Keep it to Yourself

Stylish Blogger Award!

2011-02-19T08:23:00.000-08:00

We can proudly say we have been awarded a Stylish Blogger award from Iz Bakinog Ormara, thank you! We are meant to say seven things about ourselves but since this is a shared blog I will do three and Tom will do three at some point and then one together. So here are my three:

My favourite place in the world is my bed:

There is nothing better on a sunny afternoon than lying on the soft patchwork quilt, bathed in sunlight, breeze wafting in through the window and watching the world go by unaware.

My favourite artist changes almost daily but at the moment I am obsessed with James Abbot McNeill Whistler:

I think that one of the worst inventions of the twentieth century is UPVC double glazing; many people think I am odd for this hatred in a country obsessed with this disgusting, plastic defacer of houses. On new houses fine but row upon row of pretty Victorian houses have been ruined forever by tasteless, white plastic rims and blankly staring sheets of wobbly looking glass, all supposedly in the name of economy and 'green' living. It saves on average £120 a year on bills, a decent amount, but think how long it takes to start earning back the cost of putting them in when they cost thousands and then you have to replace them every 20-30 years anyway! Why not put a lick of paint on your nice wooden frames once a year and buy a pair of nice thick curtains to keep the heat in? It is proven to be just as affective. For those still convinced, put this in your pipe and smoke it:

How long is that going to take to bio-degrade? I think people are only just starting to cotton on to recycling this stuff. I know what I'd rather.

More to come soon!

Valentine's Weasel

2011-02-14T10:41:00.000-08:00

Definitely the best Valentine's day present yet- a taxidermy stoat. The mustelid family have long fascinated me so to finally own one is something my nine year old, weasel obsessed self would have had hardly believe would happen! I haven't thought of a name yet, any ideas?

A Few Drawings

2011-02-05T10:53:00.000-08:00

Since Tom has delved into realm of artistic endeavours recently, here too are few of drawings of mine that I like, the first two being drawn from found photographs and the last is a sketch after Vuillard's 'The Visitor. Annette in the rue de Calais Salon. c. 1920.

Clothes Complex- Topshop

2011-02-01T10:34:00.000-08:00

Topshop, though I am delighted you are finally designing really nice clothes again, this is frustrating as my bank balance does not permit me to indulge. How can I choose just one lovely thing?!

La Vie Parisienne

2011-02-01T10:05:00.001-08:00

A few images from a couple of copies of saucy French magazine La Vie Parisienne I bought from Otto, one issue from 1926 and one from 1930. I hope to scan a few more in soon. My (and Tom's funnily enough) favourite is the pretty red head clutching mistletoe, her being in Santa's beard is a little odd and Santa does look like a bit gin-soaked!

Portrait in the Evening

2011-01-31T13:38:00.001-08:00

I am rather proud of this quick portrait of Maria. Somehow, painting of an evening by the light of a 40 watt bulb always produces interesting colours, on this occasion my efforts were (I think) rewarded. I am sure that Maria would want me to say that she is wearing a red knitted cardigan with bobbles on it and a very 1930's-ish naval silk scarf.

Tom Cooks Every Bloody Night

2011-01-27T11:40:00.001-08:00

That was Tom's idea for the name of this post; I was going to call it adventures in a kitchen and he said would be an adventure for me to be in the kitchen. While Tom so merrily cooks a nice risotto, I drink wine and try on my newest skirt, fresh from eBay today. It is a Marks and Spencer skirt in a grey/brown tweed pattern with buttons down the front, the kind I hope to go with just about everything. Tom is taking refuge from the cold in a vintage virgin wool fishing jumper that is like wearing a radiator!

Leather Satchel

2011-01-25T14:22:00.001-08:00

This is what I got Tom for Christmas, a brand new but classically styled satchel from Grafea. Tom likes it because he can wear it while he is cycling and because you can fit two bottles of wine in it, I like it because it looks so very smart and I really actually want one myself!

