Early sales shopping

Sales season seems to start earlier and earlier each year. I remember a time when it would be days after Christmas that they'd open and the crowds would descend. Now it’s before Christmas for many shops...which is great if you’ve left your Christmas shopping until the last minute!

After a week at home, I finally ventured back into society today and then quickly scuttled back home (central London is INSANE...the crowds are immense and in a frenzy!).

But the lure of sales shopping was difficult to resist (particularly the LK Bennett shoes!) and I was sorely tempted to drop into Oasis, as their sale is in full swing. I am craving a new gilet (not least to save my old favourite from being worn down to threads!) and have my eye on the shearling ones on sale in Oasis.

However, last minute Christmas shopping in Fortnum & Mason, Hamleys, Habitat and Boots sapped every last bit of energy and I came home and did a little online Oasis reconnaissance instead.

My favourite item is the gilet but these are a few of my other favourite things on sale in Oasis right now.
 

Oasis feather print dress £30 (down from £55)

Cassie platform boot £35 (down from £45)

Ruffle hem dress £40 (down from £55)

Real shearling gilet £80 (down from £120)
 

Victoriana lace ¾ sleeve dress £35 (down from £60)

Animal ruffle hem dress £35 (down from £55)

Leopard faux fur coat £100 (down from £150)

Grosgrain trim military coat £70 (down from £90)

 

Alice bow spot printed top £20 (down from £35)

Faux fur gilet £40 (down from £65)
 

Lurex fringed scarf £15 (down from £25)
 

Rouched front maxi dress £40 (down from £70)

Rose & lace printed prom dress £35 (down from £65)

Owl of December

Hello Edna readers! Apologies again for such a slack week of blogging last week. I’m hoping that this week will be much, much better and I will have time for lovely fashion thoughts rather than too much of life’s stress invading every waking moment! 

It was lovely to come back to my blog and see comments from my lovely readers! Even if I have neglected my blog this past week, you’ve kept reading...so thank you.

And I hope life isn’t too stressful for you all too...and that you're enjoying the Christmas week (and not freezing your arse off in a queue somewhere!).

I thought I’d start off this week’s blogging with something frivolous...my owl of the month. I did a little internet rambling recently and found a website that is a veritable feast of owls: www.boygirlparty.com  

The site is from the US artist Susie Ghahremani, who clearly loves nature and features quirky animals across stationary, clothing, jewellery and lots of other bits and pieces. I loved it!

And of all the items on the site, this little notepad was my favourite at only $6.

Edna’s owl of the month – barn owl memo pad

Kat & Bee gorgeous jewellery!

Sorry for the unexpected blog hiatus this week. It’s been a bit of a traumatic week when life has meant that fashion thoughts have been forced out and time and energy for writing has vanished.

I’m hoping that I can resume normal service over the next few days.

But I did want to post something tonight. I’ve been meaning to blog about the jewellery range Kat & Bee for some time. I think I first spotted some of their jewellery in the in-house magazine for Office shoes and looked them up.

The designer Kat Barry describes her jewellery as “...original and hand-made one off pieces with designs ranging from quirky gothic, to big and stunningly beautiful to simple yet eclectic.”

These are special pieces and therefore they’re not cheap. But they are handmade and individual...no two items will be exactly the same. And jewellery is something that you will have for the rest of your life and can hand down.

I remember at university I had a friend who used to buy herself a beautiful piece of jewellery on her birthday each year (she admittedly was a little better off than the average student!). It meant that she was slowly building up a collection of stunning jewellery that she would have forever. 

These are some of my Kat & Bee favourites... 

Janus skull ring - £135

Zerlinia skull & crossbow rose ring - £180 

Caeruleus charm necklace – I don’t know the price as it’s currently unavailable but I love it so had to include it.

Rosalba flower bracelet - £220

Edna's Christmas Gift Guide

Hopefully better late than never...here is Edna's Christmas gift guide. I've tried to keep the prices reasonable and affordable...so many gift guides I've seen in magazines have a starting price of around £50 and go sky-high!

So if you're starting to experience the 'less than two weeks before Christmas and I haven't got any presents' anxiety, I hope some of these ideas will help!

Liberty print notebook - £8.95

Rococo Chocolates (my absolute favourite chocolate brand) – frankly anything they produce but these pink champagne truffles are very pretty - £12.50

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland - £12.99

Gorgeous special editions with canvas printed covers – lots of different books available, including a few Jane Austens!

