Category: style

Winter Sun Fun…

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This year for all sorts of reasons , but mainly because non of us can face it without mum. We are going to leave on a jet plane and spend Christmas abroad somewhere hot.

Mum was our Christmas .

She was ‘Mrs Christmas’.

She adored it. She always had the best, most tastefully dressed tree [always red  and gold ], ensured the house was lit up like Blackpool, and her giddiness was infectious. Family was everything to mum and she ensured we always had the best time.

I tend to get my own way and have spent every single Christmas Day at Mum and Dads, bar one when I went to my ex-husbands house for Christmas lunch. I hated every single minute of it. Not because they did anything wrong, it just wasn’t the same without my mum around.

I’m positively dreading this year , the first year without her. 

It’ll never be easy but I’m kinda guessing this year will be tough for us all. Firsts always are.

We [ dad, BF & brother] made a collective decision that this year we would take ourselves out of our usual surroundings and do something we’ve never done before. Hence a week abroad is on the cards. It’s new, there are no memories of mum there. [though I’m sure we will all be thinking about her.] It will still be absolutely gut wrenching her not being there with us … 

I love Christmas but quite frankly this year I could take it or leave it. 

So while I’d normally start looking for a warm, snug yet stylish outfit with an elasticated expanding waistband;  this year that will be substituted for a new bikini, sandals and a good false tan.  Continue reading →

Atomic Blonde … 

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Last night was ‘Date Night‘.

What with one thing and another ‘we‘ tend to get side-lined. We decided Date Night should become [where possible] a weekly affair. Sometimes life gets in the way of romance doesn’t it? We made a promise to make time for each other.

You may all say awwwww… 

or be sick. 

Your choice. 

The BF mentioned the cinema. I pulled a ‘urgh’ face. I was tired I told him , I’d fall asleep as soon as the lights went down . It would be a total waste of money and let’s face it going to the cinema these days isn’t a cheap affair.

Sometimes I’m mardy and not much fun! As you can see my can’t be arsed mood isn’t shifting very fast.

Then I remembered that Atomic Blonde with the beautiful Charlize Theron was showing at Vue, Meadowhall.

I’d been dying to see this film after seeing the trailers. There was only one problem the BF was keen to see bloody Spider-Man .

Some quick thinking on my part and the promise of some naked, lesbian sex scene action sealed the deal. The BFs eyes lit up and the decision was made… Spider-Man could wait! Continue reading →

Things I should be doing …

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There are a hundred and one things I should be doing. I have the time just not the inclination. 

Procrastination appears to be my best friend. That and cake.

It’s Mums funeral on Thursday and I need something to wear? I also need to get my hair cut and coloured and sort my skin out. Everything’s kinda got neglected as mums health deteriorated . I have an inch of grey at my roots , frazzled ends and stressed out spotty skin.

Don’t I just sound delightful.

I ordered a dress from Marks & Spencer’s last week. It’s nothing special. I thought it was black. It’s arrived and it’s actually navy.

We have since discussed and changed the dress code to colourful? [Mum was such a colourful charactor.]

The dress is still sat in the plastic bag waiting for me to try it on. I’m putting that off too. I’m not entirely sure it’s suitable anymore . I’m not sure navy has ever been classed colourful?

I’m dreading the funeral or rather ‘celebration of life‘ ceremony as we’ve renamed it. This is reflected in my total disinterest in sorting myself out. I don’t want to say goodbye as it’s all very final.

I also realise that until I say goodbye it will be hard to move on …

So with that in mind here’s said dress.

It ticks all the right boxes;  not too short, no cleavage on show and it covers my bingo wings!

Marks & Spencer’s Polka Dot Dress – £35.00

Continue reading →

The Fab 40’s – DIY …

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The Fab 40s are a group of over-40 seriously stylish ladies from all over the globe. Each month they pick a theme; create an outfit based on their interpretation [of said theme] and then share the results with us all over on their blogs.

What I love about all these ladies is they like to experiment ; they are not carbon-copies. Something I personally admire and try to aspire too myself. Who wants to look like everybody else?

Take inspiration but always make it your own. 

They take it in turns to pick a guest blogger to take part each month … and [drumroll] guess whose been asked to join in this time?!

Yep …only yours truly… little old me ! Ekkk excited much.

I was chosen by Diane the style blogger behind Fashion on the 4th Floor who I have been following for a while now. I adore her and her style. She always owns the look, has the biggest, infectious smile and is quite simply #fierce and very friendly.

