A white broderie anglaise sweatshirt and musings of a financial nature...

The problem with spending so much time in the shops is that you see so many nice things to buy. And who can resist a broderie anglaise white sweatshirt? Well clearly not me. This one is available at  GAP and costs £34.95 (for anyone interested, it's 100% cotton). I'm trying not to buy anything else for the summer and once I hit my birthday at the end of July, that definitely signifies the end of summer spending. Well in theory at least.

After last night's heels I'm back to trainers for the school run plus black Primark coated skinnies which I don't usually wear in the summer but I fancied doing so for a change. My Kate Spade bag can carry just enough of the essentials without weighing me down and the clashing yellow bag and purple trainers shouldn't really work but the monochrome background means that I can get away with it - sort of!

When it comes to my wardrobe, I've realised that my trouble is that I tire of clothes quite easily and I like to keep changing them, which means that I prefer not to spend too much on any one item. But the problem with that is that in buying a few less expensive items on a fairly regular basis, it is actually easy to spend quite a lot without really realising it.

I'd like to be one of those people who has fewer amazing pieces but first, I would get bored and secondly, anything more than £75, top whack and more likely £40, or £20, for a pair of jeans and £15 for a t-shirt and I would feel guilty. On the other hand, one could quite easily spend a sum equivalent to a Mulberry handbag (well, the sum at which they used sell before some bright spark took over and decided to inflate the prices by 100% with no apparent reason. Hmm, wonder why they're not doing so well these day. Doh!) and not really appreciate having done so until one sits down and thinks about it.  I'm not sure where that's taken me but perhaps I'll give it some further thought, although only after I've had my day out in Leeds with my lovely friend tomorrow. To do so otherwise would be premature (if you get my drift).

Shorts and flip-flops weren't quite what I had in mind for the day...

Is it only me or does anyone else have an irresistible urge to order a skip as soon as the sun comes out? Well that, along with ordering new cushions from John Lewis. I think that having a skip on the drive would somehow make everything feel more ordered, in the same way as possessing a stack of shiny new cookbooks makes you feel like Nigella/Jamie even if  in reality you still turn out the same five predictable meals every week night.

So today's plans to shop in preparation for an event on Thursday night were somewhat scuppered by not only one, but two, children being unwell. Therefore my outfit of GAP shorts and a denim GAP top was very much designed with running up and down the stairs in mind, to take drinks/snacks/provide entertainment and so on. Crikey, I'd forgotten what hard work it is having two poorly ones at home.

I had a brief interlude to nip out to buy provisions of the Calpol and tissue variety. Plus I always sneak some treats in the basket on the basis that if they are refused by the invalids, I know that they are truly ill. Those packets of fruit pastilles and Cadbury's desserts? Hmmm, oddly they have all have disappeared. Although I have a sneaking suspicion that I will be at home with them tomorrow, at least my brief trip out will be to Waitrose where I have some "click and collect" items being delivered of the cushion shaped variety.

An old favourite dress because today I'm feeling slightly delicate....

It's always good to have an old favourite in your wardrobe, a tried and tested dress made of natural fibres, that will withstand whatever you throw at it and, which once on, can be forgotten about. For me this French Connection linen dress does the trick. It may not be the height of fashion (a stack of friendship bracelets and my new flip flops helped slightly) but the length is good enough so that I don't have to worry too much about what I'm doing in it and given it's age, I'm not at all precious about it even though it is cream - which is good because, having just looked down at it, I've got a beetroot stain on it. I mean seriously, who in their right mind prepares beetroot in a cream dress? Haven't I read Victoria Beckham's book about never going near beetroot?

In all honesty I'm also feeling a little delicate today, which was another reason for needing the comfort of an old faithful. I'm not delicate in the way that you might imagine, given that last night was a Saturday night - but rather because a friend and I decided that it would be a good idea to go for a summer solstice run. We ended up running 22.5 miles which was slightly longer than we had planned but it was brilliant fun and arriving by the University clock as it struck midnight is something I will always remember.

The weirdest thing both before, and after, a long run is how much you need to take on board food wise to stop everything from coming to a grinding halt and how suddenly everything becomes so much less appetising.  Chicken and rice at 12.30am was not what I fancied but was what I needed. And whilst normally I would love oatcakes and goats' cheese, it really didn't seem that appealing. And as for jelly babies and drumstick sweets - right now I could quite happily never see either again. Well that is until next time....

