'Tis the last Rose of Summer...

 ...Or at least the last day of the holiday!

I'm going back to a VERY uncertain situation at school which I am incredibly nervous and worried about!

In a nutshell, because of some building issues, 10 classes are homeless and I don't have a music room- my room is to temporarily to be a Year 1 classroom.  This means I will need to teach children in their classrooms (and oh, my goodness, it's just occurred to me, to try to teach in the hall whilst THREE other classes are having non-music lessons in there. I have NO idea how that will work!??!?!  ) transport my instruments around the school.  I'm not sure how I'll be able to do any clubs or assemblies because of the hall housing classes, I will have to frantically set up for lessons on computers whilst teachers are trying to use the same computer and do their lessons and somehow move everything in time between lessons (esp when there is no afternoon breaktime), get it all set up on desks, somehow do group work in that space.  We've got to spend the next 2 days trying to move things from the out of use classrooms to the new spaces and get them set up.  I'm worried what the Year1 kids are going to do to my room or the instruments.  Or if I'm going to be told that I must suddenly move all my stuff off the shelves and out of the cupboards after they've been so carefully organised and find somewhere to store them...when I haven't got anywhere to put them! And where will my bike go and my bags? And where will I eat my lunch now? And how am I supposed to check my emails and get messages during the day. I get messages from the office when I don't reply to messages after half a day, let alone after a whole day.

But, it's the way it must be and there are 10 other teachers who are facing upheaval and a different kind of start to the term than they thought plus one very hardworking headteacher who has had to spend his holiday trying to find solutions to problems not of his own making but having to try and sort things out when he so badly needed a rest so I won't moan about it too much! It's just unfortunate and we will all have to be gracious and kind and  do our best to get on with it and know that it is going to be an awkward term for more than just our individual selves.

There have been some wonderful moments in this holiday:

1.  Taking my niece to the beach to swim.

2. A wonderful week in Cornwall

3.  2 marvellous weddings

4.  A delicious Indian meal out with one lot of newly weds.

5.  3 fun flute trio/quartet sessions.

6.  A wonderful visit to the Proms to see the Aurora orchestra

7. Camping in the South Downs and some lovely walks.

8. A brief, happy visit to Northumberland.

9.  19 very enjoyable books.

10.  A lovely morning with my mum.

11. A joyful evening with my Godmother and her family (not quite the holiday but almost!) 

I hope all is well with you.

xx

Stoked Vegan Barbecue Restaurant - Westcliff on Sea

 We visited Stoked Vegan Barbecue restaurant after we were in the Westcliff Area of Southend.  

This is apparently the first Vegan barbecue restaurant in the South.

Here's what they say about it:

OPENED ON THE 1ST OF AUGUST 2020. STOKED IS THE ONLY TRUE SOUTHERN AMERICAN STYLE VEGAN BBQ IN THE U.K. SITUATED IN THE SUBURB OF WESTCLIFF-ON-SEA, STOKED REGULARLY SELLS OUT OF IT'S ONE OF KIND FOOD WHERE THE MENU CHANGES EVERY 6-8 WEEKS. WITH AN IMPRESSIVE CRAFT BEER LIST, STOKED IS OPEN FOR DINE IN & TAKEAWAY THURSDAY TO MONDAY.

We drank Cawston press Rhubarb and Ginger and here's what we ate:

I ordered the Vegan BBQ Ribz.

These are made out of Tempeh, my absolute favourite Veggie substitute and they were cooked and coated in Barbecue sauce.  Accompanying this were barbecued beans, Vegan Macaroni cheese, Coleslaw and gherkins and a dressing of pickled red onion. 

It was all delicious- I would say that you could easily share this- I struggled to eat it all and had to leave some which I HATE doing. I THINK it was either £13 or £11.

OOoh, before I tell you what CBC ate, THIS dish was the BEST item.   I LOVE Southern fried chicken wings and I think that'd be the meaty thing I'd miss the most if I did take the final step and turn Vegan.  

These were the Firecracker Cauliflower dish (£6) and they were ABSOLUTELY delicious!  The coating was so zingy and tasty and I loved the chillis.

CBC chose the Cajun Tofu tacos.  He said thy were tasty BUT pineapple was a strong feature of the dish which he said overpowered the dish a bit too much.

