My Take on the Vintage Backlash.

There have been various bloggers lately who have posted about why they wear Vintage and how they feel about it going mainstream. I have posted some long and rambling replies to some of these posts, apologies if I filled your comments box with randomness!
It made me think about the subject to such a degree that when I woke up at 5.15am this morning and couldn't get back to sleep again *weeps* I started to write a post on the subject in my head. Of course I don't remember it word for word now, (I do know it was brilliant, witty and incisive) so instead you have my half remembered off at a tangent version.

Vintage is the biggest thing since sliced bread if the papers and women's glossies are to be believed. It is of the moment and even downmarket weeklies are telling you how to shop and where.

There has been much discontent in the world of vintage at this news. There are those who are spitting feathers over the very thought that some little twinkie who usually shops at New Look is suddenly going to be browsing the rails of their beloved vintage stores. There are those who have ACTUALLY STOPPED WEARING 1940's or 50's originals in disgust at the fact they are now trendy!?! I kid you not! Personally I think theirs is mental behaviour but of course it is their choice.

My take on it? I guess the fact that I am not a vintage purist means I was never going to have a violent reaction anyway, but I say live and let live. If there is some young person out there who up until this point had been following friends into Topshop like a sheep, that has suddenly discovered a passion for well made original clothes then I say the current trend is well worth it!

 The only things that irritate me?

 I really don't get why cupcakes are vintage. Cupcakes have only existed in the UK for a few years, if we were being authentic British we would have fairycakes and butterfly cakes!
That being said stick a cake and a cup of tea in front of me and I will soon be distracted from my irritation......Mmmm cake.

The other thing that does drive me mad is when people get their facts wrong!?! Do your freaking reasearch, that's your job and it's not hard.

Oh and people who call every kind of floral vaguely teadress looking frock on Ebay 'Vintage'. It's not vintage dear it's on sale in Primark for £10 even as we speak.

and that the prices of vintage and retro have gone sky high - Bah.

Other than that I am sanguine. This current trend will pass and then 'The Vintage Elite' will be able to go back to swaning around like queen bees and being bitchy about people in repro clothing instead of hissing at the world in general.
Harsh? but oh so fair!
There are some real stuck up bitches in the vintage world, who won't deign to acknowlege someone who is in the wrong type of frock or who is not purist enough for them except to be rude about them. At the end of the day all they do is allienate themselves from some wonderful people so they are the losers. I know who I would rather be friends with because there really are some lovely, lovely people in the vintage scene too.

As for me? I fall firmly into the repro wearing non-purist camp. For a start I am 5ft 11" and a size 14-16 (depending where I shop), with very little in the bust department and absolutely no waist. Quite frankly finding original frocks from the eras I love that actually fit me is nothing short of miraculous!

On top of that I have been a heavy metal fan for the last 30 years and my rock chick habit is going nowhere! Hand on heart whilst I love to dress to the nines on occasion I think I am always going to be more comfortable in my fishnets and biker boots. On that note, unlike some, I have no problem with the fact clothes that I used to wear, or that are still hang in my wardrobe are now 'vintage'. The passing of time is the one damn thing you can do nothing about, so live with it!

   (Genuine 1980's baby - If these boots could talk oh my word the stories they could tell!)

I will never be a vintage purist simply because I love clothes. I always have and I always will. I still get a thrill seeing the new seasons arrivals each year so I can't tie myself to one era. I couldn't even choose a favourite era if I tried because I love different clothes from every single one.

An Early Morning Call from The Postman.

Was not exactly welcome as I had only gone to bed at 1am rather the worst for the wine having been to see the comedian Robin Ince (click to see a reiew) and decided opening a bottle of wine when we got in was a good idea after the couple of large glasses I had had whilst I was out!

Anyway Mr Postie had brought me a huge package from Clare who was my Blog-swap partner in the Faith Hope and Charity Jubilee Swap

Without further ado here are my swap goodies.....

A spotty notebook and pretty card.

A lovely brown dress :-) I know you can't see it here but it has tiny little lighter brown polka dots all over it.

