TARDIS Tuesday- Yasmin Khan and her unidentified critters!

Hi there! 

I had a break from TARDIS Tuesday last week but I am back with something SEMI new!. I Last featured this outfit on the blog in November 2022.  It was worn by Yasmin Khan in Revolution of the Daleks for a short while.  FINALLY, she got out of her leather jackets and got into Corduroy... for about 10 seconds....grrr!!! It is one of those outfits where I IDed one of the garments myself- the lovely G Star Deline corduroy jacket but the actual shirt ID eluded me.

Fast forward to last week and my Insta Yaz fan friend Rebecca had managed to ID the blouse! I am pleased because I actually helped her with this.  I shared these screen shots and zoomed in on some to point out some smaller details and other colours and she did some work on lightening and adjusting the colours AND all of a sudden, she noticed there were not just flowers but creatures!  Knowing Yaz had a couple of Oasis blouses, she searched for Oasis AND FOUND THE BLOUSE!!! And once you saw her blouse, you could IMMEDIATELY spot the unicorns!!!! 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Rebecculous (@rikkuriffic)

And then we had lift-off!!!!

She shared a link to one or two on Vinted but I found myself one for £3 only and it arrived on Sunday to be picked up from the very useful INpost lockers.  I love these!  It's always exciting to

a) try and guess which door will open

b) try and complete the transaction in as short a time as possible as it tells you how long it took you. My current record is 18.2 seconds but I'm definitely up for decreasing this!

I wore my blouse for school today (Tuesday) but by posting time, it's already past midnight!

Here's my take on the outfit.

I'm wearing my G star jacket and Oasis shirt but I wore more school appropriate black trousers rather than blue jeans and added a pair of Yaz Dune boots. We don't see what she wore with this outfit but I'm betting it was boots!

I look fatigued and old but still smiling! Wore my Avon Lacey initial letters in place of Yaz's more expensive Alex Monroe ones. I'd love to own the actual Alex Monroe floral initial ones, they are SOOOO pretty but so expensive!

I thought I'd share some details of the pretty shirt. It's viscose but feels nice to wear.

Here's how I styled it when I got home work! Let my hair down and added my black furry gilet plus my crocheted slippers! IN TARDIS Blue of course!

Hope all is well with you! My day was quite successful! The year 3 classes had actually practised Jingle Bells at home and many were able to successfully perform it in the class. Singing Assembly went well learning You shall go out with joy, our trademark end of Carol concert song.  Year 2 and 1 were quite successful.  The usually difficult year 1 class LOVED recapping In and Out the Dusty Blue Bells and even more loved the new game, Here comes Barnaby  and came up with some very inventive ways of parading down the aisle of clapping children! Year 3-4 Choir went well as they finished learning my new Christmas song and seemed to like it- PHEW! Hoping you will get to hear it just before Christmas!

Can you guess what the title of it is?

xx

Lollies and foxes

 I haven't shared an outfit outside of TARDIS Tuesday for a little while so here's an outfit from last Saturday night.  CBC's mum and brother were staying with us- it's the first time we've had both our spare rooms used for guests- the sofa bed got its first outing!  We went to our favourite Thai restaurant for dinner after I had played for my church carol service.  I'd been wearing a large amount of clothes for church as it was outside but not I needed to wear something more stylish.  CBC's colleague says I need an intervention as we go to this Thai restaurant so much!

I wore this lovely dress from Palava Folk which features lollypops! It's made of 100% cotton and is beautiful.  My iridescent snowflake necklace gave me some sparkles.

I decided I wanted to wear my fox shoes from Love Hetty and Dave since I was going in the car and only walking from the car.

Wrapped up in my sheepskin jacket (charity shopped from the Dogs Trust about 5 years ago) and a lovely orange hat that CBC bought me for Christmas a few years ago.

Hope you are well!

xx

Lobsters and Langoustines

 Hello there Friends,

I hope you are well. It's going to be one of those Sunday evening waffle posts with a random outfit photo thrown in for good measure.

