Ain't that a splash on the head

Well would ya look at that August has been and gone so that means summer is well and truly over, not to say we had it in the first place but now we're into September, the leaves will be falling the nights will be drawing in etc etc, so as a way of ending the summer in style, last weekend I headed over to the 10th anniversary of the Glen Miller Festival at Twinwood in Bedford with my fella. I have to say I was a Twinwood virgin, I had never been before and if I'm honest with you I wasn't really interested in going either because it was based on 1940s swing music, which I'm afraid ain't really my thing, but I managed to wangle free tickets for me and my better half because I was helping out hosting the Tin Hat hall and was also in the top 10 of the Vintage Life glamour pageant so really I had no excuse but to go!

I did find out also that there were several rock n roll bands and a 50s dj on over the weekend so it wouldn't be all sanitized swing for me, not that I have anything against it but as some of you might know, I'm more of a rockabilly girl at heart and I find swing and jazz music just that bit too tame for my liking, but life wouldn't be exciting if we all had the same taste right?

 

Me and my fella arrived Friday afternoon to what was sodden grass, puddles and yes that dreaded word, rain and lots of it, had I somehow taken a detour and ended up at Glastonbury? Surely this wasn't it? unfortunately I was reassured I was at the correct camp site so I had no other choice other than to trundle on and get tented up, being the ditzy lady that I am, I decided not to pack any practical attire or footwear and only took dresses,sandals and suntops, a lesson that has well been learnt believe me.

For all you wannabe campers out there, rule 1. Don't wear suede Loafers, they will get ruined,
your feet will become wet and your other half will want to hit you because of moaning that your feet are wet and your shoes are now ruined.

So we managed to get the tent up without too much swearing, this was a first time for both of us, swearing and also putting up a tent, and to be honest I think we did a good job, not that I did a lot, I just sat there trying not to get wet, once that was done we went heading off for a well deserved alcoholic beverage.

Our humble abode for the weekend

There wasn't much really going on Friday night,everyone was arriving and setting up for the weekends events, it's not like your average weekender which starts Friday day time and finishes Sunday, oh no sir, all the weekends events were spread out over the Saturday, Sunday and Monday, which makes sense as it's always on the bank holiday, so people can really make the most of their long weekend off. After having a quick look about we headed back to the tent so I could put my glad rags and attempt to style my hair with a brush and not a lot else. My outfit decision was a black and white fleck wool pencil skirt, blue and white diamond sun top and my collectif cardigan with Rokit Shoes.

Outside the Tin Hat, you wouldn't think I was freezing my backside off!

I headed off to the Tin hat though and started meeting and greeting and handing the flyer's to everyone and anyone I saw, what I noticed straight away here, everyone was so friendly, which lets be honest you don't really get everywhere else so this was a refreshing sight, watching everyone walk past and listening to the music coming out of the Tin hat was really getting me in the mood for a boogie so we soon headed over to the Marquee where Strolling Steve was spinning the wax and what a great night that turned out to be, I didn't stop dancing until we were kicked out of the marquee, during that time we met some great people, who we got to know over the weekend and had a lot of laughs with.

Having a dance Friday night, no shoes, what's new, probably would explain the crippled feet

Saturday morning came around bright and early, that's definitely a downside to camping, sunrise waking you up at 6am and boy did we feel the joys of camping straight away, joints stiffening, legs numb with cold, but that is probably our fault for not thinking ahead, as usual! We had a wander around the camp and saw so many people dressed up to the nines in 40s gear, some women looked so glamorous, taking every little detail into consideration from the hair styles, the accessories and of course the outfit, then obviously there were the uniform posse,men and women wearing American and the British armed forces uniforms from the 40s, this isn't something that appeals to me really because I find a lot of 'part timers' use it as their dress up gear for 40s weekends and not a lot else but some of the men did look rather scrumptious in their uniform, as many women say, I do like a man in uniform, ooo er missus.

I got to catch up with some great friends Saturday and Sunday and also got to see some fab bands such as the one and only Si Cranstoun, who for me never puts a step wrong, I can't really remember a lot of the other bands I saw over those two days but the ones I saw I know were more 50s based so they got my seal of approval.

Myself, Graham and Clare

Si Cranstoun himself, I want him to make a work out video, it would make my life.

 

Then of course came the Vintage Life glamour pageant and I was terrified, in my long twenty one years I've only done one pin up contest before this so you could understand why my nerves were ever so slightly trembling. In the face book (wahey) contest I had managed to get to number three in the top 10 but that meant nothing to what was coming, to be honest, it wasn't all that bad, all I had to do was stand on stage while I was looked up and down like picking cows to go to slaughter.Luckily I had a friendly face keeping me company, Miss Stephanie Jay, a beaut I met at Hemsby in May.

