Scarlet And Jo To The Rescue!

In the past few weeks, not only has my boiler decided to stop working (replacement boiler needed), but so has my washing machine. 

Just as I was turning to my summer dresses for the office, this beaut from Scarlett & Jo landed on my doormat:

This has to be one of the comfiest smart dresses I own!

There are plenty of dresses on the Scarlett and Jo section of the Evans website that I would happily have live in my wardrobe. If I'm honest this would have been rather a way down the list, going on the picture on the website alone. 

What it doesn't show there is how it skims my bust and my waist, how it swishes when I walk, and how the sleeves are the perfect office length (for that awkward **freezing outside but rather mild inside** issue!)

The temptation for some with this would  be to belt it. That, believe me, I tried, would foul the cut of the dress, and not everything needs a belt (please see my swing dress post).

Length wise, the dress sits just on knee, and due to the dipped hem, is more than long enough when my rear eats some length up! So a massive plus for my 5'9 / 5'10 frame!

This will definitely be my go to dress for business days in work, and for anything else that calls for a dark, smart outfit (I'm thinking it'll be perfect for choir performances). 

Much love my lovelies, 

K x

This item was sent to me to review, but all comments and opinions are my own

F&F Colour Block Dress

In the run up to Christmas, I was lucky to win the #santaselfie competition ran by @clothingattesco which meant I got a £25 e voucher to spend online. 

The 'good thinking' part of my brain said to wait til the Sales to see if I could get more free clothes for my £££. I scouted the site and put a few items in my basket, but opted to wait and see.

  

And instead, I fell for a new item of clothing: The Colour Block Dress.

Oh my!

Peter Pan collar - CHECK

Flared skirt - CHECK

Bold colour - CHECK

60s style - CHECK

So reader, I ordered it!

It might look amazing, and different, and lovely but:

Look at my arms - rather tight and uncomfortable

The definition at my waist is lovely, but I can't really breath. 

The bust is clearly squashed. 

Also, the zip isn't even fully fastened at this point. 

Sad times indeed. If this was was available in a 24 (I'm wearing the 22 here), I would snap it up to try and hope it resolves most of the above. 

The dress itself is a heavy ponte material, but fully lined (so no stretch), but definitely worth the £28 price tag!

It was also worth using my voucher on to try this dress out.

If you are thinking of ordering this, I'd suggest sizing up, especially if you're a little on the busty side. But I will say one thing - you need to try this dress!

Much love my lovelies, 

K x

Short, Tall and In Between...

I was chair dancing away to Short Fat F**ny (I know what Google searches are like...) and I had a bolt of inspiration...

I'd put together a crack pot team of different sizes (about 5 sounded a good number), and we could review petite, standard and tall ranges! 

So the hunt was on for my team!

To join me in the world of 'tall', I enlisted the beautiful Em, from @thesmyth, and blogs here.

For my petite beauty, I coerced the bombshell that is Sera, from @sera_McDaid, the pint sized fashionista.

I thought I'd go for 2 'standard' ladies, but there is nothing standard about these two:

The young'un that is Meg, gorgeous @theclosetofmeg, who's 'closet' I would happily get into here!

Last but certainly not least, the wonderfully outspoken and opinionated and beautiful Leah, from @justmeleah_blog, who you can see writes from the heart here.

Now you know the background, what is actually going on here?

Well, I sent over my proposal to the team at Simply Be, and offered to review any of these:

When we were all sent this dress, we were impressed by the print, and rather excited to see how it turns out!

The print really is a perfect winter floral mix! 

The sleeve option is a lovely touch, with the option to roll up, and then attach them at the elbow, or have them down for the added winter warmth!

The material is a thin cotton, so it would be perfect with a slouchy cardigan or body warmer on over the top if you were a little on the cool side!!

I ordered the 20 Tall - and was a little apprehensive about the button detail from the neckline to the waist - I'm rather tired of being on button watch to see if any had popped open! But if I'd sized up to the 22, the overall dress would not have been as good a fit. As you can see from the pictures, the gaping is minimal anyway.

Now then, THE LENGTH!

I stand at 5'10, and while I don't mind the odd dress that looks like this:

I am more than happy that this dress sits here:

This photo was taken after a wash, and yes, there was little bit of length lost in shrinkage, but it is still 'respectable' as my Mam would call it!!

It is however, a little low cut - so be aware of that if you're of the busty persuasion!!

I've worn this twice now, and kept it simple - the tie back on the dress does enough to define me in my opinion - and I added the Owl necklace I picked up from Turkey.

Go and check out how this dress works on the rest of the Short, Tall and In Between ladies:

Em

Leah

Meg

Sera

Much love my lovelies, 

K x

Magnificent 7th Does New Year

Well, it's the 7th January! Who would have thought it! It genuinely does seem to come round fast each month!

If you've forgotten, The Magnificent 7th is a fashion challenge, which will be posting on the 7th of each month (hence our name!), and the aim of the challenge is to create an outfit to fit a theme or a topic, ONLY using clothes & accessories from our wardrobes, and yes that does mean digging deep into the depths and finding those long lost clothes! Hopefully one of us won't end up in Narnia, but you never know with a bloggers wardrobe!

The theme for this month is New Year, and although I've already posted my 2 NYE outfits, I still wanted to share them with you side by side!

My first NYE outfit was worn a couple of days earlier than December 31st (as explained here) but that doesn't mean I want it to be discounted from the theme!!

