She Dressed in Black

Literature Love // Childhood Classics...

2012-03-09T08:00:00.001Z

Little M loves a good book, here he is having a little read through some Selected Tales of Edgar Allan Poe just before his second birthday... No matter how busy we are and how much we struggle sometimes to squeeze in a bit of reading ourselves, M always has a couple of stories read to him every day. Whether its his quite contempoary collection of Oliver Jeffers books or his very lovely Rob Ryan ones (a little too lovely, he's under strict instruction to be very gentle with those!) right through to classic kids stories that have been treasured by many for generations...

We love our mid century retro-reads and Little M is equally enamoured with timeless classics including Maurice Sendick's Where the Wild Things Are from 1963 and Judith Kerr's ever popular 1968 story The Tiger Who Came to Tea, so much so the other night he gathered up a little gang of bears and settled down to share his favourite story with them too...

Can't wait to pass on more of our childhood favourites! Growing up Lola had a full collection of these sweet books The Butterfly Children, sweet little winged children who sleep in flowers and have lots of adventures...

Rhi has a well read and much loved collection of Posey Simmonds books, including Fred (about a cat, who was a rock star, unbeknownst to the family who owned him), The Chocolate Wedding and Lulu and The Flying Babies (about a little girl who gets lost in a museum with a cherub statue and an angel baby from a painting! N'aw!)

Would love to hear what your favourite stories growing up were?

Much love,

R&L xx

A Vintage Twee Party: Part 2

2012-03-08T08:00:00.121Z

Welcome to Part 2 of our Vintage Twee Party! Yesterday, we shared our inspiration for taking a nostalgic amble back through our favourite Twee Tower moments, to pull together the ultimate Twee Party, after reading the charming Vintage Tea Party book by Angel Adoree! After guiding you through our tips for the perfect twee set up and some retro styling advice, we now move on to our favourite bit, the treats and tipples!

After a trip to France last summer, Rhi brought home lots of lovely Rose & Violet flavoured goodies, including syrups, sugars and liqueurs and we set straight to work concocting yummy cocktails to celebrate her return! An absolute must on our Twee Towers drink menu... floral cocktails!

Our delicious Rose Martinis went down a storm, adorned with dried rose buds... one must always pay attention to the finer details of a twee soiree!

Parma Violet tini's! Absolutely divine. As with all Twee Towers cocktails, we prescribe to the dash of this and splash of that methodology! We think we used martini, vodka, violet syrup and violet liqueur to taste. You could always add lemonade to make this into more of a punch!

Speaking of punch, here is our take on the summer classic Pimms Cocktail! All the traditional ingredients of a pimms, with our own little twist!

For a more subdued event, we are obsessed with Twinings Lavander Earl Grey or Rose Flavoured Tea! So much so, that we may have had a teeny, twee troubles-esque meltdown when our local supermarket stopped stocking it... for months, and months, argh!

The menu from our Royal Wedding Celebration (as mentioned in Part 1) featured traditional English Afternoon Tea fayre including miniature cakes, crumpets, cucumber sandwiches, strawberries & cream and Twee Towers staple Champagne!

Earlier this week, we were discovering the joys of making our own preserves. We started out with the delectable Strawberry & Rose curd! Serve on scones or spread between sponge layers on a cake! Tie with co-ordinating ribbons and these become a lovely part of your set-up too!

Seriously Twee cake, Lavender & Love... with a starring role from the aforementioned Lavender Tea, this was our take on Gizzi Erskine's Earl Grey Chocolate cake and tasted simply fabulous.

Perhaps our most delicious creation yet, the truly scrummy Violet & Chocolate Cupcakes! In true Twee style, we even created our Silent Movie to take you through the recipe...

For ingredients click here.

Hope you have enjoyed partying with us, we'd love to see your own Twee Parties soon! In case you missed it... Vintage Twee Party Part 1.
Much love, L&R xx

A Vintage Twee Party Part I

2012-03-07T08:00:00.001Z

When we spotted that one of our friends and best customers Kelly had purchased this decadent delight of a book, we knew we had to have it, and the lovely person that Kelly is, she went and picked up the last copy for us! The Vintage Tea Party Book is a complete guide to hosting a perfect tea party, for the glamourous gal, written by Angel Adoree, well known Vintage Clad Gal and founder of the Vintage Patisserie.
One was totally enthralled flicking through the pages of this beautiful book where every page hosts something pretty and inspiring, every page extracted a rapturous gasp of excitement (and of recognition, one of the lovely models is a local lady!). Angel and her stunning crew take you on a captivating guided tour from the design, tastes and styles to elevate your party into the full vintage experience.
This brought us back to previous afternoon teas held here in Twee Towers where we pulled our resources of rescued antiques and every pretty prop we could lay our hands on to throw visually delightful soirees... Paying tribute to the attention to detail of eras gone by one never scrimped on the lavish layouts... Even if it was just the two of us dining! And thus, we were inspired to create our own mini guide on the Vintage Twee Party using recipes and photos of parties past from the Twee Towers archives. So as Angel would say 'Lets all raise our teacups' for the She Dressed in Black Vintage Twee Party!

For Afternoon Tea parties, we often set up in the studio, as the light in there is lovely. We gather furniture from about the house (Peacock Chair from the hall, basket seat from Rhi's room) and mix and match our soft furnishings for an eclectic look.
Don't be afraid to be ostentatious with your twee party props, you want to create that atmosphere of a vibrant and kitsch affair. The set up above was in celebration of The Royal Wedding, one can reveal that this was our FIRST day in Twee Towers and the rest of the house was barely unpacked, you can pull together a party like this in any circumstance!

Crucial to any Twee Party, flowers, and lots of them! The lavish bunch above features a mix of prearranged bouquets, break them up and play about till you have a unique feature for your event. Use small vases with little sprays of flowers to dot around your set up. We love the look of flowers in jugs, gives a lovely homely, rustic touch.

Mixing up your crockery really amplifies the twee, car boot and hand-me-down dishes, really accentuate the vintage vibe. Source pretty fabrics for place settings, this table cloth was a vintage skirt, and the napkins are offcut scraps we had lying around the studio, tied with delicate antique lace. It would not be a Vintage Twee party without doilies!

For more formal events, we absolutely adore these Alice inspired party picks. They're on our wish list for our next party!

Play with unlikely objects around your home to create an individual look that is personal to you, with not a lot of table space (remember most of our things were still in boxes!) and a vast collection of vintage luggage between us, we created a stack here to balance a picnic basket of fruit upon.

Drink station - we used similar arrangements for Lauren's Birthday Breakfast, with the added bonus of a place to set out our drinks. Designing your own menu adds a personal touch to the event, displayed here in a frame. More recycled fabric table cloths and flowers, of course.

For truly Great Brit charm, no tea party would be complete without swathes of bunting and garlands. Follow our tutorial for Heart Shaped Bunting to add this sweet detail to your party.

Once you're set up, the next step is to get glammed up! Usually 60s girls at heart, we roped in our slightly more polished and classicly sophisticated chum Carla to come model some iconic do's and WW2-chic. We had no idea where to start, fortunately just in the nick of time we spotted this tutorial over at A Beautiful Mess which assisted in our Victory over the Rolls.

Isn't she a peach? First up we tried a half up-half down approach with two victory rolls atop Carla's head. With slightly waved hair, we loved how it looked a little more modern and a bit more wearable for those just dipping their toe in the early 20th Century styles.

Next we rolled it all up, finishing the do with a few more rolls round the back. Fab for a more demure look, and practical for hosts busying about the kitchen!

For a more traditional 50s housewife-esque look add a headscarf, with a bow to the side to finish off your do. Voila, take off your pinny, you're ready to attend a Vintage Twee Party!
Stop by tomorrow for Part 2, where we will be showing Twee Treats & Tipples to serve at your Ultimate Vintage Twee Party.
Much love,R&L xx

Hunting for Vinyl Treasures...

2012-03-06T08:00:00.008Z

We may have mentioned that we're fans of a rummage, be it thrift store, car boot or at one of our favourite local spots - 'The Junk Yard' - our local recycle centre (as it officially describes itself) is a real cavern of wonders, it was where we snapped up our original 60s cabinet for a mere £10 (the lady really should have seen us coming, we would have paid so much more), there are bunkers full of books where we could quite literaly hide out for days on end, stacks of furniture to the ceiling, from naff 80s office chairs to: if you squint it could look like 60s danish design, and lots of ooh wouldn't that look lovely if we painted it...

Not so long ago we took ourselves down for a rifle through another of our favourite bunkers, besides those full of books and the others stashed with the most fantastically tacky trinkets (see below) - 'The Vinyl Shed' - rows and rows of records discarded by their owners, now sometimes the fact that these collections have landed themselves in this bunker and not on ebay should be indicitive of the quality of choice... However we have found some genuine delights in here before, so we were hoping for more of the same...

So things we have learned about the music taste ours townsfolk in by-gone-eras, one thing is for certain, they like Perry Como, A LOT (Ah, the magic moments when every second vinyl is "Oh not another Perry Como!"). They were also apparently of the opinion that The Sound of Music was the greatest soundtrack of all time, ever. Honestly, we counted at least 30 copies in among the record stacks and we're not going to lie, we already had our own copy among our collection back at Twee Towers... Oh, and definitely not forgetting Father Abraham in Smurfland... Who would ever buy this and why? Frightening!

...Perhaps not? We even considered going along the lines of a musical themed ornament to tie in with the giveaways...

If you're thinking "Oh my god, I've been desperately searching for a Rotating Musical Historical Model of Mary Queen of Scots" and/or "You know what that shelf is missing, an exceptionally creepy figurine of a strange looking old man with patched up trousers playing an accordian" - then we're sorry, we didn't purchase these, they're almost definitely still available from the Junk Yard though if you can't live without them ;)

The search wasn't entirely fruitless, we've still got some exciting things to giveaway this month, so keep checking back for more treats from us and don't forget to enter our Northern Soul Giveaway for this week :)

Much love,
R&L xx

After Dinner Dance Party // A Northern Soul Giveaway!

2012-03-05T09:22:00.001Z

We have been shimmying across the kitchen tiles in our After Dance Party this week, as we're spinning some British Soul! Paul Anka was one of the biggest teen idols of the 50s, he looked delightfully dashing in his day and he also wrote some massive hits for the likes of Tom Jones but we love him best for this underground dance floor stomping gem! Released in 1968, this 7" featuring 'I can't help loving you" on the A-side and 'Can't get along very well without her' on the flip has been wetting our appetite for another night at Yum Yum.
Good news, we have one copy of this 7" to giveaway this week (courtesy of Mr Bagshaw, thank you!)

To win, all you need to do is: 1. Follow our Facebook page 2. Leave a comment on this post to let us know that you've done it That's it! We'll then chose a winner on Friday using a random number generator and post your vinyl out to you!

We'll have a vinyl giveaway running each Monday throughout the month of March, so keep checking by to see if anything catches your fancy!

Much Love,
L&R xx

Twee Treats // Strawberry & Rose Curd.

2012-03-04T13:56:00.000Z

Hello Sweets,

Help! We have a new obsession... We've been getting a little retro in the kitchen lately and our sweet toothed thoughts and love of cooking have helped us stumble upon the joy of making our own preserves... It all started last weekend and now we've got lists as long as our arms for a million and one flavour combinations that we can't wait to get trying (so you'll probably see more yummy things like these in the coming weeks!)

This morning we decided we'd give a favourite tried and tested flavour combo (from when we made these milkshakes) a go in curd form...

Strawberry & Rose Curd

You will need:
500g Strawberries (hulled & halved)
2-3 tbs of Rose Syrup
2 large eggs (beaten)
60g butter (roughly chopped)
100g sugar
equipment:
large saucepan with lid
seive
Heat proof bowl
spoon
sterlised jars.
Step 1 - Take your strawberries and the rose syrup and put over a medium-low heat in a lidded saucepan for about 10 minutes, until soft (stir occassionally)
Step 2 - Transfer the mix into a seive and push through using the back of a spoon into a heatproof bowl, put the pulp in with the strained mixture once all the juice is squeezed out
Step 3 - Fill a saucepan with water and bring to boil, put the heatproof bowl with strawberries over the pan (water should not be touching the bottom of the bowl) - add the eggs, butter and sugar, stir continuously over a low heat until butter is melted.
Step 4 - Turn the heat up a little and then continue to stir for about 10 minutes as the mixture stars to thicken.
Step 5 - Pour straight into sterilised jam jars, put in the fridge to chill and set & you're done!

How easy was that! This yummy treat would be delightful sandwiched on a sponge cake, or just on toast with a cup of Rose Tea :)

We're looking forward to trying out other combos soon! Look out for those! We may even be brave and give jam a go next week.

