Red Berries

I am grateful to the people who owned this home before us. The lady was a gardener and the raised borders were filled with a variety of plants which flower at various different times of year and give other treats.  At the moment, lots of green or dead but I went out to empty the compost caddy and saw how beautiful and vivid the Nandina Domestica was looking covered in ebullient red berries. 

I went out there and had a look a what was going on.  So much prettiness.  I was all cosily dressed and didn't need any form of coat or scarf.  My friend Ellie sent me this beautiful wool jumper with a beautiful design on it as it doesn't fit her anymore. I like the fact it is quite cropped- meaning it doesn't look saggy over a skirt.  Paired with my charity shopped heart skirt, leggings and brown boots (plus sneaky Tatty Devine heart lolly necklace- can you see it?)
It was a great outfit for my orchestra rehearsal on a Sunday (today) as it is usually really cold in the school hall that we rehearse in.

I've stayed snug as a bug all day- jumper, skirt, leggings and boots- a very comfortable Winter uniform!

I hope you have had a great day!

x

Valentines Day outfit

Greetings, honoured guests!

I hope you are well!  I am fine.   I am doing my usual Packing Avoidance.  I really loathe packing and I am therefore not doing it. It usually means I start packing at Stupid o'clock and then really regret it the next morning.

I almost forgot it was Valentines Day today!  It was only last night at 11.30pm, that I suddenly remembered and scrambled to make CBC a card- you can see that in tomorrow's post!

I did decide to wear a Valentines-themed costume today- it may be similar to my outfit from last year but with variation!  One of my usual 'clothing and accessory fans at school clocked my outfit choice as usual- she always comments on it!

I started with this jumper. It's from Sugarhill Boutique but I bought it secondhand on Depop last year- stripes and hearts- the perfect combo!

With it, I added possibly my most-worn charity shop item of the last year or so- this Dorothy Perkins denim midi-skirt.  I wear it at least once a week if not more- so comfy and versatile. I'm starting to wonder when I last washed it though!?

In the footwear department, I added these red leather Clarks Originals dessert boots. These were from the Save the Children charity shop back in January.  I was waiting for CBC to get back to the car (he was having a hair cut) and I went in as it was opposite the car.  I loved the boots (and they were actually my size!) but they were £15 which seemed a little steep as the heels were really dirty and there were some dark marks on the boots.  I ummed and ahed at the counter as this is really my type of shoe but I wasn't sure if the marks would come off.  The lady at the till tried to rub them with a baby wipe with made it worse so they reduced them to £7.99!  Result! Much more my price!

 On the old jewellery front, I added my Tatty Devine heart lolly necklace and my tassel earrings my colleague bought me for Christmas.

And voila, we have a comfy Valentines outfit.

We didn't do anything special for Valentines (does anybody?) - CBC was out in looking for a Ski mask and snacks for the coach journey until 9.15pm so I cooked what I must say was a very tasty veggie Spaghetti (spaghetti in lemon juice and oil with fried leek, aubergine, tomatoes, peppers, red chilli and spinach with cheddar cheese on top!) and we just ate a mango.

I think I should go and attempt that packing!

Love to you all!

xx

Queen of Hearts

Hi there,

Last week, for Valentines Day, I decided to wear a Heart-themed outfit, as is often my want. I own a few things with a heart pattern so it seems nice to unite them for the celebratory day.

CBC and I gave each other a card and spent a lot of the day sorting out things in the house.   

 Here's another view from my house- by the front door! We have a longish, thin, tiled entrance hall.

The skirt and top were both second-hand and are in compleemtary shades.  Comfy too!

 In the jewellery stakes, I wore a Heart balloon brooch from You Make me Design and a Tatty Devine heart lolly necklace!

 And these earrings featuring the White Rabbit in his Hearts costume.

It wasn't my intention to snuggle up to the Moose/reindeer but I thought this was quite funny!

Did you wear a themed-outfit for Valentines at all and if not, anything special?

xx

Strawberry patience

 Do you know why I love Charity shops so much!  Because you can so often get something you wanted first time round in there if you are a patient.  I posted about my Topshop coat that I found in the charity shop that sells for £90 on eBay because it is a Clara cosplay item- sometimes it is something like that but often, it's just something you really wanted!

