MN Vogue - vol 13

[shopafrolic]

It might be unlucky for some but vol 13 is open to all who want to chat style, beauty and much more besides. Continued on from here

The chat on the NHS and work stuff is very interesting. It's a world away for me but good to hear about what others do.

Mignon I need skirts very much, will keep a look out for pleats.

Why did I think Liberty was an accountant or similar?! :o (sorry!)

Hope you both get some sleep Linus, cool baths worked with ds1, he had it at 2.5

I'm taking dsd shopping, she has a rather large wad of cash burning a hole in her pocket.
Which means I get to chase ds2 round topshop

I'm wearing my lovely new black Gwyneth's, with Goldsign Diva's rolled up, and the faded taupe Splendid tee, Marc Jacobs grey rubber bracelet and silver Tiffany bracelets too.

I'm taking the grey Splendid back to Selfridges, so no doubt i'll come home with something else.

Morning all! Where do you live Marsha? The weather here is shite. V muggy but heavy grey skies. It has been raining, so I'm still in my old trusty Dubarry boots - don't relish the thought of damp feet.

On boring old office duty this morning. Our lovely PA is off on holiday for the next 10 days, so I'm trying to hold the fort (but I will never match her for efficiency). I'm only putting in a couple of hours though, as taking MIL shopping and DH never objects to that. I have a leeetle list for HoF which includes an Armani Jeans grey sweater/sweatshirt (hard to describe), black CK bra, CK roll up pyjamas and Portofino body cream. Bit boring, but better than coming home empty-handed

I just came inside, a big cloud has appeared! Boo. I'm in SE London zone 2. It has it's own micro climate not really. It was nice but is going down hill.

first sales purchase have been looking for a parka, hope it's a keeper.

Just ordered these whilst DS is eating ice cream

comes with an extender

And this for layering with the other necklace

gold colour

Btw, Ben&Jerrys's do a peanut butter flavoured/vanilla with mini chocolate coated peanut butter cups ice cream which is yummy. Just don't eat the 'raspberry jam' centre which is vile.

marsha's house/garden definitely has its own microclimate. She's always the one in shorts sunning herself whilst the rest of us are freezing

lol QueenC I did think as soon as I wrote it, argh I am doing that 10 degrees hotter thing again!

Love those Linus. Very pretty.

It's really hot here at the minute, grey skies but still really warm. I'm wafting about in a black maxi skirt and a fuchsia vest top. I don't think I could even bear to wear a cardigan

Am going down to East Anglia this weekend. Please let it be sunny (not too warm) but happy, bright weather. I want to wear shorts, my old battered straw Fedora, Hasbeens and a cotton top. I am tired of having to change half way through my day because I am either too hot/too cold.

And last week I was wearing black wool tights. WTH? It was cool enough to warrant them.

Skies are a crepuscular murk today although there was a glowing pink, violet and grey sunset over the house last night. Would have been a great pin for Queens colour combination board but I'm not skilled enough to capture a good enough image on camera.

What do you all think of these?

this skirt

here

here

this top

this top by Vera Moda?

Not one plain skirt amongst these choices.....I need to be more disciplined in my searches! Javelin and 6 Whiting Street are two little stores recommended to me by friends living in East Anglia. I think Javelin has a Cambridge store.

My favourite is the Eliza dress Mignon. I think I need a battered fedora in my life. Or maybe a large sunhat.

I have just booked a hair cut at Aveda. £72 for mid level stylist. I could book a good stylist for £50 locally but the magazines and ambience isn't as nice and the radio is DIRE. I suffer such internal angst over this every time , I can't help but think how much?! but do it anyway.

Linus Aaaahh, Ice cream is like a magic medicine for sick children I find. I've bought a tub of that PB&J B+J ice cream in the past and like you, I left the horrid jammy centre. Yuck. I make my own peanut butter flavour by stirring PB into a good vanilla ice cream-whatever is on a BOGOF offer. I sometimes add crushed up Reeses or if you want to be off the scale indulgent, add a crushed up bar of the limited edition Peanut Butter KitKat. Also good with the Hazelnut KitKat added to vanilla.

Like the necklace by La Folie. However my wearing that kind of necklace would be 'Folle' as I always always break them. Have to satisfy my jewellery love by admiring them on other women!

I have this Storm Vessence watch. The one on the left of the picture in green. It also comes in this pink/orange combination too.

Gorgeous necklaces Linus

Mignonette Eliza dress my favourite there - has a real VW Anglomania feel to it. Bargainous too. I think Javelin may have a store in Cambridge as it sounds familiar. I used to be in Newmarket and Cambridge was Newmarket's only redeeming feature! Great shopping/eating/dancing.

Can I ask opinion on this? Arrived in the post the other day and I can't make my mind up. Thought it looked quite fine/sheer on the pic, but IRL it's quite chunky. Not chunky chunky, but certainly not sheer. Can't decide if it's too 80's in white (I don't EVER want to re-visit that era, shudder). I have just received the elephant print shorts she's wearing in this pic and thought they may be a good combo. Had to buy the shorts from US ebay though, as apparently sold out everywhere now. Will I look 'Hamptons' or Croydon circa 1986?

Why oh why is it so hard to find a good stylist and salon? I do not want to sit in a bloody window with wet mussed up hair for all to see.

I am at crisis point re what to do with my hair. I have had the same style on and off for ten years or more. A stubborn centre parting, lots of fine hair with a coarse ish texture (if that makes sense-it is not silky fine hair) and three very insistent waves at ear, shoulder and jaw level makes change very hard. Have had variations on jaw to shoulder blade graduated bob cum beachy shattered cuts for so long now. I cannot go short. Does not suit at all.

