Being boring

When we woke up to a foggy and murky day on Saturday 11 January, we were glad we'd had the presence of mind to go for that spur-of-the-moment walk in park Den Brandt on Friday. Without the previous day's copious amounts of sunshine, the temperature, which remained stuck around 0°C, didn't offer any incentive to leave Dove Cottage's warm and cozy confines.

What's more, I wasn't feeling too clever, as it appeared as if a stomach bug had me in its grips. Not known for sitting still for long, though, I still managed to clean the bathroom, resew a loose button on a dress and write a blog post. As daylight was almost non-existent and the world outside wasn't my ally, we skipped making outfit photos that day. Consequently, I have no idea what I was wearing.

This, however, was what I was wearing on Sunday!

For some unfathomable reason, the forest green button-through wool blend dress my eyes alighted on that morning hadn't made it out of my wardrobe for many years. Bought from a gem of a shop called Vintage Styling, which sadly stopped trading back in 2016, it used to be one of my go-to dresses when the temperatures started dropping towards freezing point. Here I am wearing it topped with a faux fur capelet in January 2017.

I was originally wearing the tan mock croc belt in lieu of the dress's original self-fabric tie belt, but transferred it to the chunky mustard cardigan when I layered on top. The necklace is part of a set which also includes the ring I was wearing that day and which, same as the Léa Stein lookalike cat brooch, was a flea market find.

Thankfully, my alleged stomach bug had upped and left, and even the weather gods had mended their ways by raising the temperature to 4°C and surprising us with an unexpected sunny spell in the afternoon.

Too late in the day to go a bit further afield, we decided to go for a stroll in a local park which is almost literally on our doorstep.

Altena park is part of a domain which used to belong to an order of nuns, but which was acquired by the local council in the 1980s.

The big chapel on the top right, built in neo-Gothic style at the end of the 19th century, has been turned into a venue for concerts and exhibitions.

While the park itself was private property during my childhood, the adjacent large playground, opened in 1961, and run by the nuns, was a major attraction which put our otherwise sleepy village on the tourist map during the Summer months. They even had there own picture postcards!

Admittedly, some of the playground attractions - and in particular the vertiginous slide, which you can catch a glimpse of in the top right photo on the postcard  - wouldn't pass health and safety regulations nowadays. Sadly, the playground is no more as it finally closed down in 1986.

As we ventured into yet another working week, the weather continued being the same old boring grey affair. Except for Monday, that is, when after a frosty start the sun managed to warm things up to 4°C.

Technical problems which lasted all day threw a spanner in the works at the office, and I could only despair at the avalanche of emails which would almost certainly await me on Tuesday.

My lunch break brought some relief by walking to one of the Think Twice shops and indulging in a spot of bargainous vintage shopping therapy. 

Sales prices had gone down to € 6 by now and I was lucky enough to find treasure in the form of a teal cable-knit cardigan with the most delightful buttons.

Stripes a-plenty with a zig-zag striped brown jumper and a blue and yellow striped polo neck.

Both the cardigan and the zig-zaggy jumper have already had their first outing. Sadly, both were worn on weekdays, when the lack of daylight after work as well as my lack of selfie-taking skills ruled out the possibility of photographing my outfits.

There's always room for more accessories in my collection, so this green beaded necklace and painted wooden brooch, grabbed from a tray at the till, came home with me as well.

Although by Wednesday the mercury had climbed to 7°C, the sun had once again taken leave of absence. It was an utterly dismal day on which a pea-souper fog refused to budge, robbing the view of Antwerp's cathedral from our office windows. For comparison, here's the same aspect sans fog, and with the cathedral basking in early morning sunshine.

As it was Wednesday, a cappuccino catch-up with my friend Inez was on the menu. Always a bright spot in the week, taking place in Think Twice's coffee shop it usually combines a caffeine hit with a rummage fix. With prices down to € 4, Inez snapped up a peasant-style dress and found me another tank top for my modest collection. 

Skipping Thursday for being the usual uneventful and dare I say boring office day, we've now arrived on Friday 17 January.  No rest for the wicked, though, as I had a hairdresser's appointment, for which Jos kindly drove me all the way to Antwerp.

The chocolate brown 1970s does 1940s frock is yet another one which seemed to have escaped my attention of a while. A search on my blog has thus far remained fruitless which obviously doesn't mean that it wasn't worn in all of the almost nine since I published my first post!

The fluffy burnt orange cardigan was very much needed on this gloomy day with highs of barely 2°C.

There's no rhyme or reason to my accessories, I just played around with them until I was satisfied with the final result. They included an agate brooch, which was a flea market find about a year ago, a charity shopped chunky wooden beaded necklace and a stretchy belt with a leopard print buckle. The latter was last Summer's high street sales bargain.

Back from Michel, who has been my hairdresser since 1995, we booked our UK holiday cottage for June. I'll have you know that we have exchanged the cow shed we have been staying in for the last couple of  years for a stable :-) Still a long way off and a couple of hurdles to jump, though.

Yet another gloomy day awaited us on Saturday, the mercury abandoning all efforts to climb above freezing point. As the weather forecast kept insisting we'd get to see some sunshine on Sunday, we ticked the downstairs cleaning off our to-do list, leaving Sunday free for any spur-of-the-moment outings.

A rummage in my wardrobe unearthed the patterned velvet maxi skirt I snapped up at Think Twice in September 2023, its companion a charity shopped Norwegian style H&M jumper.

The eagle-eyed among you may have spotted the brooch I found at Think Twice earlier that week.

I opted for wine red for the rest of my accessories to pick up the pops of red in both the skirt and the jumper. The wooden beads were another charity find while the elasticated belt with its mock croc front panel and massive square buckle was picked up on the high street.

With the weather not being conductive for any outdoor activities, we decided that a charity shop rummage was in order. And about time too, as it would be our first one this year! Oh dear, we are really letting standards slip!

The gods of the charity shops welcomed us back with open arms and rewarded us with plenty of finds. 

These two blouses soon found their way into my basket: the floral pussy-bow one is vintage, while the shirt with its stunning blue, cream and orange Art Deco style pattern is by a French label called Emma & Ella. 

I fell head over heels for the amazing pattern on this King Louie cardigan, so that was a no-brainer. What's more, as this particular chain of charity shops no longer has a separate rail of posh labels they are selling at inflated prices, I just paid the regular price for cardigans of € 5,90. 

There's one final item which came home with me that day, but that'll be for my next post. Leaving you with a bit of a cliffhanger here, but I promise to be back soon!