I was going to name this Outfit of the Day ‘The Long-line Knit’ but on looking at this photo it just doesn’t actually look that long, it just feels it. This blog post was created in between delivering Eid presents to the neighbours; so if you’re celebrating Eid tonight have a good one!

Now that the winter weather is drawing in, I’ve started eyeing up the big jumpers. Alas, it hasn’t quite been that cold so those bad boys have stayed relegated to the closet. I’ve been wearing this top to work practically every week since I picked it up from Primark along with the ‘outfit of the day’ t-shirt.

It could be just another plain boring jumper to throw on when you can’t quiet be arsed rummaging through the closet you absolutely, 100% will tidy up at weekend. Yup.

I think the fake-shirt bits (fake-shirt bits… I feel like these should have a more technical term…) just up the ante a bit, especially the way the bottom hem is cut into a slight curve. For some reason having a curved shirt flapping about makes me feel a bit like a cross between a butler at the end of the night and a slightly drunk toff.

Because the top is plain, I do feel that it needs a bit of something, so I’ve added my ‘clock’ necklace from Accessorize. I got it way back when, but love how individual it is – I’m yet to see someone else wearing it.

Anyway, I’ve teamed this jumper with some plain navy skinny jeans and my L K Bennet heels (which you can see in more detail here.) I say I’ve teamed this with jeans as if this is something out of the ordinary but patterned jazzy pants scare me slightly so jeans are the current go to.

With regards to make-up, I thought ‘go bright or go home’ so went with the brightest red lip I could. It doesn’t look to bright on the photo, which is a shame, but when I wore it for a work outing it flashed up in the big boss’s review mirror and she muttered ‘Christ that’s bright.’ So trust me; it’s pretty damn bright in real life.

In other news I’ve just bumped into a friend who noted that ‘I’ve heard your Mum’s bush is quite popular’ which is a lot more innocent than it sounds. In the last few days my dad cut the garden hedge into a caterpillar… So far BBC Radio Lancashire has covered it and The Sun and The Mirror have been taking photos and asking interviews. So yeah, new claim to fame for me.

As another Fashion Week progresses, another round of articles circulating lamenting fashion bloggers.

When it comes to fashion bloggers, it seems people are decidedly in one of two camps. People either love fashion blogs or hate them. Unless you’re over a certain age and use the internet only for googling obscure bird species, there is no middle ground.

Apart from if you are an avid blog reader; most of the articles circulating on mainstream platforms (think Facebook, Twitter, etc) tend to show the negative perception of fashion blogging. Even Google isn’t an equal playing ground; if you type in ‘fashion bloggers are’ Google suggests ‘narcissists’ ‘annoying’ and ‘stupid’ the only possibly positive suggestion is ‘rich.’ However saying all fashion bloggers are rich, is like saying all footballers have perfect hair (and we all know about Wayne Rooney.) It’s a little bit misleading.

Fashion blogging, can seem narcissistic, from the outside I can admit. After all, we must all think we’re shit hot, if we think everyone wants to see what we are wearing on an average Wednesday. Fashion blogging, and specifically outfit of the day posts,though go way deeper than just ‘oh-em-gee, how awesome am I’

Fashion blogging, is about showing a side of fashion that may not be all too apparent in Vogue, Elle or the other fashion magazines. It may be showcasing a girl with skin that is not the ‘right’ colour, the girl who is too big, too short…too anything. Fashion blogging, is a way of taking back a love of clothes and fashion from the often rigid conditions set by the media. Fashion blogging is a way of showing that it doesn’t matter if your parents couldn’t gift you a Ferrari for your eighteenth birthday, you can still express yourself and share a love of clothes on a small budget. Yes a constant stream of new photos of the blogger in question can seem narcissistic, but if we are all honest; aren’t all social media posts slightly narcissistic? Who doesn’t like to see the likes/views/comments racking up, whether it be on a blog, a tweet or a status?

I can also understand how fashion bloggers can be seen as annoying. If you are not into fashion, or blogs, having them pop up in your newsfeed would be a bit annoying. However the beauty of a blog, is that you don’t have to click the link – you can choose to ignore it and scroll on. And take it from a digital marketer, if you ignore enough of a page/person’s posts Facebook’s clever little algorithms will make it so they show up less often. Facebook by nature means you will occasional see things that interest your friends, but not you – Twitter will show you it even more, but that is just the way life is. If you are really annoyed, unfollow the person, or if you’re feeling extreme unfriend them. Gulp.

People think fashion bloggers are stupid for a variety of reasons – and to be fair, just like in every hobby, you will get smart people annnnd …. Let’s just say people that aren’t that smart. And that’s OK.

‘But you don’t get paid for it, so what’s the point?’ a common question seems to be, to insinuating fashion bloggers should find something more ‘worthy’ to do with their time. Mike doesn’t get paid when he plays five a side football on the weekend, what’s the difference? If a person enjoys a hobby, they aren’t stupid; they just have a different preference to you. Which is fine.

Also, I think a lot of people who don’t run a blog underestimate the amount of effort a fashion post takes. I am well aware my ‘fashion’ posts are in need of improvement, but they feel like a lot of effort to me.

For a fashion blog to work, the images need to be near glossy magazine standard these days, the write ups need to be both informative and entertaining. The styling needs to be new and different from all the other blogs.

In essence, the blogger behind the post needs to encapsulate all of the skills that are usually spread out throughout an entire team at a paper publication. And generally, these people are self-taught. They have put in the hours to master photography and editing so that it seems so seamless, it must be ‘easy’ or stupid.’

