Little Vintage Lover Fair in Burnham Market

One of my favorite vintage fairs is the Little Vintage Lover Fair that travels around most of Norfolk and last weekend it was held in Sussex Barn in Burnham Market.

There were lots of things to see! Besides the many great stalls that had people drooling over RAF coats and uniforms, 40s American suits and lovely hats, there where a tea and cake shop and you could get mulled wine too. Perfect in a day where the winds were blowing so much, gals held down their skirts and men held onto their hats!

Dead Mens Spex where there and I was lucky enough to find myself a pair of new glasses that I will be able to wear out in the sun (were they go dark - how clever!!) and inside, so now I can stop squinting in the low winter sun. I also love the fact they are a greenish/brown that seems to adapt to all colors of clothing, so I don't have to worry about that when I dig out my babypink dress!

The Historical Sauces were there too, having prepared a lovely space to rest your feet, browse through books and magazines carefully selected to inspire and educate about history and vintage fashions, so there were something for the gents too. They also had a little snuffbar for those so inclined.

Kerry and Lucy, 2/3rds of the Historical Sauces

A newcomer to the Vintage fairs is milliner Annelli Clarke, she is trained at St. Martins in London and makes the most exquisite fedoras and smaller hats for ladies.

I have to get one of her hats, which is displayed on the table above in babypink and midnight blue, which looks like the hat ingrid Bergman wears in a cafe scene in the movie Casablanca!

To entertain us and get us in the mood, DJ78 was playing his records on proper old grammophones and he told me that he uses one needle per record! That is dedcation!

More pictures can be seen on my Darhling Photography website!

Darhling

xoxo

Darhling Photography

Darhling is venturing out!

Darhling Photography will be your photographer for any event, wedding or engagement where you need glamourous pictures.

Please have a look over on Darhling Photography's website, browse through the pictures and have a look.

For events, it is free of charge and the pictures will be avalible for a small fee each.

Weddings and engagements shoots will be at very competitive prices, but the result isn't of the norm. If you want old Hollywood glamour, Brief Encounter style or something completely different, Darhling Photography is the place to go.

At the moment there is an amazing offer of the first three bookings being free! All I ask for is fuel expenses covered. Now that is a bargain for anyone on a budget!

Darhling

xoxo

Moon manicure tutorial

Good evening darlings!

I thought I'd do a little post about how to do the moon manicure in 4 simple steps! And 3 of those are the brushstrokes. So no need for those paper hole reinforcers, that never make enough of a curve for me anyway.

I like for the moon to be curved, so it doesn't look like nail polish outgrowth!

According to sources, the moon manicure started to become popular in the 1930s and the most common form of the moon manicure was done in a deep red or maroon color. The half-moon shape at the base of the nail was generally left bare, with only a clear coat of polish for shine.

 

1: Start with the first stroke, the middle one, but start higher up the the bottom of the nail, it wil make the touching up so much easier.

2 + 3: Then you do the two side strokes, begin at an angle sloping down at the sides and meeting the middle stroke higher up. You get a bit of jagged curve, but it will be very easy to clean up.

4: Clean up the curve with a cotton bud lightly dipped in nail varnish remover. 

Moon manicure!

A little note, my favourite red nail polish that gives excellent cover in one layer is Bourjois So Laque! in 24 Rouge Escarpin.

Toodle pip!

Darhling

xoxo

What Katie Did Flash Sale!

My one and only supplier of stockings, What Katie Did, is having a flash sale right now!!

Don't forget to register on their page and get an additional 5% off!

This is what WKD writes in their newsletter:

Last Friday we had a delivery of 10,000 pairs of Retro Seamed Stockings so it's no surprise that this week's flash sale is for Retro Seams! Our basic Retro Seamed Stockings are continuously the best selling item on our site and it's easy to see why: they're hardwearing, comfortable and affordable. Well, now at 40% off (45% for account holders) they're a real steal! The flash sale extends to our Contrast Retro Seamed Stockings and our new range of Retro Seamed Tights.

