In between showers

The forecast for April's penultimate weekend promised a high probability of rain on both Saturday and Sunday and, while the showers might be interspersed with a sunny spell or two, there was a strong possibility that the blanket of grey would be too thick to allow the sun a look in. In short, they - and by they, of course, I mean those dratted weather people - had no clue whatsoever, and made sure there would be no complaints by forecasting all kinds of weather bar snow and heatwave temperatures

It was therefore a welcome surprise to wake up to a modicum of sunshine on Saturday, and as we'd been promised highs of 13°C, I decided to throw caution to the wind and forego the long sleeves, opting for ... three-quarter ones instead. How very daring, no? 

First outing for this predominantly blue flower infused vintage dress I found at the vintage per kilo shop back in January. As it was missing one of its buttons, which I didn't like anyway, I replaced them with vintage black and white moulded flower ones, which turned out to be so well-suited they almost seem to be part of the pattern.

Among the blue-hued flowers are some tan-hearted daisies and leaves, which I took as my lead to add tan and burnt orange to my outfit.  At my waist, my latest stretchy belt with a tan faux-bamboo buckle, which was a naughty high street buy back in March. On top, a charity shopped diagonally striped orange and burgundy Zoë Loveborn cardigan.

The plastic flower brooch is vintage, an outdoor flea market find in the Summer of 2016, while the necklace with its multi-coloured beads followed me home from the charity shop in Poperinge during our week in Belgium's west country in September 2019.

This wasn't my initial outfit of the day though, as after breakfast that morning I donned my gardening gear. The idea was to dig over the narrow border in the passageway, remove the building rubble which had ended up here courtesy of our neighbour, and plant the shade-loving perennials we'd brought back from the garden centre the other week. 

After doing the hard graft in spite of suffering from backache, Jos left me to do the planting. I'd only just made a start when he came running back outside, telling me I would need to hurry up as rain was imminent. I'm glad to report that I made it, if only just in the nick of time, as the first drops were starting to fall while I was putting in some yellow archangel I'd dug up from elsewhere in the garden.

The yellow archangel (Lamium galeobdolon) joined the fresh from the garden centre Vinca minor (Lesser Periwinkle),  Geranium macrorrhizum 'Czakor', Alchemilla mollis (Lady's Mantle), Ajuga reptans 'Atropurpurea' (Bugle) and Digitalis purpurea 'Dalmatian Purple' (Foxglove).

Then there were the Euphorbia amygdaloides 'Purpurea' and the Helleborus sternii which had been living in pots in the passageway since the Autumn, as well as some surplus self-seeded foxgloves and Welsh Poppies (Meconopsis cambrica) from the garden.

We'd lost a big chunk of the border's edging during the building work, so that the rain soon washed away some of the freshly dug over soil and turned part of the passageway into a mud-fest.

We'd looked for suitable border edging in the garden centre on our last visit but hadn't been able to find anything to our liking. As rain kept stopping play for the rest of the day, we decided to have a look in another local garden centre as I thought I'd seen something which might suit on their website. 

Before we proceed, though, here's a look at my vintage teal new wool coat found at Think Twice many years ago. Its lining has been repaired countless of times, but otherwise it's still in perfect condition and will be worn until it literally falls apart. Still wearing a beret and thin knit scarf as well. I do wish Spring would hurry up! 

Sadly, the border edging I'd seen online turned out not to be what we were looking for either, so we settled for some boring green flexible plastic edging to tide us over for the time being. We also bought a bag of wood chips to mulch the new border with.

It would have been rude not to have a look at their plants as well, although the colour coordinated displays did put me off a bit.  Choice was rather limited and there wasn't anything we couldn't have found at our regular garden centre anyway.

Before making our way back home, we went to feed Inneke and Maurice's cat, Nessie, as they'd departed on holiday to the seaside that morning. At least, we tried to feed her, but the key we'd been given didn't seem to work. A phonecall with Maurice revealed the hiding place of a spare key, but that didn't seem to be working either. Meanwhile, we could hear Nessie meowing pitifully. It was all solved in the end but it did involve Maurice having to come back from the seaside. It's a good thing Belgium is a small country ...