Much love,
R&L xx

Friday Flicks // Moonrise Kingdom & Velvet Cave

2012-03-02T08:00:00.004Z

One

At last amigos, the weekend is upon us, time for a Friday Flick! Oh my, is anyone else insanely excited for Wes Anderson's new film, 'Moonrise Kingdom'? A new Anderson release is always an exciting feat but this looks incredible. Set in the 1960s, the plot centers around a young boy and girl falling in love and are moved to run away together. As always, Anderson's use of colour looks simply dreamy, especially against a backdrop of 60s props and beautiful costume. Not to mention the cast line up features Bill Murray, Edward Norton and the delightful Frances McDormand (her role as William's mum in Almost Famous wins her a place in our hearts forever). Oh, and not forgetting that Francoise Hardy makes up part of the soundtrack. Cannot wait. Hurry up and get in the cinema already!

Two

Talking of pretty 60s things, this week we've also been lusting after the new collection of vintage replicas by Velvet Cave Vintage, (also featured in our Swinging Saturday Style!) especially the green shift dress, inspired by the dress worn by Karen Gillan in 'We'll Take Manhatten!' We might need one...

Hope you have the best weekend!

Much love,

L&R xx

Sewing School // Love Heart Bunting Chains

2012-03-01T08:00:00.003Z

Hello Sweets,

Can you believe it's March already? A little DIY today for adding something fresh to your home in time for Spring...

Bunting is a fab way to add a touch of rustic charm to your home & you may have noticed from the Twee Towers Tour, that we love hanging it around our abode, but it doesn't have to be restricted to the usual flag shape! This week, we've been making love heart bunting chains to decorate small areas that looked like they needed a bit more love. If you're like us and have boxes upon boxes of paper and fabric scraps that you can't seem to throw away, this DIY is absolutely perfect for putting it all to good use!

You will need:

Paper scraps
Cookie Cutters (or anything else you'd like to use as a stencil!)
Sewing Machine and thread
Scissors

1. First of all choose a selection of papers in your chosen colour scheme and using the cookie cutters, trace around the heart shapes. The quantity will depend on the size of the space that you have to hang the bunting!

We went for card painted in a dusty blue, doilies for a lace effect and an atlas print!

2. Cut out your hearts!

3. Then it's time to get sewing! Line up your first heart in the machine, face down and sew left to right across the top. Between each heart, keep sewing for a couple of cm's before introducing the next heart to create your chain. When you're finished you should have a wonderful chain of heart bunting! (ps. apologies for the rubbish lighting, we're night owls and Twee Towers needs more lamps!)

4. You can either pin straight on to the wall or sew a bit of ribbon into a loop on either side of the chain to aid hanging! Pretty!

Much love,
L&R xx

Literal Lyrics: A sneak preview!

2012-02-29T08:00:00.001Z

Happy Leap Year everyone! Hope you're all making the most of the extra day! We're bringing monday wine night back (and re-branding it Wednesday wine night) with one of our favourite girlies Carla this eve, definitely looking forward to a catch up and a tipple, has been too long since we've all been together!
We're also currently in the process of re-jigging the prints that we have available on our Etsy shop (it's been a slightly abandoned recently - our 'I like You' prints are still available!) and thought it was high time that we added some new prints to the mix. We both been desperate to do some linear illustrations as all of the other pieces that we've put out have been digitally produced and we've got loads of ideas for a collection of slightly silly 'Literal Lyrics'. Lola had a little scribble over the weekend and we thought we share a sneak preview of one of our designs, 'The Beach Bouys: Surfin' USA!' By no means finalised just yet, look out for the full collection of literal lyrics on our Etsy page soon :)
Much love, L&R xx

After Dinner Dance Party // Surfbeats

2012-02-27T08:00:00.002Z

We fancied taking a short break from our usual vinyl revival posts to share a snippet of a vinyl we wished that we owned (please, if anyone can find these tracks for us, we'd LOVE it!) Since stumbling across the '60s garage, surf, freakbeat & psychedelic' channel on youtube, we've had to save it on to our bookmarks bar as we came back to it so regularly! As the weather has been getting a little warmer we can't stop dreaming of summer days and holidays so we've picked out a couple of our favourite West Coast surf instrumentals, rarely heard since they were first released on 45s...

First up, 'Ghost Hop' by the Surfmen! Love, love, love this tune. Apparently the music was provided for a film 'A life in the sun' but we haven't been able to find anything else about it anywhere, if you do, give us a shout!

The most incredible footage featuring synchronised life-saving! From volume 3 of the collection, it's 'Once and for all girl' by The Other 4!

Starting from next week, our After Dinner Dance Parties are going to include an extra treat for all you lovely people... a vinyl giveaway, one for each week in March! Check by next week to see how you can grab one!

Much love,

L&R xx

DIY Love // Fabric Wall Decals

2012-02-26T09:03:00.003Z

Happy Sunday Sweets,

Rhi here today, bringing you a quick DIY post. As I mentioned in Little M's Room Tour the cowboy theme is one that I had been planning for a long time ahead of our move to Twee Towers, and I have been gathering coordinating fabrics and accessories since he was just a few months old!

Among my cowboy fabric stash was some beautiful bandana style paisley that I wanted to keep for something special, this morning I decided the time was now and I was going to use them for some awesome fabric wall decals. This is such a quick and simple DIY and it looks amazing, perfect way to really individualise a child's room and make it their own!

Step 1: Iron out your fabric and draw out your shape. You can use a stencil to help you with this. Cut it out and iron again to ensure it is flat!

Step 2: Boil up some water. Put 1 tablespoon of cornstarch into a bowl and and 2 tablespoons of water to make a paste. Gradually add 1 cup of boiling water stirring as you go.

Step 3: Wet your fabric through with the mixture (we did this in the bath as the sticker was quite big, can use a tray for smaller decals), use a sponge and soak out the excess so that the decal isn't dripping.

Step 4: Smooth decal onto the wall, starting in one corner, smoothing out with a dry sponge as you go.
If you have these sorts of frayed edges use a paint brush dipped in the mixture to smooth them down and hide them.

and finished! The opposite wall in M's room is bare at the moment, so contemplating a much bigger decal and/or a wild west town scene of some sort... Will be sure to show you whatever I decide to do with it!

Much love,
Rhi & Little M xx

A Vintage Outfit Post // Dogtooth in 35mm

2012-02-25T08:00:00.006Z

Hello lovers,

Lola here today! Last we week we were riffling though our iphoto collections (attempting to tidy it up a little, we didn't realise how many photos we've taken until our laptops started groaning at us & unwillingly meandering to their instructed destinations, eek!) It seemed such a shame to leave some of the photos that we came across lying dormant in a folder, so today we are unveiling the first of (probably not very many), 'Vintage Outfit Posts!' Although, only a small portion of the outfits featured are made up of vintage attire, we like to think of this as a nostalgic hommage to outfit posts gone by :)

These particular set of photos were taken in early 2010, around the time of James & I's first trip to Berlin and when I'd clearly decided to abandon the fringe maintenance! I'd taken to pinching his dogtooth blazer (not his originally, undeniably a much loved second hand piece!) and wearing it over dresses. We'd borrowed James' dad's OM1 Olympus camera and decided to have a play around with a couple of 35mm films.

Looking back now, I love all the charming photographical quirks, accidental double exposures and candid expressions captured by our snap happy fingers...

Aww, that last photo of two little ladies warms my heart everytime I see it, so incredibly sweet!

Dogtooth blazer: Second-hand
Boots: River Island
Pocketwatch: Vintage
White Sun dress: Urban Outfitters
Black shift dress: Topshop
Headband: DIY (fashioned from a bit of fabric, cut out of an underskirt!)

Enjoy your weekend sweets, I'm heading up to Sheffield today for a photoshoot with Alice Takes A Trip... and to preview their new collection, excitement!

Much love,
L&R xx

Meet our Sponsors...

2012-02-24T08:00:00.001Z

Hello Sweets,

We thought that it was high-time we introduce to you to some of our favourite people in the blogosphere... Introducing our darling sponsors and why we love them :)

♥♥♥

Her Name is Greta... Stina is our favourite Swedish Sweetheart. Her blog is simply darling, with lots of cute little DIYs, some insanely yummy looking recipes (seriously, these cookies look too delicious, willing lent to pass quickly so we can test this out!!) and lots of adorable pictures of her cute kitties MjauMjau & Semla. Love ♥

♥♥♥

Laughing with Broken Eyes. Amber is such a doll, hope you caught her guest post this week?, do not miss her wonderful outfit posts, girly rocks vintage looks so, so well. We love her daily poetic musings about life, confidence, happiness, such an inspiration! She can sing too, is about to start writing a book and juggles another blog in with her college studies, is there nothing this busy honey bee can't do?!

♥♥♥

Pretty Much Penniless, we love, love, love Ellie's style, she works vintage and highstreet combo's so, so well you'd think everything had been designed and made especially for her. We first spotted this gorgeous girly in Company magazine, which practically makes her famous in our eyes for sure! We're oh so excited to carry on reading about how her wedding plans develop and seeing more of her fab DIYs, while learning plenty of money saving and shopping tips to boot!

♥♥♥

Wake Up Lovely. Kate was one of our very first bloggy friends, we were so pleased to be taken under the wing by such a lovely blogger! Her posts are soo uplifting and creative, we' ve loved her goal setting this year, and her lovely encouraging posts about embracing your hobbies and her positive designs. Just the place you need to visit when you're in need of a little boost :)

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Amy Flying a Kite, another beautiful girly with incredible style and a lovely poetic writing style. Amy's outfit posts are beyond dreamy, fabulously folky looks that she makes look simply effortless and timeless, such a wonderful innate style.

Thank you so much for joining us girls. xxx

Hope you've enjoyed getting to know a little more about the dolls up on our sponsor bar on the right there. If you'd like to join them please check our Sponsor page for more details.

Much love,
R&L xx

Sponsor us for Spring?

2012-02-22T08:00:00.000Z

Can you believe it's nearly March already? Soo looking forward to digging out our Spring wardrobes, pastel hues, tea parties in the garden and lots more sunshine!

It also means that it's time to start thinking about our sponsor spaces for March! We've absolutely loved welcoming our first sponsors on to the She Dressed in Black ship (we'll be putting up a nice little write up about them next week <3 ) and we'd like to ask if anyone else would like to come aboard and join us on the sidebar over there?

With a goal of promoting everything charmingly brilliant, we love sharing vintage styling, sweet DIYS, the creation of our collection, sewing tips that we pick up along the way and musical gems! Take a look at our January highlights for an overview of our blog! We'd love to promote more small businesses and beautiful, inspiring blogs!

For more info on the super duper introductory price that we can offer you, take a look at our sponsor page or get in touch with us at info[at]shedressedinblack.co.uk where we will be happy to discuss your requirements or answer any questions!

Information regarding readership and recent statistics are available upon request :)

That's all sweets! Hope you're having a lovely week!

Much love,
L&R

Guest Post // Amber Rose Likes...

2012-02-21T08:00:00.002Z

Hello Sweets,

We're so pleased to bring you a guest post from one of our favourites Amber Rose of http://www.modestjune.com/ - She's an absolute sweetheart and we were lucky enough to get to design one of our 'I Like You' prints for her after running a giveaway during our launch month... If you'd like your own 'I Like You' print please get in touch via our Etsy Shop or the Contact button :)

Hello! My name is Amber Rose...

A few months ago, I was lucky enough to win an ‘I Like You’ print from Rhi and Lauren. I was so excited as I got to draft up a list of my favorite things, always a fun task and a chance to get creative. Needless to say, I sent those poor gals quite the list. Within hardly any time at all, I had a beautifully framed piece of who I am to display proudly in my bedroom. I really wish I had a photo of it hanging on hand, but it is in my bedroom with my parents and I’m currently at university. Still, this will suffice as it is the picture itself!

Really, anything I could hope to say about myself is in this print—the white noise of my persona, so to speak!

I love that the first thing people see when the enter my room is this adorable list of my likes, of who I am!

Anyhow, I've rambled enough. I hope you're all having a most wonderful day!

xo,
Amber Rose
www.modestjune.com

Guest Post // James' Vintage Tips - Part 1: Charity Shops

2012-02-20T08:00:00.004Z

Vintage clothing and paraphernalia has been a love of many people over the years, though in recent years the adoration for it is not only cross generation but cross gender too!
This overwhelming demand for old goods has made now made it widely available within chain-stores, hence raising the price of what is merely second hand goods.

Generally there is more vintage clothing available to women, whereby hoards of attire usually inundates the modest male selection in shops. Let this not deter the males searching for exquisite clobber, there are a few good tips i'm going to share...

