TARDIS Tuesday- Peri Brown from Vengeance on Varos

Today, for TARDIS Tuesday, I am wearing an outfit I last wore back in Summer 2021 worn by classic Who companion for the 6th Doctor, Peri Brown. I've had Peri more present in my mind recently, this is my 3rd Peri outfit this Summer so far,  as there is a girl on Insta who is super keen on Peri, is creating some brilliant versions of Peri and who seems to post lots of pictures of her Peri outfits which crop up in my Insta feed so it's reminded me that Peri is a great character to dress as in the Summer!

Image borrowed from this Pinterest:
https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/606719381021597622/ 

It features a turquoise body suit and pair of shorts. Red belt, red peep toe heels and her ubiquitous yellow hanging keyring from her belt!

Here is my Summer 2023 iteration of this outfit:

Since the last time I wore this outfit, I can adapted or upgraded it a bit.

The shiny leotard remains the same one.  It is a typical 80's one and is very fitted! Although they don't match, I prefer the look of these high-waisted shorts I acquired for another Peri outfit than the ones I wore last time. I found my red belt to wear this time, rather than the ill-fitting pink one I donned last time. I added my yellow teacher keyring to the belt in place of her one.

The final touch was to wear this pair of Irregular Choice red and floral sling-back wedges which I think work better than my flat red cotton-sling backs I wore last time with this outfit.

It was fun to dress up as this version of Peri. Whilst, I can't say this outfit would be one I would don on a Summer's day (the leotard would be too sweaty!), I do like the way it looks! I had moody-resting face last time I wore this outfit and I think it's much better if I smile, even if it doesn't quite match the actress's picture!

Hope you are well!

x

Loooong week!

Hi!

I hope you are well.

I have so many things I want to blog about (Bruges etc, foraging etc) but I have had such a busy week that I haven't had the time or the energy but I wanted to post so, falling back to the lazy blog post of an outfit with a bit of waffle!

This was an outfit worn, I think, last weekend on Saturday. I tend to try and wear long skirts sometimes on weekends as I can't cycle in them!

I was bought this lovely Per Una skirt for my birthday at least 12 years ago and I remember wearing it in a blog post when I still lived in my childhood home 9Just checked and it was June 2012 so 11 years ago!). In that post, I stated that the skirt reminded me of mermaid fins- in fact, the title quoted the main character flipping your fins!

I matched it to the infinity scarf Mum crocheted for me the year my Grandad died. It's a good match plus a sneaky wooden bird brooch my previous deputy head bought me plus my Monsoon hat (which I bought when we bought bridesmaid dresses!) 

I kept the top and boots fairly neutral and added my G-Star corduroy jacket

Handmade Lorelai LQ earrings in ombre blues made from Bubblewrap mailers - this one custom-made for me! In fact,she took my custom-adaptation of her design and has made a series of ombre rainbows in various colours- all made from used metallic mailers sent to her by folks! I love them!

 The week has been long but it's been a productive week- 2 orchestra rehearsals in Nottinghill, a Gamelan rehearsal in the city and extra school choir rehearsals!

I feel completely knackered but not in a bad way! School has been ok.

Concert tomorrow in Nottinghill. Lovely programme of Beethoven, Poulenc and Faure. My lovely second-flute and I will be heading off for a Chinese buffet between the rehearsal and concert- I'm deserting CBC as he wants Turkish and I want Asian food!

Had a funny rehearsal with said 2nd flute- we both decided to take our shoes off in the rehearsal as shoes felt tight and we were both so much more comfortable- ha! We don't care what people think!

Hope all is good with you!

xx

Turquoise wings

 Aren't you lucky, you get 3 outfits this week!  I can tell it is getting warmer as I am more creative and having more fun with my wardrobe.  This outfit was worn 2 Sundays ago and I felt like I had wings or fins. This pretty green skirt looks like it has fins- it was a birthday present in around 2009-2011 from my Stepmum and Dad and unbelievably, I only shared it on the blog once, in 2012 here.  I wore it with this top from a brand called Sun and Sand. I bought it at Spitalfields Market when I was 22 and it was the best stall ever- everything on it was made of white cheesecloth with printed butterflies and flowers on them! I bought this top as it was so different from anything I owned. I still love it! I added a wooden Peacock butterfly necklace from the now closed Ladybird Likes and a charity-shopped turquoise cardigan! I wore it in honour of my Mum who came over with CBC's birthday presents.  Of course I cunningly managed to put her to work since she was in the garden...she helped me get some compost out of the compost bin and trimmed a few things! She took this photo!

