Review of Ruby Rocks Dress

I was recently lucky enough to be allowed to choose a few items from +Simply Be  for review.

I have had my eye on this Ruby Rocks Print Tie Tunic Dress for some time now and so this was the first item that I chose.  I love the midnight blue colour and the unusual pattern.  On me (5ft 4) the length is above the knee but not too much, and the keyhole at the neckline of the dress falls just right with being too low.

I was a little worried when I first got the dress out of the packaging that I may have to wait to review it until Autumn/Winter due to the colouring, but styling it with bare legs, open toed heels and some red lipstick solved any qualms I had. 

The material is dense enough that I didn’t need to worry about the sun making it see-through but not too thick that I was too warm.  The dress is true to size and really comfortable.

In Summer I would wear this dress at any evening party or event styled as below, and in Winter with opaque tights which will give it a completely different look, like having two dresses in one!

I was so impatient to try out this dress that I taken all the photos myself, fighting attacking plants in the garden and balancing my camera precariously on thin walls.  Note to self, buy a tripod.

Attack of the killer plants!

The Ruby Rocks Print Tie Neck Tunic Dress is currently on sale with SimplyBe for £28.00 so I urge you to rush over to the website and grab yourself a bargain.

* I was not paid to write this review and all my opinions are my own

Paisley & Lace - My Way

I saw Lace Paisley Maxi Dress dress weeks ago on +Simply Be and was instantly drawn to the gorgeous pinks and purples of the paisley patterning as well as the lace detailing to the top and bottom of the dress.

My only issue with it was that as a maxi dress, for me personally I knew that I would not get as much wear out of it as I would with a shorter dress. If I could have chopped off the bottom of the dress then I would have bought it instantly, however you don’t pay £45.00 for a dress and then cut it up!

Happily though when I saw the fabulous Becky wearing the dress on her blog MrsBeBeBlog she kindly noted at the end of the post that the dress was now on sale. I headed over to the SimplyBe website and found it for the absolute steal price of £18.50.

Now a £45.00 dress I wouldn’t cut up, but £18.50? Hell yes.

So with the help of my talented mum who can wield a sewing needle far better than I, we chopped the dress off at the knees. I have gained a dress that will work with me in a variety of situations and my mum has used the excess lace to fashion a lace wrap to go with one of her dresses. Result!

Earrings from +Dorothy Perkins 

Have you ever taken  the scissors to one of your dresses?

Planned Work OOTD

A quick #ootd that I am thinking about wearing for work tomorrow, a little different to the combinations I usually go for. 

I like this outfit although I feel I might be pushing it slightly as being acceptable for the office, but hey, I’m making the most of the sunshine!

I have featured the dress on the blog before and is from Savoir at Very.  It is cool and comfortable to be able to wear with ease all day although for me, at 5ft 4, it is a tiny bit too short to wear without leggings.  You can't tell that in the photos, but if I bent over I would be in danger of flashing my underwear, not the look you want for work!

When i originally bought the dress I had the idea of bare legs and sat outside in a beer garden but due to the length, a little more propriety is required!

Choices, Choices

I am going on a girl’s day/night out in Manchester on Friday. It is an event that a group of friends and I like to try and arrange every few months as we all live in different places and don’t get to catch up very often.

I have been looking for a dress that will take me from afternoon to evening and also something summery and bright. I refuse to think that it will be anything else other than glorious sunshine.

I recently found the Floral Border Print Dress from the Koko range at +Simply Be  and completely fell in love. I have never worn any of these colours before and certainly not in that combination. The print of the dress made me thinking of a Monet painting and I couldn’t resist buying it.

I confess that I am more than a little nervous to wear this dress as it is the most “look at me” item of clothing that I have ever owned. You certainly won’t be able to miss me in it and that in itself is terrifying me (shush, don’t tell anything I told you), so much so that I decided to have a test run of the whole outfit.

I’ve gone a few different ways with the styling of the outfit combining cardigans and shoes and can’t decide which way to go so decided to ask for your thoughts???

Look One

Red cardigan, nude and black shoes

Look Two

Black cardigan, black strappy shoes or alternatively.....

Look Three

Screw the cardigan & black shoes.

Answers on a postcard, or just in the comments box which might by easier ;)

Lovely Dresses from Bon Marche?

I’ll make a confession.   I have always associated Bon Marche as being somewhere for the older generation to shop in.  It isn’t somewhere I have ever bought anything in for about 20 years and I think that the last time I was in a Bon Marche shop was 15 years ago.

I recently saw Bon Marche on Twitter and out of curiosity I decided to have a look at what they were currently doing with their clothing ranges.  Now, whilst I think that a lot of their range is still edged towards the older category, no high heels for example, there are now mixed in a lot of items that I would buy myself.

Bon Marche feature a lot of colour and a large variety of prints, both of which are brilliant for the summer months.  With stripes, Aztec and floral prints to chose from, there are many dresses that are right on trend.

Given that I am a dress girl at heart I have decided to feature my four favourite dresses here as an example of what you can now buy.  The great thing is that with their reasonable pricing structure, I can probably afford to buy one or more sooner than I would with other more expensive brands.

I promise, this isn’t a sponsored post by the way, I was so pleasantly surprised with what they have available, I wanted to blog about it!

