Twelve posts of Christmas #7 - My Christmas party dresses

I can't believe it's already 29th December... why do good times go so quickly? As you'll have read in my Christmas Plans blog post, the last week has been packed full of lovely experiences with family and friends. It's also been packed with an insane amount of food, but that's another story (and another blog post).

I thought I'd focus my seventh post of Christmas on the dresses I've worn this month for various festive occasions. Everyone loves an occasion to wear/buy a new dress, right? Also, after all the aforementioned food, I might not be fitting back into these dresses for a while so it's probably best to make the most of them...

I wore this dress to Neil's work Christmas party at the beginning of December. Although they're not very clear in the picture, the dress is covered with glitzy black sequins and has a pretty lace overlay. The belt brings the dress in nicely at the waist which is the exact shape I like. It's from New Look (just like everything else I ever wear) and I bought it from last year's Christmas party range.

I wore this dress to my own work Christmas party as I wanted a change of colour - I ALWAYS wear black dresses on special occasions. It's lacy, it's a fit and flare shape, it has pretty sleeves... everything I like in a dress! I bought this dress in a New Look discount event before Christmas, and it's now discounted even further.

And lastly, I wore this dress on Christmas Day... another one from New Look. Although I look slightly deranged in this photo and the lighting is a bit odd, I absolutely love this dress. The subtle pleats ensure that it's a very full skirt and the monochrome element makes it look more striking than your average black dress. 

I also love the accessories I wore to all my Christmas occasions - again, all from New Look! The black accessories were bought last year and the silver bag is now out of stock, but you can find the sparkly shoes here. 

What dresses did you wear over the festive period? Let me know if you've blogged about them, I love reading about other people's outfit choices!

Outfit of the day - New Look special!

I've been wondering lately how I ever managed to find the time to blog three or four times per week. Where on earth has the time been going lately? I'm going to attempt to get back to some kind of blogging schedule by posting once a week to begin with. I've got plenty of exciting things to blog about, I'm just struggling to find the time to type it all up! Blogging is a very therapeutic hobby for me so it would definitely be beneficial for me to get back to some kind of regularity when it comes to my blog.

So here goes... here's my first Outfit of the Day post for a while!

Necklace - Tiffany & Co (present from Neil's mum)
Dress - New Look (out of stock)
Shoes - New Look

I wore this outfit two weeks ago when we went for a meal at Villa Napoli for our seven month wedding anniversary meal. Yes that's right, we're celebrating our anniversary monthly for the first year. Why ever not?

This dress is so pretty and fits really well. The navy top half has a crochet lace pattern and the bottom half is floaty and floral. The belt came with the dress and is a lovely addition as it pulls in the dress in all the right places. Although this dress is casual enough to wear on a summer's day with some flip flops, it can also be dressed up easily with a pair of heels and some nice jewellery such as my classy necklace from Tiffany & Co.  

There's a delicate mint green detailing on the dress which meant it was the perfect match for my new shoes. If I do take the unusual risk of wearing heels, they absolutely have to have some kind of supportive strap to prevent me from breaking my ankle/s. The ankle straps on these shoes ensure that they can't possibly fall off my feet but also make them look extra dainty. The toe section ('toe section' always reminds me of Michael McIntyre... anyone else?) is a soft suede material and they're just beautiful. I really love this mint colour and I think I'll be adding several items of the same shade to my summer wardrobe. 

Have you bought a pretty new dress lately? Feel free to leave me the links to your latest 'Outfit of the Day' posts in your comments! 

Birthday haul

It was my birthday a few weeks ago and I was lucky enough to receive lots of money and gift cards as presents from generous family and friends. The money and gift cards were very welcome as I needed to buy lots of new clothes due to going down a clothes size in the last year. Half my wardrobe has been given to charity shops, so my birthday money gave me the perfect excuse to go shopping!

I had lots of New Look gift cards as it's a commonly known fact that it's one of my favourite shops, so here's what I treated myself to from there...

