by Carla Louise | Nov 4, 2011 | Uncategorized |
I feel like I should copy this post across to Project Pin Up, it was so very vintage and pin up-esque! (edit – collage pic is over there with a link back here and to Mimi’s post!)
Last Saturday, the lovely Lou from Contrariety Rose came to stay, and after a morning of revamping her website and eating chocolate, we met Mimi for our first workshop at Make Do and Mend in Chelmsford. Mimi’s lovely husband Carl drove us there, and when we arrived some of the other ladies were already there, drinking tea and chatting.
Set up so that we were all around the same table, with an individual mirror and shared bottles of setting lotion and water spray, we started with pin curls and victory rolls. Hannah (who owns Make Do and Mend) showed us how to reserve a section of hair for the victory roll, and then to pin curl the rest. Once this was done (Mimi’s was most successful, Lou’s hair is very short at the moment and mine is incredibly long, thick and unruly) we wrapped our hair in scarves and let it dry. Hannah explained that usually this would be done before sleeping. Clearly, as it was mid-afternoon, sleeping was off the agenda, and more tea and biscuits while swapping stories and tips with the other girls was definitely on!
Here we are putting our pin curls in.
We then set to work on the victory roll section. Those with very short hair or a fringe had a helping hand from some of Hannah’s vintage roll-safety-pin contraptions (sadly you can’t buy these any more new) and the rest of us rolled and pinned and unrolled and rolled and pinned… and repeated. I eventually discovered, after several attempts, that I was trying to roll far too much hair at once. Ditching some of it (extra pin curl, anyone?) meant I finally got a roll/quiff type structure, which I promptly drenched in hairspray!
We then moved on to makeup, with Hannah showing us how to do a 1940s eyeliner flick. This is a brilliant concept which I really struggled with, was fine on my right eye but rubbish on my left – without my glasses I can’t see much at all out of my right eye so have always struggled (and with my day to day makeup, pretty much do it by feel). However, practise makes perfect and I at least now have the technique to work on!
Winged eyeliner, red lips and sweeps of blusher done, we were ready to unpin our pin curls. These had varying degrees of success, depending on the type of hair, the tightness of the curl and whether or not we’d actually let it dry properly (if you unwrap a damp pin curl, it will just go straight instead of springy and bouncy).
To no one’s surprise, the majority of my hair refused to curl, so I put it up in a fifties style ponytail which looked pretty good with my roll/quiff contraption. Mimi’s hair fell in soft waves, and Lou’s curled around her head in a surprisingly ruly fashion (her hair is so short in places we weren’t sure it would work at all!)
We met the lovely Karen of Essex Vintage Weddings, and lots of other ladies too – I hope to go back and do another workshop now I’ve had my hair cut and it’s a bit more manageable. Invested in some setting lotion at the weekend too so I could practise… quite when I’m going to fit this in to my ridiculous schedule I don’t know, but I’d love to be able to do vintagey hair more often 🙂
by Carla Louise | Oct 16, 2011 | Collecting, Thrifting |
**This is an old draft from a month or so ago. Since then I have decided to put the shop launch on hold indefinitely, and sort out myself, my life and my finances first. Which seems surprisingly sensible for someone as impulsive as me! Stay tuned…**
Mum and I went stock hunting for my new Etsy shop (launching soon! Squee!) a couple of weekends ago. To nobody’s surprise, I couldn’t resist adding a couple of pieces to my own collections as well as buying things to sell on. I am an incurable hoarder!
First up was this gorgeous musical box, shaped like a bookshelf. I couldn’t not bring it home!
Then I was relatively good for the rest of the day, until ten minutes before we left when I spotted this little beauty, and decided that even if he was expensive he had to come home with me. He wasn’t, and he did, and now lives on my mantelpiece!
In true Carla style, I could quite happily keep all the stuff I’ve bought for the shop – but I will do my best to keep it as stock. Unless it refuses to sell…
by Carla Louise | Jul 18, 2011 | Collecting, Thrifting |
A mixture of locations this week, I snuck into town while the boys were out playing golf just once during my time at the Open, but in the couple of hours I was there found an utterly gorgeous green tea dress with laced detail back. It is so unassuming on the hanger that I’ve failed to get a decent picture of it, but will put it on and shoot it soon 🙂
I also nearly bought a 50s tablecloth with pub signs on it from Vintage By The Sea, but couldn’t justify £25 on a tablecloth and the proprietor’s attitude changed a bit when she realised I was uncertain about buying it, which put me off. The shop, on the other hand, was so pretty I had to take photos (not very good ones, I admit):
Then while I was out with Mum on Saturday, I found:
Polka dot work dress:
Donkey cross stitch kit
Vintage glass jelly mould – which is going to look awesome in my kitchen!
