Those Autumn leaves

I was struck by how I was wearing the shades of Autumn leaf decay today- the three stages-
Yellow- when the leaves are bright yellow, the dark brown stage where they have started to die and then that pale biscuity stage where all the moisture has left the leaf and they are brittle, parched and ready to crack.  Sounds delightful eh!?  Hopefully, combining all three makes for a more pleasing sartorial conclusion.

 I have often made no bones about the fact that I emphatically do not like Autumn.  I often feel like the Bah-humbug fairy when everyone else (except Sophie, who I think is more on my wavelength, even though she show the beauty of it through her photos) is extolling the virtues of the season. I was thinking, as I read yet another post delighting in the Autumn, that perhaps I need to lighten up and appreciate it - to see the good, like I do in most other things.  It's not that I DON'T see the beauty in Autumn, it's just I feel the gloom of the darkening days and mourn deeply for the loss of summer, that time I love so much, thus I consciously shut my eyes to the positives.

And then, today at church,  as the children were completing some beautiful Autumn collages around us as the service progressed, Margaret, the vicar, played this beautiful video and said how lucky we were to see the beauty of Autumn.

  

And perhaps, within me, I knew that I must change my attitude to the Autumn.  When you look and emphasize the bad, you come to see that only. Do the opposite, trying to see the good and perhaps you can believe and take joy in that instead.

So, on the day, I came to try and accept that, the sun shone and I wore Autumn shades.

And delighted in my Poetic License (sister-brand of Irregular Choice) shoes which I wore for the first time and made me feel a bit like Mary Poppins.

The silhouette of this outfit is rather more grown-up than I am used to- I don't wear trousers all too happily though today, these Karen Millen mini-dogtooth 'Plus fours' (I called them Culottes, CBC looked askance on them and asked why I was dressing like a gentleman of the 1910's) suited the shoes. Sorry Julia, they needed an iron and I didn't!  Yes, I did match everything in the outfit to the shoes. The shoes came first,everything else followed!

And this afternoon, I headed back to church for the Confirmation service where I was playing flute  in the band with a combination of people. The church was packed and I was struck with that wonderful sense of a deep love of a community, unity, of a people combined, that I only get when I am at church. It's different from that of just being with family.  I felt happy, at peace, understood. I felt the joy and exhilaration  of those being confirmed.  I felt at home. Something I find very hard to put this feeling I experience into words, but it is, in a sense, a feeling of being lifted, being light and breathing with delight, almost that sort of sigh of contentment you get at times.  I wish I could explain it and I wish that you experience this kind of joy too!

I hope that you all have a lovely week and enjoy some fun, joy and rest too.  

Sending many best wishes,

Kezzie xx

Linking to:

Creative Mondays with Claire Justine 

AND 

Visible Monday with Patti

Presenting Miss Perpugilliam Brown

I was a child of the 80's.  My first Doctor (Who obviously! Do you think this is some kind of hypochondriac blog!?) was Colin Baker, the 6th incarnation of the Doctor.  One of my earliest memories of TV was the episode in which his long-suffering companion, Peri, short of Perpugilliam Brown is killed.  I was devastated! I loved Peri.  I have vivid memories of the scene in which she was operated on by the evil Doctor Crozier so her mind was taken over by the horrid Kiv and when King Ycarnos seemingly gunned her down.  Luckily, all was not what it seemed in Mindwarp part 8 of 'A Trial of a timelord'.  Incidentally, this was the first Doctor Who video I was given as a teenager. If you want to see a summary of the episode, click here. Anyway, in her final outing, Peri, who was renowned for wearing rather revealing outfits, actually wore something a little more covering, in the form of a purply patterned tunic and kimono.

Image borrowed from https://michaelnixon.wordpress.com/2010/08/30/1986-mindwarp/

Image borrowed from http://www.ew.com/

The look has a decidedly hippy-vibe to it.

As always, TARDIS Tuesday is an interpretation of something from Doctor Who, rather than having to be an exact cosplay (much as I love those!) so I am demonstrating here, with a bit of context and a certain degree of tenuous rhetoric, you can link an outfit to Doctor Who that you might not otherwise realise was inspired as such.




I bought a delightful paisley and floral purple tunic in a charity shop in Ipswich with 2 blogging friends (ahrgh, I WILL blog about that soon!) and it suggested to me that it had a Peri Mindwarp vibe to it.



Of course, it was a floral garland kind of day, so I matched that in too. Peri wore some sort of purple beaded headband in another episode which I can't find the reference for right now.

Yes, I know that it isn't really THAT Peri-ish! But you know, I was inspired!


Now it's your turn. Been at the fancy dress box again and worn a Panama, fez or Fedora, been wearing a cricket jumper, stripy scarf or been at Clara's Topshop collection!? Or perhaps you've sported some TARDIS blue in your outfit post. Come and join Maricel, TARDIS Tuesday founder and me, her humble assistant (rather like the Doctor and his companion! Ha, that makes me Clara!)
with TARDIS Tuesday.

An InLinkz Link-up

SIA- The Green Cage (bonus post!)

I was so uninspired with today's BEDM brief that I thought I'd add in a second post. This is a quick Style Imitating Art challenge I joined in with this week.
The inspiration piece was The Green Cage by Richard E Miller, chosen by Salazar at 14 shades of grey.


Such a pretty piece. I loved the brushstrokes and the beautiful feminity of the subject plus the delightful hues.

As is often the case with Style imitating Art, I tend to go for the central colours, particularly if there is a human subject.


Taking the corally pink of her shawl and the blue of her frock, I combined two charity shop items- Broderie Anglaise shirt dress from Next and a blue petal patterned silk skirt from Monsoon.  It was time to bring out the flower crown/wreath for those roses in the background. This one was my first flower crown from Monsoon Kids a long time ago!  Avoided the usual smiling at the camera to try and reflect the demure nature of the subject.

I'm tending my flowers.  I've been ridiculously excited over my crops. Really wanting to grow vegetables this year.  Have a look so far...hope I actually get to eat some of this and it doesn't a) get decimated by slugs/snails b) die of lack of watering because I am away,



Tomato plants are fairly small. Haven't grown much since they went outside.


Radishes are blossoming. As I went out earlier, the stalks started to turn red!


Oh sad little lettuces.  Not really doing much!



Onions were seedlings from Waitrose. Not done much so far.
Pak Choi were seedlings from Waitrose. Not done much so far and wretched slugs have discovered them! Go away pests!


Carrots probably won't grow - I was a bit rough with the root bulb.


Raspberries have grown a bit


Strawberries have had flowers and are growing. Slugs get lost!


Seedling lettuces from Waitrose have been chomped by the evil woodpigeons and/or snails.


Is that rocket starting to sprout? I hope so!


LOOOK Swiss Chard is finally emerging!!!!


Land cress planted by Mum but has grown a lot in the week since she came round.


Mum also planted runner beans in a pot but they've grown about 15cm in a week!!!!


French beans germinated by me!

Hurrah!

XX

And that will be your crowning glory your whole life through

Special brownie points to anyone who tells me which film the blog title comes from (no cheating and looking on google!)



It was my work Christmas party last week and we went for a very nice Chinese meal at a gold club.  I was really lucky as my kind Deputy-Head teacher let me go round to hers in between and had a relax, a bath and a sleep! I wasn't feeling very well so that was SUCH a kind thing to do.   Her house was amazing! She's got SUCH a good idea for quirky and fun ways to decorate a house.

I wore an old staple little black skater dress from the Closet brand which I bought in a shop close to my old home- it/s got a velvet  bodice and a short circle skirt

All the full length shots were rubbish (And I had the nicest pair of grey chevron tights on as well!) but you can see it here /below where I wore it with a sweater last year.


I added a blue sparkly Oasis shrug (charity-shopped) but the berry on the cake was my new festive floral crown from Crown and Glory. I really like it- it's got berries, pine cones, roses, mushrooms  and foliage over it and I am definitely going to wear it on Christmas day too. I'm not sure that the golf club was quite ready for hippy chic head-dresses but after a few initial glances I think they got used to it! That's my lovely, lovely work colleague above!