Charity Shops:
An obvious one, but if you don the metaphorical monocle while meandering around you may find something of high caliber. Patience is of importance, you cant expect to find something good every time but if you persist you often do. Also, try to ignore any clothing labeling ie: Men/Women, although you may feel a little odd looking through the female racks, you always have an excuse... 'Im looking for a top for my mum, honest!' or something along those lines.

I have realized recently that clothing in a many cases is unisex, high street fashion stores that retail vintage have a labeling system, though I've seen many jackets in males sections what were obviously women's.

So, ignore the system, just go with your instinct, watch out for stitching round the breast area, thats usually a good sign. Even if you buy fashion faux pas, at least it only cost you a couple of pound, or less!

Hints and tips to getting your vintage collection of odds and sods:
1. Strike up a friendship with a worker whom you see regularly (don't get pally with the guy/girl who is on work experience who isn't a permanent member of staff)
2. Once you are on first name terms try to drop a hint of what kind of clothing/item you are generally after.
3. Give them a form of contact, email, phone or telegram (depending on how old fashioned you are)
4. Voila, If something comes in, you will be notified! Hopefully even before they put it/them out on the shop floor!

I've got a good couple of friends who work in one of the charity shops on town, and they are always on the lookout for me, kindly enough. Here are some of my finds from local charity shops...

A burgundy blazer & candy striped short sleeved button down shirt in an unusual colour combination of yellow, orange and baby blue, destined for the beach! Both purchased for under £6.00!

Nautical, fish eye mirror with a brass frame - a wonderful, vintage find at only £4.00!

Vintage peacock coloured 60s coat, dashing with curved lapels and gold buttons (which I might get round to changing for dark blue, velvet buttons!) Bought for £7.00.

A beautiful, almost indian paisley with intricate detailing and unusual colour combinations - well worth taking the time to search out!
Thanks to the girls at She Dressed in Black for letting me share part 1 of my vintage tips, keep a look out for part deux where i'll be sharing another useful insight into expanding your vintage collection on a shoe string.
Cheers, James Fables of History

Guest Post // Chris' Eighties Challenge

2012-02-18T08:00:00.000Z

Hello, my name is Chris. I've been mentioned on this blog a few times, visiting Twee Towers, enjoying the cocktails and carefully designed buffets.

My main job is as Graphic Designer in the same place with LP. We have fun, doing doodles, making calendars more fun by sticking print outs of celebs on animals, usual stuff. There is some work too. But that is far too boring to discuss. Occasionally Lauren presents me with a challenge, I don't like turning down challenges. Usually starts with "bet you couldn't..." then I end up on some kind of quest. I'd be awesome on the Crystal Maze. I understand a lot of people who read this will be unfamiliar with the popular game show/team building exercise of the early 90s. So, here you go.

This particular challenge was to listen to every single UK number one record since 1980 to the present day. Sounds like fun, really isn't. I hate you Madonna, I hate you. She pops up every couple of years completely different to how she was before. Like a flipping (not allowed to swear) Timelord. Nevertheless I took on this quest, here I shall list the highlights, of which there are few. One thing I will say to give you an insight into how depressing this challenge was. Around 2:15pm on a rainy Wednesday, this comes on. Almost gave up because of this guy.

UK Number one. I don't care if it's Christmas, if that was a real man he has a horrendous disability and needs to be treated with some kind of respect. Like trousers, trousers are the start of respect. He's so drugged up he can only do one expression, you could say that's jolly. Personally, look behind those eyes and that's the look of a crying man. "Blobby blobby blobby" roughly translates to "please, I can't take this anymore, just give me some pants." That bit when he tried to do all the maths with Carol Voderman then just blobbied out. Makes me sick.

The UK has produced some amazing music over the course of forever and those little chunks of good stuff are what kept me in the game. 1980 was when Ashes to Ashes got to number one. I love Bowie, who doesn't love Bowie, or doing a Bowie impression, you just have to sound as if you're always on the edge of a cliff, bit of a wobble but I'm ok! I could show you Ashes to Ashes, but I won't. Here's Flight of The Conchords.

The early 80s was actually alright, Blondie was there, The Specials released Ghost Town, I enjoyed that. In '82 The Jam were at number one with Beat Surrender. All is good in popsville. I can put up with Kajagoogoo. I'm a reasonable man. By 83' Billy Joel was at number one with Uptown Girl. That's a proper wedding song. I love a good wedding, so when a song like that comes on, I'll be on the dancefloor, in my head it's like the video, but in reality the Bridesmaids really aren't interested in my shoulder shuffle.

"That pint isn't a wrench....you're not Billy Joel and this isn't a Kwik Fit" :(

85' we all got a bit power ballad, Foreigner, Jennifer Rush. I wasn't born in 1985 but I'm pretty sure everybody looked out of rainy windows, thinking about lost loves. Bring on 86', Europe, The Final Countdown…

"We're heading for Venus and still we stand tall! Cos maybe they've seen us!!"

I can't decipher this line. Who's seen who? Why are we going to Venus, I thought we were still counting down? Who knows.

I realise I've missed out loads of stuff. But you know, it's a decade, and I'm only doing things that went to number one. I can't keep up with everything, just following the tunes. Sorry Spandau Ballet.

'88! Year of my birth. Belinda Carlisle was number one in January with "Heaven Is A Place On Earth" I'm glad that song was number one when I was born. It's an 80s anthem. Sorry to all the people who had to be born with Orinoco Flow by Enya as their birthday song in '88. Unless of course they are Elves off of Lord of the Rings, then they might enjoy that. I bet Elves love Enya.

Ha, we're imposing a new rule... one must always end a post with a picture of an elf. Thanks for a great post Chris!

Much love,
L&R xx

Reels of Cotton & a bundle of nerves...

2012-02-17T08:00:00.002Z

Ahh, does anyone else find it so daunting to make a definitive start on projects that you have been dreaming up for so long? It's time to finally make a start on our first girly Spring/Summer collection of attire and we've got to admit, we're starting to bite our nails a little bit.

The ideas come thick and fast...one of our first nights living in Twee Towers we stayed up to the early hours bouncing around ideas and we've been working on them ever since. We set ourselves an objective to start the project this month, and we've certaintly organised, prepped and re-organised enough to allow us to start but when it comes to the actual cutting and sewing of fabric, the deadline has been pushed back... until the first lot of fabric arrives... until the second lot of fabric arrives... "wait, we can't start yet... we don't have zips!"

We've launched ourselves head first into everything else, our sewing school projects (making the cutest DIY fancypants & our take on patchwork chevron cushions), the blog itself materialised after a couple of hard-working weeks planning (and the help of our fab designer Zoe!) but with our dress collection, we've been so much more precious with it! So, tomorrow is THE DAY! The day that fabric meets scissors and catches up with our old friend the sewing machine. If you see either of us procastinating on twitter, watching this on repeat, debating the difference between arial and helvetica or anything else we might try and do instead, please feel free to shout! And hopefully, we'll have something pretty to share with you soon :)

One

Two

Three

Four

Five
Nom, we want pistachio green sewing machines!

Sooooo that we've got absolutely no more excuses not to crack on with getting the collection made, we have the most wonderful collection of guest posts lined up for you in the coming week . Kicking off this week, our lovely friend Chris will be sharing a hilarious insight into a musical challenge he was set, whilst James will be contributing some really useful tips for charity & vintage shopping! As well as all that, we'll also have some super fab guest posts from a host of our favouritist bloggers and friends! We treat you well here at Twee Towers ;)

So please excuse us whilst we hibernate in our beautiful little studio for the week and we'll be right back with our usual features and some exciting sewing school projects for you to try to!

Anyway, it's the weekend, go and enjoy yourself kitty cats!

Much love,
L&R xx

Mini DIY // Wizard Statues

2012-02-15T21:57:00.005Z

Hey Sweets,

We'd like to introduce you to two charming new additions to our household...

When we found the above kit in a local shop, we just HAD to buy it... Making our lovely magical busts was such fun, especially with a little She Dressed in Black customisation at the end...

Mix the plaster according to instructions and fill the molds...

And then you will have two rather beautiful mini statues...

Paint them up all pretty, gold befitting of a hero like severus... Voldy we decided needed a fresh new look, something to soften his intimidating demeanor a little perhaps...

A quick doddle with a felt tip and voila. Doesn't be look dashing?

Finally, finishing Severus up with some of the left over fabric from the He Dressed in Black collection... and there we have some pretty special additions to Twee Towers.
Thinking of reusing the molds to make some fun Easter chocolates too! You can get the kits from amazon, but shop around as we picked ours up for just £4!

Much love,
R&L xx

Rhi Likes // Conspiracy Theories...

2012-02-15T08:00:00.003Z

Hello sweets,

My turn to talk about my likes again... I love a good conspiracy theory, who doesn't? Did we really land on the moon in '69? Is Elvis still living it up somewhere in secret? Not forgetting the grassy knoll...

My absolute favourite conspiracy is the 'Paul is Dead' theory - where Beatles fans obsessively hunted out clues that apparently pointed towards the untimely death of Sir Paul (god forbid!) and his mysterious replacement... They sought out clues in lyrics (played forward and backwards!), album art and photographs from public appearances... What fascinates me the most is the way that these rumours spread like wildfire across the world back in the 60s, without today's social media platforms, online forums or other such means of instantaneous information sharing (read: gossiping) . This lack of modern media also probably helped fuel the fire and keep it burning for so long, without the power of immediate PR response and speedy press releases rebutting these sorts of wild rumours the fans were able to let their imaginations run amok...

So the outline of this phenomenon for those who are unfamiliar - reportedly Paul stormed out of a rehearsal in 66 and then was involved in a fatal accident, to save the fans from grief they quickly replaced McCartney with the winner of a look-a-like competition, supposedly a man named William Campbell...

Some of my favourite clues were 'hidden' within the album artwork from subsequent releases... you won't believe you missed them ;)

Behold, one of the most recognisable album covers in pop history, a masterpiece by one of my all time favourite artists, Peter Blake. Cleverly hidden within this wonderful example of pop art in its prime are some 'unmistakable' clues that lead to no other conclusion but to believe the stories of McCartney's untimely demise... First ladies and gents, cast your eyes to the left of the image, wax works of the fab four in their younger days mournfully looking down upon an apparent funeral floral arrangement. Within that flower arrangement is the bass guitar, positioned as left-handed Paul would have carried it... To the right of the image a bloodied driving glove sits beside that broken looking doll. Did you miss that Paul is the only Beatle carrying a black instrument? A hand hovers above his head, a blessing? ... AND Edgar Allan Poe is set among those famous faces, a sure sign of the darkness afoot. It is rumoured that Lennon requested a cut out of Jesus Christ, but that would have been FAR too obvious, his request was denied. Serious PID'ers (Paul Is Dead...ers) would chastise me for failing to point out the most significant clue, the image you see when you place a mirror along the middle of the words 'Lonely Hearts', but I'm trying to ease you in gently to the world of conspiracy... But admit it, it is undeniable, Paul must be dead... Need further evidence... Check out the cover of Abbey Road...

Again, you'll have seen this image oh so many times in your life, you'll be absolutely furious with yourself when I highlight The Beatles' most blatant display of Paul-Is-Dead-ery... John Lennon leads the procession here, dressed all in white, symbolic of his being Christ/God/A Preacher, of course... Ringo behind him there, dressed in black, a mourner at this devastating scene, dear George at the rear in the workman's denim, which could only symbolise the fact that he is the grave digger... and Paul, or Faul (Faux Paul, see what they did there? Paux doesn't have the same ring) as William Campbell was now fondly known by the PIDs, barefoot, dead man walking, out of step with the other 3, clearly signifying his role as the corpse in this scenario.

I probably should have ensured that you were sitting before reading this, if you're new to the theory you're probably rather shell shocked right now... Rest assured though, whoever the Man was on this day in 2010 or when Lauren caught a show just before Christmas, be it Living Legend Sir Paul or Faul, he certainly doesn't disappoint.

To finish, here is 'I am The Walrus' - which apparently is intentionally nonsensical and was written to confuse those who looked for significant meanings and alternative interpretations in every Beatles song... Certainly didn't stop those pesky PID'ers trying though...

Much love,
Rhi xx

ps. Disclaimer note: I'm almost 99% sure that Sir Paul is the real Paul... almost.

Be Mine?

