A bit chilly

Dahlings, how are you?   Really, a kitchen extension with an orangery and water feature? Me?  Oh no, I am very happy with my beige linoleum thank you (right eye twitches).

Here we had a bit of snow yesterday but just a light sprinkling, I have to be honest I wasn't completely happy with the coverage.

I suppose I am a bit like Faux Fuchsia and her Christmas tree coverage - she likes it plentiful and well distributed.  Well so do I, with snow.

By the way, here is a pic of the Blighty 2012 Christmas tree.  It did not have uniform coverage, as Boy 1 of his own accord took it upon himself to decorate it.  So there is heavy ornament application around the front and lower branches.  But I don't mind.  I think he shows great promise - one day perhaps he could be a window dresser for Selfridges.

Selfridges window last year - a tribute to Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama

Right, back to the cold weather.

Luckily I bought some boofy snow boots in the sales.

I also popped on my Alpine style waistcoat number, from H&M.  I bet they all wear them at Klosters.

I also rolled out my new fluffy waistcoat, Mr B bought it for me for my birthday, I must let him know.  It's very soft and stroke-able, like having a cat except it does not bring mice into the house or scratch the sofa, fingers crossed.

Last night I decided I wanted a Korat cat, till I read they were very sensitive and got upset by loud noises.  Hmm, probably not ideal for Blighty HQ then.



source

It is essential to eat properly when the weather is cold.

Nourishing drinks are also vital.

I have been reading in the newspapers that according to the Government and various charities,  it is very important to keep an eye on the elderly in this cold weather and call in on them to make sure they are alright.

Well, it's been a couple of days now since the cold snap started, and I am still waiting for my visit.

I even rang the council, I believe in being pro-active.

I talked to a very nice lady and explained I was an older lady and would very much like a young person to drop by the house, to make sure I was nice and warm.  I said I wasn't fussy, a young man,  6 ft 4, blonde, blue eyes, lightly muscled, six pack preferable....there would be some light duties around the house...

source - hmmm, typical

Gosh, I am feeling much warmer already...

Shoptastic

Unlike Daphne, my hair is naturally this colour..
Wearing my new spotted silk scarf from Phase 8 and leopard print belt from Zara

Dahlings, I really feel I have been neglecting my role as deranged marsupial style icon to the masses.  One cannot just leave it to Daphne Guinness.  But recently I have been sooo occupied with riot control, kettling and star charts that I have scarcely had time for matters sartorial.  Do forgive me.

Things have not been going that well on the clothes front. Remember the terrible skirt I bought on-line (now safely returned to the Big Warehouse in the Sky)? Well I have experienced another Nasty On-line Buy - ("Nob") - yes, I have had to invent a whole new word to cover this recurring nightmare. I present my latest Nob.

Dress X- Small from Gap, shurely shome mistake, which explains why I am doing the Monty Python Mr Gumby stance.
Nobs - will the nightmare never end?

 Last week I went for a little light shopping with two Mummy friends. We hit up the local Happy Valley Shopping Centre.

Of course, union rules provide that no mother of male children can pursue retail activities without buying some sort of sporting equipment for said male child.   So we found ourselves in the Sports Shop discussing the merits of size 4 bats versus size 3, octopus grips, knocking in (isn't this what got us into the union in the first place?) and oiling your bat.

Look at these prices - but these are for adult cricketers who take it Very Seriously

  

I wondered whether I should get one of these hats - who knew Philip Treacy sold off the peg numbers like these? 

 

Things hotted up when we went into House of Fraser.  Look at these shoes!  When did shoes get so high? And so fetishistic?

These and the shoes below are Kurt Geiger

The leopard and red ones are very understated I feel, for Minnie Mouse

Look close - these are bugtastic

The result of a plot between orthopaedic surgeons, insurance companies and personal injury lawyers?

The girlfriends and I had a laugh trying on lots of clothes and coming out of the changing rooms in fits of giggles - it was like being a teenager again...  I did not buy anything except for the spotty silk scarf I am modelling in the first pic in this post.

But you can't keep a shoptart down - this week I popped up to London and had a toddle round Oxford Street, ending up in Selfridges.  I spotted this chap by the Creme de la Mer counter, probably about to spend the fee from his latest movie on a pot of skin serum.

