Like a bat out of hell another month goes by

I can't believe it is March already, time is speeding past like Jay Kay in a Koeningsegg One:1.

At least it is speeding towards lighter and warmer times.

Today I've been busy adding more stock to the Frocktasia etsy shop. My target is two hundred items before the end of the month, so I've got a few days of hardcore work still ahead of me. I'm trying to coordinate my online selling activities in with my market outings, so any stock that is featured in a market preview and doesn't sell on the day can go straight onto etsy. So I'm having plenty of photo session with Barbara before the markets and then getting stuck into editing, taking measurement, writing descriptions and finally bringing it all together into a listing after. Online selling is a whole heap of work but it is also were you reach the largest number of potential customers, so it simply has to be done.

I would love to be able to survive on doing markets alone but it's just not feasible, especially since I don't have my own transport & even if I did, I'd have to learn how to drive it first.

Speaking of markets, last Sunday we were back at the fabulous Little Birds Market at Sloans...

Frocktasia's stall at Little Birds Market.

Mark and I absolutely adore this market. It is very easy for us to get to in the morning, (just a five minute walk to the station then a twenty minute train ride and another five minute walk) when you are weighed down like a Himalayan Sherpa, stuff like that really matters. Sloans is situated slap bang in the middle of Glasgow and the Little Birds team headed by the very lovely Vicki work their tail-ends off to get people through the doors. We had some fabulous customers on Sunday. My heart always skips a beat when someone comes back from the powder room with a smile on their face, hands over the garment and goes " Can I have that please"...I love it!

We had Curtise's identical frock twin on our rail on the day , it didn't sell so it will be joining the other frocks over in my etsy shop.

We shared The Snug room with the lovely Palma and her fabulous Blithe Spirit Jewellery again...

A couple of weeks ago we were at another market called Granny Would Be Proud and there we were delighted to meet the gorgeous Jenni of Retro Rainbow Vintage, a fellow vintage lover and trader based near Glasgow. Jenni started selling vintage online when she fell pregnant five years ago and haven't looked back since. She runs a very successful eBay store and does the rounds on the Glasgow market and fair scene. On Saturday we are both doing Judy's Affordable Vintage Fair held at Glasgow University Union and Jenni, being the very experienced & professional seller she is, has already posted her preview folder on the events page. I on the other hand have only half-arsed sorted my stock out. I'm sure I'll get up to speed at some point in the hopefully not too distant future. At the moment it pretty much nonstop GO GO GO! 

Jenni and her rail vintage fabulousness. On the day she was wearing the most exquisite blouse by Gunne Sax, she has an expert eye for a stunning vintage garment this girl.

I fell in love with these fab dolls by Oscar Cat Creations...

This was me on Sunday morning en route to Little Birds wearing the same old dress that I wore to our first ever Dandy Lion Market a year ago.

I'm looking very anemic, bring on the spring sun!

Leslie is doing a special Mother Appeal fundraising edition of The Dandy in partnership with Oxfam on the 22nd of March, so if you happen to be in London that day do pop along,  I can highly recommend a visit. 

Tomorrow Mark and I are heading up to the storage unit to pick up some fresh threads for Judy's on Saturday and then I'll be flat out prepping for the event, I am so looking forward to it.

Hope you are all doing grand folks.

I'll love you and leave you with the amazingly talented Meat Loaf...

Loads of love,

Jennie

xXx

Frocktasia Towers

I promised in a previous post that I'd give you a tour around our wee abode and today I finally got round to taking some pics. These past few weeks I've been very busy with market preparations and writing my business plan. Starting my own business was never really a doable thing when we were living in London. I did try but the horrendously steep living costs were too much of a prohibitive factor. Any attempts came to an abrupt end as soon as rent day loomed.  It was never going to happen in London but I think Glasgow might be just the ticket. 

Last Sunday Frocktasia made a splash at the lovely Little Birds Market & on the 23rd of this month we're testing out Granny Would Be Proud. I was so impressed with Little Birds so I've already booked a stall for the March event and we'll also be doing a turn at Glasgow's Affordable Vintage Fair on the 15th of next month.

I thank my lucky stars that Mark spotted that Can't Buy Me Love poster  last year and then gently twisted my arm into doing it, that initial plunge was a game changer. Meeting Leslie was another pivotal moment and exhibiting at The Dandy Lion Market boosted my confidence no end. I'm chuffed to bits how things have turned out.

Right I stop harping on and show you our pad. It is tiny compared to what we left behind in London but then again we are not paying £1000 per month any more. Much like our last flat this one is a bloody fridge but thankfully we are getting some insulation put in at the end of this month. Hopefully that will mean, no more wearing all your outdoors clothing indoors, fingers crossed.

