Smart casual...

With family coming to visit I wanted to look nice, but be warm and comfortable (old house cold house is so true!) so I popped this little ensemble together for the day.

Thick tights - wonderful for warmth AND tummy squashing magic. 

Floral wrap dress - an old favourite seen in early posts from Asda's sale rails, which I adjusted to fit better as it was a bit of an odd shape.

White polo neck - a basic from New Look that was around seven pounds, because we ALL ought to have these kinds of basics, it's practically the law.

Big fat belt from Peacocks - seen better days, gradually dying, ought to be replaced. 

Headband from Asda - you all recall the big DIY haircut and The Fringe - I'm growing it out at the moment (man alive but a fringe is high maintenance) and so rocking lots of headbands and hairclips. The added advantage of headbands is that they're basically a hat that you're allowed to wear indoors. Useful when you live in a giant refrigerator in the Somerset countryside. 

Peach

I do so love my peach crochet top - I found it in a sale (New Look) and it is the kind of thing I never normally buy - or even try on - but is also the kind of thing my very trendy sister-in-law (who is much younger and prettier than I) often wears, and I always think she looks gorgeous. 

So now I am going to bore everyone I have ever known by wearing it far too often, until it falls into pieces. 

Huge heels - New Look - Owl Bag - Ebay - Massive Cardi - TKMaxx - Skirt - Asda - overall look - floral, pastel goodness

And just to stop me looking TOO cutesy - this amazing skull cameo broach from a blogger charity raffle. 

Summer shopping

 Yesterday we went out for a nice family day. As we were getting ready to set off it was a little over cast and breezy, so it wasn't as warm as it's been for the past week. 


Looking at the clouds I dressed in jeans, deck shoes and a preppy long sleeved top. All very suitable for a breezy, overcast day at the seaside. 


By the time we arrived an hour later it was H.O.T.


Hot hot hot. 


Hubby laughed as I swealtered, and very kindly dropped me off outside New Look as he went to park the car. What a gent!


Seventeen pounds later I had this little ensemble. A floor length purple maxi skirt, with pockets, which is AMAZING, swishy and comfortable and a little bit sexy. A peach top, woven, more than a tiny bit see through. 


I fell in love with a few other things, but had just £30 to spend so restrained myself and stuck to the rules. Then came home, logged on to their website and showed hubby all the things I'd fallen in love with. I may be receiving a delivery this week! 

So what do you think? Better than sunstroke anyway! Am I the only person who has had to buy a whole new outfit when out and about after being baffled by the good old British summer?

Who wants my cherry?

I felt like some colour today - so I popped on this little ensemble.

Red pencil skirt - British Heart Foundation, £6

Cherry print t-shirt - Peacocks, £3

Black belt - previously seen, Peacocks

Shoes - New Look, £10

Just another Monday

Today I wore one of my favourite outfits. I LOVE this top - I love the collar, I love the tiny velvety spots all over it, I love that there's a button on the back at the neck, I love that it's just a bit see-through (I wear a vest underneath for work!) and I love that it is just sexy enough to stop me looking too smart!


The top is, of course, from Asda, and I, of course, got it in their sale - I paid £5 for it, which was a bargain for something I love so much, even by my standards. 


I am wearing a vest underneath that was 2 for £3 in Peacocks. 


The skirt was a real treasure. I got it in a charity shop - one for a local charity that cares for premature children and young mothers - for £6. It was pretty unflattering when I got it - mid shin, A line, not a great shape or style - but a lovely fit around the waist and nice, soft fabric in a good colour.


I cut the skirt considerably shorter (saving the excess fabric for some possible future project - you never know!) and shaped it to be more pencil skirt than rara skirt. It is now a lovely shape, and makes me feel, as some twitter friends would say, shminky. 


I paired the skirt and blouse with a chunky belt (Peacocks, £4) and the New Look heels (£16) that you've already seen a lot of. 


I also popped on a coat - Peacocks, £10 - that is pretending to be sheepskin but is some kind of pretend fabric. Super soft and can go in the washing machine! 


All in this outfit cost £18 (we don't count shoes and coats in the cost of #WhatYouRocking remember - those are bought for MANY outfits!) which is, by anyone's standards, an absolute bargain - and I felt pretty darned hot! 




What did you wear this fine Monday?

The weekend edition

I recently bought some jeans - jeans that actually fit. They happen to be skinny jeans (I know, right) and they also happened, originally, to be dark green. 

The dark green lasted, oh, all of an hour - I thought I'd just quickly bleach the bathroom. Which meant splashing bleach on my new green jeans. Which meant bleaching them a sort of yellow colour down one shin. 

Nice.

Since I had already done it I thought it was best to give it some more bleach and see what happened. This is the result. A much lighter green with yellow streaks down the legs - I think they look awesome - but I'm sure I will bore of that soon, so I have a pack of dark green dye in a drawer waiting for me to fix them.

