Autumn arrives with a thud

Hello my lovelies

If you are here in the UK then you know all about Autumn arriving. It seemed to arrive yesterday, without proper ceremony, after teasing us in the lurking-days-of-summer-ish-ness weeks we have had. It has put my normal wardrobe rotation and organisation in a bit of a delay. It has been so mild that I was still swanning about in a long cotton house dress some days, so it didn't make sense to dig out ALL the warmer things.  (Solanah, from Vixen Vintage, by the way, is the Queen of Wardrobe Rotation [HRHoWR]. Go here for some inspiration)

So already my day is revolving around when to turn to gas fire on. I find myself doing bargaining with myself, like: "not until after tea", "not until I have a proper jumper on at least", "I can't justify it today" and also regularly... "I wish we had a cat to accessorise the fireplace with". It is clear that it really is time to bring out the woollen heavyweights.  This is my favourite sweater dress. It is warm and toasty and green.

I know it looks like I am deliberately holding my stomach in, but in truth I was trying to show you my bracelet

The left collar needs a brooch because, despite many a wet-towel iron it is determined to pop up a bit. This mustard enamel brooch I think is from the 30s. The bracelet is 50s or 60s.

And my leopard print shoes. These were the bargain of the century, a few years ago at the Brighton Jukebox fair. £10! If I had known they would prove to be so comfy I would have brought more, but, you know how it is with cheap shoes, they can be expensive if they are uncomfortable.

I hope you all have a good warm weekend!

Shona

Me Tarzan, you Jane

Quite a lot of you know that I'm a Kiwi living in the UK. To try and blend in a little I don't say "mate" so much now and I have learnt to use the alternative, British words for things. "Flip flops" instead of "Jandals", and "Wellington Boots" instead of "Gum Boots". I try not to ever say "pin" or "pen" because it just gets TOO hard.

I still have my accent, and it gets stronger immediately after speaking to a fellow countryman. Anyway, so... the point is...when I told my lovely friend Jenny that I was wearing a Tartan dress she was wondering what on earth I was going to turn up in - hearing "Tarzan" instead.

Ever since every "tartan" item I have is now a "Tarzan" one. Jenny and I know what we mean!

Anyway now I have a new alternative word, albeit more American I believe. This is one of my PLAID skirts. I love it. It's pleated. It is REVERSIBLE!

My all-seeing googley eye dog is coming along for the day

And here is my lippy - It is Red Hot Red from Rockalilly.  I love it! lots of red lippys make my lips crack and peel in a horrible fashion, which, really, isn't the look I am going for. But not this one. YEAH! There are some new limited edition shades in store there now so I might include one on my Christmas wish list. 

See ya Mate!

Cardigan - Custom Clothes

Skirt - vintage, probably 70s or 80s, ebay

Shoes - Clarks

earrings and brooch - vintage

Whoop-sie Daisy!

When announcing the winner of the Daisy Chain Fleur dress it looked like I stuffed up and this upset a few people. I can understand that, especially when such a nice dress is at stake!

On investigation, it seems that the Random Number Generator image does a crazy malfunction when you copy it from the website to the blog. It puts the numbers back to their default setting of 1 and 100. So even if it had landed on 306 it would have looked like it the entered numbers were 1 and 100 (see, told you it was crazy)
Here look at this, when I chose 1-500:

True Random Number GeneratorMin: Max: Result:427Powered by RANDOM.ORG

So the good news is to all of you that had were crossing your fingers and rubbing your rusty trusty horseshoes, you WERE in the draw properly and fairly. It was only that the winning number happened to fall under 100 that it looked like there was a real error.

I am really sorry that it happened that way. I hope we can still continue on together, after all, I'll be planning something for Christmas next (and no, it won't be a plank of wood like last year, as fun as that was!)

Shona

Daisy Chain Fleur dress WINNER!

Hello!

What a pleasant thing to do on a wet and grey Tuesday morning! Yes, my first job today is to announce our Daisy Chain Fleur dress winner.  You all left such nice comments that it was a shame I couldn't give something to each of you. I do love getting comments - it makes me feel like I am not talking to myself!
And now, on with the main event...Drum roll please

True Random Number GeneratorMin: Max: 

Result:

59Powered by RANDOM.ORG

So that lands on Lindsay Lane of http://petticoatsandpinup.blogspot.com/

Lindsay - have a look at our sizing charts and send us an email at shop@heydayonline.co.uk with your size and address and we'll get that off in the post to you.

We will of course do another giveaway when we reach 500 so do keep watching this space

Have a happy day

Shona

PS: I have just set up a sale on the Fleur dresses - all of them are now £60 for a limited time. Go get em!

Butterfly dress

Hello my lovelies!

I am thrilled so many of you are entering into our competition. It is lovely hearing all your comments. If you haven't entered yet then please do so! It closes on Monday evening. Good luck!

