Clifton Hill Antique Costume and Textiles launch show

Last Thursday I was lucky enough to be given the opportunity to help out at a fantastic event to celebrate the launch of an antique clothes shop close to where I live in Bristol.

The event was hosted at Clifton Hill House, a lovely big building with plenty of space to accommodate all the different stalls and entertainment for the evening. Guests were invited to explore seven different themed rooms - each styled in a different era. Models dressed in clothes from each decade posed in each room with various props which really helped re create a  great sense of nostalgia!

Downstairs was filled with lots of inspiring stalls, selling vintage jewellery, clothes, crafts and records. Throughout the evening guests were entertained by a dj who played some great retro music as well as the wonderful Marionettes - a 1940's harmony trio who performed live and were absolutely fantastic!

Then at 8 o'clock the crowds gathered for a fashion show! During the day it had been my job to decorate the catwalk so that it would serve as a perfect backdrop for the clothes and models. Sue Fyfe-Williams - owner of Auntie's Vintage China and Jezebel Events had come up with the idea of creating a spring themed catwalk, using some beautiful silk antique shoes to plant spring flowers in and covering the catwalk with fake grass. I spent a very happy day in the sunshine planting all the flowers into the shoes and ensuring that the grass was firmly stuck down so that there were no trips and falls during the fashion show!

When finished I think it did look great and created the perfect setting to compliment the beautiful models and the vintage clothes they modelled.

Music from each era accompanied the models as they strutted their stuff - cheered on by an enthusiastic audience.

The evening really was a great success with a great turnout, and I felt really priveleged to be a part of it. Hopefully it will bring many customers to Clifton Hill Costume and Textiles shops - as well as all the other exhibitors and entertainers who were there.

Be sure to check out the following links for more information and some photographs of the event!

http://jezebelevents.blogspot.co.uk/ - events company ran by Ali Cook and Sue Fyfe-Williams who organised the evening

https://www.facebook.com/cliftonhillcostumeandtextiles?fref=ts - Vintage costume shop

http://www.themarionettesmusic.co.uk/ - The Marionettes singing trio

http://www.rosafayphotography.com/ - photographs of the evening

Things I want.....

Atrocious blogging by me lately - sorry about that folks, it has been a busy few weeks! I have lots of ideas for blog posts this week though so please keep reading!

With spring finally arriving I am lusting over lots of new clothes and really want to update my wardrobe. One thing I am desperately in need of is new shoes - I have been searching for a nice pair of  waterproof boots for about 2 years but have given up now for this year with summer approaching. I am quite picky when it comes to shoes, I don't like to invest unless I love them. So I finally found these shoes that I love but of course they are way out of my price range :( However I am not going to let that put me off and decided I will try and make exact replica's of them myself!

The shoes (shown below) are from the new summer collection by Penelope Chilvers and can be found via her website (for £109!) 

My plan is to buy some plain white plimsolls, get some multi coloured laces or alternatively some pretty ribbon and some fabric markers or paint. Stay tuned as I will definitely post some photos and a DIY when I am done!

 

Here are some other gorgeous clothes that I have my eye on at the moment:

Safari Print dungarees - Topshop

Floral shorts - Topshop

Black embroidered Kimono - Zara 
(I did give in and buy this today with birthday money!!)

April Updates

It has been a bit too long since my last blog post, I have been busy celebrating Easter with my family and keeping busy with various bits and pieces.

As a little update here is another one of my Mom's latest felt creations she made for me - a little wild goose as featured in the name of my blog. The photo was taken among some crocus flowers in our garden which have just about survived this cold weather!

It's Spring!

Although it's hard to believe when there is snow and cold weather across the UK, but yesterday was actually the first day of Spring! My housemate planted some bulbs in the garden a long time ago but we had completely forgotten about them so it was lovely to see some Crocus flowers emerge and open up in spite of the cold. Fingers crossed the weather will improve soon so we can start enjoying some sunshine!

Here is a quick study I did of the flowers in our garden which I made into a card for my Grandparents.

Go dance

This blog has many great pictures and gifs and has sucked up a lot of my time today: 

http://littlemovienerd.tumblr.com/

Why I love Handmade

Found this quote today whilst looking for inspiration in the University Library which pretty much sums up how I feel about handmade art and craft!

Note to self...

Found another blog to add to the many I now follow: Positive Inking

Beautiful hand lettering and positive thoughts combined! I need to look at this particular one every day...

Mothering Sunday

"What is a Mother but the sunshine of our days and the north star of our nights?"

Robert Braun

To a special Mom  who keeps hope in her heart for me when I have none, gives the best advice and always knows how to make me smile.

