Linen from Lintico.

Hiya everyone,

How are you?

A busy weekend what with Airbnb cleans, ironing - for Airbnb and then working in the garden, I’m exhausted. 

We’re less than two weeks away from the wedding and it’s getting very exciting. The house is full of box’s, bags, clothing bags and flowers, it’s becoming very real now. 

I want to have everything done by next weekend so I can really enjoy the run up. The marquee should be up this week, so we’ll be able to get more of an idea as to where everything will go! We won’t be putting everything in place until the end of next week. Stay tuned to see how it looks after the 29th. 👏👏

With warm weather still very much in play, albeit a tad cooler and we did have a little rain overnight a couple of nights ago, but we’re still in a drought therefore watering the plants has been a task! Filling up the watering can everyday has been tiring but at least we’ve had water. Many of the surrounding areas have been without water at times! How’s your supply doing?

Items marked with * have been gifted to me, however these are 100% my own honest comments. 

 

Style not Age Go Red for Feb.

Welcome to the blog. 

How are you my friends?

Did you have a good weekend? I was out to dinner on Saturday night, we had a wonderful evening at our daughters with a private chef preparing and cooking our dinner and I must say it was delicious. 

If you’re like me and have only a few favourite restaurants that you like to frequent and are a bit dismayed with the restaurant chains, then maybe having a private chef cooking for you might be the answer. Six of us dined on a superb three course meal complete with canapés. We’d pre-booked our dishes which he’d suggested, leaving the choice of canapés to my daughter and her husband, although we had all given our preferences. In the end we had chorizo which had been marinated in Worcester sauce and had a sticky glaze over it. The king prawn option was divine too, that was covered in a fresh salsa of sweet chilli and lime. The other option was delicious and I could have eaten all the portions! It was a crispy pork belly covered in soy sauce, honey glaze and chilli. Yes they were all as tasty as they sound. X 

I’ll continue to tease you later in the post but until then let me tempt you with the Style not Age collection who’re sharing their red outfits for the monthly challenge based on the prompt …

Go Red for Feb!

Items marked with * have been gifted to me, however these are 100% my own honest comments. 

Styling a wrap dress from Izabel - #Chicandstylish #Linkup

Hello and welcome to the blog today. 

How’s your week been?

The rain has been awful here over the past few days, either rain or dreary days have played havoc with taking photos!  I did pop out when there was a little window when the rain stopped and managed to grab these shots and I have to say I’m chuffed with them!

It’s still a little early for me to put a dress on as it’s quite chilly, but this classic wrap will be playing an important part when the season finally arrives - it’s got a lot of scope because there’s so many shoes, jackets and cardigans I’m going to wear it with, I do hope you don’t tire of it! 😚

I’m sure you’re going to like my black and white dress* do let me know what you think of the red accents. ❤️

Items marked with * have been gifted to me, however these are 100% my own honest comments. 

White and Green, what I wanted to wear!

Morning all.

Well what a weekend that was.  

Saturday was the family party, we were worried about the rain making an appearance, and yes you guessed it poured all afternoon!  Mum had booked a bouncy castle for the little ones, and they did manage to play on it ... in the rain and they were all soaked!  We all crowed in my mum's house - fortunately she has two big reception rooms which we made good use of, my only worry was the cream carpet that was in one of them!  We'd all taken a dish or two each and we had so much food there was something for everyone.

I'd made a coronation chicken with wild rice and a lemon tart.  Both, I'm pleased to say went down really well.  There was also: chicken drumsticks, tortilla, salad, potato salad, coleslaw, pizza's, cold meats, a fish dish, crisps & dips and lots of other delicious plates of food.  Mum supplied the drinks of which there was copious amounts (I didn't have too many - do I get brownie points?)  She'd also got some big outdoor games that some of the children played inside, but to be honest they just like playing together and made good use of the rooms getting quite rowdy at times (I blame the sweets they had).  There was also ice cream in cones and lots of sprinkles to squander - fortunately none left any marks on the carpet, so all in all it was a winning afternoon.

Today I thought I'd share what I wanted to wear to the party, but figured with the weather not being great and the fact kids would be having ice cream - Neopolitan - probs wouldn't be a good choice eh!

White Trousers & a Hot Pink Crop Top!

Hi there my friends.

How are you?

