Gloating box
| May 20, 2012 | Posted by Lizzy under Fashion DIY, Things in my brain |
My Dad always used to call my sewing box a gloating box; a treasure hoard of preciouses like coloured thread, silk ribbons and vintage buttons that you can lift the lid on and, well, gloat over. Or even use to make something every once in a while. Recently I have acquired my Granny’s hoard of buttons, zips, knitting needles, crochet hooks and other such treasures to add to my gloating box, and as a result I can honestly say that I will probably never have to buy another button ever again. Granny hoarded hundreds of the things. Brass, plastic, ivory, shell, pearl, and mountains of wooden ones. So many that I haven’t even finished sorting through them!
This is about a quarter of Granny’s button stash. But I have already put some of my new button hoard to good use, by adding cute white flower buttons to a thrifted orange blazer and finishing off a cushion for my bedroom. The latter had been unfinished for months because (hah) I didn’t have the right buttons. I love having these crafting ‘heirlooms’ in amongst my own treasures; all these little things that my grandmothers lovingly held on to being gloated over again, and perhaps gaining a new lease of life in one of my (many) ongoing projects!
The cushion meets with the approval of at least one of the occupants of my room!
Make a Wish
| May 18, 2012 | Posted by Lizzy under Fun times, Inspirations, Party time! |
There is a growing dissatisfaction, both in my mind and in the wider world, with mainstream women’s magazines. After you’ve read a few issues you start to see the endless recycling of content, whether it be shaking up your spring wardrobe, driving him wild with lust or how to perfect that side ponytail. Decent length articles with interesting or engaging content are few and far between; Chris frequently points out the lack of content in my magazines. The most banal of his monthly reads still contain more content and fewer advertisements than any of mine. And don’t even get me started on how weekly gossip mags encourage us to think negatively about celebrities with spots or a smidgen of extra body fat, and by extension encourage us to view ourselves and our peers in the same critical fashion. Something has got to change! Girls, why are we doing ourselves down like this!
Enter Carrie and Lucy, and their baby Wish magazine. Their aim was to create a magazine that pandered to the child-like nostalgic in all of us, bringing together the many and varied talents of bloggers, illustrators, designers and photographers to create something a little bit different. And last Sunday their months of hard work culminated in a gorgeous launch party, held in a sweet little salon above The Victoria in Mornington Crescent. The experience was not dissimilar to stepping through a looking glass into blogger wonderland! Cupcakes, rose meringues, sweeties, Hendricks gin cocktails served in jam jars, knitting classes and delicious Penhaligon scents. One of my favourite touches was the Early Grannies quiz. The “Are You An Early Granny?” flowchart firmly declared me a Long Term Perm (in other words I’m a lost cause), thanks to my preference for Robert Downey Jr. over Robert Pattinson (no-brainer, surely?) and my tendency to stay in and drink wine whilst crafting rather than go out to discotheques. I’m so totally not down with the kidz, or possibly even people my own age, but that is fine by me.
As for Wish itself, I was blown away by the quality of the content and the beauty of the design. The picture above shows a brief glimpse of one of my favourite fashion spreads, which I believe was shot in Kew Gardens. Needless to say I am very excited about receiving my copy and curling for a good read. Perhaps with a chocolate biscuit and my knitting. If you are inspired to order a copy you can do so from Carrie’s blog WishWishWish or from the Wish magazine website from the Monday 21st May.
Thank you so much to Carrie, Lucy and their team of Wish fairies for such a gorgeous party. The attention to detail completely mind bending, not to mention the amount of effort that must have gone into the preparation; example: each little wooden cake fork was individually painted! I have uploaded lots more photographs from the event to the ScientistChic Facebook page, so do have a look. x
Fashion philately
| May 16, 2012 | Posted by Lizzy under Fashion thoughts |
My brother collected stamps for a short time when I was little. He had a Russian one with a figure skater on it, and I thought it was one of the most exquisite miniature images I had ever seen. The stamps I loved always had pictures of birds or vintage cars or people on them. We found a stamp from Iraq once with a picture of Saddam Hussein on it. When I was very little my mum told me he was a monster, and I took her words very literally, imagining a terrible fire-breathing dragon-type creature. Seeing a very ordinary looking man on this little stamp, with a moustache not unlike my dad’s, was a very strange moment of realisation. And a lesson in not being so literal.
But I digress. This week, the Royal Mail launched a new collection of stamps entitled “Great British Fashion”. The ten images, created by photographer Sølve Sundsbø and graphic design company johnson banks, cover the many eras of British fashion design from wartime “austerity chic” (Hardy Amies) to 70s Saville Row (Tommy Nutter) to modern fashion visionaries (Alexander McQueen). As I needed to go to the post office to get packaging materials anyway, I figured I would treat myself to a set! I bought the presentation pack (£6.50, or £6 for the loose stamps), which includes a brief bit of blurb about the fashion eras being portrayed and has the stamps all tucked away into little cellophane pockets. I want a prettier way of displaying them; so far my plan is to mount them on cartridge paper and then find a nice old frame in a charity shop somewhere.
Anyone got any better suggestions? x
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