Leopardprint Love!!

A lot of lovely bloggers are commenting on leopard print. For me its a yay, as it is such a great trend that comes in and out of fashion and is always stylish.

This is an 80s/90s leopardprint fitted shirtdress that I found at the Salvation Army a few months back. I may well wear it in winter with black opaque tights, black scarf and black leather jacket to brighten up a miserable winters day!! I also have a faux fur vintage leopard print long jacket that I will wear when the weather gets really cold!!

Leopardprint is like marmite-you either love it or hate it. As you can see, I love it-yaay!

Bye bye Celia, Hello Radley!!

Hi everyone!! Thanking you all so much for your lovely comments about my new Ossie Clark dress, they are all very much appreciated!! This afternoon, I went thrifting-I know I'm supposed to be 'making do', but I just enjoy the 'me' time and browsing of thrifting. I find it relaxing and inspirational. Well, I thought I really loved the new Celia Birtwell top, it arrived today and does fit, but after my thrifting expedition, I just can't keep a £50 flimsy (but still gorgeous!) top, now I found this little number!!

Original vintage 80s Radley dress, £3.49 from the Salvation Army!! This for me is a more of a 'treasure', as I love the vintage appeal and obviously the price helps too! This is soo timeless and I will enjoy wearing this-very Carrie, don't you think!!

Anyway, the Celia Birtwell top is going back for a refund this weekend, with not many regrets!! I also got 2 pairs of faded jeans-I couldn't decide between the two and as 1 pair was £1.30 and the other was £3, I just bought both!! Plus I got a divine black velvet H&M blazer, perfect for winter and Xmas outings-this was £5.50.

Anyway, hope you all have a stress free, enjoyable weekend!!

Ossie Clark-yaay, another one for the collection!

Last week, I was fortunate to receive some money and I thought (not for long!) about what I should do with it. Of course, most of you know I love Ossie Clark and dear WendyB has been driving me to pure inspiration distraction with her divine Ossies.

So, it seemed the natural decision to add to my collection and was I pleased when I won this lovely red dress on Ebay over the weekend!!

It is a moss crepe Ossie Clark for Radley, very 40s style I would say! After a floral or patterned Ossie, I've been coveting a red one, so was very pleased when this one was for sale!

With the remaining money, I decided to treat myself to this Celia Birtwell for Topshop silk wrap top, which I'm hoping to pair with my See by Chloe high waisted light coloured flared jeans. A new purchase for spring/summer 09!!
So, I'm all spent out on my financial windfall, but I'm very pleased as to where the money's gone!

A Maelstrom of Inspiration!!

Hi there lovely ladies!!

Catching up on on your lovely blogs and continuing- sort of -the theme from Saturday, I've been overwhelmed with such inspiration from everybody, its just whirring round in my brain!!

Sal from Already Pretty and Always In Style are tempting me with delicious Frye boots, Fashion Chalet with her gorgeous Minnetonkas, Skye and her vintage Levi's, Silje and her sequins and shades of grey.......ohh, I'll be skint in no time at all!!

So, I shall follow dear Kate from Make Do and Mends advice from her excellent post earlier, of making do with whats already in my wardrobe and even snatching a few of Christophers (my son, not hubby!) stuff, he is now the same waist size jeans as me and his jumpers from last winter are lovely too! Don't worry, I won't leave him with nothing, LOL!

I do have some great pieces-mainly thrifted too- that I'm looking forward to bringing out again, such as my Sonia Rykiel multi colour jumper, my Marks & Spencer grey cashmere cardigan, jeans, my grey suede heeled boots, my French Connection brown leather and suede heeled slouch boots, my faux fur leopard vintage coat and my black sequin waistcoat, which I will wear over a wool jumper and jeans to dress it down!!

What fabulous pieces will you be pulling out of the wardrobe this winter-go on, have a delve, I'm sure there are some unforgotton treasures lurking-I'm looking forward to seeing Kate in her sequin cape!!

TopShop Unique-S/S 09-The 80s revisted!!

I just had to check out Topshop Uniques collection (all pictures sourced from Style.com) viewed at London Fashion Week. Wow, I love these, a real blast from the past, but suitably updated for the modern gal!! I love all things 80s, so I suitably swooned over the whole collection and these are my favourites-hope you like them too!

Love this white skirt and green top combo-dig the zip detailing!!

Love this white dress!!



Love this pastel and black geometrics jacket!

My absolute favourite-the leather jacket and skirt, yes please!!

This black outfit is my other absolute favourite!

I love this top!!

So Much Inspiration!!!

Hey you....................pay attention please!!

Thank you!

Well, this week I've been inspired by quite a few fashionable things-Ossie Clark (thanks WendyB), Celia Birtwell (thanks Topshop), black studded belts and tan leather boots (thanks Silje) and after my trip to the charity shop earlier, Mickey Mouse t shirts (thanks Skye).

Well, like a little girl who wants to wear all her favourite things all at once, here is todays outfit, inspired my eclectic mix of some of the above!!

