Outfit: Shoeper Challenge #78 and Yet More Rain

So, guess what? It’s windy and rainy out today. Again. Still, that means I can get on with saving some boots and I’m motoring through this week. The intention is to save a pair every day, but we’ll see whether that is possible considering I need to wear my black and white polka dot skirt again tomorrow and I’m not sure any of the boots I have left will go with it.

I’m thinking of growing out my fringe (bangs). What do you think? I have to decide by Friday as that’s when I’m going for my hair doing.

Last night I went to Aqua Aerobics. I’m not sure what I did right (or wrong), but about half an hour after I got home, I could feel the muscles in my abdomen, and still can this morning. Does that mean it’s working? After the gym I made an apple pie and some custard for dessert. If you are dieting, filo pastry is your friend! It was pretty nice considering it wasn’t made with buttery shortcrust pastry, and there’s plenty left for dessert tonight, too.

Tonight is the drama group AGM and I’m thinking of wearing my new stripy sweater as it’s likely to be cold in the church hall (it’s always cold in that church hall). Perhaps I’ll get another pair of boots in too.

These boots were a total bargain in the sale when Allders (a department store) in Leeds with shutting down. They are by Nine West (which I love) and were originally about £135 but I paid £40 I think. I love the shiny leather and the shape of the toe, and I’d really like them in red (I don’t know why I’ve never taken a picture of them and continue to use the red/black stock photo). Something else to add to my eBay wish list!

Black and white stripe dress – River Island
Brown belt – free with a skirt years ago
Brown socks – New Look
Brown leather boots – Nine West (Allders)
Brown and black scarf – mall market stall
Wooden bangles – gifted
Brown necklace – Scope
Silver hoops – gifted

Total Est. Cost £73

Outfit: Shoeper Challenge #77 and a New Shrug

It’s so windy here today. We also keep getting torrential downpour, which is nice. It’s supposed to pick up later on through, so I might get out for some (dry) fresh air if I’m lucky. I have another eBay sale to post so I need to go to the Post Office at some point.

I almost wore my longer black cardi today, but it was spoiling the twirly-ness of the skirt, and I think it should be some kind of crime to spoil the twirly-ness of a twirly skirt. So I layered a thick knit tank under the dress for warmth and switched to this shrug instead.

There’s a story behind this shrug (isn’t there always with my purchases?!). Having worn my (practically vintage – I’ve had it since 1998) New Look one a couple of weeks back, and seeing that it was hanging off my shoulders as it was so big (2 sizes too big to be precise), I decided a new black shrug was in order. I spied this one on the Long Tall Sally website and then a 10% off email arrived just at the right time so I decided to go ahead and order it. That was the Thursday before the bank holiday. I paid for next day delivery (because I am impatient) but as it was about 5pm I didn’t expect it to arrive the Friday, but thought it would turn up either on the Saturday or Tuesday morning. When it hadn’t arrived by Tuesday lunchtime I phoned customer services, only to be told it was out of stock. When I ordered it was available and I had not received an email to let me know that it was out of stock. (Neither had I received a shipping confirmation email the previous week and had to phone customer services to find out whether that order had dispatched. LTS have order tracking on their website, but they are not using it at present, and all orders just say CREATED as the status, regardless of the stage it is actually at.) I was promised a refund on the delivery charge and that the item would be shipped when it was back in stock. Now in the meantime, I had tweeted about my order not arriving and the Twitter person had been in contact to see if she could help. By this time it was Thursday and no refund had been forthcoming, so I relayed this information to the LTS Twitter and she said she would look into it. On Friday afternoon I got a phone call saying they had located the item in the Nottingham store and would be shipping it out that afternoon, to arrive on Monday. No delivery charge and at the discounted price. The reason my refund hadn’t been processed is because no charge had been made to my card as the item hadn’t been shipped.

