Last week I left you just before we went away for the surprise break that Mal had planned. We set off very early on the Thursday to get to Manchester airport and had a rather anxious drive there because the motorway traffic was awful so it was a rush to the gate... and just as we got there the flight was cancelled. Sudden bad weather over Europe was causing chaos. Of the many travel disruptions we've experienced this [...]
At last, I'm breathing out a bit - looking back through Mal's camera roll I realise we haven't had a Midlife lately for ages so let's have a catch-up (and I warn you it's a long pot of tea/glass of wine one). There are times when I really don't feel like having my photograph taken but in the long run, it's great that he snaps away when we're out and about because it gives me a record of ordinary times [...]
And so I find myself at the last Boden edit of the year which feels like a milestone so I just want to start by thanking them for being such loyal supporters of this blog - and for listening to what everyone here has to say. They've had a very successful season, so much so that when it came to putting a post about last minute Christmas outfits together it was a challenge finding pieces that hadn't sold out. It [...]
Christmas 2023 - finishing touches You can tell I've spent the last few days completely immersed in Christmas... in a panic trying to get everything ready before this weekend's little surprise trip away. I'm nearly there now and so I'm writing this post quickly as I go along, tying up all of the last little details - Christmas 23 - finishing touches to make it extra special. Disclosure: as with the majority of blogs, products featured [...]
Hello, how are you? Hanging on in there or delighted to be in the heady approach to Christmas? I'm just approaching the bridge that will take me from one state to another, I reckon I have one more week of life being ultra hectic and then I'll be able to breathe out. Thank you for keeping on reading while posts have been a little shorter, I've just about finished with my Christmas prep posts now, soon we'll be back to [...]
Christmas 2023 - letterbox gifts by post I've had a few requests for this - thoughtful ideas that are easy to deliver through a letterbox so here we go, Christmas 2023 - letterbox gifts by post. And forgive me for being rushed this week but life's a bit full - I'll have more time to slow down and chat soon! Disclosure: as with the majority of blogs, products featured on Midlifechic sometimes (but not always) include [...]
Christmas 2023 - quirky gifts Christmas 2023 - quirky gifts. I don't know about you but I find that everyone I know seems to have everything they need these days which makes present-buying really hard. So today's post is all about little surprises - unusual gifts that go beyond a nice pair of slippers, even though they can be lovely too. Disclosure: as with the majority of blogs, products featured on Midlifechic sometimes (but not always) [...]
Hello and Happy Friday week. I think this is when most of us try to complete our Christmas shopping so I won’t talk for long. Instead I’m bringing you a compendium of the best Black Friday 2023 offers. I’m being sent them by the dozen every day so I'm sifting out the best as I go along and I’ll add more as they keep coming in. This is what's live so far - Black Friday 2023 – best [...]
Christmas 2023 - gifts with a purpose Christmas 2023 - gifts with a purpose - that sounds a bit heavy doesn't it? Don't worry, I'm not taking all of the fun out of Christmas, I'm just trying to come up with ideas that are worth spending the money on. I used to get so frustrated in my magazine days when we were directed just to pull together pretty pages filled with boring socks, soap and chocolates. Now I [...]
So many of you have said you've enjoyed the retail spotlight posts that I'm bringing you one more for 2023. After this, they'll be on pause until January while we focus on Christmas and all of the prep that it entails. So today as well as doing my monthly edit, it's a Boden review - retailer spotlight. Let me bring you up to date with what's going on there. Boden - brand background in a [...]
Disclosure: as with the majority of blogs, products featured on Midlifechic sometimes (but not always) include affiliate links. This means that if you choose to make a purchase, you are helping to support the site because a small referral commission may be paid. This contributes towards hosting fees, software costs, site maintenance and other plug-ins. Midlifechic could not exist without these small payments, so every contribution makes a big difference. So how are you doing? Have you had [...]
It’s time to start thinking about the big day next month – yes I mean Christmas. And if you feel it’s too early, spare a thought for those of us who work in retail and had to start planning it in January! I’m easing in slowly today with Christmas 23 - easy outfit ideas to get you in the mood. Starting to think about whatever you have planned will help you to ease towards the festive feeling. I don’t [...]
Thank you for the feedback on these retail spotlight posts, I'm so glad that so many of you are enjoying them. Today it's Marks & Spencer's turn, a brand whose focus is on affordability at a time when we're all thinking hard about it. It's a retailer I haven't looked at for a long time so here we go, M&S review - Retailer Spotlight, let's see what's been going on there. M&S - brand background [...]
