Simple sailor

My love of nautical attire is well documented on this here blog (just check out the Sailor, Nautical, Naval tags for evidence)

I bought this Topshop jumper on my first visit to one of the 3 charity shops in the town I moved to over a year ago. It was a really happy purchase.  In fact, now I think about it. I've not bought MANY items from there but all of them have been really wanted ones, e.g. Emily and Fin button dress, Cath Kidston Stop Thief bag, Clara Oswald Topshop Diamond blouse, Clara Oswald Contrast checked mac and some great books!

This was my Sunday attire.  I missed the rail replacement bus (instead of train) to church and the trouble is, by the time the next one would have come, I would have been realllllly late for church as the next one wasn't for half an hour, it would take half an hour and then church is over a mile's walk from the station (Plus I already had 0.7mile walk from home). It's not ideal so I ended up going to a church in my local town that starts at 11am rather than 10. It's an old stone church, totally contrasting my 1960's built church, pretty church yard, traditional sung Eucharist with all hymns. It was a nice service and I enjoyed being somewhere different for a change.

These shoes are made by Toms who have a philanthropic approach to shoe-selling as they give one pair of shoes for everyone you buy to a street child somewhere. I bought them for CBC last Summer after finding them in TK Maxx for only £16 but after wearing them for a few months he decided he didn't like them so I wear them at the weekends sometimes.

Speaking of TK Maxx, I was rather pleased as we went to TK Maxx on Saturday to see if CBC could obtain some Red Nose goodies for school. He ended up spending a while mooching round buying himself a shirt. I went over to the men's shoe section and spied these Handmade Loakes brogues. They retail at £150 and I got them for £50 for CBC's birthday present. He had a pair as his wedding shoes but he's mashed them rather over the last few years for school so I bought him this new pair for best.

Also managed to get these amazing Pulsin Raw choc brownies for my Gluten, dairy free friend for her birthday.  I bought a box of them as a birthday present for my other Gluten free, dairy free friend for her birthday as I found them for £4 in Aldi once (a one off). She absolutely ADORED them and said she preferred them to her usual Nakd bars and went online and ordered a box of 20 of them.  They retail £4.50 for three of them online so I was chuffed to find a box of 3 for £2.49 in TK Maxx so got Anne 3 boxes. I told L, the aforementioned colleague and she promptly went off to the local TK Maxx and bought up their entire supply!  If you happen to have special dietary requirements (Sandra, Susie amongst others), it might be worth a look. They are dairy, wheat, gluten, soya, non-GM and vegan.

We also got a bottle of Organic Surge hand and body wash for £2 (usually at least £4.50) which is hard to find anywhere now. I do so like TK Maxx.

It was nice to buy things for others, particularly as one of my Lent fasts is from clothes, accessory, non-essential purchases for me.

I did leave out books though and I did manage to buy 2 more of the Kate Shackleton mysteries from the aforementioned charity-shop on my way back from church. I'd seen them a week ago but didn't buy them.

Finally, CBC showed me this adorable video. I WANT A SKUNK!!!!!

Are you an ardent TK Maxx visitor?

xx

11 top charity shopped items of the year.

I failed with the Buyer's archive for the latter part of the year so I thought I'd share my top 10 charity-shopped items from 2017 as we all love a good nosy.  Most of these you must have seen, some you may remember, some you may have forgotten. Some you will have never seen,,,

1.  Sheepskin jacket.

This featured in yesterday's post.  I have wanted a sheepskin jacket for such a long time but they are very expensive and hard to fit to narrow shoulders. This beauty was £25 in the Dogs Trust charity shop.  I should point out that it is completely lined in sheepkin, not just the collar- utterly sublime to wear!

2.  Cath Kidston- Stop Thief bag

This was £7.99 from Sue Ryder. Brand new with tags though and I already have the dress to match so I was glad to give the money to the shop in exchange for it. That said, that Charity shop has always been expensive but they must have realised that they didn't do too well since they seem to have priced things more reasonably recently..Anyway, it has been my school bag since September and is an improvement on my older, non-waterproof attempts!