Time for a change: Wearing a skirt plus one of my favourite sale buys....

 

Although the day started with heels yesterday, they didn't last for long and in no time at all I had swapped them for cream brogues. When I looked at my shopping brief for the day, together with the fact that the sales had started, I knew that there would be a lot of ground to cover.

I haven't worn this Jigsaw trench style skirt for a while but I always like doing so. Skirts can be tricky blighters, both in terms of their design (most tend to fall into a very clear category of smart work type skirts, or really casual ones - or White Stuff skirts, which have a whole category of their own - not that I don't think that they have a place, it's just that they can be spotted from 50m) and also in terms of the tops needed to go with them. A skirt and top outfit has an additional dimension that you just don't have when wearing a dress.

When it comes to tops to go with skirts, there are a couple of tricks that I think work and which avoid the risk of the outfit becoming too fussy and cluttered, which it can quite easily:

•  Wear a jacket or cardi in the same colour as the top underneath it, so that you have more of a block coloured type effect on the top half (as I have done above but with neutrals);
• If your top is a different colour to the skirt and you don't want to wear cardi/jacket in the same colour as the top, wear a jacket or cardi in the same colour as the skirt;
• Most skirts work with a sharp white shirt, a chambray or denim shirt, or a Breton striped top.

The sales were amazing and if there was one thing that I would be very happy to wake up and find in my wardrobe, this is it - the Jenn leather jacket from Reiss reduced from £375 to £255. It practically has my name on it -  OK so maybe it's my sister's but that's good enough isn't it? I'd let her borrow it. Now and then.....

Tips for getting dressed in a hurry!

 

This was one of those outfits that was put together in a humungous rush. It was Saturday morning and I was due at M&S at 10am to work with them for the day. Thinking that I had lots of time to spare - after all 10am is not exactly an early start - I thought that I would do some household chores first, strip some beds, put the washing on and go for a run and then, before I knew it, it was time to go and I still wasn't ready. Anyone else know that feeling?!

In one sense it didn't really matter what I wore because I had to change when I arrived in store. However I did want to wear some flat shoes so that in between presentations I could lose the heels, hence the Clarks sandals

Heading for a tried and tested favourite is always a good plan in these type of situations so I wore my All Saints Pia dress BUT the vest that I had decided to wear (M&S had located me in a lovely part of the store but it was right next to the food hall, complete with millions of fridges belting out lots of cold air. It could only happen to me - and on one of the hottest days of the year) peeped through the slash neck of the dress - hence the huge Zara striped scarf to cover up a look that couldn't ever be passed off as anything other than bad planning. I think that the scarf and bright yellow Kate Spade bag just about rescued the situation.

The All Saints dress is no longer available but for something similar, the textured dress from Hush (£60) may be a good option. A dress like this is such a good back drop for so many other accent colours for bags and shoes, such as bright yellow, hot pink and turquoise and when it comes to scarves and statement necklaces, the world is your oyster. Just watch your vest straps!!!

My fashion confession: I want to live in jeans. Permanently.

This outfit started off with smart(ish) navy Cos trousers being worn as part of  it but by the time it was time to start the school run, I had abandoned them in favour of my new boyfriend jeans from Jigsaw. I must admit that I am finding it hard to take them off as they are sooooo comfortable. I also wore a Zara striped blazer, navy ribbed Boden top, M&S shoes and a bright pink necklace from Alice's Wonders. With a meeting followed by a session with a client it worked well but the chance to nip home so that I could swap into my jeans was most welcome!

I'm sure that as time passes the desire for comfortable jeans and trainers is starting to feature higher and higher on my wish list - that and snuggly tracksuit bottoms and soft knitwear. Sometimes the thought of heels and dresses leaves me positively quivering in my skater trainers, so I'm grateful for the whole normcore trend, which is defined in Wikipedia as "a 2014 fashion trend of stylized blandness....an understated non-descript style." Now that's a trend that I am happy to embrace wholeheartedly.  What does everyone else think?!

I think that we're finally nearly there with the pale pink GAP trousers....