Well hello, I promised a midlife lately - October catch-up today and as I start to type I'm wondering what I'm going to talk about because life since Greece has been all about work so it's going to be a bit rough and ready. I know from the survey that there are a few of you who don't like midlife lately posts, that you'd prefer me to focus purely on clothes and retail - I do understand so I [...]
A new Tuesday and another retail spotlight. This week I'm looking at Jigsaw because after a while in the doldrums, changes are afoot. With a midlife female CEO at the helm there's a store reopening programme, the aesthetic has been updated and there are some beautiful investment pieces that will live in your wardrobe forever. So here we go, Jigsaw review - retailer spotlight, let me tell you more. Jigsaw - brand background in a [...]
I'm continuing with my series of easy style tips today - in last Friday's post we talked about using accessories to add new life to outfits, this week I want to look a little more at using texture with winter outfits. You see texture is a tool that you can't use as well in summer but at this time of year it comes into its own. Before we get into it though, as I go on to talk about [...]
The second in my series of mini-posts in response to the reader survey. Today I'm looking at Mango which in my view is one of the best and yet perhaps most under-rated brands at the lower end of the price scale. So here we go, Mango review - retailer spotlight, let me tell you more. Mango - brand background in a nutshell Disclosure: as with the majority of blogs, products featured on Midlifechic [...]
I'm moving on with the highly requested style tips today. In the survey, 85% of you said that you were looking for advice on how to add a bit of oomph to the more relaxed end of your wardrobe. It was no surprise to hear that 49% of you are buying fewer clothes and trying to find ways of working with what you already have, adding updates here and there. Today I'm looking at easy AW23 outfit updates from [...]
This is the first in a series of mini-posts I'm planning to run in response to the reader survey. I'm going to give you the lowdown on a specific UK retailer each Tuesday and pull out their strengths. The intention is that you'll have an edit on what to buy, from where, and why. I'm starting with Cos because it's a brand turnaround that I've been watching closely. So here we go, Cos review - retailer spotlight, let me [...]
Wow it's back to it this week - straight from summer into a very autumnal feeling north but I'm happy to be here. We've done a lot of travelling recently and so the thought of six months at home feels good. I have no plans to talk about our Greek Island Hopping adventure now, it was always intended to be a private logging off. It was relaxed, low key and low budget - a treat to read, eat, sleep, [...]
I'm saying hello from the island of Paros today. We're feeling fully relaxed and filled with the warmth of the sun but I wanted you to know I haven't forgotten you. I've had my fill of relaxing and reading books for a while and my mind is turning towards the blog and where I take it next. So I've put together a survey which I promise is completely anonymous, I have absolutely no way of knowing who has said what [...]
And so as summer's last gasp starts to recede, it's time to think about a more autumnal look and that's where I'm beginning with this month's Boden edit which is all about stepping into Autumn 23 - new wardrobe additions. If you read last week's post about the AW23 trends, you'll see I'm working them in little ways as I think carefully about how to expand the outfits that I already have and love. Boden's first big Autumn drop landed [...]
Hasn't it been glorious to have a blast of summer this week? The mid-20s temperatures up here have been absolutely perfect, just what we needed to lift everyone's mood before the season really starts to shift. The leaves are turning, the hedgerows are heavy with berries, the boughs on our pear tree are so heavy with fruit that they're almost breaking which means it's time to start adjusting to the big move on... not in terms of 'buy it now' [...]
Well hello, I hope you had a lovely bank holiday weekend. As you know we spent ours in the sunshine with Gillian and Stephen who started off as Midlifechic readers (well perhaps not Stephen) but have now become firm friends. With disrupted travel it's been a hectic week since we got home so I'm inviting you to join us for what will have to be a whistlestop tour of our midlife weekend in Porto. A midlife weekend in Porto - [...]
Hurray - we've had a bit of sunshine across most of the UK at last although looking at the long term forecast it isn't set to stay for very long. So for this month's Boden edit I thought I'd look at capsule wardrobe building with hardworking transitional pieces that work for cooler days as well as warm ones. The thing about Boden's cross-season drops is that it's easy to flick through them and think that because there aren't any show [...]
What should we talk about today? It can't be clothes because I seem to be living in jumpers and jeans so I think it has to be a midlife lately - August. I know that lots of you are on holiday, as are we usually. In fact this is the first August since 1997 that I haven't been away somewhere or other and it feels strange. We spent May, June and July constantly on the move, mostly for work or [...]
