Summer Dress Daisy Daze

It's not even a little bit sunny, it's nearly 3pm and I am wearing normal clothes with a dressing own wrapped around me, sat under my duvet, the only horrible thing is having to have my fingers out to type as they always get chilly.
Nonetheless, I love browsing for clothes for a sunnier day, my winter wardrobe is comprehensive and full but my summer wardrobe lacks choice, which is to be expected given the proportion of time in the year that it is appropriate to wear summer clothes versus winter. A little dress caught my eye with its enchanting daisy print and a cute soft white tshirt underneth.

I saw it and it immediately reminded me of Miss Honey from Matilda (the film not the book) as I was certain that she wore something similar with a tshirt underneath a strappy swing dress, but I couldn't find it on Google images so perhaps that was just my imagination.

But it does have that kind of cool, American vibe to it, I think.
I picked the dress up, and put it back, a week later I was still thinking about it, considered ordering it online but was put off by the high postage costs before eventually seeing it in store again and ceasing the daisy day!!!

Now all I need is a wink of sunshine so that I can try it out!

From ASOS with love

Woopsy I accidentally went shopping for one single blouse and instead came away with 2 blouses and 3 pretty little dresses!
I must say, I was bedazzled with the quality of this end of season sale, reflected in my purchases which of course never look as sassy on camera as they do on a person...

I couldn't resist the print of this dress, it's fabric is soft like rose petals and it's colours bold like summer, I think that there's a certain femininity with thin straps on dresses  that can't be found on strapless or more vest style dresses. I'll have to save this little gem as a treat for summertime!

 This is my absolute guilty pleasure dress, it is so Betty Boop with it's dropped waist and sweetheart neckline, I just cannot get enough of it. It's a bold black that the flash has washed out a little, it's also made from that comfy and stretchy jersey fabric, forgiving fabrics are always a favourite.

 What I came for.. a beautiful blouse, an even bigger bonus is the adorable colour and button accents- but the very best part is the cape affect that carries through from the sleeves to the back of the dress, I love little capes on clothes it adds instant fun!

 And then another perhaps less practical blouse, but the gold tipped collar was what sold it to me, but it has a front and back cut out which is great because with long hair back detailing never gets noticed but now it looks pretty from the back too. The connecting collars with a button create a 'bow tie' look from afar which is never a bad thing.

 Finally, a classic and comfortable (comfort is a recurring theme with me and dresses) jersey dress, it has a little bit of back detailing but it fits nicely, swishes around the hips and flatters the waist, it's casual style makes it great for afternoon and evening, shopping and parties and will probably become the most loved of all.

Golden Girl!

Maybe more a champagne coloured dress, than golden...

but if you've read my blog before then you will have seen me wear this very dress to a wedding, but when are musical note dresses really out of fashion?

Well...when were they ever really in fashion I guess!

Oh well, maybe that's the tip to never being out of fashion, never be in fashion in the first place!

This time I wore the dress with golden eye makeup, all courtesy of the Naked Palette by Urban Decay, but I sure wished I had a Barry M Dazzle Dust in gold to go over the top of the shadow, that would have doubled the golden factor

So there you go that's my super quick because I'm out the door 'Outfit of the Evening'

Heels £10 Ebay

Dress £6 Ebay

total outfit cost= £16

Get DRESSED!

It is my favourite type of party when the party calls for a costume, it's so much more fun than wearing regular clothes!
I know I've done a few blog posts before on costumes but new and more amazing ones seem to emerge before I get a chance to blog about them!

This year I am leaning towards going as a pumpkin for the halloween parties, I think that would be really fun! Not a too scary pumpkin though.. I don't want to get nightmares!

Heres the little mini collection of costumes from last year, this is my kind of 'novelty' section of my wardrobe, you can see a little peek of Spongebob, a sailor and Alice in Wonderland...

Here are the ones that I'm drooling over this year, why do all the best ones come from American websites?!

