My life lately via Instagram #3

I haven't done one of these Instagram style posts in a long while, since last year actually!! This one is all Instagram shots from my weeks holiday I had from work a few weeks ago. I managed to fit in some lazy days around Edinburgh, a night out in both Edinburgh and Stirling and a weekend at home in The Borders which ended back in Edinburgh on Mother's Day. It was a great week, nice to have a wee break from work and relax with family and friends.

Started my weeks holiday with a night out in Edinburgh with my flatmates. The best Rose wine for pre-drinks. / My flatmate Lana and I in Hive. / A lazy, slightly hungover, Sunday with DVD's and snacks. / My new work shoes, I absolutely love them. They're such an amazing colour and so comfy too.

Spent an afternoon wandering to Stockbridge, dreaming of the day that I might live in a street like this one. / Treated myself to a Starbucks in Stockbridge and took some time to read my Drapers footwear special. / Was drawn towards these sweets in an old fashioned style sweet shop, I love cinnamon buns. / I won this necklace from the ethical fashion company Johari by retweeting their competition.

I went to stay with my sister Melissa who's at uni in Stirling. That's her and I before we went out on the town. / Melissa was such a good host, she had curry all ready for our tea when I arrived. / I was on the Lambrini that night, so classy! / Melissa and I in the club.

Headed home to The Borders for the weekend. Spent Friday night in front of the fire with the telly on, cuppa tea in hand and my new Glamour magazine. / It's pretty standard that we make a trip here for lunch or coffee whenever I'm in Kelso. (My old work...and where my mum works!) / My mum on Mother's Day having coffee at Mimi's Bakehouse on the Shore in Leith. / The AMAZING crunchie cheesecake I had at Mimi's.

My guest blog post at Mallzee

I had the amazing opportunity last weekend to be a guest blogger on Mallzee.com. My friend Rachel has just started working with Mallzee and asked me if I fancied writing a guest blog post for them so obviously I jumped at the chance to get involved. Mallzee is a, yet to be launched, new online shopping website where you can combine all your favourite high street shops in one place and then shop from your own online shopping mall. Mallzee will ask you a few simple questions and then will search your favourite stores to find products suited to your style. I think the concept sounds like a great idea. I especially love the social networking aspect of the website where you can use a poll to ask friends advice on which items to buy (I am the worst decision maker and need EVERYONE'S opinion!) or suggest items to friends. I'll definitely be joining this shopping revolution when it launches later in the year. Go to Mallzee.com to sign up and receive an official pre-launch invite.

I only had a day or so to construct the post so I decided to write about something that I had lined up for here; my new style crush, Russian journalist Miroslava Duma. I decided that since Mallzee is a high street shopping website I would look at how we could get Miroslava's look on a high street budget. 

So here's my blog post on Mallzee.com >>>

Working 9 to 5

The only clothes I want to buy nowadays are clothes for work. I've moved up in my job recently to a role which allows me to be more flexible with what I wear. I am allowed to wear a bit of colour up top instead of before when I had to wear all black! Now all I seem to own, that looks smart enough for work, is black clothes. I have plenty of dresses for wearing out, but because I tend to wear dresses out, I have a severe lack of colourful tops. This post, and my craving to buy some new work clothes has came from the purchase of my new work shoes, the cobalt blue (the picture doesn't do them justice, they are so much brighter than that!) wedge boots below. So I've been looking out for some blue clothes to match with them. I'm sure I will still wear my brogues for work equally as much my new wedges so I have constructed a few ideal work outfits featuring my Clarks shoes.

My most worn work garment at the moment is probably my stretchy black pencil skirt and I 'd love to replace it with a skirt like this Topshop one in the middle. I can imagine this blue and black shirt being a great outfit with leggings and my new wedges!

Aztec print dress - Miss Selfridge

 Blue patterned top - Topshop 

Blue and black shirt - H&M 

Black skirt - Topshop

Blue suede wedges - Clarks 

Black patent brogues - Clarks

The above outfits still seem really dark, especially for this time of year. There's so much colour in the shops at the moment and so being let lose with being able to wear colour to work I should really be taking full advantage of this. I often wear my black blazer to work, I'm seriously considering buying this pink one from H&M. It's only £15 and so I imagine it will be very lightweight but that's exactly what I need for a day spent running up and down the stairs at work. I also really love the orange jumper, would look great with black skinnies and a black blazer I think. I own neither of these pumps but I might end up purchasing a pair in the near future, they come in such a good range of colours.

