BEYOND AVERAGE

Exam season is well and truly upon us. If you can't hear the sound of students tearing their hair out then you can definitely tell from the quiet of the blogosphere.. everyone's got their heads down revising, or rather trying to learn an entire year's worth of work in one week. Me.. well, I actually quite like exams; the pressure makes me work harder and ultimately gets me a better mark than most of my coursework. I am still feeling the effects though, I've been wearing the same Sugar High jumper and ripped jeans for the past week, sweating my way through Financial Management, International Business and Fashion Marketing revision.

Part of my Product Development final mark is a presentation, which I did with my partner Zabrina to a room of tutors and industry professionals last week. Weirdly enough I enjoy doing presentations too, and doing this one about our own fantasy store was the best yet. We put together everything for our shop Beyond from the target market, business plan and marketing objectives, to the in-store layout and window display. Our USP was that we were a plus-size store, but aimed at women aged 18-25, with seriously fashion forward stuff. Think Nasty Gal for size 14 and up. It was so much fun and we really loved our brand, so much so that we almost wanted to launch it. Almost. Not sure I am quite ready for the plunge into business yet.

Business dress was the requirement for the presentation so that got me out of my jumper and jeans, but I couldn't resist putting a twist on it and looking on-brand for the shop. This is my favourite outfit ever so don't be surprised if you see me outfit-repeat in the future. It's actually a Christmas dress and I think it originally cost about £150 ish full price, so I couldn't resist when I saw it in the sale for fifty squid. Of course I'll wear it at Crimbo but I don't think it' too festive to wear the rest of the year as well. Or at least that's what I'm telling myself!

I'm wearing:

Emma Cook at Topshop dress

Oasis blouse

Jeffrey Campbell Pointe shoes

(there's some on eBay right now)

I've got a giveaway live for a neon orange Glamorous cropped knit! Go go go.

WEIGHTY ISSUES

Today I went to a barbeque wearing this outfit, bare legs and all. Yes I'm well aware of today's grim weather but I just can't take winter dressing anymore, I'm militantly dressing like it's spring. Which it is! Other than that I don't have a great deal of waffle about this outfit, I love everything yada yada, so here's something which has been playing on my mind recently:

Tomorrow marks two weeks since I stopped eating junk food. And, man, do I ever love junk food. Margarita pizza dripping with salty mozzarella is my favourite and I could sit and eat chocolate forever. Whilst it is hurting my soul, this change in diet is of course good for my body, skin, health, life expectancy.. but sadly the catalyst was that I've now booked my summer holiday. I'm a big believer that you should work with what you've got, and your clothes should fit you, not vice versa - so why do I feel the need to get healthy (and whenever a girl is saying get healthy she usually means lose weight) now I am close to exposing my near-naked body on a beach, in front of people I don't even know?

I'm so torn on this issue. Half of my brain tells me I am amazingly lucky to have a body that is strong, functions properly and does all the things I want it to do, but the other half is insisting that I really need to lose a couple (say.. seven. Or ten) pounds before hitting the beach.

And then I remember there are starving kids in Africa and girls being raped in India, and that teenagers in North Korea are so oppressed that they're not even allowed to wear jeans, and realise how absurd and banal this all is and wonder why I even waste brain power thinking about it.

AND THEN I REMEMBER I HAVE A FASHION BLOG and take photos of myself posing in various outfits. Urgh life, you so weird. Can we all just have a good standard of living and fair treatment please and be happy with what we've got.

I'm wearing:

Waiste dungarees

Vintage shirt

H&M coat

Topshop socks

Office trainers

Minkpink bag

I Love Crafty necklace

IN AN OCTOPUS'S GARDEN

You could say my parents' garden is somewhat.. rustic. They may use harsher words, but it's the place of many happy memories for me, growing up, playing games, mainly those involving owning and riding imaginary horses. My psychedelic clothes plus the garden setting reminded me of the Beatles' song Octopus's Garden from the Abbey Road album... I'm not under the sea though I would sure like to be resting my head on the sea bed.

Feeling pretty blah as my dad's been in hospital this week, so I wore my brightest mix of colours to cheer myself, and hopefully the other patients on my visits, up. I love wearing my rainbow Waiste jacket and this has fast become my favourite vintage dress (now with new hacked hem), plus I'm wearing my new Buffalo Spice Girl shoes my mental parentals won off eBay. You can get 'shop soiled' (read: a tiny rub on the sole) Buffalo shoes for a decent price on there - even worn pairs can go for silly prices as they're rare now. I say this about every new pair of shoes I get but they are BEST EVER. Comfy and clumpy and faintly ridiculous: my favourite formula for footwear.

My dad's had many pints of blood over the past month so I'd just like to finish by saying a big THANK YOU to anyone who has ever given blood. As well as for patients with long term health issues it's also essential for disasters where many people are injured - such as the earthquake in Pakistan this week, and what has happened in Boston and Texas - so I urge you to consider donating a bit of your red stuff.

I'm wearing:

Waiste Starry Nirvana jacket

Vintage dress

Thriftette socks

Buffalo Wannabe trainers

(in black here)

SUGAR HIGH

Imagine if every day (let's not push it - maybe five days a week) you got to get up in the morning, got on a party bus full of excited people (no need for caffeine, these guys are high on life and sugary breakfast cereal), to a place where you saw all of your friends, learned cool stuff, got to run around and act completely daft for an hour and a quarter of the day; then you're done and home in time to lay on the sofa to watch CBBC.

Sounds good right? I'm going to call it "scool".. like, it's cool. S'cool. I believe there is a similar concept that already exists but mine is going to be miles better and everyone will be totally psyched to go in every day.

The kind folks at Zalando let me choose a piece from their site and this Wildfox baggy beach jumper was the one. The s'cool I'd attend would be Sugar High, and this would be our uniform. Nutella for break, pizza for lunch, and absolutely no boys allowed.

I'm impressed with the Zalando site - there's a huge selection of lines to choose from and they carry some of my favourite shoe and clothing brands: Wildfox, Minkpink, Miista and Jeffrey Campbell. I'd be pretty pleased if my wardrobe was filled with those four. Delivery was fast and by a courier company, which is an unexpected perk for free delivery.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I gotta go do my scool homework: petting my cat and drinking a brew. Those teachers are real slave drivers.

I'm wearing:

Wildfox jumper c/o Zalando

ASOS skirt

Charity shop coat

Topshop socks & heart bag

Office shoes