Home Sweet Home

Hello!

I've been a bit shit on the blogging front again, sorry about that.

I've had loads of exciting stuff come through my emails recently so I'm hoping I'll have lots more to share in the next few weeks.

Last weekend I went home (North Yorkshire) to for Father's Day so had the opportunity to take a few snaps in the picturesque surroundings; one of the up sides to living in the middle of nowhere!

Lion head earrings- eBay (here)

Lion Head necklace- eBay (here)

Black crop tee- Primark

Vintage skirt- swapped with friend

Oversized denim jacket- charity shop

Belt- charity shop

Bag- charity shop

Boots- Dr Martens

Couldn't resist taking a cheesy picture with the old phone box in our back yard!

How pretty is my skirt? Not sure it's all that me but love it all the same. This was part of my haul from a 'swap' night my friend hosted. Such a good idea! We were all like giddy kids rifling through each others' stuff in a big mound on the floor.

I love my chunky gold 80s-inspired lion head jewellery. I picked both of these up from eBay. You can get them for something ridiculous like 99p each from Chinese sellers but I wanted them to arrive more quickly so got my earrings here and necklace here.

I recently bought all the kit (really cheaply, about £25) to do Shellac gel nails at home and the above are my first attempt.  They turned out really well. I've just soaked these off and they lasted two weeks which is fab for me as it's a bit of a running joke among friends that I can never be arsed to do my nails! Let me know if you'd like a post on these with a tutorial and where to get the bits from.

Also got a pic with my Pops! Hope this embarrasses him as I know him and my mum sneakily read my blog- the devils!

Did you have a nice Father's Day?

Love,

Foxy x

*** P.S.*** I'm sure you guys know that Google Reader is going to be no more very soon, so if you'd like somewhere to keep up-to-date with your blog reading, I'd really recommend getting a Bloglovin' account:  Follow my blog with Bloglovin. I've just moved my reader over so if you'd like me to add you, leave your Bloglovin' link below!

Some serious denim...

I'm in a great mood today- why? Because I'm about to embark upon project denim shorts!

Daisy Duke- the denim shorts poster girl

So, as I'm back in Yorkshire for summer, I decided to go and pay a visit to my grandparents today.

Now, this set of grandparents, like many others I'm sure, are serial hoarders. I mean, seriously.

For a while, I've been talking about getting some vintage jeans (preferably Levi's) and cutting them up into shorts for summer. This hadn't proved very successful as most pairs I found were around a tenner- I couldn't bear to chop them up (not to mention the possibility of butchering them into unwearable shreds!)

However today my Dad mentioned that my Grandad had a shed load of old jeans which he bought to sell, and inevitably hadn't had any luck in doing so- always out to make a quick buck (usually selling old junk) my Grandad is.

Anyway, my Grandad handed over about 10 pairs of these jeans to me (and more to come tomorrow)- and behold! A stack of brand new/ old stock vintage American denim dating back to the 70s/80s I would say.



There's no wonder he couldn't sell these; the style is outdated. The jeans even proudly display the width of the bottoms on a label- 20" for most pairs!

The daft bugger's also been selling these at the wrong places. With the largest waist size being 29" (a UK 10-12), he's hardly going to shift many pairs at autojumbles! (It's a well-known fact that motorbike enthusiasts are dainty little creatures now isn't it?)

So the question became, 'what do I do with a load of old, tired jeans, sizes 25"-29" in summertime?' The answer? Make vintage denim cut-offs of course!

And here's my first pair...



I decided to make these into turn-ups rather than raw-edged shorts.



All I need to do now is stitch the turn-ups in place and it's job done!


(I haven't quite got Daisy Duke's figure, hence my pair being slightly more forgiving!)

Not bad considering that they initially looked like this!



ANOTHER YORKSHIRE-BASED UPDATE

So as I'm back on home turf, I paid a quick visit to the two charity shops in my small town.

Here are today's finds:



In the first of the two shops (its name escapes me), I bought this cute vintage perfume bottle and the small gold watch.

I haven't really been in this shop before in all honesty (once, a few years back looking for pirate-themed fancy dress items), and I actually found it to be quite expensive- as far as charity shops go.

I almost didn't get the perfume bottle, which was £5, but as I'm moving to a new flat soon (automatically equates new décor darling), I've been on the lookout for little nick nacks to spruce up the place.

The watch was only £3- which didn't exactly break the bank.

The second shop I visited was Age Concern where I got the scarf (seen underneath) for £1.50 and the gold necklace for £1.

All in all a great day for Katie- minus the sunburn (ouch!).

Bargain hunting in Yorkshire

Okay, so I bought some vintage shoes merely days ago, but I couldn’t resist these...


I found these whilst doing a spot of charity shop trawling round my ends (Skipton, North Yorkshire), while I was around for the Easter holidays.

Skipton, whilst dire in almost every other sense, is brilliant for picking up a bargain. I spotted 7 charity shops today, and that was just in the immediate town centre!

The trouble I find with charity shops nowadays is that they are filled with modern throwaway fashion.

Where once there were many treasures to be uncovered from old relatives’ wardrobes, they are now stuffed with last year’s George and Primark junk.

However, whilst sifting through accessories in Help the Aged, I came across the red shoes. They are St. Michael (Marks and Spencer) and although I’m unsure of their age, they have a very distinctive vintage shape- both the curve of the foot hole and the short chunky heel.


They also have the typically narrow styling of a vintage shoe; though amazingly comfortable!

The leather is soft and in good condition. The heels and soles are immaculate; they look as if they’ve only been worn once.

Red is also probably my favourite colour and I’ve been on the lookout for some nice new additions to my shoe collection- so I was chuffed (especially for £2.99!)

I also picked up this cute floral scarf from The British Heart Foundation charity shop for £1.75.

It’s made from a silky material- unfortunately not the real deal (polyester according to the label) but nonetheless very soft!
Printed on the scarf is its designer’s name- Franco Laurenti. Not knowing anything about this designer, I did some quick internet research.

I found that he is an Italian designer and all I could find from him were scarves- so I guess he’s an expert! All the scarves I could find for sale were either listed on ebay (as vintage in most cases) and on specialist vintage websites.

The scarf smells a bit funky in its current state but this will be remedied with a quick wash or failing that, some Febreeze!