Slip of a thing...

And at last the sun came....

..which gave me a chance to wear this slip dress from Marks and Spencer Limited Edition (now £14 in the sale)...

...whilst we went for a birthday tea at a lovely friend's house...

...where we ate lots of delicious cake! 

 YUM!

Blushing with M&S

"Blush" is a big trend for both clothing and interiors right now and for my second day working with M&S last week, I chose an outfit in blush tones. Both the sprig printed blouse (£35) and the trousers (£45) were from Per Una. I wore a short length in the trousers so that I got the slightly cropped look that I was after. The shoes were from Autograph (£55) and they were incredibly comfortable. They were made of a very soft suede and also had insolia padding, so they weren't hurting even after 7 hours or so of wearing them.

I don't know if you can see but the shirt is made up of lots of tiny pleats around the torso so it has a nice fit to it. No ballooning but no clinging either!

Apologies for not blogging more regularly at the moment. My usual 9 pm slot for blogging seems to have been swallowed up with other activities of late - although I must admit I'm not really sure what. The work on the house is due to finish on Friday so it's been a bit of a whirl of last minute decisions but I think that we are getting there. I've got lots to share for anyone who is interested once it's all done - from paint colours to flooring, furniture, lighting and accessories so do keep a look out.

M&S Summer Style Event

Faux leather wrap skirt (£35), Autograph platform sandals (£45), Limited Edition curved bar collar necklace (£18), M&S Collection abstract print top (£22.50)

Today I was working with Marks and Spencer in their Torbay store, presenting their Summer Style Event. The days are long but fun - eight presentations during the day but as ever the crowds, the staff and the tech and events team were lovely (as was the cheesecake that was available to sample!)

There's a very similar skirt in Autograph which is leather but the one that I'm wearing is a brilliant alternative price wise. The shoes were surprisingly comfortable and I kept them on all day which is unusual for me as I normally change into trainers in between presentations. I liked the unusual colours in the top too and the outfit felt right for me and for what I was doing - I'm not very good with floral, floaty summer type outfits especially when I'm working, much preferring the structure of "proper" clothes (if that makes sense!)

Friday sees me in the Exeter store so hopefully I will see some of you there. In the meantime, keep dry!

My favourite new (Dune) shoes...

I thought that, because I was on holiday and that because my shoes were new and needed a bit of wearing in, it wouldn't matter too much if I wore my new Marks & Spencer socks with them - as long as no-one saw.

And then I decided that I quite liked the slightly nerdy shoe and sock combo, so I'm sharing the photo on here. I did it again today but this time with the cherry pair. Sorry if I cause anyone offence!

My shoes are from Dune and they are the Ebby Tassel trainer. They are the blush colour, which I really like as it's slightly better than cream or white against my skin.  What also appealed was the slightly pointed toe, which makes them a little more elegant.  The chunky sole stops them from being too flat and they are hugely comfortable too, which is important for me as my feet seem to have given up with shoes of the smart/heeled variety :(

Marks & Spencer - leading the way with Limited Edition

Each season, you can always rely on Marks & Spencer Limited Edition to have a few on-trend gems at a good price. Whilst in there looking for your undies, or PJs for the children, or a frilly Per Una number for your Mum, it's always worth taking a wander through Limited Collection. 

Whilst in the store today, I came across this Marks & Spencer Limited Collection Bardot shirt (£29.50). Bardot style tops and shirts were a huge trend last spring/summer and they're back on the scene again - in an even bigger way.

I really like the shape of this one as whilst it's not too clingy, neither it is too voluminous. Some Bardot tops are very frilly and girly, whilst some of the peasant tops are very smock like and create the illusion of a pregnancy bump where there is none. Not a good look. This shirt though is fairly tailored and streamlined and just a little more sophisticated than some that I have seen.

Moving on to a Bomber jacket...

Again we saw lots of bomber jackets last season and they're still going strong for S/S'16. With its dark background and lighter floral print, this M&S floral bomber jacket (£49.50) is an easy and non-too challenging way to wear this trend. Good with kick flared cropped jeans, denim shorts or with smarter trousers for work, it definitely has a place in your wardrobe this summer.

