My Year Through Instagram

As 2014 is nearly over I thought I would take a little trip down memory lane and look back at some of the highlights of my year through Instagram

In the 8 years I have lived in London I had never actually managed to see the New Year fireworks! My boyfriend and I originally planned to have a quiet one but made a last minute decision to run down to the London eye and see the fireworks! We packed a rucksack full of booze and wrapped up warm and I have to say it was the best  New Years I have ever had. The atmosphere was just incredible!

February saw my first Valentines day with Tom. He bought a beautiful bunch of a dozen red roses

I went on a business trip to Milan at the end of February. This is a quick picture I took of the stunning Duomo Di Milano in the centre of Milan.

In March I bought my first ever Chanel handbag - the large timeless classic double flap with black caviar leather and gold hardwear. I had lusted after this bag since I was 12 years old when I first became interested in fashion so it was a big moment for me to finally be able to buy it!

In April Tom and went on a long weekend to Budapest. This is us stood outside the castle at the top of the hill. Budapest is such a beautiful city and I would definitely recommend it if you are looking for a last minute long weekend!

April also saw me go to my first ever sporting event! This is the Army vs Navy Rugby match at Twickenham. I was a little scared at first but ended up having such a fun day and drinking rather a lot!!

In June I was lucky enough to be invited to watch the Trooping The Colour which is the celebration of the Queen's birthday. It was fantastic to get the opportunity to dress up and see something which i would normally only ever see on TV. This is a photo I took of the birthday girl herself!

Ascot took place in June and it was an absolutely sweltering day! We dressed up in our finery and made our way to the famous race course. I unfortunately came away from the day minus a few pounds but all in all it was so much fun!

Tom and I moved in together in August to our lovely little house in South London. Our home is a real work in progress and I'm a huge Kirsty Allsopp fan so much of our furniture and decor is home made and up cycled!

In October Tom and I spent 2 weeks in Abu Dhabi visiting my family. We also had a long weekend in Dubai and this is a picture of me in the rooftop pool of our hotel. If you look closely you can see the Burj Khalifa which is the tallest building in the world in the distance!

The poppies at the Tower of London is something I was lucky enough to see throughout the installation as at the time I was living not far from the site. This was one of the most incredible and moving tributes that I have ever seen.

Finally December. This is the very festive looking fireplace at my Mum's house in the Midlands where I spend Christmas every year.

What are your 2014 highlights?

xXx

Boxing Day Sale Purchases

My Mum and I have a tradition each year where we get up early on Boxing day to go to the sales, ending the trip with a yummy hot chocolate in Costa. Now i'm going to be honest here. I thought that the sales this year were a bit pants with Topshop and Zara being especially disappointing! I left these stores completely empty handed which is NOT normal for me at all! I am happy with the few bits that I did buy however.

New Look

Skorts - I find skorts so easy to wear and these are going to look lovely with a plain black jumper, black opaque tights and long brown leather boots. I bought these in a size bigger than I normally wear to give a little extra length.

Floral Shirt - I have a few shirts quite similar to this. They look so cute underneath a jumper with the collar poking out in winter and worn with denim shorts in the summer.

Tartan Cape - I've been looking for one of these for a while and I loved the bright colours on this one. I plan to wear it over my black leather jacket for a bit of extra warmth!

Pastel Necklace - I'll let you into a little secret - I buy pretty much all of my costume jewellery in sales. I'm not sure why but I really do resent having to spend over around £10 on a piece which I probably won't like in a few months time! I picked this necklace up for around £5.

I couldn't actually find 3/4 of these pieces on the website any longer but i'm sure you will still be able to get them in selected stores.

ASOS

Pink Blouse - I wanted to inject a little more colour into my wardrobe and thought this blouse was perfect! I love the shape of the collar and the little pleated flap pockets on the front.

Ruffle Shoulder Dress - For my job I'm quite lucky in that I only need to dress smartly if I am out on a meeting or at shows. I find formal dressing very boring so i like to make things a little more interesting by wearing pieces such as this bright purple ruffle shoulder dress. The shape is flattering on all figures and it comes with the rather cute little black bow belt.

Wrap Skirt - I have been seeing these wrap skirts everywhere recently so thought I would jump on the band wagon and purchase this green herringbone number.

