Cold as ice

Although I will probably never be a fully paid up member of the Christmas fanclub, this year the run-up to the festive season isn't making me feel as nauseous as it usually does. Don't worry though, I won't be joining the hordes of Christmas shopping zombies any time soon! However, I have been inside the big pop-up Christmas shop on Antwerp's shopping thoroughfare and (yes, really!) and, after putting up the office "faux fir" weeks ago, we have now put up our own tree as well, which is the earliest we've ever done. 

I've just realized that I have mentioned the C word no less than three times in the first paragraph of my post. Oh dear, there really must be something wrong with me!

To celebrate our long-suffering passageway's return from the dead, we started the first weekend of December by going shopping for some pansies and a couple of Winter-loving plants to add to our display. 

As usual at this time of year, plants and gardening stuff have taken a backseat in the garden centre in favour of the annual Christmas extravaganza. Although we ignored this as much as we could while winding our way to the plant tables at the back, I couldn't resist snapping a photo of the huge tree decorated with all manner of bird houses and wild bird food.

We weren't able to walk past the fake steam train at the entrance without making use of it as a backdrop for a couple of outfit photos, showing you my newly unearthed Winter coat and my beret and scarf of the day.

As it was gloomy and cold, with highs of only 5°C, knits and layers were the order of the day.

My blue and white velvet floral skirt was supplied by Think Twice about three years ago, while its companion, the green Norwegian style jumper, originally from H&M, was charity shopped in January of this year.  

With its busy and colourful pattern, it wasn't easy to find a brooch which would stand out, but then my eye was drawn to this vintage off-white celluloid flower, which certainly did the trick. The pink in the jumper's pattern was picked up with my necklace and belt, the latter being the only item in my outfit which was bought brand new.

The faux fur cropped gilet I layered over my jumper was a charity shop find, while I picked up the snake print ankle boots in a vintage per kilo shop earlier that week.

In spite of the uninviting weather, I donned my old hoodie and gardening apron after lunch and got stuck in the passageway. I planted up the pansies, as well as a cyclamen and a couple of hellebores we'd brought back from the garden centre. Before I'd even finished the first pot, however, my fingers were frozen solid, as in my haste to get going I'd forgotten to put on my gardening gloves.

That said, there's a marked difference between the actual temperature and that in the sheltered passageway. Always having been a degree or two warmer here, it appears that the new, higher wall has increased the difference to no less than three degrees!

This makes it the ideal place to overwinter some of our tender plants, so I moved all the geraniums and a salvia to the passageway. Courtesy of the mild temperatures we had well into November, two of the geraniums are still in flower as I type, while the salvia still bears several purple spikes.

The next day, Saturday 3 December, was bitterly cold with a sharp East wind, the mercury not climbing higher than 3°C. 

To cheer up this dark and dismal day, we started thinking ahead to next Summer by booking our holiday cottage in Shropshire for two weeks in June. Then, after a lunch of omelettes and homemade bread, we drove to the charity shop in Duffel for a rummage.

You can tell it's getting really cold when I keep on my beret when making outfit photos in our garage! This lilac one - a colour that was still missing from my collection - was a high street find a couple of months ago.

I selected this dress - an old Think Twice find - for its wool content, layering a camisole as well as a long-sleeved t-shirt underneath. Don't you love the dress's flower basket pattern?

The blue Zoë Loveborn cardigan, with its fan-like pattern and orange and blue buttons, was charity shopped, as were my blue woven belt and beaded necklace. The pink pearly brooch pinned to my dress came from Think Twice.

I spent a happy hour or so perusing the shop's clothing aisles, finding a handful of treasures. 

Then, walking past the bookshelves on my way to join Jos in the cafetaria, this book caught my eye. Written by Deborah Cadbury, one of the descendants of the Cadbury dynasty, The Chocolate Wars tells the story of the great British chocolatiers and the rivalry between them. I can't wait to read this although I think my chocoholic husband will get his hands on it first!

