So here we are with my final post of the year, wishing you a cosy Christmas. I don't know about you but we're limping towards it. We both came back from our week of work travel full of cold and I'm running on a single cylinder so I'm signing off earlier than planned. Before I go though, let's have one last catch-up. I confess photos haven't been on my mind so I've had to scrabble about to put this [...]
Well I said I'd do a catch-up today and it shows how focused on Christmas prep I've been when I have photos and moments going all the way back to the end of October. As you know, I like this blog to be a reflection of a real midlife and while I've been busy getting everything ready for what will hopefully be a fun-filled Christmas, everyday stuff has been going on - as it always does. November, in particular, was [...]
And just like that we're in December! I'm bringing you that last of my Christmas prepping posts today, after this we'll be back to chatting about real life until the end of the year and we have a lot to catch up on because November was a funny old month for us. However we'll talk about that soon, for now I have my final post with John Lewis & Partners for 2022 and it's all about last minute Christmas [...]
Hello and Happy Friday. I think for most of us this is the weekend when we try to complete our Christmas shopping so I won't talk for long. Instead I'm bringing you a compendium of the best Black Friday 2022 offers. I've been sent hundreds of them this week so I've sifted out the strongest discounts and I'll add to them if/when they change throughout the day. Let's get started with a Black Friday 2022 - best offers directory... [...]
This is the last of my Christmas gift posts for 2022. I don't think any of us are planning to go overboard on 'stuff' this year and it won't be a bad thing if Christmas is recalibrated back to being more about a meaningful time with people we love than the madness of obligation that it's become since we were children. So today I've pulled together some ideas for gifts for the hard to buy for. We all have people [...]
Hello, Happy Tuesday, I hope your week's going well so far. I'm finding the gift edits harder than ever to put together this year because we all want every pound we spend to count. However, I'm continuing with my 'everything must be either beautiful or useful' mantra and here are a few ideas for thoughtful Christmas gifts for men that go beyond the usual socks and dad joke related stuff. And as I go along, you'll probably be able to [...]
As we're getting into the swing of Christmas now, for my last Boden edit of the year it made sense to look at what we might wear when we're in the mood to look festive. Every year, at the end of November ( for me anyway) there comes a morning where I suddenly want to move away from my autumn clothes and add a little touch of something extra to my outfits. And that's what today's post is going [...]
I thought I'd start this year's gift posts with ideas for us - let's put ourselves first for once. Actually I think midlife women are the hardest to buy for so this has been one of my most difficult posts to research. We're at the stage in life where we know what we like and substitutes won't do, plus we tend to already have most things we want so unless it's a great new discovery, we're not really bothered [...]
It's always a bit of a shock isn't it? Over the last few years life has started to tip straight from Autumn and Halloween into Christmas. This year it's worth being organised though because we're all watching our budgets and nothing makes you overspend as much as a bout of unplanned, late and therefore frenzy driven shopping. So today I'm going to break you gently into a little bit of early Christmas prep with John Lewis and Partners by [...]
I have a really lovely little find to share with you today. I haven't added to my Great British Boltholes series of good places to escape to since before lockdown but now I want to tell you about a bijou hotel in North Yorkshire. It's the one we stayed in last weekend and when I say bijou, I mean it's small and personal and family run. So, I'm going to talk a little bit about it and its surroundings [...]
It's the last of my AW22 everyday edits today and I'm as pleased as ever to be working with one of my all time favourite brands, Boden. As always with them there are lots of tempting statement outfits but I'm sticking to my pledge to focus on long-lasting wardrobe workhorses this season as I suspect most of us are squeezing our budgets hard. It really has been a case of sitting on my hands, especially when I saw pieces [...]
The weeks seem to be flying past at the moment so I thought it was time to take a mid-season pause and have a catch up with an autumn midlife lately. I've found random photos of various moments on our camera rolls so here's what's been going on in the background while I've been talking about travel and new season clothes. Autumn midlife lately - empty nesting Towards the end of September it was finally time for the youngest [...]
Today we're continuing with AW22 and I'm bringing you more ideas for making your wardrobe work hard. I think for all of us it's a season for being realistic; very few people are going to be buying into the 'everything new' mentality - instead it's a time to be savvy. So when it comes to new season, it doesn't feel right for me to just bring you a whole load of 'what's new' posts. Rather [...]
And so I can't hold it off any longer, Autumn is most definitely here and I can't believe how suddenly it's arrived this year. September is often the warmest month of the season for us up here and yet I've already found myself digging out gloves for my walks with Ted. So today you find me edging into A/W22 with White Stuff . I'm bringing you my personal edit from their new collection and to go with it, you'll see [...]
And so I'm back from the unexpected gift that rounded off what has been a fabulous summer - a trip to St Lucia with the team from Sandals Resorts. When I left you at the end of my last post I was feeling both nervous and excited. I was delighted to have been invited but a bit surprised too because I've always seen Sandals Resorts as a honeymoon destination - so let me tell you how we found it. I [...]
