Frocktasia on the road

Yesterday was a big day for me; it was the first time I took Frocktasia on the road and left the comfort zone of my home office and computer screen behind.

It's kind of strange that someone who has spent most their adult life working in hospitality, should be at all nervous about the face-to-face aspect of selling at markets but quite frankly, I was bricking it!

For years I've been the bighearted barmaid who's always ready to have a chat about anything to anyone but for some bonkers reason when it came to doing the very same thing for myself, punting something other than beer, I felt as if I was facing Everest.

It's some sort of weird-ass personality paradox going on here I'm sure.

However, I cannot remain a home-office strummer if I want to become a proper frockstar, I have to grab the scary bull by its horns and override my inexplicable hang-ups.

Yesterday was the first step in that direction and a step well worth taking!

I'm such a fusspot worrier so I got about half an hours sleep the night before. 

Here I am setting up in the morning and being quite nervous about it all... 

I should have brought more knick-knacks to dress my table as it did look a little bit bare.

I'm going play around with table dressing at home before the next outing... 

There are certainly a few things that I will be doing differently next time.

I ran out of time (read: was struck down by a bad case of bone idle laziness) before I could mark up all my items individually, so I just went out and bought a packet of neon star labels and divided my stock into four price categories (£3/£5/£10/£20).

Next time I'll do something like this instead, it looks a wee bit more professional...

Some of Jet's lovely vintage blouses.

My stall neighbor, the lovely Leslie is a real professional when it comes to setting up an inviting stall I think you'll agree... 

 Leslie is a regular seller at the vintage jumble but she also organizes The Dandy Lion Market at The Oxford in Kentish Town on the first Saturday of every month.

I'm popping along to check it out next week if anyone is interested in coming along?

Leslie makes fabulous scatter cushions and hot water bottle covers from recycled vintage fabrics and clothing...

Here she is tempting me with an awesomely groovy vintage blouse that

I would have snapped up in a heartbeat if it wasn't for the fact that I was under strict instructions not to buy anything...

The Boogaloo is a really cool pub and even though yesterday wasn't exactly heaving customer wise we still had a fab time. There's a DJ playing all day, you can get some seriously scrumptious looking cake and of course beer...who ever came up with the idea of having a vintage market in a pub should be given a medal!

 Some more of my fellow jumblers and their fabulously dressed stalls...

 Besides Leslie's poppy print blouse, I would have loved to buy that stunning green and gold caftan...

 Mark was kind enough to come along and hung around all day to give me moral support, what a star :)

Speaking of stars, I had a very special visitor...

Lovely Sara from Hello The Mushroom popped in with her friend Iain and that really made my day. 

Even though we've never met before I felt instantly at ease, she's got a smile like a thousand sunbeams and it was a real shot in the arm that she came along. 

I hope that we can meet up again soon for some bloggy charity shopping  perhaps?!

Sara has got an amazing blog that I couldn't recommend highly enough, it makes for great reading and she takes delightful photos too, a perfect mix in my opinion, if you are not already a follower, you are missing out!

So you may very well be wondering if I will be able to retire on my takings of the day...

Nope, but it was the perfect gentle start to my face-to-face selling career.

I met some really lovely people and I now know what I can improve on until next time cause there will definitely be a next time...hopefully very soon :)

Today I slept in until late & then we popped to the park to feed Lilo.

I think she recognizes my voice now, cause when we arrived she was down by the pond drinking but when I called for her she came running up to us waiting for me to bring my baggie of seed out. She eats straight out of my hand and she's not scared of me at all. Every few days I bring the birds some finely chopped fresh greens too, they absolutely love it.

Here is today's ensemble:

Vintage 50s velvet jacket, 60s maxi dress, two pairs of tights, 90s skirt  (worn as underskirt as it was decidedly Baltic out there today), 90s velvet boots, velvet gloves, sequin beret & spiderweb print scarf.

I hope you've all had a fab & funderful weekend!

I'm off to check out what you've all been up to on your blogs now...see ya!

Lot's of love,

Jennie

xXx

Vintage jumble sneaky peek

The past few days I have been very busy preparing for Saturday's vintage jumble at The Boogaloo.

We don't have a car so it's a case of whatever we can cart, can come!

This amounts to about a rails worth of frocks, a bag of miscellaneous clobber, a suitcase of handbags and knick-knacks and a box of boots and hats.

It should be enough for the virgin run, I'll be taking notes for future reference.

My clothing rail is one of those cheap ones from Argos that falls over when you hang anything on it unless you've got it tied to the wall; needless to say this felt a little disconcerting. 

I've had daymare visions of my rail tumbling over and smashing up someones stall,  a floor covered in a holy mess of vintage frockery, broken teacups and cupcakes and me getting an almighty kicking from an angry fellow jumbler in a pristine vintage frock and victory rolls.

I was considering going out and investing in a sturdier rail but then hubby came up with a brilliant idea.

Up in the loft we had two mic stands and they are now acting as the base of my el cheapo rail & it is steady as a rock, fingers crossed it stays like that...

I still have to price-tag  all my stock, that's what I'll be doing tomorrow.
The prices will range from £3-£20 and I'm also planning a £1 bonkers bargain box too.
Here's a sneaky peek of some the stuff we'll be bringing on Saturday...

 Some close-ups...

If you see anything you fancy why not pop along and see me on Saturday, have a good old rummage and come away with some fabulous bargains...

This was today's ensemble:

Vintage 40s floral print silk dress, mesh underskirt, cropped lurex jumper (AGAIN!), crushed velvet booties & tights.