3.  Topshop Contrast lined mac

Image from Topshop.com

I have used the Topshop photo for this as it is really hard to photograph in the awful light at home! This was £7.99 in my local charity shop. I really like it as it is a light cotton jacket but with a hood.  Also, it is the screen accurate design for a Clara Oswald outfit from Doctor Who although in black rather than green and that item is rather rare and difficult to find so I was rather chuffed to find one in the charity shop. If I get bored of it, I could probably sell it!

4. Emily and Fin floral dress

Wearing my floral dress at Rainham marshes

It IS lethal having charity shops within walking distance of the house. Soooo easy to nip into the charity shop onto the way to the supermarket, station, library, swimming pool, post office...  However, I was really chuffed to find this Emily and Fin cotton dress for £6.99.  100% cotton, lined, pockets...

5.  1970's black and pink dress

1970's dress in September sunshine

The elusive cotton 1970's maxi!  I longed for such a garment for so long, having seen Vix picking them up like I pick up bags of crisps. Not in Essex. Until one day.  This beauty was mine for £5.99 I think plus it has a belt! Long enough for me!

6.  Blue cowled dress

Blue cowl dress for a summer concert

This was an absolute gem at £1.99 from my local Barnados. I have a few problems with light summer maxi-dresses generally: firstly, they are inevitably too short on long-limbed moi and so they look ridiculous. The other problem is that a lot of them are obscenely low cut, often like a bra with long material hanging down which I absolutely abhor. This darling is lacking in neither department as well as ebing really pretty and elegant with lace and a cowl back. In addition, it is a crinkly material which requires no ironing so I can legitimately be creased rather than lazily creased.  A good holiday smart dress...

7. And other stories navy beaded dress

Navy blue dress in Brighton

This dress was £1.99 from my wonderful Barnados and still had its £65.00 price-tags on.  It really is the perfect summer dress for a hot day as it has really low arm holes (so no horrible armpit issues) and it has a really pretty low back.   This was my lazy slouching dress in South Africa as well as most of last Summer!

8. H by Henry Holland navy collared dress

Collared dress.

I am an absolute glutton for a decorative collar and this one was one I had admired first time round.  £2.49 in Marie Curie Cancer Care. It was a size 12 I think so plenty of room.

9.  Henry Holland Sailor collar top

Collared top

I confessed this in the Buyer's Archive but I already have this top in a Size 6 and I love it but permanently worry about it shrinking so I  bought this size 12 one and for only £1.49, didn't break the bank...

10.  Topshop sailor jumper

Aye aye captain in the Spring.

The Topshop sailor sweater was a no brainer. It did cost £7.99 from Sue Ryder I think but if a sailor item turns up in a charity shop, I am powerless to resist..

10. Emily and Fin fireworks dress

A dress I saw on a blog and liked...

This Emily and Fin dress was located in Barnados back in April for £9.99. But it did have its £65 pricetag on it so I didn't mind particularly as it was one I'd seen and wanted. 100% cotton, lined and pockets ladies!

I guess. whilst the downside of living where I do is that house prices are ridiculously expensive, the type of goods people donate their books to charity shops is great so I am glad there are SOME upsides for living in the South East,


Oh and here's my favourite pile of charity-shopped books of the year.  All this lot for £6 and some real brilliant ones here

10 books for £6

What were your top 10 (or 11 if you can't narrow it down like me) charity-shopped or indeed, non-charity-shopped items this year?

xxx

The elusive perfect vintage maxi dress.

I read the blog of the fabulous Vix and the lovely Curtise and I have seen them find so many beautiful 1970's maxi dresses with a gorgeous gypsy-esque bottom in charity shops.  I've always longed to find one in a charity shop on my own. Such things do not exist in my local charity shops it seems or so it has seemed for at least 8 years. But I'm also fussy because I need it to be cotton, long for a tall girl and not something tight around the arms or armpit area- I just don't like that! Also, I didn't want anything too loud that would make CBC despair of walking with me in it. I wanted something pretty and simple. (Vix manages to find them!)

 So imagine my delight when I spied this floral and black-topped beauty in the Salvation Army in Maldon.  It was in quite the rack of vintage dresses. Most, except perhaps a Jane-Austenesque green dress, weren't to my taste but this was one was the Vix-perfection! It was priced reasonably at £4.99, was 100% cotton, long enough, not my size, nice gypsy-top part in black so not too loud and had a gorgeous floral Chevron effect with polka dots on the black bits and a gorgeous matching belt!

