You think Stanleys grow on trees? Well, they don't. There is no Stanley Tree.

Happy Friday (almost) afternoon my sweets! Sadly, it's chucking it down here in Leamington right now, but I hope wherever you are the bank holiday weekend is a bit better. Especially if you're down in Kent, because that's where Nic and I are headed shortly for a little seaside weekend!

Despite the rain, I'm in a very festive mood. It's been a really good week. My darling Nic finished his PhD thesis and submitted it to the university yesterday, so much of the week has been about getting him through those last few days and then celebrating when he did. I don't want to make you all boke but I am so, so proud of him for working so hard over the past four years. I'm full of admiration for anyone who has the perseverance and intelligence to complete a thesis. Also, I'm happy to have Nic back in the land of the living.

As I said, much of the week has been devoted to celebrating and, as such, I've spent a fair proportion of it in the pub. Tuesday and Wednesday evening were both enriched by having drinks with friends. I'm not normally that much of a social butterfly but I could get used to it! Wednesday was also the Sew Make Believe stash swap, so I got to be doubly sociable (and this meant cake in addition to wine, which was good!) I wore a new (from ebay) dress that had arrived for me on Tuesday:

River Island bird print dress and Bertie Sardinia shoes

I never could have believed that River Island were capable of producing such lovely clothes until I saw this frock on Amber a few months ago. It was sold out in my size and I didn't have the money anyway, but it was good to know that it was out there somewhere. After I bought the apple print version of the dress in the sale a while back, I added this one to the list of things I periodically look for on ebay. This includes a navy and white dress from Laura Ashley that I regret not buying, a number of Fever dresses, various incarnations of the Emily and Fin Lucy dress... the list is quite long, actually. I have been really lucky with it though, finding most of the things on there at some point. Anyhow, when this dress popped up in my size last week of course I bid on it, and I'm glad I did. It's really nicely made and the fabric is just so pretty.

Little bird print

At the same time I bought the same dress in another print - pictures to come soon when I wear it! It's just the right length on me and it feels lovely to wear, so it's another ebay success. And although I did get one pretty unpleasant (and surprising) comment about it, quite a few other people paid me very lovely compliments. And you know, I do it all for the compliments!

I was working from home yesterday so I could be at home when Nic returned from actually submitting his thesis, and I'm sure you can imagine the festive atmosphere in the Clackett household. While I worked, Nic ate ice cream and watched The Flash. I might have eaten some ice cream too. Maybe. That evening some dear friends had invited us round for dinner and as the sun was still shining I thought I'd get in another shoe save:

Phase Eight wrap dress and Topshop suede bow shoes

I'm looking a bit crumpled here, sorry. I love this dress but it's not at all practical for eating a big meal in - that waist tie starts to feel pretty tight after you've eaten a lot! I don't wear these wee shoes as often as I ought to, but they are very elegant. Nic bought them for me as a present about two years ago, and they've held up very well:

I'd never thought of wearing them with this wrap dress, but I'm glad I did. Also, they were eminently suitable for a tipsy trip home.

Now, I'm off to make some sandwiches and a flask of tea - a train picnic for the journey to Kent. I hope you all have a very lovely bank holiday weekend, and I shall see you next week.

I am a graduate of Starfleet Academy. I know many things.

Evening all! Well, after the excitement of last Monday and my 'day in my life' post, the rest of the week was pretty quiet. You guys should be relieved it wasn't a week in my life, seriously. No, not really. Last week was grand, pretty uneventful but good. I don't have much in the way of news to share. On Wednesday I wore my Call Me Betty dress and one of the highlights of my day was a man stopping me on the street to tell me I looked like someone out of a film. He clarified further, saying the film he was thinking of was Grease, and I kind of get what he meant. It was a nice compliment!

Call Me Betty Grace in Stars dress and red double t-bar shoes from Topshop

These shoes fall into the 'I've worn them lots but not bothered to save them yet' camp, so I'm going to call this a Shoeper Shoe Save! They go perfectly with this dress, and I know it's totally unadventurous sartorially speaking, but I love red and white with navy.

