Saved by the hearty socks.

Bit of a public service type announcement for you before this one kicks off - this is not a particularly exciting outfit. There are elements of the enjoyable in there but, overall, it's more of a 'I can't go out naked, pass me the clothes' sort of an ensemble. I'm really selling it aren't I? However, there are shoes involved in the look that haven't been previously documented and, on account of my 'wear all my shoes in a year' challenge, I feel it would be rude not to let these little guys get their 15 seconds of fame...

They're shoe #37 and they're schuh Cherie Ballerina. They're still online (yes, for once I'm not wearing something I got ages ago!) and, I think, a bit of a bargain at £19.99. And while they may not be the most exciting and glamorous shoes ever to have lived, they're shiny and leopardy and have a nice little bow on them. Ordinarily, I am NOT a fan of leopard satin shoes (they're for hookers, innit?) but on a flat shoe it's kinda cute. Plus they didn't take the skin off my ankles/dig into the front of my feet/hurt me in any other way - always a winner.

Anyway, here's the whole shebang:

Top and jeans (I almost never wear jeans now. I used to almost never not wear jeans): New Look

Cardi - either my Topshop or Primark one...

Belt - H&M I think. You can't really see (and I could not get a decent picture) but it's white with tiny gold palm trees on it. I enjoy a good palm tree. Ideally I'd enjoy it from underneath, with a cocktail in my hand. The cocktail will be in a coconut shell. There will be a good looking man fanning me with an enormous leaf. Possibly Fabrizio from the Strokes. Definitely Fabrizio.

Another dodgy picture alert! It's just so you can actually see the cute ruffled front. It's pretty sweet (I like dots and ruffles so combining them is good) and the little buttons are like flowers too - girlie-licious.

Whilst the shoes haven't previously featured on the blog, the socks have. They're fame whores. They're like Jordan without the orange, Peter Andre without Jordan, Kerry Katona without the drugs (or prawn ring) or anyone off the Hills without the inane 'issues'. Only far prettier. They're from ASOS.

Ooh, shiny lining! Let's hope Mr Scribbler doesn't notice that I've been shooting shoes on the bed sheets... 

I'm goan catch me a bear - aar!!

It's the furry hat and checked shirt, innit. Something about them says that I'm gonna go catch a bear or wrestle a squirrel or something. My friend, after seeing my checked shirt on t'blog before, had a dream that I told her I only bought a checked shirt to try to bag a King of Leon (none in particular, just A King of Leon). Now, to my mind, this seems like a perfectly good reason to buy a checked shirt and I feel that if sales assistants used that line, more checked shirts would be sold the world over. However, I simply bought mine because a) I like it and, b) I'm apparently regressing back to my checked shirt and leggings wearing 14 year old self. These days I wear a dress too though as I no longer have my 14 year old self's thighs. Admittedly they were still on the ample side back then. Anyway, here's the bear catching look in all it's glory:

As you can see, there's also a definite bag lady vibe going down here too (a multi-faceted look, this one. Bag lady, bear hunter and, I'm putting it out there, I reckon I could walk onto your average trailer park and not an eyelid would be batted.). It's because it's been so FREAKIN' cold that I've needed the layerage.

T-shirt and (faux fur) hat: Primark

Denim dress: New Look

Shirt: H&M

Cardi: Toppers or Primark

Leggings: Uniqlo

Shoes: Topshop

Necklace: Lady Luck Rules OK

In the word of Chandler Bing, "Could I be wearing any more clothes?!"

Shoes # 36 are, as above, from Topshop. From about 3 years ago when their shoes suddenly got awesome but before they became almost entirely unaffordable. I feel head over heels (actually, I really have fallen off these shoes too and I did myself a proper ankle mischief. I had to cancel the gym and everyfink. Satan's minions at work.) in love with them on first sight. The grainy cream leather, the chunky wooden heel, the gorgeous frill up the front, the girlie styling. They're just dreamy. Dream-a-licious!

Take it to the max(i)

Yay! I'm back after my birthday hiatus. And, no, I'm not yet 30.  And I'm not well enough organised to have planned scheduled posts or anything while I was busy so, post last post, time simply ran away ahead of me and I'm just finding the time to blog now. However, I hope you'll agree this one was worth waiting for. Not because I've suddenly started taking amazing quality pictures. Or because this post is gonna be super funny. Or even because I wore the awesome giant leopard print wedges (though I do think you should spare a mo' to revel in their greatness). No, this post was worth the wait because I finally wore the gorgeous electric blue maxi dress I bought months ago from Miss Kitty Litter Vintage (which sadly closed down just after I bought the dress - I'm fairly sure it had nothing to do with me but who can ever really be certain?)

