Frump to Fab 2018 - Fabulous Dahhhhlings

pollypenny

silvasava wrote: »

Mea Culpa - my sitting room has beige carpet and suite ........but beige and charcoal grey striped curtains and red cushions and middle eastern throws with a large charcoal vase with huge red sunflower type flowers and a red cast teapot on the hearth of the woodburner! In the summer I change the accessories to blue
I cant stand beige as a clothing colour though but it doesnt suit me anyway lol

Sounds as if you have lots of colour. Pops of colour as the Property Brothers say!

savingfortomorrow

My decor skills are limited as I have poor ability to visualize the whole concept. Everywhere has the same bucket of white paint. My go to colours are white, cream and gold accents. I have painted as much white as possible and I have a few accent pieces in turquoise and green. However, everything is calm and bright. My wardrobe is a complete contrast of sombre navy and black with loads of bright prints and jewel colours.
My decor choices are influenced by a western facing room that needs more brightness.

sugarbaby125

Hello Ladies,

I returned from a lovely 8 day break from my sister H's home after a relaxing, chilled out visit with her. She cooked me some delicious tasting meals and after 5 days of iron willed abstinence in the face of lots of Green & Blacks and Hotel Chocolat chocolate in her home, this chocoholic succumbed and seriously enjoyed the taste of some high quality chocolate. :T I came home 3lbs lighter than I had arrived at my sister's home, as overall I had stuck to healthy eating. I read a couple of books at my sister's and watched lots of television programmes.

We went to see the films Fantastic Beasts the Crimes of the Grindlewald and the latest Robin Hood film. Both of these films would not have been my 1st choice, but I loved both of them. I would give both films 9/10 as the action was non stop and kept me awake and alert. Robin Hood is as far from being historically accurate as it could possibly be, but is great fun. We went for lunch in Nando's between the 2 films as it was next door to the cinema.

I had Christmas presents from 3 of my sisters and I struggled with them on my way home in strong carrier bags because I wanted to be able to open them on Christmas day in the comfort of my own home. I had posted all of my 4 sisters, my brother L and his wife P's Christmas presents to them before my visit to my sister H's home.

On Saturday the 6 of us went to a dinner dance. We all danced the night away after a good 3 course Christmas dinner. I pulled out all of the stops with a navy outfit and solid gold jewellery. I even went to the trouble of painting my fingernails with gold nail polish and I wore make up. By sheer coincidence 2 of my 3 sisters were also wearing glamorous navy outfits.

I am going to be very busy getting my home ready for Christmas and getting all of the dirty laundry I came home to washed and dried.

I am going to Karaoke this evening which I am looking forward to.

humptydumptybits

sugarbaby that sounds like a perfect break, unfortunately it always ends with the laundry but well worth it.

maman

:wave: good to see you back sugarbaby. I didn't realise you were going to stay away at your sisters for so long. It sounds like you had a brilliant time. How strange that 3 of you chose navy as I don't think it's an easy colour to come by.

Wednesday2000 wrote: »

Yeah, I do usually slag off men a lot more.:D I've always known a lot more men than women, apart from at school. I went to a convent school, lol.

I went to an all girls school too although not a convent. It didn't seem to make any difference to my attitude to men though. I've always got on really well with them and have many platonic male friends as well as relationships before DH. I think it's my psyche. I've never been very maternal, but very independent and career driven. That doesn't mean I don't care about my appearance or that I want to be in the pub ordering rounds of beer but I do expect to be treated as an equal. Almost all my women friends are of the same mind too.


As for slagging off, I think I'm probably more critical of women than men and not just on the superficial people watching level. I try to tell myself that everyone's different but I do find it hard to empathise with women who are satisfied with a life of domesticity and work for a bit of 'pin money' if at all.


I've enjoyed reading about the decorative styles and colour schemes. Mine is definitely rather traditional. It's sort of 1940s meets country house. So cream sofas, squashy cushions, patterned curtains (browns and rusts), many table lamps and loads of pictures everywhere (mostly antique maps and prints). We still have picture rails on our walls so it's easy to hang things. I've minimalised a bit by having plain (fawn) carpet and plain (off white) walls. The dining room is more art deco but still very traditional.


I had my podiatry appointment yesterday. My feet are definitely in better condition since I've been creaming them regularly. I'm gradually ticking off things that need to be done before Christmas. I need to pop out later but only to the local shops so that won't take long.


