Silly Season

Thirty-six hours after arriving home from Tenerife, at 8.30am last Saturday we were back in Wetherspoons, trading at their annual Xmas market, held to help raising funds for the pub chain's adopted charity, Young Lives Vs Cancer.

And here's the £35,000 bespoke carpet in Walsall's Spoons, St Matthew's Hall.

With just a tabletop, we left the clothes at home and brought a selection of vintage brooches & scarves, sparkly bags and statement necklaces along with some of my artist friend Liz's fabulous handmade cards and gift tags.

Whilst we won't be retiring on the profits, we had a fun four hours, sold a few things and made some new friends and, being the consummate professions that we are, (ha!) didn't even have a drink until we'd packed the stall up!

My vintage 1960s Victor Costa *Romantica* lamé maxi dress (a gift from Joyatri, a lovely American ex-blogger and fellow vintage obsessive I've met up with a few times over the years) matches the carpet. I thought I'd give the patchwork panel I made from knackered vintage clobber from the stockroom a trial run whilst I was at it. Jon scrubbed up rather nicely!

Since I've been home I've fallen out of the habit of taking daily outfit photos although I do wear clothes every day (honest!) but here's a few of the things I've been wearing.

This 1960s embroidered green crushed velvet kaftan was a birthday treat to myself. I found it on Vinted for a fraction of the crazy prices they currently command. I wore it with one of my Accessorize fedoras and snake Print Kurt Geiger boots (also Vinted) last Monday for a morning of charity shopping in our favourite Black Country town (with my Afghan coat on top).

As usual Lord Jon did me proud with birthday pressies. Here's a vintage pendant made with horseshoe nails. If you remember I bought a beaded one from a charity shop a few weeks ago and several very helpful readers told me what it was, I'd never heard of them before.

This 1970s ruffle-tastic peacock feather print cotton maxi dress by Shubette of London was another Vinted buy, as was the embellished Indian velvet waistcoat (£3!!!!)

This was what I wore last Tuesday when we went to see the wonderful Wonka at the cinema last week. If, like me, this time of year depresses the hell out of you, go and see it, it's such a feel good film! 

 

On the way home from the swimming baths last Thursday we popped up to see The Knife Angel in Gallery Square.  My friend Aril saw her when she visited her part of the UK a few weeks ago and tipped us off that Walsall was next on the list.

 

Created up the road in Shropshire, the sculpture is made from over 100,000 seized blades and was created to highlight the negative impact of violent behaviour and the need for social change. Its incredibly moving and although she had been unveiled a few days earlier she'd drawn a sizeable crowd.

On Friday we went out for beers and Indian food with Liz and Al. I was too preoccupied to get my camera out but here's the carpet in The Avion, Wetherspoons in Aldridge.

And that's Liz and I after Clay Pot Vegetables to die for. The weather was so mild I didn't bother putting my jacket on when we left Laboni - unless that was the heat from the chillies!

Sunday was one of those days where we'd only meant to meet up with Tony for a couple of drinks and ended up staggering out of Wetherspoons eight hours later. Yeah, 57 going on 17, all three of us!

I wore my green velvet Kharibu dress which makes me feel like a Pre-Raphaelite (and probably makes me behave like one, too!) 

The colour's more like the back view photo in real life, Jon must have pressed something on my phone and changed the settings.

I adorned myself with a couple more of my birthday presents from Jon. The silver bracelet is by renowned Victorian silversmith Charles Horner although the sterling silver charms are vintage '70s.

And here's another huge Banjara torq coin choker to add to my collection of Indian tribal jewellery

The Art Nouveau inspired dragonfly cuff was a present from Liz's mum, Hazel.

Despite the previous day's antics, a certain gentleman had me up before 6am demanding breakfast and a game of chase the stick.

We popped over to our second favourite town a charity shopping session. I wore my vintage Afghan dress by Hindu Kush which I bought myself as a birthday treat back in 2018. The fedora was originally Aldo but I bought it from a charity shop back in 2016.

Today (Tuesday) was our penultimate swim before the baths close for ten days on Saturday. It was miserable & pissing it down when we walked down at 7.30am but swimming and a Spoons breakfast cheered us up no end. I wore this vintage Miss Polly for Polly Peck 1960s maxi dress (British Heart Foundation, 2017) which got loads of love from a hip young volunteer in one of the town centres' charity shops.   

Talking of which, here's a few of the things we've found since we got home.

1970s green velvet blazer; 1970s Owen Barry sheepskin hat; Together! 1980s embellished & tasseled top; 1970s full length dashiki; Vintage 1960s mirror work top; 1970s sequin cocktail dress; Nali, Italy crushed velvet bag; Mango patent PVC raincoat

Feather trimmed cape; Tapestry coat; 1960s gold crochet cardi; 1970s Wrangler bomber jacket; Panache, London 1970s cocktail dress; Vintage Italian army jacket; 1960s Antartex sheepskin hat; 1970s tweed fleck jacket

1960s Made in Finland gents fake fur coat (now Jon's!); River Island fake fur; 2000s Adidas track top; 1970s John Charles midi dress; 1960s Bagcraft suede handbag (by appointment to HM the Queen); 2000s Adidas off the shoulder track top; Vintage sheepskin hat; 1980s hand knit jumper

Betsey Johnson fake fur gilet; Indian block printed midi dress; Fake fur jacket; Per Una leather belt; 1970s English sheepskin hat; 1990s Nepali cap; Per Una belt; Cos dungarees (still £95 on their website)

Here's the keepers....

Every girl needs a pair of brand new blue velvet thigh-length boots in her life especially when they're only a quid! The £1 charity shop strikes again.

 

This pile of books should keep me sane throughout the silly season.

In addition to the marvellous Wonka, we've also watched (and really enjoyed) Midsommar and Killers of the Flower Moon, binged the first series of Vigil and are now on season two.

As massive fans of the Mick Herron books, we're loving the third season of Slow Horses as much as the others, we don't want it to end. 

Right, I've ignored it for long enough, tomorrow's the day I do my Xmas shopping (and I'll try to stay out of Wetherspoons!) Wish me luck!