New shorts! You can find them here and here

Black slingback court shoes

Peplum top. So pretty!

Flat white shoes - now out of stock

Lots of dresses! I'm only giving a little preview of these

as I'm saving most of them to wear on my honeymoon

A few people also gave me money for my birthday so I went shopping in Cardiff a few weeks ago... I love a bit of guilt-free shopping. 

I love Superdry tshirts! Coincidentally, mint and pink are my favourite colours

at the moment.

Short Disney onesie from Tesco

I've been waiting for these two DVDs to be re-released for ages... 

they both happened to become available just after my birthday! Thanks, Disney. 

Disney Princess bag from the Disney Store. £2.50! 

New bags from Primark. I couldn't choose between black/white

and coral/stone so had to get both! £6 each

A few make up items

I made the most of various sales and online discounts to make sure I made the most out of my birthday money and got the best value for money I possibly could. I'm really pleased with my haul and think I did quite well!

Do you have any of these items? Have you written a haul post lately? Send me your links, pretty please! 

(Cheap) summer shoes!

I love a bargain, especially when it comes to summer shoes. I've bought a few lovely pairs so far this summer, all for under £10. I also had two beautiful pairs for my birthday so I've featured those in this post too.

See below for a clockwise description of each pair, starting with the floral trainers at the top!

Floral trainers - These beauties are from Primark and only cost £4. No, they weren't in the sale... they were just £4! They have pretty pink and green detailing as well as the navy and white stripes, so they're very versatile and can be worn with loads of different colours. 

Floral green flip flops - These are from O'Neill and cost £9.99. This is the highest price I'm willing to pay for flip flops. I love the colour and the design, and they're super comfortable. 

Turquoise flip flops - Another Primark purchase... £2.50! I have a few dresses and vest tops in this exact colour so I'll be wearing these a lot this summer. 

Coral flip flops - These were a birthday present from Neil's parents. I love the vibrant colour and the little studs on the bow are so pretty. 

Coral sandals - These were also a birthday present from Neil's parents. I'm a big fan of the double ankle strap and they're beautifully sparkly. I like sparkly things, in case you didn't already know. 

Yellow ballet pumps - These were £6 from Amazon. They were originally bought for my Minnie Mouse fancy dress costume but they weren't quite the right colour. I won't be returning them as they'll be perfect for the summer. The postage to send them back would probably cost me £6 so I didn't see the point in returning them!

Black pointy shoes -  I've seen photos of loads of people wearing these shoes on Instagram so I couldn't wait to get my hands on a pair. I had to go in to Primark three times before they eventually had my size (4) in stock, but I finally found a pair last weekend. These smart but comfy shoes were £6, so yet another bargain. 

Have you bought any of these shoes? Can you recommend any other summer shoe bargains? 

Outfit of the Day: Little Black Dress, Cricieth style!

Everyone loves a little black dress, yes?

I've been a bit obsessed with New Look lately and have treated myself to a few things from there ready for my honeymoon. I decided to take one of my new New Look outfits away with me to Cricieth as I wanted to wear something new and the weather forecast was promising. I also wanted to practice wearing my rather lovely new heels!

Dress - New Look

Bag - New Look (out of stock)

Shoes - New Look 

I'd be grateful if you could ignore my pasty white legs!

The dress is very simple and is in my beloved skater style. I genuinely don't think skater dresses look bad on anyone. It has a delicate daisy trim around the neckline and is just the right length for my extremely short legs. The accompanying floral bag is just beautiful and is the perfect size for going out in the evening. I could comfortably fit my phone, camera, keys and evening purse into the little bag. As for the shoes... I love these shoes! The heel is around 2.5 inches tall so they're not too high (even for me), and the slingback design means they can't fall off my feet. This is a problem I frequently experience while wearing heels, so the little strap at the back helps a lot and makes me feel a lot more confident that I won't fall over and break my ankle in an embarrassing manner. 