Care Bear cheer bear! All dressed in candyfloss pink deliciousness! It's so pretty and cute, not scary at all.. I'm not a fan of scary costumes and gross masks

Look at this cute Mad Hatter one, it's nicer than the other ones that I've seen because it is so much brighter! The tea cup detailing on the neckerchief and cutie bootie covers are something that I would just wear out on any normal day

It's pocohontas! I love all the fringing and I can imagine the suede-touch feeling of the dress, I love wearing feathrs and beads and shoes with fringing, although this pocohontas has gone for more of an Ugg-type ensemble, but I think i'm a little too pale to look like an exotic poconhatas -sigh-

The Bubblegum Princess costume has a special place in my heart because who doesn't want bubblegum pink hair? And it's from the cartoon Adventure time which I watched my very first epsiode of this week. It's a show for kids but it has the same kind of appeal as Spongebob Squarepants where it can hold an audience of (child like) adults with it's randomness and brightness and the fact that nothing in it seems to make much sense at all. It's shown on Cartoon Network!

　

So there you have it, my costume round up for this Halloween season, I will of course update with my personal costume round up when I've decided!

Flower girls.. awhh

Here's a little update on the latest with my sisters wedding and it's to do with the cutests members of the wedding party- the flower girls.

we've done some browsing over the past few months for flower girls dresses off the rail but my sister knew that above all she wanted the dress to be cute and childish looking, not like a minature adult dress. This included a cute ribbon/bow or flowers and little cap sleeves. Surprisingly most flower girl dresses seem to have no sleeves at all, to find one with little cap sleeves was unusual or they were usually first holy communion dresses.

Then I came across this pretty dress in a pattern book and it captured my imagination, I love the pretty little ruffle flowers and sleeve type and on the back it has a cute little ribbon too!

I took a picture of it and sent it to my sister who agreed that it was the prettiest flower girl dress we had ever seen, so I got the paper pattern and now this is the dress-to-be... but not in pink!

Isn't it so lovable?

It was a child Vogue pattern and it had 40% off so cost the sweet price of £4.95!

Fancy Night!

Last night I went out on a 'fancy night' where there was a strict dress code, I was really exicted because everything had to be a little bit classy, that meant no denim knickers...I mean shorts, no slouchy slouch and everything nice and dressy dress! Men have to wear collars, nice trousers and smart shoes too and if you don't comply you say bye-bye! Also, you have to buy tickets beforehand- you can't just show up and go on in! This is what I settled on wearing:

My dress is from Forever21 and I bought it in the January sale, I got it even cheaper because it had a hole by the zip, but i wore a black skirt underneth and pulled it up to where the hole is so you couldn't even see it. One of these days I'll sew it up.

I opted for black ribbed tights that are kind of opaque to keep it classy!

My shoes are a fabric pair of plain black heels new from ebay, and my jacket that I wore is my trusty H and M (but actually from a charity shop) black jacket that I always wear on nights out!

Hooray for fancy pants!

PJ PARTAY

I don't think there's a comfier way to party than in your PJs, so here I am ready for a night out in a onesie tied at the waist, (otherwise a onesie can be totally restricting on your dance moves!)

I wore my vans too, which were a howle lot more fun than wearing heels, so I may not look like the most glamorous party goer ever but it was the comfiest night ever, and comfy usually means being able to stay out longer- so think of it like that!

I just want to make a side note that it was in fact a pj themed party, not me trying to start some 'pj outwear' trend, I would never ever normally wear my PJs in public, though it would be fun if we all could!

Bow-Tiful!

Making a bow dress is the easiest craft project imaginable!

 

 

This is how it goes down:

Take a plain dress (this works with vest tops, jumpers and tshirts too) in a pretty colour

And an assortment of bows, I have seven in lots of nice colours- I love pastel colours, you can make them yourself with leftover ribbon or buy them from ebay or craft shops

Lay the bows out on the dress and put them where you think works, make sure you don’t have two colours together that are too ‘samey’

You can pin the bows down where you like them, or just go straight into sewing them on

Take a length of white thread about 15-20cm and knot one end, then thread the other end through the eye of a sewing needle

Each bow takes out 4 simple hand stitches to secure them, then knot them at the back, and go onto the next bow

Then there you have it, a simple bow dress that takes all of twenty minutes but makes you look as pretty as a wrapped birthday present!

