OOTD: Monsoon 'Glasshouse' dress

This is a super quick post to share my outfit from a wedding I went to this weekend. I bought this dress a while back and was really hoping for nice summery weather so I could wear it and not look a bit daft! I'm pleased to say the weather was good to me (and more importantly the Bride and Groom!).

This dress is from Monsoon and was love at first sight! The bodice is pleated and the skirt kicks out at the hips and has a lovely net underskirt, it falls into the category 'poofy' without a doubt! Plus this dress is amazing for dancing as it swishes. This is a size 22 with no stretch- in past seasons something so fitted at the waist wouldn't have fitted me I reckon the fit on this is generous so it really is worth trying stuff on. The only fault with this dress (and I'm nit picking) is the waist was just a tiny bit high and I kept tugging it down a little (no doubt my chest was taking up a bit of the length in the bodice). Alas this drss is no longer available but for you avid e-bayers this dress is called 'Glasshouse'

              

The wedding was in York (that's the race course behind me) York holds a special place in my heart since I went to Uni there had some of the best times in my life and met my partner (of 12 years now!). Anyhow back to the outfit, my matchy matchy instincts show no signs of letting up. The cardigan was also from Monsoon, I saw it in Hull then went to Oxford to buy it - but it had gone :-( so the lovely sales lady went upstairs in to the stock room to rummage for the last one (which was coincidentally in my size!) fate! The shoes and bag are from New look, my go to place for block colour wedding outfit shoes now. I know its very matchy and not at all edgy but I felt brilliant this dress is so pretty I even abandoned my cardigan in the evening and danced (swooshed!) all night.

Frock @ Monssoon

Cardi @ Monsson

Shoes @ New look

Bag @ New look

Two outfits and a deck chair!

This weather is awesome isn't it?! In my teenage years I used to hate nice weather, I would hide away in black T shirts and jeans. Nowadays I love that I can wear pretty things and be cool, I even got my arms out on Sunday and believe it or not the world is still spinning! Anyhow I wore the first outfit to go to London with my mum on Saturday, on the sunniest day of the year so far we went for lunch in a cellar (Belgo in Seven Dials, it's pretty good, if you like mussels and beer!) and then went and sat in the dark for a couple of hours! (we saw Charlie and the Chocolate factory at the Theatre Royal - seriously don't bother it was not great!) 

The top is from Evans there's a couple in the sale here this is a size 18/20 believe it or not! (I tried on the 22/24 in store and it was a bit big on the top.) The 18/20 fits just so on the hips as there is no stretch at all in the fabric, there is room in the chest and arms. This picture does not do this fabric justice, this was a piece that I saw back in the Evans preview back in winter I am sad it has take me this long to put my money where my mouth is and actually buy it! I fell in love back then and I'm so so pleased that this piece actually came to fruition, well done Evans!

Top @ Evans

Jeans@ Evans

shoes @ ASDA

This outfit is my cycling to the pub outfit from Sunday, I have blogged this dress a couple of times, it used to be Claire's and it's one of my go to dresses when it's hot. Also I feel one can never go wrong with a wicker bike basket as an accessory!

Dress Joe Browns @ Simply be from the lovely Claire at a swap

'Bag' = my bike basket!

Also I have a rather spiffing new deck chair in my life, which I am torn between sitting in and sitting somewhere else and looking at! (My seaside chic/Brighton obsession is still going strong!)

Deck chair @ Homebase

OOTD: New Look Coral Blazer

I promised myself I would blog this weekend, so here I am at ten to eleven on a Sunday night when I really should be in bed! Anyhow this will be a very quick post! This is my new blazer that I picked up in New Look in Reading (which is a very uninspiring Inspire indeed!) on Saturday, there was only one in the shop it's size 20 which is a good fit and is a soft jersey in a coral colour, it's perfect for summer evenings when it comes in cooler but its still a bright colour so doesn't feel dowdy. I wore this outfit out to dinner this evening, the other half and I went on a date night into Oxford just to Wagamamas and then the Turf (one of Oxfords best pubs). I really should have taken the camera with me since Oxford is a beautiful backdrop and was so quiet this evening. Still you have me in front of the lovely meadow near our house instead. 

Incidentally my hair is pretty much always held up with a pencil as above (yep just a pencil!) I need my hair out of the way at work (I'm a scientist so work in a lab a fair amount). I never use hair bands and it makes a big big difference to how healthy my hair is, I have fewer split ends and less general breakage. So if you're wondering where my hair waves come from it's by having my hair in a pencil all the time, I simply pull the pencil out and voila:

Blazer @ New look

Jeans @ Evans

Shoes @ New look

Bag @ New Look

Good old Familiars

Well, I can't quite believe its been a month and a half since my last post! Time is flying at the moment! I have not been up to anything special, asides a few trips up and down the country to see families and generally a lot of going backwards and forwards to work.

