Ride a White Horse.

To Banbury for a shopping trip as it goes, and actually it was Soo's car that got me there and not a horse which is a good job really I'm not really a fan of the horse.

It's been many, many years since I was last in Banbury. They now have a new shopping centre called Castle Quays which is built in a sort of star shape so it gets very confusing, especially for a couple of old ducks like us, somehow you seem to leave a shop, walk forward for a bit, only to see the same shop again in front of you.
This level of confusion continues in the town centre too.Banbury is very old and still keeps it's medieval layout, with lots of alleyways off the streets, so you can find yourself distracted by an interesting shop or building down an alleyway head back to where you thought came from but actually suddenly find yourself on another street completely.
Or maybe you step into a charity shop, which unbeknownst to you actually has 2 doors, so you browse round, maybe buy something, then step out into a completely different street to the one you stepped in from! In the end we gave up trying to figure it out and just embraced it.

There are some absolutely gorgeous buildings in Banbury and I loved all the suns around the city. It turns out the 'sun in splendour' is the coat of arms for the council so they are to been seen everywhere from buildings to, wrought iron to even the bins.

The main plan of the shopping trip was to buy presents for various upcoming birthdays but I seemed to keep finding things for either myself or my Mother, and neither of us have birthdays for months yet!
Eventually after a delicious lunch in The Bay Tree tea shop we found the Banbury Museum Shop (as recommended by Soo's Mum) and I hit my present buying stride. I'm not going to show you any of those but I will share with you my other purchases.
From one of these stalls at the mini flea market I bought the appropriately giant sunburst-like brooch.

The green scarf and bunny came from one of the 2 door charity shops and were £1.49 and £1.99 respectively.

From the St Katherine's Hospice shop. I bought this blue dress for £5

Look at the amazing deco building the shop is housed in....

but dear lord was it carnage inside! A jumbled mess of stuff in no particular order laid out in a way that seemed to detract from, rather than make a sensible use of, the layout of the rooms. Sadly no vintage I'm guessing that must get sorted and sent elsewhere.

I also bought this mini coffee/chocolate pot for 95p

and this lovely green blouse for £4

There were a couple of scary parts of town, but then what town doesn't have it's dodgier areas? On the whole though it was a fun and successful day out.

* Yes, yes I changed the first line of the poem but I want to avoid the kind of traffic the C word would bring to my blog!

Vogue 100 and Some Leopard Print

Last week was a short week anyway due to Easter, but Charlotte and I took a cheeky extra day off work to visit the VOGUE 100 - A Century Of Style exhibition at The National Portrait Gallery.

Being a lover of fashion and photography I genuinely don't know what I liked this exhibition for the most, the pictures, especially the black & white ones, or the fact that a large majority were pictures of fashion. As ever no picture taking was allowed so I can't weigh this post down with all my favourites, and there were many, it really is an extraordinary exhibition.

I loved the fact that it was deliberately set up to lead you from the present day back in time, decade by decade, to 1916 when the first issue was released. Each decade had it's own room and what a difficult and amazing job it must have been to choose the most representative pictures of each era. I'm afraid I'm guilty of dismissing Vogue as one of those coffee table fashion mags made up of 80% adverts and no proper articles, so it was good to also be reminded of some of the groundbreaking photo-journalism they have produced.

The exhibition clientele was almost as fascinating as the pictures themselves. An interesting mix of young and old, including unexpectedly, quite a few young men, and some very, very glamorous and well groomed ladies of a certain age, who for the most part clearly came from the industry. We spent quite a bit of time ear-wigging their conversations, particularly in the room that had two long cabinets with glass cases displaying open copies of various issues of Vogue.  Being such a lover of history it was interesting to go from things I've lived through (1980's supermodels darling) to eras I've read about voraciously (The Bright Young People & WW2)  In fact we got quite lyrical about our own youth, what we wore and the celebrities and supermodels of the day.
All in all a fantastic exhibition and one I thoroughly recommend.

