The Cambridge Satchel: a British classic in PINK

When I think of classic British brands and heritage, folk like Clarks Originals, Dr Martens, Burberry etc spring to mind. Another name I'd definitely pop in there is the Cambridge Satchel Company: purveyors of gorgeous quality leather satchels. I've always kept an eye out for a classic satchel but, being a bit cheap (me), I'd never properly checked out Cambridge, assuming they'd be beyond my budget and that, for the cost of the bag, I probably could have bought a cheaper bag PLUS a pair of shoes. And we all know how I feel about shoes. Plus, I'm just not a bag girl. I appreciate a beautiful leather bag and the classicism and timelessness of, say, a Mulberry Alexa or a Chanel 2.55 but, if it ever came down to it, I know shoes and clothes would win over a bag almost every time. However, today I was in Urban Outfitters and look what I found:

A bright pink Cambridge Satchel! Yes, I'm one of those fools who prefers something erring on the side of ridiculous - that likely goes with not much - to a classic tan or black that will last forever and go with everything. So, this little piece of eye popping neon-ness grabbed my attention right away! Attention grabbed, I set about checking out the bright pink bag that stole my attention from everything around it (including the knitted tiger print skirt), discovered it was a Cambridge then found it was just £40! For being as awesome as it is (I mean this leather is thicker than the entire cast of TOWIE and pinker than all their blusher combined), that is a BARGAIN. Seriously, I expect to have this bag forever and to, eventually, pass it to a deserving  niece or something when I die. To quantify the bargainicity, I would like to share the following info: the bag was £105 full price AND I went into Harvey Nics later on (to perv on designer shoes) and they had a smaller version of it for £115! Shame on you and your overly moneyed customers Harvey Nics. Anyway, in case you're more of a bag than a shoe perv, here are some more pics for you to get your jollies to. Night!

The bargain boots come out to play!

The bargain boots of a coupla posts ago (£20 down from £215 in Urban Outfitters - I never get fed up saying it), came out with me to see Harry Potter last week. They were very excited. Especially as I had a coupon thing for the posh seats at an Edinburgh cinema and you get a big squishy leather couch and foot stools! Amazing! So comfy, I actually took the boots off for the film.

Shirt and dress: H&M, boots: Urban Outfitters, Hairband: San Francisco (yup, I bought it from the WHOLE city), necklace: Lady Luck Rules OK.

In spite of how it appears, I'm not actually asleep. Although it was a late one the night before after hours of sunshine drinking so I was very sleepy. However, I stayed awake all the way through Haz-Po (as I see Heat Magazine are calling Harry Potter. Don't judge me - sometimes I treat myself to Heat when I'm travelling.) and I enjoyed it very much, though it was less emotionally wrenching than the previous film. It was also better than Bridesmaids which I saw last week too - has anyone else seen it and can't figure out what the fuss is about? They drop the 'c' bomb and some chick shits in the road so all of a sudden it isn't a cliched chick flick? At this point I'd like to say that I usually LOVE a cliched chick flick but this just didn't do it for me.

 

Back to the boots, pair number 65 in the shoe wearing challenge, which have since been to work with me too so they're down to a tenner a wear so far. Not too shabby. Sometimes cost per wear really does make sense. For example, I have a Warehouse leopard cardi that cost about £45 - waaaay more than I'd normally pay for a cardigan but I loved it so much I treated myself and it's now so worn it's getting tatty and has holey armpits but, lordy, have I had good cost per wear usage so far! Anyway, I feel these boots are definitely going to work out to be a winner in the fash maths stakes!

That's all for this evening folks!

Bargain booty!

This weekend, some good stuff happened. It was my lovely pal Ali's birthday party. That was good. The next day, I got my arse out of bed and went out on my bike and surprised myself mightily by cycling about 23 miles to North Berwick! I'm doing a 52ish mile sponsored ride in September so I need to get my training on. Here are my handle bars arriving there. It was such a gorgeous day for being out and about!

