Cold weather florals

 On lots of cold days, I wake up, having set out a cute outfit for school, decide I am too darn cold, tired and miserable to actually put it on (I am NOT a morning person) and slink into something comfy and loose (like today where I am wearing a bit baggy Breton-striped top, unironed, and trousers) or running too late to contend with multiple layers and garments and zips that require a grumpy, also-late husband to assist with.

But sometimes, you can hide those comfy baggy clothes under something cute!

On Tuesday, I set out this Closet floral dress to wear and found this White Stuff jersey blouse, which is rather loose-fitting and soft, in the pile of doom (AKA the old washing basket which now houses clothes which can be worn twice or more and are waiting their next turn to be worn).  Add to that, Bamboo leggings and my Florentine blue leather boots and I had a winning combo which was comfy AND cute!

I didn't need any accessories except for the bee and daisy collar clips which my lovely penpal Katie bought me for Christmas a few years ago.

I got the absolute sweetest message from one of the parents the other day about how excited her son was to practice his recorder and how she's grateful for my hard work.  Considering we'd only had 3 lessons on the recorder thus far, I thought this was really nice but surprising.  Then, when releasing the year 3 children to their parents, another parent came up to me and said, "Thank you so much for all you are doing. A is really loving your lessons and you are giving him the confidence he lacks."  Again, it's only 3 lessons so far and I've been uploading revision and practice activities to the Class Dojo area so the parents can access what their children are learning but the engagement on my Blog has gone up 10-fold  (page views on those posts are around 80) so it's nice they are using it after my frustration that they weren't during lockdown. I know some of you were affronted on my behalf so I thought I'd tell you.

Today had some good moments.  A little year 1 boy who was being  a menace and refusing to sing the past 2 weeks in music, sang really loudly all lesson today and participated really well. That class is still challenging but I had the support of 2 really good TAs and it really helped us contain them! I'm glad I only have them for one lesson a week though!

One of my year 2 classes is really good now- even some of the children who have found music hard- have been concentrating SUPER hard for the entire hour and fifteen minutes of their lesson and learning and understanding what we did.  There's a little boy who I call Dragon Boy (his name is basically a combination of the patron saint of England and his famous adversary which I find hilarious!) and he's always really struggled in music.  Not for the last few weeks- TOTALLY focused! I feel euphoric every time I teach that class recently. It helps that the Alpha females in that class (yep, the class is ruled by two girls) absolutely adore music but the enthusiasm seems to carry through all of them.

Anyway, I hope all is well with you! Love to you and those you love!

xx

Birthday outfit

Good Evening!
Thank you for those of you that left encouraging messages on my last post. I really appreciate your thoughts. I arrived at school this morning and as I walked to the other building, my dear headteacher said, "They're coming to see you first lesson in year 1!".  As usual, OFSTED come and see me with LITTLE people, they never come to KS2- sigh!  The inspector did indeed come- for 5 minutes...
I then was told in the afternoon, that they were going to come and see me teach music to year 5 ("HURRRAH, I cried!" - FINALLY someone comes to see me with older children!!)- They didn't come. I was sorely disappointed! Please see me do what I do best where I can show what skills I have built up over the years of teaching! But no, yet again, no!! Ah well!
I don't know what judgement they make and I can't share it on here even when I do until the report is published (and then I shall have forgotten about it)

Onto the main reason for this post.  I thought I'd share an outfit.  I wore this on Sunday to go to my niece's 10th birthday tea for the family. My sister does this every year and it's the one time I see my Mum, Dad, Stepmum, Sisters together, niece, Uncle, cousin and I like it!!! Of course, it is a party so I saw it as an opportunity to wear a dress! Why wear jeans and a top to a party- boring!

