What's in your Handbag?

Monkey Supermarket are currently running a competition in order to win a Mulberry handbag and for a chance to enter, they want to see inside our handbags!  

Their home insurance expert estimates that women carry around with them on average the sum of £850.00 worth of contents within our handbag and I must confess, I was very curious to see what my total would be.

When it comes to my week day handbag, I like to cover most eventualities.  The thing about having a large bag however is that things seem to disappear into it, never to resurface until you have a clear out.

I took the opportunity of this blog post to go through the contents of my handbag and remove the excesses, including more lipsticks and glosses than I would admit!  I have never really thought about the value of the items I carry around with me so this has been an interesting experiment.

My bag is from Fiorelli and cost me £60.00 about three years ago.  It it a classic shape and style and is perfect for my day to day use as it goes with practically everything.

I have divided the contents into sections, all of which help me in my daily life and are permanent fixtures in my handbag.

Every Day Essentials

Purse - £5.00 from Primark
Cash inside - £20.00

Blackberry - £200.00

Monthly bus pass - £39.00

Face powder – approx £6.00

Powder brush - £3.00

Lip tint from MUA - £3.00

Crystal cat keyring - £5.00

If I were forced to use a smaller handbag during the week, these would be my absolute essentials.  Yes, three items are makeup, but I fail to see the point in applying it at the start of the day only to end up with a shiny nose and dull lips by the end of it.  I am a woman after all!

To Wear Off Boredom

Book - £9.99

Notebook for blog ideas - £10.00

Pen – £1.00

Apple Earphones - £25.00

Blackberry – already listed

For my daily trip to work on the bus or when I am travelling in general I like to have a variety of options to entertain me.  I always have a book with me and a notebook for jotting down blog ideas.  In addition I like to listen to music on the way to work on my phone which also obviously offers the connection to the internet and my addiction that is Twitter.

Helpful Items

Umbrella - £10.00

Dorothy Perkins Sunglasses - £7.00

Spare Blackberry battery £15.00

Blackberry charger £15.00

The three things I detest are getting caught in the rain, being caught in bright sunshine for over an hour without sunglasses and my beloved Blackberry running out of charge (hence the two options on the battery front!). 

My Fix Me Up Kit

Marc Jacobs perfume - £20.00

Benefit They’re Real Mascara - £19.50
MUA Red lip tint – already listed
Pink lipstick from No 7 - £9.00
Little Pink Tin of Lip Moisturiser - £3.00
Soap & Glory body butter - £7.50
Two different hair slides - £8.00
No 7 Slanted Tweezers - £8.00
Two hair bobbles – 50p

I always like to have a little fix me up kit in my handbag.  This works twofold in that I have the everyday items that I use to touch myself up with and also some additions such as the earrings, the mascara and the hairslides/bobbles which I can use to change up my look if I am going straight from work to a catch up with the girls.

One of my pet hates is having to lug another bag to work if you intend on going out for the evening straight after, so I have whittled my kit down to the utmost essentials that can easily and quickly take me from a day to a night time look.

If I had to chose just one item out of everything in my handbag to carry around with me it would have to be my Blackberry.  My phone is the most multi-functional item in my handbag, it would get me most things at the touch of a button and it is what I would chose in a crisis.

Taking into account the cost of the handbag and the contents, this equates to a handbag total of £509.49.  Considering that the average is £850.00 I am quietly impressed with myself!

What do you carry in your handbag?

 

Milestone Necklace Giveaway!

Writing a blog is a strange thing.  Although you are putting your point of view and images on the internet, with anyone able to access it, I am always surprised when someone finds it and actually reads it.

When I started my blog in July 2010 I had the idea that I wanted a blog but didn’t really have a focus of what I wanted to talk about or what direction I was going in.  I remember being excited that in my first month I had 49 views!

Over the past year I have found the path I want my blog to take and the views have been increasing every month.  Although I knew that I was getting a fair few hits per month now, it was still quite a shock to realised that at the beginning of this week I reached 25,000 views.  Not a lot for some, but a great achievement for me and something I am proud of.

I wanted to celebrate reaching this milestone and so decided to host a giveaway on my blog.  I reached out to the lovely Allie of Love from Misbehave to see if she would like to participate in the giveaway and she has kindly donated a necklace, pictured below and linked here.

I first found Love From Misbehave via their Twitter feed Love Misbehave and have been a huge fan of their jewellery ever since.   In addition to jewellery they also sell tshirts, hair pieces and scarves.   I urge you to check out their website as they have some fantastic pieces, at great prices.

 

Love from Misbehave will be reaching their first birthday in a few months so make sure to look out on their site/Twitter feed for giveaways and offers.

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Old Toothy!

I'm writing this post further to the Flash the Flesh Challenge on Saturday, which is all about being happy and confident in yourself.  I wanted to do a short post today to tell you this little story which make me laugh about how silly I have been.

I have a gap in my teeth that I’ve hated all my life,  Every smile I’ve ever given has had my tongue pressed up right against the gap so you couldn’t see it as much.  It’s a ridiculous thing to do but I’ve always done it. 

Recently I decided to do a vlog post, found here.  What I immediately noticed upon watching it back, which had never occurred to me before, is that the gap is perfectly notable when I talk, so all these years of trying to hide it have been completely pointless!

I can’t believe that I’ve actually spent my whole life shoving my tongue behind the gap in my teeth, without ever realising that it was perfectly visible when I was speaking.  What a lunatic I am!  It also then of course dawned on me that it has also been visible to others and I had never had any bad comments about it, so why the worry and insecurity?

Sometimes the insecurities we have are ones that we force upon ourselves without any interference of society and other people’s opinions. 

What have you been insecure about that you have had no need to?

Flash the Flesh Challenge - Part 2!

When a group of bloggers join together for a chat you know that the final result has to be super!! This happened once more when, a few weeks ago, we were talking about our preferences between mini and maxi and Becky  thought that it would be great to create a challenge which goal was to show a little bit more skin and our body (but with style and no vulgarity) showing proudly our curves. And so it was born “Flash the Flesh”.

Last month on the Flash the Flesh challenge I showed a part of my blog that I like.  This month, I wanted to do something that I wasn’t as comfortable with showing, in this case my legs.

Although I don’t have an issue with my legs from the knees down, I don’t like my knees/thighs and any hem that came above that I have always made sure was worn with either tights or leggings.  I recently bought a dress for the summer from +Very.co.uk  though which is so pretty, but wouldn’t look right with anything but bare legs.

I tried this dress on several times, with different shoes and heels and in the end, I really like this dress so why should a little insecurity hold me back from keeping it? 

I really like this time and it is perfect for an afternoon out in the Summer.  I am not normally one for white dresses but I loved the style of this one.  It can be found here for the bargain price of £22.00.

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.

5 Questions

I recently was asked by the lovely Mary of Mary's Big Closet to answer some questions and submit a few photos for her blog.

Here are the results.  Thanks Mary!

Guest Post with The Curved Opinion

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?

 

 

Best Friends

I recently saw a post on the lovely Leah’s blog, Just Me, Leah about her best friends and she has kindly allowed me to use her idea.

I’m not the type of person to have lots and lots of friends.  I have, and I prefer to have a few close friends.  I feel incredibly lucky that my really close friends are like family to me.  We are quite a diverse group and when you actually listen to how many differing opinions we have on everything, it is amazing that we all get on, but we fit together like a jigsaw puzzle.  None of us the same but fitting together perfectly.

My oldest friend is my best friend Vicky.  Being of the same name we always used to introduce ourselves as “Double Trouble”.  I have known Vicky since secondary school and she is the most unbelievable friend.

She is a rock when I need her, always supportive and knows me, inside and outside.   Vicky has known me through depressed times, slightly wild and crazy times, through reflection and into happiness.  All the while she has stood by my side, letting me carve my own path as she knows I prefer to do, cheering me on from the sideline and generally being bloody awesome.

My other best friend I met through Vicky’s husband, who is also brilliant.  Shona and I had an unusual start in that neither particularly liked the other on first meeting, or second meeting come to that!  It took a night out with mutual friends for us both to realise that in fact we actually could be really good friends. 

Shona is an incredibly loyal friend and someone who will always have your back.  The trait I love most in Shona that is that she shoots straight from the hip.  You will always get the honest opinion from her.  I rate honesty and loyalty very highly when it comes to friends and you couldn’t get someone more loyal or honest than Shona.

Here are a few photos of me and my lovely girls.

Midnight on New Year's Eve - Portugal

 

I'm a lucky girl!

 

My First Vlog

Hello all, posting my first ever vlog today.  Please excuse the scared rabbit in headlights look!

The vlog can be found on YouTube here!

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?

52 Lists - Week 5

This is a series of weekly posts. The idea does not belong to me and I have borrowed from Moorea Seal Becky Brown of Does My Blog Make me look Fat? is also doing these lists.
The idea is to post a different list each week to share with your readers and each other.

LIST WHAT YOU ARE GRATEFUL FOR

My family, and I include my friend family in that too.  I cherish the people that I love in my life.  They are my backbone when times are tough and people who will celebrate my happiness with me when times are great.

A special mention for my mum - for being just as silly as I am and being as much of a friend as my mother.

Another special mention for my best friend Vicky who has been there and stuck by my side through thick and thin.  She is amazing and I am very lucky to have a friend like her.

My determination - some call it being stubborn, but that determination is what helped me to quit smoking, stop me biting my nails and hold my ground in an opinion when I wanted to, but shouldn't, back down.

The psbloggers community - without whom I am not sure I would ever have found body confidence.

Twitter - yes, I did just say Twitter.  But joining Twitter helped me to find my voice and give me the confidence to really say what I thought.

