WIT or Wisdom? Who cares... the festive season is nearly upon us and one thing is certain: Avidity is the new black.

[LetThemEatCake]

Trick or treat! [hsmile]

Morning all.
I have a food hangover. Too much rich food and wine yesterday. At least I don't have to make Sunday lunch today. But the boys have been promised lasagne. I just feel like soup!

reine, welcome back. I can't open your page though. Oatmeal is not a colour I'm familiar with. Is it an autumn one abo? If so it would suit brown, orange, lime green, kingfisher, help me out!!

Dd crying to get out of highchair. Back later.

3rd time lucky for halloween pic?off to park for bit of sun.

Reine, your DD is very cute.

reine, lovely costume and gorgeous dd.

If I haven't said it already: Love the Phoenix outfit for Bonfire Night cake!

Hi reine, we missed you! Aviator sounds good.

Lots of lovely girls' names. Can't really contribute except that Emily is very popular here in Germany. One of DDs favourite dolls is called Flora and I love Mathilda. bunny I think Emmeline is a fab name. I'm sure you'll find a second one DH will agree to.

Yesterday the McQueen dress from Coast finally arrived. As much as I love the colour I have decided I am going to send it back as the fit is not that great on me. The Janice is more flattering. Plus I don't need another going out outfit any time soon. Have also decided not to order any of the other posh frocks you lot kindly helped me to assess a few weeks ago. Might go to Cos again and buy more cashmere for everyday wear (wise, no?)

There is a Nudie sale on a German site similar to brandalley I think tomorrow. Need more jeans. Can anyone advise re sizes for Nudie jeans? I'm currently a 28 in CoH. Do I need to size up for the Nudies?

everything Sorry about your relationship worries...

Reine - look at your DD, isn't she adorable?!

thirstymerc - greetings! Thanks for the suggestion of Matilda - great association w warrior queen! Good for DDs to have someone strong association w their name. Although Matilda "fails" for me due to being too popular (DH wants names well outside of the top 200!! ) and also as am Australian it reminds me of Aussie bush song (Waltzing Matilda) that don't want DDs to be serenaded w . Hope none of this is offensive to you!!

We are currently thinking about Helena and Viola / Violet. Lavinia was looking good, although the Shakespearean heroine, Lavinia, went through brutal disfigurement so DH vetoed. Helena and Violet could fail due to popularity, too. Viola looking good, but no acceptable nickname (Vi will not do). Good God, am losing the will to live!

I mean "someone strong associated w their name"...

And forgot to say, thank you for further SPD advice, esp Esher w correlation between SPD and breastfeeding - makes sense, and hadn't thought of that.

bunny Vivi is a cute nickname? (as in veevee) however has been deployed by the Jolie-Pitts so not sure if you'd want to use

Outside the top 200 is a tall order indeed!!

Reine adorable DD! Welcome back!

Fritzi I'd say size down for nudies, so you'd need no more than a 27. I may be wrong but I always find that they stretch out pretty quickly. I do love them though, v soft and great colours

everything sorry about DH woes. I agree if you haven't already done so, try counselling. I have no experience of it but know someone who says if H doesn't want counselling it's quite telling (ie can't really be arsed to invest time in relationship). Sorry you are feeling so down about it.

reine I will remember your phrase! I may even say 'hey, P, stop stealing my happy!!' in an Oprah styley flounce

Oh dear I'd better go before I start buying things

bunnymother - Livia? One of my all time favourite names (along with Flora, Clementine and Jessamy)

Morning all - still in my nightwear . Have a mountian of washing to do, most of which is strewn on the floor upstairs, so am hoping DH will take the boys into the garden and let me Get On!

Hope everyone has been enoying more fireworks.n Love your announcement news zembo

LTEC hope Janice-by-day works for you - I want it to be a day dress as it's quite similar to the purple Anglomania which is definitely evening only for me. Was the brown M&S lace a dark brown? The Oasis one looks fab and what amazing value. I'll check out phase Eight sale for plain jersey dresses too, thanks for the tip.

Hope you and DH had a good dinner fritzi

How were your smokey eyes hells - hope they are not still there this mornging! It sounds great fun. I love a dress-up do! Although the next one we've been invited to is here and I have no idea what to wear!

