Avid & Wise, Eyes on the Prize, Our Gorgeous Spring Summer Buys!

[blossoming]

New thread here!

oooh Reine, just saw all of your links and posts. Have a fab road trip, I love that lemon skirt!! Saw a Primark dress in similar print in Sun Times Style Supp but haven't been in to see whether it's there - looked good in the pic though. I have been coveting that Zara butterfly top but am resisting so far as I have the NW3 fly silk blouse and so many winged-creature motifs fluttering around in my wardrobe that I live in fear of not being able to distinguish between them and the dreaded moths

hi morag yes Laura Ashley have some lovely prints this season, their butterfly and botanical stuff is divine, I love the butterflies in the all-a-flutter homewares range too - gorgeous. this cardigan is really lovely IRL too.

LTEC Glad to hear the shoes work out for you! LA butterfly things look gorgeous.

MrsCB First few days after moving is always chaotic. We just had a make-shift front door and no kitchen when we moved in. What kind of shoes are you wearing with your Houlis? I always end up in ballet flats...

carciofi So lovely of your dad to buy new pushchair for you. I'm sure you'll find the name that will be perfect for DD2. I was a bit when I heard my nephews name for the first time but soon I couldn't imagine any other name for him. Hope you are not feeling not too exhausted from illness and late pregnancy.

petit I love nail polish by Butter London, here. If you can ignore the ridiculous names, they have different nice reds.

ollie Great jumper! But if it is the button detail you love most about it, you could just sew some buttons like that on any v-neck jumper.

bloss I'm relieved to hear that you will have all mod cons while camping. I couldn't picture you somehow crawling out of tent in the morning and looking disheveled for going sightseeing in Rome . Have ordered the Boden dress in 8R/L and 6R in white. And the bag I linked to the other day, plus some other bits .

Aw Bloss- you had me going there! That's not camping (thankfully!) Thats what we do to to ensure we get our own bedroom

LTEC - thanks for the recommendation. I shall look when I am in Brighton.

Sorry for typos... should go to bed instead of watching trash TV: Germany's Next Topmodel with H. Klum, oh dear...

I will not be separated from my straighteners, and ds will not be separated from his DVD player. Also after attempting real camping when ds was 9 months old (well real in as much as the tent was there waiting for us), and pregnant with dc2, the midnight toilet dashes made me come to the conclusion that I will not be more than 5 paces from my own toilet either!
Okay, so I'm not camping at all.

Hope the dresses work out for you morag, and fritzi.

I was drawn into Laura Ashley today by a lovely grey dress with colourful butterflies on.

Have fun on your road trip reine.

Happy New Home mrscb!

Fritzi - have ordered the maxi, will be here tomorrow, ditto other two items. Some great sale reductions on kids clothing, got a few bits for DD A/W

Emo - I love the merino breton, that is exactly what I was looking for last winter and bought many not quite right ones.

Ollie - Annual family jaunt to Canaries, 9 of us all staying in same resort which should be jolly! DD has a ball, lots of adoring grannies/aunties/grandaddies to indulge her and it is very relaxed.

Lottas arrived and sent wrong size. Very helpful customer service though and replacements arriving tomorrow. Last minute impulse Topshop order was a disaster (I never learn) and was returned minus one vest within 30 minutes of arriving. Their sizing frustrates me, a crop denim jacket I ordered in a size down was still vast yet the shell/vest tops things I ordered were impossibly short/sheer. I do wish these sites would give better descriptions/give reviews as it's such a waste of time/postage/fashion hopefulness.

Carciofi - What a lovely thoughful gift! I got an email from Bugaboo about their new double but did snigger at it being called 'donkey'

Bloss - Your camping sounds great. DH very keen to camp, keeps brainwashing DD with his plans but it all sounds so primitive.

happily, get onto Eurocamp or Keycamp for my type of camping. Great for kids, great for parading lovely summer clothes! We have done it for the last six years, but in August and in the south of France. This is the first time we've gone out of season. We hope it will work, with Easter being so late, but I 've warned everyone not to think we'll be swimming in the pool!

Have you ever camped in the UK Bloss? DH very keen to do a 'thing' with all our friends and their kids somewhere in Derbyshire but I am offput by the lack of facilities.

He makes it sound so jovial but I can't imagine being without hot&cold running water/own toilet/GHDs

Emo, are you keeping the rest of your order?

Happily, totally agree about the reviews. Wow, just googled the Bugaboo donkey (what a stupid name), so expensive, £1200!

