What I did on my Summer Holidays: Kustom Kulture Blastoff!

Brought to you via the lazy magic of Instagram pictures. I use Instagram pretty much every day now as my phone camera is a lot more reliable than my actual camera which eats batteries and doesn't like picking up bright colours. If you're on Instagram, follow me: @kalandrajane

A few weeks ago Clare, Bethany and I packed up our little stalls and headed off to the arse end of nowhere (a.k.a. Spalding, Lincolnshire) for the 3rd Kustom Kulture Blastoff.

I managed to put up my 'vintage' (ahem hem) bright orange boyscout tent in what was possibly record time before it started raining. We lived in our tents for the weekend, and I didn't always look this well put together! Thank you Clare for waking me up with a delicious brew each day and putting up with my terrible morning moods (ie. grumpy hangovers)!

I didn't sell that much, and it was all a bit quieter than expected really. I spent most of my profits on feeding myself over the weekend, and on a couple of treats. I got a new wallet from Hot Rockin' Belle (who will soon be stocking my hats!) to replace my decrepit Bettie Page one, and a very reasonably priced new bangle from Kool Kat pinstriping, I also got a super cool hip flask from him but I forgot to photograph it.

It was dark and freezing at night in our tents, and the organisers wanted to charge the traders extra to get into the evening entertainment, so we spent most of our time gossiping over jugs of sickly cocktails at Frankie and Benny's, which was the only eating establishment within walking distance.

We got free cocktails at the bar because the new barman didn't know what he was doing! Hurrahs!

Helium was sucked from balloons! (Especially hilarious when you are full of terrible gin cocktails).

Ice cream sundaes were eaten sexily!

Upon returning from the restaurant we snuggled down for girly wine time in my tent, but not before wandering into a Si Cranstoun performance which was full of dodgy old blokes who had just come for the evening gig, jiving to music so clean and sanitised it made me want to punch someone in the face then smear my body with their spurting nose blood just to dirty myself back up a bit.

The fantastic Vince Ray and the Boneshakers had been booked and would have saved our starving musical souls, but they sadly had to pull out at short notice. Needless to say, we were unimpressed by the "rockin'" Michael Bublé soundalike, and I think that considering it's supposed to be a Kustom Kulture event, they should look into booking some acts and having some DJs that play something with a bit of an edge. The daytime event was full of tattooed hot rodders, vintage lovers and psychobillies, all of whom ended up in the pub with us both nights because the evening entertainment was, shall we say, not their cup of tea.

Anyway! Beth and I wandered out on the Sunday for a bit of ridiculous car show posing, as is traditional at these events. I made the top and lime green leopard capris, unfortunately I was feeling pretty bloated and grim this day, hence my slouchy, rotund appearance.

Finally it was time to leave, so Clare and I trundled off through the cabbage fields and into the sunset. On our way home we stopped in at the OK Diner at Carlton on the A1, and were really glad we did!

O, shining beacon of delight!

Clare had a lovely veggie burrito with Mexican rice!

I had a spicy beanburger with curly fries and guacamole! Our waitress was an absolute star, running back and forth getting me ingredients lists and checking things were vegan for me. It was a lovely surprise to be able to actually get a decent vegan meal at a roadside restaurant, I just wish there was an OK Diner closer to where I live!

I also got an amazing pink double hair lily, which Paul says makes me look like Jodrell Bank. All in all I had a really good weekend, despite not having made huge profits and having been forced to listen to the Big Bopper over and over again until I wanted to stab myself in the ears, I loved spending time with two of my favourite ladies, making some new contacts and getting to gab over cocktails!

Summer Updates!

Hello my darlings. It seems it's been a month since I last wrote a blog post - this is because I have spent the entire time either working or being drunk at festivals! I'm utterly exhausted.

I'll write a different post every day about all the stuff I've been doing, there's so much to cover. I'll start over a month ago, when Clare (from whom I have stolen a couple of these pictures) and I did a stall at the Bolton Tattoo Bazaar (they also run the Manchester Tattoo Tea party).

Here's our stall! I was just helping really so had a space for my hats on the end.

I saw my gorgeous friend Kitten! I'm wearing a dress I made and a lovely flower by Dolly Cool.

One of my hats graced the cover of Tattoo Revolution Magazine, on the beautiful head of my good friend Rachel Baldwin. She's pictured in her wedding gown, and the hat I made for her Las Vegas wedding! She married fellow amazing Tattooist Nick Baldwin, and their gorgeous work along with pictures of the ceremony were featured in the magazine. I'm so proud of her, she's been through a lot recently but shows such strength and puts so much love into her art. I'm also wearing new glasses! You can't see how beautifully green they are here, I'll get a better picture of them in all their Dame Edna glory.

