Orla Kiely 2013

Firstly I wanted to apologise for not doing any outfit posts this past week; my boyfriend who takes all my pictures was away for the week recording with his band! He's back now though and I have planned to take a few photos tomorrow to catch up on some of the nice outfits i've been wearing! Last Thursday I had a job interview and on my way to LFW on the Friday I had a call to say I had been offered the job :) Woo! I'm really happy that I wasn't unemployed for too long, it's amazing how much it can stress you out! The job is as concession manager in Topshop, Bristol and the concession is 'In Love With Fashion'. I only applied for jobs that I really wanted and for brands that I like and can be passionate about, and Love is definitely one of them! I get a uniform allowance so expect to see plenty of their gorgeous dresses on my blog in the future!

As some of you who follow my twitter and instagram will know I went to LFW on Friday and it was amazing! I have loads of pictures and stuff to tell you guys about it but am going to do the post tomorrow once i've edited all my pictures.

I wanted to do a post on Orla Kiely today though as it's a brand i've recently fallen in love with and am head over heels for the Spring 2013 collection. Originally a textile designer, Orlas' designs are classic feminine styles and shapes mixed with her signature 70's retro style print. The Spring 2013 line has just been released and I really wanted to share with you some of my favourite bits. Expect lots of 60's style cardigans, cute full skirts and printed trousers in a minimalist cigarette style. The clothes are simple and in neutral tones, with a gorgeous sail boat print repeated throughout.

These are my top picks from the collection, as you can tell I really like the sail boat print! I especially like the shirt, it's just such a unique print and the colour of the dress is gorgeous! I really want to get a pair of printed cigarette pants, and these are so cute and would go with everything, including the cream blouse with the lovely decorative collar. Obviously the clothes are a bit out of my price range (eek!) but that doesn't meant I can't lust over them does it? I think i'm going to put Orla Kiely in my wishlist box, and use it as my Spring/Summer inspiration for this year, until I win the lottery and can buy everything! 

As well as designing a whole women's wear and accessories range, the brand also offer a large selection of fragrance, home and 'paper' products and i've included my favourites below. All decorated in a classic Orla Kiely print too of course! I'm really interested in trying out the bath and body selection and really want to see how the perfume smells too, does anyone use the products already? I love the organiser too, how cute is that to keep all your recipes in! ♥ 

1- Shower Gel - £17.95, 2- Orla Kiely Eau De Parfum - £55.00, 3-Acorn Cup Recipe Box - £20,        4- Scented Candle - £24.00

My Blogger Of The Month: Amy Bell!

This is a bit of a last minute/late idea from me, but I thought it would be a good idea, every month do a little post on my blogger of the month! I read a lot of blogs every day, both fashion and beauty, and wanted to do something to recognise my favourite bloggers and maybe even introduce my followers to the blog. I'm not going to worry about followers, they could have 1 or 10,000 followers, all I want to look for is someone who styles outfits I love and takes nice pictures. I always think it's a really nice thing to do when bloggers write posts on fellow bloggers and how much they love their style, so really this is just a way of spreading blogger love (that sounds so incredibly lame, but I don't care ha!)

My first blogger of the month for January 2013 is... Amy Bell from Little Magpie!

I was first introduced to Amy's blog through working at the Motel Rocks head office, where I was responsible for communicating with bloggers. Amy was a member of the street team and Laura who runs it, put Amy forward as a blogger we might be interested in working with further. Ever since the first time I emailed her, she has always been super nice and friendly and was one of the first people who followed my blog :)

I love her 60's style, she always wears her hair in this perfect beehive and her outfit shots are so good, they genuinely look like part of a magazine shoot. I feel like Amy is quite daring with her fashion but in a way you don't notice at first because she tends to stick with muted colours and classic prints. When you think of daring fashion, it conjures images of mental people who wear shoes on their head; people like Anna Piaggi but Amy is daring in a more subtle way. Like the way she wears a jacket/short sequin suit in the below picture, short suits are a trend thats quickly making it's way onto the high street but Amy was the first person I saw doing it and it's definitely not something for the faint hearted! I think one of the reasons I like her style is that it's quite similar to mine, I like dark colours, feminine shapes and grungy boots, and just love seeing how Amy puts things together, adding neck ties and statement necklaces.

What do you guys think of Amys' style? Do you like the idea of me doing a 'blogger of the month' feature?

Cross My Heart

Cross Earrings- Kukee

Cross Bracelet- Kukee

Cross Necklace- Urban Outfitters (no longer stocked)

Cross Dress - Motel Rocks

I absolutely love this soft goth trend where everything is black and all about crosses, studs, spikes and skulls in fact I've gone cross crazy without even realising it and noticed this morning that I have a small collection of cross themed jewellery (above). To add to my love for this trend black is without doubt my favourite colour to wear, I always think it looks good as a contrast with how white my hair is, plus most of my style inspiration comes from 60's icons like Keith Richards, Anita Pallenberg and Edie Sedgwick. My other main era of style inspiration is definitely the 90's. I love grunge and hate looking too 'done' so I usually like to add some 'grungey' accessories or a denim/camouflage jacket. I'm always on the lookout for more cross jewellery and usually look to Topshop and Asos first but recently i'm becoming a little bit obsessed with Kukee. I first noticed them because they collaborated with Motel for a competition, but after looking at their website they have loads of great on trend accessories at an incredible price! The items below are a selection of my favourite and are all priced below £5, I wish everything was this cheap!

All items from Kukee

As i'm currently working with Motel I spend lots of time on the website and was super excited when the 'cross beads' collection launched! With seven items the collection is all black with beaded cross embellishment and allows you to try out the trend without going cross crazy. I have bought the Zena dress but don't usually go for body con items because I don't think they flatter my figure, so i'm going to send it back for either the Kadie skirt or the Laynie baby doll dress, but at the moment I can't decide! Two of my favourite bloggers Amy from The Little Magpie and Lucy from ChampagneDiamondx, have worn the items which doesn't help me at all as they both look so good in them!

Kadie Skirt

Laynie Babydoll

Zeene Body con

Tess Shirt

All Motel Rocks