Last Night A Blog Post Saved My Life!

Well not quite. But it saved me quite a lot of money and gained me a vintage-pretending-to-be-more-vintage suit (80s/40s). It might, therefore, go down in the annuls of history as the jammiest and most useful post ever to drift into my feedbox. It isn't even a new one! I was showing Lord Florizel some stuff Vintage Vixen had posted about her house and he was amazed by her fabulous bargain-hunting ability, so I showed him her post on hunting ebay items. Then I decided to have a go. Trying all the rules at once and seeing what happened...

'Tweetspiration', or '#charityshopandbeersaturday'

I'm in the bosom of my very, very messy home, recovering. I feel a little tired-of-head and I blame twitter! Specifically a Saturday-morning tweet by Retrochick with three very dangerous words in it: charity, shop & beer. Picture it: me, vaguely wondering what to do after my chores, seeing those words. It was a revelation I tell ye! A revelation. In spite of having spent Friday teaching a media studies class how the hypodermic syringe theory of audience reaction was all outdated bunkum in our media-savvy age, I saw those words and immediately texted my partner-in-crime. Who, strangely, was just texting me with the exact same suggestion. See, partners in crime. I shall call her Lilac Lady, to protect the identities of the innocent. She's a lady, and she suits lilac.

A Monsoon Wedding

"Hold it! Flash, bang, wallop, what a picture,
Click, what a picture, what a photograph.
Poor old Eve, there with nothing on.
Face all red and her fig leaf gone."

I checked my inbox this morning and discovered a very special wedding feature on one of my favourite wedding blogs Whimsical Wonderland Weddings. Why so special? Well put it this way... Perdita isn't my real name. I like craft, I'm frugal-but-(hopefully)-stylish and I got married last year.

Straight Talking Mamma Giveaway!

Fiona, of Notorious Kitsch (fab online shop) is having a giveaway, the prize is an amazing book on 50s design! Click here to find out more!

Good luck!

Blog award thanks (2) & furiously fabulous facts...

Another luvverly award! This is from the delightful Missy Vintage. In order to slap up the bling here...

...I must tell you 7 things about myself. Luckily I am a world reknowned expert on myself and all things me-related, so I assure you this will be as educational as watching Mastermind (the real one, not the celeb one where they ask 'what day comes after Monday?').

Blog award thanks (1)

So very spoilt this weekend! I came back from a nice day at the Vintage Fashion Fair to find not ONE but TWO fabulous awards. WOW! I've only been blogging a few months so these are my first awards.

So, first off, a massive thank you to Landgirl 1980 for this delight!

Ta Daa!

Having similar tastes to the lovely kind folk who have awarded me, I hope there's no overlap (because there's so much blog wonderful out there I want to spread the love), but I am passing my little square of bloggy-blog luuurve on to:

HELGA VON TROLLOP

INTRINSICALLY FLORRIE

MISSY VINTAGE

MYSTYLE, THRIFTING, FASHION & ME

ORIGINAL MISCHIEF

Weekend Dreams

My new bed is working out very well (not like that. All's pure to the pure of heart you know). My back is feeling much better and I am sleeping deeply enough to have strange and wonderful dreams (not like that, either). I had one in which a tiny door my office was the entrance to a nightclub and ultra-secret venue within which a bizarre, drunken, 'bring some sweets or cake to get in and the booze is free' wedding-slash-ball was occurring.

Top blog, top bloke

I'm one of those terrible London-ites who decamps to Brighton at the drop of a hat and clogs the place up. In my defence, I am like a Brighton 'auntie' having a sibling who lives and works there. Anyway, my final link of a day of links (and I always thought I wouldn't DO that when I blogged) is to The Seafront Diaries, a little bit of sunny Brighton in my inbox daily. I only discovered it recently but Jason's kind response to one of my comments reminded me of just how many nice people are out there in Blogland. Enjoy folks!

Snoodlebug: My first giveaway! 1940's simplicity sewing book....

