Run, Jennie, Run!

Hello again ;)

I've not been making much noise in the blogosphere over the past week cause I went over to visit my folks in Sweden.

Every September around the time of my BURFday my sister, my niece and I do a fun run. 

For the past three years we "ran" the Adidas 5K womens challenge in Hyde Park but this year we decided that it was time for a change.

So instead of 5K in the big smoke we signed up for a 10K run in Stockholm.

I did a bit more training this year than I have done previous years but I still totally surprised myself when I managed to complete the run in just under the hour, what a buzz I got! 

Needless to say I was cream crackared when I got to the finish line but I did run like a ferret on Whizz the last K...something kicked in and inside my head the Bill Conti Rocky movie soundtrack tune started blaring out...

TRYING HARD NOW!

I spent a few days in Orebro with my folks before the race and eat like uber-pampered horse, my mum is getting amazingly good at vegan cooking now. I think that at first she thought it would be impossible to cook without dairy but she has always been a masterful cook and she is very creative in the kitchen so she's actually putting my own culinary efforts in the shade now.

Whilst in my old hometown I also visited my old favourite second hand haunts, Myrorna and Bra & Begagnat.

I didn't buy much, just a couple of craft books and some folksy looking wallhangings.

As per usual I took a heap of photos and I'll finish this post off with a medley of pics from my little trip...

The weather was great, it was like an Indian summer. I had brought a hat, scarf & gloves just in case.

A chair that I fell in love with at Bra & Begagnat in Orebro. 295:- Swedish Kronor is roughly £29.

I didn't fall in love with this little fellow quite so much but he's very quirky that's for sure.

Some friendly locals test sitting the armchairs and having a chinwag.

Some very odd art, not sure what to make of it?!

At myrorna in Orebro you could get kitschtastic stein mugs for 15:- Swedish kronor which is roughly a quid each.

The proudest daughter alive...me & my brilliant dad!

Fun Run & it certainly was ;)

We stayed with our brother who lives outside Stockholm and he treated us to a Chinese meal after the race.

On the Sunday we went walkabouts in Stockholm. Last time I visited the capital was almost twenty years ago but it hasn't really changed that much from what I saw anyway. It's mushroom season at the mo and judging by the sheer quantity of freshly picked chantarelles on this particular stall it's been a very good year for mushies.

Being the second hand magnet that I am, I managed to sniff out a bric-a-brac & vintage clothing market in the center of town. There were some quite nice vintage frocks up for grabs at rather reasonable prices too, ranging from approximately £7 to £25.

The bric-a-brac was priced for the tourists, so definitely not in the same realm as the pocket friendly car boot sale prices I'm used too.

Then we went to the old town or as it is known to the natives me included  'Gamla Stan'.

This is the prettiest part of Stockholm in my opinion with its impossibly narrow, cobbled streets and attractive old houses.

I'm smiling here but my feet are actually starting to kill me at this point. Cobbled streets & heels (no matter how low) are not a good idea...EVER!

On the facade of a house in the old town.

I love the colours, when the sun shines the houses look even more spectacular.

Swedish people love bikes and these old ones are like gold dust.

I'm not a supporter of any monarchy... Swedish, British or otherwise...a bunch of gits that get made into statues for pigeons to shit on...whoop-de-doo!

MISSING...Have you seen Snuff?!

Part of a shop window display in Stockholm.

That wraps up my medley of pics.

It's my BURFday today, so I'm chillaxing but tomorrow it's back to work!

I've got a fair few listings to go up on eBay, funky jumpers & blazers galore :)

Until next time, frock on folks!

Lot's of love,

Jennie

xXx

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