Back at home, I spent some time rearranging our bookshelves, as we are facing a serious lack of space. Then I hit upon the idea of doing a reshuffle of my collection of vintage sewing baskets which live on a shelf in the redundant fireplace in our bedroom, creating space for our Victorian and Edwardian themed books. When I posted this on Instagram, people oohed and aahed over the sewing baskets. 

The stuffed mouse on top of the basket on the right isn't one of Bess's toys. I bought her in a WWF shop in Antwerp in the late 80s, and she's called Gorgonzola!

Sunday once again went off to a sunny start, and as the temperature was forecasted to climb to the unheard highs of 15°C, I decided to go one step further and wear a short-sleeved dress.

Well, that's what long-sleeved t-shirts are for, aren't they? I bookended the watercolour patterned dress - another wardrobe stalwart picked up from Think Twice - with a teal t-shirt and ditto opaques. 

Accessories included an old tan leather belt, a blue plastic butterfly brooch and purple beads.

I only wore the shoes for the photos as, apart from the garden, we didn't leave Dove Cottage's confines at all that day.

Aren't they sweet?  They were charity shopped almost exactly two years ago. I've never been able to find out anything about the brand mentioned on the inside (Soulier), but their very 1970s looking block heels make me think they are definitely vintage. 

It would be raining again in the afternoon, but until it did, we made the most of the dry spell by fixing the temporary edging to the border and adding the wood chips. 

Then, Jos removed the old wood from our Fuchsia magellanica bush, while I did some random garden pottering.

I can't believe how lush the garden has become all of a sudden. All that rain must have done the trick!

The Bluebells are in their element and are taking centre stage in the garden right now, a shimmering haze of blue visible from our kitchen window, so that they can even be enjoyed when it rains.

The Cowslips (Primula veris) are doing well too. Even if they can't compete with their exuberantly flowering blue neighbours, their clusters of delicate lemon bells never fail to delight.

The tiny coral bells belong to one of the Heucheras in the window box in the passageway. It has been flowering since early April, which I'm sure is very early indeed. There's no sign of any flowers in those planted in our garden yet.

Another early bloomer, as it's supposed to flower from May to July,  is our Clematis "Guernsey Cream", whose big fat flower buds are opening one by one into gorgeous large cream with a tinge of green flowers. Admittedly, some voracious creature has been nibbling some of the buds, resulting in holey blooms ...

April's final working week had its usual ups and downs, some rain, some shine, and temperatures reaching the low double digits. It was a long one too, as I had to work on Friday as well. What a drag that was!

My lunch breaks were spent running some errands and going to my hairdresser, but on Tuesday my feet took me to the second-hand pop-up shop which opened a couple of months ago. It's a large, spacious shop, with everything neatly displayed on rows and rows of rails, and so far I haven't come across any Primark stuff or the like.

I was in luck that day, as I found a Wow To Go skirt - I used to have a dress in the same pattern - a pair of gold/silver patterned Western style ankle boots by defunct Belgian label Beoriginal, and flat blue Velcro-strap shoes by good old Damart.

I went for a walk on Thursday, the intention being that I would take you to the raised promenade along the River Scheldt, only to be thwarted in my plans as a major redevelopment of the quayside is taking place. Before I reached the quayside, however, I was halted in my tracks by this fantastic mushroom decorated façade.

As I couldn't access the promenade, I walked towards the Ferris wheel opposite Het Steen - the castle I blogged about in a previous post - along the pavement.

To my left, a row of rusty gabled hangars with decorative ironwork pediments. Dating from the late 19th century, they will get a new purpose in the redevelopment of the quayside, but at the time of writing they mostly offer parking space.

