The Austere Academy.

 When I was at both primary and senior school, my uniform involved navy.  Navy cardigan, navy school skirt, navy blazer.  Thus, when making sartorial choices, navy was a somewhat no go area in my vocabulary.  My little sister feels the same about brown- that was her uniform.

Yet, bizarrely, in the last year or so, I really have gravitated towards it.  Just taking a look in my wardrobe, I have several dresses with a navy background, albeit, mostly with a fun print, like my Poppy England (now Bryony and co) dress.  Two navy print shirts/blouses are those I wear most at school- heart and balloon print.  I wonder why?  Is it now that I am almost 20 years away from having had to wear that uniform (in sixth form, we didn't have to wear uniform), that now it is ok?


I'm really curious to know- do you avoid your school colours at all?

Looking at this outfit, this Closet London dress essentially looks a bit like a school uniform pinafore dress, rather austere and puritanical you may think. I'm inclined to agree.

I picked it up in my beloved boutique Kush, which was a boutique in my home town who I bought clothes and accessories in for 17 years.  It closed for the last time last week due to the owners retiring. They sold Closet London dresses so most of those I wear come from there. This dress was £5 in their final day sale so I took a chance on this thinking that it was the ideal base for pretty shirts, brooches and fun tights.

I tried to take away from its schoolish tendencies by the addition of this vintage print shirt (check out the dagger collar!), dog brooch, bright green tights and metallic oxfords! Oh and electric guitar earrings.

Do you think I managed to make it from Schoolgirl to something a bit more fun or are you of the same opinion as me that it still needs something.

I'd be intrigued to know.

P.S.  I have a little giveaway running- see my Saturday post- feel free to enter if you wish!

Who can guess where the title comes from? No googling!

Linking with beautiful Patti at Visible Monday

The feline symphony orchestra

My Mum came over today (Sunday) after I was at church.  We went for a walk in the park together which was lovely. She's so knowledgeable about trees and plants.  It was also nice to talk to her about house woes.  She's also a very willing blog photographer.There is possibly an answer to my prayers regarding the house situation- I'll tell you a bit more when I know more, see if it works out.  

I love this Miss Patina shirt I bought in November- it's so fun- as a music teacher, it's my perfect item! I just wish it wasn't handwash only! We all know that means it will spend ages in the washing basket!

(the trousers were charityshopped around a decade ago, hat is from Accessorize,boots from Clarks, brooch and handbag are handmade!)

As we walked through the woodland in the park, we saw this huge rootball! It's enormous! I'd love it if we could see the networks of roots of trees underground like we can see roads on Google Earth- I bet it would be an interesting story!

xxx

Linking to Creative Mondays with Claire Justine and Visible Mondays with Patti

A treasury: cakes, cats playing instruments, food, jumpers and Doctor Who!

Hello there!!! Hope all is well with you!

I thought I'd do a little summary of some random pictures and things that don't really make a post by themselves! A bit like one of those instagram sum-up thingies!

 Went to my niece's 6th birthday party! Lovely to see all, or most of my family altogether!  Here I was with my sister, looking lovely in polka dots, my beautiful niece, resplendent in white lacy flowers and me in er- THAT Miss Patina cat blouse and TARDIS blue tights and skirt!

It would be lovely to have a really nice picture of it up close so you could see the cats really nicely and the collar but that double chin business happened as usual! So I've cropped my chin out!!!

My Mum has created magic in cake-form again- here was K's Cinderella birthday cake!

 Let's have a look at that sparkly dress up close!

 She also made one that we could cut on this day as the Cinderella one was for her birthday party this weekend!

 There were also cupcakes galore! I also took home a big parcel of food which served as lunch for two days!

 My niece is learning the flute (she started this term) so it was nice to see her flute. I played for her which she really liked although I'm not sure everyone at the party appreciated my playing! ;-)
It was quite funny showing people how to blow it properly though as everyone wanted a go and I think I helped them to improve their tone, especially my brother-in-law! I played Star Wars themes for him!
Oh yes, she was given a Dorothy dress for her birthday by someone so that's why she changed!

 Onto other random things:  Wearing all the foxes! Had a break from brooches!

 Oh and CBC has a light-sabre app on his phone- it does the noises when you brandish it as- er, a lightsabre!

 I nipped into town after work and saw some pretty decorations already up in the shopping centre.
Does feel a bit like a Christmas wormhole with the bauble being sucked in!

