Happy birthday to TCG!

It’s three years ago today since I launched This Charming Girl, a month before  my 22nd birthday and while I was still working full time. How things have changed! It was always my dream to escape admin hell and do this full time, but I didn’t really think it’d actually happen. This past year has been particularly great since I’ve focused all my energy on it – we’ve gained some excellent press (Elle, Frankie, Mizz, Sugar, Now to name but a few) with extra special thanks to Louise for all her hard work in securing it – and since starting to offer wholesale to shops in June we’ve amassed 10 stockists around the country, and counting.

One of the best things about doing this is seeing the same names crop up on orders time and time again – it’s such a nice feeling to know that the people who bought my designs right at the very beginning still like the jewellery three whole years later – must be doing something right! That’s why I’ve decided to offer FREE postage & packing this whole weekend to all customers worldwide, as a thank you to everyone who has supported This Charming Girl over the years. It ends on midnight on Sunday 11th October, so if you’re looking to treat yourself or someone else, get browsing!

Back to life, back to reality

Sadly I had to return from Florida, all good things etc… even though the humid weather was sometimes unbearably hot (25°C – 30°C most days) I managed to get a good tan, which seems to have faded already against the miserable Scottish weather.  We stayed in a hotel just off International Drive, Orlando and it was quite sad to see the effect the recession has had on some local businesses. This was my fourth visit to Orlando and I noticed some of my favourite restaurants had closed, along with many shops in the previously bustling Pointe Orlando centre. The Festival Bay mall, which I last visited in 2004, a year after it opened, was quite empty then… and is dead now. A real shame, because it’s beautifully designed and pleasant to walk around.

It’s not all doom and gloom however, I single-handedly tried to restart Florida’s economy by doing as much shopping as possible to take advantage of America’s cheap cosmetics/accessories/clothes/shoes compared to rip-off Britain. I LOVE Sephora and always try to stock up on NARS and Philosophy stuff when I get the chance. Came home armed (excuse the unintentional pun) with a new Nixon watch, new Nikes, YSL perfume and makeup I probably don’t need… but who cares, it’s FUN!

Have some photos…

Universal Studios

Clearwater beach

Clearwater beach, view from a boat trip we went on.

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Came home to a lot of orders, glad to see you all took my advice and continued shopping while I was away! Still working through the backlog, but hoping to have it cleared by the end of the week so thank you to everyone for your patience. Oh, and just to remind everyone that orders may take longer than normal to arrive once posted due to the recent ongoing postal strikes throughout the UK. Very inconvenient (not to mention annoying) so let’s hope this is resolved soon.

Time for a break!

We are taking a well deserved two week break! Orders will be processed up until 11am Wednesday 9th September. The shop will remain open, but orders placed after this time won’t begin processing until the 28th September.

Please note we will not be available to answer any email queries between the 9th and 28th September.

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I’m off to sunny Orlando, Florida for two whole weeks – home of Disney, Universal Studios, my favourite shopping mall ever and almost daily thunderstorms! I can’t wait for some sunshine after our non-existent Scottish summer and it’s a nice way to celebrate the anniversary of running This Charming Girl full time for a whole year (I can’t believe it was last September when I quit my soul destroying job, what a quick year!).

In the meantime, feel free to continue shopping at This Charming Girl, lots of items have been restocked including our Hot Off The Press typewriter necklace, which Grazia chose as their Five O’Clock Fix last week!

See you in a fortnight!

x

New things & a sneak peek

I added a few new necklaces to This Charming Girl today, these two are some of my favourites. Vintage Violet – I love the colour of the flowers on these vintage glass cabochons!

And Bonnie and Clyde, inspired by – you guessed it – the infamous bank robbers who operated in the USA during the Great Depression. This charm necklace features a cute little puffy money bag charm and pistol, very similar to the one the beautiful Faye Dunaway is holding in the photo below in the 1967 film about the notorious couple.

Both necklaces are limited editions so if you want them, snap them up before they sell out!

