5 brooches and friends #65 -4 and 20 blackbirds baked in a pie.

Hello there,

How are you? Well I hope!

I have another instalment of brooches and friends for your perusal.

This cute little blackbird was from Rosebud Casson last year. I love Blackbirds so I really like wearing this one- especially teamed with Robins!

Yet more birds! I bought these from a cute Shabby chic shop in Writtle a couple of years ago- they remind me of soap!

My sister bought me this cute Erstwilder cherry lattice Pie-brooch for my birthday last year.  I liked it with this red combination.

The dress features Partridges and pear trees. The heart from Hello Crumpet has little to do with them except for colour scheme!

Last but not least, here is my pencil necklace, worn with my Cath Kidston pencil dress!!

Maybe not four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie but there is a certain amount of truth in the title of this blog post! 

Have a great day!

xx

5 brooches #54

Hello there!

I hope your Saturday was blessed with being a halcyon day of sunshine like mine was...despite the headache, I enjoyed a pleasant walk in the woods with CBC and our friend, then dinner in a pub and a silly film night.

Back home now, trying to catch up on broochage over the past month!

This pair of brooches was really awkward to photograph ON so I took the jumper off to photograph! This owl is my favourite of all my Erstwilder brooches- he has such a benevolent facial expression.  The heart is part of a pair of collar clips from Punkypins...

This set of brooches and earrings used as collar clips was from a while back... The earrings are charity-shopped and the owl and Niffler pins from Rosebud Casson and Hannah Hitchman respectively..

The Perfect pin badge came from Primark as part of a set of £6 pins reduced to £1 for the lot. I ended up with two sets so i wore them as collar clips.

Bit of a Doctor Who, Clara Oswald cosplay here as these are the genuine screen accurate collar clips she wears in 'The Caretaker'.  I've liked them for a long time but not bought them. It was only when Lady Bird Likes' Zoe Bateman announced she was closing her brand and selling off what was left that I saw it was my last chance to get them! And at only £6.00 in the closing down sale, rather than the previous £16.00, it seemed a good opportunity.  I have still not added a button hole to this shirt so I used a planet pin to make this blouse high-necked.

And that's your lot. I am aware there are not 5 brooches here, nor are there 5 photos.  Aw, well, this little series has its name, we'll stick with it, even if it doesn't do what's on the tin!

Any favourites here?

xx

Advent Calendar Day 14: 5 brooches and friends #49: Christmas themed.

For today's Advent post I thought I'd share one or two Christmassy brooches I've worn in December..

 First up are the Sprout lover and Sprout hater pin badges which I won from @hannahhitchmanart on Instagram- you can find her on Etsy.  She created these wonderful pin badges which go perfectly with the Sprout shirt I bought at the Christmas fair!

 Sprout lover...

 Sprout hater...

 The next duo are technically speaking, not Christmassy, but I always think of this jumper as my 'While Shepherds watched' jumper and decided to add a Wise Men star and alien in Spaceship to the ensemble!

 This lovely Mistletoe brooch was a surprise gift from the lovely Lisa at Jumble and Jelly. She sent me two Christmassy brooches. I've worn the other one but its picture is on my tablet so I need to retrieve it! It worked so perfectly with this top!

 Here's my Punkypins Snowflake necklace up close!!! I love its irridescence!

The Penguin and toucan aren't Christmassy but the little penguin is! He was a Charitypin from last year!

More than 5 brooches but 5 pictures (if one doesn't count the Sprout pin close ups as pics!)

Have you worn any festive accessories!!

xxx

5 brooches #45

Hello there,

Back to school today. I do love my job but that doesn't stop me feeling absolutely gutted when the holidays are over!

I will try to wear a jolly range of brooches over the following weeks- I do find it cheers me up knowing I'm wearing something a bit ridiculous!

This is a rather outdated set of photos- but I am behind...

Close encounters in the skies with this cute Erstwilder alien...

Any tourist in London photographs the buses with a big ol' camera! This one is purely ornamental- also Erstwilder...

Here's my Mockingjay pin (WOMOTM, see, it's just the same!) which was a lovely birthday present from Melanie at the FollyBird.  It actually lives on this navy velvet blazer as it suits it so much. Added my Tatty Devine birds necklace as well as that was too big an expanse of white skin with no necklace!

And the day before, I'd worn it for my orchestra concert with this delightful brooch (not shown in 5 Brooches to date but I bought it in February.) It shows a flautist, cellist and violinist which is a trio combination that CBC and I have played in!

You've seen Vix's old vintage shirt before in a previous post and here's the pea brooch I wore with it. This one was an Ebay 99p, free postage jobbie!

Any favourites here?  Have you worn any recently?

xxx

5 brooches #44

Brooches, brooches, brooches. Roll up, roll up, roll up!

