BARGAIN OF THE DAY

Hi there!
I'm in Sweden and I'm having a really good time!
Seeing friends,  family, a lot of vintage cars and eating
a lot of yummy food and going to flea markets.
I don't really have a lot of time to blog but I have a few
minutes to spare for you and this is quite something to
blog about...

My favorite bargain of the day (I've made so many but
these are really awesome) two pairs of wonderful heels
from the 1940's for 10 kr for each pair.
(= 92 pence/$1.43/€1.18)

They can do with some cleaning but that have to wait,
I got people to see and not much time!
See you soon!!!

NEW HAIR FLOWERS

Here's some hair flowers I've been making lately.
I hope the rockin' gals in Sweden will love these because
they are specially made for this trip.

I've been busy today baking, making relish, mowing the
back lawn, vacuuming the house and the car and I just
finished packing the car, all I need to do now is to pack
my clothes and a craft box and I can relax the rest of the
evening, we need to be up at 5 AM.
We're staying in Holland two days and then we're off to
Sweden. Can't wait!
I'm looking forward to see friends, family and hopefully
make new friends, eat myself silly and this year I want to
have a dip in the lake.

WRAPPED AROUND MY FINGER

I got a new ring. Cute, right? :)

REVAMPED VANITY CASE

I bought this vintage vanity case last summer at a car boot
sale for a song, because of the state it was in, and I finally
got my thumb out and revamped it.

The case, fine and dandy on the outside...

Not so pretty on the inside.

As you can se.

I started by ripping out the icky fabric on the inside.

Cut out two new pieces of oilcloth and glued both the backs
of the oilcloth with non toxic glue stick and also the inside of
the case. Put the cloth in place and remove any air bubbles.
Note: Do NOT use contact glue or any type of stinky glue, it
will melt the cloth.

There were holes where a strip of elastic (to hold bottles) once
were attached and to hide these I glued on small bows, I used
Bostik all purpose glue for that.

Ta-da!
I know there's some wonky edges and I will sort
that out but for being the first time doing this I'm
pretty pleased.

YET ANOTHER ITTY BITTY REVAMP

Here's yet another itty bitty revamp.
I was sorting through boxes in our attic yesterday and came
across these old brooches that my gran made back in the day.
The pins were, as you can see, rusty and that's nothing I want
to pin onto any of my garments.
Throwing them away was not an option so I thought I'll revamp
them into statement rings and here's pictures of the process.

(I know I could just have attached a new pin but they will be used more as 
rings, I think.) 

Rusty pins, no good.

I cut the pins and locks off and sanded the sharp bits down.

I cleaned the underside and glued on a ring base and let the
glue dry for a good 24 hours to be on the safe side.

I cut out pieces of felt and glued onto the back to make sure
the ring base won't fall off and also to cover the areas where
the pins were. It doesn't matter if the felt pads are not super
duper even, they are for me and no one will look under them
anyway.

Now that's a statement ring!

I'm gonna sound a bit girly and say that the pink one is my
favorite. :)

I ACTUALLY SPENT MONEY!

Had a nice day out with my main squeeze on Saturday.
Had to go to the eye doctor in St. Albans to check up on
my left eye who's lately gone red for no apparent reason,
(I had Lasik done a few years back so my eyes health is
high priority)  turned out to be Blepharitis. Oh well...

On our way home we stopped to have a scout the vintage
shops in the area and needless to say I didn't leave empty
handed, hey, I even spent more than pocket change for a
change. LOL!

Vintage hair accessories, £1.50 each.
As you might have seen I revamped the rose thing into rings
the other day.

Closeup.

Glitter flake bangle, £1.
*happy*

Awesome vintage Hawaiian set, £20.
I managed to haggle it down from £22. :))

Closeup.

Vintage trinket box, £7.50.
I'm always in need of pretty jewelry boxes, this one was too
pretty to leave behind.

I DON'T HAVE A RIDE

I would love to go to Dingwalls tonite, spite my social
phobia, to see J.D. McPherson but my man is gigging
and I don't have a ride. :(

ROSE COMPACT MIRROR

Got a new compact mirror, isn't it just divine? :)

ITTY BITTY REVAMP

Another day spent indoors.
Might as well show you an itty bitty revamp.
Found this vintage hair elastic yesterday when we
went to the Vintage Emporium (more about that in
a later post) to have a little scout.
I knew right away what I wanted to do with it and
I didn't waste any time to make it! Rings!!! :D

It was very easy, I just cut the elastic off and glued
the ring base on the back, let the glue dry over night
and then, to make it even more secure I glued a little
piece of red felt on the back.
I'm keeping both, just in case I lose one.
I love the semi transparent candy apple red color.

Before:

After:

ROYAL MAIL'S TAKING THE PISS!

Another rainy day. What else is new?
England is going down the drain more and more every day,
not just talking about the floods, the cost of things is really
an issue for most of us, a good example is postage.
Went to the post office after lunch to post a pair of earrings
who didn't weigh more than 18 grams incl. the envelope, I
ended up paying £3.30!!! WTF?!
Is it gonna be possible to keep selling on Etsy if it's gonna
stay this way?

I'm however glad that there's still places where you can get
your fix without breaking the bank.
Went into Poundland today to have a look if they had some
cool stuff, and they sure had! Check out these headphones!
It wasn't one of those impulse purchases because we really
do need headphones for the ferry to Holland, we learned last
year that 7 hours without them is very boring, there's a huge
TV screen but you need headphones to be able to hear. Duh!
Also convenient if I want to listen to rockabilly on my laptop.

£1 each! The polka dot ones are very comfortable.

Spending the rest of the day indoors revamping an old beauty
case and making hair flowers.

I wish you all a nice weekend!