At the third attempt of wearing these trousers I was finally happy with they way that they looked (in the loosest sense of the word). Look 1, I shared a while ago, look 2, I abandoned as it just didn't work but this look worked better, I felt, because the boots are a similar colour to the trousers. This had the effect of lessening the shortening/sausage widening effect on the legs of flesh colour trousers. Who in their right mind eh????

For anyone out there after some trousers which will make their legs shorter and more sausage like (which probably no one will after I described them like that) the chino slim leg trouser from Jigaw (£75) in vintage pink will do a good job. In all seriousness, I do like them and the shape of these is really good for anyone who doesn't want anything too skinny. For info, they also come in navy, pale blue and dove grey.  I never did find on the GAP site the ones that I am wearing. Perhaps they withdrew them for crimes against fashion.

For a similar top, which I know is being worn a lot right now, I linked to some from Oasis the other day, but I also saw this denim look jersey top in Cos (£45) which I really liked for it's softness.

The boots that I am wearing are really beyond their sell by date and I will replace them when I find another pair that I like and which don't cost the earth. These were bought in a Zara sale one summer and I have since seen some that I like in All Saints and Reiss, Bicester. But there are other more important purchases to make first....

On another note, are there any other households out there still singing the songs from "Frozen"? I have realised that we get through about one track a month, so having done "Do you wanna build a snowman", "Let it go" and one other that I can't bear to think of or it will stick in my mind again, we are now on "Love is an open door." The trouble is that the eldest two have found on YouTube, alternative versions full of expletives, which are equally addictive and which I too, now find myself singing. I  have had to ban them in front of the six year old for fear of the inevitable phone call from the school asking me to explain her recently extended vocabulary....

A couple more spring time outfits - with lots of Jigsaw and Gap in them it would seem!

 

 

Before the weekend is out, I thought that I would bring you the last couple of outfits that I wore whilst away last week - then I can start the week afresh.  I've had a few days off from blogging - hubby's birthday and such like - and it's amazing what can be achieved in the amount of time that it takes to write a blog post. I think that I ought to get back into the blogging habit before I start to realise the benefits of a more ordered existence!

 

In the outfit above I'm all in navy - by far and away my favourite colour. I could live head to toe in navy every day and never tire of it. I've mixed a striped navy top and deck shoes, both from Jigsaw, with  camouflage print trousers and a denim top, both from GAP. I'm also wearing a leather cuff from Atterley Road and the Kate Spade yellow bag, which I've been using a lot.

 

For another day out and about I'm wearing the same Jigsaw deck shoes and a Jigsaw jumper with a bright pink top underneath plus New Look jeans. I'm also using a Jigsaw bag which I have owned for many years and which was given a new lease of life by Handbag Clinic.  They did a brilliant job on the bag which really couldn't be used as it was so tired looking.  A friend also used Handbag Clinic to repair a Mulberry which, Mulberry themselves said couldn't be fixed. So if you have a poorly handbag, they may be worth a call.

Here's hoping to a good start to the week for everyone....

Dinner out in a dress by Jaeger Boutiqe and a Kate Spade bag

We're now back from our time away in Brighton and boy did it rock! We did crazy golf, the big wheel, pitch and putt, we went on rides on the pier, ate ice-creams, visited choccywoccydoodah and did lots of walking along the sea front. I love pitch and putt and play it in much the same way as pool - whack the ball as hard as you can and see what happens. Most of the time it's a disaster but other times the results are spectacular - far and away above one's true skill.

Anyway, on the first night I decided to wear a dress for dinner. After that it was all downhill and in fact for most of the days I wore my running trainers with my outfits - and not even in a remotely cool or trendy way either - just in a nerdy comfortable way.

The dress I am wearing is by Jaeger Boutique, the shoes by Dune and I bought the Kate Spade handbag on my recent trip to Bicester. It comes in lots of colours and was either £68 or £69. There's clearly a direct correlation between the age of your children and the size of your bag - the older the children the smaller the bag. Obviously our children are growing up. It's nice to be past that stage of having to carry colouring things, sticker books and snacks wherever we go.

And at crazy golf the next day (I managed to get a hole in one, although not in the particular hole we were aiming at) there was a ball to match my bag. It was a sign, I was sure.  Of what, I am less sure but it was definitely a sign....

