Fantasy Outfit in lieu of an actual post.

Shoeperwoman recently ran another challenge to build a fantasy outfit around a pair of shoes. I love those challenges, as it usually involves shoes I wouldn’t usually wear so makes me think outside the box a little bit.

I never wear orange. Despite dyeing my hair ginger, I actually really don’t like the colour orange and shy away from it on clothes. However, I would totally wear this outfit. Especially the jacket! (Although, I can’t see when it would ever be cold enough to wear a leather jacket but warm enough for short sleeves!)

Although, that could actually be the perfect jacket for me right now. I’ve had a cold that I can’t shake for about 2 weeks (hence less frequent posts, nor pictures of me with my shiny red nose) and consequently my body temperature is shooting up and down. I’ve got rid of this cold twice and it’s flared right back up again. I’m convinced it’s because I sit under the air conditioner at work and everyone’s germs are being constantly dumped on my head. There’s not much I can do about that I’m afraid, so for now I’m just going to have to pump myself full of vitamin C and hope for the best. Till then, I’m going to go and eat some chocolate brownies and put some moisturiser on my sore nose.

Hope you’re all having a better February!

Valentines Day

This is my first post in February – and the month is almost over!

I have been extremely busy at work and tired in the evenings – and have had a run of busy weekends, which has left me with lots of stuff to write about, but no time to do it!

Which is why yesterday was so nice – it was Valentine’s Day so Kieran and I went out for a meal, exchanged cards and gifts and for the parts when we weren’t in the office, had a lovely day!

I also got one of these:

Awwwww.

Don’t worry – neither of us are great romantics so that’s about as soppy as it got!

We went to one of our favourite restaurants, TNQ. I’m usually not a fan of going out for a meal on Valentine’s Day as you get charged twice as much for food that is half its usual standard. TNQ is usually so good that we thought even if the food was rubbish, it would still be better than most other restaurants on Valentine’s Day. Thankfully though, the standard was very high and we had our usual, delicious meal!

I was going to wear my Lady Dragons, but decided that would be a little bit ‘on the nose’ for the occasion, so instead wore my brown Steve Madden heels with a black velvet dress and tights.

And my favourite scarf obviously!

Kieran got me a couple of great presents: Frozen Planet on blu ray and a clip on light for my Kindle.  You saw me post about Frozen Planet last year and I’ve been looking for a light for my Kindle for months now, so was very happy! I got Kieran a year’s X-box Live subscription.

Despite our present giving appearances of me being so old I need a reading light and Kieran wanting a subscription to a games console, neither one of us is middle aged, nor a teenager, I promise!

Kieran’s birthday

It was Kieran’s birthday this month and we decided to have a trip to Liverpool for the day. I’ve not really been around Liverpool that much, which is surprising since it’s the closest big city to Manchester. I’ve been to the uni area for nights out and down to the docks area, but not in the daytime, so it was nice to see it in a new light, so to speak. It was FREEZING on the morning we left, so I actually put some jeans on. I know, right?

But with a dress over the top...I'm making baby steps into the world of trousers.

Don’t let the sun fool you – it was cold. So cold that the scarf you see me wearing is about 5 minutes old – we literally ran into the first clothes shop we saw when we left the train and bought scarves and gloves. I even bought a cardigan to put under my coat. It was cold.

At the Docks

The Albert docks are lovely and everything ‘touristy’ appears to be in that area. Rather than attack all the museums (I LOVE a good museum, but I’m sure I’d have more fun playing in traffic than I would visiting the maritime museum), we decided to go for the Tate art gallery.

The Tate was interesting. I’m sceptical of modern art and didn’t see anything in the gallery that would change my mind. However, it was a fun morning – even though Kieran and I spent most of it rolling our eyes at the exhibits. They’ve actually got a pile of clothes in the corner of a room and call it art. Seriously, it’s ridiculous.

After that, we spent the afternoon wandering around Liverpool One and getting some lunch. I’ve never seen such a vast shopping area – you could literally spend all day there. We got lunch at Franc’s Bistro (see review here) before returning home.

The plan was to go out for dinner, but we were so full from lunch that we postponed. The other night, we went to Gaucho, which is Kieran’s favourite restaurant – and with good reason. It’s easily the best steak you’ll find in Manchester and I ate one of the best steaks I’ve ever eaten.

