Capsule Wardrobe Challenge – Day 3

Day 3 of the Capsule Wardrobe Challenge.

I wore a dotty top, and black trousers, red shoes, red belt and silver necklace. Pretty basic, but I had meetings today so had to be reasonably 'normal'.

As a graphic designer I can get away with wearing more risky clothing combinations, I think some of my clients expect it, but today I played it safe.

Another graphic designer once told me that when you go to a meeting, it you wear the clients' corporate colours subtly (we're not talking looking like their walking logo), they will feel more at ease with you. Same goes for job interviews. (And that is actually a good tip).

Not to be outdone, my son has gotten in on the challenge. He doesn't know the meaning of the word 'Capsule' or 'Wardrobe', but boy, he's got a mean 'hand on hips' stance.

Capsule Wardrobe Challenge – Day 2

Today, I finally went to see 'Fame'. See above, I really did go (there were a few onlookers for the photo, so I was kinda embarrassed hence a dorky pose).

It was everything I hoped it would be, a bunch of supremely talented/obnoxious teenagers, leaping*, singing and playing as if their life depended on it.

In fact it reminded me of my old high school, except at my school we had Big Baz who could belch the alphabet, Gaz who could turn his eyelids inside out and Daz who's talent was jumping from the second story window without breaking either leg – supremely talented also, I'm sure you'll agree, although in their own way... (And yes, most boys names did end in a 'Z' at my school).

Anyhow, today was also the second day of the Capsule Wardrobe Challenge.

I wore, Skinny Jeans, Long line T, Black Blazer and Black boots. My accessory today was a lime green scarf. Simples.

I have to draw attention to the boots, I've been dying to wear these since I got them so they had to be entered into my 10 items. They were £18 from the 'Be Beau' range at Matalan.






* My daughter and I were so inspired by the 'fame air leaping' that we tried it on the way back to the car, we were as graceful as elephants, much to the delight of my mum and sister (who also accompanied us) and by the looks on their faces were mightily impressed by our leaping action.

Capsule Wardrobe Challenge – Day 1

This week I am taking part in Jane's Capsule Wardrobe Challenge over at 'The Small Fabric of my Life'. The rules can be found here.

For a very quick recap of the rules:
10 items of clothing are allowed and must be warn Monday – Friday. (This includes clothing, shoes and outerwear).
5 Accessories are allowed (to include jewellery, belts, scarves and bags).
Tights, underwear, watches and glasses (if you wear them) are free!

I must admit, the first day didn't go well. I didn't prepare. So this morning, by default, this flowery dress, blue cardigan and red shoes became part of my 10 items.

The red belt and the silver necklace are 2 of the '5 Accessories'.

As tights are free items, I choose bright red ones. Why not?

Here is my full list as I haven't had time to take a photo (reads: I haven't had time to wash and iron everything yet being the undomesticated goddess that I am).

My 10 clothing items:
1. Flowery Dress.
2. Blue Cardigan.
3. Black Trousers.
4. Long line T-shirt.
5. Dark Blue Skinny Jeans.
6. Black and White Dotty top.
7. Black Blazer.
8. Red Platform Shoes.
9. Black Boots.
10. Red Coat.

My 5 Accessories:
1. Red Belt.
2. Black Belt.
3. Silver Heart Necklace.
4. Scarf.
5. Red bag.

So, 4 days to go. I hope you are all joining in too...

Splat!...

A short post tonight my friends. There has been a drama in the house.

My 13 year old daughter decided to dye her hair dark brown.

I can't go into detail as I am still growling. But does anyone have any tips on getting brown (permanent) hair dye out of:

a) my cream bedroom carpet
b) my new white bathroom rug (one day old)
c) 2 x white towels (yes 2)
d) my pine dressing table...

You guys are such a wealth of knowledge, any tips will be so gratefully received.

love you ;-).

dotty, spotty, potty...

Today, I bought a La Redoute polka dot top from Oxfam* in Bury St Edmunds, it was £4.99.

I love dotty, spotty things and don't have nearly enough in my wardrobe, so this is a welcome addition.

