General Chat

Ty for all your suggestions. We used to have Edinburgh Wollen Mill here in the town and its gone now, but I had bought things in the past.

Cotton Traders, I used to buy but might revisit the site and have a nosey. never been a Next person, just not my style.

M & S has changed so much over the years and I never see what i like. I have ordered online and nearly always end up sending it back.

Back in the 80's we had tops and bottoms to match like a trouser suit or top & skirt suit and you could get a jacket too but these days, you hardly see this kinda thing.

I do have quite short legs at 29 inches, so anything maxi, is far too long for me. petite comes in at 28 which is just too short in trousers and I'm not a fan of 3/4 length.

Guess I am a bit fussy lol

I have found today a v neck longer length floral top with short sleeves. its looks very pretty so I ordered it in 3 colours. I found it on amazon so at least its easy to return & get a refund.

I got an email from the curvedreams asking me to describe what i didn't like about the clothes for each item??? I replied and said, I didn't like any of the clothes, material was cheap and not good quality and could they please send me a returns form in order to get a refund. They did send an email confirming a refund for the 4 things out of stock and it will take 15 days to reach my bank!!!

On a different note, I have finally managed outside into the sunshine albeit there is a brisk chilly wind to inspect my plants.

Well, not good. All the new plants I potted were done so with a peat free compost compared to a peat compost I used last year. But to my disappointment, the plants have failed and not growing at all well. The top layer of soil is dry & crusty even though it has rained loads and in between I water them often.

There is something def different and I wont be using it again. I shall go back to the peat compost I used last year which gave me a fab display. I am really down about this as spent a fortune buying plants and hours potting them all up, such is life I guess.

I expect if my 5ft 2 frame was stretched to be 5ft10 I would be able to fit into a size 12 :-) :-) :-)

There is one shop that does give model height (M & S?) and I find it most disconcerting to be told "the model is 5' 10" and wearing size 12" . If only!! :-( :-(

aren't they all when trying to sell things. I just wish they would give some idea of the height of the models.

I get regular mailings of small catalogues from Cotton Traders. Some of their stuff is very good but beware that the photographer is a genius ;-)

I shop in store not on line but I like Edinburgh wool for tops and Tee shirts. I have also had a couple of nice things from Bon Marche, also bought in store not on line. Daughter and son in law shop in Cotton traders ans she is fussy. There is also Klass, but that is a bit more expensive and M&co, I used to shop with them when they were in the high Street.

I've also bought a fair bit from Cotton Traders though I don't think the quality is as good as it was a few years ago and you have to watch the sizing a bit, but there is no problem with returning goods. Several friends use Bon Marche, though I don't have any personal experience of them. What about Edinburgh Woolen Mills? I don't know whether they have the sort of clothes you are looking for but I know they have free UK returns.

Florence, I buy a lot of stuff from Cotton Traders. They are based in UK, the clothes are good quality and they have things in women's sizes as well as unisex.

They include a return label in every parcel and changing things that don't fit is no trouble.

I have just been looking at the labels and my trousers are made in Malaysia and my sweatshirt is made in China, but all stuff is posted in Britain.

My very fussy DIL buys a lot of stuff in Next, but I don't like their clothes.

Good luck.

The sun has got his hat on, hip hip hip hip hurray :-) :-) :-)

What a difference a day makes. Just lovely to wake up and open the curtains and feel the warmth. Really brightens you day and lifts your spirits.

I shall def be getting outside in a bit for some overdue fresh air and look at all the plants. From my window, they don't seem to have grown very much. The bedding plants haven't flowered much either

I shall have to go and have a word or two with them lol

Well my new clothes arrived and sadly, they are all going back and I have to pay grrr. I did not realise that Evans is now Curvedreams and is based in China. When I placed the order, I never saw any info that it was from abroad.

There are other rubbish clothes companies like Shein & Temu and this company smacks of them. The quality of the clothes is awful. Cheap shiny rubbish and ill fitting.

So back to the drawing board. I really need some new things before the end of the month.

Can anyone recommend an online UK based site other than M & S, Monsoon, River Island. I looked at JD Williams but nothing there I liked either .

I would like a matching top with trousers in good quality cotton/linen. If I could find 3 or 4 trouser suits and some other summer tops, that would be good.

Back in the day, I loved clothes from Hammells but they have long gone or others like it.

Hope everyone is well today and having some sunshine

Florence in the hebrides

Just read back on recent posts.

Sylvia, You are not alone.
If I look in at the hours you mention, quite often I get an error message, whereas it is usually trouble-free at any other time.
Many a time I have reposted something, because an error page has shown, only to have to go back and delete the later posting, because eventually the 1st posting had got past the error and had in fact appeared :-S

Its sooo cold today, the heating is going on now!!