I was both honoured and very, very surprised to be invited. So thankyou with all my heart you’ve made a lady from Yorkshire very happy indeed.

The Theme:

So I’ve got to admit I was a bit  like ‘oh oh this will be a disaster‘ when I initially heard that this months theme was DIY. Not for any other reason than I’m rubbish at anything remotely to do with ‘do it yourself!’

Like cooking … I’m rubbish / hampered /a disaster ! I am, as my mums says, cack – handed.

I’m from Yorkshire; we use funny terms of phrase around here . Let me explain.

Cack handed – an awkward or inept way of doing something; originally meaning left handed, stemming from cultures that use their right hand to eat and their left hand to wipe their behind.

“That shelf you put up looks a bit cack handed”

Continue reading →

Introducing … Izabel London

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“I fell for her in summer, my lovely summer girl,

From summer she is made, my lovely summer girl,

I’d love to spend a winter with my lovely summer girl,

But I’m never warm enough for my lovely summer girl,

It’s summer when she smiles, I’m laughing like a child,

It’s the summer of our lives; we’ll contain it for a while

She holds the heat, the breeze of summer in the circle of her hand…

I’d be happy with this summer if it’s all we ever had.” Maggie Stiefvater

* * * * * * * * 

Hasn’t it been a glorious week… and about blooming time I hear you all cry! I love it when the sun makes an appearance, it generally makes for a happier place.

Rather than grunt as people walk past you, they actually smile. Big toothy, happy with the world  smiles.

To be able to leave the house without your jacket on and feel the warmth on your skin rather than wetness and the cold is fabulous. Hello Vitamin D !!

To sit in the garden and have breakfast alfresco is maybe one of my favourite things to do.

Coffee alfresco

Cocktails alfresco … you get my drift!

The little things.

* * * * * * * * Continue reading →

Walking back to happiness featuring Transitions Optical Style Colours …

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Story of my life…

I receive a couple of pairs of glasses to trail featuring the new Transitions Optical lenses from the new Style Colours collection  and the sun decides that in my corner of the world – Sheffield – it’s going to go into hiding… for the foreseeable future!

Speaking of Sheffield it’s made me smile today,  or rather its people have. I can only speak from a Sheffielders point of view because that’s where I am, but ‘by heck’ we are a mighty friendly  [ if slightly odd at times] bunch.

I encounter all sorts of people as I walk around Damflask with our Mollie. Somebody really needs to record a sit-com.

All walks of life, all shapes and all sizes. Today we were greeted by either a big toothy smile , a nod of the head, a cheery ‘Morning‘ or a pat on the back; Mollie’s back … not mine obviously!

I’m not sure if my senses become heightened as I stroll around and take in the beauty that surrounds me, or whether I appreciate life a little more having seen what mums going through? Either way the birds seemingly sing louder up in the trees, I’m entranced by the way the water dances as the light hits it?

A group of old ladies walked past us earlier. They smelt like my late Grandma Betty – ‘Palma violet  mixed with Yardley’ , you know that lovely old lady smell. It smelt comforting, familiar, it took me aback and brought a tear to my eyes.

I miss my Grandma … Continue reading →

Introducing Smartbond at Regis Hairstylist … #frazzledtofabulous

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Does anybody else get nervous about going to the hairdressers , especially when it’s a new salon … for the first time?

It might sound extremely silly but I do and it’s down to a combination of things.

A bodged up colour and a terrible cut in the past. Several terrible cuts in fact [mainly involving my pesky carflick … it’s caused some trouble in its day!] and one horrendous colour. Boy that colour was bad! I’d have given Jimmy Cranky a run for his money.

Saying that when I got the opportunity to attend Regis Hairstylists at Meadowhall to trail the new Smartbond treatment earlier this week I didn’t have to think twice.

While I get nervous I also love, love, love a good pamper. Tell me somebody who doesn’t? A trip to the salon is relaxing; a good excuse to do absolutely nothing for an hour or so.

Zonk out – turn your brain off, sit back, drink copious amounts of coffee and read magazines to your hearts content while your stylist works their magic. Continue reading →

Cleverly Wrapped…

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When the guys from Cleverly Wrapped got in touch to see whether I’d like to choose something from their website to style I almost snapped their hands off.

Regular readers of the blog will know I adore a cheeky little neck scarf.

So that’s how Tracey met ‘Jungle Silk Scarf’ it’s everything I look for in a scarf. A bright, colourful little square of silk beauty.

Continue reading →