There's also a massive trend this season for the slip dress, a la Kate Moss from the early 1990's. Hers were silk and cut on the bias but this M&S square neck midi slip dress (£29.50) is a much easier, and more forgiving, way to wear the trend. For a little coverage, wear with a denim jacket, a biker jacket, a bomber jacket or  a denim shirt tied at the waist to keep the silhouette neat. Johnny Depp isn't a compulsory accessory.

The other reason that M&S is a good place to suss out the more trend led items is that we all feel that we belong there. I know that some people are a little nervous of shops like River Island, Topshop or Zara but who doesn't feel comfortable going into good old M&S - if only for a prawn sarnie?!

Pineapples for interiors

Interior trends often reflect fashion trends and vice versa, which means that not only can we find pineapples on necklaces, t-shirts and Valentine's Day cards but also in our homes - and not just in our fruit bowls either.

As I've mentioned before, fingers crossed we will shortly be having our house knocked around which should result in a big open space for eating, socialising, working and playing pool or table tennis. Whilst I can't quite envisage the space, and whilst I'm not yet sure which larger pieces of furniture we will need, other than a new dining table, I'm quite excited about the bits and bobs and finishing touches. I guess that this is slightly the wrong way round but I always think that if you love something, you will find the perfect home for it.

For my last birthday and for Christmas, I asked for gift cards which I have been squirrelling away in anticipation of those things which catch my eye - of which there seem to be many. And something "pineappley" is near the top of my list.  

I came across this Laura Ashley pineapple lamp (£96 was £120) today and immediately fell in love with it. I've made huge amounts of progress with Mr SG this weekend and he can now talk about the work on the house for about 10 minutes before needing to go and lie in a darkened room. Or reaching for the bottle, which is followed by a lie down in a darkened room. I actually managed to get him into Laura Ashley with me today and he liked this lamp. So that was a good start. We had actually gone into Laura Ashley for a different interiors gem but I'll save that for another day.

 Graham & Green and has long been a favourite place of mine to browse interiors and this pineapple lamp base (£125) comes a very close second to the Laura Ashley lamp above. The reviews of it are really good and I love the choice of shade, although there are plenty of other options too.

For those who would prefer a glass option, M&S has this pineapple lamp for £49.50. Compared to the other two styles, this one is quite a chubby pineapple!

For anyone who would prefer a pineapple "object" as opposed to a lamp, John Lewis has this gold pineapple vase (£40) and in the picture below, you can see how fab it looks in a room setting. In fact I really like the whole of this look for a living room but I suspect that there are many rooms like this all over the country, given that John Lewis has marketed this look so heavily.

Oliver Bonas is a great shop for bits and bobs and they have these gorgeous pineapple spoons (£18) which could be displayed in a non-kitchen setting.  They also have gold pineapple salt and pepper pots in store but not online.

As with fashion, there's always the issue of how much money to commit to a piece that may only be a trend for a few seasons. On the other hand, if we love something, I don't think that any of us will stop loving it just because it's no longer "the" trend of the season.  So, what are we thinking about the Pineapple trend? Yeah or meh?



Working in, and wearing, head to toe M&S...

I was working in M&S today (I'm back there on Saturday at Merry Hill so do come and say hi if you're around) and I had to choose an outfit to wear whilst I was presenting. The store that I was working in had wicked air conditioning so I knew that I needed to start with knitwear. And I only had about five minutes in which to choose - so I had to be quick.

So first off I chose this Autograph funnel neck tunic (all links are below). Then I picked this striped blouse to go with it. The blouse is exactly the same style as my & Other Stories one that I'm looking to replace, only thicker, so I figured it would work. And anyway, it had to - once in the changing rooms, I had no choice!

Next up it was the trousers. As I have to be quite smart, I couldn't opt for my usual skinny jeans/ponte trousers/M&S treggings type combo so instead I went for these Autograph trousers which have silk and merino wool in them. I found the fit to be fine and they were comfortable too, although the reviews are very mixed.

And finally, despite my initial reservations as to comfort, I wore these Autograph red heels and actually they were fine. I won't pretend that I wouldn't have been more comfortable in my trainers but when it came to take them off, my feet hadn't died on me. The reviews of these shoes, which also come in black and one other colour combination, are universally good.

