Memorandum Monday - the Festive edition

Every Monday Sian asks us to put our thinking caps on and blog about something we've learned or done for the first time over the weekend.  Sometimes that is easier than others, and this is an easy week, because this weekend

 

I bought my very first Christmas jumper

 

I know.  I must be the only person who did not own a Christmas jumper.  It's become a bit of a school tradition now to have a Christmas jumper day at the end of the Autumn term and every previous year I have worn a 'home styled' jumper - an old red jumper of Rachel's that we customised with a pair of reindeer shaped mittens.  This year I decided that the time had come to jump on the jumper bandwagon and buy a 'proper' one.  I didn't want to spend much on it because let's be honest - it's not going to be worn much.

 

Whilst doing my weekly shop in that classy well known boutique, 'Tesco', I saw this jumper and after a lot of deliberating, brought it home with me.  It lovely and soft, and lightweight and I do think the little characters are kind of cute so I feel like I've finally embraced the craze.  Which means that next year there'll be a new 'thing' and Christmas jumpers will be so last year.

 

Update on last week's post where we thought we had found 'the dress'. 

 

I'm a firm believer that before you buy something expensive or arrange for something expensive to be done, you need to try three places.  So, last week we went to two bridal shops - one dress was shortlisted but when we got home, Rachel just had the tiniest of reservations.  It was stunning, it made us all go 'wow' and it brought a tear to my eye.  But it was very unusual and that was her concern, was it too unusual?  It's going to be the most expensive dress she ever buys  I ever buy her, so she's got to be 100%.  So she made an appointment to view some dresses at a very small local shop in town.  The owner told her to look at the website before she came and give her an idea of designers and styles that she liked.  Rachel was slightly underwhelmed by the dresses on the website and didn't hold out much hope that it would be a successful mission and was already looking to visit somewhere further afield next week.

 

After a brief chat about likes and dislikes, asking Rachel to stand up and turn this way and that, putting her hair up and then letting it down, the owner flicked through the dresses on the rails (quite different to the other shops where we were left to our own devices to pick and choose).  After a lot of swishing of hangers and umming and ahhing she gathered about 5 dresses that she thought were right.  We were ushered through to the back, Rachel was taken into a large changing room behind a crushed red velvet curtain and after a few minutes the curtain flicked back and ... WOW.  Oh my goodness, that lady knew exactly what was needed.  The first dress just fitted and suited her perfectly and whilst still the same silhouette as last weeks, was just so classy and the fabric just hung so beautifully.  It's unusual without being too quirky and despite trying on the other dresses, we all knew that the first one was THE one. 

 

So maybe that's another new thing I learned this weekend, that sometimes other people seeing you for the first time know better than yourself what is right and what will suit you.  I must be honest and say that I've felt for a while that I want to change my style a bit but it's hard when you keep getting drawn back to 'safe territory'. (This in no way relates to my Christmas Jumper purchase!)  So I'm now thinking that when it comes to Mother of the Bride shopping, I may actually try going somewhere that has a personal shopper service.  Just to see what someone else thinks will suit me.  Because I know that I will keep returning to styles and colours that I already have.  I don't have to take their advice but it would be interesting to see what they say.  Has anyone else out there used that kind of service?