How do you expect to run with the wolves at night when you spend all day sparring with the puppies?

So, this week was going to be the week where I got my blog on and actually did a bit of writing. It just wasn't to be, and Friday has rolled around again. I think the only thing to do is keep having the good intentions and hopefully life will stop intervening and ruining my plans, what? Still, it's Friday and I've been having a good day working from home so basically it's all good round here.

I've had a busy week. Work has been good, but I've been so busy all week. One of my colleagues left today and working with her on her handover kept me busy, as did all the other bits and pieces I've been working on. Then yesterday our secure admin room (where we store and work on confidential materials) went kaput so there was a lot of flap about that. Luckily nobody was trapped in there, but the problem still isn't totally fixed, so work is going to continue to be interesting for the next wee while, I should think.

I've been working late most evenings so haven't managed any outfit shots from this week, which is a shame because I was in the zone. I felt great all week, which was extremely pleasant! I wore my pretty Vivien of Holloway Jellybean dress on Tuesday (as I was going out for drinks after work with colleagues and friends) and it was awesome. One of my colleagues told me he thought I looked like an Andy Warhol painting, which I took as a compliment. I wouldn't have felt the same if he'd told me I looked like a Picasso (or a Monet!) There is something really fun about swishing around an otherwise quite corporate office in something really flamboyant and colourful. It makes me happy.

Actually, loads of things have made me happy this week. Apart from the occasional scowl at the wall (when that silly wee bitch next door has been making a racket) and my little twitter strop at the far-too-secure-secure-room-incident of yesterday, this week has been one big smile. For one thing, Nic and I celebrated our four-year anniversary on Wednesday. We've known each other for far longer, and in some ways it feels like forever. I'm not going to get all soppy on you all or anything here, but I am very lucky, and very appreciative of my luck. I've been floating along in a little haze of happy loveliness all week, having also had lovely messages from my sister and from one of my oldest friends as well as a beautiful letter from my girl Victoria Deloria. How's that for spoiled?!

I've also had some lovely shiny new-ness this week. Like many of my fellow Challengettes, I've made my Shoe Challenge that little bit harder for myself by buying a pair of shoes. They came from ebay, though, so my bank balance didn't have to wince too hard:

Irregular Choice Little Miss Oh shoes

I actually used to have these in a different colour. I bought them last year in turquoise and purple from the Office sale, but being a size 5 they turned out to be too big. I wore them a handful of times as the ankle strap meant that they did actually stay on my feet but I always felt like my feet looked like big ol' boats in them, so I gave them to a friend and she loves them. I did miss the shape though, so when I saw them in black on ebay I pounced. They were brand new, and only £11, and they fit perfectly. WIN. Sometimes the gods of ebay do smile. I wore them yesterday but not as part of the shoe challenge, so photos of them on my feet to follow.

Also, you might remember me mentioning a few weeks ago that I had some exciting news? The lovely people at Fever Designs asked me to review their Spring/Summer 2011 collection for their blog, and by way of thanks let me choose two of my favourite dresses to have as a present. They're working on making their blog look nice, so my review hasn't been published yet but my dresses arrived today and they are beauteous. I really enjoyed drooling over, I mean perusing the new designs so that was a treat in itself. I plan to wear both of the dresses pretty soon so I'll post a wee review of them when I do. In the meantime, if you haven't already, go and have a look at their new collection online. Beauty everywhere, I tell you!

As I said earlier I've been working from home today and while the sun hasn't exactly been blazing, there was definitely a bit of a springlike feel to the day. After a conversation yesterday on Twitter, and with plans afoot for some sewing this weekend, I thought I'd like to wear something handmade today:

Colette Patterns Chantilly dress, Irregular Choice Flick Flack shoes and that Joules bag again. I just love how it looks with all of my clothes, although you're probably all getting tired of looking at it.

I'm calling this as my third Shoe Challenge, so these Flick Flack shoes are saved. Again, these were ones I had to discard in a size 5 and buy in a size 4, but in a different colour. I see them in black in a 4 somewhere cheap and I am buying them. I am just mad about the foldover detail and the buttons, and the elegant shape of the heel:

I also like the way you can see a wee bit of green peeking around the sole. Cute!