I was almost waiting for the "Robin Hood/Are you an artist/Do you work for British Airways?" type comments. And then I realised that there weren't really any men around. So that didn't happen.

The best part of my day was when one customer who came to the presentation went on to buy the whole outfit. She came back to tell me how delighted she was to have her Christmas Day outfit sorted. I would be so happy if I could do that for all of the women in the country.

Just by way of info, the tunic and trousers were a size 8 and the blouse was a 10, because there weren't any size 8s - but it was fine. The shoes also came up true to size. For anyone who would like to see a quick video of the outfit, you can do so on Instagram here (warning: it might be a bit scary on a full screen!)

Autograph fitted funnel neck tunic (£59)

Autograph  bold striped blouse (£35)

Autograph trousers (£49.50)

Autograph shoes (£59)

Does anyone else dislike slippers as much as I do? If so, how about these as an alternative?

Slippers? Yuck. Don't shoot me down in flames but nope, I am not a slipper fan. I think that it comes from feeling "undressed" if I'm wearing slippers - as if I'm about to go to bed and that's not good, especially if it's part way through the day. They don't really finish an outfit off.  If anything they kill it off. Huge socks are preferable to slippers in my view but they lower the tone of your outfit too. Did you know that there's an equation for slippers? Well there is and I really didn't just make it up:

OK outfit + slippers = totally ruined outfit PLUS you're wearing slippers  

I do have a pair of ankle height Uggs that I wear indoors but it's not quite cold enough for those yet. So currently I'm wearing my Stan Smiths inside and really that's not so good, largely because they come outside with me too. No, what is needed is a "house shoe". And skater style trainers make the perfect slipper alternative with my Topshop pure cashmere tracksuit bottoms (£250) that you will find me wearing about 90% of the time in the evenings*.

*Did I say pure cashmere tracksuit bottoms? In my dreams! Crikey I'd trash those before I'd managed to tuck my tummy in them. No, what I mean is these Topshop neppy joggers (£25), which I do wear a lot when I've done for the day. Interestingly the 3 reviews on the site all give them 5 out of 5. They are lovely - warm and fleecy inside plus they come in different colours and also in the petite and tall ranges too.

Anyway, until the time comes that I need to resort to the Uggs, I may well be heading towards the Marks and Spencer children's department for these slip on shoes (£18) which will work really well with my (non-cashmere) joggers and a chunky polo neck jumper. This style will also make a jumpsuit work inside the house, as well as tapered style trousers and jeans. So whilst they may not be your first choice of footwear with these clothes when going outside, they're a whole tonne better than slippers inside.

I know that these Clarks glove candy shoes (£30 in the sale) will be a real marmite item but I really like the combination of the colours. They tap into my obsession with grey felt and they just feel a bit Scandi. I'm going to nip into town tomorrow and try them on. They may not work at all but that's all part of the fun.

And surprise, surprise, I really like these Mint Velvet charcoal glitter Alice trainers (£89), also available at John Lewis. It's all in the sparkle of course, rather than the price - but perhaps they could be one for the sale. 

Some of you may already have skater trainers from the summer which you could revive as a slipper alternative. But for now, I'm off to investigate....

PS By the way, did I tell you that I don't like slippers?

In today's NEW vlog I'm talking about fringes and all things fringed....

We all know that I've been wittering on about buying a fringed bag for a while now and finally I found one that I liked with reference to price, colour and the amount of fringing that it had on it.

I'm a bit of tinker when I get a new bag and I just use it non-stop, which is what I've done over the weekend. But I do love a red bag, especially if it's a red bag that I can wear across my body and even more so if it's a good price and with a tassel or two.

So, here's a picture of the GAP tassel bag (showing as £32.95 online but I paid £14.95 for mine in store). You can see it much better in my new vlog, which is available to watch here.

In the vlog I'm wearing this M&S tie neck blouse (£29.50) which can be seen much more clearly than when I wore it underneath the dungarees in my last vlog. Why don't you give it the good once over to see what you think?!

Plus there's a surprise Zara top on the vlog which has tassels (and a mind) all of its own - but unfortunately once again, no link. Sorry!

