Museum Wandering At The V&A

Well hey there guys! How are we all doing? Last weekend a good friend of mine was in London and we went on a little museum adventure. We hit the Tate Modern to check out the new building on the Saturday, and on the Sunday we ventured into the V&A.

I wore this sample Lindy Bop dress that the ultra-babe Bethany gave to me (perks of having friends in high places ;) ) back in May because it's my favourite. I wish they had more in this style - it's so comfortable! The 60's style boat neck also features little bows on the sleeves, which is my favourite feature.

The V&A has the best fashion exhibition on for free, spanning five centuries and featuring a few of my favourite things. This 1700s Court Mantua leaves me speechless every time! First of all, the sheer size of the thing is gorgeous insanity. Then there's the craftsmanship of the fabric itself with it's metallic embroidery.
Also - SLEEVES.

Corsetry has fascinated me since I was young. These early 16/1700s stays are no exception! The bottom stay is probably my favourite historical corset of all time. It might not be the most supportive, but you have to love how it looks!

I'm a real sucker for bows on sleeves, evidently!

This Schiaparelli necklace is SO my thing! I'm on the lookout for plastic pinecones to make my own version for autumn, I love it that much.

There's so much at the V&A that it's impossible to look through all of it in one day, let alone post about it! But these are some of my favourite pieces. Have you been before?

Necklace&Bangles; Vintage
Dress; Lindy Bop (sample)
Brooch; Luxulite
Bag; Zatchels
Shoes; Rocket Originals

A Pin Up Picnic... In A Bar!

Every year, The British Belles put on a little meet in London of pin ups and vintage style lovers. The original was named Pin Up Picnic In The Park - since it was pin ups... in a park. But sadly we're British and rain moved the event from Hyde Park to cocktails at Barrio Shoreditch. And so it was a Pin Up Picnic.. In A Bar!!

I always have big ideas about making special themed outfits for events like these, since they're a great excuse for real dressing up. The problem with that idea, though, is I'm too lazy and busy to do that, and I end up picking out whatever is clean on the morning of.

I ended up picking up my Check, Please! dress, because in my world, gingham is a neutral. I made this dress in 2013 and it's the only one from my early sewing that I still wear!

It's been so long since I went to any sort of event that I feel like I've forgotten how to socialise! I spent a lot of my time with my housemate Ellie outside sheltering from the rain.

But don't think that I didn't have fun! Barrio Shoreditch was a great, colourful venue that was the perfect backdrop for cocktails and meeting friends old and new. Plus, there was a lot of tips about hair being thrown around - and I love hair tips!

I've mentioned my anxiety before, but I was wondering if you guys deal with it and any tips and tricks? I need to push myself to go to more events, but that pesky anxiety really gets in the way!

I know I've posted about The George bag before, but it's still my absolute favourite designs we do. I'd suggest grabbing a George item now if you've wanted one. The line is being discontinued! We do have a new pub design on pre-order, if you do miss out.

Hair Flower&Necklace; Handmade
Cardigan; Collectif (old)
Dress; Handmade
Brooch; Luxulite
Bag; Vendula London
Shoes; Melissa

When No Inspiration Strikes

I've spent so long trying to write a post about this outfit. 

I've been trying to be witty, or profound or informative. But I'm uninspired.

Over the last few weeks I’ve been in this little rut. There’s a dip in my moods and depression has been riding on my back to remind me it’s there all the time. It's been a bit difficult. I'm tired, irritated, unhappy and completely uninspired.

Motivation to do everyday things has run thin, I can't bring myself to get out of bed or complete simple enough tasks. It sucks.

The good news is that I'm working on it. Accepting help has been quite terrifying for me, as though I was giving into my mental illness. But it's not that at all, it's helping me live with something that affects my daily life.

I've become so aware of myself in recent weeks that I'm torn in two ways - in one, I'm learning on how to better myself. In the other, understanding myself has meant I'm too overwhelmed to actually do anything about it. But slowly I'm changing my thought processes, challenging myself daily and finding small pockets of motivation to carry out tasks.

I'm pushing on through, trying to refocus and work out my long term goals and ambitions. Starting to take a little better care of myself and my appearance and dressing nicer. And most importantly for my state of mind - I'm managing to get my mojo back with creativity and am drawing and sewing a bit more!

Progress is progress, right?

• Cardigan; Collectif
• Earrings; Bow and Crossbones
• Brooch; Luxulite
• Dress & Necklace; Handmade
• Belt & Sunglasses; Primark
• Bag; Sunjellies
• Shoes; Melissa 

Some Southern Hospitality

The UK had a heatwave.
As we're Brits, we loooove a chat about the weather, and bloody hell guys it was HOT.

