What I Wore Wednesday: Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

This week was NotBlondeHusband's 33rd birthday. I made him a Malted Chocolate Buttercream Devil's Food Cake with Marshmallow Filling and then gave him a present that I don't think anyone was really expecting; if I'm honest not even me: twin haircuts.

What a difference 4-5 inches makes huh? I loved Blondie Boy's long hair but it just wasn't practical any more. It was always in his eyes (I don't like boys with bangs/fringe don't ask me why I just don't) or had boogers or paint or play-doh stuck in it. We talked about it and he wasn't that bothered so he and his Daddy got matching haircuts on NBH's birthday.

The stylists couldn't believe how still he sat for almost 30 minutes and gave him a special certificate to say what a good boy he was. My inspiration for his hair was David Beckham's haircut---yes I know Blondie Boy is only three but I wanted him to have a cool haircut. You could also just say it's a longer version of his Dad's haircut. I haven't really played with it yet but I think he could probably rock a pretty sweet faux-hawk.

After the haircuts we had two birthday dinners, one on Friday with NBH's Dad and his wife and another on Saturday with NBH's Mum and her husband. Both dinners were super yummy (I ate far too much) and we finished both meals off with the aforementioned cake. On Saturday after dinner NBH and I went to a charity concert one of his friend's from work was throwing so I wanted to make sure I had on comfy shoes. I was really struggling with something that would work and I'm not 100% with what I came up with if I'm honest.

Black Sequin Loft Top

Old Navy Sweetheart Jeans

Next Studded Flats

Children's Place Embellished Button Down

Cherokee Jeans

Disney Cars Flasher Gym Shoes

I think part of the reason I couldn't find something I liked to wear was that I'm not happy with my body right now. I've put on a ridiculous amount of weight (I've been on the scale so trust me) and things are fitting the way they should and honestly it isn't healthy. I loved my eye-makeup (thanks Pinterest!) and my hair but I'm not comfortable in my own skin right now. 

I've lost weight before and I'm angry at myself that I've gotten this heavy again. I could blame it on a number of changes and frankly shitty things going on right now but that's not fair. So I've started SlimFast; it isn't something I've tried before but a 2 weeks supply was on sale at Costco and it seemed like an easy way to try and get my butt in gear. It isn't a long term solution but hopefully it is a way to start losing some weight and motivate me to start exercising, eat better and keep losing weight until I'm happy with myself.

Has anyone done SlimFast before? Any tips or tricks?

What I Wore Wednesday: Secret Sales The Secret Launch

I love to shop. LOVE. It's in my genes. The only thing I love better than shopping is shopping a sale. Who doesn't love getting any amazing deal on an outfit? So I was super excited to be invited to the launch of SecretSales The Secret last week in Notting Hill. The past few weeks have been a bit stressful so I was really looking forward to it!

SecretSales is a designer fashion and homeware flash sales site which offers up to 70 per cent discounts on over 600 brands and The Secret is their new bespoke blog with posts on make-up tips from top make-up artists, day-in-the-life spots with their experts, trendspotting and more! 

To celebrate the launch of The Secret several of us were invited to the SecretSales studio for make-up tips, cupcakes (what event is complete without them?) and our own chance to style a model with some of the amazing clothing, shoes and accessory in the SecretSales closet.

I spied a Hugo Boss brown leather jacket on the men's clothing rack and knew I had to base my outfit around it. I'm a sucker for a good leather jacket what can I say. From there I held up about half a dozen different shirts to the very cooperative (and very handsome) model Paul to find one that popped with his eyes. I don't often put men's outfits together but I'm pretty happy with the results.

Image by Dom Aleandri Photography

Image by Dom Aleandri Photography

Brown Leather Jacket-Hugo Boss

Blue Shirt- Hugo Boss

(both available from SecretSales from 19/4)

So what do you wear to the launch where you will be surrounded by fashion bloggers, journalists and models? Yea I struggled with that one too! Especially since I was flying down to London and back the same day plus trains and tube to get there. So as much as part of me wanted to go a bit avant-garde I aired on the side of practical. 

Xhilaration High Low Striped Dress

Black Loft Cardigan

Hot Pink HM Hoop Earrings

Black Folded Trim New Look Ankle Boots

Probably not my first outfit choice but stripes and monochromatic are in this season so it worked in a pinch. I do have a chance to really increase my stylishness but I need all y'all to help out please!

