HANGING OUT WITH AMY

Back in March, I went down to London to visit Amy, my stylish and vintage loving friend who I met on my Masters course.  I started a new roll of film on my fish eye camera whilst I was down there and have only just got around the developing it so here are a few of my pictures.

cocktails at Barrio Central

    On the night of my arrival we went for happy hour cocktails at Barrio Central in Soho, I was boring and stuck to Mojitos but they were yummy and the happy hour price tag made them even more appealing.

Amy @ Lavish Habit - start of film d'oh!

enjoying the sunny window @ Lavish Habit

double exposure of my empty plate and tasty cakes on  the counter

The rest of my visit was very chilled and it was nice to just relax, catch up and hang out together. We went for coffee and cake at Lavish Habit in Balham, even though it was a while ago I can still remember what I had; a latte and a chocolate brownie (both delicious).  Lavish Habit isn't just a coffee shop, they also sell unique jewellery, clothing and most excitingly for me they have an entire downstairs area devoted to retro homewares... heaven! My fish eye photos aren't the best but Amy took some great piccies which you can check out on her blog here

Pub lunch fun with Coco 

Yummy pub lunch 

On my last day we went for a stroll and had a pub lunch, we even found a pub where we could take Amy's dog Coco inside, what a cutie!  

PATTIE BOYD

Although my personal style can often flit from decade to decade, 60's fashion will always remain my all time favourite.  I'm a huge Beatles fan which I think is what first spurred my love affair with the decade.  I've recently finished watching the Beatles Anthology DVD, which is full of interesting commentary and loads of performances and videos, some of which I hadn't seen before.

Pattie and George  - image from www.pattieboyd.co.uk

   In the promo video for Something, from their 1969 Abbey Road album, it was Pattie Boyd, wife of George Harrison, that really grabbed my attention.  She was no doubt extememly beautiful but she also had that quintessentially 60's look that I absolutely love (it's no surprise that she was model), I had to add a few pictures of her to my style inspiration board on pinterest.

Pattie Boyd - Images from www.fanpop.com

Pattie and George - image from www.fanpo.com

YORK

Yet again, this is a very belated post but I wanted to share these photos as they were taken in the beautiful city of York and include some of my first attempts at double exposures on my fish eye camera.  The photos were taken earlier this year, I can't remember exactly when but I know the weather was freakishly warm & sunny for that time of year.

double exposure York Minster

sisterly double exposure

I spent the day with my little sister, Sophie, who lives in York. The photo above is an attempted double exposure of the two of us whilst we were having a picnic at the back of York Minster, the more I look at it the more confused I get about what's what!

After our picnic we retired to one of our favourite York haunts, Coffee Culture, which is a fab little independent coffee place with lovely staff, delicious coffee and tasty food. Another one of my attempted double exposures was a complete fail, I was hoping the heart wouldn't be so prominent and that you'd be able to see Sophie's face but alas she ended up with a giant white heard for a head.

STREET ART FASCINATION

Generally when I go on a city break I like to go and check out some of the main attractions but one of my other favourite things to do is simply wonder the streets and see what I come across, it helps get a feel of what a place is really like.  I have a particular fascination with street art, and I find it equally as interesting to go and scope out this sort of thing as I do looking around an art gallery.

I visited Madrid (again all the way back in November, sorry for the epic delay) and these are a few of my favourites that I snapped as I wondered around, these were taken in the Latin Quarter which is jam packed with street art, well worth a look if you're ever there.

AN ATTEMPTED COMEBACK

We've been so busy with all things Mad Elizabeth that my poor blog has been completely abandoned since November... I'm ashamed. Anyway after a fairly unproductive week I think it's about time I attempted some sort of comeback.

ginge

Here I am with my ginger hair (it's been like this for a while now but since I haven't been blogging it never made it's blog debut). This piccie was taken on my lomography fish eye camera which I mentioned in my last post (all the way back in November).  I've been experimenting with it lots so I'll share some of the results with you in a later post.   

CHRISTMAS WISHLIST

Sorry for the lack of posting lately, it's been a very busy few weeks at the shop with a little break in Madrid thrown in too, which I will also be posting about soon.  Anway, Christmas is now under a month away and family have been asking me what I want.  I'm not a huge fan of creating christmas lists, I don't really want that much stuff and me and my sister have a rule that we only spend £5 and it has to be from a charity shop. Luckily most of my family don't mind giving me cash as they'd prefer me to put it towards something I really want, for my recent birthday my parents gave me spending money for my trip to Madrid.  Nonetheless I have put together a little list, some of these things aren't very realistic and some I don't necessarily want or need, I just like them.

Johnny Marr has remastered all four of the Smiths studio albums & I wouldn't mind getting my hands on the Complete CD Box Set.  It's not too pricey on Amazon either, maybe I will add this to my actual list afterall!

Cat Faux Leather Bow T-shirt & Fox Faux leather bow jumpper £36 - Alice Takes a Trip

I discovered Sheffield based Alice takes a trip at a Vintage Fair a while ago and like to check out what they've got in their online shop every now and then.  They have some very beautiful dresses but at the moment I am particually loving these animal T-shirts and sweaters with faux leather bows, the above sweater would be a great alternative to my many knitted jumpers for winter.

 I really want a pet pig but this isn't really practical considering we don't even have a garden... one day maybe (I told you some of these weren't very realistic) 

Antiform Leggings £22

 You may have read about the launch of our fab concession Antiform in the shop in this previous post.  There are some amazing things in the collection but I've mostly been lusting after a pair of their patterned leggings, now I just need to choose which design I want.

The last thing that was on my list was a Lomography Fisheye camera but my wonderful friends got me one for my birthday last week.  I'd wanted one of these for a while after borrowing my sisters a couple of times and loving how my photographs had turned out.  My sister has had hers a while now and has become pretty handy at getting some really cool shots using double exposure, hopefully I'll be a dab hand with mine soon and be able to post some pictures on here.  Here's one I took of Amy from Vintage Reflection next to one of my favourite buildings in Brum when I last used my sisters.

 

I LOVE LIMOGES

I have a slight obsession with Limoges jewellery.  Limoges is a type of porcelain produced in France from the 1700's (& replicated in America) and is usually decorated very beautifully; you can get everything from plates to minitures, but it's the jewellery that I'm really in love with.  I'm no expert when it comes to antiqiues, and have no idea what's what; I've done a bit of research into what the different stamps mean but I tend to just go with the ones that I think are pretty as I'm using them as fashion accessories rather than collectables.   There are numerous designs available but lots of the jewellery tends to feature these lovely little romantic scenes, such as a French man serenading his beloved...if only!!

my limoges and frilly collar combo

This is my favourite necklace,  which always gets lots of compliments when I wear it. I like to team it with blouses, especially this one with the frilly lace collar which creates a really vintage look.

Limoges broach, necklace and ring at Mad Elizabeth Vintage

 My love for limoges has also spilled over into the shop and here are a few of the bits we've got in at the moment.  If they don't sell I'll happily keep them.