Orange coloured sky

After a week of being cooped up in the office, I was glad that the weekend was finally in sight.

The world outside the office window was dressed in a deep blue sky, the kind of blue it only wears on the clearest of winter days.

The days ended as such days usually do, with sunsets displaying gorgeous layers of orange as the sun disappears behind the horizon.

Imagine my disappointment when Saturday dawned murky and with a sky of such a solid grey that the weak winter sun didn't stand a chance.

The quality of light was so poor that even outside photography didn't do justice to my latest € 2 buys from Think Twice.

First up is this pale green dress with dark green dots, which has a matching belt. Made in France, from a polyester/acrylic blend, with the tiniest bit of wool, it'll be warm enough to wear on the coldest of winter days.  

I'm just a little bit disappointed with the label, which says "Duchesse Anne". Don't these people know that I'm a princess? They spelled my name wrong as well!

Even in the best of my photos, the green in the dress was hardly noticeable, so I had to perform quite a bit of magic on them ...

I guess it will need a dash of bright colour to combine it with. Any suggestions are welcome!

The green in this dress was more photogenic, especially combined with the royal blue: one of my favourite colour combinations. And look at those pretty pearly buttons! There is a belt to this dress too, but I forgot to photograph it. 

The final dress is made from a blue crepe-like material, with a dusky pink lining.

I love its wide lapelled collar, the chevron darts and the fabric covered buttons closing with loops instead of button holes.

I also grabbed this black V-necked blouse with colourful flower print from the rails.

It is close fitting, with a long zip at the back and a slight peplum. The somewhat puffy sleeves have fabric covered buttons at the wrist.

I simply couldn't get enough of its cheery print, so here's a close-up for you to enjoy.

We had a family commitment on Saturday, to do with my dad's estate, so we only had time for a quick charity shop visit.

Unfortunately, it was a bit of a waste of time as we only found a Lourdes candlestick and snow globe for our collection. The upside is that we only paid a sum total of € 0,50.

But of course, I cannot leave you without showing you Saturday's outfit.

I was thoroughly fed up with this coat after wearing it to death last winter.

Combined with the royal blue beret and scarf combo, I have to admit it doesn't look too bad ...

It is quite comfy too.

The texture of this dark red dress prevents it from being too boring, and I added a turquoise cardigan and accessories to lighten it up. The birds brooch, bought new for a change, came from Mundos in Cardigan. I have another one in green and Kezzie even has it in bright pink.

The enamel brooch with the flower design was bought from the "brooch lady" back in March.

Oh, and now that we're on kind of a blue theme: this gorgeous piece of costume jewellery, which used to belong to my great aunt Josephine, had my name written all over it.

I think it looks really pretty tucked up in its original box on a bed of pink cotton wool.

This massive brooch was also passed down from my stylish great aunt. 

The centre "stone" always puts me in mind of Sherlock Holmes's "blue carbuncle", although goose will certainly not be on the menu for Christmas at Dove Cottage!

In the velvet darkness

The days are short

The sun a spark

Hung thin between

The dark and dark.

~John Updike, A Child’s Calendar, 1965

The darkest days of the year are almost upon us. We have also been in the throes of some bitterly cold but fortunately dry weather.
In the morning, I'm leaving the house while it's still dark, wearing many layers to protect myself from hypothermia during my commute, and it's dark again before I even leave the office in the evening.
It's a good thing I like wearing coats, hats and gloves!

At work we are being swamped with orders, which is kind of a tradition of its own in the weeks leading up to Christmas. I even worked through most of my lunch breaks last week. When I eventually did go outside, I made a beeline for Think Twice, as they were having their last sales of the year.

I'd stumbled upon this handbag while out shopping with Princess Inez on the Friday before last, but I didn't buy it at the time, as it was somewhat out of shape. I guess I was lucky it was still there when I went back for it, but as the price had been reduced in the meantime, it was definitely worth the gamble. I've stuffed it full of scrunched up newspaper to get it back into shape.