The treasures from the clothing aisles included a snuggly part mohair green tartan skirt, an orange King Louie cardigan, a label-less funky t-shirt and a cream daisy belt with a bit of sparkle by Belgian label Caroline Biss, with the silly price tag of € 0,50.

And while we're on the subject, let me show you my lunch break finds from earlier that week. On the top right, a better view of those snake print ankle boots I was wearing on Friday. As already mentioned, they're from a vintage per kilo shop, and they cost me just under € 10.

The vintage blouse with its Paisley pattern and the chocolate brown tank top were picked up from the charity shop a couple of houses down from my hairdresser, whom I visited on Wednesday.

Back at home, I retreated to the sofa with the weekend papers, my latest read, and Bess, who is always claiming lap time whenever we dare to sit down. 

Sunday was even colder than Saturday, the temperature now having dropped to 2°C, with the icy East wind still out in full force.

To combat the Baltic weather conditions, my new tartan skirt, a.k.a. the blanket skirt, came to the rescue. Having recently dug out my jumpers, I opted for a burgundy one with a knitted pattern of owls. I found it in a charity shop during the Christmas holidays last year, its origins unknown as it had only retained its care label. Recently I came across a similar one, so that I now know it once graced the rails of Belgian high street shop Lola Liza.

I added my Caroline Biss belt to add a bit of shape and kept its cream colour company by wearing a vintage brooch and ditto necklace in the same shade.

The morning was spent pottering around and assembling some outfits for the working week ahead as usual. That done, and triggered by the orange King Louie cardigan I'd found on Saturday, I did a drastic cull of my cardigans, weeding out all the cheap and plain ones, which I hadn't been wearing for the longest time. I only kept those colours for which I haven't found a better quality alternative yet. 

Although we would have preferred battening down the hatches at Dove Cottage and not leaving the house until Monday morning, a prior engagement meant that we had to go out in the cold.

We returned to the neighbouring village of Duffel, but this time it wasn't the charity shop we were headed for.

Same as last year, a musical concert was being organized and performed by Jos's granddaughter Saar and four of her girlfriends, who go by the name of Knits and Notes. As we were in a prime position in the first row, Jos snapped a couple of photos with his phone. His granddaughter Saar is the girl in the burgundy dress!

So, that was another weekend come and gone. Even three-day ones do not last forever!

I'm leaving you for now with a foggy, yet atmospheric view from my office window, the Christmas lights spiralling up the trees and the lit-up shop window being the only pools of colour in a grey cityscape. 

Grabbing a slice of history

Finally, my blog has reached the end of November, so that for the moment I am not lagging behind as much as I usually do. 

Admittedly, it has been a quiet couple of weeks, the dark and often wet days offering little or no incentive to spend our time outdoors. Additionally, as the lack of daylight continues to keep us from taking photos of my working day outfits, it'll be mainly those I wore from Friday to Sunday which you'll get to see here.

Although there was no shortage of sunshine on Friday 25 November, the mercury kept flitting around 10°C, threatening to dip into the single digits without a moment's notice. 

I'm veering towards my warmer dresses on days like these, preferably with a modicum of wool content. This fusion of leopard and zebra pattern ticked all the boxes that day. Charity shopped about a year ago, surprisingly it was the first animal print garment to join my wardrobe since the leopard print mini skirt of my punk days. Not counting Great Aunt Josephine's heirloom leopard coat, obviously. You can find its story here if I have piqued your interest.

As I last wore the dress with classic red, I opted for berry colours this time, adding a large-buckled belt and long-line cardigan which were both charity shop finds at one time or another. The necklace, whose berry beads are joined by brown and orange ones, was charity shipped as well. I picked it up the other week, but I forgot to photograph it at the time. And what better brooch to add than the vintage leopard which was a flea market find in November 2019?

We were all set to go on our weekly round of the charity shops, but while Jos was once again fulfilling his daily task as newspaper boy, I took the opportunity to photograph my recent loot from Think Twice. As they'd just started another round of their famous sales, I'd spent Thursday's lunch break walking to my favourite branch for a long overdue rummage. 

First up is this vintage cobalt blue C&A frock with its psychedelic floral pattern in light blue, green and orange. It was love at first sight, so I ignored the fact that the zipper was stuck and I wasn't able to try it on.

