Crop Top's weren't just for the 90's...

Crop Top. Two words that aren't usually in my fashion vocabulary. I'm not really a lover of flashing the flesh, heck I don't even like anything too tight, but lately I've been trying to try new things out. You can get quite set in your ways when it comes to clothes and I started to get bored. When we were invited to my boyfriend's uncle's party, I decided to get a new outfit and try something new. You lot all know I'm 21 going on 81, so when a party comes up.. I go all out. I've recently started to fall in love with pencil/midi skirts. Once I steered away from them, but I've realised that even though I'm 5ft2 I can wear them. After all how can I persuade customers to try new things if I'm not prepared to? So with a longer skirt length, you can maybe be a bit more experimental with your top half. I'm never going to be a Kelly Brook kinda girl, so I thought maybe I could try a crop top. A crop top?! Something I haven't worn since I was about 10 and had a temporary tattoo around my bellybutton to finish the look. Thankfully, the years have been kind on my childish pot belly ( well the gym and 30 day shred helped that) and double thankfully I've grown out of thinking a tattoo round your bellybutton is cool. So with this in mind, I went to Topshop and bought a crop top.

Top: Topshop

Necklace: Dorothy Perkins

Skirt: Zara

Shoes: Matalan 

With a high waisted skirt, I was only showing probably less than a inch of flesh. When I first got changed I kept my leather jacket on for a good twenty minutes.. I then got too hot and well a few sips of cider helped me to take my jacket off. I actually felt fine and nice, and it's an outfit I'm looking forward to wearing again. Maybe if my new years resolution to get abs (not from 5ive.. tummy variety) I'll start wearing more crop tops? Who knows. What I have learnt is that sometimes it's good to come out of your comfort zone when it comes to clothes, you can sometimes surprise yourself.

Spot the products on the dressing table! 

As well as baring the tummy, we stayed at a lush hotel this weekend. Like I mentioned we went to London for a family party so we stayed in Greenwich which wasn't too far away from the shindig. We stayed at the Mercure London Greenwich hotel, after a nightmare finding it, we were amazed at how lovely it was. We had a double room, which wasn't the biggest in the world but so nice, a super comfy bed, a little dressing table (didn't take me long to make a mess) a plush velvet chair (no hotel room is complete without a velvet chair) a double wardrobe and well then there was the bathroom. There was a frosted glass door with all dates of kings and queen's of England's reigns, which was interesting.. though truth be told I was more interested in the fact you could control the heating and lights through the tv. The bathroom was huge, a massive shower with a massive shower head, and square toilet and sink. Who doesn't love a square sink tell me that?

Taking advantage of a clean mirror..

You can probably tell we don't get out much, but it was a real luxury for us, and we enjoyed every second. We also had breakfast which was in this downstairs restaurant where a waiter came and brought us toast in a toast rack! Okay I am going to sound so uncultured but usually I have to make my own toast in my green Next toaster! I don't even own a toast rack. We ate a lot, which you have to do when it's a buffet breakfast. We left feeling totally chilled, full and well we actually didn't want to leave. It was what I needed after a super stressy week at work, now I've got that Sunday night blues feeling. But if you're ever looking for somewhere to stay in London, I'd definitely recommend the Mercure hotel. We will definitely go back!


So I hope you all had a great weekend too, did you bare your flesh like I did? Or just sit back and relax? I hope you all have a good week, I know it's going to be a busy one work wise for me, but hopefully from Thursday onwards things will quieten down a bit.. well until we move! Eeek!

Summer Haulin' : Zara

With Spring/Summer finally arriving, I decided it was time for a new summer wardrobe. I suddenly realised that most of my clothes are black, or fine to wear with tights but maybe not too appropriate to wear with bare legs. Being that this is the first summer, I'll be working, I thought that I needed some new work outfits. It seems that every season, I get bored of my current clothes and decide to have a revamp. I decided that Zara was the place for me to have a little summer splurge, I do love Zara. I find their clothes are well made, unique to other high street stores and are always reasonably priced. As much as Topshop holds a place in my heart, I just can't justify their prices. Whilst in Zara you can pick up gorgeous items for under £30. I'm in. Zara has an amazing summer collection in at the moment, the colours are amazing. There's yellow, pinks, blues, corals. You name it, it's in there. With the Zara app on my Ipad fully loaded (that app is very dangerous for a shopaholic like me) I was away, filling my online basket up.

I'm not going to lie to you guys, a lot of the time when I do make a Zara order, I end up returning most of it. I do find Zara's sizes to be a little strange sometimes, but I have to say, none of my purchases will be going back, although they did all have to be exchanged for different sizes lol. So want to see what I bought?

Zara dots dress,

 Zara skirt, 

 Zara sarong skirt,

 Zara skirt, 

Zara skirt, 

Zara bag, 

 Zara neon handbag

 Zara necklace,

First of all I went a bit crazy with skirts, I have a abundance of tops but not very many skirts which are my new favourite things to wear to work. So I went and bought three. First of all I bought a Aztec tribal mini skirt, at £15.99 you really can't go wrong. I thought this was mainly one for everyday use, I loved the aqua and pink colours and thought it would look amazing with a white tshirt and sandals. I ordered this in a small but went and got a medium as it's a bodycon style, so I thought going up a size would make it more comfortable which it did :) Next is my new obsession with pencil skirts, they make me feel like a proper businesswoman and although being a personal shopper isn't a real businessy type job, it's nice to feel smart. I loved the pattern of this floral pencil skirt, the navy, the pink it's just right up my street. This funnily enough had to be swapped for a size smaller, this almost never happens but it was a nice surprise. Maybe the gym is starting to work? I've got a party to go to next weekend so I'm thinking of teaming this with a crop top... shock horror. As this is quite high-waisted you would only see a inch of my skin but I like the look it gives and it's something different to what I'd normally wear. For work, I won't be wearing a crop top, I'd scare the old ladies! I'll team this with a good quality tshirt or a blouse, but keeping it quite neutral as my skirt will do the talking.