Accessorize

As I mentioned earlier, I buy pretty much all of my costume jewellery in the sale. Accessorize always have beautiful jewellery but I will rarely ever pay full price for anything in there as to be honest I just don't think it is worth the money. I bought these gorgeous heeeuuge stud earrings and this turquoise and gold statement necklace, both of which are no longer on the website but may still be available instore if you're quick!

Did you get any great bargains in the sales?

xXx

Christmas

Christmas is always a very busy time of year for me with family parties, visits and even a birthday! This year Christmas day was a bit different for me as my lovely Granny treated us all to Christmas dinner out at a beautiful hotel not far from my house!

Jumper - Topshop (past season)

Shirt - Primark (similar here)

Sequin leggings - H&M

Shoes - (similar here)

Bag - Chanel

What did you get up to for Christmas?

xXx

Weekly Roundup

Just a little roundup of what I have been up to this week. About 95% of the images are to do with Christmas as that's pretty much what i've been focusing on!

1. Decorating the tree at my Mums house

2. A friend from home came to visit my house for the first time and she bought us this gorgeous little candle holder as a belated housewarming present.

3. Home Alone is my absolute all time fave Christmas film so I was loving this sign outside a pub!

4. My poor Mum hurt her leg quite badly a couple of weeks ago so I went home for a couple of days to help with Christmas prep and I bought her these pretty roses to cheer her up

5. My heeuuuge pile of presents which took me a whole afternoon to wrap! I'm the worst wrapper ever so it always takes me forever and involves a lot of selotape, swearing and bows to hide mistakes! How cute is that wrapping paper by the way?? It has foxes wearing Christmas jumpers on it!! It was from Wilkinsons.

6. It was my work Christmas party on Thursday. I work for a big global company so its a big black tie affair with an awards ceremony. I wore this little LBD number from Missguided with some sparkly heels and my Mulberry clutch bag.

7. My boyfriend and I made the rather upsetting decision not to bother having a Christmas tree in our house this year as we are both going home to see our families so no one will be here. I couldn't resist a few festive bits around the house though and bought this little guy from Tiger which is THE coolest shop ever!

8. This was me on Tuesday morning all wrapped up ready for work! It was freeeeezing!

9. Homemade truffles for my family. Every time I make these I end up eating the majority of them myself so I'm really going to have to muster all the willpower I have to not eat these ones!

What have you been up to this week?

xXx

Pinsperation

I don't know about you but I get a good proportion of my fashion inspiration from Pinterest. Today I thought i'd show you what I've been pinning lately for inspiration.

1. I love that this sequin skirt has been paired with a slouchy grey jumper to make it more casual.

2. I've been wanting a cape coat for ages but still haven't found the perfect one yet. This camel coloured cape looks so chic and would go with anything and everything in my wardrobe!

3. As I said in my last post, I have been obsessed with tulle skirts recently! I wanted to find some different and unusual ways to wear the skirt and have pinned quite a few different idea's already.

1. I'm loving ripped jeans at the moment although they are a tad impractical in the rather chilly weather we're having in London at the moment! I like dressing mine up with a pair of strappy heels for a night out.

2. This feminine floaty skirt is gorgeous and I love the way that it has been rocked up with a leather jacket and ankle boots.

3. How cosy does that cardigan look?? I'd love to slouch around the house in it on a winters day.

1. I wasn't so sure about sequin leggings until I saw this image. I love that she has paired them with a cute printed jumper and heels

2. I now have a couple of these big checked scarfs. They are fab for bringing a bit of colour to your outfit and they double up as a blanket when you're out and about!

3. How cute is that skirt! I really like the contrast between the delicateness of the skirt and the big chunky jumper. You can never go wrong with a bit of leopard print either!

What have you been pinning recently?

xXx

Recent Purchases

I haven't bought all that much for myself recently as I have been focusing on Christmas shopping but here are a few recent purchases which I'm currently loving...

Checked Blouse - This was a bit of an impulse buy while browsing but I love it! I find it quite hard to find shirts and blouses that fit me well as I am 'blessed' shall we say in the chest department! This one doesn't gape too much and is right on trend with the checked pattern. I plan to wear it tucked into my skinniest jeans.

Animal Print Dress - Sadly I can't find a link for this dress but you can definitely still buy it in store from H&M, This dress is THE most slimming dress ever! Its the curved black lines which draw the eye inwards and give the illusion of a much slimmer figure. It looks really cute with opaque tights and biker style boots.