Back at the office - work was very slow, as our counterparts in Miami were celebrating Thanksgiving - I set to work and finally got it to budge by applying some lip balm as a lubricant and giving it a mighty tug with a pair of pliers. 

This pale blue wool blend shirt-waist dress with its sprinkling of leaves and flowers is from the Finnish Figura label. I love that it still has its original belt, although knowing me chances are that I will wear it with a complimenting or contrasting one from my collection instead.

I grabbed these two skirts as well. The one on the left is a lined knit, although I cannot vouch for its wool content as the identifying label has been cut out. It still bears its origin label, though: it's made in France by/for a company called Bleyle. Interestingly, when I googled the label, it turned out to be a German company which was established in Stuttgart in 1889.

The label of the green, yellow and orange floral skirt on the right says Separates by Delta, and proclaims that it was made in Australia. Not something we see very often here, so I can't help but wondering about its journey to the Northern hemisphere ...

But I mentioned charity shopping, didn't I, so let's have a look at that Friday's finds!

We drove to the edge of town charity shop first, but the only thing that ended up in my basket was the Philippa Gregory book on the left. As our lovely Vix has more than once been singing the praises of this English historical novelist on her blog, I thought it was worth giving one of her books a try.

In order to fully appreciate them, though, I'd better brush up on English history. So wasn't it serendipitous that I found The Story of England by Christopher Hibbert on the shelves of the second shop we visited that day? It's an entertaining and not too taxing guide to England's political, economic and cultural history from the Neolithic age to the the early 1990s, when the book was published. 

The same shop's shelves also yielded the Jennifer Weiner novel on the right.

The shop's clothing aisles didn't disappoint either, with the funky short-sleeved dress by the Dutch Le Pep label and the tartan Zara skirt in delicious berry shades.

The colours of the short-sleeved jumper by Esprit were one hell of a job to get right. When I finally managed to capture the correct shades of green and purple, the pattern of horses and horseshoes were bleached of their palest of pink colour.

The orange cardigan with its lacy sleeves and inset at the back is by ... you'll never guess it ... Who's That Girl!

Saturday's weather could have been a carbon copy of Friday's. 

With a steep drop in temperature forecasted for the week ahead, it was high time I finished my seasonal changeover by getting the last of the warm woollen skirts and dresses out of the antique linen chest.

Most of my Summer frocks, in the meantime, had been languishing inside the built-in cupboard in the corner of our bedroom, victims of my procrastination habits. Now that I'd freed up some space in the linen chest, I transferred them to the correct vacuum bags and, with Jos's assistance, had our vacuum cleaner suck the air out of them. By the time I closed the lid on the linen chest for the season, however, I was starting to get a niggling pain in my lower back as a result of all that lifting and carrying around.

No rest for the wicked though, as back downstairs, we got a little surprise! News flash: our neighbour had finally removed the scaffolding from the passageway! It still needs a layer of paint in the colour of our choice, but that will only happen in Spring. Obviously, wild horses couldn't have kept us from sprucing it up a bit and putting some of our stuff back. We also decided to move our little yellow table and chairs - previously residing at the back of our garden - into the passageway. By then, my back was truly hurting so we reluctantly called it a day.

Anyway, here's a sneak preview ... more to come in my next post!

And yes, I wore this outfit to do garden chores! Minus the fur-collared jacket, beret and scarf, obviously. These I only wore for running an errand in the afternoon. In the garden I layered an old hoodie and my equally ancient denim gardening apron over my skirt and jumper, both for warmth and to keep my outfit from getting ruined.

I'd decided to take the Australian made skirt on its maiden voyage and added some additional sunshine by wearing it with a yellow leaf and flower patterned jumper which I found at Oxfam in October 2021.

My accessories - olive green belt, orange beaded necklace and orange and green marbled brooch - were a mix of charity shop and flea market finds.

I spent the rest of the afternoon reclining on the sofa, finishing my Sebastian Faulks book and making a start with The Story of England.

