I Heart My Sleeves

What with the wide-brimmed wool hat and showstopper of a vintage top worn over a jersey maxi, today's outfit is almost a complete rehash of last Thursday's but I like to keep it real. I've never dressed up especially for my blog - what you see is what you get, which, if you'd bumped into me in Wilko a couple of hours earlier, was exactly what you would have seen me wearing.

Our friends, G &T, have got my taste off to a tee. When we went round to theirs for dinner at the weekend they presented me with this incredible 1970s blouse. Would you look at those effing sleeves!!! 

I bought a couple of these stretch jersey maxis for traveling around India in at the beginning of the year. New from an UK-based Ebay seller, with postage they cost around £5 each (last of the big spenders, me!) and proved perfect on overnight sleeper trains or, with a long sleeved tunic over the top, modest enough for venturing away from the beaten track where a glimpse of my bare shoulder could have caused outrage. They survived being rinsed out nightly in the shower, retained their colour & shape and didn't need ironing - the ideal travel dress. I'd packed them away in my India suitcase but rediscovered them when I was putting away a bikini I'd recently bought. This week's weather has been typically schizophrenic, cold in the mornings but hitting the balmy heights of 20°C by lunchtime, and these boring dresses have come into their own, lightweight and perfect under my collection of outrageous vintage tops.

So what was I doing in Wilko*? My life is so damned glamorous! Well, in addition to the fabulously funky top, G & T also gave me a pile of vintage tea towels. As I've already got a drawerful, I turned half of them into tote bags - and managed to bust my last sewing machine needle in the process - hence the reason for an emergency dash into town.

*For non-Brits Wilkos is a family-owned, British high street chain that sells homewares & household goods.

They also gave us the epitome in hippy home furnishings, a macrame pot plant holder, now proudly displaying one of our spider plants (what else?) As you can see I blog in the old fashioned way, on a PC. I'm one of the 15% of adults left in the UK who doesn't own a smart phone and I'm proud to be in the minority.

I also came back from G&T's with a pile of paperback books which are always welcome. I'm a voracious reader - especially when it comes to Scandi chillers, crime novels, spy stories, political thrillers and tales set in Asia. I used to record what I'd read on Goodreads but I've let that fall by the wayside in recent years - I've got the memory of an elephant so I'll always recognise a book I've read. I get through between 20 to 25 books during my month in India and read nine during our trip to Greece (read on my e Reader which I only use when travelling, it seems wrong to use it at home) and I usually devour a couple of paperbacks a week over the rest of the year (unless it's sunny when I'll lie in the garden and read one per day). I rarely keep the books I've read, I donate them back to the charity shop when I'm done.

WEARING: Vintage Lurex chevron stripe blouse (present from friends); Stretch jersey maxi (eBay); Wide-brimmed hat (current H&M via charity shop); Banjara tribal coin belt (bought in India); Coin choker & bastard massive hoop earrings (Punjabi accessory shop)

I hope this weirdly warm weather continues 'cos I've just talked myself into ordering another of those dresses in rust. Oh well, it can always come to India with me if it decides to snow next week!

Linking to Patti & the gang for Visible Monday and Judith's Hat Attack.

See you soon.