Style imitating Art: Vogue by the sea

 It's been an absolute age since I have taken part in Style Imitating Art but I saw Salazar's post today and realise what I was wearing could sort of be an interpretation of this poster.

It's an image by illustrator, Helen Dryden for Vogue from July the 1st, 1919.

Anywhere, here's my outfit:

As it's a little loose an interpretation, let me talk you through it.

A nod to the turban is my white floral headband which I tucked my hair into to emulate the turban.

The pink Rene Derhy silk scarf with its pretty florals is a nod to the scarf held by the woman.

My Tatty Devine necklace is the same colours as the shell on the beach. 

Although my top is black and white stripes, it's the same colors as the lady in the picture.

My cute Hokusai inspired earrings, which were a present from my one of my favourite families from school at the end of the year (part of an adorable set of 6!) are a nod to the sea

But so are my sandals from Moshulu (which were deliberately chosen for the photo!) as they emulate the different blues of the waves.

My parasol is a vintage one bought from Vintage-on-Sea for our school production of Treasure Island but it got pretty shredded in the production and I'm not sure if it can be mended or not as it's broken in several places!

Finally, there's my skirt which is the same shade as the sky.  Pity it's not ironed but it's too hot for that!

Head over to 14 Shades of Grey tomorrow to see how everyone else interpreted it!

We've just returned from a week in Northumberland but we only got back last night at midnight as our car had a severe oil issue on the A1 at Newark so we had to call out the AA.  We were towed to Cambridge services within an hour but then had to wait another 4 hours for our next tow home (they operate within areas!).  Very tired, have a headache but glad to be home!

Hope you are well!

xx

A few Summer outfits

Hello there!

We are several weeks into term now.  I was really sad on Friday at school because we are really late starting clubs because the person who does them was away. And then, the payment for clubs has gone up by a lot.  And when I looked at sign up for my clubs, I had only 4 signed up to Drumming Club, 9 to year 3-4 choir and only 11 for choir.  And I've been told the deadline is Monday. I miss the old days where I was able to just run my own things and I'd have big numbers. I cannot run any of those clubs with those numbers, I just can't. Anyway, I did raise my concerns so I hope and pray that perhaps something can be done.  I feel really despondent. 

This weekend, I have a gig on Clapham Common. We are playing Balinese Gamelan for Colourscape.

I found a few photos I'd taken of some outfits I really liked so I thought I'd share them before the seasons change:

A few times, people have told me red really suits me and looking at this outfit, I agree, it IS my colour!

Incidentally, the first time CBC and I danced together, before we got together, I was wearing a red dress!

This LK Bennett was charity-shopped a while back and I really like it. It's knitted but the short sleeves make it different. I teamed it with my Nan's gold necklace. It's funny because when she died some 25 years ago, I took her dressing table box of costume jewellery, nothing expensive and I kept most of it for sentimental reasons. This chunky necklace was never my taste but this year, I've found myself drawn to it and wearing it this year.

These Lucy and Yak trousers were charity-shopped earlier in the year.  It was funny because my friend Jen had a pair of Alexa trousers by Lucy and Yak a few years ago and I really, really liked them - they looked so comfortable.  I've been watching them on Vinted for a few years, particularly in the Sunflower pattern, which always sell well. When I saw them in a charity shop when I was hanging around waiting for CBC, I was so happy because I could try them for size. The size S fitted me perfectly and I made a donation to charity!

The Rieker lattice shoes (charity shopped of course, about 4 years ago) have been the shoes I've worn the most this Summer.

To complete the outfit, I added my Rochester-charity-shopped jacket and an ASOS wool hat.

I carried the jacket and shoes into the following outfit worn for a Thai meal out along with a Majorcan belt and my Sari-recycled dress from Padstow.

The shoes continued into this outfit featured a black skirt with Indian dancers which was, yes, you guessed it, charity-shopped and a crocheted top I charity-shopped (naturlich!)  only this year.

I have neglected these brown Asos sandals, back of a cupboard in a shoe box under other shoes but it was nice to wear them again.

The garden Crocs ruin the look somewhat of this Laura Ashley dress! CS-ed of course! 

