Oh I do love to be beside the Seaside!

I do love Brighton Beach, but sometimes it's nice to head along the coast to the less touristy parts of our beautiful Sussex Coast. 

Having worked in Worthing for 5 years up until a recent change in career, I forgot how much I love the more rustic and old-school seaside town it is. Lancing is just round the corner, and on a recent charity shop hunting trip, the Mister and I decided to finish the day with a stroll along the promenade, and a spot of posing with the fishing boats...as you do!

On a windy day like this, headscarves are called for!

You will very rarely spot me in jeans, these are the only pair I own, but am looking to invest in some new ones. If anyone has managed to find some perfect jeans, please do tell! I have spent years on the look out to no avail.

I've also been messing about and experimenting with hair-do's a little more after having picked up a few tips from the Vintage Hair Lounge. Would highly recommend you pay them a visit if you ever get the chance, they are a lovely duo and have so much knowledge to share, very inspirational! I shall be posting up a picture tutorial very shortly as requested :) thank you for all your lovely comments!

On a hint from a charity shop manager in Shoreham, we made our way to Green House in Lancing, the most humongous charity shop I have ever had the luck of coming across. Jaw dropping stuff, the place was an actual warehouse and was stuffed to bursting point with furniture, bric a brac, clothes and an amazing haberdashery section to boot. Not only that, but they were selling some 70's G-plan-esque furniture from £20!!!! If we only had room in our little den... 

Go bag yourself a bargain!

Much Love from Lancing,

L.J.

xxx

Vintage Caravaning

I have a secret dream of one day doing up the old 70's caravan that's been left neglected on the Mister's Mums drive and hook it up to Tilly the Triumph and spend a few weeks travelling around the British countryside....

 

And after spending an afternoon a few weekends ago in a middle of a field with lots of fellow classic car lovers, I found myself some inspiration. Check this baby out. It is the blue version of what I imagine will be our brown set, so it matches with our brown Triumph 2500.

 

I'm hoping for a dry winter so we can get started on it this year, and then start exploring in the spring. I am in love.

 

 

I asked the owners if I could pop my head in and take some pictures, but I don't think they were prepared for quite the amount of squeaking and squealing which ensued. I got rather excitable! heh!

 

The interior was AMAZING. They've collected bits and bobs over the years for the caravan to kit it out, and all they had to do was give it a bloody good clean as the interior was still spotless! I know ours will need a lot more work than just a quick clean. I'd love to have ours like this one one day :)

 

And just look at this tea set!! I want it I want it now! It's just too cute, matching caravan tea set..whatever next?!

 

Does anyone else have a hidden love for caravans? Got one hidden away in your backyard? After staying at Vintage Vacations last summer, I think next summer will be the christening of our very own caravan :) Let the travelling begin!

 

 

Much Love from a field in Sussex,

 

 

L.J.

xxx

Birthday Booting

As mentioned, I spent my Saturday afternoon rummaging through Brighton Racecourse's Boot Sale. Although we turned up quite late, I managed to spot a couple of little trinkets to bring home. Nothing big this time, but in a way that's a good thing, as we're fast running out of space and need a ruddy good clear out!

 

For 50p, I couldn't leave these cheeky cute 50's wooden coasters behind, how saucey!! My favourite has got to be the middle top; 'please remain seated wwhile the room is in motion' hehe.

 

Fine yarns for Ladies. Perfect for mending the more delicate items in my wardrobe.



So close to my own name...add an extra M in there...was meant to be!

£2 for all this wool, and 40p for the crochet hooks....never again will I be buying wool off the highstreet again. But now I have to make something in green again, what a shame ;) 

And lastly, an unpicker that matches my 1970's Elna machine, and a 'Stop that Run!' stocking and pantyhose repair kit. Amazing.

Now to get started using up all that wool!

