Yet again, I had the pleasure of having a fantastically spooky photoshoot with the incomparable Neil Nez Kendall! I just LOVE his Halloween sets and as soon as I heard that he had a Bride of Frankenstein wig for hire this time, I leapt at the chance. Bethany Jane Davies yet again did an outstanding job on my makeup and I always know I can count on her for vintage vamp fabulousness!
I have always had a huge love and fascination of the Bride of Frankenstein. She is such an iconic figure, yet only appeared in the movie for 3 minutes! Elsa Lanchester played the part so beautifully and had more than her lines to concentrate on… Her bandages were so tight that she could not move her fingers and arms properly, so someone had to feed and water her when required. Elsa was also required to walk on stilts, making her 7 feet tall! Of course, there was also her fantastic hair (inspired by Nefertiti’s headdress), which had a wire cage construction in order to gain the height needed! Lanchester always said that her own hair was used for the movie, yet if this really was the case, the original Bride of Frankenstein wig displayed in exhibitions may have possibly been worn by her body double. I personally doubt that she had her hair done every day of shooting.
Apparently Lanchester’s body double found the costume so claustrophobic, she became incredibly distressed with her role, where as Elsa took it all in her stride!
So I hope you enjoy what Neil and I have created. He is fantastic at classic Hollywood lighting techniques as you can see. I decided on 2 looks and created some stitches using my trusty hot glue gun! I love how the corseted images came out as everything was literally thrown together. The textures work so well against each other and it shows of me glue gun stitches (sewn onto tights) beautifully! The second look was more classic with a long cotton nightdress to give a more romantic, vintage look. Im absolutely thrilled with the end results.
Avoncroft is an open air museum in Bromsgrove that hosts several events throughout the year AND has a little light railway to boot!
One of the most popular events is their 1940’s weekend and time there were a few changes. We were treated to vintage stalls (huzzah!) and a fashion show, that I was proud to be part of.
1940’s Post Woman Uniform
I was incredibly nervous on the Saturday as it was the first time singing since Severn Valley Railway and only my second singing event since my operation! I have to be so careful with my voice now and can only do short sets or I could permanently destroy my singing voice. Luckily Guy Roles (Avoncroft entertainment organiser and UK 1940s Radio Station presenter) completely understood. He did all he could to make sure I did everything right! Last time I sang I lost my singing voice for 4 months, so I’m following my surgeon’s strict advice from now on.
I managed to look around a few of the displays on Sunday, but vintage heels and boggy grass don’t mix! The buildings make a fantastic backdrop for the troops though and some groups even stay in the barns overnight! Remember how chilly it gets in October?
American troops in the Tudor barn
So keep your eye out for events at this lovely museum. They have a fabulous windmill, a 1940’s prefab (my favourite), a cafe selling gorgeous handmade cakes (the lime and passion fruit was amazing!) and so much more to wander round and see.
I’m was looking for a vintage inspired swimsuit online that would suit my curvy figure. Being a size 14 means that you can either look like an hourglass siren or a beached whale depending on the cut.
I saw a gorgeous tie front swimming costume called Red Swoon at Monaco Beach. With retro ruching it looked just right, but you never can tell whether the photos are deceptive! Well, the costume arrived and I can categorically say that this one did not disappoint! I am a 38DD and found the busy area very comfortable and supportive. The body hugs you in all the right places, whilst the ruching softens your shape and hides lumps and bumps. This is ideal vintage swimwear for a 1940’s or 1950’s look and will definitely get appreciative looks!
As you can see, the way you pose can create a very retro shape. Pushing your pelvis out will actually FLATTEN your tummy in photos, whilst keeping shoulders down, but stretching your body up will give you a flattering chest and taller stature.
PHOTOGRAPHERS!!! Shoot from the belly button! This is a more flattering angle as it lengthens the legs.
I was also lucky enough to receive an early Birthday gift from Monaco Beach, in the shape of a scrumptious black mesh and leopard print swimsuit! This 60’s style costume looks like a 2 piece, but with black mesh on the mid section! Such a great look and BOTH ARE CURRENTLY IN THEIR SALE!!! I am wearing a size large of both. These will comfortably fit a 12-14 figure.
