The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Well, the title is actually completely untrue! It should be the most wonderful time but in actual fact it is "the most germ ridden time of the year". Yep Autumn, season of mist, mellow fruitfulness and the sound of sniffing and coughing. Every year without fail my whole household plays host to the blossoming germs as they use us as guinea pigs to see how much snot they can expect to produce in the average human. This is not a new thing, when I was growing up, I would have to endure an annual bout of tonsillitis and a delightful stomach bug that pounced each Christmas.

 This week, myself and my youngest son have been struck down with some disgusting minute critter that decided it's lodgings would last a full week and then some! So I haven't felt up to much in the way of antiquing and blogging. I have been stuck in pyjamas all week too and have been staring at beautiful clothes on the Internet and my period dramas with some longing. In fact, my period dramas have been the closest thing to vintage I've had all week. I have even (shock horror) gone off food! So all in all I've been pretty sorry for myself. Now, I'm not the best patient ( Alex is nodding madly here), I'm grumpy, I get bored and I want to feel well two minutes after getting ill, so you can imagine my joy when I started to return to the land of the living today. Alex suggested a small trip to get some material to finish my 1930s dress and I jumped at the chance to be outside for a little while. 

 Also, I purchased a food processor, this is because I'm a lazy sod and want home cooked food but at the mo, I haven't the energy to stand chopping and peeling stuff. I will use it to make soups and smoothies too. A friend of mine, a big beefy chap called Trev, had obviously thought I needed some feeding up too and gave me a lovely bag of veg he had grown himself.

Look at that lovely goodness, and this was just a selection! So armed with my new gadget, I will be making crispy potato slices, green beans and salad with homemade dressing and lamb for my tea. I'm not sure it gets much better than that. This next week will definitely be used to get some strength back and return to normal eating habits. Tomorrow, Alex and I will be doing a smidgen of antiquing, ( I will shrivel and die of withdrawal if I dont ) and then coming up with food ideas that will be simple to make.

Here is a photo of a very poorly Miss Pond. I'm the blob in the middle. 

Do not fret, I have not been overcome by some ghastly force (what do you mean you can't tell the difference! ) and just to prove it, here are a couple of photos of only a slightly germy moi.

No that's my stupid cat Bertie, not a germ, although......

I will keep you posted on my endeavours with my food processor, but can assure you all that no matter how much weight I lose, I will always resemble a page three girl in a certain department ( my ankles of course! ).

                             Till next time dears xx

Food, Figures and Forgotten Tat

I thought I would give u all a quick update on how eating like it was the 50s is working out for me, (I know you have all been on the edge of your seat). Well it's going pretty well actually, I am totally loving having a great start to the day with a hearty breakfast. Usually I was getting peckish around 10:30am, but now after eggs on toast or porridge, I don't even notice that time of day anymore. I am certainly not cutting back on food so it's not like I'm on a diet at all, diets do not work for me as I get very grumpy at feeling like I'm being denied food. However I am noticing a change in my body shape. 

 I'm naturally quite curvy and have always had an hourglass figure of sorts, just a large one, but now I'm noticing that my waist is getting smaller. This is not necessarily because of weight loss, but I think more because the foods I'm eating are sitting in different places on my body. I am getting a bigger waist to hip ratio and I love it. I will have to be brave and have some photos done wearing something a bit more clingy so you can see the hourglass shape I'm rocking, but for the mo, you will have to make do with seeing if you can notice a change from the photo below.

Also, I have a few items that I have neglected to bore you with, and we can't have that now can we?

This lovely picture has been bought for the wall space above my new kitchen display cabinet. I used to have shelves there but they were taken down and I have a bit of a thing about a blank wall, it sets my teeth on edge, so a picture was needed. This one is charming. There is something quite naive about it, it's very sweet.

Now just look at this fabulous vintage hairdryer, I've wanted one for a while but you know me and prices, I wasn't going to buy one unless it was practically free. This one was £4 shy of being free and that was good enough for me, (no dearest parents I am not going to use it, so you need not worry about getting a call from the hospital). 

