MN Vogue - Vol 19

[shopafrolic]

All welcome to talk style, beauty, fashion etc. Continuing on from here

My two always had separate rooms Novice because I wanted to share rooms because my parents were physically abusive and we felt safer. Therefore iI assumed my children would not need to do this because we don't beat our children . You find these things out by trial and error. They're not born w/ instructions on the box .

Good luck Dry.
I've had a year of chaos and dust but it's starting to look nice.

I've spent today moving our entire bedroom into ds2's newly decorated room.
I'm sleeping with cowboys tonight

We've taken the old lady carpet up in our room, to be faced with a random concrete slab, where a fire's been in the past... no old hidden fireplace unfortunately though.
I'm sanding and painting the floorboards next weekend, hopefully dh can remove the concrete without too much fuss.

Dh is back at work tomorrow, so I'll have time to arse about online do all the links from last week.

Oh you're so right Mig! Sorry to hear about the crap childhood.

Anni, I read your house posts with utter fear. its why we aren't selling our current one yet.

Ps Anni, that is fear because I would be totally clueless!

S'okay Novice Water under the bridge now. Gave me a great grounding in what not to do ...

DH is an ex RMN turned building company owner so is offering his 'from the sofa' advice and consolation to all of you undergoing the trauma of building work.

Novice my two now are at an age when they love their own space. DD's room covered in One Direction posters (not on walls manic mother only allowed on doors!) and DS rugby posters...would be a bad sharing combo now . DH and I manage fine though.....although his heavy breathing gets on my nerves!

Novice, it's not too bad if you have people in doing the work, as it (usually) gets done quicker.
But dh used to be a builder and refuses to pay people to do jobs, that he can do himself.
Which is great, as it's costing us very little to completely re-do the house... but it's hideously slow as dh works full time and I can't do much with the ds's about.

Oh Anni, that's frustrating! In current house, dh has wired up the house so that it is super super high tech. for example both our sky channels are on every tv, as well as the CCTV channel on each tv. You can be wireless any room in the house, the shared drive streams to the tvs and we have sonos as well. Dh's number one priority is to get all these in new house.

my priority is ensuring that my walk in wardrobe is freshly painted and eagerly waiting for my clothes

When we first moved to bristol I put my 2 ( didn't have no3 at the time) in the same room and after 3 days separated them as they were driving each other mad. Dd1 very much likes her own space and will play for hours in her room alone. Think it all just depends on the person. As an only child who always had my own room I initially found sharing with dh a challenge

My DH says that builders tend to underestimate hoe awful living in builders chaos is for most people. I think being an ex RMN makes him a super sensitive builder. He does get a lot of clients offloading onto him. His last client had a husband w/ Dementia and DH had him doing simple jobs alongside him to keep him productive (The husband hated seeing another man doing what he used to be able to do) and to give the wife some time to go shopping. DH used to manage a dementia unit so well versed.

Ok Mig I might need your and your DHs services then!
This is the "final" leg of work. We've had our house for a long time and have extended and done bits over the years. We have toyed with moving but we both want different things (DH has always wanted a house in the country with land, I like to be near people herd animals me and near a town) so we've never moved,just made our house bigger.
We are having work done (massive plumbing starting today) and knocking through the kitchen/ dining room and underpinning the kitchen mid Sept so we can extend upstairs next May, adding a big master bedroom suite ( with dressing room) and extending the house bathroom.
It's the biggest project so far...I always add a third to builders timing and quotes.

Morning!

I saw this today at our local shopping centre and it looked lovely IRL.

I was tempted to try it on but I had both DC with me so my shopping ban is still going strong.

There were some other lovely Isabel Marant Etoile things like these and an off-white shirt that I haven't been able to find online.

What is the quality like, does anyone know?

Oh, I also saw a beautiful Moncler down coat but very £££.

I know Moncler can often look a bit vulgar and trashy but this one was lovely.

Linus - have the Etoile woollen stripey coatigan from last Winter here which is similar and it has pulled a bit. But then I am brutal w/ my clothing and will insist on gardening in it!

Morning all home from lovel weekend away with family- DM babysat so we had lovely evening out sore heads yesterday spent time hillwalking and took a boat trip to blow off the cobwebs yesterday. Picked up a pretty print for the playroom. I love buying stuff like that when we re on a trip - when we see it it reminds us of the trip away. will need to declutter or stop travelling soon though
All the house talk makes me envious, we re still saving bit hope to be in a position to buy next year. Your plans sound lovely. Anni and dry where do you get your ideas from for redecorating / rebuilding/ extending ? Do you use architects or do you dream it up yourselves ? Or is it more of s response to growing family needing more and different space ?
Mig* your dh sounds very kind.
I n wondering if printed trousers have had their moment ? I fancy a print / brocade pair with a crew neck knit and ankle boots for AW. Anyone seen any nice ones ? (See I should have probably jumped on the bandwagon when they came out first instead I ponder them until they re almost disappearing then decide I must have them!)
I ve been wearing this jumper with distressed boyfriend jeans and coloured nikes for my weekend I love it. It also goes with my khaki cult skinnies and have white shirt underneath- the darker tread it a deep green, it s lovely.

That jacket is lovely Linus. I am pleased with the quality of my Etoile jacket, which is very similar. I know what you mean about Moncler looking a bit Eurotrash/Russian flash but they do have the odd tempting thing! Can you link it?

Turquoise your weekend sounds nice. I think patterned trousers are far from dead. Have you checked out JCrew? They usually have lovely ones. Think I saw a lovely Marant (Etoile?) pair yesterday too....

