Time & Tech

I'm always a little intimidated when I see tweets saying "just scheduled blog posts for the next 3 months. Yay!!"

My initial reaction is always "woah, REALLY??", accompanied by a mixture of being massively impressed yet slightly sickened by their organisation. Mostly I'm gobsmacked these super-efficient bloggers have the time to write that many posts at once. Do they write super fast? Write really short posts? Already have a massive stock of beautifully edited photos?

Not that I've ever sat down and timed myself but I reckon a blog post can take me anywhere from 30 minutes to 4+ hours, depending on interruptions/how helpful or awkward technology is being/how many photos need editing etc. I'm better and faster when I get into the swing of things. Like with any creative project, I find that as soon as I've started on one thing it sparks off all sorts of ideas. This is where a good notebook is essential, or all those fantastic ideas swiftly disappear into the mist. Where I tend to fall down is finding the time to get things written up and having the equipment available to do it on.

My problem at the moment is that my blogging is restricted by available technology. I'm the happy owner of an iPad and much as I love that for internet browsing, social media and games, it's not ideally set up for blogging.

Neither is my netbook which is getting a bit old and knackered now. It's so hard to edit photos properly on such a small screen, plus it really needs a serious sort out as it's painfully slow at the moment. I mostly use my work pc to blog on (again not the speediest machine in the world but at least it's a proper size) and that means blogging time is restricted to my lunch breaks, or after work. There's only so much you can squeeze into that time period!

This is me when Blogger and PicMonkey both decide not to play ball. It happens often.

I'm plugging along nicely at the moment and have forced myself to be a bit more productive and get things written up and scheduled. It's definitely helped. That feeling that blogging is a chore and that I'm way behind on things hasn't hit me for a while. Weekends start to get quieter for me at this time of year and it seems a shame not to curl on the sofa and get some blogging done. It's going to require a new machine though! I've been looking at Acer laptops and Acer tablets as they seem reliable and reasonably priced (a winning combo, especially so close to Christmas!) but then an ex-colleague popped into work the other day and she had a fab Microsoft Surface tablet with a keyboard/cover thingy and it was so nifty I want one of those too! Decisions, decisions...

How much technology does one girl need?

Sparkly Ideas

I know we’re not even in October yet so I will refrain from using the C word but there are certain things on the horizon that need planning. I was landed with organising the work festive shindig at very short notice last year. I tried ringing round local restaurants, hotels, casinos etc and everywhere was already full by that point. Quite frankly, some of the people I work with were annoying. They didn’t want to organise it themselves but they moaned about everything, didn’t offer any constructive suggestions and then dropped out with no notice. I managed to find somewhere that gave us a lovely meal and we went out for cocktails and a bit of a boogie at a bar afterwards. Everyone that went had a lovely time but despite this I was still in rage mode and vowed never to organise another one.

Self, dolled up for last year's work party

Except I appear to have been stuck with organising it again this year and I want it to be awesome so that people don’t get the chance to moan about it. I want to dress up in something glitzy and glam and have fun. We’re lucky in that we’re so close to Liverpool which isn’t short of places to go but I baulk at paying £40 a head for an average meal at a very average restaurant or hotel.

Well, a girl can dream...

I’m thinking something like a night out at the casino where we can all pretend like we’re Bond Girls and sparkle the evening away winning squillions of pounds on the roulette wheel or the blackjack table. I can count to 21 so I can definitely manage blackjack. I’m terrible at poker though and I don’t think they let you play rummy there, do they? Perhaps a more realistic casino ambition would be to hit the winning line on the slot machines. I wouldn’t need any skill for that, just luck, and the menfolk in my family are always regaling me with tales of how much they’ve won on fruit machines in pubs and on sites like JackpotCity. Surely it’s my turn to have the winning touch?

It’s not the only option though, just one that’s currently really appealing to the side of me that’s a bit deprived of sequins, cocktails, glam and the chance to win a fortune on the turn of a card or the spin of the roulette wheel.

