How I acquired this H & M dress - #Chicandstylish #LINKUP

Morning all. 

How are you?

It’s David’s birthday today, so will have a little celebration with the family later. Maybe a takeaway (if I have my way) which will be nice and easy. He’ll have to take a night off from working on the new build, which I’m sure he won’t like! 😕

Anyway, the week of birthdays has gone well so far, my eldest daughter’s on Sunday (she’s the one I borrowed this dress from), my daughter-in-law’s was Tuesday and they went away on a little holiday so haven't seen her and one on Friday which will be my SIL’s, so a very busy and expensive week for Mummab! Only a couple of weeks and there’s another spate - one very important birthday is included in that lot … mine!  Do you have runs of birthdays at the same time?

So let’s talk dresses, I’ve got lots hanging on my clothes rail, too many for my dressing room and lots of them I don’t wear anymore so top of my list is to go through them and sorting them out! It’s a mammoth job I keep putting off, but plan to maybe next week. 🤷🏻‍♀️

But this one which I acquired from my middle daughter is definitely staying. I spotted this chic design on an Instagram’er I follow and tried to find it last year. It’s from H & M and was out of stock when I checked, I set about tracking it down on Vinted and Ebay, and even resorted to Facedbook Marketplace! Alas I didn’t find it. It’s a Richard Allen design and H&M often has a sets of clothing in one design that’s always very eye catching. Anyway fast forward to last week, my daughter was putting some clothes on Vinted and low and behold this was one of them, she’d had it all the time and I was elated, just one problem - would I get it one! As you can see the answer was yes and doesn’t it look great on!

Style Not Age share 'Bring Me Sunshine' Outfits.

Hi there.

How's everyone doing?

I've been a bit behind with getting the blog posts ready and didn't even look at today's challenge until early last week!

The prompt, which was set by Emma - Style Splash, came to her whilst sitting on a bench in the garden. So with the weather being wet and damp and the worst in some places in March since records started, we all wanted to jump onboard and try to get the sunshine to stay. 

Bring me Sunshine is April's Style Not Age challenge.

Once the prompt was loaded into my brain, this outfit just seemed to come together. You see I don't have much yellow in my wardrobe except an handful of pieces including these sunny trousers that I've worn on the blog before with my sheer blouse, with a bit of sparkle and teamed with grey.

So what did I think of when I heard the prompt?  Well firstly all I could think of was the old duo Morecombe and Wise.  They were a comedy double who were all over the TV screens and theatres in the 70's and their signature piece was dancing to the tune 'Bring me Sunshine' in the finale of the show.  Do check out the duo who are similar and just as popular to today's Ant and Dec. 

Secondly, and more importantly wearing sunny tones come to mind, so I wanted yellow to take centre stage, and I feel I've achieved that - do let me know what you think.

As I said before I don't have many pieces that are summery yellow and decided to see what my daughters had that I could borrow, I remembered my eldest had a striking golden pleated dress so I asked to see if it fitted me and if I could use it, hooray it did and she obviously said yes, so here's my offering for today's challenge.

Skiing Insurance & Fun Times - #Chicandstylish #LINKUP

Hi there,

Welcome to the blog today.

Hope your week is going well.

It's been a funny week for me and the main silly reason is my computer.  I mentioned last week that it's stopped working so has been sent off to be, hopefully, repaired!  Fingers, legs and toes crossed ... lol.

I've been lucky enough to use David's and also my daughters, but with them being so different to mine it's been quite hard work.  It's almost been like learning everything from scratch.  Having to add the linkup, adding to Mailchimp, loading photos to the computer and then trying to find where they are stored have all been a bit of a nightmare to be honest.  I've managed to finish off last Thursday's post and Mondays post was brand new.  It's taken a lot longer than usual but fortunately it's published okay, so I'm feeling a bit more positive about it now.  David and Sophie will be finding my photos on their computers when I'm back to mine, I'm sure they'll be popping up in all sorts of places ... lol!

I checked up on all our insurances.

So do you recall I managed to get away for a cheeky weekend skiing?

Daivd and I travelled down to Valmorel in the French Alps one Friday a couple of weekends ago and returned on the following Monday.  It was Easter weekend so missed out on the celebrations with the family, but I've made it up to them by doing an Easter Egg Hunt last weekend with a wonderful roast beef dinner.  We're also having the whole family over on the Coronation weekend when we'll be having the roast turkey we've frozen since Christmas (we buy two for that very reason!)

This post is sponsored, but all the content is my own honest comments.

Styling my Izabel Animal Print Tiered Dress.

Hi there.

How you all doing?

