Day six

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Be a mentor.

I wouldn't say this is a natural state for me, but it's something that i've had thrust upon me. As a volunteer youth leader I'm in the spotlight, and am always being watched. Disconcerting? Yes. But in reality you too are being watched, there is someone out there who looks up to you.

So instead, i listened. A friend from church saw me in a coffee shop. Got to be honest I really just wanted some “me” time. God obviously had other plans. Turns out this friend really needed to just have a girl to listen to her…and I did. That's all, nothing ground breaking. Hopefully it helped and if not, you know what? I tried, and that has got to be worth something.

 

Day five… Keeping it local

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Today we are to have an lookie in are local chip wrapper…minus the chips. See what's going on, pray for people in need and possibly get involved.

 

So, lets have a gander at what's up in my local hood. Innit. Lol.

 

What we did:

 

Did some prayer walking, asking God to visit the neighbourhood. Met people in the street that God had directed us to. Started something tat could turn into more.

 

Day four…

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Get uncomfortable.

So day fours plan was to secretly bless someone. My plan, to ding-dong-dash bless someone! ( you know that awful dare game everyone made you play…ring doorbell and leg-it!)

 

The twist? Instead of leaving the door-opener with annoyance at the empty doorstep, they find a gift. I left a typed note attached to some flowers.

 

The execution of the action? He-he talk about thrills! It's like you've a licence to be naughty, without really being naughty.

 

Go on…why don't you have a try? Seriously, it's a rush AND you are totally making someones day.

 

Day three, make a list

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Today we were asked to create a list of the things we were thankful for. To put them up on places like: the fridge, in my purse, on my mirror.

 

Doing this list made me realise the things I take for granted.

 

Also, after recently suffering a fire and losing “things” it hit me…things are things!

So simple I know. But its as if reality slapped me in the face. A favourite piece of clothing, photos, books. They are valuable, yes, but why? The memories, like strings, woven into them. Clothes, for me, have memories. Like a certain top…a sunny day, wonderful times I spent in it.

 

Yet, the memories remain. The fire ate so much. But it didn't eat me ( thank you Lord) or my family ( you are so gracious) or even the cats ( well…that's cool too- beasts mostly destroy stuff fir a living but, that's cool)

 

What i'm babbling on about really is…my gratitude has grown with the realisation that value can't be housed in items, but in the people we enjoy them with.

 

Day two…Valentines day.

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They say love is a verb. That it is an action. True. I say it's also a proverb! Listen to this :

I love those who love me, and those who seek me find me. Riches and honour are mine to give. So are wealth and lasting success. What I give is better than the finest gold, better than the purest silver. I do what is right and follow the path of justice. I give wealth to those who love me, filling their houses with treasures. (Proverbs 8:17-21 NCV)

So if we live with love as our output, our input will become a vast treasure trove.

 

My love in action today was acting on peoples needs. One such moment occurred when my sister said, “oh I missed pancake day! ” Opportunity! I grabbed a cute heart shaped frying pan, whipped up some american batter ( recipe link below) and made her some 1950's pancakes. This seemed to go down very well…squeals of joy to be accurate. Of course everyone else in the house wanted to join in the delightful munching feast.

 

With the batter, I would say double it. As these are meant to be thick beasts. It made about 8 little hearts and to be honest you will totally desire more! I sprayed mine with gold sugar, maple and blueberries are good too!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/fluffyamericanpancak_74828

 

A belated day one.

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SORRY, these posts have been delayed due to a fire I had in the home. On the positive, it has made me a very grateful person! Key in this season of Lent 🙂

 

Day one: Act one.

The generosity bag…

…the challenge, to create a bag of goodies to give away at a moments notice. But, with a vintage twist. It was difficult.

At the moment I have :

  • 3 vintage handkerchiefs.
  • Aloe vera lip-balm ( in a tin…well, it looks cute!)
  • Box of bobby pins.
  • Gum, a variety of.
  • 1920's playing cards.
  • Bandaids tin (soon to have plasters inside).
  • Handmade snood/scarf.
  • Vintage purse with lots of change to give.
  • Chocolate rationing!
 

Trouble is, as you can see, my handbag is quite small ( see above)…I need a Hermione Granger purse!

 

Hmmmmm.

If you had one, what would you put in?

 

40 acts…

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Hello my darlings! Lent is on it's way. 40 days of giving up those goodies, normally for me it's chocolate. But this year a uber cool dude in my church, brought this to light…40 Acts.

The challenge: to live generously for 40 days/ lent, by doing an act of giving each day! My personal twist? Doing it vintage style, darling!

Harder then my normal chocolate fast, I will be living on a fiver one day and giving blood on another :-/ ( ….this could prove interesting! )

But! I believe it will be worth it. And maybe it will change my attitude to gratitude? They say when you give you also receive. We shall see 🙂

Wanna join this awesome madness? Have a lookie at the website: http://www.40acts.org.uk/

So…in the next 40 days you will see updates on how i'm doing in the 40 acts challenge. One of my 40 acts will be treating someone to a cinema trip and I have already discovered a vintage cinema in Southwold, simply wonderful!


This, is going to get verrrrrrry interesting!

Pip-pip, darlings!

 

The bullet bra…worth a shot?

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So who can, and who can't, embrace 'the bullet', or is it a roulette too far?

The bullet, It's a tricky look to pull off. Some women look stunning, their pert points enhancing gorgeous hourglass figures; like Marilyn Monroe, Rita Hayworth and Elizabeth Taylor. Yet other images on the Wacky World Wonderland have shown me that pyramided points in the breasted region can go…well…tit's up!

