Presenting Miss Perpugilliam Brown

I was a child of the 80's.  My first Doctor (Who obviously! Do you think this is some kind of hypochondriac blog!?) was Colin Baker, the 6th incarnation of the Doctor.  One of my earliest memories of TV was the episode in which his long-suffering companion, Peri, short of Perpugilliam Brown is killed.  I was devastated! I loved Peri.  I have vivid memories of the scene in which she was operated on by the evil Doctor Crozier so her mind was taken over by the horrid Kiv and when King Ycarnos seemingly gunned her down.  Luckily, all was not what it seemed in Mindwarp part 8 of 'A Trial of a timelord'.  Incidentally, this was the first Doctor Who video I was given as a teenager. If you want to see a summary of the episode, click here. Anyway, in her final outing, Peri, who was renowned for wearing rather revealing outfits, actually wore something a little more covering, in the form of a purply patterned tunic and kimono.

Image borrowed from https://michaelnixon.wordpress.com/2010/08/30/1986-mindwarp/

Image borrowed from http://www.ew.com/

The look has a decidedly hippy-vibe to it.

As always, TARDIS Tuesday is an interpretation of something from Doctor Who, rather than having to be an exact cosplay (much as I love those!) so I am demonstrating here, with a bit of context and a certain degree of tenuous rhetoric, you can link an outfit to Doctor Who that you might not otherwise realise was inspired as such.




I bought a delightful paisley and floral purple tunic in a charity shop in Ipswich with 2 blogging friends (ahrgh, I WILL blog about that soon!) and it suggested to me that it had a Peri Mindwarp vibe to it.



Of course, it was a floral garland kind of day, so I matched that in too. Peri wore some sort of purple beaded headband in another episode which I can't find the reference for right now.

Yes, I know that it isn't really THAT Peri-ish! But you know, I was inspired!


Now it's your turn. Been at the fancy dress box again and worn a Panama, fez or Fedora, been wearing a cricket jumper, stripy scarf or been at Clara's Topshop collection!? Or perhaps you've sported some TARDIS blue in your outfit post. Come and join Maricel, TARDIS Tuesday founder and me, her humble assistant (rather like the Doctor and his companion! Ha, that makes me Clara!)
with TARDIS Tuesday.

An InLinkz Link-up

Hearts and flowers

I'm sorry, I really don't have anything interesting to say. I've felt a bit like that this week-hence the fact you got two outfit posts in close together and then another one. I like to keep things varied and I like posting daily but I'm not feeling the book review, craft post needs to come after Mothers Day, Blog love post doesn't feel finished, one draft still not got the other part done,  What is it? done yesterday, no particular school anecdotes; two restaurant write ups which I have no desire to finish, photos of cooking on camera can't be bothered to upload them and so on. Am I having a day of blogging ennui? Who knows!  Anyway, thus what follows from here on was a draft post which I have preceded with what seems a bit of a self-indulgent blog moan. It wasn't intentional, I just was feeling I didn't like posting ANOTHER outfit. But it's the most written post so here we go:



A while back when it was my birthday weekend, we went out to a dinner party at a friend's house. She lives in Eltham and she made an amazing feast having 3 courses and the main being a Chinese feast of at least 8 dishes (she is of Chinese origin)! I had worn my 1st Debenhams January sale purchase the day before so I decided to wear the other the next day. I had seen those coord dresses around and thought they were great but not really been wanting to shell out money for one. So, seeing one in the H by Henry Holland 70% off sale rack (with voucher in bag), I was rather chuffed. I thought it a really unusual and striking pattern and I liked the way it looked like a dress and top. What do you think of coords? I decided to add my pewter Hush Puppies shoes- these were the first high-heeled shoes I'd ever bought as an adult that looked high  after forgetting black shoes for a concert in a church (Oh look, another shoe anecdote!) and borrowed a girl's size 8 hig-heeled Aldo court shoes (I couldn't believe she shared my size!), discovering some heels WERE comfortable and hunting for some.They are decidedly comfy for heels. I tried to add my Crown and glory heart fascinator.
 

 I say tried. I seem to have an issue getting combs to stay in my hair! Or putting them in anywhere that looks right. Do I have an odd-shaped head??? This came in February's Glitterati box and whilst I love it, it's not exactly every day wear. Nor am I remotely skilled at getting it to stay in my hair. I finally got it to stay in and then went out into the wind. It refused to go back in after I'd wrestled it out of my hair. It really was windy- I thought I'd share the aborted attempts at Fascinator closeups for your amusement- it really wasn't happening was it. And then I discovered in the top right picture, that my top made a great parachute in the wind!


