I’ve finally reached the half way mark in my studio redecorating project, and while I’m yet to pick out (and save up for) the perfect desk, I do have my “frog vomit green” carpet installed. Slowly but surely I am making my way through the boxes and boxes of extraneous bits and pieces that I need to get rid of, occasionally unearthing little treasures. Old news clippings of my great grandparents wedding anniversary, drawings from my children, the odd spider and even some proof sheets from my very first proper modelling job! (*aside* I find it amusing that at the time, 1997, I was considered a “mature” model as I was no longer in my teens).

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If you follow me on Intsagram or Twitter, you’ll have seen one of these pop up the other day. I was trying to remember all the things I loved at the time, the music I was listening to and what my aspirations were. Way back in those days before blogging and when the internet was just BBS’s (if you know what that is you’ve been here as long as me!), we had to rely on diaries and photos to keep track of such things. Because I was always faulty at keeping much of a record of my activities (ironic isn’t it?), I have to rely on the boxes of things that appear during these clean ups to remind me.

There was an old mix tape, my first ever cassingle (Poison’s Unskinny Bop?! Clearly I was trying to impress someone at that point), actual scrap books of clippings from fashion mags applied with paste, tightly held swap cards and even a few pictures of my favourite old hollywood stars.

Back before I could Google images and find exactly what I wanted to see, coming across vintage images of stars, their styling and wardrobes, wasn’t an easy thing. If you were very dedicated, you’d take blurry photos on a film camera of the screen shoot you’d paused on the crummy VHS recoding of that old film. I had, (and still have) every printed book of stage and screen stars my pocket money would buy me, some still indexed with colour coded book marks for era.

Before trawling op shops / thrift stores was trendy, it was essential for girls like me who wanted to learn from the past. And before the internet we were alone. Just a girl wearing dead people’s clothes, living in a fantasy world and making it come to life through lipstick.

And now that we have all that in our digital age; the connections, the community, the resources and knowledge, I have to ask…

What’s stopping you from becoming the version of yourself you truly want to be?

 2011 has been one of the biggest and most demanding years of my life to date. There have been a lot of highs and indeed, lows as well.

• The year started off with a fabulous trip to Thailand and Singapore. Kicking back, enjoying numerous Happy Hours, visiting the zoo and loads of shopping.

With Dweam shopping in Singapore, and with my two ‘little rabbits’ at the Singapore zoo.

• Miss 6 started school and became Miss 7 during the year!
• The opportunity to talk about my favourite subjects (shopping and vintage), on a number of national radio stations and even featuring on primetime T.V.
• Presenting some wonderful vintage shows for the National Trust and Heritage Houses Trust around Australia.

With Bonnie Rose at Wintersun & with a reader Tina at the Love Vintage Fair.

• Travelling all over the country to many of our wonderful nostalgia festivals.
• Conducting wonderful vintage glamour workshops and meeting so many delightful people.
• Learning to dance (properly)!

Dancing with Mr. SKM (awesome pic by Helen McLean) and my stand in favourite man, DJ Ray.

• Creating so many amazing vintage bridal looks with loads of stunning and inspirational ladies.
• Launching my new venture Some Fancy Ladies with my girlfriends!!
• And last, but by no means least – Writing for you!  This is by far the biggest privilege; to be invited into your lives to read about all my ramblings and goings on.  Sometimes blogging (and keeping up with the schedule) can be incredibly difficult.  Honestly, I’ve found this year a real struggle to stay on top of things and there are pages and pages of things I’ve wanted to write, film and chat about, but simply haven’t been able to find the time.  Sometimes, when you’re trying to keep everyone happy it can be hard to keep your mojo. BUT… I’m happy to report I found my mojo under the cushion on the couch!!

And so, I’ve been working away this holiday break planning all kinds of goodies and fun for you here. I’ve been shooting, editing, writing, musing, eating, laughing and generally doing all the things that make a happy blogger. So I thank you all for being a constant source of inspiration, friendship, laughter, and a good old fashioned chat.

My wishes for you in 2012 are these….

Clarity, Hope, Dreams, Joy, Strength, Passion and Kindness.

Thank you for being a part of the journey.

Much love, Candice xoxo

Since July, things have gone at such a pace I’m not entirely sure what has happened to the time. I know one thing for sure, it’s been crazy around here!

Wedding season has kicked off with a bang and as a specialist vintage hair and makeup artist, it has been a haze of ivory toned lace, antique brooches, brocades, lace and all manner of other vintage bridal looks. I can’t wait to get back some of the images from last Saturday’s wedding at the amazing mid century Boyd Baker House, where the bride was a classic 50′s dream and her groom so suave, he may as well have stepped straight from the Mad Men set.

The gorgeous Marina had planned her vintage wedding with so much care and detail that she’d been collecting original fifties frocks for her bridesmaids from all over the world. She found them matching hats, shoes and even had made each bridal bouquet from a stunning collection of vintage brooches. She came to me with a vision of Audrey Hepburn for her big day and isn’t she just a picture!

Given that I live in Melbourne, home of the Spring Racing Carnival and the Melbourne Cup, it’s not only wedding season, but Racing season. And there are lots of parties to plan for, outfits to style and ladies to transform into vintage queens.  So if you live in Melbourne and you’ve been wanting to create a stunning, polished look for one of your events; you’re in luck! I’ve decided to run a special Spring Summer promotion for anyone based in the Melbourne Metro area on weekdays, to work my hair and makeup magic on you and help you entrance your audience.

