Oh What The Chap?!

As promised, I am catching up on myself with a little writing.  A couple of weekends ago it was once again time for the fabulousness that was The Chap Olympiad 2012.  What with it being the year of the Olympics, Chap went all sporting on us and made the event a two-dayer.  Now, we all know the importance of choosing the right outfit for any event; let alone a double dayer!  So I thought I would start the post with my outfits and hair.

Day One

One of my bespoke pieces which I had made for me especially last summer.  It was in fact its first ever outing even though it has been sitting in my wardrobe for nearly the past year.  I did bring it to Sweden with me last summer but never actually got round to wearing it as I took so much with me to choose from.  Then the weather was just not that great here and no event  good enough called for it's reveal.  That was until The Chap Olympiad!  I'm sure if the outfit had a mind of its own it would be pretty pleased as it received so many compliments and photo requests.  The outfit is in fact a two-piece and not a dress as it may seem at first glance.  The top half is in the style of a halter style waistcoat with a cut-out waist and waistband fastened by a single vintage button.  On either sides are openings again fastened by some vintage buttons with the front closing using concealed hook and eyes.  The skirt is of the circle style.  I had the fabric sourced with my specification and the pattern is a 1940s one.  I thought it may have been a little too summery but the weather turned out to be just A-Ok that day.

The outfit was finished off with a pair of tiki style wedges and my lovely Miss L Fire reproduction lucite 'Jitterbug' handbag which was also very well received.  Most thought it was an original.  How I wish it was but kudos to MLF!

Here's a back/side view - photo borrowed from here.  You will also find a couple more of moi, plus some other lovely people from the event at the link.

Day Two
So onto my second outfit at The Chap do.  Another bespoke number with an oriental theme.  You may recall a previous post about this particular dress being made for me.  I had it made to order especially for my sisters wedding back in February this year.  This was one of the two amazing dresses; the other which I posted a photo of recently here.

This is my version of a cheongsam dress with the style of In the Mood for Love and 2046 in mind.  The style and setting in both of these films has really embedded itself into my heart.  I had the dress made so that it was more fitted to the body than they are usually made.  The length kept long to mid-calf with high side splits on both sides.  I had to give full body measurements from head to toe (so to speak) which gave me amazing results.  It fits like a glove as bespoke should with the most amazing finishes.  It is not until you come up close will you realise the dress is not of true vintage origin.  The mark of a dress well made I say!  I definitely have more of these lovelies with my name on it to be made soon :)

Accessorised with Pimms and wellies for the great British summer!

Onto Hair.  I spent the evening before the weekend setting it into rollers as I do and spent the morning styling the 'do' before anything else happened whilst eating a breakfast of fruit, crumble, yogurt and honey.  Such work has to be put in I kept the same style for the whole weekend (just like in the good ol' days) managing to keep it in good order when I slept on it.  Only change was the hair accessory.  It really is so much easier to style other peoples hair.  At least you see can what you are doing without having to stop and check with a two way mirror every other turn.  I was very happy with the results I have to say.  These styles doesn't seem to take me any less time the more I create them but more that they seem to come out better each time.

 Thank you to my lovely Beck for taking all these photos for me.

Last but not least... The events photos and videos!

Order of the day

Tristan - The Master of Ceremonies 

In the bar...

Tipple?

Umbrella Jousting  

 

Ironing Board Surfing... As you do.

Free Scones from our neighboring table party.

The Heavy Weights

The Best Victoria Sponge apparently!

Promo Chaps

The lovely Beck & Alice

Musical mayhem

Dancing was had.

Gorgeous Hat and Outfit spotted. 

Mr.B The Gentleman Rhymer doing his ditties for our entertainment!

The only way to behave when you hear Mr.B

Beck sporting her 99 proudly whilst modeling my hair flowers with a dash of cuteness.

A Chap showing some prowess... but that is surely foul play?

Tug of Hair...

turned for the worst.

Luckily nurses were on hand with some Gin!

Ladies line up for Bounders

As do the Chaps

And that's how it's done as expertly shown by Miss Minna!

Nurse now has the job of saving the ladies from Atters!

Briefcase Phalanx

The Last Dance as the sun comes down over what was The Chap Olympiad 2012

Well, that was that.  A wonderful but very tiring weekend with all Chaps and Chappest.  I'm not sure two days of such sporting activities was good for my health.  The bar was far to close to hand!

