Winter

Two Sale Steals from LTS

girlintheprettydressLeave a comment

I am a self confessed bargain-hunter. I like nothing better than shopping the sales – so when Long Tall Sally took an extra 20% off their sale stock a couple of weeks ago, I was helpless to resist!

It may well have been the first day of Spring recently, but Winter hasn’t shaken it’s grip on my part of the world just yet. I have a feeling I’ll be getting a lot of wear out of these pieces over the next few weeks.

The wool wrap jacket is exceptionally cosy with the perfect sleeve length. The fairisle print jumper may look a little out of season elsewhere in the world but with this lovely English weather behaving the way it is, it didn’t feel it. The black jeggings are an old faithful pair (if a little faded now) also from Long Tall Sally – in fact I think they were my first ever purchase from the original LTS Manchester store (you can read my review of the new store here).

The boots are another sale bargain – from F&F. Sadly these exact ones are no longer in stock (although I’m not surprised as they really were a great buy!) but they have something similar here.

December in Scotland

girlintheprettydressLeave a comment

Last month we had a short family trip up to Scotland – back to my favourite area on the west coast. We’d decided to travel with 3 dogs in tow so were limited on options for where to stay but struck it lucky with a beautiful rented cottage on the Ardmaddy Estate.

We weren’t quite so lucky with the weather (having arrived in the lead up to ‘Storm Desmond’) but we made the most of the few moments that the sunshine managed to break through the clouds. The Ardmaddy estate is only a few miles from the Isle of Seil – which gave us the perfect opportunity to explore this ruggedly beautiful island.

Soft Focus

girlintheprettydressLeave a comment

Self-shooting is hard. Sometimes, for whatever reason, it just doesn’t come together like you hoped it would. This is one of those times… I struggled with the exposure and focus on all these images, but I’m taking comfort in the fact that in the 1950s all the images of actresses were in shot in soft focus, on purpose. It was considered flattering. Today people expect more and more of the images they consume. Well… here’s hoping you find this nostalgic and not annoying…

I’ve been investigating and investing in more and more tall clothing recently. This super snuggly cardigan is from New Look’s Tall range (via ASOS). Unfortunately it came out a little oddly coloured in each image – the close up (5th image down) gives a more accurate idea of the colour and material.

But the tall item I love most at the moment has to be my long length skinny jeans from M&S (the unsung hero of many an outfit of mine). In addition to being tall, I’m also pear shaped – so finding a pair of jeans that fits both my waist and my hips is a tricky business… somewhat like self shooting…

DSC_0005

DSC_0009

This is my unimpressed face (after seeing the last image)

DSC_0012

DSC_0013

And this is my ‘well this clearly isn’t working’ face

DSC_0021

DSC_0026

DSC_0028

Cardigan: New Look Tall via ASOS
Black Top (worn underneath): F&F
Skinny Jeans/Jeggings: M&S
Boots: Debenhams
Necklace: unknown (gift)
Ring & Earrings: Orelia
Nail Polish: Chanel ‘Pirate’ 08
P.S. If like me you find yourself struggling with your camera, I’ve done a bit of research now and would recommend having a read of Elizabeth’s Tips over on Delightfully Tacky.

Carrying It Forward

girlintheprettydressLeave a comment

(Jumper Dress: F&F | Leggings: Topshop Tall | Boots: Debenhams | Mittens: Next)

This time last year I wrote about my ‘14 for 2014‘. I’ve never been one for resolutions, but I’d suddenly found myself with a lot of spare time on my hands and it seemed like a good way to organise my spare time into something more productive and enjoyable. So far so good-intentioned…

I started as I meant to go on with Number 1: Blog more – and managed to do this for the first few weeks. Then in March something rather wonderful and unexpected happened… I got a promotion at work. And all of a sudden my spare time started to shrink. So number 1 had to be re-assessed whilst I adjusted to my workload.

A few of the other numbers were also neglected whilst I was enjoying my new role, so this year I’ve decided not to make new resolutions, I’m just going to carry some forward:

1) Blog more
2) Keep a Journal
4) Get back in the saddle and go Horse Riding
5) Dust off the Violin and start playing it again
6) Swim
12) Learn to play Poker (it really can’t be that hard)

2014 was still pretty darn great though. Here are some of the things I did achieve!

Number 3: Read more books. I’m going to post about this soon because it’s something I’ve done with a great deal of enthusiasm.

DSC_1384

Number 7: Bake more. I particularly enjoyed June’s Coconut and Lime Cake:

DSC_1405

Number 8 (Pay it forward. Do more random acts of kindness) was easy to achieve. I started taking my baked goods into work, I fundraised for my favourite causes, and every time I saw a charity box I put any spare change I had into it. I also succeeded with Number 9 & Number 10.

Number 13: See more things at the theatre. I’m so glad I set myself this goal – it’s so lovely to get dressed up and go to the theatre for an evening. Here are some of the shows I’ve enjoyed this year:

west_side_story___wallpaper_by_thedrifterwithin-d63raal

0b1ed10106d2d8b47fab28f68af3a629

Charlie

Number 14: Try one new thing, especially if it’s outside your comfort zone (I’m particularly proud of this one) This year I abseiled for the first time – 66 metres! Stepping off the edge was enormously daunting, but ultimately such a rush. As a bonus I also raised a lot of money for my local Mountain Rescue Team.

20140413-20140413-IMG_6900

Bouclé

girlintheprettydressLeave a comment

Before I sat down to do this post, I didn’t actually know what Bouclé meant. I knew what a Bouclé jacket looked like of course – but not what specifically made it that. Turns out it’s not the cut or the style, but the yarn (or, as Wikipedia called it the ‘novelty yarn’). Anyway the point is, that yarn is a lot warmer than you might expect, I was pretty toasty when taking these photos.

DSC_1196

DSC_1212

DSC_1211

Jacket: Miss Selfridge (similar here)
Top: F&F (buy it here)
Longer-length Jeggings: Marks and Spencer (indigo)
Boots: Primark
Statement Necklace: via Luan Matthews

Winter Rocks

girlintheprettydressLeave a comment
This has got to be one of my favourite places in the world, and only a few minutes drive from where I live. Though strangely, I don’t visit it that much. It’s such a spectacular view that I think if I went too often, I’d stop appreciating it as much.

But every now and again I’ll just jump in the car and go. Luckily, this time around I had my sister with me who very kindly took these photos – it was so windy I think the tripod would have blown over if I’d tried to self-shoot!

DSC_0043

DSC_0045

DSC_0082

Coat: George at Asda | Jeggings: Marks and Spencer | Boots: Debenhams

DSC_0128

Quilted Jumper: ASOS

DSC_0126

Bag: Aldo

DSC_0106