OUTFIT | #121

cardigan, skirt: H&M; top: Topshop; necklace: ASOS; boots: eBay; lipstick: Revlon 'Cherries in the Snow'; nail polish: Zoya 'Petra'

'Sup background change. My poor clothes rail in my room at home is looking pretty bare these days. I culled a bunch of unnecessary clothing in January and gave it to charity. Check out this old blog post from last summer for reference. Bye bye 5 bin bags full of unworn, unloved clothes. I talked my sister into taking an outfit picture for me today. Which was handy, since it was the first day I've worn anything other than sweats since I've been home. 

I bought more shoes. 2013 is definitely the year in which I've acquired a thing for shoes. These boots are a blatant Topshop 'Allegra' rip-off from eBay. They're really comfy and look the part. Possibly not the most necessary of purchases since I already have my beloved 'Alexy's, but ever since I missed out on the 'Allegra' when they originally came out, I've pined after them. Was that the most pathetic sentence I've ever written? Possibly. Don't judge me (well, at least not any more than I'm already judging myself). Sometimes I make impulse purchases at 4am. We know this (see past 4am purchases, for reference).

OUTFIT | #120

dress, shoes: Topshop; clutch: ASOS; watch: Seiko; lipstick: MAC 'Rebel', nail polish: Revlon 'Revlon Red'

I went to my cousin's wedding this weekend. I don't have a massive extended family and I don't often go to weddings so I wasn't entirely sure how to dress. I assumed bodycon was probably a no-no. Friends also informed me to that my go-to colours, red and black, were not wedding appropriate either. Bummer. This dress from Topshop seemed to fit the bill though and I'm going to wear it during the summer too, since it's a lovely light, loose material. I hated the idea of buying something to only wear once. Who can afford to do that?

The wedding was fun, in that weird drunken family reunion way. Dancing to Gangnam Style with a bunch of people you only see a few times a year is always a bizarre experience. I'll spare you any photos I took of the event itself. My sister took these outfit pictures for me. She even took a picture of my make-up, since I did it a little fancier than usual for the occasion. Being a glasses wearer is a pain sometimes, since you can't really see all the damn eyeshadow I took the time to blend but oh well.

I have a couple of weeks off university so I'm at home for a bit. I didn't bring my tripod so we'll see how I fare without it. Taking day-to-day outfit pictures may prove interesting. I'll probably try and rope my sister into photography duty whenever possible. Or do some beauty focused posts on days where I can't bribe her into being cameraman.

OUTFIT | #119

blouse, tights: H&M; skirt, boots: Topshop

This outfit is all about the tights. They were reduced to £3 in H&M and I wasn't sure if I loved them or wanted to burn them, so I bought them. They're a little 'out there' and honestly I still can't make my mind up about it. In the end, I think that's their appeal so I'm running with it. They're an easy way to make it look like I made an effort and when I'm spending all my daylight hours (plus a few extra) cranking out end of semester essays in the library for the next week, that works for me.

In between all this frantic essay writing and tearing my hair out, I've been procrastinating by doing a hell of a lot of online window-shopping. It's not something I ever used to do much yet lately I'm scouring every single website I can think of for something, anything, I like. That 'must buy a new summer wardrobe' mind-set has hit me hard. I'm finding I like basically nothing that's in the shops currently though. It's incredibly frustrating. Everything has a peplum (burn them, burn them all) or is way too expensive for something that looks so cheap. I don't know what's going but hopefully it's just a temporary thing because I really do need some new summer dresses.

OUTFIT | #118

jumper, skirt, boots: H&M; blouse: Topshop; lipstick: Revlon 'Cherries in the Snow'

I love this outfit. I don't wear it tons but it's catalogued in my 'go-to outfits for days I can't think of what to wear'. Or days I need to feel especially like 'me'. Does anyone else have days like that? Sometimes you just need a really strong sense of ~what you're about~ and this outfit helps. I don't know how. Let's not get too deep here though. That's no fun. 

There's a week left of this semester and I'm so ready to go home and relax. I've reached that point where I just need my mum and my own bed and no essay deadlines to freak out about. Speaking of freaking out, I've nearly finished my second year of university. That means I've only got one year left. I know everyone says it and it gets repetitive but dear lord, how the hell did that happen? It's a scary thought, man. So I'm distracting myself by thinking about summer plans of travelling and festivals and that kind of fun stuff instead.

OUTFIT | #117

blazer: Topshop; top, skirt, boots: H&M; watch: Seiko

I told you I was trying to wear my blazers more. This one is an absolute beaut, and probably the most expensive item of clothing I own to date. It's an incredibly old Topshop number that I remember my teenage self lusting after for weeks before finally purchasing it. With the sleeves rolled up it's got a bit of a Miami Vice feel to it that I'm digging. I paired it with some old faithfuls: signature striped top, good pair of boots, high-waisted skirt. The usual.

