Friday 30 November 2012

TGIF

Its the end of the week and I'm ready for two lazy days off! Its been a long week this week I've mostly been working but i thought i would share with you a few things that I've been buying and making.
As I'm sure you know I'm a bit of a crazy cat lady so i bought both of my cats an advent calendar from Asda for £3! Its full of treats and has a whizzy mouse toy for the 25th too. If you have a special kitty in your life then you definitely need one of these.

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I love chocolate coins they remind me of being young and eating bags and bags with my mum, we would even eat them before Christmas dinner. I still buy a bag whenever i see them and when i saw this giant bag i couldn't resist.

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The last thing i have bought is this beautiful daisy print dress from the littlewoods clearance eBay page. I won this for an amazing £7.99 plus p&p as no one else had bid. It came yesterday and its even more beautiful in real life.

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I have also been doing a little bit of crafting too and made myself a few brooches. A my little pony, a sylvanian family character, a mini polly pocket and i made my broken headband into a bird brooch.

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If you are wondering about the funky pictures i got sent the Holga lens case for my iPhone to review and i been taking pictures of anything and everything that stood still for long enough. I love it, it reminds me of the telephone my nan used to have and it lets you choose from 10 different filters without having to open any apps! For a photo addict like me its fab.

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You can even take the lens wheel off if you don't want it to be so bulky, my favourite filter is the red love heart and who better to take pictures of in the love heart that my lovely hubby.

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Do you have any weekend plans?
XOXO

I was sent the case to review but as always all opinions are my own and i was not paid to write this post.


Wednesday 28 November 2012

A Christmas party dress

There are plenty of parties to go to at this time of year and we all know you need that perfect dress something cute and fun that will help you stand out from the crowd. When Simply Be contacted me recently they offered me the chance to choose a party dress of my choice. I had a browse through not sure what to pick, there were so many to choose from and I'm not the best at quick decision making but i eventually decided on this

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I decided to go for this dress as i really liked the lace pattern and the colour is amazing! I got this dress in a 22 and it fits over the bust but is a little big on the waist so my advise is if you have a smaller chest the me to size down.

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Please excuse the crazy face!

The material of the dress is stretchy but thick so it keeps its original shape. The top of the dress is just lace which you can see through, it then goes down into a cream lining with the lace stitched over the top. The dress has pleats in the skirt part so it has a nice flare to it, you could add a belt to the dress if you wanted but i couldn't find the right one so decided to wear it without. The dress is still available online here if you want to make it your Christmas party dress.

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The only negative i have with the dress is that for me its a little short to wear with bare legs so i wore the dress with black tights, but i this weather I'd probably freeze with bare legs anyway!
I wore this with my Irregular Choice heels (which have the most amazing feathers on) my kitty ears and my bow double finger ring. I love this dress its amazing and i know when the Christmas party season is over it will still be a firm favourite in my wardrobe.

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Have you picked your Christmas party dress yet? I'd love to see it :)
XOXO

This dress was sent for me to review but as always all opinions are my own and i was not paid to write this post

Tuesday 27 November 2012

Giveaway time!

As you may have seen i recently reviewed a pair of firmoo glasses and i loved them, so i was happy when the team at Firmoo contacted me again this time to do a giveaway. You can win one of 25 vouchers for $20 to use on the site and with glasses starting from $8 with plenty to choose from.


If you would like to be in with the chance of winning just leave a comment below telling me which frames you would choose from Firmoo (please leave a email address in your comments so i can contact you if you win) and like their Facebook page.
Please note the voucher won't cover shipping and cannot be used against designer glasses, the voucher will be valid until December 25th. I will drawn the give away next week so there is plenty of time to enter.
Good luck
XOXO

Monday 26 November 2012

Plus size outfit day

It is that time again it's Plus size outfit day and the theme this month is "it's Christmas time". I really wasn't sure what to do for this months as we don't decorate the house or have a tree so i couldn't show you any of those things. I decided to show you the sort of thing i would wear on the day itself.
I'm lucky that the office i work in is closed for Christmas so i have 11 days off work, i plan to spend my time off relaxing with the Mr, watching films and obviously doing a bit of shopping!

