Feeling Springlike

It was sunny this morning, honestly it was. Ok, so it then descended into wind and lashing rain by about 5pm but at least I was dressed for the weather for half of the day! This is probably the girliest outfit I have worn since I was about 6 years old but you know what? I love it. There's something about cute pumps and funky tights (I am seriously smitten with these cornflower blue beauties) and a dress with a double layer hem that makes me want to twirl round in the sunshine smiling at random strangers. I didn't actually take it that far as I'm way too shy for that kind of behaviour but the spirit was there.

Dress & cardi - Primark
Tights - Dorothy Perkins

Pumps - Schuh

Bangle - Shared Earth

Locket - allthingsyummy @ etsy

Some of the little touches that perk my mood up just to look at them:

And just because I'm in a whimsical mood and it's Friday, a couple of pictures of me pratting around at work today. In my defence, we have an Alice in Wonderland event on this weekend and my office ended up full of hats and costumes. Who could resist donning a silly hat?

I really don't like profile shots of my face, bleurgh

Embracing my inner slob

I had an interesting chat this morning with some of the MSE gang about blogging and what we do and don't post pics of. I've noticed that on the days I don't post, or don't post pics of my outfit, I tend to be in jeans or slobby, comfy clothes. I'm in total admiration of all the ladies out there in the blogosphere that look immaculate every day - even their casual outfits are several degrees more stylish than my better efforts. I'm clearly not one of these higher beings and I doubt I ever will be.


But I'm not going to feel ashamed or embarassed of what I wear. To very roughly paraphrase something that a wiser person than me pointed out this morning, it's just as important for bloggers to post their house clothes and everyday lazy outfits as it is for us to show off our lovely clothes. I'm sure there are plenty of us out there, just normal women who don't always have the time, energy, fantastic wardrobe or just the knack that allows some people to always look so good. But why shouldn't we talk about our outfits when they're more everyday than we might like? Anyone that knows me in real life will rapidly come to realise that fashion is not the be all and end all of my life. I love to blog and I love to read about what other people wear and do with clothes but for me, this is about more than just showing off my good days.

So here goes, I'm embracing one of my lazy outfits. I haven't even brushed my hair today - how bad is that?!

Jeans & sleeveless cardi - Primark

Top - Dorothy Perkins

Pumps - Accessorize

Ah well, at least all the green in today's outfit meant I could wear my watch. It comes out of the drawer rarely because it's a bit bold and a tricky colour (although v.beautiful) and also because I have an awful habit of forgetting I'm wearing it and banging it off things. I bought it in an amazing little shop in Barcelona and it makes me happy every time I look at it just to remember that fab holiday. Must wear it more often.

Terrible Tuesday

Feeling very meh today, probably due to overtiredness and general can't-be-arsedness with the busyness that is life. Plus today is just not a photogenic day. No makeup, scraggy hair, weird posture and somehow managing to look about 5 months pregnant! Do excuse all of these things please. I'll try harder tomorrow.

Dress, leggings & cardi - Primark

Necklace - Next clearance store

Bangle - pinched from Mum

I think perhaps I need to start going outside and checking the weather before I get dressed. I see sunshine streaming through the window when I wake up and I immediately think "Yay, WARM!" I should be used to English weather by now shouldn't I? Sunshine is not warmth and as my office is cavelike in terms of natural daylight and temperature, I've been pretty cold today. But I have all these pretty frocks just bursting out of my wardrobe and wanting to worn and it would be rude to shun them in favour of sensible, warm layers. Roll on higher temperatures and properly warm spring days so that I can wear this dress with wedges (and maybe even bare legs!) and not end up with frostbite on my toes.

Right, must go and swim! Apologies for the rambly tone of today's entry but I've got no brainpower left this evening.

My camera = annoying

I was muchly looking forward to showing off my new violet tights and then every single photograph I've taken this evening makes them look blue! A very nice shade of blue but very definitely blue and nothing like the glorious shade of violet they actually are. And as they're the only interesting thing about today's outfit, I feel a bit of a bore for posting an outfit pic. But I'll do it anyway:

Sans cardi...

Avec cardi...

Tunic, tights & ring - Dorothy Perkins
Cardi - Primark
Bracelet - gift

I'm not exactly sure why I am poking weirdly at my hair in both pics - I don't have nits or anything!

As I neglected to put the cake recipe in yesterday's post, here it is today:

Sweet Polenta Cake with caramelised apples

4 oz/100g plain flour
2 1/2 oz/70g polenta or yellow cornmeal
1 tsp baking powder
Grated peel of 1 lemon
1/4 tsp salt
2 eggs
6oz/170g sugar
3 fl oz/80ml milk
1/2 tsp almond extract
1 1/2 oz/40g currants or raisins, soaked in hot water for 20 mins and well drained
3 oz/85g unsalted butter, softened
2 eating apples, peeled, cored and thinly sliced.
1 oz/25g flaked almonds

Preheat the oven to 190 C/375 F/Gas Mark 5. Butter a spring release cake tin or line a normal one with baking parchment.
Stir the flour, polenta, baking powder, lemon peel and salt in a large bowl.
Beat the eggs and 4 oz/100g of the sugar in another bowl until foamy, then gradually beat in the milk and almond extract. Stir in the currants and then beat in the dry ingredients slowly, adding 4 tablespoons of the butter.
Pour the mixture into the tin and smooth the top evenly. Arrange the apple slices over the top and sprinkle with the almonds.
Melt the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter over a low heat and drizzle over the apples. Sprinkle with the remaining sugar.
Bake for about 45 minutes, until the cake is golden and the apples are caramelised.

