It's A Wonderful Life

I've had a lovely couple of days off with the fella, trying to make the most of the festive season and get in the Christmas mood. Yesterday we went to the Geffrye Museum, which is actually just 5 minutes away from where I live although I've never got round to visiting before. The Geffrye Museum are actually 19th Century Almshouses which were used as housing for elderly and poor widows. The houses now form exhibition displays of the interior of the houses of the English Middle class. Currently they have the Christmas Past exhibition which shows how people decorated and celebrated Christmas through the last few hundred years. My favourite room was the 1930s room, the art deco prints look so incredibly ahead of their time, however the 1930s Christmas tree left much to be desired, essentially just a rather austere twig with a few leaves on it.

Here I am posing in the Museum's lovely Reading Room overlooking their beautiful garden in my vintage 1940s dress from Radio Days, and my new vintage 1950s modal bag.
If that wasn't festive enough, I've just come back from the British Film Institute to watch a special seasonal screening of the 1947 classic It's A Wonderful Life.


No matter how many times you've seen this film on the TV there is nothing like watching it on the big screen. Jimmy Stewart looks even more divine when he is super-sized, and the darling Donna Reed who plays Mary looks fabulous in every scene.


I am definately feeling more Christmassy now especially as it's been snowing for the last couple of days!

Bye Bye for now xxx,

Hand Muffs and TWO awards!

Hello again...i'm back. Sorry for the quiet spell, been rather busy/tired over the last week or so, so have been regretfully neglecting my blog. BUT...I'm back with a bang and a double whammy of this wonderful award from two lovely ladies, the gorgeous Stefanie Valentine at Its All Make Believe, Isn't It? and Miss Melanie at Pink Champagne For Dancing. Thanks gals! And a special thanks to Kori at Blonde Episodes for creating all these fab awards for us to have fun with.

Now, seeing as all the shopping I have been doing at the moment has obviously been buying presents for other people, I have nothing new to show, however I always like to have something on my list, and my next vintage desire comes in the form of a hand muff. I love love love these darling little things and don't understand why people don't use them anymore. It's such a practical idea to have something to slip your hands in and out of easily, as I find gloves can be impractical when trying to pay for something quickly etc. Here is a little selection of some swell hand muffs I found:

A Very Vintage Christmas

Hi There!

Now i'm a very traditional girl and don't like to start celebrating Christmas too early, but it's hard to not get swept away with it all when you can't walk in a shop or turn on a radio without hearing Christmas songs from the 1st of November. But it is about time to start planning for Christmas, so I've put together a little compilation of Christmassy bits and bobs to create your own very vintage Christmas.

What To Send
Its very difficult to find really nice cards nowadays that don't have some kind of distinctly unfunny, crude joke on the front but I've found a couple of vintage options.
Buy this amazing set of vintage 1950s Christmas cards on ebay, be warned, they're not cheap!


Or choose from lots of lovely designs of 1950s reproduction cards here, I just love this playful pussy cat and this happy couple with a car load of festive goodies

What To Hang
Decorate your tree with these lovely 1950s christmas baubles. There is a great selection at www.vintagechristmasshop.com


What to Fill
Now you are going to need a stocking for Father Christmas to put all your vintage goodies in. I love this 1950s Nursery Rhyme one found on ebay



But if its another type of stocking you are after, then why not discover your inner festive pin-up with a pair of these from Sparkling Strawberry




What To Read
For an in depth look at Christmas decorations and customs for the collectors among you there are lots of books available to show you how it was done, here is one of them focussing on the Forties and Fifties. Available on Amazon

Or read about a Family Christmas in the 1940s and 1950s with this lovely book which also has instructions on how to make traditional decorations and tasty christmas treats. Also on Amazon


What to Wear
No vintage lover's Christmas would be complete without the perfect outfit. This red lace dress found on ebay is just divine


A dress like this wouldn't look complete without a vintage lovers signature red lips. Why not try one of Lancome's Special Edition L'Absolu Rouge Christmas Colour Collection Lipsticks. I like No.173 Rouge Preciosa

