Me and my hair

Sometimes I think it looks down at my outfit and thinks "Crazy shoes, crazy shirt...let battle commence"

Then it turns out fecking HUGE in photos, just to keep up appearances. See?






Dress - AX Paris, via Oxfam
Shirt - Ryan's Vintage, Manchester
Shoes - Irregular Choice via ebay
Badge - birthday present from my brother


The dress was a veritable snip at £2.99. The shoes, at £16.50 inc p&p, were a tad more expensive but considering they'd only been worn once or twice and probably retailed at £65 or so, I still think I got a bargain.

Green With Envy

I promised you a proper sighting of the green trousers so here you are. Are you jealous? They are quite almightily green.

They were possibly slightly more flattering in the holiday snap - isn't it a bit of a kick in the face when one blurry outtake photo looks better than any of the 133 proper ones that you took? Oh well. I don't really have any trousers that aren't jeans any more so it's quite fun to give something this bold a try.

I love staring at my feet, especially when they're this dotty.
It's that Boots vouchers time of year again - I treated myself to the History shade from the Poppy King range. It's lovely.


Jumper - H&M
Chinos - Primark
Shoes - Irregular Choice via ebay
Handbag - vintage, a very lovely present from the very lovely Zoe
Earrings - Etsy seller Still With You, courtesy of a blog giveaway at A Daisy Chain Dream.


This month is going to be a bit of a killer. Char and I have declared that October is time for caanowrimo (Char-and-Alex's-Novel-Writing-Month)to be unleashed on the world. I know NaNoWriMo is November but November is always ridiculously busy for me so it was now or never. This means I have to write *gulp* about 1600 words a day, every day. It's going to cut into my blogging time a bit (well, a lot) but I'll do my best to keep things ticking over as usual on here. I'm ahead of schedule so far but I doubt that will last...

September Scavenger Hunt

So where did September go? A few days on holiday, a few days ill in bed and whoomp, it's October. Worrying. Anyway, that means it's time for the monthly scavenger hunt round-up. Thanks as always to Kathy from Postcards from the P.P for organising it. All the other entries can be found here.

Back to school:
It always makes me think of kicking leaves on the way into school and gleefully collecting conkers.

A road sign:
If there's one thing England is not short of, it's amusingly named villages. By heck, do we like to go and visit them. Give us a good map and some back roads and we can keep ourselves amused for hours. I have an excellent photo tucked away somewhere of my mum and auntie pulling faces next to a roadsign for Seething.

Barton in the Beans is one of my absolute favourites although we did also go through Sheepy Magna and Sheepy Parva on the same trip and they come very close on the scale of awesome place names.

The football season:
It just really made me laugh.

Harvest:
I didn't pick them. They're probably safe but I don't dare risk it.

What's in your bag?:
Unexpected candystripe lining

Relaxation:
Sitting on the kitchen counter, glass of Prosecco, stirring risotto. Annnnnnd breathe....

Something taller than me:


A pile of things:
This may look like an innocent pile of shoes. It is actually a pile of RAGE. You would not believe the crossness resulting from Project Fix Wardrobe. It is proving insanely difficult to replace the broken rail and it is making me boil over with fury, hence all the flung shoes.

Apples:


Desk:
My desk is too untidy for public viewing. This is a paperweight that sits on it.

Public phone box:
Of all the scavenger hunt photos I have ever taken, this was the most shameful. The only phone box I could find locally is right by some shops and the local youth, having nothing better to do, congregrate around it. I couldn't cope with the mocking and "EEEEEEE girrrrrrrrl, worra ya dewin?" so I hastily snapped this and went home.

A view from above:
I think it's Wales...took it from the plane on the way to Portugal anyway.

A is for Alex

C'est moi.

A - Age
MID TWENTIES. Oh ok, 28. I still get ID'd in Tesco though. I moan about it but secretly I'm very happy.

B - Bed Size
Double

C - Chore you hate
Ironing. Uck. It is boring, it hurts my back and it takes ages.

D - Dogs
No. Cats cats cats.

E - Essential start to your day
Many many alarms. About 5 usually, or I don't get up.

F - Favourite colour
Green. Obviously.

G - Gold or silver
Silver. I've been told gold is something I'll grow to like, like red wine. I'll keep you updated if either happens.


H - Height
Only 5'2. I like it though.

I - Instruments you play
None. I'd love to play the cello.

J - Job title
Administrator. It will probably change to something along the lines of Business Support Coordinator soon (can you sense me rolling my eyes?), neither of which actually reflect the bajillion and one things I do at work. I prefer Fount Of All Knowledge.

K - Kids
No thank you. And kindly don't patronise me by saying that I'll change my mind when I settle down/meet the right man/turn 30.

L - Live
In a house. Sadly not a very big house in the country. Generally surrounded by books and unironed clothes.


M - Mother's name
Jean. She is amazing.

N - Nickname
I never really had one until Ffion came along at work and then in a Mitford/Harry Potter-esque whirl we decided that I was Honks and she was Tonks. Mostly it's just Alex though.

O - Overnight hospital stays
None that I can remember.

P - Pet peeves
Ha! I shall refer you to this here post (incidentally gang, AMAZING comments) about supposedly popular things I hate but the general list of pet peeves is even longer. I think most of them are general bad manners (spitting in the street, talking and texting whilst at the cinema, dropping litter, not picking up dog poo) but I get particularly wound up by bad grammar and spelling. Oh and a special level of hell is reserved for those who drive in the middle lane of the motorway even though there's no other traffic on the road.

