pussycat pussycat

A few weeks ago now, Becky tweeted a link to this adorable skirt from River Island.
It was one of those instant "must have it" moments and before I knew it, I'd popped it into my virtual shopping bag, checked out and had the all-important dispatched email.

Almost as soon as I'd bought the skirt though, the weather decided it wasn't quite done with being Winter, and so I haven't had the opportunity to wear it without freezing myself to death until yesterday!

Crochet Kimono - Topshop (old)

Cat Print Skirt- River Island

Leggings- American Apparel

Bag- Accessorize

Rose Gold Cross Necklace- Aldo Accessories

As it's still a little on the nippy side, I wore the skirt with my trusty American Apparel leggings rather than tights, and dug out a Topshop crochet Kimono from several years ago to throw over the top. I'm really glad that I didn't get rid of this kimono now, it really adds a bit more interest to the whole outfit!

As for the bag, I've been wanting a new, smarter bag for a while and my sister in law always raves about Accessorize bags, so I popped over to their website for a browse. I was spoilt for choice really, but I love the delicate mint colour of this one, and I can see it going with so many outfits throughout Springtime.
It's absolutely enormous which I'm slightly worried will mean I will be tempted to fill it with all kinds of crap daily essentials, but luckily it has a long strap to carry it over your shoulder too, despite how I'm carrying it in the photo I hate bags that you can't sling over your shoulder and keep your hands free!

Dance like no-one is watching

 Shirt- ASOS (old, but similar here)

Studded flats, Primark

Russian Red lipstick- MAC

Cord shorts- Next

Necklace- H&M

 I don't know about you, but as much as I love the snow and wintry weather when it first arrives, after a week of having to dig my car out and dressing "sensibly" I've more than had enough!

I woke up yesterday and even though it was still only minus 2 degrees outside, I'd had enough of wearing layer upon layer of jumpers and decided to dress how I damn well liked, and weather be damned! (That's the Geordie in me coming out).

I've had this ASOS shirt for ages, but it's a style they tend to bring out every season with a new animal printed on it (I think this seasons is a rabbit, last autumn it was an elephant, although I can only find it in the "curve" section now, boo) so it's still technically available if you look hard enough.

Because the shirt is so baggy, I paired it with some cord shorts from Next- I like to think the cord gives them a more seasonally appropriate vibe!

The flats are from Primark and were a bargain at £10- they're exactly like the Topshop Vectras I've been eyeing up for ages.

I finished off the outfit with a dash of my favourite MAC lipstick Russian Red-there's something about a slash of red lipstick that makes me feel instantly more "done" and it's also somewhat defiant, I think to be painting on the red lips and heading out when the view outside the window says the exact opposite!

Write it on your heart: Every day is the best day of the year.

 Burgundy Lace dress: Next

Nighthawk boots: Office

Frankie 2013 diary: Notemaker

Jar of happiness: see Gemma's youtube vlog

I never usually make New Year's resolutions, as I know only too well that life sort of gets in the way and they inevitably fall by the wayside sometime around January 10th (If you're me!)

However instead of calling them resolutions, I'm going to go with aims for the year. little things that make life a bit happier, a bit better.

First of all, I decided I really want to start making more of an effort to comment on blogs that I read. Thanks to Ceri this has become more of a focused thing, as she very handily set up the "Follow for follow" bloggers community via Twitter on New Year's eve. it's nice to know there are like- minded people around who want to make more of an effort to make blogging more of a community, and support and encourage each other. You can see the full list of all the participants and their blogs here.

Second of all, I want to start to appreciate the little things in life rather than letting them pass me by in the rush to catch my next flight, race up the motorway, etc etc etc. I saw Gemma's video and thought the Jar of Happiness was a fantastic idea- basically take a jar (or other vestibule of your choice) and every time something happens that makes you smile, write it down and pop it in. 

Next New Year's eve, the idea is to open the jar and whilst reading through all the lovely things that have happened that year, appreciate your life and be more positive.

As you can see I've taken things a step further by creating a jar of whinge. The idea here being every time I'm upset by something I'll write that down and I'm hoping that when I go over them, I will see how mundane and trivial the things I worry about day to day are. That's the theory anyway!

I bought the Frankie diary on a bit of a whim on Christmas Eve as a pressie to myself (naughty). I really, really wanted one last year too but they had sold out long before Christmas so I was surprised to see this still in stock. They've sold out now but if you want one, keep going back to the Notemaker site as I think they are expecting more stock soon.

I'm going to write in this each night to remember what I've done and where I've been each day (sometimes I need reminding as I travel so much it's hard to remember where  am when I first wake up!)

Has anyone else got any New Year's aims? I'm always curious to hear them!

Home for the Holidays

Jacket- Topshop

Martha jumper- Joules

Tartan mini Kilt- eBay

Boots- Topshop (old season)

Finally landed from my last flight of 2012 yesterday afternoon, and now I can start to really relax and get into the spirit of things. I don't own a Christmas jumper as such, so when I spotted the beautiful Martha jumper from Joules on a few blogs recently, I thought it was the ideal excuse to treat myself! The only trouble came when trying to decide which of the massively cute designs to pick- stag, fox, Daschund or Dalmatian?

As you can see I plumped for the dalmatian in the end, although I love this one so much I may well buy another in the sales..

I paired it with my new mini kilt which I picked up for a song on eBay (link above)- I think the two together have a festive spirit about them without being too cliched!

I spent a lovely afternoon with my husband and our flatmate going for our Christmas meal at our fabulous local, The Roe Deer pub.

 We're so lucky to have such a great place just down the road from us, the space has been so beautifully designed, the staff are amazingly friendly and the food they serve is simply delicious...

 We ordered one of their specialities- the Mega Platter, and gorged ourselves on wine, cheese, meats and bread until we could eat no more!

 They also have what any great pub does- a pub dog, Hendricks! (I think his official title should be Head of Customer Relations, as you can see he spent a good amount of time "checking everything was OK" with our meal..)

If you're ever in the Surrey area, I absolutely insist you pop in to sample a platter and give Hendricks the dog a chooch!

The Joules Hummingbird Dress

Dress, Joules
Scarf, Zara
Jacket, Primark

Every now and then, I see a dress I just HAVE to have. Normally this ends in tears when said dress is featured on one of the blogs I read, and is several seasons old (cue frantic eBay stalking for weeks on end) but on very rare occasions, such as this, the dress I covet is easily within my grasp.

I first saw it whilst perusing the Joules site after having seen a very cute animal intarsia jumper featured on a few blogs recently.
I'd never really heard of Joules before and didn't know much about the brand at all, so my eyes were on stalks when I saw this lovely dress.

Only thing is, it turns out you need to size down when ordering. This dress pretty much swamps me in my normal size, but as I couldn't wait to wear it and so gleefully ripped the tags off as soon as it arrived, I'm going to add some ribbon to the sides in a contrasting colour to cinch it in at he waist- I quite like things a bit baggy anyway.

I wore my new find on a date day to London at the weekend with my Husband, and felt nicely dressed up but still casual enough to not feel daft going for dinner at Byron!

Has anyone else recently discovered Joules?

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