I have a shop!

Well hello there! Can't believe how long it has been! In fact I can't believe August is pretty much over, I have no idea where it went. It got lost in all the excitement which I shall try bring you up to speed on now :)

The biggest news is I'm opening my own shop! It's in Glasgow's West End and is shaping up pretty good if I say so myself. If you want to check out a couple of progress pictures check out the Miss Lottie Lou Facebook page as I shall be updating quite a bit over the next week. It's decorated with beautiful old furniture (more on that in a minute) and is going to be stocked with my own Miss Lottie Lou clothing, Flossy and Dossy knitwear and vintage jewellery from Vintage Inspirations. It's all too exciting!!

The beautiful furniture I mentioned is actually a matching bedroom suite. It is a big double wardrobe, a man's wardrobe with the cute labelled shelves and a big dressing table complete with huge mirror. Now don't hate me, but just like the last matching bedroom suite I got, it was all free off of freecycle! The original ad I replied to just mentioned old wardrobes but when I went to view it I saw the dressing table and nabbed that too. There were also some old green arm chairs in the rubbish 'pile' so I asked what was happening with them and I nabbed them too! So now my shop is kitted out in the finest vintage furniture woohoo! The shop isn't even finished yet but I already want to spend all my time there :)

Another amazing thing that is making this August by far the best month I've ever had, is that I bought some industrial sewing machines for super duper cheap off of a design studio that was moving. It was a first come first served basis and boy oh boy was I pleased I turned up early! They now take pride of place at the back of my shop so I can sew and sell all day long!

And to round off this unbelievable month I got 2 swallows tattooed by the awesome Spaniard David from Forevermore Tattoo Parlour . I love them :D They are my birthday present (which was August 14th) from my parents.

Please excuse the terrible bathroom photo! But there they are and I love them :) And not as painful as I thought they were going to be thank goodness!

Rightio I think that is you all up to date now :) I'll do a proper a shop update when it's ready for opening. Wish you could all come to my opening night!! I know I know that's not possible but it would be awesome!

Hope you're all well. I do still take time out to read all your blogs but I've turned into a bit of a lurker as I don't remember the last time I left a comment anywhere so I'm very sorry about that :(

I'll be back soon!

Lottie x

Love Benefit Cosmetics?

Well do I have a treat for you!!

The fabulous Miss Hana Amelia (you'll have seen her photo popping up in most, if not all, of my photo entries!) is launching a V.I.P Benefit counter in House Of Frasers in Glasgow and to celebrate she's offering free Makeup lessons worth £20! All you need to do is drop her an email quoting 'Miss Lottie Lou' at hana4benefitcosmetics@hotmail.com with your name and telephone number and she'll get back to you with details. You can even take a friend along with you and make a day of it :)

I'm so excited!! I've used Benefit for years and can't get enough of it! I LOVE their Badgal lash mascara, couldn't live without it. In my poor student days I couldn't afford to keep up my Badgal habit so I tried to find a cheaper alternative but to no avail. I quickly learnt my lesson with rubbish cheap mascaras and went back to Benefit and haven't looked back since! I could talk all day long about which Benefit products I use and how fabulous they are but I'll let you all find out for yourselves :)

So email her and come play! Guaranteed it's going to be a fun event and everyone is going to leave looking amazing! I'll be there so hopefully I'll bump into some of you :)

Lottie x

Rockabilly Rave

Two posts in one day?! Wowee! This one though is just a look at our pretty outfits one :)

Sigh I miss it so much!! Now saving for the Rhythm Riot in November :D

Lottie x

Photos!!

Hello! How are we all? As promised here are some photos :)

This was my stall at Granny Would Be Proud in Hillhead Library. Was a slow day for everyone but had good chats with fellow stall holders :)

Close up of my 'model', buttons and headscarves

My super duper amazingly awesome Trunk!! £15!!

Inside

Hangers and drawers

Fold down compartment

Now for some photos of fabric :D Yup I'm still buying absurd amounts of fabric, it's so addictive! I could open a fabric shop! Sometimes I think that would be ace...

