In the navy

It was pretty much a no-brainer that when I heard that Miss Papelicos's Share-in-style challenge this week was Sailor, that I would be easily compelled to join in. One of my favourite style outfits which I have indulged OH so many times here on this blog- be it with my plethora of sailor dresses or a top or two!
I've shared the reasons behind it so I won't repeat myself (Mentally, I can hear my husband scoffing in the background saying, "WHAT, you don't want to repeat the same story to the world for the millionth time?!")

Today, being the first day back at school, I figured a nice casual novelty outfit would do the trick in making me feel better. This cardigan is hands down, my most favourite buy ever at Primark and I paired it with these Tescos white linen sailor trousers- they have the flat fronts and buttons of your stereotypical sailor pants and are very comfy though as you can see, they are very creased after a day of sitting, bending, crouching, kneeling whilst doing menial tasks. And yes, I won't be doing a backwards shot like that again! Not flattering!

Notice my bad editing skills- the middle me is really titchy, flanked by two giants. I'm trying to 'pull the ropes' in the middle shot (I know my sailor's hornpipe you know!)

Never yet it be said that I don't pay attention to detail- note the earrings. And of course the excessive messing around with nautical stereotypes in Picmonkey!



Go and check out the other able seamen (or ladies) over here.

Eeek, an outfit post two days running- something I usually try to avoid but didn't want to miss the boat (ho ho ho) with the link party!


Oh, and you get two for the price of one, here's CBC rocking a nautical look Dubrovnik:
Nautical shoes, red trousers and stripy shirt! He just needs a parrot!


At ease shipmates.

xxx

Daisy, daisy, give me your answer do!

I discovered a wonderful new blog thanks to Sophie when she posted an incredible floral overload post!  I am an absolute magnet for anything floral so after her hint I headed over to Intrinsically Florrie's blog to find out what it was all about! She is having an annual competition called Florrie's Floral Festivities!   Her blog is approaching its third birthday and to celebrate she was launching this fun challenge of sending her a link of yourself in your floral finest to be collected together in one major flower power blog post.  (paraphrased Florrie's own description)  There are two prizes for the outfit she likes best and one for the most floral items in one outfit.  I just loved the idea of this challenge! 

I had intended to wear a 1950's style outfit with a gorgeous thrifted Laura Ashley modern floral dress that I really wanted to wear for The Chap Olympiad but unfortunately, it being white, rain and it wouldn't mix However, I figured, a) it was raining again and I was wearing quite a floral outfit today which sums me up really so I would try to use this one (and add a few more accessories!) My aim was to go floral but try to make it all match if I could! Not sure if this was achieved or not! My favourite flower is the simple Ox-eye daisy, a native British wildflower so I though I'd make this the focus of my outfit. and try and do ubiquitous Kezzie items.

 The dress (worn as a top) is one from Matalan I have had for a while which incorporates another love- Peterpan collars!
The skirt is from Monsoon which has a lovely embroidered floral pattern and is a typical Kezzie-style skirt (last featured in my SJP turquoise week!)

 No Kezzie outfit is complete without a hat!  I wore this miniature Asos boater (which already has black lace flowers on it) and crowned it with a Poppydaisy daisychain circlet.

 The boater hat somehow suggested to me that I should add these white vintage gloves (Corbridge antiques) to make it more ladylike!

 You may have noticed in all my shots, I always have a hairband round my wrist, because I always need to tie my hair back at school, it's a subconscious thing but if I get nervous, I bite the end of my hair (disgusting I know, when I realise I'm doing it, I recoil with horror and fling it behind me and tie up hurriedly!) so I tie it back to stop me doing it!  I wore this gorgeous crocheted daisyhair band made by my Mummy!  Miraculously, despite having a lesson observation today (I got OUTSTANDING across the board!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!), I didn't tie my hair back!

 On my other wrist, I wore another daisy hairband.  Embarassingly, my sister bought me this hairband because I admired the one worn by my 2 year old niece! I am useless at putting this one in my hair!

With this, I wore my Pandora bracelet with the set of daisybeads (not real Pandora!).

 Daisy earrings!

 This yellow belt is as far as I go with yellow, but I cheered it up recently by adding this fabric daisy I saved from death (bin!) by removing it from the broken hairclip and gluing it to a hairgrip!

 This Topshop bag (forgotten in first outfit 2 shots! It's on the chair out of frame!) was cheered up by adding a silk daisy scarf (from the sadly now closed Hexham scarf shop)

 A 21st birthday necklace from my old Uni flat mates because they knew how much I liked daisychains! (sadly, CBC bought me a silver daisynecklace which is playing hide-and-seek I have lost!!!!!)

 Cath Kidston sweetpea shoes sadly lack daisies, but I added these cute Accessorize hairgrips which the kids all kept picking at in Nursery today!  A daisychain headband makes a nice anklet!

 Finally, the floral ring that I coerced CBC into buying for me during the Shoppingban!

 Closeup shot of skirt!

And my bunch of fake wildflowers that sit in the Portmerion pot on my table made a nice bouquet.

(I was aiming for this just to be a floral outfit,but if you count the following items seperately:

Hat, circlet, earrings, necklace, hairband on wrist 1, hairband on wrist 2, Pandora bracelet, Belt, skirt, dress, ring, anklet, shoes, hairgrip 1, hairgrip 2, handbag, scarf, this makes 17 floral items all in all.

If you count the hairgrips as 1, the hat and circlet as 1, and don't count the handbag and scarf, that makes 13.)

How was your day?!

If there was an outfit which was intrisically or ubiquitously you, what would it be?!?!!

Linking up to Lakota's Ta Dah! Tuesday as well, it feels a bit of a Tah dah day!

The best book tag ever!

For those of you that shun my boring book posts, to start, here is a silly outfit I wore today that I enjoyed wearing.
Otherwise here is a mememe tag about books you can join in with!!!

FYI, Love this Dorothy Perkins pearl Peter Pan Collar necklace, it makes even the most boring of t-shirts look interesting! FYI2- there is actually yellow in this outfit!  Am being adventurous with yellow belt. AKA my most feared colour!)

Oooh, a lovely tag involving books!  How wonderful!  I tag Alex Odd socks, Millie at New World,

Books books books


The Rules:

1. Post these rules

2. Post a photo of your favourite book cover

3. Answer the questions below

4. Tag a few people to answer them too
5. Go to their blog/twitter and tell them you've tagged them
meh, can't be bothered today. Tomorrow, I'll do it!
6. Make sure you tell the person who tagged you that you've taken part!

I tag any one who loves books also! Please let me know if you do it so I can have a nosey.
Pinched from http://www.ablogfromblackpool.com/2012/05/books-books-books.html  Danielle.

What are you reading right now?

Surprised by Joy by C.S Lewis. It’s his biography and it’s beautiful!!!


Do you have any idea what you’ll read when you’re done with that?

I hope to read a book on world views called The universe next door, or Maya by Jostein Gaardner. Both are on my pile. I’m also hoping to borrow the next Daisy Dalrymple books from J when we go to Northumberland soon.
What magazines do you have in your bathroom/lounge right now?

Papercraft inspirations and Papercraft Essentials.

What’s the worst book you've ever read?

Oooh, this is hard, I’m willing to give most things a go. As a teenager, I tried to read one of my Mum’s books by Jean Auel a go and it was awful- there was some nasty description of a woolly mammoth’s bits! And I read a terrible Mills and Boons as a teenager which I found dreadful!

What book seems really popular but you actually hated?

The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman. What a stupid, disappointing ending. I can’t believe that after all that buildup, the thing that was the ‘big sin’ was a kiss. What a total let-down! Stupid and annoying. It left me feeling flat. And the death of God and all that and everyone coming out of the rift or whatever it was. Weird and silly. I’d really enjoyed Northern Lights and The subtle knife.


Oh and I was infuriated by Lemony Snickett’s The End (part of the series of A series of Unfortunate events). I HATE there being loose ends and things I don’t understand, that aren’t explained. It’s just a total cop-out. I even read ALL the spin-offs in order to glean something to solve the mystery, to no avail!

What’s the one book you always recommend to just about everyone?

Thanks to http://www.amazon.com/ for the image.

Tom’s midnight garden by Phillippa Pearce. Utter genius!

I would also recommend ‘The screwtape letters’ by C.S. Lewis. It’s a brilliant book!
And anything by Alexander McCall Smith

What are your 3 favourite poems?

I love ‘Oh tell me the truth about love’ by W.H. Auden. It’s just so witty and evocative. I also love ‘The nighmail’ by funnily enough- W.H. Auden for its fine rhythm. I love ‘The highwayman’ by Robert Louis Stephenson for its brilliant plot and Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll. There’s also some great poems I’ve loved in the past.  Like Macavity by T.S.Elliott.
Where do you usually get your books?

