Wedding Outfit Ideas #2

♥ Dress - Chi Chi Georgia Dress (honestly, Im'm in love) - here

♥ Shoes 1 - eBay - here

♥ Shoes 2 - BooHoo Helen Cuffed Ankle Two Part Heels - here

♥ Shoes 3 - Faith Litchfield Navy Metallic Heeled Sandals via ASOS - here

♥ Shoes 4 - eBay - here

I've already spoken about the two weddings I'm going to this summer. I've posted my ideas for the first wedding here, from when I bought my dress in the ASOS sale earlier in the year. Honestly, since then I've been looking for the dress to wear for the second wedding on a weekly basis. The first wedding was relatively easy to plan for as it's a conventional, inside, sit down dinner, disco / band later on, hometime wedding. However, the second is Nick's brothers, it's in a garden in the middle of summer and I'm going to the registry office with them at 10am in the morning and will be in said wedding outfit until I go to bed at around 1am that night. That's a 13 hour outfit!!

So far, it's been one of those occasions where I know exactly what I want, just, sadly, no one's made the dress yet! I had my heart set on a long, navy dress (which would be practical and pretty for an outdoors wedding) with something going on that made it a little different from just a 'long navy dress', maybe a sneaky slit up the skirt, or maybe it would be backless, or perhaps it would have a few delicate bits of sequining on the arms. My inspiration is Kate Middleton, who I personally think wears long, formal dresses perfectly. She doesn't look OTT, like a celebrity at a film premier trying to break any fashion ground, she always has a certain air of relaxed glamour and she is just effortlessly classic. Please see below for pictures evidence...

(Disclaimer: obviously I would never look like this because she is perfect)

I thought there would definitely be a market for this sort of dress as K-Middy is England's national treasure. But no! I couldn't find anything. I'm sure if I had Kate's budget I'd be able to find the perfect dress but as I'm a poor(ish) gal it's not going to happen.

So I changed tact and, I still wanted navy but opted for knee length instead, I wanted a skater style dress but chiffon skirt rather than anything with structure. And I found this lovely dress from Chi Chi London. I've not heard of them before but I came across some of their other designs on ASOS, they do a lot of similar dresses in a range of colours so if you're looking for an occasion dress then I'd check them out. Although, I've not actually ordered and tried it on yet so I can't comment on the fit or quality but for £75 I'd hope for it to be pretty good.

Now the decision is just whether to go for rose gold or navy sandals.... argh!

Until next time :)

Cheeky BooHoo order...

I may have just placed a sneaky BooHoo order.... 

I fell into the usual trap - I watched a couple of haul videos on YouTube earlier which just made me think 'aaaah clothes, aaaaaah internet shopping', and now here we are. I added over one hundred pounds worth of items to my BooHoo basket before taking a step back and putting my thinking cap on and realising this was a bad idea. Mainly because there's that thing coming up... what's it called??? Oh yeah, CHRISTMAS! Which means I need to be sensible with my monies. So I removed quite a large portion of my basket and stuck with these three:

1. Grace Deep Plunge Velvet Skort Playsuit - I'm thinking this will be perfect for a night out at the weekend. Plus I have some killer new boots which will look awesome with this. I would recommend the old trick of ordering two sizes of playsuits on BooHoo. When I've bought playsuits before I've fit sizes ranging between 8 - 12 on there so it's always good to order an extra just to see.

2. Ellie Pom Pom Trim 3/4 Sleeve Swing Dress - I just love paisley prints, which is my only justification for this. I could do without the pom poms but I suppose you can't win them all.  

3. Anne Embossed Velvet Smock Dress - And this one is sorting me for Christmas day! 

I know I've bought two items in berry red velvet which is normally something I would stop myself from doing, and when I was having my 'basket cleanse' I would've made myself choose just one. BUT in this case I really liked the red velvet and thought that since the playsuit is very much a 'going out' outfit which I would only wear for a proper night out (not just a meal / drinks), it would be ok to get a more casual dress in the same material that could either be dressed up or down depending on the occasion. 

