LBD Christmas and New Year Party Dress

I've needed a classic little LBD for a while now, and I became obsessed with wrap dresses. I loved how sexy they looked but whilst being understated and simple. Which is something I'm always looking for. I was searching for it for a Christmas party and I was really excited when this showed up on the ASOS curve website. It has gold cuffs which meant I didn't need to look for jewelry to go with it. A plunging wrap neck line and creates a great hourglass figure . I wore a long chain necklace which kept the dress looking casual and belted it to pull me in at the waist. I went with messy hair and black platform heels to keep the look simple and classic. I also picked up a really pretty bra, one I didn't mind if it showed a little bit, from Ann Summers. They go up to a 42 G have great support and a lovely pair of pants. I think this is the closest you'll get to seeing my underwear on this blog, but I really do recommend them. Anyway this is the perfect party dress for this season. I am off to Leeds tonight for New Years to see a few of my best friends. I'm taking this to wear but I always change my mind. But hopefully I'll get another wear out of it. It is a great New Years Eve dress really! I can't see this one on the website but they have a really similar one in the sale with jewelled cuffs which is just as pretty and simple! You can see other sale finds in my post from Friday. Anyway I hope everyone has a lovely lovely new year! And maybe gets a new years kiss! 

Dress- ASOS Curve

Tights - Tesco

Shoes - New Look

Rings - Pia, vintage market

Necklace - Topshop (old)

Gem xo

Spoilt Brat

This is a quick post to show my Christmas presents. I was well and truly spoiled this year. But I did return the favour and spoiled my parents and brother too. We had a lovely day together, my parents, grandparents and auntie and uncle all had a lovely day watching films, eating good food and playing games. Thats the best thing about Christmas, how happy everyone is! But my favourite present definitely had to be the Michael Kors watch. I didn't know what I wanted and it was between a camera and a watch, but I chose the watch. It's something I'll definitely look after, I've barely taken it out of the box. I got some great box sets including Abfab, and books by Dawn French an Cecelia Ahern as well as a cookery book. My mother knows me well. I got some lovely perfume and make up bits too for the beauty lover in side of me. I received some clothes too which will be featuring in a outfit post soon if I can pull my finger out. Anyway despite getting struck down with the lurgy I've had a lovely Christmas period this year and spent loadsa time with friends and family and although I've had to work I've felt relaxed this Christmas. It was definitely an up on last year when my mum put her hand through a glass plate and sliced her hand open! Hope you all had a lovely Christmas and had lots of laughs. Now for New Year Celebrations. Woohoooo.

Gem xo

Top Christmas Sales!

Just thought I'd share a sneak preview of my last outfit of the year! It sure is a special outfit, I must say. I wanted to share my favourite online sales that you should all check out. I had a great Christmas and will show my favourite presents over the weekend and some photos I took which you might have seen on Instagram. Anyway onto the sales! I started sale shopping pretty early this year and logged on on Christmas Day afternoon. I'm glad I did because I picked up a cheeky Mulberry bag. Anyway other websites I've been so tempted by but I've managed to hold myself back are:

1. ASOS Curve

This sale is a fair bit pricey. But it's my go to site for plus size buys. It's on trend and easy to use and has a lot of choice. My favourite pick is this bow print shirt, perfect for the office or dress down with jeans and boots.

2. Evans

Another pricey website for plus size fashion. But it has great discount in the sale. Especially on the Clements Ribiero selection. This black peplum dress has over half price off! 

3. Boots

Boots always offer a great little pick me up. So after a day of sale shopping why not pop here for a nice little set. They have loads of sets for under a tenner. They're great presents too, so I'm thinking of picking some up for friends and family for up coming birthdays. 

4. New Look

I think New Look offer the best value for money. And they are offering great discounts too. Go now if you need a quick New Years Dress. I blogged about this one a few weeks ago and everyone loved it. It's now in the sale so go get it while you can.

5. Very.co.uk

Another website offering some cheap items. There is lots on here as well from electricals to womens clothes. So this is a good all rounder website really. This bright dress is lovely for summer. They offer lots of other clothes though, from going up to large sizes. I've had a trawl through this website quite a few times now!

6. Mulberry

This is my favourite sale thats going on. I can never ever afford a big leather mulberry bag but if I could have a slice of the iconic brand that would be amazing! I didn't pick this back up but another one in a similar style. It looks like its come back into stock too so go pick up one now. There are also purses and belts if you're after something else!

So they're my Christmas Sale picks. If you have found any great ones do let me know! Hope you all had a lovely Christmas! And got what you wanted. I'm off to relax as I'm full of a stinking cold, and I want to be better for New Years. Happy weekend. 

