Too good to be true

I knew it was too good to be true. To be honest, it didn't feel quite right, either. Still, I enjoyed every minute of the gorgeous, spring-like weather we had back in February.

But even if it was to be expected, it was still a bit of a letdown when the weather gods decided that enough was enough. I bet they were laughing behind our backs when they turned the thermostat several degrees lower, hid the weakly protesting sun behind a layer of grey clouds, and gleefully opened heaven's sluice gates.

To make matters worse, the weather gods seemed to have conspired with the charity shopping goddesses, as we came back virtually empty handed from our charity shopping trip on the Saturday before last.

There was nothing for it but to admit defeat, but not before showing you what I wore that day.

My frock, which was charity shopped many years ago, never fails to put a smile on my face whatever the weather, its feathery print in shades of navy, red and pink creating a pleasing chevron pattern in the skirt. If you look closely, there's even a little bit of green to be detected.

Although I've worn both red and navy with this dress in the past, this time I took the lead from its pink hues. Enter my hot pink, lurex edged cardigan and raspberry opaques, which do seem to look a bit reddish here. Sometimes, it is very tricky to get colours right when photographing an outfit.

I love how my beloved lilac 1980s belt seems to have found its perfect companion in the dress.

The necklace with its multicoloured wooded discs I'm wearing here came from Accessorize, who used to have a shop here in Antwerp many years ago.

A posy of violets and roses adorns the oval plastic brooch I pinned to my cardie and I've included a close-up of my sparkly, pink-hued, holographic ring.

I've been trying the wear my Winter coats on rotation this year but this one hadn't seen the light of day since our trip to Zeeland back in November.

To combat both the weather's gloominess and the drop in temperature, I added my red scarf, which has a hint of purple, and my rather fancy red beret.

Oh, and I forgot to mention my navy booties. They were bought from a local shop a couple of years ago and, together with the opaques, ring and necklace, are the only retail items in my outfit.

Being forced to spend the rest of the weekend indoors, we finally finished a little project which had been living in our heads ever since our old pendulum clock decided to call it a day back in December.

Not wanting to spend a fortune on having it repaired, Jos removed the clock's face and its movement, leaving us with a neat little display cabinet.  A string of battery operated fairy lights leftover from Christmas was tacked to the inside and a shallow Plexiglas shelf was inserted at the bottom of the clock face's window.

Then, it was ready for the fun bit.  I gave three of my vintage Barbie dolls the special treatment and put them in the lower part behind the leaded window where the pendulum used to be.

I thought the round window would be perfect for displaying some of my Skipper sized dolls (for those who are not familiar with them, Skipper is Barbie's little sister). However, my plans were thwarted by the fact that the dolls turned out to be just a tiny bit too tall for the available space, until I hit upon they idea of making them sit on the shelf.

Don't they look just cute sitting on their lofty perch?  The downside is that I can only use bend-leg dolls, though.

Here's a closer look at the inside of the clock, err, cabinet!

The weather on Sunday was even more dreadful, with hardly any let up in the rain, which kept pelting down remorselessly.

Still in the mood for playing with my dolls, I thought I'd redress some of them in appropriate rainy weather gear.

Here are my # 5 Ponytail (1960) sporting the 1964 outfit Stormy Weather, which came complete with wellies and an umbrella. Imitating her in a smaller version of the outfit is Skipper's friend Skooter. She's from 1965, and so is the outfit she's wearing, which is called Rain or Shine.

Here is Skipper herself! She's from 1964, but her adorable floral vinyl coat, called Flower Showers, dates from 1967.

On her left is Twist 'n Turn Barbie (1969), who's wearing Poncho Put-On (1971), a yellow and orange checked jumpsuit topped by a yellow vinyl poncho with orange trim and a funky yellow knit hood.

Our final duo are Francie (1966) and her friend Casey (1967). They are both Mod girls (Francie was marketed as Barbie's MODern cousin, and no, my CAPS lock didn't get stuck), who are bit smaller and less buxom than Barbie.