This is something I bought months ago, it's a very pretty 50s bathing cap. I have a lovely 50s inspired bathing costume that I have worn lots when swimming (obviously!) but I was lacking a flower adorned cap to complete the Esther Williams look. Well not anymore, the only thing is, I haven't been swimming since, so that will have to be rectified.

I will keep you all posted on the changing shape of Miss Pond, as I eat my way to a better figure. These 1950s housewives were definitely on to something you know! 

                    Till next time dears xx

Autumn Lull

As the season changes and we move from summer (such as it was) into autumn, I find that life has suddenly got a bit more hectic. There seems to be some strange thing that happens where I feel the need to kick myself up a gear. The kids go back to school and that means early mornings, and I find that I feel compelled to get on with the day as soon as they are dropped off. No more leisurely summer days that seem to stretch out, instead, as the nights draw in, I'm in bed by nine. This means that I cram as much as I can into the school hours, so it's a never ending round of grocery shopping, cleaning, cooking and also little jobs that were put on hold while I gave the boys some time and attention. 

 Alex and I have also been keen to get on with sewing up my vintage wardrobe, so this week she kindly began my 1930s dress. It's going to be a corker! I am dedicating a whole blog post on the dress once it's finished, but I may give you a sneaky look beforehand.

 I'm not too enamoured about the impending gloom of the seasons ahead, I certainly did not get my quota of sunshine and I'm not looking forward to battling the elements, I swear this is because I'm getting old, I used to love autumn and the dark nights, but now, in the words of Morcombe and Wise, bring me sunshine! However, I shall endeavour to get pleasure out of whatever the good old british winter will bring us. 

 We have managed to do a small amount of antiquing in lovely Matlock today, I didn't get much but what I did get was just darling. I am one lucky duck!

What you are looking at is a mini collection of goodies, a sweet unused compact, (I'm aiming for one in each of my handbags, so I don't have to remember to change them when I switch bags), a lovely nautical inspired collar, soon to be added to an appropriate top and the star of the show, a Bakelite buckle. This buckle is exactly what I wanted for my aforementioned dress and leapt into my hands of its own accord. It was a whole 50p and at that price I could have squealed with delight, but I didn't, I've already been told off for that! 

 The dress is an exact reproduction of one found on the Internet and I can't wait to show it off to you, but for now, here is a quick peak at the sleeve area.

Oh, it's going to be so lovely, with correct colours and buttons, it will belong on a lavishly produced period drama and I shall wear it with pride.

 We also found a retro shop in Matlock that was selling lovely dead stock hair accessories from the 50s but I have too much hair stuff as it is, but it was amazing to find all the things still beautifully packaged and sitting there just like it was still the 50s. What a lovely day, il leave you with a moody shot of me taken by my youngest son.

I blame my mother for my naturally sulky look, it's not because I am sulky, honestly! 

                        Till next time dears xx

A Right Royal Show

As I may have mentioned before, I am very proud of my vintage home. I have put a lot of time and effort into making it just so. There are odd little areas, though, where there is room for improvement, and a corner of my kitchen was a good example of this. I have a space near my fridge that needs something in it, but it's difficult to decide what. Previously I had a kitchen trolley, with baskets full of baking ingredients and some vintage kitchen bits and bobs on top. I was never too enamoured with this though. The trolley always looked a bit untidy and it never really looked vintage enough, no matter how much vintage stuff I piled on top, so when Alex and I were browsing a second hand furniture store and saw a lovely cabinet for sale, well, what could I do but buy it?

This gorgeous little specimen was a whole £10, it is quite wonderful and I knew I had to have it, even if it meant having to rearrange my kitchen cupboards just so I could fit my baking stuff and pots and pans in them (my pans were previously on a shelf above the trolley).