The next good thing that happened was that I got an IMMENSE bargain. Major. These boots from Urban Outfitters:

S'cuse the fuzzy iPhone photos. As it's been a wee while since I posted I was keen to get these babies up pronto! Observe le £215 price tag:

I picked them up, tried them (teeny bit big but, being boots, they stay on anyway and I can bulk 'em out with socks) and figured 40 quid down from £215 wasn't bad. Especially given that they are the softest, loveliest leather, leather lined and leather soled - pure posh, ken? But, I got to the cash desk and...

...they were only 20 quid! Down from £215. That's nearly 91% off! I walked out of the shop stunned (after buying them obvs). And I know you might not believe it given the size of my shoe wardrobe but I don't actually have a pair of black leather boots! Talk about a gap in the market! Or my shoe wardrobe - whatever.

Lovely leather soles

And, as black boots go, they're pretty frickin' perfect. They're high enough to be awesome but with a thick enough platform to be comfy. They have definite fierce 80s style connotations - have you clocked that massive sturdy elasticated gusset (ps - if you aren't tittering at 'gusset' just now, we can't be friends. Sorry.)? - and will be awesome with big jumper dresses and tights/leggings when it's cold but not icy. They have a chunk-a-mondo heel and the toe is a pointy-but-not-too-pointy almond shape. I loves them.

They're by a brand called either d.co or dico Copenhagen (depending what bit of their website you believe.). Ker-ching!

Perpetual Mullet.

Yes, I have decided (for now) to grow out my hair and, at the moment, am in a state of perpetual mullet. What's a girl to do? I'm no good with hair anyway - I never know what to do with it, what products to use or anything.  Literally, these days I am shampoo only and, if I go for a particularly high quiff, a squirt of hairspray. My hair's so short it doesn't even need conditioner. That'll be back in the regime as soon as I have a bit more length though. So, at the moment, the 'do' is in a not-properly-short-but-not-yet-bob-length-either state and the bit that seems to grow fastest is ALWAYS the back of it. I bring this topic up purely because you can see the mullet flicks in the picture below:

Shoes: Schuh, Dress: Urban Outfitter, Shirt and Belt: H&M

I was interviewing at work today so thought I best keep to a slightly neater version of me. Don't worry - there's still ALWAYS a way to work leopard print into any look. Phew! And some accessory awesomeness! The little owl ring is new (duty free when I was at an airport waaaaaaaaaay early. Duty Free is lethal when there's lots of time to kill) and I L-O-V-E him. He's so cute! I feel I will be wearing him a lot. I think we've met the other jewels before.

And so to the shoes. Everyone knows that, if you're going to work 'smart', you need a nice pair of shoes. And I happen to think mine are particularly nice! I've wanted to get a pair of brogues for ages but wasn't sure my legs could, er, work them. Last winter I got my brogue boots which are currently awaiting re-heeling because they were worn so much (off topic, but does anyone have any vague interest whatsoever in shoe repairing? I have about 10 pairs to have mended and can't decide if shoe resurrection equals a remotely worthwhile blog post!). So, I decided that I didn't much care if people liked how they looked on me and went for it anyway.

Pair #62 in the shoe wearing challenge! Look. Aren't I gentlemanly? In a girlie pink sorta way. The brogues are from Schuh and are a gorgeous soft leather and they feel just lovely on. Plus, they smell proper leathery too - I love that. In fact I was chatting to someone today (hello!) who says she regularly offers people a sniff of her Mulberry bag. I totally get that. I'll be honest, I kind of wanted to smell it too! And, on that note, I bid you all a good evening.

Toe so pretty! (See what I did there?)

Fuck yeah, sunshine!

Firstly, apologies to those of a sensitive nature and the easily offended. I just REALLY felt like dropping a big fat swear word in there. So I did it. Uh-huh. Look, I don't smoke, so swearing is my big, cool and clever thing to do. Plus, did you also note that I dropped the 's' bomb (sunshine people - keep up). I live in Scotland. Ordinarily, it is chilly, sometimes wet, often grey and nondescript. So, when the sun shines and it's actually warm, I drop the 'f' bomb, neds and chavs lose their tops and blind the innocent with their pasty spotty torsos and skanky chicks of all ages whip out their corn beef thighs and saggy babs and erode the innocence of the pure. (Don't get me wrong, I'm all for 'if you've got it flaunt it' and a good dose of body confidence but, if you're rough as sin, cover it up a wee bit). Evidence presented m'lud, I think you'll find my offence by far the last, well, offensive of all. Hear, hear!

