Win A Singer Sewing Machine!

This is a super competition with a real vintage element that I am sure you will all appreciate. Do you have any family photos of couples married in the 1930s-1950s period?  If so, you could be in with a chance of winning a Singer sewing machine among other fantastic prizes in this competition hosted by author Kate Thompson, over at her Facebook page here.  A little while ago I reviewed her book, 'Secrets of the Singer Girls', set in a sewing factory in London's East End during WWII.  Kate is currently researching a follow-up book in the same era, and wants to see as many vintage wedding photos as possible!

Photo credit: Walter on Flickr (Creative Commons)

Competition Crazy!

It's no secret that I love a competition.  Wins in the last few years have included a lovely Cambridge Satchel, a dress (post coming soon on that one) and some knickers.

Looking for competition inspiration in my local scenery!

The Secret of French Dressing: My Favourite Style Tip

Do you ever wish you could be a little more 'French'?  Regular readers of this blog will know that I have a bit of an obsession with French beauty and style.  I'm sure I'm not the only one that looks at French women and thinks 'why can't I look like that?!'.  Younger French women look chic and trendy but never overblown, whereas older French women look classic, but never outdated.  They move with the times but always remember the core of what good dressing is all about.  French dressing is about the balance of classic elegance and being fashion forward, all fused together with that 'je ne sais quoi'.

My Favourite Style Tip - Their Secret is My Secret!
So, what's the secret?  And yes, there is a secret.  I've read all of the books to find out what it is, from 'French Women Don't Get Fat', to 'Two Lipsticks and a Lover'.  I have an impressive collection of French beauty products.  I've read interviews with French style icons such as Audrey Tatou and Charlotte Gainsbourg, and I've shopped French, buying clothes from affordable retailers available in the UK. So here is my number one style tip, even if you're not trying to be more French, it's a tip to help you be more stylish!

Give Away! 3 x John Frieda Frizz-Ease Nourishing Oil Elixirs Up For Grabs!

I've trialed a few John Frieda products recently, including their excellent volume shampoo, and I've always been a fan of their frizz-ease products.

I'm very pleased therefore to be able to offer 3 of John Frieda's Nourishing Oil Elixirs, which retail at about £9.99 each!

I find that creating vintage hairstyles, such as soft waves using hot sticks or similar, that I invariably get a little 'frizz'.  The pic below demonstrates the fluffiness that generally occurs before applying products!  I've used a few oil products recently from John Frieda (not exactly the same as the one I'm giving away, I've been using the Repairing Oil Elixir and the Perfect Ends Sheet Mist) and they've really helped tame those flyaways and give lovely defined, luscious curls without the fluff!

 
To be one of the 3 winners, all you have to do is follow this blog, and then use the Rafflecopter widget below to gain entries to the prizedraw!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Terms and conditions: This prize draw is open to UK residents only.  Open from Sunday 30th March 12AM to Sunday 6th April 12 AM

Good luck everyone!

Winners!

Drum roll please!  I used those random number generators found on the internet to pick the winners.

The winner of the eyebrow palette and nail polish is...Emily, author of Vintage Visions blog.

The winner of the teapot is...Melanie, author of The Folly Bird blog.

And the winner of the Ladybird Archive Collection mug is...Elgingerbread - another lady with a blog.

Congratulations all you three, I hope you are pleased.  I will be in touch to get your addresses.  Sorry to everyone who didn't win, I hope to do some more giveaways  in a few months.

P x

Three Giveaways!

Don't forget that I have three giveaways running - and at the moment you have a VERY good chance of winning something because hardly anyone has entered!

For the eyebrow palette giveaway see this post

For the teapot giveaway see this post

And for the Ladybird Archive Collection mug see this post

I'll draw the winners on Monday, so you've still got a couple of days to enter.

Good luck!

