TARDIS Tuesday - Dark Water

Hello there!

Hope you are well.

Today, I am back to my favourite/main orchestra rehearsals with Kensington Chamber Orchestra.  Hooray!

And it's a return to TARDIS Tuesday after a few weeks hiatus.

Last seen in October 2023, I am featuring an outfit worn by Clara Oswald in Dark Water and Death in Heaven.  This was an episode where she is filled with grief over the loss of Danny Pink after her declaration of love.

She wears a dress from French brand, Sessun with an Geometric pattern, navy brogues from Bertie and a Green mac with checked lining from Topshop

Also borrowed from Clara Who Cosplays

My whole outfit is made up of colour alts and I sold my screen accurate shoes last year so I have some navy blue shoes from Aldi I had to buy for my FiL's funeral when I discovered I had only taken walking boots.

The dress I have is made of a different material from the screen accurate one and you can dye it to make it more screen accurate or colour it in but I don't think I'll bother!

The jacket is, still, to this day, my favourite Clara item and I found it in the wild- in my local charity shop.  It's such a lovely cotton coat and is a great mid-season cover-up. I wore it today for school.

This is my second week of trying to get to know the new year 1 children- will I remember their names??? 90 to learn!

xx

 

In the red

 Hello there!

How are you? Well, I hope!

Sometimes, when it's time for the weekend, I wonder what to wear that signifies it is the weekend as what I wear for school is often quite relaxed and what I would wear at home anyway.

Then I think, I should wear something that I might not cycle in.

Actually, to be honest, I would probably cycle in this- so that didn't work! However, I do think that the skirt, even when worn with leggings, is probably a little short.

The quality of these photos is grainy but never mind- you don't mind!

All of this outfit is old- the beret, red sweater and boots are all charity-shopped and the skirt and turtle neck were long-ago retail buys and the leggings came from Aldi!

Oh, I do remember there's something that IS new!  Do you see my TARDIS blue necklace and earrings?

They were a freebie from a LOVELY insta friend who used to/still makes acrylic jewellery. I bought a light blue swirly galaxy necklace and she sent me the other one as an extra to spread some joy and because she loves my cosplays. Did I mention that, upon her suggestion, I cosplayed her toddler this Summer too! Apparently, it was a highlight for her! I actually love this one better than the one I purchased!

CBC and I had a lovely Saturday afternoon.  I'm really not sleeping well at the moment. I awake really early with my mind buzzing and thinking about all sorts of things (often school related) and I just can' get back to sleep.  I got up and did all the washing up, washing, bit of tidying and hoovering. I popped out to the charity shop around the corner and picked up a parcel. We headed for a drive to Leigh on Sea where they had a pop up Christmas fair which we enjoyed and bought a couple of presents.  We also visited a few shops including the green-grocer, the charity shop (Cashmere dress!!!!) and the Refill room. The latter was very exciting as they have started to stock Shiitake crisps and Beetroot crisps!  They are delicious!!!

We headed to a Boots to return an item and went out for Italian. We shared a garlic bread and then I had Spaghetti Bolognese (yes, I know it is really Ragu).  I even had a hazelnut dessert which was pleasant though not anything memorable! Back home, we tried watching 2 movies, both of which CBC declared were awful and left me to watch them. Boo to Negative Nelly! I enjoyed them!

Church tomorrow and hopefully a good night's sleep soon!

xx

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TARDIS Tuesday- Kate Stewart- The Brigadier's Daughter Closet Cosplay

Hi there,

I'm back for another TARDIS Tuesday entirely drawn from items I already own, i.e. nothing bought especially for a Cosplay outfit. I like doing these as it challenges me to look creatively in my wardrobe to see what can be used in a creative way!

Today, I thought I'd make a visit to Kate (Lethbridge) Stewart, who is the famous Classic Who Brigadier's Daughter who was in charge of UNIT in the eras of the 11th, 12th and 13th Doctors.

I attempted another closet cosplay on her 'Power of the Doctor' look last Autumn.

This outfit features in the Zygon Inversion.

Image borrowed from 
https://www.planocritico.com/critica-doctor-who-9x07-e-8-the-zygon-invasion-the-zygon-inversion/

Image borrowed from:
https://jemma-redgrave.net/2016/02/21/jemma-redgrave-as-kate-stewart-doctor-who-hd-captures-stills/

She wears a sand-coloured trench coat with black buttons.  Underneath she wears a pale blue shirt and navy blue trousers and boots.

She wears a blue and gold pashmina scarf tied around her neck.

Here's my version:

I started with the trench coat. Mine was charity-shopped at least 6 years ago and has been worn for cosplays for the 13th and 7th Doctors.

Next, I added a blue charity-shopped blouse I've had for about 8 years. It's really boring but quite a useful staple I have kept as it works very well with different pin badges or brooches pinned to the lapels.

My navy blue trousers are from Just Female and were bought 2nd hand but new.  My boots are from Clarks men's section.

The scarf was from one of those cheapy shops that you get all over East London

It was fun putting this together but the day I wore it for school, L, the lovely TA who helps me with choir said, "That's a very conservative outfit for you, K. Not what I'd usually expect from you."

I said, "HA, I am secretly cosplaying Kate Stewart from UNIT" to which L repleued- "YES, I can see it!! I might have known".  In case you hadn't guessed, L is a Who fan!

I think if my hair were a leeeetle shorter, this might have been even better.  But never mind, this is good enough for me!

What do you think of this look. Be honest!

xx

TARDIS Tuesday- Clara's floral outfit from Hide.

Good Evening,

I hope you are well.

I am fine though I'm bemoaning my Bean plants which seem to have not taken well to being shoved out into the cold!  Poor things! They're gone all white and frail looking.

I've had my third teacher training student taking a lesson this year.  I go years without any and I've had three want to do lessons this year!

Today's outfit is 

This week's TARDIS Tuesday is one that I have tried to do a few times.  It is her outfit from Hide, an episode from Series 7 of Doctor Who.

Here is my picture of the outfit which I took at the Doctor Who experience. Clara wears a very 1990's button down dress with a navy casual-looking blazer, a red satchel, black wedged lace-up shoes, a little owl necklace and then some of the time, wears a Barbour jacket over the top.

Image borrowed from this Pinterest but ultimately belongs to the BBC

You can see it on her in these two pictures and you can see her leaning against the ancient stones of the spooky manner where the episode takes place.

IMage borrowed from ClaraOswaldCosplay.comhttps://claraoswaldcosplay.com

Here's this week's version:

It's almost identical to to the last time I wore it but this time, I have the screen accurate jacket but in a tan colour rather than the original grey.  This is quite a hard Clara item to find as there are SOOOOO many Barbour jackets available but the correct one doesn't turn up very often.

The dress is really comfortable to wear and works for my shape well. I wore Navy leggings rather than black tights- they are easier to cycle in.

My navy blazer is a comfortable jersey material- it looks smart but doesn't FEEL too formal.

I wish I could cycle in these Clarks shoes but wedges don't work too well with pedals!

This is an outfit I must wear more for work.  I  like it!

Hope you had an enjoyable day!

x

Harmonious presents!

I thought I'd share an outfit I wore last Saturday for CBC's mum's birthday lunch.

I wanted to be warm and comfortable for hanging around the house at my Sister-in-law's house but also able to go out for dinner.


Let's start with outer-wear.  CBC bought me both this cape and hat on different birthday and Christmases and didn't intend for them to go together but I like the serendipitous way they do!

 The base of my outfit was this navy corduroy dress from Quba which my sister bought me for Christmas.  She bought me a size 8 but it was quite tight (in a way I knew would make me not want to wear it).  She said she could get me a different size so I asked if she could get me a 12.  Which was silly as the 8 fitted me but I worried a 10 might not be big enough for me to wear things under. Instead, I now have a rather too large on the top half dress but that's ok- I can live with it!
I wore some leggings from sustainable brand Thought (who used to be Braintree) which I bought in Gaia in Hexham last week- again, I didn't intend them to go so well with the hat and cape but they begged to be worn together!!  The Clement Ribeiro cashmere jumper underneath is another over-sized purchase but I like Cashmere big!