I commented on the LTS Facebook page over the weekend about how the online service had gone downhill recently and received a message from them this morning stating that they are upgrading their systems at present and things will be back to normal shortly. I should point out that usually LTS’s service is excellent and so you can imagine my disappointment at having problems with my order. I hope that by the time I order again thing will be back to their usual good standard.

My questions are thus:
1. If you are having a system upgrade, why not just tell me that when I phoned regarding my first order?
2. Why have the online tracking still in place if you’re not using it? Why not just put a message up saying the service is not available at present?
3. If something is out of stock, you need to email and let the customer know there will be a delay straight away. Not wait for her to phone and chase 3 days later.
4. If no refund can be processed because no money has been taken, why not tell me that rather than have me wait on a refund that will never appear?
5. Why not let everyone know on FB or Twitter that you are installing new systems, rather than letting us continue to moan on there?

At least this all had a favourable outcome for me, I got my item minus a delivery charge. And the moral of this story is that complaining on Twitter will get you everywhere.

So, on to my latest shoe (boot) save. You may remember me blogging about these boots a few weeks back when I received them from Spartoo. Well the time has finally come when we have the weather to wear them! I was wondering how I would weatherproof them, as you can’t use the spray I have on patent leather and there are bits of patent on these, but then I spied the tag on the zip that says they are ready-Scotchguarded so problem solved! I love the colour of these and they have my favourite adornments: buttons! I will have to take a walk in them later to see just how comfy they are.

Black shrug – Long Tall Sally
Black dress – George at ASDA
Black tank – 3 Suisses (also practically vintage, bought in 1998)
Blue suede boots – Hush Puppies (c/o Spartoo)
Black Obi belt – ASOS
Blue/black ring – charity shop
Blue beads – gifted
Silver hoops – gifted

Total Est. Cost £62

Outfit: Shoeper Challenge #76 and a Blustery Monday

Today’s outfit was inspired by what Rachel Green was wearing in the penultimate episode of Friends (The One With Princess Consuela, I think). Her skirt was grey wool and she was in a polo neck, but it’s not chilly enough for that yet. Her boots were also heeled, but both my black heeled pairs are safe and this pair wasn’t, so you know. I have a bunch of errands to run today so flat boots are probably for the best anyway.

It was lovely and sunny first thing this morning, but that seems to have given way to blustery showers now.

These boots are from Tall Girls and I don’t wear them as often as I ought to. I love how the legs are super tall, but I find it hard to style them sometimes. They are a size 10 as the 9s were too small (that’s not something that often happens but the site did say the style ran small).

Tonight I have my gym class and another eBay sale to parcel up. My Paypal account is looking fairly healthy now, which is just as well as I have my eye on a couple of items.

Black sweater – Long Tall Sally
Denim skirt – Jasper Conran (Debenhams)
Black tights – Silkies
Black flat boots – Tall Girls
Black leather belt – local boutique
Whitby Jet cross – gifted
Silver hoops – gifted

Total Est. Cost £153

A Sunday Soaking

I didn’t have time to take any outfit photos yesterday, but you didn’t miss much – just skinny jeans, a cosy plaid shirt and my tan flat boots. We were up bright and early to head off to the coast where the young man’s parents and Aunt are staying in a caravan, just north of Whitby. It was forecast to rain but the sun was out when we set off.

We arrived around 10am and had a cup of tea, read the papers, had more tea, then had an early lunch as we decided to go to the Town and Country Fair that was on just outside Whitby. We set off and although there was a cold wind and lots of grey cloud, it stayed dry. The fair was good considering it was free – there was a central arena for events such as a vintage car parade, dog agility and show jumping, and there were plenty of trade stands. The young man and his dad spent ages looking at old motorbikes, tractors and engines. We were there about an hour and a half an then returned to the caravan to warm up with yet more tea.