To see more of my fabric head on over to my Facebook 'fan' page: www.facebook.com/misslottielou

Next blog entry will be Rockabilly Rave photos :D

Till then,

Lottie x

Tsk Tsk

So it seems I now only update once a month...that's bad :( My promise to put time aside each week never materialised!

Though I've been on three holidays so I'm going to use that as my excuse! My first was to Download festival, not really my thing but I got a free ticket and I just can't say no to free! Then I went to Rockabilly Rave which was amazing!! So much fun and I miss it :( Then I went to visit friends in Folkestone which was lovely. I also found house a few doors down from them that was a 1930's terraced house with original features including a roll top bath and fireplaces, for sale!! It was beautiful but unfortunately I don't have £129,950 and I highly doubt anyone would give me mortgage for that and even then I don't think I'd be able to afford it! One can dream :)

I have been working in-between too! Full time at the college and I've been on a Business Gateway Course to do my business plan. So now I can apply for start up grants and help :)

And the biggest most exciting thing is I have a stockist in Helensburgh :D They have taken all my random bits and bobs left over from my craft fairs and they've asked for a collection which will occupy the whole window!! So very exciting.

In other news I'm doing another craft fair on Saturday, Granny Would Be Proud in Hillhead Library Glasgow, pop along and say hi!

I'll do a little update with some photos soonish :)

Lottie x

Hello June

Hey folks :)

Yup I'm still rubbish at blogging...boo. However just wanted to swing by and tell you all the exciting news!

I've been to see Business Gateway and they're setting me up with grants etc and signed me up for various short courses that teach you all kinds of business things like bookkeeping and government things. I've also signed up to the PSYBT who provide business start up help to under 25s. Aaaaaand the other day I opened up a Business bank account :D

So even though I'm not busy creating (though I'm currently working on another toga!) wonderful garments, I'm still out buying fabrics and doing the boring but essential business things. Government and bank things are ever so scary but at the same time really exciting because it's those things that make Miss Lottie Lou a real life grown up business!

Well for the next few weeks I'll probably still be just lurking, popping up to make the occasional comment on your fabulous up to date blogs as this weekend I'm heading to Download Festival as my boyfriend's carer because of the broken ankle, and then I'm home for 2 days and I'm off again this time to the Rockabilly Rave!!! I know which one I'm more excited about! June is my split personality month :)

I'm applying for various stalls to keep me focused on Miss Lottie Lou though and I have a meeting with my first possible stockist tomorrow so fingers crossed :)

I'll keep you posted...eventually!

Lottie x

Pretty Things

Wanna see the dress I made for London journalist Jas Tang? Well here it is!

She loves it which makes me so happy :) She emailed me these photos the day the dress arrived! Anyone who walked past my office got dragged in to have a look...the boys weren't as impressed as the girls teehee.

That's it for today, have a good weekend,

Lottie x

Hey remember me?!

Apology posts seem to be quite frequent on my blog which makes me super sad :( I had such good intentions when I first started sigh.

Well I'm back! I'm going to set some time aside each week just for blogging: reading, commenting and writing. I didn't realise how much working full time would change my life! I love my job (receptionist/switchboard operator) and the people I work with are all lovely. And they're very open and complimentary on the way I dress. I eased headscarves into my work-wear; started out with the rolled up ones that are similar to headbands, then a small full head scarf that just had a tiny knot and then a big full head scarf with a big knot/bow :) I don't know about you guys but when I wear the full headscarf I find people stare sooo much more, even if it's just teamed with t-shirt and jeans. It's just a scarf people! People never stared at me when I had bright red or pink hair, yet a headscarf turns heads. Weird.

