Doppeltes Lottchen

Don't worry! In spite of the title, this post is not going to be in German. But do read on, all will soon be clear!

It was in Beate's Modish Matrons contribution back in January that my eye was caught by a gorgeous traditional cream cardigan she was wearing. I noticed its similarity with one of mine, and when I pointed this out to her, she hit upon the idea of doing twin posts!

How very exciting!

Das Doppelte Lottchen (freely translated as Double Lottie) is the title of a book by German author Erich Kästner published in 1949, about twin girls separated at birth who meet at summer camp. The phrase has since then become a common idiom in Germany, meaning a pair of girls with similar character and looks.

For a couple of weeks, we emailed back and forth, exchanging ideas on what to wear, and a posting date was set for early February.

Then, as a bolt out of the blue, Hurricane Friederike and two unprofessional tree fellers put Beate's life upside down, and plans were temporarily shelved.

But life goes on, and so do bloggers, no matter what, and as we both had our outfits picked out and hanging ready, we decided the time had come to show them to the world!

You can read fabulous Beate's post here. 

Having both our own distinctive styles, living in different countries, and never having even met in real life, isn't it uncanny how much like twins we look here?  

This is my version of the famous cardigan around which our outfits were built.

I had to dig mine out of the depths of my wardrobe, as in the reasonably mild temperatures we had been graced with until then, warm jumpers and heavy cardigans were a definite no-no for poor menopausal me.

Comparing notes on skirts, we opted for grey, even though mine has a black and white plaid pattern. Being 100% virgin wool and made in Germany, it could only meet Beate's full approval.

The skirt is very heavy and clearly made for colder climes and for girls not suffering from hot flushes!

Upon closer inspection, there are quite a few differences between the two cardigans. While Beate's gorgeous blue trimmed one has a round neckline and buttons all the way through, mine has a deep shawl neck and closes with only one button just above the red drawstring. Buttonless when I rescued it from a rail at Think Twice, I gave it a new lease of life by adding a red vintage button.

I'm wearing a mustard long-sleeved tee-shirt underneath and added a brooch with a red stone for modesty. Yes, I can hear you chuckling!

A suitable handbag was the next hurdle. I emailed a few examples and Beate's eye was caught by this faux croco bag, which incidentally is my current workday bag. 

Beate has the real thing, and as it was in need of an outing, the deal was soon struck.

Outerwear was easy, as we both own green fur-collared jackets and mustard berets.

To add even more punch, Beate chose a fabulous pair of hot pink leather gloves. I initially compromised with red leather gloves but substituted these with hot pink boiled wool ones after finding them in the January sales.

While I was digging out the cardigan, I happened upon another German-made wool cardigan, in red, with slightly puffed sleeves.

This one is round-necked like Beate's. I remember it had metal buttons when I bought it - yet again at Think Twice - but as one was missing and most of others weren't in the best condition, I replaced them with white vintage buttons from my stash, which I think are a definite improvement. 

Look at that lovely cable knit and diamond pattern and those gorgeous embroidered flowers. To my eye, they look like Gentian and Edelweiss, so I added my largest celluloid Edelweiss brooch to keep them company.

A bright blue beret and blue and white scarf, both charity shopped, were added for contrast.

There, I'm ready to tackle anything the weather gods decide to throw at us, including the imaginary snow storm we had in Belgium last Friday, causing lots of hilarity. People were urged to stay at home as about 3 centimeters (yes, really!) of snow had been predicted during morning rush hour. Of course, apart from some brief flurries in the afternoon, nothing happened ...

Now, I'm itching to pop over to Beate and read my twin's post, so off I go! Perhaps you would care to join me?

Back to nature

When in doubt, throw in a little orange! This was the style tip given by my fabolous blogging friend Natalia in one of her latest posts.

In fact, it were the splashes of bright orange, not to mention the big orange buttons and round belt buckle, which sold this dress to me. Forget about the dress's other colours, lovely though they are, it's the orange that makes it stand out.

As summer decided to make an appearance last weekend, I chose this sleeveless dress to do our weekly charity shopping trip on Saturday.

