Party party party OOTD

Hiya pickles!

Last night I went to the engagement party of my dear friends Rach and JP, held at Rach's mum and dad's house in the countryside. I can't believe two of my favourite people (who I played matchmaker with a few years ago) are getting married next year! I'm so happy for them. It was a really lovely night of food, wine, and a little dancing to cheesy disco music with the mother of the bride-to-be. I had a little drunken epiphany that we should all dance while we can, as the day might come that we'll be too old/infirm/disabled to have a boogie. Wouldn't it be a terrible shame to want to dance and not be able to? Dancing is so joyful and no gathering is complete without it (even if my joints yell at me a bit the next day.)

So my new motto is 'Dance while you can', which is a metaphor for life really - make the most of it while we can or else there'll be regrets later. If I ever get too old to cut a rug, I'll do what I call 'chair dancing' - where you sit down and wave your arms around. Yeah, I'll be a funky old lady come what may.

I didn't take photos of what I was wearing before we left, so we did it when we got in, complete with my red booze-glow face and food baby! You know I bring you all the good stuff. ;)

I wore:
Leather jacket, New Look
Scarf, eBay
Dress (worn as top) old Yours Clothing
Skirt, old Yours Clothing
Shoes, old Evans
Rings, New Look
Hair flower, (just seen) Off With Her Head Millinery - full post coming soon as I have two OWHH hair flowers to show you.

I seem to be wearing an awful lot of black recently, must be the old goth in me popping her head back up. Black is so easy though, isn't it? Everything matches. It's the perfect 'I can't brain today' outfit. What's your no-thought outfit go to?

Happy Sunday, or Monday if you're down under.

Bang on trend with New Look*

Hiya lovelies!

New Look got in touch recently about some of the key trends in the Inspire plus size range right now. New Look Inspire do sizes 18-28 primarily, with certain styles up to a size 32. Some of the things which are really hot right now are florals, monochrome and little black dresses. They're timeless and will remain wardrobe staples indefinitely, so you can invest in them now without worry of them falling out of favour later. No trend is just for slimmer ones amongst us - us plus size people can rock all the good stuff too!

New Look provided me with two items to review. I chose the black contrast panel longline tunic because I love monochrome, and the black spot mesh neck skater dress because you can never have too many little black dresses.

The tunic is a lovely lightweight slinky material which feels really nice to wear. It has no stretch, so size up if you prefer a loose, flowing top. It's so lightweight it'll be the perfect item to include in your suitcase for a holiday this year - it'll take up barely any room and will wash and dry quickly. I love monochrome because you can accessorise black and white with loads of bright colours and it looks effortlessly great. The top looks great over jeans, and also feminine and floaty tucked in under a maxi skirt.

The dress is a lovely soft stretchy material (the dobby mesh is also really soft and stretchy, not itchy at all) but it is very short on me. I'm 5ft 5 and it comes just below my bottom, so do bear that in mind, taller ladies. It comes up to a size 32 and I wish I'd sized up to have a little more length. I'm wearing it dressed down with tights and jellies here but would normally wear it with leggings to protect my modesty. The dress would really suit well to being dressed up as well. I'd wear it with a long tasselled kimono and lots of bling!

Here I've added a cropped cardigan to match my jellies and to break up the black on my top half.

Here are some of the other items I'm lusting over from Inspire at the moment.

Have you seen anything you like here? What's your favourite trend out of florals, monochrome and little black dresses?

Thanks for reading and thanks to New Look for sending me the items to review. If you've been reading my blog a while you'll know half my wardrobe is from New Look, so it was a pleasure to be asked to review some pieces.

Have a great rest of weekend!

*Items provided for review, all opinions my own.

A little shopping trip

Hello Friday people!

Yes, I know, another shopping trip. Believe it or not apart from the money I spent on lunch, I ended up in the plus. I paid in a month old birthday money cheque (I'm shit at running errands!), spent a Boots voucher and sent something back which wasn't me at all so once the refund clears I had a free shopping trip, whee.

I went to town with my bestie and we fell into New Look as you do. They were having a sale so we both bought a few things. Here's what I got:

This dress is a black and white daisy print, a size 26 and cost £7.

It has a functional zip and is a really lightweight material which will be great for summer.

