If you are anything like me, you'll have loads of clothes lying around that either don't fit, have fallen out of favour, or just aren't worn a variety of reasons. Over the years I've put aside literally bin-liners of old clothes, telling myself I'd 'get round to putting them on eBay sometime'. But I never have so far and it's looking increasingly likely I never will - I've never found the time, and I'm put off by the many stories I've heard of eBay charges, awkward buyers and things reportedly going missing in the post.
It's got to the point where I need to get rid of things to make space for new, and if I can make a little bit of cash while doing so it'd be a great bonus. But if I'm not going to sell on eBay, what other options are there? I've recently found out that Music Magpie now give cash for clothes!
If you don't already know Music Magpie, they've been around for a while now and I've used them in the past when having a CD clearout - I just typed in the number on the barcode into the website and they give you a price for each one. Once you've got everything loaded up that you want rid of, you can arrange for your package to be picked up at no cost and wait for the dough to roll in! You might not get as much as selling items individually but if, like me, you don't have the time or energy for that, Music Magpie is a great alternative!
I don't have anywhere near as many CD's and DVD's to get rid of now as I did a few years ago but one thing I do have plenty of is clothes. To sell my old second hand clothes on Music Magpie, I just have to answer a few questions about the brand and style of each item - then pack everything up ready to be collected!
I'm setting aside some time this weekend to go through my bags of stuff, I'm really looking forward to making some space and hopefully getting enough cash back to buy a new item or two as well!
As part of my weight loss attempts I've been trying to eat a lot more fresh fruit. To help get me in the mood for it, I've been perusing some of the high street's fruity fashion options.
The Topshop bodycon dress (£38) is a fantastically tropical affair, and would seem more at home on some exotic island than the English countryside, but for anyone lucky enough to still have any holidays on the horizon (or willing to rock this bold print in our often chilly country), Topshop have a range of items in the same range to bring some juicy fun to an ensemble.
The Asos dress with the pretty orange print (£38) is a more subtle way of working fruit print but the gorgeous backless detailing still makes it perfect for beachy holidays, whereas the Joe Browns 'Perfect Pear' dress (£39.95) gives me the most 'English Summer' vibe!
And since I always look to dresses first, I feel the need to balance out any suggestions with non-dress options too and couldn't help falling for the incredibly cute fruity playsuit from Mod Dolly (£32). The Apple purse is a juicy delight from Vendula (£7.50) as the Rocket Dog lace-ups (£36.99), also apple-based - I wish these could keep the doctor away! The fruit-embroidered top, featuring the sweetest scalloped collar, is on sale at the moment too, down to £35 from £50 at Asos!
That has definitely got me in a fruity mood now, off to go raid the fruit bowl!
Unfortunately this year I am not set to attend any of the big music festivals. All my 'fun things' money was spent on a much-enjoyed holiday last month so my budget won't stretch to another trip away, but that doesn't mean I don't still have a very keen interest in festival fashions!
New Look have created an awesome 'Evolution of Festival Fashion' timeline, exploring how the fashion choices associated with certain festivals in different time periods have evolved, since the early days of the festival (beginning with perhaps the most notorious festival of all-time, Woodstock) to the more recent festival offerings like Creamfields.
Despite my generally girly fashion tendencies, funnily enough one of the events here that I am most interested in in 1976's punk festivals. Though 'punk' happened well before my time, my dad loved punk, played in bands and went to weekend long punk festivals so I grew hearing his stories. He remembers those weekends as being amongst the best of his youth, and though I can't go back to that time to experience the wild weekends for myself, I could at least get a suitable outfit from New Look to pretend!
The sun is out again, or occasionally at least, and I'm using those flashes of summer weather to make the most of my new very summery shoes from Shoe Zone.