Conversely on Friday I had to work late as we had a yield event at the school which meant I had to be on my very best behaviour ALL DAY!
The only plus to this was there was a college dinner involved so not only did I get to eat some lovely food I got to do it in the stunning surroundings of Harris Manchester College in Oxford.

Mind I would have loved to have seen a picture of the horror on my face, when on arrival, I was told the drinks reception would be in the library! Food and or drink near precious books goes against every fibre of my being. Having said that what a gorgeous library it is,

I also think I am little in love with their librarian who ever they may be, they are clearly a librarian after my own heart allowing quirky touches like a skeleton in a hat and a sleeping bat to take their place among the stained glass and polished oak. Apologies for the crappy phone pictures.

I shall sign off with the leopard print. I bought this frock from the Lady Vintage sale

I dithered for some time over whether to buy it or not as whilst I have always loved the leopard, even back in my rock chick days I never dressed in it head to toe, and lets face it a swing style dress equals a LOT of leopard print. *but* it is a style of frock I love and it does have sleeves which is always a Brucey Bonus when you get to a certain age/weight in life. So I took the plunge and hit the 'Pay Now' button.

I ordered it to be delivered to my work address as there is always someone on the main desk to sign for it and sure enough I soon got an email to say there was a package for me. I didn't half get some looks when I scooted down to collect it and here's why

 A huge expanse of leopard print clearly visible through the packaging!

 Let's just say my work wardrobe would never lead one to suspect I might be a full on Bet Lynch in my spare time!!

Flights of Fancy and a Little Shopping.

I hope you have all had a magnificent Easter so far? The weather has certainly thrown everything at us here in the last 3 days, sun, snow, hail wind and rain but sadly not the thunder and lightning they have had in London. I do love a good storm!

Magpie Towers has been a pestilent plague pit for the last week with both of us full of a post holiday cold. I can't really grumble it's the first one I've had for a long time and thankfully it hasn't lasted long or driven me to take to my bed. Which meant on Good Friday I was up and out for the day despite the sniffles.

For my brother's big birthday last year I was a bit stumped because he's bloody hard to buy gifts for at the best of times. I finally decided to take a punt on an experience day that came highly recommended by Soo, and bought him a Falconry Experience at a local centre. There were a couple of different ones you could choose from but I decided to go with hawks.

It's taken him nearly a year to get round to using the voucher but finally we headed off on the one gorgeous day of the long weekend. We got there in time to have a look round

(Twoo was having a much deserved rest and digest after having flown in the 11.30 display!)

 and then watch the 1.30 display. Which featured a stunning 4 yellow tailed kites and Ronnie the turkey vulture.

This is very much a get right in it sort of display with the birds flown literally right over your heads and landing right next to you as you can see.

Nearly all the birds here have been hand reared from eggs, the owners have a license to hatch and rear chicks from stolen eggs that have been retrieved as well a to buy eggs legitimately. They also take birds where the owners can no longer look after them.

It was interesting to hear that kept well fed and properly exercised in captivity these birds can live for up to 5 times their lifetime in the wild. I don't particularly feel comfortable to see animals or birds in cages but I guess if the emphasis is on the well fed, happy and helping conservation I see the need.

Apparently the oldest bird of prey in a centre is a golden eagle who reached the ripe old age of 86! There's a goal a lot of us would happily wish to reach.

It was time for my brother to get hands on. He was shown how to hold the birds properly and then we were given a private tour with a bit more information about some of the species they keep. I have to say I did particularly like Loki the raven, very unusual to see a raven and yes they do use him in displays! though apparently he only likes to do shows in the summer and won't cooperate if he doesn't want too. He had all sorts of equipment and toys to play with, ravens being very intelligent birds they get bored easily.
We didn't get to see it, but his favourite trick is to hang himself upside down by his feet from the netting wings akimbo terrifying the unsuspecting public as they walk around the corner, which made me like him even more.

