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