Sushi vibes feat Minga London

Hot damn, a sunny day in December? I was feelin' it! This sushi halter crop top from Minga London provided all the sushi steam I could dream up, and shooting on a seashell floor against a backdrop of bubbling rock-pool prisms served up a side order of mermaid majestic. Unable to restrain myself until summer summer summertime, I decided to rock these Liquor & Poker white jeans with pom poms and rips. Without a doubt Liquor & Poker definitely have to be one of my favourite brands. You may have seen these glitzy mermaid mom jeans in a previous post and I can't wait to see what sizzling, stunning dreamworks of denim they come up with next season. The rose gold wedge sandals were fabulous to crunch across the beachy coves in and of course to compliment the tidal vibes I got the candyfloss paintbrush out and went for red and pink ombre, a total mix of bliss. Our highlight of the shoot? Seeing two ferrets being walked along the shell shackled shores on leads. 

As we approach my birthday month and the glitzy galaxies of both Valentine's and Galentine's, I can't help thinking it's not that long till spring blooms; hurray for flower power. And then it's summer, you know, whatever. No big deal. Oh, if you hadn't guessed I quite like summer. A little. I'm waiting for the hotter months. Hell, sick and tired of waiting. And in other news, I finally finished the ending and epilogue of my first novel on Friday which I'm pretty proud of. It's not always been an easy road to veer through, but I feel blessed that so many people have my back, it really makes all the difference. 

Now I've completed the second part of my book I'll be rewriting the start and middle which I'm really ready for. The story has grown and developed so much and it took me a long while to figure out the ending. Now I finally have, I'm making sure the first part reflects the direction the story is going in, hence the rewriting. The start of the book sees the main character in a rock bottom state, there's a lot of highs and lows and I'm already getting in the right mindset to set things in motion. I feel the time is now to get this rollercoaster on the road. Here's to finally finishing it and getting it sent off in summer 2017. 

Are you a Liquor & Poker fan? 

What brands are you excited about?

What are your main 2017 goals?

😍🐚⛱🍧🍭

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Fashion blogging: behind the camera

I can never resist an aviator style jacket; something street, casual and easy on the eye. This camel faux shearling jacket fits that bill perfectly. Luckily the winter leaves the streets a little less crowded for fashion shoots and we managed to get these photos in fairly peaceful harmony last week. We shot here last April and a few girls turned round to look at what we were doing. One of them put their thumb up at me, smiled and said 'nice'. There I was thinking the worst when they turned round to look but I was wrong. I can't help feeling defensive when I'm out and about shooting as I've had several negative experiences. This got me thinking about all the various encounters we've had over the years, some good, some bad, and I thought I'd share some of them with you (with a firm focus on the positive, funny feels).

Unfortunately when it comes to shooting you never know what you're going to get and even though I generally get excited about shooting out and about, there's always a hint of fear and anxiety that someone's going to be nasty, there's going to be stares, remarks. It's a risk you just have to take if you want the kind of shoots I do, so I go for it no matter what. Mostly we try and minimise the risks of pests as much as we can; shooting as early as possible, choosing quiet times of day, locations that are less crowded etc, but you can't always predict an easy, successful shoot. I've definitely gotten better now, if people stare and are rude, you just have to ignore them, hard as it is. People will always look if there's a camera and clothes and you're in front of it; even though it's (gasp) 2017! A camera. OMG, say what?!

Focusing firmly on the positives, there have been some lovely people we've come across when getting blog pictures that I thought I'd talk about. When we shot this look  for instance, the family in the next beach hut along apologised for their little girl getting in the shot; they didn't have to do that, surely they owned it and could have felt like we were the inconvenience. My mum and I often shoot at one of my favourite ever tucked away locations, a sandy cove of bliss, and there's a little cat who's trotted over to us twice, friendly as anything, sidling up to me and wanting to pose for all he's worth. Both times it's made my day that he's run over and joined us for the shoot, he's such a babe. There have also been families on hot days that have kindly noted we're in the middle of shooting and have worked their way around us considerately, as have there been dog-walkers doing the same. Countless times there have been nice people that we've come across, and it totally changes the atmosphere.

You also get some funny 'you had to be there' moments. There was one amusing bloke who stopped his car to call out 'Aren't you cold?' - I was wearing shorts and a little crop top, and yes, it was November. Me: 'Yes! I'm freezing!' Him: 'It's too cold for that!' My reply: 'Hell no!' One builder also came over to me and my boyfriend once and asked what we were shooting. 'It's for my fashion blog,' we explained. 'Oh!' He replied. 'Not porn then?' Wtf! Dude, I'm wearing a dress and tights and a cardigan and this is a dreary grey street. You gotta laugh, right? Not to mention the group of ramblers that stood stock still, staring at us in disbelief last summer on another shoot. To be fair to them, we did have a massive inflatable palm tree with us at the time. So I'll give them that one. And of course, shooting Sweetheart, to the guy and his nasty posse that bitched about 'why are they getting so many pictures? They all look the same anyway' - this is one of my favourite sassy shoots, and hell nah do those photos look the same. Thank you for spurring me on to keep going, no way would I have looked so on fire if it weren't for your fuel, fucker. 

Coat: c/o Shein

Leggings: Asos

Pink top: Asos 

Do you go shooting for your blog in public?

Have you had any memorable experiences?

I'd love to hear your stories below! 

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Winter style with Romwe

My wardrobe isn't very winter wonderland, as most of you guys can probably guess. Rainbow crop tops, snazzy sunglasses, off the shoulder dresses, glittery mermaid jeans and little strappy sandals may be a fashion blogger's best friend, but they ain't exactly favourable with Jack Frost. When Romwe kindly got in touch and asked me to choose a piece from their collection, I decided to go for something stylish yet practical for sub-zero skylines, opting for this V Neck Lattice Ribbed T-Shirt. It's cosy and casual, and just the thing I'd rock for a Starbucks date or a Saturday shopping spree. I paired it with my favourite pink and purple checked scarf, which I picked up in Primark last year and my Topshop gingham jeans.

My intention was to take a bit of a break from blogging in December but it seems I skipped the whole damn month and now look, it's January. I've missed blogging so much but the time just hasn't been right to post and to be honest, it's been nice not having to stress over everything I do stress about when it comes to blogging (long list). Most of you will know I had a nasty chest infection that I couldn't shift for weeks; I've never felt worse, they really do suck. My festive season was spent feeling rubbish and these past few weeks I've been focusing on (finally, finally) getting on with my book, spending January editing the second part of the novel, which I'm still in the midst of. My goal is to have my first book written by summer 2017, and ready to send off shortly after. 

I'm so done with not being able to shoot decent summery pictures for the blog; can anyone else relate? I hate not being able to get as creative as I want to when the lighting and general forecast is frazzled. I feel so powerless without being able to really have the freedom to shoot, and it's been killing me lately! I know there's a brighter season coming up, and Spring will be blooming through it before we know it. Graham and I are also going to be doing a blog shoot that I'm really excited about and am keeping everything crossed it works out. We've postponed it several times because I was too ill back over New Year and let's just say the outfit is pretty unsociable for this season, so I need to be 100% before we shoot in the thaw. We've struck lucky several times with the weather tho, and I've got several style shoots I'm super excited to share with you guys in the meanwhile. Clue: one is full of glittery, mermaidy vibes.... 

 V neck Lattice Ribbed T-shirt: c/o Rowe

How do you feel about shooting in the winter?

Has anyone got any tropical holidays booked? 

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