Mr Clive Owen

He looked at me with ill-concealed lust  failed to register my existence and so I had a good peruse of the OPI stand and bought this orange polish from their Summer 2011 Texas range.

  

On the right is the OPI polish, on the left  a polish from Accessorize in Starlet, cheap as chips but my goodness, it stays on like a dream

When I had finished annoying the OPI ladies by putting the polishes back in the wrong place (nail polish, bringing people together) and walked back past the Creme de la Mer counter Mr O was still there - bless, either he was lurking, hoping to talk to me or there was some terrible shortage of premium unguents for Hollywood A listers.. He was very tall, tanned and striking, in a dark suit.  But I just know he wouldn't have Mr Blighty's drafting skills...

I faced the ever hectic MAC counter at Selfridges and bought a lipstick called Vegas Vamp.

I hear that lipstick sales are up, an indicator of economic downturn; hear that Mr B? I am not spendthrift, I am an important economic indicator...

I like MAC - they don't take themselves too seriously.  I picked this lipgloss up a while ago - it's got a pic of Cruella de Ville on it, a true style icon indeed, though not dog friendly..

A few other things winked at me and asked me to take them home:

  

Orange belt from Zara

Dress from H&M - I took Piglet and his knitted vest from Winnie the Pooh as my style inspiration

  

Silk dress from Zara

 In fact it was only Mr Owen who did not to wink and beg to come home with me.

Just as well.

He would have hated my moisturiser.

The blog goes all teenage

My blog is nothing if not a huge copycat (or copy parrot as Boy 1 used to say, which is, I suppose, logical). In particular my blog is slavishly devoted to the glamorous Faux Fuchsia blog. Since FF blog is having a mid-life crisis, my blog has decided it needs to have a crisis too. But as my blog is much younger and sillier, it is having a teenage moment instead.


First it went all touchy and offhand and sarcastic:

Duh!

Whatever!

As if!

Loser!



And apparently no one understands it! (no change there then).

And it never asked to be created.



It refused to get up this morning, I mean what sort of time is this for a post?


It has lost all interest in sport (Steven Gerrard and mountain biking) and instead wants to hang around shops and listen to Capital FM. It likes pop music by people with confusing names like Tinchy Strider and Tiny Temper and it laughs at me when I get the names all wrong - Lady GooGoo, Jason dePencil, no, deRulo. Jason sings a song entitled "Ridin' Solo" where he seems to say he is getting his "sheep" together - the blog got cross when I asked whether Mr DeRulo was involved in animal husbandry.




The blog was so moody and down that today I had to take it up to TopShop at Oxford Circus so it could hang out with all the other teenagers. It insisted on taking its faux leopard bag which really is not sensible as it does not have a nice secure zip and cannot be sponged down easily.

Once at TopShop the blog behaved really quite badly. It immediately got told off for trying to take a pic of a faux leopard fur coat on its phone. And sulked.

We then had a tremendous tussle over some new slippers for wearing in the house. I said some nice quilted velour ones would be good. It insisted on these. What, I asked, are all those metal studs for? And white is really going to show up any food stains. The blog threatened to burst into tears and in the end I gave in.

I then said I would buy the blog a nice flattering pair of slacks for best. It sulked until I allowed it to take some other "trendier" kit to try on too.

Things got tense again when I remarked the effect of this blouse was lampshade-like and did the blog really want to spend all day standing around in the living room next to the sofa?

And the voluminous sleeves were voluminous. Good for hiding cupcakes or white rabbits.

Against my advice, leopard harem pants were tried on. I laughed and said a nice skirt would be more flattering. The blog grumped and said I just did not "get" fashion.

Then this hoodie. "You are not going out looking like that!" and "What exactly is the point of that garment, it is not going to be very warm or keep the rain off and what about washing it?" were some of the insights I shared. The blog got really huffy.

I managed to lure the blog out of TopShop with the promise of a megaFrappucino and crisps and cupcakes (covers all teen food groups) at Fatbucks. We then sloped along to Selfridges and caught sight of this window display.

The blog convinced me it needed new, "cooler" wellies, despite the fact it already has a nice children's pair in pale pink with dark pink hearts on. It said everyone wears Hunters these days.

So off to the new Selfridges Shoe Galleries, very posh and full of all sorts of brands, including the usual suspects: Jimmy Choo, Louboutin.

I bought the wellies but managed to persuade the blog to go for a sensible colour, not bright pink.