Canvas is the ultimate in summer shoe material - canvas shoes in the winter are a no-no as you won't last two minutes outside without getting soaked down to your feet which is never comfortable, so there's something liberating about being able to wear certain fabrics in the summer. The same applies to the hessian wedge of these which is just the right height to give a little lift without making walking in them hard work - summer is about lazing in the sunshine, chilling by the pool, laying in the park - you want to look good but you want it to be effortless. That's what these shoes say to me.
I found these really comfortable to wear and I think they are versatile enough for a lot of different summer activities too - I chose black as you can wear them with anything!
I really like the ruffle detail on the front too - very cute and gives the shoes a more playful and fun look, as does the pretty floral print on the inside.
These are available from Shoe Zone for only £12.99 with free delivery, and they have loads of other lovely summer shoes too!
Like many English bloggers, I have a bit of an obsession with American products - I think we just like what we can't have! So I was very excited to arrange a swap with US blogger Angelica of Angelica Discovers.
We settled on a $35 limit and discussed what we would each most like to receive. I mentioned some of the American beauty products I'd often heard mentioned as being ones to watch out for but had never tried - eos lip balms and the Maybelline Baby Lips were two that I'd often read were great, and I also mentioned Bath and Body Works as a store I'd definitely heard of.
We agreed on a date to send out the parcels and I waited eagerly for mine to arrive - I was so excited when it was delivered!
Here's what Angelica sent me:
The biggest thing is the 'country apple' shower gel - from Bath and Body works, just like I'd asked for! This smells wonderful, like apple sweets, and I can't wait to try it out! I also received two very cute handbag-friendly anti-bacterial hand gels too from bath and body works and I love them both - the apple blossom scent is really fresh and clean, and the pink lemonade lovely and sweet. I also got a face spa mask which I'm looking forward to using in my next pampering session - who doesn't love a face mask!
And that's only the beginning, I also got loads of great make-up products!
When I originally sent over my 'want' list, I'd completely forgotten to add 'wet n wild' eyeshadow to the list, as it's another thing I'd heard raved about, so I was so glad to find some in my package anyway - it's like Angelica read my mind! I got a 'Nude Awakening' palette which is wonderful as it's very much the kind of neutral colours I would normally wear anyway, and 'Cool as a Cucumber' which has a striking combination of green and purple - two colours I wouldn't have thought to put together but look amazing together in the palette and I'm sure will around my eyes too. The individual shadows - 'Sellout', a gorgeous shimmery purple, and 'Golddigger', a stunning sparkly gold - are beautiful. I was also really happy to receive a Wet n Wild mascara as I'm a complete mascara fiend, as well as the lip products I'd requested. The eos lip balm was not a disappointment - I was sent the 'sweet mint' one and it really is so minty and fresh, it smells just like mint rock and makes my lips feel all tingly as it moisturises them. The Baby Lips have just become available over here but I got this one a few days earlier than their release - I got 'pink punch', which has a sweet, fruity smell and a subtle wash of pink when applied.
I'm so happy with my swap parcel, and I hope Angelica is with hers - We've agreed to do another one before Christmas so if you liked this post there should be another along in the future! In the meantime, if anyone would like to see full reviews and/or swatches of these products please let me know in the comments and I'll be happy to oblige!
I'm so excited that this week I have been selected to be Barratts Blogger of the Week! To celebrate, I thought it would be the perfect time to explore the Barratts site and put together a little wish list!
As part of the questionnaire, I was asked to pick my favourite item currently on sale at Barratts and despite the hundreds of pairs of shoes available, it was one of their gorgeous bags that I settled on - the floral satchel (£30) was the one that caught my eye, so pretty and summery. It's only one of a great bag collection and I couldn't help but include the LYDC London Handbag (£45) in red too.
But it is shoes that they are most known for and they have plenty to choose from for all occasions - the floral ballet flats (£15) are so pretty, and the Dolcis Wedges Sandals (£28) are a perfect holiday shoe, while the fresh and fruity apple-print courts (£45) make me think of summer.
