Monday 31 October 2011

TBBCAR: The Winners (and Happy Halloween...)


So TBBCAR is over and overall, we made £851!

I just want to say a HUGE thank you to everyone who donated to TBBCAR. Organising it was rather stressful - not helped by the JustGiving website going down for maintenance with less than half an hour to go until midnight - but we got there in the end! I was a bit gutted though as I really hoped that we'd make over £1000 and I can't help but wonder if we could have got that crucial last £150 in that final 30 minutes. But it's all going towards a good cause and I'm hugely grateful that we made ANYTHING at all. And thanks to all the people who didn't get sick of my constant promotion on Friday - I was expecting Twitter unfollows by the bucketful!

My biggest thank you though has to go to everyone who donated products. Some of the brands got in touch of their own accord, others responded to my pleas and several blogging readers went out and got products to donate, or offered to make things or extend their services. So a huge, huge thank you for all the donations - you REALLY didn't have to and apart from helping out a good cause, you didn't have anything to gain from offering vouchers or products. So I'm incredibly appreciative - especially as LOTS of people completely ignored my begging! Breast Cancer Campaign is really close to my heart. My aunt has had it twice and I have far too many close friends who have lost people to it.


Anyway. I guess you guys want to know the winners, right? Aaaalright then.


£50 of Debenhams vouchers - Tamsin Worrad
£20 of Clippy vouchers - Emily Dyson
A selection of House of Holland tights from MyTights - Shaheina Khan
An October Glossybox - Sophie Langford
£20 gift voucher for Crown & Glory - Jen Holmes
£30 gift voucher for my Etsy shop - Tzevai Chong
A vintage Burberry handbag from Darwin & Delilah - Edward Granata
£100 gift voucher from Stanwells Boutique - Sarah Learoyd
Bespoke online design service from Abby - Jazmine Rocks
£50 Voucher from Sarenza - Gemma Francis
£50 Voucher from Sarenza - Emma Baines
A signed copy of The C-Word by Lisa Lynch - Gabriella Butt
A signed copy of Cult Fiction by Ardie Collins - Amy Reichelt
A selection of GoGo Philip jewellery - Rachel Alexander
A piece of your choice from Bijou Bijoux - Abbi Kendall
£50 Matalan Voucher - Russell McGovern
Simeon Farrar for Fulton Limited Edition Umbrella - Sophie King


Congratulations everyone! I'll be emailing you all over the next few days to sort out getting your prizes to you. And that's it! Thanks so much again.


In other news, I also wanted to say Happy Halloween! It's one of my favourite times of year, and we had a bit of a dress up day at work today. I've gotta say, I felt rather at home in stripy tights and lashings of eyeliner - I think I'll always be a quasi goth at heart!


Dress - New Look (featured here)
Earrings - Claire's


I got the cute little clip-on hat in Accessorize, and I've had the tights for about seven years - I was really outraged at spending £8 for a pair of tights but I think I've worn them every Halloween since! And - unbelievably - I've had the earrings since I was 13. I can't believe they've lasted all this time!

Happy Halloween everyone (and thanks again for TBBCAR!).
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Sunday 30 October 2011

Tell me the truth, is it love or just Paris?

I'm such a warm weather girl, ordinarily, but I can't help but feel somewhat gleeful at the approach of winter. It was really quite easy to slip back into opaque tights - comforting, sin-hiding tights - and I'm just waiting with bated breath for it to officially be hat weather again. Hats are ace.

I've spoken about it before - the change of season is totally an excuse to go shopping. And in my all-too-regular late night perusals of the internet (some call it 'window shopping', I call it 'research') I stumbled across La Redoute and was struck by just how many of the clothes on there made it onto my A/W wishlist. You know me - I like structure in my clothing. To me, women's clothes that fit and flatter are an essential part of my wardrobe - none of that floaty, skimmy rubbish that only flatters women who are super skinny or actually pregnant. And La Redoute seem to get that, which, yay.

These two dresses are gorgeous - I'm all for dresses with sleeves as a rule. I love the unusual design of the second one - such a good workwear ensemble!


And this coat - OH, this coat - if it was red, it would be the coat. I'm so tempted to get it anyway - I actually really love the dark blue colour and I adore that full skirt. Perfect for wintry twirling. I do lots of that, you see.


And even though it's starting to get a bit cold for them, I keep finding myself looking at coloured blazers lately. I can think of several items in my  huge dress collection that would go beautifully with this little turquoise number. 


