This is my outfit from a family Christmas party we had the week before Christmas. Overall it was quite lovely, though super busy and super tiring. I actually took these photos the day before so that I'd be sure of having the time, and for once I think my hair actually came out better on the day of the party.

I hope you all had a great day yesterday. I spent the day with family at home.

This is my outfit from Christmas Eve, with my festive red petticoat and hair flower. Sadly you don't get the full effect of the petticoat under the dress as it is rather squashed by my coat - I am still on the lookout for either a jacket or longer swing coat to wear over full skirts. It was really cold but it feels so Christmassy! A bit of frost on the ground would have topped it off perfectly.

(*Okay, and a couple of pink ones, I guess).

I really like using lipsticks which cover a range of prices - I have cheaper ones which I use for everyday, and more expensive ones which get saved for special occasions. Here are some which I use most days, or which I have been grabbing for recently. There's a huge difference in price between the cheapest and most expensive. My most used from this selection is probably the Max Factor (#3), it's such a perfect vintage-y shade for everyday.

I've been wearing a lot of more purple-y and brown-toned shades for this Autumn/Winter, but I decided to stick with reds and pinks for my list:





Under £5

1) Laval Moisturising Lipstick in Evening Red, £0.95 - glossy, semi-sheer bright red which layers to form a slightly more opaque texture

2) W7 Fashion The Reds Lipstick in Chestnut, £3.95  - glossy opaque dark burgundy red


Under £10

3) Max Factor Colour Collections Lipstick in Rosewood, £6.99  - demi-matte rose pink

4) Maybelline Colour Sensational Lipstick in Hollywood Red, £6.99 - dark rose pink, slightly glossy


Under £30

5) Lime Crime Opaque Lipstick in Retrofuturist, £12.99 - highly pigmented and very opaque true red

6) Bésame Cosmetics 1945 American Beauty Lipstick, £22.00 - demi-matte blue-based red

Twit-Woo Vintage Boutique
Loft (through Casa Colombiana),
Grand Arcade,
Leeds,
LS1 6PG








When I went to stay with my brother back in August, we visited a lot of the vintage shops in Leeds centre. I put together a Vintage Leeds list with the shops that we'd been to. The lovely people from Twit-Woo Vintage Boutique contacted me to say that I should pop in and have a look at the shop the next time I was in Leeds, so this time we went on a bit of a wander to find it.

Twit-Woo Vintage is located in the Grand Arcade; we were a little confused to begin with but you have to go through Casa Colombiana, which is the café on the ground floor, to reach the shop.

The boutique has a great range of vintage clothing for both men and women, as well as accessories and a few knick-knacks, and a small amount of dresses from Lindy Bop. Although I didn't find anything I wanted to buy this time, I can imagine using this shop a lot if I actually lived in Leeds. It's not the biggest vintage shop I've visited in the area, but it has one of the best selections of vintage clothing that actually suits my tastes (no 50s dresses reworked/upcycled into micro-mini dresses, for example*).

The prices also seem to be very reasonable, and accurate for the type of items on offer. I'm sure I'll be visiting this shop again next time I'm in Leeds.

Thanks to Twit-Woo Vintage for letting me know that you exist!



*Not that there's anything wrong with that, it just doesn't suit my personal style. 


Last but not least, here are a couple of quick outfit snaps from the day we visited. I wasn't joking about the beret thing!

Above: The dress is a beautiful original 1930s evening dress which belonged to a member of Jac's family.


The snood in this photo is also made by Jac's mum. The hat is by Natty Titfers.

Earlier this year I took part in the Sew For Victory challenge organised by Rochelle of Lucky Lucille. It was, not to put too fine a point on it, a disaster. Although I eventually managed to finish the dress I'd chosen I really didn't like the way it ended up looking, and there were enough problems with it to render the dress essentially unwearable. If you're interested in reading more about my problems and seeing a photo of the ugly finished article, you can do so here. I was really pleased with a couple of aspects of the construction, specifially how neatly and successfully I managed to put in the zip considering it was my first time I'd attempted to do so.

Since the original dress was unwearable (and also totally yuck), someone (I forget who, sorry!) suggested that I de-construct the dress  and turn it into something else. Which is, eventually, exactly what I've done.

Behold my finished, wearable, and way prettier skirt:



Now, it's a little rough around the edges, so don't look too closely. But considering what I had to work with, and that I also didn't use a pattern (I just altered the skirt of the original dress), I'm pretty happy. Sadly my beautiful zip had to come out and I didn't bother to replace it - the back is just closed now with snaps and a hook and eye at the top. It's definitely a summer skirt too, by the way, and it was just far too cold to venture outside to take any photos of it!

I'm completely self-taught with sewing, apart from a bit of help from other people in learning how to actually work a sewing machine. It's slightly slow progress, but it's progress nonetheless. I've a few simple modern patterns to try at some point, which I hope I will have more luck with than sewing from a vintage pattern as they seem easier to follow.

I recently bought this 1950s New Look style skirt with a view to wearing it over the Christmas period. Although it's not very clear from these photos, it also has a black swirly design weaving in amongst the silver dots. It goes so perfectly with my new shoes that I of course had to put them together.





My shoes are a UK size 5, which is my usual size from high street stores. They fit perfectly, and I've also not noticed them rubbing my feet at all. The leather is very high quality and I'm sure it will also soften up and mould nicely to my feet over time.

Thanks to Freed of London for providing me with these gorgeous shoes!

Stepping stones across the river...


These trees with coins hammered into them appear in several places along the valley at Dovedale. They are known as "wishing trees". It's a custom in the UK which dates back to around the 1700s where a person suffering an illness would embed a coin in the tree in the belief that it would cure their illness. An alternate version of the custom states that knocking coins into the trees will bring good fortune. According to the custom, anyone who removes a coin from a wishing tree will themselves become ill.





My brother's friend Max's wonderful style...