What To Listen To
Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without the sounds of Mr Rock n' Roll himself


But if its something more traditional you are looking for then I highly recommend Music For a Wartime Christmas featuring the likes of The Andrews Sisters and Judy Garland to name but a few. Wonderful songs 'that cheered a nation'. Buy here

I hope I've given you some vintage inspiration as you prepare for Christmas

Goodbye for now. x

Hot Rods and Hot Dogs (Rhythm Riot Pt 2)

Sorry to take so long to finish this post, but better late than never! Here is a short overview of some of the other great features of this years Rhythm Riot.

Due to a combination of bad weather, bad photography and bad memory, I have ended up with hardly any useable pictures of the cars this year, so some of the ones I've used here have been pilfered from other sources. Now, I cannot claim to be an expert on vintage automobiles (or any automobiles in fact) however it doesn't take a genius to work out that these cars are very pretty indeed

Airstream Tattoo Parlour

There were many amazing musical performances, but I've picked a few highlights to tell you about.

A Friday night highlight was definately Cecil 'Big Jay' McNeely, or 'The King of the Honkers' as he is otherwise affectionately known. If you are not familiar with him you will probably have seen this picture of him before and not even realised who he was. The picture of Big Jay playing on his back was taken in Los Angeles in 1951.

Big Jay in 2009

Lorrie and Larrie Collins, otherwise known as The Collins Kids, found fame in the 1950s performing as a juvenile Rock n Roll duo, with Lorrie becoming well known as being one of the first female Rock n Roll singers. Larrie was playing a double necked guitar aged 10 and was obviously seen as a great young talent. Their most famous songs such as Hop, Skip, Jump and Hoy Hoy were probably intended to be geared more towards children but they managed to cross over into the adult field, having mass market appeal. This year we were lucky to see them reunite at The Rhythm Riot, and I was struck at how they still sung the songs that they've been singing since they were children with an obvious affection for their music and one another, without any sign of tiring of performing together.

Lorrie and Larrie in the 1950s

The Collins Kids in 2009

Now my absolute favourite performance of the weekend (I bought his CD and have listened to it obsessively since) had to be Harmonica Sam, backed by The Domestic Bumblebees with Boppin' Steve on the piano. The Domestic Bumblebees did a cracking set independently on Friday night, as did Boppin' Steve on Saturday, but both teamed up with Harmonica Sam on Sunday creating an energetic and exhilarating atmosphere for the final night. Hailing from Sweden, Harmonica Sam, when not playing his mouth organ superbly, sings in the most incredible voice producing some undoubtedly rockin' rhythm and blues. He also looks pretty suave, so I suggest you check him out on myspace.


So, I shall leave you with one last Rhythm Riot memory. Gosh, all that dancing sure does make you hungry...

(I look really pleased that this photo is being taken don't I?)

Fun, Frolics and Fleur at the Rhythm Riot

Well as you may have guessed this weekend was the Rhythm Riot at Pontins in Camber, Rye. The Riot is expertly organised every year by the wonderful Robin and Colette who also run Maddys Jiving School, where coincidently I learnt to jive.

Robin and Colette

The Riot attracts a wonderful mix of vintage lovers, from full on forties enthusiasts to dedicated rockabillys, hepcats, lindyhoppers, boppers, and jivers. People now attend from all across the world as it has developed an excellent reputation as being the front runner in Rock 'n Roll weekenders. However apart from great music, dancing and shopping, the Rhythm Riot has also become synonymous with bad weather, and boy, was this weekend no exception. The wind howled and the rain fell, but it didn't stop us from having a fab time. So here are a couple of outfits that I wore over the weekend:


This was my Friday night outfit consisting of a very delicate lace blouse that belonged to my boyfriends grandmother, fifties vintage grey wool skirt with black beaded flower detailing from Vintage Heaven, shoes from Office and the lovely little fifties box bag that i featured in an earlier post from Beyond Retro. I actually went back to the chalet and changed into shoes that were more suitable for dancing after about an hour!


