Pom Poms and Plaid

Today I went out for a friend's birthday picnic which also coincided with the (second, I believe) Adelaide Tweed Run. My friend went on the run but I don't cycle so I just went to her picnic after. I did get to see a lot of the riders, though, all dressed up and they looked amazing! I wish I'd taken my camera but, in true fashion, I forgot. Anyway, it was such a gorgeous sunny day for the middle(ish) of winter and it was the perfect opportunity to finally wear this gorgeous dress out of the house.

I edited these photos a little differently than usual and I'm not sure how I like them, just yet. I think this particular one (above) is maybe a little too orange-tinted.

Details: hat - hand knit by me; sunglasses - Salvos; 1930s dress - etsy; bangles (new & vintage) - various; socks - Harris Scarfe; saddle shoes - etsy.

And a couple of other outfits from the past couple of weeks:

You all finally get a look at the finished 'Three Hour Sweater' that I posted about a while back.

Oh, and everyone should take a look at the interview I did for Kate Gabrielle at her blog Scathingly Brilliant - I wrote about what a movie of my life would be like and Kate even made a great poster to go along with it. I just can't get over how fantastic the poster is!

Love,

Andi B. Goode

x

Andi B Goode for Lady K Loves Update

It's been a while now since I posted the winning design that I did for Lady K Loves and, though I haven't posted anything about it since, there have been discussions going on about the design and we're very nearly at the finishing line! Here's a reminder of which design won:

And here's a look at the toile of the design that was sent to me by Lady K Loves just last week. (The photos were sent, not the toile - have just realised that that's a rather ambiguous sentence!) I think it's come along wonderfully, don't you? It's all very exciting. I love seeing into the process of a dress going from one of my drawings into an actual physical piece of clothing.

The two marks for the buttons at the waist show where the button closures will be on the inside, but they won't be visible outside, unlike the other buttons.

And these are the buttons that are going to be used - aren't they cute? I love the swirly design on them.

As you can see from my original drawing, we were initially going for a red red but, due to what was available, it's ended up more orangey red than red red. I haven't included pictures of the other choices I had but one was a red satin, which we felt would change the feel of the dress and there was also a lovely pink option but it turned out that the orange, which is a muslin, was more cost effective because of the width (I think). I think that'll be good for anyone who wants to buy one too. There were also other options like a red jacquard with a blossom design and a heavier weight linen but I decided to only post the final choices.

This is for the contrast (see initial drawing for where the contrast is).

What do you all think about how it's coming along? I can tell you that it won't be too much longer before you get to see the final product! I, for one, am very excited (I think I said that already). Details about cost and availability should be in the same post as the final dress. Oh, and if you want to see how Gemma of Retro Chick's design is coming along go over to her blog in a little while and her post will be up, too.

Love,
Andi B. Goode

x

iPhone Outfits

I'm off back to uni today after a break and I'm hoping that it won't get as much in the way of my blogging as I feel it did last semester. I'm going to try to write up some posts to queue for when I know I'll be busy but, for now, here's some iPhone shots of a couple of recent outfits...

Trying to branch out from wearing red nail polish all the time - this is 'Dating a Royal' by O.P.I. and I like it quite a lot.

Outfit details: blouse & trousers - home made; belt - ?; shoes - Payless.

And this is just to show off that my new iPhone cover matches my Miss Hussy pants (that I still adore).

Love,
Andi B. Goode
x

Edit: I just realised I didn't give this post a title! Eep. First time that's ever happened.

It has to be the hour...you can't miss.

Anyone who follows me on Tumblr should have realised by now that I very much enjoyed the first episode of BBC2's new programme, The Hour. I've actually been looking forward to this show for quite some time - I couldn't tell you when I first heard about it but it was, no doubt, a result of my adoration of Ben Whishaw. When I realised it also stars Romola Garai (whom I've come to love after being completely enchanted by her in Emma) I was doubly happy. The fact that it's set in the '50s and is about a news programme didn't hurt either. I could have blogged about this ages ago but I wanted to wait until I had something more to say about it - i.e. after I watched at least one episode. (I've tried to keep this post as spoiler free as I can - most of what I say is revealed very near the beginning of the show).

The Hour centres on the behind-the-scenes world of a topical news programme (The Hour) set in 1956, at the time of the Suez Crisis. A brief google search will show you that there have been countless comparisons to Mad Men but, as I never got past the first few episodes, I can't make any of my own (and, yes, I've been told countless times to finish watching it but, no, I have no immediate plans to do so as I've got plenty of other shows to watch at present). I can, however, tell you just what I enjoyed about The Hour on its own merits.  For one thing, I thought the opening sequence was a very interesting way to start a show - a close up shot of Ben Whishaw, playing Freddy Lyon, giving a speech, the gist of which can be summed up by this quote: "The newsreels are dead. We’ve bored the public for too long. Give me this opportunity and I’ll prove it." It turns out that he is practicing for an interview in front of a bathroom mirror. (We later learn that he is hoping to get the place of producer on the new topical news programme but it has already gone to his female colleague and friend, Bel, played by Romola Garai.)

