Old Jacket, New Favourite

Outfit roundup a on Tuesday?! Due to a couple of busy weeks and then having been on holiday, I'm totally behind. My week in Germany involved a lot of lounging around and little sartorial action, so below the outfits from a couple of weeks ago. If I can find the time tomorrow, I'll get us up to date.

A couple of future faves: My old, yet newly discovered tweed jacket is finally being worn - and I really love it. (Do you do that? Discover items in your wardrobe that you almost discarded and fall in love with them?) Oh, and something actually new: that cosy Tesco jumper is going to get some repeat wears this winter!

I thought this outfit might be a pattern too far but I think it actually worked - and I really enjoyed wearing it! The jacket must be about 15 years old and almost every year I've held it up and thought "need to get rid of this, I never wear it" - and then hung it straight back into my wardrobe. It's a tricky one, as it's quite warm but not warm enough for proper outer wear (plus, it has elbow length sleeves and is cropped). But I thought I'd start wearing it kind of like a cardigan or blazer and voilà, it's now officially a keeper! 
Blouse & boots: Zara 
Skirt: Boden 
Jacket: River Island

I normally don't do outerwear shots. 
1. I do my ootd pic when I get home in the evening, after I dropped bag and coat downstairs and before I get changed into something that doesn't mind if I crawl around the floor building lego. 
2. I usually wear the same coat all season: a warm one in winter, a thinner one when it's warmer. Both hooded and waterproof, as I commute by train and walk bits in between. I also can't be bothered carrying an umbrella. (God knows why I have a wardrobe full of coats...) This was a day though when it was cold with no chance of rain so I dug out my classic grey coat - and I thought I'd share this. :) 
Jumper: Tesco 
Jeans: Next 
Trainers & coat: Zara 
Scarf: C&A

This is what happens when I take my 'outfit of the day' photo after coming home (no way would I have time to do this in the morning!). Little M will insist in being in a couple of pics and then we have to pose so that he "wears" my clothes. I have reams of those pics. 
Rubbish quality - but I can't quite get myself to delete them. 
Jumper: Zara 
Skirt: Mango 
Trainers: Kurt Geiger

At the weekend you'll usually find me in jeans, mainly because I will either be cleaning/tidying/pottering or climbing around hills/playgrounds/rocks. On Saturday I dragged Mr G and little M to Cheshire Oaks and (also due to the wet weather: nothing worse than jeans soaking up rain water) ended up in a dress. :) 

By the way: check out here what Mulberry had in stock! 

Dress & cardigan: Boden 

Boots: Hallhuber 

Necklace: Topshop

Late Arrival

Some bag shapes are undeniable classics. The one I'm currently thinking about is the hand held barrel style handbag. Add a long strap and you have unbeatable versatility. Think Louis Vuitton Speedy or Mulberry Small Del Rey. Or, indeed, something a bit more vintage, like this Mulberry Euston. A great size, timeless style and practical format.

But would the Euston work for you? Check out what I fit in!

Paint It Blue

I'm a sucker for the Mulberry postman's lock. Especially in brass. And Mulberry oak. Oh, give me an Oak Bayswater and I'm happy. 

This Mulberry Jagger Pouch is about as far as you could get from any of the above: blue polished buffalo leather, silver coloured hardware, no typical distinctive Mulberry features. And yet, I rather like it!

So it's a cute little pouchy bag - but what can I fit in?!

Vintage Bucket

I have a bit of a soft spot for vintage Mulberry, especially their Congo leather. Nothing ages as nicely as this - it turns beautifully glossy and multitonal over years of use. I've had a few small satchels in this finish before but never before one of these bucket bags.

Want to see more? Have a look what I can fit in!

Confidence Booster Outfit

Do you have any go-to outfits for when you need to feel confident? My favourite outfit last the week was definitely my black stripy dress with that Zara jacket. The whole combo felt so easy to wear, fuss free and cool and looks like I hadn't tried to hard. Perfect for when you have to present!

In other news: It was only a matter of time until I would wear the same print twice in a week. I hadn't even realised until I posted my second pic on Instagram! Sigh.

"Mama, stand in a silly way!" Ok... I know I wore this recently but I had to speak in front of about 100 people yesterday and even though it was just for about 5 minutes, I was pretty nervous about it. I'm neither a practiced nor confident speaker, so my outfit had to be comfy, look cool but not like I tried too hard and have nothing too silly on it that could be remembered for the wrong reasons... 

Dress: Next 

Jacket: Zara 

Boots: Office

Necklace: Accessorize

"Mama, I want to be in the picture!" (Can I just say: this is is his "I just get in my sweats after taking off my school uniform" outfit. He doesn't dress like that for the whole day!) 

Mama's Shirt: Laredoute

Skirt: Boden 

Trainers: Converse 

Little M's outfit: Mango, Next, Matalan 

How to achieve such a spectacularly underwhelming picture: 

1. Drop food at taste session on floor in the massive atrium in front of EVERYONE in the building. 

2. Realise 2 hours later that half of the tomato sauce ended up on your dress and now doesn't budge. 

3. Think that for your ootd pic you can disguise the stain by showing off the bag you just switched into. 

4. Be ridiculously ungraceful posing with said bag and make dress appear to be only half of an outfit. (I can hear Julie say: "did you forget your pants?") 

