baking up a storm!

New Years Eve is here already, hope you all have lots of lovely plans.  I'm going for a meal with my boyfriends family very soon and then we are off for a night of boardgames, pink fizz and hot tubs with friends, I can't wait!  I was asked to make the sweet treats for tonight so have made...

Cupcakes!

 A huge tray of brownies

And a ginger and white chocolate cheesecake - yummy!

I have spent most of today in the kitchen and haven't left much time to get ready so I will leave you with a couple of outfit snaps as I rush off to get changed and paint my nails!  My new dress from New Look, I love it!  I adore leopard print and I really wanted the topshop version but it just didn't suit me, too short for me and too clingy around my little food baby but this is just perfect :)

Dress: New Look

Have a great New Year whatever you're doing and I look forward to sharing 2011 with you :)

away with the fairies

Yes this is the same dress that Stacey Slater made her get away in... how on earth was it still white after that blood hey?!  I always feel like I should be at the top of the Christmas tree when I have this dress on in fact I actually wore it to my friends fancy dress party when I needed to go as an fairy, it looked alright with a pair of wings!

Dress: Topshop

Cardigan: asos 

Hair clips: New Look

My sister bought me the cardigan as part of my Christmas pressie, you can't really see the sequin collar in the photo but it's the one from an earlier wishlist.  I love how my family now know what to get me based on my blog posts, I've always been really hard to buy for as if I want something I have usually already bought it.  

It's almost new year and I have a stack of baking to do, what are you going to be doing and more importantly what are you going to be wearing? 

The birds are singing

I thought it was about time I did an outfit post as it's been a week since the last one.  Doesn't time fly when you don't have to go to work?!

Dress: H&M

Cardigan: New Look

Hat: Topshop

Belt: New Look

Bodycon Dress: H&M

I absolutely love the print on this dress, it never fails to put a smile on my face.  Its really low cut though so I have no choice but to wear my go to H&M bodycon dress under it.  Good job as it's still chilly even if it has managed to get above freezing the last few days layering is still my best friend.

a close up of the birdy print, isn't it adorable!

a winter wishlist

 I am sick of the sales already!  I managed to find a couple of bargains but it's mostly just crap that I didn't want when it was full price and still don't want now they have knocked a few quid off the price.  I can't wait for the sales to end and for some new stock to tempt me to part with some hard earned cash.  I have managed to put together a little wishlist full of things that are currently making me smile...  

Dress: Oasis
Cardigan: Miss Selfridge
Knitted Skirt: asos
Bow Bracelet: Urban Outfitters
Dress: Topshop
Peterpan Tunic: Dorothy Perkins

My lovely boyfriend bought me the ring off one of my earlier wishlists for Christmas:

 

Ring: Laura Lee Jewellery 

He got me the 'you make my heart sing' version and I absolutely love it!  I am wearing models own nail varnish in Champagne in the photo above, its a cooler gold than gold rush but just as sparkly. Very pretty.

My boyfriend also bought me the nicest of necklaces with no help from me.  He knows that I love the simplicity of dogeared necklaces and chose this himself...

Necklace: Dogeared

Didn't he do well?!

Its been a long time...

well it feels like a long time anyway!  Christmas has been and gone and the sales are in full force.  Hope you have all had a lovely relaxing Christmas.  Mines been pretty eventful and I haven't found time to blog.

Firstly it's my sister Lucy's birthday is on boxing day.  Usually we spend the day traipsing round the sales then have a big party in the evening but this year she went on holiday to Cuba on her birthday so we had a birthday meal on the 23rd to celebrate.  Now as you've already seen I love to bake.  I bake for everyones birthday so it was expected that I would make her some cupcakes but I wanted to do more than that, I wanted to make her a HUGE cake!

The cake was a LOT of hardwork!  It was the first tiered cake I have made and I have vowed never to use black fondant ever again!  Its so hard to keep it looking black.  I was pretty happy with the end result though.

The most exciting day was yet to come, on Christmas eve Lucy's boyfriend proposed!  Wowzers!  We are all set for a 2011 wedding and are waiting for them to set a date.  Her fiance (I hate that word!) designed her engagement ring and it's perfect for Lucy:

Stupidly this is the only photo I took on my camera so you'll just have to make do with a photo of the ring and not one of the ecstatic bride to be!