I got a fair bit of work done this morning even with the excitement of new dresses, and we had a nice treat to look forward to at lunchtime - lunch in Kayal with Paul and Viv. Since it opened last year, Kayal has become one of my favourite restaurants, so it's always such a treat to go there. They have a lunch special, which is amazing in terms of value and even better in terms of tastiness:

Kayal Business Lunch - vegetarian. I think you get one meat curry if you get the non-veggie one

It was delicious, and it felt like a real treat to linger over lunch with good friends. Nic extended his lunch by going for a pint afterwards with the boys, while I came back to do some work. I'm going to have to detox a bit and have a light dinner because, as I'm sure you can imagine, I'm extremely full and extremely happy.

I'm going to be getting my sadly neglected sewing machine out tomorrow and starting one of my Walthamstow fabric makes. Nic is off to London, so I'm going to have a nice chilled out afternoon of sewing and chatting with Denise, and I might even have something to show for it at the end (the pattern looks lovely and simple, but then, who knows?!) Failing that, I'll have a living room carpet covered in scraps of thread and fabric and that nice feeling of having had a productive day. Have a lovely evening, my pretties. See you tomorrow!

This whole world has made me crazy, crazy as a loon.

Hey you guys! It's been nearly a week since I wrote a blog and, truth be told, I feel a little bit guilty. Last week was a bit of a slog. My creaky old RSI shoulder was playing up BIG STYLE, I had a lot of boring and fairly physically demanding (as far as, y'know, an office job gets physical) work to do. By Friday evening I was up for a fun time, but a slow-burning headache that had started on Thursday morning kicked off into a horrible migraine on Friday night. I took myself to bed at 9:30, feeling very sorry for myself and very worried I wouldn't be fit for a day out in London on Saturday. So that's what's up with the old radio silence last week, but you weren't missing too much. I did get a new dress (well, I received a dress I bought from Brandalley back in January) and you can see it when I wear it.

Anyhoo. Thankfully the migraine was gone by Saturday morning. It was raining and dull, so I can't say I was up bright and early, but I was up early. Nic, Alysa and I were off to London. Nic had a writing day planned with his friend JP and Alysa and I were taking part in the fabulous Karen's Walthamstow Shopping Frenzy. I was super-excited to finally get to meet Karen, whose blog I have been reading and enjoying for ages. Lysy and I pitched up late thanks to an absolutely horrendous queue to top up Oyster cards at Paddington (Nic to me: "It's a good job you don't have a weapon.") but we caught up with Karen and her enthusiastic band of sewists at Saeed's fabrics. Shopping-wise, Walthamstow Market did not disappoint. Lysy and I both managed to score some excellent fabric finds. In Saeed's fabrics, Lysy found some jersey with a gorgeous drape to it for £2 a metre, and I made my first non-cotton fabric purchase with this beautiful Hobbs-esque pure wool:

It was £5 a metre and well worth it. It's not exactly Spring-y, but I plan to make myself another Rooibos with this, which should be good for these chilly not-quite-Spring days. I'm going to make a few adjustments to the pattern (I'm going to change the neckline a bit) and pipe the pockets and the neckline to pick out the beautiful turquoise in the wool. Saeed's fabrics alone would have been well worth the trek out to Walthamstow, in my opinion. And not just because of the selection either. The people running the shop were incredibly helpful and friendly, as well as knowledgeable and interested in what you were doing (a far cry from my experience in Birmingham's Fancy Silk Stores, although their selection is so good I will give them another try at some point) I will definitely be back to Saeed's fabrics.

The next stop was the fabric stall outside Sainsbury's, and again we both managed to score. I bought some beautiful gingham for my planned Dorothy dress:

There's no place like home! This will look awesome with my sparkly shoes.

This was £2 a metre and it has a really nice drape to it. I can't wait to get sewing with it! Again the stallholder was so friendly and helpful - I think nearly everyone found something nice from this man. We wandered on up, I picked up some notions and so did Lysy. It was a good day. Better than the shopping was meeting the other sewists. Everyone was so friendly and so fun! I was so intent on shopping and chatting that I didn't get my camera out all day, but Karen wrote up a post about it, which you can read here. She has linked back to the fantastic ladies I met yesterday, and you can be sure I'm going to be following up what they get up to with their purchases.

