Wednesday 27 June 2012

What I Wore Wednesday: London Calling

blonde pink cartoon
I left to go down south for work on Thursday and didn't get back home until Sunday night and then Monday was my birthday. It was all a bit of a whirlwind but I had such a great weekend. The lovely Lizzie from Mummy in Manolos took me out for birthday dinner and drinks in Marlow Thursday night and look at this AMAZING drawing she did of me for my birthday!

I LOVE it! Check how I'm taking a photo of myself with my iPhone and of course I'm wearing pink-- when I'm back from holiday I suspect there will be a new WIWW button!

We had such a great time chatting away and having the most amazing dinner at La Cantina Del Vino which so authentically Italian most of the waiters didn't really speak English!  My lobster linguine was to die for and I have no idea what wine we ordered but it was delicious :)

The next morning I grabbed the train to Paddington station, grabbed a Krispy Kreme and took the tube into London. I stayed at my favourite hotel, The Andaz Liverpool Street, which is smack dab in the centre of EC1 and feels absolutely luxurious but won't  cost you more than any other hotel in the area.


That afternoon I had a lunch, cocktails with my girls Siân and Claire and an awards ceremony in the evening. I wanted something that could translate across all the events so I went with a floaty dress and a blazer with my favourite leopard heels.

swallow print dress

HM Swallow Print Dress
HM Cropped Blazer
Dune Leopard Heels
Black Hoop Earrings
Monica Vinader Fiji Friendship Bracelet

Saturday was a conference so again I wanted to look nice but I also wanted to be comfortable since I knew it would be a long day. Luckily I struck gold, again, with another Cynthia Rowley dress from TK Maxx. The dress fits me perfectly and shows off my best best while masking my not so great bits. I paired it with my wedding shoes, yes I had purple wedding shoes, but threw flip-flops in my bag for the end of the day when I knew my feet would have had enough. 

cynthia rowley purple

Purple and Blue Skater Dress- Cynthia Rowley (TK Maxx)
Purple Peep Toe Heels- Barretts

Black Hoop Earrings
Monica Vinader Fiji Friendship Bracelet

Don't Siân and Claire look super cute, too? We spent a lot of time chilling in the TK Maxx style lounge where you could try on clothes, relax on super comfy Home Sense chairs and chaises or get style advice on what clothes suit your body shape best. We also took a liking to Visit Orlando and Acer UK's photobooths but I can't say the booths liked us. Siân and I had one shut down and power off when we were in it and then the three of us almost knocked over another.  Needless to say we had a lot of fun in them!

disney photo booth

florida photo booth



The three of us talk on Skype all the time but it is rare we are actually in the same place together so it was great to hang out in person.  They also got me some AMAZING Doc Marten Darcie boots and a kick ass new skull scarf for my birthday that I am sure will feature in a future What I Wore Wednesday.

On my actual birthday NotBlondeHusband spoiled me rotten by taking me out to an overly indulgent dinner at Blytheswood Square Hotel in Glasgow and since I loved it so much I wore my Blue and Purple Cynthia Rowley dress again. It was actually sunny on my birthday so we got to have cocktails outside in the sunshine before devouring a truly amazing meal. If you are looking for the best steak in Glasgow the Blytheswood is the place to go!

beer garden glasgow

I'm so lucky to have such amazing friends and family! Tomorrow NBH, Blondie Boy and I are off on holiday to France courtesy of Eurocamp and I can't wait to tell y'all about it when we get back! I will try my best to get a French WIWW edition up next week but I hope you'll forgive me if it is a wee bit delayed. Fingers crossed we have nice weather and this sneezing fit I'm having is just allergies and not a cold!







Our accommodation while on holiday is provided by Eurocamp but all travel and other expenses we will and have paid ourselves. All opinions on our holiday are our own and will be expressed as such.

Wednesday 20 June 2012

What I Wore Wednesday: Window Shopper

I've been up to a lot of window shopping lately. Does it still count as window shopping if you try things on? I was down south for work Sunday-Monday and I'm back down again tomorrow as well before heading to London for a weekend with my girls and then I'm back home in time for my birthday Monday before we leave for France Tuesday. Are you tired? I am!

