Stage 1 of the Dream Becomes Reality!

For absolutely ages now I have dreamed of owning my own little boutique, selling unique items from local designers. I’m not going to lie and say I’m course for that yet but I have taken my first baby step. I’ve opened my own eBay shop…and I’ve applied for a business bank account too.

I am super excited and just hoping to break even with the small amount of stock I have bought so far. At the moment it’s all looking good 🙂 I’ve bought a few ex chainstore dresses and bags which are amazing bargains so hopefully lots of people beyond just my family and friends will be interested.

Here’s my store, remember that it’s in its infancy! http://stores.ebay.co.uk/dress-up-doll-shop

Once I’ve made some money then I’ll be able to be a bit more adventurous and hold more stock / venture out into the big wide world to find it. If anyone has any great sources or wants to sell via someone else’s eBay shop, do let me know.

Have also managed to secure myself a Christmas temp role so a bit of the money pressure is off for the next few weeks…phew! Here’s to the future and my dad’s advice of JFDI! Until next time…x

Christmas Party Outfits for £50!

Here it is, the first part of my Christmas party outfits for £50 installment! I’ve decided to run this in a couple of parts as I’ve found so many amazing clothes and I’d like more feedback from people on what they want to see on here. You’ll notice that these are not just amazing dresses for under £50 but they come complete with footwear and accessories too; perfect for any budget fashionista! Today I’m showcasing 3 outfits that follow this year’s celeb trend of  winter colour.

Outfit number 1:

Dress – £25.00 – desireclothing.co.uk

Shoes – £20.00 – Priceless Shoes

Cuff – £3.99 – H&M (available in gold and silver)

Total: £48.99

What an absolute bargain to be bang on trend with the dipped hem, chiffon dress and the Christmas bling as well!

Outfit number 2:

Please excuse the photography of the dress – not such great pictures as the previous outfit!

Dress – £17.00 – Primark

Shoes – £8.99 – eBay (here)

Bag – £11.99 – New Look (reduced from £15.99)

Faux Fur Collar – £10.50 – ASOS (reduced from £15.00)

Total: £48.48

The dress is a stunning bluey purple which hasn’t photographed that well and feels lovely to the touch, in a stretch fabric to hug you in all the right places. Great for ladies with a larger bust as well. Also – check out the bargains you can find in the sale remnants, some things are perfect for picking up your party outfits 🙂

Outfit number 3:

Dress – £12.50 – ASOS (reduced from £36.00)

Boots – £29.99 – New Look (also come with black glitter wedge)

Bag – £7.99 – New Look

Total: £50.48   (I figure that rounds down to £50)

I know this outfit isn’t the most fashion forward ensemble you’ll ever see but I love it and it totally sums up my style so I had to include it. The dress is such a bargain and with sequins and pink in one, how can it be wrong!?! I love the boots and the gold wedge totally adds another dimension and stops this outfit becoming too Barbie doll – you’ll notice the tiny bit of gold on the bag too 🙂

Give me your feedback – what else do you want to see? I’ve got loads! The best thing is that the accessories mix and match with most outfits so they’re even more bargainous! x

Is this Really the Reward for Loyalty???

Since my very first mobile phone back in the day, I’ve been loyal to Nokia and I’ve been through the following phones (note, not that many for 10 years’ of phones as they are so durable):

3310 – Snake 2 was on that, amazing!

8310 – So small, 100 message in my inbox and a blue screen!

7260 – I had it in white, a colour screen, camera and the design was a bit “S” shaped – especially for all Samantha’s!

7373 – It was pink and swivelled – need I say more???

6500 – Mine was a “Classic”, i.e., small, flat, black and partially metal – it was a dream and lasted forever. I even kept a hold of it when the iPhone turned up

Approximately a year ago, I decided it was time to upgrade to the times we live in and invest in a proper smart phone. I hunted high and low for something that not only had the functionality but looked good too. The iPhone was too popular for my liking and I was way behind trend on that one and other phones just didn’t look good enough. The only phone I was really toying with was the Nokia N8 but that was just too big for my liking. Then the lovely man in the Nokia shop showed me the new C7, only just released and I fell in love with the simple yet quirky styling that all of my Nokias have provided me with. Here it is:

The phone promised to be all-singing, all-dancing and just as good as any other smart phone. Sadly, this little Nokia has let me down in every other way apart from the screen not smashing when I look at it (iPhone crap!). Check out the problems I’ve had:

• Call logs – the phone liked to delete all call logs every other day, no matter what settings it had
• Predictive text – not saving new words and writing very slowly
• Slow browsing- oh so slow I had to use the bf’s iPhone when out and about

These problems were despite sending the phone back a couple of times for factory updates, etc. Still, however, I persevered and trusted that they were just teething problems. It got worse.

