Amanda | The Womens Room

Out & AboutApril 22, 2015

Adventures before Dementia: A Vintage Love Affair

By Amanda

Bebe’s back and this week it’s our favourite subject…vintage, or as they say in France, ‘Brocante!’ Anyone who knows me is more than aware that I have a magpie mentality when it comes to collecting. My house is full of… Read More

Fashion & BeautyApril 21, 2015

Deconstructing Summer Style: A Gentleman’s Guide (and introducing Carrier Company)

By Amanda

Juliette’s back with another guest blog, writing from her outpost in France (it feels like we have a whole community of readers over the channel, who knew?!), this time focussing on middleagedad. She’s also brought our attention to a cracking… Read More

Fashion & BeautyApril 20, 2015

Look Fabulous Forever, pro-age make up with Tricia Cusden

By Amanda

Is it us or are entrepreneurial women having a bit of a moment? We seem to be bumping into lots of women -grown up and young – doing interesting things. Women-owned small businesses are growing faster than any other type,… Read More

Fashion, We Are ReadingApril 17, 2015

Style Forever by Alyson Walsh

By Amanda

Our mate Alyson Walsh over at the That’s Not My Age blog has written a book on looking stylish forever what ever your age. We love Alyson’s writing here at TWR and this little book is a witty and wise… Read More

Home & GardenApril 17, 2015

Guest Food Blogger Jo Orr: Spring Tarts!

By Amanda

Once the magnolia and cherries have bloomed, and the candy-striped apple blossoms are peeking through, I know that the first bunches of tender, pencil-thin asparagus are on their way. Their short season (usually just six weeks) and expense lends this… Read More

Fashion & BeautyApril 16, 2015

The perfect ‘wear now’ shirt, from Lisa Taylor

By Amanda

Anyone caught out be the current mini heat wave we are having in the UK might like the look of these lovely easy to wear silk shirts by designer Lisa Taylor. Lisa is a friend of Jane’s and wondered if… Read More

Art, Culture & Craft, We Are ReadingApril 15, 2015

It’s What I Do, by Lynsey Addario

By Amanda

Fessing up, I haven’t read this autobiographical account of Lynsey Addario’s life as a war photographer, but eldest son has. He is a photographer and a big reader, so kindly agreed to check this out, and he thought it was… Read More

Health & Happiness, Home & GardenApril 15, 2015

Adventures before Dementia #2: Vive la Différence!

By Amanda

Second guest post from our lovely correspondent Bebe today, (did you read the first post?) with a bit more of the story on life in her new French village and how she got there. Over to you Bebe… So our… Read More

Fashion & BeautyApril 14, 2015

Guest post: introducing Feather & Bone

By Amanda

We love it when we can support indie stores (on and off line!) and designers, so when Rebecca, co-founder of LUX FIX got in touch to suggest we look at one of their favourite designers for grown up women, Feather… Read More

Things We LoveApril 13, 2015

Perfume review: fragrances for teenage boys update

By Amanda

A quick update on fragrances for both teenage boys and young men generally, I was drawn to these two smells from Victorinox, which owns the Swiss Army Knife brand. It’s the cute design of the bottles that attracted me, making… Read More

Food, Uncategorized, We Are ReadingApril 13, 2015

Dinner With Jackson Pollock by Robyn Lea

By Amanda

For any arty chefs out there, this might appeal, as who knew artist Jackson Pollock was an enthusiastic cook? Dinner With Jackson Pollock is a very lovely looking, ring-bound cookery book by luxury book publishers Assouline, which specialises in one-upmanship… Read More

Fashion & BeautyApril 13, 2015

Spring chills: what to wear until it’s warm enough not to need a coat?

By Amanda

While the weather is yoyo-ing between mid winter arctic blasts and sunshine hot enough to rival the Caribbean, I’m left in a conundrum about what to wear on top of spring clothes. Winter coats will land you in sweaty trouble… Read More

Home & GardenApril 10, 2015

Guest Food Blogger Jo Orr: The first signs of spring

By Amanda

After last weekend’s feasting I wanted to bring you a couple of light, fresh dishes that you may even be able to eat in the garden if this warm sunshine continues. There were rusty orange crabs sitting like kings on… Read More

Fashion & BeautyApril 9, 2015

Merchant & Mills collabs with Uniqlo

By Amanda

I don’t know HOW I missed this collab between Uniqlo’s UT collection and our favourite haberdashery store Merchant & Mills. I can only apologies for being so slow, it’s been out for a month or two and quite a few… Read More

Out & About, UncategorizedApril 8, 2015

Guest post: Adventures Before Dementia, with Bebe Butler

By Amanda

This mid-life-moving story-thread is proving very popular with you all and we have another lovely one for you here today, from reader Bebe who, together with her husband, wanted an adventure before dementia set in and moved to France. Bebe… Read More