I wore it for my birthday night out to Electric Circus in Edinburgh. You walk in and you see a bar with some seating and a wee dance floor - it looks alright and on the cool side. However, the hidden cheesy genius of Electric Circus lies along the corridor off the dance floor. Seven rooms. Seven private karaoke rooms of varying sizes for between 4 and 50 people. Oh yes. I'm one of those losers who cannot help themselves when the karaoke cracks out and who gets more and more carried away and excited as the evening wears on. Therefore, this place was perfect for my wee party and, once you stopped smelling the sick-masked-with-bleach (mmm!) in the room, it was such fun! You program in the songs you want to sing and away you go. You even get waitress service to your room so you don't waste any singing/laughing time going to the bar. It's such fun! Plus after we finished with our room they had a wee indie nightclub going which suited me just fine.

Would you believe, this picture is from the END of the night and, if I do say so myself, I reckon I look in not bad nick, given the vigorous sweaty dancing I did and the fact that we walked most of the way home in the pissing rain (good old Scotland living right up to its weather stereotype).

Dress: Miss Kitty Litter Vintage, £12.50

Wedges: 20-ish quid from a saucy sounding shop on eBay

Belt: French Connection sale

Necklace: Lady Luck Rules OK

I'd decided the dress should be styled up in a Studio 54-esque disco style on account of the karaoke partying, which is why I went for the sparkly belt and wedges. There are a few reasons why I love this dress so much. I absolutely adore the colour. It's good for dressing up but I reckon it'll be cute with wooden/tan sandals and a tan belt in summer too. It was £12.50 and when it arrived it fit perfectly. How often does that happen when you buy something that's a good price and vaguely sized from a vintage site you've previously never heard of?! Almost never - that's how often. I reckon we all have plenty crappy eBay purchases to back that up. Plus, it's one of those items that, when you put it on, it's like it was made for you and it makes you feel awesome. And you gotta love a dress with that kind of power, right? I even looked graceful in it when I fell off my wedges on the dance floor (well I did in my head at least. In the same way that, dah-dah, dah-dah, I'm the greatest dancer). If you're gonna fall though, off your wedges on the dance floor seems to me to be a good way to do it. I must start being careful - I'm going to do myself a mischief with all this shoe falling off!

Here's the stag ring I wore. My very kind friend Lynsey, knowing my recent obsession with animal rings got me a set that included this little guy, a squirrel and a fox. Between them and my bunny ring, I'm one finger (or a thumb) away from a hand forest!

 

 

Before you go, I thought it seemed only fair, as blog pics are all too often all nice and posed, to share a pic of me maintaining my dignity while belting out a bit of Whitters. The moment was almost certainly topped by my rendition of the Jay Z section of Crazy in Love (seriously - that little Cher on X-Factor ain't got nuffink on my mad rapping skillz) but who can resist a bit of karaoke Whitney?

 

There must be an angel...(or two, or three)

I have a confession. Whilst I love all the fashion weeks and I LOVE couture fashion week (it's so costume and so make believe and there's just something wonderful about that), one of my absolute favourite shows is...the Victoria's Secret show!! Does that make me a pervy teenage boy!? I love that it's not too serious and that it's so colourful and sexy and fun! What's wrong with that? I also love that I can happily look at it on my lunch break at work, where if the boys did (and they want to. Oh, they want to), they'd get a slap. Tee, hee!

This year, in a genius masterstroke, my lady crush Katy Perry, current queen of the rubber dress who somehow pulls off Barbie fashion and still looks good, played the show/party. She has the same fluffy and girlie vibe as Victoria's Secret (whose underwear I actually think is a bit over priced and usually on the crap side - it really is just the show I love!) and her shiny pop (which I can take or leave a lot of the time. I'm not kidding - this is all about the aesthetic for me) just feels perfect for the occasion. Anyway, I'm not gonna do too much more chattering - this one really is just about looking at ladies in not many clothes - haha! But, the clothes they do have on feature rubber and feathers and basket and sparkles and a million other embellishments. Oh, and wings. Gotta love wings.

Yes, the skirt is minorly dodgy but Katy gets away with it! And don't even THINK about stepping on her blue suede shoes.

Hooker boots...give me back my blue suede shoes!

No-one can pull off a crinkly lilac crotch. Sorry K. Good wiggly head piece though.

I want peacock wings and black feathered ass curtains! And Karolina Kurkova's body.

Or a blue 'splash' backing board!

An outfit made of basket! Why don't we see this used more in fashion?!

