New Season: Topshop does rock chick

I fell in love with everything I saw in Topshop when I went to check out their new season collections. The Rock Chick look is so easy to incorporate into my everyday style, and it was hard to pick just 6 items to take into the changing rooms with me. Sadly, however, this seasons shapes and styles from Topshop don't love me back. I need structure, nipped waists, and angles. Anything loose and unstructured just makes me look bigger than I am. And don't even get me started on how terrible my legs (by far my worst feature) looked in leather panelled leggings. I so hoped they would work. But they clearly did not.

Here's what I tried on:

I loved the pattern on the long dress, and like a butterfly, was immediately attracted to the colours. But the loose drop waist hid rather than emphasised my figure making me look wide and shapeless.The spidery printed one-shouldered chiffon dress looked lovely, but was far too short for me (is this a sign i'm showing my age!?) The piece I really loved was the drape fronted marble-print satin jacket which was soft and plyable, and would be a great versitile piece to wear over just about everything. The deer T-shirt was another favourite and will look great, given structure: tucked into a highwaisted skirt with heels and a belt.

On the Topshop website I noticed a plethora of flippy little sixties-style dresses with flowing sleeves, similar to the ones I was lusting after on ASOS. I think on my next visit to Topshop (often referred to as the motherland) i'll be trying those, and leaving the leather trousers to the whippersnappers!

Speaking of Topshop the news broke today that the next collection Kate Moss designs for Topshop will be the last. I realise this is ironic, as i'm wearing a Kate Moss @ Topshop dress as I type this, but I for one am ambivilent about this news: the collections were always samey, overpriced for the quality received, and far too overhyped for my liking. Is anybody actually disappointed about this? Would love to hear your thoughts.

Love, Tor xx

Competition: Win £250 from Style Compare!

You may remember that around this time last year I brought you guys a great competition from Style Compare; well now it's back! You, and readers from five other blogs, will be pitted against each other in a competition to show your accessorising skills, and win £250 to spend at the wonderful Style Compare for yourselves. And if one of you lovely people win, £250 for me too! Result!

All you have to do is accessorize the gorgeous Max Mara dress shown below with stuff from the site for either day or evening, or if you're feeling ultra-competitive, for both. Style Compare is a fashion comparison site which has over 80,000 up-to-date products to choose from, from more than 1,500 different labels, so you won't find it hard to find shoes, bags, jewellery, jackets, or whatever else you're looking for to make the outfit perfect.

You can either make a 'collage' of the chosen items or simply list them - it's up to you. (I'm a big fan of a collage though!) Here's my hurriedly hashed up example:
I went for a cozy wintry feel, as the new season is pretty much upon us! The only rule is that, like I did, you have to keep the value of your accessories under £250.

Entries must be received by Monday 6th September 2010. Either leave them in the comments or email them to me at: torberry00@yahoo.co.uk Only Homegrown and European entries for this i'm afraid (sorry if you're further afield!)

Good luck and get creating!
Love, Tor xx

New season picks: ASOS love

With the Very disaster just about sorted (i've been promised the money should be back in my account by next Wednesday, fingers crossed) i've turned to my trusty ASOS to look for my new Autumn dresses. The price points are better, and i've never been let down with delivery or refunds! I'm looking for lovely casual dresses with sleeves that can be dressed down with brogues and cardigans or up to look good for evenings too (think work to pub). Here are my picks of the dresses from the new ASOS Autumn collections:
White twisted knot dress, £40. Lime bell sleeved dress, £28. Pink tunic dress, £38. Do you sense a trend with my dress choices?! This is what i'm feeling for Autumn/Winter though. Short long sleeved dresses in vibrant colours perfect to be teamed with contrasting tights and an array of oversized accessories. Very Sixties, very simple, but with high impact. I'n definitely going to get the lime green one. From the evening (Is it too soon to mention Christmas parties? Eeek!) I would opt for these:
Digital print dress, £55. Slinky black dress, £38. Oversized sequin shift dress, £85. The slinky black dress would cover my arms, show off my waist and cleavage, and has perfect party dress written all over it! Another one for the list..

Of course, when looking on ASOS I couldn't just stop at looking at dresses: a little peek at the shoes was a neccessity as well! I'm a self-confessed shoe addict, and the changing season is as good an excuse as any to pick up a new pair, or two! I could use a new pair of everyday flats, and a flattering pair of black ankle boots (not as easy to find as you'd think!) What I don't need is heels, yet that's where my eyes are drawn every time i'm looking at shoes. Here are my favourites from ASOS:
Nude leather loafer, £50. Leather lace-up ankle boots, £45. Leopard print shoe boots, £80. Pink brogues, £28. Peep toed heels, £70. I know that the lace up ankle boots are the sensible options I will actually wear. And that the shoe boots or crazy high 80s looking heels will maim my feet and make me cry, and i'll never wear them. But the're still my first choice; I guess that's just how shoes get you! I am attracted to the hot pink brogues though; they're sensible shoes designed to get your pulse racing, and that doesn't happen very often!

Overall, i'm a little bit in love with ASOS (aren't I always) and can't wait for my deliver of lovely goodies to arrive!! I'll show you all what I got as soon as they get here! Yay!!

Love, Tor xxx

100 days of Active Resistance

I had to write about this new project I was emailed about this afternoon, as it is brought to us by Vivienne Westwood, and she has never failed to make it into my top three list of favourite designers: as far as i'm concerned, she can do no wrong! If I could afford to, i'd wear her dresses (and jackets) every day.

Vivienne Westwood Anglomania + Lee are launching an online installation called ‘100 Days of Active Resistance’ on the 8th of September. They asking the public to participate by submitting an artwork or photograph that best represents Vivienne’s principle idea of Active Resistance and everyday one artwork will be featured on the website for the next 100 days, finishing with an exhibition displaying the best selection of artworks they've received.

Here's what Active Resistance is about from the main lady herself: “The principle idea of Active Resistance is that you get out of life what you put in and that real experience of the world involves thinking. It is not enough to follow world politics, see films and read the prize-winning best seller. This is superficial, you need to go deep in order to understand who you are, what the world is and how things could be better. This involves culture which can only be acquired by self-education: human beings should mirror the world.”

I have no talent for this kind of thing (the quality of the photography on this blog is testament to this!) but if you do, then take a photo, create an image, and use your creativity to show your active resistance! Visit www.ar100days.com from the 8th September to make a submission and get involved, and for more info, and to get some all-important ideas, visit www.activeresistance.co.uk now!

Love, Tor xxx

Image from FTape.com

Tights: The transitional season's saviour!

Morning guys,

My mind has been elsewhere and the blog has been someone neglected this week - my bad! As winter approaches and it's time to start thinking about our new season clobber (this must be true, all the magazines say so!) I realise that harder than getting your winter wardrobe out is handling the transition - going from summer to winter without looking like you're wearing half of your summer wardrobe and half of your winter one (which is what most of us do!) is a nightmare! My answer to this? Bring out the tights!

With brightly coloured tights you can still get away with wearing your favourite vibrant summer frocks (you just need to add a jacket!) Black tights get me through my working week, and patterned tights add detail to even the plainest outfit. They're a coloured saviour!

On mytights.com I fell in love with these Bebaroque designs: at £25 for the tassled pair and £37 for the sequinned ones they aren't cheap (despite the fact that these are the 50% off prices!) but they really would be the focal point of whatever outfit you teamed them with; they're just too gorgeous to resist! I've just ordered the rosette ones, so i'll let you know how I get on with them when they arrive!

And if you have slightly better pins than me, I still love the Henry Holland for Pretty Polly patterned tights: I just don't have the legs to pull of all the sheer panels, sadly. The price points aren't bad on these though, and you'll pick a pair up for less than a tenner; some of the newer designs are slightly more at £14.99. If you love these but (like me) don't want to get your pins out then something I tried last winter, with the pink house ones, that worked was putting a pair of white opaque tights underneath them. It kept me extra toasty too!!

If you're looking to get your tights at a more reasonable price then:

-Dorothy Perkins has a deal on theirs: £8 for 2 pairs of their 80/50 denier tights.