 And here's the front view!

 I like the observatory-style roof!

 And a lower view!

 It's definitely become hat weather again- I cannot cope without one now! I decided that leopard looks a bit like dalmation!

 My favourite food in Indonesia was Tempeh so I was chuffed to buy a tin of tempeh curry in the health food shop. It was delicious! I added veg and rice.

 MMmm, tempeh...

 And made a really delicious vegetable pasta with chilli-flakes. CBC thinks I am now obsessed with chilli flakes (perhaps I am!)

 Oh and my Mum sent me some more cake pictures- I thought I'd show you three cool ones!
Who wants a ballpool cake!?!?!

 And here was my 3rd birthday party cake. Yes, er, that would be a bathroom with toilet.  Yes, I was a bit weird.  I had an obsession with toilets. I HAD to see the toilet in every house I visited and so my Mum made me a toilet cake complete with blue food dye in the loo!!!

 And for my crafty friends, how about wool balls in icing!?

 And there sits fair Rapunzel in her tower!

Ok, so here is the geeky Doctor Who bit where I say what I think about Doctor Who- feel free to skip onto the comments section if you please!
So... I think that Clara was the intended target all along.  When Ashilda first greeted her in the episode, she said, "You are as beautiful as all your photos!"- what photos?  Who took these? Certainly no one in the episode she met Clara in.  I can't help but think that it was intended that she sacrifice herself.

The fact that they kept saying, "Don't run, they always run!" about those who face the Raven and Clara didn't run seems significant. I think that the irrepressible Missy, AKA the Master will have something to do with all this and will be in the finale- I think she arranged it all- she hated Clara and also, in the Series 9 trailer, there is a scene where Missy opens her eyes slowly looking like she is staring at something in an amazed fashion which I am almost certain we haven't seen yet in the episodes she was in (you can see it in the trailer at 0:45) so she will turn up in the finale.

I know Clara will turn up in the finale- but I'm actually not sure if that is the REAL Clara or it is one of the Clara splinters and she'll end by telling him, "Run you clever boy and remember...."

As for the Lady Vintage Competition-   I somehow feel it is a bit impossible for me to win it now, I've got 174 likes which is amazing but sadly the pretty Flamingo girl has 289 likes- ahrgh!! But good for her!
I'll include a little plug for it again just in case though!
PINK ALERT:
P.S.
In case, you missed it, I have entered Lady Vintage's Hall of Fame photo competition with my outfit and I would be SO grateful if you liked my outfit out of those who have entered enough to give it a like on Facebook.   If your husband, boyfriend, cat, dog or significant other felt so inclined to take a look too, (like a few have!), I would be very grateful!  Especially as I am now 100 behind the leader!!! Waaaaah!!!!
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.864013323713000.1073741877.144939495620390&type=1&l=8c4891a181

If you wanted to share the album too, I wouldn't be adverse to that!!!




What's happening with you then?
xxx P.S. Linking to Passion for Fashion with Rachel the hat Linking to Creative Mondays with lovely Claire Justine and Visible Mondays with wonderful Patti! I will wear what I like with Catherine at Not dressed as lamb And finally,the brilliant Passion for Fashion on Friday with Rachel the Hat

TARDIS Tuesday does the Sound of Music!

Howdy there folks!

Technically, this will end up as TARDIS Wednesday but how sadly unalliterative! 

Sometimes, I will put an outfit on and know it looks horrible! This morning, I knew that today's TARDIS Tuesday wouldn't win me any style/fashion prizes but I always carry something through to its conclusion.  CBC took one look and me and said, "You are going to wear THAT???" 

At school, I was told I looked like I was wearing an Austrian traditional costume (Dirndl, I presume they were implying!). Presumably I resembled a horrid curtain-bedecked runaway extra from the Sound of Music.

Not my finest hour.

"But..." you gasp, "What does this have to do with Doctor Who????"

Come closer and I shall tell you.

 Let's adopt a snooty pose?  Familiar?
No, ok, then I'll explain.

The Sixth Doctor, Colin Baker, was my inspiration  for today.  He was in fact my TARDIS Tuesady inspiration a while back where I debuted my Ang-Almond customised Question mark shirt. His lurid coat has always made me think of my Vintage Madras-checked dress with its rainbow of colours and the checks and the crossover neckline reminding me of a waistcoat.   If it was cooler, I'd have added the aforementioned shirt underneath but it being too hot, I added a pussy bow blouse instead which is a nod to the bow tied at his shirt neck.

