I’ve not had a competition for a little while so I’m really pleased to have this awesome one to offer you, from the very lovely independent retailer The Dressing Room. The prize up for grabs is £200 to spend on their Becksondergaard range, which includes gorgeous scarves, bags, gloves, belts and purses – lovely stuff that is guaranteed to glam up any outfit.

Obviously my first thought when running competitions like this is ‘Damn it, why can’t I enter?’ as I could really do with some nice accessories. When I went for dinner with my new boyfriend a couple of weeks ago I had to borrow a bag from Belle. (Don’t tell him.)

The Dressing Room

The Collector’s Club

If you’re a fan of the brand, you may also be interested to hear about the Becksondergaard Collector’s Club. Collect a stamp for every £25 you spend and you’ll get a free £15 voucher when you have ten.

The Dressing Room

To be in with a chance to win, get stuck into the Rafflecopter widget below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck!

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I have no sense of style.

Actually it’s not much of a secret.

As boyfriend said you me recently, looking a little bit afraid in case I hit him, “For quite a lot of the time I have known you you have dressed quite badly.”

He’s such a charmer.

He is right though. I really just have no concept of what looks super stylish and what looks like I have been dressed by a blind tramp. Getting asked by the team at Secret Sales then to style a couple of models in the latest trends was a bit of a challenge to say the least. I was literally given rails of clothes and two beautiful, (if not slightly stick thin), people to hang them on. View Post

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I have been to London twice this week. No matter how many times I go though it still feels like an adventure.

Growing up in a selection of small towns and villages, cities in themselves have always held a fascination  for me – the huge buildings and shops, the hustle and bustle of so many different types of people, so many Actual Proper Things.

London though remains one of my favourite cities. Even just walking through a tube station or crossing the street there is a powerful sense of being part of something bigger – a strange feeling of being important yet at the same time being very tiny.

And everyone is so stylish! Smart black suits and black thick framed glasses jostle for space on the train alongside those men looking effortlessly stylish in jeans, shirts and tweed jackets – the ones who look like they are too wealthy and influential even to need to wear a suit. The click of heels echoes through the underground and smart ladies’ coats, belted around tiny waists, waft Chanel No. 5 at me on every corner.

In my ill-fitting jeans and waterproof mac I feel like I stand out a mile. (Because I do). I may as well open my map out full size on my lap and pop a sign around my neck. ‘I don’t come from here,’ it would say. ‘I am obviously not cool enough to live in London.’

I don’t care though, I revel in it. I stare (carefully of course on the tube) at all the grown up ladies with their glossy hair and lovely shoes and try to guess where everyone is going and has been.

Simple things please us country folk.

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First I was strutting my stuff for Littlewoods and then I went all yummy mummy for Mint Velvet – who’d have thought I’d ever be a fashion blogger? Who could have possibly imagined I would go from this:

vintage baby pictures

To this:

Littlewoods clothes review

In just 30 short years. It’s a miracle isn’t it?

As unlikely as the idea of me pretending to be in any way stylish is, this week I found out that I am a finalist for the Britmums Brilliance in Blogging awards, in the ‘style’ category. That’s right family and friends, you read that right. Style.

This is what the style category has to say for itself:

To paraphrase Coco Chanel, a fashion blogger’s site should be two things: classy and fabulous. Bloggers in this category have no problem with either of those criteria. We believe being a parent adds an interesting dimension to fashion and beauty coverage – combining a world view with a catwalk view.

Classy and fabulous eh? That’s definitely me.

Now just because I’m slightly dubious about the authenticity of my fashion blogging credentials, doesn’t mean I don’t want to win. Hell no! If I can’t even bear to let my nine-year-old daughter win at snap I’m hardly going to stand back and let virtual strangers steal my fashion crown am I?

Anyway, my point… My point is, please go and vote for me. It’s very quick and easy, you literally can just tick one box if you like, you don’t even have to fill in your name. What are you waiting for? You pop of to vote, I’ve got the latest edition of Vogue to check out…

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If you asked any of my close friends or family to describe me in three words, it would be a pretty safe bet ‘trendy’, ‘glamorous’ and ‘fashion-savvy’ would not be among them.

If you look at my profile picture though, you could be forgiven for imagining that I go about everyday beautifully coiffed, with foot-high hair and an inch of make-up. I do not. I’m afraid to say I do not look like this in real life. In fact, I often have to take off my glasses and tilt my head, pretending to talk into a phone, to even convince people the photo is me at all.

Still, it does mean that I’m often approached by fashion and beauty companies, who mistakenly believe I am super hot and stylish, and want me to try out their stuff.

One such company is Mint Velvet, a rather sophisticated range of elegant, luxurious knitwear, dresses and other outfits in lovely muted tones – all definitely things proper grown up ladies would wear.

Really?? I wanted to say. Are you sure you mean me? You do know I like to wear spots with floral prints, and firmly believe that blue and green really should be seen?

I didn’t though. I kept quiet, and pretended to be the sensible, naturally stylish woman I feel I really could be. Underneath the layers of rainbow coloured cardigans and peacock feather hair accessories. Besides, I thought it would be a good challenge for me, to see if I could incorporate some decent clothes into my dubious, charity shop based wardrobe. The idea behind the range after all is that it is meant to be flexible, and fit in with the ever changing needs of modern women. So this is my diary of how I got on… View Post

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This week, I was presented, crowned, if you will, with the Stylish Blogger Award.

Yes, that IS it, and no, you’re right, it is less of an award and more of a small picture, but still, I take praise wherever I can find it.

It was given to me by the oh-so-stylish and achingly funny Emma of Cocktails at Naptime and Mommy Has A Headache fame, and involves a rather complicated set of instructions, which I will attempt to follow here. View Post

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