An old toffee tin full of goodies! Now Himself got quite excited when he saw the tin, would you believe his Grandda used to have one which Himself was so fascinated with when he was little that he eventually got given it and kept all his treasures in it. What a coincidence!
Clare made the brooches herself which is funny because without any prior consulting I had made her one too! Clearly great minds think alike. I love the postcard of the girl.

Look at this booty. A GORGEOUS navy patent handbag filled with 2 scarves, sunglasses a fan and 2 bead necklaces, the blue one is particularly welcome because I have recently broken the one that I had.

well worth being woken up for don't you think?

Vampires, Rock Stars and a Pub Landlord.

Well considering I had a week off work last week and did nowhere near the amount I had planned to do I still didn't find the time to blog despite wasting a fair amount of time on the internets.
 It was blissful to have some time off and to do things like get up in the morning, make a cup of tea and go back to bed to read! I never seem to find the time to read these days and I miss it. 

I was extraordinarily good with my diet all week, I confess I did go out for cocktails and dinner with some girlfriends on the Monday but other than that I was a picture of restraint. It all went horribly wrong on Friday when I got in from the pub. Having been very good and only having 2 pints whilst out, I was grumpy and freaking RAVENOUS by the time I got home. So I fell on the toaster and stuffed my face with thickly buttered toast like a woman possessed. I haven't stopped eating since dammit. Ah well tomorrow is another day and all that.

Onwards to the title of this blog, for toast and my sheer piggery have nothing to do with vampires or rock stars I hear you cry 

Himself and I have been to the cinema, not once but twice.
First to see Abraham Lincoln - Vampire Hunter.

Himself loved it and I must admit I enjoyed it too. It was very, very silly but great fun. It was a little jumpy for me in places (I am not a fan of horror) but on the whole it gets a thumbs up in the Magpie household.

Second was Rock of Ages.

I'm not able to articulate so well on this one, Himself says it's because I am suffering from outraged nostalgia. Lol
 It has been described as 'Glee for dads' but I think Himself described it better as '30% the best film I have ever seen and 70% the worst film I have EVER seen!'
I did have to come home and listen to the original versions of at least 5 of the songs used just to purge the awful film versions of them from my head!!

There were some very funny bits, (they did get the revolting L.A rock club toilets spot on!) and Tom Cruise was really good, miles better than I expected him to be if I'm honest. But oh! it was hard to watch a time and musical genre that I lived and breathed, that indeed was my whole existence during my teens and 20's treated in such a way. Very Hard. Outraged indeed.

We also went to see the comedian Al Murray this week too.

I have seen him on T.V of course but to be honest he is not really my comedy cup of tea. For those of you who don't know him he plays a character called 'The Pub Landlord' and this was a warm up gig for The Edinburgh Festival and his next national tour. It was in our local arts centre, a small venue so we thought it was a good chance to see a comedian who normally plays huge venues in somewhere intimate.
 It was pretty much as you would expect, he interacts with the front two rows, and generally takes the piss out of them, then tells a few jokes. I did laugh out loud and I did enjoy it but I feel no need to ever go and see him again.

The arts centre does serve some damn good wine at very reasonable prices it has to be said which was probably not such a good idea on a school night.....

Sea, Plumbers and Gale Force Winds.

I am on holiday HUZZAH. I have much to do in my week off work and so far have done pretty much none of it!
Friday after harassing our rental agency a plumber finally arrived to sort the various plumbing based issues at the house. I have to say the plumber is a lovely bloke and arrived with an apprentice in tow and the pair of them had me sniggering away to myself the whole time they were here. Partly due to words like 'ballcock' coming up in the conversation and that fact that 'my' cistern is very old and corroded apparently! (and there was me feeling in fine form that day) but also for the fact that the plumber is a proper Oxford boy with a strong Oxfordshire accent (very country yokel, often mistaken for a west country one) and the young lad he brought with him was terribly posh when he spoke, we're talking a Prince William type accent and I just found it very funny for some reason. I know, I know it's just me I have an odd sense of humour.
Anyway, one gas safety inspection, two new washers, a new shower hose and some tinkering with my cistern and I was good to go!

So off I went,

 to good old Margate for a long overdue visit with the in laws and catch up with my dear demented sister. Thankfully the god awful weather we had been threatened with didn't quite materialize though the gale force winds all weekend did make for some bracing sea air!