5. Think "it's either that or nothing because I really can't be arsed trying for half an hour until I get a decent shot. 

 That (amongst other reasons) is why I'm not a professional blogger. 

Dress: Boden 

Trainers: Converse 

Bag: Mulberry

Do you have any items in your wardrobe that have the same print as others?

Autumn Mulberry at Cheshire Oaks

On this rainy Saturday I dragged Mr G and little M to Cheshire Oaks and whilst my two had fun on the playground, I had fun at Mulberry!

After hearing about the recent bargain Kites (£250 in the outlets!), I was, of course, disappointed that they had their prices lifted back up. When I asked the SA what that had been all about, she kind of rolled her eyes and shrugged. It did seem like a bit of a weird pricing exercise...

Anyway - lots of autumnal and darker colours, not a huge amount that I would have been tempted by but a few lovely items!

Tempted: Small Maple in oxblood
Lovely: SBS in slate blue
Bargain: Mini Cara in Oxblood £595 

Some prices at the bottom of of this post. Enjoy the window shopping!

Alexa 
Regular Pink Polished Buffalo £880

Bayswater
Grey £795
others from £695 

Camden 
Plain £556
Studded £595

Camera Bags £325

Cara
Mini NVT (oxblood & black) £595
Regular Quilted (black, red, blue) £595

Clifton
Large from £507

Daria
Hobo £555

Effie
Tote (oak, black) £395
Satchel (black) £

Jagger Pouch
Green £199

Kite
Small £485
Large £450

Lily
Mini - didn't check many but Oak NVT was £295, I think
Regular - dto Oxblood £595
Medium - dto Taupe £695

Maple
Small (blue, black, oxblood, dune, oak) £472
Regular (burgundy, deep embossed black, green) £696

Selwood
Small from £450
Regular from £570

Small Bayswater Satchel
Neon Blue & Steel Blue £680

Small Leather Goods & Other
Long locked purse (blue, red) £205
Small Zipped Blossom Purse £112
Small Zipped Tree Purse £155
French Purse - Oak NVT £220, Patent Navy (special purchase) £190
Bracelets £50
Leather Keyrings (tassels etc) £49
Metal Keyring (just one oval signature in silver) £53

Scarves
Rectangular signature £130
Cotton tree print £115
Mulberry script £130

New Zara Favourites

I currently keep finding new Zara stuff I love (so I am also trying not too keep browsing them too often!) but I did take the plunge on the three below:

* an oversized shirt (dress?!)

* a pair of feathered trainers (!)   and

* an embellished sweatshirt with bishop sleeves.

Two of them definitely out of my comfort zone, and you know what? I loved wearing them!

Not something I've worn before, that shirt (dress?!) is huge on me, but I totally fell in love with it! (Mr G actually joked whether I was off painting - and I don't think he's far off.) This kind of blush pink is turning into my favourite hue this season. 

Shirt, shoes & necklace: Zara 

Jeans: Next

I was wondering whether the stripes AND the pattern AND the multi coloured jacket AND the necklace were a bit much but I do like it. :) 

Top & skirt: Boden 

Jacket: Zara 

Trainers: Converse 

Necklace: Aarikka

  I absolutely love my new (and current) Zara jumper! It's comfy and cosy, which is perfect for the colder months to come, 

but has enough detail to make my outfit. :) 

Jumper: Zara 

Skirt: BCBG MAXAZRIA 

Trainers: Kurt Geiger 

Fluffy jumper and summer skirt. And that necklace. I love the mix of zesty and pastel colours. 

Jumper: Primark 

Skirt: Miss Selfridge 

Trainers: Converse 

Necklace: Oliver Bonas

Making Me Blush

I'm not massively into pink. I'm really not. But in the course of the past few weeks I have found myself buying one and lusting over three further pink bags. Granted, they're not Barbie-pink and rather muted and flattering shades but still...

The one that I bought...

I had been after Mulberry Lily that's a bit more dressy than my PVT oak one for a while and completely fell for this one. It's plaster pink wrinkle patent leather with rose gold hardware. Doesn't exactly roll off the tongue but she is rather easy on the eye.

Those I'm swooning over...

This bag is the Maestra from SENREVE. I never even heard of SENREVE until fairly recently and this bag makes me want to justify its pricetag and customs fees I'd have to pay with "but it's also so practical!" because it actually holds a proper laptop! The texture and colour of this leather looks gorgeous and scrapes just on the right side of 'oh so pretty'. Though they are based in the US and the customs fees increase the price, they do let you prepay for everything, so ordering should be a doddle. 

Aspinal is a brand I keep coming back to. So far I have yet to buy a bag for myself though I had various small leather goods and bought my mum a rather gorgeous Brook Street bag. A few days ago I received their AW17 catalogue and this colour jumped off the page for me. I've been looking at ths tote for a few seasons now and this has got to be my favourite colour so far. (Oh, and check out their brilliant "View Size" feature. Just click at the image on the bottom of the product page and it lets you compare the bag to various items - you can even flip a Macbook and see how it would fit in.)

Last but not least: On a recent lunchbreak I flew through Mulberry in Manchester's Selfridges and stopped in my tracks when I saw this one. I know it's been around for a bit. The colour is just stunning in real life - I don't think it comes across online. 

So, what is it?! 

Are there just too many lovely 'pink' bags around at the moment or is middle agedness with muted tones catching up with me? And if I am buying one of the three above - which one???