Goose update: I'm very pleased to say that our feathered friend (now known as Lilo) has returned and seems to be a whole lot perkier.

Cue the happy music :)

Have a wonderful Friday peeps!

Lot's of love,

Jennie

xXx

Psychedelic salvo

I bought this dress last summer but this is the first time I've actually worn it.
I really love the psychedelic print but every time I tried it on I would always find fault with the ensemble and the dress would go back on the hanger.
Stupid stuff like the colour of the tights didn't quite match or the shoes looked wrong with it. 
Some days I'm the biggest fusspot about, I race around the house trying to get dressed but everything I put on just feels wrong and the house ends up looking like an explosion in a thrift store.

Strangely today it just all seemed to come together.

I’m sure I’ll be back to my old fusspot self tomorrow, sitting in the hallway in front of my  open wardrobe screaming…

“It’s quarter past nine & I’m still only in my frigging pants, what the Mongolian clusterfeck shall I wear”?!

Repro 60s PVC coat, vintage 60s psychedelic dress, vintage 70s boots, layered tights, necklace that I make myself, a sequin beret and gloves, I was clever enough not to leave them behind this time ;)

Now, I have a question to put to you all...

If you had to choose in-between wearing only plain colours or only loud prints for the rest of your life, what would you choose? 

There is no way I could spend the rest of my life wearing only plain colours, I love my prints too much.

I'm sure you've already seen Vix's post and beheld her in all her "fucking blinding" glory.

We have a lot of bland blokes like the one she describes in her post round these parts too.

Personally I can't think of a less inspiring get-up than a grey jersey tracksuit & I kind of feel sorry for those who choose to solely dwell inside such soul destroying clothes when there is so much variety in the world. 

An infinite pick-and-mix of fabulous styles, colours, textures, prints & fabrics...

I can't for the life of me understand why anyone in the face of such abundance would opt for a grey jersey tracksuit?!

Myself, I'm a self-confessed print addict and I much prefer to live my life swathed in loud colours & larger than life prints.

When I'm done here, I want to be buried in a sequin embellished, psychedelic print coffin with rainbow coloured, crushed velvet lining.

Not that I'm hankering for the grave, far from it!

I feel more full of life today than I did ten years ago and as odd as it may sound, getting older has made me feel younger in many ways, I may not look it but you can't have everything ;)

Now I have some exciting news...

I'll be selling my wonderful vintage threads at the boogaloo at the end of this month :)

Jet-Marie the awesome chick who runs the Can't Buy Me Love vintage jumble sale contacted me the other day to say that she still had a space available for this month....HUZZAH!

So if  you happen to be lurking around in the area of 312 Archway Road, North London on Saturday the 23rd please come and see me.

Affordable vintage clobber, retro tunes, beer and cake...what more can you ask for on a Saturday ;) 

I'll do a couple of posts in the near future to show you some of the stuff I'll be bringing with me on the day.

Here's the flyer that I borrowed off  the 'Cant Buy Me Love' website...

I'm chuffed to bits cause this will be my first ever proper vintage jumble, first of many I hope ;)

The weekend is upon us yet again, hasn't this week just swooshed by?!

Have a fabulous Friday peeps and thanks again for all your wonderful comments, they truly warm the cockles of my wee heart so they do.

Lot's of love,

Jennie

xXx 

From the seventies but still not going downhill

The awesome vintage ski jacket I was wearing today was bought for a tenner fifteen years ago in a Fort William charity shop. 

At the time hubby was doing snowboard instructing at a ski center and I was trying really hard to find a job. 

As we were quite skint we rented a microscopical room in a house owned by what we thought to be a widower.

Only after we'd moved in he told us that his wife had not long eloped to Spain with another man.

It was an odd experience to say the least, we'd hear him argue and plead with his wife on the phone in the middle of the night and whenever we went into the kitchen he'd corner us and talk incessantly about her. 

He was also rather keen on wandering around in his underpants when he'd had a few too many swallies. 

Our little nook comprised of a double bed that dwarfed the room and a chest of drawers with a black and white camping telly & a kettle perched on top of it, there was also a small built in wardrobe, that you couldn't open properly cause there wasn't enough space. 

There were no jobs in Fort William so I spent a whole month holed up in that tiny room watching crap daytime TV and eating Pot Noodles. 

In the end I had to leave my beloved to his snow covered hills and jump on a bus to London.

This jacket was bought with giro money on my last day in Fort William and I remember wearing it for the entire duration of the ten hour bus journey down south cause it was absolutely freezing. 

I sat together with a bald, toothless weegie who had just been paroled & he was plying me with sickly sweet MD 20/20 and telling really crap jokes but he still had me in stitches.

I've had fifteen years of wear out of this jacket and it is still going strong.

70s ski jacket,  80s Wrangler cowboy boots, 90s velvet jumpsuit, wide mock-croc belt, knitted scarf & sequin beret.

I'm not the only one in this house who poses for pics by the way. 

Here's Mark showing that anything I can do, he can do better...

Mark has been feeling a little bit blue this weekend cause the ski center that he used to instruct at is open for business with powder galore, I believe my man is pining for the hills.

To cheer ourselves up we revisited the pub that we went to last Sunday cause they were hosting a vintage jumble today. 

I'm hoping to get a space here myself next time, fingers crossed. 

The pub has got a really nice, laid-back vibe & the monthly vintage jumble was well stocked, cheap and cheerful, just how I like it.

Did I buy anything?

You will just have to wait and see ;)

Have a fab Sunday folks!

Lot's of love,

Jennie

xXx