Manchester

Saturday we had a very early start as hubby, me and my step-daughter were driving off to Manchester for the day. The reason behind our journey was to take step-daughter to an audition at a theatre school up there. Since hubby had only ever been to Manchester on business before though, we decided to make a day of it, to get up there early, check out the vintage shops and have a wander around the town centre.

Hubby looking dapper

By about 11am we were arriving in the big city, and for the next few hours we trawled all of the vintage shops around one small area of the city. Although I was really good and only bought a vintage silk scarf, it was not from lack of choice. I could quite easily have bought several dresses, and a beautiful welsh tweed cape that hubby managed to find in Afflecks but which was unfortunately out of my price range.

Vintage silk souvenir scarf

Once we'd grabbed some lunch in a pub, we walked step daughter back to the location of the theatre school before hubby and I ventured off to check out the rest of the city centre. Although, that was quite an ambitious aim since it's such a big city.

Hubby in front of the Manchester eye

The city is home to some beautiful buildings, and we enjoyed walking back. We took in a few shops, but once we got near the Cathedral, I decided that I'd quite like to go on the Manchester eye and check out the views from high up. I'm glad I did, it was a beautifully clear day and we could see not only the lovely Cathedral below us, but also the Pennine mountains out in the distance. It was a wonderful vantage point to view Manchester from.

Hubby on the Manchester eye

Me on the Manchester eye

The view down onto the Cathedral

Soon, it was time for us to head back for step-daughter, and to get the car and head home.

A Manchester icon - the Palace Hotel

 The drive back wasn't so bad, the weather was crisp and clear and I quite enjoyed getting to drive Granville such a long distance. We arrived home happy but tired, and I think hubby had worn all of the leather off the bottom of his boots we'd walked so far... but we both loved Manchester and can't wait to go back again sometime.

Shoe Challenge #2 - Suede boots

These boots were originally from Next, although I got them as part of a swap when I was a member of whatsmineisyours.com. They were new when I got them, but I've worn them over and over again, and even though they've seen better days, I'm loath to get rid of them as their so comfortable and warm.

Here I'm wearing them with a vintage frock I bought a couple of weeks back on a day out in Manchester. Another pair saved in the shoe challenge.

Day out in Manchester
Boots - Next; Tights - Primark; Dress - Vintage;
Waistcoat - Wallis (via charity shop); Leather Jacket - Gift
Bag - Charity shop

52 New Recipes Challenge - Week 7: Leek and Ham Risotto

Last night my Mum popped up for dinner, so I tried something I've never ever tried before, a risotto. It took me an age to hunt down some Arborio rice in Coventry, I finally found it in M&S, and this meal (I served it with garlic bread) went down really well, everyone loved it and I'd certainly try it again.

This does contain meat (again) but it could easily be made vegetarian by omitting the ham, perhaps replacing it with mushrooms.

Leek and Ham Risotto and Garlic Bread

Recipe taken from Healthy Eating; complete cookery

Ingredients


1 tbsp olive oil
25g butter
1 medium onion peeled and finely chopped
4 leeks trimmed and finely sliced
11/2 tbsp thyme
350g Arborio rice
2 1/4 pints chicken stock
225g chopped ham
175g peas, thawed if frozen
50g parmesan cheese

Note: I omitted the cheese, the dish still tasted delicious.

Method


1. Heat the oil and half the butter together in a large saucepan. Add the leek and onion and cook over a medium heat for 6-8 minutes, stirring occasionally until soft and beginning to colour. Stir in thyme and cook briefly.

2.  Add the rice and stir well. Continue stirring over a medium heat for about 1 minute until glossy. Add a ladleful or 2 of the stock and stir well until the stock is absorbed. Continue adding stock, a ladleful at a time, and stirring well between additions, until about two-thirds of the stock has been added.

3. Meanwhile either chop or finely shred the ham, then add to the saucepan of rice together with the peas. Continue adding ladlefuls of stock as described in step 2 until the rice is tender and the ham is heated thoroughly.