We went at around 5.30pm-ish and there were a few people in but it was fairly quiet but I could imagine this being heaving later in the evening (they do alcohol).

If you want a meat-free meal but want exciting, interesting food with lots of flavour and interesting elements, this restaurant is for you.

It is located at 78 London Road, Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex, SS0 9SU.

The Centenary Stained Glass Window

I recently went back to my old church for my friend M's wedding.  It was SUCH a joy to be back there and to be a part of something special in a place that meant and still means so much to me with so many happy memories and also to think of my own wedding there.

It was also special to see something I'd not seen completed too.  The church celebrated its Centenary in  2013 and the congregation were asked if they wished to contribute towards a centenary project of replacing the plain windows above the altar with stained glass designed by Henry Shelton, our resident artist.  I was delighted to contribute to this project, to be part of something beautiful, made for the glory of God and for the joy of visitors and members of the church, however, it was a few years after I left the church (because of moving), that the window was fitted. I wasn't able to attend the inauguration of the window, and the times I visited the church were for the Carol service so I never saw it in daylight so the wedding was the first time I saw it!

Ah, it was SUCH a joy to be bathed in its radiant hues and to see the glorious reflections onto the walls.  It reminded me of how beautifully the modern stained glass made me feel when I visited Liverpool's Catholic cathedral.

I really like old stained glass but I really love Henry's vision and it works for me with the Arts and Crafts decor of the church.

There are various beautiful features to the church including over modern projects but this one will be the one which means a lot to me because I am part of it. 

I hope you enjoyed seeing the beauty of the window.

TARDIS Tuesday - Peri Brown's 80's look from Vengeance on Varos

 Hi there,

Hope you are well! 

I have had a lovely day.  For the first time in ages, I actually had a proper lie in after sleeping fairly well!  After 3 nights of camping and lying on the hard ground (my lovely camping mat had a slight leak as the seam near the self-inflation chamber was loose, I think I was due a good night's sleep!

We then had a morning of doing a few bits and then we went to pick up my niece and took her to one of our nearest beaches. Unlike last Thursday where I had the great disappointment of LOW TIDE (the sea was actually about 3/4 of a mile out. I walked across the sea bed with my friend N so I know this is true!), I had checked the tide and we arrived for High Tide.  We had a deliciously cool swim and then ate sandwiches and cake from a local bakery and then another swim.  We took K home and had a cup of tea with my brother-in-law (sister was out at work) and then headed home.  CBC made us some pasta for dinner involving homegrown runner and green beans and kale, a leek, an aubergine, passata and a bit of parmesan. I'm watching the very first series of The Great British Sewing Bee whilst I do it.

Anyway, here is the inspiration for TARDIS Tuesday this week:

Image from Entertainment Weekly but found on this Pinterest

It's Peri Brown again! 80's companion of the Sixth Doctor.  You may be thinking you've seen this fairly recently but in pink....you are right- she does indeed wear a very similar outfit in pink! I wore it a few weeks ago.

This time, she wears this outfit in weird serial, Vengeance on Varos.  When I was doing my A Level's, this was when I was getting to know Classic Who episodes.  My music A'level teacher introduced me to a previous pupil of his who was a huge Who fan (in fact, he's a TV composer- he and his dad composed the Who wants to Be a Millionaire theme tune) and my teacher used to tell me about this episode of Doctor Who that he remembered that involved a green slimy man sitting on top of a fish tank. As the internet was not such a big part of life then and didn't have so many resources, there was no way to know what episode this was and it was only after reading quite a few issues of Doctor Who Magazine, I realised it was Vengeance on Varos.

Anyway, enough digression and anecdotes, here is my take on it:

I'm wearing a vintage dance leotard (which cost me £6 including postage). My mum had this exact leotard, I'm pretty sure. A pair of F&F shorts (£4 I think?) which sadly don't quite match accompany it. Turquoise is my favourite colour!

My shoes are quite old now and I think they come from Primark.

I had a bit of a dilemma when it came to the belt (oh yes, I decided to do a couple of those side by sides. I can't tell you how many times I retook this photo with either my head facing the other way or the book the other way round- I just couldn't seem to get both facing the right way!) as my red belt is a waist belt and these shorts don't quite reach my waist- they are lower waisted so the belt didn't fit. I had two pink belts and neither of them would do up. In all the photos I took, either the belt was precariously holding in place or it popped undone, like it did above! In the one photo that I got the book AND my head the right way round, my belt was really badly hanging. Sigh!

