Shop of the week

Yumchaa - Enjoy a variety of loose leaf teas in their tea shop, with a slice of yummy homemade cake or brownie. Or grab a take-away cup and sip joyously as you explore the delights of Camden Market


http://www.yumchaa.co.uk/

Vintage Shopping

Today I indulged in a bit of retail therapy. I had a special dress to buy and this purchase deserved a little bit of effort. So, not wanting to go to the usual Oxford St haunts; 'Topshop, Miss Selfridge, French Connection' etc., I stayed on my (boyfriend's) doorstep and shopped Camden Market. It was a pleasant morning; the sun was shining and I had all the time in the world. I checked out a new Sue Ryder clothing charity shop - 'Retro and Vintage' on Parkway. It had some nice vintage dresses, but nothing 'glam' enough for the event I'm going to:

http://www.thewhiteblackbird.com/

I then walked to Camden High St to return to Traid, a new charity clothing store. Traid stands for Textile Recycling for Aid and International Development. Traid aims to provide an alternative to the high street by offering stylish and good-quality second hand clothes to the UK mass. The Camden store has a particularly good vintage section too. On my first visit last week I tried on a beautiful floaty Armani number, with detailed beading. Unfortunately, I wasn't feeling that well, so instead of snapping it up for its £30 price tag, I put the dress back. Needless to say, it wasn't there on my return. Nor was there anything else that satisfied my requirements; glamorous vintage and colourful,

http://www.traid.org.uk/retail.html

I then headed to my desired destination, the vintage clothing store I had spied the week before. Sam and I went to a specialist tea shop I'd read about in the market called Yum Chaa and whilst sipping my Chai tea and sharing an apple cake, I had noticed this potential treasure chest.

And what a treasure chest it turned out to be! I found a beautiful turquoise one shoulder, drop waisted, floor length dress, with pink peep toe court heels for some much needed height. Perfect for my Colourscape. Plus, I couldn't resist the 'little red riding-hood' style cape, navy with the red lining and bow. It's an A/W must have.

Pictures of the dress to follow next weekend.

Expressing my own creativity

August 2009

You may remember last September I went on a two day dress making course, only to finish it with half a dress. I promised myself I would buy a sewing machine to finish it. Well, 8 months later I finally bought one! Yes, am proud owner of a beautiful machine. And, with a little (okay a lot) of help from a friend of Mum's, the dress is complete.


I have already bought material to make another. Lets hope it doesn't take me so long this time.

(And yes, I'm pretty pleased with it!)

Handmade and vintage treats

If you have a spare couple of hours, you could do a lot worse than browsing www.etsy.com, a US site buying and selling handmade and vintage items. I have my eye on a this really cute red vintage dress.

They ship to the UK and for pretty reasonable prices. Happy shopping!

YourLocal London

A friend sent me a link to YourLocal London and I immediately looked up Tooting (yes, that's where I live unfortunately). It's a good little site that tells you what's new/happening in your area, as well as the local businesses and a chat forum to ask locals questions. Not only that you can also buy and sell your house through the site, avoiding those annoying estate agents and their fees.

I think it's run by yummy mummies, with some areas looking for local editors. Worth checking out your neighbourhood - you never know, someone famous may live next door. Jimmy White still pots some balls in my neighbourhood.

The sewing project

Just to let everyone know I've not forgotten my sewing project; it's just been put on the back burner for a while. I will have some time this summer to finish the dress I started on my weekend course last September (god that's ages ago)...so watch this space. (And yes, I still need to buy that sewing machine - if anyone has a second hand machine going spare let me know!).

Times are hard, everyone's a swapping

Not long after attending my first Swap It and Tidy Up session I was invited to join a new website via facebook. Normally fairly suspicious of facebook invites as it involved fashion and shopping I decided to take a look and found it quite an interesting concept.

www.covertcandy.co.uk takes advantage of the current economic situation, customers are invited to trade clothes and accessories with no money being exchanged. It is all about credits, earning and spending them online to update and transform your wardrobe, regardless of the size of your bank balance.

All very well if you have anything worth swapping. I did notice, as with Swap It and TidyUp a considerable number of items from that well known high street stores - Primark - featuring.

Primark aside, I think I'm going to give it a go. Although, at this rate I'm going to run out of clothes to swap - I think I gave away all my good stuff a bit too eagerly at the first Swap It and TidyUp, but with a little discipline, this could all be the way forward in 2009.