So here is the outfit i chose, i wanted something that you could tell was for Christmas but that was also comfy and with some stretch. Because we all know with all that lovely food around on the day you need something with extra room :)

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I decided on this dress that i have had for a few years and my new cardigan, with my jewelled headband for that extra christmas sparkle. 

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The cardigan is from Primark and was £14 i got it in the biggest size they do a 20 and it doesn't feel to small in fact the fit is really good. I wanted to get a Christmas jumper but couldn't find one and just when i had given up i spotted this cardigan. I really love the pattern at the top.

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The dress was is an old one from Dorothy Perkins in a size 20 it has stretch and it so comfy, It's the perfect dress to wear on Christmas day. It has pockets which will come in handy for a place for me to put all those Christmas chocolates! 

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The headband I'm wearing is from Matalan and was £8 and the shoes are limited edition Irregular choice from a year  or so ago. I really love how the design goes over the two shoes on the scotty dog and his lead. I also added a homemade Christmas brooch, meet Mr polar bear.

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I felt this outfit was fitting for the Christmas theme without going over the top. I love it and hope you do too. 

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Now go and check out the other lovely ladies and see what they did
Katrin: http://reizende-rundungen.blogspot.com/
Katha: http://kathastrophal.de/
Miss Temple: http://miss-temple.blogspot.de/
Malene: http://www.piece-of-my-mind.blogspot.de/
Jenny: http://morchenswelt.blogspot.de/
Joanna: http://swiatasi.blogspot.de/

What sort of thing will you be wearing on Christmas day?
XOXO

Friday 23 November 2012

A perfect party dress

I was contacted recently by the lovely ladies at Simply Be to be part of the find the perfect party dress blogger edit. There are so many gorgeous dresses on the website to choose from and it was really hard to narrow it down! I eventually decided on this beauty

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This dress is gorgeous i can't say enough positive things about it. It made me feel like a million dollars and the fit is perfect too. The material is lovely and soft but had stretch to it too so you don't have to size up. The dress is available online here i ordered my usual size 22 and got it in a 43 inch length as i wanted the dress to come below my knee, but you can order it in a 40,43 and a 45 which i think is great.

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The dress has a lovely soft pleat to the bottom half which is amazing for twirling around and dancing the night away. I love the colour of this dress, i think red is a great alternative to the traditional black dress and it has a bit of a vintage feel to it aswell. I wore mine with my Irregular choice heels and my little polkadot hat.

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I really love this dress and i wish i could wear it everyday I'm currently trying to decide how i can dress this down so i can get even more wear out if it. I can see already that this will be one of my go to dresses.
The other bloggers are looking lovely in their dresses too check them out here and here. And don't forget if your looking for the perfect party dress to have a look at what Simply Be have to offer.
Do you have a go to party dress?
XOXO

This dress was gifted for me to review but as always all thoughts and opinions are my own and i was not paid to write this post.

When i like it i buy every colour

Yes its true when i find something that love i like to buy every version of it i suppose its a bit of an obsession but I'm sure I'm not the only one am i?!
I posted last week about buying this bag from Matalan


Now as I'm sure you know i love cats and animals so animal faced bags are a winner for me. Matalan tweeted me to let me know there was now a panda so of course i had to go it and have a look. So off out we went for a little shopping trip, I found the panda bag along with a few more that caught my eye.
Here's what i bought from Matalan and Primark


The panda and fox bag were £8 each and while i was in the bag section i spotted this horse clutch for a bargain of £8 (asos are doing a very similar one for £30 so its quite a saving!) I also bought a lovely headband which you have seen in this post again for £8.
These bags are so cute and are really soft too I'm already things of when i can take them out.
While i was out i went into Primark and bough a christmas cardigan for £14 and into Whsmith to pick up glamour for the free Nails inc polish.
Do you buy more than one of something if you really love it?
XOXO



Wednesday 21 November 2012

A quick hello

Todays post is just a quick one of what i wore to work yesterday. It isn't my favourite outfit and although i love the dress i think its a bit small so it is sadly going to be heading to the for sale pile.

