Down To The Wire

Monday already? Where does the time go?

Saturday morning dawned and, for once, it wasn't raining! I wore the previous day's chazza shop find, the Frida Kahlo tee shirt, underneath my Lucky Brand dungarees and some Superga plimsolls I'd snaffled from the £1 charity shop last Autumn (total outfit cost - £4!) and, after a breakfast of poached eggs & hollandaise sauce on sour dough toast, spent a large part of the day with Lord Jon in the garden.

The deluge has watered our new plants in nicely. The stumpery is looking good already.

The honesty is in bloom.

One of our new digitalis (foxglove).

The irises are on their way.

Hard to imagine that the euphorbia was a single stem I'd plucked from a crack in the kerb during a lockdown walk.

I had an exciting parcel through the post from my friend Elaine - a fabulous Indian shawl and some fancy teabags wrapped in gorgeous Morris & Co paper and accompanied by a gorgeous hand painted card! Thanks so much, Elaine. I'm sorry I haven't had time to thank you properly yet.

I played around with the thread from my box which Fifty & Counting and Between Me & You suggested could be for crochet, probably for making doilies and dressing table sets (and that'll be the day I'll check myself into an asylum). I experimented with crocheting around gemstones to make into pendants. Mmmmm.... still needs some improvement.

Tea was carrots, corn on the cob and parmentier potatoes, generously infused with chilli.

Late for the party, we've finally started watching The Wire and it is every bit as good as I'd hoped. Could it be the best cop show ever made? The signs are very promising. We watched three episodes on Friday night and two more on Saturday.

William spent Friday night asleep on the chaise and on Saturday night deigned to join us in bed although his yowling got me up at 5.45am (one of the joys of living with a cat that I'd forgotten about!) I made mugs of tea, brought them back to bed and cracked on with my next book - my first by Walter Mosley. It was Shelley that recommended him and, wow, what an incredible writer he is. I was halfway through it by the time we got up.

I wore a heavy cotton block printed dress from my Spring capsule wardrobe along with my bruise coloured suede coat, River Island hat and Timberland boots (all charity shopped). These copal beads must be the best 50p I've ever spent!

It had been a fortnight since we'd last been to the clearance chazza at the top of town and we were raring to go, arriving just as the shutters were rolled up.

1960s Count Christie tee shirt; 1980s Adriano Rizzo lace-up boots; Ben Sherman chores jacket (new wit tags, currently retailing at £165); Plus size brocade steel corset; embroidered leather cowboy boots; snazzy shirt; Fringed embroidered moccasin boots; Porter & Ash Hawaiian-style cotton shirt; 1980s Lizsport braided velvet bolero; 1970s fancy dress mini; 1980s Shirley, London wet-look showgirl bralet; 1960s Double Two Courtelle roll neck; Moncler wool beanie (with tags still attached).

Back at home we ate noodles before Jon cracked on with his accounts - with a little help from young Mr Woolberforce. Meanwhile, I listed some stock on eBay and wrapped the weekend's sales. 

After the other half of Friday night's pizza (and salad) we retired to the lounge for Gardener's World on catch-up and two more episodes of The Wire before I retired to bed with my book. Just as Jon was locking up William appeared and spent the night on the chaise.

He (William, not Jon!) got me up before the alarm went off, shouting from the bottom of the stairs for his breakfast. After my Wii Fit workout I wrapped the last of the parcels before Jon got up and joined me for breakfast. I spent most of the morning reorganising the Kinky Shed, attempting to separate the stock into ebaying and festivals. Jon put a couple of rails up in the house, which isn't ideal, but a necessary evil at this time of year.

I unearthed some summer stock I'd packed away and, after ironing it, listed it on eBay.

The weather still isn't playing nice but I was determined to crack out the Lottas so I wore merino wool tights with them. This bargain William Morris gilet is perfect for wearing around the house, toasty warm, massive pockets (for my camera, clothes pegs and the shed keys) and with plenty of room for movement.

