Lilac and Red

Sometimes I'm not sure if I'm a genius or an idiot.  I wanted a pastel-y, sixties look, but none of my pale pink or powder blue or even silver accessories were doing the trick.

 

 

So I went for red, and ended up looking like the bastard offspring of the Christmas Fairy and the Easter Bunny.

 

And look!  Fairy wings!

 

 

Dress: Primark
Shoes: Topshit, 2008

Belt: was a Christmas present, but I suspect H&M

Hair: Poundland version of Bumpits!*

 

 Photobooths.  Best idea EVER.

 

 

*'Bumpits' is a dreadful product name.  Bum.  Pits.  Why did they ever think it was a good move?



Splash

Today is has been boring.  Boring and rainy, although that adjective isn't even enough to distinguish it from other days, after the apocalyptic floods we've had this summer.

All day I have been reminded of another day, last August, after the excitement of Buxton and Barcelona, when it also rained boringly and indistinctively all day.  I had Cousin Penny staying with me, and we went to Seven Stories and later made a cake.  The cake fell into a thousand pieces, and the Hummingbird Bakery recipe for icing made enough icing for three thousand cakes, and we ate icing and cake for tea until we both felt sick.  The next day I packed Penny off back to Bisbrooke, or Cowes, or whichever home-from-home she was returning to that time and I took the best pieces of cake and the big bottle of Bombay Sapphire I had bought at the airport round to Matt's house to watch Dr Who and G&S dvds, and Kayleigh and I polished off most of the gin and dragged the boys to play on the climbing frame at 2 a.m.

Having spent the whole day gawping uselessly at my laptop, this evening I took myself out for a walk in the nice bracing drizzle, along the secret path I discovered last week.

If you're waiting for the point of this blog post, there isn't one.  I was just remembering.  Maybe there was more to this when I was composing it in my head as I walked in the drizzle, but then I got excited by gravy and it all went out of my head.

Another suitcase in another hall

I can't understand at all why laptops have relective screens.  While the sun is shining I can't see a blessed thing on mine. (Actually, maybe that's the point - to encourage internet-addicts out of the house and into the fresh air during daylight hours...)  I've had to retreat to the shadowiest corner of the living room (behind the door, for those of you who are familiar with the geography of my flat and want to picture it exactly!) in order to see and edit my Boring Outfit Pictures.  Bah.

Anyway.  On another sunny day last week, when I actually DID leave the house instead of squinting at my laptop all day (I seem to have spent the first three weeks of the summer holidays in an absolute whirl, and then the fourth week doing not much more than creating a bum-shaped dent in the sofa), I bought a pretty little vanity case from a vintage shop.

Too small for anything more than an overnight stay, too big to sit on my dressing table  dressing bookcase, too angular to fit into my bike basket, and having just missed an opportunity to use it as a backstage-essentials-and-small-bits-of-costume bag, what's a girl to do?

Well, taking a leaf out of Kerry's book, I pressed it into service as a handbag.  It proved heavy, unwieldy and dreadfully impractical, but it looked wonderful, so I don't care.

The case and I had a splendid day at Tynemouth market (although I came away empty-handed - I have imposed a severe ban on buying mouldy old Penguin paperback detective novels until I've read the ones I've already got!) followed by a trip to York to see Kayleigh's latest play.

Impractical, but it gives good hugs.

Right, now that that's done I'm going to sit outside in the sun with one of my dusty paperbacks, WHICH WON'T HAVE A REFLECTIVE GLARE, DELL!

Over and out.



Seventies Sulkyface

I got my fringe trimmed a couple of days ago, and since then there's been something not quite right about it.  It's gone a bit '70s pageboy.  I think there's too much upside-down-U-shape going on...  I've got a sadface fringe!

Today I went with it, but I think soon I might get the scissors out...  Try to become a little more Bettie and a little less Purdey.

For now though, a dress with a pointy seventies collar and some sulkyfaced Yestercolour-ified photos of Bette in the wrong decade.

 I think this face was 'Am I in shot here?' puzzlement!

Welcome to our hearts again...

Good morrow, viewers.  Here's a Boring Outfit Post regarding an outfit I'm not sure I actually like.

You cannot tell from this distance, but the trousers have teeny-tiny swans printed all over them!  They came my way on Sunday, when the mother and I, arriving in Buxton long before Buxton was awake, managed to visit each of the main street's 8 charity shops before the box office opened at 12. 

As a matter of fact, this entire outfit came courtesy of that fruitful morning. (Damn good charity shops in Buxton. Sorry Laura and Liffy, there'll be no point 'doing' them when we're there next weekend; I've already cleaned 'em out. :op )  White t-shirt excepted.  I have no idea where that came from - presumably the Mothership, since I certainly do not fritter away my hard-earned cash on sensible staple garments.

So yes, something about this isn't quite right...  Maybe it's the shoes.  Or the fact that the swan trousers are actually two sizes too big for me.  Anyway, I happen to know that these bargainous £3.50 trews were full-price in the loathsome Topshop as recently as May, and have been seen all over the legs of the UK's finest fashun bloggers.  Really, I ought to sell them for a small fortune on ebay, shouldn't I?  But I kind of like having swan trousers...

Here is the much-more-stylish-than-I Charlotte from girlnextdoorfashion wearing her swan trousers with aplomb.

Anyhoo, since we're talking of Buxton...

Buxton, as you may remember me telling you last year, is home to the International Gilbert and Sullivan festival, where amateur and professional performing companies from all over the UK (and sometimes beyond!) converge to bring their hard work to an international audience.  Last week I was there as an audience member (Merrie England jolly good, three cheers Matlock Gilbert & Sullivan Society) but next weekend I shall return, singing and dancing in Dauntless Theatre's Olympia-themed Iolanthe.

We start rehearsals tomorrow night (precisely one week before our first performance!) and it's all terribly thrilling.  (I wonder if I can cite extreme excitement as a valid excuse for not knowing the music?!?)  Last year's mental week of rehearsals was one of the most enjoyable and exhilerating experiences I've had on-the-stage, and while I'm not necessarily looking forward to the twelve-hour days we've got coming up (WHEN am I going to get a square meal??), I can't quite believe it's come round again!  YEAH MAN.

P.S.  Those of my readers who have the great good fortune to live in the North East - Friday 10th August, the Priestman Hall in Roker, Sunderland, five measly pounds.  Go on go on go on!