The Hokey Cokey is what it's all about

Hello! I hope you are getting in the swing for Christmas.  We have our tree up, but only one bauble on it so far, but, like Christmas, it is coming along.


Today is the last day to enter the not-your-normal-Christmas-giveaway.  I am amazed that more of you haven't entered, cos it is really cool!  Was it something I said, or didn't say? It really is not really all THAT big a plank. It just sounds cool to be sending a plank for Christmas. At 57cm x 10cm x 2cm (approx 22" x 4" x 1"), it is about the length of a pillow, the height of an iphone and the width of a good paperback.

Maybe you are not sure what the Hokey Cokey is.  It's a DANCE silly! One of those goofy party dances that you do when you hope no-one has a video camera. You remember, you put your right arm in, you take your right arm out, right arm in and you Shake It All About (that's the best bit), you do the Hokey Cokey and you turn around - THAT'S WHAT IS ALL ABOUT!
Some people will know it as the Hokey Pokey, and I remember it at the Hokey Tokey from primary school.  I wonder if it is subtley changed for children, as  "Hope he tokes me" isn't really a usable sentence...if you get my drift.


Anyhoo - get your entry in double quick cos it closes at midnight tonight BST.

Not your normal Christmas Giveaway.

No not some vintage sparkley bits for your tree, not lovely underwear, nor party accessories, stockings, bags or broaches, not even some designer chocolates. Not here at Heyday, No Siree bob.  Well not this year anyway.

This year we are going to offer you a plank of wood! 

YEAH! 


A 57cm x 10cm x 2cm plank of wood. (approx 22" x 4" x 1")


I can see you are getting excited now. 




Because of this ludicrous idea, the competition is only open to UK residents. Only UK posties are tough enough to lug that plank to your doorstep. Through the snow. Barefoot. (ok, so we are prone to exaggeration...)

Besides being REcyclable, REusable, REnewable and REtro, it also appeals to all REligions and can be used REgularly. All yeaRE.




As you can see it appeals to our sense of humour, both the jovial notation and the making a plank a prize. We think you are going to love it in your home too.

It has a slightly distREssed REd background and a cREam typeface. (I have no idea why RE has become a theme but now I am stuck with it).


And it has two rings to attach to a wall if you so desiRE

The competition rules are straight forward and offer three chances to get involved...

• For one entry, leave me a comment below. 
• For another entry, you can retweet my give away.
• For a third entry, post about the giveaway on your own blog!  Three chances! Whooopee!

Please take careful note that each time you enter you must leave a separate comment. Don't leave me one comment saying you've done all three things, as it will only be counted once! 

If you commenting to say you've retweeted or blogged, please post the link.
The competition will close THIS Friday 17th December 2010 at Midnight BST




Good luck everyone! We know you will be tickled gREen if you are the winner. (Sorry, pink didn't work)

Frock Porn

Now that I am recovered from jet lag, the Annual Winter Bug has got me in its grips. Thank goodness I did my family Christmas shopping before I went to NZ.  It is just Mr Wolf to buy for now, and though it is hard to think of something REALLY good to get him, a slab of Guinness and a kilo of crisps also keeps him happy. 

So, while this blog might be slow at getting all silly and fun for Christmas, I have something equally scrummy to look at....FROCK PORN !

We know you like it. 

Don't pretend you don't. 

There is something for everyone.

Whilst visiting family I was lucky enough to attend a talk by Leimomi Oakes.  (gorgeous name don't you think? Pronounced leigh-mou-mee). Leimomi is a historial designer, museum professional, and very likeable speaker. She is also a swing dancer and Really Nice Person.

Leimomi with passer-by-dog
My brother's girlfriend, Ness, was modelling a dress for her, so I got to go backstage and help out. We arrived late, but got her hooked, laced, buckled, pinned, strapped and tied in record time. 

There is a LOT going on under there, and we are not talking too many chocolate biscuits

Leimomi had created outfits that spanned several centuries to demonstrate the influence of eastern design on western clothing. She made the bloomers, petticoats, slips, corsets, dresses, trains, jackets and buttons. 
Then she decorated them.

One hundred zillion miles of seams

After the lighthearted and educational talk, we had ourselves an impromtu photoshoot in the gardens at Lower Hutt Horticultural Centre. While Leimomi said she had had her "dream day", my afternoon was pretty wonderful too. After all, mucking around taking pictures of girls having fun in big poofy dresses is my idea of a good time!

by fluke, (and a wee bit of stalking) we managed to get a white pigeon to act out the part of a dove

Some passerbys were thrilled to see the dresses and see the girls acting up in them. One Dad sat for ages while his little girl was transfixed (I am sure it had nothing to do with the impressive cleavages on display!)

Ness was modelling the Juno dress, more information about it's inspiration and construction can be found here.

