The compacts! Yeyness

So here is the really fun part [although I do know that gifts aren't the important thing in relationships, its about the companionship and romance and the love, but I just really wanted to share these gifts with you all]. Although I totally adore the pendant Joe gave me and I blogged about yesterday, compacts are just, well they are my number one vintage thing to collect. I originally blogged back in October last year [here] about this 1950s Marhill compact, but here it is in the fresh. Its amazing what a bit of sunlight will do to let the mother of pearl "slab" [I call it a slab because it's not the lightest of compacts because of this stone topping] top shine and dance. Upon the multicoloured embedded white sheet of mother of pearl flutters two little beady butterflies - they are utterly divine.  

As I mentioned at the time, Marhill as a company was based upon 5th Avenue in New York was one of the leading mother of pearl manufactures for gifts and beauty accessories like this compact alongside cigarette and lipstick holders. 

Open up the compact reveals is gorgeous gold toned flatter lid held tightly in place by its clasp. It has remained unused, with its cotton wool like bottom clean and soft, further settled by its original "Marhill, Fashioned on Fifth Avenue" sticker still tightly in place.

The next compact is another 1950s gorgeous gold toned metal compact, which remaining in its simplicity adds too its glamour. Shaped in the same style as the Marhill [measuring 2.5x2.75 inches] this Pegi of Paris compact is a hidden gem - there nothing either in books or upon the internet about this manufacture, other then perhaps a link to Revlon?

The Pegi compact comes with its original puff and shift, with "Pegi, Paris" embolden in gold lettering upon the puff's face. And underneath the paper covering a very special additional gift was held - a gorgeous and loving poem. Its words will remain secret. I am a very very lucky girl. 

Both compacts make you wonder about their stories. By whom were they originally brought? How did the French Compact end up in America? And now for both, a new story is restarting with a brief holiday in the UK, only for them to return back to America with my very own adventures. 

So those are my gorgeous presents. I'm a totally lucky girl and I have an amazing guy who just has the most amazing eye for gifts.

Pressie part 1 - amulet necklace

Here's just the first part of my special parcel pressie I got from JJ yesterday; I was like an inpatient five year old waiting to get this parcel! Anyway to save this from becoming an extremely hugely big post I thought i'd break it down, makes it easier to pace out the blogging a bit too. 

I'm not too sure how "vintage" [only have the fact that it was from a vintage shop] or the history of amulet pendents [bar Victorian ones designed to cover the smell of the daily life of human smells in an era without Lush and Original Source] but I just totally love this necklace. I've always had a bit of a "thing" for long dangly heart pendants and Joe's hit it right on the head with this one. 

The inside of the heart is designed to hold a small amount of your chosen fragrance [in this instance Joe's aftershave - yum] with its topper tightly fixed in place and secured by a tiny little chain. Surprisingly even with its length and liquid contained, its not heavy on the neck which counts for loads, too many pendants weight you down before you even get anywhere!

Part two to come next time; the compacts!

I dream a dream of a wedding

I think, well I'm assuming that one thing a lot of us twenty something girlies [or even not so twenty something girlies] daydream about and imagine our a wedding. Before meeting Joe I will openly admit I wasn't ever dreaming of a wedding or even a relationship that would get me anywhere near thinking of marrying, I never thought myself capable of getting that close to someone. But my guys changed not only my world but my outlook, he is the guy I wanna marry and I want to spend the rest of my life by his side, as his wife. Getting married per say won't add anything, it'll just cement our love and our life together.

In a way we are doing things in a back to front manner, [hey we aren't normal] we've always been very open about our relationship and our dreams and were we see ourselves heading. We both want to get married and we know just about when give or take this will happen [next year] we're just not engaged. But that's more boring logistical and practical reasons more then anything. [a little love birdie says this will be occurring by the end of the year].

Thing is since I have started picturing a wedding in my mind, I've always known that ait wouldn't be like the traditional big grand affair. I sometimes think i'm one of the few people who want to get married for the love of my guy, too many wedding occasions seem to be appearing to be about the big show, the big party, the big budget [then again I am cynical in my youth] and there is no way I'd want to spend more then £5k on a wedding, yet along £15k [ours will probably be done under $1k for sure].

