If you like piña coladas.

Pineapple print maxi dress: c/o Sugarhill Boutique. Levi's denim jacket: mum's. H&M x Marni heels: £70 (similar). Alexa Chung for Made skull bracelet: £11, via ebay.

As far as first maxi dresses go, this isn't just dipping your toe territory, but going the whole damn hog with added pineapples. When I received the lovely Sugarhill Boutique parcel from my postman, there was a moment of trepidation as I wasn't sure if it'd suit me, but give it fifteen minutes to quickly take it up a couple of inches (I'm short, and these are my problems), it was on. I realise that I'm a very lucky person to receive clothes from brands, and I think through what I receive on the basis of a) will it suit me? and b) try something new, that hopefully will help you guys make a decision as to whether you want to try it out as well. You can't blame a girl for trying, but I'm not sure I'm 100% sold on maxi dresses. I feel like it makes me look even shorter than I already am (remember those problems? This is another), but it makes a welcome change from mini skirts and skinny jeans. Who knows, maybe I'll be eating my words and be a full-on maxi dress convert by the end of summer... Maybe.

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I've ridden the riddle, I'll do it again.

Vintage Levi's denim jacket: mum's. COLLECTIVE white t-shirt. Vintage dress (worn as skirt): £4.50, via charity shop. Asos woven leather sandals: £25. Vintage Mulberry belt: gift. Rotary watch. Vintage bag: 50p. Skull necklace: c/o Your Fashion Jewellery.

Photos by Jade.

You know a place is pretty special to you when you look this happy after a good four hours on trains. A couple of weekends ago, I headed up north to Liverpool for the first time since my graduation - I blame Munich. It was weird heading back and seeing nuances on a city I knew like the back of my hand, but following Independent Liverpool on pretty much every platform and keeping in touch with my favourite scousers meant that it still had that incredibly homely feeling.

First things first, Jade met me off the train and whisked me off for a hearty breakfast at the Moon and Pea on Lark Lane. She's nice and wears a lot of Zara that I'm not cool enough to be able to keep free of tea stains, so I'd recommend giving her blog a stalk. We did, of course, make time for outfit photos, and she showed me a pastel version of these townhouses - certainly helps to get a little bit of insider knowledge.

After a walk round Sefton Park, I headed off to meet my friends (and the bride to be!) for a lot of wine, italian food, and dancing to the spice girls. I thankfully forgot my camera by the time this happened, but I can honestly say that I haven't laughed so much in such a long time, and I'm glad I was only there for a weekend as I would have developed abs had I been there any longer. It did, however, come to an end, and a traditional breakfast at Cuthbert's was had (duh). There was even time for a quick cuppa at LEAF before my train home, where I managed to pick up one of their "where there's tea there's hope" teapots to have a scouser's brew in from the comfort of my Essex home. Thankfully London's keeping me more than busy, and stopping me from missing this incredible city too much, but I'm sure I'll get the itch to jump back on a train before long.

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I say, I'm sorry I won't do that happily.

Denim shirt: gift from Jazmine. Asos petite jeans: £28. French Connection bag: gift. Hunter boots: won in Char's giveaway. Rimmel lipstick.

As promised, here's day two of my Parklife shenanigans.

Sunday was much more chilled than the day before, namely due to the mainly sunny weather, and we rolled up to the festival site around 1, after having a good ol' fry up to keep us going. As we had to leave around 7 to head back to Manchester city centre, we missed Foals and Disclosure (I may have shed a figurative tear, I'll get another opportunity I'm sure), but were serenaded by London Grammar's kick ass lungs and man of the moment Sam Smith. No burger news to report this time, as I got a pasty from the station on the way home (keepin' things real), so I'll cut things short as I seemed to go on a bit about day one, and I've got post-festival blues.

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I can feel the love, can you feel it too.

Urban Outfitters stripy top: £22. American Apparel sunflower shorts: £54 (watermelon ones here). Primark wax jacket: £22. French Connection bag: gift. Hunter boots: won in Char's giveaway.

It hardly feels like it (talk about a whirlwind), but just a week ago I was stood in a rather muddy field in Manchester singing myself hoarse at Sam Smith. The lovely people at Yahoo Lifestyle invited me up to sample the northern soul and snap some street style photos (that bit's coming soon!). Seeing as I took a load of photos, I thought it'd make sense to separate them into two posts, so here's day one for your delectation.

I haven't been to Manchester since last November, but it certainly fulfilled my expectations: it rained. A lot. The Saturday was a bit of a washout, and I still feel like I've got a little bit of mud on me somewhere, but the music more than made up for the constant cold, particularly when the sun reared its head towards the end of the afternoon! We tended to stage hop to see what was going on, but highlights included Camo and Krooked, Duke Dumont, and, of course, Rudimental, who I've been wanting to see for ages, and they do manage to make you feel good despite the inevitable onset of a cold making itself very present. I also spied an Almost Famous stand, which I insisted we try out having heard the hype surrounding their Liverpool opening, and boy was I glad we did. I had the special Parklife burger which included all things chorizo, while Sabby favoured the Famous, and I can really see why they've earned their reputation (and it gives me an excuse to talk about food).

Day two will be coming up on Wednesday, but for now I plan to curl up in a very small ball and pray this hangover goes on its merry sadistic way.

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This ain't love, it's clear to see.

Vintage co-ord set: mum's. The Kooples leather jacket. Clothing at Tesco ankle boots: £25.

After my Brilliantly British post, it didn't seem to take me long to try out the Heybridge Basin tearooms. In fact, all I required was a day off and a slight bit of persuasion on my mum's part and we were out the door. As it was a bank holiday the weather decided to (technical term right here) piss it down, so it only felt apt to go for something nautical. I found this co-ord set when my mum was cleaning out her wardrobe before we moved house last year. I'm well aware that it's not flattering in the slightest but it's stripy and so comfy that I honestly couldn't care less. And I call myself a style blogger...

Regardless, it was lovely to wander round a new corner of Essex I'd previously left undiscovered for a few hours (yes, we ended up in a pub to "take shelter from the rain", shame that) that is only about twenty minutes away from where I live, and I got to climb on walls when it explicitly said to not climb on the walls. Can't keep this little rebel down.

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Where's all my soul sisters.

Lace sleeve playsuit and plunge neck dress: c/o Missguided.

You may or may not have noticed that there's someone else joining me in these photos. Missguided got in touch asking who my BFF was, and my immediate thought was the girl who'd travel across countries to see me if I was feeling a bit down or happen to have festival tickets - we ought to be at Parklife right about now, actually! Sabby's appeared on this blog a fair few times, accompanied me to events, and generally been an all-round top lad since I sat next to her in my first history A level class nearly five years ago. In that time she's lived in Paris, I've lived in Munich, and we've got through a few more bottles of vodka than it's probably acceptable to admit (well, she is part-Russian, after all). As a general rule, I'm pretty guarded with who I share things with due to a fair amount of past disappointment, but this one seems to be doing alright. I'm not one to get all soppy, and I'm definitely not letting her read this before it's published as she's handily packing hot pants for the weekend's festival right now, but it truly does mean more than I let on to have a friend who really is there for you all the time even when it's 3am and you're in a different time zone, loyal even when they know you're being a bit of an idiot, and literally feeds my love for hummus. That last one's the most important, obviously.

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