Riddle Me This

Top - Primark / Shorts - H&M / Coat - H&M / Shoes - Primark / Ring - Miss Selfridge / Bracelet - Rock N Rose
I've spent the last few days sorting through all my clothes & makeup. I'm going to have my blog shop up really soon, hopefully by the end of the weekend. Photographing, editing and uploading all the pictures is taking an absolute age. I've gotten rid of so many clothes that theres actually ample space in my wardrobe for some new things. I got bored yesterday so decided to have a little trip to Manchester, mainly to hit up the massive Primark but also to get my much loved Barburrito & Krispy Kreme treats.

I know I said I wasn't going to buy loads of things in Primark & instead save for something better but I figured if I'm saving for a Canon 600D (or 650D which is coming out next month!) then I can't really afford to save for anything else, including nicer clothes. Its a good job that Primark is overflowing with some lovely tops this month. I bought this one yesterday. I love the colour and I only have one other green top. Polka dots are always a winner with me too. I also bought these brogues yesterday as they were reduced from £14 to £6. Thought they'd go perfectly with the top. My coat is just a simple long boyfriend blazer style but the material is like a thick jersey. Its pretty much exactly what I've been looking for. I got it from H&M about the same time that I bought my other new coat. I think I'm gonna take that one back tomorrow as it really does look far too big on me. Praying that they'll allow me to exchange it if I say it was a Christmas present. That way I can get £85 worth of new Topshop stuff. Wish me luck!

Your New Favourite Store

Top - H&M / Shorts - H&M / Necklace - Miss Selfridge / Nails - Illamasqua Collide
Sorry about the lack of posts lately. I only have a 3 MIFI dongle which means I get 15GB bandwidth a month & then have to spend the rest of the month waiting hours for my iPhone to load pages. I doubt anyones noticed my absence but I've missed blogging & I hate not being able to read blogs for weeks on end. I finally caved and ordered a Sky package so by next month I should have unlimited broadband. Yays! I plan on doing some YouTube videos once its set up so please feel free to comment with any requests of what you'd like to see on there.

Okay so H&M isn't anything new considering they do have stores everywhere but last week they finally opened up their new shop in Huddersfield's Kingsgate Centre. On the promise of a gift voucher for the first 100 customers, I went down at 11am to check it out. The shop was already packed when I arrived even though it had only opened 5 minutes before. Nothing like the mob scenes you see in the likes of Primark Oxford Street but fairly busy for a Thursday morning in Huddersfield.

I was really impressed with the layout of the shop & the range of stock they had in. When I lived in Leeds I rarely frequented the one there as I never could find anything I liked or had seen elsewhere. I bought loads of cardigans, jumpers & some new jeans for Chloe as I really do love their children's range. Then I went back downstairs and got this top, these leather shorts, a navy bodycon skirt, a black usamimi hairband & some Hello Kitty socks for myself. I was so stoked to see these leather shorts back in stock. I remember writing about them way back in last year's Christmas Wishlist post. There was only one pair left hanging on the wall and thankfully it was in my size! Must be fate or something, don't you love it when that happens? When I got to the checkout the £50 gift vouchers were nowhere to be seen even though I did some speedy shopping so I'm not sure if they actually bothered going through with that promotion. I did however get some swanky free stationery, which is something I obsessively hoard. One of the best things about studying graphic design was having the ability to buy a million different pens & feel absolutely no shame.

Black & White Town

Dress - Miss Selfridge
Finally found the confidence to wear something not completely boring to baby group. Think I was inspired by Steffani who wears things like JC Litas to her baby group! I bought this dress from Miss Selfridge a few years ago. I think I even remember posting it on thehighstreet livejournal group once, thats how old school it is! I really love how loads of people who used to post on there are bloggers now hehe.

Anyways today we had planned to do a picnic in the park but the weathers been so crap today we just had it inside instead. Everyone had to bring at least one plate to the picnic so I bought some battenberg cake & cocktail sausages. I was gonna bake some cupcakes but I've been so lazy this week. Just felt like crap all the time. Blah. I really need to stop being so negative. I've got a night out with my friends in Leeds planned for tomorrow so I'm looking forward to that. I've not seen them since February! Bring on the Jagerbombs!

