TARDIS Tuesday- Inside the TARDIS...

Greetings! A day late again! Twice terribly, tardy TARDIS Tuesday

Forgive the unexpected hiatus in posting.  We made last minute plans to go camping on Sunday in the Cotswolds and.......

A visit to Cardiff to the Doctor Who Experience!

Thanks to the Doctor Who fans on Instagram, I found out that the exhibition is due to close in July and I have never been!!

But....what to wear for such an auspicious occasion?

Most of the people I follow on Instagram go dressed up in full cosplay.

 But... I would have been camping for 2 days and the weather is so unpredictable. I didn't want to wear one of my smart Clara outfits because it would be creased and well- awkward.

Many of my other ones are a) too subtle and too warm for the weather.

 In the end, I chose to wear my TARDIS dress. The main reason was because unlike my other cosplays, which I can generally get away wearing for work etc, this one is a bit more special and offers less occasions to wear.

It is honestly one of the best presents I have ever received. I couldn't believe it when my Mum came back from Florida with it. It fits my shape so nicely too.

Don't worry though- there was subtle Clara Oswald cosplay going on.  The acid-distressed cropped denim shirt from Topshop is a very close alternative to a Topshop acid-distressed denim cropped denim shirt she wears for a few shots in Time Heist. The only difference is mine doesn't have a pocket! Mine was, of course, only £4 in the charity shop! Oh, and my 'Fly me to the Moon' necklace by Punkypins!

Image borrowed from Pinterest

Stay tuned for posts soon on the Doctor Who exhibition. Even CBC, who detests Doctor Who and moaned about going, had a great time, enjoyed the experience, took many photos and even bought himself some souvenirs!


Hope you are all well!

xx

Style imitating Art: Venus

I thought I'd share the latest Style Imitating Art challenge I have taken part in.

Salazar chose this beautiful pastel poster, a space tourism poster from the Jet Propulsion Unit at NASA. 

I don't have huge amounts of pastels in my wardrobe though I was sure I had a lovely peach and white patterend silk camisole that would be perfect...

I think I must have culled it.

Also considered a lovely pink rose cardigan....

But I couldn't find it.

In the end, I went with this Dorothy Perkins peachy/pink spotty dress. I liked the spots echoing the numerous circles on the poster.

In addition, I added a pretty quartz crystal necklace that my fellow blogger, Gem gave me as our Blogger Snail Mail swap to echo the crystal dome.  Some nude heels from Aldo completed the look along with a Dorothy Perkins lacy white cardigan.

I added an image of one of the huge quantity of peachy-hued roses that are adorning my garden this week.

It may not be the best match ever but for my limited pastel-wardrobe,I think I did quite well!
Head over to Salazar's blog to see how everyone else interpreted this poster!

x

5 Girl things I cannot be bothered with.

At school, we spend a lot of time trying not to say things that might gender stereotype or restrict things in any way make a child feel they can't do something because it is not 'typical' for their gender. I have had to talk to boys who refuse to do something because they think it is deemed 'girly' and explain that they can do that, of course they can, if they want to. Some stereotypes are hard to break... Strangely enough, I get it less with girls.  However, when I write 'Girl things' here, I mean things that are often associated with girls!

1. False nails
Urgh, I think it would drive me mad! I can't stand my nails being long! Part of being a regular musician and a player of the piano, viola, flute and recorder is the necessity for short-nails, so I have always had them and honestly, I cannot cope if they grow long.  Plus, I've always had a fear of excessively long nails due to a scary Doctor Who serial called, The Curse of Fenric, which terrified me for years as a child- the 'monsters' in this were vampiric girls with long talons.  Shudder. Plus, I don't like the idea of having false nails such to my fingers.

2. Manicures regularly- again, or having to put nail paint on! 
What a Faffety faff! I find I use my hands far too much to countenance this and it just seems a waste.  Plus, sitting there waiting for someone to do things to your hands just seems a grand waste of time.  They always look terrible when I do them nowadays anyway! Plus, the whole process just seems very expensive for what it is!