Talking of dotty and spotty things, we've started potty training my 2 year old (what?... at least it rhymes).

He's been brilliant. So proud of himself. Never more so than the other day in a restaurant with the family. He politely asked for a wee and off we went to the toilet.

On our way back, he shouted to the rest of our table, in his proudest, loudest voice: "I DUN A POO!", "I DUN A POO!"

Well, of course we all clapped, cheered and congratulated him. Only when I looked around at the other diners tucking into their Sunday Roasts did I realise that they were not nearly as happy as us about this revelation.





*Have you been to the Oxfam website recently? You can now buy online from the site, which is always updating as all the items are one-offs. True feel good shopping.

ps. Is it wrong to love the new Miley Cyrus song? AND want to go and watch 'Fame' The Movie when it comes out tomorrow...? Help, what's wrong with me?

T'was a lovely idea...

In one of my first ever posts when I started this blog, I mentioned my love of subliminal signs around the house.

Well, today, I bought a cute chalkboard for the kitchen from Candle and Blue, St Johns Street, Bury St Edmunds – so now I can write my own subliminal messages to my family. T'was* £8.99.

I have a romantic idea that it will be used for quaint shopping lists like this...


In real life it is more likely going to be used to hurl abuse, such as this...


Total spent today: £8.99.

* I've been using the word 't'was' an unusual amount today, even on the email to clients. It would seem I've turned into a Charles Dickens character overnight! How untoward!

ps. The people at vouchercodes.co.uk contacted me with some great discount vouchers available from their site. I've listed some of the best ones in the column on the left. It is well worth a look if you are buying anything online or eating out, every little helps!

4 men in a pub...

Today, I bought a dress from Debenhams. A bargain sale item at £9. 70% off.

My shoes (yes, the 2nd hand ones that were caught watching TV last night) actually chose the dress. "Oh please buy it mum" they said. "It'll go perfectly with us". (I know, weird huh?, my £5 shoes not only watch TV, but talk to me too).

Turns out I had a 5 hour meeting today which might sound heavy going, until I tell you it was in a pub. Every cloud has a silver lining! But it does explain why I look slightly creased.. oh, and the dress is a bit creased too.

I feel this dress would benefit from two things:
1. A nice white shirt underneath instead of the tshirt. Only problem being I don't own one single blouse or shirt. My bazookas don't agree with them. Every time I've attempted one, they've made a bid for freedom, usually resulting in some highly embarrassing moments.
2. The hem could come up an inch or two, although, I have to say, I didn't mind this length today for work, in a meeting with '4 men in a pub*'.

Total spent today: £9.

* Contrary to popular belief, '4 men in a pub' is not a film. But in my opinion it should be.

Thrifty footwear...

Today, I bought a pair of shoes... from a charity shop!

I have to admit, I normally avoid thrifted shoes like the plague, I can't get my head around the thought of other peoples feet having been in them for the fear that, well… I may actually catch the plague.

But these looked brand new, they still had stickers on the sole, so I gave them a chance.

I also swiped them from the rather nice window display, they were centre piece. I really hope the girl doesn't get into trouble for ruining the display.

I'm not sure what my shoes are doing watching Eastenders mind you?

Total spent today: £5.

ps. no plaguelike symptoms so far. Woop woop!

"love you"...

Today, I have another necklace post. I'm not feeling confident about the outfit I'm wearing today. I was, until my daughter said how awful I looked in it. Aren't teenagers brilliant?!

This beautiful necklace was half price in Accessorize, The Arc Shopping Centre, Bury St Edmunds.


It is just so pretty I can't stop looking at it.

Oh, I went back to my local garage today for the first time in a while. I used to go in there at least 3 times a week to top up with petrol. I've avoided it recently. You see, the last time I was in there, the assistant said her normal goodbyes, then as I walked out the door she called after me "love you". I stopped dead in my tracks, almost said it back (through habit) but managed to hold my tongue... and got into my car truly perplexed.

It was quite obviously a complete slip of the tongue, like when you call your teacher 'mum' or 'dad' at school (mortifying). Don't get me wrong, I am quite familiar with her but not that familiar. But it did make me smile :-)

I couldn't post today without mentioning how sad I am to hear the news that Patrick Swayze has passed away. "Nobody puts baby in a corner". RIP Patrick Swayze.

Total spent today: £6.

Vintage Louis Vuitton...

Today, I wore some of my longest serving wardrobe items.

A green wrap dress which was £10 from Topshop a few years ago. This trusty dress has seen me through thick and thin (and yes I'm talking waistline), even pregnancy; Snakeskin shoes, really cheap, but still look like new, (mainly because they absolutely kill my feet so rarely get an outing); And the Piéce de Résistance, my really, really old Louis Vuitton belt.

I was so excited when I bought this belt 10 or more years ago which would probably count as vintage now. It came in a little brown box with Louis Vuitton embossed on the lid... seriously, the box was exciting enough, it was, and still is one of my little treasures.

The only thing I've bought today is the chunky necklace. £3 from Matalan. It's a chameleon necklace, it's actually shades of brown, but today mysteriously changed to green to match the dress, 'nice one necklace, hi five for you'.

I hope you've all had a fabulous weekend. My highlight was going to watch Julie and Julia. Have you seen it yet? If not, please, please go see it.

Meryl Streep is amazing as the wonderful Julia Child and Amy Adams is the blogging obbessed Julie Powell. It really is a must see for all us bloggers who will associate only too well with Julie's blogging lifestyle, her over excitement at her first ever comment, which turns out to be from her mum, (we've all been there!) through to her struggle with keeping up with the blog.

Total spent today: £3.

* Pièce de résistance is a French term (circa 1839), translated into English literally as "piece of resistance", referring to the best part or feature of something (as in a meal), a showpiece, or highlight.

The Derren Brown Experiment

So, Wednesday evening, we watched one of the UK's most famous magician/illusionist/mind twister/weirdy man, Derren Brown, predict the 6 winning lottery numbers. Tonight, he has shown us exactly how he did this.

There has been a lot of speculation on the web and in the press about how he did this. Mostly pointing to foul play/camera trickery, and I have to admit, skeptical me does buy that explanation.

However, just for fun, I'd like to try out the method Derren claims to have used, so I'm asking for your help.

I need as many people as possible to give me 6 random numbers between 1 and 49. I won't use your actual numbers, it will be a combination of everyones.

The next UK draw is tomorrow night, so please take a minute just to help out in the experiment asap.

If by some bizarre reason it works, I'll be sure to compensate anyone who offers their numbers! Tomorrow's draw is worth 7 million pounds!

To get the ball rolling (scuse the pun) here are my 6 random numbers:
03 - 07 - 17 - 44 - 32 - 29

Good luck everyone!

ps. I'll post the results up tomorrow evening along with the 6 numbers we collectively picked (with the secret formula) and let's see how we get on!.

pps. If you don't know of Derren Brown, he is worth looking up, he's quite a freaky dude that I'm strangely drawn to. Unfortunately for me, he is more likely to be drawn to my boyfriend.

ppps. If you never hear from me again, I've probably won and am off sunning myself in Barbados, but I'll send you a postcard... ;-)

pppps. Another sweetie giveaway is coming soon... check in soon to find out more!

Julien Macdonald is a STAR...

Today I am wearing my new BARGAIN Julien Macdonald skirt from Debenhams The Arc Shopping Centre, Bury St Edmunds.

My fabulous mum actually found this and bought it for me for one of my birthday pressies a week or two ago. It was reduced by 70%!, although still cost £28, but I just adore it.

I got caught out yesterday with the weather. I'd stupidly assumed our autumn had arrived as it was so cold and grey in the morning and dressed accordingly. Come the afternoon, the sun decided to put his hat on for one last random mini heatwave.

Not wanting to be caught out again, I went sans tights today, but did wrap up in a bright red cardigan. (Needless to say, it stayed cold all day – the law of sod*).

As I waltzed into the office (a tiny bit on the late side), my father in law said: "ooh, you look bright".

"Thank you" I said.

It was only later when I realised that this may not have been a compliment.

Total spent today: £0, present from mum.





