Taking Shape Store Visit

I was recently asked if I wanted to check out the Taking Shape Southport store to have an appointment with their personal stylist and try on some of their pieces. 

Now to start off I should say that I can't even remember the last time that I did a shopping trip in the high street. Where I live there is nowhere that I can shop and I have been buying online for probably the past six or seven years.  I had completely forgotten what the "in store" experience was like and I confess, I was more than a little nervous.

I need not have worried.  My stylist Sharon was absolutely lovely and immediately put me right at ease.  I had a look around the store prior to my styling session and was very impressed with what I saw.   What particularly impressed me was the amount of frankly fantastic jewellery available (I would wear all of it) and the fact that many of the clothing items had been styled with a necklace or accessory to give you an idea of how it would look like on.

After a restorative coffee we headed to the spacious changing rooms which were airy and well set out.  I still remember the horrors of changing rooms from years ago, ill shutting curtains, no room to move around etc etc!  There were lots of mirrors and a comfortable sofa which made you want to linger rather than hurriedly try something on and make a quick decision.

Here are some of the outfits I tried on.  I have tried to link where I can!

Cria Dress £39.00

I have previously seen this dress on Betty Pamper and it was my first choice for trying on.  The fit was just right and I loved the leopard print touches throughout the patterning.  It has gone on my "To Buy" List!

Honor Dress £39.00

This dress has a very strong floral print to it and makes quite a statement on, which I like.  This type of dress I would probably wear for work.  Yes, I dress up for work but hey, why not!

Tropical Maxi Dress £49.00
I loved loved loved this dress.  For some clever reason I can't tell you it makes me look taller and I loved the necklace detailing to the neckline.  This came home* with me, ready for Summer time frolics!

Enchanted Lands Dress £40.00

I am gutted that we didn't manage to get a great photograph of this dress as it was one of my favourites of the day and one that I took home* with me.

Lexa Dress - £45.00

I really wanted to try this dress as I haven't worn a stripe print before and was interested to see how it would look.  I really loved the dress and personally, I loved the stripes!

Annabell Pullover £35.00
Bella Vista Trousers £29.00

This was without a doubt the surprise outfit of the day.  I NEVER wear trousers and have never worn orange before but the combination just seemed to work perfectly.  I felt stylish and yet comfortable.  Both items have also gone on my shopping list as I regretted leaving them behind as soon as I got home!

Gigli Pullover £45.00
Summer Night's Necklace £15.00
Visa Versa Trousers £39.00

After trying the previous combination I then moved on to the above outfit.  I loved the trousers which were silky to the touch and had a drawstring at the bottom in order to create different looks.

Looming Necklace £10.00
Water Colour Dress £55.00

This was such a pretty dress and the picture doesn't quite do it justice.  It was a fabulously swooshy dress, yes, that's a word :)  I just wanted to spin around and around in it.

Olivia Dress £39.00

I absolutely love a paisley print but am not quite sure I can get away with it in this dress.  What do you think?

Uninhabited Tee £35.00

One thing I do want to talk about is the lengths of the dresses.  One constant irritant of mine is that so many of the dresses that have been around for the past few seasons are at that length where tights or leggings are needed.  

All of the dresses I tried on were knee length or just below, basically hitting me exactly where I wanted (I am 5ft4).  When wearing a pretty dress I don't want to wear leggings (just my personal preference) so I could happily wear any of these dresses bared legged, as I have in the photographs.

All in all I had a brilliant couple of hours at the Taking Shape store.  The theme tune to Pretty Woman was playing on repeat in my head and I have never had so much fun trying on clothes in a shop before.

Taking Shape's clothing is all about interesting cuts, bold prints and patterns and completely works with the way I love to dress.  If I ever win the lottery, just pack up the whole store and I would be good to go!

* I was not paid to write this review of the Taking Shape store, however I was gifted two items as denoted with the * above.

Guest Post from Just Me Leah

Morning all! 

Today I am happy to say that I have the fabulous +Just me Leah guest posting on my blog today, so I will hand you over to her.

Hi, I’m Leah and I blog at www.justmeleah.co.uk. Thanks to Vicky for giving me the opportunity to guest post on her blog.

HOW TO DEAL WITH CONFLICT ON THE INTERNET

 

As bloggers, people who comment on blogs, or people who use social networking pages and forums regularly we’re all at risk of coming into contact with people who share a very different set of values and beliefs to us, which can lead to conflict. For this post I will be writing from the perspective of you being the one who’s on the receiving end of conflict. 

