Thrift Inspiration, Ferragamo style!!!

It feels like a long time since I've done a 'Thrift Inspiration...' post, but the turn of the weather and my latest charity shop find has prompted me to do one at last!!

A favourite recurring trend this Autumn is houndstooth, plaid and tartan and its been reworked by designers such as Yves Saint Laurent and Salvatore Ferragamo, who has brought out this gorgeous dress for this coming season:

On a shopping trip last week in Colchester we came across a hospice shop, which had an amazing amount of 'vintage'. I was really pleased to find this gorgeous St Michael Marks & Spencer houndstooth Chanel-esque cardigan, which ticks a few boxes for me-namely its really thick and cosy for now, is a great hybrid cardi jacket and is a perfect print for this season:

Its been ideal to wear for our temperamental weather now, I've teamed it with my Topshop denim gilet and Breton striped tee underneath and my grey M&S skinnies and summer ankle pirate style boots:


I love wearing jewelry too, especially earrings. What trends are influencing your look this season?

Day Tripping on the Orient Express

It was my mums 75th birthday this year so we decided to celebrate in style and go on the Orient Express for the day. We checked in at London Victoria station and had a complimentary coffee before departure:

I am wearing my thrifted Marc Jacobs silk tea dress and thrifted Topshop cream tuxedo jacket!



On board, we had a welcome glass of champagne and a couple of glasses of chilled white wine before our delicious 3 course lunch. We had leek and watercress soup for starters, chicken for mains and an almond roulade for dessert-very nice indeed!!



The journey to Deal was lovely, it was approx 93 miles of lovely countryside and some more chilled white wine!

We stayed in Deal for around 2 hours, enough time for a stroll in to town, along the Pier and a rest on the seafront for a spot of people watching.

On our return journey we had afternoon tea, which was an assortment of sandwiches, scones with clotted cream and jam followed by pastries-delicious! All washed down with fine English tea.

Our carriage was the Pheonix-previous visitors to this carriage was Sophia Loren and The Queen Mother!!

Mum and me on Deal Pier

We were presented with a little box towards the end of the trip-a belgian chocolate truffle, not a diamond ring!!

It was a fantastic day and one that I would definitely recommend to anyone wanting to do something that bit special for a loved one-departures are in different areas of the UK, we went on the Pullman from Victoria in London.

I am back to work on Wednesday, the holidays have gone very quickly indeed. With the weather so up and down it will be good to get back in to a work routine again!

I hope you all have a lovely week ahead and for those of you who may be affected by Hurricane Irene, I wish you safe and well.

Latest Clarks Offerings

I love to see every season what Clarks are offering with their shoes and handbags-they are now featured at Spartoo and some of their items are still on sale!

Having grown up with the brand like many of you, I still like to buy shoes from there every so often. Here is a pick of my favourite pieces available now and they also have a fabulous range of co-ordinating handbags too!!

Cadiz Treasure, £71

Moi Madame, £62



Modest Beauty, £67.20

Miss Louise, £71

Miss Daisy, £80

Ripple Wave, £67.20

What traditional brands of clothing and footwear do you still buy, regularly or every now and then?

Summer plays havoc with my blogging......

A big hello to everyone!! The summer seems to be going by so quickly-unfortunately the weather during August has been so temperamental here, I'm thinking have we seen the last of the wonderfully sunny days?

I hope you are all enjoying August and making the most of summer, whatever you are up to. My mum and I went on the Orient Express on Saturday which was a memorable and fantastic experience, I hope to blog about it soon.

I've nothing really planned now until I go back to work, so I hope to catch up with you all and read your latest posts!

I'm wearing my trusty summer staple of a Topshop denim gilet with a Roberto Cavalli top and Marni skirt.

I've tried to wear a few summer dresses this season, but I still tend to gravitate back to jeans and tees-what has been your favourite summer style staple this year?

Thrift Inspiration, Snakeskin style!!!

The big trend for Autumn and Winter is snakeskin-Gucci, Versace and Prada featured it at Milan Fashion Week for 2011-2012 and its not only the traditional brown colour featured, its actually gone multi coloured for this coming season:

Multi colour snakeskin, read about it here at Look magazine

Grazia also featured it recently, showcasing High Street retailers who have taken the trend on board:

If a dress, skirt or blouse isn't your thing, then how about investing in a bag, belt or a pair of shoes in multi colour snakeskin?

I thrifted this lovely little snakeskin clutch bag at the boot sale a couple of months ago for my vintage fashion fair, but considering its bang on trend and something uniquely different, I 've decided to put it in my wardrobe instead!!