2012-02-14T08:00:00.014Z

Much love, Rhianna, Lauren, James & Little M xx

After Dinner Dance Party // Cheated Hearts

2012-02-13T08:00:00.003Z

What could be more fitting for Valentines week Vinyl Revival than this lovely special edition Heart Shaped Yeah Yeah Yeahs record. Truly sweet even though, unfortunately, it doesn't spin all too well, it's still a special piece in our record collection. Perhaps a slightly anti V-Day song choice, despite the record being aesthetically perfect for the theme... Check out our Facebook page for a more romantic Yeah Yeah Yeahs selection ♥

Love this video of fan performances. Karen O - a goddess as always.

Spreading more love tomorrow!

Much love
R&L xx

Twee Treats // Love & Lavender Cake.

2012-02-12T13:31:00.000Z

Hello Sweets,

We've had another flurry of snow, so we're not off on too many adventures this weekend (hibernation for the Twee Girls!) so while we're staying cosy indoors we've passed the time with an epic bake-a-thon. Not quite the quick and simple sort of recipe we usually share, this is a labour of love, but oh so very worth it! So, set aside an afternoon and create this little wonder:

Lavender & Love Chocolate Cake

Those who have been around from the early days of SDiB may have heard about our trade up from Rose Tea to Lavender Tea due to our local supermarket ceasing to stock our rosey fave, however, we're not settling anymore and the heart warming lavender and bergamot infusion is well and truly imbedded within our evening ritual, now we're immortalising it in cake form. We're also pretty excited to finally be making use of our lovely lavender sugar that Rhi bought in France last summer.

Ingredients:

Cake-
6 Lavender Earl Grey Tea bags (we use Twinings)
150ml Boiling Water
100g unsalted butter (melted & cooled)
3 eggs
150g dark brown sugar
100g light muscavado sugar
250g self raising flour
120g plain chocolate (good quality -70% cocoa solids, melted & cooled)
1tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
1tsp Baking Powder
3tbsps Greek Yoghurt

Lavender Cream-
4 Lavender tea bags
100ml boiling water
3tsps light muscavado sugar
6tsps Lavender flavoured sugar
250g Cream Cheese

Chocolate icing-
150g plain chocolate
100ml double cream
3tbsps honey

To decorate-
More Lavender sugar...
Candy hearts & Scrabble Letters...

Ready to start? After preheating the oven to 180 degrees, pop the teabags for the cake in the boiling water and infuse for 5minutes, squeeze out water and leave the tea to cool.

Grease and line a 20cm cake tin.
Mix your dry ingredients (sugar, flour, baking powder/soda) mix the tea, melted butter, chocolate, eggs and yoghurt seperately and then beat all the ingredients together until smooth.
Pour into the cake tin and cook for 50mins (or until a skewer comes out clean!) - Once baked, pop out of tin and leave to cool fully for 2hrs...

Moving onto the cream - stew the tea and water for 5 minutes again, this time in a pan. Take out the tea bags and add the sugars (we added some lavender sugar directly to the cream cheese too!), bring the tea to boil until you have a lovely lavender syrup. Leave to cool then beat in the cream cheese.

Once the cake is completely cooled, cut in two and spread on the cream filling. Then melt the chocolate for the icing, add the cream and honey and smooth straight over the cake, use a spatula to ensure even coverage.

Finish off with a sprinkle of lavender flavoured sugar and decorate if you like, and you're done. Something very theraputic about an afternoon spent baking, such a lovely way to waste a day. Cannot express how amazing that cream filling is as well, to die for, going to make a plainer cake soon and use it as icing and really let that lovely flavour shine.

Hope you've enjoyed your weekend, hope you'll be joining us for our usual dance party slot on tomorrow... :)

Much love,
R&L xx

A week in Instagrams...

2012-02-11T08:00:00.001Z

With a week of couple of weeks of snowy days, we've been seriously craving home comforts & creativity...

Hope you're all having a darling weekend sweets!Much love, L&R xx

Literature Love // Charity Finds

2012-02-10T08:00:00.001Z

Always on a quest to build up our collection of reads (we watched too much Beauty & the Beast as kids - a home library the size of Belle's is the ultimate goal), we were super impressed with James' recent purchases from a charity shop last weekend - and they were all half priced too!

From top left:

1. 'English Costume: 1066-1820', plates of colour illustrations mixed with line drawings, created for designers of theatrical productions, gives an excellent idea of how dress making has changed through the ages!
2. 'Vertigo: The Making of a Hitchcock Classic', with a foreword by Scorsese. Especially love the hand drawn sketches of the set by Hitchcock, as he imagined the scenes he was about to bring to life. 3. A pocket sized short story by Fitzgerald, 'Babylon Revisted'. 4. 'Playbill: Full Colour Covers from the Golden Age of Broadway' - unlike today's playbill covers, which represent the show, the covers form this period (1900-1930) rarely changed. Instead, leading commercial artists of the day were commisioned to create distinctive signature covers for each individual theatre.This book contains a collection of postcards of each cover, with an overall Art Nouveau theme, they would look lovely framed!

Soo good, we're going to try and all pick up a couple of books every month, to keep the collection growing! Keep an eye out for James' guest posts in a couple of weeks, in which he shares his tips for finding gems amongst the rubble in charity shops!

Much love, L&R xx

Upcycled Reflections

2012-02-09T08:00:00.004Z

Last time we gave you a tour of the Twee Towers hallway, we had inherently settled upon a predominately green colour scheme! After manically, decorating the whole house in under a month when we first moved in (we were just so excited, we pretty much worked flat out!), we've since found ourselves lusting for more home DIY projects to rejuvinate the areas that were left a little bare. One of the things that was calling out for a makeover was the mirror in the hallway. A lovely simple shape but the plain beech coloured wood just blended into to the ombre coloured walls so we decided it needed a bright pop of colour!

As we already have this beaut Orla Kiely print hanging on the stairs, we thought it'd be cute to use the same colour scheme to create a shabby, swatchy style print around the frame to give the mirror a new lease of life.

To do this yourself all you'll need is:

Acryllic paint (the thickness of the acryllic holds really well on top of varnished wood)
A frame to paint!

So simple!

Firstly, mask off the edges of the mirror to avoid spills! Next, after mixing your colours, start painting swatches around the frame. We tried to match the order of our colours to the order of the Orla Kiely print.

The first coat - don't worry about being too accurate with the sizing of your stripes, we thought it'd be cute to mix it up a bit. You may need to do a couple of coats of any paler colours to completely cover the wood.

Once your finished, leave to dry and then peel of the masking tape. That's really all it takes.

A perfect burst of brightness we think!

Hope you enjoyed this little tutorial, we'll soon be sharing more of our Sewing School projects as we start making our first collection of dresses, eeee... with the fabrics purchased, patterns planned and skills polished, we are just about ready to roll!

Much love,
L&R xx

A Belated New Years Resolution...

2012-02-07T08:00:00.001Z

Photo's taken with our iphones... for the last time... maybe ;)

Much love,

L&R xx

After Dinner Dance Party // Teddy Boys

2012-02-06T08:00:00.009Z

Another charming vinyl find from our very successful carboot rummage last year. Elvis Presley hits Vol 1 features a delightful array of Mr Presley's most loved early hits that has had us twirling After Dinner this Week, lifting spirits and giving us a healthy dose of inspiration for our collection too :)

Our pick for this week is (Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear, released between All Shook Up and Jailhouse Rock, it charted at Number 1 for 7 weeks (Elvis' 3rd Number 1 of that year) ... It was also performed, as in the video below, in Elvis' second feature film 'Loving You'.

The lyrics have us smiling everytime and Elvis has us melting, we would SO let him be our teddy bear. Oh my!

So, resisting temptation to turn this into a blog entirely devoted to Elvis fangirling, we shall leave it at that for this week. Be sure to pop over to our Facebook page for a bonus track from the record.

Much love sweets,
R&L
xx

DIY Love // Lola's Family Nests

2012-02-04T08:00:00.001Z

A short but sweet DIY to share with you today! As well as purchasing gifts for our families for Christmas last year, we made it our mission to create something special for them when we could. Particularly, when buying for our grandparents with an ever expanding family, we've found it's become increasingly difficult to buy them something unique!

Originally, designed as an alterative to wedding guestbooks, Lola first spotted across these amazing 'Finger Print Tree Guestbooks' on snaps from a wedding and thought it was such a fabulous idea. With no wedding invitations on the horizon, she decided to adapt this idea to make 'Family Nest' prints for her grandparents!

Here's a little step-by-step to how you can make them yourselves...

Firstly, after measuring card in your chosen colour (I went for a slightly off white) to fit your frame, draw out the outline for your tree. Bear in mind, you'll need lots of branches if you have a big family (this is why it's a good idea to do it in pencil first so you can play with the space you have!)

Once you're happy with your design go over in black ink - coloured if you're after a more vibrant print!

The idea for the orginial 'finger print tree guest book' is to get your wedding guests to each leave their fingerprint to represent the bird in the tree, but as my nests were to be gifts, I thought I'd complete the Family Nest with a family of birds! I found these rubber stamps on Ebay which included birdy couples & cute owls!

Then just stamp on your birds! Keep track of the number of birds/family members of you might end up with a few miscellaneous birds of your tree!

I wanted it to look really bright so I used acryllic paint to make a turquoise but it would probably work a lot better with an actual ink pad as it was a bit too thick for the delicately, engraved stamps.

I completed the pieces by writing everyone's name next to a bird (starting with my grandparents at the head of the tree and working down to parents, aunts & uncles, cousins etc) And that's all there is to it! The Family Nests look great mounted and framed and the best bit is... you can keep adding to it as your Family grows!

It's such a lovely idea for a personalised gift and my grandparents really loved them <3

Much love,
L&R xx

Friday Flicks // We'll Take Manhattan

2012-02-03T08:00:00.003Z

Hey Sweets,

Another week down, another fabulous film suggestion for you all. Available on BBC I-Player right now is 'We'll Take Manhattan' - the wonderful story of the love affair between David Bailey and Jean Shrimpton, alongside their 'take over' of British Vogue with Bailey's revolutionary photography and Shrimpton's 'refreshing' beauty that catapulted her as the world's first 'super model' and true 1960s icon.

Karen Gillan is utterly charming as Shrimpton, all doe-eyed innocence and ever so slightly awkward, and sneaky crushes definitely developped for Aneurin Barnard as Bailey. Such an excellent supporting cast of familiar faces - truly a lovely film, not to be missed!

Hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

Much love,
R&L xx

Lauren Likes // Wartime Love Letters

2012-02-02T08:00:00.004Z

Hey darlings,

My turn again to shed a little more insight into my 'likes' and as valentines day is almost upon us, this week I'm sharing my penchant towards old-fashioned romance and Wartime Love Letters!

I've been interested in War Literature since school, delving into endless accounts of the horrors of WW1, which were often so heart-breaking but at the same time, incredibly fascinating. Frequently, the narratives confess the camaraderie that existed between the men on the front line but rarely, do you find out about the relationships that underpin that era, those between the men and their beaus.

Before the age of texts and emails, beautifully hand-written letters were the only way to express feelings to loved ones far away and now through online archives, it's possible to read through these personal and ever so lovely exhanges! Yay!

I love the idea that these letters may well have become airlooms, passed down through families, revealing the secrets of an individual's ancestry and how it all started out during such troubling times.

My absolute, favourite has to be the letters between Idris & Winifred, contributed on the BBC's WW2 archive. Sent to his sweetheart at the dawn of the Second World War, Idris uses the most heart-warming words & beautiful musical metaphors to describe his love for Winifred.

Letter source: BBC WW2 Archive - take a look to read all of Idris' letters!

My gosh, I don't even think of myself as an overly romantic person, just a sucker for some well-written words, but gah, just completely lovely! The line, "Our lives are ours to shape as we will" is the sweetest ever. It really struck a chord, it's such a simplistic meesage but an inspirational sentiment to live by.

I can't help but wonder how it all turned out for them both!

I hope you all enjoyed reading :)

Much love,
L xx

January Highlights...

2012-02-01T08:00:00.035Z

Hey Sweets,

What a lovely start to 2012 January was! Here's our highlights of this months' posts...

After wishing you all a Happy New Year we got stuck into Refreshing & Reviving our studio and She Dressed in Black as a blog...

Our Number 1 highlight was without a doubt making our very first silent film recipe for Chocolate and Violet Cupcakes!

We also really enjoyed showing our experiments from the studio and sharing tutorials for Fancy Pants and Chevron Patchwork Cushion.

Part of our 'Refreshing' was to bring in 'Vinyl Revival' to our After Dinner Dance Parties
Part 1 // Part 2 // Part 3 // Part 4

Literature Love - Limehouse Blues and 1969 Playboy

We did a mini shoot to show off our favourite brands from our wardrobes. Rhi picked Jovonna London and Lola showed off her Alice Takes a Trip collection. Plus some behind the scenes snaps...

