Summer brings my favourite outfits

You might have noticed I haven't shared as many outfit pictures in recent times as in the past. There are various reasons for this but one being the fact that I find that my love for Winter and cold-weather outfits is significantly smaller than my love for Summer clothes. I just adore Summer outfits and find I just like sharing what I wear. Even if it's just a dress with little or no other styling, I still enjoy seeing and remembering them! 

So, here are a few I've worn in recent weeks. 

CBC and I went to the beach last Saturday after a wander in a town to get some essential refill items we had completely run out of. 

The skirt was Monsoon, charity shopped, and beautifully light-weight cotton. The top is, also Monsoon and linen. It's a little awkward to style but I feel cool in it! The little cotton waistcoat is embroidered and I bought it recently from Vinted. It's a little big for me but I have seen Vix wearing so many pretty waistcoats like this and wanted to try it! 

This dress is just F&F at Tesco, charity-shopped. It's a light cotton and I wore it on that hot Saturday a few weeks ago and perfect for a hot day where you want to be covered up. I wore it to go for a mooch around the shops when CBC was away and I added this Boden Cashmere cardigan I bought that day for £4 and this cute hat which I needed as I'd forgotten a hat! Plus my gold sequinned Tom pumps. 

The next outfit was worn for church the next day and then school and features my Miss Patina sailor cardigan. I added my cats as mermaids skirt, also Miss Patina plus my Clarks Funny dream shoes. And the hat! 

Another Miss Patina outfit. I tried this beautiful light-weight linen/cotton pinafore with lace trim and the cotton blouse.  I actually ended up swapping it for a darker linen version. Now looking at these pics, I'm kind of regretting swapping it but I wasn't sure about it! 

The final outfit was worn for Cultural Day at school. Last year, I wore a Greek dress (for my Greek grandma) and I did debate wearing the White F&F dress above as it has Grecian look and colours but also almost Scottish flags for some ancestors but in the end, I wore this beautiful Laura Ashley cotton lawn dress. Nothing screams English more than Laura Ashley, especially with roses. When I first wore it on this blog about 14 years ago, it was too big for me but now it fits perfectly. Soooo many compliments from staff, kids (all genders!). 

I wore this hat with it all day. 

I've got to talk about the Cultural Day. 

It was, like last year, an incredible day! 

Everyone was dressed in outfits which they felt reflected a culture they have a connection or background to. 

Last year, the same week, we did three morning performances on 3 days in Mid-July to parents featuring songs from multiple cultures represented in my school. 

This year, as it was May and we had only had 6 weeks to learn songs, we just did internal assemblies. Also, we have been having a focus on representing South Asian cultures. As part of this, I had sent out a request to staff to see if anyone was willing to do a short term club to teach some sort of South Asian dance. To my delight,  3 members of staff volunteered to run clubs for 3 different year groups and different types of dace- one Rajusthani puppet dance for year 1-2, another Dandiya stick dance to year 3-4 and another Bhangra dance to year 5-6.

In each assembly, all three dance groups performed, brilliantly.

In Year 1-2, I had taught them, and they sang 3 songs.  Ghum Parani from Bangladesh, Anile, Anile O diva from Sri Lanka and Ali Baba from Afghanistan.  They did such a sweet job of the songs especially the Afghan song.

In year 3-4, I taught them Khamma Mana Nanderji from India and Alef Ba (alphabet song) from Afghanistan and in addition , recorder club played a piece from Jamaica.

In year 5-6, they sang Alef Ba from Afghanistan and Eso Eso by Rabindrath Tagore from the West Bengal/Bangledesh and drumming club performed some Bhangra Chaal drumming rhythmson snare drums.  The whole day was extremely joyful and I was so proud of all the children.

One lovely member of staff came and gave me a hug when she heard Eso Eso as she said she had sung that in school and loved it and was so glad I had helped her twin girls learn some songs from their cultural background when they had shown little interest when she had tried to interest them in it. This really touched me!

