Blogging full circle.

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Manchester fashion bloggers | www.itscohen.co.uk
clothes2order sweatshirt | www.itscohen.co.uk


Throwback.

It's been a while.

When I first started blogging my outfits "properly", i.e. not on my laptop camera, all I required was a flat surface/low wall and my point and shoot camera's self-timer function. Since then, I've been pretty good at coercing or full on bribing people into taking the occasional photo, meaning those ten repositioning yourself seconds haven't happened for a while. Safe to say, I'm rusty at this malarky so there were plenty of outtakes. It's also a hell of a lot harder when there's a 50mm lens involved and your tripod is a precarious stack of boxes on a dining room chair, but that's the glamorous life of the fusshun blogger.

I know the obvious solution to dropping one of the most expensive items you own on the floor from the height of about 20 shoeboxes would be to arrange to meet up with a photographer. I know a lot of bloggers do this; it's good for both parties, and means you have fire content for your blog, other than the slightly out of focus photos you see above. But does that prospect make anyone other than me want to sort of shrivel up and die inside a little? I'm no model (cringe), look like a turd most days and there's no way I'd be able to pay, so realistically it's a waste of time, surely?

It's weird how so much has changed since I last used self-timer. Of course this goes without saying; from final year uni student to mid-level full-time employment, the only things that've stayed with me are my terrible repertoire of jokes, quite a few split ends, and me occasionally uploading something to this blog. There was that bit a couple of years ago where I uploaded so frequently because I thought that would be a Magic Formula for Something (who knows what?). But it's quite nice for things to come full circle: taking things back home, making things a little bit more personal, less polished, and just a bit simpler.

Also, it's really, really hard to take a decent photo of your back.

What I wore.


What's on Insta.

15 Comments

Brit project.

Manchester fashion blogger | www.itscohen.co.uk
Nike Thea Trainers | www.itscohen.co.uk
Brit Project Manchester | www.itscohen.co.uk
Nike Thea JD Sports | www.itscohen.co.uk
Warehouse silk blouse | www.itscohen.co.uk
Olivia Burton personalised watch | www.itscohen.co.uk
Manchester fashion bloggers | www.itscohen.co.uk

Sundays in Manchester.

Aaaaaaaand breathe. If you're anything like any of the people I've spoken to in the past couple of days, your week's been a shocker. Inevitably it's the oh-crap-it's-October-how-did-that-happen panic setting in, along with a whole load of other Q4 feels, but there's definitely something other than pumpkin spice particles in the air.

Despite this (by which I mean, if we casually brush stress under a carpet), it's been a good start of month for me. I managed to catch up with old colleagues, school friends and new Manchester pals all in one weekend. Pity my bank balance, but we'll ignore that for a little longer. After the hazy beginning of a weekend in London, I was back in Manchester for a chilled Sunday. And, if I do say so myself, it passed pretty perfectly.

If there's one thing I've learnt since moving here, Manchester does Sunday very, very well. Or rather, it does recovery better than any city I've lived in; everything closed on a Sunday Munich was not best when I had a habit of going to the atomic cafe and not having the foresight to get food in... nightmare. Pretty much every place in the Northern Quarter and Deansgate does a killer brunch, and if your stomach's up for it you've got plenty of Sunday roast options too. 

With a lingering hangover tiredness from Friday, Laura, Clare and I headed to Hawksmoor for one of the best roasts I've had since moving here. Can I get those potatoes on tap, pls? Yes, it's not the cheapest, but for a score you get a Yorkshire the size of your face and refills on gravy. Photo below!

We headed back home via Spinningfields, where we managed to get some outfit snaps without any awkward reflections in the glass buildings - hurrah! Note my lack of expandable waistline, and see my main error. A couple of weeks back the babes at JD Sports got in touch and asked if I wanted to go to Brit Project, and they set me up with these beaut Nike Theas to wear on the night. I'm generally an Adidas girl through and through (other than my gym shoes), but my Superstars are getting a well deserved rest for a bit as I wear the new loves of my life in. Brit Project was a beaut way to spend the evening. I haven't been to a gig for a while, and it's always good to dust your dancing shoes off every once in a while - particularly when you can get there direct from yours on the tram, hollaaa.

