Festival fashion doesn't have to mean wellies and denim hotpants. When did this hotpants thing at festivals start anyway? We live in the UK, you need a jumper and tights!! Glastonbury is only a month away and this got me thinking about the start of festival season.  This years line up is a very British affair with The Rolling Stones, Mumford & Sons and Arctic Monkeys set to take the stage. With this in mind I've gone for a bit of an equestrian/traditionally British look for Glasto. The riding boots make a nice change from wellies and cost less than a pair of Hunter wellies and you can wear them all year round. I invested in a Barbour coat for festivals last year and it has been one of my wisest investments. When the heavens opened at Reading last year I stayed dry and when the sun went in at night at Bestival the jacket gave me just enough warmth.




Mark Todd Boots:equestrian clearance  - Jacket: John Lewis- Jeans: ASOS  - Shirt: boohoo.com


The Benicassim Festival is much more than just a music festival; over 100 acts perform over 4 days - over 4 stages, with 8 days free camping.You can laze on the beach sipping cocktails by day, and as the sun sets you can enjoy music by night. Benicassim is near Valencia, on the beautiful coastline of Spain which has much more appeal than a soggy field in the UK somewhere... You definitely need a hat when the sun it beating down on you all day and ditch the wellies in favour of some short boots. Sandals might seem like a good idea but someone is bound to step on your toes in the croud, ouch! I'm pretty jealous of anyone going this year as both the Arctic Monkeys and Miles Kane are playing, my faves.



Are you heading off to any festivals this year? I've already got my tickets for Bestival but I'm hoping to go to a few more.



*collaborative post

I had such a lovely day yesterday thanks to  Chantele, Georgina. Leanne and Laura the organisers of a Cardiff Bloggers meet up (#CDFmeet) It made a nice change not to be involved in any organising of an event in Cardiff and I managed to relax, chat to everyone and not worry about anything. It can be stressful trying to get a group of people together so thank you girls, much appreciated.

We all met in The Brewhosue Cardiff where we indulged in some 2 for 1 pizza and cocktails. The poor barman must have made over 50 cocktails in the space of an hour.

When these gorgeous photos landed in my inbox I was instantly transported to Summer. I don't normally share images like this but they really perked me up and I think you will love them too. They were taken in Barcelona and feature the hottest swimwear, fierce street style’s and coolest dresses from the Missguided Summer collection.This shoot is making me crave a trip to a warmer climate so I get a chance to ditch my black opaques and scarf, sigh.

I had such a lovely day yesterday. The weather was perfect for a stroll so I headed to Newport to do shopping and walk around the lovely Belle Vue park. It was the first time in ages I've been able to go out without a huge coat and scarf. I even got to wear my sunglasses (£2.99 in New Look, bargain) because it was so bright, such a gorgeous Spring day.

Pretty excited about this news... Zatchels are having a 50% off everything flash sale to celebrate their 2nd birthday. It's only running for 24 hours so you need to be quick.



I keep on putting barrel bags on my wishlists posts but with 50% off now might be the time for me to take the plunge.I'm going to wait up until midnight tonight to get these two beauties, a barrel bag and a pastel saddle bag but I have no idea which ones yet because there are so many nice colours to choose from. Zatchels are all handmade right here in the UK which makes me love them even more.

I thought I would start doing little review posts every 2-3 months to share some of my favourite buys with you. My blog is mainly outfit/fashion based posts (and some photos of nights out) but most of my monthly wage goes on beauty products, records and eating out so I thought it would be great if my blog reflected that.

First up is my new miracle moisturiser, Kiehl's Ultra Facial Cream:

We have been renovating my house for over two years now which has been a slow and painful process. My mum and her partner have done all the work themselves whilst holding down full time jobs which is why it has taken so long. After my parents split we moved to a horrid house that was owned by an old lady, had a weird smell and ugly carpets after living in a nice new house that didn't smell and had neutral carpets. It was quite the culture shock. The downstairs is now about 90% finished and we just need finishing touches like coving and a handrail up the stairs.

The following photos are of my family room/living space which comprises of a kitchen and living room. We have a more formal sitting room at the front of the house and a utility room at the back of the kitchen for all of our appliances. You can see some other posts about some other rooms and progress here

There really want a kitchen before we moved into the house, the old lady had a couple of units, a sink and a cooker in the small utility room out the back but there were no fitted units at all!



The living room and kitchen were separated by a long, dark corridor which we knocked down and we are now left with one big open plan space. It was hard to try and capture this in a photo.







 

The place mats were sale bargain in Wilkinsons, the tumblers are from Next and the lovely purple vase in the middle was a charity shop find.