Last month, my phone told me it needed a big update and that I should do it via a PC so I dutifully plugged in to Ovi Suite on my laptop and spent ages updating the laptop software before moving onto the phone. Halfway through the backup, the process crashed my phone. That was it, it stole all of my data; just ate it up and left me with a phone that wouldn’t even switch on. All because of something evil I’m told is called Symbian – didn’t want it anyway! My phone was sent away again 😦

Finally, the phone comes back and is all working, even though the look of the user interface has changed to something hideous! Now, however my browsing is much quicker and everything works! Yay! It’s only been a year! So why am I still unhappy? Because I’m still so far behind everyone else…

What I wanted to use my smart phone for was tracking my eBay items – there’s no eBay app…STILL! Geez! So I have reconciled myself with that horrible fact and just used what I do have on there. However, what sparked this little rant is that the other day I was reading the Boots Health & Beauty magazine and it had one of those barcode scan things in it for Treat Street. I’ve never used one of those before, even though I had the scanner app downloaded. Off I went…scan! Hmmm…nothing…scan again…still nothing. Maybe I’m doing it wrong, I’ll just use the browser to navigate to the page. What do I find…?

“Please select – iPhone or Android” – ARGHHHHHHHHHH! Bloody Nokia!

So my question is this…Nokia, how did you get it so wrong and when are you going to fix it? When my upgrade is due in May, you’ll have lost yet another loyal customer and I hate change so you must have really pi$$ed me off! x

Another Party Season Look-a-Like

I’m still in the process of working out just what will make it into my favourite party outfits under £50, so I have seen a lot of party clothes now and I keep spotting fabulous low-budget imitations of higher end high street favourites.

Today my spot is a brilliant sequinned Boohoo number which is just like the French Connection Samantha dress which has been seen on celebs all over the show recently. The good news for us is that the Boohoo version is just £35 vs. £165 for the French Connection number. Here’s the French Connection dress (no black ones online):

And this is the Boohoo beauty:

I think you’ll agree, it’s a pretty sexy sequinned number and looks far more expensive than it is. Happy shopping! x

Dress for Less (Party Style)

Today I finally got to working on my Christmas party outfit post – all outfits will be under £50 and I mean it. Not Gok Wan style under £50 when you have to customise and accessorise so much it’s more like £500, actually under £50! Anyhow, whilst doing my research I found a fabulous party dress I just had to show you all – it’s a bargain buy but it so reminds me of a dress I am in love with.

If I had more money than I do, I would buy this beautiful Rare Opulence dress for my Christmas party, I love it so much!

It’s just the right mix of attention grabbing and classy but unfortunately for me, £175 is rather over budget. What I found today was the following Amys of Paris dress on the Tesco website for just £35. (A bit pricey for my outfit under £50 post.)

The instant I saw it, it reminded me of the Rare Opulence dress and it’s such a bargain for a dress that looks so good. If I didn’t already have my party dress sorted I would definitely have been placing an order.

Anyone else found any good dress-a-likes??? x

Today I Wore it Well

Today was one of those days when pieces from my wardrobe seemed to just fall together and create an outfit that I absolutely loved – I felt fab. in what I wore to work today so I thought I’d share it. It’s nothing massively out there but it might just inspire somebody else. Here it is:

Ignoring my awkward pose – would much rather I had a mannequin to display the outfit on, here’s what I wore:

Dress – my pink 60s dress I got in the Oasis sale for just £20 a couple of months ago – love it.

Over the dress is a gold and silver cardie hidden by the coat, it’s a Gold by Giles for New Look beauty I’ve had for ages.

Then…my new coat! My bargainous ASOS Premium buy which I got half price in an ASOS Savvy Sunday event the other week 🙂 I’ve already had heaps of comments on this bad boy.

If you look footwards, you’ll also find my recent Dune purchase, I love the tan with the pink and black. All of this is accessorised with my pink and black Shellac nails, favourite Azendi ring and Tommy and Kate satchel style bag I got on eBay a couple of months ago and haven’t put down since!

