And so we Wisely turn away from any summer purchases to Avid thoughts of stylish winter coats. Which means (surely) that the sun will shine, after wool jackets are bought....

[notyummy]

Stamp

DKNY cozys are also useful when you're pregnant.

Darkness just worked out who you are, I misread here as RG. Am following now! Lovely photo and name.

Hopefully good luck!

Yes Pickled are you ok?

Ollie hope your dh is ok for tomorrow.

Just did doctor's yearly thing. So unpleasant! Has to be done I know. I just chatted with someone who hated it do much they passed out, poor thing.

Hope you get a good night tonight Decam. Mine's rubbish am feeling a bit stretched with work and too much super strong espresso.

Oh we love Thomas in this house we bought a Thomas bed canopy to go over a normal bed, which was a. Cheaper and b. less permanent.

Am having stressful morning, have precisely two hours to get to town, buy my nephew a birthday present, get home and clean the house before I have to collect DS from nursery. Have been stuck in traffic jams with a very angry baby for an hour. Happy days.

mrscb you are a hero, I probably would have cried or thrown up.

IO maternity jeans are crap, in fact all maternity jeans I had were crap. If I were to do it again I'd spring for J brands. To be honest I wore dresses every day from 5 months I think. Or yoga pants/leggings. Stylish times.

Finished the 50 shades books last night and can cheerfully say if I ever see the words 'my sex' in print again, I will need anger management. Fair play to the woman though, she effectively recycled the same few scenes enough to fill three books and will probably become a billionaire as a result. Nice work if you can get it. What I don't understand is why a woman from West London set her books in the US when she is clearly not familiar with the way Americans speak. I will be amused to see the film, mind.

Sympathies decam, went to bed at midnight, drunken DH rang me at 12.40am then was up for the day at 5.30 (thanks DD). If DH comes home whinging that he is tired I will gouge his eyeballs out with a spoon.

NSG champagne lunch sounds lovely and fab outfit. Dh will be doing the same I imagine. Lucky thing.

No Thomas here tg.

Have just had one of those glorious shopping moments - 'popped' into JL under the guise of needing a new bathroom bin and tried on the Whistles leopard jeans. They looked great on and couldn't bear to put them down, so went to the till, umm-ing and aah-ing and feeling guilty for spending money. They went through and flashed up as reduced to £40, which they clearly aren't, but paid asap and left sharp-ish. Hurrah!

Thomas central here, though DS is going off it and have a huuuuge box full of track/trains (over 60 - Mum sent them from Singapore) that is redundant.

Am off to skip around gleefully at bargain before getting ready for work. Love The Good Wife - can't wait for next installment. Any chance of a nap today Decam?

Have investigated further - they are mis-labelled as Snake Print Skinnies, hence reduction. In case anyone else was wanting to 'pop' to JL.

May be old news but did you see JM is going to release Extreme Shed and Shred here 2 x 45min workouts

Loosing all paitience with DH who is refusing to taking anything for his man flu because "it just masks the symptons" Er, yes thats the point!

Am also annoyed as H&M delivery did not include the top I ordered for the holiday but a white maternity t shirt.....I am not making this up.

Red ooohhh I love it when things like that happen . Shopping karma and given how much you 'support' Whistles, very deserved.

Dare I say it. I think we have found A House. I am, naturally, awaiting a call from letting agent to tell us it's gone before I can get there to fill in forms.

Ooh RR.

Buried in work, had two loooooooog telecons in the morning but also have a reason to celebrate. Have been writing a book with my colleagues (unfortunately not anything that has "my sex" in it), and it's almost done - we are in the final chapter. Have never written a book this fast, we started in December, so it has effectively taken just over half a year.

I'm an independent professional and practically self employed - I sometimes suffer from crippling procrastination that can go on for days, sometimes even weeks (I love to write, but it's so hard to get started) and just need to say that the book The Now Habit has been a revelation for me, extremely efficient and can be applied to all areas of life, even housework. During the extremely tedious second telecon I wrote down what I have accomplished so far this year - I feel I've been mostly faffing about, doing school runs, cooking, shopping and MNing - but in fact the list was 2 pages long. If you are in the same situation than I am, it's sometimes worthwhile to do that - feel incredibly good now and also feel that my summer vacation is deserved.

