Thank you all those lovely men in uniform and women with rollers

I know this post is a little overdue but the sentiment is still there. On the 11th November the country was silent for two minutes to remember all those totally amazing people who have and continue to lose their lives for our little island. In World War One around 703,000 men lost their lives in a war that was so terrible and in World War Two 298,950 died, not to mention over 64,000 people killed at home. There were also millions injured and sadly today we have lost 385 troops in Afghanistan and a 179 in Iraq. These may seem just like numbers, but that is over one million six hundred families that have lost a loved one. Shockingly, there has only been one year since World War Two where a British Serviceman or woman has not been killed in conflict. Just a little bit of trivia from me to you. Actually it's my Dad's Trivia, his other snippet is just far too boring to even mention.

Sadly and I hate to admit that I am part of a generation of people that just see those numbers as useless facts to learn and not lives lost. I'm not saying that everyone doesn't appreciate them, I just don't think they get enough recognition by us sometimes. So yesterday morning I snuggled down in my PJs, with my cat and some chocolate biscuits  to watch David Dimbleby give us the coverage on the Remembrance Sunday at the Cenotaph. While wondering if the Duchess of Cambridge had a Philip Treacy hat, (it wasn't by the way)  I saw the line of the veteran troops walking proudly in their uniforms and every year the line sadly gets shorter and shorter. One day there will be no Great Uncle Albert left to tell us about what happened during the War. Those veterans may not look like young nineteen year olds now,but they once were. Sadly unlike teenagers nowadays they spent their days fighting for us,not playing on an Xbox or downing a bottle of wine in 5 seconds. They didn't have the freedom to stay in bed till 2pm and doss around all day,they were out in the cold fighting a war not knowing when or whether they were going to see their family again.

Last night I was knitting while watching the Antiques Roadshow, (I know I sound old but just so you know I didn't put it on) it was a Remembrance Day special and people had bought items of their loved ones that fought in the wars including letters sent to sweethearts back home. Women were lucky if they saw their love once a year and us girls moan and spend hours on the phone to our girlfriends debating why we haven't heard from a guy all day.
In World War One women felt helpless, but in the second war Women went to work in factories doing dangerous jobs filling in for the men, helping the military and working on the land getting their fingernails dirty.With that bought shorter hemlines and trousers, along with keeping the country together we have those women to thank for us being able to wear trousers and get away with not shaving. So when you see a veteran in the street again, help them with their shopping or even just give them a smile because it will help them feel that the fight that they fought was not a waste of time and the friends they lost died for a purpose. And when you see your Great Uncle who wants to tell you all about the war again don't tune out, actually listen because they will really appreciate it. So on behalf of my generation may I offer you all a great fat cuddle and a big thank you.Without those men and women we may never have had The Only Way is Essex and the Spice Girls.  I mean can you imagine a life without them?

Second Hand Rose
XxxX

Nail Art History:The Moon Manicure a.k.a Doing nails at the speed of a snail

I've been wanting to do a nail art blog for a while since seeing the great ones over at DetBeauty and some of Katy Perry's amazing designs. Russell Brand's face on your nails, what more could you want out of life? I've always loved doing nails and have lets say a big collection of nail varnishes. A lot of them seem to be around the same colour though for some reason. I think its one of those Christmas things where people remember you have nails and may like nail varnish and buy you a gift set, forgetting that they have given you one five years in the row that are the same colour. It's not that I'm grateful to my Great Aunt, I just would like some variation from the same reds and purples. So Father Christmas if you are reading this, some of the Barry M pastel colours and some of their instant Nail Effects Foil nail varnishes would go down very nicely.

So I thought what could I do that a) Was easy and I didn't have to do much work for (I've never been much great at art) and b) Doesn't take long too do-I'm far too impatient for all that reapply, base coat, reapply, top coat x2 rubbish. c) Would be different from what other people are doing. I thought since this is a blog about the love of times gone, I thought why not try the nail trends that used to be popular. I hope to make this a regular thing and go through the decades, so let me know what you think, because I don't want to bore the blogging world. Now, is everyone sitting comfortably? Here's a little history lesson for you on nail designs and what we did before Barry M Crackle came into our lives.

