Twixtmas

Forgive me friends, for I have sinned, it has been a week since I last blogged. After spending Winter Solstice at Chirk Castle the days have just flown by. Before getting stuck into hosting The Dead Relatives Society Xmas bash and the day of housework and prep it involved, we squeezed in some charity shopping.

Clockwise from top left: Psychedelic 1960s toiletry set; Gothic saloon girl cotton maxi dress by alternative label, Banned; Two Indigo Moon jackets with labels still attached; 1970s gents wool flares; 1970s gents sheepskin coat.

Clockwise from top left: St Michael wool maxi coat; 1970s Crimplene day dress; All Saints silk shirt dress; 1980s batik playsuit, made in Bali; 1980s midi dress; Another Indigo Moon jacket (someone must have had a huge clearout, we left another three behind); 1970s paisley print day dress.

Our Xmas Day get together was great fun. What were the chances of my cracker hat matching my dress perfectly? Talking of dresses, I wore my Dilli Grey birthday dress but didn't get time to pose in it for posterity, having to wear it again the following day so Jon could take a photo. I teamed it with some cranberry opaque tights bought new from eBay six years ago and my Clarks'/ V&A/ Liberty collab suede shoes. I did have luscious curls but after two bottles of rose wine and 12 hours of sleep, they were looking a little limp.

With the exception of the festive edition of The Great British Sewing Bee, we did as we always do and avoided Xmas TV like the plague. We watched the gentle British film, The Dig and the bloodbath that is Quentin Tarantino's The Hateful Eight which, in my opinion, is one of his finest - witty, stylish and utterly captivating. We continued with the superb cold war spy series, The Americans, leaving the 75th (and final) episode to watch tonight. Having only started watching it this year we found the previous series of The Great Pottery Throwdown on catch-up and we've been glued to that, too. 

I read John le Carré's final novel, An Agent Running in the Field, which was excellent, and I'm currently halfway through Philippa Gregory's The Virgin's Lover. She's an author I discovered during the lockdown and I find her writing enthralling.

I showed you my Morris Ware vase a few weeks ago. Jon bought me a book about the artist, George Cartlidge's work for Xmas.

The book is an absolute joy, I was drooling over Cartlidge's ceramics especially his tiled fireplaces. It was lovely to see my Thistle vase in there, too! 

Normally Lord Jon & I go for a National Trust adventure the day after Boxing Day but the weather has been abysmal so we've postponed our trip until later in the week when we've been promised a couple of unseasonably warm and, most importantly, dry days.

Last month we'd treated ourselves to a wool duvet (this one HERE) and it's been absolutely incredible, no more sweaty nights for me or chilly ones for Jon. We decided to invest in a couple of wool pillows which I ordered from Dunelm via Click & Collect and drove over to their Walsall out-of-town branch to pick them up. We were greeted at the door and after showing the sales assistant proof of purchase our pillows were handed over without us having to mingle with the sales shoppers. 

I wore my Dilli Grey dress again, this time with the 1960s Wetherall of Bond Street cape I bought in a charity shop almost two decades ago, my Reiss wool fedora (eBay) and my car-booted 1960s-does-Edwardian lace-up boots. The rain splatters were a gift from nature.

During Friday's cleaning frenzy I managed to pull the bathroom shelf off the wall so we popped down to Wilko for some filler. As it was another dreadful day we drove into Walsall and were delighted to see that the Clearance Charity shop was open. 

What did we find? 1970s coat by Sheepskin Products (Bath) designed by Paul H Keen; contemporary wool waistcoat; 1970s balloon sleeve ribbed top; 1970s Lurex cocktail blouse; 1970s deadstock cardi; Srishti block printed Indian cotton kurta; Lacoste hoodie; Jasper Conran boating blazer; Ben Sherman mod all-wool blazer; Dune black suede brogues with the store tags attached (for Jon).

Our current oven glove is a professional chef's, serviceable but boring, while the cushions on our kitchen chairs are knackered old things we've had for nigh-on twenty years so I think William Morris would thoroughly approve of the other items we found in the charity shop.

Two brand new Oxford cushion covers (complete with pads) in William Morris's iconic Strawberry Thief print in the crimson colourway by Le Chateau (HERE) for £2 each and a matching oven glove from the William Morris Gallery (HERE) for £1. That's almost £50 worth of beautifully made, top quality textiles for £5 - a bargain!

Talk about an exciting Xmas present, the owner of Dilli Grey, Vickie, messaged to ask if she could share a photo of me wearing my Dakota maxi skirt on their Instagram page. Of course, I said yes!

The skirt got another outing today. This time I wore it with a vintage Anokhi block printed jacket & Toast cowboy boots (both eBay), my Tricoville all-wool cape (car boot sale, 2011) and a vintage tooled leather snarling lion buckle belt and a 1970s felted wool hat (both charity shopped).

The last couple of days have been Bank Holidays but I've been getting up at my regular 6am for a Wii Fit Workout although I've done my usual weekend thing by taking mugs of tea back to bed as soon as I'm done and reading until 8.30am. The eBay shop has reopened and I've already got a bag of parcels ready for Lord Jon to drop off at the Post Office when it reopens tomorrow.

See you soon!