Dry and Novice we bought the flat upstairs from ours a few years ago and ripped both apart to create one bigger place. We had to move out for six months so thankfully avoided the pain of living with the dust for most of it-there was the finishing off of course, which was bad enough! I'd agree with Dry about adding 30% to timing and cost. I was lucky with planning Turquoise, we had a great architect (on second try) who was very good at incorporating my ideas and explanations of how I wanted things, having lived in the lower part of the house for ages I had plenty of time to think about and plan it all, (especially the kitchen!) how we lived and what I'd like. He then made it all possible and added suggestions of his own.

Turquoise ideas come from growing family, working with what we've got, our brilliant architect, DH who has plenty of ideas which I ignore, lots of magazines, snooping about friends' houses and asking loads of questions and I'm pretty decisive and know what I'm looking for re decoration/feel of rooms.........spend ages doing research ( bathrooms will be built next May, I've been round show rooms already so I don't have to make rushed,last minute decisions).... I also don't dither about little things. And I love putting rooms together....adore soft furnishings.

Brancing myself for school shoe shopping with two teenagers eeek!

P.s I may have done all my holiday washing in record time but the two baskets of ironing haven't even got going thanks to MNV!

sleep it's this one

Actually the one is saw in the shops today might have had a belt so I prefer this one. Very £££ though.

Oh and Mig I love the colours of your jacket! Even more than the jacket I linked to.

That s interesting dry and sleep. I m curious because we re looking now, well keeping an eye in the market anyhow. Most of what we re looking at will defiantly need rebuilding / extending and putting our own stamp on it. We ve lived in period houses - but I know while I love the look feel and romance the maintenance and constant upkeep would drive me insane. I d be happy to refurb and redecorate on a regular basis but feel if we buy I want to do most of the building and construction before we get in the door so to speak. However I wonder if you should live in it for a whole so you learn the nuances of the house / garden and can then know what would and wouldn't work. I m starting to take more notice of clever designs and what might work in the kind of property we re looking at too.
I was just thinking this morning too, I m glad I delurked- you ve all web so nice and welcoming. And I love how despite all the fashion talk there s no exclusiveness, there s designer and high st all budgets accepted as love as one loves fashion !
Thanks

That's a gorgeous jumper Turquoise
Have nearly killed DS this morning. My friend came to cut his hair yesterday - we got halfway through before epic tantrum. She came back this morning to try again. We have bribed with chocolate buttons, Thomas on the TV, Mister Maker etc. etc. but no joy. We had to give up. He has hair longer on one side than the other and looks like an idiot. I know, I know, he's only 2.5 etc etc. but God I'm fuming. Lovely friend is now on holiday for a week so he'll have to stay like it. Humph.
I have my red Soludos espadrilles on my feet today, remind me of French holidays - I am going to spend the whole day staring at my feet rather than my DS.

Lots of lovely Marni ballet flats on the Outnet today

Turq I will continue to wear patterned/print pants as they look so smart. They are still everywhere though in store but you don't see huge amounts of women wearing them so they stay fresh. Yes DH is very kind. I chose him because he is kind. Much underrated quality IMO.

Shop - my commiserations but that is hilarious. I remember many epic fails with hair cuts, shoe measuring.....Soludos diversion therapy sounds like a good plan. DH often catches me rotating an ankle so as to worship whatever shoe is the chosen one of the day. I love shoes.

I have been browsing the new US Vogue and here are some of my interesting finds-

This new beauty site by the wife of Brad Grey, paramount owner. It is a little 'rich well connected Dilettante wife' but she does have the most amazing connections and a lovely spot manicure tutorial that'd be fun for any teenage daughters/younger folk than I.

Also Phillip Lim has done a collaboration w/ Target in the USA. Now I'm not normally one for these things but he is a bona fide designer with talent, the clothes look good and Vogue speaks well of them. I have pinned this raincoat, this shirtwaister, a total look, skirt and also some other bits. He has done some very good versions of his best known bags but i haven't pinned those as am pretty sure they'll not be so wonderful in the flesh. For any of you visiting the States, might be worth a look.

Noticed the new Jo Malone scents called Joloves. This pink vetiver looks intriguing as do the others including 'a shot of Thai Lime over Mango'. And the new Charlotte Tilbury make up brand launches soon. I once received a tiny sample pot filled w/ her 'Magic Cream' via a friend who worked a campaign w/ her. Whilst lovely, it is not worth the anticipated £70 price tag so beware. The make up though looked lovely in press previews although one has to be a little wary of sycophantic 'mates rates' reviews in the beauty and fashion press.

Finally a new E Commerce site by Amber Valletta called Master and Muse starting soon here sounds promising w/ some interesting niche brands.

turq I have been considering buying some patterned trousers but I am not sure it will suit me as I have big thighs.

shop I feel your pain. Cutting DS's hair is a major battle. DH cuts his hair whilst I try to bribe and distract him without much success. You'd think we were trying to kill him instead of cut his hair.

At the moment he is sporting the monk look but after a few weeks it should start looking fairly normal again. I shudder at the thought of taking him to a hairdresser one day.

mig you talking about US Vogue reminds me I still have last month's French Vogue (all about British S&B) that I bought on holiday and still haven't read.

Great article here on new ways to apply perfume. The Chloe perfume 'See by Chloe' has been released in a nail polish style tiny twist top bottle w/ a gel like formula that brushes on in a single swipe. Also Frederic Malle's spray gun bottles.