gifting

The trouble is with Erica is.....there is no trouble with Erica hehehe, I just found this pic completely randomly on Google image search a while ago and wanted to slip it in somehow. My friend Erica came round a few days ago to do some modelling for me, which was fab and very useful. It was the first time we saw each other since she came back from holiday in Japan and lucky me, kind Eric had brought me gifts!!
A quick look around this blog and you might notice I have quite a think for pocket watches, and low and behold...

and from the back...

I like it verrrry much, thanks so much eric !
Not only this but some biscuits which are somewhat depleted now hehe


And these candles which were not from Japan but Eric said they reminded her of me because of the henna-like designs. These are so lovely, I shall save them for a special soiree. It's been sooo long since I did any henna :(
So thanks you so much to Erica. Now the cool thing is I have a little gift for her, if she likes it. The other day I was in the hidden-away charity shop behind the supermarket, and spotted these shoes, the gold horse reminded me of Eric's horse necklace/brooch/earring she got at the car boot.
I don't know, they've got the "they're a little bit wrong which makes them so great" factor which is why I liked them. If Eric doesn't like them, they can go on ebay.
The interesting thing is, they once cost £75 from Kurt Geiger !!! And, that whoever bourght them, decided to sew their name tag into them (who does that past the age of 12?!) and then cross it out in marker pen. Seems sensible to me. I removed this so now theres just a faint line of dots. But still, tsk, what a stupid way to damage shoes.
I also spotted these which I liked but were a size too big, so I got them for my mum who I'm trying to convince of their radness. She's yet to be enamoured. So again, if she doesn't like, they'll be ebayed.

family and fondue

I went to see my family this weekend which bacically equates to lots of eating. My aunt did a fondue which was super yum, fun and very sociable, I think I'll have to try this in our next soiree. But also super-fattening for sure..emmental, gruyere, brie and parmesan ?! Yes indeed. I feel so full. (the fact I'm sitting here eating Toblerone probabaly doesn't help haha).
My grandma, on learning of my pocketwatch facination also showed me this pocketwatch that belonged to her mother...(Yes I'm afraid it's some more p-w related ramblings)
with her initials engraved in it.
And this pendant which is actually a powder compact holder thingy which you can wear as a necklace..


In other news, I took my sewing machine to the shop to get fixed. I opened it up, plugged it in and started sewing to show them the problem...at which point the problem mysteriously dissappeared...Argh! Well the good thing is that there's nothing wrong with it..But I did feel so confused and stupid..The man and his wife(?) who own the shop remembered me (which is so nice!) teased me quite a bit about it...and also complimented me on the pocketwatch!! My invented trend is starting to get noticed..watch out before it takes over!
Anyways right now I'm knackered (spelling?!) but much news and pics to show and tell later..

one down

Yay I altered my striped skirt... Quite quick for me, who usually takes ages to find time to get around to things like this..!
The only down side I discovered is that the opening at the bottom is really narrow meaning that in a rush you end up walking like a cross between a frog and a crab...especially running and going up stairs..hehe
One down, quite a few to go...

bootin and lootin

Another thing I'd been looking forward to going to was chiswick car boot sale, I'd heard it was generally a good car boot, and also seen a lot of man-shoes from there on fem brogue blog. So braving sickness and the freezing damn freezing cold, me and eric skipped along. I went with the aim of finding some man-shoes of course, and some watch/pocket-watch ness if possible, and what a treat we had.
First up, maaan-shoes, or rather man-boots. Ok they're not silver, but they're still pretty swish for £2.

Second up are these two tiny cute lady watches (everything is getting genderised now!)...they were £1 each..

I wasn't expecting them to work, I was planning on wearing them as non-functioning accessories (I never wear a wrist watch so I'd never get used to telling the time from anything but my phone) but when I got home I got it to work kinda...it ticks but doesn't keep time well.

I love the stap of this one...it slides along and wraps around it self then snaps to fasten it.


Then there's this one,

when I got home I found out it has these hallmarks on it...don't know what they mean though


Lastly I got this watch face..it only had one hand but I like it and I'll figure out something to do with it..


Eric's loot included this ingenious horse brooch, earrings and necklace in one!

This cauldron thingy which is a prop for her next film, about a theif who steals a witch's eye,and gets turned into a magpie, and features shadow puppets. I'm going to be making the costumes for it.

And a super 8 camera !

A definate success.

you've got mail

When I came home to find this on the mat yesterday, I knew it could only mean one thing...my pocket watch!

A momentous and exciting day! Now remember kids, donn"t over winding it! I am slightly annoyed tho, it's got roman numerals instead of arabic numerals like it had in the picture,(roman numerals confuse me!) and it has 'MADE IN CHINA' on the back which you can't remove, which it doesnt have in the picture. Hmm sneaky photoshopping. However you kinda gotta expect this kinda thing when your ordering mass-produced stuff of ebay I reckon. Still well rad tho.

edit: Being so cautitious so as to not over winding, the clock is stopping every few hours so concequently I'm as lost about the time as I was before! How much winding is too much?!

jewel in the rough

I'd been wanting to go to Deptford market since a while just cos I'd heard it was good for junk and second hand stuff which obviously excites me, and I had the fantasy that I'd find the perfect pocket watch among the rubbish. So yesterday me and eric (eric of the atonement dress) went, and of course I didn't find my dream pocket watch but it was much fun all the same.
We witnessed this pretty sunset at Crystal Palace station.

At which point I decided it necessary to take note of eric's rad outfit, love love the bag, and the red colour accents. Her expression so reminds me of someone but I can't think who..

We also went to the biggest Specsavers we could think of, in Tottenham Court Road, to try and find the perfect glasses with no avail. Whilst mashing about in the Oxford St area we passed the lush and exciting Selfridges window displays.






We also mused about the loveliness of man shoes. A.k.a brogues, like these ones I mentioned before. Fem Brogue Blog has a lush dedicated selection of what we mean by man-shoe. We want some!!
They're so paperly and craftish and remind me of some things I was making last year like this,

on the right are my sewn up fortune-tellers and spirographs, and on the left is my friend Jen's designs. Maybe the connection doesn't seem so apparent, but to me it is!
Also reminded me slightly of Tara Donovans work which I love.

For the love of a pocket watch...

Recently I've been overcome with an obsession for pocket watches...Clearly I think I'm in 1913 or something along with the spats obsession. Anyway, I MUST have one! So I've been lurking around on ebay and have made a shortlist...
This vintage beauty is too pretty but with the winning bid being £98 there was no way I could compete

It has this coat of arms on the back...aahh yesteryear!

So with the vintage ones being out of my price range its gona have to be a made in china one. I'd prefer one in gold but the designs I like are in silver.
There is this spiral "night vision" one..

which is actually silver despite the goldiness of the nightime pic, here it is in daylight:

I found one I think is the same in gold, but I'm not sure if it has the exciting night vision feature!

Theres also this Spider night vision one, which again in daylight is really silver

So it's decision time! Opinions anyone?