Hello, I'm in Delaware

Denim Jacket - Primark

Dress - Matalan

Sandals - Primark

Bag - River Island

Sunglasses - Primark

Anklet - DIY

Bracelets & Rings - ASOS & Dorothy Perkins

So yeh I've been a bad blogger and been AWOL for what seems like forever. I've just been pretty busy recently and during these summer months I have to wear a branded tee for work which I'm not sure would make for interesting outfit photos (is anyone interested in how many ways I can style a Claire's tee?....yeh didn't think so...) 

Anyway, it was my besties birthday yesterday so we had a lovely day going for lunch and mooching around the shops before some girly drinks last night. I don't really have a lot of summer clothes...I find winter much easier to navigate but in this heat I've had to find a way to adapt! 

I love this midi dress (really wishing I'd bought a few more colours!) so instead of my usual pairing of tights and cons I tanned my legs, stuck on my sandals and added a denim jacket. Now I'm a girl who loves my leather but I do love that springy summery time when it's time to swap to denim. 

How are you guys styling this warmer weather? 

Currently Coveting #12

All items from asos.com

On Friday I was over the moon to discover that I have won the beautiful Sian's giveaway of £75 of ASOS vouchers! This is the first time I've ever won a giveaway and I think I've won the best prize ever! It definately made working all weekend seem a little less evil! I always have a huge wishlist sitting on my asos account and with payday looming and these lovely little vouchers coming into my possession I decided there was no excuse not to post  a currently coveting post focused on my favourite retailer asos! 

I think over half my wardrobe is made up of Asos clothes now. I love both their Curve range and their straight sized section. No matter what I need an outfit for I know I'll always find one when I search this site.

1. Tank vests are one of my favourite things. They can be worn with jeans (perfect for the casual outfits I seem to be falling too at the moment), tucked into skirts or worn outside of skirts. I love the simplicity of this one and I also love the £12 price tag.

2. Swing dresses are one of my go to items right now and I just love the summery print and colour of this. Grey is one of my favourite colours and this dress will be perfect for summer.

3. Again, cool vests are a staple in my wardrobe and the emo in me will always love anything with skulls on. 

4. Smock dresses are my other favourite style of dresses at the moment. I love the relaxed fit and look of this one. I also think a girl can never have enough little black dresses!

5. Since this beautiful top appeared on the site I've been completely in love with it. Peplums are such a pretty style of top and the sheerness and pattern are just so cute. 

6 & 7. This printed suit is really not my usual style but I think it's so cool. I'm not so sure I'd be brave enough to rock it together but separately I can think of so many things to pair them with.

8. This is probably my favourite item of them all. I've got my beautiful friend Ashley's birthday coming up (there's to be a bouncy castle...all kinds of fun is going to be had) and I think this would be perfect (weather permitting obviously!). The shape....the print. What's not to love here?

So yeh, that's what I'm going to be spending my giveaway prize (& maybe a little of my hard earned cash) on. What are you loving at the moment?

Dusk & Summer

Tee - New Look

Skirt - Primark

Belt - ASOS

Jewellery - Primark & New Look

This outfit is actually from the other day but I've been so busy with stock takes and covering other stores I haven't had a minute to sit down and type it up! 

I woke up the other morning and through my window spied a gorgeous blue sky and fluffy white clouds and I felt immediately inspired to get some clashing patterns on the go. 

I originally saw an idea like this on pinterest and loved it straight away. There's something really unexpected about stripes and florals being paired together and I like the eclectic look. I added jewellery and a tan belt (yes it's huge...clearly needs a new hole in it!) and some lippy and I was done. 

Heart Shaped Box

Jacket - Simply Be

Tank - Peacocks

Jeans - Simply Be

Converse - Very

Jewellery - Claire's, River Island, Asos, Dorothy Perkins

This is the type of outfit I'm living in at the moment. Skinnies, a tee and this camo jacket. The camo jacket and jeans are definately my two favourite pieces in my wardrobe at the moment. Since I got this jacket I haven't had it off. It goes with skirts, dresses, jeans....the possibilities are endless! Also, these Simply Be Chloe skinnies are absolutely amazing. Great fit, great material, great colour....I just love everything about them. I need to get a few more colours in these cos they're seriously fab! This tank is one I've had for years and I still love it as much now as I did then. 

Get The Look - Olivia Palermo

Since rising to fame in MTV's The City, Olivia Palermo seems to have taken over the fashion circuit. She's always seriously stylish and immaculately accessorised. I love how she takes a quirky piece and turns it into a completely amazing outfit. As of yet I haven't come across one outfit of hers that I'd dismiss to the fashion faux pas pages. At the moment I'd say she is definately the darling of fashion.

