The Pumpkin As An Accessory?!

The pumpkin.  Autumn is the time to celebrate this humble vegetable and do glorious things with it which go beyond the realms of our British imaginations.   Right now I am reading of pumpkin spice, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin lattes, pumpkin body lotions and ... pumpkin martinis, which taste surprisingly good, so I'm told.

Yes, pumpkin fever has hit the blogisphere.

As a nation, we Brits tend to be quite conservative with vegetables in general and pumpkins specifically.  We can barely get our heads around scooping out the pumpkin's innards, popping that in a soup then gouging facial features out of the carcase and calling it a candle holder. 

So I decided to fly the flag and try a bit of pumpkin innovation myself.  I see further possibilities for this most voluminous of vegetables.  Why stop at cocktails and body products? 

I see it as the perfect accessory.  After all, others accessorise with hoovers, roller blades and Sainsburys carrier bags (you know who you are!) so why not a pumpkin?

 A few days ago we visited a farm shop.  So, what did I wear?  I wore grey.  Only grey. 

Grey patterned top (Next), grey jeans (Peacocks) ... and grey boots.

Yup, these babies are new.  I sneaked out a-shoppin' whilst The Photographer was playing golf and found these in Debenhams.  I lucked out on a day when the store was offering a huge discount on boots.  I'd been looking out for grey boots for some time and when I saw the deal, I pounced.

Lucky ole me eh?

The fact is that these boots have a high heel and my legs appear longer. IMHO.  And I desperately need extra length to my stumpiest of pins which usually appear to be short appendages bridging body and footwear.  The trompe l'oeil of these boots is that I appear to have legs!

I'd thought to go out in just a cardi (grey), but the weather had other plans on how to style The Pout.

The weather decided that  it would follow my outfit cue - it was grey.  A warmer layer was required - grey, of course.

So the day being grey was the perfect final accessory for my monochrome look.  Oh, and a cross-body being the final final accessory.

Then at the farm shop, I thought maybe I could use a pumpkin as my final final final accessory, but it was orange  and lacked my chosen monochromicity. 

Now, I had always believed that with pumpkins, similar to Fords and black, you could have any colour you wanted, provided it was orange.  But a revelation awaited me in the vegetable stalls. 

Pumpkins apparently come in grey too, here a light grey to match the light greyness of my outfit. How fortuitous.  The ultimate grey accessory. 

And they even come in a darker shade of grey to match my jeans.

Oh, which to choose?

The greys stopped there.  It seems there are not 50 Shades of Grey in the pumpkin world.  I counted two.  Two doth not a best selling book nor a film make, but two was sufficient for the purpose of the monochromaciouness of my outfit.

Yes, you can accessorise an outfit with a pumpkin, dear fellow fashionistas.  Slice it mid-section, gouge out the pumpkin's top half and call it a beret, is my humble fashion tip for today.

To break the monochrome rut paradise I had found myself in, I had my nails gelled glittery soft pink.  Here seen against my laptop keyboard, which is grey, of course.

A la perchoine.

It Started With A Cushion - Mustard and Grey

It started with a cushion,

never thought grey and mustard I'd be pushin'

OK the work I've done on Hot Chocolate's "It started with a kiss" isn't my finest paraphrasing, but you try rhyming something with "cushion"!  Can you come up with anything better than "pushin'"?  I bet you can!

But maybe it's like "orange", nothing to rhyme with it in the English language.  Note to self: avoid post about wearing orange.

So, inspired by a mustard cushion on a grey chair I chanced upon recently, I started my mustard and grey quest with the grey element.  The easy bit.  Peacock grey jeans. 

They're getting baggy; I'd love to say that's because I've lost weight but look at me!  No, I think the elastane has finally giving up elastan-ing.  I've worn them loads so they've taken a laundry battering and, as was pointed out in a speech at my wedding, I am not the best of laundresses!

Then I dug deep for the mustard.  I found this ex-work top in the archives. I teamed it with my soft silk grey scarf from the lovely Janice of The Vivienne Files.  That scarf keeps on giving.

Then I found an ex-work jumper.   My, it's bright!  It has elastane in the fabric mix and its resulting clinginess means my jeans zip and pockets show through.  Note to self: try it with grey trousers - come on Pout, you have some of those, surely?!!

Here I tried it with mustard cardi and charcoal Bravissimo jersey top.  I can see immediately from this photo that the top chosen for this look should be lighter, to flow with the jeans and comply with the Column Dressing Rule.  Note to self: try with frilly stripey blouse.

I think the top outfit looks OK, perhaps because of the lovely scarf.  It seems to best capture the essence of my chair/ cushion inspiration.  The others need work.  And what I can see from this little experiment is that serious scarfage is therefore called for.  A grey/mustard blanket scarf would pull these outfits nicely together - leave that one me, dear reader, I'm on the case.

Etsy.com

So, dear reader, I've given you the worts-and-all today.  My work in progress.  Working on how I can put something together in the colours that have so inspired me.

The mustard cushion on the grey armchair.

The pat of butter on the grey dish, spotted by Anna of Mutton Style in one of my pics.

Now, dear reader, do you fancy putting together a mustard and grey outfit?  And maybe sharing it?

And then, following those pics first shown here, my dear Dutch friend told me her lounge in Dutchland is now grey and mustard.

She sent me these pics of it.  Doesn't it look lovely?  And so stylish.  So co-ordinated. 

Our minds must be in sync on colour!

And that lady really does believe in colour co-ordination.  Look at her ultimate lounge accessory ...

... her adorable grey French bulldog Percy, celebrating his birthday this week wearing a light mustard party hat!  She's co-ordinated pet with lounge. 

My, that lady is serious about colour!

So look what I've put together for you on this rainy afternoon, dear reader. 

The behind-the-scenes on an outfit that hopefully I will soon show you in completed form. 

Home décor.  A little Pet Corner thing. 

Where else can you get such miscellany?!!

I'll be back with a briefer post tomorrow.  I know you lead all lead busy lives so I appreciate that you've stuck around to read this rambling post today.

Please pop by again soon.  Tomorrow would be good!

A la perchoine.