How to dress for an unexpected work out

The title should maybe say how NOT to dress haha
My sister and I opted for a last minute Zumba class, I should just always be prepared for when I'm at my sisters to stop me going to Zumba looking like this...

It may not look that bad from a distance but the picture is luckily quite blurry, I'm wearing an old white vest from H&M and a black bra that showed through...not a good look.
Black tracksuit bottoms that are a little on the short side haha
And old mens trainers in one size too big!

Hooray for looking super stylish at the gym!

Sailor dress up!

Ever since my first dress-up party at the age of 12 or 13 when I went as a sailor girl, I have had a 'thing' for all things nautical that never ever seems to go away, ever! As much as I wish I could wear my costumes out on a regular day (I built up a collection of various sailor ones) they remain in waiting for another dress up party!

Keeping this in mind, you can imagine how my heart skipped a beat with joy when I feasted my eyes upon this lovely dreamy-dress!










The lady at the counter probably thought I was a sailor-crazy-nut as I was wearing coincidentally my sailor jumper today!

I think I'm going to save the dress for a March wedding and team it up with Red heels with a bow! But I don't know if I can wait that long to wear it...

Other lovely things I came across today that came home with me included this new 'dressy' top, originally from Topshop but I got it in a second hand shop for a sweet price of £10

P.S note how I've cropped my face out of everything because I was having a 'bad skin-no makeup' day
And a little more boring... a new laundry bag, but the print is super cute at least!

I'm gon' be a bridesmaid!

I've posted more than once about my sister getting married next year!

_-~* Insert my gushing face!*~-_

Since 'the dress' has already been purchased, now we can move onto 'the other important dress' which is that of the bridesmaids!

Today was day 1 of many in terms of shopping, we're looking at the dresses in the American brand 'Forever Yours' they do very stereotypically 'American' bridesmaid and flower girl dresses if that makes sense?

I guess I mean the styles, the cheesy green screen backdrops of some of the photo shoots too!

Here's the initial dress that we thought would be 'the one' or 'the other one' haha but not this colour.

Tried on it lookes different, and we just didn't love it as much as the picture, also in the shop it was in a candyfloss pink colour so I felt like a candy floss-ballerina-fairy type thing, not a sophisticated and chic bridesmaid...

The search continues!

Here's a look at the ones I was trying on today:

Guess if you can!



Wedding dress shopping...Round 2!

If you've read my blog before you may know that my sister is getting married next year!
We've been looking for dresses for a long time and there isn't many styles that she doesn't suit which has made it extra tricky!

Sometimes bridal shops are funny about taking pictures and although they didn't outright say anything against it I took a few sneaky shots of potential dresses-to-be!

It was a whirlwind of silk and taffeta and gems and petticoats and fairytale dreamy happiness!

In the end we've decided between two dresses so we're going for a third, and maybe final browsing in a couple weeks!

And neither of the two has been photographed, it will be a complete fairytale surprise!

Chained up dress?!?

Ted Baker is the place of secret dreams for me!
I know to a lot of people, Ted Baker is still very much a High Street store as there branches pop up all over the place rather than in exclusive areas, but to me I consider Ted Baker to be a designer dream and New Look, Topshop, Forever21 and H&M as the standard High Street stores, for me at least

I had a little wishful looky inside- the only thing I've ever bought was a bag in the sale from £75 to £35- A beautiful white dress covered with crystals caught my eye and so I picked it up off the rail to show my Aunite (my shopping pal) and I was startled that the dress pulled me back, I turned around to see that the dress was CHAINED to the rail!!