I guess I have that standpoint from growing up in a totally unclose family - too many members seem to hate each other and half wouldn't come to a wedding that they knew the other half were attending. Then again I just despise of the notion of being hassled and poked into this or that dress, or having god knows what table centres that matches the bridesmaid dresses which matches the ties of god knows who. Then we have the added issue of my family being English, JJ's family being American. Unless a sudden island appears in the middle of the Atlantic in the next few months [that isn't an iceberg] practically not everyone will be there. In all honesty i'm not overly fussed. But that is how I am. Maybe we'll just run away and not tell anyone which is secretly what I want more then anything - just the mother would hate me [grrr].

I guess i'm writing all this here and sticking all these photographs of ideas here because I guess that is what my blog is for, I can't really post about it all over faceache.

So I guess my wedding wish list is;

A vintage/vintage inspired dress - it really doesn't have to be white.
To make my heirloom crochet lace wedding shawl myself - so in a way the dress will be styled around the shawl.

With a bouquet of gerbera daisies [Daisy by Marc Jacobs being the scent I spray my love notes to JJ]
Home made wedding invites
With photographs, oh so many photographs
And for our honeymoon [one element we are working on already] is our first proper roadtrip in the states around Pennsylvania.

But no matter the figure on the guest list or the length of the honeymoon, I want pictures, so so many pictures to keep of our happy day!

Do you dream of our own wedding?

A winters scarf in the height of summer

Okki so the height of summer has finally arrived in the UK - thank god. While its utterly lovely outside and I'm wearing the sun burnt marks to prove it, I've been finishing off my first crochet fashion accessory - the hugely thick and snug winter "Funky Chunky Scarf "as shown upon this blog when I first stumbled across the magazine it featured within - Crochet Today.

Costing £6.95 [for yarn] its been incredibly easy to complete [made of up row after row of treble and double treble stitches] it was made crocheting two threads of yarn [or as us English folk say - wool] - hence the super thick hook required. Adding to the thickness and other-all snugness, its turned out amazingly soft [may perhaps have more to do with the wool, however in my case that was just £1.39 500g balls]. While its missing from my images of the completed scarf, its finished off with three, yes three, rows of tassels upon each end. Its an utterly gorgeous scarf if I do say so myself and will keep the bitter coldness out for sure. Its all ready and set to hit the Detroit winter!

Still in the making progress, wool and counter at hand!

Gwad i'm feeling brave - hardly any make up and no glasses. Yet with a hint of sunburnt arms and my lovely winter scarf.

The original with the hugely fab tassels

Cats love crochet tooo!

Whats ya looking at buster?!

What a stylish kitty cat!

No me and JJ haven't corrupted Edder's into wearing random yet high chic kitty crochet fashion - not yet anyway. Just this image of a cat posted upon Crochet Today's website really made me giggle. It reminds me of the look my old cat Bertie use to give me when I use to wrap him up in scarf's.

LIFE: Tattoos

I've noticed I've written a bit in the past upon this old blog of mine about tattoos and mentioned in passing like yesterday my love for them or just looking at them, yet I've never blogged about my own and what they "mean" to me. In a way this is one of the most personal blog's i've done to date because my ink is a massive part of me and who I am. It's been a way of expressing myself and they often enough because they are on my back don't often come on show. Sooo here goes!

Apart from always wanting tattoo's I sumcormed to the urge when I was 19 and got the first part of the design which has since grown into the large celtic-stonework design - call it what you will upon the top of my back.

The first design [the bit that looks like a love heart at the bottom] was I admit a flash design - one you pick off the endless boards that tattooist have in their studios that probably countless numbers of other people might have too. At the time I just wanted a tattoo and wasn't too bothered what I went to the place with no real idea and just picked that one. But I guess I grew up loving Celtic designs I use to draw them like crazy when I was younger so in a way it does reflect my interests growing up. But once you get the tattoo bug it only grows and grows and I wanted to make the first design bigger - it seems to be lacking in size, so I got the top design added with a few adjustments to like it together to the first. You can't really tell they were separate designs carried out by different tattooist about two hundred miles and a year apart. 

