Do cloudspotter's wear anoraks?

Today’s post is all about the beauty of nightfall.

We've been treated to some cracking cloud displays here in our little corner of London over the past few evenings and as a fully paid up member of The Cloud Appreciation Society I obviously grabbed my camera to document it ;)

This is the wonderful vista I get from the window of my home office...

These pics were taken over the past week.

This is my favourite...

I love these long whispy clouds, they look like dancing ghosts.

When we went to Malaysia earlier this year I took a lot of pics of the stunning sunsets over there.

Here are some of my favourite Langkawi sunsets...

I'd much rather watch a sunset than a soap any night of the week ;)

Hope you are feeling all calm & blissful now ;)

Lot's of love,

Jennie

xXx

P is for Picnic

Yesterday hubby and I paid our monthly visit to SeeWoo in China Town to stock up on green tea, tofu, soya, seaweed & other odds and sods.

We thought that as we were going into town anyway, it would be nice to have a picnic lunch in St James's Park before shopping, so we packed adzuki bean pie, salad, bread sticks, fruit & beer.

We were going to bring the vintage Brexton picnic case that I scored from the car boot sale last year but decided that it would be too much of a pain in the backsie to carry, especially as we'd be laden with carrier bags after going to SeeWoo's.

  It was just as well that we didn't bring it cause contrary to what the man on the telly said about the weather, mid picnic it started pishing down.

It was alright though cause we continued our picnic sheltering under a majestic tree that had umbrella like qualities ;)

Here I am getting ready to crack open a bottle of non-alcoholic Cobra beer...

I've only just come across the 0% Cobra & I have to say that although it's very nice I still prefer Becks Blue to anything else that I've tried.

St James's Park is one of my favourite London parks.

My sister took me here on my first visit to London when I was ten years old and I've been in love with the place ever since. 

Hubby and I worked & lived-in at a pub off Trafalgar Square in the late 90s & in our spare time this was where we went to chill out or excercise; 

slothing out on tattered pub accommodation blankets or playing Frisbee, those where the days ;)

I have some really happy memories attached to this place.

Here's the Brexton that never made it to the park, thankfully!

Here's hubby sheltering under the tree, at this point it was merely spitting, a few minutes later the sky ripped open and it poured down for atleast half an hour.

Even the ducks looked a bit miffed by the end of it.

Then we strolled up to China Town to restock our supplies of oriental goodies.

Green tea is ridiculously cheap in China Town, this huge box of 200 teabags is less than £2.

I actually saw this tea when we were in Malaysia earlier on this year and they were charging a lot more for it over there, which I found somewhat stange considering it's so much closer to China.

We always pop a few things in the basket that we've never tried before and this month that turned out to be these four items...

I'm sure I've had black sesame seeds on bread rolls before but I've never cooked with them.

We go through a bag of white sesame seeds every two weeks, I like to scatter a handful in salads & sauces.

Did you spot the print on the dress I'm wearing in the pics?

I bought the dress on eBay cause the print reminded me of the Homemaker print ;)

Retrotastico!

When I was googling for a pic of a Homemaker cup I came across a really awesome blog called H is for Home, if you're into your retro stuff then this is definitely one for your blogroll.

Here's a pic from that blog of a Homemaker pattern cup...

I also found out that the blog owner has a fabulous on-line shop that is amazingly well stocked & an etsy shop too, where you can buy some of this amazing fabric...

 I almost fell out of my chair with delight when I saw it, it's really gorgeous, alas I have no spare pennies to buy some myself at the moment.

I did score some fabulous vintage fabric at the car boot sale earlier though, so I really can't complain too much ;)

Hope everyone has had a smashing weekend!

Lot's of love,

Jennie

xXx

Jennie goes to Bollywood

The other week whilst chucking random words into the eBay search engine I happened upon a stunning traditional three piece outfit.

The seller had listed it as an 'African skirt suit' but after seeing the fabulous attire some of the guests wore at the wedding Christina of Fashion's Most Wanted attended a while back, I just knew that it had to be Indian.
I think that this slight listing faux-pas worked very much in my favor as I had no competition.
I've seen similar outfits going for considerably more, so needless to say I'm chuffed to bits.
The outfit is made up by a Lehenga (skirt), a choli (top) and a massive dupatta (shawl wrap).
It is in pristine condition and finished to a very high standard.

Lucky old me, that's all I can say, it's flipping gorgeous!

Here I've teamed it with some ornate bindis, quirky Indian earrings & loads of bangles all from the car boot sale.

You can see in the pics that the dress I was wearing before was slightly tight in the waist region ;)

It has to be said that I wouldn't normally pick a garment that puts my midriff on display but for this stunning outfit I'll make an exception.