I wanted to share a nice thing or two from today.

I had a student teacher lead the music lesson today. She did really well and it was nice to give her the opportunity. She's helping me with choir this half term which is so nice.  When I went to the classroom to pick the children up for their lesson, their regular class teacher told me that the British Bird poster that I had made for the children and put up in their classroom was really popular- a little boy, apparently, has been asking to go over and look at it every time he has finished his work and he seems really fascinated by it.  He told her that he's been looking out for birds and he'd only seen a Collar Dove before.  I told him to keep looking out for them.  The lovely thing was, that later, after my lesson, he and another boy came rushing back to the Music Room to tell me that they had seen a Chaffinch.  They were SO happy.  Later, when I went outside to fetch my next class, they told me a Gull had flown up in the tree.  

Another lovely thing was how hard the children in the orchestra had worked on the Tetris theme- considering we have only done it for 2 weeks, it sounded really good. I was so impressed with them- they had clearly all gone home and practiced!

I'm starting Recorder Club next week but doing it before school and I hope that I get takers for it as I needed to ask parental permission for it because it involves making sure they are there for 9am.  I had about 40 children who said they'd like to join it (in year 4) but I just worry about the parents responding as they proved in Lockdown, that they don't respond to things I send. It's free and they won't be missing proper lesson time so there shouldn't really be any objection but who knows how they will respond.

The caretaker showed me the work and developments he is working on in the conservation area and it looks so pretty.  I'm going to take some wildflower seeds in next week to plant in a bed that is there.  He's so lovely, this caretaker and like me, hates, hates, hates, hates waste!  We always gleefully egg each other on if there is some reuse or recycling we can do! 

Hope all is well with you!

xx

Hues of Blues

I've always thought of Turquoise and teal as shades of blue but lots of people see them as green.  I suppose they are sort of greeny. What do you think?

This dress, I see as blue.  It came from a charity shop in Sheffield via Lorelai, the maker of the earrings I am wearing (see below)  It fits perfectly due to the ruching at the back- why don't more clothes have ruching?

I couldn't believe how well it matched my Esoteric London necklace and my Lorelai earrings. 

I wore it here with a black charity-shopped Monsoon cardigan and some black leggings.

I also 'borrowed' CBC's tan brogue boots to wear for this photo. Hey, I paid for them so that's ok, isn't it?  He often nicks my more manly shoes to wear (and my "crocs" for going in the garden!) 

Have you had a good weekend?  I hope so.  I had some fun yesterday.  Today was more of a mundane tasks day but lots of rest also. Much needed!

Love to you and yours.

xx

 

TARDIS Tuesday - Clara's modern outfit from the Crimson Horror

Greetings!

How are you? 

Well, I hope. 

TARDIS Tuesday is a bit harder in the Summer as a lot/most of the outfits I have are more Winter outfits.  Nonetheless, I had a go at trying to wear one of them and wearing it in a bit more summery way.

Image borrowed from CoolSpotters.com

Here is my favourite, Clara Oswald, at the end of an episode called The Crimson Horror set in Victorian Yorkshire. At the end, Clara is back in Modern-day England and is caught out by the kids who she is Nanny for.

Her outfit is a very Urban Outfitters heavy outfit- her cardigan, necklace AND playsuit all come from there.

Here is my version!

The playsuit is one of those cosplay items that I wasn't that bothered about buying but when I saw it very reasonably priced for sale (I think about £8-9), I thought I'd give it a go- I really like the colour and as mentioned, playsuits are good for Summer.  The cardigan is also by the same Urban Outfitters brand but isn't the on-screen one- it was one I found randomly in a charity shop!

The Aztec eagle necklace makes yet another appearance.

