What I Wore at Portland Bill

I bought this dress and cardigan recently in the sale at Simply Be. They're both from the Sprinkle of Glitter collection and I liked them both. I love the pattern on the dress and the cardigan is like one of those ballet wrap-around cardigans, I LOVE it. I wore it in Ireland but didn't get a decent photo of it, so I wore it in Dorset with this dress. They look lovely together, don't they?

The dress has a navy blue background and this lovely pattern. It has a zip on the side and a tie on the waist, and thick straps. And it has POCKETS! Really lovely DEEP, useful pockets. The cardigan is also navy (I'm not sure whether the colour will show up properly on the screen) and has really nice long ties to tie behind my back.

I'm posing by the sea, and I don't care! The dress is a nice thick cotton with a slight stretch to it.

Showing off the pockets! 

The cardigan kept me nice and warm, it wasn't cold but the sea breeze was a bit chilly. 

What I Wore 22nd September

I of course wore outfits the whole time I was in Ireland, but I didn't wear anything that you haven't seen before so I didn't bother taking photos, except for this dress which although I've shown you before, I got a better picture of the colour. It is so comfortable, so I wore it twice, and for travelling home in.

I like the keyhole details both front and back, and the sleeve length, and the waist tie. Gorgeous dress!

What I Wore 4th September and a trip out

Recently, with sorting out my dresses, I came across this dress again, so when Lee asked one Sunday morning if I wanted to go to Elsecar Heritage Centre to look at the record shop, I pulled this dress on for a simple outfit of the day. I haven't worn it in ages; in fact looking at the blog, I think this might genuinely be the only time I've worn it.

Elsecar is one of my favourite places to visit, it's a conservation area of a 19th century village, and there's lots of little shops and a visitor centre and an antique centre. It used to go through phases of being fantastic and then being a bit disappointing, but the last few times I've been it's seemed like it was really full and being well used. There's sometimes train things on too, which I'd like to see some time, and if you have time I fully recommend going to Wentworth Garden Centre too as it's nearby.

We arrived to find the place absolutely rammed as there was a craft fair on! We managed to find a parking space and then went for breakfast at the cafe. It's not a bad cafe, but the service can be terrible, so if you are heading to Wentworth I'd recommend going to the cafe there instead. Then we wandered round all the shops and the craft fair. We bought a few bits, and finally went in the record shop. It's called Vinyl Tap!

I bought Lee a record player for his birthday because I thought he'd like to start collecting vinyl, and I wasn't wrong! He bought this Clash 7" and this Off With Their Heads album, and then he also bought me the Springsteen one. I think we'll definitely go back!

It's a very cute little turntable

Look at Bruce's beautiful face

Here's the red dress. I really like the 3/4 length sleeves. Very comfortable dress to wear!

What I Wore August 21st

August the 21st was Lee's 34th birthday, and he woke up in Wales in a tent, bless him! I wanted to take a present or two with us, but he wasn't bothered, so instead everyone wished him happy birthday and then we packed up our stuff and came home.

We went out in the evening with my mum, stepdad, and grandma. We went to Cubley Hall near Penistone, a pub that I'd highly recommend because it's all homemade food but is really cheap. We sat in the conservatory at a really comfortable table. We each had two courses and a drink and the bill was less than £80!

I wore this new green dress from the Lollidot collection at Scarlett and Jo. I love the 40s feel to it, even though it's a comfortable dress to wear. It has shoulder pads and a waist tie. It has the keyhole detail on both the front and back, and the one at the front wasn't low enough to worry me; my bra couldn't be seen.

Sorry the colour isn't showing well in this photo - the nights are drawing in already!

What I Wore 21st July

As I said previously, I'd bought three dresses from Scarlett and Jo in their 50% off sale and took this one to Whitby with me. As it was, I couldn't have chosen anything better because it was such a hot day and this dress is really light and airy cotton and felt lovely!

I'd chosen the purple because I don't have many clothes in purple and I ought to rectify that! This dress is also available in burgundy and green, I believe. It's a nice length on me, coming to just under my knee. It has elastic at the waist, and I like the little cap sleeves. It has shoulder pads which I think do add something to the look, although if they annoy me I'll just cut them out! I wore new cropped white leggings which I bought from eBay, but they weren't great and kept sliding down. Oh well, they were only a few pounds.

This dress is stunning, really cute and with a 40s vibe but still very modern and easy to wear. I'm in love!

What I Wore 3rd March

We went out to the pub on the Thursday of our holiday, just the pub in the village where we were staying. There was only two other people in there, and they were also staying in the cottages we were in! Still, it meant our food arrived very quickly.

I have worn this skirt only once before, which is a shame because I really like it. I bought the top last year too, I wear it sometimes for work (you've seen it before here). I thought they'd look nice together and I was right - I'll have to wear this outfit again. I wore my tattoo print Converse, too, which I really should wear more often because they're fab!