 

 

Much Love from Brighton,

 

 

L.J.

xxx

Vintage Pattern Cutting at the V&A

Back in February, Mum and I attended a pattern cutting course up at the V&A. 3 days packed full of vintage fashion heaven! We got to take a tour around the exhibitons they were holding at the time to seek some inspiration, including the Queen's Coronation Dress. Amazing. Highly recommend it, even if it is a bit pricey. They run regular pattern cutting classes so go check out their website to see when the next one is being held. (Plus if you book it quite close to the date, like we did, you may be able to wangle a rather nice discount if they haven't filled the class yet....shhhhh!)

 

As I've been exceedingly lazy and gammy handed, I haven't posted up about it yet, and it's taken me 6 months to get around to it. Bad me indeed. But I shall make amends now by showing you some of the test pieces I worked on. Just a quick round up:

 

Here's number one. I cut the top on a fold over the bust, and was playing around with opening up darts in different places and making the bust fuller to gather it into the lower part. The V shape doesn't go all the way to the side, so that the top's front can be made out of just one piece. Might try and do a mirror version sans gathers for the back and see if I can work it so it's made from just the one piece of fabric. Loved having 3 days of just experimenting and playing around with fabric :)

 

The sleeve should have been cut on the bias but I forgot. Kind of like how it went a bit more rigid in the end and had more structure in it than the cowl effect I'd intended. 

 

For the back I decided to give the cowl another attempt. This time cut on the bias, but I think I was using the wrong material. Did make a second one of jersey-like fabric and it looked so much better. It's a learning process after all.

I'd never attempted to make up my own patterns properly by working everything out and using blocks. It was absolutely fascinating and has opened up a world of possibilities. I am so itching to put these to the test with crochet. Technically, if I work out the shape of the garment I want to make, I just have to make pieces into the same shape as the pattern pieces! That's what I'm hoping anyway ;)

 

Much Love from Brighton,

 

and don't forget to take part in my current Give-Away competition!

 

L.J.

xxx

The Sunday Best Campaign & Give-Away!

Due to the lovely comments I've been receiving on digging out my Sunday Best, the thought came to me, why don't we try to start our own little campaign to spread the love of Stylish Sundays?

I recently wrote about one of the problems I have with my wardrobe. I keep finding beautiful dresses in flea markets and boot sales, but cannot find an occasion to wear them. Too nice to wear for an everyday normal day, but not quite evening wear. So they started gathering dust at the back of my wardrobe, looking at me longingly, saying 'wear me! wear me!' but I can always think of a reason why they just wouldn't suit. Enough of the excuses I say, they deserve to be worn and seen, and why do I have to have a reason anyway? We all used to get dressed up in our Best for Sundays, every Sunday.



I know I'm not the only one out there. I've had this conversation with the girls many times. These beautiful dresses shouldn't be hidden away any longer. Lets go back to those days gone by when everyone would dust off their best and bust it out for all to see on Sundays.

 So without further ado, for all you lovelies out there who expressed a want to do this yourself, why not spread the love. To mark this grand occasion, I have put together a little campaign poster for you to take away and stick up on your own blog, facebook or whatever tickles your fancy, and see how far we can take this! Let me know if you post up pictures of any of your Sunday Best ventures, as I will be having a monthly round up of anyone who decides to participate.

To get you started, and to also celebrate a personal milestone of 90+ followers, I'm combining the launch with a home-made Give-Away prize!

For your consideration we have 2 prizes up for grabs. I have put together some fascinators which are looking for a new home. Home-crafted and featuring feathers, crochet edging, pom-pom's and flowers, I think these would make the perfect topping to any Sunday Best outfit!

One in Pink:

And one in Green:

And here's me pulling silly faces while showing one off in the patio:

On to the rules of the game. I shall try to keep it quite simple, not done this before! The condition of giving away two are: 0-10 entries = 1, which the winner may choose or 10+ = both, so 2 winners.

Rules:

1. Comment below that you want to take part, and please mention which one you'd prefer!
2. Join me on Facebook HERE

and an optional:

3. If you do join the campaign for Stylish Sundays, please do put the poster up on you blog, and if you do, let me know and you get a 2nd entry to up your chances :)
 

So join me fellow bloggers! Whatever motivates you, lets bring back the wearing of our Sunday Best, and let's see how far we can spread this!