Let's start with the outfit:

This outfit is one I would definitely like to wear for a swing-dancing social when/if we will ever be able to do those again.  I've often seen girls wear a BRILLIANT big trouser look which I've not really ever been able to recreate (also I worry about getting hot because I sweat and go bright red when swing dancing so generally a sleeveless dress is my best way to go.

I wore this for school and felt really happy with the outfit. Sadly, for me, being rather pleased with it, it was a commentless outfit- no one mentioned it.

I started with this cute blouse which has a pattern of Langoustines on it.  I LOVE lobsters so the print made me think of them.  It comes from a label/shop called Compania Fantastica but purchased from Castle Collection in Leigh on Sea, one of my few new retail purchases in 2020. I realised that I could achieve the Swing-dance look by adding these big trousers from ASOS (purchased  in 2017).

The Flamingo cardigan is from Collectif but I bought it in a charity shop in April.  The shoes were Charity-shopped also in 2018.

Accessories were these 60's-style earrings from Lorelai LQ, my Erstwilder Lobster brooch and my HM Samuel cross necklace (worn for my wedding).

The weekend has been a fairly average one.

Friday night, I got home from school around 6.20pm to find CBC wasn't home and his phone appeared to be switched off. I assumed he was in the pub with work colleagues but as he'd done an all-nighter the night before, I'm always concerned when he is AWOL and not answering his phone.  Around 19:05, I finally got a text to say he was on the train and would be home in 10minutes or so but at 20:10, when he finally came through the door, it transpired he'd fallen asleep on the train and ended up much further down the line. As trains are only every 30minute at that time of night, it was a long wait. Sigh.  After finally managing to get him out the door to the Chinese to get some take away (I was tired, had no desire to cook and the kitchen was a horrible mess).   As soon as we got home, I served up plates and he was asleep on the sofa.  No amount of cajoling would wake him so I ate mine, watched a funny movie called 'Crazy Rich Asians" and then decanted all his back into the containers and put it in the fridge.

The next morning, we got up horribly early at 7am, after having woken up a few times. A frantic-putting together of outdoor clothes, making thermoses of hot drinks and making sandwiches over what we could find and stale bread and we set off to CBC's school arriving at 8.05am.  We were there to help out with the Duke of Edinburgh Bronze award expedition day.  We were all supposed to camp on the school field on Friday night but, because of the wind, that was cancelled. It was a shame that, because of Covid measures, we couldn't go to the usual camp site in Danbury and walk around there, instead, the students had to do a walk based on the countryside around town. 

The 20 groups set off in intervals.  Our first job was to drive to a flyover and help supervise a check point.  After all the groups were through there, we headed off to go to the next check point which was in a more rural setting, after redirecting a few straggling students who were heading off in the wrong direction.  We stayed there a while and had a little meander around, chatted to some students. We were singing a round called Old Bill Jones and a dog walker walked past us. We just carried on singing and when the next group of students came, they told us the dog walker told them we were singing.

After that, we went on a little drive to go and check the students were ok.  At one stop, we found some Three Cornered Leek which tastes very similar to Wild Garlic.  I picked a load (ironically, when we got home, I discovered it is growing in my garden, and it is apparently incredibly invasive!) to make pesto out of.

Our final destination was the car park at the golf course where the students would be ending. Along with another colleague, we went for a circular walk, whilst keeping an eye on the GPS trackers as to when the first students would be arriving, and then headed back. We saw some horses, an open air cinema and a starling popping in and out of a nest in a tree hollow (I have a video, will post tomorrow) and then headed back.  The students ended up arriving in dribs and drabs- we collected map cases, trangeas and GPS trackers.  Annoyingly, the last 2 groups ended up being an hour late as they started heading totally in the wrong direction at the last minute and CBC had to go and rescue them. We finally got home around 5pm.

