The unexpected Christmas jumper

 Last Christmas, I shared all my festive/sparklywear that I had for Christmas.  This year, around April, CBC and I went for a walk by the sea and I was absolutely freezing as I'd not got enough clothes on.  We ended up popping into a charity shop to see if we could find me something to wear.

I ended up buying this great jumper with stars made our of gold bugle seeds. Probably a Christmas jumper rather than a regular jumper but it's really pretty.

I ended up wearing it for school with these Seasalt burgundy cropped trousers. I've worn my cords SO much since I've bought them! They were definitely a good buy!

I wore them here (for Church) during Advent with charity shopped leather waterproof Ugg sheepskin boots- not sure they really work with the length BUT warm and comfy which is more important!

Cosy is the order of the day. Stay warm everybody!xx

TARDIS Tuesday- The 11th Doctor femme version from The Bells of Saint John.

Hello there!

I hope you are well! Today, I thought I'd share a closet cosplay that I've been meaning to do for about 3 years and finally got around to doing!

It is the final outfit worn by the 11th Doctor, played by Matt Smith.

https://wibblywobblyknits.wordpress.com/2015/02/26/finished-another-11th-doctor-color-variant-today/

He wears his trademark Bowtie- purple or navy. A blue textured shirt, A purple suede frock coat, a grey/blue textured waistcoat, black/navy trousers and purple brooch boots.

https://thegingerdoctor.wordpress.com/2016/05/20/cosplay-build-the-silver-matt-smith-waistcoat/

And here's my version- concocted from things I own anyway!

I'll run you through my outfit. I wore this for a trip to the lovely town of Maldon in Essex for a family Christmas afternoon tea at the wonderful tea room, Mrs Salisbury

The first item I chose was my purple wool coat (Debenhams 14 years ago).  it's not the same shade, nor does it have the same lapels or texture, but it's purple and the correct length.

I wanted to wear a blue and white stripy shirt I have but I couldn't find it so I just wore a white spot-textured shirt from White Stuff.

My waistcoat came from La Redoute a while back and is a sparkly/shiny grey colour. Again, it's not the same shape but serves as part of the whole look!

I added my silver pocket watch which was a 16th birthday present from my Godsister!

My bowtie came from the Vintage Emporium in Hexham. CBC does have a purple one but I didn't manage to find it for the photos!

We found some good locations to pose by in Maldon- this door looks vaguely TARDISesque!

Rather than go for a trousers look, I decided to make it a feminine version of the outfit and added my black velvet Topshop skaterskirt and black tights.

The final touch is my Clarks Men's purple Brogue boots that I bought back in 2019.  They are fleece-lined and very robust

It was a fun outfit to wear and I felt smart.  Luckily, nobody mistook me for the waiting staff at our Afternoon tea.  It was a lovely occasion which I will post about soon!

What do you think?

Would any aspect of this outfit work for you?

xx

You are stars

 Dear friends who comment on my last post,

You are so kind. I am deeply grateful that you all took the time to leave such kind and thoughtful comments. Sheila hit the nail on the head when she said that you can sometimes get stuck in your own head sometimes and suck up others' negativity.  I feel better or worse on different days, depending on different factors but I felt loved when I read your words and I really appreciate it.

We are going to go to Belgium and are staying in Antwerp (CBC just decided to book something).  I'm trying not to stress out about the fact my passport has only 6 months left on it (about 2 days into our trip) and the fact my passport is in my maiden name whereas my NHS name is my married name and trying to download the NHS Vaccine certificate (having JUST registered for NHS online) but waiting for my passport photo ID to be verified...but the names don't match. Not registered for my GP online so can't do the 'non-photo method' and as this is all very last-minute, I'm not sure what to do if I can't get the online one as er....only 2 days to get it! Filled out my Belgium PLF with my maiden name but not sure whether I should have done my Maiden name or married name. AHRGH, Covid and Brexit, you are making things so difficult! My Eurostar ticket is in my married name! Oh, and my big suitcase has a hole in it and my small one is too small! Ahrgh, please, pray that it all works out!

And because I don't want there to be too much stress on here...let's enjoy an outfit from December which I never shared.  I've actually worn this outfit about 2 more times since then as I really like it

It features the charity shopped star dress AND sweatshirts I bought in December alongside an Esoteric London star necklace I bought in their Seconds-sale last year.  Charityshopped merino wool leggings and my Leggero goretext boots and that's a comfy, cute outfit for school.

I've done a Sheila and shared my mask of the day of this outfit: it's got constellations on it so is rather appropriate. It's rare when my mask matches- usually it's a horrid clash!

Despite being absolutely exhausted after getting home very late from orchestra (grr. central line delays) and feeling sad last night, today was good.  I had a successful singing assembly on Russian folk songs and Shostakovitch and I had 4 good lessons.  3 Year 5 lessons on the Renaissance era and vocal textures and one year 6 one listening to and commenting on features of Baroque Vivaldi concertos and Bach's cantatas.  Not quite sure how I managed to get through that Year 6 one in 55 minutes but did. All the children interested and attentive. They enjoyed and enthused over the Vivaldi 'Winter' concerto video I shared as a starter activity (this was a good addition to my previous incarnation of this lesson- very glad I added this in as it really helped their understanding) and really enjoyed me getting my treble recorder out to demonstrate the features we'd commented on in the Vivaldi listening. Choir were also really good despite being inordinately chatty!

Must go to bed....hoping that things will be ok Vaccine passport-wise!

Love to all (except the spam comments...go away and stop putting your rubbish links in my comments).

xx

Christmas Day and New Year's Eve outfits

 Hi there!