P x

Giveaway: Ladybird Archive Collection Mug

Ladybird books - sighs of nostalgia all round!  I love their range of gifts that have tapped in to this nostalgia, I'm sure you've seen the address and notebooks, craft sets, mugs and toiletries bags.

For my final giveaway this week then to celebrate 3 years of my blog, I have a lovely boxed Archive Collection mug with a picture of a pot of jam and the word 'Yummy'.

To be in with a chance of winning, please follow this blog and leave a comment below telling me which is your favourite Ladybird book.  ** Winner will be drawn Monday**

Giveaway: Vintage Teapot

As part of my 3-years-of-blogging-celebration I would like to do another giveaway.  One of you lovely readers will win a vintage teapot, stuffed with a mystery selection of tea.

To enter, simply follow this blog and leave a comment telling me what your favourite kind of tea is.

Good luck! ** Winner will be drawn Monday**

Giveaway: The Eyebrows Have It

As part of the 3 year anniversary celebration of my blog (woo hoo!) I have an eyebrow palette to give away.  There will be THREE giveaways this week because I've been blogging THREE years!

Photo: St David's Official Photographer

As part of the recent BAFTA talk I attended, the make-up artist Jo Evans (above) did a spotlight on brows to illustrate just how important they are in creating an overall vintage appropriate look.  Her model was given a 'natural' brow look on one side (fuller brow, following the natural shape) whilst the other brow was given the 1950's look - the results were really quite striking, even from 6 feet away in the audience.  I don't have a photo of the resulting look, sorry!

To further illustrate the point, I would like to bring to your attention actress Joanna Vanderham, star of 'The Paradise' and also 'Dancing on the Edge'.  In the first photo, the Edwardian look needed for her part in 'The Paradise' called for the natural brow.  Compare this with the photo below of that, of her 1930's look in 'Dancing on the Edge', and below that of her in 'real life'.  It's really quite dramatic what a change the brows help achieve, isn't it?

We got to keep a handy brow reference chart.

I think my brows are a concoction all my own from looking at it!

I'm giving away a Kelly Brook eyebrow palette so that you can have a go at sculpting the perfect brows yourself at home.  I'm also throwing in a red nail polish.  To be in with a chance of winning, follow this blog and please leave a comment below.  ** Winner will be drawn Monday**

Giveaway Winner Announced!

(drum roll please!)

First of all, a big thank you to everyone who has entered the prize draw to win the lovely Parisian stationery set!  I'm so pleased that it has been a popular giveaway, and that I now have some new followers.  I hope some of you are enthusiastic about vintage style as well as stationery!

To make the prize draw fair I have been through each and every comment and had to take some out that were not adhering to the rules exactly, and any that were just comments and not competition entries (sorry to delete those but I had to minimise confusion!).

Finally, thank you to all those that fed back to me on what 'back to school' type activities they will be undertaking this Autumn - it seems as though there's a lot of change ahead for some of us, and I wish everyone the best of luck with their new endeavours!

Without further ado, the winner of the Parisian stationery set is...

Sara Martino!  Aka dede81.

Congratulations Sara, please message me on Facebook with your mailing address and I will post your prize very soon.

Have a fantastic week everyone!

Porcelina xx

Giveaway: Bonjour Autumn!

Would you like to win a bumper set of stationery?  Read on!

Sorry, too slow!  GIVEAWAY NOW CLOSED!

 

Autumn is my favourite season and September my favourite month.  I've heard quite a few bloggers say that they feel September is a time of change and resolutions for them, the way January is for a lot of people, and I agree.

So, to celebrate September, I'm doing a little giveaway!  I love stationery, so the prize is...stationery!  It will help if you are going 'back to school' in any way this September - I'm starting a new part-time job and taking up an evening class, so I'm very much in a 'new beginnings' frame of mind.

The prizes are all from the 'Parisian' range of stationery and includes: a hardback notebook, stickers, pen, pencil, eraser, sharpener, ruler, pencil tin, a flatpack pen pot, and a pocket pack of tissues.

