Girls Explorer Clothes

 

Yes I'm still on the subject of fashion! But this time kids, well girls to be exact. Diane von Furstenberg and Baby Gap’s “The Limited Edition Explorer Collection” was launched today and it is a wonderful collection of clothes. Now it might be something to do with the fact that I have a particular crush on yellow and green at the moment, or maybe that the large geometric patterns used remind me of some of the quilting fabric collections that are popular at the moment, either way I love this collection. It is full of colourful, exotic prints and patterns. It's modern, yet still has a lovely playful, young feel to it at the same time, which I think is often missing in kids clothes. The t-shirt style dress would be perfect for my 3 year old daughter. The simple design of the dress, does not restrict movement in anyway and is so easy to wear whether on its own or over shorts or leggings, exactly what an active little one needs! My favourite of the collection though is the shirt dresses I can imagine these looking beautiful on older girls, and I really wish, that they came in adult sizes as I'm sure they would look beautiful on us women too!

Salt Water Crush

After my last post on 'my summer wardrobe wish list' I got into a conversation on twitter about salt water sandals, and how much I wanted a pair. It seems from listening to others that once you have a pair, you want another and another, and the recommendations just kept coming! My OH doesn't quite get me when it comes to these sandals, when he first saw me looking at them he thought I was joking when I said I wanted a pair, asking why would I want a pair of sandals that look like something my granny would wear! And I guess in a way he is right, there design is certainly not outrageous or even modern, but it is the comfort that interests me and the fact that they are made to be worn and lived in, loving water and even being able to be machine washed and when you have 3 active kids to keep up with, these are all very good reasons to want a pair! So the only problem was, what colour!!

My first choice was tan. I have a thing about tan coloured sandals, well the colour does go with everything! But then again maybe navy would be nice, at this point I was still getting such odd looks from my OH!! And then I showed him the patent yellow pair, now there is nothing 'granny' about these!

I hope I made the right decision. I couldn't quite make my mind up with the yellow, it wasn't the colour it was the 'patent' leather that I kept wondering about, for me these would be daring!!! So I decided that as long as my first pair turn out to be good these will be purchased as my second pair!!
So in the end I chose, well I do like a bit of green!

I can't wait for them to arrive, and really hope I like my colour choice. Yes I am useless when it comes to shoe shopping, partly as I can't afford to buy too many pairs of shoes and partly because shopping online for shoes is difficult due to the lack of trying before you buy and especially as salt water sandals are not a usual UK size so I have my fingers crossed that they turn out right and that I fall in love with these sandals as much as others seem to have! I will let you know!

wishing of a summer wardrobe!

So the Easter holidays are over, kids have goon back to school this week and all in all I think we had a good break! We had some days out, even managed to get to the beach twice!! According to the kids the best thing about these trips were the ice creams, and I'd have to agree, I had a gooseberry fool ice cream that was simply delicious! Nothing like eating ice cream whilst trying to shelter on a freezing cold beach! We had lazy pyjama days and even got a lie in!
But did I get my job of sewing up stock for my shop done whilst it is closed? Of course not, lets just say that's still a work in progress, and my shops are still closed!
I did however manage to catch up on my blog reading, and really enjoyed Lou's post 'clothes' over on her 'little green shed' blog which is one of my favourite reads. I found myself nodding to what I was reading, and I agree whole heartily with Lou's clothing criteria which is;

* stylish
* cool
* well made (i.e. not going to fall apart after a few washes)
* timeless (I want to buy now and wear it still in 5 years time)
* not too young (I'm middle aged don't you know! and no using the word mutton)
* yet good for my low budget

So as I stood in front of my wardrobe this morning struggling to find something to wear, and thinking that it might be time to put the woolly jumpers to one side, oh yes the sun is out and there are signs of spring finally, I decided to do just as Lou had and create a
'summer wardrobe wish list!" So here goes, here's mine,

1.A pair of sandals, possibly Salt water, (oh yes I can't keep wearing my red DM boots! )
2.Short sleeved denim dress/tunic the sort of thing I can layer up or down
3.A mustard or green cardigan, to add some colour to my wardrobe
4.A pair of ankle skimmer trousers, love the look of the length of these, though I really struggle with buying trousers
5.Jersey dress to replace my people tree long sleeved jersey dress that has been a staple of my winter wardrobe
6.Failing the above a shirt dress
7.Jacket/blazer

I don't think this is asking for too much!  Of course I would be quite happy with the clothes in the images above, aren't they just lovely.
I really like the look of the mustard tie jacket with the wide legged trousers, though unfortunately I don't think my budget will stretch to the £159 price tag of the jacket! So what is your clothing wish list for the summer? I would love to know! And any suggestions on where to shop online would be great too!

Lucky Winnings!

I'm not an avid fan of facebook, I tend to dapple a bit here and there, I have a personal page purely because I have to, to be able to have a business page on there, and I'm not the best at keeping my 'A Crafty Hen' page up-to-date. I guess it's a bit like this blog, I tend to come and go! I suppose a lot of it is depends on how busy I am with work, the busier I am the less I blog or update my facebook page. This Easter I decided to close my shops so I could concentrate on the kids and also try and get some of the pressing jobs around the house done. Also having a little bit more spare time has meant I've had a chance to catch up on blog reading and to also explore other people's pages on facebook and that's when I found Beetle Cherry's page full of her wonderful illustrations, and her giveaway. And what a giveaway, for liking and sharing her page which I would have happily done anyway, I got entered into her giveaway and really couldn't believe my luck when she said I had won!

And here it is, amongst the gifts are gorgeous cards, that I can't imagine parting with!!
A lovely wooden feather brooch, that I can't wait to wear, and a beautiful print of a girl Dressed up as a Red Indian, which will go on my daughters wall along with some other cards and prints that I've been collecting for her. Such an amazing and generous giveaway, I feel very lucky to have been sent it. You can find Beetle Cherry's gorgeous items in here shop here I am very tempted to get this print for my sons bedroom 'The Tiny Boat' so they don't feel left out!