Polka dots and pretty houses.

Chinti and Parker polka dot shirt: £4.95 (!!), via charity shop (similar). Vintage leather jacket: £17.50. Asos petite Ridley jeans: £30. Oasis chelsea boots: £41 (now on sale). Primark hat: £7. Speech bubble necklace: c/o Tatty Devine. Topshop and H Samuel rings. Essie 'maximillian strasse her'. MAC 'Ravishing'.

It would seem that my mum and I have been tackling a 'places in Essex we've never been' list with much aplomb. A far cry from TOWIE (literally, we went in the opposite direction from Sugar Hut), we stumbled across enough pastel-coloured houses to rival Notting Hill, with significantly less tourists and plenty more opportunities for no-queuing-necessary afternoon tea. Castle Hedingham (the place, not the castle) is full of narrow winding streets working their way up and down, interspersed with plenty of ancient pubs and tea-rooms. Dreamy.

Onto one of my other recent finds: this shirt. I've been frequenting charity shops less than usual, but will still pop in if I happen to be in town for a reason other than to use the train station/go to the gym/be a bottle of wine down. I picked up this Chinti and Parka shirt for less than a fiver because I genuinely liked it, not realising till I got home that they retail for well over £100 - can I get a 'hell yeah'? And, of course, I couldn't not mention this amazing necklace team Tatty sent over to cheer up one very blue Monday, featuring my tweet in cold, shiny, hard plastic. It may not make the start of the week any easier, but it sure gives the guy at the station something to chuckle at as he prepares my 'large, for Monday' latte.

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Rise 'n' shine.

Get ready with me...

As someone who sees YouTube as a purely "watch this when you're too tired to comprehend words" pastime, it's hardly surprising that I'm going to take a YT tag and make it with still photos (not entiiirely true, there is a gif included) rather than sick a camera in my face and start haphazardly filming. Regardless, consider this bandwagon limply touched jumped on.

6.30 am - alarm rings.

6.31 am - alarm snoozed.

6.40 am - wake up.

6.45 am - shower. Current favourite shower gels in rotation are Soap and Glory's 'Sugar Crush', Lush's 'Hot Toddy' (i.e. I still have some left over from Christmas) and Rituals' 'Yogi Flow.

7.00 am - time to cleanse. I never use soap on my face as I find it far too drying for my skin, instead preferring to use a cleansing face wash. Right now I'm favouring Neal's Yard's 'Orange Flower Facial Wash'.

7.02 am - brush teeth. But do you really need to see a photo of my toothbrush?



7.06 am - first things first. I'm a serum lover, I'll admit it. I recently received Antipodes' 'Hosanna Intensive Hydrating Serum' from the Nutrition Centre, and it's doing a damn good job. It took a while to really see any change, but give it a week or two and you'll notice your skin looks brighter and continued use is really helping to make it look like I get eight hours sleep a night.

7.08 am - moisturise. If I love serum, then moisturisers take things to a whole new level. I start with the Body Shop's 'Vitamin E Eye Cream' and 'Vitamin E Intensive Moisture Cream', and then dab Elizabeth's Arden's 'Eight Hour Cream*' onto problem areas (for me, my nose and persistent spots).
*This isn't a cream, it's a gel. One of life's many, many lies.

7.15 am - potter. If there's one thing I've noticed all twenty-somethings enjoy doing, it's aimlessly pottering. It's the BEST. Extra points if you can turn it into a brew break.

7.25 am - make some bad life choices. Run through enough outfit changes to make Katy Perry bow down.

7.35 am - make it up (literally). I'm as far from a beauty expert as you'll ever get, but I seem to get by with my on point eyeliner flicks.

7.50 am - add a leather jacket, grab your season ticket and get to the train station.

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High dive into frozen waves.

Oasis butterfly bomber: £5, sample sale. Asos top: £10. Oasis Isabella jeans: £28. Missguided heeled boots (old). New Look backpack: £23 (now only available in black). Topshop + H. Samuel rings. Rimmel Kate Moss 08 lipstick.

Photos by Hannah.

After missing London Fashion Week in favour of staying inside, the next weekend's blue skies and a little invite from New Look coaxed me out vampire-style for London Fashion Weekend. If you haven't heard of LFW's little sis, I'm going to assume you're new around here. In short, it's your chance to see the oncoming season's trends in one handy catwalk show, with a little bit of Sia playing to keep you going after navigating the Circle line's part-closures. After meeting a load of lovely bloggers outside, we went in to sample the high life shows and talks, before popping along to the Delaunay for afternoon tea and an education in gugelhopf.

