Major eBay listing: Part 1

As I previously mentioned, I shop a lot; I mean really a lot. Sometimes the thought of how many tops, dresses, cardigans I own makes me feel a little sick; I mean I don't really need it all do I? Especially when many of the items will have been bought as spur of the moment purchases.

With that in mind and trying to keep to my 'be true to yourself' mantra, I am embarking upon a major clothing sort it. My trusty van is packed to the brim with bags and bags of clothes which need sorting out!

I <3 eBay. I love nothing more than a good mooch through the clothing and accessories to see what gems I can find. So whenever I have a big sort out, eBay is usually my first stop. However, I have a rule; if I don't think it will make more than a £1 or 2 I won't list it and it will be transferred to my second pile which is for the charity shop.

I also love charity shopping and have got some of my most favourite purchases from there; as a result I won't just send any old tat to the charity shop; they're not a dumping ground!

I'm not sure if my sorting attitude is right (am I being a little greedy keeping the 'gems' for me?) I just figure that clothes which are no longer wanted, or which have never been worn need to have a better use, so why not make a couple of extra pennies rather than having them hang unused in the wardrobe (I don't even want to think about the option of them making more room for new purchases...!)

Visit my eBay store to have a mooch if you're interested in picking up a bargain

Fashion inspiration

When trying to decide the things I like I often look for inspiration from other people. I would hate to think I was 'copying' anyones individual look but can't deny that in the past I have taken inspiration from others. I remember one Saturday afternoon sitting in town and a girl walked past wearing a super cute outfit (funky t shirt, little skirt, tights and cute pumps); at the time I would never have thought of putting the items together but I remember feeling so inspired that I dashed straight to the shops to create my own version.

Whilst trying to put together my own personal style I have come across a number of celebrities whose style I like/admire:

 


I'm not the biggest fan of Fearne Cotton, however, I do like her style. Not all of her outfits are for 'me' but what I do like is her individuality (without being too out there!); it also gives me confidence that being a particular age doesn't mean you have to dress a particular way.



I love ol' skool Kate Nash: cute little dresses and amazing hair. However, I do worry that the whole 'vintage look' is just a little bit too much effort than I am willing to put in; I also worry that it can be a little be contrived at times. I do love a cute little dress though!



So cute and feminine with a little twist of quirkiness but can anyone really aspire to look as good as Zooey? Such a cutie!

 Maybe because I'm a geek at heart but the whole 'preppy' thing is really appealing to me. I don't love everything about this but this kind of encompasses what I mean: Master Class

Or maybe some of the items in the new Autumn/Winter Primark collection says it more eloquently:

 

I'm feeling inspired! I think the next step is to make a list of key items; I'm not going to do anything crazy like have a major wardrobe revamp but it might help give me inspiration of how to style what I have whilst also giving me guidance as to what I should be looking for when I hit the shops!

How important is fashion: Part 2

My previous post saw me digress a little from my original aim (but I thought it best to go with the flow!)

As I spend 75% of my time at school, being a teacher and conforming to a particular role, when I have a bit of 'downtime' I find it difficult to adjust. I find myself questioning who I am, how I should dress, etc, and as a result I end up with a big ol' headache. I think this is because of a number of reasons:

1. When I was younger (i.e. back in ye old days of secondary school) I was somewhat of an alternative child; this was partly because of the music I was into (cliche much?) but partly because I felt this reflected who I was. I'm not particularly pretty and was never going to be part of the 'in crowd' (although for a little while I was almost there but... it just wasn't for me- I'm just not very cool!). Anyhoo, because of the way I dressed I felt like I 'belonged' to a particular scene and that the way I dressed said something about who I was. Because of this I feel like the way I dress is quite important as it says something about me (what that is, I'm not really sure)

2. As I previously said I don't feel that fashion should be all I'm about. I'm not someone who is 'cool' enough to follow the latest trends; I don't buy fashion magazines and I don't necessarily always want to conform (if I like it, I'll wear it whether it's 'in' or not). However, now that I am a of a certain age I do worry that I should be dressing more my age (whatever that means).

3. The way I look has changed somewhat from when I was younger. During my teenage years I was super thin; in a weird way this kind of gave me an identity: I was the skinny girl with the big hair. However, as I have got older I have put on weight and inevitably having a baby adds on to that a little. I'm not huge but I don't feel as comfortable or confident as I have; part of this is due to a number of comments I have received from people about me looking 'pregnant' because of this I have a super complex and every outfit I wear has the 'do I look pregnant?' attached to it; I also think that this restricts what I feel comfortable wearing and ultimately adds to the confusion about what I should be wearing.

I do know that I need to do something about this sense of confusion. I want to feel more confident about the way I look; I also think having an idea of 'who I am' in regards to fashion might alleviate some of my crazy spending I've been doing of late. I have a lot of clothes (bags, shoes and accessories) and I think this is down to a number of reasons: I feel that buying particular items might make me feel a little happier about myself; because I'm unsure about what I should be wearing I tend to get side tracked by particular trends regardless of whether it's really me.

