Tuesday 25 September 2012

The things you own, own you!

Now that I'm concentrating on trimming down my vintage collection instead of perpetually adding to an already crammed setting, I'm actually starting to find stuff again.
Stuff that I'd forgotten I had bought or perhaps worse still stuff  that can't even remember ever buying, oh dear!
The sign of a proper hoard addict, someone who has stuff in their wardrobe they have no idea how it got there, crazy!
I am also being reunited with "old friends" that haven't seen the light of day for ages. 
Many have been skillfully sandwiched away in a far away corner of the wardrobe or folded up in a storage bag up in the loft.   
It's like a blanket of heavy snow slowly melting away in the spring sunshine & revealing long forgotten about little daisy buds. 
Perhaps a little needlessly florid but that is exactly how it feels.
I'm happy the snow is finally melting, I'm happy to see frocks wing their way out the door and for each and every one that flies, I'm feeling lighter.
That's the whole thing, I woke up one morning and thought to myself...
"Shit man, I am being imprisoned by my possessions, even if I wanted to move today, I couldn't cause of all this STUFF"
...and that really scared me!
So instead of doing my usual ostrich act and burying my head in the nearest pile of vintage clobber, I have taken some steps in the right direction.
Besides my Frocktasia on-line shop, I'm eBaying, Gumtreeing and will be car boot selling too in a couple of weeks.
After being inspired by wonderful Vix's vintage fair post, I've even been eyeing up that avenue today.
I will not rest until I have made a big dent in my stockpile and in the meantime I suspect I shall continue to unearth forgotten about buys galore and be reunited with "old friends" like this vintage 80s glitter bow print prom dress that I bought when I lived in Edinburgh in the 90s and this DIYed goth bride veil made for a Halloween do in a South London pub that I worked in many many moons ago...

Getting rid and letting go, feels so incredibly cathartic & liberating...
I never thought it would!
Lot's of love,
Jennie
xXx



Sunday 23 September 2012

Hello I am Inga, from Sweden!

I've just had the laziest weekend ever & it's been bloody grand!
Besides an hour long compass training session in the park yesterday, I've pretty much based my hours around sleeping & eating.
 Slumbering in bed, snoozing on the sofa, catnapping in the kitchen, nodding-off in the bath & dozing on the balcony (whilst stargazing & trying out our cosy new sleeping-bags).
Sometimes my body and mind just needs to switch off for a couple of days and when that need arises I don't fight it, I don't feel guilty about having a seemingly unproductive weekend, I just let everything go, roll up like a little hedgehog underneath my duvet and drift off cause I know that once I have gone through this process I will feel completely rebooted.
I've had lot's of fantastical lucid dreams too which is always nice.
Last week whilst having a root around in my vast amassement of  vintage clobber, I unearthed a pair of kick-ass cyber goth boots that I bought a couple of years ago.
Now when I'm not buying so much anymore & perpetually bringing new stuff into the house every weekend, I'm actually starting to find stuff around the house that I really love and want to wear.
These boots ROCK...they are chunky as hell and made by DESTROYER, how very apt.
I also found a pair of spangly lurex hot pants from my clubbing days; just as well they are stretchy cause my derriere is not as dinky as it once was.
On my last car boot sale jaunt I picked up a new wig, when I put it on my husband told me that I looked like a stereotypical Swedish chick ;)
 
The beastie boots...

Last week I added thirty vintage frocks to my Frockfest  album on Facebook.
I've plenty more to add and I'm hoping to do a FROCKTASIA store update this coming week too.
I'm looking to add autumn stuff like vintage coats, more jackets and shapeshifters.
Here are all the frockfest dresses...
Now that I've had a good weekends sleep I'm raring to go...
Monday...bring it on!
Hope you have all had a fantastic weekend :)
Lot's of love,
Jennie
xXx



