The lost Summer outfits of 2024 (rainbow remix)

Last week, I shared a lost outfit from last Summer featuring the rainbow dress and so here's another one I also missed. It's actually almost identical to the one from last week but that I folded the dress top down and made it into a skirt. I also tied my hair into a side bun. I think I prefer this to the dress version. 

Here was another list outfit featuring my Laura Ashley cotton jumpsuit (charity shopped at £6) worn with Mallorcan belt and my Tom's Huaraches. 

Added white cardie and sun visor (both charity shopped) 

Here was another outfit. The circle skirt and belt were second hand and the top with its little boats from Sainsbury's. 

Plus my Scrabble necklace and Lorelai LQ earrings. 

 

TARDIS Thursday- Peri from the Mysterious Planet

I thought I'd make a return to TARDIS Tuesday this week but I didn't have time to post what with OFSTED unexpectedly turning up! So it's coming on a Thursday instead!

I was observed by the lead inspector this morning with my year 4's.  Of course, he had to come in at the moment they were all fetching instruments. I apologised and said, "Sorry, it's chaos in here as we get instruments!".  He stayed for about 10 minutes and I hope he saw some good things or what he wanted to see. I think it was fine, just wish he'd stayed for the creative stage, not just the recap! Still, I did show some extension of the highers and offered feedback to one of the kids so hopefully, he saw progress.

On to TARDIS Tuesday/Thursday.   

Last worn in May 2022 on here, it's an outfit I love but don't wear very often which is a shame as I really like it.  Let's look at it:

IMage borrowed from Darren Mooney on Twitter
https://twitter.com/darren_mooney/status/1185955427026165760

Image borrowed from:
https://them0vieblog.com/2013/06/25/doctor-who-the-trial-of-a-time-lord-the-mysterious-planet-review/

IMage borrowed from Darren Mooney on Twitter
https://twitter.com/darren_mooney/status/1185955427026165760

Worn by 6th (and 5th) doctor companion, Peri Brown, it is a departure from her usual combo of short bottoms, tight top.

Here's my 2025 iteration:

The entire outfit was second hand when bought.

The straw boater was one from my grandparents' house.  I do like these Next tailored trousers which I've had a very long time from C.S  The blazer, originally Miss Selfridge was charity shopped and my comfy Rieker shoes were also.

The top is the same vintage blouse I wore last time. I decided to try wearing it inside out so it didn't have its lace strips down the front and tucked the collar in which I think worked fairly well!

As I don't have a cane, I used my 7th Doctor umbrella to recreate the photo!

Hope that you are well.

xx

Easter Joy and flowers!

Christ has died,

Christ is risen,

Christ will come again!

Easter Sunday is always so joyful! I didn't know if we were going to be back in time for me to attend my own church as we were in Hexham, which would still have been lovely,  but I was so happy to be at church!  Sadly, I didn't make it up for 5.30am for the Sunrise service but I was there for 9.15 service to worship and play my flute. It was a joyous occasion!!!! The entrance to the church had been set up with a line of knitted flowers of various kinds on sticks.

I came home to find CBC had not gone out cycling which I was sort of happy about as often he's out for a lot of Sunday. 

Went out into the garden to have a look at the new life outside.

There was blossom on all the trees, some of it older than others now.

The Forget-me-Nots were out in their full mist of glory.

The Viburnum is starting to form its snowballs- their time is so fleeting so it's lovely to capture them before their zenith.

The apple tree is covered in Blossom! I am so excited! Please give us lots of apples this year!

One of the blueberries has lots of flowers on it.

My garden is reflected in my outfit for church. I always wear something floral and a dress on Easter Sunday.  This year, I decided to wear the handmade vintage dress which I recently was given from my Godmother. I was a little bit concerned I looked  a bit too dressed up!

I wore it with my Monssoon velvet jacket and Florence blue leather boots.

The dress fits me exactly like it was tailored to my dimensions. I think I'd like it a tiny bit looser but it does fit well

I wore it with my bee necklace.

Later in the day, I changed as  I wanted to veg on the sofa.  Later, we wanted to go out for dinner and it was a bit chilly so here's what I wore then:

My vintage cardigan and striped top plus a M&S silk skirt, a beret and my blue Dr Martens!

We headed out for a Thai meal which was delicious.

xx

Red Sailor

Ahoy there, Sailors!

I love a bit of sailor/nautical sartorial-styling!  Last week, my Year 5's were writing and performing their own sea shanties and this week, we were looking at the Sailor's Hornpipe!

In this outfit, there are two pieces that I bought for cosplay for Classic Who companion, Romana.  The red tiered skirt and the Sailor jacket.  Both were bought second hand for cosplays but get worn in other combinations regularly but I don't think they've featured outside cosplay posts!  The Laura Ashley t-shirt was bought from a Loue charity shop and is so comfortable.  The hat is from ASOS and the boots second hand Vegan Dr Martens.  I wore this on the lovely sunny day we had our Kensington Chamber Orchestra concert.  I sat on the steps reading my book and several people commented that I looked like a painting! It was funny. I do love the combination of Navy, red and White.  

The necklace was a present for Christmas from my friend Lara. 

Xx

 

Blue Princess

Last week was the first rehearsal of my most local orchestra.  Unfortunately, the hall where we rehearse had broken heating and last weekend was chilly to say the least.  Luckily, we were warned.

When we arrived, it was really quite funny just how many layers everyone had on!  We survived the rehearsal!

Here's what I decided to wear:

I wore a long-sleeved Cath Kidston stop underneath and then wore this blue Cashmere Edinburgh Woollen Mill polo-neck on top.  I bought this in 2010, the year I broke my wrist and I always remember wearing this on New Year's eve to go to a local pub.

Under the skirt, I wore some leggings and my Ugg Black sheepskin waterproof boots (Charity shop bargain about 7 years ago of £25!)- though you can see my slippers in this picture. Speaking of the skirt, I bought this from Per Una, M&S in about 2004-5 which makes it 20 years old now. I am incredulous to realise this but I don't think I've ever shared it on the blog. It was my absolute favourite garment to wear when I worked at the Royal Academy of Music. There was a lovely Professor there, very shy and introverted, who one day came up to me and bought me a cup of tea and a chocolate cake "Because you look like a Princess in that skirt!" and scuttled off.  It was such a sweet gesture of friendship and I will always remember him and think  of that moment when I wear this. The funny thing is, I genuinely did feel like a princess when I wore this and used to watch it trail down the stairs as I walked wearing it!

On top, I added the black charity-shopped furry gilet. I still don't know if it is real or fake sheepskin but it is so incredibly soft and warm.

The final layer was my Per Una charity-shopped teal coat. I haven't worn this coat so much as I am always worried about it getting wet when cycling (in fact, this is the case with most of my coats) so I try to wear my other ones when we are in the car!  Added my Nan's 'banana slice' necklace and my charity-shopped black, velvet Kangol beret.

This was a week of rehearsals.  On the Tuesday, we had another orchestra rehearsal but as the heating was still broken, our conductor arranged for us to rehearse at his very nice school in the music department which was very warm!!!! Also I had a Balinese Gamelan rehearsal on Thursday which was actually really good.  I hadn't been to Gamelan properly since about April last year. I went once in October and found myself really demoralised learning a new piece and so felt worried about going again but it has been fine. We have a concert at Battersea Arts Centre on the 7th February (tickets available here) if you fancy seeing something a bit different!

xxx
 

Green Springs

It was amazing to return to sunshine and warmth in the UK yesterday! Apparently, we are to have a few days of sun and warmth before a return to the cold and misery next week, at least it was, according to the Charity shop lady I chatted to today.

This morning, CBC dropped me off to the place where I was to have my ultrasound and internal scan.

I had to drink a litre of water one hour before and then wait until they'd done part 1 of the ultrasound before I could go to the loo.  The appointment was a bit delayed so by the time I went in, I was really struggling!!

After the appointment, I went across the road to the busstop to get a bus to Mum's house.  I had just missed the bus by 1 minute and the next one wasn't for 20 minutes. (It actually didn't turn up for 40mins and there were two of them!) 

Luckily, there was a charity shop by the busstop which I looked in. It was really nice and I found 2 things.

They had a nice Sheffeld Ukelele for £5 which I couldn't resist for school as an extra and I bought a pair of Rieker black and grey heels. 

Mum had made some delicious tomato soup for lunch with sour-dough. It was lovely to see her and to look round her beautiful garden!

I 

The Rowan tree behind me was just a twig when Mum bought it. As usual, her green fingers have made it thrive.

