TARDIS Tuesday- Ranskoor Av Kollos

 Greetings Ma Dears!

Hope you are well! Have a choccie whilst you get comfortable!

Hmmm, today went quite well at school. The Year 3 class who were the last year's 'Most difficult class' have actually started to become the best class in that year.  For reasons which I won't state here, there's been changes in the class which has made all the difference and I am thankful.  Teaching them has really improved and actually, they are doing really well! My other 3 classes and drumming were also quite good and we got through all we needed to!  After that, I met with our Speaking and Listening lead to look at applications for our school musical of Treasure Island which we will be beginning after Christmas. We had 101 applications in the 4 days we gave them to return the forms. Now is the difficult part of choosing! And then the process of planning the rehearsal schedule!

We had a really nice weekend.  Sunday, after church, I came home to find CBC trying to get his new projector working. Ended up watching an entire series called Dash and Lily on Netflix as well as Death in Paradise and doing marking. It was all very cosy!

For TARDIS Tuesday I am featuring a look from the finale of Series 11 of Doctor Who Ranskoor Av Kolos which I last featured in March 2021 which was just after we went back to school after lockdown

Image borrowed from:
http://www.multiversitycomics.com/tv/doctor-who-the-battle-of-ranskoor-av-kolos/

Image borrowed from:
https://www.blogtorwho.com/doctor-who-series-11-89/ 

Image borrowed from:
https://www.blogtorwho.com/doctor-who-series-11-90/ 

As you can see, Yaz wears a simple look.  A green sweater under her All Saints brown/burgundy leather jacket, her Alex Monroe Posy Loop necklace, black trousers and, I think, her Dune boots.

Well, let's have a look at mine:

Well, for a start, I think taking outside photos has already improved this post from last time's inside picture.

I started with a sweater.  I DID, once upon a time, see a post that showed where the original sweater came from but I cannot remember as it was taken down not long after I saw it. I am guessing, that this may be the screen accurate sweater as she wore a Whistles Annie sparkle sweater in another episode in aubergine and there is a green version too. To me, seeing them side by side, I think I am right about this. What do you think?

Say a Hello to my familiar ASOS black trousers and my River Island brown leather jacket. They are frequent inhabitants of this blog!

I could not resist trying to recreate this picture! I grabbed CBC's school satchel -wrong colour but similar style. As usual, tried to recreate the hair and failed. My phone worked as an alternative to the pad she is carrying and I used CBC's waterbottle to act as whatever those things are in her hand and added a red and white blob to the picture! Ha!! Maybe should have tried to hold two water bottles thought I'd drop them!

My 40th birthday present was this beautiful necklace!

I wore this outfit for church on Sunday with an added grey cashmere cardigan underneath for warmth! Very glad I added it as it was a bit chilly!

Hope all is well with you!

xx

TARDIS Tuesday- Ace McShane from Battlefield

 Back in July 2017, I found a black All Saints wrap top in my local Sue Ryder charity shop which led to my very first TARDIS Tuesday featuring Classic Who companion, Ace, the teenager who travelled with the 7th Doctor. It was quite an easy outfit to put together and she wore it in Arthurian-themed episode featuring Jean Marsh as Morgana and the Brigadier! This was one of my favourite episodes as a child.

Image borrowed from this Pinterest. Original images belong to the BBC

She wore the black top with a green top underneath, fitted black trousers and flat black shoes or boots.

Her hair was worn with the sides lipped up and a green hair scrunchie putting the rest into a pony-tail.  She wears some sort or gold or bronze triangular earrings.

Gif borrowed from The Fashion of Doctor Who

It's been such a long time since I attempted this, I was worried it might not fit....

Here I am in ALMOST the same outfit from 2017.

That black All Saints top is now VERY tight.In fact, I could only do one of the hook and eye clips on the inner bit.

The ubiquitous black trousers are here again- I wore these 2 weeks ago for my previous Ace outfit AND the black Clarks boots. They are boring so that's all the text time they get.

Alas, the green vest top I wore last time is AWOL! I searched but have no idea where it is.... annoying.

What could I do instead?

Well, I did have a green t-shirt which was WAY too high-necked so instead, I turned it upside down and stuff the neck area into my trouser waistband and secured the bottom hem  so it looked like I was wearing a green top underneath... this admittedly did not help with either the tight fit of the top or the tight trousers but I think you will admit, it looks the job!

I used  the Gif maker at https://gifmaker.me/ to try and create the, "Aaaand BOOM!!" Gif from above! Couldn't really be bothered to move the table though so enjoy an array of waterbutts,buckets and watering cans behind me!

You can't really see them particularly well but I am wearing a pair of dangly Dalek earrings. Perhaps I should have swapped to some larger gold ones like I wore last time but I'm happy enough with it.I pinned up the sides of my hair and found my green velvet hair scrunchie. The pictures of the back looked rubbish though so you'll just have to trust me on this!

Christmas Day and New Year's Eve outfits

 Hi there!

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

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

Above....behold Christmas day.

