Brown Sugar

1-Topshop Skirt - £45

2-Topshop Trousers - £35 (sold out online!)

3-Topshop Dress - £35 

4-New Look Skirt - £14.99

5-Motel Tinkerbell Dress - £45

As it has been such a long time since i've written a post I thought I would come back with a classic wish list! I feel so guilty about my lack of blogging, i've been really busy with my job and have had hardly any access to the Internet which has been driving me a little bit crazy! Now however I am back, and have several posts lined up for this week :) 

As I mentioned in my last post I was made redundant again so I have been spending quite a bit of time trying to find a new job (which is a horrible process!) Career wise I really want to get into fashion marketing and promotion and basically do what I did in my internship as a paid job, but living outside of London does make this quite difficult. I've spent a lot of time looking for fashion companies based in Bristol and there are very few so I've decided to try and get a job with any kind of PR, marketing or communications company to get experience and a foot in the door! There's quite a lot of marketing companies in Bristol but it's the old problem of you can't get a job without experience but you can't get experience if no one will give you a job. I have thought about doing another 6 month internship so I can make sure I have at least a years part time experience but again positions are limited in Bristol. If anyone has any advice or has been in a similar position feel free to share your experience! 

Anyway enough negativity how nice are all these items! I am loving cobalt blue, denim and tartan at the moment and as always paisley is one of my favourite prints. It's the start of a new season which always means new clothes and I can't wait to start snapping up my summer wardrobe! Remember you can use the code 'sophiepalms' at the Motel online checkout for 20% off! This week i'm having some gel nails done too so make sure you check out my instagram (sophiepalmer) to see them, i'm pretty excited to not have to worry about chipped nail varnish!  Hope everyones had a nice weekend :)

Recent Purchases

This is a little collection of a few of the things I have bought recently. These were the things that photographed the best even though there were a few more items, but for some reason the others just looked terrible laid flat, hopefully they will look better on! The first item is a little playsuit from Topshop which was £26, it's quite expensive for a beach cover up but I thought I could wear it with a black bandeau and tights which made me justify it a little more! Secondly my absolute favourite current item; the Urban Outfitters denim pinafore! I don't know what is wrong with me but I seem to have reverted back to childhood and just want to wear dungarees and pinafores all the time. This one was quite pricey at £58 but 100% worth it if this is something you are looking for. It's quite a strange shape to get used to as it's quite square but a really lovely item which I will definitely be doing an outfit post on this week! The last two items are two vintage shirts one from eBay and the other from a vintage fair. Both were under £10 which is brilliant and look great tucked into skater skirts or vintage levis. I did include a picture of my white vintage dress from the vintage fair too but honestly it photographed so badly when laid out so instead here is a link to me wearing it! 

I can't write a blog post without touching on what's going on in my life at the moment and to be honest life at the moment seems a little crazy! I am working pretty much full time at my job, going to the gym and sleeping a lot and i'm afraid my blog has been suffering because of it. I always feel so guilty because I love writing this so much and I hereby promise to dedicate more time to posts in the future, which I know will make my friend Bea who is my number 1 fan happy! 

Thank you to everyone who has followed me and who leaves me such lovely comments and hello to all my new bloglovin followers, I really do appreciate every single one of you :)

February Wishlist

I am without doubt the kind of neurotic person who writes a list about the things they want, in fact I actually start to feel a bit anxious when I haven't got a list of things I want! If I just go shopping without anything in mind I completely fall apart and just buy everything, so it's probably for the best really that I have these lists! At the moment I am completely in love with everything in Topshop, which is why I decided to make Februarys Wishlist 100% Topshop! I don't know whether it's the time of year or whether the Bristol Topshop just has fantastic Visual Merchandisers, but either way the past few times i've been in there I seem to want everything in the window or on the inside mannequins.

1- Red Lace Crop Top - £15. This seems like a real Summer staple, it comes in several colours and is the type of essential you could wear with high waisted skirts, disco pants, and underneath pinafores. At only £15 i'm definitely going to get one just not 100% certain of which colour yet.

