Feeling Festive| Christmas Party FOTD and OOTD

 

So what does a girl wear to her Christmas party? Never mind that! What does a girl wear to her first Christmas party at a company where she is still trying to impress and make a good opinion? This was my dilemma last week. Usually I would be the first to whack on a tight dress, get my tanned legs out and put on my stiletto heels, but when I work in an office in a very rural location, where my nearest cocktail or champagne bar is at least 70 miles away, I had to second think my attire. I still wanted a look that was glam, but maybe not as sexy as I normally aim for.

I decided to based my outfit around my sparkly shoes from Moda In Pelle which I love with all my heart! Look how amazing they are! They were the pair I wore for my mum’s wedding, and I think they are perfect for the festive season. I paired it with a matching glittery clutch bag from TKMaxx.  After I chose my shoes and bag I was stuck; I have a million dresses in my wardrobe, even more so now I have lost a dress size, but couldn’t decided which one was appropriate. So like you probably all have done, I ended up sat amongst all my clothes after having a hissy fit about how “I don’t have anything to wear!” I know a little black dress would of looked great but I wear black dresses to work everyday, so wanted something with a bit more colour. So after trying on all of my dresses I finally settle on the above lilac one from H&M. at first I thought of it as a more summery dress; more fitting for a wedding. But after trying it with the shoes and bag I thought it was perfect; sophisticated, girly and festive!

My works Christmas Party was a great success. We all went to a local hotel to have an all expenses paid for dinner and drinks, plus a little disco. It was a nice change to see my work colleague outside of the office, and we all had a great night; Sunday was evidence of that! Lets just say I had a few too many glasses of wine!

What did you, or are you wearing to your Christmas Party this year? Anything sparkly like my shoes?

Scary Cat| My Halloween Look| FOTD & OOTD

I don’t know about you, but I have never been a huge fan of fancy dress. I do love Halloween, but find that it is a little bit too Americanised now, and preferred it when the point of a Halloween costume was firstly for it to be Halloween related and secondly it was to scare someone. I’m all about the pumpkins, trick or treating, scary masks, claws, cobwebs and cloaks! This year I was invited to a Halloween party last Saturday night by my manger at work. I was a little unsure to begin with, but when she said that you had to dress up, and your costume had to be scary I was all for it. Now, I am a little unoriginal with my Halloween outfits, as I normally go as I cat as I can’t help but love the irony. I love when drunk people find it hilarious that I’m called Cat and I am a cat!

I decided to stick with what I know but wanted to scare my outfit up and make it a bit more dramatic. I had originally bought face paint and face crayons to decorate my face, but after practicing with them I found them very waxy and not very pigmented; consequently not creating the dramatic look I was after. I changed tactics and decided to buy the above makeup items to create my look. The Lipstick I have talked about here, and the eyeliner I already had. The lip liner was used to draw on cuts and scratches all over my body, and it was the perfect blood red. The eye-shadow is Boujois and was part of their Halloween collection and it’s amazing! I don’t know if I will wear it again soon, as it is a very pigmented and a very matte black. But it creates the perfect dramatic cat eye, and stayed  in place all night! The Boujois nail varnish was again very dramatic; it needed a few layers to build up colour, but once you did it looked great.

For my outfit I wore a black cocktail dress and tights which I ripped up. My hair I backcombed to the max and used a whole can of dry shampoo to turn it grey. Unfortunately you can’t see it too much in the pictures but believe me my hair was very tatty and grey! I actually woke up on Sunday morning and was rather confused by all the white dust all over the surfaces in my bedroom, it took me a while to realise the white dust was in fact the residue of my dry shampoo.

I admit my look isn’t the scariest ever, but I think I did a pretty good job. At the party and in town there was some great scary costumes, lots of very convincing zombies and vampires, along with Goth brides, Bettlejuice and Jimmy Saville (a little bit of bad taste, but we all knew someone would dress up as him).

What do you think of my look? What did/ are you dressing up as for Halloween?

*Apologies for the poor quality iPhone pictures, still in need of a camera*

OOTD| FOTD| Pre Wedding Dinner

Outfit Of The Day

Dress- Dorothy Perkins

Shoes- Christian Louboutin

Clutch bag- Tkmaxx

Face Of The Day

Eyes- Urban Decay Naked Palette

Face- Primer- Rimmel/ Foundation- Maybelline Super Stay 24 hours and Revlon Colour Stay 24 hour – Contouring- Sleek Palette- Blush- Rimmel

Lips- Rimmel Kate Moss Nude

I thought I would do a Face and Outfit Of The Day to show you what I wore for the night before my mums wedding this past weekend. I’m frantically trying to think if I could do an actual wedding day Outfit And Face Of The Day however I think I was so busy enjoying the day I didn't even take pictures of what I was wearing or what my makeup looked like… blogger fail!

Anyways back to the Friday. The Friday evening was a smart casual affair, where dinner and drinks were served at the hotel while we all mingled and got to know each other before the big day. I originally planned to wear a dusty pink dress to kick off the pink theme to the wedding and to match my Mum’s dress, however as much as I tried I did not find a dress I was completely happy with. In the end I spotted this teal number in the Dorothy Perkins sale. It is actually the same dress as another I had bought and worn previously (You can see it here) and as I knew it was a flattering fit and comfortable I chose to wear this for the Friday night instead. I paired the dress with my Louboutins which I received as a graduation present; its actually only the second time I have worn them as they are so precious, and my silver clutch and silver jewellery which I also wore on the wedding day.

For my face I decided to go for a dramatic smoky eye and nude lip as on the wedding day I wore a more natural look, so I wanted to create a contrast and dress my face up a little bit more. I created this look using my trusty Naked Palette, the same palette that the makeup artist on the Saturday actually complimented me upon, as she loves it just as much as us bloggers. I am wearing lash inserts in the above picture; I treated myself on the Thursday night as I didn’t want to have to be fiddling with fake eyelashes all weekend. I only got the two week occasional wear ones, but they are still going very strong and I am in love with them! It means getting ready in the morning takes about 10 minutes less as I don’t have to apply endless layers of mascara, and I am much more confident with out makeup as my eyes are very defined. I will be writing a review on them in the next couple of weeks, so keep an eye out for that. I have been attempting to contour my face this past week, and although still a beginner I am enjoying the way it makes my face look.

I had a great night, as did many others judging by some of the sore heads in the morning, my boyfriend being one of them. However everyone had soon recovered come the ceremony, and the Friday evening allowed the wedding day to be more relaxed as the ice had already been broken the night before.

Are you are contouring pro? Could you give me some tips or recommend any products?

Spanish Sun| Holiday outfits

*Outfit 1- Dress- New Look, Blazer- Pull and Bear, Sandals- Stylist Pick*

*Outfit 2- Dress- River Island, Belt- Primark, Sandals- Stylist Pick, Bag- Ebay*

*Outfit 3- Dress- Dorothy Perkins, Sandals- Stylist Pick, Bag- Ebay*

*Outfit 4- Shorts- Primark, T-shirt- H&M, Sandals- Stylist Pick, Bag- Ebay*

As you may of read I was lucky enough recently to have been on a little holiday with my boyfriend and his parents, to their apartment in Eastern Spain. While we spent a good deal of time relaxing by the pool, sunbathing on the sun terrace, and having lazy boozy lunches, we still crammed in some culture and visited Valencia for a couple of days. I have not previously been before but have been eager to go as heard the old town was beautiful; which it was. However there is a great mix of old and new architecture around the city, so it was very picturesque and interesting. For those not into architecture and history, there was plenty of shopping and bars to keep yourself busy with.

The biggest challenge with this holiday was that I was only allowed to take hand luggage with me, as we did not pay for hold luggage, so cramming two weeks of clothes into the tinniest suitcase was a big ask. As you can see from the pictures above it did severely restrict my collection of shoes and bags, so much so I only took one handbag, and 3 pairs of shoes. The rest of my luggage consisted of 6 dresses, 1 playsuit, 2 t-shirts, 1 pair of shorts, and 3 bikinis, not forgetting my workout gear… yes I was good and still went running while on holiday! When I was on holiday I felt quite restricted to my outfit choices, however I have previously travelled Europe for a month with only a small backpack, so I should be used to it by now.