So hit me up with ideas please. Where have you been on similar occasions that were really good fun (or alternatively really awful so that I know what to avoid?)

Summer Workwear

Shopping for work clothes can be so dull. You hit the workwear section of most big shops and it's like drowning in a sea of black, grey and navy polyester. Not an area I ever find myself drawn to when I'm wombling around the shops. I'm much more of a magpie for pretty colours, patterns and fabrics. You can find them in the shops, you just need to cast your net a little wider. Look around a bit, try some different places and buy what you like rather than defaulting to the obvious option.  I've been hitting the nicer shops like Hobbs recently, where the products are a lot more interesting and much better quality.



A work dress doesn't have to be a shift dress, especially if that style doesn't suit you. They don't work on me - I look all stomach and hips and I'm sure you'll agree that that's not a particularly fetching look. I like something with a fuller skirt and as long as it's not revealing too much in the way of legs or cleavage, I class it as totally acceptable womens workwear.  And unless you work somewhere super traditional and straitlaced, you don't have to spend your life in sombre colours. Classic is fine (and I'm permanently on the hunt for a brilliant tweed frock or skirt) but colour is fun.



If it's a bit of a summery frock like this one and a cardi seems too casual an accompaniment, on goes the blazer to smarten things up. I have black ones, floral ones, vintage ones and, finally getting its first airing, I have my stripy summer blazer (aka the Mary Poppins blazer). Isn't it just the cutest thing you ever did see? This is how I do summer workwear: smart and pretty.





Dress & rings - Dorothy Perkins sale
Blazer - Hobbs sale
Shoes - Irregular Choice Baby Beauty (present from the awesome Team Norbury girls)

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What I Did In November

It's been a busy old month, and December is set to be even more hectic.  Fun though!  Here's what I've been up to recently:


- Tried Dining in the Dark

I was invited along to The Living Room in Liverpool earlier in the month for an evening with a difference. We were sampling mini versions of the food and drink from their new menu and playing guess the ingredient, but with our eyes closed. Well, with blindfolds on, to be precise. I learned that my taste buds are Not Very Good - I think I got 14.5/40 or something shocking like that, although weirdly I did guess all the cheeses correctly and I don't even eat cheese.  Anyway, the main discovery to come out of the evening was not my hitherto-unknown cheese-guessing powers, but the fact that The Living Room is really lovely.  I'd always associated the Liverpool one with footballers and gorgeous girls on nights out rather than delicious food, and I was super-impressed with how good everything on the menu was, as well as how nice and chilled out a venue it was.  Shall be heading back there soon!

- Watched American Idiot The Musical

Which was fab!  I had a slight fear that it would be clunky but it all fitted together rather well and the cast were great.  That album is very tied up with memories for me but I blocked that out and enjoyed it anyway.

- Got excited about Christmas at work
 

We've busted out the Christmas cd collection already.  In our defence, pretty much everyone is finishing on 14th Dec cos we've got so much leave left to take, so we're allowed to start the festivities in November.  That's our excuse and we're sticking to it.  Plus we have a house and a flipping big tree to decorate!  I was teetering on a ledge about 6 inches wide (if I tipped forwards I went into the tree, if I tipped backwards I crashed into a historic painting) and dancing to Jingle Bell Rock whilst making the tree looks fancy.  It looks ace, even if I do say so myself.

- Visited the cinema quite a bit

Seriously, how much good stuff was on this month?  I didn't even get round to seeing Argo, The Master or Rust and Bone.  Sad face.  The four films I did see were all wildly different but very good.  And who knew Bradley Cooper could actually act?

- Went to see Ben Folds Five

What a pair of fitfaces we are.

I'm not very musical. I don't spend a lot on music, or going to gigs, but I am a total Ben Folds fangirl. I went to see him on the (solo) Lonely Avenue tour a couple of years ago and as soon as the announcement went out that the band were reforming and touring in the UK, I pounced on the tickets.  Ffion and I had a bloody marvellous time last night in Manchesterville.

