10 things I'm thankful for

It's a little while since I've done one of these.  Always good to count your blessings.


1.  The prolific growing of my mint and chive plants this Summer.  I have been so grateful for all the fresh herbs this Summer. I have drunk many, many cups of fresh mint tea made from leaves in my garden. It tastes so different to bagged mint tea.  I've had Mint, Mitcham Mint, Lime Mint, Lemon Balm and now I have Chocolate Mint.  The chives have been delicious on potatoes and other dishes.

2.  A day off with my husband yesterday.  We were so gleeful to have a weekend without plans. Sometimes CBC is rather despairing if we don't have fixed plans but he was glad and so we had a beautiful walk near Coggeshall in Essex.  More to come of that but we were most grateful. It was so lovely to spend time with each other out in the fresh air.

3.  Wonderful fresh tomatoes.  Tomatoes were my star crop this year- we've had hundreds of them and they are still growing!

4. Having the time to help. I've been able to cover for illness for friends playing flute a few times recently and I know it has been appreciated.  That said, I thoroughly enjoyed it- even having to play second flute part in the Cosi Fan Tutti guessing it from the First flute part because the Second flute player took the music with her!

5.  Delicious vegetables!  CBC made a delicious Butternut Squash risotto last night- I was thankful for Lidl selling massive squashes so cheaply as their special meaning we had a delicious dinner very cheaply. Also the same for our Reduced to Quick Sale Vegetable stir fry.

6.  So grateful for sleep and a comfortable bed. I really was tired this week.

7.  I very much enjoyed the Open Mic church service at the local Baptist Church today and enjoyed the Service more because there were live musicians for the worship band. Also grateful to my nice neighbour for being so delighted I would like to come and try out her Elim  church- she's so nice. Wish I had taken the time to see her more in the Summer when we were around.

8.  For the delightful day I had at school on Friday.  Can't believe the difficult class from last year are so different minus one individual.  In fact, lots of things about last week were good in school- I thought it was going to be hard but lots of lessons I feared would be hard just weren't.  When I was most exhausted on Wednesday after a late night coming home from Orchestra, it was much easier than it could have been teaching 90 Year 3's their second ever recorder lesson.

9.  For friends in different forms- real life ones; work colleagues; blog friends (including sweeties like Bev who send me pretty things- thank you!!!); Instagram pals; kind people I meet at church).  I may not have loads of friends I hang out with regularly, but I am grateful for those of you that touch my life.

10.  I have been thinking about WW1 a lot recently due to the concerts I am preparing for at school and am really grateful for all those who sacrificed their lives.  War is awful and I do not like it- so many sad memories but I am thankful and sorry for all those who died on all sides.

What are you thankful for?

An Irregular Choice of shoesy wishlist!

I am quite practical when it comes to footwear generally. I wear flat shoes mostly, sensible boots. They may be in bright colours or sequins, but generally I am not wearing skyscraper heels or things that are impractical. I do,however, have quite a few pairs.  However, I do happen to own a few pairs of decorative shoes that are slightly less practical- I do have 4-5 pairs of Irregular Choice shoes- mostly these were bought in the sale  a few years ago.
In recent years, realising I don't wear them a huge amount, mainly due to the amount of walking I do (and cycling) everywhere, I haven't bought any more pairs. Some of them are just too out there and impractical in terms of heels and moreover, they are very expensive.
But just occasionally, I go and have a look at the website and drool over their shoes.  Normally, in the sale season, anything in UK Size 8/European Size 42 that I actually like is long sold out so the temptation doesn't get to me.  However, I saw some LOVELY pairs when looking today (there are many, many pairs, but they are ruled out for me quickly!) and they are all available in my size!

I thought I'd share those shoes I liked best! They are works of art! And relax, I will not be buying them- they are too expensive- but I thought I would share them in case you liked any! Or a mysterious millionaire feels like sending them my way!! Ha ha!

Mini McNutty

They are velvety, blue and have fluffy squirrels on them!  I love Squirrels!