- You can get 30 different styles of tights on asos (Including a gorgeous 80 denier mustard pair) for a fiver or less

- Primark have just had their new season hosiery arrive (literally this week!) with prices starting from £1.

Love, Tor xxx

PS - Lovely little sis has her big op tomorrow, and we are taking her to the hospital this afternoon, so my posting might be sporadic for a couple of days - few things take priority over fashion, but this is definitely one of them, and all my free time will either be spent in the hospital with Amie, or with the rest of my family.

xxx

Very.co.uk: Gorgeous clothes, terrible service

For the first time ever, I ordered something from very.co.uk yesterday. I got two dresses with sleeves, to inject something new into last years A/W wardrobe: they're both from the Fearne Cotton collection, and I got excited, waiting for them to arrive this morning. But arrive they did not!

Buy before 6pm for next day delivery it said all over the site. So I duly bought before 6pm and then logged into my account the next morning to see what my estimated delivery time would be (you can track your order online) Well one of my dresses was due to arrive the following day (making it 48 hours for delivery, not the 24 hours I was promised) and God only knows when I could expect the other dress as they were "waiting for restock". This is my absolute pet hate! If I click to buy something and expect it to arrive the next day, i'd like to be told that what i'm buying is out of stock before you've taken my cash! That way I can decide if i'm prepared to sit around and wait a couple of weeks for it: in this instance I wanted the dress for a party on Friday night, and wouldn't have paid for it if i'd known. But they didn't actually tell me until the next morning, via text message, with no details of when it would come or offer to refund my amount if I didn't want to wait. Very frustrating, and absolutely terrible customer relations! (If you're ever building a ecommerce site, please have the functionality to let people know how many of each item are still in stock: i'd love you forever!)

However the other dress, the "instock" dress also hadn't arrived, and now had a note next to it in my account telling me to call customer services. So I called customer services to see if they could shed some light on the situation. "The driver didn't recognise your address", she said, "there aren't enough letters in your postcode." I explained that W1 was a real postcode: she told me I was wrong and there should be two letter (such as NW1) We wrangled until she accepted that I probably did know the postcode of my office, and that W1 (like E1 and N2 etc) definitely is a real postcode. Call centre girl learnt something new, but I still don't have my dresses. She "estimated" they would arrive by Friday: no guarentee, no apology. This does not help me at all.

I shop online alot; I know that it can and does work better than this (i'm thinking asos, who's guarenteed delivery has never let me down) But I know no matter how lovely these dresses are (and I hope they are lovely) or how well they fit, this whole experience will be marred by the stressful nightmarish hour i've just spent trying to work out where the hell they are!

UPDATE: Their order-tracker system shifted my estimated delivery date forward yet again, so I called customer services to cancel the order and get by money back. Sounds simple, right? Wrong! According to the first woman I spoke to, this process could take up to 2 weeks. Frustrating, but I could cope with that. Two hours later, I looked at my order status, which hadn't changed to show the order had been cancelled. I call again and am told there is no record on my account of my order being cancelled. I cancelled it again, but i'm not holding my breath about ever seeing the dresses or my £120.

How much more do I have to take before i'm allowed to get really really angry!?

Love, Tor xxx

PS - If this hasn't completely put you off ever buying from very, then you may find this info useful! Checking out on the very website is a lengthy process; allow at least 20 minutes. Because it is a "pay as you go" catalogue it isn't immediately clear how you can pay with your debit card without setting up one of their credit accounts; I got half way through signing up for one (which I did not want!) before I realised that's what I was doing, when all I wanted was to pay for the dresses!

Shoe show off: three new pairs of lovely shoes!

This is definitely going to be one of those self-centred "look at all the great shoes I have" posts, but i've made my peace with that!

You may remember that back in April I went on a tour of the Dr Marten factory and as well as it being a fascinating day, they also said that they would send me a pair of boots of my choice. Four months later (and completely out of the blue as i'd forgotten all about it!) and I finally have my hands on these beauties:

The pattern on them is a Victorian rose, and the detail I love most is the pink stitching: it's interesting to add a girly slant to what is essentially a masculine boot. They also come with pink ribbons that can be used to replace the laces. I have no idea what i'll wear these with, but I can't wait to give it a go!

