[2015] New Year!

2015 new year

2015 new year

Welcome to the New Year! It’s already the first full week of 2015 and there’s been time enough to recover and reflect on the new year.

Do you make new year’s resolutions? I have done in previous years and have never kept to them. So this year, I’m making a resolution not to make resolutions! Instead, I’m going to use the beginning of the year to take a moment to reflect on the things to be excited for in 2015:

looking forward to the new year

  1. My wedding – do I need to say more? Plans are coming along nicely now and my excitement levels are seriously rising.
  2. My honeymoon – we’ve booked a lovely extended break on the Amalfi coast. Can’t wait for the sun, food, beaches and generally a rather lovely start to married life.
  3. My hen party – I have no idea where/when/what but I’m still excited to see all my girlfriends and generally have a good time.
  4. Trip to Copenhagen with my beau prior to the wedding – maybe a little mad to book a trip so close to the wedding but we loved it so much last summer, we wanted to do it all over again.
  5. Mum and daughter shopping town in my old hunting ground – Cardiff! What could be better?

What are you looking forward to in 2015?

[NEW YEAR] Resolutions

new year resolutions

The New Year is the perfect time to make plans for the next 12 months and to make resolutions. Whether these last the full year depends on two things: how determined you are; and how realistic these resolutions are. With this in mind, I’m sharing six resolutions with you that will, in one way or another, feature on the blog in 2014:

new year resolutions

  1. To travel more. In particular, we plan to plan our wedding and the honeymoon which we intend to be the trip of a lifetime.
  2. To try lipstick. I’m not very good with lipstick, I always feel like they don’t suit me, or they make me look like a 5-year-old who raided her mother’s make-up bag! This year, I will challenge myself to wear lipstick. More on this soon!
  3. To dedicate more time to the blog. Something I have found difficult in the past six months since we moved, is finding time for the blog. This Christmas break the fiancé and I have spent time re-organising our office space and have set up an old desk top computer for me to use. I’ll be adding to it over the next few months and promise a blog post on my desk soon.
  4. To turn 30 in style. 2014 is the year I celebrate my thirtieth birthday – and I can’t wait! I’ve got just over four months to plan my celebrations but I think the whole year will be about celebrating! In the next week or so I plan to post my 30 things to do for my 30th year.
  5. To build my perfect wardrobe. Of clothes, I mean. Not the actual piece of furniture! Over the past 6-12 months I’ve worked hard to only buy pieces that fit into my existing wardrobe and that will last. Sure, I still treat myself to the occasional frivolous or on-trend piece but it’s less often, so feels like more of a treat.
  6. To start a yoga class. I’m already a Pilates addict and quite fancy getting zen in 2014 and starting a yoga class too.

What resolutions or plans do you have for 2014?

[HOW TO] My New Year Style Manifesto: How to… ENJOY FASHION!

Having spotted The Outnet’s New Year Style Manifesto*, I thought it might be the ideal opportunity to make mine. I have already made my beauty new year resolutions for 2012 – and broken a few already too – but I didn’t make any style resolutions – until now!

What are your new year style resolutions?

Images via Style.com

*Thank you to the Online Stylist for pointing me to it on twitter!

Happy New Year: A Year In Review

Happy New Year lovely readers! I thought it would be fun to do a review of the year:

Row 1: January – I detoxed my wardrobe
February – I attended my first London Fashion Week and went backstage at Jasper Garvida
March – I had a photograph shown in an exhibition at The Design Museum, thanks to Samsung

Row 2: April – Kate Middleton married Prince William in a lavish ceremony at Westminster Abbey and we all watched and waited for the unveiling of the wedding dress
May – I celebrated my birthday in Ibiza with my girl friends
June – the boyf and I spent a wonderful weekend in Valencia

Row 3: July – we were invited to a royal garden party at Buckingham Palace
August – a disappointing summer meant that I broke out the fake tan
September – I had my second taste of LFW and thought I’d died and gone to fashion heaven!

Row 4: October – the boyf and I celebrated his 30th birthday in Rome
November – I braved the queues and shopped the much anticipated Versace for H&M collection
December – I invited a few girl friends for a Christmas dinner and made champagne and cranberry jelly for dessert

Let me also take this opportunity to thank you all for your continued support in 2011 and into 2012.

[BEAUTY] Resolutions for 2012

20111229-184719.jpg

As we see in the new year tonight, it seems like a pretty good time to make some resolutions and so I decided to, this year, make some beauty resolutions and to try to put into practice all of those good things I have learnt this year:

  • Wash my make-up brushes every week – not every six months!
  • Not squeeze my spots
  • Only use face wipes when I’m so wiped I can’t do my complete night-time routine – not every night!
  • Moisturise every morning and every night
  • Use a daily moisturiser with an SPF every day – even in the winter
  • Not wear my nail polish chipped for days on end – or paint over chipped polish in another colour and hope no one notices!
  • Remember to go for regular trims, including fringe trims between appointments – so that I can actually see!
  • Moisturise my hands
  • Moisturise my legs – even in winter, or most particularly in winter
  • Tweeze my eyebrows instead of just letting my fringe grow so long that no one can see them!!
  • Have one make-up free day a week
  • Have a few days with no nail polish on every few weeks

What are your resolutions for 2012?

