Foxy skirt

I received the most wonderful late Christmas present from Lara when she came to dinner last Friday.

She'd bought me a fantastic skirt from Hell Bunny with foxes all over it! It fits really well and I wasted no time in wearing it the very next day!

In retrospect, I could have worn my fox ballet pumps and beret which match it perfectly but instead, here's what I wore.

I'll start with the top.

I love this baker boy hat bought in Totnes market which looks to be made out of old curtains.

My Swarovski heart earrings were given to me when I was 7 and acting as a bridesmaid for my Mum's second marriage.

The little tiny fox necklace was a birthday present from Lara quite a few years ago.

I love this peacock blue Cashmere polo neck jumper. I've owned this since around 2010, bought from Edinburgh Woollen Mill. I had the idea it would contrast well with the burnt orange of the skirt. Do you think it works?

Finally, you can spot my Leggero  Goretex boots and black leggings. I bought these boots in Autumn 2020 in Finale, Corbridge  and they are the best investment footwear I've ever bought. They are still going strong.

xx

Lollies and foxes

 I haven't shared an outfit outside of TARDIS Tuesday for a little while so here's an outfit from last Saturday night.  CBC's mum and brother were staying with us- it's the first time we've had both our spare rooms used for guests- the sofa bed got its first outing!  We went to our favourite Thai restaurant for dinner after I had played for my church carol service.  I'd been wearing a large amount of clothes for church as it was outside but not I needed to wear something more stylish.  CBC's colleague says I need an intervention as we go to this Thai restaurant so much!

I wore this lovely dress from Palava Folk which features lollypops! It's made of 100% cotton and is beautiful.  My iridescent snowflake necklace gave me some sparkles.

I decided I wanted to wear my fox shoes from Love Hetty and Dave since I was going in the car and only walking from the car.

Wrapped up in my sheepskin jacket (charity shopped from the Dogs Trust about 5 years ago) and a lovely orange hat that CBC bought me for Christmas a few years ago.

Hope you are well!

xx

Easter Sunday best

Greetings friends!

I hope you are well. I'm back to regular 'school' this week so trying to get on with school work and activities though I've not done so well so far- somehow, the working environments I could work in were all completely covered in crafting mess so it took a while to get that sorted.  The dining room table is now clear and I've prepared and sent plans and activities for tomorrow to the other staff who are in with me (I'm IN school tomorrow for the first time in a month- am rather nervous to be travelling so far by Public transport and spending time with snotty children! Please keep me in prayer)

I thought I'd share what I wore last week on Easter Sunday.  I always like to wear something pretty for Easter Sunday as usually church is full of beautiful flowers and it's nice to try and wear something special.

Here's what I wore:

This dress is a 1950's one I bought in Hexham from the Vintage Emporium and it was my 'birthday present to myself'!

Accessory-wise, I wore this Sunflower headband which came from Primark about a decade ago and my small cross necklace (handmade by a friend), Mini-egg earrings (bought at the Big Church Day Out festival also about a decade ago) and then my favourite fox-shoes which CBC bought for my birthday 3 years ago.

It was the perfect relaxed outfit until I realised the headband was giving me a headache!  Ah well!

Easter Day was lovely with watching Easter services from Bob and Ang, my old church and another one!

I bought CBC an Easter Egg and also one for myself  from Londis when I was buying some other bits.  We've eaten his but mine is still lurking and he keeps hassling me about it! 

xx

Shades of Autumn foliage

Hello there,

It's the last day of the Half term holiday and I've had a lovely time in Vienna so not really blogged much (thank you scheduled posts!).  Dreading the 8 week half-term which is coming up but at the same time, it's my favourite term- Christmas! Where I get to sing Christmas songs 5 times a week for 8 weeks in prep for our Christmas performances. It felt MOST strange to be preparing scripts, songs and resources for the KS1 teachers for their nativity play the 3rd week of October!!  They only have a month until their performance though so entirely necessary!  Before that, however, I have to get through our WW1 centenary concert with about 80 children performing with just me to rally them!

Yesterday, it was a rather lazy day of waking late, household chores, reading and then heading over to CBC's brother's flat for the evening.  I didn't know what we were planning yesterday- everything was rather 'off the hoof!'

 Somehow, it seemed my outfit was inspired by the emerging Autumnal colours.  My mother came over on Friday and we were doing some pruning, digging up and picking in the garden and I was struck by the leaves beyond our boundary.  Which shade of Autumn do you like best?

