Author Archives: Kitten von Mew

Retro Hairstyle using Sponge Rings!

Posted on January 18, 2017 by Kitten von Mew

Hello!

I’m a huge fan of these sponge rings. From beehives to Bride of Frankenstein, pompadours to Princess Leia buns, they are so useful!

I have a small one that I have cut in half to use for front rolls, which look super with rockabilly, pachuca or 40’s styles. I’ve added a bun at the back this time as my friend was asking how to use one.

So here is a quick photo tutorial. I hope it makes sense, please post questions if not!

For the bun…

Put your hair into a ponytail. It can be at the side, high up or at the base

Place the bun ring over it so your ponytail comes out of the centre. Fan the hair out to cover the sponge all the way around. I just use my fingers to figure out which bits aren’t covered.

Next put another hair band over the top, so you have a bun with straggly ends all the way around.

Tidy these ends with hair pins around the base of the bun.

For the front roll…

This takes a bit of practise, but is really effective. I have by bangs cut shorter, but I can still roll these up with the rest of my hair. This is where the cut sponge ring comes in.

Take the front section of hair (I usually do a triangle from the top of my head to the sides, but you can also do a side one of these which looks awesome) and start rolling it around the sponge. Try to spread the hair out as you go to cover the length of the sponge.

Once you have reached the top, curve it into a half oval and pin the hell out of it. I usually have to tidy up the 2 ends and sometimes find it impossibly on a bad hair day. This can be remidied with a scarf, flowers or victory rolls!

So there you have it, a vintage hair tutorial that can be used in so many different ways!

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Black Country Museum WW2 Weekend

Posted on January 14, 2017 by Kitten von Mew

I am soooooo sorry that this post (and others coming) is crazily delayed. To put it bluntly, I not only have my computer in a rather nippy brick shed, but little Betsy likes to come in here and throw my crafting things around. It takes me a good hour to edit photos before even attempting a post, and that is if Richard is here to look after her!

So I thought I would go through my camera card to see what delights we had in 2016 and this was one of them. I have been to the Black Country Museum several times, but never to one of their wartime events. The open air museum is a huge expanse and is also linked to the waterways. Some of you may recognise parts from Peaky Blinders, which used it as a set!

Workshop

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Mock fire in the main street. It did make me chuckle howt hey had to aim the water at the brick wall, but it was a nicely done reenactment

You can take a really great tour on the barges through the limestone tunnels that were important networks for the iron industry in the 19th and 20th century. It is an extra fee, but seriously worth it and a nice sit down after all the walking.

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Inside the limestone tunnels

Richard and Betsy

Kitten and Betsy on the Barge

Barge Trip on Dudley Canal

It was lovely seeing the place themed to wartime and the amount of people dressed up in civilian and military! There was a little Land Army set up in a garden, plenty of fabulous vintage vehicles, the old fun fair (extra charges again), a mock house fire in the main street, Churchill making appearances and some vintage stalls. We found the best clothing was in the brick buildings as you enter the museum! The school house had a very interesting exhibit of original clothing and brooches that I was swooning over for a rather long time…

Women’s clothing exhibit

The Children’s Clothing Display

Brooches and Pins Display

Live music was scheduled throughout the day, but unfortunately we were too busy walking around to see any of it. BE WARNED! There is an awful lot of walking, so if you have young children, prams, high heels, this can get rather tiring. The ground is uneven or stony in many areas. Things are very spaced out, so be prepared. Also, one thing to point out is that by the coal mine, there is a lot of coal gravel. Betsy enjoyed picking these up and her shoes (and Richard’s white trousers) got covered in coal dust. Not a major thing, but just a heads-up to parents.

We had a wonderful day and I think Betsy enjoyed the strange sights and sounds too. There is a little park area that she could toddle about in and she didn’t cry once in the darkness of the canal tours. There are plenty of places to eat and we chose the restaurant after the barge ride. It serves hot and cold food and we ate a little early to avoid the huge lunchtime crowds! So here are a few photos of our lovely day. Maybe you could go this year!

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Williams Motors motorcycle helmet

Land Army

Wearing a 1930’s dress coat, 1940’s crepe dress, original hat and handbag.

This wonderful chap interviewed me at Severn Valley Railway 10 years ago!

Having a natter

Churchill needs longer trousers…

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Posted in Events and Performances and tagged BCLM, betsy von mew, black country living museum, black country museum, days out, dudley canal, kitten von mew, open air museums, peaky blinders, richard von mew, west midlands days out, ww2 events, ww2 weekend. Bookmark the permalink.

