Did I mention I love Shopping? Meet Shopcade...

Hello!
Today's post is a little rant from me, about an awesome new site called SHOPCADE. To put it simply, Shopcade is a website, which makes shopping a WHOLE lot easier. You can select items you like from a range of websites (including Urban Outfitters, American Apparel and Asos) and create shopping lists, based on what you love and what you actually need...

It's easy to set up, and there's a great reward scheme, where you are rewarded with points for you shopping habits, which you can then use in future purchases (yes please)! You can sign up for free, and personalize your account so you only see your favorite brands - and if you anything like me... create very long wish lists!

Also, there is a competition with Etail Pr, in which you can enter to try and win £200 of Asos vouchers + £200 of  Shopcade vouchers! So make sure you entry here.

Lots of Love,

the festival countdown has begun...

Hello!

I've got a little Saturday post for you!
Festival season is fast approaching and as my excitement brims for V festival, I thought I'd put together a few festival outfit ideas and make a little 'wishlist' - to inspire you for your own festival outfit's - where ever you may be!

I wore this outfit, a few days ago when I was feeling summery, and it reminded me of festivals! The Shorts were a little bargain last year, £3.50 from Matalan (click here to see similar). I love the pattern on them and they're really colourful. They are also seriously light weight - so are great if its a warm day - or you need to carry them around for day 2! They're high waisted, which means you can get away with wearing a crop top, without having the whole of your belly on show (though, it kinda defeats the point of them.. but hey).

The jacket was also another 'last years purchase' I've pulled out of my wardrobe - mainly as a way of proving to my mom, I DON'T need a spring clean out (even though I most probably do..).
It was around £10 from Primark, and is great to dress up an outfit. I love the edgy sleeves and the light blue colour which matches up with pretty much everything.

I love crop top's at the moment. This purple crop top, was part of a two for £8 offer at Newlook. I love it's simplicity, which means you can pair it up with pretty much anything!
My headband was another recent purchase. I fell in love with Lana Del Ray's flower crowns and have been looking for one similar to the beauties from Crown and Glory. However, until I can save up some pennies, I found this thrifty crown, which was £3 from Primark. It's so cute, so I'm sure you'll be seeing alot more of it in future posts!

What Blondie's Wearing: Top - New Look, Shorts - Matalan, Shoes - Clarks, Jacket & Floral Crown - Primark.

I've also selected a few (of many) items, also perfect for Festival Season: 

Summer Festival by blondiesstylefix

So that's all from me, I'm off to finish watching The Voice..
Enjoy your weekend!

Lots of Love,

style up the 'office dress'...

Hello! 

Today's post was based on my recent sixth form style 'office dress' habits. I always find it a struggle to put together outfits that are 1. comfortable (because your in them all day) 2. Suitable (only so many ways you can wear a blazer) and 3. fitting the outfit to my own personal style.

As an example of my day to day torture (school would be a lot more comfortable in joggers) I grabbed my sister to take a few 'post-school' shots of toady's outfit!

Comfort is always my number one goal! They say 'no pain, no gain,' but this isn't always the case. 10 hours of  wearing uncomfortable heels? no thanks.. I always advise buying top branded shoes for work/school - and heals with a strong base! Top Shop, Clark's, Barratt's and Next offer a great range of office suitable heels/shoes.
My favourites are these Tan brogues, from Clark's - I also have a similar pair from Top Shop, which I also love!

Finding suitable clothing for work is another aggravation. What you think is knee length, is not always KNEE LENGTH. Most high street shops try and persuade the customer that 'our office wear, really is office wear,' but in fact, a body-con skirt is not really suitable! I've found Dorothy Perkins, H&M, Primark and M&S offer the best range of work clothing! 

My skirt was £20* from Dorothy Perkins, and I love the colour and fit of the skirt. Make sure you sign up for a newsletter, because Dotty P do some fab discounts (up to 20% off!).

Finally, cramming your own style into an outfit, that consists of a blazer and knee length skirt, can be tricky! I wasn't comfortable with my uniform at the start of the year, but it's worth playing around with a clash of colours or different styled jackets to change your outfit to suit you! I've never been a fan of 'matching' colours, so I love 'mix-n-matching' different colours! 

