The Chandette

After we went to the Hunterian Museum last Saturday we popped for a quick pint at The Chandos in St Martins Lane. 

It is a Samuel Smith Brewery owned establishment that only stock Samuel Smith products.

Back in 1998 Mark and I spent seven months working there as a live-in bar couple, it was my first ever job in London and I have some fond memories of that time.

When we worked there you could get a pint for less than £2 but our round on Saturday (two pints) came to £8.50, how times change.
I wonder if the wages have followed suit?
N'ah!

These pics where snapped outside the pub. 

I remember getting black fingers from shining that bloody brass behind me every morning.

The pub is slap bang in the middle of the West End near Covent Garden, Leicester Square and Trafalgar Square.

It's a real shame that the beer prices have shot through the roof cause it's a fab place for a lengthy drinking session.

Vintage 70s floral print maxi dress, 90s teddy faux-fur jacket, repro Victorian lace-up boots, mohair hat, gloves & Frocktasia earrings.

Here we have 'The Chandos' class of '98 having a wee swalley on a Saturday night which incidentally was  both pay & beer line cleaning day, loads of free booze, happy days ;)

I'm the one draped on the sofa (no surprise there) & the dude sitting next to me is Matt, who is my brother-in -law.

Other news...

The lovely Sacramento bought a vintage shirt from me the other week and here she is ROCKING IT in one of her fab outfits :)

 Raven haired sauce goddess Sarah put her photoshoppin' skills to good use last Friday and grafted the heads of some of my favourite bloggers onto the glowing orange, trashy clad bodies of retro catalogue models. 

At long last my dreams of walking in the footsteps of Samantha Fox have been realized, thank you Sarah ;)

My fellow models are Tamera, Helga & Vix.

The original catalogue scans are from an awesome blog called Retrospace. 

If you haven't heard of it, I can highly recommend adding it to your fave blogs, it's one of my daily doses of unadulterated vintage & retro fun and inspiration.

Today's tune is 'The Model' by Kraftwerk, enjoy :)

Loads of love,

Jennie

xXx

¡ Ay Caramba !

Frock number seven puts the rackage on display...

The Frock:

I scored this fabulous 70s frock from my vintage dealer friend a few years ago.

This alluring number is best teamed with a pert pair of ample dumplings but as mine are neither pert nor ample I had to resort to the usage of some serious scaffolding for this one.

The frock features ruffle trimmed wide sleeves & a row of fabric covered buttons underneath the bustline.

There is no label present indicating the maker or brand but there is a label stating that it was made in England.

The Shoes:

If I was going to wear this frock for a night out here in London, I'd probably opt for an elegantly towering heel but I didn't bring any of those to Egypt, not very practical footwear for traipsing around the great outdoors it has to be said. 

I usually pack three or four pairs of shoes when I go away on holiday and this time was no exception.

I brought my glitzy jazz dancing shoes that double up as trainers, great for travelling in, a pair of embroidered flats, my vintage St Michael raffia wedge sandals and the vintage Pierre Cardin metallic sandals featured in the above pics. 

I bought these from a local charity shop some years ago and they look great incorporated in most outfits. 

They are both versatile & supremely comfy, just what you need in a holiday wardrobe.

The Throwing of Shapes:

I like to inject a little bit of theatre and movement into my pictures and that is why I'm often snapped with an arm flung up in the air or a leg aloft.

Truth is I'm just a big sausage of silliness that likes to have fun & play dress-up and I don't think I'll ever tire of it.

******

I'm so happy it's the weekend, for a four day week this one certainly dragged its sorry arse...good riddance!

I'm starting to get the "back in Blighty blues" and a sore throat to top things off, och bugger!

Have a nice relaxing weekend peeps, enjoy ;)

Lot's of love,

Jennie

xXx

Green is a colour, the perception of which is evoked by light having a spectrum dominated by energy with a wavelength of roughly 520–570 nanometers.

In honour of Saint Patrick's Day I've decided to do a a post on one of my favourite colours i.e. Green!

I scoured the offerings of my fave blog goddesses and found gorgeous green outfits galore, feast your eyes on this fabulous lot...

VIX

HELGA

DESIREE

SARAH

LA DAMA

Here's some fabulously green frockage from my own wardrobe...

...and two new garments to hit my vast amassment of vintage clobber :)

A kitschtastic Kermit green vintage 70s jumpsuit labelled 'JOSHUA TREE - California' & a sweet seafoam green 'Dollyrockers' frock...

Hope you are all having a cracking weekend!

 Beannacht Lá Fhéile Pádraig!

Lot's of love,

Jennie

xXx

P is for Picnic

Yesterday hubby and I paid our monthly visit to SeeWoo in China Town to stock up on green tea, tofu, soya, seaweed & other odds and sods.

We thought that as we were going into town anyway, it would be nice to have a picnic lunch in St James's Park before shopping, so we packed adzuki bean pie, salad, bread sticks, fruit & beer.

We were going to bring the vintage Brexton picnic case that I scored from the car boot sale last year but decided that it would be too much of a pain in the backsie to carry, especially as we'd be laden with carrier bags after going to SeeWoo's.