So I've been trying to find work clothes, holiday clothes and just general cute clothes and while I've tried on A LOT I'm not sure I've actually found a lot.

high street changing rooms

That's not even all of it! I mostly hit up my mainstays: TK Maxx and HM but I did look around in the Oasis and Warehouse sales, too. I'm in love with the swallow themed dresses and tank tops at HM-- I love old school swallow tattoos so they are totally up my street. The tank is a bit see-through though so I'll need to layer it over a white tank.

I like the idea of the tie dye maxi dress for my holiday but umm doesn't it look like there is a target right at my cootch? The stripey short dress I am going to use as a pool cover-up and while I love the pink and blue Cynthia Rowley dress it just was that little bit too tight on my butt to work in real life.

I had high hopes for a turquoise Jessica Simpson dress but for someone with big boobs she sure as hell didn't design something flattering on a bigger bust. You can see it hanging up in the lower right; it looked so amazing on the hanger but just did not actually work on me.

I guess it just goes to show that some things will look amazing on the hanger and shite on and others look not so hot on the hanger but great on you. How do you go about picked out things to try on when you go shopping? Any tips or tricks for finding hidden gems?


Just to be fair here is something I actually wore to my meeting on Monday. I had a fairly important presentation to give so I went with something I felt comfortable and confidant in:


smart work dress travel


Grey Cynthia Rowley Dress- TK Maxx
Black Cropped Blazer-HM
Leopard Heels- Dune
Pink Fiji Friendship Bracelet-Monica Vinadeer


My good friends and team Cybher crew Siân and Claire helped me prep for my meeting so I wore our bracelet so they'd be there with me, too!


toddler fitted baseball cap hat


Also just for good measure here is Blondie Boy showing off his new Cincinnati Reds hat his Papa John got him! I'm pretty sure he is the cutest Cincinnati fan in Scotland :)



Wednesday 13 June 2012

What I Wore Wednesday: Olympic Torch Relay

What I Wore Wednesday is a bit later than usual today because we took Blondie Boy to see the Olympic Torch Relay as it went through Cumbernauld. The torch went through Glasgow the end of last week but it was rainy and taking a two year old into the crowds did not seem like fun. Cumbernauld is only about 15 minutes from us so it worked out perfectly.

Olympic Torch Relay Glasgow

Blondie Boy really had no idea what the Olympics are or what a torch relay is but we told him the Olympics were about sports and tried our best to tell him a man or woman would be running with fire. He then kept telling us a fire truck was coming.

Toddler Saltire Scottish Flag

We knew the torch was coming soon when big Samsung, Coca-Cola and Bank of Scotland trucks rolled through. I know some people said they felt it was overly commercialized but not for us. They threw out some mini bottles of Coke but there wasn't any chanting about brands or anything. We were standing near one of the torch swap over points and if you know me you'll know what I did when I saw the next torch bearer standing nearby with a torch.
Josh Gavin Olympic Torch

It is times like this I'm glad I'm cheeky! I know Blondie Boy won't remember much of the torch relay but how cool is it that he got his picture taken with torch bearer Josh Gavin and the Olympic torch! I'm so glad we went because it really is a once in a life time experience.

Serendipitously we got a package from our friends from Innocent today so Blondie Boy had the most *perfect* shirt to wear to the relay:

Olympic Medal T-Shirt

Blondie Boy:
Olympic Medal T-Shirt from Innocent Drinks
Adidas Track Jacket
Cherokee Jeans
Carter's Shoes

Blondie:
Land's End Fleece Pullover
Old Navy The Flirt Jeans
HM Sunglasses
Monica Vinadeer Fiji Friendship Bracelelt
Black Walmart Hoop Earrings

Are you doing anything for the Olympics? How have you explained them to your children?


Friday 8 June 2012

Going Viral: Married Actor Hits on Model Who Tweets the Whole Thing

Tonight I was minding my own business, Skyping with Curls and Sian like I always do when I saw a hilarious story about a married actor hitting on a model on a Virgin America flight who then tweeted the entire exchange. So I do what I always do when I find something interesting; I Bolted it and tweeted it. I told NotBlondeHusband to look at it and thought nothing more of it.


