Thought for the week - quality v quantity part 2

Thank you for your contributions to this debate - which as ever are inconclusive! I mean this in a positive way because in one sense the phrase 'what is one man's pleasure is another man's poison' is as applicable for fashion as anything. The good thing is we do as we please to a certain extent. We take what we believe to fit into out lives and apply accordingly or even just do as we please.

So, this week I'm going to ask you for your top five items that you would spend serious money on - the things of quality you would buy to keep forever.

High Street Pick of the Week - Christmas gift ideas

I don't mean to encourage anyone to drink but I can't recommend the wonderful writing on wines and other drink by Victoria Moore,enough. After many years of reading and trying her recommendations - she has a column every Saturday in the Guardian Weekend, I can vouch and attest for her wonderful palette. Her £8.99 book available from Toast is a worthy contender for a Christmas gift. Not fashion but hey what's fashion without the occasional tipple.

Just as I finish my dissertation...

...yes, yes, bar the final few bits of proofing and the typesetting offer from the marvellous Delicious Industries, I done it!! 'That Red Dress Moment - Hollywood’s continuing love affair with the red dress, the ultimate motif for narrative change and character revelation' is complete.

Having 'nailed it' I decided to indulge in browsing and imagine my surprise when The Times current fashion slide show happens to be the red dress.
This Vionnet number is my favourite. I saw the model in a red dress on another blog (don't remember which one as my mind is on halt mode) and didn't even register the fact as the discussion was how lovely the female model is ... and she is.

30% off everything at my-wardrobe

Hot off the press and in to my inbox is the news that my-wardrobe are having a...

SPECIAL WEEKEND OFFER: 30% OFF, INCLUDING ALL BRANDS

We are doing a special weekend treat and offering a 30% discount on all our brands only excluding sales items.

So now is the time to get shopping Partydresses and Christmas Presents, spread the love!

The code is MWFF, just enter it in at checkout for a 30% off, Enjoy!

And this is in lieu of any bloggy thoughts I might have although I've nearly finished the dissertation, only abstract and acknowledgements to go!!

Ugly Betty's Claire Meade

Whatever Ugly Betty season we are watching on Channel 4, we will be behind the States.

However I'm lovin' Claire Mead's outfits. I cannot find a photo of my favourite outfit but am sharing these. Patricia Field is doing a great job, far better than she did on the SATC movie.

images from ABC.com

Awards

I was very lucky to receive three awards from Wife in the City the other day.
This is very nice and also it gets me out of the hole which is proper posting (only a week to go on the MA front, I've got no library fines so fingers crossed I'll get a Masters).
I will be fully focused again after 4th December.





The over the top award has a question list to answer

1. Your hair: wavy bed head (not by choice) shoulder length

2. Your favourite food: Spaghetti Bolognese

3. Your dream from last night: Rewording the conclusion to my dissertation.

4. Your favourite drink: Dirty Martini

5. What room are you in: kitchen

6. What is your hobby: forgotten due to dissertation

7. What is your fear: being bitten by a snake

8. Where do you want to be in 6 years: Surbiton - I'm deadly serious!

9. Where were you last night: At home typing amendments!

10. Muffins: Blueberry

11. Last thing you did: Revise dissertation

12. What are you wearing: probably dressing gown and pj's I've lost the will/ability to dress
13. Your TV: X Factor, Ugly Betty

14. Vehicle: My Pashley bicycle

15. Your favourite store: Selfridges & Oasis
16. Your favourite colour: Red

17. When's the last time you laughed: All the time all though currently this might be due to despair or my grammar

18. When's the last time you cried: Currently I'm bereft of tears just experiencing tension!
19. Your best friend: Mr MDS and Mrs Miggins (not her real name!)

20. Favourite place to eat: Balthazar, NYC

I'm sure I'm meant to pass this on but I'm befuddled with words like hegemony...so help yourself!

Roast update!

Roast have apologised for our experience and offered a £50 voucher for lunch and dinner. I'm letting Mr MDS be the decision maker on this one so I expect he'll be booking a table faster than you can say roast!

Thought for the week - quality v quantity part 1

Over the next few weeks I would like to debate this issue on the blog and today's post is just to kick the debate off.

There are two elements to the quality v quantity rationale. One is obviously it is deemed to be better to have a wardrobe of quality items that will last you years rather than lots and lots of cheaper disposable items. The quality angle is now perceived as more environmentally favourable adding weight to the debate of less is more.

