Spring Vintage Fairs

 

I was looking through my diary today and I can't quite believe how busy we're going to be over the next month or so! We have signed up for more vintage fairs than we have ever done in a month, spanning from Canterbury to Leeds, including lots of student union weekday fairs. We can't wait to get on the road and bring our new season vintage stock and new jewellery lines to a town near you. For more information please visit Lou Lou's Vintage Fairs and University Vintage Fairs. Don't spot your town? Don't worry, we have loads more dates in the pipeline for March and beyond, so we'll keep you updated. Hope to see you soon!

February
Saturday 1st - Lou Lou's Derby Vintage Fair, The Assembly Rooms, 12-5pm
Sunday 2nd - Lou Lou's Cardiff Vintage Fair, City Hall, 11-5pm
Monday 3rd - University Vintage Fairs at University of Kent Student Union, 12-5pm
Tuesday 4th - University Vintage Fairs at Canterbury Christ Church University, 12-5pm
Thursday 6th - University Vintage Fairs at University of Bath, 12-5pm
Saturday 8th - Lou Lou's Southampton Vintage Fair, The Guildhall, 12-5pm
Sunday 9th - Lou Lou's Birmingham Vintage Fair, The Town Hall, 12-5pm
Monday 10th - University Vintage Fairs at Leicester De Montford Student Union, 12-5pm
Tuesday 11th - University Vintage Fairs at Leicester University Student Union, 12-5pm
Thursday 13th - University Vintage Fairs at University of Surrey Student Union, 12-5pm
Saturday 22nd - Lou Lou's Peterborough Vintage Fair at The Town Hall, 12-5pm
Sunday 23rd - Lou Lou's Leeds Vintage Fair at The Town Hall, 11-5pm
Tuesday 25th - University Vintage Fairs at Reading University Student Union, 12-5pm

March
Saturday 1st - Lou Lou's Bristol Vintage Fair at The Passenger Shed, 11-5pm
Sunday 2nd - Lou Lou's Bournemouth Vintage Fair at The Pavillion, 11-5pm
Monday 3rd - University Vintage Fairs at Warwick University Student Union, 12-5pm

Autumn Dates!

It's that time of year when summer is drawing to a close and our attention turns to bringing out the autumn stock and getting back on the road. I was just taking a look at our calendar for the next couple of months, and exhausted myself! We are going to be all over the country between now and Christmas, from Exeter to Glasgow and most places in between. We're excited to be visiting some new places, taking Minimum Mouse north of the border for the first time and hitting more universities than ever before.

So, I hear you cry, when are we coming your way? Well, wonder no longer... (click for more info)

September
Saturday 7th - Leicester Vintage Fair at the Cathedral
Thursday 19th - St Mary's University College Vintage Fair, Twickenham
Saturday 21st - Bristol Vintage Fair at The Passenger Shed
Sunday 22nd - Exeter Vintage Fair at The Corn Exchange
Thursday 26th - University of Northampton Vintage Fair
Friday 27th - Judy's University of Leeds Freshers Vintage Fair, Student Union
Saturday 29th - Judy's Lincoln Vintage Fair, The Engine Shed
Sunday 30th - The Leeds Vintage Fair, The Town Hall

October
Wednesday 2nd - University of Kent Vintage Fair, Canterbury
Thursday 3rd - Royal Holloway University Vintage Fair, Egham
Saturday 5th - Southampton Vintage Fair, The Guildhall
Sunday 6th - Bournemouth Vintage Fair, The Pavillion
Tuesday 8th - Nana's Vintage Fair at Staffordshire University
Saturday 12th - Wolverhamption Vintage Fair, Wulfrun Hall
Sunday 13th - Cardiff Vintage Fair, City Hall
Saturday 26th - Scarborough Vintage Fair, The Spa
Sunday 27th - Cheltenham Vintage Fair, Town Hall
Monday 28th - University of Manchester Vintage Fair, Students Union

November
29th-1st December - Girls' Day Out, Glasgow SECC

December
6th-10th December - Clothes Show Live 2013, NEC, Birmingham

We still have a lot more dates to confirm in November and probably some for December too, so we'll update you again soon. Hope we will bump into some of you on our travels!