I didn't really get any close ups of my headdress as I told you, the photo quality was pretty awful (why can no one work my camera except me and CBC?) but you can see it in the box it came in above!  I like how it takes festival chic and gives it a winter edge!

Looking up the title reference on Youtube (for a bout of nostalgia for one of my favourite films), I somehow saw that there was a full film on Youtube called Wildchild which I just ended up watching. It's really good/fun*!! I really enjoyed it, It's about a wild American girl who is sent to live in England at an austere boarding school where she tries to rebel to be sent home. Of course it fulfills all those stuffy English stereotypes that American directors love to exaggerate and had lots of interesting things including the girls bathing in 4 adjacent baths. REAAALLLLY? Like that will really happen in England. I liked the reference to the girls going charity-shopping in Cancer Research though. Wish I could go to that particular store- it appeared to have loads of vintage goodness!!!

My day went very well in the end.  The KS2 Christmas production at the church went reaaaaaaally well. Like really well!  I am amazed how well my children sang! Every child was there pretty much, there was no getting out of it this year which really made a difference and the children were ridiculously excited but to a good end!

Now just one day before the holidays begin!

Hurrah
xxx

*I know that the majority of the population will probably hate it, my husband included. Lucky he's out!

It's Christmas jumper time!

Yo there! (urgh, such an un-Kezzie thing to say! I mean, could you ever imagine me saying yo? Well, look, bizarrely it happened!)

Friday was absolutely hilarious as everyone rocked up to school in their Christmas jumpers.  It was a fun sight and even the person who never dresses up and joins in with anything costumey or anything social also wore a novelty jumper!  My favourite was the Caretaker who had this wonderful bright London scene which had lights as well.

You saw my previous post gave some ideas for putting together your own temporary Christmas jumper if you wanted to avoid the cost or any other reasons but wanted to join in.  I had, however, already purchased my jumper, so I wore that on the day itself though I have been wearing my two 'homemade' ones.

This jumper came from Next and I bought it after my sister, who works there showed me hers. It transpired she was planning to buy it for me for Christmas but thought I might want to wear it before Christmas.  I did indeed, but I said to her I would buy it myself- afterall, even with her 20% staff discount, I didn't want her, a student, to be spending that much money on me.   I loved it for its simplicity but absolute bling-factor at the same time!

It's a great one as it is made from  100% cotton of the softest kind, it is so gentle and it's not too thick either.  The size 6 was this size which surprised me, because you know, it doesn't look too tight.



Decided to pair it with my tartany/plaidy/checkedy mini-skirt as it complimented the colours of Mr Ginger and added my Cath Kidston glittery star-earrings and Topshop necklace with Crown-and-glory holly glitter clip, navy leggings from a local shop and Ralph Lauren blue boots. I felt comfortable and me all day.


This Sunday, I wanted to wear it again (after all, not an all-year round jumper is it?!) so I decided to try a different look with it and added this charity-shopped polka dot dress, same leggings, navy ankle socks and Faith bronze lace-ups together with an Aldo gold sparkly headband to tie in with Mr Ginger again.


Again, this felt a comfy look but not too casual as I always like to wear something relatively smart for church and also for a house party we went to.


Decided to try to do some 60's flicks on my eyes which you can't really see but never mind! This shot rather accentuates me ears but ah well!x


After some good sleep on Saturday night (despite feeling like I was sleeping next to Skeletor or Slimer due to a rattly nose- unusually CBC has a lasting cold), I had a lovely morning at church.  The Archdeacon for our area came and gave a really inspiring talk and that woman has a lot of heart.  Then enjoyed some tea after the service and a kind friend brought all the Sherlock DVDs for me to borrow (as I've only seen 3 episodes and want to catch up!).  I then returned home to CBC and did some general relaxing and milling about before heading over to our friend's for Sunday Lunch Club.  There are seven of us and before we each hosted a monthly lunch and we've started it again.  We enjoyed a delicious Roast Pork lunch and homemade lemon drizzle plus copious cups of tea and chat.  It'll be fun to do this again- it's our turn in February!  Thai Green curry it is then?!

