Just play along

What a lovely weekend. Filled with so much rosé I'm suprised I'm not sloshing while I walk today.

I thought I'd share with you what is probably my favourite outfit, a playsuit. I've posted a picture of it before, back in November when I bought it. It was about £25 from Beyond Retro, and it's just so comfy, flattering, and cute. As discussed in my original post about it, it's not the best thing to wear when you're a bit tipsy and need to dash off to the loo a lot...it's got about 15 teeny tiny buttons along the front and then you have to bend your arms backwards to get it off your shoulders. But despite that, it's my fall-back outfit; any time I'm not sure what to wear but want to feel good and not 'I wish I hadn't thrown this on in desperation because I was getting ready for hours and am running really late and now I feel rubbish' - this playsuit is what I wear. Do you all have outfits like that? Before this it was a green cutesy dress from ASOS that I could throw on, run out the door and feel good in, that one's still a favourite too (but I am fickle, I know on loads of my posts I call the item of clothing I talk about 'one of my favourites', what can I say, I love 'em all!).

So here she is again:

And of course the red lippy, yay! Does anyone have any advice on "summery" lipsticks? I've only started wearing lippy within the last year so I don't know much about it. Could I pull off a pink colour??

I went vintage rummaging this weekend too, and bought two more playsuits. They are more for daytime, I'll try and get pictures up this week for you.

Danni x

PS - I am putting the word out on Twitter too, just to let you know that when I get up to 40 followers I'll be doing a giveaway, so if you don't already follow me - do it now!!

Bootylicious!

I'm wearing shorts today. I love shorts, and I'm so glad I can actually fit in some again (the massive hips look away guiltily) now that I've lost some weight, but even though I never really think of myself as someone with comfort zones I still feel a bit self-conscious today. I love this pair, and the bright t-shirt I'm wearing with them...I think it's just that normally I'm in forgiving dresses and it's a bit different. I do love my hips and bum, but today my bum is quite out there - literally! Well, it's good to be a bit different sometimes isn't it?

I'm also wearing one of my favourite necklaces, my Dad bought it for his Mum about 40 years ago. As you can see it doesn't keep the right time but who cares about that when it's so beautiful!

Have lovely weekends everyone, I've got a friend visiting and will hopefully have lots of fun (and lots of Rekorderlig)!!

Danni x

Who doesn't love a compliment or three?

This is just a post to say; I love this dress. I put up a picture when I first bought it, but thought I'd do another one because it's lovely, and I'm wearing it today in work for the second time. Everyone likes it and I'm getting quite a lot of compliments! I think that people enjoy seeing clothes that aren't the norm, especially in a place where most people don't dress up at all.

It was from ebay for about £8.

My right hand looks really mannequin-esque in this picture!

Hope you're all having lovely days - how slowly is this week going?? Come on Friday! Or even tomorrow when I can do some sneaky late hours shopping before bootcamp...

Danni x

Purple Ribbon

Hello!

I wanted to blog yesterday but I was so tired I could hardly see straight! I had such a fabulous time at my Dad's wedding, it was an amazing weekend. And I actually ended up loving my bridesmaids dress! I don't know if it was the sun or the setting but it really worked. So that was nice.

Today I'm going to be doing a little review for the lovely Lucy at Hummingbird Vintage. She wants to create an underwear range that's sexy and that works for all girls however curvy they are, so sent she sent some samples out to the first people that replied to her on Twitter.

Here are some pics of the undies:

As you can see they're very pretty, the colour of the ribbon is gorgeous! I really liked the set, the knickers felt great with no digging in at all, just done up exactly where I felt comfortable. I liked the bra, it looked cute, but when I was doing up the front ribbon I managed to rip a bit of it almost completely off, and it was quite tricky to do up as well. I was trying to do it quite tight for maximum cleavage effect! I think if the sets were made professionally these things would be fine - the ribbon is a really great idea and if you could pull it quite tight when you needed it would work well. I'd have also preferred it if the bra had been lacy to match the knickers. Overall everything felt very comfy and I'd definitely recommend this to people if became an official range.

If you want to find out more go to Hummingbird Vintage or speak to Lucy on Twitter, she's lovely!

Quick outfit post for today:

Primark dress, vintage yellow cardi (charity shop), Primark cameo necklace (so many bloggers have this!) and a vintage rose brooch.

I'm still pretty knackered but I'm determined to do bootcamp tonight, I'm doing well with it at the moment. The only bad thing is that now it's getting lighter everyone can see us doing squats and other attractive poses...we do it between the pedestrian walkway for Brighton beach, and a main road and cycle lane, so there's quite a few people to laugh at us!!

Danni x

Buses, rushing, and not quite making it.

You know when you're trying to get somewhere really quickly and everything is against you? I had that last night and this morning. Last night I had to leave work early and get to the dry cleaners to pick up my bridesmaids dress for tomorrow (I'd told the bride-to-be that it was sorted a week ago...) and managed to get there five minutes after they closed. So I consoled myself by buying (yet another!) new dress. I'd already gotten a lovely one through from ebay that day too. Missing the dry-cleaners meant that I had to collect the dress this morning and be a bit late for work. Well, that was the plan. Instead I managed to get on a 'trainer' bus for the learner bus drivers and it took over an hour to get to work. Oops. I had to spread the dress over two seats to keep it smooth, and hold my hand up really high to carry it around because it's so long. If only I'd gotten there five minutes sooner and been able to put it in the Boyfriends car last night. I have a ten minute walk and an hour bus journey to go through now, with the dress.

