Race for life - Cancer Research

Good evening ladies, todays is a different type of post. Im not the type of person to ask people for money but in this case I am. I shall be running the Race for Life on the 25th July in Swansea. Those of you in the UK will know what this event is but my readers from overseas may not so here is a brief explanation.

The Race for Life is a charity event which is held all over the UK though out the summer. Thousands of women pledge to walk, jog or run 5K to help raise money for Cancer research. This will be my 6th summer to do the event as I believe it is a hugely important charity to be supporting and thousands of people are effect due to cancer all over the world.

Usually I am only able to raise a small sum of money as I have only a limited number of people to ask. Now I have my blog I realise I have a much larger friendship circle and hope that I shall be able to reach or even exceed my £100 target for this year.

If you are able to sponsor please do, even the smallest amount of money will help us make a difference and hopefully one day we will find a cure and beat this terrible disease.

This is me and my sister and friends with Joanna Page before running the race last year.

So how can you donate. Well you may have noticed a new little gadget at the top of my left hand side bar. Just click there and pledge as little or as much as you can afford. It will go directly into the Race for Life charity fund and it is perfectly secure.

Thanks for reading this and thank you for any donations you are able to make.

Daisymay X

Spotted Moth Boutique

Well as you can all see the blog has had a bit of a make over (or under in this case). I had a bit of trouble with it yesterday and it all went a bit awol so I had to redo it all. I have decided to remove my background all together as I was getting a little bored of it anyway and thought it was a bit too fussy. This should also help allow my blog to load a little faster. What do you guys think? Do you rather it like this, a little simpler, or did you rather my colourful background?

Well anyway enough of that, boring technical blog talk. On to todays post. I am bringing you a great little shop called Spotted Moth. Some of you will already know this shop as a few fashion bloggers have already featured it and showcased some of their clothes. I thought I would browse the whole site and bring you my favourite items.

This 'Sheet Music Blouse' is very sweet and girly. I would love to dress this with a big black 50's style swing skirt. It would be great for some swing dancing. $29.99

This 'Smooth Sailor Blouse' is so on trend with the nautical theme. I would style it with navy chinos and an anchor pendant. $26.99

This is one of my favourite pieces. I adore this cute red dress!! Its so simple and sweet. I think it would look great with their 'Oui Oui Necklace' which you can see further down the page. Then some polka dot wedges! $39.99

The 'Sonnet Dress' has girly elegance. This is very much my style with a fitted top and lose pleated skirt. It also has lots of of delicate black buttons up the back of the dress making the back just as sweet as the front! $46.99

The 'Heather Dress' is a simple light weight knit that would be great as a day dress in any season. $34.99

This 'Keylime Pie Dress' is stunning and definitely high on my wish list. Its girly style and lovely floral print makes it total perfection. But still very individual because of the bright yellow base colour. $42.99

The 'Farmers Market Dress' would be perfect for visiting a farmers market in the summer heat, or more likely for us fashion bloggers a thrifting or antiquing trip. Its spot on trend as a light weight denim dress with polka dots. $36.99

The 'Picket Fence Skirt' is very sweet country glamour. Wear with a cute embroidered gypsy blouse or fitted gingham blouse. $62.99

The 'Scallop Skirt' is so chic with all its petal like pieces. And I love the 2 tone colour! Monochrome will forever be my favourite! $59.99

This 'Tulip Trench' has a great vintage feel to it. I think it is the slightly pale mustard colour and the cute ruffle sleeves. It is also said to be light enough to wear as a dress which would be great for a smarter chic business look. $58.99

This 'Darling Cardigan' is very aptly named. It would add a bit of chic to any simple outfit. $54.99

This 'Brunhoff Bag' looks like my type of bag! Its big and bright and has lots of pockets so will hold all the stuff I carry on a daily basis. $59.99

