Don't go down to Doledrum

At the tail end of the week before last we were treated to some grey and utterly miserable days, with the rain turning the wind-blown leaves into a soggy mess, the wind tugging at umbrellas, turning them inside out and out of shape.

On days like these, there's cotton wool in my head and I would like to close my eyes and have a nap. A very long nap! You know, the one where you wake up and it's Spring again!

My lunch breaks were desultory affairs, as even my favourite pastime, having a rummage in Think Twice, was proving fruitless.

Imagine my delight when, walking past one of Antwerp's best known second hand bookshops, I saw this book in the window. There was no way I was going to let this one go!

I was more than ready for the weekend, which I started early by taking Friday afternoon off.

It had been raining heavily in the morning, but thankfully it had eased off by the time I met my friend Inez for coffee. Afterwards, we paid a visit to Think Twice, not expecting much. However, they'd just started their latest sales with 30% off on everything, and we each bought a dress, mine being this colourful psychedelic shift

Saturday proved to be another dreadful day, but with the addition of a significant drop in temperature.

As I'm in the middle of my wardrobe change, I already have quite a few long sleeved frocks to choose from. Surely, a couple of layers underneath and on top of this thin and unlined Paisley print shift dress would do the trick? After all, it isn't Winter just yet!

And I wore my first pair of opaques of the season! These bottle green ones were part of my birthday present from my friend Ingrid.

Green beads, navy booties and a blue round-necked cardie with a vintage brooch were the finishing touches.

I charity shopped this sumptuous green velvet jacket last November, and it now proved to be a very necessary final layer. The blue, pink and green floral scarf came from the same shop, while the brooch pinned to my jacket, a polished piece of beech wood, was brought back from Wales.

Saturdays are for charity shopping but, with one of their events coming up, for which they keep a lot of the nicer stuff behind, we didn't expect to find much.

Still, a a couple of things came home with us.

Mr. S. bought a Harris Tweed jacket, which he changed into immediately as the one he was wearing was far too thin for the cold snap we were having.  Admittedly, it looks much better on him than the jacket he found a couple of weeks ago, which was a bit broad in the shoulders, so that one will be re-donated.

My finds were a cute King Louie cardie ...

... as well as a yellow crushed velvet scarf and a red beret, both of which I left the shop wearing. Yes, it was that cold!

I also picked up a brown woollen jacket ...

... which I wore the next day, when we went to an indoor flea market in Antwerp, providing my own, portable sunshine with the ochre yellow scarf and flower corsage.

The dress is another one from my recently unearthed Autumn/Winter collection, in a light, but lined, polyester fabric, with three quarter sleeves and a pussy bow.

I love its Autumnal orange, brown and cream print, on which I based my accessories: orange necklace, cream butterfly brooch and cream and brown flower brooch. I cinched in my waist with an ochre yellow belt, and a cardie in the same colour went on top.

I wore another pair of opaques, in burnt orange this time!

Browsing through my blog posts from October last year, it seems I wore the dress then too, but styled slightly differently.

Now, on the flea market, which frankly speaking didn't live up to our expectations. For one thing, there was no sign of the Brooch Lady, whom we had come for especially.

After trawling a couple of aisles of uninspiring stalls, selling children's clothes and tasteless tat, we happened upon a stall run by two older ladies, whom I have bought from before.

They have a table piled high with costume jewellery (I promise to take a photo next time), so I was feeling like a child in a toy shop, especially after they gave me an under-the-counter box full of wonderful stuff to rummage through.

My bounty consisted of seven brooches, a carved celluloid scarf clip (bottom left) and a pendant with three tiny edelweiss (bottom right).

Oh, and there were these two necklaces as well. The one on the right has enameled discs, delicately painted with flowers and, judging from the closure, is quite old.

My final find was this chocolate brown handbag, the rim of its metal frame having a lacy pattern of leaves and, rather oddly, fish!

Wait a minute, is that a ray of sunshine I detect up there?

In fact, we have been enjoying a couple of days of glorious Summer weather as I write ...

So, Summer did not yet completely desert us after all!

Linking again to Patti's Visible Monday at Not Dead Yet Style!