 OOOf, doesn't it look gloomy in the garden!!! So dour and gloomy!
I wore this pretty floral dress from Closet London which I bought from a much beloved shop that closed down near my childhood home- I have quite a few Closet dresses. They have pockets ladies and I know their dresses fit me well! I added my lovely blue leather boots purchased in Florence this Summer. Did I tell you about these?  It was a miserable rainy day in Florence, we had one umbrella between 3 of us- CBC, myself and his brother's partner went to some gardens together. We were eventually joined by his brother and we progressed to meet the rest of the family but myself and M, the partner, were dragging behind and I was glancing wistfully into a shoe shop window and M (who is a wonderful Taiwanese Economist suddenly noticed a beautiful pair of bright blue moccasins!  He gleefully exclaimed, "OOOH!" at the appearance and price and we both disappeared off inside.  He bought blue suede shoes, I bought blue leather boots! CBC and WKWTTG came in to haul as out but conceded there were excellent shoes in the shop!

The final item (apart from boring leggings which we don't need to talk about) was this wonderful black vintage mac with grey wool edging.  I bought this when shopping with Sophie and Hazel in Ipswich. We went to the Cancer Research shop where everything is £1, £2 or £3.  It's a bit hit or miss in there but as we mooched around- I saw this hanging high on a peg. I stretched up to reach up and get it down to try on. I absolutely loved it but wasn't sure if it was a bit big for me especially as its label said Size 14.
Sophie and Hazel both told me it looked lovely and I had to get it- so I did! For £3, why not! It's definitely vintage but there's no indication of the brand.

 So, what do you think of this outfit?  Last time I wore this dress on the blog was before 2015! Shocking it hasn't been shared since!

Watermelon collar

 It has been so delightful this week to be able to wear summer dresses! I've had a mad week with late evenings. The school concert on Monday (went very well), Exhibition evening last night (also went well). I thought I'd share one of my outfits.
This is one of my many Closet London dresses. It is now sunny enough to wear them without a blouse underneath!
I wanted to wear this cute collar from @fairytalecollars on Instagram.  I wanted a watermelon one for ages! So cute!

 It's hard to believe that I only have 2.5 days left at school this year! Crazy in fact!

 Not much else to say today!!!

Hope all is well with you and thank you for your kind comments!

xx

The truth about cats and dogs

I thought I'd intersperse my Germany and France adventures with different blog posts to try and keep things varied here and to try and not make it too samey!

Here's an outfit from before the holidays.

CBC always says I am wearing his school uniform when I wear this Closet London dress as the pattern is quite similar to his school's skirt.

The beauty of these Closet dresses is that you can wear a blouse underneath, pinafore-style and wear them all year round, not just in the Summer. They have pockets and I always know their size 8 will fit me perfectly in these fit-and-flare styles.

The obvious choice was my stalwart turquoise Doc Martens and this time, my Miss Patina Love cat blouse. It seemed  quite a fun idea to add this acrylic dog brooch though I am kicking myself for not putting it on the other side so it looked like the dog was looking up at the cat instead of stubbornly ignoring it!

I have had a very nice weekend. It has largely consisted of garden and nature-based activities which I will share more of in my #30dayswild round-up this week but has felt very satisfying and though I am always sad to go back to work, it has been a very good holiday on the whole!

I hope all is well with you.

Finally remembering to link with lovely Patti at Visible Mondays

Easter garb and 10 reasons to be grateful

 Hello there,
Greetings from Northumberland again! Doesn't my husband look sweet in those pictures behind me! He was adorable as a kid. I would totally have liked him if he'd have been in my class!

As it was Easter Sunday, I decided a pretty dress was definitely in order- something pastel and Spring-like. I don't do pastels very often so this is a rare occurrence on this here blog! Thus I paired them with black to shield myself from the trauma of it!

 The dress is from my old favourite, Closet London. You've probably seen several of their dresses over the years on my blog (and here , here, here, here, here-blooming heck, looks like a Clara dress there!) but I only started to tag them last year! I didn't realise they were a well-known brand until last year when I started seeing other bloggers wearing them. We used to have an outlet for them in my home town and I've been buying them for a good few years- it was rather sad to discover the shop was closing down and I'd have to spend about £40-50 if I wanted to buy any more.  So much money!!! Mine were only about a 3rd of that maximum! Mind you, I own at least 10 (eek!) so that's no bad thing I won't be buying any more!

