I don't wear this bracelet enough, it was a impulse sale purchase a few years ago and I'm trying to get the cost per wear down a little. Pairing it with my new favourite outfit means it's getting out of its box more frequently.


Trying to find cheap boots that fit my wide feet is a yearly nightmare for me. Wide fit shoes tend to be ugly and aimed at a 50yr old + market so I snapped these wide fit Primark beauties up as son as I saw them. 



I've been posting loads of photos over on instagram recently so if you like photos of cake and other calorific food head over there to take a look. Instagram tends to get all the moments that aren't big enough to get a blog post. Leave your instagram name below if you use it, I'm always looking for new people to follow.


I've got posts about my trip to Bath and a day out in Cathays Park, Cardiff coming up later this week so keep en eye out for those.

I would like to say I'm happy to be back but I'm not really. I miss Dorset, the barn I stayed in and my holiday was over far too quickly. All good things must come to an end I suppose and I have a gig and a trip away with friends this weekend to look forward to. I will be sharing a few snaps from my holiday later in the week but for now I have a wonderful new dress to share with you.

L-R Frills And Spills, What Peggy Said, Kimi And Me, Polkadot Pink and Being Erica

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I've certainly changed a lot this year. Weekends used to mean wild nights out, cocktails and getting dressed up but now my weekends are completely different. A mixture of settling down and my friends being busy with their dissertations means you can usually find me in on a Saturday night in front of the TV with my family. I've swapped the vodka and diet coke for hot chocolate and glam dresses for my PJs. Saturday nights are all about Strictly Come Dancing for me. I can admire the glitz and glamour but by sitting comfortably at home and not out on the town until the early hours.


Gala Bingo recently set some bloggers a challenge to create some posts inspired by the style on their favourite Saturday night show. While Nicole Scherzinger always looks amazing and the contestants on X Factor get to wear some lovely outfits I had to pick Strictly. Who doesn't love some old Hollywood style glamour and thousands of sequins?

You're not going to be able to buy a ballroom dress perfect for the Viennese Waltz on the high street but I've found plenty of Strictly-inspired outfits on the high street. Here are a few that I think are the most accessible and wearable:


This very glamarous dress by Frock and Frill channels the 20s vibe perfectly and reminds me of all the great beaded dresses the female contestants wear when they attempt the Charleston. The tiers and sequins would look great on any dance floor when you're strutting your stuff.

Abbey Clancy is definitely my favourite contestant this year the black dress from her Matalan range reminds me of the sophisticated dresses the ladies wear for the Argentine Tango.I really want Abbey and Aljazto win this year but I also have a soft spot for Susanna and Kevin.

The final dress is from Collectif and is the perfect dress to recreate that 50s jive look. I love the full skirt, perfect for swirling around on the dance floor.

To finish the look you need the right shoes and these Dune dancing shoes are great. They look pretty similar to the ones I had as a kid when I used to have dancing lessons except mine were covered in gold glitter. Loved those shoes...

You need as much glitter as possible to sparkle on the dance floor and this snow glitter polish by Illamasqua will certainly help with that.

Finally, we all know you can't hit that Strictly dance floor without lashings of fake tan being applied ;) I love that Sophie Ellis-Bextor has refused to wear any this year, not even a little bronzer.

I'm Team Abbey this year but who do you want to win?

*This post is in conjunction with Gala Bingo and their X Factor slot game.

This dress was a bit of a post holiday blues cure purchase, after nearly two weeks off work the prospect of returning to students in full swing exam madness was terrifying. The bright flowers on this dress certainly perked me up and I wore this to a library conference on Friday. I did wear it with a cardigan because if you work in a library a cardigan is practically uniform and I had to cover up the open back which makes it a tad sassy for daywear. I wore this with flat shoes but I can't wait to wear this with some heels on a night out and pair it with a bright clutch bag.

This is becoming one of my favourite dresses. I don't have to think about what to pair it with, I just throw it on with some black shoes and a cardigan and I'm ready for work. I picked it up in the ASOS sale for about £18 just after Christmas and it has already had plenty of wear.

I had a lovely weekend filled with cocktails, dancing, hangover breakfast at Cafe 37 (best ever) and planning my playlist for the My Mad Fat Diary inspired 90s party I'm having in a few weeks time. I wore a lovely new French Connection dress on the weekend but I completely forgot to take a snap so you get me in some less interesting workwear instead sorry!

I also picked up my new glasses this weekend and after after the initial shock of wearing them again after five years of avoiding them, I think I quite like them. I picked up two pairs for £125 at Specsavers which is pretty good value. I can't buy mine online because I have a pretty weird prescription and I really didn't enjoy forking out that much money on such boring items. I moaned to my mum '£125 is half a Vivienne Westwood dress, four nights out, a weekend away!!' all true but I suppose my eyesight is very important and I wont be buying anymore for at least two years.

It's been another very busy week for me, I spent the first half in Paris, took my mum shopping, had an imporptu wild night out (payed for it for the next three days, too old for that now) and I'm now enjoying a relatively calm weekend only popping out for a meal with colleagues tonight. I need a really good lie in...

Apparently monochrome is a big trend this season, I didn't know this while I was chosing this outfit but let's all pretend I did and I'm 'bang on trend' ;) I love all of these items together and I think this is going to become a favourite outfit for work and the weekend. I own a few t-shirts from Orphan's Arms now and I love the literary and historical prints that they have. I'm always checking their site for new stock and I snapped this t-shirt up as soon as it went into the sale.


I picked up this necklace whilst shopping with my mum in the week, cute isn't it? It was from the RI budget range where you can pick up earrings for about £2. They had loads of adorable key, heart and cross things in the range so I'm popping back next week to stock up.