Q - Quote from a film
I do tend to sprinkle my conversation with quotes that barely anyone has ever heard of, so I probably sound like a complete odd-bod most of the time, unless you happen to have similar tastes to me! My most-quoted lines tend to come from tv programmes or books, but just for sentimental reasons and because we used to say it to each other all the time, I shall go with:

"I shall try."
"And I shall wait all day."

R - Right or left handed?
Right. I really like left handed men though.

S - Siblings
A big brother, Kenny. Taller than me, sportier than me (Great North Run in under 1 1/2 hours!), more artistic and musical than me. I win at organisation, being reliable, present buying and the general boring stuff. We love each other really though.


T - Time you wake up
Not as early as I should.

U - Underwear
Bosom boosting bras and plain black shorts usually.

V - Vegetable you hate
Cucumber and celery. Bleurgh!

W - What makes you run late
Reading. I don't mean to be late, I really don't, but I get stuck into a book and time just runs away with me.

X - X-Rays you've had
Only teeth. Oh no, my wrist once when I fell off a horse and landed in a crumpled heap between its front legs.

Y - Yummy food that you make
Cakes. I think I'm an ok cook but I am definitely more adventurous with baking than I am with normal meals.

Seriously, where have all my cake photos gone? This was the only one I could find and it doesn't even look nice! Tasted bloody lovely though.

Z - Zoo animal
Would you believe I've never been to the zoo? I don't feel qualified to answer this question.

Under the Sheets

Gather round readers, for I am about to let you into a secret. Something not often spoken about on fashion blogs...




I love pyjamas.




We don't talk much about nightwear, or lounging-around-the-house-wear, do we? Well, not unless we are the glamorous types who look good in vintage slips and sassy negligees. I am not, and I don't. I go for full on comfort.

I have pretty pj's:


I have polka dotty pj's:


I have ancient old t-shirts:


I have stripy, checked and starry pj's:


I have pj's made by talented friends:


I even have Womble pj's. Yes, I am that cool.

And non Womble, but equally fun slippers. Mustn't forget them:


I find that there's something immensely comforting about being snuggled up in something cosy, hence I am a big fan of bed and duvets. My holy trifecta is clean sheets, new pj's and clean hair. I have been holed up in bed since Friday feeling gruesome so the clean hair and clean sheets have gone by the wayside (haven't had the energy to even contemplate changing the bedding). I have had lovely new pj's to cheer myself up with though. A small but extremely soft and cosy ray of sunshine in a very glum few days. I like them an awful lot and trust me, I'm not easily pleased when it comes to this type of clothing. Maybe that's something I should add to my CV? Pyjama connoisseur....

Cosy check chillin' out pants c/o Joe Browns

An Outfit Post Abroad

I do sometimes think it would be lovely to live in a permanently warm climate. Then I go on holiday, come back with painfully sunburnt upper thighs (remembered to apply suntan lotion everywhere but there) and remember that I actually don't cope that well with dressing properly in hot weather. It would be impossible for me to look even halfway presentable - I'd always be sweaty, covered in suntan lotion or sand or have my hair tied back up so it didn't annoy me. I'm much safer in the UK.

That's a long winded way of explaining why there aren't very many pics of me on holiday wearing anything very nice. I managed a few though:

Please ignore my matronly upper arms. They only ever see the light of day on holiday.

I should take all my blog photos in cloisters.

Or on cathedral roofs.


Dress - Primark via ebay
Sandals - Primark
Sunnies - Marks & Spencer

Beachfront ones are more tricky though. It was so windy this night (hence the scragged back hair) and I kept getting blown off balance whilst trying to stand still and have my photo taken.



Dress - Peacocks via car boot sale
Cardi - Topshop, present from the ever-lovely and generous Char
Shoes - Dolcis
Watch - shop in Barcelona
Ring - Dorothy Perkins sale
Bag - H&M via car boot sale
Toenails - Barry M Spring Green


And despite the fact that this is a total out-take shot (I should have a special folder entitled Alex Arses Up The Self-Timer), I am showing it to you because...duh duh duh... I found some green trousers! Aren't they quite fantastically green? Expect a proper outfit post featuring them soon.


(Pa demanded credit for his photography so here goes - thanks Dad! Awesome holiday companion that you are.)

Holiday Snaps

This picture is going to be the main memory of my holiday. I was happily strolling around little winding backstreets in Evora, turned a corner and found this in front of me. Isn't it wonderful? About 5 minutes walk away is this rather splendid ruined Roman temple.


So yes, I like Evora. As for Estoril (where we were staying), I like that too but it's a funny little place. Lovely beach:

Huge casino:

Lots of beautiful and crumbling houses that the owners can't afford to restore:

And no shops. Well that's not strictly true. The shops consisted of two little supermarkets, an Audi dealership and this:

Yes gang, that would be a Hello Kitty shop. I don't quite understand the lack of "normal" shops but I can't say it particularly bothered me. It's just odd. There was nowhere to buy a corkscrew but I could have had a choice of about 8 different Hello Kitty suitcases.

I suppose everyone must go to Lisbon. It's only 20 mins away by train. They've got a Primark and everything (*rolls eyes*). No, I didn't go there. I may have given into the temptation of H&M though...



A lovely lion supporting Vasco de Gama's tomb
Monument to Portuguese explorers


We went to Sintra and I liked that very much too (are you sensing a theme here? Alex likes Portugal). You basically drive up the coast road to the westernmost point of Continental Europe:


and then drive up into the hills. It has beautiful houses, a royal palace, a castle and the most amazing cafe. If you ever go, you MUST have travesseiros de Sintra, fresh out of the oven. I am drooling at the very memory of them.





And finally, because you rock for getting this far, here's a picture of a sign in the hotel lift. Schindler's Lift. *snorks*