Shopping destinations- New York

When TravelSupermarket contacted me about the chance to produce my own personal infographic, I jumped at the chance. Not only was the infographic about shopping – which  you all know I love – it combined shopping with travel! I was asked to choose my favourite of all of the shopping destinations around the world, for me there was only one choice, the Big Apple itself!  Having been on a trip to New York before I knew what shops I would head to first – check out the infographic to see if you agree with my must-sees and if this inspires you to visit the city that never sleeps yourself make sure you visit TravelSupermarket for cheap flights to New York.

 

Lucky Ducky

Good day world!! How are you?

 I have to say i am feeling in rather good spirits of late. After nearly a week off from work i feel rested and ready to fight the rat race that is life once again. Even Neo has allowed me a couple of sneaky lay -ins the past few days. 9 am sleep-ins feel good! I have also had lots of reading time and watching some great dvds (i'm obsessed with Call The Midwife, have you ever watched it? The 1950's era amaze me!)

  So i have managed a little retail therapy of late. This is the lovely duck print skirt that was on my wish list a couple of weeks back. I had some vouchers from work and this skirt came to mind straight away, surely every #wardrobezoo needs a ducky print skirt, lololol!

 This weekend i also went to the hairdressers and got a lovely hair cut (not that you can see from these pics). It feels wonderful, she took a lot of the bulk and weight out of it and put some choppy layers in, making a lot easier and lighter for me. I've always been rubbish with hair , mine is just so naturally frizzy and blow drying it makes it even more of a bouffant (and not in a good way). I was thinking back to how i coped with out straighteners in my youth... simply put, i don't think i did, haha! I used to tie it back a lot! I remember the first time i used straighteners at the ripe old age of 16, and my hair life changed forever lol! I was able to wear it down and it not be completely a mess, i always had the bump at the back of the head though, which i obviously couldn't reach, but i didn't mind. it was a vast improvement on the frizz-bob that was!

Its amazing what a little hair cut, a bit of retail therapy and some "you time" can do for a girl. As superficial as  it sounds, my spirits are lifted, i feel positive looking forward and i'm thoroughly looking forward to what our future holds. Sorry folks, evidently there are no wise words of wisdom here today, just happy, girlish, thoughts. 

Skirt: This one: River Island

Chambray, cardi & Boots: Next

Coat: Topshop

Hat, Necklace , socks and tights: Matalan 

 Enough of me babbling on, have you had a lovely weekend?  I hope so.

 Are you partial to a bit of girly stereotype goodness?

oh and ps i may have watched this in all its cheesy-happiness a few dozen times too... hes so lovely... and he can dance. I think my hubby had a certain Joseph Gordon-Levitt look about him when he was younger, what d'ya think? haahaa

ok longest "ps"over...

Bye for now lovelies!!

Linkies: a href="http://watchoutforthewoestmans.blogspot.com" target="_self">

Love is in the air...

Thanks to the lovely people at Interflora who sent me this exquisite example of one of their many stunning Valentines gifts.

 Aren't they Gorgeous?!!

I can't tell you how much they really put a smile on my face!

 I have been using Interflora for years as personally i feel there is nothing nicer than receiving a surprise luxury bunch of flowers through the post. 

My in-laws live 4 hours away and we don't get down as much as we'd like these days, so on any birthdays or special occasions i always go on line and book the nicest flowers/plants/gifts/wine for them and have it delivered on their special day. I think its just a lovely way of showing someone that you are thinking of them.

I'll never forget the excitement in the office when a a delivery man would walk in with a bouquet, us girls would all secretly hold our breathe, cross our fingers and hope that the name he read out on that little pretty card would be ours.

 This year Valentines day may not be top of my agenda but it doesn't stop me from appreciating the romance and the wonderful air of love that surrounds this day. What can i say i am a big softy old romantic at heart!

I know some people don't buy in to it, but the way i see it, if i can dedicate a day to loving my husband and showing him that, then surely it can't be a bad thing! Maybe we should have more Valentines days in a year haha!

Are you treating anyone this valentines?