Thanks for your lovely kind comments and general being fabulous! You lot are the best!

xx

Fascinating rhythm

As you read this, I am at Parents Evening.  Especially this one which is an afternoon and evening affair,this is always a bit of a tiresome affair for me since I don't have the individual appointments with parents but have to be there. So this time, like my idea last year, I will be running a 2.5 hour session for my Gifted, able and talented musicians. We're going to be composing a Habanera, Spanish dance with a potential Flamencoey/Spanishy coda/extra piece depending on time.
It makes sense to do something I want to do during normal school time that I can't usually do. I must admit that I am surprised that they want to come in when everyone else is off school but hey ho, if they like music-making, it's logical!  I always feel nervous before doing something like this putting children from 3 year groups together as you're never sure how they will react!  I shall then make everyone drinks and deliver them around the school and try and get on and get lots done.


I found these photos from a little while ago - it was an outfit I wore for a party and I really liked it but misplaced the photos. As outdoor opportunities (hacked off with inside ones) are few and far between, I thought I'd share them.

When I first bought this Peter Pan dress, I reeeeeeeeeally wanted a Peter Pan collar dress but couldn't find anything so bought this- it's material I wouldn't really choose first choice (synthetic not very breathable material) but it has ended up being a really versatile piece- I've worn it in many different permutations (here, here, here , here, here for example) it's the ubiquitous blogger's remix piece!

Wearing it for a birthday party with this thrifted/charity-shopped Monsoon cardie, it seemed perfect to add collar clips and shoe clips and go with the black and white accessories.   I found this cute lace/net fascinator in Poundland which I took a punt on and was glad I did!


So exciting, talk about last minute plans. CBC and I are going to a Swing dance weekend!  It's called Good Night Sweetheart and we are super excited though know we are going to be exhausted after dancing all day at the weekend and on all three evenings! We only booked on Monday!  3 evening dances so three excuses to get dressed up though I'm a bit sad there's a decade dress code: 20's, 40's on two evenings - I had 2 nice 50's dresses I wanted to wear! I'll let you know how it goes!

On Monday of the holiday, I am going on a Chazzer-crawl (to use blogging vernacular) or a charity shop crawl with a friend and her friend! So exciting, she knows where all these good ones are. I'm going to try my very hardest not to buy anything though I've been told it's obligatory. I'll try my best to be restrained but I was asked a while back and I wanted to hang out with her!

I hope all is well with you.  Are you up to anything exciting this week?

xx

Christmas day again

Hello there!  I hope that you have had an amazing Christmas with many blessings!  I have had a lovely time so far over the Christmas holiday!

We went over to my Dad's house for Christmas. I went over on the 22nd and CBC returned for a wedding and returned on Christmas eve.
Lots of tasty food was had, lots of washing up was done and some nice presents shared.

1. Frozen Christmas cake- even though she's over 20, my sister loves it.
2.  Christmas breakfast.
3. Christmas decorations.
4. Gingerbread men cupcakes- I only helped with the top features so my gingerbread men had an icing jacuzzi!
5. Dad lighting the fire.
6. Rainbow cupcakes.
7, The obligatory Christmas fizz- groan.
8.  I devised a Boxing Day treasure hunt- made up some fun clues and hid them around the house.
9.  I love their Christmas tree.


10. Presents galore.
11. Mesmerising flames in the fire.
12.Christmas headdress
13. Rudolph potatoes.
14.  Chocolate pudding as a Christmas pud alternative for me and sis.
15. Nice table laying.
16. Christmas jumper CBC.
17. Dinner
18. Amazing blue skies.

And what blogger Christmas is complete without a What I wore?

Definitely had to wear my Crown and Glory Christmas crown.

Plus green cardie, Cream lace dress and a claret bow from a Christmas present.

CBC in his new Gilet (from me) and jumper (from my Dad)



A belated Merry Christmas from CBC and moi!!

xx

And that will be your crowning glory your whole life through

Special brownie points to anyone who tells me which film the blog title comes from (no cheating and looking on google!)



