From the Archives: Blanket Cover

 I wrote this post back in January 2016.  Oh my, this is one of my favourite outfits I ever shared on the blog.  It featured two of my favourite things- a cloche hat bought for me by CBC and a wonderful vintage blanket skirt I bought from Spitafields market.  The message of this post is still relevant and I am sorry if I have been remiss in my visiting and commenting on blogs recently- the long spell of online working in the new year really did make me not want to get my computer out and do things on it in the evenings but I hate being behind in my blog socialising so please forgive me and I will try to make amends soon!

Lots of love,

Kezzie x

Blanket cover

 It's been a long time since I wore TARDIS blue overtly.Voila, TARDIS blue in profusion!  I wasn't going to make the mistake I made last Sunday with church being freezing so I pulled out the big guns with this vintage blanket skirt. I wasn't cold. Result.

 And I find it hard to find things to wear these Irregular Choice, Poetic Licence shoes with so a minute bit of yellow was my cue!

 I really enjoyed church this morning.  We had a visitor from the cathedral who talked on going from being a disciple to an apostle.   I think one of my favourite books of the Bible is 2 Timothy which he read from.  It was the source of the first Christian song I wrote and even now, I read it and think of how encouraging its message it is.  Paul was encouraging a young Timothy in his walk with faith in Christ.  Encouragement is something really important to give each other.
Being an apostle is taking that step from following to sharing your message of faith.

It's so easy not to take the time to encourage, whether as a Christian or not.  You doubt your own self and abilities and it can be easy to forget to encourage other people in whatever.  Telling someone they are doing something well, that they can do it, telling them of the good things that have happened to you, and encouraging them in new paths. Telling someone you are praying for them, offering help and time.  A church friend has been a great source of encouragement for me this month in his family's selflessness in offering CBC and I a place to rent.

You here encourage me.  I think the encouragement that we as bloggers can give each other is very important.  Shamu, a regular commenter on this blog, has show through his poetry on his blog, that he has a constant struggle with acceptance and friendship in life (I hope you don't mind me saying that) and frequently shows gratitude for the encouragement he receives. Reciprocally, he is very, very good at encouraging people through comments, kindness and appreciation, even if his tights excitement is a little bit on the edge! :)  Lovely Laura, at Daisychain dream has struggled with eating disorders over the years, and I know as blog friends, the fact she trusts us to tell us of the struggles is an encouragement to us and we should encourage her in her journey.  Ally is finding her path presenting as a female and our encouragement of her in this is so important to building confidence. I've mentioned before, that Ally is a hugely important force of encouragement and good in the blogging world.  I could go on, but I suspect I will lose you. Every one I have come across in blogging needs encouragement. Encouragement to continue, encouragement for energy, for time and for struggles they have encountered. It is a privilege to be able to make a little contribution towards those struggles with a word here or there.

I've met a lovely new blogger this week, Ellie at This Country Girl's journal (I was her first commenter!) please go and say hi and comment on her blog to encourage her in her first month of blogging!

I hope all is well with you. Is there anything you need encouragement for? Or is there anything I can pray for? Just let me know!

xxx

Off to link up with lovely Patti who is the original encourager of beautiful bloggers everywhere with her link Visible Monday. I'm also glad it is Hat Attack with beautiful Judith because I am wearing my favourite Cloche that CBC gave me for Christmas 2 years ago!

An outfit inspired by Vix

One of my most stylish blog friends is the wonderful Vix!  Most of you seem to follow her (you have impeccable taste!) -she is the vintage queen, seller and wearer with an amazing knowledge of vintage fashion.  During the last year, I have really enjoyed her style choices- even more than I used to- her style is soft, floaty but fitted, comfortable but chic with a range of beautiful patterns and materials and featuring the beauty of Indian blockprinting from Indian designers such as Anokhi, Fabindia and others.

A little while back, I acquired a skirt second hand which I bought secondhand which was from East who collaborated/had a collection made by Fabindia.  I have worn it a lot since I bought it in March.

Then, a chance charity shop buy 2 weeks ago meant I could make a really Vix-ish outfit.

At this juncture, I should confess that I failed in the 'buy only one item a month' challenge which I've been doing since the start of the year. It was the excitement of going into a real charity shop when I went to Southend to meet my friend during my last week of the Easter holidays- I wanted to show my support for the charity shops who have missed so much custom and then it all fell down a bit. More anon.

I bought this beautiful quilted patterned cotton jacket (originally Oasis) from the Harp Southend charity shop, which reminded me of some of the vintage ones that Vix has worn that I've admired.  I wore it along with a black cotton top which was also charity shopped some years ago.

Notice my shoes poking out....they were another part of my failure month as when I came back home, I visited the Haven hospice charity shop after visiting the bakery and found a brand new pair of Clarks Somerset black leather Grecian-style sandals in my SIZE.  Let me tell you this doesn't happen to girls with size 8 shoes- we cling onto our shoes! I bought them to replace a similar pair which got completely trashed after walking home along a dirt track after a wedding at the Larmer Tree gardens estate in the middle of the night- they've subsequently gone missing and I was very sad about this fact.