2- Denim Pinafore Dress - £38. This is my current number one. I bought the black crepe pinafore and totally fell in love with the style and the shape, and this denim one seems like the kind of thing I will live in during the summer. I can think of a million different ways to wear it; with shirts, crop tops, jumpers, black, white, or with just a bikini underneath on holiday. I need to take it to Glastonbury and am just too excited about it for words!

3- Cream Lace Collar Top - £16. Another summer staple, an item you can wear with lots of high waisted skirt, shorts or jeans. A great price and just something that i'll wear constantly. It also comes in several other colours, the difficulty is picking which one!

4- Bonded Short Parka - £65. I saw this in store the other day and loved it straight away, it's a great Summer jacket, especially as I wear my big Winter parka constantly in the cold so thought this could be a great alternative for warmer nights. I like the navy colour with the grey underneath, but I do think it is far too expensive, its should be £45.

5- Dip Dye Oversized Tee - £20. I have already bought this item, but wanted to include it in the wishlist because it's only been mine for less than 24 hours! I really like wearing oversized tees with my AA shiny leggings, it will also look great with denim shorts or jeans. Dip Dye is a big trend and this is quite a casual way of wearing it due to the neutral colours.

6- MILL Toe Cap Slippers - £26. How cute are these shoes! I do love a good black flat shoe and tend to live in patent black loafers, but I like how these are a basic shoe which will go with everything yet have the added detail of the patent toe.

7- Lace Collar Playsuit - £50. This is quite possibly the most beautiful item of clothing I have ever laid eyes on! I saw it in store and it is just amazing! It feels like it's really good quality, and I just love the lace shoulders. It's something I can imagine myself wearing a lot as it's quite a simple item with an extra detail, something I tend to go for a lot. Although it is the best playsuit i've seen, it is quite expensive and I will need to have a think about whether I can justify it!

What do you guys think of these picks, do you have any of them that you can recommend?

In other news yesterday I joined and gym and went for a 45 minute work out, it was quite hard but I really enjoyed it. As some of you know I have hypothyroidism which tends to leave me feeling very tired and lethargic, but i'm hoping that regular gym exercise will help to boost my energy levels and make me feel a bit better.

Soap & Glory Gift Set

For Christmas I was so lucky to receive lots of great make up, beauty products and perfumes, but the one I really wanted to share with you guys was this Soap & Glory set named "Showers that Glee". It was a gift from a member of my boyfriends family so I guess it was toiletries, but when I saw the box I was so excited as it was huge!

Soap & Glory are one of my favourite ranges, I love the feel of the products, the smell and of course the beautiful retro packaging style. The packaging is really similar to Benefit in the sense that they both use vintage imagery and play on the names of their products, and even though Soap & Glory is a lot cheaper I still think it can match the quality of higher priced products.

The first thing I loved about this gift set was that all the items are fully sized. Travel sized items are great for holidays and to test out a product but I always seem to have loads of the 'Body Mist' which I never use and none of the shower gel which I love! In fact i've just checked a drawer and I have four unused body mists! My second favourite thing about this set was two of the main products are items I have never tried before - perfect! The set comes with the standard shower puff and a really useful hair towel but the main products are 'Pulp Friction Body Scrum', 'Butter Yourself Body Butter' and 'Foam Call Shower & Bath Wash'.

Pulp Friction Body Scrub

This smelt so summery, as soon as I used it I felt refreshed! It smelt of citrus and mint and when I checked the ingredients it is a blend of peppermint, lemonade tree oil, orange and fig powder. It is a good scrub in that it foams well, meaning it will last a while however it is quite sticky so you will need to make sure it's all washed off after showering! It left my skin feeling really smooth and fresh, albeit a little dry so I was desperate to use the body butter after.

Foam Call Shower & Bath Wash

An everyday item this was the product I will use the most, so I needed it to be good! Squeezing it onto the S&G puff it instantly smelt great and lathered up well, I hate using shower gels that don't lather! It felt really smooth and left my skin smelling great and well moisturised, meaning I can use it quickly without having to worry about moisturising if i'm in a rush. (apologies for the glare on this picture, took about 50 photos of it but they all had glare!).

