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. 

 

The rainbow dress strikes back!

Hello there!

Before I start waffling, here's some music for you to listen to. I've not heard this piece by the English Composer, Gustav Holst (he of the Planets!) before but I was delighted by the opening music between viola and flute.

The term has ended and the last week went well.

The school concert went really well without too many mishaps and most of the children and their parents turned up. We started 15minutes late so it overran but I was really proud of how well the children performed.   

One delightful thing that occurred was that I applied for a scholarship for one of my year 5 boys who we have been partly funding for flute lessons this year. He has really taken to it and worked hard and I wanted to ensure that he would be able to carry on after he left me so I applied to the London Music Fund and to my delight, he was selected to receive funding for lessons for 4 years.  Such an opportunity for him!

I bought the children involved in the concert choc-ices (the only ice-cream/lolly product which comes in no plastic packaging!)  to say thank you for their hard work and I was delighted with the serendipity that I had bought just enough for everyone AND enough to give one also to the children who had helped out and done extra jobs like putting away my singing assembly things each week and for tidying up the music room.

At the weekend, CBC and I went to camp in Snowdonia for the weekend.  I had a stinking cold but had a gorgeous time and will share some photos soon.

I bade a sad goodbye to CBC this evening as he drove off to Portsmouth to catch the overnight ferry to France.  We are to be parted for 2 weeks as we do different things - he is a checkpoint monitor for the Transcontinental Cycling Race and I am to go to music camp.

Enough waffling, I found some photos from last Summer (on my lost camera which turned up- it was in the walking rucksack!!!) of when I styled the Madras check dress in yet another way.

Let's have a look:

I wore the dress with its V-beck crossover side which I rarely wear as I prefer the straight one but I wore it the other way round here.

I added my pink Peri top underneath with a matching pink rose in my hair and a pink belt.

I added my red polka dot skirt underneath to give an extra layer of pattern to the dress

I decided to hoik up the hem of the dress on one side to see if that gave another dimension to this.

I am not 100% sure I liked this outfit totally but certainly it was different from how I've worn it on other occasions!

Plus my George @Asda blue and gold velvet pumps!

I've been practicing for our flute recital on Friday

Very excited as we've practised lots! I HOPE people come to watch especially as my friend Tony is coming from Kent as we are performing his beautiful arrangement of Debussy Petite suite for two flutes and piano for the first time.

x

 

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

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

My 2 Totnes cardigans

Remember back in August, I shared a post showing what I bought on my Cornish holiday. This included 2 vintage cardigans from Totnes market.

I've been really enamoured with them and really glad I  bought them- both have already had a lot of use. I have been throwing one on each night when I get home and wearing them over whatever I have been wearing at the weekends.

Since both got worn this weekend, I thought I'd share them.

Outfit 1, worn on Saturday:

The whole outfit, bar my hat is second hand.

The Tam O'Shanter hat is Isle of Skye tartan bought on Kirkwall in the Orkneys in Summer 2016 on my cruise with Mum.

The blue top was Zara (Charity Shop), Indian skirt (CS),  Vegan blue Dr Martens (Insta 2nd hand sale), cardigan (Totnes vintage market stall) and finally the gorgeous black sheepskin (?) gilet/waistcoat (CS)- I'm not sure if the gilet is Toscana sheepskin or it is fake as it is reversible so there's no washing indication but it cost £15 in the charity shop so I'm wondering if it is genuine- it is exquisitely soft and fine and keeps me so warm. I can't tell from the smell- anyone got any ideas how I can tell apart from setting fire to a bit of it to see how it burns???  If it's real, I got an ABSOLUTE bargain- if it's synthetic, I was conned!

