louboutin to work

Those Louboutin shoe boots I bought? I wore them. Well, what a waste not to, eh? Being a little on the plain side, I figured I should wear them with something interesting. Cue, my vintage Michel Adams jumper dress. I bloody love this dress and it is PERFECT for post festive belly hiding!

The boots are reasonably comfy for their height and slim heel. And, speaking of said heel, I managed not to snap my ankle in them though, I'm not gonna lie, I'm out of practise on the skinny, skinny heels so it took effort and there were a few wobbles! It's a wee bit sad that the red sole is messed up at the ball now but it would definitely be sadder if they went unworn and had no stories to tell. So now they can tell the story of "We went to work and worked". A life well lived ;-) Maybe their next adventure will be more interesting...

Miista: cheaper with a tweet

I love shoes. And I love a shoe bargain. So when I read about Miista's Cheaper with a Tweet campaign, it sounded too good to be true. I'd never heard of Miista before this campaign - you can read about them here. They have a slightly Jeffrey Campbell-esque vibe to them: tough styling (buckles, zips, hardware, chunky heels, dark colours) and very 'blogger'.

Cheaper with a Tweet kind of did what it said on the tin: you tweeted about one of their shoes and that shoe came down in price. By how much depended on your Klout score (though goodness knows those things seem to fluctuate willy nilly for no discernible reason). So, in theory, the more socially influential you are, the more you have the ability to lower the price by. The more people that tweet about a style, the cheaper it gradually gets and you can jump in and buy at any point. So far, so social media friendly and story worthy and I've seen it talked about on loads of sites in the last few days.

It all begins to get a wee bit lengthy here:

Initially, as I touched upon, I thought that the premise might be too good to be true. Turns out it wasn't and I got their £175 Andee boot for a quid. Yup, £1. One pound. Including delivery. I fully expected them not to turn up or for the sale to be cancelled but the boots arrived today! Here they are on some fake grass. Why? Why not people, why not?

I'm dead excited it worked so well for me, the boots look good, feel quality and, added bonus, they fit too!

But how did the campaign work? I'd have though something with such a great hook would go viral very quickly (especially on Twitter) and that the shoes would all be slashed in price and snapped up! But, five days after I ordered there are still shoes sitting there, some with barely any tweets against them, which suggests the Twitter response maybe wasn't as hoped. That could be lack of brand recognition or maybe the tweets didn't clearly enough outline the idea. That said, the fact that loads of sites picked up the story and the fact that I'm sitting writing about it now suggests it has value as a story. Though that may be down to the fact that I follow a bunch of folk who report on stuff like this, increasing the likelihood of me hearing about it, in comparison to your average Twitter user and fashion lover. I'd be curious to hear what you think!

It looks like Miista are planning to utilise the Blogosphere going forward which feels like a pretty nice move. This came in my shoe box.

I might give it a bash...you've got til the 13th to bag your bargain.

The Cambridge Satchel: a British classic in PINK

When I think of classic British brands and heritage, folk like Clarks Originals, Dr Martens, Burberry etc spring to mind. Another name I'd definitely pop in there is the Cambridge Satchel Company: purveyors of gorgeous quality leather satchels. I've always kept an eye out for a classic satchel but, being a bit cheap (me), I'd never properly checked out Cambridge, assuming they'd be beyond my budget and that, for the cost of the bag, I probably could have bought a cheaper bag PLUS a pair of shoes. And we all know how I feel about shoes. Plus, I'm just not a bag girl. I appreciate a beautiful leather bag and the classicism and timelessness of, say, a Mulberry Alexa or a Chanel 2.55 but, if it ever came down to it, I know shoes and clothes would win over a bag almost every time. However, today I was in Urban Outfitters and look what I found:

A bright pink Cambridge Satchel! Yes, I'm one of those fools who prefers something erring on the side of ridiculous - that likely goes with not much - to a classic tan or black that will last forever and go with everything. So, this little piece of eye popping neon-ness grabbed my attention right away! Attention grabbed, I set about checking out the bright pink bag that stole my attention from everything around it (including the knitted tiger print skirt), discovered it was a Cambridge then found it was just £40! For being as awesome as it is (I mean this leather is thicker than the entire cast of TOWIE and pinker than all their blusher combined), that is a BARGAIN. Seriously, I expect to have this bag forever and to, eventually, pass it to a deserving  niece or something when I die. To quantify the bargainicity, I would like to share the following info: the bag was £105 full price AND I went into Harvey Nics later on (to perv on designer shoes) and they had a smaller version of it for £115! Shame on you and your overly moneyed customers Harvey Nics. Anyway, in case you're more of a bag than a shoe perv, here are some more pics for you to get your jollies to. Night!

