I was out with some friends last Friday and the group was divided between those who were decorating their houses for Christmas this weekend and those who were giving it another week. We were chatting about the pros and cons of having lived in a house for a long time. I really enjoy unwrapping my much loved decorations every year, it's all part of the tradition of Christmas. But there are so many lovely things in the shops and sometimes [...]
Black Friday 2017 best offers. Last year you told me you found it helpful to have a simple guide to the best offers on Black Friday. So, I've done my best to arm you in advance with posts on Christmas gifts ideas and outfits (they're listed at the bottom in case you need to refer back to them). I'll keep updating this as offers go live and change during the day. Here are the discounts you need. Black Friday 2017 [...]
Actually this gift ideas for teens post has been a challenge this year. Usually it's easy because the boys present me with lists full of ideas on the last day of the October half term, This year, despite persistent requests, I have only had one and it has the sum total of two ideas on it. Why? They tell me that there isn't much they actually want. Apparently there is a lack of newness out there - there are no [...]
Relaxed Christmas party outfit ideas. If you're anything like me, you may have one or two dressy events lined up but the rest of your Christmas will be a more relaxed affair. I think some of the best times are the spontaneous ones when someone calls and asks if you fancy popping over for a drink... which inevitably turns into three or four. So today I'm bringing you outfit ideas for when this happens. Looks that say you've made an [...]
Gift ideas for women over 40. This is an important post. Why? Because quite a few of my friends' husbands shop from it so I feel a huge sense of responsibility. So, chic Christmas gifts. Ideas for the woman who doesn't really need anything but would quite like a little something to open on Christmas Day. Before I go on, I have a couple of apologies to make. Firstly if you read via Bloglovin, I have been having some compression [...]
Phew - I've reached the halfway point of this week's blogging marathon! I hope you're not getting sick of me, we'll be back to normal posting next week. Today I'm looking at the best Christmas dresses for women over 40 but I've chosen ones that won't expire on New Year's Eve. Bear in mind the new silhouette that I keep banging on about. The trend for modest dressing is continuing as far ahead as we can see on the catwalks [...]
Chic Christmas jumpers 2017 edit. So I'm back again with another item that has become a Christmas essential over the last few years - the Christmas jumper. It seems to have reached an extreme this year and as I was researching this, some of the slogan jumpers that are being sold at places like Top Shop, Next and Asos made my toes curl. There are days when I am very grateful that I don't have a teenage daughter! However I [...]
Best advent calendars 2017: I'm going to spend most of this week looking at what to wear over Christmas but before I move on to that, it's time to get your advent calendars ordered. Advent calendars have become a really big deal over the last few years. I still think the cardboard ones that we used to have as children were lovely, with a different Christmas scene every day but they're quite hard to find now. About advent calendars As [...]
Hush Christmas Edit. Christmas started for me with a bang this week when I went to do a talk for Hush at the “My John Lewis” shopping evening on Wednesday. My brief was to pull out my favourite Hush pieces and discuss them. So, I took lots of lovely ladies through five specific capsules that I’d created for days that are likely to crop up in our Christmas calendar. At the end so many of them came to tell me that they'd [...]
Marrakech in 3 days with teenagers. Before we dive fully into Christmas madness, I thought you might like to join me for a few days of sunshine. As you know, we had a little trip to Marrakech last week. It was a plan that we came up with back in the spring when we realised that my 50th birthday was going to be somewhat subdued because it fell, as it has done all of my life, in exam season. Why [...]
Although I am currently enjoying the sunny skies of Marrakech, I've been working on Christmas for a while. Can you believe that I had to put some of our Christmas lights and a Christmas tree up in our house at the beginning of October? All I could think about were the problems it would have caused if the boys were still little! However, now that we're into November it feels like it's time to talk about partywear. I'm going to [...]
