The Insta' Diaries (May)

 To finish off the bank holiday weekend, Lauren travelled down to watch James play keys for the Lightning Seeds at Swindon Town. (Y'know footballers seriously have communal baths in their changing rooms!?) Was great to see him play, had been a while since the last LS shows, and now we can't wait for the next run of Moons' gigs!

 Snap taken by James whilst up rehearsing in Liverpool!

 Helped James have a reorganise of his home studio. Main duties: cables, polishing and pretending I'm June Carter with his autoharp! Oh, what a good thing we had...



 Colours, yum. Think we're veering towards a yellow & purple theme for the Twee Towers garden. Hopefully it will go better than last year's attempts!

 L & J embarking on a mammoth country walk. Just over 6.5 miles - through serveral villages, up hills, round lakes & through streams! Was such a lovely day and great to get some sunshine & fresh air. L's legs have just about stopped hurting... just in time for yoga this evening!



 The cutest cottages & a hidden lake! 



 Wading in wellies through the stream - so close to tripping over a rock backwards taking this picture!





 Treasures & Trinkets!

  Wrapping up treats for the one year giveaway winner! 

Milkshake!

 More walks for Rhi. A special spot.


 Basking in the sunshine and enjoying breakfast picnics in the garden!

 Family fun times. Playing a 1987 edition of Trivial Pursuit. As those of us playing were born between 1988 and 1992 - our trivia based knowledge on 80s politics let us down a little... so chaos later descended and a whipped cream fight broke out. We're that wild.

 Little M - Styling it up. May have to ban this tshirt - he has new ideas about having 'Crazy, crazy, craaaazy nights' ... Bad influence!

 Spent an afternoon reorganising the playroom, a home for everything once more, and a rejig of layout means that Little M now has a lot more room for fun!

 Treats and medicines!! When nursing the cold from hell all Rhi wants is quiet time with a book and beechams or a good fruit fix (with a side order of white chocolate for dipping! yum!)

Hope you all have a lovely day!

Much love,

L&R xx

Twee Towers' Anniversary // One Year Giveaway!

Yay, it's our Twee Towers' anniversary! One year ago, on the day of the Royal Wedding we officially moved into our lovely little home, Twee Towers!

Having barely unpacked the majority of our boxes, we managed to make some space in the corner of the studio for an Afternoon Tea Party, in honour of the Royal celebrations! Pulling together our resources of rescued antiques and a mismatched selection of vintage & pretty crockery for a delighfully twee soiree... and setting the tone for the year to come!

We have to say, it's been quite a year! In this time, we completely overhauled the house, as documented in our Twee Towers Tour feature. We worked flat out every hour we could find around our day jobs, with the help of some our of very lovely friends, (special shout out to Chris & James - you were stars, thank you!), immersing ourselves in interior design, DIY projects, painting and general decorating duties... many of which, we came to with absolutely no experience (hello, power tools! ...yeah... still not mastered those!) Looking back, how on earth we managed to lift desks and bookcases upstairs, downstairs on our own is beyond us, do not doubt the power of ladies with a vision!

We celebrated in July with our very first, house warming party, which led the way for many more including our Halloween Fairytale Nightmare and our Christmas 1920s style, Flapper or Dapper Party. We've loved hosting ostentatios birthday breakfasts' and having a place for our friends to gather for extremely competitve games of 'Taboo' and girly catch ups on our designated, Monday Wine nights.

It was also in July that we were able to officially launch, She Dressed in Black! We spent hours and hours, excitedly bouncing around ideas of what we'd like to do, and after working with the wonderful Zoe (of Pretty Zoo) to design our blog, we were ready to share our love of After Dinner Dance Parties (which literally, culminated from dancing around the kitchen to make washing up a little bit more fun!), DIY projects, Art, the Sixties, Literature, Style, Vinyl & The BEATLES.

We've been continually overwhelmed as we've watched our blog grow, our prints sell out on Etsy, and meeting a lovely group of people & fellow bloggers along the way.

That's not to say, that it hasn't been hard work - balancing our full time jobs with daily writing, designing and business admin, whilst still allowing ourselves time for play, has certaintly taught us valuable lessons in time management!! Thank god, so many other bloggers have shared wonderful tips of their own and spoke about their own hectic schedules or we might have gone a bit insane! If we ever moaned that we were busy before this year, we take it all back now!

All in all, this year has been pretty awesome for us, and we'd just like to say thank you to everyone that has helped us out and takes the time to have a read over our ramblings from time to time!Which is why we'd like to treat one of you lucky people to a special Twee Towers treat!

To one reader, we're giving away:

1. An A4 'Hey Jude' print from our Etsy Shop

2. A selection of super cute stationery, including A5 notepad, mini stationary set & post-it notes (we love this range - it looks like Orla Kiely!)

3. Our favourite Twinings Lavender Earl Grey Tea (made popular by our very first Twee Troubles!)

4. Handbag size copy of Jane Austen's Emma 

5. Two hair bows/brooches 

6. We'll also be gifting a single by The Black Belles! (Organised via itunes, upon announcement of winner)

To enter, either: 

1. Tweet the following, "I've entered to win Twee Treats with the @dressesinblack anniversary giveaway" 

2. Share a link to today's giveaway post on Facebook

3. Leave a comment on the blog with some sort of contact details (email, twitter etc)


Or do all three for an increased chance of winning! Winner will be randomly generated upon receipt of all entries. Competition closes Wednesday 2nd May at 12pm (GMT)


Good luck! 