I don’t mean for this post to sound like a rant, I honestly don’t… though I fear it will come off as that. All I am saying is this; if you haven’t got anything nice to say about fashion blogging, don’t say anything at all.

And as for fashion bloggers? Or bloggers in general? Keep up the good work.

Last week I had another grand idea; one that resulted in approximately four hours stuck in traffic. As you can probably guess the boyfriend loves it when I announce we’re off on a mini-adventure.

The week before a friend had mentioned she wasn’t going to the Blackpool Firework Championships this year. Firework Championships? How had I never heard of this? I made a mental note and googled it later on. It turns out the Firework Championships started on the 11^th of September and is on basically every Friday evening up until the 2^nd October, the official website doesn’t make it overly clear where in Blackpool it is, it just mentions the tower but FYI the fireworks are actually on the beach. Can you believe we’re talking about October already? I haven’t even started out on my New Year’s Resolutions yet. Ooops.  Anyway, it’s a free event, and has a different nation competing every week.

Ever the optimist, I was fairly excited about this affair. I love fireworks (which is always a bonus if you’re going to the Fireworks Championships) and all that they symbolise. Well OK, not the idea of blowing up buildings like Guy Fawkes; I’m thinking more the arrival of autumn. I’m thinking about big cosy jumpers, log fires and spending a soon-regretted extra twenty minutes in bed in the morning because the world outside the quilt is so darn cold and grim compared to the covers and cuddles.

Just a heads up, parking was horrendous. I think I may have been to Blackpool once or twice before – but it’s not really my thing, so I’m not sure if parking is always that bad. But trust me. It was bad.  It was the kind of bad where you begin glaring at smug gits who are parked outside their own homes. After we finally found a parking spot we headed down to the beach. The website claimed that Rock FM was starting the build up at about 7.30pm before the fireworks started at 8.30.

The website lied.

To be fair; there was a solitary bloke muttering into a microphone every half an hour so, stood in front of a Rock FM banner. Though he may have just been some nutter with a megaphone, as nobody could tell what he was actually saying.

To escape the crowds of small children and generally bewildered and slightly drunk crowds, we bobbed into a chippy and got some chips. When in Rome and all that.

Whilst chowing down, we heard a bang, then another. Rushing outside, the fireworks had started. The fireworks were nice, they sparkled and boomed. But weren’t exactly impressive. They were the sort of fireworks that are on display in your local town; after the council has had to tighten its belt a bit. France obviously wasn’t taking the Championships too seriously; possibly just shipping someone out the night before with whatever explosives they could muster. I would like to include a photo here, but all mine are a bit blurred and the ‘official’ photographs look a lot better than the event did in reality. It feels like borrowing an official image or two would be misleading you.

They lasted for a grand ten minutes; though it took the crowd of people another five to realise that was it. We all looked from our own groups, to the other groups of people wondering if this was just a lull, a starter before the main course. Finally a chap behind us announced that it was all over, and slowly people started to move on.

We made our way back to the car and soon discovered that in a blinding moment of intellect; the Blackpool officials had closed all the main roads out of Blackpool. What we expected to be a 50min car journey turned out to be three hours. As chief navigator, I was using my phone as the map, which lets you know exactly how fast you are going; and the excitement in the car really hit a high when we managed 3 miles an hour for a brief stint.

If you live in Blackpool and have a free half-hour, the Championships might be worth a visit; but on the whole they’re just a bit disappointing.

I actually got this top a week or two back; when I saw it I couldn’t get over just how perfect it was. My boyfriend literally let out a little groan because he could guess what was to come. Just in case you’re on a phone with a small screen; let me read that t-shirt slogan for you “Outfit of the Day…”

See; dreamy. Spot on. Absolutely perfect.

I bought it without trying it on, because ya know, how wrong can a grey t-shirt go? And I suppose it hasn’t gone very wrong but it’s not exactly the most flattering thing in my wardrobe, so I’ve been delaying putting it on the blog. Even though the slogan pretty much demands it.

Because it’s not that flattering (and is a fairly plain grey top) this has become my weekend top. My running errands, whilst possibly not wearing a full face of makeup top. If the t-shirt is so ‘fashion blogger’ surely not wearing much makeup just naturally transcends into going for the ‘natural look’ right? Not the ‘I can’t really be bothered today look.’

While I love it for the obvious reasons, I also love it because it just shows how much more mainstreamed blogging, and fashion blogging in particular,  has become. More and more people are finding ways to express themselves, to share their passions and to show the rest of us what an outfit looks like on a normal person.

Ok, some of the serious fashion bloggers are practically model-like with their proportions and glossiness – but the majority aren’t. The majority are the ones we look to when we wonder if that dress will look good in real life, not just on the website under all the lights and none of the carbs. The majority are just normal people showing you how style up an outfit in a way you wouldn’t have thought have; and a way a magazine would never have dreamt of.

The t-shirt is from Primark and was about £8-9, but feels surprisingly good quality. I can imagine this top will stand up to a good few waltzes in the washing machine.

You can’t really see on this photo (blame my niece and current photographer for that, then again she’s only ten; so maybe hold back on the blame-game) but I’ve teamed this with some gorgeous grey suedette loafers (also from Primark) that are my current favourite flats. Just in case you were wondering which shoe was my favourite flat these days. I call them seudette, after stealing that term from someone at work; because let be honest, that sounds a dozen times better than fake-suede. And it makes me feel so much less studenty and more like a proper adult. Which is always good.