OOTW - Balcony Behaviour on Bonfire Night

I do not enjoy these pictures one bit to be honest, but I thought I'd post them anyway because it would just be a waste otherwise - not to mention the fact that The Boyf would be un-amused if I didn't use them as he had to stand in the cold and rain to take them!

Dress - H&M, Cardigan - New Look, Leather Belt - Vintage, Brooch - Gift from my friend Liz (vintage), Boots - Ebay.

 This is what I was wearing on Saturday, it was a pretty nice chilled day for me, the mother-in-law came to visit for the day/lunch while she was up north so went to the pub, had yummy lunch (it always tastes better when someone else is paying, haha!) and watched the England v New Zealand rugby match on the big screen. Ok so I didn't really care that much about the rugby, but my boy and his sports mad mummy were enjoying it which made me happy, haha how sweet of me!

When we got home I realised it was quite a nice little 'outfit of the week' opportunity, as it was my first time wearing this dress this winter and gave me a chance to show you all how I've styled my new boots (which really hurt my feet unfortunatly, stupid 6inch wedge - I know, I need to man up, but for now they will be reserved for times when I don't have to walk very far!).

I love, love, love this jumper dress, it was about £20 from H&M a couple of years ago and its really cosy and warm with its roll neck! And incidentally in this years most coveted colour combo - camel and black! Whenever I wear this dress I get loads of compliments from random passer-bys, like 'oh you look so elegant' and 'if only all young ladies dressed as nicely as you' (from a cute little old lady at the bus stop), which I think is hilarious because its just a normal dress and hardly takes much effort to thrown on! Perhaps its because the high neck and long sleeves keeps me quite demure and covered up, but its nice and body hugging too; with a pair of heeled boots it makes my legs looks longer and thinner, what a lovely combination, this is maybe what I'd describe as day-time sexy!?

We were going to go downstairs and shoot the photos against a brick wall but it started chucking it down with rain and was too dark to get any decent photos in the flat, so here enters the balcony idea (which has a little cover). The natural light was marginally better but the setting is less than desirable, a bit of inner city grime in the background, nice.

Did you all have a good weekend? I couldn't bare going out in the cold for bonfire night etc, but some people had their own little garden display behind the flat which we had a great view of from our bedroom window, yay for beautiful fireworks from the comfort of your own toasty bed!

TTFN,
Loves VW x

OOTW - An Autumnal All-Round Experiment

Hi guys, I still can’t believe there’s a whole 5 of you following me that I don’t know in real life (9 total)! Thanks for reading my lovers, sorry for the HUGE post.

Today’s OOTW is what I’d call an experiment, all in the name of self improvement I might add, so please comment on what you like and don’t like etc! In an effort to improve my blog I’ve been scouring your fashion blogs (yes you!) and sussing out what I like and don’t like, and well there’s not much I don’t like and a whole lot I do! So taking ‘inspiration’ from you lovely ladies I present my very autumnal OOTW.

Scarf - Vintage, Coat - Zara, Shirt - Vintage, Jumper - Topman, Necklace - DIY (see Eagerly Awaiting the Postman), Shorts - New Look?, Socks - Marks and Spencer?, Brogues -Urban Outfitters.

1. You will notice this post is very picture heavy compared with my previous endeavours, this is mainly because I couldn’t choose which pictures to show you from my ‘shoot’ and after spending hours ‘researching’ I decided it’s nice to have a lot to look at to go along with my constant ramblings!



2. Yes you clever little thing, it’s outside. You’re all doing it, and the out doorsy pictures look so much prettier than my dreary blank wall/door backdrops, so I gathered up the courage to venture into the ‘garden’ of our flat block on the way home from lunch yesterday and tried not to think about all the residents looking out their kitchen windows with puzzled/bemused looks.

3. This coat was screaming to be pictured amongst the autumn foliage don’t you think? That was a bit of an experiment too, wearing the coat itself, it’s from the Zara sale in January 2006. I bought it way back in the day because I was obsessed with orange (ok so I still do love it as a colour, just not generally to wear), my room was orange, my mobile was orange, any present anyone ever bought me was a little orange, I think for a while there my hair was even orange, ok you get the picture?! So when I saw it for £40 I begged my mother, ‘but its ORANGE mum, pleeeaasse, it’ll be really warm tooooo!!’ I lovingly wore this coat almost every blustery day that year (I even wore it on my very first date with The Boyf), well until October that is, when I traded it in for a blue one from Next, hey every girl gets a new winter coat for school don’t they? And they’ve been vying for attention ever since...

Actually that’s a lie because this year I’ve lived in my trench and last year I wore my oversized hounds-tooth blazer almost day in day out, so I probably haven’t worn this coat for 2 years! So why did it get relegated to the back of my closet if I loved it so much? Boredom I guess, and maybe for a while there I was quite afraid to wear winter brights, thought I might stand out like a lit up Christmas tree; but you know what...? This A/W if there’s one thing I love more than the neutrals, camel, brown, grey, black: it’s bright, bright, bright! What better way to clear up a tad of ‘Seasonal Affected Depression’ than by injecting a splash of summer colour into your snugly warm wardrobe! Dear Orange Coat, Welcome back old friend.



4. Outfit experiment in general. More than just rediscovering the coat, I put the whole look together yesterday morning as a bit of a trial run. The blouse/shirt is new to me, I picked it up last week for £6 and this is the first time I’ve had a chance to wear it, but it was so chilly looking outside that I layered the jumper for extra warmth, which was great as it allowed me to still show off the funky collar. Then I’ve noticed everyone’s been rocking the winter shorts recently and thought they’d look great with my long grey socks, but I hadn’t worn these yet this year because I kind of hate my legs/knees and realised the socks might emphasise and further my body-part hatred. After seeing these photo though I’m quite happy; I’m usually looking down on my legs you see, and have over analysed the bowing of my calves and swell of my knee on many occasions, but you guys never see me from that rather strange angle so I don’t know why I worried?

The whole outfit pulled together quite well in the end didn’t it?

5. A’la naturelle. I didn’t edit any of these photos. The Mr took them as always, and we are only working with a ‘point and shoot’ digital camera (Casio Exilim to be exact), so normally a few tweaks are a must but I don’t have photoshop etc on my laptop so the quality isn’t great anyway. This week shooting outside was fab, the natural light really worked it’s magic and for the pictures with a greater colour intensity we actually let the camera do all the work and put it on ‘Autumn leaves’ mode, quite apt don’t you think? Anyway, I’m a bit of a technophobe at heart and can’t get to grips with all the free photo editing software I’ve seen recommended, so from now on I’ll stick to a bit of natural light and the camera’s built in genius, and if all else fails hello Windows Photo Gallery ‘Fix’ to hoik up the brightness and contrast! I suppose I could drag my lazy ass off to uni and use Corel Photopaint etc... one day, maybe.

Anyway, let me know what you think!

Loves VW x