Vintage and Spikes and all things nice.

If you've stuck with my blog for a wee while, you might remember this vintage Frank Usher dress which I purchased for a teeny weeny 3 quid at a flea market.

Now, there were a couple of bummers with the dress: one was the length - too short to be maxi on 5"7 me (even in flats) but too short to be midi - the other was the weird high neck that crept up in such a fashion that I was afraid it would eat my face and I'd just be a body in a dress. I'll be honest, the gloriously Morticia-tastic sleeves (which split across the top and drape down the front and back of the arm) were a bit much for me too. So I bunged it on Dotty-Fionnula (my mannequin. Birthday gift - thanks mum!) and got to work.I needed a dress for work's Xmas party and fearing a High St "your dress is lovely, it looks familiar, oh that's cos I'm wearing it too" scenario, I figure vintage for a safe bet!

See how it hangs way above the floor? DF is about an inch taller than me. She's less concerned with the face covering potential of the dress. However, by this point, I'd trimmed down the crazy neckline and folded it in on itself. I'd also decided that I wanted to go spiky! So I got this in theTopshop sale for about £3-4:

And picked off the spikes:

Shit Topshop quality meant that, with a quick snip of the thread, they glue came away and they pulled off easily! First time their poor quality has paid off for me! The next thing on my shopping list was a set of shoulder pads which were a coupla quid in John Lewis (note how my dress is now close to tripling in cost!):

 Pin one end to align with the shoulder:

 

And stitch to hold. Then it's time to get those spikes on.

And done (yes that IS a glass of wine in the background):

Now, at this point, I need to ask you to really use your imagination. Y'see, being the half arsed and forgetful blogger that I am, I forgot to photograph a whole bunch of steps. In a nutshell:

* I picked open the shoulder area and added the spiked up pads in. My machine couldn't handle it so this was a hand sew job. Eeshk!

* The neckline still refused to sit right so I decided to, in a Groove Armada style, "get sexy with it"*, and chopped a mahoosive slit from the neck down to the waistline between the boobs. Bang! Quick hem and done.

* I also took the dress up to a demure midi length to counteract the full on boob action. I don't have a pic of that either.

The good news is that it turned out looking better than I had expected and I wore it to the party - yay! Here's the top half of it (shame - I had awesome shoes on too. Obvs.), along with my scary plum lipstick, spike ring and obligatory gin. Woo! That's my delish pal Magda to my right. Say hi everyone!

.

*If that meant nothing to you, you may wish to listen to this song.

Give and Make up

I'm something of a tweeter, @Llara_has_2_Ls if you're interested, and through #BeautyBloggers, I came across an organisation called Give and Make up. They collect unwanted new and nearly new cosmetics and toiletries for women living in Women's Aid and Refuge accommodation. The women (and potentially their children) have all experienced some form of domestic violence and many will have fled home with nothing. Give and Make up help by providing essential daily basics (shower gel, sanitary products, deodorant), as well as little luxuries.

Now, I'm conscious that I want to extol the virtues of Give and Make up without coming off patronising, so here's my thinking. Domestic violence is horrific. No-one should ever have to live with it. And leaving your home with nothing may be the least of your worries. But, I figure, anything that helps, even a little, once you have made the brave decision to go, has to be a good thing. And while toiletries and whatnot might not seem like a big deal, it might be that a women receives basic items that one takes for granted as everyday staples. Or maybe that someone gets some dead nice make up when they haven't considered treating themselves in a long time. And I reckon that's a good thing.