That's Monty Don's book I'm holding, without its dust jacket, not the TARDIS manual sadly!

This outfit doesn't work quite as well as the pink version and not QUITE as thrifty (after all, the pink garments were £3 & £3.25 respectively)

CBC has suggested I cosplay the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers as clearly I seem to be collecting a rainbow of this outfit. Ratbag!

Hope you are well!

xx

Rainbow dress remix 2

Hi,

I thought I'd share a new outfit I created with my St Michael Madras-checked dress. I published a post last Summer showing lots of different ways I'd styled it and thought I'd try to challenge myself to wear it in a new way that I hadn't done before.

This time I thought I'd wear it as a shorter mini-dress and give it a different neckline.

I tucked the top part in and then wore the waist of the skirt at chest height and belted it it make a shorter, high-low/dipped hem dress.  This was a cool dress for reading in the garden.  

I kept the accessories simple, just some Toms sandals and my Nan's crystal flower necklace.

We've been camping in the South Downs these past 3 days and had a lovely time. I hope to share some more soon.

Lots of love and thank you for your kind comments on my wedding outfits.

xx

 

What I wore for the weddings!

Hi there!

Thank you for your interest in my wedding outfits!

I am going to reveal which my choices were but before I do, let's remind ourselves of the choices:

Well, I can reveal that Lulu guessed my choices correctly for both venues although I did change my mind for one:

Here's what I wore for the church.

This was voted as their favourite by Lulu and Alison Dormouse.

It's the Monsoon silk dress that some thought too wintry.

You can see me outside the church here: dress is a little skew-whiff!

It was a really comfortable choice for me as the silk felt really nice and I felt comfortable with the longer length.

To accessorise it, I wore my Alex Monroe Posy Loop necklace, my Aldo sand-coloured heels and swapped to pink flat ballet pumps with ankle straps. I wore my Jenny Packham fascinator from my own wedding and earrings from my sister's wedding plus 3 sparkly beaded bracelets.

I wore my little pale blue sparkly cardigan with beading detail.

Since I stopped attending this church, they've completely changed the church grounds so they are grassed and are gardened beautifully and were in flower!

The wedding was a delight and it was so nice to spend time with old church friends.  The music we played went really well although the vicar accidentally missed out the 2nd hymn, Love Divine, so we ended up doing an instrumental version of it during the Signing of the Register which seemed to take an inordinate amount of time.

My choice for the second wedding was originally going to be number 4, the much-aligned and disliked blue lace dress (thank you to Anca and Vix for their vote for it!) but I saw most of the comments before we set off for that wedding and somehow, it put me off it a bit. It DOES have a thick lining, I should point out- it's not ACTUALLY see-through, it has a beige lining!

Instead, I decided to go for number 2, the Lala land white dress as voted favourites by Sheila, Luise, Ang, Vix, Dormouse, Phyl, Bev, Gretchen Joanna

Here I am at the Derbyshire venue (Dovecliff Country House Hotel)

To accessorise, I wore a charity-shopped blue linen cobweb lace cardigan from Monsoon originally and the same pumps I wore later at the previous wedding plus my Jenny Packham fascinator again.  Jewellery-wise, I wore a charity-shopped Aurora Borealis necklace and star earrings.

This wedding was also really lovely.  The brides seemed very happy and in love and as our friend is a musician herself, there was some excellent string quartet music and a great harpist!  CBC's reading went well.  One of the quartet players turned out to be a girl I used to go to Youth Orchestra with  and haven't seen for 25 years!  We had lots of fun and it was lovely to be staying at the hotel so we didn't have to traipse home!

So that's what I wore!

Hope you are well!

xx

Checkmate!

Hi again!

I'm attempting to type up some posts as I seem to be getting a bit behind writing up things and then it is too late! I'm going to write about what I've been up to this week since I got back from Cornwall.

Let's start with an outfit though.

Thank you for your kind comments on my anniversary post and on my TARDIS Tuesday.