Having a boss at work who I know has my back.  A very rare thing.  To also have a friend who shares my office who is just like me is another miracle.

For living in the UK.  We may moan about how badly off we are, but compared to others, we are so lucky.

Living in the 21st century as a woman.  Although we definately have a way to go in some areas, certainly when it comes to the issue of rape still being associated with how we dress by some, I am very grateful that I don't have to fight for the right to vote and that I am not a classed as a second class citizen.

My new philosophy of saying yes to everything.  It opens up a world of new possibilities.

My health.

A full time job that keeps the wolves at bay (just about!).

My new (much late in the game) lack of tolerance for all things negative.

Cocktails and Giggles

It’s my mum’s birthday in just over a week. 

My mum has never been for a night out in the city and has never had a cocktail (not counting the watered down kind that you get from dodgy Spanish bars).  Given that she is turning 73 this time (shush, don’t tell her I told you) I decided that it was high time to remedy that.

Now my mum and I are quite similar in that we are both daft as a brush, we giggle at the drop of a hat and we both enjoy good food, good times and a drop of something to put a sparkle in your eye.

I booked a night in the +Premier Inn in Manchester for the Bank Holiday Monday and arranged for us to attend Jamie Oliver’s Italian followed by a few cocktails to end the night with a bang.

There were many many giggles (including when my mum managed to break her glasses, forcing her to use one of them like a monocle in order to read the menu), the food at Jamie Oliver’s was amazing and we found one more thing in common that night, a love of a Cosmopolitan cocktail.

Here are some photos from the trip.

Top from +Next 

Travelling with no makeup on, a first!

Excited to start our night out

My gorgeous mum

Like mother like daughter

Cocktail fueled expression!

Dress from +Simply Be My mum's jacket is from George at Asda

Home after a brilliant night, and no hangovers!

Have you planned any trips recently?

Times Flies

Eighteen years ago today, whilst I was in the middle of my GCSE English exam, my sister was in labour with my niece Georgia.  Quite where the eighteen years has gone since I’m not quite sure.

She has grown up into a gorgeous, confident, talented girl and I’m very proud of her.

 

Tonight in celebration of her birthday all the family went out for a meal to a local Italian to celebrate.  

I was in a bit of a tizz before the meal as I only had twenty minutes to get ready after work and what exactly do you wear so you look too young to have an eighteen year old niece?

Bad blogger that I am, I haven't done any outfit posts for a couple of weeks now so thought I would take a few photographs tonight of what I wore.

I decided to go with my Joe Brown +Simply Be  dress and a shrug from Yours Clothing.  One bracelet is from Cyrus and the pearl bracelet is from +Dorothy Perkins.  The lovely bird necklace I bought from www.NotontheHighStreet.com

Have you had any special occasions lately?

Save UK Justice

This blog post is completely out of my normal sphere, but I feel that it is an important issue and one that hasn’t had as much publicity as it needs.

We all know by now that the NHS is being systematically destroyed by the Government.  Cuts are being made everywhere and with varying chunks of the NHS being sold off to the higher bidder, the NHS we all knew is no longer.

This matter has been well documented both in the press and on the various forms of social media.  What hasn’t had as much publicity is the cuts being made to the legal aid system for criminal matters and the ways in which the justice system is being changed.

While you think that these changes may not affect you, that you don’t intend to commit any crimes, remember that innocent people can be arrested just as easily as guilty ones.  Let it also be remembered that it the cuts are deemed “successful” by the Government, then the same system will be rolled out to family cases. 

At the moment if you have been arrested you are able choose a solicitor of your preference, be it someone who you already know and trust or someone that has been recommended to you in the knowledge that they will represent your interests fairly and provide you with the correct advice.

What the changes will institute is that upon arrest, if you are in need of legal aid, rather than having own solicitor attend you will provided with a duty solicitor who will also have any number of cases aside from yours to deal with.  Apart from the obvious delays in being seen that this will cause, with the duty solicitor having a constant and large stream of people to see, you are never going to get more than a few minutes with them.

If you are charged with the offence and subsequently bailed, this would ordinarily be the time, if you hadn’t got someone in mind already, that you would be instructing your own solicitor to assist you or asking for a recommendation of the best person in the area.  Once the changes have come into effect however, you will be forced to stay with the firm you were first allocated with, whether they specialise in that particular area of criminal law or not.  You will now be forced to stay with the firm you have been allotted, who have essentially just been chosen because they are the cheapest.  In my books, the cheapest is not usually the best quality. 

With the majority of people no longer being even eligible for legal aid, they will be forced to either represent themselves or face the legal bills themselves.

This will lead to many miscarriages of justice whereby you can’t afford to get legal advice and thereby you are unable to properly represent your case at Court which may well lead to a conviction through no fault of your own. 

Solicitors who you might previously have gotten some free advice from may no longer be open, as the changes with the legal aid, along with the new rules in civil litigation have forced many firms into closing and putting their employees out of work.
 

 

Please sign the Save UK Justice Epetition