Home is where the vintage heart is - Swing dancing for charity

I have very little braincells left over that are not covering anything child related. Normally those few ones left are taken up by my hair and this blog but currently they are totally consumed by my wedding planning. So I totally forgot to promote this great event happening tomorrow on the 11th of November!

Swing dancing for charity at the Addison Centre in Kempston near Bedford!

Have a dance, browse some vintage clothing and have your hair done (by Sarah's Doo-Wop Dos of course!) and get your pic taken in the 40s style photo booth!

For tickets contact:

Project 229: 01234 840 880

Grace: 01234 851 508

Sadly I can't make it but it sounds like so much fun!

Home is where the vintage heart is - Sarah's Doo-Wop-Dos

A 2 months hiatus and then 2 blog posts in a day? 

 Ladies get your smelling salts out!

 You've heard about Sarah before - she's also the owner of 4th time round curiosity shop (blogged about HERE) and you've seen her amazing work in my previous post. Sarah is my personal vintage guru in Bedford. If you want something, need something, like something - she will know or probably possess it. She's one colourful and great lady!

Her newest venture is a vintage hairstyling business - Sarah's Doo-Wop-Do's. Specialising in the 40s, 50s and 60s she can also cover all other eras and has great experience with psychobilly style and synthetic dreads.

 One of the most squee-worthy events in Bedford recently was the start of a vintage Shop - Rose-tined Vintage has opened it's doors (blog post to follow) and Sarah has her own little hairstyling booth in the shop. It looks so pretty and like so much fun you want to move into the little booth!

 

Sarah's flyers

(c) Jez Brown Photography

(c) Jez Brown Photography

(c) Jez Brown Photography

(c) Jez Brown Photography

The booth in Rose-tinted vintage

The gorgeous lady herself

Have a look at more of her work - Sarah's Doo-Wop-Dos

You can find Sarah at the Rose-tinted Vintage shop (4 Clair Court, Bedford) every Saturday. Book appointments there Saturdays between 10am - 5pm, other times by request.

Styling prices:
Just victory rolls £10
Simple full vintage do £15
Vintage up do £20 (but price will depend on complexity of style)
You can always email a picture of a style you'd like her to re-create.

Email Sarah at curiosityshop4@hotmail.co.uk for more details or to make a booking or just pop in and see her one Saturday!

She's also holding a vintage hairstyling workshop this Thursday the 13th - there's only one place left, so hurry if you are interested!

Home is where the vintage heart is - Jez Brown Photography

Call me Phoenix. 

I am back blogging rising from the ashes.

Or with a little less drama - I've stopped sulking and I'm getting on with it.

In the past year I've gotten to know the vintage scene in Bedford and the quite exciting members of this circle. Jez Brown is one of them.

Being hooked on all things American already as a child - like comics and Happy Days  (I am not getting the theme song out of my head now!) he fell in love with the 50s very early on.

In his youth he was heavily involved in the psychobilly scene (one of my regrets - something I never knew of and would have loved in my youth) and up to this day he is a huge supporter of rockabilly music and organises quite a few music events in Bedford. 

He is also a selftaught pin-up photographer who created the world of "Reckless Girls" - they are his take on a pin-up and vintage loving community in Bedford. And the community is thriving!

For the upcoming year he'll bring out a Reckless Girls calendar!

(c) Jez Brown Photography

(c) Jez Brown Photography

(c) Jez Brown Photography

(c) Jez Brown Photography

(c) Jez Brown Photography

(c) Jez Brown Photography

(c) Jez Brown Photography

(c) Jez Brown Photography

(c) Jez Brown Photography

(c) Jez Brown Photography

(c) Jez Brown Photography

(c) Jez Brown Photography

(c) Jez Brown Photography

Recently I also had the pleasure to work with Jez - it was really good fun with a very pretty outcome - will share very soon.

Have a look at his photography - Jez Brown Photography and Reckless Girls.

