Sunday Shopping

Gosh, what a long day. I was up at the crack of dawn (well, by my standards anyway) to get on the road, meet up with the wonderful Char and head halfway down the country to pay a visit to Laura. Slightly odd circumstances in which to meet her for the first time but it was lovely - lots of nattering, a mini tour of the unit (it's really nice, like a swanky halls of residence!) and then out for a walk. She's doing well and says a big hello to everyone.

I don't want to go on about it in too much detail - if Laura wants to talk about her experiences then I'm sure she will - so I shall show you the fruits of a little shopping trip instead.

Our destination was the Newlife retail store. It's like a cross between TK Maxx and a charity shop - rails and rails of brand new stuff donated from High St stores and all the profits go to charity. My idea of a good shop! We ignored their petty rule about only taking 5 items into the changing room and loaded ourselves with pretty frocks. I think we were fairly restrained though when it came to actually purchasing things though.

This is definitely from New Look originally as I've been eyeing it up for quite some time, but I've got no idea about where the other two might have come from as they chop the labels out. Quite fun not knowing really.

This is the back - you might just be able to see the heart shaped cut out detail. I am mildly smitten with this and may well have to wear it tomorrow.

Comedy changing room antics with this one as it's a bit too snug around the chest and I couldn't get the flipping thing off! It'll be lovely in a couple of months and I'm jolly pleased as I've wanted a pinafore style dress for ages.

Also picked up a stripy scarf and this rather fab hat:

And the best bit, we found Irregular Choice shoes! Char has truly eagle eyes for them - she swooped upon these beauties and as luck would have it, they were in my size. They're totally OTT but that's just how I like them. The stripy pair are a size 3 but at £2.99 I couldn't leave them on the shelf. Do I have any readers with tiny feet? If not, onto ebay they go.



Woefully unflattering photo of me here but hey ho, I never look my best in profile. Check out the lovely new brogues though! We'd been in the car for hours at this point and I, for one, needed to go home to bed so no time for more posed photos.

Dress & brogues - River Island
Cardi - Primark

Note to self - buy some new jeans

I didn't realise that this pair fitted so badly! Ho hum. They are currently the only pair I own that even vaguely fit so I think new jeans and trousers need to be purchased asap. But I try not to censor photos just because I don't think they're flattering so I'll show you anway. Good job really, because I'd never post anything otherwise.

Blouse - ASOS via charity shop
Vest & jeans - Dorothy Perkins
Shoes - New Look
Earrings - charity shop (think they're handmade)
Butterfly necklace - found
Wooden beaded necklace - Dorothy Perkins
Beaded necklace worn as bracelet - car boot sale
Opal ring - antiques market

I'm definitely getting more bargain savvy in my old age. Apart from the jeans (which were cheap to begin with), everything was either bought on sale or from charity shops/car boot sales. I don't seem to be able to bring myself to pay full price for anything anymore!

Another rule broken

I'm still on my quest to break those fashion rules one by one. The chubby girls/vertical stripes one has been well and truly smashed as I'm now in love with stripy tshirts and here's another that I've kicked into touch. You know that they (who are the mystical "they"??) say you should never buy clothes that don't fit because you'll always fail to slim into them and end up with a wardrobe full of depressingly lovely stuff that's too small for you? I say HA to them!

I bought this dress in the Dorothy Perkins sale just after Christmas last year. I am very partial to the Uttam London brand but it can sometimes be priced a little higher than I'd like. This was reduced to £10 in the sale and although I was still way too big to fit into it at that point, I loved it and so I bought it.

And now it fits. Again, I say HA! Perfect for a meal out with the gang from work and to prove that I can scrub up well when I try.

Dress - Uttam London at Dorothy Perkins
Cardi - Primark
Shoes - Irregular Choice via ebay
Bangle - Shared Earth

No-one could ever accuse me of being hasty

I bought my sewing machine well over a month ago and until yesterday I hadn't attempted making anything with it. I'd practised sewing straight lines (not very successfully) on an old pillowcase but that was it.

