All Change!

Don't worry, I'm not talking about New Year's resolutions, they're not my thing. I can tell you already that 2025 will be mostly be spent wasting time and money searching for rare and beautiful clothes, taking far too many holidays and having as much fun as is humanely possible without getting arrested. Why change the habits of a lifetime? Oh yes, and because we're not normal, we aren't going to any NYE parties, Jon and I started a tradition a few years ago and choose to celebrate waking up alive on New Year's Day so we'll be heading to the pub tomorrow instead.  

The change I'm referring to is finally hanging the collection of vintage framed prints which have propped up against the landing wall for the last couple of years, gathering dust and inevitably causing one of us an injury when we crash into them on the way to the bathroom in the dead of night.

I've been obsessed with Flamenco dancers since my Dad bought me a doll back from a business trip he took to Madrid when I was five. The little circular Vermeer print was 50p in a charity shop. The vintage kaftan by Jake in India, a label which was sold in Liberty back in the early 1970s, was snaffled for a pittance from Vinted on Boxing Day and arrived this morning.

The black wallpaper is by Laura Ashley, bought in the early noughties, the patchwork bedcover, curtains and bolster were all made by me using knackered vintage clothes, curtains and bedlinen.

More Spanish art, A Spanish Dancer by Scottish artist, Sir William Russell Flint (1880 - 1969) and Toreador by French artist, Bernard Buffett (1928 – 1999). I've had the Buffett print for so long, he was still alive when I bought it. The pink velvet noticeboard is a new addition, bought this morning. My Radical calendar is ready for me to open tomorrow and scribble my dates on - read about this fabulous company here although, if you're the kind of person who describes people like me as woke, you'd probably implode.

Good old Tina, who's constantly moving around the house, along with one of Norman Parkinson's 1970s fashion shoots for Vogue (and another of my obsessions as a kid) - both chazza shop finds. The lining paper was painted with Farrow and Ball's Down Pipe when we bought the house almost 19 years ago and were trying to be historically accurate with Georgian paint colours. The room's in dire need of redecoration but I can think of better ways to spend our time and money (travel!) 

The Trechnikoff Rose in the Workshop is a rare signed print and cost a quid from a charity shop years ago. The 1950s teak antelope was a present from Liz a few Xmases back which I'd been meaning to hang for ages. 

Decluttering is definitely not going to be a New year's resolution...I love my stuff! 

Although I'm selling more than I'm buying on Vinted there's a few new-to-me things creeping in - like this incredible Suzani coat reworked from a vintage Uzbek chapan. Expect to see a lot more of it in 2025!

The weather's not been ideal for outfit photos and, as I'm typing this, the wind's getting up and the windows are rattling, so I've been posing indoors. Transforming the former shit tip into the magnificently moody music room with a metallic ceiling was probably one of our biggest achievements in 2024.

Today's outfit for collecting parcels and going sofa browsing (will 2025 finally be the year I convince Jon to ditch the knackered leather settee for an opulent velvet one?) I'm wearing a Dilli Grey Indian cotton block printed midi dress (bought in December, 2022) with some Clarks platforms (January, 2023) and a charity-shopped tribal necklace. 

Contemporary Afghan-style dress (Vinted) and burgundy leather cowboy boots (Urban Outfitters sale) worn for a trip to the chazzas. We spent £11 & came home with two incredible coffee table books, one on the world history of art and the other on the art on display in Birmingham Art Gallery, a Finnish merino wool polo neck for Jon and an Indian embroidered cotton blouse for me.

A Dilli Grey block printed cotton maxi skirt (October, 2022) and a vintage 1970s Anokhi quilted blouse with bishop sleeves (eBay, 2020), the gormless expression is all my own! You can't see my feet but I'm wearing my trusty Frye Campus boots, bought new in their box (labelled £335) via Ebay in July 2019 for £35. This was for a walk into town to drop off our Vinted sales. 

Vintage Phool midi skirt (part of a suit, online seller, 2019), All About Audrey art silk wrap top (Vinted), 190s Liberty, London silk scarf (car boot sale, 2009), River Island cap (via the charity shop, 2022) and my Mum's original 1960s Biba boots for a walk into town with more Vinted sales parcels. 

Wishing you all a happy & healthy New Year! 