Getting it home, I tried it on and it fitted perfectly and had a great heavy duty metal zip that wouldn't snag. I was happy!  I wore this out on Sunday to lunch near Epping Forest with a simple black cardie and pink accessories including my Nan's vintage pink floral-beaded necklace!

All good things come to those who wait!

xx

Linking to Patti's Visible Monday

Autumn's here? Don't care.

 September the 1st saunters onto the scene and suddenly, all I hear on certain blogs, instagram and the suchlike, is Autumn clothing, Autumn is here, Autumn wardrobe, Autumn jumpers, Autumn layers, Autumn leaves. Autumn blah.blah. Ahrgh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 I love these bloggers and instagrammers who profer such views but seriously, I find myself irked by it.  It is still sunny. Every day this week, I have worn summer clothing. Sleeveless dresses, sandals, ballet pumps. I wore a cardigan for all of 5 minutes.

Don't wish the summer away because we will all be bemoaning the gloomy, interminably drab weather for months to come so let's continue to delight in the Summer. Apparently, we shall have temperatures in the lofty heights of the 30's on Tuesday. Typically on a day when I have to go up to London for orchestra after school rather than enjoy my garden

 I shall be delighting in my summer dresses and scorning all attempts at Autumn-transitional clothing for as long as is possible. I do not frequent the coffee-house of Green and white lettering (or for that matter, the one with burgundy and white lettering- I prefer an  independent cafe or Salon du The) and I shall not be gleefully anticipating my first drink involving Pumpkin. Good for you if you enjoy it. Good for you if you love your jumpers and your coats and layers. I'm glad you like them but I will be the stick-in-the-mud in the mental corner who is refusing to acknowledge the changes.

 I am a Sylph of Summer. My friend Katie from camp used to call me Sylph and I called her Sylphette because of our propensity towards wafty Summer frocks. I doubt age will change me. It's the way I am made.

 I do apologise for the totally dappy poses- I decided to try not to stand facing forwards and grin as a change.
My dress is Per Una at M&S via Cancer Research charityshop, hat from a market, Split, Croatia, necklace by Punky Pins and shoes by Mel via TK Maxx.

A floaty summer dress is my uniform of choice and would be all year round.

Long may this Summer weather continue!

How do you feel about the current time?

xx

Linking with the lovely Patti at Visible Mondays

Style Imitating Art- The Great Wave off Kanagawa

This week's Style Imitating Art inspiration was the wonderful 'The Great Wave of Kanagawa' by Hokusai.  Apparently a film is being made about Hokusai's also artistic daughter, according to SIA host- Salazar

I ended up creating 2 outfits for it in the end.  This first dress has a beautiful cowl back which I thought had a wonderful wave-like flow to it and being in a watery shade. This was a charity shop bargain in July- £1.99! 

How perfect is the wall art in the background in my second picture.

The dress was also £1.99 from the same charity shop. I thought the navy with the small patterns emulated the navy waves of the Hokusai and although it is hard to see, the ruffles on my grey cardigan were rather frothy and wave like.

Head over to Salazar's to see the roundup of everyone's outfits!

This picture was taken in Brighton where I visited at the weekend for a wedding!

I met the hilarious and wonderful Katie at Hook Line and Sink her for tea and cake but failed to take any photos of meeting up! It was lovely to meet her at last!!!

xxx

Style imitating Art:

Hello there,

I hope all is well with you.

I haven't remembered to take part in the Style Imitating Art challenge with Salazar, Jen and Erin for a while, so I was glad to be at home to have time to think about it.

Here's my outfit:

The inspiration piece was this beautiful, colourful picture which Erin found in the recycling bins near her apartment.

The door within by Jean Fetman

I knew that I wanted to do something colourful to reflect it

I began with this vintage M&S Madras-check dress which I've worn many times on this blog, usually as a skirt and added my turquoise crocs and a necklace as a nod to the flashes of turquoise in the picture.

