What I’ve been wearing and doing in February
Hello, I hope you’re sitting somewhere warm away from the storm – crazy out there isn’t it? I’m still busy poring through the survey results – it takes quite a while to read through 3000 sets of comments but as I said last week, it’s fascinating. One of the most common requests that’s coming up is for more general outfit shots of what I’ve been wearing when I’ve been doing everyday things so I’ve made a concerted effort over the last few days to remember to take them. I haven’t really bought anything new recently so you’ll see a lot of old favourites but hopefully it might give you a way of shopping your own wardrobe.
So what’s been going on? Well not much. Like January, February is generally a very ordinary month for us unless we go away to celebrate our wedding anniversary. We decided to stay at home this year because we’re still busy trying to settle Teddy. Although he’s only six months old he’s had a difficult start, ours is his third home. He was saved by a woman who saw him being traded for dog fighting in a pub over Christmas and so she bought him and took him to the rescue centre. Now we have a bit of work to do to reassure him that he’s safe and he’s found his forever family. He has separation anxiety and worries if we leave him but we’re working with a dog trainer to overcome it.
We were happy to sacrifice our February escape to the sunshine and there’s been no other option than to embrace the wild weather and dance in the storms. Work is busy too, I don’t know whether it’s a post Brexit effect but suddenly everybody is gearing up their marketing efforts and we seem to be travelling all over the place for meetings.
What I’ve been wearing – working weekday
This was early last week when we seemed to cover the four corners of Lancashire and Cumbria in one day. Mr MC insisted it was efficient, I wasn’t so sure but anyway I was in what has pretty much become my winter work uniform, a cashmere jumper with a midi-skirt. My skirts tend either to be satin slip skirts or statement skirts with a little more drama and structure to them. The most important thing is that they don’t crease when I spend a lot of time in the car or on trains.
IdLF at Uniqlo coat (AW17); Hope scarf (AW16), Cashmere jumper; Hope satin skirt (gifted AW18); Hush boots (gifted AW18)
What I’ve been wearing – pub lunch Saturday
Last Saturday we decided to walk to the pub in the next village for lunch which takes us along the canal. It was just before Storm Ciara arrived so it’s the last picture where my hair isn’t standing on end. The Chelsea boot style wellies are a new purchase and I’m spending so much time on muddy paths that I’m wearing them a lot.
Atterley Peacoat (AW14); Jumper (now in clearance, gifted AW19); jeans (gifted AW19); Chelsea boot wellies
What I’ve been wearing – stormy Sunday
A different landscape for Teddy this time, down on the salt marshes that are just a ten minute walk from home. It was wild and wuthering as you can see.
Uniqlo Ultra Light down parka (AW17); jeans (AW14); cashmere scarf (AW15); wellies (AW14)
Boden kindly invited me to choose a Valentine’s present for Mr MC. He puts so much time into the photos for this blog that it’s really nice when he’s acknowledged by the brands I work with. Being a Geordie he doesn’t own many coats, living up to the myth by generally braving all weathers in a t-shirt so I chose this cotton jacket for him which will be great as we head towards spring.
Cotton zip jacket (gifted SS20)
As you can see it has a snazzy cobalt lining.
Cotton zip jacket (gifted SS20)
What I’ve been wearing – Ciara Monday
Yesterday we woke up to the peak of the storm and the winds felt quite momentous. It was our wedding anniversary and so unusually for us, we decided not to go straight to work. As soon as the youngest left for school we threw our coats on and headed for Morecambe for a long walk along the sea front, watching the waves lashing the flood defences.
M&S ski jacket (AW17); hideous old waterproof trousers (must replace them); ski beanie circa 2005, Uniqlo neck warmer (old)
Then it was home for a quick shower before work followed by a circuits class at the gym and then a dinner date. You can really see the white and grey in the lower layers of my hair when the wind blows it like this.
Hush dress (AW19 – this season’s version); Jigsaw coat (AW2002); Hush boots (gifted AW18)
What I’ve been wearing – windy Tuesday
And this is today – the wind’s still blowing and I spent the night awake, regretting the bottle of wine we shared over dinner. Bright clothes were the only way to pick myself up for early meetings. You saw me wearing this Kemi Telford skirt quite a lot last summer and today it’s working well with a cashmere jumper. There are always lots of colours in the patterns that she does which makes it easy to put completely different looks together. Plus of course it’s good to support a tiny business run by a midlife woman – you can see her collection here.
Jigsaw coat (AW2002); M&S cashmere jumper (AW17); Kemi Telford skirt (SS19); Hush boots (gifted AW18)
Last week in London
My retail meetings went well last week and I spent some time in the shops too so I’ll soon be ready to talk about the season ahead. The highlight of my week though was meeting some of you. You may remember that in my post on the Friday before last, I mentioned that friends had cancelled our plans in London for the following Tuesday, blowing me out for a Skype call with the Kardashians to discuss a launch they’re working on – as if that’s any kind of priority!
Anyway I asked if one or two of you might like to join me for a glass of wine and my joy was boundless when nineteen of us ended up sitting down for a chat. The thing I forgot to mention on the evening was that it was Midlifechic’s sixth birthday so it was the perfect way to spend it. I was so engrossed in the conversation that I forgot to take photos and by this point quite a few had left. I’m so sorry if you’re not in it but here we are, putting the world to rights at The Royal Festival Hall.
I can’t tell you how lovely it was. What did we talk about? Well everything really – our favourite retailers, teenagers, dogs, empty nesting, menopause and the shape of midlife in general. The conversation was warm and funny and it bubbled away without stopping, it was everything I could have hoped for. I came away feeling really uplifted because as with the Leeds readers, everyone was different and yet we had so much in common. Now that we’ve tested it we must do it again and next time I’ll plan it better. We’ll book a table somewhere and have a longer chat over food and more wine.
So I just want to say a huge thank you to everyone who said ‘yes’ to life and came along, almost everyone arrived alone so it was a brave thing to do. It was especially good to meet Nicola R who is one of the most longstanding Midlifechic commenters. We’ve been chatting on here for such a long time that she now feels a bit like an old university friend who I don’t see often but keep in touch with and I feel lots of affection for her children too as I’ve heard their stories over the last few years. It was lovely to meet blogger Gail Hanlon too – apart from the mortifying moment when I introduced her as “This is Mutton” instead of “Is this Mutton?” I’m so sorry Gail, it’s worse then people calling me Midlife Chick (which happens more than you’d think). Anyway let me introduce you to her blog here.
And with that I must go but I’ll be back on Friday with new season in mind. Before the spring deliveries start arriving in March, I think we should recap on wardrobe capsule planning. Last year we looked at winter wardrobes so this time we’ll look ahead to spring and summer. This way we’ll be sure of what we have in our wardrobes before any temptations arise and we’ll know where any gaps are.
This is partly me doing it for myself because I’m planning a blogger sale at the end of this month in aid of Marie Curie and I need to work out what to let go. Even so, the survey feedback is showing that 90% of you really enjoyed the capsule posts and would like to work on them more. Looking at the weather forecast for the weekend it seems as though it might be a good time to stay inside and plan for more clement times. So have a good week, stay warm and I’ll be back soon.
Disclosure: ‘What I’ve been wearing and doing in February’ is not a sponsored post
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