3. Plucking eyebrows
No way am I pulling hairs out by the root from my face!  The precision and time-consuming nature of this fills me with dread, let alone the associated pain! I struggle to remember and have time to moisturise my legs (once a week or a fortnight if I am lucky!), let alone having to sort out unruly brows. Luckily, my ones are naturally a fairly nice shape and I don't have a mono-brow.  When I went to have a hair trial at a salon for my wedding (didn't end up going with the salon in the end), the beautician kept telling me I should get my brows done. This was a) rather insulting and b) meaning I will be stuck with this chore forever more. No thanks!

4.  Waxing
No, no, no, no....
I have had this done twice. And do you know, it is NOT worth it.  Pain, awful pain and then it grows back!  The idea of paying good money for pain does not sit well with me.

5.  Clutch bags
I know I have bag issues.  I struggle to fit things into one bag. CBC despairs of me hulking a great sack around with me (at one wedding, he was rather pleased with me for the delicate, petite handbag I was holding until he noticed I was holding a secondary larger bag behind me...), my Mum and old acquaintances refer to me as the Bag Lady.  The idea of a clutch seems to me like trying to carry your essentials around in a pencil case! Impossible! I always have to have a book with me and all the essentials and a clutch does not cut the muster!

Terribly Tardy TARDIS Tuesday

Try saying that 10 times in a row!

I apologise for the hiatus in blogging.  This is generally due to business, being out and general ennui!

Somehow, I find myself having gone 4 days sans blogging.   I haven't seen Doctor Who for the past two weeks due to a) having no where to watch it and b) being out at a concert this Saturday as well!
Thus, I thought I would have a go at another Clara Oswald cosplay for this week's TARDIS Tuesday.

The Day of the Doctor was the 50th Anniversary special back a few years ago and in this episode, Clara Oswald wore a red v-neck button down dress from River Island with a Barbour jacket.  Her ubiquitous black opaque tights featured, along with heeled black boots.

 Here's my non-tights, non-boots rendition! It being a very, very hot day! I would have melted with tights!

Confession about this dress:  I have had it for over 2 years but not worn it till now. I bought it for its remarkable similarity to Clara's dress. This is not the River Island Screen Accurate one but a similar Alt/Alternative one from F&F at Tesco. But, as you might expect, I found it in a charity shop. I believe it cost me £4. The problem is, when I got it home, I discovered it had THREE buttons missing. It has those fabric covered ones and there was no spare, evidently it had been used as the label, where it might have been found, had a bit hole where a button had been cut out!

One of the missing buttons is around the waist and the other two are at the bottom. To be honest with you, if I wore a belt like Clara is above, I could probably get away without the middle one. But the other ones, I feel I need!

 I don't have a Utilitarian looking coat like Clara's, this one is apparently an incredibly hard one to locate, AND very expensive.  The only vaguely suitable coat I had was this, also charity-shopped, Next jacket which I've worn for another TARDIS Tuesday. It'll do!

As far as Alternatives to the genuine dress though, I do think this F&F one is super even if the colour is a little cooler.

The good thing about my not having worn tights and boots is that I can revisit this in cooler times and make it look a little more convincing.  Other than that, not a bad Wardrobe cosplay!

What do you think?  Would you say this is a good alternative?

xx

Romance and gardens

 Not much to note in the romance department but this outfit is rather, for me, romantic. A red jumper and a long flowing skirt says to me something rather romantic!  These are two of my April charity-shop purchases and I must say they were meant to go together!

 I do like wearing shorter skirts but there's something classic about that modest-length skirt.

I do so love this tree and indeed the whole garden for its blogging backdrop.  My outfit photos always have something lovely in the background.

