Morden Hall Park Life

HANDS UP, who's loving this summer weather?!?!

Doesn't it make you just want to be outside?

HELLS YEAH it does!



Summer fashion always feels a bit of an after thought for me. As a typical Briton, 80% of my wardrobe/shoes cater to the colder climate we encounter. I can happily be wearing a jumper and suddenly find myself in 27 degree heat thinking what the fudge* happened!
Equally, I can think "hey, this is safe to wear suede today", and get caught in a downpour. (Must remember rule number 3: Don't be precious!)

However this year I decide to buy some specific summer clothes, my "summer haul" as you will. You'll be seeing over the next few months (haha wishful thinking; weeks? Lets be honest, it'll probably be snowing come the august bank holiday) some of these summer buys! They are pretty much ALL from my favourite summer trend atm:

70's BABY!

I've always wished I could have been around in the 60's or 70's, a little bit for the music but mainly to enjoy the fashion! Mary Quant has always been an idol to me. Alas, as no one has yet to invent a time machine (and, lets face it, if they had it would probably be priced out of most peoples leagues anyway) I'll have to make do with just the "inspired" trends (all of the nostalgia- none of the crap**). Mostly my outfits are tones down versions of the 70's trend, because as much as I would love to walk around in crazy patterned 70's flares (and believe me, I REALLY REALLY would) I would look like a right prat. It would just not make sense in normal everyday life.

PARK LIFE

For anyone not from London, its hard to imagine that there are many parks in London, let alone nice parks. In fact, there are LOADS of amazing parks in London.... and I am ashamed to say I've been to about 3 of them.

Aiming to rectify this, we recently took a trip to VERY south London and visited Morden Hall Park, a great setting for my 70's inspired top! I absolutely loved this park (!!!) Mr Loves on the other hand was harder to impress. Morden hall is a national trust park and was apparently once a deer park, whatever that means. We went because we heard rumour that there was a shallow stream suitable for paddling in, which is the perfect way to cool yourself down in this weather! The stream in question was situated in the Rose Garden, a large area with, funnily enough, lots of rose bushes! Its a fenced in area, and perfect for picnics and children running around, especially as it's a strictly "dog-on-lead" zone too. Unfortunately, the Mini-Man was not as up for stream-paddling as I had hoped he would be, and I looked a tad strange just paddling on my own.

Outside of the rose garden, dogs are free to roam in the many meadows or wetlands. There is also a cute cafe, with pretty standard pricing, garden centre and a second hand book shop.

The Outfit

Jeans: H&M-14.99 (-student discount on their 20% off day. Win!)

Top: Topshop- £32 (Again Student discount! I'm going to miss that!)

Shoes: Accessories 

Child Prop: Models Own

How does the outfit hold up:

This follows pretty much all my mummy fashion rules, pattern, separates, non-precious and flat shoes.
The jeans are a handy "normal waist" which means them come up to your belly button and tuck all your stomach in-YEY. They are actually pretty sturdy considering they are so cheep. A slight problem however.... they do lack front pockets - although they fake it and I didn't realise until wearing them a few days. It seems that the extra cost of jeans goes towards pockets-not material! Who knew!
The top is just about an ok length, thanks to the jeans. There seems to be too many crop tops/short tops out there on the market these days its hard to avoid them. But I loved the pattern and colour of this top, and of course, the 70's vibes it's throwing out!
Overall, I love this look. It's completely casual, I can comfortably mess about in the park with the rabble, yet it is more than just a boring Tee and has on trend vibes. Win!

*I'm trying out some child friendly swearing. It's not going well.

**Fuck it, I failed already.