The reason I've got as far as posting about Give and Make up is that, having read about them, I decided to give them a shout: like many chicks, I have a load of gift sets knocking about that I haven't opened, as well as ill advised eye shadow purchases (ace stuff that just doesn't suit me), free lipsticks etc. But, while I was waiting for them to reply to me, it occurred to me that I probably knew plenty other people in the same situation. Turns out I did and, in a nutshell, it grew arms and legs and this is around a third of what I ended up collecting!

Look at all the make up! (There was around twice this when it was all together)

Body lotion and, more importantly, shower gel: a daily staple.

I ended up with nearly 850 items, plus a bag of toilet bags and a huge bag of miniatures. I'm dead pleased to say that I'll be collecting again in the New Year as lots of people mentioned ending up with unwanted gifts post Xmas. Plus, there's no time like new year for a clear out! Give and Make up have collection points/drop offs all over the country so, if you do get any bath sets or make up over Christmas that you just don't fancy, you've picked up extra 3 for 2s or you're just dead generous and decide to pick up some extra items while you're out, give them a shout! You could really help.

30

Part of the reason for my recent absence from blogging is the general business of work. Plus, by the time I fit in friends and family (with varying degrees of success), the gym and Mr G, I've just not had a lot of time for it! Another thing that suffered a bit in the battle for my time was the planning of my recent birthday party - I had a dead ace party at the house and was so busy through it that I didn't take a single picture! But, people, I can hide it no more: I am no longer a member of the twenties gang. Instead, I am now a mature (*snort*) 30 year old. And I have a new hair cut. Well, it'd be rude not to, non? Cue, taken-at-arm's-length posey pic:

And turning 30 really got me thinking about what I've achieved in life and all the good stuff I've got going on. Milestones = contemplation after all. I'm not exactly a high flier (you won't see me in a "30 year old lady bosses" article any time soon - those articles do make me jealous) but I love my job and it has loads of potential. When I turned 25, I freaked out BIG TIME. I was in really quite a good customer service job and was well paid but it didn't make me happy at all - I was bored and under stimulated. A couple of years ago I took a big pay drop to move into a more creative career and I can honestly say it's one of the best things I've ever done and, in getting more job satisfaction, I feel happier all round. So job's a good 'un for now.

More widely than that, I have fabulous friends (hello fabulous friends - I love you all), a great family (I love you too) and the best husband ever - there's noone else who could be better for me. Schmaltzy but true. I am a very lucky girl. Can I call myself a girl now? Ach, I just did. Whatchoo gonna do? Fight me?

Which takes me to health (via Bodycombat - fighting. See? I do Bodycombat). I'm reasonably healthy (as far as I know) and getting fitter. And my loved ones are all in reasonable health too. And this makes me thankful.

All this stuff adds up to a pretty happy 30 year old. So there was no freaking out this birthday. I just enjoyed partying the night away with a flat FULL of family and friends. Perfect.

PS - I've achieved a pretty decent shoe collection too. And, I'm not gonna lie - it raises a wee superficial smile...

Loub at first sight...

Hello! I'd like to start this post by saying thanks a massimo millo for not all unfollowing me while I've been absent. Life has rather got in the way of blogging of late, blah, blah usual excuses, so it was lovely to come back on and see that people are still here. Yay!

So, you may know me best for my cracking shoe collection (that and my biting wit and winning way of 'posing' in the same doorway for every pic). Therefore, I figured the best way to break back into the blogging was probably to bust out my recent AMAZING shoe purchase. Warning: this is picture heavy.

SQUEEEEE!!!!!

Ta-da!

Now, I know they're not the most exciting shoe ever at first glance. BUT, they're Louboutin. My first ever pair. And I deliberately went for a pair that are understated and classic and wearable. Well, as long as you're not talking about the giant, spiky heel. I'll admit that's a challenge. Aside from that, a low cut, burgundy plum platform shoe boot is gonna go with plenty stuff. Plus, now I totally get the designer shoe thing: the leather is so soft and smells amazing, the insides are padded and squishy underfoot so they really are that bit comfier than your average shoe, even in spite of the aforementioned heel. And look at the sole!

And here they are in their rightful home, in the shoe cabinet. Next to the adidas x Jeremy Scott Jed-rat panda trainers. Damn Jedward.