So, it is the age old dilemma - what should one wear when the sun shines? A girl on the radio this morning summed it up nicely: "when the sun shines, I get out my summer wardrobe. I wear a t-shirt with my jeans instead of a jumper". Good lass. But, seriously, as one with 'big legs' and a tendency to break sweat in the heat, (you so want to meet me in real life right now, dontcha?) I find summer dressing really quite tricky and it does often consist of swapping boots and closed shoes for sandals and flip flops and losing a layer somewhere. So gawd bless the maxi dress...

Dress: H&M, Belt: Primark, Sunnies: Urban Outfitter

Here's one I picked up last year in H&M. I frigging love it. Leopard print? Yes please. Plus there's millions of fabric in it so you're afforded the ability to waft around like a veritable safari goddess. However, I didn't realise during my coveting of it that it was intended as beach wear and is completely and totally see through. A wee slip dress underneath has seen to that problem though. Because the dress isn't leopardy enough on its own, I wore leopard print sunglasses with it.

And a leopard print belt. Bite me.

No need for a necklace with bejazzling detail like this on the neck line.

And the shoes? Number 57 in the shoe wearing challenge. What could be better on a sunny day, with a cool maxi dress, than a lovely gold pair of Havaianas? I managed to curb my rabid Havaianas habit last year - I realised that people don't just say things like "there's only so many pairs of shoes you can wear" for shits and giggles. Nope, I did some Scottish weather maths, discounted the "only so many shoes you can wear" theory (you want a fight?) but realised that the sensible investment wasn't in millions of pairs of flip flops I can wear about 4 and a half days a year and I was far better investing in heels I can't walk in. Duh. Still, I am a sucker for a cute pair of Havaianas and these gold ones are as much of an every day staple in summer for me as leopard print is the year round. This is the closest you're getting to my feet right now. They don't smell (on the contrary, Lush's Vanilla Puff Power keeps them sweet enough to eat), they're just NOT summer ready yet. Look - there's another pair of Havis...

Flip flops - Havaianas @ Schuh

It was HOW big?!

You need never wonder again with these tremendous tape measure shoes. Actually, you'll be forever wondering because some foo' at Irregular Choice twisted up the tape measure to make a pretty rosette so you ain't goin' be measuring nuffink with it! Aw, but they're so pretty you won't care.

I love these shoes. And I thought it was time to get back to the shoes challenge. For those who don't know (HELLO new readers - man am I excited to see you all - I logged in to do this post and my numbers have gone triple. I'd write this if nobody read it but that fact that people do heartens me no end! THANK YOU!), I'm aiming to wear all of my hundred-ish pair of shoes over the course of a year. The year's up in August and this lil' Irregular Choice pair, from Schuh circa 2004-ish, are pair # 56. Observe the thoroughly munched heel that I've caught between numerous kerbs, paving stones and cobbles around Edinburgh. Damn the kerbs, paving stones and cobbles. DAMN ALL THE KERBS, PAVING STONES AND COBBLES who've ruined my shoes! Sorry - got a bit carried away there. And damn the stupid car park at work too which does wicked and evil work on the toes of shoes too. See left toe below.

I tell thee, it's tough keeping your shoes in decent condition when there are evil cobbles and car parks lurking, waiting to munch fook out of them.

Anyhoo, the point is that, pavement munchery or no pavement munchery, I love these shoes. I have a general rule that heels are high or they're, er not, i.e. I don't do mid or kitten heels. I love a leg lengthening, giant, height giving heel and I appreciate the comfort of a flat once in a while but in-betweenies are just a no go. However, for these pretty little things, I made an exception. They have a delightful almond-esque toe, pretty red trim and the aforementioned rosette embellished with a teeny little red jewel. Adorable. What's not to love?