The final part was this exquisite piece of silk I bought when I lived in Bali.

There was this wonderful street called Jalan Sulawesi which was entirely made up of material shops.

Sai Kreshna was a beautiful shop full of exquisite Chinese satins which I bought.Then I caught sight of this material.

It doesn't come across in this poor picture but the colours look metallic like an oil slick.  I've had it for over 10 years and I've never known what to do with it. It's too delicate to make into a dress, skirt or top so it has just sat in the black carrier bag I was given it in.

But I realised that wearing it as a stole was a quite pleasant use for it.

Et voila, here is my finished outfit. A bit loud but I thought it suited the picture.

What would you have worn?  I think that Anna would have rocked this challenge.

Head over to Erin's blog on Tuesday to find out what everyone else wore!

xxx

The bliss of solitude

Greetings,

I know some of you are keen to hear about my cruise adventures but I have failed to prepare my posts yet about this.   I always find holiday posts quite an onerous task, especially when there are countless photos to sift through!

I've been back since Monday morning and the week has, on the whole, been largely uneventful. This has been helped by the beautiful weather.

 But honestly, despite its lack of action, it has been a great week. Just being able to have a whole week doing nothing so much. With other holidays, there is always the pressure of limited time- feeling you need to do something meaningful with it; to having interesting tales to tell; to socialise.

Yet, a simple week is often what I yearn.

 Monday was spent putting away clothes, washing and hanging clothes, watering a 12day unwatered garden.. I felt a bit bizarre - like I was still on board a swaying ship and kept bumping into things and needed to gain my balance. To be honest, I do keep getting dizzy moments still, but it's fine.

Tuesday, with glorious sunshine, was a day of gardening with extensive mowing and clearing of weeds at the end of the garden. There was also reading in the garden and watching Ugly Betty DVDs. I also made a huge vat of chickpea and vegetable stew from all the way out of date vegetables festering in my fridge which still looked ok.

Wednesday, again waking to beautiful sun, my friend L from my flute trio came over early to bring me the two crocheted orders I had commissioned from her and she stayed for about an hour for a chat too. It was really nice to have her round, chatting in the garden.  (I frantically tidied up before she came).  I don't know about you, but I find it hard to make friends in my 30's and I really like L and really would like to get to know her and her husband more.  After that, I wrote letters to penpals, read a book and watched more Ugly Betty and weeded the front garden.

Thursday, with yet more sun, I spent the day with my sister and niece- after picking apples in my garden, we went out for lunch, went blackberrying and then came home to mine. I cherish any time spent with my sister. It is so fleeting these days so this was very special to me. After she went, I watched more Ugly Betty...

 Finally, today, I woke up and attempted to post on Instagram (which is being utterly bizarre and has posted the same cucumber picture 6 times), and then headed off to school. When I arrived, I had the most wonderful surprise.  I'd asked one of the caretakers to do a couple of things for me. When I went into my room, not only had he done those perfectly but he had built me a whole load of new shelving to house the instruments (and all the additional clutter from my old room). He'd obviously worked so hard at it, for days, thought it out so well. I was so touched at his hardwork and told him so emphatically when he came in later (cringing because the other caretaker had told him I was there, just in case I wasn't happy).  I spent about 4 hours sorting out and arranging the instruments in the order I was happy with.

After this, pleased with my room, I headed off to my friends from my old church. I had loaned their daughter some of my books when she was young and they were returning them to me. It was nice to catch up with them and hear their news.  Subsequently, I headed to my family friend's house (she of whom I have talked much) to visit her.  I ended up climbing to pick fresh figs from her fig tree which was lovely and quite funny trying to reach them.

Eventually, I came home, ate more vegetable stew and watched Ugly Betty.
It's been a simple week, but one I have enjoyed

About the outfit. This was the Henry Holland dress I charityshopped a few weeks ago. It is very comfortable. I wore it with the charity-shopped Christy's vintage panama hat I bought for CBC, my Punkypins Impossible Girl necklace and Goodnight boutique Adipose brooch. Hey, you can still dress cutely, even if you are just monging in the garden!

What have you been up to this week?

xx

I love Northumberland

I write this after spending a week there with my family. They are CBC's family originally, of course, but now they are mine too.

