A Wedding

I'm still merrily attempting to catch up on all the stuff I haven't blogged about recently. Here's something fun that happened: my Dad got married!

This is how me, bro and sister in-law occupy ourselves when waiting for the ceremony to start.



T'was a lovely, relaxed sort of day, very much in the spirit of the happy couple who are health-food shop owners and practice all sorts of alternative therapies as well as being into Buddhism and chanting and suchlike (well Janet does the chanting, Dad tends to scoff at it!) . They're a right pair of hippies. As you can imagine, a huge white wedding with a million guests isn't really their sort of thing.

They had a lovely ceremony in the local registry office with an intimate bunch of family and friends and then off we all trouped for an absolutely amazing meal at a local Nepalese restaurant. I think all the guests ate their own bodyweight in curry. I certainly did.



Check out Janet's headdress! She was a bit worried everyone would think it was too wacky but I think we can all agree that it's brilliant, yes? Not in the slightest bit traditional but very her. Created by Tracy Caroline Lewis - her Facebook page is fab!




My outfit was the backup plan. I'd intended to make a dress and I did, but as you may have seen in the blog post about it, things didn't entirely go to plan and there was no way I was wearing it for the big day. So instead I plumped for this green number which I adore but have oddly only worn once or twice.




Dress - random seller on Amazon
Blazer - Warehouse via Oxfam
Bracelet - shame on me, I can't remember. H&M?
Frog heels - Irregular Choice

A Festive Frock

I made my Christmas party dress this year. Hark at me!



Mooching around Dunelm in October, I came across Christmas fabric and rather fell in love with this vintage inspired print fabric. I pondered hard - the house is sucking up all my spare cash at the mo and really, I could have just worn a frock I already had, couldn't I?

However, Christmas needs new clothes. It's the law. Honest it is. New pjs for Christmas Eve are an absolute must (this may perhaps be a Scouse thing but I reckon it should be an everyone thing) and you have to have something pretty to wear on the big day itself. Same rule kinda applies to the work do.

T'was an excellent bargain as it turns out. The shop assistant and I were both in rather dozy form and I waltzed out of the shop, went home and only then discovered that although I'd asked for 3m, she'd given me 4m and only charged me for 2m!



As for the final result, I freely admit that the satin trim did not work properly. I might have had plans for the frock in mind since the autumn but I wasn't organised enough to buy any proper bias binding and this ribbon did not want to get pressed into service as makeshift bias binding. I ended up just stitching it straight on and it's gone all wonky. The girls assured me that it looks like it's meant to be a ruched sort of trim neckline and I'm going with them on this.

I made it in a day though, minus the time spent going into town for lunch and to watch a live screening of The Crucible (and holy heck, that's a long play!) and I'm pretty impressed with myself for that. I haven't sewed anything for months and I thought I might have forgotten how to do it.




Dress - handmade, Simplicity 2444
Petticoat - Vivien of Holloway
Blazer - Warehouse via Oxfam
Heels - Shelly's



Also, yes, not great pics. I take so flipping long to get ready for a night out that there's never any time left to set the camera up and take proper outfit photos.

The frock goes smashingly with a beard though!

Can Thermals Ever Look Good?

I work in a very old building. Now this has many upsides and is mostly awesome but also comes with some rather large downsides. The main one is that the heating system is 130 years old and it doesn't cover my office (aka the cave. The cold, dark cave). Bah.

There are occasions in the chillier months when the clock hits 3pm and we're all still sitting there wearing coats, hats, scarves and gloves because it takes that flipping long to warm the place up with just a little electric heater.



I've been threatening to bring in a sleeping bag to cosy up in this winter but I don't think that's entirely appropriate for work.  Also, tricky to get in and out of when the door needs to be answered and I'm clumsy enough as it is. (Just got my foot stuck in my handbag handle and went flying approx 10  minutes ago)

I may have hit upon the ideal solution to office chilliness with these thermal denim trousers that Damart sent me.



Now I know thermals are not the most interesting of items usually but I'm honestly not just reviewing these for the sake of it. I was genuinely intrigued to see how trousers of all things could be thermal and look nice - this type of clothing is notorious for leaning heavily towards the frumpy old woman side of things.



Not so with this pair though! They look just like a normal pair of jeans, don't they? Happily for me, they have the advantage of being indigo (my favourite wash) and straight leg (my favourite cut). They're surprisingly thin so I was curious as to how they'd keep me warmer than a normal, thicker pair of jeans. Well, they've certainly done that. They are toasty. I am most pleased.

Also they look nice with my mega fun shoes. I don't often wear light coloured heels but these are great. Business at the front:



Party at the back:





Blazer - Warehouse via Oxfam
Jeans - c/o Damart
Top - Ruby Rocks
Shoes - Irregular Choice Baby Beauty

*[]*

Is It A Bird? No, It's A Plane

I like it when a plan comes together.

I also very much like it when an outfit comes together. I don't usually put that much effort into pairing things up - things either work within the context of my limited wardrobe and accessories or they don't. Time and money prevent me from dithering around finding the "perfect" thing to match it up with.

Also I have a raging hatred for blog posts about things like "10 ways to wear jeans". Here's a crazy notion: put them on your legs and get on with your day.

 Ahem. Am I a fashion blogger or a fraud?

So I totes bought this AMAZE top and I was all "OMG, whatever will I wear it with?"
*consults ASOS, asks on Twitter etc*



Yeah, I actually just looked in my wardrobe and went "That'll do", then ended up actually liking my reflection in the mirror for once. Score.

It is an amazing top though. Maps and planes!!

Top - Vero Moda (get it here)
Blazer - Warehouse via charity shop
Jeans - Gap
Heels - Shelly's via Spartoo
Stacking rings - Dorothy Perkins

A Day at the Races

As you may be able to tell from the backdrop of these photos, I went to the races yesterday. I love racing and I love Aintree. There's no other place quite like it. Even though it wasn't Ladies Day (that's today), everyone was still dressed up to the nines. It's Liverpool: we don't need an excuse to frock up.

However, in the space of about 50 yards, I saw three girls in the exact same dress. It was a very pretty dress and clearly wasn't from Primark or anywhere like that, but ooof, you don't want to get glammed up for the races only to discover you look like everyone else, do you?

I didn't have that problem. I made my dress from a curtain. There wasn't going to be anyone else wearing this!

This is yet another Simplicity 2444 - I'm not bored of it yet! I fell in love with this fabric solely because it reminds me of some orange floral curtains that lived in the house I grew up in. It came in a massive chunk from ebay. I think it was about £15 for almost 5 yards and there's loads left to make some actual curtains with. Woop!

There are many, many shades of yellow, orange and green in this fabric but I wanted the detailing to match the daffodils which I'd centred the bodice around, so I went for a pretty lemon yellow satin ribbon and bias binding.

The pretty yellow shoes and cute clutch bag are totally not the same shade of yellow as the dress details but what the hell. They kinda match each other and they go with some of the dress, even if it's not the daffodils. The colours below are a wee bit iffy though - the photos above are a better idea of what they actually look like.

Dress - handmade
Blazer - Warehouse via charity shop
Bag - Jacques Vert via charity shop
Ring - Dorothy Perkins sale
Flats - Koah 'Ginny'

Look at my enormous bet. Ha! This was the one day I should have done a placepot. Everything I picked came in the first three but I wasn't betting each way, wah wah wah... I would have won about a squillion pounds with a placepot. Damn it.

I had a very lovely day out with my Dad though and that's the main thing. He gets special credit for taking my outfit photos, although not so much credit for making me giggle and pull ridiculous faces. No idea what I'm doing here!

Polka Dots and Petticoats

I'm all shopped out. There was not a scrap of shopping enthusiasm left within me when the time came to think about what I was wearing to the work Christmas do. Luckily I'm not the sort of person who finds it essential to have something new for every occasion! I've got about 4 dresses suitable for evenings so I was pretty sure it was going to be one of them that got hauled out of the wardrobe and matched up with a pair of party shoes.

Then I remembered the petticoat I bought for the wedding outfit. It turns out that with the addition of loads of frills an everyday dress can be magically transformed into something fit for a party.



I made this frock back in the summer and it takes a petticoat rather well, doesn't it? The other big benefit over the plainish green frock I was going to wear is that I could go mad with the red accessories rather than sticking to basic black. Any opportunity to whack on the MAC Russian Red lippy and strap on my ridiculously clompy Shellys heels is much welcome!




Dress - I made it
Petticoat - Vivien of Holloway
Blazer - Warehouse via Oxfam
Shoes - Shellys
Clutch - c/o Matalan
Earrings - New Look
Ring - Dorothy Perkins sale
Bracelet - vintage

The thing I love most about petticoats is swirling round in them. Obviously. But the second best thing is when you step out of it and the entire carpet is a sea of frills. Such fun.

SuperAlex

Meet SuperAlex. Not-so mild mannered administrator by day, high-heeled wearing arse-kicker by night.



Superpowers:

List making
Speed reading
Navigating
Shoe collecting

Weaknesses:

Packing
Bookshops

The superhero power I'd really like is the ability to fly. Well, either that or the Mary Poppins ability to tidy things up with a click of my fingers. That would be brilliant. Anyone who says invisibility is a weirdo.


I reckon I'd be a good superhero though. I'm not scared of a fight. POW!



And look at my dedication to the cause. Obviously any good superhero must have visible underwear.

Jumper & red ring - Primark
Skirt - Warehouse
Heels - Irregular Choice, present from Char
Silver ring - MerCurios

All The Stripes

I came across this frock at a fab blogger event held by Swimwear 365 last month.  They had rails of goodies to admire and although my heart was temporarily lost to a red polka dot swimming costume, when I was asked if I wanted to review a product, there was only one real choice for me. There are no beach holidays on my horizon so a pretty costume would have been daft (I do swim a lot but that's exercise and so I have to have a proper sports cozzie for that). A dress though, that's a sensible choice, right? I can wear a dress all the time. Yay!

And you know what? This is a brilliant dress. I was initially sucked in by its magic monochrome appeal but I didn't realise it would be so flipping flattering.

The even better part? It's made from mediumweight jersey and totally doesn't need ironing! I now completely understand why a swimwear site are stocking it: it's perfect for taking on holiday. Shove it in your case, pull it on and it'll look ace.



I dressed it up a little bit today, just cos I wanted to do the black and white thing in style but it's going to get worn all summer long with pretty much any combination of cardi and sandals that I want to chuck together with it.

Striped jersey dress - c/o Swimwear 365
Blazer - Warehouse via charity shop
Earrings - New Look
Pearls - can't remember
Ring - Dorothy Perkins sale
Court shoes - Irregular Choice Bowtiful