DRESSEMBER, DAY, 11
Dress, Stop Staring; Shoes, Office, c/o. Idealo.co.uk
Yesterday was the 11th anniversary of my first “date” with Terry. Of course, yesterday was also a work day, so we decided to do our celebrating on Sunday instead, with a meal at a local restaurant and an opportunity for me to be totally overdressed as usual.
If you read Shoeperwoman, you’ll already have seen this dress, and even if you don’t, it’s the one I’m wearing in my Twitter avatar, my Facebook profile, the “About the author” box on this website… basically everywhere I’ve claimed a small piece of the Internet as my own, I’ve worn this dress on it. So I guess you could call it a favourite. You could also call it “That dress my parents bought me because they got sick of standing around in a dress shop while I agonised between it and another one.” Thanks, folks! (Yes, SPOILED.)
Anyway, it doesn’t really matter that you’ve seen the dress before, because this outfit was really all about the shoes:
These are also one of my favourites, and they were also a gift, this time from Idealo.co.uk, who very kindly allowed me to run rampant on their website earlier this year, and chose some products to review. I picked these Office platforms, because although I already had eleventy-one pairs of red shoes at the time (Joking. I only had eight.) if there’s one thing I believe, it’s that you can never have too many pairs of red shoes. Or too many polka dot dresses. Or too many opportunities to wear both of them together, and pose like an idiot in them. Or… oh, you get the picture.
These are actually much more comfortable than they probably look, which is a good thing given how often I wear them. As I’m fond of repeating over at Shoeperwoman, red shoes are more or less a “neutral” for me, because they work with so much of my wardrobe. Well, except for all the green dresses, obviously: if I tried that, people would probably revert back to using my childhood nickname, “Traffic Lights”, and God knows, it took long enough to get them to stop the first time…
Oh, and just to prove that I do still have a head, even although I cropped it out of all of the other photos:
(I was doing a weird, squinty-eyed thing in all of them. In this one, I appear to be either standing on my toes (why?) or am about to levitate. Let’s pretend it’s the second option: it’ll make this post much more interesting…)
Tagged dresses, shoes
Well, hello, ’tis I, your redheaded blogger-friend, who hasn’t actually updated her blog in WEEKS, but who still expects you all to be faithfully reading along, even although you probably unsubscribed weeks ago, and are only here now because I kept tweeting the link, and you eventually just clicked on it to shut me up. Bloggers, eh?
I didn’t actually intend to disappear for so long: it’s been a really hectic couple of weeks, though, which culminated at the weekend with this:
That’s my dad (on vocals), my uncle (on guitar) and my cousin (on drums), all being rock stars. Of course, my family have always been rock stars as far as I’m concerned, but back in the 70s, my dad and uncle (who’s my mum’s brother) played in a band together: a band which had assumed almost mythical status in my mind, so much had I heard about it. Although I’d heard all about those days, however, I’d never actually seen the band perform, because by the time I was born, they’d split up, leaving only one fuzzy audio recording, and a whole lot of stories. A few years later, my uncle and aunt moved to Canada, the bass player moved to Texas… basically, there was never really a time when everyone was in the same country at the same time, so a reunion had never been possible.
Until this weekend.
A few months ago, it was decided that the time was right for the great band reunion. A venue was found, flights were booked, people flew in from their various countries, including my cousin, (who I last saw when he was five), who was standing in for the original drummer, who hadn’t been well, and wasn’t sure he’d be able to perform. As it turned out, he did manage to do a couple of songs after all, so the band was reunited, and I finally got to see them.
They. Were. Amazing.
Seriously: I’ve heard my dad sing, obviously, and I’ve seen my uncle play guitar. I’ve never seen them on stage, performing as a band, though, and pretty much as soon as my dad took to the stage, I started filling up. He was absolutely amazing: I was so proud, and only a tiny bit emotional. OK, a big bit emotional. In a good way, though.
I also took the opportunity to wear Dress # 74. Because, you know, none of the other 73 dresses I own would do, apparently.
(I had literally about two minutes to take some photos for Shoeperwoman before our taxi arrived, so of course every single one of them came out blurry. I’ve bumped up the contrast in a bid to distract you with my extreme pallor, so… er, let’s just pretend that worked, OK? While we’re at it, let’s also pretend I don’t have that random piece of hair sticking out the side of my head. Your co-operation in this matter is greatly appreciated…)
This particular dress was actually free, because I bought it with some River Island vouchers I won. Free dresses totally don’t count, do they?
Also:
My uncle and aunt went to Paris last week, and I asked them to pop into Ladurée and get me some OMGMACRONS, so I could be a giant fashion blogger cliché and take a photo of them for my blog. I feel like I finally fit in now, only not really. They were pretty damn tasty, though, let me tell you.