Lysy and I didn't join the ladies for lunch because we had other plans - to head over to Angel to catch up with Nic and JP and some other friends. Looking at the tube map, I noticed that the Holloway Road was on our route there so it seemed like it would be rude not to pay a visit to the Vivien of Holloway shop. Well, okay. I admit it. It wasn't strictly on our route to Angel. We had to change at Finsbury Park, but still. They had a sale on! We went for lunch and a drink first, back to that awesome pub The Coronet that Nic and I went to before Christmas, fortifying ourselves before a session of twirling around in dresses. I had been pretty pleased with myself for not succumbing and buying something in the sale when it was announced online on Friday, but faced with all the dresses and with some cash in my purse, my resolve crumbled. In any case, the dresses were a bit more reduced in the store than online, and without having to pay the £5 postage... well, I have no discipline. What can I say? I'd have just spent that £35 on a dress anyway. I'll show you a photo of what I bought when I wear it, but here is a sneak preview

Peachy keen, jelly-bean.

Shopped out, we headed on over to Angel to the Old Red Lion Theatre. I had a morning of making new friends, and the afternoon was all about meeting old friends. Gathered in the pub with Nic and JP were some awesome people, among them one of my favourite ever people, a gentleman by the name of Dave. We had a few hours of catching up with good people, and I even got a present! A somewhat belated birthday present from JP and his lady Han. A permanent calendar by Sukie, which even has a little window for weather:

And these amazing sewing notions:

Those little crayons? They're buttons. So are the little sewing machine and the spools of thread in the other package. Aren't they awesome?

Nic and I were tired but very pleased with our day when we caught the train back to Leamington, and we finished up by getting takeaway masala dosa from Kayal. It was such a good day, and I am so grateful to Karen for organising it. She was fab, and I hope we can do it again sometime.

Today has been all about catching up. It was too cold and miserable to get out and do much, so apart from some grocery shopping and some chores (a lot o'ironing) I've been chilling out. However, I still managed to save a pair of shoes as part of Shoeperwoman's Shoe Challenge:

Fever Asturias dress and Irregular Choice Hermia wedges

I try not to play favourite with my dresses, but this one is special to me. I dreamed about it before I bought it, which I know sounds crazy, but it's true. Needless to say, I love the enormous pockets and the pleating, and the colour. It's a good'un. The shoes are more Irregular Choice shoes, they're a few seasons old now but I bought them new on ebay. I really like the asymmetrical strap and, although you can't see it in the photo they fasten with the cutest button. You can see better here:

Irregular Choice Hermia wedges

They have the same funny little demi wedge as my mermaid shoes, and I really like the contrasting white heel. Some Irregular Choice shoes are mad, but I think these ones are quirkily classic. I'm pretty happy to have saved them.

That's your lot from me for this evening, but I'm hoping to be more on top of things this week. I didn't manage to answer the Friend Friday questions this week, but I might get around to them in a day or two. In the meantime, go and have a look at Franca's post on the subject and Amber's as well. And when you're done doing that, Ria's blog About Your Dress is having a birthday and running some giveaways too, so go and have a look there too! That's enough link-pimping from me. I've got a hot water bottle, a book, and a cup of tea to be getting on with. I'll see you all soon.

A man don't take care of himself with drinking and jazz and women every night.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I can't stay for very long this evening as I have dinner bubbling away on the stove. Still, I wanted to check in with you all and wish you lots of love today. In many ways Valentine's Day doesn't mean a great deal to me, and I especially dislike all of the marketing that goes on around it. Still, I can't see the harm in there being a day set aside to celebrate love, so celebrate love I do. Nic and I exchanged cards and baked a cake, and ate another cake, and shortly we'll be sharing a dinner and an evening together.

Today is also the first day of Shoeperwoman's Shoe Challenge 2011 and I decided that the first pair to be saved would have to be some of my beloved Irregular Choice shoes:

Numph Summer dress and Irregular Choice Oz shoes

It is still too cold to be going around sleevelessly and I'm not going to lie to you, I nearly wimped out on doing an outside shot today. Also, Nic chastised me by reminding me of all the times Amber posed in the snow! Still, the light was pretty and it makes a change from posing in front of the doors of my wardrobe. As I have discussed before, what I like about these shoes is the heel:

A rather artistic shot of the lovely carved plastic heel

Generally I just appreciate the fact that these shoes are just a little bit too much:

There's a lot going on here, you've got to admit

Nic took me out for a walk in the park, and the edifice I'm posing in front of is a temple to Dr Henry Jephson, who discovered the health benefits of Leamington's Spa water. His memorial is impressive, even if it means his statue is hidden away from the vandalous townspeople of Leamington.

