Tag Archives: H&M

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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New hair.

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Quick post to share my new haircut.  I am loving it!  So thank you Chadd for the cut and Gina for the color at the lovely A la Mode Salon here in Atlanta – a friendly, intimate salon where I also take the kids for their cuts.  And no it’s not a paid plug – I genuinely love going there!

I will never want to go blonde, it just wouldn’t suit me, but these are the images that inspired the cut:

And here it is – sorry for the blurred photos – at home with a little man today who has been sick so he was behind me looking for attention…poor lad.  I’m looking forward to having some fun styling it myself!  Jeans (last worn here), jumper and scarf are all H&M.

Look out at 5pm ET today when I’ll be posting a fabulous collaboration with a couple of special blogging buddies…very exciting!

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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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Entitled to a response.

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So my friend told me not to look but I did and I suddenly remembered why I never visit Mumsnet.  People are rude and mean from behind their laptops.  All of us who blog know we don’t appeal to everyone – we don’t intend to.  We don’t take ourselves too seriously – it really is just for fun – and we know we don’t always, by any means, get it right.  Poppy’s Style is written to give you a light hearted look into my fashion, and sometimes life, choices…nothing more than that – I am no authority.  To those of you who read and enjoy – thank you!  We really appreciate your comments and friendship.  Given I put myself out in the cyber world every day I guess a lesson for me is to toughen up a bit and appreciate some value in the negative comments.  I’ll try, or I’ll just ignore them.

Okay rant over and I shall not be paying any more attention to the Mumsnet forums thank you!

Yesterday we had a fabulous time with a gymnastics recital in morning and a Halloween party in the afternoon – I still can’t get excited enough about Halloween to dress up but I did wear a dress!  It’s the H&M tunic dress which I dressed down for being outside and teamed it with my Boden cashmere wrap from AW 2011, Target tights, Frye Phillip studded harness tall boot, and my Zara bordeaux scarf.  Closet assembly is still in progress as you can see!

Enjoy your Sunday:) xx

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Sweden, douze points.

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Some days you just know you got it right.  Even if others don’t agree it doesn’t matter because you know you nailed it.  Whether it’s the way a scarf picks out the colors, the new shoes you’re wearing, or even just the right piece of underwear – you feel damn hot when you walk out of the door and there ain’t no shame in that.

I’m having one of those days today.  It’s an outfit I threw together last minute as I was initially envisioning brown leggings but then discovered they were in still to be washed.  Thank goodness for that – what a dowdy outfit it could have become!  Instead I was inspired by the blush trim on my H&M scarf and went for my favorite blush Express Zelda jeans.  The sweater dress is the incredible bargain from H&M that I got at the weekend – just $25 and SO soft.  I adore the tulip shape and the asymmetrical hem.  Now the boots maybe what make the outfit – at least I feel like I’m in heaven wearing them – and it’s their first outing!  The amazing Acne Pistols.  Now I know what all the fuss is about.  They are a ridiculous indulgence but they are freakin’ cool.

So now for the explanation of the title of this post for my non-European readers.  In Europe we have a fascinating phenomenon known as the Eurovision song contest.  Held every May, qualified European countries enter a ‘singing’ competition in order to be ridiculed by the rest of Europe.  Don’t get me wrong, there have been some amazing success stories – ABBA being the most prolific (and they’re Swedish, continuing to prove the point I am trying to make).  However the vast majority of us watch it to see which country has the most eccentric entry – and believe me there have been many as seen here.  Anyway in the 2 hour long voting process that takes place afterward where each country awards points, based sometimes on political agendas, the highest awarded is 12.  Point distribution is read in English and French – hence “Sweden, douze points!” from this little ole judge here:)  Phew…was it worth it?  Anyway douze points goes to the Swedes because they really are quite clever – not only do they have a fantastic standard of living, a great education system and fabulous childcare facilities –

1. Where would I be without H&M this Fall?

2. My IKEA Pax closet is the best invention ever and is taking shape in my closet as you can see in today’s photo – beyond thrilled I tell you.

