A spot of Spring cleaning

In sharp contrast to the gorgeous Spring weather we experienced on Friday before last, the rest of the weekend was a bit of a letdown. 

Saturday made a promising start, as the sun was out in full force when we drew our curtains, which, with highs of 16°C forecasted, tricked us into thinking we'd get a repeat of Friday'glorious weather.  

But no. If we needed proof that the month of March can be just as fickle as her sister, April, she certainly delivered. More and more clouds started gathering while we were having breakfast, until soon it was completely overcast. We would get one or two short-lived sunny spells throughout the day, but rain was waiting in the wings, and the first drops could be heard tickling our skylight in the early evening.

What with the reasonable temperatures, I wore this long-sleeved yet lightweight vintage Venetia dress, bought from a long-gone vintage shop about 12 years ago.

Although living in the black section of my dresses wardrobe, its eye-catching pattern of white stripes, tiny white dots and garlands of frothy pink flowers makes one almost forget there's any black in it at all.

I opted for burgundy for some of its companions, notably my large buckled lacquered leather belt and one of my heart-shaped ajour patterned King Louie cardigans, both of which were charity shop finds. I wore burgundy opaques as well, but you'll have to take my word for it as you can hardly make out their colour in the photos. 

Shades of green were added for contrast with my beaded necklace, ring, flower corsage and ankle boots, all of which were provided by the charity shop goddesses at one time or another.

Lastly, let's have a look at my brooch, which consists of multi-coloured frosted berries on a gold-tone leaf. I bought it from the Brooch Lady at a flea market several years ago. As the berries had become detached from the leaf, which we knew was nothing Jos's repair shop couldn't deal with, she knocked quite a bit of the price. 

We were at a loose end that day, as the weather wasn't inviting us to engage in any outdoor activities. Wistfully looking out of the backdoor window, trying to decide if there were any garden jobs that suited my mood, I noticed how grimy the window and the smaller one above the sink were. Admittedly, cleaning windows is not my favourite job, and we do have a window cleaner who comes around at regular times to do the windows at the front of the house, which saves us from being considered total slobs as well as weirdos!

Anyway, I felt obliged to get out the cleaning stuff, so that the two windows are now squeaky clean. I also cleaned the door and window frames, both inside and out, as well as the window ledge. 

Baby Gargoyle was given some flowers to look after. They are yellow Primulas left over from last year, which I planted in a mosaic glass pot, originally the home of a solar light which has stopped working.

Ambling around the garden, I saw some grape Hyacinths popping their heads above the rim of one of the garden waste bags at the back. I duly admired their tenacity for flowering against all odds but to give them the best chance at shining, I cut off the flower stalks and put them in the tiniest receptacle I could find: a vintage ink pot. They still last one week later, having been properly looked after by Dutch kissing boy and girl on one of the kitchen shelves. 

I was pottering upstairs after lunch, when it suddenly dawned on me that I still had to show you the tantalizing tartan garment I charity shopped on Friday.

Ta-da, here it is! It was only when I was in the process of trying it on in the shop's fitting rooms that I noticed that it wasn't a skirt but a pair of cleverly constructed culottes! 

They are Scottish, from The House of Bruar, a shop which started out by selling a range of quality country clothing, but has now diversified into what has been described as the "Harrods of the Highlands". 

The groovilicious pussy-bow blouse is by River Woods, charity shopped in July 2020. I had both the blouse and the belt hanging ready to be incorporated in other outfits, but thought they didn't look out of place at all with the culottes.

Window cleaning and engaging in silly poses are exhausting pastimes, so I spent the rest of the afternoon on the sofa with my latest read, which so far I'm liking very much indeed.

While Jos had to get up early on Sunday to take his youngest daughter to the railway station in nearby Mechelen - she was off for a week in Edinburgh and Glasgow - I slept in and then stayed in bed reading for another half hour. 

We had breakfast when Jos came back, then, as the weather was still of the wishy-washy kind, I decided to proceed with a job that had been on my list for a while.

There's a vintage Tomado shelving unit in our bedroom on which we have been displaying charity shop and flea market treasures for years. The top shelf was completely devoted to Lourdes souvenirs - don't ask, it's one of those accidentally started collections - which we had decided to whittle down. Well, now was as good a time as any! 

We only kept some glass Lourdes water bottles and a Lourdes grotto ornament (top shelf, left and right) and a kitschy but fun snow globe doubling as a perpetual calendar (bottom shelf, and detail below, top centre).

Oh, how I love my treasures, each of which has a story to tell. 

The heavy brass Art Nouveau style family tree picture frames have my maternal great-grandmother Aloysia at the very top, followed by my maternal grandparents, Alphonse and Bertha and, finally my parents, Alphonse and Alice.

The monkey riding an elephant is actually a piggy bank and, having belonged to the above-mentioned Alphonse and Bertha, is a beloved family heirloom.

Here's the rest of the Lourdes gang praying for a miracle! They have been relegated to the basement until we've decided whether they are worth keeping for this Summer's flea market.

As I was on a roll, I dusted the rest of the bedroom and reorganized the bookshelves on the tiny landing between our bedroom and the spare room.

Here's a view of our bedroom's mantelpiece, which is ruled by one of my favourite objects, the green frocked Art Deco lady with her pet birds. Oh, and I've added some more of my baskets to the coat stand!

The afternoon was spent catching up with blogland, and playing around with my wardrobe, yet again assembling some outfits for the week ahead.  

I also made some flatlays, as there will be no after work outfit photos as long as the weather keeps playing spoilsport. This is the only one of the prepared outfits I actually wore, combining a vintage mustard yellow shift dress patterned with scrolls and giant flowers, and a sky blue charity shopped Zoë Loveborn cardigan with red buttons and trim.

Finally, here is Sunday's outfit of the day. 

The ochre and brown tartan circle skirt was charity shopped last Summer, and in spite of my best intentions it hadn't made it out of my wardrobe yet. Together with the blue vintage blouse with its pattern of stripes and naive flowers, it was one of the outfits I'd prepared for the previous week but which had remained unworn. 

This was the outfit for which the massive woven belt - last seen with the culottes - had been put aside.

My other accessories consisted of an ochre yellow beaded necklace (a present from my friend Inneke), a blue glass ring and a vintage gold-tone brooch with a posy of mother of pearl flowers.

I wore this again in its entirety the next day, but exchanged my ankle boots for tall ones. I am actually sick and tired of the latter, and can't wait for Spring to arrive in earnest so that I can wear more frivolous footwear! And my Spring/Summer wardrobe, for that matter!

See you next time!