The garden is looking lovely at the moment although the Love and Peace tea-rose bush needs cutting back as it is taking over the path at the moment and you cannot get by without squeezing past it sideways, inevitably snagging your closes on some errant thorn. I cannot, however, deplore it, rather, seeing all the joys that Spring offers afresh in this idyllic garden.  I still thank God that we made the move last year. I really didn't want to leave our old house, it was difficult, messy, incredibly emotionally fraught but in many ways it has been a real blessing- being able to save more money, a beautiful garden of this great size with patio doors that lead straight out onto it. Our old house didn't have that and it does make all the difference. I don't know how long we will be here for and when things might move on a house sale but I will always regard this bungalow and indeed home with great affection.  From the mischievous foxes that frolic and yelp so prominently at night and slink by the windows to the vexing, tiresome dog that barks somewhere down the road for a full half an hour constantly from 9pm (my neighbours and I have discussed it at length- it drives everyone mad!), the nice neighbours, the immaculate garden opposite surrounding the detached bungalow, the starlings in the loft.  Being of a extremely forgetful nature, living in a bungalow has dramatically reduced the number of times I must zoom up and down stairs to retrieve something I've forgotten, only to reach the other location, having forgotten what it was.  In the bungalow, the moving time is so slight, I usually remember what it is I sought!

Anyway, as you read, I shall be playing my concert in London.  I've really enjoyed the rehearsal times for this concert.  My lovely friend H has been playing flute with me this time and she is such a joy to play with. She is 10x better a flautist than I, but she never makes me feel it or makes me feel that she secretly wants to be playing 1st flute- she is a truly modest, kind player and a real team-player and great company!

Hope you are all well.

xx

Friday letters

It's time for another Friday letters! Yes, I do so love to address people or objects rhetorically- it makes me feel even more eccentric than I already am!

Dear Year 5,
Today was one of my favourite lessons. I LOVE teaching the first lesson about how to make chords on an instrument.  I always love how totally and utterly animated you are by it and how you love applying the rules of chord building with great alacrity! Hurrah!

Dear Year 1,
You better remember the names of those 4 South American instruments next week or else!?!?!?

Dear Year 2 music club,
Ahrgh, why are you so hyper?!?!?!?! Please just calm down a bit!

Dear Year 4,
Thank you for ALL improving your Ravel-inspired pieces so utterly brilliantly! It was hard choosing a winner!

Dear Lisa,
You absolute darling! Thank you so much for your kind parcel!  I never cease to be amazed by the kindness of my lovely blog friends!

Dear Londoners or South-east dwellers,
Fancy seeing an exciting orchestra concert in Nottinghill tomorrow night featuring a sublime violinist and a really nasty Czech fairytale told in musical form, then head over to www.kco.org.uk to find out more?  I am playing 1st flute and it is lovely!

Dear Man on the train,
I am sorry if I frightened you by telling you you should have carried your plastic water bottle home to recycle rather than putting it into the bin. Thank you for conceding that you should indeed have done, promising to do so next time and not shouting at me for my friendly audacity!
Small steps to change lazy habits people. Someone has to be the voicer of thoughts!

 Dear Love and Peace Tea rose,

Thank you for returning to me again. I remember seeing you, in the same spot, bloom before all your other rose bush team members and being amazed at your amazing sunset beauty! Thank you for returning and thrilling me yet again.

Dear Rain,
Thank you for coming, we needed you!  Let's hope some reservoirs get filled up again and wheat is watered.  However, can you go and listen to when the farmers tell you to stop.

Dear Thai Restaurant,
I really want to visit you.You are my Friday night delight. Better wake prone, slumbering husband from sofa.

Dear People we are buying a house from at some point, hopefully,
Please find a house you want to buy soon, we are waiting patiently. We would like to move at some point. Please also don't get cold feet and decide you like your lovely home.

Dear Swimming Pool,
Here's hoping I get there early again in the morning- I feel like a swim!

Dear Abellio Greater Anglia trains,
Why have you been so up the creek for the last two days? Especially when it is rainy and I want to go home. If you are going to be delayed, at least make it to half an hour so I can claim some money back!