I got new business cards! With my face on, because I'm vain, and my Twitter, facebook and blogspot address because I'm trying not to be such a huge technophobe. Please follow me!

I bought new eyeball colours for my Psychobilly Mini Top Hats! Also a marvellous Hillbilly Moon Explosion vinyl EP, but more about them in a post later this week!

That'll do for today, I need to ease myself back into blogging after such a long break! Coming up during the rest of this week: great bands you should know and love, fun at festivals, lots of pictures of me looking ridiculous and/or drunk, amazing leopard print capri pants sewing, vintage knitting, Aerospace Boyfriend's graduation!

Haworth 1940s Weekend 2012

I spent this weekend walking up and down very steep cobbled hills in the lovely Yorkshire village of Haworth, which was holding its annual 1940s weekend. The whole village is decked out in Union Jack bunting and sandbags, the residents decorate the outside of their homes and the charity shops bring out all the vintage treasures they have been stockpiling! Vintage cars, military vehicles and wartime reconstructions lined the streets providing plenty for us to look at.

I had organised a trip over for several ladies on the Saturday, and although they all enjoyed it and found some great vintage buys, it was very stressful. The crowds were enormous, it was like a city shopping street on Christmas eve, except worse because nobody was in a rush to be anywhere. My sister also had her daughter in a pram, and found it very difficult to get around. I didn't get a chance to take any pictures that day, because if I had stopped to extract the camera from my bag I would have been knocked over, and the scrums in the vintage shops were shocking, there were elbows and snatching hands everywhere!

Today (Sunday) was a far more leisurely affair, the village was still busy but the crowd seemed more courteous and far less jam-packed. I risked taking the dog with me, and despite an incident with an unfriendly Jack Russell and my poor Scamp getting exhausted from walking up and down hills (he is fifteen, after all) we had a good day, he didn't get stepped on by anybody and enjoyed a picnic in the park with us.

Here is what I wore today, my new jumper knitted by my mum from a 1940s pattern. You can buy this pattern from Bex at Subversive Lesbian Anarchic Femme, available here in her etsy shop, although my mum sized it up, made the sleeves in the rib rather than cherry motif as the cherries took forever to knit, and omitted the collar.

Here's another pic of the outfit, with some chaps dressed as members of the Home Guard. Why am I doing that with my face, you ask? Well, the guy on the left of the picture is squeezing my bottom. That's why. How rude!

 

This duo were playing on the bandstand in the park, she sang a lovely rendition of La Vie en Rose.

Now, onto the vintage purchases! There was so much to choose from. Haworth has two gorgeous permanent vintage shops, loaded with *actual* quality vintage and antique clothing and accessories, not the 80s tat that shops in the city pretend is vintage. There was also a vintage fair in the church hall, and several curio and charity shops in the village which were loaded with lovely items.

 

Lovely teal mini suitcase!

I have been looking for a small suitcase or train case for ages, to store bits and bobs in at home and for when I go away for a few days or to stay at my boyfriend's at Christmas. This one is in great condition and such a pretty colour!

The lining looks good too! Inside is a pair of fully fashioned stockings I got in one of the charity shops. They are Aristoc Harmony which are quite late (I'm guessing 60s?) but were apparently some of the best ones made prior to the hosiery industry's takeover by ghastly crepey brown tights in the 70s.

1930s Uranium glass dish and spoon from the hospice shop

Another piece for my uranium glass collection!

1950s folding coolie sun hat! This is a flat shape with a popper so it can be easily packed in a holiday bag, made from some sort of straw or string, which folds into a cute cone-shaped sun bonnet.

Babycham deer!

A Babycham plastic fawn! I have eight Babycham glasses and collect fawns too, so he fits in with two collections. This is about 6" high and cost just a few pounds due to the damage on his ear. I saw one of the 4" ones in worse condition priced at £35 in Manchester the other week.

WWII Navy Sweetheart Pin

WWII Navy sweetheart pin. This is about an inch high in total. It is pretty grubby but is made from enamelled silver, it just needs a good clean!

On the way home we were behind this tiny old car! The right wheel was rather wobbly, the window flapped open whenever they turned a corner and it could only manage 20mph due to the hills.

Here is the bad part about this weekend...

Arghhhh horrendous sunburn! It's just on my right forearm and there is a touch of it on the back of my neck, this happened during the ten minutes of bright sunshine we got during the day - time to break out te factor 50 sunscreen for every day, I think. So sore and itchy!