In the eye of the storm

Like many of you, I've been feeling quite overwhelmed by the devastating news bulletins on the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and once again, I'm having to limit my news intake to the bare minimum in order to keep the wolves of anxiety from my door. On top of that, work has been quite hectic lately, which has further drained by already depleted energy levels. The long and short of it is that my head is a mess and while words are jostling for space, stringing them together in an orderly fashion is quite another thing.

At this moment in time, posting outfits and charity shop finds might seem shallow and frivolous but, the odd moan aside, I'm trying to keep my blog a place of refuge away from all the devastating madness.

Starting as I mean to go on, what about some feline cuteness to get this post going?  Doesn't it just beggar belief that yesterday, the 4th of March, it had been one whole year since the sweetest of furry creatures moved into Dove Cottage, enriching our lives in the process? The seldom seen cat for the first few weeks, she has slowly but surely developed into quite a character, making Dove Cottage her own and turning Jos and I into her long-suffering yet adoring servants.

Now, back into the time machine we go, setting the controls for the stormy penultimate weekend of February. 

After the onslaught of storm Eunice, which arrived on Friday afternoon and battered us well into the evening, we opened our curtains to a sunny morning on Saturday. Being a bit wary of the weather, as rain and more high winds had been forecasted later that day, we were somewhat in limbo.

In the end, we decided on a trip to the garden centre to pick up some pansies and primulas, after which we continued to the small - for Belgian standards - charity shop in the neighbouring village of Reet.

I was wearing one of my all-time favourite vintage dresses which, much to my surprise, didn't yet get an outing this Winter. Its print featuring orange, lilac, green and white flowers on a black background never fails to put a spring in my step. It's got a solid black cowl neck and cuffs as well as a wide circle skirt which was just made for twirling. 

I layered it with a chunky green cardigan, which is from Mango by way of a charity shop, ant to which I pinned a vintage brooch featuring a crown of orange flowers with a white one at its heart. At my waist, I added one of my stretchy chevron belts and I wore a charity shopped off-white longline beaded necklace. I'm also offering you a glimpse of my burgundy plastic ring, one of Friday's finds I still owe you.

Back at home, Jos discovered that Eunice had made a casualty, beheading poor Venus by toppling her off our kitchen windowsill. As if it wasn't bad enough that she is armless! At the time of writing, Jos has glued her head back on, but for nearly two weeks it was looking at us balefully from its bed of houseleeks ...

With the weather gods treating us to a rainy all-dayer on Sunday, presenting us with a hailstorm accompanied by thunderbolt and lightning in the early evening, it was a day to remain firmly ensconced inside Dove Cottage. And that was before they sent us storm Franklin overnight!

The good news is that I had all the time in the world to photograph Friday's and Saturday's charity shop finds, although light conditions were understandably poor.

First up is this handmade skirt which bowled me over with its exuberant flower pattern. The eagle-eyed among you might have caught a glimpse of it in my shopping trolley pictured in my previous post.

The ochre knit jumper was another Friday find, albeit from a different shop.  As luck would have it, it turned out to work perfectly with some of my other finds too.

Case in point is the floaty pleated skirt in a chocolate and fudge zebra-esque pattern, originally from high street shop Lola&Liza. I spotted it when I saw someone returning it to the rails. The hessian belt with its massive rectangular wooden buckle was, of course, a no-brainer.

I fell hard for this funky pair of pull-on trousers, although I haven't decided whether they will be for lounging around the house only, or whether they will eventually get an outing.

The jewellery department did deliver again as well, with two scarf clips and two rings found for me by Jos, and two wooden beaded necklaces.

Apart from the jumper, all these were found at the 3-storey charity shop with the cafeteria in Duffel.

Joining the jumper at the 2-storey shop in Mechelen was Friday's star buy. I had just unsuccessfully tried on a Zara jacket with a faux fur collar, when my eye was caught by this fabulous grey, brown, blue and pink tweed coat by my beloved King Louie. And just look at that divine equestrian lining!

I'm guessing its original retail price must have been in the region of € 150, so the shop's € 6 price label must make it bargain of the year so far!

A not unimportant detail is that all its pockets are real ones!

I also found this multi-coloured striped scarf, which I thought looked very jaunty with the coat.

My final find in that particular shop was a fabric covered box which, at € 0,50, I found impossible to resist. Although I didn't have a purpose in mind for it at the time, that was soon remedied when I spotted the tiny runner embroidered with birds and flowers in the charity shop we briefly visited on Saturday. A snip at € 1,50!

They have conspired in totally transforming our hallway cabinet, with the box holding a ready supply of soon to be obsolete face masks. As from Monday, the mask mandate will be lifted in most places here in Belgium, except for on public transport and in healthcare institutions, although I'll still be wearing one in busy places for the time being.

Sunday's outfit was built around the green and pink plaid Betty Barclay dress I found at Think Twice back in November. Although Angelica modelled it for you at the time and I actually already wore it to work, it still had to make its debut on the blog featuring me!

I took my lead from the plaid's pink, opting for a pink-based woven belt to cinch my waist and a hot pink tie-neck cardigan for extra warmth.

My accessories consisted of a wooden beaded necklace with lashings of pink and a pink owl brooch which, apart from my raspberry pink opaques, is the only item in my outfit which was bought retail.

Even my forest green ankle boots were a serendipitous charity shop find back in November 2018. They came into my life after I'd succumbed to a pair in a high street shop while on holiday in Middelburg as my search for green ankle boots had so far been fruitless. 

Due to the inclement weather, we were once again reduced to making outfit photos inside. With the help of a recently required cheap ring light, they didn't turn out too badly this time.

It was a day for catching up on chores, so I dusted while Jos swept the upstairs rooms, then folded away the morning's washing, assembled some outfits for the upcoming week, uploaded photos and caught up with blogland.

The rest of the day was spent curled up on the sofa with my latest read, on which the jury is still out.

I'll be back with some long awaited sunny weather soon. In the meantime, please try not to let anxiety get the better of you!

Oh, and before I forget, it's my blog's sixth anniversary today. How is that even possible?