Hazy Shade of Winter

Hello! Thanks so much for the brilliant comments you left on my last post (HERE) and for those of you kind enough to share their current beauty favourites and finds. I've got a list of products to look out for once I've reached the end of my current stash.

So what have we been up to this week?

The Vinted listings continue. I'm gradually working my way through the Kinky Shed, photographing and uploading the stock and this week it's been mostly about coats, jumpers and blingy stuff. 

The weather's been all over the place this week. We'd not even needed coats when we popped out on Sunday to drop off the Vinted sales parcels at the Inpost lockers. 

If you read last Friday's post you might have clocked these vintage cherry red Docs we found in a charity shop. Bought with the stockroom in mind, Jon made the fatal error of trying them on and the rest, as they say, is history. Back in the 1980s DM shoes were de rigueur for us Indie kids and were always worn with Argyle socks. Jon only had one pair in his sock drawer but we managed to find seven brand new pairs in the charity shops this week so he's properly kitted out now. 

In the same chazza he also spotted this Duffer of St George wool scarf which he soon snaffled. 

Meanwhile I wore the midi waistcoat I'd made from the charity shopped Warwick Hospital Nurses Dorm curtains.

I found this vintage woven cotton maxi skirt with a quilted waistband on Vinted for an incredible £4 the other day. Mohanjeet Grewal, a Punjabi-born journalist turned designer, opened her first boutique in Paris in 1962 and was renowned for creating the "mini Sari" in 1967, combining Indian culture with Western fashion. Her clients & friends included Jane Fonda, Jackie Kennedy, Catherine Deneuve, Jean Seberg and Yves St Laurent, I'm in good company! 

The mini sari (1967) SOURCE

Catherine Deneuve wearing Mohanjeet

Jane Fonda advertising Mohanjeet

On Monday the weather turned Baltic and it was Afghans and sheepskin hats at dawn. Despite the below average temperatures it was lovely to see the sun again, the skies had been depressingly grey for weeks. The local weather forecast had mentioned the possibility of snow but I remained sceptical until I opened the curtains at 6am on Tuesday morning and saw it with my own eyes. It didn't stop us from walking down to the baths and back for our twice-weekly swim. 

Strength & Honour! On Tuesday afternoon we met up with Liz & Al at Walsall's lovely indie cinema, The Light, to watch Gladiator II and it was well worth the 23 year wait. After the film we treated ourselves to a couple of bottles of Spanish red along with artisan pizzas, handmade on the premises and, on a Tuesday, it's two pizzas for £15...bargain!

Liz and I were mesmerised by Connie Nielsen, possibly even more beautiful now at 59 than she was 23 years ago. We've both decided we need more gold jewellery in our lives, too!

Forget those muscle-bound gladiators, it was Swedish actor Alexander Karim who played Ravi, the Benares-born doctor, who made us weak at the knees. My fellow Scandi Noir fans may recognise him as Frank Nordling from Advokaten.

On Wednesday we woke up to yet more snow. We layered up and went charity shopping in our favourite Black Country town. I did wear my Afghan coat but took it off to show you my new-to-me dress, a vintage Indian cotton block printed beauty. 

I don't look for these dresses - honest - they just keep popping up in Recommended for You on my Vinted feed. I can't find anything out about Geeta Enterprises- there's a shop in Delhi with the same name but it sells tech so obviously has no connection to the export agent where this would have hailed. 

I did find a twin which sold on Etsy recently for £195. Mine was £30!

There weren't many people out and about yesterday so we did well in the charity shops, I'll photograph and share the stock finds when the weather's more conducive to outdoor photos. In the meantime feast your eyes on these gorgeous bone china mugs, still in their original box and bearing the Pre-Raphaelite artist, John William Waterhouse's glorious Hylas and the Nymphs (1898) & The Awakening of Adonis (1899) which I found on the bric-a-brac shelves in the Beacon Centre for the Blind for £6. I bet they'll make my Yorkshire Tea taste even better than it usually does. 

Source

Source

Anyone who knows me will be shocked by this - it's a jumper! Something I never wear. It's 1990s Miss Selfridge, made in the UK and it had been in the Hospice shop for weeks, I think I just felt sorry for it. 

It was -4°C when we left the house to walk down to the swimming baths this morning and it proved very useful (yeah, I know that's nothing to what some of my readers endure but to us Brits, that's cold!) It's like a military operation to get all my layers into the changing room lockers and I managed to cram this, along with my sheepskin gilet, bastard massive hat, maxi dress, underskirt, leggings, scarf, wristwarmers, boots, two pairs of socks and my bag with room to spare (just about!)

Although I say I went swimming, I probably did more chatting than exercise today although trudging through the ice and snow into town and back this morning was a workout in itself. 

 Thanks for reading, stay warm and see you soon!