She wore a furry hat

It's Monday which means inspiration time with the Two Birds.


My first thought, upon seeing Ms Hudson for the Two Birds' Inspiration Monday challenge was - oooooooh, furry hat!!! I am always enormously pleased at any excuse to wear a furry hat.  But which one????

• My grey fluffy one?
• ASOS Sheepskin shearling hood?
• Black sheepskin cossack from Joyce Anderson?

I also regretted getting rid of my mad cat lady Greek jumper which would have rivalled Kate's



I decided on the grey in the end since it went with the grey stripes of the jumper and my grey sheepskin boots. But, I couldn't resist a mad-hatter moment with the cossack, just for a laugh!
I wore this on Sunday to church (jeans not allowed at work) and I was certainly cosy.  I decided to smarten up the look with the ASOS heritage tweed blazer since I don't usually wear jeans to church (unlike lots of other people) . The other items are: Ukala sheepskin boots, M&S jeans, Gap wool jumper, gingham shirt- belonged to my Nan (had it for 17 years!). I liked this outfit.  Must wear this shirt and jumper together more- the shirt counteracts the jumper-itch! I keep it though because it is super warm!

I er- don't really have that much to say today. Other than- can I pray for you in any way?  If there is anything you are stressed about and need prayer-support, just leave me a message. That's all I will say today.

Hugs to you all.
xx

Please also go and visit the other birds!
And also please visit lovely Patti who is rock in a polka dot shirt and killer boots at Visible Monday at www.notdeadyetstyle.blogspot.com

Also linking up to Style Crone's attack

Em-E

Hurrah, for the preeeeeetty, preettty, preetty and very talented Emmy Rossum who is the muse for Inspiration Monday again with the lovely Two birds! This girl could wear anything and I would just look at those big eyes and cute shy smile!  However, I decided that her outfit was rather nice anyway, so that's good!

Here's my interpretation!



I forgot to bring my bag for the shot and I decided that I didn't want to wear my converse so ivory-coloured brogues would have to do! Plus, the turquoise tights sent me a yearning glance from the washing carousel this morning as I went out to religiously water my empty bed plundered by birds weed collection wedding wild flower bed this morning, so they had to add a splash of colour to it! This dress always makes me happy when I wear it (even if I find it difficult to get out of when it comes to bed time! Oh backzips, you are the bane of life for those who live alone!)

The rather interesting setting for these is the Woolwich ferry in South London- a free less-than-5-minute ferry service that takes drivers across the River Thames if they want to avoid the bendy Blackwall tunnel.  I have NEVER been on it before so it was rather exciting.  CBC deeemed it was a rather more romantic mode of travel than the Blackwall tunnel!  Oh dear, what must the other drivers in their cars have been of the frantic dash across to the side of the boat, taking of outfit shots and frantic dashing back again (all the more frantic because I had taken my polka-dot jacket off in the car and realised I needed it!).  It was definitely blowing a hoolie as you can tell from the super-messy hair which was neat before I was attacked by rapidly-moving-air!

We were on our way to Eltham to meet a couple that CBC has known for a few years who he has always said I would really get on with, but have not met.  They were just as lovely as he told me and an extraordinarily talented pair!  They are both doctors, excellent musicians, fantastic cooks, lovely people! We had the most amazing feast at their house.  She is Chinese and we had a starter of chinese-lettuce wraps, 9 different dishes to choose from for the main meal and then raspberry pavlova for dessert.  He is German and I reallly love Germany/German language/German people so I was really happy to talk to him!  I was in the kitchen reading a card (in German) on the fridge, reading out loud and he commented on my good German pronounciation (yessssss!!!!) just as I was translating it out loud to myself!  We had a lovely chat about Germany and Switzerland (where they went on honeymoon and where we are hoping to go).  It's always lovely making new friends.  We also had a lovely time getting to know their friends who they had also invited!  It's been a really lovely weekend all in all! I do hope yours was too!

Linking to the lovely Patti at Visible Monday and the Twobirds

Ever after

Random fact of the day:  it is exactly 200 years today since Pride and Prejudice was first published (thanks Mummykins, fount of all random trivia!)

How could I miss a chance to ramble on about my favourite film when I saw that Drew Barrymore was the muse for Inspiration Monday with the Two birds!!!! Oh HOW I adore that film, Ever After!!!!! So romantic, so beautiful, so inspiring and not too saccharin like many other 'Cinderella' stories can be. Those wings, that dress, those slippers, the beauty of the French scenery, the step-sister who wasn't awful! Sigh!!!  Another random fact (recently provided by CBC but already known to me!) Did you know that the real Cinderella didn't have glass-slippers but they were made out of squirrel fur (in the fairy-tale)? I found the video of this in a charity-shop and I bought 2 copies on DVD just in case one wore out!! (I can see CBC mentally culling in his mind!).