Photo by Nic

After our turn around the park, we wandered along to Sweet As to indulge in my only bit of Valentine's Day consumption: this awesome cake:

It was called the "Lovers' Meringue", I think, and it tasted even better than it looked.

Today I spent some time with my memories. It would have been my beautiful friend Miranda's birthday today, and she would have been 28. She died two years ago and while I think of her often, I always have a special thought for her on this day. Today was also a day to say goodbye to another friend who was taken from us too soon, and so it had a bittersweet tang. It might sound like a cliche to say it, but I took strength and hope from the signs of Spring all around us. Life keeps us moving and healing, and there is beauty in everything, and there is always love. Have a wonderful Valentine's Day, everyone.

Snowdrops in Jephson Gardens

This sign was above us as we ate our delicious cake in Sweet As. Good advice.

I surely am not unfond of you, Peggy, I tell you what.

Evening all. I hope you're all well on this chilly February evening. Nic and I are curled up, watching an absolutely cracking episode of Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman. It started with Lex Luthor pretending to be Superman in a virtual reality game. His costume even says LEX on the front, just like his skyscraper. It is so cool. Also, James Earl Jones is in this episode, so that's also pretty hilarious.

It's been a very cool weekend. On Friday night, Lauren, Tom, Paul and Viv came round so we could watch the second X-Files movie and eat enchiladas. The company was excellent, and so was the wine and the food (especially the amazing peanut butter swirl that Lauren kindly made for us). This was a good thing, because the film? To say that the film sucked would be doing an injustice to all those other films that have sucked. It was really good to watch it in the company of sceptical friends, and under the influence of alcohol. If you need a quick precis of what made the film suck so much, I'll provide one for you:

• Scully does not smile once, in the whole film. Not even when Mulder sidles up to her in bed with a boner. She responds by talking to him about cancer and autopsy reports.
• Billy Connolly plays a paedophile priest who is psychic and bleeds out of his eyes.
• Xzibit is in the movie as an FBI agent. Amanda Peet, too. But at least she actually acts for her job, unlike Xzibit and Billy Connolly.
• We find out that William The Messiah Baby Left With Farmers To Escape Alien Supersoldiers has died. We find this out in one short conversation in bed, shortly after Scully kills Mulder's bonk-on with her sexy talk about incurable illnesses.
• An emotional moment = Mulder shaving off his beard.
• Skinner is in the film, but doesn't appear until 10 minutes before the end. Mitch Pileggi has to suffer the indignity of saying the line "I'll google him on my iPhone"
• Billy Connolly. As a paedophile priest. For the love of god, people!
• The utterly bizarre ending to the film, in which we see Mulder and Scully rowing to a desert island, in bathing suits, waving up at the helicopter that's filming them.

So, you know, alcohol was necessary. Still, we had a very enjoyable evening. The only way to watch a bad film is to watch it with friends.

I was up bright and early on Saturday morning to go to the RSC costume sale with Lysy. We didn't end up going to the sale - when we got there and saw the length of the queue we both thought we'd rather go and have a cup of tea, so that's what we did. There are few things that I would stand in a queue for, maybe a red cross package in the event of some sort of public disaster, but not old theatre costumes. Lysy and I had a really lovely morning. We lingered over breakfast in McKechnies, had a browse around Aspire and the charity shops and I bought Nic some cheese in Paxton and Whitfield before coming home to have lunch with our boys. After that I got into bed with my book to spend a very lazy afternoon. It was the perfect way to spend Saturday. The sun had come out so I was able to dress in a more Spring-like fashion:

Self-made Simplicity 2591 and Irregular Choice Oz shoes

I plan to make myself another dress from this Simplicity pattern because I love the shape of it so much. You can't see in this photo but it also has pockets! These shoes are the same shape as the No Place Like Home shoes I wore last week and they provoke much the same reaction. Lysy was really amused by how many times someone stopped me to comment on them. They are pretty unusual, to be fair. I had a very scary moment when I caught the heel of one in a wonky paving stone and the heel tip pulled off, but luckily enough none of the dowels holding it in place had broken so I was able to just tap it back into place. Still, though, it was a bit of a spooky moment for me. Otherwise I really enjoyed my morning in Stratford. I think it's nicer on a cold day as it isn't quite as full of tourists. There is always something unusual to see and this time around was no different - outside the Shakespeare birthplace a man was selling fresh milk straight from the cow. The cow was called Mabel and she was lovely, but the strange thing wasn't the cow, it was the person standing next to it dressed as a cow. Also, I met this little fella outside a department store:

He managed to turn his head at the last minute, but how cute is this little rabbit?! He belonged to a street artist who was working nearby, and he was just hopping around without a care in the world.

