PILE IT ON!

Accessorising & embellishment is still everywhere on the catwalks & high street. Anyone who’s anyone is piling on the studs, jewels, pearls, ribbons, feathers… well whatever they can lay their hands on! I love it, I am a great big messy, eclectic,  maximalist & proud of it! I like STUFF far too much to ever attempt to be minimalist!

So here’s a big expensive wish list of gorgeousness that would cheer me up something rotten in the currently frozen capital I now reside…

 

…. to top it off this beautiful head piece by Bijoux Heart & stunning embellished Louboutins! 

going home for christmas

Hello everyone, I’m so sorry I’ve not posted anything in the last 2 weeks. I have been off travelling around being the dutiful daughter & visiting my family.

Now I’ve already managed to make it sound like I haven’t enjoyed it, but i have, I really have. Now here I am the last day of the holidays & slightly dreading the return to work tomorrow, partly nervous because I’m starting a new job; thinking back over the last couple of weeks…. it all started with a trip to Cornwall to see all my family (apart from my Mum who is now based in Lincolnshire), where, apart from a bit for ice, was another world away from the rest of snow ravaged England. Of course the first thing I did is head to the coast around Portreath & Porthleven where the views are so achingly beautiful it almost makes me want to move back to the homeland!

After a couple of days of partying with my Cornwall based family, I headed north to what felt like a completely different country, Lincolnshire where my Mum now lives. The countryside is so completely different to the hilly, narrow, bendy country lanes of Cornwall, it’s very very flat & expansive & the roads feel bizarrely long & straight. Saying this it is no less impressive, just have a look at the sunrise on the first morning I was there.

look I’m driving in a winter wonderland!

After a few days of the necessary excessive eating & drinking with my brother & Mum I headed back to London for a pre new years evening at Proud Galleries watching my good friends band The Bela Lugosi Blues , it was a great night although quite terribly I have forgotten to take any pictures of them playing but instead everyone became quite distracted by a certain Red Brigadier Guards jacket that I had brought with me. I was actually returning it to my darling friend Ross who was very excited & insisted I try it on & have my picture taken…

… then everyone tried it on & had their picture taken…. don’t we all look terribly dashing!

Oh well enough fun time to get back to the real world & my new job…Wish me lots of luck! x

Lend a Hand at Christmas Time

My lovely friend Roh has been in the midst of moving house over the last week or so….Dave & Her must really love being in Wanstead & me because they were living just off the high street, but have moved about 8 doors down from me!

I loved them living so close before but now I can annoy them ALL the time! heh heh

Anyway they don’t have any internet in the new place at the moment so I’ve tried to help out by knocking together a couple of posts for her, thus meaning my poor little blog has nothing much to show for it of late.

Have a look at my last-minute Christmas Present buys for under 20 squids….

Let me show you my favorite, I wish i had an iPhone so I can get this

Chocolate iPhone cover £12 Urban Outfitters

and again ….

Oh and look another piece of my craft antics has been featured today on the wonderous blog by Rohini : The Beat That My Heart Skipped, see if you can spot my carefully handcrafted (with love) patchwork quilt on her post “Old homes, New Horizons”

Check it Out!

Hello my lovelies,

look my wonderous crafting talents have been featured on my lovely friend Roh’s blog, I am planning to become her proper craft editor in the New Year but for now here’s a little snippet for you, right HERE!

Woof!

Earlier this week on my journey home from work, I was, as usual on the Overground train from Camden Road to Stratford…. and as usual I was plugged into my Ipod and had my nose buried in a book on the very damp train (it was bucketing it down all that day).

I happened to look up from the pages of my book about fairiey folk (The Various by Steve Augarde…. I love young adult fiction almost as much as I love regular adult fiction) and what did I see but a pair of beige cord trousers….. “So what” I am sure you are thinking, but wait! These were special… this pair of Beige corduroys were embroidered all over with little hunting dogs!

You don’t believe me! Well look here’s the proof…

I had to stifle my giggles with my scarf and try and turn my attention back to my kids book… well that wasn’t particularly successful because I couldn’t keep my eyes off them…. added to that the fella wearing them wasn’t a tweed clad, flat cap wearing, hunting stick carrying toff but from what I could see a perfectly normal Londoner (barring the off trouser choice, which I might add were teamed with Converse & a DC jacket).

I know I shouldn’t laugh, and I do love that the people of this epic city will wear whatever they feel like and craft themselves an individual look, not necessarily to stick out & say “Oi look at me” but just to BE INDIVIDUAL and not JUST like everyone else. Oh look at those little doggies! They are so cute!

Dress Making Machine!

I’ve been a busy little sewing bee recently, I’ve just finished Cinderella’s Ball gown for the Woodhouse Players panto . It’s a gorgeous velvet & satin Navy vision!

My second project, which actually something I’ve been commissioned to make, is a lovely little empire line silk dupion dress.

I just had to take a picture of the fabric as I unwrapped it from the carefully wrapped tissue paper, yes wrapped in tissue paper! When youre spending this much on fabric from Broadwick Silks, it bloody should be delicately folded & wrapped for you to take home & create beautiful things with.

The young lady, who’s lovely boyfriend commissioned me to create this dress, has not yet seen it made up so i’ll only show you a couple of close up & working shots.

Here’s the contrast trim on the sleeve’s cuff…

… and here is me mid stitch working on the precise topstitching on the pleats along the front of the dress…

…and the finished pleats on the empire line…when i’ve got the lady in question in the dress i’ll take a full length picture.

 

 

Festive

Look at the lovely Christmas lights that are all along St Christophers Place this Year, I spotted these whilst caning my debit card today in the West End looking for a Christmas Dress….

Time to get your needles out

My grannies taught me to knit when I was little, I remember endlessly working on stripy jumpers & scarves as a kid, for many years I fell out of the habit of knitting, but in the last couple of years i have taken it up with a vengeance, some of my creations can been seen in previous posts. But this particular post is a little special, I have acquired from one of my grans a pattern book from what I think must be sometimes in the 60’s or 70’s, the patterns specifically themed for little items to be sold at Bazaar’s…..who remembers them?? There really is not enough of them nowadays!

of patterns featured in this booklet which do you think I made on the page below?

Yes of course it was the hat….. although i was greatly tempted by the toy bunny & elephant, here’s my first attempt,  Teal green with a contrasting pink ribbon

What do you think i should make next? Maybe one of these smashing tea cosies or maybe the sweet little egg cosies…I do love egg & soilders after all!

Sequins & Studs & Gems & Pearls

I think i’m getting a little obsessed with embellished dresses…. I’ve been invited for the first time to a Christmas Lunch hosted by my company for our biggest client at the Mint Leaf on the Haymarket & obviously i will need to buy a new dress as everything in my wardrobe has been worn & is generally too big since i seem to be shrinking in size (YAY!)… I’m not buying a dress JUST for this one occasion it’s also to cover my work Christmas Party & any other Chritmassy event i may well end up attending….not New Years Eve mind you, this is usually spent in Panda PJ’s with Tammy having a film-a-thon! oh i seem to be getting off the point as usual; as i was saying I am becoming obsessed with embellished, sequined, embroidered & studded things, & who can blame me just take a look at the these lovely examples:

 

 

and of course what Christmas party outfit is complete without a feathered tiara….

Metal Embellished Headband £18 – Topshop / Black & Ivory Embellished Dress by Ben Di Lisi £250 - Debenhams / Spike Gold Studded Platform £75 – Topshop / Black Studded Mini Dress £225 – Butterfly by Matthew Williamson at Debenhams / Pearl Embellished Bolero £125 & Snow Queen Tiara £35  - Both Topshop