After a VERY welcome cup of tea and a shower, we got dressed up nicely (oh so nice to get dressed up for a good reason!) and headed out to the Thai restaurant which was beautifully quiet with only 2 other tables occupied (unlike many other venues in the area which were very full) where we had a really delicious meal.

When we got home, CBC wanted to watch Eurovision. I, knowing he would fall asleep pretty swiftly, suggested that it was cold and we should take the laptop up with us to watch it sitting in bed.  I was correct and after about 3 songs, he was asleep. I switched the laptop off and went to sleep too.

This morning, we got up around 9am. CBC got dressed for cycling.  I got some washing loads together and put them into the machine. After a shower, I joined church on Youtube (and last week's service which I'd missed).  After that, I did some putting away, sorted the horrendous kitchen, hung up washing, put more washing in, emptied the compost caddy and did the weekly 'school teabag ripping up and putting on the garden' procedure and then mulched my strawberry plants and added some straw around them (which I've seen Sophie do in the past) to use the straw with came in my birthday hamper.  I then put away clothes.

CBC and I then went to the local garden centre (he was very impressed at its size - it looks tiny from the outside) and we picked up 3 new plants and 125litres of compost, 110litres of top soil and a bag of horticultural grit as well as some Willow trellis to try and tame the Clematis along as it ripped down the previous metal wire one.  There's also a greengrocers stall who sets up there every weekend and we bought some plastic-free veg from him- potatoes, asparagus (Kent), aubergines, sweetcorn, carrots, cherry tomatoes.  Then a brief trip to the COOP for bread (and lots of reduced bits).

When we got home, CBC repotted the new plants, we put up the trellis and then we finally filled my birthday planter (which CBC recently put on casters) with soil.  I then planted Gladioli bulbs in it. I plant to put wildflowers in it too and to plant my Dahlias in it (they're doing well in their individual pots.  I also planted out my remaining Courgette plant- although I'm worried about its chances of survival in the bed (the other two look awful!), it's just too big for the pot now.

Finally, I plated up the left over Chinese from Friday and we ate our dinner watching some more Eurovision. He lasted 3 songs before going to sleep. 

One week left of school!

xx

Dinosaurs and all that rubbish

Hello there!

Hope you are well.

I'm so glad it is the weekend!  It's been a long week but one with some good moments and some hairy ones!

The hairy involved me suddenly realising last night at 8.20pm, that I had left my handbag/rucksack on the train!

The good thing about it was that:

a)  my phone was in my pocket,

b)  my purse was on the floor at home

c) my lanyard with my bank card and all my important ID cards and train ticket etc was round my neck.

However, my front door keys and a Royal Mail Delivery card with my address on were in the bag as well as a few other things of sentimental note!

I knew exactly where I left it and at what time.

The frustrating thing is, there is just no way to phone a railway station.  If I could have just PHONED Shenfield station, I would have known where and whether my bag was there and had been picked up. But no, all lines are to a central source and most of those had shut at 5.30pm on a Friday. I hoped, upon hope, that because of Covid cleaning rituals, that a cleaner had picked up my bag instantly (as I was in the first carriage they would have checked and the train had terminated there, but feared if not, that a stranger was in possession of my keys and address!

This morning, I decided to get the train back to Shenfield to see if I could find anything out about it and happily- it was there AND I managed to get it back.  That was all rather a storm in a tea cup.

CBC had gone out cycling at 8.30am with his work colleague so after fetching the bag, the train was going back the other way in 4 minutes so I got the train back and went to the parcel delivery office to pick up the parcel from Royal Mail- it turned out it was a Hape harp that I had ordered from eBay! I saw one of these first at the Sage centre in Gateshead in their shop and had tried one and was suitably impressed by this lovely instrument for children. I remember it was £25 but I was going on a train and had no space at all in my luggage for it.  Next time I visited, they didn't have them. The previous week, I'd played some harp music for my Year 1's and I wished I had a harp-like instrument to share with them.  I didn't have one but I remembered the Hape harp and happened to have a search on eBay and found one for sale for £6 including postage.  I ended up finding another one for £12 as CBC liked the first one so much, we decided we wanted one for home as well so that was the second one arriving! I'm happy to have 2 for my initial price expectation!

