River Island try on haul

River Island just had a 25% off code in Grazia magazine so I couldn't resist buying a chunk of my wish list at such a good price. I'm loving their stuff at the moment, I could happily just shop there and no where else.

I thought I'd show you what I bought...

Embellished Cold Shoulder Blouse

I'm still majorly into the 'cold shoulder' trend this season and my collection is growing. I love this blouse (which they also do in pink). Perfect for a date night, or drinks out with friends.

It is currently out of stock on the RI website, but they still have it on ASOS if you hurry and maybe in store.

Blue cold shoulder mesh top

This blue cold shoulder mesh top is perfect for summer. It would look great paired with some white jeans or denim shorts.

White bardot top

I saw the classic white bardot top on Amelia Liana's YouTube channel and immediately added it to my wishlist. The flowy chiffon material is perfect for giving your outfit an instant feminine flare.

Khaki frilly bodysuit and boyfriend denim shorts

The khaki frilly bodysuit is another summer appropriate piece, but the colour will allow you to also take it into the early stages of autumn when paired with a nice black cardigan or jacket. 

These denim boyfriend shorts also come in a light wash and as the perfect casual day time shorts, I'm kind of wishing I had bought them too.

Black daisy lace overlay bardot top and Amelie light wash ripped jeans

My previous pair of light wash ripped jeans made their way to the charity shop a couple of weeks ago as they seemed to have stretched and become too baggy for me. As soon as I saw the light wash ripped Amelie super skinny jeans, I knew they'd be the perfect replacement.

The black daisy lace overlay bardot top is another versatile piece that can be dressed up or down. I actually wore it to work today with a grey pencil skirt and it made a cute, smart outfit.

Now after this lot, someone really needs to take my debit card away from me. :)

Beanie coffee

I was reading a Christmas gift guide on a blog the other day and they recommended the online coffee company Beanies - The flavour co. On Beanies' website they describe themselves as coffee 'nuts' that are all about adding flavour to improve coffee's natural taste. They do all sorts of flavours of instant coffee from the Christmas themed Mulled Wine, to Amaretto Almond. 

Even better, they do a £10 set of three coffees in a presentation box of your choice, free delivery included!

My other half loves his coffee and I thought it would be the perfect gift for him. But as it was the 22nd December I thought it was a bit late for a Christmas present, but I decided to order some anyway for his birthday in February. How wrong was I?! The following day the parcel was delivered by courier, perfectly packaged and smelling great when I opened it. I have never had such an amazingly fast service from a company like that so close to Christmas.

I picked Amaretto Almond, Cinder Toffee and Very Vanilla. It was a tough choice as I was equally tempted by Chocolate Orange, Double Chocolate and Irish Cream. But maybe next time eh?

I think I'll still keep these for his birthday as I've bought him enough for Christmas already. But by having a sneaky smell in the jars, I think they are going to go down a treat! 

Holiday prep

A couple of weeks ago, my boyfriend and I booked a long awaited late deal holiday. We had discussed it for months, just not committed to it. So finally, we found a 5*, all inclusive to Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. The hotel we've booked is currently ranked 20/200 odd on trip advisor, so can't be bad (fingers crossed!).

Now, those who know me will know that organisation is the key. I'm a worrier by nature. I will worry about every possible realistic and unrealistic situation. I've already had a dream that we missed our flight. So to keep the worrying at bay as best I could, preparation had to start immediately.

Our hotel

Bikini body

First up; getting in shape. I will be honest with you, I am a size 8 or sometimes 10 depending on the shop or the day. BUT I do have cellulite on my thighs and bum. This is probably to do with my love of all things sweet; cake, chocolate, cake, chocolate cake, etc. This has always bothered me, but I am even more aware that it's about to be on show to everyone poolside. 

I have been doing two things to tackle this. Firstly, I have been doing Jilian Michael's 30 day shred DVD every other day, building up to every day the week of the trip. I have also been using the My Fitness Pal app to keep track of what I'm eating. It has been quite a learning curve for me as I have discovered that although I often keep within my calorie limit, I tend to eat more "fat" than my recommended daily allowance, and often not enough protein. So I've been trying to cut down on fatty foods and increase my protein intake opting for boiled or poached eggs at lunchtime and chicken for dinner. To be brutally honest, it has been hard and I've pretty much been hungry for a week. But today I noticed that my stomach looks more toned, and yesterday I could have sworn my shirts were looser. I will keep working on this until I leave, and I hope to pick it back up again on my return as I know I do need to eat more healthily.

Part of this also involves me getting my nails done. I can't be doing with nail varnish on holiday. I will book an appointment for the day before we leave for either some french tip falsies or gel nails, depending on how good my nails are at the time.

I've also booked a hair appointment for a trim and a blow dry the day before we leave. I'm loving my long hair, but its been about three months since I last got it cut, so most of my layers have grown out. I'm hoping that having a little trim will help make it more managable. Also, my hairdresser does a beautiful blow dry, so my hair will be looking it's best as we travel out there.

Shopping
I've have searched the highstreet twice and the retail park once, with little luck, so I moved over to online shopping. A bit of ASOS, Missguided and New Look did the trick. I'm taking dresses, shorts, skirts and nice tops for the evening.

I also bought some of the holiday essentials - suncream, after sun, insect repellant, waterproof mascara.

Packing
Today I've had a marathon dress up afternoon. I tried on lots of different outfits for evening wear with different shoes and bags and have narrowed down what I want to take. I say narrowed down, but to be honest, it's probably not that narrow.

Tomorrow I need to make a list of what I want to take and start the serious packing. This also means a trip up to the loft for my travel adaptors.

Next week, I'll show you some holiday outfits.

Skechers BOBS - Is there such a thing as stylish slippers?

When I was in New York I saw this advert on TV for Skechers BOBS slippers. This led to an obsessive compulsive urge to own a pair - typical me.

I didn't end up buying them in NY, as I had pretty much spent all of my money or earmarked it for other purchases. So I looked them up on the UK Skechers website on my return and was gutted that I couldn't find any. Were they US only and I had missed out on buying them?!

A couple of weeks later I was in Covent Garden mooching around the shops before seeing The Bodyguard at the Adelphi theatre, so I popped into Skechers on the off chance.

Right there, on a central stand in front of the door, they had them! Granted they didn't have the colour selection that NYC had, but the black sparkly ones instantly drew my attention.

After a foot measurement (because why not eh?) and £29 on my debit card I was the proud owner.

It is actually strange that I liked the look of these so much, as I hate crocs and I suppose these are a similar shape. Anyway, I think they look great and they are soooo comfy. They have memory foam soles and a lovely warm faux fur lining. I wear them all the time indoors, so they are easily worth the £29. 

When these start to look a bit shabby, I am sure I will replace them with another pair of BOBS if they are still available. Hopefully they'll get some more in stock on the website and stock a larger range of colours like they had in New York.

The final pro is that by buying these you are helping charity. Skechers donates a pair of shoes to children in need worldwide for every pair of BOBS bought.

New York haul

It was my birthday recently, on October 27th to be precise. If you know me, you know I love New York, and I had been going on about going there for my birthday for ages. After what seemed like talking about it for ever, we eventually booked it earlier this year in August.

Whilst in 'the big apple' I did a fair amount of shopping, I could have done more but was a good girl. Today, I thought I'd share what I bought.

My first shop stop was Tiffany & Co. I bought myself the Return to Tiffany heart shaped silver earrings that I had been eyeing for well over a year. You just can't beat that Tiffany experience and the enjoyment of coming out of the shop with your little green/blue box in the cute little bag - love it!

I then wandered into Apple to pick myself up a spare charging lead as my unofficial one wont work now - damn you and your restrictions Apple!

In Times Square there is an American Eagle Outfitters - great range of clothes at great prices. I got myself a couple of pairs of jeans, a NY hoody, a slouchy jumper and some bangles.

In FAO Schwarz they have a huge sweet/candy section. Here is most of what I got (some didn't make it home to the photo)!

They have so many different flavours in the US, from mint or pretzel m&ms to Raspberry cupcake chewing gum. Luckily we only went for 5 days, or I may have been over the weight limit.


Then there was my trip to Bloomingdales where I got my first Alex and Ani bangle. You can read all about that here.

Finally after following my boyfriend into Swatch, I got tempted by the pretty watches and bough this one called Lady Passion. It is silver and rose gold with some diamantes in the strap. I have such skinny wrists that I had to have 3 or 4 links taken out of the strap - luckily none of those had the blingy bits on. I think its a gorgeous watch to wear day or night.

 

We had such an amazing holiday, hopefully one day my boyfriend will take me back to New York!