Photoshoot with Jim Hawkins

Hello pickles,

A few weeks ago I had a photoshoot with Jim Hawkins. He's always been very supportive of me and my blog, and after meeting him at Plus North last year I contacted him to ask if I could hire his services to take some photos of me.

Jim has a lovely way about him - he chats away so effortlessly that soon you forget he's taking photos of you, and it results in lovely natural images. It might surprise you to know that I'm not totally comfortable in front of the camera. Yes, even though I regularly take photos of my outfits using a tripod and self timer, and sometimes get James to take my photos. I am often on edge, and what you don't see are the dozens of photos where I pull goofy faces to mask the tension I feel on that side of the lens. (I'm actually happier behind the camera!) Jim is brilliant with nervous subjects. At first I was a bit tense, but I soon warmed up and was so relaxed a lot of the photos show me laughing my head off.

Here are a selection of my favourite shots.

Outfit | Lemons and limes

Hello lovelies and happy weekend!

I'm determined to feel spring-y whether spring has actually sprung or not, so here's some wishful thinking via my wardrobe. I love green and yellow together as it reminds me of my favourite spring flowers - daffodils. Just looking at them cheers me up and I must buy some soon to brighten the flat up.

Yes, I'm wearing those bloody leggings again. I think I need to buy a back up pair. They are getting washed, I swear. ;)

I love the print on this dress, it kind of reminds me of the artist H.R. Giger, if someone spliced his dark works with some Starburst sweets, hahaha!

I'm wearing:

Zombie necklace, old
Cardi old Asda, via clothes swap
Dress, old H&M+
Lace side leggings, Yours Clothing
Shoes, old Evans

I might be a bit late responding to blog comments today as we have a family visit, so I'll see you on the other side! Have a great weekend!

Thanks for reading,
Leah xoxo

Crown & Glory Glitterati box March

Hello sweet peas!

March's Glitterati box from Crown & Glory is another winner. This month we have a marine theme, and I love it!

I thought on first sight that the fish scale turban would be my favourite item, but it's actually the pearl encrusted hair elastic. It's so versatile - you can wear it over the top of your hair, as a bracelet, as a choker and even as a hair elastic. For £5 that is some bang for your buck, plus the boat and seahorse charms are adorable!

Here's a photo of me in the pearl hair elastic. I did some mermaid-themed makeup to take these photos and wore a shimmery blue piece of material I've had for years. I bought it (because magpie, obvs!) and have never done anything with it. Maybe I'll make some cushion covers out of it if I ever get my sewing machine threaded and ready to rock n' roll again.

I actually took a load of photos of me wearing everything from this box which I'll share another day to keep this post brief.

You can sign up to the Glitterati box here. It's £20 a month including postage and comes with about £50+ worth of things. Other benefits are:

- a monthly box of hair accessories; a mix of floral, glitter and vintage inspired items
- designs exclusive to The Glitterati members
- especially themed months
- an extra special box in your birthday month
- super-special gifts for long-time subscribers
- exclusive access to a closed Facebook group for dedicated tutorials, early-access to sales and offers and a swapshop

Next month is my birthday and I'm so excited to see what a birthday box comprises of. I think that's the birthday thing I'm the most excited by!

February's box was here if you want to read that post.

Thanks for reading,
Leah xoxo

Outfit | Monochrome mash up

Howdy!

You know when you have one of those days where you look in the mirror and think 'I'd do you!' No, just me?! Anyway, this was a day when I felt G-O-O-D so there are a lot of photos. I forgot to smile in a lot of them, though. If I write a book it's going to be called 'Bitchface, the struggle.'

There's also my Fibromyalgia mottled 'corn beef' legs-a-plenty. Oh well *shrugs*. No shits were given on this day. Sometimes I really can't be bothered with tights, you know?

This gif creases me up. But it's the pelvic thrust! That really drives you in-sa-a-a-a-a-ane! Let's do THE TIME WARP again!

I thought I'd do a bit of pattern mixing in monochrome. I think horizontal stripes are my favourite thing right now. I bought this top in Forever 21+ last month for £9 and this is its first outing.

