Outfit post: I love dresses

Being a tomboy as a teen, if you had told me that I would own as many dresses as I do now, I would have looked at you in disgust. My love of dresses has only lasted the last few years, but it's a love affair that I can never see dying. Plus they hide my thighs superbly!

Now you've seen this dress before hanging on my wardrobe when I first bought it a couple of weeks ago, but I finally wore it to work.

Look - natural light! At 8 in the morning I am impressed! Looking forward to getting a proper camera and a tripod.

I love the shape of this dress - it fits me like a glove.

Yes I must insist on holding out the skirt (I am such a girl). You would have had to suffer some twirling pics but I really don't fancy falling down the stairs.

This is my version of wearing pastels. Probably about as close as I'll get for now.

I love this hairband. It's from H&M and I was originally going to get the black but I liked the contrast against my hair.

Didn't get a photo of them on but I teamed the dress with tights and these shoes which I love! Medium heel and something different for work instead of courts. 

Dress: Dorothy Perkins

Hairband: H&M

Shoes: New Look

How is everyone enjoying the sunshine?

My week 12

So, blog post number 50. Exciting!

Here is my slightly belated week in photos. Lots of food and running - totally balance each other out. 

*Another 1930s shoe from my calendar - I'm really liking this decade in terms of footwear

*I wore my new zebra blouse on Monday both to work and the Fiona McIntosh talk for the Manchester Fashion Network which was great btw.

*My face - just to prove to you that I in fact have a face.

*Butternut squash and sweet potato soup and a magazine - lovely!

*Went to Wales for most of Friday for work. Was amazed at the name of one of the towns we went to: Llanfairpwllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch. Awesome.

*Couldn't find Rose for a bit. Turns out that she had found a tiny space on my bookshelf to hide in. 

*I splurged on makeup this week.

*Enchiladas make the weekend awesome.

*I enjoyed running around dressed as Gromit on Sunday. We raised £65! Wanted to die in my suit with the hot weather, but it was worth it.

*May have stopped off at Hey Little Cupcake...in costume. Oh yes (I also drove my car in costume - another weird thing to tick off my list). Went for a mint whoopie thing but saw that it was the last day they were selling these savoury cupcakes: Smoked salmon and cream cheese. So got one for later. Another interesting new thing I've tried. 

So how was your week?

Oasis Spring Summer 2012

I bought Company High-Street Edit for the first time this weekend and was engrossed with all the gorgeous clothes for the season. 

Source: Surfdome

The one that stood out to me was Oasis. I love walking into an Oasis store but the clothes tend to be a bit out of my price range. Still, I can drool over their S/S 2012 collection.

Source: Marie Claire

This dress is adorable! Makes me think of picnics, holidays and sunshine. Shame I couldn't trust me and my clumsy ways wearing this much white.

Source: Oasis Facebook page

Love these outfits - so 50s-esque!

Source: Oasis Facebook page

Oasis is the temple of prints. Even though I can't wear some of the colours, they are so pretty I would frame them and put them on my wall. 

Source: Marie Claire

I love this blouse and pray to Oasis that they have a dress version. It would be an amazing statement piece. Still, the blouse and skirt (below) are beautiful. If I had to pick one to invest in, it would be the skirt just because I could see it fitting into my wardrobe better. Will be keeping an eye out for that on the website.

Source: Marie Claire

Company High Street Edit also had a feature about how Oasis get their design ideas. In a nutshell, they look to the streets and markets around the world for vintage print inspiration. That sounds like my ideal job! I do that kind of thing for my small vintage business, but it would be amazing to create something original out of it. 

It's a nice change from all the pastels I'm seeing, which I like but aren't very wearable for me. I feel like I could actually wear a good chunk of this collection. Love it! 

Which Spring/Summer collection is your favourite this year?

