TARDIS Tuesday- The 13th Doctor

Today for TARDIS Tuesday, I'm returning to Jodie Whittaker's debut 13th Doctor outfit. 

I've decided with this one that I'd prefer to be more comfortable than accurate so I've swapped from my more accurate trousers to these culottes which I purchased in Think Twice in Antwerp. 

I looked a mess here but that's fine, it's Summer!!! 

I'm back from 10 days at my music camp which was glorious! More anon. 

 

TARDIS Tuesday- Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS

It's been quite a few weeks since I partook in a TARDIS Tuesday post. I've been so busy and the weather has not made it easy to choose one of the outfits but today, I am returning to a favourite Clara outfit worn in Series 7 by Jenna Coleman. Last worn on the blog in July 2022

IMage borrowed from this Pinterest

The print on this dress is of sequins but looks like flames, molten lava and all sorts from a distance!

 I love this collar dress and it will probably remain my 2nd favourite Clara outfit apart from her tartan Hobbs dress.  It looks very creased here! Ooops!  

I've worn this as my Christmas dress for quite a few Christmasses but never out to a Summer engagement due to the synthetic nature of the material.

xx

The Rainbow dress worn sideways!

You always know it's Summer when my rainbow dress gets an outing!  It likes to be a chameleon, cropping up in outfits in new and different combinations!

It was on Sunday, that I suddenly had a thought.

Could I turn the dress sideways, get my head through one of the shoulder straps- could I make it into a halter-neck dress?

After a little experimenting, and one moment of panic, I discovered...

Yes I could!

I discovered, that I could get my head into the hole. Although the pattern matching at the seam isn't great, it still worked!

At the back, I tucked in the other strap so it had a slightly lower back.

As it is a circle skirt, I suddenly thought about adding a tulle petticoat underneath to give it a bit of body and to puff it out.  I added my TARDIS blue one!

A black belt to cinch the waist.  Perhaps a blue one would have been better but I only have turquoise, not electric blue.

I decided to pin my hair up with a flower clip from Bali.

Here's a side view.

I decided to wear my TARDIS blue floral Irregular Choice pumps to go with the tulle petticoat.

What do you think of this new take on the dress?

Do you have any other suggestions for this dress styling?

xx

The Madras rainbow checked dress as suggested by Polyester Princess

 dfdfd

I have worn my rainbow dress again. In case you have missed it. I bought this Madras rainbow-check St Michael's dress in a charity shop about 15 years ago and have never worn it the same way on this blog here every time it has featured- in fact, it has always been my goal to find more ways to wear this versatile dress. Last month, I wore it with a a white logo t-shirt here and I challenged people to give me ideas of how to wear it.

This time, I decided to use Ann's idea for how to style it:

2. 
   Polyester Princess6:44 pm

   Your Madras rainbow checked dress is gorgeous so I'm not surprised it's still going strong after 16 years. I love how you styled it as a skirt here and I'm looking forward to see you styling it as a top. Perhaps paired with your sailing boat skirt and stretchy belt?
   Your Mum's finished cardigan is absolutely fabulous! xxx

   ReplyDelete

I don't think I've ever worn it as a top on here so this one appealed to me:

Here's my take on it:

Here I am just after my shower.  As requested by Ann, I wore the dress as a top. I wore it with the round neck side and then tucked it into the lovely boat skirt which Ann gave me as a present. As it is quite high-waisted, it worked well with the dress and the length was perfect to hide the skirt!

I added my ancient silver Rieker sandals and added my Croatian Watermelon earrings and a Past Times ivy leaf pewter necklace which was a present from my Godmother (who came round last night!) 

Later, when I went to the library and to drop off soft plastics to the Coop, I remembered to add a stretchy belt- this grey lacy Primark one and a grey Primark cardigan (both ancient) to match to my silver/grey sandals.

I quite liked this combination but I do miss seeing the pretty circle skirt!

Stay tuned for later this week as I had a brainwave about how I could wear it in a different way the next day!

Annoyingly, I was awake around 6am as CBC had to leave early for DoE but hadn't packed and hadn't set an alarm.  Somehow, I woke up and warned him. He then raged around the bedroom trying to find things! By the time he left, I was thoroughly awake.  I got up to make myself tea, read some of my book by Jiri Weil, Mendelssohn is on the roof, and went to water the garden.  

