Lucky Lucky Lucky Me!

This dress was waiting for me when I went charity shopping last week. It wasn't hard to spot, a beacon of colour and grooviness in a sea of manky stretch jersey and feeble High Street prints that generally dominate the rails of chazzas up and down the land.

The previous owner had made some odd adjustments, opening up the side seams and adding a two inch strip of black polyester on each side and taking the hem up so much that it was midi length (fortunately she'd just sewn the hem and not chopped it off). It took the best part of a day to restore the maxi to her previous glory. The poor thing was so dusty that the colour looked completely different after a spin in the washing machine. 

SOURCE

Polly Peck was a small British fashion house which gained prominence in the Swinging Sixties with Sybil Zelker's bold designs on ground-breaking modern fabrics. The label was bought out by disgraced businessman, Asil Nadir in the 1980s and collapsed in 1991 with debts totalling £1.3bn. 

WEARING: Vintage 1960s Miss Polly for Polly Peck maxi (British Heart Foundation), Orange fedora (new, retail), Lamani coin belt worn as a necklace (India, 2000), Clarks' Orinoco Club boots and 1970s tooled leather bag (both eBay) 

 After finding a polo neck that perfectly matched my hat the previous week, what were the chances of finding a dress in the same shop seven days later!  I wonder what'll be waiting for me this week? People often tell me that I have great charity shop luck but the secret is to go regularly and with a clear head. Don't go with a wish list in mind, you'll see past the potential of everything else in the shop in your mission to accomplish wardrobe nirvana and more often than not miss some chazza shop gold. Do I need another vintage maxi dress? Of course not. I've probably got enough dresses to wear a different one every day for months but that's the rail I always peruse first. 

Talking of lucky, I thought I'd share my birthday presents. I have been spoilt.

This spoon and bangle were made from the bombs that devastated Laos between 1964 and 1973.  Something beautiful from something so ugly. 

Do you love Inspector Montalbano as much as I do? Here's the entire back catalogue of Luca Zingaretti's other work. I'll be fluent in Italian by the time I leave for India!

William de Morgan porn!

Did I ever mention my teenage love for Blondie? I have every piece of vinyl they ever issued. Looking forward to reading this.

I've been meaning to try some beeswax wraps for ages. I've got no excuse now.

 Yum! 

I'm a coffee table book! Thanks to lovely Lynn & Philip for creating this masterpiece!

Artisan made beachy necklaces from my favourite fair trade company.

 Jon managed to track down a vintage silk sari. I'll be taking this to a tailor in India, I have a plan!

A pewter ring stand ('Scuse the cat hair, it's an unavoidable evil in our house).

Ethnic textile heaven.

This bottle of Rosé will be coming to the curry house with me on Xmas Day (I know, aren't I restrained?) It did come accompanied by a box of baklava but that didn't last long enough for a photo!

I've heard great things about Snag tights, a British independent company who make tights in a variety of sizes and leg lengths. I'll let you know how I get on with them.

This ceramic jug should be full of blooming crocus by the Spring.

My birthday card from Curtise is a piece of original artwork from an arts project she supports. I've already framed it and hung it in the bathroom.

She also sent me the blue maxi skirt and the pansy print dress I'm wearing below.

Aren't I a lucky girl? All I need now is for Jon to finish the bathroom and I can use the shower for the first time in three years! Maybe there'll be news about the bathroom by my next post (or maybe we'll be running for the hills if the general election doesn't go our way tomorrow....arghhhh!)

See you soon.