4. Add the remaining butter, sprinkle over the parmesan cheese and season to taste with salt and pepper. When the butter has melted and the cheese has softened, stir well to incorporate. Season and serve.

My own private wardrobe

Well folks, it’s been a fair few days since I last updated you. Sorry, I’ve not been neglecting you, but I’ve had such a busy week. Not busy in a bad way, but busy in a very tiring way.

I’m not sure whether I mentioned before, but early last year hubby and I got rid of our (impractical) vintage wardrobes. At the time, I had another wardrobe that I brought into our bedroom, and it had been the intention to buy a new one for hubby. In the meantime, hubby and I were sharing… I’m sure readers that you will understand my pain! Anyway, prior to this week, the wardrobe looked something like this!

The left half of the wardrobe is filled with hubby's clothes. 

Early in the week hubby managed to secure this lovely shabby chic wardrobe through eBay, so Tuesday evening we took Granville over to Leicestershire to collect it.

New Wardrobe

The house where we bought it from was beautiful, and the lady had the most gorgeous St. Bernard too, which wanted nothing but love and fuss from us. I’d have quite happily taken her home too… although Prudence wouldn’t have been best pleased if I’d have rolled up with a new dog girl.

Anyway, Tuesday evening was spent trying to get the wardrobe up the stairs… which in itself was no mean feat.

By the time Wednesday came I was exhausted, but managed to escape from my busy workload in the office for a lunchtime jaunt to the charity shops, where I managed to secure something I’ve been looking for for sometime now, a spring trench coat. I was so pleased to find this vintage St. Michael treasure for a mere £8.99… I love the colour, and the buttons and the fact that it doesn’t look like something worn by Columbo or Inspector Clousaeu. I need to let the sleeves down slightly to accommodate my long arms, and it needs a clean, but I think I’ll get lots of wear out of this just as soon as spring arrives.

Vintage trench coat £8.99

Wednesday evening was spent rearranging our bedroom to put the new wardrobe in, and then hubby and I could merrily start to fill our respective wardrobes up. The room looks fab now, and feels much bigger than the way it was configured before. Unfortunately, while we’d been sorting out our own room, we’d managed to fill each of the other bedrooms, and much of the landing area with junk.

Thursday I was in London for a work thing, but I was still home at the normal time and before I had a chance to breathe we were back to sorting out upstairs again. This time going through the rubbish that had scattered into other rooms while we were sorting our own out. The things I seem to hoard are truly bizarre… posh paper carrier bags from boutiques were something I had a pile of, along with about 400 boxes of paracetemol, some of which were out of date. Notebooks by the truckload, and a fair selection of cosmetics that have gone unused for significant amounts of time all made me realise just how bad I am. Hubby’s was pretty much all paperwork… stacks and stacks of it, so Thursday night a good proportion of our house went in the bin! On top of this, I chose to sort out my (now more spacious) chest of drawers, filling a bin bag for the local charity shop and stumbling upon clothes I didn’t even know I had… including a striped top that was remarkably similar to the one I bought only last week. It just goes to show how you can end up buying similar things over and over again because you just don’t know what you’ve got.

A better organised wardrobe, and it's all mine

Anyway, the end of the week is finally here, and now I’m confident that not only is our bedroom 100 times better than it has ever been as long as we’ve lived in that house, but both of us have adequate space for our clothes and accessories (apart from my shoe collection which I still need to address), and now I’ve got my own wardrobe I’ll need to find something else to moan about!

Car quotes, shopping and boot sales

Friday evening, and much of Saturday morning turned out to be a bit of a pain while hubby and I trotted around car repair centres getting quotes on doing some work on our Mini before returning it to the dealer. Once hubby and I had done what we had to do in the AM, I decided that Mum and I would potter over to Solihull for the afternoon, being as much of it is under cover and the weather was pants, and actually I do quite like Solihull anyway.