Charity-shops, 2nd hand bookshops (like a brilliant one in Felixstowe called Poor Richard’s http://www.poorrichards.co.uk/  ) Daunts, The book people, Amazon, eBay, WH Smith, Waterstones

Where do you usually read your books?

Anywhere! Whilst eating, on a sofa, in bed,  in the bath, whilst travelling, in the garden, walking along the road, lying in long grass….

When you were little, did you have any particular reading habits?

I was a creature of habit. If I read and liked one book in a series, nothing would satisfy me until I’d read as many as I could get my hands on! This happened with Enid Blyton series’ (e.g. Famous Five, Secret Seven, Faraway tree, wishing chair, Mr Twiddle, Mysteries, The R mysteries, the ____ of adventure), Nancy Drew, Ramona, The Hardy Boys, Sweet valley high, Christopher Pike, Agatha Christie… I disliked Non-fiction and I am still not fond of it.
I would disappear for hours on end and my family would find me nestled with a book. At my Dad’s house, I loved reading in the upstairs bathroom.

In my adult life- any Jane Austen or modern spin-offs, Georgette Heyer continue this trend.

Have you ever “faked” reading a book?

Not really. I read a book by Janny Wurts called ‘The curse of the Mistwraith’ as a teenager which I borrowed from a boy called Tim who I liked, which I found hard-going and too sci-fi fantasy for me but pretended I liked. I rued the day of doing that when I was bought the rest of the trilogy for Christmas by family friends.
Have you ever bought a book just because you liked the cover?

Yes occasionally. I also like titles. The first Alexander McCall Smith I bought for myself was The right attitude to rain which I loved because my attitude to rain is, that if you think it is lovely, then it is indeed lovely. I’m soooo soooo glad I DID buy it otherwise I might not have discovered this wonderful man!
What was your favourite book when you were a child?

Unfair to restrict me to one!! I loved Five on Kirrin Island and Five go to Smugglers top best out of my Enid Blyton obsession because of the amazing secret passages contained within.
What book changed your life?

Change my life is a little dramatic. Well, if I had to say that, I would say The Bible, when I read (much of) it properly (still haven’t managed to make myself read Lamentations and a few other bits) for obvious reasons but that it is always refreshing, informative and comforting to find hope in there.


What is your favourite passage from a book?

Not sure about passages, might have to edit this later, but certain quotes are great:

“You didn’t get the best gigs as a murderer They probably made you play the viola.” Or something of that ilk from Soul Music by Terry Pratchett.

“Ah music, a magic beyond all we do here” Dumbledore in Harry Potter and the Philsopher’s stone.


I also loved the part in Tom’s midnight garden, the description of their ice-skating trip down the River Ely.

What are your top five favourite authors?

Alexander McCall Smith, Agatha Christie, Georgette Heyer, Jane Austen, Enid Blyton, Eva Ibbotson, C.S Lewis and Michael Morpurgo. Ha! 8!


What book has no one heard about but should read?

Hmmmmmm, a hard one…

A house in Bali http://www.amazon.com/A-House-Bali-Colin-McPhee/dp/9625936297  by Colin McPhee. Well, Bali enthusiasts will have heard of it, but others wouldn’t. It gives a wonderful look at Bali, 60-70 years ago from the point of view of a classical musician! It’s brilliant!

The Country gentleman by Fiona Hill was a lovely Regency-set book I read and delighted in!
What 3 books are you an “evangelist” for?

Er- the Bible? By God.
Tom’s midnight garden. Already mentioned
The screwtape letters Already mentioned
The butterfly lion by Michael Morpurgo (any parents evening with children whose writing needs more imagination, without fail, I recommend Michael Morpurgo to the parents. And children)
What are your favourite book by a first-time author?

Er-? Remember, I am a creature of habit, I like a series!!!

What is your favourite classic book?

The Phantom of the opera by Gaston Leroux.

Or Pride and prejudice by Jane Austen.
5 other notable mentions?

Northanger Abbey- I am totally Catherine Morland!

44 Scotland Street by Alexander McCall Smith

Harry Potter! J.K Rowling

Masquerade Terry Pratchet

Veronica at the Wells by Lorna Hill or any of that series.

White boots by Noel Streatfield or A vicarage family.

The murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie.


Do you have any books I should add to my 'to read' list?  Do you hate any of my choices? 

And more importantly, HOW are you today?!