After this my brother got to fly a couple of birds

 before the 3.30pm display began, we stayed for that one too.
Final bird of the day was this gorgeous owl who's name I have forgotten!

 All in all an amazing, fascinating and thoroughly enjoyable experience, though I was gasping for a cup of tea by the time it was all over, but then what's new??

I shall end with my latest internet purchases. I mean what else does one do when one is ill?

This very pretty beaded and embroidered bag I have stalked on Ebay for a while. It was listed as 'vintage' but I wasn't convinced and I was quite right not to be, it's about as vintage as last night's dinner.

It was listed for much more than I was willing to pay, or anyone else it would seem because it didn't sell. The seller kept relisting and relisting it. They did drop the price a bit but not enough to tempt me so in the end I deleted it from my watch list.

When I was browsing last week, there it was again and this time at a much more realistic price, so I went for it.

Next up is a bargain leather bag I bought absolutely ages ago but keep forgetting to share, but now I shall for it deserves it's day in the sun too.   

                                   
Finally an absolute stunner and another demonstration of why it is worth checking misspellings if you are looking for something in particular.

This gorgeous little brown Corde bag was only £6 because the seller had spelt the name wrong, what an absolute belter of a bargain and a belter of a bag. I am one happy bunny.

How about a frock or two? both Hell Bunny (who else?) and both under £20. Bargains that definitely made my cold more managable.

 

Travels in The North and a Vintage Fair.

I hope you are sitting down for this but Himself and I have actually been on holiday!?! It seems miracles do happen sometimes.

It's been 5 long years since we last went to Newcastle but when 2 birthday invitations arrived right when we were looking for a vacation destination, tickets were firmly booked. It was lovely to be back, when we finally got there!

The plan was to catch a direct train from Oxford on Saturday morning to arrive about 3pm, check in the hotel, have a couple of hours to unpack etc then get ready and head out. Instead we had just settled into the sandwiches when the driver announced that Sheffield station was shut so our train was terminating at Birmingham.
We arrived at Birmingham and for 40 minutes hung around with about 10 million other people, all trying to head North, watching train after train being cancelled. *sigh*

In the end we were advised our best shot at getting to Newcastle was to head to Manchester and see what we could catch from there.

So that is what we did.

From Manchester we were advised to head to York, so we off we went to York with about 20 million other people who were all trying to travel North. We arrived at York and finally, after a couple more cancellations, a train for Newcastle was announced, it was delayed, but it would arrive!

We piled onto that with the 50 million other people who were trying to get to Newcastle and spent the whole journey wedged uncomfortably against the train doors, the only consolation was when we finally arrived in Newcastle we were the first off the train.

All in all this meant we arrived at our hotel with just 40 minutes to check in, change and dash back out. Good grief.

Anyway we had a bloody fab night, despite being a bit fraught and a tad knackered The night also ended with the added frisson of the night bus back to Newcastle.

Sunday dawned gorgeous and sunny so we headed out to the Quayside for a mooch alongside the Tyne before meeting friends for lunch.

I was delighted to find the added bonus of a food & flea market to browse. There I bought myself a vintage Rupert annual for the bargain price of £4

Of course I didn't have a bag with me so had to spend the rest of the day carrying it under my arm.
The sight of which made a busker break into "Rupert, Rupert The Bear, everyone knows his name"  much to the amusement of everyone else.

We ate lunch sitting outside in the sun before dropping into Wetherspoons for a quick drink before heading in our different directions. We finally staggered out at 9.30pm *cough*

We had already planned to head over to South Shields on Tuesday so spent Monday reacquainting ourselves with Newcastle and taking artsy fartsy pictures.

 There really are some gorgeous buildings, sadly many were empty and in gentile decay.

Like the cinema above which is where Himself first saw Star Wars, it was sad to see it it still boarded up as it had been on our last visit 5 years ago. Another gorgeous sunny spring day, so much so Himself had to go and buy sunglasses!

