The rainbow dress strikes back!

Hello there!

Before I start waffling, here's some music for you to listen to. I've not heard this piece by the English Composer, Gustav Holst (he of the Planets!) before but I was delighted by the opening music between viola and flute.

The term has ended and the last week went well.

The school concert went really well without too many mishaps and most of the children and their parents turned up. We started 15minutes late so it overran but I was really proud of how well the children performed.   

One delightful thing that occurred was that I applied for a scholarship for one of my year 5 boys who we have been partly funding for flute lessons this year. He has really taken to it and worked hard and I wanted to ensure that he would be able to carry on after he left me so I applied to the London Music Fund and to my delight, he was selected to receive funding for lessons for 4 years.  Such an opportunity for him!

I bought the children involved in the concert choc-ices (the only ice-cream/lolly product which comes in no plastic packaging!)  to say thank you for their hard work and I was delighted with the serendipity that I had bought just enough for everyone AND enough to give one also to the children who had helped out and done extra jobs like putting away my singing assembly things each week and for tidying up the music room.

At the weekend, CBC and I went to camp in Snowdonia for the weekend.  I had a stinking cold but had a gorgeous time and will share some photos soon.

I bade a sad goodbye to CBC this evening as he drove off to Portsmouth to catch the overnight ferry to France.  We are to be parted for 2 weeks as we do different things - he is a checkpoint monitor for the Transcontinental Cycling Race and I am to go to music camp.

Enough waffling, I found some photos from last Summer (on my lost camera which turned up- it was in the walking rucksack!!!) of when I styled the Madras check dress in yet another way.

Let's have a look:

I wore the dress with its V-beck crossover side which I rarely wear as I prefer the straight one but I wore it the other way round here.

I added my pink Peri top underneath with a matching pink rose in my hair and a pink belt.

I added my red polka dot skirt underneath to give an extra layer of pattern to the dress

I decided to hoik up the hem of the dress on one side to see if that gave another dimension to this.

I am not 100% sure I liked this outfit totally but certainly it was different from how I've worn it on other occasions!

Plus my George @Asda blue and gold velvet pumps!

I've been practicing for our flute recital on Friday

Very excited as we've practised lots! I HOPE people come to watch especially as my friend Tony is coming from Kent as we are performing his beautiful arrangement of Debussy Petite suite for two flutes and piano for the first time.

x

 

The Rainbow dress worn sideways!

You always know it's Summer when my rainbow dress gets an outing!  It likes to be a chameleon, cropping up in outfits in new and different combinations!

It was on Sunday, that I suddenly had a thought.

Could I turn the dress sideways, get my head through one of the shoulder straps- could I make it into a halter-neck dress?

After a little experimenting, and one moment of panic, I discovered...

Yes I could!

I discovered, that I could get my head into the hole. Although the pattern matching at the seam isn't great, it still worked!

At the back, I tucked in the other strap so it had a slightly lower back.

As it is a circle skirt, I suddenly thought about adding a tulle petticoat underneath to give it a bit of body and to puff it out.  I added my TARDIS blue one!

A black belt to cinch the waist.  Perhaps a blue one would have been better but I only have turquoise, not electric blue.

I decided to pin my hair up with a flower clip from Bali.

Here's a side view.

I decided to wear my TARDIS blue floral Irregular Choice pumps to go with the tulle petticoat.

What do you think of this new take on the dress?

Do you have any other suggestions for this dress styling?

xx

TARDIS Tuesday - Peri Brown, Planet of fire!

Hello there!

With a week's break from TARDIS Tuesday, I am returning with a Summer favourite from Peri Brown, 80's companion!

It featured in back to back serials- Planet of Fire and The Caves of Androzani!

Last worn in May 2023, this will be its 4th outing on the blog!

Let's look at the outfit:

https://medium.com/doctorwhomarathon/day-316-november-12th-2021-13a9408ff41b

https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/sci-fi/doctor-who-my-life-as-a-fan-part-3/

It features pink high-waisted shorts, a white/rainbowy checked shirt with white pumps and a pink bikini top.