I also started an Excel where I jot down how much I spend on clothes / cosmetics / other non-essentials. While the no-buy July looks tragic, I think this is a good habit to continue. Am planning a limited-buy August to compensate

But I'm not here to discuss boring stuff... I had a chaotic trip for work in the spring during which I lost my iPad (left it in a department store when I was paying for a bottle of shampoo - very luckily they found it, called me - my iPhone phonebook was on it - and I got it back). Consequently, I missed my flight, had to buy a new ticket and was delayed by 12 hours. It was a wake-up call: I decided I will significantly cut down traveling (not going to another country every 3 or 4 weeks any more) but I also decided to get a Zatchel for my iPad. It arrived today (Marsha, another green bag!) and I love it. Very bright but not neon bright - will love it for a long time I think.

Matches order (the first one) also arrived - #1 knitted jacket is superb and a definite keeper, goes with so many of my things. If you see any left, recommend! Much more structured than a plain cardi, yet very comfy, not constricting like a blazer. #2 dress is really living proof that I am a Summer. It looked like a pale, unappealing rag in the box - but when I put it on, its colors really flattered my skin and eyes and it's also really cleverly cut. Keeper. #3 Marc Jacobs skirt is Day-glo orange IRL and nastily synthetic - will probably return. One season wonder, not worth the price.

Sorry for the egocentric mammoth message. Will click on links, check pins etc etc later, wish you all a lovely rest of the day! (Back to work now.)

Hopefully, fingers crossed for you!
Ollie, lots of patience with sick DH
Marsha, will get a super strong espresso right now (half a page of to do list items to take care of...).
Dec hope you'll get some good uninterrupted sleep - woke up at 5 today to DD2's whimpering, fixed a bottle and could fortunately get back to sleep. DD2 decided to have a lie-in and was still refusing to get up at 8

Ollie spike his drink! Hope it doesn't ruin the start of your hols

Red I love it when that happens, and you deserve a treat at the moment

Getting no time on the computer these days with the school hols in full swing, but one of these arrived in the post this morning for dd and I have to share it, it is the cutest thing I have ever bought on the internet and so beautifully made. Highly recommended!

Talking of leopard skinnies just ordered these with additional 30% off [exclusive30].

I love the verdugos so hope they're good - have been coveting for ages.

Red - bargain!

So what are you going to wear on top with leopard skinnies. Definitely will wear my pistols but fancy a longer line top but it needs to still be fairly fitted/slinky - any ideas?

Good luck hopefully!
You are all so nice with your Thomas bedding; DS loves him (I most definitely don't) but was just presented with some lovely red and white gingham bedding from the WC and has had to lump it!
dona like the bag and the excel / list making tips. Just thought miserably to myself that I really haven't achieved a thing this year but then realised that having a baby in February probably counts! . So jealous of the cardigan and dress; think they would look really good on me. I'm sure I must be a summer as well.
Great shopping karma red! What are you going to wear with them?

Lack of sleep is just horrible. After pretending that she was going to be a dream sleeper DD now wakes up twice a night and then DS is up --trashing his room- noisily playing from 5.30ish... Ugh.

The new car is sitting , beast like, in the drive. I like it but feel a little intimidated by it! Have just been invited out for impromptu drinks with two ex colleagues (term just finished) so am going to be brave and take it out. Think I'll wear animal skinnies, black vest and cream blazer with low heeled black leather sandals from NL. Will report back later!

Ha mrsCB if ever there was a pair of jeans that were made for you

I tried them with the Boxy Stripe T, which didn't work with print clash, but was a good shape. Whistles have got a lot of those slinky but form-fitting tops. Worth a gander. Am going to wear with navy slouchy jumper, red oversized jumper, boxy black top, boxy grey top, chunky white knit. Also think they'd look good with a bright yellow top - this I don't have, but would like to. Can see myself getting the boxy stripe top next month - it's just what I want from a Breton. Love the verdugos MrsCB.