As I said, I had much more in my basket that I got rid of, but two dresses worth an honourable mention are:

1. Penny Peacock Print Smock Dress - Really cute pattern here which I think could be quite versatile and wearable both in and out of work which is always good. The only reason it didn't make it into the final basket was simply that I only wanted one patterned dress (the embossed flowers on the velvet dress don't count!) and I preferred the paisley one above! 

2. Una Fox Print Pleat Front Skater Dress - You know how we talked about my cat collection? Well I also have a pretty significant fox collection too and I can't resist things with foxy patterns on like this adorable dress. However, I feel this would be one of those purchases where it's all fine and dandy and cute until I actually try to wear it. I feel like I would end up looking like a small child. Also, I've just bought a fox print scarf (so that will have to satisfy my fox print needs for the time being).

Until next time :)

Guess who's back... back again...

Hello again blogging world, remember me? I thought not! It's been well over a month since I last posted (wardrobe overhaul went well, thanks) which has been down to one reason really. I don't want to get too heavy and serious here, as after all this is meant to be a place where I share whimsical things such as fashion, beauty and life but sometimes we all just need a good serious conversation to blow out the cobwebs. 

So, although this blog isn't in any way more than an occasional hobby for me, I've really felt quite disenchanted with the whole blogging / Youtube / social media world for the past month or so, which is why I haven't posted since the end of September. Honestly, I'm fed up with reading the same old stuff on blogs, seeing the same sponsored videos on my Youtube feed and I was generally feeling a bit peeved that a form of original expression (i.e. blogging / Youtubing / creating) has been ultra commercialised over the past year or so. I know it's been going on for years but I feel like it's kinda hit a high over the past few months and it put me off contributing. I'm in not talking about any one person and I want to be 100% clear, I don't begrudge anyone for being able to forge a successful career out of a hobby. But for me, as a reader and viewer I was beginning to get bored of the content I was seeing and disappointed in the direction the whole community has taken. And as a result, I genuinely just wasn't interested posting here. But, I've had a bit of a break (during which I did miss certain aspects of having this little space to post to!) and feel a bit more motivated and inspired. I've found some new bloggers to read as well as Youtubers (but I still have my old faves) which has given me a fresh outlook. As well as this, Nick sort of talked me back into posting again the other night which I thought was very sweet because I didn't think he'd really give two hoots whether I was blogging or not!

So, I'm back posting again and hopefully I'll be able to get back into the swing of things. This is probably quite a good time of year to blog as the countdown to Christmas is now on!! I looooove Christmas and the winter months (as I have talked about before) so there'll be lots of little adventures and photo ops up ahead :)

Also I'm going to a Halloween party tonight so I'll report back on that later in the week.

Until next time :)

Wardrobe Overhaul #2 : The Colour Palette

One thing I did before beginning my wardrobe overhaul was read a few other blogs and articles on the topic. The one I found most helpful was this one by Audrey at Putting Me Together. I hadn't come across her blog before but when I was looking for help via Google, I felt she provided the most relatable guide. A lot of the advice given on other blogs were more aimed at people wanting to make their wardrobe more "on trend", which I felt wasn't solid enough for me. I'm not looking for a more 'fashionable' wardrobe, I'm to build up a wardrobe full of staple pieces that of course, can support trends, but with a backbone that I can rely on regardless of what ever the seasons key looks are.  

Before now, I never really thought of a wardrobe / fashion as being a conscious decision. I mean it never crossed my mind to go into H&M for example, and pick something up that I liked the look of but then put it down because it wouldn't fit in with my style. I don't want to be too prescriptive but I think it's a good way to start for me because I'm sucker for just buying things I like without actually thinking it through. Audrey gives great tips in her series but what really stood out to me was the idea that it's ok to have a pre-defined colour palette that influences your fashion choices. Obviously if you see something you fall in love with that's out side of that colour palette you can (and should!) still buy it. But the idea of having structure is one thing I'm loving.