At the same time, I bought another handbag which you'll get to see in the outfit photos later in this post.

I also found this fabulous velvet skirt, featuring some of my favourite blues and greens, although with my colour blindness, I'm not too sure which is which.

I already wore it to work this week, combined with a jumper in the exact shade of one of the blues.











Oh, and before the week was out, we had a minor disaster at home. One evening, just before going to bed, our kitchen tap, one of those single lever mixer taps, cleanly broke off, with the hot water still running. There was nothing for it but to completely turn off the water supply ...

Under strict instructions only to come home with an old-fashioned tap, with separate handles for hot and cold water, Jos went out and bought this antique style beauty, which was actually the only one of its kind which didn't cost a fortune.

By the weekend I was knackered, and with the temperature still barely above freezing point, we only briefly ventured outside for a short trip to the charity shops.

You have seen the coat before, but not the handbag. This is the one I was referring to earlier.

I've actually got quite a few these black printed dresses in my wardrobe, most of them featuring flowers of some kind.

I guess they need to come out more often.












Outfit details:

Coat, beret, handbag and dress: Think Twice
Boots, cardigan, beads and belt: charity shopped
Brooch and gloves: Blender Vintage Shop
Scarf and ring: retail

At first we thought we needn't have bothered, as there was a Christmas market taking place at our shop of choice, with the ubiquitous Christmas soundtrack in the background, free mulled wine and lots of merriness.

However, once I'd found a quiet spot in the book department, I knew I wouldn't go home empty handed.

At least one of these novels by Vita Sackville-West will be next on my reading list.

Having just blogged about my vintage paperback collection, I was happy to find this lot.

As we continued our browsing, still well away from all things Christmas, I stumbled upon a silk scarf (€ 1,20), some vintage beads (€ 1,50) and a gorgeous pair of green vintage gloves, which all seem to go rather well together.

The gloves, which are pristine and were still in their original plastic packing, were peeping out from under a heap of cheap tat which was languishing in a basket at the till. Typically, they weren't priced, but after giving it some thought, the shop attendant said they were €0,25!

We handed over our money and ran!

The rest of the weekend was spent pottering around the house, but - busy bee that I am - I wasn't as lazy as some other member of our household!

On a positive note, we did book our holiday cottage in Wales for next June.

It's just over six months away, after all.

The fairy godmother

Once upon a time, there was a little girl, whose fairy godmother presented her with several gifts, which would greatly determine her life's path.

The first one, the gift of reading, came to fruition when the little girl was six years old. She can still vividly remember the very moment she realized that she could read, sitting at her parents' dining table one evening after school, and the feeling of utter happiness this gave her.

The second gift was more complicated. The fairy godmother thought long and hard and decided to give the girl the collecting gene.

At first, the little girl didn't know what to do with this gift, turning up her nose at her dad's offer of a stamp collection.

In the early 1970s, a better offer, in the form of a keyring collection, turned up. This was at the time when every brand worth its salt offered freebie keyrings with their products.

The little girl, encouraged by her dad who made her a rack to display them on, dutifully accepted offerings of keyrings in all shapes and sizes.

But after a while, the novelty of keyring collecting waned, especially when the craze eventually came to an end.

Fast forward many, many years. It was the late 1980s by now and the little girl was not so little anymore, although she still couldn't exactly be called tall.

Dressed in suitable 1980s attire, hair in a Louise Brooks bob, she walked the city streets and, still in thrall of the gift of reading, entered a well-known bargain bookshop.

Almost instantly, her eyes were drawn to this book on the history of paperbacks, focusing on their heyday from the mid 1930s to the late 1950s.












Leafing through its pages, she recognized some of the colourful covers which were on her father's bookshelf and which had always fascinated her.

Some colourful Signet publications from the late 1940s, early 1950s
Can you spot mine on the book's page?

Before she knew it, she was hooked. Soon, she and the boyfriend spent their weekends trawling the city's second hand book shops in search of treasure.

