Happy (for once)

The things I do for this blog. It was 4 degrees outside when I was taking these photos. 4 DEGREES. I couldn't feel my fingers when I got back in.

I'm glad I made the effort though. Not only do I actually like some of the photos (trust me, this doesn't happen often), I really like the outfit. You know when you just think yes, I like it all? Well it's one of those days. I love the new (to me) blazer, really love the tshirt and scarf, am extremely fond of any form of shoe which gives me height and is comfy and, surprise surprise, I love my new jeans.

I don't seem to blog my jeans very often, probably because I have about 5 pairs but they're all exactly the same. Good old Dorothy Perkins. If they ever stop making this style (petite skinny for those who are interested) I will cry so loudly it will knock birds out of the trees. They're the right length, the right shape, the right wash and definitely the right price. This pair cost the princely sum of about £11. I love those 30% off weekends.


This scarf is looooooong. Here's a lovely out-take photo of me looking confused at quite how many times I need to unwrap it to demonstrate just quite how long it is:


I managed it in the end. Alex 1 Scarf 0.

Told you it was long!

Please ignore the coating of burgundy scarf fluff... I wanted to show off the beautiful skyline print.


Tshirt & scarf - H&M (Lisbon and Newcastle stores respectively)
Jeans - Dorothy Perkins
Shoe boots - River Island sale
Blazer - Warehouse, BNWT from Oxfam last weekend for £12. Hurrah!
Gloves - pinched from a friend
Hair - all my own. This is what happens when you can't be bothered drying it and go to sleep with it in Princess Leia buns instead.

An Awful Lot of Orange

So, did I mention I quite like orange at the moment? I will wear some different coloured clothes at some point soon but for now, you will just have to put up with autumnal themed outfits. The cat print shoes will make an appearance this week though, I promise.

I fell upon this jumper with squeaks of joy when I was shopping in Newcastle. It is just so very, very orange. Am I in danger of looking like a walking pumpkin? Probably. I'd much rather that than drown in a sea of boring black and grey clothes though.

May we all take a moment to glory in the wonderful glittertasticness of these brogues? Who said sensible, waterproof shoes had to be boring?




Jumper - H&M
Skirt - River Island sale (with added black netting underneath added by moi)
Jacket - Mango, via the half price rail in charity shop
Tights - Dorothy Perkins orange plus Evans chocolate fishnets
Brogues - Marks & Spencer Limited Collection
Bag - vintage camera case, via charity shop
Necklace - Tatty Devine, present from the wonderful Char
Rings - (L-R) Dorothy Perkins sale, ditto and Stolen Thunder

Oranjeboom

No, not the drink. My legs!

Here's what I love about autumn: COLOURS! I am officially obsessed with autumnal tones. Everything I'm buying at the moment is orange, green, rust, berry or burgundy. Can't get enough.

Here's what I don't love about autumn: piles of leaves in my usual posing spot. How rude! Especially when I had suede shoes on.


The frock was a complete impulse purchase. I ventured outside my usual shopping haunts and went to Belle Vale after A Thrifty Mrs tipped me off about cat print shoes on sale in Store 21. For non-Scousers, Belle Vale sounds lovely, doesn't it? All pretty fields and picturesque animals? Yeah, it's nothing like that. At all. It does have a Store 21 though and I really wanted those cat shoes. I got them, and whilst wandering to the till, spotted this beauty, marked up at 25% off. Did I mention I was mildly in love with orangey stuff right now? I appear to have hidden most of the panels of that colour with my cardi and/or jacket but trust me, they're there.



Dress - Store 21
Cardi - Gap sale
Jacket - vintage St Michaels, via charity shop
Tights - Dorothy Perkins
Shoes - Kurt Geiger, via charity shop
Necklace - vintage, present from lovely Zoe

Primary Colours

Please, someone, take pity on me and teach me how to do my hair properly. I had visions of a bit of a 60's beehive to go with this outfit and it all just went totally wrong and looks a big mess. Doom.

At least the frock is nice. Yay! Plus the chilly weather gives me a chance to wear my faux fur. This did not get mentioned in the recent coats post because I completely forgot about it until I was poking round in the loft at the weekend. The tapestry coat was there too. Hurrah!





Dress - River Island sale
Faux fur coat - vintage, from the amazing Kinky Melon ebay shop
Shoes - George sale
Bag - vintage, present from the lovely Margaret.

I know she will shout at me for still staring at the floor but the facing-the-camera pics today all made me look utterly pasty and moon faced. Look!

Bleurgh.

Storage

Ok, not the most fun concept in the world, I must admit. But I'm one of those weirdos who gets a great sense of satisfaction from putting things away. Probably because I don't do it that often so it's all a bit Mary Poppins-ish to me. My preferred superpower would definitely be the ability to click my fingers and have things snap back into place. Until the wonderful day that happens, I'll just have to do it all by hand.

Yesterday was spent getting the bedroom back into shape. I've been a complete slattern whilst I've been writing so it was in a right state. Amongst the many things that needed sorting out were my suitcases. I love these cases. Pretty and practical.



