NYE

A stinking cold can't hold me down...

 I felt sexy, so I got sexy.

 Getting all my lumps and bumps out in this Primark bodycon dress (size 20, £7 in sale & worn backwards today!)

This is the dress I wore for my works Christmas party after party, I love it so I decided to wear it again & actually take some proper pictures this time!

I even put some eyeshadow on. Mac can't be beaten for frosted eyeshadows in my humble opinion. You can't see much of it here but it's a pinky / purple colour to match the spots on the dress.

A couple of snaps the boyf did... I seem to obscure the lovely tree somewhat huh?!

Happy New year guys, may 2014 be a confident (and hopefully sexy) one for all of you! xx

A Parsnip at Christmas

How appropriate that my 200th post is a festive and joyful one! Now the the main Christmas events are over and I'm back at the flat with lover-boy I can sit back and relax to write this post...

 There wasn't much to be said fashion-wise about my faux Christmas with my boy, but we did wear our fetching Christmas jumpers (for an hour or so before we overheated in a big way!)

 Woolly leggings and Christmas jumper - both from Primark YEARS ago!

I roasted a goose, nom nom nom! I think everything we had was home made with the exception of the bread sauce (M&S!). I made giblet gravy and of course roasting a goose provides a large amount of goose fat which is the best thing for roasting spuds & veg, and is also amazing for Yorkshire puddings. Oh and by the way, I made a panettone stuffing which I loved so much I could have just eaten on it's own! It was so easy - I blitzed a mini pannatone, then added onion, fresh sage, top quality sausage meat, smoked bacon, orange zest and a squeeze of orange juice. The sweetness of the brioche-like bread and the candied fruits in the panettone went so well with the goose - would work really well with any game-birds, particularly duck!

Typically I forgot to photograph the goose before hacking it up, but look, it's all brown and glossy like the ones they pull out of the oven on TV!

What a lucky girl I am - I got the Swan / Evans glove print top and skirt I had really wanted, along with Russell's new DVD (both of which I was expecting) but then he pulled out a little Swarovski box with a beautiful crystal necklace in the shape of a little cloud! Such a surprise and a particularly sweet one, not only because it's an unusual design, but because my boyfriend just doesn't understand why me / my sister / my mother are so fond of Swarovski jewellery. He really doesn't get it at all but he bought me something from there anyway, so this is even more special to me!

I just couldn't get a decent picture of this (it's quite small!) but here is one I found on the web. I really properly love it! It looks beautiful on but the chain is a bit tight on my fat neck, so I will have to extend it a bit to wear it comfortably. Why they have to make the chains so damn short I'll never know!

 And then it was time to go to the shire for Christmas with the family. I am finding it harder and harder each year to leave my boyfriend for Christmas, so what with that and the 7am phone call from my hysterical mother about the trains (you can always rely on the British media to turn a strong wind into a hurricane and for the trains to use any excuse for providing a shit service!) I was not in the Christmas spirit on Monday. Despite what Network rail and the news were saying, I got to my home town with absolutely no issues at all, and got to the end of the day having forgotten to take a OOTD snap. Everyone was in bed and the only full length mirror left in my folks house is in their bedroom so this is all I could manage! I wore my swan combo of course!

I woke up to this! I had fancied some chocolate on Monday night, and couldn't believe my parents didn't have any in - I'm not being a brat here, I know my Mum and Dad don't really eat much chocolate any more & I never expect a stash of cadburys when I visit throughout the year, but this is the first Christmas EVER that they haven't had a tin or box of chocolates sitting around, so I was surprised! My dad offered to go out and buy me some but I told him not to worry (so sweet!). Then my mum went and got all this! They are so amazing!

I can't even begin to tell you how evocative the smell and taste of my mums watercress soup is!

 Christmas Eve dress! It's a tradition that we have Christmas eve at my sisters place, and she cooks up some yummy grub (particularly some Nigella party food... nomnomnom!)

 Dress 22 - Anna Scholz for Simply Be

Cuff & XL 100den tights - Primark

Boots - Simply Be

I think the trick for Christmas is to wear stretchy clothing that you can sit comfortably in, so here is proof that this dress is ideal for face-stuffing - it expands as I do!

This is why I needed room to expand! I made the eggnog, and my god it's so freaking delicious! Gonna make some at new years for the BF to try. Boozy custard, a total winner!

 Then suddenly it was Christmas day!

My mum did a corking Christmas dinner as always (her sherry trifle in particular is a goddam masterpiece!) so again I needed to wear something comfy.

 You will probably remember this Bon Marche dress (now sold out) from a few months ago when I first got it. You might also recognise it from Nancy's Christmas post as she is a genius and wore the same dress! Check out her post here If you want to see the dress on a different body shape. I knew this was my Christmas day dress. It's comfy, stretchy and red velvet is the most christmassy thing ever! It's also quite classy and as my 90 year old gran was with us I wanted to wear something she would like.

 Gran really liked it and said she might keep staring at it because it was her favourite colour. My Aunt went bonkers for it too, so I guess it was a winner with everyone! I love it, and wore it comfortably all day, even after eating enough to feed a small family!

Silly girls taking pictures! Thanks to my sister for taking the snaps! I'm wearing a tight bra and some tights pulled over my belly, but no shape-wear (hence the bulges!) but I embrace my love handles, there's no hiding them frankly!

