Birthday girl outfit

Hello all,

A couple of weeks ago it was my birthday. I had big plans to post photos of my day out, but leaving the camera at home kind of put paid to that - d'oh!!!

Anyway, regardless, I had a great day. Topped off by a fab meal at our local Chiquitos - a Mexican restaurant and bar. I love spicey food and one thing I really liked about Chiquitos was their choice of mocktails - non-alcholic cocktails. perfect for the drivers and non-drinkers amongst us. Without said camera - you'll have to imagine how it looked, but the Yucatan Breeze was gorgeous. It had fresh passion fruit, pineapple, orange and fresh lime juice and a wedge of passion fruit on the side - yum!

I tried to look suitably festive, so wore this fab dress from Asda. I bought it in the spring and sadly it's not in stock anymore (I think I even saw it in the recent sale too). I thought it was a bargain at £12 and had to size down to a 20 - so double yay! The day itself was a weather disaster so out came the leggings.



Dress - Asda, size 20
Leggings - Primark, size 20
Shoes - Tesco

 
I love painted nails, but never seem to be able to get past the front door without chipping them. So nail wraps are a godsend for me. These are from Avon and were on special offer for £4. I normally get to do at least 2 or 3 sets per pack depending on the pattern and length of my nails. I love the pink animal print, but these were the first set I've had that just didn't last. Normally I can get 3 or more days wear from a set, but these were peeling by the end of the evening. Hopefully it was just me and I put them on in too much of a rush!!

I'm realising that I should have edited out all the mess in the main photo - oops!

Thanks for reading

Cathy
xx

Footie OOTD - love it or loath it?

Hi everyone,

Well, it's here. Whether you like it or not, the next few weeks will be full of news of men chasing a small ball and nations crying over broken dreams.

But...at the moment - all is good here. England haven't yet played (at the time of writing) so technically, we haven't been beaten yet....

And yep, I'm afraid I love the whole event. I like football anyway. I know enough about it to follow the various leagues and know what's happening and I can even understand the off-side rule. But then I like most sports and bloke orientated activities. I guess that maybe stems from the fact that a lot of my friends and work colleagues over the years have been men.

So in the spirit of the whole event...here's my outfit for today. And some of you may notice another theme in these pictures...Smurfs!

 

 

 

These t-shirts are from George at Asda and are from the mens dept. The XL fits me fine and I'm normally a 20/22. I always find I have to size up a bit in mens t-shirts to get them round my hips and butt.

 

But how fab are they? They makes me smile and combines 2 things I love - Smurfs and sport.

 

If you don't like the World Cup then I hope you get to do some fun things for you and can ignore the rest of us whittering on!

 

Thanks for reading

 

Cathy

xx

 

 

 



Devon delights

Hello all!

I can't quite believe it's the second week of June already - where did May go??

I've been very lax with writing anything down. Lots of photos and ideas - just no organisation. Bad me :-( It's been a weird few months with friends in hospital, my birthday and a holiday. So let's start with something lovely and a trip we took to Devon.

The West Country is really one of my most favourite places in the world. I'm especially fond of the area around Okehampton and can see a day in the future where I'm living in a Devon cottage surrounded by animals (my other dreams feature Las Vegas - very different!!). We're lucky enough to have family with a holiday home near to Okehampton so it's a beautiful retreat from the mad world

Lots of piccies, but these sum up the holiday for me. The first day we were there the sun shone on us and we ended up very pink (serves me right I guess for leaving suntan lotion at home!). I just think this photo looks like a hot shimmery afternoon

I did start the day off by wearing a fab lace top over this vest, but that was soon discarded - too hot!! So this was my cool and collected look to start the day...

Skirt - Joe Browns @ Simply Be (old - size 20)

Top - Marks and Spencer (old- size 20)

Shoes - Clarks (old) (v.comfy!!)

Glasses - Primark

And I ended up like this...but who cares! It's a Dartmoor pony!

The next few days took a turn for the worst - so a perfect opportunity to unleash my inner geek! The Classic Air Force Museum at Newquay is a perfect place for a wet day.

It even stopped raining - briefly...

All aboard a VC10

Then finally at the end of the week the sun was back! So off we hoped to Exeter for a bit of antique hunting down on the Quay and a visit to the Cathedral. Before we went, a bit of posing :-)

 Top and Jeans - Marks and Spencer (old - size 20 )
Shoes - Sainsburys

I have no idea what I'm doing here - but I saw no ships!

Inside the Cathedral was beautiful. I'm not a very religious person to be honest but I do love a mooch around a church.

And finally, one of the views we woke up to each morning - I wish I was still there now!

Thanks for reading

Cathy xx

OOTD - party night

Hello there,

It's taken me a few days (ie a week) to get this post organised so apologies! I'm also going to try to make my blog a bit more user-friendly over the Bank Holiday weekend (or at least easier to navigate hopefully).

Last weekend I had an invite to a 40th birthday party. Given the choice of a party and the chance to dress up on a spring evening - didn't need to ask me twice!

I seem to have a fair few dresses lurking in my wardrobe at the moment (do they multiply when I'm not looking?) but I knew straight away which one I wanted to wear. I bought this from Simply Be a while back and I'm sure I've spotted it in a recent sale.

Dress - Simply Be (18)
Tights - Marks and Spencer (XL)

Shoes - Marks and Spencer (very very old!)

Handbag - Dooney and Bourke (old)

 

 

Excuse the number of photos! I just fell in love with this dress the minute I saw it. I normally take a 22 in dress, but this is an 18! I felt comfortable all evening and not too hot or cold. The fabric is like a jersey material which means there's plenty of movement, but very very importantly for me, it doesn't crease! I have a real hatred of ironing and I'll send things straight back if I think they're going to look creased. My iron is currently being used as a door stop! Plus it sits just on the knee, I still can't cope with anything much shorter, but I am trying!

 

The shoulders were lace panels which added a little bit of oomph (can't think how else to say it). Excuse the shot of the back of my head...!

 

 

 

I did feel a bit bare to start with so slipped on a lovely short cardigan that I also bought at the same time from Simply Be (size 20). When I ordered it, I did wonder where I'd ever wear it. Well, I reckon lots of places! It's light and comfy and small enough to fit into a bag if you get too hot (which I did within 5 minutes of arriving). I'm tempted now to get it in some pastel colours for summer.

 

 

 

 Excuse the rabbit in headlights look! I think I was conscious of the neighbour wondering what I was doing :-) .

 

To finish off, I added my all time favourite bag and jacket. The jacket is from F&F at Tesco last year (size 22) and the bag is a really golden oldie from a trip to Palm Springs a few years back. It's a Dooney and Bourke bag and at the time was a real treat to myself. It gets dragged out for high days and holidays and hopefull will last for ever.

 

 

 

I even went a bit mad and attempted a bit of make-up. But that's a post for another day.

 

Thanks for reading!

 

Cathy

xx