TARDIS Tuesday- Romana and the stones of Blood

 This week, for TARDIS Tuesday, I decided to go back to a favourite Classic Who outfit worn by Romana, the clever Time Lady companion who joined him in his quest for the Key to Time. She wears this outfit in a great episode called The Stones of Blood which deals with Stone circles!

I last attempted this outfit in 2019 and 2017.

It's a very comfy outfit. I wore it on a Sunday and when we went for a walk.

I started with this second hand red gypsy skirt which, like my shoes yesterday, was damaged by getting caught on my bike but this case, getting chewed up by the cogs! It's got a slight hole at the hem with some bike grease stains.Sigh.

The top was charityshopped a couple of years ago.  It's from Select I think. Whilst it's not quite a match for Romana's, it has the correct vibe.

You can't really see my feet but I wore brown ankle boots as opposed to knee-high ones.

Not much else to say. Hope you are well!

xx

Style Imitating Art- Karin at the Shore- Kezzie in the Garden

 I have finally remembered to join in with Style Imitating Art. Salazar is this week's curator and she chose a beautiful watercolour:

“Karin at the Shore” by Swedish artist Carl Larsson

I knew that I had a great Monsoon dress (bought second hand from ex-blogger Char) that really gave a nod to the inspiration:

I wore the same dress for Style Imitating art July 13th 2020 for the Tingklit mask inspiration

The flower print, I think you will agree, bears similarities in colours to the inspiration piece

I have a white frilly hat but it looked too costumey for this outfit so I wore my Grandad's Straw school boater.

As a nod to the woman's blue part of her dress, I wore a Monsoon linen cobweb cardigan (second hand). It's such a soft and gentle cover up.

On my feet, I wore my charity-shopped sand coloured Mary Jane shoes.  I've had these about 3 years and I am gutted that I wrecked one of them last week- I was cycling and I stopped. When I put my foot back on the pedal, I misjudged where I put my foot and ended up catching the side of the shoes where the strap is in the pedal. It ripped it and is now hanging on by a thread. This is really annoying as I wear this for a lot of the warmer weather at school and they are in otherwise great condition.

I'm looking forward to seeing the other outfits for this one so head over to Salazar's on Wednesday.

Hope you had a lovely weekend.

I had a lovely one. On Saturday afternoon, I headed to my orchestra rehearsal with CBC and we did the concert in the evening.  The soloist for the Glazunov Violin concerto was the wonderful Elodie Chousemer-Howells who was String violinist for Young Musician of the Year in 2018. She's such a sweetie and is incredibly talented and knows exactly what she wants the orchestra to do but is very humble despite being such a star. She played amazingly!  One thing I absolutely loved was that after her practice, she joined the 1st violins for the exhausting Tschaikovsky 5th Symphony. In addition, she stuck around to watch us do the symphony in the concert.  What a lovely person as well as being so talented!

In between the rehearsal and the concert, CBC and I headed to the town we lived in when we first got married to go to our favourite Thai restaurant for dinner!

This morning, I headed back to this town to play flute for the service at my old church.  It was the first service taken by the recently licensed (as in yesterday!) Lay Minister Catherine. I ended up playing violin as well as flute and singing.  As CBC was out cycling, I stayed for the barbeque to celebrate Catherine's completion and it was lovely to stick around.  I then came home, went for a walk, did some gardening and school work.

Hope all is well with you!

xx

xxsds

Waffle and happy things

 Today, I wore my Cath Kidston train dress for school because I am teaching Year 1 some activities connected to trains. (I taught the other two classes on Tuesday and sadly missed thinking of this!). I didn't say anything but wondered if any child would notice. Lo and behold, a cute boy put his hand up and pointed out we were doing train rhythms and I was wearing a train dress.  He was rewarded with a Dojo point for that!