You'll have to give us the skinny on Aveda Marsha. Is it the Holborn Institute you are going to? I usually go to an independent salon nearby but have done the Toni & Guy (dreadful), Daniel Hersheson, RushLondon, Karine Jackson but never come away thinking it looks right. And that's a lot of money spent on 'not right' over the years. And i do not think I have unrealistic expectations. i just want more texture and less 'helmet'. I also am not a sleek hair person. I have hair that does its own thing and never looks done-even when it has been ...

Love those shorts Grumpy but I'm not a fan personally of white sweaters- I find the yarn picks up dirt off desks and quickly looks a bit worn. I prefer soft sweats or cotton T's or even a blouse in gathered white cotton. A slouchy sweatshirt in white or cream marl is always a more modern bet than a white chunky sweater IMO.

Yes. Newmarket is quite an odd place isn't it? I have visited often as have friends all over Suffolk. The Star at Lidgate used to do great Spanish food but think it has gone downhill lately? Best thing about Newmarket? Musks sausages.

Finding a stylist is so stressful. I had to move salons recently, it felt like having an affair.

Grump I love the shorts! Think they'd look good with that knit

Great necklaces linus

lol Mignon am glad to hear someone else suffers with the salon problem.

Yes it's the Holborn one. I have been going there for last 7 years or so, apart from the odd segue to Windle in Covent Garden, one place a friend recommended in Mayfair (hated it) and an ex West end stylist locally. Good cut but he was a bit moody and not worth suffering radio adverts and djs plus Closer rather than Vogue. I mean seriously.

So Aveda it is. It's good because the lighting is not harsh, and the music is not loud. It smells nice and you don't have to sit near a window looking like an idiot with foils all over your head.

I like to swap around stylists a bit, last time I went for the director level but I don't do chat so like it when they don't know me. I just read the magazines.

I have fine hair but lots of it too, straight but best left messy. I just go for a long bob a tiny bit shorter at the back as it's heaviest there. I have this cut every time regardless and it is not hard. It's really just a sharp trim and it's a lot for that.

I don't have the same issues with highlights and happily (well not so happily, but not begrudgingly) hand over £120 to Aveda for those as I think it's worth it.

But yes I think Aveda could be a good option. I do suffer angst and it's the least likely to make me do so, apart from the price which makes me draw breath.

Lol Foxy I always use the same highlight person and once I needed a quick appointment and booked someone else, he bounded over and said hello. I felt bad.

lol Grumpy, like the shorts. You will look Hamptons.

Why does returning one tshirt involve 3 tills, 2 phone calls and half an hour of waiting?

What a fucking palaver!

Note to self.... don't shop in bloody Selfridges when the bloody sale's on again!!!!!!!!!

Morning everyone! Just had to pop back and update. By chance I saw that somebody had returned a size 40 of the Red Valentino dress I'd been yearning after for my party. I'd normally be a size 38 in dresses but just took a chance. It arrived today and I am almost definitely keeping it. It's very very pretty indeed. the skirt is fullish and it sort of has an Alice in Wonderland feel to it, somehow.. I'll have to get it altered ever so slightly. Even just shortening the straps on the slip part of it will make a world of difference I think.

Just need to decide how best to style it, now. I am thinking red or pink fresh flower/flowers in hair. Not sure if it needs a belt. I had a long pink ribbon which I tied around my waist for effect, and that looks good too. Feeling happy! :)

All this talk of salted caramel/peanut butter etc is SO NAUGHTY! I don't know if you can get it in the U.K. but Glenisk Organic Greek Style Blueberry yoghurt is my almost-healthy dessert. It's luscious.

I will try Aveda Marsha I think. I do not do chat either. The salon is one place in my overly verbal working life where i appreciate contemplative silence. I don't have colour (yet) and tend to leave big gaps between cuts as there is always a point at which my hair look okay yet no stylist has been able to maintain it (nor can I). I always say it is maybe a blessing that DH and I couldn't have a child together (we each have our own) as with his hair and mine, they'd come out looking like badgers. He has a lot of wavy black hair and I have a lot of wavy hair albeit not black but badger make up brush coarse?
That dress is a little 'Anglomania' Grumpy isn't it?

Faddy That dress is dreamy. Reminds me of that Testino photo shoot with Natalia Vodianova, her DH and children shot at her country home. All flowers and creamy pastels and green leaves and woods....sigh

Yes to a ribbon tied around your waist. You could have quite a wardrobe of velvet ribbons in all sorts of colours. I would also style it with a thick tan or nut brown leather belt or a very skinny triple leather belt wrapped and tied around your waist. The possibilities are endless. If you have a DD, you must save that dress for her too. Its got vintage-in-20-years written all over it.

And my stroppy post wasn't that it was busy, just that they have a Crap sales returns policy!

Love the idea of a nut-brown leather belt (either thick or skinny/triple), Mignonette - thanks for the suggestion!
Oh yes I remember those Testino pics, had to go off there and google. Natalia V. is so extraordinarily exquisite, isn't she?

The dress feels like something little Dakota Fanning would wear - I am a decade older than her so hope it's not too little-girly. (Who am I kidding - if it is, I don't care.) I do have 17-month old DD, I'll def keep it safe for her!

Faddy that dress is so pretty and looks perfect. A decade older than Dakota Fanning is still young

Anni how annoying re tiresome returns!

Novice fabulous news about partnering charity.