After a few weeks of existential crisis and whatnot, it was truly inspiring (vom, I know) to spend the day in the company of such hardworking and focused girls. Sometimes all you need to put things in perspective is three tiers of cakes and a few hours of getting-to-know-you.

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What kind of man.

Boohoo fringed suede jacket: £25. Topshop patterned crop top: £24 (only blue online). American Apparel circle skirt: £15, ebay. Hobbs ankle boots: £40, warehouse sale. Brit-Stitch satchel. Your Fashion Jewellery skull necklace. Charity shop belt: 20p. Essie Lapiz of Luxury nail varnish. Rimmel Kate Moss 08 lipstick.

Who knew I'd be so sold on a trend? I fully expect rolled eyes and people sitting that liiittle bit further away from me when I turn up to the pub in this jacket, but I think I can handle some stick when it prompts a fair few heart-eyed emoji from the people that matter  - yep, that does mean you guys. It's fringed (check) and suede (you got it) so who am I to resist something so perfect? I noticed Boohoo were offering free next day delivery, so there were a mere 12 hours between me and the ridiculous jacket of my dreams. I'd recommend sizing up as this one fits pretty tight, but it'll be perfect for spring and that mythical time when I stop eating bread. When paired with my favourite Hobbs boots which I trekked to Harlesdon to buy and a slick of my current obsession Kate Moss 08, I think the 70s trend might just be something I could get on board with.

Want to try it out too? Be swayed (heh) by my favourite suede picks:

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There's no place I'd rather be.

Gingham co-ord: c/o Laura Ashley (top and skirt). Zara navy coat: £30. Vintage Salvatore Ferragamo shoes: £2.99, charity shop. Vintage bag: gift from Jazmine. Faux fur tippet: £1, charity shop.

"You can wear jeans and a t-shirt to work? You are so lucky!"

Picture the scene: Laura and I are sardined together on a DLR train headed to Bank and I'm the only person wearing denim in a sea of suits (other than someone who looks like they weren't quite expecting the tropical temperatures mid-February in a shearling jacket - pray for them). The office I work in doesn't have a uniform as such, and instead I find myself dressing in everything from casual outfits perfect for a post-Domino's day or pretty floral midis and bardot tees which would fit in with afternoon tea. When Laura Ashley got in touch asking if I'd style up their pastel co-ord I couldn't help but immediately think of how it'd be perfect for a City office, just the ticket for countering the inevitable greys and navies swarming to Pret for lunch. Realistically, I'm much more likely to pair the top with skinnies or the skirt with an oversized jumper for my own 9-5, but there's nothing like pretending every once in a while...

Want to hear how LA'd wear this co-ord? Pop over to their blog!

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Growing a pair.

Benefit Brow Zings: £24.50's worth of need-this-in-your-life, surrounded by stuff you probably don't need.

As it was Valentine's day yesterday, it only seems apt to talk about the most important couple in my life (after Breana McDow and Matthew Helders, of course): eyebrows.

It's hardly a surprise that the girl who spends a large proportion of her life between Essex and Liverpool has a fascination with the face framers, but it took me until the age of twenty-one to realise just how crucial the bad boys were to making your face look just so. After watching Jazmine painstakingly paint hers on using all manner of techniques including spit, I thought there had to be some kind of worth to this massive exertion of effort. I popped into the Harvey Nichols Beauty Bazaar, came out with a little grey bag containing Benefit's Brow Zings, and I've never looked back.

At just under £25 this isn't exactly cheap, but if you consider I used it nearly daily for a year and a half before it ran out the cost per use is minimal. It comes with two brushes (which are a bit naff, but I'm yet to find ones I like enough to replace them with), teeny tweezers, a subtly-coloured wax to be applied first and a powder to fill in your brows with afterwards. I use the light shade, and have got no idea who dark is aimed at, as this one's pretty deep. Since Eloise wrote her review, they've changed the wax formulation to it having hardly any pigment, so you needn't worry about it being too red-toned for you.

The first time I tried things out things didn't go too successfully. Since, I've learned that I prefer a much thinner arched shape, which extends outwards, this being quite a good example. I'm hardly an expert at it, but would recommend cleaning your brushes regularly as product build-up means it can be pretty tricky to get the exact shape you want.

If I can stick with something for two years and not have any inclination to look elsewhere, it's clear that this is true love - and who am I to play with brows at this time of year?

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