Boots were from Florence and my Nessie necklace from Erstwilder plus Lorelai earrings!

I succeeded in having a comfy outfit, even if the dress is a bit too big! I still like it very much!!
x

Navy tales

 Hello there,
I hope you have had a great weekend.  I have had a lovely weekend in many ways which I am very grateful for.  I went to deputise (cover someone who was away) for part of a rehearsal of The Rite of Spring yesterday which was enormous fun. I then took myself off to Oxford Street and Spitalfields for a little birthday treat

 I did something I haven't done in absolutely ages- in Topshop, I had great fun trying on lots of things I liked. I might post about it later in the week.

 Finally, I went off to Collectif in Spitalfields. I've wanted a Sailor coat for a very long time and I've always regretted not buying the Topshop sailor coat which I saw in a second hand shop in Oxford so when I saw Roisin had bought this coat in the sale, I decided to go and have a look.

They only had a size 6 and a 12. The 6 only just fits me without a thick jumper. I ummed and ahed about whether to buy it or not as really I'd need an 8. I have plenty of coats which I've bought over the years and I didn't need it but I really did like it. In the end, I was weak and bought it (you might say not so bad until you realise I also bought 3 other things that day).

I wore it to church this morning with a thin sparkly jumper underneath and trousers and actually it was a great coat to keep on throughout church as it looked rather like a dress.  I'm really pleased with it.

Coming home later was a bit of a nightmare because of engineering works on the trains- it took me 2 hours to get home from Liverpool Street station- usually a 40 minute journey!

Coming home, I watched Doctor Who on my laptop (series 4- Catherine Tate and David Tennant) and ate yet another unhealthy dinner. So what, it was my day!

More on that another time.

Sending you best wishes,

Kezzie xx

Yet another sailor outfit!

Tis a bit of a cliche to go to the seaside dressed up as a sailor girl, but I did it anyway.

 In case you are wondering, the top is from Joules (mega sale last year), the skirt is ancient Primark (very tight!) and the raincoat (Seasalt Cornwall) with my beloved Doc martens.

Oh how wonderful it was to inhale that sea air again!

CBC and I visited Newton by the sea with J and though it was a blustery day, it was sunny. CBC and I walked towards Dunstanburgh castle.

Such bursting joy and yet tranquillity surge through my heart simultaneously in a fusion that shouldn't work yet do.  I don't care that I get messier and messier as the breeze laps at my hair because that is its overenthusiastic welcome.   The smell, even when none-too-pleasant has its place in the joy of the situation. The stumbling over uneven patches of sand and the avoidance of large piles of Bladderwrack seaweed, these are all parts of that wild experience.  The beaches in the north are wild, they are unforgiving at times, they lack Cornish and Southern prettiness, yet they have that menace and danger in them that their west-country counterparts have too.

There is a health and a rejuvenation in being blown around and hearing the compulsive returning of the tide. I find myself all too cross and grown-up at times but being here allows me to join in with my husband in fun antics.

Joy as he dashes up a slope and affecting crossness as he kicks sand into my shoes one too many times. Annoying but necessary in peeling back that grown-up and weary facade.

 I delight in my maritime companion with his ever-patient and loving nature.

Such joy to be back at sea. Whether dressed as a sailor or not!?

xxx

It's Christmas jumper time!

Yo there! (urgh, such an un-Kezzie thing to say! I mean, could you ever imagine me saying yo? Well, look, bizarrely it happened!)

Friday was absolutely hilarious as everyone rocked up to school in their Christmas jumpers.  It was a fun sight and even the person who never dresses up and joins in with anything costumey or anything social also wore a novelty jumper!  My favourite was the Caretaker who had this wonderful bright London scene which had lights as well.

You saw my previous post gave some ideas for putting together your own temporary Christmas jumper if you wanted to avoid the cost or any other reasons but wanted to join in.  I had, however, already purchased my jumper, so I wore that on the day itself though I have been wearing my two 'homemade' ones.

This jumper came from Next and I bought it after my sister, who works there showed me hers. It transpired she was planning to buy it for me for Christmas but thought I might want to wear it before Christmas.  I did indeed, but I said to her I would buy it myself- afterall, even with her 20% staff discount, I didn't want her, a student, to be spending that much money on me.   I loved it for its simplicity but absolute bling-factor at the same time!

It's a great one as it is made from  100% cotton of the softest kind, it is so gentle and it's not too thick either.  The size 6 was this size which surprised me, because you know, it doesn't look too tight.



Decided to pair it with my tartany/plaidy/checkedy mini-skirt as it complimented the colours of Mr Ginger and added my Cath Kidston glittery star-earrings and Topshop necklace with Crown-and-glory holly glitter clip, navy leggings from a local shop and Ralph Lauren blue boots. I felt comfortable and me all day.


This Sunday, I wanted to wear it again (after all, not an all-year round jumper is it?!) so I decided to try a different look with it and added this charity-shopped polka dot dress, same leggings, navy ankle socks and Faith bronze lace-ups together with an Aldo gold sparkly headband to tie in with Mr Ginger again.


Again, this felt a comfy look but not too casual as I always like to wear something relatively smart for church and also for a house party we went to.


Decided to try to do some 60's flicks on my eyes which you can't really see but never mind! This shot rather accentuates me ears but ah well!x


After some good sleep on Saturday night (despite feeling like I was sleeping next to Skeletor or Slimer due to a rattly nose- unusually CBC has a lasting cold), I had a lovely morning at church.  The Archdeacon for our area came and gave a really inspiring talk and that woman has a lot of heart.  Then enjoyed some tea after the service and a kind friend brought all the Sherlock DVDs for me to borrow (as I've only seen 3 episodes and want to catch up!).  I then returned home to CBC and did some general relaxing and milling about before heading over to our friend's for Sunday Lunch Club.  There are seven of us and before we each hosted a monthly lunch and we've started it again.  We enjoyed a delicious Roast Pork lunch and homemade lemon drizzle plus copious cups of tea and chat.  It'll be fun to do this again- it's our turn in February!  Thai Green curry it is then?!

I'm feeling a LOT less grumpy than I was yesterday and thank you for your kind comments understanding.  I wanted to share that post because I know lots of people say I'm really nice and sweet (which is kind, thank you) but I am human like everyone else and I fail.

xxx


Linking to Visible Mondays with beautiful Patti
Linking to Creative Mondays with the lovely Claire Justine.

Magic Mushroom

Yesterday, we attended the wedding of some friends, one of whom used to be CBC's house-mate.  We remember when they got together and it has been lovely to see their relationship develop from meeting on-line to getting married.  Curiously, we live in their old house.  They moved out into their new house last summer and we took over a week later after our honeymoon!

As with a wedding, what does one wear?  I decided a while back, since it was an Autumn wedding, I would wear my Poppy England Grace dress worn with a petticoat.

I decided to pick out the tiny bit of red in the dress and wore my ruby slippers and an ASOS red spot pillbox hat.  My husband was VERY insulting about this choice of millinery and told me I looked like Super Mario's mushroom friend! Fine, thanks!




My handsome husband wore a lovely wool Next suit  with his groom's waistcoat and a super paisley tie from Coe's in Maldon.


He bought himself an Autumn buttonhole from the florists which made us laugh as there was one thistle too many! Any time I tried to hug him, I got spiked in the chest!

We've had a few things to do with the wedding. We helped try lots of prosecco in order to choose this.  In addition, I leant them a series of items including wedding umbrella, camera tripod, hats and accessories for a photo booth and I helped making the table names- well, I worked with a Sharpie to write them anyway! Behold my handwriting....