If you've made it through this disjointed blog post thus far, congratulate yourself with a metaphorical gold star and a roast potato or five. This girl's done too much exercise today in preparation for another roast, and is falling asleep at her lapto.........

What I Wore.


Where We Went.



What's on Insta.


A photo posted by Rebecca ๐Ÿ˜ˆ (@rebeccacohen_) on



9 Comments

Evening and chill.

Tips on how to chill out | www.itscohen.co.uk

How to Chill The Fuck Out


It's been a long ol' process, learning how to chill out. I'm not 100% there yet, but I've been learning how to let go and generally stop being a ball of stress at all times. I still get massive FOMO and let tasks build up, but these are the small steps I'm taking on the daily in order to make sure that I have my shit together and keep functioning like a, well, functioning human being.

Plan to wake up early.

Massive disclaimer here: I am not a morning person. I find my prime hours of activity are between about 8 and 10pm. That said, I am slowly weaning myself onto a normal person's bodyclock.
When I wake up early, there's a weird sense of accomplishment that I get from completing tasks and activities before I've started the commute to work. This means that I don't feel like things are unachievable by the time my PC's booted up, as I've already started to boss the day. Do you see my logic?
I say "plan to" rather than "do it", because there's no way I'm waking up at 5.45am every single day, even if my alarm's set that way. Even if you snooze your alarm, it's totally a-okay because no one's that good at life every day.

Antipodes Aura manuka honey mask | www.itscohen.co.uk
Antipodes manuka honey mask | www.itscohen.co.uk

Treat yo' self.

Whether it's Fat Friday (definitely a "thing") or an evening of having your phone on do not disturb and catching up on the Real Housewives of Cheshire, everyone needs a lil something to look forward to.
For me, I like to indulge in an evening out of the loop. As said above, I live in a constant state of FOMO. I say yes to a lot of things, just in case I miss out on a funny story or one of those you-had-to-be-there-moments. I look forward to an evening out every once in a while where I can vegetate in front of my laptop, watching youtube videos while I treat myself to a skin treatment and sort my nails out.
I've been a long time fan of Antipodes, so when they got in touch a few weeks back I knew that these guys would have something to help on one of my chill out days.
Today is the last day of Organic Beauty Week (I know, who knew that was a thing?), so I've been testing out their Aura manuka honey mask for just over a week. I've been having quite a few issues with my skin recently due to a new hospital treatment, and this little tube of goodness has been helping to settle my skin regardless. It's very gentle and the results aren't dramatic, however long term use has shown rejuvenated skin and a less patchy complexion.

How to chill out | www.itscohen.co.uk

Take ten minutes to develop a routine.

Morning and night, there are little things that I can do on autopilot. Once you've developed a routine, you don't even have to think about what you're doing, meaning you get some time to think whilst still doing something: multitasking like a pro.
For me, this is my skincare routine. I talked about my evening skincare routine a while back, and it's just gradually progressed, new item by new item, to a very similar one today. Both in the morning and the evening, I take a good ten minutes to cleanse-serum-moisturise my to-do list. As I go through the motions, I work out that day's plan of action and work out my priorities.
Once I've got it sorted in my head, things are a lot more manageable.

The Casual Vacancy, by JK Rowling | www.itscohen.co.uk

Switch off at least one evening a week.

From reading a minimum of two books a week when I was at university, things came to a stop. Or rather, things fell off a bloody cliff. When we drove home from Liverpool, I just stopped reading. From being that weirdo bookworm kid who used to read a book on her walk to school (not good when you're as clumsy as me, fyi), it was odd to have gone cold turkey.
However, I've recently been getting back into it, and it's definitely helping to clear my head further. The internet is an absolute overload of content and conversation, and it's easy to get sucked into trying to catch up and add your own voice all the time. Rather than getting sucked into that hammed up hamster wheel all the time, I've been taking one night out a week to get stuck into a story and concentrate on that one thing fully.
Recently I've read the Miniaturist by Jesse Burton, and now I'm onto the Casual Vacancy by JK Rowling. Next on my list is Tess of the D'Urbevilles, which I recently salvaged from an old unread reading list pile.