I teamed the dress with a black short sleeved bolero cardigan for our walk into town as it was a bit chilly. The cardigan is from Amazon and was only £4... I've also bought it in stone, white and cerise ready for our honeymoon! I couldn't resist getting some other colours at that bargain price. The crochet detail is really pretty and the 8/10 size is a perfect fit. 

What's your favourite little black dress?

Outfit of the Day... floral pastels!

I'm currently a bit obsessed with pastels and floral patterns. Last Saturday's outfit was a colour coordinated combination of both these lovely elements so I thought I'd share it on my blog.

Cardigan - Amazon

Vest top - H&M

Skirt - New Look

Shoes - New Look 

I bought this skirt from New Look last summer with my birthday money. I still think it looks a bit old fashioned and I was undecided on it for ages, but I think it does look pretty with pastel vests and shoes. However, I do sometimes worry that the pattern looks like one found on an old lady's curtains. It does go nicely with the outfit above though, I must admit.

Everyone loves a good old £3.99 basic vest top from H&M. The vest tops from H&M are the only ones which fit me properly... I hate it when vest tops are too baggy around the stomach area! It was quite cold on Saturday so I decided to wear my white cardigan over the vest top. This little cardigan is so versatile. It goes with lots of different outfits and it's a handy layer to put on when it's a bit chilly.

Last but not least, I love my new mint shoes from New Look! They only sold the 'wide fit' variety in this particular shade so they're slightly too big, but they're still very comfortable and passed the test of walking around Cardiff for hours. I absolutely love the colour and they'll be perfect for the warmer months.

Do you love pastels and/or floral patterns? Let me know!

A day out in Bristol

Before last October, I'd never been to Bristol city centre. I've been to Cribbs Causeway several times, but I'd never set foot in the actual centre of Bristol.

After venturing to Bristol for the first time and having a lovely day there with Amy last October, we decided to meet there again last week for a catch up and some shopping (and eating, obviously). Liz travelled from London to meet us for the day so it was a bit of a grand reunion! I decided to travel on the Megabus to avoid the stress of driving and parking in a new place... the bus journey cost £7.50. When you consider that the Severn bridge alone would have cost me £6.40 if I'd have driven, this was a total bargain. I even managed to have a seat to myself until we stopped in Newport!

The Megabus took an hour or so to get to Bristol and dropped me off at Colston Hall. Such a lovely building! I did get a bit lost when I attempted to find my way to Debenhams, but a very kind charity worker gave me detailed directions which put me back on track. I didn't donate any money to her charity though... I felt mildly guilty about this.

Once we'd all found each other, we decided to go straight for food. I'm glad all my friends love food as much as I do! We headed to Cabot Circus and decided to eat in Frankie and Benny's as it has good lunch deals and also has something for everyone due to its range of cuisines. I decided to be vaguely healthy and went for the penne meatballs rather than choosing something that came with chips. However, believe it or not, my decision was made in vain as the meatballs were actually served with chips. Well, I was offered a choice between chips and salad... who on earth would choose a salad when faced with those two options? Chips and pasta on the same plate isn't something I've ever experienced before, but I won't complain too much. As I've frequently mentioned on my blog, I love carbs more than any normal person should. The meatballs were really good, and the pasta, sauce and chips weren't bad either. We decided to go for dessert too as the deal was just too tempting (it would have been rude not to), so I went for the apple and cinnamon crumble with ice cream. Delicious!

After finishing our food and having a good catch up, we did some shopping. I'm busy saving for my wedding and honeymoon so I didn't buy much, but I was very pleased with the two honeymoon purchases I did decide to make. I've actually worn the earrings already as they're so beautiful, elegant and versatile, but I think the shoes will definitely be saved for our honeymoon. I don't usually wear heels but I can walk in these with no problems as they've got a strap and they're not too high. Result.

After shopping for a few hours and doing rather a lot of walking around various corners of the city centre, we simply had to stop for a drink in Costa. It was essential that I had my obligatory hot chocolate to replenish my energy levels!