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The dress was originally from Asos curve and was around £30 i think, the dress is a size 20 and a bit too small over my boobs, if you had a smaller chest they you could size down but i felt like i was going to hulk out at any minute! The cardigan is a size 22 from Asda it was for the jubilee i think but i just liked the crowns and i have worn it several times.
So this is what i look like for work sometimes a bit more bedraggled, it depends on what time i have to get up!

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As you can see the prospect of work doesn't bring on the smiles first thing in the morning, so apologies for my grumpy face.
What do you wear for work?
XOXO

Monday 19 November 2012

Bargain beauty

Me and Ebay have an on off sort of relationship sometimes we can go for months without getting together then at other times i feel like everything I'm buying is from there. At the moment we are most definitely on! Ive got quite a few craft bits from Ebay recently and the other day while i was having a browse i spotted a Simply Be dress new with tags in my size. Now this wasn't just any dress it was the beautiful polkadot one i had been drooling over for months and no one had bid! I put in it my watch list and after a tense few minutes i won the dress for a bargain price of £17.01 plus postage.

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I love this dress it's original price was £69 so i really did get a great deal! I wore this to go shopping at the weekend i felt great in it and i loved how swishy the skirt part of the dress was. The top part of the dress is a thick stretch material and the skirt is a lined with the polkadot chiffon over the top. There is a tie to bring the waist in a little more and the top of the skirt part at the back is elasticated so you could get away with a smaller size in this if you are between sizes. 


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I wore the dress with some thick black tights and my purple snood which was also from Ebay some time ago. While i was out a girl came over to say how she liked my look which was so nice it left a smile on my face for the rest of the day. 

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I love this dress and would recommend it to anyone looking for a feel good dress as it makes you feel amazing. I have seen a few of these on Ebay in the past so I'm sure you could find it on there, as it's no longer on the Simply Be website. 
Have you got any Ebay bargains recently?
XOXO

Saturday 17 November 2012

It's cold outside

Last night me and the hubby went to see the late night showing of Silent Hill. I wanted to be comfy and warm as i always find the cinema to be chilly so i decided to wear my Evans collection faux fur coat. I bought this in the summer when it was really warm, i was thinking ahead and needed to add a black faux fur coat to my collection. I bought it in the sale and it was £25 reduced from £120! so it was a great bargain.

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The coat did come with a belt but it was broken but as the coat keeps you really warm you don't really need to close it but there are hooks if you did want to. I got the coat in a size 20 as it was the last one left and if fits great. The coat is really think and snug and i was all wrapped up in it while watching the film.
I wore my ruby rocks dress from ages ago last seen here, and my trusty Tesco leggings, i was really comfy and didn't get cold once, i felt like i had my duvet wrapped around me.

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Silly late night faces!
How do you feel about faux furs do you have any?
Hope your having a great weekend
XOXO

Friday 16 November 2012

Hello kitty

On my way to visiting my mum last week i stopped in Boots and Superdrug to pick up a few bits. I thought I'd show you what i bought.
First off from Boots i decided to get myself some everyday perfume. The kind i can wear to work but that doesn't cost very much and isn't too over powering.


 The first perfume i got was the Yardley Royal English Daisy i got a sample of this in my beauty box this month and liked the light fragrance. This was on offer in Boots for £6.65 for 50ml. The second perfume is You & me and reminds me of love heart sweets. Its has a sweet fruity smell and was £2.99 for 15ml. These aren't the sort of perfumes I'd wear on a night out or at the weekend but they are good to wear for work so I'm not using my expensive ones everyday.
Then i went onto superdrug where thanks to Gemma from pinkhairedprincess I'd found out they had Hello Kitty make up in stock. Now you might not know but i love Hello Kitty and i really struggle not to buy everything with her cute little face on! 