For aforementioned train lesson, I usually use a tub of whistles for one of the rhythms. I originally got them when I worked at the Royal Academy of Music.  We had our Christmas party in 2006 and we had those crackers with musical tuned whistles in them (imagine some of the finest music professors in this country playing tunes on them- it was brilliant!).  At the end, when everyone left, they just left their whistles on the tables so naturally, me thinking I was going to be a teacher, I grabbed them- about 38 of them.  Every year subsequently, I used them for this train lesson.  Unfortunately, in the whole big music room becoming a classroom, they have completely gone AWOL. I strongly suspect they are in the cupboard in the hall and are stuck behind the partition as they don't seem to be anywhere else.  I wandered over to Home Bargains opposite school on Monday night to see if I could find any alternative whistles. What I found was packs of 6 Party horns for £1. I bought 3 packs and took them back.  They worked REALLY well, the kids loved them and they were easy to dip in a tub of Dettol so that I could clean them between groups of 7 kids using them.

I've been harvesting SO much Rocket from my Raised Bed. I've been sharing it with colleagues and friends and everyone has been raving about it. I've been eating it for about 7 weeks now.  It's massive!!!

Last week, I picked the first of the Strawberries. A week later, I've already picked over 150 strawberries. Today, I picked the first blueberries.

Sunday, I took CBC for a walk around the field behind our house (it's a nice circular mile (and a bit) walk. Happily, I noticed a cherry tree in the boundary between the field and railway line and managed to pick about 45 cherries.  Then, as we walked along the street adjoining ours, I noticed a cherry tree in the flats carpark that it is clear no one gives a stuff about picking cherries from (they were all over the ground). I picked a load here too.

15 sticks of Rhubarb on Sunday too.

My perpetual spinach seems to have bolted and gone to seed but I just keep cutting the stalks and eating them and it keeps growing.

More COOP bargains this week. On Saturday night, I ended up having to go to the COOP at 9.45pm again as we were making Dhal and had no coconut milk. Again, was a fridge full of bargains. I got a litre carton of Hemp and Oat milk for 15p, a bag of chillis for 17p, 2 bags of Tender Steam broccoli for 56p each, a Large Chocolate Trifle for 68p (at least 4 large servings), a large tub of tomato soup for 48p. Then, Monday night, when I went to Home Bargains, I walked past the fridge and got a Chicken, bacon and pasta layered salad for 10p, a Ginster's Beef pasty for 10p, a Ham and Cheese roll for 10p and a bag of mixed salad for 10p! Bargains!

Because of the train strikes, I had to come home early and I had a lovely sit down on my swing seat in the garden with a pot of tea and some crisps. It was a delight. Also, because I JUST missed the connection train at my interchange and had to wait 25minutes, had a nice little mooch round the posh charity shop by the station. It was lovely! Came home with a lovely &Other Stories dress and a Monsoon top and a solid pair of Maracas for school! Didn't need them but it made a grumpy wait pleasant.

I appointed some kids as Logistics Managers for choir. Their job is to move all the tables and set up the chairs as it was becoming a real bind me trying to do it alone.  The funny thing is, they take their job very seriously, and when I was getting cross with children chatting in choir, they came up with a seating plan for the kids and a strike system for bad behaviour and are totally bossing it with making me not the big bad wolf.  They literally don't care what the other kids think of them and it is really funny!

We didn't end up going to Somerset at the weekend as CBC got Covid last week but luckily, he's been pretty ok with it and I have remained free of it! I was thankful for a weekend at home.

Last week, we had been to see Jacob Collier at Brixton Academy (I DO NOT LIKE BIG CROWDED CONCERTS). It was actually brilliant though and we even got to see Stormzy who came on as a guest and duetted on a wonderful song about faith.

After I went to see Newen Afrobeats a few weeks ago, I played Seun Kuti and some Afrobeats music to the kids and all the teachers were really enthused by it! 

Here endeth the waffle.

xx

TARDIS Tuesday Cold War 5

 Hi!

TARDIS Tuesday features an outfit that I have attempted or  worn 5 times on this blog. It is worn by 11th and 12th Doctor companion and my personal New Who favourite, Clara Oswald.