Although I've been wearing lots of 'interesting' outfits, I haven't bothered to photograph them- it's that Winter-meh, darkness meaning bad quality pics and that's annoying!

BUT, I did manage to get TWO photos over Christmas of my outfits worn on those two aforementioned days.   The first one is a pretty grim photo. There's one of CBC and I taken just after and the lighting is so awful, we look really washed out and grey!!!  But still, I am sharing it,despite that!

Above....behold Christmas day.

With the exception of the tights and my Cath Kidston earrings, everything was charity-shopped.

I started with the Hell Bunny burgundy velvet dress (charity shopped from the Pet Protection charity shop for £5 brand new with tags 3 years ago. It's hard to see but it has a cute black collar with embroidered Christmas foliage.  On Christmas eve, I picked up this gorgeous Monsoon teal velvet cropped jacket from Sense charity shop in Hexham for £7 and I was mighty pleased with this- it has possibilities for acting as a Regency Spencer for my Jane Austen outfit!

The green leather, made in Italy, brogues were £5 from my local Hospice charity shop and of course, came from the men's section as I never find my type of shoe in the size 8's women's paltry offerings.  CBC was overtly jealous of these and since his feet are only about 1/2 a size bigger than mine, threatened to steal them! I took the jacket off to do the washing up and food prep in but the dress itself is comfortable and is able to accommodate a big load of food.

Here's my New Year's eve outfit, taken at around 1.30am in the morning as we were about to go to bed.

You may recognise this dress from my 'What shall I wear to the wedding post?' back in August.  It's from a shop in Padstow called Pink Lemons and is made from recycled Sari silk and feels gorgeously comfortable and soft.  I decided to belt it with this Poundland bow belt and some Christmas tree earrings from a child (she laughingly gave them to me in July saying she'd kept forgetting to give them to me the previous Christmas as I'd been away!) as well as a Primark headband. Do you spy my patterned socks?  They came from a handmade wool company in Glastonbury and belong to CBC but I stole them as they went well with my outfit (the green brogues were worn when outside!)  Ohh, and there's my Alex Monroe posy loop necklace!

Which one do you prefer?  Which one would you where?

What did YOU wear?

xx

Christmas Collection

As it reached December, I started thinking about getting out my Chritmas  garments and it struck me what a relatively new thing this is.  Back in 2013, I posted about not owning a Christmas jumper.  I didn't have one. That's when the Christmas jumper day seemed to begin in the UK from Save the Children.  And it seems to have become this massive industry ever since.

And then I realised that I have developed a massive collection of Christmas themed garments.  Considering they only get worn once a year and I am one person owning these, it strikes me that I have fallen prey to that consumerism and industry and it's an eco-disaster. I'm not sure what else to say on that front but that it's pretty crazy and I'm actually rather ashamed of myself.  By that token, I realised that I should be better organised for December so I can actually wear all the garments as much as I can since I've already made that eco-mistake.  And donating to a charity shop isn't going to necessarily make that any better as they could end in landfill. So I decided to be organised and make an inventory on my festive-themed garments so I can ensure I wear them as much as I can.  By the way, some of these items are not 'Christmas' garments but I tend to find them atuned for festivity.

Clockwise from top left:

1.  Next Sequin sweatshirt. I've had this since 2014 and I wear it lots. It's really comfy and not too difficult to style.

2.  Next star sweatshirt.  Bought in the charity shop this December. It's starry rather than Christmassy but I think it works as a Christmas jumper as well as being more versatile.

3. M&S sequin bow jumper: Bought around 6 years ago in the January sales, this is quite close-fitting and warm.  May find a younger relative to give this to if it gets any smaller but it's so pretty and sparkly.

4.  Joules Jingle Belle cotton t-shirt: This was bought 3 years ago from Zalando and is a good choice for being in a warm environment.

5. M&S Robin sweatshirt: Bought from a charity shop 6 years ago, I wear this in January/February also.

6. John Rocha sparkly thin sweater: charity shopped around 5 years ago- also worn at other times.

7.  Brussel sprout shirt: Bought from the town Christmas fair with my friend 4-5 years ago. I keep forgetting about this one.

8.  Charity shopped tartan dress:charity shopped around 7 years ago.  Gets worn at other times.

9.  5 gold rings sweatshirt:  charity shopped last year.

10. Peacocks sequin  skirt. Bought back in 2013. Worn every year.

11.  New Look sequin skirt:  Charity shopped around 5 years ago.

12.  Lindy Bop skirt with Arctic scenes. Bought around 3-4 years ago.

13.  Black gold and silver vintage skirt bought last year.

14. Stags dress:  bought last January from boutique in Leigh.

15. Vintage Style Me robins handmade dress: bought around 3-4 years ago.

16.  Lindybop Winter trees dress: bought 2-4 years ago. Not worn that much.

17&18.  Hellbunny Christmas velvet dresses. Charity shopped 2-3 years ago.

19. Topshop lacy dress : charity shopped around 

20. Ho Ho Ho sequin sleeved t-shirt (not pictured). Charity shopped 2 years ago.

That's twenty items. TWENTY!!!!

Once I'd photographed all these, I put together and rolled up Christmas outfits so I could wear them daily from that point and give me ideas.  Not featuring a few garments

I've worn them all except top right (which are again not Christmas garments but sparkles and velvet are very festive). Will be worn tomorrow or Thursday or was going to Christmas eve but not sure now since plans changed.

Last two also worn.

Two skirts and 3 dresses have not been worn as they are quite dressy and I've not really had other occasions to wear them thus far.

Anyway, I've shamed myself in public now so perhaps I might stick to a not buying any garments in 2022 pledge this time?

Apart from that, any favourite items here?

xx