Madame Guillotine

What a beautiful summer we are having in the UK :)

Usually when we are promised a rare sunny weekend a mad supermarket stampede ensues, with people panic buying disposable BBQ's, stripey straws, citronella candles, burger relish, coleslaw and slabs of animal carcass to marinade and grill. We've done the BBQing now, it's out of our systems and not once did we have to escape indoors or cower underneath a gazebo cause the clouds decided to start chucking cats and dogs at us. At the moment we are living like jammy Aussies who can throw a shrimp on the barbie whenever we see fit and it's blooming great!

If the BBC weather website is anything to go by we are set for a few more days of cloudless skies and soaring temperatures before a little bit of rain is forecast.

Yesterday I told you of how parts of the park has been transformed into an arid steppe scattered with skimpy bikini & speedo clad bodies. It has also recently become our dining-room. Mark and I decided that for the duration of this glorious heatwave we'll be having our dinners on a blanket in the park.

So when Mark comes home from work in the afternoon, I stand ready with a cool bag full of goodies to go.

As we were walking up to the park yesterday we spotted something rather random...

A guillotine...maybe en route to Parliament Square, who knows?!

Needless to say it was padlocked and a girl was sitting nearby minding it. I didn't think to ask why it was there but quite often the park is used as a filming location. The girl didn't mind me posing in front of Madame Guillotine, I'm sure I wasn't the first person to do it.

Whenever I wear this skirt I feel an uncontrollable twirl need...

Tie-dye ruffle hem Hippie skirt (charity shop),  Handmade crochet top (a gift from my beloved mother), Frocktasia necklace, soapstone heart & macrame earrings, 80s sunnies (eBay), Havaianas flip-flops (gift from a Brazilian friend).

Larking about in the park with a gory guillotine in the background...
just one of life's little pleasures ;)

Speaking of little pleasures, both Mark and I are really enjoying being able to have our dinner in the park.

Yesterday I made pasta salad that we topped with a bit of grated cheddar cheese. I bought cheese topped rolls, cranberry juice and pretzels from Lidl. I also made a spicy chutney chickpea dip to go with it.

I refuse to by hummus at the supermarket cause a lot of the time shop bought ones are too bland for my taste buds. Making your own is so cheap and easy anyway.

If you want to give it a go...

*Whole can of chickpeas in brine, rinse well cause they smell a bit like cat food straight out of the can.

*Spoonful of tahini paste or more depending on your own preference.

*Some olive oil, salt and pepper.

*Freshly squeezed lemon or lime juice.

*A few cloves of garlic.

Before blending I often jazz it up with some more spices (I love paprika powder) and a spoonful of chutney, pesto, vegetarian tapenade or something else that is yummy.

I use my trusty hand-blender to mix it all into a smooth creamy paste and if it's too thick I add a little bit of tap water to get the consistency that I desire.

Easy peasy lemon squeesy with a whole lot of yummy rolled in :)

I made this GIF image after another wonderful day in the park last summer...

 I'll love you and leave you with Yeah Yeah Yeahs, enjoy :)

Take care,

Jennie

xXx

One Thousand and One Outfits (not really)

Hope you've all had a splendiferous weekend.

I've finally finished sorting through all the holiday pics, huzzah!

 As I mentioned in an earlier installment I would do a 'random holiday outfits' post as well, so here it is.

First off is a caftan that I bought from a car boot sale two months ago...

This stunning turquoise caftan is perfect for throwing over a bikini when going for lunch or just as a cover-up when doing a spot of beachcombing.

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I brought a few pairs of lightweight trousers with me cause I read that it can get pretty nippy out in the desert at night.
 These ones I bought several years ago from an Indian clothing shop, they are double-layered with a stunning cream jacquard fabric and sheer black chiffon...

This quirky top was another car boot sale buy and I've teamed it with one of my Indian choli tops that I won on eBay last year.

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These are the trousers that I for some obscure reason deemed suitable to travel in.
Wide-leg trousers are possibly the worse thing to wear when traversing the London Underground during crush hour and especially when you are loaded up with heaps of luggage.
My foot got caught in the swishy trouser leg but luckily I have cat-like reflexes and I managed to grab onto something instead of loosing my two front teeth, phew!
I do love these trousers though, just not to travel in.

Emporio Armani top teamed with another one of my Indian choli tops.

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I got this wine red mesh top from the car boot sale the week before we went away.
The design is really quirky and its even got a hood.

Harem jumpsuit, tribal mirror & coin belt, Topshop hammered brass disc necklace that I scored from the car boot sale for a quid.

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We went to Luxor for an outing and visited the very impressive Karnak temple complex, The Valley of the Kings & Hatshepsut's Temple.
It was a real whistle stop outing and we even managed to cram in a short boat trip on the Nile.

Those double-layered trousers got another outing,  I teamed them with a rose print silk blouse by Diane Von Furstenberg and my trusty vintage jazz dance trainers.

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I brought my harem jumpsuit & two pairs of harem pants, I'm still in love with this roomy trouser style...

