WhiteBirdPaperwork: From Romy, A Hippy at Heart

"Do small things with great love - That's the mantra of White Bird Paperwork. Business cards don't have to be boring, they shall make you stand out and reflect your personality and benefits. Featuring filigree superfine prints, sophisticated quotes or quirky slogans on eco-friendly high-quality paper, these cards are little pieces of art. They are sure to be noticed by the one you hand them over to! Nothing to throw away and forget, but a lovely treasure for anyone's desk or wallet - and an unique reminder of your business and your qualities!"

So says the lovely Romy of WhiteBirdPaperwork, a newly set up Etsy business that is offering uniquely refreshing designs that are handmade and ethically printed from petroleum free colours and eco friendly inks onto uncoated paper and vegan printing materials, all designed with Romy's attention to detail and hippy chic style in mind.

If you recognise her from her Etsy shop it could well be you have seen her blogging over at Hippy at Heart-she has been a regular blogging friend of mine for a few years now and is based in Germany and she has a wonderful blog which diaries her wonderful vacations, her passion for furniture and fashion and her new addition to her family-Hendrix the cat!!

I thought I would show you her fabulous designs of business cards which would be ideal for any bloggers or style lovers who wish to own a set that are not only unique but are ethically made too:

For Mexico Lovers and Flower Childs: set of 250 for £62.50

Wanna Hire Me? set of 250 for £62.50

Jack Kerouac Quote: set of 250 for £62.50

Little Pieces of Art: set of 250 for £62.50

For Vintage Sellers and Lovers: Paisley design, 250 for £62.50

I hope you manage to get over to Romy's Etsy store and her blog, she is such a lovely young lady and her style is most inspiring and chic! As she says in her own words-'My business cards are perfect for Etsy sellers, vintage sellers, writers, photographers, fashion designers and individuals with a free spirit'.

Pre Fall 2014 Designer Looks for Inspired Wearing & Potential Future Thrift Finds!

Hi everyone! I hope you all had a lovely weekend, mine involved the normal grocery shopping and catching up with housework, mingled in with a little thrift shopping and some downtime relaxing with a few good films.

Although I'm not thrifting as much as I have been used to, I love gaining inspiration from designers and what they're showing off on the catwalks season to season. 

For winter, I am currently loving denim, chunky knits, neutral knits, tailored coats and faux fur and I've found that there is a lot of inspiration from the pre fall 2014 season. My go to weekend outfit currently revolves around either a camel or black and white tweed coat or leather and faux fur paired with my favourite pair of denims- which currently jump from acid wash skinny jeans, to boyfriend jeans to faded distressed.

I am such a fan of longline tailored jackets/coats too- I have a black crepe one and am currently on the hunt for a grey one- the Michael Kors check one below is certainly a gorgeous style which would really fit into my wardrobe and mix easily with items I already have! Likewise the last coat is very reminiscent of my Tissavel coat from a few posts back which is oversized and very laidback in style.

The first chunky jumper by Chanel is a style winner for me too- I love the colours and it works perfectly with denim and this style of jumper is definitely a thrift style inspiration for me too. Likewise, Louis Vuitton is another style aspiration with the tailored coat, faux fur collar and light jeans being my type of wearable, on trend look for right now:

CHANEL

LOUIS VUITTON

MAXMARA

MICHAEL KORS

Images: Vogue.com

Have you been inspired by any designers looks-do they resonate with your own style or do you prefer to gain your style inspiration elsewhere?  It's defintely given me an idea of items that will be on my thrift list and I'll be sure to share them with you when my style hunt is successful!!

Wishing you all a really great week ahead, whatever you are upto!!

January purchases so far and Jaeger sweater and Levis jeans

Hi everyone!! Thank you all for your kind and lovely well wishes and comments that you've been leaving for me, they are so much appreciated and I hope to be able to visit you all soon with comments by return-I'm just getting over feeling ill and with working too blogging has definitely fallen by the wayside!

I am hoping to do the odd posts here and there as I can't publish regularly at the moment. I thought today's post would be ideal to share as it is mid month and gives a running diary on what I've bought so far this month. I've tried to just stick to what I said in previous posts and just thrift or buy items that I know I will love and make use of, the first being this mini cross body bag by DKNY. A black mini cross body bag has been on my list for ages and I've been looking for a while to find the right one-this one appeared at my local PDSA charity shop in the New Year and was a bargainous £3.99. It's as new and I've been using it virtually everyday for work as it holds my phone and cards and I wear it as I work:

Another purchase was from my local TU at Sainsburys on Sunday and is this lovely glass beaded 3 string necklace which was reduced from £10 to £3-a bit of a dodgy picture, but the colours include vivid purple, blue and green crystal style beads and all in all was well worth the money:

I also picked up these chandelier style earrings, also reduced to £3, which will be ideal for dressing up a tee and jeans outfit:

My next purchase was inspired by lovely blogger Michelle over at MyFashionable40s and whose style is impeccable and very covetable!! She bought her black pom pom hat from Warehouse last month but I was unable to find one in my local one and was pleased to eventually track down a similar one in Marks and Spencer in their Limited Collection section. It was £9.50 but as I had taken back an unwanted Christmas present which was £10, I can credit 50p off my other spends!

The next item that was found on the day of the DKNY bag find was this H&M faux fur black collar which was £2.49 from my local Salvation Army. A faux fur collar always comes in handy for day or evening and will jazz up any given jacket or coat and I've been mentally wanting a black one for ages too, so another item ticked off the list!