Today's version looks much better than last time, possibly due to smiling even though the garments are identical to last time!

All the items I wore were charity-shopped over the years- pink 80's shorts, a Select rainbow pastel blouse, Rieker white pumps and then red bikini top!

 I think this is a pretty good match on this outfit and it doesn't look too costumey, unlike a lot of Peri's looks! Not quite as pink as my previous Peri outing!

Had a lovely day today (Monday) playing flute trios with my quartet (one member ill).  I reached the house of my friend via train and bus and it was an adventure getting the bus! 

Hope all is well with you!

xx

TARDIS Tuesday- Peri Brown from Mindwarp

 Today's TARDIS Tuesday last featured in May 2022 and features one of my earliest TV memories. It was an outfit worn by 80's companion, Peri Brown, played by Nicola Bryant.

Let's have a look at what is quite a pyjama-y look:

https://archivetvmusings.blog/2014/10/26/now-i-am-she-alive-within-this-oh-so-wonderful-wonderful-frame-doctor-who-the-trial-of-a-time-lord-mindwarp/

https://www.herocollector.com/en-us/Article/doctor-who-omega-returns 

https://chancenovember.wordpress.com/2015/07/19/trial-of-a-time-lord-2-mindwarp/ 

https://theultimateguidetothefashionofdoctorwho.wordpress.com/2017/02/04/perpugilliam-peri-brown-trial-of-a-time-lord-mind-warp/

Here's my 2024 Mindwarp rendition:

I'm going to start with the newest item in this outfit which actually won't be residing with me much longer. This kimono came from a charity shop in Chelmsford, originally New Look. The one I wore for my previous version of this Peri outfit was also from New Look and charity shopped.  Last Summer, we went to see CBC's friend who was over staying with her mum from Sweden and I wore that kimono.  She admired it and asked where I got it from. I told her where it was from and where I got it.  She mentioned it looked lovely for the Summer. I stored that information in my mind.  Hence, when I saw this one in the charity shop for £4, I remembered her admiring it and decided to pick it up for her as I knew she is back in July and CBC would be seeing her (they are going to see Frozen together but I can't go because I am performing the solo flute part for Bach's Brandenburg Concerto no. 2).  This weekend, I finally did my Summer wardrobe swap over and got the blue linen trousers out (which Ang fixed for me last Summer!) I saw the kimono folded in the spare room, lying on the bed and figured, I should wear it just this once for TARDIS Tuesday.

Along with a pink top I bought for another Peri cosplay and the aforementioned linen trousers (which I IRONED!) plus my actual kimono cord as a belt plus some Aldo heels and I was ready to go.  It's a nod to the original look rather than a direct recreation but I like it! It's very much 80's bold colours and patterns.

This week is very busy. I have 4 performances of Chicago with CBC as well as various Treasure Island practices at school and then a Sunday morning rehearsal of the Rite of Spring plus CBC's Mum is coming to stay to see Chicago so now the mad frantic clean and tidy of a very, very messy and dirty house must ensue!

I hope your life is less frenetic (and hopefully cleaner!) 

xx

dfdfd

TARDIS Tuesday- Romana's swansong look from Warrior's Gate

Hello there!

For TARDIS Tuesday this week, I am debuting a new outfit AND it's another red one! 

It features in my favourite Classic Who companion, Romana's final serial called Warrior's Gate.

Romana had a real eclectic, costumey set of outfits in her wardrobe and her style is very much up my street!

Today's one is quite different from her usual look but not her usual colours:

Here's the designer's initial drawing of the outfit:

http://www.4thdoctorcostume.com/2015/06/lalla-wards-time-capsule.html

https://aminoapps.com/c/doctor-who-cast-crew/page/blog/romana-iis-outfits-ranked/6qpR_leSzukZwpj3n1ZVGYpKqKDpLlg15

As you can see, she wears matching red socks to go with the top and black Mary Jane shoes to match her black trousers.

https://doctorwhoworlduk.com/romana-2-gallery

The high-necked, almost Mandarain look blouse has covered buttons all over it- I hope there's another way to get in and out of it as otherwise, that set of buttons would take a LOT of time to do!