I spent most of the week looking forward to Friday lunchtime, as Nic and I had made plans with Rick and Lauren for lunch in Kayal. They do a ridiculously good value lunch deal (which I have blogged about before) and excited is an understatement. It's billed as a business lunch so there was much talk of wearing power suits etc but the sun came out, so I had to go with plan B.

Sewaholic Lonsdale dress and Vivienne Westwood for Melissa Lady Dragon shoes

These are also frequently worn but not yet saved shoes, so this is also a save. Lauren and I were a bit on the matchy side as she had on her cherry Lady Dragon shoes, but it's all good. The people in the restaurant were too busy revelling in the amazingly tasty food to notice, I'm sure. It was a really good end to an otherwise boring work week, and although we had some boring chores to do in the afternoon (going to the bank, going to the post office) it's easier to do these things when you've just spent the hour before having fun with friends.

Nic was working so I spent Saturday sewing and reading, but we did go out to do the grocery shopping and go to lunch, and I saved another pair of shoes. I know that seems like a lot but I'm behind in this - I have actually worn lots of the shoes I want to save, but haven't been that good at recording them.

Fever Daydreamer dress and Miss Selfridge platform wedges


Wedges!

These shoes are totally different to anything else I own but I like them. They're pretty over the top so I think they need something equally over the top to go with them - hence the rather ridiculous dress. Nic and I were only running errands in town and I don't often feel over dressed, but I did a bit in this. Still, I can live with that. I did get changed for the evening, however, as Lysy and The Scientist had invited us round to their house to eat Chinese food and play board games in celebration of Lysy's birthday. We had such a good evening, and I ate and drank so much that I was very grateful to have changed into something looser and more comfortable (not to mention flat shoes for the drunken, mostly downhill walk home. I could have done myself a serious mischief in the other ones!)

When Nic and I got home from Lysy's house, we were pretty tipsy, so naturally enough it was time to bust out the Kate Bush records and do a bit of dancing.

Aww yeah

I'm sure our downstairs neighbours hate us for the number of times we've listened to Kate Bush in the early hours of the morning, but do you know what? I don't care - they're noisy twats. I was dancing around to Hounds of Love and I suddenly felt perfectly happy. It's a good song and all (it's a really good song, and the music video is excellent as well) but even Ms Bush doesn't have that kind of power. It's because life is good, and I'm so glad to feel that way. I feel happier than I have done in a long time. I'm sorry to get introspective on you all again, but it's because I feel like I've managed to rid my life of all of the unnecessary complications that were dragging me down. Things are much simpler now, I don't have any of the stupid drama clouding my head now that I once did, and I also know how to avoid it. I feel like I've regained a lot of the confidence that I lost. So, basically, I'm pretty happy right now and that can only be a good thing. I'm going to leave you with a picture of Queen Victoria with a traffic cone on her head, and then I'm going to go and read my book.

Yeah. I know this looks photoshopped or something, but I think the camera on my phone was just reacting to the surrealness of the image

I can't tell you how much this made me laugh when I saw it on Friday. I think this is pretty impressive pranking. Anyway, I'll catch you all later. Goodnight!

A day in my life: Monday 15th August 2011

The wonderful Amber wrote a hilarious post the other day - a day in her life in Instagram. I loved the idea, so on Monday I did the same thing. I loved reading about Amber's day, and I was interested to see how I'd view my day if it was chronicled in the same way. So, be ready for lots of pictures! I took these with the Vignette app on my android phone, I don't have an iphone.

So, here goes!

Nic asleep, 7:15 am

My day usually starts with me getting up before Nic does. I'm not complaining, because it's not like I have to get up at an unreasonable time. Nic usually dozes while I get dressed, and some mornings he brings me a cup of tea. But this morning he was fast asleep even when I left the house, which was pretty cute.

This photo is really blurred, but it was dark! Sorry...

I'm not going to show you the shower I had, but when I was in the shower I decided what I was going to wear today, and hung it up on my wardrobe door while I was drying my hair. I don't leave myself enough time to faff around much in the mornings, so this discouraged me from changing my mind. That said, it did take me a while to decide on what shoes to wear, so the process isn't exactly seamless. Nic was still asleep while I was clomping around trying on shoes and gathering my stuff up.
My walk to the station. It's actually really nice - across the Pump Room Gardens and over the river. It looks especially pretty on a sunny morning. I don't always pay that much attention - usually I'm walking very fast to catch my train - but I had a bit more time this morning so I was able to appreciate it. Usually by the time I get to the bridge I run into a man who walks his bassett hound there every morning but he wasn't there today! So I'll leave that one to your imaginations, because the bassett hound is extremely cute.
It's a short train journey to Coventry so I don't always bother bringing a book, but more recently I have been. I've realised that even that 10 minutes each way is a good time for me to read! So this morning I finished my book - The Heart of London by Monica Dickens. I started it a while back, then put it down halfway through and read two other books (Out of the Shelter by David Lodge and The Hand That First Held Mine by Maggie O'Farrell, both of which were so excellent I raced through them in little more than a day) I've read a few other novels by Monica Dickens over the years and this one really took me by surprise because it is so gritty. Like, really grim in places. It has the same sort of grimy post-war feel as something like 10 Rillington Place (and, indeed, The Heart of London has a few murders in it, one of which seems to be a nod to what happened at 10 Rillington Place) I enjoyed it, but I was glad to come to the end of it. I think my next read is going to be One Good Turn by Kate Atkinson.Once I get to Coventry my walk is decidedly less picturesque, although it's not too bad. This morning it was a bit weird, though. Firstly I was followed part of the way - which, I know, that sounds a bit dramatic but I really was. The woman who was following me made it very clear that's what she was doing. This has never happened to me before, though, so don't worry. The other strange thing was all of the items of discarded clothing I spotted on my way - two jumpers and two (different) shoes at various points on my route to the office. Coventry can be a bit like that.

My office. It's a new building and despite its many flaws (the main one being the completely unpredictable heating system) it's actually quite nice to work here. Well at any rate it's close to the railway station, my walk this morning took me just over 10 minutes. I take the lift to the 8th floor and get my stuff out of my locker.
...and set my desk up. We have hot desking (although I sit at the same desk most days) and laptops, so there's always a little bit of faffing around in the morning hooking it up to the gubbins to get going. I have my own special little keyboard because I'm special! No, not really, it's a shortened keyboard because of RSI in my right arm and shoulder. Wow, my work day is shaping up to be super glamorous and interesting for you all, isn't it?! No. Just be thankful that I've decided against taking pictures of the eye-rollingly boring meeting I have to attend on Monday morning or the finance paperwork I did following that.I don't always go out at lunchtime, which is a bit of a mistake really, because then we end up just talking about work. However, when I was at the pub on Friday night Lysy was wearing a frock that she'd made out of some Ikea bedlinen and hot damn if I didn't want some! Luckily, Ikea is a short walk from my office. The bed linen in question was so nice that I bought a set for dressmaking (£1.99, thanks very much) and another set for my actual bed. I don't care if my dress matches my bed, and I don't care what that says about me. I managed to resist the temptation of buying things I hadn't gone to Ikea for (always a risk, especially in the kitchenware bit) but this was mainly because it was very busy, and I wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. Well, after I'd had my lunch (a veggie hot dog and some elderflower cordial)

I am still gutted that Ikea have stopped selling mini Dime (or Daim, or whatever) bars. This nonsense that they have to replace it just won't do.

Chocolate with butterscotch pieces? Godis Chokladrokan? Shove it, Ikea. Shove it sideways. But also, thanks for the lovely £1.99 bed linen.

