CLASHING PRINTS AND CONFIDENCE

Clashing your prints together has been a key trend for the past few seasons, but I just didn't have the confidence. I thought it looked great on everyone else, but when I tried it, it looked like I fired my entire wardrobe at myself with a cannon and just wore what stuck. Frankly a mess, but probably all in my head and more to do with my own feelings of self confidence. The whole reason I started the blog in the first place was to increase my confidence, because I felt I was really losing myself after my long battle with mental illness.

But thanks to my blogger chums, particularly the lovely Sophie from So Inspo, I've learned that if you want to try something, you should just do it. Even if it just a small thing, it is still a little victory that will boost your confidence so you can try the next slightly bigger thing. Who know what you can achieve if you keep at it.

So when I saw an amazing floral print faux leather biker jacket from QED London in TK Maxx, I knew I had to take it home with me to clash with my other prints. I decided to mix it with some nautical stripes in a smock dress I picked up in the USC sale for just £4 online...not to shabby.

QED London Floral Biker, TK Maxx - Same Here.

So if there is somethin you really want to do, get out there and do it. Or build yourself up so you feel like there is nothing you can't achieve. I have a long way to go with my self confidence journey, but it is all a great adventure.

Where do you find your confidence?

Gems x

REAL WOMAN?

This week I have been thinking a lot about the real woman debate. When a woman has curves she tend to be defined as a 'real woman', so what does that make a woman like me, someone who has the curves of a chopstick. Although I have a fairly rounded bum, that really didn't develop until my twenties, when I got lazy. Until then I had a very small boyish frame, and even now that I am 30, i feel more like a girl than a woman.

I understand that modern media does seem to set a lot of unattainable ideals of beauty onto young girls and that is not fair. But, is it equally fair to deem someone like me who has a small frame a 'twig', in a way, isn't that just as harmful, I would love to have curves, but it something that it an unrealistic idea of beauty for me to attain.

I'm sure plenty of people will be rolling their eyes and saying 'Oh it must be so hard for you' in their most sarcastic of tones, but when your being told left right and center that your not a real woman and that 'bones are for dogs', it can give you a negative body image if you are naturally thin. Thin or curvy, should not be the criteria for what defines a real woman...I'm just as real as you...I think!

Coat, @Republic from USC - Same Here.
Scarf, Next - Similar Here.
Satchel, Next - Similar Here.
Boots, New Look - Similar Here

Waterfall Shirt, H&M - Similar HereLeather Look Trousers, H&M - Similar Here.
T-Shirt, ASOS - Same Here.
Ring, DYO Fabulous Jewellery - Same Here.

I would really love to hear what you guys think of the real woman debate?

Gems x