This Year's Christmas Sweater - and Link Up

 

I've got a handy tip for you this week when it comes to Christmas jumpers/sweaters.  My 2020 buy came from a children's department so was only £20.  I was hoping to find a pink jumper to wear with my brocade skirt. Most of the jumpers seemed to be black, navy or blush pink.  But a last look at M&S revealed a charming and thick pink jumper with silver reindeer, in the kids' department. 

The same thing happened last year when I was trying to find a pair of gold ankle boots.  Nothing anywhere, until I found a pair in the Boden children's section.  They were half the price of normal boots.  

No Glam Vibes 

I'm not feeling any glam vibes at all this Christmas in terms of wanting (or needing) to put on the glitz. So the skirt was cast aside in favour of jeans, which is a better look for the jumper because it's quite sloppy in size.

I don't know about you, but without any parties or major gatherings, I'm looking forward to wearing comfortable clothes over the festive break without the need to break out sequins - except for the ones on a Christmas jumper.

This is my much loved (by me!) Christmas nativity crib which came from John Lewis last year.  Our tree is around 12 years old, which reduces the carbon footprint of an artificial tree quite substantially. In all honesty I prefer the look of a real tree but I can't be bothered with getting it home or vacuuming needles for the next six months.

I love the look of white artificial trees when decorated in one color, which I've seen a lot of this year. But I still like my tree and the traditional decorations bought over the years which include a glass bird I bought in Oberammergau, Germany, where they have a gorgeous Käthe Wohlfahrt Christmas shop that's open all year. 

The new buys this year are the garland behind the tree, which lights up (Amazon) and the wreath in the dining room, from Ella James.

Christmas jumpers seem to be quite divisive in that people either love them or are a bit sniffy about them. As I said last week, I like the prettier types with a bit of sparkle rather than the novelty ones. This year the Fair Isle jumper has crept into the Christmas sweaters category, and they're very tasteful. Too tasteful for me to wear as a Christmas jumper!

Any new buys for you with Christmas decor this year? What does your tree look like? Do share in the comments. 

Outfit and make-up: Reindeer sequin jumper, out of stock, Marks and Spencer;  Magic Jeans, Marks and Spencer. Make-up:  Vitamin enriched face base, Bobbi Brown; R& R eye cream, StriVectin; Darphin Melaperfect hyper pigmentation foundation; Charlotte Tilbury Mini Miracle eye wand concealer;  Charlotte Tilbury Brow Lift in Supermodel; Nars blusher in deep throat; Eye of Horus Goddess eye pencil in purple;  Rumi VolumeCare mascara; Byredo lipstick, semi-formal. Nothing was gifted for this post. 

Sharing with Top of the World Style at High Latitude Style, Chic & Stylish at Mummabstylish, #LinkupOnTheEdge  at Shelbee on the Edge,  #AnythingGoes at My Random Musings, Thursday Moda at Elegance and Mommyhood, Turning Heads Tuesday at Elegantly Dressed and Stylish,  Style with a Smile and Stylish Monday at Stylesplash, Style Six at Coast to Coast, TFF at Doused in Pink, Fancy Friday at Nancy's Fashion Style, Fabulous Fridays at Lucy Bertoldi, Beauty by Miss L Link Up, #iwillwearwhatilike at Not Dressed as Lamb,  Confident Twosday at IDoDeclaire and Curated by Jennifer 

Now it's time for #WowOnWednesday, the link-up where bloggers find new readers, and readers find new blogs to read! 

Last week's favourites:

Who could resist these pictures of Amy with her color co-ordinated Christmas tree and grandchildren? Amy, from Amy's Creative Pursuits, has set a very high bar! Visit her post here. 

Darlene, from Aquamarina Style, was spot on with her post How to Style Sweatpants for the Holidays.  I'll probably make an effort on Christmas Day with a few sequins but the rest of the time I'll be wearing something comfortable, and Darlene's cheetah-print pants with red looks both festive and stylish. 

