There's More To Life Than Books (But Not Much More)

The weekend weather was glorious, so much so that on Friday night I decided to pack away the heaviest of my dresses and replace them with my sleeveless maxis I keep stashed in the suitcase on top of the wardrobe.

 I walked down to the parcel shop in this 1970s India Imports of Rhode Island maxi dress which I've had for almost ten years. 

 

As I've got my warm weather wardrobe in place I've also swapped over to my brighter lip colours. I've been on the hunt for the perfect orange for years and I think I've finally found it. Although it lacks the staying power of Maybelline's Super Stay in Heroine, their Vivid Matte Liquid in Orange Shot is a proper in your face tangerine. I buy it from eBay (I paid £3.21 including P&P) as, typically, it's now discontinued!

On saturday morning I finished The King's Sister, Anne O'Brien's brilliantly researched novel about John of Gaunt's youngest daughter, Elizabeth of Lancaster, passed on to me by my friend Lynn. If, like me, you're unfamiliar with O'Brien's work, she's just as brilliant a historical novelist as Phillipa Gregory, a riveting read.

In the afternoon I started (and finished) one of the books I'd bought when I went charity shopping on Thursday, Out of the Easy. Set in 1950, it follows Jo, the estranged daughter of a New Orleans prostitute, who lives & works in a bookshop and dreams of a college education but her plans are thwarted following the murder of an enigmatic customer.

Although we'd planned to watch a film on Friday night we ended up getting stuck into season 4 of Fargo starring Wes Anderson favourite Jason Schwartzman along with Jessie Buckley, Ben Wishaw and Chris Rock.

 I had a couple of parcels to drop off on Sunday morning so we walked down to the Lidl lockers in the blazing sunshine. It was another day for baring arms, wearing my denim waistcoat and a vintage Oasis Trading wraparound maxi.

The rest of the day was spent lazing on the lawn in the sunshine. I started and finished Who Is Maud Dixon? which, after seeing the stage play last week, turned out to be not dissimilar to The Talented Mr Ripley, full of scheming shenanigans, unbridled violence and thrilling twists & turns. Highly recommended!

It was no jacket required for my walk down to the pool on Monday morning, layering an All About Audrey wrap top over my David Silverman pinafore dress. I managed to shave a minute from my personal best, swimming a mile in 41 minutes. I wish I was as agile on dry land as I am in the water! 

Another afternoon of reading in the sunshine, this time absorbed in Dearest Intimate, a novel following the lives of three generations of women, from a cross-dressing opera star to her intellectual granddaughter, trapped in an abusive marriage. The gripping narrative shifts between rural Pre-war China, the chaos of Japanese occupation and modern day Singapore. If, like me, you're a fan of Lisa See, you'll love this.

The sun had ripened our crop of Spring rhubarb which I harvested, peeled and turned into a crumble.

What a shock to the system it was this morning (Tuesday), with a return to the oppressive grey skies and distinctly chilly temperatures.

Still, it was an excuse to give this vintage St Michael wool blouse an outing before I folded it up and saved it for the Autumn. 

With the garden waste due to be collected in the morning I did some gardening and managed to fill the bin. I would have carried on after lunch but it was just too chilly so I spent the rest of the afternoon reading. 

What are you reading at the moment?

Thanks for reading and see you soon!

Keep On Movin'

I can't quite get my head around the fact that I'll be 60 by the end of next year! I've not got a problem with getting older but I do want to be as fit as I possibly can be so that I can continue living my life to the full.

I've used my Wii Fit every week since Jon bought it for my birthday 18 years ago. The original disc was starting to play up but we managed to find a replacement in a charity shop (where else?) My routine has always started with a 10 minute warm-up step session followed by 20 minutes of yoga and muscle-building exercises but the replacement disc is an up-dated version and the step option is no longer available so I decided to warm-up with an interactive run instead. I started by running a quarter of a mile but it turned out that I was pretty good at it & the Wii Fit suggested I increase the distance to half a mile but, after smashing the highest possible score, it told me to try the longest run available, the Island Lap, the equivalent of a mile. 

Wow...Rocket Fire! 

Jogging around the streets has never interested me but running indoors? I can't believe the buzz I get from it and I'm now running 5 miles a week. The best thing is that I don't need special gear, don't get wet or have put up with kerb-crawlers (because it doesn't matter how old you are, you're never free from predatory men).

This was a selfie I took in the changing rooms at the pool last year, I've upgraded my swim cap since then. I've increased the amount I swim to three-quarters of a mile per session (a total of 1.5 miles a week).  I'd love to do a mile each time but Jon starts getting restless and yearning for breakfast and I do talk to the regulars rather a lot. 

 At the start of this month we pledged to walk 50 miles for Cats Protection and each got a rather snazzy hat when we signed up. We've had to install an app to record the amount we're walking each day, I can see why people get obsessed with these things but they don't half encourage us to keep moving. We're doing okay and should hit our target before the deadline which will be whilst we're away. 

