Motel Rocks Savannah dress

Savannah Sheer Polka Dot Dress in Teal - c/o Motel
Necklace - Wired Jewellery
Tights, belt - Primark

It's been very cold recently up north in Sheffield, and I'm trying to resist the winter urge to wear all black. I found this dress in its deep teal green to be a good antidote. Its colour is a bit lighter than appears in the photos and it's fully lined. It's a good everyday dress due to the long sleeves and the lining which help to keep you warm. I do feel very covered up in it but when you're outside in the cold that can often be a good thing.

Motel are currently doing an advent calendar of giveaways on their website for the 12 days of Christmas. I love it when brands get into the festive spirit, especially if you're like me and sometimes need a helping hand to make you feel festive. I can't believe Christmas is so close now! One week to go! :)

London Fashion Week outfit Day 2

My day 2 of London Fashion Week was spent at the newly-opened Westfield Stratford City. The new shopping centre opened on Tuesday, with 200,000 vistors on its first day. And that's mid-week. Can you imagine how many were there on Saturday? My advice, when trying to imagine that figure, is- don't. It was pretty overwhelming. I kept having what basically were 'hot flushes' because of the crowd and heat, where I needed to sit down somewhere air-cond for 5 mins and have something to drink.

The following photo was taken after the Look Show (more posts to come on that later this week), in the VIP area, where we went to collect our bags. The area was empty apart from a few people at the bar. It was quite funny really- just an hour ago it had been full of people drinking M&S pink champers and now it was empty.





Matt and I seated, waiting for the show to start. Matt is wearing Levi jeans, M&S shoes and a Clothing at Tesco shirt. You can spot our M&S pink champers (with a pink straw no less). I put my straw in and it immediately bubbled over, creating a wet patch on the floor (oh dear). It turned out if I took the straw out it immediately stopped overflowing. How curious!



This is us with our goody bags. There was some very generous products in it from various brands- I'll be revealing all in my upcoming posts. :) I hope you like these 'teaser' photos - I'm spreading my photos out over the week as in only two days we took over 2,000 photos(!)

London Fashion Week outfit Day 1

I've only been at London Fashion Week two days yet I've got so many posts lined up to do! I'm especially excited to share the runway shots my fab bf took of PPQ and the Look Show, as well as sharing my stories- so many random happenings took place! Today I'm posting my outfit from Friday.

Me= Dress: Oasis, Blazer: New Look, Shoes: Tesco, Necklace: Next.
Bf= Trousers: M&S, Shirt: New Look



  
What's that in my hand? Vitamin water? On each seat at PPQ, as well as a sheet describing the themes of the collection, was a vitamin water. As everyone was filtering out, Matt & I hung around to take photos and there was so much vitamin water everywhere, of all different flavours. We tried lemonade, tropical citrus and raspberry apple. Collecting a few bottles really helped us out the day after when we were parched with thirst trying to navigate our way through Westfield Stratford City!


These photos were all taken at the PPQ show on Friday night, which I was lucky to attend courtesy of InStyle magazine. I'll be posting my full review of the show and all the photos later on this week, so check back for that.

You light up the sky

Dress: H&M
Cardigan: TKMaxx
Shoes: Tesco
Necklace: Next

I wore this outfit walking our parent's dog the night before we left for the boat trip. Having a puppy on a boat was eventful! I'll be posting more about him+his adventures later this week.

I love this dress; it's so comfy, and it has pockets! The only downside is that if you put on a few pounds, it does show, but I suppose that's an incentive to keep them off!

Dress Your Best 2011

The lovely ladies over at academichic are hosting another great project this year. Dress your best is a way of owning and celebrating your favourite body parts. As has been pointed out, discussing your worst body parts has sadly become a part of female bonding (as seen in Mean Girls). Celebrating your favourite parts seems to have become limited to your bum (Beyonce, Rihanna) or your boobs (Katy Perry, Niki Minaj). It's much harder to think of other body parts that we love that aren't sold to us as valid because they are sexual, whether they be our height, back, legs, eyes, hair, nose, ankles or wrists. If you want to check out more on Dress Your Best, you can do so here.



Skirt: Gap
Vest: H&M
Necklace: Next
Sports bra: Peacocks

This is one of my favourite casual outfits for studying in in the summer. The staying power of this skirt is pretty amazing, it's lined, and I bought it from Gap 10 years ago (seriously!) I have poleroids of me at 12 years old wearing this in Italy with a denim jacket and my hair in 'the Rachel'. I dressed pretty differently to most 12 year olds then.

This vest is also one of my recommendations, the girls in my family have a lot of vests from H&M. This one is lined at the top so I can wear it with my sports bra and still have good support and shape. In this outfit I'm dressing my best for my curves and arms.



1.
Shirt, skirt: New Look
Tights: Primark
Necklace: Next

2.
Jumper: Primark
Dress: my987wardrobe
Tights: Peacocks
Lipstick: Victoria Jackson

In this first outfit I'm dressing my best for my height and features. I'm petite, and for me that's not just about height. I'm about 5'4 so I'm at the top end of petite and I can buy pretty much everything from heigh street stores apart from trousers occasionally. But my features are very petite, so most of the style 'rules' for petites work for me, one of them being to tuck shirts in. I used to think this emphasised my hips, but I think this can be avoided by the cut of the skirt/pants.

The second outfit I built around the tights. It was also a cold day and I wanted layers without being too boring. The dress is one I won from a blogger giveaway with my987wardrobe (although I lost the link to the blog as it was so long ago, sorry!). It's really comfy and work appropriate. I love the neckline. The only downside is that it's hand wash only. This outfit is something I can imagine Phoebe from Friends wearing. I also want to apologise for the mess; I took these photos mid-move, can you tell? :p

Winter wishes (in June? I know.)

