Exciting news!

I have some exciting news and some impending changes to my current life here in London.

On August 23rd Jian Wei and I, accompanied by his sister Mei Sim for the first half of the trip, will be flying to Malaysia for a four week holiday/sabbatical. Jian Wei's father is from Kuala Lumpur and so we are lucky enough to be able to stay with his granddad and use his 1960s villa as a base from which we can explore Malaysia and take a trip to Singapore. Top on my destination list is the Perhentian Islands of which I have heard and read so much about; they are described as paradise and the pictures confirm it! Any travel tips would be greatly appreciated, especially of places to visit in and around KL as this is where we will be stationed for the majority of our trip.

In order to be able to travel for four weeks I have quit my job at L.K Bennett and so will be looking for a new job come late September. I have been part of an international team of extremely talented, charismatic and wholly eccentric ladies and I am sure I will stay in touch with many of them. On the flip side, I doubt I will miss working in heels and the 5am starts quite as much...

The final change is that upon our return, Jian Wei and I will be looking for a new place to live in London. Although we have been very happy in the spacious West London home that used to belong to my late uncle, the location has become an increasing source of discontent for us. Although we have as much room as we could possibly need, we've discovered that this is actually a mixed blessing and it is really quite hard keeping such a large house house in an inhabitable condition with the hours we work. The garden has also materialised to be a mammoth task despite our initial naive enthusiasm and best intentions. In addition to this, we live a good hour-and-a-quarter outside of central London and the commute has just become too much and socialising is very difficult. So, upon our return we will be flat-hunting with zeal in the South-East of London and preparing for a very important move closer to the urban living we 'dream' of, closer to our friends and work places and cycling/walking distance from the places we enjoy on days off. If anyone knows of a one to two bedroom unfurnished flat (not a studio) that will be vacant from October and less than £850 a month, please get in touch!

Wish us luck...

Giveaway! Vintage 1959 television annual!

It's time for another giveaway! Up for grabs is a fun 1959 British Television annual featuring lots of delightful vintage images and articles about... late 1950s British television stars!

All you have to do is be a follower of the blog on either google friend connect or bloglovin' and leave a comment below this post including a contact email address. The giveaway is open to followers all over the world. Good luck!

The giveaway ends at midnight GMT a week today!
 

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Days off

Cardigan: L.K Bennett

Vintage 1960s Peter Pan collared top: Mr Ryan's Second Hand Shop (Manchester)

Vintage 1960s skirt: Female Hysteria Vintage

Vintage 1960s shoes: Beyond Retro (London)

Vintage 1960s bag: charity shop in King's Lynn

Scottie dog brooch: handmade and hand painted by my father and me!

I am in love with my beautiful new 1960s shoes! They make me so happy!



On Monday I had a wonderful day off sandwiched in the middle of eight shifts at work. I was determined to get out and about and so Jian Wei and I set off to the British Museum to see the Vollard Suite Picasso prints. The weather was grey and spitting at best and so we scurried through the rain to the shelter of The Breakfast Club in Soho to enjoy a pile of pancakes slathered in vanilla cream, sprinkled with fresh red berries, dusted in icing sugar and doused in maple syrup. For someone with a tooth as syrupy and saccharine as my own, this lunchtime treat is an incomparable heaven - after all, my name even means 'sweet'. After refuelling we took a bus to St. Paul's from whence we walked to the Tate and wandered around the Edvard Munch exhibition. We then strolled down the South Bank in the drizzle and 'made the best of it' in the uniquely British way.

I really liked my outfit for this day out, I felt as though it really represents my current tastes and style and I intend to use it to help me reduce my wardrobe by two-thirds. The plan for my next day off will no doubt include eBay listing!

This week in Instagram

So, I've recently acquired an iPhone and am now hopelessly addicted to Instagram! Here's a little of what I've been snapping this week. My username is humanseavintage.
 

Dear little Freddle curled up having a nap and some of my recent vintage postcard finds from the car boot. (10p each! I should have and could have bought many, many more...)



A beautiful 1930s portrait I found for 10p at the car boot and my dressing table after I blitzed it and pinned a few vintage postcards around it.
 

A peach coloured vintage summer knit from a local charity shop. It's probably from the early 1960s and I just love the font St. Michael were using at that time! The button loops need a little reinforcing but at £2.99 I
don't mind tinkering with it to bring it up to scratch.