Electric Gypsy Dress

2011-01-23T08:03:00.000-08:00

My Christmas present this year is something I must share, a Reproduction vintage 1940's style dress that is made to look like a two-piece suit from our friend's vintage and hand-made label Electric Gypsy. It fits like a dream and will be perfect for any important interviews I might hopefully have at some point. I also have my eye on the floral 1930's style dress for summer. Thank you Tom!

Clothes Complex - Spring

2011-01-23T06:13:00.000-08:00

If money were no object this would be my Spring wardrobe.

Top row: Blouses- Topshop, Dress- Whistles.
Middle row: Jacket- Cabbages and Rose, Skirts- Topshop.
Bottom row: Dress- Laura Ashley, Coat and shoes- Hobbs, Bag- Grafea, Cardigan- Brora.

Christmas preparations...

2010-12-21T08:03:00.000-08:00

Home-made Christmas decorations are the best. Spray pine cones gold, dry orange slices in the oven, gather festive looking foliage and mix with flowers and holly, make pomanders with cloves and pretty ribbon and make paper chains.

It's been a while...

2010-12-21T07:44:00.000-08:00

It has been a very long time since I last posted but I just have to celebrate the best December I have ever had! Being brought up in the South West of England has meant I am used to relatively warm, wet and rather boring winters, the last couple of years have been different though and this year has just kept getting better! We have had more snow than I have ever seen and beautiful cold, crisp days.

The Hourglass Inn

2009-10-17T02:39:00.001-07:00

The dreaded flu has kept me away from our usual Friday night date with the best pub in England- it has however been redolent of childhood illnesses; being tucked up in bed, smelling my Mum's Chanel perfume (now mine) through a blocked nose, eating my favourite dinners for strength and finding enough energy to indulge in my all time favourite computer game, Simcity. Tom never knew he was seeing a computer geek in disguise! Sorry to have missed you Hourglass Inn, there is always next week.

Each Autumn begins like this, with stunning horoscopes reching beyond the expectations of a single season.

2009-10-11T10:00:00.000-07:00

The beginning of autumn calls for a squash supper and inspires a wintry landscape to finally be painted onto the screen we have been meaning to decorate for an age. An annoying space in the kitchen has been given a new lease of life with a perfect fold out table onto which we have a selection of our favourite recent finds.

Bicycle Luggage Special

2009-10-07T11:34:00.000-07:00

Lately all the things I seem to find or ideas I have had have seemed to point in the same direction, that direction is towards bicycle luggage. It might seem like a slightly odd axiom to the threads of my spare time but that is how it is.

To begin with some of the ways in which the theme has been seeping into my consciousness I will post the below pictures from a couple of magazines I won on e-bay. They are from 1913 and have wonderful cover images (the chap on a punt is an example of this). Note the stylish luggage featured in the bike snippits...

Some of you reading may have spotted the early Brooks advert on the corner of the page above, so did I. I was reminded of my lovely brooks Glenbrook saddle bag which I love terribly but don't use very often because in Exeter it would probably be stolen and my Mother bought it for me Christmas just gone. I needed something less precious.

This book has some great passages about luggage. This was a present from a local junk dealer and was very well received. I remembered having seen it somewhere before but couldn't think where, then I remembered it was on the Tweed Cycling club's website. Found it? Somehow, although I can't quite see why now looking back at their pictures, I thought that perhaps a good satchel would be a possible solution. So the next weekend I happened to be looking through a couple of barn's belonging to an antique dealer and found this...

A good, heavy canvas fishing bag with a nice wide strap and lots of pockets. It really does the job nicely and it stays with me when I lock the bike up making it much harder to steal.

That said though I have started working on a leather bag made from some old folios I have cut up. The sewing machine just about goes through the leather if turned by hand. I am just waiting for the buckles to arrive in to-morrows post and then it can be finished. If I remember I will put a picture of it on here. It doesn't look as scruffy in real life.

Autumn Boots.