Last week I attended a rather fabulous event hosted by Next where I got to take a look at their new Summer collections. We were guided around their huge store in Leckwith, Cardiff and were talked through all the trends in homeware this season. The collection was split into five main themes:

Good Life, Scandinavian inspired with a  palette of soft yellow, ochre and putty shades with 50s inspired furniture and nature motifs and crochet.
Blossom and Bloom, contained hand painted organic prints taken straight from the catwalk and translated into beautiful watercolour designs for bedding, wallpapers and cushions. Lots of raspberry and turquoise tones were featured
Boat House Salvage was a modern twist on the nautical theme including porthole mirrors, rope lanterns and vintage style clocks. Grey, blue and red were dominant in this collection.
San Diego felt quite homely and used lots of reds and burnt orange and featured a mix of natural wicker and luxe sequins.
Elegant Twist was certainly my favourite trend with plenty of greys and lilacs it fitted in with my tastes perfectly. There were architectural prints with a Parisian flavour and was a mix of modern and old at the same time.

I loved how the store recreated rooms so you could see how the items would work in your own home and a lot of the items were very reasonably priced. You could completely change a look of a room with £100 to spend in Next. Paint a feature wall, add couple of cushions, a lamp and voila!

I was recently sent a few items from Yours Clothing to try out and share my thoughts on them. I wore Yours Clothing bodycon dress when I went to the Making of Harry Potter tour and I loved it, I wouldn't normally wear anything tight but I loved this dress and there was plenty of room in it which meant that I didn't feel uncomfortable.

I've also been trying out this rather lovely animal print tunic which is very me and I've been wearing it to work and on the weekends quite a lot. I love the print, the pleated detail on the front and the lovely bow on the back. It was a tad chilly to pose without a cardi on so you can see the detail on the back here.




If you fancy 10% off your first order with Yours Clothing and free delivery use the code HELLOTHERE at the checkout.

This time last week I was feeling a little worse for wear in Birmingham and this week I'm feeling a little worse for wear in Cardiff, some things never change... This is only going to be a brief post just to say I love blogging. I've been doing it for about three years now and I've got to do so many wonderful things because of it and I'm super grateful. The best thing to come out of blogging is all the lovely friends I have made. I know lots if lovely local bloggers but I'm now mates with people all over the UK and get to spend my weekends in different cities with some very cool ladies.

I spent last weekend in Birmingham with Kim, Katy, Emma and the birthday girl Claire. I spent my day doing my favourite things, shopping eating cake, posing and dancing to indie tunes like it's 2005.

I know it's really cold out, but it's making me think about Summer and my possible holiday to Malta (eeek). If you're a follower of my blog you will know that I like to travel, trying to get away from home as often as possible to see exciting places. Well, I say exciting but I mainly go up north... The most important travelling companion (aside from a passport and a fun friend), is your sunglasses. If I go away for a weekend I'm typically partying and sunglasses are essential to hide the bags under my eyes after a little too much wine and also make me feel like a celeb. They really help to add a little glamour to your look with minimal effort. When it comes to sunglasses I think the bigger the better and this pair are something special






The lovely people at Sunglasses Shop are giving you the chance to win a gorgeous pair of studded Guess sunglasses.

All you need to do is like their facebook page https://www.facebook.com/sunglassesshop and post on their wall 'Enter Fat Frock's Give Away' with a link to this blog. It's also open to international readers so anyone can enter.

Use the rafflecopter form below for extra entries:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck!

I was recently asked by Wish Want Wear if I would like to trial their designer dress hire
service and after taking a quick look at the dresses on offer on their site I was looking forward to giving designer dress hire a go. I had never tried this service before and the idea had never crossed my mind. Hiring a dress, madness!
I was a little worried that I wouldn't be able to find anything to fit as I'm a UK size 16 but they stock sizes 6-18. With labels like Alice Temperley, Halston Heritage and Badgley Mischka there is plenty of choice to help you look glam for a party or wedding or even just dress up for a night out with friends. You get sent two sizes in the post so you will end up with something that fits and if you are struggling to choose a style or are worrying about the fit you can speak to one of their online stylists who can give you some advice.

You don't need to worry too much about spills as all dresses are dry cleaned upon return and all you need to do is pop the dress into a prepaid envelope un-ironed and post it back to them. You get to keep your outfit for 4 or 8 days, paying a charge based on the value of the dress and the length of time you need it for.



I wore the dress on a night out with friends and after an initial worry about being too dressed up I forgot all about it and felt thoroughly glamorous. It was nice knowing that nobody else would be wearing the same dress as me that night and I felt a little Sara Luxe in this all black ensemble. I did swoosh the skirt around a lot and try and pull off a pouty, moody goth look but that lasted all of ten minutes after a couple of drinks and plenty of dancing.I really enjoyed the experience of hiring a dress and I'm considering hiring a Chanel bag for a wedding next year. If I had a Chanel bag for the weekend I would be stroking it like a nutter and frolicking around with it...

Would you consider hiring a dress?