The Good Ladies of Galway

I've mentioned a few times that I  was born and spent my early formative years in Ireland. When we lived in Galway my mum started an all girl early music group with 3 friends (Maura Walsh, Anne Smith and Kate Mac Maghnuis)- The Good Ladies of Galway. They played a mixture of medieval instruments including gemshorns, recorders, fiddles... In 1996, the year before we departed for England, they founded The Early Music Festival. After we left Galway the festival continued but The Good Ladies disbanded.

This year is an extra special year; the 21st anniversary of the festival. This year's festival celebrates women (hurrah!!) and to mark this special year The Good Ladies are reforming for one night only. If you are a Galway dweller check out the programme of events here and book tickets to see The Good Ladies here.

As well as playing with The Good Ladies my mum and Maura Walsh have always made the costumes for The Good Ladies. They have always been pretty fabulous, from Hennin to Surcoat, they have made a multitude of costumes over the years. Here are two of my favourite pictures from their archive:

For their latest incarnation my mum has made 4 glorious green frocks and jewellery to accompany. I in fine tradition donned one of them and tried to perfect my medieval stare whilst wielding a handful of beautiful fake blooms. 

I say in fine tradition because the various offspring of The Good Ladies have always been roped into wearing medieval costumes for parades, performances and publicity. I'm sure it's had some bearing on my love of dressing up now, and I'm sure in no small part influenced my decision to become a fashion historian. Here I am in a miniature jesters costume standing by a slightly terrifying mannequin dressed in a galloping horse costume that my mum made my brother.

And here I am with my brother, George, on the far right, and the daughter and niece of another member of The Good Ladies. The sweetest picture, I'm really not sure what we were up to. It looks as if we have been instructed to wait patiently (and George is having difficulty doing so!)

 I sadly won't be able to catch The Good Ladies this time but I have heard a sneaky rumour that it                                  might be recorded in which case I'll be sure to share it with you all!

   In the meantime you can check out their Facebook page which is home to a wonderful array of                                                                  photographs from across the years.

Outfit Details

Everything made by Penny MacBeth

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The Folly

Hello! This is my first post of the new year (!), that feels a little odd to write as it already seems that we are well ensconced in 2015. Anyway January has been busy. My mum is getting married next week so menu planning has been on the agenda (with the exception of a roasted pig, for the meat eaters among us, we are cooking it all!). Puddings, salads and cakes have been filling my brain.

I've also been filling my brain with thoughts of the magazine that I am putting together with George & Josh. I posted about it some time ago now but finally it's forming up into a conceivable project! We had to have a slight re-brand/name change before we even really got started due to the new University of the Arts London magazine being called Artefact (and seeing as I studied there that just wouldn't do to keep it). Nevermind! We're now The Folly (a much better name I think). We've also changed tack slightly since I last wrote about it.  Each issue will explore a different medium. We've had lots of great submissions for our first issue which is exploring short stories and I've even written a story which is a bit of a first.

We're now onto my favourite bit, putting it all together! We've been taking notes from some of our favourite publications of yesteryear. I have several copies of The Saturday Book (I'm also always after more if you spot any..), a wonderful collection of miscellany. Articles range from photo diaries from Japan to a story of two otters that live under an American ladies bed in West London. I have prized the first two I owned for many years, they originally belonged to my dad and I've carried them from house to house. Whilst at university it occurred to me that such a publication really should be re-visited. It manages to be silly, serious and wonderfully surprising all at once. 

We also been studying 60s & 70s issues of Ambit (which is still going) and various other poetry pamphlets and magazines from the 70s that we own. What I love about them all is the amazing typography and slightly wonky typesetting! I can only hope that we can turn The Folly into something as delightful. 

