Tag Archives: AllSaints

Juicing.

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It all seems a little anti-climatic this morning after the excitement of election day.  MM and I flicked between about a dozen channels last night watching the results come in – some for amusement and others for information…I think it was pretty much determined by the time we went to bed.  I feel very proud to have taken part in the process – my first Presidential Election!

I’m still feeling rubbish today – terrible head cold – so I’ve just been to Whole Foods in an attempt to rid myself of the lurgy using various juices.  Not to mention I’ve piled on about 100lbs from ‘feeding my cold’.  I bought beets, ginger, and carrot and it tastes pretty good actually, with a scoop of chia seeds for good measure.  I’m sure it’s more psychological than anything but I’m fed up of feeling under the weather.  I want to feel better by Friday so I can head out on a good long run and clear my head.

It’s brass here today, and what with feeling sorry for myself it was the perfect opportunity to get my puffer out for the first time.  Not the most flattering of coats, but perfect for when you don’t want to leave your duvet.  This one is Patagonia – I love their coats – light and warm and last years.  I actually got dressed instead of wearing sweats again – much to the relief of everyone in Whole Foods, and wore my Hudson jeans, Vince Camuto taupe Autumn wedges, and an H&M sweater dress that was buy one get one free – and I’m pretty sure the offer is still on here.  I paid $25 for two – a bargain!  The pink scarf doesn’t really match but to be honest at 8.30am this morning I didn’t care.  You’ll also notice another Pax unit was assembled last night – it took a little longer than it should as MM and I were both wetting ourselves at each others ineptitude – who’d have thought IKEA flat packing could provide such hilarity?

Another outfit I forgot to post the other day was from Saturday when we went to my daughter’s swim meet.  Quite loud pants it has to be said but they are awfully comfy.  They are the Zara snake print trousers, worn with a blush H&M tank an AllSaints sweater (no longer online), with my Ash Bowie sneakers in camel and H&M sparkly blush scarf. As you can see the kids always want to get in on the act – I’m forever telling them to keep out of the closet right now due to tacks, hammers and swaying closet fixtures – so guess where they always want to be?

 

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Election Day!

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So it is finally here – election day in the US.  It is raining hard in Atlanta and I have a terrible cold so wishing I’d voted early…oh well.  I will drag my sorry arse to the polls, exercising my franchise in my first US Presidential election – it feels quite momentous.  I’ve followed most of the campaign and feel quite comfortable sitting on the side of the fence where I landed a few weeks ago.  It should be a close race regardless, and I’m looking forward to watching the results roll in tonight – I just hope it is all decided tonight.

My cold has probably been exacerbated by the crazy weekend we had.  What with swim meets and nights out I think my energy levels are low.  As I’ve been ill I will admit to having a couple of days off from ‘getting dressed’ – as we speak I am still in my pjs:)  Saturday night we went out and I wore my Zara oriental trousers, AllSaints tank, Zara silk velvet jacket and my Newbury boots – the scarf is an old H&M.  Just about getting used to styling my hair – what is left of it!

I’ve had quite a productive couple of days, even though I’ve been ill.  I purchased a tripod yesterday for my photos – so hopefully we should all appreciate an improved photo quality soon!  Though I will miss the quick and easy iPhone photos it has to be said.

There are a couple of sales I wanted to mention too – Boden has select items with 20% off until Thursday 8th November – use DDUS.  I ordered the grey smocked tunic dress that I actually ordered in the preview and returned.  I’ve given up ordering in the previews as they arrive far too early, before I’ve actually decided what my wants and needs are for the next season – though I am in love with the Notting Hill jumper in the current Spring preview (PRV3 for 20% off till November 9th).

Also Nine West have a great sale on.  I have been in LOVE with the Isabel Marant Milwauke boot this season and actually had heart flutters when I saw my size was available again on Net-a-Porter.com.  But seriously $1500 for a pair of boots??  I nearly convinced myself to do it if I promised myself no purchases for the whole of 2013 – but we all know that would never last.  So I ordered the Nine West Buster – which at full price of $400 seemed a lot for a copy.  In the sale, however, $195 seemed reasonable enough – we’ll see what sort of quality they are when they arrive.

The original Milwauke:

The Buster:

 

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Day to night in burgundy.