To enter:
1) Leave a comment below
2) For another entry repost this on your own blog, and then leave me a new comment with the link.
3) You can get a third entry by going to my Facebook page and leaving a comment after my post there about this competition.

I will post the prize anywhere in the world, but you must be a follower of this blog to enter!  Those of you still looking for the 'follow' button will find this has gone from Blogger now - either use Google friend connect, or copy my blog's url and paste it manually into 'Add new' in your reading list.

GOOD LUCK!!

I'd love to hear from anyone having their own 'back to school' experience this Autumn, please feel free to comment!

I'll draw a winner on Monday 24th September.

Win £400 of Fancy Pants

Glamorous, dangerous lingerie brand Kiss Me Deadly is running a fabulous competition to win £400 worth of their fancy unmentionables.

You have to be brave to enter - a photo submission of your good self wearing KMD lingerie or swimwear is required!  But don't let this put you off, as you don't have to show your face, and they suggest something a little more arty than Readers' Wives.  So you could just photograph the top of your stockings in a close up, or something to that effect, if you're too shy for a whole body shot.

If you're up for the challenge, you have until 27th August, and can submit photos via Facebook, or upload them direct to their website to conceal your identity.  Any 'likes' of my own submission on their Facebook page would be greatly appreciated too!

Also, have you SEEN their new 'Twisted Fairytales' A/W collection?  I have mentally spent £400 already...

Giveaway: Heyday Voucher!

A Christmas competition?  Count me in!  Over at the Heyday blog, Shona is giving away a £25 voucher to one lucky festive winner.

I'm currently eyeing a pair of black swing trousers (waiting for them to restock in my size), and the lovely Dynamite Mary dress (also out of stock!).

In For a Penny...

I've just entered the Fleur dress competition over at Shona from Heyday's blog, and I thought I might as well repost about the comp to bag myself an extra entry!

I'm still bitter about the custom made wrap dress I won but never received because it got lost in the post (not sure if the US or Royal Mail was to blame), so I am hoping the fates realise that I'm worthy of a replacement...

Photo from Shona's blog, of course.



I've got the builders in today trying to repair our leaky roof, they're like the Chuckle Brothers getting the ladders through the house!

I'm Stylish - Let's Have a Mini Giveaway!!

I've just received a Stylish Blogger Award, why thank you Charlotte over at Tuppence Ha'penny Vintage! This is my third award, how marvellous!

To celebrate this, and the fact I now have 55 followers, let's have a mini giveaway. February is a bit dreary, we should be staying in, watching good films, writing letters and drinking a good cup of tea.

Up for grabs:
First Prize - A copy of Coco Before Chanel on DVD, and a shoe notebook, for making those lists of things you want to make do and mend.

Second Prize - A stationery wallet for keeping up with the correspondence. Contains lined paper, envelopes, and stickers!

How to enter:
Leave a comment. For a bonus entry blog about the giveaway on your own blog, and comment again below with the link. Entries must be received by the end of Monday 14th February.

I'll post anywhere in the world but please remember that it's a British DVD so you will only be able to play it on a Region 2 DVD player!!

I think I'm supposed to tell you some things about me you don't know in order to accept the award, but I'll have to think about that and do a future post on it if you don't mind. Instead, right now I'd like to say good blogging recently ladies! I've enjoyed all the posts I've read in the last couple of days in particular. My favourite posts have been:

Lady Cherry's "Beauty on a budget?" - worth reading alone for the link to a discounted brands website!

Tuppence Ha'Penny's "Do you talk the talk?" - I'm guilty of throwing in a few pseudo-posh-vintage words myself.

Va Voom Vintage's "What's in my drawers?" - purely because I'm nosy!

Vixen Vintage's "Grocery Shopping" - taking a stand against immodesty and lack of decorum in supermarkets.

