Last weekend I unpacked my winter wardrobe from last year. Slim pickings I’m afraid. I tend to buy a few new jumpers each year, wear them to death and bin them come spring. So no much-loved cashmere to get reacquainted with unfortunately. What I did find was the following:

• Boyfriend-style camel coat 
• Short-sleeved stripy jumper (I know, short-sleeved jumpers are pretty pointless!)
• Black jumper dress
• Black dress with leopard print peter pan collar 
• Black leather mini skirt
• Leopard print flared skirt

I cobbled together an outfit from the jumper and skirt for work yesterday and added my new snood (which I’ve worn every day since I bought it – never before has anything been loved as much as this!).

The skirt is a little shorter than I remember. I still like it though and am glad it escaped the eBay/charity shop culls.

Do you have much left over from last year or are you starting from scratch with your winter wardrobe?

xx

Skirt: Urban Outfitters / Jumper: Next / Ankle boots: River Island / Snood: French Connection

Forgive the shameless rip-off of Graham Norton’s Saturday morning radio feature – it seemed appropriate for this post. I absolutely loved the yellow dress that Rumi from Fashiontoast wore to the LFW Topshop Unique show and am pretty sure it’s from Zara:

Image copyright Fashiontoast 2011

I was thrilled to find the dress in my size at the weekend and rushed to the changing room to try it on. What a huge disappointment! The dress was an awkward length, hitting my leg just below the knee which - combined with the high neckline – made it look incredibly frumpy. The material was quite hard and there was no shaping at all at the waist – it was straight up and down. I can’t remember when I last tried on such an unflattering item and wonder if Rumi had hers altered as it looks so much shorter.

On a positive note the colour was great! Which leads me to this skater dress (also from Zara) which looks like a much more flattering option:

Which dress do you prefer?

xx

I’m not a big fan of scarves. I find them awkward to wear and, more often than not, end up leaving them in a bar or restaurant. So bring on the snood. No dilemma about how to style it – just chuck it over your head and you’re done! I bought this mustard and black one in French Connection yesterday. It should be versatile enough to wear with my camel and black winter coats, and with loads of dresses and jumpers.

I wore it today with my ‘Jo Brand’ black velvet oversized T-shirt (which I plan to grow into over the next 40 years!), black skinny jeans and black boots. It was like summer in Edinburgh this weekend and warm enough to go out like this.

Hope you’ve had a great weekend. 

xx

Snood: French Connection / T-shirt: Cos / Jeans: Cheap Monday / Boots: River Island  

For this month’s Take10 challenge, QVC invited us to pick a ring from their Butler and Wilson range. Here’s what we chose:

I picked one of the more subtle designs – a gold and silver studded crossover band. Seeing it online, I wasn’t sure if I was going to like it but it’s growing on me. In this outfit I went for all out bling by teaming it with a lurex jumper and adding a gold bracelet and bag, and some red Chanel lippie:

To view everyone’s pictures in more detail visit Jen at A Little Bird Told Me, MJ at Dreaming Spires and Old Car Tyres, Sherin at HiFashion , Vicki at Magpie Girl, Paula at PinkBow, Ellie at Pretty Much Penniless, Sabine at Psynopsis, Susie at Take-Out In Couture and Harriet at Where Is Harriet?.

Thanks to QVC for sponsoring the challenge and Vicki for making the collage.

xx

Jumper: Zara / Bag: c/o Sarenza / Bracelet: c/o Stella & Dot

I’ve been looking for a knitted jacket with an Aztec type print for ages and found what I think is the perfect one in Warehouse at the weekend. The colour combination of black, grey and brown means it’ll go with pretty much everything in my wardrobe. I like the drapey waterfall style of the front and the side pockets. My only gripe is that it could do with being just that wee bit longer at the back (living in skinny jeans means I like things to cover my bum for common decency reasons!).

The Warehouse jacket is £75, which seems ok for something that can be worn as a jacket throughout autumn and then as a cardi under a big coat come winter. If £75 seems a bit much, this Matalan version for £25 might be a good option:

What do you think? Is it worth investing in something like this or better to go for the cheaper way to buy into the trend?

xx

PS Huge thanks to everyone who came along to our Social Media Week fashion blogging discussion last night. Michelle, Jonathan, Hilary and I all really enjoyed it and hope you did too.

Tomorrow night  (Mon 19th Sep) Michelle from Kingdom of Style, Jonathan from Les Garcons de Glasgow, designer Hilary Laing and I will be taking part in a panel discussion on fashion blogging  as part of Social Media Week. We’ll be talking about lots of different aspects of fashion blogging – from how/why to start a blog, to promoting and monetising your blog.

It’s taking place at CitizenM hotel in Glasgow at 7pm, is free to attend and there’s a networking event afterwards. Please feel free to come along and say hello – there’s even a goodie bag from event sponsor Equator in it for you!

More info is available on the Social Media Week website.

xx

Much excitement in the office this morning over the arrival of my first ever GlossyBox (along with the many Graze boxes that get delivered). GlossyBox is the beauty version of the Graze concept – you sign up and get a little box of surprises delivered on a regular basis (GlossyBox is monthly).

The box itself was very pretty and the products were nicely packaged in tissue paper:

I was delighted with the 5 products I was sent – particularly the Nuxe Huile Prodigieuse gold body oil, which I’ve wanted to try for ages. The other products were an HD Brows palette, L’Oreal Mythic Oil (for hair), StriVectin SD Eye Concentrate (posh eye wrinkle cream – exactly what I need but would never actually go out and buy!) and a sample of Mary Greenwell’s Plum perfume:

The monthly subscription costs £10 (plus £2.95 P&P) which seems fair for such a lovely treat. I’d be thrilled to have a box of goodies like these turn up every month.

What do you think? Have you tried them?

xx

Review written on behalf of GlossyBox