New Boots

Since November I have been practically living in my trainers. At that time I was hugely pregnant and huffed and puffed my way around, so no high heels for me. Now I don't go out without the Pip in a buggy or a carrier so in the interests of Health and Safety, I have stuck to flat shoes. If you have been following my blog for a while, then you would know how much I love my high heeled shoes.

But there is hope!!



I have been wearing these boots and they are practical but not too granny-like. OK I wouldn't have looked at them 18 months ago, but things are different these days :)

A different kind of shopping

This morning we got up early and drove to the DHL depot to pick up our Mothercare stuff, then unpacked it all at home before going to our NCT class. All before 9:30 in the morning, on a Saturday : a time when when I am normally still in bed. Well, they say parenthood brings new experiences.....

Woohoo, I feel so much better that we have all the stuff we need now. The only things we need to get now are the car seat and the car. Oh yeah, pretty big item :)





We checked the delivery in the living room. We already have a cot and a crib, but we decided to get a Moses basket too so the pipsqueak can sleep downstairs while I watch trash TV.

Mr KE bought Arlo from Mamas and Papas.











Mr KE's favourite outfit for the pipsqueak is this bearsuit which is a pramsuit for wearing when we go out.

It's really cute and soft. It has ears, mittens and even bear footprints!

He also spent ages playing with the Bugaboo, changing it from mode to mode. Rear facing to stroller mode and back again. I'm sure the novelty will wear off soon.

Big Sigh.

Mr KE worked from home today because our Mothercare delivery was supposed to arrive today. We also ordered stuff from Argos (a chest of drawers and a new drying rack) ....organised huh? Unfortunately, the best laid plans can still go wrong.

The Argos stuff arrived OK, but Mr KE had to call Mothercare. Despite all their assurances and "guaranteed next day delivery", everything is arriving tomorrow. Aarrggghh. There's no way I can take a day off and Mr KE has to be at work too. How annoying. Now we have to drive to the depot because they won't deliver at weekends.

Five things that have been keeping me busy.

Five things that I have been up to lately:

• Fending off agents (aka recruiters/headhunters/bloodsuckers) calling me about positions in the Middle East. As the economy in the UK seems to be heading into a long recession, a lot of companies are expanding their operations in the Middle East and there is a big push to recruit suitably skilled staff. It so happens that I work in one of these "niche" sectors and if I were in different phase of my life, I would be very, very tempted....but it's not the right time for me.

• Discovering a whole new world of shopping for things that I never knew existed! Who knew that there were so many different types of buggies, baby car seats, cot mattresses etc? One item that we chose fairly quickly was the buggy. There were three main requirements: I wanted the lightest one on the market, Mr K-E wanted one that he wouldn't mind pushing around and we both wanted one that could face either way. So the Bugaboo Bee it is!! (With all the accessories, of course....)

• Making long lists for all the stuff we will need in January. Our plan was to buy everything from Mothercare in one big hit and get it delivered all on the same day, thus missing the Christmas rush. Sounds pretty stress-free right? The only problem with on-line shopping is that someone has to be in the house when the stuff gets delivered. Suddenly our straightforward plan doesn't seem so straightforward afterall.

• Getting used to the idea that I won't be wearing high heels for a while :(

• Being excited / scared /happy /anxious all at the same time. So much to do; we still have to buy our new car, clear more junk out from the flat, buy Christmas presents and send Christmas cards etc. Mr KE and I are always busy at work in the run-up to Christmas (I'm actually moving office on 5th December) plus we have our NCT & NHS "parentcraft" classes to attend. And try to meet up with friends and family before Christmas. Happy times!

Red Shoes

It's late on Sunday night; Mr KE and I have had a really busy (but fun) weekend so just a short post for now.

I just thought I'd show you my new Camper shoes that I have been wearing all weekend.


They are really comfortable and flat-ish. Best of all, they don't look too ugly :) I just can't bring myself to buy flat shoes but for practical reasons, I have put my high heeled shoes away. So bye bye kinky boots and bye bye silly shoes, I'll see you again soon.

New Shoes....

I got some shoes from Terra Plana a few days ago and have been wearing them every day. Their shoes are really comfortable; plus there was £10 off for bringing in an old pair of shoes.

For once, I was practical and bought a pair that I can walk around in all day.

I'm looking forward to tramping around Barcelona in these honeys. There are lots of little design quirks, eg the soles, which are just so cool.
I like it!