Here's my look!

I started with a high-necked top from River Island (bought from Vinted) which has lovely flowing sleeves. It's not my usual top silhouette but is really comfortable.  Although I didn't have identical coloured socks to accompany it, at a distance, they seem to match.  I wore these socks for my Romana Shada outfit too!

My shoes are from Clarks and are T-bar shoes but I tucked in the  T-bar and kept the ankle strap part.

You can see those lovely sleeves in this picture (which is a behind the scenes picture from @doctorwho_60s_70s_80s

Couldn't resist trying to (VERY BADLY!) recreate this picture!  Ha, ha, how bad is my editing!!! The MS Publisher equivalent of using Paint program!

The silhouette of this look, for me, is very much, Female Conductor! I feel like I've seen female conductors wear something similar in different colours! I would wear this for a choir performance when conducting or leading them!

I recently watched this on BBC iPlayer for the 2nd time and I enjoyed it but there was a lot of to-and-froing plus I thought the way Romana left was very abrupt!!!

What do you think of this look?  For a lot of Who characters, they find this look kind of boring but I like the thought of this being in silk!

xx

Happy Easter!

Wishing you a joyful Easter!!! 

Christ has died

Christ has risen

Christ will come again!

My Easter weekend has been one of joy and rest as well as being busy!

The school term ended on Thursday! I spent most of the day doing what is called Pupil Voice with children from each year group.  It's something one has to do nowadays as a subject leader in school.  Interview a small group of students to find out what they are learning in that subject to check it is being taught comprehensively, fully and to find out what is working for children/teachers and that the subject is going according to plan.

It's a pain to do but it's useful and interesting and also reassuring (and frustrating when they can't remember things and you have to prompt them!.  Not sure what possessed me to ask them 20 questions this time!

In between that, I took my Samba band up to the hall to perform for the Easter Bonnet parades (as it was raining and windy, we had to do separate ones inside!).  The kids were incredible at performing the Samba and everyone was gushing about how good they were! I love that 1/4 of the group have SEND and are all brilliant!

Once I'd cleared up my room and sent some essential emails (annoyingly cannot access my school email at the moment from home!), I headed home.

I dumped my massive collection of things at home and headed to the doctor's surgery to see the nurse to see if I had a water infection (as have had abnominal pain for the past 2 weeks).  Traces of blood but not infection so she managed to get me in for a Saturday afternoon appointment for the Doctor.

I headed home for a quick snack and then cycled in the dark to church.  The wind was CRAZY!!! Rocking up on my bike to church through dark fields was interesting!

Our vicar is not very well at the moment and the lovely lady who regularly plays piano and leads workshop is currently receiving treatment after surgery so I was on for most of the Easter services.

It was a wonderful calm in the church in the midst of the hurricane outside. The service was beautiful and I only made a few bad crashes on the piano.

I came home and made dinner for myself.

Good Friday, after some sleep but not as much as I'd have hoped (SOMEONE's alarm went off at 6.45am and has done for the past 3 days!!!) I got up and cycled to the other church for the 10.30am Good Friday service. The wind was very much against me and I arrived bright-red and sweaty as I climbed the hill to church...annoyingly 5minutes too late to play flute (which I was going to do to support the lovely lady who was playing the piano for the first time since her op.

Again, it was a lovely service. We laid hearts at the foot of the cross and it was beautiful to be there. I was very glad I'd attempted the cycle.

As I waffle about my weekend, here are some photos of what I wore for Easter Sunday!

