Frump to Fab - A Whole New World.

savingfortomorrow

littlegreenparrot- the outer jackets are lovely with joules. Its a brand that im not familar with and hopefully will be one to watch going forward. 

chanie- you are right is important to have some structure to avoid looking too casual. Some items look great in the shops and it can be all down to styling.  The jacket you recommended is awesome- it is edgy and really practical. The waxed jacket is really flexible for styling, thanks for the recommendation. 

Sugar- The snacks are good too as you need all the strenght after the covid. It can be hard to avoid all that tempt us.  I tend to eat massive portions of super healthy stuff mostly. I can't do portion control but try to keep it to mainly vegetables. Ive had to make a lot of changes after getting really sick  and sticking to allowed foods.I adore savoury stuff- gerkins, pickles and spicy food. I snack on roast chickpeas, so good.  Im really lucky that i can't bake as it has saved me from the baking everyone has been doing recently. 

I really made an effort with nice dress, spanx and shoes with heels today. Not that anyone saw it with layers of ppe over it but I felt better. Things are starting to improve lock down wise, more people are travelling and we have more freedom, a little bit now.

chanie

SFT  I have yet to find my perfect smart-casual jacket.  I actually quite like the one I linked for you.  I was eyeing up similar ones in Barbour a while a go but they weren't quite what I was looking for and I don't want to pay that much unless its perfect.  

My eyelash lift kit arrived yesterday and it was a bit of a disaster, because the eyelash glue that was supplied with the kit wasn't very good at holding my eyelashes in place and they kept on coming unstuck.  It did work slightly on one eye though, so the actual product works, its just really fiddly.  I'm going to buy some stronger eyelash glue and see if that works.  Otherwise, its not the end of the world, as the product itself cost under £10.

[Deleted User]

Well my alcohol level hasn't diminished at all! 🙈 I did pretty well at the beginning but I've been on leave for almost a week and was miserable for the first few days -I'd booked the time off to look after my grandbaby for the week and was obviously unable to do so which made me pretty down about the whole situation for a while! 😔 
However, I will reduce it again from tomorrow when I'm back at work and then cut it out on weekdays after the bank holiday weekend- we've decided on getting all of the external renovations done this year so I am using that as additional motivation to reduce my costs 😉 
As today is the last day of my holiday, I'm having a total 'me' day - I'm going to have a long hot shower, a defur  (eyebrows are so bad now I'm at the point of being a stand in for a wookie!!) and sorting some proper plans for getting myself sorted 😉 I'm going to really make an effort to get some excercise in - I find it boring if I'm honest so will start getting the wii out and do some stuff on that - it may not be massively effective but something will be better than nothing! 😁 
I'm inspired by you all - none of this comes naturally to me and I am struggling but reading your stories spurs me on to trying harder, so thank you!!! 😁

helensbiggestfan

Good morning lovely ladies. 

Well done Squirrel on getting back on track.  Don't torture yourself, most of us fall by the wayside occasionally.  It doesn't matter, what counts is that you pick yourself up and get back on it.  If you keep at it long enough sooner or later Fabbing becomes second nature and you just do things automatically. You get into your little routines and you do them without even thinking.  

Lovely weather again. Having a break from painting for a few days, it was upsetting my stomach as usual so the sun has come at a good point. I can combine gardening with soaking up all that lovely vitamin D.  

Watched some episodes of the Marie Kondo programmes last night (Netflix). I am super enthused now to do a major declutter.  Just waiting for the charity shops to reopen, then I will have a wardrobe, books and kitchen purge.  

The shed is already rammed with items ready to be disposed of.  I am thinking about having a new shed......the old one is a bit of an eyesore, is too close to the house and no longer really watertight so a nice new one resited in an unused shady corner would look so much better, open up the space and improve the view, so I think I'll wait to empty the shed till then and just hire skip. 

Watching MK made me realise that I could actually get rid of a lot more of my clothes.

 I am a devil for wearing the "OK" ones too much and not wearing my "best" ones.  By best ones I mean the ones that really do make me feel fabulous.  Isn't that silly.  Why do I insist on wearing clothes that only make me feel so so. I think it's because they are there and I would feel guilty if I didn't get the wear out of them.  Which is stupid. 

I think it's because of how I was brought up. When I was a girl you kept your best clothes for best because, relatively speaking, by comparison with today, clothes were far more expensive back then and we didn't have so many clothes so you had to really look after them. Old habits die hard I guess.  

Now I really do have far more clothes than I could possibly wear. I think it's time to set some of them free......I will definitely have a good old clear out. Having said that next winter I do need to invest in some nice "at home" lounging pieces. All my current at home stuff is looking rather scruffy now.  