Your hoover must be in the same place as my first lot of hedging Florence. That never turned up, so goodness knows where it went.
It is absolutely freezing here. I just went to Aldi and there is a horrendous black cloud overhead. Last night we had some huge hailstones.

We have finished emptying the kitchen , OH has taken all the tiles and skirting boards off. We have moved the fridge freezer into the dining room along with the microwave, kettle, toaster and just enough cutlery and crockery to keep us going.

Despite decluttering when we moved, I still have far too much, so I am going to really prune things before they go back in the new kitchen.

We are lucky Sylvia that our prescriptions are free, but we pay for them through taxes of course

Afternoon everyone looking in

Well it has calmed down here and for now is dry....say no more. Was bin day and they are still standing lol

Im very late today getting organised as only just showered and dried hair and not had any tabs yet! I guess i will be chasing my tail for the rest of the day.
I received my clothes parcel today but with 4 items out of stock so very disappointed with that and have asked for a refund.

Im not having any luck at all ordering any new clothes or anything else just now.

My new hoover never arrived and after ages with a customer service chappie on the PC, they agreed to send another one at no extra cost :-S
When I asked where was the original, they simply didnt know what had happened to it. So now another wait & see.

This is where you miss all the big dept stores where you could buy furniture, beds, cookers etc and get it there and then or they would deliver within a day or 2.

Online shopping works sometimes for small items like my craft things but appliances etc, there always seems to be a problem and.....trying to speak to someone in customer services is very time consuming.

They said my vacuum cleaner will be here within 24-72 hours :-D :-D :-D we shall see. I said I do live on an island and they said no problem .

Oh well better try and do some housework as the kitchen looks like a bombsite with clutter everywhere and mostly not mine!

Florence in the hebrides

I have no idea why I have such problems, but it is almost always at about this time .......... 7-8 pm here, which is about 3-4 am UK time, so not busy. I'm afraid I don't change browsers when it happens, I just shrug my shoulders, think "GR again!" and move on to another site for the rest of the couple of hours I'm on the internet in the evening.

It was another lovely day today, after much cloud this morning, and it was also a little cooler, so was nice. For some reason, tomorrow is forecast to have a much lower temperature ...... 10C, then back up t almost 20C for the rest of the week.

I have 2 appointments this week .......... physio on Wednesday, and then a visit to the doctor on Friday to get a new prescription for almost my medications. We tried for years to get them to expire at the same time, but never managed it until this past year. The prescription is usually good for 1 year, so I get refills every 3 months from the pharmacist ........ but it does make it expensive when I need to do them all at the same time instead of spreading the cost!

Well, I googled it and you can get rugs with a carrot pattern, why would anyone want that? :-S

You are very sensible moving somewhere with more facilities Vera. I used to do community driving, picking up people to take them to appointments. There were so many elderly people in the lovely villages who were totally stuck because they couldn’t drive anymore. With no bus service, they were totally reliant on friends or family to take them out, but of course as we get older, so do our friends

Carrots:-D :-D :-D :-D

Sharp eyes vera, I missed that. I can't unsee that picture now!

Oops, that should be carrots of course, although carpets with a carrot pattern would be a bit different :-D

Afternoon all
Another dismal day re the weather so not worth mentioning grr.

Been busy ironing and then quite a bit of paperwork, tel calls and emails to catch up on but all sorted now.

in my back garden last week, we noticed some purple plants randomly peeping through the grass. Thinking they were thistles, I asked daughter to dig them out with the roots as they spread something awful. However on closer inspection, it was not a thistle so I planted the 2 plants in a pot and they have grown into a lovely flower. Purple with pointy leaves.

I searched google images and the nearest flower I could match it with is a Stachys Hummelo/Hummelo Betony . It's not a weed after all but seems to be a wild flower and no idea how it just started growing in the middle of my lawn lol.

Anyway for now, its staying in the flower pot and looks very pretty. :-D

Gosh Linda, your house will look amazing when it's finished. Scotland has a programme "home of the year." I'm sure you would qualify for that with all your renovations.

Sylvia, good to see you posting. I would like some heat but nothing over 23 degrees. Strange you have problems getting on. Does it give you an error message or is it maybe the heat affecting the internet where you are in general?

Do you know if anyone else in your area is having problems as well maybe?

Last night I made me cauliflower cheesy bake and there's some left over so looking forward to that for my tea later.

Hope everyone else looking in is having a good day,.
Florence in the hebrides

Your house will be beautiful when it is finished Linda and it will be worth all the upheaval. We spent years getting our last house just how we wanted it and then decided that, as we were getting older and we were in a tiny hamlet with no facilities, we would have to move to somewhere more suitable. All the work we had done to the house and huge garden meant that we sold the house in 2 months instead of the more usual 2 years for that area, so it was worth it.

Btw, you have given me a laugh on a miserable wet, gloomy day. I am now imagining your stairs, landing and bedrooms covered in replacement carrots :-D