Mum and I were there by mid-afternoon, and after our customary cappuccino we hit the shops. Mum managed to bag herself a wonderful frock from Coast, which she was totally made up with. I on the other hand spent an age in Aspire Style's shop, the one in Solihull I hadn't been to before, but it's fabulous, it's surely the best of their boutiques as it's so light and airy and full of lovely stuff to tempt me, like this dress:

Darling Bridgette Dress from Aspire Style

This dress

Tara Starlet Dress from Aspire Style

And this book that I certainly want to buy after pay day.

Following on we trawled through all the shops, where I also fell in love with a Laura Ashley dress that I can't find anywhere on the internet to show you. It's out of my price range but I'll keeping my eyes peeled for it in the next sale.

Once we reached Hobbs, it dawned on me that I'd got a giftcard from an issue of RED magazine I'd had while I was ill last week. There still wasn't a great deal in Hobbs that I could afford, even with the massive £25 discount, but I found this lovely top. I love Breton stripe and I think it's a staple in any wardrobe so this one with the notable red stripe really rocked my world. I know what you're thinking, it's just a T-shirt, but it's the quality of it that's amazing.

Saturday evening was pretty chilled. Hubby had dinner almost ready for me when I got home from shopping. After dinner I thought I'd pay some much overdue attention to my poor peeling nails, before making a start on my next book, Salem's lot by Stephen King.

Sunday morning, we were up bright and early to head off to a car boot sale, where we were meant to be meeting my favourite cousin... lord knows what happened to favourite cousin, as she never turned up, but frankly she didn't miss much as it was a bit of a wash out. Once we returned home on Sunday,  poor old hubby had to lie on the sofa for much of the afternoon with some nasty allergy... so I took the time to read, cook and repair some frocks. I'm terrible for leaving my repairs to pile up for months, but the thing is by doing that I'm essentially taking some of my clothes out of action so I really must get into better habits where repairs are concerned.

Anyway, so there you go, fairly quiet and unassuming weekend but at least I got a nice T-shirt... and a mammoth wishlist out of it.

Shoe Challenge #1 - Doc Martens

Well, everyone else had started posting their first shoe challenge posts almost a week ago... but you know me, disorganised as ever. Not to worry though, I finally got around to it and saved my first pair of boots from certain death.

At Stoneleigh Park for the car boot sale - 20th Feb 2011
Boots - Doc Martens, Jeggings - Primark, Jumper - Vintage,
Jacket - Army Surplus customised, Bag - kipling,
Hat - Portsmouth, Scarf - Paris

I love these boots, they are actually pink although the colour of the leather has darkened over time. They're now about 3.5 years old and while they won't win any prizes in the glamour stakes, they certainly win every prize in the warm and comfy feet stakes. So comfy are these boots that when my wedding shoes got too uncomfortable, I slipped these babies on under my wedding dress.

Shoe Challenge #1 - Doc Martens

Recently, just to update them a bit, I've swapped the laces for pink ribbon and wear them a bit loser like work boots.

Long live the DM, and the first of my collection to be saved in this years shoe challenge.

Selling on eBay

Just a couple of things I've posted on eBay... time to start selling off my surplus bits and bobs again but I think I'll do it bit by bit this time.

Check out the listings here.

Princess Prudence eBay listings.

52 New Recipes Challenge - Week 6: Red Lentil and Sweet Potato Curry

This meal had the potential to be delicious, but the original recipe (which I followed and give here) just ended up being far too bland and unenjoyable. My recommendations would be that if you fancy giving this vegetarian recipe a go that perhaps you add a few more onions, a red chilli, some more curry powder and maybe a few more herbs and spices because this could've been a really delicious meal... but it wasn't.

Red Lentil and Sweet Potato Curry

Ingredients. 


