Adding A Little Cheer

One of my best friends came to see me today in the Lady K Loves studio, it's been raining all week, again, and even though Christmas is just a breath away, it's still easy to feel a little down in the dumps at this time of the year. One of my techniques to battle this is to wear something which cheers you up, normally for me something shiney will help, but fringing, pom poms, and fun prints can all help.....
But back to my friend....who's been a little down today and arrived in a lovely black cardigan with black beading down the front, informing me that it worked! And had helped keep her up beat all day.

So here's my 3 top tips on dressing to cheer yourself up.

1 - Shiney!
See above....shiney, tassles, anything which will catch your eye every so often and bring a smile to your face. I find shiney works the best becuase it also gives the suggestion that you're super glamours, which helps you feel better.....I normally go for a beaded cardigan option here....or a Lady K Loves Bernie jumper (new lurex knit in the pipe line for next year too!)

2 - Heels!
Now I guess this doesn't work if you struggle to walk in them, I learnt by doing all of the hoovering and washing up at Uni in heels....it made me feel less like someone's mum cleaning up after people and meant I practised in the house where no one could see me trip and with something to hold on to! I find even a small heel gives you that little bit of swing to your hips as you walk around making you feel like you stepped  out of Hollywood, for extra boost, add some seamed stockings, they never fail to make you feel fabulous.

3 - Red lips!
Now this doesn't always work, becuase for me as I'm sure many of you, red lipstick is a daily thing. It was in fact the first bit of make-up I started wearing daily, before even mascara and eyeliner! But it still does the job, taking that little bit of extra time to get the shape just so, or maybe it's the case that you use a slightly different colour, add some gloss...whatever it is that gives it that special feel to pick you up.

So what helps you keep feeling cheery and a little on the glamours side?

Time To Relax

So recently I've been so busy I'm struggling to fit everything which needs to be done, done and more so, struggling to find time to relax....So I'm trying to find new ways to switch off so I can have some mental space....rather than staying awake until 2 in the morning!

The thing which always works for me is running...this of course is pretty time dependant as you can't always fit it in. However nothing helps focus the mind and relax the body as much as running with or with out some music.

Previously yoga is another one which has worked for me. But again this is really something which you need some time to be able to do.

Sometimes all that is needed is a lovely hot bath and a book....though the last time I tried that I woke up afterwards and couldn't sleep until really late!

What's your tips and tricks on relaxing?

End Of Summer Party

This is long overdue! I've been a terrible blogger...however I have been going out and doing things, which is probably more interesting and a much better way to be!
So at the end of the summer a company called Ecotricity had a wonderful works party, on top of a lovely hill near one of their turbines. If you don't know about Ecotricity, it's worth having a find out, they're an energy supplier with morals! Extremely green and earth positive.
The night had an Alice in Wonderland theme, and drinks included cocktails in teapots and tea cups...plus one made up for the night called a Mad Hatter, which was vodka, mint, lime, and cucumber with elderflower and soda water....very refreshing and a little lethal! The decorations were wonderful....lots of great ideas for a party.

 The bunting you can see here, was strings of cards simply stapled to ribbon, it was really effective and looked lovely!

Adventure Weekend Part 2

You may have read about part one, here - when I went to see The Kat Men and The Caezars the other week.....

Now for part two, otherwise known as Sunday!

We went to Bath, well first we went to McDonalds drive through in Filton, drank chocolate milkshakes with double espresso's in (the best thing post drinking!), whilst sat looking at the MoD building there which is a pretty impressive complex.

Then on the road to Bath, we got lost...or rather we found a few new roads we didn't know about in Bath, it transpires Miss Wild isn't the best navigator (to her credit she never said she was), so we adventured a little!

Once parked we walked to the Green Park Station, which is a beautiful old structure. This was a fashion fair rather than the normal general vintage fair. There was so much option, and some really lovely peoples stands.

I brought a lovely white angora cap sleeve sweater with silver, and white sequins around the neck line....oh Christmas perfect! Tried on lots of glasses and saw my lovely friends who run Apex Diner. I'd not seen them for about a year since there wedding last year....so it was lovely so see then once more. And being the lovely kind people they are, they gave me a puddy cat! I love these mid century cats (I also have a pair of poodles in the same style) It was a thank you for some sewing help I gave them for their wedding with Sians dress.