It was delightfully overcast so I ate my breakfast and drank tea whilst I read my Bible readings for the day on the swing seat.  

After having a shower, I did some stuff, ate left-over Thai food and then cycled to town to go to the library to order the new Hunger Games book. I had a quick look in the charity shop where I bought a lovely Fatface cardigan for my Mother in Law and bought myself a khaki green crocheted crop top. I cycled to the Coop to drop off a load of soft plastics.  I bought 2 reduced Broccolis, a Viennetta (classic 80's dessert) and also some Choux pastries for my guests.

I then set to work doing some cleaning and tidying.  We've had a bit of an ant problem for the last week and a half and I was determined to thwart them. Mum arrived mid-clean and  I cleaned the kitchen floor.  We then put some Cayenne Pepper onto the top of where we suspected a nest was.  To my delight, since this time, we have not seen any ants!!! I am hoping and praying that is it!

My Godmother and daughter arrived around 7pm.  We chatted, ate some snacks and had some refreshments and then I ordered a Chinese. Maria and I went to pick it up and we came back. Had a lovely time with them- lots of laughs!  They all went around 10pm.

This morning, I woke up for church, actually earlier than my alarm so it wasn't the usual last minute dash!  We had a visitor from Tearfund and I really enjoyed his sermon which was brilliant.

 I came back home and had a phone call to my dad.  I then went into the garden and did some pruning and cutting back on my roses, Viburnam, Acanthus and then sorted some washing.  I then spent some time putting clothes away in the bedroom and hoovering. I also had long phone calls to my Mother in Law and my sister. 

This week is another busy one!  I have 3 performances at school in the playground, involving 180 children at a time, Exhibition evening at school, a flute trio rehearsal, a Big band barbecue, an orchestra rehearsal, a Gamelan rehearsal AND an orchestra concert- all in 5 days! 

Hope all is well with you!

x

P.S.

I found two more posts where I wore the dress in different ways:

September 2021 with a turquoise cardigan

August 2021 as a mini dress.

The remix post - can't seem to resurrect the photos that don't work- sad!

With butterfly styling

A day in Aldeburgh

Hello!!

Last weekend, CBC and I had no particular plans and we suddenly realised that the Aldeburgh festival was on!  In its 76th year, this music festival in the Suffolk seaside town was founded by great British composer, Benjamin Britten and his partner Peter Pears (pronounced Peers).  CBC and I have been to various events for this over the years. He introduced me to it fairly early in our relationship as he was a Hess student when he was young- these students spend time in Aldeburgh stewarding for it and get to stay with local families.

We decided to try and get tickets for the Sunday events.

The timing was perfect as I had JUST started my final Year 4 music unit of the year on Benjamin Britten's Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra 3 days earlier so I was very much in the mood to go to Aldeburgh!

We left home around 8.45am to drive to Suffolk and arrived just in time for the 10.30am Festival service at St Peter's and St Paul's church 

The service received a sermon from the Rt Rev’d Joanne Grenfell, Bishop of Stepneyand the  Britten Pears Chamber Choir was singing, conducted by James Davyand with Francesca Massey organ.  The service was lovely with music by composer of the festival,  Helen Grime: her Missa Brevis and a piece by Daniel Kidane: Christus factus est.  CBC's old colleague and friend L was singing in the choir as she had moved to Suffolk and it was lovely to see her.

I loved the beautiful Benjamin Britten memorial window by John Piper.  Britten had developed a new type of opera which he gave the name 'parables for church performance.  Three of these were named Curlew River, The Burning Fiery Furnace and The Prodigal son and all of these are evoked in some way in this beautiful window. 

 After the service we headed to Aldeburgh high street for a spot of lunch.  I queued in the epic fish and chip shop queue whilst CBC went to find some coffee and have a mooch around.

After 30mins, I reached the front of the queue and bought CBC a portion of chips (he'd acquired a toastie) and for myself, a Child-sized portion of Fish and chips plus a small battered sausage. 

I met CBC on the beach to eat.

The fish and chips, cooked in Beef dripping, was delicious and my portion was just the right size!

I went dressed for the seaside:

I bought this gingham sailor top in Primark last month. I never shop in there now but I saw this on Instagram and knew a 100% cotton sailor top in Gingham was something I had to see!

The skirt is from Fatface via a charity shop plus my Seasalt sandals from Depop a good 6 years ago or so.

