Weekend Review: What I Ate, Wore and Saw!

So this weekend involved spending time with a lot of lovely people, doing lots of lovely things and eating lots of lovely food!

On Friday night, I went to Jimmy Spices with my (now ex) housemate and another friend.  It's a new all-you-can-eat buffet of Indian, Italian, Chinese and Thai food. Yum yum yum! In fact, this is how happy the dessert area made me:

Hehe, happy pudding face :)  I'm a bit known for how much I love my food.  In fact, my housemates refer to me frequently as 'Jenny Two Dinners'.  So this place was exactly what I needed!

On Saturday morning, after a calamitous attempt to catch a bus (missed the first one by a minute, and just before the second one turned up I realised I'd left my cashcard, cigarettes and phone at home!), I took a trip to Vintage V.  This is a new shop opened in a nearby village dedicated to the 40s and it's brilliant!  Of course, such a trip deserves a special outfit:

Hat: Vintage V

Cardi and Cameo: Presents from Mamma

Dress: Judy's Affordable Vintage Fair

The shopping trip didn't disappoint, and I came home with an awesome outfit for my day out on Sunday :)

So Sunday... wow.  The mamma bear and I had tickets to go see Swan Lake in Cambridge.  It was absolutely beautiful, I was completely blown away.  Ballet is just so so my favourite thing right now.  And before the show, we went to the Jamie Oliver restaurant.  Oh boy!  It was sooo tasty.  I had a glass of Prosecco and berry puree to start, followed by pumpkin pasta, and topped off with the tastiest chocolate, raspberry and amaretto brownie.  I must find a recipe for those.  And, of course, here's some pictures...

Geek!  I'm so bad at this posing lark...

Attempting to get a close-up of my new favourite hat :)

Dress and hat from Vintage V

And some photos from Jamie's...

Mmmm drinkies

Such a beautiful building!

Between us, the mamma bear and I have almost 50 years of being vegetarian.

So why she took a picture of the meat counter, I have no idea...

Hope you all had a super weekend whatever you got up to!  I must get catching up on all the essays I didn't do... oops!

Love Jen xxxx

Land Girls!

Has anyone else been watching Land Girls on BBC?

Yes, yes, I know it's been slammed for being totally inaccurate. But. When having a cuppa before bed, I don't want to watch a documentary. I want to watch something with pretty hair and dresses with a nice fluffy romantic story. And boy, it delivers on that.

(First attempt at a screencap... must try harder lol)

This scene is just too cute... when Connie kisses the piano player (and finds out in the next episode that he's the vicar...).  Just adorable.  I'm totally soppy at heart.  And he is just an absolute cupcake!  I'm far too superficial, TV shows are definitely more watchable when there's something pretty to look at  :)

In other exciting news, my friend Bob and I are off to Hedna's next weekend.  And Katy Carr's playing! It's our first 40s night out since Wansford last September, absolutely cannot wait.  Going to see Swan Lake this weekend too, so much awesome right now.  Which totally makes up for the fact I've been MIA for months, right?

Jen xxxx

V is for Victory

About 15 minutes ago I wrote the final words of my final assignment for the first year of my masters.  Words can't actually express how utterly relieved and totally exhausted I am.


Of course, I still need to wait to find out whether I passed them all :)


So, to celebrate, here's a tribute to some of the songs that have got me through this insanity.  I'd like to thank the people that wrote them, along with my coffee machine, my housemates for their erratic but most welcome support (read: beers and scoldings) and my bicycle Meg for stress relieving zooms around town.



I love this version of In The Mood, it's my dancing round the kitchen soundtrack!



Louis. All you need to say <3



Probably one of my favourite pieces of music. Marginally beaten by:



Just perfection. And, of course, featured in Brief Encounter, one of my favourite films!


Hope you enjoy, I'm off for a good night's sleep...
Love Jen xxxx

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

Cupcakes for Breakfast!

Last night I went for drinks with a very nice chap. Who brought me... cupcakes. Not just any cupcakes, Candycake cupcakes. Which gave him at least another 150 brownie points on top of the million and forty seven I've already given him. Lol.

So this morning, I had cupcakes for breakfast!

I don't think it shows... but there were sparkles!

I bought this dress in Manchester when I accidentally ended up there the other week. It's perfect for picnics but sadly I have to go to work!

Hope everyone is having a lovely week

Jen xxxx

When I Get Sad, I Stop Being Sad and Be a Sailor Instead

Okay. I'm not actually particularly sad, but I liked the way it sounded...

I'm going out in a bit to eat lots of yummy Indian food with some people from work.  I tried on many many outfits then thought, 'sod it. I want to be a sailor.' So here it is :)

This is one of the dresses I picked up in Cambridge last month, it's so pretty!

Check also the necklace.  I saw it in topshop and absolutely HAD to buy it.  Sewing machine cuteness!

Hope everyone else is having a lovely start to the week.

Jen xxxx

Peachy Keen

There's no reason for this picture, other than I like it...

(image from here)

The world on the internet is vast and exciting.  Sadly, most of my internet use has been searching for articles to spice up my history of youth work essay... and facebook for general procrastination.  However, along the way I've found some gems as well.  Check it.

Culture. Etiquette. Style. With a tagline like that, how can you resist MIEN magazine?

When I get sad, I like to look at otters.  Otters are amazing!  The Daily Otter does exactly what it says on the tin... a new picture of an otter everyday.  (If otters aren't your thing, they have The Daily Bunny too!)

Vintage Movie Magazines is well worth a visit if you just like looking at pretty things.  My favourite cover? James Dean and Natalie Wood, no contest.

There are many reasons why you should read The Grumpy Owl.  It features robots and owls on a regular basis; Ryan (the grumpy owl) writes in a way whereby even things that don't interest you in the slightest (baseball?) seem worthy topics; there is pink suit appreciation; the use of the word flaneur; it's nice to read something that offers a little intellectual stimulation while still being utterly dapper and slightly frivolous. Yeah. Just go read.

Megan shows us exactly how to throw a clothes swapping party.  I've always wondered how you make this more than a couple of girlfriends turning up with carrier bags.  Let the planning commence!

Hope you're all having a lovely Tuesday
Jen xxxx