Faux, Done Posh

I need a break from grey.  You do too, I'm sure.

So let's switch from grey skirt and jeans to my furry faux friend, which has been posted a few times as an indoor outfit accessory for cold times, latest here.

I'd like to show you its furry versatility - 

its furr-satility!

A few years ago (well, many more than a few, look at the pics!), The Photographer and I went to a Liberation Ball, dress code 1940s.  Our table decided on Afternoon Tea Dance attire.



Whaddo' magazine, 1945.

For non-Brits, "whaddo'" is an old-fashioned matey greeting.  Hello!  Hola!  We Guerns used the greeting when I was growing up.

A charity shop yielded a shirt, tie and dress, the trilby was borrowed and the rest is models' own.

I wanted a fox fur shoulder stole to complete the outfit.

So I fauxed it.  I draped over my shoulder my faux-fur-neck-whatsit-snake-in-a-fur-coat.

I think it worked.  It finished the 40s outfit nicely.  It elevates me to Classy Bint!

So that is my is my style suggestion for you, dear readers.  Drape your faux over your shoulder.  A faux-fur-neck-whatsit-snake-in-a-fur-coat needn't be confined solely to your neck -  let it loose on other parts of the body.

Maybe use your faux as a super-cosy hat?  

Let me know what new ways you can find to wear your furry faux friend!

A la perchoine.





Fawn and Grey

Hello, lovely readers, hope you are well.

Well, it's official, I'm 1!  A seasoned blogger. #neverdreamedi'dgetthisfar!

Frequency of postings has been an issue for me.  Daily?  A few times a week?

I read recently that bloggers find their natural/optimum level for postings after about six months.

Not me.  My jury is still out.  Consistency has never been my forte.

Today I'd planned a brief post, though it's already got longer through my prologue!  I never quite manage the short snappy posts that others compose so well.  

Seems I can't do brief.  Guess I'm a chatter.

This week I've found myself drifting into a colour capsule.

It started with the grey skirt suit I showed you and sort if evolved from there.  It determined my colour choice.  Grey.  Seems grey has a lot of fans out there! I then added a fawny colour for some variation (but not a lot!) and then some ivory.  I happen to like that colour combo and as I type I realise that together with black it forms the colour scheme of my fave silk square.  There's a thing!

I've started wearing the colour combo in earlier posts -  it's a slow-burner capsule.

The OOTD started with a Woolovers longline cowl neck, skirt, grey opaques and Clarks boots.

It looked a bit plain.

I added the scarf I wore the other day for my Pleinmont walk.

Better with a bit of pattern, I think.

I'm never far from a scarf these days.  I think winter outfits tend to be devoid of pattern and cry out for pattern injection that scarves can instantly provide.  The Double Divi is that they provide The Pensioner Body with much-needed neck coze.

But back to capsules. 

Do you find that sometimes your capsules aren't planned, they just sort of happen? 

Try a Slow-burner Capsule this week and see where it takes you.

A la perchoine.



It's All Grey Today - and breaking news!

Breaking news:  Just realised, I wrote my very first post a year today - here!

My thanks to all of you lovely people for popping in to my humble blog.

Jeans and jacket, jewellery, hair ... jewellery, hair - it's all grey today, folks!

Hello my lovelies.  Hope you are well and keeping warm.  We're having gloriously crisp sunny days with just a slight breeze and still checking in at around 3-5 degrees, down to -1 sometimes at night.  Could be worse so let's call it pretty bloomin' good!

My recent Challenges post has whet my appetite for doing some more 'jacket and jeans' work.  So I grabbed the jacket I posted and gave it a whirl.

Old M&S grey tweedy jacket  worn with grey Peacock jeans (new this winter) and a silk-edged modal l/sl top from Artigiano.  Looking at the pics I think I should have added some pattern or some colour.  Better luck next time.

My gorgeously light-as-a-feather silk scarf from sweet Janice of theviviennefiles.  I should cut off its tag but it gives its provenance as being handprinted in New York which to an island girl sounds pretty exotic.  So I don't.