The hats were strewn all around the place by the end of the evening and there were some funny moments on the dance floor with them.

The food was delicious and what was amazing was that we were served a trio of desserts:
Eton Mess, Chocolate brownie, Apple crumble plus ice-creams and a large chocolate slab!


The whole day was chilled and relaxed and the bride looked utterly beautiful!

Hope all is well with you.

xx

I'm pretty sure Hat Attack is coming up soon so linking with the beautiful hat Queen, Style Crone.

Comma

I have been riding my little pink scooter to work for several days in the last couple of weeks.Yes, it is one of those that kids use. Yes, it's pink. Yes, I look a twit.  This morning, I sailed out of the station near school and zoomed down the hill.  Suddenly noticed a man coming out of the taxi place and knew I might hit him and was just about to put on the brakes but then my panama started to fly off my head. In the end, he jumped out of the way but it was very embarassing. And then I saw the dad of one of my kids at school who has laughed at my scooter before and also seen me trying to get past someone in a bit of a frustrated hurry. You know here people are walking 3 abreast and hogging the pavement? Now he sees me almost mow down a taxi driver. All good for the image ya!


In choir tonight, we were singing Ain't no  mountain high enough and these two year 5 girls in the centre were really singing their hearts out.  One of these is a Lithuanian girl who rarely SMILES (or very rarely, a sort of half smile or it never quite reaches her eyes.). She also doesn't seem to blink. I  think she may secretly be a lizard in disguise.  There's a word I am trying to think of to describe her- you know Eeyore in Winnie the pooh, the characteristic of him! I really like her, she's enthusiastic about drumming club and choir and music lessons and hangs out with me at playtime when I am on duty.  At the end of this rendition of the song, I said, "A particular big shout out to X and Y who were just shining and singing beautifully, giving it their all. And I saw the most beautiful, shy smile erupt over her face- I have never seen this before- she at once looked beautiful! I was touched by her reaction. She and the other girl were really pleased. As we sang other songs, particular other children really shone, another one was singing really strongly in Sing and the delight in her eyes as I singled her out was gorgeous. I often praise individuals in lessons but in choir, it's generally the collective who I praise but I think I should do more of singling out individuals like this.


I've lost my front door keys - somehow they disappeared on Saturday afternoon when I got back from cleaning out at Grandad's house. It's really annoying because it has meant for 2 days this week, I have had to wait outside for CBC to get home for at least 30mins. Need to get some keys cut but not sure when we can do this. Life is busy at the moment.




My goodness, my skin looks grim in these pictures!  I forgot to put moisturiser on this morning and my skin really let me know it! I like my freckles but they also don't help the dry effect!

This is what I wore today. The dress was a thrift/Charity shop purchase a while back and I am little annoyed because the bottom button is has ripped the material around it, so not sure how long it will last or what to do about it. With the best will in the world, I will not get around to sewing it- ahrgh!
The belt was also a recent charity shop purchase. I really liked it- reminded me of Great Gatsby, not quite sure exactly why!  It also reminds me of a comma! It's Country casuals leather and it works really well, I look forward to teaming it with sweaters in the winter! My Head-teacher also liked it. I think she may have wanted to steal it!

CBC took these photos. Which is why some are a bit bizarre! He was taking shots at all sorts of weird angles because he was amused that I didn't know what he was taking! The big mouth open shot says, "You are cheeky, why did you just take a close-up of my armpit!?!?!?!!"- Not featured by the way! You don't need to see that!

I am one of the luckiest teacher in school. Why?  Because I have discovered my current room has air conditioning!  It used to be the ICT room and housed the server so it had to have the AC. I have to share a remote control with another room but if I remember, my room can be cool and lovely!

Tomorrow, am taking the Year 2 choir to another school for the annual KS1 singing festival. I feel a bit more unprepared than I usually do for this occasion but it will still be fun. I have two lovely Year 6 girls coming too as they offered to help me with choir!

Hope you are well.
xx