Back to normal after my wonderful little weekend away, but I seem to come back with the holiday blues more than ever now-a-days!  Is that normal as we get older?  I have to give myself a good talking to and say I've been lucky enough to get away and enjoy the memories.  I've also been a bit lack lustre with the Instagram side of Mummabstylish.  Sometimes it just makes me so miserable.  It's such hard work keeping up with posting, liking and commenting and I really don't feel I'm getting anywhere!  The algorithm seems to be all over the place and I don't know what's best to post, when to post and how the hell do I get more followers?  I've had a good chat with my daughter, which always helps and I've resorted to moaning on here to you lot ... sorry about that! 

So moaning aside let's get the post under way.

Today I thought I’d tell you about my love for dresses and this sheer and delicate long dress I was recently gifted by Izabel Clothing*.  I've got several of their dresses and have worn them for weddings and special occasions over the past year, you can view this striking pink and white pleated version here, wearing my long blue maxi & here a black and cream shirt dress with heels.

Items marked with * have been gifted to me, however these are 100% my own honest comments.

Watercolour Shirt and Faux Leather Skirt - #Chicandstylish #LINKUP

Hello it's so lovely to have you here.

Have you had a great week?

I'm back down to earth and really starting to feel like wanting Spring to arrive.

I've just got back from my little weekend skiing (post to follow) and have had the best time with David.

The builders are also back, so the new build is steaming ahead again.  We're starting to think about roof joists (do I sound like I know what I'm talking about) so the shell is nearly up!

I have to apologise for the lateness of this posts, you see when I opened up my computer last night, it decided not to work.  I left it alone as it was late, and opened it up again this morning - alas it's still not working and I feel like my hands have been cut off!  David has very kindly let me use his, so all being well this will be my saviour until mine is fixed!

So let's talk about today's outfit.  I've long been a fan of Salamander Shirts and quite often feature one on the blog, you can see this pretty floral with dark jeans here, my pretty pale blue pinstripe here and this leopard print classic here to name but a few.  I've also shared a stunning peacock one as well! 

Items marked with * have been gifted to me however, these are 100% my own honest comments.

Regatta Waterproof Jacket and Graphic T - Shirt.

Hi there.

All okay with you?

If things have gone to plan, this post will publish and I'll be travelling home from my long weekend in The Alps.

David and I managed to squeeze a weekend away skiing using up an old Eurotunnel ticket that was to be used before lock-down.  Does anyone else wonder just how we managed to lock ourselves away from our family and friends for so long!  Horrible wasn't it and one I don't ever want to do again.

So back to the matter in hand.  As I said I've planned this post in advance and have resorted to taking photos in my dressing room again as the weather has either been wet or windy, or both.  We've had the odd day of sun albeit very chilly but I neglected to take advantage of it and when I did it was mid sun and not very flattering.

The week before I left for my little holiday I spent a fun afternoon taking some photos.  To be fair this outfit could have been shot outside as the Blakesleigh jacket* I'm sharing is waterproof, so perfect for wet and windy weather that we often encounter! 

Items marked with * have been gifted to me, however these are 100% my own honest comments.

Reviewing 3 Dresses from Matalan - #Chicandstylish #LINKUP

Hi there.

How's it going?

I'm a tad excited as tomorrow I'm off the the French Alps for a weekend skiing.  I'm only going to be actually skiing on Saturday and Sunday and the other two days I'll be travelling.  It does seem a long way to go for only two days but if you know how much I LOVE to ski you'll know it'll be 100% worth it.

So with that being said, it's a short and sweet post today, I'm going to show you a trio of sweet dresses.  All from Matalan, and all suitable for special occasions you may have coming up.  I'm still on the hunt for a dress for the wedding I'm going to in June after sharing the two last week one being a non-starter and the other a possibility. These three are all fabulous, but not quite what I'm after for wedding guest!

March Review.

Morning everyone.

How are you?

April already, and I hope the old saying "April Showers" doesn't ring true, we've had so much rain already I want the sun now!  I've got some new skirts that I want to start wearing and I want to get out of my boots and into shoes too.

This week I've got to pack for my long weekend to Valmoral.  I know exactly what I'm taking so it won't be too much fuss - I just need to get into the loft to retrieve the ski gear I put away after the last trip, I didn't anticipate getting away again, so it's been a nice surprise. 

 

David and I like to take a packed lunch picnic with us for the drive down, so I'll be making rolls the night before and packing a few treats to enjoy on the drive.  I'm also going to take a flask of coffee to have on the Eurotunnel crossing, save getting something on the train, although we'll have rest stops as we go so will get fresh drinks and any snacks there.

It's the beginning of the month, so time to share my looks from last month with you.

Welcome to my March Review.

Talking of coffee, at the start of March I shared a new gilet with you and wore a latte inspired outfit to run some chores.  Do pop back for a quick read about my look - it's one I feel at home in and wear quite often.