Sunday 31 March 2019

Marching on

Time keeps marching on relentlessly and, looking through the photos on my camera, I've just realized I forgot to tell you about the flea market we went to two weeks ago!

The weather was its usual fickle self that day, with sunny spells regularly interrupted by heavy showers. It was quite stormy, with sudden gusts of wind, the kind that chilled the air sufficiently to warrant the wearing of one of the unworn pieces of my Winter wardrobe.


This red textured polyester dress, with its subtle but effective greyish white stripe, was charity shopped back in October. There were a couple of snagged threads in its loopy fabric, which I was able to snip off carefully, but more snags appeared as the day went on. Yes, it's that kind of pesky material!

I added a cropped turquoise cardigan, which closes with one button at the neck. It's trimmed with navy and there's additional red trim at the cuffs.


I used more turquoise for my opaques, belt, necklace and ring, which contrasted nicely with the red of the dress. The vintage brooch, with its posy of embroidered gentians, was found in an antiques shop in Carmarthen back in 2017. It was part of a rather huge haul.

I love the chevron pattern in the bodice as well as the skirt. The only disadvantage is that the dress is unlined, and thus requires a slip worn underneath.


As I know it can be rather chilly inside the flea market venue, I opted for my teal jacket with its grey fur collar, to which I pinned a vintage brooch carved with summer flowers. The floral scarf echoed the colours of the brooch almost exactly. The caramel Burberry beret, a lucky charity shop find from several Winters ago, is my current favourite, and rubs along quite well with my tan ankle boots.


Without further ado, these are the treasures we found at the flea market. They all fit neatly onto the wood effect tray, which by the way wasn't a new buy but has been in our possession for many years.
I often use it for making group photographs of my smaller finds.


I picked up several full cards of vintage flower-shaped buttons, at € 1 each. The green celluloid buttons decorated with dainty flowers were obviously a bit more expensive, but aren't they absolutely delightful?


At one of my favourite stalls, which is always heaped with affordable costume jewellery, I bought these two rings as well as several brooches, although I have to admit that I can't remember exactly which ones. As usual, there were several stalls selling jewellery and as luck would have it I found treasure at quite a few of them.


Favourites here are the flower basket and the souvenir brooch from Holland with its two tiny clogs.

In the middle of the bottom row is an Expo 58 brooch for Jos's collection. 



The carved plastic brooch on the top right is the twin of a pink one I already have in my collection, while the Edelweiss on the bottom left are a scarf clip and a brooch with two small flowers respectively. And how cute is the little mother-of-pearl umbrella?


Different materials but both equally charming: a round painted wooden brooch, featuring a lady sat on a bench gazing out over a lake, and a rectangular Lucite one encasing more Edelweiss.


There's a seller specializing in quality vintage jewellery and I'm often drooling over the brooches displayed on her stall. She usually has one or two Lea Stein brooches which are eye-wateringly expensive. 

I spotted this one at another stall and snapped it up at a very reasonable price. Me happy!



In the week that followed, there was a definite improvement in the weather and, quite uncharacteristically, on the first day of Spring it actually felt like Spring!  

Sadly, I had to work that day and, what's more, I couldn't even enjoy the view. They're cleaning the building's facade and, after putting up scaffolding, which already marred my view, they have now blocked it completely by putting up a huge advertising canvas. That's my office building on the left, before they put up the canvas. I'm on the 5th floor. And on the bottom right is my current view!


I actually had to step outside to snap the cathedral's tower with the sun breaking through the layer of mist which had been hiding it all morning. On the left, another one of Antwerp's delightful street corner Madonnas, which has been recently cleaned up and restored to its former glory.


That same week I had a little misadventure with one of my boots. I was wearing the burgundy pair I picked up at Think Twice last Autumn. While I was at work, I almost tripped up when I got up from my chair, as apparently the sole of one of the boots had become unstuck. 

There was no way I could walk in it and, apart from using a rubber band to secure the sole to the boot, I had no other way to temporarily repair it. So, wearing an emergency pair of ballerina slippers I keep at the office, I made my way to the nearest, reasonably priced, shoe shop, where I picked up this pair of pinkish tan ankle boots, with decorative wicker-like panels.

The boot, meanwhile, has been to the cobbler's, so that this favourite pair can be worn again.



Spring has also arrived in earnest in Dove Cottage's garden by now, and our Clematis armandii is strutting her stuff quite spectacularly, displaying literally hundreds of scented white flowers.

Phoebe clearly is a bit dazed by it all!

Linking my red and turquoise outfit to Patti's Visible Monday once the link is up!


32 comments:

  1. Got to love some chevron action! The dress is great!
    I love your brooch and button finds- they are lovely!
    What a shame about your boots but glad you have a cobbler. We have one in our local town and I keep meaning to take some shoes to him to fix a new heel to!

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    1. Thank you Kezzie! We regularly make use of our local cobbler, who is a wizard at fixing handbags too! xxx

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  2. Your red chevron dress is fabulous, Ann! I love the turquoise cardi paired with it and the other turquoise accessories. Such a pretty colour combo! Wonderful brooch haul! My faves are the round wooden one with the lady and the edelweiss. Phoebe looks so excited to be out and about! Hope you have a wonderful week, Ann! XXX

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    1. Thank you Sasha! Those are my favourite brooches too! xxx

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  3. Wow! I'm impressed with your brooch finds and that your clematis is already blooming! That won't happen here for months!

    That umbrella brooch might be my favorite of your finds. It's so unique.

    I love how you've paired your red dress with turquoise/teal/blue and caramel. What a great color combo.