Having a link-alicious day. Snoodlebug's giveaway is one for all sewing fans and folks like me who only sew to mend their vintage finds and would like to actually get SKILLS and CREATIVE! Woo hoo! Click on the link below...

Snoodlebug: My first giveaway! 1940's simplicity sewing book....: "And lo, I have reached 250 followers. Wow! Thank you everyone. To celebrate this and also to strengthen my sewing resolve I h..."

Tea, Love & Anarchy: Penny Savers

Tea, Love & Anarchy: Penny Savers: "So it January and like most people I'm broke. I have lots of grand ideas for this year, making something of Tea, Love and Anarchy, visiting ..."

A lady after my own heart! :)

Life ain't no walk in the park

Actually, it was yesterday. It was when we got there and the effing battery gauge on my camera malfunctioned and went from full to empty in 30 seconds flat that it all went wrong. Luckily, his lordship was able to sally forth like Sir Walter Raleigh and save me with his posh android phone thingy which has a passable camera.

We enjoyed a stroll through the Eastcote nature reserve in far West London (you'd never guess you were in mid-suburbia) and I grumbled because there were loads of lovely things I wanted to photograph, and, good though the stand-in was it wasn't up to arty shots of leaves, lichens and other boring stuff I like to snap.

Finally, we popped to Eastcote House for a look around the pretty walled garden. This has nothing to do with it being en-route to the pub. Sadly, the manor house itself is little more than a glorified shed nowadays; intact on the outside but you can see the boarding behind the glass, and it's where they store the lawnmowers and grit. By modern standards it's little more than a big detached, but back in the day it would've been some place! Depressing, in a way, but at least it keeps it preserved. No photo either- a large van was parked outside obscuring the view. Our luck came back when we lifted the latch and sneaked into the secret garden...

Me, apparently bringing back the 'hobble' skirt from the early 20th century!

Playing with the camera apps!

And so, following a bracing walk, we adjourned to the pub. The Case Is Altered, Eastcote (it's an unusual name, but there's another up in Bushey! Strange). The name is apparently a corruption of the Spanish name for a brothel - the 'house of fun' if you will. Cheeky times in centuries gone by! Nowadays, the only women lowering the tone are me and my pals- it's a really nice local pub, giving the flavour of the local Inn in an Agatha Christie cricket-on-the-green village - but on the tube and 30 mins from central London. Fab.

They have the 'balance' here: sport is shown, but on a small unobtrusive screen in one area, excellent food is served, but it's not a 'gastro', there's olde-worlde charm with a large airy barn conversion for fans of modern decor. The range of drinks is good too- there are usually 4-5 ales on pump (Bombadier and Pride being the usuals- the guests yesterday were all Cornish, I tried a Cornish stout with coffee. Yum!). In the summer, there's a spacious beer garden with an excellent view of the cricket green and/or nature reserve.

Yum. Dehydration is a killer.

If you're in the area, I recommend this pub! It's also a good start for a crawl round Eastcote and Pinner. ;)

Eccentric Curator

A friend of mine, with whom I used to work, once passed a fun afternoon by philosophising about what job we would all do in a parallel universe. You weren't allowed to pick your own - it was what management peeps call a process of '360 degree evaluation'. We weren't being lazy whilst we should've been working neither, honest Guv- it was what pedagogical peeps call 'an exercise in creative critical thinking'.

Sunday Quickie: Jumble Me Up!

Hi folks, just a quink 'link luv'...

The Wills-Moody Jumble Sale takes place on the first Sunday of every month and is THE place to get lovely designer treats for cheapy cheapy cheap cheap... check out the link here.

Hair V Rain. Rain wins.

Rain? Of course my hair's still perfect. 

Ugh, it's raining. I find this most distressing; you cannot imagine how much I detest rain, and in particular, rain getting on my hair. It borders on a psychological problem to some extent and some of the tactics I use to avoid hair-rainage border on the ridiculous. Laptops, carrier bags, notebooks, my entire handbag- all of these can (and have) with a bit of tugging, be placed over the entire human head. Albeit a small and perfectly round jead, akin to a Brussels sprout (thank you, dearest husband of mine, for that simile). You may ask me why I choose not to carry an umbrella everywhere, provided I may look back at you blankly with proper London dumb insolence and say 'yeah wha'eva. I dunno'. Seriously, I don't. Maybe I had some bad experiences with them being damaged, lost or being wantonly wet at me after the rain had passed. I forget.

