Sunday 28 August 2016

Here comes the summer

The days after our visit to the Atomium, the perfect summer weather continued. However, there was a chill in the air in the mornings, requiring a light jacket or cardigan, and my early morning walk to the bus stop gave me goosebumps on my bare legs, making me think that I should have worn tights. But no, there's plenty of time for those yet!

As soon as the sun had warmed up the earth, cardigan or jacket were discarded and so would have been the tights if I had worn them.

As I always forget to have outfit pictures taken on weekdays, you will have to make do with these two dresses, which I wore that week, displayed on hangers.


My lunch breaks were spent walking the city streets to top up the Vitamin B levels for the barren times to come, but the end of the sales at Think Twice, when everything is being sold at € 2 and then € 1, lured me into their shops for a browse. For me, nothing beats a good browse during lunch hour to clear the head!

I came away with these two items, both costing € 1, but which I somehow hope I won't be wearing any time soon.


This jacket, made from Irish Tweed, will be perfect to wear on mild winter days.


The pretty dressing gown, made from quilted nylon, with its embroidered flowers on the bodice and sleeves, is quite a flattering shape, and I wouldn't mind opening the front door to early morning callers wearing it.

Typically, the weather forecast for the weekend was pretty dire, with rain and wind predicted, especially on Sunday.

Saturday at least turned out to be quite alright.


I chose a multi-coloured flowery Diolen dress, which was actually made in Belgium! The silhouette has a 1940s feel, with its slightly puffy sleeves, its upturned cuffs finished with a button and its buttoned bodice with wide lapels. Its original belt was missing, so I added a green leather one. In fact, I was spoilt for choice, as I could have chosen any of the many colours in the dress's cheerful print.







The short-sleeved cardi was bought many years ago at New Look (of all places) and the brooch with its purple stone was charity shopped in Wales.

The green shoes, with their bows, are a favourite pair, bought at a cheap village shop called Lovely Shoes.












To begin with, we went charity shopping, starting at a newish shop which we hadn't visited before. It turned out to be only a small shop and I thought its layout, compared to other shops, was a little confusing, but we still managed to find some things.


I'd been looking for a nice dark denim dress for ages. This one fits perfectly and is a nice dark colour.

I also wanted to experiment with a hair scarf, 1940s landgirl style, but I'm not so sure. Jos said I looked like a cleaning lady and I was very tempted to pose with a vintage carpet cleaner. But didn't.









I have, in fact, owned several denim dresses at various stages of my life.

This photo of me with Jos's youngest daughter (then 14), wearing almost identical dresses, was taken in 1995.

Our other finds were a small 1970s style carpet (which as yet has to find a destination, but only cost € 0,50) and two small IKEA display cases, still in their unopened packaging, which will come in handy one day to display yet another motley collection of who knows what.


When we left the shop, it dawned on us that we were quite close to Blender Vintage Shop, a shop we have been visiting at least once a month for years. Unfortunately, they will soon be closing down (they will have closed down by the time you read this), so we thought we'd go and and have a look before they draw the final curtain.

Oh, how we will miss that shop, as well as its lovely owner, Fanny.

As we have never left this shop empty-handed, we certainly didn't now, so here is what we bought on our final visit:


Two hats, modelled here by Twiggy, who came from the same shop. Actually, modelling hats used to be her job there ... She isn't retiring just yet!


A blue and pink crocheted, bamboo handled bag and three scarves.


Two empty cutlery boxes for storing my brooches.

They will not remain empty for long, as I also bought a lot of six brooches (they were € 2 each, or € 10 for six!).







Oh, and another Lourdes souvenir.

I know, I know ...












We had plans to go to a flea market on Sunday but these were thwarted by the weather. What we did instead and more specifically, what we found, will be the subject of my next post.

Oh, the suspense! I bet you can't wait ...

20 comments:

  1. How cute is that dressing gown! I haven't seen one of those in years, I doubt charity shops over here would give one hanger space.

