The Reason I Don't Do Daily Outfit Posts

Pretty simple really. Most of the time I do not sport nice frocks, elegant heels or interesting/blogworthy outfits.

Most of the time I wear jeggings and slightly ratty Converse:

Cosy jumpers:

No accessories whatsoever:



No makeup. Oh and I don't brush my hair that much either:

I wear odd socks though. Gotta keep that personal brand strong:

Working Those Shoes

Last week I was standing bleary-eyed next to the kettle at work, desperately wishing it would boil faster so I could get my morning caffeine hit. In walked the boss.

 "Morning, Alex" said he.

"Morning. Tea?" said I.

"Yes please. Wow, you have distinctly mediocre shoes on today."

Sorry, what?!

He may have added "by your usual standards" but I was too busy gawping in shock to pay much heed. Sorry, what?!
 I had Converse on. TWEED CONVERSE. Admittedly not as frivolous as my usual footwear but tweed shoes can never be a bad thing.

They're lovely!!

Perhaps he was swayed by the rest of my outfit? (fat jeans and a plain grey jumper aren't the most glamorous combination but at least I matched) Perhaps he's been practising opening gambits for conversations and it all went horribly wrong? He's usually rather sweet so I do hope he didn't mean it as an insult.

It got me thinking about how much my clothes provide a talking point for the gang at work. I don't think I'm the most outrageous dresser in the world but I do seem to have developed a reputation for prints and shoes. Irregular Choice heels always go down well, particularly with the girls. One of the blokes came out with the immortal but baffling line "oh you've got your prostitute shoes on today" when I was wearing my Rosepea pair.

Personally I can't think of anything less suited to a lady of the night than red suede but hey ho, maybe he knows something I don't!


I'm in the fun position of being able to wear pretty much whatever I want at work. My role is limited by practicality on some days - I can cope in heels when I'm doing normal amounts of walking but definitely not when I'm spending the entire day dashing round. Sensible flats, jeans and a work fleece are often the practical solution. Not exactly worth blogging about but then that's why I don't do daily outfit posts. It generally has a lot more wardrobe flexibility than most of the other jobs on site though. Dresses and lavishly decorated shoes would not be a sensible option for some of my colleagues. I reckon they like to live vicariously through my wardrobe to a certain extent and it doesn't bother me at all to be known as the work shoe queen.

 Hit me with the best comment you've been given at work. I can't be the only one who is the recipient of some absolute corkers. Are the people you work with as interested by your wardrobe as my colleagues are?

Town Mouse...Country Mouse

I'm a split personality, but quite happily so. I adore the countryside. Fresh air, horses, peace and quiet, being surrounded by the beauty of nature... I could quite happily live in a little country cottage in the middle of nowhere with a pony in the back garden. But I love city life just as much. Every time I get too carried away with dreams of the rural idyll a part of me remembers that I actually really love being 10 mins away from a bustling, vibrant city centre and that if I lived in the sticks I would massively miss the amazing culture that Liverpool has to offer. There'd be no nipping to the cinema on a whim, no popping round the corner to Lark Lane for brunch or coffee, no decent shops nearby. There would also be a big old commute and that would drive me demented.

Much as I adore my city, it has one big downside. The suburbs stretch on for sodding miles. My friend lives 3 miles outside Derby city centre and it's so rural there that you'd barely know urban life existed. The same with my friend in Newcastle. Me? I live 7 miles outside Liverpool city centre and you still have to get in the car and drive for about half an hour before you hit proper countryside. We have more parks than you can shake a stick at (seriously, south Liverpool has about 25 of them) but actual fields and animals and stuff? Nah.

I probably have the best of both worlds in the meantime because I'm lucky enough to work in a little oasis of green amongst all that urban chaos. I might be doomed to live in suburbia but my hobbies take me out and about to some of the most beautiful rural places. My wardrobe kinda reflects this. Half of it is sensible with lashings of tweed, horsey clothing and muddy wellies, half of it is deeply frivolous and impractical with mandatory high heels. I like it when the two can crossover a little bit though.




I so wish they had the option to pick your own colourways for Flick Flack. I love the shoe but this is the only variation of it I've ever liked enough to buy.


Jacket - c/o Joules UK
Skirt - H&M
Jumper - Dorothy Perkins
Shoes - Irregular Choice Flick Flack

I was asked if I'd like to review one of the new range of Joules quilted jackets for women and I was all over this Moredale beauty. Not only is it green (yay!) but it's also fully lined with my favourite print from their range at the mo, has cord elbow patches, pocket & cuff trim and is really nicely fitted. Look, there are even poppers on the hip/derriere area in case you need a bit more flexibility!