It had been a frosty start to the day, which offered the ideal opportunity to wear the short-sleeved plaid wool-blend dress I found at Think Twice back in October. 

Again, I added bookends in the form of a long-sleeved t-shirt and opaques combo. The red Western-style ankle boots were a fairly recent charity shop find.

A flea market, vintage shop and a chazza supplied my brooch, necklace and belt respectively.

As it had warmed up to 14°C during the day, I was sweating in this by the time I went home, but otherwise this was an absolute joy to wear.

Nevertheless, I am truly craving my Spring/Summer wardrobe by now!

Just add some red

Lately, my posts seem to be a bit all over the place, travelling from Zeeland and back as well as time-travelling between November and December.

It's mind-boggling to think that it's mid December already and that the silly season madness is in full swing. Gazing down at Antwerp's main shopping street from the lofty heights of my office window, the teeming crowds of frenzied people carrying armfuls of shopping bags make me count my lucky stars that I'm not one of them. Oh, but they do tend to exasperate me when I need to run an errand during my lunch break or when they find it necessary to clog up public transport with said shopping bags during rush hour!

But enough of that, what about some outfits?

For these, we have to backtrack slightly, to the last days of November.

Unintentionally, and for reasons totally unconnected with the season, I seem to be have been wearing a lot of red lately. Take this outfit, which was built around a new-to-me dress, for example.

The dress was a recent Think Twice find and the only item I bought from the shop's most recent collection, which seemed to be mainly consisting of ugly oversized jumpers and other assorted stuff I wouldn't have been seen dead wearing back in the decade that style forgot: the abominable 1990s. 

Its pattern groovily combines several shades of grey with a delicious raspberry red, so adding even more red seemed the obvious thing to do.

Judging from the loops, once upon a time the dress must have come with a belt, which had done a disappearing act somewhere along the line. But never mind! As you know, I often prefer to use a belt from my stash, and this red leather, square buckled one turned out to be just perfect for the job.

A translucent red beaded necklace, red plastic ring and a brooch featuring a threesome of Scottie dogs - one of them red - were picked for further accessorizing.

It was a Friday afternoon, and I'd just arrived home from work, which is why I am still wearing my beret. Oh, and here's a naughty peek at my vintage slip, while I'm showing you my red opaques!

And then it was Saturday, and nothing could stop us from finally going on that charity shop trawl.

It was a sunny day, but with a tinge of crispness in the air, so I needed  to dress accordingly, and as my craving for wearing red hadn't dissipated, I plucked this navy, red and white bouclé (boo-CLAY, as Sheila would say) skirt from my wardrobe.

I didn't want to do a boring plain jumper, so out came this lightweight one from Zara, which came to me by way of a charity shop. It's got such a classic, mid-century shape and print. And even if at first sight you'd be forgiven in thinking its colours would clash (it's got a different shade of red from the red dots in my skirt, as well as some purple) it turned out to be a surprisingly balanced outfit.

I tried to wear the jumper tucked into the skirt, but it didn't look right, so I wore it on top, cinching in my waist with a tan leather belt.

Some more red appeared in the skirt worn by the lady in my brooch as well as my ring, while the blue and white tones in my skirt were repeated in my necklace.

Right, let's go shopping!

We visited two of our favourite shops, which we always seem to combine. The problem with our charity shops (called kringloopwinkels) is that the vast majority of them are out of town, so that an average charity shop trawl involves some driving around. 

These shops are generally much bigger than an average UK charity shop and the first one we visited, on an industrial estate in a town called Mechelen, is spread over two floors. 

Browsing the new-in books I was delighted to find this heavy and heavily illustrated coffee table tome on the Pre-Raphaelite British painter, illustrator and poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti.

There was nothing in the clothing aisles to even remotely tempt me, but then I found this amazing pair of boots by Anthology, combining leather with a knitted shaft. They are in pristine condition and were mine for € 6.

Our next stop was the shop in Duffel, which not only is our very favourite, but is only a stone's throw from our favourite park.