- Got quite a lot of shopping done.

Nothing in there but moths and a Tesco clubcard now.

I know, I know, it's only November. But I have to be super organised with presents for the people from work - I don't see most of them after 9th December - and then various friends are moving mid-month or generally just away, so I have to get started early. And I have two Secret Santa parcels to put together, plus a load of giveaway packages to organise! December is officially the month where I have no spare time. I'm totally calling on Parcelforce to send all my packages safely around the country. They pick them up from you! I can't face Post Office queues at the best of times and the thought of standing in line in December makes me shudder to the core.

- Tried opera. Cosi fan tutte to be precise.

Hark at me!  I think my pal Lee is just trying to convert me into a complete culture vulture.  He's already got me watching ballet (although not modern dance which tends to bore me to sleep) and he persuaded me to try a £5 ticket to the opera.  I rather surprised myself by absolutely loving it.  More please!

- Sorted out a great big pre-Christmas giveaway

Watch this space tomorrow!

My Life...In Phones

Warning: this blog post will date me. Horribly.

I can remember life before mobile phones. Quite clearly actually. They weren't really common until I was well into my teens. Dad had a hilarious businessman type car phone but the only time I'd ever seen a proper mobile was on Saved By The Bell. And how funny was that? Ringing for pizza at your desk. Oh Zack, you scamp.

Shell, my best friend, had a pager. I don't think we ever quite got to grips with that, but we both poured absolute scorn on our friends Ruth and Claire when they got mobile phones one summer. They only ever rang each other! We couldn't understand it at all. I think their logic was something to do with going horse riding and potentially falling in a ditch. Well, we did that too, but we didn't see the need for phones.

You can see how this one goes, can't you? About six months later Ruth and Claire could be totally smug in their status of trendsetters because we ALL had phones. Brick-like Nokia 5110s which had the amazing technological capacity to phone, text and play Snake. That's it. We were very easily pleased back then. My mum had a super slimline Motorola (honestly, it was thinner than the phone I have now - way ahead of its time) which was considered *very* cool.  And phone shopping was really fun and even a bit exotic!  I remember wandering into Carphone Warehouse and being faintly awestruck by all the technology on offer.  When you've only ever been able to do three things on your phone, any new development seemed rather magical.  If you'd have told me then that less then a decade later I'd be able to watch live tv on an app on my phone whilst sailing down a river on a boat, I would have laughed in your face.

I've been very loyal. Since that first venture into mobile phone ownership, I've had two Nokias, one Motorola clam phone, one LG Chocolate (which I adored. Beautiful, beautiful thing) and then an iPhone. I haven't lost a single one or dropped one down the loo or left it in a bar on a night out. They either died or needed replacing because, well, they're not made to last, are they? That's modern technology for you.

I got my iPhone nearly 3 years ago and I've been kind to it - it's always had a nice green cover and a Phone Devil screen protector (which I buy mainly cos they send you sweets as well but also cos they really do last well). It's out of contract now and on a SIM only deal (much cheaper, hurrah!) because my thrifty radar informed me that a new model was due this year and that would push the price of other handsets down, so I held off on upgrading. See, I'm canny! I was trying to be canny enough to spin it out for a little while longer but I had to upgrade the iOS in order to make an app work and now it's all "woe is me, I am so very, very old and slow" and keeps turning itself off. So now I'm all "woe is me, I will have to buy a new phone."  And it has to be an iPhone because I am completely smitten with this one and can't imagine life with a Samsung in my hand.

What I really want to know is, is it worth paying more for the iPhone 5 or should I stick with my initial inclinations and get the 4S?  Are they that different from each other? I can't read techy website comparisons: they baffle me.  I'd much rather have proper opinions and I know lots of you are fellow iPhone fangirls!

Coats and Cupboards

I love keeping a diary.  I write it every night and although it sometimes seems like a bit of a chore when I'm desperate to go to sleep, it's really interesting to look back through it every now and then.  I was doing that very thing last night to try and pull out a list of which films I'd seen at the cinema this year (26 so far...) and came across an entry from last April raving about the vintage coat I'd found in an antiques shop in Hay on Wye.  Said coat has been lurking in the understairs cupboard for months and I'd genuinely forgotten about it.  This may sound odd but if you have a coat cupboard, you will know what I mean.  They are dark and mysterious places.

I went in for a rummage for it this morning, got my foot stuck through the handle of a jute bag and managed to temporarily blind myself by hooking a waterproof coat over my own face.  Actually, make that dark, mysterious and dangerous places.  But I came out safely in the end, triumphantly bearing my beautiful coat.

On such a chilly day it has been the perfect thing to sling over my clothes.  I always forget quite how much I enjoy a good coat.  Sounds a bit mad that, doesn't it?  I own enough of them: I must like them!  They just don't have that immediate, obvious joy that comes with snuggling into a big cosy jumper or catching sight of your feet when you have a sparkly pair of shoes on.  But they do have their own special magic though.  Some make you feel cool, some inject a bit of colour into winter days.  This particular one possesses the ability to make me feel very pulled together and smart and that's something usually very much lacking in my life.

Even if I do then ruin the effect by boinging around waiting for the camera to click into action...

Coat - vintage Aquascutum

Blouse - vintage St Michaels

Skirt - bought at a vintage fair. It's West German

Ring - charity shop

Shoes - Primark

It didn't occur to me until I wrote this that everything bar the shoes was vintage.  Didn't plan it that way...

Frocks, Frocks, Frocks

I don’t tend to spend much time browsing shops online during the summer.  This isn’t because I do an enormous amount of actual shopping in real shops instead, it’s more due to the fact that I do things in the summer.  My disposable cash tends to get sucked up by weekends away, holidays, tickets to the theatre and the ballet and the cinema, and the ever-present book-buying habit.  Then before you know it I’m moaning about there being too much month for my money and the cute frock I’ve seen gets relegated to the “look for it on ebay in six months” list rather than the “buy it NOW” list.

Winter is a different story though.  I don’t turn into some sort of SAD-affected hermit who never goes out, but the fun jaunts are definitely not as common.   When there are more funds available, I tend to shop a little bit more.   Actual shopping in the winter is hideous though.  Unless you can bunk off work for the day then you get stuck in the weekend Christmas shopping crush (which seems to start in about October) and are beaten around the legs with rogue rolls of wrapping paper until you want to stomp off home in a strop.  Oh, and don’t forget the hideously unpleasant contrast of boiling hot shops and minus temperatures outside and having to constantly strip off layers of coats, hats, scarves and gloves before you spontaneously combust on the ground floor of Primark. 

I would so much rather sit at home with a large mug of coffee and idly browse websites until something catches my eye.  And dresses always catch my eye.  Having to sometimes pay p&p is a fair trade-off for avoiding the shops in the winter as far as I'm concerned.

This is an pheasant print frock. Yes, you heard me.  Pheasants.  How amazing is that?! My #wardrobezoo is sorely lacking in the birdy-ducky thing (it's a family term) department.

Speaking of ducks... DUCKS!  How cute is this Joules beauty?

Woman cannot live by wardrobezoo alone though.  Well, not this one anyway.  I have quite the weakness for frocks that resemble soft furnishings.  Honestly, I'm not being sarky here.  I love my dresses made from duvet covers and curtains and this one reminds me of some very floral cushions that my Nan had.

I can be sensible when I try though. This is both simple and rather beautiful.

And this might seem like a super straightforward black frock (those lucky souls who can wear the colour will probably be drawn to the berry version) but just think how lovely it'd look with any of my collection of coloured opaque tights.

I'm Going On A Boot Hunt

Last Friday I was in coat hunting mode. I'm still drawing up the shortlist of duffel coat options but I may well have a cape on the horizon, courtesy of Char's wardrobe clearout. Yay!


