Crinoline Robot's vintage week

Are you on Instagram? I'm currently doing #thevintage fashionchallenge - each day has a theme, and you simply take an image each day to go with the theme. Some people don't like Instagram as they feel there's a lot of one-upmanship and promoting unreal expectations on there, but it really depends on who you follow. I like it because it's generally a very cheerful sort of social media, with people sharing good times and pretty things, and just about everyone could do with more of that. I've found it's got me to look afresh at my clothes and accessories, and it's made me realise I'm really lucky to have so many nice things that I love. Not as many nice things as a lot of bloggers own (most of my clothes fit into a single wardrobe) perhaps, but enough.

Today's theme was 'favourite colour', and I had to choose green. I have rather more green jewellery than I'd realised, too. That said, navy was a very strong contender; that's probably the colour I wear most. Tomorrow has an accessory theme; it's handbag time for me!

On Thursday we went to Nottingham to see Iron Maiden. Mr Robot's birthday was on Monday, and his ticket was his big present from me. I felt a bit bad as I only let my old uni pal Paul know we were going the day before we went, and Tania mentioned on Instagram that I'd been in her neck of the woods, which hadn't even occurred to me at the time. Though as Mr Robot has social anxiety problems, and with my stress levels the way they've been lately (I've got a doc's appointment on Tuesday) a day just for the two of us was probably for the best.

Nottingham is a fantastic place. We had a good look around the city - there's an excellent Sue Ryder vintage chazza in the town, though I didn't find anything I loved enough to buy - and admired the many impressive buildings. Before going to the concert we had a beer in Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem, which claims to be the oldest inn in England. It might not look very big from the outside, but that's because the rock beneath Nottingham is packed with caves, and the pub extends back into the stone below the castle. Here you can see Mr Robot in one of the cave rooms, with the back and side wall and ceiling cut from the rock. That model ship in the case above the bar is supposed to be haunted, and they claim anyone who's tried to clean it has died a horrible death. Given how filthy it is, I'm guessing they died from some horrible infection!

Iron Maiden were really excellent. I'd never seen them before, they're my husband's favourite band, not mine, but I loved every minute that they played.

The urchins are both fine. Here they are, actually behaving like nice kitties for once. They very rarely sit together; if I'm sitting in the chair one will come to sit with me, but if the other turns up they both then run away. Funny little beasts. And don't ask me why Ziggy's staring at the ceiling, he just does that. When it's not full of cats, I like to sit in the chair with my knitting and catch up with my telly programmes. The Tivo recorded a load of early episodes of The Avengers for me, from 1962 with Venus Smith and Cathy Gale. It's been interesting watching them, as they feel less glossy than the Emma Peel episodes of just a few years later. There's far less of that high 1960s mod quality, and they're also considerably less bonkers. It shows how quickly things changed during that decade. Still, I've been watching for outfit hints nonetheless. The Avengers, and the Instagram challenge, have got me all revved up to finish knitting my friend's cardi so I can make some swinging 60s things for myself.

I hope you're feeling similarly energised, and nowhere near as stressed!