When the weather's fine, like it was on that Saturday, we always go for a short (or longer) stroll before or after our visit to the shop.

The light on this last day of the year's penultimate month was just perfect, illuminating the last of Autumn's splendour with pale yet brilliant sunlight, the yellow and amber leaves contrasting starkly with the hazy blue sky.

I was wearing my plaid wool jacket with its soft furry collar - a fairly recent find - to which I yet again added more red. Both my red beret and red and purple scarf were charity shop finds. 

Even my handbag got the red-carpet treatment and and was given a long-overdue ourting. I picked up the handbag in question, a small red vintage one, at a flea market back in April.

In spite of the gorgeous weather and the strangely uplifting sights and scents of the park's dying foligage and fallen leaves, our walk was a short one.

Days of rain had left the ground quite soggy, and I wasn't wearing the most adequate of footwear. Comfortable these boots might be but they are no match for muddy patches.

Besides, that charity shop was calling us!

This one is on three floors, the ground floor being mostly dedicated to furniture. However, there's a jewellery display near the checkouts, which I always browse before tackling the other floors.

This time, these two funky necklaces caught my eye and came home with me.

While the second floor has everything from assorted household goods and crockery to books, records and toys, the basement is fully dedicated to textiles.

I love browsing the aisles there, my only bugbear being the colour-coding, which seems to be common in many charity shops these days. 

This particular shop has recently introduced sizing, where before all sizes were being put willy-nilly (yet colour coded) on the rails. Still, it pays off looking at everything, as they don't always get the sizes right.

That day, for instance, I found a cute embroidered cardigan on an XL hanger, while it clearly was only an S. 

It will make its debut in my next post. 

My final find of the day was a handmade and lined orange tweed skirt with a flouncy hemline. 

The photograph, which was taken on a dark day, does not really do the colour justice, but it will have to do until I'll take it on its first outing.

We had another rummaging fix on Sunday, when we went to a flea market, but I'm afraid you'll have to wait until my next post to find out whether we found anything exciting!

Just another week in August

We've almost reached the end of August by now and September is once again breathing down our necks. For the purpose of this blog, however, I'm taking you back to the first full week of August, which actually seems much longer ago to me than just a matter of weeks. 

Summer seemed to have returned but thankfully the mercury kept frolicking around the mid-twenties rather than returning to dazzling heights.

I'm still ploughing my way through my Summer wardrobe, assessing each item with a critical eye in a bid to keep only those garments that give me the greatest pleasure to wear.

For some reason, I hadn't worn this deliciously patterned Terlenka dress in at least two years. In what I can only describe as a moment of madness, I even relegated it to the flea market pile, from which it was promptly retrieved when I was sorting through my stock back in July.

Not the best way to go about decluttering one's wardrobe, I admit, but surely this one was too good to let go of. Plus, I loved wearing it, which is ultimately what matters.

My denim jacket has been doing overtime this Summer, but I've been trying to add some variety by matching the flower corsages I pin on it to my outfits!

I'd planned to exchange the dress's buttons which, although not lacking in cuteness, somewhat disappear against the dress's white backdrop. I'd even selected some likely red candidates from my stash of buttons, but somehow it never happened.

Taking my cue from the green bits in the print, I added a green necklace, butterfly brooch, ring and bracelet.

There's nothing wrong with the above photo, by the way, nor do you have to adjust your screens: the pale pink triangle is part of our garden table!

A second wear this Summer for this delightfully swooshy yellow based dress.  Found in a bargain bin for the silly price of € 1 a couple of years ago, it was missing half of its buttons. I don't remember what the original buttons looked like, but I love the pearly ones I replaced them with, which were salvaged from a blouse which had seen better days.

The material has a pleat-like texture to it and is sprinkled with dots in shades of orange and brown.

For contrast, my accessories were all in chocolate hues, including the vintage celluloid brooch with the drum beating Scottie dog.

