WHAT YEAR IS THIS ANYWAY?

Happy New Year to my wonderful blog readers! I hope you enjoyed last night, whether you were on a big one or just hanging out with your cat, but most of all I hope 2013 is happy, healthy, and successful for you, whatever you choose to do. I rang in 2013 by dancing to an eclectic mix of music at Funkedemia with my friends (Groove is in the Heart was the midnight song, FYI), then at 4am going to the curry mile for a saag paneer. Apparently getting a curry in the early hours of New Year's Day is a bit of a Manchester thing, which I hadn't heard of before.. that's a box ticked off now, right?

My dressing essentials for New Year's Eve are a comfy-cool dress, dancing shoes, and a coat that you're happy to throw into a cloakroom, or on a floor. I can't believe the amount of people I saw out minus outerwear last night.. maybe I'm getting old.

2012 has been a weird one for me and I've grown up tenfold. I've come to realise what is really important to me, made better friends than I have done throughout my entire life (some through this blog) and grown closer to those I loved already. I'm not a fan of resolutions - they tend to be unachievable and get broken quickly - but I do set some aims which I work towards throughout the year:

1. Learn all the words to Nicki Minaj's Starships.. purely for boyfriend amusement purposes.
2. Look after my mum and dad as best I can.
3. Spend more time doing quality things, like seeing friends, reading novels, going to the cinema, painting & drawing, visiting galleries and museums.. and less time procrastinating (ie refreshing my Tumblr dashboard).
4. Focus my efforts on getting a visual merchandising job in June. If anyone hears of any Manchester-based junior VM jobs going.. help a girl out! You can find some of my VM work & reporting under my Visual Merchandising tag or on my Portfolio page (though they need drastically updating.. that's another goal right there).
5. Keep my dressing room a bit tidier, hang stuff up at the end of the day. Why is that so hard to do? Am I really fifteen years old?!

Totally specific, measurable, achievable.. yada, yada, yada. Of course goals are not just for the start of the year, and these will be modified and added to as time passes, but let's just see how we go for now, eh?

I'm wearing:

Minkpink dress

Topshop necklace & bag

Office shoes

H&M coat

A Fashionable Mancunian 2012

Accessorize hat, ASOS tippet, French Connection Dress, Office boots, Zara bag, Versace for H&M scarf

A completely Christmas gifted outfit from Chris and my parents, bar the hat, which was my only foray into the ferocious sales

2012 is set to be an exciting year for Manchester fashion: confirmed so far are the Indulgent Trade Show, Spring Fashion Show, and Manchester Fashion Week - the latter I know as little as the next person, I'm afraid, but their mysterious marketing seems to have many champing at the bit for more information.

These events, plus many more (including something I may have up my sleeve for Oasis, but you didn't hear that from me) promise for substantial posts with all original content here at Fashion Dotty. Many thanks for your support in 2011 - it's been a whirlwind of a year for me - and I hope to continue informing and entertaining you throughout 2012!


Oh, and the aggressive 5ft alligator stolen from Stockport? Just another to add to my collection..