Don't hate me because I'm beautiful. There are so many other, better reasons.

Hello my loves, happy Wednesday! Compared to last week, this week is flying by - can't complain about that, though. I've been on strike today, so not at work. Yesterday, I was working in our offices in Westminster because Nic and I had a very exciting evening planned. I don't miss commuting to London every day as I used to, but I am pleased to have the opportunity to work there more often. Our office is in the heart of Westminster, and the view is gorgeous from my team's corner of the office:

The view from my desk, round to the right is the Houses of Parliament

The view after work, on my walk to meet Nic

After a good work day, I met Nic for a drink before heading over the river to the BFI - we were going to an event celebrating the 30th anniversary of Cagney & Lacey - a talk given by Barney Rosensweig, Sharon Gless and Tyne Daly. We were lucky to get tickets - Nic was online as soon as they went on sale and they sold out within the day. When we got to BFI Southbank, there was already a considerable queue for standby tickets. It's a funny thing - Nic and I are both big Cagney & Lacey fans, and it's easy to imagine that you're the only one, but obviously this wonderful series has lots of dedicated fans. And they're not all middle-aged women, either - the crowd was totally mixed in terms of gender and age, which was awesome. Nic and I had time for a champagne cocktail in the bar before the event:

I had the violet and elderflower cocktail, Nic had a classic champagne cocktail - delicious!

Nic and his champagne - note his Sharon Gless badge!

When we were sitting in the bar, Sharon and Tyne walked through on their way to the green room. I was so excited when I smiled at Sharon Gless, and she smiled back! It was a total fangirl moment. The talk opened with a screening of the title sequence and it was so much fun to be in an audience full of excited Cagney & Lacey fans!

The stage

The talk was being chaired by Dame Jenni Murray, and was punctuated by some wonderful clips. We had amazing seats and it was really thrilling to be able to see the little looks that passed between Sharon and Tyne, and to hear them talk about the show with such humour. There was time for questions at the end, and I was able to ask one - I was nervous, but so thrilled to be able to put a question to some of my favourite TV stars! There was time afterwards to meet the stars and Barney, but sadly we had to skedaddle to catch a train back up to Leamington.
Today I've been feeling a bit under the weather and I've been taking it pretty easy, but I did finally book my flights home for Christmas which is majorly exciting. Nic and I took a wee turn in town to do some grocery shopping and buy some essentials (tights and moisturiser - payday is exciting in the Clackett household!) I also took some time to sort my wardrobe out and get ready for Dressember.

Last December a few of my fellow bloggers took part in the Dressember challenge, the challenge part being to wear a dress (or a skirt) each day in December and to document their progress. I loved reading all of the Dressember posts because you know me and dresses, but I decided not to take part because – well, you might have noticed, but I wear dresses all the time. So, I reasoned that part of it wasn’t going to be that much of a challenge for me. In fact, wearing anything other than dresses would be the challenge for me, and… no.

I’ve rethought it this year, though. It’s still not going to be a challenge to wear a dress a day, but I think I’m going to do it anyway. For one thing, I have a lot of dresses. A lot. It’s not like I’m that person who only wears a proportion of their wardrobe, either – all but my fanciest dresses get worn reasonably frequently. Still, though – I think it would be good to encourage me to mix it up a bit, and not keep falling back on a few favourites.

Taking an outfit photo every day is going to be a bit more of a challenge, especially as the evenings are so dark and the lighting isn’t brilliant in our wee flat. Blogging more frequently is probably going to be a bit of a challenge as well, and this is one of the reasons why I want to get involved.

I’ll be honest here, too. The “will blog for seal claps” bit of me enjoys the attention as well. I have a lot of lovely clothes – some of which I’ve made with my own fair hands – I’m looking forward to showing them off a bit more often. I’m vain, what can I say?!

Any of my lovely readers going to be taking part in Dressember this year? Let me know in the comments! As it's not such a challenge for me to wear a dress every day, I'm going to try to wear a different dress every day. I might not be able to manage this around Christmas as I'll be at home, and I only have limited hand luggage. But I'll do my best.

Today I thought I'd get a headstart and wear a dress I haven't blogged yet. My darling Nic surprised me with this dress for my birthday:

Miso dress and Topshop shoes

I have to admit, it's not my usual style and it wrinkles like hell, but I think it's adorable. I love the collar and the bishop sleeves. It's too short for work, though, and I think you can see my slip peeping out the bottom, there! Still, with some thick tights on I think this works for a nice casual dress. The other thing I like about it is seeing what Nic would choose when left to his own devices, and it's interesting to me to see what direction his taste lies in.

Anyway, I'm feeling a bit better now than I was earlier, but I'm going to settle in this evening with veggie sausages and mash and a DVD. I'll be back tomorrow for my first day of Dressember, so see you all then.