I do hope that you enjoy the vlog. As well as fringing, there's a little bit of a fringe chat going on too. What do you all think to VB's new fringe? I have a little something to share with you about it!

Please do let me have your thoughts, comments and views.  Have a great week. Beth x

How to wear....dungarees! Oh yes, I've finally gone there. Why don't you come with me and see what you think?!

So having said in my last vlog that I didn't feel comfortable wearing dungarees, I decided that it was time to plunge head on in and give them a whirl. In my new vlog, I've styled them in three different ways - do take a look and see what you think!

All this blogging/vlogging business is quite techy for someone like me so please bear with me whilst I sort out all the links. I've linked to the pieces that are currently available to buy in store, below. I've also included links in the "description" box on the vlog - but I'm not sure whether you can click through from them - although I'm about to find out!

Outfit 1

Romantic tie blouse Marks and Spencer (£29.50)

Topshop dungarees (£48)

Judy bow shoes Topshop (£48)

Outfit 3

Zara lace top (£29.99)

Do let me know your thoughts. Are you tempted to try? And maybe tempted to buy? Or are you leaving them firmly on the shelf - or in the past? Or perhaps it's time to move on and embrace something altogether new. Whatever your final view, I hope that you enjoy this vlog. Beth x

Zara stripes for the autumn, a new layering find from Topshop and a short vlog looking at both of them...

For the life of me I cannot find this top anywhere on the Zara website (despite about 250 searches) but I only bought it yesterday so it should be there somewhere.

I know that lots of us love a good stripe and I like how this top is half way between a long sleeved cotton top and a jumper, making it perfect for this time of year.

Here I just photographed it quickly with a pair of old jeans (and not much make-up!) but I'm looking forward to wearing it with wide-legged navy Jigsaw trousers plus trainers, or with a navy skirt and heeled ankle boots (and a bit more make-up!)

This was my other fab find of the day, a long sleeved cropped top from Topshop for £12.

If you would like to find out more about both of these items and find out why the Topshop top is my new best friend, you can nip over to my new vlog here for more info.

Whilst talking about the vlog, I would love to hear your views. Please let me know what you would like to see, the perfect length vlog for you and what I could cover to make your lives easier when it comes to your wardrobe! I have a few ideas of my own but I'm far more interested in yours. Thank you! Beth x

Re-visiting our ribbing chat - and putting vlog no. 2 out there!

Some of you may remember that a few posts ago I wrote about ribbed clothing and how much it features on the High Street this season. In this post I'm featuring a whole outfit which is ribbed and which I bought from Autograph at Marks and Spencer a few weeks ago. These two pieces were featured in Vogue so unsurprisingly they are not now available on line but I suspect that they may still be carrying stock in store.

For some reason this outfit reminds me of Friday nights watching Friends back in the 1990's - boot cut trousers, longer line jumper - we've been there before but I don't think that this means that we can't go there again!

In my second vlog, which you can watch here I'm talking about this two piece together with Topshop jumper and Marks and Spencer ribbed dress. I would love it if you could head over to see what you think!

And as is only fit for a 1990's inspired outfit, here I am doing my best Spice Girls pose. Anything to keep the photographer happy!

My Style Evolution in conjunction with Marks and Spencer - and it involves dresses (with sleeves!)

Many of you will already be familiar with Marks and Spencer's current campaign entitled "Style Evolution". M&S is celebrating women who have embraced style change at certain milestones and phases in their life. The campaign started back in June,  with six bloggers, including Amanda (the Online Stylist) and Rachel (Lady M Presents) who I consider as blogging friends, being invited to spend a day at M&S Head Office. What they got up to that day can be viewed on the Marks and Spencer website here. 

For the next stage of the campaign M&S have asked several bloggers, including me, to write about their own "Style Evolution". In doing so, we were asked to choose some pieces from the M&S collection, to include at least one dress from the current collection.

My Midlife Forties and Fashion Mum of 40 have already written their posts which I so enjoyed reading as, although we aren't dis-similar in age or stage in life, the outfits that we have chosen are very different - and of course reading about other people's milestones is always fascinating.

