Style Inspiration: The Work Colleague

In the fifth installment of my style inspiration series (find the first four here, here, here and here) I'm featuring my gorgeous work colleague Qendresa. Obviously she is a friend as well as a work colleague, but work is where I see her the most!

I'd say Qendresa's style is very classic and timeless while still being very on trend. She tends to wear block colours rather than prints, but she's an expert at layering and making outfits look interesting. Her clothes always exude quality - even though they're mostly from Zara she manages to make them look more expensive than that and she often wears luxurious looking fabrics (sorry for stroking your clothes so often at work Qendresa, it's because they're luxurious looking!)

Qendresa very kindly let me stalk her with my camera one lunch break and also answered some questions about her style so I'll let the pictures and her do the talking rather than me rambling on with my inept descriptive skills! I've been trying to persuade Qendresa to start a blog of her own so if you think she should then please say so in the comments so I can use them as ammo!

Where do you get your style inspiration from? Lots of thing/places/people...but I will only give you a few as we may be here a while if I rattle them all off. I get inspired by the (cliché alert!) weather, my mood, a specific colour I am coveting, the occasion I’m dressing for or what I’m doing at work that day(!) and Instagram (duh!). 

Who is your biggest style inspiration? I’m trying to think of someone that will make me seem really cool but I can’t say I get inspired by those fashion icons from times gone by because, well I’m just not that cool clearly...so being honest, my sisters are my style inspiration a lot of the time because they’re effortlessly stylish. But if I was to liken my style to someone famous it would probably be Jessica Alba who has a really down-to-earth but sexy, chic and fabulous wardrobe!

What do you think of Qendresa's style? Who is your style inspiration?

Amy x

Interiors: Dressing Table

So this was the one item of furniture that was missing from our bedroom when I did our bedroom transformation post (here) because I hadn't got one yet! So I thought I'd do a quick little update about the dressing table I bought and what I have on it!

I would have loved a big dressing table, but the space it needed to fit into is really quite narrow so I was looking for something compact and neat. We actually found mine at the second hand shop at the tip (glamorous to the end) for £15.


Before

I actually loved how it looked before and loved the colour of the wood, but being a stereotypical blogger I really wanted a white dressing table, plus it would have looked out of place in our bedroom when the rest of our furniture is white! It also had a brown leather top which I wasn't quite sure what to do with!


After

Luckily the brown leather top just peeled off to reveal wood underneath and all I had to do was scrape the glue off. I sanded it down and painted it white before deciding to add the copper detailing to it at the bottom just to make it that little bit different. I also added on the drawer handle, as the original one must have come off. I bought the stool from Ikea (here) which I painted white and my mum made the padded seat out of leftover fabric from our blind. The mirror is from The Range (here), which I think looks much more expensive than it was!

I keep my everyday make up in the little drawer then my pefume, make up brushes and jewellery on the top. The two copper boxes are my favourites and were christmas presents from my mum and grandma - both are from Joy (here and here).

What do you think of my upcycled(ish) dressing table?

Amy x

Shades of Grey

This post is the last of the outfit pictures I got Nick to take when we were in London, which makes me sad as there are so many good places for outfit pictures in London and I'm going to have to get my thinking cap on for locations in Hull again.

I've actually already featured the dress before (here) but it's actually the sandals I wanted to show off the most because they're so dreamy. You know when you keep something in your Asos saved items for ages because you really want it but it's too expensive BUT then it goes in the sale and you do the happiest dance? That happened with these sandals and I was so happy (it's the little things). They were reduced from £42 to £29 and I didn't hesitate to buy them! After walking around London all day in these I can confirm that they're super comfy and didn't even need wearing in.

It was kind of coincidental that I wore this Asos bag from last summer and then I realised how perfectly it goes with the sandals and I felt like a proper coordinated person. Although I felt like I'd gone a bit overkill with all the grey I actually really liked this outfit as a casual summer ensemble (yes I just used the word ensemble to describe an outfit).