Any trace of lingering sunshine had upped and left on Sunday 27 November, leaving rain and barely 8°C in its wake.

The good news was that the pain in my back was as good as gone. Plus, we had lunch with our friends Inneke and Maurice to look forward to.

That morning, throwing caution to the wind and hoping this wouldn't be too taxing for my back, I dragged out a couple of Winter coats from my groaning coats cupboard. Then I played around with my wardrobe, assembling a selection of outfits for the week ahead. I'm trying to do this every Sunday, as I often lack time and inspiration on weekday evenings. Nothing is set in stone though. 

This is what I wore for lunch, an outfit I repeated on Monday, earning a rare compliment from my colleague, who hardly ever comments on what I'm wearing and whose style couldn't be further removed from mine.

My vintage polyester pussy-bow dress, which is from the Finnish Marketta label, was a Think Twice find back in October and had been patiently awaiting a cold snap like this for its first outing.

I picked up the green in its pattern by wearing a pair of green boots which I'm considering one of my best charity shop finds ever.

I layered a - charity shopped - mustard Zoë Loveborn cardigan over it for contrast and added a snake print belt at my waist, the latter a cheeky in-between Lockdowns retail buy in 2020. The brooch with its mottled green heart was picked up from a flea market.

Lunch was had at 't Kasteeltje (transl. Little Castle), a restaurant we have been to before, in the nearby village of Boechout. Its location is a turreted mansion built in 1900 in so-called cottage style, hence the castle moniker. The ongoing rain prevented me from whipping out my camera but here's a photo taken during a previous visit.

I had the most delicious fettuccini, with marinated chicken, spinach, mushrooms and candied tomatoes in a mild curry sauce. Yum!

And look, Inneke and I were wearing complimenting outfits!

Rainy days are made for this

With the dawning of December the year is now swiftly striding towards its end, the days getting shorter, and shorter still, until the Winter solstice is upon us.

The last month of yet another year which has sped by in the blink of an eye. I'm getting a case of déjà vu here as I'm typing these lines: surely, it was only yesterday that I pondered the passing of time, using similar words, as we turned the calendar's page to December 2021.

But yet here we are, one year - a full twelve months! - later. The shop windows dressed in their festive finery and the dazzling sea of lights I'm walking beneath on my way to and from work are the tell-tale signs that it must be that time of year again, which the Scrooge in me is trying to ignore.

 

And what better way to do so than by taking a short trip back in time, to Saturday the 19th of November to be exactly.

That day we were treated to November at its bleakest. It was cold, wet and miserable throughout, the mercury not climbing beyond the 5°C mark. The advent of the low single digit temperatures always spurs me into action, frantically unearthing several warm and woolly items of clothing from their various out-of-season hidey holes.

I didn't have much unearthing to do for that day's outfit, though, as both the groovilicious textured polyester dress from Think Twice and the striped, chunky knit C&A cardigan I picked up from a local charity shop were fairly recent finds. 

A variety of flea markets and charity shops supplied the pink vinyl belt, grey beaded necklace and vintage swallow brooch. My pink plastic ring, grey opaques, which you can catch a fleeting glimpse of in the first photo, and faithful pair of chocolate brown boots were all bought on the high street and have become wardrobe staples over the years.

My old cream, blue and tan plaid coat has emerged from the depths of my coats wardrobe to shine another Winter season. Charity shopped for € 10 many years ago, it is becoming quite threadbare, but I won't part with it until it falls apart completely. Admittedly, layering it over a thick dress and an even thicker cardigan might have been tempting fate a bit by putting extra pressure on those poor time-worn seams. My stripey scarf and purple mohair beret were second hand finds as well. Not the leather gloves though. I've got them in a rainbow of colours, the majority of them retail buys.

After ticking a couple of tiny tasks off my to-do list, we had lunch while brainstorming on how to spend our afternoon. The rain had temporarily dwindled to a fine drizzle, which nevertheless rather limited our options. So, wielding an unwieldy umbrella, we walked to our garage to pick up our car and drive to a seldom visited charity shop. The shop used to be the source of many great finds but then all of a sudden it became quite rubbish, so that we dropped it from our itinerary. In fact, I think this may have been only our third visit since the pandemic.

Sadly, it hadn't improved much since the last time we were here. The rails of clothing, for instance, were chaotic, and most of the stuff was definitely sub-standard and tired-looking. I was about to give up when I found two dresses among the tat: a vintage, made-in-France pussy bow one and a cute retro-style one by high street label Zoë Loveborn.

These, and finding the handmade felted wool cross-body bag (above) and - my favourite find of the day - the wicker basket with its gorgeous raffia embroidery - made it worth our while driving all that way.

I also picked up some baubles for the office faux fir (you'll notice I'm avoiding the C-word as long as I can) and, while queueing at the till, a lovely wooden sound puzzle for grandson Cas.

We returned home via the big Oxfam shop in Wilrijk, which is in fact the complete opposite of the other shop, their displays being neat and orderly and with everything in its right place. 

Here I found a blue polo neck by Terre Bleu (which you'll see me wearing later on in this post) and a lovely ochre yellow cardigan by high street label Zoë Loveborn, which I forgot to photograph.

Back at home, we played with tested the sound puzzle, after which I tried on the dresses, as I hadn't been keen on facing the shop's fitting rooms. I needn't have worried as I can usually tell by sight by now.

Then I snuggled up on the sofa with Bess until it was time for dinner. In case you are wondering, it was Dove Cottage's take on cottage pie and I promise to take a photo next time it's on the menu.

Sunday was yet another gloomy day, starting at a chilly 2°C but climbing to 8°C during the day, and with rain forecasted from the early afternoon onwards.

We didn't care too much about the weather, though, as we had the November edition of our favourite indoor flea market to escape to.

As for the lack of sunshine, I just provided my own by wearing my yellow jacket from the Spanish Cortefiel label. Charity shopped in February 2021, it's got a double collar and ditto sleeve cuffs. Plus, it's got pockets! The mother-of-pearl brooch I pinned to its collar was found during one of our escapes to Middelburg in August.

And here's the polo neck I found at Oxfam on Saturday! It's a thin ribbed knit and I loved the zig-zag pattern on the yoke. I added a vintage leaf brooch to it and wore it with an orange and brown plaid skirt I charity shopped in January.

Both the belt and my necklace were high street finds, the latter bought from Accessorize who at one time had a shop in the small shopping centre near my office. My boots are the same ones I wore on Saturday, and which have hardly been off my feet lately.

We were happy to see that this month there were lots of traders at flea market, one of whom, a lovely lady called Christine who sells lovingly curated vintage jewellery, we hadn't seen since the Before Times. 

In spite of my best intentions, I quite forgot to take photographs of the flea market itself, apart from those in the below collage. On the top left, a tray of brooches and pendants on the stall one of our favourite trader and, on the bottom right, a corner of one of the market's most imaginatively displayed stalls, selling all manner of vintage kitchenalia.

My first finds are on the bottom left and top right: a chunky orange ring and a set consisting of a zebra-esque patterned necklace and ring

I wasn't going to buy any more handbags, but then I spotted this beauty at such an affordable price I couldn't possibly leave it behind. 

We were chatting to Rita, one of the traders who also follows my blog, when she suddenly unearthed this gorgeous lady, which made me go weak at the knees. 

As the original place we had in mind for her didn't work out, we cleared space for her on our sitting room mantelpiece, where she gets the limelight she deserves.

Having bought only one brooch at the flea market's previous edition, I certainly made up for it this time, as I bought no less than 10, from various stalls.

The one on the top left is a one-off from a random stall, and has a heart of jade!

Both brooches on the right were bought from the same trader. She's the owner of the tray of brooches and pendants above. She always gushes over my outfits and we usually have a chat with her, even if we don't always make a purchase. 

The cream flower brooch is celluloid and came from another favourite trader, an older lady who turns out to be living in the neighbouring village to ours. Although we've passed the time of day with her for years, and usually make a purchase, we only found out we were near neighbours when we saw her at our street market back in July.