Yesterday, spurred on by an epic Project Runway marathon, I decided to get brave and have a go at something. I saw this fab tutorial on What Would A Nerd Wear a while ago and have been wanting to try it ever since but lack of time and nerve meant that it just hadn't happened so far.

The end result is not entirely as I would have liked but let's look at the positives before the negatives:

I made a skirt! And it's the first thing I've ever tried to make on a sewing machine. Good work, yes?

I can sew straight lines when I try.

I can do pockets, woop!

There aren't any holes in it so my seaming and hemming is clearly not too awful either.

It's v. pretty.

And on the flipside:

I put the pockets too high up

It's a bit too short

And most annoyingly, it's really not that flattering (hence the lack of pics of me modelling it). I think there's too much fabric in it as it sort of poofs out around the hips and makes me look even wider - not helpful on a pearshaped girl! I'm going to see what I can do to make it less so but it might have to be a case of just making another one and tweaking the measurements so that I don't use so much fabric and consequently it's not so poofy.

Overall though, I am impressed with myself. I don't mind the bad points too much as the first two aren't a big deal and I never really expected that the first thing I made would be perfect. Would you think that I used to be scared of sewing machines?

Which brings me neatly to an award I've received from the lovely Nici at Giddy Little Miss . Thank you Nici! I have to tell you 5 facts about myself. Hmmm. I always find this sort of thing strangely difficult to do.

1) I am weirdly freaked out by lorry cabs. I don't mind them when they have trailers attached but the cab part driving along by itself is just not right.

2) I always save the nicest part of whatever I'm eating until last. It deeply irritates me when I'm with someone who goes "oh don't you like that?" and then helps themself to it before I get a chance to stab them in the hand with a fork.

3) I have a GCSE in Latin. Unfortunately I don't remember anything of it except "Caecilius est in horto" - Caecilius is in the garden. Useful eh?

4) I love watching sport and will watch almost anything except golf. Oh and basketball.

5) My uni degree is in Criminology and Criminal Justice. I work in the heritage/third sector so it couldn't be less relevant!

60/40 Vision

I went to watch Breakfast at Tiffanys at the cinema yesterday. Dare I fess up to a)never having seen it before and b)not really getting the whole Audrey Hepburn thing? My mind is slightly changed on the latter point as I thoroughly enjoyed the film and her performance but I still don't get the fairly wholesale worship of her that seems to be de rigeur in some circles. In the battle of the Hepburns, my vote is for Katharine.

However as my wardrobe now contains no trousers that fit me, I couldn't channel any of Katharine's deliciously masculine style yesterday. I went for the girlier version instead. There's something about this dress that just makes me feel very 60's and swishy. I even managed not to get the crochet bits stuck on anything this time - impressive by my standards!

Everything is from New Look. See, when they try, they can make dresses that are a decent length and don't flash too much cleavage!

And today I went back a couple more decades. I've wanted to do proper Victory Rolls in my hair for ages but every attempt has ended in utter failure. I'm just not very good with hair related things, plus I have incredibly uncooperative hair that never ever does what it's told. But last night I beat it into submission with the aid of hairspray and lots of long pins and it looked ok. A little scruffy as you clearly need about 7 pairs of hands to do it neatly and properly, but ok. I slept on it and it still looked fine. But a whole day at work was clearly too much and it had descended from wartime chic to night-in-a-bomb-shelter mess by the time I got home to take pictures. Bah. Plus it has photographed horribly, absolutely nothing like how it actually looked, and despite being quite happy with how I looked all day, I am now veering towards thinking I looked a right state (if the photos are anything to go by). Stupid hair. Stupid chubtastic face. I think I'll try and find a better frock and try it again when I'm in a better mood. Really quite dispirited at the moment.

I know it's a dire quality photo but look, proof that it wasn't falling down and hideously messy all day!

What a grump I am.

Dress - Primark
Cardi - Matalan
Leggings - DP
Heeled brogues - New Look

Holiday Time

Evening all! Before I get started on the main part of my post, thanks for your comments on my last post. I think I may perhaps drop New Look an email if I can find a way to word the whole boob flashing issue without making it sound odd. And I did try the dress on before I bought it but I genuinely didn't notice the over revealing top part in the changing rooms - mad huh?