Oasis knitted hot water bottle - £14

Paul & Joe nail polish set in the sale for £14.40

Laura Bailey for Made salama bracelet - £18

Made has some lovely jewellery but my one and only experience in ordering off their website is a bit negative. I chose signed for delivery and they just sent it regular mail, whilst still charging me for signed! No amount of attempts at phoning or emailing customer service got me anywhere...I just never reached anyone! So maybe best to order from John Lewis, who also stocks this, and has a bit better track record in customer service!

Lisa Stickley Martha washbag - £20.40

Dents suede gloves with animal fur trim - £25

RE Found Objects green American milk glass cake stand – from £27 - for anyone who loves baking cakes!

La Perla hold-ups - £27.50
A luxurious treat. Still quite steep at £27.50 for a pair of hold-ups but much more affordable than anything else from La Perla and they are very sexy! I had some years ago and loved them and was obviously very pleased with myself in them as I flashed them at a young man on the dancefloor...he seemed to like them...alas his girlfriend wasn’t very amused!!

Laura Mercier creme de pistache honey bath - £30. A real bathing indulgence but trust me, the scent of this (and all the bathing products in the range) is delicious and it's a beautiful gift.

Celia Birtwell Romanian dancer silk scarf - £35

Prada book - £37.80

 

NW3 Hobbs bee necklace - £49

Zara buckskin clutch bag - £69.99

Vivienne Westwood diamante heart pendant in purple - £70

Chic Shoes

I spotted this week's lust item in the LK Bennett sale and fell in love. You know when you spot something that just fits into your wardrobe perfectly. Chic, Chanel-esque flat black shoes will always have a place in my wardrobe and there will always be a need for them. 

LK Bennett Melia shoe - £65

Years ago I bought a pair of patent leather flat shoes from Topshop that had two straps, one around the ankle and the other a mary jane style strap. I wore them to death...seriously, even when they had holes in the soles I would still insist on wearing them in dry weather. It pained me to eventually throw them out!

Normal, straightforward flat black ballet pumps work but don't really do much to excite me. But flat, quilted, patent leather, square toe shoes do! These are definitely a 'buy now, wear later' purchase though, as I'm currently coping with the winter by wearing tights, two pairs of socks and my fur lined boots!  

But these are now in the sale, down from £125 to £65...and I walk past them twice a day! How much will-power am I going to need to resist that much temptation?!

They come in black, navy and red...uber-chic! I love them!

Fashion crush on Carey

A big day for the Edna blog...I've hit 30 followers! Welcome my lovely new followers...I really hope you enjoy my blog! 

Also, allow me to blow my own trumpet just for a second...I recently got featured in an article entitled "World’s Top Fashion Bloggers Who Aren’t Celebrities (Yet)"! I shit you not...I was number 12 on the list! My little fledgling blog! Excited doesn't even come close to describing how I felt...but also slightly nervous about more people visiting my blog and then thinking it's rubbish! I'll do my best not to disappoint!

Tonight, I'm talking fashion crushes!

If I didn’t love Carey Mulligan enough already, I’ve just watched this film of the cover shoot of the latest issue of Elle and the crush has intensified! A sweetheart and wonderfully un-starry! And she confesses to not having a clue about fashion and trusting her stylist for all her appearances (I adore everything she wears on the red carpet, so I’m now in love with her stylist!).

I try to keep celeb-talk on this blog to a minimum but I do have a few fashion crushes. And I love it when there are women in the public eye who don’t dress for men...so tits and arse exposure is kept to a minimum! It’s great to see women looking stylish and elegant but also not frumpy and unoriginal...and Carey Mulligan (and her great stylist!) is one of those women.

She’s on the cover of the new issue of Elle and there’s a lovely collection of photos of her on ‘star style’ for inspiration.

p.s. I'm planning to have a Christmas gift guide on the blog this weekend...a bit late, I know! But I have been in the thick of my own Christmas shopping in any spare time...the 'only two weeks until Christmas' anxiety has set in!

Party frocks

I love getting dressed up and don’t always need a party or special occasion to do it. Sometimes even just a trip to the pub can be an excuse to put a nice frock on. It can really help to lift your mood...a shit day is made eminently more enjoyable by putting on a favourite outfit!

I know we’re in the thick of Christmas party season (the streets of London are filled with drunk party goers every afternoon/night. On Friday I saw a man in his work suit, standing up on the bus, not holding on to anything...but fast asleep!). Other than drunkenness, Christmas party season also means party frocks!