Here's what I wore.

I started with an Anokhi tunic top which I bought in a charity shop a few years ago. I am so glad Vix introduced me to Anokhi through her blog- the cotton is such amazing quality- it's a joy to wear!

I added my green speckled skirt.  This was handmade for me in Bali 19 years ago.  I bought the material from a lovely shop on Jalan Sulawesi in Denpasar, Bali.  It was full of contemporary patterned batik in bright colours.

Since it matched my Monsoon hat, I had to wear them together

The belt was from Landsend and I bought it from a boutique in Cardigan. I cannot believe it, but I paid £30 for this belt!  Utter madness!!!!

Added to this was my charity shopped Denim jacket and some blue pumps from Lotus (bought from Haltwhistle shoe shop), some earrings and my Nan's necklace (which had fallen off in this picture...but I didn't realise!

It made me so happy to wear lighter clothes again like this week in Girona!  So much nicer than Winter clothes!

xxx

Teal Vixen

 I should really publish this post before it gets too far away from when I actually took these photos!

It was back at the start of February that I wore this outfit. It was Saturday and we were playing a concert with our more local orchestra.

We arrived to the venue with an hour before the rehearsal started and dropped off our bags.  The leader and chair of the orchestra was setting up!

"Hello Charles!" I smiled as we walked past.  He grinned at me.  

"You are looking utterly lovely! You always look lovely but especially so today!".

I grinned beatifically  as CBC and I carried on! He always admires what I wear which is sweet as I think he likes vintage style!

When I put on this outfit- elements of it made me think of one of the most stylish ladies, Vix, in Blogger world, as I put it together.  She'd combine better colours and accessories but I know the individual garments made me think of her.

I actually realise that I changed my hat and I was wearing a blue cloche hat when I went out as I decided the Sheepskin hat was too warm.  Worn with my blue cape which CBC bought me one birthday.

Wearing my black wool gilet (£5.99 charity shopped Per Una)

The skirt was a Per Una birthday present from my Stepmum and Dad about 15 years ago.

The top came from Zara (charity shopped of course!) 

My necklace was the best Secret Santa present from someone at school back in 2010!

It's a bit too matchy-matchy perhaps but I was so happy to wear a maxi skirt- I can't do it on a bike as it always gets managled in the gear cogs!!!

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

TARDIS Tuesday- Victoria Waterfield from The Enemy of the World

This week, I thought I'd attempt one of my cosplans from last week's post. If you read it, I mentioned, I wanted to try and attempt some new companions from Classic Who ONLY using items I already had in my wardrobe!

It's a new companion for me, one I've not attempted before which is ex  Victoria Waterfield, who first featured in lost Dalek story, The Evil of the Daleks, is the archetypal screaming companion!  She is from the Victorian era and only about 14 years old.  In this serial, The Enemy of the World, the TARDIS lands on a beach and it transpires that the Doctor is a doppelganger for a tyranous leader.

Victoria has a cute outfit comprising of a turtle/polo neck jumper, tartan Tam O'Shanter hat, mini tartan kilt and simple shoes.

https://doctorwhoworlduk.com/victoria

www.alisonhuntertherapy.co.uk

https://theultimateguidetothefashionofdoctorwho.wordpress.com/2017/05/15/victoria-waterfield-the-enemy-of-the-world/

https://archive.org/details/doctorwhotheenemyoftheworldepisode1incolor_202003/Doctor+Who+The+Enemy+Of+The+World+Episode+1+In+Color.mp4

This colourised picture comes from a video by James Knox.  It seems to suggest Victoria's top is beige, her Tam O Shanter is purple and green/grey and her kilt similar. I only saw this picture after I wore the outfit but I'm not worried about this!

On the left is my attempt at the cosplay.  On the right is how I adapted it for attending an orchestra rehearsal.

I started with this little red wrap around tartan skirt. It was given to me by my work colleague, Deputy Head, as it didn't work for her. I tried a mustard turtle neck but it didn't look right with the colour so instead I wore this navy Esmara (Lidl) turtle neck. 

I attempted some side by sides here but with smiles! I don't suit non-smiling!

My Tam O'Shanter hat came from the Kirkwall in the Orkneys islands but is Isle of Skye tartan! In retrospect, I think my Romana tartan baker boy hat, maybe worn backwards would have looked more the part but I like this Tam better!

I couldn't be bothered to root around for ankle strap shoes so I just donned some black T-bar shoes.

For orchestra, I added navy leggings and my trusty red Clarks boots. It wasn't actually cold at all today- I didn't feel cold just wearing bare legs but this skirt is too short for that!

I am lucky that one of the clarinettists in the orchestra lives in the same town as us and she gave me a lift to the rehearsal.  Unfortunately, we'd gone about 4 miles before I realised I'd forgotten my music! Oops!!!

I'm wondering if somewhere, I've got a better polo neck top to wear (mossy green?) but I guess I'll discover that when I swap over my clothes.

In doing this, I've realised, I could probably attempt JAMIE's outfit for this episode too.  I wore this same skirt when I attempted another Jamie outfit from The Mind Robber!  Watch this space!

xxx

TARDIS Tuesday- 70's Salmon- Romana and the Stones of Blood

 It's my first TARDIS Tuesday of the year and I thought I'd start with a new one!  In the 1970's, we were introduced to the Doctor's first Gallifreyan companion in the TARDIS, the beautiful Romanadrovatrelundar, AKA Romana for short. The glamorous, intelligent Timelady joined the TARDIS to assist the Doctor in searching for the Key to Time. The whole of this season was made up of 6 stories (mostly consisting of 4 parts, except for the final Ribos Operation) which all involved the search for the pieces of the key to Time which would reset the universe to a balance of good and evil.  The White Guardian gives the Doctor the task but warns him about the Black Guardian who wants to redress the balance in favour of evil.  Romana was played by Mary Tamm who is actually one of the first Who characters I wanted to dress as. Lovely Norma made me a black version of her beautiful white dress from The Ribos Operation for my orchestra concerts which I wore here.  I've cosplayed 3 versions of her key to time outfits with the exception of this one.

Today, I'm debuting a new outfit from the Key to Time episode entitled, The Stones of Blood.  Romana wears two outfits in this episode and I have attempted the second one about 4 times!  This one, I've not seen anyone attempt. I know quite a few cosplayers/Who dresseruppers don't like this outfit but I've always rather liked it!  Let's have a look at it:

This is Romana's first visit to Earth and she tells the Doctor she's going to dress for Earth.  She comes out of the TARDIS wardrobe dressed like this!  For reasons the Doctor can't fathom.

She wears a Burberry flat cap, a Coral/apricot grandad shirt/tunic, matching trousers, a black belt, impractical gold high-heeled sandals plus a thin gold necklace and gold watch.  She soon comes unstuck in the sandals when walking around Stone Henge and later changes into her more practical (well...) red outfit.

And well...

here we are:

I've been low-key thinking about this outfit for a few years thinking if I ever saw a similar blouse in a charity shop, I'd buy it. And so, last year, I saw this Nine by Sienna Miller blouse in my local charity shop for £6 and it made me think of Romana.  Funnily enough, I then saw the linen trousers (brand new by Poetry brand) for £4 just before Christmas and I took a punt on them being a close enough match.

As you can see, they're NOT a total match but close enough for me.

Both garments are super comfortable and lightweight. Would I get away with wearing this entire outfit outside of cosplay? Do I look like I'm wearing scrubs? Hmmm...

This black stretchy belt is a Primark one I've had for at least a decade and the gold sandals were bought from the same shop back in around 2011-12 for my role as Lucia in The Boys from Syracuse - interestingly, I wore this EXACT shade of material with them- a large sheet of material which I cut a hole in the neck and wore with a belt. Sadly, I donated the material to the music camp costume store otherwise I realise I could have made the outfit from them (well, maybe not!). I did have high heeled silver sandals similar to the real ones but I gave them to my niece last year! No close up of my feet because no one needs to see that!

My gold bracelet was a present from a child at school a few years ago (I did forgot to wear my gold neck chain but I don't think you'd see it anyway!

The final item was the Burberry flatcap.  I've kept a look out in the charity shops but seen nothing suitable. Even online, anything true Burberry was scarce or super expensive.  This cap was a 'Beige tartan flat cap' which I found for  £1 from Vinted (with fees and postage, it ended up costing me around £4)

I didn't attempt to copy this pose below (above, yes) but it worked out quite well! I should have taken it near my convex antique mirror!

It was fun to put this together and I liked that  I found the main items all serendipitously except for that cap!

