Shopping and - shopping

I've been shopping, thanks to my Mum's generosity. She offered to get me a new outfit since my diet has been going so well and my smarter clothes don't fit properly anymore. (As an aside, I've so got to go through my wardrobe and throw things out - the white tshirt I pulled out today in a fit of laziness is huge.) It's partly a congratulations thing and partly because I have an interview on Monday. So yesterday I spent a frustrating couple of hours wandering around most of the shops in town.

My main trouble is, I usually have an idea of what I want and then have immense difficulty finding it. I had in mind beige trousers and a linen top, either in dark brown or a dark orange or, for preference, a combination of the two. Next had precisely nothing I wanted to try, although there was a pair of trousers in a greyish almost tarten kind of pattern that I put on my if-I-can't-find-anything-else list. Marks & Spencers came up trumps though, and I tried on three pairs in there before settling on a side fastening pair (size 10!). The top was the nightmare though. I know it's the summer, but we don't all want spaghetti strap tops. There were a couple of things here and there that it might have been possible to settle for, but since I can't really recall what they were like they obviously didn't grab my attention much.

As I had only put two hours in the car park I eventually wended my way home but decided to stop at Starbucks for a short, skinny cappucino and a ginger crunch biscuit then had a wander round the clothes section in Sainsbury's - and found two tops to choose from. One was a terracotta sort of colour, button down, coming down to just below my hips, while the other was a dark brown tunic with a beaded belt. Settled on the terracotta because that was the sort of colour I had had in mind to start with, but thanks to an unexpected cheque for £100 from Dad which arrived today I went back and bought the tunic.

Today's shopping expedition, in addition to the tunic, was to find a pair of trousers like the ones I bought yesterday but in a dark brown or black. Sadly M&S let me down this time - the only side fastening black trousers I could find were in the sort of material leggings are made from. No thanks. It was success in Debenhams this time, although these are front fastening. They aren't too bulky though. Mum thought I should have an alternative option to the light colour in case it rains on Monday. She also told me to get a handbag. It was a bit disappointing in terms of what was available, but I settled on a snakeskin bag with dark brown leather trimming. Should work fine with either combination of clothes. And the snakeskin look will go well with the utterly, utterly awesome pair of shoes I found in the sale in Faith. Check these out:

Aren't they fabulous? Now, a top in those colours would have been ideal!