Dance, dance.

Dancing is a wonderful thing! It can make you soar with joy.  We went to a Lindy hop class last night for the first time in ages.  There is something so wonderful and infectious about it.  At the end, we had our usual social dance for half an hour or so. Pete, the teacher who was taking that dance, asked me to dance and we had a great dance where I managed to pick up what steps he was trying to get me to do, esp after he gave me a few tries at a move if I didn't quite master it or also to give me practice at it. Such a considerate dancer!  I cannot help but smile and laugh dancing to swing music.
I will never be a truly 'good' dancer- I lack the grace, flexibility and fluidity, but I can enjoy the process.  For me, so many years of dancing, from the age of 5-13 was just difficult.  I was tall and awkward with a  tight muscle condition which meant I could never do the splits, perform wide jetes or do my Grand Battement exercises at the barre with any sort of height or flexibility.  Inevitably, I was always stuck in the back row for dances where the smaller, more elegant dancers always had a front position. I understood the reasoning- you want the better dancers with the widest smiles and also the shorter ones to shine at the front, but it didn't help the confidence of a gangly, quite-shy teenager.  All those insecurities will probably always remain with me about my dancing abilities but I am glad that I discovered Lindy-hop and was able to engage with dance in a different way.  Sometimes, you have to try a different version of something to succeed in conquering those insecurities or at least taming them.

Have you encountered a new version of something that you found hard or failed at as a child?

x

Goodnight Sweetheart

I write this with greatly aching muscles almost 24 hours after CBC and I left Goodnight Sweetheart, our swing dance weekend.  I don't have masses of amazing photos, the quality is pretty rough particularly as many were from the evenings but I thought I'd write about our experiences.

CBC picked me up from school on Friday evening and having had an awful headache all day, I was really in no mood for dancing, travelling or anything other than collapsing in an exhausted heap.  We travelled to Watford, getting caught in pretty dismal traffic so it took a long time.  Eventually we arrived, found some parking and headed off to Beachgrove to the Baptist church which was the venue.  The church building is incredible, they have SUCH good facilities there.  We signed in and received our wristbands and programmes for our Intermediate ability group and headed off across town to a gym for our first taster dance.  This was a Balboa class, which is a faster form of swing dance that was developed when the dance floors got too crowded for lindy and for fast tracks. It is danced in a closer hold than Lindy and involves smaller steps. We did some work on moving around the floor.  It was quite a small room so it was lucky there weren't too many of us.  Jon and Jenna who were our teachers,from Nashville, were fantastic, really clear, informative and great fun in their teaching style.

After the class, we headed off to the church to get changed for the evening opening dance. It was a bit yucky having to get ready without a shower, a distinct disadvantage of not staying in Watford but driving home each evening.  Eventually, at 9pm, the party began.  The theme was 1920's and there was a great band, The Last Chance Ragtime Band.


Dodgy photo quality (phone as battery ran out on camera) but this is what I wore-a modern drop-waisted dress bought from some dodgy shop at some point plus charity shop pearl necklaces, gloves from Accessorize ages ago and a primark silk scarf plus an amazing vintage beaded bag J bought for me.

The dancing was great fun although I did have a headache still so didn't do loads.
The teachers were all introduced. The thing I like about JiveSwing and Joseph, the director of the dance group is how family and friendly they are.
 Finally, we left at about midnight to drive home (an hour), feeling hideously exhausted, getting to bed at 1.30am.

The next day, we set off at about 9.30am, feeling  absolute wrecks. We decided to skip the taster class and headed off for porridge and tea in a trendy artisan coffee house who gave me an egg timer with my tea! CBC, ever the romantic, had demanded we bring along a book of love poems we'd got from my Grandad's collection, so he could write my Valentines card (we were yet to write them)

I should point out that we ate very well that weekend. Delicious vegetarian fettucine in Ask on Saturday lunchtime, more wonderfulness at Wagamamas in the evening on both days.

Saturday's first class was in a really crowded room and I felt really dreadful and to my horror, started to cry in the class,so I had to take 5 minutes outside.  The first lesson with Jenna and John again was good though was mostly about technique rather than learning new steps. CBC really liked them. I liked them but would have liked to learn something new.