Anyway, back to the outfit.  Cotton checked shirt- check (Tescos).  Maxi-dress (well, skirt- Per Una) Check. Big necklace- check (present from J), .
Blue palette- check
oh and bird brooch- Primark,

Oh and I bought meeself a new bag!!! ;-)
CBC said I was such a child for buying this!!!  I did get some double-takes today so thus I am thinking up to Visible Monday as well, with the lovely Patti!

I had my first recorder club of the year today- what with INSET, snow and LSO courses, I haven't had it yet.  I decided to combine Junior and Senior groups and some new children joined but I didn't quite bargain for how hard it would be to keep 37 children under control playing 2 different parts on a new piece when half of them can't remember where the notes are! Oh well, we did the first half of Minuet in G by J.S. Bach which I always feel very nostalgic about as I played it for my 'Stage 2' recorder exam!

Inspiration Monday - New Year's Eve!

Hello there and a very Happy New Year to you!

I'm always fairly ambivalent about NYE, not being particualrly bothered about doing anything because of things being outrageously priced, ending up being roasting hot or freezing cold and difficulties in getting home!  However, CBC had a burning urge to visit Allendale, a village around 10miles from Haltwhistle to join in the New Year celebrations there.

Of course, since I was going to stand in the freezing cold, my New Year's Eve outfit was nothing glamorous like most of the other Inspiration Monday participants (The Twobirds kindly decreed that today's inspiration was to be your New Year's outfit).
mine comprises of:


WhiteStuff Heart-elbow-patch tunic, scarf-Christmas present, Hat- Orizu, leggings and walking boots!
Add into that, my Christmas present of Per Una purple coat for warmth.

Check out the amazing Maths-teacher Christmas decoration in the background- WOMOTM is fab!

Here's a few photos from our evening!
The Kingshead pub in Allendale:
I don't really enjoy noisy-pubs where I live but here, everyone was really friendly and not at all lairy.  All drinks were £2.50 and we even got a seat!


Allendale was once mooted as one of the top 10 places to spend your new year in the UK - they used to have an open house policy where everyone opened their houses and anyone could go in and have a drink.  Nowadays, that doesn't happen but it is still super friendly and it is free! 


Village-members are chosen to dress up and carry flaming tar-barrels around the village.

They then chuck them onto a massive pile of flotsam and wood.  We were about 2 metres away from the fire! 

Sparks everywhere.  There were fire people around, but there was no Health and Safety officiousness here!





At the stroke of midnight, we shared hugs with a couple who had come all the way from New Zealand via Essex!

Oh, and there was a sousaphone!!!





Go and check out more glamorous outfits at the Twobirds boutique!

xxx

The smallest hat

Leona Lewis (someone I've heard of!!! Lovely voice!) was the inspiration today for the Two birds inspiration Monday.  I thought this outfit was super fun and cute.  I didn't really have the pieces to match so I have gone for a vague colours, shape, garment.  I tried to transfer the fun and silliness of the eyes on the dress (did think of making a felt eyes brooch but ran out of time) into wearing this miniature hat hair-clip!  This was for a Christmas party on Sunday.  I went for a mac-y type coat, red dress and ankle boots with robin scarfThe dress is Pearl Lowe at Peacocks (in the final sale!), the coat Topshop via charity-shop, tights, Peacocks, Scarf- Primark, shoes- Deichmann, Mini-hat- 50p school fair!






In many ways, I have had a lovely weekend including the aforementioned party.  After an afternoon spent with CBC, on Saturday evening, the Asian Adventist community church - who use our Anglican church hall for their services and teaching - held their Christmas carol service.  We were invited to come and also our church choir was invited to sing two songs.

It began at around 5pm.   Lots of different choirs and Asian churches and church choirs were invited to come and join the service and sing - each one a couple of songs with a short sermon- Christmas message, prayers and congregational carols in between with some solos from singers, one a well-known song writer from Pakistan.  We sang a carol in Urdu and another one in Hindi.  One choir sang in Malayam.  All of them sang such lovely upbeat, beautiful carols, sang with joy and care.  At one point the teenagers and children from the Adventist put on a lovely nativity.  At the end, Santa paid a visit to the children and then there was a wonderful meal of various kinds.  I didn't stay for it unfortunately (it was already 9.40 when the service finished) but luckily there was left-over Chickpea biryani left over which was AMAAAAAAAZING!  Honestly, when I made Chickpea biryani, it tasted NOTHING like that!