Francie is wearing a very groovy outfit consisting of a green play-suit with hot pink and yellow dots, and a see-through, geometrically patterned raincoat. The outfit is delightfully called Pazam! and dates from 1968.

Casey's outfit is a red vinyl coat and headscarf set called  Polka Dots 'n Raindrops (1966), which includes a pair of covetable red boots. Casey was an eBay find and arrived in a Thermos flask carton, which had my Dad, to whose address she had been sent as this preceded Jos's retirement, quite flummoxed.

Compared to the girls, I wasn't wearing that much colour that day, opting for more sedate blues and greens.

My Viyella flying duck skirt from Scapa of Scotland, charity shopped back in February, is the perfect skirt for lounging and doing some lazy pottering around the house.

Lounging doesn't necessarily mean leisure wear in my book, so I added a sparkly blue pussy bow blouse, a € 1 find from Think Twice, its bow secured with one of my scarf clips.

The belt was charity shopped but I cannot remember where I bought the ring.

The short-sleeved cardigan was another Think Twice find, but I only wore it while briefly stepping outside between showers for outfit photos.

Linking Saturday's outfit to Tina's Pink Friday this week!

Five dogs and a suitcase

After the endless string of gloomy days we've had in January and early February, it was an utter joy to finally have the sun come out to play in the week before last. If the mornings were chilly and bright, as the day progressed the temperature climbed to the lofty heights of about 15°C.

The sky was such an unaccustomed shade of blue that I decided to join in and wear a bit of sky blue too.

And yes, it was still just light enough for outfit photos when I got home!

The dress I wore on Friday has a sprinkling of white dots and flowers, a full pleated skirt perfect for a twirl or two and a neck tie.

Wearing yellow with it was almost mandatory, so I chose a yellow belt and opaques and pinned a yellow bird brooch to my dress's collar. The yellow cardigan I'd started out with had long been discarded, and I'm only wearing the vintage teal new wool jacket with its grey furry colour for the photos.

On Saturday we had a flea market to go to. We'd made a late start as some paperwork related to the sale of the parental home had to be signed.

Consequently, it was nearly lunch time when we finally set off, deciding to make outfit photos afterwards.

This turned out not to be the best decision, as by then our garden was bathing in dazzling sunlight, bleaching out my outfit's colours and giving my already pale face a ghostly translucency.

I picked up the pussy bow blouse with its magenta Paisley pattern for € 2 at Think Twice the other week. It's vintage St. Michael. I'm surprised the nylon it is made of didn't make me sweat, but then again it was quite chilly inside the flea market venue. However, the slipperiness of the fabric ensured that the blouse kept escaping from my skirt's waistband, even with the addition of the sturdy belt.

Putting this outfit together was a doddle, as I'd already decided on the green skirt, which was lurking in the depths of my wardrobe. The happy marriage of green and magenta made my heart sing!

I balanced out the equation by adding maroon opaques. These are Falke and came from a posh department store in Antwerp, which has an extensive collection of stockings and tights. Under normal circumstances, I hardly ever venture into this shop, but they are worth checking out at the tail end of the sales, when good quality opaques in unusual colours can be found for very reasonable prices.

I needed comfortable footwear which wouldn't pinch my feet or kill my back while trawling the flea market aisles, so I opted for these age-old tan ankle boots.

Tired of my Winter coats, I chose a green tweedy jacket I charity shopped last Autumn, adding a large brooch depicting a glamorous, green turbaned lady for good measure.

As you can see, I was wearing another lady brooch, this one wearing a feathered hat, at my throat. Only, it isn't a brooch but a scarf clip, which I'd used to secure the pussy bow.

My handbag of choice was this glorious tapestry covered one - I am such a sucker for them! - which looks a bit like an overgrown purse, and is big enough to carry my flea market essentials and more.