 

TARDIS Tuesday - Sarah Jane Smith and the Android Invasion

 It's been a little while since my last TARDIS Tuesday.  I've not been remotely organised at getting an outfit ready as well as photographing it!

Yesterday, I suddenly had a brainwave at creating a completely new cosplay from another one and other items in my house.  I'm not sure what made me think of it but I do recall that @Peribrowncosplayer from Instagram recently posted her version of this outfit which put it in my mind but I didn't think  I could do this outfit because of the colour...

It's worn by Elisabeth Sladen who played Sarah Jane Smith.  This was worn in an episode with Tom Baker called The Android Invasion.

The fact that it features a sailor collar means it is right up my street except for the colour.

https://www.deviantart.com/docbuffflash82/art/Sarah-Jane-Smith-The-Android-Invasion-PNG-882784044

You can see it's quite a distinct shade of pink.  With white accessories- a beret, belt, sailor collar and scarf and shoes..

https://uk.pinterest.com/elizakingteacher/sarah-jane-outfit-ideas/


I bought a white sailor cardigan from Miss Patina recently. It arrived on Thursday (when I was home from school) but I didn't realise it was here as Royal Mail didn't actually ring my doorbell, nor did they put through a card. It was only when I checked my email on Friday evening wondering when the parcel was arriving that I saw it was due on Thursday and had been delivered to 'your safe space'.

It turned out they had put it behind my bins (which is not my safe space and is also exposed to the elements.  Royal Mail are dumb!  The cardigan is lovely and I am super chuffed with it! But suddenly, on Saturday, I realised that although the colour wouldn't be exactly right, I did actually have something that might work for this outfit.

So...without further ado...

Cast your mind back to January 2024, when I debuted a new cosplay of classic Who companion, Romana played by the delectable Mary Tamm which happened because I found bought a salmon-coloured pair of trousers and a shirt in my local charity-shop (I'm still super proud of this as I've never seen anyone else attempt this outfit!) 

I realised that I absolutely could make this work.  Unfortunately, I couldn't be bothered to iron it which I probably should have.  

I layered my new cream sailor cardigan (which I had worn for church on Sunday morning) under the salmon shirt. Next, I found a stretchy cream belt and turned it backwards so the clasp was at the back (actually though, hers seems to have a dark clasp like mine) I rolled up all the sleeves.

I didn't really have any suitable shoes but my Clarks funny-dream are light so would do the trick.

For my version of her beret, I took my Accessorize mohair baker boy hat and turned it round so it resembled a beret.

The white scarf proved a problem as I couldn't find my one anywhere (one I bought for my Helen of Troy world book day outfit) and didn't really have anything else.  Then, I remembered that I have detachable sleeves from my white cycling jersey which I tied in a knot and tucked into the top of my shirt. Any false move and they would be falling!

And that's my complete, rather-creased, outfit! Although it's salmon/apricot-hued rather than pink, I think it does the trick!

What do you think?

On the subject of Sailor collars, last year, I bought an orange gingham sailor collar top from Primark which I was delighted by but it seems sailor-collars are a thing this year- I've seen them in several shops including Next and M&S.  If you want to see how much I love a sailor collar, you can explore my previous outfits here

Much love to you.

xx

A day in Aldeburgh

Hello!!

Last weekend, CBC and I had no particular plans and we suddenly realised that the Aldeburgh festival was on!  In its 76th year, this music festival in the Suffolk seaside town was founded by great British composer, Benjamin Britten and his partner Peter Pears (pronounced Peers).  CBC and I have been to various events for this over the years. He introduced me to it fairly early in our relationship as he was a Hess student when he was young- these students spend time in Aldeburgh stewarding for it and get to stay with local families.

We decided to try and get tickets for the Sunday events.

The timing was perfect as I had JUST started my final Year 4 music unit of the year on Benjamin Britten's Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra 3 days earlier so I was very much in the mood to go to Aldeburgh!