The Birthday Boy

It’s quite a swanky restaurant, so I thought I’d better make the effort. Plus it was a good chance to wear a great pair of shoes!

Dress from Dorothy Perkins, Shoes from Vivienne Westwood

This time it was my purple Dragon Hearts that got a night out. I didn’t think I’d be able to wear these till summer until I saw this dress hanging in my wardrobe and realised that with a pair of black tights, they would make the perfect winter dinner outfit!

With Kierans birthday so close to Christmas, it feels like a great extension to the party season – now there’s nothing to look forward to. Until Valentine’s Day

 

Total Fantasy Outfit

I regularly read Amber on her blog over at Shoeperwoman. She writes about gorgeous shoes, showcases lovely clothes and in my opinion has THE best hair ever. Seriously.

Recently she challenged us readers to build an outfit around a pair of shoes. This is how I usually dress myself anyway, so this poses no problem!

If I had the body...

The shoes are Alexandre Birman, the dress is by Vivienne Westwood, the bag is Chanel. Which means that this is out of my league.

It’s not just the price of the clothes that makes this a fantasy outfit. This dress is skin tight, with horizontal stripes, so this dress wouldn’t find itself anywhere near my body unless I wanted to look like a bulgy, wide  escaped convict. Looking at this dress makes me want to go for a run. Maybe I should stick a picture of it to my fridge…

The hunt for red Vivienne Westwoods

You may remember my little mishap on News Years Eve, where I scratched the heart on my red lady dragons. These were easily my favourite pair of shoes (and my most expensive), so it is typical that I would wear them for the first time to an indoor party and still ruin them. Needless to say I wasn’t happy.

Thankfully, my boyfriend, as well as being awesome, is also a genius. As they were from the A/W season 2011, they were still on sale in store – but since it was the January sales, they were half price at £60. So Kieran suggested that I just buy another pair and sell my scratched pair on ebay! Told you he was a genius.

So that evening after ringing in the New Year, I went straight to hervia.com, where I had seen them not two days before. Sold Out. Viviennewestwood.com? Sold Out. I had to wait until the day after New Years Day to call the store in Manchester. Sold Out.

I then rang the store in the Trafford Centre about 20 times before they picked up the phone, who told me that they had one pair left in my size. And that they would put them to one side for me until I got there. Yes!

So Kieran and I decided to make a day of it at the Trafford Centre and pretty soon I had some spanking new scratch free replacement shoes and a nice meal at Chaobaby. And I sold the original pair yesterday on ebay and got £55.00 back for them, so I’m only £5.oo out of pocket!

Well, I say £5.00. While we were at the Vivienne Westwood store, I obviously was exposed to all of the other sale items.

I think I've got a problem

There are the red replacements on the right and of course, I already owned the purple ones in the middle. The blue pair on the left though are brand spanking new – and they were half price too.

But it didn’t stop there.

Green, sparkly ones!

I actually bought these from Asos.com. Though I absolutely love them and have worn them twice already, they are quite hard to dress. So far, I’ve worn them mainly as part of a colour blocking effort, but think they’ll be fine under jeans and with a black dress. I think I probably should have bought the midnight blue ones instead as they would have gone with more of my clothes – but I’m a sucker for shiny, bright things. And I can always get the blue ones later. Right, VISA?

Gifts and other nice things!

So, here’s the obligatory ‘here’s what I got for Christmas’ post. It’s hard not to make this post sound like a materialistic celebration of getting gifts, but at the same time I want to show you the cool things I got! And my family and friends have certainly been generous this year.

It would be the longest post in the world if I listed all of the awesome and thoughtful presents I received, so will just be showing a few.

An array of awesomeness

In the above picture we have a polka dot Cath Kidston bag from my sister, a gorgeous black bag from my aunt (to replace my favourite and now broken bag), some slippers from my uncle, a coke glass and bottle opener from my friend, Cath Kidston measuring spoons from Kieran’s sister, leather gloves from my dad’s girlfriend, some wooden COOK letters from my mum and some polka dot plates and cups and saucers from my grandparents. They really know me, huh?!