 Entertainment came mainly from this little lad.

 My nephew is so cute.

How is he not even 2 yet? He is so grown up!

4 generations of Parsnips! Merry Christmas y'all!

 Boxing day was a bit of a comedown because my sister has given me the most horrid cold (MEANIE!), but hey, I ate nuts, wore a fluffy jumper (until I overheated!) and then took my dad to the cinema.

Jumper 20 & fascinator headband - Primark

Chinos 24 - Yours clothing

LOVED the 2nd instalment of the hobbit. Smaug looked beyond amazing (I think he might be a real dragon!). Then just like that, Christmas is over! I'm not back at work until the new year though, so I'm still keeping up the holiday feeling! I hope you guys had a nice Christmas too!

It's my party and.... you know how it goes

I think I've already said this, but I'm cooking goose for Christmas dinner this year and it's richness means that it doesn't need all the fatty trimmings, so I decided to have some friends over, as an excuse for making pigs in blankets and devils on horseback!

 I wore... you guessed it, VELVET! I've had this dress (size 22) for a while and was saving it for my party.

I've had this New Look head band fascinator for years, and it matched the dress perfectly!

 I decked the halls......

 And stepped into Christmas! I highly recommend Nigella's Christmas rocky road, it is damned delicious! I did half the amount of cherries and added dried apricots (cause I had some in the cupboard!). You have to have smoked salmon don't you? We had already been munching on the pigs in blankets (with cranberry sauce) and the devils on horseback (with bread sauce) so they were a bit depleted when I took this picture!

I did cheese and pickle sausage rolls (cause I love them!), devilled eggs ('cause I LOVE THEM!) Pea / tomato & avocado bruschettas because I felt we needed some vegetables to sustain us! Plus some prawn cocktails ('cause they remind both me and my boyfriend of our mums starters before Christmas lunch!). I generally like to have blue cheese at Christmas, and although Stilton (in my opinion) is over-rated and I would have liked Cornish blue, I needed Stilton for the devils on horseback (it holds its form when cooked better than sticky blues) so Stilton it was.... taste the difference Tuxford and Tebbutt to be precise, which is certainly one of the nicest Stiltons I've had in ages. I didn't make the mini stollen or brandy butter, but my god the two of them together is a thing of beauty... if you have a sweet tooth and you've never tried this combo then you must!

I was a bit sad to find that the dress dyed my skin black, but as I got it via ebay for cheap I'm not going to get pissy about it!

You can get this dress from Crazy Clearance here - please note that it originally had beading on the neck (which I pretty much always think makes dresses look either tacky or old fashioned) that I diligently removed. It took me ages because unlike most beading I've come across which is just sewn on through holes in the beads this was properly attached to the dress. Worth it in the end, I much prefer it beadless, much more funky!

Two days of festive fun!

Ahhhhh my last few days at work are always pretty fun, and that's because I never go into work the day after the Christmas party.... when the party ends I'm officially on holiday, and the lead-up to it involves lots of sillyness!

 Monday afternoon was our department Christmas outing which I arranged this year - any excuse to go to Covent Garden at Christmas!

 This entire outfit is from Primark. Love this loose Christmas t-shirt, I've worn it loads. Most of the Christmas tees from Primark were fitted but this is deliberately oversized so it's mega comfy. The jersey pencil skirt was only £5 and it's below the knee and really fitted. It didn't loose much of it's shape so I was really happy with it!

I LOVE Covent Garden at this time of year, it's totally joyous!

 I totally wore 3 different outfits on Tuesday (Christmas party day) which is ridiculous, but let me explain.... I just wanted to be comfy during the day so I wore a primark t-shirt with my Swan trousers and didn't give two shits that I looked like I was in pyjamas!

 I went totally over the top for the party and wore a green stretch velvet maxi dress size 22 (from ebay here)

 I totally looked like I could be in Merlin or something, but you know, I don't go to posh events that often so when I do I get very dressed up! After wearing this for a night I decided it was a bit too small for my boobs (stretchy, but the empire line is a bit high on me) and was going to sell it but my bestie has already nabbed it from me and is going to take it in a bit!

 I totally kept a straight face for the first photo but then started running towards the camera....

 ..... I have to admit to being a bit jolly at this point!

 The after party was at a bar (a far less posh affair) and there was not a chance in hell of me dancing in the velvet maxi.... would have boiled to death! I decided to go FULL ON FAT IN YOUR FACE!

 Seriously tight bodycon dress that left nothing to the imagination. I just didn't care, although I think it might have been a tad see-through! I just wanted to be able to dance so this seemed like a good option..... to be honest I didn't do anywhere near as much dancing as I would have liked. The music was so.... ummm.... I'm just gonna say it.... white! I know I am white, but you know what? I like music with some ooommmppph! There was almost a mutiny until something with a bit of a beat was put on!

 I got this awesome dress from Primark on Monday night, size 20, on sale from £15 to £7, and I just loved the little dots and glitteryness. I had to have it!

Being a Arms and armour enthusiast I also appreciated the fact that it looks a bit like mail (that's 'chain' mail to the non-initiated!) so I threw caution to the wind. 

A nice night.... I didn't get too pissed, only spent about £4 and had a bit of a dance. Then on Wednesday I had a damn good lie-in and spent the day in t-shirt and jeans. Lush!