For more photos of all the dresses go to Leimomi's beautiful blog, rightly named The Dreamstress. If you are interested in fashion history, sewing construction and lovely pretty things you will adore it!

The End

Period homes and Gardens

Hello my lovelies!

Long time no chat eh? I have been back from my travels for just over a week now and I must say, despite the freezing temperatures here in the UK, I am glad to be staying put now for a bit. In fact the snow and cold are not bothering me right now because what I most want to do is hibernate. Perfect!

sleepy bear (not the least bit grizzly, honest) found here

I have had the most terrible bout of Jet Lag (yes it deserves capitals) ever.  Apparently, when you fly around the world anti-clockwise it is much easier to get back on your feet than if you go clockwise. Well I believe it might be true given my recent state of wide-awake-ness at 2am and inability to concentrate on anything (except, maybe, fabric shopping on ebay...) Since I booked my flights quite last minute, I had to fly back from New Zealand via the States instead of through Asia, so I travelled the wrong way around the world.

Anyhoo, while I am still getting my act together for Christmas I thought I might do a couple of posts about NZ and the things I love most there (besides family and friends of course). I LOVE the houses. Especially weatherboard ones. As soon as I arrive I soak up the sight of weatherboard houses that make up the majority of our homes.

Whenever I drive out to my brother's place in Otaki this one calls out to me. I love the sweeping drive, wide lawn and the huge verandah. Although the eras don't match, I  imagine Scarlet O'Hara might come here on her days off. Maybe that lawn just begs for a big poofy skirt and a parasol.

Otaki is a small coastal township and is full of these lovely Californian Bungalows, with huge gardens and verandahs to sip your G&T's on (sigh). I want a verandah! The warm weather and the available land in New Zealand inspired the adoption of this house style when the colonials were planning their towns.

Another feature of a Californian bungalow is the low, sloping roof line, and in NZ you see lots of colourful roofs, probably because so much of it is on display.

This one has the most striking roof line, only visible for a second as you drive down the street.  I suspect the part of the house with the chimney is a newer addition. 

Having left Otaki (it was time for lunch and Mum was hungry) we are now in Karori, Wellington. Suburbs closer to the city centres tend to have less gardens and more compact detailing (obviously!). The verandahs are have much more of a "enough-to-take-your-gumboots-off", than "great-Gatsby-picnic-after-croquet" feel about them.

 This one probably had stained glass windows in the small, upper windows originally. I love the rows of white rose bushes though.

This house has so many distinctive features! The curved corrugated iron roof is typical of early homes and the subtle use of tones of paint colour brings out the detailing. Even the fence line has been carefully considered.  The decorative flair of the arts and crafts type in the woodwork would have been quite expensive to have in those days. And it would have had stained glass windows too, so this little house was quite the little "show off" but in the best possible way.

And there ends our whistle stop tour of NZ homes. I hope you agree they are rather enchanting and can see why I love them so. Now that I am back in the UK for winter though I am very glad for Georgian brickwork and gas central heating! I hope you are all warm and cosy too - wherever you are!

Shona x

Gift Idea - Kitten Calendars

Hi all - Christmas is hurtling towards us!  Eeck!
For those of you who are vintage fans (ok, that is most of you) and have a man somewhere in your life, (or even if you don't) we have a Chrismas present solution for you - the 2011 Kitten von Mew calendars!

This is one classy calendar, one that Grandad could cope with... and yet cheeky enough to keep red blooded males silent with admiration (I have seen them on the stall, they get REAL quiet).

If you don't know Kitten already, she performs incredibly authentic burlesque routines and can cater for family audiences as well as corporate events.

Not only did Kitten manage and design the calendar, coming up with the concept of each of the gorgeous monthly themes and styling each outfit, she actually did all the graphics as well. Not just a pretty face eh? 

You might need to be quick, as I have only about 20 left.  You can get them on my website.

 As an added bonus, Kitten was generous enough to pop over when we were both at Goodwood Revival to sign and KISS them all. 

 She got through quite a bit of lippy and I bet her smackers were sore by the end!

One happy customer!

She is wearing her RAF fancy fan performance outfit, which, while it is wool, there is not a lot of it. While she froze her goose bumps off, she caused a bit of a stir - check out the poor chap in the background trying to work out what he was missing!

If you are interested, please be quick as there will not be any more printed, and I have some of the very last stock around.

Bloomsbury Lanes

Yeah G'day

Here I am back in Kiwi land, way down under, so you might hear more of my New Zealand accent coming through. Whilst I have jet-lag and have woken early, it seems a perfect time to catch you up on the vintage fair at Bloomsbury lanes that was on the weekend before I left.

It was really sad to have missed the lovely gals including Fleur, Jenni, Gemma, Naomi who attended the Throwback Festival in the evening, since I could only make the daytime event instead.