My grandmother sent me over a Monsoon fake fur gilet in a size 16, very nice of her but I can still close my size 12 coat. She is 91 and still loves her clothes.

MrsCB, hope you are very happy in your new house. I like those boots, which colour are you going for?

Fritzi, I am fine thanks or I would be if I could shift this bug! At least I am getting preparation for the sleepless nights. Glad you got the bag and dresses.

Thinking of Anna or Juliana for the baby now, what do you think? Don't want to post in the baby names topic.

DH still at work and I was itching to buy something so ordered this Wrap tshirt.

My paternal grandmother was called Anna carciofi. I like it very much.

happily, I have done and have hated it. I live in Snowdonia and people camp here for many months of the year. If you're lucky with the weather, and you have to be lucky, it is spectacular. But I am a lightweight!!

Ahh that's what I feared. We live closeby so DH keeps suggesting Derbyshire/Lincoln and saying he will go first with DD, set tent up etc and I can ride my bike there and arrive when it's all ready for the fun bit. I am also a lightweight, I need a fridge!

Carciofi- I love both of those names. Really timeless and unusual (in that you don't hear many children called either these days, rather than being deliberately odd or trying too hard to be different/stand out.) Names are such a personal thing, though a friend of mine had fairly sage advice when I was pregnant:

Will you be happy shouting it in the park?

Will they be happy trying to get a job interview for a senior position- whether in a circus or a bank?

Kind of covered it, I thought!

carciofi love both names.

carciofi - love both of those names. My cousin (in America) has a Juliana but she is always called Julie - I think it's a shame as the full name is so beautiful but I think you have to be prepared for either that or Jools. Anna is just lovely.

Talk of Southbank and Borough Market makes me - we used to live in Waterloo and I worked on Borough High Street, happy days....
Also, Bloss I always get wistful when you mention Chester as that's where I lived for four years doing my degree. I love that city! Have been back and stayed at The Grosvenor recently which was fab as I used to be a waitress there!!

carciofi I love Anna! Notyummy's checklist for choosing names is helpful too.

reine Your holiday plans sound fab. Have fun!!!

Brrr, cold but lovely sunshine today. Wearing Houlis, silver ballet flats (no socks!), zara zebra print T-shirt from last year and leather jacket.

Carciofi love the names.

Reine have a great holiday!! I love the lemon skirt. Very Louis Vuitton

Petit the work I am with is in Waterloo, just a short bus ride, tis great.

MrsCB happy new home.

Carciofi - I love all your name choices including Clara - friend has a little Clara and Chloe and they are both adorable. I always find imagining shouting the name out loud in Tescos a good way of deciding a name!
Happily - holiday sounds good.

Blossoming relieved to hear you wont be slumming it! I've resisted all of DH's attempts to get be back into a tent after our first ever holiday (woke up one night to find hundreds of ants using my sleeping bag as a motorway - we checked into a hotel the following morning!) The Dutch love camping and think I am mad not to want to do it!
Petit - I used to live in Hays Galleria and then in Butlers Wharf area so loved a potter around Borough Market on a Saturday morning. Happy days.
MRsCB - your "look at the views" mantra made me smile!
Fritzi your idea of sewing buttons onto jumper is actually not bad - have a navy slub v neck jumper from H&M that I like but don't wear as its a bit too plain. May well look out for some buttons!
LTEC not looked at the LA website for a while - some lovely things on there. I am a such sucker for a butterfly motif!

Have a good Friday everyone.

Oh yes, thought this LA maxi was nice here

And would love some jeans that looked and fitted like Courtney Cox's here

As you were.

Hello everyone. I'm back! Very tired but very refreshed. Both girls were amazing on the flight and I caught myself thinking that we could venture out abroad again this year if the girls remain this well-behaved

happily I have the White Co maxi in navy and love it. I wore it to death last week as it's so easy to dress up or down. I also wore the Lottas pretty much constantly (except on the beach) and they are so qwonderfully comfortable - as close to barefeet as you can get while still retaining some fashion credibility

I only bought a red stripy scarf in Valencia...the clothes were simply too small for me; I barely squeezed myself into the large sizes

bloss jealous of you for having actually lived in Valencia; what a beautiful place! Also at the idea of you roughing it out in a camping site. Your version of camping sounds so much more civilised.

carciofi I love all the names on your list, but think I like Clara the best. Also Anna (my best friend is called Anna so I may be a bit biased there )

Morning all

Lovely names Carciofi, Clara too. One of the downsides of pregnancy is being prone to pick up everything that's going round. Get well soon.