After a lunch break of 3 hours in which we moved the car, went to Ask and bought some things in Tiger (a new umbrella and a picture frame)  we headed off to our next class withDave Madison from San Fransisco, who is a blues teacher. He did some work with us on Musicality and listening to the music to form your lindy moves.  It was useful and in a better room.  After this was the best class of the day with Fabien Vrillon from France and Lisa Clarke from the UK.  They taught us 3 really cool Lindy moves which we added to our repertoire.  I thought they had a really cool and gentle dance teaching style and were my favourite teachers of the day.

The final class was a Performance class with Alison Marsh.  We were learning a choreographed routine to 'Love me or leave me' with elements we had to decide on ourselves. This was great fun and had the added bonus/terror of our having to perform it in front of the whole of the GNSH audience on Sunday night.  I love learning routines so it was a great end to the lessons.

After a brief trip to Primark to buy some much needed clean socks, a hand towel (and some tartans shorts to wear under my dress- we'd forgotten things) we had meal in Wagamamas with some other dancers from the Southend class we used to go to.

Again, we really felt like a shower would be lovely after all the sweating of the day but had to be content with washing faces in the toilets and the wonders of cleansing wipes!

The evening ball kicked off at 9pm again. I wore the Lindybop green dress CBC had bought me for Christmas (featured before but only the bottom half was visible) together with a Crown and glory silver heart bandeau. Pity you can't see it properly as it is enormous! It was ideally 1940's night but I don't have anything that I could dance in of that era/inspiration.



I was accompanied by my very own Matt Smith Doctor Who in Bow tie (Bow ties are cool) and tweed suit (and I am linking him up to TARDIS Tuesday for that reason!).  He did look handsome!

We had a few dances and danced a few with some other people. I had a bit of a crisis of confidence about my dancing. I wish I had the bravery to ask more people to dance but I was in a bit of a spiral of 'I am terrible, nobody wants to dance with me, I must avoid eye contact so they don't have to dance with me if they don't want to" which I know is stupid but since I had been feeling unwell and was still tired, this was to be expected.  The teachers cabaret was amazing! Those teachers are so talented! There was also a great Andrews sisters-style group called the Polka Dot Dolls.  Finally, we headed home at about 12.40am feeling very very tired!

The next morning, we headed off to Watford at 9.30 for a rehearsal for our performance group. It was at this point, I was volunteered for a central role by our teacher who loved what I did for the 'Blue, blue, blue' bit of the song and was made to stand in the middle and do my over-exaggerated looking miserable for that part.  Apparently I had everyone in fits of laughter and people were coming up to me all day saying they loved it.  The dance evolved from a routine to a staged and polished performance with rotation of partners and stage positions. There was one cool moment where we made a roueda with our partners and rotated like a wheel between partners. The whole process of putting the dance together over the hour yesterday and this day was hideously fun and a great bonding experience.   We went straight into a Lindy class with Joseoh Sewell which was originally about improving some basic moves but we learnt a cool move called the Pop which involved some fast spinning (which usually means me careering off to the right)- I am not so good at double spinning and ended up treading on many toes and accidentally punching one partner in the face!

After a chilled lunch, we headed to  more lindy classes with Jon/Jenna and Lisa/Fabien,both fun.  I definitely preferred the one with Lisa and Fabien where we learnt some impressive looking Charleston variation moves.

The final class was a taster class in Blues with Dave Madison again.Blues was a dance form that came before Lindy and is much slower.  We did some basic moves and getting the basic technique which is a lot more chilled than Lindy.

The final night was 'casual dress' although everyone really made an effort. I wore my Cath Kidston comic strip dress (sorry forgot to take photos), put on a simple heartprint Crown and Glory headscarf and didn't bother with the make-up!

I feel a lot more confident tonight, perhaps it was people being so nice about the routine? Anyway, I asked a few guys to dance which worked out well and fun. I had a couple of really fun dances particularly with a guy from my class and a guy from Hamburg who I had chatted to earlier.