Bantam Books, 1949 (l), Avon Books, 1952 (r)

She learned about the different paperback publishers of the era and was soon able to recognize the style of the individual cover artists.

The more demure Penguins were not dismissed either, especially when in 1985 Penguin celebrated its 50th birthday and published a book on its history.

Clockwise from top left: 1935, 1938, 1964 and 1959

Neither was Penguin's little cousin, Puffin Books, which had been publishing children's books since 1941.

This beautifully illustrated edition dates from 1948

Eventually, life's habit of throwing things at you when you least expect them, put an end to this collection too, and when the girl and the boyfriend split up the collection was split up between them.

Classics from Signet Books, 1954 (l) and Pocket Books, 1951 (r)

By now, you will have surmised that the little girl was me, and that vintage paperbacks were just the beginning, and not the end of collecting for me.

Clockwise from top left: Signet Books, 1955, Pocket Books, 1955, Signet Giant, 1952, Signet Books, 1952

Lately, though, I have been eyeing my little collection quite wistfully, thinking I would love to pick it up again.

I might have left it too late, however, as most of the second hand book shops of yesteryear have long gone and those that remain are no longer treasure troves of cheap and cheerful old paperbacks.

One of my favourite books in a 1953 Bantam Bookds edition

Do you have any past collections, which you have abandoned?

Go slowly

Second hand shopping cannot be hurried. I call it slow shopping. It needs time, patience, and a certain amount of dedication. There's no quick fix or instant gratification. Of course, everything can be found online nowadays, but that doesn't work for me. I love hunting for things "in the wild", to coin Goody's phrase ... The pleasure of finding the unexpected or finally stumbling upon one of your "holy grails" is incomparable!

I'd been looking for a pair of burgundy boots for almost two years. During that time, I did come across several pairs, but none were right.  If they weren't too small or too large, they were made for girls with stick legs, and wouldn't close. The heels were either too high or too low. Or they had too many pesky details. I quite like a plain boot!

Imagine my delight when last Friday, while out shopping with my friend Princess Inez, I came across the perfect pair at last!

They were made in Finland and have a cosy layer of woolly insulation inside.













I also bought this pussy-bow blouse ...

and this brooch ...

... both of which Princess Inez cleverly found for me.

Of course, I already had to wear the boots on Saturday! They went perfectly with my stripy green pussy-bow dress.

The dress came with a self-fabric belt, but it looked rather plain, so I added a burgundy vinyl one.

A dark red cardigan and ditto tights completed my outfit.

Before leaving the house, I grabbed this thick chocolate brown woollen jacket, which is part of a suit I charity shopped last year.













We tried taking photographs outside our garage this time. Although the wall I'm posing against isn't as picturesque as the one inside, I love the little tufts of moss growing on top of the wall and the autumn leaves in the background.

I'd spent the morning sorting out some of the things I brought home with me from my dad's house last week. So, when we went to the charity shop in the afternoon, we took a boxful of no-longer-loved china, glasses and cutlery with us in order to make some much-needed space.

Perhaps because of that, for the first time in weeks the Gods of the charity shops smiled down upon us.

We knew we'd be alright when, just minutes after walking into the shop, we spotted this kitsch Lourdes wall frame for our collection.












A pair of black retro style lace-up booties, a gorgeous dark green velvet jacket and a Pringle scarf came home with me as well.

The jacket actually complimented the dress I was wearing like a dream, so I couldn't resist posing in it when we got home, although the artificial lighting wasn't ideal for taking photographs.

As you can see, I am also wearing the booties ...















On Sunday, we had an indoor flea market in Antwerp to look forward to. As we hadn't been there since last Spring, we were rather excited, especially as I'd read on their website that it was fully booked.

A quick peek at what I was wearing. The dropped waist dress came from Blender Vintage Shop. It was in my "I'm not sure" pile, but I decided to give it another go. I'm still not sure though ... Now, should it stay or should it go?

