Sending out an S.O.S.

Lately, I've been feeling a bit low and out of sorts, and in spite of sending out an S.O.S. for my get-up-and-go which I seem to have lost somewhere along the way, it has yet to be returned to me.

It has been a rough couple of months to say the least. The disruptive building work next door - News Flash: the wall still isn't finished and our garden is still looking like a building site! - has a lot to answer for this. As does the fact that I'm on my own in the office until end of October at the very least, with only myself and the stoically silent walls to talk to. Add a more than generous amount of rain and dawn arriving a couple of minutes later each day and at times it's all I can do to crawl out of bed in the morning. And that's before the daily headlines bombarding us with yet another round of bad news.

But I'm sure that's not what you came her for, so I'd better stop my moaning. Let's have a look at some of my outfits instead, shall we?

At least I can still find joy in getting dressed, even if sometimes inspiration doesn't come as easily as it did before.

We've arrived on Sunday the 25th of September when, after a string of rainy days we were treated to some unexpected sunshine and a reasonable 16°C.

Having procrastinated both on Friday afternoon and Saturday meant that I had a list of things to tick off before another working week loomed on the horizon, so we actually only walked to the museum garden up the street for outfit photos. I know, we could have done those in the garden, but our neighbour was working on his kitchen extension roof, and I didn't feel like being watched.

I was wearing a long-sleeved wrap dress I charity shopped back in August. Seduced by its groovilicious print, I ignored the fact that I somewhat fell out of love with wrap dresses a couple of years ago. This was its first wear and I can report that it's definitely going to be a keeper.  

I added oodles of pink, starting with the T-shirt I layered underneath and the long-line cardigan I wore on top. There's pink among the wooden discs of my necklace and as well as the brooch, a painted seascape found in a Middelburg charity shop in November 2019.

My oatmeal coat is vintage, found at Think Twice many moons ago, and the perfect weight for those early Autumn days. The funky grey, green and pink patterned scarf came from a stall on our local Saturday market and the denim blue embroidered western-style boots, originally from Sacha, were a lucky find in a charity shop last November.

All work and no play wouldn't do on a Sunday, of course, so I spent some time lounging on the couch with my latest read.

After finishing the gripping Sleep, Pale Sister by Joanne Harris during our holiday - a hauntingly evocative laudanum-dream of a novel, anyone? - I started the enjoyable but otherwise forgettable The Missing Pieces of Nancy Moon by Sarah Steele. Don't get me wrong, it isn't bad at all, especially if like me you are looking for some pure escapism, but I certainly cannot back up the raving 4 and 5-star reviews on Goodreads. 

The rain returned with a vengeance on Monday and Tuesday and with highs of just 13°C it felt decidedly unpleasant. The kind of soul-destroying murky days on which daylight hardly gets a look in.

We only managed to take outfit photos on Monday, so here I am wearing two of my wardrobe stalwarts, both picked up at Think Twice over the years. The chevron patterned skirt is the most recent of these and joined my collection in October 2020.

I accentuated the blue flowers in my blouse's exuberant pattern by adding a blue beaded necklace and a gold tone leaf brooch edged with tiny blue beads. The latter was found in a Shrewsbury antique centre in June 2019. At my waist, my stretchy belt with its faux-tortoiseshell hexagonal buckle, which was last year's sneaky retail buy.

If I remember correctly, it remained mainly dry on Wednesday, although at 14°C the temperature still was nothing much to write home about. The mornings are getting chillier as well, often starting in the single figures, which is making wardrobe decisions a head-scratching exercise.

My lunch break was spent at the hairdresser's, where my coiffure was updated by my regular hairdresser Michel's wife, as he was out of action as a result of a motorcycle accident. Don't worry, his wife is a hairdresser too and what's more, I think she did a great job. I even had a host of compliments later that week.

When wardrobe inspiration is lacking, there's always a mental library of tried and tested outfits to fall back on. Case in point is this pinkish brown hued floral frock, which I don't think I've ever worn with any other colour than sky blue. And I'm pretty sure that the faux-tortoiseshell necklace and the bird brooch have been worn with it before as well.

The tall, tan mock croc boots have been on constant rotation ever since I got them out of storage, and I definitely don't regret my impulse buy after spotting them in an advertising leaflet which fell through our letter box last Autumn.

Thursday was another mainly dry day with the sun playing peek-a-boo a couple of times, and a mild-ish 16°C. As I had to go for my booster jab, I took the afternoon off and, taking advantage of the extra time at my disposal, I continued with the seasonal swap-over, and even got out my iron and ironing board to give the most wrinkled offenders a once over.

I wore Tuesday's skirt again, but this time combined with a jumper, the sleeves of which were accommodating enough to allow easy access to my upper arm. I'm happy to report that all went well and without any side-effects apart from a slightly sore arm for a day or two.

The reasonably mild and sunny weather continued into Friday, when the weather gods cranked up the thermostat to 17°C.

As I had already taken Thursday afternoon off, I had to work a whole day on Friday, for which I rewarded myself with a naughty high street purchase: a gorgeous mustard yellow wool-blend skirt from Uniqlo, which you'll get to see me wearing here as soon as we're having a cold snap.

Friday's frock was yet another Think Twice find, a teal vintage one patterned in Autumnal hues snapped up almost exactly a year ago. I took advantage of the pops of green and tan in its print by adding a belt, necklace and ring in matching colours. My brooch is matching the dress's print in both colour and theme.

And just like that, September had come and gone, and we now found ourselves in October.

"Then summer fades and passes, and October comes. Will smell smoke then, and feel an unsuspected sharpness, a thrill of nervous, swift elation, a sense of sadness and departure." ~Thomas Wolfe, You Can't Go Home Again

The first day of the first of the true Autumn months had a bit of a false start as we woke up to the sound of rain beating against our bedroom window.  Half-way through the morning, however, the rain clouds packed up their bags and made way for blue skies and sunshine. 

We wasted no time in packing a couple of sandwiches and driving to the park in Duffel for a picnic followed by a stroll.

Admittedly, I was dressed a tad too warm for the balmy temperatures we were treated to that Saturday. I certainly didn't need the beret, nor my frilly turquoise scarf and it was no hardship to remove my green Tweed blazer to show you what I was wearing underneath.

I'm sure my tweedy turquoise vintage skirt does not need introducing, as I've been wearing it on the blog countless of times. The orange floral top, however, got its first outing. It was charity shopped earlier this year and has a keyhole neckline to which I pinned a brooch I bought brand new from H&M back in the mists of time. The wide woven belt and the teal King Louie cardigan were charity shop finds, as was the orange flower corsage I pinned to the latter.

And speaking of charity shops, since we were only a stone's throw from one of our favourites, it goes without saying that we went for a rummage. 

The orange and bluish grey striped knitted top with its cute frilly sleeves is by Essentiel Antwerp, while the ajour knit blue cardigan, which as a bit of sparkle, is another King Louie.

I also snapped up Diane Von Furstenberg's autobiography and and a chunky knit orange, pink and purple scarf.

My final find that day was floaty aqua floral skirt by H&M, which I'm already envisioning myself wafting around in next Summer. 

But that's still a long way off, and I will probably have forgotten about this skirt by the time I'm doing my Spring/Summer swap-over. That said, I haven't even finished the Autumn/Winter one as I type!