Anyway: it was a fantastic night, and we got to catch up with lots of friends and family we haven’t seen for a while, which made it even better. Now we just have to persuade them all to do it again sometime…
Tagged dresses
So, I was thinking. In fact, here is a photo of me thinking:
Because, yes, I totally staged a photo so I could get a picture of me thinking, with which to illustrate this post. BLOGGERS, EH?
No, I’m joking: these photos were actually taken for Shoeperwoman, as part of the Shoeper Shoe Challenge, and I’m posting them here purely because, well, I got nothing else, folks. Not a thing. I mean, I could tell you all about my exciting trip to the post office this morning, which led me past:
1. Those kitchen chairs I showed you a couple of weeks ago (because it’s all excitement on THIS blog, isn’t it? I mean, kitchen chairs, people. Where else can you get that kind of entertainment for free?) which have now been smashed into tiny pieces and distributed around the neighbourhood.
2. A woman leaving the shops wearing pyjamas, a pair of slippers and what I assumed was a dressing gown, but which Terry informs me was actually just a coat designed to look like a dressing gown. Cunning!
3. A deck of adult playing cards. The kind with nekkid ladies on them.
Um, OK, so I kind of just did tell you about my exciting trip to the post office, didn’t I? Well, it was while I was there, standing in the queue for the usual three hours (because nothing that happens in a post office ever happens quickly, does it?), that I did my thinking. You see, the queue was right next to the magazine rack, which was full of those “real life” magazines, which have headlines like “My Dog is a Spaceman!” and “Losing Weight Left Me With Seven Breasts!” (that last one is an ACTUAL headline I saw today, seriously), and I thought, “Damn, my life is dull, here with my earthbound dog and my two breasts.”
Then I thought,”This boring life of mine, it sure does make it difficult to find things to write about in that there blog. I think I’ll just post some photos and hope no one notices.”
So I did.
(Dress: Black Halo, c/0 Shopbop; Shoes: Carvela, c/o Sarenza)
Coming up next: the thrilling tale of that one time I went to the petrol station to put fuel in my car!*
*I’m joking. I haven’t had THAT much fun in AGES.
Tagged dresses, shoes
(Dress, Bettie Page; Shoes, Zara (last season, out of stock)
I’m back. And rather than get straight into the OMGDEPRESSION I feel at being back, I’m just going to go right back to the start of my trip, and systematically bore you with all of my stories and photos. Then, when I get to the end, I might just do it all over again, and in this way I will relive my holiday over and over again, right up until the next one. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
I’m starting off with the the trip from London Heathrow to San Francisco, during which I managed to clock up the following Random Acts of Stupidity:
# of times I left my “baggie” full of liquids at security and had to run back for it, with just minutes to spare before our flight - 1
# of times something leaked inside said “baggie”, soaking the contents of my handbag – 2
# of times I threw my Kindle across the aisle of the aircraft and almost into the lap of the gentleman sitting across the aisle from me – 3
# of drinks spilled over Terry’s crotch – 1
# of times I caught my watch strap on my bag, causing it to drop off my wrist - 3
# of times this happened before even leaving Edinburgh – 3
# of times Lady Gaga disrupted the entire cabin, courtesy of an alarm on my phone which I’d forgotten to disable - 2
# of contact lenses lost during the flight – # 1 (subsequently found stuck to my knee, a dried-up husk of a thing. The contact lens, I mean. Not my knee.)
# of times I lost my Liz Earle Superbalm during the flight – about 27, culminating in it being lost for good just before we landed.
# of times I complained about this – 92
And finally, having reached San Francisco, the # of times I failed to heed the warning presented by this notice in the entrance to our hotel bathroom, and almost fell flat on my face?
About 1,473.
In contrast, the flight back from LAX yesterday was pretty uneventful, save for two things:
1. The aircon unit that started leaking onto my head halfway across the Atlantic. Trust me, when you’re a nervous flyer, the very last thing you want as you sit there trying to get some sleep on the plane is to feel a steady drip, drip on your head, and to think, “Oh, it must be raining outside… wait… CRAP!”
2. The fact that I almost caused my family to miss our connection at Heathrow, due to the Kurt Geiger shoe sale in Terminal 5. Sorry, family. (It was a REALLY good sale, though…)
I do, of course, have many (many, many…) more stories and photos to share, but I also have laundry to do, sleep to catch up with, and a lot of whining about being back home to get through, so for now I’m just going to leave you with these random photos of my new Bettie Page Captain dress, purchased in San Francisco, and the Hollywood sign, neither of which have anything to do with this post at all. Enjoy!