I've put together a collection of high street pieces that can give you a slice of Olivia's fantastic style. From a colour pop blazer to a sophisticated evening dress there's something here for everybody. I've got my eye on a few pieces here, surely anything Olivia's been spotted in has gotta be good, right?

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12.

What do you think of Olivia's style? 

Keep your head up. Keep your heart strong.

Images from pinterest.com

I know I've fallen off the radar in recent weeks and I've decided to confront the reasons why. This is an uncomfortable topic for me (and many others) and I've debated whether or not to discuss it on here but I finally came to the conclusion that there are plenty of other people out there with similar problems to me and we can all support each other! 

Basically I've suffered with body confidence issues for as long as I can remember. I've never been massively confident and no matter how I've felt inside I've always just got on with it and tried to make the most of myself even when I've been feeling rubbish.

We all have days when we look in the mirror and quite like what we see and we all have days when we look in the mirror and violently dislike what we see. Recently whenever I look into the mirror I'm most definately feeling the latter. I hate my hair, I hate my face, I hate my body...blah blah blah. Us girls know the drill. Outfit photographs seem to be out of the question because I can't stand the thought of letting someone take pictures of me. 

Blogging has been a real eye opener for me. I've discovered some amazing girls who are so comfortable in their own skin and you can see how happy and healthy they are. After coming across this community I wondered if maybe some of this positivity would rub off onto me and I really hoped it would. After being on a diet for most of my teenage life (without results, obviously) I decided to jack it in and try and live my life. 

Unfortunately the self acceptance and body acceptance I've craved hasn't come to me. I'm not happy with how I look along with the fact that I don't feel overly healthy and it's been getting me down more than it ever has. 

 I recently made the decision to join Slimming World and the gym in the hope that these two combining factors are going to help me feel better. I don't have a target of any kind at the moment.Whether I send up at a size 16 or a size 10 isn't important to me. I just want to look and feel generally better in myself.  I said back in my New Years post that I wanted to do something this year to make myself proud and maybe this will be it. 

I don't want this post to sound like I'm against anyone who loves being a plus size or anything like that. I'd love to be happy with who I am right now but at the end of the day I'm not and life is too short to be miserable. I know I've made this all sound rather vain and superficial as if life is all about how you look but I have plenty other deep rooted issues to do with my weight that I could go into but we'll be here all day. I've ummed and ahhed over posting this post but finally decided to post it and hope for the best. 

I'm going to post little updates on my progress and if anyone is interested (& doing slimming world too) I might post a few recipes too. We can support each other :)

Lush - Big Shampoo

Big Sea Salt Shampoo - Lush £11.25

I've declared my love for Lush on the blog many times before but why not post yet another declaration? 

My lovely best friend bought me this (amongst other things - I was very spoiled!) for my birthday and after using it for a little while I decided to wade in with my opinions. I know Big has been mentioned a lot in the beauty bloggersphere but there is a reason for this. 

Before this product came along I'd never heard of sea salt shampoo. I'd heard of sea salt spray for beachy waves (which is a product I love btw) but never shampoo. Lush claim that sea salt is great for giving volume which sounded right up my street because I've mentioned a number of times before how hard I find it getting volume into my long hair so I was thrilled to finally get my hands on a tub of this stuff!

My first impression was that it smelt amazing, very fresh and clean. You can definately detect the citrusy notes and it really does remind me of a sea breeze. I did think though, that it looks rather scary. You can see how salty and chunky it is and I wondered how this was going to work. I was worried it would get stuck in my hair and I wouldn't be able to rinse it out! 

Anyway, apprehensions aside I bit the bullet and tried it out. I was pleasantly surprised by it. I felt that the salt massaged my scalp and gave my hair a really good cleanse. It lathered up nicely and rinsed out very easily. I just used my regular conditioner after it and my hair felt and smelt fab. Big works as a detangler too, I found my tangle teezer slipped straight through my hair without any complaint. 

After drying my hair using my normal routine it is definately bouncier and healthier looking. Don't get me wrong, I didn't look like Cheryl Cole but my hair was lighter and bigger than it had been (without a lot of back combing and product) for a while. It also worked when I let my hair dry naturally too. I think the sea salt in the shampoo helped my natural wave because my air dried hair looked a lot more beachy than normal after using this. 

As of yet I haven't come across any Lush product that hasn't lived up to my expectations of  it. I'm so excited to try out more products from them and I've actually got my eye on my one at the moment so watch this space for a review!