 Henry Holland dresses are one of those things that I always get excited about if I see them in a charity shop- this Strawberry flora one that I have often admired.  Patience meant I found it for £3 in the charity shop this Summer!  It is a size 12 which means it is a little baggy on the top, but my heart felt sorted that out easily!

Whilst I am TRYING not to just buy pretty things in a charity shop because I think they are pretty (because it is ok to think something is pretty and not have to own it) or indeed online (So many Lindybop dresses I have loved this Summer but not bought, even when they were in the sale with extra 25% off), if it is one of those, 'really-wanted-it-first-time-round' items, then I will make room for it.  And cheap Clara Oswald items of course!

If you're thinking you've seen my necklace in brooch form before, you would be right, but I'll tell you more about that in another post soon!

Hope you are well.

xx

Super easy, eco-friendly Valentines Cards ideas

Hi there,

Just in case you have left it too late to buy a card or you fancy making your own, I thought I'd link to a few previous posts of mine in which I have shared simple ways to make cards:

 6 easy peasy Valentines cards you can make yourself

This Dot to dot post card was one of the 6 ideas I suggested in the post above.  This one, as you can see, is ridiculously easy to make.

Dot to Dot

Envelope hearts

As part of a Heart swap back in 2012, I made a box of heart cards for Tracy, my partner and this is a design I have made numerous times for engagement cards which uses recycled envelope inards in contrasting patterns. It could work well for Valentines too!

Heart swap post

The card below was the card I made for Tracy to accompany the gift, but I don't see why this couldn't work as a simple Valentines card. I used the heart stickers I had used as masks to paint her a heart mug, as they were still sticky, rather than chucking them away.

Just add stickers...

Citrus hearts

These card are not Valentines cards as such but since they contain hearts, they could be a nice non-soppy idea for someone in your life!

Hearty drink 

A slice of my heart

Ribbon hearts idea

If you click the link in the caption, you can see how I made this card by utilising those annoying ribbons in clothing that are for hangers but stick out of jumpers and dresses annoyingly.

Ribbons from clothing card

Buttons:
 Buttons can act like Mosaic pieces and I love a good mosaic! All the below were a case of arranging and sticking with PVA glue or sticky tape! If you save those buttons from clothing but never seem to use them, now is your time!

Button heart idea

The wedding card that could be a Valentines.

Rainbow buttons

Yet another button card... The background blue is from a Tissue box!

Office Essentials holepunch card

I had sooo much traffic to this Valentines idea post a few years ago, I think it was because it said the phrase, Office Essentials in it! Anyway, this one is another very non-soppy idea and rather like the buttons is a form of mosaic but with hole-punched pieces from some paper that was going into the recycling.

Holepunch valentines

Origami hearts:
 If you look for a You tube tutorial, this is where I got this idea from for Origami hearts. These ones were made out of old envelopes! I am TERRIBLE at Origami but I found these super easy and I even managed to get one of the girls in the office to make one for her boyfriend by showing her how.

Origami hearts

Scrap card mosaic:

Most of the card in this mosaic for my husband came from tissue boxes, junk mail or other packaging except for the holographic one- have a look and see what packaging can be used!

And finally, here is yet another mosaic card idea,but this was the first Valentines my now-husband made for me back in 2010, so it's not just me who likes to give the crafty idea a go!!!! If I can find any of his other ones, I will post them..

Do you have any Valentines cards ideas? Do share if so and let me know if you use any of these!

Much love,

Kezzie xx

Linking up with Creative Mondays at Claire Justine's! So long since I last linked up!

Just call it my funky flying jacket...not my itchy cardigan!

Hi there!

Hope you are well.

I'm fine today although I am getting a sore throat so frantically drinking liquids (as opposed to solids?) to assuage it.

I thought I'd share a little outfit from before Christmas which I was quite fond of.

The glittery sweater was one I picked up from Primark in November- it's a really nice glitter effect but ISN'T ITCHY!  The holy grail of glittery clothes. I don't know about you, but I've always had a complete aversion to certain types of clothing or materials that are itchy.  

As a child, I always complained of itchy labels that drove me mad in certain items of clothing.  I think that is definitely a problem of the past as this rarely happens nowadays. 