But I couldn’t tell you about what’s been happening for everyone else’s special occasions without mentioning the biggest one for me this month…. the launch of my 2012 Some Fancy Ladies™ classic pinup calendar!! The calendar is only the beginning of a very exciting new business venture that I know you’ll be enjoying as each new piece is revealled.  The other fancy ladies and I are hitting the road next week to begin a round of launch parties and events that are set to be red hot.

The 2012 calendar is an homage to the 1940′s and 1950′s work of Gil Elvgren, and we’ve worked incredibly hard to not only capture the look but also the spirit of the original images. I have to say, I’m very proud of what we’ve created.  If you haven’t ordered a copy yet, do it now as the first 100 copies will be personally autographed by each of the ladies. Want to have a sneak peek at how it looks?

No doubt, there will be all sorts of other fun and games to come in the next few weeks. I have some great vintage cocktail recipes coming up for you tomorrow, another amazing pinup halloween tutorial, more scrumptious food then a great review of the shape wear you’ll need after you eat it all, and the story of some interestingly coincidental vintage finds.  If you haven’t already, you can subscribe to my Super Kawaii Mama You Tube channel where you’ll find all new footage delivered to your inbox before it even hits the blog.  And if you want even more secret tips, hints, trick and the low down on the vintage scene in Australia; make sure to sign up for the Official Glamorous Newsletter for email updates here.

Now I’m going to put my weary feet up for a little champagne and go a little crazy on Pinterest for a while. <3

My readers are such a lovely and talented bunch! All the little notes and messages I received are read with pleasure and greatly appreciated. It seems that many of you are fantastic creatives in your own right. I know there are a number of musicians, tattoo artists, graphic designers, wordsmiths, and crafters who all read this blog.  So after receiving some wonderful fan art over the last while, I’ve just added a new Super Kawaii Mama Fan Art Gallery Section to this site. A place where you can check out the work of these cool illustrators and click through to go and visit them on their own sites.  Some are commercial artists, and others just like to doodle for fun; but either way I highly recommend that you check out their work and pay them a visit.

Just today I found this gem of a piece in my inbox, from Melbourne based illustrator Lizzie Lamb. I think she’s nailed it, don’t you?!

LOVE!

Thanks so much Lizzie, you made my day!

Well now, June certainly got away from me this time! Unlike so many other industries, Winter seems to be my busiest time of the year, running pillar to post trying to fit everything into fifteen plus hour days, seven days a week. So as penance for my appalling absence this month, I’ve set aside the most of July to catch up on all the things I’ve yet to show you, all the articles half written, and all the video tutorials that are awaiting the editing room.

It’s become clear that my usual planning skills, although pretty darn good, just haven’t been up to the task of the last month; so I’ve decided to bring in the big guns and get myself a copy of the new book by fellow blogger Nicole Avery, “Planning with Kids” from the blog – Planning with Kids of course!  I’ve spent so many hours in airport lounges of late, that reading and browsing bookshops has been like a spotters sport. It’s always smile worthy to see a friends name on the shelves.

I love the addition of the little plastic T-Rex on the cover – that’s often how it feels when you have two (or more) small people after your attention all the time.

In order to make sense of the whirlwind of a month I’ve had, I thought I’d do a little mini photo diary for you over the next few days. Partly to remind you what I look like, I’ve been so absent this month; also in part because it all gets so mad at times that I forget what I’ve done from day to day and it’s nice to look back and take a moment for it all the sink in.

So back at the end of May, I headed up to Queensland for the Garterbelts & Gasoline festival. You’ll remember we had a bit of a vintage shopping tour and all kinds of tiara’d shenanigans. That’s where the next six weeks of craziness began…

Because we like to travel in the style we’re accustomed too (nothing to do with how much luggage we have..) we arrived in the stretch limo, champagne in hand. Yes, I know; it already looks like trouble!

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Oh so demure at breakfast as we fortify ourselves for the day ahead… but you wouldn’t believe what some of these ladies could put away!

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This really had to be seen to be believed, but on Miss Nada’s plate is the biggest single scone known to mankind -and she actually did it!

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Miss Nada, Me, Miss Chrissy and Bonnie Rose – hanging out and shopping up a storm in Mt Tambourine.

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Do we have fun? Ummmm… well I can tell you that onlookers certainly do when we hit the streets!

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The festival had a fantastic little art show, the only disappointment for me is that all the pieces I loved weren’t for sale!

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But of course it wouldn’t be a nostalgia event without the Show n Shine part of the weekend. We ladies are all partial to a bit of vintage transport, and spending the afternoon wandering around through all this shiny, shiny eye candy is sometimes more than you can bare. So of course we make sure to take a few snaps of our favourite to add to the wallet as a reminder of why we need to keep on saving out pennies for a few of these beauties of our own!

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Bonnie Rose shows her wild side.

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Harry Deluxe, the indomitable Rockabilly chanteuse, goes with something red hot to match her red hot voice.

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and me, well I was rather partial to this sleek and dangerous number.

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But what about when the lights go down? Silly question – we have a good old knees up!

Candice DeVille, Bonnie Rose & Helen McLean.

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Yes, indeed I do dance; in fact dancing and shopping are currently vying for first place in my list of thing I love to do.

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Bonnie Rose and I propping each other up after a very long weekend.

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And that’s only one weekend in May! As I said, I’ve lots of catching up to do as I get a chance to go through all my images from the last month, so if there’s something you’d particularly like to see, let me know and I’ll see if I can dig something up for you. And thanks for sticking around while I disappeared!

Xxxx!