The wedding planning is pretty much done which means I can get back to my passion of blogging!  I have missed it so much and felt like I have let my readers down....To get back into the swing of things, I have an amazing offer for my readers and it's all about Yours Clothing.  Let me explain how I found this awesome retailer...

I first heard of Yours Clothing from another plus size fashion blog (I think it may have been What Laura Loves).  and of course met with Charlotte at Plus North where I had a good nosey on their rail they had displaying their clothes.  After the event, I also popped into their store in the Arndale centre to have a look at a wider range of their offerings.  I was being very good in Manchester and trying not to spend too much money due to the cost of the hotel and travel so I came away empty handed.

Regularly, I look online at what new items are available across a wide number of online stores and Yours Clothing is no exception.  I guess it's similar to window shopping but if I see something that I really love and would hate for it to be sold out, i'll place an order.  In January hopefully my normal shopaholic self can return!  

What I really like about Yours Clothing is that the clothes on offer aren't all old fashioned - they have some really on trend pieces suitable for all age groups.  There is nothing worse than having an online plus size clothing brand that is set on covering you up from head to toe - or everything being extremely baggy and unflattering.  Yours Clothing does neither of these things yay!

Here are a few of the recent items that I have picked out to share with you...

Firstly, I'm not going to make a clothing post without including a dress!  With Winter on it's way, I think that there is more of a need for darker dresses so that they don't look out of place and this purple and black flock skater dress really suits the season.  It is a stretchy dress made with viscose and elastane and I don't know about you but in this weather I really like to eat warming, comforting foods like stew and pasta and meatballs so I always put on a few pounds!  This dress is available in a 16 to 26 (the 26 is currently out of stock) and is a really reasonable £30.  

One thing I think this dress offers is versatility.  Combine it with ankle boots and a leather jacket for an on trend daytime look or alternatively, a paid of killer heels with a gorgeous embellished or lace jacket/cardigan would suit evening wear for a meal out or party.
 

 

Purple and black short sleeve flock print skater Dress, Yours Clothing, £30

Second up, a warm jumper!  I must admit I am a little less creative with my outfits for Autumn/Winter purely because I don't really own much for this season! I am not really a fan of this new trend of Christmas jumpers so I'll stay safe and showcase a jumper that you would wear out in public!

This nude coloured "LOL" jumper is still a bit quirky but a little less offensive than dressing yourself up as a Christmas pudding or with a bunch of reindeer on your tummy.  I love the colour of this and I think that with a pair of blue jeans and some nude coloured heels, this look would still be quite glamorous rather than another boring jumper.  This jumper is available in sizes 16-26 and is £25.  What I particularly like about this jumper is that it looks warm and cozy and although I can't feel the fabric through a computer monitor, I'd hope that it was soft too.  

 

 Nude 'LOL' Slogan Knitted Jumper, Yours Clothing, £25

Needing a new coat this winter?  I already have a cream faux fur jacket, but I need a black one too ,right?  This black faux fur coat looks absolutely gorgeous and would be perfect for a cold night out or a "date night" meal.  It's available in a size 16 to 28 and is really good value at £60.  I imagine that it would be really comfortable to wear and stylish too, without being too garish.

Faux Fur Black Coat, Yours Clothing, £60

I hope you'll agree that I have been a bit more practical with my picks from Yours Clothing, yet all of the items I have chosen are also very trendy and beautiful.  You don't need to look frumpy when it's cold!  

Now onto my amazing offer.  Yours Clothing have given me a discount code for all new customers, on full priced items...  £10 off a £20 spend.  Simply use the discount code BLOGGER10 when you are checking out and this will be applied to your order...   How cool is that!?






 

Just a quick little post from me to let you all know that Yours Clothing is offering free delivery & returns on all full priced items on their website this weekend :)

This special offer ends at Midnight on Sunday and all you need to do is add the coupon code: FREETREAT at the checkout...

http://www.yoursclothing.com

And best of all, there is no minimum spend!  Have fun ladies.. I'm off bridesmaid dress shopping so I have to be good :'( 

Felicity
xx

I have just returned from my first ever Plus North event which took place in the Renaissance Hotel in Manchester.  We woke early on Saturday morning ready for the drive ahead of us and although it took a little time to get everything packed and sorted we eventually made our way up the motorway to Manchester. I must admit, I had booked tickets, hotel etc before we booked our wedding so I did have a slight pang of guilt that the money I had spent could have been used for our wedding.  I'm such a worrier! For the day event I wore a bodycon New Look dress, brown leather jacket, ankle boots from Tesco and a sparkly statement necklace also from New Look.

Anyone who knows me knows that I hate being late for anything so when we got stuck on the M6 with long delays I started to panic and ended up being around 30 minutes late - grr!  When I walked into the Exhibition Hall I was greeted by the lovely Charlotte from Yours Clothing with a goodie bag and a warm welcome which was much appreciated because for some reason I was really nervous!  There were clothing racks everywhere and pick a mix too!  Yum!  I arrived just in time for the first catwalk show which was the Simply Be catwalk.  I stood next to the Yours Clothing exhibit and watched as everyone walked down the catwalk looking fabulous.  

Afterwards I made my way around the room anti-clockwise and approached Curvissa, Bon Prix and Lovedrobe.  Every exhibitor had something that I liked on their rails but with the wedding approaching I was on a pretty strict budget and unfortunately had to window shop! Next up was the Evans stand which was really cool.  I chatted to a lovely lady about my body shape as I am still undecided if I am an apple or a pear then I entered their gift card giveaway where everyone got a gift card with a value of between £5 and £100 and would only know how much it was when I took it to an Evans Store.  Thankfully there is one in the Arndale centre in Manchester since our local one has closed down.

I then spoke with Natalie from Scarlett and Jo, who I have spoke via e-mail but never met.  She is so lovely - and had a good nosey at the Powerfit dresses from their new range which I will be blogging about later this week.  I moved onto the Slink Magazine exhibit of which I had never heard of before and spoke to them about their magazine and their new boutique which was opening that day.  

Simply Be was next and I finally got to drool over the blogger dresses in person and a bunch of other new Autumn / Winter ranges.  They also had some of their shoes on display too and they look really well made.  Next up, Excite clothing.  I had a look at this Exhibit in two parts as another catwalk show was about to start.  The Yours Clothing catwalk show was really good because it had more winter looking outfits including lots of comfy knitted jumpers and accessories too.  We had a very special treat to a Slink Boutique catwalk show straight afterwards with a mix of some really funky outfits and gorgeous eveningwear.  All of the models looked amazing!

The Excite Clothing stand had a lot of bodycon dresses that I liked the look of and after feeling a bit daring with wearing bodycon for the first time to the day event I made a mental note to check out their website again on my return.  I could have bought some there, but was being good for a change. Growing up sucks!   The Topsy Curvy stand was next; another brand I hadn't heard of and I had a good chat with the lovely Charlotte (my apologies if I have got your name wrong!) before heading over to the other exhibition room.  I didn't spend much time in this room as it was aimed at accessories and I am deadly around things like that so me and Mr FH decided to head over to the Arndale centre to have a look around since we haven't been to Manchester before.  

The Arndale centre is massive and you could get easily lost in the number of stores!  We looked in Yours Clothing, the Lego shop (omg I could live in there!), the Disney Store and I finally found the Simply Be store!! Go me!  The Simply Be store in Manchester is slightly smaller than I had imagined but it had an amazing atmosphere and the staff were all really friendly.  I tried on 3 dresses and had a good play with their magic mirror.  This feature is a fantastic idea!  You can take a photo of yourself in your outfit and tweet/facebook it too. I tried to tweet an AX Paris dress but it wasn't connected to the Internet.  I did give in and buy the navy floral print AX Paris curve dress because it was so stunning on (pictures to come soon!).  We also went to the Evans store where I had won £5, but the good thing about this is it will last for 2 years so after the wedding I will keep an eye out on what I want to order.

We went for dinner at the Slug and Lettuce before stepping back to the hotel to get changed for the Plus North after party.  By this time a migraine had set in so I was a little nervous that I wouldn't make it.  I changed into my Paper Dolls dress which has now gotten a little big for me due to spinning, so I teamed it with a cardigan in-case the straps fell down.  I wore flat shoes and a bunch of gorgeous accessories.  We arrived in the suite and were given a gorgeous goodie bag from Scarlett and Jo. Inside was a "Fatshion" acrylic necklace, some nail decals and some sample goodies.  We all sat around the tables and listened to a performance by the gorgeous Rosie O'Sullivan who was a previous Britain's Got Talent contestant.  We were then treated to a glamorous catwalk show by Scarlett and Jo featuring the new dresses and outfits all of which I want! It was a really lovely weekend meeting a bunch of bloggers - my only regret being that I didn't get enough time to chat to everyone!

*Edit - I have ONE photo from the event that is viewable! So next time.... please, someone remind me to take my Canon!

 

I'm terrible at making decisions.  If we eat out, I'll let someone else choose where.  If Mr FH and I are watching a film, I'll let him pick!  So imagine how difficult it is for me to order clothes online...

Generally, I do shop in actual stores because it means I get to try everything on in one go without having to worry about sizing issues or sending stuff back.  Recently I have been more interested in online shopping because of lack of time and also some of the ranges aren't available in stores and I live far away from some stores such as Simply Be, however I am going to make it my mission to get to one before the end of the year!

Anyway, I have found a bunch of dresses that I really like but I can't order them all as it will eat into the wedding fund, so I decided to make a post and see if anyone wants to get in touch with their opinions via comments, twitter or e-mail and help me choose which to order :)

First up, is Yours Clothing.  I've never ordered anything from here before but after reading the most recent post over at What Laura Loves, I too fell in love with the "Cream Bird Print Lace Trim Dress". Laura looks amazing in it!  This dress is £30 and the only drawback is that they are out of stock of 18's and a 20 may be too big... 

Next up, also on Yours Clothing is a beautiful floral hanky hem dress in black, red and beige.  I think this dress would be perfect for summer but also work in Autumn due to the gorgeous array of colours within its print.  This dress is low in stock in both an 18 and 20, so I need to act fast if I want to get it.  At £35, this is slightly more expensive than the previous one.

Heading over to Desire Clothing, another store I've never ordered from, I couldn't help but notice this peacock dress on sale at just £16.  Now, I absolutely love the peacock dress designed by Em over at Simply Be, but I don't think my shape would pull it off.  So this one (although fitted) would probably be better suited and it's in the sale, so can't really go wrong! The only thing with this dress is I am really nervous about which size I would need.

Now over to ASOS Curve where I am also a bit twitchy about their sizing.  First up, a couple of dresses from the Little Mistress Curve range (can I really justify more evening dresses and their prices when I have a wedding to save for?)... Both are bodycon dresses which immediately make me worry about shapewear but both are simply stunning on the model! 

Over at Simply Be there are loads of dresses that I love, so I have narrowed it down to the following although these don't have photos because the website ones are a bit lower quality... See why this is so difficult already? :) Maybe I should stick to the sales for now? HELP!! :)

• Anna Scholz Cowl Colour Block Dress, Reduced to £49.50 @ Simply Be
• Coral Jacquard Skater Dress With Pleats, Reduced to £18.00 @ Simply Be
• Enchanted Print Tea Dress, Reduced to £14.00 @ Simply Be 

I also love the Scarlett & Jo dresses I mentioned in an earlier post.  I would appreciate any opinions at all before my head explodes! 

Xx