Friday 24 February 2012

You're in a strange part of our town.

I must confess, I couldn’t really bring myself to care about London Fashion Week this season. It’s the same part of me that doesn’t feel very comfortable labelling myself as a ‘fashion blogger’ – I like clothes, but I’m not very adventurous. And being surrounded by slim, tall, stylish women is enough to make anyone feel a bit inadequate. So I just kind of ignored it – I didn’t apply for a pass, I didn’t ask for any invites, I didn’t block the weekend out in my diary – I just sat back and let it happen.

Living a 20 minute train ride from central London is a useful thing for a blogger to have, though, meaning that I can get into the Capital quickly for an event, or if I change my mind – and when Hayley and scores of other bloggers started making plans to meet up, my mind got changed. So I met them at Somerset House, where we stayed long enough to be clichés and take outfit photos…

…and then we headed off for wine and cocktails and burgers and more wine and then some more wine.


Christina, Amy, some weirdo, Hayley, Hannah, Michelle!


I assumed, rightly, that I wouldn’t run into anyone wearing this dress. That’s because it cost £11.99 from a random cheap shop near my work. The brand is ProdigyRed though, and they actually sell online – so I should stop being so derogatory about them and calling them a random cheapy make as I actually really like a lot of stuff on there! Plus, I bought two of my favourite dresses of the moment there, so.

I went in on Saturday too, but the weather was miserable and I failed to even get my camera out of my bag. Which means I didn’t document the best beehive I have ever achieved in my hair (turns out the key is not brushing it properly) and another new dress. Ah well. It’s only Fashion Week, after all.

Dress – ProdigyRed
Tights – Tesco

Bag - New Look
Belt & Shoes – Primark
Coat – H&M
Necklace - GoGo Philip
Brooch & Rings - Topshop
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Wednesday 22 February 2012

We'll run away together, we'll spend some time forever, we'll never feel bad anymore.

Here is a little known fact about me: I have an English degree and, actually, I consider myself to have quite a good vocabulary. But, when confronted with the below photograph in real life, the best description I could muster was 'Well, that's pretty damn pretty.'


It IS, though.

It's so easy to miss the natural beauty on our little island, or just assume that we can't 'do' scenery the way they do abroad. But we do. Actually, learning to drive a few years back made me realise how close you generally are to something pretty.

So obviously this post is about that time I drove for 10 hours to observe this prettiness. Yep.

Well, I say *I* - I actually mean my fabulous friend Russell, who transported us on a wonderland tour across the UK, a tour full of mix CDs, mystery crisps, good, bad and just plain ugly service stations - oh, and just generally going a bit weird. Hertfordshire to Oban is a long flipping way, you know.

As I mentioned on Friday, we embarked upon our tour to Scotland the weekend before last for Duncan and Matt's birthday celebrations. Duncan lives on Easdale, a tiny island off the coast near Oban - there are no roads, you can only get onto it by ferry (well, 'ferry' - this is their ferry) and only about 60 people live there. There was barely any phone signal - never mind 3G! But it was actually nice to be off-grid. And instead of phoning each other when we wanted to meet up, we just popped in-between each others' holiday cottages.

I had the best time. The BEST time. When we walked into the pub, we all got hugs (and I introduced the locals to my favourite drink, Morganaretto, which is not what I actually call it, but is a shot of Captain Morgans, a shot of Amaretto, and coke. YUUUUUM.) and worked our way through their vast selection of whisky (revelation: straight whisky tastes like varnish). We spent wonderful nights in cooking good food (I was mostly eating) and drinking boxes of wine and then spent the days walking around the island, taking in all that beauty, and skimming stones (or epically failing to, in my case). Oh, plus the party on Saturday night, which I have already established, was epic.



It's not for everyone - if you like everything to be clean and minimalist and modern, then it's probably not for you. I spent most of the trip in my wellies, but it certainly didn't feel like we were slumming it - our holiday cottages were cosy and it only took a few minutes to sail back to the mainland and the nearest town. Plus, you're surrounded with scenery like this.

Have I persuaded you yet?

P.S - All the best photos in this post were by Russell, who is way better at this than me.
P.P.S - More photos coming very shortly to my Facebook page!

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Monday 20 February 2012

Two left feet, I had no beat.

On the happy occasions when I'm asked to review a product for the blog, I normally try and go for something that I'll get a lot of use out of. But sometimes I just have to give into my more frivolous impulses and go for something that's just damn PRETTY.

Sure, open toed shoes are not the most practical choice for a February shoe. But I don't have a pair of nude heels, and when I saw the design - as if someone had doodled all over them - I couldn't resist.


They're by Iron Fist and are from Fyfo, which is a great site for all your shoe, bag and perfume needs. I was basically drawn to them because the name sounds like FriFro, but they also have a flipping HILARIOUS Twitter which is so rare for a brand. I follow quite a lot of brands who are obviously written by a real person (the automated ones get unfollowed pretty sharpish) but there aren't many that actually try to be hilarious. I approve.

I'm sure the shoes will be featuring in many an outfit post when the weather gets a bit warmer, but for now, I'm going to pop them on a shelf and admire the pretty from afar.


Oh, that? That's a duck.
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Friday 17 February 2012

Walking unknown territory, where the sun's not shining.

For someone who is surgically attached to her iPhone and laptop, I have a surprising love for getting away from it all. Last weekend I did just that - hopped in the car and escaped to a remote island off the coast of Scotland, with 9 friends. And it was wonderful - although now I'm back to the daily routine I feel like I need that break all over again!

I'll post a little more about where we stayed soon - oh, but it was gorgeous.

The reason for the retreat was the birthday celebration of my friend Duncan, who lives on said island, who I've known almost half my life, from when he was a skinny 15 year old who came visiting my friends and I on his bike, charming our mums out of cups and tea and cake. My mum is still a bit in love with him.

There was an amazing party on Saturday night with dancing, dance-offs and d... um. Diet coke with rum in it?

Dress - Boohoo
Clutch - eBay
Boots & Necklace - Dorothy Perkins
Tights - Tesco
Hairclip - H&M Kids

I wore this dress from Boohoo, which I bought at the same time as this one. It's too small, which I wish I'd realised earlier, as that's something of an issue in a dress with a sheer panel. A couple of days of nomming fried food didn't improve matters much. But hopefully a few weeks of rediscovering the merits of salad (and getting back on my diet plan) will help that!

The highlight of the night was the dance-off I mentioned - Duncan vs. a 9 year old. The 9 year old won.


It was an amazing night and an amazing weekend - just what I needed after a bit of a stressful start to 2012 - which I've certainly noticed in my blog, I'm struggling to just post a frock every Friday at the moment! I'm hoping to have a bit more time soon - I'm spending the weekend hanging with Hayley and lots of other bloggers at LFW (well, around LFW - I was too lazy to apply for any shows!) so I'm sure I'll have lots of photos and stories to share next week!
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