Forties Does Viking???

You've heard of 80s does fifties right? Well today was Mel does forties does Viking re-enactment! :P

With the help of Heyday!

Today my hubby and I took the kids to The Last Drop Village in Bolton (we met up with my oldest friend Wendy and her family) for the Viking extravaganza. It was absolutely lashing it down though and they were packing up their tents and getting in their 4x4s erm I mean their long-boats as we arrived at about 2pm...cue tea-rooms! Yay!

Here's the piccies of my outfit before I set off

1940s Style Ladies' Swing Trousers in Dark Chocolate with Olivia Blouse - Deco Circles in Smoke

with a cardi from Primark...which is a bit too bright green for the shoes...irritatingly

Shoes are Hush Puppy ones and COMFY! It is VERY difficult to take pictures of your own feet you know!

Buy online here: Heyday:

Day of the Dead at Costa Coffee

My buddies and I meet at Costa once a month for a Mummy chat...this is what I wore:

Leon is looking decidedly chicken-pocky and is wearing his pyjamas too! He loves my new Miss Fortune Skirt as much as I do since his favourite dress up theme is 'pirates' and his favourite film is 'The Three Amigos' with Chevy Chase

so my skirt is a wonderful mix of the two for him!

I also got stopped in Marks and Spencers by a man who told me he loved my skirt...he asked was it 'Day of the Dead' and explained that his wife had one very similar with flamingos on it. I asked him to say hello to her from me...I felt a bond with this woman immediately!!!!Check out the skirt HERE it's on my wish list!

So I have been unable to post all week...

due to having what can only be described as a carbunkle on my face all week...but today I went off to the hairdressers to cheer myself up a bit and due to the acne was more likely of course to come out with a 'new look'. So here it is!

Snip snip

Um...Sandra Bullock!

The finished result!

I am going to probably go a bit shorter as I get used to it... it felt waaaaaay short in the salon but it isn't Bettie Page yet. The rest needs to grow too!

I want a bean feast

presents and prizes and sweets and suprises in all shapes and sizes!!! Don't mind how...I want it NOW!

I have actually ordered some super cute things which I am waiting for and will take some pictures when they arrive however I am keen to share this with you:

Misstiki Designs:

This is such a pretty brooch! I want it to go with this skirt:

Fiesta Skirt

And I want them NOW!!!

Veruca Salt!

well...I am not actually Verucca Salt. So I would like them now, but will happily wait a month or two. There. That's a bit nicer!

Me and my dawg and my new Freddies dress

So I am still being naughty!
Here is my new purchase...I got Paul to take my picture and today my little Dorothy Dog is in a starring role as my prop!

:)

The dress is the new one from Freddies of Pinewood and I really love it! It is stretchy t-shirt material and I needed to shimmy to get it over the curves, but once on it fits like a glove and I feel super sexy in it although it's very modest. I know I can wear it with some boots or flats to a ball pool and some towering heels on a night out.

The dress was £45 which I thought was more than reasonable!! And they do another colour way which I am rather tempted by.....Dress

The Yanks are back ...

...in Saddleworth

so I had to go and see for myself what it was all about!

Website

Here's my attempt at a 40s look...Paul took my picture when I got home so I look a bit knackered!

I am wearing a ReVamp dress with a Tesco blouse and some shoes I found on an old lady stall on the market! I can't afford the ones I really want:

These in cream. (Size 6 if you feel like ordering me a pair!!!)

I think this skirt is a bit too short. I don't like my knees. My beautiful chambray one I had made was with the ironing lady so at short notice I didn't have that one...this looks blue but is actually a duck egg blue. (Isn't most everything I own??)

Here are some pictures of the day:

There was a chap in the park blowing amazingly huge bubbles!

My beautful friend Paula.

Leon at the top of the roundabout/climbingframe thingy

You may notice that there's no pictures of all the ww2 stuff going on! It was pretty crowded and trying to get the kids through lots of people meant I didn't get chance to pose atop a jeep or anything!

Never mind! Was a fun day :)

You will have to bear with me...

... whilst I catch you up on the older pictures...I am a bit OCD and it's offending me greatly that this is now in the wrong order.