If you would like to book a session prices start as litte as £25 per hour and negotiable editing rates. If you'd like to have a stylist, he can organise Sarah's Doo-Wop-Do's who did all the styling and hair on the pictures shown. I will blog about her and her prices very shortly. Hair accessories are by Lil' Mischief - and again, I am repeating myself, will blog about it soon.

Contact Jez - brown.jez@gmail.com

Home is where the vintage heart is - Beach Belles Burlesque All Dayer

There's another GREAT upcoming event in Bedford!

And I can't bloody make it because it's my sons birthday! I can tell you I am so peeved about this - but of course my baby comes first.

On the 23rd of July

Bedford Esquires presents the 'BEACH BELLES BURLESQUE ALL DAYER' 12.00 - 4.00PM - HOLY MOLY'S - BIZARRE BAZAAR in association with Bedford Burlesque - A veritable bevvy of fabulous stalls selling the best in hand-made and vintage...FREE ENTRY TO BAZAAR 8.00PM - MAINSTAGE - 'BEACH BELLES BURLESQUE SHOW' featuring: - Lexi Sexx - Daisy Cutter - Nelly Plum - Glorian Gray - Madame Treacle Compere: the infamous Mister Joe Black Musical hilarity from Elliot Mason 11.00PM - 2.00AM - HOLY MOLY'S - FOXYBELLES CLUB NIGHT SEASIDE FOOD AND SAUCY SEASIDE TREATS AVAILABLE ALL DAY TICKETS: £8.00 advance from Danny's Bar or online at www.wegottickets.com Ticket price includes entry to Holy Moly's after the Main Event.

(c) Gil Elvgren

Have a look at this cute little promo vid!

Find the event on Facebook.

Home is where the vintage heart is - Bedford Vintage Market

Come and have a look at the Bedford Vintage market - it's part of the Handmade Market Bedford and takes place every 2nd Saturday of the month in Bedford town center from 8.30 am to 4.30 pm!

4th Time Around Curiosity Shop and Rose-tinted Vintage (amongst others) will be trading this Saturday July 9th! Go and buy gorgeous handmade gifts, great vintage clothing, retro homewares & books and then browse the handmade section of the market too! 

Extra special this upcoming Saturday: besides her "4th time Around Curiosity Shop" stall Sarah will also have a vintage styling salon at the market for the day - so if you are in need of a vintage make-over - this is the place to be for you!

Sarah with her 4th time around Curiosity shop and Kat with her Rose-tinted Vintage are always trading there!

I shall have a wander round this month!

Find it on Facebook.

Home is where the vintage heart is - Tea Dance in Bushey

This event is not really local to me (though not too far) but nevertheless sounds like a lovely one!

So in case you'd like to go I cannot leave it unblogged!

As I have no car at the moment I won't be there but hopefully there will be a more local one for Bedford.



"Come and join us for a lovely afternoon of social dancing. Whether you can Lindy, Jive, Jitterbug, Foxtrot, Waltz or Quickstep all dance styles are welcome. There will be a fun taster class at 2pm to get you moving on the dance floor. The Dance Hall has a Beautiful Wooden Sprung Dance Floor. Complimentary Tea, Coffee & Cake. Admission £5 Tickets in advance available at: www.Busheyfestival.org.uk Tickets available on the door on the day Organised by www.Swingsters.co.uk in conjunction with www.Busheyfestival.org.uk and www.Lincolnsfields.co.uk Lincolnsfields Childrens Charity – reg. No. 298392"     Sounds like good fun!   Sunday the 3rd of July  2-5pm The Dance Hall at The Lincolnsfields Centre Bushey Hall Drive Bushey, Herts, WD23 2ES Facebook



Home is where the vintage heart is - 4th time round curiosity shop

This is a blog post I've wanted to get out for months!

4th Time Around is a curiosity cabinet of all things weird and wonderful, from retro tea sets to eye-catching fabrics, statuettes and bric à brac - owned by Sarah Dunn.
After a fair few years of hording, exploring and rummaging, and with Sarah's home now full to bursting at the seams, ‘4th Time Around’ was born.