Our walking helps beasts like our little house panther aka William, the cat who came in from the cold and decided to adopt us after life on the streets. 

 

Here's a couple of the outfits I've worn this week. A vintage Papillion Indian block printed wraparound midi skirt (eBay, 2021) worn with a 1960s Ayesha Davar shirred cheesecloth blouse (eBay, 2020) and one of my many 1970s Indian screen printed silk scarves, for which I never pay more than £1.

Here's the skirt I made from a piece of Anokhi block printed cotton bought from eBay during lockdown, a charity shopped 1970s belt and the Athena blouse by high end label m.a.b.e. which bought unworn from Vinted for £12 last Summer whilst it was still for sale on their website for £95.

The Afghan earrings were an eBay find in 2017.

Other than a quick look after swimming on Tuesday, we've not been charity shopping this week but here's last week's vintage finds....

1970s silver lame cocktail jacket, a traditional Greek cotton embroidered blouse & a 1960s shift dress.

A rayon 1970s pussy bow blouse, a groovy 1970s jumpsuit and a 1950s lace blouse.

A 1960s St Michael mini dress, a 1980s suedette two piece from Ibiza, the iconic Birmingham boutique in the Bull Ring (if you know, you know!) and a 1970s polka dot maxi skirt.

A 1980s tie-dye rayon rara dress, a 1970s trippy maxi skirt and a contemporary Monsoon velvet jacket.

A 1950s shirtwaister, a 1970s fringed suede jerkin (handmade in Larnaca, Cyprus) and vintage Indian velvet waistcoat.

A vintage German military issue jacket and a 1980s novelty print suede waistcoat with tags still attached

And, of course, some vintage vinyl including a rare US import of Actually by The Pet Shop Boys (1987), worth a heck of a lot more than the £2 Jon paid for it (not that it'll be going anywhere!)

Despite the frost this morning, we're walking to the baths in the daylight now, the crocus are pushing up through the lawn and Jacob's out of his box and wandering around the kitchen, albeit in a very sleepy fashion. Spring isn't too far away!

I'm off on an adventure in Birmingham with Nikki tomorrow and shall report back very soon.

Thanks for reading!

All Change!

Don't worry, I'm not talking about New Year's resolutions, they're not my thing. I can tell you already that 2025 will be mostly be spent wasting time and money searching for rare and beautiful clothes, taking far too many holidays and having as much fun as is humanely possible without getting arrested. Why change the habits of a lifetime? Oh yes, and because we're not normal, we aren't going to any NYE parties, Jon and I started a tradition a few years ago and choose to celebrate waking up alive on New Year's Day so we'll be heading to the pub tomorrow instead.  

The change I'm referring to is finally hanging the collection of vintage framed prints which have propped up against the landing wall for the last couple of years, gathering dust and inevitably causing one of us an injury when we crash into them on the way to the bathroom in the dead of night.

I've been obsessed with Flamenco dancers since my Dad bought me a doll back from a business trip he took to Madrid when I was five. The little circular Vermeer print was 50p in a charity shop. The vintage kaftan by Jake in India, a label which was sold in Liberty back in the early 1970s, was snaffled for a pittance from Vinted on Boxing Day and arrived this morning.

The black wallpaper is by Laura Ashley, bought in the early noughties, the patchwork bedcover, curtains and bolster were all made by me using knackered vintage clothes, curtains and bedlinen.

More Spanish art, A Spanish Dancer by Scottish artist, Sir William Russell Flint (1880 - 1969) and Toreador by French artist, Bernard Buffett (1928 – 1999). I've had the Buffett print for so long, he was still alive when I bought it. The pink velvet noticeboard is a new addition, bought this morning. My Radical calendar is ready for me to open tomorrow and scribble my dates on - read about this fabulous company here although, if you're the kind of person who describes people like me as woke, you'd probably implode.

Good old Tina, who's constantly moving around the house, along with one of Norman Parkinson's 1970s fashion shoots for Vogue (and another of my obsessions as a kid) - both chazza shop finds. The lining paper was painted with Farrow and Ball's Down Pipe when we bought the house almost 19 years ago and were trying to be historically accurate with Georgian paint colours. The room's in dire need of redecoration but I can think of better ways to spend our time and money (travel!) 

The Trechnikoff Rose in the Workshop is a rare signed print and cost a quid from a charity shop years ago. The 1950s teak antelope was a present from Liz a few Xmases back which I'd been meaning to hang for ages. 

Decluttering is definitely not going to be a New year's resolution...I love my stuff! 

Although I'm selling more than I'm buying on Vinted there's a few new-to-me things creeping in - like this incredible Suzani coat reworked from a vintage Uzbek chapan. Expect to see a lot more of it in 2025!

The weather's not been ideal for outfit photos and, as I'm typing this, the wind's getting up and the windows are rattling, so I've been posing indoors. Transforming the former shit tip into the magnificently moody music room with a metallic ceiling was probably one of our biggest achievements in 2024.

