about your (outlet) shop: Let's Buy Shoes

Some of you may know that I have a penchant for pretty shoes. Yes, I know, what a stereotype. I've always been extra fond of Irregular Choice shoes. Some of their designs are a bit zany, it's true, but there are just too many styles that I love for the pennies in my bank account to be safe. I'm usually a bit too cheap to want to pay full price for Irregular Choice shoes, I'll admit. This is where their rather nifty outlet store Let's Buy Shoes comes in handy.

Being an outlet store, Let's Buy Shoes don't carry the same range of styles and sizes as the main Irregular Choice store. Their prices aren't exactly bargain basement, either, but they are very reasonable and there's still lots of choice. As well as Irregular Choice shoes, you'll find styles by their sister brand Poetic Licence here. Recently I've been the recipient of a few pairs of donated shoes, so I'm not meant to be shoe shopping at all but there's no harm in looking, is there? Here are a few things that have caught my beady eye...

These Poetic License sandals aren't my usual style but I am somehow drawn to their retro charms. I particularly like the big ol' flower on the toe. I know ankle straps can be a wee bit divisive but I like them, because they help me keep the shoes on my feet.

Raffia is everywhere on shoes right now, so these are even a little bit trendy. They're £39.50 and they're not available in my size. That's just as well really, because now I've decided that I love them and I have no will power whatsoever.

I've wanted these red floral Flick Flack shoes for ages, because the polka dots mean that they'll go with everything I own. I am a polka dot fiend. These shoes are so striking that people will stop you on the street to tell you how lovely they are.

These are also not available in my size, but they're £39.50 if you fancy them. These would make a great buy, you can turn the flap up to make them shoe boots and, have I mentioned the polka dots?! Trust me, my debit card is sighing in relief that these will not fit me.

These Irregular Choice Lady Bow shoes are actually available in my size. I like everything about them, especially the big square button on the the bow. If these are still there come payday, I might just treat myself because I am of the opinion that I cannot have too many pairs of red shoes.

These shoes are also £39.50 and as I'm already planning what I'm going to wear them with, I'm hoping that none of you are a UK4 and have £39.50 to spare.

As well as stocking lots of pretty shoes for the ladies, Let's Buy Shoes have a range of clothes and accessories and even shoes for the menfolk. It's well worth stopping by. Just leave the Lady Bow shoes alone, okay?

about your art: folklore prints from the Mary Evans Picture Library (and Amazon)

I have discovered a way to find awesome pictures: go to the Mary Evans Picture Library and search for 'Folklore'.  Here are some of the gems such an action comes up with:

Gryphon!

Sea Serpent!

Unicorn!

Wolf Man!

Yeti!

All of these are available to buy as prints from Amazon, which is where the links above will take you.  The prices vary depending on the size and format of the print, from £10 for a 10"x8" print to £110 for a 40" canvas.  Alternatively, you can contact the Mary Evans Picture Library directly by emailing pictures@maryevans.com or by ringing 0208 318 0034 - however, they only offer digital downloads so unless you have the daddy of all printers (or know someone who does), Amazon are probably the better option.  And they do mugs.

about your accessories: Polaroid sunglasses

Yep, you read that right: Polaroid make sunglasses.  I had no idea either.  I suppose they had to find something to do with themselves since no one seems to appreciate their marvellous instant camera technology anymore (except for iPhone users who have downloaded the Polaroid app) - I've used up all my film for my old-school Polaroid and find it near impossible to get more.  By the by, should you happen to have some spare or know where I could aquire some, please tell me.  As long as you've washed recently I'll reward you with a big old hug.

Anyway, Polaroid DO make sunglasses, and they're very nice.  They're also very scientific, which makes them doubly awesome in my book (science is fun, kids) - as well as being a brand name, Polaroid is also the trademark name for a sheet of plastic used to polarise light, which, when applied to sunglasses, reduces glare so that you can see better.  Magic.

Although they offer a lot of different styles for ladies and menfolk, my favourite range is their plastics.  I don't know who they've got designing these babies but GOOD LORD they're pretty:

Honey, £59

Pearl, £50

Soul, £79

Victoria, £79

All the styles are different enough to make choosing one to suit you as easy as turning off Wimbledon because the women are making horrific noises.  I even managed to find a shape to flatter my peculiarly shaped face in the form of Mirage (£55):

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go and pack for my much needed holiday in Florence.  Mirage and I are going to be giving those Italians a lesson in pure glamour*.