So over the weekend I managed to grow balls and sweat them off -  just in time to spend a few days with my sister-in-law and end up in a Coheed and Cambria mosh pit on the hottest day of the year. Seeing both the sister-in-law and Coheed were amazing, but the heat was a little less ideal!

As soon as hot weather comes in, I have this mental image of me wearing white eyelet lace sundresses and frolicking in tall grass having picnics and prosecco with beautiful sun kissed friends. In reality, I'm hiding under a tree with a warm cider with food thrown down myself complaining about how much I sweat.

Mmm, what a gorgeous mental image.

But hell, I never learn anything and ended up buying this top from Primark because MY GOD isn't it cute? I'm such a sucker for a frilled bardot and the aforementioned white eyelet lace, so this was kinda a necessary purchase. (Is any Primark purchase really that necessary, though?) It fulfils my summer dreams - regardless of the fact I dropped food down it and dyed the inside pink...

My love for gingham is everlasting, though, and this top was just so perfect for my Blue Gingham Skirt, that was blogged about last year. It reminds me of a stereotypical sort of Southern-American sweetheart, bar the overplayed accent, pigtails and penchant for country music!

• Hair Flowers; Lady Lucks Boutique
• Necklace; Handmade
• Top; Primark
• Brooch; Luxulite
• Bangles; Vintage and Splendette
• Bag; Vintage
• Shoes; Miss L Fire

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Celebrating One Year at Vendula London - And a GIVEAWAY!

Okay, okay.

I know I go on about Vendula London all the time. I know you've seen so many of their products on my blog posts and Instagram. But hey, last week I celebrated one whole year with the company, so I wanted to take a little moment to talk about the brand, show you where I work - and oh yeah, there's a GIVEAWAY!

Now I'm sure you already know Vendula London is a handbag and accessory brand. Started in 2003, it's animal-friendly and only uses faux leathers - but are also some of the most interesting, and importantly, intricate items you'll probably ever see. Each bag and purse are printed, embossed and appliquéd to be completely original and incredibly detailed, so much so that even the backs are printed!

My main job (other than running around China and Japan ;) ) is actually running our only retail store - settled in an adorable little place off London's Southbank called Gabriel's Wharf. The little shopping square is just up from the iconic OXO tower and features sole traders and designer/makers, creating a unique boutique experience which is just wonderful to be a part of.

Our most popular designs are our Shop Front styles - handbags and purses in a range of sizes and prices with shop-front-themed detailing. You've seen a few of these styles on the blog before as they're my personal favourite styles we do, the ones featured in this photo are new for SS17 - The Biscuit Shop, The Diner (!) and the Sewing Shop (!!)

But we're not limited to just the Shop Fronts! We also have our pastel dream of a Charm range all nicely organised at the back of the shop, where you can customise your plain bag with box sets of Charms - Or as I do, mix and match as jewellery too!

We've got other unique styles in store, too - this season we've got the Caravan, Butterfly Explorer and Parrot Paradise (and some good sale stuff, juuuuust saying!) in stock, and really, I'd love for you all to come and experience Vendula London in this little shop!

Now - the exciting part! You can now have a chance to win your own Vendula London bag!

We're giving away either a Sewing Shop or Diner Box Bag to one lucky winner - Entry is simple, go on Vendula London's website and tell me what your favourite item is in a comment and follow me and Vendula London on Instagram!

And for a whopping 6 extra entries, follow me on Bloglovin' and both of us on Facebook!

a Rafflecopter giveaway



Good luck, guys!

And in the mean time, if you fancy popping down and saying hi, here's our address;

Vendula London Shop

Gabriel's Wharf

Unit 15, 56 Upper Ground

London

SE1 9PP

Tips on Spring Cleaning Your Wardrobe!

In thoery it's spring. In theory. But I live in Britain and sometimes we get a weekend of summer and then it starts snowing by midweek, because this country is ridiculous, basically.

Last weekend whilst it was beautifully sunny and warm, Dia&Co gave me a bit of inspiration to take the risk and decided to spring clean my wardrobe, swapping out all the winter items for spring ones!

If you're anything like me, you'll be exchanging your tartans for your ginghams, your dark colours for your lights and those cotton sun dresses are ready to go!
Every spring I do a little purge of items I either don't or can't wear whilst I'm switching, and I wanted to share with you a few things I do to clear up some items ready for selling, donating or throwing away.

First up - everything you own comes out of the wardrobe and storage. EV.RY.THING. Dump it on the floor or on your bed - and you've got the biggest mess of clothing you've ever seen. You're going to need a day and a bottle of wine, but I promise you it's worth the work!

I HAVE MADE A MISTAKE

Once you're facing your mess (and maybe already drinking to deal with it, I'm not judging you here) you're going to pick up every. single. item. in that pile and you're going to ask yourself a few honest questions.

