Look at the world through your polaroid glasses

"Why, what's the matter,

That you have such a February face,

So full of frost, of storm and cloudiness?"

~William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing

In spite of January being considered the longest of months, it seems to have passed in the blink of an eye.

For me, it's the short month of February which brings a certain mid-winter slump.

It's like living in an in-between time, feet still firmly planted in winter, with the faintest glimmer of spring on the horizon.

I can abide the cold as long as it's sunny, but miserably grey and murky days really tend to throw me out of kilter and make me feel as if my head is stuffed with cotton wool.

One day last week, the fog was so dense that the tower of Antwerp's cathedral, which I can see from my office window, almost completely disappeared for the day.













The week kept dragging on a bit so, by Friday, I was gagging for the weekend.
Not that we had much planned. That's to say: nothing at all on Saturday and a get together with friends on Sunday afternoon.

So I will treat you to some random, mix and match snapshots taken over the weekend.

These Instamatic cameras, all of a slightly different design, are just part of our vintage camera collection. I'm toying with the idea of making a wall feature of them. Now, if only I had any wall space to spare ...

Dove Cottage's sitting room really comes into its own this time of year. In fact, it seems to be made for spending winter afternoons in, its coziness clearly appreciated by all.

There are books everywhere! Even under the coffee table ...

As we've been bringing back books from my dad's and we cannot resist picking up the odd one in charity shops, we had no choice but to start double layers in our book cases.

I've been trying to create some order, though!

These are some of my dad's worse-for-wear vintage paperbacks.

But we had to flee the house at some point on Saturday and made a half-hearted attempt at trying our luck at the charity shop.

By then, the temperature had climbed back into the positives, so that we were able to use our garage's white brick wall again as a backdrop for the outfit photos.

And look, isn't that a ray of sunshine I can see up there?

I'm wearing a cheerful red, grey and blue dress with a pussy-bow, to which I added a blue Camay scarf clip.














There was a sale on at the charity shop, which usually means there's not much to be found, but I was in luck, and came away with these two cute little cardigans.

Then, there was this dress, with a print and colour combination I wouldn't immediately have gone for, if the buttons hadn't won me over.

The sale was buy two, get one free, so at least I got a free cardie out of it.











On Sunday morning, I finished my blog post at my cluttered little work station. Organized clutter, I should add. Look, there's Lynn's photo lurking in the background. My twin in quite a lot of things, I'm sure she'd appreciate the clutter!

After lunch, we set out for a leisurely drive to visit our friends Ingrid and Luc. As we hadn't seen each other for quite a while, we had a lot of catching up to do!

The green patterned dress I bought at the charity shop two weeks ago had its first outing, and it was mild enough for a lighter jacket.














Ingrid and I were best friends in secondary school. Being the only punks in school, we were like sisters-in-arms.

Throughout the years, we've remained friends and kept in touch, even if at times it was only with the occasional email or phonecall. Sometimes, life's events do keep getting in the way, which is a shame really ...

Well-organized blogger that I am, I completely forgot to take photographs, but fortunately Ingrid's husband Luc snapped away with his camera!

Anyway, a lovely afternoon was had, after which I was ready to face another week!

Bring on February, I'd say!