Saturday morning I was SO CROSS. I went to bed at around half midnight and was exhausted, having not had as much sleep as I needed this week. What time did I wake up? 5am!!!!! WHY???? I lay awake for hours until I gave up and got up around 7.40am to go downstairs to do the washing up and make tea.   After various bits of tidying and pottering, emptying the compost etc, I went to shower and CBC and I made porridge.   I then carried on with some sorting as well as a bit of reading and then decided to do my Summer/Winter wardrobe changeover. I keep the out of season clothes in 2 enormous (I mean ENORMOUS) suitcases kept in my Spare room wardrobe.  The switchover took a couple of hours and also involved some sorting and culling- managed to cull about 20-25 items- I find this hard- I like the things I own but I also like the new things.  I decided to cull some things that a) I didn't wear so much including a gorgeous Monsoon sequinned circle skirt and clothes which I find I don't enjoy wearing so much e.g. if they are too tight around the armpits, synthetic, make me sweat or I don't like the fabric so much. I have realised in recent years, I am quite hypersensitive to materials and how things fit or feel (Ha, my stepmum could have told me this - she still has nightmares about me and, quote- "That wretched white cardigan!" that I was always trying to get out of!).  However, often, I don't realise what something will feel like or how I will fear, until I've worn it for a day, or a couple of times.

I was still working on this but CBC and I decided to go out and get some lunch. We headed to one of our numerous local garden centres.  This one has a newly expanded restaurant which has been shown as being really popular. We've tried to go before but the queue was epic and the restaurant was full. Luckily, as we were going close to the end of serving, we got a table easily.  I ordered a breaded chicken escalope with garlicky chard and potatoes and CBC a butternut squash risotto.  We ordered hot chocolate and chocolate milkshake respectively. Mine was delicious although the chard wasn't super garlicky and could have been more plentiful (I'm a huge garlic AND chard fan!). CBC's was tasty but smaller than he would liked. Whilst waiting and eating, we played Qwirkle. I bought this game back in July after having bought it for my sister for her birthday and LOVING it.  CBC is always willing to play it which is an absolute bonus as usually, he's not so up for playing so many games with me!  I bought it from Mr Wolf Hexham as it was recommended to me by the WONDERFUL Mrs Wolf who I am very friendly with when I go to visit.  I have subsequently bought it from her repeatedly (SUPPORT SMALL BUSINESSES not BIG BUSINESSES!) via my Mother In Law when she visits or gifts- it comes in a handy little pouch so it fits in a handbag easily- it has been on every holiday with us subsequently and my Taiwanese friend LOVED it and kept asking to play in on holiday which I adored as I will play a game at any time, any place). 

It was quite a tense game and the final score was

197 a piece! YES, we tied for the first time ever!

We had a quick look round the garden centre- I was tempted by some LARGE Jingle Bell garlands- they clanked like cowbells- but at £28, I decided to forgo it- would have loved them for the music room!  The garden centre is stocking Field and Fare freezer products which are unpackaged so you can bring your own container for them.  We bought some fishcakes and Chicken Kiev, frozen fish.

Back home, I sat down at the piano and FINALLY got started on my Christmas song/carol- well, I got the first chorus lyrics and melody written and the accompaniment worked out, just need to work out the verses- CBC was pitying the neighbours as there was a lot of stopping/starting and repeating the same chord over and over again as I tried things out.  To ensure neighbourly relations are peaceful, I left it there and  continued with the wardrobe changeover c;earup and sorting and later, we had some Thai food whilst watching Outer Banks on Netflix.

This morning, I got out of bed at 8.57....church starts at 9.15am.  I was at church by 9.17am having cycled!  

The service was a really beautiful service and Steph who led the sermon gave such a powerful sermon.

My main two takehomes from this were:  We take each day as it comes.  In the Lord's prayer, we ask for our daily bread, not our weekly bread and we must react to God's placement  of us. Trying not to worry about next week doesn't mean the same as not being prepared for what is coming.  Also, revisiting the past and imagining different outcomes or choices can be a form of self-harm - I needed to hear that as I often end up thinking about what I should have/would have/could have done.

