midi is a must have...

The biggest trend of he season is definitely midi skirts. When it comes to dressing up or down midi skirts are the way forward for the (hopefully) beautiful summer days. They are flexible enough to smarten up for work or add accessories for a night on the town. Or simply and a pair of brogues or trainers and a T-shirt for those more causal afternoons strolling around the shops or sitting having an iced coffee.

They are perfect for every occasion a I have said but they cover a multitude of sins (prickly legs are not the end of the world anymore). However knowing where to shop and which to buy also has an affect on your look. Most of the high street shops have their own version of the midi skirt but because there are only so many variations that most people want the choice from each shop tends to be very similar. The pleated block colour midi skirt is everywhere and true to form everyone will end up wearing the same thing.

Again I will champion the wonder of charity and vintage shops to find that individual item. I bought a patterned midi skirt recently that is mostly white but with green and orange too, I thought it would be perfect for summer afternoons and the fact that it is bright colour will brighten up even the dullest of Scottish summer days. I also bought a black midi dress with a cinched waist. the skirt of the dress is pleated and it fact that it is a dress uses the best part of the trend but makes it different to what everyone else it wearing.

When wearing the midi skirt make sure to emphasise your waist , careful with baggy blouses and oversized T-shirts. Luckily the midi skirt suits all shapes and sizes. if you are tall then wear it with flats or heels or whatever you want but if you are more petite then wear them with a pair of wedges or chunky heeled platforms to elongate your silhouette and make your legs go on forever...

sunnies side up...

HURRAY spring has come at long last. Lets all shed out winter coats and give our poor vitamin D deprived skin a chance to get some heat from the weak sun that has decided to peek out behind the clouds. With winter over, spring gives us a chance to break out our maxi dresses, shorts and of course sunglasses.

I absolutely love sunnies, even when the snow was on the ground I always had my sunnies in my bag just in case the sun decided to appear and the glare of the snow would be too much for my poor eyes. When it comes to buying sunnies at this time of year we are inundated with stands and stands of all different kinds in every shop we enter.

One of my favorite shops for sunglasses is Primark. They have loads of different styles to suit everyone in all different colours for a very reasonable price, so why not buy a pair for every day of the week? Primark sunglasses range from £1 to maybe £2.50 so you can't really pick a bad pair. Topshop also carries a good range of sunnies but they are not as cheap as in Primark. If you fancy a pay day blowout then head there for an excellent range but with a more substantial price tag.

My favorite are the wayfarer style ones that come in all different colours to suit all your outfits and you by a pair for each handbag you own and you'll never find yourself without a pair of sunglasses. You can't seem to go wrong with aviators either, the suit most face shapes but be careful you pick a pair that suit the size of your face. You don't want them no be too small, they might make your face look bigger than it is. On the other hand don not buy sunnies that are too big for your face or you might look like a bug.

Sunnies are the accessory that you cannot be without during the summer months, they protect our fragile tired, hungover eyes, or shield a face with no make up. So ladies, don your sunnies and get out there for the little sunshine we will see this summer.

If you like it then you shouldve put a belt on it...

As I have said a million times before I am a poor graduate who works in a nightclub so most of my time I spend sleeping but in the rare occasion I do get out of bed in time to do something productive I love nothing more than to go shopping and spending my hard earned money.

Again my favorite thing to do more than everything else is to hunt through the charity shops to see if I can find anything for a nice wee bargain. It is safe to say that not everyone in he world is the same size as me so when you find something in a charity shop it may not be the right size, in that case, there is a fool proof way to make anything work...belt it up.

Belts are and amazing invention...they keep your trousers up, they give you a shape under even the most baggy tops, they make that dress you've worn a million times look different. 

I know its silly to say but adding a belt can make something look more finished and your outfit can all tie together. I recently tried on a shift dress from Oasis and lucky for me it was reduced to £20 I couldn't pass up an opportunity like that. I tried it on and lo and behold it looked slightly like maternity wear but nothing a belt couldn't fix. Now it is a permanent addition to my wardrobe and I love it.