Next on my list of lovely shoes are these sandals from the Topshop sale: leather and studs and lovely gold. What more could you look for in a sandal!? They were in the sale for just £12 (as you can see) and I actually got these to save for my honeymoon: I don't own any sandals or flipflops that don't have hundreds of straps, and I know for our trip i'll need something simple and slip on, and these fit the bill perfectly.
Finally, whilst I was on my mamouth trip to New Look last week, I picked up these heeled desert boots: they will be my new winter staple shoes. The picture isn't very good (because the boots are on my feet!) but that's just testiment to how comfortable they are! New Look actually had a really big selection of reasonably prices winter boots (both flat and heeled) that I think would be well worth checking out if you need a new pair.

I know this was a bit like "show and tell" at school (only with legos!) but I had to show off my wonderful new foot fashion!

Love, Tor xx

Sarenza competition: And the winner is....

The Sarenza team have shortlisted the finalists for the £60 voucher giveaway, and it's time for me to pick a winner. It was a tough decision, as there were lots of lovely ladies who genuinely deserved new shoes! The finalists (and their comments) were:

Katherine...
There once was a time (i.e. last year!) when I was so broke that I had to return a pair of shoes so that I could buy groceries at Sainsburys! They looked a lot like these gorgeous ones: http://www.sarenza.co.uk/mine-de-rien-rosal-s756555-p0000024537
Now I am in a better place, found a great job and am slowly saving for bigger and better things. I took a photo of the shoes I returned, because I loved them THAT much! To be able to use the voucher towards buying these shoes would be like redemption for hard work.
And you know what the sad thing is? The shoes I returned were from Primark! Yes, I was so broke I needed to recover that whopping £15!
---
Louise...
I would love to win as Sarenza send me emails daily, tempting me with their gorgeous shoes that I just can't afford at the moment! But boy, do I love their shoes!!
---
Charlotte ...
I don't often get the chance to buy myself new shoes, lack of pennies. But since the hard work to lose weight is paying off, a treat in the form of shoes wouldn't go a miss :).
X
---
Christina Sanders...
Wow, I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to win. I have had to spend every penny I have on trying to get my hair from red back to blond and now I have nothing left for clothes or shoes!
---
MissMalibu...
I have just started my first proper job in a fashion house as a design assistant and I don't get paid for a month and therefore cannot afford to buy any new shoes. I am the fashion tramp! I would put this voucher to bloody good use! :)

And the winner is...MissMalibu! I remember starting my first job and the awful "do I have enough bus fare to get to work" moments that came with it....hopefully new shoes will get you through to your first payday, and ensure you have the best dressed feet in the office! Drop me a line with your email in it, and the Sarenza team can get your voucher off to you. It must be Fabfrocks shoe week, as I have another post going up this evening, where I will be showing off my three new pairs of shoes! Yum, and yay!

Love, Tor xx

New Season: New Look limited edition

I'm not normally a big fan of New Look, but I picked up a gorgeous dress from their Limited Edition collection in the sale earlier in the summer, and I wear it at least once a week! So when I wandered passed New Look yesterday and saw that their new Limited Edition collection was in store, I knew I had to pop in and check it out:

I love this dress (£40) which is covered in animals: horses, birds, elephants: it's like a zoo in print! Obsessed! Collars don't usually suit me, but this peter pan collar is flattering, and it can be unbuttoned at the front to show a little more skin.

This fluid jersey maxi dress (£35) really emphasises curves: I feel like Nigella Lawson in it: all hips and boobs!! I love dresses with sleeves, I think they're so flattering, and if this dress had come in black, or even a darker grey, i'd have picked it up in a heart beat! Sadly I just don't think this grey is flattering as an all-over colour.

These grey ruched leggings (£25) are so thick they fit like trousers: I loved the way they felt and the way they fit: again if they came in black they'd be mine in an instant, but I don't like to emphasise my legs, and I felt the grey did that a little. The sheer blouse (£25) is a winner: great for work, or for slouching around with leggings at the weekend.