The shoes aren't very Vix...thought I know she likes Clarks good quality!

The entire outfit is second hand/charity shopped! No jewellery this time.

Hope all is well with you! Nothing much to report.  CBC is currently fast asleep on the sofa and is annoyingly spread out all over the sofa- he has one leg trapping my legs onto the sofa and the other one digging into my side as I type.  Humph! He has sleeping super powers, I tell you!

xx
 

TARDIS Tuesday- Yaz Khan's outfit from Fugitive of the Judoon

TARDIS Tuesday today features current companion, Yaz Khan in THE best episode of Doctor Who series 12, Fugitive of the Judoon. It was such an exciting episode with so many big reveal moments!

Here's a collage of screenshots I've done of Yaz's outfit:

It features her ubiquitous leather jacket with lapels, indigo skinny jeans, her Dune brogue Chelsea boots and a leopard-skin chiffon blouse.  Her hair is done in 2 French plaits at the side.

Here's my version:

Everything in this outfit, except the blouse/shirt, have been worn before for various cosplay outfits, especially worn by Yaz- my Clara leather jacket, the same Dune boots but in an alternative black patent version.

My leopard print shirt was second hand from H&M- I don't know if it is screen accurate, but it looks pretty similar.

I'm not 100% sold on this blouse- it's a bit 'Pat Butcher' to me, it's the colours of it, but since it was only £3.00, I gave it a go.  I quite like the way this outfit looks even if it is not ubiquitous Kezzie! I think the jury is out on this one.

Hope you had a good day.  

My Monday was a good one in terms of lessons- the children worked hard and enjoyed their lessons and I was quite touched when one of the Year 5 girls trusted me enough to come and ask me if I had some feminine care products she could use as she said her period was quite heavy. Luckily, I was able to oblige, as I had something in my cupboard just in case. Meeting after school was tiresome.

CBC's birthday weekend and the previous week

 Ah, what a lovely weekend we have had!  I am going back to school tomorrow feeling really glad about it.

Last week, my first week back at school was actually fine.   You know I was worried about the shelves?  Well, although the level of the top shelf IS too high for the little children, because the shelves are double width, I have managed to fit most things on the shelves and it is working out ok so far.  I got very, very dusty last Monday getting everything put onto shelves, getting the cupboards sorted etc.  The return to school was fine.  I had my first choir and drumming club- with 17 children and 10 children, respectively, and both were enjoyable and the children seemed to be really pleased and have a good time.  The first orchestra since Christmas was good too and we began an arrangement of Korobeniki, the theme from the Tetris computer game. I WAS tired after the week though.

Friday night, CBC and I bought some Chinese takeaway for dinner which was delicious and a welcome treat after a tiring week.

Saturday morning, we got up at a reasonable hour, not hideously late but not early and I made CBC a brunch consisting of Pain Au chocolat (reduced to 38p for 4 from the Co-op), tea/coffee, juice and then crusty brown bread, scrambled egg with chives, salad leaves (rescued from the bin at school- it was on top and totally enclosed in plastic)  and Gravalax with honey and mustard sauce.  Whilst we ate that, we had a Zoom meeting with his mum, brother and sisters which was pleasant.

He then opened his presents. I bought him:

• Homemade cheeseboard box: rather than buying an overpackaged special box, I bought vintage Gouda, Brie De Meaux, Gorgonzola, Manchego Reserve Gruyere, Somerset Crunchy vintage Cheddar; Oat and Chive wheat biscuits, Rosemary Crackers, Beetroot and three seed oaty biscuits from Lidl and then packaged them in a recycled cardboard box with some straw from my birthday hamper.  As I have alluded to, CBC is a cheese fan and he was really pleased.
• 4 Cliff bars- these are energy bars for long distance cycling.
• Lidl special Ginger and Belgian chocolate wafer biscuits; Almond, dark chocolate and sea salt nut bars, Cadbury's Caramel nibbles.
• White Stuff navy blue linen Summer trousers (purchased last September in the 70% sale!) 
• 4 pairs of Seasalt Bamboo sailor socks (purchased in January with my 50% off teacher discount code) 
• I commissioned a lovely young artist called Emily White to do an A4 painting of a Robin, Blue Tit, Sparrow and Blackbird all sitting on Honeysuckle as CBC loves the birds in our garden and spends a lot of time watching them feeding and sitting on our honeysuckle.  It arrived on Saturday morning and it is so utterly beautiful.
• He was so pleased with all his presents.  He was also really pleased with the beautiful RSPB ceramic bird bath that my Mum bought him (which I saw in a catalogue at hers and suggested she buy for him)
  

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• After we'd hung some washing, we drove to a village called Stock to meet our friend N.  We then all got in his car (with masks and windows open) and drove to a village called Blackmore where we ate lunch at the tearoom.  Ah, it was so nice- we sat in the beautiful sunshine and ate our lunch.  I had a Hoisin Duck salad and a thick Chocolate Milkshake with cream and sprinkles.
• We then walked the stretch of the St Peter's Way from Blackmore to Stock which was around 14km  Ah, it was such a wonderfully interesting walk and really pleasant and easy.  We saw lots of lovely things, including going through a brilliant Victorian tunnel under the main Norfolk line railway which was really long and dark.