 

As a child I believed that women's breasts of the 40s and 50s had gone through some form of evolution. That they in fact used to be cone shaped (insert childish imagination of woman with ice-cream cornets stuck to her chest), thus we peer into the bizarre understanding of my former self!

 

Right, so is it a smoking gun? (Yes, I am enjoying how pun-tastic this article of clothing is!) Looking at some images I feel that ladies with smaller breasts would find it possibly a bit disheartening; it can make them look less fulsome and more angular. They also look as if they might desperately attempt their own rocket-launch skywards (three-two-one…thunderbirds are, well you get the picture). Larger 'gals' looked like their chests could become overly dominated, looking like they'd had a fight with a couple of traffic cones and lost!

 

Yet, I feel so curious (dangerous ground there, Alice!) How did the belles of by-gone days do it? Monroe only ever looks glamorous and Hayworth was only ever HOT! What gives? Is there some sort of 'pert imparting fairy' that bestows the best endowment on a rare few?

 

No my darlings, it is tailoring!

 

Clothes used to be driven by darts, everything was stitched for an hour-glass. The bullet shot to fame because it was all about maximising this shape (there is also a possibility that the points were to emulate nipples, therefore giving them a more sensual image). Clothing nowadays is less about enhancing and more about revealing, trouble is sometimes it 'reveals' that your not a curvy, Gilda, but more like a boxy Keira.

 

Trouble is some people simply kill their looks with them, while others just look drop-dead-gorgeous. It's about what other 'equipment' you have in your arsenal *wink-wink*.

 

In my opinion? Bullets are for belles with slightly bigger bosoms, but you have to be careful that you don't end up looking like you have weirdly floppy fun-bags, staying up-right by prayer alone. Also having curves helps, Monroe was the human equivalent of an hour-glass, she was able to enhance and in someways reduce her plentiful bosom.

 

Clothing, if you are wanting to get 'the look' of the 40s/50s, then go for it! Find your nearest Vintage store, as ordering online is fine but I prefer to try things on before I buy. If you're near Beccles : http://www.vintagemischief.com/ it is the ONLY place to go. Great people, lovely atmosphere, they even off a fitting service! Check it out, you won't be disappointed.

(Above: Gossard Oh La La, longline…I much prefer the looks of this, it still has an essence of vintage! But is far safer, lol. )

Another thing is to make sure your 'bullet' is fitted correctly. Go to : http://www.investinyourchest.co.uk/ a VERY awesomely wonderful person suggested this WebBlog to me for discovering how to, like the title says,'Invest In Your Chest'.

 

So…yes or no? Not a clue. I would want to try one for fun, just to see. Because, let's face it, we all just wanna know! But I doubt I would make it a staple. Why? I want my chest to impress not impale any suitors.

 

So Pip-pip, darlings.

 

Betty Grable and gumption.

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If I said, 'Million dollar legs' what would be your first thoughts? Dancing star with gloriously beautiful pins? Betty Grable was one of the most talked about pin-up's of the 40s. Hosiery specialists all over proclaimed her lovely legs to be a thing of beauty for stockings. She was also well-known for her glamorous hair-do's, her long locks were nearly as envied as her lush legs.

As I was typing this, my sister was curling my own red locks, in the attempts to create Betty's well known up-do, commonly known as the Peek-A-Boo Do… I was dotty over the name alone!

10 minutes of curls and sisterly banter later, I was ready for phase two of this intrepid undertaking. My hair was so curly I looked like a Parisian poodle parlour pooch (try saying that nine times! Actually…please don't, I doubt the screen could take that much spit!)

I had to leave my barnet to cool for a few minutes. Why? Because we cheated and didn't use rollers; if the ladies of the 40s had curling tongs at home, they would have done so too! Cheating is absolutely imperative when it comes to beautification! If not when would we have the time to groan about how fat we feel, how much we hate skinny girls and how we have finally realised our true calling…to be an uber hot curvy woman who munches and lunches, darling!

When my hair cooled I brushed out the curls to make it puffy. Boom! Fluff ball attack, I really did look like something the cat hacked-up. Never fear, I told myself, I'm sure it's all part of the process (I was internally screaming at this point.)

Betty had victory curls at the front of her do. My first attempt went a little flat, but undaunted I tried again. They were doing these during the Blitz, how hard can they really be?

Utterly fatal words. Thirty minutes later I was still attempting curl one…fifty minutes…an hour and fifteen minutes.

At one hour and forty I was close to chucking the brush at Grable's smiling face. The woman wasn't even in England during the Blitz, she'd had hordes of people dressing her hair and was making masses of movies!

Close to tears I decided to have a coffee break, before trying again. All the while I kept referring back to Betty's picture, the lightness of her hair, it's ice-cream swirled front curls whipped me up into a frenzy. I had to try again,*cut to Darcy in BBC version in sweaty shirt after fencing lesson, breathlessly saying…”I will conquer this!”*

 

My real problem? Too O.C.D about precision. Everyone's hair moves and handles in a completely different way. Obviously mine was going to sit differently compared to Betty's. Once I realised this, it went a lot faster.

 

It's pretty much hair sculpture. I rolled a small front section of hair towards my crown, then twisted it slightly to the front so that I could see the curl. Wonderfully simple in the end! My advice, make sure you have loads of bobby pins, hair spray, and time!

 

To finish I simply: brushed my hair up at the back, twisted it, and pinned. If it looks a little fuzzy, curl the ends and pin with a little hair spray. My love for Grable was restored! I feel I wrestled a wild beast today and…maybe…on the way of taming it a little.

 

Pip-pip, darlings!