Image borrowed from Tansyrr

The best part of this outfit is one you can only notice close up.   Colin Baker always wore a cat brooch on his lapel. In fact, these were his own, not the costume department and was his own eccentric addition to the outfit. He had several.

In my recent experiments with shrink plastic celery brooches, I also made a white cat brooch as my second attempt. I was quite pleased with it- it's quite plump!

The final touch was adding these red polka dot ballet pumps from Primark. I've had them ten years and I adore them- I'll be gutted when they finally die.  They are a nod to the polka dot necktie as he did sport a red spotty necktie in later episodes.

Outfit details:

Madras check dress: M&S via Charity shop

Unironed pussybow blouse: French Connection via Charity shop.

Shoes: Primark 10 years ago.

Cat brooch: made by me.

Earrings: Cath Kidston

So...over to you. 

Are you sporting some cobalt (obvs called TARDIS blue), do you have a cat brooch or feel like attaching celery to your bosom?  Fancy doodling question marks over your vest or wearing a Clara Oswaldesque Topshop dress?  Then this is the link for you...

Linking to Claire Justine's Creative Mondays

An InLinkz Link-up

Little white one

One of these days, I'll tell you about the original, 'Little White One'.  About 2 years too late.
My neighbours bought an adorable little white kitten a few months ago. Ever since I saw her (apparently it's a boy but the 'she' pronoun has been too long in my vernacular regarding this kitty) first, I have adored the kitty but she/he was always a little shy of actually being stroked and would bounce around the lawn crazily but never would deign for contact.

Fast forward to a week before Easter, my neighbours, two along,  gave me a lift to the station in the rain and I discovered they were off to Canada for two weeks.  Little White One was being fed by the neighbours on the other side but was obviously lonely as she started trotting along when I arrived. Finally, she allowed me to stroke her and was adorably affectionate and enjoyed a cuddle. Over a few days, we established a rapport and she came running whenever made that kissy kissy noise that we humans seem to think our feline friends like. She'd follow me and even crept in the backdoor a few times.

On Friday, when CBC and I were on our way out to a friend's, she was walking across our lawn. "Baby!" I cried and she rolled over and then sat on the grass.


Having asked CBC to take one or two shots of me (yes, ignore the hair, I know!) , she ran over and insisted on being in the shots.

Begging and mewing for a cuddle...


Gazing up at me affectionately.

Until this last photo where she grew audacious and high-fived me!

This isn't the most interesting or amazing outfit but I quite liked the new blouse I ended up buying with a Sainsbury's voucher I had. I think it will make a nice comfortable alternative to my other black shirt/blouse. Also, I don't think my crazy skirt which my dear Canadian teacher friend gave me has even been seen on the blog.

Do you have neighbours with friendly cats!
I must ask what her/his name is!!!
xx

Update: His name is Prince!!!

Hiding amongst the Carp

Winterising a summer dress (well it's pretty thick fabric, so not sure how I'd like to wear this in the humidity) - how often have I heard that phrase in blogger world.There are people that do or explain that far better than me but you know, shirt under dress- boom! The end.

This week's Style Imitating Art was a Dong Ho village folk wood carving of carp, a Vietnamese artist.  The colours were the feature that struck me most strongly. Admittedly, the combination is a bit traffic-lighty but you know, bright and fun.  So, I bought this dress for my birthday last year which has a fish-scale vibe (Closet) and combined it with this mustard vintage blouse which has featured for Style imitating Art on a variety of occasions.  And some red shoes, bracelets and heart necklace.  Enough, self-explanatory  no?




Yay, on my way home, I popped into the COOP for some milk. And you know, ended up buying a few other things. There was a bag of casserole vegetables for 39p, a nice big bag.  How easy just to make vegetable soup. All I needed to do was mix up some bouillon (had it for ages) and add some chilli powder, mixed herbs some tomato puree and some very old red lentils and I had me a delicious soup. I didn't really have to do anything either- just keep stirring and mash the vegetables at the end. It was pretty tasty. Not bad for 39p plus a few bits! There's enough for another meal. I ate alone as CBC is pretty zonked and has vanished in his idiosyncratic way, to fall asleep upstairs.