The LKB dress is gorgeous DT.

Are you a member of Cocosa georgina? They had Hunter wellies relatively cheaply this week. Sale has ended now though...

vin so sorry your job is getting you down . Hopefully you will be a good influence on your colleagues and they will step up rather than drag you down

bloss are you considering being a HoC consultant? what fun!

Emmeline is such a beautiful name bunny Ooh, and beatrix is good looby. There are a few Beatrices around here, but never heard of a Beatrix. My grandmother's middle name was Matilda so have a soft spot for that too. Her first name was Virginia which you don't see around much these days!

everything I think there are overlaps in all the House of Colour seasons - I think all pallets have navy in, for example, and possibly a true red too. As they put the colours against you, they kind of "grade" them according to how good they are, and according to how good they are tell you what percentage of that colour you could wear. So the colours that aren't so good you might have as a highlight colour away from your face - gloves maybe? - and it should "work" because everything in the pallete goes together. The wows are the ones you can wear head to foot! Also wanted to say that I am sorry for your sadness in your relationship.

reine would love to see your outfit!

My Asos parcel arrived yesterday and these are keeper, in fact wore them straight away to kids party with primark dark brown v-neck jumper, brown opaques and boots. Wuill try with brogues too, thanks for the suggestion carciofi. Also really liked these but not sure I can justify two pairs... These cargos came too but am undecided. They'd eed shortening, and are a bit loose around the lowe leg - not really skinny - but DH likes them. Need to try on again.

I think oatmeal is ok for autumns - often things described as oatmeal are actually a flecked pattern of colours, which individually are in the autumn pallete. I like to think of it as my alternative to a grey marl. Should work with anything warm; in addition to bloss's suggestions, khaki, rusts, deep forest greens...

Aargh, sorry for mammoth post! This is not getting my washing done! More later... (and alologies, no time to check for typos )

abo Oh that's easy: Just wear a dirndl and DH lederhosen. Outfit sorted!

And Mr ABO will be needing one of these

Fritzi, I don't think you need to size up for the jeans.

ABO, I like those cargos. Are they very low in the waist?

Bunny, Helena and Viola both lovely names. So is Livia, Bonsoir, have added to my list!

vino Thanks for advice re Nudies. If I get my hands on a pair tomorrow I'll order a 27 and see how it goes. Can always send it back. BTW I love my jeggins-type James Jeans now. Wasn't sure at the beginning but they are so comfy and they look really good with grey Belstaffs.

bonsoir Livia is a great name! Not to keen on Clementine as it used to be the name of the lady in a very popular washing powder ad when I was a kid. And Claudia Schiffer's DD has that name so I guess it might have become popular too.

abo Don't listen to plum! Mr Abo needs an original. This is style and beauty after all . Will stop with silly links now.

bonsoir- Livia is a lovely name- infact my DD, Cecily cam very close to being a Livia (our first set of photos on the computer were entitled 'Livia photos'by DH! In the end, I was put off by the popularity of Olivia and the concern that everyone would mishear it as 'Olivia'

I think we must have similar taste in names bonsoir as I would love to use Flora/ Jessamine/ Genevieve (I think this is old fashioned in France but I love it).

bunny- Helena and Viola are both lovely, Shakesperean classics so I think they are perfect for you and can't see either becoming v popular. Violet is nice but less classic and more sweet (to me at least). I think you are looking for something Classic and grown up from the other names you have selected :)

Ooh, I like the idea of a bit of bodice-lacing fritzi!

On the subject of Mr ABO (well Dr ABO actually ) he's got a temporary part-time contract for a few months which he's really enjoying. The pay-out from his former employer is due soon, so things OK for a few months. He's hoping that a new venture with a friend will come good as he'd much rather work for himself than a large corporate. I am trying not to panic and remain supportive of his desire to be self-employed...

The cargos are very low-waisted, yes carciofi.

reine your DD is totally gorgeous, truly beautiful. I would agree oatmeal is very versatile - if you're wearing it with black I'd try to soften it with some tan leather but it would also work well with brown, charcoal, khaki, red, navy or orange and I love the suggested kingfisher blue. You could also layer it up with other taupe and cream shades or wear with indigo denim.

bunny Emmeline, Helena and Viola all lovely but if you did go with Viola would some people pronounce it 'Veeola' like the instrument and would that bother you?