Another much-hated item was a white cardigan that my Dad and Step-Mum bought me (and my sister had one) to wear over at their house with white blouses and a red skirt.  Oh I LOATHED it- it just aggravated my skin and I constantly complained about that itchy cardigan. My stepmum ended up talking of that dratted sweater some time last year and it was so funny hearing her tell of how utterly awkward I was over it and how it drove her mad!  In the end, they bought me a non-itchy white jumper which I was contented with.

This comes to mind because I bought a lovely pair of Per Una trousers in the final 70% off sale from M&S last week. I say lovely but I was scratching all day Friday and had to wear the egregious things until about 12am which was roughly when we got to Hexham from Newcastle!
CBC complained when we reached Hexham about how I really didn't need to let the whole train carriage now how itchy my trousers were which apparently I did...

I digress... back to this outfit. The skirt was charity-shopped in March (£2) and there is nothing itchy about it or the sweater.

The utter prize of this outfit is the sheepskin jacket however. Sheepskin is blessedly natural and thus  un-itchy! I have wanted a genuine sheepskin coat for at least 15 years but they are very expensive and often too big for my narrow shoulders. Thus, when I spotted this in the Dog's Trust charity shop in the next town to us, I pounced on it eagerly. English-made and actually fits my shoulders. It cost £25 second-hand but considering how much these cost new and how immaculate it was, it didn't take long for me to part with my currency.   It is wonderfully cosy and a dream coat.

How are you in itchy fabrics?  Anything you can't stand?

Have you found your longed for charity shop item yet?

xx

5 brooches #31

Hello there!

I hope all is well with you this fine day.

I bring you a selection of brooches from the past few weeks. Hope there are some you like. There seems to have been a lot of stripage going on today too!

This pewtr cat and goldfish bowl is one I found in a charity shop recently. I wasn't going to buy anything but then I saw this and it was so cute (the fish dangles) that I gave in! For £3 to charity, it was worth it!

Here are some of my home-made Scrabble collar clips! I have 6 letters!

 This parrot brooch is one of my oldest ones and of course has a tale attached. When I was about 10 or 11, I read the .'..of Adventure' series by Enid Blyton and came across a parrot called Kiki. From then on, I was smitten with parrots, drawing them, writing about them, wanting one and relatives and friends bought me parrot items. The family friend who bought me this brooch was SO good at buying me presents of things I really loved or wanted. They tracked me down a parrot Swatch watch I had admired of a friend's and my Mum had failed to find me one (we went to the Swatch shop and everything!) and this brooch was an unexpected Christmas present. I treasured it and kept it in the China cabinet in its velvet box for many years.

 Tatty Devine released some of their Lucky dip boxes a few months back and I ordered one of the Men's ones because I have a few men who it is hard to buy for and I thought some novelty cufflinks would be a fun idea.  When the box turned up, it had in it, 3 brilliant sets of Cufflinks and this Volume brooch! I have set aside the cufflinks for the presents I wanted it for and decided that this was going to stay with me!!

The last set of stripes of the day. I felt a red heart went really well against the nautical look of the t-shirt!

Any favourites here AND have you worn any!?

xxx

Sailor heart

What ho, tis I, Le Kez!

Hope that your day was successful and fun.

I had a slightly bizarrely successful afternoon which only resulted from me going off on a tangent!

In year 3, I went to teach a lesson. I was introducing the concept of Time Signatures - which would then lead into them getting the feel of time signatures, learning to conduct in those time signatures, listen to some music to identify time signatures and then answer some other comparison questions between 2 songs- Tomorrow the Fox and 'Didlan' (based on The Ashgrove folk tune).

Anyway, I introduced it by asking them what comes first on the stave in music (the treble clef).  I asked them what that told us (that it was a high-pitched instrument playing).  Then, as a reminder, I asked what the name of the clef was that means it's a low instrument (they dutifully answered 'Bass Clef') - I then added the Alto clef as a tangent which was greeted with "Cooooool!", "I love this!"  (??????)

