Winter Boots

For a while I've been trying to decide on a pair of boots to buy for winter. Living in Scotland means year round rain, which most of my shoe collection isn't exactly ideal for, but I refuse to wear wellies or 'practical shoes' until I'm at least 30 (or whatever age it is where you start making fashion sacrifices in favour of practicality. 40? 50?). Since August I've been living in this pair of cut out boots from River Island:

I think it's love. They go with everything, they're comfy and the heel isn't so high that they're difficult to walk in, but it's high enough that it make your legs look a tiny bit longer, and anything that gives me a few extra inches is fine with me. Before buying these, I'd originally spent months coveting a pair of Jeffrey Campbell Coltranes, only for them to be sold out everywhere. Of course now there are replicas of them mass produced everywhere from New Look to Office to, so I'm quite glad I didn't buy them.

Dr Martens and Vans are my two other footwear staples. I bought my pair of Docs second hand from Ebay about three years ago for £24 and I'm still quite proud of that bargain, and between work and uni, I live in Vans. If I could choose any pair of boots to buy it would be the Dr Marten Aggy Strap. 

They're a bit of a step up from my standard black Dr Martens and  everything I want in a pair of boots - chunky, black leather, platform soles, buckles, a bit of a heel, and grungy looking enough to wear every day. I've been searching online for them in the hope that somewhere will still have them in stock in my size but I've had no luck so far. However I did find a pair from Office that are similar, so here they are:

It's pay day tomorrow and I'm definitely considering buying them. They're slightly out of my price range but I'm going with the logic that if I wear them often enough, the price doesn't matter because they'll have been such a good buy. And I do need a new pair of boots for winter. Unless a pair of Dr Marten Aggy Straps come screaming in to my life, these are the main contenders. 

Have you seen any good boots this winter? 

Cut out boots - River Island, £45

Dr Martens - Ebay, £24

Vans - Office £45

Black leather zip front boots - Office, £95

Happy Halloween!

For all that I love Halloween, I'm usually pretty last minute with my costume for it. For some reason I've never worn a shop bought costume and have always made my own. I think this comes from my mum always making (or trying to make) my costumes when I was little. For example there were plenty of years I went as a 'bin bag witch' (a bin bag with holes cut out for my head and arms, with a witches hat on my head), the year I decided to go as Minnie Mouse, and came home to a skirt my mum had made from red crepe paper and stuck on paper polka dots, and the time I was nine and made what I called a 'cave girl' costume made from ginger fur I'd bought which I then wasn't allowed to leave the house in. Admittedly I'd run of out material while making the skirt, it had been hand sewn by a nine year old, and probably didn't look like much of anything. 

This year, me and my friend Pam thought we would be organised and come up with a costume for the two of us and decided to go as the twins from Stephen King's 'The Shining'.

As usual our planned organisation didn't quite work out and resulted in me running around town four days before the Halloween party we were going to, trying to find something that resembled the above ghostly twin costume. What I ended up with was two granny-style nighties, two brown wigs, a few metres of peach ribbon and half a metre of lace to sew on to the costumes. And of course copious amounts of fake blood. After cutting and stitching everything, I was surprised at how well the dresses turned out.

We had to made do with white ankle socks as knee high ones were impossible to find, and we were fully aware that the twins from the film wore black sandal type shoes and not black vans, but we were on a budget that had mostly been spent on the dresses and wigs.

So here are our finished costumes! Not quite as good as the originals but the general idea is there. I was quite sad to have to splash fake blood all over the dresses because they looked so pretty with sewn on lace and nice little peter pan collars on them. We were going to leave them plain and go for the look of the twins throughout the film, but decided to go bloody and scary like the parts where it flashes back to their murder, because it's Halloween, and you don't really get many other chances to do your makeup like a dead person and look a bit creepy. 

What are you dressing up as for Halloween?