I last wore this outfit here in July 2019 (& I actually wore the outfit out in public about a week later for our opera performance at music camp!) and it remains unchanged from that last version. I chose to wear it this week because I was looking for another dress which turned out to be sharing a hanger with this one.  I threw it on the floor in a hurry and this morning, when I got up (Sunday), thought I might as well wear it, since it was out anyway!

Let's have a look at it in one awful grainy shot and then a couple of promo shots:

IMage borrowed from Doctor Who role playing wikia

Image borrowed from this Pinterest but belongs to the BBC

It's glamorous, it's shiny and it gets covered up by a Soviet Naval jacket!

Here's me:

It's been 3 years since I last wore this and I've put on some weight since then. It was always V.E.R.Y tight then but now it is super tight!

It features the pale blue Vivienne Westwood Pannier dress which, despite, it being very tight, is such a beautiful fit.

I wear it with a navy blue cotton military-style jacket (which cost me £5 from eBay- this was out of the wardrobe too because I wanted to wear it for the Jubilee performance for our Trooping the Colour song on Friday).

The shoes, from Red or Dead, are lovely, but high and I only recently located them as they were hidden right in the middle under the spare bed.  The bag is a lovely one I have for weddings...although in practice, it's waaaay too small for me- I need a camel to hoik around the stuff I need!

You can see the dress alone here- this is how I wore it for our opera performance at music camp- we were supposed to be in 'wenchy' costumes. It seemed  most apt!

For your delectation (or horror?) I include a few attempts inside my kitchen, where I attempted to recreate Clara's "Ahrgh,I've just been covered head to toe in freezing cold water!"-look and a photo where she is wearing headphones! All not very successfully but at least they are a bit funny!

Hope you have had a good day!

xx

Cards 3

 Here's the next batch of cards I made over the Easter holidays.

I started with a strip of patterned paper which I stuck to a pink card blank.  The ice-cream cones were made from an old brown envelope and the ice-creams from scrap papers. Not 100% convinced by this one. I've made better ice-creams.

This one isn't much of a change but the letters came from a 3D birthday card I was given with the letters on various levels. I reimagined them in this guise.

Hazel might recognise this card as she sent him to me originally and I decided he needed a second life so I cut and gave him new deckled corners and then mounted him on patterned blue paper (which I used a border punch on) and a pink card to match his glasses.

One year, my sister gave me a really nice (and clever birthday present). She had this dress punch so she punched me a whole lot of dresses in different patterned papers so I had my own batch for making cards. She put them in a moisturiser tub so that was good reuse. I decided to match the drss with some flowers and a complementary spotty backing. The dress is held up with foam squares to make it look more 3D.

Is there one you like better here?

xx

Garden flowers

 I've been really enjoying the garden recently.

Here are some examples of  Spring growth

CBC loved his Chilean Jasmine last year. It was too cold in the winter so it died but he bought a new onee.

Blueberries which I want to eat before Mrs Blackbird!

The Clematis has shunned the Willow trellis in favour of using the cherry tree as support!

The yellow rose is back with vengeance!

The white Campanula always grows alongside the Rose. Delicate and attractive!

The bees adore the Nigella flowers. 

We always wonder what colour they will be!

The Foxgloves multiply each year. The bumble bees adore them.

The Syringa/Bottle Brush tree is so bright and cheery!

I grew leeks from the remains of old ones! The Perpetual spinach continues to take over as it bolts but I just keep cutting back the bolting!

I'm rich in rocket. It just keeps giving and I've shared it with colleagues and friends.

Here are my peas in the raised bed. They are much bigger now.

As well as my raspberries, Mum gave me a blackcurrant plant. It is enjoying the soft fruit bed.

The Dianthus find their way each year.

The Geraniums never fail either.

I've enjoyed many batches of Spinach, rocket and Welsh onion scapes.

I've even been harvesting Fat Hen from the flower planter. It's a weed but one that tastes just like Spinach!