  

The first sweetpeas from the garden next to a photo of my mum as a little girl (adorable). The bow is a charity shop find, it was £1 but it might be from Primark originally? Still, I can't get enough of these bows at the moment.




My beautiful new 1960s shoes from Beyond Retro. They were only £16 and a perfect fit and the navy colour has got to come in handy. How gorgeous is the font and brand name? Will I become a socialite when I wear them?


 

The view of the London skyline from Peckham and a 1960s cook book my mum surprised me with in the post. It seems the roles illustrated on the front cover are very much reversed in this household however and Jian Wei always has my dinner on the table when I get in from work!
 

The print on a pretty 1950s dress I treated myself to at Portobello Market on Saturday. It has a full circle skirt and is made from a lovely gauzy cotton; at £15 it was criminally underpriced and so I had no choice but to take it...



Fred sleeps in the funniest of positions. Oeuf mollet and 'muffin bread' for breakfast on one of my favourite 1950s plates I found at a recent car boot sale.



The first raspberries on our ramshackle crop are starting to appear. I took my French work colleague and friend Fanne charity shopping in some of my local haunts today and the best thing I found was this American Apparel hair bow complete with original tags. Seeing as the bows retail at £12 I was thrilled to see this one marked 99p! I love the aqua blue colour, I think it will look great paired with the colour coral.



I also bought this wool English school scarf which has a different design on each side and is much longer, and therefore practical, than my own old school scarf. It certainly needs a dry clean however as it has a few stains and smells very off. The sailorette blouse to the right was also a steal at £1 and was snatched from the kid's rail at the last minute.

Is it just me or are more and more 'independent' charity shops popping up all over the place? Ones with no ostensible connection to a charity with suspect names like 'Charity Shop for Children' and 'The Families' Relief'? Although they are cheaper than the more ubiquitous high street charity shops such as Oxfam, they seem to have exceptionally low standards of hygiene and the clothes almost crawl in your hands. Perhaps I've just got used to the high standards of visual merchandising, customer service and stock organisation in all the established charity shops and, when all's taken into account, would rather spend 50p more for an item that is clean and crease-free and on a clearly designated rail than spend 50p less and peel a visibly rancid garment from the base of a child's cot in a foul-smelling and poorly-lit 'shop' that leaves me coughing and my skin itching. Hmm... It'd be be nice to know where the money ends up too!

My username on Instagram is humanseavintage. Follow me for more charity shop and car boot finds, endless shots of Fred being comical and London adventures!

Notting Hill

 








 

Trench: L.K Bennett

1960s dress: Retro Rehab (in Manchester)

1930s peach glass necklace: The Old Curiosity Shop (in King's Lynn)

Vintage umbrella: Deptford junk market

1960s bag: Charity shop in King's Lynn

Shoes: L.K Bennett

I had a lovely day on Sunday. Jian Wei and I dodged tourists at Portobello Market in Notting Hill, ate street food and I bought a scandalously underpriced 1950s sun dress for £15 from one of the many vintage clothing stalls towards the end of the market. I also got the chance to finally wear some head-to-toe pastels as London had some brief but glorious sunshine! I have had this dress for a few years, I bought it in Manchester at Retro Rehab but it has felt a little too saccharine for me of late. A trench is incredibly useful for transforming sugary pastels into more versatile day wear, so long as it is beige in tone rather than yellow or green.  This one, along with the adorable shoes, were bought with my sizeable staff discount from L.K Bennett. I have had the necklace for years, I love old glass necklaces. And the brolly was a recent find for a pound from Deptford junk market. It isn't very old but the wooden handle and tip and the pastel check print belie its age.


We headed south of the river to the opening night of Bold Tendencies Sculpture Project and Frank's Campari bar held at a multi-storey car park in Peckham. The views over London from the roof were breathtaking and the turnout was incredible. 

We met up with friends, enjoyed the free campari cocktail bar, watched the sun set on one of the few clear summer days we've had this year and then crossed back over the river to an intimate house party in Bethnal Green. It was such a perfect day and made me realise how important it is to really make the effort to do things on your day off even when you're working so often working that a day off signals little more than eating peanut butter and banana on toast for dinner, watching tele and catching up on the washing up.

All photos by Jian Wei.