our friend Barbara from Berlin.  

I hope that Jo will be able to visit once more before she heads back to the US, we had such a lovely time hanging out the other day and I've still so much to show her ;)

 Some close-ups of Leslie's stall, featuring her awesome handmade scatter cushions that you can buy from her etsy shop and her brilliant vintage button bracelets...

Whilst we were all basking in the late afternoon sunshine these two super stylin' chickadees rocked up at my stall and bought a Frocktasia necklace each. Needless to say I was beyond thrilled, I mean come on, how awesome are these girls :)

Despite the rain throwing a wee spanner in the works early on in the day, I had a fantastic time at The Dandy pop-up and loved the fabulous community and carnival vibe. Once the sun peeped through the clouds everything was just perfect. The numbers swelled and people were eating, drinking, laughing, chatting, shopping, bopping and just having a whale of a time, it was brilliant! 

Yes, that's me having hair of the dog number two ;)

Mark and Barbara helped pack all my gear up and very kindly brought it all home and I stuck around to help take down all the Dandy decorations including the 100 meters of bunting.

I got home to a bowl of pasta, that I scoffed in five minutes flat and after a little catch up with Barbara it was straight off to bed for some much needed regenerative sleep.

I had an absolutely fabulous weekend, hope yours was just as good ;)

Loads of love,

Jennie

xXx

Sunshine on a rainy day

It's been a little while since my last blog offering but as the saying goes time flies when you're having fun.

Here I am basking in today's five minutes of sunshine :)

 As I was desperately trying to find something to pair this maxi skirt with this morning the doorbell rang and outside waited my ever smiling postie with a wee parcel from Sweden.

My beloved mother must have known that I was in dire need of funky summer tops cause the parcel contained not one but two of these crochet beauties.

Vintage 70s maxi skirt (eBay), handmade top (from my lovely mum), Boho belt,  retro sunnies & necklace (car booty), Hush Puppies sandals (chazza) and Frocktasia handmade bag.

Last Friday my beautiful friend Zandra came over from Sweden to stay for a few days. We went to school together in the mid to late 80s and remained pen-pals for a number of years after I moved to another town when we were in our teens. In the mid 90s I moved to the UK and lost contact with a lot of my old pals including Zandra but thankfully we found each other again through Facebook.

 This was the outcome of our attempt to do a 'Past & Present', I'd had a gin or two by then, so I couldn't remember which side I had to go on ;)...

I always admired Zandra's creative & individual style when we were kids. When the majority were jumping on the Adidas tracksuit bandwagon she would rock chunky boots, revamped jeans & oversized blazers. She was never afraid of doing her own thing and she had a real flair for quirky styling even as a youngster.

Here's Zandra back in the late 80s...

She's still one of the coolest cats I've ever met. Zandra and her husband Jens run one of Sweden's top tattoo and piercing studios called Heavenly Ink. 

We had a fabulous few days of reminiscing about old times, catching up on twenty years of life stories and just enjoying each others company, it was awesome and I can't wait to do it again!

Whilst on the subject of  wonderful women, a couple of days after Zandra left I had another fabulous visitor.

Jo who writes the blog Joyatri's Adventures in Vintage came for an afternoon of tea drinking, chatting and some light rummaging. I've met Jo three times now but it feels as if we've been pals for years, she's a gem of a gal and if you haven't as yet please check out her fabulous blog. Much like Zandra she's got a real flair for quirky styling, she's very creative and has a beautiful soul steeped in kindness. Jo brought the most delicious vegan muffins I've ever tasted, baked to perfection by her own fair hands. She'll be returning to the US in a little over a weeks time and then you'll be able to peruse and purchase from her fabulous Etsy shop again :)

On Sunday Frocktasia will be braving the elements and joining the fabulous Dandy Lion Market when it does a turn at the first ever Kentish Town Carnival...

According to the BBC weather website, rain is forecast for Sunday but I've been cosmically ordering sunshine for weeks so I'm simply not having that!

Rain or shine I'm sure it will be a fabulous day  :)

Hope you've all been keeping well.

Loads of love,

Jennie

xXx

Breaking the habit & learning to let go

A stop and start spring has taken a big leap into summer over the past few days and I'm keeping my fingers crossed this is a wee taster of what's to come.

It's been two years since I last wore this funky 70s frock & I'm just sitting here wondering why that is?! I love the amazing trippy print and the gorgeous colours. Here's the last time it had a proper outing...

It was my pressie to myself when I quit working at The Lamb and Flag when it was taken over by Fullers. They did offer me a job under the new management but with reduced pay, less perks and an enforced dress-code, I told them where to stick it.

The fabric to the top part of the frock is a little bit on the sheer side, hence me teaming it with my trusty waistcoats in both the get-ups. 

The waistcoat I'm wearing today is a traditional Austrian one that I snapped up from a charity shop several years ago, it's got a great fitted shape, the embroidery is stunning and even the buttons are brilliant.

I think that frocks and waistcoats were made for each other.

My suede waistcoat (that I wear all the blooming time) was bought from a vintage seller friend of mine.

 After I quit the pub two years ago, I undertook one almighty life laundry but I realize now that it wasn't severe enough. 

 We've still got too much stuff hanging about, so it is time for 'Life Laundry 2' and this time I mean business. No more hanging onto things that I know I'll never use, wear or look at again...be gone clutter, be gone!

So it would be lovely if the sun could stick around for a while so that I can use the balcony for sorting stuff out. I attacked a few boxes earlier that had been gathering dust under the daybed for past two years since I last went through them and that yielded a bin bag full of stuff and it also resulted in me getting sunburn on my shoulders and knees, I won't forget the factor 50 tomorrow ;)

I'll leave you with a few pics that I snapped in the park earlier of the growing goslings, look how their flight feathers are starting to peek through the fluffy down :)

So gorgeous!

To play us out here's Linkin Park, enjoy :)

Hope you are all doing grand peeps.

Loads of love,

Jennie

xXx