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

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

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

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

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

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

What did YOU wear?

xx

Turquoise wings

 Aren't you lucky, you get 3 outfits this week!  I can tell it is getting warmer as I am more creative and having more fun with my wardrobe.  This outfit was worn 2 Sundays ago and I felt like I had wings or fins. This pretty green skirt looks like it has fins- it was a birthday present in around 2009-2011 from my Stepmum and Dad and unbelievably, I only shared it on the blog once, in 2012 here.  I wore it with this top from a brand called Sun and Sand. I bought it at Spitalfields Market when I was 22 and it was the best stall ever- everything on it was made of white cheesecloth with printed butterflies and flowers on them! I bought this top as it was so different from anything I owned. I still love it! I added a wooden Peacock butterfly necklace from the now closed Ladybird Likes and a charity-shopped turquoise cardigan! I wore it in honour of my Mum who came over with CBC's birthday presents.  Of course I cunningly managed to put her to work since she was in the garden...she helped me get some compost out of the compost bin and trimmed a few things! She took this photo!

I wanted to share a nice thing or two from today.

I had a student teacher lead the music lesson today. She did really well and it was nice to give her the opportunity. She's helping me with choir this half term which is so nice.  When I went to the classroom to pick the children up for their lesson, their regular class teacher told me that the British Bird poster that I had made for the children and put up in their classroom was really popular- a little boy, apparently, has been asking to go over and look at it every time he has finished his work and he seems really fascinated by it.  He told her that he's been looking out for birds and he'd only seen a Collar Dove before.  I told him to keep looking out for them.  The lovely thing was, that later, after my lesson, he and another boy came rushing back to the Music Room to tell me that they had seen a Chaffinch.  They were SO happy.  Later, when I went outside to fetch my next class, they told me a Gull had flown up in the tree.  

Another lovely thing was how hard the children in the orchestra had worked on the Tetris theme- considering we have only done it for 2 weeks, it sounded really good. I was so impressed with them- they had clearly all gone home and practiced!

I'm starting Recorder Club next week but doing it before school and I hope that I get takers for it as I needed to ask parental permission for it because it involves making sure they are there for 9am.  I had about 40 children who said they'd like to join it (in year 4) but I just worry about the parents responding as they proved in Lockdown, that they don't respond to things I send. It's free and they won't be missing proper lesson time so there shouldn't really be any objection but who knows how they will respond.

The caretaker showed me the work and developments he is working on in the conservation area and it looks so pretty.  I'm going to take some wildflower seeds in next week to plant in a bed that is there.  He's so lovely, this caretaker and like me, hates, hates, hates, hates waste!  We always gleefully egg each other on if there is some reuse or recycling we can do! 

Hope all is well with you!

xx

TARDIS Tuesday- Yaz from The Battle of Ranskoor av Kolos

 This week for TARDIS Tuesday, I wanted a comfy outfit for school.

I chose Yaz Khan's outfit from Series 11 Finale- the curiously-titled The Battle of Ranskoor av Kolos.

Let's take a look at it:

Image borrowed from:
http://www.multiversitycomics.com/tv/doctor-who-the-battle-of-ranskoor-av-kolos/

Image borrowed from:
https://www.blogtorwho.com/doctor-who-series-11-89/ 

Image borrowed from:
https://www.blogtorwho.com/doctor-who-series-11-90/ 

As usual, Yaz is comfy and practical in her outfits for adventuring with the Doctor.  Much more practical than Clara.

She wears her ubiquitous leather jacket (brown in this case) worn with a simple cotton-looking green jumper, her Alex Monroe Posy-loop necklace, black skinny jeans and her Dune Pacey boots.

And here's a very tired-looking me:

Every item in this outfit, you have seen before except the jumper and I have worn them all in my Yaz permutations.   The leather jacket is Clara's, the black trousers worn for every black skinny-jeans requiring outfit I've done for TARDIS Tuesday, my Dune Pacey boots in the black colour rather than her Burgundy colour and my lovely Alex Monroe necklace I received for my 40th birthday.

I don't know for certain where Yaz's green jumper comes from, but I bought mine for £3.00 on eBay and it's from Zara.  I DID see a post a few years ago about where hers was from but sadly, the person with the handy instagram deleted their profile so I can no longer check for certain but I have a feeling mine might be right.  

I was left with a year 6 girl last to be picked up today who, during lockdown, was sending me cheery messages all the time.  It was actually really nice getting to know her through those messages and funnily enough, one of the things she said to me is, "I miss seeing what fun outfits you will be wearing during our lessons!".  Now, of course, my main purpose is to teach her music (which she has said she loves) and to teach her to be a good and kind person and the best she can be, but it's really quite sweet that she looks forward to what I'm wearing too. The funny thing is, I had no idea that she thought that until she sent me lockdown messages.  Now we have some nice conversations where she feels confident to chat to me, because she wanted to send me messages to say hi and tell me jokes and anecdotes as well as her work.    Today, when we were chatting, I said to her, "I've got quite a boring outfit on today, nothing novelty!" and she said, "No, you always look nice."  