I like the colour peach, can you tell?

I'd love some plain Converse too, but these are so amazing!

What I Wore 25th February

I know this is a crappy selfie picture, but I wanted to share it anyway. I wore this to work on the 25th of February, and afterwards I met up with a friend and she said I looked lovely.

I bought this top in Evans last September. It's sleeveless so more of a summer top, but I felt drawn to the pretty paisley pattern and decided to put a cardigan on top.

The cardigan is from Primark, but I got it at a clothes swap in November. It's a size 20 so officially too small for me, but it's really stretchy. It's got cute buttons and it's also really soft. I'm officially in love with it!

What I Wore November 14th

November 14th was the 40th birthday party of my incredibly talented friend Chloe, held in Leeds. Lee and I went with Bettie and Jen, and even though I had a good time I forgot to take any photos! Fail! I took this photo when I got home which explains the slightly ropey lighting, sorry.

I got this dress recently - I'd been stalking the S&J collection on the Evans website because I wanted the floral prom dress, but wasn't willing to pay full price. I happened on the website when that dress and this were both half price! I snaffled them up quickly!

I liked this dress a lot - it's very similar to this one, except that it's navy blue and there's extra seams on the top which give it a nice shape on me. I love the pink flowers on the skirt of this dress, they're so bright. These dresses are so easy to wear and look good in.

What I Wore November 8th

On November 8th me and Lee went to my mum's for tea, and to see my mum and stepdad's photos from their trip to China. It looks like they had a fantastic time - I'm jealous that they saw the Terracotta Warriors, for one!

Anyway, I wore this new dress from George at Asda. I was looking for a new black cardigan and Bettie told me to look at Asda. While I was on the website I bought three cardigans, some leggings, and this dress, all for the bargain price of £60! That'll do nicely.

This dress was just £14 and is from Asda's plus size range. I love the pattern - it looks like china! My mum liked it too, and when I wore it for work a couple of days later I got compliments there, too!

What I Wore 2nd September

I saw this dress on eBay in August and paid around £24 for it, it's from one of the Beth Ditto collections at Evans which were such excellent and groundbreaking collections, sob!

It's quite short on me, but with a pair of leggings it's nothing to worry about! I love the collar, it's really cute. The waistband is elasticated too. I love the shape of the dress.

What I Wore May 31st

My mum's birthday is the end of May so we went out on the Sunday to Rinaldi's in Wakefield, it's an Italian restaurant and when it first opened it was an excellent Italian. It changed hands and went downhill so we always avoided it, but it's changed hands again and I'm happy to report the food was excellent, the prices are good, and the staff were lovely.

I wore the Claire Richards prom dress from Fashion World that I had for Big Boogie Prom last year. They also sent me the cardigan, which I hadn't worn at the prom but needed it this time as the end of May was chilly in Yorkshire! It's a really lovely cardigan, very soft and with nice long sleeves. I also rediscovered these purple leggings in the back of a drawer and thought they'd look nice with the dress (somehow black leggings just won't cut it)

I didn't entirely mean for my shoes to match too.

It's hard to see but there are dots of pink in the dress which match the cardigan

Here we are in the restaurant.

My mum and me

Drinking prosecco out of these lovely glasses!

My dessert was just delicious

And here's a better picture of the colour of the leggings! I need to wear them more! They were from Forever 21 about three years ago. 

What I Wore May 30th

This is my outfit from the day of Northwest Zine Fest but I thought I'd give it its own post to show it off properly.

I bought this dress off Debz as I missed out on it the first time round and just loved it. It's sleeveless so I would want to wear a cardigan with it, so I decided on this kelly green one from Peacocks which I also haven't worn before. Peacocks only go up to a size 22 but these cardigans are just great on me - in fact this is the most generous of the three I got (the others are pink and mint green)

Lemons! When life gives you lemons, make them into a dress! 

What I Wore 26th May

I haven't been taking many outfit photos recently as I've been in a real low mood and also haven't been going out much, meaning that I haven't been wearing much to write about (my in-house clothing choices leave a LOT to be desired!)

However, at the end of May I had a really busy week seeing several friends and going to events meaning that I took photos of my outfits and what I was doing. All these posts are finally getting me caught up!

Anyway, on Tuesday 26th May I went to Leeds to see my friend Gillian. She is getting married very soon so we were talking about that. We went to Frankie and Benny's which was delicious as usual.

I wore this pink Lovedrobe dress that I bought from Evans in the New Year sales for just £12. I haven't worn it before. The lighting in the lift where I took the photo wasn't great, but it's a lovely bright pink in real life. I wore it with this black shrug from New Look.

It's a shift dress which I wouldn't usually go for, but I think it looked nice!

What I Wore 11th April

I've been writing writing writing and I finally got to a good threshhold on Saturday 11th April. Our new kitchen was sitting in flat packs in the old kitchen which made cooking really difficult, so Lee and I decided to go out for tea. I wanted Mexican food but there's no Mexican restaurant in Barnsley. Lee remembered that there's a Las Iguanas in Meadowhall, so off we went.

I recently got these cardigans from Peacocks for £10 in the sale. I got a kelly green one, a mint green one, and this pale pink one. They're a size 22 but they fit me well enough.

The dress I got from the clothes swap in Sheffield, I believe it was originally Lolly's. It's a Lovedrobe one, I love the pattern on it.

My rose quartz necklace is from Pookledo.

What I Wore October 19th

I went to Meadowhall in the middle of October to go shopping with Lolly and Claire, I haven't met Claire before but she was up visiting from London so I went along. We started off in Starbucks and then I braved Primark which I usually hate, but it was early on the Sunday so I dared. I came out with several Christmas presents and a jumper for myself so it was a good trip. I bought Christmas presents for my mother-in-law and my aunt, too. I also bought two tops in New Look with a voucher I had left over from LAST Christmas!

We ate in Ed's Diner which I heartily recommend, especially their milkshakes! I left shortly after lunch, but it was a lovely date with friends.

Here's what I wore. I got this Joe Browns dress in the Simply Be sale and although it was still more than I'd usually like to pay, I do like the quality of it. It's not stretchy but it is lovely cotton and the length is fantastic. It's nice on my boobs without showing off my bra, and I think I will get a lot of wear out of it. It's strappy, so I'm wearing it with my H&M cardigan.

I actually love this picture of myself :) 

Bonus picture of my lovely companions!

Spotty top from H&M

Along with the green top from H&M that I showed you a couple of posts ago, I got this one. The green one is a 4XL, this is a 3XL, you can see how both fit me. I love this top and have worn it a few times for work. It's a nice size, length, and I love the sleeve lengths too. And of course I love the spots! It was only a few pounds so a real bargain.

I was surprised at the lowness of the back. I thought this was the front but the tag is there. I quite like it now but it took me a while to get used to :) 

Please excuse my tired face. I had had a really busy day when this photo was taken!

What I Wore September 18th

I was away last week on a conference for one of my jobs (I am a self-employed bookkeeper and currently work for two charities and an ad agency). I went before in 2011 but I was newer in my post and less confident in myself generally, so I struggled through it. I wasn't really looking forward to going this time, but I actually had a really great time meeting new people and talking to my colleagues more.

I had recently bought some stuff from H&M. Their plus size collection is not amazing, but it does have great basics at good prices. I liked this top a lot; it has decent sleeves that meant I didn't need a cardigan while walking around outside, but it's quite thin so I didn't get too warm while I was inside (last time I had been way too warm inside). I also like the colour, it's a nice summer-to-autumn shade I think!

The top is £7.99 I think, such a bargain! 

The skirt is the black skirt from Yours that I wear a lot

Thank you Yvonne for taking this photo!

What I Wore 21st August

21st August was my partner Lee's birthday. He had the day off work (and Friday too, but I'll get to that) so we went to a really nice deli in Mirfield for lunch, then we did a bit of shopping. In the evening we went to Saigon 68 in Sheffield with my mum and stepdad, and some friends. I really recommend the place - it's REALLY amazing food, good prices, and the portions are enormous. They will give you any leftovers for you to eat later.

I had Vietnamese Stir Fried Noodles with Three Roasties meat, it's delicious! Lee and I also shared a portion of salt and pepper fried bean curd. They do have a good vegetarian section - we were eating with two vegans and they had the veggie set meal for £13 each.

I wore this red dress which you've seen before, but I also put on this lace back shrug. I got it in the New Look sale recently for £9.99. The sleeves are a nice length on my elbow and I like that the back would show any interesting details on the clothing underneath.

What I Wore August 3rd

It was my friend Katie's baby shower so I headed to her sister-in-law's house for the chance to spoil Katie, see her before baby Belle makes her appearance, and eat some truly yummy cupcakes!

Look at the cuteness of the cake!

I wore this dress from Simply Be which I've only worn a couple of times even though I've had it for about 18 months. It's the exact same cut as this dress, but it's not as fun of a print so I often discount it. But it was really nice to wear for Katie's shower. 

What I Wore 31st January

I went to Meadowhall to see my friend Sarah and to give her her birthday present (which I'll share in another post). We went to Carluccio's where we had yummy starters and main courses. We wanted to go to Ed's Diner for milkshakes but there was a queue so we had ice creams instead. 

This dress was from Yours clothing a couple of years ago. It has tiny red hearts on it. The cardigan was a present from Lee, it is the Beth Ditto cardigan from a few years ago and he managed to get it on eBay for me for Christmas. It is maybe a tiny bit tight on me but I love it so much. The hearts are gold thread, so beautiful!