Choose Life

"Choose Life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. Choose a fucking big television, choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players and electrical tin openers. Choose good health, low cholesterol, and dental insurance. Choose fixed interest mortgage repayments. Choose a starter home. Choose your friends. Choose leisurewear and matching luggage. Choose a three-piece suite on hire purchase in a range of fucking fabrics. Choose DIY and wondering who the fuck you are on a Sunday morning. Choose sitting on that couch watching mind-numbing, spirit-crushing game shows, stuffing fucking junk food into your mouth. Choose rotting away at the end of it all, pishing your last in a miserable home, nothing more than an embarrassment to the selfish, fucked up brats you spawned to replace yourself.

Choose your future...

Like Renton I choose something else too but thankfully it wasn't heroine.

I choose to chase my dreams :)

Life is sweet when you don't have to jostle for space on the tube at seven in the morning to get to work & then spend your day in a drab-ass uniform, working for a complete bunch of wankfists.

Grateful? You bet!

Sometimes I do have to bite the bullet though, when the bills are dropping through the letterbox like evil cluster bombs...usually at this time of year...stinging water rates & another years worth of painful council tax.

When it comes to working for the man I've always had a guerrilla approach, in and out as quick as you like.

It probably has a lot to do with the sort of soul destroying jobs that litter my past.

The longest I've ever lasted in one place was four and a half years at 'The Lamb & Flag' in Covent Garden. The job itself was as brain-numbing as they come but the people were awesome and the owners relished individuals. You could be yourself and dress the way you liked. 

Unfortunately the pub was sold to a big faceless brewery and that's when I jumped ship. 

The mere thought of working for a big company and having to wear a uniform gives me daymares.

I still know a few publicans in the West End so I may be able to get a wee part-time gig in a pub, as long as it doesn't interfere with my Frocktasia marketeering ;)

Today's ensemble was inspired by licorice allsorts...

Vintage 60s bubblegum pink skirt suit, 70s dagger collar shirt, 80s silk tie, J & M pin-badges, layered tights (sheer black & green nets), 80s boots, 50s crochet beret, gloves & Frocktasia earrings.

I'm currently re-reading Trainspotting in Swedish and I'm finding the translation rather hilarious for want of a better word, talk about lost in translation.

Have an awesome Friday folks, enjoy :)

Loads of love,

Jennie

xXx

Plant loving crackpot

If I were able to have a whole house full of rescue dogs, cats, birds and miscellaneous wildlife I totally would but as things are that is sadly not possible.

There is one thing that we can and do rescue and give a new home to and that is abandoned houseplants.

Mark found this yucca plant in a terrible state a while back. 

The previous owner had kept it in a very small terracotta pot and the plant was completely rootbound inside of it. 

You can see how one of the plant trunks is completely warped & that was wrapped onto the rim of the wee pot.

Instead of repotting the plant they had just put it out with the rubbish as it was dying.

As soon as Mark brought him home, I took a hammer to the pot, liberated Mr. Yucca and re-potted him into a big poundland planter and he has thrived with us ever since.

In fact he has been growing so well that the other day I had to venture up to the nature trail in search of a "crutch" for him.

The warped trunk looked as if it was straining under the weight of his marvelous crown, so I found a perfect stick to support it.

We love our houseplants and like Prince Charles we do talk to them.

 Call me a crackpot if you like but my plants make me very happy and I do like to tell them that :)

Once it gets a bit warmer outside, I shall bring them all out on the balcony to repot them into some fresh soil and bigger pots if needed... 

I call this Yucca plant Odie cause when Mark brought him home he reminded me of the dog from Garfield, all long-necked and lanky. The big pic is Odie today and the one to the right is when he first moved in with us ;)

Question time...

Do you keep houseplants or are you lucky enough to have a garden where you grow things?

Today we had rain & sunshine in the morning, snow & strong winds in the afternoon and to finish off, our little corner of London was treated to a lovely pink sunset.

Today's ensemble:

Vintage 50s jacket, 60s psychedelic floral print mini dress, crushed velvet booties, layered tights (plain red and acid orange fishnets), bangles galore & Frocktasia earrings & horse-brass necklace.

I curled my hair this morning but it started snowing & blowing a gale when we were feeding the birds, so by the time these photos were taken you could hardly tell, och!

