January Blues - Outfit Post

Given that I had a fairly lazy day on Sunday, no dancing (till the evening!), flying or fettling required, I felt a pencil skirt was in order! 

I love a good pencil skirt! Thanks to some Christmas money my pencil skirt collection has increased almost exponentially over the winter break. 

This one arrived as a £2.50 gift from my mum a few days ago in the mail and Sunday seemed to be the perfect day for its first outing! 

I've also got a bit obsessed with the Bardot tops that seem to be all over the place at the moment. I've got a lot if colourways in the sale from Matalan which has been brilliant. 

They're perfect for me as I don't feel my arms are my best feature, and the sleeves hold that area together nicely!

Outfit Details:

Bardot top: Matalan £3 (currently in their sale)

Pencil Skirt: George @ Asda £2.50 (currently in their sale) 

Boots: New Look (if you see them in the sale, let me know! I want another pair!!) 

Decided to take the photos while we were at Stow Marie's (awesome WW1 aerodrome and museum), aeroplanes providing a good backdrop for everything of course! 

I love that you can put a whole outfit together with high street bargains at the moment with a good retro feel, comfort and no fear of ripping your vintage pencil skirt! (...of course this has never happened to me...!!)

Grabbed any bargains in the sales? 

Jo :-) 

Lady in Red! - Outfit Post

Quick outfit post from the other day as I felt rather well put together for a change! This is part of my "it's old, I don't mind it getting grubby but I still want to look cute" wardrobe that I utilise for work a lot of the time! 

Beret: First Avenue Classics via a charity shop

Shrug: New Look years ago!

Necklace: gift

Dress: F+F Tesco via eBay 

Belt: Dorothy Perkins via a charity shop

Vest and Leggings: Primark

Boots: New Look

Mostly my work wardrobe just needs to be warm. Layers are such a good friend! Primark is amazing for cheap items to wear under my clothes in the winter. Ditto all the supermarket clothing lines! 

I'm sure as winter gets here I'll go back to trousers and heavy fleeces but for now I'm hanging onto my skirts for as long as possible! 

Also a selfie because my make up went beautifully that day and matched my outfit perfectly! Make up is all by Collection except my Mascara which is by Marks and Spencer's. Slowly upgrading my make up to BUAV approved cruelty free brands, but I'm not one for waste! 

Hope you're all having a lovely week! 

Jo :-) 

Sentimental Skirt

I finished playing around with this skirt a couple of Sunday nights ago. Just in time to wear to jazz. 

It's been sitting around waiting for something for quite a while now, so figured it was time to do something with it! 

It's cut from the bottom of my Mum's wedding dress. My parents are divorced so she doesn't want it, and I figure that it's part of my history. 

It was very eighties to start and I fancied using the full skirt. So I cut it off! Then panicked. Then hemmed it at the waistband. Then panicked a bit more! 

Finally it's got an elastic waistband. Mostly. It's a bit bodged, but it works with a belt. 

I may take it apart again and start it over, but for the moment it's ok. 

It's a bit shorter than I'm used to, but it was really fun to dance in on Sunday. Nice and floaty and light. 

For some reason it makes me feel very 20s. God knows why. I did my hair in pin curls and a side pony. I don't like wearing my hair down to go dancing, so pin curls are a good option! 

I'm fairly pleased with the outfit in all. I like that it has some sentimentality to it and I'm glad I finally got it wearable!

Jo 

P.S. any important clothes in your wardrobe? 

P.P.S. sorry for the terrible quality phone photos!! Normal service will be resumed when the fiancé/photographer returns! 

Pencil Skirts and a Cape!

Two items of clothing that I love. You can't go wrong with a classic pencil skirt. They're brilliant because as a classic shape you can easily find them on the high street. M&S are great. They can be styled up or down and I find them fairly flattering! I have six now. 

Black casual. Navy casual. Khaki casual.

Black smart. Leopard print. Which I think should have its own category, but I'm putting in smart! And now bright teal smart.

The casual ones are all made of stretch fabric. They're great for biking, strolling, housework, and any day with a stiff breeze! They're also only cheap, two are from Primark, and I mean to buy a red one this winter if they still do them. The other is from Asda. They're great just to slouch around in a bit without worrying. I think the black one even has a paint stain from work!!

The leopard print is for fun from TK Maxx. I don't wear it very often, but it is awesome!

The smart black one is a poly cotton blend with a fancy lining. My godmother gave it to me. It has a lovely kick pleat and makes me feel very snazzy! 

The latest addition to my pencil skirt addiction is the bright teal woollen one. Picked up in a charity shop last week. It's by Windsmoor, made in England and is beautiful. Especially for £3.50! It's definitively vintage, although I suspect 80s rather than 50s which is the look I'm going for with it! 

I wore it for the first time last night with an unremarkable black top, my favourite nude heels, and my awesome Burberry cape! (See the last blog post!) it was a dinner for my fiancé's birthday, followed by a visit to a couple of terrible clubs in Colchester. That were half empty. Not quite the wild night I think Eric was after but still, we had fun! 

My highlight being walking out of the bathroom and bring confronted by a lovely lady who looked me up and down, and said "wow, you look so lovely!"

So thank you kind stranger! For making me want to dress up more often! 

Jo.

P.S. got a wardrobe staple? Any strangers say nice things to you recently? :-) 

A Cape for Christmas

I know. I said the C word. I've just spent an hour at a Christmas Market at the Tiptree Jam Factory with my at some point to be sister-in-law. There was Christmas music. It's got me feeling all sparkly!! 

Mulled wine, roast chestnuts, hot chocolate and mince pies. Fake snow and fancy decorations. It was a good evening, but not the best thing that happened today. 

I give you, my charity shop cape!

It's pretty awesome. Zipped openings for your arms. Cute collar. Smart navy. Good, warm winter length. 

But wait!!

What's this?!

It's only bloody reversible! Look at that face. Imagine my excitement when I discovered this Amazingness! 

Bird Jo. Apparently it looks like a wing man suit. Meh. 

See how happy I am?

There's more! Whilst ringing my mum to tell her all about the amazing cape (we all do this right?!) I looked for a label. 

The reversible bit of the coat explains why neither I or the charity shop folk could find one.  

So I fiddled about between layers.

It's only Burberry! A Burberry cape for £12.99. That's reversible. 

Yes please. Don't mind if I do! 

So sorry for the bad phone quality photos, but I'm far too excited to wait for proper ones! 

Here's a picture of me looking all excited again. Just in case you forget. 

Cheers!

Jo. 

P.S. what's your best bargain from a charity shop? This beats my previous hands down!!