Sweet Charity (Shop), Sweet Love

Hello dahlings, hope you are all well!

As a style icon and fashion guru (ouch, just hurt myself laughing) I felt it was time for another outfit post. This outfit is inspired by My Life In Travel, a very attractive lady (also, incredibly mother to two small children) who has a real passion for fashion. http://life-in-travel.blogspot.com/

The other day she posted a pic of a new bracelet arrangement which I found very avantgarde.

So I thought I would have a go. The problem is, though, my very short paws. So it seems to have turned into a handcuff type set up. Which might give the wrong message. But look, I am wearing creamy/camel colour, Vogue tells me camel is THE colour for autumn.

Photo from Life in Travel

Photo from Life in Travel

Close up of Blighty's cutting edge jewellery and elephant belt; any likeness to napkins rings is purely coincidental

In other exciting fashion news, I visited a charity shop recently in the affluent commuter town of Gerrards Cross (Dr Barnados). Below is a Chanel number, priced at £200. Cor!

And a dress still with the tag on (Karen Millen) and a pink wool coat, Georges Rech, Synonyme.

Ooh, and a top from Dolce and Gabbana

Someone had just left a lot of stuff outside the door of the shop. Quite often it gets stolen before the shop opens, the charity shop lady told me.

Below, here's me trying on a Margaret Howell navy blue linen dress. I was trying to be all chic and MaiTai - the other day on her blog MaiTai posted a picture of herself in the most chic shift dress.

Sadly this dress did not fit me well and I did not want to pay more to get it altered. Also my lifestyle is not suited to dry clean only fabrics! From a practical point of view, I should spend my days in overalls or a shellsuit. But let's not depress ourselves!

Look what came home with me, ssssssh, don't tell Mr B, he is already suspicious : the evening of this unapproved purchase he came home to find me frantically cleaning the bath, loos, sinks etc, a dead giveaway of a Blighty guilty conscience.

But I have convinced myself this will look v jolly in the winter and can be worn with jeans for a casual look!

Meanwhile I seem to be stockpiling books from the library like a deranged librarian; soon more books will be in Blighty Mansions than the library and I will get raided by a SWAT team of highly trained combat librarians. NEVER MESS WITH A LIBRARIAN!

Below, this book sounds a bit like 84 Charing Cross Road, as it features letters from an English lady living in post war Britain to an elderly American gentleman. She used the letters as an escape from her everyday life, so perhaps the forerunner of blogging!

Below, all about one of the Kenyan Happy Valley set (a very louche lot), Alice de Janze. The book considers whether it was she who shot the Earl of Erroll. I am sure you have all seen the film "White Mischief".

My mother recommended the book below. The house Madresfield is not far from where she lives in The Cotswolds. Evelyn Waugh had an intense friendship with Hugh Lygon at Oxford and often stayed at the house, and Brideshead is based on the house and family. The Lygon family bought an inn in Broadway in the Cotswolds and re-named it The Lygon Arms; the Lygon is still there today, it's where we had our wedding reception. Mother is determined to visit the house, although it is not open to the public!

In other news, my inspiring quotes are not going down too well with the boys. They can spot an educational ploy a mile off. They are also expert in subverting reward systems, star charts and such like.

I heard this quoted on the radio. Zig Ziglar is some sort of motivational guru. But what I really want to know is: is that his real name? It's just too good!

Oh and here is random photo of Mavala nail polish, displayed in a small independent chemist shop in Gerrards Cross. I love this shop as it is an Aladdin's cave of all sorts of stuff. The guy that owns it used to manage the big chemist shop in Wigmore Street, London, one of those traditional chemist stores and again a real emporium of all things health and beauty related.

Mavala is about £3 a bottle, not expensive. Does anyone know if it is any good?

To prove my point about dry clean only fabrics being No Good for my Lifestyle, look what happens if you leave Boy 1 alone with toast and a jar of Nutella. Gudge City.

But I am not against chocolate, quite the opposite, I love it. The other day I bought this, I love ginger too.