I had to roll the cuffs back a bit as I have tiny t-rex arms but that's fine. In fact that's almost better because I get to show off another splash of that beautiful lining fabric!

So I wore it with the distinctly town outfit in the first set of photos and loved it. Then I ditched the heels and sequins, donned a more country-friendly outfit of jeans and Converse and took it for a walk in the woods another day. Guess what? I love it just as much this way too.

Jacket - c/o Joules UK
Jeans & jumper - Gap
Scarf - god knows. I have millions of them.
Converse - I think they were from Amazon. Hard colour to track down at the time!

Cheering Myself Up

D'you know what's quite fun, especially when you're not feeling particularly svelte? Wearing clothes that used to be too tight but are now lovely and big. Now I'm not talking about comedy jeans , although I have kept the pair in that photo, just for posterity.  I mean those everso useful frocks and jumpers that I used to wear when I was a lot bigger and that still work now I'm a lot smaller.  Most of my old wardrobe is long gone but a few versatile things still remain.

I'm very fond of this dress. When I first bought it, many moons ago, we were both a size 18. I wore it when I was at my very fattest and a size 24. I still wear it now that I'm a size 14, with the addition of a belt and a tweak of the fabric. It's ace. And it might be about 8 years old now but I still adore it and haven't conquered the urge to shout "IT WAS ONLY A POUND. ONE ENGLISH POUND!" whenever people compliment me on it. The label may mark it out as a piece of plus size clothing but I don't care what the label says.  It looks nice and I like it and that's all that matters.

Oh and it has pockets. J'adore pockets.

No time for fancy shoes today, I've got mud to walk through!

Dress & belt - Primark

Cardi - Gap

Converse high top trainers

Scarf - Dorothy Perkins

Earrings - River Island

I also accessorised with these fetching things:

We're unlikely to get snow this close to the coast but it's far from warm today!

Shoes and Sparkle

Huzzah!  I have new shoes.  New red shoes to be precise.  

I asked for your advice a couple of weeks ago when I was pondering what type of Converse to choose for my first pair.  Well, the replies were clear on one thing - you all loved Converse and I was about the only person in the world who didn't own a pair.  Not any more though!  There was some sound advice about going for a pair of solid coloured high tops, so I took that and chose a lovely red pair.  Black would have been sensible, green would have been too obvious (I can't have green everything) and white or cream is just asking for trouble where I'm concerned - they would soon have been an attractive shade of dirt.  Red it was.  I do enjoy a bit of sassy colour on my feet.

The jumper was a holiday purchase when we popped into Harrogate for a spot of shopping.  I wasn't going to buy it.  Honestly, I wasn't.  It was lurking on a sale rail but there was no reduced price sticker on the label and besides, I never buy burgundy things.  I don't suit them; I'm too pale.

I am a notorious sucker for #wardrobezoo related things though and that made it worth taking up to the till to check if it really was on sale or not.  It turned out that it was and that, combined with the lure of glittery gold owls, proved too strong for me to resist.  I'm so easily pleased.

Little detail on the back of the jumper

Jumper - M&S Limited Collection sale
Skirt - Warehouse
Socks - Primark
Converse high top trainers

Oh, and did I mention that they're amazing and I love them?  I will probably end up with about eleventybillion pairs now.  Just you wait and see.

Joining the Converse Club

Apart from a brief foray into Dunlop Green Flash in the mid 2000s, I've never been a trainer sort of person.  I am not terribly sporty - well I swim, walk and ride horses but these require no footwear, walking boots and jodphur boots respectively, not trainers.  I have so many shoes I don't really want to count them but I can tell you the number of pairs of trainer type shoes that I own straight away.  One.  And they need throwing in the bin because they're Primark plimsolly type things that cost £3 and they're wrecked.

This year has seen my opinion on Converse changing though.  It's not that I ever hated them in the way I despise Uggs and Crocs, I just didn't quite see the point of them.  Fab for the indie types and gig-goers, but not really my sort of thing.  Then at Bestival this year I was surrounded by bloggers rocking them in so many different ways and it finally dawned on me just how versatile they actually are. They looked great with everything (which proper trainers decidedly do not) and people wouldn't be wearing them all day if they weren't comfortable.  God knows my shoe collection is lacking in comfortable flats - I seem to be cursed with painful brogues and ballet pumps with paper-thin soles at the moment.  So I'm definitely going to get a pair but the problem is where to start.

Do I get the high top version?

All Star high

Or the low one?

All Star low

Suede?

All Star dainty suede

Or leather?

All Star leather

I can't even decide on the colour I like best.  Argh.

Help me out here girls!  I must be about the only person in the world who doesn't already own a pair, so I'd love your advice.  Which style would you recommend I buy or steer clear of?