Dear Bloggy friends,
Thank you for your consistent friendship and alacrity at what I post. It does mean a lot to me!

Dear Lemon, almond and pear cake,
I am sorry for unfairly maligning your name before trying you. It was indeed a case of Green Eggs and Ham! Need to stop being so fussy about sweet consumables!

What would your Friday letters say?

xx


Linking with Claire Justine for Welcome to the weekend

April charity-shop purchases

In April, post-Lent, it seems being abstemious for Lent didn't quell my enthusiasm for charity-shopping.  I hoped it would.  This is sort of my Buyer's Archive for April in a sense which I haven't done for aaaaaaaaages!. I know that we all love seeing what treasures others have picked up at the charity-shops or car boots so voila!

I bought these 3 dresses: The Swan dress, originally from Joy Louche was £4.99 from Oxfam.  It fits very well and I did indeed buy it for this Clara Oswald cosplay.

The middle dress was £6.50 from Cancer Research  and was originally by H by Henry Holland.  It was, I am afraid, all about that collar. I was sorely tempted in that shop- there were about 5 gorgeous-collared dresses I really liked.

The 3rd dress was £6.50 from the same shop, originally Topshop and was one I have admired many times on Ebay.

The final dress from my first purchase in Ipswich and is fairtrade, organic cotton from People Tree.  It fits absolutely perfectly so I am totally pleased with it. It was £6.99 I think.

The black cropped cardigan is Cashmere and was £5.99, I think, from Oxfam- it is a great concert Cardigan. Brand new from Pure.

The middle coat was actually a present from Hazel when we did our day in Ipswich with Sophie.  She knew I liked it as I am sure I made some pointed comment about it on her blog,  (Just checked and I did here... ooops, I offered to buy it! Do you want some money!?!??!) It fits perfectly and I was very happy with it!

The brown leather-look blazer was £3.50 from a charity-shop in Ipswich- Sense maybe?  I admit this was mainly Clara Osward inspired...

The tops:

The spotty blouse on the left was also from the same shop in Ipswich as the leather jacket  and I think it was £3.00.  I have plans to add some cute little Jennie Maisels rainbow patches to the collars of this.

The middle jumper has a darling heart print black collar and was £5 from the same shop as the two dresses at the top.  Very comfy and sweet!

The bunny print blouse was also from an Ipswich charity shop and was £3.50ish, I think.

The final item is either handmade or vintage.  This maxi dress is gorgeous and long enough for my long legs. I've been looking for a nice dark-coloured maxi of this ilk for a while! It was £4.

So, far too many purchases but all of them great!

I also picked up a red Jersey dress for £1.99 from Barnados but a) it doesn't fit and b) I mislaid it so it will be returning from whence it came.

The total spent on charity shop clothes was £51.96. Rather too many items but all of them treasured!

Did you buy any charity shop items this month?
xx

TARDIS Tuesday- Clara in Hide!

Hello there!  I'm back for another TARDIS Tuesday!

In Series 7, Clara and the Doctor rocked up to a spooky old house in the middle of a rainy night, The episode was called Hide. I actually tried to do a TARDIS Tuesday on this outfit back in 2015.  Everything I am wearing, except my shoes is a different version!

My hair was better in 2015, it's a bit too short and curling outwards instead of inwards, but I think this is more accurate than then.

Clara begins the episode clutching the twin of this umbrella, which spookily enough, I picked up from a charity shop last July because it looked like a great new umbrella, along with a Clara Screen accurate blouse and a few weeks later, watched Hide and realised I had an identical umbrella. She also has a red satchel which doesn't seem to feature in any stills I can find!

Image borrowed from
http://erasethestigma.tumblr.com/post/112770742360/doctor-who-parallels  

The dress is the right shape and buttons up right though obviously the navy print is wrong- hers is flowers- mine has swan print! Still, not bad for a fiver from a Charity-shop 2 weeks ago!  The blazer was also a £5 job from New Look a few months ago- I really like cardigan blazers!