Apart from the celluloid brooch, I bought no less than four other brooches from her, the one on the top left and those on the bottom row, paying a total of € 22 for them all!

The enamelled boat with its dangling anchor came from another random stall, while the cute celluloid Scottie dog was purchased from the aforementioned Christine.

I'm sure you'll agree that wasn't a bad haul at all, and I can't wait for the market's December edition which will be next weekend!

In the place of fallen leaves

Now that the dust had settled on the first installment of the office move, it was finally time to relax. 

And what better way to do so than by enjoying a 3-day weekend, starting with a public holiday on Armistice Day. As I already regaled you with that day's adventures in the sculpture park in a previous post, let's move swiftly to the rest of the weekend.

With everything being closed on Friday, there was nothing for it but to indulge our rummaging urges on Saturday the 12th when, as usual, we visited two shops, with a car picnic in between. Rather unusually though, there wasn't anything which even remotely tickled our fancy.

As those of you who have been following my blog for a while will have gathered by now, this doesn't happen all too often. I can only surmise that it was just one of those days on which the charity shop goddesses must have been lavishing their attention elsewhere!

Perhaps it peeved them that, apart from my belt and necklace, most of what I was wearing that day didn't find its origins in a charity shop.

Take the blouse, for instance, which I actually bought brand new, snapped up in an Outlet shop during one of my lunch breaks the other week. My matching opaques and favourite mock croc ankle boots were retail buys too, as was the ring which I picked up from fast fashion shop Forever 21 back in the mists of time. 

While not charity shopped, at least both the skirt and the elephant brooch are vintage. My red plaid and pleated skirt, which much to my surprise I hadn't worn since January 2018, came from Think Twice, while the brooch was a flea market find.

Contrary to the charity shop deities, those in charge of the weather kept being on their best behaviour. When we woke up to lashings of sunshine and forecasted highs of 15°C on Sunday, we were adamant to make the most of our good fortune by going for a walk. Particularly since the forecast for the week ahead was looking pretty dire!

We'd set our hearts on a stroll in a park established on the pleasure grounds of an old castle estate called Solhof, in the neighbouring village of Aartselaar

This was one of the parks we'd attempted to visit but couldn't reach back in October. Confident that the roadworks which had thwarted our plans would have been completed by now, we hopped into our car for the 12 minute drive it would take us to get there. Imagine our dismay when the street leading towards the park's entrance turned out to be still under construction.  As one or two cars - probably belonging to the street's unfortunate residents - were turning into the bumpy, unsurfaced road, we followed suit and were rewarded with a parking spot in a side street.

The park, designed in English landscape style inspired by Capability Brown, is now a semi-wild woodland traversed by a warren of meandering paths, and is home to a number of monumental 100 to 150 year old trees. I'm always in awe of these mighty giants who, I'm sure, must have a few tales to tell if only they could speak our language. 

They do put me in a reflective mood, reminding me of our insignificance and putting those little day-to-day woes into perspective. 

Trying to get back into the charity shop goddesses' favour, I was wearing some of my recent finds, starting with the off-white and bottle green checked wool-blend Tommy Hilfiger skirt I found back in October. 

I always look forward to wearing my green wool jacket with its furry collar again. It's vintage and I paid full price for it at Think Twice about five years ago. As it was the jacket of my dreams, there was no way I was going to take the risk of waiting for it to be reduced in the shop's next sales! 

The feathery pink scarf was charity shopped in 2018 and is among my most worn ones, while the matching beret was an old retail buy which has definitely proved its worth over the years.

A mix of retail, charity shop and flea market finds made up the rest of my outfit, most notably the Art Nouveau inspired vintage blouse found during a charity shop rummage earlier this month.

I'm at my happiest when I'm able to indulge in a leaf-kicking session, delight in the symphony of colours provided by the turning leaves and have the scintillating mix of Autumn scents tickle my nostrils. 

There were vistas to delight us around every corner: a time-worn heart carved in a tree trunk, the Autumn-hued canopy above us, a golden-clad weeping willow preening itself in the moat, and the top of the gazebo peeking out from a frame of evergreen yew hedge and russet leaves.