I’ve had a super chilled weekend which started Friday night with no dancing but an overnight stay from Max. I have to say I was rather worried he wouldn’t settle with me as he’s definitely a grandad’s boy with me not getting a look in! He even dismisses me with a hand most of the time. Anyway to my surprise he was brilliant and we had a lovely couple of hours when grandad went to the pub.  I gave him dinner and watched Monsters Inc! My giving him some sweets and chocolate backfired a bit because he then didn’t want to sleep when we did - he was blowing raspberries and jumping on the bed when we tried to get him to sleep!! Yeah I know! 😱

He eventually went off for the night and was transferred to the other bed when his mum got in from the concert … McFly at Dreamland! She’d decided to stay to make it easier for me.  She needn’t have worried because he didn’t stir all night!  It was great to have them both and has given me a taster because when their bungalow is being extended they’ll be staying with me again … can’t wait!

Saturday we actually went out! Yeah I know get us! We’d been invited for birthday drinks with my brother-in-law at his local and it made a really nice change to get out and relax in good company.  We came home, a bit worse for wear and made short work of the curry my daughter had ordered. My philosophy of drinking water in-between drinks worked a treat and I woke up feeling fine!

With the weather being awful on Sunday, rain definitely stopped a BBQ day so we decided on a roast and popped to the supermarket for a joint of beef which we had with Yorkshire puddings, roast potatoes and veg. It made a nice change and was devoured by all who came!  

Do tell what your weened comprised of and I’ll end my weekend diary with what I wore to the pub on a very hot Saturday afternoon!

Items marked with * have been gifted to me, however these are 100% my own honest comments

Salamander Shirt with Hotter Shoes - #Chicandstylish #LINKUP

Morning, good to have you here.

Sorry there wasn’t a post on Monday, various reasons and I didn’t want to beat myself up about it, you understand I’m sure. X

Hope you're going to join the #linkup below.

You've joined a very unhappy Mummab today.  You see I've managed to get photos taken yesterday, and stupidly deleted some of them as I was transferring them to my computer!!  I'm so annoyed with myself as I'm usually so careful.  My daughter has offered to take them again, but it's such a faff isn't it!

In future I'll be doubly careful with what I do so that it doesn't happen again!

I've had a normal week so far, gym has been good and although my I've been unable to get into my usual cycle class I went into body attack instead.  I was worried I wouldn't be able to keep up but was pleasantly surprised at how well I did, I've come away feel quite chilled with 'nicely' aching muscles, I'm sure I won't be able to walk in the morning, but that'll be tomorrow's worry ... lol!  That's the trouble with going to the gym in Jan and Feb, everyone is on a fitness spurt aren't they.  All the classes get booked up and the loyal gym go'ers can't get booked in, do you know I have to book a week and a day in advance to get into cycle classes, that means waking at 6.00 am on a Sunday and Tuesday to book for a Monday and Wednesday the following week!  If I'm late there's no chance of booking in!  I really need to look into going to another gym, but I like the instructor so I'm staying put for now, oh and just keep moaning about it!! ha ha!! 😝

So today I wanted to share two new items with you.  I've been a big fan of Salamander Shirts* for a while now and was delighted to receive a couple of new designs from them recently, so what do you think of this pretty floral shirt?  It's been teamed with my 'go to' trouser of the season ... my jeans.  However I wanted to give a bit of a Spring vibe so opted for these cute court shoes from Hotter* in the subtle nude shade.  

Items marked with * have been gifted to me, however these are 100% my own honest comments.

Gold Necklaces - But First Style Not Age share Spots & Stripes.

Hello and a big welcome to the blog.

Hope you're having a super month, not long to go until the run up to the festivities really start to get serious ... sorry to remind you!  I've started my shopping and am pleased with how it's going.  I'm trying not to worry this year which is my normal deliberation - which is really stupid I know.  Every year the kids and grand-kids love their gifts and I end up wondering why I worried so much!  

We put up the decorations over the weekend.  On Saturday David put the lights over the Hawthorn bush.  That's always good to watch (not do) because it usually ends up in a row as it's either being pushed or pulled in the wrong direction and nearly always ended up broken in some place so David has to do a DIY repair to make it look good!  It's rather like watching a Laurel and Hardy sketch and if I was watching would be in fits of laughter!  This year was different.  He'd trimmed the tree to nearly half it's size and with the help of our SIL it slipped over a dream - if you fancy seeing the finished look pop over here to see my IG post.  