    I've had boots that separated at the sole before. Not fun. I'm glad you were able to repair them. I hate losing any comfy pairs of footwear.

    Suzanne
    http://www.suzannecarillo.com

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    1. I'm always heartbroken when I a pair of footwear is beyond repair. Luckily, our cobbler was able to repair these. And that's a very early Clematis there. Most varieties only bloom in late Spring or Summer here as well. xxx

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  4. What super finds you've added to your collection! And how happy I am that spring has sprung! Even though you may not have a view at work, it seems your view at home is quite pleasing, especially with sweet Phoebe there to enjoy it with you.

    Hugs,
    Sherry

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    1. Thank you Sherry! I do miss my view at work, though! xxx

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  5. So many wonderful brooch finds and wow.... Lea Stein! This umbrella brooch is realy cute you are right. :)
    I like your outfit, red and turquoise a great match.
    Very good you find a cobbler repait your boot. Here it is very difficult to find one, sadly.
    i wish you a wonderful new week, with a very huge hug
    Tina

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    1. Thank you Tina! What a shame that it's difficult to find a cobbler there. I guess we are lucky to have one locally, but there's one near my place of work as well. xxx

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  6. Spring has sprung? Send some over here, it's freezing!
    What a lovely outfit, the red dress really suits you and looks great with the pops of turquoise.
    All those brooches! How happy is Jos to find that Expo souvenir? Those buttons are stunners!
    What a catastrophe with the boots. I love the emergency purchased ones, though! A Cobbler is a girl's best friend (along with Gorilla Glue & duct tape!) xxx

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    1. ... and safety pins! I was glad to find a decent replacement for those boots, though. Usually, if I really need something, it turns out to be elusive! xxx

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  7. sweet phoebe!!! so super cute!!
    you had great luck in finding brooches and buttons! very pretty pieces! and your emergency boots look quite fab - i´m on the lookout for such a style at the moment..... :-D
    wishing you a sunny and happy april! xxxxxx

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    1. Thank you Beate! Phoebe may look sweet and cute, Etc., but she's quite a character, and best not handled without gloves! xxx

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  8. oooh! I love your button haul, and the new to you brooches! I love the umbrella one and the tiny clogs! Love your new boots.
    Glad that spring has reached Dove cottage, that clematis miust be spectacular! XXX

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    1. Thank you Linda! I couldn't resist those tiny clogs! xxx

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  9. I loved your chevron dress outfit; what a shame it snags. Loved the outerwear too.

    Your flea market finds were fabulous! Fantastic buttons and what wonderful brooches! Hard to name a favourite but I loved the basket of flowers and the eidelweiss one especially and the little umbrella is so sweet.

    Your new boots are fabulous and I'm so glad you were able to repair the other boots. Sometimes it's not worth the cost of the repair especially if the boots were charity shop finds; this has happened to me on several occasions.

    I'm so glad Spring has arrived for you!

    Have a great week, Ann.
    xxxx

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    1. Thank you Veronica! Even though the boots were a bargain to begin with, it was still worth having them repaired. xxx

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  10. OMG, Phoebes is adorable - I called L over to look at how pretty she is.

    I love that red dress - it's lovely. As long as it's a weave and not a knit, you're fine with snipping off the loops. I hate snaggy clothes like that, though!

    Your purchases are fun - my faves are the feather with marcasite and the Rolls Royce!

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    1. Now, don't be fooled by Phoebe's adorable looks, Sheila! xxx

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  11. There's a product called shoe Goo that people swear by for that sort of repair. I'm personally a fan of Gorilla Glue which will hold together anything.

    You find the most magnificent brooches. Snags or not, that's one fab dress!

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    1. I'm not sure we have either Goo or Gorilla Glue here in Belgium, but I'm sure there's a product out there which does the same ... xxx

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  12. That scarf and brooch combo is just perfect. You and Goody are both brilliant bloggers for teaching me to mix accessories and colours, I'm so rubbish at it.

    Phoebe has the most adorable face! Has she got spring fever yet? My two got very rotund over winter and are now skinny again with running around.

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    1. Aw, thank you Mim! I'm not sure about spring fever, but she loves being out in the garden, sniffing things and acting as if she's a hunter ;-) xxx

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  13. Love particularly your turquoise cardi and how fab it looks over the red dress (and matching bijouterie!), what a lovely color combo!. You look gorgeous in it!
    Sorry that the dress fabric snags so easily, it has such a beautiful texture and color!
    And I'm admiring in awe all those beautiful buttons and brooches, little pieces of art!.
    (As a note, I also keep a pair of ballerina slippers at the office and they have saved my day many times! ;DDD)
    besos

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    1. Thank you Monica! I think keeping an emergency pair of shoes in the office is a sensible thing to do. Those ballerinas have saved my days a couple of times as well. xxx

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  14. Boots, brooches and buttons Ann, its like being in a sweetie shop with all those lovely goodies. You really do have the best collections.
    I might just dash off now and change my outfit to a red dress and turquoise tights. I love that combo.
    Lynn xxxx

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    1. Thank you Lynn! You'd have a field day browsing through my collection of vintage buttons! xxx

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  15. We had one glorious week and now it's freezing cold again. This weather is a bit mad and so frustrating as I only got half the garden done and now it's too cold and wet to finish.

    As ever a magnificent haul of brooches! The one consolation of working in a city is when you have a clothing malfunction you can nip out for a replacement (been there done that when my zip burst once!!) I too have spare shoes (and boots) in my desk drawer for emergencies.

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    1. Haha, yes, I remember the zip burst episode! I really must take a spare pair of boots to the office! xxx

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