Much Love from Brighton,

L.J.

xxx

Sunday Best at Newhaven Fort

Firstly, thank you for all your lovely comments on my Special Occasion outfit! It's so lovely to receive a nice comment, and I'm making sure I'm being more proactive about giving them out in public when I see someone looking lovely. However, as many of you have mentioned in some of your posts, it's sometimes hard to know how to react, and often try and make some sort of excuse up for it. Let's demonstrate:

L.J. walks into the office

colleague: 'What a lovely dress today, and your hair looks brilliant!'

L.J.: 'umm thanks! It was 4quid from the boot sales yesterday, and it took me 5 mins with my hair....there's a sponge in there! It's cheating!'

colleague looks perplexed and walks off...

Perhaps if we all give out compliments more often, it wont be such an odd thing when we receive them. I'm learning to accept them more 'normally' now after having been on the receiving end of the weird compliment rejector too, heh.

So as suggested, I have now adopted the 'Sunday Best' principle. Every Sunday, I shall dress up in my Sunday Best. Or at least as many Sunday's as I possibly can.

We both got dressed up, and off we drove in Tilly Triumph to Newhaven Fort, just a short drive along the coast from Brighton.

For a moderate entrance fee, you gain access to the little museum's in the buildings above ground, seeing what it was like to live there, short films, artifacts that had been found there, and personal items donated by the soldier's families. A very very interesting place indeed!

After finishing with the museum part's, we sat down for a spot of cream tea. Yum Yum! What a treat! haven't had one of these for a long time!

Naughty Naughty!

After filling up we decided to go and explore the tunnels below. How exciting! We had to walk down what felt like at least 100+ steps to get to the bottom, but once there, discovered a load of tiny passage ways, one of which led to this rather creepy looking room....who painted this?! It was in bright neon yellow to boot!

One of those tiny passageways I mentioned. Spooooky!

When we got to the next part, the tunnels right into the heart of the cliff the fort stands on, we found a lovely little note, informing us that these parts were thought to be haunted, with many people hearing very strange noises, and feeling like the were either being pushed back out the tunnel while walking through, or being rushed back out on your return. Apart from the Mister running off and then jumping out at me, I experienced no such feelings....shame!

Back out on the surface, we climbed up to the guns. What amazing views!! We were so distracted by them we both forgot to take any pictures!

So here I am in my Sunday Best. 1950's Suit picked up from Vintage Nation at Brighton racecourse. It needs a tiny bit of adjustment to the jacket's waist, but that can be done some other time! The fabric is just amazing. It's a silk with a Chinese dragon print. I fell in love with the Chinese collar and the cut of the pockets on the front, and when i saw that the label read 'Emmer clothing' it had to be!



More tunnel action:

And a close up of the fabric. Love it!

And a view back across the fort:

Great day out had by the both of us, and the lady at the entrance even told us about a 1940's Swing Dance they are going to have soon! Will need to double check the details, but if anyone is about, I think it would be the perfect setting for an evening of dressing up and dancing the night away (apart from those spooky tunnels)!

Much Love from Newhaven Fort,

L.J.

xxx



Vintage Hair Lounge visit Harlem Hair, Hove

On Monday, I joined the girls for an afternoon being models for a training session run by the amazingly talented Gloria and Sharon of Vintage Hair Lounge, at Harlem Hair in Hove.

The team spent a busy afternoon curling our hair into beautiful vintage styles, some of us receiving 1940's pin curls, 50's victory rolls or 60's beehives. I had no idea how many layers went into making these styles the proper way, it was incredible to watch them all slowly building up. Now I truely understand why girls used to say they couldn't come out, they had to do their hair! 4 hours later, with make up done and hair perfetly in place, we went downstairs for a little photoshoot with photographer Scott Chalmers.

