What To Wear For A Special Birthday

What do you do in preparation for a special occasion?

I was invited to a special birthday lunch for a very special friend.  My friend of 50 years.  You met her here, remember?

Before I could even think about what to wear, I needed to get a bit of grooming sorted out.  Fringe was trimmed and nails were gelled a couple of days before the big event.

Then I was busy thinking about the old proverbial, the what-to-wear dilemma.



Here's what I came up with.

The starting point just has to be a flowery dress when invited to a special birthday lunch in August.

Here my East silk number, which has become a default special meal dress in recent years.

Add a glass bead necklace.

Bracelet (Wink) and earrings (Claudia Bradby).

Grey Adesso shoes and pink Tula bag - see not matchy matchy today!

And then The Pout was good-to-go.

But she needed a cardi for British Summer 2017.

I usually pick out the pink flowers when choosing a cardi for this dress, so I've been wearing a little sludgy pink number for years.  This time I tried it with my recently purchased cropped cardi.  I liked its shape with the dress but, truth be told, as I look at these pics I think I over-egged the grey a bit.  

Agreed?  Do you sometimes tilt too far in the direction of colour safety?

 However, as I'd worn the very same dress for my friend's hubby's special birthday four years ago but with the sludgy pink, I think I may just have got away with a repeat wearing with my cunning cardi switch ... 😏!

Now let's take this little outfit La Fregate Restaurant

And I have to apologise as from hereonin the sun sort of takes over in these pics.

I love a good encaustic-tiled hallway.

And a comfy chair.

And I love my dear friend who was celebrating a special birthday.  In a very sunny conservatory restaurant but you can still see her looking as gorgeous as she has always has done since the very first day I met her.

And you may have spotted her shoes in the pic.

 

Well, I did too.  I just loved them.  A bargain in a recent posh shoe shop sale.  Aren't they gorgeous?!

My friend had paid great attention to nail colour, choosing a light grey/silver to go perfectly with those beautiful shoes.  I love that attention to detail.

The Birthday Girl.

And a birthday girl just has to have a lacy birthday cake.  mmnnn.

This lovely lady was the reason I recently posted some retro pics here, which I found when I was hunting down a photo to make up her special Moonpig card.  I used this photo of my friend who was looking gorgeous all those years ago too.

Cheers, special friend!

A la perchoine.

Linking up with

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.

Oh, Little Denim Skirt, How do I love thee?

Oh, Little Denim Skirt, How do I love thee?  Let me count the ways.

I love thee to the depth and breadth and height that my wardrobe can reach ...

Yes, indeedy, sweet people of Blogland.  I am loving seeing how many ways I can style my my denim skirt.  I'm testing how many parts of my wardrobe it can reach. 

Do you ever do that with a piece of clothing?  Find a piece so versatile that there are seemingly limitless ways to style it.  Maybe some black trousers or a skirt?  And obviously blue jeans are the classic styling sponge - just how many ways can you love those babies?

 

Today my little denim skirt went out a-cavorting with the Woolovers shell top in charcoal cashmere/merino and the snuggly-snuggly East long cardi in merino and Gabor ankle boots.

A grey/taupe glass bead necklace finishes it off and though you can't see them, my lovely birthday pressie double grey pearl earrings are under that mass of hair ... trust me.  They are by Claudia Bradby and I'm discovering that they go so well with so much jewellery, including this necklace.


So, dear reader, I think this is what Shakespeare had in mind when he was writing his little sonnet.  He was telling us that when you find an item of clothing you love, there is no limit to how you can find ways to love it, to wear it. 
Did you realise when reading Shakespeare that he was a style guru?  Not a lot of people know that!

Now, can you tell me how many ways you love your favourite item?

A la perchoine.



Double Pearl

Hi peeps!  I hope you've not been hit too badly by Storm Angus.  I've had minor issues but nothing to write home about.

But moving swiftly on to nice stuff.  What do you think of these lovely double grey pearl earrings? Gorgeous, huh!

Lovely Son and Daughter in Law gave me them today.

I am over the moon with them (and so is my ginormous ear!)

These earrings will go with sooooooooooo much.

They are by Claudia Bradby and  I love them.  They will be treasured and I am so grateful to have received them from some very special people.

So, what does a girl have to do to get given such a lovely present?

Well, she has to dress up warmly on a sunny crisp November day and stroll along the pier.

She has to stop to admire the marina, now in winter quite empty of boats.

She has to go to one of her fave restaurants and eat a delicious full English breakfast with her truly wonderful family.

All an absolute pleasure!

Then sit back and receive lots of gorgeous cards and presents of 

Vintage champagne, chocolates and these lovely earrings.  

Oh, and she has to have recently gained a year in age, but that's just semantics.

A la perchoine.