Orange cartoon!

I really want to continue to blog about Antwerp but I keep trying to email myself photos from my phone and they don't seem to come through! Not sure what to do about this!

In the meantime, an alternative post!

Today's outfit is based on a special request from Sheila to see the Cartoon bag, which I recently bought in a charity shop, in action.

I first saw this bag on the blog of a lovely girl called Florrie. She blogged at Intrinsically Florrie and showed this bag once.  It looked crazy as it looked like a 2D cartoon bag.

And here it is in action.  I've been using it as my handbag since last Saturday.

My entire outfit (except for the belt, brooches and boots) is charity-shopped.

I decided to wear my FabIndia blockprint skirt with an orange M&S sweater

I decided to take inspiration from Ann (Polyester Princess) and add a belt to create a clean line between the skirt and top- it's a stretchy Primark one

For accessories, I decided to wear 3 brooches on my jumper- originally the two little ones are from Punky Pins and the big one from LadyBird Likes.

The earrings come from Lorelai LQ and are made from drinking straws.

Sadly, the most thrilling action this outfit saw was a trip to B&Q with CBC to pick up some curtain hooks for our new curtains. And lots of hoovering and cleaning out of the utility room and washing up. Dull, dull, but necessary.

We had a lovely time on Sunday meeting CBC's French cousin, who is doing an internship in the UK for 5 months, in Clerkenwell.  That was much more thrilling!

Hope you are well!

xx

The truth about me and small handbags.

I cannot cope!!!! That is the long and the short of it.
The clutch-bag is a total enigma to me- HOW do you cope with one?
I need to cart several kitchen sinks around with me and a clutch simply does cut the mustard!
We went to a wedding last year and I had a little shoulder bag AND then CBC caught me skulking around with a large corduroy shoulder bag too!
"WHY have you got that thing too??" he demanded. "It totally doesn't go with your outfit!"
yet it must be some psychological thing-

I.
just
can't.
seem.
to.
compute.

Another time, I was using this delightful fabric bag in Chinese satin that I bought in Bali for another wedding and was asked what on earth was causing it to bulge in that manner!

CBC tried to forcibly shut a handbag that was gaping open, stuffed as usual on another occasion! He couldn't seem to manage it.

In the small handbag, I had my phone and front door keys. I was going to do the 'just have bank card and cash thing' but in reality- I LOSE ITEMS!
Any time, I stick something small and loose in a pocket, it runs off!
It must be the fairies.

My Mum always called me the bag lady as I grew up as I had to walk around with several bags.
I honestly don't know what's wrong with me. I have this psychological need to carry around with me - lots of things!

Purse
Phone
Book
Notebook
and a whole heap of other junk!

I have several adorable little bags, some really cute novelty ones but nowadays, I can only use them for a little one-off situation.  I thought I'd look at my 'Bags' tag and compare the size of them.


My darling Watering can bag can hold my purse and a book and a few other things- but they stick out the top! Not one for when potential shop lifters are about!

R2 holds very little! He has to be accompanied by another bag.

This Cath bag makes me really think about what I am taking- I've usually taken it swing dancing and had to just hold my large book in my hand and hope I don't leave it behind!

A gorgeous Book clutch I received as a giveaway from Char- I use this one if we are going in the car and I can store the rest of my junk inside the car! It's very cute so I make the effort to curtail the junk I carry!


This Topshop one is useful because of the strap but is very hard to close!!!


This novelty bag holds more than it looks- it holds a normal-sized book! This is good!


This one is brilliant, it holds LOADS! This is what CBC would cite as one of my 'ugly' bags.


This is more like it! HUGE!

Is there any cure for me?
What would you suggest?
And how do you fare in the Big bag versus Small bag situation!?

xxx

Swinging in the trees-a sneaky TARDIS Tuesday on a Sunday

 I'm sorry, I try not to post too many outfit pics next to each other but I cannot seem to complete any of the myriad draft posts I have.. Nor can I seem to string any sentences particularly well together.

 So I thought I'd share an unnecessarily excessive amounts of photos of my outfit from today.  I bought this Fat Face dress in a charity shop in January and it fits me unbelievably well. Fat face size 6 seems to work for me! It has pockets too. Comfortably well.

Church on Palm Sunday today was very happy and it was very warm in the church.

