Monday is not a friend

I'm not going to start the discussion about Monday mornings, this photo is probably a good enough evidence of how a Monday morning feels, messy hair, trying to get dressed in partial darkness whilst trying to snap an outfit photo, even having another arm wouldn't help me to get myself organised on Monday morning. So today's outfit was mostly of the kind that can only be described as 'pick up whatever you spot and get on with it' , a random blue sweatshirt and a black skirt , the sort of lazy outfit that just screams 'oh no it's Monday' but I do love this random sweatshirt to which I added this necklace I got from &Other Stories which I love. I'm actually wearing it the wrong way around but I actually prefer it that way because I love the clasp detail on the back. Nothing brilliant there but it's Monday after all so there's still a long week ahead to make up for a slow and not very exciting start to the week.

Matchy-matchy

Last week I wrote about H&M's new brand &Other Stories and as I had the opportunity to visit the new store in London last week I decided to write about my visit to the store and what I got. 

I visited the store last Friday when I was in London, I didn't actually get a proper look at the store as it was opening day which meant it was extremely busy and hectic. 

The store itself is huge and beautifully laid out and I think the best thing about it is that it acts as a 'one stop shop' where you can stock up on pretty much everything from lingerie to beauty products and obviously clothing, shoes and accessories. 

As I mentioned I found it hard to actually get a proper look as it was quite busy on the day but I did manage to pick up a couple of items I saw on the site and wanted to get a feel for before buying them. 

I picked up a passport holder and a small wallet (each £19) both are part of a collaboration with designer Clare Vivier, both well made with soft colourful leather and plenty of space to pack all of my junk. 

The two other items are a bit matchy-matchy as well , a chunky chain link necklace and a bracelet which caught my eyse as I was browsing the site before visiting the shop. I absolutely love two of them, but then I'm a sucker for chunky metallic items so it's not a surprise I was drawn to those two. 

As for the clothing, I feel like I wasn't really able to have a proper look around because it was very busy but since I had a look at the website I knew what I wanted to try out and managed to sneak to the changing rooms to try a couple of those items before the queues became impossible. However I had a hard time figuring out the right sizes. I decided to pick a few different sizes to see what works best. The first was a skirt which I saw on the site and really liked, I picked the skirt in UK 12, 14 (EU 40, 42) as I really couldn't determine what the right size would be. I also picked a dress which I could only find in sizes 34 and 38 (the 38 looked huge but I decided that it would be best to try it as 34 seemed too small) and two t-shirts in 38 and 40.

The skirt in size 40 was quite tight and looked really small and 42 was actually too big which was quite surprising as it seemed like a giant difference so I decided to skip the skirt and move on to the dress, I first tried the UK 10 (EU38) , I thought it was way too big and made me look like I'm wearing a tent so I tried the UK4 (EU34)  thinking it would be too small but the fit was just right, however the length was way too short in my opinion and as I couldn't find the dress in 36 I decided to try my luck and order it online.

The T-shirts again were a little confusing , I tried both in size 40, one was too big and the other too tight but at this stage I was a bit too tired and decided to leave those to my next visit. 

Overall , I was quite impressed, the variety of accessories and clothing is amazing and everything is really well presented and aimed at making you want to pick pretty much everything and drop it in your shopping basket. I also like the fact that there are items to fit pretty much every budget and as for the sizing , I suppose it might just be me as I always have issues with varying shop sizing charts so and found this to be quite confusing but now I'm waiting for my dress to arrive so once it's here I might be able to give some more insights on the sizing but overall I'm really happy with my picks so and actually really looking forward to my next visit in London so I can hopefully visit the shop when it's a little less busy. 

All Clear

I'm really into clear plastic and lucite accessories lately, I'm not sure why since I have detested anything that has to do with clear perspex since my secondary school days when we used to have art classes that involved creating terrible jewelry and all sorts of ridiculous accessories from perspex and other types of plastic. Needless to say I was absolutely useless with that type of 'art' and constantly disappointed my mum by coming back from those classes empty handed so at least now I can tell her her wishes for some plasticky perspex made accessories have been granted as this summer is the summer for all the plasticky accessories she can only dream of.

