Granny squared!

Greetings!  Ahrgh, 2 days back at school feels like a week!!! Mainly because there were train strikes on both days meaning I got to school at 9.30am and 9.00am respectively! Wasn't a good start to term having no time to get ready! That said, it wasn't too bad (except a year 2 lesson being observed by a student teacher. Went terribly- kids half asleep and annoying).    Lesson were fine and I had a nice first session of choir. We are preparing for our concert at the Royal Albert Hall and I thought I had 26 children but I've had a spate of late admissions so I am up to 32 now and they are sweet and enthusiastic. We started learning a really cute song in the style of Mozart called 'Alla Carte' which is a round.  As I was walking down the corridor on Friday afternoon, my favourite class (14 of whom are in choir...) were all getting their stuff. One of the girls was standing in the door way and I tapped her on the shoulder and sang, "Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart..."- to which, without missing a beat, she replied, "Had a lovely little Go-Kart!" whilst grinning at me! It was funny!

Here's an outfit to go with the waffle (and a glamorous shot of my dressing gowns hanging up)

I hadn't paired together this assortment of items before so I thought it was worthy of a blogshare.

You've seen the skirt before, just before Christmas- Indian vintage skirt from the charity shop- decided to do a Vix and wear my Summer skirts with thick things underneath. I wore it with a black Primark ribbed turtle neck and a fairly new purchase- a second hand crocheted Granny Square waistcoat from from Depop. I have been after one for a while but only wanted second-hand and very fussy over colours. It's lovely and cosy and great to add as an extra layer over a jumper or dress.

 It needed some fun coloured accessories so I wore my Nickat Sequin necklace and my Lorelai LQ bubble-envelope heart earrings (all her earrings are made out of repurposed plastics and materials and her site currently has 20% with a code HAPPY2023- she's currently having worries about paying her tax bill from last year so if you fancy some fun eco-friendly, colourful earrings, go and have a look- they are wonderfully light!).

I've achieved very little today- not really sure where the day has gone- disaster!!! So much work to do!

Hope that all is well with you all!

xx

Style Imitating Art- Anne Ryan Number 453

Hello!

Thanks for your kind appreciation of my cards. 

Today, I am taking a little break from TARDIS Tuesday, I will resume next week.

Today, I am sharing an outfit for Style Imitating Art.

Daenel chose this piece called Number 453.

Number 453 by Anne Ryan (1889-1954, Morris Town, New Jersey). 
Painted 1952. 
Medium: Cut and pasted fabrics and painted papers on paper, mounted on Howell Paper.
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/484518
© Estate of Anne Ryan

You can see the details above of this piece by Anne Ryan.

Being made of fabrics, it has a wonderful texture!  It has obvious colours but I struggled to think if I actually had any of these colours.

Then I thought of this rainbow checked skirt I have with a grainy texture. The colours aren't right but it's the general effect. A Chambray denim skirt matches the background blue colour- both items are charity shopped.

I picked out the navy blue from the egg patchwork in my leggings from eco-brand Thought and added these new sandals from Lotus which I bought second-hand on eBay which have an interesting beaded pattern which could be said to resemble a patchwork in a sense and perhaps pick out that browny shade.

 I WISH I still had the sandals in THIS post as they are made of textured patchwork fabric! What happened to them?

I added some Esoteric London wood and leather earrings because the wood and the silver colour seem to be present in the patchwork.

I am aware that I probably should have ironed this but since I was wearing it for a day working at home, there seemed no point. I rarely iron anything so why change the habit of a lifetime?

Head over to Daenel's at some point tomorrow to see how everyone else interpreted it.

xx

Rainbows raced around the room as he danced with me

This morning, I saw my Marks and Spencer Vintage Madras check dress (charity-shopped) falling out of my  dumping pile clothing basket and decided it would be a good choice as a floaty item of clothing on a hot day!

I decided I wanted to embrace the rainbows today!

I folded down the top of the dress into the skirt and then added a turquoise button vest top (I think this came from Lidl when I was too sweaty on my way up to orchestra from school)

Today, I was all about the embellishments.  My earrings are actually made from plastic drinking straws!  Lorelai LQ makes her jewellery out of single use plastics that would otherwise be chucked away.  Do they look heavy to you?  They are SO light- I can barely feel them!

A starry rainbow necklace from The Crafty Anteater and a wired headband from Primark.

 Let's not forget the rainbow shoes!  Did I ever tell the story of these shoes?
I was going to play at CBC's school concert and I asked him to take my viola case and my black clothes and these shoes to change into for when I got there.
When I arrived to his school and took my things, I could only find ONE of these shoes! I was perplexed. I was certain I'd put it in the bag but no, it wasn't anywhere to be seen.
When I went onto stage, I had to go on in my black-socked feet as the shoes I'd worn to school were brightly coloured.

When I got home, I still couldn't find the other shoe.
When CBC got to school that day, he discovered my shoe, looking very bedraggled and muddy after a night in the rain, on the path to the school entrance!

Mind you, I think my black-socked solution was better than what the leader and co-leader did in an orchestra I used to play with.

It turned out that the leader had forgotten his black shoes.  I should point out, this concert was at St John's, Smith Square in Westminster- a very large, impressive venue, where the audience looks up to a stage where the orchestra sits.  And, the leader of the orchestra always walks on  to stage alone, whilst the audience look on applauding.

What was their solution to this difficulty?

The Co-leader lent him one shoe.

They both wore ONE shoe!

Right at the front of the orchestra, in the direct eye-line of the audience.

And the leader walked onto stage with one shoe, limping slightly from the difference in height.

I am quite sure there were BETTER solutions than that!

I hope you are well.

I am off to school for the next two days.

At the moment, I am only going into school 2 days a week as, whilst there are enough adults for the bubbles, my deputy head wants to minimize my travelling on public transport which is really kind.

Another day this week, I think I might share a summary of all the times I've worn this dress as I think I've worn it in quite a few creative ways!

xx

Everything's coming up Roses.

It seems ages since I have done a non-TARDIS Tuesday outfit post and yet it is only 10 days!

It's funny how an outfit can come together through one element. 
In this case, a pair of earrings.

I was given these pretty rose embroidered tassel earrings by my work colleague as a Christmas present and I decided to wear them to go with this red shirt.

 Then, I thought of 3 Rose brooches I had and then the outfit came together.

 I added my charity-shopped denim skirt (worn many, many times since acquisition) and leggings because I seem to prefer them to tights.  I wore my Dr Martens and then decided to add my Burgundy leg-warmers to add extra warmth!  It was a good ploy- they are very cosy!

It's funny how that occurs, isn't it?

Have you ever begun an outfit with a pair of earrings?

xx

TARDIS Tuesday- Bill Potts in Knock Knock- Take 2

Hi there!

I hope you are well.  I have had a LOVELY day which I will write about soon only it is TUESDAY and we all know what that means on this blog!

TARDIS Tuesday!

Today, I thought I'd have a go at cosplaying Bill Potts, the most recent Doctor Who companion (apart from the new ones announced for Jodie Whittaker!)

I've actually done this one before- sort of!

It is a briefly-featured outfit from Series 10 scary episode featuring David Suchet, Knock, Knock, in which Bill gets some housemates and moves into the ultimate spooky house!

As she goes to the Estate Agents with her pals, she sports this casual outfit.

I took these photos as I watched it last week so the quality is not great!

She's wearing a Grey vest-top with a French Fries logo, blue jeans, black belt, black cord necklace, a mustardy-coloured tied hair ribbon and some earrings featuring dangly beads, blue feathers and the hippy Peace sign.Oh and she's also wearing some flat black lace-up shoes which I couldn't get a picture of.

As I said, last time I vaguely attempted this, I saw it and thought I had items in my house that would work for it.

BUT, today was HOT and I had planned this outfit.  There was NO way I was going to be wearing jeans (and let's be honest, that's a bit of a rarity anyway!) so I decided to put my own spin on the outfit- making it a bit more girly and summery.

 It's pretty similar to the last time I began this but with more detail.
I wore a grey vest-top I bought from Lidl a few years ago when I needed a change of clothes urgently (I always find much-loved items from those moments!) and added to it the Topshop chips patch brooch which was a sale item a few years ago (it came in a pack of six).

I have this mini-denim skirt (also charity-shopped) which I thought was a nice substitute to the jeans and wore a vintage belt of my Mum's (I think!)  and wore some blue suede lace-ups from Aldi (also an emergency purchase when at my Father-in-Law's funeral day, I discovered that all I had with me were Doc Martens!)

 Detail-wise, I remembered this mustard polka dot wired hair-tie which I bought a few years ago. I love these and have a few of them. They are good for someone who is a bit rubbish at hair.  Sadly, I actually lost this today at the seaside! Goodness knows where I dropped it!

The black necklace was a bit of a problem and I was rifling through several boxes  before I found this random bit of black cord that was lurking in a hairband box.

The final touch were the earrings.  These feather earrings were a gift from the TA who used to help me with choir about 7 years ago. I added 2 Peace-sign pin badges I got with a multipack.

And that is another 'Found in the house' cosplay-slightly better executed than last time.

What do you think?

x

P.S. If you would like to watch Doctor Who, all of the New Who episodes are currently available on BBC iPlayer and can be watched there.

Balloons for celebrations!

And so another year ends.  My eleventh year in teaching in fact. 
It's been a year of some really wonderful moments and some incredibly hard ones. Behaviour of children has been something I've felt myself getting very upset and cross about at the same time as being so overjoyed by the achievements of others.  It was sad that today was the first time I have ever had a year 6 where there were children who were utterly foul on the last day.
Saying Goodbye to year 6 is always hard. It was strange this time because there was a LARGE contingent of excellent musicians who were do dedicated.  I had this group of girls who were just wonderful- who took every opportunity with great joy.  I've had that wonderful year 6  boywho is, quite simply, the most naturally musical and talented pupil I have ever taught (There was another one who was Grade 6 violin but that was largely achieved by herself) and hearing him play the recorder this week in both the talent show and the summer concert was a moment of real pride and delight for me. When he performed Dvorak's Largo from the New world Symphony for the Talent show, he performed it like an adult. The delicacy of his tone, the way he moved and all the  ornaments he added to the music were so inately musical, he performed it as I might have done!

 I wore a charity-shopped Swan-print dress with a tiny fox necklace my work colleague's daughter had given me for my birthday and these massive balloon earrings which I bought from Lorelai Le Quillec who is on Etsy as part of her Kick Starter campaign to buy her own acrylic laser cutter. Perfect for a celebratory mood, eh?

 We had a lovely afternoon tea after school where my Headteacher gave very long speeches (about an hour!!!!)  about the 8 staff that were leaving.   I'm particularly sad this year because so many of my favourite colleagues were leaving and those who had been in the school a long time- some of our most dedicated and excellent staff.
The first was the lady who has been a year 6 teacher at our school for 17 years.  She is the most wonderful, humorous, down-to-earth person who managed to work wonders with our kids.   She was the teacher who, when I was spending 2 weeks at my school before I even applied for a PGCE, was the teacher who most inspired me. She was an acting Deputy Head when I came and Maths Coordinator although she stood down from both roles.

The second was my NQT (Newly Qualifed Teacher) mentor- she was my fellow year 5 teacher when I started teaching 11 years ago.  She is THE most dedicated, organised, clever lady, gentle, graceful and so kind.  She was so organised that she set me a very good example.   She is one of the few other teachers who were willing to teach year 6 as well and held the poison-chalice role of ICT coordinator!