Summer Dresses

The weather has been hot hot hot and I have decided that this will be the summer of the dress. No more will black trousers rule my wardrobe!

From left:

A loose Marimekko dress which ties at the back. I really like this because it's loose, I can just throw it on for work, the colour and print is pretty and the styling is unusual. I'm a big fan of Marimekko; the Finnish design is just so cool. (Mr K-E's comment was: Looks like Margaret Thatcher! It's a "kind" of style, extreme yet weirdly conservative. My response: Who wears dresses around here, you or me?)

Roland Mouret inspired dress from FullCircle, another one of my favourite labels.

The polka-dot dress is from Eucalyptus. I have a few dresses from Eucalyptus and they seem to fit me really well. This one isn't for work though, too much exposure, if you know what I mean.

Hiding Stuff

Today I came home from work to find a card pushed through the letterbox. Hooray, I thought, my Amazon stuff has arrived, I'll go to the post office on Saturday morning to pick it up.

On closer inspection, I was aghast to find that instead of the normal "this package is too large for your letterbox, please collect from the post office" message; the box for "...this package has been left..." had been ticked. The delivery man had filled out in handwriting - in the white box in the garden next to the brown bin.

Aaarrgghh, I ran into the garden and checked in the box and whew, it was was there. BUT...

• where does this delivery man think we are? This is South London, where someone could have seen him hide the package and then run off with it 5 minutes later. Hey, I don't even want to speak to my neighbours, let alone trust them.
• that white box was rubbish that the council hasn't collected. Aarrgghh, what if the council had collected today..with my books and CD in it?

Oh well, I am probably making a fuss about nothing; everything did arrive safely after all. I put on the Justin Timberlake album straightaway. Aaahh, Justin makes everything better.

Resistance is Futile

I've been doing quite well with this....yep, no clothes, shoes or bag purchases since the beginning of January. OK, I did buy a top in Next but it was only £7 and it didn't lead into a mad shopping spiral. I have bought a few books and CDs, but on the whole, I think I deserve a pat on the back. *pat*pat*

However, the last few months abstinence have cleared any queasiness I felt after gorging on Christmas presents and January sales. Shop windows are starting to look interesting again. I must avoid my favourite hunting grounds until the feeling passes.

....resist...resist...resist...

(I seem to go through this every year! Last year I cracked on May 5th Hahahaha...Am I destined to repeat myself?)

This time I really mean it

Ok, I know I have said it all before and it lasted about 3 months before I cracked. And that leak turned into a flood. I am weak, weak slave to materialism.

This time I really mean it. There will be no more buying of shoes, bags, clothes, books, gadgets etc etc until we move house. We were meant to move last summer and it didn't happen because we didn't get our act together, but this year we are going to be organised and disciplined.

Yes. It will happen. I mean it. I'm going cold turkey.

Handbag Girl

Some girls are rucksack girls and some girls are handbag girls. I've always been a handbag girl.



I got this bag from Selfridges today *big smiles*

The bag is from Celine and it really appealed to me because the panelling is unusual and the brand hasn't been "WAG-ged" to death, if you know what I mean. I did look around Dior, Prada, Jimmy Choo, Chloe etc but I don't really want a new bag that people (OK, other handbag fiends) would be able to mentally place immediately i.e yep Dior Gaucho..last season...Chloe Paddington etc...

"Celine" is only shown in a very subtle location - so it's not a bag for waving at the neighbours, hahaha..... And if you guys are as nosy as I am - it was 30% off, and I didn't get much change out of five hundred quid. *whimper*

Quick, here are more shots of the bag to make me feel better.

Here's a rare sighting of Katie-Ella. Taken while I was modelling the new bag and suede boots for Mr K-E.

Shop till you can't shop no more....

I haven't been posting photos of my purchases lately because:

1. our camera isn't working properly and I need Mr K-E to take the photos but also
2. I don't want people to think I'm some kind of shallow materialistic competitive- shoe-buying bimbo, even though I must admit I do have my moments of retail madness.
   

However, I have been out shopping the last two days, and woohoooooooo........

From top right: red patent crocodile-effect shoes, burgundy suede knee-highs, ruby "Dorothy in Wizard of Oz" shoes, black patent cracked-leather effect knee-highs, black slouchy ankle boots.

Mr K-E laughed when he saw my burgundy suede boots with stiletto heels. Practical as ever!

