Tongue-tied and breathless.

Warehouse leather jacket: £1, sample sale. Warehouse check shirt: £1, sample sale. Oasis Isabella jeans: £27. Hobbs boots: £40. Asos fedora hat: £25. Jaeger clutch bag: £25, Freeport Braintree (similar).

Hello, is it a mid-week post you're looking for? Regardless of the answer (or if you're reading this on Saturday), this is exactly what you've stumbled across. I'm not one for blogmas, vedj or whatever weird acronym is magicked up next, but I'm feeling blogtober and am aiming to get two posts up a week for this month only. Which either sounds:

a) lame. But then again, you're the one reading it;

b) not that much effort. You try working full-time, having a 37.5% abv social life and then touching your laptop post-collapse at home; or

c) superhuman. The one I'm going for, as I cough myself into oblivion.

Depending on the audience*, I tend to tell people I'm from Chelmsford. This is true - I do live here, sleep here, write this blog post here. But aside from vegetating in knitwear of an evening, my trips into town don't really consist of much more than heading to the station before the sun's even risen or a rare trip to the gym. To mix things up a little, my mum and I headed to Chelmsford Museum as they had an exhibition (strong word, it was a room) on about the history of swimming costumes. It's an odd little museum, featuring a lot of military history, shout outs to Marconi and some taxidermy, but there's a lot to be said for day trips that take less than half an hour to travel back from. A trip down the road calls for ultimate comfort, so I plucked my skinnies from the top of the pile and learnt a little bit more about where I live. Some people (I'm looking at you, Dickens) may have thought Chelmsford was "the dullest and most stupid spot", he might not be far wrong, but apparently Hendrix played here once, who knew? 

*Never ever tell boozed up men you're from Essex. Ever.

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Cute but psycho.

Brandy Melville 'Cute but psycho' tee: £18. Vintage suede skirt: £8, via charity shop (similar). Zara velvet slippers: £9, via charity shop (similar). Karen Millen patent mini bag: £5, via sample sale. H Samuel and Pandora bracelets. Vintage and Forever 21 rings. Barry M "Road Rage" not-quick-dry-at-all nail varnish. Topshop "Really Ruby" lipstick.

As time passes, I like Maldon more and more. It's a pain to get to, provides dubious phone signal and the average age of its inhabitants is probably sixty, so I really don't see where the drawbacks lie. I did find it a little amusing when a brand took fifteen or so bloggers to an island just off its shores for a super-fancy event, as to me it has always been, and will always be, a place so far removed from "blogger life" - and the world in general, there's only one bus an hour - as it's possible to be. But there you go. This time we didn't head down to the river as is our usual way of spending the day there, and instead explored its bloody hills quaint backstreets, before heading to a café just behind M&S for a late lunch. Can't remember for the life of me what it's called, but it sits off the high street and serves a mean BLT.

There's not really much to say about this incredibly standard tee and no tights outfit, but I do have to give a special shout out to Jazmine who picked this tee up for me from Soho after I spotted it on Pinterest a while back, as Brandy Melville's online shop is appalling/does not have any stock. 'Cute but psycho' might not be the most PC turn of phrase, but after last night I will be acting with "abnormal or violent behaviour" towards my breakfast as soon as I drag myself downstairs.

I've popped links to old Maldon blog posts below (hello, second ever outfit post!), so you can have a tour of the town:

The Hythe | Promenade Park | Heybridge Basin | Beeleigh Road

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The sweetest thing.

Asos french bulldog jumper (I KNOW): £22. Debenhams jeans. Cath Kidston ric rac mug. Look of pure sugar-enthused delight: c/o Bettys Tea Rooms.

Me and Bettys, we go waaay back. I have no photographic evidence - shock! horror! - but I visited back in 2011 when visiting my friend Sam in York for the first time. Having zero money as students with poor life choices (we went to Willow in York - need I say more?), we shared an afternoon tea for one downstairs in the St Helen's Square team room (on the map, above) and decided that was quite enough cute for the weekend. Fast forward four years and my days have been sorrowfully Bettys-free, until an email arrived in my inbox which I replied to quick enough to give me indigestion: Bettys was popping up in Islington for one day only.