2009-09-29T11:38:00.000-07:00

Every girl needs a new pair of boots for autumn; I have already written about my lust for riding boots, and am yet to find any in my financial realm, but these Kurt Geiger beauties, a steal off of eBay have that horsey look to them and are officially my autumn boots. They will be pounding the pavements of New York city in November- too exciting! Until then, the conkers are starting to fall and leaves are gathering in kickable quantities.

Goodwood Revival.

2009-09-27T12:22:00.001-07:00

There is not a lot I need to say about Goodwood Revival apart from that it is a perfect day out! Cars, planes and sharp suits for Tom, and vintage clothes stalls and the chance to spend a day as dressed up as I would like to be every day (though I am certainly not disinterested in the beautiful machines on show). Thanks to the wonderful April whom I bought my perfect plaid skirt off of, I had so many compliments!

Christian Union Tablecloth

2009-09-23T13:29:00.001-07:00

I got a present today, I usually do when Tom has been working in Otto. Today it was a large Christian Union table cloth. It is perfect for the top of my wooden chest; for some time now I have worried about my plants wreaking all sorts of water damage to it, now I don't!

Goodwood revival happened last weekend, unfortunately I have to wait until my Dad sends me some pictures to be able to share the experience. It was a wonderful weekend, I am quite sure we were the best dressed there.

Pin Curls

2009-09-07T12:38:00.000-07:00

Me and Tom are going to Goodwood Revival in a couple of weeks and I thought I better get some hair-do practice in. I want to attend the event in a 1930's style, I haven't decided what to wear exactly, I think that will have to be a future blog post, but I tried pin curling my hair. I am lucky enough to have hair that more or less falls into waves anyway, I would imagine trying to pin curl straight hair is quite an art! I basically followed the lines of my natural curls and whilst holding them down with my fingers, pinned them with long bobby pins to keep them in place, then dried my hair and sprayed a lot of hairspray and then took out the pins and this was the result. Not bad, but I am going t have to learn how to do it at the back of my head, which is really difficult!

Sunday Finds.

2009-08-30T14:02:00.001-07:00

A day out in Sarah 'Otto's' van round recycling centres in Devon helped us acquire these lovely new (old) things:

Our latest obsession is finding nice old jars to store our dry foods and spices in, we had a couple more but they met a sad end before we even got them home thanks to a clumsy van exit by Tom; oh well, easy come easy go... They are sat on a sweet little deco wooden tray also found today.

Tom found himself a sturdy little wooden aeroplane.

Tom got this for it's amazing leather saddle, but upon closer inspection is actually a really quality late 60's East German racing style bike and will be done up and sold at some point. It will keep Tom out of trouble for a while anyway.

This little chap was one of a few sad looking toys in a damp and dark shed; I am a sucker for sorry looking toys and so he is now safe and warm and will now be making friends with all my other waifs and strays this evening. His name is Budleigh bear, after the little seaside town tip he was residing in until today.

A fetching deco looking fire-screen, the wood came up lovely after a linseed oiling and is ripe for a bit of a creative make-over. I am not quite sure what to do with the panel; decoupage perhaps? Any suggestions welcome. We ended the day with chips by a slightly drizzly seaside, what a great Sunday!

Practising for Autumn.

2009-08-24T10:28:00.001-07:00

I put myself on a clothes buying ban this week; it lasted four days. Oh dear, I lost my bet. I walked into Whistles confident that I had seen all the latest Autumn clothes online and didn't want to buy any of them, I didn't bank on the silk blouse I had been coveting all Summer being reduced to a nearly affordable price. I now owe Tom a dinner out in penance for losing the bet. At least I have a lovely new blouse, and doesn't it look nice with this camel skirt I won off of eBay for when the weather starts to chill.

Linen Suit Revival

2009-08-18T12:22:00.000-07:00

Following an accident involving a prong of metal protruding from an arm chair and the right hand sleeve of my linen jacket I decided it was time for a bit of an over haul.