The rest of the afternoon is pretty quiet - just working - but when I get home from work one of the first things I do is to put my new bed linen on the bed. I needed to change the sheets anyway, and I like this a lot.While I am doing the bed, Nic is busy sorting me out with a little afternoon snack - fresh coffee and toasted English muffins, which I eat while we watch an episode of The Office - this has become one of my favourite things to watch and it's very nice to come home from work to. I never get tired of how cute Kevin is!Blogging! This photo didn't come out very well, but I wrote my blog on my teeny little laptop while Nic went back to work. Nic had been indoors all day so it was time to go for a walk. First up was our local corner shop, Kang's. Actually, I feel a bit tight on Kang's by featuring them like this because we didn't buy anything from them. This was the first time in three years that they didn't have what we were looking for! Still, Kang's is an excellent shop and they're high on my list of things I love about Leamington. We had to get what we needed in Tesco instead, but faffing around with the stuff in the seasonal aisle eased the pain a little bit. Also we ran into Lysy, which was an unexpected treat. There really isn't much else to say about Tesco.Right - these weird metal torsos are for sale in a furniture shop on our walk home from Tesco. Some of the furniture might be quite nice - I have no idea because I'm always distracted by the variety of very expensive naked metal ladies. Maybe it's just because we watched Terror of the Autons recently, but I find them really sinister. Also, I can't believe how expensive they are. Would you spend £450 on a life-size (sort of) metal lady? While the dinner is cooking, Nic and I watch a film that he wants to write about. It's a 40s police procedural and it's notable for me because the main character is called Daniel Muldoon, which is my brother's name. While we're watching I do a little bit of crochet work, as I'm making a present for someone. When we're finished eating dinner, a car alarm starts sounding outside so we decide to go to bed. Luckily Monday night is New Tricks night on the BBC so we watch that on the iplayer while I have a cup of tea. It was a really good episode - I think New Tricks gets better and better and this one was really tense. Also, it had lots of excellent guest stars - Barry from Eastenders, Rebecca Front and Tim McInnerny. He seems to exclusively play villains now, and it's all very enjoyable. One of the things I really like about New Tricks is the way it's not afraid to experiment a bit stylistically and last night was no exception. Also I love the location filming - the climax of the episode was played out at St Pancras statopn and it was beautifully shot. And finally it's time to go to sleep - Nic and I have been taking it in turns to read The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole to one another, and it rounds off the evening nicely. Good night all!

If we have to defend ourselves, I will stab the security guard in the eye with the jumbo chalk

Happy Monday everyone! I'm feeling uncharacteristically chirpy today, probably because the sun is shining, I have a little seaside holiday on the horizon, I have some nice sewing projects on my sewing table... I don't know, just feeling nice and optimistic today. It's a good feeling!

Of course, it also helps that I had a very lovely weekend. I worked from home on Friday and rounded off a pleasant week with a few drinks in my favourite pub with Lysy and The Scientist. I got all dressed up in a new frock, but sadly it was too dark for me to get a satisfying photo of it, so I'm just going to have to wait a while before I show it to you. It shows you how far outfit shots have become a matter of course for me, though, because I was genuinely a bit sad that it wasn't going to work out. We had a thoroughly lovely evening, and it was just what Nic needed after a long day toiling over his thesis. Lysy and I talked sewing, as she was wearing an amazing Cynthia Rowley dress she'd made out of some fabric from Ikea - which made me determined to get to Ikea at lunchtime today to buy some of the same fabric (for another Lonsdale dress, or another Chantilly dress, or possibly both because there's enough fabric!)

Saturday was a very quiet day as Nic was working, and I was sleepy. We did have a little wander in town and a browse in the charity shops. There's a new one around the corner from me, and we were both pleased with what we got - Nic bought some videos of The Flash for 25p each (it's because we've been watching Dawson's Creek, if you can believe!) and I bought a paperback copy of The Mitford Girls by Mary Lovell for 80p, and they were also handing out buns with wee cat faces on them! So that was good. It was nice and warm, and I had a sudden notion to wear my lovely Chantilly dress

Colette Patterns Chantilly dress and Irregular Choice Flick Flack shoes

The skirt is quite voluminous as it is fully lined, but I thought I'd wear a petticoat underneath it anyway. It was very swishy indeed, and prompted a fair few people to stop me and comment on it, which was nice. The lady on the till in the Myton hospice shop went off into a little reverie about her dancing days, and was amused and interested by how closely the shoes matched the dress. I'm sure it's the attention seeking part of me, but I love it when that kind of thing happens, it's nice to think that what I'm wearing can provoke happy memories!

