The World Is Going Mad

Uganda's ethics and integrity minister says mini skirts are like being naked and he wants them banned as it’s a distraction to drivers.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7621823.stm

Yeah Mr Buturo, that’s the same thing.

Outfit: Cosy Browns

It’s a beautiful Autumn day today – sunny with a distinct chill in the air – just the way I like it. I have eschewed a coat in favour of a chunky cardi today. That gives me the option of wearing in the office too if I get cold. I decided it was time to break out the hats again too, so I’ve started with this cap. I have loads of errands to run today – to the post office at dinner time to post an eBay sale, to the seamstress this afternoon to have a couple of dresses altered and to the beauty salon and hairdresser to make appointments – so flat shoes were a necessity. The trusty cowboy boots fit the bill perfectly.
No thrifted items today so I think this will work out fairly pricey.

Brown chunky knit cardi – Luxuriously Tall
Brown polo neck sweater – Long Tall Sally
Jeans – Gap
Brown cowboy boots – New Look
Brown cord newsboy cap – Matalan

Total Est. Cost £133

Outfit: Traffic Lights

I decided yesterday that I liked the red-teal combination so much that I would wear a variation of it again today. I added the yellow shoes as they missed out yesterday and now I have one very colourful outfit!

Red top – Long Tall Sally
Teal skirt – H&M
Grey tights – Ethel Austin
Yellow wedges – Priceless Shoes
Teal & silver bangles – Accessorize

Total Est. Cost £47

Outfit: Variations On A Theme

We went to the young man's parents' house for tea last night and I was intending wearing my go to Autumn outfit again, but then I remembered that my black polo neck was still drying on the airer. This meant a bit of a rethink so I went for an alternative black sweater and added a scarf for some detail.

Black sweater – Long Tall Sally
Jeans – Gap
Brown cowboy boots – New Look
Leopard print scarf – Ethel Austin

Total Est. Cost £97

Outfit: Which Shoes-day Tuesday?

I couldn’t decide which shoes to wear this morning. This is unusual for me as I will often start an outfit with the shoes and build up from there. The grey shoes I had on yesterday were the obvious choice but I wore those yesterday and they were a bit, well, obvious. Plus it might rain and pale grey suedette + rain = disaster! I wanted an unexpected pop of colour so I put on my yellow wedges. I loved the combination of the yellow shoe and teal tights but with the length of the dress the straps cut off my leg somewhat. I will definitely do this combination at some point when I’m wearing my teal skirt which is shorter than this dress. In the end I plumped for red shoes. They match my lipstick and I’m using my red bag today. I’m thinking of introducing another life motto: if in doubt, wear red shoes.

Teal knit dress – Long Tall Sally (eBay)
Grey cashmere cardi (worn as shrug) – Marks & Spencer (eBay)
Teal tights – Accessorize
Red shoes – Next
Silver belt – Primark

(Yellow wedges - Priceless Shoes)

Total Est. Cost £75

This Week I Will Be Mostly…

…wearing polo neck sweaters
…reading the October issue of US In Style
…watching Sex & The City DVDs
…listening to Little Shop of Horrors (what with the 21st day approaching and all)
…eating chicken
…shopping for US magazines

Outfit: Monday

It’s dull and grey again but dry for the third day in a row. I don’t think I can remember the last time we had 3 dry days in a row.

Grey polo neck sweater – Long Tall Sally
Black waistcoat – Next Tall
Skinny jeans – Topshop Tall
Grey faux suede shoes – New Look (charity shop)

Total Est. Cost £63

Weekend Recap

After a late night on Friday, we slept in Saturday morning and then I headed off to meet my sister. We went back to our hometown where my old church was having a heritage display. There were loads of old photographs and things on display and it was really interesting. We had a walk around the town and then popped in to see our parents. My outfit was an exact repeat of Wednesday’s.

Yesterday morning I went to Tesco to do the shopping, and then in the afternoon the young man and I went for a walk.

Brown long sleeve t – Tall Girls
Jeans – Gap
Brown cowboy boots – New Look

Total Est. Cost £82


In the evening my sister had arranged a meal out at a Chinese buffet with our cousin and his wife, so we headed across the city to meet them.



Pink faux wrap top – Long Tall Sally (eBay)
Sequin embellished jeans – Long Tall Sally
Pink jacket – Long Tall Sally (eBay)
Pink shoes – Faith
Pink flower – Primark

Total Est. Cost £61

Outfit: Friday Night Wedding Reception

We went to a really lovely and quite posh hotel for some friends’ wedding reception on Friday evening. It was the usually buffet & disco type affair and everyone had a really good time.

Teal shrug – Ann Taylor Loft (charity shop)
Green lace trim cami – Long Tall Sally
Black trousers – Tall Girls
Black & cream shoes – Next (charity shop)
Teal heart necklace – Scope

Total Est. Cost £46

LTS Now Available On ASOS.com

That’s right, ASOS are carrying a small selection of Long Tall Sally items on their site. The prices are the same as the regular ones, so I suppose it depends who is offering the best discount (ASOS seem to have some promotion or another running pretty much all the time) as to where you buy from (assuming the item you want is carried by ASOS. Also, it will be a battle for the best markdowns come sale time!

However, ASOS currently have the edge on their shipping costs - £4.95 for next day (£3.95 standard) at ASOS compared to £7.95 for next day (£4.95 standard) at Long Tall Sally.