I've always hankered after running a magazine. Since we were very small my brother, George, and I have manufactured mad little magazines (now I guess they'd be called zines). We started with Arte-Attacks, a magazine for our toys that had been nibbled by our dog Arty. It offered advice and support to help them recover (I warned you we were barking). Later on The Ladock Times, a pastiche on our then village magazine. Thus this project seems to play to many of our shared interests. We both have magpie tendencies and have always love collecting together stories, pictures, poems (etc etc) to share with one another so it only seems right to share these with everyone! We are of course always wanting more submissions, if you have a short story that's just waiting to be published of you just want to know more about the project / contribute to future issues email thefollymagazine@gmail.com

I put my ensemble together thinking about what I'd wear if I was the EIC (editor-in-chief) of an up and coming magazine (which I guess I could say I am..). The dress was made by my mum and features my face on the skirt (all EIC's have got to promote themselves #personalbrand). The necklace was also made by my mum, the EIC must always have a watchful eye on all staff and contributors... 

Glasses are also a must. I'm not sure I've ever worn mine in any of my posts before. I can hardly see a thing without them but really dislike wearing them as I feel they make me look a little too serious.

The other very exciting thing to happen which is not unconnected is I had my first feature in Little Thing magazine. It's a very sweet magazine based in China. They have had lots of people contribute to them who I love, including Natalie Lete, so I was very happy when they asked me to do a 7 days of style. I'll post some more of the pictures later this week but here are the magazine spreads. I was a little worried I wouldn't be able to translate the captions but an English translation booklet was included! You can buy copies of the magazine here. 

I hope you are all well. I have lots of posts planned for the next few weeks, including lots of wedding pictures, so no more long pauses!

I leave you with amazing funk from Cymande

Linking up with the scarf Share-in-Style

Outfit Details

Dress - Penny MacBeth

Headdress - Penny MacBeth

Bracelets - Penny MacBeth

Necklace - Penny MacBeth

Russian scarf - charity shop

Bavarian folk dancing clogs - car boot sale

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La Loteria

In my last post I mentioned that my mum and my shop, Mrs MacBeth's Department Store, would be popping up at our local arts festival for the weekend. It was such a fun weekend, we met so many lovely people and had quite a few sales. Here I am in a dress that I painted especially for the weekend. I took the motifs from the Mexican Loteria game:

Source: 1

The cards have such amazing pictures and brilliant rhymes that go alongside them. One of my favourites is for La Luna- 'El farol de los enamorados'  meaning the lamp or lantern of lovers! They are all very beautiful and poetic. I also recently discovered that often the caller will make up their own riddles or poems- the more oblique the rhyme the better the caller and the harder it is for the player to win! I definitely recommend investing in a set if you haven't got one yet (you can purchase them from Viva La Frida alongside many other delights!)

Our space at the festival was in a window of a new charity shop that has just opened in Penryn. They are encouraging people to make the most of their old furniture and re-paint it, mend it etc. Although I really hate the term 'up-cycling', I do think this shop is a very welcome addition. So much gets thrown away and the comments coming from customers suggested that people were really excited to see the things you could do with old furniture! I painted a table that I got for £15 from a charity shop. I used french enamels and pasted a painting of Frida and Diego that I did a while ago on top. To make it more durable I used Rustins varnish. We used the table to work from for the weekend. 

The rest of our window was decorated with a variety of wonders made by my mum including heart and parrot pinatas, fabrics and soft sculptures. 

It was such a fun event, we had a very jolly time making pom poms, wrap weaving and chatting to everybody! 

Outfit Details

Calico dress hand-painted using acrylics- Made by me

1970s floral skirt part of a waistcoat/skirt suit- Vintage stall at Port Elliot

Peruvian Embroidered Belt- Gift from a friend

Wooden orange beads- Charity shop

1970s Hungarian Blouse- Belonged to my Aunty

Floral and bird patterned tights- Local market

Pom pom headdress- Mrs MacBeth's Department Store

Hand-painted red clogs- From ebay, painted by me

Hand-painted espadrilles- Coming this week to Mrs MacBeth's Department Store!

Birds- Mrs MacBeth's Department Store

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The Virgin of Guadalupe

There are a number of exotic and wonderful discount shops in the area that I live in. My mum and I recently discovered 3 rolls of amazing photographic flower print jersey fabric. Needless to say we snapped it up in an instant! The backdrop to these photographs is my favourite of the three, I love that it looks almost like a painting and the colours are so beautiful (I'm having difficulty expressing in words how great it is!) 