MrsCB, congratulations on your new hovel home . This time next year it will be like a palace no doubt. Good to see you haven't lost your clothes shopping mojo.

Marsha, good luck with the Outnet purchases. I thought it was 'lovely' of your DH to have time off work to allow you to concentrate on yours. Hope you are keeping up with your other line of work too. I may want to purchase something one day .

Right, really must get out of bed and pack. Gap order with DH's shorts etc due to arrive later today, hopefully before we have to set off for the airport. Last minute, moi? Thanks for the good wishes, we plan on having a fab time on the Turkish Med and visiting lots of 'roowins' .

Have a great week folks. See you later.

wideawakenurse, sorry I missed your post last night.
I think the rule of thumb in Cardiff is, avoid St Mary Street at all costs.
In the centre (and I haven't lived there for years now, mind), we always loved Ha Ha Bar and Grill (near the Hilton), and recently I've been in the bar at the Park Plaza opposite which is lovely.
We used to go to the bay and have a curry in Cafe Naz or a Chinese in Pearl of the Orient. I had my wedding party in the St David's Hotel and Spa, and I think the bar there is pretty cool too.
Where are you staying? Cardiff has changed so much. We stayed at the Radisson Blu when Wales played England, and it was so convenient to all the new shops. Queues outside Jamie's Italian always though!

Meant to say yesterday ollie, I went to Crew and bought DH a half zip sweatshirt! They didn't have navy or grey, but had a Chinese Blue, which is a winter and summer colour. I thought I'd give it a go, and honestly, when DH put it on, it was like a light had come on. He looked relaxed, young and very sexy. So I think he's a summer! He was very pleased with it too.

Glad you had a good time nan. I really love that town. How is it with dcs though? Where did you stay?

I stayed in Novotel at Palazio Congress, just a short taxi ride away from centro. There was loads to keep children happy. The aquarium was excellent and they had a dolphin show! DD was happy enough running round the squares chasing penguins and she was impressed with the large-sized ice creams. And of course there was the beach . We did find it slightly hard as I have rudimentary Spanish and no one there speaks even a few words of English. On day one, I told the taxi driver to take us to the porta instead of playa and the four of us ended up at the marina in our shorts and beach-bags! We laughed later, but at the time it was vrey stressful trying to ask people where the f* the beach was

wideawakenurse all of blossoming's suggestions are excellent, but can I also add Pica Pica. It's on Westgate street opposite the animal wall of the castle, and they do cocktails to die for! Also, Salt if you venture towards the Bay. Hope you have a good time

Beautiful names Carciofi

White Co order a resounding success. Maxi fits like a glove, perfect around bust/armholes/waist and a great length. Vest dress much better in rl, again nips in under bust then hangs straight down finishing an inch or so above knee. Kimono cardi nice, little boring but so useful and looks nice belted. Could possibly have sized down on cardi as it is open/flappy but i said this about IO cable cosy and when it got chilly was glad of the extra fabric to snuggle into!

I must say White Co dresses fit my hourglass shape so well, whenever i wear my winter ones people comment on my bust looking bigger/waist smaller. They wash beautifully too, i get such value from them.

Nan my Lottas still have not arrived! Do they look nice with navy maxi? I shall be cross if they dont come in time for holiday!

Ollie. I have a plain ted baker top with odd buttons running down it in a curved line, such a plain top but the buttons made. I got lots of wear from it but sadly its too big now.

I am off to hunt for a denim jacket. Have a black bandeau maxi that would look great with a cropped denim for evenings, I live in the sticks so clothes shopping is challenging without driving into one of the nearby cities.

I must go again then nan. There is a resort hotel complex thing by the beach, but when I investigated last year I couldn't for the life of me see that they accepted kids at all!!
Are you in Cardiff? I must say, when I googled, I was really pleased to see cafe Naz still there. We really miss a good curry. And our Friday nights on the town.
Wouldn't change things for the world though. Most of the time.

Well update on linen pleat dress in azure. I reordered at 5pm last night, and chose express delivery as I wanted it for my trip. It arrived, but it's too small round the hips (as it should be for an 8 ffs). So I've ordered again, 3rd time lucky, size 10R. I loved the length of the 8 though.
I am currently wearing my strappy jersey beach dress, ostensibly to work out capsule wardrobe, but really, because I love it so much, with my kew scarf draped round my neck and my knee length jeggings. As it is cold.