Image via

Top Ten of 2010

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

After reading Retro Chick’s Top 10 posts of 2010, I was so inspired that I decided to do my very own version! Therefore, without further ado, here are my  Top Ten of 2010:

In at number ten:
The Gossip Girl seems to have been a popular inclusion in my very popular Style Icon series.
Number nine is:
Another Style Icon making it into the Top Ten!
Number eight is:
Fictional she might be but Carrie Bradshaw was the first woman to help me to realise that having a closet full of clothes and a rack full of shoes was perfectly normal! 
Number seven is:
Fashion bloggers’ favourite, Style Icon: Olivia Palermo
Olivia Palermo seems to have found favour with many a fashion blogger in 2010 and was a regular on the Front Rows too.
Number six is:
An oldie but a goodie, it would seem!
Number five is:
Number four is:
Rebecca might have been the runner up on this year’s X Factor but she certainly won in the Style Stakes.
Number three is:
To understand, please read.
Number two is:
Enough said.
And at the top spot is:
Which has been your favourite post from 2010? Or series? I’d love to hear more about what you’d like to see more of on this blog in the next 12 months.

Friend Friday #21: New Year Resolutions

It is that time of year again, a new year approaches and an old year comes to an end. It is a nostaglic time and it is easy to look back and forget to look forward too. You will probably have already noticed that many bloggers have begun to think about making resolutions: what they intend to do on their blog in the next 12 months, where they want their blog to “go”, how they will achieve these goals. It seems only natural then that the Friend Friday group should also be considering their Resolutions for the coming year and share them with you here:

1. What’s the one thing you vow to learn or do in 2011 to improve your blog?

In January of 2010 wrote my New Year’s Resolutions for my blog for the past year:

1. To blog every day – that I can!
2. To be better about weekly posts – like Monday Morning Pic-Me-Ups!
3. To find two new blogs each day and say “hi” to some ‘new’ bloggers regularly – as well as saying “hello again” to old friends!
4. To dedicate some time to making a proper go of the blog – from February I will have finished my masters and will be able to devote a month or two to this!! :))
5. To get a couple of give-aways up and running
6. I will try my best to reply to comments.

The first five I have successfully achieved. I think. Tell me if you think I’m wrong? But the last one I have been having more trouble sticking to. Life seems to get in the way and I get more focussed on writing a new blog post than going back and responding to comments. Forgive me? I do read every single comment left for me and I love every single one. So thank you. I will attempt to be much much better in 2011 at responding to comments but if you have a specific question you require an answer to, please email me.

2. What did you learn about blogging in 2010 that you plan to put into practice next year?

2010 was the year that I really began to take my blog seriously and I have realised that I need at least a minimal html knowledge to keep it going. Therefore, for 2011, I plan to learn more and more about this “foreign language” and to put my new-found knowledge into practice by making the blog more professional than ever.

Oh yes, and to learn what the hell SEO actually is!!

3. Do you have any high-level goals for your blog in the coming year? Monetization? More comments? More connections with other bloggers? A new template?

For 2011, I aim to continue to reach our to other bloggers and to forge more relationships.

My number one aim for the first part of the year is to get to London during London Fashion Week: to soak up the atmosphere, see all of the fashionable people and to meet some of the bloggers whose blogs I have followed for months.

More comments would always be nice 🙂

And a little money for some new shoes. Of course!

4. If you could collaborate with one other blogger within your sphere of influence in 2011, who would you like to collaborate with, and what would you like to collaborate on?

Difficult question! A good question but oh-so difficult. There are so many wonderful bloggers who I would love to collaborate with. But I really must choose one, I guess it would be Jill, of Street Style London, on a street style-esque shoot. I love Jill’s photos which are always well composed. I’m not sure what part I would play in this shoot. Maybe I could carry her bag?! Haha!

5. What do you plan to do to support other bloggers next year?

I have recently run a 12 Days of Christmas Advent Calendar featuring a different blogger profile behind each virtual door. This series received really positive feedback from the bloggers who were involved and I would like to extend the profiles for the following year, maybe one a month? (If you’re interested in being featured, please email me.)

If you are a blogger, what resolutions are you making this year regarding your blog? If you’re not a blogger, are you making resolutions? What are they?

To see the other Friend Friday bloggers’ resolutions, remember to visit ModlyChic, where you can also find more information about joining the group.