5 brooches and friends #69

Hi there!

Greetings on this hot evening.   

Last night was my school concert- it was very successful despite it being an administrative nightmare setting it up and the temperatures in that hall being very extreme- but my children played really well.

Anyway, here's a fairly simple post sharing some of the brooches and necklaces I have worn recently.

 Glitter bear (Topshop) and glitter heart (Hello Crumpet on Etsy) for a simple green t-shirt.  I find it really hard getting the bear to face upright!

This joke was a bit of a play on words:  His name is Tik Tok (from Sugar and Vice on Etsy) and there are lots of clocks behind him...

 Balloonicorn from Sparkle Happy mama.

TARDIS door sign necklace from Etsy.

Finally, 3 pins:  Unicorn from eBay, Jelly Bear from Sparkle Happy mama and Custard Cream from Nikki McWilliams.

Any favourites here?

xxx

5 brooches #64

Hello there!

It seems such an inordinate amount of time since I have shared a brooch post so I thought I should rectify that immediately!

 Up first is the brooch I always wear for the very first Recorder lesson I teach to Year 3.  I give them a whistlestop tour of the history of the Recorder and then show and play to them all the recorders in the recorder family. The little bonus at the end of the lesson is that I share with them that this little brooch is made by the Recorder makers- Mollenhauer - and it actually plays. It is a scaled down recorder brooch made out of Rosewood I think. Or Tulip wood or something like that! I love the colour of it. I wore it with a beautiful Treble Clef necklace which was a present from two sisters at the end of the year!

Here I wore this cute Compass brooch which has a spinning arrow which I received in my Wanderlust mystery box from Kimchi and Coconut! The whole box was amazing!

 Both of these pins, hard to see in this picture, advocate reading- Read More and Book worm!
I've just finished Day of the Triffids and think I did do both of these things!

 Lastly, here is a cute little Dalek brooch from 'Down the Rabbit hole'-  I wore him with a Clara outfit-though one she wore with Cybermen rather than daleks, alas!!

 I know some of you aren't really interested in brooches but I do like doing these little round ups!

Hope you are well.

xx

Origami outfit

This sounds a daft thing to say but I do really like the wardrobe that I have. I am very lucky that I have managed to acquire such a variety of fun and quirky clothes which make me and others smile.  Yet, there are often combinations and items that make my heart soar even more than others.

 The skirt I am wearing here was an Ebay purchase that was originally brand new from White Stuff and the skirt is completely reversible. The other side features a purple background with bottles of various sizes. This side has origami birds on it! It wafts most nicely on a warm day.

 My favourite shiny gold Toms shoes are comfortable to the extreme and this Henry Holland top that I first bought in Debenhams but when I saw this one, 4 sizes larger in the charity shop for £1.75, that I bought it anyway! Actually, this one is much more comfortable to wear!

And of course, the Custard Cream brooch from Nikki McWilliams, featured in last week's '5 brooches'.

Do you have outfits that you love more than others?
xx

5 brooches #59

Hello there,

I hope you are well. I thought I would share a few brooch photos from April. I have got out of the habit of posting these weekly so I will try to resume this!

 From an unexpectedly hot first week of April, I added this pair of Cactus pins to this Swan dress.

 My flute quartet had another gig at John Lewis so I added my oversized sparkly heart to my black dress as we accessorise with red and this was all I could find!

 A very favourite fox-themed outfit from the same hot week- I added Mr Foxton to my Punkypins necklace and fox-dress (plus the Fox shoeees!) for Foxy overkill!

 Penultimately, here is the white cat brooch I made for my Colin Baker cosplay which I posted as part of my Style imitating Monmon cats post.

Finally, this unicorn pin combined with lemon slice was the completion of this ric-rac dress outfit!

Any favourites here?

xx

5 brooches #56

Hi there,

Hope you are well.

Apologies for not posting. It's been a rather busy week with things on in the evenings and the suchlike.  I had a very busy birthday on which I had to eat my dinner on the train between staff training and orchestra rehearsal and then didn't get home till hideously late because the train I usually get did not stop at the station we had to get out at and went on for another 30 minutes before stopping and no more trains went back the other way, so we had to pay maximum fares on our oysters, pay a taxi fare, then CBC had to pay another train fare the next evening to rescue his car and hope he hadn't got a ticket. Was all rather a late disaster!

