Saturday, 28 August 2010

Brighton beach inspiration: my vintage garden design



This week has been full of lovely things. The first lovely thing was getting the garden at Betty Pamper  Towers almost finished. Its been a real labour of love transforming my little postage stamp into something which works with my love of all things vintage and I hope you will agree its looking really very nice.
The lovely new garden at BB Towers
Ive done it all on a budget and its mostly been lots of painting I'm particularly proud of my pink decking, painted with boat paint as I just couldn't get my hands on any decking paint that wasn't a poo shade of brown



Probably my biggest extravagance was my penguin book cover deck chairs. As soon as I saw them I had to have them. they combine my three fave things, Sitting, the garden and reading. I also tackled the age old problem of how to make something functional look pretty. We recently had to buy a big shed for storage and when it arrived it was horrible so I decided to turn it into a Brighton beach hut.
My Brighton Beach themed shed


Lovely Cakes by Cup of Love Bakery
I had a meeting with a lovely lady called Jemma this week who runs a beautiful bakery based in South Liverpool called Cup Of Love who specialise in the most beautiful cup cakes. I am hoping to help Jemma style a photo shoot showcasing her delicious cakes using lots of vintage loveliness from my Betty Bee Vintage range. 
Jemma arrived at the meeting which also included my friend Lilly (who will be doing hair & make up on the shoot) with the cutest little box full of the most wonderful cupcakes, resplendent with pink icing-yum yum.



In Jemmas honour I wore my new cupcake necklace by Vintage Princess Laura  It arrived on the day of the meeting and is my new favourite thing. Find her on face book.


My new necklace by Vintage Princess Laura

All this cakey loveliness has inspired some fabulous new products for Betty Bee Vintage. This week we have welcomed two very yummy new additions to our range. First of all we have these super cute Fairy Cake candles. These are just scrumptious. They are petal pink with sparkles on the top. Scented with either vanilla, strawberry or orange blossom. I deliver them in little cake boxes wrapped in pink tissue paper and wrapped in a bow.




Betty's fairy Cake candles
And as if fairy cupcakes are not enough we are also stocking a delicious new range of hand make Cup cake bath bombs-these smell of strawberry, have lashings of shea butter and tons of sparkles and flowers on the top. They really do turn a bath into an event.
Betty's Cup Cake Bath Bombs


That's all for now-Toodle Pip!












Monday, 16 August 2010

Burlesque fakers, pamper website, and Brighton beach huts

This week has been super busy. I spent the weekend photographing weddings and was delighted to bump into burlesque performer Scarlet Fever helping her husband film one of the weddings I was covering. Scarlet is well known for featuring on the Channel 4 documentary " Faking It"when after tuition from Immodesty Blaize, Dita Von Tease and Wayne Sleep to name but a few she successfully fooled a panel of burlesque professionals into thinking she was an experienced burlesque performer. Its still my favourite Faking It episode and I'm delighted to report that Scarlet and her husband Anthony are just lovely. 
Horrible photo of me but nice one of Scarlet Fever



Along with my partner in crime Lilly Von Pink I have been putting together a website to promote our vintage Pamper days. It went live today and I'm really proud of what we have achieved. The Pamper boxes are so lovely to be involved in and we really do believe they offer a glamorous alternative to the usual hen or birthday celebrations out there. Check out the site its at The Pamperbox  Ive also been working on photos from the last pamper day which I think illustrate just how fabulous and sassy our ladies are
One of our Lovely Pamper Day ladies
Hold the phones-The Vintage pamper Box has its own website

P
robably one of the nicest aspects of the Vintage Pamper events are just how beautiful all the girls leave feeling. Its such a great day, lots of laughter, playing with hair and make up and of course having a burlesque workshop that by the time they come to have their photograph taken they look and feel like a million dollars and boy does it show in the photos.



Thanks Fanny we love you

The overhaul of the garden at Betty  Towers continues-Having made the shed look like a Brighton Beach hut I have now turned my attentions to the Arbour. It all seems to be taking forever and I seem to get more paint in my hair than on the furniture (my hairdresser thought she has stumbled on a huge thatch of grey the other day when she was doing my hair but it was just exterior paint! It will all look lovely when its finished and I promise to post pictures.



Sunday, 8 August 2010

Vintage Pamper Day

I had a great day yesterday at our Vintage Pamper Day. Eighteen fabulous ladies were taught how to do "The Hollywood face" and shown how to recreate some amazing vintage inspired hair styles by the lovely Lilly Von Pink,given a burlesque class by the wonderful Fanny Divine and had a cheesecake photo shoot by my better half Mister Bee. Add lashings of tea and cake and I think its fair to say it was a pretty perfect day. I was amazed at how quickly the girls picked up the burlesque routine Fanny Divine taught them. they all looked so graceful, removing gloves finger by finger and rolling down stockings-everyone of them oozed sex appeal. The photo shoot was great and it was lovely to see how they each  put their individual spin on retro glamour. We had Grease Pink Lady style bobby soxers, Hollywood vamps, cutie Doris Dayalikes and smouldering sirens. I'm so looking forward to working on the photos. The Pamper events are such good fun and we are planning to roll them out for hen and birthday celebrations-watch this space x

All the lovely ladies at our Vintage pamper event with the awesome Fanny Divine

Friday, 6 August 2010

Britannia homewares and retro hair

This week has been very hectic at Betty Towers. We are really busy working on our new collection of homewares, all inspired by my love of cool Britannia, Burlesque and Vintage fabrics and homewares. Having long been a fan of all things union Jack (I even have union jack bunting on my shed) I decided I really needed to design an apron which used the flag but had a little bit of Betty sauciness as well. So here is my Big Up Blighty Burlesque Apron-Im taking orders now so just contact me on bettybeevintage@yahoo.co.uk to order.

I am so excited as we are holding another Vintage Pamper Day on Saturday The last one was such fun with retro hair & make up classes, burlesque workshops and cheese cake style photo shoots. It was a great giggle and the girls all looked beautiful in their finished photos-only 2 more sleeps eeek!

I was also lucky enough to be invited to a wonderful new burlesque night in Liverpool called the Canary Cage.Held at Baby Blue and hosted by the wonderful Pheonix Snow and Frank Lebeau Diaablo. It had great acts and the coolest atmosphere. Definately a new regular event for the Betty diary.




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