This weekend I had a wonderful time, exhibiting my dollshouse, steampunk diorama and hats at the Miniatura Show! Nestled between artisan sellers of furniture, teddy bears and food, I really didn’t think that my eccentric house would get so much interest and positive feedback! I was rather overwhelmed by everyone’s comments and reactions. It’s a very strange feeling when you create something that just stays in your house, doesn’t get seen by more than a handful of people…and then you present it to the world in a large hall.
The same goes for my steampunk diorama! I created it for the Hornby & Bassett-Lowe competition in 2021, but this is the first time that I have shown it to the public. Just hearing the giggles and gasps coming from the front of my stand was music to my ears.
I would like to say thank you to EVERYONE who came by and to the sellers that were so lovely and welcoming. A huge shout out to the 2 ladies who made me cry because of their kind words, not only to me but to the organiser. A complete confidence boost and they appreciated all the tips on using EVA foam! I even had a lady stallholder come up to me today and say “We’ve decided that this isn’t the Miniatura Show anymore, it’s the ‘What has Kitten got on her head today’ Show!”
It’s an absolute honour to say that I have been invited back to the show on 30th September/ 1st October 2023! I’m hoping that I can do a free workshop, where you can try out some of the techniques I use to add a personal touch to your projects. Stay tuned! If you would like to see more of my creations or even order your own bespoke headwear, then please visit my Facebook page Cogsmith’s Curious Creations.
Coat by Heyday Vintage. Hat, muff and collar by The Heritage Milliner.
As some of you are aware, I had a growth between my voicebox and thyroid. It was growing and pushing into my airways, giving me some obvious issues that needed an operation. After trying 2 specialists in my local area, I travelled down to Worcestershire for a final try. Yet another saying that they would be able to save my singing voice (scar tissue on the voicebox after the procedure can change pitch, vibrato or even leave you unable to sing in tune).
He could see how devastated I was, as I explained how much my singing meant to me. He knew of a surgeon at Guys Hospital in London that had been successful in a similar operation and referred me to Mr. Simo. So after heading to London Bridge on several occasions for tests, scans, measurements, bloods etc, I was told that the lump had a few irregular cells and was getting bigger. It needed to come out this year as, you know, breathing is pretty important. So I had July or December to choose from and wanted to fulfil my summer bookingS, PLUS get my head around the situation. After the op, I would need to rest my singing voice for anything from 6 to 12 months before training it back up and hoping for the best. It made me very tearful for obvious reasons.
So a snowy Monday came around and Mr Mew took me down to London. My appointment was booked for 7am, so we strolled around Camden in the late afternoon and got lost in the labyrinth of shops. I had to go and visit Cyberdog to satisfy the the 20 year old me (cheaper fabrics, but a few cool things) and Collectif, which was my first time in one of their physical shops!
After an obvious sleepless night, we walked to the hospital at 6.15am and my adventure started. I was first in to the operating theatre, so out on the 2 hospital gowns, support socks and bed socks. I just needed some black rock boots and it could’ve been a Vivienne Westwood ensemble. There were more forms, questions etc and then I was taken through to have my general anaesthetic. I just remember the needle and oxygen and I was out like a light.
Actually no. I remember seeing a line of squirrels on the windowsill before going under. I then had several nurses telling me I had SUNG to these non-existent squirrels as I went under. I have not found out what I was singing, but it would’ve been 40’s I think.
I was in Post-op for about 9 hours, awaiting a ward bed to come free. This was one of the most gruelling bits. I managed to eat a tuna sandwich and orange at about 11.30am, but then wasn’t offered anything. I was fine with that as knew I’d get a hot meal on the ward. But time went on and on and the nurse was still having no luck. At midday they said they were deep cleaning and then I found out they gave my bed away, so more waiting. It was frustrating, but the skeleton staff were all doing their best.
The wait was worth it though, as I was given a private room on a brand new ward that was opening for young adults. The only downside? It was so late that kitchen was closed and all they could offer me was an egg sandwich. When you are already feeling nauseous, it’s not a good option, but I needed to eat. So I managed half and a sweet tea. I got a little sleep between having to take medication and blood pressure around 11pm and 4am.
I had a drain fitted, which looked like a vampire’s medallion, but think I pulled it off thanks to the metal staples in my neck, balancing it all out. I was due to go home that day, so celebrated by doing festive makeup and awaiting the nurse at 2pm!