Each of these unusual items has been lovingly sourced and sold to you in all of their one-of-a-kind, retro, glory! So in the spirit of the great collectors and enthusiasts of the bizarre, ‘4th Time Around’ aims to bring you all the best in oddities and curiosities.

Things to truly treasure and love!

With the unique name Sarah pays hommage to Bob Dylan - she is a huge fan and one of his songs is called "4th time around" - and the pre-loved items are possibly on their way to their 3rd, 4th or 5th home!

Sarah's also quite an artist - the logo is her own design

The 4th time curiosity shop trades at all kinds of vintage events in and around Bedford - like the Flitwick Fayre and the Bedford Vintage Market (more about this in a different post).

The 4th time round curiosity shop trades all kinds of... curiosities!

Stall at the "We are Bedford" event

At the Bedford Handcrafted and Vintage Market with Kat of Rose-tinted vintage

At the Originate Fayre in Flitwick

This beautiful set of crockery is sold - but there's lot's more to be found in the 4th time round curiosity shop!

Sarah herself is quite a dazzling character and certainly one to look out for in the vintage scene in Bedford. She lives the vintage lifestyle , her home is full of retro furniture and her wardrobe is fit to bursting with vintage clothing! In her own words: "I really love the look of the 1940’s so prim & proper but so very, very glamorous. I’m always running around in a ‘nice dress’ and love to find one off’s in charity shops, although I generally customise all my clothes. I love local places like Bletchley Park & Shuttleworth and the Twinwoods Festival as I get a chance to really dress up and meet like minded vintage loving people!"

Sarah with one of her elaborate daily looks

There's even more to Sarah - she's also quite an accomplished vintage stylist and is setting up her own styling business - but this new venture deserves it's own post. So stay tuned!

Email contact: 4thtime@aol.co.uk
 http://www.etsy.com/shop/4thtimecuriosities
http://4thtimearoundcs.tumblr.com/
http://twitter.com/#!/4thtimearoundcs

 



Home is where the vintage heart is - Vintage Fayre in Flitwick

The Flitwick Originate Creative Craft and Vintage Fayre is on again!

The second one I had to sadly miss but I hope I can pop in again on the 9th of July.

If you happen to be a crafter or a vintage seller - a stall costs £15 and she's not fully booked yet, e-mail Donna at dlkurly@yahoo.com. Admission for the public is free!

Flitwick is a village in Bedfordshire north of junction 12 on the M1 so in easy reach for all around!

HERE's how you get there and more info about the location!

Vintage Beauty Pageant

Fancy being a beauty queen?

A vintage beauty queen to be precise?

Check this competition out! I myself have not quite decided yet if I'll take part but I shall make my mind up in the next few days!

You have time until the 20th of June to send a picture in - dressed to the nines in your favourite vintage gear and of course don't forget hair and make-up!

Find Twinwood Events on Facebook and like 'em - they will upload your pic to a dedicated album and make sure you get people to "like" you. The beauty with the most votes wins!

Click the pic to enlarge for more details!

More info about the festival to be read HERE.



Home is where the vintage heart is - Twinwood Festival

I can't believe I haven't gotten round yet to blog about this event!

THE event on my hometurf!

The Twinwood Festival is a huge 1940s and 1950s music and dance event dedicated to Glenn Miller!

And this year is a very special one because it's the 10th anniversary! I've been living in this area for a while now but I have never made it there, can you believe it? Last year I had visitors, the previous years I'd been to Austria or just plainly out of money. But this year I am more than determined to go! Come what may!

The festival is from the 27th of August until the 29th of August and takes place in Clapham, which is a village very near Bedford. It is also the home of the Glenn Miller museum, Glenn Millers history with Bedford and Clapham is so very intriguing - read HERE more about the background.

The festival will provide non-stop live music throughout the days and nights with various dancefloors to hop around to swing, jazz, jive and rock'n'roll from our favourite eras the 40s and 50s!

And of course countless stalls with vintage clothing and accessories, make-up and hairstyling, etc. I am also very excited about the fashion shows, air displays, re-enactors and all the living history around!

Another great excitement for this year is the attempt to break the Guinness World Record at the world largest swing dance! This will happen on Sunday the 28th at approx. 7.30 pm in the main arena.