1. Does it fit?
If it doesn't fit, it needs to go. Don't bullshit yourself that the size 16 dress you wore five years ago is going to fit you when you eventually slim down when you're a 22. Don't do that to yourself, no dress is worth you feeling bad about. Try it on if you're not sure, but if it makes you feel bad, it gets tossed aside.

2. Does it make you feel good?

This kinda fits in with the first one - if when you wear this item you feel like it doesn't fit right or it makes you uncomfortable in any way, get rid of it. Life is too short to wear things you hate.

This dress split as soon as I bought it - but it WILL be fixed!

3. Is it broken? Are you actually going to fix it?

I'm a sewist, and a lot of you reading this probably sew as well. We've all got piles of UFOs and garments that need adjusting. If it's something you love, repair it. If it's something you can live without, you can get rid of it - we all know if it goes into that pile it'll never be worn again!

If you're not a sewist and it's an item you don't want to spend money to fix, it's time to say goodbye. But remember buttons are so easy to sew on, no matter how bad you are with a needle.

4. Do I actually wear it?

This is where I'm a big fan of the humble outfit photo. I can look at my own Instagram and see what I wore and when, and if I'm looking at a wardrobe of items that I've not worn at all, clearly I don't need it. I can list off at least five items in my winter wardrobe I never wore at all over winter. It takes up space, bye bye! 

Wine may or may not have been consumed

Now whilst you're deciding what you are and aren't keeping (and if you're drinking wine, you've probably turned this into a drinking game and are currently wearing four dresses on your head...) is when I start putting things back in my wardrobe. Since we're going into spring, winter clothes go into vacuum bags, the real summery items have a small vacuum bag ready for when the hot weather comes in, and spring and interchangeable-season clothing goes back into that wardrobe.

So you're left with a pile of things with broken zips, stuff that hasn't fitted in a very, very long time, and that jumper you bought because it was cheap three years ago and it still has the tags on.

Since I'm in list mode, this is what you're going to organise your pile into;

Sell

If you've got some decent clothes in good condition which have a decent resell value - sell it and make a little bit of money. I sell a lot of my branded clothes and accessories on Facebook groups for ease, and this works well with vintage too. Don't bother sticking everything you own on eBay though, that takes far too long! 

As cute as this skirt is, it's been worn a total of twice over the last three years; to Facebook sales with ye!

Donate

Did you know that charity shops are able to profit off 98% of donations? That's a good way of decluttering AND feeling good about yourself - every little bit helps! Whether you're deciding to just get rid of everything in one go, or you've got items that aren't either fit for sale or have no real resale value - fill a black bag full of your items and head down to the charity of your choice - Clutter Fairy has a great post about charity shops here. Alternatively - give to friends!

Trash

I'm calling this trash, but frankly - do not throw anything into landfill, guys! Most charity shops will accept unusable items in the form of 'ragging' - which the charity is paid for by the kilo, and is taken to be recycled and reused. Simply add it into your donation bag (I usually have a second bag of donations labelled 'ragging') and they'll go through it and pop it into their rag bags to be used all over the place.

This is where the clothes that have seen much better days go. You can't sell, give away or donate this stuff, but it has to go. I'm looking at you, overworn band t-shirt with holes and stains.

It barely looks any different! 

So you're done. Congratulations, drink more wine!

It's a pretty good way to spend a day, right? Now you know exactly what is in your wardrobe, you know it fits and it makes you feel good. Anything you've taken out is either money in your pocket, a new item for a friend, or going to a charity, and all of those options are frankly great.

So now you have a streamlined wardrobe and a few extra pennies - time to drunk order some new clothes or patterns so you can work on what you now know is your style!

I never want to do this again.

What are your tips and tricks for spring cleaning that wardrobe once you get to the new season? Let me know in the comments!

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On Outfit Posting and Body Image

In my new-found energy with making this blog, y'know, a fully-functioning blog without six-month gaps between each post - I've not only been making more of an effort to look good, but also grab actual photos of it so I can be vain as possible and post about my daily style.
You know, like actual bloggers do.

But sometimes it just doesn't work out the way you want it to.

This day in particular I loved my outfit. I made the top, skirt and the necklace which made me proud, but also I thought it just looked great. I whacked on my favourite faux leather jacket, threw my camera at my best friend and posed in front of Whole Foods thinking I looked the bees knees.

But looking at the photos made me a little exasperated - the image I had in my mind of what I looked like didn't stare back at me. In fact, I looked shorter and stockier than I think I've ever looked before, and it was disheartening.

I actually hated what I saw.

As my fingers hovered over "Delete" on these pictures, I realised something. You will not always look perfect. Maybe you'll pose wrong, or the light will make you look strange, or your camera does something weird to contort your body. Or maybe your mental image of yourself really just doesn't match up to your actual self.