What do you think?  Do you dislike this outfit as much as the die-hard Romana fans or do you like it? Which elements work for you? Which don't?!

xx

Crocheted catchup

 It's been a long couple of weeks!

I've looked back at my blog and realised I haven't really said much for a couple of weeks!

I thought I'd start with today's outfit:

This was worn for a day at home. I didn't leave. Not once.  I completely missed church since I woke up at around 11am, despite having set my alarms. The clocks going forward didn't help,nor did my Saturday adventures. More on that anon.

Outfit first.

I love my Seasalt corduroy trousers- these ones are the Asphodel trousers and they are super comfortable. I own them in Onyx and Burgundy shades. I teamed them with a River Island stripy turtle neck I bought secondhand from LorelaiLQ. I really like this top. Then I added my 2nd hand handmade crocheted waistcoat.  The Dr Martens boots (also bought from Lorelai's instasale) were just worn to go out into the garden for some teabag ripping and composting and the photos.  The black velvet hat was secondhand and I wore it indoors all day.  I love it because it reminds me of my 90's black velvet hat that I used to wear for Windband on a Saturday morning at the Music centre. My conductor, Mr Beal used to call me Paddington Bear when I wore it. Nostalgic vibes of happy times.

So...what have I been up to?

Well, on Monday 13th March, I took my 33 children from the Year 5-6 choir to the Royal Albert Hall in London to sing at our borough's biennual choral festival.  I realised that this was my 30th year of taking part in this concert (should've been in 2022 but for Covid putting it back a year).

The amount of prep for this seemed quite alot, not helped by travelling by coach with 2 other schools to save money (they asked us to join us me on our coach).  We arrived a little late as there were several annoying road closures which weren't on the SATnav so the poor driver had to loop around several times which made us waste about 20minutes.  We ate our lunch outside fairly swiftly then went inside.  We were placed right in the middle of the choir stalls so we had a really good view.  There was some annoying kerfuffle over putting coats in yellow bin bags. I had come prepared with my own big holdall bags.  The kids were really excited and I have to say, they were the best-behaved choir I have taken to this festival in 16 years. I didn't have to tell anyone to be quiet at all- the headteacher of a local school even complimented them to my headteacher a couple of days later. I was amazed as the rehearsal was really long and involved lots of sitting around so they did really well.

After the rehearsal ended around 5.15pm, after the children having been in the arena (apart from loo breaks) since 12.50pm, we went outside, hoping to go to Hyde Park for a play.  Alas, it looked like rain so we sat on the steps and ate our second packed meal of the day. We managed to take a team photo before the rain started and we had to head inside. Typical!

After the toilet break and putting our bags in the fancy 1871 bar area, we went up to our seats.  Every previous year, I have been envious of schools who had made a banner to hold up so this year, I'd got the children to make individual letters in our school colours from cut up cardboard boxes (ever the recycler) which we held up. Unfortunately, the photo I was hoping for wasn't quite achieved as we couldn't get a photo with everyone in face on without lots of other schools in the way.

It hit 7pm and the concert began. The children were excited and sang brilliantly. I was very proud of how accurate they were with their singing, counting and rhythms (they commented that other schools weren't doing some of the rhythms correctly! My pedantry over their counting seems to have been passed on to them!) The theme of the concert was the Queen's life and Jubilee with some other pieces thrown in for good measure.  To make things even more exciting, we had been given tiny LED lights in red, white and blue to wave during 'Sing' by Gary Barlow, flags to wave during the National Anthem and our own flags to wave during Sweet Caroline. 

Unfortunately, as we were in the middle of singing a song called Hope, when all the lights were on us, composed for this concert by my school friend Kayleigh, my lovely choir assistant L turned round to me to say that one of our pupils, a boy with ASD had just said he felt sick. In the moment I stood thinking, "Where is the sick bucket?" and "Should I take him out now?", he then proceeded to projectile vomit in about 5 directions!!! It smelt very strongly of smoky bacon.  There was absolutely loads of it. As she led him out, I went to try and find some paper towels (I had used our supply during the rehearsal to clear up a spilt bottle of water.). I managed to find a roll outside. By this point, the performance had moved onto 'Sing'. Myself and our Assistant head were on our hands and knees trying to clear it up during the song. It was awful! It was absolutely everywhere including inside L's carrier bag on her cardigan, down the back of a girl in the school in front, all over her chair, under his chair. I felt really helpless! In retrospect, I should have just carried on singing and waited to clear it up (apparently, it was allvisible to the audience according to our parents and Head who saw everything!)

