Christmas Day - Comfort vs Glam.

I thought I would show you what I decided to wear this year for Christmas Day. I wanted to mix glam with comfort as I knew there would be plenty of eating and drinking involved so it was definitely not a day for one of my beloved body cons! I wanted to look glam whilst being comfy so I tried to think of what I had and what would help me achieve this look.

This Velvet Skater Dress* from Topsy Curvy had been hanging in my wardrobe for a while and I had been waiting for the perfect opportunity to wear it. In the lead up to Christmas Day I thought about it and quickly tried it on and decided I would team it with something jazzy for the day.

The dress is such a lovely thick velvet and feels like a good quality garment. I like the rich, deep red colour, it's got a pinky tone to it which feels very festive but not as harsh as a proper red would look with the contrasting black leopard print marks. I think it's a lovely dress and I like how the skirt flares out. I would say that it is super short so a thick legging or set of tights will be needed with this dress. No biggie though.

The jacket is in my top 5 most favourite garments I have ever, ever bought. It's a vintage piece from Stockholm and I bought it whilst I was living there. The black knit shows off the sequins and jewels perfectly and I get so much pleasure from wearing it. I wear it winter after winter and I never tire of it. It's just so utterly fabulous don't you think? Like most vintage stuff, it's made so well... it's only just starting to look a little worn in places but nothing a little sewing couldn't fix. I just need to learn how to sew properly now! You would never have thought I did a Textile degree would you? I can't sew at all!!

The door knocker earrings are such a statement. They are HUGE, so big and obnoxious, I love them. I love, love, love them. They are from River Island and sadly I can't see them on the site any more. There are plenty of big earrings out there though, Asos and Galibardy are my two fave places for statement jewellery.

The boots are a few years old now, so many people ask about them and its a shame they aren't available any longer. I liked my first pair so much; I bought a second pair and I'm so happy I did as I wear them every week!

For my makeup I did my usual black eyeliner flicks, lashings of mascara and I mixed two lippies together to get the exact colour I wanted. I mixed Urban Decays Supersaturated Lip Pencil in 'Adrenaline' and Sleep Makeups lipstick in 'Fuchsia'.

Such a pouter! Excuse the fuzzy pic, it was taken with my camera on the back of my iPhone.

Much food and wine was consumed and napping and game playing happened and the dress stayed on all day, I didn't feel uncomfortable at all and I only changed when it was late and I fancied slipping into something a little more comfortable, sadly I don't mean anything sexy, just fluffy pjs I'm afraid!

If you celebrate Christmas, I hope you had a fab day! What did you wear? Was it a comfortable number or did you go all out glam?

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My Christmas Eve outfit.

And .... breathe....

That is me, breathing out after we have finished all the cooking, turkey eating and Cranium playing. We have said goodbye to all the family and I'm finally sat alone (god I love my own company) and I am in my pjs and I couldn't be happier. I like Christmas but I don't love it. It's always a bit stressful and not as magical in our household as it seems to be in everyone elses household. I do try though, I do try to get in the mood and dress up and lovingly wrap presents and help my Mum prepare 16,000 types of vegetables for our Christmas dinner. I'm sure I will love it if/when I have kids.

All the eating and drinking is obvs a high point for me so when we decided to go out for Christmas Eve drinks I was a happy bunny as I knew I could take this dress for a spin. It's a beautiful snake print with an acid green highlight and it works so well with the grey tones. I think it's such a unique colouring for a snake print. The fabric is nice and thick and I think it'll work well for me in the spring. This dress is a UK18 and it is from River Island. I could buy 95% of the River Island website at the moment.

The clutch is an old Zara purchase, the vintage style court shoes are from M&S and have you noticed the necklace? I'm thinking you might have, it's pretty hard to miss it. I bought it from eBay and it was an absolute bargain. You can buy a similar one here.

I went all matchy-matchy with my makeup for this look. I used a super old Christian Dior eyeliner in 'Anis' and the brown/greys from the Sleek 'Storm' palette. I used to use colourful eyeshadows all the time, especially greens as they look lovely with my eye colour but I haven't in years. I really like this makeup look though so I think I will be bringing some more colour onto my face via eyeshadows in the future.

Right, enough of all this sitting up. I need to lie down, I've drunk too much tea and eaten too many shortbreads. What do you think of these very untraditional colours in this snake print? Too garish or do you love it like I do?

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Mono Mix.

I don't really know where todays outfit came from but... I like it. What do you think?

I found this skirt wayyyy back in a charity shop and it was a bargain at £3. I'm not sure what shop it came from previous to the chazza shop or what size it is but it fits and I love it. I've had a fair bit of wear out of it as its really easy to pair with things.

