Girl In The Pretty Dress

"Red is the ultimate cure for sadness" - Bill Blass I don't know much about Bill Blass but that quote seems kinda sums up this week. Whenever I'm having a trying time of it at work I like to compensate for my lack of confidence in myself with an outfit that says otherwise. This one works a treat. I bought this Mango shirt in the January sales and it's one of those rare purchases - the kind where you wish you'd bought two just in case you wear the original out.  Shirt: Mango | Jeggings: Marks and Spencer (longer length) | Boots: Debenhams

When I turned 24, I spent my birthday visiting a castle in Wales, and in the garden they had a butterfly house. It was honestly one of the most magical places I've ever stepped inside, the butterflies floated around lazily on soft currents of warm, tropical air and everywhere you looked there was colour, grace and beauty. The image of a butterfly just spells out spring/summer to me - so here are my picks of the best butterfly prints out there. (Clockwise from bottom left) Butterfly print dress - Yumi  £22.50 Butterfly print top - Oasis  £18 Body wash - Anna Sui (via ASOS ) £16 Watch - Olivia Burton (via Topshop ) £95 Butterfly print scarf - Oasis (via ASOS ) £16 Butterfly print cardigan - Warehouse  £40 Butterfly mesh top - Anthropologie  £68 Scent - Anna Sui (via ASOS ) £31

It's no secret that I am a bit of a swiftie. A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to see her live in London. I'd been mooching round the city in the daytime, and had worn the dress below. It being the 'Red' tour though, everyone else at the concert was dressed to match the description (and accessorising with fairy lights!) ... Anyways I was bemoaning my lack of Taylor-appropriate attire to my sister, when she quite rightly pointed out that I hadn't missed the boat at all - I was wearing swifts.  So now I love this dress even more.  Here's how I dressed it up recently for a family meal out. Earrings: ASOS Dress: Warehouse (Via ASOS) similar here Tights: tightsplease.co.uk Shoes: Next Clutch: Textile Federation via ASOS And the concert? It was pretty incredible. Here's short clip I filmed of Emeli Sande performing 'Next to Me' with Taylor Swift.

I've refined my shopping habits in recent years and most of the things I buy these days tend to fall under the labels 'classic' and 'timeless'. And this fits the bill - in fact when I looked at this photograph I thought 'if it was in black and white, you might wonder if it had been taken in the sixties'. The dress is a favourite, it's heavy fabric - so perfect for winter - but it's not overly warm for office-wear. And I've been enthusing about Charnos tights for ages - as I have quite long legs and these are the only brand I can find that fit me perfectly and don't slip throughout the day. Dress: GAP | Bag: Accessorize Tights: Tightsplease.co.uk (exact ones here ) | Boots: Marta Jonsson at Debenhams

Before I sat down to do this post, I didn't actually know what Bouclé meant. I knew what a Bouclé jacket looked like of course - but not what specifically made it that. Turns out it's not the cut or the style, but the yarn (or, as Wikipedia called it the 'novelty yarn'). Anyway the point is, that yarn is a lot warmer than you might expect, I was pretty toasty when taking these photos. Jacket: Miss Selfridge (similar here ) Top: F&F (buy it here ) Longer-length Jeggings: Marks and Spencer  ( indigo ) Boots: Primark Statement Necklace: via Luan Matthews

I'll be honest, I've never liked New Year. In my book it's possibly worse than Valentine's Day (because at least sympathetic family members usually buy me chocolate for Valentine's.) But New Year? It's always been 'just another day' to me. Nice that we get it off work though. Then, as I was leaving work last night I found myself grinning for no real reason on the way home, and I realised how much happier I am now than I was this time last year. I only had one goal last year - to finish my house and get moved in. It seemed like it would never happen. I spent all my time inhaling plaster dust and covered in paint. To some extent I neglected a lot of the other aspects of my life to complete it - and I've been making up for lost time ever since (though it was totally worth it - I love my house). So this list, isn't so much 'resolutions' - it's more 'reminders' of all the things I looked forward to spending my time doing whe...

This has got to be one of my favourite places in the world, and only a few minutes drive from where I live. Though strangely, I don't visit it that much. It's such a spectacular view that I think if I went too often, I'd stop appreciating it as much.  But every now and again I'll just jump in the car and go. Luckily, this time around I had my sister with me who very kindly took these photos - it was so windy I think the tripod would have blown over if I'd tried to self-shoot!  Coat: George at Asda | Jeggings: Marks and Spencer | Boots: Debenhams Quilted Jumper:  ASOS Bag: Aldo