Christmas day was a filled with family and food, just the way it should be.  I got lots of lovely gifts including the ring I blogged about and a surprise necklace from my boyfriend, I will no doubt share photos in a future blog.  I was very spoilt and had such a nice day.  I hope you all had a great day too and that santa was good to you.

And the winner is...

 

Congratulations Sarah!

Please email your address to amilliondresses@gmail.com

Heart of gold

Have you had much snow? After hardly having any first time around we now have loads!  Luckily I've finished my Christmas shopping and its all wrapped under the tree.  I'm ready for Christmas now so come on Santa...

I am wearing a bargain outfit today, my lovely Warehouse sale dress and a gorgeous grey asos cardigan that I bought in Fridays half price flash sale for £23!! 

 

Dress: Warehouse

Cardigan: asos

Tape Measure Heart Necklace: asos

I had lots of fun last night, it was time to ice and decorate the Christmas cakes I made a few weeks ago.  Decorating them is definitely the best bit.  One is for my parents and one for my boyfriends parents.  My Mum has a thing about snowmen so I wanted to add one on hers somewhere and I wanted the other to be classic and pretty.  I have been feeding them with Brandy on a regular basis so am hoping they will be lovely and boozy.

 

close up of the detail, the 'snow' is icing sugar and glitter and it's very sparkly!

I am really happy how they turned out, I haven't made any models out of icing before and I think they look really cute. 

Miss Selfridge Magic Mirror

Have you seen the Magic Mirror feature that Miss Selfridge launched this week?

Its basically a dress version of the program opticians use so you can see what frames suit you.  You can virtually 'try' on dresses and then post the results on your facebook profile.  It seemed like a good idea and looked quite fun to do.  I had a little go with limited results...

I took screen shots as I really didn't want to publish these on my facebook!  I found it quite difficult to activate the controls by waving and if I stood further back so you could get more dress in my head ended up looking like a pin!  It might work better if you're stick thin and don't have to enlarge the dress much to cover you.  Being a UK12 I found that by the time the dress was wide enough to cover my body there wasnt much of it left.  It would work better for trying tops on for me!  The model manages to make it look great though: 

Have you had a play and what kind of results have you gotten?  Do you like the idea or find it too gimmicky?

I was going to do an outfit post today but I am not very well :(  I have really bad face ache (like tooth ache but both the top and bottom of the left side of my jaw.  I think it's because I have gotten a really cold face in the last couple of days.  It means that I haven't been able to get much sleep because as soon as the painkillers wear off the pain wakes me up.  Hopefully I will be better tomorrow and normal service can resume.  Oh and I will also get to show off my new hair cut :)

Hope you're all managing to keep warm and cozy.  Don't forget to enter my competition to win a bottle of Models Own Gold Rush, it's so pretty!

Sunday Best

I am getting my hair cut today, very exciting!  I go to NashWhite in Warwick and despite having only opened earlier this year they already have a great reputation.  I know it's a Sunday but they are fully booked up until Christmas and have been for a few weeks so they are doing all the extra hours they can to try and fit in their regulars... and they still have a reserve waiting list!

It's refreshing to see a business being so flexible,  in fact they normally stay open til 9pm during the week as they know how hard it is for most people to get their hair done during normal business hours.  Lee and Rob even managed to sort out Laura from The Apprentice with lovely sleek hair for the you've been fired show.   Check out some of their work at their website. 

Dress: Miss Selfridge
Hat: New Look 
Snood: New Look

Blog Giveaway - Models Own Gold Rush Polish

It's arrived! Yay!!  And I am not disappointed, its just as gorgeous and sparkly as promised.  

Lucky for you guys I bought two bottles and I want to give one away to one away so someone else can share the glitz.

To enter all you need to do is be a google follower of a million dresses and leave a comment below.  Because of restrictions in posting flammable goods only UK followers can enter, sorry.  A winner will be drawn after 6pm on Wednesday and weather permitting the polish will be with you to compliment your NYE get up. 

It's PARTY time!

Have you bought your Christmas party dress yet?  I've bought a few dresses but nothing is quite right. I'm a sucker for velvet and sequins and black and gold are my favourite colour combination.   AND this would mean I get to wear my new nail polish too!  

dress: Rare Opulence

bag: asos

shoes: asos

nail polish: Models Own

Not sure the dress is worth £95 though.  Maybe I should get this as a New Years outfit instead and keep my fingers crossed that the dress goes in the sale!  What are you wearing? 

