My Cold Weather Essentials


Everyone gets excited about the change of season when autumn rolls back around- but it's not all pretty leaves, cosy nights in and scented candles. The reality is that it's freezing getting up in the mornings, it's grey and drizzly pretty much 100% of the time and walking anywhere means battling mud and giant puddles! Luckily there are ways of making life easier, and wrapping up warm definitely makes everything more bearable- here are my cold weather essentials for both inside and out of the house.

Dressing Gown
A couple of years ago I used to set the heating to come on half an hour before I woke up, and as nice as that was I found it made getting up out of bed a million times harder- I'd be getting ready while feeling like I was going to fall back to sleep. While it's not exactly great getting up when it's cold, I find if I shove my dressing gown on before going downstairs it's not too bad; I have it hung on the back of my door ready to put on as soon as I'm up. I'm sure I'm not alone on this but I practically live in my dressing gown in the winter, and whenever I'm at home I've usually got it on. Come spring time this means they're usually tatty and in holes where they've been worn and washed half to death, and so I have a new one on my winter shopping list every year. For me Primark is the place to go for them, they're almost half the price you'd find them elsewhere and the quality is surprisingly good. 

Following on from my love of cosy dressing gowns, for me slippers and fluffy socks are also a winter must have. We've recently replaced the carpet in our living room with laminate flooring and so I know these will be even more of an essential this year. My personal favourites are boot and 'full back' (as opposed to slip on/ mule) type slippers shown above because they actually stay on your feet, admittedly they look like something a little old lady would wear but I doubt any style of slippers look catwalk ready! Putting on pyjamas and fluffy socks in the evening after a hot bath is just the best thing ever.

If you go walking or have a dog, then wellies are an absolute must have. No other shoes will stand up to the puddles, mud and flooded fields that you have to deal with when walking them in the winter- and there a few things in life worse than wet shoes and socks! My previous wellies have all been cute patterned and colourful, which are ideal for festivals and things but do tend to attract some funny looks when you're traipsing to the field at 7am in the morning; these plain black ones look a lot more like regular boots and are just much more my style these days. I like layering up with warm socks underneath, it's nice knowing that your feet will stay completely warm and dry while you're out.

Scarf/ Gloves
I don't tend to wear hats that often because having fine, static-y hair, hat hair is a very real thing for me. So I prefer to wrap up with a scarf and gloves instead. Scarves are one of my favourite accessories, I love that they can add colour or pattern to a plain outfit (especially when this time of year I'm in a black coat, black leggings and black boots the majority of the time!) Despite living in my handbag all year, come winter I usually find that one of my gloves has mysteriously gone missing and so they do tend to be a yearly purchase. I go for inexpensive leather style gloves from ebay, I currently have the ones above which are fleece lined and so comfy. I'm a bit funny about regular stretchy woollen gloves as I hate the feeling of the material around my wrists (especially if they get wet/ rained on!) but that's not a problem at all with these.

What are your cold weather essentials?