A Sunny Day and A Fringed Necklace

What difference a bit of sunshine makes to a photograph. It seems like ages since we have had bright sunshine and todays picture looks so much clearer and brighter than some of my recent photographs. I am sure if I actually worked out how to use my camera I could find a way to counteract the effects of poor light.

Todays outfit features a fringed necklace which I bought for about £5 in the Oasis sale just before Christmas. This is the first time I have worn it but I have a feeling it will be getting much more wear in the spring and summer (even though I can't stop thinking that it makes me look like I have a hairy chest!). I am also wearing some old tops from New Look and Dorothy Perkins and a pair of leggings with tiny multi coloured hearts from Topshop. The boots are by Po-Zu.

Despite the beautiful weather today, I am struggling to keep myself feeling sunny this week for a few different reasons:

1. I have just found out that Vintage at Goodwood is no longer going to be happening, instead there will be a vintage festival at the South Bank Centre arranged by Wayne and Geraldine Hemmingway. Whilst I am sure this is great news for Londoners, for many others including me it is not! We had invested in an old VW camper van partly so that we could transport kids and vintage outfits to camp for the whole weekend this year. It just wouldn't be the same for us in London, no camping, expensive hotels, no fun for the children, trains and tubes to get there.

2. I seem to be having huge problems buying clothes in the sales. I had some money for Christmas and decided to look for something designer that would be a good investment. So I looked at some different retailers/ websites to the ones that I  usually use. First I chose and tried to order some clothes on Coggles only to be told that they couldn't take my card payment online and I had to ring instead. After the discovery that the delivery was going to cost me nearly £10, I decided not to bother

3. Next I found something that I really liked on Liberty (A Helmut Lang top), I ordered and paid and waited but received nothing except an email saying the item I had ordered was out of stock and they couldn't get hold of any more so my order had been cancelled, then referring me to the T  & C's.

4. So finally today I found something I liked  (or actually 2 items) on the Outnet. When I went to place the order, I thought that tax was to be added on afterward - Thanks to Trying to Look Fab in Your Forties for pointing out in the comments that the tax is shown in the break down but not actually added on top of the prices. What a relief I can now place my order afterall.

I know in the scheme of things, not going to festivals and buying clothes is not the end of the world but I just felt like a bit of a moan. Why does buying designer clothes online have to be so difficult? I never seem to have these problems with the likes of Oasis and ASOS.

Hope you having a good week and I have not bored you too much with my whingeing. Any suggestions on good places to buy designer clothes online for the future would be appreciated.

With warmest wishes

Ceri X

Vintage at Goodwood - Part 2

In the second part of my report of my day at Vintage at Goodwood, I thought would tell more of my unfortunate incident in the Tangeray Torch club and more about my vintage shopping.

The Tangeray Torch club was described as a specially constructed 40’s style night club with a dance floor, big stage and a restaurant with a sumptuous menu for luncheon and evening dining served by stylish waiting staff. We decided to treat ourselves to a three course meal in the evening at £35 a head as it sounded great. When we arrived, we headed straight over to book our table we were told that we couldn't book in advance and should just turn up but we were warned not to get there too late. We turned up at about 7.30pm to allow us time to get seated before Kitten Von Mew, a Burlesque act was on and then waited and waited and waited.

Luckily everyone was very friendly in the queue and the couple behind us even shared their champagne. After an hour and a half we were finally seated. As there was a table for four available we shared a table with the couple behind us in the queue. After 15 minutes of being sat down, we were starting to wonder if we were ever going to get our dinner or even a drink when a waitress appeared, looked at the number on our table and demanded to know why we were sat on a VIP table. A little confused, we explained that this is where we had been told to sit. She then demanded that we show her who had seated us and told us that we had jumped the queue and had to go to the back. When we couldn't find the lady she demanded that we move and then called security. When I asked to speak to the manager, she just said 'I am the manager'

All credit to the man from security who very diplomatically spent about 15 minutes trying to persuade us to move. Everyone was starting to look by now though and I was starting to get pretty upset and very hungry, but I was not moving for anyone unless they found us another table, which they refused to do.


Eventually, Angela (who we were sharing a table with), who was considerably calmer than me even though she had also been insulted by the incredibly rude and snotty waitress/ manager, managed to get to speak to the manager who told us we should sit down and enjoy our meal we did not have to move. She did also get a reluctant apology from the lady in question, although I did not.

However amazing the Tangeray Torch Club, the food, the entertainment and the atmosphere was, the new waitress who served our meal was also great, I didn't really enjoy my meal after all that, we missed the act that we really wanted to see plus loads of other stuff whilst waiting in the queue and arguing about the table . Our bill came to £10 less than it should have done, I am not sure if that was a deliberate gesture of goodwill or just a mistake though.