At church on Sunday morning, we had a lovely service with people bringing in their hamper-gift bags for the homeless who are in a hostel nearby and toy-presents for a project in Newham. 



 

The Christmas party in the afternoon at CBC's old flatmates' friends house was really lovely.  Lots of lovely food and chat, I ended up reading 6 books to a 3 year old- she was sweet. Finally, we returned home to CBC's where his flatmate and I played an amaaaazing game on his iPad called The Room!  SUCH a waste of time but soooo much fun!!!

Tonight, I went up to London to meet my fellow-blogging Uni friend Rach, who was the one who introduced me to blogging some 7 years ago! She doesn't blog that often but what she says is always true, poignant, wise and thought-provoking.  It was absolutely lovely to see her!

Hope you are well! x

If you feel so inclined, please go and have a look at yesterday's Pause for advent which has reminiscences of my childhood advent calendar and a lovely story based on calendars!

Velvet dreams

Hello there!  How are you?  Well, I hope!  I am really happy to have managed to join up with the Two birds Inspiration Monday challenge today since I've missed it for two weeks!
Up today is Jessica Timberlake (I'm wondering, is she married to Justin?)



As ever, a school version of the outfit!  Every garment I am wearing is in fact thrifted, except the shoes (George at Asda) and earrings. One of the many great benefits of joining in this Monday challenge is the fact that I wear things in my wardrobe that I don't wear very often (which might perhaps beg the point, why have I still got them? In this case, it is ideal costume-wear!).  This Victorian style (?) velvet coat is something I wear very rarely (last worn on this blog last Christmas for a concert in Victorian school marm style).  My inspiration Monday linking dictating my outfit is now known to one member of staff at school.  She asked me how I managed to put together so many different outfits and how I chose what to wear that was so diverse and so I told her I join in with Inspiration Monday though didn't tell her about my blog! She realised it today by my wearing Dalmation shoes!



I am intending to wear Christmas earrings for the last two weeks of term, so here are one none-too-gaudy pair.  Messed around with Editing program for the effects! (Claire's accessories).

Today was great on different levels.  In the morning with both Reception music lessons, I taught them a song-game called 'Bow wow wow'
Bow wow wow (clap partners hand), Whose dog art though? (wag finger at partner) Little Tommy Tucker's dog (hold hands and swap places in the circle) Bow wow wow (clap hands). 
They then turn and face the person on their other side and the process begins again. 

I've never sang or taught it before and it was surprisingly successful! We also learnt Little Johnny dances, also a song I've never taught before, which again, seemed to get them singing really well.  When we listened to Introduction and Royal March of the lions from The carnival of the animals, it was really nice that most of the children said the music reminded them of a lion or another big cat or large grand animal!

In the afternoon, year 6 lessons were on the whole quite good in terms of results.  I introduced them, in the guise of Igor Stravinsky (terrible Russian accent that had them absolutely silent!) to Petroushka and then got them to work on creating different elements of the music in their groups.  What they produced was really rather good, especially one groups whose work ACTUALLY sounded like the real Petroushka!  In this lesson, I actually end up putting the higher attainers together in a group (usually I split them up and mix groups) and the second class produced a highly complex, really rather stunning 8-part polyphony piece! I was rather amazed!  I am sure that tonight, most of the class will go home and listen to Petrouska on Youtube as when I teach this unit of work, I don't play it to them until the very end of term and then they are under threat that 'if your work isn't good, you won't get to listen to it and then you'll NEVER hear it!!!"  It works every time- they believe me and then go home and all voluntarily listen to contemporary classical music on Youtube!!!

Add your cat hat and all will be well.

As previously mentioned, I was feeling rather lacksidaisical in a blogging sense and when I looked and saw the warm orangey-coloured boots of Inspiration Monday  (which I don't have- all boots need mending except for the sheepskin ones!) with the lovely Two birds, I decided to give it a miss. I was getting that 'Oh goodness, WHY oh why am I posting pictures of what I am wearing on the internet- my clothes are boring and uninspiring and nobody really cares!' feeling but when I woke up, I thought, what the heck, inspiration is supposed to provide us with what is missing when we are feeling listless so I went ahead and did an interpretation of it! I really rather like this Jenna Dewan-Tatum outfit (not sure who she is).

