Well, they're not exactly new, more like new-to-me, but that's just the same in my book. I found them in a charity shop in Harrogate in April and this was their first outing. I love the shape of the heel. What do you call it? Anyway, I think it's quite a cute style for £5.99.
I'm wearing a leather jacket which was a wonderful purchase in a Truro charity shop for the grand sum of £10. The black blouse is from Uniqlo (this is similar)and was £9.99 in the sale. Belt and trousers are from H&M. My beautiful yellow jelly "Candy Bag" is by Furla and is available in so many mouth-watering colours (see here for my other favourite), that I had to close the page quickly to avoid temptation of another. Sunglasses are by Quay Australia. Silver rings are charity shop finds, and the olive green real pearls are by Almost Perfect in Cornwall.
"It's always Friday" is what the mother of a friend of mine used to say. I must admit I thought it was a bit of an odd saying when I was a girl. But as a working woman who juggles a full-time job with family, home, blogging, book club, sea swimming, yoga and the wistful notion of downtime, I have suddenly found that "It's always Friday" in my life too. It hardly seems any time at all that I was publishing last Friday's post, and here I am again. We all lead such busy lives nowadays. Is it rivalry, one-upmanship, and our basic competitive nature that pushes us on to do more, be more, have more? Even living on this idyllic little island, I'm aware that we are still affected by outside influences - oh, there's no escaping the power of the Internet, even in paradise.
One important area of my life seems to be that of personal development, and more recently taking control of the increasing amount of stuff that I/we as a family have collected over the 27 years we've lived in this house. I keep hearing of friends and family who have moved house which resulted in a huge de-junking process. Much as I might like to blame my new found hobby of fashion blogging for the amount of stuff bursting out of every cupboard, the fact is this that snowballing has been part of our lives since my husband and I got married 35 years ago. History shows that Homo Sapiens have always been hunters and gatherers. My husband and I are typical specimens of the species; he hunts and I gather. But I've reached that stage when something has to change. I want to reclaim some control, and to this end I've enlisted the help of these three books.
1. Stuffocation. Living more with less by James Wallman. Buy here.
2. The life-changing magic of tidying by Marie Kondo. Buy here.
3. The miracle morning by Hal Elrod. Buy here.
Book 1 was a brutal confirmation of all that I already knew. Of course I know I'm suffering from stuffocation, but the truth of the book was too much for me to bear. Our future as mapped out in these pages looks too chaotic, over whelming and downright scary for me to finish it. I expect the author will go on to show the reader how we, the individual, can contribute to change. I'm just not brave enough to read on. I will gird my loins and finish, just not yet.
Book 2 has been much more motivational, and I can report that some of the changes are already taking place. I haven't quite mastered the clever folding technique, but am excited at the prospect of the life change ahead. The idea of tidying once, properly and it will always be tidy, is proving itself to be true - my knicker drawer has never looked so good!
Book 3 looks like an amazing system, one which my daughter advocates and is practising herself. As yet I've not found time to embrace either the book nor the lifestyle. But somehow, just having the book around makes me feel I could be on the right track.
Some cynics might argue that buying three more books just adds to my stuffocation problem and yes, the irony of that does make me smile. Personally, I see these as building blocks for a way out of my particular problem. I've resolved to implement a new system within the household. For every item introduced into the house, I promise to move another out, for it to be sold, given away or donated to charity. On top of that, the tidying technique will continue within which there is a huge element of clearing out and moving on too. I'm doing what I can, as I can, when I can. There's not point in looking for a huge stick to beat myself up with. These three books are much more productive and may even act as inspiration for you too. And on that positive note I wish you a wonderful weekend!
Anna x