The sea changed colour in the space of 2 minutes when the sun came out:

We enjoyed our lunch and witnessed a fly-by theft from a Seagull who stole a child's battered sausage.  It also tried to steal mine- I suddenly noticed it hovering inches from my hand.

As CBC ate his Tiramisu cake, I had a paddle! It was refreshing but the sloping shingle was hard to stand upright on as I tried to hold my skirt!

We had to hotfoot it back to the car, parked past the church (via a charity shop where CBC bought an old print of a lovely John Singer Sargeant painting) and drove to Snape Maltings for our next musical performance.   This was held in the Britten studio at 2pm.  We crept in late in the complete dark, accidentally bumping into our friend L who was a steward for it!

The concert was a performance by Fu and Betts-Dean: The programme was entitled Solitude with Schubert Lotte Betts-Dean,  mezzo-soprano and George Xiaoyuan Fu on  piano.  It began with a film called Solitude With Schubert (first screening) by Matilda Hay filmmaker. The pieces were Schubert: Einsamkeit, D.620 (17’) Schubert: Schwanengesang, D.957 (selection) (15’) Schubert: Piano Sonata No.21 in B flat, D.960 (40’).  It was wonderful!!! The programme explored how grief mingles with consolation, combined with a film exploring the loss of a loved one. 

After this, we headed out for a walk to Snape Warren across the beautiful boardwalks.

After a glorious walk, we headed into the maltings for a light dinner.

I changed into my evening concert outfit of this Monsoon cotton dress, bought from a charity shop in Hexham.

Funnily enough, I saw my friend from Gamelan who was there to watch the same concert as us by coincidence.  Last time I came to watch an Aldeburgh concert, I saw ANOTHER Gamelan friend!

Amusingly, when we entered the Maltings hall, it turned out out of 1000 seats, we had ended up seated next to each other by total coincidence!!

the concert was entitled Nocturne and Folk, performed by the Knussen Chamber Orchestra.

The solists were  Claire Booth, soprano  and Allan Clayton, tenor.  Ryan Wigglesworth was the the conductor.  The programme was Britten: Suite on English Folk Tunes, ‘A time there was ...’, Op.90 , Helen Grime: Folk (Britten Pears Arts co-commission),  Britten: Nocturne, Op.60, and Beethoven: Symphony No.8 in F, Op.9. I adore Britten's music and I loved the two pieces we heard, both new to me.  The piece by Helen Grimes, a major new commission with soloist Claire Booth, was really intriguing with some very evocative lyrics and musical crafting.

We'd had a fantastic day and it just remained to drive back to  Essex. I helped CBC mark some test papers as he drove (I read the answers and told me if they were right or not!) 

I very much recommend a day in Aldeburgh and a visit to the Maltings, ideally a concert!

xx

#TARDISTUESDAY The Snowmen and the Polka Dots

 Hello! 

It's been less than a year since I shared this TARDIS Tuesday inspiration but I have a little change to it.

It's an outfit worn by Clara Oswald (Jenna Coleman) in Doctor Who Christmas special, The Snowmen, right at the end.

It features a black silk, polka-dot blouse from Jigsaw, a pair of navy shorts from Whistles, a brown belt and a red satchel

https://www.facebook.com/ClaraOswaldCosplay/photos/the-snowmen-modern-outfit-jigsaw-bib-tab-shirt-in-blackwhistles-mim-tencel-short/146884895501986/ 

I changed out of my work outfit tonight to wear this cooler outfit. I'd also worn it on Saturday before going out to dinner but didn't get around to photographing it then.

I acquired the screen-accurate silk blouse from Jigsaw via Vinted a little while back for the princely sum of £5 and was very pleased for the cost for this soft silk blouse.

I seem to have lost my camera (actually very perplexed as I now keep losing things from my handbag. Lost my purse also...) so had to try and use my phone propped up against a watering-can. Not the best quality photos.  

I am looking forward to pairing this blouse with red- I think it will work very well against a nice scarlet-shade!

I was grateful not to have any special evening plans this evening, was planning to get my reports done but what with getting dinner ready, making lunches, doing the washing up, the thought of starting them was pretty grim...so I quickly wrote this post.  I had one orchestra last night and have another tomorrow night and I have developed a cough/sore throat/lost voice. Grrr.