Maybe you'll see a photo and kinda hate yourself.

This face makes me laugh, though. 

And maybe you'll post them up, because that's all part of you, in the end. Many years ago I hung up my self hatred, learned to love myself and say "fuck you" to the world - sometimes you have to say "fuck you" to yourself and that voice in your head that tells you that you're not enough, let alone perfect.

Headscarf: Vintage

Earrings: Bow and Crossbones

Necklace: Handmade

Jacket: Primark

Top: Handmade

Belt: Primark (old)

Skirt: Handmade

Bag: Vendula London (Disclaimer)
Shoes: Melissa

Because sure, I look short. I look fatter than usual. My cleavage wasn't as noticeable as it was in real life. My pose is all wrong.

But it's still beautiful, because it's me. And even when I don't look 'perfect', I still look beautiful.

Sakura Season

If you follow me on Instagram you would have seen that I was lucky enough to go to Tokyo again  last month.

One of the days I spent the morning wandering around the beautiful Shinjuku Gyoen - a gorgeous public garden which has traditional Japanese landscaping and two tea houses. I was even so lucky to see the first signs of cherry blossoms in the gardens, which made me somewhat emotional.

Naturally, I had to get some photos in front of the blossoms because I'm that sort of person. Less naturally, I had to drag a tripod to the other side of the world with me because I was on my own and had no one to take photos for me. This was not an easy task because of other people walking into the shot, and also using my phone as a remote meant a wonderful delay that often caught me off guard.

Don't I just look so happy?

But I was determined, damnit!

I won this Adalene skirt from Lindy Bop's daily Facebook competitions last year, and it really couldn't be much more perfect for this setting! With a border print of Japanese pagodas and Torii gates, cherry blossoms and cranes and even a background with Mount Fuji - it's such a beautiful skirt that I couldn't wait to wear whilst I was in Tokyo.

I'm not really into pink as I always imagined it would either wash me out or clash horrendously with my hair, and boy am I glad I was wrong! The colour is subtle and sweet but looks striking against black, and I'm a big fan of the button-down front.

Lindy Bop's sizing is notoriously disastrous, but I took a 22 in this based on the measurements of the size guide, and it was the perfect size for me, not too tight to cut me up, not too loose to fall off me - but the cotton does have a bit of give!

It also has pockets, and if you've followed me for long enough you might know I have a bit of a thing for them. Anything without pockets is a useless garment to me!

Away from the blossoms and into the shade, I'm wearing my well-loved Rachel coat from Collectif from years ago - and of course, a Vendula London Chocolatiers Grab Bag!

The bag is more of a Parisian feel than the skirt, a little shopfront of a patisserie with cakes and chocolates, which is actually incredibly popular in Japan, which clearly means it was a set meant to be, right? Right.

Coat: Collectif

Hair Flower: Lady Luck's Boutique

Earrings: Bow and Crossbones

Necklace: Handmade 

Top: Primark

Brooch: Luxulite

Belt: Primark

Skirt: Lindy Bop

Shoes: Melissa

Bag: Vendula London (Disclaimer)

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Snapshots of Tokyo

Happy New Year, loves!

I wanted to start 2017 on a good note and show off a few photos from the biggest highlight of my 2016 - I went to motherflippin' TOKYO.

Shibuya Crossing - The busiest crossing in the world!

Depending on how long you've known me, you may or may not know that in my very early teens I became obsessed with Japanese music and fashion, and it had been a dream for the longest time that I would go there.

So I was pretty excited when I got to go to Tokyo for a week with work to be on the Japan Shop Channel - Yeah. Not only did I go to Japan, I just happened to be on live Japanese TV too.

This is an actual screen grab of me being cheesy on actual TV.

My life is bloody brilliant!

I was there for a week and spent most of time around Takeshita Street/Harajuku/Shibuya, but I wanted to show you a few photos of my new favourite place in the world

This was just a cute place in Kayabacho, where I stayed.

Adorable Tokyo Station exclusive Hello Kitty - She's a train driver!

Sake barrels outside the Meiji Shrine in Harajuku 

Takeshita Street in Harajuku - where all the amazing Japanese Street Fashion brands are!

Ginormous Train Driver Pikachu in the Tokyo Station Pokémon Store!

Votives with thanks and wishes at Meiji Jingu

I'm not even sure what these were but it made a cute photo

A traditional wedding at Meiji Jingu - the kimonos were just too beautiful!!

The gigantic 1:1 scale Gundam at Odaiba. Odaiba is a man-made island off Tokyo that is mostly named after Pokémon towns. Yeah.

Ah damn, this post has made me miss it so much - I can't wait to go back again next month!

Have you ever been? Tell me your favourite places!