2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 medium onion chopped
Coarse sea salt
1 medium sweet potato peeled and cut into 1 inch chunks
1 (1 inch) piece of fresh ginger, peeled and chopped
1 large garlic clove chopped
1 tbsp curry powder
1 bay leaf
11/2 cups of red lentils

Method


1. In kettle bring 3.5 cups of water to the boil
2. In a large saucepan over a high heat warm the oil. Add the onion and a pinch of salt and saute, stirring occasionally until the onion softens.
3. Add the sweet potato, ginger, garlic, curry powder and bay leaf and saute until fragrant... around 1 minute. Pour in the boiling water and stir in the lentils. Reduce the heat to medium low, cover and simmer until the lentils break down and the potatoes are tender, 18-20 minutes. Season with salt.

Serve with rice or pitta.

Recipe from www.treehugger.com

In light of the fact that I don't think I'm doing too good on the vegetarian recipes with my challenge, and that I missed a week out last week too, I'd like to invite one of my blog readers to do me a guest post of a vegetarian recipe. If you would like to do that, then tell me the name only of the recipe you would blog for me in the comments section below. The one I like the sound of most, is the one I'll pick, and get you to write up for me... totally arbitrary I know but hey... if you want a good vegetarian recipe I think I need help.

Book Review: Hedge Fund Wives - Tatiana Boncompagni

If you are a regular reader of my blog, and are familiar with my book reviews, you’ll probably realise that in terms of books I’m a pretty easy person to please. If it’s a nice story, written well, then I’ll enjoy it… and tell you all that I enjoy it too. Furthermore, there’s nothing like a really frivolous book to make me smile. Rarely does a book come along that makes me so angry that I want to throw it up the wall. The thing was, this book was so anger inducing that I felt compelled to finish it because I wanted to see if it got any better, it really didn’t!

So, what made me so angry? I hear you ask. Well, it’s the fact that the author has lazily resorted to classic stereotypes of womens characters, which actually do no favours for women at all. I don’t count myself as an outspoken feminist, but this book could certainly turn me into one. The women of this story fall into the categories of bitchy, needy, subservient and slutty (homewrecker). The men are the money makers (obviously being hedge fund managers in New York) and the women are frankly willing to put up with any amount of their husbands ignoring them, verbal abuse and adultery just as long as they can hold onto them and their bank accounts that allow them long shopping trips in Bergdorf Goodman! The books looks as if it’s going to start out well, with the lead character Marcy thrown into this world when her husband bags a great job at a New York investment bank. It quickly descends though into him become a complete dick, and her becoming a really needy and unlikeable character. Perhaps that’s my problem, I never bonded with any of the characters in the first place. I can see that maybe the author was trying to show the ugly reality of a life where money is centre stage, but for me it just didn’t work. Ok, so eventually Marcy manages to carve out a life and a very successful career of her own, but it’s thrown into the final few chapters and is more out of necessity than anything. Too little too late.

For me, this book will be going right back to the charity shop, which thankfully is where I bought it from. I would suggest that if pigeonholing women into stereotypical and damaging categories is something that would annoy you, then you probably want to avoid this one… if you like reading about characters that will do anything for money over and above love and friendship, then yes… this is the book for you!

Granville

On Saturday , Hubby and I picked up our newest edition to the family.

New Wheels

Meet our 2002 Rover 75 Tourer, Granville.

Granville - Our Rover 75 Tourer

Why have we called him Granville? It was his former owners name, and we just thought it was too cool a name to let pass by.

Doesn't he suit it?

There is bags of space, and he's diesel too, so he'll run forever on a tank of fuel!

Massive boot space for Pru and Alfie and even Bailey if he's good

The whole family loves him, and we all went for little trips out on Saturday.

Luxuriously spacious cockpit

But not on Sunday because I was poorly sick and couldn't leave the house... not even to go to the super posh hotel restaurant for Valentines day, which was what we had planned.

It would've been better to photograph him before he'd been up the motorway and got muddy

Never mind though, at least we got Granville.

Retro dials and walnut dash

Since Rover no longer exist, the Rover 75 is something of a Classic in the making, so we joined the Rover 75 owners club too.