We sat down to watch the Euro Jack and Jill Lindy competition. This is basically a competition where people enter individually.  They then have to social dance to the music that is played and then dance with three different partners. Since they have not rehearsed together (as they don't know who they will be matched with), nor can do they know which music will be played, they are being judged purely on their following or leading skills. It is incredible to watch!!!

There was also a solo Jazz competition, where the competitors dance alone. The winner was this amazing crazy, quirky girl who won it last year. She's the one in the boiler suit below.

The next item was the Authentic Jazz performance (they were a set of people doing this exclusively all weekend) which was very impressive, then it was time for our routine!

You can see some pictures below of us in action. That's me in the navy polka dot dress (these are from the rehearsal)













It went well and people were very complimentary.  A teacher from Essex said if she started a performance group in Essex, she wanted us to be in it. I was a bit scared at that- I can do comedy but I am no performing dancer!

The band was my favourite one- the Pete Long Swing Band, who featured guitars, double bass, piano, clarinet and vibraphone. They were really virtuosic.

We had a few more dances and even headed off to the Blues room a bit later. Finally set off for home at about 1.45am ahrgh, which was rather late and it was extremely foggy. Somehow made it home alive, achy but very happy.  I'm so glad we decided to go to this camp, it was remarkable fun and I would love to do it again. I'd definitely stay there next time though- the driving wasn't too fun! As I said before, I love the way that Joseph runs Jive Swing, it does feel very inclusive, friendly and like the Jive Swing groups from all around Essex and Hertfordshire are one family. It takes a special group of people to do that.

Sorry this was a bit long but I really wanted to record how I felt about it!

xxx

Linking to TARDIS Tuesday with Maricel

December Photo Scavenger Hunt

December's List

Having missed last month's Scavenger Hunt with Greenthumb over at Made with love, once again I've scrambled around rather late in the day, sorting through photos trying to find some to fit the bill. I hope you enjoy them.

Where you stood

Standing beside Haltwhistle Burn, Northumberland.  Alas, these walking boots have gone missing! Where oh where are they?!?!

Down low

A view  down from Cragg Lough- near Hadrian's Wall- more on this soon.

A view from here

Nearing Halsteads, we hit the golden hour.


At the start of the wall, looking across to Cragg Lough
A favourite thing

A truly wonderful Christmas present for CBC and I was tickets to the Queen Elizabeth school Hexham Christmas ceilidh. I absolutely adore a ceilidh, especially one where everyone knows what they are doing! In between dances, the Hexham Morris Dancers put on a performance.

Front door

The oldest house in Hexham. You can see the date above the door.

Sweet


I received rather a lot of sweet items for Christmas- this is not everything.

Christmas

Ah for me, what Christmas means. Simply, a boy, the Son of God, born in a stable. No bright lights,no flashing or a song and dance.  This beautiful carved present (from a log) was a present which came from Bethlehem, given to me by a lovely pupil at school.

decoration

CBC and I are a little disorganised. The only decorations were 5 silver snowflakes hung from our mirror, tinsel drapped on top and these cotton lights which live on our mantlepiece all year round.

Tree


A rather ancient and frowny-looking tree in Kent.


The hollow tree previously featured in all its glory.


Tradition


This could have been my decoration picture, but seeing this beautiful, tasteful display in our local area reminded me of a Christmas tradition we always did as children.  My Mum would take us out in the car to go and see the Christmas decorations in certain places- there was a certain crescent near us where the neighbours would try to outdo each other.  My sister and I always used to count the Christmas lights and decorations coming home from our Grandparents or from a church we went to. It was our favourite Christmas game.

Black & white


Interesting how sinister the shadows make this deer look.
Whatever you want


I haven't had a chance to share our little decoration we bought from our local market. We thought he was rather cute.


AND, I found a NEW face in the rockface alongside Haltwhistle Burn!

I'd love to know if you take part at all.


