Some recent ebay purchases and A brand new shopping challenge...

Hello beautiful people x

I'm not actually here I'm away in London but this clever blog thing schedules post, so I have written this one ahead of time to be posted while I'm away, hurrah :)

Well I couldn't quite go forward in time to bring you an outfit but here are a few very pretty things I have bought on ebay recently that I thought I'd share:

The purple floral top is New Look,very pretty.

The floral bag is BNWT by Ulster Weavers I love it, different from all the primark ones kicking about, and big enoug to carry all my junk and will add a floral touch to a plain outfit.

The collection of costume jewellery consisting of: a silver coloured star pendant with chain approx 27 inches long, a gold coloured bar brooch (a twist shape) measures about 3 inches in length, gold coloured stud type earrings with backs, shaped like balls, a metal charm bracelet with 5 charms depicting space objects and a string of white/pearl coloured beads length approx 24 inches. I think my fave is the charm bracelet, but we'll see when it arrives.

The dress is actually sheer and I didn't realise, at the moment it's not a problem with a vest underneath and skinny jeans but in the summer I don't want to be flashing everything so I think I'll have to invest in some sort of slip - any suggetions?

These very pretty floral shoes (which I'm told are topshop, they haven't arrived yet so I'm not sure myself) I really do love them though even though the postage was steep. I'm smiling right now at the thought of wearing them.

And last...I've blogged these before because I was so excited when I won them for 99p plus £2 postage, in fact excited doesn't quite cut it, I was over the moon.  Well the sad thing is that haven't arrived and the seller isn't responding to my messages :( I'm really sad about it and I don't want to have to raise it as a dispute but it looks like I'm going to have to.  Such a shame, I really do love the shoes I do't care that they are late, I don't care that I've been ignored all would be forgotton if they were to arrive in the morning. Somehow I doubt that though 

I’ve also picked up other bits and pieces here and there, a pair or two of earrings here, £10odd in a charity shop there. Only spending small amounts at a time BUT it all adds up which is why I am setting myself a new challenge, hopefully one I can stick to this time and one that is manageable. I’m not going for a total no spend challenge because I think that is too brutal and I’m bound to fail because there is a jumble sale on 11th March which I am most certainly going to attend and therefore spend.

So here is my challenge:

From 1st March to 31st March I am giving myself a £25 budget to spend on clothes, footwear and accessories (jewellery/bags/scarves etc) also including materials to make, amend or customise things. Anything with a bid on ebay before 1st March doesn’t count. Once this £25 has gone it has gone, if I want to spend more then I need to make the purchase spend neutral by selling something on ebay (funds from somethng new, not somthing sold before 1st March), or using a voucher earned from surveys (I’m sure as the month goes on I might become more creative in how I be spend neutral). Any suggestions would be gratefully received.

So there it is…scary but possible, more than possible. I'm doing well with the no toiletries challenge, I'm over 30 days in and haven't spent a penny. If I can just crack this one I'll be laughing!

Wish me luck

Queenie xx

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All packed up and ready to go…

Just a quick outfit post before I go…relatively boring today because I’m travelling and I like to be as comfortable as possible (plus I didn’t want to wear tights because I’m hoping to paint my toe nails on the train).

Diesel Jeans £3.99 charity shop

Black top £3 Asda

Leopard print cardi £5 Tesco clothing online sale

Office boots £5 via charity shop (yes again because I lurve them)

Scarf is actually a sarong from Primark, years old

Flower in hair £1.50 primark

Coat H&M via £4 Charity shop

Red belt 50p from a flea market

So I managed to sneek in a red belt for national wear red day, it was the best I could come up with!
Lots of Love

Queenie xx

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Coloured tights, has she seen the light?

Hi everyone,

I’ve been neglecting you all the last few days…have been really busy so I can only apologise, am I forgiven? I’m going away to London for the weekend tomorrow, back Sunday and then away in Liverpool Monday to Friday next week, so things will be pretty quiet round here, but I'm hoping to pop in Sunday and maybe Monday morning.

I've just noticed that I am up to 19 followers already, a massive thank you to everyone who reads and comments. I spose I had better start thinking about my first giveaway soon then :)

Not posting an outfit that I wore today but I did buy some coloured tights and have been playing around with a couple of outfits which I would love your feedback on:

First one I’m unsure which tights go best with this dress, I tried it with mustard, teal and pale pink. I’m thinking the mustard ones but don’t know if I’m brave enough, what do you think?

I bought the dress today from International for £7.50, it’s actually a size 14 because I liked the looser fit, I bought another one in a 10 which is black with a floral pattern, much more fitted and I think I’d wear that one over skinny jeans rather than tights. Boots by Office £5 charity shop. Tights were 75p - £1 from international. Here is a pic of te back of the dress:

I love the red  I picked up today and am thinking that this outfit looks fabulous…might swap the shoes for boots though:

(for some reason I look quite apple shaped in this pic and naturally

I'm more of an hourglass on a good day and pair on a bad day!)