I've been away a lot recently and want to catch up on some blog reading so please send me some links to post you have loved recently, feeling a little out of the loop.

Are we all having a bad case of the January blues? It was such a struggle to get up for work this week after staying up until 3am watching films all over Christmas. I miss my bed and I miss carbs. I feel very sorry for myself so I've been making an effort for work to feel a little better about myself and my Christmas bulge. I always feel a bit sassy when I wear leopard print to work, I suppose its a bit trashy for someone who works in a library but I wont let that stop me.




I love the little cross detail on my belt. I think £8 was steep for one belt when I can get two from DP for that price but I didn't really see much that I liked in the sales so I  treated myself. I also love my Blink boots that arrived before Christmas and I've worn them pretty much everyday since I got them.


I'm planning on having a quiet weekend, catching up on some sleep and booking some trips to look forward to in 2013. Hope your 2013 has got off to a good start.

I hope you guys all had a very merry Christmas. I'm currently on the sofa feeling a bit sick and have been in my pjs for most of the day. I could get used to this! It's been a fairly quiet Christmas for me, I don't have a big family so spent yesterday at home watching all my favourite films with a box of chocolates in my lap. I was spoilt rotten even though I asked people not to get me presents this year. I posted some photos from the day and my very special present over on instagram (fatfrocks).

It's tradition for me and my school friends to go out on Christmas eve to our local pub and get rather merry. This year was a little more subdued than normal but I still had a great time and loved getting dressed up and see people who I don't get much chance to hang out with. Seeing all my school friends definitely makes me feel very immature when lots of them are settled down and do very sensible things. Although I do feel very lucky not to have a mortgage and be able to do fun things.

My Christmas eve outfit (tad over dressed for the pub):



I picked up this necklace in the Dorothy Perkins sale for £6 and I've already worn it loads, such a good impulse buy. Have you seen any good accessories sales? I'm looking to get a few statement necklaces.





We don't have any children in the family so we totally spoil Sookie rotten and shower her with presents and gifts at Christmas. Look at her in that little jacket, so adorable! We wrap all her presents and let her open them, we are a bit insane...

Off to watch Dr Who for the 5th time now, see you later in the week for some 'Best of 2012' type posts.

I know we haven't even had Christmas yet but me and my friends have already planned our New Years Eve. It's always a huge let down for us involving being with family we don't really like or spending a fortune on taxi's home. Have you noticed that everything seems to triple in price on NYE? I'm going to be seeing in the new year with the group of friends I go to Torquay with every summer and we have some sophisticated Bond themed plans.

I was inspired by my recent love of Ben Whishaw and his appearances in the latest Bond film and The Hour to have a sophisticated games night in with the girls. We're thinking glamour, cocktails, fancy nibbles and playing card games like poker. I'm sure we will also play Jenga and Dreamphone while listening to N*Sync because we're pretty cool like that ;) Just because we are staying in it doesn't mean we wont be getting dolled up. Some of my friends have kids and don't get to dress up as much as they would like because practicality rules when you're doing the school run with two toddlers so we are on the hunt for super glam and fun outfits for the night,

All of the following items are available from ASOS and fit in with my games night/glam theme:


This Lady Luck jumper fits in perfectly with my theme, is comfy and not too expensive. I could jazz this up with some red heels and lippy for a more night time feel.

This sequin skater dress is gorgeous and I would never be able to wear this to the clubs I go to on a night out. (I'm not very sophisticated and prefer dingy rock clubs) so the party would be a perfect excuse to get something super pretty and not worry about people spilling drinks on it.



I love the colour if this sequin dress and the Vivienne Westwood style drape at the front. This could easily be worn again with some black tights and a cardi on a night out in town.



Again, this baroque dress is super glam which is perfect for the party but I'm sure I would wear it again and avoid spending a fortune on a dress I could only wear once.

Last up is this perfect dress for a poker diva from Sugarhill Boutique dress via ASOS. Not only is the print fun but the dress is in the sale for £22, bargain! This would be comfy, I could wear it again and fits in with the nights theme.

Even though I plan on getting dressed up I will be packing my pajamas and a hoody because I'm sure after a few drinks and loads of food we will be under a duvet on the sofa watching DVDs.

*collaborative post

Tuesday was a very busy day off, I had a date (eek), went shopping, hung around the filming of Dr Who and went out delivering leaflets for the PCC election (find out more info about this and who your candidates are here) I needed a comfortable and warm outfit but one that showed my personality so this is what I wore:


I own loads of band t-shirts but they are never a good fit. Girls ones are too short and tight and mens ones are too big so I snapped up this ASOS Horrors t-shirt and haven't stopped wearing it. It's got rolled up sleeves and a nice open neckline. Perfect! I get a little annoyed when I see kids wearing Joy Division t-shirts from Urban Outfitters but I do actually love The Horrors so its allowed ;)

I've spoken about it on here before and I really do love Dr Who. When I found out they were filming opposite my house by following the #dwsr tag I let out a little squeal of joy. I saw some cybermen, Warwick Davis and MATT SMITH!! argh I didn't nearly pass out like the time I met Arthur Darvill but I did have a little swoon. Matt stopped to talk to everyone before heading back to Cardiff after a day of shooting and I can't wait to see the episode they filmed in my home town. They also filmed The Doctor's Daughter in my town along with Upstairs Downstairs and some of Sherlock.



I also wanted to briefly show you my new make up brushes. I picked these up in Harvey Nicks when I was in Manchester last week and gave them a trial on my day off. They cost £20 for the set which is a great price for five brushes, these would make a great present as the packaging is very festive. I've only used the foundation brush and powder brush so far but I'm very impressed.



After an exciting week (with good work related news) I'm looking forward to a fairly quiet weekend with a few birthday celebrations and the annual constituency dinner.