My Summer Faves!

So I've finally (reluctantly) admitted to myself that summer is over, after having to turn the heating on for the first time this week, digging out all my winter clothes and starting to browse the shops for scarves, hats and ear muffs. In doing so, I thought it might be a nice idea to do a post on what have been my 'summer faves', to point out what have been my favourite new purchases, the items I just haven't stopped wearing and my bargain buys of Summer 2010, before they are banished to the back of my wardrobe for winter! On that note, on to business...

My favourite... first!

Now I'm sure this might sound strange to many of you, but before this summer I'd never owned a pair of ballet pumps of any description. I'd just never found a pair that were cute AND comfortable. Well, that was until I discovered these little beauties for £12 in Tesco. I think the combination of bows, leopard print and jewels is so tacky that it just about works! I've worn these shoes so much this summer and am yet to find a second pair of pumps that lives up to them!

My favourite... bargain!

If we're talking on a cost-per-wear basis, my absolute bargain of the summer just has to be this floral dress from the G21 range at Asda :-) It cost £7 and I have worn it soooo many times! The great thing about it is how versatile it is - I've worn it for a job interview, nights out and just chilling in the daytime. It's so easy to transform with different shoes and accessories. It was perfect for those days when I couldn't really think what to wear, as I new I could just put this on, and with the right accessories and shoes it would be prefect for whatever I was doing - I need to get myself a winter equivalent!

My favourite... 'unusual' outfit!

My favourite outfit that I've only ever worn once and am 99.99% sure I'll never wear again is my graduation outfit, which I wore back in July for my graduation ceremony :-) After 4 years hard work (and a lot of fun!) it was a great feeling getting the gown and mortar board on - we had finally done it! I thought I might feel a bit silly wearing it, but I think you really get into the festivities of the day, and are so proud of what you and all your friends have done that it feels like such an accomplishment to finally be wearing it :-)

My favourite... freebie!

Between graduation in July and starting my new job last week I had a lot of lovely spare time over the summer months, and one of the things I busied myself with was entering lots of competitions (random I know!). I was pretty successful anyway, and won a whole plethora of goodies, from make up to vouchers, and hair products to teapots! However, my favourite win just has to be this gorgeous dress from Tesco's couture range which I originally reviewed here. I'm still waiting for the perfect occasion to wear it, but I just can't wait to do so - I think it's so pretty :-)

My favourite.... 'special' purchase!

My absolute favourite purchase of the summer overall has to be the dress I bought back in June for my Graduation Ball. Some of you may have followed my search for the right dress for the occasion, and I just knew when I lay my eyes on this Karen Millen number that it was 'the one'! I LOVED everything about it - the cut, the colour, the detailing - I just thought it was perfect. I felt really good in it, which I think is the most important thing when dressing up for a special occasion as confidence really shines through :-) And it was only £55 which I think for a dress like that is pretty darn reasonable! If you want to see more pics from that night you can look at the post I wrote back in June here.

So there we have it - my favourites of the summer :-) I hope you've liked this post. If you have, maybe I can make this sort of post a more regular thing.

What have been your favourite items from your wardrobe this summer? And what are you most excited about wearing this winter? I need some inspiration, as at the moment I'm pretty depressed at the thought of cold weather!

xx

The Big 2-3 - My Birthday!!

I've had a lovely few days of celebration this weekend because it was my birthday on Saturday! I hit the big 2-3 which I'm finding very scary since it only feels like two minutes ago that I was 18. However, a day out in London helped take my mind off my rapid ageing, so I thought I'd just post a few little piccies.

We headed down early in the morning to queue for tickets for Wicked at the Apollo, and luckily we managed to get our hands on some. Before the matinée started we went to Covent Garden. I know it's really touristy, but it's still one of my favourite places to go to in London.

While we were there we saw a Pearly King collecting for charity. I just had to grab a picture as he looked so dashing! (and of course I added my donation to his collection box).

The street performers were all out in force as usual. I think the human statues are brilliant, but I never stand at the front to watch because I find them a little bit scary!

At 2.30 we headed back to the Apollo for the show...

I knew very little about the show before we went, and was surprised (and very pleased!) to find out that the talented (and a little bit gorgeous!) Lee Mead was in it...