The third is one is the teacher who taught me how to be an excellent Literacy teacher.  She joined a term after me but has been teaching for 35 years. She was our EAL Coordinator, SMT and we used team-teach on Wednesday and Friday mornings.  We talked about books often and her son was taught bee-keeping by my Grandfather as she lived in the same town as him. I really like her.

In addition, other crucial and integral members of staff left. It really does feel the end of an era.

 But, life moves on, despite my sadness and worry about how things will be without them. 
I have an absolute mound of presents, possibly more than I have ever received before.  Not quite sure how I am ever going to get through the chocolates!

I'll be back into school on Monday as my room is still a big mess, I didn't really end up with much time in my room today to tidy and the cleaners won't be able to do their deep clean until I have done something about it.  Tomorrow, we are going to look at a piano!

Hope all is well with you!

xx

Glitter box!

If there is one thing I am a bit of a sucker for, it is one of those Lucky Dip boxes where you get some mystery items, usually significantly cheaper than the items would usually be. I tend to buy one when I am feeling a bit gloomy. Bad... But I saw someone share the Glitter Lucky Dip box they bought from Gloriously Glittery on Etsy and I went to take a look, loved the individual items and well, when I saw there was one Lucky Dip box for £5 (and free postage) with 8 items included- well, I was willing to give it a punt!

Soo... what did I receive?

 There were 3 gorgeous brooches in there.
A glittery Flamingo, a golden teapot and a deer.

 Next were two pairs of really pretty geometric glitter earrings- gold pentagons and gold-tipped flue triangles which convey a mountain vibe. Plus some sort of Eye-liner thingies...

There were two cute little woven bracelets, one with a Fleur-de-Lys charm hanging and then a darling pineapple necklace.

Every item came in either a pretty organza bag or a charming patterned paper bag. The whole parcel came in a good strong cardboard box.

There was a beautiful little card addressed to me saying thank you for my order.

I really like the items and it was a huge bargain for £5 in total!
I've got my eye on the beautiful rainbow and cloud brooch.

Go and have a look- her prices are really reasonable!

How do you feel about Lucky dip boxes? Are you a sucker for them like me!?

xx

5 brooches #30

Hello there,

Hope all is well with you.

It's been a good day all in all but I am weary!!! I went for a run yesterday with a friend and my legs are reaaaaaaaaaaally aching now- so painful! It was good to do some exercise other than my daily 2.4 miles walk or the occasional swim.  Hope we can keep it up- at least once a week!

Onto the broochology...

 This Polar bear was from Tatty Devine. I received an ASOS voucher for my birthday and I bought this with it! Thanks to Madame Penguin for this!

 I've had this cute little badge since before Christmas. It came as a freebie with my Ladybird likes box!

 I couldn't resist wearing this with my Shrimp earrings and the pink flamingo outfit. Bought these from the Church Big day out a few years ago.

 Sass and Belle bluetit was perfect for this Dotty Perkins dress- so glad I can wear this for school now as I couldn't with my previous Headteacher as she also had it!

 Love my Dorothy brooch. I last wore this BEFORE the inauguration of 5 brooches I think! Worn with my Clara Flatline shirt!

Last but not least, Mr Pinchy, my Erstwilder lobster brooch- love him!

Have you seen or worn any nice brooches this week?

xx

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

It's Christmas jumper time!

Yo there! (urgh, such an un-Kezzie thing to say! I mean, could you ever imagine me saying yo? Well, look, bizarrely it happened!)

Friday was absolutely hilarious as everyone rocked up to school in their Christmas jumpers.  It was a fun sight and even the person who never dresses up and joins in with anything costumey or anything social also wore a novelty jumper!  My favourite was the Caretaker who had this wonderful bright London scene which had lights as well.

You saw my previous post gave some ideas for putting together your own temporary Christmas jumper if you wanted to avoid the cost or any other reasons but wanted to join in.  I had, however, already purchased my jumper, so I wore that on the day itself though I have been wearing my two 'homemade' ones.

