Florals for Spring?

Greetings to you fair traveller!

Rest yourself a while on ye olde virtuale sofa with ye olde virtuale cuppe of tea.

Above is my outfit from Sunday!  It was such an ebulliently sunny day that I donned my finest florals an all the bright colours.  

This Cath Kidston dress was a serendipitous charity shop purchase around 4 years ago now I suspect and I still love it! To pick out the colour of the pink flowers, I donned my pink tights and then an old Monsoon cardigan which comprises of pink and navy stripes with a bow!

If you cast your eyes below, you will see I wore the handmade button brooch which came on a handmade handbag CBC bought for me around 8 years ago and the pretty Cross necklace he bought for me for Christmas which was handmade by a friend of his who used to be a Silversmith before she became a technology teacher but has now retired!

Brogues to finish the look. 

A few random anecdotes down here for want of any particular post for them:

• Feeling quite pleased at my innovation.  So, my Pied Piper of Hamelin performance is next week and I have been puzzling over the mayor's costume.  I've ended up buying a red velvety cloak with fake ermine edges which looks more King than Mayor but I didn't find anything in the charity shop that was suitable.  BUT for the mayoral chain, I bought a metre of some gold embroidered brocade trim which consists of massive circles and from a distance, looks very much like a big mayoral chain!
• Yay, just put in my first order for Milk and More who deliver in our area so now my Organic milk can come in a glass bottle and not plastic! Yes, it is a bit more expensive but it is worth it for the plastic avoidance and actually avoiding the hassle of going to buy it from the shops. Plus, it seems I will get a free glass bottle of juice with my first order! Hurrah!
• The toilet roll situation at home is a bit desperate as I have wanted to purchase toilet roll without plastic. I have gone with Ecoleaf as the packaging is compostable and the paper is recycled. I have always bought recycled toilet tissue but wanted to try a non-plastic covered one. Hoping it arrives before we run out completely!
• This week, year 6 have been learning a version of Beethoven's 5th symphony.  After having broken down Beethoven's musical materials for them to understand, at the end of the lesson, I played them the piece again.  J's reaction (boy in year 6) to this was, "When was this piece written?". I responded, er- 1800 something. His response, "But it is SO cool- it's amazing to think something so old is such a great piece!". My response, "That's why he is considered a great composer!" Anyone who says you have to play pop and rock to children and play them what they already understand is wrong!
• The bloodtest came back normal. I've got an ultrasound scan scheduled to find out what is going on but at least the blood test was ok.
• The homeless man who asked me to buy him a multipack of Snickers in town today did me a favour as I got lots of lovely reduced vegetables in the COOP when I went in including a Thai Green veg kit.  I would have been scratching my head for what to make for dinner without him!
• I have my worst classes tomorrow- please pray! I loathe Wednesdays!
• I'm loving my book- The train to Impossible Places!
• Lovely blog friends who send sweet messages and parcels and offers of help!  You are all kind and generous and I do appreciate your friendship!  In particular, am 
• Feeling quite pleased about having recycled some old packing white sticky labels from school to seal parcels. The eco-caring-caretaker was having a rant about this massive bundle of labels stuck to shiny paper that were included in a paper order and wondering why on earth they had to produce such a mass of them that didn't even get used. At which point, I said, "Oooh, I could use those as parcel tape!" and took them off him.  So far, 4 parcels have been sealed with those and several envelopes been reused by covering the old addresses with a bit of white label- nice strong labels they are too! As good as parcel tape!  Love a bit of reusing!
• Sad that the petition to revoke Article 50 and not leave the EU has been dismissed by the government.
• My arrangement of 'You raise me up' for flute trio worked very nicely last night!

Hope you have a lovely day!

xx

  

5 brooches #71

Hi there,

Hope you are well.

I've worn (and remembered to photograph!) a few brooches this week so I thought I'd share them.  There aren't exactly 5- there seem to be 6 but never find- the post title fits!

Let's start from the top right and go clockwise:

1.  I bought this 'Connect 4' tank top from DinoprincessChar an age ago but it always annoyed me that it didn't have a top button so I decided to use the Jazzy Lapin bee pin that my friend M gave me for Christmas in the button hole!   I added the Rosebud Casson bee pin that I won in a Instagram competition to keep it company and a Topshop star brooch from a sale a few years ago.