On Monday, CBC and I went out for a Thai meal for our anniversary in the town where we first lived when we got married.  It's a bit of a drive from where we live but we decided it would be nice to do that.

We had the ENTIRE restaurant to ourselves as clearly, no one else wanted a Thai meal in the restaurant on a rainy Monday night.  The food was delicious, plentiful and fulfilling. I had Thai fishcakes for my starter and then Thai Green Prawn curry for my main. This is my standard thing I eat in a Thai restaurant. The trouble is, I love it SO much that I just never want to order anything else in case it is a disappointment!

What did I wear?

I wore the charity-shopped Monsoon linen jumpsuit I shared last week and then decided to team it with brown/tan- the jacket was charityshopped on a charityshop crawl with Sophie and Hazel a few years ago.  The shoes have 3 shades of brown and come from Aldo. Bought about 14 years ago.

For jewellery, I wore a pair of beaded loop earrings which were a present from a work colleague and my silver acorn necklace that CBC bought me for our 1st anniversary.

Tuesday was one of those days I'm not quite sure what I did at first. Some sort of housework in the morning and some gardening (woe is me- all my tomato plants in the raised bed have succumbed to Blight!) some reading and then I headed into town on my bike to return my library books.  I picked up 3 reservations and then decided to do an extended route home via the nature reserve - it was such lovely weather for a short cycle. On my way home, I went via the COOP and picked up some reduced stirfry veg and some prawn skewers to supplement the veg in the fridge.  CBC had headed out on a cycle ride.

Our friend N, CBC's old housemate was working in the area so he popped round for a few hours to catch up. We had some juice, then a cup of tea and snacks in the garden.  At around 7pm, my friend M popped round to pick up the Cadbury purple butterfly confetti I have been punching for her for her wedding table decorations.  There was about 2000 butterflies in various sizes in the tin which I've been using my craft punches (the same ones I used for my own wedding) for over the last 3 weeks.  I also sent her off with one of my Seedum plants I had grown from cutings.  Whilst N was still there, I went and picked about 50 monster runner beans from the garden and then destringed them using the beanslicer. Once N went, I made our dinner using all the mouldering vegetables from the fridge as well as the ones I bought earlier and some plastic free noodles from the Zerowaste shop.

On Wednesday morning, after a lazy start, CBC and I drove to a town about 40 minutes drive from us to go to the opticians to pick up CBC's glasses. He took them back in March (when I found the wild garlic) to get the coating replaced on his lenses.  They said they couldn't recoat them and they would need to give him new lenses.  They then broke the frames when doing it and said they'd try to get replacement frames.  They were out of stock.  CBC phoned them last week to remind them and they said they still hadn't got any frames but miraculously managed to order some the next day.  He ended up having to pay £99 to get them, even though it wasn't his fault. Seems a bit unfair to me.

Whilst he did that, I had a quick look in some shops (mainly Wilko- I found NOTHING Vix!) and the charity shops. Only ended up buying a pair of grey cotton/silk trousers which don't fit me as I can't get my massive size 8 heels through the tiny foot holes! Only £3 so I will redonate or pass them onto my single-mum TA work colleague.  I did see a pair of screen accurate Timberland boots worn by Rose in Doctor Who which I was tempted to pick up for some of the cosplayers on Insta but forgot about them in the end. We had a delicious lunch in a great cafe which has super selections and then we drove to the station to park the car to go into London as we were going to the Proms at the Royal Albert Hall to see the Aurora orchestra.

The train to Liverpool street was fine but the tubes were horribly crammed. I really didn't feel comfortable on there.  We walked from Knightsbridge station as South Ken station is currently closed.  We were early so we walked in Hyde Park which was delightful. We had a cup of tea in the bowling green club cafe which was really relaxing and quiet. At the Albert Hall, we met up with some friends briefly and then watched the prom.It was wonderful.  The Aurora are a fantastic orchestra and they perform a large-scale piece FROM MEMORY every year at the Proms. Every single player learns the entire piece from memory.  In this case, it was the Firebird suite by Igor Stravinsky which is 40 minutes long and very complicated! It is amazing.  In the first half, they perfomed Rachmaninov's variations on a theme by Paganini (the famous Variations) and then we had a talk from Tom Service and Nicholas Collon, the conductor on understanding the Firebird. If you are in the UK, I strongly urge you to watch the concert (link on iPlayer HERE!)- the piece is amazing and if you listened to the talk, you will really understand the piece. It is programmatic which means it tells a story- in this case, the Russian folk tale of the Firebird.  I love the Aurora and I know a few players in the orchestra.  Plus, I am proud to say that I have been conducted by Nicholas Collon on a few occasions- he conducted my regular orchestra once for a concert and then he conducted at my music camp for a week once! 

After the concert, we headed to Knightsbridge station and had to wait an awful 7 minutes for the next tube by which time, the entire Albert Hall seemed to have arrived on the platform- it was SO busy (I confess to this having been my worry about going to the proms). Luckily, our Liverpool Street train went in 6 minutes so we didn't have long to wait! After picking up the car, we ended up getting to bed at 1am.

Which meant getting up at 7.45am was NOT pretty! CBC had to go into school for GCSE results day as head of Year 11 so I got up with him and went in the car with my foldup bike.

I then rode off and made my way from his school along the seafront and drove quite a few miles. It was so nice to be cycling along the seafront. I rode until I reached a railway station and then got the train to my Mum's.  She has broken her toes so it stuck at home and was glad of company. We had Spaghetti Bolognese for lunch. Later, CBC picked me up from the leisure centre a couple of miles away (there was an accident so the road was blocked to my mum's) and took me home.  I did some work in the garden cutting and pulling up the blighted tomato plants.  We then practised the music for the wedding.

Friday, we woke up very late and after a scrummy breakfast of scrambled eggs on toast, we did some more practice for the wedding and then CBC drove me to the hospital to visit the breast clinic. I'd had  Nurse's followup appointment on Monday afternoon about a lump in my breast (which we were pretty sure was a cyst but as it hadn't gone down in 2 months,  she referred me. I was amazed to get an appointment 3 days later. As I am over the age of 40 now, unlike my two previous lump encounters, I had to have a Mammogram. It's VERY uncomfortable! Luckily, the lump turned out to be 3 cysts close together, praise God, one of them quite large and so they were aspirated. I walked a mile and a half to meet CBC who had gone to a cycling shop and we went and had dinner at a delicious Vegan barbeque restaurant. I had an amazing Vegan ribs dish and we shared an exquisite Firecracker cauliflower dish!

We came home and I did some reading and gardening and then tried on my wedding outfit candidates! Can you guess which I chose? Head back to my previous post if you haven't already voted?

And that was my week!

Style Imitating Art - Dining Room in the Country by Pierre Bonnard, 1913

I'm a little late with this post.  I managed to remember to join in with Style Imitating Art this week.

Terri was this week's host and curator and she chose this painting: 

I love the colours of this painting- very orangey, peachey and pale blue and cream and the brush strokes are very pleasing.

Here's how I chose to interpret it:

I started with the dress.

I spotted this vintage Phool dress in the charity shop in Hexham when I was there at the end of July (It cost £7). (I know this is a desirable Indian brand as Vix has mentioned it!)  I felt the material of this dress and is the most wonderful lightweight cotton.  That does mean it is a little delicate and I have noticed a little rip in the bodice on one side but it is lined so it does mean it just looks like part of the pattern. I am very much a fan of a lightweight, slightly oversized maxi dress for summer comfort and I felt it really picked out the various oranges, reds and peachy shades in the picture.

To pick out the pale blue, I wore this cobweb lace 100% linen cardigan from Monsoon (charityshopped last month) and I felt the cobweb was reminiscent of the texture of the painting.

To pick out the cream, I wore my Primark ballet shoe pumps and added a pair of resin flower  earrings (a gift from Hazel) and a Lemon necklace that CBC gave me for Christmas.

You can see how everyone else interpreted it by heading to the link from Terri's name at the top of the post.

What do you think?

x

What shall I wear for the weddings?

Greetings my Possums!

Hope you are well!

I'm well thank you, enjoyed a week at home with a few outings out for various reasons.

But firstly, believe it or not, I am going to TWO weddings within the next 3 days.

Tomorrow morning is my friend M's wedding at my old church, back in my home town.

CBC and I are playing all the music for the ceremony. He on piano, I am on flute. We are playing the processional, recessional, signing of the register music and all the hymns.  