Her mum, when she collected her, said she really enjoys my music sessions and must have enjoyed having an extra chat to me.  It's so nice when we can have the time for a little extra conversation.

Anyway, that was one nice recollection from the day and from lockdown lessons so I thought it would be nice to record that for myself to read back over at some point.

Hope you had a good day.

Lingwood to Utling circular walk

2 weeks ago, CBC and I went to meet his old housemate N for a walk.  We met up in a place called Lingwood which is near to Danbury.  I won't bore you with loads of commentary but it was a wonderful and varied walk I would love to repeat.  I will add a few comments to the photos.

Gorgeous foxgloves.

 I liked the way the light caught on a few leaves in the woods.

Such vibrant coloured leaves.

The beautiful lock at Hoe Hill lock in Ulting. It was the perfect place to eat our picnic lunch, plus I discovered a wonderful place you can swim- not the lock but there is a deck and a river lower down that people were swimming in.

Beautiful views of the river Chelmer.  We went on a boat ride on the day after our wedding here.

The weather was glorious.

Double skies!

We came across these swan parents with a brood of cygnets.  They really are strange-looking!

 But they are very fluffy!

 This church in Utling used to be an idyllic picnic spot until there were issues with druggies so it's not allowed now.

More beautiful hues.

 Can anyone tell me what these flowers are please?

 I found my first blackberries of the year.

 Very close to the end of the walk, we saw this glorious vista.

At one point, we saw a swarm of bees had settled in this abandoned building.

My favourite Ox-eye daisies.

 The wheat is growing!

 We spied a den!

 I've not seen Pink Borage before!

 We walked through a field of peas.  Er....shh!!!!

 At the lock, we had the company of this friendly Mrs Mallard who curled up right next to us.

Near the bees, outside that abandoned building, we found wild raspberries.

 Final reflections on the water.

It was a glorious walk, one I would heartily recommend!

x

St Patrick's Day outfit

 Hello there,

I hope you are well. I thought I'd share the outfit I wore for most of the day (I say most of the day as I woke very late and threw on a sweatshirt which had a big stain on it, to wear to church and some trousers which I later changed out of).
CBC reminded me it was St Patrick's Day so I decided to don a green dress.  This sheep-print dress was made by fellow blogger Char (over at T-rexes and Tiaras) which I bought from her in a Wardrobe sale and it fits me perfectly.  I decided to wear it with a white collared vest top underneath.

On my collar, I wore 2 of my Irish pin badges I bought during my cruise visits to Ireland in 2016- a little Shamrock and a Celtic cross.  Boots, tights and socks to finish it off.

I confess to you here, that I have been very worried this week about something related to health matters, something bothering me for a while (I'm having some tests) and at church today, I was filled with such gratitude as I felt God's presence in that service. I was shown such love and compassion and support through both the sermon- about God's omnipotence, through the bible readings of psalms - particularly Psalms 89, 46 and  Psalm 91; through the actions and words of others, through the songs, "You were the word," by Hillsong and Chris Tomalin's "Good, good God,".  Be still and know that I am God was a song in a concert last night I watched and it was the reading today. I think that was God speaking to me. I confess that perhaps in part, I really have been thinking that perhaps I have failed on so many levels that God had given up on me but what a lie that is!  No matter what may come of what is going on, I know he is with me.  If you are in the habit of praying, please pray that what is going on is not what I am worrying about and that God will heal.  Perhaps I am oversharing but I believe in the transformative prayers of faith and I am sharing for that reason.

Sending you much love.

x

Style Imitating Art outfit: Pocket Flask

Hello!  How are you?

I'm back with another outfit inspired by art.
Daenel chose this week's piece:

Pocket Flask {The MET, public domain}

The blown pattern-moulded glass Pocket Flask were made in the U.S. between 1800 and 1860.

I do love this!! What a beautiful image- the glass shades so complimentary- the patterning, the background- all gorgeous!

 Here is how I interpreted it:
I started with this vintage checked shirt dress.  It has a yellowy beige background, orange and green stripes and beautiful green glass buttons.  Because the dress is a little too loose on me, I added an old brown leather belt which picked up the colour of my (men's) Brogues.

 To add a little more yellowy colour I added this Mistral cardigan (notice the nice criss-crossing pattern on the edge! Serendipitous detailing!). I saw this exact same cardigan in a charity shop on Saturday in a size larger- I did contemplate buying it as it would be nicer to be a bit bigger!

 My green abalone shell necklace seemed quite appropriate- I liked the circular shapes and these plastic green beaded earrings seemed necessary to add some transparency to the outfit.

What would YOU wear for this outfit?  If you have time to cobble something together today or tomorrow, take some photos and send them to Daenel at livingoutsidethestacks@gmail.com.  More details are on her blog www.livingoutsidethestacks.com.  You can head over there on Wednesday for the roundup of outfits- it is well worth a look at how everyone interpreted it!

xxx