 The outfit consisted of old favourites plus one new item:
The dress is a charity-shopped Jack Wills one which I like for its simplicity to be adapted with other accessories and garments. It was the base of a watermelon-themed outfit in the Summer.

The yellow cardigan is one that I have worn on here a myriad times- I always wear it inside-out accidentally though.  A child told me it was inside out on the last day of term and I thanked her, thinking rather darkly of all the teachers who'd seen me earlier and hadn't told me!  Add some grey leggings and my beloved Dr Martens Joylyn boots which I found second-hand on eBay earlier in the year- Dr Martens have stopped making these now which is super-annoying as they are my ultimate comfy, durable Winter footwear.  My teal pair have been going for about 4 years now.  The red socks are a boot-accompanying favourite.

 The orange hues come from the belt, an old favourite, the fox-necklace and the only new item, a fox-ears beret which I saw on an instagrammer back in March and ordered back them from eBay as I loved it! Yes, that's me being a fox. You're welcome.

 I tend to favour leggings over tights nowadays as a long-legged being, I find tights such an utter pain in the sense that I have to hoik them up every five minutes plus, the synthetic fabric doesn't make my legs feel very comfy- some are ok though. I still have many pairs though as I am not sure anyone would like someone else's old tights.  Maybe they could be cut up for stuffing for the felt fish the kids make at school like I've done with some old odd socks?  Seems a shame though if they are still wearable- I need to just suck-it-up and wear them!

Can you see my Autumn-leaf earrings?  They were charity-shopped a few years ago and they are the final touch!

Hope you are well.

xx

Slightly foxed

Hi there,

Certain prints are such fun to wear.

Foxes, squirrels and other Woodland friends always make the onlooker smile.

This Run & Fly dress is a favourite for its running Fox print even if the material is slightly weird and paper-bag-like!

I wore it with my new Charity-shopped Rieker shoes. I have almost the exact same ones in black (now grey with ankle straps) which have lasted for such a long time and been a stawalt. Even though they weren't perfect condition- for £3 in the charity shop, I wanted to give them a go knowing I like the other ones so much!

Foxy accessorising too- CBC said that the two types  of fox did not go with the print but I decided to hedge my bets anyway!

Photos were taken at Frazer's tearooms in Battlesbridge.   I recommend this place to eat a nice lunch/breakfast/tea! They have a beautiful large garden to eat in.

Hope you are well.

Fox zentangle

I am the very lucky recipient of Zentangles made by the wonderful Alison- AKA Fatdormouse, Dormouse. I have a music one and a TARDIS one and I commissioned her to make my Mum one with butterflies and the moon which lives proudly on her wall.  She very kindly makes them for people and Bev requested a fox. I very cheekily asked if I could have a photocopy of that one as I love foxes!  She duly copied it onto some gorgeous marbled card and sent it in an envelope addressed with her usual beautiful calligraphy!

Isn't it wonderful!?

What a wonderful gift!

Thank you so much Alison!

x

Foxy in a hat.

It's quite rare you see me in something quite this casual. It's not that I don't wear such outfits because I certainly do, especially in the winter but I don't often share them on the blog!

I realised that the problem with the Chandelier giving me a glowing halo could be solved by using the landing light instead of that! Yes, that is a cuddly owl sitting in the Chandelier- CBC's sense of humour.

Today's cosy outfit was this foxy ensemble with my Sheepskin boots which I haven't worn for ages. I find them too hard to walk in, they seem to schlepp too much and make me scuff my feet along the pavement! In the big house move, two pairs of sheepskin boots made their way to the charity shop but this pair remained.

Foxes galore! Lucky fox has its hat. Yesterday morning, I had to run to the station as I was running late and as I jumped onto the train, I dropped my hat down the gap between the train and the platform! SUCH bad luck, particularly as it was FREEZING! I WISH you could just find the number for the train station online. I searched as I was on the train to no avail so I tried phoning the train company but couldn't get through to a real person. Tuesdays are my mad day so I was unable to do anything till after school.  After holding for hours, the train company told me to call Network Rail who were doing some engineering works on our line last night. I hoped to hear back that they had rescued it but nothing yet.  I hope I get it back!

