Friday 25 January 2013

Preach it sister


I am the biggest SATC fan ever! and yes I know people are going on about the TV series 'Girls' and even dubbing it "the new Sex and the city" ( how dare they lol) but for me SATC is still number 1 in my  books!! The fashion, the hot men,  the sisterhood/friendship, the story lines, the quotes... the list goes on.

Speaking of quotes I have just come across this one from SATC. I love coming across a good old quote and this one pretty much sums up my week.


Happy Friday peeps!

I'm now off to enjoy a much needed Spa experience. xx



"Hello lover"-my bargain of the week


Hands up if you have found January a wee bit of a struggle? Hands up if you are SERIOUSLY counting the days until pay day? (My hands were up for both questions).

OK so this year I have had a major case of the January blues, grr! I know I am not alone on this as my lovely colleague and I talk about the January blues constantly!!!

January is such a strange old month, you only have to look at the person's face next to you on the tube on the morning commute to confirm this. Even the other day in River Island where I was "dragged" to go to after work with one of my fave colleagues, a group of girls were stood right behind me talking about how "depressed" they were this week, I wanted to turn around and say “I know, I feel you" but I chose not to.

Right then and there I decided that I was no longer going to give in to the "January blues bug" (what’s left of January, that is). So whereas (like many) I attempted a detox and failed miserably, I am definitely going to eat more healthy and clean but will allow myself the odd treat (hello chocolate muffin) and I will not feel ‘guilty’ about it. I am also going back to Zumba, Kick boxing and Jogging as I so enjoy keeping fit and I have been slack since... ummm.. NOVEMBER 2012 , *shakes head in shock horror*

I am also going to set some monthly goals rather than resolutions and I'm definitely going to try and stress less and "not sweat the small stuff". Now I know January is almost over and you could argue that my new way of thinking is a tad late BUT better late than never right?

It seems the shoe fairies were in agreement with me as whilst I was thinking all of the above I tripped (literally) over pair of gold boots that had been chucked on the floor by a shopper. As the saying goes another gal's shopping trash, is another gal's treasure (ha- ok I made that up, but you get where I'm going with this) but in front of me were a OMG gold pair boots (that I had swooned over months ago) in my size AND the best part... they were on sale for £10 from £85.

Did someone say BARGAIN??

These golden booties will instantly add a injection of now-ness to any outfit.

Now I just need the silly snow to disappear pronto so I can rock these bad boys ASAP!!










Thursday 24 January 2013

Express yourself


I have just come across this quote from uber-stylist Rachel Zoe; the number one stylist that I aspire to be. I wrote a post about Rache Zoe here

For those that don't know I am also a budding stylist. I plan to explore styling much more this year so watch this space!!

Check out the quote below, I absolutely love this quote!

What do you think?



Sunday 20 January 2013

Queen of the red carpet

Sarah Jessica Parker aka SJP is one of my style icons! For me she is Queen of the red carpet, I applaud her daring red carpet choices and she is always rocking a sexy pair of shoes!!!

We also share the same LOVE for Nicholas Kirkwood's delicious shoes. I will own a pair one day- god damn it!!

So on this very cold Sunday afternoon I decided to collate some of my top looks of the fabulous SJP.

Which look is your favourite?




Nicholas Kirkwood bad boys












Another pair Nicholas Kirkwood shoes

How gorge is this print?

Wednesday 16 January 2013

My bargain of the week

Ok, hands up if like me you are SO hating this ridiculously  cold   FREEZING weather? Seriously since the weather dropped last week, I am finding it even harder to get up in the mornings and as the office is as cold as ice I am wearing so many layers that I (almost) find myself breaking out in a sweat during the morning commute (how sexy!) I have also become seriously attached to my pink hot water bottle, and I mean seriously! So much so my pink hot water bottle almost came to work with me yesterday but I annoying forgot to take it as I had to make a quick dash out of the door to catch the 7.10 bus.

Anyway the only positive thing that has come out of this annoying temperature drop is that I had to buy a pair of gloves as I realised I some how did not own a pair aka I have misplaced my gloves from last Winter.

So meet my new orange Pu/Tweed beauties that I bought from River Island for a January sale friendly price of £7 ( originally £18) .


River Island

I love how warm and oh-so bright these gloves are, what do you think?


Thursday 10 January 2013

Seriously swooning.....


Nasty Gal is definitely one of my all time fave brands from the US of A

Below are my top picks from their 'Vintage Arrivals Jan 2013' drop.

Seriously swooning after these beauties!!!

Once again Nasty gal you have pulled it out the bag :)

Which items are your favourite?