Righto, what next?  Swweeeeddeeeennnnnnnnnnn!  The A-Bombers Old Style Weekend to be precise.  In a weeks time (I already started counting down the days) I shall have landed in Goteborg.  Yay!  I also just spotted the Caezars are playing.  Double yay!

Until my next post.  Toodle-loo,

Alison xxx

Dancing feet!  Another photo borrowed from here.

Oh London How I have Missed You!

'Ello 'ello!  I'm sat here writing from my new living room whilst the sky outside just cannot seem to decide whether it wants to be sunny or rainy.  Oh silly England!  So from my last post I mentioned a little about this and a little about that.  This here is a follow on about my little-big move to East London!

Obviously it was never going to happen; me bringing absolutely everything with me that is!  I had to whittle down all of my favourite things.... shoes, clothes, handbags, home things, books :(  It was pretty hard decision making right there.  Anyway, somehow I managed to do it (well, not without picking up a few more bits when I visited and asking my sis to take some things out with her to work for me) and it's a good thing all round as I am still trying to organise my room to the way I would like it to be even with less bits and bobs.

All moves are not without their disasters right?  As we started to unload from the van into my new room a leak greeted me.  Whoopsies!  Water ran down the side wall and also right through the middle down the light fitting.  Luckily we had only just started unloading, because otherwise there might have been horror at the sight of my things and TV being drenched.  With this lovely surprise we unloaded into the living room and decided to head out for some lunch instead.  Did I mention that I had quite a team with me?  Me, my sis and her husband and our lovely doggies Bella & Dottie!  Of course they just spectated but I know that if they could they would definitely help with the lifting because they are good like that ;)

As the night went on the girls(my new flatmates) and I decided we would head on out for the evening.  Partly as a sending off to Nati and a welcoming for moi.  Lots of dancing was had.  Maybe a little too much drinking... by me anyway.  Introducing... Samantha (newly blonde), Orphea (front), Nati (back) and me on the right if you didn't know.  The photo-booth strip was taken at the beginning of our night out and is now in pride of place on our staircase wall.

I've been putting all my little trinkets around my room... into my display cabinet and my lovely deco dressing table which I have been waiting to use for months and months!  I had seen and subsequently purchased it earlier on in the year knowing that I had planned to move back into London.  It was kept in storage until now where it is taking pride of place in my boudoir! 

The very few books I managed to take with me... the hundreds I left behind :( 

I love my dresser so so much!

I have covered the dresser in all my products and accessories etc but it isn't quite as I want it yet because I have not filled the drawers or cupboard.  I'll be sure to post a photo of the finished display when I can decide what to do! 

For now, this is a brief peek into my boudoir.  There are curtains yet to be purchased, I have more bed linen to buy, also some fabric/cloth to cover my rail to protect the clothes.  So glad I made the decision to buy a 6ft rail to set up right away.  Otherwise there would have been no where for all my clothes.  Even though there is a small double wardrobe and two chest of drawers.  Not enough by any standards!  I have to add that I am very pleased with my shoe corner.  Maybe 50% of my collection made it with me to East London but there were still plenty to contain.  They are neatly concealed(as much as they can be) in the corner between my two chests.  Although it seems I have somehow already managed to purchase new pairs of shoes... How did that happen??

Hope you have a lovely evening as I must now plan my dinner party for tomorrow.  What shall I cook?  Already decided on the desert of Eaton Mess.  All going a bit backwards with the planning.  But it's like summer in the mouth, even if it is grey outside.  If all goes right I shall take some pics of my efforts in the kitchen.

Toodles,

Alison xxx

Min Boudoir Magazine Feature

Well, this is rather exciting news to announce!  I have been keeping it for quite some months until the issue recently came out.  As the title suggests, I am indeed featured in the third edition of the Swedish Vintage Lifestyle/Pin-Up publication Min Boudoir this month!  You know the little book of Vintage Styling I was recently featured in and was helping the authors to promote?  Well, the magazine article is something to do with said book.  I had organised with Tifa (Editor in chief) a book give away through the magazine whilst I was organising the book launch.  Tifa had then ask for me to feature with the article.  Of course I really couldn't say no to that now could I?  ;)  Heh!  It so happened at the time Anna, Min Boudoir's photographer was visiting London and we had planned to shoot together.  As it goes, for some unknown reason(I blame modern technology) we couldn't get in touch with each other and it was Anna's last day in London.  Lucky me I happen to have my very good friend and photographer Jaana on hand.  We took some shots at the book launch and sent that across to Tifa.  Ta da, the job is done!