Thanks so much for your continued friendship, comments, messages, cards and letters, you're the best. xxx

The Time Is Now

 

It was hard to believe we were still only in February this morning, the glorious sunshine was already dazzling at 7.30am so, rather than save this gorgeous Indian block printed organic cotton dress for the Spring, I decided to seize the moment and wear it.

Spotted on the Pink Lemons website (link HERE), an independent Cornish boutique specialising in fairly traded & sustainable clothing, the maxi dress was part of an order which failed the quality standards so, rather than consigning the dresses to the rag bag, it offered them at a massively discounted rate. Other than one of the pockets being sewn up (easily rectified with the seam ripper), I've yet to find anything else wrong, it's just as gorgeous as the dress I'd bought from them previously.

 When I sent her a photo of the dress in one of our regular gossipy emails, my friend Betty described it as being "girly". With my complete lack of interest in weddings, babies, rom-coms, celebrity fashion and chick lit my female workmates used to tell me that I should have been born a man. I might prefer football, rock music, war films and spy novels but when it comes to clothes it's all about the girliness - ruffles, flounces, puffed sleeves, pintucks and prettiness.

Has my blog post title given you an earworm? On Saturday, Jon & I had tickets for art-pop goddess Roisin Murphy's gig at Wolves Civic. If you're not familiar with the name you might know her better as being one half of legendary electro-dance duo, Moloko whose third album, Things to Make and Do unleashed absolute bangers such as Pure Pleasure Seeker, Sing it Back and The Time is Now. 

 

Give up yourself unto the moment
The time is now
Give up yourself unto the moment
Let's make this moment last

Jon & I were in our early thirties when The Time is Now was released and in the blink of an eye we're almost 60. Time waits for no-one, live for the moment! Wear that dress, book that trip, go to that gig. 

The capital of the Black Country, the city of Wolverhampton (or Wolves, as we locals call it), is seven miles away. The direct train from Walsall was phased out in the 1990s so, rather than an hour's journey via Birmingham, we caught the 529 bus and popped into Wolves' city centre branch of Spoons, The Moon Under Water when we alighted 20 minutes later. With it being match day the pub was full of Wolverhampton Wanderers fans fresh from the game and also groups of theatre goers in fancy dress, awaiting the performance of The Rocky Horror Show currently running at the Wolverhampton Grand directly opposite the pub.

Was there any aggro? Who's gonna argue with a 6 foot 4 inch bloke in leather hot pants, fishnets and a pair of thigh boots? 

After a couple of pints we walked down to the Civic. Our tickets had been sent via an app and, much to our frustration, we couldn't bloody access it. We chatted to an equally stressed out Amanda who'd travelled up from Brighton especially for the gig and agreed that with the majority of crowd more than likely being 50 or over, the organisers should have kept it old school and enabled us to print off the tickets at home. Our frustration didn't last long, the box office was brilliant, painstakingly looking up everyone's details and issuing us with proper tickets. 

I'm glad we had a few beers in 'Spoons, as always the wait at the Civic bar never improves and at £7.50 an effin' pint we decided to make that costly drink last! Whilst waiting to get served Jon chatted to a man from Prague and another bloke from Bradford, both of whom had traveled to Wolves especially to see Roisin. 

Funky dance act, Crazy P, was the support.

We bumped into a fabulous chick we first met during our vintage fair days!

Amanda was right, the crowd was mostly fifty plus and stylish in that cool, non-mainstream, festival-going way (no ath-leisure or beige co-ords here!) Popular amongst the female fans were Docs & metallic boots, dungarees, cropped wide-legged pants, sequinned bomber jackets, black berets and sharp bobs with fringes. The males favoured black framed specs, chores jackets, jeans with turn-ups, Breton tops, Docs & monkey boots. As usual, with my vintage maxi dress and clanking tribal jewellery, I looked like nobody else but got lots of compliments. 

Much as we hate people watching a live performance through their mobile phones Jon couldn't resist recording a couple of snippets (standing well away from the crowd!)

Much as I adore Roisin's back catalogue, I also love her recent stuff. I'm not one of those boring old sods who moans about all modern music being rubbish; brilliant, life-affirming new music is like fabulous clothes, it's out there, you just need to get off your backside and look for it. 

What can I say, Roisin blew us away with her mad costume changes, by doing press-ups and side stands on stage (my daily routine minus the adoring crowd) and with her gorgeously pure voice. Who says you can't be a rock god in your 50s?  