Review: Boots No7 Extreme Length Mascara

I bought a tube of this mascara at Boots the other day as I had a £5 No7 voucher to spend and had already exhausted the eye shadow and nail polish colours that I wanted using previous vouchers. Boots are offering a free smoky eye kit (4 eye shadows and a double ended brush/applicator) with this mascara at the moment and I was pleased to discover that I could use my voucher and still get the free gift. The mascara is pretty good. When products are called anything with the word ‘extreme’ in the title I am always sceptical. I wouldn’t say that this mascara provides extreme length, but it certainly coats the lashes well and separates them without clumping. For me, any length extension usually comes from the fact that my lashes are blond at the ends and applying mascara makes the ends more visible, thereby seeming to extend the length. This product is no exception in this respect but it is a mascara I will be happy to use and I would definitely recommend buying it whilst the free eye shadow kit is available.
No7 Extreme Lash Mascara is available in Black or Brown/Black for £11.50 from Boots.

Outfit: Wet and Rainy Friday

It’s raining, just for a change. It wasn’t actually supposed to rain until later. Some friends of ours are getting married today so I hope it dries up for them. We are going to their evening do tonight so expect a second outfit picture either later on or tomorrow, depending how much time I have.
Anyway, I feared rain today so wanted to wear my cowboy boots again as I’m trying to get them really comfy so I can wear them in New York. And I thought why not pair them with a skirt this time rather than hiding them under jeans.

Brown polo neck sweater – Long Tall Sally
Denim skirt – Topshop Tall (refashioned from jeans by me)
Brown tights – Topshop
Brown cowboy boots – New Look
Brown belt – Dorothy Perkins
Brown & silver bangles – Dorothy Perkins
Teal beads – Claire’s

Total Est. Cost £101

Outfit: Dull Thursday

It’s grey & dull outside (what, again? Surely not!) so some colour was needed to try to brighten things up a little. I am loving the round neck on this tank top, it just feels so much more stylish than a v neck for some reason. And the yellow shoes add a real pop of colour.

Purple tank sweater – Long Tall Sally
White shirt – Next
Grey jeans – Gap
Yellow wedges – Priceless Shoes
Purple necklace – Christmas gift

Total Est. Cost £59

Grey Jeans

In my home town in the late 1980s, a new pedestrianised shopping area was opened. One of the units was occupied for a time by some kind of junk shop. It sold allsorts of things – I don’t know whether the items were new, they were more likely second hand but I don’t recall it being a charity shop. My sister bought a video cassette there once although we didn’t have a video recorder at the time. (We were the last people I knew to get a video recorder, I think I was in high school by the time we got one.) Years later, when my parents finally rented a video recorder (they still rented the TV & video up until last year – the young man’s parents still rent theirs), she dug out the cassette to play it and we discovered that it was too small for the machine, despite it being in the regular size box. It wasn’t until fairly recently I figured out that it must have been a Betamax tape (I was about 6 when VHS won the format war and had never seen a Betamax cassette before) (and the spell check on here doesn’t even recognise the word Betamax!).
Anyway, hanging in that same shop for a long time were two pairs of faded, pale grey skinny jeans. (Of course, back then, to me they were just jeans. Flares were something worn by your dad in the 1970s and were to be ridiculed at every opportunity.) They were about two sizes too small for me but for some reason I loved them and have always secretly hankered after a pair of grey jeans ever since. I think that is why I decided to go ahead and buy the pair I’m wearing today. That, and the £7.99 price tag of course!

Outfit: Comfy Wednesday

Sometimes it’s best to keep it simple and comfortable and that’s just what I’m doing today. I can see this becoming a favourite outfit combination this Autumn/Winter so you will definitely see it, or variations on it, again.

Black polo neck sweater – Long Tall Sally
Jeans – Gap
Brown cowboy boots – New Look

Total Est. Cost £99

This Week I Will Be Mostly…

…wearing my LTS purchases
…reading the October issues of Glamour & Elle
…watching Sex & The City DVDs
…listening to the Evita soundtrack
…eating whatever’s in the freezer
…shopping for new GHDs

Outfit: Blue & Red Tuesday

This outfit was inspired by a picture I saw in a magazine and cut out to stick in my lookbook. The bright colours help to liven up yet another grey day in the North. When the Justified and Ancients of Mu Mu (aka the KLF) said ‘It’s Grim Up North’, they weren’t wrong!

Blue cardi – Ethel Austin
Black & cream stripe dress – charity shop
Blue tights – Accessorize
Red shoes – Barratts
Red belt – Market stall
Red bangles – Primark

Total Est. Cost £29

Outfit: Monday

Someone put the heating on in this office on Friday so for once it’s not absolutely freezing in here this morning. However, I was taking no chances, hence the sweater and thick tights. My new white shirt sleeves would be long enough to poke out of the ends of my sweater sleeves were the sleeves on the sweater not quite so long!

Black Argyle pattern sweater – Next Tall
Black skirt – Long Tall Sally
White shirt – Long Tall Sally
Purple tights – New Look
Black patent lace up shoes – Matalan

Outfit: Sunday

Went to church in the morning then stopped off at Tesco on the way back to do the weekly shop. At least it saves me having to go this afternoon! We had some friends over last night for tea and to play on the Wii.

Mint green top – Long Tall Sally
Jeans – Dorothy Perkins Tall
Red shoes – Next
Red beads – eBay
Red belt (on jeans) – Next

Total Est. Cost £57

Outfit: Saturday

We went to a wedding on Saturday. I wore this for the ceremony and then wore dark jeans and my black bustier top for the evening do. We weren’t invited to the afternoon reception.

Brown jacket – Long Tall Sally
Brown trousers – Long Tall Sally
Green cami – Long Tall Sally
Brown shoes – Robero Vianni (Debenhams)
Brown flower in hair – bought by one of the ‘hens’ for my sister’s hen do
Brown necklace – Scope

Total Est. Cost £99