I can do it in order of most recent first if you like? If you don't like, then scroll to the bottom and work up and it will be a progression the right way round!

Ok so this is a rainy July day (2012) and I am at Martin Mere...getting my picture taken isn't something I 'do' usually...so this is one taken because I was about to go down the zip-slide with Leon!!! I've gone for cropped jeans (one's fallen down) and that's a crocheted jumper which has a slash neck and 3/4 length sleeves. It was from Next in the sale and I thought that Doris might've worn it...it is kinda cute. The raincoat also has 3/4 length sleeves and a tie waist. Not a brilliant retro effort...but, well I don't think Dita does zip-slides...

Mad hair moment...this is me at a ball pool (July again) with the kids and my nephew and his beautiful Mama. The hair looked pretty BEFORE (ie when I set out that morning)...but you will have to believe me! My outfit was a bit tedious, high waisted cropped  jeans with red shoes, red belt and little green cardigan. I had a red flower pinned in my hair.

Fabby fab shoes, need I say more?

Straight hair on this one. Looks like I'd made no effort at all!

Crazy smile! My friend made me this brooch from felt and I sent her this picture with me wearing it...a self portrait! The top is one from Dorothy Perkins and is black with 3/4 length sleeves. Looks like I've managed to curl the mop.

Trip out to Stainforth Foss, Yorkshire. Pinned my hair up, red spotty sun top with my turquoise skirt.

Me trying on my dress for Paul's birthday night out in June...I didn't wear the shoes with it in the end as they are a different leopard print. I think that's a Stop Staring dress.

This isn't a 'breast' picture it's a cardigan clip picture! he he

The best my blonde hair ever looked...it was these photos that made me give up! It was like coton wool, the roots were lilac and the ends were copper. YIKES! (December 2011)

My birthday (November 2011) when my hair was a really ace shade of peach! Also it's very short as they had to cut loads of damaged hair off. I really felt like I had lost my femininity.

September, when I had done the deed. Me trying to tell myself, "It's fine!"

What it was SUPPOSED to look like (obviously)

The hair before I went kind of blonde! I'd had the cool streak put in the front and had fooled myself into thinking it would all go platinum blonde. If you look, it's plain to anyone that it was copper! (Not to me, obviously!)

At Lego land..you can just see the start of my streak at the front. It went a light brown colour first. That's a cute dress. It's just a shift dress, but I liked it.

So there you have it! My terrible photos! Those are the only ones I have of my 'journey' thus far...probably for the best! ha ha

New dress!

So I bought a pretty new frock from Heyday. I couldn't resist since they only made 12 and I love love love the fabric and the colour.

Here it is...excuse the quality of the pictures

Buy it here:

More turquoise and red

This little skirt was a lovely find. I don't think I will ever part with it, it makes me feel very pretty...and kind of like I have my red kettle and Henrietta peck and the lambs with me the whole day when I wear it!!! (see last post)

It is an original 50s skirt with a little cardigan I bought in H&M. As you can see I have started with a blonde stripe in my hair, too. I wanted to get to a beautiful platinum blonde...but there was no chance of that (more later!!)

Turquoise and red

I have been collecting kitchenalia for a long time now, I have been far more adventurous in my kitchen than anywhere else in my home or in my wardrobe, certainly. Yet my kitchen says more about my personality than anywhere else.

It is painted magnolia and has standard cream cupboards and white tiles (we live in a new build) but I also have shabby chic style painted pine dresser and shelves which are packed full of my charity shop and ebay finds. I have a biscuit tin just like one my mother used to have, I have some pyrex crockery, some cake plates, sylvac, some very pretty 50s lambs that my mum gave me (I sourced an extra one because she gave me four but I had my littlest child, Leon and we became a family of five). Here are some pictures:

Home made curtains, bell dangling from the window was fro mthe Christmas Market in Manchester a few years ago

The mobile I made with the children, striped teapot, my son's first wellington boots,my painted pine shelves...