This is my tights case. Now A Thrifty Mrs, guru of all things organisational and thrifty, has recently written a very good post about organising your drawers but I am not that good. I can organise the heck out of my tights though. No more rummaging through a drawer desperately hunting for the right colour and getting them all tangled together. Not for me.

I roll them, stash them, and this way I can see exactly what colours I've got. Patterned dark tights lie flat on the right hand side because frankly, rolling them is a waste of time. They just look black and you can't see the patterns.

(Most of the coloured tights are from Dorothy Perkins. Their 80 denier tights are wonderful. Loads of different shades and they are practically impossible to ruin. Keep your eyes peeled in the sale too - you can often get them for 50p or £1)

As for the other cases, they hold:


Gloves and woolly hats.


Summer clothes that get packed away so I've actually got space in my wardrobe for all my winter clobber.


And old clothes that I can't bring myself to throw away. That black thing with the blue beaded fringing? I used to go clubbing in that when I was 17. Look at the size of it!

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to dust the bookshelves. I may be some time...

A Novel Idea

It is November. October, month of the dreaded Novel Writing Challenge, is over and done with. So here's what I know:

I DID IT! I am very proud of myself for this simple fact.

Trying to write 50,000 words in a month is HARD. Harder than I ever realised. If (like me) you have a full time job and try and have any semblence of a social life/exercise in the evenings/etc then it is really sodding hard. Forget about having a clean house, any ironed clothes or any food that takes longer than 20 minutes to prepare. My basic problems are that a) I'm not organised enough to plot things out before I start them and b) I don't write that fast, so doing 1600 words a day of original thought takes me 3 hours+. Trying to fit that in around your normal life is incredibly difficult, hence the lack of blogging/reading/sleep/doing anything fun.

I wouldn't have managed it without Char to constantly witter to when I was behind on word count and having stressy moments (and in one instance, nearly an actual panic attack) about my complete inability to get any words on the page. I love you missus.

I would probably have gone slightly nuts without my amazing Twitter pals as well. Some of you were excellent at telling me to get off there and write the bloody book. I have cried laughing on more than one occasion when talking to Steph, Chloe, Char and others about quivering members. Sarah gets a special mention for making me snork by reminding me of this lady:

(it's not that dirty a book, honestly)

But slightly gushing thank-yous aside, the main thing is that I really like writing again.

I am under no illusions whatsoever about the quality of the novel. It's not in a state where I'd be happy that anyone else read it. I know that certain parts are not good at all. This was never about quality though. It was about finally stopping procrastinating and getting these characters out of my head and down onto paper (or a netbook screen if we're going to be very fussy). I haven't written any fiction for years. There's a half finished loosely fan-fic inspired piece knocking around somewhere but other than that, I haven't done anything for a long, long time. Yes, I write this blog and my diary and all the web content and newsletters for work, but that's different.

Writing at a pace beyond my usual comfort zone was never going to be conducive to producing my best work but the main thing is that I've completed it. And you know what? I don't hate it. I know bits are duff and I really need to work on some technical elements of it but there are parts that I've reread when scrolling through and thought "oh, that's not bad." It's a good feeling.

I'm having a week off and then I'll go back and look at it properly. After a bloody good edit, will it be good enough to even consider the next step down the line? I hope so. Even if it doesn't; even if I only ever write for myself, that's fine. This has given me so many more ideas and I'm going to allow myself the indulgence of following them up instead of automatically assuming I can't do it.

ps - if you're interested, the ring at the top came from MerCurios. I absolutely love her jewellery.

pps - Go and sign up for the Bloggers' Secret Santa that Char is organising. You might get ME as your Santa. I buy great presents, even if I do say so myself.

October Scavenger Hunt

All I am going to say about the October challenge is thank goodness I work where I do. Most of these were taken at work during the Halloween event.

Sunset:


Over the River Mersey towards the Wirral. I had one of the settings on my camera slightly off so this was a complete accident!

A black cat:


This is a little tin thing I've had since I was about 6.

Crunchy leaves:


My overwhelming memory of October has been sog. The leaves were almost never crunchy; they were soggy and wet and stuck to my shoes all month. Resorted to some trees in the end.

Fog/mist:


So despite the sog, we never actually had any fog or mist *shakes fist at the weather*

Golden:


My new effalump ring

Graffiti:


It counts, right? Very old graffiti, anyway.
ETA - I *think* it just says one to fourteen

Candlelit:



Heritage:


I think I had too much choice for this one. Honestly, I could have taken a picture of just about anything and it would have qualified.

Pumpkin:


Yup, at work, during the Halloween event.

Something eerie:


There's a ghost story associated with it but I won't dash your hopes and explain how inaccurate it is...

River:


The Mersey. There's usually more water in it, honest.

Witch's hat/broomstick:

Both! In your FACE scavenger hunt challenge!

Thanks, as always, to Kathy for organising this. You can see everyone else's collections here.