Talented ladies of the vintage world part 1

Happy Monday morning my lovely blog followers.  
I have been meaning for some time to introduce you to some talented ladies that I have met in my travels in the vintage world. These are entrepreneurial business women and clever, artistic craftspersons. It is these type of girls who make my world go around because they are so inspiring and capable, with a streak of daredevil in them to be making their money alternatively. I will spread them out in a small series of posts because they each deserve some individual attention.


The first is Fiona Stephenson. She paints the most stunningly gorgeous ladies who all have good reason to show their suspenders in the most delightful way. 

She creates Gil Elvgren reproductions in oil on canvas as well as her own original prints. The prints are very reasonable at £22 for an A2 size and £12 for an A3. (I have 3 of  them that I am about to get framed.) Or, if you can splash out, the oil paintings are £998 and if you really can go for it, she does take individual commissions too.
The pic above is a reproduction, and this pic below is Fiona's own work. She really captures Elvgren's cheeky women exceptionally well and I do love the themes she dreams up.

I have these two above and below.  I think the rocket girl is my fave, I would look as apprehensive (if not as slim and stunning) if I were her!

If you are looking for some Monday morning coffee-time browsing then pay her website a visit here. Do bear in mind that they are all limited edition so don't wait about if something takes your fancy.  In browsing the gallery I found I have missed some gorgeous prints so I am watching eagerly to see what else she produces next.
Well done Fiona you clever lady you!

Oh No it's NOT! Winner announced!

Thank you to everyone who took part in our quick and dirty mock-bet competition. That was a nice bit of fun wasn't it?
The dress aired on telly last night was definitely not our Fleur dress. It had longer set-in sleeves, no pleats at the neckline and was princess-line in construction. I bet it didn't have pockets or a cute button either though! 
So Fleur herself was right. Personally I was trying not to get my hopes up, but feel deflated anyway. 
Moving quickly on to more exciting things then... who won the £25 voucher?
Only 19 of you, out of 79 chose to say "No it isn't" and bizarrely, quite a number of those couldn't even view it and just took Fleur's side (loyal followers you lot!) or said no to get a better chance of winning (dare devils!).

True Random Number GeneratorMin: Max: Result:13Powered by RANDOM.ORG

Our Random Number Generator came up with No.13. Unlucky for some, but very lucky for Miss Betty Lou.
She has a lovely blog, is a red head and takes great pictures. She also writes in both Swedish and English which is pretty impressive. She also likes the colour green, home baking and is a bit excitable, my kinda GAL!

Ain't she sweet?
Betty Lou I will Tweet you your voucher code but if you miss it then do get in touch.
Have a good day all!

Get your bets on **Quick Competition**

We might be FAMOUS!
By that I mean that our Fleur dress might be on Telly!  Or maybe it won't...

The Fleur in disguise (Glasses by Dead Men's Spex)

Lady Jenny from our Heyday team spotted the trailers for a dramatisation about Hattie Jacques.  Hattie was a Carry On actress (a show much loved by Brits in general) who was married to Dad's Army star, John Le Mesurier and who also had a live-in lover. The show is being aired on BBC 4 This Wednesday at 9pm. 

Hattie Jacques

Ruth Jones is playing Hattie and (drumroll please...) a dress she wears in the trailer is definitely the same fabric, and COULD be one of our Fleur dresses. Eee! The thing is, from the short shot on the trailer it is hard to tell if it is ours. Fleur, being always modest, thinks it isn't. Lady Jenny is positive it is. It might get rough. Do you wanna bet on it too?


Have a look for yourself at the Trailer: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00d7l35
(later amendment after a few people have commented - it seems if you are not in the UK then you can't watch it - Booo. But have a guess anyway and enter the draw.  Sorry about that!)