This peplum top was £6. Size 26.

I got these cute rings too in silver/rose/gold tone. 12 for £3!

Then we went to H&M and I bought this cover up which was £13. It's an XL.

I have a thing for cover ups, which you may have noticed since I've bought 3 in the last month. It hadn't dawned on me until I read a piece in Evans' latest mailer where their senior marketing coordinator, a lady called Sarah Patel said that wearing beachwear cover ups in summer is a great way to be covered and yet stay cool. Cover ups are usually made of thin materials and quite capacious, the perfect thing to wear on hot summer days. All it needs is some leggings or skinny jeans, a vest top or crop top (either underneath or over the top of) a beach cover up and you're 'decent' but not swaddled under a million layers. It's such a simple idea which had never occurred to me before but now it has (thanks Sarah!) I'm on a mission to find allllllll the cover ups. I overheat so badly in summer and need to have my skin covered as much as possible (Fibro peeps are very prone to heat exhaustion/sunstroke) but airy fabrics will help so much.

I also went into Boots as I said, and it was 3 for 2 so I went hog wild on Barry M and bought 6 nail polishes (gave one to Rach) and 3 lipsticks.

Expect to see the clothes in outfit posts soon and nail swatches/lip swatches soon.

Right, that's every last drop of birthday money/vouchers spent so I have to be a good girl now. Lord help me!

New Look Inspire black lattice neck dress

Hello pickles,

I've kind of lost my mojo recently - for lots of reasons. I'm feeling great in myself but doing more self care is eating into my energy reserves and it's making me pretty insular. I'm even avoiding social media - ZOMG! We've had a really busy week and I don't have a free day until next Thursday so I'm a bit overwhelmed with stuff to do. I'm also feeling really self-critical and bleh because I'm hormonal. I'm not in the best place to be sharing myself as a blogger, but here I am anyway. I'm nothing if not persistent!

I bought a dress in the New Look sale and by the time it arrived it has sold out online. I hate when that happens. However, it is still available in coral, and you could check stores for stock of the black. It's a really pretty lined dress with a chiffon overlay. It comes up a little smaller than the average New Look Inspire dress, due to the lack of stretch in the chiffon. It's quite floaty and feminine and the lattice detail around the neck is really stunning. I'm not surprised it sold out quickly.

Excuse the carpet. We've been waiting 4 years for it to be replaced!

Dress, New Look Inspire,
Lace cardi, George at Asda, almost sold out
Leggings, Very
Shoes, old Evans

Right, I'm going to search for my mojo. Wish me luck! I hope your week is going great.

Fluoro Floral OOTD

Hiya pickles!

I've fully embraced the neon trend after getting used to the idea last year and now there's no bright too bright for me.

I bought this top from Asda for the bargain sum of £4 and it's eye-achingly neon in the flesh, but it doesn't come out in photographs.

Vest, Asda
Dress, used as skirt, last year's New Look Inspire
Belt, Asos Curve
Necklace, eBay
Earrings, Extreme Largeness

Do you like neon or are you a bit afraid of it? If so maybe start out with accessories like I did and build your way up slowly.

Thanks for reading! 

New Look Inspire black crochet collar swing dress

Hello pickles!

On Saturday hubby and I visited a local wood to have a picnic, and then the beach. It was a cold but sunny day, and the woods was sprinkled with bluebells and snowdrops. I adore bluebells.

I'm wearing the dress I bought with my birthday money. It's from New Look and I bought it because it reminded me of Wednesday Addams. It has a lovely crochet collar.

I went for a size 28 but there is loads of room so a 26 would've been ample. It's a lovely soft stretch jersey material.

I'll share more photos from the woods and beach separately. Next time I wear this dress I might go full on Wednesday style, pigtails and all.

I'm wearing:
Jacket, New Look
Dress, New Look
Leggings, Very
Shoes old Very
Bag, eBay
Bracelets, birthday present

Thanks for reading.

Shop Your Stash floral maxi OOTD

Hello pickles!

Happy Easter!

I've joined a new challenge organised by Hollie called Shop Your Stash. You can read more about it here. The thought behind it is:

Welcome to the Shop Your Stash Challenge. This is all about finding a gem in what you already own and creating a blog post on it. This is to let go a little of the stress that comes with being a blogger - even if it is just once a month. Rummage through your beauty products and climb through those clothes drawers. You might surprise yourself!

