Saturday 7 January 2012

Pretty Dandy - vintage, handmade and new design homewares

I posted up on here a fair while ago now (in fact, probably a whole year ago!) to say that I was thinking about starting my own business selling stuff for your home online.

I'm really proud to say that a year, a whole lot of hard work and lots of fun down the line that my business - Pretty Dandy - launched just before Christmas!

I've worked really hard to put together a collection of products which I would personally love to keep and have in my own home. There are beautiful vintage crockery, hand made lampshades, african printed cushions and lots of gorgeous art prints for your walls. I hope that I can give people a place to find things for their home which make them happy and express a little bit of their personality.

So, if you have a spare moment please pop over and visit us:

Pretty Dandy - vintage, handmade and new design homewares

Pretty Dandy on facebook

Pretty Dandy on twitter

Oh and I have an online moodboard where I collect lots of photos of pretty things, inspiring interiors and pictures of kittens. You can see that here.

Thank you!

Becky
x

Tuesday 16 August 2011

It's My Birthday!

Yep, today is my birthday. I'm turning 30. Overall I feel a bit weird about it. I think turning 30 means I have to become a grown-up, right? I have to be sensible and save money and think about having babies and a five year plan. Scary.

So, to rebel against the big Three-Oh I shall be celebrating at Jumpers For Goalposts, my favourite night of playing "arts and crafts" and listening to goofy music. If anyone would like to come and join me and help me celebrate then here are the details:


THURSDAY 18TH AUGUST

JUMPERS FOR GOALPOSTS

The Alley Café
8pm to latePM

Nottingham’s craftiest craft night returns on 18th August to bring some calm to our riot-torn city and make everything all music and google-eyes again.

There will, however, be a riot of colour and creative ideas, with arresting creations but NO CHARGES FOR ADMISSION!

We’ll have live music from ‘Santo and Claus’ and you can dance the night away (in your seats while making craft items) to the sonic collages made by DJ's from the fantastic film society Kneel Before Zod... we're expecting amazing soundtracks all round!

And don’t forget, the Alley Café serves excellent vegetarian and vegan food until 9.00pm if you fancy Dinner and Craft and Music.

****
If you're wondering what to get me as a brilliant 30th birthday present, I like cake... and diamonds.

Bex
xxx

Wednesday 22 June 2011

Awesome People Hanging Out Together

http://awesomepeoplehangingouttogether.tumblr.com/page/5

This site pretty much does what the name says & shows photos and occasional videos of awesome people hanging out together. (EDIT: I wanted to show you some actual pictures of Karl Lagerfeld & Kanye West, Shaquille O'Neal & Dr Ruth and Robert Redford & Dustin Hoffman, but BLOGGER SUCKS)

There are some hilarious photos, some incredible ones and some which show important/interesting things in history. For example, look for the photo of the physicists where there's about 30 of them and Marie Curie is the only woman. Or look for young Bill Clinton meeting JFK. I also like that it gives you a sense of the timeline of people more, by relating them to other famous people. It's really interesting to see Mick Jagger progress through from being a young dork with Peter Tosh, a hip young guy with James Brown to an elder statesmen with Madonna. It's also interesting just to see who has hung out with who throughout the past century. This sort of thing might make fame actually worth it!

http://awesomepeoplehangingouttogether.tumblr.com/

Bex
x

Wednesday 1 June 2011

Pretty Dandy

Right now I'm in the process of setting up my own business... Pretty Dandy! It's exciting, but quite slow going because I work full time hours. I'd love to be able to give up my dayjob and do it full time, so that's what I'm aiaming for over the coming year. Pretty Dandy is going to be an interiors/homewares website selling stylish vintage, handmade, art & new design pieces.

I've already started to amass some of the vintage stock, and have found some gorgeous things - like a china teaset with a gilt edging and a fifties-style blue flower, some wonderful vintage fabrics which are soon to become cushions and frames old adverts from women's magazines.  

I'm also putting together a range of handmade items, such as beautiful snuggly chunky cableknit cushions, placemat sets in clashing fabrics and lampshades made from old mats. Finally there's the art & new design pieces. There are some really exciting things to go in this section, like a coat rack which appears like a living branch growing out of the wall, original prints by artists & illustrators, a gorgeously designed energy-saving lightbulb which can go on show in the best lamps or even just on it's own.

It's really exciting sourcing all this stock and planning for the launch of my website: www.prettydandy.co.uk - nothing there until August, so please add it to your favourites and check back then!

In the meantime, if there's something you've been looking for for your home then get in touch, I might be able to source it for you - email hello@prettydandy.co.uk.

Becky

Friday 20 May 2011

Beyonce: Run The World

I just watched this video and had to share it on here in case people haven't seen it yet:



It's insane. The Guardian has an interesting article here about how cultural references are becoming more obscure, with particular mention of the "Beyonce & two Hyenas" shot in this video (1:56). There are countless references in this video, from the Jacksons & Fosse (dancing) to potentially even the news media/ reportage (the setting etc). All in a pop video with incredibly high fashion outfits (check the shoes at 2:17) and an immense cast of female dancers.

The only thing that makes me a little sad is that despite what Beyonce says, girls don't really run the world, and while this video is really interesting and a bit challenging in terms of mainstream pop, it's probably not going to change that.

So, let's listen to this call to make Beyonce's claims real:



Women of the World by Jim O' Rourke

Becky

Wednesday 18 May 2011

Gig in London this weekend!

Hello

Hello Thor are curating one of Rough Trade's legendary afternoon gigs at the Notting Hill Arts Club this weekend. Woop!

An extension of Rough Trade's classic in-store gigs (just with a bit more room, and fewer records), the RoTa shows have been graced / curated by the likes of Hot Chip, The Line Of Best Fit, Warp, Jamie T, Saddle Creek, Fortuna Pop, Truck, Jonquil, Yuck and more.

It's on Saturday (21st May) from 4pm until 8pm and it's completely for FREE.

Warm Brains
- new band from ace DIY producer Rory Attwell (Fair Ohs, Male Bonding, Fists).  They make fuzzy, dreamlike, carefully-woven, lo-fi slacker tunes as heard on debut single Old Volcanoes.

Fists
- recently described as a "one band John Peel show" Fists' sound ranges from bittersweet vocal harmonies to stomping garage rock. Or as Artrocker put it "they sound like a drunken art collective playing country songs they’ve never heard before. Which is meant to be a compliment.”

We Show Up On RadaR
- combining the optimism and joy of the Flaming Lips with the melancholy of Daniel Johnston, WSUOR's music is gentle, mischievious and magical indie pop to dream to.

Not Cool
- these gutter pop pioneers specialise in frenetic, melodic and slightly demented post punk.  Think Fugazi or Pavement, but from Downham, south London.

Facebook event here: http://www.facebook.com/?sk=inbox&setup#!/event.php?eid=201457909891967
with super cool poster by Angi from Fists
.
It's gonna be ace!

love Bex
x

Sunday 17 April 2011

FUN-Raising at Jumpers for Goalposts



Please come along to the Alley Cafe on Thursday from 8.30pm for an evening of music, craft & entertainment. ish.

Becky
x