To make my outfit more Summer appropriate, I didn't wear tights and I wore a black vest top underneath rather than a sleeved top.

What do you think of this outfit?

Do you like the original, or, like me, do you think it is rather a motley collection of items!?!

x

Style imitating art: Roses

Hello there,

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!

xx

Hope  you are well.
xx

Alaskan skies

It seems an age since I have actually taken any outfit photos but I decided to yesterday as I was rather pleased with this outfit.
It all began with this beautiful skirt from Lindybop.  I realised, when I ordered it on about the 29th December (annoyingly 2 days before the 20% off bonus) that I have never ordered myself anything from Lindybop.  My three dresses from there have been presents from CBC.  I've often admired things but been remarkably restrained considering what my will power is like in a charity shop. It's taken me about 2 months to finally give in and buy this skirt- I loved it so much I gave in in the end. It features a beautiful Alaskan sky in my favourite colourscheme.

Wasn't the light beautiful in these photos!  It was such a halcyon day yesterday in the true sense of the phrase.   As I worked in the garden later on (I hasten to add, in alternative garments), I was struck with the light and gentle air.

The top is from a beautiful Vintage-inspired boutique that CBC and I found in Florence the day we got engaged.  I tried it on and he bought it for me for Christmas that year.  When I wear it, I always remember our time there.  It contains cashmere and the collar can be worn in various ways but this is my favourite one. It has only featured on the blog once about 4 years ago!

Since the Alaskan skies were starry, I decided to add these pretty diamante star pins which I purchased from a charity-shop for 45p each a few weeks ago.

Aside from tights, the final touch was this charity-shopped grey beret with charity-shopped rhinestone bow brooch (which lives upon this hat for a few years now- bought together)

Oh, and my beloved Doc Marten boots.  I wear virtually nothing else in the wet and wintery weather...

It's lovely when a set of garments makes you feel pretty. I felt that in this collection.  

Do you have any special garments from any times that draw you back to memories or other times?

Thank you again, from the bottom of my heart, for your kindness over the last few days. I realise that losing out on a house is not a great thing in the grand scheme of things and I am lucky to be able to stay in my rental house.

Hope all is well with you.

xx

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

Looking forward

Greetings from my new garden! It's my first post in my new house (as the last ones were written in Northumberland).

 It's so pretty out here and you can see the crocuses are coming up that I told of before.

Lent is a time of looking forward.  Lenten actually comes from the word "lengthening" as the days are getting longer and I like that lent comes as the word for us here in the northern hemisphere is coming better in that sense, in terms of the days getting longer, bringing hope, more time, more possibilities.

Something that the vicar said today.  "Look forward from today, don't look back."  It's  easy to look back on the past and hold grudges and resentments and build these up. Oh so easy.  But one thing I'd like to do this lent is to look forward and move on from here and as the reading we read today said, be gathered up like chicks under their mother's wing and know, even when things are hard that I have Jesus' protection.  That is, for me, comforting.

 I thought I'd share the beautiful crocuses with you looking forward to the coming of Spring.

and the first daffodil!

Sending you many best wishes and thanks for your continued support and friendship- you lot are great!

xxx

Linking up to Visible Monday with Patti and all her lovely readers!

Turquoise tigers

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!

Hope all is delightful with you.

Much love,
xxx

Pond life

In terms of Doctor Who appreciation, I'm a new convert to Amy Pond. I was (and am) still definitely a Clara Oswald girl but since WOMOTM and J bought me the Matt Smith Doctor Who DVD's for Christmas, I've been working my way through and LOVING Amy Pond. I missed most of them first time round because of the Digital Switchover meaning I didn't have TV.

I picked this look from the annals of Amy which she wears in Vincent and the Doctor which I genuinely do think is a fabulous DW episode, I howled and howled at the end, along with Vincent VanGough.

image from Coolspotters

Image from BBC shop

And here, based on items already owned, is Kezzie Pond.

The lowdown is Charity-shopped teal velvet jacket (originally nice Fairtrade company Bishopstone)
Red sweater- given second hand by friend.
Red Scarf- £1 dodgy Ilford clothes shop
Skirt Primark
Boots: eYe.

