I bought this pair of velvet trousers at possibly one of the most fruitful jumble sales I've ever attended. My brother and I had been at a local art workshop, and as my mum picked us up she mentioned that she'd seen a flyer. Now, in our area, jumble sales are like new Governments - they only appear every four years or so, and hardly ever live up to expectations. (Don't get me started on the rise in tuition fees to hit UK universities - for a girl who hopes to apply to Oxford or UCL to study English Literature, I am not happy.) However, this jumble sale was surprisingly reliable.
We walked in, I headed over to the piles of clothes scattered over table tops and started rifling. Slowly a growing pile of garments were slung over one arm: men's silk shirts, a welsh wool full length skirt, a reversible black and camel cape, belts, coats... Once I was ready to topple under the weight of my finds, I figured it was time to pay. For fifteen-odd items? A little under eleven pounds.
As I was handing over what felt like a pitiful amount for the bulging bin bag of clothes, the elderly woman on the stall said, "Oooh, there's some nice new things here too!" Luckily, it seemed I was the only one there interested in the old. However, everything went home and into the wash before I could try anything on.
One of the treasures found that day were these brown velvet Jaeger trousers.Who had owned them in that rural village, I can't imagine, but I'm so glad they decided to donate them!
Here I turned up the bottoms slightly to make them 'ankle grazing' (a technique I like to use for slightly too short trousers - which is a bit of a recurring issue for me). I styled them with a khaki silk shirt given to me by my paternal grandma, and a Jaeger charity shopped belt. I bought the hat from a charity shop stall at the Big Chill, and the silk scarf tied around it is also 70s Jaeger. So. it makes this post is a bit of a Jaeger-fest. My love for vintage items from this British brand has not dimmed one bit, and the collection is ever growing. I'm also wearing my favourite owl necklace (the nearest thing I have to a lucky charm), a vintage leather watch and some charity shopped wedges. Only about another three weeks before I'm allowed to wear heels again... I'm told that they shouldn't be worn until at least six weeks after surgery, and luckily I'm not a walking-in-heels wearer anyway; they're strictly for the odd social occasion and for photos.
The patchwork bag also came from the incredible jumble sale. I noticed it as my mum and I jointly hauled out my bag of swag, and mum scrabbled in her purse for some remaining coins. Unfortunately there was also a rather delectable child's briefcase, and only being able to afford one, I chose the latter. However, we had a good search of the pockets, footwells and glove compartments in the car and managed to scavenge the requisite 80p to go back and purchase this one too!
My mum took the photos of me in September. I missed a lot of Autumn while I was in hospital, and then convalescing - the trees are now nearly all bare, and frost carpets the grass in the mornings. Great for winter walks, but I do miss those traffic light shades on the trees. I suppose there's always next year.
Recovery is a lengthy process. Slow and steady may win the race, but it sure does get frustrating along the way. I'm not naturally pre-disposed to 'taking it easy', and not being able to hold my camera for more than roughly seven minutes is hard. I'm finding going on the computer particularly difficult - as, if I sit up to type then my shoulders begin hurting very quickly, but if I lie down then the typing is arduous and strains my arms. It's a bit of a lose-lose situation for now, and it's the reason why I haven't been doing as much blogging, emailing or replying to really wonderful comments as I'd like to.
However, considering it's only a little over three and a half weeks since surgery, it's pretty good progress. And I still think every day how lucky I am that this operation has changed my future for the better. I'm enjoying home-schooling myself and getting to have lots of artistic time too.
I also have my giveaway to announce! When I thought about doing a giveaway, I didn't realise how hard it would be to judge. I had so many creative styling ideas and thoughtful interpretations to choose from - I wish I had more pairs to give away.
However, after a tricky decision process, I'm going to give the pairs to:
Adela of Pink Champagne who said she would style them with: "a full 50's-style black skirt with lacey black fishnet tights and 90's grunge boots, complete with a knitted gradma-chic black shawl and vintage fishnet mitts, and topped off with slightly teased out hair and a 40's black pillbox hat with a net veil. I would wear the scissor pendant around my neck, and call the look "Edwarda Scissorhands".
and
Nancy of the Sway Report who said she'd put them with "a silk floral printed dress, black tights, striking equestrian boots, and a black victorian jacket. If the dress was light enough, and everything else being black, then a striking color for the scissors like red or emerald green would really stand out!"
I will be contacting both of them direct, and Hope and Nancy, if you're reading this could you send your addresses to my email (at the top of the page, right hand side) so I can dispatch them shortly. Thank you so much to everyone who entered, and hopefully I'll be holding other giveaways in the future.
I spent ages putting up a list of links to all the new people who have created wonderful and imaginative pairs of mummy's scissors, but Blogger decided that not only was it not going to co-operate, it was also going to refuse to save the last half an hour's work on this post and delete it when I tried to put it up. So for now just please take a look at the original mummy's scissors list (a few posts down) which I will try to update, and I'll attempt to edit again tomorrow when I'm not feeling frazzled and annoyed with all things computer-related.
I'm off to watch Mad Men - it's slowly but surely turned into a family addiction. We're just about to start on the third series...
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