Here's the list for January.
Click on the camera to go and visit everyone elses' pics!
January's List
Something new
Landscape
Words
Cold
Bottle
Up high
In the fridge
Texture
Hidden
Blue
Big
What ever you want

Pink rose hat

I really do think you find lovely things in charity shops (I know I'm preaching to the converted...) - I was so chuffed to find this Dorothy Perkins floral dress in the charity shop a few weeks ago for a mere £3 so I wore it to a party that night- 100% cotton and empire-line with skater-skirt- it was a size 6 so fitted my chest perfectly but because it was loose, also my bottom half- I have occasional issues with top and bottom matching up! The cardie was brand-new Monsoon from a charity shop some years ago in my favourite colour but never wanted to buy one in actual Monsoon as even at 70% off, they still seemed over-priced. But £2.50 in the charity shop seems good to me!  The necklace was also from one too.

The hat was one of those 4 hats I bought when my Mum got married. She decreed we must wear hats and I ended up with 4 when I went for one. It's fun but not too ostentatious! Not that I have any objection to ostentatious hats you understand.

This was taken a while ago but I have been trying not to post loads of outfits. Somehow it sometimes stunts what I want to say, not always though.

Various things happened this week:
1. It was my end of year concert this Monday. It went very well and all performed well and enjoyed it. My Headteacher was sad that it was her last one before she leaves. The day itself was very stressful as so many children forgot their music, there were two special assemblies in the morning and Class-Swap (where they go and get the score from their new teacher) and then I somehow set up the hall (i.e. remove all the mats, set up all the chairs and equipment and stands and set up the orchestra etc and then rehearse all the soloists AND choir, orchestra, recorders, drumming club AND fit in a mini performance to the school between 11.30 and 3.15. Headless chicken was a good description. I ranted at a couple of children who seemed to have forgotten their brains everything but all was well apart from that.
2.  We got the results back from the recorder exams and ALL 8 of my pupils got a Distinction- this is the highest grade you can get for a music exam (130+ out of 150).  The lowest mark was 130 and the highest was 140! I was so happy and they were so excited, particularly as my friend who was doing some recorder exams with the examiner said they failed quite a few children in her ensemble.
3.  I am so annoyed. I went to Asda earlier and bought a cute watermelon handbag and a cat blouse (from the kids section) and I somehow left them on the counter (I don't remember the checkout lady passing me the bag at all) and realised when I was on the train. I phoned customer services and they haven't found it- so either some stranger filched it or the checkout girl is not being too honest. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr! Serves me right for shopping really.
4. We went Swing-dancing at a different location of our dance franchise's classes and it was huge fun!  We danced loads and had a great time learning from the founder of the dance school- he is brilliant and it was nice to chat to some of our acquaintances from OUR class who came along.
5. I am totally obsessed with watching The House of Elliot reruns  on Youtube!!!! I love it! I really want a flapper bob now!!! Totally tempted to go and get one done!  Louise Lombard who played Evie Elliot used to go to my dance school (we have a few famous alumni- We have a video of her as the princess in Jack and the beanstalk  when I was 5) and she is so preeeeeeettty!!!
6. I had a really cool reunion of my old sixth form school on Saturday which I'll tell you more about.
7. It's the last day of school tomorrow! We are having an amazing tea-party and then going out for a meal. Hope the thief of my watermelon bag hands it in so I can get it back to use for the evening!  We have the talent show in the morning- I am playing piano for my mini-me, she's playing violin! (she's the one who has lots of cool hats, wants to be ME when she grows up and dressed up as me for 'dress as your ambition' day). It's going to be a sad day. My Canadian colleague is going back home on Friday. I am so sad. She bought me a really beautiful skirt and wrote me the loveliest card.


Linking up to Judith, AKA the Style Crone's next link-up. I am going to be away for the next time so getting in early!


Also linking up to Renae's Fashion item Friday

xx

Once insecure, always insecure?

On Saturday, CBC and I travelled to Watford for a day and night of Swing-dance courtesy of JiveSwing, our dance class, which is a big organisation of classes, ours being just one. It was a great day, we had some super classes- the day was held in honour of Frankie Manning's 100th birthday (if he was still alive)- the Father of bringing Swing dance back to the UK in the '80's.