Monday 17 September 2012

Underwater Love 2.0

My passion for getting dressed up in vintage garb, donning wigs and a face full of slap is pretty well documented here on my blog but this is only one of my many passions.
A more recently added love of mine is diving, no slap & no wigs involved in that.
The attire you don CAN be snazzy, however any sensible diver would choose comfort & fit over style any time.
When keeping yourself comfortable, warm and dry is of paramount importance, looking good takes a backseat.
However saying that I really rather like the action woman silhouette that a snug neoprene wetsuit creates and as for the drysuit it makes me feel a bit like an adventuress about to explore another galaxy, ready to endure all the excitement, adventure and really wild that I will encounter.
We did our PADI open water diver course back in February here in the UK, the water temperature back then was +4 degrees Celsius, it was bitter.
 My life flashed before my eyes several times whilst kneeling on the training platform trying to preform my skill tasks  but I survived to tell the tale and managed to bag my open water diver certification.
This weekend we were going for our advanced open water diver certification and after the diving we did in Egypt I was so much more comfortable below the surface this time around.
On Saturday we went to Wraysbury, which is where we did our open water diver course. 
I have to admit that I was a wee bit apprehensive at first, thinking back on the watery stone cold grave scenario of February but after seeing the lake surrounded by lush leafy trees in the blazing morning sunshine my mind was soon put at ease and I couldn't wait to get in. 
 We did two drysuit dives and one navigation dive. 
One of the drysuit buoyancy skills involved an underwater egg and spoon race, which was hilarious to say the least. 
The navigation dive was crazy. We got lost and had to surface, descend and repeat the skill again. This was because a group of other divers who were doing a search and recovery dive a bit away from us kicked up so much bottom silt that we had virtually zero visibility, it was like swimming through pea soup. 
We will be doing two more navigation dives when we continue with the navigation specialty course at the end of the month and hoping to do a bit of compass practice on land before then. 
On the Sunday we were doing our deep, wreck and PPB dives at the national dive and activity centre outside Chepstow. 
So after our day at Wraysbury we went straight to Victoria to catch a coach to Bristol. 
We got there just before eleven at night so we had to take an excruciatingly expensive taxi "to" the dive center. 
The taxi driver didn't know where the dive center was so hubby and I jumped out and walked around for half an hour to find it, just as well Mark had stuffed a couple of torches in the bag cause it was pitch black...all good fun though. 
We slept in one of the wooden wigwams on the NDAC site, they are only £40 a night for two people but you have to bring your own sleeping bag.
In the morning the other Dive Wimbledon crew arrived and after brekkie we kitted up for our three training dives.
The first dive I was a little bit apprehensive about because it was the deep diver one but after the briefing I chilled out for a moment away from everybody else and tried to visualize doing the dive before actually doing it and that really calmed me down. We went down to 27 meters and swam around an aircraft at the bottom a few times, ascended and preformed the all important safety stop  at five meters for three minutes and then surfaced. I was a bit scared that I would freak at the bottom cause ascending rapidly from that depth is potentially fatal but I was surprisingly calm throughout the entire dive.
The second dive was the wreck dive and we went down to explore a double decker bus. We didn't go inside the wreck but when we do our wreck specialty dive there will be a wreck penetration option, hubby is keen but I'm not that bothered about going inside stuff, I'm happy poking my head in to have a look but who knows as my skills get progressively better I may be looking for further challenges?
The third dive was delayed because unfortunately a couple of divers had an accident on a deep dive (40 meters) and had to be taken away in helicopter to a recompression chamber. It certainly puts things into perspective and makes me want to adhere to safe diving practices rigorously and checking my equipment prior to diving even more closely. The most important thing though is to keep calm, yes, of course things can go wrong but panicking makes things a whole lot worse and as you never dive alone there is almost always a way of dealing with an emergency without bolting to the surface. I panicked back in February whilst trying to perform the mask remove and replace task and had to be brought back up to the surface by my instructor, he held me down so that I wouldn't bolt and then slowly brought me up whilst trying to keep me calm, what a star!
The third dive of the day was a peak performance buoyancy dive or PPB as it's called in diver circles. We descended to a training table did a bit of hoovering and then swam back to the exit point exploring the area, we swam around a troop carrier maintaining neutral buoyancy and spotted several gnomes. You can bring your own gnome and add to the family and I am definitely doing that next time we go.
After the last dive I was so shattered I could hardly get back up steps of the pier, exhausted but very happy and guess what I jumped in as a open water diver and emerged as an advanced open water diver...huzzah!
An absolutely fabulous weekend was had and I can't wait to get cracking on the four specialty courses that we've got left, diving is so much fun and I love it!
If anyone in the London area is thinking of learning how to dive I couldn't recommend Dive Wimbledon highly enough, the instructors are ace, they are very engaging teachers, meticulously organized and make you feel very safe when you are diving.
Here's a few snapshots from our awesome weekend :)
I hope from the bottom of my heart that the divers involved in the accident  yesterday pulled though and will have a speedy recovery.
Have a great week y'all!
Lot's of love,
Jennie
xXx


Wednesday 5 September 2012

The Hills Are Alive

Today I did another shop update and I'm really excited with the addition of my beloved shapeshifters.
I call these poncho style garments 'shapeshifters' cause not only are they reversible but you can transform it into a dress by simply slipping your arm through the neck-hole and nipping the fabric in with a funky belt.
It is such a versatile item of clothing but more to the point it is awesome fun both styling and wearing it.
The ones that are up for grabs at the moment (bar the sun-glo vintage brocade one) are second-hand but still in excellent condition, however I am working on a few more that will be exclusively for the shop.
I have been sourcing fabulous fabrics for years and the time has come to get creative with them.
With the shop update comes yet another lookbook, this one is entitled 'The Hills Are Alive' and was shot in Glen Coe in the stunning Highlands of Scotland...enjoy ;)
The new shapeshifters will be in the shop within the next few days. 
I've made two already but haven't had the time to photograph them yet.
I'm slowly building up the stock in the shop, four more items to add and there will be fifty and then I think we might have to have a bit of an end of summer sale :)
Take care peeps.
Lot's of love,
Jennie
xXx



Tuesday 4 September 2012

Digging the line-dancing queen

Last Sunday I went for my monthly treasure hunting jaunt. 
I've cut my buying right back to the bare bones cause I've got too much stuff already.
It's actually really nice to have my Sunday mornings back, although I admit that I did suffer from acute withdrawal symptoms the first few weeks.
Now I'm concentrating on selling rather than buying, I want to shrink my vast amassment of vintage clobber to a more manageable size cause it has grown into somewhat of an Albatross and that is not good.
  So what did I get last Sunday?
I'm currently working on some garments for the shop and I was after some vintage lining fabrics and scored well in that department.
I was also thrilled to find a fabulous vintage 80s mohair cardigan coat and a pair of awesome Wrangler pillar-box red cowboy boots. 
I had actually spied a pair just like them on eBay a few days earlier but they were a size too small for me so I didn't buy them.
Lucky old me that's all I can say cause these bad boy boots are the perfect fit and cost me less than what the eBay pair would have.
We took some pics for the shop earlier and at the end of the shoot I posed for some pics in my fuzztastic cardi-coat.
The guitar was hubbies idea, he thinks I should use more props in my pics ;)
...and here are my frigging awesome boots...
Red cowboy boots with tassels...yay, chuffed to bits!
Busy day for me tomorrow, another shop update in the pipeline :)
Take care peeps.
Lot's of love,
Jennie
xXx