What I Wore: Valentines week

Topshop: coat, trousers. New Look: body. Primark: shoes, bag

Primark handbag, Models Own 'Scarlet Sparkle' nail polish, Earnest Jones silver ring, Topshop pink jewel ring

This isn't what I wore on Valentines day because I pretty much stayed in my pyjamas that day. I had a lovely time with the boyfriend, we just didn't venture out much apart from nipping to Tesco to buy a really nice dinner. 

I hardly ever wear these trousers because I don't have many shoes that go with them, but the leopard pumps make a good little pairing. I must have somehow lost a bit of calf muscle, odd as that sounds, because these tapered trouser legs aren't nearly as tight as they used to be. This time last year I was training for the London Marathon, and I acquired pretty muscular calves! It seems that's now all gone to waste! This outfit is really comfy, but looking at it in photos I think it needs....something. Maybe a necklace? I'm all for minimalism and simplicity, but there just seems to be space for something more. What do you think?

I braved Primark last week and was so glad I did because I found this little gem of a handbag. I love small, boxy bags partly because they look cute and make it easier to find things, but also because I like surprising people as I pull out umbrellas, books, wallets, keys, phones, cameras (it has been done!) from their deceptively small depths. I always want to go into Primark because I really like their s/s collection, but it's always so busy and messy, I just avoid it. However, the boy and I went on a Monday evening about 6ish and it was so quiet! Much less stressful shopping! If you haven't been in there recently, you really should. They have a great handbag selection going on at the moment.

And these are some of the yummy things we ate. I found a heart shaped frying pan in Tesco for £2! Amazing! So we had heart shaped fried eggs on Valentines morning. The boyfriend totally sabotaged my yolk! I had my favourite red velvet cupcake from Tesco too, and the most delicious lemon tiramisu. As you can tell, we are very healthy eaters.

Hope you all had a loved up Valentines. Did you do anything special or just gorge on treats like we did (because it's just as good if you're single, if not better!) ?

happy Friday

Can you tell I'm in the mood to bake and devour cupcakes?

Yummy!

Have a good weekend!

Christmas time

Selfridges strawberry and red velvet cupcakes.

Asos Dress, River Island knee high socks.

Hello lovelies. How're you all? Hope you've had a lovely Christmas holiday. Aside from my family all having flu, mine's been pretty good. I'll take a picture of the stuff I got tomorrow, as I'm starting to feel like I'm coming down with their bug too, so I'm tucked up in bed at the moment. The good news is I got the giant cupcake mould I've been wanting for ages. The not so good news is I also received a Snuggie, probably the second most unattractive garment after a Bandarf. It's pretty cosy though, so I won't complain too much. 

I had the best Christmas Eve in a long time as my Dad and I took my nephew and niece sledging near the beach. Sledging in the snow has got to be the perfect way to spend Christmas Eve, and it was so funny to see my five year old nephew flying off into the distance on his little sledge.

I decided to wear my latest Asos dress on Christmas day. Witness my severe lack of accessories: New Years Resolution - Buy more accessories. It's one of my favourite outfits at the moment, and it's such a good length. Dresses on the highstreet always come up a bit short on me, but this one is perfect. There's a few more dresses I've got my eye on too and I hope they'll be the same. I just remembered I also bought some boots last week from Asos in the sale. I won't tell you too much about them now because I'll probably post them tomorrow or later this week, but I definitely am in need of a second opinion.

Anyway, I'm off to watch a film in bed now and hope that I don't feel worse in the morning.

What did you guys get for Christmas? Link me if you've done a post on your presents. 

P.S If anyone is vaguely interested in my quest for the perfect cupcake, the Selfridges ones weren't all that special considering you can buy four at Tesco for the price of one of those. Recently tried Sainsbury's strawberry cupcakes and they weren't very nice. Seriously, Tesco red velvet all the way, until I bake the ultimate cupcake with my new mould !

wednesday wishes 6

I'm writing this post while I'm feeling particularly peckish, so that may account for the inclusion of a cupcake and a giant cupcake mould. It's a bit like going shopping when you're really hungry - big mistake! However, my boyfriend and I are on the search for the perfect cupcake. We actually have criteria to mark our cupcakes, cake fiends/sad people that we are. I really should take more photos of the cupcakes we encounter, as there have been a fair few, but I can tell you that Tesco are actually in the lead at the moment with their Red Velvet cupcakes. They're not really true to 'red velvet' in that their sponge only has a tint of red in it, and the icing isn't made of cream cheese. However, for something ridiculous like £1.98 for 4 cupcakes, I definitely direct you to go and buy some as they are AMAZING! Also, this giant cupcake mould available from Firebox used to be a whopping £35!, which I just couldn't justify being a typically cuisine backward student. It's now £14.99, which is much more affordable, so I'm definitely going to have to buy it asap and make an absolute beast of a cupcake! 