As we wound down in Costa, we were already talking about the next time we'll all be together... my hen weekend in July! However, I think we'll be planning more days out in Bristol in the not too distant future. It really is a great city with lots of contrasting areas and a vast array of shops, restaurants and interesting places to wander around. It's also easy to get to and is quite a central place for us all to travel to once in a while.

Here are some photos of Bristol... might as well slot them in to back up my compliments!

I love the architecture of Cabot Circus 

Fountains!

The road leading up to Cabot Circus

Yet another area in the city centre, near where I got lost!

My bus back to Cardiff wasn't until 7pm so I had a lovely long day in Bristol. My return bus was a double decker... I've never been on a Megabus double decker before! I get excited about such simple things. I had a seat to myself for the whole journey back, and it only took about 50 minutes as we didn't stop in Newport. Great end to a great day.

Have you been to Bristol recently? What did you think? Let me know if there are any other areas of Bristol you think I should visit! 

Ten things I love about Christmas

Did you all have a brilliant Christmas? Are you all still full of food and wearing your onesie/Christmas jumper? After having a lovely build up (including Fake Christmas with Neil last weekend) and a great Christmas Day yesterday, I thought I'd write a quick blog post about the ten things I love most about Christmas. It was very difficult to whittle it down to 10, believe me!


1. The food

Food just has to be on top of any list about the best bits of Christmas. Or is it that just me? It's the only time of year where I can totally justify eating as much as I want without worrying about calorie counting, going to the gym, eating healthily and so on. Although my mother's beautiful Christmas dinner is always the highlight, I also love having trifle and cold chicken at tea time, ice cream and chocolate at random intervals throughout the day and copious amounts of sweets and crisps. I love food!

2. The stockings

I love our stocking tradition and will be quite sad when this tradition comes to an end. Ever since I can remember, my siblings and I (just my brother and I in recent years) have got up early to open our stockings, then we run downstairs to see the presents under the tree before waking our parents if our squeals of excitement haven't woken them already. Although we had proper woolly stockings stuffed with presents when we were younger, we've had big gift bags for the last few years as they're a lot more practical. I had fluffy socks, a DVD, chocolates, sweets, pretty stationery, toiletries and much more in my stocking this year... long live stockings!

3. The presents

I still get excited about all the presents given to me, but I also get just as excited about seeing other people's faces when I give them their presents. I think this is a sign that I'm getting older! I had lots of lovely presents from my family on Christmas Day this year including DVDs, books, pyjamas, baking things and perfume, but I think my favourite present was my new pair of beautiful boots from Fat Face.

4. The standard Christmas Day outfit

I definitely don't go out to buy a dress specifically for Christmas Day. Who needs a dress when you can wear fluffy pyjamas and a hoodie? I'm afraid there's no photo of me in my Christmas Day outfit... I don't think people need to see that.



5. The chocolate

I know chocolate should come under the 'Food' heading, but it just has to have its own place on the list. I would stop myself in horror on an ordinary day if I decided to eat half a mini box of Quality Street chocolates before 10am. However, on Christmas Day, this is perfectly acceptable. This might be a hotly debated topic, but Quality Street are by far the best Christmas chocolates!

6. The tree

I love Christmas trees and published a blog post last week on my favourite Christmas trees of the year. There's nothing better than sitting around in pyjamas around the Christmas tree with the Christmas lights on! There's something very comforting about a Christmas tree... have I said 'Christmas tree' too much in this paragraph?

7. The company

Christmas is such a great time to spend quality time with my parents, my siblings, Neil, the in laws and my handsome little nephew. Everyone comes together from various corners of the UK, no one needs to rush away, everyone wants to catch up on each other's news and the camaraderie is brilliant. It's a shame we can't all be in the same room more often!



8. The novelty crackers

Who doesn't love crackers and their random novelty gifts? Yesterday we acquired two pairs of tweezers, two little packets of playing cards, a bottle opener and lots of paper hats.