If you visit SecretSales Facebook page and "like" the photo of Paul in the outfit I styled I could win a Dolce and Gabbana handbag!

SHUT THE FRONT DOOR. This is probably the only chance I'll ever have at owning anything by Dolce and Gabanna (one of my favourite designers-no one does leopard print better) so I'd freak out if I won! I feel like I'm asking a lot of favours lately but it literally takes one second to like the photo and I'd really appreciate your help!

What I Wore Wednesday: Birthday Dinner Out

This past week has been in a word: INSANE. Blondie Boy's birthday party was last Friday, followed the next day by his actual birthday and followed the following day by NBH's Mum's 60th Birthday/his sister's 30th. It was a birthday bonanza weekend!

I have no acceptable or even vaguely okay looking photos of myself from Blondie Boy's party or from his birthday lunch out. To be honest I didn't really wear anything exciting since it was a kid's party anyway. I did put an effort in to my outfit when we went out for Persian food for my SIL's birthday dinner on Sunday and in an even bigger twist of fate Blondie Boy and I BOTH looked cute at the same time (If you're a Mom you'll know this rarely happens--it's usually you or the kid--not both).

I'm not 100% on my skinny jeans with my ankle boots but I gave it a try to recreate the outfit I would have worn on New Year's Eve if we went out:

Blondie

Sequin Top- Loft

Skinny Jeans-Old Navy

Ankle Boots- New Look

Jacket-Zara

Blondie Boy

Skull Sweatshirt-Target

Plain Trousers-US Polo Association

Gym Shoes-Adidas

Fox Hat-ASDA

Blondie Boy has had these plaid pants forever but they've always been to big on him. They finally fit and I loved how they looked with his skull sweatshirt. A little preppy, a little punk and of course he through in his favourite fox hat for good measure.

I also tried out this thingy called a "donut quiff comb" I got at Claire's. I have no idea what it supposed to be used for but I used it like a "bump-it." My hair is really fine and obviously blonde and bump-its just don't stay put in my hair and you can see them through my hair so I thought maybe this quiff comb would work for a bit of volume when I pull my hair back.  Luckily for me it totally worked. You can't see it really in this photo but to me that is a good thing because I didn't want to look like Snooki!

Do you have any crazy gadgets or random techniques you use to make your hair cute?

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What I Wore Wednesday: Nativity, London & Santa Oh My!

Where has the year gone??!?! I made a folder for work called "Week 51" on Monday--how are there only two weeks left n the year? It's all flown by so fast and I know I'll blink and Christmas will be here.

On Friday Blondie Boy had his first Nativity Play at school; I wasn't sure what it was going to be like but it was just kids dressed up singing Christmas songs so my "separation of church and state" issues didn't really matter. Blondie Boy was a shepherd.

For the past two weeks he's been singing songs to me in the car and it's been super cute. He knew all the words and sang in tune so I was looking forward to seeing him perform with all his friends. This is what he did for the entire show:

Yup. He was happy, well behaved and cute but he didn't sing. He just stuck his tongue out. Stuck it straight out, to the left, to the right--anyway you can stick your tongue out he did it. He's obviously the next superstar.To be fair to him there are many stories of myself at age 3 showing my Mom and Dad my ballet recital routine over and over and when the actual recital came I stood there with my fingers in my mouth. I got over my stage fright so I'm sure he will too. Here he is actually singing Rudolph though just so you know he can actually do it.



I love that he says "very nice shiny nose" and "like toothpaste." I have no idea why we said that for the history part growing up but I promise you we did even though NotBlondeHusband hates it because toothpaste can't be of a historical nature--whatever it's funny.

As soon as the play was over we had to high tail it home to grab our suitcases and head to the airport and visit NBH's sister for the weekend. Blondie Boy was super excited to visit London (he's only flown through before) and see his Auntie Katie.  We went to the Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park but most exciting we accidentally came across Santa at the South Bank Christmas Market!

Now tell me that's not Santa! Santa was very lovely and Blondie Boy was pretty star struck but managed to count out on his fingers for Santa which cars he wanted. Now if you don't believe explain this--after telling Santa what he wanted NBH and I found said cars that we've been searching for for months at Tesco in Clapham. I believe!