Much love, 
L&R xx

Twee Art // Emma SanCartier

Hey Sweets,


We're always on the look out for exciting new artists to grace the walls of Twee Towers - Lola stumbled upon Emma SanCartier's Etsy shop and picked up the delightful print below for Rhi's birthday last year. There is something about her whimsical water colours and folk lore subjects that are so captivating, we feel we must add more to our collection to compliment our beautiful Little Red taking little wolfy for a walk through the woods. 






Living in San Francisco Bay, as well as being a rather fantastic freelance artist, Emma SanCartier is also a Children's book illustrator, seriously, check out 'The World is Your Oyster' it is just cutest thing - as lovers of beautiful kids books, these lovely pages are sold and on their way to Little M's (*ahem* our) bookshelf as we type!. Love this one, it reminds us of Philip Treacy's famous Galleon hat!
We're seriously art crushing on Emma SanCartier right now, aside from the gorgeous fairytale and woodland dreaminess we've featured here - she has another incredible shop OddFAUNA - full of the most charming little monster creations and darling sculptures in shadow box frames - beautiful, we definitely need more of this talented artist's work in our home!
Be sure to check out more of her stunning work on her site www.emmasancartier.com 
Do you have any new Artsy Etsy discoveries to share? We love hearing about new artists!
Much love,Rhi xx
PS.  To celebrate our first year in Twee Towers on Sunday, we're giving you the chance to win all of our fave twee-treats in a GIVEAWAY! ♥  Remember to check back for your chance to win!

What's in my Bag // Lauren

Hey lovelies, 


Last week Rhi shared the contents of her bag, after the purchase of a new bag forced her into evaluating the just what exactly her shoulders were bearing the weight of everyday and so it's time for me to do the same! 


As I currently split my time between Twee Towers & the boy's house, I am forever lugging around bigger overnight bags, so my daily satchel is as streamlined as possible, reserved for absolute essentials...

1. Moleskine Journal - I've said it before, and I'll say it again, I cannot live with my journal. I'm continiously dragging it out of my bag throughout the day to scribble down ideas to come back to later, writing to-do lists, sketching, scheduling the week ahead, taking notes on new things I'm learning & also for taking stock of goals, achievements & aspirations. I know that sounds especially sickening, but it really does help to reflect back on to maintain creativity & productivity when you're having a bit of a lull! I also happen to have the worst short term memory in the word, so I really do have to jot everything down and soon as an idea slips into my head!


2. Books - 'Love Letters of Great Men', a collection of the most romantic letters in history from the likes of Lord Byron, Beethoven & Alexander Pope! I'm currently making my way through The Berlin Novels by Christopher Isherwood but the book is so bulky to carry around, I usually just pick up something like Love Letters so I have something to read if I need it! 


3. Sunglasses - Ready for all weathers! No idea why I need the two pairs in there, sometimes you need a classic RayBans moment and others, it's good to pretend your Lennon. The glasses are usually accompanied by an Umbrella but due to the relentless downpours we've been having recently, that hasn't had the time to get back into the handbag! 


4. Nail Varnish - Again, probably non-essential in the grand scheme of things, but it's always handy to keep key colours in there if I'm traveling back and forth between my house & James' to tidy up the colour! Current faves are minty green and custard yellow! 


5. Beautifying Bits! - To be honest, I wouldn't carry these around day to day, I'm a 'fix my hair and face in the morning' kinda girl and that's it for the day! That's unless, I know I'm heading somewhere which would require a quick refresher, in which case I love, Mac & Benefit for Face & Lips and Bourjois Blush. My Gran gave me the Lancome foundation brush as she'd got it free with her perfume and it's honestly, the best brush I've ever came across, blends so well! A little tip: I use Body Shop's Tea Tree Oil Cleanser to wash my Foundation Brush with - it gets all the foundation out of it! 


6. Perfume - Marc Jacobs' Daisy, always. 


7. Purse - This was a quick little purchase from New Look, intended only to be used as a replacement for my normal bigger purse on a night out, but it's kinda stuck with me. The only annoying thing is that I never have my store cards (namely costa) to collect points! 


8. The absolute essentials - Never take these out of my bag, a cute little compact and Aloe Vera Vasoline (love it, my lips smell like mojito!)


9. Keys on Ribbon - Like Rhi mentioned, especially handy if you're forever trying to find your keys in the depths of your handbag! 

Forgot about my ipod, the trusty satchel companion, it's always hanging around too! Well, that was pretty damning evidence, that I am perfectly prepared for a switch in weathers but not at all prepared for  any kind of practicality... I really need to add plasters to the essentials with the amount I've been falling over recently!


Hope you enjoyed taking a peek into the things we can't live without! 


Much love, 
Lauren xx

PS.  To celebrate our first year in Twee Towers on Sunday, we're giving you the chance to win all of our fave twee-treats in a GIVEAWAY! ♥  Remember to check back for your chance to win!

The Twee Towers Easter Party

Hey Sweets,

We decided to throw a little Easter Party in true Twee Towers style. Recipes are available in yesterday's post: Easter Feast - including Chocolate Dark Lords and mini egg cheesecake.


Featuring Handmade Poms, hand painted chevron eggs, a hand painted egg cup courtesy of Little M.


Hope you're all having a lovely Easter Weekend & that the Easter Bunny brings lots of goodies tomorrow :)


Much love,
R&L xx