The jeans cost £8 in the New Look sale. The bottle of bleach cost a pound!

The top, just a plain black polo neck, came in a pack of two - the other is a kind of burgandy colour - that I got from ebay a couple of years ago. I can't remember what I paid but it will have cost less than £10, because I'm stingy, and I was even more stingy two years ago than I am now.

I have also recorded here, for posterity, that I wore matching socks today. Unless they're some kind of novelty sock I never wear a matching pair - so this is mainly here to prove to my Dad that I can.

The most important part of today's outfit is a little bit of a cheat in the #whatyourocking rules. These boots. 

Technically they do fit in the rules, since I was given them for free, so the outfit still came in at less than £30. 

My Mum gave me these boots. They cost her a LOT more than £30. They were her absolute favourite boots, and she wore them everywhere. I complimented heavily, I gave her puppy eyes and looked mournful. It took a few years - but eventually she bought herself new boots, and gave in, and the boots are mine! 

Man I love these boots. 

Unsure

I bought this yellow skirt from Peacocks for £7. I love it because it's all swishy and yellow and has a petticoat, but I'm never sure what top to put it with. I wore it a couple of months ago with a white polo neck jumper, but it's too warm for that now (even though it's only fake summer, and has rained all day) so I wasn't really sure how to make it an outfit.


I ended up wearing this top, which I got in Next as one of my possible interview outfits for the job I do now - it was £12 in their sale and is MEANT to have a white ruffle top and puff sleeves, but was subjected to a wash by my husband that coloured it grey. I figure since grey matches the tank top part I'll keep wearing it. 


As I wasn't entirely sure I teamed it with a bright yellow belt - two (of different colours) for £3 from Matalan - and the bright blue wedges I got in New Look two summers ago to add a pop of contrast. 


I wasn't completely sold on this as an outfit, but feedback at work was positive so maybe it worked after all. What do you think? This top - yey or nay? 

 I didn't edit out my fingers from the pic again because it caused such hilarity on instagram yesterday - but this time they are more obviously my fingers! Also I really need to paint my toenails again...

As you can see I'm also wearing my white jacket from this previous post today and you can just see the satchel I got from the Cybher conference last month - which I have been using daily as my work bag - it stops me carrying too much crap and is the perfect size for my massive family diary! 

A touch of blue

Today I couldn't decide how to dress - it's June so it should be summer - but it's not is it?!

I ended opting for this dress - I do love it, but it is a bit big and I constantly fiddle with it to keep my bra covered up, with varied levels of success.

The dress came from the last day of a sale in asda and cost £2.

The skirt on it was a bit of an odd style and some of the seam had pulled leaving a hole so I machine stitched it into a more flattering style and removed the skinny blue belt and always wear it with a chunky waist belt.

This sparkly one was £2.50 in Oxfam.

I got the necklace from a market stall for £5 and the earrings are from the British Heart Foundation - I think they were £4.

I have on a black cardigan, also from Asda from a couple of years back, and bright blue tights that are also a couple of years old and from a New Look sale bin.

Same shoes as yesterday - £16 from New Look - and topped off with a three year old white jacket from Peacocks, I paid £7 for it and love the bow on the back!

There are always real bargains to be had if you hold off until the last day of a sale - you might have less choice but with some imagination you can alter things and really change how they look to suit your style, and you'll be rocking something nobody else has.

Welcome

Welcome to What You Rocking?

Some of you may have seen my first aborted attempt to blog the What You Rocking thing - it was rapidly abandoned as it floundered along its way.

In place of the blog I stripped it right back to basics and have been using the #whatyourocking hashtag on Instagram and on Twitter - and a fair few people along the way have started joining in. Some are aware of the background, some aren't - and either way it's been amazing to see people from far and wide using the tag and enjoying fashion and style, in a thrifty way!

The idea behind What You Rocking isn't just style - it's about feeling amazing, thinking about what you're putting together, and doing it on a budget. 

With my own #Whatyourocking pictures the general rule is that the outfit has almost always cost me less than £30 to put together - and I very, very rarely spend more than £10 on one item of clothing - though I might push the boat out for shoes and double up the budget! 

I am fanatical about bargain hunting and always on the look out for something different that I can style up. I have some basic sewing skills, a mad love for bright colours and tend to go a bit bold and OTT. 

I do most of my shopping from sale rails and charity shops, think TKMaxx is like Mecca and take huge delight in saying things like "You like it? FOUR POUNDS IN ASDA!" when people compliment my dress. 

If you want to rock some fabulous style and have tight purse strings to do it with, stick around - I have a lot to teach you grasshopper. 

Dress - Asda, £5. Shoes, New Look, £16. Necklace, Matalan, £2.