I picked up some of the other colours of the dress with a green necklace and a lilac pair of shoes I've had for many years, but sneaked in more orange by choosing an orange ring and flower brooch!

The spotty orange cardigan lasted only a couple of minutes, as it was far too warm, but long enough to show you my second brooch, a vintage green Scottie dog playing the drum, bought at Cardigan Antiques Centre a couple of years ago.

We didn't have a huge haul at the charity shops, but enough to keep us happy.

At our first stop, I picked up some jewellery: three brooches (the cream rose is vintage Yves Rocher and made in France) and a green glass bangle. There was also a gorgeous green vintage slip, which will be one for winter as it's got a thermal lining. And an über cute Babushka set!

Shop number two yielded the Emsa butter dish (orange!) from the same range as our salt and pepper shakers.

We found some more things at our last shop too: a man bag for Jos (he'd been looking for a decent one for ages) and a handmade skirt for me. It was rather short, above the knee, so I nearly left it behind when I noticed the generous hem allowance.

I was able to let it down about 5 centimeters, to a length I'm much more comfortable with.

And there were  two scarves as well. Not that I need any more scarves. I just can't resist rummaging through them in the chazzas, where they are going real cheap.

Sunday was another gorgeous summer's day, perfect for being out and about and doing a nature walk.

We hadn't been to Het Broek in Blaasveld, one of our favourite walking destinations, since winter, so that's where we went.

At least, that was the plan, but it was fraught with obstacles and we nearly called the whole thing off. Twice!

First of all, getting there wasn't easy, as we stumbled upon roadworks and had to make quite a detour.
Then, once we had parked and were ready to go, it turned out that there was a running event going on, with hordes of runners clogging up the usually peaceful paths.

As usual, we'd brought a picnic and, as it was nearly noon by then, we plonked ourselves down at a convenient picnic table, where we were joined by some creepy crawlies!

After some deliberation, we decided to go ahead anyway, as the number of runners seemed to be petering out.

Once past the pretty little whitewashed chapel with its blue and white painted door, we came upon a side turning leading away from the main path and any straggling runners.

The enticingly winding path brought us to a delightful meadow bordered by trees. 

Here, we had the place to ourselves, so we sat down on a bench and enjoyed the peace and quiet of our surroundings.

I was wearing a red and white polka dotted button through skirt which I picked up at Think Twice last year. It has pockets too!

For contrast, I chose a navy tone on tone cotton blouse from H&M - charity shopped, obviously - to which I pinned a vintage Edelweiss brooch from the Brooch Lady.

Other accessories were a white vinyl belt, some cheap 'n cheerful bangles, and the wicker and red leather handbag brought back from Wales this year.

We continued our walk and ended up at the visitor centre which lies in the heart of the domain.

Even here it was quiet and in fact, apart from a couple of people enjoying a picnic at one of the benches, there wasn't a soul to be seen.

We spent some time in the company of the resident animals, including a pair of bronze beavers and a family of exquisitely carved wooden ducks.

Nearby, there's a children's play area, and as we had this to ourselves as well, we had some fun posing in a wooden throne carved out of a tree trunk. It was far too high for me, but luckily there was a conveniently placed foot hold.

Quite a magical place to sit and stare!

There were a couple of smiley faces to be discovered among the rooms in this insect hotel, although the one on the bottom right seemed to be watching our silly antics open mouthed!

On our way back we took a turning which brought us to one of the large ponds. It was covered with the remains of what must have been a glorious carpet of water lilies in early Summer.

A gull was blatantly ingnoring the no fishing sign while the air was buzzing with bees who couldn't get enough of the plentiful wild orchids.

We were so glad we persevered with our plans in spite of the initial hurdles, getting in some practice for our lazy limbs at the same time.

Tomorrow we are off for a week's holiday in Belgium's west country. Let's hope the weather behaves for us this time!

A tale of two walks

We were at the end of the first week of our holiday by now, and the glorious weather of only a couple of days before seemed a long way off.

The sky on Sunday morning was still a dull grey, but it least it was dry, so we wasted no time in doing a walk which had been on our list for a long time.