There were stalls a-plenty at the flea market and in spite of the gorgeous weather it was busier than usual, but we didn't seem to be in the right mood. Consequently, it took us longer than usual to make our first purchases.

Now, without further ado, here's a little group photo of what we came home with.

The vintage cheese grater (our old one recently died) and the deer ornament came from Ilona's stall. She's a flea market regular whom we have become friendly with over the years. I don't think we ever left her stall empty handed.

At a jewellery stall we usually avoid as we think its goods are rather overpriced, I was drawn to a box full of 1970s deadstock earrings. As my ears are no longer pierced, I was pleased to see there were many pairs of clip earrings, even dangly ones, so I bought 5 pairs for a total of € 10.

Funnily enough, only one brooch came home with me, but isn't this trio of doggies the cutest?

Speaking of dogs, I happened upon this tiny ceramic dog. Its head is a lid, and can be removed, but what is it? A little trinket box, perhaps? Anyway, he caught my attention as he reminded me of another ceramic dog we have. This one can do a little trick, which magically transforms him into a jug. So, I took the tiny one home, and lo and behold, they're like a reunited little family!

Our final buy was this magnificent vintage Lady Baltimore suitcase from Tania's stall, which is another one of our favourites. It's in pristine condition, inside and out, and even retains its matching label with the original owner's name and address pencilled in.

Not much actual information is found on the Internet about these suitcases and the company who produced them, but the Baltimore Luggage Co. registered the "Lady Baltimore" Trademark in 1954.

The luggage came in different sizes and colours, and are selling like hot cakes on eBay and various Etsy shops.

Mine dates from the early 1960s, as testified by these delightful ads. One thing is certain: I will travel in style!

At a rough guess, there must be at least a dozen suitcases at Dove Cottage, all picked up at charity shops and flea markets. They all serve their purpose as storage for out of season clothes and shoes, handbags, scarves, belts, Etc.

Then there's a stack of old brown suitcases. We used to look out for these, their common factor being that they have a wooden frame, a necessity to convert them into ... Barbie wardrobes!

I am storing all my vintage Barbie (and family) clothing sets in them and, organized as I am, they are all in plastic bags with the various accessories belonging to them, labelled with their names and stock numbers, the year they were issued and the page(s) of the reference book(s) where more information on them can be found.

Even if I've stopped actively collecting, my collection still gives me so much joy. But I do blame those dolls for wanting a vintage wardrobe of my own!

Linking to Patti's Visible Monday and Mica's Weekday Wear Linkup!

All dolled up

Once upon a time, when I was a right little madam little girl growing up in the late 1960s, I badly wanted a Barbie doll. 

In fact, I guess it was not so much the doll I wanted, but her fabulous wardrobe!

Several of my girlfriends had Barbie dolls and some had Ken too, as well as Barbie's little sister, Skipper. 

The really lucky ones had vinyl carry-cases, which had space for a doll as well as a rail for  the doll's clothes.

I think it's fair to say that the green eyed monster had me firmly in its grip!

I begged and begged my Mum to buy me a Barbie doll, but she wouldn’t budge. She said Barbie had an ugly face, but I suspect it was the fact that Barbie wasn't exactly flat chested which was bothering her ...

In 1970, when I was nine years old, my Mum finally succumbed to my constant nagging and accompanied me to the village toy shop to choose a doll. 

In the end, I did not get Barbie, but Barbie’s friend P.J., who sported a fringe and two pigtails tied with beads. A true child of her time!

In the above photo you can see the boxed P.J. doll, which I bought a couple of years ago. The one I had as a girl was non-talking but otherwise looked the same, except for a different outfit (see below).

I tried pulling the string at the back of her neck (just reachable through a hole in the back of the box), which should get her talking, but I guess the years have taken their toll as she is mute.

Here's the doll I got (not my photos), so that you can see the outfit she was wearing: a hot pink bathing suit with a lacy skirt and an orange vinyl belt.