It was great reading your comments about 'Lucky Dipping' and eBay purchases. 

I know I'm a nosy parker but I just love reading your wee stories, so thank you for taking the time.

Today's song is by Crowded House, enjoy :)

Loads of love,

Jennie

xXx

Lucky Dipping

I haven't bought anything on eBay since before Christmas and to be honest I hardly even look anymore. 

On a rare occasion I'll do a bit of window shopping, bang a few of my favourite search words in to see what they conjure up but the last thing I bought was another dirndl dress for my collection (I haven't actually shown it to you yet).

Back in the eBay 'glory days' I got to know my postman rather well cause frocks would arrive almost on a daily basis.

Postage prices were much lower then and you could get really brilliant vintage garments for a song.

That was before hobby sellers realized the importance of listing items properly & with a half decent picture.

I would indulge in 'Lucky Dipping' i.e. bidding on stuff with really dodgy pictures, you never quite knew what you'd receive; would it be a vintage gem or rags for the revamp box?!

However most of the time, I was very happy with my purchase and the lucky dip had paid off.

Nowadays most people are wise to the ways of eBay selling, I guess they spend a little more time on doing research and better grasp the concept of good presentation equals more profit.

So the really dodgy photos, where you can't even make out if it's a scrunched up dog blanket or a frock you are looking at, seem to be all but gone.

The last garment that I lucky dipped was the dress that I am wearing today...

the auction photo was so dark that you couldn't even make out the print but I went for it anyway and boy am I glad I did :) 

Vintage floral print maxi dress, faux-fur jacket, vintage hat, vintage faux-fur trim booties, gloves, Ankh necklace & handmade Kenyan earrings...two pairs of tights to stave off the chills.

I was more than chuffed to bits when I pulled this beauty out of the package I can tell you and I reckon that properly presented it would have fetched far more than the 99p that I paid for it.

Look at that awesome print :)

There were no bearded film dudes interrupting our pic taking today.

In fact we almost had the park all to ourselves :)

It wasn't quite as icy cold today but it's still a bit too chilly for bare arms. 

This frock got to travel with me to Egypt last year and was featured in one of our early morning desert photo sessions...

It such a comfy dress with a very forgiving cut which was great for my post all inclusive buffet belly... 

so much delicious food, so little time, so much unbridled gluttony ;) 

I bought the dress in 2011 and it quickly became a favourite, here I am wearing it on NYE 2011 just before heading off to BrewDog in Camden...

Now I would like to know...

Do you indulge in 'Lucky Dipping' & if so what was your best score?

Are you still buying heaps on eBay or have the ever rising postage prices put you off?

What was your latest eBay buy?

You don't have to answer if you don't want to, you are quite welcome to leave a comment  anyway.

Just because I love you here's the Brand New Heavies, enjoy :)

...and another one cause they are so awesome...

 Loads of love,

Jennie

xXx

Titsicles, winter's back!

What an absolutely freezacious Monday it had been!

Some time ago we set up a bird feeding station on the balcony and earlier today our little feathered friends were sent tumbling when caught by strong and icy cold gusts of wind.

I chopped up a suet & seed ball and stuck in a bowl on the floor, in an attempt to make it slightly easier for them but then it started snowing, och!

I'm chuffed to bits with the amount and variety of birds that are regular visitors now...

blackbird, chaffinch, robin, sparrow, starling, wood pigeon, blue tit and this morning we were even visited by a very inquisitive magpie.

It's lovely to just sit with my cup of coffee, watching the birds pick away at the seed balls outside.

 Yes peeps, it's official, I am a birdwatcher.

We're going through bags of seed every week so it's just as well that you can pick them up from the pound shop. 

I do want to try and make my own seed balls though and I've found a good tutorial on a blog called Dry Seasonings, so I'll give that a bash at the weekend.

Lilo and friends also get their daily visit without fail. 

On a day like today one could be tempted to give the pond a miss but I don't want my angel-winged pretty going hungry especially when it's as Baltic as it has been today.

They were filming something in the park, there were loads of lorries and one of those double decker catering buses parked on the basketball courts. 

I didn't spot anyone famous but I may have done?

 Especially if the celebrity looks like a hairy gaffer, cause there were a fair few of them about.

We were interrupted three times by crew peeps as we were trying to snap the outfit pics. 

I was standing there thinking...

