I bring home the bacon.

Hello! I bought some wonderfully cute & funny feminist badges from Etsy last week, and they have both arrived! Feminism, while being incredibly close to my heart, isn't something I talk about that much on this little blog (although I like to think I weave it in occasionally) but these brooches are simply too lovely not to grace this blog with their presence!

This brooch by Sarah Julia Clark is so so amazing! I love bacon more than any other food in the world (bad Jew, bad, bad Jew), so it seems entirely fitting to have a humorous statement about bacon on a piece of felt bacon as my accessory of choice, does it not? Also, it totally relates to the working-girl-who-owns-her-own-business I have going on right now. *insert shameless plug about my ongoing sale here*

The brooch back. I love hand-stitching so much, it seems like such an immediate reminder that I own something completely individual and unique made by someone who loves and cares about what they do.

My bacon brooch next to my other little feminist purchase! This badge has been in my favourites for months, I thought it was so funny! Yay for uteruses guys! You can buy this brooch here, and I think you can also get it in a slightly bigger size too. I like it small though, as it means people really have to peer in to see what it says.

I also did something pretty cool (or at least I think it is!) with my hair today, so I thought I'd show you a picture or two. Predictably the best photos turned out to be the most blurry, so you can't see what I actually did with my hair too well here, but I think you get the general gist! Basically, I tied it up at the back, twisted my fringe slightly and pinned it back, then finished it with two victory(ish) rolls on either side. It's rather messy as I never bother with hairspray & I kept having to alter it throughout the day, but I'm still very pleased!

Also, small glimpse of My Favourite Dress Ever Version 2.0 (this is Version 1.0). I think I now live in a parallel world where it's summer indoors all the time and I just float around wearing summer dresses with no tights in a defiant manner, whimpering every time a window is opened or a door left ajar.

Tomorrow I have decided I am going to WORK ALL DAY and not stop for ANYTHING, not even snacks or How I Met Your Mother. I need to seriously catch up on my ~Fashion Illustrations (which, I don't know, would you like to see?) & feverishly scribbling Pro/Con lists about Sheffield vs Edinburgh and Accommodation vs Accommodation vs Accommodation which really I should have made in January before my brain melts completely. Which, it seems, looking back over what I have just typed, may have happened already.

Thank you very much if you have read this far, I will try to be less incoherent & silly next time.

To laugh and cry and cry and laugh about it all again.

Hiya! It's been a week since I last posted, oh no! I am so rubbish, but I'll explain why later!

Bit of an impromptu outfit post today! I went out for afternoon tea to celebrate a friend's birthday, and I originally planned to wear something else entirely (my vintage ebay dress which I will post about soon, I promise!) but it was really cold & windy today so I quickly threw this on instead. Nothing fancy really, this dress has become my can't-be-bothered wardrobe staple. I've worn it so many times recently! Also, sorry for the umpteenth appearance of this headscarf on this blog, sorry! What can I say, I'm a creature of habit.

dress - dorothy perkins, cardigan - charity shop, belt - free with a pair of trousers, brooch - gift, necklace - vintage, headcarf - vintage.

Really don't know what I'm doing with my arm here! Awkward pose is awkward. My hair is very funny looking here, it's become almost a magenta colour. Very strange. 

I also did a bit of cat eye eyeliner today, for the first time in a blue moon. I really love the look, just need to get some more practice and a less wobbly arm so I can do it more often.

I've been feeling so down lately. Just out of ideas and inspiration for everything. I got rejected by Durham on Wednesday as well, which didn't help. Hopefully I will get out of this mist soon.

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PS. I'm having a sale over in my shop, almost half of my stock is 10% or 20% off, so please have a little look if you have the time.

I want to be the girl with the most cake.

Okay, so I don't want to be melodramatic or anything, but today I think I made the best charity shop purchases of my life. Honestly. I think it's because this time I went with things in mind and actually worked systematically through each shop I went into. Also, Rookie Mag's thrifting tips totally made a difference (how much do you wish charity shops/thrift shops were that big in the UK?!)

On Tuesday, I went to a huge crafting warehouse with my mum, and I saw some unbelievably cute/kitschy/adorable teddy bear trims. I made a mental note to look for cardigans in pastel hues to adorn with these sugary sweet, erm, adornments, and I was so happy when I found this baby blue one today! I am so looking forward to going back to that warehouse and buying up all the trims!

I am so in love with the patterned knit cardigan. Like, waiting-for-marriage-between-people-and-garments in love. Our eyes met across the crowded, cluttered room and I knew that it was the one for me. I'm actually going to stop this now because it's worrying even for me. The pattern and the pastel colours are just absolutely perfect. I know for a fact that cardigans like this sell in places like Topshop and Urban Outfitters for upwards of £40, and I got this one for under 10% of that price. *high fives self*

Sizewise, they are both a size 12/14 and, to be honest, I love that. I tried on a couple of size 8s and they were so tight! Ugh, really hate tight fitting cardies.