We reached 100 followers! YAY! So we gave a few somethings away to our followers :)

Lola showed some of her adorable illustrations in response to the question "If you could do anything tomorrow, what would you do?"

Rhi unleashed her inner geek...

We celebrated Twee Tower's regular Colour Wizard Chris' 24th Birthday with cocktails and northern soul...

We shared some more art from around Twee Towers by Rob Ryan

We announced the launch of Stitch n' Bitch

We had some blustery Twee Troubles

And another new feature - Friday Flicks, kicking off with An Affair to Remember, followed by Band A Part

Busy, busy, busy! February is going to be even more hectic here in the Twee Studio so we shall be bringing you some fabulous guest posts - can't wait to let our friends loose on the blog again, hope you'll enjoy them :)

Much love,
R&L xx

After Dinner Dance Party // Vinyl Revival Pt. 4

2012-01-30T08:00:00.007Z

We hope it hasn't gone unnoticed that Ringo Starr is quite possibly our favourite Beatle (sorry John, Paul & George!) ... So who better to feature this week than the genius behind Octopus's Garden himself? Back in the stacks of Rhi's Dad's collection is this rather special single - Ringo Starr - Only You.

This single is from his 1974 album Goodnight Vienna, John Lennon actually recorded the initial demo of this version and sent it to Ringo suggesting that he cover it. Lennon plays acoustic guitar on the track while Ringo replaced his vocal and brought in Harry Nilsson ("Everybody's talkin' at me...") to sing the harmonies.

Not only does Ringo Appear on the single sleeve and the video wearing a space suit (thrilling, we love space too!), there's also a UFO flying above the Hollywood Hills at the start (Eee! Ringo as a spaceman AND unidentified flying objects, too much!) - here is the brilliant video, filmed atop Capitol Records, LA!

If you're hearing this for the first time and thinking, "Gee, that song is certainly familiar, why is it so familiar?" - then listen to the original below from The Platters, Ringo sure does make it his own, only just recognisable as the track originally released in 1955!

C'est tout for this week sweets. Don't forget to check the facebook page for a bonus Ringo track!

Much love,
R&L xx

Behind the Scenes Snapshots

2012-01-29T08:00:00.004Z

Just because it's a Sunday, wanna have a sneak peek of our behind the scenes photobooth snaps from our outfits posts this week? It was so much fun parading around Twee Towers in all our favourite dresses!

NB. We've remembered to proof read our spelling of the words "sneak peek" after being told off by the sneak peek police of twitter this week, eek!

We'll leave you with a little Regina treat for the weekend, Happy Sunday sweets!

Much love,
L&R xx

Boutique Love // Alice Takes A Trip

2012-01-28T08:00:00.039Z

Hey lovelies, As Rhi mentioned in the first Boutique Love outfit post, last weekend we had a mini photoshoot to show off some of our favourite boutique labels. This week I'm sharing my love for the Sheffield based label 'Alice Takes A Trip' who create Victoriania inspired attire, using divine coloured velvets and pretty lace detailing!

I first discovered the label through their premium capsule collections, 'The Tales of Alice Horretta', and immediately fell in love. I spent endless hours trawling through their teeny shop in Sheffield's Forum - a wonderful treasure trove for vintage attire and independent labels. Their first collection featured stunning bottle green velvet dresses, that I'm still a little sad that I missed out on!

All these dreamy garments are still made by two sisters in their Sheffield studio. I always convince myself that they are to be special occasion dresses, but then end up wearing them all the time! In honour of the label, here's a little Alice in Wonderland inspired outfit post. Just follow the white rabbit...

Without a doubt my favourite dress in the world - a Black Velvet Polka Dot number with Lace Collar. With a double whammy occasion day last year (becoming Little M's godmother at his Christening in the morning and heading to London in the evening to watch the boy's band play at the Royal Albert Hall - best day ever!), I needed an extra special dress and this is the one I decided on. Definitely my go-to dress, wearing it for shopping trips, work, festivals as well as nights out!

Dress, Alice Takes a Trip; white tights, Topshop; Pocketwatch, Vintage (a gift from James, put on a necklace)

Ahh, my first Alice purchase! Insanely beautiful, cream and navy with a cute scallopped edge and bought for my 22nd birthday. From the first Spring/Summer 'Alice Horretta' collection - it was SO hard to chose just one dress from this collection, they were all so perfect.

Dress, Alice Takes A Trip, Socks, Topshop; Pocketwatch, as above.

Rose print dress with lace collar and velvet bow! Bought, just because... ;)

Dress, Alice Takes A Trip; Socks, Urban Outfitters; Cardigan, H&M; Ribbon tied as belt.

A pretty summer purchase... broderie anglaise top with blue bow and cute tie detail. Love wearing this with jeans or shorts in the summer! You can't host a tea party without an ostentatious hat, this one is a 60s fedora picked up at my favourite local vintage store, Dolly Mix Vintage.

Top, Alice Takes A Trip; Jeans, Topshop; Hat, Dolly Mix Vintage

That's all sweets. Don't forget to check out Rhi's post if you missed it on Thursday!

Much love,
L xx

Friday Flick

2012-01-27T08:00:00.005Z

Feet up, wrapped under blankets and sipping on insanely delightful Rose infused Lemonade (seriously, the nicest drink in the world!) and eating our way through cinema style pick'n'mix bags from our stash left over from all last months parties and Christmas gifts! Tonight we're watching Band A Part - nothing like the very lovely Anna Karina to make you happy at the end of the week! Here's our favourite moment in the film, set to some Nouvelle Vague loveliness. Parfait!

Blissful evening. Enjoy your weekend sweets!

Much love
R&L xx

Boutique Love // Jovonna London

2012-01-26T08:00:00.005Z

Hello Sweets,

Rhi here - Lola and I had lots of fun this weekend with a mini photoshoot to show off some of our favourite pieces from our favourite boutique labels. This week I'm sharing my undying love for Jovonna London - a label that was probably the driving force behind the necessity for my 7 day working weeks when I lived in London (I was one very tired girl, but I had the loveliest dresses...!)

I found my first Jovonna dress in a really amazing shop called The Laden Showroom - for those who aren't familiar, it is a 'showroom' for independant labels on Brick Lane, really a wonderful place to discover a new name and a covetable one off piece. I fell in love instantly with the pretty shapes and unusual details and went on to grow quite a collection (as well as the 4 dresses featured here I have another 2 dresses, 2 blouses and a cardigan that went missing when I moved back here - if any of my friends are in posession of my black lace trimmed cardigan with a Jovonna label - I WANT IT BACK!)... Anyway, on to the dresses, shot with Snow White as inspiration... It'll make more sense when you see Lola's fairytale inspired looks next week :)

Black checker-board dress. I've never seen anything like the checker-board style part of this dress, teamed with the pretty pleated skirt half its just a darling dress.

Dress - Jovonna, Cardigan - Zara, Belt - H&M

Wool bow pinafore dress. Best part of this photoshoot, was not only rediscovering old favourites and new ways to wear them - but also finding a long forgotten bundle of £10 notes in the pocket of this dress! Yay! The cardigan is also a long lost treasure (thanks for finally giving it back Mum!) - you can't quite see on the photos but it has the sweetest little frilled skirt at the bottom.

Dress - Jovonna, Cardigan - Brick Lane Market, Belt - River Island, Headband - Primark

Floaty pink & grey chiffon dress. You may recognise this from Lola's Birthday Breakfast. The petal collar comes from a Laura Lees blouse that was a lucky market score from a small fete on Vyner Street in London that I happened upon one day. Laura Lees used to do the sweetest collaborations with Topshop that I had a few pieces from so was quite exciting to find a bargain from her own label!

Dress - Jovonna, Blouse (just seen as collar) - Laura Lees, Cardigan - H&M

Probably my favourite dress from my collection (so much so that I have it in Black as well - as seen on our Yum Yum Girls post!) - unfortunately, with its bold colour and Victoriana flourish I feel it's a little ostentatious for nights out round here so it doesn't see the light outside of the wardrobe often, so it was nice to give it an airing for this shoot!

Dress - Jovonna, Shoes - Next

Anyway, parden my posing, keep an eye out for Lola's label love on Saturday!

Much love
Rhi xx

Sewing School // Chevron Scrap Cushion

2012-01-25T08:00:00.002Z

Hey sweets,

This weeks Sewing School we've been dabbling in a little bit of patchwork! Had no idea it would be so much fun, we may become quilting addicts, seriously enjoyable and the results are just soo cute! So here it is, step-by-step, our chevron scrap cushion!

You will need:

Several different patterned fabrics cut into 10 - 2.5"x5" rectangles
Plain cotton 20 cut into - 2.5" squares
Plus plain cotton amount dependent on your cushion size.

sewing basics - measuring tape, pins, scissors, thread, machine (though could easily be hand-sewn if you have the patience!)

Step 1: Mark out your squares. There is probably a more sophisticated way of doing this, but we're just teaching ourselves as we go along... Once marked up, cut your squares and rectangles out...

Step 2: Lay your fabrics out in the order you want them so that you know the order & direction of your stiches (the significance of this will make sense in a moment)...

Step 3: Pin 2 squares to the front of your patterned rectangles. Repeat for all rectangles.

Step 4: Start sewing from corner to corner, in the same direction on each square (see pictures below)

See below - we used a yellow thread so that you can see the stitches. **Remember to alternate the direction of stitches to create the zig-zag effect.**

Step 5: Cut the corners of the pieces off just above the stitches.

Step 6: Open out the rectangle and press the seams flat like this:

Step 7: Layout in your order again, ready to start piecing your patches together?

Step 8: Place the pieces face to face and stich straight along the edge (as close as you can!)

Keep going until you've attached your entire row like below and press the seams (pressing addicts, like things to look neat as we go along!)

Step 9: Repeat with the second row, then fix the top and bottom (again by sewing along the edge, face to face, don't forget to press after!)

Step 10: Cut 2 strips of plain cotton the length of your panel (ours were 2.5" wide to fit on our cushion) - sew to the top and bottom.

Step 11: Repeat with cotton for the sides, cut to the height of your panel (again adjusting the width according to your cushion size.) and press (of course!)... So here is the panel, ours isn't perfect, but it sure is pretty!

Rather stupidly (blame our enthusiasm, we were so excited at how lovely it was looking we couldn't wait to finish!) we forgot to photograph the next steps so bare with us while we attempt to explain how to turn it into a simple envelope cushion.

Cut 2 panels for the back, to the size of your cushion panel and so that they will overlap, with a little extra for seam allowance. Hem the edges that will form the overlap. then pin to the panel, face to face and sew all round the edges, flip inside out - et Voilá - One super cute patchwork cushion!

Hope you enjoy, it's really easy once you get into the swing of it, we've definitely caught the quilting bug, may have to set aside some time away from the collection to work on more patchwork projects!

Much love,
R&L
xx

If You Could...

2012-01-24T08:00:00.011Z

Hey lovers, Lauren here today

If you could do anything tomorrow, what would you do?

That is the lingering question posed by designers Will Hudson and Alex Bec, in an ongoing experimental project to graphically illustrate the enthralling, and occasionally utterly bizarre desires of our contemporary artists. The idea is simple, answer the question by drawing what you would do. I first stumbled across this project whilst doing research for Article, a magazine I wrote for at University. The ability with which it has progressed is astonishing. Encouraging simplistic yet personal creativity, the 'If You Could' project has the aptitude to engage a considerable audience with its exciting blend of light-heartedness with a thought-provoking and stimulating concept.

Inspired, the question remains, how would those without the artistic dexterity of Kandinsky respond to such a matter? A couple of years ago now (ah, time flies), I decided to explore this a little further and put it to a bunch of my friends to send back their responses - I think it was put on out on MySpace, that's how long ago it was!

I then thought it would be cute to represent their answers, as intended, with playful illustrations...
1. I'd dance at the front of a Rolling Stones gig - circa 1973 ish.
2. I'd go to Turkey and find the love of my life
3. I'd fly to New York without a plane
4. I'd rob a bank, with a banana

1. I'd explore a castle in Slovenia
2. I'd be given £10,000,000 and go on a plane
3. I'd pack my bags and see the world
4. I'd dance all day, listen to good music I've never heard before, eat nice food and make love to some beautiful girls!

1. I'd go to the peaks
2. I'd dance...
3. I'd get sexually explicit with 12 beautiful women whilst eating fried chicken from a bucket
4. I'd go to Alton Towers

1. I'd wake up with absolute knowledge and have a coin-operated boy
2. I'd take magic mushrooms and go to the zoo with nice people and nice faces!