Here's an outfit from Northumberland. All CSed. The linen and cotton mix cardigan was my only purchase in Hexham. It was £1. The skirt is from Fatface originally and is a comfy jersey. 

Plus CSed straw visor. 

Finally, the rainbow dress in another incarnation, with a Dorothy Perkins t-shirt and my Moshulu sandals. 

Any favourites here? 

VE day outfits

On VE day, we were invited to come to school dressed in either 1940's inspired outfits or the coluors of the Union flag.

I decided to go with the latter option

I started with the white blouse. It is one I charity shopped a year ago or so. I really like it but I don't know where it originally came from.

Next, I added the red skirt which is my Romana cosplay one- it was second hand.

Next was the blue Monsoon cardigan which I've had for a long time and my Clarks Funny Dream shoes from Vinted.

Add my red beret (Primark charity shopped) and this Collectif nautical necklace (which I ended up lending to our Assistant Head as she was wearing nautical trousers with star fish and lobsters on in these colours!) .

I loved the combo.

At playtime, I was on duty and ended up chatting to M, a lovely, quirky, individual.  I looked at her outfit and admired it.  I then looked at it again and said, "Actually, I HAVE this outfit at home! I could totally come to school tomorrow wearing this outfit!"

And so the next day, I came to school dressed in the outfit (the outfit above!).  I walked past her classroom on my way to the Staff room and the door was open. I hissed her name as her teacher did the register. She looked at me quizzically and I pointed at my outfit.  She looked puzzled at first and suddenly sheer delight and incredulity spread over her face. I waved and carried on with my journey.

At playtime later, I saw her and said, "What do you think!".  She was so sweet and said, "I AM HONOURED!!!"  Haha, it was funny to do this and I think it made her smile!

On the actual VE day, we had an all school, outdoor assembly with poetry reading and sang 3 songs I'd taught.  Of course, despite all my best laid plans, technology failed us and the boombox stalled on the backing tracks I had prepared.  Ah well, we persevered without them!

Hope all is well with you!

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

 

Blue Princess

Last week was the first rehearsal of my most local orchestra.  Unfortunately, the hall where we rehearse had broken heating and last weekend was chilly to say the least.  Luckily, we were warned.

When we arrived, it was really quite funny just how many layers everyone had on!  We survived the rehearsal!

Here's what I decided to wear:

I wore a long-sleeved Cath Kidston stop underneath and then wore this blue Cashmere Edinburgh Woollen Mill polo-neck on top.  I bought this in 2010, the year I broke my wrist and I always remember wearing this on New Year's eve to go to a local pub.

Under the skirt, I wore some leggings and my Ugg Black sheepskin waterproof boots (Charity shop bargain about 7 years ago of £25!)- though you can see my slippers in this picture. Speaking of the skirt, I bought this from Per Una, M&S in about 2004-5 which makes it 20 years old now. I am incredulous to realise this but I don't think I've ever shared it on the blog. It was my absolute favourite garment to wear when I worked at the Royal Academy of Music. There was a lovely Professor there, very shy and introverted, who one day came up to me and bought me a cup of tea and a chocolate cake "Because you look like a Princess in that skirt!" and scuttled off.  It was such a sweet gesture of friendship and I will always remember him and think  of that moment when I wear this. The funny thing is, I genuinely did feel like a princess when I wore this and used to watch it trail down the stairs as I walked wearing it!

On top, I added the black charity-shopped furry gilet. I still don't know if it is real or fake sheepskin but it is so incredibly soft and warm.

The final layer was my Per Una charity-shopped teal coat. I haven't worn this coat so much as I am always worried about it getting wet when cycling (in fact, this is the case with most of my coats) so I try to wear my other ones when we are in the car!  Added my Nan's 'banana slice' necklace and my charity-shopped black, velvet Kangol beret.