Before 3000 BC the nude nails were a very hot trend, but after 3000 BC the Chinese, Japanese and Romans started to get a bit bored of the au naturel look and started to add colour to their nails. Sadly Nails Inc wasn't around then so they had to look to nature to help them inject colour into their look. Its main origin is in China where they applied a type of enamel on their fingers, made out of various flower petals including roses, bizzy lizzies,orchids along with beeswax. I feel sorry for the bloke who had to collect that. They would mix it all up and after leaving it for several hours it would turn into a stained/ shiny reddishy pink colour. Blimey, I can barely wait 60 seconds let alone a few hours. In India, people made dye from the Henna plant which left a reddish brown stain, nailing the stained nail trend.

Egyptians also used henna to colour nails and the tips as a sign of beauty.In some societies the colours of your nails was a social significance. In Egypt, higher classes had deeper shades of red, while the lower classes were only allowed to wear pale shades. Queen Nefititi coloured her fingers and toe nails ruby red and Cleopatra coloured them a dusty red. The King also coloured his nails and so did other men. And you thought guyliner was weird.
Later in China in the Chou Dynasty of 600 BC, royalty enhanced their nails with gold and silver. So even thousands of years ago they were rocking the gold and silver foil trend, Barry M you're a bit behind there. Also a 15th century Ming manuscript cites red and black as the colours chosen by royalty using Henna. Its a shame the royalty doesn't do that now and all have a distinct nail colour. Although, I can't really see the Queen going to events with goth black and bright red nails,can you?

Nails began to advance in 1830 when the Orange wood stick was invented in 1830 for nails to manicure them by a Dr.Sitts. Before this metal tools, acid and scissors were used. In the early 1800s the almond short and slightly pointed nails were popular. They were sometimes tinted with scented red oil and buffed with a chamois cloth (yes I don't know how to say it either.) It took till 1892 until the wood stick was brought to women and entered the US where nail salons were opened. So we have him to thank for five nail salons in every street then.
By 1900 the first glossy nail varnish was available and was applied with a camel hair brush, but sadly it wore off in a day. A bit like my Rimmel London 60 Seconds nail varnish then. The emery board on a wood centre was invented in 1910 by 'Flowery Manicure Products' a company that manufactured metal nail files.

When the lovely Henry Ford created the Tin Lizzie Ford T car the paint inspired more modern nail varnish colours. Just to clarify there wasn't any bright pink or neon yellow cars, women had to wait a bit longer to have nails like that. Movie stars and celebrities were always seen with beautifully manicured fingers, until 1925 when nail varnish entered the market with a sheer rosy red colour created by French makeup artist, Michelle Mernard. When this happened the 'moon manicure' became extremely popular, and that is where our history lesson is going to end for now and my painful attempts at nail art is going to begin. The Moon Manicure involves painting the middle of the nail, but leaving the moon of the nail (at the bottom) unpainted and the tip. I would like to say that I have absolutely no idea how they did this without those sticky manicure things you can get to put on your nails to separate colours, Greta Garbo my black glittery fedora hat goes off to you.
Etiquette books of the time warned women against painting their nails with 'garish colours' because it was seen as vulgar and unladylike. No bright blue for you then Greta.

As the decade went into the 30s more colours were available which ranged from light pinks, deep crimson, and cream shades. Even for a short period in 1932 black nail varnish was introduced but it quickly went away again. The goth look wasn't really on trend then, it was more innocent girly then rebel goth. The moon manicure has changed over the years when at the end of the 1930s women just left the bottom of the nail bare, I  mean wouldn't you not waste the time if Errol Flynn was on at the cinema? It has also been used in fashion shows and seen in magazines with many mixtures of colours. Dita Von Teese has even been seen with the half moon manicure, so if it is good enough for Dita then it is good enough for me.
But, I have decided to go right back to the roots of the nail varnish and try the first ever proper nail trend. Just to clarify I mean the moon manicure, I'm not going to start picking roses from the garden and trying to make an enamel, I don't think Mummy Second Hand Rose would be too pleased. I am going to try and do it the completely original way with the original colours. Those eight different shades of red you have bought me over the years Great Auntie have finally come to some use. I may live to regret this.