My week 11

I'm back, it's been a fun weekend. Did something a little different for Claire's birthday. Me, her and the bf took a road trip to Barnsley (exotic yeah?) for something called Scary Tales in a town nearby. It was like a haunted house type thing where you walk through different themed rooms with actors there to scare you. I have to say I was really impressed with it, and it was a right laugh (and scream!). It was nice to do something different for the weekend. Anyway, here is what I got up to in photos:

*Went to town on Saturday with the bf to get costumes for sports relief and may have bought a star trek mug. I'm such a nerd but I love it!*

*Closeup of a jumper I wore to work*

*Went to a cafe in the Northern Quarter and had BBQ chicken pancakes and a ginger and lemon ice tea. Yum!*

*Paid my first visit to Hey Little Cupcake in Manchester to pick up Claire a cupcake for her birthday. And me and the bf might have got one each as well!*

*I hand made a card for Claire with a little doodle of a cupcake with legs - the idea just popped into my head.*

*The outside of the theatre that Scary Tales was in. Didn't get any pictures inside for obvious reasons - was too busy screaming and being followed by a possessed gingerbread man among other things!*

*Another Flux card game - this time the Monty Python version. We played this in the hotel room accompanied by alcohol and a chinese takeaway - We are a classy bunch.*

It was all about the weekend this week. And I have officially set up a webpage for me and the bf's sports relief run. We are going as Gromit (as in Wallace and Gromit) and Garfield. He's Gromit and I'm Garfield. I saw a Sylvester costume but no Tweety which was a shame as the bf actually said he would have been Tweety. Anyway, check out our page here. How do you like our team photo?

In other news, I'm going to the Manchester Fashion Networks Fiona McIntosh (the founding editor of Grazia Magazine) talk tomorrow. I'm quite excited as I'm really interested in what she has to say, but I'm also quite nervous as I'm going by myself. The fun of not knowing any fashion people, but I'm really proud of myself for having the courage to go alone as there is no way that I would have been able to a year or two ago.  Woop!

How was your week?

The adventures of Charles the unimpressed robot

Just a quick one today. A couple of my doodles recently.

Charles made a friend.

Lot's of friends!

Drawing is very therapeutic for me at the moment, especially with work being hectic. I missed drawing, I used to always be doodling while I was at school (usually during lessons!).

What is your therapy? 

Purse a little bit emptier but look!

I didn't go overboard at the shops this weekend like I thought I would. I was rather sensible and got a shirt and dress for work and a shirt for both work and when I'm free. I even got 20% off the shirt and dress from Dorothy Perkins. Coupons are my friend. I got it from Vouchercodes.co.uk right here. Anyway, enough of my rambling, you'd rather take a look at the clothes in person wouldn't you? I won't judge.

Again, my apologies for the dark and yellowy photos. I can't wait for the summer so I can have more room and more light.

I love this blouse! As I said here, I was afraid this would make me look like I was wearing a tent but it didn't.! Yay! It skims my curves without hiding them so it was a definite must. 

For those with very good memories, this dress may look familiar. I first showed it a fair while ago here, where they had a long sleeve version. I loved it, but it just did not fit right. My arms are not fat, but they're not skinny either, so the sleeves were way too tight. So thank you Dorothy Perkins for making a short sleeved version!

And I showed this shirt in my last post (I just had to wear it straight away) but here it is in more detail. 

Yes it is a bit of a tent, but it's meant to be a tent and so I belted it. Plus, I love the print and how good does it look with my velvet blazer? The lace tie at the collar is the perfect finishing touch. It's still a bit chilly to wear by itself so I just layered it over a long sleeve top. Can't wait for summer :).

Have you bought anything nice recently?

My week 10

A much better week I'm glad to say.

*Went to Sheffield on Saturday to see my mum and do some shopping at Meadowhall. May have bought a couple of things including a certain blouse I blogged about the other day. 

*We went to Rice for lunch which was really fun. I've never been before and my mums always up for trying new food so we went. 

*I had the mongolian lamb with ginger, rice and veggies. Was very tasty!

*Axl stretching out across my bed. He's a grumpy man but can be very cuddly at times.

*My mum got to meet my baby (my Alexa).

*My outfit I wore (new shirt bought yesterday) to the cinema today to see Safe House. I rather liked it. Was a man film with shooting but also actually had a plot. 

*Rose giving me the "Who you taking photos, just pet me woman!" look.

I also booked my plans for next weekend for Claire's birthday. Looking forward to it - a mini road trip, a travelodge and paying to get scared in the woods (yes seriously!).

How was your week?

The baggy zebra shirt

For the last week or so, I've had my eye on this quirky zebra print blouse from Dorothy Perkins. Isn't it cute. I may have to get this - or at least try it on. I made a little ways to wear in order to justify buying it if it does look good on.

There's so many ways I could wear this. The only thing is that it looks a bit too baggy for me. I have an hourglass figure - big bust, small waist so I have a bad feeling that it will go straight down over my boobs and hang far away from my stomach making me look huge. Why do clothes designers assume that if a girls boobs are big, then the rest of her must be big as well? This would not be the first time a top or dress has made me look like I'm wearing a tent. Maybe I could belt it...

I'm going shopping with my mum tomorrow as she is back in the UK this week so I will have to try it on. Fingers crossed. 

Do baggy shirts like this annoy you as well? Have you seen anything nice this week?

Sports Relief 2012!

So, Sports Relief is coming up and I'm definitely going to run one of the miles. I did the 1 mile run in Manchester 2 years ago and had a blast. Of course me loving fancy dress, I decided to wear something outrageous since it was for charity. I went as Scooby Doo which was a big thing for me as I don't really like drawing too much attention to myself! My friend Claire ran with me and she was a banana.

It was really fun and for a great cause so I'm really looking forward to doing it again this year. I really hate running but I did the 1 mile with no problem so I think I'm going to push it this year and do 3 miles. The bf said he'll do it with me. And of course I really need to top my Scooby Doo costume with something more outrageous. Found a few ideas:

Maybe I can get the bf to be Tweety? ha ha

Just looks funny.

I love penguins though it may be difficult to run in.

Not what I was after but pretty cute!

Think I'll have to have a browse in the costume shops in Manchester. 

Any ideas? Are you going to take part in Sports Relief?

My Week 9

Oh my this was a horrible week. As are the photos - my apologies. I really didn't do much this week apart from have a miserable time at work, then go home to my pit at night. Ok, enough of the negative. Here are the happy pics from this week.

*Ah Rose, how you cheer me up - even when your claws are digging into my stomach. She seemed to take a liking to my belt. I have another photo of her nomming on it :)

*First time I tried crackle nails (I know, completely behind)

*I know you won't be able to read but this is the most amazing name ever: Bertrum Van Munster. This is on the credits of every The Amazing Race episode ever (this is the best series ever - will have to tell you about it another time)

*Happy face earrings are happy

*Pretty shoe on my shoe calendar.

How was your week?

Old Film Fashions: Tea For Two

Finally, I finished and got this up. Sorry for the delay, but I wanted to take a different approach than last time. This time I made a collage of the main (and my favourite!) looks.

Tea for Two is set during 1929 during the wall street crash when Doris Day decides to say no to every question asked to her for 48 hours in order to win a bet with her uncle so she can financially back and star in a broadway show. Lots of dancing, pastels and no no no's of course!

Apart from the bow (which is from Temporary Secretary - it's sold out at the mo but it's still available in red so you can look like Doris) you can find all these on the high street. Let me know if there's anything in particular you want to know where it's from. I would list them all here but it's a big list and I'm tired, ha ha. 

I chose this film - apart from my love of Doris Day and the catchy title tune - for the pastels. And the beading (oh the beading!). Such cute pretty looks that fit in perfectly with the spring trends. I'm still a fan of pleated skirts (they twirl when you move!), maxi, midi whatever and love the pleated skirt and dress above. They are both from Oasis. 

Tea for Two is also full of peter pan collars. I don't think they really suit me as they tend to be high necked which is hit and miss, but I love looking at them. I may have to take the easy way out and stick to the peter pan collar necklaces like this lovely one here from Accessorize.

If you haven't seen a Doris Day film then find yourself one. I love them - she has this infectious smile and there's always a catchy song that will get stuck in your head. I think out of the ones I've seen my favourite is Lucky Me. I haven't seen it in a while but I remember really enjoying it. 

Do you have a favourite Doris Day film?