3. Acne – well what more can I say about my beautiful boots?

4. Our great friends Simon and Karin live in Stockholm.

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A visit to H&M.

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H&M has had a huge store here in Atlanta for a few years now down at Atlantic Station and I recently discovered there is also one at Cumberland Mall.  I never used to shop there much when I lived in the UK, but having been introduced to their children’s clothing I found myself appreciating their cheap, disposable fashion more and more.  When MM and I used to venture out more often (we’re much happier watching t.v. and cuddling on the sofa these days) I could always count on H&M for a fabulous, cheap dress that would work for a one off occasion.

Having reviewed some of my recent posts I realized that my uniform of skinny jeans and patterned pants was getting a bit old, and with the onset of colder weather I find myself pining to wear snuggly tights and a dress.  Now Boden tunics have always been my go to, but I fear I have OD’d.  I’ve recently had a great clear out of all my tunics, and though I did order the collared tunic recently, it worked on me like a lead balloon – NOT flattering in the slightest on my busty, waistless, hipless frame.  So I am still in search of great weekend/day dresses that aren’t too long, are jersey or knitted so they work on my frame, and can preferably be worn with leggings or tights.  Hence I took a rare wander through H&M at the weekend.  I felt like I was cheating with a Swede behind my Spanish lover’s back…but it was fun:)

Here’s what I found – it’s neither jersey or knitted, nor do I think it will work with leggings but it is a stunner!  Above the knee, full of fabulous colors and it will work with black or burgundy tights, plus at $35 it is a steal!

There’s also a cute tunic version of the dress for those days when a fitted dress is not going to be comfortable enough!

These t-shirt dresses are fab – though I would venture to say too short with tights – better with leggings worn as a long t-shirt.  The website only shows this color but in store they had grey, burgundy and green stripe too.  At $14.95 they are worth one in every color.

Finally this knitted dress was perfect – I love the asymmetrical hem, again though a little too short at the front for my years to wear it as a dress – but I particularly love the black and the brown melange – both would look great with black leggings – again a great price at $25!

Very impressed I have to say H&M…I will be back for a gander soon once I let Zara know about us.

 

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At the Pumpkin Patch with the rest of GA!

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Another beautiful, if busy day in Georgia.  After an early rise and a quick Skype call to the UK we headed North to Burt’s Pumpkin Patch.  With the rest of Georgia apparently.  In hindsight yes it was madness to go on a Sunday two weeks before Halloween, but we did it.  MM suffered the hay ride under duress and the kids loved it.  Two pumpkins later and a 90 minute drive home we swore we would never head to Burt’s again.  I’d rather grow my own pumpkins thanks.  The pumpkins are now carved and will sit on my front doorstep rotting till the 31st…I’m now remembering all the reasons why Halloween is my least favorite Holiday.

For the trip I wore my H&M sweater dress – it’s the L.O.G.G. label and was just $25, with my favorite Zara bordeaux skinny jeans.  Zara’s pants seem to be perfect these days – they have so much stretch it’s like wearing leggings.  Along with every other girl in Dawsonville I had my cowboy boots on – these are Frye Carson pull-ons in fawn – some of the first Fryes that I owned.  All topped off with an H&M nude sparkly scarf, and Prada sunglasses – I didn’t get the memo to take my mirrored wrap around sport shades – the most unflattering shades ever by the way.

 

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Pumpkin white chocolate mocha.

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Yummy – that is how I started my morning – a pumpkin white chocolate mocha from Caribou – all my calories for the week in one delicious drink.  Now I know Fall is well and truly here.  Please go and ‘Like’ Caribou on Facebook here – they will donate a $1 to CancerCare for every Like!

It may be Fall but it’s heading up to 80 degrees again today.  I’m wearing my current favorite top from Zara – it’s a lovely slubby cotton with sexy cut out shoulders – I love it – casual yet with a little bit extra.  I’m keeping it low key today with my Hudsons, Frye Carson button pull ons and an H&M scarf – I love the red in this.  My mirror needs cleaning!

Wasn’t too impressed with the debate last night – I went to bed half way through it – I was so irritated with the abysmal moderator.  Did you watch it?  What did you think?

 

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