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. :)

Cow Vintage, Sheffield

Some of you may know that at the beginning of next month I am moving with my boyfriend to Sheffield. We took a little trip up there to have a look at properties, and I couldn't resist going into Cow vintage again.

Cow is a store you can hardly miss. Bright yellow, it is a beacon for affordable and reconstructed vintage. I love the decor and the design of the changing room doors, aren't they cute! Note: they weren't actually 77 changing room cubicles, the numbers on the door are random. There were about 4 on the ground floor for ladies and more upstairs for men I believe.



This is the sign for upstairs, where the menswear and sale items were.



The downstairs. Love the bunting and the patchwork ceiling! In this dress rail in the forefront I found an amazing bright red shirtdress for £7 that fit perfectly! It was reconstructed vintage by Cow, but the only sights I could find of altering was the hemline.







Dress: vintage. Belt: Primark. Shoes: Tesco. Necklace: Camden market.

Cow also have stores in Birmingham, Manchester and Nottingham. Have you ever been to Cow? What did you think of the items? Also if you have any recommendations for affordable vintage in Sheffield, plz post in the comments. :)

Outfit of the day

My boyfriend and I went down to a lake near us to test out our new camera that we bought together. It was a beautiful day and I ended up wearing slightly inappropriate clothing. I find I end up doing that a lot when staying with my boyfriend- not wanting to go home, I usually try to make do with what I have. Having said that, though, by scouring his closet I have found some great finds, including a pair of high-waisted flared jeans which look great with this seasons' crochet.







I just recently bought this dress in Primark. It was a bargain at £5 but I was a bit too energetic with my arm waving and snapped the shoulder strap right off! Need to get the sewing kit out. These shoes are new, I've been searching for the perfect summer sandal and this fit the bill about 90%, which at a budget price, is good enough for me!





Dress, tights, sunglasses: Primark, shoes: Tesco, Jacket: TJHughes