Bit premature, but here is my poem for this week's prompt word which was 'Puzzle'.  I've always been rather perplexed by the name, Monkey Puzzle Tree. There was a fine example of this Chilean tree in an a road close to my childhood home and I was always rather mesmerized by it, as well as intrigued by its name.

I'm quite proud of myself that I have managed to prepare myself a mixed fruit breakfast for the past 3 weeks to eat on the train on the way to school. More often than not, I don't manage breakfast, so managing to stick to this has been great! 

One wonderful contributor has been the cherry tree in the carpark adjacent to some flats on the way home from the station.  I noticed it littering the pavement with cherries 2 summers ago, it seems NO ONE picks them, what a waste, and investigated picking some for the past 2 years.  This year was a bumper crop and I've been solidly picking them for two weeks and eating at least 12 a day, along with cherries, strawberries (now homegrown, 30 picked today, but also some from a colleague who was going to chuck them out but offered them to me first as she knows I'd be annoyed if she were just chucking them because she didn't want to take them home...along with a cucumber), grapes, plums, and, for the past two days, melon.  I forgot today and I really missed it so I made sure to get it ready tonight, for tomorrow, along with a healthy salad for my lunch! Hurrah!

Hope all is well with you!

x

Eyes on you

CBC was away at DoE Silver Expedition from Saturday to Monday. I was awoken around 5am by him frantically scouring the house for his belongings to pack and as he kissed me goodbye at 6.50am, I asked him if he'd made himself lunch. He hadn't so there I was at 6.51am, running downstairs in my nightie to make him sandwiches and salad.

I then spent the next few hours until 3pm tidying and cleaning our very messy house and doing washing.  At 3pm, having quickly packed, I walked to the station and made my way to Kent to stay at my Dad's house.  He picked me up from Ebbsfleet and I discovered my sister had sent him along with a cup of tea in an insulated cup to drink on the journey back to their home.  What a nice surprise! Dad and I ate some crisps in the car and made our way over there.   After some chat, we had a lovely Dine in Meal from the Three Sisters restaurant at Chart Farm which was amazing!  After dinner, my sister and I played a game of Qwirkle.  We got to a very exciting moment where we realised someone could score 31 points in one go and annoyingly, I had 2 of the three pieces needed for this when she got the piece I needed!  Luckily, we both like a visually pleasing Qwirkle board so we agreed to a few movements to make it look pleasing!

We went off to bed and woke around 9am. 

My little sister has a real way with describing garments.  As in, she makes them sound hideous. I am always really sceptical when she describes a new item she has bought to me and when I finally see it, it's usually very nice!  So, when I was describing to her what I was going to wear for the birthday barbecue, I asked her if I should try and describe it to her in her style. She was highly amused and told me to go ahead. 

"Well, it's a jumpsuit that kind of has really baggy legs.  It's coloured in bright coloured splotches all over it and it's also got weird eyes and suns on it."

Here's what I wore for the family barbecue.  I have loved this jumpsuit from Emily and Fin for ages and when Emily and Fin recently stopped trading, I was really sad as I really like their clothes so when I saw this on Vinted for £14, I grabbed it whilst I could.  My sister was wearing a cardigan that day that really matched it, so I stole it to wear!

This is the cardie I was really wearing!

My older sister, husband and my niece joined us around 12am and we ate lots of delicious food. Of course, we had a game of Qwirkle.  It was a really pleasing game with everyone playing nicely and aiming for fat chunks of tiles! There were numerous Qwirkles.  There was a hilarious moment where there were two positions to get double Qwirkles in one go.  My younger sister got one and then, everyone was waiting for the Yellow cross tile to complete the other one. 

It was hilarious because my sister's boyfriend placed his tile and got it to the utter frustration of my niece and older sister whose turns were next WHO HAD ALSO PICKED OUT A YELLOW CROSS!  It was hilarious! I came second place by 4 points!

My sister drove me back and I ended up finishing the cleaning by washing the tiled floors!  

Monday, I had a good day at school and had a lovely surprise when I went back to the music room with my Drumming Club as 3 of my old Sad Frog crew, T, T and A were waiting there to see me!  Hilariously, A wrote a message on my board like she used to.

Today, school was also a good day teaching the Year 3's about Reggae.

After school, I came back to the Music room and there were my girls again.  I had no club and they weren't in a hurry so they stayed for 20minutes for a chat before going home! It was so, so lovely to see them and they filled me in on all the gossip from Secondary School.  I feel so honoured that they still want to come and see me this time of year. Usually, they become too school for school!

I had my hair cut in Hexham in the half term and the hairdresser had styled it really nicely and my younger sister kindly styled it for me again!  She always used to love doing my hair from a young age and she still likes doing it!

Here's a picture of my Great, Great Grandfather which my dad discovered and showed me when I was over there! He's from the English side of the family.  We had some interesting chats about my paternal family.  

For instance, I may have mentioned that my Grandmother was Greek.  What I now understand is that the family lived in Turkey in Istanbul when she was young but because of difficulties over Greek people being in Turkey at that time, essentially, they were sort of refugees who ended up in Egypt.  My Great Grandfather was a very respected Civil Engineer in Turkey before he left so he got work very easily in Egypt as did the rest of the family who all were scientists of sorts. I need to talk to my dad more about his family past as I found it very interesting!  Then lots of that side of the family moved to South America which I had no idea about!

I have an orchestra rehearsal tomorrow with Orchestra of the City who I haven't played with since last July (apart from covering a few rehearsals last October).

Hope you are well!

xx

Amazing Grace (the rainbow dress remix)

 It's Summer so it must mean the return of the Madras rainbow checked dress which I bought in a charity shop at least 16 years ago. I've always aimed to style it differently every time it features on me. Here's my last post  and here's the post where I shared 12 different ways I've worn it.  I have to point you in Ivana's direction as she is brilliant at sharing different ways she has worn certain garments and Sheila who loves a flashback to a garment she has worn in several ways

This time, I wore it as a Skirt with a t-shirt I bought at the Christian Resources exhibition around 20 years ago that says 'Amazing Grace on it.  The skirt worked well with it as it picks out all the colours of the flowers spelling the slogan. Added in my Lotus blue pumps.

I've worn this dress is several different ways but I realise I haven't just worn it like a top so that's my challenge next time I wear it on here!

Do you have any ideas for how I can style it?

Leave a comment below and I'll give it a ago!

I had a lovely time with my Mum today.

I got up for church which was lovely and then came home. I ate some breakfast and then I cycled to the station to get the train to Mum's.  I took over some camping stuff for my niece who is doing Duke of Edinburgh soon including my walking shoes!!   Mum made us some lovely lunch of Asparagus Soup (homegrown), then Seabass with salad and then fruit salad! It was delicious!  

She showed me her finished cardigan she made from a pattern I bought her. Isn't it lovely! 

We saw my niece briefly too. I came home and made some salads for our lunch this week and then made some yummy vegetable pasta for dinner.

Hope you are well.

X

VE day outfits

On VE day, we were invited to come to school dressed in either 1940's inspired outfits or the coluors of the Union flag.

I decided to go with the latter option

I started with the white blouse. It is one I charity shopped a year ago or so. I really like it but I don't know where it originally came from.

Next, I added the red skirt which is my Romana cosplay one- it was second hand.

Next was the blue Monsoon cardigan which I've had for a long time and my Clarks Funny Dream shoes from Vinted.

Add my red beret (Primark charity shopped) and this Collectif nautical necklace (which I ended up lending to our Assistant Head as she was wearing nautical trousers with star fish and lobsters on in these colours!) .

I loved the combo.

At playtime, I was on duty and ended up chatting to M, a lovely, quirky, individual.  I looked at her outfit and admired it.  I then looked at it again and said, "Actually, I HAVE this outfit at home! I could totally come to school tomorrow wearing this outfit!"

And so the next day, I came to school dressed in the outfit (the outfit above!).  I walked past her classroom on my way to the Staff room and the door was open. I hissed her name as her teacher did the register. She looked at me quizzically and I pointed at my outfit.  She looked puzzled at first and suddenly sheer delight and incredulity spread over her face. I waved and carried on with my journey.

At playtime later, I saw her and said, "What do you think!".  She was so sweet and said, "I AM HONOURED!!!"  Haha, it was funny to do this and I think it made her smile!

On the actual VE day, we had an all school, outdoor assembly with poetry reading and sang 3 songs I'd taught.  Of course, despite all my best laid plans, technology failed us and the boombox stalled on the backing tracks I had prepared.  Ah well, we persevered without them!

Hope all is well with you!

x