Country walking

As you know the husband and I are two of the outdoorsy types. We are currently unpacking our life out of boxes once again so there is not much to report from the home front other than a big mess. To spare you from that enjoy some of the shots I've taken on some of our last walks in Suffolk and Essex around Colchester.

The weather has been so good in December and January that we spend every weekend outside.

You can also tell I have been obsessed with Instagram lately. If you are on please it say hi. @beatricewinter

I will miss being so close to the seaside.

 

If you have any suggestions for beautiful walks in and around Berkshire, please share.

Hello new dress and bye bye Colchester

This weekend was the weekend of many goodbyes for us here in Colchester.

From this week on I will be writing and blogging and sewing from the opposite side of London. We have moved to Arborfield near Reading. If any of you ladies live near, have great fabric shopping tips to share or would like to meet up for a cuppa and some thrifting,let me know. I will be the new kid on the block, Billy-no-mates and hopefully it'll change quickly.

On Saturday night we said goodbye to some of our friends and went for a nice meal and a few drinks afterwards. I got to wear my crepe dress, I was working on last week. I kept it pretty simple as the print stands out enough. Just a simple fitted bodice with a gathered skirt and 3/4 sleeves. I paired it with a little cropped jacket I made while we didn't have any Internet at home so it never made the blog. I will probably make another one as it's such a cute little jacket to just throw over anything. I usually wear a lot of cardigans for warmth instead of jumpers. This is a nice alternative if I want to dress it up a bit.

What do think about the hair? I curled it very tightly with a curling iron and after brushing out the curls, pinned it all up into a bob. I really like that look from time to time.

Bath fashion museum

As mentioned before, we went to the fashion museum in Bath. I though it is worth a separate post as I went a bit mad taking pictures there.

They had an exhibition on wedding dresses there, inspired by the Royal Wedding last year.

 This was the latest dress in the collection. Alexander McQueen 2011. The lace was beautiful.

Loved the 1920s flapper style number on the left. It had a shrug thing-y with a massive train that was beautifully beaded and the best bit of the dress.

I was amazed how wonderful the colours were preserved in this dress from the late 1800s and the amazing handcrafted fabric

Fashions of the 20th century

Do you think he might have had a few Martinis too many??

And of course some evening wear.

There war of course a lot more to see and you can also try on corsets and crinolines to get the feel of the period clothing.

We got a combi ticket for the Roman Baths and the Fashion Museum/ Assembly rooms for £15.50 pp. At first we thought that this was quite steep (we are used to £0 admission prices since joining English Heritage and visiting only their sites) but the two museums definitely fill a whole day with activity. There are Audio guides at both places and other little interactive activities. I highly recommend both.

Exploring Bristol

Just a few impressions from last weekend's trip to Somerset. We went to see the Georgian house but unfortunately it was closed :-(((

Then we had a walk through the center, took a harbour cruise which was great. Visited the M Shed museum, Brunells SS Great Britain and the Clifton Bridge.

A pretty packed day but I recommend all of the above if you would like to go. Especially Brunells SS Great Britain is fun to visit. They have a great museum on the construction of the first ocean liner, the different functions of the ship through its history and how the got it back from the Falkland islands into Bristol harbour. But the best thing in my opinion is that they have done an amazing job on recreating it's original state as an ocean liner. The attention to detail is amazing.

Anyways, enjoy the pictures.

Harbour



Marriott Hotel, Queen Victoria and Bristol Cathedral

Bristol Council Building

Amazing Victorian warehouses

SS Great Britain

Maybe a bit too vintage?

Working hard aboard in the kitchen (it even smells like a working kitchen)

??? :-D

Clifton suspension bridge

What I am working on this week...

It's the week before our next and final move for a while. Fortunately enough this time we have a removal company doing all the hard work for us, meaning I can squeeze in some extra sewing time for myself.

I ordered a few different fabrics last week and picked the lovely floral print crepe to work on first.

I was a bit indecisive whether to turn it into a dress or blouse but in the end the dress won.

I am planning on wearing this out for a little leaving dinner and drinks with some of our friends. Proper outfit shots will follow.

BTW, I know some of you lovely readers are crazy cat ladies like me. Does your cat also magically appear as soon as the fabric comes out? Mine can be asleep somewhere in the house all day and never be seen. As soon as I get some fabric out.................this happens:

Please note the innocent but surprised expression on her face.