 Like yesterday, I teamed it with other comfy items- these Clarks originals wedges are so comfy it is untrue- I don't wear them that often because I always worry about rain with suede.
The black cashmere cardie is an essential for cold concerts in cold churches. I did a concert in December with a choral society (like last night) where there was no heating and the wind players were right at the back by a drafty door- I stuck ALL my regular clothes under my black cardie and rued the consequences of looking like a trussed turkey and was STILL freezing. SO I bought a black cashmere cardie in the Tescos sale that very new year ready for freezing concerts.

 I posed with my Pylones watering can handbag just because it looked a bit boring but then I decided to swap my items into it anyway. I tend to stick with one of my handbags all the time and never use any other ones. Poor neglected ones. I did give away loads when I moved.

 Yes, I tried it. And scraped the skin off my hands.That bark is HARD and rough and I have zero upper body strength!

 Mwa ha ha!

 And because we all love the daft outtakes...

I can't wait till Summer!

Thank God Spring is sort of with us! I like exploring different spots in my garden. This one is quite good and it is a MIRACLE I didn't step in fox poo as I was trekking to and from the tripod as there was some directly in my path which I kept forgetting about. Every time I glanced down and re-remembered it was there, I scrutinized my soles instantly to see if I'd been careless. Luckily not.
Which is odd, since I was dog-poo girl as a child. The one who ALWAYS stepped in poo when wearing new shoes. Sigh...

After church, I spent the time putting away washing, tidying up and emptying the final boxes of books onto the shelves. There are a couple of bags dotted around which need emptying and the dining room table is a tip of miscellanea but I think I've nearly got there. The house is looking RATHER* tidy! Maybe I'm not such an Impossible girl?

Oooh and I put lots of my bigger brooches onto a Brooch board (a heart-shaped memo board picked up from Aldi for a fiver!)

We went out to dinner with our friends too which means I have left over Pizza for lunch tomorrow.

xxx

Linking to Visible Mondays with Patti.
If we were still doing TARDIS Tuesday, this would have a Doctor Who feel to it- do you agree? Or maybe the necklace is too subtle without the TARDIS blue dress?

*I say rather. By MY standards. I expect the Clutter Police would disagree!

May the force be with you!

Our friends organised a trip to go and see James Bond together on opening night in October which we did and really enjoyed so we booked to go and see 'The Force Awakens' on Saturday 19th December.  I've been really looking forward to it!

Having not done TARDIS Tuesday for a little while, I was keen for a little themed-dressing to attend it!

It originally began with this R2D2 novelty handbag I have. I bought this in 1996 in Miss Selfridge sale for £1! We'd been to watch Return of the Jedi earlier that year and I had to have it!  I've kept him ever since and he's made an appearance over the years! Almost had him 20 years!

I decided to try and white his colours with my outfit so it was a subtle cosplay.  Just the red hat and belt as that was the least (couldn't find my grey beret!) 

 The white dress which formed the basis of my Dalek dress.  Appropriate eh- from one robot to another.Ahem, droid!

 White trainers and my TARDIS blue cardie.

 And of course, I had to make a brooch!    Was rather pleased with my little R2D2 pin to finish off the look!

The film was excellent.  I couldn't believe I was finally going to see how the story continues!  I thought it was excellent and I didn't know they are making another 2 films so that is exciting!  Be prepared for some big shocks though! Star wars had a big influence on my life from those ewoks from Return of the Jedi- I LOVED the ewoks cartoons that I watched as a 7 year old and I wrote my own stories- I filled about 2 exercise books full of my own Ewok spin offs. And my sister tells me that I had a huge crush on Luke Skywalker aged 4-6!!!

SIA: Be kind to books

http://librarianforlifestyle.com/2015/10/06/sia-round-up-book-club/
I haven't shared a Style imitating art outfit for a long time so I thought it was time to remedy that!
The poster above was a Banned Books poster and it had particularly striking colours.

I wore this skirt and top to represent the majority back plus this Monsoon Charity-shopped cardigan for the blue.  Of course the orange was minimal so I wore my orange felt leaf brooch and used my orange watering can handbag.  The photo was taken at the park where we went for a walk and an ice-cream last Sunday!

