Southern Yacht

My little take on plus size fashion, life, travel and smurfs

Saturday 30 July 2016

Christmas in July with M&Co

Hello there,

Yes, I mentioned the 'C' word - Christmas! It may feel like a lifetime away, but trust me, it will come running up and be all over you before you know it. So when the lovely people at M&Co invited me to come along and celebrate Christmas in July - I jumped at the opportunity.



The day was was held at The Arch Hotel in London (my goodness, this was a lovely hotel, I could quite easily have spent the rest of the day relaxing there, but I think they might have noticed....).





Now, I have to admit, I have a couple of confessions. First up, I really did not realise just how amazing M&Co's evening wear was. For someone who loves glitter, sparkle and lace, the Christmas range was perfect. Their Plus range also goes up to a size 30 (now that makes a nice change doesn't it?).


Pleats! Pleated skirts and even pleated trousers - which I was kind of fascinated by. 


My second confession? I didn't appreciate how much homeware M&Co did. There's some gorgeous bits here which would look right at home in my house.





Add in children's wear and accessories - then you're pretty much covered for Christmas. I can think of someone who'd be perfect for these!






I even managed to take a quick OOTD pic.


I love Christmas - anyone who knows me will agree on that. So to celebrate Christmas in July makes me very happy.

A big thank you to M&Co for the invite - I really did have a lovely day!

Thanks for reading

Cathy
xx

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Tuesday 26 July 2016

Days out - Uppark House and Garden

Hello there,

Back in the dim and distant past, I made a list of list of goals and aims for 2016 (I know - madness). One such goal was to visit more of the amazing places that are on our doorstep. It's so easy to plan visits to beautiful places while you're away on holiday while forgetting about the little gems right here at home.

One such gem is Uppark House and Gardens. This is a National Trust 17th century country house and garden near Petersfield.  Despite only being about 40 minutes away, it's somewhere I've never visited. You could say it falls into the 'we must go there one day' category as you drive past on the way to somewhere else. Well not this time. Armed with multiple cameras, good weather and a Mother with a birthday that needed celebrating we set off to explore.




As with any good day out,  we started the day with a cake and a cuppa. We arrived before the main part of the house opened so had plenty of time to sit and admire this view over the South Downs.




From here you could see the channel, it was quite surreal sat drinking tea while watching the cross channel ferries and other shipping pass on by!

The servants quarters and tunnels opened before the house, so we set about exploring them - carefully - those stairs were slippery!



One of the reasons Uppark House is so well known is because of the devastating fire of 1989 which damaged so much of the main building. The amount of work to repair the house is incredible, looking at the before and after photos around the house, it's hard to believe it's the same house. 



Then time for another cuppa (it had to be done, how lovely is this tearoom?)



The grounds were beautiful, with guided tours available if you like that sort of thing. Personally, we just preferred to amble around, discover hidden corners and generally be silly.



We had such a lovely day here. Although National Trust properties can be expensive, you're pretty much guaranteed well kept gardens to roam around and beautiful properties to explore. 

It's kick started my aim to visit more of the local gems here in the south so keep a watch for more days out and silly poses!

Thanks for reading

Cathy
xx





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Friday 15 July 2016

Plus40Fabulous - holidays


Hello everyone


It's that time of month again! As you might have seen on Facebook, myself and the lovely Sarah from Plus Size and Proud are helping out with the running of this group for a while to give the creators Leah and Mookie a bit of break. You can keep up to date with what's happening by checking out the Facebook Group Plus 40 Fabulous

The theme for this month is holidays (rather optimistically thought up by me whilst sheltering from the British weather). Now not everyone has a holiday booked and some may have even had their holiday already (you lucky things) so this post is looking more at memorable holidays, either recent or from your childhood. Maybe a holiday where you were brave enough to wear shorts and a swim suit for the first time!

For me, I've picked a holiday from a couple of years ago when we went to Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands.



Now we're not really beach holiday people, we prefer to be out and about and doing stuff. So quite why we booked a last minute beach holiday was anyone's guess! But we did - and we loved it. And, I wore shorts, sleeveless tops and short skirts and didn't think twice of it. I'd been blogging for about 18 months at this point and the extra confidence it gives you is amazing.

(and yes, there was a pineapple theme with my tops)




I even went swimming (I use the word loosely - I can't actually swim so it was just a lot of splashing).



I remember someone saying that the world won't stop if you go bare armed or wear shorts and I love that phrase. It really is true. No-one gave me a second glance and if they did, I was too busy having a good time to notice. Esp here in our favourite restaurant (take me back there now someone please......)



As I'm writing this, I'm thinking of either a) getting a jumper or b) putting the heating on. So this is a lovely look back on a fabulous holiday and a reminder that last minute plans can work and that good weather does exist!

Don't forget to check out #Plus40Fabulous, our Facebook and Instagram pages and of course the other lovely ladies taking part.

Christy: http://www.sprintingwithscissors.blogspot.co.uk/
Daisy: http://daisysays.co.uk/
Kaye: http://www.polishedcurves.com/
Leah: http://www.justmeleah.co.uk
Lisa: http://www.kitandkoboodle75.blogspot.co.uk/
Marged: http://www.divadellecurve.com/
Mookie: http://www.mookieslife.com/
Sarah: http://www.plussizeproud.co.uk
Steph: http://misskittenheel.com/
Tanya: http://www.secretplussizegoddess.com/
Vicky: http://www.therandomnessoftwee.blogspot.co.uk
Yvonne: http://woosangwashere.blogspot.co.uk/

Thanks for reading

Cathy
xx
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Monday 4 July 2016

Empties and favourites - May & June

Hello there,

It only feels like 5 minutes since I last did an empties post, the year is going by far too quickly for my liking.

This time around, I've done a mixture of favourites and empties - purely because the empties were pretty much the same as before!

So to start, a couple of bits from Avon. It feels like Avon has come back into fashion over the last few years. Their skincare ranges are much improved and you can't beat their makeup and nail varnish for value and choice.

Excuse the shape of this bottle, I gave it a good old squeeze to get the last out before realising I needed to photograph it - oops. This was a yoghurt body shake moisturiser with wild berries and pomegranate. It smelt amazing, but was very very runny. Now I don't mind that normally, but this did take a while to soak in, so not much good if you're a hurry. Would I repurchase? Possibly, the scent really was gorgeous and just like a yoghurt.


A classic Avon shower gel. Now I stopped using these for a while as they left me feeling quite dry afterwards, but I was tempted by the scent of this one - Papaya and Peach. Oh my goodness, I really don't care how dry this makes me feel, it smells like a fresh fruit smoothie and the colour is so rich and summery. It's definitely a shower gel to make you feel awake in the morning.


Following on the fruit theme, this is another classic shower gel from NSPA at Asda - their apple scent. There's not much I can add to this except to say it doesn't leave my skin dry and the other half loves the apple smell too, so a win win there.


The final shower gel is from Soap and Glory and was part of their box set that comes out every Christmas. I was a bit disappointed by this (which is a first for me with S&G). It was nice, but just that. Not amazing or memorable. Even now, I can't remember how it smells. So it will be a nice to use, but not a repurchase.


It wouldn't be a favourites or empties post without a couple of shampoos as I continue my search for the perfect combination for my hair. These are my current favourites, the Argan Smooth range from Creightons (available at Tesco). Anything with oil is working well for me and these are cheap and cheerful too. One thing though I've noticed about these is the smell, which you're either going to love or hate. To me, it's slightly reminiscent of a Britney Spears perfume - so I love it!!


A bargain buy from Primark now. I don't often wear foundation but when I do, I hate that matte, flat look you can get. So when I saw this dewy look foundation for about £3 I was tempted. It even has a cute concealer in the lid with a teeny tiny mirror. It's now become my absolute favourite. I only use a little so I never aim for full coverage, but it's just enough to even out skin tone while feeling natural. A real bargain! The concealer is pretty good too.



Finally, June was my birthday month and I was pretty spoiled. These two were definitely very special and made me feel very lucky.




So that was some of my favourites and empties from the last couple of months. Hope you enjoyed this and it's given you some ideas of something new to try.

Thanks for reading

Cathy
xx

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Saturday 2 July 2016

An evening with HomeSense UK

Hello there,

The lovely people at HomeSense UK recently invited Southampton Bloggers along for an evening at their Hedge End store.



Now this store opened last year, and to be honest, it's bad news for my bank balance! It is literally minutes away from where I live and sells the most amazing range of eclectic homeware at up to 60% less than the RRP. I don't think it's possible to go in and not find something you love and didn't know you needed (yes, the lace covered rhino head was indeed very tempting - you'll see more of that later).

After being greeted with a glass of something sparkly, a tempting choice of nibbles and a giftcard*, we were let loose with our Southampton Loves luggage tags.



These are a few of the things that caught my eye, I've narrowed it down otherwise this would be one very very long blog post!








One thing that HomeSense is amazing for is stationery. Their choice of notebooks and journals is so very tempting. If I didn't have a library of notebooks already - these three could easily have come home with me.


One of these two footstools came home with me, the velvet brocade one captured my heart and currently has pride of place in our front room. Even the other half seemed impressed, so it's definitely a winner!


I also managed to get in an outfit pic (top - George at Asda, Jeans - M&S, shoes - Primark)


I had a really great time, I met some local bloggers for the first time (and hopefully not the last), I spent the evening browsing round one of my favourite shops and I came home with a beautiful piece of furniture. A big thank you to Alice from Southampton Bloggers for organising and HomeSense for hosting the evening.

Oh - and the lace covered rhino head?


I love him! Where on earth I'd ever put him, I don't know, but just look at those ears...

Thanks for reading

Cathy
xx
*denotes gifted item, all opinions, reviews etc are my own








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