This was my Saturday outfit for a day trip into Rye on the vintage bus. The 1940s dress is from Radio Days as are the shoes (featured in a previous post) the cream 1950s jacket was bought from the Rhythm Riot for a bargainous £20 (owing to a few teeny tiny moth bites on the collar) and I bought the gloves at the Rhythm Riot last year. Messy hair comes courtesy of the South East coast winds.

Unfortunately for some reason I forgot to get an outfit picture of Saturday nights dress, which is a shame because it was lovely (you'll have to take my word for it). On Sunday after the car boot sale I thought I would be slightly self indulgent and be a have-a-go Pin-Up so I had pre-booked a photo session with Tony Nylons. So decked out in new beautiful faux vintage underwear from What Katie Did I went to be snapped! Now, lucky for me, on hand to primp and preen was Fleur De Guerre who is (if you can believe it) even more beautiful and elegant in person. Fleur expertly created some victory rolls for me, making it look very easy, and they were so well sculpted that they lasted right through to 3am monday morning, passing the test of much vigorous dancing. I cannot show you the results of the shoot yet but here is the lovely Fleur and myself (looking rather on the short side of tall).


Sunday night at the Riot is always Hawaiian night but this year I really wanted to wear my new red dress, thinking that it was bright enough, and with matching flower, it just might pass for slightly tropical.

Hair courtesy of Fleur De Coiffure

Preparing to dance, I wore comfy Rocket Originals wedges, however, when I started dancing what I wasn't prepared for was my dress flying up to my shoulders every time I spun around, so I had to go back to the chalet to change my under garments into something slightly less ...aherm...see through, so I could dance to my hearts content without flashing to everyone seated around the dancefloor.

Well there is much more I wanted to share about the fab cars and music etc but this post is long enough already, so I think I'll save it for next time,

See You All Soon. x

An Award...For Moi?

Hey there! I'm back from a fabulous weekend of shopping, jiving, strolling, posing and general Rock n' Rollin' at the Rhythm Riot. But, all that will follow in my next post, I would first like to say thanks to the divine Jitterbug Doll for my first blogger award! The rules of this award are that I must pass it on to 7 others who in turn must pass it on to 7 others whose blogs they admire, link to the blogger who gave it to them and let whoever they've given it to know that they've given them an award. I've found it tough to pick just 7 of you fabulous lovelies are there are so many wonderful bloggers out there, I also wanted to give it to those who haven't already received it so without further ado the bloggers receiving the award are:

1. Straight Talking Mama
2. The Big Mama Introspection
3. The Life of a Twenty Something
4. Welcome to Deluxeville
5. Millie Deel
6. Vintage, My Love
7. Pretty Little Things

Ta Ta For Now! x

New Camera, Vintage Buys

Hello lovelies,
The rain finally stopped today so I was able to go out and brave the shops and buy a new camera so at last I can show off a few of my recent vintage purchases. First up: Shoes! I have recently bought 2 pairs of shoes from e-bay; a beautiful 1940s navy pair of courts by Lotus with leather bow-like detailing on the front.

The second pair, also from e-bay, are a 1950s pair by Norvic and are a rich mahogany suede with an adorable pom pom on each shoe.

The gorgeous 1940s blouse is from a shop in London called Marshmallow Mountain, which is normally full of things from the 60s -80s but i found this little gem on a recent visit. It is a deep chocolate brown with cream flower detailing and a lovely flattering rouched waist and tringular cut cuffs.

Now last but by absolutely no means least, my most favourite purchase of late...perhaps ever! A gorgeous 1950s red velvet dress, exquisitely cut, the kind of dress that makes you feel a million dollars! The pictures in no way do this dress justice, however after the Rhythm Riot this weekend i will have lots of pictures of me wearing all of the above items. Boy, I can't wait to wear that dress! x