GOING PLACES, FINDING STUFF

Early on Friday morning we went to the antique market
in Hitchin to have a little scout.
We met many of the people we used to speak to daily
when we were running the V&R shop, they all said they
miss having us around, very nice to hear.
We also went to all the charity shops, even to the one we
used to run and it looked so awful!
It's all gone downhill since we left, that means we must
have done an amazing job.

After our visit to Hitchin we went to Letchworth to pick
up my tooled vanity case at The Shoe Box.
We went there the week before to get a new clasp for it.
The leather guy is the best, he's done new clasps for my
vintage bags before, he’s SO pedantic and really knows
what he's doing.
He was not at all pleased that you can see the small holes
from where the previous clasp was placed after attaching
the new one.
The small holes are not at all an issue and I had to reassure
him that it was alright.
My eyes don’t even go there because I can’t stop admiring
the peacock on the lid!

New clasp and labor cost me £10. Well worth it!

Here's what the vanity case looks like now:

Ta da!

New clasp and the holes, hardly an issue.

I love the lid!

And here's some stuff we picked up during the day:

Bangles, dark pink 80 pence, pale pink moon glow 20 pence.
I just sorted my bangle box the day before and then I found these. :))
It's good to change the collection every now and then and I kind of
needed some nice pink ones.

Vintage glitter hair combs, 50 pence for the lot.
How could I resist? ;))

1940's hat, £1.
I would love to show this one on but it has got a fold that I'm
trying to get rid off before I can wear it.

Old straw dispenser, £2.
I got a red one already but that's a modern one, rater have one that's 
old and have nicer shape.

And while we're at it, here's just a few things I got from the
car boot sale we went to on Saturday...

Vintage clutch, 50 pence.
I sorted through my collection of clutch bags the other day and since 
I didn't have one in this style and material I kept it for myself.

Vintage lemonade set, 50 pence.
I hope the summer will arrives soon so we can use this!!!

Vintage souvenir bag, £1.
I've had a few souvenir bags over the years but I never kept them, 
this one I will keep because it's quite an unusual shape and I love 
the flowers on the front.

And here's another vintage souvenir bag I got yesterday!
A charity shop in Finchley had a 50% sale on some bags
and this was one of them, I snagged it for £2!

SCREAMIN' 2012

I'm such a baaad blogger! I just noticed that I've totally
forgot to post pics from Screamin' Festival!
How did that happen?!
While I'm having a break from sorting every inch of our
house I might as well do it now.
Why I'm sorting? We got too much stuff and we're off to
my native land Sweden soon, we're doing the same trip
as we did last year through Holland, Germany Denmark
and half of Sweden.
We're bringing stuff we no longer require, the plan is to
hopefully get rid off our old stuff at car boot sales and at
Hot Rod Reunion and Rat Fink Reunion.
I feel they need some genuine vintage from London. ;)

I made an album on FB with a taster of a few things that
we're bringing, check it out here.
(This might be of interest if you too are going to any of
the two events.)

Me and my man drinking Sangria and kissin'.

Zack being such a nawdy boy!

Our Dutch friends Roel and Uschi.

Roel and Uschi gave me a bag of salty liquorice (bless you!)
found a peeing boy.

Phil from The Blue Devils, here totally passed out.
What's up with the flower basket?

Me, wearing my own creations.

Every day we brought a snack for Zack, here
he is with some chocolate chip cookies.

WE WON! Best dressed couple, the prize was
free tickets to next years evening events.

Our homies Marcus and Carolina.

Roel and Uschi's collapsible bags.

Roel doing pin curls on Uschi.

Amanda from Los Angeles in her amazing swimsuit.

My man and Marcus at La Fabrica.

Uschi's pin curls turned out well.

LOL! I asked Roel, Uschi and Amanda to stand against the
wall for a group picture. Roel took it very literally.

My man, Carolina, Marcus with our Swedish friends Lasse,
Ulrika and Totte. I'm missing because I took the photo.

My man looking tiny between the Harman brothers.
(From Restless and Space Cadets)

Me and my man.

Me at the car show where there also were a rockers
market type of thing going on. Everything was SOOO
overpriced it was ridiculous.
My total spend was 2 euros.
More about my find further down on this post...

I met Olivia!!! She's such a sweetheart and I wish I had
the balls to speak to her earlier during the festival.

Phil from The Blue Devils, a bit more sober.

Me and my man.
Most of the pictures of me makes me cringe, I'm
almost double the size(!!!) that's how bad I swell
every time we go abroad, I need clothes that are
too big for me at home.

Zack at the jam session.

My man slappin' the wood.

And also beating the wood.

After the festival we had a few days to chill out and so we did
with our Swedish friends Ulrika, Totte and Lars.
We went for fika at the Centric Bar in Calella, Lars treated me
to some strawberry cake. :)

Yum!

OK, here's the story about my 2 euro find.
So I bought an LP with my childhood idols The Boppers.
I'm such a cheesy chick who collect anything pre 1990's
by/with The Boppers, not that I'm a huge fan or anything
but because they were the first band I ever saw.
I was two and sat on my dad's shoulders while they were
playing on a lorry. I also had a crush on the singer, Peter,
and guess who was at the festival, my teen crush!
(Roel and Uschi stayed at the same hotel as Peter and she
told him this story over dinner.)
I didn't get to meet him (for that I'm glad because I would
have been so heartbroken if he was a douche) but Zack's
dad who was a DJ said he could take the LP cover to get
it signed for me, funny thing was that Peter never seen that
cover before (French release) and he wanted a picture of
it and here it is:

Thanks Jane for letting me borrow this picture.

For more pictures, feel free to check out my Screamin' 2012
album on Facebook.