An evening with Gumtree

Happy Bank Holiday Monday, my lovely friends!

Have you had a good weekend? I do hope so.

I just wanted to say a HUGE thank you to everyone who commented on my Gumtree thingy. It was VERY much appreciated, and it's good to know there are many others out there who love East London as much as I do.

To celebrate all of the Gumtree fun, a few bloggers and twitter-types were invited to South Bank for a mysterious meet up and evening of fun. The surprise was a rather glamourous trip on the London Eye, complete with champagne and canapes!

Not only was it pretty incredible to get such a great view of my beloved London, but it was also so nice to meet some new people. I had a good ol' chat with the lovely MJ of dreaming spires and old car tyre and her equally lovely friend Moya, and it was also lovely to finally meet Nicola of 1000 heads! Their company do such good work.

Getting ready for lift off...Moya, my friend Amelia and MJ of dreaming spires and old car tyres

This is just how we roll...

The lovely Nicola of 1000 heads

There's nothing like a good London sunset

It was such a fun night. Thanks again, kind people of Gumtree!

I'm ever so busy at the moment, but I'll have some very exciting news to tell you soon. Watch this very space, ok?

That's all for now, folks.

Much love,

Frankie
Swell Vintage

x

Swell needs YOU!

I love East London - the view from my flat

Lovely, lovely readers of my humble blog - I need your help!

As you may already know, I am very happy and proud to live in East London (Dalston, to be precise). I have lived in this area for nearly a year now, and I absolutely love it. For every horror story you may hear about Dalston, Hackney and the surrounding areas, there are triple the amount of beautiful and charming areas that are worth visiting. If you've never been there before, I think you'd be pleasantly surprised.

So when Gumtree invited me to take part in a competition to help promote my community, needless to say I jumped at the chance. For my entry, I had to write my favourite things about Hackney. It was difficult to pick just five, as there are so many different things! To read my entry, just head on over to my Gumtree advert.

After you've read my advert, I'd be sincerely grateful if you could do me a HUGE favour. All you have to do is visit the Gumtree forum post about my advert and let me know what you think. The only teeny-tiny catch is that you need to register to post, but it only takes a couple of minutes (it's even quicker if you sign up using your Facebook account). The forum thread is right here.

If you do this huge favour and leave your email address in the comment over at Gumtree, I'll give you 15% off to spend at www.swell-vintage.com! Not only that, but you could also be in with a chance of winning a prize yourself - not bad, eh?

Thanks for reading, and thanks x2 if you leave a comment! It'll mean the world to me.

Much love,

Frankie
Swell Vintage

x

Swell bloom

Hello everyone!

How have you been? I hope you've had a lovely week. Mine has been ever so busy!

On Monday I went to The Sartorialist book signing with the wonderful Reena of Fashion Daydreams - it was absolutely insane! Never have I seen so many immaculately turned out people in one room. Nor have I seen so many people queuing for a book signing! It goes to show how powerful and influential members of the blogging world can become. He signed my book to "Franke", which I thought was rather amusing!

My very clever friend Mark Pavey also popped over to show me the features of my soon-to-be live, newly improved version of my website! It's looking really, really good, and I can't wait to show you all. I'm even going to have my very own web shop, which I've very excited about. If you ever need any design work done, I highly recommend Mr Pavey. He's a bloody genius.

I've also been working on some new pieces recently. Here is one of my latest ones:




This corsage bracelet is made from a vintage brooch, linked on vintage chain. I'm really pleased with how it's come out - it's pretty bold, but so easy to wear. I've also found a great new place to photograph my jewellery in my flat! My housemate has this amazingly huge chinese cabinet, which is so easy to hang pieces from. I love the rustic background.

Oh, and I apologise for the extreme paleness of my skin. The sun is definitely not my friend.

Lastly, speaking of my flat and the sun, there was the most incredible sunset tonight:


I love living in London.

So what do you think of all of my pictures? I'd love to hear.

Until next time, my lovely friends! Have a great week.

Much love,

Frankie
Swell Vintage

x

Swell apologies

Hello hello!

Right, my lovely friends - I'm going to start this post with a massive apology. It's actually more of an apology to Swell Vintage than anything else, as I have been MASSIVELY slack with making new pieces since moving to East London. I've also gotten ever so far behind with my blog roll, so if you've been wondering why I haven't commented on your blog recently, it's because I've been rubbish. So here comes the apology, as promised:

I'M SO SO SO SORRY!!!

But I'm also going to make a promise to sort my life out and start giving Swell the time it deserves. I've come to realise just how important Swell Vintage is to me, and how much I enjoy the world of blog, so expect much much more in the coming months. And if you see no difference in my behaviour, you have my expressed permission to give me a swift kick in the shins.

