A Small Fashion Haul And An Outfit Post

Hey everyone x I hope you've all had a nice weekend x I've got a little haul for you today and it's a fashion haul. I'm a bit of a fan of catalogue shopping and the majority of this haul comes from two catalogues - Littlewoods and La Redoute, with a couple of high street buys thrown in.

I've had catalogues in my house for the longest time, I used to spend hours at a time as a child pouring through my mams catalogues, circling all the things that I wanted and do you know what I still do that. You don't get as many printed paper catalogues as you used to so some of the magic has gone but a lot of websites now have a wishlist facility and of course there is always Pinterest, I'm still learning about that one but already I can see how much fun it is picking out wishes and wants. 

The bulk of this haul comes from Littlewoods but you can also get the same items on Very and a few other sites. From the minute I saw this shirt I knew that I needed it. I've become a huge fan of sheer shirts from the Definitions brand this year and the gaudy, psychedelic, floral pattern on this one really stood out.

Again it's quite sheer so I'll need to wear a vest or a camisole underneath it, but I love the combination of the purples and the burnt oranges. This was £37 and they also do a dress in the same print.

The next thing that I got was another blouse from the Definitions line. Although it's described as a blouse, for me this is a pull on tunic.

In a sheer ivory fabric it features an orange, beige, burgundy and blue floral print. On the website it's called the Printed Contrast Trim Blouse and down the back, down the front and around the neckline and cuffs there is a black contrast, fabric band. This one was £37 as well, but if you fancy buying this shirt I would definitely consider sizing up especially if you're a bit fuller on the bust.

My final Littlewoods fashion purchase was from their own South brand, and it was the South Blocked Tunic.

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This is basically just a long line fabric t-shirt with navy blue block sleeves, and a navy blue chiffon trim with small side slits. The body of the top has a navy blue and white almost shutter like, stripe print, overlaid with a blue and white floral print. The length is really good and this is definitely a top you could wear over skinny jeans or leggings. The sizing on this one is pretty generous and if anything I probably could have gone for a smaller size. You better get used to this top if you subscribe to my You Tube Channel because I'm wearing it in 4, yes 4 videos :) including the one at the end of this post - £25 well spent x 

Next up another catalogue and this time La Redoute. I'm been a fan of La Redoute for a while now, their clothes are just a little bit different and whilst I haven't bought a lot from them lately their catalogues and website are always worth a look. To be fair this time round I sent a lot of stuff back and I only ended up keeping the free gift, navy trench coat and this top.

From their own Mademoiselle R line, this is a Short Sleeved Jewelled Collar T-Shirt. It's basically a short black t-shirt with a white Peter Pan style collar covered in an acrylic jewel, floral pattern. I love the collar detailing so I couldn't resist it. The sizing isn't that generous and it isn't the longest t-shirt I own but it's cute. This top is £19 and comes in both black and grey x 

Next up yet another top, another blouse and this time something that you could pick up with your weekly shop.

This fabulous floral peasant like top comes from the Florence and Fred (F&F) range at Tesco. Made of a slightly sheer, soft, silky, satin feel fabric, it has a pussy bow fastening and the neck and it has long puffed sleeves. Described as the Retro Floral Print Pussybow Blouse, this blouse is covered in a fabulously, gaudy floral print, in shades of red, mustard, teal and white. I'm not convinced that this is the most flattering top I've ever bought but I do love a pussy bow and that retro, in your face floral print so it's a thumbs up from me. There is no stretch in the fabric so I would probably size up because you'll probably need to wear something underneath it. This top was just £14 which is really good value when you look at the styling and the softness of the fabric, and you can also buy a dress in the same fabric for £20.

For as long as I can remember I've loved colours and prints like this so I'm really loving the current 70's trend. As I've said before my usual outfit is a pair of jeans, trousers or leggings and a bright top but this year I'm trying to be a bit braver with my clothing choices so I decided to buy something that's way out of my comfort zone - a dress!

So many people wear dresses and look amazing but since I've gained weight I just haven't had the confidence but I really liked the look of this jersey dress. I love the high neck and the tan,and blue floral and botanical print so I went for it, it was just £9.99 so it was no great shakes if I didn't wear it...

I did wear it though, and it had it's first outing on Wednesday night at the Metro Centre Fashion Live and House Of Fraser event. I have to admit I felt a little bit self conscious and I would have preferred it to have been a little bit longer but for £9.99 you can't really complain. I thought I would document the day I tried something new so Mummy Lou took some pics for a very rare outfit of the day.