Nic and I have been having a quiet day today and although it's gone a bit cold again I decided to pack away some of my heavier winter clothes, and to get some of my spring clothes out. Just doing that made me feel very cheerful, even if it is still a bit too cold to wear some of them. I thought I'd wear a dress that is spring-like but still warm:

Bettie Page Jazmin dress, Bertie Sardinia shoes and my Joules bag

The belt has been getting much more play than the dress, but I do love this dress. I was shivering on the doorstep here too, and rushed to put my cardigan and coat on after this photo was taken! Nic and I did our grocery shopping, brought some DVD boxed sets into CEX to exchange and had a browse around the shops. I thought I might buy us The Wire season 3 on DVD as we have been rewatching them. They didn't have a copy in either CEX or Fopp, but HMV did. Would you like to know how much they were charging for this boxed set? £53. It isn't out of print, or hard to find, or anything. In fact, this was the price they had on all of the individual season boxed sets. It's scandalous, and it's stupid too. On their website the entire 5 season boxed set can be bought for £58, and the single seasons for £17. It's no wonder that shitty chain is struggling to stay afloat with that sort of pricing. There's just no way they can justify that price, and I struggle to think of anyone who would pay it. So fuck you, HMV. Maybe if your shitty store closes some independents might have a chance.

Hey, that made me feel a bit rage-y. Sorry about that! Nic and I are going to have a lovely evening in with a vegetarian roast dinner, some wine and maybe a film. I'm on leave tomorrow and while we won't do anything specially for Valentine's Day it will be really nice to spend the day together. I will be back tomorrow with my first Shoe Challenge post, though, so I'll see you all then.

Who would have thought a good little girl like you could destroy my beautiful wickedness?

It's that time again, my friends. It's Friend Friday. Today's questions are around colour:

What colour dominates your closet?

I can't say that any one colour dominates my wardrobe. I have quite a lot of reds and pinks in there. I try to avoid buying too many black clothes (although they do sneak in there from time to time) The only colour that is really underrepresented is yellow, although I do have my gorgeous Joules handbag to bring a splash of yellow to my outfits.

If money weren't an issue, how would you change the colour emphasis in your closet?

I don't know... I think I would just have more of each colour!

What is your mantra about mixing colours?

Well now, I can't say I have a mantra about anything. I'm really happy to mix it up, and don't believe that blue and green don't go, or whatever. That said, I probably would stay clear of mixing anything with that weird bile greeny-yellow that was everywhere a few years ago, but that's just because it reminds me of a particularly violent hangover I had a few years ago.

How do you incorporate colours into your outfits?

This past winter, through wearing brightly coloured tights. Otherwise I just buy colourful clothes. It helps, I think, that I don't have specific clothes set aside to wear to work - for a lot of people these tend to be fairly sober and neutral colours. I don't do that, so I think my colourful clothes get a good rotation.

Which bloggers do you think do a good job of incorporating colours into their wardrobes?

Franca, without a doubt. Her outfit posts always make me smile for that reason. I love the way that Sal of Already Pretty is awesome at choosing colours that work together and coordinating the colours of different parts of her outfits.

Just short answers from me this week, folks. Maybe I'm lacking inspiration, or maybe I think I'm already pretty rad at wearing colours, eh?

So, it's been a strange week. I got some awesome news earlier in the week (which I'll share with y'all in due course) and some really, really sad news. One of our Sew Make Believe members passed away tragically last week, and I think we're all still trying to come to terms with the loss. Nadia was an amazing woman and it seems especially hard given that she was so young and so talented. I think it's going to take us all some considerable time to come to terms with it.