The top is a recent purchase from Topshop. For years and years I didn't even bother looking in Topshop as I thought I wouldn't be able to fit into any of their clothes BUT I keep delving through their rails and finding stuff that fits me! This is a UK16 and theres plenty of room for manoeuvre. I like the longer length sleeves and the cropped style of the top. The knit is really soft and nice and thick.

I've teamed those two pieces with old Dorothy Perkins earrings, white brogues from Office that I bought a few years back and the fabulous clutch bag was a gift from my Mum. It was from Accessorize, one of my favourite shops for clutches. I bunged my hair up in my signature top knot and thats todays outfit done!

Top - Topshop
Skirt - Charity shop
Bag - old Accessorize
Tights - M&S
Shoes - old Office
Ring - old Topshop
Earrings - old Dorothy Perkins

After these photos were taken I did a selfie and added 'Cyber' by MAC onto my lips and I really like the dark lip with the outfit!

When it comes to mixing prints, how do you feel about it? Do you shy away from it or are you happy to go for it and wear lots all at the same time?

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The OneOneThree AW13 collection. My first styling job.

What an honour to help style such a fab plus size brand.

OneOneThree run by the lovely Najma and Keenen is a small independent fashion design label with a focus on edgy, young, fashionable garments. Their mission is to produce clothes that are fashionable. When I speak to Najma, the designer she is clear about the fact she wants us fat ladies to be able to wear the types of clothing that are accessible to everybody else.

With two successful collections under their belt it was important that their AW13 lived up to expectations. In my opinion, it has.

I went to the OneOneThree studio to have a look at their pieces and I was instantly excited. From talking to the girls and getting my hands on the items I knew instantly how I wanted to style the shoot. I discussed my ideas with them and they were on board with everything I said. I left buzzing and my head was spinning with ideas of accessories that we should get our hands on and how we should do the models hair/makeup.

After a week of getting accessories together and finalising plans we met on the day before the shoot for a model fitting and a hair and makeup trial. We planned out how each model should look, who should wear what and how their hair and makeup should look.

The shoot itself was hectic! We had a lot to do in a short amount of time. Hair and makeup buckled down straight away and starting getting the models ready from the neck up. It was my job to then get them sorted from the neck down!

Each model had to be told what they were wearing and with what accessories and I helped get some of them into the more trickier garments/accessories.

Below shows you some of the accessories I took/we bought for the shoot! Bold, chunky, in your face accessories. 

Once I had got the models into their outfits, chosen their accessories for them and directed the hair and makeup artist with what looks we wanted next; it was time to shoot!

Fuelled by some pizza and lots of juice we then stayed in the studio for a good few hours shooting each of the models.

I really enjoyed directing the models and suggesting to them what sort of poses they should do. Najma, Keenan and I gave the models direction, viewed the photos on the camera with the photographer before we moved onto the next look.

Here are a few shots from behind the scenes of the shoot. The models look so good doing their thing!

As you can see from the above photos we had a "no fucks given" kind of vibe to the shoot. We wanted the models to look fierce and hopefully you will agree with me that that is what we achieved. 

Below are some of the final shots from the day and you can visit the OneOneThree site to see these garments in all their glory! They are for sale and I am excited to get my hands on some of them! 

Use code 'sowhat10' to get 10% of your purchase. 

What are your favourite pieces from the collection? Do you like the vibe of it and be honest with me, what do you think of the styling?

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Daisy, Daisy give me your answer do. I'm half crazy all for the love of you.

A recent ferret in Primark lead me to this wonderful cropped T-shirt. Look at the lovely daisy print, isn't it lovely!?

A short post for you today as I am meant to be doing Christmassy crap with my Mum, like putting the tree up (finally) and drinking half a bottle of Bailseys with her.

So, as I said up there, I got my top from Primark and it's a cropped style, with a boxy feel to it. A nice thick fabric which kind of feels like that scuba material... well actually it doesn't really but it's closer to that than just your average jersey tee.

The jacket is my bargain buy from Tesco. I bought it in the sale for £15 but it's still online now but sadly it only goes up to a UK size 20. You can see it here. There are plenty of leather look jackets in stores like Simplybe and Evans if you need a larger size though.

I bought this maxi skirt from Simplybe back in the summer and I wore it sooo much on holiday. This is its first outing since it has turned all wet and cold out there. I never think to wear maxis in the winter as I associate them with summer days but with leggings and a chunky boot I think it looks ok actually.

The boots, oh the boots. I've lusted (hate that word) over them for ages and finally bought them when I was in my local(ish) River Island. They were £35 and I think that is such a good price. My other cut out boots from Office we like £85 or something! I also tried the same boots on but in white leather...geez they were nice. I will definitely save up and buy them. They will look great in the spring with acid washed denim and pastels. I'm really looking forward to SS14 fashion... it looks to be a great season.

