I hope you all enjoy the final evening of 2012. I'm looking forward to 2013 - see you there!

Love

I've been keeping track of the clothes I bought during 2012 as I was interested to see how much I spent on clothes, shoes and accessories throughout the year. The total will be revealed in early 2013...

I've said this before, but I'll say it again, I love Inspiration Monday for making me mix items and wear outfits that I wouldn't normally think of putting together.

I'm a little rather late on posting this first inspiration. I find it so much harder to take outfit shots when it's dark in the mornings and when I return home from work. Shots taken inside just don't seem to work so well. So, when I do manage to take some shots, albeit not very good ones, I like to use them.


This bag is a recent charity shop purchase. It's leather and soft as butter, originally from White Stuff and cost me the grand sum of £4. It does have a few marks on the bottom so I decided to contact a leather cleaning company that I've seen in the back of magazines, they offer a handbag repair and restore service. They quoted me £200. Yikes! Needless to say that I declined, the marks won't stop me using the bag, and hey, I could always try and remove the marks myself. Any tips?



Last week's inspiration was a cinch for me, I knew as soon as I saw it that I could replicate it pretty well (I'm so glad I didn't throw away this top, despite it's twisted seams).

I am wearing an outfit inspired by this week's celeb, Leona Lewis, today but I'm not going to get a chance to take any shots today... shame. I'm wearing my latest pre loved eBay purchase, I'm chuffed to bits with it. Photos to come soon hopefully!


And to finish, an apology to Megan and Nora for not putting a link into my headless Inspiration Monday post. Bad blogger. Bad. Sorry x

Love

Dear Fringe, Welcome back. I tried to live without you but it turned out that I just couldn't. I feel like me again.

Dear Work, I'm worried. Really worried, why won't you just tell us ALL what's going on? Rumour, speculation and heresay are no substitute for facts - cold and hard as they may be. We're all adults here, we can handle it.

Dear Self, Worry not about the things you can not control.

Dear Self, Now that you have cracked your iPhone screen twice, this time to the point where it no longer works, will you please invest in a rubber case?

Dear Blog Friends, Sorry for my absence. I'm just dealing with the necessary at present and trying to grab some calm in between.

Dear Friday, I am not at work today, it's just you and I. Let's wrap Christmas gifts and put pretty bows on everything!

Love

I can hardly believe that this will be my third Christmas since starting World of Joy, the second spent in our new home and the first Christmas that I will be prepared for well in advance (only a few small things left to do). Hurrah!

I've mentioned before that my boyfriend is all about Christmas and since knowing him my love for the festive season has grown too. For the first time we had a real tree last year. I received an excited text, that read 'I have our Christmas tree in the back of my truck'. I asked him to send me a picture of it and this is what I received.


Yep, funny guy.

We're off to pick out our tree today, it's really starting to feel like Christmas!

Hope you're having a fabulous Monday.
Love

Dear Lavenham Great House Restaurant, Thank you for the excellent service, the delicious food and for the best G&T I've had in a long, long time.

Dear Secret Santa, Chocolates. Perfect, you know me so well!

Dear Three Day Weekend, I am going to enjoy every single second of you.

Dear Blog Friends, Forgive me for such a short post. I'm exhausted.

Hope you all have a great weekend!
Love

Hello, hello!

Failed at Friday's Letters last week... again.

Dear Monday, We're never going to be great friends but just occasionally we seem to call a truce - like today.

Dear X Factor, Chris Maloney. Seriously?

Dear Boiler, Thank you for not having a terminal or expensive fault. If you could see your way to lasting just a few more years I'd really, really appreciate it.

Dear Boyfriend, Thank you for getting the boiler fixed and my apologies for being a grumpy cow, you know how I hate to be cold.

Dear Pampered Chef Party Demonstration Lady, You're good. You're really good. I came along with a steely resolve to spend no more than £30. I restrained myself for approximately 15 minutes before I crumbled and spent a small fortune.

Dear Show and Stay, Thank you for making the experience of booking a show, hotel and train tickets to London an absolute breeze.

Dear Workmen, Thanks for cancelling two days before you were due to insulate my loft and fill my cavity walls. If you could pull your finger out that would be awesome!

Dear Self, Stop moaning and look on the bright side - you're warm (hurrah!), you have a trip to London to look forward to (ditto), your boyfriend has finally got through a stupidly busy time at work so you'll be seeing more of him (huge hurrah!) and the acupuncture you're having for your sinusitis is beginning to take effect. Life is good.

And so to Inspiration Monday. I joined in last week but didn't find a minute to take any outfit shots. I honestly didn't know if I was coming or going for most of last week and it's set to get busier!


This shot was taken surreptitiously, which explains a lot! I have a nightshirt that would have suited this inspiration so much better but work draw the line at PJ's, more's the pity!

Hope you have a fab week.

Lots of love

Dear Boiler. Thank you SO much for deciding to stop working in the second week of November. So considerate of you. First the oven and now this... what's next? (You know there is going to be a third).

Dear Boyfriend, Pleeeease can you call the man to come and fix/replace our boiler. Cold makes me grumpy, which ultimately makes your life more difficult, so it's in your interest to sort it out. Please.

Dear Blog Friends, Please do not think me a weak and feeble female for leaving the boiler to my boyfriend to fix. I'd do it myself but he keeps telling me he'll deal with it.

Dear Charity Shops of Ipswich, Brace yourselves - I'll be heading your way tomorrow in a determined and purposeful manner.

Dear I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here, I am very surprised to find myself watching (and enjoying) the show. I'm team red. David Haye and Brian Conley are a genius combination. These celebs have all been somewhat of a surprise, I'm not sure I want any of them to leave the jungle, except for Nadine maybe...
I can't believe that another week has gone by again so quickly! Thumbing through my diary today I was shocked at how little time remains before the Christmas madness begins once again. The good news is that apart from my best friend and by boyfriend, my Christmas shopping is done (thank goodness for Amazon wish lists).

Hope you have a great weekend.
Love

Hurrah! The first proper outing for my new boots (wearing them around the house doesn't count) for this month's Everybody, Everywear. I kept the rest of my outfit simple to let the boots shine :)

I'm on the hunt for the perfect pair of black knee high boots, something with a bit of a heel but not much, a bit casual but smart enough for work, slim fitting and right up to the knees, possibly with buckles… you think I'm being a little narrow in my search? Little bit?

I love these but they're £95 and not leather. I'd pay £95 for leather but not not leather.

I like these too but they don't have the same, y'know… 'thing' about them.

Anyhow, here they are my new brown boots again... just because I love them so much!




Love

I missed Friday Letters in a blur of activity, so here are some Monday Letters instead.

Dear Monday, You suck. The only time I like you is when you have 'bank holiday' written in front of you. You always come around too quickly and you spoil Sunday evenings.

Dear Clothes Swappers, You guys rock! You turned out on a rainy Saturday morning, full of gusto and laden with bags of clothes. I did however fear for my friends safety as she carried five ball gowns towards the rails and you mobbed her. Play nicely now.

Dear Christmas, I know that people aren't talking about you yet, but I haven't forgotten that you're coming. I'm stocking up my pantry in preparation (I can't be the only person to have purchased a Christmas pudding in early November). This year will be less frantic. I promise.


Dear NoneSuch Things, I love your site. The tapes I ordered arrived and are already adorning the front of my Christmas cards, with lots more projects planned.




Hope you all have a fab Monday (do the best you can with it, the week will improve). See you tomorrow for Everybody : Everywear, this month the theme is 'boots'. Guess which ones I'll be wearing?

Love

When it comes to my nails I have a love/hate relationship with them. I used to bite my nails when I was younger and sometimes, just sometimes, I slip back into old habits. Needless to say my nails go from long to short, unkempt to perfectly polished and everything in between.


When my nails are short, I often find myself longing for beautifully manicured nails, mostly for an occasion that calls for being well groomed, but sometimes I just want to feel well groomed. This is what led me to try imPRESS nails. It was Nicole Scherzinger's advert that first brought these to my attention, and as annoying as I find her on The X Factor, I couldn't help but take note.

Boots had a 3 for 2 offer on nail accessories, so I bagged a few to give them a try. I wanted to road test them before I used them 'for real'.


There are no real instructions on the packaging, but there is a QR code, which when scanned takes you to a short tutorial on how to apply them. They're really easy to put on - simply clean your nails with nail polish remover, select the size you need and line them up. Starting with your pinky fingers, peel off the tabs, align to the cuticle and press onto your nail. Apply your thumb nails last.



The whole process only takes a few minutes. I loved this and much prefer it to the glues I have tried in the past. I also really like the shorter length, as they're the closest to the longest length of my natural nails that I've ever tried. You do have to file the edges to get rid of the tell tale tabs but that's easy enough to do.


They say they last for a week. I decided to get the housework out of the way before testing them... then changed my mind. I thought that if these babies could really stay put for a week they'd have to be able to withstand some housework. And they did. They also survived a pumpkin carving, baking, sewing of sock monkeys and all manor of everyday activities. They held fast and showed no signs of budging. I put applied them on Sunday morning and removed them Thursday evening but they would easily have lasted longer.


My only issue was the lack of guidance on how to remove them, so I pushed down on the tip, levered a gap at the cuticle and peeled them off. It was really easy. No harm done.

The index finger on my right hand is damaged from when I shut it in a door at the age of 11. As a result of a crushed nail and five stitches, the nail is slightly domed and other false nails have been tricky to apply and stay put, some have been really rather uncomfortable, but I had no problems with the imPRESS nails.


At £7.99 I think these are a bargain. For a quick manicure fix they're perfect. They say that they don't harm the nail but I can't believe that these can be good for your nails if worn continually but I'd highly recommend for a special occasion or the odd pamper session.

Do these sound like something you would use?

Love

Monday Inspiration was Lauren Conrad wearing a fabulous slouchy jumper and boots. Perfect transitional dressing! I had no excuse to go shopping for this week's inspiration as it was the perfect opportunity to wear the oversized M&S sweater I found on my recent blogger meet up!

Accesorised with my poppy and a huge scarf. See the other inspirations here.

Dear Friday, How nice it is to see you again. I may moan about how fast the year has gone by (November already?!!), but I will never, ever be sorry to see you.

Dear Sophie, Well done for organising a photographic scavenger hunt for October. Maybe others will join in for November? The list is a good one…

Dear Caroline, So, what are you going to make with your Christmas fabric? I'm nosey intrigued.

Dear Mr Kipling, Your Halloween inspired Fiendish Fancies were exceedingly good indeed. A perfect post poorly pick-me-up! Thank you x (Yes, I ate them all and no, I didn't share them.)

Dear Sarah, Your idea to get fish and chips for lunch today was inspired, the studio may smell of vinegar but my tummy is happy and full - a big improvement on earlier this week.

Dear Zara, You know those boots? Well, I've changed my mind. I want these, or maybe these (fickle much?).

Dear Men of Britain, Tache up - it's Movember!!



Hope you have a lovely weekend - keep warm, eat well and laugh a lot.
Love