And welcome to 2018, peeps. I hope it's going to be a good year for you. But good years are to a small degree of our own making and I plan to make the year a little better than 2017 with my approach of late, small tweaks. I'll share some of my tweaks in the weeks to come.
So today is another year and I could have started it better than with a crush. Well, it's more like a head over heels love affair, if I'm going to be honest.
Kellyann had been tempting me with some faux leather leggings from Nordstrom. I held out and didn't buy them, for reasons that will become obvious further on in this post.
But I suddenly threw good sense to the wind and bought myself some coated biker jeans
(see licensed to thrill), and thrill me they have done. They look a lot like leather and are so soft.
Things can sometimes take control of one's life by stealth and the stealth is my love affair with wine, berry, aubergine, call it what you will - actually berry sounds pretty seasonal and doesn't lead to any misunderstandings, as perhaps the title of this post may?!
And although the colour red was supposed to be the colour of the season, I'm seeing lots of berry and it's calling me, big time.
It started with my Big Bardot Sweater/Dress from Dotty P. The shop had it in berry in my size and grey in not my size. So I bought both. I'm so pleased I did - they've both become staples and the discount offered made that possible as I practically got a 2fer with my pennies.
As I settled into the colour, I began drifting towards all things berry. I drifted on to the Next site looking for jeggings and found coated jeggings in berry. Having been already surprised by the delights of the coated fabric with my black bikers, I was brave and ordered these berry babes as I could visualise them in oh so many combos.
Like this obvious combo here.
My coated berries arrived just after Christmas. And I have to say the attraction was instant.
In the following days, we were inseparable. Well, to clarify, we weren't 24/7 inseparable, they were routinely substituted with PJs (but also with a berry-type hue in the pattern - a Christmas pressie).
On this day I wore Jones taupe boots, as a break from the absolute berriness of the outfit, and did my trick with the brooch to anchor down the neckline to a soft cowl as I felt outright bardot wouldn't work for the day I had planned.
Now back to the coated jeans. They are super comfy AND they hold their shape. What's not to like?
I hoiked the sweater/dress up on the side to avoid it tumbling down into dress mode when I moved. Yes, I do move. Only occasionally, and then not very much (as Liz Hurley once said about eating).
Looking at these pics, my hoiking could have been done better, but it felt right at the time.
And this is the usual part in the post when it starts to get a bit messy, both outfitwise and between me & TP.
It was cold. It was windy. I found that my old Monsoon velvet hat had just the right amount of berriness in it to be the perfect partner for this duo. But I wanted extra cose from a woolly scarf.
The Photographer With Fashion Views said, "No, that's just messy and bundled up", just as he usually does of late when I pull out any woolly scarf.
We reached a compromise. I could dangle it for the purpose of this photo shoot, then snuggle up in it outside when the going got really cold and windy.
It goes without saying that the blanket scarf didn't even reach compromise stage. I am not having any luck at all with this and may just have to take the scissors to it, as Kellyann suggested, and give it's twin away.
This little outfit got taken on a few errands, one being to visit my only surviving uncle (90 years old). No photos of that, but I do have photos of the other two activities..
1. The one where I went to the headland to hold my hat.
Well, actually I'd gone there for a walk.
We've been having gales for days and on this day the wind was so strong that I had to open the car door in baby steps as I struggled to push it open against the 70 mph gusts. So no walking was to be had but I thought I wouldn't waste the journey so turned it into a photo shoot. A 20 seconds shoot.
2. The one where I went grocery shopping for NYE party food for me and TP.
One of the downsides of living on an island is being subject to deliveries by sea. The prolonged gales of late had prevented our shelves from being re-stocked after Christmas.
The vultures had made their way through the fresh veg.
But phew!, the party food shelves were stocked up nicely and that was where I was headed, buying in tasty nibbles to soak up the bubbles on NYE.
Back home and the thick woolly just had to be exchanged for something thinner for indoors. This berry long sleeved T shirt. Yes I also found myself some column-layering berriness for about £4.
What I also found was this. My crooked left leg. Yes, when I was fighting off Keyllyann and the Nordstrom faux leather, my defence was that the shiny leggings, which look so gorgeous on her, would bring attention to my less than perfect legs. Well, I hadn't realised how imperfect they are until I saw these shots. My leg is growing in all directions but straight. I am an old crooked lady!
I mentioned this to The Photographer whilst we drank our bubbles last night. His reply was "Well, the neighbour didn't seem to notice".
You see, there is something about these coated jeans. I feel edgy and sassy when wearing them. And I think that comes across on others too. Men specifically. TP is absolutely drawn to them and is having his own little crush on me when I'm wearing them! Which is mostly daily.
I wore my coated bikers to our Christmas neighbours' party. One neighbour (male) couldn't stop himself from mentioning them throughout the evening. He was convinced they were leather and seemed intrigued by them. It seemed the more he coated his gizzard with wine, the more he came back to my coated legs and my bikers became the hot topic of the party at one stage.
TP and I deduced that the neighbour rather liked them. And I think TP is right, I don't think for one minute that he noticed my crooked leg!
So, do head to Next and buy yourself some of these coated jeggings.
You can get away with murder when wearing these sassy bottoms.
Well, maybe not murder, but definitely crooked old legs!
A la perchoine.