See, it's all sparkly, and shiny and perfect for a NYE party!

My second outfit is what I actually wore on New Year's Eve (as explained here):

And out of the two, I don't think I have a favourite! They are both so different that I think it would be unfair to compare them. 

What do you think?

Go and check out the other lovely ladies and their 7th posts:

Beth

Becky

Nicola

Gail

Kirsty

Kaye

Mary

Steph

Charley

Rebecca

Nikki

Lindsey

Christiana

Vicky

Leah

Nancy

Much love my lovelies, 

K x

In the Swing of Things

The swing dress has been on my radar for quite some time now. Back in September (just before my work trip to Turkey), I ordered this beaut in cobalt:

This is now no longer available in this colour, but other colours are here.

Now, my worry about the dress, wasn't the colour (LOVED the colour), it wasn't even the fact it had long sleeves (I get hot way too easily), it was the shape. 

The swing dress just hangs from the bust. Think empire line, without the line. 

Look, it made no difference! I am fat. My bust is large - it didn't really matter to me when I put it on, that there was no waist definition! My Mam called it shapeless - I disagree, it actually has shape, it flares out higher up than we are used to, that's all!

My only issue with the dress was the length. At first wear it was just passable with tights. Second wear I tried it with jeans, but it didn't quite work. 

Sadly, I can't wear it as a dress (or even a tunic anymore), so I wear it like this instead:

Now that I know that with a good bra, the swing shape can be worn at any size, I'm checking out these from Simply Be:

Monochrome
Bird Print

Ax Paris
Geo Print

So it seems not only am I looking into shape that are out of my comfort zone, same seems to apply to colours - Monochrome?!

Much love my lovelies, 

K x

Boots Without A Cause

The humble biker boot. 

A trend that has been around for a number of winters now. And I should know - my best friend seems to have every different pair of them going! 

But the past few winters, my preoccupation wasn't with my feet, but with the rest of me. Now I've got to grips with how to dress for winter (without falling into the fuddy knitwear trap), this winter was the turn of the footwear!

I'm usually spotted in ballet pumps in a snow storm. Ballet pumps in ice. Ballet pumps in floods. You get the picture. 

When browsing the footwear section in September (yes, that long ago), I spotted these Joe Brown for Simply Be boots:

 

The zip up fastening means they can be slipped on in a hurry, no messing on with buckles, or laces, or tongues (my Clark brogues are a nightmare due to the tongue slipping into the shoe when I try to put them on!). They go rather well with my girly dresses:

With my flirty skirts:

And with my lush tunics:

And if I ever get my hands on the leather jacket I have pictured in my head, a proper tough girl attitude will come with them!

For now though, they are comfortable, cosy, and that little bit of heel makes me walk a little straighter. Some in the office may say stomp. I say strut. Never mind! 

What I'm trying to say, poorly, is that these are boots that a year ago, I would have shied away from. Whether out of fear that they were too "Goth", too "Rock", or too "hard" for me (when I spent most of my teens listening to Black Sabbath, Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin", or whether I thought they wouldn't work with my bright colours, pretty prints and girly cuts, I don't know. 

What I do know now though is: I'm glad I popped them into my virtual basket in September, and I'm wondering what style I'll be trying next!

Much love my lovelies, 

K x

Fake NYE

There is a lot of pressure attached to NYE, isn't there. The 'ideal' night. Which, lets face it, changes every year. And is different for each of us. 

This year, we struggled to pin down a date for a pre Christmas night out - just too darn busy! - so we settled on the Friday after Christmas. 

It was only as the Friday got closer, that it dawned on me that we didn't NEED a NYE any more - we made our own NYE 4 days beforehand!

In our group, I am the clear odd one out. They are the (mostly) black haired, black wearing group. I am the red-headed, colour crazed one!

So when I was on the look out for my sparkly Christmas night out dress, I was keen to give this ago - mainly because it was black, studded (but shiny studded) and yet still in a Kathryn style, style. 

See what I mean?

This Grazia for Simply Be dress was the one worn by Rosie in the Simply Be Renaissance Bloggers photo shoot, and since then I had been keen to give it a go!

It was love at first try on!! :)

And once a baroque style necklace, and my face of slap was added, it was set - my new go-to dress for nights out!

However, it was only once I added a borrowed jacket, that the full "1 2 Goth Crew" came together:

It was one of those "Why have I never actually owned a jacket like this before" moments. I am currently weighing up my options, but it pulled the whole outfit together, and well, yes...

I didn't spend my evening taking selfies mind. No, I spent it drinking at a friends, before drinking, and loving, a couple of cocktails at a bar in Newcastle:

 The Caesar (or Bloody Mary)

The Mexican Bulldog (or Corona Margarita)

Before heading to the Head of Steam for some dancing. A pal runs a club night there called No Fun, playing good tunes, like Sheena is a Punk Rocker, Pretty Vacant, Carnival Kids, that one by Weezer about surfing, Cool Jerk, Fell in love with a Girl, and after that the night got a little fuzzy...

I then handed the leather jacket back to it's rightful owner:

Jackie, my bestie

Reminisced with this excited Alice:

Sorry Alice!

And wished this Holly a Happy New Year:

A class night out with a class bunch of people. 

So, who needs a night out where you fight to get to the bar, have to pay to get into a bar you wouldn't normally, and pay double to get a taxi home? 

Exactly. So my Fake NYE plan was a success. And No Fun was exactly the opposite. 

Much love my lovelies, 

K x