Today hubs and I went to Rye for a late lunch/early tea and while we were there we took outfit photos near a gorgeous old church. If you ever get the chance to visit do go - there are Kodak moments literally around every corner.

I'm wearing some old some new things here. The dress is last Year's New Look. The boyfriend coat is a couple of months old from New Look, the handbag was a Christmas present from my mum and step dad and the boots are a few weeks old, from Evans.

I'll be doing more than just fashion posts for Shop Your Stash in the future - I have oodles of make up to dig out and show you as well, and who knows what other treasures I've collected? ;)

Burgundy jacket, New Look (sold out.)
Dress, New Look
Necklace, birthday present
Boots, Evans
Bag, gift

Thanks for reading, and if you have tomorrow off work for bank holiday, do enjoy!

Peaches & cream OOTD

Hello love bugs!

I got out into the sunshine yesterday to take outfit photos, which was lovely! You can't beat the wind in your hair (or up my dress, in this case!) and soft grass underfoot.

This dress is a couple of years old. I bought it from New Look Inspire before my honeymoon in 2012. It's wasn't very 'me' then as I didn't really do cutesy (it has little white hearts on it) but it has grown on me a lot since then.

This cardi is really lovely, it has fine gold thread running through it. It was originally from Catherine's in the US but I snagged it for a fiver from Just For Five Pounds.

Have an out take. Not just my dopey face, but the wind up my noo na!

Gold cardi, Just For Five Pounds
Name necklace, Extreme Largeness
Dress, New Look Inspire
Leggings, Yours
Bag, Primark
Gold shoes, Matalan last year

As you can probably tell I'm recycling a lot of older items to try to stop me spending money on new things. Wish me luck!

Simply Be PU midi skirt

Hello lovelies!

I have an actual post with clothes on my body today, whoo hoo. Apologies for all the wordy posts, but I've found myself suddenly pole axed with fatigue after my fun weekend in Brum. Anyway, on with the show!

This skirt by Simply Be was purchased by my own fair hand when it was down from £40 to £28. It had gone down to £20 in a brief 50% sale they did, but they didn't have my size when it was half price. Truth be told they didn't have it in my size when it went down to £28 either. I'm squeezing into a 26 here but I probably could've used a 28 to accommodate my never-will-be-child bearing hips. Man, what a waste of all that hip. ;) I'm a tight arse who refuses to pay £40 for a dress if I can help it, let alone a skirt, so I wouldn't have bought this at full price, no matter how lovely it is.

I'd seen the skirt on the beautiful Callie and wanted it, but it was seeing it on Gemma that gave me the confidence to buy it, as her body type is a bit more like mine.

Yes, it has pockets, although to be fair you need to have the hands of a pipsqueak as they're tiny.

Forgot to smile, too busy thinking about tiny pockets

The dress is supposed to be kind of A-line, but where my hips are so dang big it kinda bunches up just below the waist, but I can live with it. The smallest part of me is right under my boobaloos, so hitching it up a couple of inches higher will probably avoid the puffy pockets look. It's a comfortable skirt with a little bit of give to it, not at all restrictive like some PU things can be, and it doesn't make you sweat like you're wearing a bin bag in a sauna, either. Always a bonus!

I'm wearing my New Look sale boots which I meant to return ages ago, but forgot. They're not wide fit and I'm wearing them in. The reason I was going to send them back is there's no zip. I was hoping for a zip at the back to ease getting them on and off but no such luck. I should've read the description better, but I was in full on 'WAAAAAAAAAHHHH, SALE!' mode. At the moment the buckles aren't done up, but they're so snug on my fat trotters they stay on fine anyway, and the tongue is thickly padded so that helps too. The only heels you're ever going to see me in comfortably for more than 2 minutes are chunky buggers like these.

PU kick out midi skirt - Simply Be
Sheer cover up - old Simply Be
Eagle necklace, Primark
Ring, old New Look
Top, old Sainsburys
Bracelet, eBay
Boots, New Look

Happy Friday! Do you like PU/pleather? Hubby came home when I was taking these photos and gave me the seal of approval, even though he normally chides me for spending money. I know when I'm onto a winner when he likes what I buy. :)

Thanks for reading.

