Poppies, Vintage Frocks and Would You Trust This Woman With Your Children?

Just a quick post before I head out the door for the beginning of my Halloween/Anniversary festivities! I have an hour before I have to head out of the door, why so early? more of that later!

I have made one or two Ebay/Etsy purchases of late and also been give a couple of rather splendid frocks (both of which are currently in the wash so more of them another time.) and am lead to ponder why is it any vintage purchase I have made of late.....well.....smells? Quite frankly the two pictured here stank! I suppose there is that mentality of I don't want it any more so why should I spend the time and money washing it but really it has been BAD lately. 

This lovely green dress was the worst, possibly because the label read 'Dry Clean Only' not that that stopped me sticking it straight in the washing machine on the delicate cycle, I couldn't face handwashing it it smelt so bad! It came out perfect and smelling as fresh as a daisy huzzah. Interestingly it was listed as 'vintage' and 'new with tags' on Ebay. It is in fact from Oasis so not old as such, and the tag was one from a second hand store so not exactly 'new with tag' but what the hey it was 99p plus postage.

This one came off Etsy and was a bit more money but only slightly less smelly. At least it's 1980's shoulder padded glory was machine washable. I don't know what it was about it that appeals to me but I suspect it's going to look bloody awful on!

Poppy day is approaching fast and look at this little gem I found in Accessorize!

I don't have words to describe quite how much I love it. I also made myself a brooch to wear.

I've had a few people say to me 'oh you should make more and sell them' but after the craft show disaster I have lost my mojo somewhat.

Anyway on to the early departure.
Tonight I'm going to see Bowling for Soup (BFS), as you know they are my favourite band. Himself was taking me for our anniversary and we are also taking Nephew Number One as part of his brithday present. The plan being that as Himself is already out and drinking beers with BFS buddies even as I type (lucky bugger), I would come in on the train later with the Nephew, buy him his first legal beer or two from me,(now that he is 18) and catch up with Himself in the venue after the god awful support band have finished.(I have seen them before so I know they are god awful.) 

Only now I have had the role of 'Responsible Adult' thrust upon me!?!

Would you trust this woman with the moral welfare of your daughters? I still look slightly stunned from the news in this picture lol.

Turns out My brother and sister in law are off out with friends tonight and said friends youngest daughter is also going to see BFS. Plans have gone awry and suddenly said friends 15 year old daughter needs taking to the show for 6.30 when she will meet more 15 year old friends all of whom will then need chaperoning for the evening !!!!  
Suddenly I have gone from casually necking beers before a gig to having to look after a clutch of excitable 15 year old girls without a beer in sight AND having to sit through the god awful support band too *weeps*.
If nothing else I remember what I was like at 15, I was a freaking nightmare!!, they will run rings round me! *weeps again*
If only I drank spirits I could fill a hip flask with gin and let it all wash past me or maybe I should just take them all to the pub.

                Moi? give your underage daughter alcohol? How could you think such a thing?

Baby you're the best fun that I've had

If you are not a rock fan then I suggest you look away now for this is going to be an unashamed gushing post about that very thing. I went to see the band Reckless Love on Wednesday night and I am still grinning about it now.

They play the kind of tongue in cheek, don't take us or our lyrics too seriously, old school hair metal (as it is now called), that was my life all through my teens and 20s and they are damned good at it too. I love them big time and so it would seem do many other ladies of a certain age who were big style hair metal fans back in the day.
There was a huge percentage of them in the audience, most were clutching the front of the stage and screaming like they used to at Jon Bon Jovi.
Himself decided it was not dry ice at the front but a cloud of oestrogen emitted by either them or their HRT patches!

Thankfully my bad back had died down to a dull roar so I was able to have a boogie, I am the world's worst dancer but if there is a good tune on I can't stand still and jigging about in a crowd is not likely to draw to many hoots of laughter my way. 

The band were fantastic, I think part of what I love is they seem to have such a good time, I have seen too many bands who look bored stiff and just go through the motions because they have too.
The lead singer just never stops smiling and he most definitely has that mystery ingredient, that charisma that makes a special front man.
 It's another of those occasions where I think even someone who hates the genre of music would be hard pushed not to have a good time because he doesn't just sing at you he entertains you.
I have been in that situation myself where a band might not be my cup of tea at all musically, but I have been enthralled by a great performer.

It was a great night out despite the pouring rain on the way there and back and coming through the venue ceiling out on the stairs!
 Himself decided we should go for a drink afterwards because it was still early. It's alright for him he does flexi-time. I had to crawl out of bed the next day after only 5 hours sleep and slightly more alcohol than I am used to on a school night. I had the Alexander Technique in my lunch hour and almost fell asleep on the couch!