The pink in the knit matches perfectly with my swallow brooch.

The blue cardigan has the sweetest little flower buttons! They remind me of the buttons on some of the cardigans my gran wears, obviously a reason to make a purchase.

I also bought some sweet little handkerchieves for 10p each (so cheap!), which I am going to attempt to make little collars out of. Hopefully. My mum, sewing extraordinaire, looked very sceptical when i told her I was going to do this.

I didn't really get much today, but oh how I love each piece! (Anyway, coming home with lots of things is lovely, but I think having just one or two pieces you love is much, much lovelier.)

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PS. I decided the light was too bad today to take pictures of my sketchbook like I talked about in my last post, so hopefully I can take some tomorrow and have them up mid-week some time! Photographing an A2 sketchbook is way harder than I thought.

ho hum

Hello dears! I've been humming and hawing over this post for the past few days, I've been really unconfident about it which is really weird actually! That probably sounds a little bit strange, so I shall explain! In my second to last Textiles project, we could make either an accessory or a garment as our final outcome (I chose to make five accessories!), and then all the pieces we made would be photographed in a little photoshoot held in college. My tutor asked me to model my pieces and I did, and I was going to use them for my shop, but I'm really not sure now! I'm just really self-conscious about how the photos look, probably because I'm so used to taking my own pictures for this blog and choosing the ones where I look least like a goat. Oh, this is getting so rambly, but I was hoping that if I put them up here you guys could give me your opinion on them? (The overall photos, not just how passing my resemblance to a goat is.) I would so, so appreciate your feedback! (:

I made a few more pieces than there are in the photos, but some of the pictures didn't quite work so I haven't included them. My hair was lilac at the time, but it's such a weird colour here!

(There are two collars layered up in this photo)

The photoshoot was kind of based on these two lookbooks;

Everlasting Sprout - whose work is so pretty and amazing and awe-inspiring! Their website is in Japanese though so it's ridiculously hard to find things.

Charlotte Taylor - her prints are so cute and unusual!

Hopefully that explains why I look so serious! I was actually meant to look like that, but, I don't know, I think I just look really moody and miserable! Anyway, please let me know what you think.

I also pinned some of my jewellery to the stand, and I love love love these photos! I really need to get myself a mannequin - or steal this one!

I was going to put some pictures up of the sketchbook I did for this project, but the light was really bad today so I'll post them another time!

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PS. My giveaway winner is pupoyuki! Congratulations lovely, I have sent you an email to ask for your address. I feel so bad that everyone can't win, but that defeats the point I guess! I'd also like to say thank you thank you thank you so much to everyone that entered, everyone who follows me and all the new followers who have arrived over the past few weeks! It really does mean so, so much to me that people like to see into my little corner of the world (:

PPS. The collars will be up in my shop soon for anyone who would like to purchase them, and they will be available in a few more colours too.

and the world will live as one

hello sweethearts! two outfit posts in one month, i really am spoiling you! or getting increasingly vain.

sorry for what my arms are doing in all of these photos, i swear they just move by themselves!

i've actually had these trousers for a really long time (i think i possibly bought them last june?), but for some reason it's taken a really long time for me to post about them. i bought them in the dorothy perkins sale, and i actually ended up having to get them taken in as i had to get the size 10 as the 8 was sold out. i also discovered a really good, cheap alterations place at the same time!

i never really wear trousers, i probably only wear them once every three months or so - and even then only if i don't have any clean tights or leggings! i felt like i needed a light pair to wear on sunny days when i want to be a bit more relaxed, and these are perfect! the fabric falls in such a lovely way, and i think the cut is quite unusual.

the only thing is the fabric does stretch when you wear them so they get baggier and baggier throughout the day! for this reason they can look a little unflattering, but you can kind of get around that by wearing a belt with them. i've kind of improvised and used a lovely pastel striped scarf, i like the extra colour this brings as i always feel a little bit boring when i wear trousers!

i haven't worn my john & yoko shirt in ages! i bought it on a bit of a whim in matalan when i was in my kind of omg-must-buy-every-john-lennon-tshirt-ever-made stage, haha.

i also made the necklace i'm wearing, ages ago! it was when i was studying for my art gcse so i would have just turned sixteen (and i actually blogged about it way back when, oh god!). the little jigsaw piece is from a yoko ono art exhibition at the baltic in newcastle, an exhibition which i really loved and which really stayed with me (despite my kind of indifferent feelings towards yoko).

i haven't worn it in ages, but i always feel the need to wear it when i have this shirt on, mainly because of the yoko connection!

