Sod The Heidi

I'm sorry, I thought I was smiling when I took this

I've been wearing my hair styled after one of Gertie's tutorials, so much so that I've actually taken to calling it a Gertie rather than Heidi. It's quick, easy and keeps it out of the way all day. Better yet, it doesn't result in a mass of hair at the back of my head that then catches on my car seat or my office chair. I do love a win, win situation. Unfortunately, as this photo attests (taken at oh dark thirty this morning) even immediately after it's been braided my hair still manages to never look tidy. I'm not entirely certain if that's due to my nervousness in using hair products or the general waviness of my hair or both. I rather like it regardless, so thank you Gertie!

And I'm wearing my new (to me) favourite pair of wool trousers. My mum gave me two black bin bags full of her clothes and these trousers were amongst them. Other (standing) photos aren't quite so flattering but I'm telling myself that's because I'm taking pictures on my phone instead of with a camera (that I don't own) and not because they don't actually not suit me. They're a grey coloured wool with a thin black stripe, very comfortable, and completely not the style I usually wear. They go rather well with my t-bar Hush Puppies and have rather quickly become a staple in my wardrobe. Huzzah for free clothes!

* Why yes, that is a Roman Gladius next to my bed, why do you ask? ;)

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What Came First ... ?

Is it me, or is there a higher percentage of fashion bloggers out there who are fringed brunettes (or is it just my blog roll)? I follow roughly 60 fashion and fashion sewing blogs en ce moment (I lost count a couple of times), 5 I don't remember seeing post a picture of themselves but 27 of them are brunette's with fringes. Coincidental? In no particular order (other than my reader and their posting habits), we have ...

Ayesha of A Little Brighter Vintage

Laura of The World Looks Red

Maria of Lulu Letty

Lauren of Blooming Leopold

Rhiannon of Liebmarlene Vintage

Mena of Sew Weekly (in my favourite outfit of hers)

Zoe of So Zo

Aya of Strawberry Koi

Len of Can't Say Strawberry

Joanna of La Mignonette

Kennedy of Lay Me In Some Tall Grass; Let Me Do My Thing

Nadia of Nadinoo doing her thing

Kristin of Quiet And Small Adventures

Tasia of Sewaholic

Wendy of The Butterfly Balcony

Twila Jean of The Mysterious Life Of The Metropolitan Housewife

The Stylish Wanderer

Tilly of Tilly And The Buttons

Brittany of Va-Voom Vintage

Let's not forget those lovely brunettes with fringes and short hair!

Sarah of Rhinestones & Telephones

Carys of La Ville Inconnue

Marie of A Sewing Odyssey

Quincy of Q's Daydream

Did I get everyone's names right? Did I miss anyone? Honourable mentions also go out to Gertie, Solannah, Casey and Marianne who, if I remember correctly, all used to have fringes and who are included in my count because ... well, because it's my blog and I say so ;)  That's almost 50% of my blogroll, if I reduced my criteria to just brunette I'd have a much higher percentage. But, still, it does beg the question, what came first, the haircut or the blog?

I don't know about you, but I choose blogs to follow because they're inspirational and make me feel better about my own choices. It stands to reason, when I think about it with more than my usual absenteeism, that the majority of the blogs I follow regarding fashion choice will be written by women who resemble my choices or the choices I want to make. I suppose even amongst vintage and fashion bloggers (or is it just me again?) there's a need to find others like yourself to help bolster your confidence?

I've had a fringe off and on for the last 15 years or so. I say off and on because I have a love/hate relationship with hairdressers so when I find one, regardless of how far away it is, I tend to stick with them. Usually that means a haircut twice a year, including fringe trims. As you can imagine that doesn't bode well for the fringe and it's usually only a matter of weeks before I'm pinning it back.

Fortunately, I've potentially found a hairdresser in Caerphilly who very nicely trimmed my fringe for me a couple of days ago and, as they're very easy to get to and trim fringes for free, I should hopefully be able to keep this one going for longer than three weeks. Win!

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Dawn Skies to Dusk

Dawn's getting later and later. Just last week the sky was light when I got up to take the dog out at just shy of 6am. I took this picture this morning as we headed out the back lanes to the old coal tip for his morning constitutional.

The mountain the sun is rising behind in this photo means that the sun doesn't properly hit my house until about 8am at the moment. It makes photographing my outfits a little difficult!

I'd had a yen to straighten my hair for a while now, just to see exactly how long it actually was without the curl. Other than highlighting just how bad my split ends actually are there doesn't appear to be that big a difference in length, either way it's nearly at my waist, the longest I've ever grown it!