Here were the first of the strawberries last week but today I picked 28 strawberries and 15 stalks of Rhubarb! I love edibles!

How has your garden been growing?

TARDIS Tuesday- Clara Oswald's outfit from Hellbent

Hey there bloggies! How are you? Well, I hope.

Today's TARDIS Tuesday outfit is a bit of a 'dress up one' rather than one you would stroll down the street in to go and get a pint of milk (in glass of course!).  It featured in Clara Oswald's final episode, Hell Bent whihc was slightly confusing as she was supposed to be dead but turned up in an American diner, talking to the Doctor like he was a stranger to him! We were all perplexed. Her outfit is typical US Diner and is essentially a Waitress outfit with white wedged Converse trainers.

I last donned this in June 2019- 3 years ago- didn't realise it had been so long!

Image borrowed from www.claraoswaldcosplay.com

Image  borrowed from this Pinterest

Let's see this iteration of the outfit then:

I decided to pose in the kitchen as it has a diner vibe to it rather than the garden. And, for a change, the kitchen table is tidy and has a bunch of Stocks  in the vase!* What a novelty!

Obviously, you would only wear this for a Costume party or a fan convention as it definitely looks like a costume and is far too short! When I last wore this costume, I bemoaned the poor quality of the material, the length, the buttons and the whole garment (doesn't even have the correct number of buttons near the bottom and is really tight near the bottom when it should flare out a bit.) is shoddy but at least it looks the part. I was unable to return it when I received it.

The Converse trainers were brand new when I bought them and were a bargain at less than £10.

At the moment I was taking photos, CBC came back from Music Camp and took great delight in sabotaging my photos (he loathes Doctor Who and my cosplaying). His punishment is exposure on the internet at the moment of impact!

* The Stocks came from the local COOP. I don't usually like buying cut flowers BUT I had to head to the COOP at around 9.40 on Saturday night after my friend Lara left as I had no butter and oodles of bread to eat for breakfast.  When I arrived at the COOP, there was LOADS of reduced stuff that expired that day that would probably be chucked in the bin in around 20minutes time.

I decided to grab the bunch of Stocks (grown in Norfolk) as they were reduced to £1.20 (wish I'd grabbed both)

I then ended up with:

• 2 Chocolate mousse Madness pots 24p each
• 1 tub of Plant-based mince- £1.06
• 2 Chicken kievs- £1.60
• 1 Sweet potato Bhaji and cous-cous raita salad pot 60p
• 1 Beetroot, fennel and Dill salad 44p
• Herby new potatoes: 53p
• Organic vine cherry tomatoes 79p
• 2 Salmon fillets- £1.40
• Naan breads - 60p x 2
• Baguette- 14p
• Wholemeal loaf- 31p
• Ciabattas- 30p
• Raw tiger prawns x 25 - 70p

I figured that I could try and cook dinner for the next few days (I am out 3 evenings on the trot) using some of the above, in conjunction with sausages I bought (packaging free!) from the butcher plus lunches (as long as the salads haven't gone funky...I'm eating them a few days after date and although all the plastic the above stuff came in, food waste is more criminal so I am glad I went there. The mince and salmon went into the freezer as that's all there was room in there for! I really must clear out the freezer!

Of course, I got half way down the road and realised I'd forgotten the bloomin butter!

It's a busy week. I've got 2 rehearsals- Monday- in East London, Tuesday- in Essex,. Then, Wednedsay, we are going to see Jacob Collier at Brixton Academy which I am a bit nervous about- big crowds, standing in a packed concert- I do not like large concerts but CBC booked it for The Round House pre-Covid and it was been rescheduled in an alternative venue.  Friday, is our Jubilee picnic at school and I've got the choir and drumming club performing plus the whole school will be singing our 2 Jubilee songs in the playground. Friday, CBC is travelling to Kent to camp because he is doing a 200 mile cycle race from Kent to Somerset (?&%^$%^^^!!!!!). He's asked me to go along and see him at the finish line (9pm at night in Burnham-on-Sea). I'm doing it but I'm not 100% happy about it because a) he's crazy- he's never done more than 110miles, b) it's expensive on the train, c) it's my Dad's birthday and the whole family is going to be having a party which I have to miss, d) bit nervous about finding my way there e) such a long way to go to meet him at the finish line and then he's going to go for a meal after that so I'll have to hang around awkwardly.