I cannot quite believe I have never worn this coat on this blog before but I honestly think it is true. I actually don't think I've worn this coat for about 10 years!  I bought it about 20 years ago from Mathew Williamson at Debenhams in the sale for either £30 or £40 and it is covered in beautiful floral embroidery! My mum was SO jealous of me when I bought it, when we still lived together.  She wore it a couple of times too!

For church I wore this floral Laura Ashley dress from the 80's that my Recorder teacher, Maggie gave to my mum.  Fast forward to 2021 and mum gave it to me where I wore it for my friend's Jane Austen themed Hen day! It's the most sumptuously soft cotton lawn.

Worn with my Karen Millen (charity-shopped) cardigan and some blue boots bought in Florence 2019!

Saturday, I did washing and some cleaning (including successfully using Nancy Birtwhistle's technique to remove some limescale from the taps in the bathrooms!).

CBC took me to my Doctor's appointment.  He's referred me to see a Urologist and to get some scans and ultrasounds (within 2weeks hopefully) plus a bloodtest.  I'm hoping it's Kidney stones perhaps but not sure.

CBC and I then drove to a cycle shop to enquire about a Bike Box as he is taking part in the Mallorca 312 in 3 weeks and we went and we went and had some late lunch at a Pizza restaurant. We shared a Puttanesca pizza with a garlic butter glaze on the crust and it was amazing!!! I don't say that about Pizza very often! We went for a short walk to the seafront and then we returned home

At home, we did some bits and pieces and I read and then I made some dinner.

Easter Sunday, as my abdomen was hurting in the night, I was really tired when my alarm went off at what was (due to clocks going forward) 5am, and I was really sad to miss the 6.15am sunrise service at church.  I got up at 8.30am and was at church by 9.05am to play piano.

It was a lovely, joyful service and I didn't make any major mistakes on the piano! I love this small country church- such a lovely gentle congregation.  After the service, I got a lift to the other church (we have a 2 church parish) for the second service I was playing for. Same songs but totally different service.  Equally joyful but in such a different way! I was inspired and invigorated by the services and am grateful to have faith in a God who loves me!

After church, I cycled home (downhill this time) and ate breakfast with CBC who had STILL not left for cycling. I carried on reading and then spent quite a gentle afternoon.

CBC and I just got back from buying each other an Easter egg at Sainsbury's and we are about to eat dinner!

Wishing you the joy of Easter and fresh chances

xx

I cy

TARDIS Tuesday- Ace McShane from Battlefield

 Back in July 2017, I found a black All Saints wrap top in my local Sue Ryder charity shop which led to my very first TARDIS Tuesday featuring Classic Who companion, Ace, the teenager who travelled with the 7th Doctor. It was quite an easy outfit to put together and she wore it in Arthurian-themed episode featuring Jean Marsh as Morgana and the Brigadier! This was one of my favourite episodes as a child.

Image borrowed from this Pinterest. Original images belong to the BBC

She wore the black top with a green top underneath, fitted black trousers and flat black shoes or boots.

Her hair was worn with the sides lipped up and a green hair scrunchie putting the rest into a pony-tail.  She wears some sort or gold or bronze triangular earrings.

Gif borrowed from The Fashion of Doctor Who

It's been such a long time since I attempted this, I was worried it might not fit....

Here I am in ALMOST the same outfit from 2017.

That black All Saints top is now VERY tight.In fact, I could only do one of the hook and eye clips on the inner bit.

The ubiquitous black trousers are here again- I wore these 2 weeks ago for my previous Ace outfit AND the black Clarks boots. They are boring so that's all the text time they get.

Alas, the green vest top I wore last time is AWOL! I searched but have no idea where it is.... annoying.

What could I do instead?

Well, I did have a green t-shirt which was WAY too high-necked so instead, I turned it upside down and stuff the neck area into my trouser waistband and secured the bottom hem  so it looked like I was wearing a green top underneath... this admittedly did not help with either the tight fit of the top or the tight trousers but I think you will admit, it looks the job!