After dancing for four hours we caught the bus home, collapsing into bed in the early hours of Sunday morning, ears ringing and feet throbbing. What a night! 

Of course, it's not all been pure pleasure seeking. While Jon cracked on with prepping the middle room for its makeover, I rummaged through my fabric stash and made a patchwork panel from scraps of Indian & Afghan textiles, motifs and trims I'd accumulated over the years.  

I emptied out my wardrobes, donated an armload of vintage dresses to the Kinky Shed and whilst I was in there nicked the shoe rack and reorganised my boots.

The craft cupboard got a sort out and the fashion, craft & textile books were dusted.

 

My two Lundby Gothenburgs and Mum's 1940's Tri-Ang had a spring-clean (and I might have had a little play at the same time!)

Sick of having to get all my hats out of the wardrobe in order to find the right one, I decided to hang them on the wall. Moving my boots meant that the bricked-up fireplace was exposed so I repurposed an old 1930s dressing table mirror which had been on top of the wardrobe in our bedroom for years. 

The chimney breast is a bit of an odd shape so I hid it behind a string of postcards from my stash.

Oh yeah....in keeping with this Victorian papier mache cabinet that we bought for a fiver from a charity shop a couple of years ago....

Jon gave the cabinet he'd painted black last weekend the Banksy treatment and spray painted a couple of birds on the doors.

Book-wise I managed to finish A Crowning Mercy by Bernard Cornwell which I'd started last week but I'm still reading Edith Hamilton's Mythology.

I've just started Matthew Kneale's English Passengers. I found Chloe Grimshaw's New London Style in a charity shop during the Covid years and although I've leafed through the photos hundreds of times, I finally read the text over the weekend.

These homeowners decorate just like we do - combining inherited pieces with stuff hauled out of skips, found on their travels abroad or bought at a pittance from car boot sales and charity shops. Things are repurposed, painted, distressed or wrapped in fabric - there's no rules or following trends, the interiors reflect who the homeowners are and not what's currently in vogue. 

There's loads of cheap secondhand copies available on Abebooks. (If you need to see more detail, you can click on my photos to enlarge them.)

Still with me? I'm impressed, I don't half rabbit on sometimes!

I'll be back later this week with tales of art and adventure.....

Vix's Vintage Makeover - From Mediocre Maxi To Tarted Up Tribal

'Scuse the bare face and ratty bun, it was early on Sunday morning

 Like last week's nightie this Paula Lee, England maxi dress was another £3 find at the Moseley Vintage Fair. Despite it being a child's dress labelled to fit height 60" and me being 63" (when you're a stumpy arse those three inches make all the difference) it fitted well. The sleeves were flouncy, the colour matched my nails and it was made from that gorgeous gauzy cotton that I love but I hated the feeble neck frill and being plain it was bordering on the mediocre.

A rummage around the house produced this scruffy old Rajasthani tourist tat bag I'd bought in Goa years ago and some Indian pom pom braiding from Walsall market. After removing the frill from the neck, I tore out the lining from the bag, cut the fabric into sections and layered them over the bodice, blanket stitching them into place with red embroidery thread to create a bit of a tribal look, I then finished the bodice off with my signature pom pom trim. Five hours and a calloused forefinger later, this was the result.

With added patchwork and pom poms it's far more me.

Yep, five hours of hand-sewing. In normal circumstances I'd have called it a day after a couple of hours and given my poor middle-aged eyes a rest but not now. Jon spotted this £7 anglepoise lamp in a chazza the other day and snapped it up. At home I Googled the manufacturer's name The Daylight Company and discovered that this model retails for £104 and that it's a specially developed, London-designed task light suitable for reading & doing close work for hours at a time.

It's not the most attractive thing in our house but it's pretty fantastic. 

Tribal-style vintage maxi worn with bespoke pompom & patchwork bag (Xmas present, handmade by Liz), Suede ankle boots (Schuh sale, 2016), silver jewellery, mostly from India except the disco ball earrings (Walsall market, 25p)

Don't worry, I've got my thermal leggings on underneath and I'll be adding a coat, hat and gloves when I leave the house. It's freezing out there!

Linking to Patti's Visible Monday before I spend Monday afternoon in Wetherspoons.