Big box of festivities

Fancy dress day at work today to get us all into the spirit of Christmas at last.  Some people can be such Scrooge's this time of year! I personally love Christmas and not only because its the perfect excuse to get all glammed up but because I truly believe Christmas is a time for family and friends.  There is nothing better than having a night in with your family, all crushed on to one couch watching a classic on the box like Miracle on 34th Street, whilst the lights on the tree are twinkling and the fire (electric) is (mimicking) crackling.

Anyway I'm getting sidetracked thinking of home.  So back to fancy dress at work.  If you have any festive fancy dress parties coming up then I have a few ideas to share with you...

• Christmas Cracker - Easily made out of card.  Warning this must be worn vertically or else you will get stuck in doorways
• Christmas Present - Get a large box wrap in festive paper them simply cut out arm, leg and head holes, a large bow warn as a little hat adds a cutsie look to this otherwise boxy outfit (ha ha geddit)
• Box of Christmas decorations - Saved the best till last. Again get a large box like above but this time step into the box and wear it around your stomach and attach braces made out of ribbons to it so that you don't have to constantly hold it up.  Next get loads of tinsel, baubles etc and staple all over the box so that it looks like its all spilling out.  Finally wear a sparkly top and completely cover it in yet more decorations and then just plaster yourself in glitter (optional but fun)!!!

My amazing 'Box of Christmas decorations' outfit...

Ingenious fancy dress outfits at the Dazed and Confused Christmas Party, all outfits had to be based on a Christmas dinner...

Raggedy Rag doll, yes please!!

Charity shops,boot fairs flea markets and old musty smelling vintage shops are literally my favourite kinds of places in the world.  I could spend whole days just wandering around them marvelling at all the little random bits and pieces that once belonged to other people.  I go into these places knowing that no matter how broke I am I will have to buy something.  Its like when you get an itch, no matter how much you try to ignore it, it will never go away until you actually scratch it and thats how I feel when I go into a charity shop and come out with nothing.  No matter how much I try telling myself I do not need anymore candle stick holders or broken miniature animal figurines, I know I won't be able to stop thinking about what I could have bought in there until I actually go back in and buy something.

The blame for my obsession with bits of tat and second hand shops etc can all be put on my grandad, he was the one that opened up this whole new and magical world for me.  A world where even a 10 pence piece can buy you anything you've ever dreamed of.  At seven years of age I stood in the midst of my local British Red Cross charity shop holding a ten pence coin that my Grandad had just handed to me.  He told me that with this one shiny coin I could buy any one of the thousands maybe even trillions of toys that were on the shelves and in the boxes lined up before me.    For a moment I just stood there whilst my eyes scanned the shelves until I saw it, the most beautiful raggedy old rag doll I had ever seen and it was sitting right at the top on the highest shelf.  I knew then and there that this dolly was to be mine and all because of my grandad, who had brought me into this magical shop where you could swap a silly shiny coin for something as wonderful as this doll.

Even now I love looking around charity shops, searching for the cheapest thing tht I can buy so that I can take it home to treasue.  It makes me smile thinking about what my Grandad would say about it, how happy he would be knowing that his love for tatty second hand treasures had been passed on to me.

Aaah my first post!!

freezing cold and completly numb but on the plus side I have got some gorgeous photos of Livi.  Lejimps photography skills have paid off as ever. 

• Brown Jacket...Rocha John Rocha Debenhams
• Dress worn as top...Next
• Faux leather skirt...H&M
• Vintage leather boots...Beyond Retro
• Vintage leather bag... Vintage Fair
• Green metal 'Captain' badge...from 6years ago when I was school captain, true geek chic

Topshop Unique... A/W 2010/11

 

Loving the girl scout look with the cute sew on badges