Pre-script Since I wrote this we've travelled to St Lucia and on the flight over we heard the sad news that the Queen had died. It felt right not to publish this the following day but a few people have been in touch saying that they'd be grateful for a break in the sad news that surrounds them. So I hope I won't upset any of you by sending this live now. It's difficult being away and not feeling part [...]
Well how lovely it is to be chatting to you again. It's odd but life feels as though it slips through my fingers when I'm not blogging; time's tendrils gather round me and without being logged, the memories evanesce. So my next two posts will be an indulgence for me - I need to squirrel away our happy Kalkan times because the boys' lives are really moving on and I can't see us the five of us having the opportunity [...]
We're in August already - the only problem with planning a summer to remember is that time goes really fast! I feel as if I'm on a bit of a one-legged hobble now, finally on the run-up to our holiday so it's a quick Midlife Lately today. I'm whizzing through my camera roll and not exactly jetsetting but last week I had city trips to London and Glasgow and now I'm in Newcastle but I'll save that for next week's [...]
This week and next for me are all about tinsel and baubles. It's officially my 30th year in retail and 'Christmas in July'... I've been doing this for a long time! Going in and out of Christmas events on hot London days does leave you somewhat confused - it's like the feeling you get when you wake up in a hotel somewhere exotic knowing that you'll end the day back in your own bed. However, as the boys would say, [...]
It's a bit of a different post today. Since the Telegraph article I've had quite a few women get in touch to ask me how I manage to feel confident at this age when it's so easy to feel that everything's in decline. As regular readers know, back in 2014 I'd lost all of my confidence and so I deliberately decided to work on it. At the time I called it 'getting my groove back' and although that sounds cheesy, [...]
Well hello and a huge thank you for all of your comments last week - I think it's a record. Just as I was beginning to wonder if you'd stopped reading you astounded me. I usually reply to everybody individually but I have a lengthy corporate identity document to complete so instead I'm going to spend any spare blog time I have collating each comment into a report. I'll add 'noted' under each one so you know that your feedback [...]
I'm popping up on strange days again - I'm early this week because we have a family wedding tomorrow which is exciting and I think it might be slightly haphazard all summer but I'll get back into a regular routine when autumn comes. As you know, retail is in full sale so rather than a focused post, it's a summer cornucopia with outfits, travel & The Telegraph. So let's get going. Welcome to new readers I'm starting with something quite [...]
A big summer sale started last night at John Lewis & Partners with some really good clearance offers so I'm getting this week's post out to you early. I can see things are disappearing fast and so I'll pick out my highlights and then leave you to look through the rest in your own time. There are particularly good offers on some of our favourite brands including Boden where you can find items that have actually been sold out for [...]
My goodness these weeks roll around quickly when the sun's out don't they? We have a lot going on on the domestic front at the moment and I'll tell you more about that at the end so it's a catch-up post today. I'm going to start with a run through of what I've been doing and wearing, move on to clothing to combat hot weather (I think you need it more desperately in the South than we do up here) [...]
Well the weather might not quite agree but as far as retail's concerned we're in full summer now. There are only a few new drops left to land and the sales will be starting soon so I'm going to be chatting about things other than clothes for a while. Throughout the year I build a list of the topics that you request most often and right at the top is how to look your best in holiday photos. I regularly [...]
And so we have a big weekend ahead in the UK with a languorous four day break for the Queen's 70th Jubilee - whether you're a royalist or not it's hard not to admire her as a woman who's shown lifelong strength and dedication. Today's post isn't about the red, white and blue though, it's the last of my summer posts with John Lewis & Partners which always makes me feel a bit sad because next time I get together [...]
As promised it's a catch up today with a bit of an outfit round-up. I know you've seen snippets of our short break in Lanzarote but I'll tell you a little more about that and then talk about what we did for my surprise birthday weekend. So without coming over all Foreign Office, today's post is all about what I'm wearing at home and abroad. There are a lot of pictures and I've tried to keep the writing as short [...]
Well hello, I hope you're enjoying this week's wonderful sunshine - dare I say that spring has sprung at last? It nearly always shines on my birthday week... as long as I haven't planned some kind of outdoor party that is and then it rains! Today I'm going back to basics and bringing you an update on some of the new arrivals from John Lewis & Partners' ANYDAY range as it heads into its first summer season. I think we're [...]
We're back from our week in the sunshine and I'm so glad that we took the time while we could because we're heading into another busy few months of work. It continues to be an interesting time in retail as everyone tries to second guess the zeitgeist for AW22 - it's looking as though it's going to be a bumpy ride so I don't know about you but I'm determined to make the most of every moment as spring and [...]
I wonder if you can tell that I was in holiday mode when I put this post together. Our decision to head to the sunshine after the last few full-on months prompted a bit of a panic in terms of finding time to pack. And, as our departure date grew closer the weather forecast wasn't looking as good as I hoped - it was more akin to a British summer than one a four and a half hour flight away. [...]