I first saw Ben Whishaw as Pingu in the offbeat comedy Nathan Barley and I've made a point to follow his career, more or less, since then. (First off because I thought he was so beautiful and adorable and then, later, when I realised he is a brilliant actor who makes very interesting choices in regards to the roles he takes on).

 

I'm a bit torn about the styling for Romola Garai's character - I love her clothes (especially that she wears a trench, and only has two, I think, costume changes) but something about her hair seemed a bit off. Her hair is very pretty but I wasn't entirely sure I was seeing 1956 when I looked at her (sometimes it seemed fine, others I wasn't so sure). Hmm. Shall ponder that a bit more and feel free to either agree or disagree with me on this point!

I liked her subtle make-up, though - you all know I'm a red lipstick gal all the way but it's nice to see variety in a period piece and not just making it seem like every single woman wore sported red lips!

The Hour is filmed beautifully, in my humble opinion, and uses depth of focus and (sometimes) moody lighting, etc., to create the atmosphere of the show. While I wouldn't call it gritty, exactly, it's definitely on the darker side of things. It really is just so aesthetically delicious, though.

I liked that we got to see a bit of a variety of clothes, too...

As well as Ben Whishaw and Romola Garai the cast includes...

Anna Chancellor

and Oona Chaplin and Dominic West, amongst others.

I'm not sure this was a show that makes you sit up and go 'Hey, that was absolutely amazing!' as I think it was a bit more subtle and slow-going albeit in a nice way. I'm very interested to see where it all goes and to learn more about the relationship between Freddy (Whishaw) and Bel (Garai), especially as Bel has the job of producer of The Hour, which causes some tension between she and Freddy during this episode. I'm definitely intrigued to see how it will deal with a woman in what is essentially a powerful position but I will probably think/write more on that later.

Oh, and there's a bit of a murder mystery too. (OK, so you see the killer but you don't actually know who he is or exactly why the murdered man was killed, yet).

I haven't got around to going through my reader, so I don't know if anyone else has blogged about the first episode, yet - would love to hear some different thoughts on it, though. (Likewise, I haven't read any other reviews outside of blogs at present as I like to formulate my own initial thoughts before doing so...) And if you haven't seen it, I definitely recommend it! I think you should be able to view it on iPlayer if you are in the UK and there are a few links going around Tumblr if you search through the tags but it does seem a little harder to find for those of us outside the UK.

All screencaps are from RAWR-CAPS(dot)net (this link will take you to a page where you can download a .zip file of all the images). If you take any please credit back to the original source.

Love,

Andi B. Goode

x

P.S. I had a very hard time not just filling this post up with pictures of Ben Whishaw and Romola Garai's magnificent facial expressions.

Vintage Sheet Music Collection

After seeing Amy Jeanne post pictures of her vintage sheet music collection, I remembered that I'd been meaning to post some of mine. Most of these have been picked up at fairs or op shops but some belonged to my mother when she was a teenager. Unfortunately, some places like to put nasty price stickers on them and if I take them off, I'll rip the paper. One of my pet peeves, actually, is when shops put stickers on the covers of old books/knitting patterns/music/etc. Sigh. Anyway, here we go (this isn't all of them, but it is most).

L-R: 1920 & c. 1921

L-R: 1928 & 1931

L-R: 1933 & c. 1940s/date unknown

L-R: 1942 & c. 1942

L-R: 1942 & 1942

L-R c. 1943 & c. 1943

L-R: 1943 & 1943

L-R: 1943 & 1944

L-R: 1945 & c. 1945

L-R: 1946 & 1946

L-R: c. 1948 & 1949

L-R: 1953 & c. 1954

L-R: 1959 & 1959

L-R: c. 1960 & 1960

L-R: 1960 & 1961

L-R: 1961 & 1961

L-R: c. 1962 & 1962

L-R: c. 1964 & 1966

L-R: 1966 & c. 1966

Hope you all enjoyed seeing these! It took me longer to get the post together than I thought it would. I'm glad it's all done, though. I'm not entirely sure what I'm going to do with them all - some are quite delicate and I was thinking of eventually photographing the actual music to possibly share online (I will, of course, check the copyright first) - that way, the music can still be used but they won't fall apart from constantly being opened, etc. Maybe I'll frame some of them, one day. Who knows?

I've had plans to learn some that have ukulele accompaniment, as a challenge to myself, and do videos of them but we'll see if I actually do that. Ha!

Love,

Andi B. Goode

x

(Note: The colours may be slightly off as I don't have a scanner so I took photos of them, instead. And the dates are only what the copyright inside says, so all may not be the date they were actually printed.)