The Work Week Outfits in Instagram #1

Hello my lovelies! I am so sorry for my abscence from blogging pretty much all this week, it has been one hectic week and everytime I got home from work I just wanted to sleep! Firstly, some exciting news to share with all my lovely readers that I found out on Thursday...

I have gained a place on a History Graduate Teacher Program!! Eeeeeek! I'm incredibly excited about this as the competition was ridiculously high for history this year and from over fifty applicants to this particular training provider, only two places were being awarded, and I was one of the lucky two to get a place. I start in September, and so by 2013 I shall be a qualified teacher! I'm nervous about the year to come with all the extra work & studying, but cannot wait to begin teaching my own lessons and only working in history!

Anyway, during the week I don't really get the chance to take outfit pictures in the morning as I always want those extra ten minutes in bed and then end up rushing around to get out in time - this is where Instagram has come to save the day! Literally just before I am heading out, I take a quick picture of my outfit to where I look, you know, respectable and not dishevelled which is how I end the day. So here is this week's work outfits:

1) Friday's Frock! Dress: ASOS; Belt: New Look; Cardigan: New Look. 2) Dress: Dorothy Perkins; Cardigan: Abercrombie & Fitch; Sequin Pumps: New Look. 3) Dress: Dorothy Perkins; Cardigan: H&M. 4) Dress: Dorothy Perkins; Cardigan: New Look. 5) Dress: Vero Moda; Cardigan: Hollister. 

 It shouldn't really be a surprise to any of you that my entire work wardrobe is 98% made up of dresses and cardigans - considering generally when I go shopping I will come home with more dresses than anything else, despite not having any more room! It has once again been a winter week and so haven't really managed to get out of the black tights - bah! But on Friday I did, and went for the favourite ASOS midi dress with the striped skirt that just makes it feel like Spring for me!

I also got to debut my new Dorothy Perkins dress (3) this week which I snagged in their sale for £20, and absolutely love! The mix of nude base colour and then ink polka dots just means it can be matched with so many different cardigans and has now given me the excuse to go nude wedge shoe shopping to go with it! 

How do you dress for work in the week? 

Love,

Sunday's OOTD - Adventure is out there!

So, the Bank Holiday comes to an end and it has all gone by way too fast! Although I am loving the fact that it is going to be only a four day week before the next weekend though - woohoo! 

Anyway, after forgetting to take my camera wire down to the boyfriend's this week I have only just managed to upload my pictures from my adventure in Twickenham! We went to the York Gardens which was a little treasure all hidden away but well worth the wandering to find. It had a wonderland-esque feel with hedges and alot of little paths & bright flowers - loved it. What better location to try for some sneaky outfit pictures, eh?

Coat: H&M

Cardigan: H&M

T-Shirt: Hollister

Skirt: ASOS

Tights: M&S

Shoes: H! by Henry Holland

Leather Flower Bag: Next

Albeit, not my finest photos or outfit but I quite liked the casual look for an adventure day and the matching of the lipstick to the t-shirt! I love wearing this ASOS skirt on this weekends as its too short for work and gives me something that is especially for the weekend, something when the majority of my wardrobe has been taken over for work is nice to have something just for chilling out in. I have become so attached these H! pumps, it is definitely the striped bows that have won me over to try and fit them in with whatever outfit I can! 

Anyway, here are some pictures from York Gardens:

The Squirrel and I having a stand-off...

What did you lovelies get up to over the Bank Holiday weekend??

Love,

Bow Ties & Flowers - Wednesday's Outfit

Hello lovelies! 

I am thinking that I might seriously have a bit of a shopaholic problem, with no room in my wardrobe for new items and the debit card crying every time I take it out of my purse, I still can't seem to stop buying a sneaky item here and there. Do you have this problem too? 

Well, with this problem in full swing during the half term break and sales popping up all over the place I then made the fatal mistake of taking a trip to Westfields in Stratford... Like that is the place to go for an addict! And that's where I found the cutest & softest cardigan known to man from Hollister... For £13.90! 

If only I could detatch this tie and add it to other dresses too!

I took it as a sign that it had to be bought when there was only one and it was in my size - it has a lace flower, a lace bow, and had gone down from £66 to £13.90. So, I fed into my addiction and bought it... Was that bad of me? Or was it fate telling me that it had to be bought? 

I paired this little beauty with my polka dot bow tie & peter pan collar dress & matching polka dot pumps:

Dress: Red Herring

Cardigan: Hollister

Shoes: New Look

I am thinking this is my new favourite cardigan, and being cream will be perfect for spring/summer dresses!

Do you like Hollister/Abercrombie products? 

p.s. my eBay items are finishing in just over a day, so if you want to have a peek just click here.

Love,

A Trip to the Hairdressers - Back to Blonde (Stage One)

So, after being brunette/redhead again for almost a year now, I am attempting blonde again! For the past two-three years I have just been going in circles from blonde to brunette to redhead, then back to blonde. It has definitely taken its toll on the purse, I have to say, which has led me to just want to go back to my natural blonde (maybe with a few highlights) and stay there! Almost a definitive move to put my university days behind me boohoohoo! 

With this decision in mind, off I trotted to the hairdressers to have my bank account drained and a heated debate on just how we were going to get my hair back to its natural colour - 

without shaving it all off or cleansing it. This resulted in having my ginger hair, dyed dark brown and blonde highlights put throughout - as the brown lightened the hair would look closer to blonde and then be more seceptiable to blonde dye. It took a few hours, and needed a toner after the first round (it was a Bride of Frankenstein moment at first) but it did get rid of the red and didn't require bleaching my hair and turning it into something the Scarecrow would want to stuff himself with. So now its just the long, long, long process of highlighting it back to the colour I want. Here's how it looks at the moment:

They also decided to cut loads of my beloved hair off, and give me really short layers - its quite nice and gives it great movement! I do love my hairdressers, they always get it right - what will happen when I have to move?!?!?! Dum dum daaaah! 

Here's a sneaky outfit post at the end too:

T-shirt: Hollister; Caridgan: Hollister; Skirt: ASOS; Tights: M&S

I do love me a polar bear t-shirt! This is one of my cosy but cool outfits - Like 'Yeeah I've made an effort but its still casual' sort of things.

Do you guys have a hair dying complex like me? Or do you stay natural? 

Love,

'Dreading the Detox Diet' Diary -- The Motivations.

So following on from blogging more in January as a New Year's Resolution, another is now coming into play: the devilish diet. Yes, that age-old resolution that always comes out on January 1st after the Christmas feast is finishing. Well, after deciding that it would be foolish of me to even attempt starting the diet the first week back at work as 1) we had Christmas treats still left-over, and 2) the first week back at work would not have been the time to start, I decided that the diet is starting this week. God help me. For this first week I am doing the Dukon diet: an intense week of protein and nothing else. As a fan of only chicken really, this week will be looong, but the first day has been under-way (post to follow). The motivations for this self inflicted torture goes in parts. The first being these beauties:

My beloved Hollister jeans that I have had since my second year at university in which I could easily fit into these tiny (no matter what the 'w' size says - its not that!) jeans and have to wear a belt with them to add to it! However, since moving away from the 20min walk up a mountain to get to campus, these jeans have been stored loving in my wardrobe, only getting looks of longiness from their, ever-growing fatter, owner. The skirt is a new one to the collection, it was in my size and the only one left so it had to be bought - but sitting on my waist makes it more into a wide belt rather than a skirt, so weight has to be lost so it can sit a little lower.

The other motivations are simply I have been meaning to lose weight for a while to be able to wear some clothes in my wardrobe more comfortably, I am still happy in my dress size and don't feel as if I should conform to what society, in general, deem as the 'beautiful' but would like to lose some weight to get back to the size I felt more confident in. I also need to lighten the weight on my knee to make it less painful and help with damage, so other than my confidence reasons there is a practical one that will benefit me in the long run.

So here it goes, a strict diet. Wish me luck and willpower!

Love,