However the other aspect of this debate is that of wealth and class - does the quality debate denote status/breeding(class)/intelligence versus the masses/lack of breeding/ignorance.

When you buy an item of quality do you feel superior style/fashion wise?

Market Trading

Don't worry I'm not going to be spouting hedge funds and derivatives at you. In fact this is taster of an interview to come, I'll be tackling it after ...well you know!

I was forced on Saturday to nip to the bike shop after some idiot stole my back bike light which is worth all of £6 and managed to break the child seat for petit garcon which costs £71. The poor boy had to go on his scooter, whilst I pushed my bike and I promised him some new pyjamas - Ben 10 ones. He did try to negotiate Caffe Nero too but I told him to choose between pyjamas or Caffe Nero. He choose pyjamas but I still lost out as I also bought him some Scooby Doo slippers.

The bonus was as we walked to and fro from the bike stands, our thorough fare M&S was doling out free samples of champagne and biscuit tin selections. Two thimblefuls of champagne later for moi and biscuit each way for the boy made me stop and browse the market stalls outside M&S.

The stall I'm fascinated with is a mix of faux fur, second hand coats, denim and sheepskins. I asked the lady who runs the stall if I could do a proper interview with her as I realised designers, retailers, the internet, pop up shops and vintage/second hand shops all get a look in but not market trading. I'm curious to find out more....the stall is at Wimbledon every Sunday, Epsom every Saturday and Kempton Races and somewhere else in the week, which has escaped my memory as I quickly asked her (don't know the persons name yet) before the garcon scooted off.

High Street Pick of the Week - Christmas gift ideas

In the run up to Christmas, I'll select potential gifts for friends and family from the high street or where necessary the internet too.

I'm starting with my favourite internet site for t-shirts for the man in your life, brother, dad etc.
The Shot Dead in the Head site possibly has some of the funniest t-shirts around but in good designs and very good quality cotton without costing a fortune. This is the key, t-shirts are rubbish unless well executed. Plus t-shirts are great for guys they need them for the weekend!
Whatever they are into then there is a tee for them. The football stand t- shirt collections are a subtle way of advertising your team without resorting to a replica top!

They've just introduce The Wire to the tv and film section.

One of the selection of music tees

A favour...

...essentially this is very dull but quite important (to me and a lot of others). In the midst of working, running a home, blogging and writing a dissertation I'm dealing with a pile of poo namely a planning application which is blighting the place I live in.

To cut a long story short, Epsom is a very small town on the edge of London (if I lived half a mile down the road I'd have a London phone number) and where I live the local council decided not to dismantle a very ugly water tower as part of green belt development of the old London mental hospitals. My house is across from an old wing where Ronnie Kray was committed to!

The developers told them to pull it down as it is not a listed building, nor of architectural note etc. etc. but no some worthy jobs worth thought it had some merit. We are left with a large home for pigeons and the owners London and Quadrant who bought it for a £1 (this is all true) want to add to the huge tower and make it a high rise tower block of flats.

Now I'd gladly live in a Chelsea Harbour high rise or a NYC one but Epsom is a cute town with an unsullied sky line. Myself, the neighbours and the local deer, whom we share with Cheryl Cole who lives down the road in Oxshott would like to keep it that way.

Would you - although you have no earthly interest in this matter become a follower of the Livingstone Park Action Blog just to big us up and once the whole thing is over I'll make sure the follower button is removed. You don't have to read it or ever visit again but if you could help the little people stand up to the big corporation it would be much appreciated!!

see what I mean!

http://livingstoneparkwatertower.blogspot.com

Just in...

....30% off ALL BAGS with my-wardrobe until midnight 23rd of November.
Just enter QJX156 in the promotional code box at the checkout!

PS do tell me if you find these things useful to know or plain dull. I just 305 off was not to be sniffed at. Feedback always welcome and taken on board. I'm slacking in my posts as tip tapping away on laptop only 2500 words to go!

Mundane Matters

Firstly birthday presents, a cute collection of niceties were received and I still have a night at the opera to look forward to courtesy of the MDS parents.

Toast Woodrose Flannel dressing gown with Floris bespoke perfume voucher, Belle perfume by Jigsaw which is reduced from £50 to £25 as they are discontinuing it, I got two as a gift, Jigsaw organic body cream and two reissued books from the V&A museum, Edith Head's Dress for Success & Christian Dior's Little Dictionary of Fashion

Secondly, the dissertation is nearly done and the end is in sight. It has to be finishes, proof read, typeset and bound all by the 4th of December. I will be a gibbering wreck soon.

