Second Hand Stylings - Days Eleven to Thirteen

Well then, I'm back from Kent. The stupid hotel was trying to charge £5.99 for internet access so that explains the gap in posting. I thought free wifi was pretty much standard nowadays? Ramada, I hereby name and shame you.

I've had worse technological woes than that though. I've killed my camera. I don't know how I did it or what exactly the problem is, but half the photos I took one day are fine and the rest are coming up with weird horizontal lines on. It's not the memory card so it's definitely the camera and I fear that might mean an expensive trip to the shops. I've borrowed one for the time being but it's not very good so expect lots of Picnik style effects to jazz them up for the foreseeable future.

Day Eleven

The blouse is technically a second-hand piece but I've already blogged it before, so I shall focus on the boots as the main part of today's outfit. The camera was playing silly beggars and put a huge shadow on my legs so you'll have to see the close up boots pic for a better idea of what they look like. They were a super duper swap with Queenie. I think she originally got them from a car boot sale so they're probably more like third hand (not that that bothers me in the least) and in very good nick. I can't place what make they are because there don't seem to be any distinguishing labels anywhere but given they're quite wide in the calf, they might well be from Evans.

Blouse - ASOS via Barnados charity shop
Vest - Primark
Jeans - Dorothy Perkins
Earrings - Accessorize
Ring - New Look
Boots - swapped, not sure of make/label

And the day's reading was this rather fantastic book. I'm a big fan of Golden Age crime fiction (Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers etc) anyway but even if I hadn't been, I'm not sure I could have passed over a book with "Aeroplanes, haute couture, and a skeleton in a dinner jacket" written on the cover.

Day Twelve

The second hand item for the day was a piece of jewellery. I am a terribly faffy packer at the best of times and it always takes me an inordinately long time. I found packing for my long weekend away even more stressy than usual due to this challenge and eventually decided that some jewellery would be an easy choice and not take up too much room in the case. I must say, my grandma had some surprisingly funky jewellery which I'm very lucky to be able to wear now. Quite why she chose this patterned dog tag type pendant I'm not sure, but it's fab.

Horse print dress & plimsolls - Primark
Cardi - Hawkshead
Leggings - Dorothy Perkins
Necklace - was my grandma's
Giant gunnera plant - Leeds Castle

Day Thirteen

Again I relied upon some inherited jewellery as part of the challenge today. I really love this silver gate link bracelet and don't wear it often enough.

I also added the owl necklace. I think I've explored most of the ways that things can be sourced second hand but I haven't so far mentioned one of the most satisfying ways - refashioning stuff. Unless you're a super minimalist, you're bound to have loads of things that just live in your house. This owl was part of a keyring originally. I have no idea who bought it, where it came from or how long it's been around but one day I decided to take it off the keyring and put it on a long chain. Voila, a cute necklace!

Dress - Florence & Fred @ Tesco (needs taking up - feels a bit mumsy at this length)
Cardi - Primark
Ancient flats - Dolcis
Bracelet - was my grandma's
Necklace - cobbled together

Now I'm off to see if I can pull together something smashingly second-hand for the last day of the challenge!