We had two lindy-hop classes, learning a Frankie lindy-stroll and then a dips and tricks workshop. CBC decided he wanted to do some authentic jazz instead so I had to find another partner to dance with and managed to dance with a fun, young guy I met in the queue- it was hilarious as we learned to do these dips. I got the giggles as I had to spend a long time hugging him as we learnt a dip and then a move where I had to swing under his arm. I am suffering today though as my quads are really aching as the move involved rotating in a squat position!

In the evening, I wore the above outfit. I didn't take any photos-crazy for me! CBC just got this slightly blurry one of me- I wore the dress I picked up a while back, worn with my birthday petticoat and a wired headband- I really like these!

Anyway, in the evening, apart from many enjoyable dances together,  CBC was asked to dance lots by lots of ladies. I was asked to dance a few times by some guys although not as many and felt a wallflower at times. It's so silly but the pair of us are so insecure about asking people to dance just in case they think we are rubbish! Everyone else seems perfectly happy to ask other people to dance (it's the way your dancing improves). It's silly because I did spend a some time standing at the edge wishing someone would ask me to dance but like my teenage-self, in my stupid subconscious, didn't want anyone to think that I really wanted to dance, so I didn't get disappointed if they didn't dance.  I am an idiot- I am 33 and should just get on with it.  It's funny though, sometimes I feel much more confident.  Last night, I found myself thinking that the reason is because I always want to do something well and never want to be thought to be bad at something and I am not an expert at lindy and probably never will be, I just love it.

Yet, this morning, I played in my new church for the first time (9am rehearsal after getting to bed at 2am!!!!! I was KNACKERED!).  I KNOW that I am a a capable flautist and I know I play well and I know that when I am in the spirit at church, I will play and worship with my heart and soul. I know from 10 years of playing at my old church that my playing really helps people to worship.  And yet, I was worrying to myself that people would be judging me and didn't want people to say nice things to me just in case they were just being nice, not meaning it! Of all the ridiculous things to think!?!???!!?! Of course they're not, it's just my stupid mind.  Of course, once I started playing, I felt myself fill with the spirit and felt the insecurities fly away.

It's interesting that Stuart, a guy was being baptised today and he talked about how he had faced anxiety in his life and couldn't seem to snap out of it until he gave his life to God. And it struck me, when I feel most insecure and lacking confidence is when I stop praying, speaking to God and reading the Bible, when I've left tiredness and laziness get in the way, just let slip and then all my insecurities come back.  So today, I will reclaim my confidence and be strong in the knowledge that I do have talents that God has given me and I can do well and be strengthened by him in my prayers.  And there may be things that I am not talented at, but they are things I should enjoy because they are God-given and I've been given the freedom to enjoy these! Be the best that I can be but accept that I will not always be the best but I can have the most fun!

Linking to Visible Mondays with dear Patti

Hat Peter

Hello there mes amies! How nice it is to be on holiday! We've done lots of weddingy things so far and seen some friends. I've been swingdancing 3 times in a 30 hour period. We went to the Kursaal in Southend again which was super fun and then had a dance lesson with Simon and finally, I went to London for a lindy class last night! Was really good apart from getting accidently headbutted in the front teeth by someone dancing as I turned round!! In fact, yesterday was an absurdly busy day. We left CBC's house at 7.30am to get to a dance lesson in West London for 9am. We then came home and went straight to Marriage prep class for 2 hours. A quick half an hour for lunch and then CBC dropped me off at my work colleague's wedding ceremony. Next, I jumped on a bus into town to pick up a parcel and buy some YSL Touche Eclat. Finally, I came home, got changed and headed into London for a 3 hour Lindy class!! On my way home, I popped into Tescos for some shopping and then it was almost midnight!!! The photo above is what I wore to my colleague's wedding. I didn't have time to change after the marriage prep so I had to wear this and just added a hat and heels to try and smarten it up a bit. The dress has a cute Peter Pan collar and I found it in St Francis hospice. It's a little more monochrome than I would ever usually wear to a wedding. Actually, I was wearing a bright pink straw hat originally, but my Deputy Head has borrowed it to wear for my wedding as it goes perfectly with her cardigan so I returned hatless and put this one on instead! Perhaps it would have been more suitable in terms of matching? I was THE ONLY person with a hat on!! SHOCKING! It's soo soo hard to believe that this time in 2 weeks, I am going to be married. It's only 9 days until the wedding now. SOOOO many things to do still but I'm sure we will get them done! I do hope things are well with you and please forgive me for my lack of posting and not being able to comment loads! Too many distractions! lots of love, Kezzie xx

