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!