Holiday!

That Madonna knew what she singing about alright, holidays rock!  How do I know?  Because in approximately 39 hours I will be jetting off to sunny (it better be sunny!) Valencia for a ten day spree!  Saturday morning I'll be hopping a flight to London and after the Hours Of Boredom In Stansted Airport (of which I am now, unfortunately, a connoisseur) I get another plane to Valencia.

In the interest of saving money I decided to only take hand luggage and this leaves me with the interesting challenge of making sure I have enough to wear for ten days and nine nights in a small suitcase weighing no more than 10 kilos.  So far I'm about 3/4 packed and I'm at about 7 kilos though I still have to stick a few things in.  The key, dear reader, is all in mixing-and-matching it up.  Loads of nice separates but nothing goes in unless it can be worn with at least two other items on the list.  Also, a few things like jumpsuits (hurrah!) and was-maxi-now-midi (thanks, belt) dresses are whole outfits in one go! 

Having obliging pals to put you up and provide towels and other stodgy space-stealers is also recommended.  I have a lush pair of new wedges to grace the pavements of Spain, too.  From New Look, and with a much appreciated 20% discount, here they are.  Crafty New Look don't seem to let you copy pics off their website so you'll have to go and have a swatch.

I'm not always convinced by wedges, especially when they become so ubiquitous over the summer months, but I love these - they're like my lovely shiny spike heels in a similar colour, but done down for summer.  It must be said that wedges go well with maxi dresses, especially when you're vertically challenged like me, and this lovely nude colour really lengthen the legs.  I think they'll go with everything and (fingers crossed) be comfy for hitting the cobbles in search of Sangria!

In other news...

The beautiful Grecian dress I got for my cousin's wedding was a bit small in the waist (bloody vintage!) and it needed altered a bit, despite my gym efforts.  Well, I was terrified to have it taken out in case it ruined the drop of it and the lovely shape, but I'm happy to report that I had a shorter zip put in the back which means I can do it up fully now, and not only is it now a perfect fit but you would never even know it had been altered.  The woman that did it is a lovely lady called Andrina and you can check out her alterations website here.  It took just one week and was a very reasonable £8.  So there you go - don't throw out your favourite trousers after a summer of excess - just get them altered and have another slice of cake!

Ahoy there, sailor lady!

In the end I decided to return the gold ASOS dress. It was lovely but I really preferred my red one (right), and when I added the £20 for control pants that I was about to shell out for, the dress lost it's barginous sheen.

I wore my red dress with my amazing feathered headpiece, simply gold jewellery and my glitzy diamante-encrusted kitten heels, which, as well as being uber sparkly and glad, are also very comfy!  I love this dress because of the shape of the straps, which don't come across very well in this picture.  But I also adore the puffed skirt and the pockets!  Skirts with pockets are one of my favourite things, clothes-wise!!

I was far more comfortable in this dress than I would have been in the gold one which was really more of a cocktail dress, and not nearly so well suited to ceilidh-dancing!

When I get the refund from ASOS.com, I'm going to buy this lovely skirt from Debenhams that I've been admiring for a few weeks.  They have it on a mannequin beside the escalators, and I swoon every time I pass it, but I always assumed it was from one of their expensive ranges.  Today I checked online and it's actually in the Red Herring collection, and it's only £16 - the exact cost of my dress!  Clearly, this is a sign...

The skirt comes in dark blue or bright blue, and I'm going for the bright one - this picture here from the website doesn't show how bright it actually is but it's a lovely vibrant shade, and it's knee-midi length, which I love!  I think nautical stripes might be my all-time favourite pattern; I already have several things in this style:  2 white-with-navy-stripe t-shirts (one tight, one baggy), a bright blue-with-white-stripe vest top and B-W-W-S shoes that I recently got for a snip in Primark.  This skirt will just complete my collection, and transform me into a chic sailor-girl, ahoy!  I think it'll be perfect for my trip to Valencia, and I'm sure I'll appreciate much more that the gold dress - I'm already getting excited about wearing it!

I hope this post gives Ashers something to pass the time...

Ahh, it's been so long that since I wrote a blog post that I'm going to fire off a quick one now!  Really shouldn't let this fall by the wayside.  I'll be like a Digi-Dori: "Just keep blogging, Just keep blogging..."  You see - pop culture references and everything on my blog!

Here's a quick update on the Lack Of Job situation:  I still don't have one.  However, I did apply for a great sounding job for UNICEF in London, which the advert said was the perfect foot in the door for anyone wanting to move from admin to the charity sector. Er, hello, that's me!  So I spent ages doing my application and sent it in on Saturday.  If I don't hear anything back in the next two weeks I didn't get it...  Found out today that I didn't get an Oxfam job I'd applied for, but there is a job going at the Glasgow Women's Library where I already work as a volunteer, so I'm going for that.  Right now, that would actually be The Dream.