Everything else seems extraordinarily trivial after that, but at the same time I think it's so important to just keep on keeping on. I've been working away til steam has been coming out of my pen, proof reading modified tests this week. It's been boring work, to be honest, but I have learned a lot from the process. Also, the more time I have to spend actually working when I'm at work, the better. It distracts me from buying shoes on the internet. That said, buying shoes on the internet is not necessarily a bad thing as the Irregular Choice shoes I bought myself from Black Truffle arrived on Monday. I wore them on Tuesday and I'm wearing them today:

Fever Kobe jacket, Fever Prairie Prom dress, Tara Starlet petticoat, Irregular Choice No Place Like Home shoes and my beautiful Joules Duncombe bag

These shoes are hilarious. I mean, they're pretty awesome for many reasons such as the sequins, the bow, the amazing perspex heel, but they're also hilarious. I lost count of the number of people who stopped me in the street to comment on these on Tuesday, and the people who stopped me in the office as well. The Dorothy connection seems pretty obvious to me (and the shoes are called No Place Like Home) but that might be my film student past. What made me smile was the fact that they seemed to act as a sort of Proustian madeleine for lots of people, vividly reminding them of watching The Wizard of Oz when they were younger. That's only going to intensify when I get my little paws on that gingham Vivien of Holloway dress in the spring. The only thing left to do is to get myself a little dog. Or some flying monkeys, I'm not fussy. Do you want a closer look at the shoeses?

Irregular Choice No Place Like Home shoes

That's right. One really nice thing about today was that it was warm enough to wear one of my spring jackets, and also to be able to show off the pretty frock that Denise lent to me:

Fever Prairie prom dress, Tara Starlet petticoat and Irregular Choice shoes

I have the tunic made from this fabric, so Denise kindly offered to lend me the prom dress. I really like the shape and the sweetheart neckline has nice detailing. It's very pretty and I am enjoying swishing around the house in it today.

I'll leave it here for today. I have some nice weekend plans, including a trip to Stratford to have a rootle through the RSC's old costumes. I don't want to buy Sir John Gielgud's old socks, but I might have the chance to. I have some lovely friends coming around this evening to enjoy mexican food, a David Duchovny fest and some considerable amounts of wine (to get us through the second X-Files movie) If you're at a loose end, blog-wise, you might want to pop across to About Your Dress to read a guest blog about how Black Truffle is going to clean out my bank account. Have a lovely weekend, everyone.

If irritating me is the jackpot, you got the job done.

Oh hai! As Flickr is always telling me, this is how to greet people in lolspeak. Yeah, thanks Flickr. So, Sunday evening yet again. I've got the flat to myself for a few hours while Nic is out at a jazz jam, so I've made some rocky road, read a bit of my book and now I'm farting around on the internet. I have not taken the laundry out of the machine or done the vacuuming, which are the two jobs I set for myself but whatever. I won't be worrying too much about the laundry when in an hour's time I'm having a cup of tea and some rocky road. It's all about perspective, people!

I've had such a fun weekend. I managed to break out of my hibernation slump with our Thursday evening dinner date with Lysy and The Scientist, and Nic and I have been very sociable all weekend. On Friday night we were off to the Somerville to celebrate Denise's birthday with a few gins. The Somerville was seriously busy because it was the popular Irish music evening but we managed to find a seat, which we eventually colonised as there was a big crowd of us folks. It was a lot of fun. It was really good to catch up with old friends and to make some new ones, as Denise had some family visiting. Nic and I finished off the evening very late with some chips and our Kate Bush records. It was awesome. As usual, I was totally over dressed for the occasion, but I enjoyed that too. I finally got around to wearing that Tara Starlet petticoat with the dress I bought it for:

Vivien of Holloway halterneck circle dress and Vivienne Westwood for Melissa shoes

Yes, it's that belt again. But seriously, folks, it makes EVERYTHING look better. And I love this dress so much, so it did not bother me one tiny bit that I was totally overdressed for the pub. Also, I managed not to spill any chilli sauce on it when I was eating my chips so: relief! I'm really looking forward to being able to wear this dress during the day in the warmer weather.

After our very late night on Friday (we did manage to listen to a lot of Kate Bush when we got home. And no, that's not a euphemism for something y'all don't want to hear about) I was quite up for a relaxing Saturday. After a nice long lie in, I dandered on up to the White Horse to meet Sugar Plum for the vintage fair. Oh, and I wore this:

Fever Cezanne dress and Topshop shoes

I can't think of too much to say about this outfit. I really like this dress and it's suprisingly warm - maybe it's all of the layers or something. It also works really well with these earrings:

When I had the flu at the start of the week and was feeling miserable, Nic took me out for a walk to cheer me up and he bought me these wee earrings from Lilac Rose. Aren't they sweet? He chose them himself as well. Good man.