Due to me not having many of those manicure thin nail sticking thingys and I can't really use all of my sisters, I tried to think of another way to make my nails look at least a little bit like Joan Blondell's nails. So I searched around and found a great way to use something that I'm sure a lot of us have, thanks very much Google. We have all had the annoyance of paper in files getting torn where the hole is punched and to solve our problem there are these circle sticky white hole re-inforcers that you can get. I got a 1000 for £1.99 from WhSmith. So not only do they save hours of ranting and trying to stick pages back together with sellotape and failing, you can also use them on your nails to create the moon shapes. Rejoice! So I had to have a 5 minute which turned into more like a 45 minute think of where on earth I had put those saviours and had to tip my stationery draw upside down. Along with the hundreds of pens that don't work I found the white circle saviours!! Joanie honey eat your heart out!! I remember being with my mum in WHSmith being dragged around getting stationery for school and me saying 'Blimey these are expensive aren't they?' I am a bit tight, and she said 'Oh you will find another use for them.' How right you were mother!

So I started off by cleaning my nails and make them look a bit less like I had been playing in the mud like a toddler and more like a glamorous woman. I then attempted to file them into the almond shape which was popular at the time. Due to being a bit of a nail biter, I don't have much of some of the nails to file, so I suggest if you want to try this, try and grow your nails, or you can use my little tip that I will share later on, stay tuned. I then covered them with my new base coat. I spent £5 on a Rimmel combined top and base coat,used it once and it leaked all in my bag. I'm still morning from it even though it was two months ago and I'm now stuck with a nail varnishy smelling bag that has a rock hard bottom. The new one I bought is No7 So Smooth Base Coat. I wouldn't normally by No7, but I had a voucher so I took advantage of that and stocked up. See I told you I was a bit of a skinflint. So far so good with it, it goes on easily with a wide brush. It claims to improve wear and condition of the nail. Thank god for that, all that fondant moulding I do for my cakes does play havoc with my nails.

I then cut the hole re-inforcers in two, I tried using them at the top of the nail but it didn't really make a good shape, so I just used them for the bottoms of the nails. I'm sure you could use them for the top but I kept getting them stuck on my fingers and by the time I got them on my nails, the stickiness had legged it. I put manicure stickers on the top of the nails, due to me having small nails I could cut some and put them on another nail. I then covered the nail with my red nail varnish, trying my best not to get any polish on my skin, which always happens to me. I only did one coat but I always put it on quite thick and this nail varnish didn't seem like it needed another coat. I used Geisha's Seal Nailed Polish by Sleek Makeup, and yes it was out of a collection that I got for Christmas.Plus I was getting a bit impatient by now. I let it dry, well attempted to for around five minutes. I should mention that by this time this was my third go at it so I was determined to make it work. I always end up messing the nails up while they are drying or putting too much on and getting that bubble effect. I'm sure with practice this can be done smoothly and easily. If you don't have long nails you can always use a white nail pencil to colour your nail. I don't have one of them so I tried it with my white eye liner and it does look good, god knows what nail biters did in the 20s without it. You can also put white manicure nail varnish on your nails, either before or after you put the red on. I tried it twice before hand and it didn't really work for me, although I think my impatience and putting the nail varnish on too thick didn't help.

So after what felt like forever, I carefully peeled off the stickers. You really have to do this carefully because it can easily mess up. Some of the nail varnish had messed up a bit on the tops, see I told you I was messy but the bottoms worked well. I then added a coat of the base coat again because my 17 lasting fix brush had stuck all together,  I think I need a trip to Boots. This design is interesting but is quite hard to do and you have to be careful and it helps if you are not a messy bee like me. Ladies this is certainly not a design to try when you are getting ready to go out for an evening. Like I said earlier my hat goes off to the movie stars or their makeup artists who did this design without the stickers. I'm sure some of you may be able to do this effortlessly. I like this nail design but its not the easiest thing in the world to do,so I think I'll leave this to you Jean Harlow, although I think Joan Bennett in the film Scarlet Street has the right idea.