I love you, Happy Mothering Sunday xx

Sea of Love

Happy Anniversary to my parents - this is the card I made them. Unfortunately they are going to get it a day late as I  missed the post on Saturday...

If I was a rich girl...

I would do all of my shopping at Free People. They do the best boho/hippy chic clothes ever but unfortunately their prices are beyond ridiculous and don't quite match the whole ethic and lifestyle that they try to promote. Maybe one day when I have more money than sense I will shop there but until then I'll keep looking in the sale section of the website!

Here are some things I am currently lusting over:

Beaded silk chiffon gown (£800!!)

Stitch In Time Quilted Jacket (£128)

Vintage Tribe Yoga Bag (£425!! - That would pay for yoga classes for the rest of my life!)

Printed Cat Teepee - (£78)

Free people also have a really good blog which is good for motivational quotes, outfit inspiration, creative DIY's and music. They also do a weekly horoscope which for me is always scarily accurate. You can follow their blog here.

The Life of a Bowerbird

A little while ago whilst having a browse in Waterstones, I stumbled across this book and have since dithered many times on Amazon nearly buying it. I've decided to ask for it for my birthday now so roll on April! 

A bower-bird may be a fairly ordinary looking bird but their mating rituals and behaviour are so interesting! The males  will build a nest or structure and then collect and decorate it with sticks and colourful objects to attract his mate.

Sibella Court's book encourages readers to take a similar approach when creating a home - collecting miscellaneous trinkets and treasures and organising so they become a precious and vital part of your home. 

Sibella Court is am interior stylist, creative director and author who has also worked for Anthropologie as a stylist. I actually visited an Anthropologie shop in Sloane Sq last week and had a hard job leaving without buying anything as all the products were so lovely!

Anyway I am looking forward to owning this book as I am a bit of a Bowerbird myself so I can pick up a few tips on how to arrange and transform my collections so they don't just end up stashed away in boxes and drawers of my bedroom.

 

Whilst looking for photographs of Court's book I also found a good review on it over at Decor8 blog so be sure to check that out for more photos and information about the author.

I also remember that David Attenborough did a feature on the Bower bird in one of his documentaries for anyone wanting a bit more information on the curious and unique creatures.

http://decor8blog.com/2012/10/05/book-review-life-of-a-bowerbird-by-sibella-court/

A Package Of Love.... DIY

Many people seem to hate Valentines Day and find it depressing - but I reckon it's a good excuse to show all those you care about that you love them instead of just your partner. I put together a little package of love for my Grandparents to give them something to smile about on Thursday. 

The package included a card, lots of patterned paper hearts, some hand made heart hand warmers and instructions of how to use them.

Making the hand warmers is really easy:

1. Pick pretty fabric and cut out two heart shapes, pin right sides together and sew (leaving a small gap)

2. Turn inside out and fill the heart with rice. I also put some dried lavender in mine so they smelt nice too!

3. Sew up the small gap and voilà! All you need to do is pop them in the microwave for 20 seconds or so and then put them inside your gloves to warm up cold hands! 

Mosaic Woodpecker

I am creative because I have an equally creative Mother. She made this in just one day! She has been going to mosaic courses for a while and has made some amazing creations. Anyone who assumes that mosaics are tacky should see some of the beautiful things that have been created by my Mom, her class mates and tutor - they are works of art.

Love Songs

My favourite love songs. I tried to narrow it down to 14 (for Valentine's day)  but there are so many that I wanted on the list that I could only get it to 15. There are lots more I could have chosen too.. And I couldn't possibly put these in order so they are random.

You Belong To Me - Carla Bruni

Rufus Wainwright – The Man That Got Away - Live At Carnegie Hall

Cat Power – The Greatest

R.E.M. – At My Most Beautiful

Penny & The Quarters – You and Me

The Cure – Just Like Heaven

Cat Power – Sea Of Love

Billie Holiday – I'll Be Seeing You

Joni Mitchell – Both Sides Now

Beirut – Elephant Gun

José Gonalez – Heartbeats

Arcade Fire – Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)

Regina Spektor – Samson

Elliott Smith – Angeles

Tony Bennett – The Way You Look Tonight

Movie Monday - Harold and Maude

I haven't done a Movie Monday in a long while, but last week I watched 'Harold and Maude' for the first time and absolutely loved it so thought it would be a good one to review and recommend for anyone who hasn't seen it. It is sort of an 'anti-romance' so what with Valentines day swiftly approaching, this is a good one to watch if you want to get away from the usual cheesy rom-coms. 