We ate a delicious dinner at Harry's Bar opposite the theatre before meeting more friends for a drink. We headed back to our hotel along the quayside after another great night out.

Tuesday was seaside day, so of course it was raining, freezing cold and generally miserable. We managed exactly 3 hours from the moment we stepped onto the Metro to the moment we stepped thankfully back off it again!

South Shields is not somewhere I would hurry back to if I'm honest.Bleak is the only word to describe it.

However I was determined to go to the beach despite the bitterly cold wind coming in off the sea. I think we lasted about half an hour before admitting defeat and going to buy some chips.

Wednesday was the day of the second party so after a walk and a big lunch I gave my poor liver another battering.

I had done a bit of research before I left but can only conclude Newcastle is a wee bit crap when it comes to vintage. Two of the shops mentioned on Google had closed, 2 just didn't seem to exist at all and one was just men's clothes. Bah, so I didn't get to buy any lovely goodies, I was hoping for at least one handbag, but it was not to be.

At least I got to go to a vintage fair with Soo today to make up for it.

Bizarrely set in the upstairs restaurant of an out of town garden centre it was small compared to many I've been too.

It also meant you got an interesting mixture of families and pensioners as well as the usual vintage fans.

Soo was a vintage fair virgin but thoroughly enjoyed popping her cherry. We both bought some goodies.
For me

  The elephant brooch was £6 and the two gold tone ones were £1 for both! (The cards and super cute buttons came from the nearby town where we headed for lunch.)  

The floral jug was £4 and the quirky barrel one £1.99, I just had to put daffs in it. (yeah that's my toaster in the background! I'm all about classy settings me.)

Finally I shall sign off with brogues.

They are knocking down a shopping centre in Oxford, to build a bigger and better one of course, I picked these up in the New Look closing down sale.

Well how could I not?

Erstwilder and a Little Magpie Magic

It's kind of funny that I decided to write this post right when there have been a few blogs recently raving about Erstwilder jewellery. Specifically in their cases about the new picnic collection, which if I'm honest I haven't even looked at yet!

I first can across this fab Australian brand last year when I bought a brooch of theirs from our little gen of  a vintage shop in town.

 Later in the year I spotted their Hedgehog brooch in Greenwich, and nearly died at the price the chi-chi boutique it was in was charging for it.
So  I went online and ordered it and a very cute elephant brooch via an outlet store on Ebay. Both brooches and postage from Oz were still cheaper than the cost of the one brooch in London!

Towards the end of last year I spotted this brooch online

I'm not going to lie, I wanted it badly!

Cue much searching to try and track it down. I'm guessing it must have been from an older range because I could only find one via an Australian seller on Ebay. Again it worked out cheaper to buy two brooches which qualified me for free postage so I also chose this

 I have always had a soft spot for Cardinals ever since I first saw one of these amazing colourful birds in the wild in America.

The downside of the purchase was this time round I got caught with a hefty customs bill (insert much bad language here on my part) which made these two brooches a costly indulgence!

Around the time I was tracking down the pirate ship brooch I did find a website for a U.K stockist
Carnation Collectables 
I did end up ordering a couple of things there too, at a much later date than the above ones I will hasten to add, contrary to brooch buying appearances I am not made of money.

Whereas the Aussie ones took weeks to arrive plus the customs delay. The lovely lady at Carnation Collectables had my brooches to me in 2 days, and how is this for a mad coincidence?
When she emailed to say they were on their way she mentioned that not only did she only live 4 miles down the road from me, she was also the stockist for the vintage shop in town!
If I ever wanted another brooch from the website to just drop her an email and she would pop it into the shop so I could collect it and not pay postage. What a star.

So what did I buy off her?

Giggles the gorilla

and a rather gorgeous bluebird.

I know these brooches won't be for everybody. They are quite big, quirky and colourful, but frankly that is pretty much what I look for in a brooch. I wear one every day to work and I know I shall enjoy wearing these.