A wire heart holding all our invitations, thank you cards, take away menus etc

Stripey 'hello' duck form Martin Mere Wetlands park

chickens

home made glass jar vases

plate stand with buns

little lambs

'Henrietta Peck'

My lovely red kettle

Battered biscuit tin

This load of old tat that is in my kitchen says a lot about my life with my family and our personalities. I decided to inject a little of this into my wardrobe for a more fun (if slightly un-coordinating) look!

NEXT!!!!

The next thing I bought was this:

Esbelt waist cincher

It is really too good to be true!!!

It was this blog that made me go ahead and purchase it and it does EXACTLY what it says on the tin. I am size 12 ish... but no matter how skinny I get, my belly still hangs over my jeans. That's having three kids for you...my boobs can also be tucked into the waist-band of said jeans but thats a whole other story...

It is made of rubber with cotton lining that goes next to your skin and has two sets of hooks and eyes (like on your bra) up the front. It is designed to go from under your bra, where your underwire is and sits just on my hips. I started off with size M and it was pretty tight. After two weeks however, I was ordering size S because it was on the tightest fitting and it was loose.

I am happy with my size S. I did get so that I was comfortable in it and went for an XS but I think at my size if I wanted to go any smaller I would need a boned corset, the Esbelt wasn't strong enough to create the shape I wanted.

The Esbelt makes me 27/28" waist which is just lovely with a pretty high waisted skirt or the Stop Staring dress I posted in my last post. Another thing is that when I have been wearing my Esbelt for a few days I start to keep my shape which meant that last summer I wore it every day and when I wore my swimming costume I actually felt that (without it) I had a better shape than before.

Winter came though, and I put on a few pounds and stopped wearing it...it is back out of hibernation now though as I prepare for my more summery outfits :)

Baby steps

So the first thing I bought was this dress:

which was great...although I still haven't worn it out of the house since we don't go anywhere that calls for sexy-vixen evening dresses! It is a 'Stop Staring' dress and I do feel very sexy in it.

Hardly ball pool-wear...

Hello!

This is my first blog about me, as opposed to my many blogs about Mummy Bridge and my family, this is about Melanie Bridge!

About a year ago I decided I was really fed up with how I looked. My kids are growing, my youngest is now 3 and I felt like I was disappearing. Fast. Under layers of supermarket clothes and (when I could afford it) Fatface and Boden layers.

Here are some 'before' pictures :)

ok, so in my pyjamas on xmas day, taken by my 5 year old...not the best picture ever...

I do have the excuse of pregnancy for the rather large striped t-shirt...

preggers again

who says you can't look great in a paper hat?

yum. school run anorak on bonfire night with my very beautiful son

Matalan t-shirt with Tesco cardi.

I love this pic, it was a great day.

 

ok,so boring right?

I didn't look horrendous, I looked like I could do with a bit of touche eclat (!) but also I didn't feel that my clothes reflected my personality. I am a curvy girl, 38/30/40 but I felt like I was starting to disappear.

This blog is about my er kind of reinvention(s) there's more than one, because I am still finding my style. Also I am making HUGE mistakes!! Like when I decided to go blonde! (more of that later)

I am of the right age to be a 'yummy mummy' but I home educate so you won't see me in the school yard. I was saddled with student debts and just dressed in whatever was on sale in Sainsbury's for years, until we started to be able to afford for me to dress how I wanted to. I went through the phase of wearing fat face, Gap jeans and Pandora jewellery, dressing like the crowd or the herd or whatever you want to call it, but after the first few months of feeling like part of the 'gang' I started to feel like I was no longer expressing myself as different, unique or creative person.

I then watched 'Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang' with the children. In it the very beautiful Maggie Gyllenhaal dresses in the most charming repro 40s clothes you will ever see! They are not true vintage in style as the costume designer embellished her outfits in quite an eclectic way but it got me thinking that maybe I needed to shed my 'Gap cocoon' and see if there was any shape-wear out there which might help me squeeze into something a little sexier and any clothing out there to squeeze into which might make me feel on the outside like I do on the inside.

I am finding that it takes balls to change your style because you have to risk looking like an idiot when it goes wrong and you have to risk being laughed at even when you think you look great.