My outfits of late have been comprised of the familiar and comfortable. Last time I went up to Yorkshire I wore this outfit:

Top @ New look (a couple of years ago)

Blazer @ Torrid (a sample from plus London but given to me by Sally who won it, I love where this blazer came from it has seriously good memories attached to it!)

Jeans @ Evans

Sandals @ ASDA!

I am pretty much living in these skinny jeans from Evans they are so comfy and fit amazingly well. This outfit was perfect for sitting in the pub -Nellies in Beverley is a seriously good pub, it's lit entirely by gaslight and is a Sam Smiths pub so beer is extremely good and extremely cheap. The other half is pretty into his ales so we always go to Nellies when I go home.

Anyhow I'm rambling away! The sandals I'm wearing are George at ASDA, I bought them a month or so ago and have been also living in them since, these pictures do not do them justice. In fact I am so in love with these sandals I went back and bought two more pairs! They to make even my ropey toes look OK! At £8 you cant go wrong really!

I have bought one or two items of clothing lately including a black Maxi dress from Evans that has been doing  the blogger rounds. I tried it on back in march and liked it but I'm still finding Evans full price things a bit expensive, so once it was on sale I managed to snap it up! I saw it here on Cass' blog (which has recently become one of my favorites) I will blog it at some point soon I promise!

I also bought a gorgeous dress from Monsoon for a wedding in July, which of course meant I needed to buy shoes and a bag and a shrug, just needed to! I will also blog that soon too.

I seem to have slept through the Clements Ribeiro launch, or at least by the time I decided I might like to buy a piece it sold out! I managed to miss the Simply be blogger take over which was a shame (pesky work strikes again!) since I was thrilled that Lauren, Laura and Em launched their dresses. I was planning on buying Em's dress but then I had to buy two new brake cylinders for the car :-( I will admire it from afar for now and see how the finances go next month!

I have also been reading lots of awesome posts lately, I am here just a but quiet at the moment! Hope you are all well.

I have to go now I have a pub quiz to cycle to!

Whitby Goth Weekend The outfits!

For quite a while now I have been wanting to go to Whitby Goth Weekend. I grew up in Yorkshire but never quite managed to make it to Whitby for one of the bi-annual goth weekends. We have been to the Wendyhouse in Leeds often (playful alternative night! the music - nothing kinky -naughty!)

Since it was my birthday weekend we decided to book a little b&b and head up to Whitby to do some marveling at the costumes. I do love to dress up and at one time I was quite into gothic Victoriana, alas the opportunity to goth up does not arise too often now a days and I didn't take the corsets! I kept my outfits fairly simple going for generic vintage rather than full on goth. Here's my Friday night outfit. You have already seen this dress (I wore it for Plus London last year):

Dress @ Get Cutie

Shoes @ New Look

Necklace - Whitby Jet

During the day I thought I'd wear something fairly easy to toddle around in (again nothing new here!):

Cardi @ H&M

belt @ Next

Jeans @ evans

shoes @ New look

Onto the main event I did get the sewing machine out and run up something a bit different. It was hard to photograph my efforts but here it is:

Dress DIY

Jacket @ New look Inspire (old)

necklace and bangles @ Next

Yes it's a home made 50's inspired dress with miniature glow sticks all over it! They are actually night fishing floats and are probably not intended as club wear but sometimes you have to break the mold right! This dress got a lot of love in Whitby town. It was awesome to wear and I had a lot of fun making it.

I have to say that the most weather appropriate outfit was this one though - brr!

Whitby was great and the costumes and outfits were amazing maybe next time I will dust off some of my more goth stuff!

Something to note is that there were loads of awesome plus size ladies rocking corsetry and steampunk. Next time I will pluck up the courage to ask for some photos of the awesome goth babes! For now I'll just leave a few links:

Facebook Page

Open Facebook Group

Daily Fail, but some nice pics

Real Whitby

flickr

There are many many more pics on line a google will reveal lots and lots!

Project/D for Simply be Review

I have such a special dress to share today!

 The fabulous Em got in contact with me to ask if I would like to review a dress with her and three other bloggers. I decided that I was a very lucky girl to be invited and jumped at the chance! The dress in question is the Carnegie Strappy dress by Project/D London for Simply be. I love the idea of five different takes on the same garment especially since this dress comes in black and white, which adds a different dimension and of course we are showing you both!

The other ladies are:

Em from Oh, the places You'll Go!