*Until I refuse to take my beautiful new sunglasses off in a dark gallery and fall into some priceless work of art, causing millions of Euros of damage and earning myself a lifetime ban from Italy.

Nomday! about your sale: Hobbs outlet

Hobbs is usually out of my price range. I love the cut of its gib (that translates to 'I think the tailoring is great'), the quality of the fabrics exquisite, the sales assistants friendly but not insistent and the designs are chic; however it's just a little bit too pricey for me to justify most of the time. But right now they have a sale on babies, so head to the outlet section of their website for bargins galore, which is where I found this gorgeous NW3 plain shirt dress, reduced from £169 to £50.

Guttingly, they now only have it in a size 16, so this won't be the dress I casually stroll down East Finchley high street sporting a giant coffee and big sunglasses in, but it might be a special dress for one of you.

There's also this silk NW3 Scotty dress, reduced from £139 to £65 (available in sizes 6 - 16), so endearingly titled owing to the numerous Scotty dogs which feature in the print.

The Eiffel dress is definitely work appropriate thanks to the tasteful cut and modest length, but the sensual neckline gives it a certain...je ne sais quoi. Also, capped sleeves? I love you. Reduced from £129 to £64 and still available in sizes 8 - 16, quite frankly, it would be rude not to. For the sake of your career, darling.

 

about your nightwear: Marvel PJ bottoms at Matalan

The first time I spotted these magnificent Marvel PJ bottoms was gracing the legs of none other than our own Nom, and I knew instantly that (as soon as I got paid) I would shortly be making them mine:

They're technically for men-folk, but I will not let such a minor thing as narrow-minded-gender-based designing come between me and these babies.  Boys have legs, I have legs; what's the problem?  

I have a feeling they'll divide opinion, as they have in my own household:

Me: "Look at these pajimmerjammers!  Don't you just LOVE THEM?!"
Boyfriend: "They look like a comic has thrown up on them."

If you agree with me (and obviously you will, because you're so stylish), you can get yours for a mere £12 from Matalan.

about your dress: coral spot shirt dress at Dorothy Perkins

Being a stylish sort of person myself*, I like to surround myself with equally stylish people (mostly because I can then use them as inspiration for this blog).  My latest victim muse is my friend Tara, who sported this beautiful coral spot shirt dress last weekend for the briefest of periods before deciding it was too much of a daytime dress for an evening out:

I agreed with her - it's not ideal for the evening, but for sunny summer days it's nothing short of perfect.  When she initially donned it and I enquired as to where she'd purchased such a beauty, I fully expected her to deliver the massively annoying answer of "Oh, some vintage shop in a country which is now 2m below sea level.  Soz!"  Fortunately she said Dorothy Perkins, which would make it accessible AND cheap, and she said she only bought it a week ago.  I stored this information like a hamster stores food (not in my cheeks though), and when I got home I hunted it down so I could share it with all of you.  It's £36, and selling fast - there are only sizes 14 upwards still available, so you'll need to get a wriggle on if you want to be as stylish as Tara.

*HA.

about your necklace: double clock pendant at Topshop

I've never been in an extremely long distance relationship (the kind that spans several time zones), but if I was, I imagine I'd end up calling my beloved at seriously questionable hours and possibly causing a premature end to the romance simply because I couldn't get my head around the difference in time.  Likewise, it's no good calling your parents to beg them for another loan because you've spent all your money on brogues if they're enjoying their retirement in sunny Australia and you fail to account for the fact they'll probably be asleep when you're wide awake.  They'll say no, and then possibly swear at you before slamming the phone down.

Fortunately for me, both my boyfriend and parents live in the zone of GMT, but if yours don't and you are as much of an idiot when it comes to telling the time as I am, might I suggest in shelling out £18.50 for this double clock pendant from Topshop?

If purchasing this does happen to save your relationship/successfully get you a loan from your parents, I will graciously accept your thanks in the form of cake.

about your homewares: enamel folklore tea/coffee pot at Hunkydory Home

If like me, you have a serious tea addiction (to the point where chain-drinking becomes an aspect of everyday life) and a soft spot for slightly twee househould objects, than you should love this enamel folklore tea/coffee pot*:

It's a very reasonable £14.95 from Hunkydory Home, and if you also share my ability to knock things over as well as my love of tea and folkloric beverage containers, you'll also appreciate the fact it's not made of an easily breakable material.

*I didn't want to include the coffee aspect because it tastes like dirt, but that's its proper name, so I had to.