The 'Tinsel Scarf' is a lovely warm, shimmery, silver grey colour. I would love it for the winter to wrap up all toasty, but think it could equally be used for an evening outfit to keep off a night time chill. $11.99

This 'Minnie Bow Bracelet' is just darling! Need I saw more about this piece. $9.99

This is my other favourite piece! Don't you think it is lovely? And so versatile, as it could be worn with so many things. $14.99

This simple little branch necklace or 'La Fleur' feels very biblical to me. It reminds me of the branch the dove brought back to the Ark after the flood. Its great as an everyday piece as will suit any outfit. $29.99

Now that I have got you all drooling over the pretty stuff I have some lovely news. You can all get 15% off anything in the store from now until the 15th September and all you have to do is enter the code 'DAISY' at the checkout! Im sure a few of you are scuttling off to the store right now to put that voucher to good use. So I would like to thank the girls at Spotted Moth for their generous offer

Daisymay X

If you want to know more about Spotted Moth they also have a lovely blog.

Blogger has screwed up

This is just a heads up ladies that blogger has screwed up my blog for some reason. I was looking at the new design tool then exited it only to find it had changed my blog and now I have no idea what to do to get it back!! So appologies for it all looking weird but I shall be fiddling with it for the next few days. If anyone can help I would be eternally greatfull!!

Daisymay X

Rosa Monckton Ring Offer

Ok guys this is a quick post as I am just on my break from work. Have a full day shift today and again tomorrow so next proper post will be sunday.

I apologise that this is mainly just a post for my UK readers. The Daily Mail paper is running an amazing offer at the moment, they are practically giving away a full stack of Rosa Monckton rings.

You could own all 8 of these rings!! Amazing I know. You can read the article here, but the gist is that each month they are going to offer one of the rings. They will print vouchers everyday in the paper and you need to collect 10 each month. Then send these with £5.99 to receive your ring. They are running this every month until christmas. So all 8 rings for £47.92 plus the cost of the newspapers each month, these retail starting at around £60 each!! That is amazing, right. It has already been running for 1 week but you still have 15 days this month to get your 10 vouchers.

I am definitely going to be doing this myself and thought I should share it with you all.

Hope this is helpful to some of you.

Daisymay X

Recipe Post - Spanish Beef Stew with Smashed Potatoes

Sorry the post is so late but it's been a busy day! My course is going well, just one more day.

So here is the recipe post I promised yesterday. As the title says its Spanish Beef Stew with Smashed Potato! And it was really yummy. The recipe came from the Good Food 101 meals for two book, but I altered it a little to suit us.

So you will need

1 onion

3 beef stewing steaks (although I used regular lean steaks)

1 large pepper (colour your choice, but I love red ones)

A small pile of chopped green beans

1 x 400g tin of chopped tomatoes

1 spring of finely chopped fresh rosemary

Garlic glove (or lazy garlic! Great stuff!)

New potatoes

Milk

Butter

Salt and Pepper to season

Give your potatoes a good wash and pop them into boil. You can take the skins off but I leave them on mine as I rather them like this and it keeps the goodness in.

Finely chop the onion and fry it in a saucepan with a little oil and the garlic if you are using a fresh one.

Chop all the veg and slice the steak into thin strips.

Put the pepper, beans, steak, rosemary and tomatoes (plus garlic if using lazy garlic) in with the onion and slowly bring to the boil. You may find it useful to add a few ml's of boiling water if your chopped tomatoes don't have a lot of liquid with them. When it is boiling turn it down to a simmer and heat for 15mins, occasionally stirring to stop anything from catching.

In the meantime your potatoes should be almost cooked. When they are done, drain then mash adding a dash of milk and a large dollop of butter. I like mine really buttery but make yours to taste.

Season the stew with salt and pepper to taste and serve straight away with the potatoes. I sprinkled a little parmesan on top but that is totally up to you.

And thats all. It was more or less enough for 3 people as I like to have a little extra so I can freeze some for the next day, although in this case Jon just ate it all as seconds, lol. Its really flavourful and filling, plus really quite healthy.