Gifts also worth a mention are a set of Sabatier knives from my mum and of course, my beautful scarf. I really have been treated.

Thankfully, I’m also in the position to be able to treat other people on occasion. The best present I bought someone this year was for my dad. He works really hard and doesn’t get away often, so myself and my sister have booked a trip to Amsterdam in March for the three of us! Cool, no? We’ve never actually been on holiday together before, so am really looking forward to it!

This endeth the Christmas posts for this year – back to normality now. Boooo.

 

Happy New Year and some shoe drama!

I’ve just got back from my mother’s house, where I’ve been since the 28th December. I’ve had a fabulous time and the best start to the New Year.

My mum usually has a New Years shindig at her house and this year was no different. This time it was especially ace because Kieran was there. I think you should start the New Year as you mean to go on – and this was with my boyfriend and family, so I couldn’t have been happier. Though there weren’t loads of us this year, we still made an effort and I wore a lovely dress I picked up in TK Maxx for £17.00 and my Vivienne Westwood lady dragon heart shoes in red.

Star print dress and my Vivs.

My mum, inspired by my posts about Southern Eleven, produced a southern american themed meal of pulled pork and deep fried pickle spears, amongst other delights.

Pulled pork and deep fried pickle spears - my favourite food ever!

Booze is also a factor in any good New Years celebration – which is why my mum’s house is the perfect place to host such a party. They have a bar area.

Make mine a double!

The crazy man in the hat and garland is my stepfather, Neil. He wears full tropical garb each New Year, much to our amusement. He is also the chief  barman for the evening.

Cheers Neil!

What you can’t see in the picture above is the grass skirt. Legend. One of my favourite concoctions of the night was a Monkey’s Lunch – a mix of banana liqueur, tia maria, milk, cocoa and squirty cream on top. Lovely!

Monkey's Lunch

We also had hibiscus flowers in our New Years cocktails.

Hibiscus Flower Champers Cocktails

Then, DISASTER struck. I looked down at my feet and noticed a scratch on one of my shoes. My favourite shoes. The first time I’ve ever worn them.  I’m still gutted. I’m going to see if I can find another pair somewhere and then sell these on ebay. Failing that, I might see if I can patch it up somehow. I’m devastated. This all happened at about 5 to midnight, so I threw them upstairs out of sight and ran outside in some of my mothers white crocs (I know, the complete opposite of my lovely shoes. Crocs are heinous.)

My scratched Vivs

After the New Year had been rung in, we all went outside and released some chinese lanterns. Well, we tried to – my mum failed at releasing the first one and it landed on a car. Oops!

Up! Go up!!

All in all it was a fabulous evening with great food, drinks and most of all, people!

Christmas Festivities so far

Well all, I really fail at blogging at the moment, and generally life. I’ve been to-ing and fro-ing and mainly forgetting to do things and take pictures of the things I was supposed to do. My head is all over the place at the moment.

Our much awaited work’s Christmas party was last week and I was planning to wear my new especial Versace dress, but did not have time to take the straps up so ended up wearing a black strapless dress from M&S, with my Iron Fist shoes. I bought some new accessories and a bag and everything and think I looked really nice. Unfortunately I forgot to photograph anything and due to the drunkeness of the evening, the only picture of me during the evening is the one below.

At least we look like we're having fun!

One blurry picture! There goes my post all about the Christmas party!

Christmas time in general has been just as frenetic. It was the first time that I had hosted Christmas this year, and my dad came along, as well as my sister and her fiance. My flat is the size of a matchbox, where the kitchen is in the living room, so we had to move furniture around to try and fit us all around the table, but it was worth as it was a complete success. We sat, chatted, watched TV and most importantly, ate!

My sister and her fiance

On Christmas night, I went to my friend Rachels and have spent the past three days there. We met up with some friends we know from primary school, which was really nice as we don’t get together that often. We drank a bit and watched Despicable Me, which was hilarious. I need me a minion!

And today I have arrived at my mother’s house for New Years, which I am very much looking forward to. We have also just had our ‘Christmas’ and I have just opened some awesome gifts, which I’ll blog about later.