I was pretty impressed with the fair, and I'll definitely go to more. There was a good selection of clothes and bric a brac, and also some nice handmade items. I didn't buy any clothes (I couldn't really be faffed with trying anything on) but I did manage to find myself some excellent Hornsea:

Hornsea Smarties mug and eggcups

I'm not sure when these were made, I think late 70s-early 80s. I've been looking for some for ages, so I was super happy to find some. Like a lot of Hornsea, these were produced in vast quantities so they're not especially valuable, but I love them. I really like the stamp on the bottom as well:

There were a few people selling Hornsea - mainly Heirloom jars, and I have quite a lot of these already, but I couldn't resist these. I've yet to use the egg cups, but I have had tea in my mug already. After a browse around the fair, we took ourselves off for coffee and cake and a nice long catch up, which was lovely. Nic spent the afternoon writing, and we were both feeling pretty lame and tired out (we are so not young any more) so had a really quiet evening in.

Nic and I went out this afternoon to celebrate our friend Tom's birthday. He was having a lunch in a cafe in town, but we joined them just in time for dessert. I've held a grudge against this particular cafe for many years after some assy service and a gritty smoothie, and I have to admit, the grudge is still intact. We had some cake, which was okay, and coffee as well. The coffee was fine but it was served in a glass. A hot drink in a glass is so STUPID. It looks trendy but without a handle, it's hard to drink. So, screw that place. But it was really good to see everyone. I decided to wear a dress that I've been neglecting:

Ruby Belle sailor pinafore and Irregular Choice Hermia shoes

I love this dress, it's so cute! For some reason it's been languishing, unworn in my wardrobe for ages. I'm not too keen on the boning in the bodice because it bows a little bit but at least it doesn't dig in the way it does in some other dresses. Mainly, I love the print around the bottom:

Little sailors - they always make me think of the title sequence of Jeeves and Wooster

Of course, it also gave me the excuse to wear the plastic anchor necklace that Lauren gave me. All good. And, Nic's just come home! This evening we're having tasty veggie sausage casserole, watching a film and eating that rocky road. Life is pretty good right now! So, I'm away. I do have more meaningful stuff to say but I'm going to save that for this week. It's Sunday night and I'm lazy, but I'll catch you all in the week.

That's the worst thing about working for yourself. There's nobody to steal from.

I had actually planned to blog this last night but, well, forward planning is not always my strong point. So, here we are on Friday evening. How are we all doing?

I'm pleasantly suprised by how my week managed to pick itself up after having such a crappy beginning. I've had a good work week (what remained of it after the lurgy-ness) and that always makes me feel happy. I had a really nice chat with a lovely former colleague, which perked up a work day, and my colleagues have all been in good form. In fact, one of them brought us all back some rock from Scarborough after spending most of the week there for work reasons. All good!

Yesterday I wore one of the dresses Denise very kindly lent to me

Fever Serang sun dress, purple cardigan from Warehouse and Bertie Sardinia shoes

Naturally enough, I paired it with my petticoat to make the skirt feel nice and swishy. It did the trick, and lots of people commented on the beautiful colours of the fabric. It perfectly matched my pretty purple cardigan from Warehouse, and by a nice coincidence is also perfectly matched my nail varnish (Barry M nail paint in fuschia) All good stuff! I like the detailing around the neckline of this dress as well:

Now this might be a bit too TMI for y'all but this dress made me feel very....bosomy. As it worked out, it didn't seem that way when I put it on in the morning but as the day progressed, well, I was buttoning up my cardigan. So I don't know if this dress would be a long-termer for me. Still, I really enjoyed wearing it and it was very kind of Denise to lend it to me!