My earrings match the tee ever so well don't you think? I bought them for £2 and I can't for the life of me remember where I got them from! I want to say Dorothy Perkins but I really can't remember!

Right, I'm off. Wow this wasn't really a short post was it? What are you up to this weekend guys?

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Bra reviews - Featuring M&S, Curvy Kate and Sculptresse.

I have big tits and those tits need to be supported well. This blog post will look at four bras I have recently acquired and what I like/dislike about all of them. Enjoy.

I'd like to add, before I start that I am not a lingerie blogger so excuse my lack of proper terminology... I just know what I like and how I like my breasts to look/feel in a bra.

First up is this Perfect Fit T-Shirt Bra from M&S. The sizes run from a 32 DD - 40G and I bought this yesterday in my local M&S in a size 38G. I didn't actually try it on before taking it home but I am really very happy with how it fits. The cup is a full cup and doesn't give me much of a cleavage but I don't tend to want too much of a cleavage when I wear a T-shirt bra. I chose black but you can buy it in white and cream. I like the slightly padded cup but obviously I'm not after a bra that makes me look like I have bigger tits as I am quite happy with the amount I've been dished out! The lace scalloping detail on the bottom is pretty and the although it has a lace trim on top, when I tried it on under neath a T-shirt, it didn't show badly at all. The straps are soft, they don't dig in and the three hook fastening at the back is great for support. There isn't really anything I didn't like about this bra! I haven't thought much of M&S bras in the last few years, they used to be amazing and then I felt the quality went a bit crappy but I would by this bra in the other colours. Oh and the £19.50 price tag is also very acceptable. I give it a 9/10.

The next bra I would like to show you is a lovely pink number from Sculptresse. The lovely people at MyCurves&Me sent me this bra to review. The bra is called Willow Full Cup Bra and it's by Sculptress. In my opinion, the size I asked for (38G) fits me really well. I had never heard of the site MyCurves&Me before I spoke to these guys but I will definitely be buying from them in the future. The site was really easy to navigate and you can get this bra in the sale at the moment! It was £35.00 but it is currently £17.50... bargain!

I think the berry colour is super nice and the lace print panel on the front and rose in the centre are nice feminine touches. It isn't the sexiest of bras but is super comfy and the fabric is really soft! The straps feel really padded and there isn't any over spill on top or at the sides. My breasts fit well in the VERY full cup and the gore (I had to look that term up... Thanks George!) sits right up against my chest.

Although I like the fit, like I said... it's not the most glamorous bra and I would have also liked it if it had three hooks at the back as I like to feel really strapped into my bras! I give this bra 7/10

Next up is another T-shirt bra from my absolute fave girls over at Curvy Kate. I always bang on about these lot and if you take a look at their site, you'll see why. SUCH PRETTY BRAS for us big boobed ladies. They offer bras from a size D-Kcup and they offer great supportive bras but they are soooo feminine, glamorous and sexy!

Himare was very kind to send me this Daily Boost as whilst I was talking to her a few weeks back I mentioned I was on the hunt for a great every day black bra. Hurray! I have found said bra! I got this style in a 38GG and it fits me really well. It comes in black, mocha, nude and white which are obviously all very practical colours. I should have done the straps up a bit tighter and the angle of this pic below doesn't do it justice but I'm in love with it. I've worn it constantly since I received it a few weeks a go. I like the shape this bra gives my breasts. The cup is a nice full balcony style without looking frumpy and it looks great underneath tighter tops. The gore sits up against me and I love the three hooks at the back. It really holds me in place all day and supports these bad boys! The only thing I don't like about it is the mocha/grey trim on the top of the cup; I wish it was black like the rest of the bra. I give this bra a 9/10.

Last but by no means least, I offer you this shexy number from Marks and Spencers. I love, love, love this bra! It's so glam and tacky and makes my boobs look fab! The bra is called the Limited Collection Animal Print Padded Plunge Bra and I got it in a size 38G whilst I was in the store yesterday. Now, I wouldn't wear this bra every day as the support isn't incredible/what I want from an everyday bra but, when my boobs look this good I couldn't really give a monkeys! I love the shape it gives my boobs, the nude coloured straps, the print, the red accents and the lace detailing on the side of the cups. I am definitely going to order the rest of this set. It'll look immense with lower cut tops and glam evening dresses. The bra is only £16 and I think thats exceptionally good value for money. I give this bra 10/10!

I hope this post has been helpful. Have a great weekend my lovelies. 

*If I was gifted any of these bras for review, I have mentioned it in the body of this post. 

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