I had bought it a year ago from H&M of all places and never expected it to last this long but, seeing as it has I thought it deserved a bit of dedicated work.

The hole required patching (from the inside, I slipped the fresh cloth through the hole to make it less obvious) as I was saying the hole require patching, to get the fabric I needed it was obvious that the trousers would have to lose some of their length. They had never actually managed to reach all the way don to my ankles and I had never felt quite comfortable wearing them so shorts was the logical step to take.

I hope I have managed to create some sort of easy summer outfit whilst still conforming in some way to civilised ideas of what is proper gents wear, and saving my jacket which is a staple.

Excuse the creases, they need a second iron.

Rowan.

2009-08-15T12:20:00.001-07:00

I am attempting my first knitted garment; I have been knitting scarfs for too long and am finally branching out into jumpers. I found this 1930's inspired set in my favourite knitting magazine Rowan and have decided to try the one pictured at the top here, but in a burnt orange shade instead. Some of these designs are too wonderful, I can only dream of being able re-create them, I can but try. I found the pictures on this yarn site though I should have not been lazy and scanned them myself. Well, if I start now I may well have finished it by next winter.....

New Green Dress.

2009-08-15T03:50:00.000-07:00

My favourite time of year: Autumn clothes are finally hitting the shops, and though I was very underwhelmed by most of them there are a few bits that I will hopefully be buying throughout the month; I got this one on the spot though, it is from Next (which I generally really don't like but has the odd wonderful item that catches my eye!). It is the exact green I have been longing for a dress in and will look great with brown tights and boots when the chill sets in. For now, as we are having some sort of vague summer, I will stick to sandals and bare legs.

Old money, new money

2009-08-11T11:05:00.000-07:00

Having just discovered a new sort of shopping experience together we thought we had better write about it straight away.

Here are the instructions;

1. Find an old advert for something you already own (with the price on it).

2. Type in the price along with the year at the following website.

3. Marvel at how much money somebody must have spent on an item you got for pence.

We found adverts for our bikes and tried those, it seems we both made quite a considerable saving!

My latest obsession.

2009-08-10T06:06:00.000-07:00

Why oh why are these boots £400? I know why, because they are beautiful Italian leather equestrian boots; I having been scouring every shop and Internet site trying to find something similar at a more Maria suited price and have had no luck. They would be perfect for autumn with ample amounts of tweed. Must carry on looking, you know how it is when an obsession takes hold.....

Our Bikes

2009-07-30T07:07:00.001-07:00

It is amazing there has not yet been a bike post since Tom is actually obsessed with bicycles; the weather had finally cheered up enough so that we could take ours outside and take some nice pictures of them. Mine is a 1942 ladies Raleigh Sports, and due to it being a war-time bike has a complete absence of chrome, though whilst doing it up as my birthday present there has been a few touches added such as the lights and dynamo; apparently it is a very rare thing to have a matching set of Miller lights and dynamo. We had a massive stroke of luck in that a Brooks B18 ladies saddle, with the embossed leather flowers detail, came up on eBay for quite a lot cheaper than they sell for on the Brooks site! I also purchased a hand-made leather saddle tool bag from a chap who makes them to sell on eBay. I have named her Clara.

Tom's bike is a 1950 Raleigh Superbe which was about the best bike you could get at that time, she is called Edith. She has a 4 speed Sturmey Archer rear dyno-hub in stainless steel wheels and a Brooks B66 saddle and Glenbrook saddle bag. She has two lights at the front rather than an ordinary one! The pannier bags both mine and Tom's sport are actually army surplus radio bags, I dyed mine black but it has come out a nice bottle green colour instead; they make perfect panniers and are really cheap and hard-wearing, the perfect size to carry all the picnic food you could want and a bottle of wine.

New Trousers

2009-07-27T08:28:00.000-07:00

About 30 seconds after my last post about my new skirt Tom walked in having tried on his new trousers and shoes; in my haste to get a nice picture to blog with I managed to rip my skirt on an annoying spike of metal that sticks out a small rip in the deco armchair just in view! I am so gutted; it usually has a chair cover over it to stop such accidents but I had just whipped it off as it would have looked a bit ugly in the picture, typical.