Pico

These are fun glittery and rainbowy and look FAIRLY practical

Paco

These black boots look like my Dr Martens but in a more flamboyant design.

Rumba

I LOVE the rainbowy but with a prominence of turquoise/Kingfisher blue (my favourite colour!) and they look comfy!

Summer Daze

Similarly fun but pretty whilst being flat!

Shoreditch

These look very sturdy! I love the design, maybe not the pink!

Hopscotch

These would probably be too high for me but they are fun!

Dazzle Razzle

I do like the blue, shimmery material of these even if the bow is not up my street!

Total Freedom

These are glorious! Rainbow sequins that have a silver side also!

Summer of Love

These look very cute and I like the rainbow design.

Lady Ban Joe

More rainbow but possibly too high!

Curio Low

I love these shimmery Turquoise ones so much with the perspex heel! I would definitely wear these lots since I have lots of clothes this colour!

Build Bridges

More double-sided sequins with a more sedate colour option- black or pale turquoise.

Clara Bow

I ummed and ahed over this shoe design Clara Bow, last year- they had a black and gold pair in the sale in my size but in the end decided I couldn't justify £50 on shoes. I really like the design and the colour of these. Plus, they are called CLARA!

Clara Bow

This pair is most similar to the ones I was smitten with!

Little Lady Daisy

These are very fun and flat but I would wear them out very quickly- I am quite hard treading on flat, flat heels like this. So pretty though.

Dessie

I think these Dessie ones are the ones I would love the most- they are like my beloved Dr Martens but in a shimmery rainbow design.  I reckon I could cycle in these too!

Little Rainbow necklace

Finally, they released a necklace to match the Little Daisy shoes above and it is a comparatively bargainous price of £10.99.

What do you think of my choices?  Would you wear any  of these?

Images are all property of Irregular Choice. I hope they don't mind me promoting their beautiful shoes!

x

TARDIS Tuesday- Clara Oswald in Dark Water.

Hi there,

I'm back for a simple TARDIS Tuesday today.  I was debating what to do for TARDIS Tuesday and all the outfits that I hadn't done are all a bit wintery and dressy and I needed something a bit more slobby and relaxed for my Sunday.

Dark Water was the penultimate episode in Series 8 of Doctor Who and spoilers, Clara's boyfriend is tragically killed.  In one very short moment, we see her staring, zoned out in her grief on the road where he was hit by the car.  She's wearing a simple teal jumper (from Oasis minus its collar) and some high-waisted jeans plus some, hard to tell what they are, shoes.  I didn't want to dress up on Sunday as I wasn't going anywhere, wanted to do some gardening and it was a bit chilly but not full-blown wintery.

Image borrowed from ClaraWhocosplays.tumblr.com  Chrissi is the most wonderful cosplayer who has inspired me with many Clara outfits and has helped me to find certain items.  Her blog is really worth checking out as is her other one, http://claraoswaldcosplay.com/

Here's the outfit.  You can see it briefly in the episode then it's gone!

My jumper is also an Oasis one but without its collar, not the same one though.  I added the same jeans I have worn for my last 2 TARDIS Tuesdays as they are high-waisted and loose and I added my Converse trainers for want of any other ideas.
It was a light, simple outfit for a lazy day at home with some gardening (mainly deadheading and pruning).

What do you think?  It's an understandably different outfit for this character who is usually very girly and smart- appropriate given the circumstances of her wearing it.

x

Style Imitating Art- The County court house ceiling and The 50's dress of dreams

Hi there,

Hope you are enjoying your Monday.

It's been a few weeks since I have taken part in Style Imitating Art.  This week, our host is the wonderful Daenel at Living Outside the Stacks and wonderfully, the art work we are inspired by this week is by her!

She took the photo of the ceiling during a family trip to St Louis, Missouri and had to really crane her neck to get the whole ceiling in. It is part of the building designed by Lavielle and Morton.

What an amazing ceiling and the way Daenel captured it is brilliant!  The photo is hers and I am only borrowing it here to show her amazing work in comparison to my outfits!