Having said that, I was super chuffed to catch up with other good friends, Natasha and Amanda from Lipstick and Curls. I have known Natasha ever since I first moved to London (9 years now) and it was so lovely to chat between her appointments. More often than not we are both working at different events so hardly get to see each other out dancing now.

Please excuse the dark pics, the photos with a flash didn't work out

Between clients, Tash had a play with my hair and did a fantastic job. 

The girls hard at work. Note the 50s diner in the background

A happy customer. She looked so good!

I was beside myself to meet some fellow Kiwis who were running the Fleet River Bakery stall. I found out they were Kiwis because here they are, selling ANZAC biscuits (a national icon of ours belonging to wartime). There was another yummy looking cupcakes stall there but Fleet River sold gluten free...in fact they sold Gluten Free Chocolate Mud Cake (the capitals all very important there).  Ohhh heaven. I even bought an extra slice to take home.

Looking around the stalls, most of the items on sale were more recent vintage than what I normally swoon over. (If you wore it already you can't bring yourself to call it vintage!). So I only made a few small purchases.

The best find was this ring, from Popsie's Vintage.  She recycles all old odds bits of Jewellery into new, modern peices, and I was thrilled to find a orange 50s/60s rose ring that matched the set I have at home! I have in fact done really well at matching existing sets recently and I have to catch you up with those buys soon.

Natasha's handiwork once I got home. Impressive work, especially since I have a LOT of hair.

 If you want to go along, the fair is open on the first Saturday of each month and is followed up with the Throwback Club in the evening. While it has just got started, I am sure it is going to get better and better. I can't make Dec, but I will be keen to go again in the new year!

Shona x

Back from the Nile

We're back!

Congratulations to Hela for winning the Fleur dress give away. I do hope you love it Hela and please send us pictures of you wearing it!

Thank you to everyone who blogged, tweeted and yelped about it - it was so much fun to see all the comments and it would have been lovely to have given each and every one of you a dress, as everyone was so enthusiastic!  Nothing like something going free to get us all excited!

Speaking of the Fleur dress... look, check out the name of the French restaurant at the hotel in Egypt!

Yes, sadly enough we are home and starting to recover from our Nile adventures. The trip was A M A Z I N G.  The monuments, like the heat, were overwhelming. Even though I have seen these massive tombs and pyramids, there is a part of me that still doesn't believe they are real.

Funnily, the pyramids looked smaller to me close up. From a distance you have the perspective against a tour bus and then you really get to see the scale.

I have to say, while the kings are more famous and more powerful, some ladies of ancient Egypt were impressive for their ingenuity and shear determination. This is the temple of Hatsheput, who was an amazing lady. Quick history lesson as we were told it by our guide: Her father, the King, died. She marries her half brother to keep the throne secured (they did a lot of that), half brother/husband dies, she marries his son by a mistress (her nephew and step-son) to maintain the throne. Puts child husband in prison while she rules - as a KING (now that is cool), travelled and set up trading expeditions. Then convinces the Egyptians that she is actually the daughter of a GOD. 

Now that is some hefty PR work!

Her tomb backs on to the valley of the Kings in such a way that by the time you have reached her actual resting place, you are on the other side of the hill, effectively placing her securely in the area reserved for the Kings...Wow that's clever.

It wasn't all just sight-seeing. Evening entertainment included a Egyptian evening (above) and a "treasure hunt" which did involve me ruining my knees doing an Elvis impersonation and Wolfie wearing a dress. 

Of our trip I enjoyed cruising the Nile the best. It is very much a working river, and it was so amazing to see how the desert was visable just past the thin stretch of green land that the river kept fertile. The scenery was fascinating from the boat: Water Buffalo, cows, donkeys, goats all grazed at the waters edge, a woman hanging her washing in the bushes to dry, the entrances of tombs in the desert hillside, a busy riverside port, Trucks on a busy road, a school with rather rude little boys (whats new?), and then back to the cows taking a dip. Why I have no decent photos of that I do not know.

While I didn't get to see many Crocodiles (just one from a distance), I did get to see lots of Camels. They really are graceful creatures, (even when they have their heads through a hole in the fence and scratching their necks!). Except when they are in a hurry...  I saw one running, and would have laughed if his rider were not an armed guard.  Camels run like tipsy teenage girls, all limbs flailing around in limited efficiency and control despite their speed.

You can see what I mean here, in slow motion!

Now I am in a bit of a hurry to finish this off, why?  Well I am about to catch another plane to head home to New Zealand to visit family.  I KNOW! It is jet-setting month here!  I didn't really plan for it to happen that way, it just did.  Anyway I can be in touch from NZ and will send you some spring sunshine from there. 

Toodles

Shona x