ALL of these lovely ladies post good things on a regular basis, and as such they all already have the Stylish Blogger Award! So I'll save passing it on to a future time when a newbie blogger can receive it.

Good luck with the little giveaway!

Shabby Apple GIVEAWAY @ The Mysterious Life of the Metropolitan Housewife!

'Tis the season for a giveaway - I've only just been introduced to the American site Shabby Apple and their wonderful dresses and know already this could be bad for my bank balance, especially as I'd have to get them shipped internationally! So I'm entering Twila Jean's competition over at her site to win one of these fabulous dresses - and you can enter too! Just go the The Mysterious Life of the Metropolitan Housewife and follow her entry instructions.

On another competition dress note, there's still no news on the dress I won from Shristi Studio, we're still hoping desperately that it's just delayed at customs - the thought of a custom-made vintage reproduction dress lost somewhere between the US and UK just doesn't bear thinking about!!

Another Fabulous Give Away!

I've had my eye on some Besame cosmetics for a while, after a post Fleur (diaryofavintagegirl.com) did about them a few months back. Such gorgeous packaging for starters, which instantly make you feel far more lovely than the horrid plastic of modern brands. But it's the colour palette that is the main attraction - rich, classic colours that women have been wearing for years and years. Why mess with something tried and tested?

If you are hankering after some Besame cosmetics yourself then head over to The Rockabilly Socialite's page here for a Bountiful Besame Bonanaza!

Photo below from the lovely Fleur's page, doesn't she look amazing? I wish I looked like that when I applied lipstick, but it's usually in the tiny fluorescent light of the bulb over the bathroom sink, with me still in slippers and curlers in my hair!

Heyday Fleur Dress Giveaway!

We all love a giveaway, and this has to be one of the best I've seen recently - head over to the Heyday blog and you can enter the competition to win your very own Fleur dress by leaving a comment! (photo above courtesy of Heyday).

Summer may be well and truly over here in the Northern hemisphere, but you could eek it out a little for Autumn by wearing the Fleur dress with chunky cardigans, boots and a good hat.

You can find the blog here, and the Fleur dress is available in the online shop here, so even if you don't win, you could just put one on your Christmas list...

,

I've Won a Vintage Repro Dress!!

I'm absolutely delighted and thrilled to discover that I am the winner of a custom-made dress from Shristi Studio! To enter the competition you had to send off a picture of a vintage dress you wanted recreated - I went for a simple 1940s wrap dress (I've been hankering after one for a while!) and sent off this picture.



So, the next decision is fabric - I'm thinking either a black cotton (simple, elegant, will wear a lot), or a novelty print such as the lovely apple prints Wearing History posted about a while back. Might be a bit hard to track down any fabric like that though, plus it's late 1930s rather than 1940s, so any other suggestions of a fabric that would be in keeping with the style of the dress would be greatly appreciated!

The last thing I won was a teapot, so this dress is definitely the biggest thing I've ever won!!

Eek!

Custom Dress Wish List

A competition for a custom dress over at Shristi Studio has got me thinking about dresses - wrap dresses to be exact. I love them, yet I don't own one! Wrap dresses are so easy to wear anyway, but in the 1940s they were made of the loveliest fabrics and didn't have the often ill-fitting and gaping necklines that modern ones tend to have.

To enter the competition you basically find a picture of a vintage dress you would want copied, think about fabrics, and drop Shristi Studio an email! I think that Shristi Studio is more than capable of meeting this challenge judging from the beautiful retro-style dresses on offer already.

My fantasy dress will definitely be some form of wrap dress. Take a look at three beautiful examples of wrap dresses below.


Firstly, the lovely Fleur from Diary of a Vintage Girl modelling a 1940's vintage find.

Or what about this Swirl dress pictured at Fuzzy Lizzie Vintage Clothing?



And finally, a little later, but this 1950's wrap dress would be fabulous too! Pattern available to buy here on Etsy.