Well whaddya know we're almost matching! Me and the gorgeous Stephanie.

 

 I didn't get anywhere, not that I minded, the ladies that came third,second and first truly deserved it and they all looked stunningly authentic, to which I didn't with my tattoos but hey ho, in the end I was glad I got it over and done with because I could go enjoy the rest of the night without having to make sure everything was looking pristine. For the contest I decided on my red satin outerlimitz sarong dress. 

Vintage Life top 10, see if you can spot me!

 

Saturday evening came around which meant more dancing, how my feet kept up I will never know, like a friend of mine said, we had to make the most of a rock n roll or rockabilly song because we didn't know when we'd hear the next one so we really did make the most of it, my feet had blisters to prove it.

When the nights events finished we trotted off to the tent and went to clean our teeth and get ready to get pneumonia, only to find out there was no water,heaven forbid how would I survive!?

Sunday followed similarly to the day before, I did manage to catch a bit of the West end hit show Million Dollar Quartet, what I saw made me want to see the show in London even more than I did  before, lots of high energy performers playing some classic hits from the magnificent four of Sun Records.

 Other bands I got to see were Lucas and the Dynamo's, a well known rock n roll band which somehow I'd managed to miss seeing all my life, so I made sure I got a glimpse of those, a really lively fun band that had the crowd jiving throughout their set.

The evening included more dancing just for a change, I helped out hosting the Tin hat for a couple of hours and even managed to be filmed for a Show Reel on Twinwood so somewhere there will be me on film, sounding like a man. Fantastic. I decided to wear a vintage 50s yellow embroidered pencil dress and matching cardigan, something a bit warmer than the rest of the weekend.

Having a dance with my fella wearing a vintage circle skirt and 49er jaceket

Unfortunately over the weekend the weather was not what I expected ,I was shivering most of it which for me did put a dampener (no pun intended) on it, not to say I didn't have a good time, if I knew then what I know now, I would have definitely been more prepared and took warmer clothes, food and drink etc because paying £6 for Chinese noodles wasn't really my idea of fine cuisine but it's festival food so I shouldn't have really expected a lot. I decided against looking at clothes stalls because I didn't take any spending money and it would have simply been torture looking at them. I'm glad I went overall but I personally wouldn't pay to go because of how much I have decided I hate camping, if someone was to loan me a caravan then without a doubt I would go again, because having to put my curlers in at 1am in the dark is rather tricky to say the least, so I definitely missed my electrical appliances.

This is what dry curlers do to my hair, this is why I use tongs.

 I know many people that are into the 'fun' of camping and the forties scene and I am not disputing them for it but for me personally it got a bit too much for me, I met some great people, a lot that had already recognised me from my face book page and UK Rock( I really do have a lot to be thankful for that magazine!) and I had a hell of a lot of laughs but gimme the Rockabilly Rave any day.

Until Next Time

Toodle Pip

xxx



Victory Rolls... The happy shopper version

So after my last post I had a comment asking if I could give any tips on how to do Victory rolls so I thought I'd quickly put some images together and give you a how to! because to be honest I'm not sure how I learn, I just practised one day and voila there we had it, Victory rolls... Bettina style! Now they're not perfected in any way yet but I think this will give you a rough idea of how I do them and you may be able to figure it out a bit better then I showed you!!

So here we go!! Excuse the really poor quality images and the person in the images wearing very little make up and Afro hair... It is a Wednesday and I have washed my hair!  But anyway...

I don't think it matters on where your parting is in your hair, I've had a side parting since I was about 12 years old because personally I do not think a centre one suits me but victory rolls often work really well with a centre parting and it is easier when it comes to sectioning your hair off because you get an even amount on each side...

Start by getting a small section of hair (enough to make quite a thick roll out of it!)

Then get a comb and back comb near the roots of the section so it makes it stand out a bit more,

make sure you smooth it all out before or after you've done your roll because otherwise you look
like you've been dragged through a hedge backwards and that is not a good look!

Next get the end of the section of the hair and roll it into a circle... If you're having trouble with this you can spray it a bit with hairspray so it all stays in place when you're rolling it. Once you have rolled the end into a circle, keep rolling it towards your head like you word a pin curl so then it looks like a barrel against your scalp. (Everyone now Roooolllll outtt thhheee barrrellll... no just me? )

 Grip it in place with Kirby Grips, you can try to hide them so it looks like it's standing up all by itself but if that's too fiddly just clip it in anywhere so it stays in place

And if any of that made sense it should look something like this!

Basically you have to do exactly the same on the other side but when it comes to Sectioning it make sure its around the same amount of hair as the other roll because when it comes to rolling it it could look uneven and ruin the whole Do!

