All Things Bright and Beautiful

There’s nothing like a girls weekend to make you feel like the female species runs the world. My friend Morven visited me in Aberdeen this weekend and boy (pun not intended this time) did we make the most of it!

Firstly, we started off by swapping two dresses that no longer fitted us, this is even better than shopping in charity shops if you’re trying to avoid spending money. I recommend setting up a swapping party between female friends where you can get rid of anything that no longer fits you or suits you in exchange for your friend’s unwanted clothing. Left overs can go straight to charity and you’ll have gained gorgeous new clothes without spending a penny! I had recently worn a Monsoon dress that I got in the sale and it had become depressingly apparent that my pitiful bust did not fill it. By comparison, Morven has a cracking rack and it fitted her like a glove. Her gift to me was a dress that we refer to as “The Bombshell Dress”, a cowl neck fitted H&M dress in dark grey in a size 6. Now this was always going to be a squeeze, and Morven almost breathed a sigh of relief that it didn’t fit me either. Once the zip was done up, the act of breathing could have turned the whole situation into a peep show at any second as I was in grave danger of bursting out of it.

The next day, we unleashed our battle cry and descended on the shops of Aberdeen, liquid eye-liner slicked on like war paint. Morven has decided that the palette of her wardrobe had become a little drab recently and she had been instructed by our friend Lesley (henceforth known as ‘The Stylist’) to forcibly inject some colour into it, and pronto.

So that’s exactly what we did… all weekend! We looked like a packet of Fruit Pastilles on steroids, but it got us noticed all right!

Topshop wrap dress, size 8, £8 Oxfam, Charity shop corner, Aberdeen                          
Next nude court shoes, size 3.5, £5, Sur Ryder Care, Charity shop corner, Aberdeen

This Topshop wrap dress caught Morven’s eye before we were even fully in the door and it looked incredible on her! Wrap dresses hug curves in all the right places and this accentuated her tiny waist. We popped to H&M to find a little nude cami for the purposes of appearing demure and also spotted this hot pink cropped blazer (the photo doesn’t do the colour justice but that’s shit Samsung phones for you!) As Morvy is a teeny 5″1 it is important to keep everything in proportion. A blazer cut slightly longer will swamp her petite frame, this cropped jacket works with the length of the dress to lengthen her legs. The nude shoes also have magical leg extending properties and at only £5, they were incredible value. Nude courts like these are the work horse of a good wardrobe and will go with every outfit, adding a lady like touch. There’s a reason that shoes like these are a favourite of the Duchess of Cambridge.

For our evening out, The Stylist had leant Morven some beautiful bright green shorts:

Shorts, borrowed from The Stylist, cropped jacket, borrowed from myself (£15 H&M sale) and also owned by The Stylist, Dogtooth tights – Model’s own

This cropped jacket is exactly the same as the pink one we bought for Morven, only obviously in an eye watering citrus colour. It set off the green shorts a treat. We had considered the pink jacket but one word sprang to mind … “The Eighties”

Next dress, size 10, £8, Oxfam, charity shop corner, Aberdeen

My latest colour obsession is orange, cemented by my purchase of a pair of bright orange Dune court shoes on Sunday in the sale. This dress was a lovely floaty fabric with a slight dropped waist which unfortunately you can’t see in this photo. The necklace was acquired from a friend of a friend for free after a clear out and my snakeskin platform shoes were £28 from £85 in the Dune sale this summer, bought for me by ES as a birthday gift.

The best thing about our evening out what that it didn’t cost us a penny! It’s not that we had drinks bought for us all evening, only for part of the evening… but I had also sold my Berghaus travel rucksack earlier on that week for £35 which successfully bought us two rounds of drinks. At £7 a pop in this cocktail bar, the drinks aren’t cheap, but as Cheryl Cole likes to remind us all, we’re worth it!