During the interval, I went out to go and find out what was happening with the boy.  He still felt sick and had thrown up again in our bucket. He had some icy water from the First Aid team.  I felt really bad for him as he is not always able to express his feelings. He looked very sweaty. After a while, he said he wanted to go back in. I took him but then thought better of it, so the ushers allowed us to place a chair near the door so he could exit when he needed to.  Our kind Assistant Head told me she would sit with him as I needed to be with the kids to sing.   Apparently, he was continually being sick during the second half but really wanted to come back in to sing.  The  AH was one of the best people to be with on this trip as she is so good humoured and just laughs at stressful situations (whereas I spent the whole second hand fretting). 

The concert was amazing- the children were so excited and buzzing about their experience.  2 of our children had been filmed for an interview about preparing for the concert and they said some really beautiful things!

At the end, we had to wait for an usher to tell us when we were allowed to exit our seats.  The concert had ended some 30minutes later than it was due to and then we seemed to not be called to leave. I was getting worried about leaving so we tried to make our way back to the Bar where our coats and bags were but the exit we'd been using had been blocked off.  We ended up going on a massive wild-goose chase right the way round the hall to get back there with an usher and eventually got our coats.  When we finally made our way back up to the top and kids had been to the loo, we tried to find my AH and the sick boy, but our sick bucket had gone missing whilst being washed.  We were worried as he was still being sick. I tried to call a parent who was coming back on the coach with us and the coach driver to find out where he was.  It was so stressful getting out as there were still masses of parents and children waiting.  As we walked, one of our parents started to ask me if she could take her child and I'm afraid I was rather abrupt in my negative answer in my anxiety to get the children safely to the coach. 

We got on the coach and I hoped and prayed that we would not hit awful traffic like we had done in previous years.  The sick child was thankfully sleepy so he started to go to sleep (though he did wake up to vomit once later....).  I was so thankful that we didn't hit traffic and only got back to school around 30minutes late, 11.07pm exactly. All the parents turned up! 

I got a lift to my interchange station with my AH as she lives near my midpoint train change station. We were almost crying with laughter at her hilarious retelling of the events of the evening despite how tired we were. I had to wait 25minutes at the station and got home after getting a taxi around 12.50am!!! Only 6 hours till I had to get up again!

That whole tiredness stayed with me for the rest of the week.  We had 2 days of teacher strikes that week but this time, we opened for a few classes so I did have to go in (my union didn't strike). 

I had a really useful gamelan rehearsal on the Wednesday night- there were only 6 of us there but we got some focused practice done.

Thursday, I only had the Year 6 children because of the strikes but I had decided to organise a second performance of our Albert Hall songs with another local school for the parents who couldn't afford to watch the concert so we tried out the songs with some of our children singing the parts the secondary children sang including solos.

At the weekend, CBC and I headed out to various towns to try and get some supplies as well as camping gear for our forthcoming trip to walk some of the Pennine way.  We ended up at Lakeside to visit Go Outdoors as other camping shops had closed down.  We managed to get a few supplies and then had a look in TK Maxx too. We bought a new Bamboo chopping board as our Joseph Joseph one had snapped last week.  We ended up in a Thai restaunt for dinner which was yummy.

On Sunday, I headed over to my Mum's for lunch to give her some Mother's Day presents. It was so nice to see her. I ended the day at a Gamelan rehearsal in London.

Sadly, my Monday flute quartet rehearsal was cancelled due to illness.  School was busy this week.

We had a rehearsal at the local school for the choir concert next week. Their piano is dreadfully out of tune! I managed to play all the piano parts for the songs.

This weekend had two more Gamelan rehearsals on Thursday and Friday. The Friday was great as one of the Balinese dancers had bought cooked Balinese food for all of us! It was amazing!

On Saturday, CBC had a concert and rehearsal in the afternoon and evening. His brother came out on the train to do a practice trek with me for our family trip to walk some of the Pennine way in the Easter Holidays.  He's doing 9 days of trekking whereas CBC and I are only doing 4 (though 17.5miles each day with camping gear- eek!). CBC was rather cross about this plan since he had to do the concert rehearsal  despite having been in the Whatsapp group where it was arranged so I felt a bit miserable when we started. 