Hope you all like! If you try it drop me a line so I know what you think.

Daisymay X

p.s. just a few more followers to my giveaway.

Blog Meet with Tia of PolyesteRiot

So yesterday was my blog meet and swap with Tia from PolyesteRiot. She is a really lovely girl, and we had a great time. We went for a bit of a shop in the morning and I showed her around Cardiff with her sister (my friend Rachel) and her mum, and then in the evening we went for a drink in a local pub. Here are some photos.

Tia, Rachel and Me

My stuff from the swap.

Teal top from Sans Souci

Shorts from Be Bop

Skirt from Forever 21

Tribal coloured top from Dimri

A flower hair band

Red Beret

Cameo Necklace

Floral Necklace

White beaded bracelet

So here is my outfit from the evening

H&M Chambray Dress

Jasper Conran Pumps

Primark purple leggings

and...

Like my fun photos? I decided to play on Picniks and rather like this style, so expect more like this, hehe!

Tomorrow I'm gonna do something different and bring you a recipe I made yesterday.

Daisymay X

p.s. Thanks for all the new followers just a few more and I can do my fun giveaway! Come on all you lurkers!

Funday Monday

Ive just got a brief post for you ladies today as I am going on my first blog meet today to meet the lovely Tia of PolyesteRiot. She is over from the States to see her sister (who just happens to be one of my best friends). But we have never actually met in the flesh, just via the net! So Im kinda excited. We have also arranged to do a swap when we meet so I doubly excited! I have bought her some fun stuff from Cardiff an she has bought me some things from the states. So tomorrows post will probably be the photos of our met and our swaps! Yay. So I shall be out shopping with her today and for a drinky tonight.

Here she is for you all to see. Why not go see her blog too, she is newbie to the blog world, so I know she would love all our support.

I think she has great style.

And has recently bought some great new items which you can see on her blog!

Plus I totally forgot to tell you guys that last week I went to see this amazing lady In concert with the hubs and my sis and her friends. She was so so good, and she wore this stunning cream, vintage looking, floor length angelic dress! Plus her stage set was great with birdcage lamps dotted all around the stage (which I am so going to DIY when I have my own home!).

Speak soon!

Daisymay X

p.s. nearly at 300 followers!! So please follow if you want to, and we can have a great giveaway.

p.p.s. I am going on a business course tomorrow till thursday so might actually not have time to blog. But hopefully I will...oh wish me luck!

Model Editorial - Constance Jablonski

This month I had a bit of a splurge on fashion magazines, which for the past few month I haven't let myself do, due to the sheer ridiculously high cost of them. And one of my favs to splurge on is ID. I love their more serious editorials and genuinely interesting articles. Some times I find the more main stream fashion magazines tend to get a bit dull and repetitive. But ID has such a different layout to others. This month was no exception. I (as always) didn't love all the fashion editorials but I did totally fall in love with one in specific (I really liked another as well but will show you that another time). The Flowers, Leather and Lace editorial is beautiful. I love the model they chose to use - Constance Jablonski. I am kinda new to the more serious fashion world so don't really know many models. But after a quick search on Models.com I have found that she has been a huge model this year both on the runway and in magazines. She has a natural beauty that translates well in the photos.

This photo is by far my favourite of the whole collection. Her doe eyed look against the harsher leather of the jacket is soften by the by the embroidered flowers. But there is a subtle edged sexyness to her from that little bite on the collar. I adore it! I also love the jacket.

Photographed by Cedric Buchet

Styled by Marie Chaix

Im glad they decided to keep all the photos black and white as I think the grey scale makes the photos far more interesting.

The setting of the slightly creepy looking forest works well with the fashion for this shoot. She almost looks like a naughty, sexy woodland nymph.

Sorry about the crap quality of the next few photos but Models.com didn't have the full editorial so I had to take the pictures and they didn't come out that clear.