Stripy top is Emma Watson for People-Tree, Duffle cable cardie from Kush, Necklace- Fairtrade Christmas pressie from J and WOMOTM, Earrings- Secret Santa, Green cords- Thrifted, brogues- Peacocks.

Sorry for the mess of stuff around me.  Mind you, it's better than the landing which the three burly firemen who were just at my house fitting my new smoke-alarm had to contend with (cringe!) How exciting, I had a fire-engine parked outside my house and all!  They arrived early- and as I sauntered down my road chatting to my godmother and her husband, I panicked to see the big red fire engine outside my little house.  I squeaked goodbye and ran down the road with my trolley-bag clattering away!

 It's more me with the hat and I feel instantly better behatted!!  I noticed Char wearing this same hat on a recent post! Cannee be doing without a hat at the moment!  You can't see but one of the pom-poms on my cardie has lost much of its fullness and looks like it's been to Weight-watchers compared to its plump counterpart!

Meow!

The blogger who came in from the cold

 Hello, better late than never, I am posting my Inspiration Monday with Megan and Nora at the Two birds boutique outfit.  It was this nice cosy outfit from someone pretty.   I did look in despair at my heaving wardrobes/boxes/drawers and contemplated my cricket jumper but instead I took my inspiration from Nora's lovely grey version of this inspiration.  (curses to grainy indoor shots- urgh, daylight shortening!)
All the garments are pretty old, especially the grey trousers which I've had since I visited Kings Lyn in 2001!!!

Please note, the gloves and hat were not worn in this shot for style sake but for the pure fact I am freeeeeeezing!  My house has no central heating and is a veritable ice-box right now! If you want to know what I am looking like whilst typing this post, then scrolll to the bottom of the post!!

 Fat lot of good this pretty infinity (with birds or feathers?) scarf is- bring back the cashmere!!!

 Tuesday is also a fun Tah Dah! linkie day with Lakota and now WOMOTM has celebrated his birthday (Happy Birthday today WOMOTM!) and opened his card, I can post it here.
He's an aamazing photographer and so I made use of the fun camera paper that came with my favourite craft magazine, Papercraft Inspirations.

I also made my little niece a birthday card for the end of the month.  She adores aeroplanes and so I made this to accompany the coolest ever book- the Wind-up plane book (it has a track inside it so the toyplane will zoom around the book!)  She recently went on her first plane which is nice she had a treat as she is currently suffering the most horrendous bout of tonsilitis and hasn't eaten for almost a week, poor love.

I adapted a design from the aforementioned Papercraft Inspirations magazine for her.  I hope she likes it!

Oh, I promised to show you what I am currently doing to combat the cold (purely for a bit of light humour, I'm not saying you should dress like this!!!).  Yep, I added another jumper, cashmere scarf, slippers and like a Victorian gentleman, wearing my dressing gown over my clothes!!!  Oh and that red thing I am clutching is a microwaveable cherry-stone pillow! It is warm. I'm still cold ;-)

I had ridiculous amounts of fun this morning teaching Year 1 to play In and out the dusty blue bells  in their music lesson this morning.  Hands up who played this?  We also discussed the tempo and instrumentation of the March of the tin soldiers from the Nutcracker suite just in case you think I was having too much fun!

90 years young

Well, hello there!  How are you?  Well, I hope!  Today, is the first Monday of half-term and it is bliss not to have to get up hideously early or go to school!  Inspiration Monday today was a total last minute thing as I had 1 hour in which to practice my flute, get changed, find presents and leave home!
I'm not a fan of the Peplum look being a pear-shaped lady so I went with a slinky sort of black top (Monsoon) and my 12 year old M&S jeans with Peacock black shoes.  You can't see them in the photo but I wore blingy gold strand earrings bought for when I had to have an ancient Greek costume! I added the thrifted polka-dot blazer for warmth! (Excuse errant strap in photo 1!)

 Today was my Grandad's 90th birthday so we went out for birthday celebrations to a pub called The Olde Dog in Herongate, which was a lovely traditional old pub! I can't believe he's 90!  He may be arthritic, finds it hard to walk, can't see very well, but he's got a sharper, keener mind than many teenagers!

He's a real inspiration:  He still does bee-keeping, collecting swarms for members of the public, makes and sells honey, helps out in a local primary school and is interested in all sorts of endeavours, gardening, music and the such-like! Happy Birthday Grandad!


