Friday, 1 January 2021

There's a light that never goes out

Being a sentimental and nostalgic soul, I'd made it my habit to jot down some poetic musings on New Year's Eve, highlighting the passing of time which is brought home by the end of one year and the dawn of another.

However, as that watershed of a year, 2020, was drawing to a close, I was in two minds whether to continue the tradition I unwittingly started on 31 December 2016. In fact, I'd already decided not to. 

But old habits seem to die a lot harder than I thought. So, although this is basically just another run-of-the-mill post, the first one of 2021 but with its feet still firmly planted in the old year, I just couldn't let the latter go without a proper send-off.

Time has the annoying habit to speed by at the rate of knots, and this year in particular, it seems to have upped a gear, as I simply cannot get my head around the fact that we have turned yet another page and it is now 2021.


There's no doubt that 2020's memories will be forever etched on our brains, written down in indelible ink. Its pages are full of blanks and cancellations and there's sadness and anxiety pressed like wildflowers between them.

Yet most of us managed not just to live through each one of its days, but to make the most of them too, even if our resilience was more than put to the test.

What the new year has in store for us is anyone's guess. In spite of its snazzy new light fitting, even  Idina the Fortune Tellers's crystal ball is leaving her in the dark. And perhaps, that is for the best. 



Before I continue with December's progress, let's have a closer look at Idina's crystal ball! 

Having started life as a Lourdes souvenir snow-globe, by the time we found the sorry thing in a charity shop, it had long ago lost all of its liquid. As it didn't really meet the standards of our collection, it was relegated to the basement, where I noticed it peeking out from a carton while I was having a rummage. Taking it out for closer inspection, I managed to unscrew the globe from its base and remove the plastic Lourdes grotto it contained, thinking I could use the empty shell for a project. Enter a string of the tiniest of LED lights picked up from the garden centre, and hey presto! Doesn't it look magical? 



And now, without further ado, I'm retracing my steps back to the week before Christmas. 

My diary tells me it was a good day, with lots of sunshine and positivity. While Jos went food shopping, I made the most of the sunny aspect and the mild temperature of around 11°C by walking into the village to pick up some toiletries and sundries.

Then, in the afternoon, we put up the Christmas tree, which I already told you about in a previous post.

We almost left it too late to take outfit photos, but it had been such a glorious day that we were able to make use of its waning light.



My vintage red fit and flare dress, with its fireworks of white dots and dashes, was a charity shop find in October 2018. As you can see it has a satisfyingly swooshy skirt!

Unfortunately, you can only catch the merest of glimpses of my floral opaques, but as they are far too gorgeous to be ignored, I added a close-up on the bottom left.



The funky necklace was charity shopped as well, as was the belt, which you might recognize as one of my recent finds. The brooch is vintage and was a flea market find from back in the day when these things still existed ... It's hard to believe it is over 10 months since our last one!

My teal King Louie cardigan with its heart-shaped ajour pattern also came to me by way of a charity shop. I have them in several colours and regularly keep coming across them, and other King Louie garments, on the charity shop rails. Not always in my size, unfortunately.



The weather gods blessed us with another mild and sunny day on Friday.

After breakfast, we drove down to the big Oxfam charity shop in the nearby town of Wilrijk. Situated on a busy thoroughfare, it is usually hard to find parking space, and we were actually just about to give up when a car parked right in front of the shop backed out of its spot.



By the time Jos made it into the shop, I'd already found and tried on the blue, red and pink floral blouse on the right, which is by Belgian retro label Wow To Go.

Going through the rails once more, I couldn't believe I hadn't seen the blouse on the left the first time around. It's from H&M's 2018 William Morris collection and it's based on the latter's Snakeshead design.

They had a buy two, get one free sale on belts, but unfortunately only the one on the right made the grade, so that I couldn't make use of it.



The other belts were picked up at our local charity shop where we made a brief stop on our way home.

That just leaves me to show you what I was wearing that day. 

I paired a vintage chevron striped wool skirt in black, brown and bluish grey with a brown based blouse featuring a groovy ochre yellow, blue and dusky pink print. The latter is vintage too, from the Swedish Janstorp label. It is quite tight-fitting, but not uncomfortably so, and zips up at the back.



I wore another one of my King Louie cardigans on top and accessorized my outfit with an ochre yellow beaded necklace and a reddish brown leather belt.

My legs were kept warm with a pair of burnt orange opaques and I wore caramel coloured ankle boots.