Something other than jeans - please! Thank goodness for Jigsaw stripes and a Whistles blazer

 

Today when I got up I decided that I needed a change. No more jeans! Anything for a change! BUT, as ever, it still needed to be warm and comfortable.

With the sun shining, I convinced myself that it was much warmer than it was. This Jersey stripe dress from Jigsaw (£79) has been sitting looking at me since I bought it a few weeks ago so I decided that today it would be my victim, together with the  Lena Jersey blazer from Whistles (£95) which too has been sitting quietly on the sidelines hoping that it wouldn't be picked. Ha! I can report that the dress is really comfortable. It's 99% cotton and 1% elastane and it's really thick and supportive too. The same goes for the blazer.

 

I tried several pairs of shoes including leopard heels (bit tarty for a daytime trip to the Bullring with the 6 year old. The face didn't match the outfit!) Block heeled leopard print shoes - ditto but on a slightly lesser scale. Patent navy loafers from Hobbs - nice but a bit safe so I threw caution to the wind and put these cream Linford brogues from Dune (£65) with navy tights. Radical!

What I liked was even though the items were new, I felt happy to keep the whole outfit on for the whole day just as it was, even when shaping my bread dough and taking Matilda out on her roller blades.

The fact that the photographer is vertically challenged, together with the weird effect of the stripes when photographed, doesn't make for the best of photos but I think that you can get the gist. Sometimes when I read blogs which talk about how to take amazing photos I cringe and hide in the corner. Unedited snaps would be a more accurate description of my photos, rather than works of art but hey ho, nothing is about to change on that front, hence the eye bags/shadows/blemishes and double chin. Super!

Embracing the warmer weather, little by little....

OK, I'm going to come clean - I've been wearing pretty much the same outfit every day for two weeks, as it's that long since no.1 child started with a horrendous virus. The day that she went back to school, no. 2 child was struck down.  No. 3 has a nasty cold so she too could be off and no. 1 has also picked it up - so we're a pretty grubby infected household at the moment. You know that things are bad when you get the time to put all the aprons and running stuff on a hot wash, just to get them super clean. And when you get around to getting up the step ladder to clean out the top of your husband's wardrobe - well, that says it all!

 

Today's outfit was positively haute couture! Being slightly warmer, when I went to get the youngest from school, I wore my All Saint's trench plus an animal scarf which is graded in colour and which a lovely friend gave me for Christmas - both for the first time. I had been saving the silk scarf for a warmer day - and today was the day. Warmer weather allowed me to go sockless too. Despite everything, the warm sunshine made me really happy!

 

I thought that I would share with you this Mother's Day present from our eldest. As soon as she started to feel slightly better, she started to make these origami flowers, which took her hours and hours. On each piece of paper she wrote the same word over and over again before making it into a flower. A pressie that costs so little in terms of money but which is priceless. I know that it's a bit late in coming but I hope that everyone had a lovely Mother's Day - or just a lovely sunny Sunday.

 

 

 

 

An outfit for a day of shopping - trainers, knitted hat - bit of a bag lady look really!

 

Yesterday I spent many hours shopping, looking at all the lovely new spring collections and taking masses of photos of my favourite things.

Although it wasn't that cold, it was wet and there's no room for an umbrella when I'm dodging from store to store with arms full of bags, hence the GAP hat. As I'm also carrying a slight knee injury (which I'm trying to ignore) and knowing that I would be covering a lot of ground, I opted for trainers. The snood is less hassle than a scarf which can get caught in my headphones when I'm listening to my cool music (or would that really be Woman's Hour?) A cross body bag is so much easier than a shoulder bag and the hearts on my New Look jumper add a splash of clashing colour to my trainers.

So that was that - it was warm and comfortable and it gave a slight nod to that well known, and much coveted, "bag lady trend" I think.

There are some lovely things in the stores right now.....

The beauty of an uber big coat on a very cold day - and how to train boys to look after handbags!

 

We've had snow! It wasn't a huge amount and it hasn't settled but needless to say it was really, really cold here today. My friend and I ran for nearly two hours in it and despite wearing three layers, two of which were pretty thick, it still wasn't that warm. After returning home, I showered and headed straight into town to do some work and some jeans research (more on that tomorrow hopefully) but I also went to town because I have found that, after a long run, it is better to keep moving.