Just after 4pm the young man and I decided to have a walk along the cliff. That part of the east coast is very susceptible to landslide and so there is a lot of slate shale from where the cliff has collapsed. Whitby Jet is often uncovered when the cliffs move and the young man found a lump yesterday (that’s also where the piece came from that my cross necklace is made out of). We had been walking about 20 minutes when the heavens opened and there was a torrential rain shower. I had my umbrella with me, but it only provided a little shelter as the rain was so heavy. We started back and my shower-proof raincoat held up fairly well, until it started leaking on the back. By the time we got back to the caravan we were pretty soaked. The young man had brought a change of clothes in case he was called upon to do any odd jobs, so he changed his jeans. His mum lent me a pair of trousers that were about 5 inches too short (and which fit me, thanks to Weight Watchers), but fortunately I had my tall boots on so the trousers tucked in and you couldn’t tell what length they were. My shirt and cardi were wet too, so I put on the young man’s spare shirt and belted it around my waist. I joked that if I’d had my bright red boots on I would have auditioned as an extra for Ashes to Ashes, I looked so 80s!

Once we were dried out we headed back towards home, and stopped for a meal at the Fox and Rabbit pub on the A169 on the way, where the food was fabulous. It was a fab day out, despite the soaking, and it’s always good to get some sea air. We had a quiet evening when we got back – I made the lunches for today, stewed some apples for my porridge for breakfast, and parcelled up some eBay sales.

Outfit: Saturday

Saturday morning we were up in reasonable time. I put on my old jeans that I wear around the house for cleaning etc and I needed a belt as they can now be slid off me without unfastening. I made porridge for breakfast, then cleaned the bathroom, vacced, emptied the bins and generally pottered about the house.

After lunch the young man headed off on his bike to meet some friends, and I got ready and walked up to Ikea. My tights collection has become a bit unruly and outgrown its drawer, and I needed some kind of box or something to store them in. I found what I was looking for, along with a shallow pie tin with a loose bottom which will make getting filo pastry pies out of a tin far easier. I went across and had a look in Habitat, to see what was left (not much, though if you want a new sofa or dining table, now is the time to buy as the remaining stock has 80% off) and then walked home. It was quite warm and muggy although it was overcast, so I was glad I had opted for short sleeves.

I sorted out my tights (they are all neatly stowed in boxes according to type now), then I read some magazines and played about on the internet until the young man texted to say he was coming home for tea. He requested his favourite, chicken fried rice so that’s what we had. We watched a bit of TV and then had a fairly early night as we were planning an early start Sunday morning.

I got these shorts over a year ago in the Next Clearance store. I was looking for some brown wintery shorts (if there is such a thing – I wanted some in a fairly heavy fabric that I could wear over tights, rather than some light cotton ones) and these were only £7 so I nabbed them. They never ended up being worn but I tried them on Saturday morning and they now fit how I wanted them to, so they got their inaugural wearing. They are a black and brown check so the black tights and brown boots played off them nicely.

White t – Dorothy Perkins Tall
Brown shorts – Next Clearance
Black tights – Silkies
Brown cowboy boots – New Look
Brown bangles – Dorothy Perkins
Silver bangles – Scope
Whitby Jet cross – gifted
Silver hoops – gifted

Total Est. Cost £70

Outfit: Casual Friday

Having been promised a high of 22°C and some sunshine today (and, more importantly, no rain), I am taking the opportunity to wear a pair of fabric flats whilst I still can. Although I seem to recall this pair got a thorough soaking the last time I wore them and appear to have survived intact, so perhaps I shouldn’t worry so much.

Last night the young man’s mum called round to pick up our spare Freeview box to take to their caravan at the weekend – our region goes digital from next Wednesday and so they’ll need a digibox for the TV to still work. I went off to Boxercise class and we had a chap taking it as the regular girl (same lass who usually takes Aqua Zumba on Tuesdays) is away. The whole class was boxing which I liked better than breaking it up with circuit training or steps or abs as usually happens. My arms were aching by the end of it though!

