Our gorgeous new family member! (don't worry, it's not about babies.)

We adopted a dog! This beautiful girl is Cindy, who joined our household from Dogs Trust Merseyside a few weeks ago, and has settled in very well.

After my little Scamp died in November, Aerospace Boyfriend and I decided to wait a while after moving before we looked for another dog, so that we could be settled in and so I could be ready.

We went looking for something like a Jack Russell or Staffordshire bull terrier, but as soon as this big gorgeous girl rolled over for us to scratch her tummy I fell in love!

Unfortunately Cindy was born deaf. Due to this and to her being 30kg of spring-loaded adolescent dog, she spent 13 months of her short life living in kennels. We were prepared to take on the challenge of adopting her and settling her into a proper home, but honestly she's been hardly any trouble at all. The only casualty was my amazing 1950s fawn lamp, she got stuck in our bedroom one afternoon and knocked everything off my dressing table. I was so upset, but I'm over it now our lovely girl is feeling more secure.

As she's very short coated, my mum has already been knitting for her and I've bought some leopard print waterproof fabric to make her a doggy raincoat for long Winter walks, so stay tuned for some ridiculous pictures of a huge dog in flambuoyant yet functional jackets!

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Goodbye little Scamp... why I haven't blogged in a while.

I don't know if anyone will have really noticed my absence, and some of you are connected to me via facebook and instagram so will already know, but the reason I haven't blogged in so long is because my beautiful Scamp got very poorly toward the end of last year, and died on November 12th.

I really had no  motivation and nothing to write for a long time - first I had a really eventful Summer and just didn't have the time, then as the warmth started to fade away, so did my little chap. We found out that he had very advanced liver disease, he'd been keeping his pain well hidden from us. He went through a couple of months of scans, antibiotic and steroid treatments, and was placed on a special diet food, but he continued to lose weight and become more listless and uncomfortable, until in the end it would have been unkind to prolong his suffering any more.

My business and personal life have also suffered, hence I'm skint so I've not had any fun purchases to share with you all, and have been under a lot of stress with finances. I'm also currently in the process of finding a new place to live with Paul, in a different city and a better house where I can have a home studio to welcome dressmaking and millinery clients. I'm rebuilding the Kalandra Jane Designs website from scratch (literally - I'm going to be teaching myself to code from the ground up), it's going to be a difficult journey but hopefully things will be progressing soon!

I'll ease back into blogging gently and hopefully soon it'll once more be a productive creative outlet for me, and a source of interest and entertainment for you. Anyway, I've got a couple of fun things to look forward to in the next couple of weeks and it's my birthday on the 31st, so I promise more cheerful blogging to come!

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Haworth 1940s Weekend 2012

I spent this weekend walking up and down very steep cobbled hills in the lovely Yorkshire village of Haworth, which was holding its annual 1940s weekend. The whole village is decked out in Union Jack bunting and sandbags, the residents decorate the outside of their homes and the charity shops bring out all the vintage treasures they have been stockpiling! Vintage cars, military vehicles and wartime reconstructions lined the streets providing plenty for us to look at.

I had organised a trip over for several ladies on the Saturday, and although they all enjoyed it and found some great vintage buys, it was very stressful. The crowds were enormous, it was like a city shopping street on Christmas eve, except worse because nobody was in a rush to be anywhere. My sister also had her daughter in a pram, and found it very difficult to get around. I didn't get a chance to take any pictures that day, because if I had stopped to extract the camera from my bag I would have been knocked over, and the scrums in the vintage shops were shocking, there were elbows and snatching hands everywhere!

Today (Sunday) was a far more leisurely affair, the village was still busy but the crowd seemed more courteous and far less jam-packed. I risked taking the dog with me, and despite an incident with an unfriendly Jack Russell and my poor Scamp getting exhausted from walking up and down hills (he is fifteen, after all) we had a good day, he didn't get stepped on by anybody and enjoyed a picnic in the park with us.

Here is what I wore today, my new jumper knitted by my mum from a 1940s pattern. You can buy this pattern from Bex at Subversive Lesbian Anarchic Femme, available here in her etsy shop, although my mum sized it up, made the sleeves in the rib rather than cherry motif as the cherries took forever to knit, and omitted the collar.

Here's another pic of the outfit, with some chaps dressed as members of the Home Guard. Why am I doing that with my face, you ask? Well, the guy on the left of the picture is squeezing my bottom. That's why. How rude!

 

This duo were playing on the bandstand in the park, she sang a lovely rendition of La Vie en Rose.

