Would you believe it, I haven't bought a single item of clothing for the whole of January 2013.  How impressive is that? I have set myself a little challenge where I spend less money on things in general to try and save up for the future. Boring, but very essential.  Of course I'm not going to depraive myself completely and I do still have a £35 River Island voucher from Christmas to spend as soon as I get to the stores (which hopefully will be soon!)

Here in the UK the snow has finally decided to go away and stay away in my part of the country.  I love snow when I don't have to go out in it, but I also don't like feeling cold when I am outside and my collection of coats is looking rather worn out at the moment.  Now that Spring is on its way I am getting increasingly excited about the new trends and colours that will be appearing in the high street stores.  One trend I have noticed across a few online shops has been the "Cat Jumper".  Now I love jumpers in this sort of weather and I happen to love cats too, so this is a perfect trend for me.  I think my fiance might disagree and think that I'm some sort of crazy cat lady but who cares.  It's fashion, cute and warm and comfy!

There are so many "Cat Jumpers" to choose from that I have chosen my favourite few for you to take a look at and see if you fancy jumping on this Spring 2013 trend. Let me know what you think of this unusual fashion trend...

Grey Cat Print Knitted Jumper, New Look, Up to UK Size 18, £22.99

Stone Speckled Cat Print Jumper, New Look, Up to UK Size 18, £22.99 

ASOS Curve Exclusive Jumper With Black Cat, ASOS Curve, Up to UK Size 26, £30.00

 Cat Sweater, Next, Up to UK Size 22, £32.00

Finally!  Previews of the new Spring / Summer 2013 ranges are being released and I have to say I'm a little unsure about many of the trends for this upcoming season.  I do like a number of the designs but I'd go as far as saying that I probably don't like 75% of the trends.  I guess things will pan out a bit better when everyone releases their plans for Spring.  Until then i'm holding my judgement :)  I have had a look through the "Very" (very.co.uk) promotional shots for their new ranges, so I thought I would share some of them with you...

There seems to be plenty of floral print, lace, bright and bold leggings and tea dresses...
 
The only good thing is that we seem to be keeping the pastel colours which I absolutely love! Plus, we can recycle many of last years buys that didn't see much sunshine!  On a side note, although I'm meant to be on a no spending regime, I must have those purple floral jeggings!! 

All images courtesy of very.co.uk

I'm not one for setting new years resolutions as I generally don't stick to them and one of my pet hates is the influx of people who buy exercises DVDs / join gyms and then quit after a month as I have been there before too - such a waste of money!

This year, however I do have a number of things I want to achieve with my life and the things that I do...

• I want to become a regular blogger.  I have in the past been guilty of leaving my blog for weeks without an update and that simply isn't good enough!  I also want to finally get some outfit of the day posts sorted.  The weather here is so dreary all the time and my home hasn't got enough space for indoor photographs so I'm a bit stumped if I am honest.
• Healthy Eating!  I'm not so much as setting myself a diet plan, but I want to eat a lot healthier this year.  I have a complete chocolate and sweet addiction and I eat far too many snacks.  My main meals generally aren't that unhealthy with thanks to a fitness fiance, but my choice in snacks is appalling.  I'm not going to sit here and say I'll never eat a chocolate bar or piece of cake ever again as that's just not realistic.  I am going to cut down and try to replace my snacks with high protein type foods and fruit with the occasional naughty treat!
• I want to achieve more this year business wise than I ever have.  I am self employed and I want to make sure that I hit a certain target for my business.  It's not just about money, however that does help a lot with bills etc getting higher all of the time.  I want to do it for self satisfaction and to be successful at what I do :)

 Anyway, enough seriousness!  If you're reading my blog right now, why don't you say hi! :) I'd love to know who is reading my little part of the Internet.

I have a Christmas dress! Well technically I have two new Christmas dresses… Let me explain lol…

I left it a little late to purchase a dress to wear on Christmas day this year – as I mentioned in my earlier plus size partywear post it is a bit of a tradition for me to get a new outfit to dress up and celebrate the day. I ventured into New Look with my mum and most of the partywear dresses had been stuck on a sale rail with hardly anything left. I was so shocked and slightly worried that I may end up in Pyjamas this year at the dinner table… And as for sizes, there were plenty of size 6, 8 and 10 clothes – and plenty of 24, 26 in the Inspire range, but nothing in the middle.  

I was about to give up when I thought, stuff it, I’ll try on a bunch of dresses that are too big – I mean I’m never going to squeeze into a smaller size, but who knows what might happen with the bigger sizes especially when you take the fabric into consideration. I grabbed a size 26 (I am a UK size 18), black lace dress, one of those very on trend lace layered dresses with long sleeves and mum found a size 22 black and beige brocade triangle style dress which I wasn’t 100% sure about but thought what the heck!