I then started to say as a mere note aside, that a key signature comes next and somehow got into explaining key signatures, how they work, what sharps and flats are and what they mean etc' and somehow, they were highly enthusiastic about this and were really getting into this (I'm talking boys and girls who can be a bit disruptive) and were just amazed to be learning all this (I think I maybe did ok by starting the Alto clef comment by saying, "You don't need to know this, but I know some of you like knowing harder, extra information," which meant everyone wanted to be THAT person I was inferring) .  So we had this massive tangent on key signatures and sharps and flats and enharmonic equivalents and they were just bizarrely really with me on it!!  There was no distraction, no one who had to be called to order or made to face the correct way. We're talking a solid block of music theory!

When I introduced the time signatures, the delight of learning how to conduct and what conductors are really doing was a delight!! 

When they came to do the listening- everyone was totally focused.  Bizarre how that happens sometimes. I usually find them really hard work. That said though, they are quite a musical class- they are probably one of the best singing classes in the school.

Anyway, if you have survived that long and waffly tangent, well done, have a gold star, biscuit and a cup of tea, you deserve it!

I thought I'd share 2 pictures of two of my Charity shop purchases which featured in 'The Buyer's archive' post. The gorgeous Topshop sailor jumper from Sue Ryder and the heart skirt from Barnados!  Just needed the tiny addition of some navy knitted tights, gold Toms and my Punkypins Bee necklace and I was good to go! 

I love my new tree with its crops of daffodils! What will I do when they all die!?!? I've never quite had such a happy blogging posing spot!

xxx

Lindybop Lindyhop lobster

Good Evening, Villagers!

Hope all is well with you.

I generally dislike Wednesdays (mostly due to just ONE class grrrr) but this was one was quite fun.  After an awkward start with a class (one horrid child) they managed to pull it together and perform well as did the other year 4 class. In Singing assembly, because it is Shakespeare week, I taught the kids to sing Henry VIII's Pastime with good company, which we accompanied with our timpani playing a drone ostinato that set it off remarkably well. Survived the horrid class and had a good one (except WHY will they always try to cheat in Music Vocabulary Bingo. There's always ONE!) and then after school I did a Tudor Dance one-off session for years 3-6. Had about 24 children which was a nice number. Most of them had done in it year 4 when I taught them but there were about 7 year 3's as well. It worked really well. We learnt Branle des Lavandieres and a simple, but effective, dance to Pastime with Good company.    It made for a jolly end to the school day. 

CBC and I went swing dancing almost two weeks ago and it gave me a chance to wear my Christmas present from CBC- a Lindy Bop dress. I love it when someone buys me a dress! Yay!

I got the idea to do red accessories from Louise at Polka Dots and Freckle Spots who wore a similar dress with red. Charity-shopped red Monsoon cardie, George dalamation spot shoes and Erstwilder brooch plus a hair flower.  We tried to take pictures out a the Kursaal where the dance was. It was the 7th Anniversary of JiveSwing teaching in Southend so it was really nice to go along and celebrate that.   All the photos or nearly all were rubbish at the Kursal apart from this one

...which was still dark and grainy!

So you get some photos from my entrance corridor to my home with its speckled wallpaper, doormat and vanity case!

Hope all is well with you.
xxx

1 more get-up...

Hearts and flowers

I'm sorry, I really don't have anything interesting to say. I've felt a bit like that this week-hence the fact you got two outfit posts in close together and then another one. I like to keep things varied and I like posting daily but I'm not feeling the book review, craft post needs to come after Mothers Day, Blog love post doesn't feel finished, one draft still not got the other part done,  What is it? done yesterday, no particular school anecdotes; two restaurant write ups which I have no desire to finish, photos of cooking on camera can't be bothered to upload them and so on. Am I having a day of blogging ennui? Who knows!  Anyway, thus what follows from here on was a draft post which I have preceded with what seems a bit of a self-indulgent blog moan. It wasn't intentional, I just was feeling I didn't like posting ANOTHER outfit. But it's the most written post so here we go:



A while back when it was my birthday weekend, we went out to a dinner party at a friend's house. She lives in Eltham and she made an amazing feast having 3 courses and the main being a Chinese feast of at least 8 dishes (she is of Chinese origin)! I had worn my 1st Debenhams January sale purchase the day before so I decided to wear the other the next day. I had seen those coord dresses around and thought they were great but not really been wanting to shell out money for one. So, seeing one in the H by Henry Holland 70% off sale rack (with voucher in bag), I was rather chuffed. I thought it a really unusual and striking pattern and I liked the way it looked like a dress and top. What do you think of coords? I decided to add my pewter Hush Puppies shoes- these were the first high-heeled shoes I'd ever bought as an adult that looked high  after forgetting black shoes for a concert in a church (Oh look, another shoe anecdote!) and borrowed a girl's size 8 hig-heeled Aldo court shoes (I couldn't believe she shared my size!), discovering some heels WERE comfortable and hunting for some.They are decidedly comfy for heels. I tried to add my Crown and glory heart fascinator.
 