I signed up for a temping agency as a stop-gap, not had my first shift yet but they said it's been quiet for the Easter hols and should pick up next week.  So that'd be good, to get a bit of money in.  I had a interview for a sales assistant job at Ollie and Nick in Princes Square, but I didn't get it.  Just the latest in a long list of rejections.  *Sigh*

Today I'm braving my way to Cessnock to talk to people at the charity Unity, who help asylum seekers new to the UK.  They do a women's group in the west end, so I'll try and get involved in that, and see what else I could do.  It's all good experience, which is what I really need, so I'm pleased to have found another opportunity!

In less boring work chat, I have a wedding to go to at the weekend, and I can't decide what to wear - I have 2 options, or a fail safe, standby black dress that I could wear if I had to.  The main options are: a full length (it was midi-length on the model on the asos website; it's maxi-length on me!) gold sequined, one-armed number with a straight falling skirt and a slit up the back.  I normally hate one-shouldered/-sleeved things but for some reason I like this.  The problem is that it's a wee bit clingy on the tummy and that's making me unsure.  My mum suggested Spanx, which I've never worn before, but I guess they could be the answer.

The other option is a lovely red and black dress that I've had for years but never worn yet.  It's a very vibrant red, with black straps and is slightly more casual than the gold.  If I wore this dress I'd also wear my new feather hairband, which is really quite fantastic.   The red dress is slightly tight over the boobs which is what's putting me off! 

Really can't decide at all.  I'll have to try them both on again tonight and make up my mind so I'm not panicking at the last minute! Also, to make sure I've all my accessories organised and looked out.

Anyone have any words of wisdom and advice??

Step Away, That Dress Is Mine!

Well, that's what I think everytime I see someone pick up a dress that I like love in We Love To Boogie.  No-one's actually tried it on yet, but if they do, I might cry.  Or grab it off them before they can pay for it and run away, Road Runner-style, down Byres Road.  Anyone who buys that dress will be my Coyote.  Meep meep!

Might try it on next time I'm in and see if it fits, I'm not sure it'll be big enough for my boobs.  At least if it doesn't fit then I can stop lusting after it.  There's also a pair of trousers that look like jammy bottoms that I quite like.  I can already tell this job is not going to be lucrative for me.  Wages in pocket; wages back out pocket and the dress is mine.

Tonight is a sofa-lovin'-CSI-watchin'-jammy-wearin' chill out.  I bought a tub of Mackies Honeycomb ice cream and I think I'll get that in the next ad break.  Good times.  My mum says I'm like that Abbey out of NCIS.  I quite like her, so it's OK.  The big event of the night will be CSI: NY, mostly for the hot men than anything else to be honest.  Ice cream, jammies, and Carmine Giovinazzo.  

Lazy Saturday night of joy.

Pristene

... after a nail-biting examination of my dress, I am pleased to report that I managed to trudge through the pouring rain after the party, and, even after substantial amounts of fizz and one misguided cocktail (you can't make a Cosmo with rum instead of vodka, as it turns out), I managed to hold my dress up and not get a single stain or splash-mark on it.

Even when pissed I have one instinctive thought:  protect the dress, at all costs.

I Can't Find My Gloves

Long, over-the-elbow black gloves.  I love them and suddenly decided to wear them to the cocktail party on Friday but I've been thwarted because I can't bloody find them.  I have a vague memory of not beiong able to find them before I moved to Spain.  And it seems that in my two year absence they didn't magically show up! 

Whilst I was there I bought a cheap satin-y pair in a 1€ 'fashion' shop, and though I managed to find them (in the bottom of a bag, in the bottom of my wardrobe, natch), when I tried them on again I decided they look like Batman gloves.  Not long enough and too shiny. I want my amazing ones back!  I think this story is going to go the same way as my favourite belt.  Lost, never to be found again, but (it's been years) I'll never forget it!

Looks like the party outfit will be sans gloves then, but I am wearing crystally-sparkly kitten heels with my lush maxi dress, so it's all good.  I might also wear my feather-bedecked hair band for it's premiere outting!  Very excited now!

Meeting MM tomorrow, before my interview at We Love To Boogie (how excited am I?!  Wearing the turban, in honour of the occassion.), and might pop in to see LW in her cushty shoe-shop job where I might be able to try on some shoes I can't afford and dance to some tunage while LW doesn't even pretend to work.  I love her boss and I've never even met her.

Must stop obsessing about those bloody gloves or I'll never get to sleep!