What do you think?

xx

The 10 teas I like and the anti-teas!

TEA!

I love TEA!  Genuine distress is the order of the day when I discover undrunken tea lying around the house!  You should be on a high state of alert when you have a cup of tea to ensure it has not been wasted! To that end, I am sharing my favourite types of tea with you. I'd love to hear which ones you like best too!

Earl Grey
This is my number 1 choice. I adore it! Gladly, I will choose this over any other available concoction.  That said, I do like the variants of Lady Grey and a Tropical Grey which is a blend made by a lovely cafe called Hall and co in a place called Ramsden Heath. I am particularly fond of the Twinings and M&S varieties.

English Breakfast
Can't beat it for sheer simplicity and a good honest tea. Again, Twinings is great.

PepperMint
Can't beat this for a post-dinner, pre-bed drink.  Ideally, I love to use fresh mint leaves.  The flavour is so much nicer.  Failing that, the Pukka teas 3 mint variety is tasty.

Jasmine Green tea
Every time we frequent the Thai restaurant that we enjoy, I always drink their Jasmine Green tea, made with leaves, not a bag. I am happy to drink this.  Normal green tea is not nice, this is!

Rose tea
Black rose tea is really tasty.  I remember Whittards doing a delicious variety and a lovely tearooms in Chelmsford called Small Talk tea rooms, does a great rose tea.

Vanilla black tea
This one brings me back memories of my childhood and early teens. My dad used to buy Vanilla Tea leaves from a nice tea man and I always loved this slight sweet taste.  I bought some from a super tea merchant in France a few years ago and I can recommend it.  In the meantime, Vanilla Roiisbos is not a bad alternative.

Darjeeling
It's an oldie but goodie. Fairly tame and a little bland but comforting.

Lemon Verbena - I tried a wonderful Cordon Bleu one once from TK Maxx. SOOOOo tasty.  Neal's yard does a mean Lemon verbena loose-leaf too.

Lemon Balm- fresh leaves from the garden.
Lemon balm used to grow like a weed in my childhood home and I am very fond of popping a few leaves in a cup and drinking.

Camomile
I'll drink this if there is no other herbal alternative. It is mildly inoffensive and quite calming.

Now, you knew the converse was coming so here are ....

More tea vicar?

Teas I do not like:

Nettle tea:
Horrid, makes me gag in the sort of way that mushrooms do! I did persevere with it and drank the whole box full but it was still vile.

Chai tea- nasty spicy, bonfire!!!  Also makes me gag! Smiles horrid! I do not like Christmas spices which this reminds me of!

Lapsang Soochong
Again, like drinking a bonfire! One of my most hated smells in the world is Smoky Bonfire.  Therefore, WHY would I want to drink it?

Flavoured fruit teas:
Smell gorgeous, taste of bath water!

Licorice tea:
URGH, wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwhyyyyyyy??????

Matcha:
The proper Green tea that is used for Wabicha, the tea ceremony. Not nice, not nice at all.

Ginger:
I honestly think I must have some mild allergic reaction to Ginger (or I am just a wuss) as it gives me a weird pins and needles in my tongue whenever I eat with it in food or drink it. Thus, in tea?  No thanks!

What about you?  Please do share your teas or choice or your tea nemeses???

xx

Alllll the foxes!

 Greetings!  I hope your day has been bright, sunny and contented.  As you all seemed to like Mr Foxton on Friday, I thought I'd share the full outfit that he was part of.

 As it happens, I am not particularly happy with my resident foxes as I left my bikini bag (for keeping a wet costume in) out hanging in the garden and it had fallen down and overnight, the foxes had played with it, removed the drawstring and bit three holes in it. So that one is resigned to the bin!

