What I wore in New York

I've been meaning to blog for a while about what I wore in New York. However, I must admit that my main motivation for publishing this post today was the lack of time and opportunity to take photos for any of my other potential posts. Roll on the lighter evenings!

While I'm busy admitting to things, I thought I'd talk about the military operation of me packing to go on holiday. It starts with a big Word document (set up immediately after we book a holiday) which details every single piece of clothing, every accessory, every toiletry and every miscellaneous item I'm planning to take with me. The packing itself usually commences about three weeks before we leave. Although part of me is very jealous when Neil somehow manages to pack his suitcase in 25 minutes, I do secretly enjoy my long-winded and highly organised packing process.

The photos of me in New York were all taken outside, so I'm only going to detail my coats, boots, hats and scarves because that's all you can see. To complete my outfits, I took a pair of jeans, a few jumpers, warm dresses, leggings and tights, along with some nice dresses for the evenings. I packed light on shoes and bags (for me), but definitely didn't pack light on hats, scarves and gloves.

I've linked to the relevant items where I can in the photos below, but most of them are either sold out or not in existence any more.

Parka from Dorothy Perkins, scarf from Joules' Ebay store, and
black boots from Shoe Zone 

Kate Spade hat from Ebay, scarf from Joules, coat from Debenhams,
bag from Kate Spade and boots from Ugg

Hat from New Look, scarf and gloves from Asda, coat from ASOS,
and bag from Kate Spade 

Hat and gloves from Accessorize, bag and scarf from New Look

The hat was a gift from Italy, and the scarf is from Primark 

Hat from New Look and scarf from ASOS 

Hat, scarf and gloves from New Look, bag from Kate Spade 

Is your packing process a bit like mine, or do you pack like a normal person? 

Outfit of the Day - brisk walk!

If you follow me on Twitter, you'll probably know that I recently had a wisdom tooth taken out. I consequently felt sorry for myself for a few days, mostly because I couldn't eat properly which is really quite catastrophic in my world. We decided to go for a walk the day after the traumatising event just to get out of the house for some fresh air. It was bitterly cold so I wrapped up in a cosy outfit...

Gilet - Tesco (last year)

Hoodie - Animal (last year)

Skirt - New Look (last year)

Boots - Fat Face (last year)

Scarf - Debenhams (this year, but out of stock!)

As you can see, I've had all these clothes for a while (apart from the scarf). I like digging out my old clothes and wearing them season after season as I feel as if I've got my money's worth out of them, and I can't bear to get rid of clothes that I really love just because they're not brand new. 

The gilet was an absolute bargain at £8 in last year's Tesco winter sale... I love gilets and I love pink, so this is the perfect combination. The denim skirt was a sale item last summer from New Look (also £8, I believe), as was the Animal hoodie... I rarely pay full price for anything, as you've probably gathered by now. Continuing in the same vein, the pink scarf is from Red Herring at Debenhams and I bought it a few weeks ago for £4.80. It was supposed to be £16 so I was very pleased with that particular bargain. 

The boots are probably my favourite part of this outfit and they were a Christmas present from my parents in 2013. They're lined with thick fur and I love the little buttons on the sides. These are ideal for cold walks, as long as it's dry! They're very comfortable too so can be worn for long periods of time without making my feet ache. 

In case you're interested, here's a photo from our walk... such a beautiful day. 

What's your favourite 'brisk walk' outfit? Send me links to your cosy Outfit of the Day posts (please)! 

Outfit of the Day - Christmas sales!

I haven't written an 'Outfit of the Day' post since May 2014... I thought it was about time I rectified this!

Like everyone else in the UK, I've been scouring the Christmas sales for the last week or so and have snapped up some lovely bargains. I wore two of my favourite finds to the cinema last week...

Leather jacket - New Look
Skirt - Debenhams

Snood and gloves - Next (out of stock)

Boots - New Look
Bag - Venice!

I've had my eye on this leather jacket from New Look for months. However, it was previously £64.99 which I just couldn't justify. When I noticed that it had been reduced to £33, I just couldn't say no. In fact, I actually bought it on my phone at 5:30am as I was so eager to buy it before it sold out. It's real leather unlike most of New Look's other jackets, so it was an absolute bargain. I love the peplum detail and it's a very slimming jacket. Lovely fit!

As for the skirt, I bought it from the Debenhams half price sale. I've been looking for a tartan skirt for a while and thought this one was a lovely colour and a different style to any of the other skirts I own. I paid £14 for this skirt instead of £28... another bargain. 

I treated myself to the snood and gloves from Next a few months ago... I love winter purely because I get to wear all my scarves and gloves (and sneakily buy a few more). The black boots from New Look were also a post honeymoon purchase and they're ridiculously comfortable, as well as being a perfect match for the jacket.

As for the beautiful bag, I bought it from the Guess store in Venice while we were on honeymoon. I had to save very hard to gather enough spending money to take on honeymoon so I thought I'd treat myself while I was there. I'm a bit obsessed with big handbags at the moment and this one goes with absolutely everything. My favourite bag in the world!

What were your favourite sale purchases? Send me your links! 

Outfit of the Day... just because I love my new bag!

Drum roll... this is my very first Outfit of the Day post. The outfit isn't even that special, but I really love my new bag so wanted to include it in a blog post. I find myself wanting to blog about everything I ever see/buy/do/eat... if only there were more hours in the day!

Scarf - Camden Market, London (ancient)

Leather jacket - Oasis (last year)

T-shirt - Universal Studios, Florida

Jeans - Gap 

Ugg boots - Journey, Florida

Beautiful pink bag - Dorothy Perkins

I've been looking for a big pink bag in this kind of style for months so I was rather pleased when I saw this beauty in Dorothy Perkins last weekend. I hadn't bought myself a bag for a while so I thought I'd do something nice for myself. I love bags and I love pink things... it had to be done. The bag is very spacious and conveniently has a long shoulder strap as well as two little handles. It has a zip closure which is perfect for a paranoid android like me, and it looks and feels like a really high quality bag for a high street price. I love it! 

The rest of the outfit isn't particularly spectacular, but I do love my Ugg boots and it was nice to be able to wear my leather jacket rather than my hooded waterproof coat for a change. Spring appears to be just around the corner!

The bag isn't on Dorothy Perkins' website yet for some reason, but you should be able to find it in your local store. Has anyone else bought this beautiful bag?

Scarf fever...

When I was packing for New York earlier in the week, I made a discovery. I own a LOT of scarves. I have woolly scarves, silky scarves, cotton scarves, floaty scarves and scarves with bobbles on them. I have a huge range of colours too, so I'm pretty sure I have a scarf to go with every outfit. However, even though I clearly love buying scarves and do so quite often, I tend to wear the same two or three all the time which means I'm wasting all the others. So... from now on, my mission is to rotate the scarves to make sure I get some wear out of them all. Some of mine are really colourful, so they could brighten up some of my outfits too. It's all about the accessories! I was going to be super organised about it and write a list of which ones I've got and how often I wear them, but I thought that would be going a bit too far, even for me. 

Some of my scarves...

I can't really explain the appeal, but I just love scarves! Has anyone else accumulated a huge collection?