This weekend I'm on a boot hunt. It may shock you to read this but I only own one pair of knee high boots. Yes, that's right. Me, all round shoe-lover (although not Crocs or Uggs. Never those.) and proud owner of far too many pairs of footwear to count without wincing, only owns one pair of boots. And they were third hand. I have a few pairs of ankle boots, although not that many. My basic problem is that I'm a magpie. A shoe magpie. I'd come up with some amusing compression of that but it'd be *cough*shagpie*cough* and that conjures up something entirely different.

Ahem.

I like shoes. I'm easily drawn to colourful heels and pretty flats. You just have to look at my Irregular Choice collection for proof of that. As much as I appreciate a good pair of boots, they're never top of my shopping list. Leather is lovely and I will go and stroke it in the shops but I'll always buy the impractical green heels instead.  Shopping for shoes online is safer: I'm less prone to distraction by sparkles.

  This continued overlooking of boots is especially odd because I was rather heavily influenced in my formative years by this look:

(picture borrowed from essbeevee - read about Sarah's own knee high boot traumas)

I love Buffy and her dodgy late 90's outfits.

Back then, I didn't have the legs for short skirts and boots. Things are better since I lost the weight but I still have issues. I know I've mentioned this whilst beefing on about welly shopping but I have out of proportion wide calves. This seems to be common amongst the 5'2' women of my acquaintance but we're going to have the last laugh – I've been assured it means we will cope well in a famine or zombie apocalypse. Ha! In your face, skinny legged people!

I was rattling back through old blog photos recently and came across this one.  

Hey there super short skirt and boot combo! I clearly can wear this look, I just need to work a bit harder to find the boots than my skinny legged friends do.  I'm prepared to put the effort in though. I need more pairs and they aren't going to magically tapdance their way over to me.  I'll have to search for them. 


I really want these:

And these are a longer version of the H&M ankle boots I've just bought, so they're definitely appealing to me.  I do love a heel on a knee high boot.

Or I may just give in to those magpie tendencies and get these instead. Shiny, shiny.

Winter Coats

There are lots of things I love about this time of year. Coats are one of them.  I'm not alone in this.  A quick look through my blog roll is showing up all sorts of posts talking about autumn/winter clothing and coats seem to be top of the list for a lot of people. I love it. I can happily debate the merits of colour vs pattern, tweed vs fur, fitted vs casual, for ages. Pockets, buttons, collars, trim: they’re all much more fun on winter coats than they are on summer jackets.

I never used to be able to join in with these conversations. Roll back to 2009 and I had one boring black winter jacket that had lasted me about four years and I just couldn’t understand why people had or needed 47 coats. I mean, black goes with everything, right? One black coat should do nicely. Then I suddenly saw the light. I don’t know why or how it happened but now the understairs cupboard and hat stand in my room are overflowing with coats and jackets of all sizes, shapes and colours. Look! This isn’t even all of them, just the ones I’ve managed to take photos of.

L - Posh tweedy. R (top to bottom)- vintage via Vix's ebay shop, H&M via ebay, French Connection

L - vintage Aquascutum. R (top to bottom) - H&M via ebay, Kookai via car boot sale, Very.co.uk

It may seem as if I’ve got most of the bases covered: I have tweed, smart, colourful, faux fur, leather, vintage and cosy coats already. There’s always room for one (or two) more in the coat cupboard though. As with most of my clothing purchases, I'm always in search of value for money when looking to add a coat to my collection. That doesn't have to mean stalking ebay and charity shops and totally ignoring the High St shops. I'm always happy to pay decent money for the perfect thing. Case in point, the tweedy coat in the first picture. I adore it and don't care how much it cost.

On my current wishlist are the perfect duffel coat (because I always did want to be Paddington Bear) and the perfect cape (because I can’t be a bear all the time and maybe I can pretend to be a tall, glam cape-wearer instead). I intend to hit the shops good and hard until I find them.

This looks like it could be a winner

This is cute and sparkly.  Love it.

Somebody hold my handbag for me.  I've got some serious trying on to do!