Sequin Leggings - The fam and I are off out for Christmas dinner this year so I needed a posh outfit with a stretchy waistband of course! Cue - The Sequin Leggings. I plan to wear these with my Christmas Jumper and heels. Trust me, it works!

Tulle Skirt - I have been obsessed with tulle skirts recently and have been looking for the perfect one. I think I may have found it! My work Christmas party is black tie so I plan to wear this high on the waist with a cute crop top, big necklace, big hair and some form of badass heels to rock it up a bit. A word of warning though, for some odd reason the top part of this skirt is VERY see-through! So I recommend wearing a little black body con skirt or something underneath to protect your modesty!

Suede Animal Print Trainers - I featured these in one of my outfit of the day posts recently. They are just too cute and SO comfy! You really can't go wrong with them!

What have you been buying recently?

xXx

French Country Chic Upcycled Chair

Today’s post is about a chair I found in a skip near my house. I know what your all thinking… “what on earth was she doing digging around in a skip?!” Well my friends, Skips are fantastic for free furniture. One man’s trash is another man’s treasure and all that! So anyway, I wasn’t actually digging around in the skip. I was walking past and I saw the chair just sat there so I took it! Finders Keepers!

Here is a picture of the chair before it’s little makeover:

As you can see it was a little ugly and sad looking! My mum reckons it’s a 1920’s chair which is quite exciting.

I began by taking off the seat pad. You can do this easily by turning the chair on its side and banging on the bottom with a hammer until it just pops out! I then sanded the chair down to take off as much of the old varnish as possible. You should be left with something like this:

I then began to paint the chair. I used some white wood paint that we already had knocking around from our decorating stint. I had to do 3 coats as the wood was quite dark so it kept showing through. I wanted it to all dry properly so I did one coat each night over 3 nights.

While this was drying I recovered my seat pad! Now I’m no furniture expert so this is by no means the correct way to do this but I still think it looks great and works fine.

This is the fabric I used:

I bought it from the Haberdashery department in John Lewis on Oxford Street. It was around £20 a metre so I bought half a metre which was more than enough.

I cut a square that was larger than the seat pad by around 5cm each side then lay this out on the table upside down. I then lay my seat pad also upside down right in the middle of the square of fabric.

For this next bit you should really use upholstery tacks but I couldn’t find any for love nor money in London so I used these bad boys instead:

They are 1.5cm long and still do a great job of pinning down the fabric but it just doesn’t look as neat on the underside. Who’s going to see that anyway!

I began to tack the fabric down, pulling it as taught as I could as I went. The corners are a bit tricky and involve a bit of folding and lots of nails to get it neat as you can see:

But in the end you should be left with something that looks a little like this!:

As I left my chair for a day or two it was good and dry so I hammered my seat pad carefully back down and voila! I had myself a rather lovely chair!

What do you think?  Have you ever tried upcycling any furniture?

xXx

The Christmas Tag

I thought I'd do a quick Christmas tag in my lunch break! So here goes...


1. What is your favourite Christmas movie?
Without a doubt it has got to be Home Alone. Only thing is, this is really an all year round movie for me. I always watch it if I'm feeling sad or ill! Is that weird?


2. Do you open your presents on Christmas Eve or Christmas morning?
Who would open their presents on Christmas eve?! Surely that's naughty?! Definitely Christmas morning after a breakfast of selection box cereal, croissants and bucks fizz :)


3. Do you have a favourite Christmas memory?
Yes! The time when my brother and I got bikes for Christmas. I remember the night before my Dad saying "whatever you do DON'T go in the living room tomorrow morning until I say so". Of course the curiosity got the better of us and we snuck down at around 5am and my parents were woken up to our whoops of delight!


4. Favourite festive food?
Pigs in blankets (the little cocktail sausages wrapped in bacon) whoever's idea it was to wrap pig in more pig deserves a Nobel prize or knighthood or something. (Sorry to everyone who is a vegetarian!)


5. Favourite festive gift?
Socks. Come Christmas all my socks always have holes in them or I've lost them so i'm in need of new ones!