This is an outfit that I would usually wear mid-winter, when I want to be as warm as possible. I've been used to visiting my boyfriend over the winter in Sheffield and, let me tell you, it's cold up north! But it wasn't as cold as I estimated today so this outfit was a little redundant, but it's one I'll be saving for the winter.



Velvet blazer: vintage
Poloneck: Miss Sixty
Skirt: Oasis
Tights: Primark
Boots: Clarks
Bag: Bueno

I can't tell you how long I've had this skirt, it's got to be pushing 10 years now probably. It's still in great condition.



This is my first outfit post taken in Sheffield! It's all a bit hectic atm because we're moving into our new apartment at the end of the month so from July I'll be able to get outfit posts up much more regularly.



A bonus picture of my hair. My hair is very long and tends to do it's own thing. Still, I'd love to do tutorials on the blog sometime. In this picture I basically took all of my hair and twisted it from the back of the head to the ends of the hair. Then I looped it round as if you were tying a knot in a piece of string. That's all it is- I literally tied a knot at the back of my head!

Coventry Cathedral: The City of Peace and Reconciliation

Velvet blazer: vintage
Playsuit and necklace: Camden market
Tights and brogues: Primark

Last week I did a little sightseeing in Coventry, UK, the town I've lived near for over 10 years. I thought as well as doing an outfit post I would write a bit about the history of Coventry, as it has a tragic but powerful history.





Coventry is a really important town in the UK's history of World War II. It was devastatingly bombed in 1940 and most of the city centre was destroyed, notably the Cathedral.

The cathedral was rebuilt after the war with the help from ordinary German people who came to Coventry as part of the city twinning with Dresden, a city in Germany that got equally devestated in the war. Part of the old cathedral is still left, but the only part intact is the tower, which has its original extremely thin spiral staircase.


^The reflection of my mum & I in the stained glass, the old cathedral behind us, the new in front of us.

The new cathedral was built directly next to the old one, so the history of the town will always be a permanent feature. The new cathedral is beautiful, with a huge stainglass window and a magnificent sculpture by Jacob Epstein (below).



I hope you enjoyed this post, and if you ever visit Coventry, don't miss out on visiting the cathedral. :)

Outfit of the day: Flying a kite

It's been really windy recently so I went out with the boyfriend for some kite flying. To be honest, he did much of the flying and I took photos played with the new camera.


Rings: Primark, Topshop





Shirt, tights: Primark, Shorts: Topshop, Shoes: Tesco
I think this outfit might be better with a belt? Although I'm not sure what colour or whether it should be wide or skinny. I'm thinking of one that clasps in the centre.

I should say that at the moment I'm still getting used to our new (SLR!) camera and so obviously my shots aren't brilliant yet. But they're getting better, and I have some beautiful ones from London and more from Sheffield to show you soon. :)

Dress me up

A round up of some of my favourite dresses in the spring collections at the moment. If you haven't heard of Modcloth, it's one of my favourite vintage stores. I've never bought anything from there though as the items are pricey, especially shipped overseas. But I adore from afar, and enjoy The Delightful Dozen styling up their pieces. I am actually dying over those beautiful blue shoes!

Ok, I cheated a bit with New Look, there is a playsuit here, but one of the reasons I love dresses is the same reason I love playsuits: they're so comfy and easy to wear!

I love the shoes with socks in the last post! I know some people aren't keen on shoes-with-socks (it can all get a little mens-socks-with-sandals-type) but styled like this they have a childlike, fun, innocent feel. :D
Do you think you'll be in a dress this spring/summer, or a playsuit?

Sea Swept

An all-H&M set, apart from that Gucci scarf. :) I want to make my polyvore sets affordable but still appealing to that fantasy we all get when we go shopping. I would wear this set if I were going on a boat with my boyfriend, and we stopped off the boat to go swimming and sunbathing, like we did in Turkey. Turkey was so amazing. :) I think I would prefer to wear this around the English Channel or West Europe rather than the med though, as the colours lend themselves to the crisper English weather (see the scarf) rather than the blistering-yet-glamerous heat of Turkey/Greece. Tbh, you could equally wear this out shopping. That's what I love about it, it's pretty flexible.

Sea Swept by ahandfulofdust featuring gucci scarves

Ivory Coast

Ivory Coast by ahandfulofdust featuring a mod handbag

I've been browsing (and loving!) Polyvore for a long time but this is my first set. The tunic is almost identical to one I have, and this is how I wear it- with bootcut jeans and layered rosary necklaces. I wear my hair long and loose, although I don't have a hat as lovely as the one in the picture. I wore this outfit when I was teaching with a new look navy tailored blazer and black mid-heels.

X Factor Style

On Sunday's results show, despite her elimination in the public vote, Katie was wearing a beautiful feminine dress. The dress was effective because it complimented her skin tone and hair, and let her hair speak for itself without emphasising it too much. The simple design of the heels matched the dress nicely. If you're going for Katie's look and your legs are a little shorter (that girl is tall!) then I would recommend wearing a shoe without the ankle strap, as it tends to shorten the leg.

Cheryl's dress was even more stunning, a Gianfranco Ferre design, with a low neck, but as far as I can tell, a mesh triangle lining across the bust. Perhaps not to preserve modesty, but no doubt it would make one feel more secure and less afraid of falling out the dress. This dress would look good on someone with big curves like Kim Kardashian. Cheryl is a bit more petite, and for proportion I would have worn a padded/supporting bra to balance out her hips, since I think the dress does nothing to slim them down.

If you want to go for Katie's look, you can buy her dress from Miss Selfridge here at a reasonable price tag (£85). I think this dress would suit a summer wedding (as long as it was warm!) and would suit both blondes and brunetters (with redheads, it depends on your skin tone).