Verity, those mice are super, super cute. DD would demolish them now, but in 6 months or so will love. She's such a monkey ATM - has bitten my phone charger and broken it so awaiting new one and phone-less. I was busy drawing wi DS whilst she happily ate her boiled egg and soldiers. Negligent mother that I am, it took me at least 5 minutes to realise she had finished the egg and was eating the shell (and loving it ). Not sure what I thought the crunching was.

Am procrastinating - need to be gone in 5 mins to get to new job INSET.

Red- a great fashion moment!

Ollie- fingers crossed he feels better. DH can be a bit like that too. I just won't be sympathetic at ALLto a single snuffle/grumble/moan if he hasn't attempted to address the symptoms [evil emoticon]. Not one of life's natural nurses, me (although for 'genuine cases' I can be nice....)

MrsCB - aren't you going to be wearing them with a batman t-shirt?

Dexter - one does have to wonder who does the styling sometimes on the DI site!

ollie You must make DH take some medicine. Show him the thread. If he refuses, you should threaten to drive his new car all the way to France tomorrow with him lying helplessly on the back seat. That should do the trick, non?

hopefully Great news on the house situation. How's your toe?

ana Thanks for yet another fab book recommendation. Have filled a big Amazon basket but might throw in a Kindle too to cut back on clutter.

DH has done the MBTI too and is an ENTJ. Given the nature of his job that's not surprising and probably a match made in heaven. He read my profile and liked the fact that I'm one of the rarest types best .

Fritzi if you need to consult how to manipulate negotiate with your husband you can always try the ENTJs here first . Apropos manipulation, I was discussing dishwasher tablets not melting with DH and he replied in a typical snarly INTJ Mastermind way. I was boiling inside but then realized this is just how his mind operates - he is trying to work out Mother Nature's laws and has no time for empathy or modifying his sarcastic tone. So instead of exploding I quoted a made-up Newton's law (physics is not DH's strong point) and he immediately gave in and agreed with me and dropped the subject. So some of MBTI must work...

Had a very productive workday, got masses as masses done, including booking flights for a work trip to Portugal (sans DC, with girlfriends, wohou!). Have reached the flow state both working and running several times this week - do you know what I'm talking about? I wish it always felt like that...

Fritzi, really recommend the Kindle. You can also read it on iPhone, normal laptop and iPad, so I'm never without my books. And it's easy to get used to, have read about 12 books on it and am constantly buying new ones.

Verity, I just discovered a new magazine called Verily via one of the lifestyle blogs. Lovely pics, not-so-great writing.

Blue we need to organize a clothes swap one of these days. I'm so happy about the Goat jacket, I'm sure it's going to be freezing cold up north (any snow yet?) and my days in sleeveless shifts are soon over.

Nanny calling, end of workday, ciao and see you later.

Oh and Blue, I felt the same about my new car when I got it some years ago. Was too afraid to touch it for a few days and had to ask DH to give me a couple of driving lessons (for some reason he was truly brilliant at that - learned a lot and he was very patient).

Sounds fantastic Dona! Love the Matches stuff you are keeping too. And big congratulations on the book. Sounds fab!

blue good luck with the driving.

Red great find!

Hopefully did you get the house?

I hardly got anything done today, grr. But it was leavers' assembly and picnic and all that gubbins. Felt rather strange to be doing it without ds2 as he was in nursery. But no work done boo hoo!

Ds going to friend's tomorrow will have to make up for it.

Hi everyone. Busy on here right now, find it hard to keep up! Hope the DH 'man's up' soon ollie and you get away okay. Hope you get better weather this year.
Hope you're having a nice time fritzi.
Fingers crossed about the house hopefully.
DD loves Thomas the Tank, but probably because we have a lot of it about.
Is kaloo Chadpie? Where do you get your lovely soft autumn looks? Where could I find similar stuff for winters?
Went straight from work to primary sports day. DS won the sprint again. I came third again and DD loved the nursery run so much she did it 3 times. And it kept sunny. Miracle.
I am wondering how much to cut off the Vince maxi. It is trailing on the floor right now. I think I prefer them a few inches above the ankle, but as I say, I'm dithering. Once I get my scissors out it will be all over though!