Nomday! about your art: homophone wall cards from Present and Correct

I love a good pun, me. There is quite simply nothing I find more delightful than a game of words; English is a language chock full of interesting little quirks like seemingly insane spellings, irregular verbs and homophones.

We learn about homophones in primary school, nice and early on so we can spot them coming a mile off. They're those tricksy little words that sound the same, but are spelt differently, like 'made' and 'maid' or 'pear' and 'pair'.  There Their They're confusing even for grown ups (see what I did there? HOMOPHONEJOKESLOL). Which is why you might want to have a few of these wall cards from Present and Correct scattered about your abode to help you remember that the homophone is constantly lying in wait, ready to trip you up at any given moment in time.

I love the nice, clean typography, which is aesthetically pleasing and helpful for learning. Did you know that teachers often favour the sickeningly friendy font Comic Sans because it's one of the few sans serif fonts (essentially this means it doesn't feature curly tails or hats on the a) and that makes it easier for children with dyslexia to read. Unfortunately, comic sans makes me want to simultaneously scream, vomit and tear out my eyes every time I see it, particularly as it's usually plastered all over some form of passive-aggressive note in a toilet or kitchen, so it makes me really happy to see this pretty little font featured on these wall cards.

Additionally, each card has a great set of homophones on both sides, so if you get bored of 'piece' and 'peace' you can flip it over and give 'hole' and 'whole' a turn.

The Homophone Wall Cards cost a mere ten of your English pounds. I was duped into spending more than that on a vodka, lime and lemonade on Saturday night in Soho. One of these would not only be better for my general behaviour in public places, but it would also be, like, totally helping me learn more stuff and that.

For anyone who is interested, here's a list of homophones. I don't know why you would be, you're here to kill time on our lunchbreak presumably, but if you do happen to be a little bit bored and interested like I was, you can have a nosey there.

about your dresses: 50s style frocks

As it seems mandatory nowadays to mention the wonderful Mad Men when talking about frocks of a certain kind, I'm going to get that over with in the first paragraph. I experienced paralysing, blinding rage after reading an article in a national newspaper in which a teacher said she'd love to be transported back to the 50s, 'preferably to the Mad Men offices'. It's just as well she was a teacher of mathematics and not history or media studies, isn't it? Mad Men is set in the 60s! So I'm only going to talk about it to say I'm not going to talk about it, and to let you all know I'm that person who talks to the newspaper and corrects grammatically incorrect signs. Sigh.

Leaving aside the fashions of the 60s then, today I'm going to show you some fabulous 50s inspired frocks with wee nipped in waists and beautiful full skirts. I'm fond of the bombshell look and I always enjoy sashaying around in a wiggle dress. Still, I love how fun it is to wear a full skirt and go swishing around in it, which is why I hit the last Vivien of Holloway sale quite as hard as I did. There are lots of dresses out there for you if you enjoy the benefits of wearing a full skirted dress, and here are a few of the ones that have got my pulse racing!

Dollydagger is an online shop so full of prettiness it ought to be on prescription. There are so many dresses in this shop that make me paw at the monitor longingly, I could spend all day telling you about them all. My favourite is the English Rose dress in scarlet. At £125 it's too far out of my price range right now for me to do anything except gaze lovingly at it, but isn't she beautiful?

This skirt will accommodate a petticoat, should you want to wear one. I can think of so many places I'd wear this dress to, so I'm sure that one day soon I'll crack and buy it. I love the big fat roses all over this dress, I think that it's pretty but with attitude. The skirt is also voluminous enough to be subject to passing breezes that will expose your underpants to the people of Coventry (or wherever you happen to be) so if you do buy this dress, make sure you wear it with nice pants. The people of Coventry will thank you.

Pretty with attitude basically sums up all of the dresses on sale on American website Pin Up Girl Clothing. I could spend all day detailing every single dress there that I love, but for today I'm going to confine myself to the Sailor Swing Dress by Pinup Couture.

Now, I'm not too sure what it is sailors actually do and I can't even swim, so I honestly don't know how useful this frock would be in a nautical situation. It doesn't stop me wanting it, however. The circle skirt would look good with a fluffy petticoat underneath it, but the phenomenally glamorous model in the photo proves it will look good without that. At $108 (plus shipping and tax) it's far too expensive for me. To be quite honest, I'm not sure if land-locked Leamington Spa is ready for this dress anyway. I'll still daydream about it, though.

