I know I’m 'bout to kill it

Hooded denim jacket (men's) & black sheer t-shirt: ASOS | Black leather skinny pants & sunglasses (men's): RIVER ISLAND | Black faux leather rucksack: TOPSHOP | Shoes: CONVERSE

Before we get started: half way through taking outfit photos I heard a duck quacking in the river at the bottom of the garden, and she had ducklings!  I fed them lots of bread, not the worst distraction really.

Unless you've been living under a rock for the past week or so, then you'll know that everywhere is having a big sale at the moment, and you'll probably also be a lot financially worse off than you would have been had you been living under the rock.  Darn.  Well I can't speak for you, but I find sale items extremely hard to resist, and then if you add one thing to your basket oh well you might as well browse all the sale items to see if there's anything else you like (which there always is).  One must make the most of these things!

I don't buy many sheer tops because they're not the easiest thing to wear really, are they?  But I'm starting to embrace them recently, only thing is I want to buy a simple black triangle bra to put under them, as I think that makes them more about the top and less about the boobs, y'know?  But I tried it with this bra and it seemed to be acceptable, at least to my standards.
I used to not get all-black outfits because I thought that's the easiest way to just fade in the background, which is what I don't want to do with my fashion, but I've slowly realised if you do it right then it will create a really cool-but-subtle look.
I will say my number one rule which I'll always follow when wearing all black: RED LIPSTICK.

Growl

Black dog print t-shirt dress: RIVER ISLAND | Gold quilted bomber jacket & studded flatforms: TOPSHOP

This is the item that broke my spending ban (which I was do bloody well on, by the way) a few weeks ago.  It's partly because I loved it, and partly because mum said 'Ohhh go on!', blummin' enabler!  But thanks mum, these photos show me the reason why mothers are always right! (That's right, kids.)
I've got to say when I first saw this dress I actually thought it was a top, but when holding it up to myself it was quite apparent that it's meant as a dress, but obviously it's a t-shirt style one so it can be worn as a top when tucked into things as well, bonus!  All for the mere sum of twenty pounds, I'll take that.

I think it goes so well with these shoes that it's actually pretty ridiculous.  The bomber jacket seemed like the ideal addition seeing as the gold colour matches with the studs on the shoes, add some red lipstick and boom boom pow you're ready to go.  This outfit would look just as well when it gets colder (so later in the week, then...) so you can easily add tights.  I'm not exactly girly girly so the shape of the dress is great for my style - simple and casual!  I'd wear this on a night out ya know, maybe with some stockings too.

Response to Liz Jones' disgusting article about Rihanna

I know nothing about this Liz Jones except from seeing her on 'This Morning' a couple of times, but this recent article she's wrote for Daily Mail - surprise surprise - has really pissed me off.  It's titled 'Pop's poisonous princess: Glorying in drugs, guns and sleaze, Rihanna's  toxic role model for her army of young fans'  and basically slates her - or at least tries to.

Now before I get started, let's clear up one thing: every other freaking person thinks Rihanna is 'vile' and a 'terrible influence', I'm sure people who read this will think it, but there's no such thing as a 'bad role model', really.  A bad role model implies we come into this world and EVERYONE must be looked up to, and EVERYONE must have someone to look up to.  Oh puh-lease, a celebrity is either a role model, or they aren't.  If they're 'bad' then they're not a fricking role model in the first place, are they?!  If your child(ren) don't feel like they can make THEIR OWN DECISIONS, then the issue isn't who they're looking to for guidance on how to act, the issue isn't Rihanna, but it's your parenting.  

The problem with so many parents these days is they immediately want to shift the responsible on to other parties, be it celebrities, TV, music lyrics or games, but can we all just take a minute to think of how incredibly pathetic this is?  YOU'RE THE PARENT TO YOUR CHILD, not Rihanna, YOU.  It is YOUR job, YOUR responsibility to take care of your child, to guard it from what it needs to be guarded from.  If your child has seen one of Rihanna's Instagram pictures - in many of which she's smoking marijuana - then 1) they shouldn't be on the internet if they're that young that they see a spliff and think  'Oh what's that? That looks fun!' and 2) you, as a parent, should have already taught your child about drugs.  FUNNY THAT.  She wrote 'Most of these ‘followers’, of course, are young girls... They writhe and pout along to her suggestive lyrics in a disturbing mimicry of adult sexuality.  Of course, these little girls don’t realise there is anything wrong with what they are doing — they just want to copy the chart-topping star', y'know Liz it's funny that because when I was a young girl I loved Christina Aguilera - especially the song 'Dirrty', but I never felt the desire to 'write' and 'pout'.  I also loved Britney Spears but I never felt the need to make my school skirt really short and and tie my shirt into a crop top.  Unbelievable, isn't it?  No, I was just brought up well.

Now not only is this article an attack on Rihanna, but it's an attack on practically nearly every parent - probably even herself.  My parents - and I hope they won't mind me saying this because they've literally been the best parents a child can ask for - have done numerous things during my childhood: swore sometimes, smoked, drank, got drunk, listened to explicit lyrics in the car, and you know what?  Me and my brother have been GOOD KIDS.  Never smoked, never got drunk whilst being underage, never did drugs, heck I rarely swear even now!  And I don't like drinking.  This isn't because I've seen someone who doesn't drink and I've decided to imitate their actions, this is because I've grown up being told that I'm MY OWN PERSON and have the ability to use MY OWN MIND.  So please, Liz, don't insult my parents and even children just because you have this big old problem with Rihanna living her life as she wants to.  You call that fricking journalism?  Yeah, okay.  Hm, I wonder why I don't have a sudden urge to read any other articles you've written?  Bummer.

