Go slowly

Second hand shopping cannot be hurried. I call it slow shopping. It needs time, patience, and a certain amount of dedication. There's no quick fix or instant gratification. Of course, everything can be found online nowadays, but that doesn't work for me. I love hunting for things "in the wild", to coin Goody's phrase ... The pleasure of finding the unexpected or finally stumbling upon one of your "holy grails" is incomparable!

I'd been looking for a pair of burgundy boots for almost two years. During that time, I did come across several pairs, but none were right.  If they weren't too small or too large, they were made for girls with stick legs, and wouldn't close. The heels were either too high or too low. Or they had too many pesky details. I quite like a plain boot!

Imagine my delight when last Friday, while out shopping with my friend Princess Inez, I came across the perfect pair at last!

They were made in Finland and have a cosy layer of woolly insulation inside.













I also bought this pussy-bow blouse ...

and this brooch ...

... both of which Princess Inez cleverly found for me.

Of course, I already had to wear the boots on Saturday! They went perfectly with my stripy green pussy-bow dress.

The dress came with a self-fabric belt, but it looked rather plain, so I added a burgundy vinyl one.

A dark red cardigan and ditto tights completed my outfit.

Before leaving the house, I grabbed this thick chocolate brown woollen jacket, which is part of a suit I charity shopped last year.













We tried taking photographs outside our garage this time. Although the wall I'm posing against isn't as picturesque as the one inside, I love the little tufts of moss growing on top of the wall and the autumn leaves in the background.

I'd spent the morning sorting out some of the things I brought home with me from my dad's house last week. So, when we went to the charity shop in the afternoon, we took a boxful of no-longer-loved china, glasses and cutlery with us in order to make some much-needed space.

Perhaps because of that, for the first time in weeks the Gods of the charity shops smiled down upon us.

We knew we'd be alright when, just minutes after walking into the shop, we spotted this kitsch Lourdes wall frame for our collection.












A pair of black retro style lace-up booties, a gorgeous dark green velvet jacket and a Pringle scarf came home with me as well.

The jacket actually complimented the dress I was wearing like a dream, so I couldn't resist posing in it when we got home, although the artificial lighting wasn't ideal for taking photographs.

As you can see, I am also wearing the booties ...















On Sunday, we had an indoor flea market in Antwerp to look forward to. As we hadn't been there since last Spring, we were rather excited, especially as I'd read on their website that it was fully booked.

A quick peek at what I was wearing. The dropped waist dress came from Blender Vintage Shop. It was in my "I'm not sure" pile, but I decided to give it another go. I'm still not sure though ... Now, should it stay or should it go?

I've been racking my brain, but I can't for the life of me remember where I bought the brooch.

Speaking of brooches, I was glad to see that the "brooch lady" was having her usual pitch at the flea market. I happily browsed through her stash, which she keeps in folders, and after some debate I decided on these four:

The rest of the flea market was rather disappointing and my only other purchase was this shiny black vinyl handbag. I love its decorative white metal frame.

All in all, not a bad haul at all last weekend.

As I've had quite a hectic week so far, I'm now going to plonk myself down in front of the telly for some mindless entertainment.

See you soon!