My Mum made this amazing honey cake for him based on the traditional old-fashioned bee-hive using his honey in it! My young niece couldn't get enough of it, despite it being dried fruit soaked in something alcoholic! I'm sadly not keen on fruit cake!  Most people don't use this type of bee-hive nowadays!

The pub was really cosy and the service was great, friendly, helpful staff, nice choices- traditional hearty-pub fare and some more adventurous choices!

I went for lamb cutlets and was presented with the most HUMUNGOUS portion! this is after eating a substantial amount of beans!) .  3 cutlets, loads of creamy mash, green beans, sun-dried tomatoes, gravy...

 It stayed dry luckily though the sky looked rather lugubrious and menacing!

We headed back to my Mum's house where we had cake and tea and I played a little flute performance for my Grandad including a cool Ian Clarke piece called Tuberama which was NOT good to play on a full stomach as it involved MUCH use of the diaphragm muscles and I felt rather weak by the end of it!!!

As I type, the rain has started! Lucky eh?!

Head off to the Twobirds to see how everyone else tackled the Peplum look!

Cold rain, chill wind

Good evening! How are you?  Well, I hope.

You know you've been saying "Shhhhhh!!!!" all day when you find yourself shushing a Pak choi wrapper that rustles when you get home. Twice!

Therefore, it's rather a relief that it's Inspiration Monday with The Two Birds boutique

The inspiration above it rather nice in its elements- all black under with a feature jacket. I don't have such a jacket so I am instead removing the pattern to my skirt and substituting a black blazer for the black trousers! (ignore the obvious lack of ironing!  It wasn't so creased this morning!)  Tenuous to say the least!

 Skirt and top- thrifted.  Blazer- 15 years old Uni interviews jacket! Shoes- Peacocks, Necklace and earrings- gift.

It's also Style Imitating Art day with the lovely Salazar from 14 shades of grey. If you've never visited her before, DO!  Her blog is lovely and she has such beautifully clear photos and lovely bright inspiring shades of colour, no grey at all!

The inspiration is:  South Wind, Clear Sky (aka Fine Wind, Clear Morning aka Red Fuji aka That Print on All Things Japanese) by Katsushika Hokusai:

It's gorgeous! The only Hokusai I have looked at before is that enormous wave one which the Year 5 children were using as art inspiration last year.  Such lovely vivid colours and a lovely way of working.

I love the title as well, it reminds me of a lovely flute piece I used to play called Slow cool, chill wind by Anne Boyd.

 There were so many different things I could have done with this, yet I really didn't want to get the iron out, so I went for basic colours! Attempting to mimic the shape of the mountain with the skirt-holding and hat to represent a peak!!!


I hope you had a lovely weekend!  Mine was great! The robot party was HUGE fun so if you'd like to see my costume, please come back tomorrow for the great reveal!!! (honestly, it's worth coming to have a laugh at me if nothing else!)

South town not Middleton

It's Inspiration Monday at the Twobirds boutique

Oooh, Pippa, you are wearing my favourite colour there! How lovely!  But sadly, the one dress I own in this colour is far too swanky and eveningy to wear!  Tonight was my little sister's graduation in South London, so we all went out to dinner.  It was lovely to see them all.  She looked stunning in a lovely dress (she'll be a Pippa Middleton at my wedding definitely!) and I am proud of her hard-work at completing her very arduous degree!   I thought I'd wear this blue dress as it is one of the few plain dresses I own that is not a flared skirt, thus matching the sort of shape of Pippa's!  It is also rather reminiscent of a certain dress worn by Pippa's sister! Does it ring any bells?  Worn with fake sapphire necklace and earrings and Irregular choice Penelope shoes- I did try to wear black boots but it made it look really tarty so I swapped!

 In this shot, I try unsuccessfully to hide the enormous food baby produced by the most humungous portions in London! 3 courses and all of them HUAGE!!!!

 A HA!  The flash is not my friend!  Here, food baby is cunningly concealed by shadows without flash!

 And now the food baby is concealed by aloe-vera?

I notice the quilting on her (Pippa's) jacket.  Is it just wear I live or is EVERYONE wearing quilted jackets!  Seriously, when did that happen?  I shall not be partaking in this particular dare-I-say-it, Trend? Trying to stick to my current coats, I have enough! Children in the playground rushing around in quilted jackets, various teachers, most of the choir at church, along the high street, along the road.  I chose a black cardie instead!

Since I missed both my own graduation ceremonies AND prize-giving AND scholarship-awards ceremonies, I er-managed to steal her robes and pretend it was MY graduation! I like them! 

Now go and check out the other inspiration ladies!