I feel like I should be Bollywood dancing ;)

The skirt is very long and as such would be quite tricky to incorporate into an everyday outfit but the choli top could certainly be worn with a shorter skirt or some trousers.

Here are some glorious close-up pics...

Hope everyone is having a fabulous weekend.

I'm off to scoff some Bombay mix & crack open a bottle of non-alcoholic Indian Cobra beer, cheers or A la sature as they say in India ;)
Lot's of love,
Jennie
xXx

Dirndl Mania

I've always had a fondness for traditional/ethnic/cultural clothing & over the years I have amassed a large collection of attire from all corners of the world.

Elaborately handcrafted dresses made from exotic African fabrics, rustic South American ponchos, opulently embellished Indian garments, stunning Japanese Kimonos & Chinese cheongsam frocks but there is one garment in particular that make me go weak at the knees…the Dirndl!

The dirndl is a traditional dress primarily worn in Bavaria & Austria.

Its design is based on the historical costume of Alpine peasants but I think nowadays most people probably associate it more with buxom wenches serving frothing steins rather than farming the land.

I recently acquired yet another pretty dirndl to add to my collection,
I now have one for every day of the week.
Here she is...

I've teamed the dirndl with a vintage Eastern European embroidered peasant blouse that I picked up from the car boot sale at the weekend. 

I think they look as if they were made for each other ;)

How mad is it that only the other week I also acquired this amazing Bavarian wool cloak...

I've been on the look out for a cloak like this for ages and was chuffed to bits to unearth this from a mound of clobber at the car boot sale and happier still to get it for a song ;)

Here are my other six dirndl dresses...

A few years ago I found this pretty landhaus waistcoat on a rail in a charity shop, 

it has been a staple in my wardrobe ever since...

Close-up & labels

...and yet more labels ;)

Here I am wearing a dirndl dress at the age of two...

That's all for this time folks!

Hope everyone is fine & dandy :)

Lot's of love,

Jennie

xXx

Dampening discord & nurturing nostalgia

In the light of what's been going down here in the urban jungle of late, I've not been in a good mindset for blogging and I'm still feeling a bit off key; the figurative grand piano has taken a great big knock and it's playing woefully out of tune.

So I'm just going to give you some pictures of my mummy instead cause I'm missing her very much at the moment.

It's at times like these I wish I could turn around to the nearest adult and ask them to phone my mummy to come and collect me cause quite frankly...
"Jennie doesn't want to play anymore!" ;)
Here's my beautiful mamma Ewa:

I believe she was 15 years old when this was taken. I wish she'd held onto that frock ;)

These two photos were taken when mum did a spot of modelling for a local photographers studio. She was only 16 years old but looks atleast twenty I think. A year later my  mum gave birth to my oldest brother Pelle.

Tea & fag break on the balcony in August 1965.

I think this was taken on a trip to Poland in the 60s, check out the groovy print on the dress...yeah baby!

This is one of my favourite pics ever, my mum looks amazinlgy stylish & beautiful. I return to this photo for style inspiration again & again.

A knitted ensemble this time teamed with a cute smile. Check out the funky furniture...I'd so have that in my house today.

Here's mummy clad in a fabulous floral blouse with her pigtail plaits, giving yours truly a sink bath ;)

My mum became involved in local politics in the 70s, I guess that's where I get my activist streak from ;)

She smoked for years and years but then one day when she was fourty-odd she binned her stinky sticks and haven't smoked since ;)

Here's a local news clipping from 1976, it reads "Mother of five & ninth name on the town council list Ewa Andersson,29, demands more childcare opportunities & jobs for women, 5 year old Jessica & Jennie who is almost two agree" ;)

Here's the three of us again, several years later at Christmas, all wearing Laura Ashley style fine frockery.

Yesterday's outfit incorporated one of my mum's dresses from the late 70s.

A very elegant 40s inspired frock...

I've teamed it with a pair of vintage heels, Coach bag, 80s sunnies and a pair of crochet & stone heart earrings... all from car boot sales ;)

I love wearing my mum's old clobber, it makes me feel a little bit closer to her ;)

Close-up for you fellow print geeks ;)

Here are some other treasured bits & pieces that used to take pride of place in my mums wardrobe...

She LOVED clog boots back in the late 70s & early 80s.

This top was handmade my a woman that lived up the road from mum when she was a teenager. Mum wore this on the night she got together with my bio-dad.

This was another staple in my mums 70s wardrobe, I remember admiringly looking up at that yellow sleeve when I was the size of a midget ;)

That's all for today folks!

Hope you are all keeping safe in these crazy times.

Lot's of love,

Jennie

xXx