wedding inspiration from...

... a garden centre! Inspiration for wedding reception design can strike at any time so it is essential you always have some kind of camera on you (these pictures are all courtesy of my lovely husbands new phone).
Due to the recent royal wedding and current high street trends, red white and blue is pretty popular at the moment and in my mind a good staple colour theme to work with. I really love the grass on the roof with the cascading ivy, almost looking like natural bunting, whilst the potted geraniums really pop ( and also make excellent favours, which can reduce cost and cleaning up time);

I was amazed to see these ribbon laced trainers hiding amongst the pets and the garden furniture but I really liked the idea;

Now as a rule i like to work with real flowers and natural accessories for no other reason than they're beautiful, but there is something about a pompom on a stick that i just can't resist!

I think it just goes to show that ideas for your wedding theme can pop up in the most unlikely of places
xkt

YMCA photoshoot

One of my favourite places to browse on a wet afternoon has got to be the YMCA furniture store in St.Catherines Parade, Bedminster. It is packed to the gills with retro furniture and it is ridiculously cheap, so cheap in fact that we are onto our 3rd 70's side board! Every time we go we can't help picking up something (i'm sure i'll do a blog on our furniture bargins at some point in the near future). Apparently no one wants 'old style' furniture any more but some one with a little bit of money and some business savvy could totally make a very comfortable living from selling on some of their more wonderful pieces.

So seeing as the YMCA is full of beautiful retro furniture I thought I would take advantage of Ra, the managers, good nature and style up some outfits in the window - having turned it into an open plan living space. And seeing as I collect vintage clothes from a variety of eras, I thought it might be fun to give them a bit of an airing.

60's had to be tiger print nylon and the 70's really had to be flares and sideboards;

 

 

 

 

60's nylon

70's flares and side board

When it came to the 80's the blak lace Madonna dress (it was very nearly a batwing and neon leg warmers

80's lace - all that's missing is the crimping!

90's is quite dear to my heart as I was a teenager then so I really felt I should show how it really was when grunge was king;

And finally, that dull decade the 00's. I know not everything about it was dull fashion wise but with the growth of "budget fashion" and with more people than ever hitting the high streets for quick fashion fixes I can't really pin my finger on anything decade defining, so I thought I would keep it really simple;

"Normal Naughties"

If you ever have a spare afternoon or saturday morning and you're in the area I really can't recommend the YMCA enough, it truly is a vintage furniture treasure trove.
x

Victorian Bustle Skirt

Last week I was lucky enough to have been asked to make two Victorian Bustle Skirts for a performance that is coming up, so I thought I would share the finished thing with you;

I do intend to do a "how to" on this when I have a few minutes to spare and i'll also try to make some suggestions on good fabrics to use.
xkt

Little Royals

It has been a lovely Easter break with only one trip to A&E and plenty of picnics and family time!
As we all know Friday was the Royal wedding and yes, I thought her dress was genuinely lovely with its 50's sweet heart neck line and on trend lace sleeves. How ever I didn't get to watch the happy event as I was in a Womad children's marquee in Bath, helping The Red Mask art company with creating paper costumes for children. It was brilliant!
I took some very simple one piece corset (for the girls) and bid front (for the boys) pattern's with me;

And with the other artists the very talented Gemma, Xeena and Rhiannon we raided Scrapstores and took the biggest heap of materials;

   
for the children to get creative with. And they didn't disappoint. It was the sweetest way to spend the day as the children (and parents) were full of ideas, enthusiasm and really enjoyed themselves making their own "princess dresses" and "armour";

My out and out favourite though was "Rory the Brave" who ended up with a whole suit of armour. What this boy didn't know about knights was not worth knowing!

 Genius.