It would seem; the bunch of romantic, mushroom munching, thrill-seeking, not to mention cultured, wanderers would swap their material luxuries in a second for an idyllic life, travelling and viewing the world through rose-tinted raybans.

Without wishing to get all Louis Theroux on you (not that there's owt wrong with that, we love Louis!) it does appear to provoke further questions. It's questionable whether everyone feels that they are missing out on the subtleties of life such as exploring an enchanting castle or taking some time out to explore the world in our quest to succeed financially and set up home.

However, obtainable or not, it always fun to imagine what would you would do if there were no limits imposed and set yourself life goals - which for me has transgressed from being a ballerina, a spice girl, and air hostess in the 60s (which I understand, is a goal that might have a been a little hard to obtain in 2006 and more recently, a bohemian, troubled artist. Here, at Twee Towers we're always setting ourselves goals, foremost to keep us organised and secondly, to keep us sane when our workload gets a bit crazy... we WILL dress Jedward one day!

So, what would you do? To have a look at some of the designers' input on the project, take a look here!

Much love,
L xx

After Dinner Dance Party // Vinyl Revival Pt. 3

2012-01-23T08:00:00.006Z

Not long before we moved into Twee Towers we decided we'd go for a pre-move rummage at a local car boot sale to see what treasures we could unearth for our soon to be abode. Besides the sweet vintage floral plates and strange side tables we picked up, and tucked between stalls laden with garish eighties cast offs and slightly creepy figurines we found a chap with suitcases full of records, who looked on slightly baffled at these two young ladies getting stupidly excited by the dusty vinyl gems they were discovering in his boot. Some of our most prized posessions and particularly special as they were our first joint purchases... So, from that little collection we gathered that day we bring you this weeks Vinyl Revival album, "The Most of Herman's Hermits"

You'd have to be living under a rock to not have heard their track "I'm into something good" - this album also includes "I'm Henry the VII, I am" (you'll know it well if you've ever seen Ghost!), and their playful cover of George Formby's "Leaning on a Lamp Post" - we love how they take ownership and reinvent Formby's hit nearly 30 years after its appearence in the 1937 film Feather Your Nest. The highlight for us however is most certainly 'No Milk Today'...

Happy dancing :)

Much love
R&L xx

ps. check out our Facebook page for a bonus track!

A Silent Recipe Film - Chocolate & Violet Cupcakes...

2012-01-21T07:00:00.001Z

Hey Sweets,

We thought it was about time to do another recipe post (we love sharing our Twee Treats!), and we thought we may as well 'mix it up' a little for you... So She Dressed in Black presents our very first Silent Movie: 'Chocolate and Violet Cupcakes'

The Ingredients:

Cakes -

75g cocoa powder
225ml Boiling water
125g softened butter
275g light muscavado sugar
2 eggs
200g plain flour
2tsps baking powder

Icing -

115g softened butter
60ml semi-skimmed milk
1tsp vanilla extract
500g icing sugar
1-2tbsp Violet Syrup
Violet Sugar for decoration

Notes:

- Oven set to 180°
- Bake for 25 mins (poke with bamboo skewer to check if its done - if it comes out clean, tis ready!)
- Leave to cool before icing
- Enjoy!

Editors Note: Video length does not represent actual time to bake. We don't move at super-human speed, unfortunately.

Much love.
R&L xx

ps. Special thanks to J for his cinegraphic & editing skills!

Literature Love // A Retrospective Look At A 1969 Gent!

2012-01-20T08:00:00.004Z

We fell in love with vintage playboy, when Lauren picked up a pretty 1966 copy from a shop in Berlin last year and realised that other than the few racy pages of Sixties pin ups baring their bods, it actually contains really interesting in-depth articles on contemporary issues and probing interviews of the great artistic, cultural and literary figureheads of the time! In all honestly, it kinda puts today's journalism to shame a little.
This week Twee Towers added another vintage gem to our little library with this amazing copy from 1969 featuring interviews with Allen Gingsberg, pictorials of Vanessa Redgrave and the delightful Brigette Bardot, recipes to make with chili in which you are advised to serve your guests food that says "i'm hot stuff and hearty and guaranteed to win a warm reception" as well as a Spring & Summer fashion forecast - for all the dedicated followers of fashion! Even better, we found this copy for a measly 99p! Lush. It even came with the centrefold still in tact, which we've heard is pretty rare nowadays!
Here's a few of the highlights:

The Bardot pictorial is simply stunning. Beautifully shot, with a dreamy ethereal feel to all the photos. Bardot herself, just simmers! Completely in love with the typography used here too!

Vintage ads! With tongue in cheek punch lines appealing to the finer gentleman, these ads always make us giggle and some are just darn right clever!

'The language of legs', how a girl deploys her gams when seated reveals far more than her lower limbs, apparently. In light of the appearance of the mini skirt in the Sixties, this funny, psychological feature explores the body language of how a women sits with her legs and explains just what this says about her personality! Because, you know, the best way to woo a girl is to scientifically analyse her first and make your move accordingly...

As a fan of sitting cross-legged Lauren is "The Emancipated Woman" - independent and unconventional, she's the epitome of the "new girl." She digs her freedom, up-to-date fashion and faraway places. The Out Islands are in - take her there and you'll be, too.

Rhi, regularly sits working with one leg tucked up the other , making her "The conformist", if you spot her at a party head determinedly but quietly for her chair; she likes being told what to do, but doesn't like to attract attention. A slow starter, once committed, she's wholeheartedly yours. N'aww.
We're not sure how accurate those descriptions are but Gents, there's a little bit of insight there for you! It probably just reveals that we both have very bad circulation.

"Illuminating propositions to keep you out of the dark". Did NOT expect to delve into a lads mags and see shopping features on lights!

The THIRTEEN page interview with Allen Ginsberg ... or more appropriately, a short novella, see what we mean, proper journalism! A highly engaging candid conversation with the eccentric hippie-guru poet laureate and one of the leading figures of the Beat Generation and strong opposer of militarism, materialism and sexual oppression. Playboy, intelligently probes (that's a sentence we never thought we'd say!) Ginsberg on his thoughts on characterisation, how he sees himself and his acceptance of his own homosexuality.

And last but not least, a must-read for all well-turned out gents of the Sixties - Playboy's guide to revolutionary new trends, 'the Spring & Summer Fashion Forecast'. For your info, emanicipation and eclecticism were the keynotes for that year's silhouette. Edwardianian-style jackets and greatcoat collars were to adorn the backs of those in the know, but don't forget to check out the other new looks of the season - the white cardigan, no-button suits or a dark two-button chalk stripe with angled pockets.
We hope you enjoyed today's nostalgic amble in to 60s - we did!
Much love, L&R xx

Cocktails, Celebrations & Casanova Chris!

2012-01-19T08:00:00.001Z

Rhi with the birthday boy!

Thanks very much to Kass for letting us nab some of her pics!

Chris turned 24! Twas a very exciting affair. Initially we had planned to go to a burlesque evening (booze, suits and boobs for the birthday boy) but unfortunately we had left the planning a little too late and it had sold out, boo. Nevertheless, we got glammed up and headed out for a night on the tiles. After a few drinks in the pub, a couple of delicious cocktails and a 90s spice-girls orientated singalong we headed over to our fave club night Yum Yum for a boogie! Superb night... and we didn't even wake up hungover... hurrah! Hope you had a marvellous night Christophe!
Keep your eyes peeled for a Chris-special guest post next month!
Much love, L&R xx

The '100 Follower' Giveaway

2012-01-17T08:00:00.003Z

Yay! We've reached 100 followers on She Dressed in Black (in a big booming voice) and as promised, we've got a delightful little giveaway for you from the SDiB studio :)

The randomly selected winners (thanks to random.org) are.... ByKatherineElizabeth and A Piece of Lisa - your prize is you can pick a miniature free print from any of the following:

Option 1: One of our 'All You Need Is The Fab Four' prints (other colour options are available, just let us know sweets!)

Option 2: The 'Hey Jude' lyrics print

Option 3: Any one of the above (or below) in any of the above colours... a mini version from our 'Ex-Boyfriend' series of prints :)

Sorry to those that didn't win, join us on our facebook and twitter pages for notices of future competitions and thank you very much for following and supporting us! Big love.
Much love, L&R xx

After Dinner Dance Party // Vinyl Revival part II

2012-01-16T08:00:00.004Z

Continuing the After Dinner Dance Party Vinyl Revival we're bringing you a classic from the record collection Rhi inherited from her Dad... Simon and Garfunkel's Bookends, one of our favourite albums of all time featuring the timeless 'America'...

Side one follows a concept of life's journey, a plea for the life of a child through to 'voices of old people' - America, the third track, sits in the middle of the journey and tells the tale of a literal and metaphorical journey, one heading eastward across America, in a bid to explore and discover the country, and another in the hope self discovery...

"Kathy, I'm lost" I said,
though I knew she was sleeping,
I'm empty and aching and
I don't know why..."

If we ever decided to leave home and become a stewardess... This would be the song we'd use to explain why.

Happy dancing!

Much love,
L&R xx

Twee Art // Rob Ryan

2012-01-15T08:00:00.001Z

Happy Sunday Sweets,

Last year we started talking about some of the art we have in Twee Towers (like our dreamy Hannah Frank prints) and its something we've been meaning to revisit... So without further ado, let us show you some of our favourite Rob Ryan pieces that are propped up about Twee Towers.

RCA Graduate Rob Ryan specialises in paper cut art and screen printing and makes the most beautiful images with these techniques, each piece tells a story - be it a heartwarming or heartbreaking one; laced (metaphorically and aesthetically) with a touching delicacy of intricate detail and insightful understanding of life's highs and lows. Whether he's addressing romance or loneliness with his art, he does it beautifully.

He first grabbed our attention when he created this piece of wonderment for Vogue magazine, a paper-cut dress, simply sensational.

We have these tiles out in the kitchen and studio. "Why are you so naughty?" "because I'm happy" - childlike innocence at its best, and "I miss being a small girl"... because we do.

Last Christmas Rhi was given this set of Rob Ryan decorative plates, illustrating the changing seasons. So pretty, still need to find the perfect spot to hang them though!

We're also lucky enough to have a much treasured signed copy of Ryan's first published book "This is for You" at Twee Towers. The inside of the dust cover simply states "If you believe in love but find it difficult to explain - This is for you" - it tells a tale that scopes the aforementioned loneliness and romance in such a charming way.

Nestled on another book shelf is Little M's copy of 'The Gift' written by Carol Ann Duffy featuring more of Rob Ryan's paper cut illustrations... We must get our hands on his latest book 'A Sky Full of Kindness' too - without a doubt it will be as delightful as the others.

If you want to get your hands on some of your own pieces check out his Etsy shop, ooh what we'd do for some Rob Ryan wallpaper!! Or if you're lucky enough to find yourself in or around East London pop into his super lovely shop on Columbia Road! Such lovely art to collect :)

Hope you've enjoyed your weekend lovelies!

Much love
R&L xx

A Friday Evening Flick...

2012-01-13T08:00:00.003Z

Finally, it's the weekend! Hasn't it just felt like a really long week? Feels like a nice night for curling up on the sofa with a self-indulgently teary, romance flick and some buttery popcorn! Absolutely craving a date with the devilishly handsome Cary Grant and and the dazzling Deborah Kerr in the classic, 'An Affair to Remember'. Ahh, it's so heartbreaking but ever so pretty! We'll be swooning and crying at the same time...
Have a great weekend lovelies!
Much love, L&R xx

Twee Troubles // A very blustery week...

2012-01-12T15:00:00.000Z

Dear Wind,

We've expressed our concerns of your behaviour before, when you threaten to whisk our fringes from our faces - but last week you took things to a whole new level. Blasting around Twee Towers at Gale Force last week you put us in multiple predicaments that we'd rather have avoided thank you very much.

Firstly, whats a girl to do with her hair on such occassions when you decide to bluster up our styling plans. An up-do finds itself undone, dishevelled and falling out by the time we've crossed the street, but to leave our hair down about our shoulders see's us confronting mirrors looking like we've been dragged through hedges backwards and spending too much time, tear-inducingly detangling the nests that you've whipped up upon our heads (we like nature but we do not like cultivating habitats for winged creatures in our hair!)

Then, when you're a girl of the dress/skirt wearing persuasion - how do you prepare yourself for an unexpected gust revealing your underwear? Especially while ladened down with bags or crossing a road pushing a buggy as the case may be for Rhi, not a shade as glamorous as Miss Monroe makes it seem we can assure you Wind. If you think you're doing us some favours creating '7 Year Itch' style promotion for She Dressed in Black - you're not. Leave our skirts alone, please, we beg of you!