We left home around 8.45am to drive to Suffolk and arrived just in time for the 10.30am Festival service at St Peter's and St Paul's church 

The service received a sermon from the Rt Rev’d Joanne Grenfell, Bishop of Stepneyand the  Britten Pears Chamber Choir was singing, conducted by James Davyand with Francesca Massey organ.  The service was lovely with music by composer of the festival,  Helen Grime: her Missa Brevis and a piece by Daniel Kidane: Christus factus est.  CBC's old colleague and friend L was singing in the choir as she had moved to Suffolk and it was lovely to see her.

I loved the beautiful Benjamin Britten memorial window by John Piper.  Britten had developed a new type of opera which he gave the name 'parables for church performance.  Three of these were named Curlew River, The Burning Fiery Furnace and The Prodigal son and all of these are evoked in some way in this beautiful window. 

 After the service we headed to Aldeburgh high street for a spot of lunch.  I queued in the epic fish and chip shop queue whilst CBC went to find some coffee and have a mooch around.

After 30mins, I reached the front of the queue and bought CBC a portion of chips (he'd acquired a toastie) and for myself, a Child-sized portion of Fish and chips plus a small battered sausage. 

I met CBC on the beach to eat.

The fish and chips, cooked in Beef dripping, was delicious and my portion was just the right size!

I went dressed for the seaside:

I bought this gingham sailor top in Primark last month. I never shop in there now but I saw this on Instagram and knew a 100% cotton sailor top in Gingham was something I had to see!

The skirt is from Fatface via a charity shop plus my Seasalt sandals from Depop a good 6 years ago or so.

The sea changed colour in the space of 2 minutes when the sun came out:

We enjoyed our lunch and witnessed a fly-by theft from a Seagull who stole a child's battered sausage.  It also tried to steal mine- I suddenly noticed it hovering inches from my hand.

As CBC ate his Tiramisu cake, I had a paddle! It was refreshing but the sloping shingle was hard to stand upright on as I tried to hold my skirt!

We had to hotfoot it back to the car, parked past the church (via a charity shop where CBC bought an old print of a lovely John Singer Sargeant painting) and drove to Snape Maltings for our next musical performance.   This was held in the Britten studio at 2pm.  We crept in late in the complete dark, accidentally bumping into our friend L who was a steward for it!

The concert was a performance by Fu and Betts-Dean: The programme was entitled Solitude with Schubert Lotte Betts-Dean,  mezzo-soprano and George Xiaoyuan Fu on  piano.  It began with a film called Solitude With Schubert (first screening) by Matilda Hay filmmaker. The pieces were Schubert: Einsamkeit, D.620 (17’) Schubert: Schwanengesang, D.957 (selection) (15’) Schubert: Piano Sonata No.21 in B flat, D.960 (40’).  It was wonderful!!! The programme explored how grief mingles with consolation, combined with a film exploring the loss of a loved one. 

After this, we headed out for a walk to Snape Warren across the beautiful boardwalks.

After a glorious walk, we headed into the maltings for a light dinner.

I changed into my evening concert outfit of this Monsoon cotton dress, bought from a charity shop in Hexham.

Funnily enough, I saw my friend from Gamelan who was there to watch the same concert as us by coincidence.  Last time I came to watch an Aldeburgh concert, I saw ANOTHER Gamelan friend!

Amusingly, when we entered the Maltings hall, it turned out out of 1000 seats, we had ended up seated next to each other by total coincidence!!

the concert was entitled Nocturne and Folk, performed by the Knussen Chamber Orchestra.

The solists were  Claire Booth, soprano  and Allan Clayton, tenor.  Ryan Wigglesworth was the the conductor.  The programme was Britten: Suite on English Folk Tunes, ‘A time there was ...’, Op.90 , Helen Grime: Folk (Britten Pears Arts co-commission),  Britten: Nocturne, Op.60, and Beethoven: Symphony No.8 in F, Op.9. I adore Britten's music and I loved the two pieces we heard, both new to me.  The piece by Helen Grimes, a major new commission with soloist Claire Booth, was really intriguing with some very evocative lyrics and musical crafting.