Vintage Weekend By The Seaside

We might be sitting in (still) snowy Birmingham right now, but our minds are still on the south coast, where we have just spent a lovely weekend trading at two super events organised by The Vintage Fair. First up was Southampton Vintage Fair at the Guildhall on Saturday. The hall was bustling with shoppers pretty much all day, it seemed the perfect escape from the cold, drizzly day, and the hair salon and dance workshops really pulled in the crowds. The range of stalls was excellent, we spied all kinds of goodies, including a splendid range of hats...

 

Best Dressed - Southampton

We see so many well dressed people at the vintage fairs we trade at, so this weekend we decided to try and pick our favourite outfits of each fair.  It wasn't easy! But here is our pick for Southampton-

This is the lovely Amy Baker, who treated us to a superb performance of nostalgic tunes on Saturday afternoon. We just loved her 1950's peach dress and embroidered cardigan combo. She completed the look with classic court shoes and sparkly earrings. So pretty!

Art Deco Splendour at The Cumberland Hotel, Bournemouth

 

We usually find ourselves in the more basic end of the hotel spectrum when we're away working, but this weekend we treated ourselves to something a little bit special. We're suckers for a bit of Art Deco and love nothing more than watching an episode of Poirot of an evening, so when we spied this Deco gem we just had to stay there. The Cumberland didn't disappoint, with classic Art Deco styling inside and out, the lobby and lounge were beautiful and there is even an outdoor swimming pool (which we didn't try out, unsurprisingly given the Siberian winds currently battering the UK!) and stylish deck area. We had a meal in the Red Door restaurant which was lovely, as was breakfast the following morning. The only slight disappointment was that our room wasn't decorated in quite the same style as the rest of the hotel, though it was very nice. Here are a few snaps of the place...

Sunday-The Bournemouth Vintage Fair, at the Pavilion

On Sunday we found ourselves in the stylish Bournemouth Pavilion for the Bournemouth Vintage Fair, with a view from our stall of the sea and a funfair. How lovely! We might have fancied abandoning our stall for the day and frolicking on the sand and eating ice cream, but we managed to hold off and get set up for the day ahead. The fair was just as busy as Southampton, and there was another great range of stalls. Our friends from Mooch Vintage, Little Old Me, Goldrush Vintage, The Vintage Revolver and Used had come along for both days, but there were lots of local traders who were fresh for the Sunday, so there was plenty of scope for us to have another good browse of the the stalls. We spoke to lots of people who were very excited that the fair had come to Bournemouth, and we're glad it did, by the end of the day we were utterly exhausted!

Best Dressed - Bournemouth

Best dressed in Bournemouth on Sunday had to go to this smart couple, in beautiful authentic vintage outfits. We particularly loved the zingy lemon yellow swing coat and matching shoes. Superb!

So, all in all, it was a fantastic weekend, we met so many enthusiastic and friendly shoppers, and they cleared us out of an awful lot of vintage. We can't wait to return to the south coast, hopefully it will be a few degrees warmer next time!

Minimum Mouse Instagram Adventures

Like the whole world and it's mother, we've recently got really into Instagram. Well, I have anyway. James has a phone like its 1999. If you're an instagrammer, you can find us at @mariannemouse. Expect many pictures of random vintage items, things we spot on our travels and lovely jewellery previews.

So here's what we've been getting up to through my iPhone lens...