2.  Dressing like an art-teacher. This Seasalt paint-sample shirt was a delightful charity-shop find last year.  I added the pencil earrings our new Deputy head gave me for my birthday last year (we used to do a job share together years ago) and added the cute face brooch that our old Deputy Head gave me for Christmas this year.

3.  This WhiteStuff heart shirt just needed a simple adornment with this Lorelai Le Quillec brooch.

4.  Finally, the Joanie Clothing 'Avid Readers' jumper works with this old Fable and Black 'Drink tea and read books' badge.  I always like promoting reading!

I know some of you don't really like this style of dressing or accessorizing- that's cool, it just happens to be something I enjoy- it doesn't mean I regard anyone's dress sense as any different to mine. But, which one might be your favourite?

x

5 brooches and friends #70

It seems an age since I have shared a brooch post or a jewellery post.  I used to do this quite frequently!  I thought I'd share 5 pics of a few brooches and items of jewellery I've been wearing.

Let's start from the top left going clockwise.

1.  I bought my Kitty in specs jumper a long time ago and I hadn't worn it for ages.  The charity-shopped Oasis blouse was the perfect colours to wear with it and I wanted to add a little pin on my collar so I added this Fat Kitty thundercloud from the No Such Disco.

2.  Not a brooch but a turquoise sparkly acrylic bow necklace from Lorelai La Quillec.  Bought this before Christmas.

3.  Before Christmas, my Tatty Devine polar bear brooch seemed a good idea for pre-Christmas.  Cats and bears?

4.  Wore my deer dress and accompanied it with the perfect set of brooches- the beautiful Middle Mist Makes deer brooch I won in an Instagram competition (her brooches are beautifully hand-felted) and two beautifully hued knitted brooches from Hazel!

5.  My festive (but I wear it all year) sequinned Robin brooch needed even more shiny bits so I added my Nickat  Online sequin necklace!

Are there any favourites here or are you a fan of the more simple touch?

x

5 brooches and friends #69

Hi there!

Greetings on this hot evening.   

Last night was my school concert- it was very successful despite it being an administrative nightmare setting it up and the temperatures in that hall being very extreme- but my children played really well.

Anyway, here's a fairly simple post sharing some of the brooches and necklaces I have worn recently.

 Glitter bear (Topshop) and glitter heart (Hello Crumpet on Etsy) for a simple green t-shirt.  I find it really hard getting the bear to face upright!

This joke was a bit of a play on words:  His name is Tik Tok (from Sugar and Vice on Etsy) and there are lots of clocks behind him...

 Balloonicorn from Sparkle Happy mama.

TARDIS door sign necklace from Etsy.

Finally, 3 pins:  Unicorn from eBay, Jelly Bear from Sparkle Happy mama and Custard Cream from Nikki McWilliams.

Any favourites here?

xxx

5 brooches and friends #68

Hi there,

It's been one of those frantic, scrabbling catch-up weeks.  Thus, I don't seem to have the brainpower for anything too thought-provoking or long-winded so I am sharing some recently worn broochage and necklaceage!  Yes, that's a word. I like to go in for a little nomenclature occasionally!

So, onto the main event:

I wore this book-themed dress on Wednesday with this Jane Austen quote pin saying, "I declare there is no enjoyment like reading,"  This is what Miss Bingley says to Elizabeth Bennett and Darcy to be provocative in Pride and Prejudice.   Accompanied by Mr Foxton and a book dress!

For the party on Saturday, I wore this necklace from Down the Rabbit Hole on Etsy!  I do like how ridiculously long it is! Worn with ice-lolly dress.

Sunday saw me wearing another fox with a cottage dress. Lots of foxes in country gardens.

On Monday, I wore Tik Tok from the World of Oz (from Sugar and Vice Jewellery) with a simple navy top and maxi skirt.

Finally, Tuesday, I wore this Fat Kitty bomb necklace with more kitties!

Any favourites here?

Hope you are well and I will try to visit anon!

xx

5 brooches and friends #67

Hi there,

Hope your evening is bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.

