Fishy business

For work on Wednesday, I had planned a different outfit but then when I woke up, it was a bit more chilly than expected so I decided to swap to something long sleeved.  I had decided to wear this gold-fish striped shirt (bought from eBay a few years ago).  It's a bit big for me so I decided to tie it at the waist to give it more shape.

I paired it with this beautiful Broderie anglaise skirt from Kew which was a charity-shopped bargain of £1.50 last year! Leggings for decency during cycling

I suddenly realised that I had the perfect necklace to go with the shirt! It comes from The Crafty Anteater on Etsy

 In shoe terms, I had planned to wear a pair of Irregular Choice shoes to go with my previous outfit but when I swapped clothes choices, I realised I had a pair which might go with what I was wearing!

One of my work colleague commented on my apparel, saying that she adored my look! She never comments on what I wear so that was quite a nice surprised! I think it also helped that I wore my hair down to school which I virtually NEVER do!

Hope that you are enjoying your day!

xx

Vintage daisies

It's time for an outfit again!

I decided that it was time to dress funky!

I received this dress as a birthday present from my Mother-in-Law.  It's a vintage handmade dress which came from the Vintage Emporium in Hexham.  I always like to support the independent shops in Hexham and the Vintage Emporium is now a wonderful floor full of beautiful vintage clothes!

I'd bought one dress in there but really liked this one also and when CBC and his Mum were talking about my imminent birthday, I mentioned that there was a rather lovely daisy dress I'd liked.  His mum immediately said we should go there as she'd like to buy me something I wanted! I was happy to oblige!

On Tuesday, when I wore this, I decided to team it with a coral Esprit cardigan I bought an the airport in Croatia a few years ago and added my Irregular Choice star slingbacks bought from Char.

Finally, I added my Lorelai LQ peach earrings as the final touch plus a lovely necklace from Melanie Folly Bird!

Things that made me happy today:

1.  Lots of love for something I made yesterday and posted on IG. I'll post it here tomorrow.

2.  Rob Mills, who plays Finn Kelly in Neighbours, liked my comment on Instagram!

3. I finally planted my tomato seeds - in loo roll tubes

4.  Planted the Bluebell plants we bought two weeks ago.  It felt really good to get out in the garden in the early evening and do some planting and removing of weeds. It feels so good to get into the garden!

5.  Chatted to my wonderful friend Lara on the phone.

6. Planted some of the pea plants into a pot.

7. We ordered takeaway from our favourite Madeiran restaurant in town. Nice to support them in their difficult time of only being able to do Takeaway. It was really nice not to cook for the first time in 2 weeks and they gave us a carton of free juice

8.  I made delicious Jumbo chive omelettes for lunch- yum!

9. Watching Sunset Beach on Youtube.  I absolutely loved this programme in the late 90's! I love the person who has painstakingly uploaded all of Season Two in 4 parts per episode!

10.  A couple of really sweet comments on my school music blog today.

11.  Lovely email from Ang this morning! Must reply asap!

What's made you happy today?

xx

An Irregular Choice of shoesy wishlist!

I am quite practical when it comes to footwear generally. I wear flat shoes mostly, sensible boots. They may be in bright colours or sequins, but generally I am not wearing skyscraper heels or things that are impractical. I do,however, have quite a few pairs.  However, I do happen to own a few pairs of decorative shoes that are slightly less practical- I do have 4-5 pairs of Irregular Choice shoes- mostly these were bought in the sale  a few years ago.
In recent years, realising I don't wear them a huge amount, mainly due to the amount of walking I do (and cycling) everywhere, I haven't bought any more pairs. Some of them are just too out there and impractical in terms of heels and moreover, they are very expensive.
But just occasionally, I go and have a look at the website and drool over their shoes.  Normally, in the sale season, anything in UK Size 8/European Size 42 that I actually like is long sold out so the temptation doesn't get to me.  However, I saw some LOVELY pairs when looking today (there are many, many pairs, but they are ruled out for me quickly!) and they are all available in my size!

I thought I'd share those shoes I liked best! They are works of art! And relax, I will not be buying them- they are too expensive- but I thought I would share them in case you liked any! Or a mysterious millionaire feels like sending them my way!! Ha ha!

Mini McNutty

They are velvety, blue and have fluffy squirrels on them!  I love Squirrels!

Pico

These are fun glittery and rainbowy and look FAIRLY practical

Paco

These black boots look like my Dr Martens but in a more flamboyant design.