If you're wondering about the monster pose- yeh, I didn't realise the painting was of fish, thought they were dragons. So, you know, I was doing my dragon-thang...

The day was GOOD! Wednesdays are hard, since I have a pesky year 3 class in the afternoon- they're actually enthusiastic on the whole but there is a subsection of 'slightly antsy' (I'll leave the description there) children.  Two of them were not in the classroom today and I TELL you, it was a wonderful lesson! They were SO good, got SO much done, worked so hard. They all sightread a recorder piece, reading the notation themselves and negotiating all sorts of repeats and D.S's (going back to the sign) - I was so happy with them! It was lovely to be missing just those two characters and it made such a difference!

Hope all you are well.

xxx

Mustard o'clock

Hi there!
Isn't it irritating when you buy something expensive and then the wretched thing goes into the sale for a fraction of the price! I bought this skirt with 20percent off but now it is about 65% of the original price.  BUT, unlike those situations where you have not worn it much, this skirt has been on me at least once a week since I bought it (hmmm, maybe I should wash it!) and I have a lot of clothes so this is pretty miraculous!


Decided to team it up in yet another new way (never worn it with same items and wish I'd taken a picture of how I wore it on Monday as it was much better) with my second hand vintage leg-of-mutton blouse, second-hand (but new) abalone shell necklace, turquoise beret, ubiquitous black tights and my other MUCH-worn purchase- Turquoise DMS.  This has been the week of trousers for me, except for the aforementioned Monday. I set out a skirt outfit EVERY day, but waking up late, feeling tired and grumpy- all I wanted was baggy woollen trousers and a novelty knitted jumper- cats, foxes, rabbits- they've all been out to play this week)

Have longed for the weekend this week. All week. Weary, yet had positive lessons, all of them so far this week: Stravinsky's Petruska recreation with the year 6's on Monday pretending to be Stravinsky myself at the start, talking like a Meercat;  learning to sing and dance a Polka song and talk about Erik Satie's Jack in the Box with year 1's; comparing Bartok (Bagpipes from Mikrokosmosen) and Bach  (Gavotte) with year 4 with 8 year old boys stating that they really enjoyed the Bach over the Bartok and giving cohesive and great reasons for it (interesting the girls preferred Bartok); year 2's who were making up their own lyrics for a song about baking cakes; Year 3 practising writing the pitches on a stave and learning to play Samba CA on their recorders. Now I just have Year 5 (writing their own sea shanties) tomorrow with one more Year 2 cake song lesson and a writing comprehension test. But I am still waiting for that weekend...


xx

(in case you hadn't guessed, this be scheduled!)

I water the shrubs only when dressed in a white lacy petticoat

Berthe Morisot
Young woman watering a shrub

A beautiful painting was chosen by Salazar of this young women watering a shrub. I could imagine doing a full-on summer recreation of this but alas, we are in the bleak mid winter.

Taking inspiration from the young gardener's attire, I wore this charity-shopped Select blouse with its white wafty neckline and black bow-detail and paired it with a white lacy jumper worn underneath for warmth (it being cold).  Taking inspiration from the muted greens of the garden, I teamed it with the charity-shopped vintage Aquascutum skirt, black tights and Clarks dove-grey leather shoes (great as they are elasticated so easy to put on in fearful hurry and comfy too)

To top it off, I added this watering can charm to my necklace and added my charityshopped green earrings. All in all, though not my usual sillhouette (I don't really do fitted skirts),it was nice to wear something different.


OOOh, I hit 100,000 page views today! I know this is titchy, but I am not visible in Googlesearch engines (my settings) and I don't really do any other social media promotion so this is kind of cool!!!
xx

New hats make me happy (as do Superman biscuits)

It kind of surprises me how gloomy I have felt this September.  Despite lots of very happy times over the summer, many really joyful excursions, the month just gone has felt hard. I feel absolutely ridiculous and awful saying that because I have a really, really blessed life, many opportunities and joys and this community here makes me very grateful for your support but somehow, I have felt a constant sense of gloom,particularly on my way to school, that I just CAN'T seem to account for. I love my job and I am lucky to have it plus the behaviour and attainment of the children so far has been excellent so I am not sure what it is other than perhaps the feeling of change and not feeling quite sure of my position and settled with a new Head and personnel. And they all, especially my Head, are very nice and GOOD people, so it's a silly feeling.  I guess it's the harbringer of the cold weather, who knows? A lack of sleep- could be? I guess I'll snap out of it!