Gem xo

Christmas Party Dress

It's taken my a while to get round to posting this outfit, I've left most of my Christmas bits and bobs until the last minute so blogging has been put a bit on the back burner unfortunately but I thought I'd share my story on how I survived the Christmas office party! It was the office Christmas party last week in Manchester, and I was struggling to find something to wear. I wanted to be dressy but not overly so as we were going straight from work and would be walking about a fair bit around Manchester fairly early. I've also read a few articles where red seems to be a good colour to wear on a night out, and has been popular this year. So when I saw this LRD on ASOS Curve website I knew I had to pick it up.  it has a cute button down design and a little peter pan collar. It fit really well and I really love the shade of red. Despite red being my favourite colour I've never gotten a dress in the colour so this was a great addition to my wardrobe. I accessorised my outfit with chunky boots I can wear all night, gold rings, and a slick of red lipstick. Anyway we went to TGI Fridays in Manchester and I had lots of drinks bought for me so when we got to the main party at Missoula I was suitably pissed already, but then there was a free bar, but I was proud and left with most of my dignity in tact. The photo above was from later on in the night and I'm still looking fairly okay! I had a really good night and survived my first Christmas office party and lived to tell the tale. What did you all get up to for your Christmas party? I hope you got suitably drunk and merry as well!

Dress - ASOS Curve

Tights - Tesco

Boots - ASOS

Leather Jacket - Very (old)

Gem xo

Christmas Jumper Day

This may be the tackiest post I ever produce. But I had to show you my favourite (only) christmas jumper. On Friday it was Christmas Jumper day, the idea is you wear your christmas jumper to work and donate money to charity, all for a bit of fun. As Friday was the Christmas do, everyone was looking quite glam in work so they did it on Thursday. I ordered a suitably tacky, cheerful and cheap jumper from eBay over a week ago, with the promise it would arrive for the Thursday. It never did come in time. But I'm not out of pocket too much because I made this one for free. In my disappointment I wanted to make the best Christmas jumper to shame them all. I had some battery operated lights, a jumper and some christmassy gold bows, and a needle and thread. I could do this. I made this Christmas monstrosity. It was a talking piece and I enjoyed 'flashing' people throughout the days with my lights. I actually never thought wearing a Christmas Jumper could be so much fun, but it was, so much so me and my colleagues got an email telling us to calm down and stop being so noisy. Bah humbug! I hope everyone else got to wear a suitably Christmas jumper at some point over the festive period! The lights do definitely say Merry Christmas in case you wear wondering!

Edit: Sorry just mentioning, this is my 200th post! I think it's been celebrated in style!

Jumper - Made by me.

Gem xo

Gift Ideas For Him & Her

It's nearly Christmas and if you're anything like me you've left some of your christmas shopping until the last minute. I've been celebrating Christmas a lot this week with nights out with friends, Secret Santa and the works night out on Friday. As well as a hungover Saturday watching Christmas films I thought it was about time I posted some gift ideas. So I hope this helps you if you're stuck for some presents!

Flowerbomb Set | Mac Lipstick | Kitchen Aid | Peace Mulberry Bracelet | Paperchase Clock Diary | Michael Kors Watch

Perfume and Make-up will always be a Christmas winner, so with the Flowerbomb gift set and the Mac lipstick you can't go wrong. This KitchenAid is what my mum is after. I'm trying to rope people in the family to giving money to me so we can get it her but it's proving hard as everyone has their own gift ideas for her. It's the perfect present for that baker in the family. I love a good diary for Christmas, I'm always scribbling stuff down so a paper diary is perfect. Paperchase always provide the prettiest designs, like this clock one for 2013. I love this mulberry bracelet as a gift for your best friend. It's nice to give someone a taste of the designer they love, but for a small percent of the usual Mulberry Prices! Another designer jewellery piece is this Michael Kors watch. The most popular watch with bloggers galore, but his designs are timeless, this rose gold one is super pretty.

Jumper | USB Sticks (selection at Amazon) | Casio Watch | Hat | Diesel Only The Brave  | Amazon Kindle 

I always find men hard to buy for, and unfortunately I had a guy for my secret santa at work. Luckily, he loves to cook posh food so when I saw a Tagine set I picked that up for him, which he guessed after just seeing the package and loved thankfully! But I would be struggling usually, so I've chosen quite easy things that I think will be a winner. This oatmeal jumper is a perfect, chic alternative to the garish Christmas jumper for Christmas day. I can image if this was your boyfriends, you'd want to steal it and snuggle into it. Sadly I have no boyfriend, so I may just buy this for myself! These cool USB sticks are amazing, great for the secret geek. I've linked to a selection at Amazon for your geeky guy friend needs. I love these retro Casio watches, a great casual watch, I've got this for my brother. I also picked up is favourite aftershave, this is quite a cheap aftershave, and with my brother he uses it like water so cheap is always the best way with him! Another cute clothing piece you'll want to steal is this wooly maroon hat, perfect for winter days. Finally for the man who can't put books down, but loves his gadgets, much like my Dad, this Kindle Fire is perfect, has a connection to the internet and is a great alternative to the very very expensive iPad.

I hope you enjoyed this little gift guide, if you want to buy the gifts, just click on the name and it's all linked. I know some of the presents are cliche, but sometimes they're the best presents, useful and thoughtful too. In other gift news, my giveaway ended last night and the winner was Gail T! So well done to her and she'll be getting her gift soon. Thank you so much to everyone who followed and entered. I have lots of outfit posts from the last week that I haven't got round to posting. So I promise promise I will put them up, including my Christmas jumper I made myself! 

Gem xo

Words Are All We Have

Another week close to Christmas, agh. I had a day off today and went Christmas Shopping all by myself, I got a few bits and bobs. Including my secret santa present, which is for a boy and was boring to buy but I did it, and some presents for my family. And a few things for myself which I'll include in a little winter clothing haul near the end of this week. I've been updating my wardrobe with winter essentials but don't really show my accessories on here much as I take indoor photos, so I'm looking forward to sharing my recent winter accessory buys! I wanted to be comfy and simple and not worrying about what I was wearing with it being busy in the shops. So I threw this dress on that I picked up from ASOS curve last week. It's a really easy dress to wear with it being navy blue, so it looks nice with black, but the cute Peter Pan collar is a lovely addition. I bought my regular size in this, and its actually supposed to be a swing dress, but it's massive, and I've had to belt it so it wasn't down to my calfs, so I would recommend sizing down in this dress. I did wear some chunky boots because of the weather but the dress looks prettier with ballet slippers as above. In other news, last night I went to see Mumford & Sons. They were amazing! I couldn't get any amazing photos of them as we were far back and I was too busy singing along, but I'll share my gig outfit later on in the week too. I would recommend Mumford &Sons live to anyone who wants to go to a wintery gig. Their first album always reminds me of Christmas. 

In other Christmas news, go enter my giveaway if you would like another present under your Christmas tree. Just scroll down and enter to win a Benefit make-up set!

Dress - ASOS Curve

Tights - Tesco

Shoes - ASDA

Belt - Dorothy Perkins

Rings - Vintage, Pia, and Markets

Gem xo

Happy Blogmas!

Hello! And Happy Blogmas! I've been talking about this for a little while now, and I've finally got round to hosting my first giveaway on my blog! I'm doing this to say thank you to the ladies who read this blog as a little Christmas Treat. I've got a lot out of blogging including a lot of confidence and insight into great fashion and beauty products and I think it's about time I put something back in to the community! Benefit are one of my favourite beauty brands, so I thought it's only right to choose them for my first giveaway. This little set is part of their Christmas Range, and has some full size products and some samples for you to pop into your handbag. It has my favourite highlighter and mascara in, both that I'd really recommend. I'd really love it if you could all enter! The set includes:

• Full size high beam
• Full size sugarbomb
• the POREfessional deluxe mini
• they're real! deluxe mini

The giveaway is a week long, ending on the 16th December at 12 am. All you need to do to enter is follow my blog on GFC as this is a giveaway for followers and for an extra entry just tweet about my giveaway but that's optional. It's open to all countries. I hope it will get to the winner before Christmas, but I've left it late, as per usual! Edit: Sorry! But could you leave a comment and how many times you've entered below please as well.

Thanks for entering and good luck to everyone!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Gem xo

So Cold in This House

Since the snow and hail has arrived in the country I thought I better get out my new winter coat. And show you of course. I was lusting after the Zara version of this coat, but out of my price range and way out of my size range I had to look elsewhere. Then I saw Franceta or Frantic Dreams wearing an amazing coat. So I bought it. I love my leather biker jacket and this is a great transition piece. I still wear my old charity shop camel coat, but this is just a classic coat, that I hope will stay in my wardrobe for years to come. I love the pu leather sleeves and the collar, it adds an extra bit to that classic black woollen coat. I've been wearing it to work a lot as it's quite smart. And it does smarten up casual outfits like this one. It isn't the warmest coat I have but with a cardigan or jumper underneath and a big chunky knit scarf over the top it keeps me warm enough. So that is my winter coat. I've been wearing this collar necklace for a bit as well, but only ever wearing it with plain tops and dresses as it can get a bit much. It's a primark bargain. Anyway, I'm off to sort my room out, hope everyone has had a good week so far.

Coat - Simply Be

Top - Primark

Jeans - ASOS Curve

Boots - ASOS

Necklace - Primark

Gem xo

Hopes and Promises

I've been eying up the black skater skirt on ASOS for a while but I didn't really want to pay for something that I could have a go at making myself. But when I was out shopping in Chester last weekend I popped into a charity shop and found an old skater skirt. Woop, I paid £2 for something and my lazy side won and I didn't have to make it. Winner. I've seen lots of bloggers looking great in the skater skirt style including Mel and Gem. I didn't go too far from their style, opting to tuck my skirt in. Which pulls me in at the waist a bit more. I'm thinking of trying to get away with wearing this for work with the pussy bow blouse which is a smart take on the look. I wore it with my chunky black chelsea boots. These have been coming out more as with the wet weather they seem to be keeping my feet a lot dryer than my little flats. I know I keep harping on about it, and I'm very sorry but I definitely have a giveaway coming up. I've found the perfect gift and I'm sad I have to send it out to be honest! Keep your eyes peeled for the giveaway! Hope everyone has a lovely week anyway!

Skirt - Charity Shop 

Shirt - Primark

Tights - Primark

Shoes - ASOS

Gem xo