The week is whipping by so fast and this weekend will too as on Sunday we are trading at the Northern Military Expo in Newark. Do pop along and say Hi if you are around there.

Since the weather is really starting to turn, I took the opportunity to wear a dress today because soon it will be to chilly to wear. It hasn't had an outing yet and I had already planned the whole outfit for an event we did about a month ago and it seems a shame not to wear it.

I think it is late 30s to early 40s, as it features full sleeves at the cuff and a hook and eye closure at the side. It could equally be later, especially since it is home-made, so it could be an eclectic mix of what our mystery seamstress had on hand at the time. Pattern + fabric + collar but no zip. Zips were hard to get in the war years. Or maybe a zip was too hard for her (remember they had just come in domestically) and she knew her stuff when it came to a hook and eye placket so stuck to that. That is one of the things I love about vintage, is the sleuthing part of it.

In a moment of MASSIVE accessorising ability, I pinned a Cath Kidston hair clip to the strap of one shoe. Ahhh the stylish-ness off it!  In fact it lasted very well and I will use that trick again - I quite like a bit of modern whimsy. (The shoes are from good ole Clarks by the way).

I took fabric from the hem and made a belt, and this buckle from my stash was begging to be married to the dress. Good match eh? The buckle might be older than the dress, but the colour and butterfly-like shape was just too perfect. And since it is home-made, our mystery seamstress could have had a stash of buckles just like mine...or maybe hers was a just a wee bit smaller...(a-hem)...

Two little crocheted butterflies also were at home here worn as scatter pins. They are cooler in the pair rather than just one don't you think?
I best leave you and get myself organised for a big day here tomorrow so toodle pip till Tuesday when I'll announce the winner of the Fleur dress! 
Have a good weekend.

Shona

Daisy Chain Fleur dress GIVEAWAY!

Hello everyone! 
We have just cranked over 400 followers and I am both thrilled that all of you are interested in joining me here, and a bit amazed that you signed up to listen to my ramblings! Thank you!
To celebrate we are going to do a a giveaway of the black Fleur dress with white daisys.

The winner can choose her size, from XS to XL. You can find more info on our website here. The daisys are vintage trims and are simply sewn onto the dress. If you wanted a plain black dress they could be taken off, or you could re-arrange them to your hearts content!
In addition to the dress itself, I have collected a lovely set of vintage earrings and a brooch that will compliment it perfectly. I found the earrings first, and then months later, found the brooch (to much squeals of delight). The earrings are lightweight plastic with clip on backs. The brooch seems to be the same plastic, and is the same colour, but is ever so slightly different because the petals are not quite identical. The difference would not be noticeable once they are attached to your earlobes and cardigan. 

The rules for the giveaway are the same as normal:

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 Monday 7th November 2011 at Midnight BST
Good luck everyone! 

Jukebox Jive Show 2011

Happy Friday dear readers, and a big hello to my new followers that have taken me over the 400 mark! I am chuffed that so many of you are interested enough in my ramblings and want to read about my little adventures. Welcome!

As promised on Twitter (I am HeydayVS if you want to follow me there too), I have a give away planned for you to mark this milestone, so keep your eyes peeled as I will announce that over the weekend. YEAH! we haven't done one of those for a bit so I am looking forward to it.

For now I thought I would tell you about some of the neat jukeboxes for sale last weekend at the first ever Jukebox Jive show. I apologise for the poor quality pics, the lighting wasn't the best for my camera.

This one was my FIRST favourite and I might have dribbled a bit when I saw the colours. The colours in real life were a bit deeper and teal and red happen to be a fave combo of mine

It was on sale by these too chaps, Bill and Terry from the Jukebox Company. This crazy sputnik shaped one seemed to be their favourite as I saw quite a bit of  fondling polishing and dusting going on. Bill and Terry were lovely chaps and informed me that Jukeboxes started out like this, with everyone having headphones to listen at the same time. Hmmm... not so much dancing then huh?

Then I turned the corner and saw this one tucked away a bit and fell head over heals in love. It is from 1939 so that would be typical, as I tend to fall for designs of all kinds from that year. Note the colours and basic shaping that would lead to the "electric rainbow cathedral" shape that we are more familiar with. This one is the oldest one at the show but at £6250 it is not a bad price really, considering those colour panels are BAKELITE. yum yum! (NB: I turn 40 next year and I think this would be an ideal present)

The owner of the 1939 one also owned this one, which was the most expensive at £12,500 and made in 1956. You can see more at www.jukeboxgallery.com. Corwin, pictured here, came all the way from Holland to share these delights with us. I would have dribbled on a few more, but he was busy and one has to whip around quick when you are also manning a stall.

Lastly, I leave you with a quick pic of Katie the organiser. She undertook a mammoth job in pulling together her first show of this size, and while she was a little worn out by Sunday, I hope she decides to do another next year.

Have a good start to the weekend dear readers and watch this space for that giveaway!