Now, before you hit the next picture I must issue a warning. It's a mad eye warning. Yup, yet again, the red eye remover thing's made me look well mental. Either that or the exorcism is beginning.

I decided to wear the shoes with something a wee bit girlie, a wee bit blokeish, hence the strapless dress with the lumberjack checked shirt. Oh and the big girlie ass belt. Please also excuse the crap hair. On account of now being a gym angel who goes to the gym ALL THE FREAKING TIME (I've just discovered body combat. I thought I knew what stupid looked like already. However, having now seen myself in the mirror flinging punches at an invisible adversary, I can confirm that I now know what stupid looks like.), I end up taking all my pictures post, post-gym shower when I have no make up on and my hair is crap. Bite me.

For those interested, the dress is Urban Outfitters, shirt Primarni and the belt is from Miss Selfridge. I love it because it's kitsch as a fuzzy rabbit snogging a Babycham fawn (OK, maybe not that kitsch), it makes my waist weeny and because it stops me reaching for a 3pm biscuit on account of its tightness. Winner! And, with that, I am off to bed! Night!

Going for the quadruple!

Do you ever have that thing where you buy a new pair of shoes and you wear them ALL the time? I pretty much don't - almost never. I'm such a shoe hoarder/aficionado that I'm always wearing different ones. Not in a 'ooh, look at all my shoes' kinda way, I just change my mind as to what I'm in the mood for day to day and it seems wasteful not to flex the collexion. Plus, if I'm gonna be on my feet a lot, I'll wear flats but if I have a desk bound day, I'll bung on some mental heels I can barely walk in. Don't get me wrong, I'm a bad shoe mother and I do have my favourites but on the whole, it's a pretty mixed bag for me.

However, last week I got the Bronx Herald Brogue boot from schuh. Shoes # 39. And, man, I can't take them off my feet! Four days in a row I've had them on now. It's partly because I've been driving this week, partly cos I've had a day out of the office (whee! Fun trips!) and partly because I love them! Here they are with some slightly jester-esque socks.

I know they don't necessarily look much but four days in and I haven't had a sore foot and there ain't been a blister in sight, even after nipping down to London and spending the whole day on foot, punctuated by trains (7 of them), planes (2) and automobiles (4). They come with a slightly battered 'faux vintage' look (and a wee disclaimer for the anal explaining that they are supposed to look battered), the leather is deliciously soft and the brogue detailing is classically gorgeous in a mannish way.

boots: Bronx @ schuh, socks: Urban Outfitter

Here's what I wore them with day 1:

coat: eBay, scarf: Accessorize, dress 'n' leggings: Uniqlo

Evidently something on the ceiling's caught my eye.

Then here's me showing those beatches on Top Model how you do a jumping shot. Ahem. I looked so freakin' mental good, I was forced to chop the top half of my head out of the picture so as not to alarm evoke jealously in people. Look at the movement in the cardi though. Lovely!

shirt: H&M, cardi: Topshop

Seriously, my face is so scrunched up you couldn't see my eyes in this pic even if I hadn't chopped my head off. Anyway, what you can't see in the pictures is the very cute necklace I'm wearing that I got for my birthday from my kind friend Lynsey. It's a piece of NYC inspired kitchness from Accessorize. You can get it here, if you so wish.

Now I don't have shots of days 2 and 3 (day 3 I wore the boots with this dress, should you care to imagine the ensemble) but here's day 4 (today) of boot-wearing-gate.

dress: H&M, scarf: Primark

Can you tell I was still shattered from London (I was down there for a work meeting then the schuh press day for s/s '11. It looked fantastic and the girls did an amazing job! And that's not just me being biased on account of knowing them - they truly did a fantastic job) today and flung something on, scraping my hair back and foregoing make up? I promise to try harder tomorrow!

And in aid of looking fresher and more daisy like tomorrow, I'm off for a nice hot bath. Ahhhh...