I recently posted about my longing for a Christmas party to attend, and this is still playing on my mind. This Miu Miu little black number is gorgeous. The detailing is just beautiful and the more modest style cut of the top is lovelyl. It's on the LBD dream list, for sure. 

I'm trying to convince my boyfriend (and myself), that our upcoming two year anniversary really is an occasion that calls for a Yves Saint Laurent 'Arty' ring. Can you believe he doesn't agree?! I'm working on it. I think £115 for a piece of YSL is amazing and almost seems like a bargain in my warped mind. There are a few different styles, but I think rich purple/blue will go with more of my wardrobe than the others.

My current going out shoe crush lies with these little Asos numbers. I'm a real fan of block heels,  and these kind of have that going on, but they're slightly more sleek at the end. I hope that they will be much more comfortable than the stilettos I'm usually accustomed to wearing. 

Hope you enjoyed the post. Sometime this week I'll be receiving a gorgeous Asos dress and some flat, thigh high boots. My first ever purchase of flat, winter shoes that haven't arrived in a box with the label 'Ugg'. I can't wait. I seriously hope they're comfy!

Sources: Firebox, Asos, Net A Porter, Google Images

cool winter days

All copyright to Dressing Miss Dolly.

Today should have been spent reading The Mill on the Floss, and hoovering my room, and doing my laundry, and reading essay notes, but instead I've been sat in my dressing gown watching rubbish day time telly, eating bagels and reading blogs. I've had such a good weekend. On Saturday I went to the Manchester Vintage Fair. It was a bit disappointing because there were hardly any handbags, which was what I was wanting and the only dresses I liked were dead expensive. On the plus side, though, there was an amazing selection of cupcakes, which were delicious. I spent the rest of the day wandering around Manchester with my friend Laurie, and picked up a dress and jumper from Topshop (thank God for Topshop card), and also an amazing MAC powder. They're all so lovely that they really deserve their own post, so I'll do that tomorrow when I'm a  bit more organised. I also bought the 'Wreck This Journal' that I came across on Tumblr. I can't wait to start it. I'm a real perfectionist - I dare anyone to handle my magazines, with anything other than gentle, delicate movements and very clean hands. So I'll try and blog about the gradual destruction of the book as it goes on and we'll see how it goes.

Saturday nights seem to be made for chilling, and eating rubbish while raving over how good Rebecca is on X Factor, and raging that Louis Walsh insists on calling Wagner, 'Wag-ner'. 

And then Halloween arrived.

I'm always the first to get organised for a fancy dress event. I've got a whole load of proper costumes, but for some reason I left them all at my home in Devon. I was feeling uncharacteristically lethargic about Halloween this year, so I ended up doing my good old tradition of being a cat. I didn't have ears, or a tail, or gloves but I had make up, and that came cheap so I'm happy :)

The night was so good. Finally brushed the dust off of my camera, and managed to capture some memorable moments (I could so be the voice over for Kodak ads). I ended up going in a whole black ensemble, which was all Topshop - pussybow blouse with lace shoulders, leggings and Britany thigh high boots (which are also toe killers). I didn't drink too much either, and still had a quality night while still feeling relatively chirpy this morning.

All in all a good weekend. Hope you all had fun!

love, love, love

I had plans for a really nice blog on Valentines, but for some reason they never really materialised. I'm one of those who truly embraces the day of love, how can you not? I note that the cynics of Valentines are more often that not single. Link? I think so.
So here's a couple pics of the treats I had from my lovely man. It's a bit stupid really, we didn't do anything extra special, it just felt like an especially lovely day because it happened to be Valentines. I got in the kitchen and made use of tins of chopped tomatoes, onions and other things I generally don't know what to do with, but will buy to make my basket look appropriately healthy. My attempt at vegetarian spaghetti bolognese was actually quite successful! We stayed in my flat all day, watching loved up dvd's, and I successfully forced him into watching my all time favourite, Pretty Woman. It's a good film!!!

Best bits were eating chocolate cupcakes (which I actually shared with my flatmate the day before Valentines), and heart shaped gingerbread - yum!

Hope you all had a good one!