Then the optional part! The recipe calls for leaving it to cool for 20 minutes, then melting 4 tbsp apricot jam and 2 tbsp of water in a pan until melted and smooth, then spooning this over the apples to glaze. Leave until it's fully cooled and then serve with whipped or sour cream.

As none of us can eat cream and we usually can't be bothered waiting for the cake to cool, we eat it warm (minus the jam glaze) and sometimes with icecream. Mmmmm, it's delicious.

The recipe will stand any amount of tweaking as well. I use Doves Farm gluten free flour instead of normal flour and dairy free margarine instead of butter as it needs to be gluten and dairy free in order for us all to eat it and it still tastes amazing. You can chuck in a few splashes of lemon juice if you don't have fresh lemons to hand as well.

Mothering Sunday

Sorry to be pedantic but it's NOT Mother's Day, it's Mothering Sunday.

Anyway, today has been all about pleasing this fantastic woman:

Today being a celebratory sort of day, I've been in the kitchen whipping up an enormous roast dinner and a delicious polenta and apple cake. I've been seriously accident prone though! I've ended up with a big burn on my thumb and have dropped everything it was possible to drop. Glace cherries have been leaping to their death from the top shelf of the cupboard and hitting me in the head and the clanging and banging and "Oh for ***** sake"-ing drifting through to the rest of the house reached record levels. Everything turned out very nicely in the end though so all the chaos was worth it.

And today's outfit? Well I couldn't resist wearing my new skirt and many of the other new things I've bought recently that just happen to go quite well with it. Check out the new pose!

Skirt & earrings - Florence & Fred @ Tesco

Tights, headband & blue beads - Dorothy Perkins

Top - Marks & Spencer

Blue initial necklace - Sunday Girl Accessories

Hope you're all having a lovely weekend. I'm going for a nap, I've eaten too much cake!

Saturday chit-chat

I am having a totally uninspired clothes day today. I think I've put a week's worth of effort into the weekday outfits (style does not come naturally to me, it's hard work!) and so any old tat will do today, hence the lack of pics of today's outfit.



I've been buying bits and bobs though:


I find Tesco clothing very hit and miss but I saw this on a rail today and immediately went "Oooooh!!" I love the pattern and colours, just love them. They had the same fabric in a top but sadly not in my size so I went for the bold option of a skirt. I find skirts awkward - they usually don't suit me at all but with this being fairly simple in shape and stretchy, I'm hoping it'll look ok. And then I couldn't resist these cute earrings to go with it.

I nipped to Boots after that and there just happened to be a charity fundraising books and bags sale outside it. Many books got purchased and also a bag. Now I'd have to say it isn't entirely my usual style; it's verging on the tacky (it's from River Island and I find this is often a problem with their stuff) but Helga and Vix have been showing off their glorious tooled leather bags and I suppose this reminded me a little bit of them, although it's clearly nowhere near as nice. It was only £1 so if I decide I don't actually like it that much after all, it's not too much of a problem.

Then it was nail varnishes ahoy! I had Boots points to spend so got two Barry M varnishes (Emerald Green & Mint Green) basically for free, and then used the £5 off No7 products voucher I had to get the lovely teal nail varnish (Totally Teal) for £1.25. Good old Boots. I do enjoy this kind of shopping.







And because this post is a bit of a mish-mash, I thought I'd chuck in a few thoughts about a film (Green Zone, which I went to see last night) as well. I won't glorify my thoughts by calling them a film review, I'm not that coherent!

I should probably start by saying that Matt Damon is the founding member and No 1 name on my Sturdy List. I absolutely love him so would have probably enjoyed the film had it been utter tosh, just because it gave me a chance to look at him on a huge screen for 90-odd minutes. I am also extremely partial to a man in uniform. Oh, and I love war programmes and films (my all time favourite piece of television drama being the BBC programme Warriors - it may be tricky to track down on DVD as it was only released in Holland for some bizarre reason but I can't recommend it strongly enough) so I was always predisposed to enjoy this.

Having said all that, it was so enjoyable - a proper, intelligent, action film. As you'd expect, lots of soldiers running around and lots of shooting, but the director knows how to make a good film so it didn't fall into the trap of pointless, unbelievable sequences that seem to be a feature of so many films in this genre. It was the perfect Friday night film - I just sat back and let all the action wash over me. The acting's good, the plot zips along and it's really quite thought provoking, especially about WMD and behind the scenes power struggles. So, I recommend you go and see it!



And just to finish up with, a random photo of the stairs in my house as it amuses me. Not that I'm prone to leaving my shoes lying around all the time or anything...

Barcode or Missoni?

Just a quick post this evening as I'm going swimming later on and I'm currently occupied watching the football and hurling ranty comments at the Liverpool players for their inability to win a match. Must calm down a little.


Anyhow, today's outfit?

Dress - Per Una, Leggings - Evans, Pumps - New Look, Bangle - Shared Earth

I happen to rather love this dress - so pretty and soft and cosy to wear. Opinion seems to be mixed amongst my colleagues. One went "ooh, very Missoni" , another said "You look like a walking barcode" (I think he meant it in a nice way?) It doesn't half cling though. I'm totally control underwear-ed up underneath it and I still feel very tummy conscious. Feck it though, I like this dress and I'm going to wear it.

I will give the pumps a rest next week. I wanted to wear my polka dot shoes today, just for a complete mismatch of patterns, but alas I'm suffering with blisters on my toes as a result of wearing brogues with no tights underneath at the weekend and high heels aren't an option at the moment as they hurt too much. Bah.

I'm currently rocking this stylish footwear: