fabulous dressed blogger woman: U.K Girl

romance in Inishowen’s own personal Siberia

The dress is thin cotton but by wearing it with a plain black T-Shirt; this one is Marks and Spencer limited collection, and though it is two years old it is an absolute classic and has kept its colour and shape perfectly; it maintains a winter edge and prevents it looking like just another beach dress.

I wish you love, warmth and happiness from Inishowen’s newly formed Siberia. Hope you or your lovers are still able to roam around in cashmere socks and over sized jumpers in the heat of your own home and that you have no immediate need to build a den unless it is just for fun.

When Charity gets Uppity

Well that’s now over and done let us get down to the business of today’s blog. As I could not justify my beautiful boy spending his hard-earned cash on overly priced flowers he has volunteered to instead buy me some dresses. I have told you in the past of dresses I have purchased from e-bay for minimal sums, many of which when inclusive of postage and packaging barely tip the £5 mark.

Yesterday whilst searching for dresses, thinking I might be able to get for £20 at the most I was horrified to see how snooty many branches of charity shops have become. I noticed it before when I went to purchase books and was charged £5 for copies of Harry Potter that were so battered and smoke smelling you wondered whether they had been re-free-cycled five times over. i have no problem buying from charity shops, I enjoy knowing that when I buy things the money, well the percentage of it not given to expensive advertising campaigns, will be going to a cause. I also enjoy gifting clothing to them which is in a reasonable condition, clean and of good quality knowing that someone else will be a ble to get wear out of it and that it wont end up in a landfill someplace else.

The problem we found however, is that charity shops, spurred on by the age of Vintage becoming cool have become carried away with their pricing and are somehow managing to justify charging up to £13 for a Next dress and around £7 on average even at times for Primark and George. It is a total joke because we went in yesterday ready to spend £20 and left in disgust at the fact this would buy us only two dresses and had we went to eBay we could have triple the amount of dresses. It is silly because people spend more when they feel they are getting value for money, less or nothing at all when they feel they are getting ripped off. ...............

Silk for a Sunday spent surrounded by the splendour of Bruxelles

When I chose this dress today I could not help but think of my sisters favourite dress which was a red silk Chinese dress, the one which we eventually had to bury her in as was her wish.

In Irish families unlike English ones you lay the body out in the house prior to the funeral it is a tradition which is difficult for those who live in the house as you can find yourself going a little crazy hoping the person might still be able to hear you but in many ways it removes the idea of death as something which is scary and should not be talked of. Later after my sister died my parents brought me a black silk dress for my 17th birthday. It is and was beautiful and when I wear it is mas much a homage to the loss of my sister as it is to the joy she brought us.Today at Bruxelles, surrounded by friends, few of whom had known her I couldn’t help but feel sad and full of sentiment and although I meant for this posting to be about the joys of Sunday dinner at Bruxelles, which by the way was lovely, in my melancholic state thinking as I was of my darling sister it seemed a bit too trivial to post only on luncheon.

The great outdoors and a little light exercise to address the angst

Today is the last day of the green boots and the white Bertie wooden heeled shoes. Apart from the disasters with the Bertie heels I have enjoyed this week. I struggled a bit today with wearing the boots with jeans but as it turned out it was a freezing cold day so the extra layer of velvet was a big help. The heel was not entirely practical and when the boy suggested come help him look for the deer I gave him short shrift and answered, “Not in these bloody heels I wont.” I wore them with my Next military style coat, an old jumper of my mum and a DKNY fine grey knit and Guess jeans and a pair of the boy’s socks. I was also lucky enough to be given this fashionable accessories of a guide to the house. I think everyone should have one.

Day three with the extended family

Today’s dress is definitely my favourite so far. It allows me to wear the colour in which I feel most at ease, black, whilst the white stripes prevent me arriving at the party like an apparition of the gloomy ghost of Christmas past. The one thing which nearly threw me off buying it is the shoulder pads but in the end I decided that a child of the 80s should be prepared to embrace at least one trend from the time other than the god awful shell suit in which I spent many a bonfire night.
I originally tried the dress on back at a brownie camp reunion weekend back in early December with three of my best friends from Manchester University. Hitting the shops with a white wine induced headache and a determination to persuade the London city girls that Manchester’s vintage shops really were free of moths we eventually had to compromise on a trip to Selfridges. It was here that I bought my first full priced item of clothing for over a year. Unfortunately the item in question was a puff ball skirt which I wore for New Years Eve, but I did try on this dress but found the stripes and ruffles left me looking a little too chunky round the middle and at £40 I just couldn’t justify trying on the next size up. Imagine my glee when I came upon it in the Topshop sale on New Years Eve in a 12 which was much more to my liking.

A poorly posting

Today’s dress is from my mystery donor. I am not sure where it is from originally but the sender has obviously read the blog as I have previously hinted heavily about wanting to wear a denim dress and whoever it is has sent me two. I may be closing in on whoever it is that is sending me them. I had another box sent last week and another mysterious note was inside. I am making enquiries but hope to have more news tomorrow. Thanks to HP who suggested the letter might have German influences it all helps towards drawing out the donor. HP also said one package addressed to Lost in Notation may have come from one of her lovely friends who live on a military base. If this is you and you are reading thank you so much. Please let me know who you are so I can credit you!

The sweetest surprise

Today’s dress is on loan from my sister. It is from Florence and Fred/ Tesco and I am a little bit in love with it as it makes me feel like a forties femme fatale. The photos taken by my mother were base attempts to show off the flowers from my friends, my mother’s herb garden and the earrings sent to me by a wonderful woman from the states who writes a daily blog about the rising sun. Sometimes there is just a description of the colours but every post is pure poetry and for those wanting a break from my verbosity will love her more succinct style.

Submerged in sadness

Today’s dress was brought for me by the boy as a cheer up treat yesterday. It is some unusual make but it was from British Heart Foundation and was only £3.99. I wore it with my checker tights and some huge heels to give me a bit of a boost. I am not usually a fan of purple but according to the boy it suits my hair colour. My baby brother took the photos for me before having to head out to see his lovely lady. He is a big fan of strange angles which he creates by spinning the camera around and randomly taking the photos when I am least expecting it.

Jeans for Genes

Today’s dress is on loan from the lovely Georgie who also wrote two of this weeks posts. It is a bit of a flamboyant denim number and though it is not technically a pair of jeans it is in the same ball park so I hope you can forgive.

A little ray of sunshine through the clouds of a dreary day

I am writing this post at 12.25am because if I wait until the morning the low will kick in again and I shall have neither the energy nor the inclanation for writing nor recording.

Things have been pretty bad all day, tears and tantrums but the clouds have cleared and I am once again hopeful and loving life. I am tired but I don’t want to go to sleep because of the possibility that I may wake up again in the morning with clouds over my eyes.

In my worse moments I have wondered off the ward, desperate, utterly desperate for escape from this low one way or another. I walked for as long as I could to try and take the sting out of the anxiety but it did not work.

What is worse for my family and friends who came to see me today is that I was still in the low patch when they visited and now I am on cloud nine. It is a source of great frustration to me that during the lows I cannot remember the highs and I can see no way that it can lift.

I have decided to keep going with the blog while I am in here. In the interests of my health I will not be updating the seven days from last week as it is just too bleak a period to blog back upon.

Hopefully things will pick up and the blogs will not all be doom and gloom but I want to carry it on and I hope that you will all forgive me if there are a few off days.

I am tired now, fingers crossed for a brighter day tomorrow or failing that a high that starts before 10pm at night.

Polka doots

Today’s dress is from the mysterious dress donor. I am not sure where it is from, no label but it has a great shape and the skirt seems to cry out for a dance. I did consider wearing it to yoga but it does not lend itself well to all the bending over and reaching back.

Dress

Today’s dress is on loan from my sister. It is originally from Next but I think it is definitely better suited to her. She is taller than me and suits spotty dresses better than I do. I think I look a little too matronly and wide at the hips.

Long black dress

Today’s dress is from HP. A friend of my sister from her University days she is an absolute legend who is a great surfer and good craic to go clubbing with. She is a business whiz, can drive a motorbike and is also the mother of two very lovely little girls. A supporter of the blog from the beginning, H has harangued her friends to find dresses for the project and shares the posts with her friends through her own Facebook wall. She once posted a very nice note about how reading the blog had replaced Farmville as a form of entertainment for when she has to get up in the night to care for the kids. It is because of this that I do make an effort to get something up on the site every day even if it is just a few photos. She kindly donated the dress a few weeks ago but I have been saving it for a special occasion like tonight. It was originally from Hennes and has to be worn without a bra which was frankly quite liberating if a little bit ris risky during the dancing.