Other than that we went to see the film 'The Perks of Being a Wallflower' on Monday. I loved it, go and see it, go and see it.
 If I would have been at home I would have bawled my eyes out but I restrained myself as I was out in public! Emma Watson does a very credible American accent.

This weekend is a lovely quiet one before we plunge into all the madness we have planned for next weekend. Another gig, (Bowling for Soup) with Nephew Number One, 'Frankenweenie' at the cinema and London for the 'Hollywood Costumes' exhibition at the V&A and a night at the theatre for our anniversary.

                                                            15 loving years!

I Love to Boogie.

But my back doesn't it would appear.

Friday night I went to see the T-Rex tribute band T.Rextasy. They have been described as the best T-Rex tribute band going and I would find it impossible to disagree, they were fantastic and I danced non-stop for 2 hours!
You know how you get those people who can dance for 2 hours in a tiny club with no air conditioning and look cool and immaculate at the end?
There was a girl like that on Friday night, Soo and I both spotted her. She was stunning beautiful with a sleek black bob and perfect cat's eye make-up.
We both commented upon it as we stood soaked with sweat, my once straightened hair a frizzbomb and my once neat little eyeliner flicks halfway down my face.
We agreed girls like her make you sick.

I have some pictures of the band on my new phone but as I don't know where the cable is I can't transfer them to the computer. Actually when it comes to picture taking I have been particularly useless this weekend, I forgot to take my camera and get a picture of my craft stall in all it's glory too.

Anyway Friday was an amazing night. We found a tiny little Italian restaurant which looked like nothing special from the outside but served the most delicious freshly made traditional food. I know I am meant to be watching what I eat, and pasta is not one of the things you should eat when you are watching your weight, but it was Friday, and I knew I would dance it off  afterwards!

As it was a Friday and it's University term time we were out on the pavement and heading back into the city centre by 10pm! The O2 Academy has various club nights which are clearly far more lucrative so they have no worries about pulling the plug on any band that dares to play beyond 10pm..
It was no bad thing actually as I had to be up early for *the* craft fair the next morning.

                                           all packed up and ready to go.......


Sadly it was a complete waste of time and I would have been better spent having a much needed lie-in.
There had been very little advertising as it turns out and even though the Arts Centre where it was held is slap bang in the middle of town they didn't even put out any boards or posters so there was absolutely no passing trade either!?!

Extremely frustrating!

We stallholders actually sat for vast periods of time with not a single soul in the hall other than each other and some poor vendors didn't sell a single thing.
I sold a handful of bits but sadly not enough to cover my stall fee. I had a few of people who 'oohed' and 'ahhed' but didn't buy, such is the way.
I did get one mad old lady who said in a slightly disgusted voice
'Are these the only flower brooches you have?'
me 'Yes they are a new thing I'm trying so at the moment they are all one offs'  
Her in an outraged tone 'But they aren't the kind I am looking for!'
me 'I see.....'

I am a bit fed up that I spent so many nights sitting up late sewing like a mad woman for no reason. I guess at least the Etsy shop is stuffed full to the gunnels so I won't need to make anything new for a while.

Anyway today I woke up with my back going mental. A combination of dancing like a loon and then sitting for 8 hours on a fold-up chair I think. I have been keeping carefully mobile today for fear of it seizing up completely.
Thankfully I have the Alexander Technique on Friday. Having said that I have another gig to go to on Wednesday night so that will probably kill or cure me as it is another band I won't be able to stand still for!

Right I'm off to bed. I'll leave you with my favourite T-Rex song done by T.Rextasy and a bit of trivia whilst you watch.
 Danielz the singer of T.Rextasy used to play in a band called 'Tarazara' I saw them play at The Penny Farthing pub in Oxford on my 17th birthday. They had a song called '17' and my friends got them to dedicate it to me on the night, but as a lady never divulges her age I won't tell exactly how many years ago that was!.

Boots, Birds and a Dragon.

It's been a funny old week as Arkwright might say (now there is a tv reference only those of a certain age might get!)

Work has gone in fits and starts it has rained and then rained in a biblical fashion and then rained some more.

I was actually going to do an outfit post this week!