But ever since, Mr Blighty has been in hiding, can't think why!

"Mr B, yoo hoo, I'm having some chocolate, do you fancy a bit?"

No, no sign of him, can't think where he has got to.

In the pink with books and polish

Here I am all togged up for my trip to the supermarket (note small boy swim trunks on radiator, a reminder that it was once hot and sunny). It is diddling down with rain here today, so I felt a cheerful raincoat was required. You know what they say about buying clothes the same colours as the ones you are wearing for your shopping trip? I have taken this a stage further.

Look! Matching loo cleaner!

I was thrilled to get this, as it is a Limited Edition, so there is bound to be a run on it - er, not a good choice of words in this context - it is bound to be sold out soon, just like Chanel Particuliere. Remember ladies, you heard about it here first!

Also, it promises a "Fruity Burst" so was worth buying just for the hilarity it will provoke in the Blighty household (obviously not Boy 1 and Boy 2 as they are really quite mature now in their humour and well past that lavatorial stage, but me and Mr B will be giggling and going on about it for hours, like geriatric Beavis and Buttheads).

Oh dear, let's move swiftly on to polish and books.

The book: Diary of a Provincial Lady by E.M. Delafield

This had passed me by until fairly recently. Now it is one of my all time favourites, up there with the Nancy Mitford novels. (Delafield was a contemporary of Mitford). It started life as a serial for a magazine and is written as the diary of a wife and mother trying to keep her household under control in 1930s Devon. The diarist has two lively children and a husband most often to be found hiding behind the newspaper. She is always worried that her cook is about to resign, and she has to juggle bills to keep afloat. She has a lovable but sometimes tiresome French governess, prone to either unencouraging or wildly sentimental comments in French, and the Vicar's Wife always turns up at the wrong moment and stays for hours. Her son's school is obsessed with building projects (no change there then!). Though sadly I have no cook and governess (I know, Mr B is a beast), the book is strangely reminiscent of my own life (for governess substitute my mother, sorry mummy!). Also, Provincial Lady is how I would like to be: for all her muddles and worries, she has a kind heart and never seems to get cross with her children!

The edition I have is another Virago 30 year anniversary one, and the cover is designed by Cath Kidston, using one of her fabrics called "New Rose Bloom".

I am a big fan of Cath Kidston and have a lot of her stuff around the house, in an attempt to pretty it up and fight against the testosterone fuelled Lego and plastic tat mountain.

Above is another edition of Provincial Lady. I don't like the cover at all as the woman on the right does not look like a harassed mother but rather a Vogue model. But this edition (again Virago Modern Classics) contains not only the original book but also all the sequels: The Provincial Lady Goes Further; The Provincial Lady in America; and The Provincial Lady in Wartime. I am in the middle of the first sequel, and can't wait to get to bed each evening to read more (Mr B found me there at 6pm the other day while the boys happily soaked the bathroom floor).

Matching nail polish to the cover was a challenge and so was taking photos. Still my fingers look like wrinkled sausages! I have immense respect for the Swatchaholic, that girl takes nail polish seriously and is a superb photographer. When I first discovered her blog, Mr B had to prise me off the computer at 11pm, so mesmerised was I. (I love the post where she tries to get a colour match for the Tiffany eggshell blue, just thrilling)#. Go check her out, she's on my blogroll! #OOPS HAVE JUST REALISED THAT IT WAS POLISH HOARDER DISORDER THAT DID THE TIFFANY THING, SHE IS V GOOD TOO; SORRY POLISH LADIES! Swatchaholic did marvellous colour comparison of Particuliere lookalikes!

Above, from left to right, OPI Tropical Punch; OPI La Pazitively Hot; OPI Conquistadorablecolour; Rimmel Pro 295 Fancy Fuchsia*

In the end I went with the Conquistadorable.

*Mr B has told me to stop name checking FF all the time as it is sounding stalker-ish, also FF's lawyers have sent me some sort of letter about an injunction, but this really IS the name of the polish.

Must go now introduce pink loo cleaner to loo, ooh fun!