Humpty Dumpty

Now I may not, a la Mr Dumpty, have sat on a wall on Friday night but my lord did I have a big fall. Yes I toppled in a not particularly Naomi Campbell-esque style from the top of shoes #35. Red or Dead ones from schuh. Another cheeky wee sale bargain too! Silver lining and all that...

Look how high they are! Yes it wasn't a small fall, it was spectacular...and their lining isn't silver, it's pink. Lookee!

 

 

So what was it that caused the aforementioned perilous fall? Well, the wine may not have helped. BUT I hadn't actually had that much so I'm dismissing it. No, to my mind it was the lethal combination of running for a bus in the dark, cobblestones and drizzle. And lo and behold and drizzle my nizzle, lethally combine they did, and I plunged elbow first (and have the bruises to show for it) into the gutter. The wet puddly gutter. (It could have been worse - I stood in poo the next day). Oh mortification. And as if to make it worse, the bus I was running for drove past me while I flew nimbly into the gutter, pulled in at the bus stop, even though no-one was getting off or on, waited until I got to the stop and then drove off while I was alongside it! What a bastard! Pardon my language. Seriously though, he was a bigger shit than the one I stood in.

Look at the scratches on my poor shoes. Thankfully they wiped down alright. I love these shoes. I imagine Abba might have worn them if they (Abba) were chicer. They're a kind of watered down gold metallic leather, with a nice solid platform and a sturdy heel (that I so shouldn't have been able to fall off! I'm usually alright on a heel!). Here's what I wore them with:

 

 

I'm hiding here because I'm still pissed off about the bus at this point.

 

Socks: Urban Outfitter £8

Belt: H&M

Dress (which I've fallen a bit in love with - who doesn't appreciate a matching collar and cuffs?): Urban Outfitter £22

 

And that's my tale of woe over ;-)

Dirty Old Boot

No, in spite of what you might have heard, I am not a dirty old boot. But my boots are dirty old boots. They're schuh ones that I got for about £13 in the sale last year. Bargain! They're really soft leather and they're leather lined so I was pleased to bag such a good deal. But, yes they're kind of on the battered side (and the lining's a little loose inside one foot which, at the most inopportune moments, emits a creaky farting noise)...

They look almost forlorn here! They got worn so much last winter due to my distinct lack of 'sensible' footwear and a trip to the local farmer's market was really their undoing. The snow was almost as deep as they are high (in the city centre!) and, on account of said snow, half the stall holders couldn't even get in to the darn market! So there I was trudging about in the slush in my barely suitable footwear and, so cold and rank was the weather, I had to nip into Poundstrecher for some replacement socks cos mine were soaked through. Anyway, the result was the salty tide marks you can see right around the upper and, try as I might, I can't get rid of them. And I'm something of a shoe expert. Well, I am!

So really the shoes are in need of some TLC before they're properly subjected to the weather again this year. They could do with re-heeling before the wooden heel unit goes all soft and soggy, and a bit of rebonding around the featherline (see - EXPERT!) and I'll probably give them a wee coat of dubbin or protector spray to be on the safe side. I know I won't get anything I like as much as cheap as I got these and it's good to take care of things, innit? They might not be the prettiest boots ever but they're comfy and I do love 'em.

Which is why I chose them to wear through to Glasgow yesterday. Mr Scribbler decided he fancied a day in the Weej so we set off for as cheap a day as possible (payday is next week!). Here's what else I wore ('scuse the bizarre look. I only had time to snap one pic before I went out so it's just going to have to make do!)

Dress: Trollied Dolly (worn lots - see here, here or here for the incriminating evidence!)

Denim shirt and jacket: H&M

What you can't tell is that my artfully arranged fringe is covering a spot big enough to have me paying fares for two on the bus. NO Kidding! Thankfully today it's beating a slow retreat back from whence it came. Dirty Bugger.