Lastly, and this is the most troublesome, when we lay our heads down at night, after a long day of work and bustling about in the studio, we like to hear a reassuringly soothing breeze outside perhaps, or better yet a peaceful silence from you Wind. However when you rattle the windows, throw about the Twee garden trees and whip around in such a frenzy that we fully expect to awake in Oz, it certainly does not provide one with a suitable nights rest.

Now with all due respect, you appear to have 'softened the blow' and the break-neck speeds at which you were flying around us have subdued. Pretty please Wind, with a cherry on top, could you keep it down now, or we'll have to invest in cycling shorts and hair nets... Not a good look, especially if we're going to have to be meeting with the Wizard, a girl likes to be looking her Judy Garland best when she learns to click her heels together.

Much love,
R&L xx

ps. here is a nice song featuring The Wind :)

Sewing School // Flo-jo's Fancy Pants

2012-01-11T08:00:00.021Z

Hey sweets, welcome to our very first sewing school! Some of you might have seen that last year we made our very first collection of Men's accessories, aptly named 'He Dressed in Black' to get us into the swing of designing and creating. Under the circumstances of having to get the pieces ready for the boys to take to Europe, we ended up doing this in one manic week and didn't get to enjoy the process as much as we'd have liked to. Therefore, ahead of the Women's collection that we have planned for Spring (we've had these ideas in our head for sooo long, we can't wait to get them out there) we've scheduled in a couple of sewing mini projects to get us back in to the swing of it and thought that you might like to join us along the way!
We're starting with this super sweet and super easy DIY... the Flo-jo's Fancy Pants knicker making set! In future, we'll be showing you some of our own DIYs but Rhi got Lauren this kit to for Christmas to start practising with and it was so much fun to put together that we just had to feature it!
The kit can be purchased from the Flo-Jo Boutique (currently on sale too - hurry up kitty cats!) and contains everything that you need to make your own vintage inspired pants as well as clear diagrams and instructions... perfect for beginners looking to get a bit of practise.

The kit contains:Paper pattern sizes 8-18Cotton MaterialCotton gussetElasticRibbonLabelInstructions with diagrams
All you will need is (as recommended by Flo-Jo's Boutique):Basic Sewing SkillsCotton threadSewing machine (with zig zag stitch)ScissorsA rainy afternoon!

1. Firstly, look at the patterns contained in the kit. There should be one piece for the front (we'll call this A), one for the back (B) and one for the gusset (C). Conveniently, the kit has lines for varying sizes (between UK 8-18) so just chose the size that you're looking to make then cut out the pieces.
2. Next, place the cut out patterns (A) and (B) on to the cotton fabric, ensuring that both pieces fit on and secure using pins. Next draw round the patterns on to the fabric using chalk or a light pencil.

3. Cut them out!

4. As above, cut out the last pattern (C) on to the material provided for the gusset.
Then you're ready to get sewing!

5. You'll be instructed to place & secure then sew in the gusset (C). This will secure parts (A) and (B) together in the middle.

6. Next, we stitched all around the flat knicker shape to secure the gusset and neaten the edge (the diagrams in the kit come in extremely handy for getting your head around this part!)

7. After you've done that, it's time to put on the elastic! This is the slightly tricky part! Once again, you follow the edge of the knicker shape laid out flat, keeping the elastic pulled tight (by pulling towards you as the material goes forward in the machine) this ensures that the edge ruches up to give your pants elasticity.

8. Voila! Finish by making a bow with the ribbon provided and stitch on.

9. As the kit that Rhi had chosen for Lola consisted of blue and white gingham cotton and a splash of ruby red, we embellished the pants with a Dorothy ruby slipper - made from white cotton and glitter glue! Maqnifique!

Yay! We wanna make more... our families and friends might get lots of pants next Christmas! Big thanks to the Flo-Jo boutique for this wonderful idea!

Join us next week in the studio again in two weeks time for our next mini project!

Much love,

L&R xx

Stag in the hallway

2012-01-10T08:00:00.000Z

We have a very cool new addition to our interior stying - up in our hallway, now hangs this beautiful Stag head Trophy! Rhi's Mama got her this fab creation for Christmas, the individual patterned pieces came flat packed and ready to pop out and assemble and then it was ready to hang!

Really brinsgs a new lease of life to the hall (especially as we were worrying about how plain it would look once we took all the decs down) and that spot of wall that had been bare since we moved (thanks to an awkwardly placed thermostat) so this was the perfect spot.

We may have a new deer obsession sneaking into the home, a little vintage-looking sparkley deer managed to avoid the Christmas pack-up and wasn't evicted from its home on the fireplace, could deers become our new chevrons and start popping up in every room? Watch this space...

Get your own awesome stag head from http://www.utilitydesign.co.uk

Did you get any nice new housey additions over Christmas? We'd love to see!

Much love
R&L xx

After Dinner Dance Party // Vinyl Revival

2012-01-09T08:00:00.018Z

It's time to put a new spin on an old feature! We're still dancing around the Twee Towers kitchen after dinner to make the tedious task of doing the dishes a little more entertaining but with stacks of vinyl that had been temporarily abandoned in our studio, we'll be using this slot to pull some of our old (and new!) records to share with you! So, concentrating on one vinyl a week, we're starting with one of our most recent purchases, 'Cat's Eyes' with their self titled album!

This album was the soundtrack to our summer last year and we've loved playing it in the studio again this week while we've been getting organised for the year ahead! Cat's Eyes are a duo formed by Rachel Zaffira, a renowned opera soprano and classical multi-instrumentalist and Faris Badwan, lead singer from the London based psych/shoe-gaze band 'The Horrors'.
At the moment, we're absolutely loving the Sixties revival that's beginning to emerge in contemporary tunes. Cat's Eyes, undeniably harks back to Sixties from the Phil Spector 'wall of sound' present in the drums to the wistful vocal delivery, that sounds a little Velvet Underground in the Nico days.
We just love the constant juxtapositions within the tracks; the orchestral production and garagy guitar sounds, the heart-warming melodies and the unsettling eeriness created by the reverb on the vocals. It's a great album to stick on while being creative!
It was so difficult to chose just one song from this album as they all have something really different to offer. We've went for 'Face in the Crowd', the first song that we heard as a introduction to the band for those that are unfamiliar. if you've got a moment, go on youtube and take a look at their gig at the vatican... stunning!

if you've been riffling through your vinyls, let us know what you've been listening to! To hear more Cat's Eyes, check out our Facebook for an additional After Dinner treat!
Happy Dancing!
Much love, L&R xx

She Dressed in Black - Stitch n Bitch

2012-01-07T08:00:00.004Z

We have been interested in the concept of 'Stitch n Bitch' meetings and crafty get togethers like the lovely ladies of the Shoreditch WI for a while, but unfortunately we couldn't find anything local... So we decided to go ahead and organise a group ourselves.

This is the official call out for attendees. If you're in Northants and interested getting together with like minded lovelies and getting creative, please come and join us on the Stitch n' Bitch Facebook page to get involved. We want to get a sort of committee together to discuss ideas, workshops and events, ways to spread the word locally and get us a nice little group for crafting fun... So drop us an email if you'd like to volunteer yourself as a Stitch n Bitch 'board member'!

Those who are flung further and wider than our locality do not fear, we want you to get involved as well, we'll be posting up the tutorials and workshops from the events and encouraging you to get making too and sharing pictures along with the group... We'll maybe even run competitions for the best of each month... More details on the international 'spin off' will follow when we've worked out how best to involve everyone :)

So, if for 2012 you've resolved to learn a new skill, make new friends, share your crafting abilities with others then we'd love to hear from you and see you at the first Stitch n' Bitch meet :)

Much love,
R&L xx

Literature Love // Limehouse Blues

2012-01-06T08:00:00.013Z

Throughout the literary canon, suburban writers have been captivated with notions of London as a ferocious all-consuming beast, a sordid infusion of poverty, oppression, misdemeanor and deathly, industrial fumes. Everyone is well aware of Dickens' fascination with the plight of the afflicted Working Class, imagining funereal occurrences in squalid alleyways to a nervous bourgious readership. Likewise, in his poem 'London', William Blake discovers nothing but "marks of weakness, marks of woe" in the faces of those that reside by the "chartered Thames".

London's underworld is also the topic of this week's lit love as we've been flicking through Thomas' Burke's collection of poetry, 'The Song Book of Quong Lee of Limehouse'.

Lola received this book as a beautiful Christmas gift from her parents, a wonderful 1st edition from the 1920s complete with a stunning hand-drawn illustration in black ink, depicting a post-war Limehouse and an amazing orange chevron cover (which fits right in here at Twee Towers!). So beaut.

For those that don't know, after the Great War the Limehouse district in London became heavily populated with Chinese immigrants and has since been associated with myths and stories of mysterious murders in riverside alleys, sleazy opium dens and tales of innocent English girls lost in a dangerous abyss controlled by an evil Chinese settlement.

Even before the war, Dickens implied that Limehouse was the "lowest statum of the international hierachy in the streets around the London dock". Although, it's probably more likely that these tales were the result of conjecture, fuelled and exaggerated by the fear of the unfamiliar as London's cultural diversity began to develop.

Despite the bleak subject matter and brash realism, Burke's tone is satirical, fanciful and endearing as he romanticises stories of lust and murder among the lower-classes. We won't spoil it too much, but it's definitely worth a read!

As we mentioned the other day, our Literature Love feature is now bi-weekly to allow us to relax and enjoy reading again rather than rushing to finish every Friday, so it'll be back in two weeks time folks! In the meantime, next Friday we'll be revealing an exciting new way of presenting a very silent, recipe ;)

'Till next time...

Much love,

L&R xx

Rhi Likes // Being A Geek

2012-01-04T08:00:00.005Z

Hey Sweets,

My turn again to share my 'Likes' and this week I'm getting my 'Geek' on. Inspired by this awesome necklace that Lola got me for Christmas from Me & Zena, I thought I'd share a little of my nerdy side (but not too much... or I'll go on forever!)

My number one nerdism is probably my Harry Potter Obsession. Nearly 15 years after I first picked up the Philosophers Stone and I still love it as much as a did as a kid. Pride of place on our cabinet in the halls sits my limited edition copy of The Deathly Hallows and very amazing copy of 'Harry Potter - Page to Screen' (a must for a diehard fans.) ... (though, Queen Potter fan crown must go to my little cousin who out Potter-Nerds me in every respect, girly has a Deathly Hallows tattoo and camped overnight for the final premiere. True fan!) ... There's more, much more, I once wrote a 5-part series on my serious Potter Passion, but I'll maybe save that for another day...

That nerdism leads onto the all day geek-outs at Autograph collection conventions I used to go to with my sister when I was a teenager. Queuing for hours to meet Harry Potter cast members, Various cast members from The Lost Boys (no Corey's though, boo!), Lost cast, Heroes cast, Star Trek, Star Wars, Doctor Who... Eeeeeek! Too much excitement for one nerdy girly to relive all in one paragraph!

Even my consumption of hot beverages is geeky. TEA IN A TARDIS!

I'll stop now...

Much love,
Rhi xx

Refreshing & Reviving

2012-01-03T08:00:00.000Z

Hello Sweets,

Yesterday we spent most of the day de-Christmassing Twee Towers, and reclaiming our neglected studio, because its a conservatory it gets soo cold in the winter, so we hadn't been in there much and it had gradually got cluttered and chaotic. So we've now refreshed the space, set up new work stations and are excited to be starting this year cleared out and freshened up - ready to go!

Last night we had our first official blog and business meeting of 2012, firing up the heaters in the Studio, snacks and rose tea in hand (yes! We finally got our hands on another box of our favourite floral infused tea!) - we did a quick review of 2011 (which was above and beyond anything we ever expected, that you all so much for your ongoing support!) and did some mapping out for 2012 (ie; starting Christmas in October so we've actually got time to do all of our planned DIYs and actually enjoy the season!)