Facebook?

Just a little 'one liner' to mention the blog now has a page on the ubiquitous Facebook. If you are a Facebooker and want to follow, click here.

Craft Addiction

Just a quickie today... I'm loving the whole 'making things' aspect of life right now. Bit poor, cold outside, darts or Hollyoaks on the telly - I can't think why!

The lady is a tramp (sometimes)

It's all in the name, really. For those of you who don't know who Perdita is, wiki it here. It's a metaphor, innit.

I have always been in admiration of those people (especially fashion and vintage bloggers) who have an unshakable style, be it permanently 40s or pure designer. That just isn't me; I am (and always have been) a person of contrast. Let me be quite plain- I am not venting any 'I'm veery deep, mysterious and complicated' nonsense. I simply find that in life I tend to warp into either one or other style-persona depending on my mood or the situation. There are two and they are pretty defined (see below). Sometimes, out in blog land this can be a bit downheartening; when 'about me' often seems perfectly focused and clear-cut (and in some cases- although not those of the blogs I follow- a tad obsessive and holier-than-thou) - knowing that I switch styles from time to time makes me feel a bit like an interloper and a charlatan. Or, if I'm in a better mood, a bit like Dr Who or an adventurer through Fashion-Quantum-Leap. Or a poor, less famous, looks-a-bit-like-Stacy-Slater version of Beyonce and Sasha Fierce.

Sensible, knee length tailoring.

Rather odd motercycle top, but I like it.

Anyway, as I'm in my third, secret shame 'sartorial zone' (the one in which I wear PJs all day- as in, a clean, pressed, pretty pair of daytime PJs. It's a statement against going out or doing anything constructive- nothing to do with last night being New Year's, I assure you...) I will randomly post some images that sum up my good twin/evil twin fashion thing. Which do you prefer? (Hint: Urban DaDa-ist Perdita doesn't care, but Princess Perdita will go and cry and throw some crockery in a dainty fit of pique. Mind you, Urban DaDa-ist Perdita throws plates anyway, cuz that's the way she rolls).

Princess Perdita

With an interest in mid-20th century fashion and good quality modern clothing, she tends towards either the clearly tailored look or a rather 'floaty' whimsical style. She has an operational understanding of etiquette, and is well able to sensibly go to work then cook, clean and run a home (not that she always does so, as an air of elegant disorder can a alluring provided it doesn't stray into Havisham territory). Reads wedding blogs, takes photographs of flowers in misty gardens and trawls charity shops, craft fairs and designer sales (when they aren't crowded), on the other hand, organises things neatly in folders and likes to run a tight ship and work. Has said 'spit-spot' without irony on more than one occasion. She reads vintage Vogues, National Geographic, classic novels and takes guilty pleasure in Agatha Christie. Would be prissy were it not for the fact she can be ever-so-slightly Scarlet OHara or Verucca Salt on an off day, although attempts Mary Poppins on a good one.

My wedding dress is very like the one on the right!

Perdita The Urban DaDa-ist

Has no time for good taste or dressing according to age, situation, interests etc'. Likes glitter, Hello Kitty and extreme Kawaii and 70s sportswear. Has recently gotten into dressing a bit like a cowgirl. Her imagination is a strange mash-up of 80s girls' plastic toys, Gwen Stefani, Goth, Bromwell High (youtube it), Modern Toss, Adidas, Irregular Choice and The Sweeny. She particularly enjoys looking slightly incongruous, not to make a point, just because it is funny.

Am I alone in my fashion confusion? Will my clothing rail survive recent onslaughts and attempts to organise it? Will the boy wonder make me a cup of tea without prompting? Tune in soon, Perdita-fans. It can only go uphill from here...