Yearly Archives

2017

Styling black with lilac – Weekly Wardrobe

If you have a lot of black in your wardrobe, but would like to inject a bit of pastel spring colour, then I recommend adding a little lilac. In my opinion there aren’t many colours that go with plain black: (not counting white and grey,) purple and red are the best ones, but paler colours are more tricky. A strong black and a light tone together just doesn’t often look right, but for some reason, I think lilac is the one that somehow works. Of course, if there’s any coloured pattern on the black you’re wearing, then you can just pick out any of those to wear with your outfit. Anyway, whilst on a mini holiday in the Lake District last weekend, I wore a lilac tie cardigan with a plain black top and skirt….

I knew I should never have given her that fifty pounds

It was one of those freezing cold miserable January days. Everyone is depressed because the fun of Christmas is over and cold and flu bugs are going around everywhere and it was no wonder I’d caught it too. There was no-one at work to cover for me, so I trudged in, coat and scarf wrapped around me, and hoped I wasn’t on the perfume till near the door. My manager took pity on me and gave me the best spot at the back and near the heater. Amy must have forgotten I work at Boots on Mondays. Or perhaps she didn’t know – my shifts do change around a bit. Anyway, I spotted her browsing over the other side and I admit, my attention wasn’t wholly on my customers. She was at the makeup aisles for three-quarters of an hour! Has she not got anything better to do? She swatched lipsticks and tested eye-shadows and I couldn’t believe it when I saw her take a basket of expensive make-up to the tills on the other side. I knew I should never have given her that fifty pounds. It isn’t like I’m rich; it isn’t like I wouldn’t like to spend fifty quid on make-up for myself. How dare she?…..

Styling a ruffled jumper – Weekly WArdrobe

I’ll be honest, I had such a difficulty finding something that went with this jumper – I tried on so many bottoms! It would be fine with jeans or trousers, but as I explained in this post, I don’t own any winter trousers, and it isn’t quite long enough for me to be comfortable with jeggings….

Boots No 7 LIFT & luminate Day cream review

For me there’s a fine line between looking young and dewy, and looking fat and sweaty. This is the problem of having a round chubby face, and I’ve always gone as matte as possible with my make-up to avoid the second scenario as much as possible. However, as Boots no7 changed the formula of their Protect and Perfect Day cream, and I wasn’t as impressed as I was with their older version, I thought I would try out this one, which is part of their new Lift & Luminate range…..

Styling a pixie-hem waterfall cardigan – Weekly Wardrobe

I went out on a week night! It felt quite rebellious and naughty! Although we had a small meet-up in the pub at Christmas, our community choir had a proper social evening last week with a meal and a quiz, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. (I also got quite merry on two glasses of wine as it was my first alcohol of the year!) So after much thought, I decided to wear the deep berry velvet dress Chris bought me for Christmas Day’s outfit. I’d worn it then with a pink wrap-around cardigan, but it was quite fluffy and shed all over the velvet; so this time I wore this long black waterfall cardigan instead…..

Negotiating lipstick with piercings and a wonky mouth!

I have never really worn lipstick. In my mind, it just hasn’t suited me – I have a very thin top lip and and a very fat bottom lip and overall my mouth is very lop-sided. I could happily go on being self-critical, but I won’t! I also think part of the problem is I was trying the wrong colours – brown was very much the fashion in the ’90s when I was playing around with make-up, and although I never really thought lipstick fashions were a thing, I have noticed that brown lipsticks are back….

Styling velvet trousers – Weekly Wardrobe

February 27, 2017

I’ll be clinging onto the velvet trend until the heatwave that usually comes the week after Glastonbury Festival! These velvet trousers were from the Joe Browns January sale, and I wore them for the first time last week when we popped into Wells to book our summer holiday. This is how I styled them….

Muchelney Abbey, Somerset – the story of the photographs

February 26, 2017

Last July my parents came to stay for a few days and as they are recent members of English Heritage, we looked around for local attractions near me in Somerset. Muchleney Abbey is (unsurprisingly) in the village of Muchelney on the Somerset levels with the nearest town being Langport. It’s in a beautiful peaceful spot, and the perfect location for a picnic, but as we didn’t come prepared, we bought ice creams from the little shop there, and then found a cute place for afternoon tea further down the road afterwards. Although the south cloister is still intact, sadly as usual, Henry VIII is to blame for the ruined state of the rest of the abbey. It is the Tudor Abbott’s house that can be explored properly….

Fantastic Pleats and Where to Find Them

February 20, 2017

The pleat trend is not going away any time soon. I love it as long as I don’t have to iron it! Anyway, I thought I’d give a round-up of some of my favourite pleated items I could find that take us from winter to spring fashion. And yes, I am only writing this blog post because I thought of this amazingly witty title! ….

How to write a novel – the practicalities of notes

February 17, 2017

In January, a lot people who feel they have a novel in them make it their resolution to get it written; so I thought now would be a good time to write this blog post at it might be helpful. I am currently writing my fourth book (only one published (so far!)) and I think I’ve finally worked out the best way to go about organising my work. This is what suits me the most, so will probably not be helpful to anyone who’s all modern and does everything on the computer, or even on your phone. I’m a long-hand kind-of gal and so notebooks have always featured rather heavily in my writing planning. However this time is slightly different….

Review of the L’Oreal Voluminous Superstar Mascara

February 15, 2017

On holiday in America in 2015 I bought the L’Oreal Beauty Tubes mascara. This was amazing, but when I went back last year, I couldn’t find it again. Instead, L’Oreal had this mascara, called Voluminous Superstar. It is one of those mascaras with two ends – a white coat first to lengthen your lashes and then the actual mascara to go over the top. This was just what I was looking for as I’ve liked those kind ever since I bought the Maybelline XXL volume mascara. (See my review here from 2005)……

Weekly Wardrobe – My first jeggings!

February 13, 2017

Yes, that’s right. I have never owned a pair of skinny jeans or jeggings before; however I have been so desperate for comfy trousers for winter, I have succumbed! I have short legs and chunky thighs, but I’ve been working on my squats and lunges, and have decided fu*k it, who cares anyway if they don’t look brilliant – I need to keep my legs warm! So I bought these in the Next sale and have decided they actually look alright with a long jumper. By the way, snow was gently falling outside when these photos were taken and I was too chicken to brave the cold. So I’m afraid these photos are not up our usual quality as we’re inside on a dark winter day…..