As you read this, I will be at my musical camp playing a large-scale piece for orchestra by Janacek.  I currently am doing my usual, "Hate packing!" avoidance and the time is getting later and later. Actually, I have begun packing but finishing it is always torturous!  I am praying for good weather for camping as I don't feel very good about camping in the cold with a cold! 

Anyway, it seems a rather long hiatus since my last 5 brooches post so here we are with some brooches and necklaces to share!

A Kimchi and Coconut space rocket entitled, "Fly me to the Moon" seemed a vaguely appropriate choice for this Clouds and aeroplanes dress.

 As well as the rainbow earrings, I thought I'd wear my two cute Book pin badges from Fable and Black to go with the pastel rainbow shirt.

 The same two pins accompanied my Cath Kidston book dress alongside this Bookish Owl in specs!

The Tatty Devine Macmillan pin badge I appropriated from my Mum seemed a jolly choice for this bold-checked shirt.

 Finally, no Cath Kidston dinosaur dress is complete without petite flying fox necklace and Stegosaurus felted brooch.  This brooch was actually a finger puppet I crudely sewed a broochback to when I bought it a few years ago!

Do you spy any favourites here?

Have any brooches been gracing your lapels?

xx

5 brooches or rather necklaces #66

I haven't done a 5 brooches post since November!  What with moving and getting straight and leaving cameras in Kent, I got out the habit of photographing my brooches or necklaces or posting pictures of them!

I seem to have been wearing more of my necklaces recently so I wondered whether to call this 5 necklaces but I'll stick with the normal name.

Yesterday, I went with the fishy look!  The acrylic necklace was a purchased from Kirsteen Stewart in Kirkwall in the Orkneys and is a great favourite.

 Jammy Dodger badge at the Steampunk event I went to with Sophie at the Museum of Power

My work colleague knows how much I like foxes and her daughter made me this fox necklace for my birthday!

This starry night necklace is just so pretty!  It came from Kimchi and Coconut

Finally, I bought this slightly damaged necklace from Sugar and Vice because it is Tik Tok from Return to Oz! I love anything Oz.

Only 1 brooch today and the rest necklaces.

Any favourites here?

x

5 brooches #65

Hi there,

It has been a terrifically busy weekend, all of the tasks and events were enjoyable but nonetheless, rather tiring.  Thus, I don't really have anything profound to say that can be posted fairly swiftly in order to facilitate a rapid going to bed!

Thus, my good old brooches are here to show you their finest clothes moves.  Hope you see something you like!

 Here's a Nessie pin from Farytale collars! I love Nessie cartoons like this! You can play the 6 degrees of seperation with London buses and the Lochness monster in the comments section if you wish!

 This is the second year of my lovely knitted poppy from the Cooperative.  Local ladies make them for free and then all proceeds from the sale goes to the Poppy appeal. I ensure I make a donation.

 Double whammy of turquoise glitter collar clips from Punkypins and a glittery silver feather.

It's a little harder to see here but there are matching Love pins on my lapels which came from Primark originally.

It was all fairly subtle today! Any favourites?

xx

5 brooches and friends #65 -4 and 20 blackbirds baked in a pie.

Hello there,

How are you? Well I hope!

I have another instalment of brooches and friends for your perusal.

This cute little blackbird was from Rosebud Casson last year. I love Blackbirds so I really like wearing this one- especially teamed with Robins!

Yet more birds! I bought these from a cute Shabby chic shop in Writtle a couple of years ago- they remind me of soap!

My sister bought me this cute Erstwilder cherry lattice Pie-brooch for my birthday last year.  I liked it with this red combination.

The dress features Partridges and pear trees. The heart from Hello Crumpet has little to do with them except for colour scheme!

Last but not least, here is my pencil necklace, worn with my Cath Kidston pencil dress!!

Maybe not four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie but there is a certain amount of truth in the title of this blog post! 

Have a great day!

xx

5 brooches #64

Hello there!

It seems such an inordinate amount of time since I have shared a brooch post so I thought I should rectify that immediately!

 Up first is the brooch I always wear for the very first Recorder lesson I teach to Year 3.  I give them a whistlestop tour of the history of the Recorder and then show and play to them all the recorders in the recorder family. The little bonus at the end of the lesson is that I share with them that this little brooch is made by the Recorder makers- Mollenhauer - and it actually plays. It is a scaled down recorder brooch made out of Rosewood I think. Or Tulip wood or something like that! I love the colour of it. I wore it with a beautiful Treble Clef necklace which was a present from two sisters at the end of the year!