Hope you had an enjoyable day. Mine was absolutely fine, good in some ways.  I did a lesson on pentatonic music with my year 4's in which I managed to talk about Greek Prefixes to words; Pentatonic modes, Octaves, Tranposition, Moods of particular modes, get the children to learn to play in octaves and then play various drones and then tranpose a tune through 7 keys.  And yet, in other lessons, i.e.year 1, I might get around to talking about a Music Box and we dance to and discuss some music- it's amazing what a different class can do.  In the 3 remaining lessons, I taught the year 3's about the composer Oliver Messiaen, listen to some of his music, learn the Kookaburra song, sing it in rounds, learn to to play 3 versions of it.  I do like it that despite the fact I have taught some lessons many times,I can still find a new way to approach it, introduce something different and adapt in a way that captures them. They seemed really interested in Oliver Messiaen (CBC said, "You made them listen to Messiaen? Poor things!") and loved learning the Kookaburra song and moreover, LOVED watching the Kookaburra in Cinncinati zoo!
Some days are like that. You get lots done with some classes and other times, the time just flies and very little is achieved.

Annoyingly, after school, I was compiling the recorder festival books for the recorder clubs and the collater wasn't working so I had to sort 55 sets of 5 pages into piles and then staple them. It took aaaaages!
    

Hope you had a tolerable day!
x

A whimsical "Not buying ANYTHING in the sales," wishlist...

Since Christmas is now over and this won't sound like a big Christmas list, I thought I'd share some really nice and cute items that I think are great and would gladly own! As we are now mortgage-payers though not yet moved (more on that soon), I won't be buying any of these, much as I would LOVE to!  Maybe you might like them too! Or at least be entertained by my novelty tat-likes!

Fox blouse from Sugarhill Boutique

Firstly, I saw this blouse on my IG friend Charrrlie a while back and I confess that I adore it!  It's now in the sale at £29 and I would dearly love to buy it- in fact it has hovered in an online basket about 6 times now but I have not made any sale purchases as finances are going to be limited for a while so I won't be getting it, but it is rather gorgeous!

Fox jumper from Sugarhill Boutique

The fox blouse has been accompanied every time by this delightful foxy jumper, £35 in the sale- I think it is really cute but I do already have a fox jumper so alas, I must resist!

Rainbow jumper from Sugarhill Boutique

This rainbow jumper is also from Sugarhill Boutique but is not in the sale! It is rather jolly! I do love me a good rainbow!

Lolly Jar from Lottie and Lu.

High up the novelty tat (but expensive!) stakes is this aaaaaaaaaaamazing sweetie jar brooch from Lottie and Lu! Oh my! What a clever idea!

Button jar from Lolly and Lu by Martini & Slippers

Similarly, this button jar brooch is utterly adorable and I can think of clothing this would go beautifully with!

Sausage Fox necklace from Little Moose

Continuing the foxy theme is this marvellou Sausage Fox necklace from Little Moose! It is a lovely tortoiseshell acrylic and very sweet. They also do a Weasel which I love too! It is around £27.99

Sausage Weasel necklace from Little Moose.

Oh look, here is the weasel!

Cheshire Cat necklace from Little Moose

Little Moose have had this Cheshire Cat necklace a while and it is one I always go and stare at lovingly, well, when I remember that  Little Moose exist!

Apatosaurus necklace from Little Moose

This Apatosaurus necklace is HUGE and I adore it!

Mountain range necklace from Little Moose

This Mountain and Cable Car necklace is really sweet- it's another one I occasionally go and drool over...

Firework necklace from Tatty Devine

Finally,no way could I ever afford this but I do think this Tatty Devine necklace is amazing! CBC would KILL me if I bought and/or wore this!

Any ones you like here or are they all a bit too novelty for your tastes!?

xx

Alllll the foxes!

 Greetings!  I hope your day has been bright, sunny and contented.  As you all seemed to like Mr Foxton on Friday, I thought I'd share the full outfit that he was part of.

 As it happens, I am not particularly happy with my resident foxes as I left my bikini bag (for keeping a wet costume in) out hanging in the garden and it had fallen down and overnight, the foxes had played with it, removed the drawstring and bit three holes in it. So that one is resigned to the bin!

 You might remember these gorgeous fox-flat shoes from Love Hetty and Dave that I featured in a Wishlist a while back, bemoaning the fact that CBC refused to buy them for me when I offered it as something I'd quite like when he asked about Christmas and birthday presents.  As you can see, he relented and bought them for me!  Yay!

The weekend has been nice albeit fairly meandering. We took our friend (the one who introduced us!) out for dinner to our favourite Thai restaurant on Friday which was great fun. To my surprise and slight chagrin, I awoke super early on Saturday morning so to make the best of a bad situation, I got u and jogged to the local swimming pool where I arrived at 7.30am for a 30 minute dip! 