But first, let's have a look at what I was wearing. I dug one of my vintage tops out of my suitcase to compliment my hard-wearing dark denim trousers. It's got a pink, yellow, blue and green print on a white background, green pearly buttons and slightly puffy sleeves. Look at my hair flower, which compliments the roses scrambling up our cottage's walls!

For the walk itself, I added a green cardie, and later my boring Gore-Tex jacket as it was quite windy.

The start of the walk was just across the estuary, in Cardigan, and the walk itself would take us in a loop around and then down to St. Dogmaels, our village, and back.

Right before veering off the main road to St. Dogmaels onto a bridle path, I took the opportunity to photograph a slightly rusty pub sign (the building it's attached to has been converted to housing, but I love it that they kept the sign!) and a derelict petrol pump we'd been passing each day on our way to and from the cottage.

The bridle path took us to an abandoned farm where, after a slight diversion, we passed a flock of persistingly bleating sheep who were alarmed at the sight of us. Behind them, a panoramic view to the estuary and Poppit Sands opened up.

We could even spot our cottage's roof and chimney in the far distance.

The path, which became muddy for a while, ended at a tarmacked lane leading into St. Dogmaels.

We were supposed to take another path leading off this lane, but as we were searching for it, we got talking to the owners of a lovely yellow painted house, the lady of which turned out to be Dutch. She directed us to a more scenic path, which ran enclosed between banks of trees, eventually ending up at Blaenwaun Baptist Chapel, which is where we were headed.

The chapel is a stark, forbidding looking building squatting in an overgrown churchyard, its graves entangled in brambles and adorned with wildflowers. It must be very bleak here in winter, the starkness of the chapel on top of the hill enough to put the fear of God into you.

We continued on a quiet country lane and eventually ended up on a footpath running next to Cwm Degwel, a wooded ravine, to St. Dogmaels, where we had a cup of coffee at The Coach House,

Fortified by a bar of delicious Welsh chocolate, we returned, by way of fields and stiles to Cardigan.

Much to our surprise, we got a bonus sunny day on Monday. We decided to strike the iron while it was hot, and tick off another walk on our list.

For this one, we had to drive all the way to Whitesands, near St. Davids, a large sandy beach with easy access to the Coast Path.

The walk up to St. Davids Head is a popular one and, in fact, we have attempted to do it before. It was on an equally sunny day, but soon after heading off we were surprised by a stubborn sea mist, forcing us to return before the walk was completed.

In contrast, now it was the clearest of days, with far reaching views across an island-dotted seascape.

With the sun slightly filtered by wisps of clouds, the light wasn't too harsh and therefore perfect for photographs.

The footpath runs up and down but remains close to the coast, passing the beach at Porth Lleuog separated from Whitesands Bay by the rocky promontory of Trwynhwrddyn.

At the crest of a hill Coetan Arthur, a 4000-year-old Neolithic burial chamber, can be seen silhouetted against the sky.

Then the path descends into a valley via broad steps to a spring above the tiny cove of Porth Melgan.

We scrambled up to St. Davids Head itself, taking in the all around view, with Carn Llidi towering behind us trying but not quite succeeding to keep the clouds at bay, and Ramsey Island out to sea.

Then we went in search of Coetan Arthur on the plateau leading off from St. Davids Head, a wild, rugged landscape full of rocky outcrops.

The burial chamber was surprisingly hard to find among the profusion of rocks littering the plateau, but finally Jos spotted it on the ridge to our left.

The massive capstone measures approximately 6 metres by 2,5 metres and its support is 1,5 metres in height. Nevertheless, until you are actually standing next to it, it looks deceptively small.

From there, we searched out a path zig-zagging down to the main coast path, and returned to Whitesands the way we'd come.

Driving back inland, where a thick blanket of grey clouds had gathered in the meantime, we looked back one more time at the receding blue sky near the coast.

Little did we know that this would be the last bit of sunshine and blue sky we'd see during our holiday ...

Flea-bitten

Last Sunday the tables were turned for once as we had our first proper stint at selling at a flea market.

The market itself, which is being held yearly in our village, has been going from strength to strength, until last year it reached our front door, with the people trading at the stall in front of our house parking their car so close to it that we were almost unable to get out.