In the afternoon while Nic worked I watched a bit more Dawson's Creek - Kate kindly lent me her DVDs of Season 3 and it is highly enjoyable stuff. I have always had a bit of a love/hate relationship with this show, but it's difficult to deny the fondness I have for it. It's just too much fun to watch Dawson's constant twattishnes! It's the perfect show to have on in the background while you're pottering, and I got a bit of ironing done, and a bit of crafting, and indulged my love of talking to the TV.

Joey, you kissed that cat's ass. How do you sleep at night?

Saturday evening was as delightfully sociable as Friday evening. Lauren and Rick came round bearing cava and crisps, which added perfectly to the wine and cheese we already had. It was one of those really relaxing evenings where the time goes by really fast and it's bedtime before you know it. The kind of evening that totally recharges the batteries.

After a very lazy start to Sunday morning Nic and I got dressed and went out for a walk and a spot of blackberry picking.

Fever Anoushka dress and those Topshop sandals again

I bought this dress in a charity shop and I have to admit, I'm not totally convinced by it. It's a size bigger than I would normally buy, and I don't know - do you think the top of it makes me look like a pirate? Or like I have really wide shoulders?! In any case, it's nice and comfortable and cool, although of course not at all practical for diving in and out of bramble thickets. I scratched the shit out of my arms, and got my toes stung by nettles. Still, though, it was totally worth it - especially as on our travels we discovered a few apple trees. When you find blackberries and apples growing in the same spot, that's nature's way of telling you to make a crumble, am I right?

Picking blackberries, scratching myself, plotting desserts



Nic doing the same

And that, my friends, was my weekend. I'll be back tomorrow, though. I already have the blog written. Just something for you all to look forward to! x

I sing in the shower. Sometimes I spend too much time volunteering. Occasionally I'll hit somebody with my car. So sue me!

Hello my loves! Well, this week got away from me somewhat. It's been a busy one, one of those when you can't quite believe it's already Friday. Not that I'm complaining, or anything. But if you've been feeling neglected, it hasn't been intentional, I swear!

So, where did we leave off? On Friday afternoon I went along to a wine focus group. It was pretty cool. What I know about wine could fill up a thimble, but the wine shop is nice and I figured that I couldn't turn my nose up at free wine. The deal was you turn up, you fill out a questionnaire, you try some wines. The questions weren't about the wine itself, but about the packaging, so I felt a bit more confident on that front. Once we'd filled out our forms, we got down to the more serious business of tasting the wines.

The wines we were discussing

The wines we were tasting were pretty good, too. There were two reds, two whites and a sparkling wine. The whites were excellent - two different Sauvignon Blancs, both very different and both delicious. I'm not a red wine drinker at all, and I was surprised by how much I enjoyed both of the red wines. There was a really light and fruity Cabernet Sauvignon, which the wine lady suggested would be nice a little bit chilled. The other was a Syrah and as I'm not much of a wine drinker I couldn't fairly describe it without resorting to cliches, so I won't. But it was bloody delicious, and it was only an attempt at fiscal prudence that stopped me from leaving the shop with a bottle of it. All in all, it was a thoroughly satisfying way to pass a sunny Friday afternoon.

