Welcome to the working week

Although I've got another couple of Wales posts scheduled, I thought I'd give it (and my readers!) a break and do a good old outfit post!

With the weather hitting the high twenties again last week, typically just when I had to go back to the office, we took outfit photos every evening after work, with me sitting at our little garden table.

A word of warning though: you are going to get to see quite a lot of outfits!

Tuesday was my first day back at work, and I was wearing a flower-patterned cotton skirt combined with a green top, to which I'd pinned one of my newly acquired brooches.

The beads were bought on one of our Welsh shopping trips too, which would have made me feel a bit as if I was still on holiday, if it weren't for the weather!

Whatever the weather, I had a very relaxing holiday, and as a consequence I'd totally forgotten the code of my bank card.

I was in a small shop in Antwerp and wanted to pay for my purchases, when I realized I had a complete black out.

I managed to scrape together just enough money to pay, and then it was off to the bank to apply for a new code.

Oh, the utter shame, especially as I am known for my fabulous memory!

Now that I've got a new code, of course, my fingers have remembered the old one ...

The purchases in question were these two pairs of jelly shoes, which I'd taken a fancy to after reading Lynn's post on them while on holiday.

She was absolutely right in that they are the most comfortable sandals ever! In addition, there is a certain nostalgia factor, as they remind me of my childhood, although I don't think they were available in such a range of colours back then.

On Wednesday, I chose a cool, lightweight 1980s does 1950s dress in a red and white wavy pattern, with solid white cotton collar and cuffs, and a wide skirt.

If you think you've seen Thursday's funky cotton dress before, then you are right: I bought it back in June. And look who is wanting a piece of the action!

On Friday - oh my, that week went like a train - I wore one of my favourite summer dresses. I love its summery flower print, the orange popping out against the sky blue background, and the dropped collar. And here's Phoebe again!

I'd been making a beeline to Think Twice during my lunch breaks, to make up for lost time, but it took until Friday before I made my first purchase: a groovy vintage St. Michael cotton dressing gown.

Almost too good to use as a dressing gown, don't you think? Jos actually thought it was a dress!

Saturday came around, and we resumed our weekly charity shopping trips.

I wore a sleeveless dress I bought at Think Twice last year. Although it is just a tad too big, I couldn't resist its colour and the bodice's print. Adding a belt and nipping in the slightly too large armholes did the trick, though.

I added zingy orange accessories and even painted my toenails a pale orange! Don't look too close though, as I'm a total dunce when it comes to applying nail polish.

The brooch, which was hand made, was found in a delightful little shop called The Crafters Cwtch in Cardigan. And no, the "w" is not a mistake, as it's a vowel in Welsh!

I just had to wear it as its colours are an exact match to the rest of my outfit.

As I'd sent the charity shopping gods over to Mim, there wasn't much to be found in the one and only shop we visited, but still enough to keep from going cold turkey.

These two vintage paperbacks, dating to the late 1940s, couldn't be left behind. Just look at those fabulous covers!

The huge textile department was full of uninspiring things, but I managed to unearth these powder blue, lace trimmed Terlenka pyjamas. The elastic was gone, but I added a drawstring in exactly the same colour.

The funky tights were languishing at the bottom of a basket.

Before queuing at the till, I had a quick look at the jewellery, and found a cute pair of ceramic clip on earrings, a plastic flower ring and two necklaces.

This green vintage sewing machine did not come home with us, but I couldn't resist taking a photograph. Isn't she a beauty?

We finished the afternoon by taking a stroll through the park to see how nature had come along since our last visit at the beginning of May. Oh dear, I was quite shocked to find it was that long ago!

Even though the imaginatively planted perennial border surrouding the park's pond was flowering abundantly, it was lacking last year's lushness, as we've had a shortage of rain.

Hello Wales, please send over some of yours ...

At least the local bees have plenty of flowers to choose from!