Then I opened my inbox:


brian presley @melissastetten

So I popped on to Twitter:

married actor model virgin america

And then this happened:

brian presley melissa stetten

My friends my tweet went viral. Some douchey married actor hit on a model, got wasted on 3 beers and broke all the rules of flight conduct (really Brian who opens the window shade on a red eye?), I thought it was hilarious and the mighty internet agreed with me.

So far my Bolt has over 6,800 views and it's only been an hour. I'll report back if anything else interesting happens....

UPDATE:

My bolt has almost 15,000 views in 18 hours and our friend the d-bag actor has denied everything but he doesn't know how to spell weird so can we really trust him?

Wednesday 6 June 2012

What I Wore Wednesday

The weather has totally turned on us in Glasgow and it has made me really sad. I've already posted about my kick ass Ohio Bandits Apparel Co "I love Ohio" t-shirt previously and you can see it in my MicroScooter review so this week I'm flashing back to the warm weather and what I wore two weeks ago to a social media event in Glasgow.

I bought this maxi dress super crazy mega reduced at the end of last summer. Butterfly prints were really in last summer but I couldn't find a single item that I liked until I found this dress. I actually almost bought it before it went on sale but they didn't have the dress in my size. When I saw it in my size and on sale I snapped it up even though I knew I wouldn't really get a chance to wear it again until next year.

The material is sorta shiny and slippery and hard to describe; despite the fact that it is a bit of a tight fit in the chest (what isn't on me?) it is actually really comfortable and was the perfect choice for a hot day.

butterfly maxi dress
Butterfly Print Maxi Dress- Dorothy Perkins
Baby Blue Old Navy Flip Flops
Black Hoop Earrings- Walmart
Fiji Friendship Bracelet- Monica Vinader

Do you buy clothes end of season and save them for next year or do you tend to shop only the current season?


Today is the last day to vote for the Mad Blog Awards! Voting closes at 5pm BST-- if you are so inclined would you consider voting Transatlantic Blonde Best Fashion Blog? Thanks!





Friday 1 June 2012

Scootin with Microscooters

Blondie Boy loves to play outside, something not exactly compatible with Scottish weather, but given the choice he'd be outside all day, every day if possible. In general all outside toys are a win with him but I wasn't sure what Blondie Boy would think about a scooter and wasn't even sure he'd be able to scoot but OMG does he love his Micro Scooter. You'll notice that he is indoors in this photo--he's standing on his scooter watching tv. Blondie Boy drags his scooter all around the house and if I'd let him it would sit up on the couch with him. 


toddler scooterI was actually quite surprised how quickly he figured out how to actually scoot on his micro scooter. Blondie Boy has a Mini Micro Scooter which had two wheels at the front for greater stability for little legs so he's less likely to lose balance. He can easily scoot along but still isn't the best at steering! This video is literally the first time he took his scooter outside, Glasgow isn't ideal for outside pursuits before May, and you can see how he took to it. If you listen carefully you can hear him say "I'm doing it!"



Since he isn't quite two and a half when we take the scooter out more often than not he alternates between scooting, pulling the scooter, having Mommy or Daddy drag him on the scooter and just walking while one of us carries it. Today though I busted out the Micro Sprite Scooter, suitable for older children and adults and we had so much fun scooting together.

micro scooter mom toddler glasgowBlondie Boy loved racing Mommy and scooting beside me and since we were in our own backyard I didn't have to worry if he wandered away or dropped his scooter. I have a feeling we will have lots of fun scooting together when he is just a wee bit bigger, too!  In the meantime do you think I can get away with scooting around my block on my own? I think it would be a great workout!

This Jubilee weeked there is free shipping on all Limited Edition Union Jack Scooters! Super cute if you are wanting to get behind Team GB this summer!


union jack team gb scooter




The Mini Micro Scooter is recommended for ages 3-5 and starts from £49.95.
Aluminium Scooters are suitable from age 5-adult and start from £52.

Transatlantic Blonde were provided these scooters for review but all opinions are our own. Have you ever been around a two year old? They are about as honest as it gets :)