Had lovely chats to friends after the service, including my lovely neighbour Morris who is 97.  I took him round some Lily O'Brien chocolates 2 weeks ago as he was unwell and able to attend church and he was so grateful and said he'd never had chocolates like them before.

I came home and got started on the washing up from last night (yes, I am a slattern..) whilst listening to a lovely Radio 3 programme with Rupert Everett and his Desert Island discs  and then decided to do some sorting through the cupboards and try to get rid of some out of date baking ingredients and try and rationalise the chaotic pantry.  It's a bit better.  Chucked a few things to compost and also packed a few things for school as flour can be used for Playdough and 15 year old mung beans and aduki beans can be used to make shakers.  I then made a pot of tea and crumpets.  Next I rehoovered the floor and then washed the kitchen, utility room and hallways (they really, really needed it) as well as getting on my hands and knees scrubbing stains with sodium bicarb and an old toothbrush. I  folded up clean washing and put it away and then hoovered the living room whilst imprisoned by drying floor and polished the piano and repositioned the house plants.   CBC came home from cycling and thankfully, the floors were almost dry and he was careful (usually, he tells me not to be a drama queen when I freak out when he walks in and makes a mess).  I washed the upstairs bathroom floors and then hoovered the dry floors to pick up the extra bits that were revealed by washing and hoovered the bedroom.

I then went into the garden and pulled out the remaining tomato plants and bean plants, weeded the raised bed, pulled out the canes, raked leaves and put them onto the raised bed to mulch (wish I'd gone to collect more oak leaves from the field behind our house as there weren't enough to cover the bed...I will then put compost on top and then maybe put cardboard on top- if CBC doesn't moan - he has Opinions about things like this looking messy (even if the advice came from an expert) -picked the last pepper. I then came in and ate some brie, chutney and crackers and sang some songs and played piccolo and piano with CBC for some carols and then went to practice my piccolo for my orchestra rehearsal tomorrow (poor neighbours).  A bit more tidying and then finally, the house was looking calm and more ordered. I have found it really hard to function as the house has felt and looked so dirty and messy and I feel soothed by having done all this cleaning and sorting, even if I haven't 'rested so much

Ah, what was I wearing? Well, the OTHER Totnes cardigan of course! You read the post title right?

This is the gorgeous Alpaca Stained glass pattern one.  My bassoon-playing friend, who owns alpacas and is an alpaca wool geek, told me that this jumper probably retailed at around £400 so I got an absolute bargain for my £35 shell out.  The white top underneath was charity-shopped.  My burgundy cashmere shawl was from H&M about 14 years ago and is one of my top winter favourites.  I have always said I prefer Summer and its sartorial choices but actually, I ADORE my winter favourites and look forward to wearing them.

My black trousers are from Seasalt, bought from their EBay outlet in the Summer after my cycling accident ripped my favourite black trousers (Ang, I just haven't sent them yet!!! I just need to get everything to the post office!) - they are super comfortable and thick material. Finally, I wore my Leggero Gortex and leather boots. I bought these in October 2020 and have worn them through thick and thin, 4 winters and they are still going strong. I paid £160 which is the most I have ever paid for a pair of boots/shoes/garment but I think the cost per wear is probably in pence now as I have worn them so much. What will I do when they wear out? (which they show no signs of doing)

It's now Sunday evening and I am finally doing school work (oops,should have done before now)  before we will eat Thai left overs, but I am feeling satisfied with my weekend endeavours.

 

I hope all is well with you.

xx

 

TARDIS Tuesday - Peri Brown, Planet of fire!

Hello there!

With a week's break from TARDIS Tuesday, I am returning with a Summer favourite from Peri Brown, 80's companion!

It featured in back to back serials- Planet of Fire and The Caves of Androzani!

Last worn in May 2023, this will be its 4th outing on the blog!