I’ve also been working on some new pieces and just had to share one of them. I couldn’t believe my luck when I found these lovely little 3-D gold plated hot air balloon pendants and I decided to add a little faux pearl drop bead inside as I love the combination of gold and pearls. Strung on a perfectly matching 24 inch gold plated rope chain, this would be the perfect way to add a vintage touch to any outfit. Coming soon to This Charming Girl, so keep your eyes on the website!

Coco Avant Chanel

This week I went to see Coco Avant Chanel, the lavish biopic about Coco Chanel’s personal life during her formative years before her clothing designs transformed her into a globally recognised household name. Played by the ever charming and incredibly photogenic Audrey Tautou, Chanel (or Coco as she is referred to throughout this film) is portrayed as a cynical, headstrong and hilariously sarcastic woman who doesn’t suffer fools gladly. She climbs her way out of poverty and into society through an unconventional affair with Étienne Balsan (Benoît Poelvoorde), an older aristocrat, only to fall in love with Arthur ‘Boy’ Capel (Alessandro Nivola), a young English businessman. I won’t spoil the rest for those who may not have seen it yet and although a lot of the film may be factually incorrect in places, it’s definitely worth a watch – if only for the final breathtaking scene where Chanel previews her first collection as she watches intently from the famous mirrored staircase. Chic indeed.

Pink & gold

I seem to have a thing for pink and gold together at the moment as shown by some recent purchases.

I’m not usually one for buying shoes from Primark (I tend to have more expensive taste, much to the dismay of my bank manager) but I’m on a tight budget at the moment as I’m going on holiday soon. These heels were marked as £19 but scanned through at £12.72, an absolute bargain for such amazingly tacky shoes I think you’ll agree.

Today I found this vintage jug while rummaging through the junk in The Barras market in Glasgow for a mere £3. Now I just have to find a place for it…

Celebs on Sunday

Our First Flight bird necklace has been getting around! Today it’s featured in the Celebs on Sunday magazine from The Sunday Mirror.

We’ve had a lot of great press recently but this is the first time we’ve made it into a newspaper so today is extra special. Get yours now before they sell out!

Mizz magazine thinks we’re sizzlin’!

Mizz magazine were kind enough to feature This Charming Girl on two pages in their latest issue (August 6th)! Our First Flight bird necklace is on page 9 in their Sizzlin’ column and you can read a mini review on page 17 with photos of our Oui necklace and Tea for Two earrings.

It feels like just yesterday I was reading Mizz magazine as an 11 year old – did you know it was lauched in 1993? How time flies!

Filling up blank spaces

Some nights I get sidetracked by Etsy.  I can spend hours upon hours wading through pages of vintage homewares, figurines and furniture.  I’m a sucker for anything kitsch, cute,  slightly bizarre or just refreshingly simple  – my taste is a bit schizophrenic that way.  I moved into my flat a year ago and I was determined not to fall in the trap of buying identikit Ikea prints straight off a production line just for something to look at instead of the whiter-than-white walls surrounding me.

A few weeks ago I struck Etsy gold, finding not one, but three amazing framed vintage prints that I couldn’t resist. I purchased this pair of 70’s  owl  prints for my living room, via vintagevamps…

And this oh-so-cute mini 50’s kitty print from uncommonvintage, which with its shabby chic frame fits right into my rather (unintentional!) shabby chic bathroom and has pride of place over the toilet.

You can’t help but aww, really.  Or is it just me?

Recession? What recession?

So this week started off really busy after a slightly slow June/early July due to the dreaded summer slump and today I had to cart this lot to the post office – count ‘em, that’s 51 packages!

Luckily, the post office staff are lovely and don’t seem to mind (my local branch, Crosshill, won ‘The Best Town and City Post Office’ in Scotland award this year!) however the same cannot be said for the usual queue of people tutting and moaning behind me.

People have suggested in the past that I use the Royal Mail’s collection service, but to be honest, working from home can be a lonely business and sometimes the daily trip to the post office can be the only face-to-face interaction I get! Sad, but true.  Still, it beats office politics around the watercooler any day…