To add my own twist, I also rolled up my blazer by rolling the sleves up, and added a cute bunting necklace from Little Birdie London.

What I'm wearing: Shirt - Primark, Blazer - H&M, Skirt - Dorothy Perkins, Brogues - Clarks, Bag - Market, Necklace - Little Birdie

I hope you're all enjoying the UK sunny weather (while it lasts at least...). 

It's definitely my motivation to getting through collage at the moment!
Lots of Love,

Travel Essentials with #Inspectagadget

Hello!
The UK weather was perfect for my post today! With summer fast approaching (and many of us looking forward to summer holidays) we all like a budget shopping spree before hand, so we can make the most out of the few months of sun the UK offers.

Being a penniless teenager, I was really excited to be asked to take part in the MoneySupermarket project called 'Inspect A Gadget.' Basically, MoneySupermarket choose 5 examples of 'budget gadgets' including: a potable DVD player, MP3 player, Kobo Mini eReader, Android Tablet and a HD camcorder. I was offered the chance to select one to review - and I chose an affordable Phillips Camcorder. I was then supplied with the money to purchase the item from the retailer...

To evaluate the Camcorder from Expansys, I've tried to give my own honest opinion of the product, which all in all was 10/10! Unfortunately, I haven't got much video footage yet, this is because I had to separately purchase a Micro SD card from Amazon (which hasn't yet come). 

Features...

• Price - Definitely Affordable! It's now only £51.99, which is definitely worthwhile!
• Size - This product is pocket size, making it easy to carry around in a small bag. 
• Delivery of Product - I opted for a 3-5 days delivery, but the product arrived the next day.
• Resolution - It's full HD, producing high quality videos - winwin!
• Editing - You can add video effects while filming, which helps make your videos a little bit different easily!
• Easy Sharing - You can directly upload your image/video's directly to Facebook/Youtube/other websites - which is great for recording your summer holiday quickly!
• USB - Built in, so need to worry about loosing your USB lead (which I usually do...)
• Swivel Screen - allows you to film from different angles, and even get the screen to face you, so you can film you and your friends at the same time!
• Battery life - around 2 hours (which isn't ages, but is still long enough and easy to charge up, once plugged in via the USB). 

 I found the product worked much better outside than inside; as it tended to be more pixelated when filming inside. However, this shouldn't be too much of a problem, as during summer, I'll use this product more outside anyway!

I would also recommend purchasing a good memory storage SD card alongside the camcorder, as it doesn't have much internal memory, and a USB plug, so you can charge it from the mains!

Overall, this is a really great product. I can't wait to use it, for both my blog (yes, that's right I'm branching out into the vlogging world [help] - so watch out...) and to capture summer moments with friends and family! I'm heading to Germany in a few months for a school trip, and this will DEFINITELY be coming with me!

 It's light weight and easy to use, and definitely on my 'top budget gadget' list!

Lots of Love,

What's in your handbag? - Money Supermarket...

I've got something a little bit different, for today's post - courtesy of Money Supermarket! Basically, I was set the challenge to post the contents of my handbag after a typical day in 'Blondie's Shoes' (so, I obviously chose the day I'd been shopping..)

The aim of this challenge was to calculate how much an average handbag is REALLY worth. As a savvy student (who has no money what-so-ever) I was like 'maybe this isn't for me', but I was surprised to find out, after a quick 'market research,' a.k.a referring to Google, that an average woman's handbag is worth around £200 -300!!!! So, I thought it would be interesting to see how my handbag matched up to these figures. 

If you want to take part in this competition too, head over to Money Supermarket and you could win a handbag prize worth £1,000! And 6 runners up prize's of £25 vouchers for Asos, thanks to Fashion Perks- Yes PLEASE! (it's about time I treated myself)...

Here's my little handbag that I'm usually carrying with me wherever I go. It's small, because I end up filling large tote bag's with endless junk, when I'm shopping. So sometimes smaller really is better! However, It doesn't stop me from obsessing over tote bags when I'm shopping! As you can see, I don't really hold my bag at much value, but this could still be interesting..

(p.s. my phone is ollllllllllllllllld. and yes, I wish I had the I Phone...)