The Flash Sale starts now, and will be finishing approximately 3pm UK time on Friday 1st July. 

I have now stocked up on my favourite seamed stockings!

Darhling

xoxo

Jazz Picnic in the Secret Garden in Norwich

Saturday evening the chap and I attended a jazz picnic set in the Secret Garden in Norwich, also called the Plantation Garden.

 The beautiful fountain

The Plantation Garden is a grade II English Heritage registered garden established 143 years ago in an abandoned chalk quarry some 600 yards from the city centre. It comprises nearly 3 acres in all, and includes; a huge gothic fountain, flower beds, lawns, Italianate terrace, 'Medieval' terrace wall, woodland walkways, a 10 metre long Victorian-style greenhouse and rustic bridge.

The Jazz Band

The garden was all originally created in 1856 by Henry Trevor in a chalk quarry, but was forgotten after his death. Rediscovered 25 years ago when it was virtually a total ruin, it is now one of Norwich's great treasures. It is also known as the Secret Garden, many people know it exists but have never found it. It's actually very easy to find, right beside the Roman Catholic Cathedral on Earlham Road. 

We had such a lovely evening, the band played from 7 pm to 9.15 pm, there was set up a lovely barbeque at the entrance to the garden, in front of the local pub.

We were also joined by the lovely Retro Chick, Gemma who brought the most amazing picnic basket and portable drinks cabinet.

 The lovely Gemma and Pete

The chap and I both fell completely in love with the place and the chap had many visions for the Secret Garden and how he could help out, since he is The Bygone Gardener!

 The chap and I!

I can wholeheartedly recommend a trip to the garden, it is a lovely, tranquil place that I am sure you will love as much as I do.


Darhling


xoxo

Miss L Fire's amazing range of shoes!

In my quest to find amazing, vintage appropriate shoes from the 40s era, I have finally stumbled across Miss L Fire. I know, I am very late in the L Fire game.

Miss L Fire shoes are not cheap, but far from expensive and so worth the money! They can be purchased from Miss L Fire's own website, on Amazon and in shops such as Black Truffle. More stockists can be found on Miss L Fire's own webpage.

Their range of shoes range from quirky and colourful to elegant with a twist. My favourites so far are the Lanai, Havana, Hibiscus and Vee Eight.

The Lanai has the perfect 40s heel and a tiny peeptoe, making it suitable for both summer and autumn, but I wouldn't risk it in a British winter. The have contrast sticitching and a little bow on the front. The red has white stitching, the blue has white stitching too and the black has brown.

The Lanai in red will be a pop of colour to your basis wardrobe if it consists of black brown, and it is not too flashy but will compliment your red lisptick perfectly. It will also look lovely with lighter summer clothes and look beautiful with tanned summer legs.

 

The Lanai in blue are my absolute favourite, if any admireres will want to surprise me, thi sis the pair to get me! They will be perfect with ,y recent additions to my wardrobe, which amongst other things, consists of the HeyDay Mary dress in chocolate brown, a new yummy, matte colour.

The black with brown sticthing will serve as a classic in your wardrobe, even though it has brown sticthing, it will still match other colour in your wardrobe, the brown will only add depth to the shoe design.

The Havana is close in design to the Lanai, the peeptoe in slightly different design and instead of a big bow, it has a smaller bow of grosgrain ribbon and two small cherries.

The red Havana is absolutely stunning with the grosgrain ribbon in purple and with purple piping.

 The Havana in mint is perfect for summer and matches so many light coloured summer clothes.

The Hibiscus in white is a pretty summer sandal with a t-strapthat makes it perfect for dancing too, the heel of the foot is made out of pretty leave, withstitching and the front of the shoe has a lovely flower. These come in black with multi coloured flower too.

Now I know what to spend my money on the next few months!