Such a shame that this one very rude lady could ruin it for us, when everyone else we had met throughout the day was so lovely including the event staff. Also a shame that after all that (even from our VIP table) we couldn't see some of the acts as the people from the bar all came and stood in front of the tables.

Sorry about the very lengthy account but this was definitely something I felt I needed to get off my chest.

Our table and the lovely couple, Angela and Rowland that we shared with.

The view from our table

and so on to the much less stressful and more enjoyable time spent shopping. I loved browsing all the clothes in the vintage stalls. After trying on a few things I seemed to gravitate towards accessories which I need more and don't need to be tried on as the make shift changing rooms were quite hard work. I loved all of the different hats, headbands, hairclips and fascinators and the jewellery. So many beautiful things, I wanted to buy them all, unfortunately, the urge to shop took over and I didn't take as many photos as I would have liked.

Beautiful headpieces and neckwear by Morgaine Alexandra

Lovely jewellery made from recycled bits - Sorry I lost the card with the web address.

Belts and bags by the charity bottletop campaign - made from recycled ring pulls.

I treated myself to this great vintage hat which I though would be perfect for winter. Unfortunately on closer inspection, it doesn't really fit very well - I have a big head + big hair!

I also got this great Liberty scarf. I love the pattern and the colour and have worn it everyday since I got home.

Some more random stuff

A van that you could write on, reminded of going on a training course with the flip charts.

All in all, Apart from the dinner incident, I really enjoyed Vintage at Goodwood. Next year I hope to go for the whole weekend, plan my outfits and footwear a bit better and take lots more pictures.

Vintage at Goodwood- part 1

To avoid a ridiculously long post, I have decided to break my review of Vintage at Goodwood into two parts. I only went for the day on Saturday but there was so much going on.

I enjoyed the day so much that I have decided I would like to go for the whole weekend next year. I will also be putting in a lot more though to next years outfit. I was a little worried about getting too dressed up because of the weather and as I was unsure of what it would be like. I am pleased to say that whilst we had some showers, it did get a little muddy underfoot but not too bad. I managed to wear my wedge heels until about 5pm when I swapped them for flats as I feared I might slip over. The organisers had put down lots of wood chippings on the busiest walkways which really helped.

Me and my sister in the Travelodge carpark before we left

My outfit

Vintage dress - Marthas Closet

Cardigan - Topshop

Belt - taken from an M&S dress

Socks - Tabio

Shoes - Karen Millen (about 6 years ago)

The best thing about the event was definitely the people. Such amazing outfits ranging from the forties to present day, everyone had made so much effort, I could have spent all day just people watching. Also everyone was so lovely, definite a family event with people of all ages including children.

These ladies were Go Go dancers from London. I loved how polished and perfect they looked, even in the middle of a muddy field.

Vintage swimwear

This lady made her own beautiful dress and had her hair and makeup done at one of the onsite salons.

Some more lovely outfits and hair

In the queue for dinner

Some tracksuited boys

I went with my lovely sister and spent most of the afternoon browsing the various vintage shops (more on that in the next post) and drinking cocktails. We then watched some music and had a drink or two before joining the long queue and wait for dinner at the Tangeray Torch Club (more about that in my next post) followed by a little more music. Due to the length of time spent looking at the clothes and queuing for dinner we didn't get to see as much music as we would have liked - soz sis but you did say you were happy to do whatever I wanted! I also missed all of the things that I wanted to do including fashion shows (just couldn't be bothered to queue), the workshops - the circle skirt one was cancelled/ full- however I am not sure that I would have had the patience to do something like this in my completely ever excited state and the hair do (fully booked). I didn't really mind as I was only there for one day but next year I want to do it all.

The Tangeray Cocktail Bar

The main stage

The very stylish wristband

The queue for the toilets! It is not quite as bad as it looks. The toilets were kept very clean except a little mud on the floor. There were plenty of them so the wait was only about 5 minutes.

The warehouse

There were lots of different stages with all sorts of different music, DJ's and live bands. As I mentioned before just too much to do and not enough time (the story of my life!). Other highlights of the day were the food and the vintage high street. There were plenty of food vans with a whole range of choices from fish and chips to toasties and organic produce from the Goodwood Estate. Thankfully there was not a single junk food van anywhere. Apart from my three course meal, I had a toastie and organic lager brewed on the estate. The high street had a Fortnum and Masons for stocking up in Champagne, strawberries etc, numerous beauty salons, a cinema, cocktai bar and traditional pub. It had a great buzz about it in the afternoon between the showers.

In part 2 I will tell more about the 3 course dinner at the Tangeray Torch Club (a fairly stressful experience!) and the vintage shopping.