When I got home I made a treacle tart, using a recipe from the Weight Watchers magazine. It involved filo pastry which I’ve never used before and well, it’s weird stuff, isn’t it? Needless to say I managed to make a few holes in it but fortunately I lined the tin with greaseproof paper before I started so it didn’t make too much of a mess. The tart didn’t turn out quite as it looked in the picture, but it wasn’t bad for a first attempt and it tasted yummy. We have the other half of it to eat tonight.

The office I work in on Fridays tends to be quite warm (unlike the one I’m in the rest of the week – we put the heating on there on Tuesday as it was so cold!) so I figured I’d be OK in a short sleeve shrug (and managed to get one of the ties caught up in my tank top whilst taking pictures – d’oh!). I layered my fabulous brightly coloured scarf over the top though, to ward off the morning chill.

Teal shrug – Long Tall Sally
Purple tank – New Look Tall
Jeans – New Look
Purple flats – gifted
Silver hoops – gifted
Silver and diamante necklace – gifted
Purple hearts necklace – gifted
Silver bling ring – River Island
Purple glitter bangles – Diamonds and Pearls
Purple/silver bangles – gifted
Turquoise scarf – H&M

Total Est. Cost £50

Fall Wardrobe Picks – What I Bought

So, my fall shopping is complete and all before the end of August. (Thanks for that, H&M.) There were just five items on my list but I ended up with a couple of new pairs of jeans too, to replace three pairs which are now too big (I’ve put all 3 pairs on eBay in the hopes of recouping a bit of the cash).

So here’s what I got:

Beige/Tan sweater, New Look Tall (I loved the look of the cardi LTS have with the skirt below, but this sweater was around half the price and is the same colour)

Colour block skirt, Long Tall Sally (If you hate ironing, this is not the skirt for you!  All those pleats needed pressing as it was creased in the wrong places after shipping.  However, the fabric is a lovely heavy cotton and should work year round.  I think this style runs big - I sized down following my weight loss, but could probably have got away with a smaller size still.  I had to make an extra hole in the belt to hold the skirt up)

Stripe sweater, H&M (I love this!  The sleeves are as long as they look in the catalogue/website images and it seems like it will be super cosy)

Navy leggings, Tall Girls (Full length leggings for when it get colder)

Skinny jeans, H&M (Dark skinny jeans to replace the pair that was bunching at the front as they were so big)

Flare jeans, River Island (RI call these boot cut, but they look more flared to me.  A size smaller than my last RI pair, these are a flattering cut and I can see them getting a lot of wear)

Tights, H&M (Can't go wrong with thick ribbed tights!)



I can’t wait to wear the striped sweater and the thick tights when it gets a little colder. Fall: bring it on!

Outfit: September 1st!

It’s finally September and the sunshine is back! Hooray! In celebration I am mono blocking again, in a particularly ‘fall’ colour: brown. I will definitely be breaking out the boots next week, but tomorrow we are forecast highs of 23°C which is warmer than it’s been since about June. What’s that about, September?

I put a white tank under this brown top as I wasn’t sure how low the open neck came or whether it would gape a bit. Plus, the extra layer is always welcome in the chill of the morning.

The young man and I had a date night last night and went to see the Inbetweeners Movie at the cinema. We’ve watched the whole series on TV and love it so were looking forward to the film. It didn’t disappoint, it was just as funny as the TV show. It was like an extended episode really. If you’re a fan of the TV show I’d definitely recommend the movie.

I lost another 2lbs on WW this week, despite using all my weekly points and some of my activity points. That’s what they’re there for though, I guess. It’s off to the gym for Boxercise tonight to earn some more activity points.

Brown top – H&M
White tank - River Island
Brown denim skirt – John Rocha (Debenhams) (charity shop)
Brown socks – New Look
Brown shoes – Roberto Vianni (Debenhams)
Silver and diamante necklace – gifted
Silver hoops – gifted
Wooden bangles – gifted

Total Est. Cost £42