I ended up walking around town with my bike pannier stuffed with the large parcel as well as the extra rucksack.  Charity shops were all very kind and allowed me to put my folded Brompton bike and very full pannier behind the till whilst I browsed and even in Wilko, after charming the very nice security guard, he let me park it (not folded) by the tills whilst I looked around.

I ended up with a very full pannier with vegetables from my lovely plastic-free greengrocer (he's called Karim- we introduced ourselves today!) and the harp and then a large jute grow bag for potatoes and a few other bits (including  a large bag of Wotsits- I don't buy plastic-crisp bags very often but I bought some today) 

When I arrived home, CBC had just arrived, his bike was parked by the garage and he was evidentally just about to open the garage. I parked up by his bike like a statue and gave him a surprise.

After we both had showers (he was super muddy and I hadn't had time to wash my hair in the morning), we drove to Leigh on sea to go for very late lunch. We were lucky to get a seat by the patio heater at Brunch co. and had delicious food, served by a charming, helpful waiter.  We also nipped into Scape Interiors and the Refill room where we acquired an Auberine plant!

Heading home, we went into the garden (after taking these photos)- I planted out my runner and French bean plants and CBC cut back the rampant Acanthus which seems determined to achieve World Domination at some point soon (you can see it at the very back on the right in the photos).  We also added water to the Coir compost I bought last week and I planted out some tomato plants.

 

Here's what I wore out for our trip.  This is the Dinosaur Run&Fly dress I mentioned in last week's post. I really like it being oversized.  I teamed it with my very old Primark cotton cardigan which has holes but is much loved and my red charity-shopped Clarks desert boots.

Here's a closeup of the 'Stuff'/'details' (thanks for the terminology Sheila/Vix).  My sterling silver bee necklace and these clever earrings from Lorelai LQ which are made out of repurposed bubble wrap mailers. I thought they suited the foliage from my dress.

Some good moments this week. I weeded a 1/3 of one of the raised beds at school and planted some very tiny Chard seedlings I've been trying to grow at school on my windowsill.  Had a bonkers session with my Year 2's on Thursday afternoon. Because it was Eid, we only had 36 in Year 2 in total (out of 90 children) so I just did a big Samba session with them all in the music lesson time which was great fun but DEFEANING!  After school, had a great session with my small drumming club- they are SO good and really are creative with their improvising. We've been doing some snare/tom-tom work which they are loving and I am too. I do like being able to get to know some children more- I've got a great bunch of boys and 3 girls.

On Thursday night, I finally got myself into gear and got a second piece together for our orchestra- I decided to write them an original Samba. It meant I went to bed around 1.15am getting it all typed into Sibelius and producing parts etc, but it was worth it- they made a great start on it on Friday.

Another good moment was the Year 5's who did their test on recognising different textures (monophony, antiphony, homophony, polyphony) and seemed to ENJOY doing the test- they did really well on the test too which was pleasing. 

Only had one horrible lesson this week which was with Year 6 and mainly because some of the boys just really lack manners and common sense. One on one, they are charming, but collectively, can be a real pain.  One of them felt so bad about his behaviour though, that he recounted the events to his mum and told her he felt bad about it so she emailed me on his behalf to apologise and we were fine when I next saw him.

Hope you are have had a good week!

xx

Fishy business

For work on Wednesday, I had planned a different outfit but then when I woke up, it was a bit more chilly than expected so I decided to swap to something long sleeved.  I had decided to wear this gold-fish striped shirt (bought from eBay a few years ago).  It's a bit big for me so I decided to tie it at the waist to give it more shape.