 

If you’ve been active online for a long time and haven’t come into conflict with anyone I’d hazard a guess that you’re in the minority. The first time someone sought me out over something I’d said was on MySpace almost 10 years ago. Someone called me an emo (and much worse) because one of the many bands I said I liked in my introductory post in a group about rock music didn’t fall into the rock/metal category according to them. There have been many occasions since then where someone has felt the need to tell me how wrong I am about something, the last of which was very recently. The circumstances each time have been different and have warranted differing courses of action.

 

There are three categories of people you may come into conflict with.

 

1.  The person you’re in conflict with is using an anonymous profile. I would advise caution, because you have no idea if the person in conflict with you is a slightly pissed off keyboard warrior, someone having an off day who might later regret their comment, or an unhinged person with an agenda and nothing better to do than pick your life apart for their own amusement. I don’t allow anon comments on my blog as I think it gives people the opportunity to do their worst. If your blog or social media page has an option to pre-approve comments, think hard about whether you want to publish negative ones. Do you want to respond to the person if you publish it, or leave it there and have someone else possibly stick up for you and get drawn into it? What effect might getting dragged into a slanging match have on you and the other people who can see it?

 

2. The person you’re in conflict with is well known to you. How you proceed depends on their relationship with you and how your response might affect things outside your relationship with them. For example if you fall out with a friend of a friend, how will that affect things with your friend? If a family member has said something out of order, is it worth making life awkward for the whole family? Think hard and take a little time to breathe before saying something you can never take back. If they’ve said something unconscionable, I would suggest blocking them rather than having an ongoing conflict. The break might do you good and at a later date a reconciliation might be possible. You never know. But if it's someone on Facebook who's overstepped the mark, the choice is yours to reply or delete their comment and/or block them.

 

3. The person you’re in conflict with is using an account or username you can Google search. You’ve just hit gold, my friend! Everyone using a regular username leaves breadcrumbs you can follow, and most of us are creatures of habit after all. If you can Google their name/username, within a few clicks you can find out whether they’re trolls who do this a lot, or it’s somewhat out of character.

 

When someone took exception to a throwaway comment I made on someone else’s blog recently I Googled her username, and something very interesting became apparent. She rarely commented on a post to say anything good. In fact she rarely commented on a POST at all. Instead she’d find something contrary to say to someone who’d posted in the comments. I had been contemplating replying to her, but when I saw she was the kind of person who mainly looked for something to argue about, I knew the kind of person she was and decided I didn’t need to go there. Know your ‘opponent’ where possible because it will dictate your course of action.

 

Things to remember:

·  Some people are trolls, pure and simple. They enjoy getting a rise out of someone and if you respond it’ll make their day.

·  You have the choice to delete and ignore the comment, reply once and say your piece in full and never comment again, or be drawn into a dialogue which might go bad like milk in summer. There’s no right or wrong decision – just take a few deep breaths while you decide what to do. It’s hard to be calm when you feel under attack but you can’t unsay something once it’s on the internet.

·  I’ve regretted answering back a couple of times but have never regretted deleting a crappy comment and forgetting about it.

·  There are some people who ALWAYS have to have the last word even if they’re wrong. These people will gain pleasure from keeping a row going until you give up. Then they think they’ve ‘won’.

·   There are some people who don’t even care what subject you’re talking about. They have a superiority complex and will argue to prove to themselves how great they are. They will argue about the colour of the sky for the joy of arguing. Leave them alone in a room and they’ll argue with their shadow. Avoid.

·  There are some subjects which are so contentious you and the other person could debate/argue for months and still NEVER see eye to eye. You have to work out if there’s any point in wasting your energy on someone like that.

What are your tips on dealing with conflict? Feel free to let us know your troll horror stories in the comments.

Thanks for reading.

Leah

The I Feel Good Challenge

 You know sometimes when you spend ages getting ready for a night out, an event or even just a blog post, and the reflection in mirror isn't what you hoped?  This challenge is for those times when you look in the mirror, no pre planning involved, and think "I look good today".  

We all have our good days and our bad, but this challenge is to record those good days and to remember that confidence, at any size, is beautiful.

I am cheating a little with today's photograph as I have already shared this photograph on Instagram.  But the feeling I had when I took it is something that I wanted to record, to remind me.

This was me after getting ready for my birthday outing with my best friends (post on the dress to follow).

I had just finished getting my hair done by my lovely sister (thanks sis!!)  my lipstick was on and my dress felt right.  Normally after I finish getting ready I look in the mirror and think that I look okay, or nice or find something that I want to change. 

Today though I looked in the mirror and I actually doubletaked to check that the girl in the mirror was actually me.  I felt absolutely amazing.  Everything felt right and I think for the right time ever in my life I looked in that mirror and though "Wow you look really good".  This NEVER happens.

So in order to record for posterity here's the photo, to remind myself of that feeling.