My favourite non-fashion post was from Mary Katherine at MK's Adventures in Style. Her post 

A Tale of Two Penpals really resonated with me, as I'm sure it will with you, because I had a lot of penfriends from around the age of 11.  MK met her penfriend on holiday, when they were seven, and the two little girls agreed to write.  Fifty years later, they're firm friends, meeting up and still writing.  A wonderful story. Did you have any penfriends and are you still in touch with any of them?

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

A London Exhibition, Christmas Jumpers and a Haircut - and Link Up

Have you got your Christmas jumper yet, ladies? Above is a melange of my three most recent jumpers (sweaters).  The pic on top right dates from 2017 and the full post, featuring other blogger friends resplendent in reindeers, is here. The other two are from 208 (left) and last year (bottom right).

2019 Is Almost A Wrap

Well, it's almost over - Christmas 2019 and an entire decade.  Just New Year's Eve to go, and to be honest, Mr Mutton and I am usually in bed before midnight.

I took a break from blogging this month.  It was all getting too much.  Work is very full-on at the moment; there were a couple of US trips not too far apart, and the inevitable cold that follows from all the germs on the plane.

A brother-in-law died unexpectedly in December, in India, and one of the lovely sisters who runs my gym died, both in their 50s.  It makes you think how precious life is, and how we need to embrace it and do what we want to do.

I was seriously thinking about not blogging anymore because it takes a lot of time, time which I am constantly nagging myself should be spent doing housework / yoga / walking or gardening,  whichever task I'm feeling guilty about neglecting.

I'm also conscious that we shouldn't be buying so much "stuff," and people are quite judgmental now about women (and bloggers) buying clothes.  While I agree we should be more thoughtful about what we buy, and where from, let's not forget the fashion industry in the UK is worth 26 billion pounds with 800,000 people employed.

A lot of people who don't get blogging and think it a worthless vanity pursuit think that we do it because we must be very narcissistic. I'm quite introverted and I enjoy blogging as a way to show my "other" side, as well as making me feel less like a ghost, someone who glides through life without being noticed.

I also like flying the flag for women over 50 who are marginalized by society and either pigeon holed as grannies or "mutton dressed as lamb"  should we dare to wear anything short, clingy or low cut.

And I love the community of like-minded women that support each other, in the blogosphere and on Instagram.

Reviewing The Situation

So after Reviewing the Situation, as Fagin would say in Oliver!, I decided to carry on blogging, but more on my terms.  Working with brands is wonderful but I put a huge amount of effort into researching and creating the posts, so as a hobby blogger I'm going to stop working with brands unless it's one of my regulars or a clothes/beauty brand I really adore.

I'm going to do fewer "shoots" as I call them, with several pictures of one outfit.  I want to be a bit more relaxed about it all.  Instead, more posts about what I've been wearing day-to-day, which are more popular, and my "Five for FriYay" type posts where I write about five things that I'm liking. I'll also carry on with Sentence a Day - next one is published on 7 January - as it's a good forcing function to make me do things and get out and about.  My Christmas will be covered in that post which will feature December.

Today's outfit is a pair of old jeans from M&S - they remain my favourites - and last year's Christmas jumper, also from M&S.   I'll be back on Wednesday with the return of #WowOnWednesday.

If your New Year's Eve involves a party, a pub or fireworks, enjoy!  I will be glad to see the back of 2019 and look forward to putting up my new David Bowie calendar for 2020. I suspect New Year's Eve will be spent with Henry Cavill and The Witcher, with maybe a cheeky glass of champagne. Until then my friends, bye for now!

Sharing this post with Claire Justine, #sharealllinkup at Not Dressed as Lamb, Turning Heads Tuesday at Elegantly Dressed and Stylish, Top of the World Style at High Latitude Style, Visible Monday at Not Dead Yet Style,  Style with a smile at Stylesplash, Chic & Stylish at Mummabstylish, Linkup on the Edge at Shelbee on the Edge, Red Carpet Link Up at Glamadventure, Muttonstyle, Fancy Friday at Nancy's Fashion Style and #BloggerClubUk or #AnythingGoes at My Random Musings.

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