Travel sickness.

As I mentioned the other day, unfortunately I have no holiday planned this year. 

Are any of you off anywhere nice this Summer?

I think because vacation is missing from my life I have spent my working days lost in a dreamlike state thinking of where I can escape to when it is more possible for me to do so. For the rest of my life I believe I will be caught up in a whirlwind of wanderlust, longing to explore the world and all the nooks and cranny's I am missing out on. 

I'm currently planning to start saving in less than two weeks to go to New York again in December aswell as considering where to go away next Summer to make up for not being able to this year. Will it be travelling around Italy or around the west of America? 

I recently made a 'travel' board for my pinterest so I can spend my time drooling over what I'm missing out on. Filled with envy my parents are going to both Venice & Greece this Summer and perhaps New York at Christmas too. 

Where is everybody else off to?

Snippets of life.

 So, I've been trying to document my life at the moment through Instagram as I have been so busy. Be it on my 15minute walk to get picked up from work or just my reflection in the mirror to showcase my outfit. 

The walk in the morning is so enjoyable when the sun is shining, everything is so green and luscious because of the copious amounts of rain we've had of late. I was out in the garden at the weekend on my day off, planting some vegetables.

My day's off go by so quickly I have been trying to be as productive as possible and making the most of it, even if that means going out for lunch with my boyfriend like we did yesterday. We drooled over the cakes below on sale in Carluccio's.

Trying my hardest to feel inspired each day with my outfit for work. Restricted to wearing black, it's never that exciting when you don't have the choice. I wore my disco pants the other day (above) which felt a bit too jazzy for work but nonetheless, it was nice to wear something different for a change, to my usual bits. 

Now that my boyfriend can drive, I have the freedom of staying at his of an evening when I've got work the next day. I never had the luxury before as the bus journey would take too long and I would have to wake at silly times of the morning. 

Yesterday on my day off we took his dog out for a walk and I wore a skirt a friend of ours gave to me after digging it out of her wardrobe with label still attached. It is very Indian inspired in terms of print and colour and the length is just right. 

Bear & Co. competition.

Hi everyone,

I'm so sorry I have been so busy lately that I haven't been able to spend much time on my laptop. I haven't forgotten about the competition and announcing the winner, I just need to find the time as I planned to actually pull the winner from a hat!

Please bare with me, it will definitely be sometime this week.

Thank you for your patience

Dr. Martens x Liberty

I've had a pair of Dr. Martens for well over four/five years now and I've always been keen to get another pair. You can't go wrong with a pair of chunky footwear in my books, it always looks very Nineties with a girlier outfit. 

In recent times, I've been more inclined to the actual shoes themselves, resembling something of a school child I like to envision, paired with some little socks. My boyfriend told me off once and said I shouldn't need more than one pair but alas I feel I do and have just sat and waited for the right moment. 

That moment, I believe, has finally arrived. Well, it will do come June as Dr. Martens has teamed up with Liberty to create a range of boots, shoes and satchels. Yippee I hear you cry. I definitely did at least. I always love the clashing of the tough and rebellious with florals, beauty and nature.

Annoyingly I'm not currently at home or on my own laptop so I am unable to be a whizz with some photos but to actually go and view the items click here. 

I've got my eye on the '1461' 3-hole shoes in the primary coloured floral.

Perfect for summer days.

Spoilt for choice.

So a while back I wrote a post about wanting to make my own clothes. I got a lot of responses that agreed with me on how hard it was and how everybody wishes they could do the same. Still wanting to give it a go though, I plan on sewing myself a shift dress and have therefore been searching around for a nice bit of material to use. 

I am very much into patterns at the moment and I always like something a bit whimsical. I spent Sunday morning searching through Spoon Flower, an excellent site which allows people to put their own patterns, art, prints up to allow them to be sold as fabric.

I came across beautiful ikat prints, little foxes, sketched knickers and green chevron's. 

There were so many to choose from, I don't know where to start. I am thinking that I should initially buy a cheap piece of cotton to test I am able to do it before I invest in some of this lovely fabric and ruin it. 

There's more below to show you just how much wonderful choice I have found myself facing.

Little tomatoes, harlequin diamonds, paintbrush strokes and watercolour eyes. 

Free-spirit.

If you have followed my blog for quite some time now you would know that my style jumps in and out of phases. Just over  a year ago I went through a phase of being head over heels for Free People, I dressed quite free-spirited and dreamed of dedicating my final project at university on the company and hopes of moving to Philly to work for them. As I weaved into another phase though I left it all behind and began admiring different shapes and new styles. 

Having recently found myself in employment (which explains my absence) I have spent days of late thinking about what to treat myself to now that I will actually have some pocket money to spend come the end of this month. Feeling uninspired by the places I normally elope to in times of need and inspiration, I looked up my old pal Free People to just have a browse. The sunlight always gets me feeling quite bohemian gypsy-esque, dreaming of travelling the world so this weekend I took a trip back to the site I had long deserted. 

Unfortunately car insurance payments for my boyfriend this summer has left us unable to getaway to foreign lands this coming August. The site left me dreaming of distant shores and heat waves, places to wear the clothes I found myself admiring. 

I'm not a very revealing person with the clothes I wear. I used to be as a teenager, out at the weekend in a short skirt but now I tend to shy away from this. Saying this, I have fallen for all four of these dresses from Free People that are apparently not so lengthy and quite body-con-esque. 

There's a sporty jersey dress which is really just a long, casual t-shirt. I am very much a t-shirt person so this really appeals to me, it just looks so cosy and quite effortless. 

Then there's the ditsy red stretch dress, perfect for days out during the summer. (I've been eyeing up my National Trust membership card).

An off the shoulder black and white striped number, although a lot of  skin on show which would be quite daring for me these days, I have always enjoyed off the shoulder items, reminding me of Grease's Sandy and a red dress Erin Wasson once wore.

Finally the chiffon, drop plum dress. Another off the shoulder item, this dress is really quite dreamy, I believe they styled it on something worn in Almost Famous. 

My dad has big birthday coming up next month and so I really have been keeping my eye out for a new outfit and I think this is the dress. I have never had a dress like this before so I thought as it was something that caught my eye straight away, perhaps I should try something different. The frills across the top, I imagine will make me feel a little flamenco. Arriba.

On another note, the competition I collaborated on with Bear & Co. finished yesterday, thank you to everybody who entered. I will announce the winner sometime this week so keep you eyes out. 

Stranger in a Strange Land.

My goodness it's been so long. Please excuse my absence, I started a new job last week and haven't had the time to do anything. I've hardly spent any time at my computer because the moments that I do find myself without anything to do my body collapses and falls fast asleep. It's been a bit of a bodyshock for me but hopefully by next week it will begin to get into a routine and I will have the time during my days off. This week however, I am working every day. Exhausting when it's been a while since you've been in work. I am sitting here at 6am now, just as it's the only time I can find to come on here and show my face.

I couldn't write this post without adding some visuals so I collected some of my recent 'pins' and realised I had been inspired by interior. Perhaps I yearn to run away to a beautiful place or I just really want to give my bedroom an overhaul. 

Everything I seemed to have pinned appears to be rooms flooded with light and incorporating natural wood. I've always adored collections of frames on a wall and stacked books on display. 

Give me a few more days to settle in and get my body in it's right place and I will be back to regular programming. Just a short sabbatical. 

In the meantime, please remember the competition I have going on with Bear & Co. to win a custom made dress fit to your measurements. It would be great to win, so take a look and enter if you wish. Read more about it here if you haven't already.

You have 9 more days to enter.