Monday, July 08, 2013

Outfit: Easy Summer Dressing for a Sunny Monday

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RI Red wedges


With the forecast predicting temperatures in the mid-20s again I knew a dress would be the easiest option for today (seriously – dress, shoes, done – this is how summer dressing should be!). I didn’t add a belt or anything as I couldn’t bear the thought of having anything that would make me hot around the waist.

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Purple dress – Dorothy Perkins (eBay)
Red wedges – River Island
Red beads – eBay
Purple bangle – gifted
Silver hoops – gifted


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Weekend Recap (and Saturday’s Outfit)

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NL Pewter jewel sandals


This weekend has been wall to wall sunshine and I’ve loved it! We started it off with a barbeque on Friday tea time which is always fun.

Saturday morning I did a few chores, walked to the village for some lipbalm with sunscreen and some stronger antihistamines than I was already taking, and then the young man’s parents called round. We sat in the back garden with them for a while, then had some dinner. I walked from our local town to the bike shop in the next town over in the afternoon, then did a spot of sunbathing (with my factor 30 on, naturally – you don’t get a complexion this pasty white without it!) in the garden. I put my shorts on when I got back from the village in the morning and kept them on all day so these outfit pictures are a bit of a cheat as I only wore the jeans for a couple of hours. We had another barbeque that evening.

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Sunday morning the young man headed off to meet a friend for a day’s cycling, and my sister and niece came to visit me. We spent the morning on a blanket in the back garden (my niece will quite happily walk barefoot on grass but try to make her sit on it and she will cry) playing with toys and a giant bubble wand. Then my niece took a nap so we moved inside and had some dinner.

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We took a walk to the park in the afternoon and my niece spent some time happily attempting play equipment that was far too big for her, then we found some shade under a tree and had ice cream.

When we got back my niece was asleep in her pushchair and when she woke up she seemed hot and a bit irritable so we put a bowl of cold water on the lawn and a towel for her to sit on (see: won’t sit on grass, above) and put her set of multicoloured beakers in the bowl. She had a lovely time splashing about and soaked herself, me and my sister.

The young man came home, my sister and niece went home and we spent the evening watching Ocean’s Eleven as the Love Film servers were down and we couldn’t get This Life.

Navy top – H&M
Crop distressed jeans – New Look
Pewter jewelled sandals – New Look
Navy heart necklace – Scope
Sunglasses – Claire’s


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Friday, July 05, 2013

Outfit: More Classic Red, White and Blue in Denim, Stripes and a Biker Jacket

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Barratts blue flats


The weather has been lovely and sunny today, so a classic red, white and blue outfit was just the job. I know, long sleeves and sunshine don’t always seem the obvious combination, but throw in the air conditioning factor and they are about perfect. Besides, the top is mostly white so just reflected the heat away anyhow.

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Last night I went to Aldi to do my shopping. If you caught my Instavlog (is that a Thing? Can we make that a Thing now Instagram are doing video?) you’ll know that I went to a store that wasn’t my regular one but that it was laid out in exactly the same way as my regular one. I mean, if you had blindfolded me and dropped me in there, when the blindfold came off I wouldn’t have know it wasn’t my regular store. It was totally surreal and freaked me out a little, I have to say. But on the other hand it was really useful that I knew where everything was.

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After tea I went to choir practice at church. We are learning bits and pieces for Harvest Festival already so I feel it’s only a matter of time before the Christmas carols come out. I think August 6th is the earliest we’ve ever started with those.

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After several weeks months not worrying about counting points, I am back on the Weight Watchers wagon from today. We’ve planned a barbeque for tea and I have plenty of Quorn to grill, plus some Portobello mushrooms to substitute for burgers.

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Finally, my shoes. The Priceless Shoes shop near my work has turned into a Barratts Outlet and I popped in on Monday lunchtime. I had been thinking I should replace the cheapo flats I keep by my desk for walking to the shops etc at lunchtime as the pair I had were starting to get holes in the back. I spied this lovely blue pair reduced to just £5 so I snapped them up. They are so comfy that I wore them all day today.

Navy biker jacket – Warehouse (sale)
White and red striped top – H&M
Cropped distressed jeans – New Look
Blue shoes – Barratts outlet
Red belt – Dorothy Perkins (sale)
Silver hoops – gifted
Blue bling necklace – Primark


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Thursday, July 04, 2013

Outfit: Blue Dress, Black Accessories

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LK Bennett Zahara black


Bright blue with black accents for today’s outfit. Usually I would wear a black dress with blue accents if I was going for this colour combination but I like to shake it up sometimes.

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This blue dress is by Wallis, which is not somewhere I would usually shop. I got this in a charity shop though, where the bright blue caught my eye (I tend to hone in on anything in bright blue, stripes or spots in charity shops). That’s the great thing about charity shopping – you can try out styles or brands you wouldn’t usually go for at a fraction of the cost. This dress cost just £6.99 and when I decided the length was wrong I wasn’t afraid to just hack the bottom off and leave it unhemmed.

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Last night I headed into Leeds to meet my sister. We were attending the Northern Bloggers and WordPress event, kindly hosted by The Light shopping and leisure complex, who let us have a room in their management suite for the evening. The whole thing was free and we were treated to talks by the fabulous Karyn Fleeting (Miss Thrifty) and Kimb Jones (a WordPress advocate) about how to get media interest in your blog, and why WordPress’s dashboard sucks, respectively. My sister doesn’t even have a blog (though she’d like to start one but is stuck for ideas – what would you like to read about?!) and she really enjoyed the evening.