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Call it oxblood, bordeaux or wine, burgundy is the color of Fall 2012.  It’s everywhere from scarves to boots to jeans.  I love the color and even have hair to match:)  At first I bought a couple of burgundy accessories not wanting to overdo it, but now I have jeans, boots and t-shirts all in burgundy.  It’s even made me hunt out my Chanel Rouge Noir nail polish again, which Uma Thurman made famous in Pulp Fiction.

To demonstrate the versatility of this fabulous, rich color I teamed up with my great blogging buddies – Avril from SchoolGateStyle.com and Fiona from Avenue57 – to style a daytime and evening look in our burgundy jeans.  Our jeans are all different brands and mine are Zara.  They were a steal for $35.90 and have lots of stretch so a really comfy.  On trend, as ever, Zara has a lot of items right now in what they are calling ‘bordeaux’.

My daytime look is VERY casual.  I love wearing burgundy with grey so paired the jeans with my AllSaints decay sweatshirt from 2011.  The scarf is an old H&M that I bought after being inspired by Emmanuelle Alt – swoon – my ultimate style icon – I just love her – we can all dream hey?  The sneakers are my new Ash Alex wedges – pretty much a knock off of the Marant sneakers – but I love the burgundy and coral together – which influenced me to wear my orange Casio G-Shock watch.

I LOVE how the three of us styled the jeans so differently – it’s so exciting to see how different people interpret different pieces.

For evening wear I think I was mainly inspired by my Halloween decorations:)  My AllSaints embellished top is remarkably similar to the ghost hanging next to me!  The jacket is the chic leather biker jacket from Boden that I bought in the sale last season and is now getting worn frequently.  The only thing I might change about the outfit are the shoes – here I have the Sam Edelman Petty boots in British Burgundy – I thought the continuation of color might work but having seen the photos they look too matchy matchy.  Heels would have elongated the look better – ah well – next time!

Fiona and Avril look great – all legs!  Make sure you pop over to their blogs for more details on their outfits here at Avenue57 and here at SchoolGateStyle.com.

I love how the burgundy works with grey and black – it’s fabulous for adding a splash of color and will work great for the festive season.  But it also works as a neutral base color and pairs well with other colors, like coral, and patterns – experiment with it!  How are you wearing your burgundy this season?

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The Holiday Blues.

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It happens every year with varying degrees of intensity.  While everyone else is excitedly comparing costumes and planning Thanksgiving road trips I am pining for home.  But is it home anymore?  Let’s put it this way I wish I was in England with friends and family.  But do I still have friends in England?  I’ve been here for 12 years now and a lot has changed.  Lives move on.  What is it that I really miss?  Is it the familiarity and security of where I grew up?  Is it my family that has almost doubled in size since I left?  Would I really move back if the opportunity presented itself or is it just a fleeting moment of seeing it all through rose tinted spectacles?

Every year I go back to the UK for a couple of weeks and I have a fabulous time – then I’m ready to get back here.  So if I went back to England would I miss the US the same way?  Would it be fair to uproot the children?  Could I go back knowing my Husband has zero desire to go back?  What would we do for a living given our business is here?  I ask myself the same questions every year and feel more and more backed into a corner.  It’s the eternal conundrum.  The longer we stay here the more roots we have here, and the more I miss England.  Can I have my cake and eat it please?  I sometimes feel like I’m skating the surface of life, avoiding getting in too deep with friendships or communities – because that would just make moving back even tougher no?  Is it time to accept Atlanta as home and stop dipping my toe in and go skinny dipping exposing all to everyone?  Answers on a postcard please.

On a lighter note we went to Abattoir last night to celebrate MM’s birthday.  It all went well and fun was had up until the main course arrived.  I ordered hanger steak – yum – errr not so much – it was covered in a rich hollandaise sauce.  So in my very British manner what did I do?  I wittered on about it to MM instead of returning it to the Chef, after all I got what I ordered.  Next time I’ll go for the beet salad.

I did have a new outift to wear – the AllSaints Amei dress in petrol is fabulous – so comfy and easy to wear.  It has two ties inside it that you tie behind your neck so you can adjust the length of the drape at the front and wear it tunic length or longer.  It was chilly yesterday so I layered it over an H&M vest/dress in black.  After seeing Doesmybumlook40 in her Dorothy Perkins coated jeggings I discovered they do free shipping to the US and ordered a pair before there was a rush on them.  As she says they are fabulously comfortable and felt really dressy.  I wore the pony hair Nine West Haywire shoe boots, and then topped it all off with the Boden leather jacket from back in the sale and my Zara camo scarf.

