Archives for October 2012

HtCC: Lady V London

October 24, 2012

I’m a big fan of the style of dresses that Vivien of Holloway are famous for, but I can’t bring myself to drop £60+ on a dress I’ll only wear once or twice. (Dress economics: judging the price of a dress based on the cost per wear. We all do it.)

I found Lady V London last week and fell in love with not just the styles and sizes of dresses available, but also the prices! The dresses are reproductions, which means that modern fabrics can be used, along with the ability to size up the dresses – always a good thing. Most of the designs available are made in a limited run, so it’s not so likely that you’ll end up seeing someone else with the same dress on (I hate when that happens – I’ve been known to buy new outfits when that’s happened!). Most dresses are available in sizes 8 – 22 (a much better range than most high street stores) with certain styles going up to a size 32.

Purple dress: £40, Navy blue and white polka dot dress: £45, Grey dress: £40

This style is the swing dress – I think my personal favourite would have to be the grey one: you could probably get away wearing this for work! (It’s far too pretty though)

Black Sateen: £35 (in the sale!), Orange floral: £45

Next is the “Audrey Hepburn” style – a much dressier style, with a flouncy skirt which – well, you’d just have to put a few underskirts on to super poof it out really. Would just be wrong otherwise.

Cat print shawl collar dress: £25 (another one in the sale!)

Finally, because everyone is a secret cat lady really, the only shawl collar style dress in my size was this one cover in cats, which I think is just a sign that I should buy it. Thank goodness payday is only a week away!

Build Me Up, Buttercup

October 22, 2012

A few months ago, I went on the Sky Ride in Bath.I thought it would be a nice opportunity to get back on a bike for the first time in a few years, and to visit Bath (it can’t help not being as good as Bristol, poor thing) but what I didn’t realise is that it would lead to me buying a bike for myself. I’ve posted quite a few times about bikes from brands like Pashley, Beg Bicycles and even a few designer labels, but £600 (at least) seemed like a lot of money to spend when I don’t intend (yet?) to cycle to work (which also counted out getting help through the various cycle to work schemes available. After a lot of time searching (because I had a very specific style in mind, and a specific sort of price point!), I found a beautiful baby blueDawes bike in a local shop, second hand, for £250. The only problem was getting it from the centre of Bristol to my house. The bike had been in the shop a few months (and is probably still there!) so I kept that in the back of my mind.

This is obviously not that bike. I found this bike with a chance Google search one lunchtime (honestly, I have no idea what was so different about this search that lead me to this site – I’m pretty sure I’ve Googled “ladies bikes” before) and by the end of that hour, I had bought this Claud Butler Cambridge bike in yellow (it also comes in blue, red and pink). The bike came fully assembled (unlike a few of the sites I’d looked at), it was a reasonable price, and it came from a company based just a few miles from where I grew up (I don’t know why that influenced me, it just does)

I have to say, the company, All About The Bike were brilliant in every part of my purchase. I phoned up to ask about the difference between two models (the lady on the phone was so helpful with this – she seemed to know exactly what I meant!) and to see if they would be able to deliver on a Saturday, since delivery was already included in the price, but was for weekdays only. (I didn’t get the bike until Monday though because the courier, UKMail, are absolutely incompetent and couldn’t be bothered to do what they were paid to do. I’m still very irritated by the conversations I had with them – however when I called AATB on Monday, the lady who sold me the bike was so apologetic, and offered to refund the delivery without me asking. Hooray!)

(tl; dr: I like this bike, and I like this company.)

I have only been out a few times on the bike so far since it came last Monday, but it’s so much fun! Yesterday, I cycled to the gym (the main reason I bought it) then I cycled to Asda for the weeks shopping, coming back through this hidden park which is only round the corner from my house! (Perhaps I will try to take some outfit photos here? Once I get back into doing outfit photos again…)

After the SkyRide in Bath, I was sent a little goodie bag from Sky to thank me for going, and besides the little light on my basket you can see above (which is brilliant, I’m about to buy a bigger one for the back of the bike since the lights I bought last week have already broken, gah), my favourite thing in there was this jacket designed by Henry Holland.

It’s not particularly flattering on me (I’d prefer something a bit more fitted, and less boob flattening) but it’s much cuter than most of the high vis sort of jackets you can buy (the polka dots are reflective!) and doesn’t take up too much space in my gym bag. I’m not that bothered about the shape not flattering me as long as it does the job of keeping me dry and seen!

Next step will be to cycle further than a mile…eek! And in case you’re wondering, the title of this post comes from my bikes name – Buttercup, of course! (Apparently you have to name bikes. I don’t know why.)

Review: GHD Air

October 19, 2012

A few weeks ago, I headed over to the GHD Hair Boutique and had my hair styled using GHD products. I loved the curls that Hayley, my stylist, gave me (although I haven’t had a chance to recreate them yet!)

As a thank you for popping along, GHD sent me the GHD Air hairdryer and the Style and Protect kit, so I now have all the tools to recreate my pretty hair.

First up: The Style and Protect kit consists of the Straight and Smooth spray (which also contains heat protection), Final Shine spray (which also helps to smooth down the wispy bits). It comes with two sectioning clips, and a huge paddle brush which I love. (Anyone else really fussy about hairbrushes? No? Just me? Right, ok then.)

I’ve not really needed to use the Final Shine spray much (my hair is pretty shiny already thanks to Aussie!) but I’ve been using the straight and smooth spray when I use my straighteners just to give them a bit of a helping hand.

So, the hairdryer. It’s from the same range as my hair straighteners, and £10 is donated from each purchase to Breakthrough Breast Cancer.

I have to be honest – when I’ve bought hairdryers in the past, I’ve gone for the dryer under £20 that has the highest wattage. My hair is very thick, and takes ages to dry normally. My previous hair drying routine would be to blast the hell out of my hair with the dryer on the hottest, fastest setting, then use the straighteners to flatten it down. Not good for my hair.

Since I recieved this hairdryer though, I don’t find myself reaching for the straighteners as much. I’m able to get my hair dried quicker on a lower heat setting than before, and my hair feels much happier for it! Perhaps it’s psychological, but even after the first use, my hair felt smoother.

Is it worth £100? I would have balked at the price previously – but then, I did at the original price of my GHD hair straighteners. Once again though, after using it, I’m sold. I’m hopeful this will last as well as my 2004 straighteners have! This is definitely one to be asking Santa for – I just hope you guys are on the nice list!

Archives for October 2012

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