Here's the first picture they've posted up so far :)

As soon as they've finished loading all the other girls, I will share them all with you, you have to see their hair!! Jaw dropping stuff I tell you!

Hair - Anna Lewis

Make-Up - Molly Dickie

Dress - Oh! So Vintage, Isle of Wight

Cardi - Made by Me!

Bracelet - Antiques Fair, Rottingdean

Harlem Hair will be offering Vintage hair styling in the future, so next time you are planning a night out in Brighton, I would thoroughly recommend you go pay them a visit. I have been waiting for somewhere in town to start doing this, and my prayers have finally been answered! I'm sure I'll be visiting them again, can't wait to see next time's creation :)

Jenny Mearns of Frantic about Frances was also having her hair done on the day and she had THE most amazing Beehive. Being all dressed up at 5pm and nothing to do, we had to go for cocktails with the boys after! It would have been silly not to ;) hehe. Naughty Naughty, drinking on a school night!

 

I even managed to sleep with a headscarf on and keep the front up the next day! That hair was rrock solid, perfect for a windy day at the seaside.

Much Love from Brighton,

L.J.

xxx

Vintage Vacation to the Isle of Wight

Last week, the Mister whisked me off on a surprise holiday to the Isle of Wight. I had never been before, and we had talked about it, but little did I know that the Mister would remember a website I had stumbled upon a few years back. Off we drove to Portsmouth to catch the Ferry to Fishbourne. I felt like a little kid again, and we were lucky enough to be blessed with a few hours of sunshine on the journey :)

After soaking up some rays on the beach at Sandown, the Mister informed me we had to be at our home for the weekend by 3.30pm, so we trundled along in Tilly, to a farm in the middle of nowhere....where were we???

At the Vintage Vacations Camp-site no less!!!!!

Helen and Frazer created Vintage Vacations in 2004 when they bought their very first Airstream trailer, and quickly got addicted and now they have filled an entire field full of them, restored them all, and brought them back to life.

 So I finally got to stay in a vintage trailer! And it was the 1951 Spartanette!!! I was squealing for about an hour, investigating and playing with all the buttons and switches, and was amazed by all the finishing touches the owners had added! Frazer and Helen are true geniuses. They have thought of everything, even down to the hand sewn guest book and original cup dispencers, and there was even a mini bottle of Babycham with original Babycham glasses waiting for us upon arrival!

The Mister really did good. Just what I needed after a rather crappy week (my hands don't seem to want to get any better and the NHS was being a bit rubbish). I have never had such a relaxing holiday or felt more at home. If I could live here forever I really would.

So on to the Tour of the Trailer:

Tilly looked truly in place with the Trailer. I could see her pulling her along the road (if that was even possible...I don't think even Tilly has that sort of pulling power). Also provided were BBQ equipment, log burners, deck chairs, little bench, and even parasols so the field could be turned into your front room :)

Trailer Sweet Trailer!

Welcome to our living room for the duration of our stay:

I spent the majority of the first evening sitting and reading all the vintage books and magazines, while the Mister serenaded me on his guitar, heh.

This ticked every single box for a holiday from heaven. I have never had such a relaxing holiday, out in the middle of nowhere but still only 10mins drive from civilisation, although I could have quite easily stayed indoors all weekend (the weather made the thought of that much more appealing, stupid British weather!). We spent the days wandering around the seaside towns, dipping our feet into the freezing sea, and playing no less than 6 games of crazy golf (pics etc to follow!). I cannot wait to go back again, and next time I think I'll book us in to the Shack on its own bit of beach :)

Keep your eyes peeled for a more in depth discussion with Vintage Vacations! I couldn't wait any longer to show you our lovely trailer, but hopefully I will be able to show you some of the others on the suite very soon :) In the mean time, if you now have the itch to hop on a ferry and make your way over to the Isle of Wight, go give Helen and Frazer a visit on their site, I'm glad the Mister booked us in as a surprise, because I don't think I would have been able to pick out my favourite to stay in!!

Much Love From The Isle of Wight,

Night Night!

L.J.

xxx