Christmas Shopping

Yep, it's that time of year again. Mr K-E and I fought the crowds in Selfridges on Saturday and bought Christmas presents for his family. Whew, at least the women in his family are taken care of now. Can't say more in case they read this and it spoils the surprise!

I also chose some of my own presents, mainly makeup and body goodies from Benefit (oh how I adore Benefit) and Clinique. *happy me*

I've realised that time is running out to read all the books that I got given for Christmas last year as I will be getting a whole box full again this year. Not that I'm ungrateful of course. I just never got round to reading all those hardbacks.

Shoes

So, I told Mr K-E I was going shopping. I needed some comfortable, practical shoes or boots; suitable for actually walking around in all day.

This what I came home with.

Mr K-E despairs. Ultra high heels, purple and snakeskin. How practical is that? I told him - thanks for my anniversary present :)

In the meantime, I still need some practical shoes.

Sunday : shopping and sushi

We did more shopping on Sunday. I think I have busted the limit on my credit card, yikes. It was declined in Yo Sushi :) although the waiter was very nice about it and said - it must be the machine, have you got another credit card? Hahahahaha.




I asked Mr K-E to take a photo of our weekend purchases and he got a bit carried away. There must be a bit of "magazine stylist" in him.







We had Japanese food twice in a row. Here is our embarassingly large pile of dishes in Yo Sushi. I don't know how people can go in there and eat only two or three plates. You just don't notice how much food you eat when it's on a conveyor belt.....

Ghosts and Okonomiyaki

We practically spent the whole weekend in town shopping because Mr K-E needed some new jeans and shoes, and I needed some serious retail therapy. I had actually been looking forward to it all week while I sat at my desk slogging away.

Anyway, a hard day's shopping we had drinks and dinner in town. While wandering around town we saw these "ghosts" in Trafalgar Square.








We had a few drinks in a "traditional" pub near Leicester Square called the Salisbury. Mr K-E thought it was cosy and fun. There were Victorian panels behind the bar; Mr K-E thinks that they are original. I'm not so sure, but they look interesting anyway.






For dinner we tried out a new place called Abeno Too. We have walked past this place dozens of times and studied the menu on numerous occasions but have never gone in. Partly because it is next to one of Mr K-E's favourite restaurants i.e. Ed's Easy Diner.


The house speciality is okonomiyaki, which is a kind of Japanese omelette. The ingredients are freshly mixed in front of you and you watch drooling while a chef cooks it on a hot plate.

I also ordered some agedashi tofu to tide me over while the okonomiyaki was cooking.





It takes about 10 minutes to cook.







Then the omelette is covered with okonomi-yaki sauce (a sweet tangy brown sauce), Japanese mayonaise, bonito flakes (smoked tuna flakes) and seaweed sprinkles.

It tasted absolutely delicious. The bonito flakes are so thin that they curl in the heat and wave around in a disturbing fashion - it looks like your food is alive! We were compelled to make our first movie post.

Sparklies

Oh I love sparklies...

Welcome to your new home

Welcome to your new home, my darlings. I love you so much already.

Mr K-E was away on a stag weekend so I spent Saturday afternoon shoe shopping. Yes, the new season's shoes are now in shops. All the heels are super high with platform soles for added height. I wanted to get a new pair of high heeled boots, so when I saw this pair....that was that.

I love the fetish-y ultra-sexy style. Very Madonna ;)

I also spent ages lusting after the luxury shoes ...Gucci, Prada,YSL etc. I just can't bring myself out £300 on a pair of shoes...yet...but I must admit the call of Louboutin is getting stronger.

I want to be Angelina Jolie...

Yesterday, I was feeling a bit blah at work so I got the tube to Covent Garden at lunchtime and had a look around the shops there. I bought a top in Reiss (my favourite shop), a gray t-shirt in Gap and new Clinique lipstick from The Garden Pharmacy. I had my shopping "head" on, and was thinking - oh I'll just have a look in Hobbs when I realised oh shit, I'm supposed to be at work, not shopping....

It was 2:30 by then, so I had to get a cab back to the office. Lunchtime shopping is dangerous indeed.

Anyway, today I thought I would stick to the shops around my office. I was poking around in Boots, when I saw this.




I'm such a sucker for good packaging. It's almost too pretty to open :) Maybe all it takes is some lip-plumping gloss to turn me into Angelina Jolie?

There are shoes for every occasion.