YOU'RE NEVER TOO OLD FOR CARTOONS!

This is my loooong overdue post, having been AWOL for a while. I have no real excuse, other than writer's block and a lack of confidence. But I'm back with a (rather late) post about a dress I bought a few months back for a friend's 21st.

This gorgeous cartoon dress was from Inspire at New Look, and was about £30. The print is great fun, and even now I see pictures on it that I hadn't noticed before. It's in a stretch, shiny fabric, with mesh/net shoulders. The skirt is a skater style, and just below the knee on me. It's very comfy, as well as stylish, because of the give in the material. I was a little hesitant about buying it at first. I'm not getting any younger lol! But I'm gradually realising that life's far too short, and if I can't wear what I want, and express my own (slightly young!) sense of style now, then when can I? Sod it if anyone thinks I look daft!

In these pics, the light was pretty poor, sorry. I do regret that I wore these ultra shiny tights lol, they're not very flattering! The shoes are from eBay. 

Vicky

Daisy crazy

You must have been living under a rock if you haven't noticed that floral prints are everywhere at the moment. Hopefully a nod to Spring being on the horizon. The biggest surge seems to be the daisy print. I was dying to get a piece of the action (yes, dedicated follower of fashion, at my age!) When I saw a pic on Instagram of someone wearing a gorgeous daisy swing dress from Asos, the temptation was too much.

At the time there wasn't one on Asos in my size - 24/26. So now my friends know my size, can't believe I just did that!
I decided to look on Simply Be, and found an AX Paris tea dress in a gorgeous black and white daisy print. It's in a silky fabric with no give really, and true to size. A few days later I spotted a 'New In' dress on Simply Be. Also AX Paris, it's a swing style in stretchy jersey fabric and so comfy! The print has big white and yellow daisies on a black background. 
The first dress is quite demure, and I would probably style it with my black Primark ballet flats and a black shrug.  

The second is a more 'fun' style, and black leggings and my chunky black cut out boots from River Island look fab with it. I adore both dresses in different ways. 

There are so many dresses, tops and scarves available in this print, far too many to mention. Needless to say you don't have to look very far to get your own piece of Spring! 

Valentines Day and Rent!

Valentines Day and Rent!

We don't usually do much for Valentine's Day. Of course we exchange cards, and Shaun buys me a pressy. He lets me off buying for him, as he's only just had his birthday. He very thoughtfully bought me a beautiful necklace with his name and the names of my sons on it. 



This year, we had tickets to see a show called 'Rent in concert' in Birmingham, which just happened to be on Valentine's. We caught the train from Worcester at lunchtime to have a mooch round the shops (oh no, what a shame) first. It was incredibly windy and this numbnut was dressed for fashion not warmth! The Inspire section in the New Look flagship store was a bit disappointing. There wasn't a lot of choice, and what was there didn't 'inspire' me, although I did buy a nice pink jumper with a zip detail down the back. Mainly for warmth as I was freezing! The website has much more choice, but I feel needs some work. 

 I let Shaun persuade me to go to Selfridges next. It's a hard life! I wanted to look at the foundations at Mac, as I'm having a nightmare finding the right colour. Unfortunately they weren't having their best day. All the testers were mucky and a nightmare to get to.  I really felt I was in the way in my wheelchair as the staff kept squeezing past me to get into the drawers. Anyway, rant over! 
Instead, we headed to the Nars counter, where I was colour matched for the Sheer Glow foundation in the colour Punjab. There was a lovely guy on the counter ( think a cross between Rowan Atkinson in Love Actually and the gloriously camp god that is Rufus Wainwright - YouTube him ). He managed, with no problem whatsoever,  to talk me into buying the primer and a gorgeous pink lipstick too. Quite a Valentine's Pressy, but what the hey!

We went to the Handmade Burger Company, which is our eating place of choice when we visit Brum, Nomnom, then checked into our Travelodge to get ready for the show. I wore this burgundy and black velvety dress from Yours Clothing, Yours leggings, and boots from Very. I felt very glamorous :) 

The show was incredible, very moving and tragic, but also uplifting as it is really about love and friendship. The music was beautiful and breathtaking. I won't give the storyline away, suffice to say if you have a chance to see it, you MUST! Afterwards I was in floods of tears outside the disabled exit, as one of the lead characters walked past. I blubberingly told him that the show was beautiful! He said "bless you darling" and kissed me on the head!

All in all, we had a lovely Valentine's and thank you to Shaun for being an amazing supportive husband. I love you xx

Vicky x

First post - 18/02/2014

Please be kind! 

So I am finally taking the bull by the horns and venturing, tentatively, into the world of blogging. This is completely unlike me, I don't do anything tentatively! I've always been a 'both feet first' kind of person. I'd like to say girl, but, being the wrong side of 40, that would be fibbing.

Cardigan - Simply Be

Tartan skirt - Simply Be 

Jumper - Evans (last year) 

Leggings - Yours Clothing, 

Boots - Amazon

I decided to start this blog having seen so many great and inspiring posts on other people's. The plus size blogging community has been MASSIVELY important to me in the past year. 

My self esteem when it came to my looks was very low. 
Since I've been in a wheelchair (woops, forgot to mention that) I've gone up four dress sizes, and was feeling frumpy in everything I wore. I wasn't bothering with make up either. Then I discovered Pinterest, and saw that big girls COULD look fabulous! This led me to seek out plus size bloggers, and WHAT a revelation! A whole new world opened up to me, as I also began watching plus size, beauty and lifestyle bloggers on YouTube. I started taking pride in my appearance, wearing dresses and putting 'a face' on even if I was just going for coffee. And shopping....well, (embarrassed face). Dresses, make up, shoes and boots, all for research purposes you understand!

I'm on a journey of learning to love the new Vicky, and she's ok!


Vicky