Isn't her eye make-up gorgeous? And note that she has real eyelashes too!

With the doll came a booklet showing the latest fashions, which I pored over religiously and knew by heart. In fact, when I came across this very booklet when I started collecting over thirty years later, I recognized all the dolls posing in their different outfits as if I’d only seen them yesterday.

Ok, so now I had a doll, but it wasn’t much fun without clothes. My grandmother, who was nifty with a needle, made her some dresses, but they were all of the same basic and frankly speaking boring model. Very creative, she wasn’t. Needless to say, P.J. looked a right frump in them. 

So, the nagging began again, this time for a real Mattel-made outfit.  My Mum, knowing from experience that I wouldn’t let it go, actually allowed me to go to the toy shop on my own. 

In my mind's eye, I can still see the shelves lined with exercise books and paint boxes - the shop doubled as a stationary shop - and smell the lingering scent of crayons. If I close my eyes, the scene is played out in front of me: there I am, not yet ten years of age, tiptoeing up to the counter at the very end of the shop and timidly making my request, and the candy-striped boxes brought out by the shop’s owner for me to choose from.

After much deliberation, I chose an outfit called “Dreamy Blues”, which is the gauzy ruffled dress you can see P.J. modelling here.

On a side-note, this is not the actual doll I had as a child, nor the dress, which first got passed to my little sister and then to the girl next door, but not before poor P.J. had had her hair bobbed.

I was lucky enough to find the doll on Ebay for next to nothing when I first started collecting.

For Christmas, my grandmother, who I guess was getting tired of sewing doll outfits, bought me another set of clothes, called "The ZigZag Bag", consisting of a pair of bell bottoms, a shirt with a wild zig zag print and a red sleeveless jumper.

Up until the early 1970s, all the outfits had names, and quite a lot of the late 1960s, early 1970s ones really sum up the era perfectly. 

What do you think of "Pajama Pow!" (1967), modelled here by Growin' Pretty Hair Barbie, who sported an updo hairstyle and had a retractable ponytail?

This one is from 1968 and called "Zokko!" (with exclamation mark!), and the doll modelling it is a Twist 'N Turn Barbie with the delightfully named hair colour "Chocolate Bon Bon".

One of my favourites is "Smasheroo" (1968), modelled here by Barbie's ginger haired friend Stacey, whose talking version spoke in a British accent!

Oh, and if you think of the colour pink when you hear the name Barbie, you’d be quite surprised to hear that pink did not feature all too prominently in Barbie’s Pre-1973 wardrobe.

Lemon yellow and silver lamé (lah-MAY, as Sheila would say!) were combined in this outfit called Silver Polish (1969).

The doll modelling it is another one of Barbie's friends, called Christie.

Another Christie, whose hair has oxidized to a funky red, is modelling this wild yellow jumpsuit, called "Caribbean Cruise" (1967), while a ginger haired Living Barbie (with movable hands) is wearing a tunic and bell bottoms called "Mood Matchers" (1970).

Here's Stacey again, a blonde version this time, wearing an orange sleeveless dress with a separate lacy top, called "Disco Dater" (1967).

I'm ending this post with Barbie's friend from 1972, called Walk Lively Steffie, who is wearing an outfit from 1973 called "Simply Summery". Look at those gorgeous purple shoes.

Whenever I walk past the display cabinet she is in, I somehow have to think of Vix, who I guess would love this gorgeous halterneck maxi!

The story of how I came to be collecting these dolls, featuring more gorgeous outfits dating from 1959 until the early 1970s (I literally have hundreds) will be for another post.

Behind the scenes at the museum

With its multitude of collectible items, Dove Cottage doubles as a museum as well as our home! In fact, we keep telling visitors that we ought to charge them entrance fees!

Due to serious lack of space (Dove Cottage is after all just a two up, two down, with extended kitchen and bathroom), some of our collections - vintage cameras, Expo 58 souvenirs and Pre-1973 Barbie dolls and their clothes, to name the most space invading culprits - had to be curbed.

I know I really shouldn't have rekindled my vintage paperback collecting as there is no shelf space left ...

At least, most of our kitchenalia collection is actually being used, though not the soaps and washing powders!

While my ever growing collection of brooches does not present the same problems, as they are small enough not to encroach too much on our space, they do present a problem of their own: that of decent storage.

At first, when I didn't have quite so many, empty cutlery boxes lined with satiny fabric were a great solution. But the number of boxes grew and grew, and - although I'd grouped the brooches by theme - it was hard to find what I was looking for, especially when getting dressed in the morning.

For a while, a 1970s round orange plastic jewellery box I found at a flea market last year, with separate compartments and a removable tray, was a godsend. It was my plan to put my current favourites in it, rotating them every couple of weeks or so. But guess what: it didn't happen.

Meeting the brooch lady and a couple of rainy holidays in Wales meant even more growth in my collection, so that I had brooches lying around everywhere, which made me, the eternal Ms. Organized, break out in a sweat!

I had dreams of a storage unit, with shallow pull-out drawers which would hold all my brooches, but the actual thing has so far proved to be elusive.

A couple of week ago, one of Jos's friends, who is re-organizing his coin collection, asked him if we could use some shallow polished dark wooden drawer boxes. They were perfect but unfortunately there were only three of them, but hey, it's a start!

Two of the boxes were pre-lined with velvety dividers. The third one was empty, so I lined it with a  piece of red felt bought in a haberdashery shop, which was almost exactly the size of the drawer.

Then, on one of our recent charity shopping trips, we stumbled across these two plastic filing units, with four drawers each. Not exactly what I had in mind, but they will do for now. Especially as they were priced at only € 2 each.

I gave them a good clean, lined them with felt, and spent half an hour or so every evening after work filling them and rearranging my collection in the process.

They actually don't look too bad and kind of match the jewellery box which now contains my modern brooches.

This also created the perfect opportunity to count them, so that I now have an exact figure (300 at the time of writing) instead of the rough estimate I've been bandying about.

On Sunday before last, we drove down to a nearby village, where a friend, who is one of the biggest - if not the biggest - collectors of Expo 58 memorabilia, was having a small exhibition.

The weather was still gloriously summery, giving me the chance to dress appropriately for this event, in this handmade cotton 1950s dress I found for € 2 at Think Twice back in August.

The buttons were replacements as I didn't like the original ones, but they are in keeping with the dress's age, as they came from my stash of vintage buttons. The brooch is modern, but I love its quirky retro feel, and they match the dress's buttons perfectly.

I wore my charity shopped King Louie jacket again, to which I pinned two hair clips in lieu of a brooch, but I took it off after the photos were taken, as it was far too warm for a jacket!

The cute little wicker handbag was the perfect finishing touch!

The Expo 58 exhibition was in one of the rooms of a local history museum, and contained quite a few rare items alongside the more obvious and commonly found ones.

In passing, I'd had a little peek in one of the museum's other rooms, which looked intriguing, so we took the opportunity to visit the rest of the exhibits.

As this was totally unexpected, I didn't have my camera with me, so you will have to make do with photos taken with my phone's camera.

There was a room full of china in all shapes and sizes and another full of devotional objects.

I was quite taken by the ornate clock on the mantelpiece (bottom right), which reminded me of a similar one owned by my maternal grandparents.

The first floor had some antique fashion displays, with lots of lacy garments and the most gorgeous little tapestry handbag.

The attics were a true treasure trove of kitchenalia, as well as the contents of an early 20th century village shop, the display of soaps being very reminiscent of Dove Cottage's, only on a larger scale.

We'll have to go back one day and pay the museum a more extensive visit.

In the meantime, there is of course our very own little museum to enjoy!