I wore this outfit for literally all of an hour. I've got some deadlines looming but it was a friend's birthday so I popped out briefly for one drink (and I stuck to my guns, for once, and forced myself home before one became five and a late night on the town). I immediately returned to my jogging bottoms and essay preparation once I got home. So glam, I know, I know.

OUTFIT | #116

top: Zara; necklace, trousers: Topshop; shoes: Clarks; lipstick: MAC 'Rebel'

Generally I'm into skirts but I can be swayed by a good pair of trousers. These were £9 in the Topshop sale and a mighty fine fit so I'm pretty into them. If it would only warm up a bit so I could wear them more, that would be great. They suit my 'power-dressing' thing I'm going for lately. More trousers and more blazers are on the agenda for my spring wardrobe, I believe. I used to be super into blazers in particular, not sure what happened there but I'm hoping to rekindle that love a little bit.

Also, I really enjoy burgundy and the fact that there's loads of it in the shops lately suits me down to the ground. However, it matches my hair almost perfectly so whenever I wear one of the various burgundy items I own, I feel really matchy-matchy. I'm not sure if this is an issue but I even have a pair of spare glasses that are burgundy. Sometimes I do wonder if people think I'm so into that particular shade that I want it all over my body. Probably the one and only downside of my hair colour.

OUTFIT | #115

hat: eBay; cardigan: Motel; top, jeans: Topshop; boots: Doc Martens; lipstick: Rimmel Kate Moss #04

So, it snowed again. No, I'm not happy about it. No, I don't really want to talk about it, but I will anyway. In light of such of appalling and unwelcome weather, I mostly stayed indoors watching Louis Theroux documentaries and abandoned all tasks for the day. I did venture outside briefly for supplies (chocolate and Diet Coke, life's necessities) so I pulled out the DMs and layered up. A friend calls this my burglar hat but hey, it was like £2 on eBay and I left my favourite beanie in Nando's a few months ago so it serves a purpose.

This t-shirt is years and years old. I always forget I own it, as is the case with most of my graphic shirts. It's one of those raglan type shirts that pop up every now and then. I remember buying it on my lunch break from my Saturday job when I was 17, pretty sure it was snowing that day too. Clearly that's a sign or something. 

OUTFIT | #114

jumper, skirt, blouse, boots: H&M

Managed to chop my head off in nearly all these pictures. Great job, Rachel. These two were the most salvageable of the lot. Hope you enjoy seeing so much of the lovely salmon pink carpet in my bedroom. Photography issues aside, this outfit is all about this jumper. (Jumper? Sweater? I interchange between the two. Which is right? Who knows/cares?) I bloody love this jumper, basically. I think it's probably the one super bright thing I own. I hover between thinking it's mustard yellow or just basic 'fuck-off' yellow. Probably the latter, but 'mustard' sounds less intense. 

This is another of those 'I got everything at H&M, soz guys' outfits. I can't help it. H&M just lures me in. Every time I go in that place I leave with something. Be it (yet another) striped shirt or some new boots, I never fail to find something I 'simply must' have. These boots are reasonably new, you've seen them before. I've been on a major shoe-buying kick lately. They're almost identical to my new Topshop pair too, oops. Maybe a bit less high, and brown instead of black though. So it's all good. What can I say? I've been stressed therefore I shopped. It happens to the best of us.

OUTFIT | #113

jumper: Missguided; blouse (underneath): Forever 21; skirt: H&M; boots: Topshop

I bought this jumper on one of those 4am online shopping whims I get sometimes. I'd been surfing Tumblr, as you do, and saw a picture of someone wearing it. For a while I've been interested in a dip-dye/ombre effect blouse or something like that but couldn't find one I liked. I was really surprised when I saw that this was actually really reasonably priced and from Missguided. So I snapped it up and went back to surfing Tumblr for hours. So it goes. It's really nice though, dead glad I bought it and all that.

Also, an a note unrelated to my outfit, I've been a fan of my hair lately. I like the odd beauty post every now and then and sometimes I toy with the idea of doing a hair routine blog post. The problem is I try new shit with my hair routine constantly. For a while I'll think 'Wow, this is great. This is my perfect hair routine, I'm set for life.' and then I'll try something new and like that even better and it goes on like that. I'm still trying to find the right balance of what kind of crap to put in my hair but currently the stuff I'm using seems to be giving the desired result so who knows, maybe I'll do that hair post after all.