Rumba

I LOVE the rainbowy but with a prominence of turquoise/Kingfisher blue (my favourite colour!) and they look comfy!

Summer Daze

Similarly fun but pretty whilst being flat!

Shoreditch

These look very sturdy! I love the design, maybe not the pink!

Hopscotch

These would probably be too high for me but they are fun!

Dazzle Razzle

I do like the blue, shimmery material of these even if the bow is not up my street!

Total Freedom

These are glorious! Rainbow sequins that have a silver side also!

Summer of Love

These look very cute and I like the rainbow design.

Lady Ban Joe

More rainbow but possibly too high!

Curio Low

I love these shimmery Turquoise ones so much with the perspex heel! I would definitely wear these lots since I have lots of clothes this colour!

Build Bridges

More double-sided sequins with a more sedate colour option- black or pale turquoise.

Clara Bow

I ummed and ahed over this shoe design Clara Bow, last year- they had a black and gold pair in the sale in my size but in the end decided I couldn't justify £50 on shoes. I really like the design and the colour of these. Plus, they are called CLARA!

Clara Bow

This pair is most similar to the ones I was smitten with!

Little Lady Daisy

These are very fun and flat but I would wear them out very quickly- I am quite hard treading on flat, flat heels like this. So pretty though.

Dessie

I think these Dessie ones are the ones I would love the most- they are like my beloved Dr Martens but in a shimmery rainbow design.  I reckon I could cycle in these too!

Little Rainbow necklace

Finally, they released a necklace to match the Little Daisy shoes above and it is a comparatively bargainous price of £10.99.

What do you think of my choices?  Would you wear any  of these?

Images are all property of Irregular Choice. I hope they don't mind me promoting their beautiful shoes!

x

Style imitating Art: On the Road

Last week, for Style Imitating Art, Salazar from 14 Shades of Grey chose 'On the Road', a GIF for our Style Imitating Art inspiration.

“On the Road” GIFs by Chinese artist Oamul:

What a sweet Gif! I love all the flowers 

Here is the outfit I created for this inspiration.

Since the picture features a lot of green foliage and a bicycle, I chose to wear my Boden bicycle dress as the base item.  It is lovely and light and floaty for this warm weather.

To give a nod to the myriad flowers, I added this Magenta rose corsage and my Nan's flower necklace plus my oldest flower crown which originally came from Monsoon Kids Bridesmaid range!

The final touch was my Irregular Choice Bed of Roses Posie  shoes.  It seemed right to stand in front of this rambling purple shrub 

I did ask my Gardening friend what they were called, was it Cranesbill?  But, alas, I have forgotten what he told me so if your flower name memory is greater than mine, please leave a comment!

How would you have interpreted this one?

xx

Tweed and tigers and bees, oh my!

An outfit again?  Surely not?  But yes!

I occasionally regret buying these Poetic License shoes. They are lovely and really pretty and I got them at a great discount.BUT...given the amount of walking I do, they don't get worn much AND the mustard and, tweed and brown combo is one I find hard to wear with much!

Nonetheless, given an opportunity, I wore them! Teamed with my charity-shopped Tiger skirt (bought with Hazel and Sophie- yay, soon we shall have another trip!) and my mustard Mistraal cardie plus a black top, they worked well for a smart, yet slightly quirky church outfit.

CBC says this skirt is See-through but no one else has ever commented..

This month, apart from this one skirt, I am trying to wear dresses all month. It seems fun to do that since it is now Spring! Expect a round up of dresses at some point soon!

Mind you, how could I have let this Mary Poppins vibe go- that's one reason to keep them!

Oh and I wore my Punky Pins bees to complete the look!

Hope all is well with you!

x

That quintessential navy staple!

 That combination of red, navy and stripes really does put one in mind of 'Anything goes' and the seafaring branch of the armed forces.

 It's a funny thing but as a teenager, it was NOT cool to tuck in ANY garments- leaving them hanging out, especially school shirts was the status quo. It has purely been the influence of blogging pals and their immaculate tucking-in skills that reconciled me to it again after all these years.  It also served to marginally hide the lack-of-ironing!

 Today, I took a gamble with resorting to summery clothes again for school and it paid off as my cardigan was off within 5 minutes of class time!