If you've got any more tips on how to chill out, definitely let me know @rebeccacohen on Twitter. Other than that, here's hoping that everyone's doing a-okay.
Because, as always, there's nothing worth crying over, unless it's a video of baby pandas.
32 Comments

MAN > SHF

The Kooples womens leather jacket | www.itscohen.co.uk
Warehouse culottes jumpsuit | www.itscohen.co.uk
Manchester town hall | www.itscohen.co.uk
Zara silver metallic chelsea boots | www.itscohen.co.uk
Manchester fashion blogger | www.itscohen.co.uk
Olivia Burton blogger event | www.itscohen.co.uk
Warehouse jumpsuit culottes | www.itscohen.co.uk

A Culottes Jumpsuit and Embossed Watch


Let me just hold backspace for a bit.

I have a habit of leaving my emails for about three weeks, then replying en masse. It's not a technique I'd recommend. In fact, I'd actively dissuade you from adopting this method, as it's only going to make you stress and piss people off. Either way, when I got an email from the babes at Olivia Burton asking if I wanted to head to an event in Sheffield I was mid-way through typing a "cheers, but I live in Manchester" reply before deleting it all and saying "oh, go on then". 

Sheffield is one of those cities I've always loved. No beating around the bush, it's a solid 95% because of Arctic Monkeys, but it holds its own right too. I applied to university there way back when, and even though I didn't attend full time I did go a fair amount to visit my friend Selena. Last time I went was back in 2011 for an Arctic Monkeys gig (surprise surprise), and I've just never had a reason to go back.

Now I live up North, it's not hard to be a daytripper. Yes, trains are few and far between, but they're cheap as chips. That day I met up with Kavita to discuss what she'd been up to since we'd last seen each other. Sheffield weather was behaving, so we ate outside before heading into town for a quick walk around. I then headed to Meadowhall to visit boutique Goldsmiths. I was very lucky to be treated to my very own Olivia Burton watch, which has been personalised with my name: it doesn't just tell you the time, it also helps you out of tricky situations. You can get this done online, but it was super quick in-store.

Fast forward to the next weekend, and Laura and I were picking our brunch spot for the weekend. Not feeling a 45 minute (!!) wait for Alabamas, we just went round the corner to Allotment. One of those "should I eat where I drink?" establishments, but I am so glad we went in. Honestly, the eggs benedict comes highly recommended from me, and I've tried a fair few platefuls of it in my time.

Laura was kind enough to snap a few photos of my outfit before it proper peed it down. New fave combo of a culottes jumpsuit and anything chelsea boots that I picked up for a mere £7 in Zara. Of course, paired with my faithful leather jacket and a fedora hat.

What I Wore



Where We Went





What's on Insta


A photo posted by Rebecca (@rebeccacohen_) on

A photo posted by Rebecca (@rebeccacohen_) on

A photo posted by Rebecca (@rebeccacohen_) on
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Moving to Manchester: six months on.








Moving to Manchester: Six Months On


And some completely unrelated photos to go with it.

Okay, okay, seeing as I moved on 6th February it's nearer the seven months mark, but I'm gonna go with it, as six seems like the bigger "landmark". But doesn't time fly when you're having fun and drinking the Northern Quarter dry? Since moving to Manchester, there've been a few changes, and I thought where better to word vomit have a look back than here? This blog's seen me through moves to Liverpool and Munich, so here's to bulking out the Manchester chapter.

Whereas my last two jollies had a very definite end date (in Liverpool I was there to study for three years, and my contract in Munich was for six months before landing back with a jury service-shaped bump), moving to Manchester was always going to be a little different. With no specific end date, this one could be a little more permanent. I've been focusing more on getting to know the city centre with brief excursions out, and working out whereabouts I fit in. There was that day towards the end of my first month where it had rained/snowed for the twentieth day in a row and I broke down via whatsapp to Georgia saying I hated it here... but I'm now happy to report that's one of the very few dips I can report since moving to Manchester. Plenty of people have asked when I'm planning to move back South like I've had my moment of madness. Although I don't see myself being here forever, I'm certainly nowhere near done with this city and plan to be here for a good while yet. And hey, while I've got my Railcard, it's max £60 to get back to Essex.