In spite of this being only early August, the mornings already had that slightly hazy late Summer quality to them and, waiting for my tram connection, I couldn't help but notice that one particular tree was already donning some of its Autumn colour.

Another dress that has been patiently waiting its turn is this black and white chevron print one. 

My phone's camera clearly couldn't cope with its print, which shows up as being purely geometrical, so I added a close up to show you the flowers which are hiding in there!

My accessories, sandals and charity shopped King Louie jacket lift it up with some colour.

As the working week was drawing to a close, the weather returned to its usual Belgian Summer mix of sunny spells and showers on that week's Friday.

The olive green 1950s style dress I was wearing is a firm favourite, getting several outings each Summer. Its silky fabric makes this fit and flare dress an absolute joy to wear. Plus, it's got pockets!

I always gravitate towards pink to accessorize this dream of a frock, and this time was no exception.

The Lucite brooch is from an antique shop in Cardigan.

When I posted it on Instagram at the time, I got some lovely comments on its unusal collar, which prompted me to make this close-up. The collar actually consists of two separate flaps which have to be pulled through a loop.

The basket also got much love on Instagram. It was a flea market find back in May 2016 and when it's not in use as a handbag, it holds my small collection of fans.

The weather dropped all pretense of being summery on Saturday which, after some initial sunshine, devoloped into a miserably grey day. The dull sky threatening rain was joined by gusts of stormy wind.

On our way for a browse at the charity shops, we stopped at a pair of fashionably rusty gates halfway down our street. These belong to an organic garden established behind the local history museum, but sadly the garden itself is only open to the general public once a year.

It's the perfect backdrop for some quick outfit photos.

In classic white, red and blue, but with a dash of café au lait, this empire waist dress was one of the very first vintage dresses I ever bought. Although its fabric and label give away its 1970s origin, it is looking deceptively older than its age.

Competing with my dress for the starring role is this cream leather handbag with a Lucite handle. As it is quite delicate, it is one of those handbags that only comes out to play once in a blue moon.

The brooch with its red berries was a flea market find from earlier this year, while my watch's original 1970s strap was part of a lot found in a charity shop several years ago. My necklace, bangles  and ring are all second hand finds too.

But I did mention a browse in the charity shops, so without further ado, here are my finds: a pair of wedge heeled shoes, two belts, a vintage notebook and folder, a pair of souvenir clogs from Zeeland in Holland for one of our mad collections, and a funky print top from a Belgian fashion label.

And what are the chances of finding a dress in exactly the same print on the same day, but in a different shop?

It's what Sheila would call a "jammy dress", and I'm actually wearing it as I'm writing this post.

Hope to see you later this week, when I'll be sharing another round-up of outfits.

The joys of second hand shopping

In the week after our mini heatwave, temperatures plummeted considerably, and we were back to what passes for Spring in this part of the world. In other words, we were treated to rain, sunny spells and thunderstorms, more often than not all within one day.

On Saturday before last (yes , I know, I'm lagging behind again), the weather was quite stormy.

A gale force wind put paid to any walks in the park, as they were all closed for safety reasons.

I plucked this half-forgotten frock from my wardrobe. Strictly speaking, I didn't actually forget about it, but I'd mentally put it into the "to be tried one more time" pile, as it was a bit tight in the chest area, which caused some gaping. As it fit me perfectly otherwise, I managed to solve the problem by adding a press stud between the first and second button.

Some kind of outerwear was needed, so I wore my Lilli Ann Knits coat on top. I love this coat to bits but I'm trying to wear it only sparingly as it's not in the best of conditions, with lots of loose threads which seem to multiply with every wear.

I thought its chartreuse, white and navy plaid worked well with the dress's higgledy piggledy stripey print featuring forest green, turquoise and yellow. Judging from its condition and that of its label (it's made in England, by Leygil London) I don't think it was ever worn. 

The dress buttons all the way through with forest green buttons and I added a belt in the same shade of green. To tie in with the yellow, I added a yellow, orange and white beaded necklace, while the turquoise bits were matched by my chunky turquoise ring.

While I was sitting here in the garden, in the calm after the storm, I suddenly remembered I had yet to show you my Think Twice bargains of the week before. Well, I did mention a bagful of bargains in my previous post, didn't I?

I will be putting this chocolate brown floral maxi skirt away for Autumn, as it's a heavy, lined Crimplene. On the other hand, I could very well be taking it with me to Shropshire, as I've been hearing tales of dire weather conditions.

The 1970s shirt, with its dagger collar and purple buttons has the funkiest of prints featuring coffee pots, cups and old-fashioned coffee grinders! How is that for a pick-me-up?

I'm hoping to wear this floaty Trevira number with its blowsy flower print and frilly butterfly sleeves as soon as it gets warmer again. 

But then again, it will be a toss up between this one and the cotton deckchair striped Summer dress I picked up at the same time. Double breasted and with a wide notched collar and a half belt at the back, it is a true classic. Its label says Jan Sue of California. 

Oh, the joys of second hand shopping! You never know what you'll find, which makes it exciting, you won't end up looking like everyone else and you're making a statement against fast fashion, all at the same time.

Are you participating in Slow Fashion Season? You can sign up here. The idea is that 10000 people commit to not buying new clothes from 21st June - 21st September to raise awareness to the fact that fast fashion is one of the most polluting industries in the world.

There's just 6 days left to register: just click on the link, enter your email address and click Take Part. It's easy peasy, so just do it. At the time of writing, over 9700 people have taken the pledge. Oh, and second hand shopping is allowed! And it so much more fun, too! 

And that's what we did to defy the weather last Saturday. If you've been following my blog for a while, you'll know that Saturday usually is our charity shopping day. Even if we come back empty handed, which happens from time to time, the thrill of the chase never pales.

This time, we found a mini picnic basket, which - surprise! - I'll be using as a handbag, several scarves, a yellow belt and a hand-painted wooden souvenir plate depicting the Basilica of the Holy Blood in Bruges.

One of the scarves is a souvenir too. I was drawn to its vivid colours and the image of the shuttered window with its box full of geraniums at its centre. I'd seen the name Tirol, but it was only when I looked at it more properly at home that I realised it's a souvenir from the Winter Olympics held in Innsbruck. Some googling revealed that the last one was in 1976, but there was another one there in 1964 as well. My guess is that it is from the former.

At another shop, I ended up trying on an armful of clothes, which all came home with me, as did the necklace I'm wearing below.

The skirt and blouse are both from Belgian label Wow To Go, while the cropped cardigan is from Zoe Loveborn, a brand which used to be sold at a local chain of shops. I've got quite a few of their cardigans, all bought second hand over the years.

This short, cobalt blue raincoat was also part of my catch. It's from Vero Moda, and will be a welcome addition to my travel wardrobe. I thought my Tirolean scarf looked just perfect with it.

Heading back from the fitting rooms, and walking past the rail of dresses, a flash of colour caught my eye. 

This groovy wrap dress is from H&M. It must be well over 10 years old and I remember it vividly, as I used to own it dress in a different - much more sedate - colourway. I almost instantly regretted not getting this colourful version, but never went back for it. 

I no longer have my other dress, as I donated it to charity when it no longer fit me, and I obviously wasted no time in making this one mine!

All I'm wearing in these two outfits, as well as two long-sleeved tops which I've added to my travel wardrobe, cost me the princely sum of € 25. Yes, that includes the raincoat!

If you haven't done it before, browsing charity shops for your fashion fix might seem a bit daunting at first. But persevere, and you will be rewarded. Don't be put off, if at first you find it a bit overwhelming and you don't seem to find anything you like. Don't go shopping with a list, but keep an open mind, and dare to step out of your comfort zone once in a while. 

Once you get the hang of it, you'll never go back to retail. But that's what it's all about, isn't it?

Happy hunting!