Outfits 1 to 3 are from when I was off out for dinner and drinks, so they are some of my dressed up looks while on holiday. Outfit 4 was my tourist outfit for wandering around the streets of Valencia… not much style just something cool and comfortable. I very rarely get dressed up on holiday and never really wear heels, I much prefer to keep it more casual, and with so many pretty sandals and wedges around I don’t feel the need to take my party heels with me. During the day as I mentioned I choose comfort over style... is that a crime for us bloggers? Especially if I am going to be wandering around a city for hours on end in 40c heat I would much prefer to be comfortable than sweating it out in a pretty ensemble.

So my question for you is, do you keep it stylish on holiday? Or do your take a break and keep it comfortable?

One BBQ, Two Parties in One Night| OOTD

Dress- Dorothy Perkins

Shoes- New Look

Well I have had a busy weekend indeed! I visited Leeds which is the home city of my boyfriend. Normally we have a relaxing few days and catch up with his family and friends. However this was not the case this time, as we found ourselves being double booked. We had his Mum’s birthday BBQ and party, as well as his friends birthday night out; both on the Saturday night! So we had a bit of shuffling around to do… literally. We ended up spending the afternoon at his parents BBQ then going out to the bars in town in the evening with his friends, and then went back to his parents to finish off the partying. So at the end of it we were both very tried, and very drunk! It seems when you have two parties you end up drinking twice as much… my body was not thankful the next day!

I had a great weekend, regardless, but was very tired come Sunday night! I did also treat myself this weekend to a new iPhone! I have been due an upgrade for some time now, but being a busy student then worker I never got round to it, however now I have had it for 5 days I wouldn’t know what to do without it… I am in love with it! I am also completely addicted to Instagram now, as you can see from the Widget on the right hand side.

Anyways onto my outfit! I wore my new dress from Dorothy Perkins after I finally treated myself to a few sale items. The dress cost me only £10, down from around £32, and I think the cut is flattering and the colour screams summer, a great little bargain! I wore it with my blue New Look heels which I was originally going to wear at my graduation before I got my Louboutins. Again I love my shoes, they only cost £17 and have a very chunky heel. I wore them from 6 in the evening till about 3 in the morning, without any Party Feet and had no pressure or pain on the balls of my feet at all, so they are very comfortable.

What did you get up to this weekend? Did you have a relaxing one or a wild one?

P.S. Don’t forget, if you enjoy my blog, vote for me in the Cosmopolitan Magazine Blog Awards as Best Newcomer. It takes 30 seconds and a tick of a box but would mean the world to me…. Thanks!

Just click here- Vote OutsideBeautyInsideHealth

A Glimmer of Sunshine| OOTD

Dress- H&M

Shirt- Primark

Bag-Zara

Shoes- Stylist Pick

Well as many of my fellow bloggers are talking and twittering none stop about the wonderful sunny days they are having, I am sat very sourly in the rainy and cloudy Lake District where we have only had one day of sun this week, and that was last Saturday. So firstly, it you would like to send the sun up here, then please do so. Secondly my post is from that one sunny day, when I actually managed to sport my new wedges which were bought six weeks ago and not been worn since!

So last Saturday was spent in Newcastle, and it was my last day in my last ever student house! End of an era! I spent the weekend moving my boyfriends stuff to his new house and cleaning our old flat. So obviously wasn’t sporting anything special during the day, more like sweats and rubber gloves. However in the evening we went to go see Batman at the MetroCentre (best film ever) and went for burgers afterwards, and I wore the above outfit.