Home & GardenApril 7, 2015

TWR visits ceramicist Jo Davda at Brickett Davda

By Amanda

Last week Julia Little, our roving reporter on all things craft related, went down to visit hot ceramicist-of-the-moment Jo Brickett Davda. You know all those gorgeous shots of food on beautifully simple plates in all your stylish cookery books? Well,… Read More

Novels & Biogs, We Are ReadingApril 5, 2015

The Girl On The Train by Paula Hawkins

By Amanda

This is thrill of a read, perfect for crime and thriller lovers. Based around the narrative of Rachel, who is mostly miserable, a drinker and suffering the lingering affects of her divorce. She witnesses a visual snapshot while on a… Read More

Home & GardenApril 3, 2015

Guest food Blogger Jo Orr: Easter celebrations

By Amanda

Easter, whether you are religious or not, is a festival of Spring, a celebration of renewal: of the first fresh shoots, the sap rising and the greening of the land. I adore this season of vibrant change, when your garden… Read More

Health & HappinessApril 2, 2015

Guest post: the joys of the ukulele. Yes really!

By Amanda

Today’s guest post has a musical edge and comes from our reader Amanda in Scotland. One of the fabulous advantages of the guest post slot is seeing how wide spread and varied our readers interests are turning out to be.… Read More

Fashion, We Are ReadingApril 1, 2015

Icons of Women’s Style, by Josh Sims

By Amanda

This is a lovely book, not as I first thought on glimpsing the title, about stylish female icons, but about the actual clothes that have become icons, so the pencil skirt, the trench coat, the twinset, pyjama pants and so… Read More

Fashion & BeautyApril 1, 2015

Clifton Nurseries, feathered headbands and Van Cleef & Arpels

By Amanda

We don’t really ‘do’ fine jewellery here on TWR, mostly because, y’know, it’s pricey, and if we did have the cash to spend on sparkly things, I’m not sure J and and I wouldn’t prefer to opt for another pair… Read More

Out & AboutMarch 30, 2015

New store love: Haeckels, Made from Margate

By Amanda

Easter is coming up, and if you have no plans and fancy a trip, can I suggest you think about Margate? I appreciate it’s got tough competition from our tempting guest post about Deal (and it is south, obvs) but… Read More

Home & Garden, We Are ReadingMarch 30, 2015

Chicken & Egg by Andy Cawthray and James Hermes

By Amanda

What better book to promote over the Easter week than Chicken & Egg, an egg-centric guide to raising poultry? I SO want to keep chickens, everyone who does so seems to get such a lot of joy from them. If… Read More

Things We LoveMarch 30, 2015

More backpacks, from Catherine Aitken

By Amanda

Remember our recent backpack research? (and here). I am still delighted with my Shinola purchase, but this lovely Harris Tweed one from Edinburgh based designer Catherine Aitken, recently caught my attention. It’s called the Wanderlust 4Way and cleverly switches between… Read More

Home & GardenMarch 27, 2015

Guest food blogger Jo Orr: a seasonal spring lunch

By Amanda

The second in our series of posts from food blogger Jo Clare Orr, now excuse me but I’ve just got to dash out for some cauliflower and rhubarb…. The Spring Equinox may officially be behind us but the sky is… Read More

Out & AboutMarch 26, 2015

See this: Ann Carrington at Paul Smith

By Amanda

Ann Carrington is one of my favourite ‘recent finds’ in the art world, although I found her via the Paul Smith shop in Albemarle Street rather than a gallery. Mr Smith is a fan too and has just given over … Read More

Fashion & BeautyMarch 25, 2015

Guest Post: Deconstructing French Style

By Amanda

Today we have another guest post (at this rate we’ll never have to write another thing, our readers are amazing), this time from Juliette, who wrote to us saying “I used to live in London and worked in the film… Read More

Out & AboutMarch 24, 2015

Guest post: moving to Deal

By Amanda

Today we have a guest post, from TWR reader Kathryn, who wanted to tell us about how she moved -mid life- to live by the sea. A word of warning, you may well want to put your own urban house… Read More

Fashion & BeautyMarch 23, 2015

Top ten stylish grown up women to follow on Instagram

By Amanda

I’m a bit over Twitter. Once it was where you’d go to find chatty, funny people avoiding deadlines and job lists by kicking the breeze with daft conversations about the Eurovision Song Contest. Now it’s stuffed with brands selling you… Read More

Health & HappinessMarch 21, 2015

Weekend Woman: Mary Berry

By Amanda

It’s hardly original I know putting Mary up as our weekend woman, but seeing her on the BBC’s Red Nose Day Bake Off, how witty and funny she was, and then reading this great interview with her in the Observer… Read More