I can't praise the show highly enough - it really was amazing. The set was stunning and the voice of the lead character in particular blew me away. If you happen to be in London I can't think of many better ways to spend a few hours.

After the show we headed to the Waldorf for cocktails, and then on to an Italian back in Covent Garden for dinner. A lovely day finished off with my favourite meal...

All in all I had a fantabulous day - a very happy (and lucky) girlie :-)

Now, to find some wrinkle cream and my Bonmarché vouchers...

xx

August? Seriously?!

Evenin all,

Hope you're all good and surviving the cold weather... seriously, it's meant to be August, what's the cold snap all about? We actually had to turn the central heating on tonight... bad times.

Anyway, I've just got a really quick outfit post of what I wore the other night, before it turned chilly. The plan was to head to a friend's house for drinks, before heading into town for a boogie and a bit more drinking! This is what I went for...

This dress has been one of my best recent purchases - it cost just £7 and I've worn it so much. I think it's really versatile, as I can wear it during the day, on a night out, and I even wore it to a recent job interview (see my post here).

Dress - G21 at Asda

Sandals - Tesco

Belt - Primark

Clutch - Dorothy Perkins

Earrings - can't remember...

I had a bit of a hair malfunction before I went out (well, to be honest, it was probably just wasn't doing quite as it was told, but at the time it seemed like an actual disaster - I HATE hair stress before going out!). I tried to curl it but it wasn't really behaving, so in the end I ended up with general messy hair with random ringlets - I was NOT pleased!

Make-up wise I tried out a few new Rimmel products I won in their Twitter competition recently, which I've fallen in love with, so hopefully I'll do a more detailed post on some of those soon.

In the end, after starting of with a few drinks round a friends house, we all said we were pretty much happy to stay there rather than go out, and someone suggested we play some good old fashion games! What old people we are at heart! We got Articulate out at midnight and were still playing at 5.30am!! I have never played it before, but it was sooooo funny - actually had one of the best nights I've had in ages :-D I can highly recommend it. However, walking home at 6.30am wearing the night before's clothes passing random people who were out on their early morning walk, I did feel a bit naughty, like I'd done something wrong :-/ I bet they thought I was a real dirty stop out - little did they know I'd been playing board games, not painting the town red!

What board games do you guys like to play?! After only just discovering Articulate, I feel like there must be loads of other gems out there that I've been missing out on!

xx

Dressed for Success!

I've just got a really quick outfit post for you on what I wore for my interview in London town today.

I went for a much different look to the outfit I wore to my last interview (you can see my post here). Last time the company had no dress code and was quite a young, fresh company, so I wore something quite 'me' but still appropriate for the day.

This time round though, I didn't know too much about the company's culture/dress code. However, I did know that they are hugely successful, a market leader and that they deal with some of the biggest banks, law firms, investment companies etc in the country (actually, in the world)... all very impressive stuff! So I though it was best to go for something very profesh! I would much rather be over dressed than underdressed at an interview, so this is what I went with...

I am aware that my hair looks slightly red in these pictures, which I find a lil strange...

Blazer - New Look

Blouse - Next

Skirt - Tesco

Bag - Primark

Shoes - Asda

I've gotta say I felt very professional, and.. dare I say it... grown-up, walking past all the tourists wearing this! (I'm 22, so I know it shouldn't feel strange to feel grown up, but it does!)

I've got my fingers crossed I get through to the next round of interviews, and I'll let you know when I hear. If I do, that means another outfit to plan :-/

Hope you all have a lovely weekend :-D

xx

It's Couture Darling, Couture...

Morning all,

I have a very prettiful new dress to show you today!

If you read my blog post here you will know that last month I was lucky enough to win a competition on Twitter being run by Clothing at Tesco. As a prize I was allowed to pick any item I wanted from their new Couture range. Cue excitement, a little bit of celebratory dancing and an hour in front of the computer deciding what to buy! After a lot of thought (seriously, it took me ages to decide!) I plumped for the ruffle dress.

It arrived the week before last and I was soooooo pleased when Mr Postman delivered it :-) Luckily it fitted and I think it is so gorgeous. Here's some piccies...

The shape of the dress is different to anything I've worn before, but I really like it.