Mr. Simo checked up on me and said that he was able to skirt round the vocal chords and only had to remove half my thyroid, so no lasting damage had been done. My speaking voice is fine, but I am rather breathless and will still have to rest my singing voice for a couple of weeks, whilst the swelling goes down. I burst into tears with happiness!!!!
I had brought a mini notepad with me as I didn’t know if I would have any speaking voice after the op, so used it to doodle in instead.
Unfortunately the mini bottle of doom was too full and they needed to keep me in for another night, just incase of an abscess.
So Thursday rolls around and thankfully my vampire shot flask was not as full, so I was able to leave in the late afternoon and we arrived home just before 10pm, as London traffic is so bad at the moment.
A massive thank you to the staff who looked after me, made me laugh, cleaned the room, made me numerous cups of tea and jugs of water and kept my anxieties at bay. I know a lot would have wanted to be striking, but they put patients first, which was tough for them.
Also a huge thank you to my wonderful friends, family and followers, who have been so supportive through a very unsure and stressful time. Hopefully my voice will be back up and warbling by March time if I treat it well.
This weekend I sang at Avoncroft Museum’s WW2 Weekend! The event had only been organised in 6 weeks, so I knew it wouldn’t be as rammed with reenactors and stalls as it would’ve been. The open air museum is vast and has a large range of buildings from 1800’s to a 40’s prefab! They even have a vintage showman’s carriage (my favourite).
There were some allies forces (Brits and Yanks), with a spattering of military vehicles. The setup looked great against the old buildings and you just couldn’t take a bad photos!
Remember folks… please don’t clamber on/ in or touch people’s vehicles without their permission! It’s very bad form! ALWAYS ask permission and they are allowed to say ‘no’ as it is their pride and joy. I asked obviously!!!
It was wonderful to catch up with my good friend Mark and see his new (to him) Willy’s Jeep name Bouncin’ Babe! Mark also overseas my official Facebook page when I’m too busy, so he is ace.
Mark and KittenBouncin’ Babe! This set was taken by Mr Mew.
I managed to do a bit of modelling for Heyday Vintage at the same time, which was swell! This is the new Josephine dress I have teamed with Lulu Hun shoes, a gorgeous crocheted bag by Doodlebug Bags and a vintage hat.
As ever, I was super-nervous about my voice coping! Last weekend I lost my voice and last year, at a different Avoncroft event, I lost my singing voice and couldn’t do the second day! So all week I was inwardly panicking, drinking my weight in hot ginger and trying not to raise my voice too much.
Huzzah! My voice held up beautifully and I made sure to take care of it between sets too. I had great feedback both days and met some absolutely wonderful people. it was super to see Guy Roles once more and to meet The Vintage Class Singers for the first time.
Lindy Lou Shelby and Kitten Von Mew in the Guesten Hall on Saturday.
As well as the buildings, Avoncroft also has a mini railway; much to the joy of children and land girls alike!
Betsy and I had a go and it was lovely! Only 50p a ride and a nice little bit of fun to end the day.
Although a very much scaled down event, it was superb and everyone I spoke to has a brilliant time. Thank you to all the organisers and volunteers who pulled off the event in such a short amount of time!
Things have gone a bit pear shaped recently. This week for instance; I had been desperately getting a steampunk outfit ready for next weekend. As they were planning a 1000 Leagues Under the Sea Dance, I thought I would create mermaid-y hair and tried a temporary purple with green hair wax. The same evening I got a message stating that the event had been cancelled and I was devastated. So much so that I didn’t wash out the colour. The next day I was playing badminton with some chums, so had a shower and…it wouldn’t wash out. Well, the green came off my hair, but stayed on my scalp and the purple had actually turned dark blue, that had now gone blue and grey.
Betsy getting her ID card stamped
I got some extra strength colour stripper for my hair and some of my favourite orangey-red hair dye, ready to go back to my normal vivacious tangerine! Sooooooo, the hair stripper didn’t work particularly well and neither did the hair colourant.
Kitten Von Mew entertaining one of the stallholders!
Skip forward to today and there I was, going to Bletchley Park, with grey-blue, browny-orange hair that I tried desperately to camouflage in victory rolls and a hat. This was bad enough, but I also had a wardrobe malfunction before leaving. I had wanted to wear my original 1940’s green suit and the metal zipper broke when I was doing the skirt up. So I quickly put on a dress that was too big (but didn’t need ironing) and some 40’s style platform shoes…nope, the platform soles decided that now was a great time to disintegrate. I swapped to my Miss L Fire’s and we hot-stepped it out of the door.