Sunday 6 January 2013

Bargain-istic bad boy

Regular readers of my blog will know that one thing I love is a OMG bargain!! I am a firm believer that  with clever buying i.e knowing which items to splurge on coupled with having the fashion bargain eye to be able to spot a true bargain can result in a great outfit, for a price that can be as cheap as a daily travel card (FYI- £7.70 last time I checked but no doubt this has gone up, arrggh).

This outfit below cost a total of £60.98

I am madly in love with my Orange Vintage, mohair coati-gan! it is so warm over-sized and I just love the brightness of the colour and the detail. I almost did not buy this as I was umming and arring for about hour as I wasn't sure if it  was a bit too 'over-sized' for my petite frame. Haa I swear I was driving the sales assistant and shop owner mad. In the end they kindly gave me this beauty for £25 (it was originally priced at £40). I skipped away with my new purchase with the biggest smile on my face.

My floppy hat is from H&M, I fell in love with the Oxblood colour way that I purchased last year and blogged about here

This was my first outfit for 2013. I wore this on the first day back to work, followed by dinner after work. (FYI- I did not leave the house on New Years day... umm sore head any one?)

Do you love a bargain? What is one of your latest bargains/best bargains to date? Holla at me as I would love to know.

Thoughts on my barganistic outfit? x


haaa excuse the funny facial expression


                                                 














                                                                                The Outfit
Hat-H&M (old) £12.99
Dress: H&M- on sale now  for £7, (I bought it for £12.99 before the sales grrr)
Boots: Vintage- £10 from Portobello road
Bag: is my mum's bag.
Coati-gan- Vintage £25
Accessories- gifts
=£60.98

Did someone say Bad hair day?



There are days in every gal's life when her hair just wont do what it is told: aka a bad hair day.  I had one of those one last week grrr! Thank goodness for the head band which is a girl's best friend on a bad hair day and can also liven up a outfit.

Make like the oh-so-super-stylish (and my ultimate style icon) Solange Knowles by rocking a fabulous ethnic head band available to buy on HOS.






These gorgeous African print head bands are from the made by amu-dat collection, hand made by lovely fashion blogger Mariam Bashorun






I am pleased to be stocking 5 of her lush head bands on my on-line boutique: House of Shoena
All head bands are unique, reversible and are priced at a purse friendly purse of £8.  Style-card members can purchase the head bands for £7.20.


So what are you waiting for, go and get your click on at HOS :) xxx

Check out Mariam's blog here.

Thursday 3 January 2013

The night House of Shoena went to Pacha


Happy New Year! I hope you all had a great festive break and ate as much as I did. *detox starts tomorrow*.So I have meaning to put this blog post up since last week but I guess the festive fun and games took over.
Cast your mind back to 21st December, can you remember what you were doing? I sure can as this night was definitely one of the most exciting nights of my fashion life, hands down! why? well at approximately 23.45 that night, along with 2 other designers I took part in a fashion show in Pacha(night club)
As I blogged about Here I was amazingly asked to take part in a fashion show entitled:"From Russia with Love" to showcase products from my newly launched on-line boutique:House of Shoena.  As I am also a budding stylist of course I jumped at the chance.
I would be lying big time if I said I wasn't a little overwhelmed when we arrived at the venue, but luckily I had one of my best friends on hand to help me. 
My 'Collection'

I was given a brief to put together 12 fabulous party outfits that would provide some style-spiration for the party season. I chose to base my collection around a 'Tough Love' sort of trend(think spikes, studs, leather and lots of black) but then this sort of expanded into a more of a 'Tough love trend with a Shoena twist', as I always love to put my own my spin on trends.

I incorporated lots of fierce faux fur stunners, threw in a bit of sequins and metallic gems (as it was Christmas), statement necklace and lust-worthy cocktail rings and ta-dah;the'House of Shoena' fash pach collection was born. 
The Hair and Make up

The models had various hair styles to suit the look of each outfit and to represent the different personalities
All models had gold top eye lids, emerald green bottom eye lids and a black and red lip.
The night was absolutely fash-tastic (this is my new word). It was worth all the stress and skinny mocha's and I would do it all over again and again and again! 

What was lovely was that I had lots of my friends and family in the crowd cheering me on *best feeling*.
Big THANK YOU to all my supportive friends who also texted,rang and emailed me through out the day as they sadly could not make the show. I also want to say a Big THANK YOU to Vanessa Horca (from Club Exclu)who organised the show and for supporting HOS.

Here is to many more fantabulous HOS fashion shows in 2013!!

Model:Keeana Kee



Model: Ancuta Breaban





Model:Nuran Kurklu



Model:Sorrel so fly








Model: Gabriella Gatehouse





The finale 


Another BIG THANK YOU to the awesome photographer- Pete Fallan for taking lots of amazing pictures and to my friend's boyfriend Will.

*last photo courtesy of PROJOE photography