Whilst we are on the subject of brooches by sheer amazing good fortune I managed to find the one that I have had on my wishlist and then on my 'ones that got away list' for well over a year now.
I had been cursing myself for not buying it when I first saw it because it went out of stock very, very quickly and never came back in stock even though I kept checking regularly.
Anyway all this time later, there I was browsing the Museum Selection website for a couple of birthday presents and could not quite believe my eyes that they had my dream brooch listed as 'in stock' I ordered that baby as fast as my fingers could type in my card details! (I did buy the birthday presents too, it's not all just about me.)

Behold......

 An Art Deco Magpie was there ever a more perfect combination?

I would say my brooch collection is now complete but that would be a Big. Fat. Lie.

But I think I will lay off the brooch purchases for a wee while, and just sit here admiring and stroking this one whilst holding it very tight.

My Precious.

What Vintage means to me.

I suspect this will be quite a rambling post so apologies in advance. Whilst cooking the bolognese part of a spaghetti bolognese for our dinner tonight I was stirring and pondering what Vintage means to me. 

This has been prompted by not only reading a back issue of In Retrospect magazine (yes I was very late to that party! but what a great read it is) and the book I am currently thoroughly enjoying ‘Bang Your Head – The Rise and Fall of Heavy Metal by David Konow’ not an obvious link I know, but bear with me!

In the magazine they were discussing whether the 80’s and 90’s should be considered vintage and in the book we have just reached the mid 80’s where metal was becoming huge and outlandish outfits and huge hair were all the rage, and this is where my brain kicked in with it’s thought process

 

I have made no secret of the fact I was a huge Glam Metal (Hair Metal) fan back in the day like many of my generation on the vintage scene we have come round to vintage via rock, punk or goth.

I was a skint art student who wanted to dress like her favourite bands I couldn’t afford to buy new so I scoured jumble sales and second hand shops. Here I found gold. 

My first purchase was a fabulous turquoise satin 1930’s men’s dressing gown, oh how I wish I still owned it now! 

I regret to say have no idea what happened to it, I suspect it literally got worn to death but like to think of it making a bid for freedom one night, tired of being covered in spilt beer and fag ash, of being knocked around and sweated on in the mosh pit, it was designed for cocktails and cigarette holders and laughs round the piano after all. I like to think it is genteelly living it up somewhere safe from my mistreating clutches. 

 

Another item was a 1960’s powder blue lace coat that I bought along with it’s matching elegant lace dress in a thrift shop. I loved it, my Mother loathed it, I didn't realise quite how much she loathed it until she admitted many years later to deliberately washing it too hot and shrinking it. 

I haven’t a clue what I did with the matching dress and again I curse myself for my lack of forethought in keeping it safely.

 

Among the items I still own are a tailcoat and matching waistcoat, (now over 100 years old!) a navy pinstripe waistcoat, various white dress shirts and a drawer of accessories. 

Delicate elbow length black lace gloves and pretty scarves and shawls of differing ages, all of these items went through the ordeal of pubs and clubs, beer, cigarettes, late night chips and drunken staggers or crawls home. Not what they were designed or made for at all!  

 

Back in the 80’s vintage clothes were in abundance and prices were cheap, I started out buying them because it was all I could afford and ended up loving mixing old and new, studs and bullet belts over Victorian lace was what it was about for many of my friend's at the time. 

With hindsight I think that is why I still happily mix it up now, new and repro with genuine vintage, and why I don’t understand the people who have a cow when they see someone dressed that way rather than top to toe genuine pieces. 

I recall someone getting their knickers in a twist about girls walking into her vintage shop in head to toe high street their outfit hideously completed in her eyes with a gorgeous vintage bag, she refused to serve them. 

I, very politely for me it must be said, pointed out that maybe that person was simply a collector of handbags?