Second Hand Rose
XxxX

We are going to need a hell of a lot of candles

Get out the birthday candles everyone and grab yourself a party hat. Woman's Weekly celebrates its 100th birthday today. I hope they got a birthday card from the Queen, that's all I can say. While it may seem just one of those magazines that your mum and granny read, Women's Weekly used to be very popular with all ages.
 Its first issue was published on the 4th of November 1911 and went on sale for just a penny. It was a magazine for every woman out there,young and old and for every home, offering advice on everything from shifting excess pounds to fashion do's and don't 's for Christmas. I don't think it contained the Cabbage Soup Diet or 5 tips on how to lure a man. Still going strong Woman's Weekly goes on sale every Wednesday and sells over 360,000 copies per week. It says its 'the grown up woman's guide to modern living.'

I thought it would be interesting to see what the first issue contained compared to the 'What your man really wants', 'How to make Scallops with confit potatoes and a ginger and thyme veloute.' and 'Is it ok for a guy to wear eyeliner?' Give me my mum's amazing Hotpot and men in suits, spats and Fedora hats anyday. If I find a man like that I will actually propose to him on the spot.

Woman's Weekly have done a centenary edition and have included a copy of the first ever one. As soon as I heard this, I rushed down to the Tesco's up the road to buy it. It felt a bit weird not picking up Look, Glamour or Vogue. Let's just say I'm not really Women's Weekly's target audience am I. I decided to do the self checkout namely because I could either go to the scrummy guy and be looked at weirdly because I was buying a middle aged woman's magazine or the middle aged woman at the other checkout  who looks slightly scary and I was afraid she would say 'You can't have this magazine you're not middle aged' and run after me whacking me with it. I know I have a very exaggerated imagination sometimes.
I read the magazine that the 1st edition came in as well and I did actually enjoy it quite a lot. Does that read as sad as it sounds? I spent my Friday night in with my cat reading Women's Weekly and knitting whilst contemplating getting the magazine more often, due to some of the good cake recipes and sewing and knitting patterns. Yes Ladies and Gentleman, I know how to live.

The magazine consists of 36 pages on brown A5 paper. The first page has adverts on for Flannelettes, Neave's Food, an Elegant Camisole and some Books for Women starting with 'What a Young Wife Ought to Know' and ending with 'What a Woman of 45 ought to know.' They are not the usual glossy posey adverts I'm use to seeing in Vogue I'll tell you that much. The magazine starts wih a page illustrating everything a woman does with the logo 'A Woman's Work is Never Done.' Every week they illustrated the endless and countless task that a woman does. I don't think it would have included 'By a microwave meal' and 'Having a bikini wax and a fake tan' though. The next page is the Editor's letter. It explains the purpose of the magazine to please the average woman and help them with daily tasks and lives, as no ever magazine had done before. Quite funnily the editor quite strongly says that the magazine will not contain anything sordid and 'will not be dealing with the phases of life, which to put it mildly are not at all pleasing or nice to think about.' I don't think this is quite the magazine for you Kerry Katona.

I could so easily tell you about every page but a) I think I may bore you and b) A Sex and the City session is calling and I can't possibly be writing while Aidan is on the screen. To clarify that's when he gets back with Carrie, not when they met that long hair and that baggy denim shirt doesn't really do it for me. So I will entertain you with the highlights and key features of the magazine.

After a Lace Pattern, a tutorial on Crochet, Health Hints for Infants and a story there is a section on weight loss. The title is 'How long have you been putting it off?' The term for fighting the flab those days was the 'removal of over-fat'. The extra tyre that you got from all that chocolate cake you've been eating basically. The article began 'I wouldn't be as fat as so-and-so for the world! Is a remark which may be heard now and again from the lips of some person rejoicing in all the charms of graceful slenderness, a perfect oval of face, a delicate dainty chin and throat.' I gather they didn't pig out on a Chinese every night of the week then. 'To a woman of elegance and taste these enviable possessions are quite naturally a source of pride. But these gifts of beauty are not always lasting ones.' Its basically saying don't have that third piece of cheesecake and fourth glass of wine you were going to have because when you are lets say 'vintage' it will be a lot harder to shift those wobbly bits.  It strongly tells you not to starve yourself or 'mineral drugging' because it is unhealthy, dangerous and the weight will come back on and you will become 'your former stout self.' Say it how it is why don't you.