The dress you will have seen recently from my holiday pictures from Finland, as I wore it often then as its very versatile, however it creases really easily, which is quite annoying. The shirt I wear as a cardigan, it doesn’t actually provide any warmth but I think it adds something extra to an outfit. I paired it all with my new wedges from Stylist Pick, which are very high, but surprisingly comfortable, and my once trusty Zara bag. I say once trusty as it is now falling apart. I am hugely disappointed as the straps on my Zara bag are now snapping slowly but surely, but I suppose after spending only £20 on a bag I can’t expect it to last. Has anyone else had this problem with theirs? As know at the time there was an abundance of bloggers purchasing this bag. 

I hope you have enjoyed the sunshine where ever you are, and for however little it has stuck around. Did anyone else go see Batman over this past week?

Graduation OOTD and FOTD

Dress- Next

Bag- Ebay

Shoes-Christian Louboutin

I thought I would share a picture of my outfit from graduation day, seems it took for what seems like months to find a dress I was happy with. I don’t know about you, but as it was such a big day, and a day I knew would be remembered in pictures for the rest of my life I actually felt some pressure to make sure I had an outfit that was obviously stylish, but also timeless, formal and ladylike. I wanted a dress that was of colour, as opposed to just black, as I wanted it to pop from beneath my graduation gown, but I didn’t want anything too bright. I decided upon a cream colour, but then this white one from from Next was the winner for me, out all the dresses I tired on. It had built in underdress, so smoothed out any lumps and bumps, and was a perfect length for me. Looking back at it know, I think it makes me look a little top heavy, but that something I often suffer from due to my body shape.

For my shoes I originally planned to wear a bright blue pair from New Look, but once I received my gift from my Mum and her partner I was obviously going to wear the Louboutins. I am totally in love with them, and am ever so grateful. I think they go great with the outfit as they make it more fun than if they shoes were a more conservative nude or black pair.

I chose a brown bag as knew it was going to be difficult to find a bag to perfectly match the colour of my originally planned shoes. In hindsight I recommend to anyone who is graduating , wear a clutch bag as opposed to a shoulder bag, as it was difficult to wear it over my robe when wandering around, and ended up giving it to my boyfriend to carry.

What did you wear for your graduation day? Something formal or something fun?

A Day in the rain| OOTD

Playsuit- NewLook

Cardigan- H&M

Belt-H&M

I’ve had a very busy weekend of moving my belongings back to the nest. Yes I have moved back in with my mum, as I start my new job on Monday, which is conveniently located 3 miles away. Thankfully I’m a lucky girl and my lovely mum had completely cleaned out my brothers old room and had reorganised and redecorated for my arrival. So what was once a smelly pit inhabited by a teenage boy, is now my cute and cosy bedroom. 

Since I now live at my mothers, I am now located in the country and the beautiful Lake District, I’m about 5 miles away from Lake Windermere. So seems its my first of many lazy weekends with my boy we decided to go for lunch at Bowness-on-Windermere. Little did we know it would be completely chucking it down! Thankfully I was wearing my boots, so didn’t get too wet. The boyfriend however decided a hoodie and canvas pumps were suitable attire; so he did get wet.

We went to a little country pub, and had ice-cream at the lakeside for dessert, as its tradition in our family to get English Lakes Ice-cream whenever we are at Bowness-on-Windermere, come rain or shine! Due to all the rain the Lake was looking very full and there is a lot of flooding in Cumbria, thankfully I live on a hill so won’t be affected.

I chose a playsuit to wear as know it goes well with my boots. I bought it from NewLook to be worn on sunnier days as it is backless, but I have been wearing it with a vest underneath and a cardigan over the top seems the weather hasn’t been the best.

I have also received a lot of new followers recently, so hi to you all; old and new. I hope everyone has a lovely weekend despite the rain. I plan on spending the rest of it relaxing and blogging.