My ideas for how to achieve fashion enlightenment and/or confidence:

1. I am contemplating joining the gym. I don't need to lose a huge amount of weight but I think toning up may help improve my confidence in wearing certain things.
2. Creating a 'mood board' of things I like and clothes which I think suit me/I feel confident in. Sticking to these themes may prevent me from becoming distracted by trends (just because it looks good on someone else, doesn't mean it will look good on me!)
3. If I see something I like I'm not going to rush into buying it; if I want it enough I will want it in a week's time!

The next question is: what style suits me?

How important is fashion: Part 1

Inevitably the 6 weeks holiday always brings for me a moment where I question 'who I am' and I have a bit of an identity crisis, (usually involving clothes and fashion). Now, I don't think that fashion is overly important; I wouldn't describe myself as superficial and would like to think that I wouldn't judge someone by the clothes they wear (although that said, I'm sure if I met a guy in tracksuit bottoms I'd be making a certain judgement: kind of bad hey?)



That said I do think that clothes are kind of important; wearing a particular outfit, for me, can give you a certain level of confidence that otherwise you wouldn't be able to achieve. Clothes can also be a reflection of your personality; it sounds kind of cliche, but what you wear can tell people about what kind of person you are.

E.g. a friend of mine was having a hard time at school; she felt that the students weren't responding to her as they should, and she didn't feel she was respected by her colleagues; so she decided to try out an experiment: for a couple of days she dressed in a more 'formal' style in a bid to be taken more seriously. It certainly worked, and many of the staff and students complimented her on her new look (some even went so far as to say that she looked like she meant business). Nevertheless, after a couple of days she reverted back to her usual way of dressing, claiming that whilst she did feel, to an extent, empowered, she didn't feel like herself. This got me thinking should you change the way you look in order to confirm to a particular perception?

Would outfit 1 mean I was taken more seriously than outfit 2?

 

When I was training to be a teacher I found it difficult to know what to wear, particularly when it came to interviews. I was very much in the train of thought that I shouldn't pretend to be someone I wasn't; I would go to interviews in a smarter version of my regular clothes (this usually meant 50s style skirts and kitsch accessories). At the time I had my tongue pierced and thought nothing of going to interviews with my piercing in place. However, after a number of interviews (and one piece of particularly critical feedback that described me as 'too eccentric') I realised that people were possibly judging me on the way I looked, and that possibly people were making an assumption about the kind of person I was by the way I was dressed and the piercings I had (the debate over piercings and tattoos in the workplace is definitely the subject of a future post!). As a result my next interview saw me adopt a much more 'conventional' (to me) outfit: black jacket, white shirt and black skirt; I'm not sure if this had any affect on the outcome but I did get the job (although I was told this was on the condition the tongue piercing was removed). Now the question is, did I do the right thing in compromising who I am in order to secure a position? Because, whilst I tried for the first couple of weeks to adhere to this more conventional way of dressing, my own style soon started sneaking in. I don't believe that the students respond differently to me because of the way I dress; in fact, I think it sometimes helps, as students aren't 'scared' by the formality of a suit; however, I do think that I am judged (or taken less seriously) by my colleagues because of the way I dress.

The question is: is this right?

Should someone have to conform in order to be taken seriously? or should a person be judged purely on their ability to do their job?

I love reading Blogs. I love the mixture of fashion, beauty and general randomness. As it is the 6 weeks' holiday I find myself checking up on my favourites on a daily basis. I love it. I've realised that one of the things that I think makes a 'good' blog is regularity; regular updates, I feel, help you create a connection - something, I aim to achieve (if I could just get motivated and/or organised long enough to actually 'blog' frequently!)

In other words I need to write more often if I actually want my blog to be something meaningful (if only for me!)

When I get round to it (see above) I would like to include the following:

• Reviews
• Fashion
• Food (yum yum)
• General randomness (inside my head: eek!)

Wish me luck!

Starting a new blog, for me, is like starting a new book, writing on a fresh page or cracking the lid of a box of Malteasers. Its the opportunity to start a fresh, and for me, to start with a positive attitude :-)

Once upon a time

Once upon a time there was a little girl called Joanne. She lived in a world of books and make believe; and dreamt of one day becoming a writer, a librarian or bookshop owner. Fast forward a couple of years and things are as  originally planned (although one might argue working in a school, and thus teaching English, means I am inevitably surrounded by books on a daily basis!)

I love my job. I love my kids and the opportunity to be creative. However, I don't love the way it becomes all-consuming; the way I don't have time to do many of the things that I love and that sometimes I find it difficult to remember who I am (when I'm not being Mrs K).

I first started a blog in 2010* when I was on maternity leave. This provided me with a creative output, an opportunity to put my thoughts into words rather than just random noises in my head but said blog soon became a distant memory as the pressures of full time work took hold.

2012: Summer Holidays, an opportunity...

*I contemplated reincarnating the original blog but as it contained a lot of private musings I thought it best to start a fresh- to start as I mean to go on.