Gotta get through February

Although we have finally been blessed with a string of sunny days this week, the weather gods persisted in presenting us with yet another grey and dismal day on Friday before last.

We'd turned the calendar's page to February by now, bidding farewell, without any regrets, to the long and long-winded month of January. 

That's the first full month of Winter over and done with, but we're definitely not out of the woods yet! February might be the year's shortest month and may traditionally bring forth a handful of Springlike days, its feet are still firmly planted in Winter. 

This year in particular, I've been finding it hard not to give in to the downward spiral this imposter of a month often brings. I've been battling with fatigue, which I'm blaming on the chronic lack of sunshine, the nerve-wracking office move and the fact that my longed-for Christmas break was marred by that pesky flu.

Anyway, onwards and upwards! I've been topping up the Vitamin D levels on my lunch breaks this week and I've got a little trip to look forward to, which I'm sure will go a long way to make me feel right as rain again ... Although, on second thought, I'm not sure about the rain part!

But let's get back to the subject of this post, which starts with Friday the 3rd of February!

My non-office Fridays are without a doubt my favourite days of the week: a bonus day tagged onto the weekend, in which to wind down to a slower pace, and with a full three days of seemingly endless possibilities to look forward to. 

I love letting the mood of the day inspire my outfits, which is something that often falls by the wayside during my working week. 

That morning, however, I didn't even have to open my wardrobe and feast my eyes on its glorious contents. In fact, this groovily patterned shift dress had been waiting in the wings ever since I brought it home from Think Twice back in January. I had even already selected its companion, a chartreuse, purple buttoned cardigan charity shopped almost six years ago to the day.

Apart from my secretly matching purple opaques hidden by my boots, I opted for caramel accessories to match some of the dots in the dress's pattern. So, out came my mock-croc belt (retail), beaded necklace (charity shopped) and perspex ring from Rita's flea market stall. I've seen the brooch being offered as vintage on more than one occasion, but it is actually from H&M, where I bought mine brand new in the early noughties.

While Jos was doing his paper boy duties, I decluttered and reorganized my full to bursting make-up shelves and drawers. This wasn't at all what I had intended spending my morning on but as I'd been looking for something which at first I couldn't find, I realized that I needed to take matters in hand.

Note to self: avert your eyes when walking past the lipstick displays in the drugstore!

After lunch, it was time for a spot of wombling (like Claire, I'm pilfering the phrase from Lulu) in the form of a good old rummage at the charity shops. Surely, you'd be hard put to find a better way to get rid of the blues on such a dreary Winter's day.

As usual, we visited two shops, although we only struck gold in the first one. In fact, we hit a veritable gold mine!

First up was this labelless classic Prince of Wales plaid pussy-bow blouse, which I think is looking rather yummy with the cord skirt I dressed Angelica in. 

The greyish blue blouse with its side bow is by Brighton based label Pretty Vacant. Their website mentions that the label was established by a pair of Camden Market traders exploring the relationship between music and fashion. Well, I know which song I'll be humming whenever I wear it. In as far as you can hum a Sex Pistols song, that is. However, with its snow-capped mountains and cable cars print, I might switch to the hills are alive with ... No, you don't have to thank me for the earworm!

The solid two-tone blue and diamond patterned cardigan is yet another one from retro label Zoë Loveborn to join my collection.

Two skirts ended up in my basket as well. I believe the classic green and white striped and rope patterned one is somebody's very professional looking handiwork. It has pockets too!

The black and white leopard print skirt is by Essentiel Antwerp. Somebody apparently hadn't done their homework, as it wasn't on the posh labels rail, where it would have had a much higher price tag than the € 5,30 I ended up paying for it.

The bookshelves didn't disappoint either, as not only did I pounce upon another Philippa Gregory, I also grabbed The Victorian Pharmacy, which ties in with a four-part BBC series, showing how many products sold by high street chemists today can trace their origins back to nineteenth century formulations. There are even some remedies and recipes to try at home!

The book in the middle was found by Jos, and yes, it translates as The Magic of Radio and Television, and chronicles 75 years of Belgian public radio and television.

Saturday's weather was a repeat of Friday's, the 10°C indicated by the thermometer tempered by rain and wind. Definitely not the kind of weather to soothe our frazzled nerves!

While we were having breakfast, our washing machine, which had been making a bit of a racket lately, decided to up the ante, waking up the entire neighbourhood in the process. Too ancient to justify any repair costs, we drove to our preferred electrical goods shop in Mortsel, the nearest town to us, to order a new one. Yes, we are among those rare people who still prefer to shop in actual brick-and-mortar shops. The demise of the high street will certainly not be down to us.

The purchase, by the way, wasn't as painful for our purses as anticipated, as we were able to pay a large part in Ecocheques. These are vouchers most employees get here in Belgium at the end of each year, and which you can buy energy saving devices and all kinds of environmentally friendly stuff with.

My outfit was another one I'd had in mind for a while. Charity shopped last June, the turquoise skirt patterned with orange and blue birds perched on branches, had had to wait quite a while for its first outing, its felted wool fabric ruling out wearing it in Summer.

The thin knit jumper with its Mid-Century vibes is Zara by way of a charity shop. I'd worn it to the office somewhere in the Autumn and it was still airing on a hanger waiting for a second chance.

Adding turquoise accessories in the form of my birds-in-flight brooch, beaded necklace and chunky plastic ring was a no-brainer. My teal King Louie cardigan was layered on top.

In order to settle our nerves from the washing machine ordeal, we decided on another wee charity shopping trip after we'd had a late lunch, driving to the small shop in the neighbouring town of Reet.

I had hardly walked in when I spotted the Avon Lady Slipper soap still in its box. It still smells faintly of violets, but obviously I'm not going to use it. It has currently joined the Avon Looking Glass cologne I found at our local flea market a couple of years ago. Who knows, these might even be the beginnings of another collection ...

This navy crossbody oilcloth bag with its blowsy rose print might or might not join me on next week's trip ... watch this space!

My final find was this tiny 1950s vintage handbag from the Belgian L.H. label. I asked Jos to take a photo of me holding it so that you can fully appreciate its diminutive size! Isn't it cute?

The photo seamlessly ties in with Sunday's outfit.

I was wearing a favourite puff-sleeved and rose patterned jumper by King Louie, which I was lucky enough to come across in a charity shop. Not for the first time did I wear it with this vintage red and white striped Finnish made wool blend skirt. Why deviate from a match that is so obviously made in heaven?

I picked a green wooden necklace by the Belgian Les Cordes label, charity shopped in the Summer of 2020, and wore the forest green calf length suede boots with chunky rubber soles which were a naughty high street buy back in September.

I was loath to remove my pink beret as my hair needed washing!

Finally, let's have a look at the amazing brooch I pinned to my jumper. It's a vintage, gold-rimmed Lucite brooch encasing a posy of delicate garden pinks. 

Although there were plenty of sunny spells that day, we hardly left the house, as we had a couple of jobs to tackle, making space in our basement for the imminent arrival of the new washing machine.

The day's only outing took us to our garage to pick up the car and load it up with boxes and bags of donations to be taken to the charity shop on Monday. Well, it had to be done some time, and now was as good a time as any.

Meanwhile, I am counting down the days to our little break. We'll be off on Wednesday, but I'll be squeezing in another post before we leave. Hope to see you again then!