 You can just about see the new sweater I brought in these pictures....it was so pretty I had to wear it straight away.

The fair was great, I would definitely recommend it to any one interested in any era, and if you're after great home-wares check out Apex Diner.

Kat Men & The Caezars

This weekend has been exhausting. But in the best way possible. A lot of you will have been at Hemsby 49.....just a little jealous of that....however there were plenty of fun things happening locally to me to keep the weekend full of fun and happy!

First off was Saturday night in Bristol. Me and the lovely Miss Wild, hopped into the car, check the oil, tires and fan belts (with head scarf and rubber gloves on so as not to get dirty hands....I looked quite a sight at the petrol station!) A quick paint of the nails....(yes really! Best tip for painting your nails, do it just before you set off on a long enough journey if you're driving. You don't use your hands in such as way that the varnish will get ruined. Genius!) At this point Miss Wild told me she gets really bad motion sickness and is a nervous passenger....O! We made it sickness free thankfully!

After a swift visit through Bristol, which made us both feel very much like country folk out in the city, we went to a friends to get ready. And realised I'd forgotten my curling tongs. Useless! An attempt at curling hair with straighteners later and we hit the bus, hair pinned up, looking like so......

A short wander through town and we find some where to have a drink...then on to the boat.....as we queue up Miss Wild realises that she's scared of boats and gets sea sick! It was very funny..bless her, not the best traveller apparently!..She made it in side and we did our best to ignore that it was a boat.... a little tequila and she was fine!

First up was The Caezars, who I've seen before, and along with being lovely guys, bring a lot of energy and dynamism to the stage.  (Photo thanks to DeeJay Rockaphonic)

Followed by the headline act, The Kat Men, made up of guitarist, Darrel Higham and is also lead guitarist for his wife, Imelda May and Slim Jim Phantom, of Stray Cats fame along with Al Gare, who plays alongside Darrel in Imelda's band. They have what I always think is an unconventional  set up, with small drum kit up the front of the stage. Not to disappoint, they played great and got the crowd going! (picture from their facebook site, I think it's from the night before, it's definiately not from the boat!). Next time you see either of these bands are touring, hop to it!

Being a Saturday night, the venue went into normal club mode around 10/10:30...so we went off in search of fun. With a bar tenders recommendation, we arrived at Mothers Ruin, it looks great, a really cool looking little pub in one of the older parts of Bristol near the river, looks and feel like it should be full of tattooists and cool people. Sadly the music was awful, played by someone who looked like she missed out on being a Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air extra, which was fitting since I'm pretty sure I did hear a bit of Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince (so bored of this stupid 90's comeback from rubbish hipster kids! It looked terrible the first time, don't make me look at it again!). However, even though it was a terrible bar we made friends with some lovely people from the gig....we might have started a rumour whilst talking to The Caezars that this was THE bar to go to so we felt kind of responsible for everyone ending up there (I'm sure we're not that influential!)..so we had a great night doing a bit of shameless promo with our new friends and half the band! (Please excuse the pictures....they are terrible, I broke my phone recently and none of the buttons can be relied upon to work!)

 Actually looking at Caezers badges....honest!

 There was a lot of hugging considering we'd only just met that night!

 The best graffiti ever! No effort made to make it look pretty, or even spell it right......just get the point across nice and simply.

 And when I put my jacket on the next day to go to Bath this was stuck to it....I'm pretty sure I wasn't back stage! I'm not sure where it came from or how it ended up on me....gotta be a good night right there....

A Wiggle In Your Walk

Well it looks like the seasons have wasted no time in changing, and it's going to be a cold and wet winter, in the UK at least. Which has had my reaching for the hosiery already. I'm relatively tall and find tights never sit at the right place, they're either too short in the leg and give you what I can only describe as the penguin from Mary Poppins or  too long and you look like Nora Batty.