We took these pictures wandering along Southbank and although I've been banging on about how envious I am of all the London outfit picture backdrops, I realised that it's not all that easy on this day because the nice places where you want to take pictures are full of people!

Dress - New Look (here - now in the sale for £6 #gutted)
Sandals - Asos (out of stock)
Bag - Asos (old)
Sunglasses - Primark

What do you think of all grey?

Amy x

Lush Cup o' Coffee Face Mask

Calling all coffee lovers - I've found the face mask of dreams.

I've been a long time fan of Lush's Mask of Magnaminty, partly because it's great but also partly because it's self-preserving so generally a bit easier to use (as in I don't have to walk to the fridge to get it). A couple of months ago while I was browsing Lush I spotted this one - Cup o' Coffee. I don't know if it's relatively new or if I've just never noticed it before, but it's also self-preserving and (here's the important part) it has coffee in it.

It smells absolutely amazing (if you like coffee anyway) and I just love wearing it for the smell - it also has cocoa in it so literally smells like a creamy mocha. The general idea is that the caffeine in the coffee granules is supposed to rejuvenate and wake up your skin and I do think I see an improvement in my skin after using this - I just look that bit healthier and less like a living zombie. As well as that it makes my skin so soft I kind of just want to sit and stroke my own face after I've used it (weirdo). I love face masks where you can see some results straightaway and this is definitely one of those.

The one downside of this mask is the mess! It is messy to take off so I usually try to do it in the shower or bath so that I can wash it off in there rather than make a mess of my sink (and whole bathroom). It's definitely worth doing despite the mess though!

Before I end this review I feel like I need to reiterate how good it smells - like I want to eat it good. Seriously guys, if you like coffee you will love this.

Have you tried this mask before? What did you think? What are your favourite face masks?

Amy x

What I Wore This Week #5

It's so long since I've done one of these posts and I love doing them because I like to show what I actually wear in a week so here's what I wore this week! It was a mixture of sun and rain in Hull this week so it's a bit of a mixed bag, which I guess are the most interesting kind to show! Apologies for the shoddy quality of these pictures - most of them were taken rather hastily in my rush to leave the house for work!

Monday 

Shirt - H&M (here)
Cardigan - Next 
Jeans - Topshop (here)
Trainers - Tu  (current, not online)

Tuesday

Dress - Topshop
Cardigan - H&M 
Sandals - Asos 

Wednesday 

Dress - H&M 
Sleeveless cardigan - Tu 
Boots - Topshop 

Thursday 

Trousers - Asos
Top - Asos
Shoes - Truffle Collection via Asos

Friday

 Jeans - Topshop (here)
Shirt - Topshop
Trainers - Tu (current, not online)
Scarf - Zara

Which outfit is your favourite?

Amy x

Choosing Bed Linen

I (like most people I'm sure) absolutely love my bed. Seeing as we spend about a third of our lives sleeping it's important to have a space that you love. Since we've redecorated our bedroom I've slept so much better and I genuinely think it's partly down to loving being in my bed (ultimate granny alert right here). A big part of having a bed you love is obviously your bed linen so I thought I'd share some pictures of my lovely bed, talk about how we chose our bed linen and talk about our plans for our spare bedroom.

Our current bed linen is from Next and I absolutely love it. It fits in with the room perfectly and is also quite gender neutral, which I think is important because bedrooms can have a tendency to be quite feminine when really it has to be somewhere you both love! Another thing I love about this bed linen is the fact that there are four variations, as there are two duvet covers which are both reversible and I love being able to turn over the cover a little bit to show the other side.

I either like to choose bed linen that is plain or that matches the room so our bedroom linen is yellow and grey, having taken the inspiration for the yellow from the fireplace tiles and done the same for the curtains and rug.