I used  the Gif maker at https://gifmaker.me/ to try and create the, "Aaaand BOOM!!" Gif from above! Couldn't really be bothered to move the table though so enjoy an array of waterbutts,buckets and watering cans behind me!

You can't really see them particularly well but I am wearing a pair of dangly Dalek earrings. Perhaps I should have swapped to some larger gold ones like I wore last time but I'm happy enough with it.I pinned up the sides of my hair and found my green velvet hair scrunchie. The pictures of the back looked rubbish though so you'll just have to trust me on this!

TARDIS Tuesday- Ace McShane from Survival

Hi there!

TARDIS Tuesday is back! Well, it's Tuesday, isn't it?!

Today, I am featuring a Classic Who companion who recently made a reappearance in The Power of the Doctor.  ACE! She was my companion as a child and back in the 1990's, my sister bought me a black bomber jacket which I adorned with my Blue Peter badge and a few other pins to be like her!  I met her in 1998 at the one and only Doctor Who Convention I went to- Panopticon 1998 which was held in Coventry. I booked myself a coach to Coventry and went by myself.  I met Sophie Aldred, the actor who played her, she admired my turquoise nail varnish!

The outfit I am featuring is from her final on-screen episode with Sylvester McCoy, the last episode before Doctor Who went off the TV for another 18 years or so.

Image borrowed from:
https://bradleybasement.wordpress.com/sci-fi/doctor-who/doctor-who-timelines/the-doctors-timelines-index/the-seventh-doctors-timeline/survival-tv/

It features her ubiquitous black bomber jacket, adorned with patches and pins and the back has an applique patch of her nickname, Ace.  She wears a dark pink v neck top, black trousers and boots, a school tie round her waist, dangly earrings and her hair worn with the sides up.

And over to my version:

I started with a pink top. Admittedly the wrong colour and material but I was going with what I had. I did have better coloured tops but this one is a more similar shape. It's my top from my Peri, Attack of the Cyberman, cosplay.

It's the black ASOS trousers that are my most hardworking TARDIS Tuesday item (getting very tight!) - they need no other introduction.  Clarks men's boots. I wore a pair of dangly dalek earrings which I embarassingly found the other day. My work colleague Tracy bought them for me for my 40th birthday and the Etsy seller sent them but somehow I didn't realise that this envelope hadn't ever been opened- I thought it was an old one and I was going through some old envelopes, which I keep to reuse, and there they were!!!

I didn't have a stripy tie. I thought I had one but I couldn't find it so I admit it, I was taking some stuff round to the charity shop and I found this one for 50p and thought I'd buy it to add to this outfit when I wore it on Friday!

My black bomber jacket was bought around a year ago from the same charity shop and cost me the princely sum of £2.25.  Well, it recently had a makeover from the wonderful Ang!!!!

Didn't she do an amazing job making this applique patch for the back of it! Even better, she used materials from her great stash! She has made me some amazing custom cosplay pieces over the years but this one is one of her finest! I love it!

I don't really want to add lots of patches and pins to the jacket because I like it plain, and also it becomes an extremely costly endeavour. I'd be worried I'd lose pins and I want to be able to wear it regularly, though I may try and afix a new pin back to my Blue Peter competition winner's badge so I can add that. Yes, I legitimately have a Blue Peter badge. I enterered a competition to design a new character for Oscar's Orchestra and whilst I didn't win, my characters earnt me the position of one of 100 runners up out of 28,900 entries!  Much as I would have liked my characters, Frederica Flugal Horn and Cassius the Contrabassoon to appear in the cartoon, I was still incredibly proud of my badge!

I love wearing my hair like this, particularly when it is this length but I can't always wear it like this when cycling and I only do my hair at the start of the day, not through the day, ending up looking like I've been through a hedge backwards, so there's no chance of me redoing my hair at school!

I really like this outfit and if I had a slightly less tight pair of trousers (I HAVE SOME SOMEWHERE!!!), I would really enjoy wearing this!