I just wanted to say a quick thank you too all who commented on my last post, i can not even begin to tell you how your words were so uplifting and the amount of tears i shed reading each and every one. You have all brought such wonderful words in to my life that makes me think that i will get through this. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, if i could send you all a big bunch of flowers i totally would!!!

So, Onwards and up-awards,right? xxxxx

Time for some Honesty...

 I  have been an awful blogger lately. I have had no new outfits to post, i have not been replying to emails or comments and i haven't been swinging by or linking up to any of your wonderful blogs. 

For this i sincerely apologies! I love the blogging community, it feels like a protective wonderfully lovely bubble against the "real" world. 

A few of you may remember i mentioned some genuine stress and anxiety a couple of weeks ago, but didn't say why. So i thought i would unveil the reasons behind my cryptic comments and talk to you all about my current "real life" situation in all its crappiness as i just can't fake enthusiasm today. Life has worn me down.

 For those of you who have been with me from the beginning you may recall (or not, so i shall tell you) that my husband ,Paul and I ran a business together since the beginning 6 and a half years ago, just think of the film Jerry Maguire and that was kind of how we properly got together and started the business but in a less dramatised way,lol!

We have had good time (hitting one million turnover, winning Young Entrepreneur of the year, generally working together) and we've had very bad times (huge debts, people stealing and back stabbing, recession) Its been more tough than good, but we plodded on. 

Then the dreaded recession hit and we struggled on through until we had 3 customers go into liquidation consecutively leaving an outstanding total bill owed to us for over £100,000. 

We tried and tried to recover but we couldn't. 

So this is me telling you that yep, life is pretty shitty right now (please excuse my cuss words but sometimes an expletive in this condition are necessary, in real life i am actually cursing like a trooper)

We are closing down our business which is so hard, for many reasons (practicality, nostalgia, necessity)

and we are having an awful time doing it.

Seeing as I'm being totally honest here i will also say, we may be loosing our house, some belongings and cars.  Its an awful situation to be in.

We have never been a flash couple driving round in expensive cars (i drive a little mazda, which i luff!) or in fancy houses and we don't spend a lot of money on anything, we have not had a holiday in over 3 years and we don't own anything super expensive. I hope you all know that about me, i'm actually quite  a cheapskate!

So our personal lives are amidst the mess that goes hand in hand with the business. We are currently on the roller-coaster and, in all honesty i want to get off. It has been an atrocious week of no luck and things constantly going wrong even when you thought they couldn't possibly.

 I am running off about 3 hours sleep a night and getting up to work harder than i ever knew i could. On one hand i think to myself "Rachel you are made of tough stuff, keep going" on the other hand i am in a mess on the floor crying my eyes out. 

I am super grateful to the lovely ladies i work with in my "new" job (i started it in October and had been running 2 jobs for a while there) for being supportive and flexible and just generally making me laugh when i thought i had forgotten how, and our dear friends Estelle and Dean for giving us so much help and just generally being wonderful friends...salt of the earth, you guys!

I know this isn't really my normal post type but i think i really felt the need to vent and this is my only place i guess. I also wanted to offer up an explanation as to why posts may be sporadic in the next few weeks. I may still manage it all as i actually find it a wonderful distraction from the crappy reality right now, but it may not be on regular days. I have a wonderful Sponsor Spotlight coming up for you soon and a beautiful set of photos my husband took which will be coming tomorrow.

So if you could all bear with me through this tricky time, i am *hoping* to be back in a happy, bubbly, fun place on the blog and in real life, soon.

If you're wondering these photos were actually from a sponsored post i did over at the lovely Marisa's last week. They are from the snowy time we had a couple of weeks ago. I am completely loving polka dots right now. Even in times of stress i still do like a nice polka-dotty number ;-)
Thank you for listening to my stressy rambles, when i get emails /comments /tweets through it really still does make me smile and feels so good to have you all, my extended friends from across the globe.

 Dress: Ebay 

Chambray Shirt: Next

Tights: Matalan

Red Clogs: Lotta From Stockholm

Brooch: Vintage

Jacket: River Island