And unfortunately the summer can't be all about relaxing and having fun in the sun - I think the Hush Puppy Mary Jane's (£40) would be great anyone stuck in an office (like me), and if/when the weather turns sour again, the little pink ankle boots (£16) make a great wellies option!
I did say a while back that I would start posting my weight loss efforts here in order to help keep me on track. I picked up the idea for weight-loss Wednesdays after seeing it on a couple of other blogs, so here is where I shall be posting any updates, ideas, and relevant reviews. Starting with a very important aspect of my work out outfit, my Zaggora Hotpants*.
I've wanted a pair of these for ages, even including them in my 'fantasy workout outfit', and they've fast become an integral part of my exercise sessions. Firstly, here's the technical bit about how they work: Zaggora's products contain 'celu-lite fabric technology', which increases your core temperature while you work out to help you burn more calories. When tested they were found to increase the metabolic rate of wearers by up to 18%. This essentially makes your work out sessions more effective so that those hard-worked for results come a bit quicker!
Can you see why I was so interested in them?
There were a couple of doubts in my mind about these before testing them out: Would they work? Would they be comfortable? Would they look ok? But I've tried them for a few weeks (I was originally going to do the 'two week challenge' - but injuries and holidays have stretched the two weeks out over a long time!) and here are my thoughts:
Would they look ok? I normally wear quite loose fitting clothes to the gym as my body still needs a bit of work before I want to show it off too much, but these are not only skin tight (they need to be to work), but shiny too. They're made out of a thick, wetsuit-esque material so as well as showing more of my figure than I'm used to they make a bit of a 'swishy' noise, drawing yet more attention! However, I don't know if it's because they made me really feel like I was ready to work out, but I didn't feel stupid wearing them at all. I wore them with a longish and looser fitting t-shirt which I think helped balance it out, but essentially I didn't feel self-conscious about either the fit, colour, material or anything else, and that's a help. I'd even go further to say that the tightness and thickness of the hotpants helped to 'hold in' some of the more wobbly areas round my tummy which was really nice!
Would they be comfortable? Again this concern was partly based on the tightness of the products, and partially on the 'heat' factor. But I found them good on both counts - perfectly comfortable to wear throughout the workout, and though I felt hot (and I would have been hot working out no matter what I was wearing) it never got unbearable or even really uncomfortable. The other concert was if I'd have to spend the whole workout pulling them up, as find I often do if I ever have to run in tights (not my usual work out wear choice but if I have make a dash for a bus for example!). these look like thick tights, and I worried they'd slip as I moved around a lot but they were great at staying in place!
Would they work? Well, in many ways this is quite a tricky one to answer - I did lose weight, and inches, while wearing these. But I was also doing more exercise and eating less generally so it's hard to say for sure what aspects of that can be attributed to the hotpants alone. So I'll tell you what I can be sure of - these things make you sweat. A lot. I didn't even feel too sweaty while I was wearing them, but when you peel them off you know about it. It would be quite disgusting if it wasn't so cool. It makes me feel like I've really worked hard, like I've really earned that shower. If the levels of sweat correlate to calories burnt then they must be doing something! A weird unexpected side effect of this is that they make my skin feel so nice and soft too - always a bonus! Another thing they did was really motivate me to work out, even when I wasn't really in the mood - a sort of 'well I've got these, I really should' attitude mixed with thinking that if I forced myself to do it, at least it would be as effective as possible! That in itself in valuable!
And if you need any more motivation, check out this video from Zaggora, it's called 'women are awesome' and the awesome things these awesome women are doing really puts my 'half hour potter round the gym' to shame - I really need to step up my game if I ever want to reach this level of cool!
And I know just what I need to help me on my way,.... as well as the hotpants, Zaggora do a gorgeous range of hot tops and blazers that would really complete my workout outfit!
Have you tried these? What do you wear to work out in?
* These were provided to me for review.
** I did want to include photos of me wearing the Hotpants, but I had no one to take them for me and really couldn't manage anything verging on flattering my myself - angles all wrong! - so I have used images from the official Zaggora website.
