Second Hand Stylings - Days Three to Six

Evening all! I have returned from my jaunt up North and so here is a round up of the past 4 days. This challenge is really making me think, especially when it comes to packing for a weekend away. I don't think my wardrobe is necessarily lacking in second hand goodies but it's not always easy to work them into an outfit, particularly one for a specific activity like horse riding! Let's see how I did:

Day Three

Just a normal day at work, with most of the evening spent driving up to Newcastle. I went for comfort rather than anything too form fitting - I just can't drive any distance in things that make me feel constricted. Do excuse the boots please. I don't usually go round in fake Ugg type things but my feet got soaked walking from the car park to the office and these live under my desk for such situations.

Today's second hand item was the green and white polka dotty dress. I spotted it hanging up at a car boot sale and made a beeline for it. I'm not sure where it's from as the label has been cut out. Cost - £1

Black slip - Dorothy Perkins sale (£1!)
Leggings - M&S
Dress - car boot sale.
Cardi - Hawkshead
Headband - Topshop
Mary Poppins locket - Etsy
Tibetan silver earrings - a present from the wonderful Vix


Day Four

On Saturday's agenda was a trip to Hadrian's Wall. It was chuffing windy! I decided to go for a fairly practical outfit and add a secondhand accessory - this beautiful stripy scarf. I found it in Oxfam whilst rummaging round in a huge basketfull of vintage scarves and I think it was £1.50. It must have slipped during the photos cos it actually looked quite funky but I'm not so sure that's come across in the pics.

Jeans, vest top & cardi - DP
Boots - Evans
Bag - ASOS
Scarf - vintage, via Oxfam.


Day Five

This one was tricky! I was staying with my friend Claire and we went riding - I borrowed her pony Star and she rode a friend's horse. Utter bliss. I used to ride all the time and even if I do say so myself, I was pretty good. It's quite dispiriting to get on a pony for the first time in years and feel all wobbly and rubbish but Star is an absolute sweetie and looked after me. I can't have been that bad as we had a canter round a huge field at the end and I didn't fall off, woop!

It amuses me when fashion labels go in for equestrian chic. In my experience, it usually consists of horse slobber, a faint layer of dust and minging hat hair. Tricky to look stylish whilst wearing a hat that makes you look like a giant mushroom but I'd rather protect myself from brain damage than look beautiful.

Today's second hand item was sourced in the most classic of ways - handed down from my big brother. An added bonus of losing all the weight is that I can fit into his discarded stuff and he has so many nice tshirts.

Polo shirt - French Connection, hand-me-down from my brother
Jodhpurs - Aldi
Walking boots - Lidl (seriously, bravo the cheaper supermarkets. These boots have lasted so well)
Hat & gloves - Robinsons

Day Six

And today has been yet more zooming around on motorways. I stopped off in Hexham to explore the charity shops (they're brilliant, I bought loads!) and then got back to Liverpool in time to see a fab little British film called Skeletons, with a Q&A with one of the actors afterwards. Sadly it wasn't Jason Isaacs (Hello Jason Isaacs! I know at least one of you will get that reference...) but it was brilliant. Track it down and go and see it. Pretty please. They have no marketing or promotion budget as it's such a small film so it's all reliant on word of mouth.

Not a massively interesting outfit today as I ran out of brainpower when packing. The second hand item is the vest top, a snip at 99p from ebay. It's probably the pinkest thing I own and isn't the sort of thing I'd usually buy but I was getting something else from the same seller and thought why not. It's a bit big though so I probably won't wear it again.

Vest top - Dorothy Perkins, via ebay
Jeans - Dorothy Perkins
Cardi - Hawkshead