Remembrance 2016

Posted on November 12, 2016 by Kitten von Mew

Usually I perform at Warwickshire Exhibition Centre, but this year I am raising money for the Royal British Legion by singing at Tesco Stratford upon Avon today (Saturday) at 11.15am and then at Snitterfield Village Hall at around 12.30 on Sunday.

Please come along and show your support and drop a few pennies into the WW2 helmet as you pass! The Stratford Herald should be popping along to Tesco too!

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Posted in Events and Performances and tagged 1940's singer, kitten von mew singer, poppy appeal, remembrance 2016, remembrance sunday, royal british legion, snitterfield village hall, stratford herald, stratford upon avon tesco. Bookmark the permalink.

Q20 Goodwood Revival Video

Posted on September 29, 2016 by Kitten von Mew

Q20 made a fab little video of the Goidwood Revival entertainment this year! Check it out!

https://vimeo.com/184835448?ref=em-share

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Posted in Events and Performances and tagged 1940's singer, diamonds are a girls best friend, goodwood revival video, q20. Bookmark the permalink.

Daily Mail Article

Posted on September 27, 2016 by Kitten von Mew

Click here to read the article.

Ah yes, another corker of an article released today about our lifestyle; full of misquotes and fabrications to make us look weird. Always take this type of thing with a pinch of salt and a smirk!

Apparently we eat like they did in the Blitz (you know…powdered egg, rationed bacon, spam, pizza, tiramisu, korma…)

Betsy’s Bing and Peppa Pig toys are from an ‘erstwhile age.’

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Oh and of course Betsy loves the wartime classics (?!), like this fairies book from 1950 for instance (blatantly on the front cover)…

The grammar is impeccable…if you aren’t fussed about punctuation and sentences making sense…

This wonderful image below was used in the article and not credited. It was taken by the talented Candee Photography!

As you can see from part of this email, I previously contacted the company about misquotes and other info. Some of it was taken onboard… I mean, they corrected my name.

Finally, thank you to Koray Erol the photographer. He did a great job on the day!

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Posted in Publicity and Media Announcements and tagged 1940's lifestyle, daily mail kitten, dailymail, funny, kitten von mee house, kitten von mew, kitty von mew, koray erol, photos, richard von mew, vintage home. Bookmark the permalink.

Stocking Hair Roll

Posted on September 12, 2016 by Kitten von Mew

Well I’m absolutely pooped as you can probably tell from these photos!

I thought i would show you a great way to use your laddered stocking or tights as I laddered my What Katie Did ones when stepping out of a racing car this weekend!

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Posted in Fashion and Shopping and tagged 40's hair, hair roll, kitten von mew, stocking hair roll, vintage hair styles, what katie did. Bookmark the permalink.

Goodwood Revival 2016

Posted on September 7, 2016 by Kitten von Mew

Well it is here again! One of the greatest vintage events in the country, let alone the cars, motorbikes and aircraft!

I will be posing around the public areas in my fabulous RAF corset outfit, but also doing a few songs in the vintage radio set located in one of the VIP marquees!

As you will know, months of preparation and hard toil goes in to creating and theming this epic meet, so a huge pat on the back must go to Sue and her GAG team for all their creative genius. I for one cannot wait to see what lies in store this year. Remember to come over and ask for a photo if you spot me, that’s what I’m there for! I will be at Goodwood Revival for the 3 days and I hope to see you all there!

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Posted in Events and Performances and tagged goodwood 2016, goodwood kitten, goodwood revival 2016, kitten von mew, pinup corset, raf pinup. Bookmark the permalink.

Mussolini’s Villa on Rhodes

Posted on August 1, 2016 by Kitten von Mew

You may remember a an article I wrote for Military Reenactors Magazine about Profitis Ilias on Rhodes a couple of years back? Well this time we travelled that way once more to visit a villa built as a retirement home for Mussolini. Blimey, the amount of steep climbing we had to do to get there, I couldn’t imagine him nipping to the shop for more Tzatziki.

General Cesare Maria De Vecchi stayed there between 1936 and 1940, whilst he was the Italian Governor of Rhodes. Mussolini planned to use Rhodes as a major naval base, but luckily never set foot in his villa, which was later abandoned in 1947.

There is still a haunting grandeur about this derelict building. Blindsiding the graffiti and obvious looting, you can still see what a remarkably beautiful house this was. The view from the veranda, overlooking the roof of the Elaphos Hotel and onto the sea, is breathtaking. I managed to save a few photos to my computer before Betsy miraculously hid my camera card. Here is what I have for you!

Probably unplanned, but note how the tiled floor of the entrance way looks like an elongated Star of David pattern…

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Posted in Day to Day and tagged elaphos, General Cesare Maria De Vecchi, mussolini house, mussolini villa, profitis ilias, ww2 greece, ww2 rhodes, wwii greece, wwii rhodes. Bookmark the permalink.

Luxulite Vintage Style Jewellery

Posted on July 31, 2016 by Kitten von Mew

I stumbled across Luxulite on Etsy one day and ever since got combarded by tantalising adverts, thanks to Facebook’s cookie system. Gosh and darn it, I had to get me some of the colourful craziness!

Luxulite Lucky Lobsters Beachcomber Necklace

I am a huge fan of vintage jewellery, especially anything quirky, but with a baby thinking that everything is a chew toy or something to swing on, it is too much of a risk! This stuff is authentic and easy to wear, Betsy loves rattling the necklaces when I wear them, but I know she can’t break them like my old ones! I have to say that the lobster set is my all time favourite!

Red Lobster Earrings

I asked the founder Katy Crebbin a few questions about her amaaaaaazing collection:

1. Do you have a love of vintage yourself?
I do! I’ve been enjoying the vintage and rockabilly scene for many years now and love attending weekenders and events around the country – my favourite has got to be the Rockabilly Rave, but we are really lucky in the North East as we have a strong community with loads of gigs and events happening regularly around the region.

2.What is your favourite era?
In terms of design, music and fashion it has to be the 1950’s, with a little dabble here and there into the 1940’s. There’s a real sense of optimism and playfulness in popular culture and design in the 1950’s which is just too good to resist!

3. What made you start creating retro jewellery?
I think it’s a combination of a huge love for the fashion and accessories of the mid 20th Century, and the problem of being able to firstly find it, and secondly afford it! When I started out I was making the jewellery for myself to wear as you just couldn’t get good repro jewellery anywhere at that time – the vintage and rockabilly scenes were saturated with tattoo-inspired plastic jewellery (which is fine but it just wasn’t my bag!) I wanted to wear jewellery that looked like the originals from the 1940’s and 50’s. The more I made, the more friends and family wanted things and it just grew from there!

Green Chimayo Inspired Necklace and Earrings

4. What is your favourite piece and what seems to be your best selling
I’d say my favourite piece to date is a novelty corn cob brooch with little brown glass chickens – it was a really fun piece to carve and is lots of fun to wear! It’s usually hard to pin down a best seller as I tend to make quite short, limited runs, but this year my (completely unexpected) best seller has been my Audrey II brooch which was made completely on a whim and was never expected to be such a hit!

5. Do you use anyone as inspiration?
The work of jewellery designer Martha Sleeper is a constant source of inspiration, but I also love to look at novelty prints and designs from the mid-century period – there are so many amazing (and some utterly insane) themes in fabric prints, it really is a treasure trove of inspiration. Ideas have come from all sorts of sources though, from films, places or songs, to something as simple as stumbling across an old board game in a charity shop and re-purposing the pieces to make jewellery.

Sweater Girl Hoop Earrings

6. Have you got new styles on the horizon?
I’m currently finishing off my samples for my Halloween and Christmas collections which is so much fun! I love a good old OTT tacky holiday, and Halloween has got to be my favourite! There’s also a really exciting new collaboration coming up in August with a fellow British designer, so I can’t wait to show everyone what we’ve been working on – watch this space!

I for one cannot wait to see the Halloween and festive collection! You must check out Katy’s shop for yourself. The brooches look fantastic on coats, jackets or blouses, so if you are looking for something to finish off the outfit or add a splash of colour on a grey day then this is your best place! They are also really affordable pieces of jewellery. You are looking at £8.50 to £16 for a brooch and up to £25.50 for some of the more crazy necklaces, so nothing that will break the bank and they make awesome stocking stuffers too!

Cherry Log Slice Brooch

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Posted in Fashion and Shopping and tagged 50's jewellery, 50's jewelry, katy crebbin, luxulite, plastic jewellery, plastic jewelry, retro jewellery, retro jewelry, vintage jewellery, vintage jewelry. Bookmark the permalink.

Battles for Victory Photos 2016

Posted on July 31, 2016 by Kitten von Mew

Apologies for posting these so late, it has been rather hectic and trying to get onto the computer when you have a baby running around is impossible!

Well this fantastic show was held in a park. A beautiful setting with a large main stage, vintage vehicles, trade stalls, reenactors and some super eateries. I was also lucky enough to be invited aboard the P22 gunner boat, moored at Ramsgate Harbour. It had just come back from France after being used in the new Brad Pitt war film!

It was wonderful meeting up with some familiar faces and meeting new ones alike. This really is a show that will go from strength to strength as it gets bigger. It is just a shame that there were hardly any posters around, or advertisement for the evening Blitz Ball as Im sure there were some people who missed this that would have loved to come!