Floral Cardigan & Heels

This isn't going to be a long post today - I managed to catch the office cold, so I'm feeling pretty rubbish right now and going off to have a bath soon. This outfit isn't from today - I'm literally wearing as close to pajamas as I could find - it's from last week when I decided to try out wearing heels to work. They're not the biggest heels in the world, in fact they're only a step up from kitten heels, but for some reason they feel and look a bit higher! I think it's the fact that they're not platform, because most heels I've worn in the past are platform. I got them for Christmas from my parents and ended up having to send them back for a size smaller - surprisingly they fit absolutely perfectly! And I didn't feel too over the top at work in the end. I dressed them down a little with jeans, but kept the outfit a little smarter with the cardigan, and ended up really liking the simplicity of it.

Floral Cardigan: H&M (similar here)
Red T Shirt: Primark

Infinity Bracelet: c/o Eccentric Fox

Jeans: Topshop Leigh (buy here)

Heels: ASOS (out of stock - similar here)

Not sure if I mentioned before, but I have a busy weekend coming up! I'm going to London with my sister on Saturday then to York with my friends for lunch and to take a look at a vintage fair on Sunday. Beth and I planned to go to London, and booked tickets, a month ago, but the date ended up being our moving day, so we changed the tickets to this weekend (and I lost the old ones so I don't get a refund boooo :(). We really wanted to see the Pompeii exhibition (one of my favourite Classics things everrr) but it ended up selling out all the weeks around when we planned to go almost immediately. Instead we're planning to just visit the British Museum anyway and see the other collections for free because neither of us have been, then maybe go to the V&A and just be typical London tourists. Our dad hates London (and crowds!) so we've never really done it very much except for like one day when we were younger. It'll be scary just being the two of us, completely clueless about cities, particularly London. But Beth likes to think she can cope since she went there with college once....it'll be amusing!

Love,

Aztec Shorts

See, I told you we had nice weather! It might have only been for like 2 days, but it happened, I swear! I just had to take advantage of the warm weather and pulled out my denim shorts straight away. Ben and I went down to York to grab a few things (from B&Q!) so I thought I'd better not go all out summery, so wore a long sleeved top and my beloved moccasins to tone down the shorts a bit. That's not to say I didn't get at strangely still though! Most people were still a bit wary of the weather and were in trousers, and a few still in coats! 

How do you like my super curly hair in this post?! I was very lucky to be sent an Ice Diamond curling wand to try out. As some of you might know, my hair does not like to be curled. I have tried countless different ways, but the curls always fall out eventually. But this was awesome...I had second day curls for the first time in my life!! It did make my hair super curly to start with which was kind of crazy though. I'll do a proper review of them soon :D (By the way, the last picture in this post is before I'd curled my hair!)

Top: New Look

Necklace: c/o Eccentric Fox (exact one)

Aztec Denim Shorts: New Look (exact ones)

Moccasins: Minnetonka Moccasins (similar here)

The necklace I'm wearing here is another that Zoe at Eccentric Fox sent me. I chose this one (at £4.50?!) because pastel colours are just my favourite. I wanted to wear it as part of a very spring like outfit, but unfortunately England doesn't seem to want to do Spring this year. We've gone straight from winter to summer then back to winter again (apparently it snowed again today...in May!!). So I've haven't had a chance to pull out the spring clothes at all! 

By the way, how do you all like where I'm taking my outfit photos nowadays? This is the decking area above the garden out the back of our house. To be honest, I'd prefer to take them actually in the garden or somewhere else, but I'm lazy! I've also been getting Ben to do a lot of my pictures recently and this means he can do them from the doorway (he's lazy too!!). Hopefully I'll get to do some in the woods near our house or the park or down the lane...there are plenty of places but I can't be bothered after work right now!

Love,

7 Days of Summer - Sixties

I've recently become a huge fan of Tesco's clothing range, F&F. A lot of people tend to avoid buying clothes in supermarkets because they think targeted towards older women and are made really cheaply. I've never avoided clothes...anywhere! So I've always had a habit of looking at clothes in supermarkets. But recently F&F has definitely upped its game. I've got all sorts of different clothes now, from blazers. blouses, jeans and dresses from there. So when I got the opportunity to take part in their 7 Days of Summer challenge, I jumped at the chance. I was offered a choice of a few days to style up for (and inadvertently entered the floral one with my floral blazer outfit too!) including embellished, 60s and accessories. 60s sounded like the one I could have the most fun with, so I went for that. I only had a brief half an hour to pick the clothes before I missed the next day delivery slot and wavered between this outfit and one with a baby blue shift dress. In the end I decided on the floral skirt, blouse and boucle jacket because, weirdly, I don't own that many pink clothes, I know!!

