(Belated) Weekend Round-up, and the Sew and Save dress premiere!

I've been meaning to write this post for a couple of days but, in all honesty, I've just been too too tired!  After work I've been turning over the garden to prepare some vegetable plots - there's going to be a lot of digging for victory happening this summer :)


So anyway, on Saturday my friend Bob and I went to the March Into the 40s event.  And it was super fun! It started fairly early in the afternoon with some short films about WW2; I may have squeed slightly at the land girl part - they're a bit of an obsession of mine at the moment!  And there were lindy hop classes, where I'm proud to say neither of us fell over or broke the other's toes.  The dance in the evening was also great fun, although the only song we danced to was the Hokey Cokey :) - at these smaller events the dance floor tends to be filled with amazing dancers so I feel a bit more self-conscious.  But the good news is Dave the Spiv, who hosted the event, is trying to set up some dance classes so soon we'll be stepping with the best of them.


Lola Lamour also did a couple of sets, and she's just a total cupcake.  If you've never seen her, here she is singing my favourite song!





But of course, the star of the night was my Sew and Save dress.  Well, not quite.  But I was immensely proud of it.  And here it finally is in all its glory:

Bob was in Navigator dress... ironic considering the amount of times he started driving the wrong way!

Overall, the night was fab.  I managed not to spend any money on the stalls, the gin was cheap, and I found myself doing a couple of victory roll tutorials for some girls I got talking to (as well as swapping tips on setting lotions and how to wash your stockings!).  Thoroughly looking forward both to the next dance event and next year's march.

What did y'all get up to this weekend?

Jen xxxx

Fangirl Friday 11.02.11 and What's My Motivation?

Oof. Uni work is boring today! I've read and researched for almost a million hours (no exaggeration...) and must now accept that the time has come to actually start writing.  It's feeling like a real struggle, and I keep finding so many more fun things to do.  Tomorrow I'm packing my bags and going to the mamma bear house in the hope that some countryside quiet will let me focus.


So tell me... how do you get motivated when you really don't want to do something?  I need all the help I can get!


And on with the roll call of what's been distracting me from 4,000 words of youth work management theory this week :)


Reading: 
Sadly not a lot apart from textbooks!  However, some things I ordered from Amazon arrived today, so added to my must-read list are Henrietta's War: News From the Home Front 1939-42 by Joyce Dennys and Wartime Women: A Mass Observation Anthology: A Mass-observation Anthology of Women's Writings, 1937-1945 by Dorothy Sheridan.


Dancing to:
A lot of Glenn Miller, as usual!  I've discovered the amazing effect opera has on my levels of concentration, so I've also been playing a lot of The Magic Flute.  And here's my two favourite songs of the moment...



Best TV introduction ever?





Watching:
I've hardly turned my TV on in the last week or so!  But when I have, I've been mainly watching / falling asleep to series one of Land Girls  Thoroughly fluffy and enjoyable :)


Generally loving:
Any time I'm away from my uni work.  Soy vanilla lattes.  Practising my ukulele.  Writing plans.  Convincing people in the office they should cheer every time I walk in the room.  All the pictures my sister sends me of her baby bunnies.  Catching up on The Archers.  Buying tickets for more dances :)  Twitter!  I finally understand it (maybe)... find me @Nana_Jen


And that's it!  Hope everyone's got a lovely weekend planned.  In with the studying, I'll hopefully be off to watch Black Swan, finally!


Jen xxxx

Hedna's Vintage Nightclub and fangirl happiness!

Hey chaps!

So last night Bob and I headed over to Hedna's Vintage Nightclub at The Stables in Milton Keynes.  I was so so excited about seeing Katy Carr and then getting my swing on.  And of course, before we went my housemate took a couple of photos :)

Hehe, we wanted to do a very 'formal' pose, and then show off our dancing skills :)

So then we were on our way!  It was lovely when we got there, everyone was all dressed up and there was a photographer wandering round (when the photos are up I'll link them).  

Katy Carr was first on and she was brilliant.  She played 'Lili Marlene' which is one of my favourites, and loads more but I'm on a time limited internet here :)

ANYWAY.  The main point of my story!  After Katy had played, Bob and I headed out for a cigarette, but first I went to tell Katy how fab I thought she was, and get a photo because that's how much of a fangirl geek I am...  She was pretty much the nicest person I've ever met and took us into her dressing room and made us coffees and gave us cake and we spent ages talking about Swimbridge (a tiny village in Devon that I love, and in fact is how I discovered Katy because she'd played at the village hall there!).  So yep, my night was pretty much made :)

Squee!

Hedna's overall was fab, the music was great and everyone looked lovely.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that at the next one there's more room to dance!!

And I'm back...

Well.

In all honesty, the last couple of months have been insane. So many uni deadlines and work has been ridiculously busy with planning a recycled fashion show - which made me cry with pride when I saw all the young people coming off stage in their amazing charity shop and 'trashion' ensembles!  Some days I've not had time to eat, let alone craft or read or blog.  But... this time tomorrow all my uni work will be done for the year!  Today I squeezed three days' worth of work into one afternoon and am feeling immensely proud of myself :)

So why did I have so much work to do today?  That's because I played hooky yesterday and had the most amazing day out at the Ramsey 1940s weekend!

It was the best day. Ever.  There were reenactments of every kind, from military set ups to Anderson shelters to handwashing.  My friend Bob and I enjoyed cups of tea in the field refreshments tent, spent ages trying on hats (actually, I tried on hats, Bob just looked nervous everytime I asked him if he thought it would go with my dress) and wandered round having a generally wonderful time.  I could have spent so much money, there were so many beautiful dresses.  But alas, payday was a week away and if I wanted to feed the cat / myself for the next week then I had to be sensible.  I still managed to acquire a snood, the most amazing hat, beautiful gloves and a darling cherry brooch though!

Here's what I wore to wander round the day's events:

Excuse the crazy face. My mamma bear took the picture when we visited.  She's lovely, but obviously incredibly biased and does not tell me when a photo makes me look like I'm auditioning for 'Mad Woman of the Year'.

The main reason for the visit home was because we had to get changed for the evening - a 1940s hangar dance, complete with Opus One big band!  There was a professional photographer there, so we had actual proper photos taken:

 

Natural born posers, eh?  Bob's a total military geek, he's rocking the RAF uniform here :)  That's also my new hat and gloves.  Once bought, fabulous things must be worn immediately.

The evening was probably one of the best nights I've ever had. Everyone was dressed up and looked amazing, and I saw some of the best dancing I've ever seen.  Bob and I are already resolved to practice our steps before the next dance!  The band were amazing, and I got to dance to 'In the Mood', which is probably one of my favourite songs of all time.  I developed a total schoolgirl crush on a trombone player... I did get a smile, but I think that was probably through fear. Or he was laughing at the drool on my collar.  Anyway.  I think I now have a fetish for old-school US army uniforms. 

The next dance is at the end of September... I can't wait!  And, with uni out the way, I can focus on pulling together some awesome outfits.

Hope everyone has had a lovely weekend!

Love Jen xxxx