Black Trousers, by SHM Personal Styling

A faithful pair of black trousers can be relied on for almost all of your sartorial needs.

They can take you from the office, to lunches, to Saturday shopping trips to evening drinkies. And unlike the white shirt which we talked about last month that will grey and look tired over time, a pair of black trousers should last you several seasons. So it’s worth buying a good quality pair that you know will last longer than a handful of wash cycles.

You also need to consider the style or cut of trousers before you make any purchase. Does your body shape suit a straight leg, a Capri pant, a wide leg or a boot cut best? If you’re not sure think ‘Proportions’. Ultimately you are aiming for an equal balance between the top half of your frame and the bottom half of your frame. So if you look in a mirror and you appear to taper in to a cone or you look bottom heavy you may need to rethink your chosen trouser style.

In the ‘modelling’ pictures I’m wearing a great pair of black capri pants from Next at £38. Apologies for the slightly grainy picture quality, I think I must need a better camera – or maybe I just need a better photographer (sorry Mr H!)

For the office:
Wear your pair with a crisp, pretty coloured shirt tucked in to keep the look neat, a string of beads or necklace to add a bit of individuality and teamed with heels for an efficient professional look.

Office

Casual/weekend/shopping look:
Team your troos with a loose fitting v or round neck sweater, cosy it up with a scarf, flat comfy ballet pumps and a denim or leather biker jacket thrown over the top looks chic and stylish but relaxed. Accessorise with a cuff and oversized bag to stuff all your shopping goodies in!

Casual
For Evening wear:
Wear your pair with a dressier, evening top or silk shirt, add a statement belt in an animal or brightly coloured print, heels as high as you dare, pop on a fab pair of drop earrings or bling it up with a sparkly choker or ‘collar’ and you’re ready for the wine bar.

drinks

The lady who lunches:
A brightly coloured tailored jacket in a style that suits your frame, over the top of a simple T-shirt, teamed with a cute pair of ankle boots and a cocktail ring or cuff and off to your Lunch date you go. Enjoy!

lunch

All photo’s courtesy of Jemima and Sean!

Don’t forget to check Susannah’s Personal Styling, Online Services!

Month by month – December 2012

Christmas is in 4 sleeps! There is excitement all over.The boys can hardly contain theirs. For the last few days they have been tired, grumpy and constantly at each other’s throat. They have melt downs every time something is not going their way.

On the other hand this year Christmas is rather special. They have both been learning and singing Christmas songs as they come on the radio. Pretty much every day we have been “rocking around the Christmas tree”. I have watched them acting all grown up writing and distributing their Christmas cards. I have enjoyed reading Christmas stories and answering questions about Santa or Jesus.

They broke from school yesterday and with that starts a lot more fun in preparation to the big day.

They visited Santa this morning who reminded V that he should be going to bed without “Monkey Business”. Wow he’s good! He definitely hears and sees everything…

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We have so much planned for the coming two weeks, between baking, playing, friends and family gathering, going to the Pantomime and obviously Christmas and New Year we are nicely busy, let’s just hope we manage a bit of resting to sort out these foul moods in this house!

Aside of that is it possible for a child to grow 3 or 4 cm in a month?! Both boys have grown this much in the last month. As a result V is wearing E’s clothes and E has nothing to wear…
Nature should get a little more organised because that’s bloody annoying.
Well at least the sales are starting so I suppose the timing is not bad.

In a few days we will be in 2013, full of new plans and hopes.
My hopes for this new year is simply for my family and friends to remain healthy and happy. 2012 has too often showed us how life can suddenly end or be turned upside down when tragedy strikes.
My wish is to see much less of that for all of us.

So on this note I am off to spend time with my delicious boys and making the most of our first day of holiday.
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Our thoughts on our Camouflage Wigwam

The boys were recently given the opportunity to review a camouflage Wigwam from playhouse.co.uk which offers a wide range of beautiful and great quality playhouses.
They love creating dens, like any children I know, so they were really excited about it.

They are now 4 and 5 years old and they have outgrown their old play tent. Their garden playhouse, even though brilliant, is no longer holding any other interest than the one of climbing on the roof and risk an injury.

Once I advised our contact we were happy to review the wigwam, it was up in our lounge the following afternoon!
Yes in our lounge because I am not brave enough to put it up in the garden at the moment…

I put it up all by myself, barely needing instructions, which by the way are very easy to follow.

I was very pleased with the quality of the waterproof fabric and the finish of it all.

It is quite spacious for both my children who are now past the toddler size. They can both sit in comfortably with a LOT of toys.

If there was anything wrong with it it could be that it is slightly tricky to align the wooden poles so that the wigwam holds up nicely. Apart from that I can’t think of anything else.

Disclosure: we were offered the Camouflage Wigwam free of charge for this review.

The Camouflage Wigwam retails at £54.99 from playhouse.co.uk