While i as there i picked up some VO5 hairspray that I'd heard good things about, £1.99 for 400ml and the VO5 backcomb spray £3.69 for 200ml. I'd seen the back combing spray on athriftymrs and can't wait to try it. I also got 2 of the Hello Kitty lipsticks in underground queen and blazin' both were £3.99. There was lots of other Hello Kitty bits including nail polish and eyeshadow pallets, which would be great for gifts, but i managed to restrain myself to just the lipsticks. 
Thought I'd add i a few pictures of my mums dogs and me too.
Action shot


Aww snuggles
Have you bought any of the Hello Kitty make up ?
XOXO



Wednesday 14 November 2012

A bird print obsession

As you probably know i have a bit of a love for bird print and faux fur so for this outfit i combined the two. I hadn't spotted this dress on the Tesco website but when the lovely Kathryn tweeted a picture of her new dress and i saw this knew i needed to had it!
My lovely hubby bought it for me along with another dress from the True range and i couldn't wait to wear it.

I wore the dress with my faux fur stole from Style 369 last year and my Firmoo glasses, reviewed here. It fits really well another one that hugs your curves, its very similar to this Tesco dress i posted about recently. 


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This dress is available online here in some sizes or you could try your local store as i find the bigger sizes are often in there when they have sold out online. The dress was £18 and for a great fitted lined dress i think that's a really good price. I bought this in a 22 and as you can see it is figure hugging but i like that.

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The dress had a nice side tie and a gathered detail to the side, the sleeves help to keep the chill of now it's getting colder and it's a nice length to wear with and without tights. 

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I also wore my primark headband that i got a while ago i really love the swallow on it however while i was out it broke and the bird snapped off, hopefully i will be able to fix it with some glue.

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I just wore this to go over to my mums for a quick visit, it was really comfy to wear, i think it looked great and with the faux fur stole i was toasty warm.
How has your week been?
XOXO

Monday 12 November 2012

Yoek dress review

I was recently contacted by the lovely people at Yoek who offered me the chance to review something from their collection. I had never heard of Yoek before they contacted me, they are a based in The Netherlands but there online shop ships to 22 different countries so it's worth checking to see if your country is one of them.
They have lots of different styles to choose from, from basics to party wear and they are releasing their Black label line on the 1st of December, this will be a special occasion wear in sizes 42-56 which is a uk 16-30 so lots of size options there which is always a great thing! I can't wait to see this collection and after being so happy with the dress i was sent to review i will defiantly be clicking onto the site on the 1st of december!
Once my dress was shipped i received it the next day which is a super speedy service and it came in the most beautiful packaging i have ever seen!


The dress came inside this beautiful box with a ribbon to keep it secure and soft tissue paper inside to protect the dress. I really like the effort Yoek go to with the presentation it really makes your purchase feel special.

Now onto the dress, I picked this dress to review i really love how simple it looks but believe me it is a beautiful dress. The dress is 99 euros which is about £79 which may seem a little expensive but it really is in my opinion worth every penny. I got this dress is a xl which is a 24/26 because i wanted a more loose fit. It is available from a uk size 16 to 34 which is great, i love to see plus size retailers doing a wide range of sizes and not just sticking to 18-24.
I decided to show you a dressed up and a more relaxed look for this dress. I think it looks great both ways and i do like to get my moneys worth when im buying dresses, so if a fancy dress can be dressed down too its a winner for me. I don't want a dress to sit in the wardrobe only to be worn for 1 or 2 special occasions especially when the dress is so nice.
So first up is my dressed up look


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I wore the dress with my pearl necklace which i got from my nan many years ago and a jewelled headband from Matalan. My shoes are Irregular choice from a few years ago. I really love how this dress looks dressed up it doesn't need lots of extras to look really beautiful. The main part of the dress is a really soft stretch material it feels quite thick and expensive not like a thin jersey top that will loose its shape within a few weeks. The bottom of the dress is a nice quality lace which sits just below the knee on my 5 4'' frame.

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Now onto my dressed down look, this is the sort of thing i would wear for a day out with the hubby.

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For a more casual look i paired the dress with my Tesco leopard cardigan, my hair snood and purple tights. 
I really love this dress and i would love to see it in more colours too although black does go with everything. Although the dress might be more that you would usually pay it really is very versatile and i can say the sevice i received from Yoek was excellent too.
I'm really happy with the dress and can't wait to see what they bring to the black label collection. Thanks to Yoek for the dress and to you all for reading.

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Which of the looks do you prefer?
Hope you all have a great week :)
XOXO

I was sent this dress to review but as always all opinions are my own, i was not paid to write this review.