Swing when you're winning

Last weekend, I was luckily enough (did I mention it enough times) to go to the Brighton Lindyhop festival which I have been super excited over!
We set off from my house at about 8.30am and arrived to The University of East Sussex for around 10am where we went to register.  It was all very exciting and mysterious as we didn't know what ability level each group was- each person was given a coloured wrist band- red, yellow or blue (everyone had to fill out a registration form in reference to our ability) and we went to the Sports centre for a united warm-up.
It was when we got chatting to some lovely Brighton, fairly new lindyhoppers of 3 months (but still REALLY good) that we realised that CBC and I had different wristband colours!!!!! Disaster!  I appeared to have the same colour as our new friends.


The tutors (all except the main leader, Lizzie) arrived to lead a warm-up in a big circle- all to swing music and based on dance moves which was hugely fun and gave an interesting introduction to all of them.

Then the groups were split up and we were still unsure what ability group we were but eventually thought we had it sussed that we were Intermediate.  CBC stuck with us.

The first class was led by Ichtis and Solveiga and was a fun Lindy-charleston based routine which we built up bit by bit.   One thing that struck me about the people (who were mostly Brighton-based: I didn't meet any Londoners) was how delightfully open and friendly they were as I swapped partners around the table.
The lesson moved at a good pace and the tutors had a wonderful energy.  Ichtis came to dance with me when I was in a space once (more men leaders than women followers) and he had a great energy and brilliant smile and eyecontact when dancing that was great fun!).


(My fiance has a 'great' sense of humour by taking angled shots of the University of Sussex sign to mock me!)

After the 1:45 of class, we broke for lunch and CBC and I headed over to the slope by the University sign overlooking an Archery club meet-up, to share our picnic I had prepared:  goats cheese and cucumber sandwiches, olives, cassava crisps, tracker-bars, apples and water.  I, being the dutiful blogger I am, was eyeing up the sign thinking it would be a funny background for some photos.  CBC dutifullly took photos with little resistance at the time- I now know I should have been suspicious as to why he didn't complain!



With time to spare, we headed off to the Student Union for the common room where we chatted to Jenny and Sarah and new friends.  They had a great idea in the Union called a 'Free shop' where you could leave things you didn't want anymore on shelves, organised by category and anyone could take them- books, shoes, tennis rackets, whatever!




After that, we headed back to the sports hall for our next lesson with Simon and Jess.  The aim of this session was to improve following and leading and general techniques and signals. For CBC and I who have had some private lessons was Simon, this was definitely more of what we needed- though I think it was a bit hardgoing for some of the others who just wanted to dance!  I felt a complete twit though because he'd told the women to shut their eyes for one exercise so we'd rely on the hand connection rather than visuals and I idiotically assumed that we had to keep our eyes shut for all the next exercises and dutifully went round to my new partners and shut my eyes.  It wasn't until half an hour later (or more!) that a partner finally said- "You don't actually have to shut your eyes!".  DOH!!!!



A very slight break lead to our final class with Lizzie and Rina who led a 'silly moves' class which was outrageously funny, very very silly and somehow, the perfect end to the lessons- we learnt, The dirty old man- a hilarious lindy-charleston move involving big legs, the hijack- a move where the woman decides to duck the man's arm during a lindy-turn and takes over as leader briefly (I LOVED this one and I was quite good at it!), the lindy-turn jumpout (not so good at this one) and the most outrageous was The Fish which basically involved being swung through the man's legs, ending up lying on the floor, he jumps on you, you roll over and then proceed to swim across the floor.  Sounds totally dodgy, looks a bit dodgy but once you realise the aim, is totally hilarious!  The lesson ended with a 'FISH RACE' across the room.  I was totally awful at this one as I cried, I was laughing so much!