What I Wore

Patterned Jersey Dress - H&M

Black Tights - Asda

Marc By Marc Jacobs Chicory Leather Strike Tote Bag

Fluffy Bag Charm - H&M

Black Brogues - Dolcis 

Wooden Bead Necklace - Gift From Godparents

I don't think it looks too bad, I decided to play on the tan / brown floral print, and team it with a tan bag, OPI - Basque In The Sun nail polish, and a toning wooden bead necklace. I went with plain black tights and shoes to coordinate with the background, and I teamed it with a black faux leather jacket from La Redoute. I'm not the most stylish person by any means but I really want to start doing some more outfit of the days - I just need to practise my posing a bit and Mummy Lou needs to practise her photography skills!

I went on a bit of a You Tube filming spree this week and I filmed 4 videos on Friday, 2  of which are already live including the video to accompany this haul which you can see above, and another 2 at least will be live next week, so make sure you're subscribed to my You Tube channel and you're following my blog for some more hauls and some lifestyle and beauty content x Thanks for reading and hopefully watching and if you have any questions please leave me a comment and I'll get back to you x 

A Little Fashion And Accessories Haul

Ever since I decided to post hauls as they happen it seems as though I've posted nothing but hauls, and believe it or not here's another one. This haul actually consists of a few clothing, accessory and jewellery buys that I've accumulated over the last month or so. I've also got a few beauty buys to show you but I'll show you those in a separate post.

I don't know about you but once you placed one order from a mail order catalogue you find that they are never off your back, and they continually offer you discount codes and free gifts until you give in and place another order. You know me I'm sucker for a bargain so when I was offered a free travel bag and a discount I couldn't resist placing an order with La Redoute.

There stuff can vary immensely in sizing and in quality so it's no surprise that I sent pretty much everything back. The only thing that I ended up keeping apart from the pretty useful pink and grey travel bag was this turn up sleeve, navy blue and white nautical t-shirt.

This t-shirt was originally £13 but I got it for £11.70. It also comes in an alternative colourway - navy blue with white stripes. It isn't the thickest t-shirt  that I've ever bought but everyone needs at least one stripey t-shirt in their wardrobe, and believe me I have more than one!

Another recent catalogue buy was this super cute, jumper from the brand Adore at Studio. I know that Studio is predominantly a Christmas catalogue but their website is worth a look all year round.

In a sort of oatmeal, marl knit, it features a Fox head design in silky soft, eyelash type yarn. I paid a bit more for it but it's now on sale at just £9.99.

The rest of my buys are all accessories and they're all from ebay. First up this almost pashmina like, gorgeous green, toned tartan scarf.

It was just £2.99 with 99p postage from this seller. Coming from Hong Kong it took a little while to arrive but it was worth the wait. Something else that was worth the wait was this cute turquoise and silver tone stretch bracelet.

This cute bracelet is ideal for stacking, and features some round circular turquoise (faux?) beads, divided by circular, engraved silver tone beads and various silver tone charms including a sun, dolphins, fish, a key, a hand and a star. It was just 99p including postage from this seller x 

The next thing that I got isn't really fashion but I guess it could count as an accessory - it's a key ring!

As I said in my recent Accessorize sale haul I love the whole concept of the lucky cat or Maneki Neko and of course I love Hello Kitty, so when I was looking for a new keyring for my house keys that was where I started searching. I thought this one was adorable and I love the fact that it actually contains little bells. Annoying as they are at times I hoping that it will help me keep an eye on my keys and maybe I won't lose them this time round! I actually paid less than it's currently being sold for but it's still not bad at £1.79 with 79p postage from this UK seller.

The final item is this post isn't really an accessory or a fashion item but I wanted to show you it and it probably fits in better here than it does in my up and coming beauty haul! 

It's another Minion :) No it's not a toy or mini figure, it's an 8GB Memory Stick :) I'm currently in the process of transferring my data from my old laptop to my new one and typically I couldn't find my flash drive so I bought a new one, and then I found my old one ha ha. Typical really but this one is a lot more fun than my boring grey and black one, Made of a rubber material, just pull his head off and stick him in the USB lol I got him from this seller and he was just £2.99 including postage x

Not the biggest haul I admit, but I got a couple of nice things, and a couple of bargains. My beauty haul post should be live  on Friday but in the meantime tomorrow is a bit of a special day on the blog so stay tuned for something exciting x 

A Late September Haul And A Giveaway

I know you love these posts so you won't mind that this one is a little bit late but it's September haul time :)  As per usual I'm all over the place and I seem to be doing everything out of sync - yesterday's post contained an item from Octobers haul so that should have been up today, and my September haul should have been up yesterday. Typical me though everything that could go wrong did - thank you useless You Tube video! but yeah, September haul.