Evans polka dot dress OOTD

Howdy!

When I went to Lakeside with a few other plus bloggers a few weeks ago (my post about it here) I fell in love with a dress in Evans but didn't get it on the day because I had a strict budget and I didn't want to go over it.

On looking back at the photos I really liked it and decided to buy it along with what I hoped would be the trousers of dreams. I hoped they'd be as good as the wonderful crepe trousers I had in my early 20s. Sadly the trousers of dreams weren't half as dreamy in the flesh (boo!) so I'm sending them back, but at least it got me off my bum to order the dress.

Duck face!

Boyfriend coat, New Look - some stock back in now
Necklace, Sister Vintage
Dress, Evans
Leggings, Very
Shoes, old Evans

Are you sick of seeing me in polka dots yet?!

Thanks for reading.

Drunk shopping

Hiya!

Yesterday I had my first alcoholic beverage in I think a couple of months, and this happened.

There I was just minding my own business and these things just jumped into my basket, all on their own. At least that is what I will insist on being the case when they arrive.

The moral of this story is don't drink and shop. (But come ON, a jacket for £13?! A skirt for £6? It had to happen. Sorrynotsorry.)

What's the most recent thing(s) you purchased?

Thanks for peeking.

Fatshion Feb day 22 Blue paisley dress

Hello cute faces!

Say hello to my bad hair day!

I had my hair in a pony tail and took it down and it did that weird sticky-out thing.

Because you're worth it *SWISH*

I'm wearing the Lime Crime lip velvet in Suedeberry here.

I don't know why it is, but when I'm pre menstrual I ALWAYS hack at my fringe, and my hand-eye coordination is even more whack than usual at that most delicate time of the month. It always results in a horribly crooked fringe, but it doesn't put me off. Every month. I spent about half an hour earlier gently snipping away to restore order. Mind you, I come from a long line of fringe-butcherers. My mum cut right through my eyebrow once (seriously, she did!) when she was chopping my forehead curtains, and I'm sure her mum probably fucked her hair up too. Really, I'm doing the world a favour by not reproducing. Remind me to share some photos of my childhood hair don'ts. (They are definitely hair DON'TS instead of hair do's.)

I've hacked away at my fringe again now. This is the before.

I'm wearing a New Look dress Mookie gave me a few weeks ago. It's lovely and lightweight. I don't wear blue nearly often enough. Sorry all this stuff is as old as balls.

Cardi, Evans (old as balls.)
Dress, New Look (past season.)
Leggings, Very
Shoes, Dr Marten - check eBay or Amazon as they're always cheaper there.

I love my DM dolly shoes but don't wear them much on the blog any more. I've got a lot more shoes now than when I started blogging and I tend to wear the pretty ones more often, but when I know I'm going to do a fair bit of walking I wear my trusty DMs. They protect my dodgy achilles heel. For a rock chick I've never had a pair of DM boots! It's a sacrilege.

Happy Saturday!

I hope you have a good weekend whatever you do. I'm having my eyes tested this weekend. New glasses, whoo!

Thanks for reading.

Fatshion Feb Day 15 OOTD

Hello lovelies.

Happy Saturday! I hope you have a good one today, whatever you're up to. We're hoping to go out if the weather's less monsoon-like, as we were unable to go out yesterday as I was crippled with ovarian cyst pain. Next life, I want a penis! Moving swiftly on....

I found these leggings with the little lacy scalloped edges at the back of my leggings shelf. I forgot I had them!

Hair flower, New Look (last year.)
Tea and cake necklace, Drown Soda (seems to be out of business now)
Cardi, Primark (old.)
Dress, New Look from twinpack
Scarf tied around my wrist, charity shop
Leggings, Yours Clothing
Patent shoes, Evans

I'll be doing a proper post about my Drown Soda order soon - it's my new love.

Pop quiz - what's your favourite thing to do on a weekend? Ours is a walk on a Saturday, do a bit of exploring somewhere I can take photos of old buildings (churches and graveyards are a fave of mine) then a film or two Saturday night. Sunday is usually a lazy day for the Mr while I catch up on housework - but he's got to pull his finger out as well tomorrow as we have a landlord inspection on Monday. ;)

Thanks for reading!