The moment you choose ‘party dresses’ on pretty much every website, you’re confronted with a sea of satin, minis and strapless dresses...sometimes all in one frock!

But for me a party frock doesn’t have to follow this formula. There is so much choice and rather than opting for something totally out of my style, I’d rather just choose something that feels like me...but on a very good day! And I like some versatility, so dresses that can also be dressed down a little and worn on different occasions – not just super-glamazon type events (as my diary isn’t very full of them!).

So here are my top ten favourite frocks on the high street...

Zara crepe dress with flounces! - £39.99

Warehouse emerald pleat dress - £45

Sparkle & Fade asymmetric maxi dress from Urban Outfitters - £45

Max C ballerina print dress - £48

Oasis parrot print 60s dress - £55

Monsoon Fusion meadow print tea dress - £55

Miss Selfridge black embellished collar dress - £55

Topshop butterfly beaded dress - £75

Whistles Rio dress - £135

Reiss Katerina – silk & jersey maxi dress - £195 (I walk past this every day and it really looks special and very flattering. You could dress it down with biker books and chunky cropped cardigan, if you so wished!).

Red magazine online

New developments today on the internet. Red magazine, for so long bereft of an online presence (other than a poxy subscription page!) has finally launched its own website.

I've mixed feelings about Red. I like the mixture of content, so that it’s not just focused on fashion and shopping. It makes it more of a substantial read than, say, In Style. And they have some great journalists writing for them. I also find it refreshing to have a magazine that does target women over the age of 25 and celebrates older women!

But, I also find the targeting slightly misguided because they seem to assume that once you hit your thirties you’re flush with cash! I remember reading an article in Red over the summer and actually wrote down a quote because it just summed up my problem with the magazine:

“Your thirties and beyond are a time to combine the best of the high street with more serious investment pieces, which are suddenly, gloriously within reach”.

If they are, then lucky you...but the assumption that just because you’re in your thirties and beyond you have much more money to spend is ridiculous. In fact, for most friends they actually had more disposable income in their twenties. They may have earned less, but they had far fewer overheads. I certainly had more money to burn...which is now swallowed by a hefty mortgage and the costs of home renovations. For other friends, children swallow all their money!

I know this sounds like whinging but I don’t mean it to. Just an observation that you may earn more as you get older – if you’re lucky – but your money isn’t necessarily sitting there happily waiting to buy an Alexa handbag from Mulberry!

Treats are often the best of the high street rather than serious designer items!
 
But I do think the website is a welcome addition and does bring some diversity to women’s magazine’s online. And I’m looking forward to reading articles from journalists I enjoy like Jess Cartner-Morley, fashion editor at the Guardian, Sali Hughes and the lovely Lauren Laverne, amongst many other writers in Red’s new panel of experts.

So maybe slightly unattainable clothing but very enjoyable reading!

Mustard fancy!

I spotted this dress on my travels around the Asos website and it just screamed lust item of the week. The colour, sixties styling and peter pan collar...there's lots to love about this dress.

Asos knitted sixties shift dress - £36

Once again, Asos seems to have chosen a child to model the dress...which makes a 33 year old woman take a cold, hard look at the outfit to decide whether it's something a woman could wear! I think in this case it is...with some thick black tights, black winter boots (maybe the Dune boots I am in love with and featured this past week) and a warm winter coat. I think a spot of leopard print would work with it too...even just a pair of leopard print gloves.

Keep chapping at bay

I've reached a point where smiling causes my lips to crack...chapping has reached epic proportions! I usually use Carmex lip balms but they're failing me this winter. I’m not sure I will end this winter with my lips in tact at this rate...steps are needed and new products need to be bought!

I did a little poll on Twitter and have a few recommendations, which are at the top of the list. I also noticed today that the website Beauty and the Dirt recommended Burt’s Bees lip balm.

I’ve also included a few others I’ve spotted on my web travels...the Reve de Miel lip balm in particular took my fancy. My lips felt moisturised just reading the ingredients list!

Topshop balm in sheen - £4
 

Blistex intensive moisturiser lip cream - £2.49
 

Elizabeth Arden eight hour cream lip protectant - £18
 

Burt’s Bees honey lip balm - £3.14

Reve de Miel lip balm - £12

Dr Lipp original nipple balm for lips - £11 (I could not resist including this!)

 

Kiehl’s lip balm in mango - £9

Cowshed lippy cow lip balm - £8