All in all, definitely worth checking out!!

Love, Tor x

My vintage charms: Make your own jewellery

Have you ever been looking for a piece of jewellery to go with an outift, but nothing in the shops is quite right? Or wanted to wear a piece of jewellery that you know you won't see on anyone else? There's nothing nicer than that feeling that something you've wearing is unique to you. And I also love the feeling of having made something myself: I make a lot of my own headbands, and am always taking charms off old necklaces to make new ones.

I found this website called my vintage charms where you can buy all manner of charms perfect for making DIY jewellery: they're divided into categories such as circus, wonderland, paris, oz, and many more. They also sell the chains (which are only 65p each) and fastenings to secure your charms to your necklace. Another idea I love is to just thread the charms onto ribbon for a cutesy homemade feel. (I always get carried away when there's DIY to be done!)

I've ordered lots of stuff from the Alice collection to make personalised necklaces for each of my hens on my hen 'do: i'm also stitching little pouches to put each necklace in. I think it's a much better gift than the usual pile of plastic willies you usually get at these things!!

They're really easy to make (you can even simplify it further by threading the charms straight onto the chain without using the jumprings, with no extra work) and the charms are pretty inexpensive too: by making them yourself your necklaces will be much cheaper than by buying them from the highstreet! You could also use all of the charms to make bracelets, and even earrings: a little bit of creativity and a few pounds spent, and the world is your oyster. (That's the jewellery world of course, not the whole world, which I think is a little more expensive!) I can't wait for my supplies to arrive and get started: i'll show you what I make!

Love, Tor xx

TKMaxx Modbox: Worth a second look

As you may recall, a couple of weeks ago I went to the opening of the new TKMaxx store on Charring Cross road. The opening was also a chance to introduce us to their new house brand, Modbox, and initially I wasn't impressed: lots of logo tees perfect for a tween but not really of any interest to me. But yesterday in the post I received a copy of the look book for the brands Autumn/Winter collection, and it's left me prepared to view the collection in the flesh, and with an open mind:

Apologies for the slightly blurry pictures: I took photos straight from the book!

I love the leopard print coat, which is very similar to my River Island one: and at £29.99 it's a bargain. My other favourite pieces are the lace dress worn with the leopard print jacket, and the military-style coat. The "big chill" range is very young and fresh: just looking at this picture makes me think of Christmas!

There are loads of lovely little party dresses that would be great for seasonal parties, but they all seem to be made of lycra so mostly suited to a slimmer (younger) figure: I suppose that's why it's called a youth range! Obviously quality is difficult to ascertain from a picture but if these pieces feel as good as they look then i'll be in the queue to try some of this range on. The price point is low, so I wonder if they are trying to target the younger "fast fashion" pack (a la Primark) and what effect this will have on the clothes wear and tear factor: only time will tell! (I just realised that by saying 'wear and tear factor' in this context I sound like the mother of a naughty toddler, but quality and wear so important when your trying to step away from disposable fashion)

If you've brought anything from the Modbox range so far then i'd look to know what you thought about it, and what the quality is like: how did it fit, how did it wash, tell us everything!

Love, Tor x

Accessory lust: Marc B bags

I love my accessories: I think they make an outfit, especially because I dress quite plainly most of the time. That means that i'm crazy about shoes and handbags (not to mention my love of oversized jewels!) So how delighted was I when Marc B asked if i'd like to review one of their bags?

The answer is, pretty delighted! The website is very funky and easy to navigate, which made choosing my bag stress-free. I couldn't decided whether to go for my usual oversized holdall-type bag, or something a little more delicate. I opted for the latter, and chose the Knightsbridge bag in classic black. Apparently i'm in good company: it's one of the brands best sellers!

I went for the matt black, but the bag also comes in a patent black and an array or bold and pastel colours. The gold strap can be switched around so you can wear the bag two ways: which a long strap (which is long enough to go across your body) or a short shoulder bag-type strap. Looking at their site, it seems the chain handle is something of a specialism for them, and they do it really well. Obviously when you look at this bag you draw immediate comparisons to a Chanel, as the style and quilting are so similar. This didn't bother me as much as I thought it would though, as it's such a lovely bag.