After this, most headed for the showers to get ready for the dance in the evening.  It was total girly bonding time everyone put on their finest.  I missed the memo that said it was going to be a 20's theme so I'd gone in fairly-tame 50's-ish teadress in white florals whereas most were in dark-coloured Great-gatsbyesque attire.


A 3 course dinner in the canteen (very tasty except for slug-soup) and lots of chat and then the party began, first with a charleston taster class.  Sadly, because we weren't staying till Sunday, we didn't get to join the flashmob shimsham and Charleston on Brighton pier, though we learnt the routine and I've FINALLY sorted my charleston foot-swivvels!


I'm afraid,this horrid unsmiling flash-shot is only clear one I got of my outfit, comprising of Laura Ashley dress via Charity-shop, mini-pillarbox hat (in complementary shades, courtesy of Florrie (Festivities prize), white and floral brogues -Primark, white, pearl, lace and floral cardie- Portobello Road, pearl collar Dorothy Perkins, Pearl Earrings- Craft fair, floral handbag- Topshop.
The hilarious thing was that SO many people came up to me saying how much they loved my little hat and could not believe how well matched all the elements of my outfit, down to the floral trim on my brogues.  Surprising since I felt SO the odd one out in white!

CBC and I had a jolly good few dances though I did get bruised ankles when CBC tried to do jig-walks without giving me the signal and he jig-walked into my ankles with his VERY hard John White brogues!



The floor was awash with dancing talent- the Brighton lot are REALLY good dancers!



At around 9.30pm, the teachers on the course gave a cabaret starting with an amazing Charleston lindy-dance routine by the London-based teachers like Simon which was incredibly witty and brilliant!It was amazing to actually watch Simon dance live.  More often than not, he's DJing, teaching or the dance floor is so crowded, it's hard to watch! All the other tutors danced too!  Rina is a total maverick and also ignored the 1920's memo and did a giggle-inducing charlestony routine to Play that funky music white boy


More dancing, lots of chat, including to a 19 year old Bio-med student who competed in the Friday night Brighton Lindy-competition, donuts, brownies and cookies at midnight and finally CBC and I had to wend our weary-way back to London. 
It was an amazing, amazing weekend and I can thoroughly recommend it!


Hope you are well!

Oh and I totally forgot about my 8th blogiversary prize.  The winner is Ang so please contact me with your address so I can send you your beret and gloves!!!xx

Pink ladies

Hallo there!  (That's a really Famous Fiveish way of spelling that word!  Not so many people do that nowadays, or is it just me that noticed that?)

I had the most awesome night out on Saturday night!  We went to the All Stars Bowling Lane in Bloomsbury.   This is a 50's themed bowling alley with the typical American diner, funky bowling lane and 50's and 60's music.  We went along because there was a free Easter party (free entry and supposedly free bowling though we were too late for a free lane!) which Simon from the London Swing Dance Society was going to give a free jive class at!

We arrived nice and early at around 8pm and sat in the bar, having ordered milk shakes and a burger and fries.  Unfortunately, I felt really wasteful as I seemed to lose my appetite for eating as soon as I had it. 

The decor of the place was really lovely - lamps and mirrors and comfy booths.  We saw Simon and his Dance partner arrive and they came and sat with us as the dance class wasn't until 10!  Excitingly, I got to dance with Simon which was a little scary (as he is MR Swing Dance!) - why am I always so in awe of people like him- I'm sure I would get on better in life if I could just act normal and not lose the ability to speak normally!!  It was great fun even though it was a really fast jive and I was totally out of breath by the end of the two dances.  Idiotically, I didn't hear the first track finish and I carried on skipping around when he was like, "Er, that was the end of the song!"- what an idiot I am, particularly as he knows I am a musician! Doh!   The place was full of really young students, early 20's and then older people like us but they were having a riot.  There was a really cool Justin Bieber lookalike who was throwing pretty girls around the floor in a really confident way!  The crowd there was really friendly and a friend of CBC's turned up, who is an expert swing dancer who I had a couple of dances with!  I chatted to several people and CBC and I had a couple of fun dances!