And so onto the fun stuff.

My pal Lee and I are both complete history geeks. He had terrible history teachers at school so basically doesn't know much but he is very interested in lots of areas, especially the Tudor period. The result of this is that I'm having to dredge up all my knowledge on the subject which I find suprisingly fun. Many an email and excessively long text detailing the line of succession in the royal family or how and why someone got executed for treason has been sent.

So the plan was formed to go on a bit of a Tudor road trip. Unfortunately lots of the significant buildings no longer exist but there was still a lot to fit in. Funds didn't allow us to start off in Madrid and visit Katherine of Aragon's birthplace so we commenced the trip in the rather less glamourous surroundings of Peterborough so that we could see her burial site instead and lay some red roses there. It may not be glam but it has a fine cathedral, the weather was v. sunny and I bought a new hat so I'm disposed to like the place.

Then we headed down south, left the car at my auntie's house and went to London. And what did we do there? Visited the Irregular Choice shop (not Tudor but I couldn't go there and not see it), basked in the sun on the South Bank and then went to see Henry VIII at The Globe. It was wonderful! We went to a really interesting lecture beforehand as well and I'm definitely going back. I never really got on with Shakespeare in English lessons at school but seeing the plays properly performed makes them so much more real and gripping.

The next day was spent at Hampton Court which is just fascinating. Early sixteenth century Tudor palace at the front, late seventeenth century Baroque palace at the back and just an amazing warren of courtyards and towers and little gardens. Plus anywhere that has thrones you can sit in and pretend to be all regal and important is all right in my book!

Then on we went to Kent, bound for Hever Castle. We couldn't do Katherine of Aragon's birthplace but we could do Anne Boleyn's. I think it's now high up on the list of my favourite places. Castle? Yes. With a moat? Yes. And mazes and beautiful roses in the gardens? Yes indeed. And even some topiary snails and pigs? Yup. Even the faux Tudor village extension that the Astors built at the back in the early 1900s is charming rather than twee. The feel of the whole place is just lovely - so atmospheric and friendly.

And for the final day, over to Somerset to visit Montacute, a lovely National Trust house which has an outpost of the National Portrait Gallery (Tudor and Stuart portraits) in the Long Gallery. Apart from me flapping madly and thinking that I'd lost my car keys and then discovering them in the ignition of the car (I'm not prone to this sort of behaviour as a general rule), it was a lovely day out. I've been before but it's the sort of place I could go to once a month and not get bored.

The loooooooong drive home was livened up somewhat by the fact that we got crashed into on the motorway. Weirdly but luckily there wasn't a scratch on either car but it didn't make the rest of the 4 hour drive particularly pleasant. I am always stressy about my car dying as it doesn't have a good record so was very twitchy until I'd got home and it was safely parked. And then I had a massive glass of wine.

A Difficult Dress

I have returned from gallivanting around the country! I thought before the big holiday post (oh you know it's coming! Castles galore!) I'd do a quick outfit post. Today's schedule was lunch with the girls, a spot of charity shopping and then watching the football in the pub with Dad. I was probably a tad overdressed for the latter but what the heck. I wanted to feel summery and pretty.

Dress - New Look

Cardi - Matalan

Sandals - Chiara (a big thank you to heartshapedbruise for introducing me to this fab website!)

Ring - Primark

Necklace - found down the back of a bed in a B&B when I was about 5

I sometimes wonder what the people at New Look think of when they design the fit of a dress. It seems to be a common complaint that their dresses are almost always too short - now personally, being barely 5'2, I don't tend to find this a problem, but this dress is verging on feeling far too short at the back for my liking. My main problem with it is that it's totally bra-revealing at the front! I tried different bras - made no difference. I tried hoicking it up - that didn't work either as the bodice was then totally in the wrong place. I don't even have big boobs; if I did, I could understand why so much was on display! The only thing to do was cover it up with a cardi. Not ideal in hot weather but the only practical choice I could think of. The main point is that it's a pretty frock. I'm sure I can work around the difficulties.