I WISH YOU ALL...

A happy and healthy new year.

I'm gonna be a bit selfish and wish myself a much
healthier, braver year full of creativity, neat finds,
less or no drama, a new job, more sold items and
maybe one, two or even three trips abroad.

WHAT A GIRL NEEDS

Blahhhhh...
That pretty much sums up how I'm feeling at
the moment. I'm ill, again.
All I've done the last few days is laying in bed,
watching Six Feet Under, eating English muffins
and drinking apple & cinnamon tea.
I'm in a nothing state of mind now anyway so
it's not like this cold/flu/virus is interrupting a
busy schedule.
To be honest, I'm not even bothered about the
fact that I won't go out to celebrate new years
eve, I'm pretty comfortable under my 20 tog
duvet.


Only one more season to go. :(


Got the last sewing pattern I've been waiting for in the
post this morning.


My man got me a bunch of beautiful roses yesterday.
He sure knows what a girl needs. :)

MY HEART'S NOT IN IT

I want to have bad cravings for sewing because
I really have none at all this very moment.
I made a start by cutting pieces from this cute
1940's pattern I got in the mail last week but I
got bored after just cutting the back piece and
the sleeves.
I just don't have the patience and piece of mind
it seems. My heart's not in it.

Any ideas about this dry spell?
How do you start yourself up again?
I only ask because I know you're all very smart
and your comments means a lot to me.


This is the pattern I want to use.
I imagine the fabric below, pink bias around the
edges and maybe pink ric rac somewhere.
Pink or perhaps green vintage buttons, but that
is as far as I've gone with this project, imagining.


This is the fabric I want to use.
I found these wonderful vintage curtains about two
weeks ago in a charity shop, 4 lengths for £4.

THINGS HE SAYS

My man says the sweetest things sometimes.
The other day he said that I look like a mongrel
(crossbreed) between Elizabeth Taylor and Anne
Frank in this picture.
I think I'll take that as a compliment. :))

MERRY X-MAS!

TIME TO SIT DOWN AND RELAX

Yes, I know, three blog posts in one day, like
I got nothing better to do. ;))
Well, I've done a whole lot today and now it's
time to sit down and relax. I actually need to,
badly.
I've got a mad headache, there's something up
with my neck and I get this horrible headache
and I get queasy.
Might been a trapped nerve.
Enough about that...

Tomorrow we're having a guest over for some
Swedish X-mas dinner (in Sweden X-mas is
normally celebrated on the 24th), the reason
why we're doing this is because my man wanted
to know what a Swedish X-mas was like and we
were invited to spend the holiday with my aunt
and her family but Ryan Air put their prices
way up and it's more or less cheaper to fly to
Mexico than to Sweden right now so we decided
that we are staying home this year.
I didn't want to spoil the whole experience for
him so I promised to make a nice Swedish X-mas
dinner after all.
A kosher one, mostly vegetarian.
Yep, that's how lovely I am. :))
There will be no tree and no gifts, only a whole
lot of food and good company.

Here's a little peek what I've been up to today...


I made Caribbean toffee. Recipe here!


I also made pear & vanilla compote and cherry &
plum compote. Yes, we managed to get too much
fruit from the green grocer, again.


Went a bit old school and put whole cloves in a few
mandarins, didn't have any oranges but it smells
just the same, very nice that is and the concept is
still the same.
And yes, the table cloth is from the 1950's and I got
it from my grandma way, way back.

I HEART SNAIL MAIL

If there's something I love it's snail mail!
These last few days I got quite a few envelopes posted
to me. Belated Hanukkah and birthday cards and these
vintage sewing patterns I bought on Etsy.
They were a part of a birthday gift from my mother in
law, well, she gave me money to buy myself something
I really wanted that also could be beneficial for me and
this was it.
(I'm still waiting for another pattern to arrive.)
As you can see (or already know by now) I got a thing
for 1940's-1960's summer wear.

Click on the images for larger version.


1940's and 1950's


1960's and 1940's

TOFFEE MAKING DAY

Today I'm gonna make Caribbean toffee.
Last time I made it was two years ago and since
we're having a guest over for X-mas I want to do
something nice and special, I know for a fact our
guest love my toffee.



You'll need:
100 g butter
2 dl double cream
3 dl sugar
1 dl light syrup
2-3 tbs fresh gated ginger
Coconut flakes

Place the ingredients, except the ginger, in a
heavy pan and boil over a very gentle heat for
20 minutes.
This mixture boils at a very low temperature,
and you don’t want to burn the sugar, so keep
as cool as possible while still retaining a gentle
boil.
When 20 minutes has passed, use a teaspoon
to take a small amount of the mixture out of
the pan and drop it into a glass of cold water.
If it forms into a small ball then it is ready, if
not, keep boiling a little longer and try again.
Add the ginger.
Once the mixture has formed a ball, take it off
the heat and pour it into a baking tray or on a
tray with a sheet of grease proof paper, let it
cool down.
Before it is fully cold, score lines into it using a
knife and when it's fully cooled turn the pieces
in coconut flakes.
Now, feel free to wrap the toffee in individual
wrappers or just put them in a nice glass jar,
anything goes.

MY DREAMY DRESS

Not so long ago I blogged about a second birthday
gift, here it is.
On Saturday the 11th of December we went to our
favorite vintage shop*, my lovely man said he had a
surprise waiting there for me.
And what a wonderful surprise it was!
A gorgeous 1950's dress in very nice condition.
I first thought the dress was a bit too young for me,
I mean it's a prom dress and I'm 31, but as soon as I
put it on I fell in love. :))

Click on the images for a larger version.


Front and back.


Triple shoulder straps.


The stars are still intact.


Layers.


Big bow in the back.

I felt as glamorous as Miss Tayva in my dress. :)
I love this picture of her. She's such a stunner.

Picture borrowed from here.

*The Fleetville Vintage Emporium, St. Albans

OUR 4 YEAR ANNIVERSARY

Our 4 year anniversary was great!
Non pretentious, just nice and relaxed, doing what
we wanted to do.
We had pizza while we were watching Rocky 4 and
drank some rather pricey Champagne.
We're SO classy! :)) As I said, non pretentious.

And there was gifts, really nice ones...


The prettiest red shoes I ever seen!


Look at the heel! The details are stunning.
Love, love, LOVE!


Big makeup bag, exactly what I needed!
I feel too old for polka dots nowadays (my old makeup
bag had polka dots) and this floral one is more "me".


Ohh, what's in this cute little box?


A sea shell necklace and bracelet.


And the coolest screw on earrings and necklace ever!
Look like the set is made out of plectrums, don't they?
Marked West Germany.


Rocky 4 and Champagne - a perfect combination. ;))

After a relaxing afternoon we got dressed and went
to my favorite club, South London Pacific.
Met my darling Colbert Hamilton (yes, I'm a fag hag)
I almost didn't recognize him, last time I saw him he
was so unbelievably skinny. He had TB then, poor sod.
It sure was nice to see him back in good health.
And The Keytones was brilliant as always and we had
a nice long chat.
I think Jim (he's the very dreamy guitarist) wants me
to be his personal stylist after he saw my mans red £3
jacket I gave him for Hanukkah. :))


Me and my man.

I'm really sorry for the crap quality of the pictures.
My camera is about to die soon and so I can't really
show you the glory of this place.
But if you're ever in London, make sure you visit!
Click on the images for a slightly bigger version.


Colbert went up on stage and did one of his Black Elvis
numbers with The Keytones.


My handsome man and Colbert.


Ohh! Free Jive bars! :D


Neat hand dryer in the ladies.


The short side of the bar.


The long side of the bar.


Light fixture.


Another light fixture.


And more light fixtures.


My personal favorite, the big fruit basket hanging from
the ceiling with red flashing grapes.
I've always had a thing for plastic fruit for some reason,
it was one of those things that you could find hanging in
my grans kitchen.

PLEASE ALLOW ME TO RANT A BIT

Personally I think this weekend has been rather
shitty so far. Luck hasn't really been on our side.
We finally got snow where I live but no one uses
winter tyres over here, (there's no law that you
have to since there hasn't been proper winters in
many, many years).
Anyway, my man had a small accident with the
car and it's not kosher to drive.
(Don't worry, he's fine!)
Sods law! I was really looking forward to actually
dress up and going out and conveniently we were
invited to a small private party our friend Gary
Day held last night (also known as Gaz and if I tell
you he used to be Morrissey's old bass player you
might know who the heck I'm talking about) but
since the roads are more suitable for ice skating
than driving a car and with a car who shouldn't be
on the roads we decided to stay home.
If everything goes tits up tomorrow I'm not gonna
be a very happy bunny, it's our 4 year anniversary
and we have planned for months to go and see our
dear friends The Keytones play at my favorite club
South London Pacific.
Our backup plan is Champagne, pizza, Rocky 4 and
maybe a jive in the living room. :P
I should really see it from the bright side, whatever
happens we're still doing something nice together.

OK, I do have something nice to blog about, I did
manage to snag a few cool things on my last scout:


Vintage bullet bra, £1.75.


1940's handbag with lucite handles, £1.


I dig this handle, one goes over the other as a closure.
Really neat! Mint condition too!

BABY CONE BROOCH

Found these oh so cute gold sprayed baby cones in a bag
full of vintage miscellaneous decorations at a flea market
last time I was visiting Sweden.
They are quite old and attached to a thin metal wire so it
was very easy to tie the gold ribbon around it and stitch a
tiny safety pin on the back.

A SMELLY WINNER

On Saturday just gone me and my darling were a bit
bored and had cravings for a treasure hunt and so we
went to our favorite vintage shop in St. Albans.
My man had a second birthday present waiting there
for me. (I will blog about this later this week.)

Anyway, we had a browse and I found a stall where
everything was £5 each and that's where I found this
really nice bag.

It got a lot of compartments, which I really like, and
it's black so it's a real winner to me, a smelly winner.
Yeah, it has a bad old smell, mothballs and damp...
I did give it a good clean, however.
Used the slim nozzle on the vacuum cleaner to get rid
off some old dust, I also wiped it over with anti-bac
cleaner to get rid of the rest of the muck.
It still smells but I have faith that the organic lavender
soap bars my mother in law keeps on giving me will do
the trick eventually. If not I'll use baking soda.

Sorry if you think I'm repeating myself with this post
since I did a similar post about my lavender soap bar
trick almost a year ago.


Pretty neat, huh?


I like that this bag has got six compartments, it
sure makes it easier to find stuff.


One soap bar in every other compartment.

HOW COME?

How come you get the best hair and makeup the
night you're not going out? And quickly too!
My hair took me less than a minute to do and the
makeup less than 10 minutes. So annoying. :))