If you leave your Christmas shopping till the last minute...

....the chances of everything having sold out are high.  Very very high indeed apparently. 

Thankfully, I have managed to snaffle everything for the kids and The Husband (excellent Lyle & Scott selection on ASOS if anyone is interested.  I seem to be ordering so much from their recently, I've just signed up for their next day delivery service for a year.  My pleather dresses arrived today - so looking forward to trying them on.  One of them may gazzump my black jumpsuit for Saturday night - no fake tan needed with a dress, much less arm on show.  My laziness knows no bounds)

But I may have heard on the grapevine (gotta love close friends haven't you?) that my list needs bolstering a bit (jumps up and down with excitement and gets to seriously thinking about a fabulous pressie)

Ok, so I thought I'd aim high to begin with.  I suddenly remembered a coat that I saw back in Italy in September and guffawed at, at the time, it being about 90 degrees and all that. However with my new found coat obsession, and The Husband being a huge Maxmara fan (he has his foibles), I thought it was definitely worth chancing my luck. 

Well that thought lasted all of about the five minutes it took to do my research.  The coat that I had set my heart on (yes I know - all a bit last minute but I did go from hmmm that would be nice, to hmmmm yes I Need that coat) was the Teddy Bear Coat from Maxmara.  Randomly I didn't know what it was called but knew that it did look like a giant teddy bear so thought I'd start with googling it.  And what do you know - if it looks like a teddy bear and smells like a teddy bear, it's probably going to be called a Teddy Bear coat.  And it is!

That was where my luck began and ended. 

A) It was £1500
B) I say "was" as it's now sold out everywhere
C) Kim Kardashian has one. 

Dream. Over. 

Note to self - I must remember to tell The Husband that it's sold out everywhere and not to google as I'd be super gutted if I ended up with one of these under the tree. 




Next.

So I put coat thoughts aside and moved swiftly on to bags.  Oh yes, bags, bags, bags.  One can never have enough and they are my biggest luxury bar none (certainly compared to my coat purchasing, that's for sure - I keep catching glimpses of that awful picture above and I fear it may give me nightmares - huge apologies if anyone else is adversely affected) 

With the success of my coat wish list shopping (not), ringing in my ears, I thought, I'd stick with the tan theme.

I have two tan, as in a chestnut tan, bags (so another one would seem excessive - errr) both of which I do still use and love.  But they are both 5 years old, have been used to death and to be honest, owe me nothing now.  Plus I can still use them but a new one wouldn't go amiss. 

I aimed medium high.   A bag I'd seen a few months ago in Harrods - a gorgeous Tory Burch bag called the Thea Satchel in tan (I seem to recall it being darker than this but this was the only pic that I could find - you can see where this is going, can't you?)



This is it in the blue 



And I had thought it had sold out.  In my defence, it has sold out at Harrods (which has the best Tory Burch selection online) and it definitely wasn't on the TB website yesterday but it appears to be there today.  Ummmm.  Although I could still do with it being a sightly darker tan.

So, cracking on with my "thinking it's sold out" (this is going slightly wrong but hey ho), I thought, sod aiming medium, aim HIGH.  This is also after spending four hours wrapping the kids Christmas presents which the Big Man in red himself gets all the credit for anyway (and no they don't have loads - it's just that I wrap everything.  A rather ridiculous tradition to start all those years ago but big up me, for once - and I mean seriously the first time ever - I haven't left it till Christmas Eve).  So feeling rather smug, I thought, hell, I'm going Chloe. 

Fired off an email to The Husband with the following details.  But the Whisky colour - I want a tan, not a pale camel.  Nothing like being pedantic in my fantasies. 


Chloe New Marcie Satchel



In berry red  Another lovely colour although I do think I'd get more use out of a classic tan.



Suffice to say, he was been very silent in his response.  Which either means

A) he's not yet opened it as it's not remotely on his radar of important (high possibility) 
B) he's read it, guffawed and deleted it (high possibility) 
C) he's ordered it (absolutely zero possibility) 

So whilst we're here, if it's not a Chloe, here are some of my "a girl can dream" bags.

The Givenchy Nightingale  in elephant grey.  I love this bag.  I do like it in the grey, don't need it in the grey but wouldn't sniff at it in the grey.  This is the bag I have been hankering after - alongside the Chloe Marcie Satchel - for years.  Tis a real toss up between the two but the Chloe wins as they have a much better colour selection for my (imaginary) purposes.