"Excuse me, can you hold on three bleedin' seconds please, I'm getting titsicles standing here!".

'Titsicles' is pretty self explanatory I guess but just in case you are perplexed, it is the word my husband chooses to use for a pair of extremely cold boobies :)

Vintage 60s psychedelic print dress, 90s faux-fur jacket, 80s boots, tights, mohair hat, gloves & Frocktasia earrings & horse brass necklace.

In the pictures above you can see me clocking bearded men just about to walk right in front of the camera... you would have thought being in 'The Biz' they would know bleedin' better but I guess not.

Today's tune is by lovely Leslie's very talented son Erik, enjoy :)

Erik will be playing a six song gig at The Old Queen's Head on Sunday the 24th of March.

Mark and I will be going :)

Loads of love,

Jennie

xXx

Mums are amazing

Last time I wore the dress I am wearing today was on the 18th of May 2010.

Now you're probably thinking that something very special happened on that particular day or that I have a photographic memory but the truth is I cheated.

How?

By looking back in my old style diary ;)

I know I haven't worn it since cause it has been carefully stashed away in a bag of vintage frocks in the loft until yesterday.

This flirty vintage mini frock was a gift from a dear friend that used to live with us, it belonged to her mother who wore it to various dances in Fort William back in the 60s.

This is another one of those frocks that I couldn't possibly bear to part with.

I actually feel as if I'm its safe-keeper rather than owner and I therefore want to keep it pristine should Claire or any of her nieces ever want it back.

I only have a handful of my own mum's garments from the 70s/80s in my wardrobe but they are highly prized possessions indeed. 

There's something really special about wearing them; the feeling is akin to getting a really loving hug just when you need it the most.

I've blogged about my mum's vintage clobber before, you can check the posts out here & here.

My mum is a wonderful & wise woman, she is the kindest and most patient person I know. 

She's been a solid rock for all her six kids throughout our lives and whenever we've fucked up, no matter how many times, she's always been there to bail us out and get us back on track.

When we were on holiday together over Christmas mum was feeling quite overpowered by the heat and even a small physical exertion made her feel almost faint, when they got back to Sweden she went to see her doctor and was diagnosed with an outrageously high blood pressure. 

The doctor even told her that she'd probably had a narrow escape from getting a stroke out in Thailand.

 She's now on pills that are slowly bringing the blood pressure down but most importantly she's lost a bit of weight & knocked booze on the head which is very good. 

You can't tell her to take it easy though, cause she just won't, she makes a workaholic look like an idler. 

She runs her own business, selling mainly kids stuff on Swedish eBay and works on average a ten hour day, I only wish I had inherited her gusto for hardcore toil.

It's not mother's day in Sweden until the last Sunday in May but I'll be sending my beloved mamma lots of positive & loving vibes tomorrow anyway :)

Vintage 60s psychedelic print dress, lurex tights, 80s boots, retro PVC coat, lurex bucket hat & Frocktasia earrings.

Here's the outfit that I wore on the 18th of May 2010...

it's a bit Pippi Longstocking meets the Twilight Saga-esque, not sure if that was what I was aiming for ;)

Hope you will all have a lovely day tomorrow.

If mummy is still around make sure you take the opportunity to reach out and tell her that she's AMAZING!

If mummy lives in your heart, then why not wear something that she used to love in honor of her memory.

Here's to all the mums that have been, are and ever will be...you ROCK!

Loads of love,

Jennie

xXx

Getting high on flash fumes...I wish!

Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the water, winter comes back like a fierce predator and nips you on the neb.

I kick started my spring cleaning this week thinking that spring was here to stay,

how wrong was I?!

I managed to completely gut the kitchen and scrubbed all those manky surfaces that I never normally get around to doing. 

The top of all the cupboards, skirting boards, ceiling, walls and underneath the fridge, washing machine & cooker.

Spring cleaning is the proverbial can of worms, cleaning one corner makes the rest of the room look even more filthy and there's no bleeding end to it either.

After five hours of almost scrubbing your fingers to the bone, you think it's all done, so you boil the kettle to make a cup of celebratory tea, sit down to admire the fruits of your arduous toil only to find that the underneath of the blinking cupboard needs a jolly good scrub too, argh!

The skirting boards laugh in your face and the knobs of the cooker flip the bird in your general direction..."Hehehe, missed a bit!"