 I say tried. I seem to have an issue getting combs to stay in my hair! Or putting them in anywhere that looks right. Do I have an odd-shaped head??? This came in February's Glitterati box and whilst I love it, it's not exactly every day wear. Nor am I remotely skilled at getting it to stay in my hair. I finally got it to stay in and then went out into the wind. It refused to go back in after I'd wrestled it out of my hair. It really was windy- I thought I'd share the aborted attempts at Fascinator closeups for your amusement- it really wasn't happening was it. And then I discovered in the top right picture, that my top made a great parachute in the wind!


Thanks for your lovely kind comments and general being fabulous! You lot are the best!

xx

Valentines for others, for outfits, for us

Ah, Valentines day! The day that divides opinion- just commercial, lost the original meaning, overrated, celebration of the acts of a long-ago saint or just a nice opportunity to remind someone that you love or care about them?

A couple of weeks ago, I thought I'd like to do some random acts of kindness (or just random giving stuff to people!) and thought I'd like to paint some pebbles with hearts and place around the playground for children to find and keep. BUT, with the weather being what it has been and playtime in the playground being a very unlikely event, I had to put a lid on this. However, Nora Bird talked about doing some random acts of kindness this week so I thought it would be nice to too.


Yesterday, at lunchtime, when I went to buy some snacks for the kids at school, I also took the liberty of buying 42 kitkat bars.  After I had served teas and coffees to the staff, I then sat and wrote Happy Valentines day on each of the bars and after an Art-attack style shot with them (see above), I put one in the pigeon-hole of each and every teacher and teaching assistant in the school, plus the caretakers.  This morning, someone asked me if I had put them there.  I deflected the question saying, "I found mine in there last night and ate it on the way home."  In the staffroom, I similarly avoided similar questions and had to tell one blatant lie.  They assumed at first it was the head and deputy but when I saw the deputy in the staffroom as they were speaking, I presume they found out it wasn't.  It was really nice and fun to see the confused but pleased reaction without them knowing it was me.

Also, I had punched a whole load of funky foam hearts in lines and turned these into cute, simple bookmarks with some more hanging-tag ribbons.  I laid them out on the desk by the door to the music room and when I had a class, if someone admired them, I gave them one of the bookmarks.  I did the same for a few classes and then gave the rest to my Music Makers after school. It was quite sweet. Something that took me literally about 1 minute to make each one and they really liked them.


It wouldn't be a blogging Valentine without the customary, Valentines day outfit shot.  So I wore a bright red Pop Boutique sailor dress with a Primark heart cardigan and navy flower print tights.  I wanted a pair of red heart earrings, so I simply punched two red hearts (mentioned in the bookmark thing) and stuck a tiny pair of red studs through them to attach them to my ears.

Hearts, red AND florals- Clique or what!!?!?!


And finally, CBC and I made each other cards:
His is the pink one - he changed the words of a beautiful folk song by Luciano Berio from Black to 'brown, brown, brown, is the colour of my true love's hair'.  Simple but gorgeously executed!

Mine is the black one.  I 3d-decoupaged 3 hearts, hand-cut from a music Score (the one used for all my wedding thank you cards) and added some outline stickers at the edges and a greeting.  I always like to make sure my Valentines don't conform to the standard colours!!

After school, we headed home.  CBC had been to Waitrose and bought tuna steaks, veg and a jelly (the dine in for 2 menu) with chocolates and wine (and had also bought me chocolates despite me saying no flowers or chocolates please, just a card! Nice though).  We ate dinner and CBC promptly fell asleep on the rug. Hence why I am writing. Sigh.
Happy Valentines Day people!

xxx

Linking with Claire Justine's Creative Monday