Anyway, Tom's trousers are from gentlemens outfitters Lugets of Exeter; it is always a thrill to find trousers that fit Tom as being of such a long, thin shape it can be near impossible sometimes. Lugets trousers come unfinished so that they can be hemmed to exactly the right length, and so are a bit longer than needed, perfect! Tom is a dab hand at hemming too which is lucky. They are a light and airy cotton and linen blend, not that we need light and airy trousers at the moment, damned English summers.

The shoes are a chance win off of eBay; they are Bally shoes and look rather lovely against the rich brown of the new trousers I think. They are very comfortable too I am assured. In fact come to think of it the tank top is pretty new too, it is from our friends' shop Electric Gypsy and is the perfect 'go with anything' cream colour, and I fancy it gives a little nod to Brideshead Revisited style.

Ebay Find.

2009-07-27T07:53:00.001-07:00

I thought I would take an opportunity to show off my latest eBay purchase; it is a Topshop skirt but I thought it looked almost 30's with it's row of buttons up the side. It required me to move all the buttons to allow a little extra room as I was feeling hopeful and bought it despite it being a size 10. It was too tight but as the buttons are working buttons the alteration was possible. It is quite a 'High Street' outfit as I am wearing it with a lacy knit Topshop cardigan and the Hush Puppies shoes Tom's Mum so kindly gave me. It has been a very long while since I have liked anything at all in Topshop, when once I could always rely on it for good High Street staples; the cardigan is from the current range and I was quite surprised to find it after having lost interest in the shop for so long, my bank balance wasn't quite so pleased.

Hoopy

2009-07-21T13:47:00.000-07:00

Definitely the sweetest taxidermy bird I've ever seen. He is a French Woodcock, and resides on his perch in our sitting room; thanks Otto once again for another choice item. He is called Hoopy.

Birthday Hat and Other Aquisitions

2009-07-20T13:18:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple of pictures of Maria in her new hat I very generously bought her for her Birthday. It is, apparently 1930's and is made exquisitely out of little sections of wood stitched together. It shines with that honey hue that nice old wood develops. The feather is from a guinea fowl, what pretty birds.

Seeing as we haven't posted anything in ages we thought we would take a couple of snaps of other new and exciting bits we've picked up of late. This pile of fabric was left over from a discarded job lot at an auction. Acres of silk and wool, some pretty old, even some scraps of Liberty! I have a new tie from this lot half sewn on top of the bookshelf at the moment...

Would you believe that someone from the houses behind us threw this bird cage away only the other day? Saved from the rain.

Maria's favourite jug, which has become a vase. Says Price Brothers on the bottom but sadly that doesn't mean much to us. Wish we had more of this, I really love the colours and I am sure Maria would agree.

Panther

2009-06-27T10:13:00.001-07:00

Poor Panther; Me and Tom found this forlorn looking cat at last Sunday's car boot, how could we leave him? On re-framing we found written on the back:

'Panther- Summer 1958 to 31st July 1965.'

It is enough to make you weep, at least he now has a home on our kitchen wall, it makes you wonder who's cat he was and how this memorial ended up being flogged for a pound at the car boot.

Botanical Gardens

2009-06-17T14:07:00.000-07:00

We have never been to Kew (gardens), but somehow this evening the idea of it took us rather forcefully and we decided for better or for worse to pool each living thing in our possession together and wade on in.

Naturally a soldier and a Lady were the obvious 'parts' with which to compliment our flora and f. I am wearing an amalgamation of uniforms spanning the wardrobe every soldier that has trotted of over the channel since Victoria died, not quite what the 'Order of the sealed knot' would call kosher but enough to make any young man puff out his chest and start welling up over the geraniums. I can hardly remember where most if it came from, the jacket was from somewhere in Bath at the high end of Walcot street (if you know where I mean you won't be able to remember the name either). I think the tie was from Sabre Sales in Portsmouth (good for red and white jackets), and the hat came via Maria's mother.

