MN Vogue 41

[MarshaBrady]

Shiny new thread, fashion chat. High st or designer.

Shop that s difficult, dh s parents are same. And MIL would have been fastidious. It s kind of you to sort it all for them. X

Hope you're having a great holiday Turq I'm
Nice harems Annie I've bought a few plain pairs and would like a printed pair.

for you Shop. We went through similar with dmil.

Turq how did I miss you were on holiday. Hope you are having a fab time.

at Dry's tales. Bleeding feet, yuk, men's nether regions, double yuk. Mind you, when I was much younger, at a wedding, I asked jokingly what did men wear under their kilts - they showed me

Finally went to bed at 2am so am very jaded today. No hangover amazingly. A good excuse just to sit reading in the sun with an occasional doze.

Hello! I'm studying again but will get out and about this afternoon. Going to see if DD will tolerate a quick run around H&M!

Dry loved your Ascot round up post. Yuck at man in kilt and well done on your win at the end.

Nice trousers Anniel.

for you Shop. It's a tough situation and hard to get it right. The thing is that as we get older things like eyesight and sense of smell all start going so people just don't see dust/dirt the way you would when you are younger and might not notice smells. That coupled with various aches and pains, fear of falling (so people don't stand on a chair to have a look at what's in the back of a cupboard or to clean high shelves in the fridge). And lots of older people suffer from depression (frequently not diagnosed or treated in older people) and by age 80 1 in 5 people have some level of dementia...the trick is getting the balance of making sure they keep their independence (and if you start doing everything for them they will lose that) and making sure that they are safe.

It might be worth seeing if you can have a proper chat with them about what they want and take the opportunity to do a sort out on the house to make it as easy to maintain and safe as possible i.e. stop using high shelves in kitchen cupboards, declutter (less to clean and dust) replace the bath with a seated walk in shower, safety rail by the loo, remove loose rugs that people can trip on etc charities like Age Concern will be able to give loads of advise on this stuff or call social services and see if they will do an assessment of them and the house. It's also worth (if at all possible) having a chat about money and what they want in the event of becoming disabled/no longer able to cope. And worth seeing if you can check how they are with their finances...one friend of mine after doing a huge house clean discovered huge credit card bills etc.

Sorry, bit of an essay but I was a commissioner of services for older people for years and it's the really simple stuff that makes the most difference. And if possible gently query about mood - several doctors I know swear by a low dose anti-depressant for older people, low mood creeps up on people over time making it harder and harder to do simple things. Good luck, I am happy to have a chat with you about it anytime.

Shop maybe you cleaning the place will prompt them into either into taking better care of it or asking for help. I had to the same thing with dm a couple of years ago. I also worry about dpils. She refuses to get a cleaner because she's a sahm and doesn't think the money is justified. I disagree with that anyway (you don't need to justify anything whether you woh or sah) but bearing in mind they are multi millionaires it's madness. Then when you chuck in they have a 6 bedroom house then it's even worse.

I am currently in the park with the dcs. Wearing super dry t- shirt and my new Ralph Lauren white skinny jeans. I love these jeans so much and wouldn't have got them without much of Marshas chat about white jeans last summer. late to the party

Also do a browse around Lakeland for stuff to make cleaning as easy as possible ie things like Hob Liners and [[http://www.lakeland.co.uk/23930/OXO-Good-Grips-Upright-Sweep-Set upright sweeper]] and easy to use mops. And a small handheld vacuum cleaner is a very useful thing to have as for a lot of older people getting out a big hoover and dragging it up the stairs is just too much.

And a final point (which I suspect Novice will be horrified by ) houses don't actually need to be as clean as most of us keep them! For health, they need to be warm, dry, have a clean kitchen and loo but things like dust (unless someone has asthma) or a bit of soap scum around the bath or limescale in the sink might not look nice but won't kill them! Given that they possibly can't see the dust/dirt, the person who is getting bothered is us, the adult DC's. There is a balance then of not having an elderly relative getting all stressed out trying to maintain a home to our standards rather than having it at a level where they are safe and comfortable.

for shop it must be tough for you lovey, I'm sure they will appreciate it, even if not straight away. It can be so hard for older people to let go of things and accept help. I hope you can work out a way to help them that they can live with again for you

Nope sorry Lib can't fathom it, do you not remember the Lakeland pinning session??!! My removal men said they had never seen anyone with so many cleaning products, having said that, I am getting used to dm and dpils lower standards. I do have a base level where I will intervene, which I did with dm a couple of years ago.