Valentines Outfit Inspiration

Yes, I've been playing with Polyvore again. I've put this together as an inspiration for my Valentines Sunday lunch date with lovely hubby. Just to reiterate, I don't have any of these lovely items, they are just pure inspiration.

Valentines Day by PrincessPrudence featuring black leather shoes

Apologies

I had the best of intentions this week. I'd got everything planned out that I was going to do. I had picked my vegetarian recipe for my 52 recipes challenge, I'm almost finished my book so I was going to do you a review and I was even going to finish hubby's last waistcoat (yes, those were his Christmas presents) and post photographs of that. The fact of the matter is though, ever since we laid eyes on our new car our week has been non-stop. I've spent most afternoons this week sat in a bank of one description or another... scarily most of my day yesterday was spent in a bank with hubby after he'd discovered some suspect activity on his bank account. We've been trying to sort out insurance for our new car, sort out what's happening with our old car, get our other finances in order and actually just about find time to fit a dinner and walking the dogs in too. Now, I can see why until now I've avoided financial management... it's an absolute headache.

Anyway, I wanted to apologise for what is going to be my absence from blogland for the next few days, and apologise for the lack of a recipe, or anything. The weekend will be shaping up to be quite exciting, and providing I've got my brain to work next week after all of the number crunching then normal service will be resumed.

New frock, new skirt, new wheels!

Well, what a weekend. It’s been so jam packed that I didn’t even have time to blog about it until now.

Friday evening was delightfully relaxed. I’ve been suffering with sinusitis for some time, so I’d booked an appointment with a local complimentary therapist to have Hopi Ear candles done. I’d had them done before a few years back, and they’d eased my sinusitis then too. Anyway, it was a lovely treatment and I was in a good hour having my sinus pressure points massaged. By the time I got home I felt so laid back that I couldn’t really be bothered to do anything.

Saturday morning I was up nice and early and headed off to town with hubby to do a few messages, followed by an unhealthy breakfast at the market café. While there, hubby got talking in depth to the guy on the homebrewing stall and now has a yearning to brew his own ale. During the afternoon hubby set off to visit the inlaws, and Mum came into town to meet me. After a brief potter around town we went to IKEA as I was desperate to get some more storage boxes to store my ever increasing collection of handbags in. I always look yearningly at the wardrobe combinations in IKEA and mentally plan what I would buy if we had the space for a walk in wardrobe. We’ve already decided if we could have our dream house it would have a photographic studio and darkroom for hubby (although in truth I would use it too, I love darkroom work), and a walk in wardrobe and craft and hobby room for me! It’s nice to dream. Anyway, it wasn’t too late by the time I was home, and again I just did pretty much nothing all evening.

Sunday morning we had an early appointment at the MINI garage to discuss our options now that we’re coming to the end of our agreement. Feeling as if we were lambs to the slaughter, we were pleasantly surprised to find out that come March we can just hand the car back and owe nothing. With a sense of joy and disbelief we set off to see if we could find an inexpensive diesel estate car in some of the local dealerships. Unfortunately we were out of luck, so we set off to the vintage flea market at Browns.

We didn’t know what to expect of the vintage flea market. We’d been to a vintage fair last summer in Coventry and it was a bit of a flop, so we weren’t sure whether this would be the same. Thankfully it wasn’t, it was really good. About half of the upstairs area of the pub is taken up with stalls selling vintage clothes, bags, jewellery and the odd bit of bric-a-brac. I had intended to be really good, but almost immediately I stumbled upon this mint condition Stratton lipview, still boxed. I managed to get it for £5, and was happy.

Stratton lipview
Sorry for the blurry pic

Then hubby drew my attention to a pile of vintage sewing patterns at £1 each, so I only bought 2, that was it, I wasn’t going to buy any more.

Vintage patterns

I tried a couple of dresses on, but they didn’t fit me nicely. Then I stumbled upon this skirt and immediately fell in love with the fantastic design, the lady let me have it for £5. That was it; I definitely wasn’t going to buy any more.