Maria is wearing an ebay dress that alomst got away; I was outbid at the last second and in my post losing despair I emailed the winner and asked how much they would be willing to part with it for. It turns out she only needed it for one fancy dress night and would sell it to me for what she paid for it! The moral of the story is, if you don't ask, you don't get.

My parasol is a 1920's cotton number from a rambling three storey antiques shop somewhere near the train station in Cardiff.

The cat decided he would like to join us. His name is Chester.

Inheritance Dresses.

2009-06-08T11:44:00.000-07:00

Back in January I inherited a little bit of money from my late Nanny; my brother being the sensible one of us put his away so he can do his Masters degree next year, me being the rather insensible one went on a spree and bought three 1920's dresses. They are all bargains in their own right, but I do come out in a cold sweat when I think how much I spent on them. Never mind, at least they won't depreciate, an investment some might say!

The first one is from Steptoes' Dog vintage and apparently is from 1925; it has a sequined collar, which is what sold it to me, and is quite an unusual shape for that period. It is pretty unforgiving, so I will need to buy some heavy duty shaping underwear before its first public outing.

The second is an eBay find that is my favourite of the three; it is black silk with gauzy overlay and Roses embroidered in pink silks and fastened with a diamante brooch. It is in such good condition I don't have that awful feeling that I am about to do it serious damage by wearing it, I have worn it out to our favourite pub even!

The third is another eBay find, a rather brief little silk slip; it is in good condition but the silk ribbon straps have seen better days and trying to get the thing off is extremely inelegant. I think I will be able to get away with wearing it out with a slip undernethe it and a little bolero or shawl.

London

2009-06-07T07:40:00.001-07:00

As promised, these are a select few pictures from our trip to London; I would have liked a lot more to show, but I was so busy running round and doing things I really didn't have the time to take too many.

The first is the obligatory Thames at sunset photo, this was taken at about 10 o'clock whilst we were desperately trying to find Gordon's Wine Bar and some food, the wine bar was shutting when we finally got there so we ended up in a slightly dubious Italian place with bad wine, we did however, manage to go to the wine bar the next evening and ate way too much cheese.

On the second night after all the cheese we walked it off by detouring through Mayfair to get back to our hotel; we encountered this dapper lobster outside a rather special looking restaurant in Tom's favourite London haunt, Jermyn street.

By chance we found ourselves on an empty Lancaster Gate platform just as the train was arriving, I had to really rush and take a picture, it is not something that happens very often, especially at midday as it was!

Finally, I thought I would have a little rave about the hotel we stayed in, a certain London Elizabeth at the top of Hyde Park; I haven't stayed in many hotels at all, but this was by far the nicest (apart from a slightly scary barman). Thank you internet for finding this bargain deluxe room for us!

Shirts

2009-06-06T11:45:00.000-07:00

I am getting pretty fond of shirts at the moment. They are just the sort of thing around which an endless and exciting search for the 'perfect collection' can be founded. A shirt is the base upon which all the rest of your clothes will have to sit, for example, have you ever seen somebody wearing a nice suit or trousers etc but somehow not felt it was quite 'right'? I'll bet five pounds it was the shirt rocking the boat. So many times you hear this sort of problem attributed to the tie which is a little unfair as quite often people choose ties to match their shirt. The shirt is the foundation, the canvas upon which everything else has to be arranged. And that is why they are so exiting.

Having read through the above I see it sounds a bit pretentious, sorry, I have been giving it quite a lot of thought the last few days and couldn't seem to phrase my conclusions in a less-formal way.

I always remember the the bit in Gatsby where he is showing Daisy around his house for the first time and he empties his wardrobe of shirts across the bed to impress his wealth upon her. She begins to cry and on asking her why she explains 'She had never seen so many beautiful shirts'. This is inspiring stuff, surely such a reaction is the goal of any shirt wearing man?