When I saw Punkypins selling off this Northumberland necklace super-cheaply as it was their sample for the photos on the website, I pounced instantly. Luckily, there were no casualties as no one else had expressed an interest.

I love going up there to see our family as I've never quite had that sense of going home to somewhere, except for my year in Bali. I went to University in London and I lived at home for 2 years and only spent one year up there- I could reach home in 45mins.  For the years up until my marriage, I lived in my childhood home. My Mum had moved nearby so her home was not my home to return to as it were.  Now, my childhood home is no longer a place for me to return to as it has sold. I work in the area,

Now, Northumberland is that place for me, that I yearn to return to. I don't know it that well, but I love it.

 It is much more underpopulated than most other counties in the UK and less known but it is beautiful. There is so much glorious countryside.
It is rife with castles and Hadrian's wall of course! History is there to see.
It has red squirrels, a rare breed nowadays in the UK.
It has great fresh air and you can get to Scotland easily.
You can get there via East OR West Coast trains.

Family plays a huge part in it of course. But every time, I leave, I long to return.
Bye, bye Northumberland, I hope to come back soon.

I decided to share the necklace with hearts and flowers. Seems appropriate.

Outfit:

Beret- Primark charityshopped.

Heart sweater- Topshop via Charity shop.

Skirt - Primark,

Leggings- not sure.

Northumberland personalised necklace: Punkypins: choose your county here

Swinging in the trees-a sneaky TARDIS Tuesday on a Sunday

 I'm sorry, I try not to post too many outfit pics next to each other but I cannot seem to complete any of the myriad draft posts I have.. Nor can I seem to string any sentences particularly well together.

 So I thought I'd share an unnecessarily excessive amounts of photos of my outfit from today.  I bought this Fat Face dress in a charity shop in January and it fits me unbelievably well. Fat face size 6 seems to work for me! It has pockets too. Comfortably well.

Church on Palm Sunday today was very happy and it was very warm in the church.

 Like yesterday, I teamed it with other comfy items- these Clarks originals wedges are so comfy it is untrue- I don't wear them that often because I always worry about rain with suede.
The black cashmere cardie is an essential for cold concerts in cold churches. I did a concert in December with a choral society (like last night) where there was no heating and the wind players were right at the back by a drafty door- I stuck ALL my regular clothes under my black cardie and rued the consequences of looking like a trussed turkey and was STILL freezing. SO I bought a black cashmere cardie in the Tescos sale that very new year ready for freezing concerts.

 I posed with my Pylones watering can handbag just because it looked a bit boring but then I decided to swap my items into it anyway. I tend to stick with one of my handbags all the time and never use any other ones. Poor neglected ones. I did give away loads when I moved.

 Yes, I tried it. And scraped the skin off my hands.That bark is HARD and rough and I have zero upper body strength!

 Mwa ha ha!

 And because we all love the daft outtakes...

I can't wait till Summer!

Thank God Spring is sort of with us! I like exploring different spots in my garden. This one is quite good and it is a MIRACLE I didn't step in fox poo as I was trekking to and from the tripod as there was some directly in my path which I kept forgetting about. Every time I glanced down and re-remembered it was there, I scrutinized my soles instantly to see if I'd been careless. Luckily not.
Which is odd, since I was dog-poo girl as a child. The one who ALWAYS stepped in poo when wearing new shoes. Sigh...

After church, I spent the time putting away washing, tidying up and emptying the final boxes of books onto the shelves. There are a couple of bags dotted around which need emptying and the dining room table is a tip of miscellanea but I think I've nearly got there. The house is looking RATHER* tidy! Maybe I'm not such an Impossible girl?

Oooh and I put lots of my bigger brooches onto a Brooch board (a heart-shaped memo board picked up from Aldi for a fiver!)

We went out to dinner with our friends too which means I have left over Pizza for lunch tomorrow.

xxx

Linking to Visible Mondays with Patti.
If we were still doing TARDIS Tuesday, this would have a Doctor Who feel to it- do you agree? Or maybe the necklace is too subtle without the TARDIS blue dress?

*I say rather. By MY standards. I expect the Clutter Police would disagree!