Come and hop along!

Please have a look at the website for the brilliant line-up, more information about ticket prices and the campsite and don't forget to check out the photo gallery!

http://www.twinwoodevents.com/



(c) Twinwood Events



(c) Twinwood Events

(c) Twinwood Events

(c) Twinwood Events

(c) Twinwood Events

(c) Twinwood Events

(c) Twinwood Events



(c) Twinwood Events



(c) Twinwood Events

All pictures are courtesy of  Twinwood Events and were all taken at the Festival 2010!

Home is where the vintage heart is - Rose-tinted Vintage Bedford

Finally I want to put the spotlight on a few local Vintage lovers and sellers. I've been keen to do this ever since I started up my blog again but as you know technology was not my friend recently (camera broke, computer broke, car broke...)

When I started researching for this series I found incredible sources in and around Bedford. Our little town is ever so vintagey, there is quite a lot going on. I embrace my mummyhood and I don't crave going out much but I do sometimes wish I had more energy and opportunity to actually check out the many vintage events at night!

But first things first! Let's begin with putting the spotlight on Kat from Rose-tinted Vintage in Bedford!

The lovely Kat manning her stall at a vintage fayre in Flitwick

Rose-tinted Vinatge is based in Bedford and they offer an array of affordable casual vintage clothing, handbags, jewellery, scarfs and lot's more!

Kat from Rose-tinted Vintage aims to make vintage clothing affordable! And it is!

You can check her events page to see at what market or fayre they are to be admired or you can also ring or e-mail and book an appointment - Kat is like Vintage on wheels, she brings it to yor house! And of course there's also Etsy!

I hope she can fulfil her dream one day and open a shop in Bedford! I'll certainly be a regular!

Finally the review of the vintage event in Letchworth

Finally!

THIS event was indeed very interesting!

The beautifully restored Mrs. Howard Memorial Hall in Letchworth was the perfect setting for a very pleasant but a tad quiet evening organised by the FIRST GARDEN CITY HERITAGE MUSEUM. Mellow 1940s music in the background, homemade cakes to die for and endless servings of tea - served on the most beautiful vintage crockery.



Beautiful ladies of Buns and Buntings



 Please do have a look at http://bunsandbunting.blogspot.com/ - what a wonderful local vintage catering service! Just to look at their wardrobe, swoon over the crockery and not least of all indulge in their cakes was worth going for!

Weird pic of myself but the only one we took of the crockery! And one of my victory rolls was drooping!



 The other very interesting part was the vintage stylist DANI RICHARDSON. She gave an informative presentation of 2 40s hairstyles and daytime make-up and did not leave interesting historic facts regarding rationing out. I also took away a very helpful tip (of course she spotted my dropped roll straight away) - to roll at the hair base around 2 fingers instead rolling the hair from the tips down. I still have not fully worked it out but I am getting there!

Dani and her model

There was also a stall run by JOLLY BROWN, a vintage shop in Hitchin!

Apart from maybe too quiet music there was one major hiccup - even though I love love love the idea of "SWISHING". It was advertised as a vintage swap shop. So one could expect that you actually swap vintage, couldn't you? Well there was not much vintage (no obvious vintage enthusiasts as guests either) and I even spotted a Tescos t-shirt with it's tags on. I would have been gutted, really gutted, if I would have brought anything to swap. So my advise for next time is to actually police more what people put into the swishing pot - or not proclaim it as a vintage swap.

My own outfit I wore

Pretty sure it is a 70s dress but I love it anyway. Found it via ebay (it's one of my fist purchases I got with the money I got from selling bits of my old wardrobe - so it's part of my very own swishing!). Cardigan is my trusted Primark one and the Mary Janes are from Peacocks - but years ago.

And my hair in more detail - no roll dropped yet on these piccies!



 2 more reviews of the event:  http://www.gardencitymuseum.org/blog/swap_shop_fun_and_upcoming_events and http://bunsandbunting.blogspot.com/2011/02/vintage-swap-shop-success.html