Alan Turing’s Office
Cut to the car journey, where I was FaceTiming the folks and I caught a glimpse of myself in the sun visor mirror.
“Why the hell didn’t anyone tell me I had purple eyebrows?!”
Children’s ‘Mickey Mouse’ Gas mask. they were blue and red with a nose flap that made a silly noise when you breathed out.Hurricane flypast
I was in such a panic to get ready and makeup on that I hadn’t been paying attention to the brush I used to apply the brown tint to my brows. It has obviously been used for pink or red lipstick beforehand and I hadn’t realised.
Cut back to the car journey and scrubbing with a wet wipe only seemed to create a brighter purple and a lilac haze on the skin around my brows.
So I went to the Bletchley Park 1940’s Weekend with bluey-grey, orangey-brown hair and purple eyebrows in an oversized dress and still had a wonderful time. Sometimes you just need to suck up the stress, see the funny side and enjoy each splendid, silly, memorable moment.
We are just in the car, heading back from a wonderful day in picturesque Ironbridge.
The 1940’s Day was hosted by the team behind the annual WW2 Weekend and was another great way to raise money for COMBAT STRESS.
There were vintage military vehicles, information stands, reenactors with American, British, German and French Resistance setups and myself and Ava Evergreen entertaining!
I have, as yet, not been able to sing at the full weekend event because of other bookings, but it was a wonderful little setup and certainly attracted a good amount of people.
Just a 5 minute walk away was an amazing craft centre (squeal!!!!!) that I didn’t have time to explore, but the coffee shop did a lovely breakfast to fuel our day and prepare me for my first set.
The Naval Officer’s car (or command car?) was certainly my favourite there and I could have quite happily trundled home in that beauty!
Everyone had very good, informative dioramas and we chatted to the French Resistance people for quite a while. Each group were very approachable and eager to answer question or show you interesting artifacts.
The chap smiling above was amazingly knowledgeable about British kit and we had a great chat about hand grenades. I’m ashamed to say that I didn’t know anything about the Bakelite ones. Now, my reenactor friends will be rolling their eyes at me right now, but I’ve only ever seen the pineapples and the sticks. I may have just not realised until now what they were!
The idea was to unscrew the cap, throw the grenade and then a cotton tape would unwind. The weight of the lead tab at the end pulled out the pin to detonate the grenade.
So I hope you’ve enjoyed this little post. Thank you to everyone who came, Dave Adams for booking me and Rosie and everyone at COMBAT STRESS. I hope you raised lovely amount of money!
The dress I was wearing today is by Heyday Online and is a BRAND NEW Mary dress, with long sleeves! I’m wearing a size 14, with a corset underneath to accentuate my curves. Because of the cut, it frames my cinched waist as well as fitting beautifully at my natural waist size too!
In July I had a lovely, relaxed photoshoot at home with Donna Lawson. The weather was great, so we managed to do some outdoor shots too! I meant to post these weeks ago, but what with Fantasy Forest (I’ll post some photos next!) and Covid (yes, I know, 3 times now) I have only just got the mental energy to sit down and do this blog post!
Based in Evesham, Donna specialises in street photography, but decided to branch out more into family, wedding and boudoir shoots. You can also get casting portraits, live gig photos and corporate images too!
I really hope you enjoy the ones I selected. I can thoroughly recommend Donna, especially for more candid photos that capture moments you didn’t even notice. It was a real pleasure working with this lovely lady!
Dress by Heyday Online, shoes by Johnson’s Originals
If you are interested in booking her for a shoot, you can get a whopping 20% off by mentioning this special code: KVM20 up until the end of December! This is purely for my followers, so we are really lucky to be given such a huge discount! You can contact Donna Lawson at enquiries@donnalawson.co.uk
Original 1930’s embroidered dress, 1940’s hat and shoesDress by Vivien of Holloway , Bangles by SplendetteLongline bra by Bettie Page Lingerie, french knickers by What Katie DidFiore Vanity Seamed Stockings and original 1950’s boudoir slippers
1940's Pin-Up Entertainer Kitten von Mew 