I was going out for lunch and didn't fancy lugging a coat around just for to and from the car so I snuggled into this leoprint shawl from Next.  So warm.  I snuggle into it a fair bit in this weather.

.

Peacocks 3btn-high-waist-rita-jeans

I bought these before Christmas but have only started wearing them recently now that I'm in Real Clothes again.   Great jeans.  Said it before. I'll say it again, Peacocks do good jeans.

I wore my recent birthday present received here - Double grey pearl earrings made by Claudia Bradby.  Aren't they super?  I've worn them loads.  So me. 

So grateful to Son and Daughter in Law for my lovely pressie.

Here's my "arty bloggy" shot of them with my Christmas pressie Wink bracelet I told you about - see how they work together so well.  (I was originally going to wear the scarf in this pic but The Photographer With Fashion Views told me to go with the silky one instead.  So I did.

I've enjoyed resurrecting this skirt suit.  It's drawing me back to my fave grey.  It's drawing me to mixing grey with my fave complimentary colours.   So I will.

And here's some more archive magic.  A week ago I spotted this jacket on the Next site.

I liked it and saved a photo on my tablet, so I was already at that stage consciously stalking it with intention to buy. Then when I was putting together the aforementioned Challenges post, I thought hey, that jacket's similar to something I've got in the holding pattern wardrobe. 

Tadaah!  No need to click the Next button, I can put my pensioner pennies back in my purse.

Do you have moments like this?

You've seen something you like, then it dawns on you already own something similar?

It's been happening to me a fair bit lately.  It pays to hoard!  Let's call it The Hoarding Dividend.

A la perchoine.

Decluttering - But Not In A Good Way

This post is a bit of a name and shame post, a bit like washing my dirty linen in public. For I am decluttering my food cupboards, in public.  And I feel very bad about it.

Decluttering is rife in Blogland right now, e.g. clear 25 items in January. I have to say that I've never previously started the year with a hardcore declutter campaign, they've usually happened randomly through the year (if at all!).  But it makes sense to tidy and organise the house in January and the rest of the year is guilt-free!

I've just come out of 6 weeks of lethargy and I was itching to tackle some tidying and some organising head on and besides,  I wouldn't feel guilty when reading of other bloggers' good work if I participated.  So I did.

From hereon it gets embarrassing.  I started with the kitchen, an easy target as I knew that was an area I could easily rack up the numbers as for some months (years?) my food cupboards have been getting out of hand. The embarrassing bit was how much I cleared from my food cupboards.

The above came from the jar cupboard.  Easily more than 25 items in this batch alone.

Many things were way past their BBD but they would probably be edible; however, I know that the date would put me off each time I thought of trying them.  So they got ditched.

(I of course emptied and recycled all tins, plastics, cardboard etc.  I'm not a total baddie!)

I give you the purged jar cupboard - I can now go in here without things crashing down in the cat bowls below.  Jar cupboard, my No. 1 target, done!

Next came the condiments cupboard.

Yup, another name and shame moment.  But what to do, nowhere here will take past BBD food.

The Big Cupboard came next. This is it tidy - can you imagine what it was like before?!

I cleared out other less offending cupboards and my last was the one below. 

I was so swept away by my work at this point that I forgot to take after-shots.

But I think you're getting the picture - I've haven't tackled these cupboards in a while! 

So, dear readers, I'm on target with my de-clutter.  But not in a good way.

Because a lot of food has been thrown away, which in today's world I feel bad about.  I also feel bad about it in yesterday's world.  My mum used to love doing grocery shopping with me, because her fave bit of the task was to put things away in cupboards (which I've never been a fan of).   She'd look at the stocked cupboards with such pleasure.  She had experienced the struggle of coping with the availability and cost of food as a girl and then bringing up a family, so an abundance of food in later life was something she valued highly.

Yes, I felt bad getting rid of so much food.  But it got me to think of mum's food shortage, it got me to think of the world's food shortage.  And although my stockpile of out-of-dates was not intentional, I do not want to create this situation again. 

It got me to realise that I need to approach food shopping and food usage in a more organised way.

Who would have thought that meaningful reflection and resolution could come from emptying a few cupboards in order to get with the decluttering programme! 