This was a week of rehearsals.  On the Tuesday, we had another orchestra rehearsal but as the heating was still broken, our conductor arranged for us to rehearse at his very nice school in the music department which was very warm!!!! Also I had a Balinese Gamelan rehearsal on Thursday which was actually really good.  I hadn't been to Gamelan properly since about April last year. I went once in October and found myself really demoralised learning a new piece and so felt worried about going again but it has been fine. We have a concert at Battersea Arts Centre on the 7th February (tickets available here) if you fancy seeing something a bit different!

xxx
 

Summer Outfits worn 1

 I LOVE Summery outfits.  Summer is absolutely my favourite season for clothing.

This dress, from Sainsbury's supermarket is one of my favourite Summer dresses. I tried it on in store originally 2 Summers ago with my sister. I didn't buy it as I also bought some Lilac dungarees and one item was enough to be buying but then regretted it and spent the next year trying to track one down second hand.  It's cotton with a lovely shirred bodice which means it fits really well. I bought this hat in TK Maxx about 18 years ago and I'd not realised they would work together! I wore my Accessorise embroidered espradrilles (also charity-shopped)

Here's what I was wearing the first day I got my hair cut! I bought this T-shirt from Hello Dodo in lockdown from their sample and seconds sale - they have so many funny pun t-shirts. I loved this Gull Power one but they also have one that says "Mean Gulls" on it which makes me giggle and a Christmas jumper which says "Raptor present for ya'" with a raptor with Christmas lights on! Go and have a look for a laugh!  The culottes were secondhand from Emily and Fin (eBay) and are so comfortable except for the fact they have an annoying zip that doesn't quite stay up all the time!  The sandals are from Lotus but they were secondhand on eBay a few years ago.

I bought this dress with tiny peaches on it from a charity-shop 3 weeks ago- it's from Abercrombie and Fitch and reminded me of a beloved dress from New Look I had in my 20's.  It was a no-brainer to pair it with my Lorelai peach earrings plus this Esprit cardigan I bought in Croatia and Rieker lattice flats

For church on Sunday, I wore this Emily and Fin floral dress. It was actually too hot for it as it was too fitted for doing anything active so I changed pretty much straight after church!

The last one in this batch features a charity-shopped handmade skirt (out of some sort of 70's floral fabric) and a F&F orange vest-top plus a Monsoon cobweb cardigan (charity-shopped).  Worn with my Toms Huarache sandals (TK Maxx about 10 years ago)

Another pair of Lorelai LQ earrings and a Cath Kidston necklace

The one which was best for the hot weather was the peachy dress!

Which one is your favourite?

xx

TARDIS Tuesday - Nightmare in Silver

Hello! Welcome to another edition of TARDIS Tuesday.

After 2 weeks of Classic Who, I thought I'd return to contemporary Doctor Who and revisit an old favourite Clara Oswald outfit.

Image borrowed from The Doctor Who site

It featured in one of Jenna Coleman's early episodes 

I'm staggered to discover the last time I shared this outfit in November 2020. Can it really be more than 3 years?!?!?!

I wore this outfit for my Stepmum's birthday lunch.  We went to a pub in a village called Eynsford. It was nice food but we had to wait such a loooong time for it to arrive.  There was also a lot of young children in there. They behaved well but it was quite noisy! It was lovely to see my Dad, Stepmum, Sister and her boyfriend only a few weeks after we last saw them and next weekend, my sister and her boyfriend are coming to stay- CBC and he after going to watch De Peche Mode and meanwhile, she and I are going to go out together in London!

This outfit features 3 screen accurate items (the same as last time)- the skirt (from Urban Outfitters) although I've sized up on it, plus the All Saints Axelle jacket. The third item is the Luftwaffer Hat badge which is attached to the jacket.

The jumper is almost identical to the original one from French brand, Sessun (100% Merino wool) but this alternative one is from Boden.  It was a lovely jumper to wear on a cold day as the merino is thin but warm.

My boots are from Clarks (bought new from Ashford Designer outlet) and have a cosy fleecy lining- also good for  a cold day.

Had a perfectly lovely Saturday performing a Haydn symphony no.80 and Mozart's 18th Piano concerto with pianist, John Reid. The wonderful conductor was Tom Seligman who was our former conductor of KCO but he's moved to Germany now. He came back for a few days and asked a few of us to form a small orchestra for the day. Oh how I have MISSED him!  He's such a special conductor and having been conducted by him for over 20 years in various forms plus a good 10 years of him conducting every concert, it just felt right! 