I do actually think there some brilliant and interesting items worth having a look at and it looks like there are items to fit any budget from high-street brands to high end designers. I really love the slight futuristic vibe you get from some of those items and I love how simple and sharp they can be without being too much in your face.

My favourites at the moment are the boxy clutches and clear heels but a special place in my heart goes to the gorgeous Marc Jacobs satchel which is so beautiful in my opinion (although really not something an un-organised handbag owner like me needs!). 

Minimal Metal

I mentioned in the past that I like to keep it simple when it comes to jewelry , I have a few items which I usually play around with, some day I'll go for a few chunky bracelets, on other days I'll go for the two silver chain necklaces I have and usually I'm quite happy with that but I really wanted something basic and minimal so when I came across this necklace and ring at COS , I knew I found exactly what I'm looking for. The necklace is really small and looks delicate over a dark solid coloured top and the ring is actually the complete opposite , it's quite big and noticeable but I think those two are actually a perfect match that would be a great little finishing touch to a simple and casual outfit. 

Perfect companion

McQ bracelet.

I admit that most of the time I'm guilty of piling on too many bracelets and all sorts of arm candy but I think I may have found the perfect arm candy companion to end all of the arm candy wars going on my arms every time I decide to wear some bracelets. This lovely bracelet pretty much covers all of my insane arm piling needs, it's light, noticeable but not too overpowering and would probably look great with most outfits. I stumbled across this beauty by McQ in my local Harvey Nichols and it's actually on sale now and even though I promised myself that I will not be making anymore sales purchases , this one was hard to say no to, I love it so much it's pretty much been on my arm every day since I got it. 

Handcuffed

H&M leather bracelet and metal cuffs

This morning after countless emails and phone calls from my friend I caved in and joined her for a nightmarish Christmas shopping session.

Ironically , the title of this post pretty much sums up how I felt hitting the shops with my friend earlier today.

When we got to our shopping destination my initial reaction was 'run for your life' , it was packed, people rushing around , shoving and pushing their way through shops that looked like a hurricane struck them. 

I felt bad for my friend who was very organised and came with the longest shopping list I've ever seen. Luckily for me I already finished most of my Christmas shopping so my role was to provide mental support and monitor any nervous breakdowns through the day.

One of the our stops was in H&M, I didn't really plan buying anything but as I was trying to be a good and supportive friend, I noticed those lovely metal cuffs in the accessories section while my friend was running around the shop. 

I love bold metallic jewelry and thought those can come in handy when I want to liven up a simple outfit with a bold accessory. I'm quite happy with this little find , both cuffs were 5.99 and the leather bracelet was 4.99 , not too bad for items that can add a little bit of  metallic shine to a simple outfit.

Friday morning rush

As usual I dragged myself out of bed late this Friday morning and after failed attempts to convince myself to pick an outfit last night I ended up reaching for whatever caught my eye the minute I got out of bed.

As it's depressingly cold , the only thing I could think of was to drape myself in every possible piece of thermal I could find so by the time I got to the real dressing up part I felt a little bit like a Michelin blimp which meant overloading myself with another layer of clothing would probably end in me suffocating under all the thermals or causing some type of spontaneous human combustion by the end of the day.

I decided to keep it simple and chose my favourite skirt from Zara and a simple grey men's jumper and to add a little bit of bling I piled on some bracelets I had laying around and  ran straight outside only to discover that my tights have a massive rip on my tights, by then it was far too late to run and fix this mess so I'm spending the day walking around like a duck trying to hide the fashion faux pas!

Here's to being a very disorganised lady!

If Santa is real he would bring me a bag full of COS

Because when it comes to the perfect basics there is no place like COS.

When it comes to investing in basics COS is the place I would go to because I have never had any of my purchases there fail me and I've been wearing some of their jumpers for over 3 years now, not something you'd usually expect from a hight street store.

So please the Santa , be nice and pack a little bag for me with from COS treats.