1. Going through the pics from our last ASOS Marketplace shoot with the lovely Alex.
2. These new rings have been popular sellers at vintage fairs across the country.
3. AMAZING trunk of dreams we spotted at the Malvern Flea. You can read more about this here.
4. Amazing bit of wall art at the Custard Factory, Birmingham.
5. Prepping some vintage dresses for fairs.
6. Some male shoppers getting their fill of Minimum Mouse goodness at Manchester Vintage Fair.
7. The most amazing 1950's pink prom dress from Little Old Me, seen at Bristol Vintage Fair
8. Some gorgeous new jewellery pieces ready for Clothes Show Live
9. A Christmassy day out the Birmingham German Christmas Market.

Do you instagram? Let us know so we can follow you!

Bristol Vintage Fair & Nana's Vintage Fair, Stoke

We were clocking up the miles this weekend, with a swift jaunt down to Bristol on Saturday, followed by a trip up to Stoke on Trent on Sunday. We're exhausted now!

I'm always happy when there are customers about!

The beautiful Circomedia, a grade II listed former church - now used for circus skills, hence the trapeze!

Bristol Vintage Fair is always a favourite, the people of Bristol seem to really love their vintage fashion! We set up in Circomedia for a busy afternoon, we sold out of all of our new pocket watch necklaces, which I had planned to put online this week! Oops, oh well we will have to get some more in asap, I think we have a hit on our hands! Other popular picks of the day were summery dresses, kitsch 1980's t shirts and denim jackets.

We love the amazing swimwear for all the family from Oh So Retro, and this amazing vest type body suit thing from The Magical Tree!

So on Sunday, a little bleary eyed from the day before, we headed up the M6 to Stoke-on-Trent, for Nana's Vintage Fair. Hosted in Fat Cat's Bar, a really lovely building, this was the first fair organised by Faye of Nana's Wardrobe. It was another good day, with a vintage Scooter rally adding a fun twist to proceedings.

Our pick of the day - this amazing 3D design golf sweater from Jeny & Amber

Now we have a couple of days to recover and prepare - as this weekend we will be at Fom Fest, near Manchester (our first festival of the season) and Solihull Vintage & Arts Fair. Phew! Hopefully see you there!

A grand day out in Brighton

While the world was awash with Royal Wedding excitement, we had a different event on our minds - The Vintage Fair's visit to beautiful Brighton. We love any excuse to pay a visit to this jewel of the south coast, so we packed up our finest summery vintage pieces and hit the road. The fair took place at Brighton University's Sallis Benney Theatre on Grand Parade, just a hop, skip and a jump from the Lanes.

And the prize for the best dressed shopper of the day goes to the gent in the boater! Beautiful hats by Snaffle Vintage

It was a gloriously sunny day, but thankfully that did not divert these savvy shoppers from their hunt for gorgeous clothes at bargain basement prices! We were joined by our friends at The Magical Tree, Curious Cleo, Yellow Jelly, Second Hand Rose, Snaffle Vintage and Jeny and Amber among others, and as always I was impressed by the quality of clothes on offer, and the great prices too. If you are still a vintage fair virgin, you need to get along to one near you very soon, you're missing out!

After the fair we managed to squeeze in a walk down to the seafront where we treated ourselves to fish and chips, and had a lovely walk on the Palace Pier as the sun started to go down. Bliss!

Our next stop on the vintage trail is Bristol in two weeks' time, check it out here.

A belated Happy New Year!

Hi everybody, and how is 2011 treating you? I hope everyone managed to have a good break over Christmas and New Year. We managed to take a whole week off - yes, one whole week! Which is quite a feat when you are self employed. We had a lovely time visting family, catching up with friends and catching our breath to be refreshed for another year of vintage adventures.

We've been a bit quiet this month but worry not, we are busy working away in the background to bring you lots of exciting new developments for the new year. Of course there are the usual dull chores like getting the accounts done, putting some new shelves and generally sorting stuff out after the madness that was the Christmas shopping season, but we have also been scouting down the finest vintage pieces, working on some new products and filling our diary with some lovely vintage events over the coming months, so, keep those peepers on our Facebook page for all the news. In the meantime, if you fancy seeing us in the real world for a bit of vintage retail therapy, here are some dates for your diary...