Unfortunately it's not just the blog that has slipped...I haven't been sewing as much I would like. The commissioned dress from Jas Tang the journalist was posted this morning so that is all done and dusted. I also made high waisted shorts to match the reversible tie top from the previous post, except not reversible, they're just peach and white. There was Granny Would Be Proud on Saturday 8th May which went well. I sold some things and made some excellent contacts but battled with a horrific cold all day. Miss Lottie Lou was also in the local newspaper! I'll scan it and put it up for you guys to see. I was asked to make a leavers ball/prom dress off of the back of that article! I've also been spreading the word at work, I've picked up 2 little alteration jobs already! And I altered a whole bunch of things for a good friend of mine and made some boleros into button up tops. Oh and I made 3 togas in one night.

But that is all the sewing I've had time for :( Not nearly enough Miss Lottie Lou creating for my liking. Especially when I have so much super cute fabric to working with!

Not sure if I've mentioned yet or not but Miss Lottie Lou is now on Twitter and Flickr. Both are super bare right now...going to have to pencil both of them in alongside blog time. And the Facebook fanpage, well Like page now, has hit the 100 mark and gone past it! So to celebrate I'm going to have a thank you prize. Not decided what or how I'm doing it yet but keep your peepers peeled as there will be one!

In amongst the working and sewing my boyfriend went and broke his ankle. How did he do that? He stepped backwards off of a kerb. I kid you not. So folks be wary of kerbs, they're dangerous things! And because I love the big numpty and I was worried about him going in for surgery, I dropped everything and dashed off to Dundee (2 hours away from where I live) to be by his side for 2 days. He broke his ankle in 2 places and had to have surgery to have put pins put in and is now on crutches in a cast with a very long recovery ahead of him. Silver lining of it all though was that he came home to recover for a week so I got to see him for a few days :) You got to find the silver lining in everything!

Well I'm afraid that it is it for now. Got to go plan my outfit for work tomorrow. I've been there for almost 3 weeks now and I haven't worn the same outfit twice! Takes a lot of planning though which is starting to wear thin. Rightio I promise to catch up with you all soon and I promise it won't be this long till we speak again!

Lottie x

Too cute!!

Hello all, hope you're having a good weekend :) Last night I was in Kilmarnock at O'Shannons Irish Bar seeing a band called the Troubleshooters and my Dad was the DJ for the night. Was a good night. Can't wait for All Tore Up! on Saturday to see The Ceazars. This weeks mission is to make a toga ready for then :)

This is just a quick update to show you my latest creation...a super cute reversible tie top!! It's the first reversible item I've made and it turned out really well. So well that I was very sad to see it go to a new home. Of course I snapped some photos before it went on its way:

I miss it already! I got some awesome vintage cowboy material so I'm going to make myself one from that :)

Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

Lottie x

One thing after another....keep it coming!!

Hey everyone :)

I've been having some rather exciting times recently! First there was Made In The Shade, then secret plans were made with Carrie from MITS (more will be revealed in due course), now I have a dress order from London fashion journalist Jas Tang who writes for Pretty Things magazine whom I met on Saturday and I'm now part of the Granny Would Be Proud family!! So you can see Miss Lottie Lou on 8th May in Hillhead Library :) Would be swell if any of you are around the Glasgow area and popped in to say hi! I'll blog more information on Granny Would Be Proud soon, but their Facebook page seems to be down at the minute.

Miss Lottie Lou is also doing the costumes for a local theatre company who's show this year is...dum dum duuummmm......High Society!!! Another very exciting development! I had my first production meeting on Monday and I got the show director's email through today for what she envisages the costumes to look like and so far I'm loving her vision and I have so many ideas :D

I also jumped on the Twitter bandwagon. I'm still unsure about it. Does anyone have any opinions on Twitter? Maybe once I'm up and running properly I'll like it and find it useful and what not but right now it's so bare and boring! If any of you have a twitter, leave a link to it so I can follow you! Next bandwagon I'm thinking of jumping on is Flickr. Again any opinions?