I also adore the battered leather look of this squashy bag. I think that's why I always resist buying designer items, because I like things that you can go straight into using, rather than worrying about scratching it or marking it. It's so pretty.


I keep finding more shops to fall in love with, it's a problem. Really, I just need to win the lottery already so I can buy EVERYTHING. But for now, I definitely think I'll be investing in that navy coat. I think it may have been made for me. (Sigh.)

PS - This post was written in collaboration with La Redoute. 
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Friday 28 October 2011

Dazzle, doused in gin.

On Wednesday, I went to the Cosmopolitan Blog Awards! That's right, I totally did. It was pretty awesome. You see, my other blog, Where Are My Knees, got nominated for an award in the diet and fitness category so off I tottered in very uncomfortable shoes, accompanied by my co-writers, Sarah and Gemma (unfortunately Charlene and Lucy couldn't make it).

Here are pictures of our faces!



It was a super fancy event with special branded cupcakes and cocktails and lots and lots of pretty dresses. These are my favourite kinds of events, you guys.

THIS IS MY DRESS. It's nice, innit? I've had it for a couple of years, I discovered it in the magic Debenhams in Harrow (trust me, it's a veritable treasure trove of awesome) and it's been destroying me for over a year that I haven't had a chance to share it on Friday Frocks yet. UNTIL NOW. It's all slinky and black, with an awesome ruffly skirt that's actually made up of loads of little black roses. Pretty!


Dress - Red Herring
Necklace & Shoes - Dorothy Perkins
Belt - New Look

Plus, I got my hair done up all fancy like. I visited Hersheson's Blow Dry Bar, and for £24 they made my hair look all sort of Jessica Rabbit-ish. Look how ripply it is! (I would definitely go there again - I think that's really reasonable to make a night out a bit more special, and I like that they give you options other than just 'Dry it straight' or 'Dry it a bit curly'.)

Anyway, we only went and got a Highly Commended! That means we came second, and as everyone on my Facebook told me, 'First is worst, second is best, third's the one with the hairy chest.' YEAH. And then YESTERDAY, we won a Welsh Blog Award! We're winning stuff all over the shop! Yayyyz.

I also got the chance to hang out with some of my favourite bloggers who'd all been shortlisted - Jen, Carrie, Jazmine, Kristabel, Zoe, Vicki, Lily and of course Sarah and Gemma. Plus it was lovely to meet Vanessa, Lyzi, Olivia and Lauren. In short, IT WAS AMAZING.

Here are some videos of us being silly.



And finally, don't forget - TBBCAR is still going on and we've raised over £600 already! Visit JustGiving now to donate to Breast Cancer Campaign and be in with the chance to win A WHOLE BUNCH OF STUFF. I'd love to raise over a thousand if I can!
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The Bloggers Breast Cancer Awareness Raffle IS NOW OPEN!!!!


TBBCAR IS NOW LIVE!!!

If you've missed it, that stands for The Blogger's Breast Cancer Awareness Raffle and until midnight tonight, you can buy tickets for it and win a whole bunch of stuff. All this stuff!



£50 of Debenhams vouchers
£20 of Clippy vouchers
A selection of House of Holland tights from MyTights (pictured)




An October Glossybox
Handmade bracelets by Sophie
£20 gift voucher for Crown & Glory
£30 gift voucher for my Etsy shop
A vintage Burberry leather handbag from Darwin & Delilah
£100 gift voucher from Stanwells Boutique
Bespoke online design service from Abby
2 x £50 Vouchers from Sarenza





A signed copy of The C-Word by Lisa Lynch
A signed copy of Cult Fiction by Ardie Collins
A selection of GoGo Philip jewellery
A piece of your choice from Bijou Bijoux
Simeon Farrar for Fulton Limited Edition Umbrella (pictured)






One more time...
Just go to this JustGiving page and donate some money, and for every £2 you spend, you'll get a ticket (so £10 = 5 tickets, etc). And then you'll go into a list, I'll select numbers via Random.org and then YOU MIGHT WIN STUFF.

It's all so exciting, I can't even.

Questions? Comments? Go.

I'll announce the winners on Sunday night! IT COULD BE YOU.

Here are all my previous posts about it which should tell you pretty much everything you should need to know.

Just remember, only donations made TODAY, Friday 28th October, are valid for tickets. If you make a donation after that date, it'll still go to the charity but you won't be able win anything.