So a grand total spend to date this month of £11.98 for 5 items. I'm still looking for the elusive and perfect longline grey jacket but as I'm not thrifting regularly I guess I'll just have to be patient before the right one comes along! 

My outfit post is from Sunday in which I wore a thrifted Jaeger striped merino wool crew neck sweater, my new necklace, distressed by me faded boyfriend Levi's jeans and my new black patent trainers which were a Christmas present from my eldest son:

I cut the hems so they are frayed and also distressed the front with my cheese grater and scissors!

I do hope you are all having a great week so far and it would be great to know what you've been buying so far this month-have you got a great sales buy or have you bought a much needed/wanted item from your style wishlist?

A Thrifted and Gifted Outfit Post!

Hi everyone!! Wishing you all a Happy New Year and a healthy and prosperous 2014 to us all! For me the 1 January was greeted with the worst migraine and flu like symptoms I've ever experienced and I was in bed all day and all night, I don't know what brought it on as I didn't get at all drunk on New Years Eve but I did have a couple of glasses of ginger wine which have sulphates in it and I have since read that sulphates can trigger migraines. Well I won't be drinking that ever again and thank goodness I was well enough to go to work today!

Here is an outfit from last week which features some Christmas gifted items and thrifted pieces too, both recent and from 2012.

My Christmas gifts were my Anerkjendt (Danish brand of clothing) camo beanie and my grey Hype sweatshirt, which my lovely son gave me-him working in fashion pr definitely has its perks! I so love the sweatshirt, it has a lovely warm interior and is just perfectly oversized- I love wearing my cuffs poking out of my sleeves as shown here. 

My thrifted items are the River Island wine colour skinny jeans which were from the Salvation Army last month for around £3, my faux fur Maine (Debenhams) gilet which was a jumble sale find in 2012 for £1.50 and my midnight navy blue leather Jaeger jacket which was also from Summer 2012 at a local boot sale for £2.50:

Not forgetting my trusty Primark tartan scarf that I can't live without and my Dune black leather biker ankle boots which were gifted to me in Autumn.

I also received some trainers from my son and I'm sure they will make an appearance on the blog at some point soon! I hope you've all managed to pick up some fabulous bargains in the sales this season-I actually haven't done any sales shopping as it's not near payday and also I'm really just going to thrift or buy items that are on my style hitlist to be worn and kept for a long time to come-one of them being the 'perfect' grey blazer, preferably a wool longline version to wear over skinny jeans. 

What is on your style list for this coming year? I'd love to hear what items you are currently lusting after!

Wishing you all a really good weekend whatever you get up to- I've a mound of housework to catch up on and am hoping to be near on 100% fit for a week of work from Monday!

Thrift Inspiration.....My Version of The Maxmara Carrara Coat, aka The Teddy Bear Coat

Hi everyone! I hope you've all had a lovely Christmas and Boxing Day, ours was very relaxing with a lot of good food and drink, films and Christmas TV thrown in! Thank you all for your lovely Christmas wishes-they were so much appreciated and I hope your holidays have been all you wanted them to be and if Santa didn't bring you that elusive pressie you've been after then hopefully you may be able to track it down in the sales that are all on at the moment!

I thought I would share a find from the summer holidays with you that is my inspirational version of the gorgeous and most covetable coat of the moment, the MaxMara Carrara coat, which I know is Carine Roitfeld and Kim Kardashian's winter coat of choice:

MaxMara Carrara Coat

It's just like a blanket coat, enveloping you like a big fluffy dressing gown and making you feel like a teddy bear-thus giving the coat it's nickname of the 'teddy bear coat'

I have a feeling the coat is sold out now, but it certainly is such an inspiring look and style- I love the casual wraparound vibe, the gorgeous caramel colour and of course the thought of the feeling you would get wearing a coat like this, I don't think you'd want to take it off!! 

So here is my inspired version- it's a vintage faux fur coat by Tissavel of France, a very renowned but now sadly defunct, faux fur manafacturer established in 1953. I have owned a couple of Tissavel coats in the past which were such fabulous quality, but this one is defintely my favourite. My favourite features of the coat are it's wide collar, the 'no buttons' style so you have to wear it in a wraparound style and of course, the length-this coat is definitely keeping all chills at bay!!

The true life colour is more as shown in the second picture, a 'caramel camel' colour and it was the perfect coat of choice to wear at the weekend for a brisk walk around St Katherines Dock- which was a very brisk and short one as we decided to go for a drive and enjoy a forthcoming coffee out at Cafe Nero.

I'm wearing a lurex pom pom beanie from Primark last winter, River Island faux leather panel leggings, ankle boots from PrettyLittleThing.com, a Marks and Spencer thrifted black merino wool polo sweater and a Chanel inspired black leather quilted chain bag:

Because of the wraparound style I just felt like hugging myself and of course you have to with this sort of coat as it comes apart otherwise!!

I bought this in the heart of summer from a local towns Sense charity shop which sells everything for a £1- so this is definitely my cheapest coat bargain of the year! 

Have you found your perfect winter coat yet? Do you love vintage or will you be seeking a bargain in the sales? I'd love to see how you're all styling up your chosen winter coat this season!! I am linking this post to the lovely Claire Justine for her weekend blog hop, I hope you get a chance to check out her fabulous blog! Wishing you all a very happy weekend and happy sales shopping too!