 Thus, when I bought this one, I bought it thinking, "This is one of the last times I will buy one of these!)
It seemed my Pi brooch would work with the dress- hurrah!

We've had a lovely walk today in the Cheviots and I was telling my friend who we went with, about 10 things to be grateful for and she asked what I would be grateful for today.

So here you are:

1. The joy of seeing friends and spending time with them. The joy that I have my own friends now to go and see in Hexham!

2.  A delicious picnic which J made for us!

3.  The fact that CBC drives well and did the driving up the hideous A68 road, AKA the rollercoaster! I would DIE if I had to drive up it!

4. The fact I didn't slip over at all walking.

5. For the sunshine that greeted us on the way down.

6. For the gorgeous exercise- all 12.5km of it.

7.  For a good night's sleep the night before. 

8.  To have family in such a beautiful place and to know the secret of  Northumberland

9.  For cheesy Wotsits in my packed lunch and roast chicken sarnies! 

10.  For the amazing cake and tea so cheaply at the Barrowburn tea room. I am so sad they are going to have to sell the farm and shut the tea room because they just can't make a living up there.

What are you grateful for? And what did you wear for Easter?

xxx

The Austere Academy.

 When I was at both primary and senior school, my uniform involved navy.  Navy cardigan, navy school skirt, navy blazer.  Thus, when making sartorial choices, navy was a somewhat no go area in my vocabulary.  My little sister feels the same about brown- that was her uniform.

Yet, bizarrely, in the last year or so, I really have gravitated towards it.  Just taking a look in my wardrobe, I have several dresses with a navy background, albeit, mostly with a fun print, like my Poppy England (now Bryony and co) dress.  Two navy print shirts/blouses are those I wear most at school- heart and balloon print.  I wonder why?  Is it now that I am almost 20 years away from having had to wear that uniform (in sixth form, we didn't have to wear uniform), that now it is ok?


I'm really curious to know- do you avoid your school colours at all?

Looking at this outfit, this Closet London dress essentially looks a bit like a school uniform pinafore dress, rather austere and puritanical you may think. I'm inclined to agree.

I picked it up in my beloved boutique Kush, which was a boutique in my home town who I bought clothes and accessories in for 17 years.  It closed for the last time last week due to the owners retiring. They sold Closet London dresses so most of those I wear come from there. This dress was £5 in their final day sale so I took a chance on this thinking that it was the ideal base for pretty shirts, brooches and fun tights.

I tried to take away from its schoolish tendencies by the addition of this vintage print shirt (check out the dagger collar!), dog brooch, bright green tights and metallic oxfords! Oh and electric guitar earrings.

Do you think I managed to make it from Schoolgirl to something a bit more fun or are you of the same opinion as me that it still needs something.

I'd be intrigued to know.

P.S.  I have a little giveaway running- see my Saturday post- feel free to enter if you wish!

Who can guess where the title comes from? No googling!

Linking with beautiful Patti at Visible Monday

It's the snowflakes again- best post before this becomes outdated!

 Morning! I figured I had better share this post during epiphany as it features my snowflake necklace. Technically, of course, snow should not be beholden to Christmas months only but I suspect if I wear it in January, people will say, "Why are you wearing a Christmas necklace?".

 This is from the last Sunday of Advent, I'd worn this outfit at school for my Christmas service but not photographed it and I really loved the colours of this Closet London dress- plus it was a sale bargain of £10 from a shop that was closing down!

 It's nice having festive jewellery but it is somewhat limiting I suppose. My one sales purchase this Christmas has been a massive pair of Tatty Devine Jingle Bell earrings- I am a musician so I suspect I can get away with wearing them at all times of the year. Apart from that, my accessorizing was limited to a heart-shaped hairclip that is not evil like hair-grip-style ones that rip my hair out every time I try to remove them!