I was having a good face and hair day, so here are some selfies. Feel free to click to enlarge if you haven't seen enough of me already. ;)

I'm wearing:

Cardigan, Yours Clothing via Oxfam
Hair flower, OWHH Millinery flower of the month club
Earrings, Extreme Largeness
Ouija skull necklace, Hootie McBoutique
Striped crop top, Forever 21+
Skirt, old ASOS Curve
Shoes, past season New Look wide fit
Lipstick, MeMeMe Cosmetics lip cream in Hot Magenta

I could really do with a stretchy black and white polka dot top with the really big dots, like Minnie Mouse polka dots. If anyone sees one in size fat let me know!

Thanks for reading.
Leah xoxo

Out takes from my last outfit post

Hello love bugs,

The Mr took so many photos on Sunday of my outfit and the scenery that I have some more to share. He did really well considering I was under the shadow of the tall net huts one minute and standing in glorious sunshine the next. He's an uneasy photographer I'd say, less certain of things like ISO settings and F-stops than I am, but he's really improved over the months and I'm glad he's willing to put up with me flouncing around for blog photos.

In case you didn't read Monday's post, I'm wearing a dress by Scarlett & Jo from House of Fraser.

Being dwarfed by the net huts.

I love this gnarled ol' tree.

Looking bored of life, ha!

Here are a few Instagram photos of the day too.

Thanks for peeping!

Leah xoxo

Life Lately #2

Hello sweet peas,

So what's new with me?

Watching

I haven't read the book, but I've really enjoyed the tv adaptation of The Casual Vacancy, based of course on J.K Rowling's book. It was fantastic. I don't normally like short series (this was 3 parts) but this sucked me in and had a brilliant ensemble cast.

I've also watched the first 4 episodes of Better Call Saul and it's awesome.

Reading

Since I've had my Kindle I've had a horrible habit of starting books, not reading for a few weeks then forgetting which one I started. I can remember my current book as it's a chirpy little read (!) about the mass murderer Harold Shipman. I've got about 600 books on my Kindle currently and I need to clear off the ones I can remember having read.

Cutting out gluten

My body hasn't been too fond of wheat for some years now but in recent times it's got worse and worse to the point that when I've had bread or white pasta I feel like death. (Wholegrain pasta has less of an effect.) Since I've cut down to about 2 slices of bread a week I feel SO much better in myself. I'm considering going gluten free altogether but will have a good think about it.

Planning

James wants us to move and there's a possibility his parents might invest in a property down here for us to rent from them. James is even more keen than me to rescue a couple of cats, and as we can't have pets here it's inevitable we'll have to move at some point. As much as I'll hate to lose these sea views, a little garden to take outfit photos in would be marvellous, and of course there's no end to the joy having pets would bring us. Because we've accumulated so much crap in the 5 years we've lived here we're going to need a full removal service to shift all our crap. I'm as much use as a chocolate tea pot when it comes to lugging things around - I just can't do it because of Fibromyalgia & CFS. We may even possibly have to pay for a packing service as well, which will cost even more money. This brings me nicely onto....

Economising

James has a bee in his bonnet about saving money and of course he has a point. We're doing a few things differently:

1. We've swapped energy providers which should save us £200-300 a year. We're also being much careful with the heating than we had been. I've always got a fleece blanket nearby because my temperature regulation is shot (thanks Fibromyalgia!) but to save more pennies we're turning down the heating more and wearing our fleece dressing gowns on top of our clothes (if necessary) to stay nice and toasty.
2. We've also started doing the bulk of our shopping in Aldi. To be honest, we got into bad habits having the Tesco shopping delivered and rarely checked for offers, just bought the same crap from our favourites list on the website. When we stayed with our friends up north we tried a lot of Aldi items there and they were all fantastic, so we picked up some bits and bobs last Monday. When we got back in I put those items into Tesco online to see how much they would've cost there and it was more than 1/3 more than Aldi. There are still some things we'll need to buy in Tesco (mainly for James as he's very fussy about brands) but we should save loads of money by doing a bulk shop in Aldi every couple of weeks with the occasional top up from Tesco.
3. In the past, when my health has been really awful I've been guilty of relying on convenience foods. I've never been a microwave meal girl but I would buy prepared salads and pasta salads, things like that, but they're expensive. I've been using my slow cooker more and doing a couple of days meals at a time, and that's saving more money.
4. I've got to sort my naughty spending habits out. I can't go cold turkey as that will make me exceedingly miserable, but I can cut back. I'm on a mission to buy more things from eBay/charity shops than new things. Of course I'm a blogger so I'm tempted multiple times a day by lovely things. It's going to be hard, as I do use shopping as an emotional crutch, but if we can get a nice new home and a couple of kitties it's gotta be worth it, right?

We're trying to save a couple of thousand pounds over the next year or so in readiness for moving, and if I come up with any more thrifty ideas I'll share them.

Playing with makeup

I'm feeling slightly jaded about the plus size clothing industry at the moment. The sense of separation between smaller and larger fats with regards to choice is my eternal moan even though I'm pleased the industry is better than it was years ago. I don't tend to look at places where there's a big divide in availability depending on size as it makes me seethe (like Simply Be, for example.) I feel I'm erring towards indie companies rather than big business lately. Because of this and a couple of other grumbles I'm yet to put a voice to, I'm more into makeup at the moment. I've been rooting through my stash and having a good swatch session most days and there will probably be at least a couple of beauty posts a week ongoing.

What's new with you?

Thanks for reading,
Leah xoxo

Outfit | Scarlett & Jo navy dress from House of Fraser*

Hello lovelies,

I hope you had a great weekend? I had a lovely one - on Saturday my friend's mum came round to talk wedding plans (I'm a bridesmaid for the first time this year) and yesterday my brother came to visit. The three of us went into town for lunch and took photos of a Scarlett and Jo dress sent to me by House of Fraser.

Plus size fashion news #2 feat Lady Voluptuous

Hello lovelies!

I have a bumper plus size fashion news for you featuring lovely things from the Lady Voluptuous range designed by blogger and glamazon Georgina Horne, and also a cute cat tee from Nicky Rockets. Read on! I've chosen the worst possible time to go on a spending cutback as there's so many lovely things out at the moment. *wails* I need a sugar daddy!

LADY VOLUPTUOUS

Firstly, let's have a look at the new Lady Voluptuous range designed and modelled by George. George had a very successful range with Lady V London last year, and now that success has been compounded with a new range and a new name - Lady Voluptuous. I may have to rob a bank as a few of these dresses have my name on them! EVERY dress in the range comes in sizes 16-32 (although some sizes are already out of stock.) How amazing is that? None of this different styles for different sizes crap. How revolutionary! Hats off, Georgina. (Everyone else, take note!)

Firstly the Medusa, £40 and in the 5 colourways below. The leopard is calling to me.

• Fantastic Stretch Fabric
• 3/4 Length Sleeves
• Flattering sweetheart neckline

Photo belongs to Lady Voluptuous. Click to enlarge.

Next we have the Cosette in the 3 patterns shown below. £50.

• Comes with wide buckle belt
• Huge 1950s style flared skirt
• Flattering cross-over bust

Photo belongs to Lady Voluptuous. Click to enlarge.

Finally we have the Lyra, which is available in the colours below. £40

• Flattering Cross-Over Bust
• 1950s style flared skirt
• Sash that ties at the back

Photo belongs to Lady Voluptuous. Click to enlarge.

You can read all about the process behind George's range on her blog here and you can buy the range here.

NICKY ROCKETS

There's a new cat in town, and its name is Plumpy Paws! Modelled by Nicky's beautilicious wife and plus size blogger Betty Pamper, the tee is available in sizes S-5XL, costs £15 and you can buy it here.

Photo belongs to Nicky Rockets.

That's quite enough excitement for this week!

Thanks for reading,
Leah xoxo