Clearly, since it is/was (when these were taken) the middle of Winter, I was NOT going tights-less (and let's be honest, with the length of this skirt, rather too short to risk. I am wearing shorts underneath) .  I lack the pose and the hair (oh woe, short hair does not help Clara and Amy cosplay) but not a bad attempt from my wardrobe.  I've never paired teal and red before so that was a bit of a revelation.

This was taken in my local park. It is SO well used by the community, it was very hard to take this shot. I had gone for a walk and was determined to include a photo that isn't in my garden so had to do a quick timer on the park-bench routine. This was only vaguely anonymous bench.

Hope all is well with you.x

Linking with TARDIS Tuesday with Maricel 



and Visible Monday with Patti

Comic sans

Tis a strange thing. I am so used to wearing a hat pretty much all the time (even indoors. I sit here typing in the handknitted beanie from Sunday's post) that I really can't cope when I am not wearing one in the winter (and in the summer). I am like a snail setting forth without a shell! When I was in Northumberland in the Christmas break, I was in Hexham with J to have lunch with her and friends and I nipped off to Clarks to go and fetch some shoes I'd ordered in the sale.  I went into Clarks and in the 5 mins I was out of the car, the thought running through my head was "Ahrgh, no hat. Am. So. Cold!" so consequently, when I went into Mountain Warehouse to pick up some walking boots (mine have mysteriously vanished. Tis truly bizarre. I literally have no idea where they have gone!!!), I also picked up the turquoise hat. A few years back, I had a wonderful Angora Baker Boy hat in this shade and that also mysteriously went missing.


Where oh where is the land of lost things?  Enid Blyton wrote about it in her Magic Faraway Tree books- I'd like to find it.  There are fair few other things I lost down that hole over the years. A beautiful Pierrot doll I adored when about 4 years old that I used to sing to and cradle like a baby. A pretty rose ceramic pendant and earrings that my lovely flute friend Rachel gave me when we were leaving windband as a kind present. So many lost things, that I genuinely have no idea where they went.



I received this wonderful dress for Christmas from my Daddy and Stepmum.  I was really pleased with it. I do think Cath Kidston prints get better and better. I definitely have my eye on the new ricrac dress and skirt and the cloud dress! Always wanted a garment with clouds on! Not going to buy them though!


If you look closely, you will see Cops and Robbers going on. What fun!

Decided to over do the turquoise to go with this- Topshop tights (old) and my DMS and then a charity-shopped necklace and cardie.

I had year 1 this morning for PE. It was UTTERLY freezing!!!! Bless them, the little mites, they gallantly bounced their balls, trying to create a smooth, fluent movement.  Not one complained about how cold it was (I made them wear jumpers and coats) but just got on.  After playtime, we revised the polka we had been learning the last week and then had great fun as I set them up as a sort of 'orchestra' in that we sat in instrument groups in a semi-circle with me as conductor in the middle, trying to work on accurately playing the polka rhythm only when their section was pointed at, OR when I showed everyone had to play.  They were so diligent and when I had modelled the process of conducting and choosing sections/groups to play, counting in and stopping signals, I let several of them conduct. It was utterly beautiful to see them leading confidently, the joy in their faces as they realised they had total power over the rest of the class. The class, of course, were delighted to be conducted by their fellow 5 year olds, and so sat up conscientiously and watched carefully, playing only when shown.  I took a few photos and you could see how alert (and meer-cat like they were!)
At the end, I was telling them about how the players in an orchestra follow and respond to signals, just like they were and then as a plenary, (i.e. moving the learning on) showed them how a conductor shows if he wants the orchestra to play loudly or quietly. I asked them to play in unison and see if they could respond. Myself and the TA's who were with me were utterly delighted at how they responded instantly to my change of gesture going suddenly from a gentle repetition of the rhythm to a strong and robust sound! I've taught Year 1 about the polka for a few years now, but I've never taught it the same way, and I am really glad I tried it like this, this week! A different approach can suddenly find the way to teach something or make it more engaging.

