Party Time

Despite being a big old introvert who doesn't like parties, I made an exception for the work Christmas do. Well you have to, don't you? My colleagues are a lovely bunch, plus there was an open bar. Yoicks! I frocked up, whacked on some red lippy and went out.

If I were a proper organised sort of blogger, I'd no doubt have scheduled in a separate photoshoot outdoors, in daylight, in front of a colourful doorway to show off my outfit to optimum effect. Instead I completely forgot, got drunk and then flung my phone at someone at the very end of the night and shrieked "Don't take any pictures where I look fat!". Classy.

(Why, oh why, is red so hard to photograph? Admittedly we were in a fairly dark hotel lobby and both the photographer and subject had had a shandy or twelve but still, grrr.) This frock is the absolute perfect shade of red and I love it. You may have to see it in real life to appreciate what it actually looks like though.

London skyline tights FTW.

Dress - Dorothy Perkins
Heels - Shelly's, Spartoo
Bag - gift
Jacket - vintage, from Kinky Melon
Tights - can't remember! They're epic though.

Despite my antisocial tendencies, I had a lovely night. 

A New Vintage Frock

I had a bit of a trying-on session of lots of my vintage clobber last weekend. Sad times. As I bought most of them just after The Great Weight-loss Campaign and have subsequently chubbed up a bit, lots of them don't quite fit any more. Actually, lots of them never really fitted - I was hoping I'd slim down a bit more and magically get into them and, well, that never happened.

On the bright side, the fabulous Vix was in my neck of the woods at the time. All her vintage stock is so incredibly tempting that it's not really surprising that I treated myself to some new bits and bobs, is it? Then I went back the next day and bestowed a large bag of vintage goodies on her. In the spirit of decluttering, I decided to get rid of all the aforementioned stuff that never fitted, along with a load of silk scarves I never wear. Might as well let them get passed onto someone that will appreciate them!

Being the all-round excellent person she is, Vix made me take a couple more delightful vintage frocks home with me in exchange. Think we can all agree that this 70s midi is a winner, right?



As with anything midi on me, I need some extra height so I don't look too drowned by all the fabric. Enter a nice pair of sandals with enough of a heel to help out my poor stumpy legs.



My resting bitch face is strong today but I do love it, I promise! Also well done hair, you look epic here.








Dress - courtesy of Vix's amazing vintage shop
Summery wedges - Dolcis
Ring - Dorothy Perkins sale
Necklace - either Dorothy Perkins or H&M! All my jewellery comes from there...

Pop Your Collar

I seem to be on the quite the vintage roll at the moment. It's a refreshing change!

 I was having a mooch back through old blog posts recently and it struck me that I'm not anywhere near as interesting in my outfit choices as I used to be. Vintage kinda solves that problem for you. No need to accessorize or pair things up, just shove on something with a bold pattern and let your collar do the talking.

This is my new (old) super seventies secretary frock.  All I need is a shorthand notebook and some slightly flickier hair and I reckon I'd fit in beautifully.

Check out the massive collar:

And the magical slimming powers:

It's a very good frock.

Frock - vintage 'Devonshire Lady' via The Vintage Corner
Heels - Office via ebay
Necklace - Accessorize
Bag - can't remember! Shame on me.

Vintage Shopping in Liverpool...The Vintage Corner

Hands up if you like a good vintage shop.

Yup, thought so! Me too, although I'm sure that won't come as a surprise to anyone.

Liverpool isn't brilliantly off for them, to be honest. Raiders closed down a while ago and although there are a few decent little shops, I have to do most of my rummaging in charity shops and at the odd vintage fair. We've got quite a few of the latter, it's just finding time to actually attend them that's the problem for me at the moment!



I paid a visit to Waterloo last weekend to see my dad, watch all of the X Men films and take in the delights of St John's Road. There are some fab shops starting up down there and after buying a lot of delicious cake at the newly(ish) opened Caz's Kitchen, we went for a wander around The Vintage Corner. Also new, also amazing!

Cheryl and Alison own and run the shop and they're girls after my own heart. They were both having great fun unpacking and trying on a new batch of stock when I was there - instant coat envy as an Aquascutum cape appeared out of the bag!



Oh so many pretty things in stock.





Also props to me for inadvertently paying my first visit when they were having a sale.  My timing is never usually that good!  I had a whale of a time trying on all the things that took my fancy.











Alas that gorgeous swirly green patterned frock was far too small for me otherwise it'd so be in my wardrobe right now. I bought other things though. Obviously.

Want a sneaky peek of my purchases? It turns out I really can't resist a good sale rail and came away with two tops and two frocks which I'm sure will feature in upcoming outfit posts very soon.



Oh and this beauty, although it won't technically be mine till Christmas as Dad has bought it for me as a present.

A New Old Frock

Yes. It's me. Wearing clothes!



Feels like about a million years since I've done an outfit post...



I bought this frock when shopping with Char a few weeks ago. It looks like an absolute sack on the hanger and I was expecting nothing from it but I liked the print an awful lot and it's always worth trying these things on, isn't it? Imagine the look of surprise on my face when it a) fitted and b) looked nice. That never happens!



Not convinced it photographs quite as well as it looks in real life but it's excellent fun to wear. It sort of pretends to be a bit of a 40s day dress with the floral print and the pleats in the skirt but then it's all HELLO with the mad 70s collar and polyester.



Pretty, isn't it? 





Also any chance to bust out heeled brogues is most welcome. They're amazing and they're too pretty to languish in a shoe rack all summer. Plus, ribbon on footwear = epic.



Dress - vintage
Cardi - Monsoon sale
Seamed tights - Marks & Spencer
Heeled brogues - New Look
Pearls - BoBijou

Some Vintage Shopping

Whoops!

I believe I promised you all some photos of my new vintage treasures at the end of my last blog post. Um. That was a while ago. Sorry! I am as busy as a very busy bee at the moment.

Here they finally are though. Behold their patterned glory:

Fab dress! My mission to look like a walking cushion continues.

Beautiful maxi skirt.

And a really bonkers jacket. I love it.  It was produced with a flourish and a cry of "It's got your name on it!"  It so has.

I got all these beauties from Vix, who had the most amazing array of vintage clothes and goodies on her stall. I should probably point out that she (being an ace vintage seller) actually washes and looks after all her stock really well. I quite often pick up stuff from charity and vintage shops that clearly haven't been looked after and have to shove them straight in the wash but that wasn't the case with these! I just hung them on the washing line for photo purposes.


Did I buy anything that wasn't clothes? You bet I did! Pretties for me:

And pretties for the house:

I had very little idea of what I wanted in there when I first started thinking about decorating. I keep buying retro things for it though and I have a vague suspicion it'll end up looking a little bit junk-shoppish. Oh well! I never claimed to be a modern, minimalist type.