I've got fat hips but still ate cake

See by Chloe summer tote

My fat hips have been creeping up on me for a while. Well it is more a bit more fat all over in fact, however after seeing Sister Wolf in her great figure splendour at 56 even whilst rocking a walking aide - I knew my hips were inflating. A quick text to Wee Birdy drew me no comfort because a) she had another appointment and we couldn't have a fat hip conflab at the my-wardrobe S/S press event and b) she replied No - fat hips!

So I hauled my fat hips to the my-wardrobe S/S10 press evening last week in the rain. Upon entering the thin hips world of the my-wardrobe crew I adopted a professional frame of mind and set about appraising the collection pushing my hips to one side.

I found this McQ dress first amongst the racks and rack of clothes. I loved the colour and easy shape of it - the material and print is beautiful.



Yet more colour and style in this gorgeous number from Manoush. It is glorious and instantly made me think of summer days even though Christmas hasn't come.

I also fell in love with a beaded jacket from Kite and Butterfly. Very glamorous but equally would work with t-shirt and jeans.

I snapped the summer sandal flats, more updates on the gladiator styles but mostly in sumptuous suede.

Being in the UK one can expect rain in Spring and Summer and what better than these cute welly booties from Vivienne Westwood


And these little beauties are Zandra Rhodes designs who had been backed by an American company whose names escapes me but I was told they'd been selected for SATC2. I heard this quite a few times and all I could think was what hasn't been selected for SATC2. But the shoes really are interesting summer footwear and in strong interesting colours.


I sort of passed on the swimwear due to my fat hips. It was a note to self moment, sort it out! However, the D&G pretty print had a lovely retro feel to it that was strikingly pretty and instantly made me think of Sorrento and Capri (in my dreams).

There was a very Navajo vibe going on in the midst of the usual glitz of summer stuff. I noted these earrings on a perspex table and then the House of Harlow loafers with similar details.


I was impressed with the House of Harlow shoes, well made and good material. The lattice flats are stunning in the flesh and somehow don't translate in a photo.


These See by Chloe wedges hit the nautical note and also reminded me I needed to nip off home. I was tempted by these little beauties on my way out and despite my fat hips a yellow and purple teeny tiny cakes found there way into my mouth - opps!

A Birthday Roasting

The ever thoughtful Mr MDS took us all out to Borough Market on Saturday for my birthday brunch (my birthday is today). What with the never ending MA dissertation and a Monday birthday things weren't looking up.
On Saturday the heavens opened and it literally poured down. I got my coat soaked from the door to the car and had to go and get a waterproof one. The petit garcon made the right choice in wellies and raincoat. The best thing about getting to Borough Market early doors is there are no crowds. I could get a nice photo of the boy.


The treat was breakfast at Roast and I was so excited. Great location, good food what more could one want - em good service and nice people. We got shown to our table which was actually the one next to the waiting station and right by the stairs. We got the usual here's your table, hope it is okay and actually it wasn't. But before we could open our mouths the maitre de or head waitress had shot off. So we stood there and she came back. I explained it wasn't suitable and then the roasting began. It was a real why! A why that when told it wasn't suitable with a young child was met with a bigger why! I was too stunned to answer so Mr MDS politely uttered the word 'stairs'. We then got a whole tirade of how she didn't have children, which was repeated several times and the implication was she wouldn't get that it would be an issue or think about it - in fact she even said that!

By the time we sat down at the table which was free and removed us from the inconvenience of having to deal with waiting staff/child/falling down stairs I wanted to go home.



Petit garcon and I make a brave attempt to smile after our hospitable welcome - not!
Look, the plate of food was lovely and it was a good breakfast if a bit rich. The ingredients were delicious but somehow our joie de vivre had already been knocked out of us!

I had a quick rose prosecco on the stall opposite Roast which reinstalled some spirit. Poor Mr MDS after making all that effort.


If you haven't been to Borough Market it really is a joy and treat. Lovely produce, lots of choice and it is such a shame it is going to be ruined by the Thameslink improvements - we'll see how it all works out. I took lots of photos today because I wanted to capture it all.

We then went to the wonderful V&A's Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green, accompanied by more rain. And then hot footed it across town to the Natural History museum for the garcon to get his dinosaur fix.

Then I insisted on a quick pop into the V&A for my fix! The day was finished off with the most popular cafe in South Kensington, the newly extended Pret A Manager, where the service was impeccable and the people were very nice. Ahh, South Kensington makes for all is well with the world.

PS This is also proof that I didn't do H&M for Jimmy Choo!!