As I went to the bathroom in my 50's inspired outfit, I heard a couple of girls say, "I wish we'd come dressed up like that," which made me smile!

I wore:

Floral dress (thrifted but brand new when purchased)
Pink heart cardie (thrifted but brand new Peacocks when purchased)
Pink silk floral  Scarf (Oscar by Oscar De La Renta, thrifted)
Pink tulle petticoat (ASOS)
Cherry Shoe lace worn in hair as ribbon (Primark)
Pink floral Necklace (vintage from Grandma)
Floral porcelain brooch (D.Simmell thrifted)
Blue pumps (Primark)
Floral Earrings (Ebay)
Bracelet (Gift)
Always nice when an outfit is mostly thrifted!!!

Linking to Claire Justine's Share your style Saturday


Today, after staying at CBC's, I headed home via a local town to look at bridal shoes.  Irritatingly, I found the perfect pair in terms of height, decoration and cost but they were just one pair of size 7's.  They fitted but I am an 8 so I imagine they would feel awful after a while.  I looked online but surprise, surprise, no 8's!  Damn!!! If anyone happens to go to Debenhams and sees these in an 8, please please, get them and I will send you the money!!!!!  I also tried on tiaras (not the stereotypical ones)and MAN those things hurt your head!!! I felt like I had a headache after wearing one for 5 minutes!!!!

Tray bake

You wish.
I wish indeed!



This may be my most spectacularly rubbish upcycle or make EVAH!  But I shall still share it in case it inspires you to show me how to do it better or you think of some scabby unloved tea-tray too!
Old boring, scabby wooden tray in the kitchen has sat unloved and unused for ages.  Was going to visit a charity shop near you but I decided to have a little mess around before I did anything so drastic!

I dug out a daisy shaped paper punch, some acrylic paints and a big stubby paint-brush (and some scrap card) and cut myself a template which I then used to make a line of daisies. It looked bare and boring so I found one of my most disliked/avoided craft devices, the rubber stamp, (despite this fact, I seem to have loads of them, mostly gifts, bumper pack items or bargain bin finds) and proceeded to make it look even worse by adding rows of fern on either side using more acrylics!  Next time, I'll do decoupage instead!

You're wondering about the cake, right?  Surely we all appreciate a gratuitous cake shot (a Cadbury's chocolate cream gateau that was tragically found on the Reduced to Quick Sale counter at Tescos. I had to rescue it in order to help it achieve its destiny of lining one greedy person's many persons' stomachs. It is delicious, incidently.  I still have half to go!



I always end up left up with a bit of acrylic paint left which it seems a shame to chuck as it is expensive so I made a sort of swirly pattern on the back of a cracker box.  I then cut them up to make these two Easter cards (also using some scraps of card hanging around) and some Anita's daffodil stickers to give a lovely Spring look!
Somehow, sitting there watching Ella Enchanted as I did this, I ended up using the corrugated coffee card leftovers to make hearts and made this other masculine Love card!  I suppose it could be a Valentines!

I just got back from attending a Lindy class in London.  Usually, I feel really psyched after these but I really had trouble with the moves tonight- it involved a quick spin using single step footwork (as opposed to a triple step) and I just kept landing awkardly/badly and an immediate contrasting turn in the opposite direction which threw me off each time.  I felt like my partners thought 'what on earth is she doing?'  Plus I sat and watched the Intermediate class after (whilst waiting for CBC) and discovered I could have joined in if I had really wanted to, which is a shame as they learnt a realllllllly cool move called 'Around the World' (like the Yo-yo!).  I paid the extra to do some social dance after but CBC had a horrid day and wasn't in the mood for dancing but at least we went to Wagamamas and I ate far more ramen than is healthy for one person to do!

Hope you are well!x

The link party:

Lakota's Ta Dah Tuesday featuring one fab Angry Birds cake!


Claire Justine's Creative Mondays

Cynthia's In and out of the kitchen linkie.
and the Daring Card Makers Spring challenge for this week!

Be sure to go and visit!