I love this skirt, despite the fact it's too big for me. For some strange reason I felt like a Spanish horse rider from yesteryear in this outfit, possibly due to the combination of an embroidered skirt and a short bolero style cardi. The Nora Batty socks have made a come back (they're just so warm) and I bust out the tan version of my Hush Puppy T-Bars because T-Bars are my favourite style shoe evah. And these ones are just so comfortable!

In comparison, I took this photo when I got home at about 4pm. Totally different light! The entire family's in the photograph, they were hoping I'd give them food and kept following me around!

Dusk up the Old Tip, I love it up there when it's quiet. You can just see the moon peeking out of the cloud. Beautiful.

Skirt: La Redoute
Shirt: Miss Selfridge
Bolero: La Redoute
Sock: No idea!
Shoes: Hush Puppies via Amazon

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Rockin' the Hair

Mum changed the departure time on me twice on Friday morning and with the extra time I decided to experiment with my fringe. I quite like the results, if I can get it a little more in-line I'll be happy! (Apologies for the poor quality cameraphone pic!)

I tried to get the look by using my small curling iron. I've had this thing years, but still don't know how to use it and it's been stuck in a drawer in my bedroom almost since the day I bought it. I'd watched a tutorial by Lisa Freemont Street on youtube and seen her transform a long fringe by using a curling iron. It looked pretty simple (famous last words!) so I thought I'd try it myself. I should've known it wouldn't be that easy! As it became more and more apparent that I was only making more of a mess of my hair I decided to give up and use my straighteners to fix it. And then I remembered how I used to curl my hair under when I had a chin length bob and thought I would try the same trick on my fringe. Voila! Pin-up bangs! Not brilliant pin-up bangs, but for a first attempt - and a fix of a failed attempt at that - I'm rather pleased.

I got all dressed up and then had nowhere to go as the lambing didn't happen. Well, it did, just not with my Mother and myself in attendance. The farmer was at some of his other fields checking the cows for TB and we figured that was slightly more important than acting as a tourist guide. So no lambing photos.

The vintage Aga is in, pictures to follow. I love it. The house is much warmer, the kitchen looks fab (and is almost finished!). I haven't cooked anything other than toast and hot cross buns on it so far (and tea!) but I've invited my neighbours over for a roast dinner on Sunday so that'll be the big one!

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Easily Pleased

I woke up this morning convinced it was Wednesday.

Fishy the Plumber came and completed work on my sink. I am so easily pleased that I giggled all the way through making my first cup of tea from the kettle filled with water from the new sink and not having to go to a different room to get the milk from the fridge. I forsee it may be some time before I stop being excited about this.

I decided to tackle some of the painting today. So this morning I started sanding down all the walls that are dotted with filler (read: all of them). Very very dusty. Because I like being prepared I'd covered my hair with a scarf 1940's style using Solanah's helpful post on how to tie it properly found here. As you can see, the results (for once) turned out correctly! Although I do need a bigger scarf (or a smaller head).

And then - rather thankfully! - Mum called to invite me over tomorrow to watch some lambs being born. She asked when the roofers were coming to re-line my chimney in preparation for the vintage Aga on Monday. Thursday I told her. Today's Thursday, she said. No, today's Wednesday, I said. Are you sure? She asked. I had to admit that now she was asking I wasn't so I double checked and then hurriedly hung up as the roofers were due in a couple of hours and I needed to shower and get to the bank to get their money!

As I was driving out the main road through the village a big black van with a very large ladder pulled in to my turning and I knew that was my roofers. I'd left my front door and back door unlocked in case of just such an occurrence and when they phoned to ask if it was okay to arrive an hour early they were shocked to learn the doors were open and the wolf wouldn't eat them.

So I am all clean and tidy, talking to various people about kittens (don't ask) with two guys making a huge amount of sooty mess in my brand new kitchen and clambering about on my roof. So exciting!

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Vintage Experimentation

Well, I said I'd post a picture of my 50's cardi but got distracted by sunny weather and kitchen floor grouting. So without further ado, here it is!

I would post a pic of me wearing it but when I went to get dressed this morning I realised I had no blouse to go with it. Oh noes! I'll just have to make one, I think a nice Peter Pan collar would look fab.

In the continued spirit of vintage experimentation I attempted to try victory rolls in my hair today:

They were a terrible first attempt, I'm surprised they stayed up long enough to be photographed, and are definitely something I'll need to spend a lot of time practising but, boy, were they fun to do!

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