Sewing book – this is both wonderfully nostalgic and completely hilarious, it has sections in it for things like ‘The Tummy-bulge Type!’ and ‘The Half-size, or Diminutive Type’ which cracked me up!
Inside detail:
I’m going to try and make something from this and see how good their advice is – it was published in 1958-1960 so will be interesting to see what’s changed (if anything!)
Also picked up a couple of particularly pretty scarves:
and of course there are my bottles and tin from Brighton. A good week for thrifting, I’m sure you’ll agree!
by Carla Louise | Jul 17, 2011 | Acquired, Books, Collecting, Thrifting |
I adore Brighton. I don’t go very often, but whenever I do I bounce around like a lunatic before the trip, and I’m just so excited while I’m there. It’s full of the most gorgeous shops, people and things.
This time, as before I went with lovely Lou, who is also fabulously inspiring. We had somewhat of a pin-up inspired day, and I came home with three prints and two sheets of wrapping paper covered in vintage style pin up ladies (my three prints are all Gil Elvgren, I have a book of his which I also adore). Photos of these are being withheld until I’ve finished redecorating my flat in August, as they feature quite heavily!
Following the theme, I found a beyond gorgeous book just before we left, about lingerie design and construction. Which sounds quite weird, but with Floozie Friday and all, and having a couple of talented sewists in my circle of close friends, I think it’s high time we branched out into making knickers! More of that to come… but here’s the book and its amazon link, everyone who loves sewing should own a copy. It’s almost like a blog in book form, beautifully put together.
Longer review to come 🙂
We found a cat in a (different) bookshop, too:
We did some of the antique/flea markets too (although I could happily spend six weeks doing those, I swear… I never see everything!) and Lou found the perfect vintage dress, while I found a fabulous tin that once housed saddle soap, and a collection of old glass bottles (which I really hope have survived the journey home from Brighton via Kent to Essex :S) Planning to display them in my living room, possibly as vases, possibly on their own. 🙂
How was I supposed to resist a glass bottle that said ‘Princess Alice’?! (centre of bottom row)
by Carla Louise | Jun 9, 2011 | Personal Development, Thrifting |
Ok, so I’ve missed a couple of Thursdays… this week I’ve been ill Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, and off work Tuesday and Wednesday, so have had more time than usual to scribble stuff down that makes me happy.
- Weddings. I love wedding blogs, I love helping to plan my friends’ weddings, I love going to friends’ weddings. They just make me daftly happy!
- Inspiring business planning with Lou at the weekend – I think between us we might do the kick starting we’re not really managing alone while working full time and juggling all our other commitments.
- Skating – see previous post, I think I have a new addiction!
- Daft girlie films – Legally Blondes, Aquamarine, Glee…
- My blue hair had its first outing and got lots of compliments, this made me happy 🙂
- Slapa 2! For those not in the know, Slapa was lovely Les’s car (yep, an MR2, how did you guess?!) which sadly met her demise on a corner in Tuscany… she rolled. Les and Anne got out unhurt but Slapa is no more. This made me incredibly sad, but yesterday they posted that they’ve found a new Slapa, she’s silver and can have the plate transferred – so they’ll be at CAE with a ‘2! 😀
- Christina Perri. I have a bit of a (unrealistic, as I don’t do tattoos lol) style crush and I love Jar of Hearts. Which I very much wasn’t expecting to! Adore the dress she’s wearing in the video as well!
- The Pinup Body workout. I’ve not been to one of these yet, but Naomi happened to mention it and it looks amazing! Definitely on my to-do list 🙂
- A new member for Etc Collective, on the strength of our exhibition – can’t really put into words how happy this makes me. However this also means the pressure is on to find a new exhibition space!
- My vintage duvet cover – it’s absolutely gorgeous! And fits my floral/vintage room perfectly… and is so much better quality than I could buy new. And has withstood three hot washes without shrinking or damaging or fading. Perfect.
Here we are putting our pin curls in.