It talks about 'a splendid home treatment' called Antipon which is 'a discovery of the highest value'. It gives renewed tone to the whole system, clears it of waste matter that is carried by the blood' as well as many other things. Apparently there is no other way of stamping out obesity. Along with getting rid of that extra layer, it is very beneficial to the skin and complexion. Within a day and a night of the first dose the decrease of weight is something between 8oz and 3lb. I wonder if I can get some off eBay? 

It is said to contain 'vegetable ingredients of a quite harmless nature'.  Maybe I was wrong about the magazine not containing things like the Cabbage Soup Diet.

On the 'Pin Money Pages' housewives were encouraged to compare recipes for half a crown, the money by the way ,not what the Queen wears. This edition containted recipes for 'Rabbit Mould', 'Yorkshire Parkin' and 'Hot Breakfast Cakes' amongst others. It also contains tips and hints on Norfolk Dumplings. The tip was 'Serve with gravy as a first course before the meat, these are much liked by the young folks.' This was also before the time of getting a £1 kebab on a drunken friday night.

The magazine has a page on 'Blouse Blunders' which are still relevant today and is quite helpful. There is another story called 'The Blacks and Whites: Their Adventure of Boy and Girl Land.' Yeah I think I'll skip over that bit. The magazine had a 'Real Love Stories' section where one of the stories was by an anonymous reader which was about falling in love over a bath chair. Just to clarify this doesn't mean a chair over a bath it means a sort of wheelchair with a space to put your feet up. Ladies and Gentleman get ready to get your Kleenex out. "It was about 12 years ago and I had commenced to attend a mission hall in East London. I there became accquainted with a crippled lady who had to be wheeled about in a bath chair. Her attendant was a young lady of 17. That lady became my wife. It was a case of love at first sight. I was very much impressed by her open manner and simple heartedness and I think it was this that caused me-first of all unconsciously-to love her." That's lovely compared to today's usual 'I fell in love with her watermelons and rack.' They 'courted' for five years and at the time they had been married for six. That even melted the heart of me, the grumpy old love cynic.

When it comes to fashion there is a great section on Winter wear which is full of dresses that can be made at home. It shows some gorgeous long gowns, and when I say long I mean right down to the ankles long. I don't think we will be seeing any of the girls from The Only Way is Essex making them to wear. The pattern's can be bought for 6 1/2 d each. It has some great side columns about the Dress Do's and Dont's. Surprisingly it doesn't have 'Make sure you wear white knickers with a white dress' and 'Try not to let it all hang out'.
There is also an article about how to make a shirt blouse with the pattern that was free in the magazine. The shirt is fitted over the pleated shoulders with a slight point at the centre back and has a high neck, long arms and a scarf around it. No ladies this is not the blouse to make for a friday night out on the tiles.
Later on in the magazine there are little tips on how to make a Silk Hat Bag, A Home Made Cutlery Case, How to renovate and Old Cloth Dress and many other things.

Everyone listen up and put your chocolate digestives down. Throughout the rest of the magazine there are some figure boosting and health tips. There is an article called 'How I Enlarged My Bust.' It is about this woman who watched her bust grow in size, day by day and week after week, until she had a superb 'development' in a month's time.  Plastic Surgery wasn't around then (blimey Katie Price would have a panic attack) and chicken fillets were a part of a chicken. The lady had tried Massage, Cold Cream, Wooden Cups (Ok I have no idea how that works), Electricity (that's even weirder), Drugs and other methods but they had all failed. In the picture of the woman she has boobs to rival a page 3 Sun girl, cleverly drawn of course. Unlike the Sun she is not standing there in a skimpy bikini with stiletoes, fake tan, false nails and hair extensions. The woman has a long sleeved dress on that finishes at the top her bust and I mean right at the top. I was looking forward to hearing what her secret was, wondering whether to try it on my self but sadly we were left hanging and it was in the 3rd Magazine. What a hell of a good bit of marketing. Sorry ladies.