At lunchtime, I had my recorder clubs. We're learning a set of pieces for the borough's recorder festival and we were learning Amazing Grace.  They weren't really getting the rhythm and said so,  so I decided to try a Dalcroze Eurhythmics approach to the problem. I asked them to follow me and step the rhythm around the room (it was like Kate Bush meets the Pied Piper) we did a set of steps, leans and runs to the music. They loved the fact I was making them doing some random hippy movements and miraculously, when we came back to the recorders, all of a sudden, the tune was pretty much perfect!  The delight on M (the one who voiced a particular, "It's too hard!"before) suddenly delightedly burst out: "I did it right!!!".  We then began working on Bach's Minuet in G and I decided to try a similar approach (the first half has a pattern of rhythms) and stood in a circle and stepped the rhythms in terms of steps, leans and runs and what is quite a hard tune, (they have to do higher pinched notes on the recorder) sounded pretty good!

Not tried that before, but again, sometimes a new approach makes something different, simpler, easier, clicks more.

Have you tried a new approach to anything recently? Did it work?!x

xx

The story of a coat, some trousers, a hat and what lies beneath...

I used to be really regular with joining in with my lovely blog friends The Two Birds' Inspiration Monday. Increasingly, I've somehow just got to Monday and not managed it, not managed to find something appropriate so I thought I'd really try to make a concerted effort to join in when I can, even if the relationship between the inspiration and myself is rather nebulous.

Today, Emma Stone wears a textured woolly coat with generously long but thin scarf (obscuring what top is beneath), jeans and shiny ankle boots.

As you can see, what I wear is er, slightly different but:
Woolly, textured coat: longer and different colour, no zip, but yes.
Thin and long scarf: yes, though wrong colour (thank you for the gift Sophie!)
Shiny ankle boots: wrong colour but yes (thrifted)
Skinny jeans: NO! But shinyish trousers in a shade blue ish.

I'd like to tell you the story of this coat.  It was given to me by my friend E, who we went to stay with in Petworth, Sussex.  It comes from Jaeger and she bought it with her first paycheck in the 1960's  after working in London for a month. She spent her entire month's wages on it,but she felt beautiful and grand in it.  It held her in good stead for many years and she loved it, particularly when times were hard and she couldn't possibly afford anything like it. It has remained in her cupboards ever since.  Unfortunately, her daughter is the wrong size for the coat, so when I went there, she got it out to show me and asked me to try it on and then asked me if I'd like it as it didn't fit her now and it seemed a shame to just be hanging in the cupboard.  What a privilege, I thought, to be the custodian of an item that was so precious to a 20-something E, to look after and wear something with such memories. It is missing a button and another is hanging off, the lining in one sleeve is ripped but it is otherwise a beautiful, warm, well-made coat which I am honoured to have been asked to rehome.


The story of the trousers is a little sadder.I bought these in the ASOS sale. They are, as you might see,rather short for my long legs. Alas, I was trying them on and ended up getting involved with the washing up and emptying of bin as CBC was having a bit of a kitchen crisis trying to cook risotto and empty the bin, whilst  I wearing them in the trying on stage. I wrestled the stubborn bin and binbag out into the garden to vanquish all binnish rebellion. Unfortunately, just as I had pulled the stubborn beastie from its bin hideout, the bin bag, rather like a sword-pierced knight, leaked onto them. So they are staying.

The hat was knitted by a friend. She began her late-life knitting career by making blankets for African orphanages.  She then branched out into hats.  She couldn't follow a pattern, just did her own thing.  She knitted CBC and I 2 hats each one Christmas.  Don't think this one has featured on the blog before but its little sister did - yep, she knitted me two- identical, except that this has a longer crown to it, whereas the other has a more skullcap feel to it! 

Oh and what you don't know is....


I'm wearing my Christmas jumper under the scarf!!!!!!!!!!!

xxx

P.S: Thanks for the recent, kind comments and fun participation in What is it?
I hope I have managed to visit everyone who has commented whose blog has a comment system I can use with my settings (Lily, your Disqus does not allow guests- please can you change the settings to allow them!) Lizzie, I LOVED your tartan coat- so nice!! And I really enjoyed your photo a day!

Sorry to the follower I somehow offended who has swanned off elsewhere! Come back, I'll behave!