What a week it’s been chez Midlifechic. As if the rugby injury with its ensuing disruption wasn’t enough, the dark clouds of doom have remained over us. When I first started this blog, I never thought I’d be sharing my woes like this but here we are. There have been perpetual roadworks on the motorway in Cumbria and twice in the last year Mr MC has been flashed going at 48 in a 40mph zone accruing 3 points on his licence each time to add to a further 3 he managed to score on the way to a meeting nearly three years ago. This of course means that he has been carrying a total of 9 which has left him 3 short of a ban. To his credit, he has been driving like a little old man which has been a bit infuriating at times but necessary, especially because the original 3 points were due to drop off next Friday which would enable him to breathe again.
Yesterday our eldest decided to go back to school for the first time after his thumb surgery so we thought it would be better to give him a lift to avoid getting it bashed on the bus. You know what’s coming don’t you. To avoid the school traffic on his way back, my dear husband took a circuitous cross country route, drifted off into a day dream and passed a policeman with a radar gun at 40mph in a 30 zone! He is now probably going to lose his licence for 6 months which will cause us all no end of problems. In addition to this we have an escalating legal case going on with the builder who built our extension last year which is getting very stressful. So, (trying to find a bright side here) having never been involved with the law before, I may well be treating you to ‘court chic’ twice in the forthcoming months.
Life is so often like this isn’t it – everything seems to come at once. I just hope we’ve had our 3 bad things now and can try to move on. We’re all operating on blitz spirit and keeping smiling. Plus our friends have been rallying round and today one popped in to drag me out for a coffee. The good thing about this (besides the lovely chat of course) was that I suddenly had to think how to glam up a very boring jumper and jeans outfit and the Boden shoes that I have been dithering over came into their own. I am a convert – see:
I threw on a past season Boden scarf, the Jackie heels and was good to go. I also want to tell you about the jeans. As you know, I’ve been looking for dark indigo denim and have already bought a straight leg pair from Esprit at Gray & Osbourn. I was hoping that Next would bring out a dark relaxed skinny pair in their Autumn collection but alas they haven’t so I had a brainwave. I researched dyes and discovered that if you use Dylon’s jeans dye with black at the same time (see below) you end up with a really cool deep dye. So I tried it on one of my many relaxed skinny pairs and it worked. The orange stitching stays orange too. I used the new easy machine wash version which was definitely worth it. It’s just so therapeutic, now I want to dye everything.
The reason I’ve been dithering about the Boden shoes is that they weren’t the only ones I had on order. My pointed flats have been so versatile all summer that I’ve been trying to think of a Winter equivalent i.e something that covers your foot sufficiently to keep it dry and warm. Loafers seemed the obvious place to start and I really liked these pointed loafers from Next but they aren’t leather and I couldn’t quite go with that:
So then I found these from Moda in Pelle. They are a mix of pony skin and patent, are available in black, oxblood or dalmation print and cost £69.95:
Here they are on (my legs look phenomenally short in this photo, I’m really hoping it’s just a bad angle). They’re a very well made shoe and are comfortable so I recommend them. In fact I hadn’t looked at Moda in Pelle for years but I’m really impressed with their range :
So now I have a quandary because I also ordered these Mariella Busby boots from Clarks which are even more practical. The photo shows me that if I keep them I need to roll the jeans up further:
Excuse the cobwebs in the well – it isn’t the easiest of things to clean.
At least this gives me something trivial to distract myself with when other issues become more pressing over the next few days. Great discounts this weekend: Boden here – 20% until Monday 29th with code H9P3 and Mango 30% with code 5WEEKEND. The two smalls are going for sleepovers tonight so that we can stay in a hotel in Newcastle with the oldest to get a feel for the place before the uni open day tomorrow. Even though it’s Mr MC’s home town we don’t know Jesmond very well and quite frankly I’m really looking forward to getting away. I shall relish every moment of being driven because I guess all driving will be over to me soon. Hey ho – have a good weekend everyone and do keep in touch.