I've had more questions about special occasion dressing than ever before this year. I suspect it's because we're all so glad that we can celebrate again and when it comes to weddings, some are so long awaited that they really do deserve an extra special effort. It's great to have an excuse to dress up again too isn't it? But can we remember how to do it? And with the growing creep of casualisation has occasion dressing changed? These are [...]
Well hello and Happy Easter! Isn't it great to have a long weekend ahead? I haven't actually been looking forward to it because we had meetings booked in (retailers have no sympathy with Bank Holidays) but happily they've now been moved to next week so we have an unexpected break and an almost empty diary so we're just going to enjoy the last weekend of the boys being home. It's a bit of a mishmash today, I have some try-ons [...]
It's a bit of a different post today, it includes clothes (of course) but it's also about growing older contentedly. When I was down in London a couple of weeks ago I met up with Nayna McIntosh from Hope and after we'd looked through the glorious new season pieces that I'll show you in a few minutes, we got chatting about things like the true markers of success as we approach the end of this phase we call midlife. You [...]
And here we are on 1st April which means we're a quarter of the way through the year already. I'm not bringing you the post about getting older that I was hoping to because I just haven't had time to do it properly. Instead, when I was looking back at my camera roll trying to make sense of the fact that the year's going so quickly I realised that there were lots of photos on there that I haven't even [...]
It's been a while since we've talked beauty and today I'm looking at the industry's ultimate grande dame, Estée Lauder. They came up in conversation with our friends John Lewis & Partners just after Christmas and I had to admit that while I haven't really used their products, I was enjoying a large sample of their new Advanced Night Repair formula that I'd discovered in my JL&P advent calendar. So, they suggested that I trial a few more of their [...]
I've been dipping in and out of new season but I think it's time to declare that Spring's arrived. There are hosts of golden daffodils in the Lake District and over in Newcastle this week we've been watching the kittiwakes returning to nest at The Baltic. After two muted summers living under the shadow of Covid I'm looking forward to updating the outfits that I have in my wardrobe and being out and about again. So I thought now would [...]
It's time for a catch-up and to log how much the world has changed (yet again) in such a short space of time. So before I move on to talking about a very special family weekend away, I want to acknowledge it. As you know, I write this blog as a form of diary so for the sake of record it's now two weeks since Russia invaded Ukraine sending Europe and the rest of the world into a state of [...]
I have to say I was getting worried - my favourite Uniqlo collab usually comes out at the end of January and this year there was no sign of it but of course everything in retail has been upended and at last here it is - Inès de La Fressange at Uniqlo SS22. This year's inspiration comes from Marrakech and we see the introduction of a red rose print along with cotton pieces with easy box pleats, designed to feel [...]
Today I'm focusing on a brand I haven't covered before with a White Stuff review. I've had to think hard about why I've so rarely included their clothes on here and I think it's because for a very long time I haven't felt as if I'm their customer. However, a little while ago I was contacted by the new team there which I was thrilled to see now includes some great people I know who've moved over from other brands [...]
Well as you may have guessed from the picture above, I have something a little different for you today - Mr MC is making his modelling debut on Midlifechic... for one post only. When John Lewis & Partners wondered out loud if we might do a his and hers jeans try-on I wasn't sure how he'd react but he was thrilled by the thought of being at the other side of the lens for a change. His only stipulation was [...]
Thank you for all of your lovely blog birthday wishes last week. I'm writing this in a bit of a time-warp on Tuesday night because we've decided to act on our empty-nesters' ability to be spontaneous and head off for a few days to celebrate our wedding anniversary. We're not going very far at all, certainly not to the exotic climes that we should have been enjoying right now but we've realised that with a new project looming this might [...]
I'm going to talk about how to make winter outfits look pulled together today but first I just want to say how nice it is when a post falls on Midlifechic's actual birthday - my blog is 8 years old today. This is post number 655 and what a journey it's been. As always I've been flicking through my early pictures and my first thought is how tired I look but then I think about how busy life was with [...]
And it's a back to normal post today with 'How to pack the right clothes for a weekend break'. But first I just want to thank everyone who commented on last week's post about spiking. I've read every one but I haven't replied because keeping on going over it isn't doing me any good. However I have a call scheduled with the Inquiry Manager for the Home Affairs Committee on Monday so I'm hoping to fight back and do what [...]
This is not a post that I ever imagined I'd be writing but if you follow my Instagram account you'll know that something pretty unpleasant happened to me last weekend - my drink was spiked. Since I talked about it on there I've been flooded with stories from people who've had similar experiences so even though it's something I really just want to forget, I'm going to write about it in more detail so that you can see just how [...]
So that was Christmas! Hello 2022 - I'm wishing a rather belated Happy New Year to you. As you'll have gathered if you follow my Instagram account, our Christmas was lovely but not quite the one we expected because along with so many others, I went down with Covid. It meant that I took last week off to recoup some of my lost time with the boys before they went back - and to recover a bit. So there aren't [...]
