This weekend just gone, I didn’t have many plans. I had thoughts of finishing a pair of jeans I’m working on at the moment, starting a new pair of underwear, and we’d booked in to view a house with Ben’s mum and dad on Sunday (for them, not us, we’re not moving again yet!). But on Friday afternoon, I had an email from Charley to ask whether we still had the keys for Frankie’s family’s cottage in the Peak District – he’d left them at our house months before, then come to pick them up and left them again. So yes, we did have them! He dropped in as I arrived home from work to pick them up then asked: “Hey, we’re actually heading down there tonight to switch off the water/switch on the heating, want to come?”.
It took little consideration for us really, then an hour later, we were on the M1 heading down to the Peak District for a night away – I like to think of it as a spontaneous “holiday”. In reality, it was actually less than 24 hours, that also included the driving times there and back, but it was a fun little road trip, a meal out, a morning vintage shopping, Bakewell puddings and tarts for lunch, then heading home – what more could you want in a weekend?!
Since Ben’s started his new job, we’ve got our Saturdays back and it’s the best thing ever. Even though I wasn’t actually working Saturdays, I would still wake up with the usual alarm so Friday nights were just another week night. Then after 6 days of work every week, our Saturday nights were never late either as we were tired from the early start that morning, and our weekend ended up being crammed in a single Sunday which became disappointing as you reached 5pm and realised it was nearly over only a few hours after it started. BUT, we’ve got our weekends back now and the 2 we’ve had so far since Ben started the new job have felt like holidays, this one even more so! And it means we can get away with random trips away which we couldn’t do before. I’m loving our weekends now and feeling much more positive about my work/life balance in general thanks to it.
As it was such a rushed moment that we left in, I just chucked in a few items of clothing that I thought would work together and were appropriately warm for the Peak District and actually ended up with 2 full outfits for an overnight trip – woops! The plus side was that I got outfit photos of both of them in the stunning location that is the Peak District. The cottage is what you might call isolated – I mean, there’s the farm on the other side of the lane but that’s it for a good couple of miles in each direction – and that’s what we love about it.
The drive there was slightly terrifying in that it had been icy and snowy that day, in fact, that morning’s drive to work had taken me an hour and a quarter where it usually just takes 30 minutes and I’d seen a car sail straight through a hedge too. The motorways were fine, but it was when the sat nav, which we had on as a “just in case” directed us left in a village where we’d normally go straight on. We decided to follow, thinking it might be a quicker route than usual, especially since we had a booking at a pub near the cottage that we were trying to make before they stopped serving food. It turned out that there was a reason we don’t normally drive that road, and that was because it was a tiny residential, winding street on a hill, and it was a sheet of solid ice. We got part way up before realising this, too narrow to turn around and too winding to reverse back down – the tyres were spinning, the car was sliding, it was all very dramatic really! And the solution? Well, let’s just say Charley and Ben ended up with a bit of a walk (thank you to my own clumsiness, as they told me to stay in the car so I wouldn’t slip on the ice in my heels – I’d come straight from work remember!). Fortunately we managed the icy ascent and were soon on our way again – I’m not sure how we managed it in a little Fiat 500, but we did and we arrived safe and alive!
So this is a new favourite outfit in my autumn/winter “uniform” rotation. The skirt is one that Ben chose for me from George at Asda (this is the greener version) when he was putting in an order and asked if I wanted anything. I’ve generally mostly been matching it up with a red roll neck jumper that he bought at the same time, but this time went for a new jumper from Collectif which I bought in their 50% off sale. I’d been looking at it before, then when I spotted 50% off, it went immediately into the basket. I think it’ll be a good staple through the 11 months of the year when we don’t have warm weather as it’s fitted and slightly cropped, and can be worn BOTH ways round! It’s now still 50% off but sold out in most sizes, although there’s also a navy version and a dusky blue too.
Outfit Details
Bardot Top: Collectif | Skirt: George at Asda | Boots: Clarks
Gorgeous outfit! I love your plaid skirt and it looks so great with those boots! Love your pictures too. Your overnight getaway sounds fantastic even though it was a bit of an adventure in itself to get there!