Just back from my weekend in Chester – it was brilliant to catch up with my friends there. Saturday saw us taking our traditional wee stroll around the shops (and, of course, not return home empty handed!).

Paul got new trainers from an amazing independent sports shop that videos you running on a treadmill in various shoes, analysing the results until you’ve been matched with the perfect pair.

I opted for something much less active in the form of a wander round Zara where I found this fruit print blouse:

A nice alternative to summer florals and quite a close ‘tribute’ to the Stella McCartney original:

Hope you’ve had a fab bank holiday weekend.

xx

An outfit from last weekend. This polka dot blouse is my new favourite thing. It looks quite prim and proper so I tried to counteract that with jeans and my studded Converse-esque boots. I love these boots but they’ve hardly been worn. I’ve realised that white is not a practical shoe colour in Scotland, even in the ‘summer’ (gale force winds and lashing rain, hmmm…).      

I’m off to Chester for the weekend for the annual visit to my friends Paul and Steven – can’t wait to see them. Have a great weekend whatever you’re up to.

xx

Blouse: c/0 Max C London / Jeans: Cheap Monday / Boots: Office

I’m a keen swimmer (well, in theory anyway - I try to go 3 times a week but it rarely happens!) so when Simply Beach got in touch and asked me to review their shopping experience I jumped at the chance.

I’d heard about Australian brand Seafolly before and knew it had a reputation for great quality, so ordered this pink frill detail swimsuit. It’ll be a cheery replacement for my trusty black Speedo (which is almost threadbare!):

In the same range there’s also a very cute bikini (not so practical for everyday swimming, but great for the beach):

I love this pink ’mag bag’ as well. It’s on the shopping list for my Thailand holiday later this year.

The ordering process was really quick and easy, and delivery was reasonably priced at £1.99. I ordered on Saturday and the swimsuit arrived this morning - pretty impressive. I’d made a mistake on my order, but emailed to request a change of delivery address and got a fast response saying it wouldn’t be a problem.

If only all online shopping experiences were this good!

xx

My little treat this week was this silver necklace from Accessorize – that’s a lot of chain for a tenner!

Most appropriately I wore it to this weekend’s Chain and The Gang gig, which was a blast!

I love this song. It flies in the face of all the self-help stuff we’re fed these days:

 “If you feel like you’re not good enough, well you’re probably not. And you know what? You never ever will be.”

Makes me feel it’s ok to be crap at certain things (in a non-defeatist, just accepting my limitations kind of way!).

Hope you’ve had a great weekend.

xx

Favourite jacket, favourite trousers, favourite shoes and all-time most favoured ever T-shirt!

And it’s Friday – everyone’s favourite day of the working week! Almost the weekend, have a good one!

xx

Jacket: River Island / Leather trousers: ASOS / T-shirt: Urban Outfitters / Shoes: Carvela

I’m not into handbags at all. My ’collection’ over the last few years has extended to a big black bag for daytime and a little black bag for evening.

I couldn’t resist this red bag though. The colour is fab, it’s big enough to cart all my stuff around in (brolly and book are essential for coping with Glasgow rain and public transport) and it looks much more expensive than it was (£19.99):

Please excuse the missing door handle in the pic! It fell off 8 years ago and I’m only just getting round to fixing it now (things move very slowly round these parts – must be all the Jack Daniels I drank as a teenager!).

xx

Blouse: Topshop / Jeans: Cheap Monday / Ballet pumps: Topshop / Bag: Zara

Today’s outfit – a pink T-shirt and jeans (currently all that I feel like wearing, not in much of a dress-up mood lately). These tops are £20 from Zara and come in tons of different colours, great for brightening up a plain outfit:

Now that summer’s here (kind of) I’ve decided to try to be a bit healthier, which means getting back into swimming, doing the 5 a day fruit and veg thing and cutting out the midweek wine habit – the ‘for making it through Monday’ glass, the ‘almost midweek’ Tuesday glass, the ‘reward for doing the housework’ Wednesday glass and the ‘almost the weekend, let’s go nuts!’ Thursday glass/es (well, I might reinstate this one from time to time!).

I’m putting the money saved  into a weekend treat fund – call it wine replacement therapy! This weekend’s treats were a bunch of pink roses and some Scandicrime reading (pictured with my poodle mug – officially the world’s campest cup):

Hope you’ve had a good weekend. Let me know what you got up to.

xx

Top: Zara / Jeans: Cheap Monday / Ballet pumps: Topshop