So far, so good, right? Those dresses are out of my price range, but they're nice to dream about. What does a girl do when she wants to buy one she can afford? Enter Aspire Style, purveyor of delightful frocks at reasonable prices. The Lizzie dress by Emily and Fin caught my eye.

This beauty is £59, and even less than that if you take advantage of our exclusive 10% discount code (just enter AYDblog at the checkout). The full skirt is all swishy and elegant and the bodice is boned to make your waist look all neat and lovely. This dress would be perfect to wear to all those picnics I dream of having as soon as the sun comes out. The Warwick store is nearby so when I have a few spare pennies I'm going to go and try this on, then all I'll need is sunshine, wine and nice pants.

about your dress: abstract print vintage dress at Love Miss Daisy

I do love finding dresses so beautiful they make me GOL (that's Gasp Out Loud, folks - add it to your everyday vocabulary and the kids will think you're well cool), and that's exactly what happened when I spotted this beautiful 50s dress* from vintage emporium (and A(YD) List member) Love Miss Daisy:

It's a size 10/12, and there's only one in stock, so you'd better be quick if you want to snap this one up.  And I think you can justify the £90 price tag because you'll feel extra special in it, safe in the knowledge that it's probably unique (she said, in the hope that all the others have been destroyed by moths in the six decades since its making).

*Or, to give it its full title, abstract print semi sheer vintage 50s dress.

about your decoration: Rob Ryan bunting at Bodie and Fou

I think some people are probably a little sick of Rob Ryan's work right now; his range of delightful plates/mugs/jugs leap out at me whenever I stray into one of London's gazillion gift shops and I'm finding it hard not to feel a little overexposed.  HOWEVER, I think I've found a lovely exception to this overdose of the papercut supremo's designs in the form of... bunting!

Aah, bunting.  Divider of households, causer of arguments between couples around the globe.  I know if I bought the beautiful Rob Ryan bunting shown above (£25.50 from Bodie and Fou, since you ask), the ensuing argument conversation with my live-in lover would go something like this:

Rob Ryan-hating boyfriend (RRHB): "What the flip is that?"

Me: "It's delightful Rob Ryan bunting!  Isn't it MARVELLOUS?!"

RRHB: "No. No it's not."

Me: "You're wrong.  It's lovely."

RRHB: "I'm right, and it's not going up in this house."

Me: "Oh yeah?  Says who?!"

RRHB: "Says me.  The person who pays the majority of rent and bills."

Me: "Good point, well made."

So the crux of the matter is thus: I can't buy it, so you have to.  Look, here's another picture to convince you:

Please send photos when you've bought and installed it so I can pretend I live with you and not RRHB.

about your dress: Racerback maxi dress at Gap

ATTENTION SHOPPERS: Gap are having a sale!  I know, I know, Gap are usually having a sale, but this is a Big Proper Sale, so it's not just crappy old bizzarely shaped items which they just can't shift.  There's a lot that's reduced by 50%, but I've got my eye on this Racerback maxi dress in pewter blooms:

It's now £24.99 (reduced from £35.95) but it's only still available in medium and large, so you'd better get your skates on if you fancy looking as floral and carefree as the model above!  One final bit of advice: if possible, get yourself to your local Gap rather than shopping online - their prices seem to be a bit lower in the shop, and I'm aaaaaall about saving you the pennies :)

Nomday! about your jumper: Louche Zavanna Zebra sweater at JOY

I have an insatiable desire for stripes. I love them, can't get enough of them. I don't care that they make me look like Burglar Bill, or The Hamburglar, or even Beetlejuice. I just lurrrrve them. So when I floated on into JOY in Angel on the weekend and spotted this little number, I was delighted.

This, my friends, is the Louche Zavanna Zebra Intarsia sweater, which is on sale right now for £39. Isn't it delightful? And how clever too, to slip in a little zebra reference there on the shoulder. J'adore! Sadly, it's now only available in large, so we can't all rush out and purchase one in a jolly little attempt to look like a herd of gorgeous zebras, but at least some of you can enjoy it!

about your dress: Phyllis dress at Fever

I know Roisin featured some bargainous Fever dresses from TK Maxx last week, but this Phyllis dress is so pretty I felt obliged to do the online equivalent of shouting it from the rooftops by making it the sole focus of today's post:

It's sadly not available at TK Maxx's low low prices, but I think £69.99's not too bad for a dress which will be multi-occasion-appropriate.  Anyway, if you're anything like Roisin you probably have a specific Fever budget, and you'll have saved so much on those TK Maxx treats that you'll have bundles left to spend on a full price beauty such as Phyllis (it makes perfect fiscal sense when you think about it REALLY hard).  Get yours from Fever's website.

about your shoes: Chie Mihara Cometa court shoes

There's a lot to be said for thinking classic when it comes to shoes. You know what I mean; classic shape, neutral colour, goes with everything. In fairly heavy rotation in my wardrobe is a pair of nude court shoes from Bertie and the same pair in black patent. Classy and safe. However, I'm even more drawn to quirky details and graphic prints like hearts, bows, cherries, and stars. These beautiful Cometa shoes by Chie Mihara at Sarenza manage to do both things at the same time.


I'll be upfront, at £178 these shoes are not cheap and I can't afford them. That makes me sad, as does the fact that there are none left in my size. A girl can dream, however, and I am enjoying imagining myself prancing around the office in them.

You see, they're an elegant court shoe shape so they'll look good with skirts and dresses in a variety of lengths and shapes. They have a nice sized heel, as well – tall enough for a bit of height but manageable enough so that I could run for my train. They'd be perfect for when I wanted to wear smart shoes.


The gorgeous, shiny stars mean that as well as looking smart these shoes are fun. I'd be looking down at my feet all day at those sparkly stars. I love how bold they are as well, they command attention and I like that too. The shiny red leather of the stars gives them a bit of a punky vibe so they're not too cutesy, just very cool.

If any of you better-off, smaller-footed ladies out there fancy owning the shoes that made me cry a little bit, they can be yours for £178 from Sarenza.

about your bag: Jet Set vintage leather flight bag at Scaramanga

Avid readers: do you remember a couple of months ago I introduced you to the marvel of Scaramanga and their wonderful satchels having been bought one for my birthday?  Well, the gods of vintage leather bags have obviously been smiling on me, as I've been lucky enough to acquire another Scaramanga gem in the form of the Jet Set vintage leather flight bag!

I mentioned it briefly in April's post, but now that I've got my own I realised I did it a massive injustice by awarding it a mere sentence of text.  Not only is it made of the most beautifully soft leather (so soft it's almost suede), my colleague also said it looks like cake*.  It's like this bag was made for me, it's that perfect.  As a bit of an organisational freak, I really appreciate the million 12 pockets and compartments this bag has.

TWELVE.

And that's not even including these handy pen holders:

There's even a padded section so you can carry your laptop in safety (and it also protects it when your bag falls three feet to the floor, as witnessed earlier today).  And it has a strap with a reinforced section for your shoulder, so it's comfortable to carry!  Those Scaramanga folk think of everything.

What's especially wonderful is that this bag hasn't replaced my beautiful satchel because they are so different. I've had the Jet Set bag for just a week and I've already used it to travel to a wedding (it was big enough for a change of clothes and all my make up, as well as things to keep me entertained on the train) and today it transported my laptop to work with the greatest of ease.  The zip also goes down really far, so it opens nice and wide to make the contents easier to access!  Genius.

It's £95, which is actually the world's biggest bargain because it could not be more worth it.  This is the kind of bag your children and grandchildren will be using in decades to come, having prised it from your cold dead grasp as soon as your final breath has escaped your body.  That's a good thing.

*I think she meant the outside of a sponge cake, rather than the fully-iced finished product.

about your top: cream bird print blouse at Dorothy Perkins

Sometimes having stylish colleagues can be both a blessing and a curse.  Whilst it's lovely to see them in pretty clothes and having them act as free muses for this here blog, it can be detrimental to my bank balance.  I'll just have to try and persuade you all to buy this cream bird print blouse from Dorothy Perkins (as sported by cutting-edge clothes horse co-worker Janine) in the hopes that it'll sell out before I can get my poverty-stricken mitts on it.

Do the right thing - buy this pretty shirt so I can't.  It's only £28 (or £25.20 if you can persuade a student to buy it on your behalf).  When you've bought it, feel free to take a picture of yourself in it and send it to me so I can use the magic of Photoshop* to replace your head with mine.**

*I don't actually have Photoshop, so it'll actually be Microsoft Paint.