When DD was born in 2006 we looked at the top names from the previous few years and ruled out anything in any of the top 50. Unfortunately DD's name turned out to be 49th in 2006 and has now climbed to 20th so I'm hoping it doesn't go any higher and become too ubiquitous.

abo going it alone is the best thing we've ever done work-wise. I think I've said before that I only did it because I'd been made redundant but it went so well that DH jacked his job in last Autumn and set up by himself too. It's fab when you have young DC as you can be more flexible about your hours in the day and work once they're in bed.

Oh forgot to say that I also bought those grey Full Circle jersey harems - agree the fabric is very thin so I think they're quite a lot for what they are. But I liked them so kept them anyway

Wearing them today with navy AV fitted l/s tee, grey lace-up boots, taupe and added khaki duffle cardi coat, taupe and black scarf and berry cashmere wristwarmers to go out earlier. Sounds like (and should have looked like) a dogs dinner but it actually works so I'm quite pleased! Can rarely pull off casual like that, especially with so many colours.

Fritzi you've just put a line from a song in my head 'dirndls and petticoats'. I think it's a Nanci Griffith song?? I didn't really know what one was until you linked .

LTEC great outfit, hope the party was fun.

Such beautiful girls names on here. Unfortunately, with a bit of a mouthful of a surname, have had to go for quite simple names for the children. Amalia is a beautiful name that I haven't heard mentioned. Talitha is another sweet name and as I only know one I'm sure it's not in the top 200. Seraphina is beautiful and I've only heard of it used as a middle name. My DD's favourite atm is Delphina, nn Delphi, how cute is that?

For those of you who like to be smart, even when being casual, here is a lovely soft as cashmere but inexxy jumper from M&S. For me, casual means I don't mind getting covered in chocolate (the kids, not mine ) i.e. inexxy and machine washable.

I decided to be brave and venture in to our local branch (it is completely mad in store at this time of year) and spotted the lovely red patent shoes but have yet to find some shoe boots.

hi all
Am clicking links as I type!

Thanks to Vin for the compliment :)

EIE your colours thing sounds much more sensible to me. The one thing I can't get my head around is that there are colours in my Autumn palette which are clearly terrible on me (so supposed to be on bottom half only or for Play, which I intepret as When Hell Freezes Over) and there are some in Winter and Summer which i know look great on me (raspberry, magenta, and black). So obviously it would make more sense to do it that way. I think the explanation is probably that at least everything in the AUtumn palette matches each other. my plan is to just add more autumn colours.

On that note, ABO kingfisher and peacock look great with charcoal grey and black and with a deep brown. I noticed that ISabella Oliver has quite a lot in that moss olive colour which is a wow for me. I like your ASOS shorts too!

Fritzi love tha McQueen dress, shame it has to go back.

Bunny funnily enough Emmeline was on our list for DS. Aurelia has been a longstanding favorite but friends of ours stole it (seriously!). We also liked Lavinia but my dad had a mad aunt called Lavinia. So in that spirit we liked also Octavia and Laetitia. Viola I can't do because in the US and Canada you would get ViOOOOOOHLa (say in cheesy american accent) but that wouldn't happen here!

We chose both names because they were out of the top 100 and in Tatiana's case out of the top 200.

Reine!!! was just thinking about you. Weaning going ok here but I find it deeply irritating and wish they could just have milke all the time :)Not really but it does increase the mess and hassle substantially.

PS: Bloss you have to do HofC! We can have a meetup where we all pay you to do our colours and you become a sales superstar. My friend and i were joking about what HofC conventions must LOOK like, apparently they have them.

Also, have any of you found yourselves making up cover stories to explain something that's happening on this thread? I find myself trying to epxlain where I got the idea to do colours while frantically trying not to mention MN, not because i am ashamed but because it is too darn complciated.

Popping in very quickly.

Busy weekend - did second viewing and think we're going to make an offer but a low one so undoubtedly it will be declined.

Out for dinner last night and am currently cooking curry for dinner and have made more cookies and 2 cakes.

Right better go and be sociable.