It meant I was able to pick up a parcel from the delivery office, head to the library to pick up a reserved book and to buy some 17 bargain books for 10p a piece from there for the school library!  Had a bit of luck in the charity shops too when I found a Screen Accurate blouse worn by Clara in Doctor Who as well as two other pretty blouses! All the collars.

Back home, I did some tidying and washing until we headed to another town for CBC's optician's appointment where I purchased a further 14 books from the charity shop for the library (Not a bad weekend's haul, 30 immaculate books for £9!).  We then headed to a taster day for learning musical instruments for a local authority music hub, where CBC led Cello taster lessons and I walked to town and pootled.  I think I must have walked 5 miles along high streets that day!) 

In the evening, after a bit more sorting, we headed over to our friend's to watch Eurovision.  I didn't find it as fun without our usual party! I missed the hilarious manic laughter from our usual host!

Today, waking late, I have spent most of the day tidying, hanging washing or reading.  CBC went on an interminable, epic cycle with his brother.  Oh... and I made Chocolate cornflake cakes- mmm!!

If you fancy wearing an entirely foxy outfit, the dress is by Run&Fly- they don't have their own website but you can get them from Thunderegg Manchester or on Ebay (where I got mine) or other independent boutiques. The shoes are from Love Hetty and Dave, brooch from Hello Crumpet on Etsy and the necklace was from Punkypins though they don't make them now!

I hope your weekend was foxilicious!

xx

5 brooches #51

It feels extraordinarily long since I did one of these on here! Brooches feature on my apparel daily but for some reason, I've not shared.  

You may have noticed I'm not posting quite so regularly on here. Sometimes that has to with busyness, other times guilt at too much to do and Instagram has to answer for something too!

Hope you enjoy!

 Here's one from a December outfit I never shared! Sparkly teapot from Gloriously Glittery on Etsy on a sparkly turtle neck and one of my favourite charity shop purchases last year (should probably do an update!)

The fox collar gets more foxy in its companions with this adorable fox from Bad Design Studio.

 Bookworm pin from Kate Gabrielle!  I really like the vintage but contemporary combination of this one!

Musical Polarbears:  Tatty Devine polarbears on a musical dress.

And lastly, how about a TARDIS Tuesday appearance. I decided to do a Peter Davidson Doctor Who day and combined my Cricket jumper with my ? shirt customised by the lovely Ang Almond and my homemade Celery masquerading as Pakchoi brooch!!

And that's all for today!

Any favourites?

xx

5 brooches #44

Brooches, brooches, brooches. Roll up, roll up, roll up!

 On this day for school, I was aiming for Pirate chic with a stripy top and a scarf round my neck.  The message in a bottle from Erstwilder plus the first brooch I think I ever owned, a parrot brooch bought by a family friend when I went through my parrot obsession aged 10!

I wore these cactus pin badges on my lapels but this was the only photo I remembered to get. 

Luckily, I just threw the dirty top on the spare room floor (slattern...), so I could grab it to try and take a slightly better (only slightly) photo.

 I've had this pearl leaf brooch for over a year now, purchased in a charity shop for less than a pound (possibly year and a half) but I have not worn it due to the fact that the catch was bent so I couldn't get the pin out.  CBC solved this by pulling it up with the prong of a fork so I wore it for my concert...

This is the Macmillan cancer charity brooch from this year, designed by Tatty Devine.  I admired Mum's and asked her if she would pick me one up if there was another one in her local M&S- mine didn't have them). She very kindly gave me hers so she would get another one. I paid her for it. Hope she managed to get one!

Any good brooch vibes going on for you this week?

xx

5 brooches #34

Hello! Welcome to this week's edition of 5 brooches.

No new friends today, all old or already seen favourites on different tops!

Punkypins favourite, Mr Geometric Triceratops makes his lovely reflective return on a stripy dress!

CBC absolutely HATES this brooch. I brushed past him in  a small gap and it spiked his back! This is one of those vintage tin brooches painted with enamel. They're quite heavy but I wanted a natural-looking brooch with this maxi dress!

R2D2 hasn't been seen for a while but he was great for a really simple plain outfit worn for school! I photographed him off rather than on! I made him for when I went to see the latest Star Wars in December.

Penultimate, old favourite, Mr Foxy, a happy Charity-shop purchase was perfect with an orange top and a skirt with tigers on!

Lastly, the return of the yellow tin canary from Re, Corbridge.

Have you worn any brooches this week?

Denise wore a whole selection of pretty brooches- my favourite is the Welsh spoon!

Ann wore the perfect accessory, red sailboat brooch on her lovely green stripy dress!