*Sods law is derived from Murphy's law – an adage that broadly states: "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong and usually does."

Welcome to my world...

I didn't think it was possible to feel boredom as an adult, but today for the first time in a very, very long time, I was bored.

I was bored of my recently turned teenage daughter talking to me in text shorthand:
Me: "Can you tidy your room please Daisy?"
Daisy: "tbh i cba mutha" (roughly translates to 'to be honest, I can't be ar*** mother')

I was bored of my 2 year old son insisting on me being a horse and riding him around the house whilst he sang repetitive songs in my ear, first time was funny, 150th time was tedious and talk about housemaids knee.

I was even bored of snacking through half the contents of the kitchen cupboards before moving on to the fridge.

So, I did what any good bored person would do. Went for a walk.

I live in a beautiful tiny village in Suffolk, I'd forgotten how beautiful it is.

Around 500 people live here. We don't have a shop in the village, the nearest shop is a car ride. The hub of the village is The Green where we have village get togethers.

We are surrounded by other tiny, delightful villages. Bury St Edmunds is the nearest small town. Unfortunately it can cost up to £20 for a cab home after a night out in town.

We have two pubs. The White Horse and The Bear. It's funny, no shop but two pubs. The White Horse is nearest our house so I rarely venture the extra few metres to The Bear.

Ah good times, many an accident I've witnessed at the stream. Mainly the rope swing attached to the tree here, and mainly involving adults. It is currently a bit lacking in water to call it a stream.

We have some resident kamikaze geese that live on the village green. There used to be more but in a recent tragedy one was killed in a hit and run accident. It was splashed all over the press (well, in the parish magazine) with a call out for witnesses to contact the police with any information. They never found the killer.

The preferred mode of transport out in the country. 'Just popping up the pub love'.

I've never noticed this. We have a phonebox. An oldy worldy phonebox.

And lastly, this is what I come home to, at the bottom of my garden is a gigantic field. I sit and watch the sunset here, contemplate life, sometimes run in and out of it for no real reason other than I can.

In the middle of the field is a big dip; a large crater. I was told that a plane crashed into the field during WW2. I often sit and ponder how terrifying that would have been to witness, then I remember that my house wasn't even a twinkle in a housing developers eye back then.

I hope you enjoyed the tour of my village.
The End.
xxx

STOP... poncho time!

I can't believe I haven't posted for so long, it wasn't an intended absence but as addictive as blogging is, it's also all too easy to fall out of the blog way of life, so my apologies gang – but I'm back!

Today I bought a fabulous poncho* from Tesco (I'd only popped in for some bread). Actually I have two. The cream one shown above AND a purple one.

I've always felt that ladies avec poncho look somewhat floaty and sophisticated. Unfortunately I haven't quite mastered the art of wearing the poncho in a sophisticated manner, I'm more cowboyish, so for the meantime you will have to make do with a model who wears it so perfectly!

The only downer to buying said poncho was that when I arrived at the checkout, I noticed the label size was different to the hanger size, so annoying when that happens, I mentioned this to the lovely checkout girl (who quickly morphed into bitchy checkout girl) who felt that I may be happier with the larger size I'd picked up. Hmmph. Totally put out, I still went to swop it for a smaller one and didn't go back to bitchy checkout girl. I just hope it fits! I can't face taking it back to the tune of "I told you so" smug, bitchy checkout girl.

When I arrived home, had a strange text convo with my mum.

Mum: "Come and watch football here if you like 5 thirty"
Me: "Ok, will do x"
Mum: "Good"
Me: "Was that your world record attempt for the shortest text ever?"
Mum: "N"

Mum hasn't quite fathomed out how to do punctuation in texts bless her but she is rather comical, technology is a bit of a blur to her. But I've realised that we regularly spend over £1 a time on similarly random discussions.

Total spent today: £10 (well £20 if you include the fact that I bought it in two colours, but I prefer to gloss over quite frankly irrelevant facts like that).

*The poncho has become a fashionable item both in fashion as in pop culture, after being the most notable outfit of the Man with No Name, played by Clint Eastwood, in Sergio Leone's "Dollars Trilogy". Interesting fact of the day.