July never seemed so strange

While I've still got a couple of installments of this year's Shropshire travelogue up my sleeve. I felt it was time for another break and a catch-up on what the month of July had in store. After all, we've almost reached the end of the month by now, and I've got a backlog of photos reaching all the way back to its first week. It's been a strange month for me, to say the least, filled with lots of work - some of which involved the pleasurable yet exhausting task of preparing for and participating in this year's flea market - and little play. 

Apart from that, the weekends have been either too hot or too wet to go for any walks, so that unfortunately I can't share any adventures in that direction with you!

Luckily, I've been wearing clothes, and we've even made the effort to photograph some of my lovingly created outfits. For a start, there are no less than five of them for you to enjoy in this post ...

Initially, grey skies, a blustery wind and the odd shower were our lot in the first week of July, with the mercury not climbing higher than the low 20s. Thursday promised to be another one of those days, but eventually 24°C was reached, which made it a tiny bit too warm for the vintage Diolen dress I'd selected from my wardrobe that morning. The nylons I'd started the day with were therefore soon removed to prevent overheating!

The dress was an old Think Twice find, of course. I just love its cheerful blue and yellow pattern, its notched collar and its neat tie bow! 

The belt used to be my Mum's, while both the white early plastic moulded flower brooch and the yellow perspex ring were flea market finds. My yellow beaded necklace came from Belgian haberdashery and accessories chain Veritas.

Speaking of the latter, I'd been swooning over the orange necklace on the top left for months but, cheapskate that I am, I simply couldn't justify its € 24,99 price tag. As the week marked the start of the Summer sales here in Belgium, I thought I'd nip into the shop to see if it had been reduced. I'd told myself I'd be happy with 50% off, so when I saw its sales price of € 4 I couldn't be happier. What's more, I bought the necklace on the bottom right, the bangles and the suede belts with a hefty reduction as well. 

By Friday, the temperature was on its way to 30°C. I counted my lucky stars that I was able to take the day off before my colleague's three-week holiday would put a temporary stop to all that.

In spite of the high temperatures, I was determined to tick a couple of domestic tasks off the list so, helped by Jos, I made a start with deep cleaning the bathroom and kitchen and chasing away the colony of dust bunnies who had taken up residence there during our holiday.

Afterwards, I changed into this breezy skirt and top combo. The eagle-eyed might notice that I was already wearing one of my sales bargain necklaces!

The tiered cotton skirt was a sales bargain too, picked up in C&A last Summer. The top is charity shopped King Louie. In fact, apart from the stretchy belt - a naughty retail buy - the rest of my accessories, and even my red and orange sandals, were charity shopped as well.

The garden, meanwhile, is well on its way to becoming an impenetrable jungle, but at least the Hydrangeas were still looking as fresh as the proverbial daisy that weekend.

The low 30s were easily reached on Saturday, the perfect weather for something sleeveless and breezy.

My vintage cotton piqué dress with its moulded flower buttons was a € 2 flea market find back in April 2018. Sadly, it turned out to be a bit roomy for me, so it was gathering dust until, many months later, I had the brainwave of using my limited sewing skills and move the already asymmetrically closing buttons a bit.

When Jos saw my outfit, he thought the belt belonged to the dress, but it doesn't: it just happens to be a perfect match. The pink butterfly brooch and plastic ring were both found on the high street, while the beaded necklace came from a long-gone vintage shop. The black sandals were € 4 Clarks from a charity shop many years ago. 

The moth must have been wooing my butterfly brooch, as it kept looking in through the kitchen window, where it obligingly posed for me.

Most of the day was taken up with dragging boxes full of clothes from the back of the built-in cupboard in our bedroom, going through them with a fine comb and selecting items to sell at my flea market stall. After giving some of the lucky few a quick once-over with the iron, here's my carefully curated rail of dresses, skirts and blouses. 

These, by the way, were all snapped up at charity shops or in the Think Twice sales and the majority has spent at least some time in my wardrobe before falling out of favour.

There was a slight drop in temperature on Sunday, but in spite of the sun's absence, it was still warm and humid at 27°C, which culminated in a thunderstorm in the afternoon.

Again, cotton to the rescue with this button through polka dot skirt and patterned sleeveless top, both of which were charity shop finds. The top with its black ribbon trim followed me home from Shrewsbury in 2019.

Apart from my turquoise chunky plastic ring, everything was found second-hand. The brooch was part of a haul from a Carmarthen antiques shop in 2017.

My journal insists that I did some more flea market prep, washed my hair and finished writing a blog post. I also finished by latest read, Lucinda Riley's The Angel Tree which, to be honest, I wasn't completely enamoured with.

That reminds me that I haven't shared the books I've been reading in a long time, so here's a little round-up. 

Although no easy reads, both William Boyd's Sweet Caress and John Boyne's The Heart's Invisible Furies were pretty memorable.

Jonathan Coe's Middle England was my holiday read. 

I'd just finished the John Boyne and was looking at some likely candidates to take with me. As I was idly paging through the book, the names of the Shropshire towns of Bridgnorth, Much Wenlock and Shrewsbury leapt out at me, which instantly cinched the deal. 

It's the third novel in a trilogy, following The Rotters' Club (2001) and The Closed Circle (2004), both of which I have read and loved. Published in 2018, it has been heralded as a "Brexit comedy": the novel explores the experiences of the characters from the earlier novels against the backdrop of the major events taking place before, during and after the Brexit referendum. An interesting read but definitely not his best in my opinion. That said, I wasn't too keen of its predecessor, Number 11 (2015) either.

Moving swiftly into the month's second week now, which started with a continuation of the weekend's high temperatures.

My colleague was on holiday now, so that I was once again on my own. On top of that, Jos and I had decided that, although he would still be driving me into Antwerp in the morning, I would be taking the tram part of the way home. Well, what can I say but that we'd picked the wrong moment and that the tram to my particular destination wasn't running on Monday. As a result, I arrived home late and terribly sweaty in spite of my sleeveless cotton frock.

The cotton shirt dress with its funky floral pattern was a Think Twice sales bargain back in June 2017. Apart from its obvious attraction, there was a label announcing the fact that its previous owner was an Ann(e) too, so of course it had to come home with me!

It's one of my favourite Summer frocks and, looking back at its previous outings, it seems I always wear it with the same orange and pink accessories. 

In order not to bore you to death, I'll be sharing more of that week's outfits with you in a later post.

However, I couldn't possible not show you my latest lunch break finds. The green squiggly striped Rayon one and the white Diolen one with its mixed floral and geometrical pattern were found at two different Think Twice shops on two consecutive days.

Melting Pot, a vintage-per-kilo shop, is always worth a visit even if I often come away empty-handed. No such thing that day, as I instantly pounced on the groovy floral maxi dress by the French Virginie label. You'll be seeing me wear this one very soon!

But for now, it's goodbye from me ... and goodbye from her! After six months, Bess has discovered the little hidey-hole at the bottom of her beloved scratch post. Just look at that cheeky face!