We'd had a fantastic day and it just remained to drive back to  Essex. I helped CBC mark some test papers as he drove (I read the answers and told me if they were right or not!) 

I very much recommend a day in Aldeburgh and a visit to the Maltings, ideally a concert!

xx

Some Two colour recent outfits

Sorry, been a bit busy!   We have special visitors to school tomorrow and Wednesday.  Other things going on too.

Here's some summery outfits I have enjoyed these past weeks...

Every item in this outfit was charity-shopped over the years except the jewellery.

I enjoyed the combination of blue and teal.

Red and white this time.  This dress was a happy find in Barnardo's, Hexham. I've wanted one like this for ages!

The earrings were a charity-shop purchase which went nicely with my Swarovsky Star necklace, a present from a child in my first class.

White and dark blue.   The top was White Stuff via Charity shop and only bought last week. I like the scalloped sleeves.  The denim trousers with their balloon legs were also new. Very expensive and I had no intention of purchasing anything but we visited a new independent shop on their first day in a new location and I was persuaded...

Oops, broke the 2 colour rule but wore the new trousers in this sailor combo on the day we almost got a cat but didn't!

Right, I MUST go to bed!!x

 

Red Sailor

Ahoy there, Sailors!

I love a bit of sailor/nautical sartorial-styling!  Last week, my Year 5's were writing and performing their own sea shanties and this week, we were looking at the Sailor's Hornpipe!

In this outfit, there are two pieces that I bought for cosplay for Classic Who companion, Romana.  The red tiered skirt and the Sailor jacket.  Both were bought second hand for cosplays but get worn in other combinations regularly but I don't think they've featured outside cosplay posts!  The Laura Ashley t-shirt was bought from a Loue charity shop and is so comfortable.  The hat is from ASOS and the boots second hand Vegan Dr Martens.  I wore this on the lovely sunny day we had our Kensington Chamber Orchestra concert.  I sat on the steps reading my book and several people commented that I looked like a painting! It was funny. I do love the combination of Navy, red and White.  

The necklace was a present for Christmas from my friend Lara. 

Xx

 

Sun, Spring, Sailor

Oh, the SUN, the SUN!  It has been glorious! It puts one in such a good mood! I ate my breakfast in the garden both days of this weekend and it was a joy!

I walked with my friend Margaret this afternoon which was also a joy- we travelled to and walked along Southend Seafront to Thorpe Bay and back.

The signs of Spring are here- my first Daffodils opened and I can see buds on my cherry blossom.

Yesterday, I made sure to wear clothes I can't usually on a bike- a long skirt and a hat!

And went for  real sailor vibe.

This necklace was a present from my friend L for Christmas

Wore my Laura Ashley top bought in Loue last Summer along with my red tiered skirt (my Romana skirt!) 

Added my sailor jacket (Zara via Vinted) and an ASOS felt hat.

You can't see my Dr Martens.

I wore this to travel up to London for my orchestra concert. It was a great concert and two of my colleagues came to watch it- it was so nice to have them there, particularly as one of them had been fasting all day for Ramadan and was very hungry! They were so sweet and enthusiastic!

This week, I am taking the choir to the ROyal Albert Hall.   Hopefully, there won't be any catastrophes like Vomit-gate like last time!

xx

Piano girl

I've had this dress for almost 9 months.  I remember seeing it on Miss Patina's website a couple of years ago and absolutely loving it! A sailor look, ruffly sleeves AND musical??? Check!

But the Dainty Melody dress was £85 and you can't return, only exchange, I think!  Luckily, I saw it on eBay for much cheaper last Summer and I jumped at the chance to buy it.

I wore this to church on Sunday and to my orchestra rehearsal. The delight I got from fellow congregation members was so sweet!

I wore my Ugg boots with it.

Awful picture but I wore my Primark Dalmation beret and added a tiny dainty music brooch that was a present from my ex-deputy head teacher.

And my Tatty Devine music necklace (was also an eBay bargain!) 

 Even the white cuffs have a little piano pattern on them! So fun!

Hope all is good with you!x