Harold (played by Bud Cort) is a bored, self destructive teenager who is obsessed with death and determined to sabotage his rich Mother's attempts at finding him a suitable girlfriend. He spends his time visiting graveyards, attending funerals and repeatedly staging his own suicide. He meets Maude, a wildly eccentric and optimistic pensioner at a funeral and they quickly forge a friendship as she introduces Harold to the beauty of music, art and doing whatever you want to! 

As the unlikely couple embark on various escapades and adventures together, their friendship grows into a romance and much to his Mother's horror and dismay - Harold announces that he intends to make Maude his wife!

I won't reveal the ending except to say that it is bitter sweet and completely suited to the overall quirkiness of the entire film. Both Harold and Maude are really quite bizarre characters and their whole relationship is definitely a little bit unusual given the 60 year age gap between them - and yet, they are a perfect partnership.

Ruth Cordon is hilarious and outrageous and is definitely the kind of little old lady I aspire to grow up to be! Harold is also acted brilliantly by Bud Cort and I can't imagine either characters being played better by anyone else.

My favourite part about the whole film is the soundtrack which accompanies it which is by the great Cat Stevens. 

The song below is the one that Maude teaches Harold during one of the more tender moments in the film.  I hadn't heard of it before but over the last week I have been playing it over and over again because it is just so sweet and uplifting! Anyway listen to the song, watch the film and enjoy :)

Lavender

Today I am craving lavender and all things purple... I wish Spring would hurry up and arrive!

Picture credits - Clockwise from top left:

1, 2, 3, 4, 5 6, 7, 8, 9

Inspiring books

Siddhartha - Herman Hesse

The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho


I hate to use the phrase "life altering" - but both of these are great books that really challenge your perspective and way of thinking. I am still in the middle of The Alchemist and may review it on here soon but so far I am really gripped by it.

An untouched apartment in Paris...

Hm I have been a bit slow on the blog posts this week which I can only blame on my own laziness.  This is an article that a friend posted on Facebook that really appealed to the hopeless romantic in me though so I thought I would share!

A few summers ago, A Parisian apartment that had been abandoned and untouched for 70 years was discovered in the quarter of Pigalle. It's owner - Mrs. De Florian left Paris just before World War 2 broke out, locking up the apartment for good and eventually passing away in the South of France at the grand old age of 91. When her heirs called on professionals to take an inventory of The Parisian apartment, it was unlocked and the treasures inside re-discovered.

The team described unlocking the dusty apartment as an experience similar to 'stumbling into the castle of Sleeping Beauty'

To further add to the romance of this story, a painting of a beautiful woman dressed in pink was also discovered. One of the team members suspected it may be of some value and was proved right when an expert historian confirmed that the calling card left alongside the painting was that of Giovanni Boldini - one of Paris' most prestigious and important painters of the Belle Epoque. 

Alongside with the painting was a stack of old love letters tied with coloured ribbon. They revealed that the woman in the painting was Mrs de Florian's Grandmother, Marthe de Florian, who had been a famous French actress and socialite. She had been Boldini's muse and lover (in spite of him being married!) 

The story inevitably caught the attention of the art world and later sold at auction for $3 million!

Overall an enchanting and intriguing story of two women and the revelation of a great love affair. Of course there are many questions that remain a mystery in spite of the room being now unlocked. Why did Mrs de Florian flee such a beautiful apartment never to return? What other secrets did both women keep locked away?

Original article found here

and in The Telegraph here

Pin of the week

How beautiful is this little chap? His feathers look a bit ruffled though..

Winter Mittens

For Christmas and Birthdays, I like to try and hand make the presents I give whenever possible as to me it feels so much more personal and a good way to show the people I care about how much they mean to me. This Christmas was no exception and any spare time I had from work I spent creating and crafting! Below are some photos of the mittens that I hand made and embroidered for my Mom. 

I used a wool blend for the outside of the mittens and lined it with pink fleecing so they were extra warm and snuggly! The lace was cut from an old vintage scarf.

Maybe next year I shall make a scarf to match!

Favourite Blogs: Poppytalk

I mentioned in a previous post that I would start featuring some of my favourite blogs so thought I would begin today with a beautiful Canadian blog that I have been reading pretty much daily now for around 2-3 years.

Poppytalk is an art and design blog with its own online marketplace - www.poppytalkhandmade.com which features artists and designers from around the world. (similar to Etsy except it is curated and themed each month)

Poppytalk is always my go to for DIY's and ideas for handmade presents - their step by step tutorials are accompanied by photographs or videos and even though they're simple to follow they produce great results.