Sunday was my turn to put the indoor decorations up.  I love doing it, but it takes ages and I usually do it over a few days, kind of a room at a time.  I want to decorate the hall this year, but not sure what I will use.  I keep adding to the trimmings and always get told off as we have way too many on the tree ... not in my opinion though, lol!

As it's the last Monday of the month, it's the turn of Style Not Age to take over the page and share their interpretations from the prompt …

Spots & Stripes.

I always think of the American flag when I hear spots and stripes mentioned, so it was an easy choice, with what I had on offer, to go down the route of red, white and blue like the flag.  As many of you know the American flag represents the 13 British Colonies and 50 American states.  As a bit of trivia for you. My New Years Resolution last year was to learn the 50 American states.  I hate to admit to failing miserably with this one as I haven't learnt any!  Maybe I will try again for my next New Years Resolution - well I can only try eh!

Items marked with * have been gifted to me, however these are 100% my own honest comments.

This is a sponsered post.

September Review.

Hi there, how’s it going?

I’m stunned we’re in October already, how on earth did that happen?

The weather has acted accordingly and dropped temperatures to make way for layers, jackets and warmer clothes. It’s nice to have a change & wear warmer clothes isn’t it?

I’ve started to think about Christmas and after a couple of years when I’ve hated to embrace the festive season I’m excited to get going on present buying and Christmas Day planning. 

Both my daughters will be with their other half's family on Christmas Day, and although I hate it, I accept that I have to ‘share’ them so will enjoy their coming to us on Boxing Day. After all it’s better to enjoy the Xmas period for longer is it?  It's My mum's turn to come to us, and that will be lovely to have her join us.  Have you planned your Christmas Day yet?

Anyway let's forget about the festive season and think about the new month, a new month can only mean a new review ... so it's time to share the September Review.

Style not Age Show off Their Luxe Layering.

Morning everyone.

Hope you are well.

Can’t believe it’s the last Monday of September! The weather has changed to too, it’s much cooler and the mornings have dew on the grass and a definite chill in the air.  I know that first hand as I was looking after my son’s puppy last week which called for two visits into the garden in the early hours each night I had her. Our garden isn’t very pet friendly and has no gate to have kept her in! I didn’t want to risk her running off so had to take her out on a lead every time!  She’s home now, and I have to say I’ve missed the little bundle of fur called Halle, our second name is Berry!  It’s most definitely confirmed I don’t want another dog and am content that I can have a part time pet when my son and his family go away again. 

On Saturday night we went to a friends house to have a takeaway curry, it was fun and quite sedate really, no dancing but lots of laughs.  We all need that in our lives don’t we!

On Sunday we had the second roast dinner in quite a few months, it was really nice to have the typical spread and the roast lamb and veg went down rather well as did the hot chocolate with dipped marshmallows that followed - bang goes the calorie counting. 

So let's get back to what's on the agenda today. Me and the ladies from the Style not Age collective have been getting to grips with the latest challenge set by Gail.

She's given us the suitable for the season prompt of ...

Luxe Layering.

Asos if you're Over Fifty - Yes! #chicandstylish #LINKUP

Hi there my lovelies.
Today is my 32nd wedding anniversary.   It only seems like yesterday I was planning my wedding.  Five children, two grandchildren, two dogs, four houses, umpteen cars, plenty of holidays and a lifetime of happy events, all shared with my gorgeous hubby.  My oh my how the years seem to go by quickly!
Maybe he will be taking me out for a special anniversary meal, but let's just wait and see.
If he does, I've got just the dress to wear! Have you heard of ASOS?

I purchased this ASOS dress last year, happy that they proved a point back in 2017.  Being familiar with this company and assumed (wrongly) that their clothes were only for young girls, probably because my daughters' bought so much of their wardrobe from them, how wrong I was!  You don't have to be young and carefree to wear these clothes!

Blue and Green should never be seen!

Hi there, how are you?  I'm still enjoying the slopes in France, I'm here for another couple of days, so I'm actually really good. 😉

I heard it said many times before that 'blue and green should never be seen'!  After seeing other bloggers addressing this issue & subsequently poo pooing the idea - because actually it worked and looks great too!  So I've tried these colours together and really like the outcome. To think all those years I've avoided pairing them - shame!