Looking hot while having the dissertation blues| OOTD

Firstly I say looking hot, as I feel like I resemble the sun whilst wearing this dress, due to the shades or red and orange, I am in no way calling myself hot, that's for you to judge not me :)

Anyways, as the title suggests I am currently living my life in the library, and I know many others simply throw on a hooded top and jeans, but as I currently have dissertation blues I decided to cheer myself up by dressing up. I still went for comfort, wearing a cotton dress, tights and flats, just throwing my blazer over the top to battle to chilly winds up here in Newcastle.  I am incredibly happy that it is the first day of spring today, and we have been having some lovely sunshine up here, so have been able to sport my sun-glasses, and I have been parading around with my new bag.

Dress- Dorothy Perkins, Shoes- Primark, Belt- H&M, Blazer-Primark, Bag-Stylist Pick.

Today started really well for me, I had my sunny outfit on, got to walk to the library in the sun, and managed to make a start on my university work, however I suddenly cam down with really painful cramps. So much so I had to go home a quickly as I could, as I become all hot and clammy, felt faint and sick. So I am currently snuggled up in bed trying to fight the pains. So instead of the productive day I had planned I have instead played around on a photo editing program, and am catching up with all you lovely peoples blogs. I just hope I feel a bit better tomorrow, only 13 days till my dissertation deadline, I don’t have time to be feeling ill.

I hope everyone else’s day is lovely, and you manage to enjoy some of the sunshine.

OOTD and FOTD| Girls night out

Please excuse my washing in the background.

Last night was my good friend Anna's birthday night out. I was lucky enough to finish early at work so I had all afternoon to get ready. I also spent a good proportion of my wage on dresses... whoops (Haul post coming up.)

We headed to Madame Koo's night club and were fortunate enough to have a table booked, so I decided to dress formal but glamourous. I purchased a pencil dress from H&M for a bargain price of £25 and paired it with a colourful pair of heels. I can see this dress becoming a firm favourite of mine; you just can't beat a little black dress. I hope you like the look.

For my makeup I used my favourite everyday products for my face, and dressed up my eyes using the Urban Decay Naked Palette to create a smoky look. I teamed this with a frosty nude lipstick so as not to overdo it. 

 I hope you all had a lovely Saturday night. I'm spending tonight recovering, with a take away, a blanket and cuddles from my man. 

Green with Envy

1- Green Coat- £120. 2- Debenhams Jacket- £110. 3- Dorothy Perkins- £20. 4- Oasis dress- £45. 5- Miss Selfridge Jeans- £28. 6- Miss Selfridge Satchel bag- £30. 7- Dorothy Perkins Clutch bag- £10. 8-Topshop Shoes- £50

Despite my Nana trying her best to deter me from the colour green (in her eyes its a bad luck omen),I love the colour. This article in Glamour magazine really caught my eye. I have quite a few green items in my own wardrobe, so was pleased to see it being an on trend colour this season.

I have used this article below to inspire my own mini collection of high street buys that follow this trend. In the article I love the green blazer, I think it may be an investment in my own wardrobe, it would look great teamed with jeans and heels.

What do think of the the colour green, in particular emerald shades? Hit or Miss for your own personal style? 

The Brits The Good, The Bad and The Awful

Last night was The Brit Awards, another glamourous night full with a red carpet fashion parade for us all to judge. I didn't watch the awards myself, but according to the press this morning it was quite an eventful night. Unfortunately, in my eyes, it wasn't an eventful night for fashion, looking through many pictures I have to say I was mainly unimpressed, very few dresses really stood out for me. Anyways onto my take on who rocked their dress last night, and who didn't.

The Good

I know I slated fergie for
showing too much flesh, but
I think Jessie is my top girl
for the night. This dress is
revealing, but glamourous, she
looks totally amazing! 

Holly rarely goes wrong in my opinion,
she is very lady like, classy, but always
sexy. Her whole ensemble is perfect, very
simple, but very effective.

Lana del Ray looks gorgeous.
Again a very simple dress, but
the cut is super flattering,
giving her curves in all
the right places.

The Bad

I know Adele was my favourite best dressed
at the Grammys in a very similar dress, but
this is why she is now on the worst dressed.
She looks good, but far to similar to
what she wore at the Grammys. At first I
thought this picture was from the Grammys.
The girl needs to mix it up more

Emma Bunton looks awkward
in this ensemble. I know she
looks young, but she's not in
her twenties anymore, this dress
is too young for her. I would
of liked a bit more glamour from
her. 