Wednesday2000

I also can't wait to declutter again. My house and the contents are really annoying me being inside so much.

I did wake up quite motivated today. I ordered some new tea towels, hand towels and a new blanket and I washed them yesterday so I got the old towels out and replaced them with the new ones. I cut up the old towels to use to clean the floor etc... I rearranged my conditioners to make space for the blanket. I have too many hair products! I need to run them down. I also rearranged my kitchen cupboard and threw a few OOD things away.

I had a hot shower, did a hair treatment and got dressed. I'm about to go out for a walk, it feels very warm. I have been feeling quite sick on these antibiotics as they are quite strong. My sinuses still feel blocked though so I'm not sure if I need a double dose of them.

I'm about to hang up a load of laundry and then go out.

maman

I've got a very similar jacket to this one:

Mine's a Craghoppers one from TKMaxx so not too expensive and I've really worn it and worn it. It's got enough buckles and poppers to make it look biker style and it's well cut. It looks fine with jeans but it's OK with a skirt or dress too. What I don't have anymore is a casual spring jacket like a denim one or similar. I tend to wear little cardigans or I have a couple of smart hoodies/fleeces.

That's a good plan squirrel. I try to limit alcohol to weekends too. I'd slipped into Thursday drinking for a while and worked out that it was because I'd changed my shopping day to a Thursday (to try to minimise queuing) and so it felt like the end of the week when it wasn't! I went back to Friday last week and it helped a lot. I don't blame you having a drink when you were meant to be having time off work though. I think we have to try and stop every day just blending onto one. 

Sorry to hear that the eyebrow glue wasn't up to scratch chanie. Hopefully the new stuff will be more effective.  

I got rid of all my old towels when we had the bathroom refurbished Wednesday. The old ones are all in a bag waiting to go to a Dog rescue Centre near us. 

It's a glorious day here, 20 degrees and sunny. Today we walked a little bit more of the Itchen (6 000+ steps). It was so scenic and peaceful and everyone we passed was friendly and polite. I'm having a good day today whereas yesterday I felt stressed and fed up for the first time. Tomorrow's weather looks to be super too. I might even put a dress on!

Wednesday2000

Sounds like a lovely walk Maman.

Speaking of jackets, I only have a denim jacket, a denim shirt and a light navy cardigan to wear over my dresses/skirts in summer months. I can't wait for chazzers to open again. I will donate quite a few things that I have noticed I'm just not wearing.

When I was looking through my hair products today I was looking at my hair and wondering when hairdressers will be back to normal. I read it will be July 4th at the earliest. It will mean apart from my DIY chop that I did myself that I won't have had my hair cut in almost a year if that is the case!

I find it too hot to wear slippers in the house when it is warm so I took out a couple of pairs of wedge sandals and have cleaned them and left them outside to dry. Annoyingly, I noticed one pair had a split at the top so they were binned.

I am going to do an Aztec clay face pack tonight as the past two nights I have fallen asleep without taking my makeup off. Such a bad habit.

chanie

Wednesday I read a tip about taking your make up up when you get in from work, because you’ll be too tired later on.  Maybe you could build it into an earlier part of your evening

maman I like your craghoppers jacket, what a bargain find from TK Maxx.

i have just finished my eyelash lift.  I bought some eyelash glue today and it was so much easier with the new glue.  I’m pleased with results, even if I didn’t do a brilliant job.  Will definitely do it again.

Wednesday2000

chanie said:

Wednesday I read a tip about taking your make up up when you get in from work, because you’ll be too tired later on.  Maybe you could build it into an earlier part of your evening

I was going to mention that tip as I remembered it. I have to inject my dog with insulin at 6 each night so I will make sure I take my makeup off at that time.

maman

Glad you had more success with the eyelashes chanie. I'm sure you'll get better with practice.  

When I was working I used to take my make up off when I got in from work. It was my habit to get the dinner going and then take my work clothes off and go  for a shower/bath. I used a timer to make sure I got back to the kitchen on time.  

It's already hot here (21 degrees) so I've put on a short dress/tunic. It's a Jigsaw dress that I bought some years ago. It was expensive at the time (about £60) but cost per wear must be pennies. It's loose and striped with a capped sleeve and a cowl neckline. I generally only wear it abroad but it's fine around my home and garden. 

I don't think we'll go out walking, not just because of the temperature but because it'll bring out the crowds. If we do go out it'll be local rather than to a beauty spot. 

Lovely weather does help me cope with lockdown. Thank goodness it didn't start in February when we had endless rain. Take care all.