9. The relaxation

I'm usually super busy all year round and find it hard to sit down and do nothing, so Christmas is a great chance to just relax, recharge the batteries and indulge in some guilt-free reading. Does December have to come to an end?



10. The films

I love the films that regularly get rolled out for Christmas. Home Alone 1 and 2, Santa Claus the Movie, all Disney films, Nativity, The Santa Clause, Elf, Jingle all the Way, Muppets' Christmas Carol... who doesn't love these films? Yesterday we managed to watch Toy Story 3, Home Alone 2, Muppets' Christmas Carol and Nativity 2. Christmas film fest!

What do you love most about Christmas? I'm sure there are lots of blog posts floating around on this topic so feel free to send me some links!

I REALLY love flip flops

I never used to wear flip flops when I was younger. I preferred to be properly strapped in to chunky sandals so that they definitely couldn't fall off my feet or trip me up. What on earth was I thinking? These days, I absolutely love flip flops and want to buy every pair under the sun. Luckily, my bank balance doesn't allow me to do this. They're just so comfortable, and you can always find a reasonably priced pair to go with whatever outfit you're wearing. I'm not really a shoe person and don't have many pairs of actual normal shoes, but I'm building quite a hefty collection of flip flops.

My flip flops!

I've been able to wear flip flops non stop for the last three or four weeks as it's been so hot, and I've loved it. The basket I keep them in has been taken out of the store cupboard and put in pride of place in the living room so that I can rummage and find a matching pair every morning.

I also couldn't resist buying two new pairs this week from Debenhams and Accessorize... in my defence, I was having a bad few days and needed to cheer myself up! I love flip flops with a lot of detail on the straps, so these pairs were perfect. The pair from Debenhams matches my holiday bikini and will be perfect for the beach or casual shopping trips, and the pair from Accessorize is perfect for work or going out for dinner. Multi functional!

I've already chosen 9 pairs to take to Florida with another 2 possibles... I might have to be more ruthless with my shortlisting!

100th post!

I'm pretty excited that this is my 100th post. One of my resolutions for this year was to post regularly on my blog, so I'm really pleased that I've achieved this aim especially as I've been so busy this year.

I thought I'd celebrate my 100th post by finding out which ten posts have been most popular with readers and linking back to those posts so that new readers can get a flavour of my blog. As you can see, there's a wide variety of posts in this list which shows that different people are attracted to all kinds of a different posts.

1. There's no surprise quite like a McFly surprise
2. Frantic about Florida #2
3. New shoes!
4. The Body Shop's satsuma shower gel
5. New York #6: Times Square
6. Frantic about Florida #1
7. Date day :)
8. Tim and Jen's wedding
9. Cineworld unlimited card
10. Packing for New York!

I'm not surprised to see that New York and Florida feature heavily in the top ten, and everyone loves reading about the Body Shop, shoes and weddings. I'm quite surprised that the Cineworld post is so popular... I wonder if Cineworld have seen a surge in their unlimited card holders recently? If only my blog was that influential.

Have you read all the posts above? Please feel free to leave some feedback on what you think of the blog, I love reading people's comments.

Now on to the next hundred posts...

New shoes!

I don't generally buy many shoes, but I'm in love with the pair I bought on a whim last weekend. I saw them on an outdoor display as I was walking past Bank, which is a shop I've never been in to in my life. However, I made an exception on this occasion as the shoes were so pink and beautiful, and they were Converse which was an extra bonus. They were reduced to £29 from £47, and were absolutely perfect for me as I love pink, I love stars and I love Converse! Unfortunately, they only had the shoes in a size 3 and a size 6 in store, so I went straight on to Bank's website to see if they had the shoes on there in my size. They did! I snapped them up straight away, which is very fortunate as my size sold out on the website later that day. The shoes got delivered to my nearest store within two days, and they fit perfectly.

Look how beautiful they are!

These shoes will be perfect for my jeans and hoodie days, and for my trip to Florida in September. If you're a size 6, you can still buy these shoes on Bank's website. Hurry up!