Once I'd met my BiL at the station, we went to buy some rolls from the bakery and set off on our walk.

It was remarkably muddy in places which was a bit difficult in places.  We ended up getting lost and finding ourselves in the 'Poo farm'! The sewage treatment works really! After a few wrong turns, involving a tiresome railway crossing closure, we ended up stopping in a churchyard for lunch. It was SO nice to sit down!  The weather was mostly kind to us though we did get rained on!

By the time we got back to my house, we'd walked 23.3km! We were so tired. We had some tea, biscuits, showers, cheese and crackers and then walked the mile to town to find dinner. We tried the Indian restaurant which was full so we went to the Italian instead.  The food was delicious though took a long time.  CBC got back to town just as we were finishing so we met him at the station and my BiL got the train home!

Today, I spent most of the day cleaning and tidying and preparing my camping stuff for the Pennine Way.

I should probably go to bed!

Hope you are well!

xx

Loooong week!

Hi!

I hope you are well.

I have so many things I want to blog about (Bruges etc, foraging etc) but I have had such a busy week that I haven't had the time or the energy but I wanted to post so, falling back to the lazy blog post of an outfit with a bit of waffle!

This was an outfit worn, I think, last weekend on Saturday. I tend to try and wear long skirts sometimes on weekends as I can't cycle in them!

I was bought this lovely Per Una skirt for my birthday at least 12 years ago and I remember wearing it in a blog post when I still lived in my childhood home 9Just checked and it was June 2012 so 11 years ago!). In that post, I stated that the skirt reminded me of mermaid fins- in fact, the title quoted the main character flipping your fins!

I matched it to the infinity scarf Mum crocheted for me the year my Grandad died. It's a good match plus a sneaky wooden bird brooch my previous deputy head bought me plus my Monsoon hat (which I bought when we bought bridesmaid dresses!) 

I kept the top and boots fairly neutral and added my G-Star corduroy jacket

Handmade Lorelai LQ earrings in ombre blues made from Bubblewrap mailers - this one custom-made for me! In fact,she took my custom-adaptation of her design and has made a series of ombre rainbows in various colours- all made from used metallic mailers sent to her by folks! I love them!

 The week has been long but it's been a productive week- 2 orchestra rehearsals in Nottinghill, a Gamelan rehearsal in the city and extra school choir rehearsals!

I feel completely knackered but not in a bad way! School has been ok.

Concert tomorrow in Nottinghill. Lovely programme of Beethoven, Poulenc and Faure. My lovely second-flute and I will be heading off for a Chinese buffet between the rehearsal and concert- I'm deserting CBC as he wants Turkish and I want Asian food!

Had a funny rehearsal with said 2nd flute- we both decided to take our shoes off in the rehearsal as shoes felt tight and we were both so much more comfortable- ha! We don't care what people think!

Hope all is good with you!

xx

Embroideries

On the subject of embroidery, before I get lost in my own personal waffle, do head over to Ang's blog to see the complete Postcard project that she and Kirsten have been working on for the past year! It's been really exciting seeing what they each embroidered every month, before sending back to the other for the next installment!

Here's a throwback to the first Saturday of Half Term (I think!) to an outfit that was pleasingly coordinated!

It came about because I found this cute cotton embroidered top in the charity shop that would be excellent for Summer for school. However, I was itching to wear it and I took inspiration from Vix who wears her lovely embroidered tops layered over other items. In this case, a boring but much worn cotton top from the Lidl middle aisles quite a few years ago.

I knew it would go brilliantly with my Zara velvet, embroidered trousers which I brazenly copied Anna (Anna's Island Style) by buying!

Here they are up close- worn with my Remonte teal boots- bought from Finale in Corbridge in 2021, to replace my DMs which are not waterproof anymore.

 Yaaaay, I found some more of my hats- there's a box under the stairs- Mum made this beret for me! 

The earrings are more from Lorelai LQ- these were some of her earlier pieces when she was first experimenting with reusing plastics- they are made from plastic bags and go so nicely with the colours of the top.

Hope all is well with you. Stay safe.

I had a lovely weekend with the foraging walk, church, around 3 hours of Gamelan practice by myself at home, some marking and making nettle soup as well as a little gardening!

xx

xx