Grey leopard skirt – peacocks sale £4

Spotty vest £5 from select about 3 years old

Red tights 50p primark

Shoes £2.99 charity shop

Red skinny belt - peacocks £2.50 for 2

Parrot earrings - gift

Here are pics of the renewed hair colour, it’s meant to be blue black but not sure that it’s coming through in the photos: (The top I'm wearing was given to me by a friend, it's quite floaty with elasticated wide sleeves, which I wore with black skinny jeans)

The last photo was for a bit of fun..I’d never wear this combo but wanted to try out the pink tights, and I would certainly be wearing a white bra under the shirt!

I’ve never actually been brave enough to wear this shirt yet but it’s something that sits in my wardrobe waiting to be taken out to play. It was £5 in the republic sale last year, I fell in love and often look longingly at it but that’s as far as it goes. I have a similar black one with long straight sleeves which has never been worn either, also from republic in the sale for £10. The skirt is denim by DKNY from TK Maxx £12 in the sale, the ring was £1 from international, boots £40 in the zara sale bought with christmas money, earrings are from asda and are years old.

Anyway that is quite enough from me for one day, if I get time I'll update an outfit in the morning, if not I'll be back on Sunday.

Queenie xxx

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H is for Hobbs

I adore these boots, in fact most of this winter I have lived in them (as you can see from the pic). I’m not sure I have ever been as excited with a charity shop find, these beautiful Hobbs riding boots were a mere £5. Yes five English pounds. Hurrah! They are functional, practical and classic, and if I look after them they will last and last. The thing I struggle with when it comes to flat boots is they tend to gather at the ankle IYKWIM, I’m not sure how to avoid this.

And my cardigan, I agonised about paying £20 for something in the sale from New Look of all places, but it is quite unusual and it was love at first sight.

I’ve taken a different approach with the photos today, taking them from a higher angle – better or worse?
I tried a smile and I'm not sure who the attitude look is to in the last photo!!

Hobbs riding boots £5 charity shop

Primark Skinny Jeans

Asda Black Jersey polo neck £3

New Look cardigan £20 in the sale

Pink flower earrings £1.50 Asda

Well that’s all from me today. I just want to say a huge thank you to everyone who comments and for your ongoing support/suggestions, it is much appreciated

Queenie xx

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Wish I was there (Egypt I mean)

So today I was feeling better about my body image, then looked at the photos again when I was just uploading them for the blog and had another wobble, but I know it’s my head that’s a bit lopsided so I’m going to upload even though I wasn’t going to.


Today I wore my wool trousers for warmth more than anything else, and I ditched the long boyfriend cardigan for a slightly shorter one, and added a bit of leopard print to jazz it up. My feet were freezing in these shoes so I actually changed them for boots when I went out.

M&S Wool wide legged trousers £4 charity shop

Black Top Asda sale £3

Cardigan from TK Maxx

Shoes from Miss Selfridge in the sale

Scarf is actually a sarong from Primark about 3 years ago

Earrings Asda £3 years old

And here are a couple of bits I’ve bought over the last few days:

Butterfly Scarf £2 Primark

Wooden Beads £2 Primark

 

Pink Flower Earrings £1.50 Asda sale – can’t get a good enough pic but will wear soon to show them off.

Bally Vintage Shoes charity shop – Not sure whether to keep these or ebay yet.

And for those who wanted to see a smiley photo of me…here is some pics of me in Egypt in September last year, where me and OH spend two glorious weeks. Looking back at the photos makes me wish I was there!

And this one is for me...because despite what my head tells me, I'm actually totally gorgeous!

(even though I'm begining to burn, quite bad!)

 
Lots of Love
 
Queenie xxx

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TFI Friday

I feel like I’m having a total crisis with my wardrobe at the moment, it feels so boring.

Sorry to open with a moan…Ladies I need your help and quick. How do you put your outfits together, how to you make them more exciting rather than being ‘Plain Jane’. I find myself reaching for the high necks and layers because it’s been such a cold winter and I want to cover up as much of myself as I can to keep warm. it’s almost like I’ve forgotten what I used to wear before winter came.

But enough is enough…I’m going to war with my style. Perhaps I need a challenge to give me a kick. Any suggestions gratefully received.

Outfit today:

Dress New Look sale £5 (about 3 years ago)
Leather Belt Gifted
Black treggings New Look sale £7
Leopard print cardigan Tesco Clothing sale £5
Office cowboy Boots £5 charity shop
Parrot earrings

I went to get my hair cut and coloured at the college today but they had booked me in during half term week by mistake! So it’ll have to wait until next week…but that’s something to look forward to and they are going to give me a discount. Ah discount…one of my favourite words along with sale, cheap, free, reduced…

Looking forward to hearing your suggestions on what I can do to shake myself up wardrobe wise. I don’t have a lot of spare cash to spend but could pick up some key bits here and there.