What have you been wearing today to spice up winter in the office??? x

New Season, New Look

Today’s much chillier weather than the past few weeks has, for me, really marked the beginning of winter in the UK. I love the winter – welcome back! However, it also marked the time to update some of the old winter work wear I have worn to death over the past year, not least because I am on the hunt for a new job. My ideal is a multi-functional wardrobe, with plenty of items that look great outside the office as well as at my desk.

Last week, I just happened to be browsing my Look magazine when I spotted some awesome leopard print shoe boots from New Look which I just had to track down on their website. Well, well, well, when I got to the website, not only did I find those but I also found a zebra print version! I literally could not believe my luck and all for under £40! I then had a little mooch, added a plain black top and found a gorgeous red pussybow blouse, in the sale for under £10! Love, love, love. Check out what I bought:

I am so happy with my new purchases – having tried them on today, they definitely fit and look super hot whilst making just the kind of statement I want to make. The only downer is that outside the office they would look great with some black skinny jeans…I broke the zip on my black skinny jeans the other day! Hmm…wonder what I’ll be purchasing next!?!

Laters my lovelies! x

Perfect Party Season Nails

The other day I did a bad thing and pulled off my nail extensions with my teeth – I have a habit of doing this as soon as 1 isn’t looking perfect. Needless to say, this doesn’t help my weak nails at all and if I don’t paint over them immediately, they start to peel and break. So paint over them I did, and whilst I was at it I decided to paint the old toes as well.

My colour of choice was a Barry M red glitter which I hadn’t had a chance to use yet, having kept it waiting for the party season. I figured best to give it a trial run to make sure it looks as good on as it does in the bottle. Given that you can get them for approx. £3.00, I think Barry M polishes are great value, especially compared to Nails Inc – and much shorter drying time too.

The result hasn’t photographed brilliantly, a lot of the sparkle is lost and the colour has lost some of its richness but here it is:

 If you ignore my incredibly wrinkly, man sized hands, hopefully you’ll agree this is a perfect festive nail polish 🙂

The ring, btw is my favourite Azendi beauty if anyone wants one! Laters x

More Bargainous Dresses

Today at work one of my colleagues started talking to me about where my friends and I buy our party dresses, so I started listing off the usual ASOS, Topshop, etc. when she suggested a different site which her daughter uses: Bon Prix.

I’d heard of Bon Prix before but had never really paid any attention and definitely hadn’t been on the website. Well…what a pleasant surprise! The prices, as the name suggests, are very low and you can even search your party dresses based on whether you want them long or short! All coming in at £29.95, these are my favourites:

Obviously at this price, this isn’t real leather but it looks like it fits and moves very nicely…sexy! Oh, and a HUGE trend this season, natch!

I love the simplicity of this little number, perfect for a glam yet sophisticated look, perhaps a nice meal somewhere (though be careful not to spill anything!). The lace panel at the back is so understated and looks lovely with hair up as modelled here. Another HUGE trend box ticked 🙂

Finally, for a bit of festive sparkle and fun:

Sequin dresses with green in them are hard to find and the Kelly Brook one for New Look sold out pretty darned quickly. I love green and it’s being seen on loads of celebs at the moment so this is a bargainous piece of the action for anyone who dares.

‘Til next time…x

Do I Have Too Many Clothes When…?

With my new “R” rated job status, I am now on the prowl for a new job – still as yet undecided exactly what the money vs. happiness balance is but I need something to bring in the pennies. So this morning I had a job interview lined up, which as is too often the case, I had not thought about in advance. I didn’t panic about my knowledge of the role or the company, I knew I understood that well enough; what did worry me for a fleeting second was what to wear. I haven’t done any laundry for a good couple of weeks and my Disney Princess laundry hamper is overflowing – I am definitely a wear once and wash kinda gal.

However, somehow when I opened my wardrobe I was confronted with a multitude of stylish, professional looking items. I questioned, have I been wearing rags to work for the last couple of weeks? No. Has a clothes fairy delivered all of these lovely items? No. In fact, all that had happened was the items which are usually buried had found some breathing room in place of all my dirty laundry.

So now I see why I always have no money and nothing to wear, I’m continually buying more and burying what I already had so many pieces lie neglected, waiting patiently for some love (think Toy Story type scenario when Buzz Lightyear arrives). Whoopsy daisy – maybe I’ll see if I can change now I am poor…or maybe not! x