 I'm very optimistic when it comes to UK weather, so my Primark £1 sunnies are always packed and ready for wearing.

I this little make up bag my 'first aid kit'. That's because it has everything you could possibly need (and fit) into a bag of this size for a beauty emergency. It's got: nail file (50p), mirror (£2), lip balm (£2*), bare minerals concealer (£16),  plasters, tweezers, and obviously a small packet of sweets for when lunch isn't soon enough! I also carry around £10 worth of additional makeup (whoopsie).

 Then there's even more essentials. I don't know what I'd do without my diary. I take is EVERYWHERE, and although my phone has a calender, I always refer back to my little book of notes! My purse was a vintage charity shop purchase and my phone is well... old, but still in working order. Diary (£2) + phone (£32) + earphones (£7) + purse (£5) = £46

 Some more of my handbag favourites... A bottle of impulse (£1) goes with me everywhere - it's lightweight, well priced and smells lovely! Also my ted backer body souffle (£2), is great for summer days and Jack Wills hand cream (£5) was a little treat - but has lasted me ages!

Finally, my bag, was £8 from a local charity shop!

Getting the Maths right...
An average woman's estimated handbag value = £200-£300
My handbag value (excluding cash etc) = £93.50

This is a great experiment, to see how much your actually carrying around with you! Just because It's not a shinny new I Phone, it's worth considering the value of your other items in your bag, and whether getting insurance is wise. Even if you don't fancy entering the competition I'd advise heading over to Money Supermarket, for more tips on insuring your handbag!

That's all from me, I'm going to spend my evening planning outfits around the Mulberry Bag prize (did I say that..) and wishing I had more money!
You can enter by writing your own "What's in my bag post" (see all the details and Ts&Cs here) and emailing competitions@moneysupermarket.com with "What's in your Handbag" in the subject line. You can also check out other entries and plug your own on twitter with the hashtag #whatsinyourhandbag! GOOD LUCK!
 
Lots of Love,
 

P.S. If you do enter, drop me your link in a comment, as I'd love to see some other entry's too!
P.P.S. I promise not to hate you if you win, hehe ;)

share the blogger love...

Aloha!
So, I'm being a bit cheeky today. If you don't know, 'Blondies Style Fix' was started back in August during a VERY boring Summer holiday. I realised I needed an excuse for my drastic shopping spree's and my limited wardrobe space, but since then I've not stopped (literally...).

I heard about the Cosmopolitian blogger awards, but this year there was a special award with Next called the 'Newcomer Award' for blogs under a year old.
And well, my thinking was, If I've only got one shot at it, I might as well pleed with you all to drop me a vote ;) 

Nominate your fave blogger for the @nextofficial Newcomer to #WIN a £500 shopping spree! on.cosmo.uk.com/13iCJtd #cosmoblogawards
— Cosmopolitan UK (@CosmopolitanUK) May 29, 2013

If you'd like to nominated Blondies Style Fix, just click the button bellow, and fill in the form (which takes about 10 seconds).
Make sure you nominate your own blog's too and let me know if you'd like me to nominate your blog for an award too!

I'd just like to thank you again for all you support!

Lots of Love,

Return of the blonde... floral prints X

And blondie has returned - no the aren't exams over - but I was fed up of revision...
So, I told myself I wasn't going to spend any money until AFTER the exams. However, retail therapy is proven to be a great 'anti-stress' remedy, so I thought I'd give it a try. I can say, that it works brilliantly.. but I'm now in debt to my parents (whoops).

As my next exam isn't for 2 weeks, I thought I'd take the opportunity to put down the work books and get blogging. Today's outfit was a little floral number I wore for a meal out with my nan, over the weekend. It was her 88th birthday last weekend - so happy birthday nan!

 I think it's about time you met the number one fella in my life - ISSAC; the big fat cat! Technically he's my neighbours, but he likes to stop by for an occasional visit.
He's also a CAT PHOTO BOMBER! If there was prize for the most photogenic cat - he'd win it. So, as you can see, he was keen to get in the photo and well he made them a bit more interesting as well!

 What Blondie's Wearing: Dress/Top/Belt - Primark, Socks - Dorothy Perkins, Bag - Charity Shop, Cardigan - Next, Bracelet - Fat Face.