Does anyone else find that doing their blog taps into their body image issues? Last couple of days I've really wobbled seeing photos of myself. :(

Lots of Love

Queenie xx

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Granny tights

Morning everyone,

Posting slightly earlier today as a distraction of doing the studying I’m supposed to be doing! Decided to be brave and try out some coloured tights today, still not sure about them. I’ve not been hugely adventurous, but it’s not black so that’s a step in the right direction at least.

I’m beginning to think I need to move out of my ‘long cardigan’ phase, looking back on my blog I’ve noticed that nearly every day I wear a boyfriend type cardi of some description, I’m trying to figure out what that’s all about. Am I hiding or has it become a habit, is it a comfort thing? Right now I don’t know but what I do know is that it’s getting boring!

I’m feeling very uninspired at the moment, looking in my wardrobe I’ve got lots of polo neck jumpers/tops, mostly in grey and black, 5 boyfriend cardigans, skinny jeans in dark blue/black, treggins in black/grey, I’ve got a few skirts and a few dresses too…but I feel really lost with it all. I think winter came and I just went for lots of clothes that could be layered. I think I need to get everything out and put together some outfits rather than opening the wardrobe and seeing a wave of grey and black and just pulling together anything. I think having just sold a load of stuff on ebay doesn't help, because although I've got rid of a load of stuff I don't wear, what I've got rid of was perhaps some of my more exciting clothes, and now they are gone it's highlighted how boring my style is...um back to the drawing board.

So here is my outfit today:

(fingers in belt loops is such a bad look)

Black vest top with bib – newlook sale

Primark black cardi

Denim skirt Chazza shop

Shoes Jones The Bootmaker via Chazza shop

So that is where I am at today, a bit blah with my wardrobe and annoyed with myself for not having the courage to be more funky when more funky is actually what I like :(
 
Queenie xx

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Breaking chains

Might seem like a very odd title for this blog but I feel that I’ve reached a small landmark today with overcoming my toiletries addiction…okay okay so it wasn’t quite an addiction but it was certainly getting out of control. Finding any excuse to pop into Boots every day to slip my advantage card in the ACM to see what (so called) offers they had that day, working out the best way to accumulate and spend the £5 money off vouchers, touching, smelling and flirting with face scrubs, body butters, nail varnishes ad infinitum. I posted my stash in an earlier blog and I reckon it’ll take me the rest of the year to use most of it up. So on 21st January I decided to set myself a no spend toiletries challenge for 90 days, so far I’m on track but the first few days/week it was really tough, almost like going cold turkey. I felt empty, I’d lost a hobby, a best friend – it sounds pathetic and perhaps I’m being a tad dramatic but I did find it tough initially. I was using toiletries to treat myself after a hard day and with that gone I needed to find another outlet. So anyway, today I became aware that Soap and Glory have released a new gift set called “A butter Suite”, consisting of three tubs of 150ml body butters - The Righteous Butter, The Daily Smooth, and Butter Up. The pull was so strong, I wanted to rush down to Boots and snap one up there and then, and with a third off the price…But I stopped and thought about it, I looked in my stash and found that I’ve got two Daily Smooth 250ml and two Butter Up 200ml (among many other body butters), also out of the three tubs in the set I only really love one of them, The Daily Smooth. Righteous Butter is too sweet and sickly for me, and Butter Up is nice but that’s all it is. So hold on I was going to rush out and spend £9.33 on three body butters when one I won’t even use and one I wouldn’t ordinarily buy, I realised my madness and saw the obsession and compulsion for what it was. Whoohoo, I broke free and walked away – well virtually because I didn’t actually make it to Boots!

So on to the outfit – I introduced a spring dress today, but I had to wear it with layers and jeans because it’s just soooo cold. .

I didn’t feel fat in this outfit at all today, I’m a perfect size 10 so there is nothing fat about me at all, but for some reason when I’ve uploaded these photos I’m not sure it’s the most flattering dress in the world, thankfully I didn't take my cardi off all day! Perhaps the dress needs to be ebayed, what do you think?

Grey jersey polo neck - £5 new look sale
Navy and white ditsy heart print dress with ruffled front new look sale £8
Blue primark boyfriend cardi £10ish (one of my staples)
Blue skinny jeans £8 primark
Office tan cowboy boots £5 chazza shop
H&M tan Mac £3.99 chazza shop
Burnt orange coloured beads

Thank you for your comments about me in pink, I don’t have much pink in my wardrobe but I might just keep an eye out for the odd piece to add in some colour, it’s so easy for me to wear darker colours, so thank you again for the positive comments and inspiration

Queenie xx

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