Darhling

xoxo

Radio Days Vintage Shop by Waterloo

"RADIO DAYS opened on 15th of November 1993 and is run by Chrissie and Lee.

Appealing to all ages, gender and collectors, Radio Days offers a wide selection of vintage clothing, collectables and memorabilia dating from 1920's through to 1980's.. Radio Days also buys from the public and offers prop hire for stage, screen and shoots .

"We are the only vintage shop to sell clothing, magazines and household goods in London. It has been a roaring success and we have been featured in many top magazines and papers over the years."

Well established in Lower Marsh's unique and thriving market community, Chrissie and Lee hope the shop will go from strength to strength in the future when they will open the basement for furniture and hire goods."

I have just moved offices to Waterloo and was out browsing the area a few days ago. just a few minutes walk from our corporate headqueaters I found Radio Days and I was thrilled! Everywhere you turn you see dresses, telephones, cups, hats, brooches that you have to get a closer look at. The atmosphere is incredibly friendly and relaxed, lee,the guy who runs the shop now is quite possibly the friendliest and most enthusiastic vintage shop owner I have come across! Always ready with an offer to know a little of the price, if something catches my eye and a knack for putting on records he thinks will suit the customer.

Lee Williams

I found some lovely pyramid bakelite telephones, but a little out of my price range, I opted for this lovely little pale blue trinket box, with the lid in the shape of a shell. It will go perfectly in the boudoir, with the dressing set I bought at Heydon Vintage Lover Fair last weekend and I will use it loose powder with a big fluffy powder puff put in the inside of the lid.

They have an amazing collection of brooches, cufflinks and compact mirrors and compacts and I haven't even started looking at the back room where they keep all the clothes! I am sure this shop will be the destination for many of my lunch breaks.

I have my eyes on the ivory pyramid telephones in bakelite, cigarette holders, emerald green turbans and 40s platform shoes.. to start with! And there might be a little left over for a gorgeous cravat for my chap too.

Radio Days

87 Lower Marsh
Waterloo
London SE1 7AB


Tel: 020 7928 0800

OPENING HOURS
Monday to Saturday 10am - 6pm
Friday Closing at 7pm

Darhling

xoxo

Little Vintage Lover Fair in Heydon, Norfolk

On Sunday the 5th of June, the Little Vintage Lover Fair made it's way to the little village of Heaydon in Norfolk. The chap and I went to Heydon to visit friends who live in the little village, but also to see what the fair was all about.

The entrance was only £1 and that was a very good deal! There were many lovely small stall more focused on home and kitchen ware from the Art Deco period to the pastel colours and kidney shapes of the 50s. There were also many lovely small stall with vintage clothes and accessories at very good prices, especially prestine shoes and fur stoles in amazing shape and great prices too!

I came across one of the stalls that had a lovely dresser set laid out in a lovely, clear, light blue consisting of a mirror, a hairbrush and a clothes brush for only £8. At the same stall they had the most lovely Art Deco-y teacup, saucer and plate one set had light yellow onthe inside of the cup/black on the outisde and yellow on the saucer and plate, the other set was similar but with babypink instead of yellow. I made the typical mistake of not getting them immediately, only to return later to buy them and find out they had already been snapped up by a lucky vintage lover!

After being dissapointed in loosing out on the china tea cups, I had my sights set on getting a tea or coffee put and got my mittens on a half pint Beryl tea-pot for just £7. The design is lovely and very robust and very easy to collect since it is so wide spread. I will have to save my bone china dreams for a later date.

 It felt more like a big picnic with lovely small stalls and tea served in bone china cups to enjoy on the lawn.
Both the chap and I got stopped so many times by lovely people who only had great compliments for our attire - even though I was in my Land Girl dungarees and hair set on lazy victory rolls.


Dead Men's Spex had a big stall and I had been needing a new pair of glasses forever! I narrowed it down to three pairs and settled on a pair of Luxury Lady in silver, which is not quite 40s and not nearly 50s.