 On this day for school, I was aiming for Pirate chic with a stripy top and a scarf round my neck.  The message in a bottle from Erstwilder plus the first brooch I think I ever owned, a parrot brooch bought by a family friend when I went through my parrot obsession aged 10!

I wore these cactus pin badges on my lapels but this was the only photo I remembered to get. 

Luckily, I just threw the dirty top on the spare room floor (slattern...), so I could grab it to try and take a slightly better (only slightly) photo.

 I've had this pearl leaf brooch for over a year now, purchased in a charity shop for less than a pound (possibly year and a half) but I have not worn it due to the fact that the catch was bent so I couldn't get the pin out.  CBC solved this by pulling it up with the prong of a fork so I wore it for my concert...

This is the Macmillan cancer charity brooch from this year, designed by Tatty Devine.  I admired Mum's and asked her if she would pick me one up if there was another one in her local M&S- mine didn't have them). She very kindly gave me hers so she would get another one. I paid her for it. Hope she managed to get one!

Any good brooch vibes going on for you this week?

xx

5 brooches #42

Ev'ning all!

Hope all is super with you!

Life seems to be zooming along at a chaotic pace! Another busy weekend with house-viewings and then a concert and rehearsal in West London!

Anyway, I expect you want me to broach the main subject (hee hee)- there's no new members amongst the brooch family this week, just the reappearance of old favourites!

My Sass and Belle Fox brooch was the ideal choice to accompany my Love from Hetty and Dave fox-collar.  

 The Erstwilder Camper Van was the closest to a train I could get to match my Cath Kidston train dress.

It made me giggle all day that my French Erstwilder lobster was hiding under my sleeves all day !

He's behaving better now1

Last but not least, here was my pretty Lapin du Matin music brooch that my Deputy Head teacher bought me for my birthday! It didn't photograph on so well, so I took the picture at the end of the day.

Any favourites here?

xxx

5 brooches and friends #38

Evening, evening!

Hope that you are all well! 

I'm so sorry, this is a rather harried post as I have been away and out all weekend. We went to a wedding in Brighton and I've been helping my friend Lara at her first craft fair today.  Here's just a quick post as I feel compelled to post!

 Cloud avec bird. This cloud doesn't just have a silver lining- it is swathed in silver!

 I am SO excited to finally own this brooch! I have been in love with this Erstwilder brooch since about January (or whenever it was released which was DEFINITELY before my February birthday!). My sister finally got around to ordering me a brooch for my birthday and it was this one!!! Yay! Totally accidently teamed with a cherry dress. Twas not planned!

 Glittery teapot on Orla Kiely teacup dress!

 I absolutely fell in love with this 'I love crafty' x Pony people cat ice-lolly necklace!  SUCH a clever design!

Added this swallow brooch to my Closet London dress for the wedding on Friday as the dress is rather plain (and boring) and you can't really wear a necklace with the turned-over collar so a brooch it was!

Have you worn any brooches recently?

Do share if so!

I will come and visit asap!

xx

5 brooches #29

Hello there!

Interrupting long German-holiday reminiscences transmissions with some frivolous broochery.

This tin Peacock butterfly pin is a delight to wear as it is so light, thus it doesn't drag on a top. It was from Re in Corbridge.  The little cloud pin, I'm not sure! Oh that's my Ladybird likes Typewriter key necklace up the top too!

Happy Erstwilder owl pin. I really loved this brooch for ages so when I saw it at the start of May, I used some late birthday money from my dad for it. He liked his 50 shades of Aqua background.

This rosewood recorder brooch is one of my oldest and one of my favourite brooches. I've had it since I was about 11 and it is an actual working recorder made by a proper recorder maker. You can just about play Merrily we roll along on it, it being so small! My Mum bought one for my sister and recorder teacher too. My recorder teacher still wears hers now!

This little acrylic dog pin went well with my dress!

And here, I wore the little Book owl again!!

Have you worn any brooches recently? Any favourites here?

xxx

Tea towel club

When I see our girls wearing those cute gingham school dresses, I remember the happy times of primary school summers when I could wear one of those pretty, cool dresses for school. Twas a happy time. I know, for some people, that school was not a happy time. But, for me, school was always happy. I cried when I got things wrong or couldn't understand something, but on the whole, I regard my school days, particularly primary as wonderful times. We had the most amazing school field. It was absolutely enormous- vast stretches of grass with trees around the fence.  Our favourite trees were the weeping willows- there were two of them that were leaning downwards forming a canopy/tent. My friends and I seemed to spend all lunchtime playing in there. I wonder, if any other children ever got a look in, because it seems like we were always there!  Even now, when I go past my old primary school, I smile upon it and recall a myriad happy times.