  It was just as well that we didn't bring it cause contrary to what the man on the telly said about the weather, mid picnic it started pishing down.

It was alright though cause we continued our picnic sheltering under a majestic tree that had umbrella like qualities ;)

Here I am getting ready to crack open a bottle of non-alcoholic Cobra beer...

I've only just come across the 0% Cobra & I have to say that although it's very nice I still prefer Becks Blue to anything else that I've tried.

St James's Park is one of my favourite London parks.

My sister took me here on my first visit to London when I was ten years old and I've been in love with the place ever since. 

Hubby and I worked & lived-in at a pub off Trafalgar Square in the late 90s & in our spare time this was where we went to chill out or excercise; 

slothing out on tattered pub accommodation blankets or playing Frisbee, those where the days ;)

I have some really happy memories attached to this place.

Here's the Brexton that never made it to the park, thankfully!

Here's hubby sheltering under the tree, at this point it was merely spitting, a few minutes later the sky ripped open and it poured down for atleast half an hour.

Even the ducks looked a bit miffed by the end of it.

Then we strolled up to China Town to restock our supplies of oriental goodies.

Green tea is ridiculously cheap in China Town, this huge box of 200 teabags is less than £2.

I actually saw this tea when we were in Malaysia earlier on this year and they were charging a lot more for it over there, which I found somewhat stange considering it's so much closer to China.

We always pop a few things in the basket that we've never tried before and this month that turned out to be these four items...

I'm sure I've had black sesame seeds on bread rolls before but I've never cooked with them.

We go through a bag of white sesame seeds every two weeks, I like to scatter a handful in salads & sauces.

Did you spot the print on the dress I'm wearing in the pics?

I bought the dress on eBay cause the print reminded me of the Homemaker print ;)

Retrotastico!

When I was googling for a pic of a Homemaker cup I came across a really awesome blog called H is for Home, if you're into your retro stuff then this is definitely one for your blogroll.

Here's a pic from that blog of a Homemaker pattern cup...

I also found out that the blog owner has a fabulous on-line shop that is amazingly well stocked & an etsy shop too, where you can buy some of this amazing fabric...

 I almost fell out of my chair with delight when I saw it, it's really gorgeous, alas I have no spare pennies to buy some myself at the moment.

I did score some fabulous vintage fabric at the car boot sale earlier though, so I really can't complain too much ;)

Hope everyone has had a smashing weekend!

Lot's of love,

Jennie

xXx

A surprise parcel from the undisputed queen of quirk

My other 'KATI' dress was delivered this morning but its arrival was totally eclipsed by the content of another mystery parcel.

For a moment I thought I’d been sleep-eBaying but after peeking at the sender address I realized that it was from the tremendously fabulous Helga.

What a darling she is surprising me with a parcel of goodies all the way from New Zealand, thank you ever so much my lovely!

I fell totally head over heels in love with the two fabulous frocks in the parcel.
In fact so much so, I had to shed all my clothing and pop one immediately.
Here it is, isn't it just flipping AMAZING!

The print, the colour, the cut...just WOW!

It's labelled 'Oriental Crafts' and the print is in my opinion art gallery worthy.

It's a wrap dress, but unlike some of my other wrap dresses the skirt on this one is gorgeously billowing.

As for the colour...a sumptuous terracotta red, simply stunning!

Helga is a complete wiz at getting frocks that fit me like a glove too, what a marvel!

It's been piddling down here most of the day, so I only managed to get pics of one dress outside before the sky ripped open again but I thought I'd rope Barbara in on the frock action too.

So here she is modelling the second fabulous frock...

Another art gallery worthy print, I think you'll agree & the cut is very 70s cocktail party hostess, I love it!

The label on this one reads 'Styled by Exclusive Frocks, Made in Christchurch New Zealand'.

I'll take some proper pics of this & the 'KATI' frock tomorrow...if it has stopped piddling outside by then.

Helga my dear, you’ve got me on a mission now to reciprocate your overwhelming kindness. 

This is not the first time that Helga has lavished me with gifts, here are some pics of other amazing stuff that has made the journey all the way from Christchurch into my vintage wardrobe...

Vintage 70s sky blue leaf patterned maxi (that I hitched up for this pic), The funkiest hot pink vintage cap ever & a very stylish 50s frock in navy blue.

Like I said 'FUNKIEST CAP EVER' & a vintage 70s dreamy pink swirl pattern maxi frock.

I almost wet myself when she sent this awesome Hawaiian vintage bikini. I brought it with me on our hols in Malaysia & Thailand earlier on this year. Mark (my hubby) wrote Helga's name in the sand before taking that sunlounger pic ;)

Goodies galore from the undisputed queen of quirk, anyone who hasn't got Helga on their blogroll hasn't lived yet as far as I'm concerned. 

Along with Desiree, Vix & Sarah she makes up my fantastic four 'Legendary Frockers' as featured in my sidebar.

If there is such a thing as a 'must-have' on a blogroll then surely these fab four ladies fall into that category, so if you haven't as yet...add them...they will make your life sweeter as they have done mine :)

Thanks again Helga, I LOVE my new frocks & the funky bag too.

Lot's of love,

Jennie

xXx