In other news, there is now a Swell Vintage facebook page! I debated whether or not I should make a facebook page because I was worried that no one would become a "fan", but fortunately everyone has been really great about it! I now feel a fool for not doing it sooner. If you want to get involved, here is the link: http://www.facebook.com/swellvintage.

Also, as mentioned in a previous post, I am now getting more involved with the brilliant Queens of Vintage. In fact, I am currently covering for Lena as acting editor of the whole site! It's a little bit terrifying, but fingers crossed I don't break the website in her absence. I'm really enjoying my work with them so far. I even get to go to a screening of 500 Days of Summer tomorrow, staring my current girl crush Zooey Deschanel. I also might be doing something VERY exciting on Friday....but more on that later.

I also want to say a BIG thank you to the wonderful Dream Sequins for featuring one of my necklaces in her Wishlist Wednesday: Statement Jewellery post.


This is my 'Shielded' necklace, and it's currently for sale on the Swell Vintage etsy shop. It really is such a great blog, and I'm over the moon to have been featured! If you fancy checking it out, click here.

So I think that's all for now. Thanks for reading, it means more than you could ever know to me.

Much love,

Frankie
Swell Vintage

x

Return of the swell

Hello, my lovely friends!

It's been a LONG time! I can't believe it's been over a month since my last post. How have you all been? I've missed you ever so much!

So much has been happening in the little world of Swell Vintage since we last spoke. I don't want to bore you with an insanely long post, but I will break it down into easily digestible bullet points:

• First things first, I moved house! I now live in sunny East London, and I'm loving every minute of it. It's so nice to live near civilisation and to be near my friends. My flat is also rather lovely (I will post pics one my room is finished).
  
  
• I had the first ever professional Swell Vintage photoshoot! It was such a brilliant day, and I'm so grateful to my friend Skye for organising it for me. We collaborated with the amazing Josefine of Mint Siren, who provided us with the most incredibly gorgeous vintage-style lingerie. I'm starting to get the finished photos over from the wonderfully talented Joanna B, and they're looking amazing. I'll post them when I have them all, but for now here's a sneaky peak from behind the scenes.

Here is the beautiful Rosey, being snapped by Joanna B.

All hands on deck! Skye has her amazing hair done by the lovely Amber-Rose Peake and her make-up by Maria Papadopoulou.

A perfect match! My jewellery and Mint Siren lingerie - I don't think we could have matched the colours better if we tried!


It was so much fun! Thanks for a great day, ladies!

You can see the rest of my photos on my Flickr, but watch this space for the final shots!

• I did my first ever fair! As mentioned in previous posts, I attended the Winchester Handm@de fair on Sunday and it was so much fun! Everyone there was so nice and welcoming. I love the community aspect of doing what I do, and it was great to step out from behind the computer screen and meet real people for a change! Here are some photos of my stand:

I had so much fun at the fair. I sold a few of my pieces, and I also got offered a very exciting opportunity - yay! I'll definitely consider doing another fair, especially a Handm@de one. There was so many talented people there. I could have easily spent all of my profits!

• I've sent off my second collection to Trinket in Edinburgh! It's definitely my most extravagant collection ever, so if you live locally why not pop in and have a look?
  
  

• It turned 23 the other day! It's a pretty insignificant age, but I had a truly amazing time and celebrated with some great people.
  
  

I think that's more than enough for now! Now that I'm settled in my new place I'll be blogging regularly and posting pictures of new pieces, as normal.

Thanks for reading, and please stop by again soon!

Much love,

Frankie
Swell Vintage

x

Swell moves

Hello my lovely friends!

I hope you're having a brilliant weekend.

This is going to be a very quick post as I am moving to East London today! I can't believe it's finally moving day, but I am really excited.

I'm not entirely sure when the internet in my new place is going to be sorted, so this could be my last post for a long time. I apologise for the lack of comments from me on all of your lovely blogs in advance, I will miss reading them. However, I do look forward to catching up on them when I'm back on line!

I haven't got much else to say, expect that the beautiful Rebecca of The Clothes Horse (one of my most favourite bloggers) recently bought one of my cuffs and has posted about it on her brilliant blog. The cuff is made from an antique drawer pull, and it looks beautiful on her! I'm so pleased that she likes it.

(Photo courtesy of The Clothes Horse)

If you'd like to read the post, click here. If you're not a regular reader of her blog already, you should really add it to your list. Rebecca's style and stunning photographs make for a truly original read.

Well, I guess I better pack my laptop up now! Thank you for reading, my dear friends. I will hurry back to you as soon as I can.

Much love,

Frankie
Swell Vintage

x