I've been racking my brain, but I can't for the life of me remember where I bought the brooch.

Speaking of brooches, I was glad to see that the "brooch lady" was having her usual pitch at the flea market. I happily browsed through her stash, which she keeps in folders, and after some debate I decided on these four:

The rest of the flea market was rather disappointing and my only other purchase was this shiny black vinyl handbag. I love its decorative white metal frame.

All in all, not a bad haul at all last weekend.

As I've had quite a hectic week so far, I'm now going to plonk myself down in front of the telly for some mindless entertainment.

See you soon!

A design for life

Pickings have been quite meagre at the charity shops lately.

Even my favourite vintage shop, Think Twice, has been letting me down, as in the three weeks since the start of their new collection, I only bought one dress.

Not to be deterred, last Saturday we persevered and went for our usual charity shopping trawl.

This was my outfit for the day:

The green checked woollen jacket with fake fur collar came from Think Twice and was actually bought in the middle of a heatwave last summer.

I added a charity shopped brown belt with lucite buckle, which almost exactly matches the shade of the jacket's collar.

My green vinyl handbag, which is surprisingly roomy for such a small bag, came from Think Twice, as did the green gloves.

Underneath, I wore a dress in a riot of autumn colours, found at our most local charity shop last month.

At the time, the red accents reminded me of holly berries, and the inevitable Christmas connotation is why it took me so long to wear it for the first time.

I accessorized the dress with a green belt, olive beads and ring and one of my Bambi brooches. All new-to-me, except for the ring.

As for the shopping trip itself, we only came home with a couple of things which I guess is better than nothing!

This plastic egg holder, made by a local company called DBP Plastics in the 1960s, came in many different colourways. They can hold two eggs and have a storage space in the middle for salt.

They are ideal for picnics and packed lunches and therefore have a certain nostalgia factor, reminding us of school trips and family outings.

They often turn up in charity shops for next to nothing and, perhaps not surprisingly, we already have quite a little collection of them.

I also found another vinyl beauty case for my collection. This one is such a lovely colour, and at € 2,50 I couldn't possibly leave it behind.

It's going to join the others on top of my wardrobe, as they're quite useful for storing smaller items like socks, belts and scarves.

On our way back, we stopped at Troc, which is a consignment shop selling both vintage and second hand items. Lately, they have added vintage and second hand clothing to their stock and of course I couldn't resist having a look, ending up with this long-sleeved, pink-hued frock.

Then, on Sunday, we had another clearing session at my dad's house. We are moving on to the bigger stuff ...

My parents received this dinner service as a wedding present in 1956 and used it throughout their married life on special occasions, like birthdays and Christmas.

Celebrating my seventh birthday

It's a classic Mid-Century Modern design, with a delicate black scroll.

Christmas 2013

In fact, it's a miracle that so many pieces survived, as my mum was quite accident prone, partly due to the fact that she had severe arthritis which through the years had seriously affected her hands. She has been known to drop whole dinner services ...

It were mainly the cups and saucers of this service which had fallen by the wayside, though, and there was still more than enough of it left to be divided between my sister and me.

Not that we need any more china ...













Having lived with it for so long, it is strange that I only had a look at what was on the bottom when I got it home. I was in for quite a surprise.

The "father of industrial design", or "the man who designed everything" are some of the accolades given to Raymond Loewy (1893-1986), who is considered to be one of the most influential industrial designers of the 20th century.

He was borrn in Paris and, after studying engineering, emigrated to the US in 1919.

Clockwise from top left: pencil sharpener, Shell logo, Sunbeam toaster, Coca Cola dispenser.

Both the pencil sharpener and the toaster are 1930s designs!

His legacy includes designs for transportation, homewares, furniture and architecture. He also designed many well-known logos, like BP, Shell, Hoover and Lucky Strike, to name just a few.

Even without this fascinating discovery, the family connection makes it a design for life, in the true sense of the word!

Now we only have to find some cups and saucers ...