Interesting discussion on the radio today about retail. Apparently, even online outlets aren't doing as well as they'd hoped. In talking to members of the public it was obvious that people are buying more needs than wants and also fewer 'disposable' clothes. They need to read our thread, we could have told them that months ago!:D

humptydumptybits

I do think people are being a bit more careful about spending this year. I was in a big supermarket earlier and lots of stuff was going out of date, I spoke to a member of staff about several things that were days past their best before date. Not great if you buy and don't notice, as an example a big display of mince pies with half of them with a best before date after Christmas and the rest with a best before date of 16th December. I assume they haven't sold as much as they expected. Also great piles of Advent Calendars still at full price so not sure if they are going to shift them. Anyone for a special Christmas pork pie with cranberries, use by today and still full price, think it was £8.


I think they are making a mistake as I was leaving stuff I wanted rather than buy it with short use by dates and I bet they had stuff in a stock room that I would have bought and I assume other people would feel the same.

Wednesday2000

sugarbaby125 wrote: »

Hello Ladies,

I returned from a lovely 8 day break from my sister H's home after a relaxing, chilled out visit with her. She cooked me some delicious tasting meals and after 5 days of iron willed abstinence in the face of lots of Green & Blacks and Hotel Chocolat chocolate in her home, this chocoholic succumbed and seriously enjoyed the taste of some high quality chocolate. :T I came home 3lbs lighter than I had arrived at my sister's home, as overall I had stuck to healthy eating. I read a couple of books at my sister's and watched lots of television programmes.

Sounds ike fun. I was going to say when I read back over this thread that you are from South London. I grew up there, I haven't thought about The Ritzy in years.:p I used to live in Herne Hill, right next to Brockwell park.:D

savingfortomorrow

Some of the supermarkets are dire for checking out of dates, it is not a chain thing. Sometimes it can be really bad- like a month to ten days out of date with bread that had gone mouldy. I pointed it out and i might have been speaking greek. I just go to a different store and everything is perfect.

Currently there is too much indulgent food, biscuits, cakes, special brandy butter and all the extras cluttering the stores. It is excessive and annoying, all the basic items are condensed down to one facing and its frustrating. i went to buy three or four things last week and all the laundry and dish detergent was limited. I could not get something specific and had to go to another store. I was tripping over boxes of roses and crisps. It is like people loose all common sense and buy pure junk and then like clockwork the get fit gear comes out in January.

chanie

I am getting a bit bored with all the excessive consumerism, which would be shocking for anyone who knows me. I feel like Im getting to the point where I dont feel like I want or need anything. OH asked me for some stocking filler suggestions he could get me and I struggled to think.

I am also thinking more about the environment and feel guilty everytime I put something in the bin, knowing it will end up in landfil. I remember learning about the environment in primary school in the late 80s and its something that has always stayed with me. We do what we can at home, but I think we could and should do more.

Wednesday like sugar, I live in South London. In fact, I have a relative who lives near Brockwell PRk.

Sugar your family trip sounds full on fun.

I mentioned in another post that I was getting my eyelashes tinted and lifted (curled upwards). update; I am pleased with the results as it has really opened up my eyes. The results should last 2-3 months.

moneyistooshorttomention

savingfortomorrow wrote: »

Currently there is too much indulgent food, biscuits, cakes, special brandy butter and all the extras cluttering the stores. It is excessive and annoying, all the basic items are condensed down to one facing and its frustrating. i went to buy three or four things last week and all the laundry and dish detergent was limited. I could not get something specific and had to go to another store. I was tripping over boxes of roses and crisps. It is like people loose all common sense and buy pure junk and then like clockwork the get fit gear comes out in January.

Couldn't agree more.

My "special spending for Christmas" (apart from presents for a few "close" people and cards for everyone) boils down to "food goodies" to take to a regular social thing that is "going Christmas-y" tomorrow and I'll probably buy a bottle of decent wine (as a local friend has invited me to come round Christmas Day if I "want company"), so that I've got something to take with me.

That's it.

I don't do decorations at all any longer. I just don't see the point of "tinsel and tat" as I think of it.

Goodness knows - I can spend enough the rest of the year without doing specific "Christmas spending".

You don't want to know just how much I've recently spent/am planning on spending on clothes basically:eek:

Speaking of which - I gave in and have bought one of the parka style raincoats the vast majority of women in this area have - when I spotted one that looked suitable on Amazon. So that was £74 for that. It was a "Trespass" brand - which looked (on screen) as if it's a reasonable quality brand - does anyone know if it is?

I'm still studying trenchcoat style raincoats online and thinking "Now was that one I had years back Aquascutum (now costing about £750) or that other decent brand (now costing about £1,500:eek:)" and wondering which of those two brands it was, as I want an identical one again. I have a feeling it was the brand that now costs £1,500:eek::eek::(:(.

EDIT; Quick check and the brand I think it might have been was Burberry. The only thing is that the only outlets it seems to have in Britain are Birmingham, Edinburgh and London and I'm wondering whether my own city would have had an outlet for that brand "way back when" when I bought it or no and therefore it couldn't have been...that would have been the 1980s I think??