We had a great weekend and we've come back and it's still go, go, go! My outfit this week is from Monday. I was chairing a fundraising meeting for Glasgow Women's Aid and then went to get my eyebrows done. My salon is in the centre of town so I got to walk through George Square and the Christmas lights to get from my car to the salon.

Purple and Grey Striped Zipper Dress-LOFT outlet

Purple Quilted Vest-GAP outlet

Skinny Jeans-Old Navy

Black Boots-Sketchers

Grey Knit Newsboy hat-Adidas outlet

The sun goes down around 3:30pm now and once it's down you need a hat on! I liked this zipper details on sides of the bottom of this dress but the dress itself is pretty shapeless so I have to wear the vest over the top.  Also it is freaking freezing and you need a coat--to be honest I should have worn a full coat but I love my vest! I'm not sure if maybe a belt would help the dress? I'm a bit scared of belts if I'm honest. The dress is basically sort of sack of potato like around the middle if you know what I mean!

So we're 6 sleeps until Christmas and we don't even have a tree yet since things have been so hectic! If you celebrate Christmas are you ready?

Also I feel I need to say that I don't feel it is my place to say anything about the horrible events last Friday; I'm very clear in my own thoughts on gun control and the 2nd amendment even more so than ever after such a horrible tragedy. I urge you all to please sign this WhiteHouse.gov petition for legislation on gun control in the USA.

What I Wore Wednesday: Accessories

I looked super cute in the Loft trousers and Banana Republic top for my meeting last week but somehow I managed not to get a photo when I thought I had so you'll just have to trust me on that one. 


So this week my outfit is pretty boring with the exception of my Alexander McQueen wanna-be scarf I got on our trip to Sweden. I've kinda got a thing for skulls and I've wanted a scarf like this for ages and I liked the length and fabric of this one. I'm still not 100% sure how to wear scarves but hey I tried!

Pink Shirt-Anthropologie

Black Trench-Wallis

Geek is the New Chic Pin-Cybher

Black Skull Scarf-Chelsea

The Flirt Jeans-Old Navy

Black Sparkly Flats-Chinese Laundry

What I Wore Wednesday: Sweden

Hopefully I will get around to doing a Gothenburg post soon; I took a lot of food photos and after yacking the majority of the photos up I haven't been able to look at them again yet. Hopefully a What I Wore Swedish edition will do for now!  First off look what was staring back at me fromthe magazine rack at 7-11:

I don't read Swedish but it obviously says that pink hair is the coolest, chicest thing ever. We only had carry-on luggage so I had to limit my outfit choices. The first night it was really cold and we had to walk far so I went for a more casual look:

Pink top-Anthropologie

Brown Chunky Scarf- H and M

Hat- Tesco (on sale only £2!)

Grey Trench-Zara

The Flirt Jeans-Old Navy

Navy and Pink New Balances- Zappos

Black Bag- "Coach" (It's from Thailand hence quotations)

We didn't end up going out for dinner Saturday night because I felt really sick (I didn't dress up for Burger King at the train station-shocker!) but we went to Marcus Samuelson's (he won Top Chef All Stars) new restaurant, Norda Bar and Grill the next night. I decided to go with a tried tested look. There was a sparkly gold wall outside the main door of the hotel and I couldn't resist posing with it!

Cropped Blazer- HM

Black Sequin Top- Loft Outlet 

Boot Cut Leggings- Hold Your Haunches

Leopard Print Heels- Dune (TK Maxx)

What I Wore Wednesay: Christmas

Did everyone have a great holiday? I hope y'all got everything you wanted and got to share some time with people you love!  This week I'm linking up our Christmas Eve and Christmas dinner outfits. My MIL and I got NotBlondeHusband's shirt on Christmas Eve last minute. Blondie Boy loved that "cookie monkey" was on his Daddy's tummy so it was a great buy.

Cookie Monster TShirt-Primark

Santa Skull PJs- Old Navy

Reindeer PJs- Tesco 

Sequin Top- Loft

Bracelet- Merci Maman

Shirt & Waistcoat- Boots Mini Club

Reindeer Sweater- Ebay

Crowns- Debenham's Crackers