A week of dresses....

I meant to post this post yesterday but Blogger was playing up. It kept crashing, not saving my changes etc. I gave up and went to bed in a huff...

 2 bunches of Alstromerias this week - cream and lilac - just to cheer you up! I bought the green jug in a charity shop  years ago.

Yes, I know it says a week of dresses and I'm wearing trousers but these are the weekend photographs...

Saturday's outfit - Everything is charity shopped except the brown boots from Debenhams. Kimono; New Look, top: Monsoon, cords; Primarni.

All jewellery charity shopped except the rings.

We had a lovely day trawling the Kettering's chazza's on Saturday. Both my younger brothers live in Kettering so we left middle grandson at their house watching a football. match on Sky which we don't have. It was a bitterly cold day.  There were a total of 12 charity shops in Kettering, two of which were furniture and electrical ones. We visited all the other 10!
I did go a bit mad (again) but I did at least manage to buy a bolero jacket for the dress I'm wearing to the 'do'; in fact I got 2...

Here's my list of shame  goodies:

I  silver bolero jacket - £9.99 (!!!)
1 more bolero jacket £4.50 - this one was less dressy but it will go over lots of things; I found it before I bought the silver bolero
I pair of grey Mary Jane shoes - £1.00
2 brand new with tags scarves - £2.00  (presents)
2 pairs of earrings - £2.00
6 knitting patterns and a gold disc necklace - 80p

Total spent = £20.29

OH kindly bought me a really nice purple necklace in one of the charity shops for £2.50. I have necklaces/beads of every colour except purple!

There was an exhibition of Agatha Christie's life and characters at the Manor House museum in Kettering. We planned to visit it on the way back as it was close to the car park but we got the timings wrong. It's on until 7th December so I'd like to go and see it before it finishes...

Sunday's outfit - earrings Sainsbury's and necklace bought online last year. I could have worn my new purple one but thought it might be too much purple...can you have too much purple?

Everything is charity shopped except the leggings which are from a Store 21 sale last year. Bangle and watch charity shopped.

The top is from a pound rail in a Wellingborough charity shop; the cardigan was bought in Barnardo's last Tuesday for £2.99.

Monday's outfit - Day 1 of my dress challenge

I am terrible at keeping track of my clothes and where I bought them. This jacket was bought last year but can't remember where. It's one of my favourite jackets because it's green - so I thought I'd pair it with a blue dress. You know that old saying "blue and green should never be seen"? What rubbish! I think blue and green are fantastic together. The jacket is, I think, home made.

Everything is charity shopped - even the navy blue slip I'm wearing under the dress. The dress is from Kaliko and I think it was a £1.99 bargain from the Red Cross shop.  It wasn't; I just looked back in my blog - it was £5.00 from the Oxfam shop.

All jewellery charity shopped

 It being a Monday I was volunteering at Save the Children. I did not leave empty handed -  I bought a necklace for £1.50; a lace top for £1.50. Two Sympathy cards, 99p. Total spend £4.99.

Over the next two weeks I have to attend two funerals and one inquest. The inquest is into my friend's son's death and the funerals are of my lovely neighbour, Cynthia, who had a stroke earlier this year and never really recovered; the other is of one of my walking friends who died suddenly and unexpectedly a few weeks ago.

On a more positive note I'm going out for four celebrations over the next few weeks. Three are Christmas related. One is Save the Children volunteers' Christmas meal; one is a Rambler's Christmas meal and the third one, of course, is OH's Christmas work do. The fourth one, which is this weekend, is for my youngest brother's 59th birthday and my oldest brother is also coming up from London for the celebration.

Tuesday's outfits -  Day 2

I was at the food bank this morning; there were only three of us there which is unusual, but we got a lot done. People are so generous and kind and we are receiving lots of Christmas goodies which we will make up into special Christmas packs for families.

Everything is charity shopped except the red leggings which were bought online. I think this dress might be more a tunic than a dress; I don't think I'd wear it without leggings underneath.