The dress was a Primark steal for £10. I have a weakness for floral clothing and this dress reminded me of Cath Kidston! I added a black collar to create a neckline, and added a belt to gather the dress at the waist (it's my little trick for clothes that aren't tightly fitted).

The shoes were an old pair of sandals I dug out from my moms wardrobe (so thanks mom!). As I'm still awaiting a 'half term' shopping spree, where I'm hoping to purchase some new sandals, I thought I'd style up an old pair with a cute pair of frilled socks (well, you know me...).
 My cardigan was also stolen from my sister's wardrobe! The first signs of sun, over the weekend, have got me attached to everything pastel, so this outfit was no exception.

Well that's all from me, I'll be blogging over half term!

From a very 'glad to be back' blonde...



P.s. Make sure you follow me on Facebook or Twitter

Dealing with the stress of exam revision...it's that time of year AGAIN :'(

Hello!

It's been ages since I've allowed myself to blog (absolute torture as you can guess) but I'm afraid the A level Revision has take over. I have 5 AS exams this year, and right now I'm racing like a maniac to meet deadlines and get all the information into my little brain!

Luckily for you, I'm not going to rant on to you about how horrible school is. Because, although I won't admit it, it's a pretty awesome place to be... However, I'm currently surrounded by books and note cards, rather than my laptop and camera! 

I've also got a few tips for successful revision (trialed and tested)..

 1. If you can't learn it, sing it. 
Mad I know, but there's always that one piece of information that you keep forgetting.. but trust me, if you keep on singing about it - it's so much easier to remember. Some of my favourite musicals, have turned into rants about British Politics in 1916!

 2. Reward yourself with hopeless amounts of chocolate.
 It's fair to say chocolate can be my only motivation, when it comes to revision. I stock up on all things unhealthy, and reward myself each time I complete a page of revision. However, my mom usually has to watch over, just to check I'm not just stuffing my face with food..

 3. Test yourselves with friends.
I always find a great way to test how much you know is to recall it all to a friend. Hopefully this friend has a clue about what your rambling on about, as this is a great way to see if what your writing on note cards is actually going in. 

4. Always ensure your chilling in your comfy's.
 If your going to revise there's no point siting around in something that's uncomfortable! Any posts in the next few weeks will be me in my favourtie trackies and jumpers!

5. Say no to T.V, phone and the internet.
that's right. Put the phone down. And turn off Twitter! If your going to concentrate you might as well do it properly - you can always tell everyone about how tedious revision is later..


So, that's how I'll be trying to survive the next few weeks! I've got so many things planned for my little blog, so please bear with me..

My plan after exams:
1. Burn every book I've had to read this year.
2. Spend all my savings on a huge Primark haul.
3. Beg my dad for an I Phone.
4. Get DIYing for summer.
and 5. eat less chocolate.


Good Luck to everyone who had exams this term! I hope the revision pays off!


Lots of love.

I heard it from a Little Birdie: Review...

I really did 'hear it from a Little Birdie,' as today's post is a little review of a recently opened jewellery emporium Little Birdie London. I was so excited when I was kindly invited to review an item from the website - as I'd already fallen in love with a few special pieces!

Little Birdie was founded earlier this year, and sells jewellery pieces for every occasion. It offers unique items, that will add the finishing touches to any outfit and I've now added a few friendship bracelets (oh and the rings, earings and necklaces) to my wish list...

This bunting necklace was a clear winner, when selecting an item to review. Bright colours are lots of fun this Spring and the shape of the necklace looks great with high neck tops! The necklace was surprisingly heavy, which made it a great piece, as it helps to shape the necklace around the neck. The gold finish adds sophistication to an outfit, while still keeping it low key and fun!

I wore mine with a white collared shirt, and a very bold and striking flamingo jumper (oh yes, I went there). I thought the necklace complimented the jumper really well, and added a contemporary twist to the outfit. The necklace was also adjustable, which means you could re-size it to suit how you want to wear it!

 

Candy Bunting Necklace in Pink - Little Birdie London £9*

 If you fancy having a look at the Little Birdie London range, check out the website here, and let me know your favourite items from the website!

Lots of Love,