The Jubilee Weekend....

Hello dear girls!!

How has your Jubilee weekend been? Has the weather held for you?

Our started with a bit of a palaver - I booked my groceries to be delivered on Friday from a very large and well known supermarket, they were meant to come by 1.00pm.

The shopping was delivered at 6.40pm!!

Normally this wouldn't have been too much of an issue, but I had the afternoon clear so I could do some serious baking for our Jubilee picnic on Saturday. As it was I had rush about doing it all in the evening:

Chocolate cupcakes; (very) pink coconut cupcakes and cheese & onion pasties - also made chorizo puffs

We were finally all set and on Saturday I dressed in my red, white and blue and did Victory rolls in my hair as we were going to the Vintage Victorious festival at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard:

Using Gem's patented method for taking a self portrait (when we got back, hence no red lippy)....

BTW how freckly am I?!!

We picked up my Mum and then went down to Southsea common to meet my Sis and family for a picnic before the festival. 

Naturally, as soon as we alighted from the car it began to rain. I was not a happy bunny. It was also freezing. We managed to find a sheltered spot and sat down to picnic in the spitting rain. Very British.

I put a neckerchief on my head to keep of the rain:

Won't part with my shades though....

We spent too much time eating our goodies than taking pics:

Pimms from a teacup, anyone?

However, soon enough the sun made an appearance:

Sis....

Mum....

Mr G and our brother-in-law took the kids (except H, who decided it was "for babies") to the fair for an hour or so and after that Sis and family went off whilst we headed to the vintage festival.

The Victorious Vintage event had been billed as a mixture of music, vintage stalls and traders and other entertainment and had the historic dockyard as it's setting:

HMS Warrier

Of course there were plenty of photo opps, but all done by phone I'm afraid as we had gone and left the camera in the car:

Eeeeeek!! My waist is not quite that wide, silly belt slipped!!

HMS Victory

It was very pleasant in the historic dockyard - its one of those places you live near but rarely visit, but we pledged to return another time as Mr G and the boys rather fancied going round the ships themselves.

Victorious Vintage was a wee bit disappointing, there were very few stallholders or visitors dressed up and only a handful of true vintage stalls - the rest were selling handmade jewellery, etc so not even vintagey at all. And only one stall selling haberdashery items - no vintage fabrics to be had.

As one of the few attendees with the necessary Victory rolls I was complimented on my hair which made my day!!

Soon we had weary feet and so it was time to head home but not before a picture with my Mummy:

Just before I took my hair down, I remembered to take a pic of the back:

A bit fuzzy by now....

I had slept the night before in rags (actually my socks!!) to achieve the required curls, and when I took Victory roll 'do out that, combined with plenty of teasing, gel and hair spray resulted in BIG hair:

Sunday was spent watching the flotilla on and off and complaining about the great British weather!!

Phew!! This has turned into a mammoth post!! Thanks for reading!!

Until next time....

hugs,

S x

Vintage Market....

Hello my lovelies!! 

What have we been up to? Well, on Sunday there was a vintage market run by Love Southsea in Old Portsmouth. We live about 10 miles north of the city so we decided to go down and have a look.

I insisted that H and W come along too. Now they old enough to be left for a couple of hours during the day the temptation is to forgo all the complaining about them having to come off their respective gadgetry and go on our own. However, I think it is way too soon to stop doing things together as a family and so on this occasion I put my foot down.

Fortunately, we managed to get out with minimal complaints. We parked at Spice Quay:

H, looking *really* tall; W and Mr G....

First of all we sat on the beach to eat our picnic:

We had a lovely view of Portsmouth Harbour:

 And before long we had some company:

We had thought that it would be cold down on the seafront, but leaning against the wall with the sun (yes, I know, the SUN!!) shining on us was really warm:

After lunch it was time for a mooch around the vintage market:

Apologies for quality - phone pic!!

The market was, IMO, more of a handmade market as there was only one stall selling actual vintage items, but it was nice nonetheless and naturally I made a few purchases:

Afterwards we had a walk along the sea wall and when we got to the big hilly bits we had to stop for some rolling:

It was much steeper than it looks here!!

Even though, at my age, I should know better I had a go. I am pleased to say there is no photographic evidence but for the whole 10 seconds it took to roll from top to bottom I was wishing it was over - it was like getting repeatedly beaten up as you rolled and I landed dizzy, scuffed and covered in grass stains. 

Of course, I then insisted Mr G have a go!!

It transpires that persons of 40 years or thereabouts should not roll down steep banks as he didn't enjoy it much either!!

On the crafting front, I have been continuing with my embroidered cardi and I had a go at wet felting:

I have since tried to machine embroider some grass onto it, but after getting a third of it done my machine decided it just Didn't Want To Play so I'll have to come back to that another day.

Oooh, and look at this *beauty* we found for me to paint:

I really want to keep it but have No Room so I will have to rehome it when its done....

Hope you're all well....

hugs,

S x

On the 

A Very Belated Ta-Dah....

If you cast your minds way back to July you may remember the vintage dressing table?

I decided I wanted a vintage kidney shaped dressing table after seeing a pic of this Cath Kidston one:

After scouring eBay I found and won this one:

It was originally from Harrods in the '60's....

The plan was to reupholster it in a striped fabric similar to the CK, unfortunately at £20 a metre the real fabric was going to be too expensive so I went out and bought some alternative blue floral stripe. I then reupholstered the top in it, did my back in (sciatica) and then decided I hated the fabric (fortunately before making the skirts).

So, the remaining fabric went on eBay and I bought some more expensive, wide duck egg striped. When my back was better I reupholstered the top and made the skirts and it was done.

And I hated it!!

I decided the fabric was too wishy washy and looked like it should be in a little girls room. I bought more fabric (by now I had spent so much I could have bought the real CK fabric!!) - Mr G thought I was mad - and today I finished it!!:

I'm really pleased with it now (at last!!) - third time lucky!!

hugs,

S x

More Vintage Heart Art (with Hot Glue Action!!)....

Hello, lovelies!! I hope you are all having a nice weekend?


A few weeks ago I won a lot of vintage pearly & glass buttons on eBay and due to the arrival of my hot glue gun yesterday I finally I got around to doing something with them:

Can anyone tell me if it is possible to avoid 3rd degree burns and a huge mess when using a glue gun? I've even had to pick it off my laptop!!

I also recovered my lampshade as I felt I needed something to pick out the raspberry in the wallpaper:

I love the evening light in our bedroom....

Next on the list is repainting and recovering the chair - I am going to make some hexagon patchwork fabric to cover it with I think....

hugs,  

S x