I started off the day sans headache and within an hour had developed one and it was only later after being in another classroom and I returned to that year 4 classroom that I noticed one of those nasty plugin fragrance things in the class (or it may have been something else but it SMELT of one!).  THEY give me a headache. I really loathe them- the nasty artificial smell. I know kids can be smelly sometimes but I would honestly rather put up with 'wet dog wet-playtime stench' than endure one of those things.  My Mum made me a room spray purely with spring water and a few essential oils which was good although even that made me a bit fussy! Is it just me or does anyone else react badly to the fragrance-makers

 Gratuitous shoe close-up of my Irregular Choice shoes shining gold in the sunshine!

Hope you had a good day.
xx

Encouragement.

 Hello there!
I hope you are well!  I am writing after a very busy weekend and it is nice to sit down for a moment and type something here!
I didn't have time to get into the garden to take a picture of today's outfit and yet I really wanted to photograph it so I harked back to the early days of my blog outfit post where I would take pictures with nice piles of clutter in the background committing all those blogging faux-pas that all the pro-advising 'how to..' bloggers cite as a big no-no- letting the world know that actually you are a messy person who owns clutter.  And showing the evidence in your photos.  I admit it, I have clutter.  As I took these, the plasterer had just departed after being here from 8am on Saturday AND Sunday so yes, there is debris around. He was good though and brought his own hoover to hoover up plaster dust!

Anyway, to appease the clutter Police, I have super-imposed flowers courtesy of PicMonkey to try and trick you into thinking it is tidy!

 The jumper was one of my other purchases last Saturday on my birthday trip out in London.  I saw this jumper in Collectif in Christmas 2014 and loved it but didn't want to buy it at full price.  Thus I was rather chuffed to find it at less than half-price when I bought my sailor coat. It's 100% cotton which I am glad about as I dislike all these viscose/acrylic mix jumpers they all seem to have and the collar is very furry!

 Hedgehogs for your delectation!

 Oh and I alluded to another purchase which was these Corporate Beauty heels from Poetic License at Irregular Choice. I fell in love with them when they first hit the Irregular Choice site but couldn't justify them.  Somehow,when I went to see the Alice collection, I ended upstairs in the sale section and found these beauties in my size at less than half the original price!  They are so pretty!

Today, at church, a lovely young lady (who is 17 who is battling with exams, school shows, Grade 7 flute and general life) was asked if she could transpose several songs for B-flat instruments and have some extra rehearsals.  She was really upset at having to say no, as she had asked for the music specifically by a date (which has passed) and is so overworked at the moment (coursework for Art, Music,History, Spanish) and I thought that though there are so many people that moan about teenagers these days, me definitely included, that we don't always see that for every lazy phone-obsessed individual, there are 10 beautiful, hard-working, kind, caring youths, who take opportunities (Leading a worship band and writing parts for younger players in her case as one example alone), give their all and do amazing things.  It encourages me to see people like her and I was sad for her to see her finding it hard to juggle everything.  I really wanted to encourage her and help her out and so I've sent a card in the post to her which I hope will greet her midweek and cheer her up. She has an amazing family, but no matter what support systems people have in place, I think it is our duty to take the time to do something to encourage people, even if we are worried that they will think we are silly for doing little things like this. I'm not saying it so you will leave comments saying, "Oh that's so nice of you!" (please don't), but so you might take the time to perhaps do the same and encourage someone with a small gesture if you can.   "Therefore, encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing," it says in 1 Thessalonians v11.   It would be a nice act for this week to try and encourage where we can and that is my aim for this week. To encourage.


I hope you have a good week.

xx

Blanket cover

 It's been a long time since I wore TARDIS blue overtly.Voila, TARDIS blue in profusion!  I wasn't going to make the mistake I made last Sunday with church being freezing so I pulled out the big guns with this vintage blanket skirt. I wasn't cold. Result.

 And I find it hard to find things to wear these Irregular Choice, Poetic Licence shoes with so a minute bit of yellow was my cue!

 I really enjoyed church this morning.  We had a visitor from the cathedral who talked on going from being a disciple to an apostle.   I think one of my favourite books of the Bible is 2 Timothy which he read from.  It was the source of the first Christian song I wrote and even now, I read it and think of how encouraging its message it is.  Paul was encouraging a young Timothy in his walk with faith in Christ.  Encouragement is something really important to give each other.
Being an apostle is taking that step from following to sharing your message of faith.

It's so easy not to take the time to encourage, whether as a Christian or not.  You doubt your own self and abilities and it can be easy to forget to encourage other people in whatever.  Telling someone they are doing something well, that they can do it, telling them of the good things that have happened to you, and encouraging them in new paths. Telling someone you are praying for them, offering help and time.  A church friend has been a great source of encouragement for me this month in his family's selflessness in offering CBC and I a place to rent.

You here encourage me.  I think the encouragement that we as bloggers can give each other is very important.  Shamu, a regular commenter on this blog, has show through his poetry on his blog, that he has a constant struggle with acceptance and friendship in life (I hope you don't mind me saying that) and frequently shows gratitude for the encouragement he receives. Reciprocally, he is very, very good at encouraging people through comments, kindness and appreciation, even if his tights excitement is a little bit on the edge! :)  Lovely Laura, at Daisychain dream has struggled with eating disorders over the years, and I know as blog friends, the fact she trusts us to tell us of the struggles is an encouragement to us and we should encourage her in her journey.  Ally is finding her path presenting as a female and our encouragement of her in this is so important to building confidence. I've mentioned before, that Ally is a hugely important force of encouragement and good in the blogging world.  I could go on, but I suspect I will lose you. Every one I have come across in blogging needs encouragement. Encouragement to continue, encouragement for energy, for time and for struggles they have encountered. It is a privilege to be able to make a little contribution towards those struggles with a word here or there.

I've met a lovely new blogger this week, Ellie at This Country Girl's journal (I was her first commenter!) please go and say hi and comment on her blog to encourage her in her first month of blogging!

I hope all is well with you. Is there anything you need encouragement for? Or is there anything I can pray for? Just let me know!

xxx

Off to link up with lovely Patti who is the original encourager of beautiful bloggers everywhere with her link Visible Monday. I'm also glad it is Hat Attack with beautiful Judith because I am wearing my favourite Cloche that CBC gave me for Christmas 2 years ago!

Those Autumn leaves

I was struck by how I was wearing the shades of Autumn leaf decay today- the three stages-
Yellow- when the leaves are bright yellow, the dark brown stage where they have started to die and then that pale biscuity stage where all the moisture has left the leaf and they are brittle, parched and ready to crack.  Sounds delightful eh!?  Hopefully, combining all three makes for a more pleasing sartorial conclusion.

 I have often made no bones about the fact that I emphatically do not like Autumn.  I often feel like the Bah-humbug fairy when everyone else (except Sophie, who I think is more on my wavelength, even though she show the beauty of it through her photos) is extolling the virtues of the season. I was thinking, as I read yet another post delighting in the Autumn, that perhaps I need to lighten up and appreciate it - to see the good, like I do in most other things.  It's not that I DON'T see the beauty in Autumn, it's just I feel the gloom of the darkening days and mourn deeply for the loss of summer, that time I love so much, thus I consciously shut my eyes to the positives.

And then, today at church,  as the children were completing some beautiful Autumn collages around us as the service progressed, Margaret, the vicar, played this beautiful video and said how lucky we were to see the beauty of Autumn.

  

And perhaps, within me, I knew that I must change my attitude to the Autumn.  When you look and emphasize the bad, you come to see that only. Do the opposite, trying to see the good and perhaps you can believe and take joy in that instead.

So, on the day, I came to try and accept that, the sun shone and I wore Autumn shades.

And delighted in my Poetic License (sister-brand of Irregular Choice) shoes which I wore for the first time and made me feel a bit like Mary Poppins.

The silhouette of this outfit is rather more grown-up than I am used to- I don't wear trousers all too happily though today, these Karen Millen mini-dogtooth 'Plus fours' (I called them Culottes, CBC looked askance on them and asked why I was dressing like a gentleman of the 1910's) suited the shoes. Sorry Julia, they needed an iron and I didn't!  Yes, I did match everything in the outfit to the shoes. The shoes came first,everything else followed!

And this afternoon, I headed back to church for the Confirmation service where I was playing flute  in the band with a combination of people. The church was packed and I was struck with that wonderful sense of a deep love of a community, unity, of a people combined, that I only get when I am at church. It's different from that of just being with family.  I felt happy, at peace, understood. I felt the joy and exhilaration  of those being confirmed.  I felt at home. Something I find very hard to put this feeling I experience into words, but it is, in a sense, a feeling of being lifted, being light and breathing with delight, almost that sort of sigh of contentment you get at times.  I wish I could explain it and I wish that you experience this kind of joy too!

I hope that you all have a lovely week and enjoy some fun, joy and rest too.  

Sending many best wishes,

Kezzie xx

Linking to:

Creative Mondays with Claire Justine 

AND 

Visible Monday with Patti