Sorry for the scowl in this one, but my eyes are so sensitive to the sun that if I don't have sunglasses even when its a tincy bit bright I have to majorly squint and therefore end up with quite an angry look on my face!! But at least it allows you to see the ruffly neck close up.

The back is tres pretty too...

Now although I love the floatiness of the dress, I thought I'd try it with a belt just to give it a bit more shape. I thought my flowery ribbon belt from River Island did the job perfectly, as it matched the grey pattern at the bottom of the dress.

I'm not quite sure when I'm going to wear it yet (I was going to wear it to my cousin's wedding, but thought it wasn't really appropriate to wear white to someone else's wedding - I didn't want any of those 'who does she think she is' comments) but its definitely a keeper. It will sit nicely in my wardrobe until just the right occasion comes up!

What do you guys think of it? Have you checked out the F&F couture range online yet? I think there are some lovely pieces.

I won a £30 Tesco clothing voucher in a different competition recently too (see my post here on my second piece of luck!) so I can't wait to spend that now :-)

Thanks Tesco - I love my dress and am going to hang it on my wardrobe door so its the first thing I see when I wake up tomorrow! (what, I shouldn't have admitted that?!...)

xx

Lady Luck's Shining!

I am a very happy girly again today cos I've just gone and won another competition!

The lovely Tor over at fabfrocks.blogspot.com ran a competition where you had to put together a wedding outfit for under £30 using clothes from Tesco. I've only just discovered Tor's blog and I think it's really great - she has such great style and is a bargain hunter just like me! You should definitely check her out and give her future competitions a go :-)

Anyway, I put together three looks and because I couldn't decide which one was my favourite I submitted them all! I think that although summer weddings are all in the same season (obviously!) they can be totally different in terms of location, people etc, and so can require totally different looks, so that's why I made them quite different. Here's what I created...

As you can see, the 3 for 2 offer on all sale items helped me a lot! I think Tesco have some lovely clothes at the moment so there was plenty to choose from. Which is your favourite of the three looks? I think I like the first one best, and seeing as I already own the shoes (see my post on them here) I'm a quarter of the way there!

It seems I've been very lucky recently, what with winning this, a Tesco couture dress, Wild Curls mascara and some goodies from magazine competitions :-) Maybe I'll do a video to show you all my lovely prizes...

I'll be sure to let you know what I decide to buy with my vouchers!

xx

F+F Couture and My Competition Win :-)

Just a quick update because I am a very happy girl right now!

I follow @ClothingatTesco on Twitter and today they ran a competition to win an item from their F+F Couture range and... you guessed... I WON!!

To enter you had to tweet your best summer fashion tip and the nice people at Tesco would choose their favourite. My tip was:

I guess that at the end of the day you can't please all the people all the time, so you might as well just make yourself happy. And in the summer you want to enjoy the nice weather (if we ever have any!) and do fun things without being too concerned about what you're wearing.

Now on to the fun bit - I get to pick an item of my choice from their couture range :-)

I have to admit I never even knew that Tesco had a couture range before today, and I am really pleasantly surprised - there are some gorgeous items. You can check them out at:http://www.clothingattesco.com/brands/F+F-Couture/icat/f-and-f-couture

These are a few of my favourite pieces...

So now I need to make my mind up and tell Tesco. Decisions decisions. What do you think I should go for?

xx

Animal Instincts

Hola Chicas!

I was in town yesterday posting a few ebay items I've sold in the last few days and, as usual, I got distracted and did a spot of shopping myself :-/ There's so many sales on everywhere at the moment I find it hard to resist!

Then last night the boy and I headed out for a meal at good old Frankie and Benny's - I love it so much there. Here's what I wore... (I've cut my head off cos let's just say I wasn't looking at my most radiant!)...

Shorts - Dorothy Perkins

Navy vest - New Look

I bought the cream cropped tee I'm wearing here yesterday from New Look. It was reduced from £22 to £6 in the sale so I was a very happy girly! The detailing at the top is loads of little faux pearls sewn on which is so cute :-)

It's my gorgeous new shoesies that were my favourite part of my outfit though...

I got them from Tesco of all places! They were £12 and I am actually in love with them :-) The leopard print in kinda shiny, then there are black bows with big chunky silver jewels on...

They wouldn't normally be my style cos they're quite in your face, but they make me smile, so I figured what the hell :-)

Hasta Mañana

xx