Now, onto the vintage purchases! There was so much to choose from. Haworth has two gorgeous permanent vintage shops, loaded with *actual* quality vintage and antique clothing and accessories, not the 80s tat that shops in the city pretend is vintage. There was also a vintage fair in the church hall, and several curio and charity shops in the village which were loaded with lovely items.

 

Lovely teal mini suitcase!

I have been looking for a small suitcase or train case for ages, to store bits and bobs in at home and for when I go away for a few days or to stay at my boyfriend's at Christmas. This one is in great condition and such a pretty colour!

The lining looks good too! Inside is a pair of fully fashioned stockings I got in one of the charity shops. They are Aristoc Harmony which are quite late (I'm guessing 60s?) but were apparently some of the best ones made prior to the hosiery industry's takeover by ghastly crepey brown tights in the 70s.

1930s Uranium glass dish and spoon from the hospice shop

Another piece for my uranium glass collection!

1950s folding coolie sun hat! This is a flat shape with a popper so it can be easily packed in a holiday bag, made from some sort of straw or string, which folds into a cute cone-shaped sun bonnet.

Babycham deer!

A Babycham plastic fawn! I have eight Babycham glasses and collect fawns too, so he fits in with two collections. This is about 6" high and cost just a few pounds due to the damage on his ear. I saw one of the 4" ones in worse condition priced at £35 in Manchester the other week.

WWII Navy Sweetheart Pin

WWII Navy sweetheart pin. This is about an inch high in total. It is pretty grubby but is made from enamelled silver, it just needs a good clean!

On the way home we were behind this tiny old car! The right wheel was rather wobbly, the window flapped open whenever they turned a corner and it could only manage 20mph due to the hills.

Here is the bad part about this weekend...

Arghhhh horrendous sunburn! It's just on my right forearm and there is a touch of it on the back of my neck, this happened during the ten minutes of bright sunshine we got during the day - time to break out te factor 50 sunscreen for every day, I think. So sore and itchy!

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Outfit post: new circle skirt!

This week I went to a fabric shop I hadn't been to before, looking for pom-pom trim for a project I was working on for a friend, only to come home with no pom-pom trim but instead with three metres of cotton printed with deep sea anglerfish. You know, because anglerfish are so ravishingly attractive.


Here is a thoroughly educational comic strip about the plight of the poor male anglerfish and his miniature gonads.

Anyway, I made it into a circle skirt! I've made it with a tie at the waist to accommodate my ever decreasing and expanding waistline. Here I am posing in the park with Scamp.


I matched it with this aquatic hairclip by Miss Tiki Designs, and made some new bitey goose friends, who were already so stuffed with bread thrown by the horrid children who flooded the park as soon as the sun came out, that they turned their beaks up at my meagre crusts.


Must remember to bring food that geese actually like next time, I'm sure bread is not good for them.

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Vintage finds, March - April!

Here are my vintage finds for the last few weeks!

I though I'd already posted this, but it seems not...


Atomic print ice bucket, £14.99 from Roewood Collectables on eBay, they have some really nice things and have their own website too. I first saw this bucket on Fiona of Notorious Kitsch's blog, Straight Talking Mama, but nobody else bid on it so it is mine! Thanks for the recommendation, Fiona!


Another necklace for my uranium glass collection, £3.99, Oxfam. This must be very old as it is a pale green and fluoresces in sunlight, meaning the uranium content is high, indicating an early piece. It could do with restringing, as someone has threaded it on white household string at some point!


Cute vintage saucer, 75p, second hand shop.


Isn't the print sweet? I'd love to know more about it, unfortunately it is unmarked.


Dressing table tray, 99p, charity shop.


1950s cocktail print shot glasses, £6, Affleck's Palace.


I'd intended them to be a gift but couldn't part with them in the end!


Pink tureen, £4.50, charity shop.

Today, I took Scamp to the vet to get some antibiotics for a dental cyst. Here he is zonked out on painkillers, the cyst is visible as a lump under his eye, aww...


...and on the way home, I spied this beauty stuffed between some bits of wood and an old sofa waiting to be thrown out.


This Victorian antique mirror! According to our old friend Wikipedia, the rococo revival period was 1820-1870, so I can date my mirror to the mid 19th century. (Incidentally, what's the name of the period before Victorian? I always thought it was Georgian, but the monarch preceding Victoria was William IV. Confusing!)

It could do with that horrible white gloss paint being stripped off and restoring to gold (some of the original gilt is visible on the back), and at some point someone has pulled off the backboard so the silvering of the mirror glass has some visible scratches, but I don't think they're too detrimental to it. It's 26" high and original/restored pieces like it go for hundreds of pounds, so I think getting it for nothing from a rubbish heap is pretty lucky :)

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