We had no means of transporting it home that day, so we came back a week later with Alex's van to pick it up. This turned out to be quite eventful as the van got a puncture and we had to wait for a nice RAC man to come and help us. Anyway, we got home and got to work. 

I knew I wanted to keep my Royal Albert China in the cabinet, as it had been in a cupboard before and definitely needed a showcase, so Alex and I spent an afternoon tidying, organising and general rearranging of my cupboards until we had room to fit everything in. This was a good thing as it meant I could get to things much easier and as things were arranged better, I had way more room than I did before.

This is my Royal Albert tea set, it was left to me by a friend of mine's mother, who knew I loved things like this. Isn't it gorgeous? It has 6 cups and saucers, 6 side plates, a sandwich plate, jug, sugar bowl and Bon Bon dish. It was just missing it's tea pot, but I found one at the right price in Alfreton, so it's all there now. My Royal plates behind were a charity shop find and are made of tin that has been lithographed. They are quite rare, apparently.

I have quite a lot of china, I see this pattern a lot in antique stores, it's very pretty. 

This is Pareek china, it is rare too and very delicate. I only have these pieces as whenever I have found any others, they are at extortionate prices.

The top of the cabinet has this great retro clock in it. It's wind up but unfortunately it's been overwound at some stage, so no longer works. It makes no difference to me though, I love everything about this cabinet.

It makes a huge diffence to that corner of my kitchen, in two ways really; 1, it highlights just how modern my fridge looks and 2, it looks way way better that my trolley did. I do realise that I am a very lucky girl to have these beautiful pieces of furniture, especially as they will just become more rare as the older generation disappears and is replaced by a younger one that generally wants all the modern streamlined and high tech stuff that's on offer (you know, a sideboard that can play music and has a pop up flat screen and stuff). I do a lot of leg work when it comes to sourcing things, a bit of time and effort always pays off in the end and I'm then the proud owner of a house full of things that make me happy. Now about that modern fridge.........

                                Till next time dears xx

So Much Choice

One of the greatest things I find about living a vintage life is the huge amount of choice you have. If you live in today's modern age then you are restricted to the fashions of that time only really, as many people don't like to appear out of date. Yes, you can go casual, smart, sporty and what not, but let's face it, there ain't too much difference between any of those looks. With vintage, however, you can embrace being very much out of date, and have so many decades to choose from.

 Many people who dress vintage, often gravitate towards the 50s and I don't really blame them. It's feminine, it's easy to wear and to source, but a lot of others will dip in and out of other decades (myself included). I adore the 40s mainly and my home reflects this especially, but I am drawn to the 30s more and more recently, and, as I touched on in an earlier post, I still wander into the 50s every now and then. The list of what you can do on the old outfit front is endless really.

This outfit is a good example of the different ways you can wear vintage. I was thinking that very much as people do today, the older generations would have had clothes that were still good to wear but were maybe a little last season, and so they would have teamed them with a more modern garment. Here I put tights and shoes that wouldn't look out of place in the 30s with a 40s skirt. The length was shorter due to fabric scarcity because of the war. 

The bag was a gift a few years ago from Alex, isn't it pretty?

I went with a 40s hairstyle, purely out of ease really but we can say it was serendipity.

How classic is this gorgeous cameo? My mum had a cameo ring once that she gave to me, sadly it's lost now, it would have been perfect with that brooch too! (Sorry mum)

Ignore the muffin top, this skirt fits me beautifully but my tights kept falling down, so I shoved some pants on top to hold them up, unfortunately they were my sucking in pants that don't suck in at all, they just shove it upwards and spill it over the top! I bet you are glad I told you that! Anyway.....

On to another decade, full on 40s. I find the 40s look so comforting, I think it's the muted colours and general sense of sturdiness that the clothes had.

Oh look, that brooch again, I love how things can look different depending on the what they are paired with. The outlying ring stands out so much on this cardigan.