On a boring and practical front, the thing I loved most about the bag was the inside: it has so many pockets and zip up areas which makes this the perfect bag for a day trip or holiday. You could put your cash/camera in the very middle zip up pocket, and it would be impossible for anyone to pickpocket you. Also, the lining of the bag is leopard print, which I love !

The bag is slightly too small to contain everything I carry on a day to day basis (it's a tad too narrow to fit my filofax in) but everything else fits in like a charm. This would be a perfect bag for a day when I wanted to be more streamlined: for example for going out after work, going to a gig, or a daytrip when i'm on holiday. I think it's lovely, and overall i'm really pleased with it!

Love, Tor xx

PS - Don't forget to enter my competition to win a £60 voucher from Sarenza!

Aussie colour mate tribe party

Last night was the Aussie colour mate tribe party: All of the Aussie Angels have been divided into tribes according to their hair type, and of course the colour tribe was the one for me!

We were asked to come in costume as our colour idol, and who else would I choose but Lady Gaga? So with the help of an awful lot of make up, some empty coke cans, thirty hair pins, and more than half a can of hairspray, I Gaga-ed up! My beautiful guests Amie and Louise went as Lily Allen and Audrey Hepburn respectively. We met with our other tribe members, and enjoyed a range of cocktails whilst having a demonstration of a handy updo that looks chic without applying heat to damaged coloured hair:So far so good. But things were only going to get better....

...The evening's entertainment was truly outstanding!! Drag queen Lady Gaga and drag queen Beyonce came to meet us and perform; i'd never seen a man do the splits whilst shaking his booty before! It was a sight to behold! I fell slightly in love with Gaga, although it's slightly upsetting that he looked better in his costume than I did (and had considerably more impressive legs than any other woman in the room!) We had an amazing time.

De-Gaga-ing this morning wasn't quite the nightmare I was expecting: I shampooed twice using the Aussie colour mate shampoo and then absolutely drenched it in the colour mate conditioner and left it for five minutes. It combed straight through and felt smooth and soft. I also tried one of the tips we were told by the stylist: I only conditioned the bottom 2/3 of my hair. Usually I condition it all, but apparently it leaves the hair really heavy. Well I can't believe what a difference it's made: my hair has bounce and a little volume it doesn't usually have at the roots!

Such a fun night out, and great hair tips to boot: what more could you want for an evening?

Love, Tor xxx

Competition: Win a £60 voucher to spend at Sarenza!

I'm a little in love with my new Sarenza shoes (even though I didn't win the competition to go to Paris!) But just because i'm not a winner doesn't mean that you guys can't be! Today's competition is for the chance to win a gorgeous pair of Sarenza shoes.

These are the gorgeous shoes I picked (and very lovely they are too!) but you don't have to have these ones: The winner will receive a £60 voucher to buy the shoes of their choice from the Sarenza website. Sarenza have more variety of shoes than any other site I know, so you'll be spoilt for choice: I would opt for lovely leather boots (I'm sensible like that, and autumn/winter is approaching) but they also still have a huge range of sandals and pumps perfect if you're going away on a late summer holiday. I've fallen slightly in love with an orthopedic-looking pair of clog sandals that would be perfect for our honeymoon (Which we just booked: Could I be more excited? The answer is no!)

This is a nice easy competition to enter: all you have to do is follow the blog (as usual!) and leave me a comment letting me know why you deserve a pair of Sarenza shoes. The competition will close next Thursday when Sarenza will shortlist the five finalists. I'll then pick the winner and announce it on Monday 16th August. As usual, I wish you all bucket loads of luck!

Love, Tor xx

Tesco competition: And the winner is....

Firstly, i'd like to say thank you to everyone who commented or emailed me your entries: who knew you were all such a creative lot!? I was massively impressed with how much stuff you guys could buy for £30: you're bigger bargain hunters than me! However, there can only be one winner, and that winner is a lady who sent me not one, but three gorgeous outfit options:

Congratulations to Erin Caldwell! I couldn't believe how much effort you made, and how great every single one of your outfits were!