As someone who actively avoids heading into town/into full-blown pollution clouds on the weekend, it was a welcome change to my usual trips on the train as I could amble along to meet Charlotte to take these photos before heading over to the venue. Popping to Bettys was like stepping into your best friend's; plenty of smiles and plenty of sweet treats. We started off the day by learning how to ice our own french fancies before prepping for the ultimate afternoon tea/flat lay situation. It was definitely more hands on than my previous Bettys experience, but who'd mind mucking in when there are mousse mice to be eaten? The sugar crush was warded off when I got home by getting changed into my new favourite jumper (two words: French. Bulldog.) and having a little read through the 'Who's Betty?' selection of short stories.

Because, if anything's my cup of tea, it's a good slice of cake (heh).

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One is nine, nine is two.

Feather-trim fedora hat, grey jumper, mid-wash jeans, RJR loafers: c/o Debenhams.
Photos by Charlie.
Shakey cameramanship in the gif, unfortunately my own.

I'm fairly confident with the square mile, soho gets a little easier to navigate after a cocktail, and I have Shoreditch and surrounding areas down, but Islington? That's a bit of London I've left unexplored for far too long. A couple of weeks back I had a pretty sweet excuse (more on that later!) to pop along the Northern line to see what Angel had in-store. I met Charlie at the tube station before heading along Chapel Street to check out the market. We stopped off at a cute café for smoothies (I went for passionfruit - would recommend) and a catch up pre-fussy location hunting, on my part. We settled for Claremont Square, a stone's throw from our destination, because who could resist a little pop o' red? It's the door equivalent of Ruby Woo.

For this little London jaunt, I decided comfort was king - and a thankfully still day meant this hat stayed on my head too, hurrah! This whole caboodle is from trusty old Debenhams, and is part of the Nine by Savannah Miller range that I'm sure you've seen gracing the cover of Stylist recently. Although mine might be a bit of a more pared-back, literally-just-threw-this-on combination, I've loved seeing how other people are wearing the edit, and spotted mega-babe Josie in the printed dress and faux fur gilet this week. Warning, the shoes are going to take a hell of a lot of wearing in (send plasters), but the perfect blue hue jeans and soon to be 'most worn' jumper more than make up for it. Just add fluffy socks and a milky tea for the perfect Sunday spent at home outfit.

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Your love washes over, like a tidal wave.

Shirt dress: c/o Boohoo. Hobbs boots: £40 (old). Metal bag: c/o Boohoo. Warehouse belt: about 75p (fill a bag sample sales are GOD, but not good for exact prices). Catarzi camel fedora: £25.

Hey look, it's not a LFW post! Don't get me wrong, I've spent weekends lost in car parks before (probably in Soho too, knowing what a night out on Greek Street's like) but I thought I'd leave Brewer Street carpark and the catwalks to the professionals for another season and spend my time at the seaside instead. When not in London...

As it's one of the last sunny weekends of the year, I thought I'd get the milk bottle legs out for one last jaunt in the sunshine. This dress might be on the short side, but everyone will have forgotten by the next time it's no tights weather (in June 2016), so I 100% went for it. I've not been feeling very 'me' recently when getting dressed each morning, but I love the cut of this one and will be wearing it without the belt and with the 120 deniers once Autumn properly shows up.

In a mild spate of ingenuity, there are a couple of new features (lol, let's be honest, I mean "fings wot arn't photos") I'm super sad excited about sharing with you. I'm looking to add a few more extra elements into posts because I finally taught myself how to make gifs and the novelty hasn't worn off yet. There's also a little map so you can see where these photos were taken and go explore yourself. Unless it's in my home, then you'll have to ask politely for an invitation to tea. I'll make sure there aren't hundreds because my 3G isn't unlimited and totally get it, but would love to know what you think of these new touches?

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