Issue three can now be purchased in stores across Sweden and also via their website for those living abroad. Issue one is also available but issue two is now sadly sold out.

My lovely Malin residing in Sweden has kindly picked up a copy for me and one for herself too.  Ready to be flicked through when I visit next month.  I cannot wait!  Of course I wanted to see the article and Malin so kindly took a photo for me.  The article was a lot bigger than I had expected, as well as my photograph.  A full page :D

I believe the caption says something along the lines of... "Model and blogger Miss Cherrylicious in Wearable Vintage Fashion where she speaks of her style."  Do correct me if I am wrong as the two times I Google translated it, it said different things.  Or maybe it's me typing it incorrectly?  Remember you can win yourself a copy of Wearable Vintage Fashion through the magazine so go and pick up a copy now!

This was just a quick update and a bit of exciting news from me.  Thank you to the lovely Tifa for asking me to be in an issue of Min Boudoir.  When I can I will most definitely take you up on the offer of modelling for your wonderful publication.

I will be back posting about my new humble abode very soon with a few snaps of my own boudoir!  Also of course my weekend at The Chap Olympiads.

Happy Friday 13th.  Night night,

Alison xx

Birthday, Relocating, Posing, Dancing, Drinking...

Hello lovelies!  A couple of weeks has been and gone since my last post; pre-move back to London Town...  So what has been going on, what has everyone been up to?  Lots of things have been happening over these past weeks including outings, my birthday, the big move, drinks, dancing (lots of it), a photo shoot, meeting new people and hanging out with my new flatmates!

As I do each and every year, I took some time off work for my birthday.  I had been planning to go on a mini break to get away from it all but it happened to coincide with my moving home.  Instead, my time off became my week of packing and wrapping.  But not before I had a little dance!

Birthday Shenanigans!
Another year older but none-the-wiser, teehee!  No but really, I actually never really feel older.  I think I'm stuck at 25, but not in a bad way.  It helps when you don't look your age too, or so I'm always told :D  With all the moving home plans I actually didn't get up to much on my birthday.  I did have a night out with the girls the weekend before but on the day of my actual birthday I stayed in and carried on packing like a good girl.  We headed over to Hotel Street; the Sailor Jerry's bar I have previously mentioned which is now sadly closed  :(  We watched the singer from the Dum Dum Girls, Dee Dee do a solo show and had a few drinks.

I love this photo of Anne and I so much. You may just find I have used it everywhere!

This is a short video of Dee Dee and some interviews.

The funny thing is we were actually filmed for this video clip but didn't make the cut.  Although I have to add I was rather relieved when I did watch it as I was practically dragged up to be interviewed because I look like a SJ girl.  I'm pretty video camera shy and was quite embarrassed and maybe a little bit red too!  Am pretty happy I didn't sneak onto it but I would have liked to see Jaana on there :P

For afters we headed to Joe's in Camden to do a little hip swaying.  Friday night is Hip Joint ran by El Nino of The Lady Luck Clubs.  All the drinking and dancing aside; it was this night at Joe's that I met my next photographer to be(was)  Chiko Ohayon.  Everyone was on the dance floor and we got chatting a little bit here and there.  I completely lost track of time but maybe half an hour or so before we left, Chiko ask if I would model for his book.  He has been shooting and working on his own book for the last four years.  We swapped contacts and I went to have a chat with him at his studio during that week.  We shot a week or so later after he came back from Paris.  At some point I will no doubt post about it all but not right now.

So that was basically my birthday celebrations.  It may no be much this year but I did receive one of my best presents ever from my sister.  How does she think of these I do not know but she's a genius for sure!  From reading my blog you probably would have gathered how fond I am of hair and beauty.  This was/is the perfect present.  Not even I knew I wanted one until I had it.  I did not have a hard time filling it up at all.  The rate I buy make-up and new shades of lipsticks!

I love all the trays and compartments!

After all this birthday goodness I said my goodbyes to Surrey and living with my sister and packed up the van.  Next stop... East London!  More on this new exciting adventure next time.  For now, it is time to head to bed so I am ready for The Chap Olympiads in the morning.  Gosh time has flown by!

Alison xxx

Ps. I did of course attend one last agility class with Dottie before I left...