Here's our home...

Hallway featuring Iggy the plastic iguana.

This house gave me good vibes from the first moment I stepped in the door.

I love all the wood paneling, it makes me think of cosy ski chalets in the Alps.

The bedroom is also Mark's playroom. Our beloved plants seem to dig the house too.

This is my playroom or should that be Barbara's room perhaps?! We have a storage unit that is the same size as this room that holds my vast collection of clobber. I am so glad it's not kept in the house anymore.

In our last flat we didn't have a shower so for twelve years I was a bath girl but this tub is tiny so I'm fast becoming a shower convert.

My mum sent me this cute cross-stitch to keep above the toilet. It reads "You can sit here in your own thoughts until somebody else comes knocking"... in Swedish it rhymes.

Our wee tiny micro kitchen. This was the hardest thing to get used to. The kitchen in our last flat had a huge couch in it, loads of cupboard space and the door that led out to our beloved balcony and our gorgeous pigeon friends. It's definitely not a kitchen for a cooking enthusiast that's for sure. I'm learning to live with it but I will never love it.

So there you go, you've now seen Frocktasia Towers. We do have a small garden with a shed too but it's too bleeding freezing to go outside today so that'll have to wait until a sunny day. We do get a lot of garden birds which is lovely and there are three pigeons that come regularly. A couple that we've named Laurél and Hardy and a white speckled one that we call Motley.

To finish off just a little medley of pics from last week...

I made a handcuff belt from a 50p set of furry love cuffs, I also bought two new wigs on eBay and took delivery of Frocktasia's new business cards and rubber stamp from Vistaprint.

It's amazing how happy a rubber stamp can make a person, I felt like I was five years old playing post office again.

Our stall at Little Birds Market at Sloans. We shared the fabulous Snug Room with  Blithe Spirit vintage jewellery stall run by the very lovely Palma.

That's all for this time folks, hope you are all doing well & keeping warm.

Loads of love,

Jennie

xXx

Fifteen minutes of frock fame

Mark and I took some time-out after moving. We needed it, the process had made big demands on us, both emotionally and physically. Thankfully we were able to take our time over things. 

When we first moved up we went straight into hyper-drive trying to find a flat. 

I'd trawl the net in the evening, Mark would arrange viewings in the morning and then off we would go traversing Glasgow, on the hunt for our new home. 

Our budget was quite low so the quality of what was on offer was very often hugely disappointing. 

Damp damaged buildings with signs reading 'No Loitering' nailed up above the entrance. A plethora of claustrophobic boltholes, riddled with mold, ripped woodchip & stained carpets.

After three stressful weeks we finally found a place that we could see ourselves in, it's not quite the five bedroom Victorian  townhouse that I cosmically ordered but it's definitely the cream of the crop in our budget category.

I will give you a tour of the house at some point, just need to don a pair of marigolds first and get it up to Hello Magazine standard.

Over the past few days the wheels of productivity have slowly started turning again.

We've booked a market for Frocktasia's relaunch on the 9th of February . It is called Little Birds Market and it is a monthly do held at an amazing venue here in Glasgow called Sloanes.

We've applied for a stall at another market called Granny Would Be Proud but it's yet to be confirmed. Today Mark and I took a little research trip to check out Judy's Affordable Vintage Fair that was in Glasgow for the day and both of us agreed that it would be a great one to get in about next time it is in town.

So it's back in the saddle for me and to be honest, after all this "time-off" I'm feeling well and truly up for it.

In my last post I promised that I'd share the pics that Mark and I took on our micro roadtrip to Largs. I played around with them on PicMonkey (that I still use religiously). As a complete Jennie Pinchpenny I still haven't upgraded to Royal but I have to confess, that of late I have been sorely tempted. For some reason the wretched skin under my eyes has decided to not just puff  but also wrinkle up and some days it looks as if I've super glued skincoloured  raisins underneath my eyes. I feel the need for some PicMonkey surgery. Are any of you lovely peeps using PicMonkey Royal and if so what do you think of it?

Anyroad the pics...these were taken en route from Largs to Greenock by the Firth of Clyde in North Ayrshire. We shot two frocks, the first one is an Indian dress that I picked up from Holloway market a few years ago and the second is a stunning 70s Jean Varon frock that I scored at a car boot sale last year.

Hope you liked them? We are hoping to do plenty more of these wee photo sessions in the future. There are so many stunning backdrops to take advantage of  nearby to us and so many frocks yearning for their fifteen minutes of fame here on the blog.

Hope you are having a lovely weekend.

Loads of love,

Jennie

xXx