I really like how a simple piece of leather can make any outfit edgier. No matter how girly, or flowery your outfit is a bit of leather changes the look completely. And Im all for that, I love my leather jacket, and I know lots of you do too.

What do you think of this editorial? Do you like this model as much as me?

Do you love leather or are you happy with the girly look without the edgy side?

I shall bring you the other editorial I like from this months ID sometime this week.

My followers are creeping up slowly so hopefully I shall hit that 300 soon and give you all the great giveaway!

Daisymay X

Budget vs Breaking the Bank - maxi dresses

I haven't brought you all one of these for a while so thought I could do one to illustrate one of this summers (and every summers actually) major trends. The Maxi Dress. So like with all my other Budget vs Breaking the Bank items I have found my favourite Budget Maxi dresses and Breaking the Bank dresses. So I figured £50 was probably the top end of my budget so all the budget dresses are under £50 and the Breaking the Bank ones are over that.

Budget Beauties

More Lipsy...

Breaking the Bank Stunners

More Forever Unique...

So which ones would you girls buy? Which ones make you lust for them?

On a totally different matter, my hair. I am so bored with it now I have to have something done soon. Luckily my parents bought me and my sis one of those make over/photo shoot things for our birthdays so in about 2 weeks I shall be having something done. But it has taken me a while to decide what. Now since I have been blogging my hair has only been boring and straight and really, but that was because I was growing it for my wedding. But now that has passed I can do something fun again. Before I started growing it it looked like this.

A smooth reclining bob with an inch wide coloured panel. In the year I had my hair like this I changed the colour 3 time, purple, blue then red. And boy do I miss the colour! It was fun! So then I did this to it!

Yep, I got it permed! Not a great plan, but I kinda liked it for about 6 months. I grew out the colour, got it permed and tried to grow out my fringe but I really hate my white forehead, and I love my fringe!! I brushed out my tight curls to give this 80's frizz which is what I liked (for 6 months!) Now the perm has gone too. In time for the wedding and I am liking the length of my hair because it hasn't been long for many years, but it needs something! So I'm thinking this...

I really want the colour but I want to keep the length and don't think my strip would work so well on long hair. So I am going to get it all cut really sharp and straight, see if they can thicken my fringe, just a little and then do the tips. Although not sure what colour yet, probably purple or electric blue! Then I can keep growing my hair and not worry about root touch-ups all the time.

So what you think? Yay or nay?

Daisymay X

Outfit post - Juboraj Indian Restaurant

Last night we went out for a nice meal with my rents, my sister and my friend, Lindsey. (You may recognise her as one of my bridesmaids). The meal was lovely! And I should have a review up on it soon for anybody local.

Dress: Matalan

Cardigan: Fashion Union

Shoes: Dorothy Perkins

Bag: Vintage via Etsy

Necklace: Aimi Boutique

Bangle: Internacionale

Me, Briony and Lindsey

A curry looks like all other curries but the dessert was worthy of a picture. This is a Cool Mint Fling. A biscuit base, top with dark chocolate, a cool mint mousse (more like ice-cream) then smothered in a rich dark chocolate sauce. Served with vanilla ice-cream and drizzled strawberry sauce. It was so so yummy!

So that was my evening.

On to something else.

I thought I would bring you ladies a great voucher site. Sorry to say this is for british ladies only.

Ok the site is called Groupon and its very easy to use. You sign up for your area in the UK and every day they have a different offer available, plus they also have a main online voucher available to everyone. You pay for the voucher but get a larger discount than you usually would. So for example todays online voucher is for MyBag.com you spend £5 on the voucher and get a £25 voucher. So £20 free!! Thats pretty good, yeah? I have already bought mine and shall be buying the Yumi quilted heart bag with it. So the bag is only costing me £9 instead of £29!! Always good! hehe!

Anyway rambling now...just thought you all might like to know.

Daisymay X