The owner of the store felt the only way to do such a bag justice was to only ever wear the correct era outfit when using it, I disagree, a fabulous outfit from any era, can be finished to perfection with a gorgeous vintage bag, whilst also show off that bag as it deserves to be shown.

 

I know I’ve mentioned before that even if I did want to dress in true vintage from top to toe my height and girth make it pretty much an impossibility, there weren’t many tall fat women in the 1930’s or 40's and the few that there were didn't wear the kind of frocks I want to wear. I will admit I probably would wear more authentic vintage if I were a teeny tiny but I'm not so there it is.

Yes I love to frock up as much as the next person, but more often than not I’m up to my elbows in a wheelbarrow of compost or cleaning the bath, and frankly jeans and a hoody give me the comfort of movement I require for these tasks,

When I do finally get off my backside I’m very much one for getting stuck in and not worrying if I rip things or cover them in paint or mud.

  

Also if I’m honest, quite often I simply can't be arsed. I sit here typing now in jeggings and a huge purple jumper. Why? because it’s Sunday, I’m having a lazy day and frankly these were the nearest items to hand when I crawled out of bed this morning. I haven’t even brushed my hair, mind you for some reason I always forget to brush my hair, so that’s not necessarily me being lazy. 

I feel I can express myself more wearing a mix of clothes and eras. I know I would feel horribly stilted and trapped were I to dress one way for the rest of my life. I love clothes and fashion (even if you would never guess it from the shambling mess that types before you!) I love reading the blogs I follow and seeing the writers in the amazing vintage they have found, I kind of admire the ones who are true vintage wearers 24/7 but I know it's not for me.   

Thus endeth my Sunday ramble, I'm off to do the washing up. Time and Fairy Liquid wait for no woman.

 

 

Crime Uncovered and The January Sales.

I have just got back from the Enthralling The Crime Museum Uncovered exhibition at the Museum of London. The first time ever items from the Metropolitan police's 'Black Museum' were on display to the public.

All the items have been kept carefully catalogued since the 1870's when the museum was first created  by a serving policeman. (we both suspect the officer in question was really a frustrated Librarian, we instantly recognised a kindred spirit in his meticulous cataloguing!)

The museum has always been used as a tool for training new detectives and it was absolutely fascinating to be lead through the history of crime detection, via the particular cases which lead to, or individual officers who developed, the techniques of detection that are still used today.

And of course from a ghoulish voyeuristic point of view, seeing the hair (still wrapped around it's curler) of one of Dr Crippen's victims, or the gall stones of one of the acid bath victims sends a delicious shiver down the spine.

Having said that I found many items extremely sobering. The death mask cast of a hanged man where you could clearly see the imprint of the rope on the neck or the tools of the trade carefully packed into the executioner's case.
The stockings that had to be cut from a strangling victim's neck where you could clearly see that the heel had carefully darned more than once I found particularly poignant.

All in all a great exhibition.

Now onto more frivolous things!

My January sales shopping. There wasn't loads, but more than I planned when I got sucked into looking at the Collectif website. As a rule I don't shop there, After a few disasters I conclude I'm simply the wrong shape for their clothes, and yet I ended up buying a frock, I haven't tried it on yet, (even though I ordered it at the end of December it only arrived this week!) I loved the look of it and it seems a forgiving shape, we shall see.....

I also couldn't resist a couple of cardigans

 I know I'll get wear out of both of them anyway!

I bought 2 Hell Bunny dresses, I know I'm on safe ground with them.

I have this dress in 4 colourways now and this one was mine for £10.

A new summer holiday frock :)
I bought this frock for £4.99 in Peacocks, perfect for wearing to work.

Finally I bought this anchor print shirt in Sainsbury's when they had one of their 25% off all clothes deals.

 I got a bracelet from Accessorize that was broken and they didn't have any more so I ended up exchanging it for this bag.

and on the subject of bags I found this fabulous little green beauty on Ebay, it made me very happy.

lastly I shall leave you with this t-shirt Himself bought me for Christmas

Who you gonna call?