I paired it with this beautiful Broderie anglaise skirt from Kew which was a charity-shopped bargain of £1.50 last year! Leggings for decency during cycling

I suddenly realised that I had the perfect necklace to go with the shirt! It comes from The Crafty Anteater on Etsy

 In shoe terms, I had planned to wear a pair of Irregular Choice shoes to go with my previous outfit but when I swapped clothes choices, I realised I had a pair which might go with what I was wearing!

One of my work colleague commented on my apparel, saying that she adored my look! She never comments on what I wear so that was quite a nice surprised! I think it also helped that I wore my hair down to school which I virtually NEVER do!

Hope that you are enjoying your day!

xx

5 brooches and friends #67

Hi there,

Hope your evening is bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.

As you read this, I will be at my musical camp playing a large-scale piece for orchestra by Janacek.  I currently am doing my usual, "Hate packing!" avoidance and the time is getting later and later. Actually, I have begun packing but finishing it is always torturous!  I am praying for good weather for camping as I don't feel very good about camping in the cold with a cold! 

Anyway, it seems a rather long hiatus since my last 5 brooches post so here we are with some brooches and necklaces to share!

A Kimchi and Coconut space rocket entitled, "Fly me to the Moon" seemed a vaguely appropriate choice for this Clouds and aeroplanes dress.

 As well as the rainbow earrings, I thought I'd wear my two cute Book pin badges from Fable and Black to go with the pastel rainbow shirt.

 The same two pins accompanied my Cath Kidston book dress alongside this Bookish Owl in specs!

The Tatty Devine Macmillan pin badge I appropriated from my Mum seemed a jolly choice for this bold-checked shirt.

 Finally, no Cath Kidston dinosaur dress is complete without petite flying fox necklace and Stegosaurus felted brooch.  This brooch was actually a finger puppet I crudely sewed a broochback to when I bought it a few years ago!

Do you spy any favourites here?

Have any brooches been gracing your lapels?

xx

Rocky Robin

As I was looking through some blogposts that reviewed 2016, I realised that I have done very few outfit posts in 2017 and indeed, less blogposts than I have in previous years. I do think Instagram has a lot to do with that as has just being generally busy.

Anyway, I thought I would share my Christmas Eve outfit.

 Forgive the scruffy photos but I got my husband to take these quite late at night after I had come back from the Anglican Carol service and Catholic Mass (yep, went to both one after the other)

The robin dress is a handmade pinafore from Vintage Style Me.  I have one Dinosaur dress from there which I bought last year.  I follow them on Instagram and I know that times as a handmade business can be very hard and from the promotions running on Instagram felt that perhaps they weren't getting as many orders as they might have liked so when there was a promotion where they sent you a discount voucher, I ordered this pinafore. It IS a Christmas fabric, but I reckon I could get away with it in the Winter months.

To make it season appropriate, I wore this moss-green Topshop turtle neck underneath (charity-shopped) and some thermal leggings and boots (sadly not pictured!) 

Plus, my other favourite Robin item is this freebie necklace I got from Rosebud Casson last year!!

I always like it when CBC approves of an outfit (sometimes he is a bit disparaging about some of the more 'novelty' or 'Doctor Who' outfits)-  he liked this one!

What did you wear on Christmas Eve?

xx

Dinogirl

 Evenin' all!
Hope that your day was enjoyable, happy and fun.
Mine was... ok!

I thought I'd share this dress which I ordered back in October and tell you a bit about it.

I first saw @VintageStyleMe on Instagram back in August.   They handmake dresses to order.   I thought this was a nice idea and had seen this dinosaur print on their dresses.  However, I was going through my, "Noooo, I have too many dresses, must not buy, must not buy!" phases (I wish these won the war most of the time).   Then I read an article on the lady who runs Vintage Style Me's blog where she talked about the difficulty of running an independent clothes business where she has to compete against fast fashion and how she cannot compete with a clothes chain who can sell dresses for £5 or similar.  She wrote about how sometimes, just one sale in a week can save her and allow her to pay her bills etc and selling one dress can be a lifeline.  I can't find the article on the blog, it doesn't seem to be working right now, or I'd link to it.  It was written so eloquently and honestly and stuck in my mind. I kept hearing those words over and over again in my head. More often than not, I buy my clothes second hand or occasionally from brands such as Miss Patina,  Cath Kidston, Palava Folk though I do frequent Primark and Topshop and Asos.