Have you noticed the lovely lady who lives in my brooch? She has blue eye-shadow and an elaborate pleated hairdo and is wearing a hat and a fur stole!

The rest of that Friday was spent pottering around the house, which included adding leftover baubles and strings of battery operated fairy lights to a Kilner jar (top left) and a vintage glass jug (bottom left). We also put on the fairy lights inside the pendulum clock turned vintage Barbie display case for the occasion.



I couldn't wait to wear the William Morris print blouse, which is what I did on Saturday!

Browsing through my skirts for a likely candidate to pair it with, my eyes soon alighted on this sumptuous blue velvet ankle length one. I thought its floral Arts and Crafts style pattern fit the bill just perfectly!



At my waist, I wore the bottle green moc-croc belt I'd charity shopped on Friday. 

I added a necklace made up of plastic discs in degrading sizes to tie in with the wine coloured bits in the print, and pinned a vintage gold-tone brooch with red flower hearts to my blouse, where I think it looks quite at home!


Although the day had had a sunny start, the sky soon started darkening, and rain was our lot from midday onwards. 

This meant another day of pottering - darning a pair of Jos's socks my diary tells me - followed by reading and catching up with blogland.

And that is exactly what I'm going to do once this post is published.

I hope you have all made it safely into 2021. Happy New Year! Surely this year can only be better!



38 comments:

  1. What a fab post to start the new year, full of beautiful things to look at including your new Morris print blouse and that fantastic light globe. I have some of those mini lights and didn't really have any plans for them-you've given me some ideas.

    I hope this year goes well for you. I know normalcy feels a long way off now, but this will end, eventually. Sending you good wishes for 2021.

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    1. Thank you Goody! I've decided to leave Idina's light globe up permanently. Who knows she'll see a bright future in it after all :-) xxx

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  2. Such a creative, marvelous way to breath new life into a snowglobe. I am tucking this splendid idea away in the ol' inspiration file. Thank you for sharing it, dear Ann.

    With all my heart, I wish you and Jos an extremely safe, positive, happy, healthy, and enjoyable 2021!

    Autumn Zenith šŸ§” Witchcrafted Life

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    1. Thank you, Autumn, and I am wishing the very same to you and Tony as well. May this year bring light into the darkness! xxx

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  3. I love your light aka former snow globe. :-)

    All the best for the New Year!

    Regula

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  4. Happy new year! Yes things will get better, if only eventually.

    I love the light-filled crystal ball and your blue and brown outfit. Beautiful! X

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  5. The light filled snow globe make a lovely magical crystal ball! It certainly was an interesting and different year, I am glad it's over!

    Happy new year! Hope 2021 is off to a good start for you :)

    Away From Blue

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    1. Thank you Mica! I am glad the year is over too, let's hope the new one is all the old one wasn't! xxx

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  6. genius idea to make your own ball of light!!
    love the necklace you wore with the red dress - and you found the perfect skirt for the morris blouse. that floral opaques are very chic.
    all my best new years wishes for you both!
    hugsies! xxxxx

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    1. Thank you Beate! I knew the skirt would be perfect with the William Morris blouse as soon as I clapped eyes on it! xxx

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  7. Happy New Year, Ann! I am really missing charity shops, antique markets and car boot sales. I love the pattern mixing in the blue outfit and the brooch is fab - as is the still life that accompanies the revitalised snow globe!

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    1. Happy New Year, Fig, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed things will settle down soon in London! Can't believe I haven't been to a flea or antiques market for almost one year! xxx

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  8. Happy New Year!
    I love those lights, they look brilliant in the snow globe but it's the illuminated Barbies that are really taking my eye, don't they look marvellous?
    Loving the red dress and the chevron skirt and I'm delighted that you also managed to score a William Morris blouse in a chazza. I wonder if we'll find more in 2021 (if the shops ever reopen!)
    Wishing you, Jos and Phoebe all the very best for 2021! xxx

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    1. Thank you Vix! We've had those lights up in the clock turned Barbie display cabinet for well over a year, but we often forget to turn them on! I should also change the dolls around some time ... xxx

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  9. Happy healthy new year! I am in love with you in caramel and brown pink outfit. This lady brooche is amazing. Fleamarkets... oh yes there were in 2019.
    so we hope together for 2021 for normal life.
    A very huge hug Tina

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    1. Thank you Tina! Yes, the last flea market we went to was in February 2020! xxx

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  10. Happy New Year to you and Jos and Phoebe, Ann! 2021 has got to be better...it just has to!

    I love that red dress, and those tights are fabulous, but my eye went straight to that necklace and brooch - they look copper to me?

    I have seen that William Morris blouse by H&M over here, but I didn't like how busy the print is from a distance (and the quality of the fabric didn't seem that good). I love that print, though, and it goes so well with the pale blue and yellow. That Swedish top is fantastic - I would wear it in a heartbeat.

    Hugs to you, my dear friend! We made it through 2020 - we can make it through anything!

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    1. Thank you Sheila! I doubt very much the necklace is copper - it's originally from an inexpensive high street shop - but the brooch, which is vintage, could very well be. As for the WM blouse, I don't think I would have paid full price for its, but at just a couple of €, I was prepared to put up with the low quality fabric! xxx

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  11. All the best in year 2021 dear! The snow globe/ crystal light ball is wonderful. What a great way to upcycle! I always enjoy such projects. Last year has certainly tested us, let's hope this one will be better. You look beautiful in your red dress paired with a teal cardigan. I also like your brown blouse and skirt combo. The all blue printed styling is wonderful as well. I like how you mix prints. Your collection of belts is impressive and new editions to the collection look lovely. You also picked up some wonderful blouses, I like the pink, red and blue floral one. That retro print is fabulous.

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    1. Thank you Ivana! Let's hope that, after your shoulder injury, the new year only has positive things in store! xxx

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  12. I love your William Morris print blouse! It looked fab with the maxi skirt. All your outfits were lovely and what a great haul of belts. I'm really missing the charity shops at the moment; usually at this time of year OH and I have been somewhere for a good old rummage; but sadly not this year...

    I really liked what you did with the defunct snow globe and the kilner jar and the lights. Very cool!

    Happy New Year!
    xxx

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    1. Thank you Vronni! Although our charity shops are still open, we only go to a few of the bigger ones, and not as often as we would like. The Christmas holidays is usually filled with rummaging! xxx

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  13. I love the crystal ball and the doll display! In my opinion fairy lights make everything so much more special! Happy New Year to you and yours. Liz

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  14. The crystal ball looks cool.
    Happy New Year to you!

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    1. Thank you Hena, and a Happy New Year to you too! xxx

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  15. I like your summing up of 2020 Ann. It’s spot on.
    I’m writing this morning just as the UK has gone back into the lockdown we had in March 2020 at the start of all this. It will take a little time to rebalance as it always does when the PM makes an announcement but we are resilient and will do what it takes to get us through. On a positive note he did say that the UK is rolling out the vaccine faster than any other country so we have that to be grateful for.
    I hope that things start to improve over on your side of the pond.
    On a more frivolous note, if I was smaller in the boob area I’d be having that William Morris blouse added to my pile heehee.
    Lots of love xxxx

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    1. Thank you Lynn! With the UK being my spiritual home, I am making sure to catch up with things over at yours. So sorry you have to go through lockdown all over again. I hope things start improving soon! xxx

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  16. I can’t believe we’re in a new year already.
    How funny that both you and Vix found William Morris tops recently, I’m rather jealous!
    Happy New Year! At least we know this year can’t be as bad as 2020!
    xx

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    1. Thank you Hazel! I couldn't believe I found that WM top. In fact, I was thinking at that very moment, wouldn't it be great if I found one, and there it was! xxx

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  17. I love reading your posts ... and what beautiful blouses! You always find very beautiful treasures. I love William Morris ... and Barbies !! I collect them too .. still wishes for a happy new year!
    Hugs, Carmela

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    1. Thank you Carmela! I had no idea you collected Barbies too! Do you collect vintage ones? I'd love to hear some more about your collection! xxx

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  18. Your snow globe does look magical!

    And I hope 2021 has started well for you... it doesn't feel like a new year yet to me, but hopefully things will improve soon.

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    1. Thank you Mim! It doesn't feel like a new year to me yet either. 2020 feels quite unfinished to me ... xxx

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  19. Apricity is such a beautiful word - it deserves far more use in today's world. Aside from loving what it conveys, I quite enjoy it as a word when playing Scrabble, as it's great fun to create if someone puts down "city" and there is both the room and the tiles on my rack to add the additional letters needed to form apricity.

    Splendid job on scoring that beautiful floral frock for one heck of a serious discount. Isn't it extra satisfying + rewarding feeling when patience pays in dividends like that?

    Many hugs & the loveliest of mid-January wishes,
    Autumn Zenith šŸ§” Witchcrafted Life

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    1. Thank you Autumn, and I'm pleased to have supplied you with a useful Scrabble word :-) xxx

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