    Your Diolen dress is so pretty and the belt matches like a dream.

    Those hats are lovely and I have a brooch very similar to one of your six new ones, the one top middle, though mine is thicker and turquoise and glass pearl xxx

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    1. Thanks Melanie. Dressing gowns like that can be often be found in charity shops here. I've got several of them, as I find them hard to resist. xxx

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  2. love the print on the left dress!! and - of cause - the tweed jacket! such great material and a fab cut!
    cute pic of you and the young girl in denim :-) a tip for the scarf: make sure that the ends do not hang down like if they´r mourning, if they won´t stand up happily tuck them under or make a bow or bigger knot!
    lovely hats!!!
    xxxxx

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    1. Thanks for the tip Beate, I guess I need more practice, as well as a scarf in a slightly thicker fabric, as this one was quite flimsy ... xxx

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  3. You've done brilliantly with the bargain hunting, wow for the 1 Euro tweedy jacket and dressing gown! I do like the denim dress also - I would like a denim midi dress for Autumn actually, but haven't found one that's perfect yet. x

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    1. It took me a while to find the perfect denim dress too, but perseverance finally paid off ... xxx

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  4. That 40's-looking collared dress is really beautiful! Your waist looks tiny in it too! I love the picture of Younger You too! You did well with the brooches! I like your denim dress with the Landgirl-looking headscarf! x

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    1. Thank you Kezzie. It's actually one of my favourite dresses ... xxx

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  5. You do NOT look like a cleaning lady. A nice denim dress is the sort of wardrobe staple that just gets better with age.

    I'm seriously envious of your green leather belt and matching green shoes. I never thought to store brooches in old cutlery boxes, but I will look for them now. That's a tidy way of dealing with them.

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    1. Thanks Goody. The problem with those cutlery boxes is that I've now got quite a lot of them and I can't remember where everything is ... xxx

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  6. I love both of your outfits - they look fabulous! The Diolen dress is gorgeous and really suits the cardigan and green shoes, its a very summery outfit and I hope our summer lasts a bit longer, well into September! xx

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    1. It looks like we are going to have some more golden September days, which is great, as we're going on a short holiday next week ... xxx

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  7. That tweed jacket was an absolute steal, Im sure you will get a lot of wear from it.
    First cooler morning here in Ontario, thank goodness. The heat and humidity this summer has been intense.

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    1. The mornings are starting to get a bit cooler here too. Thank goodness indeed, as I'm not very good with heat and humidity ... xxx

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  8. All your outfits are fabulous either on the hanger or on you! I love the denim dress in both photos old and new, you definitely don't look like a cleaning lady. Cheeky Jos!
    The tweedy jacket was a super find and I can't believe you've found yet another Lourdes souvenir - do you think people get rid of them as they've been miraculously cured? I do hope so! xxx

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    1. Glad to know I didn't look like a cleaning lady after all ... I'm definitely keeping the Lourdes souvenirs, in case I need some miraculous curing! You never know ... xxx

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  9. So true! I usually resist the returning nip of autumn for a while, too, eschewing tights for at least a week or two (or three :)) longer as well. I adore tights, but there will be many months still to come for sporting them, so I don't usually feel an epic need to don them the moment I see the very first autumn leaf tumble to the ground. :)

    Such fantastic finds! Your brooches are especially dazzling.

    Congrats on finding such a great denim dress, too. So true! Classic style, darker ones are not that easy to come by these days. This one looks awesome on you, my friend.

    Many hugs & deeply heartfelt thanks for all of your fabulously nice blog comments this summer,

    ♥ Jessica

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    1. I too like wearing tights, but I'd love to be bare-legged for another couple of weeks at least, goosebumps and all ;-) xxx

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  10. That tweed jacket looks as though it contains similar colours to the first dress-on-hanger - do you think they will go together?

    It's so sad when favourite shops close down.

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    1. The dress and jacket do indeed go very well together. Only, that dress is one of +30 degrees Celsius ones ... xxx

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