 Seguing into this dress.  We always used to say we were the tea towel club wearing our gingham summer dresses and when CBC bought me this Lindybop dress (that I had admired for well over a year but resisted buying when it was back in stock), I was put in mind of our school dresses. It is every bit as lovely as I imagined, comfy,cotton, pockets. All the good things.  It seemed appropriate to wear with this Erstwilder book owl brooch.   I really liked this design for ages- it is Harry Potteresque and fun, yet sweet. The owl has really benevolent eyes. I bought this with some birthday money from my Dad

Summer- times of cotton dresses and bare legs- no wrestling with tights in the morning! Hurrah!

Hope all is well with you.
xx

Lindybop Lindyhop lobster

Good Evening, Villagers!

Hope all is well with you.

I generally dislike Wednesdays (mostly due to just ONE class grrrr) but this was one was quite fun.  After an awkward start with a class (one horrid child) they managed to pull it together and perform well as did the other year 4 class. In Singing assembly, because it is Shakespeare week, I taught the kids to sing Henry VIII's Pastime with good company, which we accompanied with our timpani playing a drone ostinato that set it off remarkably well. Survived the horrid class and had a good one (except WHY will they always try to cheat in Music Vocabulary Bingo. There's always ONE!) and then after school I did a Tudor Dance one-off session for years 3-6. Had about 24 children which was a nice number. Most of them had done in it year 4 when I taught them but there were about 7 year 3's as well. It worked really well. We learnt Branle des Lavandieres and a simple, but effective, dance to Pastime with Good company.    It made for a jolly end to the school day. 

CBC and I went swing dancing almost two weeks ago and it gave me a chance to wear my Christmas present from CBC- a Lindy Bop dress. I love it when someone buys me a dress! Yay!

I got the idea to do red accessories from Louise at Polka Dots and Freckle Spots who wore a similar dress with red. Charity-shopped red Monsoon cardie, George dalamation spot shoes and Erstwilder brooch plus a hair flower.  We tried to take pictures out a the Kursaal where the dance was. It was the 7th Anniversary of JiveSwing teaching in Southend so it was really nice to go along and celebrate that.   All the photos or nearly all were rubbish at the Kursal apart from this one

...which was still dark and grainy!

So you get some photos from my entrance corridor to my home with its speckled wallpaper, doormat and vanity case!

Hope all is well with you.
xxx

1 more get-up...

5 brooches #24

Hi y'all. Ha, I love it when you leave great big comments in relation to a post- that was a great lot of cake-related comments! I'm glad to know I have company in the dislike of certain cakes!

It feels like only yesterday I was doing my weekly brooch post but it was a week ago- it's just I've missed posting a bit.

Into the fray!

 My home-made kitty from Shrink-plastic was originally made for a Doctor Who cosplay for Colin Baker but he likes to hang around with the big kitties too! He's featured in 5 brooches once or twice before!

 This was the top half of wore at the Royal Albert Hall (all other shots were terrible).
The pins were very relevant.
The 2000 one was from the same festival as this Tuesday but in the year 2000 so we were all given pins to commemorate it. I played viola in that one as a guest player.
CBC left the Green ''Music' pin badge on the mantlepiece at our old house for well over a year so I figured it was time to take it off his hands. I think it's from his school.  The one down the bottom is hard to see  as it has red reflections all on it, but I've had it since I was about 8 and it was the logo of our music school (the same one as runs the Albert Hall festival).  Definitely retro pins here!

The last one is my latest Erstwilder one. I bought this with some birthday money. I was delighted to find an amaaaaaaaaaaaaazing jewellery and brooch shop near Nottinghill Gate tube (it was like Aladdin's cave- literally heaving at the seams from all the jewellery) and I spotted a tray of Erstwilder brooches in the window! It was so nice to see and touch them in person! I've fancied a Camper van for a while!

Have you sported any brooches this week or seen any fab ones? I'm not sure if I've seen any (it's been a long week!)

I really should go to bed but I promised one of our lovely year 6's that I'd try and transcribe this religious song for her onto recorder as she wants to play it in a competition in September. It's surprisingly challenging to do- a) because I need to transpose it into a playable key on the recorder- the actual pitch is really awkward, b) quite tricky rhythms c) all sorts of little decorations and pitch-bends in the voice that it is very hard to represent in written music.  She's patiently come to me on 2 consecutive Fridays to see if I have done it yet but I've been so busy I haven't. As it's the last Friday I can see her for a while, I need to get something done. I'm up to bar 50, 2mins and 20 seconds out of a 5 minute piece (AHRGH!) and it's almost 1am!! I think I'd better just give her a bit and try to go back to her.

Hope all is well with you!
xx