I'm also linking with Spygirl Anne Bray with her 52 pick me up link with the theme of sunset
http://spygirl-amb.blogspot.co.uk/ my bag and leaf, combined with the blue of a muted sky and silhouette black

If you want to take part in Style Imitating Art at All with Jess, this week's inspiration is:

Leopard I by Megan Carn, acylic on Canvas 2015.
Send your inspired outfit to Jess at animatedcardigan@gmail.com

Since this was a book-themed Style imitating art, I thought I'd do an accompanying book review:

The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents by Terry Pratchett

I'd been recommended this book for a long time. The book begins as Maurice, the rats and a rather stupid looking pipe-playing boy called Keith are off for a final heist to pull the Pied Piper routine on an unsuspecting town.
Maurice is a cat and he and the rats suddenly began to be able to talk, think and philosophise after eating a pile of rubbish that obviously had something magic in it.  Maurice is essentially a bit of a crook, a very convincing street-wise one.  The rats have varying personalities such as Peaches to has a cough to rival Dolores Umbridge, Dangerous Beans, the prophet and Hampork, the leader who doesn't like this talking milarkey and wishes rats could just be rats again.

Unfortunately, the aforementioned town, Badblintz appears already to have a rat problem. A rather sinister one and it's up to Maurice and co to try and sort matters.

This book is full of Pratchett's hilarious thoughts upon the world from eccentric characters, genius description, quirky characters and a surprising amount of mystery and tension- just WHAT is going on in Bad Blintz keeps you reading and guessing up to the last minute, with a horrible dark concept as the denouement!!! Plus, Death makes an appearance and I always love it when Death turns up!

I recommend it (and of course, found it in a charity shop!).


Hope all is well with you!

xxx

If you go down to the charity-shops today, you're sure of a big surprise...

I know I shouldn't. I just shouldn't go in there.  I know I lose willpower the instant I get in there and scurry towards a rack of brightly coloured and patterned dresses but I just lose it with the excitement of what I see.  It's some sort of heightened rose-tinted glow of excitement that comes over me and all resolutions of, "No more!" somehow drop like scales from a fish.

It happened on Saturday.  When Mum was going, I felt the need to go and wander to get out and look on the high-street.  Part of me was after something for the garden and wanted a look in Poundland and nip into Waitrose for some baking bits and piece for CBC's vegan/gluten free lemon and blueberry polenta cake.

She dropped me at the top of the High Street and I started to walk along towards Pounland and Waitrose.  I decided 'just to glance' into the Marie Curie charity shop (occasionally find items in there). I was all resolved for just a look and then I looked at the dress rack and found myself looking at a TARDIS blue Cath Kidston floral dress.  Ot. Ow. I clearly lost my mind at finding Cath Kidston in a charity shop.  "Oh well! You may as well do the thing right" my subconscious clearly said and all resolutions on not buying anything were lost. I grabbed it and then kept walking round the store somehow ending up with loads of items.   When I went up to pay, ending up spending £21, the shop assistant commented on how many nice items I had and how much they would have cost elsewhere. I agreed most fervently.  I guess the point is, I SHOULDN'T have bought them but at least it made some money for the charity!

So I'm guessing now I've teased you, you want to see what I purchased?

Oh alright,if you twist my arm



So left to right:

1.  This is a F&F floral button-down dress. I had seen this red flowery dress and wanted it but not managed to buy it when it was in the shops, nor wanted to buy it new. This is my favourite type of charity-shop purchase- when you wanted it first time but missed it. It was £3.50 I think.
2. Middle is the Cath Kidston dress. It fits really well and the best bit is it looks vaguely 1940's when on- the sillhouette is very much of that era so it will be really useful for swing-dancing when the dress code says 1940's. I always groan if so as I have nothing of that ilk except a Warehouse dress which I am worried all the buttons will come undone if I dance vigorously in it! £7.00
3.  Lastly, I picked this up blue bird-print playsuit as a present at first thinking it was a dress. It's New Look and still has its original £24.99 labels on.  But seeing it is a playsuit, I also thought "Suitable for swing-dancing so watch this space. And if you get it for Christmas know that I like it lots you!