The Luxury Lady is the top pair, also shown here in detail above.

I can't wait for this fair to pop up againsomewhere when I am up in the Norfolk area!

Darhling

xoxo

Vintage Remington 2 Typewriter

As an amateur writer, I have been wanting a vintage typewriter for a long time, but the right one at the right price didn't show itself for months on end. I find itwuite romantic in a way, to sit and type on a lovely typewriter, to get som nice, heavy ivory paper and start typing away. I am not sure when it is from, I don't have a date, but I am guessing it is from the 1040s, but of course I could be very much wrong.-

It is in perfect condition and allI have to do, was to replace the original ribbon with a new one (use gloves for this, my dears!) and it was good to go!

I have used it for a few loveletters so far and I have this idea of typing loveletters to my sweetheart, but the letters are set in the 1940s. So they will be a little fictitious and filled with events, big or small, that happened during WW2. The book, Operation Mincemeat which I read after coming up with the idea, also have a similar fictitious loveletter theme through out the book. I won't spoil the book for you, but it is a lovely little romantic red thread in an otherwise macabre story.

Another thing I am using the typewriter for, is writing my childrens book on it. It might be a pain to edit, you can't copy/paste but the it has so more soul to it and history. I always wonder what letters might have been written on this typewriter, where it has travelled to in it's traveling case and what events it might have recorded.

There is nothing like the sound of those keys tapping away.

Darhling

xoxo

New Art Deco Calling Cards

For those wanting to get some lovely business cards or cards with your information about your website and blog (I call them calling cards) I can higly recommend Zazzle!

You can choose between any of the thousands of existing layouts or make your own. I decided to make my own and designed these little beauties.

You can edit them to your hearts content, add your own images, choose between many fonts and add/remove text as you wish. I got them printed on regular white cards at 99 grams, since they have a black background, but you can choose many different paper types and weight.

The pictures are a little blurry since they are screendumps.

In an earlier post I had another design printed which had lovely Art Deco flowers printed on them, but with the same font, which is my favourite.

I will have them in my little Volupté case, which holds my cigarettes, mirror, compact powder and rouge. All you need to carry with you (your gentleman of choice will light your cigarette for you and take care of any champagne cocktails you might wish for).

Darhling

xoxo

Lovely Unmentionables

I have been searching forever for a satin or silk teddy. Now a teddy is a sort of camisole with legs, which combines the need for a silky chemise to make a smooth base under clothes and knickers in one. It's advantages is a smooth siloutte which stays put. A little tip: The suspender belt goes on underneath but the legs of the teddy, which is in the style of French Knickers that won't catch on them.

If you are getting a teddy to wear under clothes, and not just for sleeping in, get one that doesn't have too much fabric in the dropped waist. That will defeat the purpose of a smooth siloutte under your clothes. There can either be a little elastic or a little string you tie in the waist.

I am not sure when teddies got invented but they were very popular during the 40s but lack of silk and ration on clothes put a damper on the prettiness of unmentionables!

Oh and of course, it doesn't hurt they look awfully pretty!

Until today I haven't found teddies I like without them costing an arm and a leg. I stumbled across them on the New Look site! 

 

This mint green beauty is a mere £7!

This cute floral teddy is just £6.

The mint green one has slightly more fabric in the waist, but still not too much. The floral one is perfect since it is straight, without excess fabric at all.

Now, hurry up Mr. Postman, I want my teddy!

Darhling

xoxo

The most famous perfume during WW2 - Soir de Paris

I started reading Land Girls again and in the very beginning I was struck by how one of the three main characters was described to wear this Parisian, exotic scent. So I did a little investigation and found the back story on the perfume, which was very much real and part of womens lives in WW2.

I have found out you can buy it at The Imperial War Museum in Kennington, along with many other vintage inspired treats, so I must remember to pick up a bottle when I go there, the next time.