On another page there is a small section about spots on a face and gives a remedy for spot treatment. It tells you to go to your chemist to make up the prescription. It contains five grains of Calomel, for those of you that are not chemically minded it is a colourless white or brown tasteless compound. Thanks very much Answers.com It also contains one drachm of Sulphur and 1/2 a drachm of Oil of Cade. I think I'll stick to Clean & Clear Spot Treatment thanks.

There is a bit called 'Chats at the Dressing Table' which has some 'useful beauty tips.
-In the Winter it is vital to get outside and do some exercise. Not doing exercise in the winter will make all the organs not function properly, making the blood come impure and giving the complexion a muddy look. And you thought you should only go for a walk to check out your cute neighbour.
-The face should be washed immediately before you go out and whenever hot water is used it should be followed by luke warm water and then cold. It is good not to wash your face at all in the day, but use a thorough ablution at bedtime. But if you are like me and get food around your face and on your nose at least twice a day, what is a girl to do?
- To keep wrinkles away you should get into the habit of moving the hands upwards and outwards, instead of the usual up and down way while washing your face. This will keep the heaviest age lines at bay. Better tell that to Gordon Ramsay then.
- Don't rub your eyes, they frequently lose brightness and become tired and heavy looking because they are being used when they don't need to be. If sleep dust appears on the lashes during the night, do not rub it off. Instead bathe your eyes with boracic acid lotion prepared by a chemist. Chemist being the operative word.

There is a small section on health, giving you the cure for a 'Rupture' also known as a Hernia. The cure is called The Rice Method and has apparently cured every kind of hernia in all ages. Does that mean you get to eat more curry then?

There is also a bit called 'Is Your Heart Bad?' It gives you the apparent cure for heart symptoms and has apparently proved an almost infallible cure for Heart Disease and its many complications. I wonder if that includesa broken heart due to not being able to afford a pair of Chrisitan Louboutin's?

The magazine contained a column written by Mary Common about her giving the control of the grocery bill to her husband John, after he was shocked at the "two pounds and eighteen seven pence"that she spent. A bit like me and Mr.Boyfriend and his shock on how much I spend on shoes. I'm sorry but sometimes £4 pumps from Primark simply won't do. Mary said to her husband: ‘You wish me, I suppose, to cook your meals and make the beds, and dust and scrub and generally do the work of a servant, but you do not trust me to spend your money to the best advantage. I agree! Do the housekeeping yourself!’You go girl. The reader is then taken on a trip around the town with John as he tries and proves to his wife that you don't have to spend a lot. The reader is left with a cliffhanger as John stands in the butcher's and tries to decide what part of the pig to get. Exciting I know. This column was actually very popular and had women splitting their petticoats and popping out of their girdles. 


At the back of the magazine there is a section on Careers where Margaret Fox, Matron of London's Prince of Wales Hospital is interviewed over her career. Margret talks about how rewarding it is to help a ill person get better and she said 'there is no occupation in life so delirious as that of caring for the sick.' This was obviously before the 'career' of being a wag. 

The back of the last page has a very very simple advert for Bird's Custard. This is one of the things that I am very glad has stayed around for the past 100 years. It has been part of my childhood due to my Grandma's amazing five minute sponges and Apple Pie that we both devour in one sitting. She makes the thickest custard ever, you can stand a spoon up in it. She uses a whole pack for two people, compared to my mum's custard which makes us have to go through a pack of straws quite quickly.
So I'm glad Bird's Custard has lived on, as well as Women's Weekly, but Rabbit Mould and swallowing Vaseline for colds four times a day, I think I'll leave that in the past thanks.


Second Hand Rose
XxxX

Knitting Needles and Pattern Riddles

I've been blogging exactly two months today. Is my two month anniversary at blogging, an excuse to buy more clothes? Its gone really fast and I'm quite proud of my little blog. In my 'Hello World' bit I put about my sewing and knitting etc. I realised last night while I was failing to get to sleep due to day dreaming about Mr. Valentino Garavani sending me one of his amazing creations,that I haven't actually shown you some of my creations. Well attempts at creations.