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•  We saw and heard lots of birds and even saw a Barn Owl!  We unexpectedly stopped at the  Red Lion in Margaretting for a cup of tea/pint for the other 2 plus a bag of crisps.  We reached the car back in Stock and then drove N to pick up his car in Stock.  We then drove home, via our much missed, beloved Thai restaurant in our old town of resistence to buy a sneaky takeaway before returning home to eat it.
• The next morning (today), CBC got up to cycle to the old town to meet another of his old housemates for a social cycle ride.  I also decided to get the train back to that same home town to attend church.  It was SO lovely to be back in person to church for the first time since last year! It was so nice briefly see people to say hi behind facemasks- and I really enjoyed the calm and peace and thought of the service.

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• After this, I called CBC who was having a cup of tea in his old housemate's garden and so I cycled up the hill a few miles to see them also.  We had a happy catch up in their garden whilst admiring their raised bed of vegetable and fruit plants and playing with their 3 year old. They also have a 4 week old who it was lovely to meet.  L, CBC's housemate's lovely wife was so pleased to see us and she said it made her weekend to see us.  They gave us delicious 'Breaded Vegetable Finger' sandwich.  CBC escorted me on his bike (me on mine) to the station and then he was planning to cycle the 15miles or so back to our house.  To my chagrin, the moment he'd cycled off, I found out the next train was cancelled so I had to wait 47 minutes for the next train.  I had a brief walk up the high street to look in a charity shop.  When I FINALLY got home, CBC was already back! Sigh. He's so quick!
• CBC and I had a pot of tea along with a M&S Belgian chocolate eclair (the best type!) and then we did a few garden jobs.  I then planted some Chard, Pak Choi and Bean seeds to germinate.   I'm pleased to report that the 2 sunflower seeds I planted aaaaaaaaaaaaaaages ago, have FINALLY germinated! I thought all was lost but they were just shy!
• We ate the left over Thai food for dinner alongside the remainder of my last batch of Nettle soup.

Ah, it's been SUCH a lovely weekend

I hope that it has been enjoyable for you too!

xx

TARDIS Tuesday- Romana's sailor style from The Leisure Hive

I'm very excited to share my TARDIS Tuesday this week.  This is an outfit which is VERY much idiosyncratic Kezzie (check out my Sailor chic posts- all 25 of them!) and is a TARDIS Tuesday I did a simple version of this outfit here which was my restarting of TARDIS Tuesday posts back in 2017

Here's a fan video of the episode showing the outfit I've selected, worn by my favourite Classic Who companion, Romana!

I've taken the liberty of borrowing some images and pairing myself with Romana in them.

Images borrowed from

https://twitter.com/archivetvmus71/status/1050080061678866432 

https://aminoapps.com/c/the-worlds-of-doctor-who/page/blog/pros-cons-of-the-leisure-hive-1980/wRWM_5zsouJ4abPnerxRL8Bmj2oQPgqKBV

https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/who-was-in-charge-of-lalla-wards-wardrobe.97558/

http://rebloggy.com/post/doctor-who-classic-who-k9-romana-romana-ii-dwedit-cwedit-the-leisure-hive/120068215776 

https://them0vieblog.com/2013/04/28/doctor-who-the-leisure-hive-review/ 

And here they are:

This is definitely a 'better' version of this outfit than last time and I'm really happy with it!

I started off with a Breton-striped top from H&M Kids.  I have numerous Breton-striped tops but this one is closest to Romana's.

My knicker bockers (if you can call them that? Cropped trousers?) are in fact, PAJAMAS!  They are from M&S and came with a navy coloured t-shirt.  I DID buy them with this outfit in mind but when I bought them in 2020, I did want some new PJs! I can't tell you how many years it took to find something resembling these trousers she wears! I was only low-key searching though...

Ah...the hat!  It's a charity shopped one bought back in 2010 or so and is the same one as last time!

I like Romana's pictures as she is usually smiling in them and she has a lovely smile- one that isn't too dissimilar to my natural smile! Unlike most of Yaz's or Clara's pictures in which they look moody and brooding.

Ah...I spoke too soon! Cue gourmless facial expression!

I remembered we had a football which we found in our garden and weren't sure where it came from so I used it as a prop. And my cycling gloves!

My sailor jacket was bought second hand from Zara and cost me £3.00 and it was the final piece in this outfit. My long sailor coat is just too tight for me now and I did so want a sailor jacket, even if it isn't the same as Romana's, it is similar enough. I added a red ribbon which came from something or other, maybe even a Christmas present.

Oh...and finally, I wore my red-sequined Toms shoes which did well as a substitute.

I did catch my neighbour looking out the window as I took photos the other day and felt HIDEOUSLY embarassed!!!