Steady now I hear you say, but I was particularly pleased with my outfit on Wednesday. I was feeling very Autumnal and wearing what I call my harvest festival dress with my new, the search is finally over, blue cardigan. As I would never inflict my 7am self on my blog reading public I thought I would take a picture or two when I got home.
However the weather conspired against me, this was the day of the biblical downpour. Himself and I met at the station as his bus gets in about the same time as my train and we headed home, it's not a long walk home, only 15 minutes if you are me or less if you are him. It is amazing though, just how wet you can get in that time. Especially when some fucker in a car decides it's funny to swerve into the kerb send a tidal wave of water over you, up until that point I had managed to keep my handbag pretty much dry, it took 2 days for it to dry out afterwards. I just hope karma does the same to him one day, tosspot.

So not only was I soaked down to my very undergarments I had a sodden handbag and one boot full of water. That really was the final straw, my current favourite pair of boots ever, had started to let in water via the heel where I have worn them right down due to obsessive wearing *weeps*

I could have taken a picture but instead I decided on a shower and a warm set of dry clothes. One cup of tea later and calm was restored, even the sky agreed.

It rained again on Thursday and on Friday. Friday I was wearing my bought in Edinburgh, £12 in the sales long black boots and yes you have guessed it I came home with one very wet foot.This time the boot had come away from the sole at the front.

Can't bring myself to throw them out yet........

I did find a new pair of black boots in Sainsburys last week when they generously had a 25% off all clothing. I don't love them but they are kind of what I wanted and they will be perfect for work. Also at less than £50 for real leather I can't really grumble.

Thursday I left work early to go to the Doctor. I had finally given in to the nagging, gentle and otherwise, from those around me and gone to see the Doc about my knee. I had about 20 minutes to kill before I went in so I browsed two nearby charity shops and struck avian gold.

 A lovely blue bird print blouse and an even lovelier red bird print headscarf. I also got told off for only having a £20 note and not enough change in my purse to make up the right money, 75p instead of a pound coin, she wouldn't let me off the 25p mind and gave me my change in a huge amount of shrapnel instead.

Anyway I finally got to see the doctor after 40 minutes of people watching in the waiting room. Turns out my knee is mostly caused by my change of job. Having spent my previous working life constantly on the hoof with only short breaks when I sat down. I now sit on my ever expanding arse all day long and my knee is not happy about it, nor is it happy about the weight gain, neither is the doctor and neither am I.
Seeing it there on the scale in front of you is sobering to say the least, mind it's a good job I didn't go a month ago or it would have been half a stone even more sobering!

The doctor didn't hold back but she did it in a very positive way. She was very encouraging and I have come out of there with renewed resolve. I know I have been going on about losing weight for a while now but I never seem to be able to keep it up and always lapse back into bad habits.
It was funny when she was telling me what I should and shouldn't do, a shouldn't being running.
 'I wouldn't advise running with your knee problems, especially on pavements try to find some other means of exercise like swimming' she said. Clearly the doctor seemed to think I was the kind of person who enthusiastically pulled on trainers and galloped off down the street when I needed to lose a few pounds. 
 'Of course' says I suppressing the urge to roar with laughter at the very thought.
and there is the rub, here you have a woman who has a fit of the vapors at the very mention of the word exercise and usually lies down until it passes. I am an active person, I walk everywhere and I garden etc but I hate 'exercising'. Now however I need to do something it seems, I just need to do what the doctor says and find something that I enjoy or I will never keep it up. Hmmm.


Anyway other than that we had a phonecall from our neighbour.

'Quick go out into the back garden' he shouted 'you won't have seen anything like this before out there'
with all kinds of images rushing through my head I did as he suggested and he was quite right, I had never seen anything quite like it before!

                                      A freaking HUGE air balloon with a dragon on it!

 I don't know if he had rung the whole street in his excitement or if word had just spread anyway but when we went out front the street was full of people gawping in wonder.

On the subject of the garden I have persuaded Himself to order a 'Hogitat' for our little spikey visitors to overwinter in, it comes next week and I am very excited. Our baby hedgehog has grown quite big as you can see.

He/she is becoming a bit of a diva actually. Doesn't like the solid style cat food or the one in gravy, oh no, it has to be in jelly only, or it gets left uneaten in disgust! (thankfully he/she doesn't mind the Tesco value stuff) Feeding time is very precise and sometimes if I am a bit late getting out there he/she is waiting impatiently. Anyway the reason for the hedgepig house comes from when I went out on Monday evening with the food and there were two hedgehogs trundling around and one of them was very tiny, worryingly small for this time of year really. We had some late babies out and about last year and one of them froze to death so I am determined to give them a toasty warm home to hibernate in this year.  

Right I'm off to clean the bathroom, it's glamour a gogo in this house you know.