We spent the weekend before last in Cornwall, as you know. We hadn't been there for 20 years, in fact the last time was in August 2003 when the youngest was only days old. Back then I'd booked a lovely cottage in St Ives with space for both sets of grandparents, thinking that it would be a good way of keeping the older two entertained while I was getting used to having three to juggle. You see I was [...]
And so, as you'll know if you follow my Instagram feed, there was a big day for our family a couple of weeks ago. It was the middle one's graduation, a day I found myself completely unprepared for in terms of impact. It was a bit like pregnancy when you find yourself so focused on the birth that it's almost a shock when you have to take the baby home with you afterwards and you realise that in the [...]
Now I realise there's some irony to high summer outfit ideas if you're in the UK at the moment because summer seems to be having a holiday of its own and focusing all of its power on Europe. It can't be easy if you're over there in the intense heat but isn't it crazy that such a short distance away we're living through days of high winds, torrential rain and even hail? It's made it a bit tricky deciding what [...]
Let's talk about hair. It's something I get more messages and emails about than anything else and it's been a while since I've covered it so I thought it was time for an update, especially as I've been trialling some new products. One of the things I've learned this year is that hair goes through some significant changes during menopause and so just as you think you've found your look, you have to keep moving it on. It's shocking [...]
I'm opening this post with an apology because I said that while we were away last week I'd be over on Instagram - but sometimes you have to put the key people in your life first and we needed a complete break. Life since Christmas has felt pretty non-stop for us. I've mentioned a few times that I didn't think we were going to have the chance for any kind of proper holiday until the autumn... and I know we [...]
Boo! I'm early this week because the John Lewis Sale SS23 has just gone live and so I'm bringing you an early edit to help you pick your way through the many great offers. We're also heading away for an extended weekend and I have lots of work to finish before we set off, hopefully we'll be leaving the rain behind - I'd got used to living in endless days of warm weather. Anyway at least it makes it a [...]
And so, as I warned you last week, we're heading towards the close of the SS23 collections so today I'm going to flag up some capsule wardrobe sale buys because some of the best brands are diving into summer sale already. It's been an extremely tough season for retailers; with the cost of living crisis and also the unnaturally cold weather lasting up until the end of May, people just haven't been buying many clothes. From a consumer perspective [...]
A Boden outfit try-on today and it's always the one that gives me a bit of a lump in my throat because we've arrived at the last of the high summer drops. After the June deliveries, retailers will be moving into sale and then season transition which brings more autumnal colours and a change of mood. Anyway let's not think about that until we have to, for now we've reached the apex of clothes for warm sunshine and amazingly [...]
Today I'm going to tell you about our little French adventure. As you know we took a few days off a couple of weeks ago to go and see the youngest who is living in Dijon, studying at l'Université de Bourgogne. Of all the French unis he could have chosen, he opted for the one that's the most difficult to get to from here and with the little bit of time we could carve out from work there were [...]
Ah summer holiday time. Those of you who follow my Instagram account know that we had a very busy but very lovely few days in France last week. I'll tell you all about it when I've had time to go through the photos but today let's think about summer and what we might wear now that the days are softening and trips away are in sight. With different kinds of holidays in mind I'm looking at what John Lewis have [...]
Today I have the great fortune of sharing another birthday post with you - my tenth one in fact. And when I say good fortune I really mean it. I've never been complacent about the sheer blessing of being alive but I'm more aware of it than ever because over the last twelve months we've lost or are worried about losing too many friends and acquaintances of our age to cancer and sudden heart attacks. And of course I also [...]
Do we dare say it? Has the weather finally turned? This has been the coldest spring I can remember but last Saturday, after a morning of heavy rain, the sun suddenly appeared. And it was hot which was lucky because we needed to take photographs of Boden's latest summer drop while we were out and about and I'd been anticipating shivering in between the showers. At the moment we don't have a big summer holiday booked, work permitting we might [...]
My goodness, another bank holiday, it's a surfeit of the sweetest things for anyone who's busy at work at the moment isn't it? I wonder how many of you have coronation plans. It seems to be very low key here, nobody we know is doing any kind of royal celebration which seems a shame and I wonder if we've just had so much pomp and ceremony over the last few years that it's lost its edge - or maybe it's [...]
My week has been completely railroaded by work projects I'm afraid. I had to go down to London and then over to Newcastle for meetings which means I haven't had time to put the cornucopia together that I wanted to do. I had two choices - I could either not post at all or show you the photos from our final week in Kenya. I'm hoping it might help you to get into the mood for sunnier days and times [...]
