A-rounding up I shall go

Good evening everyone!

I hope you all had splendid weeks and weekends? Last week was jam-packed for me, with my first-ever tap dancing class, the monthly New Sheridan Club meeting, two shifts as a glamorous vintage tea party waitress, and last but not least, two splendid nights out at the weekend.

Tap dancing is something I have always wanted to learn. As a huge fan of Ginger Rogers and Eleanor Powell films, I had visions of being like this after only a few lessons (though the outfit alone would actually do me nicely)...








Sadly, it will take rather more lessons to be at this standard, but it was all jolly good fun and I shall go again, this time taking some pictures to show you all. I actually love my tap shoes, and might take to wearing them out and about! We also popped to an amazing, if expensive, Shoreditch cafe called the Bridge, which had the most amazingly kitschy, vintagey interior.

Wednesday saw the second New Sheridan Club meeting of the year, which this time featured a talk on the women behind two famous men - explorer Richard Burton and C.S. Lewis. If you're interested in vintage dressing and learning something new (while indulging in copious alcohol) once a month, then do come along next time. We had possibly the busiest ever meeting on this occasion!

Photo from NSC Flickr - you can see me peeking out at the back!

Now, onto my moonlighting as a vintage waitress for the rather wonderful Angel Adoree. Yes, I often spend days looking like this...

... holding gorgeous vintage plates of neatly cut sandwiches, and styling ladies' hair during Vintage Patisserie tea parties. Angel is probably the busiest, most overworked lady I know, she is doing an incredible job running this wonderful business; which was already doing well before she appeared on Dragon's Den back in May last year. And the UK will certainly be seeing a lot more of her this year - I can't think of a more deserving person!

This leads me onto my two lovely nights out. The first was at a relatively new bar, and one I've wanted to visit since it opened. The Experimental Cocktail Club in London's Chinatown is a super little place, packed to heaving point with eager punters who are busy sampling the top-notch cocktails on offer. Since I visited on Chinese New Year's day, and given the location, there was a special menu. I tried one of their standard cocktails - the Renaissance - which was sublime; and a couple of the Chinese themed ones. The Peking Duck was my absolute favourite, and my companion had what was described as the best Whiskey Sour of all time, even down to the perfect ice cubes. I wholeheartedly recommend visiting if you're in the West End, we managed to secure a table thanks to the kindness and generosity of the wonderful people who run the ECC, and they looked after us so well. But ensure you book as for a place that's been open only two months, and is already packed every night, it's only going to get harder to get in!

Last but definitely not least... I spent Saturday night, after another long shift for Vintage Patisserie, at the new Lucky 7 Club in Angel for my beautiful friend Hannah's birthday. This newly relaunched night is by the smashing folks at Lady Luck Club and features 45s being spun all night by Nino and a guest DJ or two - all fabulous R & B, soul, and roots. Hannah took some lovely photos, all of which you can see on her Flickr here, but let me show you the two of me, which includes the first look at the brand new colourway for the Heyday Fleur dress! Exciting or what? ;)

I'm sandwiched by stunning ladies! Hannah on the left and Claire on the right, and I'm in the 'Daisy Chain' on black Fleur dress! Isn't it super? And so practical for early spring... you just can't find the genuine article in plain blacks as they always favour pastels and light florals, and if you did, they'd likely be faded from washing; so this is absolutely the best of both worlds. If you hop over to the Heyday site, you'll find one more Fleur surprise in store... I'll be posting up some photos from the shoot here this week to tempt you! Just the ticket for Valentine's day, ladies!

One more... not the best one of me, but a good one of my jaw-droppingly gorgeous friend Fay and her fiancé Matt... who are getting married this very Saturday and it's going to be THE most awesome, stylish, vintage, crazy wedding ever. I also have the best dress ever, so stay tuned for photos of that next week...

Sayonara for ce soir...

Fleur xx
DiaryofaVintageGirl.com