Rihanna just has too much
going on in this ensemble-
sparkly dress, sparkly
shoes, long leather gloves,
boobs and legs out. If she
had worn the dress, with a
simple shoe and minus the
gloves, then she would of
looked better. 

The Awful

Can someone please get Cher a new
stylist. She never looks good in my
opinion. I know she is trying to look
different and edgy, but here she looks
like a cross between a Quality
Street sweet and a Christmas cracker. I'm
sure that's not the look she was aiming for.

A very critical take on the outfits of the night, I know, but as I said earlier I was very underwhelmed. 

My favourite star for the night has to be Jessie J, who was you best dressed?

Cosy Cardigan| OOTD

This is my outfit from last Friday night. Not a wild night like Katy Perry's Friday nights, but more just dinner and drinks at a lovely pub in the outskirts of Newcastle. Very casual and cosy (it was -2C outside!)

I basically dressed down a dress I would wear to party in, by teaming it with chunky knit tights, and chunky knit cardigan, pulled in at the waist with a skinny belt.

*Dress- Dorothy Perkins*

*Cardigan-Primark*

*Tights- Topshop*

*Shoes- Primark*

I hoped you all made the most of your cosy knits over the past few weeks while its been freezing!

Grammy Awards vs Bafta Awards- US vs UK- The Good, Bad and Awful

Two award shows in one night, weren't we spoilt! Two great shows, and two great red carpet fashion parades. I am going to share with you my good, bad and ugly for each of the awards. Personally after looking through hundreds of pictures of both award shows I think the fashion in both has been outstanding. The dresses at the Baftas were beautiful, I actually struggled to find dresses I didn't like. 

The Good- Bafta Awards

Penelope Cruz Looked stunning in this simple dress. 

Michelle Williams really stood out for me, the dress is  simple but the monochrome colours give  it an edge. I love the Book clutch bag also.

Melissa George- This Victoria Beckham dress is right on trend at the moment, a lot of sparkly dresses have been worn on the Red Carpet this season. I love the pop of colour with her lipstick, a really sexy look.

The Good- Grammy Awards

Adele had to be mentioned. This girl is all over the headlines today. She looks amazing in this dress, her recent weight-loss and her change hair style have transformed her into a classic sex siren. She looks Sexy, classy and beautiful

Finally Kelly Osbourne is not on the worst dressed list. She has finally chosen a dress that is fun, young and flirty, much more age appropriate. 

Carrie Underwood is a show topper in this gorgeous backless gown. Again a sparkly number. The monochrome, because of the black clutch really make this outfit stand out. 

The Bad- Bafta Awards

I don't like the length of Hayley Atwell's dress, its not three quarter length and nor is it full length, its in-between. 

I don't know what to say about this apart from its a bit of a mess. Octavia Spencer even looks miserable about wearing it.

Christina Ricci looks like she is wearing a tinfoil dress, it looks cheap to me.

The Bad- Grammy Awards

Oh dear! Yes Fergie you have a lovely figure, but we don't need to see it right now, not appropriate at all.

Aww poor Jessie, she made a real effort to dress up and then she looks like she is wrapped in tinfoil also. This dress does not flatter her, she looks way bigger than what she is. 

Sasha Gradiva- What is this! just why? Why the gun? Otherwise it would be a pretty dress.

The Awful- Bafta Awards

I can see what Edith Boweman was trying to do, the vintage dress, paired with the gloves (similar to Sarah Jessica Parker) However I don't think she's pulled it off, and looks quite frumpy.

The Awful- Grammy Awards

Nicki Minaj- Oh Dear! She is like Lady Gaga, as in they are both not able to just wear a dress, they have to wear a costume and make a statement. In my opinion, yes they attract column inches, but please keep costumes for the stage, not formal events.

Who was your best dressed of the night? Anyone a step above anyone else? Who was your least favourite?