I went into the monster suitcase of doom in my spare room wardrobe (actually, monster suitcase of doom x2) to look for Summery items of clothing that live in there and found this lovely dress from Tu at Sainsbury's. I really like Tu at Sainsbury's items- well, certain ones- most of my Tu items have actually come second-hand from Charity shops because I don't usually find them in my size in store, when there is something I want to buy, rather than just admiring. It's cotton and fitted and even though it is a fitted 8, I can get it over my head to wear, without claustrophobic panics when I can't find the 'exit'!
I hope your day was enjoyable and contented. Mine was nice in places, others not so magic but otherwise fine!
Today, I bring you an outfit inspired by a painting.
Garden Center growARTS artisan training program provides a space for individuals of all abilities to create stunning pieces of art as a means of self-expression and as an alternative path to self-employment.
Art for sale is either painted by adults in the growARTS program or is donated by their family or friends. The artists in the program also get paid a commission for each piece that sells.
As usual, a painting is chosen by one of the Style Imitating Art curators and you have a week to build an outfit inspired by it. It could be the colours, the shapes, a pattern, a particular aspect of the work.
The painting is beautiful and I began with the roses. I have had this Corhuroy rose skirt from Per Una at M&S for such a long time. It has been sitting in a cull pile for a while but I find it hard to let it go. Thus, I dug it out for this outfit.
The next element was the turquoisey-green leaves. I chose to wear a turquoise vest-top underneath and then added a turquoise silk scarf tied as a cravat round my neck plus my handmade turquoise earrings from Croatia. The white jumper provided a base/background and the final touch was a nod to the sequins with this delicate filigree charity-shopped silver brooch from a fine-jewellers in Southend.
Some kids came to chat to me in the playground and they said they liked my outfit (including a boy). I told them I had been inspired by a painting and told them how I took the picture and turned it into an outfit. I know it seems a silly thing to talk to kids about but they genuinely seemed intrigued how you could take an artwork and see it in a new way. I like to give different perspectives and ways of doing things. Particularly those kids- I always feel like they really like to hear what I have to say and are genuinely interested!
You can catch the roundup post from Erin here at Looplooks.net with everyone else's interpretations of the painting!
Greetings! Interrupting my long stream of German holiday reminiscences for some lurid pattern-mixing! Just a quick post as I am grappling with 3 part counterpoint. I am doing something mad this Saturday and I know it is not going to end well because the thing I am doing, you don't do with only one week to try and teach yourself all the facets in order to pass this. But I am doing it anyway. And probably going to fail. But at least I am having a go and trying to be some of not-wasteful as it were. If I don't mention it again, you can assume I've failed it.
Of course, I am procrastinating because when something is hard, you try to avoid it.
So, better get to it or at least back to it!
Going for some TARDIS-blue happiness here with Tiger beret, Primark cardie, Tesco-skirt and charity-shopped collared top. All very bright at least very cheery!
Want to be the pioneer of a new style? Why not try to incorporate stationery into your outfits. From putting pencils into your bun at the back of your hair (in different colours for interest) to glueing a brooch back to a pencil sharpener or rubber or wearing a pencil behind your ear, look no further than this post for THE way to shine in the pencil case crew.
Ok, so I am jesting with you somewhat!
When I saw my Dad recently, we exchanged Christmas presents (I know, it's terrible!!) My little sister bought me the most perfect presents!!This scarf is so much fun.
It seemed maybe a bit too much with the stripy Bunny jumper and the patterned skirt, but hey-ho, a bit of OTT clashing is always good fun!
I've had a really beautiful day today. Last night, I went to CBC's school to watch a production of Hairspray which was amazing. WKWTTG came to watch and came to stay at ours afterwards.
We had a lazy start today and then went out for breakfast at a really nice cafe in a little village near by. I had the full English breakfast which was 2 tasty sausages, scrambled egg, 2 rashers of bacon, beans and I substituted the mushrooms (urgh) for avocado! After that, we drove to a garden centre to look at some rattan furniture for WKWTTG and then after going back home for tea, cream cakes and some reading, we headed off on a 6 mile walk from Great Waltham to Felstead on the Saffron trail which was idyllic. I have some beautiful photos to share soon so stay tuned for that!!