Let's look at the outfit:

https://medium.com/doctorwhomarathon/day-316-november-12th-2021-13a9408ff41b

https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/sci-fi/doctor-who-my-life-as-a-fan-part-3/

It features pink high-waisted shorts, a white/rainbowy checked shirt with white pumps and a pink bikini top.

Today's version looks much better than last time, possibly due to smiling even though the garments are identical to last time!

All the items I wore were charity-shopped over the years- pink 80's shorts, a Select rainbow pastel blouse, Rieker white pumps and then red bikini top!

 I think this is a pretty good match on this outfit and it doesn't look too costumey, unlike a lot of Peri's looks! Not quite as pink as my previous Peri outing!

Had a lovely day today (Monday) playing flute trios with my quartet (one member ill).  I reached the house of my friend via train and bus and it was an adventure getting the bus! 

Hope all is well with you!

xx

TARDIS Tuesday - Peri meets Clara!!!

Hi there!

It's time for another Summery TARDIS Tuesday!  I was planning to wear this outfit worn by Clara Oswald in Doctor Who, The Ultimate Guide.  I last wore it here for TARDIS Tuesday in September 2020

Image borowed from this Pinterest

The outfit is a beautiful oil-slick rainbowy dress from Yumi.  She wears it with a pair of black/white/yellow, colour block, T bar sandals from Dune, a pair of winged sunglasses and a straw hat.

It's a great summery outfit in many ways!

Here's my version:

I LOVE anything oil-slicky or rainbowy so this dress was one I was eager to find early on in my Clara phase! It was often available as a resell from other cosplayers at a high price but I waited until I found a muggle selling one for less than £10.  It was a bit twisted in this picture! Mental note to self- look in mirror before taking a photo.  It is SO much prettier in real life than it comes across in pictures!

I wore CBC's charity shopped genuine Panama for the photo (I bought it for him!) and a pair of sunglasses I bought in Greece.  I wore both of these last time I wore this outfit.  Finally, I added my Clarks T-bar leather shoes.  These are my standard concert shoes now- they were charity-shopped and are super comfy!

This is a great sunny day outfit BUT for the material it is made out of. Whilst it is breathable, it is synthetic so not convinced I would want to wear this out on a scorching sunny day though for an evening out, it would work!

However, as I was wearing the dress, admiring its lovely rainbowyness, I suddenly wondered if it would work as an alternative top for Peri's Two Doctors outfit, an outfit I interpreted around a month ago or so.

I knew it wouldn't take too much effort to locate the shorts and headband which were lying on my spare room floor and the shoes which are my garage shoes so I quickly tried to see if I could turn the dress into a top. Ta daaaaaaa!

All I did was roll the dress up and tuck it under the waistband and I undid the zip on the dress a bit. Admittedly it looks a bit chunky but I think some other Claras could try and do a Peri outfit using this dress too!

What do you think?  Does it work better than my previous interpretation of the top?

So here they are, side by side:

Which one do you prefer?

xx

The return of the Madrass Check Rainbow dress!

Hello!

Hope you are well! 

I've had a manic two weeks. Reports, Rehearsals, concerts, Cycle ride supporting and among that, attempting to feed CBC and I and attempt to be a regular human!

Tonight, I finished my reports! Hurrah! I can't believe we only have about 3 weeks left of school! It's gone so quickly and been so crazy.

Happy to have been asked to play flute for a concert of Mahler 5 with Orchestra of the City.  It's fun to add another of the London amateur orchestras to my metal list of the ones I have played with.  I should keep an actual list

School has been another disrupted week what with Eid (takes several days out), Year 6 transitions and then next week, 2 day of teacher strikes. Never have I been so behind with all my plans.

Someone stole my lunch from the fridge today at school! We had had a Year 6 breakfast last week and there were TONS of cheese rolls (like sausage rolls) left. I rescued some last week and put them in the fridge and then put the rest in the freezer. Defrosted 3 last night. They were in the fridge in my own personal glass dish.  They were there at 8.05am when I went into the staff room). By 12.30, they had vanished and my glass dish was in the dishwasher, clean. Bizarre and very irritating!