Here's a little taste of things to come this year from She Dressed in Black:

- A new take on After Dinner Dance Parties. We're still dancing after dinner, however we want to use this weekly slot to pull out some of our old records and have a bit of Vinyl Revival on a Monday, looking forward to putting a new 'spin' on this feature!
- We're changing the way we do our 'Literature Love' feature - we LOVE doing it, so it couldn't be dropped, but we were hating that we had to rush our reading to have something ready every Friday, so we've made a vow to enjoy literature again and we'll be sharing our latest reads every second week going forward. Alternating with making 'Twee Treats' and Recipe posts a more regular occurance, so we'll be sharing recipes on alternate Fridays, in what we hope will be an original and interesting format :)
- Also taking a bi-weekly slot will be continuing with our 'Lauren/Rhi Likes' features & our Sewing School which we mentioned last year as Lauren needs a bit of practise, so we'll be bringing you some sew-along projects to get your teeth into :)
-When reviewing our initial blog plans, something that was quite important to us was supporting local businesses, artists and bloggers (so if you're a Northants based business or blog do give us a shout to see how we could work together!)
- We've had lots of ideas for interesting guests posts, bringing in previous guests and seaching out new ones, if you have an idea you think would be great for She Dressed in Black please drop us a line at the usual address (info[@]shedressedinblack.co.uk)
- With the time loaned to us from our guests we will be able to dedicate much more time in the studio, we're taking smaller and more focussed steps to build up the collection, designs on paper, we just need to do some fabric shopping and we'll be ready to roll! This means much more 'This Week in The Studio' Posts in 2012!
- We're also going to be much more organised, finally arranging sponsorship, sorry to those we've had on hold for so long, December was just so crazy busy, we're only just catching up!
- There will also be a little bit of re-design on our post headers etc.

As you can see we've put a lot of thought into this year and are soo looking forward to getting started. If there's something you'd like to see that we've not mentioned let us know and we'll see if we can squeeze it in...

We've got more exciting projects to unveil later in the week, keep your eyes peeled for those, regular scheduling will return from tomorrow :)

Hope you're all looking forward to what this year will bring.

Much love
R&L xx

Happy New Year!

2012-01-01T08:00:00.000Z

All the best in all your ventures and adventures in 2012!
Much love, L&R xx

The Twee Towers Flapper or Dapper Party

2011-12-30T16:55:00.009Z

Gosh, it's been a little while - we've finally found a moment to gather our post-Christmas thoughts and show you what we've been up to the past few days! As fortunate as we are to have a lovely, long break from work, we always find ourselves at a bit of a loose end in the period between Christmas and New Year, so this year we decided to bridge the gap by inviting our finest guys and dolls to don their most exquisite attire and join us for a roaring twenties style Flapper or Dapper party!

Our boys looked amazing suited and booted with bow ties and tweed, whilst us ladies went flapper, fringed with heap loads of sparkle for a bit of extra dazzle!

In the background we played a soundtrack of twenties jazz, some charleston ditties and the incredibly charming 'I wanna be loved by you' by the magnificent Helen Kane whilst we laughed and chatted over a Twee Towers jazzy punch! The evening drew to a close with an intense and extremely competitive game of Taboo - hilarious after a drink or two before cosying up on the sofas to watch The Rocky Horror Picture Show... we might have all jumped up to dance around the living room to The Time Warp.

Oh, we just wanna pretend to be movie stars everyday...

We thought we ought to bring the twenties a little up to scratch with their environmental credentials so we mixed ostentatious glamour with energy saving light bulbs!

Popcorn, pretzels and candy cane treats were on offer along with mini cigars for an authentic twenties aroma!

Twee Towers obligatory punch - mix a little peach schnapps with some sparkly rose fizz and top with cranberry juice for this absolutely delicious tipple! As always, measurements to taste and personal preference!

We kept up the photobooth backdrop from Little M's superhero party and made cute moustache & top hat props to play with!

Are you all looking forward to seeing in the New Year?

Much love,

L&R xx

Lauren Likes // Liverpool, Manchester & Macca!

2011-12-27T08:00:00.001Z

Hey amigos, Lola & James here today.
Oh my gosh, what a blooming lovely time we've had this week - best Christmas ever! As we showed you yesterday, we woke up to lots and lots of treats from Santa before hosting our very first Twee Towers Christmas breakfast for our families and then heading off to our parents' houses for more delicious food and amazing presents! We were actually a little overwhelmed with how spoiled we were... James had spent so much time creating my Christmas presents and gave me three incredible portraits of Jane Birkin,France Gall & Martin Freeman (guilty pleasure) as well a necklace. I also received the Atlas tapestry throw that I had been after for SO long, my Marc Jacobs perfume, Benefit makeup a stack of penguin clothbound books, a new moleskine journal, the sweetest tea set, a Birkin & Gainsbourg 7" & a Thomas Burke 1st edition (ahhh!) book of poetry from 1920 complete with hand drawn illustration & chevron print cover - my parents, brother & boyfriend really are the best!
As well as all that, on Monday last week James & I headed up to a Liverpool apartment for two nights and threw in a quick trip to Manchester to see Paul McCartney!! Oh my word, such a bewildering and surreal experience - even the second time round - but the most magical gig of our lives and the most wonderful few days ever...

The four hour train journey was a little tiresome to say the least so we passed the time drawing and posing. Standard.

The MEN arena starting to fill up - mix of nerves, adrenaline and excitement!

McCartney - still loyal to his Hofner violin bass!

Give peace a chance!

We were over the moon with the seats - we had a perfect view of the stage and we even got a glimpse of Macca preparing to walk on to the stage. We definitely DID NOT cry as soon as he came on. Opening with Magical Mystery Tour, Macca sang and played his way through many hits as well as the more obscure Beatles & Wings tracks... some of which The Beatles hadn't even performed on a live stage, A Day in the Life, Drive My Car & Eleanor Rigby to name a few. The setlist didn't lull in anyway, not that you'd expect it to, Paul, being one of the seminal writers of the last 50 years.
The first highlight for us was the moment when the auditorium was reduced to silence as McCartney graced the stage alone with his guitar to sing 'Blackbird'. It's always been my personal favourite but even we were overwhelmed to see 21,000 mesmerised people. Not a dry eye in the house. James was happy to see that there were 'pyromaniacs' (... or pyrotechnics to the heightened IQ) during Live and Let Die. We're not even sure how the use of explosives, fireworks and huge flames of fire was allowed inside an arena but it looked flipping cool.
Another highlight was Macca playing 'The Word' as the opener to the encore (which also included A Wonderful Christmas time... yesss!) Only the second time that he played it live during his career since the Beatles.
Defintely the best gig we have ever been to, Sir Paul is a living legend.

In honour of Macca, we headed back to Liverpool for a quick Beatles pilgrimage, starting on Mathew St.

Drinks at the Cavern.

The original entrance to the Cavern.

For Rhi - Ringo & I!

Love this picture - Helter Skelter in Liverpool's Winter Wonderland.

We walked down to the docks for a browse around the museums and galleries.

A nonchalent pose outside the Tate.

A Francis Bacon painting and a Barbara Hepworth sculpture (I drew that for GSCE art!)

Always amazing to take a closer look at Dali masterpieces. As much as I love the film factory girl, I had never been too fussed about Andy Warhol's work, but we were both a bit taken aback looking at his well as his pre-factory illustrations - we were also interested to learn that he worked as an illustrator for Glamour and Harper's Bazaar before de-constructing consumerism through the art of screen printing!

... a subtle hint that it was time for a break.

All in all, from the build up of the gig to the close of our Liverpool trip we had the most wonderful time of our lives... thus far!
Hope you've all had a fab Christmas and are still enjoying the Festive break!
Much love, L & J xx

Merry Christmas from Twee Towers

2011-12-26T16:21:00.002Z

Wishing all our readers a very merry Christmas. Love Rhi & Lauren xx

We had a wonderful day, after being dragged out of bed at 7am by a very excited little M we made our way downstairs - and lo and behold SANTA HAD BEEN! We all got lots of very lovely presents... Then after a quick freshen up and tidy we got ready to entertain our families for breakfast...

We served up simply delicious bacon sandwiches on fresh fluffy white bread, porridge with cream & fruit, and gingerbread & strawberry santa's hats!

Santa Hats!

Artwork by J & Little M

Rocking retro boy on a retro rocking bike! Radio flyer!

DIY Floral centre pieces. On the breakfast table picture you may have spotted our carnation and candycane masterpiece. The greenery was forraged from the garden, and we used fresh cranberries, cloves, stair anaise and cinnamon sticks in a storm vase for a fragrant centrepiece in the livingroom.

We then went our seperate ways to celebrate with our familes, the festivities are continuing today as we're both out enjoying some more family time!

Just a few of snapshots from Christmas Eve, a mysterious door appeared in our fireplace, it's where the Elves get in as they help Santa with his mammoth delivery task. We all made them new shoes (as they do so much running around on Christmas Eve theirs get worn through!) and in exchange they left nice new PJs for everyone!

The rest of the day was spent finishing presents (including a DIY puppet theatre for Little M, we've got plans of showcasing that a little better soon!), drinking peppermint hot chocolate, watching Polar Express... and after Little M was in bed feasting on pretzels and olives while we gave Santa a helping hand!

Hope you all had a wonderful time yesterday and that Santa was very good to you all! :)

Lots of kisses and Christmas Wishes

R&L xx

Christmas Twee // Wrap-Stars...

2011-12-22T21:00:00.001Z

Hey lovelies,

We've finally started wrapping our presents (nothing like leaving things to the last minute right?) - here are some fabulous festive wrap ideas for those of you who are running behind with your Christmas Prep schedules as well!

Creative Ribbons & Musical Touches...

Lola's Wrapping for Rhi. Brown paper, sheet music strips and glitter stripes layered with ribbons and antique lace

Eclectic Ribbon mixes and tissue wrap, with music stripes and hearts for J

Cris-Crossed ribbon & more antique lace...

Gifts As Wrap

Buying anyone a pretty scarf this Christmas? Scarf used to wrap little gifts, co-ordinating ribbon and vintage buttons...

Gift Boxes

Embellish plain kraft boxes with book page fans and scrabble tile initials...

Confetti

Confetti trim. DIY confetti by folding large sheets of tissue and holepunching, use a mix of pretty colours (we used peach, mint, green, black and cream!) - a bit of PVA on the paper and sprinkle!

Bright Colours & Crackers

Not your usual festive colours, bright yellow paper, doily touches and red ribbon to make pretty little bundles. Fiddly little stocking fillers that are impossible to wrap? Make a simple cracker from a toilet tube & wrap, embellish with a doily and tie ends with more co-ordinating ribbon.

Pretty, pretty! We're still not even close to completion with the wrapping so best get a move on this eve sweets! Hope you're feeling suitably festive and are not gripped with yuletide fear, the days are rushing in aren't they? 3 more sleeps till Santa-Time! Yay!

Much love

R&L xx

Christmas Twee // Candy Gifts & Twee Treats...

2011-12-21T11:14:00.004Z

Hey Sweets,

Quick little post from Rhi - I've been making lots of sweeties lately for gifts and for the Super Candy Table at Little M's birthday party and thought I'd post some very quick and easy recipes for anyone scrambling for some last minute gift ideas. Lola's been up in Liverpool the past few days on a festive break with J, and I've been poorly so not had a chance too photograph our own offerings (I remembered this suddenly as Little M skipped off to nursery this morning, my homemade treats in hand!) so I've borrowed some beautiful pics from the net, my candies looked as lovely as this, honest!

{Peppermint Bark}

pic source

Our friends and readers across the pond will be familiar with this festive classic treat but I think a fair few of our fellow Brits have yet to be introduced to the wonder that is Peppermint Bark...

You will need:

12 candy canes
400g White Chocolate
400g Milk/Dark Chocolate

Slightly different to the pic above, I did my peppermint bark in 2 batches - a white chocolate and a milk chocolate in seperate super thin and tasty layers.

1. Put your canes in a bag and have fun smashing them to smitherines :)

2. Melt your first chocolate (white or milk/dark) - I did 200g at a time on a medium heat in the microwave, though you may prefer to do it double-boiler style.

3. When all melted spread onto a large baking tray lined with greaseproof paper

4. Sprinkle with half the smash up candy canes
5. Chill in the fridge till hard and crisp & snap into big slices. Repeat with the other chocolate.

{Coconut Ice}

A firm favourite in my family, I'll be whipping some more up in the next few days to take along to various festive family functions.

You will need:

400g Tin Condensed Milk

340g Icing Sugar

340g Dessicated Coconut

Food colouring

1. Mix the coconut ice and icing sugar together until combined

2. Add in the coconut and mix well (note: it gets really thick & difficult to mix but keep going!)

3. Seperate into 2 halfs, add food colouring to one half (I used yellow to match M's party this week, but will probably go for festive reds and greens for Christmassy parties!)

4. Press white layer into a deep tin, lined with greaseproof paper, smooth top with the back of a spoon and then repreat with coloured layer, again smoothing out with a spoon
5. Chill overnight (or till set) and cut into big squares.

We've also been dipping marshmallows in coloured chocolates & decorating and making up candy jars a la Kate from Kates Irrelevant... Don't forget to check out our guest post for Kate for another gorgeous but purse friendly gift idea.

Can't wait for Lola to get back and share her tales of Sir Paul and life in the home of the Beatles! No doubt she'll tell you all about it soon too :)

Much love,

Rhi xx