The blog also fell in love with these Repettos but I held firm. Maybe for the blog's birthday.

I did manage a bit of shopping for myself too. I was very taken with this navy blue/leopard print combo as seen in this pic from The Sartorialist.

So I went for this shirt, from Zara. No doubt the blog will borrow it without asking and spill Diet Coke all over it.

Must go now, the blog wants to be taken over to its friend's house to listen to music, play around with* make up and talk about* boys.

*Jeez, I hope I got these the right way round, otherwise me and the blog need to have a little chat ..

Turnips and Hermes

Below, crowded Kings Cross train station last week. Lovely B was about to take the train back to Newcastle. Kings Cross is not a nice station, especially now compared to St Pancras which has been greatly tarted up since Eurostar has moved there. But renovation work is underway in Kings Cross too. I was greatly amused by Elf and Safety announcements reminding us that cycling, skateboarding and rollerblading were not permitted in the station. So easy to forget and attempt a triple halfpipe on top of all those people. Bye Bye Lovely B! I felt quite folorn, but pulled myself together. I am a grown up, independent woman of today! A lady spoke to me as I was leaving the Kings Cross loos. I had noticed she had been glancing in my direction. I was looking quite smart that day: posh frock on and no obvious foodstuffs on my face. I prepared myself to accept the anticipated compliment graciously. "Excuse me" whispered the lady, "I think you've got your dress tucked up at the back". Oh god, a skirt in knickers situation. Lovely B, come back, I can't last 5 minutes without you, see what happens!



After this unsettling incident I took the bus to Selfridges. I had an idea of buying Mr Blighty some posh decaff coffee. This sign caught my eye. When did turnips become upmarket enough to be sold in Selfridges foodhall? Is there a whole department for them? No sign of any today, maybe not turnip season. Shades of Blackadder's downtrodden stooge, Baldrick, whose dream was to have his very own turnip one day.

Gosh, Baldrick's gone blonde!

No luck with the coffee but I noticed they stock Australian healthfood.

And that stuff Aussies are supposed to put in their sandwiches.

Good grief, has the world gone mad? £16 for tea? Miller Harris are better know for perfumes, maybe you drink half and then splash the rest over yourself??

After the heady atmosphere of the turnip department, I needed to get more down to earth, so I went to the Hermes shop inside Selfridges. I channelled the lovely MaiTai and tried to look nonchalant, as though I pop into Hermes all the time. The sales assistant was not fooled. He asked me to stop taking pictures - ha, too late mate! I ended up telling him all about MaiTai's blog, as otherwise I thought he might call Security and they would work me over in the basement. Worked like a dream, he was very interested and I wrote down her name for him. I think it is very important Hermes know what a fabulous brand ambassadress MaiTai is - before I discovered her blog, I never even knew I wanted a Hermes scarf, now I am getting myself noticed as a security threat in their store!

Below, sumptuousness of their bangles. Drool!

Tiger, tiger etc

Slobber!

The deliciousness of the scarves - dribble!

Below, I think these are called Twillys, MaiTai, help, need your expertise!

No shopping post would be complete without some nail porn. Selfridges stock OPI, good to know!
I considered buying Lincoln after Dark, FF has it. But there is also Lincoln after Midnight - maybe FF has this? It all got too much, plus more expensive in Selfridges than in my humble beauty wholesalers!

Below, very smart OPI set up but I am rather worried by the girl on the right, she seems to be pouring nail varnish over her body, very sloppy technique! The Nail Polish Hoarder would not approve!

Below, view of Selfridges from the balcony of M&S cafe, never knew the balcony was there before.

In M&S I bought Mr Blighty some clothes, since my coffee search had been fruitless and I felt guilty about spending money on everyone except him. Mr B used to be very designer, Armani suits and ties, Ralph Lauren, but Since Children he has scaled back, bless him, and hardly ever buys clothes. Most of this did not pass the Mr Blighty test of not looking sissy but surprisingly he likes the flowery shirt. Yes, Mr Blighty, don't be afraid to get in touch with your inner flower child!

And that is quite enough shopping for the time being! It was tough, all the eating, drinking, and shopping that Lovely B and I did. But I kept focused, kept going, there were hard times, gruelling times, testing and challenging, I had to dig deep. But it was worth it, Lovely B gave me an award. So proud!