All jewellery charity shopped.

I love my short hair. I love that it's grey. The trouble with short hair, though, is that it's difficult to change its style...side parting, fringe, brushed back - that's about it! This is where hair accessories are useful. Today I tried tying a scarf round my hair - with thanks to Suzi of 'Alternative Ageing's video here.

I find it's easier to use a square headscarf - I had this one in my collection of scarves and I picked up another one in a charity shop - oops! I'll be looking for more  headscarves next time I go rummaging...

OH said I look like Ena Sharples in my head scarf! For non UK readers Ena Sharples was a sour faced character in a British soap called Coronation Street.  It started in 1960 and is still running. Ena always wore her hair in curlers covered with a turban tied headscarf. It's a good job I know OH is only joking...

I had errands to run in town on Tuesday afternoon so I visited the Red Cross shop for a quick look. Did I buy anything? You bet I did! I bought the aforementioned headscarf for 99p and a lovely mustard colour jacket for £1.99 by Country Casuals. I also picked up a bow tie for OH for 99p. Total spent £3.97.

Wednesday's outfit - Day 3

Everything is charity shopped except the loafers - Tesco sale last winter.

The dress is from Wallis and was a £1.99 item from the Red Cross. I think I may have also got the 1980s jacket from there too last year, but I really can't remember.

I bought the striped tights in the 'Black Tom' street jumble back in the summer.

All jewellery is charity shopped except the earrings which I bought in Bedford market. This is the necklace I bought in Save the Children on Monday.

I have two other short black dresses. One is a black lace dress and is a bit too dressy for everyday wear. I need to wear it somewhere soon as the last time I wore it was 2012 to my niece's wedding! I also have a black velvet short swing dress which was bought at the end of last year and only worn once. I'm not quite sure about it and I'll have to wear it for a blog post to get a better idea of what it looks like on me. Because I have big boobs I don't think swing dresses are for me.

On Thursday I had to attend a funeral. I wore this outfit with a black coat, black hat, pink scarf and pink leather gloves. I bought the dress, which is from Country Casuals, at the Red Cross shop last year for £1.99. I don't like it on me and it's gone to the charity shop bag. Boots from Zara originally but bought in a charity shop. The toes are beginning to go so I need a new pair of long black boots. Another reason to keep looking in the charity shops!

The jacket is the plain bolero jacket (M&S) I bought on Saturday in Kettering before I spotted the silver one. All jewellery charity shopped. I went to Kempston and Great Denham on Thursday morning before going to the funeral in the afternoon and I visited four shops. I was looking for more square headscarves to use on my hair and I bought 4. One was 99p from Barnardo's and the other three were £1.50 each from St.John's Hospice shop. I also bought a brightly coloured tunic in the Cat's Protection League for £2.99. Another £8.48 spent! Oh, and I bought a hot drinks flask for 99p = £9.47.

I cheated and wore a maxi dress on Friday. Apart from the black velvet dress mentioned above I only have three other short dresses; another swing dress but yellow, and I have the same reservations about it  as I do about the black velvet one; the other is a black and green wrap dress and a bit too dressy for everyday wear; the final dress is black and cream and designated for job 'interviews' - I haven't had one since I bought it...

I bought this jacket on Tuesday afternoon in the Red Cross shop for £1.99; it's also by Country Casuals. It's a nice tweedy material, it's more yellow than it appears in these photos, and it's trimmed with a light brown suede on the collar, sleeves and placket. I used my hand held steamer to freshen it up and get rid of the creases.

The necklace was bought for 50p in Kettering last Saturday. The boots are the most recent pair donated by my daughter. I thought they had gold doo dahs on them but it's only a trim on the zip. All jewellery is charity shopped.

Total spend this week in the the charity shops £18.46. I made the decision to get rid of the yellow swing dresses as it's a bit short so that's 2 things out this week.

I'm looking forward to a nice meal and a catch up with my three brothers on Saturday; I hope you all have a lovely week.