It was my work Christmas party last week and we went for a very nice Chinese meal at a gold club.  I was really lucky as my kind Deputy-Head teacher let me go round to hers in between and had a relax, a bath and a sleep! I wasn't feeling very well so that was SUCH a kind thing to do.   Her house was amazing! She's got SUCH a good idea for quirky and fun ways to decorate a house.

I wore an old staple little black skater dress from the Closet brand which I bought in a shop close to my old home- it/s got a velvet  bodice and a short circle skirt

All the full length shots were rubbish (And I had the nicest pair of grey chevron tights on as well!) but you can see it here /below where I wore it with a sweater last year.


I added a blue sparkly Oasis shrug (charity-shopped) but the berry on the cake was my new festive floral crown from Crown and Glory. I really like it- it's got berries, pine cones, roses, mushrooms  and foliage over it and I am definitely going to wear it on Christmas day too. I'm not sure that the golf club was quite ready for hippy chic head-dresses but after a few initial glances I think they got used to it! That's my lovely, lovely work colleague above!



I didn't really get any close ups of my headdress as I told you, the photo quality was pretty awful (why can no one work my camera except me and CBC?) but you can see it in the box it came in above!  I like how it takes festival chic and gives it a winter edge!

Looking up the title reference on Youtube (for a bout of nostalgia for one of my favourite films), I somehow saw that there was a full film on Youtube called Wildchild which I just ended up watching. It's really good/fun*!! I really enjoyed it, It's about a wild American girl who is sent to live in England at an austere boarding school where she tries to rebel to be sent home. Of course it fulfills all those stuffy English stereotypes that American directors love to exaggerate and had lots of interesting things including the girls bathing in 4 adjacent baths. REAAALLLLY? Like that will really happen in England. I liked the reference to the girls going charity-shopping in Cancer Research though. Wish I could go to that particular store- it appeared to have loads of vintage goodness!!!

My day went very well in the end.  The KS2 Christmas production at the church went reaaaaaaally well. Like really well!  I am amazed how well my children sang! Every child was there pretty much, there was no getting out of it this year which really made a difference and the children were ridiculously excited but to a good end!

Now just one day before the holidays begin!

Hurrah
xxx

*I know that the majority of the population will probably hate it, my husband included. Lucky he's out!

It's my party and I'l cry if I want to

On Saturday, CBC and I headed out to a 40th birthday party in Southend. It was at a very funky bar which was a bit like a yard with cobbles, funky retro decor and fairy lights.
I didn't really know anyone, except for one of CBC's old work colleagues, but it's amazing when there are lots of teachers around, as you always have lots to chat about.  Luckily, as I do find it a little nerve-wracking being a party where I don't know anyone. There's a definite fine-balance between being sociable, getting to know people and then feeling like you've talked too long and they want to escape.  How do you manage that one?  I am not a drinker, nor am I a big dancer (to modern music anyway. Swing's my thing!), so I sometimes find this a little hard.  Also, with loud music (and here my granny credentials show), I cannot hear a thing and have to just lip-read most of the time which is not conducive to lasting friendships and great conversation.


 Still, it was GREAT to have gone and the people I did chat to, were really nice.  The bar was a great location.
See those olives?  I ate most of those.  And another bowl over on the far table. And see the several bowls of crisps? Those too.  I am a complete crisp-hog!! Do not let me come to a party without dinner or I will decimate your crisp and snack supply!!! No one stood a chance!


The sofa I took the photos on was UNBELIEVABLY uncomfortable!!! Be not deceived by its vintage prettiness- it had springs as hard as nails!  The digestive cushion was cool though!


I pondered what to wear and went for my Jane Norman wildflower dress which ClaireJustine located for me.  Teamed with electric blue cardigan and tights and Irregular Choice Trinkletina low shoes (flash here to show the true colours.  Scary flash eyes! I always feel like that Star Wars character with the hood and the glowing eyes when I see flash photos!)


I always fail to know what to do with my hair (and couldn't be bothered so straighten) so I remembered a post by Kathleen Lisson a while back about millinery for an evening and wore a simple navy-blue feathered fascinator (thank you Poundland) in order to hide my lack of coiffure.  I really liked wearing this, so will do again- it stayed in securely unlike other fascinators I own!


Isn't my husband attractive?! I'll leave you with a more amusing image!


Forgive me if I am a little behind on comments- we are in Norfolk and Suffolk for a few days!!