 In between blogging, selling on eBay, exercising my debit card and dreaming about being part of the Larkin family in The Darling Buds of May, I have been knitting. My Grandma is an amazing knitter and she taught me when I was really young. She learnt when she was four on matchsticks and made a tie for her Dad for Christmas.
Ever since then she has been knitting her heart out but with knitting needles and has created some amazing jumpers for the whole family, including a Christmas tree jumper, a My Little Pony jumper, a Thomas the Tank Engine, a tiger coming out of the forest and many more. She made a postman pat jumper for my brother when he was four and he refused to take it off. Kinda like how I would be if I had a pair of Christian Louboutin's. My mum had to get her to make him another one which she did in two evenings so she could wash the other one. Her and my Granddad were a great team,he would read out the pattern whilst in the bath sometimes and she would do the knitting.
So its fair to say that she knows what she is doing. She has made so many cardigans with amazing patterns within the wool. I ask her how she does it and she says 'It's easy you knit two,wrap the wool over, drop a stitch,make a stitch,knit three,bring the wool under, make a stitch,drop 3 stitches.' Frankly Grandma you lose me after knit two.

My Grandma has spent many years attempting to carve me into a good knitter. When I was born my lovely mum and dad bought me a gorgeous toy rabbit. I never parted with it and even took it to school and till the age of about six or seven. Or maybe it was seventeen. He has had so many covers in his life and my mum has spent hours making new suits for him and sewing his ears back on. Sadly a suit he had on was coming apart and the stuffing was falling out. Now this was proper vintage stuffing,I'm telling you now. It was a t-shirt cut up that my mum wore when she had my sister. My sister's now twenty six. It smelt just like my mum and I really didn't want to lose any of it. So I made him a new suit out of some lovely blue and white star material that I made a dress out of for my best friend. I also decided to make him a jumper to go on top of it. We don't want him to catch cold do we. Yes I know I need to go out more.

I decided to kill two birds with one stone as they say and practice some patterns with the wool colours.  The hardest ones to do were the red and green pattern on the front and the blue and yellow one on the back. Many naughty words and knitting being chucked back in the bag was done during the making of this jumper. I finally finished the front and back and sewed up the sides and shoulders. My Grandma had the great idea of making holes within the casting off, so I could put some ribbon through it and make it fit his neck properly and I could give him a nice bow tie, very smart. I was quite pleased with it if I don't say so myself. I teased Mr.Boyfriend that I was going to make him one just like it. I don't think he was too keen on wearing a brightly coloured 80s hallucination jumper. Strange boy.

My other little knitting project is a 40s Turban with a bow. The pattern is Bestway 1188 and I got it from these lovely people on eBay (where else?) at  Em_vintageretro Shop.  The pattern also contained a pattern for a crochet hat. They came in two sizes a Young Girl's size and a Matron's size. After getting a picture of Hattie Jacques in Carry on Matron walking up and down the wards in my head wearing a knitted turban, I was reassured by my mum it just meant the more mature lady. The pattern is for 4ply,2ply and 3ply, but me being difficult decided to do double knitting.

The pattern requires you to do moss-stitch and this did literally drive me to distraction. Due to me not doing just a plain colour I was constantly wrapping the wool around and by the time I had got to the end of the row, I forgot what stitches I had done and the rest of my wool was in a huge knot. Moss-stitch requires you to do Knit one, Purl one alternately and then the next row do the opposite stitches. I had about eight goes at it and then decided to do knit one row, pearl one row. I managed to do a few lines of moss-stitch but it didn't show the pattern very well. The pattern is a bit complicated and I suggest you don't watch it when Eastenders is on. Syed's hotness and Kim's hilarity really does put you off.