 You might remember these gorgeous fox-flat shoes from Love Hetty and Dave that I featured in a Wishlist a while back, bemoaning the fact that CBC refused to buy them for me when I offered it as something I'd quite like when he asked about Christmas and birthday presents.  As you can see, he relented and bought them for me!  Yay!

The weekend has been nice albeit fairly meandering. We took our friend (the one who introduced us!) out for dinner to our favourite Thai restaurant on Friday which was great fun. To my surprise and slight chagrin, I awoke super early on Saturday morning so to make the best of a bad situation, I got u and jogged to the local swimming pool where I arrived at 7.30am for a 30 minute dip! 

It meant I was able to pick up a parcel from the delivery office, head to the library to pick up a reserved book and to buy some 17 bargain books for 10p a piece from there for the school library!  Had a bit of luck in the charity shops too when I found a Screen Accurate blouse worn by Clara in Doctor Who as well as two other pretty blouses! All the collars.

Back home, I did some tidying and washing until we headed to another town for CBC's optician's appointment where I purchased a further 14 books from the charity shop for the library (Not a bad weekend's haul, 30 immaculate books for £9!).  We then headed to a taster day for learning musical instruments for a local authority music hub, where CBC led Cello taster lessons and I walked to town and pootled.  I think I must have walked 5 miles along high streets that day!) 

In the evening, after a bit more sorting, we headed over to our friend's to watch Eurovision.  I didn't find it as fun without our usual party! I missed the hilarious manic laughter from our usual host!

Today, waking late, I have spent most of the day tidying, hanging washing or reading.  CBC went on an interminable, epic cycle with his brother.  Oh... and I made Chocolate cornflake cakes- mmm!!

If you fancy wearing an entirely foxy outfit, the dress is by Run&Fly- they don't have their own website but you can get them from Thunderegg Manchester or on Ebay (where I got mine) or other independent boutiques. The shoes are from Love Hetty and Dave, brooch from Hello Crumpet on Etsy and the necklace was from Punkypins though they don't make them now!

I hope your weekend was foxilicious!

xx

5 brooches #59

Hello there,

I hope you are well. I thought I would share a few brooch photos from April. I have got out of the habit of posting these weekly so I will try to resume this!

 From an unexpectedly hot first week of April, I added this pair of Cactus pins to this Swan dress.

 My flute quartet had another gig at John Lewis so I added my oversized sparkly heart to my black dress as we accessorise with red and this was all I could find!

 A very favourite fox-themed outfit from the same hot week- I added Mr Foxton to my Punkypins necklace and fox-dress (plus the Fox shoeees!) for Foxy overkill!

 Penultimately, here is the white cat brooch I made for my Colin Baker cosplay which I posted as part of my Style imitating Monmon cats post.

Finally, this unicorn pin combined with lemon slice was the completion of this ric-rac dress outfit!

Any favourites here?

xx

If you go down to the woods today...

On Saturday, we headed out for a short walk around a pretty woodland area in Danbury. If you find Well Lane it comes off there.  Come with me and see what delights we spied along the way.

 Some fallen trees had been decorated and turned into houses.

 Many a den had been built by the Scouts.

 The lakes were beautiful and serene though there were few ducks to be seen.

 Blossom bedecked the trees who stood listless without a breeze.

 We spied some new cottage gardens outside the walls of the Danbury Palace new housing.

 There were many inviting looking specimens to examine.

 Further on into the woodland, Bluebells could be glimpsed.

 We headed towards the beautiful, vivid, red Rhododendrons and spied new bee hives.

 The old ice-house from Palace life is there as a monument to the past.

 A picnic table, newly emblazoned with national pride.

 A sparse carpet of Bluebells but one must tread gingerly through their  blue-hued beauty to avoid damage.

 The mantle of foliage upon this trunk,

 A young Moorhen chick follows Mummy cheeping around the lake.

A walk is never a chore when there are beautiful sights to be seen, Nuthatches to hear and friends to accompany.

xxx