I will cut this entry short before I begin writing about favourite stripes and the cans of spray starch I've recently discovered in Sainsbury's.

Please enjoy my humble sample, I am wearing my current fav, it is a brown gingham check from Lugets in Exeter, Devon. The pale yellow check is a pretty close second though, and then of course there is the red stripe...

Tom

One Thousand Tiny Hummingbrids

2009-06-06T08:52:00.001-07:00

Me and Tom went to London for a mini holiday and had a fantastic and extravagent time that I will touch upon in another post; I thought this one deserved it's own! Amongst other things, we managed to make a short trip to the Natural History Museum. Tom was anxious to relive his childhood and visit the dinosaurs section and the life-size blue whale suspended from the ceiling and then we both took in the taxidermy and fossils.

In the birds room was this incredible feature: a glass cabinet filled with hundreds of little hummingbirds. It is quite spectacular to behold, only the Victorians could have come up with something so beautiful and ethically questionable! I hope the fact that the poor things have been dead for a hundred years or more makes it ok for me to want it. If I could, I would have it in my flat, it would be quite a conversation piece.

More Coquettes and a Forward Flapper

2009-05-29T12:57:00.000-07:00

'Do you mind if I smoke?'- Well how could you refuse! The top image is from a book entitled 'The Grand Days of Travel'; she personifies the androginous yet extremely provocative flapper style, with her suit and tie, yet a glimpse of girlish stocking. Also note her rather sweet little dog friend. The whole books is very interesting with some great images (for example: a photo of a zeppelin flying over the pyramids- how 30's can you get?) but this is by far our favourite.

The other images are from the three other copies of 'La Coquette' which I finally managed to get my hands on, the dates ranging from early to mid thirties. I could kill for the tweed number second in from the right in the coats illustration. There is something for both me and Tom- planes and fashion, all you could want in a magazine cover really.

New Bookster Suit

2009-05-28T13:35:00.000-07:00

A long way back in February I ordered a suit from a company named Bookster. Choosing between all of the tweeds they have in stock was no mean feat, an hour is easily whittled away imagining how each swatch may look as a suit, in the end however, I settled for a cloth named 'Stirling'. It is a gun-metal grey in true light with a mustard and pale grey check. I took delivery of it in the last couple of weeks. How can I describe how pleased I am with it? It is all I imagined and more. I find myself waiting with anticipation for cooler days so as I can wear it. It hasn't been particularly cool to-day but what with the new blog and so on I had to post a few pictures.

If anyone is thinking of bagging themselves a suit for the winter Bookster come highly recommended from me. Anyone not, have a look at the cloth gallery anyway. Perhaps my next will be their new Navy blue with red check pattern...

La Coquette

2009-05-24T11:18:00.000-07:00

Tom was lucky enough to have first pick of a few 1930's French magazines that came into Otto Retro whilst he was helping out there; he saved me this one which is from 1932. I will be going in Tuesday to try and snaffle the rest for myself; it is just so rare to find them in such good condition! I just need to learn a little French now...

The Tennis themed cover is our favourite. I love that early 30's shape; when the waist was starting to be highlighted again yet the silhouette is still so lean. I can only imagine that being dressed like this they would have been so involved in their outfits and cutting edge raquets they would have managed little tennis before retiring exhausted for a lunch on the lawn.

We are

2009-05-22T12:47:00.000-07:00

Thank you for finding 'Keep it to yourself', this is our first blog and over time we are going to be filling the pages with all manner of things which interest us, we hope that you will enjoy looking.

We live in Devonshire, England and although this only a small corner of the country we have found lots of things here which we have never seen anywhere else, examples are difficult but sooner or later these things are bound to find there way on to these pages.

To-morrow morning there will be an enormous car-boot-sale on the edge of town and we hope to find some bits and bobs to begin our list of favoured finds there.

Do check back regularly, we hope to always have something new to show.

T&M