Now I hope you are all sitting down to read this because all I bought all weekend was 2 plants for a £1 each!?! I kid you not! Queen of the shopping expedition came away with two wee pot plants and that WAS IT!!
 So I have no pictures of exciting purchases to show you I'm afraid.
I did buy this rather gorgeous yellow frock on Ebay which arrived the day I left and went straight into the suitcase! I wasn't sure about me in yellow but it looks great on, and I'm really pleased because I love it. I just need to fix the hem. One of the many jobs for this week that I'm not doing......

It was blissful to get some fresh sea air (even if it was trying to rip the hair off your head) and relax a bit. I got to catch up with my good friend Kay too and give her her long overdue birthday pressies.

All I have to share with you are some very random pictures from the pub on Saturday night. We went to Barnacles with Himself's Mum and Dad and drank far too much but it was good fun and thankfully I didn't suffer too much the next day!

As you can see I was wearing a lovely green lace dress but instead of a full length picture of it's loveliness all you get is a gratuitous boob shot! (cameras and alcohol do not mix.)

Himself's Mum was wearing this luscious velvet Art Deco peacock coat. I may have to kill her for it because there is no way she will let me get my sweaty hands on it otherwise!

Isn't it stunning?

Exciting Packages in the Post.

I had two lovely packages waiting for me when I battled home through the wind and rain on Friday. The first was a lovely vintage dress I bought on Ebay.

It was listed as a '1970's vintage dress' and I just loved the orange flower fabric so I decided to go for it even though I wasn't entirely sure I was going to fit in it!
 Now it is here I am so glad I took the risk because I *LOVE* it. Also I am not convinced it's 1970's, personally I think it is older, not that I really care either way, it is handmade and beautifully so.Fully lined and with a swirly full skirt. I shall handwash it tomorrow and then I might feel brave enough to try it on and see if it does actually fit.......

Before I get to the second package do you remember the straw cat bag I got for my birthday from my lovely friend Soo?

 well I did decide the pink was just too much for me, as I have mentioned before I really don't like pink, so I decided to make it red!

  Et Voila! Red cat :-)

So, yes on to the second parcel, it was from the Wonderous and Wonderful Vix !

She was very kind enough to bring me some elephants back from her last trip to Goa after I wittered on about them as I am prone to do.
Talking of elephants, to digress for a moment, this weekend was not just the Queen's Jubilee it was also the 60th birthday of Anne the Elephant.

The oldest elephant in captivity, she was rescued from a circus last year who were ill treating her and after a national campaign now lives in Elephantine luxury at Longleat Safari Park.
Apparently she celebrated her special day with 2 watermelons and a bucket of sand, now that's what I call a 60th birthday celebration! 

Anyway, back on track. Here are the elephants from Vix in all their spendour hanging from our fuse box and making the pipe work behind look 100 times better!! 

She also included this teeny tiny wee white elephant she found in her Dad's house.

Some wacky elephant cards which made me laugh and a camel print scarf which she quite rightly guessed I would love. The hair shall be tied up in it a LOT I can assure you, it's ace!

Thank you for your generosity, it really is appreciated.

I only went out for a loaf of bread....

Honest Guv. We were out of bread and I needed to get a couple of things in Wilkinsons so Himself and I decided to go and see if there *really* was nothing festive happening in town and whether any shops were open so we could buy bread.  (I know it's only a bank holiday so usually the shops are open but that doesn't seem to signify when it comes to our local high street and opening times!)

As it turns out there wasn't a Jubilee celebration to be seen, not even the local arts centre cafe was open! I actually find that sad, whether you are a fan of the royals or not, this is actually a once in a lifetime happening and a damn good excuse for a knees up, and when you see all the effort made elsewhere it's really rather pathetic to refuse to do anything. A bit like being the sulky kid standing arms folded in the corner. Ah well it's been and done now and clearly our town council are miserable gits.