Although I've been reading blogs, I've not had time to comment on any yet but I loved seeing Sheila's friend Bev's Mary Quant Daisy doll (HERE). I had quite a few of the Mary Quant dolls as a child, most of which I sold over the years to fund my travel habit but two still survive.

If you've been reading my blog for a while I'm sure you'll remember them. 

Here's Daisy Longlegs. Standing at 15 inches tall she was the biggest of the Mary Quant dolls. She came in this pink satin dress and peep toe wedges. There was a gold headband but it got lost over the years.

Perhaps this is where my love of all things spy came from, Havoc, Mary Quant's secret agent doll. I loved her so much, with her biker jacket, catsuit, bovver boots and machine gun she was the coolest thing ever. Luckily I saved up and bought two so they didn't both get ruined when she fought with my brother's Eagle-Eye Action Man!

Tea was a bosting Greek Salad with Lidl's rye bread...Jon is the Greek God of salad making!

I'm off to binge watch more of The Wire. See you soon!

This Life

It's been a week of doing the usual stuff, swimming, shopping, selling and so on and you'll be relieved to know that I've been wearing clothes whilst doing them.

On Monday, for a trip to Lidl via the post office, I wore my vintage Mayur Indian cotton gauze midi dress, Afghan coat, 1970s navy blue wool felted hat & cobalt suede boots by The Jacksons were all bought secondhand. Can you see the daffs starting to appear?

Another good week for Lidl bargains! The individually wrapped mini malt loaves were reduced from £3.99 to 20p, so we bought two packs. In the Waste Not box we got bananas, pomegranate, grapefruit, three mangos, tangerines, pears, cherries, Brussels sprouts, baking potatoes, tomatoes, onions, carrots, apples and a lettuce - all for £1.50!

Tuesday was a morning of swimming, 'Spoons and our annual Specsavers eye tests. I wore a 1970s Ritu Kumar for Monsoon Indian cotton block printed dress with my vintage sheepskin hat and secondhand Clarks boots.

 I'm still waiting for a diagnosis for my suspected glaucoma, but reader Fran suggested I booked in for a OCT test (an additional £10), which I did and lovely optician, Chloe, was able to explain the findings. My prescription has changed with my distance vision not being as perfect as it once was (the joys of ageing!) but, in the absence of anything funky and fabulous in Specsavers, I'm on the hunt for some suitable secondhand frames for them to reglaze.

The rest of the day was spent listing stock on eBay. The early Crocus in the lawn were out....yay!

My talented artist friend Elaine, who you'll know by the interesting comments she always leaves, alerted me to a tutorial for a Granny Square folk collar on the V&A's Youtube channel which, once I'd got my tasks out of the way, I spent a large chunk of the weekend following. Thanks, Elaine, I'm thrilled with how it turned out especially my crochet pom-pom trim!

On Wednesday we went charity shopping to our favourite Black Country town. I wore my vintage 100% Cotton Hand Embroidered in India (that's what the label says) dress with last week's Clarks boots and another of my sheepskin hats along with my V&A folk collar. As usual, loads of people said lovely things about how I dressed.

We swapped swimming days, opting to going out stock hunting on Thursday instead of Friday. I wore my latest Dilli Grey maxi with a vintage suede waistcoat and the amazing 1960s purple suede lace-up boots Gisela had sent me.

Friday's outfit was my favourite of the week and consisted of two of this week's charity shop finds,

Although I'd never heard of the brand, C.Doux, the style and the leather soles (stamped Made in Spain) just screamed quality plus the elasticated gussets meant that they fit my skinny calves perfectly. My online research revealed that they retail at £319.95 - I paid £4!

I gasped when I spotted this 100% silk patchwork midi dress by Jigsaw nestling amongst the Primark and priced at just £3.49 (this would have originally retailed at £350). Founded in 1970, according to British Vogue, Jigsaw was the first premium fashion brand to sell stylish clothes in inspiring surroundings at affordable prices. Those rich spicy colours make my heart sing and I LOVE the mushroom coloured panels with the dobby gold embroidery, wonderful Indian craftsmanship. 