Then, on Monday, we are heading up to Derbyshire for the wedding of his PGCE friend at a secular venue where he is doing one of the readings.

As usual, I never buy anything SPECIFICALLY for a specific occasion BUT I am a sucker for a pretty dress so I always have things waiting in the wings for their time to shine.

I have many more dresses suitable for a wedding in my wardrobe but I wanted to wear something that hasn't had a chance at a wedding before so I thought I'd take you through my candidates for the two weddings and as a bit of fun, I'd love you to comment stating:

a) Which two choices you like best?

b) Which two you think I have chosen. Remember, one is for a church wedding tomorrow and the other is for a non-religious venue.

I'll talk you through my choices and I will reveal at some point next week, which I chose!

1.  This bottle green dress with flowers on comes from Laura Ashley (before they closed, sob!) and I bought it brand new from Char, who used to blog in her Instasale last year in lockdown.  It feels beautiful and has a lovely low v-neck back which is very flattering. The material feels luxurious and although it fits me perfectly, it doesn't feel restrictive. Not sure what material it is- a blend perhaps? Not been worn ever by me.

2.  This white dress with pink roses is also from Laura Ashley though I found it in a charity shop about 10 years ago. It's 100% cotton, has a full circle skirt and feels really cool and wafty.  Fun miscellaneous fact- this dress features in Lala Land, the movie! Emma Stone wafts out in it and gets into the car with Ryan Gosling- it features for about 10 seconds! When we saw the movie at the cinema, I said to CBC, "I've got that dress!". He didn't believe me and I finally found a screenshot it and he conceded I was right! It's a LITTLE see-through so I have to choose my underwear carefully! Was worn for 60th birthday party around 5 years ago.

3.  Number 3 is the longest of the dresses and is originally from Monsoon but I bought it in a charity shop around 3-4 years ago very cheaply.  It is made of 100% Jacquard silk and feels deliciously cool and wafty but fits me perfectly. I wore it once for an evening flute concert.

4.  Number 4 is from Joanie Clothing and I bought it secondhand for £8 around a year ago. I've got a little tale about this dress.  I saw it on their Instagram about 3 years ago and it was called the KEZZY dress!  I was so excited to see a dress called Kezzie, even if the spelling was off.  It also reminded me of the most beautiful dress from a designer brand called Self Portrait that I fell in love with at my sister-in-law's wedding a few years ago.  Anyway, it was £40 or so and I couldn't justify buying it and wasn't sure about sizing etc.  I didn't buy it and sort of regretted it.  Fast forward to randomly searching eBay and I found it brand new with tags for a measly £8- was enough to help me take a risk on it! It fitted! It's not had its debut yet.

5.  Yes, number 5 is the same dress as number 4 but I thought I'd add in this coffee-coloured silk shrug (charity shopped Monsoon about 15 years ago) to show you how I would wear it in the church IF I wore that one!)  

6.  This is my most recent purchase- I bought it new from a shop called Pink Lemons in Padstow last week and it is made out of recycled Sari silk and feels deliciously soft, cool and wafty.   Not been worn yet.

7.  This dress was bought secondhand from a vintage sale at an art gallery in Leigh-on-sea and it comes from Linea at House of Fraser. It is 100% silk and has fluttery sleeves and a woven ribbon tie waist. I wore it last year for mine and CBC's 7th anniversary meal.

8.  This dress is from Miss Patina and is made of cotton and was bought brand new but second hand from eBay around 4-5 years ago. It is very fitted and I can only JUST still do it up which makes me sad but once the buttons are done up, it feels fine.  It was worn for a Christening around 4 years ago.

So.... these are all my choices, so now it is your chance to share what you think I SHOULD wear for both weddings and what you THINK I'VE chosen for both weddings!

xxx

TARDIS Tuesday- Peri Brown from Attack of the Cybermen

This week for TARDIS Tuesday, we have an 80's cacophony of colour to contend with from one Miss Perpigillian or Peri Brown, companion to the equally brightly dressed 6th Doctor!

Here is a collage of images of her outfit from my friend Tamsin:

Image borrowed from:

https://theultimateguidetothefashionofdoctorwho.wordpress.com/2017/03/27/peri-brown-attack-of-the-cybermen/

And here is my attempt:

Here is my version!