Scratch Stripe Skater Dress with Ribbon Belt

£20.00

Tribal Print Shirred Dress

£18.00

Crochet Trim Printed Maxi Dress

£25.00

Short Mock Tie Front Beach Dress

£15.00

 So those of my four favourite dresses from Bon Marche.  You can get 10% discount off your first order from Bon Marche through www.FashionPerks.co.uk using their Bon Marche Discount Code 

Have you rediscovered any brands lately?

Dressed to the Max

Hello all! Hope you are enjoying the sunshine just as much as I am. This is the third post in the series of monthly challenges and the theme this month is maxi dresses. 

We will be posting on the 7th of each month, and the aim of the challenge is to create an outfit to fit the theme, using clothes from our wardrobes, and yes that does mean digging deep into the depths and finding those long lost clothes!  Hopefully one of us won't end up in the Narnia, but you never know with a blogger's wardrobe!

When I saw that the challenge this month was maxi dresses I must confess that I gave a little cheer.  I have had a maxi dress in my wardrobe since the Summer sales ended last year and it has never been worn.  

It was one of those lucky things when you see the potential in something which everyone else has bypassed.  I spied a pretty print, all but hidden and squashed in the sale rack (which I never usually have the time to trawl through) and after wrestling with half dozen mixed up hangers, pulled out this lovely.

It fits just right on me and I’m mad about the butterfly print.  The dress feels silky to touch and for the price of £11.00 in the sale at +Dorothy Perkins , it was an absolute steal!
I have styled the dress today with an oatmeal coloured shrug from Yours Clothing and some sparkly heels which I bought a couple of years ago from +Next for a wedding.

Please check out the other lovely ladies involved with this challenge.

Beth

Becky

Nicola

Gail

Kirsty

Kaye

Mary

Kathryn

Steph

Charley

Rebecca

Nikki

Lindsey

Christiana

A Case of Charity

Just like I once had a huge aversion to the sale rack in a shop, I also used to have a dislike for buying things from charity shops.  I would happily donate frequently, but every charity shop I went into seemed to smell and nothing ever seemed to appeal. 

I don’t know if this applies to just shops in my local area or is a widespread thing, or alternatively, if I’m just being a snobby bugger.

Anyhow……..  A few monthly ago now I was having a clear out of my wardrobe, out with the black, in with the colour and so had a ton of clothing to donate.  There is a Barnardos charity shop just down the road from me which I hadn’t previously been to so I decided to take everything down to them.

What a difference a bit of inspiration makes!   The volunteers and staff at this shop have made such an effort with this shop.  The displays are different every time I go in with different items available, all the clothing is colour coordinated and everything is sized correctly.  The clothing, shoes and general bric a brac is sectioned off perfectly in order to attract customers and every time I go into the shop I feel like I am walking into an Aladdin’s cave of enticing things to buy.

I was thinking of this shop yesterday as when I got to work, I realised that most of my outfit I have purchased from Barnardos. 

 

Like an idiot I managed to take a photograph of the dress and then deleted it by accident however you have seen before on the Flash the Flash challenge last month.  Here is a picture of the bag which is my most recent find for the bargain price of £4.00.
 

 

 

Have you had any great finds lately?

 

 

New Outfit of the Day Post

Two posts today!!

I realised recently that I haven't done an outfit of the day post in a while.  As I am wearing my new +Dorothy Perkins dress today, I thought I would take a quick snap!

I've added a red cardigan from Primark to the dress given our inclement climate at the moment which also gives it a bit more pop and a little of the 50's feel to the dress.

The dress is elasticated under the bust line and feels lovely on the skin.  I have also added a slip underneath the dress as I think it may become a little see through in the sunshine.

Found here at +Dorothy Perkins currently on sale for £19.80



Have you bought anything recently?

Anti Idiot Software

When I didn’t have any confidence, what I had instead was a self preservation system in place that would have rivaled Fort Knox with the thickness of the walls around me. In the main I kept myself “safe” from harm by keeping everyone away, but the lone assassin could easily walk through the gates and hurt me.

Now I’ve found confidence, the walls are down and in their place is what I would describe as a firewall. Invisible to the eye, a thin layered deflector that is my personality which negativity just bounces off.

Like any firewall, occasionally malware can get through but unlike the walls that you previously built which had to be rebuilt higher and stronger, with a firewall, you can just reboot and run antivirus. In order words, anti-idiot.

In the weird world that is my head this is what I run through when I hear a rude comment or something hurtful. I roll my eyes, run “anti-idiot” and my firewall bounces back the comment through a little “screw you” spark in my eyes.

Promoting confidence in others is something that is becoming more and more important to me. You can have confidence at any size. It isn’t about promoting a certain weight, it’s about having self worth, self confidence and the knowledge that if people insult you, that is their problem, not yours.

I always wanted to have the confidence to wear bright colours and patterns and now I wear them everyday. My main goal when it comes to clothing was to be able to wear a red dress. I have a thing about red and have red lipsticks, red handbags, red shoes, but have never had the confidence to wear a red dress.

Now the warm weather is here and I'm wearing my red dress from +Simply Be Apologies for the self photos but I wanted to get out in the sunshine!

I'm Declaring it Summer

A quick outfit of the day post today.

I bought this dress from +Very.co.uk last year and wasn't brave enough to wear it.  This year I said sod being scared and I have worn it today, inspired by the gorgeous sunshine outside and have teamed it with a red cardigan from Primark.

 

With the bright blue and red I feel like I am chanelling Superman, or Superwoman in a longer dress? 

 

My thought of the day is therefore - Never be afraid to wear something, you wear the dress, it doesn't wear you.

 

Happy sunshine everyone!