This jumper came from Next and I bought it after my sister, who works there showed me hers. It transpired she was planning to buy it for me for Christmas but thought I might want to wear it before Christmas.  I did indeed, but I said to her I would buy it myself- afterall, even with her 20% staff discount, I didn't want her, a student, to be spending that much money on me.   I loved it for its simplicity but absolute bling-factor at the same time!

It's a great one as it is made from  100% cotton of the softest kind, it is so gentle and it's not too thick either.  The size 6 was this size which surprised me, because you know, it doesn't look too tight.



Decided to pair it with my tartany/plaidy/checkedy mini-skirt as it complimented the colours of Mr Ginger and added my Cath Kidston glittery star-earrings and Topshop necklace with Crown-and-glory holly glitter clip, navy leggings from a local shop and Ralph Lauren blue boots. I felt comfortable and me all day.


This Sunday, I wanted to wear it again (after all, not an all-year round jumper is it?!) so I decided to try a different look with it and added this charity-shopped polka dot dress, same leggings, navy ankle socks and Faith bronze lace-ups together with an Aldo gold sparkly headband to tie in with Mr Ginger again.


Again, this felt a comfy look but not too casual as I always like to wear something relatively smart for church and also for a house party we went to.


Decided to try to do some 60's flicks on my eyes which you can't really see but never mind! This shot rather accentuates me ears but ah well!x


After some good sleep on Saturday night (despite feeling like I was sleeping next to Skeletor or Slimer due to a rattly nose- unusually CBC has a lasting cold), I had a lovely morning at church.  The Archdeacon for our area came and gave a really inspiring talk and that woman has a lot of heart.  Then enjoyed some tea after the service and a kind friend brought all the Sherlock DVDs for me to borrow (as I've only seen 3 episodes and want to catch up!).  I then returned home to CBC and did some general relaxing and milling about before heading over to our friend's for Sunday Lunch Club.  There are seven of us and before we each hosted a monthly lunch and we've started it again.  We enjoyed a delicious Roast Pork lunch and homemade lemon drizzle plus copious cups of tea and chat.  It'll be fun to do this again- it's our turn in February!  Thai Green curry it is then?!

I'm feeling a LOT less grumpy than I was yesterday and thank you for your kind comments understanding.  I wanted to share that post because I know lots of people say I'm really nice and sweet (which is kind, thank you) but I am human like everyone else and I fail.

xxx


Linking to Visible Mondays with beautiful Patti
Linking to Creative Mondays with the lovely Claire Justine.

The green trousers of Seminyak

Vix has talked about the fact she loves the fact that her charity shopped or handmade items have a story to them. I feel similarly about many items I buy. There's always something or some story (in my case, probably very dull!) in my mind associated with each one, especially the ones I keep for a long time.

When I lived in Bali, I had difficulty with clothes.  I am fairly tall, but for a girl, by Indonesian standards, I am super tall.  I was also a bad shape. I am quite pear-shaped and I just couldn't get any normal trousers to fit.  I have never really felt self-conscious about my shape in my life, I am lucky but in Bali, I did feel a bit of a heffalump! My rational mind told me that I of course I wasn't but when your Philippine Artist friend jokes that you backside is blocking out the sun as you walk up the hill in front of them, you can get a little sensitive...


By normal trousers, I mean, standard, plain, every-day trousers.  The only things I could get were loud patterned batik trousers with elasticated waists that no one wore in Bali. They are the type of things tourists wore. I wore them and I really liked the prints some of them (the Javanese ones were not as pretty as the Balinese ones) but they did make me stand out as a tourist- and the shape was not flattering- they just made me look frumpy and they were too short (I have long legs).  They also ripped and got maimed by hand-washing (I had to handwash all my clothes in a bucket. I couldn't afford to send my clothes to a laundry and I had no washing machine) and often in embarrassing places (crotch!).

