New hair, new outfit!

If you've been reading this blog for a while (or even if you haven't) you'll be aware of my obsession with changing my hair colour and style. I've been blonde, brunette and red and I've changed the length of my hair over and over again. I can't seem to keep it the same for more than a few months running without reaching for the dye bottle! I'm really pleased with the most recent result and reckon I'll be keeping my hair this colour for quite some time. It's a really weird experience getting your hair bleached all over. After the bleaching I decided to have my hair chopped off in the style of Michelle Williams. Usually hairdressers recommend you have your hair cut short because bleaching is so damaging, I really wanted it short anyway - it's summer! My fringe is not quite as long as Michelle's but I'll probably grow it till it is. I love short hair, mostly because it's a little bit different and also I don't have to style it as much! (lazy)

In this photo I'm wearing lots of new things! The jacket is from Miss Selfridge but I bought it from eBay. I'm soooo pleased with it. It's my new favourite! I'm wearing it with a white American Apparel t-shirt, black cut out Topshop boots and a pair of Jaeger checked wool trousers that I picked up in Oxfam this weekend back in Wales. I'm so chuffed with these, they were £5 and I wasn't sure when I first saw them but they're exactly the style I've been looking for on the high street for an age. This style doesn't seem to suit me usually but I've been lucky with this pair! They're not too baggy at the top which is the problem I found with Topshop ones.  Speaking of Oxfam, I noticed they have a new section to their site which is entirely devoted to vintage! It's amazing and definitely worth a look if you get 5 minutes. You can search by era so no need to rummage through a load of 80s dresses if the 50s is more your thing. Check it out here. Helping out a good cause and doing some shopping!

Speaking of a good cause, this weekend I've been to the Hay On Wye Festival with my mum selling clothes at the Vintage Vision pop up shop. The Abergavenny store has decamped to Hay on Wye for the literary festival and it's there all week (pop in if you have time). I've never worked in a shop before but it's so fun helping customers to pick out vintage dresses. Lots of people were buying items for special events like weddings and school proms. It's great to see people searching for something that's a little bit different. No one wants the 'oh my god she's wearing the same dress as me' moment.

I also picked up this gorgeous lucite brooch from the shop for £20...

The Givency jacket

So I've been wearing the Givency jacket I picked up at Battersea car boot sale everyday since I bought it! It's so snuggly and warm and perfect for this weird weather we're having in the UK right now.




Corinne

Long over due outfit post

Just wanted to show you all my £6 boyfriend blazer. I love it! I was really pleased when I stumbled across it in my local charity shop and couldn't believe no one else had snapped it up. It's maybe a little bit big but I quite like the oversized look of it. Especially dressed up with a skirt and pair of ankle boots.



I'm wearing it with the white cut out H&M top that I got from the Battersea car boot sale yesterday.

As you can see I'm back to my blond hair now! I'm really tempted to get it bleached white blond and have my cut shorter, not sure if I've got the guts but we'll see! Mia is going to go red so maybe I'll bite the bullet and go for a drastic change too. My poor hair - it's been through blond, red and dark brunette. I should probably leave it alone for a bit...! I've been growing out my fringe which is probably the most difficult hair experience of my life (no joke)... even worse than when I had to grow out a bowl cut.

ta ta for now,

Corinne x

Battersea Car Boot Sale Tale!

Hello! I thought I'd write a quick post about my trip to Battersea car boot sale today. I've been told by Mia in the past that it's a great place to shop and I wasn't disappointed!

There's a variety of stalls and it starts at an extremely perfect Sunday lie in time of 1.30pm. I got to Battersea at around 1.45 and there was a big queue to get in. It didn't take long before I reached the front and handed over my 50p entrance fee though.

On entering the site I was amazed by the number of stalls. I did a sort of random wander to the nearest rail of clothing. It contained a denim Liberty jacket, a gorgeous vintage wool bomber jacket and a handful of vintage dresses. Most of them seemed pretty expensive for a car boot sale starting at around £25 and the owner of the stall was doing the hard sell the second I arrived which put me off. I was beginning to worry that everything was going to cost this much!

