Week One of Happy

I can't believe I'm through my first week of happy snaps already! If nothing else this challenge has already taught me that life will just speed past if you don't pay attention to it! 

I've managed a photo a day so far. Sometimes two! It seems that I enjoy making things a lot. And sunny days, but who doesn't like those!?

So here's my first batch of photos for you. As always, see them "live" on my Instagram (and twitter if it will play ball!) @ofavintageair 

Day 1) warm fluffy toasty socks. 

Day 2) Gammon slow cooked in cider then roasted!

Day 3) sunny days at the workshop with the doors wide open. 

Day 4) baking, especially for friends. And that cake was delicious. And boozy. 

Day 5) this was boozy too. Chocolate and baileys mousse that didn't set so became ice cream instead!!  

Day 6) sewing on my vintage vickers sewing machine. 

Day 7) making plum and cinnamon cake then eating it straight out of the oven with dad (made me happy) and forgetting to take a pretty picture (made me laugh because I'd intended to but we got too excited!)

Day 8) finding little gems in charity shops. Like this adorable sewing box table. With lift out tray, drawer, places for scissors and a giant pin cushion type thing. Technical, moi? It's gorgeous and I couldn't leave it behind. It's got some French polishing in its future and I just need to find some scissors that fit the cut outs!! 

I'm not totally sure if this is in the realm of being happy with what you have as I bought it, but it's better than buying new and I intend to give it a new lease of life and treasure it for a long time! 

Day 9) Hair chalk. Literally what it says on the tin. Colouring your hair with chalk. I'm currently blue and green streaked. It is immense and washes out easily so yay! 

All the colours get in my hair!! 

Jo :-) 

P.S. are you doing the challenge? What do you have to be happy about?

December Instagram Round Up

Or. An excuse for some pretty pictures! 

I normally do the top five most liked pics, but this time there's three tied at the bottom. So I'm going to do seven instead. 

Just think of it like a bonus!! 

7) 

Sewing on my wonderful Singer. She is the best. I never want to change her. 

The culottes I was sewing though. Failure. They need some work.... Or maybe a bin. Hmm. 

6) 

Draping a dress to go with some beautiful 30s deco items from my eventual mother in law. The fabric was £2.50 from a charity shop and it's just lovely. 

Can't wait to put this together. 

5) 

Making mince pies with my mum. And feeling like a child again. 

This set off a monumental amount of baking in my house when I got home. I've made mince pies, jam tarts, puff pastry for the first time, sausage rolls, pork and apple chutney pies, marmite swirls, and enough food to last months!!

4) 

My hair doing wonderful things for a change. Right before I went to bed. Ugh. 

Apparently my hair has a sense of humour. Which would explain why when I need to leave in five minutes, it decides its going to look rubbish and be completely unmanageable. 

3) 

The black satin that finally arrived for my Godmother's housecoat. It's lovely. Just need some pink fleece and we'll be in business! 

2) 

The housecoat pattern. Which has led to me lusting after one in blue and white stripes...

It's just so beautiful. I see many things being made from this pattern in the future!

1) The top liked post of December is.....:

A terrible selfie of me in a mirror! 

Really. Fitting myself for an evening dress I'm making using a top I don't wear anymore, a 25p zip from a charity shop, some fabric from India and mile upon mile of silver bias binding!! It's coming along nicely and is part of my aim for January. Can't wait to see it finished. 

Jo :-)

P.S. what were your December best bits? Instagram or otherwise!

November Instagram Round Up

Day late, my reminder didn't go off! Rubbish! :-)

Top five Instagram posts as liked by people. 

According to this month I've been busy trying to teach myself to design dresses whilst baking, selling things on eBay and starting far too much knitting!! 

First off, Cookies!!

Raspberry and white chocolate oat cookies to be precise. 

Made the day we were clearing out the garage. For sustenance! There some chocolate chip lurking at the back there too. Since then I've made these again and done chocolate chip and raisin oat cookies. Yummy. 

Lovely Laura Ashley dress that went for a bargainous  price on my eBay (joanna_esme if you're interested!) because it doesn't fit me well!

Too many knitting projects on the go. Since then I've finished the navy, started and finished a hot pink snood and started a hot pink beret. So the pile's not really gone down at all....

My wonderful dress form. She's a bit old and creaky, plus she's still without a name, but she's been amazingly useful after I got her back in November. From freecycle too! 