So stockings are the answer. Being a seamstress I've built up a collection of suspender belts made by myself too. Much wider, flatter and plainer that a lot you can get hold of with out going to specialist shops. Plus the best bit, metal clips! Horrible plastic ones all ways come undone. As the weathers turned I've just replaced some of my supply so I'll be ok for the first few throws of the miserable weather, I'm a fan of black on nude, and have the standard nude on nude, black on black and red on black. What Katie Did does great ones and some times offers 3 for £15 too. 

But, with a couple of weddings coming up, I've been looking for some other colours. Not too weird, just I thought it would be really lovely to have navy on nude, or grey, or plum, teal.....colours which tie in with my winter wardrobe and aren't just black which can be a little harsh against some colours......this is what I found

Stockings HQ are my new favourite place....blue on skin, black on baby pink....LUREX on black! I don't know where to start buying and can see a very big shopping bill on the horizon.

The other good place I found was Pamela Mann, who do a chocolate on chocolate seamed stocking. But currently my dream of grey on nude, or plum on nude are nothing more than day dreams.

And that was sort of it, I'm not sure if I'm impressed or unsurprised at the lack of any real option past the basic colours.

Boots!

For the past few years I've spent the beginning of the autumn looking at boots....I have big feet for a girl, size 8 (uk) and it can be hard to find nice shoes and boots which will be as hard wearing as I need them to be. I destroy my shoes. I don't mean to, I'm just really heavy on them, I'm on my feet alot, I expect everything to be up to the amount of crap I'll give it. So in my search for the perfect boots, I found Silvermans. I love this site! They do Military, Service, Biker and Outdoor gear. The site is massive....but I always come back to the biker boot selection. A great collection of biker and engineer boots.

Last year I was drooling over the Grinder boots...these to be precise.

So I've been putting a bit aside all year so I can just buy them, and of course, now I'm looking and thinking...well what about these

Yes, I know, They look pretty much the same, they're just oil treated leather and about £60 more expensive....Which makes them about £60 better right?

So either way, that's one boot dilemma sorted, I just need to find me the perfect cowboy/girl boots now!

The Bellfuries

Back in August, I went to go and see The Bellfuries at the HMV Institute in Birmingham. I drove up with a lovely friend of mine who regularly does food stands at weekenders and also runs a machine embroidery company called Sew Bijou. We along with some other lovely friends such as the Miss O'Rain family, were all staying in a criminally cheap hotel about 10 minuets walk away from the venue. It's also the home town of the wonderful Cam from Bow & Crossbones.

The day started fantastically, it was sunny, we had music, the drive is just about the right distance. Once checked in at the hotel, I popped over to Cam's for a delicious dinner, then we all went to the hotel to get ready. Which basically involved all the girls in one room while the guys sat at the bar, 2 + hours later we swapped, half an hour later we left for the venue!

I made new friends at the bar.....

I was testing a pattern for a new top...what do you think of it? Strapless bustier with wing detail....not really the greatest picture!

The Bellfuries were fantastic, I love, having seen lots of the official pictures, how many swooning girls there were down the front! It was also, to memory the first live band I've jived to and I had a fantastic time! A massive thanks to Jordan from The Straight Aces for organising it! Pictures thanks to Chris Martin.

Wedding Fun

I'm not going to post too many photo's here or go into massive details as it wasn't my wedding and that's kinda rude to post loads of photo's from your friends wedding. But I did attend the wonderful Betty Flower's wedding the other weekend. So here's some photo's of me being a dork and being completely over excited and over emotional.......

The day was beautifully sunny and sandwiched in between two wet days. which was worrying since it was a completely out door picnic reception. Betty and Ben looked stunning, the bridesmaids looked beautiful and everyone was full of smiles...there was a CANDYFLOSS machine and ice-cream. and cocktails.....and hola hooping, and bubbles, and crochet, and ..did I mention it was Hawaiian themed?

The Well

Out and about doing a little fabric shopping to re-search fabrics available for some of the lovely new styles we're working on in Bristol the other day. We stopped for tea and cake, mid afternoon at the beginning of Gloucester road (where it's actually Cheltenham road), in this lovely little cafe, called @The Well. Which is also a laundrette and internet cafe! The menu includes deals and prices for self service washes with lunch or breakfast while your wait for your load, and the whole place is decorated in the sweetest way. If only we lived in Bristol......sigh......