Lauren form Pocket Rocket Fashion

Amy Simon from These Girls Turn Heads

Georgina from Cupcake's Clothes

so go and check their styling out.

So on to the lovely dress:

First of all apologies for the chicken indoor shots! It was still a little too cold for outdoor posing, also I wanted to show how gorgeous the scalloped edge of the dress is and the white background is  just the ticket.

Sizing: This dress is a size 24. I refer you to my blog title for my measurements! The cotton is not stretchy but there is a sheared panel at the back which adjusts the fit. This dress is a good fit on me, there is some extra room on the bodice at the back and sides on me but the waist fits about right. The waist does stretch but only within the shearing zone- which is actually really clever since you get to keep the lovely fitted structure at the front. The dress is very comfortable and wearable. If I had been in a shop trying this dress on I would have tried the 22 as well since I didn't I cant tell you how they compare but I would say stick to your normal size with this one.

The Broderie Anglaise is so pretty and delicate

Also the structure of this dress is fantastic there's a line of Broderie Anglaise which wraps around the dress from the top at the back to the front and joins the waistband, it's a small detail but it does make the dress feel special.

The waistband on this dress is not straight it dips around the sides so sits really well on the hips. The pleating on the skirt is concentrated around the back and sides but there's not much around the centre front I really like this detail as the dress doesn't feel bulky around the front.  

Right on to some more snaps of me wearing the dress:

The skirt is just lovely its so cute and girly! I should also mention that the straps are nicely placed and fit beautifully over bra straps. I should have moved my hair out if the way in the shot below so you could see the waist a bit better, It's getting a bit long!

As for my styling I decided to go with neon bling! I love all the big flashy neon and diamante jewelry that is around at the moment and this dress gave me a perfect excuse to acquire some! The bangles and necklace are from Next I had such a good time choosing a colour they had pink, blue and orange all as equally neon and in your face! Since I already owned the ring I went with yellow/lime. The nail polish was harder to track down but I came across this Accessorize one in 'Carnival'.

Dress Project/D at Simply be

Shrug @ Evans

Bangles @ Next

Necklace @ Next

Ring @ H&M

Shoes @ New Look

I suppose the last thing to mention is the price of the dress at £90 in this challenging economy I reckon it is a bit pricey. On the other hand this dress is a designer dress and is certainly an investment piece. Since it doesn't strongly confirm to any fashion fad it would happily sit in your wardrobe and come out for the next few years without looking dated. I could (and did!) accessorize this dress differently with different colour shoes accessories and belts. I guess when it comes to the cost of clothes everyone knows what they can afford and justify spending, so If you fancy a pop at this dress I would recommend give it a try and decide for yourself!

OOTD: New Look Maxi Dress

The country has been gripped in freezing weather for what seems like ages now. A couple of weeks ago whilst there was snow on the ground I took myself down to the shops, I popped into my local (Inspire free) new look and saw this maxi dress I decided I liked it so I took an 18 into the changing room and prepared to be disappointed!  Anyhow to my surprise it fitted perfectly. So there I was in  my snow boots buying a summer dress!

Last year I bought this dress in the 'bandeau maxi' style also in an 18. I'm happy to report that New look haven't adjusted the fit since. Given that I usually wear a 22 and sometimes a 24 in some inspire styles, being able to choose from the main range is refreshing. In fact I could buy this dress or this dress or this dress (OK so I already bought that last one!). 

On to the fit, there's lots of room in the bust and the gathering and elastic means the dress is comfortable. The fabric itself is not stretchy but there's plenty of gathering, It is not stretched around the neckline to a point where it looks like all the stretch has been used up, if that makes sense. There was a belt but of course it was a tad too small, seemingly as in all New Look dresses. 

The print on this dress is such a versatile one, I am really happy with this spring look and I think it will look equally as good with a pair of sandals and a couple of chunky bangles. At £23 this dress is a bargain and is going to be one of my staples for summer.

The jacket is also from New look Inspire and is a size 22, it is real leather and was about £65 which is another absolute bargain. I can't find the jacket on-line anymore but there might be some hanging around in stores still. It's a fantastic jacket for spring and looks great with a shirt and skinny jeans. It is cropped so I think it looks better open, and in these photos I've done the zip up a little bit too far, it looks really good just nipped in at the waist.

Dress @ New look

Jacket @ New look

Bag @ New Look

Necklace @ H&M

Belt @ ASOS

So there you go. It's taken me a couple of weeks to even brave putting a dress on, since I've been really feeling this cold snap. I want to do an OOTD with the blue paisley dress as well but that will have to wait for a slightly warmer day!