Afternoon Tea at Beamish Hall

Saturday 3rd August

To celebrate the birthday of my dearly loved Grandma the family took a trip to Beamish Hall Hotel where we partook of the most delightful afternoon tea this side of... this side.

The Afternoon tea was served in the Vintage tea room. To quote Retro Chick... It has bunting, it's vintage.

The hotel it's self was stunning. I didn't want to leave I really didn't but since I hadn't booked a room the staff weren't so keen on me staying there.
It was so cool that it even had a suit of Armour in the reception. Doesn't get much better than that.

The grounds around the hotel were enchanting, you could just imagine Scarlet and Rhet flirtatiously bickering on the lawn or Lizzy and Darcy strolling in the sunshine.

Enough of that though, lets talk about whats really important here... the food!

In a word it was DELICIOUS! 

The crepes, the sandwiches, the cakes were all just heavenly, take a look.

Was I right or was I right? 

I was right.

I wanted to take the screen home so much

My beautiful Grandma and her Uke.

I appolgise that most of my photos are in black and white. I am fully aware that we live in a time where colour photos are not a luxury anymore but I just think everything looks better in black and white.

Till next time folks,

Laura Lou x

Finger Waves

Hair.

It has evolved so much since the beginning of time from the Romans with their top knots to the Georgians with their towering wigs.
I want to start where its really got interesting, when women were liberated from fashions that were dictated by men, when women were released from the bonds that society put on them and they were free to be who they wanted to be.
The 1920s.

Finger Waves
In the 1920s the way women started to style their hair changed. Gone were the waits long tresses and chignons to be replaced with short chin level hair.
The 'bob'.
But the flat sleek style of the bob sadly didn't suit the face of every woman of that era so curls and waves were added into the mix.
Not everyone's hair would wave successfully much to the frustration of the unlucky ones but the development of the permanent wave drove flocks of women to the salons to achieve the perfect wave.
This new hair craze also made it possible for women to get into the male dominated profession of hairdressing (you go girls!).

What is a "finger wave"?
A finger wave is an 'S' shaped curl that when dry falls into wonderfully deep waves.
Some people can get confused between Finger waves and Marcel waves. The difference is that with Marcel waves a hot iron was used and with Finger waving you use damp hair/wet set.

I find it fascinating learning about how women beatified themselves before beauty aids like, hair dryers, hair spray and quick heating curling tongs were invented.
I thinks it's wonderful that women went to such efforts to look beautiful not because men wanted them to but because they wanted to look that way and dress that way.
Three cheers for the 1920s female hip hip...

This post was supposed to be accompanied by a little tutorial and pictures of my own finger wave set but since I had the idea (two weeks ago) I have tried and tried and discovered that I am just awful at the whole thing so sometime in the (hopefully) near future you will get to see me sporting a wave set.
Till next time folks,
Laura Lou x

Laura Lou Needs You

Oh hi there!
It's been such a long time since I frequented this place so just in case you've forgotten who I am I'll introduce myself...
I'm Laura Lou, follower of vintage fashion, collector or antique books, lover of all things pre 1970, wanna be historian and novelist, part time Amati actor and full time kick ass cook (even if I do say so myself, though I do have testimonies to prove it) and of course vintage blogger.
I'm glad we're reacquainted aren't you?
Good.

Right to start I suppose I should be completely honest with you all.
I have lost my blogging inspiration :( and I would like to call upon you, my readers, to help me find it again.
All my posts of late have been pretty basic outfit posts that haven't had much too them and I would like to do something other than just that.
That's where you come in.
I want to write what you want to read and what better way is there to find out what you want to read than to ha you tell me!
So I would like you all to email me some post ideas that you would like to see on here. I also would like to do a Q&A post soon so if you have any questions you would like me to answer then please don't hesitate to email them to me but don't forget to include your name.
Please email questions (with the subject 'Q&A') and post suggestions (with the subject 'help wanted') to laura.lou.carr@googlemail.com

All your help in this time of need will be greatly appreciated.
As always...
Till next time,
Laura Lou x

Ps: just in case you didn't guess by the last post you can now follow my blog on bloglovin :) and Instagram (lauralouvintage)

Blglovin

I'm not entirely sure what I'm doing here but apparently I have to do this to claim my blog on bloglovin so here goes....

<a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/4697931/?claim=xfz9thgp7g2">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

Laura lou x

Just a Little Something I Threw On

Here's a little post to show you the outfit I wore yesterday (mainly because I want to show off my skirt).

 Top- H&M

Skirt- eBay

Glasses- Primark

Flower- H&M

Till next time folks

Laura Lou x

I have a new dress...

 

Saturday was such a hot day... So I wore a woolen dress?

 It got quite a few strange looks from people in the shopping center but the lovely shop 

assistant in H&M said she like it, I must say that one comment made my whole day after someone (whom shall remain nameless) said it looked like a coat.

 

 

I love it when things as nice as this only cost me 99p... thank you eBay :)

Till next time folks,

Laura Lou x

When The Sun Comes Out

Every so often in England the sun likes to make an appearance,

not long ago that momentous occasion happened and it gave me an opportunity to wear these...

 I've had these glasses for a year and have only just taken the tags off them!

I love them, they remind me of old driving goggles :)

Till next time folks,

Laura Lou x