novice cleaning products and other items I seem to recall
liberty thanks for the final comment about dust.....I'm living with "certain amount of dust" at the mo and will continue to do so for another couple of months at least

Ahem Dry

Think of how great it's going to look dry. With DH being the SAHP I have had to learn to tolerate a lot. The house is clean but he never irons and we have had a few discussions about the toys never being put away.
noviceI love lakeland and loved your lakeland pinning session. At the MU I will tell you about the Cleaning interventions our family have had to do with my elderly alcoholic uncle!

shop that's tough,and lib is totally right,its a habit old people develope .my grandmother is a bit like that,she really gets upset if anyone cleans her armchair and table,she can actually tell that its been dusted,and gets mad,she has a caretaker and my mum and aunt visits her daily,to check her meals,clothes,bed linen is fresh and clean and to take her out either for walk or coffee pr any check ups she has,but sometimes she can't do anything about certian things for example she has a drawer full of old perfume bottles and she doesn't want to discard any of it,and some have developed a musky overpowering smell,I think one of the bottles is from the 50s!

dry ,I really found this funny,but why don't they wear underwear?

novice I think we are related, I can't live with dust,limescale, sink full of dirty plates < this one kills me>,house has to be spotless all the time,

annie welcome,I'm a SAHM too,please stick around everyone is very nice here,love the trousers,I've bought one recently from hush and I'm loving them so much,very comfy

I agree that half the problem is that they probably can't see a lot of the grime- we've persuaded granny to get her cataract done, nhs waiting time 18 weeks....

The mugs/crockery at hers are getting pretty dodgy to say the least! We practice a lot of stealth cleaning techniques - including the 'you distract granny asking about the garden for ten minutes so I can Hoover before she notices' technique!!! Works a treat most if the time!

Lovely and cool in this with orange Gigis.
Santa god knows why they can't wear under wear. Kilts are itchy and Scotland is cold, must be a macho thing
Re cleaning, I just like my house to look tidy. Drives me nuts living with 3 messy people. Also, as I've said before, I'm a manic bleacher and love the house smelling of cleaning products saddo

Thanks for all the advice. Liberty I may well give you a ring at some point if that's ok?
We've had another day there today. I think there's another 3 days work and that's just the kitchen. This is what I'm dealing with. :(

No problem Shop, happy to chat. Good idea to take a few pics, will help persuade SS that an assessment is needed.

Anyway, sorry. Fashion related chat from now on, I promise. Mango dress due tomorrow.

Oh shop I really hope your parents get the help they need. This must be so hard on you. (((Hugs)))

Big hugs and a PM

Oh shop ((hugs)),

Evening,

Hope everyone has had a good weekend.

shop sorry you've had a tough one, some great advice from liberty though. Hope you can get something sorted, maybe even just a cleaner coming in once a week for the time being. I love the camaraderie here of being able to get advice & support re non-fashion topics too from time to time.

annie welcome to the thread! Nice harems, don't think they'd suit me so haven't tried but am tempted even if just for round the house.

dry glad you had an amazing time at RA & enjoyed your resume, yuk at kilt man and bleeding feet though, at the grand national they give out flip flops!

Well have spent most of this weekend bit of an exaggeration but more time than it deserved trying to make a bloody tricky cake (pierre herme's Ispahan) for guests coming today. A first attempt at the macaroon shell, with ds 'helping' got binned but finally got something presentable. Was lovely but I couldn't even look at it by the end! Had a great day though, champagne in the garden, wore new asos 1 shoulder black dress, £18 bargain. Dh loved it which was pleasantly surprised about. I teamed it with nude gigis & a black leather skinny wraparound hermes bracelet that had forgotten about in the back of a drawer.

Am completely exhausted, sitting in bed already watching tv with window open, love the evening light at this time of year. Don't know if anyone's been watching Amber on bbc? It's really good in any case, just settling down for episode 3 so will say goodnight.

mara if it's the cake I'm thinking about its delicious and I'm impressed you made it

Great outfit today Dry. I'm going to be in Park Royal later this week so I'll try to pop into the Boden shop and try on that dress.

I have just painted my toe nails with Sally Hansen 'Right Said Red' and it's totally gorgeous. Forecast for the next few days looks good!

I've just painted my toes cobalt (rimmel loafer love for you) whilst watching satc (only 3 episodes left Dry )

(((Hugs))) for Shop xx

I've bought a few bits today, including shorts
Will link tomorrow.

Welcome to AnnieL, I've just followed you on pin