4.  I saw this bag and thought, "Oooooh,that's a GOOD size for a handbag that can have music and a flute shoved into!"  It was £5 and is from Kangol.  It is immaculate and I've been using it for school ever since! Great buy.
5.  Black skinny-ish trousers.These were £2.50 from Reiss originally and they have a side-zip which always works for me in trousers as I have an odd-shape for trousers.  They are an 8 which I am NOT in trousers but these fit very well. They are a lovely textured thick material and will make a good winter alternative to leggings.
6.  Fox brooch! For £1.50 how could I leave him behind!

That should have been it.

Should have been.

But as I left Poundland avec 2 loaf tins and something else, I nipped into the Cancer research for a look.



I saw the Edward Marston Murder on the Brighton Express  which was the first of the Railway Detective books I'd found in a charity shop and disappointedly wished to myself that it had been the original"The Railway Detective" book which is one of only two that I haven't read.  Looked down a shelf and there it was!  So I've bought all of them in Charity shops.

There was also another Edward Marston book and since I adored the ones that Ang sent me from the Elizabethan series, I grabbed it wholeheartedly.

Be still, my giddy-heart, another Georgette Heyer I haven't read!

Finally, the Barry Hines book intrigued me.

I also debated buying an entire brand new boxed set of 15 Horrid Henry books for the school library for £2.50 (bargain) but I had too many things to carry on my mile and a half walk home and wasn't sure if they needed any more so I left it. I now regretted it as the lady in the library said they always want knew HH's as they get lovingly destroyed too quickly! Alas

So, what a set of finds!

Have you had any guilty success recently? Am I the only one who gets the 'Charity shop flusters?'

xx

Vincent Van Gough's TARDIS

I am mightily ashamed of myself for missing TARDIS Tuesday last week. Alas, what can I do??? I was away and hadn't managed to wear anything TARDISy or post anything before I went. So to make up for it, I shall link up twice this week!

This week, I thought I'd approach it in a different way and channel it through an accessory. This was the most wonderful late birthday present from my sister-in-law and fiance.  The tote bag depicts the TARDIS exploding as painted by Vincent Van Gough. Seriously he did!  It was in a Doctor Who episode though, so the lines of reality may be partially blurred.
I've used it many times since she sent it, as a handbag, as a lunchbag, as an extra bag (because as aforementioned, I am the proverbial Bag Lady)

Linking to TARDIS Tuesday with Maricel.

xxx

5 novelty ideas for a novelty clutch

I shared my enjoyment of novelty bags recently, sharing my Watering can bag.   In a recent 10 things to do when you feel disheartened about blogging post, I suggested doing something in a different way to prompt creativity.  (I should add, I am not feeling disheartened about blogging, I just thought I'd practice what I preach) So..A little while ago, I thought it would be fun to brainstorm and try drawing some designs for some novelty bags myself.  I love being creative and trying to use my imagination so though it would be a fun activity and I certainly found it to be so.  Please note, I am not an artist- the skill, artistry, perspective and all that jazz on this lot are lacking muchly but I thought this would be an alternative method of compiling a blog wishlist!


The Peapod:
I like the idea of a pod shaped bag with a handle formed of large green beads. Either it would have a cartoon appearance like the New Look, made out of vinyl OR I wondered what it would look like it is was made out of sequins.  Covered in pea-green sequins, beads included. The bag would have a baguette bag shape with a zip across the top.

The DIY Speech bubble
This would be a flat clutch bag made out of shiny PVC.  It would have white poppers on it and it would come with a bag of alphabet popper buttons. You could then customise it everytime you wanted to make your bag look a bit different! I could imagine this as a quirky Fashion blogger's delight!


The Piano satchel
The shape of an upright piano is very akin to a satchel- the piano lid a bit like a flap so I imagined this would be a very simple quirky bag to make. I would have left this in classic black and white leather or even patent black leather but I'd lost my pencil sharpener by the time I'd coloured this one (completed last) so quirky pink piano it was!  The ultimate coup on this bag would be if you could have one of those terrible sound chips like you get on piano cards, so you could actually make sounds on the keyboard.


The Barrel:
I imagine this made out of classic brown leather with black patent bindings.  This one would be a SOLID-framed bag and it would unzip in a circular zip at the top and could hang off your shoulder rather undaintily.  This would look very apt if teamed with a dress with champagne glass  print on it. Or novelty cocktails. You catch my drift?


