Dress Of The Day with Angela

  Sequins of different sizes  Evening bag created from a small bandeau top, with sequin flowers on ribbon. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright. For more details on creating an evening bag, see previous post. Please share links to your favourite posts.

  Sequinned top label Top Shop. Zip-up cosmetics bag to place inside or sew or safety pin inside. Wide ribbon to create a gusset. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright. Upcycling Small Sequinned Tops I keep seeing lovely sequinned tops which are too small for me. I don't need a top which is too small. But I do need an evening bag. I envisage turning one of the sequinned tops into a small, smart evening bag to take on holiday.  Are Small Bags Practical? Is a small bag useful? During the day, or out in the city in the evening, I like a big bag to carry home possible purchases. However, you might want a small bag, if you are just popping down to the hotel's restaurant for a quick coffee, or cocktail, or happy hour in an all day club lounge. Straps Supplied Not only do I have the fabric for the bag, already sewn up the sides and seamed across the top. A sequinned top with spaghetti straps often already has potential cross body straps, already sewn securely on one side of the potenti...

Angela wearing a summery green and white dress. Buying Bargains  I bought this, caught this, in St Luke's charity shop in London. Pre-loved as they say nowadays. New words are created all the time. Euphemisms. Enchanting words. Words which add pleasure to purchases. Gaining a bargain, a gift to oneself. Not second hand, but first love, new to me. Dress of the Day.  First I look for colour. When I look down at my skirt, or sleeve, of my cuffs, what excites my eyes! Looking For The Label F & F is Tesco. A long dress. I like a long dress. Long dresses have many advantages. No need to shave legs. Disguise for fat legs, lumpy knees, fat ankles. Don't show so much when going upstairs on buses or escalators.  Look neat. Make you look taller.  No need to waste time matching tops and skirts. No risk of finding that what looked like a match in dark light the night before is a clash in daylight.  The Green Cape Blazer Or Slit Sleeve Jacket It is not a proper cape. Just...

  Shop Selling Scarves, Hats & Gloves I bought the hat, and the scarf, sold separately, from St Luke's. The series of shops raises money for hospices. Cost of the Hat and Matching Scarf The items both cost £1, so £2 for the pair. The Label - F and F I found the scarf first and quite liked the pale pastel rainbow. It  might match  raincoats or jackets in both pale pink and pale blue. It would also add jollity to black or white.  But I usually go for brighter colours. Besides, the tassels were a bit bedraggled. The scarf had no label. I hesitated. Where was it from? Then I saw the matching beanie hat. Hurray. A set!  What's more, the hat had a label. The heading of the top of the double layer label inside the hat said F & F. Who was that? A supermarket, I was sure. Which one? Not Sainsbury. I recently realised that the manufacturer or seller puts their company name and address at the end of the label. Way down, beyond the ten language instructions on how t...

Socks prevent shoes, sandals and boots from rubbing your feet. When you develop blisters on holiday, it's not just the extra walking. It's also going without protective socks because you are in hot weather.  Socks are also required by some restaurants and clubs in hot countries. So others don't get bothered by smelly feet. Because it looks neater. You can sometimes wear shorts, go topless, or wear a swimsuit, in a poolside bar. But covering up is the rule in the smarter restaurants. It looks neater. More formal. So that is the reason for wearing socks in the day time.  But why wear socks at night? Surely in the dark, with your feet under a dining table, nobody would notice? Why Wear Bedsocks? You wear bed socks for warmth at night. Especially nowadays, when we have duvets instead of blankets. They keep you warm if you turn over and stick your foot out. Or your sleeping partner rolls over, removing the duvet from your side of the bed. Bed socks also keep you feet warm if you...

 Last week I went to dinner at a house where I was asked to take off my shoes.  On the way I stopped at another house half way to get a lift.. They also preferred guests to remove shoes. They had a child under five years old who played on the floor, and new carpets. They had stairs. Backless slippers are not safe on stairs. Backless slippers can slide off when you lift your legs. Dangerous. In Asia a lot of people have spare slippers for visitors. In the UK you are more likely to need to bring your own shoes At the second home I was offered a pair of slip on shoes. This meant have shoes which were tight on my toes, or large so I risked losing one, or falling over. I thought, I'd rather wear a new pair of shoes, once in a while, rather than other people's old shoes which are less elegant, not co-ordinating colours, other people's foot sweat, could even be giving me verrucas or other foot problems. Sometimes I remember to take with me a pair of Crocs or cheaper \Croc-style sh...