Old County Courthouse in St Louis, Missouri. Image by Daenel. A. Vaughn-Tucker

I was actually a little stuck with this at first until I realised on Friday that I was putting on a top which had a variety of colours including the right shade of pink together with some of the other colours and little intricate details including lace which nodded to some of the details.

 I then thought about that central circle in the image, perhaps a skylight and then thought of several items of jewellery I own that would work for that- the necklace is made up of slightly different sized circles in white including some that are intricate.  The white circle bracelet was an Eid present from a lovely girl at school and the earrings I bought in France tied with both of those.

 Finally, I added these Geometric Toms shoes - with their black and white circles and patterns, it reminded me of those outside black and white circular bits on the picture (sorry, I'm really going on a downer for descriptive language today!)
My loose blue jeans completed the look.

I then remembered a blog post I had as a draft which was never published with a dress I'd worn with the PERFECT colouring. Although the picture below is pretty dark, the pink of the dress is the exact shade in real life of those pink panels and the corresponding greyish edging is rather like the edging on my dress.  Appropriately, I had worn the same circle bracelet and a white pearl necklace plus some silvery grey sandals.

And you can read the rest of that draft post below!

In my 13 years of blogging, I have read the blogs of many stylish ladies who blog about their style.  Many of them were into Vintage clothing and many of those often found items when out in charity shops of thrift shops.  I am glad that many of them still blog such as Vix, Lauren, Ann although a few have fallen off the blogging wagon.

I was always envious and rather amazed at the beautiful collared 50's dresses that a few of my friends would find and always longed to find something similar.  Sadly, the only 50's dresses I ever really saw were in vintage shops and retailing at over £60 and invariably, never in my size!

When I was in Northumberland at Easter, my heart did a little skip when I saw this dress on a mannequin in the Corbridge Antiques centre.  The collar was gorgeous, the size looked good, it was cotton and the length looked alright.

I asked if they could take it off the mannequin and tried it on and happily, it being Northumberland, a slightly more reasonable £25 was what I managed to buy it for.

It IS very, very fitted at the waist, even for my small waist but the way the sleeves fit is lovely as it doesn't grip me at the shoulders and armpits in the way many modern sleeved dresses do.  It was very comfortable to wear to my Dad's Birthday back at the start of June.

Did you ever seek a particular style of dress and get very excited when you found it?

Now, head over to Daenel's blog on Wednesday to see how EVERYONE ELSE interpreted Daenel's beautiful photo!

AND if you think you've got an outfit that would work for this, email Daenel at livingoutsidethestacks@gmail.com and she will post a round-up of all the outfits!

x

The beaty of Audley End House and Gardens

A few weeks ago, CBC and I had to travel to Royston in Cambridgeshire to pick up an Ikea Billy Bookcase.  You may wonder why but we wanted another Billy to match two we had and Ikea don't seem to have the model and colour any more that we had so we found someone selling one on eBay.  The man looked most incredulous when we said we'd travelled all the way from the Essex coast to pick it up! You could see, "For an IKEA bookcase??!??!" in his face. BUT, I suggested we make a day of it and go somewhere for the day- I suggested Audley End. We also introduced a slight detour trip to Great Dunmow to take CBC's cello to a Luthier there as it needed some work doing to it.

Audley End is an English Heritage property situated near Saffron Walden in Essex. Saffron Walden is a wonderful town to visit.  It had a brilliant market going on when we went there first for Breakfast and some great shops as well as interesting places to eat and see.

Audley End has changed very much over the years. It started off as a large house owned by the De Mandeville family the earls of Essex after the Norman conquest.  Walden Abbey was nearby.

After the dissolution of the monstaries, it was given to Sir Thomas Audley who then converted the old abbey into a more impressive mansion.  Later, it become one of the most stunning Jacobean mansions with many opulent decorations.  It passed eventually to the Braybrooke family and finally bought for the nation in 1948. (You can read more of its history here)

Here is the House.  Sadly, we weren't allowed to take photos inside except of a few areas which I will show later.   There are some very fine paintings and intricate decorations with a wonderful chapel and a fantastic library which you get right up close to look at the books, even if you can't take them down and have a nosy!