When it was time to do the school run, it was still freezing and I was grateful to have my Whistles parka. Luckily it is large enough to throw over any other jacket I may be wearing that day without making me feel squidged like a sausage in a skin . It wasn't something that I bore in mind when buying it but it's actually really handy to have a coat big enough to accommodate what you have on already, without having to take a layer off - which obviously totally defeats the object on a cold day.

The pockets are great too and they mean that I can stuff everything in them whilst leaving my handbag at home. Today however I didn't have time to decant everything into my pockets. When the car is full, as it was today, there isn't space for my bag to have its own seat so I had a dilemma. Abandon a child so that the bag can have a seat or ask a 12 year old boy to sit with my bag on his knee? I took the latter option. I did feel slightly bad for my son's friend but then I figured that it was good training for later in life - and quite possibly better than abandoning him at the railway station or making him sit on the roof. Handbags deserve respect! I do feel though, that I ought to mention it to his Mum, just in case she wonders from where he has gained his newly acquired knowledge of (semi) designer handbags!

In addition to the Whistles Parka I was wearing the Whistles Annabel jacket and Whistles jeans, Topshop pale blue jumper and belt, Zara boots and Jigsaw necklace.

Life's Guilty Pleasures!

Kate Spade gum gems bib necklace - such a great name! (£205)

What I would like to know is this: How is it possible to start the day thinking that your wardrobe is fine but end it with a list as long as your arm of pieces that you've identified that it is impossible to live without?

All was well with the world this morning. Then I went to visit a lovely client of mine who had just taken delivery of two pairs of gorgeous jeans. So that got me thinking about the state of my own jeans. Then we worked through her collection of White Company jumpers. So that too got me thinking about my own knitwear. After also working with her Lily and Lionel scarves and Miu Miu shoes with glitter on the sole, I was done for. We then took to the ipad to research jewellery and that's when I spotted the lovely pieces from Kate Spade lurking at Net a Porter or Selfridges or wherever it was. So that too got me thinking about my "much loved but not in quite the same league" necklaces from H&M. That was followed later on with an hour flicking through the latest glossies whilst at a ballet lesson with the youngest and they were full of beautiful floral and pale blue items. So all in all today, I have probably spent the best part of a couple of thousand pounds (in my head.)

But on reflection, I see this as a good thing. This morning I was slightly wondering where my fashion mojo had gone. Rarely do I wake up and not think about what I would like to look at online, or add into my wardrobe, or investigate further in the shops - and that's what makes my day a happy one - just in the same way that some people look forward to a glass of wine in the evening, or think about where to go on holiday. It's what I spend my time musing about as I go through my day -  an antidote to the sometimes sadder things with which we have to deal. But today it wasn't happening.

So, where's this all going? That, I must admit, I'm not sure - but I think that it's somewhere along the lines of this: although it's important to count your blessings, a little day dreaming and coveting is one of life's guilty pleasures and it's good for the soul (I think).

The Kate Spade bag gets its first outing...

I've had my knives out tonight! Tomorrow our eldest daughter is 15 and I have made mars bar krispie cake for her to take to school for her friends. The trouble is, I didn't think that it was right that she should have to take it in with uneven edges so, whilst cutting it up, I just had keep levelling it off (as you do) so that it was straight. Inevitably this led to a lot of "off-cuts" which....I ate. Yum! I must admit to feeling a bit full right now though.

I know that some of you wanted a peek at my new Kate Spade bag as part of an outfit, so here it is on its first outing. Today I had a meeting about an event that I have in February, so I decided to take it along with me. I really like the design of the bag as everything stays upright in it, unlike some other bags I have where everything slips down and ends up at the bottom - a bit like a drunk person sliding down a wall.

I kept the rest of the outfit simple with navy Whistles trousers, a navy Whistles sparkly jumper, a pea coat from Reiss, a printed Whistles scarf and Zara boots. I couldn't quite face a dress - it was just too cold today!

The tale of the TV and the new Kate Spade bag

For Christmas this year, Santa was quite good to my husband and he arranged for a Curry's van to deliver an oblong shaped item with lots of channels on it.

The problem was that it arrived 2 days before Christmas, which put Mr SG into a spin and which finally led him to the conclusion that he needed to do some emergency Christmas present shopping for me. So, armed with the eldest for inspiration, on Christmas Eve he braved the City Centre to see what he could find.