But, anyway, onto brooches...

 Here's Fat Kitty from the Nosuch Disco.

 Here he was in context with lots of other round patterns. And a lobster for good measure...

This day was a Bee day with a Primark sequin pin plus my bee pin from Rosebud Casson which I won in an Instagram competition when I explained how bees were important to me because of my Grandad. I bought this same pin for my Mum for Christmas and my sister also won one in the competition, so we all match now!...

I sincerely do!  The food I most missed when I lived in Indonesia! This came from Kate Gabrielle!

And finally, Balloon brooch from You make me Design on Etsy.  Fluttering and dancing in the breeze along with the bunting!

Any favourites here?

xx

5 broooches #55

300 reports complete. 200 to go.... Ahrgh!

A quick post here- one that was already ready to go but I always feel it is nice to add a welcome to you, written on the actual day!  It's only 6 days since my last broochage post but I haven't got much time to do anything else but I wanted a wee distraction!

Hope there's something you like here!

You can just see Nessie on the right. He's from @fairytalecollars on Etsy!  He seemed to fit right in with the Orla Kiely pattern I felt.

And here are the teapot and teacup brooches I made a while back out of Shrinkplastic. I started making another brooch the other day, one that has been sitting waiting for ages. The subject of it is so cute so I will be dismayed if it goes wrong in the oven!

Two photos of this one.  I thought I'd wear my Glitterpunk pastel keyboard with my Miss Patina Aristocat blouse!

Last but not least, is an ensemble you will have seen a few weeks ago. My charity-shopped Robin jumper with Rosebud Casson Robbin necklace plus her Blackbird pin and a Primark bird pin plus a Christchurch welcome badge!

Any favourites here?

xx

5 brooches #54

Hello there!

I hope your Saturday was blessed with being a halcyon day of sunshine like mine was...despite the headache, I enjoyed a pleasant walk in the woods with CBC and our friend, then dinner in a pub and a silly film night.

Back home now, trying to catch up on broochage over the past month!

This pair of brooches was really awkward to photograph ON so I took the jumper off to photograph! This owl is my favourite of all my Erstwilder brooches- he has such a benevolent facial expression.  The heart is part of a pair of collar clips from Punkypins...

This set of brooches and earrings used as collar clips was from a while back... The earrings are charity-shopped and the owl and Niffler pins from Rosebud Casson and Hannah Hitchman respectively..

The Perfect pin badge came from Primark as part of a set of £6 pins reduced to £1 for the lot. I ended up with two sets so i wore them as collar clips.

Bit of a Doctor Who, Clara Oswald cosplay here as these are the genuine screen accurate collar clips she wears in 'The Caretaker'.  I've liked them for a long time but not bought them. It was only when Lady Bird Likes' Zoe Bateman announced she was closing her brand and selling off what was left that I saw it was my last chance to get them! And at only £6.00 in the closing down sale, rather than the previous £16.00, it seemed a good opportunity.  I have still not added a button hole to this shirt so I used a planet pin to make this blouse high-necked.

And that's your lot. I am aware there are not 5 brooches here, nor are there 5 photos.  Aw, well, this little series has its name, we'll stick with it, even if it doesn't do what's on the tin!

Any favourites here?

xx

5 brooches #52- cats in disguise and others....

Hi All,

A quick brooch update from January! I'm rather behind but this is no problem..

Kitty black cloud from the Nosuch disco! I did well in their seconds sale!

Here's  Nosuch disco R2 D Poo versus my own handmade R2D2 brooch. Who won???

Another Nosuch Starwars cat- this one is BB8!

Charity-shopped stars upon my Florentine sweater!

Last but not least, glittery dinosaurs upon my Nan's gingham shirt. Considering she gave me this when I was about 15, I think it's doing well 20 years on!