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You just never know who’s reading!

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After another summer of sizzling in the sun (with SPF of course), this morning I headed to my dermatologist for my annual check up.  There I am sitting ‘nekid’ with a sheet around me when in comes my lovely doctor who immediately asks me ‘do you have a blog? I’m sure it’s you on this style blog I’ve been reading!’.  Aaargh – now if I was dressed I’d have no problem saying ‘yes of course it is!’, but at that moment all I could focus on was the huge amount of fluff my socks had left on my sweaty toes – I was not by any means feeling like the writer of a so called ‘style’ blog.  I giggled nervously and tried to be witty by saying ‘of course it’s me – you must have been googling for ultra stylish women over 40’ – ‘don’t be silly’ she replied – well that’s me told.  So hello all in the dermatologist office – thank you for reading and don’t take too much notice of these ‘hangovers’ I refer to occasionally:)

It’s flippin’ cold and windy here though I am not complaining after seeing the state of the North East this morning.  I feel dreadful for all those suffering with flooding and no power.  On a more superficial note I’ve also been thinking about all those runners who are in limbo after months of training – I’m suspecting that the NYC marathon will not take place this weekend as not only can people not get there, but the streets of NYC are apparently filled with cars that ‘floated’ away from their parking spots!

In order to face the cold today, and make stripping off at the doctors easier, I am wearing my Boden leggings and layering with a bordeaux Zara t-shirt and my AllSaints Wasson pullover dress.  All finished off with Frye Veronica Slouch boots, an H&M scarf and Zara quilted leather jacket.  The dress is lovely and lightweight – it wraps over at the back creating a V shaped hemline – it’s really unusual.

Here you can see the detail of the wrap of the dress at the back…:

Now to prepare for this evening’s fun for MM’s birthday!  We’re off out for dinner and I can’t wait:)

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Brrrrrr.

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It’s freakin’ freezing here today! I think we caught the outer bands of Sandy last night as we lost power at 9pm just as Dexter was about to start darn it!  MM and I were scrambling around with my iPhone torch trying to turn everything off so we wouldn’t be woken up when all the power came back on, but we still found the dogs watching t.v. this morning:)

Gearing up for a busy week – it’s MM’s birthday tomorrow.  Yes a Leo and a Scorpio – apparently a difficult but strong star sign union – this summary is oddly quite accurate:)  I’m taking him out for dinner and, as happens every year, we’ll be the most hungover trick or treaters in the neighborhood on Wednesday.  We will power on through though.  Then on Saturday we’re meeting a friend of mine who I haven’t seen for 20 odd years.  He’s over on business and we thought it might be fun to catch up…let’s hope we both have something interesting to say after all those years – could be awkward!:)

Today I picked out the warmest cardigan I have – it’s AllSaints and is one of the first AllSaints items I bought back in 2009 in the winter sale.  It’s a rust/dark burgundy color and is really heavy and toasty.  The top is from Zara and the pants are Express from a couple of years ago – they are ponte so lovely and stretchy – a cross between leggings and pants if you will.  The boots are the Vince Camuto Autumn wedges – I love the cuffs on these and the buckle detail.  All topped off with the oriental print scarf from Zara.

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Building the closet.

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Friday was spent in IKEA.  MM and I finally decided to bite the bullet and buy part of, if not most of our closet.  We’d decided that based on price and aesthetics the IKEA PAX system is the way to go, and yes we had discussed the potential chaos and crankiness that will inevitably result from the 2 of us spending the next 20 years sitting in a windowless walk in closet assembling flat packs.  But we still bought it.  After dragging the enormous boxes off the shelves ourselves we opted for the delivery option, and unsur-freakin-prisingly they only delivered half the boxes last night.  Now we have to wait for the second half to be delivered today.

MM thinks we can have it built in a week – I’ll be ecstatic if I can hang stuff before Christmas.  I might have to start drinking again (I’ve not imbibed since Louisville – a record for me).

Yesterday I ran for the first time in a while and felt great – foot feels healed and I sweat buckets – it was great to be out there again…The weather was perfect too – really cool but sunny.  Unfortunately by 3pm it’s back to 80 degrees F so deciding what to wear is a real conundrum.  Layering seems to be the way to go.