We'd vowed to take that pitch this year, and we did!

The perfect opportunity to sell off some of the surplus stuff cluttering up our basement, including some vintage items, a boxful of vinyl offloaded to us by our ex neighbour, and the toys Jos's grandchildren have long ago outgrown.

I also put together a rack of vintage and retro clothing, which I'd outgrown, some of it quite literally.

There was also a suitcase full of shoes and handbags and a display of no-longer-loved jewellery.

We got up at the crack of dawn, as sellers started arriving and putting up their stalls, early buyers on bikes maneuvering between the half-finished displays.

By 7 o´clock, we'd already sold a coffee grinder and a slightly damaged vintage tin child's stove complete with little pots and pans.

Although people were clearly drawn to my colourful display of frocks and blouses, I didn't make a sale until a Dutch lady came along and bought about a third of my stock, as well as all of my handbags!

She later returned and bought more stuff after I'd replaced the empty hangers with new items.

To fill up the empty gaps, I'd put out some vintage Barbie clothing, doubles that I had accumulated during my collecting years. To my surprise, these got some interest and I sold a few pieces, the last customer later returning for an item she'd regretted not buying. I left her talking to Jos, while I got out the rest of my doubles, which she happily browsed through, making another couple of purchases.

Of course, I made some forays myself, leaving Jos to hold the fort (and selling off some of my clothing in the meantime). I didn't go wild, especially as I had less time than usual to look at things properly, but I still picked up several pieces of jewellery: some rings and clip-on earrings, a couple of brooches and a necklace.

I spotted this exquisite micro-mosaic crucifix and held my breath while asking for the price. Needless to say, I wasted no time when I was told it cost € 2. I've seen similar ones selling for at least € 30 on Etsy!

My final purchase was this gorgeous pair of vintage shoes, which I can't wait to wear in autumn.

All in all, we sold well and, more importantly, we had a great day. We'll definitely do it again next year.

I was completely knackered and kept nodding off in the evening.

But not before letting you have a proper look at the dress I was wearing.

It's a vintage wrap dress trimmed with rick-rack and with the most wonderful butterfly sleeves, which I picked up at a charity shop event back in March. The brooch, a huge white poodle, is modern, but isn't he lovely?

I'd taken the next day, Monday, off to put away the unsold stuff and have a rest. It was a fine and sunny day, so we retreated to the garden with a drink and a bowl of cherries.

Did any of you do the earring thing with the doubles when you were little? I can never resist doing it, even if there were no doubles to play around with here ...

And yes, we have a new garden table, which is a bit bigger than our old round one. We had to go out and buy it on the Saturday, as the table we'd originally planned to use for the flea market was found to be in a bad state.

I even had another stint at painting my toe nails. I nipped into Kruidvat (the Superdrug of the Low Countries) when I went into town, and found these handy pens. They have a felt tip instead of a brush, which seems to be working for me.  I picked them up in all available colours!  It's a pity there's no green though ...

I could definitely get used to a three day weekend ...

Back to work on Tuesday it was, and yes, back to the high twenties too!

I was adamant to wear this funky top, which I'd bought at Think Twice quite a while ago, but had forgotten all about. The green skirt, bought in the sales a couple of years ago, went perfect with it. In order to keep the high collar of the blouse away from my neck, I added a scarf clip which used to belong to Great Aunt Josephine.

The sandals were given to me last Sunday by my friend Ann. She's the one who gave me all those shoes back in June. They are, if possible, even more comfortable than the jelly shoes!

On Wednesday, temperatures of 30°C were predicted, so I opted for a cotton sleeveless dress.

Yes, I finally got around to wearing the colourful stripy dress I bought in Cardigan. It's looking a bit crumpled here after a day in the office ...

With all the colours, it was easy to accessorize. I added a belt, beads and watch in bright blue, a chunky red ring, red and white bangles and a Turquoise plastic brooch, incidentally also bought in Cardigan, albeit a couple of years ago.

As Think Twice was in the middle of another one of their famous sales, with everything down to € 5, I needed to get out there.

This is what I found:

It looks like I was in a maxi mood ..

There was another maxi skirt, but I'll be wearing that in one of my next posts!