(He’s got his paws up. Because he was born this way, baby.)
What you see looking out from the sign.
And what you see looking back.
(Yeah, I told you there would be a LOT of photos…)
Tagged bettie page, california, dresses, flying, shoes
There’s no Friend Friday this week because of the Thanksgiving break, and I’m up to my neck in advance blog posts for my holiday, so here’s a quick photo from Shoe Challenge # 60, in which I wore bright pink shoes and matching tights:
(Like my crazy pointed wall? Every room should have one, I tells ya.)
Brightly coloured tights aren’t exactly the “done thing” around these here parts. In fact, they’re the kind of thing that make people stop in their tracks and wonder what to jeer at first: red hair or pink tights? (Ah, the eternal question!)
Speaking of things that make people stop and stare in disbelief, the hotel Terry and I are going to be staying in next month has a dress code for its restaurant. It’s not a particularly “dressy” dress code, but even so, I can’t tell you how happy this makes me: I mean, any excuse to dress up, right? It’s interesting, though: Terry did a bit of Googling to try to establish just how smart or causal it’s going to be, and a lot of the reviews of the hotel from other guests mentioned that while the male guests seem to interpret the dress code pretty easily, the women just don’t, so you basically get a lot of smartly dressed men wandering around accompanied by women in jeans and swimwear. (I know! Swimsuits to dinner! Can you even?)
In fairness, I’m guessing this is partly because dress codes always seem to be directed purely at MEN. You’re told it’s either “black tie” or “white tie” or that ”men must wear long trousers”, but there’s no reference to what the women are supposed to wear. As I said to Terry, who found this really odd, the reason for this is simple: it’s assumed that women will take their cue from the “black tie” or “long trousers” bit, and modify their dress accordingly, so, if you know men are going to be in black tie, you wouldn’t turn up in jeans, for instance.
That might have worked fifty or so years ago, however (or maybe a little later than that), but the problem is that these days people just don’t know how to interpret these codes. They’ve almost ceased to have any relevance to our modern society, and, as a result, dressing is becoming a bit of a lost art. So many people seem to struggle to know what’s appropriate, and if I need any more evidence of that, it’s in all the Google searches this site gets for the phrase “Can I wear jeans to a christening?” (NO! Just back away from the jeans, sister, and no one will get hurt…)
Anyway, be all of that as it may, I’m planning to interpret our hotel dress code next month as “YAY! Bring your dresses! You will finally have an excuse to wear them!” I’ve also been persuaded to join Tat’s ‘Dressember’ challenge (it would actually have been more of a challenge to say “no” to Tat on this, trust me!), in which participants are challenged to wear a dress every day for the duration of December. Here’s how it works:
“December 1st marks the beginning of ‘Dressember’ – the challenge for women (or the adventurous male) everywhere to shake up their wardrobe and try ditching the jeans and t-shirts.
We’re aiming to wear dresses as often as possible – don’t worry if it’s not practical in the day, you can go for a skirt/top combo if needed, or have fun and dress up in the evening in that cocktail dress you never get to wear!
Feel free to share your photos in the group or on your own wall if you’re shy, just have fun with it, and try something different for the month – plus it’s party season, so use the wall to ask if you need help deciding! 
There are no rules, it’s all about stretching your wardrobe boundaries, trying something different, and having fun, so just jump on in  ”
Now, this really appealed to me because I have a LOT of dresses. A LOT of dresses. And as much as I love them, and try to get as much use out of them as I can, it’s all too easy to get sucked into the Cult of Casual and end up wearing jeans every day for a week. Or it is for me, anyway. At the same time, though, the thought of owning things I don’t actually use makes me itchy. It’s one thing to be a shopaholic and actually use the things you buy, but it’s another thing altogether to be a shopaholic who just stuffs them in a closet and forgets about them, so this shopaholic will be using the Dressember challenge, like the Shoe Challenge I’ve been working my way through all year, to stretch my style boundaries a little bit, and to make sure I’m getting my money’s worth out of my, um, expansive dress collection.
Anyone want to join me? There’s a Facebook group here if you do!
Edited to add: It’s now been suggested that Dressember be in aid of charity, so participants will be helping raise money for the women and children’s charity Refuge: details to come soon!
Tagged dressember, dresses, Outfits, outfits, shoe challenge
So, waaay the hell back at the start of this year, Shoeperwoman.com won a blog competition, and the prize was a Karen Millen gift card. This was tremendously exciting to me, obviously (in fact, if you heard a faint, but distinct shriek of excitement sometime in January of this year, that was probably me. SO much better than the bacon and eggs I once won in a raffle!), but there was one small problem: at the time I won my gift card, the store was full of fabulous party dresses, and, gorgeous though they were, I knew that buying one of them would really be a waste of money (or of store credit, rather), because I never, ever go anywhere that requires me to wear that kind of dress. The beautiful dress, then, would simply hang in my closet unworn, and that would be a crime (the thought of buying clothes and not wearing them makes me itchy. The waste!), so I cunningly held off until the winter stock arrived, and, with it, some dresses I’d actually have a chance of wearing in my lifetime.
Now, however, I have a new problem: which one to choose? (Yes, it’s a First World Problem if ever I heard one, and I am a lucky, lucky girl to have such “problems” to grapple with!) I can’t decide so I’m going to let you choose:
Dress # 1:
This one was instinctively my favourite: because I’m permanently freezing, I love dresses with sleeves, and they’re actually quite hard to find. (Why do so many stores produce dresses with short or three-quarter length sleeves during the winter? I always have to wear a cardigan or something over the top, or a long-sleeved t-shirt underneath and, well, it can look quite odd.) This also has a fabulous, film noir kind of look to it, but, with my ghostly skin, could just end up looking a little too severe. Hmm.
Dress # 2:
Totally simple, but hey, it worked for Audrey Hepburn, and you just can’t go wrong with a little black dress, can you? (Well, OK, you can. But not with this one.) Short sleeves, but a cut that would easily allow me to wear something over or under it.
Dress # 3:
Military style, great with long boots and, OK, elbow length sleeves, but I reckon I could deal with it.
Oh, I can’t decide. I’m leaning towards number one, but then there’s number two. And, oh, hey, number three could look great with those boots I bought last year.
Which should I go for?
EDITED TO ADD: Thanks for your feedback, everyone – I’ve ordered number one and am just waiting for it to arrive!
Tagged dresses, karen millen
It was my birthday on Tuesday. I didn’t mention it at the time because, well, I hate birthdays. And because I was sulking and feeling hard-done-by on account of the fact that, wah, I just got older!
But it was my birthday, and in the evening, Terry took me here:
(It’s a vegetarian restaurant in Edinburgh. We’re not vegetarians, but God, the food is delicious…)
I wore this:
And over dinner, Terry gave me these:
They are “surprises” and there are 12 of them, which I can redeem anytime I want (although some of them require a certain amount of notice, or can only be redeemed on weekends, etc.) They have names like “Sparkle Surprise” and “Surprise Red”, and there’s even a “Rubin’s Surprise, which makes me a little bit nervous, because most of the “surprises” Rubin’s been leaving me lately could be described using the words “pee” and “radiator”.
(The names are cryptic, apparently. I don’t think the “Calcium Surprise” is a carton of milk, for instance, but you never know…)
With this one act, Terry has earned Brownie points that will last at least until the vouchers run out. And birthdays = not so bad, really.
(Oh, and I also got this gorgeous handmade bookmark from Nina:
Isn’t that the prettiest thing? And the book’s not bad either, by the way. Ahem.)
Tagged birthday, dresses, surprises
(Note: this entry has nothing at all to do with the movie of the same name. Sorry, Google searchers, nothing to see here…)
I know it’s the shortest month of the year, but seriously, February, are you STILL here? Do you need a ride to the station? Can I help you carry your bags?
This time, my frustration with The Month That Won’t End has nothing to do with being locked out of cars, or finding myself in possession of more than one head or anything like that. No, it’s all about the shopping. See, I promised myself I’d try to spend less on clothes and shoes, and actually, for the most part this month, I’ve come good on my promise. I mean, there was that bikini I suddenly needed to buy right at the start of the month, and the ill-fated work-out clothes which didn’t see the light of day until last week, but even so, people, even so. I mean, I haven’t bought a single pair of shoes this month AT ALL (thank God I bought three pairs last month, thank God, I say) and that’s saying a LOT for me.
But I can take no more. The closer it gets to pay-day, the more eaten up with the thought of shopping I become. The more I start to feel that if I don’t go forth and shop RIGHT NOW, I will surely shrivel up and die.
So I bought yet another little black dress. Of course I did. This one is very basic and versatile, though, and I will wear it all the time. Like, for lounging around the house in:
For using my stability ball in:
For washing the dishes in a really blurry way in:
And for dusting in:
So, yes, a totally versatile purchase which I will wear EVERYWHERE, and as Becky Bloomwood herself says, I will be known as The Girl in the Black Dress. Which, let’s face it, will make a change from me being known as The Girl Who Keeps Buying Black Dresses Even Although She Already Has Dozens of Them Which She Never Wears. Because that’s just nowhere near as catchy, you know?
Tagged dresses, Outfits, Things I Bought
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