Bristol Vintage Fair, 29th January
Sheffield Vintage Fair, 19th February
Macclesfield Make Do And Mend Vintage Fair, 26th February
Birmingham Vintage Fair, 5th March
Sutton Vintage & Arts Fair, 13th March
Leicester Vintage Fair, 19th March

We're chomping at the bit to get back on the road, and have some lovely new stock for y'all, so hopefully see you around!

Aside from our day to day vintage selling activities, we've been getting busy doing some styling for photoshoots recently, working with the cream of the creative crop in the West Midlands. It's a fun way to meet talented people and indulge our passion for vintage fashion! Here are a few fruits of our labours...

We had great fun shooting with the fabulous Tom Hart on the 2nd Jan, with the gorgeous Kayleigh and stunning make up from Misfit Makeup. I love this Edie Sedgwick type look!

Jemma Dodd is a fantastic photographer who we have worked with a few times before, so we were happy to assist on her dark fairytale themed shoot, and the results were superb! Make up was by the fabulous Lush By Sharon Ann.

And we were involved in another Tom Hart shoot with one of our favourite models, Alexandra Lanchester, who created a beautiful femme fatale look.

 

Hope you like them! Have a great weekend guys!

Festive Vintage Fairs

We've finally come to the end of our Christmas run of fairs, and went out with a bang at London and Nottingham, two of our favourite fairs. London, at Bloomsbury Lanes, was a bit different to usual as the heavy snow meant that some of our fellow stallholders couldn't make it, but thankfully the shoppers were still there getting some Christmassy treats. It turned out to be a busy day but lots of fun, well worth battling through the rubbish weather for!

Then it was on to Nottingham at the lovely Spanky Van Dykes. The atmosphere is always great at this fair as the venue is a huge pub, so everyone can enjoy a tipple while perusing the rails. There was a DJ playing some kitschy Christmas faves and special festive cupcakes to scoff on. All good!

We're going to be taking a well earned break from the vintage fair circuit until the end of January, when we will be back with a bang in Bristol. Which will give us plenty of time to restock with more gorgeous vintage goodies for your spring wardrobe!

Vintage Fairs Across the UK

Phew! We've been busy little mice this past month, which is why we have not checked in on the old blog! So, I thought it was about time I updated you on our recent adventures, travelling up and down the country selling vintage. And if you live in Birmingham, London or Nottingham, we'll be coming your way before Christmas!


Our first stop was Leicester, at The Auditorium. The venue is a former bingo hall, so it would have been rude not to have a spot of bingo - the prizes were money to spend at the fair, getting your hair done by Lynsey Le Keux and a box of yummy cupcakes! We had a lovely time at the fair and as always, the people there were absolutely lovely and super stylish. Jeny and Amber, Rehaberdashery Vintage and Mad Elizabeth were just a few of the great traders who were there. We look forward to visiting Leicester again soon!



Next up we were down to the big smoke for the second Bloomsbury Vintage Fair at the amazing 's style bowling alley, Bloomsbury Lanes. This fair was buzzing - we could barely move for the crowds. People were stocking up on cosy knits and coats, and starting to think of their Christmas shopping - a few lucky folks will be unwrapping Minimum Mouse jewels on the big day! We'll be back in December for a Bloomsbury Christmas special!





Yesterday we hit the beautiful city of Bristol for a brand new fair. The venue was Circomedia, a gorgeous listed former church which is now used for circus and physical theatre, so there were trapezes and ropes dangling from the ceiling! We were joined by our friends at Curious Cleo, Vintage Vanity, Spankt Vintage and Purple Sparkle Crafts, as well as loads of other stalls full to the brim with vintage goodness. We were also very impressed by Vintage Glamour Days' gorgeous travelling tearoom which was a huge hit with the crowds - I devoured one of their scones with clotted cream and strawberry jam and it was no surprise that they completely sold out of their amazing cakes!

Hope to see you soon at a vintage fair near you!