Givenchy Chloe were always almost double the cost of a Mulberry bag.  But now - go figure, Mulberry bags are generally more expensive.  Personally it leaves a really bitter taste in my mouth - I can't see that their quality has improved any - yes the brand has become more popular but the extraordinary hike in prices, I find unacceptable.  




In Beige Camel   This is a gorgeous gorgeous colour but for me, too similar to my beloved Anya Hindmarch satchel in stone. 




Medium Nightingale Shoulder bag in black   This would probably be higher on my list of wants if I hadn't got the black Wang which I have to say, I adore and have no regrets about tracking down for a much reduced price. 






Now back to reality and here is where my poor Husband does have his work cut out.  When thinking about what did I really "need" the answer was a scarf.  A black scarf.  Which, it turns out, are as hard to track down as a black dress and a black jumper.  Just plain old black is not nearly as conspicuous as one would think. 

Still thinking about aiming ridiculously high, I had considered the black version of my sand coloured Louis Vuitton one - a true classic. 

But then I happened to be in Mint Velvet and saw this scarf in camel which is just too too gorgeous.  It looks so much more impressive in real life and a bargain for the price. 

Oatmeal Textured scarf - £29.00





Lo and behold they had it in black as well.  Exactly what I was looking for and a tenth of the price of the LV one (less actually).  It was the last one they had in store so obviously I had to buy it there and then (sorry Husband).  It does generally work out that anything I have on a wish list that's affordable, sort of gets purchased.  Oops. 

Black Textured scarf - £29.00


The other scarf I saw in there which is completely gorgeous and again, the photo doesn't do it justice (and I totally cannot justify another grey scarf - darn it) is this Granite Pom Pom Scarf at £39.99




So there we have it.  My wish list is very much written with the following saying in mind.

"Always aim for the moon, even if you miss, you'll land among the stars". I'm sure I will get some lovely things, I really have no expectations of any expensive bag or coat at all.  To be fair, before I knew he was looking for ideas, my list did consist of an Electric Clothes Airer (heated.... from Lakeland.... you all know you secretly want one......) 

Finishing with my outfits from the last couple of days - busy busy, buying presents, wrapping and trying to catch up with people before the kids finish school on Friday. 

A day out with friends on Tuesday.  And apologies for the absolutely appalling quality of the photos - I am currently a) using an old iphone which is begging to be put out to pasture - voicing its distaste at having been dragged out of retirement by taking crap photos and b) for some random reason known to a technically minded individual, which I am not, Flickr has decided to change some of its settings for when I upload.  I apologise.  Hopefully you get the drift of the outfits though xx




Wine and bone breton top - Massimo Dutti
Real Straight jeans rolled up - Gap
Quilted leather jacket - Massimo Dutti
Tan Cypress boots - Acne
Fairisle snood - Aubin & Wills
Stone maxi zip satchel - Anya Hindmarch

And the final bits of shopping yesterday in Tunbridge Wells with one of my besties.  Lovely lunch before the madness kicks in properly on Friday. 


Dark Denim shirt - New Look Mens
Leopard print sweatshirt - Zara
Distressed Biker jeans - By Malene Birger
Suede & Patent boots - LK Bennett
Black peacoat with big buttons - Zara
Leather cuff - Hultquist

And last night for a fantastic Cheese & Wine party at a very good friend's house


Silk blouse & matching ra ra skirt - Isabel Marant
120 Denier tights - TopShop
Black leather Margo boots - Sam Edelman
Crystal and leather cuff - Victoria Emerson
Black clutch - Tory Burch

Right - now this Sales shopping is getting out of hand - they've started everywhere and I'm starting to panic.  And panic sales shopping is a Very.  Bad.  Thing.  I need to give myself a good talking to and make a list.  I'm going to be the Santa of sales.  I'm going to make a list and i'm going to be checking it twice.  Nothing shall be purchased which isn't on the list.  

I shall also be taking inspiration from my new Style crush - next post will be a reveal and my Sales Manifest - it's all going to work out swimmingly..... (famous, famous last words......) 

So what you have got on your Christmas list?  Last min ideas please!