What do you think about this outfit? Too much?? It was what I wore for a casual day of flute quartets, charity-shopping and lunch with my flute pals!!
Beige gets a bad press amongst us who blog clothes on l'internet. There's a whole anti-beige movement due to the rather bland nature of it and the sense that a certain age you are expected to dress blandly and beigely. I confess, though I haven't openly joined the anti-beige brigade (because some people LIKE it, I'm not going to judge.It SUITS some people), I am not fond of it as it makes me look sallow and washed out and *whispers*, sometimes can make people look like they have no clothes on in it. But it's ok on this caramelly hat and on the cuffs of this Orla Kiely dress.
I think Julie asked to see the dress as you caught a glimpse in a past 5 brooches!
I confess, I have ummed and ahed about whether to keep this Orla dress over time- it's not typically and obviously Orla plus it is rather like a sack on me. But the fact it is 100% cotton, very, very comfortable and has a Peter Pan collar has kept it in my wardrobe.
How do you feel about beige?
Dress Orla Keily x Uniglo
Wedges- Clarks originals
Belt and hat- Primark
I feel that tonight's outfit is very Clara Oswin- well the tartan dress and colour thing- not so much anything else!! I am in the process of making a lovely vegetarian spaghetti bolognese which smells delicious- as well as soya mince, added a whole aubergine, red pepper, loads of tomatoes as well as a pasta sauce, stock cube, red wine, bay leaf, onion and lots of garlic. We're having it with giant pasta!
One hour later, dinner was tasty but I misjudged the amount of pasta- far too much but not enough to go with the left over bolognese for tomorrow's dinner!
I don't have a huge amount to say today. Thanks for all your supportive comments. I do have somewhere to live but I don't want to talk about it until I am actually moved in just in case! Sufficed to say, if it works out, it is an answer to prayer for more than one party, hopefully!
I thought I'd better share the New Year photos before the sight of snowflakes and Christmas tree became too unseasonal - we didn't get many good photos of our new year's Lindy ball.
Here we are at the Radisson Blu Edwardian Hotel near Heathrow.
I wore my 2nd wedding dress- the one from Vivienne of Holloway- it was surreal that the last time I wore it was my wedding day. I teamed it with some old white brogues from Primark, my Punkypins snowflake necklace and my Crown and glory white net wired headband!
CBC wore his tweed wedding waistcoat (he bought the waistcoat before any other part of his wedding suit because it has a lovely turquoise back to match the Bridesmaids) and tweed trousers plus his wedding shirt I think!
We enjoyed the dancing, we were a bit nervous at first because we didn't really know anyone (eventually I saw 3 guys I knew vaguely from my time at the Holborn hop class). CBC is very good at dancing with new people and helping them learn some new steps. There were taster classes at the beginning but I think the more experienced people could do more to encourage and dance with the less-experienced. There's always a slightly clichey feel to social dance floors.
The hotel was very nice, the dance floor was a good size and surface although there was no bar in our function room. When we headed down to the bar, the drinks were EXTORTIONATELY expensive. The bar service was also appallingly slow- we were 3rd in the queue at the bar and STILL waited over 15 minutes to be served. In that time about 20 people had queued up behind us. When we came to pay for our 'Hendrix single gin and tonic' and apple juice with soda it cost £16.80!?!?!?! I didn't buy another drink- just drank water from the free jugs outside. To be honest, that's what I prefer when swing dancing anyway!
The hotel room was comfy, I slept very well and breakfast was excellent, although I confess to wanting to murder the previous occupant of the room who had set 3 alarms on the radio for 6am, 6.10am and 6.15am which, after going to bed at 2.15ish, I was not ready for! I had to hunt down the radio on the dressing table in the dark and try and turn it off whilst plotting the demise of this unknown person!!!!!
It was an enjoyable new year, we were glad, especially considering it was such a last-minute decision!
Morning! I figured I had better share this post during epiphany as it features my snowflake necklace. Technically, of course, snow should not be beholden to Christmas months only but I suspect if I wear it in January, people will say, "Why are you wearing a Christmas necklace?".
