There's a particular kind of woman who heads a family and you only really see her properly once she's gone. Mal's mum died on the 26th of May. Her name was Delia, Delia Mary Garnett, born O'Connor in Gateshead in 1942 and as a family we officially say goodbye to her today. It's been hard to put this post together because how do you write about a woman who never struggled to know what to say herself? I'm not [...]
I want to say thank you for all of the thoughtful messages that you've left in the comments, in emails and via social. Realistically I'm not going to manage to reply to you but we've read them all and they've meant the world - especially to Mal. It's only a few months since I was having a clearout and came across all the cards that I was sent when my mum and dad died. I remember it being a [...]
I was fifty-nine last week. Not sixty yet... not for another year... but fifty-nine feels portentous. It's the year before the year which in a way turns it into the dress rehearsal. Some of you will have seen from Instagram that I was chatting to somebody recently who was dreading her forthcoming 60th birthday so much that she couldn’t even speak the word. She’s banned all family and friends from mentions of it and celebrations – her sixtieth is [...]
There's a particular kind of optimism required to style a summer edit on Newcastle's quayside when the East wind has clearly not got the memo. Linen, in May, with the Millennium Bridge arching overhead and the Tyne glowering below (the down jacket came off between shots but the goose pimples stayed put). However I'd been invited to do a John Lewis summer wardrobe edit and if anything I think the colder the shoot, the harder you dream of warmer [...]
It's just a quick post from me today. We had a horrible journey back from Croatia with plane delays resulting in us finally crawling into bed at 7.30am yesterday morning so everything feels upside down. I haven't had chance to write a blog post so instead I'm sending the Midlifechic Boutique live as I've been gradually filling it during my latest clearout. As always I'm raising money for Blood Cancer UK. Almost everything is brand new with tickets - [...]
You're going to find this a post of contrasts today. I want to start by talking about an exhibition of Queen Elizabeth's style that I previewed recently and end with distinctly less regal everyday life in Newcastle. Right now I'm in Croatia, tomorrow we're due to head off for a few days of sailing around the islands and I'm praying that the weather forecast will improve. If you want to see if it does (or whether we spend our [...]
A week with my adult children - and the small impacts I didn't know I'd had... Ok so I'm still playing catch-up. We're rewinding to the Easter weekend today and a story that I've been dying to tell you, I've had to bide my time and now it's here. For those of you who come for the clothes there isn't much to show you today - but for those who come for the meandering midlife tales there's more. [...]
This year is turning into a runaway train for us, we'll be a third of the way through it next week and so far I've spent far more nights away than I have at home. I have so many stories to tell you about the things we've been doing and life in general and I'm running to catch up so today I'm going to take you back to Mexico for the third part of our adventure there. Even though [...]
I have more new season ideas for you today - ways of updating your look as style starts to move on a little as well as some classic summer brights that are perfect for the summer months ahead. When I took these photos I had a sense of my worlds colliding because it was just as we were waiting for the last Midlifechic Retreat to begin. As readers started to gather in the sunshine they had a ringside view [...]
Today I'm doing something that always makes me happy - crunching data and bringing it to life for you. And I'm trying on a couple of completely new looks as trends are slowly starting to take a new turn. So today's going to be a catch-up with what's going on at John Lewis, Spring 26 but first I just want to say an enormous thank you to everyone who came along to last weekend's Midlifechic Retreat. Once again it [...]
Let's pop back to Mexico shall we? As I type the rain's hammering down outside and it feels as if spring has crept back into its shell. Today I want to take you to Oaxaca which you may remember was the reason that we chose to go to Mexico when we had to pivot away from Cuba rather quickly. It was the place that the well travelled midlife women I met in Thailand voted as their all-time favourite and [...]
I have a nice new season edit for you today as the big spring 26 drops are starting to land. And I, for one, am not looking back - not a single new piece of wintery, woolly cold weather clothing will enter my wardrobe... at the moment I feel like saying EVER. You know I'm not a fan of the A/W season, my heart pounds when I see the spring press packs bounding into my inbox in early January. [...]
Well hello, I'm back from what turned out to be the very best celebration we could have had for our silver wedding anniversary. We travelled our way and set our own agenda doing only the things we love. So today's post is going to include thoughts about travelling with your partner, a midlife guide to Mexico City and I'm including a packing capsule too because this was the time that I felt I really cracked the perfect city break [...]
Another quick hello from me. I hope there are signs of spring in the UK - we're moving to hotter and hotter territory so I'll try and waft some sunshine your way. My toughest decision today has been which bikini to choose but I know you're probably not facing the same dilemma so, one more styling post to keep you going. This time it's a recap on 2 easy midlife outfit styling tricks for days when you're feeling uninspired. [...]
As you know I'm away but I didn't want to leave you with nothing to read on a Friday so I'm going to do a series of very short posts on style solutions. No chitter chatter, just down to business. I'm turning the comments off because I'll see them come in and want to answer them - then Mal will remind me that we're away celebrating our silver wedding and I'll feel torn. It isn't that I don't want [...]
Here we are at one of my favourite posts of the year - the one where we leave winter behind and start looking ahead to warmer weather. There aren't enough words to tell you how happy it makes me, I hate the drag of winter layers... and the huge effort of getting lots of individual pieces working together... and the feeling of being covered up. It reminds me of being very small in the days before duvets when my [...]
We've made it to the end of January and I'll just say to those of you who are grumbling about me not doing enough midlife style posts, "give yourselves (and me) (and the planet) a break." I fully believe that in January we should follow nature's example and be fallow for a while, it's a time for rest and regeneration. The shops are full of stuff that nobody wants, discounted more every day and the sale advice endures - [...]
I knew I was going to be flat out at the end of January. I have our first Midlifechic Retreat at the end of next week to prepare for and life on the work front is busy for this time of year which is strange... but then the world is a strange place right now isn't it? However foresight can be a wonderful thing and I found a note in my blogging diary for this week that said "pans [...]
Following from last week's recap of the downs this is a nicer post to write because as promised, it's all about the gentle midlife highs of 2025. When I look back there weren't as many big moments as there have been in other years but that's not a bad thing. I'm at the stage where I'm very happy to travel through life on what's perhaps more of a gentle log flume than a roller coaster. And as I read [...]
Well hello and a very Happy New Year to you. Cold isn't it? I hope you're emerging from a lovely, restful break ready for a shiny new beginning. I'm going to be looking back at 2025 today as well as wrapping up Christmas. We had exactly the time I hoped for, it was low key and relaxed, we immersed ourselves in happy times with family and friends and just switched off from the outside world for a couple of [...]
