Aurora's Popsarella dress and cape

Hello!

I'm so excited about this post.

My youngest brother decided to get married rather last minute (we had about a month's notice), on the Friday before Christmas. A low-key wedding for him and his fiancée, and a few close family members.

It wasn't going to be a big affair, so a frilly, pink, meringue-style baby dress was not an option - not that I would have wanted it anyway; if there's one thing I can't stand about buying clothes for Aurora, it's the lack of colour and style choice in high-street shops. To paraphrase Henry Ford;

You can have any colour you want, as long as it's pink

I tweeted about it at the time:

My brother and his fiancé have decided to get married on the 19th of Dec. Will I be able to find a dress for A that's not frilly and pink?
— Dawn Johnson (@vintagescientis) November 14, 2014

No. pic.twitter.com/A7SGOCV0YO
— Dawn Johnson (@vintagescientis) November 14, 2014

What a great way to limit a child's imagination! Encourage each gender wear the same colours, play with set toys, and suggest only boys can read adventure books, whilst girls read princess fashion books. Of course that won't encourage bullying, either! (I really love what Let Toys Be Toys, Let Clothes Be Clothes, and Let Books Be Books are doing at the moment - breaking down outdated and, frankly, ridiculous stereotypes imposed by toy/clothing/publishing industries).

From this basis I knew I would not be buying a pink, frilly meringue - but it needed to be special, fun, bright and reasonably priced.

It was  therefore a totally serendipitous moment - whilst getting my dirty fix of Facebook - that I saw Popsarella had added some new fabrics, one of which was the aurora borealis print! Fate. Pure fate.

After contacting the lovely and very helpful Laura, I asked if I could have a dress in the aurora borealis fabric - and if she could make a hooded cape. She told me she had been thinking about making capes, and that she would give it a go, getting it to me in time for the wedding!

She did amazingly. I went for the Bettie dress as it's a bit more of a party dress, as opposed to the (still brilliant) Penelope dress (I love this space fabric!)

The cape is reversible and has the aurora borealis fabric on one side, and a lovely wine-purple velvet on the other, with a sparkly, iridescent ribbon-tie. It's big enough that it will fit her for a while!

We had no idea what the colour scheme for the wedding would be: in an it's-beginning-to-get-a-bit-weird-fate moment, we found out once we'd received the dress and cape that it was purple.

 

I got the sparkly shoes and Nora Batty tights from Monsoon. Although Aurora's 8 months old, she'll be able to wear these 0-6 month tights for a while. 

Congratulations to be brother and beautiful sister-in-law. 

This is definitely a keepsake outfit!

I bought Aurora's dress and cape from Popsarella - I just had to write this post, because I love them so much and can't wait to buy more dresses, especially in the space fabric!

Post by Popsarella.

Brolly Good Fun!

Hello!

Well, it's been a while...

I actually have several unfinished posts, about loads of stuff, including recent vintage bargains and gender stereotypes, that I really want to post but they will be as-and-when I can.

This post is photo-based, to show off Aurora's wonderful new vintage umbrellas. Yep, plural. She now has three new vintage brollies.

I was lucky enough to be checking Twitter when @retonthenet posted a couple of photos of the umbrellas. It was love at first sight. 

I messaged to find out if they were for sale... they were!

The postman handed them to a very excited 33-year-old a few days later. It was like Christmas. And at this age, Christmas is no longer like Christmas. I was very excited.

Tuesdays are usually when we go to Jo Jingles, but as it's half-term, we have had a free day; so off we went to Belfairs Wood, in Leigh on Sea, via the Prittle Brook Greenway: there's nothing better than woods in the autumn, The smell cannot be beaten.

After a coffee in the Woodland Centre (listening to some golfers discuss their bladder habits *face*), Aurora and I headed off into the woods to find a suitable place to take some photos of the brollies.

And here they are: I'm pretty impressed with the photos, if I do say so myself. All taken on my iPhone and using Instagram.

It was quite busy at Belfairs today,so I probably got a few odd looks when I was hanging vintage kids brollies from trees. 

For now though, they will be safely stashed away until Aurora is old enough to use them.

Catch up post

Hello!

Well, I haven't posted for a while - I knew it would be tricky with a new baby - I just didn't realise how hard doing anything would be. 

So far, life with a baby means:

• everything takes more than twice as long to do
• we are living in an utter mess most of the time 
• having to do everything one-handed, including typing this
• I have about six post in the draft section on here
• my dyslexia has got super-duper worse
• that I have unfortunately watched day-time TV (and it's bad, really, really bad) 
• I have discovered Cbeebies, and we really, really like it - even though most of the theme tunes get stuck in my head
• I'm becoming more passionate about lazy gender stereotypes and inappropriate images, marketing and... well, everything, with regard to children
• I hear 'Aurora? After the Disney princess? ', at least twice a week
• I use Facebook more than I did 

  

  My Facebook/day-time TV face

It's all worth it though, for the screechy little poo-poo monkey currently sleeping on me. 

I have loads of ideas for posts I want to create, including ones about the days out we've had recently, the vintage clothes and toys I've found for Aurora, items I've found for my Etsy, my dyslexia, and about bringing Aurora up in a society where she is deemed either as inferior or just an object, due to her gender. And loads of other stuff, too. So bit of a mixed bag really. 

I'll leave this post with a few photos I want to include in future posts,when if I get around to creating them!

 

 

Den of Vintiquity on Etsy

I've finally managed to get some items on sale on the interwebs!

I have decided to go with Etsy as it's well established, simple to use, and I can list my eclectic mix of vintage, antique, upcycled, and handmade items.

I only sell items that I would be happy to have in my own eclectically-vintage home, and sell them at prices I'd be happy to buy them for. I do find it hard to part with items I sell, but I also love knowing they are going to someone who loves and appreciates them as much as I do.

 

These are some items I have listed already, and some I will be listing as soon as I can: it's not that easy with a vintage tiddler.

 Check out Den of Vintiquity on Etsy!

Retro and vintage baby clothes and an unimpressed Aurora

The other day I got the email to say Mothercare have their summer sale on. After finishing the Futterwacken I headed over to the website. 

I wanted so much more than I was able to afford. Still, I got some great retro items: they're not clothes she can wear yet, they're all for babies over 9 months, and some are for when she's a toddler.

I absolutley love the fun, bright colours of each item, as well as the rainbow details most pieces have.

My husband likes this tracksuit top; it reminds him of the football casuals style of clothing, worn by... erm, hooligans in the 70s and 80s... nice.

I love these shorts! That's me wearing similar ones in the 80s: I look like a 118-118 mascot. 

I managed to pick up this gilet (or body-warmer, or whatever they're called these days) in a shop,rather than online. OMG I can't wait until it fits her. 

Although Aurora wears pink and florally clothes, I don't want to box her in in a pink princessy world. I love the work Let Toys be Toys and Pink Stinks do in breaking down the ridiculous limiting stereotypes foisted on children (and adults), through cynical, out-dated and damaging gendered marketing. That's one of the reasons I love the Little Bird range - the majority of the clothes are unisex, as well as retro and fun! 

Somewhere else I love and where I have also been raiding (again) for vintage gems is Rowdy Roddy Vintage . And oh my goodness have I got a gem. 

First off I got this lovely floral vintage dress...

But this, this I absolutely adore! I wish it was in my size too...

It makes me happy just looking at it. I can't wait until it fits Aurora!

If you need any more reasons to check out RRV, it'll be the lovely little extra touches, like this nursery rhyme on a card wishing us a great week: I love RRV!

And finally, here we have madam in something that is going to cause a stir at the swimming pool:  a vintage style swimming hat! With thanks to her uncle who picked up three (3-6 m, 6-9m and 9-12m) when he was in America recently. 

She's going to kill me when she's older... 

Not impressed...