I got home to find that some of the DVDs I ordered on Amazon had arrived and Nic made me coffee, and we settled down to watch a few episodes of Roseanne (season 5) before heading out for dinner. After January's austerity I promised Nic some tasty foody treats in the shape of a takeaway from Kayal but after some discussion with Lysy this turned into a dinner date with her and The Scientist. I brought my camera with the general plan of taking some photos, but when the food arrived I just wanted to eat it, so you're going to have to imagine! I can't rate Kayal highly enough. Every time we've been there we've had a good experience, and last night was no exception. The food is delicious and really reasonably priced and the service is personal and attentive without being intrusive. I had the masala dosa for my main course and, as well as being enormous, it was amazing! The Scientist had the Sadaya (thali) which is a banquet including dessert and the waiter brought the rest of us complimentary desserts as well. I was full to bursting when it was time to go home, but very happy. Naturally enough the quality of the company matched the excellence of the food, so I thoroughly enjoyed my evening!

I don't have an outfit shot for today because I'm wearing exactly the same outfit that I blogged about a fortnight ago (Emily and Fin dress, pink tights, Lady Dragon shoes) but as I am off out tonight to celebrate the birthday of someone special I will have an extra one to share with you tomorrow. I'll leave you with a link to Shoeperwoman - she's starting to post pictures of my fellow Shoe Challengers' shoe collections and it's verrry pretty viewing. Also, next week I'll have some more shoes to share with you all. Lauren sent me the link to Black Truffle. This was fatal, as I bought these:

Irregular Choice No Place Like Home shoes

These babies were £25! It's no wonder Lauren bought four pairs of shoes. As for me, I think Nic's going to have to confiscate my debit card. Now, I'm away to get ready. Have a lovely weekend, my darlings! x

Yeah, yeah we both saw that after-school special. But I'm not an alcoholic, and you're not an ice skater.

Evening all! I'm very relieved to say that I seem to be mostly over the flu. I mean, I'm still going to moan and whinge a little bit about my sore legs and being tired and all, but mostly I'm fine. I was back in work today and everything. Hopefully I'm done now with the lurgies, fingers crossed.

I spent yesterday mainly moping around the house and sleeping, but I did also take delivery of a new dress. I was browsing on Sunday for potential birthday presents for a friend and, of course, ended up buying myself a present. That's how I roll. In my defence, it was an actual bargain in that it was something I wanted, at a greatly reduced price. I bought myself the Fever Delilah dress from online boutique My Violet Hill. I have to say, I could not be more impressed with their service. This isn't a sponsored post, or anything, but they did well! My dress was amazingly priced at £19.50 and they have a price-match so if I'd seen it elsewhere cheaper, they would have sold it to me at that price! Also, it came really fast, beautifully wrapped with a hand-written note and some vouchers enclosed. I think it's safe to say that they'll be getting some more of my hard-earned cash in future. Anyway, on to the dress - which I wore to work today. I figured I'd need something to make me feel excited about going into work!

Fever Delilah dress and Firetrap Desire shoes

Sorry, the lighting's not so good in this one. Nic snapped me in the fading light as soon as I got home from work. But you get the general idea. I was tickled by how the ruffles on my shoes mirrored the ruffles on the neckline of the dress. I loved wearing this dress. This was due, in some part, to the fact my colleague Darren described it as 'power dressing' and then went on to say I reminded him of Melanie Griffith in Working Girl. As I love that film, I took that as a compliment!

Lovely lovely ruffles

This is the face of a woman who has spent most of the day copying, collating and labelling modified test papers. Sometimes my job is so exciting I can't cope. Actually, though, apart from all of the photocopying (the photocopier mercifully behaved itself today) my work day was pretty okay. I had my appointment with the Better West Midlands consultant. I've decided not to go for the Prince2 course. I was totally tempted by the fact that it's expensive and would be paid for, but in the end I thought I really did not want to be spending my working life wrangling spreadsheets and PRIME and god knows what else. So instead I'm going to probably be doing a management and leadership course. It's less fuzzy than it sounds - there's an actual, nationally recognised qualification. So that's pretty cool. I should be getting the details in the next few weeks. I have to say, I'm pretty relieved. And I'm excited about the course, whenever it starts.

I'm sure I'll be back in the next few days - I'm hoping the end of this week will compensate for the rubbish start. Nic and I are off out tomorrow night for a meal with some friends, and on Friday night I'll be at the pub to celebrate a good friend's birthday. And who knows, maybe I'll be passing some of my cash to Lauren at the vintage fair this weekend.

I'll just leave you with a shameless plug for a guest blog I wrote. Ria's fantastic blog About Your Dress is now home to a post by me, about some pretty dresses I want. Go and read it! Then, you know, have a cup of hot sweet tea to compensate for the shock of discovering that I want a new dress.