I'll start of with clothes - I only bought 3 items but they will all work with lots of things that I already have in my wardrobe, There is nothing worse than buying an item of clothing and realising that you have nothing to go with it.

First up is this floral, western style shirt that came from La Redoute. I love the colours and the almost tropical design, and the red piping detail down the front, around the collar, and on the cuffs. I think this will look great with a pair of jeans or even a pair of smart black trousers or a skirt.

Sticking with the floral theme, I also got this tunic from Matalan. It has a super bright floral pattern on the front section, which is made of a textured, weave fabric. 

The sleeves and the back of the top are in a plain black, soft fabric. It's in the long length style and will be great for wearing or jeggings, leggings or skinny jeans. This is the top that I'm wearing in the You Tube video below x 

There seems to be a lot of texture around at the moment in fashion, and I added a little bit more with this purchase from H&M.

This fab, black skirt is slightly a-line in shape, and comes in a almost dotty, raised textured fabric. I love the weight off this skirt and I can't wait to team it with black opaques and either my Clarks brogues or some knee high boots.

Most of my H&M orders seem to be going back at the moment, clothes wise anyways but I did keep a few other things from Septembers orders including this trinket box!

It's a pineapple! What's not to love? It's made of an almost distressed mirrored glass. t''s a little bit bigger than I thought it would be so I'm trying to find somewhere to put it at the moment, but I love it, it's so kitsch and sparkly.

Speaking of slightly kitsch - how adorable is this blusher? It reminds me a little bit of the Physicians Formula Beauty Booster blushers that I've been lusting after for years.

It's embossed with all different colour hearts in shades of hot pink, orange, coral, and a pale, shimmery pink / nude. The pigmentation is pretty decent but I'm too in love with the design to swatch it properly lol. It also comes with a mirror and a little brush underneath the compact.

Apart from clothes, home things and beauty the other two H&M items that I bought last month were both jewellery pieces. First I got this pack of three acrylic bracelets, a faceted faux jade, a faceted faux black onyx and a faux cognac amber strand. The colours in these are quite autumnal and they'll work really nicely with some pieces I already have.

I also ordered these earrings which I couldn't resist. I love daisies at the best of times and these remind me a lot of the daisies on the Marc Jacobs Daisy bottles.

That purchase lead to these two buys from ebay - a coordinating necklace in black 

and in white

Unfortunately I broke one of the daisies on the black strand but they were pretty easy to remove, and it's just made the necklace a little bit shorter. I already have some white earrings also from ebay so now I have two matching sets. The necklaces were just 99p each from this seller.

I only made one other ebay jewellery purchase but more on that later. The only other jewellery purchases in September came at the Candy Rocks Jewellery event. You can see the two necklaces I bought both above and below. You can read all about the event and see my buys in more detail here

Although I didn't buy any more jewellery I did buy one other thing from ebay - a make up brush.

These Real Techniques dupes are all over ebay, and whilst I can't compare them to the originals they're usually pretty decent for the price. This is just a basic fluffy eye brush. It feels very soft and it was just 99p including postage from this seller.

You know me I love my bargains, and recently I popped into a local branch of Semichem to look at the make up. They didn't have a lot in but my eyes were drawn to a small Yankee Simply Home display. This is basically Yankee Candles diffusion line, the fragrances aren't usually quite as strong and the candles don't usually last as long but they're a bit cheaper so it doesn't really matter. 

I've been using my melt warmers quite a bit lately so I decided to try one of their melts in the Bartlett Pear fragrance. The smell from this is amazing, it's like a combination of sun warmed, freshly cut apples and pears, great for this time of year, when we're all craving apple crumbles and the like.

Speaking of yummy smells I also placed another Avon order in September x I needed another shower gel like a hole in the head but the scratch and sniff section smelled so good I couldn't resist

Avon Senses Romantic Garden Of Eden smells amazing, it's a combination of exotic fruits and fresh basil and it really does smell good enough to eat.

I also picked up yet another nail varnish from Avon, this time in the Speed Dry formulation and in the colour Shipwreck. Shipwreck is the most amazingly, vibrant, citrussy lime colour, shot through with tonal glitter and sparkle. I know a lot of people don't like green nail polish but it's one of my favourite colour families, and I especially love colours like this on dull, wintry days.

My major beauty purchases in September came from a combination of both Boots and Superdrug. I had a couple of opportunities to pursue some of the bigger branches and I took full advantage. After spying the new L'Oreal Color Riche L'Ombre Pure Eyeshadows on a few blogs and instagram feed I have to say I was tempted, and I ended up picking up two shades.

On the right is 502 Lumiere / Quartz Flume and on the left is 601 Cameleon / Soliel Levant.