I've always been very taken with the saint cards that are available to purchase in Cathedral shops, particularly their eyes! As a teenager I named their very particular expression 'caring eyes' and ever since my family have enjoyed practising our own versions of caring eyes. This is my tribute to those cards and in particular The Virgin of Guadalupe in all her mystical glory. 

I am about to start some paintings from this series of photographs, so I'll be posting those very soon (I'm going to start posting more of my creative endeavours in general!)

In other unrelated news this week my shop, Mrs MacBeth's Department Store, that I run with my mum will be hosting several pop ups for Penryn Arts Festival. We'll be decorating a multitude of windows with parrots, pom poms and flowers as well as making pom poms and other delights in a new charity shop which is opening this weekend! Should you be in Cornwall (or just fancy having a nose) have a look at the programme of events here. There is so much going on and the great thing is most of it's free!

Linking to Visible Monday.

Outfit Details:

Floral headdress- Mrs MacBeth's Department Store

Russian floral scarf-  purchased by my mum in Istanbul

1960s pink cherub tapestry top- Judy's Affordable Vintage Fair

Edwardian nightie (with collar embroidered by me)- charity shop

Gold and mint green Sari- gift from my mum

Floral Bangle- Mrs MacBeth's Department Store

Necklace- Penny MacBeth

Ring- Portabello Market

Paper flowers made by me

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Glorious Colour

I'm on a bit of an all out colour binge at the moment. Maybe it's the sunshine or maybe it's just the increasing amount of beige I see every day but I really feel the need to stack beads, colours, textures and go for it full whack. This ensemble in constructed from various items from my mum's studio. The jacket is hand embroidered by her and lined with a gorgeous floral fabric she got in Istanbul. The pom pom bracelets have recently been added to our Etsy shop, they come in a whole variety of colours and are so jolly to wear, they brighten my mood instantly. I've always been a big fan of colour, I find it very hard to imagine not getting up and putting on something bright. One of my all time heroes is Kaffe Fassett (a fellow colour enthusiast). I saw his exhibition Life in Colour at the FTM last year and it was so beautiful. I met him too which was quite the dream, I left feeling like I'd visited another world! I recently found that his programme Glorious Colour is available to watch on 4oD, it's so inspiring; I definitely recommend it.  I'm just plotting now how I can get to his latest exhibition at The American Museum in Bath! 

I've had a very inspiring week, I've had so many ideas for new pictures and projects so I'm sure you'll all be seeing some of them soon! 

I hope you are all well and thank you so much for all the lovely birthday wishes on my last post, they really made me smile. 

Outfit Details

 Embroidered jacket- Penny MacBeth

Turquoise dress edged with red pom poms- Penny MacBeth

Pom Pom bangles- Mrs MacBeth's

Various beads- charity shops

Floral Headdress- Mrs MacBeth's

All artwork by Penny MacBeth (similar shrines are available here)

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Time for Tea

My birthday is coming (on Monday!) I'll be 24 but that doesn't mean I've grown up! Here I am having a teddy bear's picnic with the oldest bear I have had the pleasure of meeting. His name is King Edward VII and he belonged to my Granny. He is very well behaved for a bear; he has excellent table manners- no paws in honey pots here! The dolly belonged to my Great Auntie, who I spoke about in the last post. She has the loveliest matching outfit, I really wish it was full size! All the flowers are from my mama's garden which is currently in full bloom and looks so beautiful.

I'll be celebrating my birthday on Sunday with a 1920s tea party (populated by humans not bears!) It's been such gorgeous weather here this last week so I really hope the sun sticks around. We will be tucking into cucumber sandwiches and Dill Gin Rickey's (recipe here) and hopefully a slice of cake or two. I'll be sure to take some pictures to show you all.  

I hope you all have beautiful weekends and get to enjoy the sunshine as much as possible. 

Details

1930s mint green and pink ex theatre dress- Vintage sale

Headdress- Mrs MacBeth's Department Store

Teacups & teapot- belonged to my great aunt

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