Thus I am endeavouring to do things that make me happy. Ha, inspiration Monday this week features a tan hat! I naughtily bought a tan fedora 2 weeks ago in a 'I feel miserable after school, I'll just look in the shop' moment- it was the only one in the shop so I was glad to get my hands on it!

Alas, you get a grainy indoor shots and no denim jacket, though my polka dot blazer feels a bit like denim so this isn't too bad an interpretation I guess! Lots of colleagues and kids said...

Outfit featuring Tan fedora- Primark, heart-print shirt- White Stuff, Polka dot blazer- H&M via charity shop, heeled boots- Next Christmas sale, Trousers- ASOS, Collar clips- Flapperdoodle, earrings- market in France.

Cute collar clips make me happy too. Wearing them twice in a row for work. Shame I seemed to have put them on wonky!

I can feel my inner blog-programmer being annoyed at two outfit posts in a row but couldn't be helped. Thus, here are a few other things have made me smile this week too:

1. Adorable Flapperdoodle packaging. This parcel contained a collection of cute cards and postcards.
2.  A cool birthday present I got in February was this little tea-man who you open up to put tea-leaves in and sit him on the side of your cup with his arms over the side to hold himself there. A bit like Morph bathing in your tea!
3. When I asked CBC to make me some crackers and cheese too (he was making himself some), he used my favourite Tescos Deli Chilli oatcakes with goats cheese and then garnished them with radishes and coriander! Now that's what I call a chic snack! And excellent service!
4. A genius fundraising idea at church on Sunday for the church tower repairs.  Selling takeaway tray portions of apple crumbles. Just enough for a generous portion for two! I'd buy it every week if they did it!


5.  Admiring the Biscuiteers shop window in Nottinghill/Portobello road area.  Who WOULDN'T want a London scene made out of biscuits with Superman biscuit flying over head.
6. ...Or indeed a whole plethora of onomatopoeic and superhero biscuits as a thank you present!
7. Inspirational quotes at St Peter's, Nottinghill in the kids room whilst changing for my orchestra concert.
8.  Pretty coloured buildings in Portobello road.

9. Not-pictured- the school orchestra trying my arrangement of the WW1 soldier's song today and despite it having complicated rhythms and all seperate parts, they managed to sightread and play the entire thing and it sounded quite good in one session!
10. The KCO orchestra concert going well on Saturday. Didn't get nervous during my Belchazzar's feast flute solo (the 3rd movement is entirely flute solo) and it went well.  Got complimented really genuinely and nicely by an LSO (London Symphony Orchestra) double bass player!  Honestly, that made my day!
11. Finally, I played with the 1st Sunday worship band on Sunday at church- it's only the 3rd time I've done it and I really like them. I'm the oldest in the band- the others are all late 20's. On Sunday, I was feeling absolutely exhausted after a very late night and having to get up for church practice. We played various songs but the final hymn was Be thou my vision, the modern 4/4 celtic rock beat version (here's a good version) and we began from a pounding drum beat sung a cappella bar the drums and it built up through the 5 verses it getting louder and louder. The congregation really really sang out.  By the end, as we finished, I felt myself on the verge of tears, but happy tears.

Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart,
be all else but naught to me, save that thou art;
be thou my best thought in the day and the night,
both waking and sleeping, thy presence my light.

Be thou my wisdom, be thou my true word,
be thou ever with me, and I with thee Lord;
be thou my great Father, and I thy true son;
be thou in me dwelling, and I with thee one.

Be thou my breastplate, my sword for the fight;
be thou my whole armor, be thou my true might;
be thou my soul's shelter, be thou my strong tower:
O raise thou me heavenward, great Power of my power.

Riches I heed not, nor man's empty praise:
be thou mine inheritance now and always;
be thou and thou only the first in my heart;
O Sovereign of heaven, my treasure thou art.

High King of heaven, thou heaven's bright sun,
O grant me its joys after victory is won;
great Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
still be thou my vision, O Ruler of all.


Many things may serve to make us gloomy but there is always much of beauty, small moments, big moments, inspirational words, filling of the Spirit, a song, and occasionally a super-man biscuit that make the gloom dissipate!

xx