What do you think?

Big thank to Ang for another brilliant TARDIS Tuesday collaboration!!! And, do go and check out her hilarious blog post today about lozenges which I prompted!

xx

TARDIS Tuesday - Peri meets Clara!!!

Hi there!

It's time for another Summery TARDIS Tuesday!  I was planning to wear this outfit worn by Clara Oswald in Doctor Who, The Ultimate Guide.  I last wore it here for TARDIS Tuesday in September 2020

Image borowed from this Pinterest

The outfit is a beautiful oil-slick rainbowy dress from Yumi.  She wears it with a pair of black/white/yellow, colour block, T bar sandals from Dune, a pair of winged sunglasses and a straw hat.

It's a great summery outfit in many ways!

Here's my version:

I LOVE anything oil-slicky or rainbowy so this dress was one I was eager to find early on in my Clara phase! It was often available as a resell from other cosplayers at a high price but I waited until I found a muggle selling one for less than £10.  It was a bit twisted in this picture! Mental note to self- look in mirror before taking a photo.  It is SO much prettier in real life than it comes across in pictures!

I wore CBC's charity shopped genuine Panama for the photo (I bought it for him!) and a pair of sunglasses I bought in Greece.  I wore both of these last time I wore this outfit.  Finally, I added my Clarks T-bar leather shoes.  These are my standard concert shoes now- they were charity-shopped and are super comfy!

This is a great sunny day outfit BUT for the material it is made out of. Whilst it is breathable, it is synthetic so not convinced I would want to wear this out on a scorching sunny day though for an evening out, it would work!

However, as I was wearing the dress, admiring its lovely rainbowyness, I suddenly wondered if it would work as an alternative top for Peri's Two Doctors outfit, an outfit I interpreted around a month ago or so.

I knew it wouldn't take too much effort to locate the shorts and headband which were lying on my spare room floor and the shoes which are my garage shoes so I quickly tried to see if I could turn the dress into a top. Ta daaaaaaa!

All I did was roll the dress up and tuck it under the waistband and I undid the zip on the dress a bit. Admittedly it looks a bit chunky but I think some other Claras could try and do a Peri outfit using this dress too!

What do you think?  Does it work better than my previous interpretation of the top?

So here they are, side by side:

Which one do you prefer?

xx

TARDIS Tuesday- Peri Brown from Vengeance on Varos

Today, for TARDIS Tuesday, I am wearing an outfit I last wore back in Summer 2021 worn by classic Who companion for the 6th Doctor, Peri Brown. I've had Peri more present in my mind recently, this is my 3rd Peri outfit this Summer so far,  as there is a girl on Insta who is super keen on Peri, is creating some brilliant versions of Peri and who seems to post lots of pictures of her Peri outfits which crop up in my Insta feed so it's reminded me that Peri is a great character to dress as in the Summer!

Image borrowed from this Pinterest:
https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/606719381021597622/ 

It features a turquoise body suit and pair of shorts. Red belt, red peep toe heels and her ubiquitous yellow hanging keyring from her belt!

Here is my Summer 2023 iteration of this outfit:

Since the last time I wore this outfit, I can adapted or upgraded it a bit.

The shiny leotard remains the same one.  It is a typical 80's one and is very fitted! Although they don't match, I prefer the look of these high-waisted shorts I acquired for another Peri outfit than the ones I wore last time. I found my red belt to wear this time, rather than the ill-fitting pink one I donned last time. I added my yellow teacher keyring to the belt in place of her one.

The final touch was to wear this pair of Irregular Choice red and floral sling-back wedges which I think work better than my flat red cotton-sling backs I wore last time with this outfit.

It was fun to dress up as this version of Peri. Whilst, I can't say this outfit would be one I would don on a Summer's day (the leotard would be too sweaty!), I do like the way it looks! I had moody-resting face last time I wore this outfit and I think it's much better if I smile, even if it doesn't quite match the actress's picture!

Hope you are well!

x