Celia Birtwell for Topshop blouse (worn as a jacket) £5 Ebay, Uniqlo leggings £7, Steve Madden leather studded belt £3, Faith tan leather boots 50p Boot Sale.

Today is for chilling out and relaxing and eating and drinking!!

I only went to the charity shop earlier to give them the bag I'd prepared in the week and as the St Francis Hospice had all clothes for £1, I got an authentic DisneyWorld Mickey Mouse t shirt as Skye so rocked in hers, Levi's jeans for Christopher and white shorts for Christopher for school PE.

Then we did a food shop, which was nice as it was a 'goodies' one, lots of nice snacky bits and a touch of alcohol too, to make Saturday evening pass by very nicely, thank you!

Have a lovely weekend everyone!!

Vintage lovelies from Marthas Closet

I do love Marthas Closet-click on my link to check out their other goodies too!!

Vintage leopard print shawl, £10

70s electric blue maxi dress, £30

vintage halter neck hand made dress, £5

50s M&S kitsch apron, £8

Bessi silk scarf, £40

Ins and Outs of being organised!

Thanks to the Sunday Times List, I was suitably inspired to hunt down a hoodie at the Salvation Army today-voila, not one, but two Gap hoodies were suitably found!

A red sweatshirt style one and a grey velour shrunken style for a total of £6.48!! Nice and cosy for autumn!!

Afterwards, I took a look in one of the cheap and cheerful clothes shops in the High Road, one that I very rarely go in. I only found a new black leather Steve Madden studded belt for only £3!! I was very pleased, as this was more the sort of thing I was looking for! I will post pictures soon.

These were the Ins. When I got home, I did yet another declutter for the charity shop of 2 tops, 2 dresses and 2 pairs of shoes. These will be Out tomorrow!

I now have my drawers and wardrobes as I want them-my winter knits are in 3 drawers, a winter dress drawer, a summer drawer, a vintage drawer, 1 wardrobe has my coats and jackets and my other wardrobe has my 'designer collection' items, jeans, tops, belts and bags!! I love to be organised and have things 'just so'!!

The Sunday Times List

Well, according to the Sunday Times here is a pick of what every British girl should have-but lets not keep it to us in the UK, if you like whats on the list help yourselves, gorgeous blogger ladies!! I've picked what are my faves out of the 50 listed:

At number........

1. Gold hoop earrings

3. A vintage Ossie Clark dress (say no more!!!)

8. A leather jacket-cropped and fitted at the waist.

14. A string of real pearls or real pearl earrings

31. A decent pair of wellington boots (a must for UK girlies!)

35. A silk square

38. A grey hoodie

43. Something from Chanel-ANYTHING AT ALL!

48. A tea dress

To check out the complete list, click on my title to go directly to the Sunday Times website!!

New Ossies

The 2nd Ossie Clark collection by Avsh Alom Gur showed at London Fashion Week on Sunday, I've picked out my 3 favourites from it:

Autumn warmers

This was my outfit for shopping on Saturday. The morning was quite cool, so I wore my lambswool long line cardigan with my new scarf from the Ethnic shop in the local High Road. I am very impressed with the scarfs in here, I've just returned from the dentist with Christopher this evening and bought another one for £1. The one in the picture was bought with about 6 others last month-the others were £2 each and are in plum, purple, green, gold-ideal shades for Autumn.

M&S lambswool cardigan, Salvation Army, £3.49, Gap grey vest, Cancer research, £4, 7 For all Mankind jeans, RSPCA, £4.99, brown leather Topshop fringed bag, boot sale, £1

Cheap as chips-Primark belts

Well, there was nothing doing in H&M, New Look, Miss Selfridge or the charity shops for studded belts-these are what I got from Primark. They are so surprisingly cheap for accessories-the Topshop belt for £25 is leather (although partially) I know, but the corset belt in the top of the picture was only £3 and is a great alternative, I think!! I like the bottom one too, this was only £2 and I can wear it with dresses, jumpers and cardis in winter.

This is what I'm after!!

Well, I'm on the hunt later for a black studded belt-this one below is curently on sale at Topshop for £25. Knowing me, I'd rather get something a lot cheaper-I'll be sure to let you know how I get on!! I'm going to check out H&M, Primark, Miss Selfridge, New Look, so hopefully I'll find one! Have a great weekend everybody!!

Topshop Leather and Elastic Studded belt, £25-yum yum!!

Running in the family

Beyonce, with her Bracher Emden!!

As you all know, I do love thrifting in the charity shops and at the boot sales. I'm not the only one in the family, my lovely mum in law, goes to the boot sale every Sunday without fail and regularly checks out the charity shops. If she sees an unusual brand, she will generally ring us so we can check it out on google for more information. She has a great eye, particularly for jewellery and has hunted out gold, silver and platinum pieces on quite a few occasions.

Anyway, we got a phone call last week, saying she had thrifted a lovely evening bag by Bracher Emden and had I heard of it? Well, I thought I knew most bag brands, but not this one, so off to google to check it out. Well, here is the lovely one she thrifted-the picture doesn't do it justice, as the swarovski crystals and the stunning details are so sparkly and gorgeous:

I was very surprised to read that Bracher Emden is quite a luxury brand, chosen by celebrities including Eva Longoria Parker and Beyonce as handbags of choice. They are also all handmade and custom made, to add to their uniqueness:

Well, I thought I'd share the most important piece of information with you all-it was only £3 from the Salvation Army charity shop-wowser, bargain of the century, me thinks!!!

Roadtesting the leather

After being so undecisive about the black leather jacket, I decided to roadtest it Saturday and Sunday to see if I wanted it permanently. Well luckily for me the weather both days warranted a jacket and for such a casual outfit, a black leather fitted the bill.

Black leather jacket, £3.49 Salvation Army Charity Shop with Comme Des Garcons t shirt, £1 boot sale and Gap black skinny cords, £3.49 Help The Aged Charity Shop.

It's in my wardrobe permanently now, as it was really handy for the rubbish weather we are experiencing at the moment!!

Nie Nie Auction-Bid for your own Diana Necklace

As you are aware I was over the moon to finally own my Diana Ring from the gorgeous Wendy Brandes.

Please, please click on my title link as she is currently auctioning a Diana Necklace, with proceeds going to the Stephanie Nielson Fund. Stephanie and her husband were terribly injured in a small plane crash last month and there are very kind bloggers who are doing their best to raise money for her fund.

This beautiful Diana necklace can be yours-BID NOW!!!

Please go straight over to Wendy, who has dedicated a post to the auction and will fully explain how you can be a proud owner-like me-of a gorgeous piece of Diana jewellery and helping the Stephanie Nielson Fund in the process.

UPDATED TO ADD-THE MORE YOU BID, THE MORE YOU GET!! CHECK IT OUT, THAT'S THE DEAL FROM WENDY!!

New haircut and Me in the Gucci inspired vintage dress!!

After doing my post on the dress-see below, I was intrigued to see what belts I had would go best with the dress, hence a try on session ensued. I tried on a couple of black belts that have gold in them but I thought this cream leather studded belt, which is from River Island, but was thrifted (£2.49), went with it best. I was brave enough to do a bare legged look, but I will wear the dress with opaque tights and black ankle boots too.

My hair was in desperate need of a cut, so I went for a bob, a lot more manageable now!!

Gucci inspired vintage dress

Hi there-I know I'm not the only one to be inspired by Guccis Fall Collection (picture from Style.com), I'm loving the colours of their dresses and wanted to be able to source something similiar.

When shopping yesterday, I came across this vintage 70s dress in the St Francis Hospice for £2.50 and immediately thought the colours were so similiar to Gucci's dresses this season!

I will wear it with black opaque tights and black ankle boots or my black and gold studded Giles Deacon for New Look sandals.

I will also wear it with a black and gold belt too, a la Gucci style!!

My August purchase

About 3 Saturdays ago, I went to the Wanstead Rugby Club boot sale and stumbled across this little beauty. Its a lovely size, more big than small and has 3 main compartments, a front compartment and an adjustable length shoulder strap.

The bag is from the Gucci Accessories Collection and has the paper certificate under the serial number-its very fragile, so I have to be careful whilst using the bag.

This is such a gorgeous bag and its having its first outing today as I'm going into town to do a spot of shopping-have a great weekend everyone!!

Blogger Award

The lovely tupersonalshopperviajero has nominated me for the award above, thanks so much my dear-so kind of you and I now pass it on to the following eight bloggers:

Debs Country Kisses

Ellie

Fashoenista-Cheryl Lynn

Kate-Make Do and Mend

Alice-Ogni Cosa Bella e Viola

Cate-Retro LifeStyle

Lenya-The Fashion Loving Stylist

Sydney Speel-Sydney Speaks

All of these lovely ladies take time out whenever possible to leave me lovely comments and I'm happy to pass this award onto them! All they need to do is to leave the following message on their post when they pass the award on to their chosen eight bloggers:

They all are charmed with the blogs, where in the majority of its aims are to show the marvels and to do friendship; there are persons who are not interested when we give them a prize and then they help to cut these bows; do we want that they are cut or that they propagate? Then let's try to give more attention to them! So with this prize we must deliver it to 8 bloggers that in turn must make the same thing and put this text.

No But, Yeah But- Having a Vicky moment

What am I like!! I'm having a Vicky moment, as in 'Yeah, but-I'll keep it, No, but- it can be donated back to the charity shop'. I had to go and get Robert some new trainers for school, so of course I detoured via the charity shop to see if I could thrift a black leather jacket.

Well, I do tend to find most things at the Salvation Army and this was for sale at £3.49!! To be honest, I was more impressed by the price-less than Vogue or Elle or a Big Mac meal even!

So the pros-its in good clean condition, it is a perfect fit, its fairly thick for Autumn-not too flimsy, it was only £3.49.

The cons-It's the same style as my brown one I found last month; the leather has a matt finish-Chris has cleaned it with leather cleaner, which has made it better than what it was, but its not shiny; its not a wow jacket-I don't really know if I want a wow jacket or not though!

I shall keep it for the time being-it wasn't a waste of money as I've paid £3.49 to a charity.