The knitted dress that I am wearing above is from Limited Collection. Now, for some reason, this dress isn't online. I can't quite work out whether that's because it has already sold out, or whether it's because the site hasn't quite caught up yet but what I can say is if you do come across one in store, it's worth giving it a try. Knitted dresses are going to be a huge trend for the upcoming season but more than that it's a) warm b) incredibly comfortable and c) not the slightest bit scratchy - all of which make it a total winner!

For my second dress I chose the Autograph geometric print dress (£39 down from £59). I love print and colour and this dress could be styled in so many different ways depending on the occasion. A blazer and heels would make it perfect for a meeting, or a pair of block heeled knee high boots would give it a 70's vibe. Also the olive and coral colours make a refreshing change to navy and black for work.

Wearing it with the Autograph open front cardigan with cashmere (£45) and a Marks and Spencer cross body bag gives the dress a different feel.

Autograph open front cardigan with cashmere (£45)

There was another outfit that I loved but I wasn't sure that I could pull it off, in the sense that it is very slim fitting and quite possibly a little unforgiving. I'm still going to give it a whirl next time I'm in town though - just in the safety of a changing room!

M&S Autograph funnel neck dress (£55)

Autograph open front line cardigan (£55)

As many of you will know, I turned 45 last month and I consider that to be a little bit of a milestone. Half way between 40 and 50. Hmmm. As to my Style Evolution? The older I get the more confident I get about my style choices. After all, what is there to lose? Women my age no longer have to wear pearls and a pleated skirt and there are plenty of women older than I am who are forging the way - still looking great, modern, fresh and as if they are having fun with their clothes. As long as I'm not treading on any teenage toes along the way or embarrassing my children (or not too much at least, that's what parents are for after all) then I'm happy. And I hope that you all are too.

I've been "blog bombed" by my photographer and artistic director!

I don't often hand the blog over to anyone else - although I'm very happy to feature anyone who would like to be on it. However, after it was suggested by Donna at I won't wear sludge brown that Matilda should take the blog over, I thought that I would introduce you to my seven year old photographer and artistic director - because without her things wouldn't run as smoothly as they do. 

Interestingly she's really not fussed about clothes. She just checks the weather, gets dressed and often tops the outfit off with her favourite M&S cardigan (above). She was most cross with me today when I was sorting out some of her older sister's clothes which I had kept for her. "Stop trying to make me interested in clothes " she said. (I wasn't. She has one pair of jeans that fit and that's not enough trousers for Wales, which is where we are headed next week.)

Matilda also dislikes taking photos. She says my shots are boring so to make them less so, we always do a "funky" shot at the end. "THIS is how you're meant to do it." she says. Sometimes we have to do a "fierce" shot or a "pop star" shot. I agree with her. They're much more fun and I think that a few more will be making an appearance on here. Although she doesn't really like taking the photos, she takes her job seriously. So seriously that she pulls ridiculous faces when she's taking them so that my grin - ridiculous as that also may be - is genuine. Which it is. She's great at going cross eyed. A trick I've never been able to master.

Her Onesie is another favourite outfit. We like our cosy things in this house. In fact I would go so far as to say that Onesies have influenced a lot of my fashion choices recently. But more about that in my next post.

And the best shots are the fun ones. This dress is one that she chose from M&S on our one and only shopping trip ever - the same trip that she chose her cardigan - and the cat print green dress in the top right pic below. I think that she looks like some slightly mad creature from a Roald Dahl book, which is quite apt really, given her name.

Now I know that many of you will be in the same boat as me tomorrow - finding out the GCSE results, so I hope that goes really well for everyone. Additionally I am tasked with the job of going down to school, collecting them, opening them and telling NO ONE the results (other than Mr SG) until Flo gets home from London tomorrow night. It's all under her direction and I'm terrified of cocking the whole thing up. I expect that I will have a stress dream tonight - turning up late, the wind whipping the results out of my hands, opening them and tearing them up inadvertently. I'm more nervous than if they were my own. And what I've realised is that, unlike most things in life that cause us stress, there's no point doing any kind of prep because it's all decided, which is weird. Often doing some research, getting a good night's sleep, wearing a nice outfit, having a good breakfast, listening to words of wisdom or the right music - all of that might help but not tomorrow. I can turn up naked and it won't make any difference. And now I'm waffling. See how nervous I am? I think that I had better go.....