I wore sarongs for a lot of the time, but if I was going anywhere on a motorbike (riding pillion), I did not want to wear one as either I had to flash WAY too much leg or ride side-saddle. Ever ridden a motorbike on crazy Balinese roads with motorbikes full of 10crates of chickens and whole families with cars ignoring you side-saddle? Especially when your driver is your Balinese Gamelan teacher  who is quite large or a lovely Czech giant fellow student and takes up most of the seat? It's terrifying!

I just had to wear my trousers brought from England, now woefully scruffy (and also not breathable material) or these ragged, holy trousers (I tried to sew them up).


It actually wasn't until very late in my year of study that I discovered or even thought to consider a tailor.  My friend Katarina, a fellow scholarship student, had found a good tailor in Seminyak, Kuta and had a beautiful pair of trousers similar to these above made.  The price seemed very reasonable and so I thought of this beautiful green silky material I had bought a while back and decided to give it a go.
I went to him and drew what I wanted roughly, also pointing out Katarena's ones, asking for mine to be more wide-legged (I like my trousers this way) and left him with the material.

When I went to pick them up, I was SO happy. He'd done a brilliant job of them! He'd cleverly sewn pockets from the material at the edges/hem, lovely button and tie detail and they were comfy, long and different! Ok,so they would still mark me out as a tourist but I wasn't there for so much longer and why take back trousers that look like those you can buy in a shop?

Sadly, they are not the type of trousers I wear regularly in England- I walk most places and they are quite long so I am scared to rip the hem, but when having a clear out this summer, I re-found them (honestly haven't worn them for about 6 years!) and decided I should show them some love. I wore them for most of the last week of the holidays and they were delightfully comfortable.  They are the perfect trousers for a light, not too hot, not too cold day. And they bring back memories of a different time, different place.

I had a few other garments made after that, some remain  in my custodianship, others have long gone to other homes. But these were my first.

As well as a very old, very loved George vest-top, I added these earrings from Dubrovnik (more on Dubrovnik soon-sifting through photos makes me lose the will to live sometimes!).
We'd just walked the city walls and I saw this stall with this woman making these.  She and her friend made them from different coloured wires and I loved them. They were so different to all the other jewellery places and I can never resist anything in turquoise! Wish I'd bought the magenta ones too!


Ha, BAD photo but the necklace says it all. I DO love having this little space where I can waffle, reminisce, indulge in a bit of nostalgia and some lovely people ACTUALLY take the time to read it. I DO appreciate you all! Thank you for your love and care!!!

xx


Linking up to Fashion Item Friday with darling Renae and gorgeous Claire Justine when Creative Mondays comes around and Passion for Fashion with Rachel the Hat.  Finally, with Ms Papelicos- whose Share in Style celebrates trousers or skirts this week.

xx

Ear candy

I have a penchant for eccentric earrings.  Things that look like they should be something else.  Or something different or quirky.  My Scrabble tile earrings, Pride and Prejudice and Lego ones take pride of place in my collection.

At the Big Church Day Out back at Bank Holiday weekend, I came across a stall from a company called DIY beads who were selling beads and you could make them into necklaces and bracelets at the time.

There were all sorts of cool and fancy ones. But the ones that attracted me the most were the sweetie ones.

Pink Shrimps are one of my favourite sweets so it was inevitable I would squeak and reach for these ones instantly.   The bananas, eggs and love hearts followed in that order.  It was a simple matter to bend a jump ring and add them to it plus earring backs.  Really not really craft in my case or making but simply the opening and shutting of rings of metal! 

Thus, because I feel a bit of a cheater, here's something else I made- a card for a fellow blogger's birthday.

My sister has a really cool dress-shaped punch.  As a birthday present- she cut me a box of dress shapes in different patterned papers. What a cool idea- it cost her very little but was a huge help to me!
I layered the dresses upon 3d pads to accentuate the bottom half and then added paper-shredded strips and some punched butterflies.



Linking up to Ta Dah Tuesday
Creative Mondays


Super Handmade Sundays with Sarah:

In and out linking party with Cynthia