For The Girls

Did everyone enjoy the wedding last night, what a celebration...... l was glued to the telly until all the choir singing, but then l found myself getting distracted and since the Chasers were banned from doing their (comedy) version, and thus entertaining us, l wandered off and totally missed the balcony smooch and people waving scenes, but l'm sure thery'll be replays today.

Well clearly l'm not a psychic since my version of the dress was not like the real thing at all was it.......but she really did look stunning. 

It's been a while since l shared any pics of my vintage finds.
Below are my faves for the past month or so.

l thought it was hilarious that as soon as l'd taken some of my enamel collection to the market to sell, pretty much the first thing that found me was this enamel casserole dish. The colour and the flowers, irresistible.   Now...........where am l gonna put it.

Another wool work tapestry,  this also came looking for me..... Just $5.00 at a car boot sale. l left it in it's frame for the pic.

This new and very fancy black frame was $8.00 at an op shop, It will make a great addition to a Birthday present for a friend of mine. (l'll tell her it's an oppy of course)

When l bought the Italian tray on the right l thought it was made of wood as it's quite heavy, but realised on closer inspection that it's only plastic......but still nice.

Today l've put together a little tribute to Australian fashion designer Alannah Hill. Alannah was born in Geeveston Tasmania (1963) and moved to Hobart when she was 15, she then ran away to join Ashtons Circus (can you believe that?) and moved to Melbourne where she was eventually offered a job for a Chapel St. (Melb) fashion outlet where she worked for the next 15 years, before she started her own "girly chic" fashion label.
l've long admired her designs and will pop into one of her Melbourne stores if ever l'm in her neck of the woods. My Mum, Sister and l went to Sydney last year and we visited one of her outlets there, it was amazing. l've never actually bought anything in her boutiques as her clothes are more for dressing up and going out and l rarely do that, but it's lovely to browse and dream. 

Last year l was fortunate to find this Alannah Hill cardy for $8.00 in an oppy. Although modern and pretty l've never worn it, maybe it's cos it's black, a colour l rarely wear......don't know........maybe this Winter.

This is Alannah posing for Vogue Living in the bedroom of her previous home in Armadale, Melbourne.
The bag on the right.........Melbourne Central store.



This is the dining room in the same house, l love the floral wallpaper and Venetian style chandelier.

Lounge room, pink  furniture and again .....the chandelier.

This is the bedroom of her Armadale house.

This is the dining room of her new home, the colours are so lovely.

Mirrored hall table- also in her new house. l found these photos on flickr, they were featured in the Age (Melbourne newspaper) magazine.  

This is part of her shop in Brisbane and the pic on the right is one l took on my recent trip to Melbourne.

This pic is also her Brisbane shop

Gorgeous fashions, you can read and view lots more here. alannahhill

Well it's all been very girly hasn't it........hope you've enjoyed it, cos that's what it's all about. Have a wonderful weekend.

Bron.

Wedding Glitz and Glam.

lt's been a pretty full on week hasn't it...what with the Easter break and also remembering our brave and inpirational soldiers on Monday as well. lt's been a wonderful time for love, family, and gratitude.
Now that it's over the Brits are adding  lots of excitement with their royal wedding, and today l'm adding to the whole frenzy 'cos the wanna be fashion designer in me can't wait to see the dress, and soak up some of those feel good vibes. 

l've done a quick pastel sketch of what the dress might look like. l can't see Kate wearing anything puffy or fluffy, it will probably be slim fitting with a waist. It may flare a little at the hem (so she can walk in it), and be made in a satin fabric in ivory. I think she'd love to go strapless but protocol won't allow that so it will have small sleeves, my idea would be three or four rows of pearl straps. The bodice and hemline would be adorned in seed pearls of varying shades of white, and have a long detachable train also embroidered in pearls/flowers and diamantes. Maybe just a 3/4 length veil dotted with pearls, and wearing a diamante/pearl tiara. I'd love to see her carry pale mauve and pink roses with ivory lillies in her bouquet, the bridesmaids could wear "Ashes of Roses" frocks. (which is a very pale mauve that has a hint of pinkish grey in it).
It's just not normal how much thought l've put into this, is it hehe!!........... oh yeh, ivory satin slippers with 2 inch heel, no lacing.. what if she tripped. Enuff..... l do digress...

Thought l'd add some lovely sparklies, a tiara which l bought from trash for $5.00 years ago. It belonged to the previous owners' grandmother. (Wedding)? not sure...

Diamante hair slide and large king medallion, couldn't resist it's over the top charm. l've never worn it, but now it's been useful. hehe!

l've collected the odd crown piece if l come across it. The crown to the top of the pic belongs to a spoon.

l'm pretty confident Will and Kate won't be turning up in these outfits.

Christina Aguilera and partner on Halloween ..... how cool do they look!!!

Source   wedding.com.au    but perhaps Kate could do the Tattoed leg, butyk.co.uk

This cute collection of wedding topper/dolls pic, is from dreamsintertwined

Some palace interiors for you to enjoy. This is one of the bedrooms at the Palace of Versailles. I think it was Marie's. The bed's covered in plastic to keep the dust off. Not very comfy......but practicle.

Part of the Hall of Mirrors- Palace of Versailles.

Just some of the opulence Kate will have to endure....sighhh
The Crimson room. Buckingham Palace. royal.gov.uk

The ballroom at Buckingham Palace. palacevirtualtours.com

The dining room  royalcollection.org.uk at Buckingham Palace.

And finally for those of you that are a bit stressed that Wills is no longer available.

theparisapartment


This has been a great post to put together and l hope you've enjoyed it too....