But, I am going, of course, to support him and...because I want to make sure he makes it in one piece to the accommodation and gets home safely. 

Update on this: the ONLY train that still has bike space reservations left doesn't depart Burnham till 19:15 at night on Sunday evening meaning we won't get home till 11pm at least....and CBC's car will be stuck in Kent! I spent 40mins on the phone to the lovely Lee from GWR customer services who tried every service to see if they had a bike space left! Sigh....

Ah well, duty (grudgingly) calls...

x 

Bramble and Rowan

 My Mum's two kittens continue to bring her great joy as well as destruction!  They are the sweetest pair of rogues- she says that Mungojerrie and Rumbleteaser have nothing on these two but they are also very affectionate.

Rowan, the little boy cat loves to fetch. You throw him a hayball or a scrunched up piece of foil and he will leap after it and bring it to you to throw for him again and again.  They jump in the fridge, they hide under the bed, they climb up to high windowsills and knock of plants, they fall in the bath, they scratch at the door, they drink water out of glasses, they get into bags and boxes, they leap onto her back when she bends down and cling on as she moves.  They try to climb up your skirt and try to swing on your hair when you bend down.  They are hilarious but when they run out of energy, they collapse. Bramble will purr loudly instantly the moment you stroke her or pick her up!

Here are a few pictures from my last visit to Mum.

Here's Rowan asleep on my lap.

Here's Bramble trying to get into a drawer.

And opening the door to the garden room!

And here's Rowan after a game of ball!

What sweetie-pies they are, despite the misdemeanours! 

Cards 2!

 I shared a post last week which showed some of the stash of cards which I made over the Easter holidays.  Thank you for your kind comments on these.

Today's collection are all a bit more varied than last time.

This first one started with some scraps of yellow card which I had punched using my edging punch.I think they came from an old school exercise book. The blue tropical card was actually a tissue box which a colleague was chucking out- it was too pretty to waste! The butterflies are outline stickers from a large stash I have!

The next card features a felt flower I cut freehand some years ago and forgot about! I found the perfect paper to go underneath it and the small yellow flowers came from an egg box! The purple flower is a bit wonky but I don't mind!

This was a really easy card to make. I think I bought this white card topper (feels a bit lazy!) about 14 years ago!  The only addition was the silver glittery background which was part of someone's Christmas cracker that again I snaffled!

The dog was a layered sticker that came in a pack I believe. I layered it onto the inside of a card I received and finally used a thin layer of double-sided sticky tape and carefully stuck on tiny pink iridescent stars. I have owned the pot of tiny pink stars since I was 10. My Mum bought me the best present. It was a 3 layered tool/craft box which had lots of containers of heart and star sequins in a myriad of colours. Everyone received sequinny cards for years! I still have the originals now!

I created this sweetie jar using some reused plastic quite a few years ago but never actually used it! I finally stuck it to the card and added an edging mosaic of matching squares. In retrospect, I wish I had added some white gel pen reflections to make the sweeties look more shiny and 3D- it's not quite right but I am sure I can find some use for it!

My final card here uses my old favourite school prospectus blue! I used a Martha Stewart corner punch to edge this one (Fun fact: My stepmum has this same corner punch and I really wanted the same one but it had sold out on QVC where she got it from and it was £40 from craft sites online. About 2 years ago, a friend of Mum's was getting rid of craft stuff and GAVE me the very punch I had wanted 10 years before!). I added a gift tag which had been attached to a card from a child at school and then punched 6 gold stars from some packaging I had.

Do you have a favourite?

x