I love the mix of multi colours and it will go with a lot in my wardrobe and certainly will dress up a winter jacket or coat.

Will you be getting into the multi colour snakeskin trend this coming season?

LBBs for Now and Later

Summer is still here but thoughts of Autumn and Winter dressing are not too far away and a good compromise of a versatile item to buy now are some LBBs-Little black boots which Spartoo have in a great range of styles and budgets.

They look great for a casual look dressed with denim cutoffs and a tee, or to fierce up a pretty summer floral dress.

Here are a pick of my favourite styles which are quite plain and minimalist, but all the better to go with more in your wardrobe!

Betty London, Vatchi, £75.00

Blink Maron, £71.00



Esprit Manuela bootie, £80.00

Melissa Kissing, £72.00

TBS Chiema, £88.00

Will you be investing in a pair of LBBs this coming season?

Feeling Blue in Comme des Garcons Spots and Stripes

The last couple of days since being back from Canterbury have been spent just catching up on chores and generally relaxing and also trying to catch up with my blogging too!!

For not doing much requires a fairly casual outfit, plus I fancied wearing all blue (could be as its that time of the month) so I'm wearing my Levi's flares with a Jane Norman striped cami top and my Comme des Garcons & H&M shirt-all thrifted from local charity shops.

I bought these flip flops for Robert when we went to Clacton last year and have now decided to wear them myself-I find cheap flip flops really comfy and cool during the summer and these ones remind me of when I was young and were about the only style of flip flops around!!

More relaxation is on the cards for today and I wish you all a very nice week ahead, whatever you get up to xxxx

A Canterbury Tale..... away from it all

Hi to everyone, I thought I would share my some of my pictures of our family break away. We booked to go away to Canterbury and we also visited the coastal resorts of Whitstable and Herne Bay. We actually left our home on Sunday and on switching on the TV on Monday morning were horrified to see of all the riots that had taken place literally a few miles from where we live.

Suffice to say how sad and terrible things have been, especially in the main regions of London, Birmingham and Manchester I was so pleased my family were away from the problems. We live on the Essex and East London borders and our local towns of Ilford and Romford did experience some of the problems, but thankfully not as huge a scale of other areas. A couple of my sons friends were mugged for their bikes and phones in our own local parks, which is so sad and frustrating with it being the school holidays, as now for the forseeable we don't want them going there, which is such a shame for them all.

Anyhow, we had a really fabulous family break away and here are my favourite photos which feature Canterbury and the Cathedral, Herne Bay and Whitstable. Canterbury is a stunning city, steeped in history and exquisite architecture and what I loved most about it was being able to roam freely and stroll in the evenings, which given the present atmosphere where I live was so refreshing and enjoyable. Both coastal resorts were so easily accessible from Canterbury-Whitstable is a wonderful fishing resort with delicious seafood available and Herne Bay is a quaint, laid back English seaside town:

Herne Bay









Whitstable

We were blessed to have gorgeous weather and had a marvellous afternoon of sunbathing and paddling on the beach on Tuesday and we've just made it back home today before the weather turned and back to rain!! August is proving to be a very temperamental month weatherwise, I hope summer is not over yet!!

I sincerely hope the riots that have taken place have not affected any of you and that you are all keeping safe and well whatever part of the UK you live or are in. I am quite behind with blogging too so I hope to be visiting you all over the next few days.

Wishing you all a very nice, relaxing and sunny weekend too!!

Mixing Modern and Vintage Liberty

A couple of months ago I posted that I found these Liberty vintage 80s shorts and wondered how I was going to style them. I had some excellent advice and a lot of comments suggested a white tee or vest top and a denim waistcoat.

I bought the Zara linen mix vest top a couple of weeks after getting the shorts and I've being wearing my Topshop denim gilet a lot this summer as its proved so versatile and goes with a lot of my wardrobe, plus its a great layering piece when the weather is being so unpredictable:

The sun has finally appeared in the South East and is glorious indeed, I hope it stays for quite a while longer. I do so hope you're having a good start to the week whether you're on holiday or at work. At the boot sale yesterday I stocked up on a good few books to last me the month, at 10p each and the most expensive at 50p, its a cheap alternative for ensuring I have a relaxing and chilled out time off before I gear up for our house move which will be either late August or September.

Whats on your agenda for resting and relaxation this summer?

I'm wearing my studded Matalan sandals too to pull the whole look together: