Walking on the sand

Summer is here it's official. I made the most of our heatwave by going away for the weekend, not far from home but  it almost seemed that I took a trip to a couple of other countries along the way.                                                                      

      

  

The trip started in Hampshire at the country pile, all the usual, pimms by the pool, croquet on the lawn, cucumber sandwiches, and a magical lily pond.

    

The next morning it all went a bit European. We sunbathed awhile at Frensham Pond surrounded by pockets of happy families and bathing beauties of all different nationalities.

                                                                           

    

                                                                                

The next day we ended our lazy hazy world tour in what could've been Thailand by the looks of things.                                                                      

As it happens it turned out to be Mudeford. As it happens it turned out to be perfect.

   

   

Sunny days are here again.                                                                            

You Look So Fine

Another sunny day at the shop and I started off by wishing I was outside rather than inside. So I gave myself a stern talking to (luckily there were no customers around) and then blasted some of my favourite music of the moment

 Avi  Buffalo                                                                               

 and the soundtrack from the film Greenberg.  There are some great tunes on that soundtrack, I danced around the shop to Sonics - Shot Down (also luckily there were no customers around). I then had a play around displaying some pearl necklaces and chokers that Sas had got hold of.

 We have some lovely dresses in stock at the moment, so time for a bit of dressing up. As usual a couple of photogenic girls helped me out, mind you they were a bit quiet.

This seventies towelling halter wrap around dress is fun and summery

An eighties floral dress, it has a sewn in

petticoat to puff out the skirt a bit.

And these pretty summer baby doll dresses by Pop Boutique are our best sellers at the moment, get em while they're/it's hot.

Thanks girls, You look so fine.

A place in the sun

Last weekend was seaside time. A trip to Brighton to meet with friends. There was plenty of sunshine and special times, and if it was possible I fell in love with the place even more than usual. I think it was something to do with

blue skies and palaces

and beach side frolicks

Some tacky fun

Sh sh shivery sea

A super seaside cycle race, and happening upon

words and flowers in unexpected places

Of course the friends we met, the food we ate, the drinks we drunk, the family fun, were a lot to do with it as well...... Brilliant Brighton.

Bury your love like treasure

Sometimes I just feel lucky, sometimes everything seems to go my way. The sun shines, I have a spring in my step, all is rosy in my garden. There was definitely a certain something in the air when I pootled off to the car boot on Sunday morning, (swap meet to my friends across the pond). 
I flitted from table to table like a butterfly visiting flowers, that is if the butterfly was plodding rather than flitting and if that butterfly was hot, sweaty and carrying loads of bags, but you get the general idea.

I came upon a whole fat pile of junky rubbish (my favourite) and there under a mound of old tights something glittered. My digging became more frantic and I glanced furtively around to make sure nobody else was going to get in on the action, luckily nobody else was remotely bothered about rummaging through a load of old tights, bras and knickers, but boy oh boy was it worth it?, I mean, it was worth it because (gasp) I found buried treasure....                                                                     

 Back at the shop, and after a lot of unravelling, untangeling, unknotting, hair pulling, some swearing, and summoning the gods of patience, I managed to sort it out into some semblance

 of order.....

                   

          

    

      

Worth it don't you agree? The 'treasure' is now with all the rest of our lovely jewellery selection in Beatnik. Drop by and take a look, if you're feeling lucky you may even find  a little something you fall in love with...

Sheena is a punk rocker

I've been listening to some great music in Beatnik this week. My top 3 cds of the week are, in no particular order, Emma Pollack 'The law of large numbers'
The New Pornographers 'Together'
Las Escarlatinas 'a todor color'

On a musical theme I thought I would show off some of my favourite band tee shirts that we have for sale in Beatnik. I had a very willing and photogenic model to help me, I didn't catch her name but for arguments sake I'll call her Sheena.

I just can't be happy today

Standing in the door of the pink flamingo crying in the rain

It's in the trees, it's coming

Once I had a love and it was a gas

Hey ho lets go

Too nice to talk to 

Everybodys talking bout the stormy weather

She is beyond good and evil

It's a god awful small affair to the girl with the mousy hair

Cheap holidays in other peoples misery

Thanks Sheena, you really are a punk rocker

The door into summer

She awoke to the promise of a warm sunny day but the thought of being in the shop while all the families, students and skivers were having sunny fun in the park opposite was almost too much to bear. No matter, a plan was hatched and the thought of it made her smile and even get a little excited about the day ahead.  

Flowers were picked from the garden, a pretty dress slipped into, and time taken to choose the perfect summer playlist.

Arriving at the shop she set to work immediately. The flowers were placed in a vase on the counter, the white rose from the garden looked particularly charming.

The music was attended to and soon the sounds of reggae and samba were drifting through the shop and tumbling out in to the sunshine.

Busy as a bee no time to waste, the door was propped opened wide and and a pretty selection of dresses were hung invitingly upon it, including some dresses that were hand crocheted especially for Beatnik and a lovely 60s maxi dress that reminded her of a  

summer meadow.

She stepped outside and unrolled the shop blinds and gazed a little enviously at the people with nothing more to do but lay about on the grass, but there was no time for dilly dallying, there was still so much to do. Some great new clothes had arrived at the shop the day before and the mannequins needed something new to wear, what to choose...

The sitting down model was more than awkward to dress and the yellow towelling playsuit just didn't sit right on her strange annoying mannequin shaped body, she needed a dress, so the playsuit was swapped for a spotty red 70s dress which was quite nice but then she remembered a lovely 60's sky blue soft pleated dress that would look perfect.

The window display was looking good and the shop soon filled with people, office workers on their breaks, students feeling happy that their exams were finally over and passers by curiously drawn into somewhere perhaps for the first time that felt different, exciting and realizing that they had found a sunny little gem of a shop.