My Grandma has a knitting book full of patterns ranging from the 40s to the 80s with cute faced children, full headed hair men with pipes and women with really cool 60s haircuts wearing thick off cream jumpers containing about six patterns with big brown buttons. Not the best look in the world.
She sadly got rid of all the picture jumper patterns, which I'm a bit sad about. I'd love to make a Noddy Jumper. My Grandma takes Feng Shui to a whole new level. I'm constantly rescuing clothes from her bag to go down to Oxfam. I always enjoy looking through her patterns and I'm desperate to make a few things out of her amazing pattern book.
 I want to make a jumper for my cat, he is nearly twenty and I don't want him getting cold. My cat weighs a stone so I will need a lot of wool. I'm thinking about making him some leg warmers, a scarf and a bobbly hat with holes for his ears, or is that taking it a bit too far? I don't think I'll be making a crazy teapot cosy out of the pattern book to go on my head anytime soon though. I'll leave that to you Lady Gaga.

Second Hand Rose
XxxX

Ladies and Gentleman, get ready to stuff your face

WARNING: This post is very likely to make you head for the cupboard to get out the Dairy Milk or get in your car and rush to the nearest Thorntons.


We are used to seeing let's say 'unusual' things used in fashion,no one can forget Lady Gaga's meat dress.  But a few weeks ago there was a fashion show with the clothes made purely out of chocolate. Yes you read that right. The show was part of the Salon du Chocolat (Chocolate Fair) in Paris. Before you think you are going to see High Street chocolate buttoned skirts and twirls added to your shorts, this is not a fashion label. Le Salon du Chocolat is one of the most popular chocolate festivals in Paris. This event is in its sixteenth year and has tens of thousands of chocolate lovers rushing with their Flake's to the event. It lasted from the 28th October until today and it bought together chocolate exhibitors and those eager to sample their goodies for five days of chocolate heaven. Ugh I wish I went to this, but I'm sure I would be like one of those kids who eat all their Easter eggs at 8am in the morning. All eleven of them. Yes I'm talking about you Daddy Second Hand Rose.

Designers collaborated with chocolatiers and created amazing mouth watering costumes, dresses, shoes, hats and other accessories created purely out of a variety of the beloved milky stuff. You have to see these outfits, even if it will have you breaking open a packet of Maltesers.
This one on the right is one of my favourite's and I adore the hat, if it didn't melt I would be very happy to add this to my hat collection.
I love this one on the left as well. I think the dress is amazing and I would totally wear it. Even if I would probably end up eating it all. Sadly one of the dresses cam apart. French TV presenter Karine Ferri was strutting her stuff down the runway when her chocolate skirt started to shatter. Karine tried to keep it all together,but we all know how crumbly chocolate can be and the top layer of the skirt that was panelled fell off and left a chocolate mini skirt which was the base of the dress.
Well done Karine, I'm sure the rest of us would have walked off in shame and sobbed into a huge bar of Dairy Milk.


Men got in the action too, that's not a surprise they are always there when there is food around. They all looked very swish with waistcoats, top hats and amazing costumes.

One of the highlights of the show was a model coming out of an iron wrought type cage with a gorgeous dress. I simply adore the white chocolate arms.
If you want to see the show you can see it here.Salon du Chocolat Fashion Show 2011 or see more pictures of the designs here Salon du Chocolat Photos.
I hope everyone had a great Halloween. The only spooking I did was answering the door to the postman without any makeup on.



All you lovelies I have some fabulous deals for you!!
-Ax Paris is offering 20% off there knitwear for just 48 hours only! So make sure you check them out.
They have some lovely snuggly jumpers and cardigans for sale. The code to use is KNIT20.
-Dorothy Perkins is offering 20% off exclusively online on their sale items. Know guilt required for buying, its in the sale and has more money off!! Result!
-Asos have 20% off all their snuggly knits and coats.
La Senza are offering 2 for £10 for their gorgeous bras and £10 off their lovely dressing gowns,so grab your hot chocolate and slippers and snuggle up to the fire.

I hope these are some help, if you use them, let us know what you got! Happy shopping and happy munching!! I'm off to raid the cupboard for some chocolate and to buy a 1kg of Dairy Milk on eBay. Mits off family.

Second Hand Rose
XxxX