I was so startled that it was chained I remember thinking -holy smokes how much IS this dress worth?- I had a little look for a price tag but couldn't see one which usually means something is super duper expensive, in my head at least, so that was when I decided the smart thing to do would be to promptly put it back on the rail and back away slowly...

Instead I admired it online

It's called the Wilz dress and costs...wait for it... £999!

A dress that I actually tried on was this one

I fell in love with it so bad I didn't want to take it off, but again it had no price which made me a bit nervous! But it was £399 so out of my price range but the detailing and pleats on the skirt was so so lovely- the colour in real life is nicer too, more of a dusty rose than a baby pink!

Tell me, what's the most you'd ever spend on a dress!?

SHOPPING HURTS!

It hurts our purse, feet, and shoulders, carrying all those bags
But prom season is upon us!

So a video is in order on how to get your perfect prom dress and not have the process be so gosh darn painful!

For those of us who are not buying prom dresses, these tips are universal for every kind of shopping trip! Nowadays, I tend to do more little bits here and there online than a big shop in stores because it's so gosh darn tiring.

Here's the video:


Prom perfection tips:

-Avoid the temptation to get your dress online, photographs of clothes are not the same as wearing it on yourself as you want to look at your absolute best!

-If you are buying your dress online, be wary of websites that are based in China, often the dresses are immitations of the ones pictures rather than the actual one photographed and the quality suffers because of this, think shoddy stitching and uneven seams and you'll get what I mean

I HEART your corset

So you're going to:

a) Alice in Wonderland Fancy Dress party
b) Tea party
c) Relax in the garden?

and you have a:
a) Few packs of playing cards
b) Ribbon
c) Hole punch
d) Staple/Glue gun


Then you can join in on this crafty creation!

-Get a willing model (the same size as you) and shape the cards around their torso
-Staple or glue gun the cards as you go, be careful not to injure your willing model
-Try and keep the cards in line for a neat patterns, or if you don't mind a 'scattered' look then attach the cards with less care and more haste
-Don't join the cards to fully meet in a circle so that the whole torso is covered as you need a gap about the width of a playing card to thread the ribbon
-Remove the corset of cards and evenly hole punch down the side
-Thread through a red ribbon

Wallah!

If you're feeling brave, you could try and master a skirt too!

Top tip:
You can buy playing cards super cheap from charity shops (literally pennies!)
You can create a theme by only using cards from on suit, but then you'll need more cards!
Wear a strapless cotton top underneth your corset for comfort, the edges can be sharp (and modesty incase any cards tear!)

Miles and miles and miles of ruffles!

There's nothing I love more than lots of bright colours, and ruffles but I never could have dreamt up wedding dresses like these...



It all comes from the television show 'My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding' Which I heard is going to be or already is airing in the US.
The dresses are out of this world, and unlike anything I have ever seen in my life! They are true Disney princess dresses that I never knew existed for people like you and me to own and wear!

The dress that might just be the most memorable is the famous 'cat dress' yes, this lady had an actual cat on her wedding dress! Inspired by the brand Baby Phatt- and the theme spread across to the cake too to make a 'cat cake'

The dress maker of lots of the dresses is situated in Liverpool UK and called Thelma Madine, her shop is called Nico.
For the dresses she makes she uses literally miles and miles of fabric and hundreds of thousands of crystals.
The process sounds so time consuming however I would love to be a fly on the wall in the work room just for a day! To oversee the extraordinary sight of having to pin and manage all that fabric under the single needle of a sewing machine.

Every show is not always so lighthearted and fun and lavishly scattered with crystals and rainbow coloured dresses; there's a serious side to the show in regards to the culture and lifestyle of travellers.

But it's the dresses and dress making that I love best! It makes me want to switch my life ambitions to become a dress maker for travellers! How fun would it be to make the kinds of things that you never even thought of into existance!

So perhaps the 'ruffle yourself mad' look wasn't on the catwalks of London Fashion week- but it was on our television screens at least and since it was never classified as 'in style' it can never go 'out of style!' Right!??