Wooly arms and legs and everything else on display. Taste the rainbow of the flavours! Plus, perspex-a-licious!

 

Nice, er, wings...

Awesome wings!

Saddle up cowgirl! Farmhand? Whatever.

This one's sugar sweet. I'd wear that jacket!

Is it me or does Lily Donaldson not pull off smiling? Cos that's what we're looking at.

More peacock mega action!

This one's so good it deserves a close up too. Wings made of bubbles!! Poufy dress! Polka Dots! Exclamation marks!

You could kill/collect people with those wings. Awesome.

Hope you enjoyed the frothy fun. I'm off for a frothy bubble bath full of Lush goodies now!

We'll have a yabadabadoo time!

This is one of the those blog posts where I show you something I bought. But this wasn't just any old purchase, oh no. These are Wilma. They're from Aussie brand Senso via US website Solestruck. Uh-huh - serious international commitment to the purchase.

Although eventually purchased slightly on a whim (maybe more an impulse), I'd been coveting these boots for ages. I first blogged about them in straight up leopard print back in July when they were only my 9th ever blog post (my first few posts were genuinely just shite as I figured out what was even gonna go on this thing!). The pink version came to my attention in September and it's fair to say an obsession developed from there. They were out of stock in my size and I signed up to get an email alert when they were back. I got my alert and by the time I looked there were only 3 sizes left including mine so I took it as a sign, did a little excited dance, whipped out the credit card, bish, bash, zoom across the Atlantic, customs charges ahoy and they were mine! Kids, credit cards are NOT cool. Don't use them. For your peace of mind I'd like to inform you I shall be paying off the amount in full before the interest kicks in. Don't be a credit card sucka! Foo!

I enjoy Solestruck with their mantra to 'Rid the world of ugly shoes one pair at a time'. Plus their delivery boxes have quirky little slogans and stuff on them and that kind of thing just really appeals to me. I enjoy the detail. As far as Senso go, I don't know much about them although I'm sure I'll read up one day. However, they do fierce-ass kick-ass shoes and use freaky bunny heads in their ads.

And half naked dudes:

 

 

Really, they could use anything in their ads though, it's all about the shoes for me!

 

So why my excitement? OK, leopard print goes without saying by now, doesn't it? Here's the full list of awesomeness:

• Bumper chunky HIGH heel (6 inches fact fans)
• Whopping great platform
• Eye bejazzling pinkness - I'm not sure the pictures show it to its best advantage but they are seriously pink - Barbie ain't got nuffink on these bitches
• Foxy shoe boot shape with nice wide ankle hole
• Nutty almond shaped toe

• They make your feet look neat and that's always a bonus for my size 7 hooves
• They're hairy!! I've developed a bit of a thing for hairy shoes - I just want to stroke them. Luckily I'm pretty bendy so even if I'm out and about I can just double over and have a feel.
• They have a beautiful and luxurious leather sole. Mind you, for the price, I was kinda hoping for diamonds on the soles of my shoes. A wuh, a wuh! (Paul Simon - Google him. Or don't. Whatever)

Here they are on a fez. No, there's no reason, it was just there. It came from a wee shop in Turkey and I couldn't resist it. I'm adamant that myself or Mr Scribbler will one day go to a fancy dress party as a monkey in a fez.

Humpty Dumpty

Now I may not, a la Mr Dumpty, have sat on a wall on Friday night but my lord did I have a big fall. Yes I toppled in a not particularly Naomi Campbell-esque style from the top of shoes #35. Red or Dead ones from schuh. Another cheeky wee sale bargain too! Silver lining and all that...

Look how high they are! Yes it wasn't a small fall, it was spectacular...and their lining isn't silver, it's pink. Lookee!

 

 

So what was it that caused the aforementioned perilous fall? Well, the wine may not have helped. BUT I hadn't actually had that much so I'm dismissing it. No, to my mind it was the lethal combination of running for a bus in the dark, cobblestones and drizzle. And lo and behold and drizzle my nizzle, lethally combine they did, and I plunged elbow first (and have the bruises to show for it) into the gutter. The wet puddly gutter. (It could have been worse - I stood in poo the next day). Oh mortification. And as if to make it worse, the bus I was running for drove past me while I flew nimbly into the gutter, pulled in at the bus stop, even though no-one was getting off or on, waited until I got to the stop and then drove off while I was alongside it! What a bastard! Pardon my language. Seriously though, he was a bigger shit than the one I stood in.

Look at the scratches on my poor shoes. Thankfully they wiped down alright. I love these shoes. I imagine Abba might have worn them if they (Abba) were chicer. They're a kind of watered down gold metallic leather, with a nice solid platform and a sturdy heel (that I so shouldn't have been able to fall off! I'm usually alright on a heel!). Here's what I wore them with:

 

 

I'm hiding here because I'm still pissed off about the bus at this point.

 

Socks: Urban Outfitter £8

Belt: H&M

Dress (which I've fallen a bit in love with - who doesn't appreciate a matching collar and cuffs?): Urban Outfitter £22

 

And that's my tale of woe over ;-)

Lady Luck Rules OK. OK!?

Yay! The sun shone today and it didn't rain at all! (well, it's not yet 6pm so there's still time) And I headed up town for a talk by Lady Luck Rules OK's Leona Baker at the Hannah Zakari shop on Candlemaker Row. 

For such an exciting event, only gold lurex, leopard print and a silly 'ooh' face would possibly doodle-doo. Plus, holy-mary-mutha-of-tha-baby-jebus it's got freakin' cold of late and so today was finally the day that I re-busted out my ye-olde-faithful frilly bosom-ed knitted gold lurex dress. Much like leopard print, I believe gold lurex to be a staple wardrobe neutral and this dress is warm, comfy, sparkly and hides absolutely every degree of bloating. Plus, it has ruffles! If anyone knows anyone out there who has the black version and wants shot of it, I'll buy it (it's from H&M)! For anyone who hasn't had them rammed down their throat already (sorry), the boots are Clarks from schuh.

So, back to the day's events! For anyone who didn't come across Lady Luck Rules OK while it was still going, firstly, you can read about the company here, secondly, sad times for you! The brand brought us some of the cutest and kookiest pieces of the, er, noughties (sorry, forgive my momentary twat-sounding-ness there - I hate the phrase noughties.) and some of my absolute favourite pieces of jewellery came from the site. In fact, I'm geeked up enough that I got married in an awesome personalised LLROK necklace, so there's a bit of smooshy sentimental value in the brand for me too. Aw! (Brace yourselves, you're about to get a wee swatch [that's a Scottish word for 'look' BTW. As in "Geez a swatch ae yer new dress" which means "Ooh, may I please have a look at your new dress? Splendid"] of Mr Scribbler)

Picture by Nick Mailer www.fotonick.co.uk

Ooh, look at the pretty necklace!

Sadly, having decided she wasn't feeling the love for her subject anymore, Leona (who started the LLROK after success selling re-worked vintage pieces at London's Portobello market and, amazingly, didn't have a design, jewellery or business background pre market selling.) made the brave decision, late in 2009, to bring Lady Luck Rules OK to an end (it closed up after Valentine's day 2010). Here's a coupla sheets of some of their early designs:

Forgive the picture quality. Being the toppermost awesome blogger amateur that I am my camera battery was dead this morning so the pics are from my phone. Hopefully you get the gist of their early designs, which were bold and colourful and, at the risk of sounding twee, just a bit 'different' from other things out there at the time. Something I think remained true of the brand throughout it's time, in spite of the imitators.

So, being the apparent LLROK geek that I am, when I heard about Leona's talks I decided to go along for a few reasons. Firstly, out of sheer nosiness! I was curious to know what went into one of my favourite brands - more about how it came about, how it grew and why it ended. Secondly, for inspiration. Like many people, the idea of building a business by myself for myself has always appealed - I'm, er, just waiting for the right inspiration to strike. Hmm - we'll see. But I figured the talk really might throw up some valuable info and it did - there were loads of helpful tips and tidbits (what Leona feels she did right and wrong, advice on copyright and legals, trade fairs, PR and much more) in there for anyone looking to start up any kind of business, not just something craft based. Thirdly, I've dabbled in the odd crafty thing here and there (just for myself and friends) and I was really curious to understand a bit more of the 'making' side of the business and that aspect of the talk was fantastically interesting. I'm not gonna give away all the tips and secrets but it was really amazing to hear about how the various items were sourced and made and it was a great reminder that, in business, you can never overestimate the value of a bit of lateral thinking! Another thing I really took from today was a sense of possibility. The fact that Leona developed such a successful business without having any kind of background in the field just goes to show that with a bit of determination and imagination, you can do whatever you want. Unless you're a tone deaf weirdy type and your ambition is to win the X Factor. Reality check peeps.

Here's a wee bit more of the back-catalogue (the owl is one of my absolute favourite pieces!) and, excitingly, a picture of our hands making our own necklaces! Ooh!

And the finished article:

So all that remains to be said is that today was well worthwhile - interesting, entertaining and really, really informative too. I'm just excited to see what Leona does next. Whatever it is, I don't doubt she'll make a success of it.