Minnie Winnie and a House warming

We're always looking for ways of changing up our wardrobes and even better when we have items that we can double up as skirts and tops. It's almost Minnie Mouse territory (or Minnie Winnie as my dad used to call me when I loved wearing a pink and white polka-dot jacket as a teen) but I like how the red brightens up the nude based dress.

Blouse (A|Wear) Dress (Love, available at Topshop concession) Shoes (New Look)

My grandma recently moved house and it's strange seeing her old house completely torn apart by the new owners. I don't blame them, the house had not changed at all since my first memories there. Moving on to a different kind of 'mini' Winnie, the photo of me below as a toddler shows my grandma's very retro kitchen. It never ever had a revamp and looked the same the day she sold the house. Crazy!

Unfortunately, my tights still do that around my ankles. Guess not much has changed with me either!

Anyway, on her moving-in day we had lots to do including moving in all her furniture. It was so strange seeing all her things put into a new location. This included her coat/hat rack. I wish I had a hat to hang on there.

Lots of traditional things were on the to-do list including arranging these offerings and lighting incense. I'm always learning about these traditions and this particular one was to bring good luck to the new house and it's basically all good feng shui with a bit of Buddhism thrown in too. Either way, the brightly coloured fruit looked really pretty.

My Grandma and I knocked out what felt like a million of these little dumplings (tong yuen) ready to eat with the family. These ones were filled with lumps of brown sugar (the Chinese block variety) and my grandma recalled how she used to make the plain ones (with no fillings) all the time for my grandad who used to love eating them.

Finally it was house warming time and as always with Chinese get togethers we all feasted on lots of yummy food! In the blurry picture below there is suckling pig (Chinese roast pork with crackling), King prawns and my favourite Chinese veg, 'Gai Lan' which is Chinese broccoli.

I'm sure most families are noisy when it comes to big occasions and Chinese families are crazy rowdy. However, my mom's side of the family are all Hakka Chinese (the dialect is quite harsh on the ears and never ever spoken softly!) and well, let's just say that the night was deafening and headache inducing but that's when you know it's a good night. My grandma was all smiles.