I say its my favourite because it's the first design that I worked on myself [with a few artistic changes from the tattooist] which I got when I was 23. In native American culture dragonflies as one of the totem symbols represent good luck, and upon my left shoulder that is what he is - he's my good luck symbol and keeps me pointing in the right direction.  The picture doesn't show him off too well but he is a gorgeous creature made up of five colours, every-time I see him it always makes me smile.

It would be misjudged to say they never hurt, well hurts probably too harsh a word. Its more of a tingling experience of just a needle being dragged around, wriggled in a bit too sharp at times, but its more then bearable when you see the final creation, then whatever the level of pain or it's duration it's more then worth it. 

The tips I guess I've come across is to properly think about what you want and the colours and places where you might want one. Talk, talk and talk to your tattooist about your design - they are there to help and will develop and work on your design till it's top notch. A tattooist studio MUST be clean - the way I've always worked this out if it smells like a dentist then your in the right place. Additionally they should always wear gloves and change needles between colours. And if it seems too cheap - then it probably will be. For an hours works with a few colours in it, you'll be looking around the £100 mark if its a known, decent tattooist. But its always worth paying a little more for experience.

A lot of tattooists or websites claim Vaseline as the product to use to help your tattoo heal, I argue against this and would recommend something like Bepanthen [nappy rash cream] as a product which lets your skin heal AND most importantly breathe, I always found that Vaseline dries your skin out too much. 

So that is where my current adventures finish but it's far from the end, the next two designs I'm working on are a love bird holding roses and laurel flowers in his mouth to go on my right shoulder and a pretty ribbon bow for the back of my neck - both have very special reasons why.

Ink'd

I adore looking and hunting out tattoos on real girls, girls like me that have embraced the ink in a kinda hell yeah we don't care what you think kinda manner. It doesn't make us any less feminine like so many people like to claim - we use it as a part of expressing ourselves, adding something to our outer shell. Of embracing design and enjoying life. 

I got my first tattoo when I was 19 and added to it when I was 20 and then got my dragonfly last year at 23. I crave more though - a special love bird and a ribbon bow are the next too planned ones - more on them as and when. The best way for inspiration is to use the web, not to seek out designs [them stencil semi trashy ones] but to look for real pictures, of real tattoos on real girls - that way you get the best impression of which styles you love, which colours/patterns work well alone and together and different areas to consider.

Have you got any ink? Would you?

All images from WeHeartIt

House of Avalon - Yorks new vintage find!

There is a gorgeous new vintage shop in York called House of Avalon which specialises in vintage wears from 1900 to the 1960s, proper proper vintage they claim, rather then the numberless retro editions. While I would love to keep it to myself I know there's not only a few vintage girlies who follow my blog, but there's also a few of us Yorkshire lasses that tag along too.

Its more then just your "normal" vintage shop, its a "social enterprise". As a not for profit organisation The House of Avalon is a northern charity aiming to provide funds for adults who need help due to learning, health or disability needs. Based along High Petergate [right behind the Minster] it opened it's doors just this past Saturday [1st May], so today I went for a peek inside.

Only three days old, it already feels amazingly established upon the street. To open the door you enter inside into a dressing up room of delights, of rails of dresses of every colour, an array of jewellery, handbags, and even to my delight crocheted gloves, a compact or two and some dressing table accessories. They even keep their bags and tissue paper in a delightfully glam dressing table.

As an added twist they provide a hairdresser intended to allow you to not only dress the part - but have the vintage hair to suit! Through into the back room you enter into a gorgeous little tea room - where teas and coffees are served in vintage cups and saucers, each being unique as the table and chairs you sit upon. The glamour even extends to the glorious little Bespoke cup cakes.

For the furnishing vintage hearts among us - the part that captured my heart is the pile of vintage table clothes, cushion covers and crocheted dressing table sets. When could I ever say no to a crocheted dressing table set? Especially when it was a bargain at only £3 made up of two long "runners" and two circular dollies of the same design all so delicately styled in two contrasting yarns, I think it was the sharp contrast in colours which really caught my eye.

The circler dollie of the same pattern

But I was also tempted by a gorgeous little embroidered "tray cloth" but it's large enough to be used as a table cloth, it's something i'll save for when I have a home of my own, and you can't really say no when it's only £3.

When your next in York it really is worth a look inside, even grab a cuppa while your there. You can also find the House of Avalon upon their website and additionally follow them upon their Facebook!