Other than that I have so many photos to show you of my latest fabric, clothes and shoe buys. And for some reason another addiction to add to my list is furniture. It's been creeping up on me for a while but I finally acknowledged it when I saw the cutest little art deco piece in Glasgow on Tuesday, dreamt about it that night, and then went up first thing on Wednesday to buy it! I have nowhere to put as of yet but it's beautiful! And totally worth the bruises I got lugging it round Glasgow with me!

I'm super tired now from all this excitement so I best get myself to bed. Tomorrow I'm making a super cute tie top for Miss Amelia ready for our Saturday night out, more on both of them tomorrow.

Hope you're all doing well :)

Lottie x

I got Made In The Shade!

Well Saturday was the big day...Made In The Shade!! I was so nervous I couldn't write my price tags out I was shaking that much :( But it was such a good day and I had some sales!! Was awesome! I didn't get chance to have a look round at everything else, but I hear there were some cool things. My friend Lee bought loads of stuff! And another friend Kat was early enough to get a free goody bag and she was kind enough to give me her badge which had a pug dog on it!! I'm not sure if I've ever expressed my love for Pugs on here before, but I'm crazy about them! One day I will have one!

Anyways here are photos from my stall! I was going to take photos of the whole event but I didn't leave my stall all day! So check out MITS blog and Flickr for photos :)

My Mum and myself having a cake break!

Commissioned dress that was just for show. This got the most attention out of everything on my stall! Everyone kept coming over to touch it!

My table with fabric covered buttons and neck ties. In the corner you can just see my suitcase with fabrics in for people to have a look through.

Me stood next to my rail! I wore a vintage jumper, headscarf and dress Miss Lottie Lou and beautiful Vivienne Westwood shoes :D (I also have them in cream!) Originally I was going to wear a high waisted red Miss Lottie Lou pencil skirt but on the morning I went to get dressed and it was miles too big! Made me happy but oh so stressed! Luckily I had this trusty little black dress :)

My stall :) Well more space than stall. I had people signing up or my mailing list all day! Even if they didn't buy anything they jotted their email down which is ace :)

After the event was over I was so super duper tired but I had a 50th birthday party to go to and then at 11pm-3am I was working on the door for a night called Shout Bamalama which was super busy as they had famous London DJ Gaz Mayall up for the night. Was a good night but by 3am I had past the super duper tired stage and ended up being wide awake! Embarrassed to say I slept till after 2pm on Sunday and even then I only woke up because my Dad came and woke me up!

I've now applied for another selling space at a different event in May, still in Glasgow though. Fingers crossed I get that one too as I really enjoyed the day and the whole experience. I want to say a big thank you to the Made In The Shade girls, my parents and friends for making the day possible :) I also want to thank Leah over at Leah Halliday for all her tips and advice and her friendly chat before the event and on the day, much appreciated!

In other news my Mum bought me some vintage trousers in a pea green colour which have pleats going down the front of each leg...they sound pretty strange but they're beautiful!! Unfortunately they don't quite fit me :( I can do them up, they're just too tight to wear yet. Which is annoying as she'd bought them to replace my mustard trousers as they're too big for me! I need to wear a belt to hold them up which makes them gather. Doesn't look too bad but it's not ideal. Sigh the in between sizes stage of weight loss is most annoying!!

Eeeeee today me, my parents and my fabulous big sister Hana (not real sisters, we're just like sisters!) booked for the Rockabilly Rave!! I'm so excited!! Just short of 9 weeks to go woo! Anyone else going? I've never been to the rave but I've done the riot which is held in the same place. It's awesome going somewhere where you don't get stared at or asked what's with the costume as everyone is 40s/50s! Today when I was out charity shopping (I only got some wooden anchor buttons) I had several old ladies come up to me and tell me I looked like I belonged in Land Girls. This sort of thing I'm cool with, because I do haha! But when I'm getting asked what's with the costume and or why are you dressed funny or something else along those lines, it's just rude. So I'm rude back to them and just ignore them. There are nice polite ways to question my clothes and when this happens I'm more than happy to tell them about my look. Rude people really get my goat!

Sorry got a little ranty there!

