PORRIDGE N PICKLES OFFICIAL BLOG

Today is easter Sunday and so I just have a quick Instagram update for you all. Hope you had a good weekend!

1. Birthday meal at TGI Fridays|2. A puppy dog in the morning|3. Selfies on a busy Saturday|4. New additions to Tescos|5. Hunter is a cutie|6. An afternoon out at the local country park

A photo a week - Illuminated clouds up high.

Click here to visit my flickr.

Today we met up with some friends who are breeders of bloodhounds and bassets. It turned into a 7 man, 12 dog walk; six Basset Hounds, four Bloodhounds, one Staffordshire Bull Terrier and one English Bulldog. Everyone loved it!

I'm feeling pretty poorly today and a bit fed up, so instead of bringing a lengthy post to the blog, i've decided to share instead an insta' pic from my weekly food shopping trip today. Here's a little back story... So Tesco's has had a foreign food isle for a while now but American snacks have never been apart of it, till today (well, maybe the other day but today was the first time I noticed it). I was so excited, so many yummies snacks i've never been able to get my hands on in the UK before, YEY! I know it's a bit silly to say, but it made my day that little bit brighter... See you tomorrow!

It's Spring right now, isn't it?! From the looks of this weather, it really isn't. The bad weather a side, I thought it was about time that I started dress shopping, you know, for when the weather does decide to perk up a bit. With that, I thought i'd share with you some options I am deciding over from my favourite stores.

Modcloth.
1st. Moonage Day Gleam Dress|2nd. Sweet Success Dress|3rd. Saturday Stories Dress

Jack Wills.
1st. Shipstone Dress|2nd. Meerbroke Dress|3rd. Ellemford Dress

Topshop.
1st. Moto Tribal Denim Dress|2nd. Double Spot Flippy Dress|3rd. Paisley Print Skater Dress

Any ideas which ones I should choose?!

After spotting the Louis Vuitton Montsouris on Kendall Jenner, I have been craving one for myself (not because she has one BUT because I hadn't actually noticed it before then, I know, i'm never with the times, I always latch on to trends after they have been and gone...). I have been doing some research on this style of backpack from LV and I believe that they come in three sizes small, medium and large (maybe a mini as well?), i'm unsure of what they are defiantly called though (sorry!). I'm personally looking for the medium sized because I think it would best suit what i'm looking to carry with me.
Anyone know where I can get one of these?!

For Christmas of 2012 I was brought my very first ever designer purse; a Mulberry long locked purse, glossy coat in the colour dark blush. Being the first ever designer purse (real purse, not like my LV key pouch which is more of a pouch... than purse) i'd laid my hands on I was a little excited. With that, I thought i'd let you know all the little details i've learnt about this great piece.

After noting that the metal work on my Mulberry Alexa scratches with ease, I decided to keep the plastic protection on this metal work (well as much of it as I could) for as long as possible to help prevent them getting damaged. You see, the metal locks on most of the Mulberry items are large and extremely shiny, in fact they remind me a bit of tinted mirrors! This turns out to have been a wise choice as I use the purse all day everyday so there would have bound to have been one deep scratch on the front of the lock by now! If you're a little more delicate with your purses, or alternate regularly, then you don't need to worry about this so much.
Pocket wise, this purse has three large ones as well as one pocket for coins and six card slots.
In pocket one I place all kinds of bits and pieces I like to keep with me. For example, my Metro card from my trip to New York City last summer (I actually ended up with four of these because we couldn't quite get the hang of how they worked...). When we left, it still had a few dollars on it (not that i'm going to be using it anytime soon); it also has some sentimental value and I just, like to keep it with me. Also, if i'm in a hurry I stuff receipts in this slot as well.
This next pocket is right by the six card slots and so here I keep the cards that don't fit, such as my NUS card and parking tickets when out shopping (beats putting them in a pocket and forgetting where you put them when you come to the ticket machine!)
This last pocket is a little smaller than the other two and so here I stuff receipts that I need to keep hold of for a little while. I also put train tickets and bus tickets in this slot. It's large enough for a few items similar to these in size.
Over all, I am really pleased with this purse. It couldn't match my own personal style more, which I know sounds silly because it is plain and simple, but that's it! It also has plenty of slots for all the many pieces of paper that I like to carry around with me. If i'm lucky (as in, it happens to be a day where the pieces of paper are a little less in quantity than normal), I can also fit my phone (iPhone 4S) in the front slot as well, which means this purse dubs as a clutch bag too!

