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

What To Wear For The Hygienist - Revisited

Today you're looking at one heckuva Big Girl.  For I have been to the hygienist.  My hygienist really likes me.  That is why she likes to see me often.  I think that is why.  But I like that she wants to see me often because as well as all the enjoyable banter, she takes good care of my teeth.  And they're kinda important to me.

So today, let's deal with the most important part of good dental hygiene.  What to Wear at the Hygienist!

Here's our Big Girl wearing a big smile for her hygienist, a White Company taupe swing cardi over a M&S Limited Collection modal vest top and Peacocks white jeans.

 Yes, peeps, white jeans.  Again!  In October!

But the opportunities are fewer as we get closer to November :-(.

And look.  Little Clarks metallic toe flatties.  I'm not even attempting to "winterise" my white jeans in this weather.
Queue the scratched record: the day was gloriously warm ...
Too warm for boots.  

And like Phil Collins - No Jacket Required!

Too warm for that too.  Just the merest drape of a woolly pashmina, in complementary colours.

Now I did attempt to play around with the pash.  I hooked out a leather belt and attempted that look where you tether the pash around the waist.  You know, that style you see fashionista sporting.  I was excited to be trying something new and stylish.  The Photographer thought it looked awful.  So awful he refused to take a photo of the look.

You win, Photographer!

To appease him I tethered the pash around my neck instead, no longer A Bag Tied Up In The Middle.  For that, I was told, is how I looked with the belt tethering thing going on.  And I know from experience that A Bag Tied Up In The Middle is The Photographer's ultimate fashion critique.  It doesn't get any worse in his book.

So, heed the word coming down from up high, peeps.  Belt tethering is best avoided if you are barrel shaped like me, lest you become A Bag Tied Up In The Middle.  

Fashion tips from Il Paparazzo.

A la perchoine.





Winter-White Jeans On

Good day to you, fine people of Blogland.  I hope all is going well you.

Me?  I'm marvelling at this lovely autumn.

And yes, I'm marvelling in my white jeans.  In October.  Why aren't they already in winter storage?

When I wrote this piece white-jeans-on-at-beaucette-marina back in September, I'd pretty much mentally closed the lid on white jeans for 2016.  In the archive box with you, see you in 2017.

For I have a little foible about them this time of the year.  The white colour doesn't stand up well to our colder sunlight.  Well, that's my view, for what it's worth.

But the weather has been so kind that I thought I'd break another of my no-no ideas.  Beat my foible.

Oh, I am becoming so brave, so iconclastic!  Has writing this blog brought me out of my shell?  Brought me out of my little world of insecurities and rules on what should be worn, where and when?

It's sunny.  Why not wear white jeans?  White won't look sad on a day lit with warm sunlight.  There is, after all, a colour called Winter White.  Ipso facto, it must be an OK colour for our winters.  And if I tell myself I'm wearing Winter White, maybe I'll feel OK about wearing these in October, right?

Seems like the only tweaks required to stretch jeans into autumn are

1) a beautiful sunny day, 2) boots and c) something woolly, and d) a scarf!

So, let's look at those tweaks ad seriatim.

1) in place, 2) Clarks, c) Woolovers grey cashmere/merino twinset d) La Redoute.

What do you think?  Do I look cold and uncared for, like I imagined I would?



Or do I look bright and cheerful in grey and (winter) white and all booted up?

Am I the only lady in the northern hemisphere who has told herself that white jeans don't look right at this time of year?  I probably am but I'd like to find out.

So my dear readers, are your days getting chilly and yet you are still wearing white jeans? 

If you have a blog, I'd love it if you could show me how you wear them this time of year.

Or, if like me you are wary about white jeans in the colder months, do you fancy giving them a try?  And if you have a blog, do you fancy putting photo to ether and joining me in this little habit-breaking challenge?  I'd be over the moon if you do!

A la perchoine.

Autumn Blue

Autumn Blue, texture like sun

Lays me down with my mind, it runs

Throughout the night

No need to fight

 The gloom and bad flew, with Autumn Blue

Yup, dear reader, a paraphrase came on as I wrote this piece.  I give you The Stranglers, with tweaks.

 

A sunny autumn day.  The sky was a beautiful deep blue.  It was sunny.  And so warm. This autumn day had just about everything going for it.

In fact, I was down to a sleeveless top as I strolled along the seafront.  In October!  Could there be a better day for a walk with my 97 year old aunt.  A wheelchair walk for her, of course.  She is a sprightly 97 year old, but not that sprightly!

Lots of shorts and vests were out.  

I hadn't packed mine :-(.  I did not expect such glorious autumn weather.

I guess this is the epitome of beachside home.  Could it get any more beachey!

Sea edge strollers.

Walkers and pushers (in the none-druggy sense, I hasten to add!).

I even saw swimmers.  Though my little pocket camera didn't do them justice.

And please don't ask.  I have no idea!  A canutophile maybe?

This activity is more obvious!

I love some of the architecture to be found along these Victorian and Edwardian seafronts.

Yup.  A lovely day.  Stored in the memory banks to be pulled out on a dreary winter's day.

Do you store pictures in your head to cheer you up?

Maybe stored for a really cold, wet and windy day. 

My mental picture archive assures me of nature's cycle.  My stored pictures remind me that you've got to know bad to know good.  That it does get better.  The cold winter is necessary but it will end and spring will burst forth, full with promise of even better days to come.  

I sometimes pull out my nice memory pictures when I wake up from a disturbed sleep too, to comfort me, to distract me.  

One does whatever it takes, eh?



And here's what our Autumn Blue lady chose for walking along the prom.

Grey.  Oh how she missed an opportunity here!  Should have worn blue!

Woolovers cashmere/merino "twinset" made up of edge to edge cardi and sleveveless tanktop, Peacock jeans.  All grey.  Not blue.
M&S snake print flatties.  And the end of a brown plaited leather belt just peeping through under the tank in some of the pics!

A la perchoine.