Just the thing for a romantic (!) late lunch date in Spoons - it's Valentine's Day every day round here! If you're wondering, Jon had fish and chips with a pint of Shipyard whilst I went for the burrito salad with a large glass of Pinot Grigio and the bill came to £20.

Talking of charity shops, here's the rest of this week's finds.....

Clockwise from top left: 1970s Scottish Highland Industries Tam O'Shanter; Linea embellished & quilted Indian cotton jacket; 1980s handmade wool long-line cardi; 4 x Cowboy shirts and cowboy hat; 1950s Elysee Model llama wool coat; Adidas trainers; 1970s Aylmer, London-tailored wool blazer; 1960s Burton Borg-lined corduroy coat; Vivienne Westwood "Anglomania" tee-shirt (2010 collection); 1960s Keynote fully-fashioned cardi; Boden lilac corduroy blazer and a 1980s BHS button-thru' denim midi.

Clockwise from top left: 1980s Indian woven denim waistcoat; 1980s acrylic tank top; Karen Millen cotton knit popper cardi; 1970s Marco Polo all-wool jumper; East with FabIndia block printed Indian cotton midi; Topshop fake leopard coat; Brava Fabrics organic cotton cord jacket (on their website for £130); Warehouse chiffon & foil tiered maxi dress; Zara metallic chevron strip pleated midi; Luca Vanucci, made in Italy cotton sun dress; West African dashiki; Ikat handmade in Indonesia shirred crinkle maxi dress; 1980s Hot Shots Scottie dog sweater and a West African waxed cotton maxi skirt.

As part of Clarks’ sponsorship of the V&A museum’s 2015 exhibition on the history of footwear – Shoes: Pleasure and Pain – the two hundred year old British brand was granted access to an archive encompassing four centuries of everything from clogs to high-tops and released a number of limited edition footwear designs. Jon snaffled these suede fronted beauties based on the Brothel Creepers worn by the Teddy Boys in the 1950s. (I've got the high heeled Wallabees from the same collection HERE).

One of the chazzas had a box full of these bendy rollers still in their original packaging.I washed my hair and slept in them overnight (poor Jon) but my hair's really thick and it was still damp when I removed the curlers fourteen hours later. I shall try again with slightly drier hair over the weekend otherwise that's a whopping £2 down the drain.

We buy vinyl (and books) most weeks but Jon's always put them away before I've had time to photograph them, this time I beat him to it. I loved Lene Lovich, both her music and her incredible style, I bought her singles on 7"vinyl back in the late 1970s (and still have them in my collection) - 12" singles were an expensive luxury! I think that's where my love of plaits and blue eyeshadow came from.

It's been TV heaven in our house this week. The Staircase, Litvinenko and Nolly were fantastic but Happy Valley was the icing on the cake - I don't think I drew breath during the final episode it was so compelling.

After finishing the excellent Spring Tide, the Scandi Noir I started at the weekend (written by the husband and wife team behind the Beck detective series and the TV adaptation of Henning Mankell's Wallander) I got stuck into A Curl of Copper and Pearl, based on the life and times of Alexa Wilding, Dante Gabriel Rossetti's muse. If you love the Pre-Raphaelite artists, the author has a wonderful blog HERE , another of Elaine's recommendations.

I finished Iris Apfel's autobiography in a couple of hours. Thanks so much to my dear friend Lynn who very kindly sent it my way, I absolutely loved it! Like Iris says, I don't like a minimalist look for myself. I like stuff; I like being surrounded by a lot of things that give me pleasure to look at. Well said, that woman! Whenever I've got a bit of free time I get enormous joy from my wardrobes, assembling potential outfits or just rummaging through the rails, shelves and baskets loving the clothes I've collected over the years.

I was starting to get a bit overwhelmed by choice so last weekend I picked out twenty eight dresses, ten blouses, six skirts, four coats, six jackets and ten waistcoats and put them in a separate wardrobe - a sort of capsule wardrobe on steroids. Trouble is I'm allergic to rules and I've already shoehorned in another couple of dresses!

Goodness me, it's almost rum time. Have a fab weekend and see you on the other side!