Denise and I, enjoying the sweet sweet taste of free wine

The afternoon drinking left me feeling rather sleepy so, although Nic and I had a date at the pub to fare Lauren well on her travels, we stayed for one and had an early night. I was up bright and early on Saturday morning to join Lysy on a jaunt over to Rugby to visit Zoe, have some tasty vegetarian food and to have a prowl around the charity shops. We had a fab day, and we both came home fairly laden down with goodies. I found a book I'd been looking for for 30p, some lovely Topshop sandals in a charity shop and Zoe donated LOTS of yarn, some vintage sewing notions and a Hornsea jar to add to my collection. Not to mention the fact that she treated both of us to tea and home-baked treats in her lovely home. It was a good day.

We didn't eat these Tunnocks Tea Cakes, but I loved the way Zoe had them displayed

I had a considerable amount of rushing around to do when I got home, as Nic and I had made plans to spend Saturday evening hanging out with Kate and her baby girl Evie. We walked up to Kate's house, enjoying the rain and the walk. I was somewhat disturbed to find my old Nemesis lurking in the streets of Leamington:

This brought back some unpleasant memories of A-level English lessons...

We had a bedtime cuddle with Evie before settling in for an evening of wine, pizza and The Office. It was so much fun to hang out with Kate, and really enjoyable to watch The Office with someone else who loves it and wanted to talk about it. It was a fab evening.

Sunday was very quiet as Nic was working, so I settled down to a bit of sewing and a lot of pottering. It was most restful and enjoyable, and we even managed to get a little walk in what sunshine there was left in the afternoon. I took the charity shop Topshop sandals out for a test, and they're okay. They rub a bit, but nothing a footsore old veteran like me can't handle.

Fever Detroit Chiffon dress and Topshop sandals

I love this dress - it was another ebay purchase from a few months ago. Of course, the first time I wore it I got chocolate pudding on it, so lucky for me the fabric washes well. Since last Sunday I've worn the sandals a few times too:

Topshop sandals

After an indolent weekend, it was straight into a busy week at work. Monday went by in a bit of a blur, and on Tuesday and Wednesday I was working in London. I have to admit, on Monday night I was getting a bit worried about going to London due to the riots, but I needn't have worried. I was working in our parent organisation's offices in Westminster, and it was a tiring few days. The work is fantastically interesting - which is a really nice change - but it was very tiring. Still, I really appreciated the change in pace because I have been so bored recently. It helped too, that I was working in such a pretty part of London.

My walk to the office

I rushed back on Wednesday afternoon for the Sew Make Believe book group, so by last night I was bloody knackered. Like last week, Nic and I were rudely awoken at about four in the morning by some loud hallions outside. Two guys ransacked the recycling box for glass bottles before talking loudly for what seemed like hours about what 'badmans' they were and how they'd 'do someone' and one of them was claiming his 'missus is a copper' - it was tiresome in the extreme, especially when one of them started rapping. For real, RAPPING. They got bored before I phoned the police.

I've been having a quiet day today, working from home, interrupted only by a quick trip out to the shops for some groceries. Still, I'm nothing if not a multi tasker, so I thought I'd get in a little Shoe Save too...

Fever Fiji sundress, green cardigan from H&M and Bertie Mary Jane shoes

This dress is another Fever-via-ebay dress. It was weirdly serendipitous, because Denise and I had been chatting about this dress as a one-that-got-away from a few seasons ago, and it popped up on ebay the following day. So naturally enough I couldn't leave it, and luckily no one else spotted it. I love the print, and although the orange is very bright I like it anyway:

Fiji print

As for the shoes, well I suppose they're saved now although they're a bit neglected.

They're quite cute, and neutral and all but I have a bit of a grudge against them. I bought them on impulse in a sale and they are deceptive buggers. They were grand the first time I wore them, but the next time they rubbed the shit out of my ankles, making them bleed, and I've never really forgiven them. Also the inside upper has wrinkled up, so they rub on the inside too. Heh. Maybe I should get rid of them - so maybe this is a stay of execution rather than a save.

Nic and I are off out to the pub tonight with some friends, and we have another fairly sociable weekend planned so I shall sign off here, but I'll try not to leave it quite so long next time! Have a lovely weekend all.

Hurrah for Friday and for wine time!