Kieran is flying back on New Years Eve, so he is going to be here, which is even better! I have been living out of a bag and sleeping on a sofa for the past three days, so I have no outfit pictures to share with you, mainly because I’ve been reinventing hobo chic! I’ve also gained two inches on my waistline and my hips over the past week and a half, which means that after New Year I’ll be going on a serious exercise regime – because dieting will never happen. Hope you’ve all had a great christmas!

2011 – an interesting year!

2011 is almost over and today I’ve been mulling over what kind of year it has been. Overall, it’s been a good one – I’m living happily with my boyfriend and I have a job (which is almost a miracle in this economic climate) so I personally, have an awful lot to be thankful for.

The world in general seems to have suffered this year. For the people of Japan, this is probably one of their worst years ever as they still struggle to come to terms with the loss and devastation the tsunami brought to their lives. The people of Eqypt and Libya have had a tumultuous and stressful year, to say the least. Even closer to home, in the UK the unemployment levels have sky rocketed and there are millions of people out of work and struggling to make ends meet. Poor Amy Winehouse died, Steve Jobs died, and riots hit the UK across the country during the summer. Kim Kardashian continues to be in the news.

On the flip side, there has been some good news this year. Osama Bin Laden was apprehended, the Royal Wedding gave us an extra bank holiday, Game of Thrones came into our lives, the final epic chapter to the Harry Potter films was released and the most retweeted tweet on Twitter (wow, what a phrase) is one that raised money for charity, not spread false gossip. Hurrah!

I’ll leave you with one of my favourite pictures from 2011, just because it blew my mind a little bit:

One Eyed Albino Baby Shark

Yes, it’s real – and it was caught in 2011.  What have been your favourite moments of the past year?

Best Fake Christmas Day EVER.

My boyfriend and I typically spend Christmas apart, as he goes back to Ireland to spend it with his family in Derry. As such, we have our own Christmas Day the weekend before – so we had it yesterday (which makes today Boxing Day – yay!)

It wasn’t quite a ‘white’ Christmas for us, but it did snow the day before! Although I love the snow, I have to say that I hope it doesn’t snow this year. Kieran is coming back for New Year this year, and it would be just my luck that he gets stuck in Derry because of the weather!

Snow outside my office.

I made a full Christmas dinner, which comprised of smoked salmon souffles for starter, poussin with all the trimmings for mains, and a peanut butter and chocolate  cheesecake for dessert.

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Cheesecake

I’ve gained so much weight over the past month, I’m seriously going to need to diet by the time Christmas is over.

We also opened our gifts to each other today. I was quite nervous about giving his gifts as he has the best track record with getting me gifts. Over the years for birthdays/Christmases I’ve had a meal in a 2 Michelin starred restaurant in Rome, a Gaggia espresso machine and a trip to London – so you can see the pressure I’m under to match his gift buying standards.

I was confident he would like one of them – Adidas Samba trainers in red, which were actually harder to find than you’d expect. I went to about 8 shoe shops before I finally tracked some down and they only had one pair left – thankfully, in Kieran’s size!

See! Men love shoes too!

I also got him some t-shirts from Threadless.com (his favourite place to buy clothes). I got this one, this one and this one. Threadless has some really cool tees – and if you haven’t had a look yet, I would definitely recommend it. Some of the tshirts are brilliant and they’re all good quality.

Last but not least, I got him an Adidas track jacket to match the trainers. This is the gift I was nervous about – it was a bit of a risk, but thankfully he really seemed to like it. I suppose the proof will be whether he actually wears it or not!

Adidas Track Jacket

Kieran only got me one gift – but it was a whopper. He got me a present that I’ve literally been lusting over for the past five years. He really excelled himself.

Alexander McQueen Black/Gold Skull Scarf

I LOVE this scarf. I’m sure some fashionistas will point out while I’m wearing it that it’s so OVER and all the celebrities were wearing it five years ago, but I don’t care. I don’t care whether it’s ‘on trend’, I just love the scarf and have loved the scarf since I first saw it. I’ve said this before, but skulls are completely my aesthetic. And it will go famously with my Iron Fist shoes.

It's first outing - ignore my bad hair!

It’s so versatile and I’m going to wear it all the time – the only thing I’m worried about is spilling something on it – £165.00 is a LOT to spend on one scarf so I really need to be careful not to dip this one into my soup at lunchtime!