I will never get tired of saying that old people have the best taste so charity shops are the place to go for belts. Luckily for us all the magazines are boasting about how belts with bright brassy buckles are the way forward and I have bought three or four from charity shops. The belts that old men use to keep their trousers up look great with a floral skirt and a Tshirt. It creates a structure and makes your waist look smaller. (which is never a bad thing)

My favorite belt of the minute is a tan one that I got from Primark for £2.00 and it matches everything. I wear it on nights out and during the day, with dresses and blouses and skirts...the list goes on. I love light floaty dresses and shirts but they just hang off me and look like Ive draped a tent off my shoulders. The same with shift dresses which only the luckiest of slender ladies can get away with, but just adding a belt draws in the waist and makes everyone have that hourglass shape that very few (extremely lucky) women actually have. 

The humble blouse

Having wondered for a long time what this blog will be about I have decided that rather share silly anecdotes, most of which are a have-to-be-there situations, I think it would be better to have a focus. As I am a recent graduate and have no money, work in a night club and sleep all day, I do not have much of the aforementioned focus I will just write about what I love to do...shop.

I am aware that there are many fashion blogs out there that talk about teaming that perfect Dior mini dress with those to die for Miu Miu heels finished with a Roberto Cavalli clutch... everyone can dream about being able to afford even a fraction of one of those pieces never mind a whole outfit, or whole wardrobe. What I want to do is write about how to look good and still be able to afford to eat.

Today I think I will focus on the blouse. It seems that the blouse is back again for the spring and the brighter the colour the better. Most high street shops have blouses bursting out their doors this season and choosing one or five is harder than you think. Expect to spend about £10 - £40 pounds depending where you shop. However I've seen more expensive ones if they are embellished or deemed special in any way.

I love blouses and think they are perfect for this time of year because a sneaky long sleeved top can be worn underneath to keep us from the February chill. I would love to wear them long and floaty with skinny jeans or leggings but alas I am not one of those people who are blessed with willowy slenderness (I'm 5' 10" and a size 14) so I like to tuck my blouse into my jeans or shorts or wear them with a thin waist belt to make sure that I have some sort of shape under all the material. I also like to wear lots of bangles and longer necklaces so there is something to make it seem more finished. If you are lucky enough to be a bigger boobed lady then maybe have it open with a Tshirt underneath so you don't look too top heavy.

A blouse can also work for a night on the town, change your leggings for wet look and add heels or tuck into black denim shorts, bare legs and killer heels again (or my favourite brogues)...it works day to night, night to day, evenings, weekends, everywhere anytime.

I also have to say that if you want to have a choice of blouses that have fun patterns and lots of different sizes to choose from then the high street is the pace for you. On the other hand if you want a one of a kind blouse that will ensure you get the coveted "ooo where did you get that?" from your friends then the charity shops are where to go. Who else knows a good blouse better than an old woman who have been wearing them all their lives. I love charity shops, they are the best way to get key pieces that wont break the bank. It may take a while to sift through all the other stuff that wouldn't interest you in a million years but you will find something. Last week I spent hours looking through all the charity shops where I live and managed to find a floral blouse with shoulder pads and everything :) £1.97...bargain.

job hunting is a job in itself

I know I haven't been on this for a long time but my laptop has yet another virus consuming its insides and causing all sorts of unsavoury delights to pop up so I have boycotted it altogether. My new years resolution is to write on this more because despite my unyielding desire to write for a magazine I have to accept that the current economic crisis means that fully qualified and experienced people cannot find themselves in empolyment so I will have to wait a little longer.

By writing here I can write about what I think people will want to read and my pitiful amount of followers (three in total me being one) will probably not read it but then again writing something is better than nothing.

With 2010 gone and the only thing left from the festivities the the uncomfortable, tight feeling I have in my skinny jeans it seems that I can either go for a run (still too cold) or I can take my life in my hands and stop pretending I am still a student.

Right... I do have a part-time job, that is one good thing. Some people don't even have a part time job to keep their heads about the water and even though we count ourselves lucky that we managed to graduate before Cameron/ Clegg-gate many of us still have a huge amount of debt hanging over our heads.