We're lucky enough to have some beautiful fireplace tiles in our spare bedroom too so we plan to take inspiration for the colour scheme from them. For the bed in that room I'm imagining either plain white bed linen or a pale blue pattern to match the blue in the tiles. The Yorkshire Linen Co have some lovely luxury pieces at affordable prices and I've compiled a wish list below made up of some of their beautiful pieces along with some others I've got my eye on! All The Yorkshire Linen items are currently in the sale (temptation before we've even started decorating the room right there).

1/2/3/4/5/6

How do you choose your bed linen? Do you prefer plain or patterned?

Amy x

*This post is kindly sponsored by The Yorkshire Linen Co, but all opinions and love of bed linen are my own.

Plant Lady

My favourite quote right now is 'plant lady is the new cat lady' (although I'd be both if I could) and it really does seem like house plants are everywhere at the moment, including in my house. I'm literally obsessed and just to prove it, I bought the t-shirt.

I couldn't resist this from Asos and I like to think the print isn't too 'in-your-face plant lady', but more 'subtle not-as-crazy-as-you-think plant lady'. It's slightly cropped because I had to get it in a small as they'd run out of every other size (and I couldn't not get it) so I wore it with my Topshop high waisted mom jeans so I didn't offend anyone with my glaringly pale tummy.

Because we were walking around London all day when these were taken I wore my reliable Topshop chelsea boots, which are just ridiculously comfortable and perfect for a day of walking. I'm so chuffed we chanced upon this spot - I'm seriously envious of you bloggers who have these amazing outfit picture backdrops on your doorsteps! I think these are probably my favourite outfit pictures to date!

Top - Asos (out of stock)
Jeans - Topshop (here)
Boots - Topshop (old)
Bag - Primark

What do you think of this outfit? Are you a plant lady? (weirdest question ever!)

Amy x

A Weekend in London

To say that Nick and I met and studied in London and share some amazing memories of the city, we've only actually been back there together twice since leaving almost four years ago (cringed at writing that because how am I old?!) so a visit has been long overdue and we had a little break there last weekend. Every time I go back to London I get the biggest craving to move back, but lol at rent prices compared to my cushty Hull mortgage so that's not going to happen.

Although we spent three years in London I sometimes feel like we couldn't make the most of it because we were skint students so it's really nice to go back and try to experience things we didn't the first time round. Saying that, this trip was planned mainly around food - #cultured. 

We stayed at The Village Hotel in Watford, which was a) super convenient because it meant we could drive down b) way way way cheaper than staying centrally and c) a really nice hotel. We arrived at 3pm last Friday and got an uber to Regent's Park. It was such a nice day and we had a beautiful stroll through the park before meeting my friend for a cocktail in Marylebone. We ate at Meat Liquor, which did absolutely amazing food, but I wasn't mad keen on the interiors (it's dark, red and abattoir-like). We then wandered around the shops and I made my first visit to Lush Oxford Street - can I just live there please?

On Saturday we started the day with The Breakfast Club at Angel (hubba) before a long stroll along the river to the Tate Britain and then a further stroll into central London. It was one of those weekends where the weather was so nice that it was lovely just to wander around, plus having lived in London there wasn't any pressure to get things done. We wandered around Liberty just for fun and then went to The Mae Deli (full review here). By that point our feet were dying a little bit so we lolled in Hyde Park along with the other million people enjoying the sun before being absolute fogeys and returning to our hotel at 5pm for a swim, some food and a generally chilled night.

On Sunday we started with The Breakfast Club again because it's basically our favourite place ever, but this time it was the London Bridge branch, where if possible the food was even tastier and the staff were even friendlier. We had a long wander along Southbank, which will always be one of my favourite places in London, stopping at the Tate Modern where we were expecting to see all our old favourites, but they'd actually changed it all - I guess that's what happens when you've been away for four years. After a cocktail stop by the river we wandered a bit more (common theme of the trip) and ended up at Covent Garden and the National Portrait Gallery.

Now that I'm back in Hull all I want is to be back in London (but love you really Hull).

Have you been to London recently?

Amy x