This is from the last Sunday of Advent, I'd worn this outfit at school for my Christmas service but not photographed it and I really loved the colours of this Closet London dress- plus it was a sale bargain of £10 from a shop that was closing down!
It's nice having festive jewellery but it is somewhat limiting I suppose. My one sales purchase this Christmas has been a massive pair of Tatty Devine Jingle Bell earrings- I am a musician so I suspect I can get away with wearing them at all times of the year. Apart from that, my accessorizing was limited to a heart-shaped hairclip that is not evil like hair-grip-style ones that rip my hair out every time I try to remove them!
As I type this on the 31st December, we're soon to set off for the Lindy Hop ball in London. I had a good night's sleep last night, thank God- in fact, I slept till about 12 midday! I decided to sleep in the spare room so I could spread out, put an enormous mound of pillows to my left so I could rest my tooth/cheek against the hot water bottle without squashing CBC and also to ensure no snoring disturbed me. Feeling somewhat more positive and haven't taken any Ibuprofen yet- it's hurting but nothing like as bad as yesterday! Hurrah! I'm hoping to wear my second Wedding dress for the ball tonight (the one to dance in rather than the long one) and we're staying at the hotel so it will hopefully be a nice experience!
Happy New Year to you!
Froeliche Sylvester!
xx
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.
All is fine over here. I have enjoyed some of the warmer weather over the past couple of weeks- summer hasn't totally gone so the summer dresses are still lurking!
Here's the next instalment of brooches- I had no idea I had so many!
This diamante swallow brooch is from Primark and I bought it more than 3 years ago, I suspect. I like bird brooches and this one is fairly simple and versatile- worn here with Gingham swing dress- a frequent appearer on this blog!
This is rather geeky, but it is a Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix brooch that came from Goodnight Boutique in a bargain £5 goody bag (5 items!) a few months ago. I like having a HP brooch and though there's lots of parts that make me sad in this book, this was the one I felt I waited longest for!
Awful shot (and again, I look like I have been scratching my neck!) but this TARDIS blue rose corsage from F21 goes well with the Orla Kiely top,even if it refuses to lie properly!
Double brooch day! I wore both lace butterflies from Bruges but unfortunately my Alice in Wonderland necklace twisted around got caught up in the back of them and it took a great amount of time to untangle! I didn't even notice when I took the pictures!!
Last but not least,this is the EDIY of the week- another felt decoration from Lidl which I married to a brooch. It is suitably appropriate for the weather and oncoming season and thus I am linking to Spygirl's carrot link up!
Welcome to TARDIS Tuesday! I thought it was a while since I'd done a proper sort of Cosplay as opposed to TARDIS blue (which I love!) so I thought I'd have a go at Clara Oswald from the latest episode of Doctor WHo, Under the Lake.
I confess, that this one has been on my 'to do list' for a while, since I first saw the promotional posters with Clara in this outfit (see below). Yes, I am that prepared sad/geeky/obsessed
Images of Clara are from the BBC who own the copyright- I borrowed them from Blogtor WHO
I bought the cardigan in the Mistral sale when I was in Wallingford-on-Thames as a mustard cardie has been on my list for a while and I knew it had 'wear it backwards' properties to it too.
Clara's dress is actually from Miss Patina, a brand I love but I couldn't justify the £65 price tag when I first saw it. It has since sold out. Instead, I took the 60's shift dress vibe and grid pattern and went with a dress found in Notting Hill plus tights and boots.
All my folded arm shots were rubbish, so you just get the smiley ubiquitous Kezzie as usual photo.
If you haven't watched it yet, avoid below, spoilers...
Images of Clara are from the BBC who own the copyright- I borrowed them from Blogtor WHO
I enjoyed the episode this week. It was creepy and unexpected and I like it when there's a mystery to solve. Did you notice all the close-ups on the eyes with the symbols on them. That's why the ghost left the sign-language translator alone of course, since he didn't see the symbols. I suspect that will be a crucial plot device for next week. CBC thinks that the girl in charge is somehow involved in the whole plot since she kept insisting that he didn't go in and look at the signals.
That whole "Duty of care" thing that the Doctor spouted at Clara was, I think, a portent of things to come. I HOPE her end isn't a bad one, but I suspect it might be- nooo! She was a bit too gung-ho with things this week!