I would love to work for a magazine, I have wanted to for a long time but finding a job is really stressful and even then it may not be the one I have spent four years studying towards. My CV has become finely tuned and can easily be changed to fit any situation and job websites start popping up next to facebook on my most visited sites.

The only thing to do is keep applying and hopefully someone somewhere will give me a job. As I mentioned before I have a part time job and this has nothing to do with the wonderful people at Dusk nightclub Stirling but I feel like I have to move out of my student flat and start being a grown up.

On the other hand until I find a job that I love more than staying up all night and sleeping all day I can maybe not be a grown up just yet?


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No snowflakes for me...

Pay day has come and gone and I found myself in a position to buy some new clothes today. However< walking around the shops today I found that this winter seasons fashion is not really giving me the 'I have to have everything' sort of attitude.

Some people will think I haven't got my head on straight but it seems as if the high streets grasp of this seasons trends are somewhat left me wanting more. 

Its safe to say that even the most fashion blind of us out there know that to have a chunky knit cardigan with snowflakes on it is the 'in' thing this winter but unless you got yours from primark you'll have a £30 cardigan that will look stupid as soon as boxing day. I'm sure that I'm safe in saying that not everyone can afford to update their wardrobe when Grazia tells us we must. When Christmas is over the magazines will be an the countdown to summer and the snowflake cardigan will be left forgotten at the bottom of our wardrobe. 

On the other hand there are a few things this winter that will stand the test of time in my wardrobe, luckily it seems that winter has come early and the military coat will happily see us through to the end of March. In desperate need of a new coat I bought a olive green military coat from primark which was cheap enough to forget about when the sun decides to heat the air enough for a blazer to suffice (yay). I love it already and my new coat can lovingly collect my rubbish in its pockets until the first rays of spring sunshine sneak through the October to March gloom.

So long the live the military coat and snuggly winter boots we have to wear until it's warm enough to wear gladiator sandals and bare legs again. 

Despite the cold, this week has been filled with clear skies which provide a air tight excuse to wear our sunnies to keep the bleak winter sun out of our eyes.

As a believer that I should inhabit a warmer country I am very susceptible to the cold and keeping warm is on the top of my list... gloves will be bought as soon as possible and fleecy jammies and thick socks and more layers... the list goes on. No snowflake cardies will be found in my shopping bags though, thats for sure.

NEVER deviate from the recipe...

I am fully aware that I have not posted anything in a while but getting a job in a nightclub really will turn a person nocturnal! I am aware that the internet works at any time of the day but I'm terribly lazy and Gilmore girls is always on... I shall hereby promise to write more things on here more often.

With fear that this will turn into some Delia schmelia blog about cooking stuff I have to write once more about the hilarity which ensues when Kirsty and I attempt to cook anything substantial. It  is our Sunday to host board game night. (which seems t have turned into pub quiz night because we have played all the board games under the sun) This week we have decided to make coq au vin, which at this point in time has not been begun... the cheesecake for dessert on the other and may have turned into an unholy disaster!!

Having decided that instead of caramel sauce, which couldn't be found for love nor money in our local Tescos, (to be fair we didn't really look that hard, nor ask anyone for help) We decided that melting toffees in a saucepan would do the same job. Well it turns out that no, it is not the same thing, not remotely. The toffee did melt to be fair, but it didn't stay melted for long. So we have a very nice shortbread base, a really yummy cheesey, white chocolatey and in-between these two fabulous (if i do say so myself) layers, is a rock hard slightly burnt toffee layer which may or may not break the teeth of our brave guests. We will just have to wait and see. If the speed at which our secret layer set was anything to go by and the fact that despite being washed with boiling water the pot that we used still smells a bit sweet, our layer may not have been the best idea after all...

The cheese cake has been baked and is now cooling on the side. i don't know whether its supposed to still smell like cheese and sour cream instead of white chocolate...

The next step in our woeful day of cooking is the coq au vin, again we decided the recipe wasn't what we wanted...who needs recipes anyway? sure they're only there as a guide, jeeze I should be a chef.