Felt a bit of a twit though. On Saturday morning, I got up, made us porridge, did all the washing up from previous nights, made us sandwiches and then had to hurry CBC.  We were really last minute.  We jumped out the car at the station and the ticket office was shut! I had to try and use the machine. CBC, from the platform called me, and I realised the train was on the platform!  I ran as fast as I could, but had to cross the bridge.  The doors shut and the train departed...with CBC on it and me running shouting, "WAIT, WAIT!" as I ran down.  I couldn't believe it and I was having absolute panicky hysterics about being late for the rehearsal and CBC deserting me!!! Some people on the platform told me  to relax as there was another one in 20 minutes but I said, "My husband is on that and I have his ticket!"  I called CBC who told me I should have just got on the train without buying a ticket and thought I was coming! We had a heated discussion and he agreed to get off at the next more main station to wait for me.  After all that, we made it to the rehearsal on time. Google maps journey planner is overly cautious in terms of timings (and our Central and Victoria line came immediately.  Felt pretty silly about my hysterical reaction but I was always on edge after trying to hurry up CBC to not be at the station at the last minute and  when I'm late, it's one of the things that gets me super anxious and stressed.  Ah well, all's well that ends well. 

xx

TARDIS Tuesday- Romana from Shada

Hello there!

What beautiful weather has now arrived! This is a common occurence in September!

It has been a rather busy and lovely weekend!  More on that soon.

For TARDIS Tuesday, I realised it has been over 4 years since I shared this particular inspiration outfit. It is one I loved and needed no modification although I HAVE modified something- nothing new acquired but I did decide to wear something slightly different.  Here is my previous post for comparison- I'd be interested to see which version you prefer.

It was a historical outfit worn by 4th Doctor companion and fellow Gallifreyan- the Timelady known as Romana.  Played by the beautiful Lalla Ward (who actually married Tom Baker!), she wore a series of quirky and fun outfits, some that looked Edwardian. She wore it in famous episode Shada.  This was supposed to be a murder-mystery set in Cambridge colleges but it was never finished due to Strike action at the BBC. We only have part of the episodes filmed.  The rest was read with pictures and remade with cartoons for BBC video and DVD.

Have a look at this beauty!

https://theultimateguidetothefashionofdoctorwho.wordpress.com/2017/06/20/romana-ii-shada/

IMage borrowed from this Pinterest

Image borrowed from
https://theultimateguidetothefashionofdoctorwho.wordpress.com/2017/06/20/romana-ii-shada/ 

Here's my 2023 version. Slightly older Kezzie, shorter hair, slightly different outfit:

I started with the lacy top which was actually a dress- £2 from the charity shop 4 years ago.  It's very pretty and one of these days, I will wear the dress in its own right rather than a blouse.  

The hat was an ASOS one I have had for a very long time, a miniature boater which I embellished with a Cherry brooch that CBC bought me and some white flower hair clips. I think if I did it again, I would have pinned up the sides of my hat...and found some  cow parsley to embellish with

Two things I did differently this time were that I looked at Romana's skirt which seemed to have a patterned blue tinge to it so I decided to wear my FabIndia @ Anokhi skirt instead. Do you think it works better than my white one?

Last time, I just wore a piece of thin red ribbon round my neck as the choker whereas this time (I couldn't find it), I wore one of our old dance school headbands (every grade had a different coloured headband so you could distinguish between the different level children in our class)- it used to be Grade 3 then became the Grade 5 headband. The red belt (Poundland ancient) was the same. I did consider wearing a red scarf but decided not to.

I thought it would be fun to try and recreate this photo of Romana in a punt. It took several attempts of pressing the self-time then throwing my self down onto the cushions, adjusting my hat, picking up the book, arranging my legs and then lifting my skirt slightly...all in 10 seconds!

I do hope all is well with you and you are enjoying the sun! I shall be in school, trying to get my room back into order!

xx

Blockprint

Hello my little cauliflowers!