I must just put a disclaimer that I didn't really have a huge intention of doing this cosplay outfit UNLESS I saw the items very cheaply from a charity shop!

And so it was that, I went into my local charity shop to have a little look after posting a parcel (of cosplay clothes to my friend in Aus) and there, on the rails was both a pink top AND shorts priced £3.00 and £3.25 respectively! And for the price of a sandwich in a standard cafe plus a donation to charity, it seemed rude not to take advantage.

I already had a turquoise belt and bracelet plus pale pink shoes (all from Primark about a decade ago) and it was a simple matter to find a pair of round earrings  (you can't actually see them) and a turquoise ribbon from a present to complete the look!

I'm not used to wearing this shade of pink but I'm very pleased with how this came out. The moment I finished taking these photos, it tipped it down with rain and I had to bring various clothes horses, covered with washing, in.

Peri wore quite a few variations on this outfit so stayed tuned for something a bit similar at some point! I can foresee a few versions of something like this at some point soon!

I completed a grant application for school today as its deadline is tomorrow and I was waiting on a part of the application from someone else.  Coupled with needing to do a bit of cleaning and waking up horrendously late, I feel I've wasted this GORGEOUS DAY inside! Typical!

What do you think?

xxx

P.S. Thank you for all your kind anniversary wishes!

8th anniversary

Here is some music to play whilst you read this post. Please hit play and proceed.

Today is mine and CBC's 8th anniversary! Confession- we almost forgot! He did, I remembered last night when I was working out what date it was for something!  Please make me feel better about the fact we almost forgot by telling me that you also forget!  In our defence, we are in limbo on school holiday for 6 weeks and unless it's a school day, I have no clue what date it is! AND, we have just been on holiday in Cornwall for a week!

Here are two pictures from the day.  CBC is none too happy about having overt pictures of him on here these days so here are two selected from our wedding 8 years ago where he's not too obvious.

This is the moment of our vows.  If I look teary, it's because I unexpectedly howled whilst singing Love Divine- tip-do not sing too heartily or loud on your wedding day or weird things happen, especially if you are someone who is affected by music!

And here's a view of the church via the flowers.

The prayers

I thought I'd write 10 things I love about CBC here as a tribute to him (he won't read it- never bothers with my blog now). I want to wring his neck several times a week/month and I know the feeling is mutual, but I love him dearly.

10 things I love about him:

1. He is the most imaginative person I know.  He has a way at looking things and describing things so very aptly to astonish you with his imagery and descriptive skills.

2.  He stops being grumpy after we've argued and is able to be nice again very quickly.

3.  Very, very unfussy in terms of eating.  The most unfussy man in all our family who any of us have married (except my Dad who is a dustbin).  Absolutely loves vegetables and is willing to eat 7 times of veg in one meal.

4.  Always manages to look after me when I am freaking out about something, e.g. at the top of a mountain and I feel like I am going to die if I take one step forward.

5.  He is so musical and entertains me all the time with his music making at home on the piano.

6.  He gave me the gift of a home from home. I love Northumberland and it is an inherent part of me now that I yearn for it and long to return to it when I am not there and feel like I am coming home when we go there.  He values how our relationship brought him closer with his Dad in his final years and how much his Dad loved me and him and how that relationship changed.

7. He is super creative and fun and always manages to help me to explore new places.

8.  He puts up with my environmental quirks and wishes and has adapted in many ways to fulfil that. He puts up with me having lots of things (even if he moans about it a lot!) 

9.  He is a gentleman- he is charming and is always really nice to people we meet.

10. He's super CUTE!

There's many more things but there are some to start with!

Hope you are well.

xxx

P.S. If you are wondering about the music- it is by Gyorgy Ligeti and comes from his Five Bagatelles for Wind Quintet and is what I came down the aisle to!

P.P.S:

In case you are new to this blog and didn't ever see my wedding posts- here they are:

The night before

The early morning

Part 1: Prep

Part 2: Onto the Church

Part 3: Onto the Mansion

Squirrel shoes

Hot on the heels (snarf, snarf) of yesterday's post, I thought I'd share these shoes which I recently bought. I confess to buying these by mistake!

