Make me smile

As I'm working full time, my blog posts tend to concentrate on my weekend escapades and outfits.

This is especially true this time of year, when the lack of daylight prevents me from blogging about my day-to-day life or showing you any weekday outfits.

I'm also eternally strapped for time, so that more often than not I am blogging about things that happened one or even two weeks ago.

Take this outfit, for instance. I wore it on Saturday before last and, already having written about what we did on Sunday, I just had to backtrack and share these outfit photos, even if it messes with my timeline.

For fear of sounding like a broken record, it was another grey and rainy day. As it was quite chilly to boot, my purple fake fur (a.k.a. the Muppet coat) came out to play again.

I might have gone a bit wild with patterns and colours that day, but I desperately needed something to cheer me up and put a smile on my face, and this outfit just happened to fit the bill.

Here's to hoping it will put a smile on your face too!

This was my first wear of the psychedelic print skirt I picked up at Think Twice last month. Its polyester/wool blend is super soft to the touch and ensures that it is a joy to wear.

The mad, silver print on sea green tights were from a local shop. You can catch a glimpse of the purple socks I was wearing to keep my feet warm and toasty.

But I'll stop beating about the bush, as I'm sure you will have noticed by snakeskin print booties by now!

I bought them, together with another pair in pink suede, from New Look during one of my lunch breaks that week. All six of their Belgian shops have gone into liquidation and they were having a closing down sale, with their new collection going at half price.

They were definitely worth braving the huge queue at the till for.

The weather that week was the usual up-and-down affair, with a brief appearance of the sun one morning, bathing Antwerp's cathedral in a golden glow, and a dense fog obscuring most of its tower from view the next. 

The view of the cathedral from my office window is another thing that never fails to put a smile on my face, whatever the weather.

But I'm digressing, so let's get back to Saturday. 

Before I go ahead and show you what I was hiding beneath the Muppet coat, here's a look at the rest of my outerwear: a charity shopped Burberry beret in a rusty brown, my ancient green scarf and a pair of dark green leather gloves, which were a sales bargain.

I picked up the turquoise in the skirt (it might be green or even blue to you, but I'm slightly colour blind in that range, so I'm taking the safe option) by wearing a vintage blouse in the same colour.

It came from Blender Vintage Shop, which sadly is no longer trading. Don't you love its scalloped, flower petal collar? It's made of some sort of stretch crepe fabric, and it has tiny white dots, pearly buttons and a ribbon tie at the collar, which I accented with a brooch with a purple stone, again picking up one of the colours of the skirt.

A second brooch was pinned to the blouse's collar, this one featuring a portrait of a lady. Having a simple C clasp and a long pin, I'm guessing this is quite old.

More purple was added in the form of a charity shopped cardigan to which I pinned a third brooch, a gold tone bow with a mottled red and white stone.

Here are the other things that made me smile that week.

One morning, while I was on my way to the bus stop, I was captivated by the view of our local town hall. It has recently been re-opened after extensive building work. An extra floor, looking like a square box with windows all around, was put on top of the existing building. Needless to say, we are calling this contraption "the fish tank". That morning, it was all lit up, and it was looking quite spectacular, especially with the huge lit up figure which seems to be holding up the box.

The figure is the six metre high village giant called Contios, who was introduced in 2013. He's got movable limbs which enables him to be walked through the village streets at special events, and here he was part of the town hall's re-opening celebrations which took place last week.

I dare anyone not to smile at the sight of this brave little daffodil which unexpectedly reared its head in the flower box at our back window. 

Or at the sight of my flying duck skirt! I happened upon it in a charity shop last weekend. On closer inspection it turned out to be vintage Scapa of Scotland. And it has pockets as well!

Here I am wearing it with an old rust coloured jumper to which I couldn't resist pinning my wooden flying duck brooch. 

I shopped my wardrobe for the belt, and the brown owl ring used to belong to my friend's daughter Cynthia. She donated a bag full of jewellery for my flea market stall, but I rescued the things I liked for myself!

The ridiculously comfortable boots were charity shopped that same day. The leather is slightly worn, making them perfect for bad weather days. And the best thing is that they were only € 2.

Leaving the best news for last!

We have finally, finally put my parents' house up for sale last week and last Sunday we have accepted an offer, which means that it is as good as sold. Not bad at all after only a couple of day, and surely something else to smile about. 

Nevertheless, as this is the house I grew up in, it will be kind of bittersweet saying goodbye after all these years ...

But that will be for another post.