Here I wore this cute Compass brooch which has a spinning arrow which I received in my Wanderlust mystery box from Kimchi and Coconut! The whole box was amazing!

 Both of these pins, hard to see in this picture, advocate reading- Read More and Book worm!
I've just finished Day of the Triffids and think I did do both of these things!

 Lastly, here is a cute little Dalek brooch from 'Down the Rabbit hole'-  I wore him with a Clara outfit-though one she wore with Cybermen rather than daleks, alas!!

 I know some of you aren't really interested in brooches but I do like doing these little round ups!

Hope you are well.

xx

5 Brooches and friends #63

Thank you SO much for your supportive comments left yesterday today regarding my irksome house situation. I cannot say how much I appreciate your empathy and understanding.  We will continue to search and hope that something stirs our heart which we are able to obtain! 

It seems ages since I did a brooch round up on here so I thought I'd share a few. 

This tin Peacock butterfly brooch came from Re in Corbridge, Northumberland a few years ago. I like its lightness!

This brooch from Kimchi and Coconut was part of a subscription box which I regretted buying as I didn't like anything in it!  That said, the little clown fish poking through seemed to go well with this shirt!

This is a 'friend' for the post- this Hello necklace was such a surprise from our School business manager- she saw it and thought of me so she bought it for me and presented it to me at school one day! What a darling!!

'The Girl who waited' is a quote from Doctor Who.  It came in a Lucky dip box and whilst it is nice to have a Doctor Who quote necklace, it is a bit of an ambiguous one! What would you think if you saw someone weearing it?

Finally, this was Tuesday's combination.  I added the two cute knitted brooches that Hazel gave me and added the charity shopped button brooch! They seemed to go with the blouse!

Any favourites here?  Have you worn any brooches lately? I will do a mammoth blog catch up at the weekend!

xx

5 brooches and friends #62

Welcome to a rather belated 5 brooches. It seems a while since I have done one of these!

 Brooch no.1 was a rather delightful surprise from the lovely Lisa who made it and sent it to me attached to a lovely Bicycle shirt. Alas, my husband has stolen said shirt from me, since it turned out to be a man's shirt, after I only wore it once. I am sure we can share though!

 My Cath Kidston dino dress obviously was lacking reptiles so I added my fish necklace (from Orkney island based Kirsteen Stewart) and a mirrored Triceratops.

 And lest you feared my outfit was not complete, I was wearing Brontosaurus earrings in a clashing shade!

 A moving boat and wave necklace from Kimchi and Coconut.

 My Impossible Girl necklace...

Finally, here is what I wore for our Alice in Wonderland themed Summer Fair at school.  The little bottle pin says Drink me and the necklace (a gift several years ago from my ever kind deputy head teacher) features the White Rabbit.  Unfortunately, I ended up having to run the Bungee run stall in this get up on a scorching hot day.I had signed up to do the raffle but got swapped. I would have dressed more appropriately had I known!

Any favourites here?
Have you worn any brooches or necklaces?
xx

5 brooches and friends #61

In today's offerings of 5 brooches, the necklaces almost equal the brooch number. Ah well! 

When I wear this Emily and Fin ice-cream dress, I want to go full Freezer-clad so I like to add this '99 ice-cream cone which I crafted out of Shrink plastic a few years ago! Plus my Nan's sparkly flower necklace because I couldn't find my cat ice-lolly necklace. Cursing my inability to organise jewellery!

Oh look, where is the brooch or necklace? It's there somewhere! Peacock butterfly camouflage alert!

Another non-brooch. This cute necklace has a moving part- the boat moves around and comes from Kimchi and Coconut!

 Custard cream brooch from Nikki McWilliams but bought from cute gift shop in Leigh on Sea. This was a guilt buy as I felt bad about browsing for so long and picking up every novelty item in sight!

The last brooch is this pink flower corsage which is usually attached to a hat. Stay tuned for the next installment of Style imitating art in which the whole outfit will feature!

Any broochy action from you lately? Or novelty tat in general?

xx