A maker on Instagram posted a picture of some squirrel shoes she had appliqued for another client as a commission and said, "Who needs squirrel shoes in their life? Comment with your size!

I commented with alacrity, "Me, I'm an 8!"

Slightly to my dismay, she messaged me the next day saying that she would work on my shoes next and which colour did I want?! Of course, I DID want squirrel shoes but didn't really mean to order some! I thought they were a one-off and I was playing along with the fun! However, I honoured my accidental pledge and these beauties arrived the last week of term! Of course, I showed them to my painter of squirrel portraits!

x

 

Of Squirrel-related matters

As usual, the children and parents at school were very generous with presents.  I received lots of chocolates, candles, mugs, some cosmetics and note books and several really touching messages (including one child who said, "Thank you for telling me I was one of your secret favourites!" I told them on the last day, when they didn't want to leave the music room, that they were my secret favourites because they worked so hard and were so keen!) .  One child told me she'd bought me a bamboo mug because she knows I care about the environment which was really sweet!

The present which made me smile the most was this:

The child asked me a few weeks prior, what my favourite animal was and I told him, "Squirrel"

To my surprise, when I opened my present from him, which included a vintage peal brooch, I found he'd painted me this!

How sweet is that?!  And really good!  

I told him that it was possibly my favourite present in about 14 years (second only to the Michael Morpurgo books and the Doctor Who sonic screwdriver that a pupil in my very first class had bought me) and he was delighted.

 

TARDIS Tuesday - Yaz in Can you Hear me

This week, I am repeating a TARDIS Tuesday outfit from last October but with a few upgrades (and in one case, a bit of a downgrade!)

The outfit in question is worn by Yasmin Khan in an episode called 'Can you hear me?' where we discover that Yaz was bullied as a teenager.

The outfit is really simple but the main attraction of this outfit is the beautiful ikat tied hem top she wears. With it, she wears blue jeans, a black leather jacket, a blue camisole underneath, grey trainers and her Alex Monroe Posy Loop necklace.

My own screenshots but the original images belong to the BBC.

https://www.radiotimes.com/news/tv/2020-02-09/doctor-who-can-you-hear-me-questions/

https://theultimateguidetothefashionofdoctorwho.wordpress.com/2020/02/25/yasmin-khan-can-you-hear-me/

https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/sonya-khan

I wore a version of this last October where I disguised a dress as a top but this time, I decided to go for a different version.

 

This time, I am wearing an actual t-shirt. It is from Daniel Hechner but it cost me £1.00 from eBay! It's not ikat but it has a diamond pattern that works ok. Mine actually has a fringed hem but I hid that when I tied the hem. I wore a Primark vest top underneath.

I added my Alex Monroe Posy loop necklace which was my 40th birthday present

As recently, I've tried to copy some of the actor's poses.

You can see I have an improved leather jacket.  This was a £3 bargain from my local charity shop which I figured was worth a punt for a slightly more accurate look- the money goes to the Baptist church and charities it chooses.

I added my ubiquitous black trousers. I have bluer jeans but not skinny ones so black trousers it is.

Finally, I added CBC's navy sneakers rather than Yaz's grey Adidas trainers.

Couldn't resist trying to recreate the pose on the road with a badly added Police car! I hid my Tripod by our hedge and hoped my neighbours weren't looking out the window at me!

In retrospect, I actually prefer the appearance of my East dress rather than the t-shirt which is a lighter colour but it is nice to have an actual t-shirt for the look!

It's fun to have a go at recreating an outfit in different ways!

Hope you are well!

x

Laura Ashley

I mentioned my friend's Jane Austen-themed hen tea party a few weeks ago and I thought I'd show you what I wore.  Of course, it isn't Regency but I was too hot to wear my proper empire line dresses so I decided to wear one of my Mum's vintage Laura Ashley dresses that she'd brought over for me to have, the day before the hen tea.

Sadly, they don't fit her anymore.

I wore this one which is made of such beautiful-quality cotton lawn and teamed it up with some un-Regency sandals and a charity-shopped cotton reversible hat.

Mum took the picture above and the one of my sitting was from the hen party!

Mum also took this picture of me before I got changed! I thought I'd show you the lovely hat that Vix sent me when we did a dress swap! Isn't it a beauty!

Hope you are well!

xx