Now, as luck would have it, a couple of days earlier I had been admiring my friend's new Kate Spade bag. The eldest was with me at the time and clocked everything about it, so she led Mr SG straight to the handbag department in Selfridges and, when there wasn't one on display, she described what she was after and lo and behold a brand new one was produced from the stock room. That's my girl!

So this is what he came back with, the rather lovely Kate Spade cross body in empire grey.

I didn't want my husband to buy anything else for me, that wasn't the point of the gift to him at all*. No, the whole point of the gift to him was to redress the balance as throughout the year I definitely have many more treats than him. Having said that, I did take slight joy in the fact that once, just for once, he was speechless.

*Although inadvertently, I may have discovered a new trick for the future for securing something that one has been coveting!

How to make a statement in a statement necklace - with a selection from Zara, River Island, Marni and J. Crew

The more I play around with clothes and accessories, the more I realise that certain things are pretty much guaranteed to elicit a response from people. I find this really interesting because it's almost as though humans are pre-programmed to respond to certain things in a similar way.  

 

Most often it's the colour of something that will bring about a comment. This is closely followed by whether something is sequinned or shiny. Other things that people comment on are if there's an unusual juxtaposition of pieces and of course handbags and shoes are always hot topics of conversation - but I suspect that's more of a girl thing than anything else!

 

When I added the coral necklace that I am wearing in the pic below to my outfit just prior to going out the other day, my sister in law commented how much it made a difference and how it took a Breton striped jumper to a whole different level. And that's what I really like about £12.99 purchases from H&M - and any other fairly inexpensive purchase - they can make all the difference.  

 

 

 

The photograph above features in the September edition of Essentials Magazine. The magazine contacted me to ask me whether I would mind the photograph featuring and next to the shot they have re-created the outfit. The funny thing was that I was wearing sunglasses because it was at this point in time that I was sporting my black eye (for anyone who doesn't know the story I chose the wrong time to become involved in a game of catch between our son and my husband.) Bad move.

 

On the basis of being asked to feature in Essentials, and because I'm fairly certain it would have been in part due to the necklace, I thought that I would do a round up of some necklaces that are available in stores at the moment. As the years go on, the choice gets even better so if these aren't for you, I'm sure that there are plenty that will be.

 

Kicking off with my old friend Zara I love the colours in this necklace which costs £19.99. The chartreuse colour looks great against a plain navy, black or grey jumper.

 

For something altogether more floral, Zara has this necklace for £29.99. Again, great for perking up a plain jumper, or a LBD for a night out.

Turquoise can look stunning, particularly on people with blue eyes and this necklace from Topshop (£35) would be fantastic for adding a splash of colour to an otherwise very simple outfit, making it very chic.

 

Another turquoise option is this Kate Spade necklace which I saw at Bicester yesterday - sorry, I can't remember the price but I think that it was around £70.  

 

A necklace with a ribbon tie, instead of a chain, like this one from River Island £12 is great for wearing underneath a collar on a plain blouse.  It's a brilliant way of giving a whole new look to a trusty wardrobe staple and the length can be altered to fit your own needs.

J Crew has a fantastic choice of statement necklaces. The colours in this floral necklace (£139.90) are so pretty I want to eat it. It's the kind of thing that would make me smile every time I wore it, which with it's bright and cheery colours, would be a lot.

The J Crew crystal fan necklace (£122.94) comes in the colour way shown below (soft pink) or warm orchid, which is slightly more autumnal. As the drop falls to more of a point, it is a good design for drawing the eye into the centre of the body, and down, which is really flattering.

Marni does beautiful jewellery. I took a quick look in Marni when I was at Bicester yesterday and they have some incredible pieces. They use resin and acrylic a lot in their distinctive designs which are reminiscent of times gone by. The necklace below is on sale at the Outnet  for £137.28

Many of the brands now do a selection of statement necklaces each season and some brands, like Whistles, will do the odd collaboration. I will often look to H&M first, along with Topshop, Oasis and River Island. Sometimes though it's more a case of not looking too hard but instead browsing shops on holiday and waiting for something to fling itself round your neck shouting "buy me, buy me." Then you know you're on to a winner.