I'm feeling a LOT less grumpy than I was yesterday and thank you for your kind comments understanding.  I wanted to share that post because I know lots of people say I'm really nice and sweet (which is kind, thank you) but I am human like everyone else and I fail.

xxx


Linking to Visible Mondays with beautiful Patti
Linking to Creative Mondays with the lovely Claire Justine.

Sunset in the Arboretum

One of my favourite places at camp is the Arboretum- it is a beautiful quiet haven where you can go and lie, read, sit.  The leaves rustle gently, the sunlight streams through branches, you hear the smallest and gentlest of sounds.

I love camp and I love the many, many friends I spend time with but sometimes you need a little bit of solitude.

I wandered bare foot in the soft grass because I'm used to that at home. I read some beautiful books and breathed the fresh air.

These photos were taken around dusk.  I do like being able to wander around in summer dresses, flowers in my hair and joy in my heart.

Outfit: rainbow dress- ASOS, cardie- Thrifted, belt-? floral crown-Primark long ago.

I hope that you are all well. I've had a pretty exciting couple of days which I'll try to share with you asap!

What have you been doing?
xx

The Big Day Part 1: Before.

So, I am finally facing the daunting task of attempting to share some of the wedding with you here!

It's two months on and we've been to two weddings in the meantime of the best-man and the sister of the groom respectively.

The day was a beautiful and wonderful one which we will not forget in a hurry and I am in a quandry as to how to do it justice without boring the heck out of you! We all know how I like to waffle!

So, where I left you on Wedding Waffle part 1 was me being thoroughly out of character and doing early morning cleaning!

Many aspects of the wedding were home-made, borrowed, shared or contributed by friends which I loved.

On the wedding morning, a dear Teaching Assistant friend from school arrived first to come and do my hair.  The whole thing was pretty lucky the way it turned out.  I was sitting in the library at school and they asked about my hair and I commented that the hairdresser I had tried, had not managed to achieve the look I wanted, which was a cross between Kate Middleton in her Jenny Packham turquoise dress (see here) and Clara Oswin in Doctor Who (here).  At which point, the lovely TA asked me to show her a picture and she said she could do it easily.  She has done various beauty courses including hair and tried out the hairstyle the next day and did exactly what I wanted.


My little sister also helped in that she did my make-up for me.  She's absolutely beautiful and does her own make-up so nicely, I knew she would do a wonderful job and would make it very subtle which I feared a makeup artist might not.  I don't really do make-up, apart from Touche Eclat and black liner (which is not actually on in this photo, nor is my Agnes B lippy!)

My Mum and other sister(bridesmaid also) had also arrived at this point and were getting ready with my little niece.  They were in good spirits and we had lots of fun also with my Brother in law (who was taking the video of the ceremony) and my Step-Mum and Dad.  They were a little surprised when CBC arrived to get his cello which he had left at my house- which crucially, he needed for the wedding!!!!!!  I took the opportunity to give him a present of some turquoise Paua shell cufflinks, to match the colour scheme!

About this time, another TA friend from school turned up with the bouquets. Again, she had kindly offered to make them.  She was coming to the ceremony with a gang from school and she offered when she heard I was just going to bung some flowers together.

She tied them with some lace ribbon I had bought a while back from a market haberdashery. I wanted a simple white bouquet with lots of gypsophilia which I think is so pretty!

I was actually very chilled during the whole process and sat reading my book whilst all this went on.  Everyone thought I'd be panicked but no, I just took it all in (I did have a mega headache though, which meant I wasn't being too active!)

It was actually really lovely having a house full, even though my little Bijou house is not really big enough for them all!

Finally, I donned my dress.