Now, what about you, dear readers?

Have you got caught up in the decluttering bug?

Or are you someone who keeps on top of things?

A la perchoine.



Pleinmont Walk in Grey and Camel

 Hello, dear readers.

What a gorgeous day!  I've had a lovely walk around the headland at Pleinmont.

But first the outfit.  Grey Peacocks jeans, Artigiano ivory cowl top, taupe Woolovers cashmere cardi, Clarks dependable bendables.

Livened up with a bit of pattern, a grey and taupe from my sweet Dutch friend.

Snuggled up ...

... and good to go.

And I went to the south-westerly most tip of the island.

Here's Fort Grey, or the Cup and Saucer as we call it.  Because that is what it looks like.

This used to be a busy fisherman's spot.

Quiet beach.

Beach hut.

Another fort in the distance.

And not so distant.

 

 

Tunnels formed by the seaward wind blowing in on the trees.

 

A signal flag.  A flag post was originally erected in the 1800s, before radio.  Flag messages used to be sent to the lighthouse men.  That was the only form of communication.

The cottages which the lighthousemen and their families lived in when the lighthouse ran manually.

And after a lovely walk, a spot of lunch at the hood's Imperial Hotel - I'll save dieters out there the agony of food pics.
So, a pretty perfect day for me - and for dieters!

A la perchoine.



Grey with a Brown Top-n-Tail

I have to say that I have maximum respect for those bloggers in snowy climes who put together some gorgeous wintry outfits.  I have to say that when the temperatures drop I head for cosy and don't come out until the weather improves.  We've had 3-4c temps these past few days.  That's not considered anywhere near cold in North America, Scotland, Scandinavia ... but it is here!

Right, it's cold so I need something cosy for indoors.  Before faking-faux I would never have thought of wearing furriness around my neck indoors.  But I'm a convert and I've since found myself keeping warm in my cold little cottage with the two furry neck things I have to hand.  So I headed for snug furry again and decided on a grey and brown OOTD.  A sort of top-n-tail with the brown fur and boots.  And that's as much as I could muster.

 I did however manage a bit of jewellery, not quite visible in the pic, so I've taken a close up as I type.

Allow me to introduce you to my lovely Christmas pressie from Son and Daughter in Law.  Pretty gorgeous, eh. It's from Wink and I love it!  It's just what I need for most of my outfits, all year round.

 I had bought one similar here for my Dutch friend last year and I must admit it had been difficult at the time to hand it over - I wanted it!  So I was thrilled to receive my very own, and in my fave grey.  I know that I'll be wearing this sooo much.

Thank you, guys.

A la perchoine.

Walkin', Munchin', Not Much Filmin'

Such a gorgeous day.  Cold but sooo sunny.

I decided to plonk my hat on, rather than try out the jaunty tilt.

Yes, today I was a right plonker!

Can you spot me?  Walking along the ruettes?  Little roads, or lanes, in patois. To my French readers, can you tell me what "lane" is in real French?

Look at that blue sky.

I love the light playing on bared trees at this time of year.

Such a beautiful mix.

A pensioner's gotta take a breather now and again.

 And a little pre-prandial walking justifies a lot of prandial!

My camembert.

The Photographer's absolutely yummy carrot and coriander soup.  Must make this.

Beef bourguignon, garlic ciabatta.

The Photographer's Shepherd's Pie.  Must stock up the freezer with some of this comfort food.

The portion sizes may look big on screen but they are nicely small, perfect for a pensioner's appetite.

And the yummiest pear poached in red wine!

We met up with a golf mate/friend/very nice man for lunch at the club.

I think this stainless steel artwork possibly references the sea in front of the club,  maybe leaping over the sea wall in a storm!

A superb lunch is always guaranteed at the LGM.

And you wanna laugh?  I tried to film the 3-4 minute drive home from lunch, which takes in beautiful coastline, beaches and sea. It was supposed to be my little treat for you.  

I filmed 3 seconds of the shawl on my lap.  And I attempted to load it on to this post. 

I think I failed in every respect ...

A la perchoine.