*little piece of trivia: i wore this tshirt & necklace combination when i visited john lennon & paul mccartney's childhood homes in liverpool. one of my favourite things that i have ever done.

trousers - dorothy perkins, tshirt - matalan, scarf (worn as belt) - gift, necklace - made by me.

also, how freaking yellow is my hair looking?! lisa simpson alert. i'm going to the hairdressers tomorrow to hopefully see if they can sort it out, i want to be lilac goddammit!

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please enter my little giveaway! i've only received a few entries, so go to this post if you'd like to win one of the pieces. just a thank you for reaching over 100 followers and to give a little something back (:

oh, wow. lovely lovely lovely. (giveaway)

hello lovelies! here is the giveaway i've decided to do to say thank you for reaching over 100 followers!

firstly, i'd just like to say thank you to all of you who do follow me, as much as this blog is just a place for me to collect my thoughts it really means a lot that people care about the things i write and the pictures i take. it's really lovely, and you are all lovely lovely lovely! (i've been watching skins series 1 & 2 back to back, a little obvious isn't it?)

i have been making some little knitted collars recently to put in my shop, and i thought one of these would be the perfect thing to give away! they are quite sweet, and i'm really pretty proud of them.

they are kind of marie antoinette/meadham kirchhoff inspired, and are basically a result of some experimenting i did for my last textiles project (which i will blog about soon!).

the collars are quite delicate and girly looking. they could add a lovely detail to a plain tshirt or a bit of quirkyness to a simple dress, or could even be worn just in place of a necklace.

the colours i have here are grey, lilac and a gorgeous peachy pink. i found these in a local wool shop, they are for making cute little baby clothes & therefore come in lots of lovely pastel shades. the wool is very soft and has a pretty ivory coloured silk line running through it. when i put these up in my shop i will probably do them in a few more colours, but for now you can choose between these three! (:

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okay, so. here are the giveaway ~rules (so to speak)!

- you must be a follower of this blog to enter

- if you would like to enter, please leave a comment on this post with your email address so that i can contact you if you win, and please also say which colour wool you would like your collar to be made from; pink, lilac or grey.

- you can have an extra entry if you tweet about the giveaway, or mention it in a blog post! remember to tweet me (@vintagedaarling) if you do, or leave a link in your comment.

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the giveaway will end on the 29th of february (because i love leap years) at 6pm (GMT). i will then pick a name out of a hat & contact the winner to ask for their address. good luck guys! (:

be my baby

a few photographs from the past couple of days!

eating pina colada macarons (made by my mum for my birthday, instead of a birthday cake!) & watching marie antoinette. i think this is just my favourite film ever, it's so beautiful! every time i watch it i just fall more and more in love. i can't wait to show you my marie antoinette-esque vintage dress! it's so pretty, it just needs a little bit of altering first.

i painted my nails like ladybirds! kind of, haha, they're a bit rubbish. this hand is not too bad, but my right hand is a disaster! i can't be the only one who can only do decent nail art on one hand, right? anyway, like i said i got a model's own nail art pen for my birthday so i thought i'd give it a try! it's actually really easy to use, and i love that there are two ways to use it.

my hair has faded to this really cool pale grey colour! it's still a faint lilac at my temples and roots, and in some lights it has a weird honey blonde tint. it's so hard to capture in photographs though! i love the colour so much, i can't believe it's taken me this long to dye my hair! i bought some old lady touch of silver shampoo so that it will hopefully stay grey a little longer!

presents from my friend alix! some really cute swallow & dove hairclips, a double swallow brooch and two lovely pastel coloured scarves! i love them, thank you alix if you're reading!

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just thought i'd do a little summary/snapshot of my week! i really like seeing other people's posts like this, so i thought i'd try one for myself (:

but gentle violets weeping with the dew

i went to my local charity shop the other day hoping to find some little photo frames to paint in pastel shades so i could use them to display necklaces when i do craft fairs, but unfortunately they didn't have any small enough! however, i did find a few nice things;

i'm not a massive madonna fan, but i saw this for £1 and thought it's about time i branch out my music taste into the 80s! besides, like a prayer & express yourself are brilliant, classic songs.

i also saw this little pocket book of oscar wilde's poetry, also only £1. i already own the collected works of wilde, but i thought this book was so pretty & it would be a beautiful addition to my bookcase. also, it will be much easier to take to uni with me than the completed works, seeing as that is about 10cm thick! it also has one of my favourite poems by wilde, which is the grave of keats. it's so beautiful, and i took a line from it to use as the title of this post.

there was also a whole box of vintage tights for only 50p each! i went for these blue christian dior ones because all the blue tights in my wardrobe are either riddled with holes or have lost their elastic so they are now completely unwearable.

i also popped into my local chemists to buy some hair padding (which they didn't have), but came out with this hair net instead. i know, old woman alert, but i love my hair to have lots of volume & be quite curly, and it's always getting squashed at night so i thought i would give this a go to see if it can help keep my hair in shape a bit more. it should also reduce frizz and static, so it's worth a try!

hope you're all having a lovely day (:

fluffy.

exclamations of "oh my god, fluffffyyyyyy!" was pretty much all i was greeted with by almost everyone i saw yesterday when wearing this marabou collar!

i bought it in the sale from river island for £10 (reduced from £25!), and i adore it!

it's so cute & fluffy & it just makes me feel like marie antoinette or some rich little russian girl when i wear it. plus, it's a totally awesome neck warmer.

i was a little unsure of the colour at first because i didn't think i had anything in my wardrobe that would go with it, but then i remembered my pastelly oversized shirt that actually works really well!

i wore this at college, and then out for a meal with some of my closest friends as a kind of reunion dinner before some of them depart for university again! it was such a lovely night, and i came home thinking that i actually love all of my friends. like, this group is the best collection of friends i have ever had, and i miss them so much when they're away!

i also wore a little lipstick to stop me getting completely washed out by all the pastel! i honestly can't stop wearing pastel shades. i watched marie antoinette today and it was so beautiful! i wish my life was directed by sofia coppola, then everything would be in pastel!

these are some collars i'm working on for my textiles project - which has to be finished for next monday, eek! i can't wait to finish them, i've had so much fun on this project! i'm going to make some versions to sell in the shop too, so look out for those!

bye bye for now!

it was cold and it rained and i felt like an actor

hello! seeing as i have more free time than usual (or rather i have more free time that i should be spending working), i thought i'd post an outfit with the petticoats i bought a few weeks ago.

i can't take any full length photos at the moment because my camera just won't focus properly in the low light for some reason, so you'll have to make do with these mid length shots! the skirt/petticoat is quite long & ends a couple of inches below my knees. i was a bit worried about how long they were, but i actually really like it!

skirt/petticoat - charity shop, tshirt - h&m, scarf - vintage, tights - topshop.

i think this outfit was in danger of being a bit twee, before i put the scarf with it. i don't generally wear scarves,  i've had this one for years & never really worn it, but i think it really works with the skirt and adds a bit more neutral colour to the whole ~ensemble~. also, they really work with my brogues (not that you can see them!)

i'm quite busy this week! thursday i'm going out for a meal with some of the fashion & textiles lot from college, then going to a friend's house to watch the made in chelsea christmas special, and on friday i'm having a bit of a reunion at my house to catch up with everyone who's been away! i'm so excited, it's rare i actually have this much in my social calendar, paha!

this is probably going to be my last post before christmas, so i hope you all have a lovely time whatever you're doing!

strawberry fields

here are a couple of things i've bought lately!

i bought this man's bow tie for £1 from a charity shop a few weeks ago, and it is so cool! it doesn't photograph that well because it's velvet, but it's a beautiful burgundy colour in real life.

i love the androgynous look, and i wish i could pull it off but i think i wear too much pastel & own too many skirts! i'm going to put this in my "outfits to consider corner" and it may reappear on here soon!

(just joking, i don't have a corner like that in my room. i meant the metaphorical corner in my head)

i also bought this teapot & teacup combination on the same day in a different charity shop, but also for just £1! after a long time thinking that i didn't like tea, i've been doing a fair bit of experimenting & realised that i just hadn't found my winning sugar-and-milk combination. which is; milk and three sugars. yes, three.

it just seemed like fate that i should find this strawberry emblazoned teapot just sitting on a shelf, seeing as i bought a strawberry emblazoned plate just a couple of weeks ago & strawberry fields is the name of my jewellery shop!

(which, by the way, is still offering free postage until january with the code DECEMBER! i know, i know, i'm so good to you!)

it also has my name on the bottom of the teacup! fate, i tell you.

this is a knitted tie i'm working on! i'm going to give it to my dad for christmas. provided i get it finished in time, of course!

i'm thinking about making some knitted ties & bow ties for the shop, what do you think? i really love men's accessories, and i think they could be a really quirky addition to the shop! knitted ties were pretty big in the 70s/80s (forgive me, i cannot remember which), so it would be perfect for a vintage gent. if they sell well, i could also make some mini hairbows for girls too!

goodbye for now, i've scheduled another post for some time this week! hope you're all having a lovely winter.