 Next up is a cute polka dot dress, I do love a good dress and this jade green dotted dress was something I'd been looking for. Not too short for work but could also be worn on off duty days. It's really cute and I love it. I wore it to work the other day with a white blazer and I felt all summery until I got sent home with a tummy bug. I was devastated, I only got to wear my cute dress for two hours. :( My final purchase was a coral tulip skirt, I have put a blue one up as Polyvore didn't seem to show the coral one. I am a big fan of the colour coral, I find it suits me quite well with me being tanned and dark haired. This is the one purchase I'm not a 100% on, but I think I probably will keep it. It reminds me very much of something Cheryl would of worn back in her 2008 X Factor days, those were my favourite Cheryl moments so I am tempted to keep it. I love, love the colour and again think it will brighten up my work wear.

On the bottom row I have put some things I want to buy next from Zara, to be honest I'd happily throw all my wardrobe out in favour of buying a brand new one from Zara! I just can't get over how nice everything is in there at the moment! This orange shopper bag was love at first sight when I saw it in Suzie's latest youtube video, at £22.99 it's a steal. As much as I love my city bag, it's a bit heavy and I just can't stop thinking about this coral/orange shopper. I am also coveting this bright pink shift skirt, I tried it on in store but they didn't have my size, damn it. I love the colour pink and this is just amazing. I think I'd probably feel like Legally Blonde in it, but that's not too much of a bad thing right? This blue statement necklace is calling out to me, can you imagine how lush it would look over a plain black tshirt? It would look amazing, I'll tell you that now. Finally this neon clutch bag is giving me heart signs in my eyes. I do love a bit of neon and I think this is great for wearing with a plain outfit to liven it up. One for the birthday list I think.

So there we have it, I have splurged in Zara and I may have to be held back before I splurge again. Though I may be sensible and wait till we've moved house first. So I hope you're all well, I've been loving this warmer weather, but like I said I came down with a tummy bug this week which sucked. Life is super busy for me at the moment, work is crazy busy with me working full time and I have a abundance of mother of the brides to dress, and I'm also trying to arrange a fashion show for next week which is stressing me out. Also it's not long now till we move house, which is super exciting. I am so excited about getting a proper house with more than two rooms! Henry and I went to Ikea last week to see what we wanted and managed to make a hefty want list. I can't wait to have my blogging room, I've been checking out pinterest daily for inspiration! So yeah that's what's been going on with me at the moment, I think I'm letting my anxiety get the better of me at the moment which isn't good, so I'm going to try and chill out a bit! I hope you're all good and sorry if blog posts are a bit thin on the ground at the moment, but with everything happening all at once, I'm finding it hard to find the time to sit down and blog. Hopefully it won't be long till I'm back up again though :) 

Statement Jewellery..

Something you probably won't see me without is some statement jewellery. I never used to be a statement jewellery kinda girl, I used to wear the same necklace every single day. But these days, I'm all about chunky statement necklaces, long gone are the dainty numbers. I also have always had a love for big chunky rings, and this is something I still love. Though at the moment my love is for turquoise rings. I've never actually done a jewellery post before, so I thought I'd show you my favourite statement pieces.

A revelation for your cheeks: Bourjois's New Cream blushers..

Bourjois are one of my favourite make up stands in Boots/Superdrug. I could spend ages pursuing their products as there's just something about them that sets them apart from other drugstore brands. I see Bourjois as the Chanel of the drugstore world. High praise indeed right there. One of my favourite Bourjois products and I'm sure it's many others too, is the baked round pot blushers. So you can imagine my excitement when three brand spanking new cheek products came through the letterbox? Say hello to the new loves of my life, Bourjois's Cream Blushers*.

There's four shades to choose from and I have to say, I would happily buy all four. They're the perfect colours for Spring/Summer and I can't get enough of them. With a cream to powder formula, they're super easy to apply and are really pigmented. They blend really well, though I find the best way to apply them is with a Real Techniques stippling brush. The blushers also have extracts in the formula which are good for your skin, these include Poppy Extracts for more comfortable skin, Apricot Extracts for a healthy glow and mango extracts for a soft touch. If you're prone to breakouts like I am, these may slightly worry you, but rest assured when I have been using these for a few weeks and I haven't suffered a break out from them.

From L-R: 01, 02 and 04 

There are four shades like I mentioned above, these are 01 Nude Velvet which is a light peach colour that has a matte finish, 02 Healthy Glow which is a peach dream, it also has a very slight shimmer to give you a healthy glow, 03 Rose Tender which is a soft pink, I don't have this shade but it looks really pretty. Then finally 04 Sweet Cherry which is a darker tan pink/peach colour. In the pan it looks a bit ugrh, but once on it gives you a really nice natural flush.

I have found that you can also use these blushers on your lips too, 01 is a nice peach nude colour, great for paired with a smokey eye, 02 is a brighter colour and looks amazing when on the lips. This is fab for summer with a tan and then 04 is a great your lips but better colour. My favourite out of the four is 02, the colour is a perfect peach colour, you can build it up, so you can have either a subtle peach glow or a bit brighter. I pair this with golden eyes and a peach lip for spring make up perfection. I find that these blushers last all day and are nice and light on your skin. I have to say I'm very impressed with these blushers. The pots also come with a mirror inside, so you can top up on the go which I love.

When these launch into stores, 8th May for Selfridges and 15th May for Boots, Superdrug and ASOS, you have to go get one. They will be priced at £7.99 which is just a bargain. I mean it would be rude to not pick one up.