Feeling dotty!

I received an email from Warehouse yesterday to tell me that their sale has just launched.  They have some gorgeous dresses at the moment so I thought I would have a little look to see what has been reduced.  My top picks are:

1. Black Dress £25 reduced from £55   2. Teal Dress £60 reduced from £85   3. Navy Dress £30 reduced from £60
4. Pewter Dress £45 reduced from £65   5. Red Dress £45 reduced from £65  6. Silver Dress £45 reduced from £75

I made a little purchase myself, I love the shape of this black lace dress and know that it will be really versatile.

Dress: £25 reduced from £45

I am actually wearing a lace dress from Warehouse today and I also got this one in the sale for £25, spooky!

Dress: Warehouse

Cardigan: Matalan 

Belt: Topshop from a few years ago

Hat: New Look

I have painted my nails using a base of Models Own magenta pearl, a coat of glittery magenta divine and finished off with a covering of black polka dots made using their nail art pen. I love it!

I'm sure you've all heard about the most expensive nail polish in the world already.  The ready to wear version of Gold Rush was launched exclusively on the Models Own website yesterday and I have placed my order.  

Models Own describe Gold Rush as "the most opulent nail polish.  When painted on it looks like gold leaf.  It glistens, glimmers and actually sparkles like tiny diamonds, yet is absolutely smooth to the touch"  I can't wait to try it!

Shoes, glorious shoes!

Glitter pumps: Peacocks
Wedge brogues: River Island
Lace up wedges: Melissa 
Lace shoe boots: asos
Open brogues: Schuh
Suede Platforms: Topshop

How amazing are these?!  This is my current shoe wishlist.  I have a confession to make though as I already own the glittery Peacocks pumps.  I decided that with the 50% chance of us having a white Christmas that I should by some glamorous flats in case its just too dangerous for heels.  Think my next shoe purchase may have to be the gorgeous asos lace shoe boots although the lace effect will be a bit lost over black opaques and there is no way I am leaving the house without tights in these temperatures.  

 Dress: Joy

Belt: New Look

See I do own dresses that are not Dahlia!  I love this Louche dress - it's really flattering, has sleeves AND pockets!  I love a dress with pockets.  Louche is available exclusively at Joy and they have some lovely things so I recommend you check out joythestore.com if you haven't already.  The service is excellent and I think the clothing is also well priced especially when you can get bargains like this little dress:

 

for only £19.50! 

diamonds and glittery nails

 

After a fun filled weekend in London I took a trip to the German market in Birmingham on Sunday for some winter pimms and schnitzel. Yum, yum!  It all looks so much prettier in the dark.  We then went to watch Frankie Boyle at the NIA.  I haven't seen him before but had obviously read all about his recent run in with Katie Price and was a bit concerned if I would find uncensored Frankie funny... but thankfully he was funny.  Also rude, blunt and very coarse but didn't make me cringe too much.

Now this is my favourite Dahlia dress.  It's corduroy!!  I LOVE it :)  I do wear dresses by other brands, I swear.  These are my easy to throw on dresses so I tend to reach for them on a regular basis.  I will try to wear something other than Dahlia tomorrow...  I have a thing for berry at the moment and this cardigan is perfect.  It's from New Looks tall section so is a great length and I think looks ace with this dress.  I've tried taking a few close up photos to show the detail of the necklace and that the dress is CORDUROY.  Have I told you I love corduroy yet?! 

Dress: Dahlia
Cardigan: New Look 
Necklace: Dogeared

I love the daintiness of dogeared necklaces and knew when I first saw this one that it had to be mine, all girls love a diamond after all.  I'm also wearing one of my H&M bodycon dresses which are the staple of my winter dressing.  They really were a bargain at only £10, I wear them most days and wish I had bought more than three.  I also want a similar dress but with full sleeves but am really struggling to find one.  It needs to be tight and stretchy so I can layer it under dresses without adding bulk, any suggestions? 

I have gone for glittery nails today as I wanted to try out my some of my Models Own Clothes Show bargains.  I have layered disco mix glitter over a base of purple pearl and its very sparkly. It looks quite blue in the photo disco mix contains blue, pink and purple glitter particles which change colour depending on the light.  What colour nails are you loving at the moment?

Models Own nail varnish in Purple Pearl and Disco Mix