The house of books

Is that the holidays I can see up there?

You bet it is! Tomorrow is my last working day of the year (yay!) and it certainly couldn't have come any sooner. I'm feeling tired and drained and my brain is in a muddle and I'm looking forward to some time off without anything much planned, our diaires blissfully empty except for Christmas Day and New Year's Eve.

In fact, we already made a start this weekend, trying to ignore the fact that Monday we'll have to get back on that hamster wheel one more time.

We did a spot of light charity shopping yesterday and today I'm writing this blog post, even if its subject is two weekends ago, with the impending holiday only a blip on the horizon.

As you can see, red was still on the menu that Saturday! 

The delightful diagonal pattern of the dress, which has been a wardrobe stalwart for many years, combines shades of blue and turquoise on a white background, and I think it just calls out for a pop or two of red.

These pops came in the form of a charity shopped tie-necked cardigan and beaded necklace and a pair of high red boots. These were a retail buy from way back and originally had some very bothersome frills and straps, which were carefully cut off by moi! There, better!

The dress's turquoise was repeated in my beret and opaques. And I wore not one but two brooches: a large carved celluloid one, repeating both red and blue, pinned to my dress, and a tiny floral-themed metal one which I used to fasten the cardigan's tie.

We spent a happy hour or two browsing two charity shops and, in spite of the fact that I only found a handful of things, it was time well spent even if just for the relaxing properties of a good rummage.

The thin magenta jumper has a bit of sparkle in its weave, and a triangular inset at the collar. It's from the French mail-order company 3 Suisses. Seeing the label made me think of my Mum who used to order from their catalogue all the time when I was growing up.

I'm always checking out the belts, which in this particular shop are jumbled together in large box. For € 1,20 this wide woven belt was mine.

My final find was this unworn pair of wellington booties in a purple tartan pattern, which will come in handy to venture outside in the garden when it has rained or - god forbid! - snowed. So much easier to pull on and off than my tall floral wellies.

Sunday was another day like today, dark and dismal and with lots of rain. The perfect excuse to stay indoors and indulge in some reading and pottering.

But no excuse for not dressing up! I was wearing one of that week's sales bargains picked up for € 4 from Think Twice, and as soon as there was a break in the clouds, we were out there to take some outfit photos.

The cozy wool and polyester blend dress was deadstock with its original tag (Made in Austria!) still present, its print featuring green, red and orange squiggles on a beige background.

The granny square bag was another € 4 find on the same day and its colours seem to compliment the dress perfectly. 

I added my orange, elastic backed belt and a teal beaded necklace. My fused glass ring, which is again repeating the dress's colours, was from a market stall in Bruges back in September.

I quicly threw on this sage green wool blazer, and only noticed later that the lining was peeking out from the sleeves! Well, we did have to act fast, as we expected it to start raining again any minute.

Here are the rest of my € 4 Think Twice finds, starting with a navy dress printed with massive flowers, which made me think of Monica's fabulous massive flower dress and skirt. 

This funky patterned, brown based Diolen shift dress still has its original tie belt finished with tiny gold metal tubes.

Dressing up Angelica with my latest finds is one of my favourite pottering activities, as is playing around with my wardrobe and assembling outfits for the week ahead.

But I also made time for reading, which from the moment I realized I could read, has been one of life's necessities for me. Consequently, I live in a house full of books.

Commenting on one of my previous posts, where I showed you a corner of our sitting room, Veronica said that in her opinion books do furnish a room, and I can only agree with her.

It's the first thing I notice when visiting or seeing photos of people's homes and I find it a bit disturbing when there's no sign of any books, anywhere.

I thought I'd give you a short tour of Dove Cottage's book shelves, starting with the sitting room.

Apart from two sets of 1950s Tomado shelf units full of them, they share space with some old cameras in an IKEA display cabinet I've had for about 30 years, which makes it practically vintage.

But not all of them are on shelves as we're simply lacking in space: there's an old wooden crate piled high with books shoved under our sitting room table!

Our dining room has a wall of Billy shelves, some of them having double layers of books ever since we brought home piles of books I couldn't part with from my parents' house.

The old dresser which used to belong to Jos's grandparents is home to a shelf of vintage paperbacks, which I used to collect. The beautiful doily wall hanging decorated with buttons (top right) was a handmade gift from the lovely Lynn.

The shelves beneath the window were custom made by my Dad, and is holdening gardening and Barbie collecting books.

We are moving upstairs now, where the tall shelf unit on our tiny landing was also custom made by my Dad. We have increased shelf space by hanging another 1950s Tomado unit above it.

To the left is our bedroom, where a row of vintage Penguin paperbacks live on the mantelpiece.

The door to the right of the landing leads to our spare room, which is the same size as our bedroom, which is quite huge. This is our dressing room and home office and I'm sitting here typing this.

It also houses another Billy unit, which has space for some vinyl as well. This unit, and the shelves next to it, are crammed with books, including some of Jos's childhood books, as well as my vintage fashion library.

You've probably seen enough books by now, so I'll end this post with an outfit.

This is one I wore during the week to come, but which I assembled that Sunday, giving it a trial run in the garden where, lo and behold, the sun had made a watery appearance.

It had been a while since I wore this groovilious frock featuring brown, green and orange. For some reason, I wasn't sure about it, but I'm glad I gave it another chance, as it's now a keeper.

The ochre beads were a gift from my friend Ingrid, while the orange cardigan was charity shopped, but both the belt and the ring were retail buys. 

I'm racking my muddled brain but I can't for the life of me remember where the green ceramic Bambi brooch came from. But isn't he or she the epitome of cuteness?

Well, that is it for now, and as my next post will only be after the day, I'm wishing you all a wonderful Christmas, whichever way you celebrate it - or not!

See you on the other side!