Last but not least, trying to teach myself to draw clothes. So that I can show people what I want to make rather than just badly describing it. It's going reasonably well so far for a beginner! I have a fancy pen now and everything!! 

That's all for now folks. 

I've got a post about a lighthouse boat in the works for Monday, there's an outfit post lurking somewhere too! The fiancé is off to work in India for a couple of weeks so after the busy weekend it should be a bit of smooth sailing! 

Jo. 

P.S. what have you been up to in November? 

October Instagram Round Up

Top five of my most liked photos from October. 

Yes I managed to miss September completely. I will try harder. Many exciting things are occurring here at the moment but they are taking time! :-S please bear with me! 

So with no further ado:

Red hair with a cherry print bow! All dolled up for my dad's big birthday! It was a great night and we managed to get 70 candles on a cake. It was a raging inferno and the chocolate may have melted!!

 

My first attempt at inserting a sleeve, but with no pattern. My sewing skills seem ok. Pattern making skills, not so much! 

My beautiful blue lace circle skirt. I am pretty proud of this one! Two layers and the lace looks amazing. It didn't even take that long to make! 

For bored and wrote some stuff on a picture! When the finished table is back in my sticky mitts I will post another picture as this is only halfway through! Finished it's like a mirror! Seriously, you can read stuff in that surface! 

And last but not least, no make up and no filter selfie! After having had some issues with attempting to dye my hair blonde, I've gone back to fairly near my natural brunette. Which is sort of fading to a reddish colour as we go on. Darn red hair dye! Should definitely have gone blonde first. It's my plan after the red grows out now! 

That's all for now :-) catch you all again soon and thank you for reading!

Jo

P.S. what was your favourite thing last month? 

August Instagram Round Up

Well, this post was all ready to go just before I left for Germany. Planned posting on the 6th. And then there was no wifi. :-(

So here it is. Only a couple of weeks late!! 

Ooh a new month and a new Instagram round up! If you fancy seeing some more from me, my Instagram and twitter are both @ofavintageair 

Top five photos by the number of likes! :-) 

5) beautiful 50s beaded handbag. A birthday present from my fiancé's mother :-) I love it! But am so worried about damaging it on an evening out! 

4) Red gingham skirt outfit for a blog post! I love this skirt! It went down so well at the jazz club and is perfect for dancing in!

3) starting to sew up the gingham skirt of my 1940s singer sewing machine. Taken just before the "threading the needle the wrong way" failure!

2) my beautiful spitfire jewellery from one of my very best friends for my birthday! The box says from Hoarders World if anyone's interested in buying some! 

1) and people's favourite this month seems to be sparkly grey nails and my beautiful engagement ring. Can't say I blame them to be honest! Just need to get some of that nail polish for my own now! 

Well. That's your lot folks! I like doing the Instagram round ups. It's nice to look back over what you've been up to for the last month. Sort of like a photo diary! 

Jo :-) 

P.S. are you on Instagram and should I be following you? What were you up to in August?

Instagram July Round-Up

Hi there Internet friends! 

Here's the first in a series of blog posts that hopefully I'll keep going every month! 

Top five (by the number of likes!) Instagram photos of the month! 

So with no further ado, here's July! 

1) My new picnic basket stacked on the old picnic basket! Actually an Easter present for the fiancé, but it was hard to make everything fit in the first one! So I'm afraid I caved and bought the second from a charity shop! 

2) The back of my bargain eBay wedding dress. Gorgeous. I love it so so much. Off to see my mum at the end of this week to show her as well! VERY (yes shouty very!) excited!

3) Moi with victory rolls that were falling out in front of my favourite Tiger Moth. Went flying with a friend that evening and it was lovely!

4) A beautiful rose I purchased for the newly weeded front garden! It smells divine! What's the point of roses without fragrance?!

5) Last but not least a little gold bird brooch that I know nothing about and picked up in a charity shop. Very pretty and it's head moves. It's now gone to the  fiancé's mother as a present! I'm sure she'll research it a bit more! 

So don't forget to find me on Instagram and twitter! Both are @ofavintageair and I'd love to chat!

Thanks for reading! 

Jo

P.S. loving the new blogging app on my iPhone! This will make life so much easier! My laptop refuses to go on the Internet now, hence the absence! You'll be hearing more from me soon!