Here are some of my favourite DIY's found via Poppytalk

DIY Letter writing set

Birch Bark Lampshade

Beautiful gift wrap

Hearts of ice

You can also follow Poppytalk on Pinterest here

Enjoy!

http://poppytalk.blogspot.co.uk/

Hansel and Gretel

On Saturday I watched a performance of 'Hansel and Gretel' at a theatre called The Tobacco Factory which is just down the road from my house. Last year we saw an excellent alternative version of Cinderella put on by The Travelling Light Company which was probably best and most original pieces of theatre I have ever watched so we were excited to see what The Tobacco Factory had to offer us this year. 

Like 'Cinderella', The company of New International Encounter used a small cast of just 5 who were all amazingly multi talented and were each able to play a range of instruments (such as a huge double bass - shown in my illustration above) as well as singing, story telling and acting!  

The play was humorous and charming and the style of performance worked particularly well in the small, intimate theatre space. My favourite part was when Hansel and Gretel first saw the Gingerbread house in the distance  - a tiny dolls house version of the gingerbread house floated through the audience, complete with a tiny smoking chimney. Another highlight was the performance of The Wicked Witch who was hilarious and had some great lines which had both the adults and children laughing.

It's refreshing to see different approaches and styles of theatre, and as much as I love big west end musicals, there is something special about minimal, intimate productions like this one where you can really appreciate the craft of the actors and each element of the production and performance.

Above is an illustration I did based on photo that was on the front of the programme.

The Life of Pi

12 years after it was first published and in just time for the film release, I have recently finished reading Yann Martel's 'Life of Pi'. I don't know what stopped me from reading it before now but after seeing the trailer for the film and reading the excellent reviews I decided that I definitely wanted to read the book before seeing the film adaptation.

Perhaps most people already have a rough idea of the story (which I didn't at all) - but it is an account of the extraordinary survival of a young Indian boy stranded on a life boat with an Orang-utan, Hyena and a Zebra with a broken leg. Oh and a Bengal Tiger called Richard Parker.

It took me an embarrassingly long time to realise that the character 'Richard Parker' was actually a tiger  and not a person - maybe because the formality of the name, the clever way in which Martel writes or perhaps just because I am a bit dim; but in any case - the moment you come to realise the gravity of the leading character Pi's situation it becomes impossible to put this book down.

The story is so beautifully written, and although I'm sure the film which is shot in 3D will be pretty spectacular visually - it is worth reading the book anyway because it serves as such a good reminder of how powerful descriptive writing can be. It's not always necessary to have a literal re enactment  or set of images to be able to perfectly picture or imagine a scene as is definitely the case with Martel's book.

Having said that I am looking forward to seeing the film and will post an update on how I think it compares with reading the book.

Another thing to mention is the parallel of spirituality and human brutality that runs as a theme throughout the story. The protagonist (Pi) is an intensely spiritual and religious character - yet inevitably his faith is tried at many points on his journey. In the epilogue there is a slight twist (of sorts) which I think serves as the perfect ending to the book - leaving the whole account as mysterious and open ended as religion and spirituality itself. 

Below is a quote from the book and some illustrations that I found from various artists.

'Battle Of The Minds' - Andrea Offermann. Offermann submitted these images for a 2002 competition to illustrate Life Of Pi ran by The Times but lost out to Tomislav Torjanac.

'Life of Pi' by Jack Bruml Norton 

Snippets of Christmas...and hopes for the New Year.

Christmas seems a long time ago now and it definitely flew by far too quickly this year. I loved being with my family - I just wish I could have spent longer at home!

Since beginning this blog my posts have not been as frequent as I would like at all, and definitely one of my goals for this year is to change the format of it a little bit - hopefully to include more work of other artists and bloggers I follow as well as books, articles, stories, theatre, films - any source of inspiration!

Once I manage to take some better photographs (hopefully on Thursday) I will post some of the projects and presents I made over Christmas for family and friends. Also this week I will include posts about:

Hansel and Gretel
The Life of Pi

My favourite blogs

Pin of the week

and thats all I can think of right now! My thinking is if I write on here what I intend to feature then there is no backing out and I have to post frequently (even though today this blog had a grand total of 1 pageview so its not as though I have thousands of expectant followers but still...)

Happy New Year!

(click picture to enlarge)

Picture credits clockwise from top left:

1. Polar bear Christmas Card (Own design) 2. Mini Christmas Trees taken from Cubicle Refugee Tumblr.

3. 'Warm Winter Wishes' - Own Christmas Card Design. 4. 'Soft Night Descending' - Catherine Hyde

5. Robin Mittens - Own hand embroidered Mittens. 6. Sparkle taken from Bibbity Bobbity Boo Tumblr