Anyways as it turns out shops were open so we got our bread, from the local bakers no less (so much nicer than Sainsburys!) I went into Wilkinsons and got most of what I needed, and then, what was this I should see? some of the local charity shops were open = RESULT.
I'm sure I've mentioned before Himself is not a fan of charity shopping so if he is with me I have developed a strategy. No more than 3 shops and I have to do a calculated and ruthless sweep as I get no more than the 10 to 15 minutes it takes him to look at the books, cds and dvds in each shop. Yesterday I struck freaking gold, oh yes.
Not only did I get two fab things for my blog swap (which I can't show you cos I don't want to spoil the surprise) and a Gary Numan t-shirt which I will selflessly give to Nephew Number One rather than keep for myself.......I got this rather lovely pussy bow blouse at a ridiculous £1.49 in the Jubilee half price sticker event. (See town council even the charity shops can get into the spirit!)

 
I also found this rather gorgeous real leather vintage handbag for £6.99.

This made me very very happy. I love it and it is in imaculate condition.

To the point where you almost feel bad about using it and making it's innards all grubby.....

Clearly I should go out for bread more often!

Celebrate! or in my case be slow on the uptake.

So it's the Jubilee weekend here in the U.K and somehow I only just realised this on Monday! I mean I knew it was coming, I would have had to have lived in a cave not too, but somehow I didn't quite realise it was actually this weekend until it was almost upon me. Which means I have spent the week being a bit grumpy because everyone else seems to have wonderous things planned and I don't. I took to the internets to see what was going on in my town and apart from planting some trees it would seem nothing, which actually surprises me as on the whole they are usually pretty good at getting into the spirit of things.
Himself is in London today for a non Jubilee comedy show, (I wished him luck on getting to that unscathed what with the river pageant taking place today!) and I am here twiddling my thumbs.

So far this week I have;

Listening to lots of Punk, not because I am anti-establishment or anti-royal, or a huge fan of Punk, but it was there on my I-Pod and it seemed the thing to do.

I have enjoyed watching the various programmes on the Queen and the Coronation on TV.

Drunk Pimms, for it is the Jubilee law!

Eaten a cream tea, what could be more British?

Indulged in a little red, white and blue shopping, would you expect any less from me?

                                    Cat Print Dress and Elephant Ribbon anyone?

and put up my bunting.

Oh and grumbled at being sat at home like Cinders whilst all around me go to the ball! 

I haven't really done a huge amount worth blogging about these last 2 weeks. I've been stupid busy at work, far too hot and bothered in the sun and determinedly eating less and better. All very dull I asure you. Twas my Brother's birthday this week so I got to drink Crabbies alcoholic ginger beer with a hint of orange (suprisingly nice) in his honour, not eat any cake (told you I was being good!) and spend 3 hours planting up all the pots on his patio, (and there was me swearing blind he would not trick me into doing his garden for him again BAH.)
He was also trying to tell me that my house is about as bad as the ones on the 'Hoarder next door' TV show. It is full of stuff and somewhat disorganised I'll grant you, but he is a minimalist with clean clear surfaces so the merest hint of clutter fills his heart with horror. He also doesn't get why you need to keep books, especially after you have read them. Sometimes I wonder if we really are related!

On top of that I have taken something that was said about me to heart, which is very silly and I am cross with myself for doing it but you know how it is. I know it wasn't meant in the way it sounded, as I have known the person who said it for a long time and they are not a cruel or nasty person, they are also not always good at getting the right phrase or at being tactful if it comes to that. Combine this with someone who has had issues with food as long as I have known them so has a somewht scued view on all things to do with weight and really it's stupid to even give the comment head space *but* sometimes a comment gets under your skin.
Apparently my Mother, Brother and I are all of  'the same hefty build' we 'are all carrying too much weight' and to end up looking like us should be avoided at all costs.
Now to add some more context to the comment, the person who said it is physically teeny tiny in every way, just shy of 5ft 2" and with very slim petite frame, whereas My Mum, Brother and I are 5ft 7", 6ft 3" and 5ft 11"  respectively with the kind of normal frame someone of that height would have.
Whilst I am the first to agree that it wouldn't do any of us harm to lose a few pounds, we are hardly what would be called obease by any means. I also know the person who said this has an irrational fear of putting on weight and projects that fear onto people around them.

See I can rationalize it and put it in context, but you know what? it still hurt to be refered to in such a way. Sticks and Stones? what a load of bollocks, words CAN hurt and they can wound deeply, and that hurt can last long after any physical injury has healed.