All clothes: c/o F&F

With such a 60s style outfit, I decided I had just had to try my hand at some 60s hair and make up. I've attempted beehives before and only once got it looking alright-ish (old beehive hair post - and pink ends too!!). So I knew I was heading into dangerous territory. Fortunately it didn't go too awfully, and isn't too over the top either. The make up was a little trickier though, surprisingly! I discovered I actually don't own any eyeliner - although I'm sure I have a Maybelline pot of it somewhere, must be at home. So we needed to go to Tesco anyway, so I grabbed some there. I don't even remember the last time I tried to use liquid eyeliner, I so rarely wear any eyeliner or eye make up apart from mascara now, so it was quite a challenge! And bright pink lips a la MUA (again another couple of old posts showing the lipstick) finished off the look. What do you think? 60s enough?! Oh and obviously I had to include jumping pictures (because I feel like 60s models did that?!), and non-smiling face, gazing weirdly at the camera (again, I feel 60s models did that?!!).

The weather has turned not so nice again :( After a lovely bank holiday weekend where I wore shorts and T shirts with temperatures around 22C, it's now back down to what feels like single figure temperatures, meaning I had to pull the tights out for this outfit. After one day with beautiful weather last week, I wore a dress with no tights and a light cardigan to work...bad idea, I was frozen! Hopefully it'll be sunny and warm again soon though! 

And what's happening in my life recently? Not a lot to be honest! Now that I've got my nice regular hours job, life is ridiculously more easy than it was before. I now work from 9am til 5.30pm and don't have to do work in the evening (and late into the night...and all weekend). So I've got all the time I want to blog, read, write...do whatever I want really, which is pretty awesome and how a working day should be in my opinion! And I'm loving our new house too. As I mentioned before, we now have a garden and a bit of decking, and behind that is some marshland where about a million birds (and bugs...) live, including a barn owl that I've named Jeremy. Yes, I name birds (we have Rodney, the blackbird with a white head), and inanimate objects (Poppy, the draught excluder dog; Dorothy, the pink orchid; Winifred, the rabbit garden ornament...). Ben is currently pleased because he gets to be a 'man' and go to B&Q and fill holes in the wall and stuff.

If you'd like to take part in the F&F 7 Days of Summer challenge and be in with a chance of winning a £75 voucher each day, head to their blog to find our more about how you can enter. It's open until Tuesday 14th May. Each day has a different style and you can enter in a variety of ways (Facebook, Twitter etc). Good luck!

Love

What I Read This Month #4: April

I have about 5 different sets of outfit photos to do, but I've managed to do my book review posts every month so far this year and I'm now 10 days behind thanks to my lack of internet for this post, so it just has to come now I'm afraid. Sorry outfits (and holiday snaps...from Disney and America last year...)! Again, not such a good month for reading as the start of the year, but I think 4 or 5 books a month is probably a good average for me - the first couple of months of the year were an anomaly because I was very poorly and couldn't much else than read! So here we go with April's books.

The Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson - 6.5/10 - This is a difficult one to review. I definitely enjoyed reading the story of a man who at first seems pretty ordinary but turns out to have one of the most interesting life stories ever. But it dragged...a lot. And sometimes there was a bit too much modern history for me. While the bits I knew about were interesting, the bits I wasn't so educated on confused me a bit. Despite that, it was a good read, very surreal feeling.

Another Forgotten Child by Cathy Glass - 8.5/10 - Cathy Glass has been one of my favourite authors for years. Her books are all autobiographical, telling the stories of children she has fostered over the years. This book is much like all the others - she fosters a severely neglected and abused little girl and welcomes her into her family. I always find Cathy's books very inspiring as well as emotional. They're what I'd call an easy read for me, although the subject itself is not at all easy.