Yesterday I wore my Zara cargo pants, Zara owl t-shirt and AllSaints Cerulean cardigan.  I did have to swap it out for a heavier knit last night while watching the debate.  I refuse to put the heating on yet!  Shoes are Tory Burch Eddies.

Today it’s a completely random look and though comfy I don’t really feel ‘me’.  The idea was to wear a short sleeved dress so I’m prepared for the warm afternoon – but I feel a bit too girly in this H&M skater dress.  I added a Boden cashmere cardigan (the most superior cashmere knits I’ve ever found), Boden leggings, a copy of the Anthropologie necklace that was huge a couple of years ago, and my Banana Republic round toe pumps – yes heels!  I haven’t worn heels in the day since I quit the corporate world!

 

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The Newburys.

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Oh yes – the new boots are fabulous – as one would hope – I have Paolo Nutini ringing in my head as I strut around in them.  They’re higher than you think but with the padded foot bed they are incredibly comfortable.  I am in love with them.  Really does now make me question why I have all those other boots in my closet…I guess my daughter will grow into them one day.

I’m loving the red today – funny how some mornings I question it and other mornings I feel like I am totally rocking it.  I really do think it all depends on the clothes – I have to choose wisely around the hair.  It’s not restrictive – but some things just feel ‘more right’ with it.  These clothes today feel perfect with it – the Newburys may of course have something to do with the joy.  I’ve since thrown a scarf on as it is a little nippier here today.  The leather quilted jacket is Zara, and this is one of my first AllSaints purchases from about 4 years ago – it’s a jumper dress and I can’t for the life of me remember the name of it – think it began with ‘v’?  The leggings are Boden – possibly the best leggings in the world, and then – ta da – the boots are Rag & Bone.  Due to the colorless outfit I went full on with the red lips today too:)

 

 

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Muddy Faces.

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I got my photos from Karen today – the amazing photographer from Muddy Faces.  She made the shoot fun for all of us and you can see the joy in the the children’s faces.  I am thrilled with the outcome.  If you are in the Atlanta area and need some photos don’t hesitate to contact Karen – she’ll do an amazing job!

I’m not so happy with my self portrait today.  I got these jeans from Target and don’t like them at all on – maybe I just feel it’s a bit too much with the red hair and boots…remember what I said about not letting it be trashy – well I think this outfit takes it all the way there…oh well – I think I’m in need of a dress day again soon to feel a bit girly again.  Jeans are worn with Gap men’s t-shirt, AllSaints Boston cardigan and Frye Shirley strappy boots.

Unfortunately the Loulou dress I ordered from Boden is going straight back – it looked ridiculous on me – again maybe the red hair – but it was completely unflattering – my boobs looked enormous in it and the pleats just emphasized my stomach.  Not a good look.  The new AllSaints Amei dress has worked a treat though and will look fab with leggings or tights.  I promise to model it soon.

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I want a drum kit.

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In fact I need a drum kit – do you know why?  I am going to be Jack White’s new drummer.  In my dreams.  He was unbe-freakin-lievable last night.  His all girl band were also pretty darn good – and I was mesmerized with his drummer.  She has the coolest job around as far as I am concerned.  Jack’s stage presence was amazing.  We had fabulous seats and could see everything.  He moved around the stage with such energy thrashing out hits from Blunderbuss and finishing with ‘Seven Nation Army’ which the audience went wild for – especially me.

All the way through the show I couldn’t help thinking how tall Jack is – but on mentioning this to MM his theory is that he is actually only 5ft and surrounds himself with short women to make him look tall, conjuring all sorts of Spinal Tap Stonehenge images for me:)

An amazing night and my ears are still ringing.

Here are my outfits from yesterday – I was off work as my daughter was still on Fall break – but it was really chilly here so time for the knee length boots to make an appearance!  The jeans are Primark, jumper is the AllSaints Godiva jumper, and the boots are Vince Camuto Autumn which unfortunately I can no longer locate on the website.

For the gig I went AllSaints again – Delors pipe leather trousers, Phinius top (both from 2010) and then I decided to match my shoes to my hair with my Sam Edelman Petty boots in British Burgundy:)

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– I Love Jack White

– And the verdict is in…

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