Of course, completely upending your life doesn't come with hiccups. Although the rent sector may not be as cut-throat as London's, things still move quickly. Finding somewhere to live proved pretty tricky, but eventually Laura and I settled just outside the city centre. Up to that point I've been staying in airbnbs (the good, the bad and the ugly), which was emotionally straining on top of starting a new job/city/everything. Thankfully that bit's over, and we've been in our apartment for six months, exactly this time. As I'm not sure quite how long I'll be staying here for, I haven't gone crazy in the furniture department and it's hardly swamped in homewares, but it's definitely feeling a little bit more like home. If you fancy, you can see a little of what it looks like here. I like the area we live in as it's a fifteen minute walk to Piccadilly station (or ten, if you're late for your train and prepared to sweat a bit), close to the Norther Quarter and removed enough to not feel like your pores are clogged with pollution every second of the day. Little mercies.

Surprise, surprise: I'm another one of the multitudes of bloggers who've ended up working in Social Media. I don't reeeeeally talk about my job online that much any more; there are plenty of other people who are happily authoritative on the subject so I'll let them get on with it. This was my principle reason for making the move. I'd started applying for a new job about this time last year, absolutely convinced that I'd simply be moving to another place in London. When I saw this one come up on Twitter, I applied that evening and arranged to come up the next week. Soon enough, I was booking trains and making stuff happen. Manchester is known for its fast fashion, so I wasn't worried about making the move. Yes, I work for a young company, but I've no concerns about its continued success. And that staff discount goes a lot further.

Blogging has taken a bit of a backseat since moving to Manchester, but these things happen and I don't have any concerns. I'm not prepared to quit and take up blogging full time, nor am I in the position to do so. But I do want to keep things ticking over here to continue this little journal I've had since I was at uni. It'd be a bit weird to just... stop. Manchester bloggers are a great group of people, and I see Clare and Laura a happy amount. Basically, I just need to work out what I want to do with my blog, and then maybe I'll create a plan of action. Who knows what'll happen?

I do, of course, have moments where I wish I were based in London. I can't just pop on the tube to get to a networking event, and have to mute whatsapp groups when they're talking about plans for Friday. There is a lot going on in Manchester, but there will always be those greener grass moments. 99% of the time I'm so busy in the here that I'm not concerned with whatever's going on a couple of hundred miles away, but it'd be a downright lie to say it's not hard at times.

TL;DR? Moving to Manchester is happily one of the best decisions I've ever made, and this city seems to have adopted me quite well. And I've sort of started to say Northern phrases, which is really, really weird.
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Cities of hope.

Manchester fashion blogs | www.itscohen.co.uk
Urban Outfitters black suede half moon bag | www.itscohen.co.uk
H+M button down denim skirt | www.itscohen.co.uk
Public Desire silver shoes | www.itscohen.co.uk
Manchester Cities of Hope love graffiti | www.itscohen.co.uk
And Other Stories black mesh t-shirt | www.itscohen.co.uk


Spend your days in the sunshine.

You could wait a lifetime for the weather to behave in Manchester (what is it about this bloody city?), but I've worked out it takes an average of once every six weeks for it to be No Coat Weather in the North West. Thankfully, when Winnie came to visit, the morning's grey skies gave way to something hella hotter so we could give the umbrellas a rest at the bottom of our bag.

We started our day in Foundation Coffee, feat. its shoefie-ready floor quote "coffee is everything" 'cause these guys know. I'm successfully weaning myself onto coffee over tea but still opted for a latte with an orange and honeycomb brownie, which comes very highly recommended by yours truly. I may be losing my sweet tooth (who even am I?), but there's always time for brownies. Always. We popped next door to Fred Aldous because I've got a weird obsession with greetings cards so Winnie could indulge in a Yayoi Kusama notebook. We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around the Northern Quarter before weaving our way towards Manchester Art Gallery to check out the Vogue 100 exhibition (again, not complaining). Obviously starving, our last stop was Yard and Coop for as much chicken as possible. As sharing is caring, I'll pass on this little nugget for you (you'll see where the pun's coming in one min): the not chicken nuggets (there you go) are amazing, and are simply deep fried halloumi bites of goodness.