It was also refreshing to not have an 'apocalyptic' episode. So much of New Who is - "end of the world"stuff so it is a nice change to have a contained adventure that might be small-scale devastation instead of all-consuming destruction. It would be nice to visit some new planets too!
Otherwise, I am loving it and am miserable at the thought that this is Clara's last series. Sigh.
Over to you, have you a Doctor-Whoish, British-looking or TARDIS blue outfit, do come and link below with Maricel and her humble assistant at TARDIS Tuesday!
Hello there! How are you? Well, I hope. Thanks for all your positive comments on my last post. There are, of course, difficult times or frustrating lessons, but the overall feel is positive!
Today, I am not sure why exactly I am sharing these except for the fact that this is the type of scruffy outfit I like wearing in the summer when I'm not doing anything particularly smart or of consequence. I was wearing this on a Sunday doing some gardening, I wore it for church too on a morning I wasn't really bothered about dressing up.
The skirt has spots and tigers over it and I found it with Sophie and Hazel on our Ipswich charity shop crawl. It's lovely floaty and light and has tiny pleats in it. The cardigan is another old charity shop find and with its weird-pockets becoming the hem, it's not one I wear for smart occasions. The necklace is the same colour and also comes from a charity shop. To stick to a simple 3 colour palette, I wore these bronze lace-ups to tie in with the tigers.
Nothing particularly stylish or noteworthy but it works for me!
We had a wonderful Lake District walk today which I will tell you about soon but it is SO nice to be up north again with my lovely family. We returned from the lakes and J made a delicious roasted vegetable risotto with a box of veg we bought at Doddington Hall farm shop last weekend. It's funny, but since CBC has become a non-meat eater, I find myself loving the vegetarian choices like this. As you've often noticed from my food posts, we didn't eat much meat anyway, but I find myself often nowadays finding meat a bit hard going- I can't seem to get through it.
We're hoping to do a few fun things up here in Northumberland as long as the weather holds out- the forecast seems to suggest rain is imminent and all-powerful. Or something like that! Delightfully, a dear friend from my home town is moving to Hexham this week so we are going to meet up! I hoping for a bit of Farne island action too as well as a trip to the Cheviots too. And a trip to Haltwhistle outdoor pool which I've only been to TWICE in my entire 6 year relationship with CBC and visits to here!
Usually, when it comes to making expensive purchases, I um and ah over this for a long time. I'm fine making charity shop purchases that cost a couple of pounds (do too many of these) but I worry about spending a lot on one item. Yet, when I do, they usually end up being very useful. Like my Doc Martens last October, they cost me a lot of money but were invaluable through the winter for my 3 miles a day walk to and from school. For a good long time, I've wanted a good raincoat. The cheap raincoats I've been using up till now have not beeen great, they are only showerproof and I get wet, they are unstructured and they make me sweat- especially as I often running 'late' in the rain and want to get there quicker. Enter Seasalt Cornwall, whose products I came across last July when I bought a Seasalt dress in Hay on Wye. I discovered they have an excellent range of raincoats which make use of cotton with a special waxing called Tin Cloth. Not only that, but they look cool too!!!
I fell in love with their Seafolly raincoat, a cotton-based raincoat with Duffle coat toggles and a fun stripy lining but scuttled away at the cost.
Months and months had gone by (about 9!) and I kept looking at them and thinking I really wanted a good quality raincoat.
Finally, we went to Totnes and I saw that there was a Seasalt shop in Totnes so I could go and try on the raincoats. They had a special promotion that day with money off so I bit the bullet and bought it.
It got lots of use in Totnes over the week
I am so pleased with my raincoat- it worked well in the rain and I can wear it when it might rain.
I bought a size 10 rather than an 8 so I can wear a jumper under it. I can recommend it highly. It makes me smile every time I see it! It also kind of completes my rainbow of coats inadvertently!
On this day in Totnes, we were visiting Sharpham Vineyard and I wore it with my Cath Kidston Ricrac dress from my Dad/Step Mum for my birthday.
And should I get lost, you'll see me a mile off!
On the cliffs...
What do you wear in the rain? Do you do lots of walking like me and need a proper raincoat?