The gazebo, which crowns an earthen mound insulated by ancient yew hedges cleverly concealing an ice house, can be reached by a narrow path spiralling up the mound. We weren't feeling too adventurous that day and refrained from climbing to the top. After all, the view from up there isn't on a par with the  magical one of the gazebo on its mound, the seemingly impenetrable wall of yews conjuring up an image of Sleeping Beauty's castle.

The late 19th century castle has been much modernized and turned into a fancy hotel and for all its air and graces isn't much to look at.

Taking the path skirting the castle and its moat took us to its entrance on the busy main road through the village. Our effort was rewarded with a view of the picturesque courtyard flanked by the former coach house and caretaker's house. Surprisingly these only date from the early 20th century. Only the two watchtowers dating from around 1550 and standing sentinel on either side of the entrance, have stood the test of time.

Although the sun was still in evidence on Monday the 14the of November, there was a significant drop in temperature with highs between 7 and 10°C. That morning, I actually wore gloves for first time this season!

It was my first day at the temporary office, and as my colleague had the day off, I was all on my own. I felt a bit weird and out of sorts all day, as if I had lost all sense of direction. On top of that, building work had started in our proper office next door, at times accompanied by lots of noise, making all efforts to concentrate on my work fruitless.

I made my escape during lunch break and walked to the outlet shop where I'd bought the three blouses the previous week, finding an additional two. Again, both are from the defunct Who's That Girl/Wow To Go labels.

Apart from some hammering and shouting - why do these builders always have to shout, I wonder - the noise was bearable for the rest of the week, and when my colleague and I went to have a peek on Wednesday, they'd already removed the nasty old carpet and the ceiling tiles and they were in the process of painting the walls and woodwork.

My working week was another short one as I once again took Friday off.

It had been a wet and windy couple of days, so we were glad to wake up to a dry morning, with some timid sunshine thrown in. It didn't last long, though, as it started raining again before the morning was over, with hardly any let up all day. It was quite chilly as well, the mercury climbing to 9°C at the very utmost.

This called for a first wearing for the Italian made pink Tweed jacket with its gorgeous floral lining I charity shopped at the end of October. I can't remember where or when I bought the large green bird-on-a-branch brooch I pinned to the jacket. More shades of green were added with my scarf - last Winter's charity shop find - and beret, which is the twin of the pink one worn above.

The forest green pleated skirt - a naughty retail buy in between Lockdowns in 2020 - wasn't the best choice for the day's temperature. Its fabric is rather thin and even with a half-slip worn underneath as well as a pair of opaques and my tall mock croc boots, my bottom half was freezing!

My pink and green belt was bought in this year's Mango Summer sales, but the floral cardigan-worn-as-a-jumper, the brooch I pinned to it, the green wooden necklace from the Belgian Les Cordes label, and my ring with its green and pink stone, were all charity shopped at one time or another.

And talking of charity shopping, well yes, it was time for another round of rummaging, which this time was rather more successful. 

As luck would have it, there were a lot of deadstock Who's That Girl and Wow To Go items on the rails of the first shop we visited. The lady at the till, who recognized the label, congratulated me on my finds, which would have cost me at least a tenfold of the € 25 I paid for the lot if I'd bought them brand new.

There was a blue box-pleated cotton-blend midi skirt adorned with the label's speech bubble logo, an orange and olive green check shawl-collared cardigan and a pink woollen jumper masquerading as a cardigan. I was properly fooled by the latter as I only discovered it wasn't actually a cardigan after I got it home.

Finally, there was a green rainbow striped cropped cardigan and a classic red V-neck jumper trimmed with a double row of navy stripes. I've included the ribbon-tied tags in the photo. Both garments also came with a tiny zip-lock bag containing alternative fabric samples, indicating that the garments were initially meant as samples and would have eventually been sold at one of the label's sample sales. They both mentioned their sample sale prices of around € 25 ... which if you remember was what I paid for the lot! 

I'll be back with more outfits and bargains in my next post. Hope to see you again in a couple of days!