 Still, it remained in my mind for a while every time I saw an Instagram post and I kept looking at the website.  Finally in October, they had a promotion of 40% off any dress which in my mind tells me that I should have bought it full price, since that would support the principle that was running in my mind.  However, I am a sucker for a bargain so I ordered. I went for their 'Design your own dress' option which is a bit more expensive than the 'ready designed' ones. Usually £59. I chose the dinosaur dress and went for a more fitted Skater dress, rather than their ubiquitous smock style which doesn't suit my shape. I am a total collar addict when it comes to my clothes (in case you hadn't noticed) so I opted for a cute collar and cuffs and a slightly longer length.

Bear in mind, it DOES take a while for this option to be made and arrive.  It was posted on around the 21st December when I was in South Africa and it hadn't arrived when I got back from there. I contacted them and said they'd posted it but obviously it had been lost in the post.  They said would make another one which made me feel terrible. My original intent of supporting an independent business had somewhat backfired.

They were really quick and it arrived a week later and here it is.   It is made out of a sort of Barkcloth material- quite textured.  However, wearing it here on that Saturday, somehow I have managed to rip it partially down the back seam.  It seems to have frayed there after my doing that. I did hear a rip noise when I was pulling down my sleeves (you know when 3/4length sleeves get stuck by your elbows and you're putting on a cardigan).  I hope to do something about it.

Nonetheless, despite the comedy of errors, it is a nice dress and very different and I am very glad to have ordered it.

I added dinosaur collar clips in case you didn't realise!

Do you buy independent?

xxx

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

Comfort Fox

 Sometimes, you wear something that is utterly comfy and you want to wear it perpetually. But, I do like wearing things in different ways, so it is nice to try and wear those comfy items in slightly different ways. Or wear them all together.

 When I bought this fox sweater, it was a last minute thought- I was ordering 52 red t-shirts for my WW1 choir last year and since I was paying the postage anyway, I glanced at the George at Asda range and saw this fox jumper in the sale. It is singularly the most comfy animal sweater in my collection.

Similarly, the tartan dress was a charity shop purchase I have worn on so many occasions. Very comfy. And leggings and long socks!

I wore this for my garden work on Sunday, so no where in particular but very comfy.  Oh and some sparkly hearts from Crown and Glory. Because, why not?

Do you have any really comfy items you love?

As you read this, I shall be playing viola in Handel's Messiah in Maldon.  My arms will be aching as will be jaw. But it's good for the brain I suppose!

xxx

Encouragement.

 Hello there!
I hope you are well!  I am writing after a very busy weekend and it is nice to sit down for a moment and type something here!
I didn't have time to get into the garden to take a picture of today's outfit and yet I really wanted to photograph it so I harked back to the early days of my blog outfit post where I would take pictures with nice piles of clutter in the background committing all those blogging faux-pas that all the pro-advising 'how to..' bloggers cite as a big no-no- letting the world know that actually you are a messy person who owns clutter.  And showing the evidence in your photos.  I admit it, I have clutter.  As I took these, the plasterer had just departed after being here from 8am on Saturday AND Sunday so yes, there is debris around. He was good though and brought his own hoover to hoover up plaster dust!

Anyway, to appease the clutter Police, I have super-imposed flowers courtesy of PicMonkey to try and trick you into thinking it is tidy!

 The jumper was one of my other purchases last Saturday on my birthday trip out in London.  I saw this jumper in Collectif in Christmas 2014 and loved it but didn't want to buy it at full price.  Thus I was rather chuffed to find it at less than half-price when I bought my sailor coat. It's 100% cotton which I am glad about as I dislike all these viscose/acrylic mix jumpers they all seem to have and the collar is very furry!