We've lived in this flat for over ten years, we rent, so in all that time it hasn't been decorated and it is really starting to show now. 

Everywhere you look something is flaking, corroding, peeling, cracking, breaking or is already broken.

I try to make it look nice but it really needs more than me donning marigolds for a week on a cleaning mission, it needs money spent on it.

It needs new carpets, new kitchen, new bathroom and a proper decorator coming in and giving the place a long overdue face lift. 

This is the big draw back when renting, you are having to wait until your landlord sees it fit to do something about it, which in my experience tends to be NEVER or just after you've moved out! 

It may sound as I'm making excuses but it is truthfully nigh-on impossible to get this place looking clean even if I spend days on my knees scrubbing till my hands are almost falling off and my lungs are getting sore from breathing in flash fumes.

You do what you can and that's all you can do, eh?!

It was drizzling all day today and even though we made our daily jaunt up to feed little Lilo and the other birds it was just way to dreich to get the camera out to shoot some outfit pics in the park.

We quickly nipped out onto the balcony when we got back home to snap a couple...

Vintage 70s lurex leaf print kaftan dress, vintage boots, Ankh earrings & gloves.

I bought this Miss Jeannie dress from a market in July last year and today was its first outing.

I used to have one in teal blue that was sadly a bit too big for me so I sold on eBay back in 2005. 

These were  the auction pics...

Wearing this frock with my Ankh earrings today made me think of Egypt. 

It is almost a year since we went there now.

I totally fell for the place, the lovely people, the awesome diving  and the totally amazing scenery.

Here are a few of the pics from the two little desert photo sessions that Mark and I did. 

If you want to see more you can either go back and check my April posts of last year or have a peek in this folder that I made on facebook :)

Hope that the start of your weekend went off with a bang and that the rest of it will be fantabulous too :)

Lot's of love,

Jennie

xXx

I'm with the band

Many moons ago when Mark & I lived in Glasgow, we had a band called 'Gretchen'.

The boys (Mark, Jim, Dave & Allen) and myself practiced every Sunday and gigged regularly for a year at intimate venues like 'Nice N Sleazy' and 'The 13th Note'. 

We never got to the recording stage before splitting up but thankfully Mark bought me a four track recorder, so I do have a whole heap of live demos, from various rehearsal sessions, that I like to dust off and listen to every now and again ;)

The band didn't split up because of artistic differences, it was simply life pulling us all in different directions.

Mark and I moved to London, Jim changed career and relocated and Dave became a father.

Allen is still living the rock and roll dream though, playing bass in Maiden Scotland an Iron Maiden tribute band.

I actually still have both the trousers and the jacket that I'm wearing in these pictures...

The striped cami was my mums from the early 80s, the pink boucle jacket was bought from the Benetton sale in '96 (with some tax rebate money), the mad space boots I bagged in Copenhagen in '99, they were originally priced at over £100 but the zip was "bust" so they had been marked down to a mere £20. I took the boots to a cobblers in Copenhagen and he had them fixed in two minutes flat and didn't even charge me for it. The trousers I bought in the Topshop winter sale in 2000.

I'm amazed at how brand spanking these trousers still look cause I've worn them a lot...

I know that I usually harp on about how modern High Street clothing have no longevity because of  poor quality but I may have to eat my hat about this conjecture, cause in some cases it is obviously not true.

I told you the lurex jumper would get a few more outings this month...

number one and counting ;)

It was so nice outside today I didn't even have to wear a jacket or coat.

The fabulous fuchsia pink felt is by St Saviours Hats, these hats usually retail at over £50.

Needless to say I paid rather less than that, cause I am the original bargain bint ;)

00s Topshop trousers, cropped lurex jumper, vintage 60s psychedelic print shirt, Indian block print silk scarf, St Saviours  felt hat, velvet gloves, mini cross & safety-pin earrings & 80s boots.

Before I sign off I'd also like to tell you that I have made a fabulous new addition to my little gang of  Legendary Frockstars, namely Ariane of Style Sud-Est. 

She always bowls me over with her amazing style! 

If she's unknown to you, go check her out, you won't regret it :) 

I did want to share a song that Mark and I wrote a few years ago but I can't upload it, so here's a tune that we covered back in the gigging days in Glasgow, enjoy :)

Almost weekend again, huzzah!
Lot's of love,
Jennie
xXx