Thanks heaps for stopping by.
Bron.

Home again.....Jiggety Jig

Here's wishing you my friends a wonderful, happy and safe easter. 
l put this couple of vignettes together in celebration..... all but one of the truffle eggs tasted yum!!    Yes that's right, l pretty much ate them all...

The market went well, and the weather was truly perfect which ironically was not a concern as a new venue saw us all indoors for the first time. This market is usually held on a train platform and it's often a cold and nasty wind tunnel, still it was great not to have to consider the weather. Lots of vintage bits and bobs were sold from our little stall below, and our adjoining stallholder kept us entertained with his tales of marital woe. Though his long suffering wife was not there to defend herself.... it was all in jest. As an aside his 12 year old daughter sold $160 worth of swapcards, so if you see any on your travels... buyemup!!

My computer has been in the shop so the IT guys could find some lost files that needed to be found (which thankfully they did) but while l was in there l copped a parking ticket, didn't see the (loading) sign and l was in fact loading, but of course try explaining that to a parking officer whose care factor is nil, never mind that he parked illegally in the driveway to give me the ticket. Arrrgghh!!!!

Hope you enjoy this little ballet theme l've got going on, l really enjoyed putting the pics together. Here l found some vintage barkcloth fabric with ballerinas printed on it. It's probably 50's. The ceramic slipper is Japanese and is dated 1983. The handpainted ballerina tile was a lucky market find.

These ballerina cards are prints of works painted by the French artist Edgar Degas. (1834-1917).

It was love at first sight when l spotted this (l think 60's) ballerina print that now hangs in my bedroom.

How creative is this little table designed to look like a dancer. By anna neklesa. source

This gorgeous image is from selinalake. and is from her lovely book Romantic Style.

Romeo and Juliet by Anne Lebovitz for Vogue magazine. source.


Thanks for dropping by.
Til next time.

Bron.

Colour and Pattern - Featuring Kaffe Fasset.

Since this is a blog about vintage and art l was thinking it might be nice every now and then to feature a favourite artist, much like the post l did on Monet, not that l want to go on (and on) so as to  bore you to distraction, but just introduce some  art you might find interesting and inspiring, that you might not otherwise know about. 

Today l've chosen Kaffe Fassett who some of you may be familiar with. He is  an American born artist who now lives and works in the UK, he settled there in 1964. What l love about Kaffe's work is his stellar understanding, knowledge and use of colour, as well as his passion and vision for creating beautiful works of art.

Kaffe began his creative life as a painter and at age 19 won a scholarship to the Museum of Fine Art in Boston, but after 3 months he went to England to paint. On a trip to Scotland he visited a Woollen Mill and loved that the yarns were available in the colours of the landscape that was so inspiring to him. He bought 20 balls of Shetland wool and a pair of knitting needles. On the way back to London on the train, some kindly passenger taught him to knit...his very first design ended up as a full page spread in Vogue knitting magazine. He has written over 30 books, many of them on arty designer knitwear, as well as patchwork quilts, tapestries and mosaics. 

Above is one of Kaffes' mosaics and he has been commissioned for many projects, including items that were part of a gold medal award winning garden at the Chelsea Flower and Garden show in London. He trawls markets, car boot sales, and op shops searching for china to use in his work. He loves to use items that have been discarded, and undervalued, the more kitsch the better.



I love the detail in this mosaic at the front of Kaffe's studio.

Above is a couple of my experiments in mosaic. The torso is one l bought that's made out of cardboard, l was surprised at how sturdy it was to hold all that glue, china and grout, though it was completed quite a few years ago it's still holding up ok. If you look closely you might notice the green bikini. It sits on a vintage quilt l bought from trash & tresh which is made from individually hand stitched hexagons... Whew!! what a lot of work. 

The pic on the right shows a quilt l did make from both vintage and new fabrics, it's just a very simple example with large patches, but l really enjoyed putting together the colour combinations. It wasn't professionly quilted (way too exy for such basic work) but hand quilted during the Winter months which actually made it quite enjoyable.

Above is one of Kaffe's many artworks. Colour and pattern on colour and pattern. Nice!!

The above image is the dining room in Kaffes' home, and is featured in his book Welcome Home, which shows all the rooms of his home as well as his studio. 

Part of a collection of tapestry bags l've collected over many years..... love the intricate, detailed pattern and design.

These are just some of the woolwork tapestries l've collected over the years, l buy them because they're so pretty, usually cost effective, but mostly it just seems wrong that they might be thrown in the bin if not sold. All that time, work and attention surely deserves to be utilised. l hope to eventually turn them into cushions or bags to give them a new lease of life.

 l generally take the works out of their frames so they can be stored more compactly.

When a shift at work was cancelled earlier this week it was a bit of a blow, but if l'd worked l wouldn't have found these jeans at the op shop, l couldn't believe my luck when they actually fit and only $4.50. They're encrusted with diamentes & studs and since l'm such a sucker for a bit of bling l was completely smitten. Do you think l'll look like mutton done up as Dolly Parton? l should be so lucky...... (though Lord knows l can't sing).They're very long so can't wear 'em til they're taken up, otherwise l'd be wearing them right now. Oh and they have a flarish/ bootleg bottom which isn't shown in the pic.

Hope you've enjoyed exploring a little of Kaffe's fascinating life and work. You can read and see lots more at kaffefassett.com . The info and pics are from his website. Hope it's not too wicked to share them with you all. l'll find out soon enough l guess......

Thanks so much for taking time out of your busy day to visit, til next time,

Bron.