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.
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| 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
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