I know it's odd how the internet has worked its way into my daily life, but after having a chat about it yesterday with Jade it's easy to see how the world wide web has permeated most aspects of our/millenials' social activity: tinder, anyone? I'm still waiting to be catfished one day, but until then I'm totally cool with meeting up with strangers from the internet.

PS post title refers to all the #citiesofhope graffiti popping up round town, as photographed above. Still trying to find all the Cities of Hope range, but have seen a fair few around!

What I Wore.


Where We Went.





What's On Insta.


A photo posted by Rebecca (@rebeccacohen_) on

11 Comments

New Phone Alert ๐Ÿ”‘๐Ÿ”‘


Want to Win an iPhone SE?


Well, hun, you're in the right place.

I've been with Three for a while now, and although I am gutted they introduced their home away from home package in Germany about a month after I moved back to the UK (getting a sim card and the direct debit in a foreign language is a barrel of laughs, I tell ya), they've honestly been absolute babes since I switched to them when I was at uni.

Becca from Three asked me whether I'd like to give away an iPhone SE in rose gold to one of my readers, and it was definitely one of those "you sure you sent the right person that email?" scenarios. But, lo and behold, here we are, and if you fancy winning one of these, it's super simple.

How to enter:

Follow me on Twitter and retweet this tweet.

T&C's hurr.

Instagram photo by an unsuspecting Sade.

9 Comments

White lace and disco shoes.

Manchester fashion blogger | www.itscohen.co.uk
Gullivers Pub, Manchester Northern Quarter | www.itscohen.co.uk
Portico Library Manchester | www.itscohen.co.uk
Urban Outfitter cateye sunglasses blogger | www.itscohen.co.uk
ABode hotel Manchester rooms | www.itscohen.co.uk
Amy Childs Collection lace dress | www.itscohen.co.uk
Amy Childs lace dress | www.itscohen.co.uk
Manchester fashion blogs | www.itscohen.co.uk
ABode hotel Manchester | www.itscohen.co.uk
Manchester fashion bloggers | www.itscohen.co.uk
Public Desire silver shoes | www.itscohen.co.uk
Amy Childs white lace dress | www.itscohen.co.uk


A long weekend in town, the Manchester fashion blogger way.

There's nothing like having someone come to visit, in order for you to realise all you do with your weekends is spend a weird amount of time eating and drinking. "You'd like to do something else, you say?", leading to a quick flick through your mental vaults of What To Do and thinking all your trying to be a Manchester fashion blogger location recces were a bit useless, and maybe Dusk 'Til Pawn at 2am probably isn't a good shout when your guest is your mum. I suggested she stay in ABode, as it's a good distance from Piccadilly and where I live, whilst also being juuust far enough away from bars. And the walls have books all over them. From there, we headed to old favourite Ezra and Gil for lunch, and then wandered round town. Because, of course, it was raining, so there wasn't all that much you could do.

The next day, we headed to Media City, and spent the morning checking out the Lowry gallery. My mum's a big fan of Lowry's work, and it was only ignorance that meant I wasn't too. There was a talk given by a guy who was weirdly like my dissertation tutor (horrific flashbacks to the week before hand-in), which gave a little insight into the artist's life. I'd definitely recommend if you're a fan, or, if you're entertaining, it's freeee. As we were that side of town, it was only polite to head to the Trafford Centre AKA the Vegas of shopping centres. That evening we enjoyed some prosecco in the hotel. Because if you've got the chance to drink some fizz, who would turn it down?

On the last day of my mum's visit, we went for breakfast at Koffee Pot (always. Hands down best breakfast in Manchester). The sun was starting to show itself finally so we snapped the above photos before heading to the Portico library and Manchester Art Gallery for the Vogue 100 exhibition. Definitely saw a few Manchester fashion bloggers shiftily making their way along the photos. I see ya.

So, while I add a few more places onto my Manchester roster, are there any places you'd recommend? Always happy to test in advance, particularly if there's a cafe.

What I Wore.


Where We Went.




What's On Insta.



A photo posted by Rebecca (@rebeccacohen_) on
7 Comments

Hello, I'm Rebecca: social media exec, new-ish coffee drinker and loafer-wearer.
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