Watch this space for another competition; this time to win a voucher for £60 to spend at Sarenza shoes! (I know I said i'd post this yesterday, but a minor crisis means I won't be able to get it online until this afternoon!)

Love, Tor xx

My favourite sale bargain...

I promise this is the last post I will write about the summer sales, but i've had so many incredible bargains in them that it's hard to resist showing off! If I had to pick the one bargain that I can't stop thinking smugly about, and can't wait to have an opportunity to wear, then it would be this:

This dress from Monsoon was originally £85, but with the 70% discount I paid just £25.50: I'm absolutely in love with it! It looks incredible on, it's really heavy because of the hand-embellished sequinning, and you can do so much with it! With my trusty high heels and chunky jewellery its perfect for a night on the town. Pare it down with pumps or sandals and a slick of lipstick and its perfect for dinner with friends and family. I love sequins for daywear, so I would even add my black gladiators and wear it out and about during the day!

And here is the obligatory self-taken picture, complete with un-brushed morning hair: don't I look yummy!? At least it gives you an idea of how the dress looks on. I am a seriously smitten kitten with this dress! Have you had any amazing bargains from the sales? Share them, and make us all jealous! (because surely that's one of the secret pleasures of bagging a bargain!)

Love, Tor xx

Christmas? Already?

Believe it or not, the Selfridge's Christmas shop opened today. This is the earliest it has ever opened, and I find it impossible to believe that people want to buy Christmas trees at this time of year. But apparently, they sell over 10,000 baubles in the first week, so there must be a massive market for it. I just can't comprehend thinking about Christmas and your summer holidays at the same time!

To honour the opening of this Christmas land, and for those of you that do want to think of Christmas in July, here are some pictures of last years Selfridge's Christmas window display: my favourite Christmas window display in the city!

My favourite is the last one, which seems to be the raping of a cow! As i'm sure you can guess, last year's theme was Pantomime.

Sorry for the slow postings this week but I am having major issues with my camera: it won't turn on, and I am taking it to be repaired tomorrow. Hopefully i'll be back to posting outfits and in-store shots soon!

Love, Tor xx

PS - I have another competition coming your way tomorrow! They're all pouring in this week!

It's the end of the sales: there are bargains to be had!

The summer sales are coming to an end (for now at least, no doubt there will be more at the actual end of the summer) and this means there are massive discounts to be had, if you're prepared to rummage for them. Granted, a lot of stuff let in the sales at this stage is mostly rubbish, hence it being left on the shelf for so long, but if you're a non-standard size and prepared to put the work in, you could bag some bargains and save yourself a fortune.

-The Debenhams sale is now buy one item get one free, instore but not online. One of my cousins had given my nan a Debenhams gift voucher, which she asked me to spend for her (as she doesn't live near a Debenhams) I got her 6 tops for £20. All of the summery Henry Holland stuff in the sale is also included in this 2 for 1 deal: definitely worth checking out, especially if you live out of central London, where the sales have been very picked over. I was in the Milton Keynes store yesterday, and there were 3 rails full of Henry Holland sale in a big range of sizes.

- The River Island sale now has an extra 25% off all sale prices. I'm a massive River Island fan anyway, and always get a large proportion of my wardrobe from their end of season sales, so this offer was too tempting to miss out on! Since the extra discount was added i've picked up a top and three dresses: the top is for wearing now and into the Autumn. The dresses are being stored and saved for my honeymoon: we need to dress for dinner in our hotel, and I don't really own any dressy clothes, so I thought i'd pick some up while they were in the sale! I'll take proper photos later but for now here is my pick from what's left of the sale on the website.

- OTHER SALES: The House of Fraser sale ends today, and has an extra 25% off all sale prices. The Oasis and Warehouse sales are still one, with further reductions, although stock is now limited. The vast majority of the Monsoon sale is now 70% off, and if you're one to plan ahead they have a great selection of sequinned and little black dresses perfect for Christmas parties.

If you're stuck for something to do this afternoon then hit the shops before the sales end: we're in the last few days now, and you're bound to find some hidden treasures!

Love, Tor xxx