Butter Yourself Body Butter

I have really dry skin and it gets so much worse throughout the Winter so I need a good body moisturiser which I know is going to last throughout the day, there is nothing worse than having dry legs because wearing tights or leggings becomes SO uncomfortable! This cream is fairly thick, it's probably not wise to use when you're in a rush as it takes a few minutes to soak in, but after a bath/shower at night it is a dream! I've used Soap & Glory butters before but this one has a citrus smell and literally glides on to your skin. The scent lasted which I liked and it didn't leave my skin feeling greasy, but very smooth and soft.

I really liked all of these products but was especially impressed with the 'Foam Call Shower & Bath Wash', they are all reasonably priced at around £10 and you get good sized products which last for around 4-6 weeks (depending on the product). I would definitely recommend all of them especially if you have dry skin like me and want a low priced but good quality shower range.

Daisy Daisy

I wanted to do a blog post featuring my Christmas gifts but I have left it a bit late so apologies for that! I was lucky enough to get four perfumes! Daisy by Marc Jacobs is my new favourite, it smells so gorgeous and it's one of those perfumes where every time you wear it, you just feel good. I also had the original Kate Moss perfume which is a favourite of mine for the day time and Paul Smith, Rose (which I left at my boyfriends house aaah!) a lovely floral smell, which is perfect for me. The purple bottle is Ralph Lauren '4' which was a surprise gift and a really good surprise as it smells amazing! I'm not usually very good at surprises, I think I might be a bit controlling but I just can't handle not knowing! I also received this perfect Dahlia blouse from my Nan (I LOVE IT) and these cute velvet shoes from my Mum (also a pleasant surprise!) both you will be seeing in outfit posts this weekend! 

This week has been my first full week at Motel and it's going well! January is always slow for retail so i've been keeping us busy by clearing out the stock room, re-merchandising the shop floor and of course thinking up some ideas for Valentines Day! If you live in Bristol make sure you follow the shops Facebook and Instagram @motelbristolstore.

Today i'll be working and to be honest I don't have many plans this weekend. Usually I go out every Saturday night but I think January needs to be a quiet one so I can save some money towards my skiing trip and maybe give my body a rest. Have a good weekend :)

1 Month Old

Today is one month since I started the blog! I've enjoyed posting so much and can't believe I’ve only just got into blogging I definitely should have started earlier. I also can't believe how it's grown even over the past 4 weeks I have almost 50 followers and love reading all of your sweet comments. I've found some of your amazing blogs, which I love to read and the only downside is I have managed to spend lots on new clothes because I keep seeing nice stuff on your blogs! 

Yesterday was my boyfriend’s birthday so we went to watch 'Crossfire Hurricane' a film about the Rolling Stones and it was unbelievably good. I love every single song and watching footage of them just being themselves was great, after we went out for drinks and ending up going back to a friends flat and dancing to their songs for a good few hours. Mick Jagger is sexy even as an old man seeing him shake his hips is too good and Keith Richards is just the definition of cool, I really enjoyed it and don't think I even realised I loved them that much! Today I am a bit hung over and am just going to spend the evening eating pizza and watching rubbish TV :)

This week I have had a mini spend and wanted to share my new purchases with you guys. Sorry for the photos just being taken on my bedroom floor, I need to find a nice piece of fabric or something to use as a background! First up on Monday I bought this bag from Accessorize after seeing it on Annalises' blog (http://pastelbokeh.blogspot.com) I’m not a huge bag person but I do love a good satchel and just couldn't resist this one with the deer head detail on the fastening! It's a really good size and means I can take it on a night out or use it in the day, I tend to use the same bag for a few weeks then swap over to another one I don't have a day or night bag I just use them all for whatever! It was £32 and you can find it here.