The Life-ring
The perfect accompaniment to any nautical-loving girl's outfit,  the Life-buoy (I'm an idiot, when I drew it, I meant Life-ring...) , with its circular (Cylindrical) zipped frame and tastefully contrasting rope handle would be great fun! It would, of course, be in solid colours rather than my artistic impression, it would have more depth than my picture implies and be likely to be made out of your typical New Look vinyl.Not sure how the middle would work- probably coloured black (or white) rather than being an actual hole although a hole might be quite fun!


The Steering Wheel
And if a life-ring isn't nautical or camp enough, then surely a Steering wheel would guarantee you a place in the navy! Again, this wouldn't have cutouts, it would have to be an image on a flat surface of the back but it would definitely be shaped around the outsides. It zips uptop and would be the perfect blogger accessory!



What do you think? If you saw this in New Look, Asos, Kate Spade or *insert other shop of choice", would you be tempted? Any improvements???

xxx



Coming soon to a fake blogger bag shop near you....
The garden shed
The roulette wheel
Typewriter
Dice
Dolphin

Linking to Creative Mondays

Novelty bag: watering the plants

My husband frequently tells me I ruin a perfectly good outfit by teaming it with an unsuitable, unstylish or ill-matched bag.  I usually ignore him but occasionally he has a point- sometimes what I add doesn't really go AT ALL. It just looks incongruous.   I don't really care to be honest.  However, what I DO love is a statement, novelty handbag.  I absolutely LOVE novelty handbags.  The number around has surged recently and I've spied many fabulous bags.  Kate Spade has an amazing, very expensive selection (oh look, they've got a watering can for £240!), New Look and ASOS often have classics and other places.   Blogger, Char at T-rexes and tiaras has a classic collection of fun novelty bags as does Louise at Polka Dots and Freckle dots.  Both their collections are brilliant to look at. The ultimate collection must belong to Pink-haired Princess,  Gem but I can't seem to find a post with all of them in it- follow the link and you'll see them in different posts which I've selected.

My trouble with the majority of novelty bags (at least the affordable ones. Irregular Choice have good sizes but too expensive) are the fact they are just TOO small for me.  I just couldn't buy them because I couldn't fit anything in them!  I would LOVE to own most of the ones around but since I feel the need to hoik the kitchen sink and several tons of garbage around with me on a regular basis, they just don't work.  It's like I am allergic to just carrying the essentials.  Any time I've tried to use a small clutch, I've ended up taking a second larger bag to contain all the other miscellanea that I can't fit in the first one.  CBC looked at me at a wedding last summer and said "WHY have you got TWO bags, Kezzie!?!?!?!?" - one small delicate one, bulging at the seams and a secondary sack with everything that woudn't fit in the first one! Yes, I somewhat spoilt the delicate look with having 2 bags! You shouldn't really add luggage to wedding photos really!

I am, I confess,a veritable bag lady, rather like the old hag from Labyrinth who carries round the world with her.

Anyway, that was supposed to be a short preamble into the main point.  I acquired this rather fun novelty bag a while ago, just before the start of Lent and the shopping ban/fast for Lent.  I'd seen it some years ago in Octopus and always wanted one.  The good thing is it fits a book, camera, phone, large purse, hand sanitizer, oyster card etc etc so it passes muster on the novelty + capacity test! I can survive with this.


I've been swapping between various handbags but decided it was time to give the watering can its outing. I look forward to the children's reaction tomorrow.
 At some point, I'll share the few other novelty bags I have, but for now- Tschuss!

See you all soon.
xxx

10 things to be thankful for: End of January thoughts

These photos were taken on Sunday as we set off to town after church to meet our friends in Waitrose for tea! We decided to have a nice Sunday wander before heading off to our friend's house for Sunday Lunch Club.
CBC's reaction when he looked me up and down in this attire was, "What on earth are you wearing? A random assortment of garments?" Yes, it does look like that but in my mind, they all kind of matched etc.  Just the facts ma'am:
Hat: had it AGES/YEARS intended as a gift for someone but I forgot who, so it lay dormant until I decided I needed to wear a navy beret that day.
Dress and Belt: Primark sale with Flapperdoodle collarclips
knitted waistcoat: Peacocks
Shoes: Deichmann
Socks: Jack Wills via Sophie
Handbag: Bailey and Quinn via Debenhams 70% off sale!
Black tights: Kezzie's anonymous black tights collection
Oh and several tops on underneath!



