Framlingham castle and Saxtead Mill

Another day out using our English Heritage membership. The funny thing is that Pixie, one of my lovely followers on this blog, has commented on yesterdays post and suggested to go an visit Framlingham Castle nearby Orford. This is exactly what we did today. I only just read the comment but thanks for the tip anyway. If you have any other day-out-ideas, please let me know for the future.

The castle was quiet impressive and well looked after, we had audio guides all the way through...hooray!!

Framlinham castle, pretty impressive huh? It didn't all fit in the picture, that says it all.

Hello audio guide, my friend!

I sported wellies today, just in case it rained. It did, a bit. I was happy. The skirt I am wearing is new. I made it last Thursday. I'll post about it soon. It's the same pattern I used for these skirts. I made the shorter version without intending to do so. It's just about long enough for me to wear. I prefer my pencil skirts more modest an longer. Anything from just above to just below the knee is fine.

Enjoying the view. I opted for a vintage hair do today. The weather was naff and not right for any of my cute vintage inspired dresses, so I had to go for vintage hair to at least get a bit of vintage in.

It was rather difficult to climb up there in this skirt.

We walked around the castle grounds for a while....

and bumbed into some friendly cows.

Next stop was Saxtead Mill, which was fun to see as they let you explore it on your own and you can climb all levels of the mill.

Hello Mr audio guide again, this time a rather vintage looking one (if you consider the 80s vintage now)

very flattering !?!

Thanks for your time.

A day out at Orford Castle

A few weeks ago Dave and I went to Audley End for the day as a birthday treat for me. I posted about it here. That day we joined 'English Herritage' which gets us into lots of historical places for less or even for free (my favourite price). We like spending our free time visiting old castles and manor houses, museums and anything else historical and geeky so this was a good investment for us. Anyway, after a few weeks of bad weather, Dave being away on training and me busy preparing for the next Vintage Fair in Brentwood coming Sunday (see side bar/links for details), we decided to go and use our English Heriatge membership cards and visit Orford Castle. It didn't disappoint at all being in very good condition still. I would have loved a bit more of the ye olde interior which isn't displayed at all :-( but I enjoyed it anyway. The best bit were the Audio guides. Ever since out honeymoon last year to Salzburg I am in love with them. I get very tired from reading everything in museums etc so audio guides are the way to go. I get all the information minus the sleepiness.

We had a little picnic outside the castle after out tour and then went for a stroll through the village to the coast.

The weather forecast predicted rain, hence the practical clothing instead of Vintage inspired fashion. Mr weather man lied. It was a beautiful day. A bit windy but sunny still.
Enjoy the pictures.
I am almost finished with my next dress. It's red ginham with ivory vintage lace deatil. I might finish it tonight. We'll see.

Fruity shirt waist dress

I hope you are not bored of my shirt waist dresses yet. I am just so in love with this pattern and have to keep making them. This pattern just works so well for small prints. I bought this strawberry print cotton a few weeks ago and got to sew it this week. I think it turned out very cute and is perfect for an afternoon walk in the country followed by a picnic. Hmmmm, this got me thinking now. Must suggest that to the husband tonight as a plan for Sunday....
Anyway, back to the dress... I made fabric covered buttons for the shirt closure. I have recently fallen in love with fabric covered buttons as they just add such a vintage touch to a garment. I hope you enjoy the pictures.
xx

The shoes are new. I bought them yesterday in Matalan for only £14, what a bargain. I know they are not a bit Vintage but I don't care. They are fab. I am not sure about them combined with this particular dress though. What do you think? A bit too orange? I guess I just have to make a dress to go with them. Hello fabric shopping!!! My next project however will be a red gingham something (I haven't decided on the pattern yet) and a VERY green pencil skirt.

Outfit in a day and more

Apologies for not posting at all this week but I was just so busy, I never got around to actually writing about what I was doing. I finished this little dress earlier this week. It's turquoise cotton with yellow bow detail and yellow fabric covered buttons. I was inspired by my wedding colours. My 1st wedding anniversary is just around the corner and I was looking through my wedding pictures again. The bridesmaids were wearing turquoise dresses with a bow detail on the bust and all our flowers were in yellow (so was the venue but that was just a coincidence...I didn't colour coordinate that...it just all happened to be those colours) Anyway enough blah, here's the dress.

And the dress that inspired me:

On Friday my husband and I went to London to spend a day in the V&A Museum. I went the week before with Julie to see the Grace Kelly exhibition, which I very much recommend to all Vintage lovers who are near enough London to go and see it. The £6 fee is well worth it. Anyway, Dave and I ended up spending a good 2-3 hours (which was only enough time to cover half of the ground floor of the museum, we will go back again to do the other half and other floors) in the V&A including a little picnic in the courtyard and moved then on the National History Museum for more geeky entertainment of the day.

The day before I managed to sew a complete outfit, which I of course had to wear the next day on our geeky Museum excursion. I finally sewed another one of the vintage patterns I posted about a while ago. It was this one:

I made the top and pencil skirt. I might make the jacket as well. How very Jackie Kennedy...

Please ignore the mess in the pictures. My husband has just come back from a weeks training and dumped all his it in his work room. I just need a a quick picture to post, no time for tidying up.

Enjoy the sunny weather. I can't believe it's finally here!!!! Yay!!!!

Weekend away

We got back from our weekend with my in-laws and had a brilliant time. It was just so nice to see everyone again and finally get to celebrate grandma's birthday.
 
(my sister in law, grandma in law and me... finally got to wear my lime green dress again)
My mother in law took me to one of her favourite shops at Wymondham where she usually gets all her jewelery and presents from. It's a cute little independent clothing and accessories shop specialised on quality second hand clothing and accessories as well as one of a kind pieces of jewelery, bags, home decor etc etc etc. Some of it is vintage. If you ever in the area, it's worth a look. The tearoom is lovely too.
So anyway, I did of course leave some money there.

 

(all the B boxes ticked on this shopping spree: bags, bracelet, books, belts and buttons...)

We of course had to explore the windmill. The view was amazing. I kind off had a me made weekend and got to wear the little floral print dress again.

  

My mother in law also spoiled me with a load of buttons, zips and beads she found in an end of line sale near where she lives and she passed on a lot of vintage buttons, ribbons and a box of old hankies from her mum, which I now need to find a way to use in my sewing to give it another lease of live.

I started my next sewing project today. A turquoise dress in the same design of the pink print dress from my last post. Hopefully I'll have it finished later on this week.