Night all! (Not Nytol.  Though maybe that'd help me sleep. Hmm...)

Easily distracted

I was going to do a blog post based on florals, after my auntie mentioned something about flower-prints being in fashion for S/S '11.  I headed to the Debenhams website to do a bit of 'research' and on the first page was a big advert for MAC 'Peacock' makeup, and it looks fab!  I was immediately distracted and had to go and have a look!  I love MAC stuff anyway, but some of these colours look awesome.  Lovely jewel blues and greens, and high pigmented shadows, and a Lipglass in blue!  It's probably one of those ones that looks very blue in the tube but when you put it on it's mostly clear with a very subtle blue tinge, makes your teeth look whiter, dontcha know.  Bourjois do a similar one.  Actually when I was younger I had a gloss that actually was a bit blue, and it was really cool!  Think I got it from some cheap brand and it's probably been discontinued now.  Oh well.

Anyway.  Enough peacocks, back to the florals.  I had a quick glance through the Designers at Debenhams and nothing really caught my eye, so I moved onto Zara - always a go-to for nice dresses, I find. 



Zara, 'flower dress', £25.99

 This one here is quite pretty:  a large floral, but in a slightly 'watercolour' style, rather than being really bold and graphic.  This softer type of print could be in danger of looking a bit frumpy, but the nipped in waist and above-the-knee length keeps it modern.  I think this would be quite a flattering wee dress. If you have big boobs the high neckline might give you the dreaded Shelf Boobs, though the pleats down the front should help minimise this effect.



Topshop, by 'Love', £34.

 On next, to Topshop, who have quite a lot to offer in the floral department right now.  I like this white/purple one here.  More of a summer dress than a winter-into-spring, I would say, mainly because of what you'd have to wear with it.  I think thick black tights would be too heavy, and it's not warm enough for bare legs, unless you're much braver than me!  However, i like the print and the colours of this.  Not too bright, but that purple is an attractive, and slightly more unusual colour.  Again, pleats down it make it flattering, and you wouldn't notice creasing as much!  Bonus!





M&S, Per Una, £45

M&S, as before

Here's one with a bigger flower print, from Marks and Spencer.  I like the colours on this one too, and a big print is far more flattering than a small one.  This comes with a black bolero, which I don't really like, but it is detachable so it's not so bad.  A nice length, to just below the knee (that 'midi' length that's all over the place just now), and wee short sleeves that give it the casual look of a t-shirt dress on the top half.  I think I'd maybe like this better if it were sleeveless, but it does have a more casual feel about it with the wee sleeves that it has, perfect for during the day, and because it's a bit longer than the others, you could sling a cardi over the top of it (a nice vibrant pink-purple!) and it would like fine.

Ahh, now Blogger is starting to act up, so I think I'll post this before it disappears on me!  Also, my granny's coming round for lunch so I'd better go and get ready!

I Am Woman, Hear Me Roar

I'm wearing my new leopard print dress today so I thought I might as well take a pic to post while I had it on!  It's uber comfy and soft, and it doesn't seem to crease much which is always a bonus!  Obviously I'm wearing it with thick black tights but in summer (or winter in Tenerife!)  it's nice without anything on the legs, too.  You can wear it more clinched in with a proper belt, or hanging loose with nothing round the waist at all.  I'm just wearing the little black ribbon that came with it here.

FYI: these are my super-cosy bargin tights from Dunnes stores.  They're wool tights and they're as comfy and warm as a pair of cotton leggings and keep their shape more than any Primark leggings I've ever tried.  Though not, it has to be said, as well as my £12 BHS leggings which are the best I have ever come across. 

There, you see!  2 leg warming handy hints in one short post.

Don't same I'm not good to y'all.

Fantasy shopping

Here's a good way to pass the time, and indulge your clothes fantasies: fantasy online shopping!  As long as you don't hit the wrong button and accidentally buy something, it's a safe, guilt-free way of getting your fashion fix!

As I might have mentioned, MM is having a cocktail party on Friday night, and we're all wearing fancy dresses and getting all 'dolled up', to borrow a phrase from my mum.  Now, I already have a dress to wear, but I decided to have a look about online and see what I would buy, if I had all the money I wanted!

First stop is a boutique called Vivien Of Holloway and seems to specialise in retro-style dresses.  There are some lovely 1950-esque halternecks, in all sorts of colours and prints.  One that caught my eye was this red one (red - what a surprise!) Unfortunately, I can't seem to load a picture of it here, but if you want to check it out, follow this link.

Now for some pics!