Anyway, the day of cheapness went very well. Remembering I still had various gift card/vouchers knocking about, I bagged a bag (fnar!) from Accessorize and a pair of socks and a dress from Urban Outfitters all without shelling out a penny. Yay! Ordinarily I'd never pay that much for socks and I think a lot of what Urban Outfitters sell is overpriced but it's not so bad when it's free! And the second dress was an exchange for one I hadn't been able to wear yet as it had a bust zip (thank you for your suggestions on fixing it - I tried lipbalm, a lead pencil and candlewax to no avail. It was just completely busted!) so that kinda felt free. Add to this our Tesco restaurant vouchers which got us a nearly free lunch at Pizza Express, it was an all round bargainous day!

Anyway, I'm off to stare at the rain outside.

tFi Friday!

It's Saturday now (weeekeeend!!) but it was Friday yesterday and that's when this outfit and shoes # 29 happened. Roll with it people.

I had free tickets to see a show called Blaze, a street dance affair featuring a couple of the dancers from last year's UK version of 'So You Think You Can Dance'. My friend Ian and I are forever talking about auditioning for these shows but my dance skills are, sadly, much like Colleen Rooney's husband choosing skills (girrrrrrrl you can do bettah!) and I don't want to offend anyone's eyes or accidentally whip them out with a badly timed kick. Mind you, fear of offending people's senses doesn't stop me wailing along to the radio or rocking out at karaoke. It also doesn't stop me wearing glittery peep toes with lurex socks. More to come on that...

 

 

Oop-there they are! So Blaze! It was pretty good - the dancers were brilliant and I never fail to be impressed by people who can break and street dance - I just can't imagine my body having that capability plus, if I try to dance anything remotely streety, I just look like an awkward arse. The music was a mixed bag from Michael Jackson to Ellie Goulding (I think, I think she's super cute - I'm yet to decide) via Missy Elliott and some old school funk and disco. Good times. I only got the tickets on Thursday so myself and my pal A decided to make a night of it and tank some wine too. Which we did at the Brass Monkey in Edinburgh, home to the world's surliest barman. Hey, I don't care too much if you're not up for banter but if we're polite and whatnot, hearing more than just "9 pounds" wouldn't go amiss. There's your tip back in my pocket PAL! Anyway, point is, I decided I should whap on some sparkle and lippie in honour of the weekend and the dance. If you were 'lucky' enough to be in Edinburgh last night, you may be aware that it monsooned it down and it was cold:

 

 

So I needed my big denim cosy parka: Topshop years ago - I got 10% off for a missing popper as I recall.

Leopard print bag: Accessorize a few years ago (another one of those things that was more than I'd usually spend but that I've used a million times and love!)

Glitter peep toe heels: Office Vintage collection, 99p on eBay! Bargain!

 

 

Dress: Urban Outfitter

Belt: Accessorize

Leopard scarf: Accessorize

Cardi: Topshop

Socks: Can't remember

My hair's a state by this point on account of running about in the pissing rain with the big hood up. Surprisingly my feet didn't get that wet. The shoes fairy must've been smiling on me. Thanks shoe fairies!

 

 

And finally, t shirt: Primark

Necklace: Accessorize. Oddly I really don't have much of their stuff (I love it but I'm too cheap/skint/spend all my money on shoes to buy loads of it) but I seem to have covered myself in it!

 

 

Too cute!

 

 

Sparkalicious!

 

 

And now back to the day job - the shoes. Firstly, wow, what a bargain these babies were! 99p and new! They're one of the things I love about eBay - there genuinely is the odd astounding bargain to be had in amongst all the shit that's on there now. I absolutely adore the fact that they're like old skool 'come dancing' shoes with their stumpy almost Cuban heel, little ankle strap and cute peep toe with pretty bow. I swoon for the fact that they're so sparkly (I woke up with some glitter in my ear this morning. No idea how that happened. I mean I'm pretty bendy for my size - I can get my big toe in my mouth and my little toe up my nose [don't ask] - but my shoes were nowhere near my ear. I think it just attests to the travelling and adhesive qualities of glitter). They're like foot mirror balls. And while I don't think I'd have thought to try it, I really like the silver and nude colour palette. I'm a big peep toe fan and the peep on these is as big as you can go before it's too big, in my humble opinion. Even if they do look a bit like giant fish mouths here:

 

 

I'm going to eat yooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooou!