Shop Yourself Holy: eBay & etsy Catchup

Hello lovely ones!

I'm currently on a train heading back to London from a day working in Liverpool and I've been catching up on some of my favourite blogs during my train time. For reference, I was up at the crack of sparrow's fart* and promised myself that if I started work at 7am, I could have a lovely cooked veggie breakfast and read blogs until that time. YAY! Cleared yesterday's new posts and managed to add 3 new lovely peeps to my RSS feed for more iPhone bathtime lunchtime reading.

*an intentionally mixed metaphor from high school days :)

Anyhoo, reading so many lovely things written by all you lovely people - and seeing all the gorgeousness that you've made or transformed or just plain ol' laid-out-cash-for - made me want to upload some of the posts that have been lurking, unpublished, on Blogger. They taunt me, and I blow raspberries at them before hiding under the duvet. Honest.

So, anyway. Here's some stuff I bought on eBay & etsy, way back in the spring (sniff, sniff ...).



Haberdashery Loveliness: £5.90



I swoon. I swoon at the lacey loveliness: £3
Swoony swoonswoonswoon.
Swooooooon!!!

(Swoon)





I could not resist this set - natural buttons, and vegan-friendly!!
Buttons & buckle approx £5 on etsy



More loveliness to come soon ... and maybe even some sewing? Who knows.

Dead Famous - Part 1 (Rob bin Laden)

As posted about here, we had a 'Dead Famous' birthday party for Rob on  Saturday.

He'd come up with the idea while we were visiting my family in South Africa over Xmas, and had obsessively diligently been working on the playlist ever since. His playlists are amazing. Anyway, we sent out the FB invites to the usual suspects about 6 weeks before the day and then the mayhem started.

Rob, of course, had to dress as someone controversial. There are no 'normal' fancy dress costumes in my husband's repertoire (in fact, I think I'll do a post about that soon, as most if not all our fancy dress gigs have been thrifted/vintagey/handmade). So, his choice was either Jesus or Osama Bin Laden --- mostly because they both involved having a beard - which he had (until Monday - but that's another story) - and a simple costume.

LONG story short, he picked Osama. We decided to make the costume as simple as possible, so we found a white king-sized sheet in the local charity shop and he bought a US army jacket on eBay. Unfortunately, I had a bit of a glitch with my self-drafted tunic pattern ... well, not that pattern so much as the idiot who thought she'd found a piece of fabric big enough for the front collar facing without realising said piece of fabric was actually the tunic back. D'OH!!!! Several minutes of frenetic piecing & decorative top-stitching later, we ended up with quite a pretty (if basic) result. Huzzah!

Great big chunk of tunic back missing :(

Tunic kinda pieced back together
(I'll show you the close-up in Part 2!)

Just in case you were worried it didn't work out, here's a teaser ...

(Just in case you were worried it didn't work out, here's a teaser ...)
GRRRR. I'm well hard, me.

Yes, that was a liquid latex bullet hole. It kept moving around his forehead all night, a bit like Prince John's mole in Robin Hood: Men in Tights.

'An Education' Loveliness ft. Rosamund Pike

Have you guys seen 'An Education'? Oh, be still my heart with all the loveliness. The music. The clothes. Even the unexpected gorgeousness of Emma Thompson's matronly schoolmistress.

I took some screenshots while watching the movie on my iPhone on the way home from Belgium one night some months back, so apologies if they're a little blurry. Anyway ...

Look, I know Rosamund Pike is just stunning anyway - but come on! Ivory cost & elbow length gloves?

With this hot little number beneath? I wonder whether Tasia's recent post about fabric-scrimping for the Lonsdale might result in straps looking a little like this ... definitely worth a try! :)

And then the lovely Jackie O homage.

Same outfit, sans sunglasses. Lacks a bit of punch, no?

And look ... she shared her outfit fabulousness with her young protege. 'I'll wear the gorgeous coat ... you can wear the goofy looking hat, darling'.

Catching Up

I've been trying to work out the best ways of getting my posts written while using my iPhone - whether by using ShoZu, a different app, using blogger in my dinky browser window (blehhh) or some other as yet unheard of method. So, today I'm trying the email option; I'm typing as I commute in on the Northern Line ...

So, stuff to tell you? Lots!!



Every post needs a picture.
Miss Meg attacking her tail.
Pesky thing keeps getting in the way!!



I've been shopping up a storm recently, and have loads of thrifty finds for you. Also been sewing up Rob's costume for our Dead Famous party coming up on Saturday, and recovering from the gut-wrenching failure of the Skulls 'n' Roses bodice muslin (more later).



Mostly, I've been thinking about stylising this blog to be a little bit more appealing - to you as readers, and to me as a blogger. I'm pretty much addicted to most of the blogs i follow and I notice points of appeal like clever tags, good layout, interesting fonts, etc. So ... I need some creative input.

First things first - what to call my 'thrifty finds' posts? So many of us love secondhand shopping that many good descriptions already exist ... and never one to pass up a challenge to be different, this one is really bugging me.

So ... thoughts, suggestions, ideas? On a postcard, please!



Burda Style 7/2011 - O. M. G.

Just bought my copy of the July 201¹Burda in Schiphol Airport and ... I might be in trouble.

I'm only on Page 1¹and already want to sew everything. Ev. Ery. Thing.

As Himself will be attending a huge gig in Milton Keynes tomorrow, which involves an overnight stay, I'll have heaps of time to sew.

PS: Stupid ShoZu wouldn't post this for days after I wrote it last Friday. Himself went to sew Death Cab, Biffy Clyro and the Foos on Saturday and I didn't get as much done as I wanted. Oh well.

joy in the sewing room!

finally. finally finally finally.


Darlings, I sewed bust darts. I pressed those darts. I basted interfacing and I cut button panels.

Now I know this doesn't sound like much, but I am thoroughly chuffed. Personal victory over procrastination, check!