My plan for today is to clear up my bedroom/workroom as my fabric and button boxes exploded all over the place...Hope you all have a much more exciting day!

Lottie x

3 more sleeps!!

Howdy :)

First of all big thank you goes to Beth over at refashionrecyclereuse for my latest blog award!!

It still pleasantly surprises me every day that there are people out there that read my blog let alone follow, comment and give me awards! Talking of followers I now have 21! Yeah 21 is nothing compared to some of you awesome bloggers out there but 21 to me is amazing! So thanks guys :)

As well as collecting awards, I've been busy working on things for Made In The Shade which is this Saturday!! That's right folks get down to Glasgow Lighthouse on Mitchell Lane between 10.30am and 5pm! For more info check out Made In The Shade's website and blog. Early birds get a goody bag!

Rightio back to the sewing machine! If you want a sneak peek at a few of the things I'll have with me on Saturday check out the Miss Lottie Lou Facebook page :)

I promise that after Saturday I shall keep up to date with my blogging and commenting!

Until then, hope to see you Saturday!

Lottie x

PS The job interview I had went so well I got the job!! How exciting!! Thanks for all the good luck you guys gave me :)

Where has the time gone?!

Well happy April and happy Easter to you all...a little late yes, I hadn't realised it had been so long again. My poor neglected blog!

Right what have I been up to? Preparing for Made In The Shade that's what! I have Miss Lottie Lou stickers and different coloured tissue papers all ready for packaging items, business cards designed and awaiting print, card labels ready to be tied onto items with essential information on the back, and my stall set-up all sorted out! On top of the little bits and bobs I've been making clothes which I will post photos of shortly once I've taken them. Today I made a full skirt which, I know I'm slightly biased, but it is so super cute I want to keep it all to myself! And over the last few days I've been making fabric covered buttons both to sell at Made In The Shade and to use on garments. I can't believe how amazing they look! Makes me wish that I had been making fabric covered buttons forever. I can't imagine my life without making them now!

Also I have a confession. I'm addicted to buying fabric. Now it's not as bad as it seems as I never buy fabric from a fabric shop (unless it is a customer request) so I'm not going out and buying brand new fabric, it is only ever vintage or recycled fabric. Even so I'm running out of room and getting overwhelmed at all the prettiness!!! Some mornings I wake up and can't decide what I'm making or with what fabric as I want to use them all right away!

As I said though I can't stop buying fabric. Now I don't usually go on Ebay, I find it all far too stressful with the last minute bidding and the possibility that I won't get what I want or I'll end up paying more than I want etc. However a good friend of mine, Miss Amelia, showed me some cute peach and white checked cotton from the 1950s that had been woven in a Lancashire mill and asked if I would make her something from it. Well from there it spiralled. I ended up 'winning' that one and three others in the same style but different colours. Then my Dad showed me some beautiful silk kimono fabric again from the 1950s and I ended up with a green piece with bamboo and flowers and a bluey piece with flowers. By this point I felt I was on a 'winning' streak! So I bid on some vintage deep green with squares and a vintage burgundy piece. Then the guilt and realisation that I had to pay up hit me!! I'm waiting on the Japanese silk to arrive but the other 6 I have. I was really disappointed in the peach and white one though as it is filthy, like its lived on a dirty floor having people trample all over it for I don't know how long. Fingers crossed it's ok after a good wash!!

Along with the clothes I also have a whole load of new material to photograph :)

Of course amongst all this working and bidding I went out to play! I've mentioned before about All Tore Up! It's a 1950s record hop that happens the first Saturday of every month in Glasgow at a place called Blackfriars. It's always an excellent night that attracts a mixed crowd of students, hardcore 1950s people and those that have stumbled in off the street for a nosey. This month was particularly rock and roll as the DJs blew up a speaker! It gave off the most awful smell! Of course the night kept going and it gave everyone a story! At the next All Tore Up! on May 1st we have a band called The Caezars playing so if you're in Scotland come and see one of the most popular bands on the scene right now. I'll be there in a toga :) Seriously.