**Too creepy?

Nomday! about your shoes: Pieces Rimona lace up flat shoes at ASOS

As I might have mentioned before, I love shoes. I'm very pernickety about them though. I hardly ever buy zapatos above a tenner unless I feel that there is something about them that really grabs my attention, or I'm in a genuine shoe emergency (quantified by extreme blisters or some kind of Cinderella-style situation). I guess I feel the same way about boys. They have to have something that other people might not appreciate going on, which makes me become stupidly infatuated with them. Oh and they have to be tall, with nice hands too. Anyway, this is a post about shoes, not boys.

It was my birthday last week and my girlies gave me seventy-five whole pounds to spend in ASOS. What can I say? I'm totally awesome and they love me. So I geared myself up for an asos session (let's face it, it's such a mammoth task you need some genuine mental prep before you dive in and start shopping. It's the same with TK Maxx. Only a fool would enter TK Maxx on an empty stomach) and I found these lovely correspondent style Pieces Rimona lace up flat shoes which I am quite taken with by all accounts.



What's cute about the Rimona is the much-beloved and never tiresome monochrome colourway and the fine sole. Thick soles on brogues freak me out. They remind me of corrective shoes or Pods and Kickers which were the ultimate fashion statement when I was 13 years old, regardless of the fact that you would drown if you were unfortunate enough to fall into water whilst wearing them. Fine soles are feminine. They also say 'yeah I don't have to wear practical, hard-wearing thick soles because I don't actually do a great deal of walking', which is ideal.

The Pieces Rimona lace ups cost but £33 from ASOS. Now, does anyone have any suggestions on what I should spend the remainder of my birthday voucher on? How about this?

about your dresses: Fever bargains at TK Maxx

The other afternoon the sun was shining, I'd finished work a little early and I had some time to kill before my train so I wandered into my local branch of TK Maxx. I don't usually bother with much except the shoes and the homewares, but I'm delighted that I took the time to rifle through the racks of dresses because at the moment TK Maxx are stocking frocks from my fashion Achille's heel – Fever Designs. I emerged somewhat lighter of purse and with a very definite spring in my step, having bought two gorgeous frocks for bargain prices. I'm somewhat ashamed (read: not at all ashamed) to admit that I strayed over to their website this afternoon and bought another one. The fact that they're available online means that you can too!

In store, I bought the beautiful Neapolitan dress. This is still current season stock, and TK Maxx are selling it for £16.99! So, it seemed rude not to buy two, one in each colourway.

I'm especially smitten with this frock. It's a comfortable but flattering shift dress shape, with barely visible hip pockets. Pockets are the human equivalent of catnip to a girl like me. I like the way this beauty makes colour-blocking easy. I might look like a Fab lolly in it, but whatever. If I look good enough to eat that's fine by me. This afternoon I sprung for the Riverene frock in camel. This is another one I've been eyeing up for a while, so at £16.99 I couldn't resist it!

There aren't many of these left, so so if you want a classy dress with a Katharine Hepburn feel to it, you'd better move quickly.

It's hard to see in the photo, but this Kennedy dress is made of a beautiful brocade cotton and it has a pretty exposed zip. I particularly like the rosette at the waist.

You'll find a few more online, but I expect you'll need to move quickly as sizes are limited. If you have a store nearby and can cope with the jumble sale gamble of finding a dress you love in your size, then you have a good chance of finding a bargain. Happy hunting, ladies!

about your sale: sample sale at Plümo

I don't know why I'm still on Plümo's mailing list - I can never afford anything they sell so it's almost like I'm torturing myself.  Or perhaps I knew that if I kept failing to unsubscribe, eventually something wonderful would happen.  And today my laziness paid off, for Plümo are having a sample sale, with prices reduced by up to 80%!  And it's not all crap; just look at some of the bargains I've got my beady little eye on...

Chie Mihara Fadrina shoes, size 40 - was £249, now £149

Owl candle holder - was £69, now £39

Blue enamel bowls - was £49, now £25

You have to be quick though; as far as I know they're all one offs and they're selling fast.  Now is NOT the time for dithering!  GO GO GO!

about your art: The Various Lives Of Clouds print by the krafty fox on Etsy

As anyone who's ever read Gavin Pretor-Pinney's The Cloudspotter's Guide will be able to tell you, clouds are a lot more interesting than they sometimes look.  But even at their most basic they will always have a special place in my heart, which is why I'm almost certainly going to buy The Various Lives Of Clouds, a lovely print by the krafty fox (available for a mere £6 on Etsy):

I'm not giving you much time to beat me to it (maybe five hours, tops), so if you don't get in there sharpish, FRET NOT - there's plenty more of its ilk available here.