Little Boy Lost by Shane Dunphy - 7/10 - I read another book by Shane Dunphy in January, and I think I enjoyed that one more than this. Again, autobiograhpical, Shane tells the tale of his volunteering at a centre for mentally challenged young people and adults. Despite its blurb stating that the story focuses on one particular man, it really seems to me to be focused on everyone, including the author's relationship with the staff. The story of this book happened before the other I'd read and introduced a major character from the later book, which was definitely very interesting. A good read, but I preferred the other.

Little Girl Lost by Brian McGilloway - 8/10 - Similar title to the last but very different story. One girl is missing, and the police find another wandering the woods, terrified, unable to speak and dotted with blood. How are the two girls connected and why are these things happening? It's another of these detective stories that I seem to love recently, and was a very enjoyable thriller with some tense moments.

The Glimpse by Claire Merle - 8/10 - This book had the feeling of a young adult novel with a 17 year old girl as the main character, but dealt with a topic that was far more serious. Set in the near future, England is separated into two factions - the Pures and the Crazies. Based on DNA testing, the Crazies are those who are tainted by the 'Big Three mental illnesses', either as carriers, sleepers or actives. They are deemed dangerous and kept in poverty in the crowded city whereas the Pures live in the much more upmarket Community. Ana was born into the Pure civilisation, but discovers her DNA testing was flawed (deliberate or not?). She must marry before her 18th birthday in order to remain in the community. But when her husband-to-be is kidnapped, she risks her life to save him in the city. I've read several reviews of this book stating how awful it is because of the way the Crazies are portrayed by the author, stating that mental illness is not something to be messed around with. I definitely have to disagree with these - yes, you shouldn't treat anyone, with or without a mental illness, in these ways, but the author is in no way suggesting this is right. It is simply a fictional novel based in a world where these things might happen. Maybe some of the facts about mental illness in it aren't scientifically correct, but that's what fiction is all about, right?! There are thousands of books that deal with controversial subjects like these and are not intended to be offensive. This is, like those, also not intended to be offensive. If you think it is offensive, then don't read it. Simple. Anyway, I enjoyed it. It was scary and horrifying, but shows what human nature can be like. 

What have you been reading recently? Let me know if you have any suggestions of books for me to read and I'll add them to my list!
Love,

Bang Good

Look at this, another outfit post! I'm doing well at the moment! Although the outfits I'm going to be posting for the next few posts will be a week or two old (plus the Disney ones I have yet to edit and post!). So this outfit is just from the weekend when I popped home for a couple of days. I'm actually not just sat on the picnic rug (which is actually a tablecloth!) for the poses, it had a purpose! I had to do some photos of Thomas the Baker products for my dad (more on that soon!) and was setting up all the focus and lighting, so used myself for that bit, but they came out quite well as outfit photos too! I only took a couple of pieces of clothing home, and the blazer was what I'd been wearing when I came straight home after work. I hadn't planned it at all to go with this skirt, and never would have thought to pair them together, but put it on and it just worked somehow. Weird how things like that work out! You would have thought they'd clash with the very different patterns, but the colours must have gone together right or something.

(Obviously I'm pulling a face at my sister trying to photobomb my pictures...just thought you'd like to see 'normal Sian'!)

Floral Blazer: Clothing at Tesco (similar here and here)

Black Top: Primark

Skirt: c/o Bang Good

Flats: Dorothy Perkins (exact ones)

I was pretty wary of wearing this skirt because it's so short! I don't think I've worn anything this short, apart from denim shorts, since I left uni. And I didn't exactly wear super short things then either. I tried it on and thought I would probably just wait until I went on a night out (yeh...because that happens often..!) but in the end decided to wear it during the day. I actually really like it though which surprised me! Don't think I'll be wearing it to work or without tights though!

My work wardrobe is changing a little slightly at the moment. As I keep saying, I don't have a particular dress code at work, so I'm going along the lines of looking nice, a little bit smart occasionally and trying not to dress down too much, because I could get lazy like that! Today I wore actual heels to work, albeit with a pair of jeans, outfit post coming soon for that! I think I can get away with wearing smaller heels at work as long as I'm not wearing anything too over the top in the rest of the outfit, since I am 'grown up' now, and grown ups can wear heels whenever they want, right?! Anyway, I think I need to start looking at getting more sensible heels such as Gabor shoes though. I tend to buy ones that are pretty and too high for anything except going out, which as we already discussed in this post, I don't tend to do!

Love,