Now, you may find this hard to believe, but I didn't actually ever go to a proper bridal boutique! I fell in love with a 2009 collection designer dress from Johanna Hehir which I discovered by doing a Googlesearch for Jane Austen wedding dress. I never thought there would be any way that I would manage to find one, 4 years on from that collection in a size 8 in my meagre price range, but God was good and I did indeed find one, very very reasonably!

I knew that I wanted something empire-line, simple, not a big skirt but straight down and ideally something Jane-Austen/Regency inspired.  This dress, I felt, reflected all that with a nice modernity. The pleats were a nice touch too which meant it wouldn't look creased!!!!

Despite reallllllly not wanting to spend much money on my outfit, I really wanted a Jenny Packham head-dress and wanted to embrace the Great Gatsby trend of the year and my lovely Mum bought me the beaded feather band I wore on my head. I knew I could wear this again, rather than a traditional tiara!  I also purchased some crystal and pearl earrings from a Vintage-inspired boutique in Carnaby street at the same time and bought a simple crystal cross necklace with my Step-Mum.

Finally, the lovely Char was responsible for me finding my lovely Debut at Debenhams ivory shoes which crazily, I didn't get a photo of though you can see them poking out in this picture!!!!

I then simply wore 2 bracelets I already had:  a Swarovsky bracelet given  by a child in my first ever class and a blue one I bought in Bali when I lived there.

As we waited, CBC's flatmate arrived in his Mercedes to drive us to the church in his Chauffeur's cap I found him on ebay! (again, things from friends!)

We were a little perplexed to see CBC and his best man outside the church at his car and had to hastily drive around the block to avoid him!   It turned out he was waiting to give my dad his boutonnier!

As we got out the car and waited by the entrance to the church, we heard the musicians begin and that would be the start of the service!!

To be continued....

Photos Copyright of Karen O'Reilly at www.kaphoto.co.uk She is a wonderful photographer and has some very reasonable wedding prices at the moment!

12 years old

Hola!  Inspiration Monday mi hearties!  I must say I love the gorgeous Eva Mende's crisp, fun, daisy outfit!  Alas, why do I not have a black daisy skirt!  I tried to get my Peter Pan collared daisy dress to be a skirt but there's no getting this waist and bottom through a Peter pan neck hole!

 Here we have the Kezzie interpretation:
The lowdown:
White blouse:  Miss Selfridge
Rose skirt:  M&S Per Una via Salvation army
Ecru shoes:  Clarks via Clothes swap party/
Virtuous reusable bag:  Orla Keily via Tescos.  Thanks Sharon for the tip!
Headband:  Primark

 When I wear this headband (and indeed when I bought it, this was what I intended), I always think of April from Home and Away (Rhiannon Fish).  Here's the image that inspired my purchase! 

As I walked into the office after school today, the head and deputy head teacher were sitting there.  The head said to me:  "You look so cute,".  The deputy asked me to remind her how old I am (31) to which she replied, "How come you still bloomin*' look 12 years old?!!!?" (*expletive replaced with alliterative equivalent). Tee hee!

 I'm still loving my salads of the past week!  Here's a sample of what I've been eating!  Mmmmmm!

The day has been quite fun on the whole with singing traditional songs from Jamaica and South Africa with Reception and Year 1 respectively!  They seemed to really like the songs and they made me happy too!

Other exciting news is that I get to go to the Olympics Opening ceremony dress rehearsal performance because my boyfriend is in it and he gets 2 complimentary tickets! On Saturday CBC and I very childishly staged a costumed 'ballot' which was documented in photos to decide which of his siblings won the last remaining ticket!  Let's just say CBC's costume as mayor of the Olympics  involved a fur blanket as a cape, Jubilee chains as an official chain and my straw hat as his bonnet.  It was great fun and now his family think we're completely insane (You mean they DIDN'T know this already?!?!?!).  I wont embarass CBC but here are three shots from the fun (featuring new red hat as the receptacle for the votes!!)

Go and check out the other beautiful birds and their interpretations at The Two birds boutique including what might be my favourite outfit that Megan has ever worn- this is a demo in how to combine spots and stripes in the most wonderful way!