New Skirt, isn't it fab?

Then I found this granny chic frock… I fell in love with the big butterflies on it and the beautiful colour and it fit me so nicely. The lady let me have it for £7…. I thought I should leave the sale!

Frock me, I'm broke!!

Hubby decided that, rather than get a drink where we were, we’d head on over to the Nursery for a Sunday afternoon pint. On our way driving through Earlsdon, I let out a yelp of joy when I saw an estate car on a dealer’s forecourt. Imagine our joy when we examined it to find out that not only was it diesel, and spot less clean, but it had low mileage and was in our price range. We spent at least 2 hours at the dealership, test driving, examining, and talking it through, before we left our deposit on the car. It's a 2002 Rover 75 Tourer, and a bit of post purchase research has unearthed that it seems to be a future vintage. Result. We were both walking on air knowing that we’d found our car… and after years of going around in a mini with 2 dogs, 2 kids and camping stuff to cart around, this is going to be pure luxury.

After all our work at the dealers was done, we collected Mum and brought her home with us for a lovely Chicken salad (I’m getting fed up of roast dinners), and spent the rest of the evening just being very chilled, and very happy… oh and washing all those clothes I accidentally bought at the vintage sale.

52 New Recipes Challenge - Week 5: Moroccan Chicken Soup

Moroccan chicken soup with crusty bread

I'm sorry vegetarian followers, I've done a wave of meat based dished these past couple of weeks. I promise a vegetarian recipe next week.

Sunday I cooked a roast chicken, and I always like to try and make it go as far as possible, usually by using it in a delicious curry on Monday. This week though I cooked this soup instead, my word it was delicious and terribly filling too.

Taken from the New Soup Bible by Anne Sheasby



Moroccan Chicken Soup


Serves 6


Ingredients:


50g/ 2oz butter
450g/ 1lb chicken breasts cut into strips
1 onion chopped
2 garlic cloves crushed
7.5ml/ 1.5 tsp plain flour
15ml/ 1tbsp harissa
1 litre/ 1 3/4 pints chicken stock
400g/ 14oz can chopped tomatoes
400g/ 14oz can chickpeas drained and rinsed
salt and ground black pepper

Method:


1. Melt the butter in a large heavy based pan. Add the chicken strips and cook for 5 - 6 minutes, turning with a wooden spatula until beginning to brown. Use a slotted spoon to remove the chicken from the pan and set aside.

2. Add the onion and garlic to the pan and cook over a gentle heat for 4-5 minutes until softened but not brown.

3. Stir in the flour and cook for 3-4 minutes, stirring continuously until beginning to brown.

4. Stir in the harissa and cook for a further 1 minute. Gradually pour in the stock and cook for 2-3 minutes, until slightly thickened. Stir in the tomatoes.

5. Return the chicken to the soup and add the chickpeas. Cover and cook over a low heat for 20 minutes.

6. Season with salt and pepper and serve with lovely crusty bread.

Stylish Blogger Award

Yesterday's outfit:
Boots - Duo Boots; Skirt - Car Boot Sale; Top Gift; Scarf - Vintage Jacqmar

Yesterday the lovely Roisin awarded me a stylish blogger award. The rules are that you have to link back to the person who gave you the award, you have to divulge seven facts about yourself, and you have to nominate seven other bloggers for the award. So, after much thinking here are seven little known facts that you may or may not be interested to know:

1. When I left home I couldn’t cook

When I lived at home my mum (a fabulous cook) was in charge of all of the cooking. My few and far between attempts resulted in a fire in the kitchen (when attempting to cook stir fry), a completely inedible lamb chop (it was so hard it could have been used to hammer nails into the wall), rock cakes like rocks, and a salad with the wrong end of the spring onions in it (I threw the right end in the bin as I thought that was the end you got rid of)… So when I tell my step-daughter that anyone can learn how to cook, I speak from experience.

2. When I was a little girl I wanted to grow up to be Amii Stewart

I was in awe of the disco queen Amii Stewart and will never forget the day that my Mum had to break it to me that I was never going to look just like Amii Stewart.

3. I’m a tomboy

Short hair, all the better for climbing trees with

My love of all things pretty these days would never hint at a childhood spent climbing trees, falling off bikes (this was a regular occurrence), riding my Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles skateboard and playing football, but the fact of the matter is given the opportunity I’d still happily scale a tree and sit at the top looking out at the world… just now I’d do it in a posh frock and heels rather than a scruffy tracksuit.

4. I hate baked beans

I love most food and will try anything once, but I really don’t like baked beans. I don’t know what it is, it’s not like they make me feel sick or anything but I just don’t like them. This little fact means that the rest of my household views me as a bit of a freak.

5. I’ve met Stephen Fry and Colin Firth

Me with Mr. Fry

My good friend Mrs P-J managed to get me and Mum tickets to the premier of Nanny McPhee many years ago, where we rubbed shoulders with Mr. Fry (probably the most polite man I’ve ever met) and Colin Firth. Mum has a photograph of her with Colin Firth, it’s her most prized possession.

I also passed Richard E. Grant outside Leicester Square tube station when I was on a school trip.

6. I bit my nails until I was about 15

All through my childhood and much of my teenage years I used to bite my nails. My mum tried stop bite and all sorts and it didn’t work, then one day in my late teenage years I just decided that I wanted long nails and stopped. I still bite them sometimes when I’m very stressed, but in general I keep them on the longer side.

7. I’ve never been to Ireland

Despite having an Irish husband, and an Irish heritage of my own I’ve never ever been to the emerald isle. I’d love to go, I reckon I’d love it so who knows, maybe sometime soon I’ll get there.

I'm passing this award on to all the stylish and lovely people of blog land, there's too many of you to whittle down to a mere 7.

Shoe Challenge - The Sequel

Last year I signed up to Shoeperwoman’s shoe challenge. I was sure that with my limited shoe collection, and a whole year in which to do it that it would be a fun thing to do. Alas, at some point that I can’t detect, around half way through the year I went AWOL on the shoe challenge, and never really managed to find my path again. Don’t ask me how Shoeperwoman managed to achieve her goal with her extensive shoe wardrobe when I couldn’t even manage to wear all of my offering in the allotted time. Anyway, since then I’ve gained some more shoes, and I’ve lost some others (not literally lost them, I’m actually quite good at keeping both shoes on my feet most of the time, but I have given some away to charity or sold them on eBay). As luck would have it, Shoeperwoman is running the shoe challenge again this year and seeking participants, and so I thought that I would take part and this time try to put a real effort into wearing every single pair of shoes I own. The rules are simple, if you don’t use it you lose it, and everything you do wear must be documented with a photograph. Anything you don’t wear in the course of the challenge must be sold, binned or given away at the end of it, and there’s no restrictions to buying more shoes during the challenge, so long as you wear them during the challenge too.

The challenge starts on February 14th, and I’m starting the challenge with 27 pairs of shoes and boots, shown below. (look away now hubby dearest)

Not included in these photographs is my Doc Martens, I can't find them
Don't I own a lot of sandals for someone who lives in the Northern Hemisphere?

It’s perfectly viable according to the rules to have footwear that is outside of the challenge too, so for my part the following will not be included:

My Louis Vuitton Cherry Blossom shoes – These no longer fit me but I can’t bear to part with them and so they are now for purely ornamental use.

My Louis Vuittons live in a cake bell in the dining room. 

1 pair of trainers
1 pair of Wellington boots
1 pair of hiking boots.

From this challenge, I’m hoping to rediscover my shoe collection and wear some of the shoes that have lain unloved in the back of my wardrobe for far too long. I’m also hoping to reignite my love of heels, and to be more aware of what I’ve got, buying what I need to fill gaps rather than whatever is that weeks bargain.

If you want to join in then hop on over to Shoeperwoman's blog and sign up.