In the year 1929, Borjois Paris developed a perfume called Evening in Paris perfume. This is perhaps one of the most recognized and celebrated perfumes all over the world.
It became an instant success and was perhaps the favorite fragrance during the World War II era. Even now this charming fragrance is a reminder of wartime stories, dance halls, seamed stockings worn by the women in those days and of course the GIs.

This fragrance was re-launched in limited edition with the name of Soir de Paris. This classic perfume is as evocative as it was when it was originally launched. To give it a yesteryear charm in the new age it has been universally repackaged in a stunning glass bottle in the shape of a crescent with a striking cobalt blue color. This is truly a timeless classic and it is a rare find making it a romantic, classic yet modern-day fragrance.
People have kept old bottles in stock even when the labels have come off it. The Evening in Paris perfume bottle has a metal dauber and it measures 2 1/2" tall. The brand name of the manufacturer Bourjois is printed on the bottom of the bottle.

Evening in Paris is a testimony to the 1920s and the daring lifestyle of that era. The glittering nightlife and the flappers fashion, combined with the heady perfume of luxury was the right time to indulge in glamour and luxury with the Evening in Paris perfume. In the 1950s, Evening in Paris was known as the perfume worn by maximum number of women all over the world.

Re-launch Of the Perfume after Sudden Disappearance

However by 1969 this perfume known as Soir de Paris, completely disappeared from the market. It is now available for the first time after 1969 in the US. The fragrance can be described as light a classic eau de perfume which has a rich floral bouquet and blended to a slightly woody base. The perfume is available in a 1.6 ounce glass bottle spray. This most famous fragrance in the world is back again and is as evocative as ever.

Base Notes and Fragrance Selection

This heady and famous fragrance was previously owned by Chanel, and was again reformulated in 1992 by Chanel perfumers to give it a new lease of life in the modern day of perfumes and fragrances by matching it to the fragrance trends prevalent today. It is a sweet, creamy and smooth fragrance with a slightly woody base note. It can be described as  romantic at heart, and is a classic scent which has been upgraded with a little more hint of sweetness.

This fragrance has a blend of flowers which include the strong Ylang Ylang, the distinct scent of jasmine, the exotic Turkish rose, smooth violet, sweet peach, creamy vanilla, smooth musk and strong bergamot. The Eue de Parfum spray atomizer is one hundred percent authentic and it is the original fragrance of the most popular fragrance of the world, Evening in Paris.

Article by Kwintessential. 

Darhling

xoxo

Visiting the Queen at Sandringham

.. Well almost, she wasn't in when I made a spontaneous visit.

It was a beautiful and sunny day and we opted for the ticket to see the house, gardens and museum and I loved every bit of it! The weather was perfect and I regretted to not take a picnic hamper with me. We started out with a stroll through the front part of the gardens, following the yellow brick road. We found the plaques the Queen had put up in honour of her dogs and one of them read 'A gentleman among dogs'!

There were several English-Danish links to be made, there was a huge tree that was planted by a Danish Princess in the late 1800s and several paintings of Danish royalty graced the walls of the house.

The guide through the house was relatively short, but I could well imagine Elizabeth when giving some of the radio speeches to the public and if Margaret ever went wild on the grand piano..

 

Here I am, lounging in front of the house.. 

We visited the lovely little church later on and strolled through the back gardens and tried to hop across a fairly large pond on the little flat rocks.. but it got a little .. eh rocky!

The museum was wonderful and was packed full of pictures and stories of the family and a lot about the period through WW2. I have to say, both Elizabeth and Margaret looked so glamorous and elegant in the pictures from the 40s.

I would definitely recommend visiting Sandringham, but wear flats and plan for a whole day, as there is much to see! We didn't make all of it, but I am sure we will be back.

I was wearing my favourite Victory sweater and wedges from Rockit Originals and HeyDay swing trousers, so comfy and very stylish.

Please visit the Sandringham website and plan your day.

See you soon.

Darhling

xxx