House In Nightmare Park

OK, it's October.  The very best month of the year, officially!  Very soon, in this part of the world, we will start to have very short, chilly days but very long and cosy evenings.  Perfect for a spot of camp gothic horror!

At about the age of 15, I stumbled, quite by chance, across House In Nightmare Park (thank you graveyard slot, Channel 4).  I saw Frankie Howerd ("get your titters out") and a creepy gothic mansion and I was hooked

There are sweeping staircases and dusty candleabras everywhere.  The sets and camera work create a creeping sense of claustrophobia - but with Frankie Howerd about, of course you just have to watch with your tongue ever so slightly in your cheek.

 

The story commences with deluded ham actor Foster Twelvetrees (Howerd) delivering a reading of The Old Curiosity Shop to a spectacularly disinterested Victorian audience (look out for the encore scene, it's priceless).

He is invited to a large country mansion by it's owner Stewart Hendison (Ray Milland) with a view to perfoming one of his "inimitible renditions" for the household.  

Stewart lives with his ever silent and never smiling sister Jessica, played by the brilliant Rosalie Crutchley;   both of whom are converts to the Hindu faith and ardent Kali worshippers.

We are in time introduced to various other 'eccentric' family members and it soon becomes clear that all is not as it seems

 

What follows is a beautiful mix of piercing screams, dark corridors, encircling mist and a growing corpse count.  Throw in the classic mad relative locked away in the attic and, well, you get the picture.

  

You're my wife now Daaave

So if you like creepy Victorian mansions, creaking staircases and semi-aristocratic head-cases, this should be right up your street

Baffingly panned by the critics on release, it has since quite rightly become something of a cult classic.  Unfortunately it has never been released on DVD so its a pain to get hold of.  My brother in law recently did me a VHS transfer which I have been watching with renewed enthusiasm.  Unfortunately the quality is not great.

The house used for location is the beautiful Oakley Court in Windsor.

This glorious building is now a luxury hotel.  Check out this blog post which gives a history of the house and the different films in which it has featured.  You'll no doubt recognise some of them.

Go on, give this film a watch if you dare

Mwah ha ha ha

Shopping Summer Style

This picture was taken after a long day in a warm sticky building

 Nothing exciting outfit wise and hardly any make up left on.

Seconds after these pics were taken there was a torrential downpour.

But the sun has been shining all week and today was my last day before a whole 13 days off, so I'm still smiling

Dress: Primark via charity shop
Leggings: goodness knows
Sandals:  Schuh sale
Beads: charity shop
Tote : Etsy

Here are some of the thrifty finds I've bagged in the last week.

Check out this fabulous 1970's St Michael tablecloth I found at the Marie Curie charity shop.  Actually, it's not a tablecloth, it was labelled as a single bed throw but its just the right size to fit over my giant dinner table.  Usually I have to improvise with several smaller ones.  (I just can't bring myself to use oil cloth, no matter how practical!!)   To top it all off, it was brand new.

  Extreme close up!

This vintage case was £1 from the local hospice shop.  I feel like I should be selling stockings from door to door from it!

More 1970's kitchenware

Some coloured glassware and a crochet...thingy.  I have no idea what it is.  It's round but kind of tapered in the middle like it should be thrown over a lampshade.  I just liked the colours and at 50p I could hardly leave it behind. 

Oh 1970's tat, I just can't get enough of you!


A few days ago, the Nation family did it's bi-annual (or thereabouts) trip to a well known American-style wholesalers to stock up on razor blades, shaving foam, vitamins, cotton wool... and giant tubs of sweeties.

 

There was plenty of sweetie excitement to be had.  I was very restrained and only came home with the one tub of flying saucers.

There's something so exciting about the cash n carry type shopping experience.  Ok, maybe its just me, but the rows and rows of endless stuff gets me all excited in a chocolate factory kind of way. 

Especially when you see rows and rows of stuff like this.  Complete collections of vintage Famous Five and Mr Men & Little Miss.

She's my favourite  

We topped off the American shopping experience with hot dogs, pizza and smoothies - perfect!

Linking up with Lakota's Ta-dah Tuesday to show off my thrifty finds.  Better late than never right?

I will be away in sunny Scotland for the next week or so but never fear, I will be back to bore you with my holiday snaps before you know it.  Send me positive thoughts for good weather.

Off to stock up on supplies for the housesitters.  See you soon

Lucy x

I Heart the 1970's - Part I

Look at this fabulous book!

I'd seen these decade scrapbooks by Robert Opie around for a while - usually in overpriced gift shops - and always loved the look of them.  I'd always been put off by how much they cost and by the fact that they're gift items and not the kind of thing you usually buy for yourself.  I waited and waited but nobody bought me one!  Then a couple of months back I discovered a Waterstones gift card with some left over credit on it - don't you just love it when that happens - and I decided it was time to treat myself, the fact that it was quite a bit cheaper online sealed the deal.

They are available in a whole range of decades but I went for the 1970's.  I was kind of put off by the rather stereotypical disco scene on the cover but just inside is some rather retrotastic eye candy.

I've always had a soft spot for the 1970's.  I think it stems from the fact that its a decade I narrowly missed out on, but as a child growing up there were so many vestiges of it left over which has made it seem so cosy and familiar in retrospect.  I remember textbooks in school still having illustrations and pictures of long haired 70's schoolchildren running around in fishtail parkas and flared pants

Inspired by this book and by my burgeoning love of all things 70's, I thought I would do a novelty 70's post all about the things from that decade that make me smile.

Homewares:-

Source

Hornsea Pottery was EVERYWHERE.  My mother in law recently gave me her old set of Hornsea Saffron dinnerware that she'd kept in a box in the shed for years.  Since then I have been collecting bits and pieces every time I see them.  It's become a bit of an obsession!

No boring plain white square 20 piece dinner services available back then.  Everything you ate, drank and cooked from was either bright yellow or orange or covered in garish flower patterns - perfect!

Advertising and Packaging:-

Fabulous fonts and garish colours.  Doing a supermarket shop must have been like having a mini acid trip.  

 I mean check out the Aqua Manda range in the above pic, second shelf up on the right!

Caravan holidays:-

When I was little my mum and dad bought an old 4 berth touring caravan really cheap.  It was pretty small and very old fashioned.  Every time we took it on holiday we would be surrounded by brand new tinted windowed, much bigger and far grander caravans.  I didn't care though cos I LOVED our little mini home with its tiny bunkbeds, cupboards that wouldn't shut properly and alarmingly loud curtains.

Of course now it would be considered charmingly retro.  

Source

Ours was just like the one on the left.  I wish we still had it.

Check out this site for some great pics of caravans throughout the decades.

I would definitely recommend these books as gifts.  Particularly if you know someone who is really into the vintage/retro thing.  I want to get the 60's one next.  There is no 80's one as yet but, Mr Opie if you're reading, if you compiled one, I would certainly buy it!

So much about this decade I love, I couldn't possibly fit it all into one post.  I'll be back soon with part II

Does anybody here remember the 70's?  What were your favourite things about it?  Was it really that good or am I just romanticising it?

Lucy x