Right to try make up for my lack of posting and photos of things I've been making and buying, I'll leave you with some photos from All Tore Up! which was on April 3rd. Enjoy :)

Hana and myself

Hana and David

My Dad 'hard at work' DJing

Hana, my mum, Aaron the DJ and All Tore Up! guy and Ellie his wife

Valarie and Neil

Awwww!! Yup my parents are as much in love now as they were when they got together aged 15!

My mum dancing at the end of the night

My dad having a bop at the end of his DJ set

Lottie x

More photos as promised :)

This is me outside Vintage Guru in Glasgow. I know Alice in Wonderland is being done far too much just now but that still doesn't take away from how cute the windows are!

This is my mum and dad having tea and cake in Auntie M's Cake Lounge that it is kitted out in 1950s kitchen and living room things. It's beautiful and the cake is DELICIOUS!! If you're every in Glasgow you should swing by it. And pop into the Made In The Shade Maisonette while you're there :)

The super awesomely cool teacup that my peppermint tea came in at Auntie M's! I want a set so bad!

Neil, Dad, Mum, Me, Hana

This was Saturday night in Edinburgh at The Spiders Web seeing a band called the Blue Flames. Was a fun night :) And the calico bag you can see on the table, I made it to advertise All Tore Up!'s new record label. And yeah you might have noticed that I hang out with my parents a lot... I always have because they're so much fun and really cool to hang out with. They're not just my parents, they're 2 of my best friends. Some of my friends think its weird, others are a little jealous that I've always got on so well with them. But all my friends know if they ask me to go out over a weekend that I'll check what my parents are up to first!

Today I got an order for a whole summer wardrobe! Miss Hana Amelia went through my fabric stash picking out the fabrics she liked and assigning garments to them! Was a fun little afternoon drawing up plans for all the fabrics. There's going to be high waisted shorts in various colours, a love heart print playsuit and sleeveless tie-up shirts in a variety of colours and patterns. All very exciting however I need to get everything finished for my Made In The Shade stall so those things are on hold until after April 17th!

Tomorrow I have a job interview for a receptionist position...yay and boo. Right now I need a steady income to pay off my debts from uni and to support my fabric and vintage clothing habits. It's only a temporary position which is ideal as I can work and pay off all my debts and then once it's over I can focus on Miss Lottie Lou full time with a clean slate. Plus I don't know about anyone else but when I think of receptionists I think pencil skirts, pretty blouses and pearl necklaces!!

Hope you all had a good Monday and enjoy the rest of your week :)

Lottie x

The best things in life are free

My oh my! Remember when I got my fabulous free furniture? Well the other night I received a text from the same people saying they had found a 1950s suit and some hats! When I went round to their house they gave me more than that.....

(sorry for the rubbish photos)

Beautiful blue skirt suit with bows made from real fur...not sure where I stand on the vintage fur thing, especially as I'm vegetarian. What do you all think about vintage fur? I was very surprised the skirt fit but I'm chuffed that it does!

This dress as it is, isn't right for me. It fits beautifully but it's too long so I'm going to take it up.

This was his Mum's wedding headdress from 1959! He still has her wedding dress which he doesn't want to hand into a charity shop but doesn't want to put it in a cupboard forever, so when he's ready to part with it, he's going to give me a call which is unbelievable!

Very cute black hat but my head is huge so I can't get it on. But in my defence it is really small!

Another pretty hat but again it won't fit on my big head :(

A black/blue clutch bag

Blue bag with some wear and tear

Beautiful brown bag

I'm still in shock at this amazing find. Things like this just don't happen to me! I'm now constantly checking freecycle in fear that I might miss something!

Tomorrow I'll be posting more photos, one in particular is of the cutest window display I've seen in Glasgow for a while :)

Until then I think you should go check out MJ over at dreaming spires and old car tyres because she is just one of the nicest people I've 'met' since starting my blog, and truth be told she was one of my main inspirations for starting one. So thanks MJ!

Lottie x