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Beforehand we went to the Crêpeaffaire crêperie in the new Trinity Leeds shopping centre, for very tasty crêpes. After the talks the whole group wandered down to the Lazy Lounge where the staff had kindly set aside a bit of space for us to enjoy a couple of drinks and chat further.

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The Northern Bloggers and WordPress group intends to hold monthly meetings so if you’re a northern blogger in the Leeds/Bradford area get yourself along to the next one.

Blue dress – Wallis (charity shop)
Black belt – local boutique
Black patent wedges – LK Bennett (c/o Sarenza)
Silver beads – Scope
Silver square hoops – Claire’s
Black tank – Zara



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Wednesday, July 03, 2013

Outfit: Red and Black

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Jones Bootmaker red suede flats


Although I am loathe to wear black in the summer, this dress is one of my favourites and it is a light cotton so it’s suitable for warm weather despite the colour. I love the full skirt and when dressed up with bright coloured accessories I think it works OK.

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Last night I decided to skip the gym and did a workout DVD instead. I wasn’t sure at the time that the DVD was a particularly effective workout but as I lay in bed this morning I could feel the ache in my calf muscles so it must have done something. We watched a couple of episodes of This Life and I made crumbed chicken with bacon and soft cheese for tea.

Black dress – George at Asda
Red shrug – New Look Tall
Red belt – mall market stall
Red suede flats – Jones the Bootmaker (sale)
Silver hoops – gifted
Red beads – eBay
Red and cream bangles – gifted


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Tuesday, July 02, 2013

Outfit: Red, White and Blue

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NOW Discount Red


I’m getting in early with my 4th of July colours this week! I was actually going to wear my navy cardigan but, having picked out red shoes, thought why not add my red cardigan instead? I don’t think it’s been worn yet this summer. And before you point out to me that I’m British and don’t celebrate 4th July, red white and blue are the colours of the British flag too.

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So, last night I went home and hung out my washing, cleaned the bathroom, put another load of washing on then got changed and went to the gym. I did my usual abs class, then headed home and hung out the second load of washing before making tea. The young man popped out to see his parents and because I’d missed part of my workout at the gym I did half an hour on the Wii playing Just Dance 3. I took a shower then did the ironing whilst watching Kenny Rogers’s Glastonbury set on the BBC iPlayer. I was a big fan of Kenny Rogers back in my teens, he was one of the first country music artists I listened to when I was getting into the genre. He kind of dropped off my radar for a while but when I heard he was playing Glastonbury it almost made me want to go. Yay for the BBC iPlayer letting me catch up from the comfort of my living room.

Red cardi – Long Tall Sally (eBay)
White and navy stripe top – H&M
Navy and white polka dot skirt – Next (charity shop)
Red shoes – c/o NOW Discount Shoes
Blue bling necklace – Primark
Silver hoops – gifted


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Monday, July 01, 2013

Outfit: Purple and Argyle

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Next black & cream


The forecast was for temperatures in the low teens today so I added a sweater just in case. I took these shoes to Bristol in case we got changed to go out Saturday night, but ended up not needing them. As they were out from unpacking they were an easy choice for today. The purple pants were an easy choice too as I’d just ironed them so they were also out.

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By the time we’d got home last night, made and eaten some tea, and I had ironed, made the sandwiches and unpacked, there wasn’t a lot of time left for outfit planning. Hence all the easy options.

Purple jeans – Long Tall Sally (eBay)
Black and purple Argyle sweater – Next Tall
Purple top – Next Tall (eBay)
Black and cream shoes – Next (charity shop)
Silver square hoops – Claire’s
Purple gem necklace – gifted
Purple hearts necklace – gifted


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Weekend Recap

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Clifton Suspension Bridge viewed from Clifton Down

Friday night we headed to Bristol to spend the weekend with my friend S and her husband P. We arrived a little later than planned due to a detour through north Bristol thanks to the M5 being shut.

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Flat tyre

Saturday morning was bright and sunny and we had taken our bikes down with us so the four of us headed out for a day of cycling. We went down into the city centre by way of Clifton Downs, the Suspension Bridge and Clifton Village. Clifton Village wasn’t really in the plan but as we were leaving the Downs my back tyre exploded in quite spectacular fashion (there was a VERY loud bang) and we had to find a cycle shop to get it repaired.

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Whilst my bike was getting a new tyre we had some lunch at the West of England Academy cafe and then continued down into town. There are a number of large scale models of Gromit dotted around the city at the moment (I understand they’ll be auctioned off for charity at the end of the summer) and we managed to find six of them without really looking.

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We continued our ride around the harbour side and joined a cycle path that runs all the way to Portishead. By the time we got there it was 6pm and we went to Bottelino’s an Italian restaurant in the new development around water front.

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Cycling by the river in Clifton Gorge

After tea it was just a 4 mile cycle back over the Avonmouth Bridge to our friends’ house. In all we cycled 27 miles but it really didn’t feel that far as we spread it out over the day.

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View from the top of Coaly Hill

Sunday was a well deserved lazy day – we watched Tron Legacy in the morning, then S cooked a curry for lunch. The young man and I headed off early afternoon and called in on another friend who lives in Gloucestershire. We went up to Coaly Hill with her to enjoy the views and the sunshine, then called for drink at a local pub. After that it was time to head home and we got back around 8.30pm.


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