Yesterday, me Kie and his two little brothers took a trip down to the local country park to see some miniature vehicles. See, Kie's dad owns a garage and in his spare time him and his work partner make fully functioning models out of bits of scrap from other vehicles and there was a get together of other people who also enjoy doing the same on a pitch in the park (i'm not quite sure what the get together was properly called).







It was a great day had by all, everybody loved seeing all the miniatures, and getting the chance to have a go driving! Even puppy - dog Lucy enjoyed it out in the winter like weather of spring; by the way, what is up with this weather?!

A photo a week - An abandoned ally in a very busy train station.

Click here to visit my flickr.

Do you know about 'The Outnet'? Nope? Well I didn't either until yesterday when I searched for "hunter wellie sale" on google. Well The Outnet are a sister company of net-a-porter, which i'm sure you've probably heard of already? They seem to be a little more well known, well here anyway. The Outnet, unlike net-a-porter, sell last seasons designer trends at a fraction (and I really do mean fraction) of their original price. If I wasn't saving for a trip in the summer, I probably would have brought my bank account to it's knees, but I didn't... Instead though, I did buy myself some Hunter wellington boots at 40% off there RRP, and I mean really, can a basic black (well they have a bit of neon on them as well) wellington boot really go out of fashion?! Nope, I don't think so either.

These will actually be the second pair of Hunter wellingtons that i've owned. The first pair were a bright yellow, matte finish short boot, similar of which can be viewed here. Overall they made a great pair of wellies. The fit was amazing on my feet, I mean they actually fitted around my feet, which I find is unlike most wellies. The shortness of them however meant that streams, and really just water in general, proved to be hazardous as it was in danger of spilling over the top. The top of the wellies also rubbed my legs to pieces when I wore them with shorts during the summer (minor technicalities, you know, it was fixed with some of the welly socks that Hunter sell separately). This is why I brought a tall boot for a change; no danger of water leakage and no blisters on my legs!

If you'd like to view these wellingtons on The Outnet you can do so by clicking here. I unfortunately took the very last pair in this style, but they do have some other great styles left if you search 'hunter' in the search bar. If instead you would like to view Hunter's current range, you can do so by clicking here.

For future reference, if you'd ever like to visit The Outnet again, you can do so by clicking their icon found on the bottom left sidebar of the Porridge N Pickles blog page.

I recently found a large piece of fabric lying around that I thought i'd used up a while ago. With it, I decided to attempt make a basic top. The pattern I used can be found here (and it's free). I've never tried to sew a top before, i've made skirts, cushion covers, quilts, bags etc. but never a top. I've also actually never sewn from a pre made pattern before; I normally just measure, draw, cut and hope for the best (I know, i'm such a cowboy) so this was a bit of a learning curve. I'm here today though, to show you the final piece and let me tell you, it wasn't easy getting here (no matter how basic the pattern claims to be)!
It's still not perfect. I can't seem to get the right busty line thing (i'm sorry, I have no idea what it is actually called) to lie flat. I have undone it and re-sewn it in different ways what feels like 100 times. The left busty line thing (yep, here's that technical term again) turned out perfectly right off the bat, but the right, not so much. I will manage to crack it eventually though, I just know it.

My addiction has hit again, yes that's right, my shopping addiction. After recently discovering Chalk White Arrow (which is brilliant, I think you should check it out!) I came across a post about a rainy day, oh and I spotted this....
Yep, that right there, the vintage coach bag in pretty much pristine condition. My jaw dropped when I first saw it, I just LOVED it (this right here is when this 'shopping addiction' made an appearance again...). After i'd finished reading the blog post, I went straight to ebay to hunt one down (I wasn't quite sure where else to look?). I still haven't found the perfect one. They are most commonly found in black and the tan colour shown above and come in a variety of sizes; I haven't quite decided what size will work best for me just yet, but when I do, i'm pretty sure I will not regret spending one penny on this gorgeous style of bag!

Original photo copyright of Chalk White Arrow.
You can find the Chalk White Arrow blog by clicking here, and the original post here.