Well hello! As promised it's a bit of a catch-up today and then I have a lovely cornucopia of emerging brands run by midlife women for you. With work and the boys coming home and the various bits of travelling we've been doing, 2023's felt a bit like a bobsleigh ride so far and I have all kinds of things I've been meaning to talk about here. I'm warning you now that this is quite a long one, in [...]
Despite the arctic blasts that are ripping through the garden outside my window I'm full of the joys of Spring 23 again today, this time with a look at Boden. With sustainability in mind they have a focus on 'buy less and wear more' this season and they've pulled together a useful section on their site that they're calling Spring Uniform - an edit of everyday clothes that work together and are easy to wear repeatedly. It fits with the [...]
Happy Easter to you, I hope the sun is shining where you are and that you have a special weekend ahead. All of my chicks are back in the nest so I'm looking forward to having a few days off with them. Hopefully the Easter bunny will come on Sunday despite their now advanced years (and Ted's enthusiasm for joining in any hunt - he's already swiped one pack of Easter chocolates and spent an afternoon feeling worse for [...]
Last week I talked about easy ways to update your wardrobe for Spring 2023, so today it's time for beauty because we all know how easily make-up can date you. By the end of March I'm always at my most lacklustre (probably an oxymoron but you know what I mean). This year it's worse than ever because of the crazy way my diary has panned out since the middle of January. There's been something exciting lined up for every [...]
At last, it's officially Spring (although the weather gods still seem to have their ear muffs on). Within the next month we'll have that first glorious day when you can feel the good times coming. So, let's talk about clothes again and easy ways to update your wardrobe for Spring 2023. With an eye on sustainability I've been keeping quiet on the shopping front for a while. I don't feel it's right to keep pushing ill considered purchases with the [...]
Travelling to the Masai Mara - Kenya safari review Oh my goodness the weather! Let me take you to the sunshine as a reminder that it's out there somewhere and will be with us soon. So, as I ended last week's Kenya safari review post, we were having an early night before our long journey to the Masai Mara. It was a break of day start and it took all morning to get there. You may remember that we'd [...]
I don't know how I'm going to encapsulate our Kenya safari trip but since I've started writing one thing's become clear - even though it was only a week it's going to take two posts! I talked about some of the lessons learned in last Friday's post and I have some absolutely stunning photos because Mal was in his element. But I have to face the fact that scenic pics, however beautiful, are boring for anyone who wasn't there. [...]
How strange it is to be back. I'm going to need a bit of time to go through the photos of our trip to Kenya but I'm hoping to talk about the safari element next week. In the meantime, I mentioned on Instagram that it had changed me and quite a few of you asked how - so before the cloak of habit envelops me again, I'm going to try to pin it down with travel and what it's taught [...]
As you'll know if you follow my Instagram feed, we set off on an adventure this morning (well at least I hope we did because I'm typing this on Wednesday so I'm assuming all will have gone to plan!). It means there won't be another blog post until 24th February but part of the project involves posting Instagram Stories every day so you can catch me there - in the spoken word rather than the written one. And I'm leaving [...]
I'm posting early because I have an exciting afternoon ahead - it's our NW reader meet-up and I'm so glad it's here to bring light into January. So how's your month going? Chilly isn't it? I think I'd rather have it this way than just damp and grey though. There's something special about this time of year when the earth seems to be sleeping until you look more closely and see the shoots starting to come through, signs that soon [...]
I've had a few reminders that I haven't done a beauty post for a while so now feels like a good time. This month when we all feel a bit 'peely wally' as my Scots friends call it is a great one for refreshing beauty routines - and never forget the power of a free on counter makeover, it's a great way of learning new techniques and finding products that work for you. Just pick a brand you already like [...]
Something a bit different today because there's no point in talking about clothes at the moment - we're going to need an Ark up here soon if the rain doesn't stop! Before I start though I just want to thank you for all of the encouraging comments and messages you sent after my Christmas post, they were so heartwarming to read and they helped my year of blogging to end on an especially happy note. So talking about learnings suggests [...]
Hello and Happy New Year to you - I hope you've had a really good Christmas break and avoided the wretched cold/cough virus that's going around. I had it when I left you last and only started to feel better on Christmas Day which was a bit of a shame as it meant the build-up week when the boys first came home was a bit muffled - but at least it meant we could enjoy Christmas itself. I smiled sympathetically [...]
