November odds and ends

I'm taking a brief breather from the travelogue to show you what I've been wearing lately.

Travelling back in time to the weekend before our Zeeland break, this is what I wore to go to our favourite flea market on Saturday, 9 November.

Normally held once a month, this year an extra edition was scheduled, so that it was only two weeks since the last one, and while we never say no to a good flea market, quite a few of the regular stallholders were giving it a miss. Too much of a good thing, perhaps?

I'd recently found the plaid wool jacket in a vintage shop opposite my hairdresser's.  The shop, which used to sell vintage per kilo, but has recently switched to fixed prices, is just a little bit out of my way for a browse during my lunch breaks, but I always have a quick look whenever I visit the salon. 

The jacket has the softest furry collar ever and was a warm and snuggly choice for that Saturday morning as temperatures had entered the single figures.

You've already seen both my pink beret and my brown-and-mauve mix scarf, so only my gloves, a pair of vintage button edged tan coloured ones, need some further introduction here. 

Yes, yes, but what about that maxi skirt, I can hear you think. Well, I'm no longer keeping you in suspense. I stumbled across this swoon-worthy velvet skirt about a year ago. My original plan was to wear it on New Year's Eve, but I changed my mind at the very last moment, and then promptly forgot all about it. Yes, I know!

It's got the most stunning floral print (I've added some close-ups in the collage below), is fully lined with a very swishy maroon fabric and for ease of movement, it has a generous slit up one side, which offers the opportunity to show you my lilac opaques!

The shirt with its psychedelic print, originally from a Belgian high street shop, was a charity shop find, which I topped with a vintage green short-sleeved open weave cardigan in a Dralon wool blend.

A sage green woven belt, white metal pendant and pale pink plastic ring completed my outfit.

But let's return to that flea market we were going to. I don't think we've ever come back empty handed from this particular one, and we certainly didn't this time, even if our finds were less prolific. 

In fact, it turned out to be quite a satisfactory edition, with lots of lovely things on offer, but I guess we already had our trip to Zeeland on our minds!

We'd hardly walked into the venue when we came across this wall plaque at one of the very first stalls. She was marked at € 4,50 but the seller, from whom we've been buying for years, let us have the lovely lady for € 3.

As you might have guessed, she'll soon be joining the wall of heads!

I only found four brooches this time! 

Both the elephant and the leopard came from the same stall and so couldn't possibly be separated. They are both vintage pieces, as is the lady with the outrageous hat, while the green floral one is modern, but nevertheless worth having in my collection. 

But the best was yet to come! 

We were delighted to see that one of our favourite sellers, Ilona, was trading again, and Jos fell head over heels for a mid century plant stand, in the typical shape an colours of the era.

We didn't have time to give it a proper place and decorate it before we left, but last weekend we shuffled around the furniture in our tiny sitting room and then decked it out with some plants and ornaments. We wanted to add another plant, but Phoebe had other ideas, as she kept attacking the poor thing, so that we had to put that one well out of her reach.

The zebra stripe ashtray with the Atomium is original merchandise sold at Expo 58, the famous World Fair held in Brussels in that year. The space age thermometer is one of my most treasured objects, as it used to belong to my parents.

The lamp on the bottom shelf is actually a jar containing a string of battery operated toadstool shaped lights.

Here's a little view of our predominantly 1950s corner, including original cocktail chairs, floor lamp, iconic Tomado book shelves, a Bakelite radio and original EXPO 58 poster, among other things.

But our sitting room is really a mish mash of eras, with even some good old IKEA thrown in. The throws on the sofa and footstool were charity shop finds while the granny square covered cushions were made by my friend Inez's Mum.

I'm time-travelling back and forth between the weeks, as this was what awaited me when we came back from Zeeland on Saturday before last.

It was a late birthday present handmade by my friend Ingrid! Doesn't she know me well? And how serendipitous that I was already wearing a matching vintage jumper!

Apart from unpacking, running a machine wash and catching up with my blog reading, I didn't do very much else that Sunday. 

But I did assemble a couple of outfits for the impending working week, and in order to beat the lack of daylight throwing a spanner in the works on week nights, I cheated and showcased them for you there and then between showers!

First up was my recently acquired flower pot print dress, in the softest of wool blends, which I wore with a charity shopped green cardigan and turquoise opaques, which you can just catch the merest glimpse of.

The green beret - a second-hand find last year - originally had an unsightly patch sewn onto it, which I swiftly removed, but alas its contours remained visible. This usually prompts me to wear it backwards, but then I suddenly remembered this flower pot brooch, which I'm sure you'll agree couldn't be a better match with the print of my dress!

And oh, isn't the dress's label adorable as well? 

My final outfit of this post is one I wore later that week and which was built around one of my all-time favourite frocks found in a local charity shop about three years ago. It has already made more than one appearance on the blog as, even if it hasn't been worn the elusive 30 times yet, it is still being worn several times a year during the cold weather season.

A Diolen delight in a lovely bottle green and with the grooviest of prints, it was love at first sight. The only thing that bothered me were the buttons, which were promptly replaced by more fitting ones from my stash of vintage buttons. 

Taking my lead from the dress's print, I used yellows and a dash of orange for my cardigan, opaques and accessories.

Surely nothing beats some bright colours on these grey - or at best mediocre - November days!

I will be cracking on with the travelogue in my next post. Do come and join me again then.