But my Dad's wedding is tomorrow, he's marrying a lovely woman, and it's going to be a very crazy and alcohol filled few days! Fingers crossed for the sun lasting. IF (and this is a big if, because I don't like the dress at all) I manage to get a good picture of me at the wedding in my dress then I'll put it up next week. We'll see!

Here's the dress I got from ebay for £8:

And the dress I bought from H&M. If you follow me on twitter you will have seen me asking whether to buy a suedette dress from peacocks with a cut-out pattern. I'm really glad I found this one because the cut-out pattern is just the same but it's in a nice light cotton, and a lovely navy colour:

The only thing that isn't great is that the drawstring waistline makes it look a bit casual, so I think I'd wear a nice belt over that bit if I wanted to dress it up.

I hope you all have lovely weekends, I can't wait for the drinking to start! (And the meaningful act of matrimony of course...)

Danni x

Rock your body

My current need (of course I mean want) is a body. Or is it bodysuit? Who knows. Anyway, when I wear sheer dresses (or something like the crazy dress in my most recent clothing post) I have to wear leggings and a top underneath them. Now it's getting sunnier, I'm considering shorts and a top, but either way I still have the problem of having too much flesh visible in the gap between bottom and top. As I'm typing this I'm worrying that I'd read it and think 'Why don't you just get better fitting clothes??' which is a good point. But there's something about me that makes leggings constantly slide down. And tops slide up. That something is my massive hips. Leggings like to sit underneath them and not struggle to cling to such a curve which is fair enough really, I wouldn't like to have such a difficult job(!).

ANYWAY, the point of all this is that I am struggling to find a body that's suitable for my figure. Here's a few I've found:

I think that the two New Look ones are best for what I need, although they are a bit high-necked for me. The Topshop one I absolutely love and could imagine wearing as a top on its own. The problem is solved short-term by the fact that I have no money, but when payday comes I think I'll be off to New Look!

Here's a picture of the t-shirt I'm  wearing today, I'm feeling quite summery with it on especially as I don't have my usual body-cover-up cardigan on. This was given to me by a friend.

And my earrings are lovely and bright. I'm also wearing this skirt with the cute bow.

And lastly here's a picture of the weird little drawers that I forgot to take a picture of before, that I got for £4 in one of my local charity shops:

Excuse the mass of cheap jewellery next to it!

Danni x

Mexican lasagne recipe

Hi all,
I thought I'd put up the Mexican lasagne recipe that I had the weekend before last because everyone loved the sound of it. Here's the link to the Nigella website, I have just lifted it straight from there. And here's a picture, it actually comes out looking like this! (No pressure or anything...)

Mexican lasagne

 vegetarian

Less than 30 mins preparation time

30 mins to 1 hour cooking time

Serves 8

You will need 1 round ovenproof dish, approximately 26cm/10in diameter x 6cm/2in deep.

Ingredients

For the sauce

• 1 tbsp garlic oil
• 1 onion, peeled and chopped
• 1 red pepper, de-seeded and chopped
• 2 green birds'-eye chillies, chopped, with seeds
• 1 tsp sea salt flakes or ½ tsp pouring salt
• 2 tbsp finely chopped coriander stalks
• 2 x 400g/14oz cans chopped tomatoes, plus 2 x 400ml/14fl oz water swilled the empty cans
• 1 tbsp tomato ketchup

For the filling

• 2 x 400g/14oz cans black beans, drained and rinsed
• 2 x 250g/9oz cans sweetcorn (225g/8oz drained weight each)
• 250g/9oz mature goats' cheddar, or goats' cheese of your choice, grated
• 8 soft flour tortillas

Preparation method

1. Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6.
   
2. To make the sauce, heat the garlic oil in a pan on the stove and add the onion, pepper and chillies. Add the salt and cook gently for 15 minutes. Once soft, add the chopped coriander stalks.
   
3. Add the canned tomatoes, then swill the cans out with water and add this too. Spoon in the ketchup and let things come to a simmer for about 10 minutes, leaving the sauce to cook while you get on with preparing the filling.
   
4. To make the filling, mix the drained beans and sweetcorn in a bowl. Add most of the grated cheese, reserving some to sprinkle on the top of the lasagne at the end, and mix together.
   
5. Start to assemble the lasagne by spooning about a third of the sauce into the bottom of your ovenproof dish and smearing it about. Layer on two tortillas, overlapping them slightly, so that they cover the sauce.
   
6. Add one-third of the beans and cheese mixture, covering the tortillas, and then about one-quarter of the remaining sauce and cover with another two tortillas.
   
7. Repeat the process with another one-third of beans and cheese, and some more sauce, before layering on another two tortillas.
   
8. Finally, add the last layer of beans and cheese, nearly all of the remaining sauce and cover with the last two tortillas. Spread the very last bit of sauce over the tortillas and sprinkle with the remaining cheese.
   
9. Bake in the oven on a baking tray for 30 minutes, then let the lasagne rest for a good 10–15 minutes.
   
10. To serve, slice the lasagne like a pizza and eat with guacamole or avocado salsa.