6. Favourite Christmas Scent?
Its got to be the scent of a real Christmas tree hasn't it?


7. What tops your tree?
This little angel that we bought from Woolworths when I was around 6 years old. I remember thinking she was the most beautiful thing i'd ever seen. She's looking a tad worse for wear these days but hey its tradition!


8. Do you have any Christmas eve traditions?
My mum and I usually swing by Sainsburys in the morning to get any last minute bits then we'll pop by the shops and look at some of the sales which have started early. In the evening my whole family go over to my Aunty and Uncles house for a mince pie and mulled wine and a good old get together!


9. As a kid, what was the one Christmas present you wished for but never received?
This is going to show my age. A Mr Frosty ice-cream maker. Every time I have a hankering for ice-cream I think back to Mr Frosty and I think If only...


10. What's the best part of Christmas for you?
Just being able to spend a considerable amount of time with the fam. They all live up in the Midlands so the rest of the year I only tend to see them the odd weekend.

xXx

November Faves

Welcome to my first ever monthly favourites! I have 7 lovely things to show you this month. So without further ado here we go:

Bourjois Bronzing Primer


I first bought this little pot of primer in Sephora while on a minibreak to Nice last year. It was love at first use but alas I couldn’t find it anywhere in the UK! I hit the bottom of the pot and was beginning to panic when all of a sudden it just appeared in my local Superdrug! I bought in bulk in fear that it would disappear again! The primer has a mousse like consistency and can happily work on its own or under foundation. I have a phobia of putting fake tan on my face so I love to use this underneath my foundation to make my face match with the rest of my body! I found that the best way to apply it is with the Mac 187 brush.  It gives you a gorgeous sunkissed glow without the price tag of a week away in the sun! Find it here

 L'Oreal Elvive Triple Resist Reinforcing Shampoo and Conditioner

I’ve recently been having a bit of a hair crisis… I feel like all my hair is falling out. It. Is. Everywhere. All over the floor, my clothes, the sofa… I had to unblock the shower plug hole the other day because there was what looked like a whole head of hair down there! The worst thing is, I don't straighten it, I rarely ever use a hairdryer and I only wash it every 3 days! So I ran down the road to Boots and spent rather a lot on shampoos, deep conditioners, serums, oils. You name it to try and sort it out and within that was these! Even after the first wash I could see the difference in that when I brushed my hair for the first time not half as much hair was left on the brush! It leaves my hair feeling all soft and smooth and lovely! All L'Oreal haircare is currently on 3 for £10 in Boots here

Charles Worthington Strength & Repair Split Ends Binder

This was also bought on my recent panic trip to Boots. After around a week of using this my ends didn’t look half as frazzled or split end-ey AND when I went for my yearly trip to the hairdressers (yes, I know that’s really bad) they only had to cut an inch off. Just one inch in a whole year! Find it here

Bath and Bodyworks Fragrance Mists

I had never been in a Bath and Bodyworks until recently when my boyfriend and I were in Dubai. I picked up a few bits and pieces to try and among them were these little body sprays (I actually bought 3 but I keep one on my desk at work) The scent isn’t the longest lasting but they smell so good and were relatively cheap so you can keep spritzing all day long! In conclusion I wish wish wish they would open a Bath and Bodyworks in the UK! Find them here

Sephora Colourful 5 Eye Palette - Sunrise to Sunset

This was another purchase while in Dubai. The colours are very pigmented and they last on the eyes all day long. Theres neutral colours for daytime as well as darker ones and a gorgeous sparkly one for a night time smokey look. It's now very much become my go to palette! Sephora is another store that I reeeeally wish they would open in the UK! Find the palette here

River Island Suede Boots

Sorry for the really bad picture. Its surprisingly difficult to photograph black boots! I bought these a while ago as the weather was getting cold so I was in need of some new winter boots. I wanted to invest in some real leather ones so they didn’t look cheap and would last a long time. I tried a bajillion different styles on until I came across these! They are so rediculously comfortable and warm and literally go with EVERYTHING!  They do have a very small heel but I can walk around in them comfortably all day. Find them here

Netflix

This is a slightly odd one… we moved house recently and decided to give Netflix a go with the one month free trial. OH MY GOD it is AMAZING! It literally has everything I could ever want to watch on it! We just finished watching Orange is the New Black have started on Homeland. Needless to say, we will certainly be signing up full time! Try a one month free trial here