Blog Archives

style blogger over thirty

Styling cream and khaki and enjoying a warm day!

October 16, 2017

Khaki green is another regular colour that crops up in most autumn fashion style editorials in magazines at this time of year – some years more than most. I’ll admit, it doesn’t seem to be one of the major must-be-seen-in colours of fall 2017, but none-the-less I love it! It’s almost a neutral, and seems to go with every other colour in my wardrobe, except perhaps red and grey. And pale blue. Ok, so maybe not every colour, but quite a lot! It goes perfectly with dusky pink (of which I own a fair few items), black, and every shade of brown from dark chocolate to pale cream. On this occasion, I chose cream….

Making a floral display with vintage bottles

How to make an easy but impressive floral display for the whole year

October 9, 2017

I have a thing for old bottles. Whenever I see one in a flea market or boot sale, I always pick it up; wonder what it once held and who in its history has owned it; but end up putting it down again because I’ve never had a reason to buy it (aren’t I good?!). However, I’ve finally thought of a reason to buy a whole load of them! And because I was impatient, I bought a job lot of vintage clear glass bottles, but actually it would’ve been fun to build up the collection over time, picking one up here and there. I thought this would be a nice quick and easy blog post just sharing my flower arrangement idea, but I ended up being pulled into the time-draining vortex of the internet discovering all sorts of things about old bottles! Did you know there are collectors’ clubs and events all over the country? If I had time for another hobby, I can see that vintage bottle collecting could become one of them!…..

blogtober blogging advice

5 excuses not to do Blogtober this year – Blogging advice

October 2, 2017

Are you a blogger and feeling the pressure to take part in Blogtober? (ie publishing a blog post every day for the month of October.) Well worry no more; I have five good reasons why you shouldn’t do it! You don’t have the time. No seriously, you probably don’t. Unless you’re my friend Kathryn, who, in the space of twenty minutes at our village writers’ group, can write a well written, fully plotted short story of about two thousand words; or you’re that girl who put her hand up for seven extra sheets of paper during her GCSE English exam, really think about how long it takes you to write a blog post. Particularly if this isn’t your full-time gig and you’re also doing a ‘proper’ job and/or looking after a family. Unless you’ve been planning Blogtober for a while and have a stash of posts ready to go in advance; when exactly are you going to do all this extra work?…..

styling a Next autumn outfit

Styling a Next outfit for a blogger event – autumn fashion

September 26, 2017

I am so nervous about this event, but I equally don’t want to miss out, so I’ve swallowed the £55 train ticket to London (yes, that’s right – £55 to get in and out of London off peak) as I’ve been invited to a Next Blogger Network event in Shoreditch. Social anxiety aside, I am looking forward to it, but as you might expect from me, my outfit had to be planned well in advance…..

Over 30 Fashion blog

Styling a simple blue dress – summer fashion.

As you can tell, these photos were taken on a warm day in spring, back when the bluebells were out in full force; but this is still an outfit I’m wearing four months later, so I thought I’d do some catching up as I haven’t written so many fashion blog posts recently. This was actually an impromptu photo-shoot as we were out hunting for bright yellow rape-seed oil flower fields. We always see them next to the road when we’re not looking for them, but when we were it took us hours! We saw the dappled light shining through the trees and thought we’d hop out the car and take some photos there just in case we never found what we were looking for….

fashion over 30

Styling a simple linen summer dress

There’s nothing I love more than throwing on a basic summer dress in warm weather. I’m good to go with very little else to worry about. However, if I’m going out somewhere and want to add a few accessories, then this is how I would style it up to make the complete outfit more interesting….

Slissie review

A chance to curb your cravings? A review of the Slissie

This is a new product, so I’ll begin by telling you what on earth a Slissie is! To be honest, it’s a bit difficult to explain, but it’s a weight-loss device that looks a little bit like a vape, and you suck on it like it is a vape, however there’s no actual vapour! Instead, it releases a burst of flavour into your mouth, and the idea is that it will trick your brain into thinking you’ve eaten something sweet, and therefore your cravings will be satisfied without actually having the calories of eating anything…..

Style blog

Styling a ruffled mini-skirt plus the value of a cardigan – Weekly Wardrobe

I’m pretty sure back in the day, we called them Ra-ra skirts, but to be honest, I was never fashionable enough to really know! Choosing an outfit that looks good, but is also suitable for climbing rocks is actually quite difficult and I’m not sure I entirely succeeded with this one, especially considering the wind! However I had thick enough wool leggings on for decency to not really be an issue, and sturdy enough boots to tackle the terrain so who cares about anything else really?…..

Dealing with the post

Adulting: A series of things I should’ve learned by now – Dealing with the post

This is my second blog post in my series about adulting. Just because I’m nearly forty; doesn’t mean I’m any good at it! This time I’m talking about the stuff that comes through the letter box. I dread it with a passion. Unless I’ve bought something from ebay, I am so happy when the post van drives on past! It’s not so bad if the post-person brings it round to the back porch, because that means there’s a parcel, which is quite exciting. However, apart from postcards from my parents, there really is nothing good about the letters that fall on the damp stone floor in our hallway. I’ll do everything in my power to pretend they’re not there….

Styling a pink chiffon blouse – Weekly Wardrobe

This is another set of photographs we took whilst on our Lake District weekend away; which explains why I’m styling this quite smart outfit with these boots again! Luckily it was much warmer that weekend than it is while I’m writing this, so I was glad to start bringing in more spring-like items to my outfits. This was the first chance I’ve had to wear this top since I bought it in the January sales….

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?…..