As I mentioned before I have recently got a new job working in the Motel Bristol Store, it's the only store they have so it's exciting to be working there and means I get a good discount on clothes which makes me very very happy! This week I decided to get a few things to update my wardrobe and decided on the Kadie Skirt in blue and the Carla playsuit in black. The skirt is a really unusual colour and I decided to get it because I wear the black one all the time and thought this would look really nice in the Winter just adding a splash of colour, to my usual black winter outfits. I really love the style of skater skirts as they're flattering and just look cute and school like! This colour isn't actually on the website I have only ever seen in the store but it was £20 (without discount) which is a good price and if you live in and around Bristol I would definitely recommend a trip to Park Street to have a look around the shop!  

I wasn't able to take a picture of the playsuit because it is a silky material and doesn't photograph well at all so thought I would just use the picture from the website. I find playsuits quite hard to wear sometimes because I’m quite tall and find they can sometimes be short in the body. This playsuit is very soft but I would recommend getting a size bigger than you usually would because it's tight fitting. I went for a Medium, which was a little tight when I tried it on but I can tell it's going to stretch out a bit when wearing it. Black playsuits are a bit of a staple item, they can be worn casually in the day or dressed up on an evening with lots of gold jewellery so decided this was a justified basic!

  

Saving the best till last I have finally bought the Laynie!! Big news as I have been lusting after it for ages and decided as I’m going out again for Toms' birthday on Saturday I would wear it then. As it's a baby doll style lots of people have recommended going down a size, I bought the small and I LOVE IT! It's so pretty and flattering and I can imagine myself wearing it a lot throughout the winter. I'll make sure I get some photos on Saturday so I can do an outfit post on it so you guys can see how I’m wearing it. 

Whole Lotta Rosie

**This blog post was from yesterday but didn't send properly**

Today has been a good day much better than yesterday where I had some serious car drama and spent a lot of the day panicking! Tonight I went out for a nice meal for a good friends birthday and am now very full and tired, just sat watching some TV. Rather than doing a post on what I wore I thought I would do a small post on some recent purchases I have made. I graduated this summer and am just working part time and doing my internship so for the first time in a long while I haven't been able to spend on clothes, something I was always able to do before. This makes these purchases even more special because I have to choose wisely at the moment!

First up is my Dana off the shoulder from Motel. Working in the Motel head office means I am constantly surrounded by clothes and am always looking at the website as well as different blogs, so I usually find around 100 things a day I want to buy!! As soon as this top came in though I knew I had to get it, it's a great update of the crop top and means you can dress it down by just teaming it with a high waist skirt and tights or wear it on a night out with jewellery and lipstick etc. I'm not one for really flashing my stomach so I got a larger size, which means it fits but is a bit longer; it also comes in long sleeves or as a dress :)

 Off the shoulder top- Motel 

Second we have the Hilary bodice in navy rose, also from Motel. This was an item I had seen a few times and I just love the print so much! There are a lot of items in this print and they are all so gorgeous but I thought the bodice was really simple and versatile, plus it can be worn with so many items! The only problem with it is the top bit is very loose and I have to pin it to my bra or tape it to me, I think this is a top for the small chest girl because if I'm falling out of it then anyone above a C cup is risking some serious nip slip! It is lovely though and looks great with all black, as it's a subtle and quite autumnal use of floral.

Hillary Bodice- Motel 

Lastly is the pink fluffy jumper from the Lana Del Rey collection at H&M! I have seen this jumper on TV adverts, magazine adverts and on the side of bus stops and fall more in love every time I see it. It makes me feel like a pink lady and is so soft and comfortable, however if you have sensitive skin like me I would recommend wearing a vest top or leotard underneath as it was a bit irritating. The other thing is as this jumper is wool it gets fluff EVERY WHERE! When I first tried it on it was on my jeans, in my hair, my mouth and all over my room, so it might be a good idea to hand wash it before wearing to prevent it covering everything and everyone in your life in pink fluff! It is so lovely I can't stop gushing about it, and looks great simply with jeans and loafers, plus because its such a soft colour it goes with a lot of basics like grey, black and navy.

 Pink Jumper- H&M