Any favourites here?

xx

Alaskan skies

It seems an age since I have actually taken any outfit photos but I decided to yesterday as I was rather pleased with this outfit.
It all began with this beautiful skirt from Lindybop.  I realised, when I ordered it on about the 29th December (annoyingly 2 days before the 20% off bonus) that I have never ordered myself anything from Lindybop.  My three dresses from there have been presents from CBC.  I've often admired things but been remarkably restrained considering what my will power is like in a charity shop. It's taken me about 2 months to finally give in and buy this skirt- I loved it so much I gave in in the end. It features a beautiful Alaskan sky in my favourite colourscheme.

Wasn't the light beautiful in these photos!  It was such a halcyon day yesterday in the true sense of the phrase.   As I worked in the garden later on (I hasten to add, in alternative garments), I was struck with the light and gentle air.

The top is from a beautiful Vintage-inspired boutique that CBC and I found in Florence the day we got engaged.  I tried it on and he bought it for me for Christmas that year.  When I wear it, I always remember our time there.  It contains cashmere and the collar can be worn in various ways but this is my favourite one. It has only featured on the blog once about 4 years ago!

Since the Alaskan skies were starry, I decided to add these pretty diamante star pins which I purchased from a charity-shop for 45p each a few weeks ago.

Aside from tights, the final touch was this charity-shopped grey beret with charity-shopped rhinestone bow brooch (which lives upon this hat for a few years now- bought together)

Oh, and my beloved Doc Marten boots.  I wear virtually nothing else in the wet and wintery weather...

It's lovely when a set of garments makes you feel pretty. I felt that in this collection.  

Do you have any special garments from any times that draw you back to memories or other times?

Thank you again, from the bottom of my heart, for your kindness over the last few days. I realise that losing out on a house is not a great thing in the grand scheme of things and I am lucky to be able to stay in my rental house.

Hope all is well with you.

xx

Advent Day 23: 5 brooches #50- Christmas 2 edition- Jazzing up a boring outfit

When I reached 5 brooches #50, I always intended to do a Giveaway but sadly, I have run out of time to do much about it right now, so I might wait for a later number to do this officially.  

Today, all the brooches or pin badges were on one outfit. Namely on one waistcoat!

 These three pins (We three pins of cardigan are) came as a set from Sainsbury's. I should have resisted but it was oh so easy to put them into the basket. Quite jolly and sweet. I liked glittery Rudolf the best!

 Here's the gang combined!

And here are the other side. 

The top one is from Rosebud Casson who makes beautiful jewellery and I am reallly fond of this.

The middle one comes from Hello Crumpet on Etsy.  It is a domed one and rather delicate and pretty.

The last one came from Kate Gabrielle and was actually free with an order I placed! It is a darling Triceratops dinosaur who has a holly wreath and fairylights round his horns!

I thought I'd jazz up what was otherwise quite a boring, shapeless and casual outfit with the pin badges and also the pretty sequinned collar which is handmade in England and I found in a charity shop on Saturday for £1.49. I've liked using collars to smarten up outfits this year- it's definitely my favourite thing to do sartorially!

Any nice brooches from you this week? Do share if so!

xx

Advent Calendar Day 14: 5 brooches and friends #49: Christmas themed.

For today's Advent post I thought I'd share one or two Christmassy brooches I've worn in December..

 First up are the Sprout lover and Sprout hater pin badges which I won from @hannahhitchmanart on Instagram- you can find her on Etsy.  She created these wonderful pin badges which go perfectly with the Sprout shirt I bought at the Christmas fair!

 Sprout lover...

 Sprout hater...

 The next duo are technically speaking, not Christmassy, but I always think of this jumper as my 'While Shepherds watched' jumper and decided to add a Wise Men star and alien in Spaceship to the ensemble!

 This lovely Mistletoe brooch was a surprise gift from the lovely Lisa at Jumble and Jelly. She sent me two Christmassy brooches. I've worn the other one but its picture is on my tablet so I need to retrieve it! It worked so perfectly with this top!

 Here's my Punkypins Snowflake necklace up close!!! I love its irridescence!

The Penguin and toucan aren't Christmassy but the little penguin is! He was a Charitypin from last year!

More than 5 brooches but 5 pictures (if one doesn't count the Sprout pin close ups as pics!)

Have you worn any festive accessories!!

xxx