I've alluded to the January blues a few times. I and others have felt them, but I am thankful for several and indeed many things which I like to list.

1.  The fact that it hasn't snowed and I haven't slipped or hurt myself (once you've done this and broken something, you tend to be more nervy. Much as I'd like a snowday, I don't like the dangerous Aftermath)

2.  The events and occasions with friends: Sunday lunch club, lunch in London, Indian cooking course and others.  Having things to look forward to makes life seem better.

3.  I'm incredibly grateful for uplifting sermons at church that encourage and inspire me. I don't think my prayer-life has been at all diligent when I most need it and I am grateful that God has 'got to me' in other ways when I am so rubbish.




4.  A series of really, really enjoyable and enthralling books has given me that gleeful excitement that comes to me when I know that in x number of minutes, I can return to my fictional friends and immerse myself in their world.  Exceedingly grateful for the 6 Georgette Heyer books purchased for 50p in the charity shop!

5.  For my school children being relatively productive, enthusiastic and well-behaved, particularly when I am not feeling 100% smiley!  Some really nice musical outcomes and responses. The kids that sat through the entire ballet of Petruska on DVD on Monday and enthusing about it!

6.  For today: I went on a course about Artsmark, which ended up being a bit pointless, but I went with my colleague who I haven't chatted to much before and it was lovely getting to know her. She's only a year older than me, so this was great!

7.  You lovely, lovely, supportive, sweet, kind and thoughtful people who brighten my day every day with your wise words, encouraging words, complimentary words or empathetic words. You know you are great!

8.  A forgiving husband when I am a mardy cow!

9.  A wonderful return to swing dance classes last night- a great teacher, fun times, and getting to finally dance with the COOL teacher who we met 1.5 years ago. He's a dude!

10.  The fact that there are only 2 weeks until half term

Cute and quirky

I was looking at Midwest Muse's blog and she had shared a gorgeous fox bag she received from Sammydress (whose dress I had also seen on Sophie's blog) and then decided to go and have a look at the fox bag. I clicked on bags and there were STACKS!!!! I had a quick look through them and like the fox bag, I found a few really nice and quirky handbags. Not only that, they are really reasonably priced. Not sure where they are based- China or something from the models, I presume.  There are classic-looking bags as well as these funky ones but I'm all about the novelty! I probably won't be buying any of these. Unlike other items, I am quite restrained* about bags and much as I LOVE them, just feel that I need to have a versatile, moderate-sized bag which I can carry MANY items around in.  Plus I don't NEED one and I always tend to get rid of bags when I have too many (unlike dresses and shoes) so I don't want to get rid of any).  But a girl can dream, right? And admire without purchasing (Yes, CBC, I can do this!).  Plus, I've not ordered from abroad as I don't want to be stung by import tax. What's anyone's experience of it? I'd be interested to know.
Anyway, enough waffling, enjoy the bags.



Rubix cube bag  $7.00

A RUBIX-CUBE BAG!!!  I love rainbow things so I'd love this. Not sure how big it is, or how practical to wear. Are those corners sharp? Will I have poky-bruises in my side after running to the station with it on my shoulders? I'd love this one but willpower reigns.



Owl chain bag $11.85

owl stuff is always cute. This owl is cute. And a little wonky-eyed- like me!



Yellow satchel $8.56

I really like this satchel. It's bright and it has that 'jump out of paper' cartoon quality to it. Very reasonable and probably more the type of everyday one I need but how large is it?

The Cat's meow $13.23

Not that quirky, but I like the fact it looks like you are storing a cat in there!!!


Ear bag $15.55

Not taken by the leopard-skin (although it looks furry- cool, except when you constantly leave rotting fruit in your rucksack, it wouldn't remain nice for long) but IT HAS EARS!

Foxy foxie $13.23
This is the one that Midwest Muse had.  I love it!


Clock bag $9.53
Yes, I like the idea of the clock bag- feeds my Doctor Who habit. I always dreamt of having a shelf of clocks, like the Seventh Doctor before he became Paul McGann.   Would be even cooler if the hands turned!

So, would you purchase any of these?** And what's your opinion on bags. I just have to have a large bag!

xx
*In comparison to how I am with other items. Like dresses, shoes, tops, headbands etc.
** Can I just state that I am not encouraging you to buy. No, Char, do not click on that link!!!!