Into the dressing room I go, and try on the first dress. The black lace number which I have been after for months. It just hung off me, no shape whatsoever because it was too big. I decided to take that off swiftly and try the next dress which to my suprise actually worked. I turned it back to front to give it a lower cleavage line as the back was a scoop neck, but the front was right up my shoulders. When worn back to front, it worked! I looked at the price tag, £28.99 and sighed a little because I thought it was maybe a bit silly paying for a dress that wasn’t really my size and not really what I had in mind. I took the plunge and took it to the till. The girl on the counter got the whole story about my partywear dress disaster and then asked me for £7. £7 !?!? Hang on a minute, I thought that dress was £28.99 ?? Turns out, it wasn’t marked in the sale but was supposed to be reduced so who was I to argue about that absolute bargain!

We then ventured into Outfit, which if you’ve never heard of it before is a retail park type shop with Dorothy Perkins, Wallis, Warehouse, Topshop and Miss Selfridge in…. and there it was… a black lace overlay dress in a size 18. I HAD to try it on. I was so pleased with the look I asked the assistant if I could go and find my mother in the store (in the dress!) and she thought it looked fab too. It wasn’t my usual style and clung to every curve on my body but it looked sexy, yet elegant at the same time. I looked at the price tag. £45.99 – no way was I paying that when I knew there was some on eBay for half that price.  

I took a photo of the Wallis dress to show my fiance and was slightly deflated when I left but I couldn’t justify spending that kind of money on myself on the run up to Christmas. A very similar dress was on ASOS and I had meant to order it a week ago – by the time I put it in my basket, my size was out of stock. I decided on Saturday night to have another look at ASOS Curve. I’ve never ordered from there before. Only accessories… and there it was. The exact dress, back in stock in the sale in a size 20. I took the plunge and bought it with next day delivery. It arrived this morning, and although it is different fabric to the Wallis one and a hell of a lot tighter, it looks fab!  

 

I’m very conscious of my lumps and bumps in it, but both my fiance and my mum think that it looks brilliant and for £24 to keep it. So now I just have to decide which one do I wear on Christmas day!?
Sorry for waffling guys! Just had to share that with you lol.

So the partywear season is upon us again and it doesn’t feel that long ago since last Christmas…

Although i’m not a party animal, I have a bit of a tradition that every Christmas day I dress up in a new dress or outfit that I have bought for that purpose. In fact most of my “Christmas Day” dresses only get worn on special occasions no matter what shop they came from and I always insist on a new outfit/dress every year. Gone are the days as a child where I would spend as long as I possibly could in my pyjamas! Last year I wore an absolutely gorgeous purple frock dress with embellished cuffs which was from Primark and a complete bargain. This year I haven’t chosen my dress and although I came close to ordering one from ASOS, I found out days later they had sold out so I guess it wasn’t meant to be.

Anyway, I thought I would trawl the shops and bring you the hottest plus size partywear for 2012. Styles that will suit our curvier figures and shops that actually cater for us… So take a look at my top 3 picks for plus size partywear and if you have any comments I’d love to hear from you! I don’t know about you, but I think you need something pretty special for this time of year.

 

1) Sequin Gold Chiffon Dress, £40 – AX Curve 2) ASOS CURVE Exclusive Peplum Dress In Lace, £45.00 – ASOS Curve 3) Vienna Dress, £80 – Gemma Collins Official

Everywhere I look, Metallics are really popular for one of the hottest Winter trends, 2012… but as I gaze upon every shiny pencil skirt or glitzy dress I do wonder if this trend will suit curvier girls. I have a feeling it’s going to be one of those styles that you have to try on to see…

Although Primark is not sterotypically known for plus size clothing, I know they go up to a size 18 or 20 at times… and they seem to be bang on trend this winter with plenty of Metallics to choose from. For those of you who are daring, full mini dresses clad in metallic shiny fabric are on sale along with embellished blouses for those of us who aren’t so sure (so there’s no need to feel left out!) Check out some of the winter 2012 metallics trends from Primark below:

Sequin collar dress – £18, Chelsea Glitter Boot – £10

Cut out collar blouse – £15, Sequin pencil skirt – £14, Studded Zip Boot – £20

Sequin short – £16, Sequin jacket – £25

I’m a bit late to the instagram bandwagon so tried to install it on my iPhone… first problem – my iPhone is soooo old it won’t install lol… However I figure I am constantly taking photos on my phone that I didn’t want to feel left out so here’s my first of many “iPhone Photos Collections” for November 2012!

 

1) Cupcake Tasting for the Wedding 2) My new lion hoody from New Look (LOVE THIS!)
3) Christmas Trees! 4) Mum cuddling a HUGE bear in the middle of a shop!
5) My gorgeous Bailey posing 6) Vitamins! Lots of them.  7) New employee!
8) My new dressing gown thanks mum! 9) Bailey blouse (Didn’t Buy but WOW!)