Like most boot sales there's tons of cheap Primark stuff clogging up the rails but if you have a bit of a rummage you can find loads of really great stuff. After walking around for about an hour or so I managed to pick up a super cute vintage coffee pot (£5), a vintage wool Givency jacket (£12), a h&m cut out blouse (£2.50), a Kate Moss for Topshop floral top (£5), a Rodarte-esq Topshop over-sized knit jumper (£3), an Alexa Chung style vintage handbag (£1) and a cute cat ornament which matches one that I already had at home! (50p).

It's definitely worth trying to knock a few pounds off the asking price of items, especially if it's nearing closing time. The handbag I bought was sold for £1 because the seller was packing up and heading home.

Here's a sneak peek at some of my boot sale haul. I'm long overdue an outfit post so I'll wait to show you all of it...






Love this:

KATE MOSS FLORAL TOP:

CUTE COFFEE POT, I MIGHT USE IT FOR TEA THOUGH...

THE GIVENCY JACKET:

MY 'ALEXA CHUNG' BAG:





Do you know of any great car boot sales? Let me know if do! Especially ones in and around London.

Battersea car boot takes place at: BATTERSEA TECHNOLOGY COLLEGE, BATTERSEA PARK ROAD, London, SW11 5AP every Sunday from 1.30-5pm.

Corinne x

Guilt free shopping!

When my mum asked me to keep an eye out for vintage clothes for Vintage Vision I wasn't about to say no! Buying things and then charging them back is the stuff dreams are made of! Especially when the things you find are going into such a great initiative helping women to get back into work and meet new people.

These last two weekends I've found myself making excuses to go into town just so I can wander around second hand clothes shops in search of gorgeous vintage finds. The thing I've discovered is, I'm pretty good at it!

Today I found a Biba top, a crayon green 80s trophy blazer with matching pencil skirt, a u-neck 50s polkadot bow dress and Houndstooth 60s mod dress. I recently bought them a few other things which you can see on their flickr stream which I populate for them!)

I bought a dress for them recently that required a little stitching but they have a small room at the back of the store where they do repairs and teach customers how to sew. Check out their Facebook group for details on how you can join in.

Here are the things I got today:







What do you reckon?

I also fit in a bit of ME time and purchased a lovely pair of lime green vintage 60s curtains for £8. Now I know these aren't to everyone's taste but I couldn't resist them. I don't think they'll look so great in my current flat but my boyfriend and I are moving soon so hopefully they'll fit in perfectly at the new place! (I can dream!). I can see these looking fabulous next to a white wall. I'm a sucker for cute vintage housewares.



Hope you like them too! See you later, Corinne x

My trip to Vintage Vision, Abergavenny

Hello everyone! Corinne here! It's been ages since I wrote a blog entry and I'm feeling bad about it! I wanted to tell you all about the vintage shop that my mum is working in. she now has a blog here too! So check it out and give her some comment love!

My mum (Marion) is one of the volunteers at Vintage Vision, I visited the shop for the first time yesterday and was totally in awe of how cute and pretty it is! Think floral vintage fabrics, 50s music, perfectly displayed antique hats and truly gorgeous dresses from the 30s right through to the 80s.

I literally spent hours running my fingers through the rails and rails of gorgeous donated clothing. There's none of that musty vintage clothes smell that high street shoppers avoid like the plague! Everything is perfectly displayed by colour on wooden coat hangers, and little trinkets and flowers are laid out on tables.

Growing up in Abergavenny I was always disappointed by the lack of available vintage clothing. I remember trapsing through the streets of Cardiff trying to find unique items that wouldn't set me back too much money. Nothing. But now there's this wonderful shop! If only it had opened 10 years ago!

Here are a few of my favourite items from the store for your perusal! Check out this gorgeous 50s dress with matching house coat. So Betty Draper!









Next up, these stunning fru fru pink hats with ruffles and bows, which look good enough to eat...




This perfect net underskirt would look amazing layered with this season's nudes...





And these brogues with a heel have a gorgeous feminine twist...





The perfect shearling jacket...





Get to Abergavenny, you NEED to check this place out! See more pics here

Corinne