So as we're now coming up to the colder months my colour palette is very much geared towards winter. When spring rolls around, I think I'll be developing a summer palette as well but for now the  colours I've chosen are winter appropriate (and will probably come as no surprise what so ever)...

Audrey talks about how to chose your colour palette in quite a lot of depth so if you are interested then I suggest reading her series thoroughly. Basically she says you should chose a couple of neutrals and two or three "accent colours". I cheated slightly and chose three neutrals because I'm just that wild. My accent colours are ones I'm naturally drawn to, and would happily wear throughout the year if it were more appropriate but if I did I would be immediately outed as the winter lover I am!

So, I now have a bzillion items of clothing for sale on eBay and I'm ready to start rebuilding my wardrobe! There's probably more things I will get rid of as and when I start buying more new additions - if I got rid of everything I didn't want to keep at this stage I would probably only have about five outfits left.

Until next time :)

Wardrobe Overhaul #1

We all know the feeling of opening your wardrobe doors and feeling completely disenchanted with everything staring back at you. It happens. It's normal. And usually it's not really a big deal in the grand scheme of life. However, at the moment I feel completely uninspired every time I open my wardrobe. 

I don't know what to wear when I go out for a meal with Nick, I don't know what to wear when I go for casual drinks with my friends, I don't know what to wear for nights out, and I don't even know what to wear on a day to day basis (and by day to day, I mean weekend to weekend as I'm surprisingly ok for work wear). 

So I'm on a mission - a wardrobe overhaul mission. I've already started putting things on eBay so now I just need to start thinking about what I want my new wardrobe to look like. I've been mentally making lists of reasons of what specifically is making me feel like this about my current wardrobe and I've come up with the following:

- Too many patterns: Seriously, there are patterns everywhere. Don't get me wrong, I loooove patterns (mainly florals) but it's got to the stage where nothing compliments each other, and there's just too much going on. When I open my wardrobe I'm just confronted with a mass of colour and patterns that just don't go together and it's overwhelming! I also think that patterns can sometimes make you look a bit childish. I know this isn't the case all the time - and I'm definitely not giving up my florals, but it is something that I need to be wary of.

- Sale items: I'm a sucker for a sale. I used to be a firm believer in shopping mainly in sales purely because I didn't have much money and the thought of buying one really nice dress for £40 when I could get 4 for £10 each in the sale just didn't compute. I don't know whether it's just because I'm a bit older and have the luxury of earning a decent wage, but now I'd much rather have the one dress for £40 and know it was going to be a long standing addition to my wardrobe. Having said that, I do still automatically go to sales racks and obviously you can find some absolute gems on them, but I really need to only buy sale items that I know I will actually wear and that will ultimately compliment my wardrobe. 

- Lacking separates: I would confidently say that about 75% of my wardrobe is made up of dresses. Don't get me wrong, I am a dress lover but in the past this has been somewhat down to the fact I just didn't want the hassle of thinking about what skirt/trousers to wear with what top/shirt/jumper. I want to start buying more separates that will give me more options. I'm in no way going for a "capsule" wardrobe, but you can mix and match separates which obviously creates so many more options when it comes to outfit planning. 

- Lacking in sophistication: I think this point is basically the conclusion that can be drawn from the preceding three points. I want a more grown up wardrobe. When I go out, I want to feel comfortable and confident. I don't want to lose the core of my style - which is florals, polka dots, floaty dresses and pretty collars but I want to make sure that when I buy something I feel confident and comfortable in it (and not like a child), and also be certain that I've got a number of options for that item. 

The next 'instalment' of this series will be about the colour palette I'm going to be going for and what sorts of items are on my list of 'must haves'.

For now, I will leave you with three women who I feel mix cute, girly yet sophisticated to perfection:

Who are your style inspirations?

Until next time :)