Socks and true 40s brogues, you can't go wrong really. Ignore the scabby legs, insects tend to like my blood! (I reveal way too much on this blog)

So you see, lots of styles to choose from, and I hope to bring you more photos in the future of my outfits. I'm still learning really and take inspiration from other bloggers and all the lovely period dramas that have been made as well as pictures from the decades that can be easily found on the Internet. I have no problem at all with modern clothes, except when they are on me, as I have found I look a bit daft in them. I may have spent years trying to keep up with modern fashion and never looking right, but I'm happy at last that I found something that feels more like me. For me it's vintage all the way and il keep looking backwards, as it were. 

                             Till next time dears xx

Heanor In The Humidity

As Alex and I had an unexpected day without the kids, we decided to make the most of it and go antiquing. We were really excited about going as when the kids are off school,  we don't get chance to do such things. Teenage boys don't tend to enjoy trawling round buildings full of old tat, strange that. Anyway, we tootled off merrily, and, after getting a tiny bit lost (we didn't use the sat nav), we arrived with plenty of time to browse (trust me, you need it in this place). 

 We hadn't been for a few months, and this place is huge, it's on four floors and really higgledy piggledy in its layout. It would be really easy to get lost in there, but we knew it would be full of lovely "tat" that yours truly here could get her grubby little mitts on. And boy, did I! 

Firstly, my outfit. I have taken a little inspiration from the new "Partners In Crime" that has been airing on bbc recently. It's set in the 50s and the main character "Tuppence" has some great outfits. She often has tailored trousers and little cardies with flat brogues on. 

I love adding accesories as they make the outfit so much more interesting, this brooch is lovely and is a good size.

On to my purchases....

You have no idea how happy I was to find this timer. I have seen several on my travels and all at stupid money, these things are sought after and the cheapest I've seen is £18, which I'm just not going to spend, but today, sitting quietly in a corner was this beauty at only £3. MINE!!

This is just so cute, a lovely late 40s example of a novelty brooch. It's made of material rather than porcelain and was even cheaper than my timer.

Also for my kitchen, this vintage plate rack, and that's about all I can say really.

A lovely bed jacket in pristine condition.

Yes I know this is a knitting bag but I'm going to use it as a shopping bag because carrier bags can really ruin a girls effort on the vintage outfit front.

A lovely job lot of vintage buttons and collars that cost pence and will soon be adorning my clothing, courtesy of dear Alex. 

Last but not least, found right near the till on the way out, these lovely vintage hair slides. 

Overall, my lovely haul cost me less than £20 altogether and we had a great morning, despite melting in the heat. There is a tea shop at the top of the building so we had a drink and a snack before heading back home. It was a day worth waiting for.

 

Smug face!

                           Till next time dears xx

Fab Fifties

Some days I spend ages sorting out my outfit for the day, the preparations can often start the night before. I will first work out which decade I wish to be in, and then go through my wardrobe for a suitable combination of clothes that fit the bill as well as being practical for whatever I have got to do that day. Then of course there are accesories to find and shoes and bags to sort out, and most of the time I love doing it, and I get a lot of joy out of the whole process. Sometimes, however, I have loads to do in the evening, or I have a headache or more likely I just can't be arsed, and I fall into bed with no plan on the following day's outfit. It is on these days that I tend to reach for my 1950s clobber. 

I find the 50s really easy to put together, skirts and trousers paired with little cardigans usually do the trick nicely, add a brooch and scarf or hair accessory and you are good to go! 

I found myself in the "can't be arsed" frame of mind last night, I was too engrossed in a Midsomer Murders on the tv, if I'm honest, so this morning, out came my trusty jeans and cardi.

These jeans are mega comfy, and look at those turn ups! ( this is not just out of respect for the 50s look, I am yet to find trousers that don't need some taking up due to my short stumpy legs )

Obligatory hair accessory, in this case a massive bow!

Brilliant 50s pumps.

Ok, so the brooch is from the 30s, but it looks good.

It's a great outfit really, and one that ain't half bad for those days when I really am a lazy little toad.

                                Till next time dears xx