The Pigs Might Fly Post

Hello again :)

At the beginning of every month I think to myself...

"This month I will start blogging again!"

but so far this year it has all kind of fallen by the wayside.

Stocking my Etsy shop & just generally trying to get into the swing of running Frocktasia as a proper business has been an all consuming pursuit for the past wee while. A painfully slow crawl up a very steep learning curve but I believe things are finally starting to slot into place & even make a bit of sense.

Frocktasia had a fabulous outing at Judy's Affordable Vintage Fair at Glasgow Student Union last month and it was by far the busiest market we've ever done. We will definitely attend every Judy's here in Glasgow from now on and hopefully (once we get a car) branch out to the one they do in Edinburgh too. The next one in Glasgow is held at Wasps Artists' Studios on the 17th of May the day before Mark and I are off to Loch Long with Aquatron to do our final day of the Rescue Diver Course and hopefully bag our certificates.

Mark is working at Aquatron Dive Centre now; what started as a Dive Master Internship turned into full-time employment and he couldn't be more thrilled if he tried. 

The move to Glasgow has been a marvelous thing for both of us so far, long may it continue :)

Our wee pitch at Judy's Affordable Vintage Fair last month. A wheel came off one of our bags en route to the venue so we were pretty flustered by the time we got there. We had some jolly nice stall neighbours on the day though, Scott and Ross from Breaking Pop Vintage.

Last Sunday we were back at Sloans for another lovely day at Little Birds Market :)

Vintage scarves & ties have turned out to be a big hit with our market and fair customers.

One thing I really miss about London is its awesome car boot sales and markets. I'm running a bit low on scarves at the moment so I thought I'd check out the local car boot sale but it was pretty dreadful in comparison to the ones that I used to frequent down south. Maybe it will get better once the fair-weather sellers come out in force, if not I'll just have to jump on the bus and go for a cheeky wee boot sale buying weekend in London.

 There is an absolute glut of charity shops here in Glasgow but I'm yet to find a real treasure trove.

My shopping lust soon fades when all I'm faced with is rails upon rails of second hand F&F, George & Atmosphere.

Don't get me wrong it is not like I'm running out of stock or anything, I have a storage unit full of fabulous threads to "shop" from for the foreseeable future :)

I made these necklaces to give away to our market customers last Sunday as 'Rock Up Early Rewards'.

To this months Little Birds Market I wore a fabulous 70s frock by Susan Small and a pair of suede pixie boots that my awesome mum-in-law gave me when I went up for a flying visit last weekend.

This was lovely Palma's Blithe Spirit Vintage Jewellery stall at Little Birds, I loved those fabulous cut-outs...

Palma has a well stocked Etsy store where you can peruse and shop her spectacular collection of vintage jewellery.

That pretty much wraps it up for this time and if my past track record is anything to go by my next blog post will happen after I've done Judy's at Wasps Artists' Studio, my Rescue Diver Course and my first ever proper dive in Scottish waters but who knows I might surprise you all and blog more frequently from now on?!

....and then again pigs might fly ;)

Here I am diving (and looking freaky) in Wraysbury lake last year, hopefully the water in Loch Long has slightly better visibility.

Until next time folks, enjoy!
Jennie

xXx

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

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