 Hedgehogs for your delectation!

 Oh and I alluded to another purchase which was these Corporate Beauty heels from Poetic License at Irregular Choice. I fell in love with them when they first hit the Irregular Choice site but couldn't justify them.  Somehow,when I went to see the Alice collection, I ended upstairs in the sale section and found these beauties in my size at less than half the original price!  They are so pretty!

Today, at church, a lovely young lady (who is 17 who is battling with exams, school shows, Grade 7 flute and general life) was asked if she could transpose several songs for B-flat instruments and have some extra rehearsals.  She was really upset at having to say no, as she had asked for the music specifically by a date (which has passed) and is so overworked at the moment (coursework for Art, Music,History, Spanish) and I thought that though there are so many people that moan about teenagers these days, me definitely included, that we don't always see that for every lazy phone-obsessed individual, there are 10 beautiful, hard-working, kind, caring youths, who take opportunities (Leading a worship band and writing parts for younger players in her case as one example alone), give their all and do amazing things.  It encourages me to see people like her and I was sad for her to see her finding it hard to juggle everything.  I really wanted to encourage her and help her out and so I've sent a card in the post to her which I hope will greet her midweek and cheer her up. She has an amazing family, but no matter what support systems people have in place, I think it is our duty to take the time to do something to encourage people, even if we are worried that they will think we are silly for doing little things like this. I'm not saying it so you will leave comments saying, "Oh that's so nice of you!" (please don't), but so you might take the time to perhaps do the same and encourage someone with a small gesture if you can.   "Therefore, encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing," it says in 1 Thessalonians v11.   It would be a nice act for this week to try and encourage where we can and that is my aim for this week. To encourage.


I hope you have a good week.

xx

#5 brooches 15

Hi there! There are mostly new brooches in this batch as well as a familiar one or two!

Brooch numero uno is this copper-glitter bear!  I find him utterly adorable! It looks like he is looking up lovingly at me! This Whitestuff short-sleeved cardie is the perfect display cabinet for brooches I've discovered! It has HAUGE lapels!  I've had it about 6 years but I don't wear it very often as it is handwash only and I know it will fester at the bottom of the laundry basket for years! But since washing machines now have handwash settings, really I have no excuse except my fear of wrecking it! The necklace was a Christmas pressie from my sister-in-law and is from Ladybird likes!

Foxy makes his reappearance for the 3rd time in the 5 brooches series! I like his serious yet twinkling eyes! Thought I'd show you the collar in its entirety avec double chinnage for free!

That's him close up. On the same grey cardie.

Collar clips! The shirt I am wearing has been my most worn charity shop purchase of 2015- £1 bought with Hazel and Sophie it is comfy, requires no ironing and is boring enough for collar clips every time!

I've shared 3 pictures of these dinosaur collar clips as they were really hard to photograph. As you can see, this shirt DOES require ironing which I attempted to hide under my charity-shopped tank top but the lack of ironing was sadly evident.

Raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawr! Stegosaurus!

Snap, snap, bite, RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWRRRRR! T-rex!

Lastly, this 'Save the Bees' ceramic brooch went with my December-charity-shopped mustard polo neck jumper. To my mortification, on wearing this with black trousers, my friend and colleague told me I looked like I was in Star Trek!  Now I love being told I look like I am dressed up as something but I would have liked to have been doing it deliberately. Hmmmm,Star Trek brooch....

Any favourites? I've seen some lovely ones around but I can't remember whose posts as I was on a train!!

Brooches elsewhere

http://www.annasislandstyle.com/2015/12/party-season-and-pitfalls-of-indoor.html 
Anna's amazing sparkly brooch with beautiful silver dress and accessories!
http://www.annasislandstyle.com/2016/01/winter-turquoise.html 
Kenzo brooch