Here is the view from the window in the salon where the books are.  I asked if I could take a picture out the window of the gardens which the nice, very knowledgeable guides allowed.  They also allowed us to play the piano which was a Chopin-era piano!

If you look across from here, you can see where the State apartments are.  The most exquisite bed was built for the King who was going to visit in 1794  A magnificent bed was built for him- sadly he didn't ever stay but his daughters did!

Our most favourite place was one I was surprised by.  There was a whole gallery of taxidermy animals created by the 4th Baron Braybrooke who was an archeologist.  It was a truly astounding collection of birds and beasts- so many birds that I would never actually see in real life up close- the albatrosses were astounding and some UTTERLY ENORMOUS birds! We wondered how they stay in the air!  CBC and I spent a great amount of time in that gallery examining birds!

One place you can take photos is in the nurseries, some of which have been recreated and redecorated.

This seemed a jolly place for them.  I took a picture of the doll's house for Vix!

One surprising thing was the vivid colours and patterns of this carpet!  What a fun Harlequin pattern!

There were some hats and garments to try on which is always fun.  One room had a very nice video to watch about the nurseries and one room had some SMELLS that would give you a feel of life for the children.

Another place that you could take photos was the coal gallery.  Essentially, the house had a central-heating so, to make it easier for the staff to cater for all the bathrooms etc, this coal gallery was installed.

They also had other supplies such as candles and carbolic soap!

The house was one of the first to have an indoor toilet installed.  This one is not the original one but a later one.

After the house, we went to the 1880's kitchen wing where actors are employed to cook dinners of the time- they were making a very pungent Rabbit stew when we went in. We wandered round the sculleries and the larders.  This all made us a bit hungry so we went into the cafe and had some tea.

Next, we headed into the grounds.    Here is CBC enjoying the view along the river.  This part of the gardens was created by the famous Lance "Capability" Brown.

The paths led to the gardens.  Nowadays, an organic company has taken over the running of these gardens and they are utterly amazing.

Dahlias are so beautiful- I can scarcely believe how perfect they are in shape! 

We enjoyed seeing lots of bees collecting nectar from the various blooms.

Inside the massive walled garden were various flowers,herbs, vegetables and fruits.

Two bees sharing.

The parsley took up an entire bed the size of my lawn!

The sheer quantity of flowers, herbs and vegetables was astounding and I think this was my favourite part of the estate.

Look at the beauty of these!

I couldn't believe how exquisite this path was.

Delicate pink flowers.

More robust oranges.

Another view but now with apple trees at perfect height for picking and  many courgettes.

I was amazed by how the trees had been trained to grow against the walls.

There was still a great amount of space.

The apples were sorely tempting.

Marigolds flanked the whole edge of this glass house.

There were many varieties of tomatoes, cucumbers, chillies and other fruits and vegetables inside.

A splendid array of plants.

Here were many vines with grapes draped tantalisingly close!

Melons were growing merrily- some of them had wool cosies on them.

You could see into the chief gardener's rooms.

And into the potting sheds.

I was slightly dismayed by the mushroom house!  They grow in darkness alongside rhubarb and other crops.  Weird!

Yet another view along to give you an idea of space.

Look at all that Chard!

More perfect Dahlias.

Finally, we made our way to the stables where there were horses which came out at various times.

I had a ride!

Alas, at this point, my camera died and we had to go anyway. 

I thoroughly recommend visiting Audley End.

It costs £20 for an adult or £38 for two adults.

At the end of our visit, we decided to join English Heritage for the year.  It cost us £99 for a year plus we got 3 months free so 15 months for £99.  Given that we got back our £38, we only need to visit a few places to make back our money- I've already seen a few places I'd love to visit such as Framlingham castle, Dover Castle and Eltham Palace.

Have you been to Audley End or Saffron Walden?  

I thoroughly recommend them.

xx