We are going to run a quick competition to win a £25 voucher to go towards your very own Fleur dress or something else from the Heyday web shop.You can vote "Yes it is" or "No it's not" (in true pantomime fashion) in the comments below, up until the start of the programme at 9pm on Wednesday. Only those who have answered correctly will go in the draw which we will make by random number selection on Thursday.  If for some reason we can't be sure, then we will put everyone into the draw.

As always you can get more than one chance to enter if you let others know about it. If you want to vote both ways, then simply make sure you get yourself more than one entry! That's better odds than you will get at any betting agents.

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 our quick competition.
• For a third entry, post about the giveaway on your own blog! 

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 Wednesday 19th January at 9.00pm BST

Yes it is! No it's not! It is, It isn't...Oh I don't know, but I will be glued to the set on Wednesday!

Sale Starts Thursday!

Hi there everyone out there in Blog land. 

Thanks for the lovely comments designed to help me feel better. I had one day of feeling on top of the world, then this morning I slipped and cut my finger open on a cupboard door handle. OUCH! Why am I telling you this? Well because I would have got this post out earlier but I was stuck in A&E making angry faces at the nurse (who was overworked and, in the end, quite sweet) and throwing invisible death daggers at the doctor, who I think wasn't concerned about my death dagger powers in the slightest, or about my finger, much.  

Anyhoo, I am back and the finger is so well padded I can actually type (it is the little finger, so it is not overworked). I am already fed up of sympathy too so no need to bother, however donations of chocolate, size 5 shoes and exotic alcoholic beverages are always welcome.

So,this, later than expected post, is to let you know that I have my first ever Heyday Sale starting Thursday morning.  Some of you would have already seen it written up on Andi's blog here. These items pictured here are in the sale and you can go in and see what stock we have available if you like, even though the prices won't appear until tomorrow. It is set up ready to go on the web shop.

Before you go, Slinky Sparkles, (who is modelling the green floral Mary dress in our sale) needs your vote in the Viva Las Vegas Burlesque competition. Well done Ms Sparkles! Go vote for her here
Happy Shopping!

Happy shoes

Happy Friday dear followers

What do YOU do when you are poorly and yuck?

I put on groovy heels with sparkly socks, even if I am not leaving the house.

Hope you all have a great weekend!

The Info bit: 

Shoes:Next, last winter

Trousers: Own design from Heyday! 

Socks: not sure, possibly nicked from a 1970s roller disco queen

Happy New Year and Christmas recyling

Hello and Happy New Year!

I am so thrilled that I have made it through another festive season, how about you? For some reason this year I was bored of it all so quickly, that the decorations are down already and the place is looking surprisingly bare. I blame the shops who were playing Christmas music around Guy Fawkes. Those will be the same ones that have already got Easter Eggs out (yes, I spied them in WH Smith yesterday).  Sorry but my FAT making cells need a little break, Easter will have to wait!.. until... well, February at least.

Anyhoo, as part of my Christmas breakdown I do a little fun recycling thing with my cards that I thought you might like.  I cut them down to make parcel tags for next year! 

I know tags are not dear to buy really, but this is much more fun. I make it a game with myself to see how many good tags you can make out of a card, sometimes ending up with very little that the recycling men have to take away.

Firstly, though it might be a little morbid, but one lesson I have learnt is to save cards from loved ones who are getting a bit elderly. That way you can bring them out after they can no longer write you one, which is neat thing to do.

Once I have saved the specials, I get happy with the scissors and snip like a mad woman. Picture cards can be made into numerous tags, and often the back of a card has a small picture that is worth cutting out too. It is fun to work out where the cutting lines could be to make 2 or 3 cool cards rather than just one. 

Shapes come out interestingly and as you get on  a roll you see different possibles - like the word "Merry" on it's own. I like that!

This year I didn't stop and collected the messages on the inside too. If I had kids it would be great to get them to decorate them, but since I don't, I might have some fun with the glitter pens myself!

I hope your first week of the New Year is coming along nicely. Hip Hip Hooray!

Shona x