Hello,

I am back in San Francisco now and I have been here a couple of weeks and just getting myself settled in again. I promised to update with what happened at Sophie’s birthday party, but have been a bit busy with the move to San Francisco.

As you may remember, I was in a dilemma about what to wear to the party. I couldn’t find any dresses I liked etc, so I copped out and decided to wear the officer’s uniform I found on eBay.

I was a little disappointed with the outfit, it was cheap material and a sloppy fit, but I only paid 20 pound for it, so I couldn’t really complain. I had some adjustments made to it via a woman I worked with in exchange for me teaching her to use her ebook!

I had a lot of trouble getting the seamed tights though. Most of them were fairly expensive from Amazon etc and I didn’t want to pay that much because I knew I would ladder them that night, so instead I got some with hearts up the back instead.

Overall I wasn’t looking forward to wearing the outfit, but I thought oh well it will be fun regardless.

Two family friends, Sean and Woody (brothers) were going to the party as well. We set off early on the Saturday morning and made it up to Manchester by noon. It was a pretty rushed day – Jamie and Sophie were getting the house ready for 13 guests and the dog was running around excited. So to be helpful, Michelle (Sophie’s friend) and I got going with the sandwiches for the party and the boys went to get some booze and lunch.

In the afternoon we went to the hall to decorate for the evening, but we were really pushed for time, so we left Jamie and Sean to do the last minute bits and we went back home to get ready.

Sophie had found a mobile hairdresser to do our hair, but she had never done vintage style hair before. I wasn’t really sure how I wanted my hair, but I wanted it curled and up and it needed to accommodate my little hat. The hairdresser did my hair perfectly and I loved it! She had curled and pinned it all to one side, pinned up my fringe and did a small victory roll on one side.

After my hair was done, I had 15 minutes to get ready! I actually quite liked the overall look of the outfit with the hair, so wasn’t as disappointed as I thought I would be!

Anyway, we got to the venue and kicked the party off. We had a buffet and lots of yummy cakes and a sweet stand. On the stage there was a projector playing war related clips, which my brother had put together. Once all the party goers were present, we had a swing dance lesson, which was really fun. I partnered with Woody, who is a lot taller than me. This proved a bit difficult, but we did a bit of freestyling to make up for our poor dancing!

We had started a marathon game of flip cup, which we were using the punch to play with. By the end of the night the booze was running low, so our final cocktail of the game consisted of red wine, gin and coca cola – yuck!

We had taxi’s booked at 12.15 and had to clean the hall up that night. It got to 12 and we still hadn’t started, so we all joined forces and the place was spotless by 12.15, it was incredible how quickly we got it all cleared!

It was an amazing night and I loved being dressed in 1940’s gear. Everybody got in the spirit and dressed up.

I have included some pictures – I think Sean’s outfit was my favourite. He dressed up as an ARP warden.

Jamie and Sophie

Me and Woody

Sean and Snoopy