High School Sweetheart

Cardigan - Urban Outfitters
Leotard - Topshop
Skirt - H&M
Necklaces - Argos / Miss Selfridge
This is what I wore today for a quick shopping trip in town. I didn't break my shopping ban, just bought loads of goodies from Boots and some food. This outfit is disturbingly similar to my old school uniform. We had to wear maroon jumpers and grey skirts so I found it weird that I chose to wear something in those colours of my own accord. Still loving my Neil Sperling Urban Outfitters cardi. Its so comfy and strangely didn't make me too hot outside. I feel like I should wear it more often considering how much it cost. Wish I'd waited until it went in the sale, SMH!

I bought this skirt from H&M a few years ago. Its another item I feel I should wear more often. Really liking H&M at the moment. Its criminal that there isn't one in Huddersfield! They're opening one in the Autumn and have started advertising sales assistant positions. I'll probs get rejected considering Primark wouldn't even hire me part time but I really want to work there! Its gonna be a massive one spanning 3 floors so surely theres enough room for me too? Anyone work for H&M? Give me interview/CV tips, ta!

New New New

Dress - Pilot
Tights - Primark
Shoes - New Look
Necklace - Miss Selfridge
Bangle - Urban Outfitters
Rings - Edinburgh Woolen Mill / Me & Zena
Heres a quick look at some stuff I've bought recently. I've gone a bit mad with shopping lately so these are my last splurges before I go on a spending ban. I'm not gonna deny myself completely, if I really want something I'll still buy it but I do need to be a lot more careful with my money. I'm not gonna browse through clothes shops, I'll only go in if I know theres something specific I want or see in a shop window. Boring I know but I hate living off my overdraft so something has to be done!

Anyways onto the nice things I got. I bought this pink cape dress from Pilot. I never normally go into Pilot but I saw this in the shop window and bought it immediately. Not too bad for 20 quid I'd say. They had it in loads of colours including coral, black and white but as my wardrobe was lacking a pretty girly pink dress, I bought the pink one. The platform shoes from New Look cost £25. I'm so impressed with all the shoes in New Look lately. Theres some really gorgeous pairs in there. I decided to get these as I had wanted those Sugar platforms from Topshop but they'd been sold out for ages and were over double the price of these beauties. God knows if I'll be able to walk in them outside of the house but they seem pretty comfortable so far.

My last splurge was the Jimmy Choo perfume. It smells absolutely divine! Very much like Flowerbomb but less sickly and longer lasting. Its very fruity and floral so rather appropriate for Summertime. Its described as having green top notes, tiger orchid, sweet toffee caramel and Indonesian patchouli. Not sure I can smell all those things but it sure smells good!

Little Acorns

T-Shirt - Urban Outfitters
Cardigan - Uniqlo
Shorts - Topshop
Belt - Primark
Tights - Primark
Necklaces - Miss Selfridge & Argos
Ring - Topshop
This is what I wore yesterday. I've been wearing slight variations of this all week as I've been trying not to be too dressed up in order to blend in with loads of mummys. I've been to four different baby groups this week and if I have to listen to another person talking about what size clothes their baby wears, how they're sleeping or how many poos they're doing a day, I think I may explode. Saying that they were all really fun and I made some new friends so they're not all that bad. The best one was a group in the pub on Monday. I had a really yummy pub lunch of a Cajun chicken burger with homemade chips & coleslaw. If it wouldn't have made me look like the worst mother ever I so would've ordered a pear Kopparberg with my meal. Maybe next time eh?

This cardigan is actually a long waterfall style from Uniqlo which I bought years ago. It looked a bit odd being so long with the high waisted shorts so I wrapped it round like a ballerina top and tied it at the back. Its gone a bit wrong in these photos though, think it was the way I was standing eek. I really miss Uniqlo, I used to go to the one in Bromley all the time, its a shame there isn't one up north. I bought the pearl necklace last week from Miss Selfridge as it was reduced to £1 in the sale. It reminded me of those really expensive Dogeared necklaces. Glad I hadn't bought one of them now as I got this lovely little bargain instead.

Electro Girl

Playsuit - Topshop
Cardigan - River Island
Tights - Primark
Ring - Miss Selfridge
Necklace - Girlprops
I always feel a lot happier when I'm wearing bright colours and today is no exception. I think its like how the weather affects your mood, colours have that effect on me. Everything I'm wearing other than my new Miss Selfridge ring was actually bought years ago. One thing that I'm really glad I dug out of my stash is this orange lipstick. It's Electro by Mac and I think its such a nice colour. I'm definitely loving the bright lips trend this Summer. Are there any uber bright shades you'd care to recommend?

Not doing much today, think I'll just take Chloe to the park later on. I'm trying to get back into my design work as I think its definitely time I started looking for a job. Not that I'm likely to get a design job around here. Think I'll probably just apply to all the temp agencies & supermarkets to see if theres anything available part-time. I would still really like to continue with my graphic design work so I updated my portfolio website. I know its the new trend amongst bloggers to start up jewellery shops so I was thinking about starting up a shop selling giclee prints of my work. Well I'd have to start working on some stuff thats actually sellable. Most of my work is just projects I did at uni. Either way, I need a job haha.

Graduation

On Thursday 18th November it was the Leeds College Of Art graduation ceremony. We actually finished uni back in July but we only just had our ceremony for some reason. I managed to get a 2.1 in BA(Hons) Graphic Design which I am very proud of. Not too shabby for someone who did the last year of their degree whilst pregnant! I was so looking forward to seeing all my friends again now that pretty much everyone has moved back home from Leeds. In the picture above you can see me and my daughter along with my good friend (and sister in law to be) Jane and her son Joshua. We both got pregnant in the last year, we're a right pair haha! And theres me on the stage being awarded my certificate. There were so many bad pictures taken of me on this day. Thanks to Double Wear I had a great big fat white moon face!




Playsuit - Miss Selfridge
Hoodie - American Apparel
Jacket - Primark
The main thing about graduation that I was looking forward to was being able to go on a night out afterwards. But everyone decided to go home or have a meal with their families apart from me and my friend Claire. The ceremony was so anticlimactic so I knew we had to make up for it by getting wrecked! This is what I wore on our adventure around Leeds. We went to Revs and had a cocktail pitcher which was so good but I think I've lost my drinking abilities! It took me ages to finish a single glass, its been way too long. I used to drink more than anyone and always left my trademark (being sick lol) in various pubs & clubs. But I just couldn't do it. Although we didn't really get drunk it was lovely to see Claire. I miss seeing my friends every day at uni so much!

After Claire went home I went out with my boyfriend which was basically epic fail. He made me go to Mezz instead of Wire because some people from his bar job at Gatecrasher were going. Mezz is quite possibly the worst club I have ever gone to. So we left after about 20 mins. Graduation was so crap compared to how I had imagined it to be. Thank god it will never happen again!

Object Of Desire: Velvet

Peter Pan Collar Dress - Topshop - £95
Chiffon Playsuit - Miss Selfridge - £47
Lace Insert Bodycon Dress - Miss Selfridge - £40
Turban - ASOS - £8
Body - Miss Selfridge - £25
Peg Trousers - ASOS - £38
I can't look at velvet without getting Blue Velvet stuck in my head. I'm really happy that this fabric is fast becoming the latest trend. A few months ago I bought a beautiful oversized black velvet bow hairband from H&M which reignited my love for this material. It is generally seen the kind of thing that goths might wear but as shown by these pieces it can look really elegant. I do have a massive thing for Peter Pan collar dresses - I must own at least 10! But at £95 I don't think I can afford to add the Topshop one to my collection. I only recently bought a black chiffon playsuit from Miss Selfridge but I am loving the black velvet one with white chiffon sleeves. I think I may have to splurge out on it. Has anyone else seen/own any great velvet pieces or is it something you think should remain on the streets of Camden Market?