As I type this on the 31st December, we're soon to set off for the Lindy Hop ball in London.  I had a good night's sleep last night, thank God- in fact, I slept till about 12 midday!  I decided to sleep in the spare room so I could spread out, put an enormous mound of pillows to my left so I could rest my tooth/cheek against the hot water bottle without squashing CBC and also to ensure no snoring disturbed me. Feeling somewhat more positive and haven't taken any Ibuprofen yet- it's hurting but nothing like as bad as yesterday! Hurrah!  I'm hoping to wear my second Wedding dress for the ball tonight (the one to dance in rather than the long one)  and we're staying at the hotel so it will hopefully be a nice experience!
Happy New Year to you!
Froeliche Sylvester!
xx

TARDIS Tuesday: Hunt the hidden Daleks!

It's one to those TARDIS Tuesdays where you think I am just parading around in one of my ubiquitous floral frocks. You might be right- I own this Closet dress in about 6 different patterns- very sad that the shop that sells these near school is closing down as the proprieters are retiring- I've shopped with them for well over 15 years.

Anyway, onto the main event.

 Why TARDIS Tuesday?

Number 1, TARDIS blue tights (SO annoying- have to hoik them up every 10 minutes and no, I can't be bothered to be dignified about it and wait until no one is around- cannot stand the sensation of saggy tights)
Number 2, TARDIS blue accents on dress.

Number 3- Erstwilder fish brooch is a highly suspect reference to the underwater nature of the last two episodes.
Not convinced?

Ok, bring out the big guns: Dalek cufflinks! (You were wondering where the daleks were hidden, weren't you?!)

I've had these for many years now as this charity-shopped shirt required cufflinks (it too is old), but a certain CBC borrowed them one day in need of cufflinks and it took me several years to get them back!

I'm sorry if you think my text accompanying an outfit is verbose, I feel like it comes across that way sometimes.  I know some people are minimal about it, but I think it's nice (and necessary in tenuous cases such as this) to justify and explain my sartorial choices!

An InLinkz Link-up

If I were in charge of Clara's wardrobe....

 ....I'd be sure to choose this dress for her.  In some ways, it is a combination of several Clara dresses-
Journey to the centre of the TARDIS she wears a quirky patterned dress with black shirt collar in a similar shape; in another episode, The name of the Doctor, she wears a green and blue tartan mini-dress with a black collar (here).

 This one comes from a brand called Closet, whose dresses I have been collecting over the past 6 years.  There's a little independent shop near school that has sold them since before they got into shops like House of Frazer, Debenhams, Asos and online.  That shop still sells them as their main brand and periodically, if I am headed up to London, I nip in there as it is close to the station.

I like a lot of their dresses that are in cotton material- they do do other materials like scuba and synthetics, but it is definitely the cotton ones that I like best. Plus, I know that I can just buy one without trying it on and know it fits me perfectly- their size 8 is always my perfect size.

In case you think that is entirely too tenuous for TARDIS Tuesday, then I did add a Dalek pin badge for a little extra geeky points!

Today, I took my year 6's to play a Javanese Gamelan orchestra. We always study Balinese and Javanese gamelan in the summer term and I am lucky to be able to access one at our local music school for free - firstly because our music school offers that service but also, that I am a gamelan player myself, therefore am allowed to take my own groups to teach them there. We had a great time and they did really well- I took a video of them playing and it sounded really effective! This is the Javanese gamelan in case you are wondering and the piece that we learnt (this is not us!) ....


 The other class goes next week! Also, another school has agreed to lend me some timpani so my darling little girl who is playing the timpani parts in orchestra on Bass Chime bars gets to play real timps at last!!! How cool is that!?!

Hope you are all well!
xx

An InLinkz Link-up