GOOD LUCK!!!
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Monday 24 October 2011

The Bloggers Breast Cancer Awareness Raffle is nearly here...



The Blogger's Breast Cancer Raffle opens
THIS FRIDAY!!!
AHHH!

Sorry, what?
It's an online raffle, nattily abbreviated to TBBCAR which is being run through this very blog and JustGiving to raise money for the Breast Cancer Campaign.

What do I doooo?
Go HERE on Friday 28th October and donate money. For every £2 you donate, you will get a raffle ticket! Then there will be a RAFFLE!

What can we wiiiin?
Things! All sorts of things! I will update this post as we get more in but so far we have...

£50 of Debenhams vouchers
£20 of Clippy vouchers
A selection of House of Holland tights from MyTights




An October Glossybox
Handmade bracelets by Sophie
£20 gift voucher for Crown & Glory
£30 gift voucher for my Etsy shop
A vintage Burberry leather handbag from Darwin & Delilah
£100 gift voucher from Stanwells Boutique
Bespoke online design service from Abby
2 x £50 Vouchers from Sarenza





A signed copy of The C-Word by Lisa Lynch
A signed copy of Cult Fiction by Ardie Collins
A selection of GoGo Philip jewellery
A piece of your choice from Bijou Bijoux
A Simeon Farrar for Fulton Limited Edition Umbrella




How can I help?
So please promote this on your blogs this week (pleeease) linking them back to this post, and then hit up JustGiving on Friday and donate, donate, donate. I'll draw the winners via random.org over the weekend.

And if you know anyone who would like to donate raffle prizes - or you yourself would - send them my way!

Here's the science bit, concentrate.
You don't have to be a blogger to donate or enter the raffle - so tell your friends, families, colleagues and randoms on the street - but unfortunately the prizes can only be won by UK residents. :(

Previous posts and LOTS more info are here!

Oh, and.
Thanks SO much to the brands and bloggers who have already donated, you are legends.


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Friday 21 October 2011

But if it's still pretty what with all these leaves, we'll be fine.

I'm away at the moment, just coming to the end of a lovely week with friends. We're in Yorkshire right now, but at the start of the week we were in Derbyshire, pottering around the hills and visiting nice houses. We couldn't leave without a trip to Chatsworth, of course, so we had a great little wander on Monday. I took tons of photos inside the house, but I'm going to save those for another day as there were so many and just show you guys the awesome gardens.


We didn't get as much time as we wanted in the gardens as it was close to kicking-out time, and also ridiculously windy and freezing. But we still managed to find a sheltered area to take some photos - my friend Nic saw it as an excuse to try out the soft focus setting on her camera, and I saw it as an excuse to prance around like an idiot in the leaves and generally be a bit silly.

This dress is a little surprising, as I really like it, but got it in a shop that I would never have even thought to have gone into. Do you have those shops near you? The ones that have random names - this one is called 'Hype' - and appear to sell cheap, hideous clothing made of entirely man-made fibres? I admit it - I'd normally turn my nose up at those shops, but I saw this in the window and had to investigate. I came out £30 lighter but clutching two adorable cranberry-hued spotty dresses - I'm sure the other one will feature on here sooner or later!

Dress - Hype
Hat & Tights - New Look
Necklace - Topshop

It's cute though, isn't it? I love the super flippy skirt, and of course the print. And what's more, it perfectly matches my new(ish) shoes! I got these cranberry Mary-Janes in Urban Outfitters when I was visiting Hayley last month, and although they still need serious breaking in, I endured them all day for the perfect matching.

The hat, though - well, the hat is just because I like hats. They are ace.



PS - You can see some videos of me goofing around and being silly on my Facebook page.
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Monday 17 October 2011

Be my, be my baby.

My gorgeous big sister, Becky, finally gave birth on Wednesday morning at 3.38am to a beautiful baby boy, Cameron. I went to see her today and found it pretty impossible to put my camera down (I took over 300 photos!). I know, I know, I'm biased being his Auntie and all, but you guys, he is SO CUTE. All little and sleepy and snuggly and ahhhh.

Prepare yourself for babyspam.


I know it's mushy, but I'm so, so happy for my sister and her family. They're over the moon with their new arrival, and it shows.

And as an added babyspam bonus, this is my brother's little girl. Proof that giant eyes run in my family! I think she beats mine, though. :)


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