Nobody puts Twee in the Corner...

Ok, so after recent discussions about my forthcoming blog post with a certain someone (no names mentioned Nia Fiori..), I've been set the challenge of trying to relate today's random entry to Vintage Twee in some way, shape or form. And, true to form as most of my brides can vouch for, I rise to any challenge set me and embrace it with open arms! And in the absence of my Chief Blogger Emma who is currently sunning herself in Rome, I am alone in this task at hand...

So how (and why?!) do we get from celebrating the life of Patrick Swayze, which sadly ended two years ago on 14th September, to teapots, doilies and party picks? Read on and I shall reveal all...

I wanted to write a post dedicated to Mr Swayze, who has and always will be, my hero. I was mortified the day I woke up and found out he had gone, it was like a flashbulb memory moment when you know exactly when and where you were when you hear about something significant that happens in the world. Ok, so people die all the time – it's a fact of life and I didnt even know the man - but for some reason he remains in my heart, connected to happy memories of the first time I watched Dirty Dancing at the age of 9 years old (I know, bad parents!) as a pneumonic child who was missing the annual family Boxing Day party. I got a new desk for 'making things on' at Christmas that year (Vintage Twee Reference Number 1) and I specifically remember watching the infamous 'lift' scene at the end through the gaps in the shelving that my dad had only half assembled.

From that moment on, along with a trillion other young girls, my childhood games revolved around recreating a holiday camp, where I would be the girl that Johnny Castle picked out of the crowd to dance with in front of my disapproving parents and jealous older sister (sorry Em). And admittedly, it wasn't that long ago I dreamt of the same dance at the age of 27, wearing that gorgeous pink dress and silver heels, kicking gold fairy dust into the air as he spinned me around...

To be fair, I've only really ever seen two of his films, and the second is of course Ghost. Cue the tears from 20 minutes in and the weird recollection and recital of Sam Wheat's account number by heart. I even took my sister to see Ghost the Musical in the West End last month to celebrate her forthcoming 30^th birthday (again, sorry Em).

Despite our reservations about Richard Fleechman's ability to portray the mighty Patrick, along with his 'blonde' version of Molly, we were pleasantly surprised and had an amazing night watching the show. Of course tears were flowing from the first line of Unchained Melody and I awoke the next day full of new romantic ideas for my range! (Vintage Twee Reference Number 2).

Patrick seemed like a loyal, honourable and loving husband who I think would be a role model to any modern man today. If I was asked the ultimate ideal dinner date question then he would, without doubt, be in the top three. I am lucky enough to have a signed print of him which is going to be framed and put up very soon on the walls of my new studio (Vintage Twee Reference Number 3) to remind me of the smiles he brought to me that Christmas I cried because I had to stay home and miss the family party and the chance to gorge myself on seconds of chocolate gateux and trifle.

So as strange as it may be for me dedicate my blog to a man I never knew, I thought it would be inspiring and insightful on this day to share with you the connection Patrick had with me - and my very first 'making desk' - that ultimately started off the romanticist world of Vintage Twee. Kind of. :)

(that's at least THREE references to Vintage Twee Fiori so mwah ha ha! I did it!)  

The Spirit of Christmas

With Christmas just around the corner, the chilly air is filled with the magic and mystery of reindeers with glowing red noses, Santa and his amazing chimney act and snowmen that come to life in our back garden when we are sleeping at night..

But what about the other, darker kind of unexplained phenomena that we don't naturally associate with this jolly time of year? One of the most famous and quoted Christmas tales of all time is that of 'A Christmas Carol', where Charles Dickens brought an element of the supernatural to the festivity period through his Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet To Come. The book was written in 1843 and, being a true literature lover, (as well as Ghost Whisperer fanatic at the moment!), I decided to indulge in Dicken's interest in the paranormal and tell you Vintage's Twee's very own tale about a Victorian ghost a little too close to home...

Since being a little girl, I have always been fascinated watching my dad carry out his daily profession as a gent's hairdresser and I often still call in to visit him in the barber shop he has occupied for over 20 years based in Heaton Chapel, Stockport.

 However, even now at 27 years old, I cannot walk to the kitchen to make my dad a cup of tea without closing my eyes tight at the sight of the crooked door to the shop's cellar. I can recall my dad's colleague locking my sister and I down there as a joke when we were young, as well as the story of a customer's dog who came out with all his hair stood on end. Tony's Barber Shop is well known in the area for it's terrifying ghost who resides in the cellar and has driven out many past female tenants who occupied the rooms above my dad's shop. The building itself dates back to the 18^th century and was occupied in the 1840s by Irish navvies who had been employed to carry out the heavy work during the building of Stockport's railway line. The men were said to be a nuisance to the neighbourhood with their constant drinking & the prostitutes that they brought home. When the work was done and the men left Heaton Chapel, the women and their children remained, some of which residing in the property on Manchester Road that is now my dad's barber shop. The council had to fumigate the property as it was in such a mess and when doing so, they uncovered a host of bones under the floor in the cellar.

Source: Taken from
'Supernatural Stockport' (1991) by M.Mills

Many years later, the house was occupied by a Polish family during the First World War, who experienced many sightings and presences of the ghost connected to the building. They experienced the figure of a man stood at the foot of the bed, invisible hands drawing the quilt off the daughter's father as he lay in bed and the opening and closing of the young girl's vanity box on her dresser. It seems the young sisters who lived in the house were MUCH braver than my sister and I would ever be and followed the man to the cellar, where they watched him descend the stone steps carrying a lantern and disappear through the wall. It has been said that the ghost that haunts the building is that of the man who killed the prostitutes and their babies and buried their bones under the cellar floor.

Now I'm never in there long enough to find out if this is true, but it seems that the ghost has a distaste for women as he seems to haunt all the female tenants of the building yet my dad has never had a problem in the 20 years he has been in there. Perhaps the male dominated environment of the Barber Shop keeps the ghost at bay? Or maybe that padlock dad put on there is working...

So there you have it! Let's hope the Heaton Chapel Phantom doesn't know the story of Ebenezer Scrooge and try to teach us some Christmas cheer...or I'm going to have to seek out Melinda Gordon to cross him over!