Rolling the second one may take a few attempts to make sure it looks even and right compared to the other, but luckily you've got the other side of your head to look at to even them out!

And this is what the rolls should look like! Given they are a bit scruffy but you get the idea I hope?

Now if you have a fringe you could always leave it but I think this often ruins the hair style so why not try rolling your fringe too?

You don't necessarily have to have a fringe to be able to roll it, just make sure you section a small part of your hair before you start this whooole process

You do the fringe roll pretty much similar to the others but I don't tend to back comb mine, I used to have to do it with heated rollers or tongs but I've got the hang of doing it without these now, if you are still a bit wary you can just roll it with your tongs and then clip it in place with a grip

I tend to do mine at a diagonal angle because I think it shapes my face better but you can do it horizontal so you've got a Bettie Page Esq style fringe, I find it looks more forties then a diagonal fringe so I tend to stay away from it because I'm more of a fifties gal.

Try curling the rest of your hair with tongs or rollers to glam it up more or you can clip the rest of the hair up also for a easy up do!

But ta da here is what you should end up with!!

All in all this took me around 5 minutes to do, not bad really considering I've only

just got the hang of it! This may take you a bit longer at first but once you've got the hang of it you'll be able to do it easy peasy, but be prepared to have aching arms because you will get them and after all practise does make perfect!!

Until Next Time

Toodle Pip

xxx



Salute to the 40s... in Chatham?!?!

Last year when I'd first moved down to the glorious area of which is Kent, I found a 40s event at a place called Chatham dockyard, I didn't know anything about the event then and I wanted to go dreadfully! But having only just moved, I hadn't made many friends so I had to give it a miss. When I found out they were doing it again this year I was thrilled and even better I had my man to take me there too! I checked out the website and found out it was 70 years since Dunkirk so it was also a remembrance as well as a jolly good day out!





  So off we went just after midday, I'd dolled myself up to the nines wearing my brand new Vivien of Holloway turquoise pencil dress and Hawaiian wedges, which after my man getting us lost and taking us on a tour of Chatham it seemed, my feet were lets say a bit on the sore side. However this did not put my spirits down and when we got there I felt like a little girl at Christmas!

    I didn't quite know what to expect as Chatham's not got the most going on but as I walked down to the main event it was fantastic to see everyone in original  40s clothing and in world war 2 uniforms, including police, army, firemen. Oh it was magnificent! Everyone was so friendly and looked like they were having the time of their lives! I was a bit nervous at first thinking I'd over dressed, how wrong I was! I felt under dressed in the end. Ladies in beautiful tea dresses and Dior inspired suits and hats, men in double breasted suits or sailor outfits.

Every girl's gotta have a man in the army..or two

Four lovely ladies lookin good!

    Every now and then I had the urge to have my photograph taken with a plane or with a car ( as you do!) and as my man was taking my photograph,I noticed other people doing it as well, how nice of them! I guessed from this event people put on their glad rags here and love to have their picture taken so I let them snap away!

My favourites from the day,opposite from each other but just as good

   There was live music from singers and bands, I only caught a few of them, two of my favourites were a t-chest bass blues band who did a lot of Elvis, of which I was happy to hear! Don't get me wrong I adore forties music but it was still a delight to hear my favourite! And also a very Andrew sisters inspired girl group who were just fabulous, they had the look down to a tee and their voices were just gorgeous!

      I gave out a few business cards hoping for some work to come my way, but if it doesn't I don't mind, there was a few stalls to buy clothes from and of course there was the Best of British magazine there so I made sure I got myself a couple of copies of that magazine, there was a woman making hand made snoods too so after treating myself to a pretty one on eBay I made sure I got myself another so I have a choice now! I'm still trying to get the hang of wearing them at the moment, because when I try it on, I seem to look more like a dinner lady then a forties starlet, better keep practising I say!  I also had to stay away from a lovely vintage dress that caught my eye, it was a beauty but I thought I'd better not!

Some lovely ladies getting their hair styled

   Do you know I could actually go on about this day forever, when I was walking home I kept saying to my man how I'd had such a good time and I honestly did, being a fifties girl I was a bit wary that I would get fed up with a day of the forties but how wrong I was! I definitely could tell a difference between the 1940's scene and the rockin scene. There is a lot more drinking involved in the 50s scene and the music where as 40s is more about the clothes and dancing, which to me is still just as good, I loved watching the couples lindyhopping and would love to do it myself but I'll just stick to my jiving, I can do that, I think I'd trip over my own feet and that would not look good!

  So after a long ole day we retired back to my house to go get ready to go out in the evening. A long day of glorious 40s music, dancing and great people.
    I'll be reporting on the London tattoo convention over the next few days so keep your eyes peeled

 Until then

Toodle Pip

xxx

 

In rememberance to people who lost their lives in the war