She clearly has a big issue with Rihanna's choice to go back to Chris Brown when she did, because apparently this means if we're ever unfortunate enough to be in an abusive relationship, that we'd just go running back.  Ive seen SO MANY PEOPLE criticise this decision, but why on earth we all focus on Rihanna's decisions rather than Chris Brown - the one who actually did the crime - I don't know.  

Now on to the fucking worst bits of the article, when perfect little Liz talks about Rihanna's fashion sense, she said it 'invites', INVITES, 'rape at worst, disrespect at least'.  Now hold the fucking phone, WOMEN'S CLOTHES DO NOT INVITE RAPE.  IF WE WERE TO WALK THE STREETS NAKED HOLDING A SIGN SAYING 'I LIKE SEX', WE WOULD NOT BE INVITING RAPE.  Women should NOT have to base their outfit choices on some men's fucking inability to control themselves.  This is the reason why so many cases of rape go undetected - because women, WHO ARE THE VICTIMS, are scared of being blamed and not being taken seriously.  Pat on the back Liz, you're doing really well with this article so far.

Oh wait, it gets better.

She goes on to say: 'Is it fair that we berate female stars for being bad, when we don’t admonish men in the same way? Yes, it is fair. Because young women are far more impressionable than young men. '  Absolutely beautiful, what a wonderful opinion to have on things.  I feel like I don't even need to explain why these comments are disgusting, as every woman reading this will already have a clear idea of how insulting it is.

To conclude, people need to take a seat and think hard about whether Rihanna's decisions are really making your life more difficult to live, because it's getting really pathetic and disgusting how so many women slate her for, let's face it, being a strong woman and making her own choices.  I have a lot of respect for myself, and that doesn't mean I wouldn't take my clothes off and post pictures of it on the internet, and that doesn't mean I wouldn't dance around a pole, self respect is about making decisions which you're doing for YOU because they make YOU happy.  So I can safely say Rihanna has heaps of self-respect, in fact I'd say basing your life choices on what everyone else wants you to do, actually isn't very respectful of yourself at all...

Oh, and if lovely Liz actually thinks young ladies are impressionable, then she needs to have a little chat with me, as I've spent my whole life fighting against what people want me to be like, simply so I can be me.

You can read Rihanna's response to the article here.

Style In Chelsea

Like I know a lot of you will be, I am a Made in Chelsea fan and have been since episode one.  In fact, even their awesome adverts which get shown before each series make me have big fangirl moments (and wish I could be in one).  My mum and brother always joke that I've ended up in the wrong family as my standards (in general) are far too high for little old Burnley and that I'm a bit of a snob... Oopsies!  Thus, Made in Chelsea is a sweet form of escapism for me as it gives me an insight into what my life COULD be like in a few years (or twenty...), although I don't know if being a tattoo artist would let me fit in with the crew, but it's nice to pretend!
One of my favourite characters from all of the series is Caggie, I think she was one of the nicest, most laid-back people on the show (and also scarily beautiful, in that English rose kind of way, but that's besides the point).
Because of this I became very giddy when a certain email dropped into my inbox the other week from Lacoste, asking if I'd like to part in a Google+ hangout webchat with Caggie herself, as well as Rosie from the show (also lovely!) and some other awesome bloggers: Marleigh, Rachael, Corrie and Claire.  It was basically just a big girly chat about fashion and beauty, Marleigh kept the chat running smoothly and asked questions to everyone like who are style icons were and which decade we preferred for their fashion, Rosie also mentioned how she's been working to raise awareness of skin cancer which was really interesting!  Caggie was just as lovely as I imagined, which you'd be able to see yourself as Lacoste put the whole webchat on video for people to watch.

Thank you so much to Lacoste for hosting the chat, it was a surreal and really fun experience and I'd love to do something similar again, I'm so flattered I even got offered in the first place!  I genuinely woke up the next morning, sat up in bed and thought 'Did that really happen?'.

Elephant dress

Elephant print dress: ASOS | Gold studded shoes: TOPSHOP

Everyone, meet my new favourite dress.  New favourite dress, meet everyone.  Anyone who knows me even a small amount knows that I seriously love elephants.  I've even bought home decor with elephants on which I can't actually use until I, you know, buy a home...  Nothing wrong with being prepared!  I don't know, I just buy everything which has elephants on, so when I saw this dress the other night, it was added to the basket.  Literally straight away.  I don't do that with many things, especially when I'm as skint as I am now.  I really like how the print is big enough so you can actually tell what it is without putting your face right up to my body - a pet peeve of mine.
The shape is something I wasn't sure of when I first tried it on earlier, my initial thought was 'Do I look pregant?' but I quickly realised it's a really cool, casual fit and wearing it with these flatforms gives it that perfect, laid back vibe.

This dress is more of a summer one - handy, seeing as that's the season that should be turning up any time now - but I could easily adapt it to a winter one with tights and a leather jacket too.
I haven't worn my red lipstick in a while - daaaaaamn have I missed it - but that small amount of colour was  just what this outfit needed.
I'd thought I'd show you my new finger tattoos which I got yesterday, you'll either love them or think I'm a crazy bitch, but either way I'm down with it.  Oh, and I haven't shown you my half shaved head on here either!  Another impulsive decision, what can I say... This tattooing apprenticeship is changing me, man, I love it!