Little Scribbler: Bags some bargains

The tail end of the sales: often full of shite.

The Primark sale: usually full of shite.

The tail end of the Primark sale: should be full of shite. 

But, no! Not in Primark Plymouth. Yes, I was in Plymouth this week. Specifically, my buddy and I drove nearly 1200 miles, between Monday and Wednesday, from Edinburgh to Wolverhampton to Plymouth and back to Edinburgh. We were seeing Blur. And visiting Plymouth gin. I'll fill you in on it soon! However, on account of having forgotten how manky and stinky one gets in a mosh pit (I tend to hang out where there's dancing room at gigs these days but Blur demand some serious down the front squishing), we had to stop to get some clean clothes when we arrived in Plymouth. First up I needed a jumper. I got this holey pink number. It was not in the sale but 12 quid seemed fair to me.

And, being a ginormous magpie, I couldn't ignore this giant sparkly necklace (I know - 'needed clean clothes' doesn't exactly call to mind a giant sparkly necklace). I nearly hypnotised a colleague with it today. This could be useful at work actually... "you are feeling very sleepy. You want to give me a pay rise...". For £6, this is high end Primark pricing.

"Hypnotic"

And so to the cheapy bits...

This gorge teal calf length dress was a tenner. It came with a nasty plastic belt which is already in my recently created cash for clothes mountain. The tight-as-you-like underskirt needs chopped out but, aside from that, this dress is great! Look how skirty it is!

Next up, this super pretty, girlie, floral number was down to £8. Again, it has a woefully tight but, this time, mercifully stretchy underskirt (it'd be completely see through otherwise!). That aside, it's a floaty pink confection. Now if summer would come along, it'd be perfect...

And finally - the fiver dress. BARGAIN! It's super light, floaty fabric with a lovely silky feel. Mind you, I'd bet my ass that if you came near me with a match (lit or not), I'd likely go up in a dramatic POUF! The stripes down the sides have a glorious slimming/shaping effect and I love the vibrant purple/blue flowers. I should've flipped it for you too as it has a nice chunky gold exposed zip - you'll need to take my word for that...

 

Look - I loved it so much, I wore it as soon as I could!

dress and necklace: Primark (keep up!), flip flops: Havaianas.

 I gave the amazing necklace a whirl too. It didn't swing me a pay rise...there's always tomorrow ;-)

You bet I've been back to the Affordable Vintage fair!

Yup, whenever the affordable vintage fair rolls north of the border, I have to pop along and check it out: I'm looking forward to them announcing this year's dates! There's no ignoring that a lot of it is distinctly NOT affordable but, nonetheless, I love the rake and the eye candy and it's fun looking through everything. Tell that to my poor friends who are usually outside having coffee before I've even got half way round.

Last time it came round, pickings were on the slim side, but I did pick up these two dresses on a two for £25 dealio. When you think how much you'd have paid for something similar in a high street store, I figure that to be a decent bargain! Plus, with a bold print on something high street, you're sure to get plenty "she has my dress" moments.

Both are really flattering with their slim waists and, once you fire a belt over the elasticated section, they look proper lovely and girlie! I'm all for a nice floral, so these patterns are ideal and, maybe somewhat oddly, I really rather like the shiny 70's "dinnae come near me with a match" type polyester-y fabric they're made from! It's sufficiently weighty so as to be figure skimming, but light enough not to bog one down. One does not like to be bogged down.

Now, whenever I pick up a wee vintage bargain, I always get chided for not giving you an outfit shot too. I listen and, indeed, I oblige. So here's a wee shot of ONE of them. Well you don't expect me to give everything up right away, do you? I'm afraid I just ain't that kinda gal.

vintage dress, shoes: River Island, Cardi & necklace: primark, belt: H&M

Ch-ch-check it out: the necklace is too good not to get a close up. Yup, in spite of what I just said about high st statement pieces, I couldn't resist this.What, I'm fickle and easy won. It's about mixing it up, innit?

Vintage and Spikes and all things nice.

If you've stuck with my blog for a wee while, you might remember this vintage Frank Usher dress which I purchased for a teeny weeny 3 quid at a flea market.

Now, there were a couple of bummers with the dress: one was the length - too short to be maxi on 5"7 me (even in flats) but too short to be midi - the other was the weird high neck that crept up in such a fashion that I was afraid it would eat my face and I'd just be a body in a dress. I'll be honest, the gloriously Morticia-tastic sleeves (which split across the top and drape down the front and back of the arm) were a bit much for me too. So I bunged it on Dotty-Fionnula (my mannequin. Birthday gift - thanks mum!) and got to work.I needed a dress for work's Xmas party and fearing a High St "your dress is lovely, it looks familiar, oh that's cos I'm wearing it too" scenario, I figure vintage for a safe bet!

See how it hangs way above the floor? DF is about an inch taller than me. She's less concerned with the face covering potential of the dress. However, by this point, I'd trimmed down the crazy neckline and folded it in on itself. I'd also decided that I wanted to go spiky! So I got this in theTopshop sale for about £3-4:

And picked off the spikes:

Shit Topshop quality meant that, with a quick snip of the thread, they glue came away and they pulled off easily! First time their poor quality has paid off for me! The next thing on my shopping list was a set of shoulder pads which were a coupla quid in John Lewis (note how my dress is now close to tripling in cost!):

 Pin one end to align with the shoulder:

 

And stitch to hold. Then it's time to get those spikes on.

And done (yes that IS a glass of wine in the background):

Now, at this point, I need to ask you to really use your imagination. Y'see, being the half arsed and forgetful blogger that I am, I forgot to photograph a whole bunch of steps. In a nutshell:

* I picked open the shoulder area and added the spiked up pads in. My machine couldn't handle it so this was a hand sew job. Eeshk!

* The neckline still refused to sit right so I decided to, in a Groove Armada style, "get sexy with it"*, and chopped a mahoosive slit from the neck down to the waistline between the boobs. Bang! Quick hem and done.

* I also took the dress up to a demure midi length to counteract the full on boob action. I don't have a pic of that either.

The good news is that it turned out looking better than I had expected and I wore it to the party - yay! Here's the top half of it (shame - I had awesome shoes on too. Obvs.), along with my scary plum lipstick, spike ring and obligatory gin. Woo! That's my delish pal Magda to my right. Say hi everyone!

.

*If that meant nothing to you, you may wish to listen to this song.

Sugar and spice and all things nice...

I do love checking out vintage shops 'n' sites that I haven't come across before and a couple of weekends ago I visited Molly Sugars Vintage pop up shop in Portobello in Edinburgh. I'd heard about the shop through a friend who'd bumped in to the owner in a nightclub and complimented her dress - it's like real life social networking. If you don't like to talk to people in real life, there's a Molly Sugars Vintage Facebook page, so you can keep it strictly virtual. Plus, there are plans for a Facebook shop if you can't make it the pop up events or if you really seriously don't want to interact with humans. You totally should though - people can be, like, totally nice in real life. No joke. Plus, when it comes to buying clothes (especially vintage), I'm definitely a fan of being able to touch (I'm weird), inspect (for quality) and try on (I'm a pretty special shape) the clothes.

Here's what I picked up:

This sexy pencil/wiggle dress which, despite my aforementioned special shape, looks awesome on! I'll be wearing it 80s style with ankle boots or with some slutty shoes. Brrrrap!

B-E-A-utiful strapless prom style dress with boned, ruched bodice. There's so much fabric in this and it's gorgeous and swooshy. Here's what it looks like with flats and a funny face. It think it's going to look so much better with heels and a non funny face and maybe a skinny belt...

And finally, out of the £3 bargain box this can't-decide-if-it's-so-bad-it's-good-or-just-so-bad batwing beaded top. The beading gives a slightly poncho vibe and, when it's on, I can't help wanting to just keep quickly turning 180 degrees back and forth like a fool. There's a part of me that never really grew up. Llara Pan.

Here's the label - I can't find anything on it other than that it might be a mass fashion producer in India. It might not be. Let's assume it's a totes expensive designer piece...

Awesome vintage dress. Definitely see through.

Some of you asked to see my recent vintage purchases in situ on ma body! Well, your wish is my command! And it's only seeing these pictures that I realise, like a celeb caught with their nips out in a sheer black dress (we can see them you skank bag!), that this dress is rather see through. In saving graces, it was clearly designed by someone who favoured a boob over a leg and considerately lined the skirt. Which is a relief because I have better boobs and legs anyway so, really, what's my gripe?

Look! There's my bra! Dress £21 Godiva Vintage, shoes: £65 Red or Dead at Schuh, Belt: H&M, necklace: vintage

Do you know what though? Even in spite of the funny neck tie detail, I love this dress! The colour is gorgeous and the lurex sparkle brings out every magpie tendency in me. Plus, I didn't think it would fit me, so the fact that it did is a double Brucie Bonus!

And so to the shoes! Oh, the shoes. I bought these Red or Dead shoes from schuh, then returned them because they were too small. Then um-ed and aw-ed over them for a few weeks, then couldn't get the bigger size, then the bigger size became available, I bought them and I can honestly say they're one of the best pairs of shoes I've bought in ages. The first time I wore them was for a day travelling away from the office and they didn't hurt my feet at all. I've worn them loads since and it's all the same. Winner. I am a fan of the masculine styling, which allows me to indulge a little in the androgynous trend I usually can't touch (I'm far too woman shaped to make nice slim trousers etc work), I adore the shiny patent finish and the burgundy/cream colour way is surprisingly versatile. It's not quite the all rounder neutral of, say, leopard print but it's doing a pretty cracking job - hence the pairing with this pretty dress. Whatchoo think?

By the time you read this, I should be in Tenerife enjoying a gin/cocktail/glass of wine (delete as applicable) in the sun. Don't abandon me in the next week - I shall be back soon! xx

Good Godiva

Godiva is an Edinburgh Vintage shop based on the West Port, just off the Grassmarket. It's one of those shops I always mean but never get round to popping into. Yes, despite Edinburgh being one of the world's most beautiful cities, I often just can't be bothered going up town and fighting the crowds! However, I follow them on Twitter and after seeing a couple of gorgeous vintage dresses, I knew I had to make it my mission to go check out the shop for the first time in aaaaages! Ordinarily I'd have just done the online shop but the dresses sounded too small for me so a real life visit was needed. And it was well worth it...

Godiva's super cute homepage

It's a great shop for a few reasons. First, it has a great, nicely edited range of  vintage clothing at really reasonable prices. When you compare it to other Edinburgh vintage stores, it's definitely favourable price wise. Plus, I didn't spy a single piece of Primark tat in there! As well as the vintage clothes, they have lots of great stuff by up and coming and small designers, some brillo jewellery and their own made to measure service. The icing on the cake is their totally top notch service. They were ever so helpful on Twitter and the chick in the shop was amazers too. Call me an old fart but it really does make a difference! I'm telling you lot about them now, aren't I? And so to the nitty gritty - I'm sure you're dying to know the important thing - what did I buy!? Well I'll show you!

Awesome tropical palm tree dress. I love this (I'm wearing it as I type) for many reasons. The pattern's just the right side of bad-Hawaiian-shirt, the shape is super flattering, it makes me feel summery when it's anything but plus it's comfy too which is a winner.

Squee! Lurex threading, electric cobalt fabric, an adorable, removable collar, a slim waist and perfect length skirt, poufy sleeves. Literally, what is not to LOVE? Nothing, that's what. I wore this with a lurex cardi too, just to really rock that Christmas-bauble-out-for-an-early-jaunt look. It's a winner girls.

And finally...this adorable canary confection! I love yellow and adore yellow clothes but find them very hard to wear - it's my Scottish pallor you see. However, I'm off on hols a week on Thursday and I figure this might look swell with a wee tan going on. Alternatively, I shall wear a black vest and tights with it and be a lesser-spotted-polka-dot-bumblebee. Or more spotted as the case may be here. Either way, it was gorgeous, sounded like it would be too small but in fact fitted perfectly so it came home with mama!

I'm off for a bath now to wash away my, frankly, grumpy as a bear with a sore head, in the heat, with no berries mood.

A vintage fair and some free stuff!

Today (it's Saturday right now though I probably won't post this til Monday or summat. Spreading them out, innit?) was the day Judy's affordable vintage fair came to town.

 

 Yay! The Affordable Vintage fair is a travelling, er, vintage fair that tours the land bringing affordable vintage (really, am I just stating the ever so obvious a lot here? Don't think I think you're stupid, please. I don't.) to towns and cities near YOU. (I don't know where you live). As a result, it'll probably appear on blogs-a-plenty over the next few weeks and, on account of forgetting my camera again AND on account of the fact that folk with far better cameras than mine will no doubt be bringing you it in glorious technicolour, I figured I'd just tell you a wee bit about it and show you my goodies. That is my wont.

The first dress I looked at was a beautiful full prom dress. Black with gold, almost paint, effect and little pink and blue flowers. However, a flip of the price tag revealed it to be £250. £250! Maybe if you're Posh Spice that counts as affordable but, in my little real world, that's 'buy nothing else ALL month and let the bills go unpaid' territory. Sheesh! Needless to say, I stepped the heck away from it.

And that's kind of how the fair goes - there's plenty that is affordable (sub £35ish - even then, a piece or two is my absolute max) and there are some out and out bargains, but there's also a reasonable amount that doesn't fall under affordable at all. The good thing is that there's SO much stuff and whatever your budget, you should be able to pick up some goodies. I was particularly pleased to see local vintage store (that I don't visit often enough!) Godiva in attendance (though I don't think the lovely girl was glad to see me as I bought a dress she had her eye on from the next stall!) and really happy to see From Vintage to Vogue there too. I picked up some lovely dresses from them last time (Lynda sells vintage as well as making vintage reproductions) but then couldn't remember the company name and couldn't find anything on Google either so I'm glad to be able credit her properly this time. Lynda told me she still doesn't have an online store but she does have a website and comments on her dresses have got her thinking about selling them online or to boutiques so keep your eyes peeled. Anyway, this time I picked up a wee 60's dress from her for a very reasonable £15.

It's hard to tell from the picture but it does have a very gently full skirt and nice waist. The square-ish neckline that I was dubious about is actually really flattering too!

And, if you look closely at this one, you can see the massive bow that's on the back! I LOVE the bold colorful floral print of this dress. I believe it shall be coming to my cousin's wedding with me at the end of the month.

My next find was this adorable little picture for £2. Bargain!

And look: there's a message on the back! The stall holder told me that Joanne is her friend. Sad that she got rid of the picture but I'm very happy to have it!

And this lot quite clearly isn't vintage! No, no! Lucky me got a package from the postie containing all this free goodness from Lush! Not one, not two, but NINE (I could've kept counting but we'd have been here a while and, what with my tendency to ramble, you'd have been asleep on your keyboard. If you aren't already. Hello!) perfumes! NINE! I'm sniffing Tuca Tuca (very violet-y) on my wrist just now. There was also some of the new Dirty range, including a shower gel, hair gel (used it this morning!), shaving cream and tooth tabs (??? I think they're basically mints but am a bit afraid to taste them!), PLUS a solid hand cream and a colour supplement for pale people. That'll be me then. I'm one of those nearly blue Scottish people.

If it's nice tomorrow (that being Sunday as I type), I think I'm going to get my bike out in preparation for my sponsored bike ride in September.

How was your weekend? Do tell!

Dress me up!

I have to tell you, normally, I'm not a huge fan of 'things I saw on websites and liked' blog posts - often they're just lazy attempts to get a plug from a brand (calm down, I said OFTEN. Sometimes they're the bees knees! Although if your instinct was to overreact to that comment, may I suggest you go search your soul for what you know is good and true). As a result, I don't do many of them. However, on the basis that, allegedly, everything's good in moderation, I can live with the odd one here and there. Plus, the high street has finally started bursting and blooming with the beautiful 50s style fashion the autumn/winter 10 catwalks promised but that, at the time, the high street didn't really deliver, in my humble opinion. And that was all the better for my wallet, truth be told. Because I FRIGGIN' LOVE A FULL SKIRTED DRESS. They nip your waist, they skim your hips, they give the illusion of hour glassed fabulousness, they are the pear shaped human's best friend. I ask thee, what's not to love? So, in the hope that this acts as some kind of dressxorcism and prevents me having to swallow my bank card to keep from buying dresses, I can't afford, here are some pretty pictures of some dreamy dresses!

Topshop £29

Topshop £29

Ditto

Topshop (don't worry - I do change retailer soon) £36

Annie Greenabelle @ Topshop £60. How gorgeous is this?!

Same in cream but it's so freaking tasty I had to pop it in.

Dotty P £40 (I think). V simple but nonetheless delicious! One could accessorise the shit out of this in a million different ways. Don't even try telling me otherwise.

Peacocks £22 - what a cutie!

Images are from relevant retailers sites. Don't be pissed - it's free advertising for you and I'm totally funny.