Beige blazer - H&M

Pink blazer - H&M

Orange jumper - H&M

Pearl necklace - Zara

Nude pumps - Clarks

Pink pumps - Clarks

I have been on the look out for a good pair of black skinny jeans for a while (all suggestions very welcome!). I bought a pair of the Topshop Leigh ones and I was very disappointed, they do the job of staying skinny and I live in my blue ones when I'm not working, however the black ones I bought faded to grey within about two washes. So my aim is to find a good pair for work that will stay black and stay skinny. I would pair them with this H&M patterned blazer or this polka dot peplum top from Next. I do love a bit of pattern whether it's dainty flowers or bold spots. I am also hopelessly in love with this black handbag from Clarks, it's torture looking at it everyday when my purse strings wont stretch quite far enough.

Blue patterned blazer - H&M
Skinny Jeans - yet to find the perfect pair!?
Polka dot peplum top - Next
Black handbag - Clarks
Shoes - as before

Like everyone does I'm sure, I love a little black dress. Especially with some statement jewellery like these two necklaces from Zara. I have the necklace on the left, I treated myself to it last payday and I think I have received a compliment about it every time I've worn it so far. (I also found out today that I won a necklace in a competition! I will blog about that once I've received it...watch this space). I own a couple of black dresses for work but I've been meaning to get another one for a while. These are all from H&M, I especially love the skater style one on the left and I'm very tempted next payday to take another trip to Zara for the pearl necklace.

Skater style dress - H&M
Beaded neckline dress - H&M
Gathered waist dress - H&M
Blue necklace - Zara
Pearl necklace - Zara
Shoes - as before

What do you wear to work? Do you have uniform guidelines or can you wear anything you want?

Recently Played #3

I like to show you what I've been listening to every now and again. I love discovering new music and so maybe by sharing my favourite tracks of the moment, I might be showing you something new.

One of the main ways that I hear new songs at the moment is at work. Whoever picks the music they play is Clarks clearly has quite a similar music taste to me. This was one that I discovered a few weeks ago. I had heard of Nell Bryden before, I think she might have connections with a few of my Dad's musician friends. I can't stop listening to this song, it's exactly my type of music and I'll definitely be looking into Nell Bryden's other material very soon.

Here's another song that I heard at work. I absolutely love Beth Hart but I never realised this song was her when I first heard it. She has one of the best female blues voices around and so many of her songs are very emotionally brilliant. This one is quite unlike the other songs that I've heard by her but it's so catchy and I love it! I urge anyone who hasn't listened to Beth Hart to give her a listen. Go YouTube 'Leave The Light On'! 

I first heard Of Monsters and Men in The Slug and Lettuce bar just before Christmas where I used the magic of 'Shazam' to find out what song was playing. I have been listening to the album on repeat since the new year and it still hasn't got old. It's one of those rare albums that I can listen to all the way through without feeling the urge to skip a few tracks. However, as with any albums, there are a few stand out favourites including this one! 

I discovered this Glasgow based band when they played at a monthly music night in Edinburgh at the end of last year and straight away I knew it was very very up my music street! Folky music with great, quirky, lyrics and some really funny stories behind the songs, as discovered during the two times I've seen them live. Definitely worth checking them out; my favourite tracks alongside this one are 'George', 'Waiting In The Wings' and 'He's Such A Sweetie'.

The Band Perry sit very well alongside my love for bands like Lady Antebellum and Sugarland. I do love a bit of American country music! I'd only really heard one song by them until I stumbled across this one on YouTube and it's definitely become a new favourite of mine. 

I noticed the cover for this song on a friend's Instagram and was drawn towards the 'ft. Diane Birch'. I would consider myself a pretty big fan of Diane Birch but had never heard this Delvin version of her song 'Rewind' before. I do like this version and have ended up listening to it quite a lot recently however I prefer her original version. There are loads of tweets going around like 'Diane Birch ruined Delvin's new song' and I noticed that Diane Birch had replied to a few saying 'It's actually my song, I wrote it.'!! Good on you Diane, get them told! So it's become one of those situations when people are just hearing of Diane Birch due to this song and I'm a bit like 'I knew about her ages before Delvin came along!!!' I even blogged about her way back in 2010!

I'm pretty sure there are a lot of people listening to this soundtrack at the moment. I am a huge fan of musicals and would happily sit and listen to songs from musicals all day. Since seeing Les Mis at the cinema I have been listening to the soundtrack a lot. I love all the more well known songs; 'I Dreamed a Dream', 'On My Own' and 'Master Of The House'. This one is definitely one of my favourite tracks, I remember singing it in choir practise at school!

What have you all been listening to lately?