I hope you are well.

I thought I'd start off this post with 2 outfits I wore last month with the blockprint skirt I bought in Majorca. It came from a lovely shop called Zoe Del Mundo and they had a man's shop, women's shop and kids shop.  CBC and I bought something from each shop. Me, this skirt, a top and a belt plus a lizard clatterpillar instrument and CBC a nice shirt. It has shirring at the back so is nice and comfy

I liked the colours together of this first outfit but not sure whether they worked together - it emphasizes my chest a bit too much and makes it look bigger than it is! Wore it with my Lorelai LQ ombre rainbow earrings and my new Timberland suede shoes (Charity shop, Hebden Bridge)

This was last weekend's outfit instead which I think works MUCH better. I wore this short-sleeved F&F jumper (bought about 11 years ago) with Balinese moonstone earrings and a simple necklace. Same shoes.

The orange waistband makes it harder to style. What would YOU wear with this skirt?

Ta da!! My shoes!

Last weekend, CBC was away with the Art department at school in St Ives. He had a really lovely time, which I am glad about, as he really needed it.

I also had a lovely weekend. Mine was spent in various ways.

On Friday night, after school, I caught the trains (3 of them!) to my Mum's.  The timing didn't work out well, so I arrived at Rush hour, so rather than make her come out to give me a lift, I cycled the 3.5 miles or so to her house.  I had a big, full bag to carry but the cycle route was mostly quite good so it was fine and in fact, the sun was shining and I really enjoyed the cycle.  Mainly I rode on pavements or side roads (some of it marked cycle lane) as the traffic is quite aggressive there, but I met no pedestrians at all. I felt good when I arrived at hers.

When I got to Mum, she'd a cup of Lemon Balm tea awaiting me. It was really delicious.  After saying hello to her adorable kitties, we went for the customary walk around her garden. I adore her gardens (her front garden is just as interesting and well-curated as her back garden) and there is always something interesting to see.

 After we headed back in, Mum started cooking the pasta because she had made my favourite dinner, Spaghetti bolognese (with Farfalle instead).   I actually like hers more than when I have it in Italy!

It was scrumptious, accompanied by Parmesan and Blackcurrant Kefir water.  We watched some TV and then had a tasty fruit salad to finish.

We headed to bed fairly early. I read some of my Kate Shackleton book, Dying in the Wool.  I've had this series on my shelf for about 8 years so it is time I actually read more than one of them.

Annoyingly, I awoke around 6.00am. Mum's room is quite light and I am one who needs darkness, plus, I ALWAYS awake early on Saturday morning. Not sure why I can't do this on a school day when getting up at 6am would be really useful!

We read in bed for a while, accompanied by a cup of tea and after showers, we walked to the Sandwich bar near her house to buy Bacon Baguettes for Breakfast.  Mum likes to support this place as she has said that some days, the lady barely breaks even and it saved her cooking. I also bought myself a Tuna Mayonnaise with cucumber and lettuce baguette for later, plus crisps.

We went to the hardware store near Mum and I picked up some bird seed then we walked down the street to try and track down an errant parcel....to no avail.

The baguettes were the perfect start to the day! I suggested, since the weather was so nice, we head down to the sea front (estuary but still nice). Mum thought we should cycle so we got the bikes out and cycled to the sea wall where we cycled from one end to the other, stopping for a little walk on the beach
 that she and my sister call 'Shelly beach' due to all the Oyster shells that are there.

I was rather appropriately dressed!

The sea wall has some beautiful murals all along,charting the history of the area but also, some fun photo bits!

I was so grateful to be spending Mother Daughter time with her.

We had a 99 ice-cream. It was very blustery but warm.

CBC sent me a lovely picture of Tree Echiums from Cornwall! I reminded him what they were called and he told all his colleagues. Thanks to Lulu who taught me about these!

It was soon time to bid Mum goodbye as I had to head up to London for my concert with Kensington Chamber orchestra.

The 3 or so trains were fine but carrying my bike plus a very heavy pannier, full of clothes, school work and now birdseed was a little cumbersome.

When I arrived in Nottinghill, I was early and the church was locked so I carried on cycling down to Portobello Road to the market.  Despite my already loaded bag, I could not resist the lure of the plastic free vegetable market (plus a MASSIVE strawberry donut!) so I bought...

• Peas in the pod
• Eschalion Shallots
• 3 enormous Chichory/Endives
• British Asparagus
• Organic carrots with tops
• Watercress
• Mini cucumbers
• French beans
• 1 enormous yellow courgette

I had to empty my tote bag of clothing into the pannier to house all my veg (to avoid the dreaded carrier bag) and had to precariously cycle back up the hill to the church with dangling tote bag and arrived back at the church to start the rehearsal.

We began our rehearsal of Brahms Serenade no.1 and Mendelssohn Scottish Symphony.  Thankfully things were sounding a bit better than Tuesday's rehearsal where our 1st clarinettist (not the regular one) had turned up for the FIRST time in 4 rehearsals and was not so hot at counting or sight-reading, rendering the rehearsal super irritating.   They still had some counting issues but at least not in as many places.    It's been a bit of a strange rehearsal series (not even taking into account the total Clarinet debacle!) as it was the first one with our new leader after over 13 years of the previous leader. In addition, the conductor, the absolutely wonderful Mark Biggins (current chorus master at ENO but moving to Geneva) hasn't conducted me in this particular orchestra before (he is fab!) but also, our regular 1st and 2nd clarinets, 1st and 2nd bassoons, 2nd clarinettist, 1st and 2nd trumpets and 2nd horn were not able to play so it was all deps PLUS a horn player went sick on the day!)

After the rehearsal, I wasn't feeling like a big meal (and I hadn't eaten my tuna Baguette yet!) so I decided to walk back down to Portobello to soak up the sun and ended up buying a bargain box of veg including Pak Choi, turnips, Cos Lettuce, Tenderstem broccoli. Of course, I had no idea how I was going to carry it all home!

Back at the church, after the delicious baguette, I got ready for the concert.

It went pretty well, barring a couple of rogue clarinet moments and for the first time in an absolute age,I did not get nervous and get the horrible feeling where I can't get my flute sound right (apparently I am imagining this but I FEEL it though) and felt like I really did a good job on the prolific amount of very big flute solos I had to play!

Our previous leader came to watch, as she hasn't moved yet, and she very kindly said that when she heard me play a particular solo, that was the moment she felt like this was the orchestra and how much she missed it already and it almost made her cry!  She's never said anything like that to me before so that really meant a lot!  After the concert, everyone had a lovely social and then it was time for me to head back to Essex.  I tried to rearrange my bag to accommodate at least part of the veg....I still ended up with a shoulder bag and a bulging pannier.

The walk into Nottinghill station and down the 3 escalators and corridors to the central line (plus the walk along the platform to avoid the vexing Liverpool Street getting stuck behind people who walk slower than a person holding a folded bike, a pannier and a tote of veg) was tiring but I was SO lucky at Liverpool street to make the train with 2 minutes to spare (thus avoiding 30mins wait)

I arrived home around 12.30am after the interesting dark cycle with the veg.

The next morning, I got up at 8am and dressed for church as Sue, who plays piano was supposed to be giving me a lift.

Alas, she forgot so I made a quick dangerous dash on my bike with 2 tote bags (pannier was still loaded) and the long skirt (wasn't expecting to cycle) to church. Sue suddenly remembered as I arrived.

It's the first time I've played flute at church. It was the curate's last service so I offered to play. It was a lovely service. After a quick cup of tea, I folded Delphi and Sue drove us to the other church for the 2nd service where we repeated the service.

People were really kind and appreciative of my flute playing.  It was very lovely to be part of the bigger worship team at the other church too!

After the service, there was a barbecue bring and share which was really nice. I chatted to some new people I hadn't met before.

After, I cycled home (I don't mind the cycle home as it is downhill.... it's a nightmare on the way there- sooo much uphill).

Back home, I did some gardening and did some other chores and later ate left-over Thai food from Thursday.

It had been a great, busy weekend.

xx