Today's outfit for collecting parcels and going sofa browsing (will 2025 finally be the year I convince Jon to ditch the knackered leather settee for an opulent velvet one?) I'm wearing a Dilli Grey Indian cotton block printed midi dress (bought in December, 2022) with some Clarks platforms (January, 2023) and a charity-shopped tribal necklace. 

Contemporary Afghan-style dress (Vinted) and burgundy leather cowboy boots (Urban Outfitters sale) worn for a trip to the chazzas. We spent £11 & came home with two incredible coffee table books, one on the world history of art and the other on the art on display in Birmingham Art Gallery, a Finnish merino wool polo neck for Jon and an Indian embroidered cotton blouse for me.

A Dilli Grey block printed cotton maxi skirt (October, 2022) and a vintage 1970s Anokhi quilted blouse with bishop sleeves (eBay, 2020), the gormless expression is all my own! You can't see my feet but I'm wearing my trusty Frye Campus boots, bought new in their box (labelled £335) via Ebay in July 2019 for £35. This was for a walk into town to drop off our Vinted sales. 

Vintage Phool midi skirt (part of a suit, online seller, 2019), All About Audrey art silk wrap top (Vinted), 190s Liberty, London silk scarf (car boot sale, 2009), River Island cap (via the charity shop, 2022) and my Mum's original 1960s Biba boots for a walk into town with more Vinted sales parcels. 

Wishing you all a happy & healthy New Year! 

Thanks so much for your continued friendship, comments, messages, cards and letters, you're the best. xxx

Magic Carpets

How time flies! Looking back at old blog posts I've owned this dress since 2015. I spotted it in a clearance charity shop in Shropshire and paid the grand total of 99p for it.

Throughout the 1970s Kate Beaver worked with her partner, artist Robin Rae, from their Dorset home screen printing fabric by hand and creating amazing period-inspired dresses. I've found a few on-line but definitely think this colour combo is my favourite.

With its teal trim and rusty-orange lining, my Anokhi riding jacket, purchased at the same time as the dress I wore on Monday, always feels like the perfect thing to wear with it. This was how I was dressed on Tuesday for an early morning swim followed by a Spoons breakfast.

Due to a refurbishment,Walsall's Wetherspoons, St Matthew's Hall, had been closed for almost a fortnight so we were excited to see the changes. The walls in one of the dining rooms have been painted "court room black", to echo the colour of the robes worn by the judges when the building - built in 1830 and formerly a free library - was repurposed as a courthouse in 1847. 

Until I mentioned them on my blog the other day, a lot of readers weren't aware that each of the chain's 900 pubs has a different carpet reflecting the history of the building or the local area. Each bespoke carpet is worth around £30,000, handmade on an individual loom and crafted in Devon by Axminster Carpets.

Our new one features gavels, another nod to the days of the pub being a courthouse. The rectangles possibly represent the spines of the books from its former incarnation as the town's first free library.

This is my friend Tricia's local branch of Wetherspoons, The Hippodrome in March, Cambridgeshire, formerly a 900 seat cinema which opened in 1929. I've got a bit of a obsession with the designs of Spoons' carpets so if you don't have a blog email me a photo and I'll share it on mine. ``

Liz and Al bought us this book years ago. When I last looked you couldn't get a second hand copy for less than £45 so I'm obviously not the only person into Spoon's carpets! 

I was watching this vintage embroidered Indian cotton Phool dress on eBay and the seller sent me an offer I couldn't refuse.The seller had listed the dress as being embroidered with hedgehogs but I think it's more likely to be a peacock, like the label (a Phool label I'm not familiar with).  

I wore this for a morning of charity shopping.

Today I wore one of my Dilli Grey block printed cotton dresses along with a vintage waistcoat. We've been swimming but eschewed the Spoons breakfast and ate at home instead popping into Lidl on the way back for a £1.50 Waste Not box. 

We've been really lucky this year and managed to snaffle one every week. 2024 has got off to a very healthy start.

As promised here's just a tiny part of the collection of vintage clothes that our friends Graz & Steve negotiated for on our behalf and dates from the 1940s up until the mid-1980s. A vast majority of it is St Michael, Marks & Spencer's brand until 2000. I love seeing how the font changes over the years and how the vast majority was made in Great Britain, the reason why most people shopped there. 

Graz & Steve's shop, Moseley Vintage Hub, is in the Digbeth area of Birmingham and they buy (& sell) anything quirky and interesting from cool Mid-Century furniture to industrial lighting, retro vinyl and architectural antiques. 

Jon spotted this chrome radiator when we visited last week thinking that it would be perfect in our bathroom.

...it is! 

Swimming, shopping , stitching and carpet spotting aside, this week we've mainly been bingeing on series 1 of True Detective, Season 2 of The Tourist and the brilliant but utterly bonkers The Lobster from Yorgos Lanthimos, the director of Poor Things which incidentally has been nominated for 11 Oscars - I told you it was good.

The weather's looking okay for tomorrow - no wind or rain and relatively mild - so we're off National Trusting. I'll be back in a few days with photos!