I really don't know why they seem to have two different names but I've used them both here to avoid confusion. Not only are these shadows beautiful to look at but they also have an amazing almost multi faceted finish. 502 is a deep metallic brown with a touch of shimmer, the pigmentation is super, and the tiniest amount is needed. 601 was the first shade that I saw but it took a little bit of finding. Again with an embossed design, it looks like a silvery taupe in the pan but in fact it's shot through with an almost 3D iridescent effect in shades of pink and green, that looks amazing but which is so hard to capture on camera. Cameleon is definitely the right name for it, as it not only changes in the light but it can also transform any other eyeshadow colour just by layering a bit over the top. I've been wearing these two shades together to give an iridescent effect smokey eye.

My final 3 purchases in September all came from Maybelline, and they were all lip products. I'm really considering a lip product no buy I seem to have bought so many lately, but they're have been so many new releases lately that I've just had to indulge. First up a gloss, I've majorly fell out of love with glosses over the last 6 month to a year, but it just felt the right time to rediscover them.

Whilst having a glossy finish and texture, Maybelline Color Elixir Lip Lacquer in 105 Petal Plush does actually have a fair bit of pigmentation. I haven't managed to take a swatch picture for you but it's a really wearable, pale neutral pink. It love the ergonomically shaped sponge applicator and I like the non sticky feel on my lips. The one thing I'm not sure of is the taste, it's a tiny bit too perfumed for me.

As well as the gloss I also picked up a couple of the Maybelline Color Drama Intense Velvet Lip Pencils in 140 Minimalist and in 130 Love My Pink.

I'm not going to say anything about these really because I've got a full review to come x

The final thing that I bought myself was a magazine, and the September / October issue of Cosmopolitan came with a free mini Orly nail lacquer. There were four shades to choose from and I went for the colour Luxe, a lovely sparkly gold.

So that was it for what I bought, but last month I was lucky enough to be gifted a couple of things from both my mum and from a fellow blogger. You're probably sick of hearing it but for a few weeks in September I was pretty poorly, well in an attempt to cheer me up my lovely Mummy ordered me the Tarte Tartlette 101 Collection from QVC. I believe that this kit was a special or a one off but most of the products are in the permanent line so I'll be reviewing all of the items in the near future.

The little Tarte make up purse contained a full sized limited edition design of their foundation buffing brush, a full sized Amazonian Clay 12 Hour Full Coverage Foundation in Light Sand, a full sized Amazonian Butter Lipstick in Plummy Rose, a 7ml bottle of their famous Maracuja Oil and a mini Lights, Camera, Lashes Mascara. I'm so excited to have a little play and I'm especially excited to try the Maracuja Oil which is supposed to be fab for open pores and uneven skin tone. Thanks Mummy Lou x

Huge thanks also go out to the lovely Maria from Venus Loves Virgo. She posted some pictures on her instagram of some the collaboration between Disney and elf - Eyes Lips Face. Why oh why was this collection US only? We love elf and Disney here too! Anyways Maria kindle sent me an item from the Snow White Collection.

The Fairest Of Them All Face Collection, contains a cute mini face brush, and blush / highlighter and bronzer duo, with a Snow White design on the lid.

I'm actually really impressed with the face product, the shades are super soft and pigmented. I don't think a plain version of this product exists on the UK website but I'm sure the shades will exist in another format, either way I would thoroughly recommend. Thanks Maria and I promise something will be winging it's way across the Atlantic shortly for you xx

So that was my very long and drawn out, September haul. If you would like to, and I'd love you to, please watch the accompanying You Tube video, here or below x  Thanks for reading and if you have any questions or comments on anything that I've bought please let me know xx



No! Wait! You've forgotten something I hear you cry, no I haven't really but the title of this post did mention a giveaway didn't it? Well during my last giveaway I reached 500 Bloglovin Followers, a figure that thanks to you guys I've now surpassed, and I because of that I felt that I should give back to you guys a bit and do another little giveaway. It's just an ickle one this time that features a couple of things, I've already mentioned in this post and a little something extra.

  The something extra is something that I ordered from ebay for me, alas I've chunky hands so it didn't fit. It's the sweetest bronze, gold tone bangle with the words "Dreams Come True If You Really Want Them To...."

It's really sweet but it doesn't fit my man hands so I thought I'd give it away :) You can also win a brand new white version of my daisy necklace and a new and sealed H&M heart blusher. All you need to do is fill in the Rafflecopter form below before the 8th November 2014. The prizes are just little so I'm okay with posting abroad.

a Rafflecopter giveaway



Thanks again for following, and reading and Good Luck xx