Cooked a very weird combination of food tonight for CBC and I. He was very sceptical but declared, "I'm really enjoying this! It's a surprisingly good combination. I really thought it wouldn't work!"

It was 'Macaroni cheese pasta bake (posh Lidl ready meal in foil), home grown kale, Roasted turnips, onion scapes and aubergines!

You should know that I have cracked out the rainbow dress again. It is one of my favourite ever charity shop purchases and I wore it in a new combination.

Blue butterfly jewellery.

Mini Primark cardigan

The rainbow dress worn backwards

Charity-shopped Rieker white lattice shoes.

I always know Summer has properly arrived when the dress makes its debut!

I do love Summer- I LOVE my Summer wardrobe!

Hope you are well!

xxx

TARDIS Tuesday- Peri Brown- The Two Doctors Closet challenge

I've come to realise that the majority of my blog friends and readers are perhaps not so interested in my TARDIS Tuesday posts these days as in general, the comments are so much more plentiful on all my other posts but these! This is a little sad but since I do these for my own enjoyment, it wouldn't stop me from posting them. Sometimes, I see people on Insta complain about engagement on their cosplay posts and say perhaps they wouldn't continue them, which to me, seems a shame, if it something you really enjoy!

Today, I thought I would put together another closet cosplay outfit, e.g. one where you haven't really bought anything specifically for that cosplay but rooted around in your wardrobe to find  garments or accessories which could do a good job.  I like this, as it's a fun way to look at your wardrobe and try things together that you might not have done before.

The inspiration today is another one worn by Classic Who Companion, Peri Brown, as  portrayed by Nicola Bryant in the 80's.  It was worn in multi-doctor episode, The Two Doctors which included Colin Baker AND Patrick Troughton as well as Jamie McCrimmon.

I think they may have filmed in Spain.

What did Peri wear?

Image borrowed from:
http://www.internationalhero.co.uk/p/peri.htm

She wore a pastel multicoloured patterned lame cropped top with a matching headband worn along the forehead- very 80's!

She teamed this top with turquoisey-blue high-waisted shorts, worn with a red belt, her curious yellow and red keyring/charm and some turquoise peep-toe shoes.

Now, I confess, that I wouldn't have considered attempting to do my own version of this outfit but for this post which the actress herself posted where she shared someone from a convention who had done their own version of it. Instead of a lame blouse, they wore a rainbow checked shirt, tied up and I suddenly realised, I had something similar and thus suitable which I could use for this outfit!

And when I thought about it, I realised that I had pretty much everything else I needed for the outfit. And this would be a good summer home and gardening outfit!

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Nicola Bryant (@thenicolabryant)

And, da naaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!! Here it is:

It was fairly easy to convert the shirt. I tucked in the collar so it was hidden and did up 2 of the buttons lower down and tied up and tucked in the rest of the shirt. I rolled up its sleeves too.

Next, I added this pair of vintage high-waisted shorts and added the tiny belt which came from a vintage dress I no longer have. I probably wouldn't wear my blouse tied up like this unless I had high-waisted shorts. I have realised that these are so much more suitable for my shape than modern low-waisted shorts which are too big for my waist if they fit my hips.  

I did contemplate adding a little photo keyring I had but instead, my eyes fell upon this yellow and pink personalised 'pencil' keyring I received as a present from a child at school last year. 

Ha! I thought it would be funny to recreate this photo I found on the internet of Peri expressing her heat-levels. Yet, it was like that this weekend here!

You can just about spy my turquoise pointy Croc shoes above. I didn't think I still had turquoise shoes until I went into the garage and put these on to get something. They are kept in my garage to put on when I go in there to avoid getting dirty-feet! I take these to music camp with my usually.

If you are thinking I forgot the headband, fear not! I suddenly remember this rainbow elastic-headband I bought from Claire's Accessories about 20 years ago!

It's a pity my hair isn't as short as it was but this is close enough for me.

And that's the whole outfit! I am super, super pleased with how I have managed to adapt this into something a bit more wearable than the slightly impractical lame original.

Like Peri's last outfit, 2 weeks ago, I will be wearing this one for work but again, adapted so the shirt is tucked in and the collar and buttons worn a bit more demurely.

How would you have reinterpreted the rainbow lame top if you were putting this outfit together? I'd love to know!

xx

Granny squared!

Greetings!  Ahrgh, 2 days back at school feels like a week!!! Mainly because there were train strikes on both days meaning I got to school at 9.30am and 9.00am respectively! Wasn't a good start to term having no time to get ready! That said, it wasn't too bad (except a year 2 lesson being observed by a student teacher. Went terribly- kids half asleep and annoying).    Lesson were fine and I had a nice first session of choir. We are preparing for our concert at the Royal Albert Hall and I thought I had 26 children but I've had a spate of late admissions so I am up to 32 now and they are sweet and enthusiastic. We started learning a really cute song in the style of Mozart called 'Alla Carte' which is a round.  As I was walking down the corridor on Friday afternoon, my favourite class (14 of whom are in choir...) were all getting their stuff. One of the girls was standing in the door way and I tapped her on the shoulder and sang, "Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart..."- to which, without missing a beat, she replied, "Had a lovely little Go-Kart!" whilst grinning at me! It was funny!

Here's an outfit to go with the waffle (and a glamorous shot of my dressing gowns hanging up)

I hadn't paired together this assortment of items before so I thought it was worthy of a blogshare.

You've seen the skirt before, just before Christmas- Indian vintage skirt from the charity shop- decided to do a Vix and wear my Summer skirts with thick things underneath. I wore it with a black Primark ribbed turtle neck and a fairly new purchase- a second hand crocheted Granny Square waistcoat from from Depop. I have been after one for a while but only wanted second-hand and very fussy over colours. It's lovely and cosy and great to add as an extra layer over a jumper or dress.

 It needed some fun coloured accessories so I wore my Nickat Sequin necklace and my Lorelai LQ bubble-envelope heart earrings (all her earrings are made out of repurposed plastics and materials and her site currently has 20% with a code HAPPY2023- she's currently having worries about paying her tax bill from last year so if you fancy some fun eco-friendly, colourful earrings, go and have a look- they are wonderfully light!).

I've achieved very little today- not really sure where the day has gone- disaster!!! So much work to do!

Hope that all is well with you all!

xx

A sign of peace

Rainbows are so special! The excitement you see when one appears in the sky is a joy!

Last Saturday, CBC and I were in Billericay to go for dinner. He was driving in from a rehearsal and I had gone via train to have a quick peruse of the charity shopw. As I headed towards the restaurant, I got caught in rain.  

I dipped into Poundland to escape the rain.

When I emerged, I saw a rainbow emerging across the sky.

As I walked down the High Street, the rainbow became more and more intense.

 The wonderful thing was, all the people walking towards me had NO idea what beauty was behind them.

It was therefore up to me, to enlighten them.

To each and every person who came towards me, I said, "Have you seen the rainbow?"

And in each and every case, I had the glorious joy of seeing them turn round and gasp at how bright and intense it was.

Every single individual was overjoyed and stopped for a moment to gaze in awe and smile.

And I got to share that joy because I'd shown them the rainbow!

Of course, it can never be captured in a photo well enough.

I think this picture was my best one, of the bow over St Mary's church.

There was a secondary bow which was harder to capture.

This final picture was one that CBC took at the other end of the High Street. He managed to get a photo without any traffic!

Sometimes you don't see the rainbow in your gloomy sky because you don't see it...until someone takes the time to show you what was behind you all along.

I hope someone points out a metaphorical rainbow out to you this week...or that you can show someone that rainbow too!

xx