Dolly Dagger

I like this one, in a similar style, from a shop called Dolly Dagger .  Like I said, in fantasy land money would be no object, and it's just as well, because this dress comes in at an eye-watering £152.  This shop does a nice range in accessories, though, and has things like buttons and badges from £4; hair clips; bags; purses, etc from £10 up to about £70.  This bag here also caught my eye

Dolly Dagger

and it comes in at £69.

Dolly Dagger also does some cute cherry print napkins and table-clothes, coasters, apple-shaped chopping boards and lots of other kitchsy items, nice for gifts though not so good for cocktail parties.  So, moving on...



Candy Says



... To Candy Says, and first up is this simple black number with a lovely pearl collar.  This one is £42, and is floor-length with a split up the left thigh, and panelling in the wasit.  So a bit Audrey Hepburn-wears-Victoria Beckham, then? 

Whilst Dolly Dagger does retro-style dresses, Candy Says seems to be authentic vintage, which means that you might not get something you like in your size.  I think more careful hunting would be needed if you were to buy from Candy Says, though from what I can see, the prices are pretty reasonable. 

This 1960s lurex monochrome maxi also caught my eye.  It might be quite hard to style, because any other detailed accessories or shoes would swamp the look and could leave you looking a bit frumpy, but I think with a pair of pointy black stilettoes it'd be a killer!  Don't forget some nice smokey eyes to go with it, mind!

Closer to home, I found this multi-coloured sequined dress from We Love To Boogie in Glasgow.  I'm not usually a fan of structured dresses, or any dress with an uneven hem-line, but I do like this one which manages to combine being red and multi-coloured, plus it's beaded!  What more can you ask for in dress?  I like the uneven hem on this cause it's the same as the beaded pattern, and I love this over-the-knee length: not a mini, but still with a nice flash of pin.  For S/S this year, I hope to be mainly wearing mid-length skirts:  just above the knee, or the 'midi', which falls half-way down the shin.  Being a smout, I'll be teaming these with heels, of course!

Well, that's passed a nice couple of hours for me, and now the laptop is running out of juice, so I think I'll end it here.  Very much looking forward to MM's party, good cocktail-drinking, fancy dress-wearing times!

Dresses and exercise!

In light of being unemployed and actually not having all that much money to throw about on new clothes (not that you can really tell, to be fair), this blog has started give me my fashion fix.  I really like putting up pics of new bargins, rediscovered gems and generally fash-forward outfits, so that's why I've changed the title of my blog up there.  I also feel that my dreams of London aren't exactly off to a running start, so the name was a bit misleading anyway.

Glad you all seem to like the turban, I love it and wore it all day and night, even when I was just sitting in the house.  My granny also loves it and that, as we know, is enough to cement the style status of any item.

After Tenerife, the next thing on the Clara agenda is MM's birthday cocktail party.  I am starting to get very excited about this for three reasons, all under one roof: 
1. My amigas
2. A chance, nay, a command, to get dressed up to the nines and
3. Cocktails.

With this in mind, I've been musing over which dress to wear.  Although you might have thought that I'd be champing at the bit (weird expresson, where did I get it from?) to buy something new, in actual fact I have several lovely dresses that are too formal for everyday use and don't often get to see the light of day.  Or the disco lights of a good party.  So, I love a chance like this to dust one of them off and let it know it's still loved.  I have made a final decision, and I just tried it on to make sure.  Still love it, and I think it's perfect, so I've found a winner.

I pranced about my room in it for about 10 mins, just because.  If you go to all the trouble of putting it on, you might as well enjoy it for a few minutes, right?  I even have a pair of shoes that are the ideal height for it, though the colour isn't the best match.  Still, in the name of being cheap 'n' chic, I think I'll just wear them.

I should really head to bed, I'm up early tomorrow to go to a meeting in the Glasgow Women's Library, I'm going to be helping to organise some events with the Glasgow Feminist Network, so I'm really looking forward to it.  I'm already a member but I'm well chuffed at being able to get more involved in it!

After the meeting I'm going to hit the gym, too.  Gotta keep going with the arms routine!  I can see a small bit of definition in my upper arms now, though I accept that it's probably invisible to everyone else.  But I'm determined to stick with it anyway!  I'd love to be able to do the Tracy Anderson Method, but I don't feel like splashing out on the DVDs and books and stuff, to be honest.

Anyone got any good tips for toning up the shoulders and back?   There's a machine in the gym that I know how to use (kind of) but I'm not sure which muscles it actually targets.  Might do a bit of online research and see what I come up with.

I just did e quick Googling, and stumbled across this wee set of exercises by Tracy Anderson for Marie Claire.  They look bloody tough!  I'm not sure I'd even get through one set but I'll give it a go anyway!  If anyone else has a shot, let me know how you get on!