Indian silk harem pants, tassel-tastico hippie top and in the last picture my beloved vintage 70s suede vest/waistcoat.

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The second pair of harem pants have more glitz than you can shake a stick at...

Bronze harlequin diamond patterned harem pants teamed with a sequin embellished mesh top and low-slung leather belt.

Shake your tail feather! OMG, I think I've just attracted a randy ostrich ;)

Here I've added an embroidered chiffon top and my funky sequin elephant cap.

PIMP MY CRIB!

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 We also went for an awesome day out to the stunning Sataya reef where you are sometimes lucky enough to swim with dolphins.
Unfortunately the dolphins stayed away until we were on our way back home, so we saw them from the boat, however we did get to swim with a huge-ass Napoleon fish and we also managed to do some pretty spectacular freediving.

Those Indian silk harem trousers again,  this time teamed with a cut-out butterfly Tee, turban fashioned from a sarong and my bestest fashion accessory ever...my hubby of course!

Early morning at divers paradise Tondoba Bay, chilling before scuba ;)

As we spent most of the day on the beach or in the sea I was sporting a bikini or my wetsuit most of the time...

I brought two bikinis and one tankini. The fabulously colourful one was a gift from the divine Helga.

Hubby scored this Mares wetsuit on eBay...what a kind, clever and awesome man I am blessed with.

Snorkeling, freediving  and scuba...I absolutely LOVE IT! The Red Sea is awesome and I couldn't recomend Egypt and Marsa Alam highly enough.

Last but by no means least my underwater kit...Mares fins, Scubapro snorkel and Cressi mask all purchased off eBay.

That's it folks...now you've seen all my holiday get-ups.
Now I'll have to put my thinking cap on to figure out what to blog about next, any requests?
Have a fantastic week!
Lot's of love,
Jennie
xXx

Meanwhile at the base of the Pyramid

We've been back home for almost two weeks, the post holiday radiance has all but ebbed away and the dreaded back in Blighty blues has come knocking.

When I went back to work after Easter I found that my hours had been changed.
I'm doing more hours, more work (for the same pityful pittance) and as if that wasn't bad enough they've given me a much crappier shift too.
Employers really have the knack of wringing every last drop of joy out of your soul don't they.

What really infuriated me though is that I wasn't even consulted beforehand about these changes just expected to fall in line like a good little epsilon-minus semi-moron, needless to say I'm back on all the jobsites looking for another gig. 

Och, the joys of being a wage-slave.

One day I will be my own boss and it will be frocking fabulous!

A bit like this awesome get-up that I won on eBay last year...

This was in the same bundle as the INTERLINKS - LONDON frock that I also brought with me to Egypt. 

I really hit the eBay jackpot that day!

Again I apologise for the mirror image overkill but I really like the Rorschach effect that you get when you do this. 

Just look at the pic above, can you also see the big face in the desert sand?

I think that one is quite obvious but when you study the others mittor image pics a bit more closely you can see all-sorts of weird and wonderful things... 

if you just let your imagination run riot ;)

This is a very versatile get-up, so ideal holiday garb.

You can wear the top with shorts on the beach, the skirt with casual top for an outing and it looks just like a frock when you wear the two pieces together, so that's the evening wear snorted too ;)

Only two more days until the weekend, huzzah!

All we need now is for the weather to get its bleeding act together.

Come on it's May soon, give us some Sun & warmth will you :)

Lot's of love,

Jennie

xXx

All that rain dancing to no avail

Frock four is steeped in somebody elses nostagia but I'm slowly bestowing my own...

The Frock:

This fabulous frock was part of a vintage 60s/70s clothing bundle that I bagged on eBay last year. 

A really nice lady here in London had decided to let the go of the clobber that she'd been stashing away in her loft for decades.
She made me promise that I'd take good care of her old threads and I reassured her that they simply couldn't go to a more vintage loving home. 

The frock is labelled 'INTERLINKS - LONDON'.

It's made from a super comfy cotton which features two contrasting Indian block prints.

The Belts:

Although the dress is labelled 'small', the cut of it is very roomy.

As you can see from the pics I prefer to cinch it in with a belt.

The three belts featured here were all picked up from car boot sales.

-Kenyan leather belt with brass seahorse detail

-Shell & turqouise bead detail tie belt

-Rajasthani tribal mirror & coin detail belt

The Audience:

Besides a cheeky sand fox and a scattering of  birds, the only real "audience" we had was Abdul the local Wadi el Gemal park guard and his trusty dog.

Abdul was really nice and even invited us to come over to his shack for hibiscus tea & shisha but it was seven in the morning so we declined his very kind offer.
He said that he was very pleased to meet a Scottish person in real life and he told us that his favourite movie was 'Braveheart'.
We dropped by his shack a few days later but he wasn't in so we left a note & little bag of sweets.
I think it must get quite lonely for him out there in the desert.
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I will leave you with a little teaser...
Frock number five & six are twins ;)
I wonder if you can guess which ones I'm talking about?!
Lot's of love,
Jennie
xXx