Five fab pairs of flat shoes for Spring

I have dozens of pairs of gorgeous heels, but the truth is I spend most of my time in flats. I love how heels look and I can bear the pain for long enough to wear them on a night out or for a quiet day at work, but I hate the way they slow you down. Even my low-heeled ankle boots cut down on how quickly I can get across London – and I love to walk everywhere. In this city you get about faster if you ditch the public transport and use your legs instead!

So I am always on the hunt for flats that look good, are practical, and work with my wardrobe. Here arefive pairs of fabulous flats….

Dressember Shoe Saves…a little late!

I’m massively behind with Amber’s Shoeper Challenge, and having to face the fact that I’ll be waving goodbye to fair number of my shoes in mid-February. That said, I’ve saved most of my must haves by now, so anything else is a bonus, and I knew I needed to cut down my shoe collection by quite a dramatic amount, so I don’t regret taking part in the challenge in the first place. If I haven’t worn these shoes in the last 12 months, the chance I’ll wear them in the next is very slight. And thought I may end up granting immunity to two or three pairs of occasion shoes or Summer sandals that I didn’t wear because I didn’t go on holiday last year, I am going to try as hard as I can to stick to the rules and get rid of everything I possibly can when the challenge ends on Valentines Day. In the meantime, I have worn a good few pairs of shoes in the last month or so. And here they are…

A clutch of Shoeper-saves and a Dressember update

I’ve been a bad girl when it comes to the Shoeper Challenge recently. I’ve been wearing shoes but struggling to snap them, and I’m running out of time to save them now, as I need to work my way through my whole collection by Valentine’s Day. It may sound easy but I have Summer sandals unworn, and it’s December! Amber actually changed the rules a while ago to allow us to just snap the shoes rather than the whole outfits in order to record a ‘save’, so I’ll be doing that occasionally when I save a pair of shoes but don’t manage to get a decent pic. You’re going to have to trust me that I won’t just pretend I wore a pair of shoes; the whole point of this challenge was to cut down on my collection so I have no reason to lie about what I have and haven’t worn. I’m just struggling in this weather because my camera doesn’t like artificial light, and there are only so many times I can nick the work DSLR!

But speaking of nicking the work DSLR, here are some outfits I did manage to photograph, and a few more pairs of shoes crossed off the list…

Shoeper Challenge: Polka dots x 2

I have a problem. I’m addicted to polka dots. I have at least half a dozen dotty dresses, not to mention shoes, tops, tights and sunglasses covered in spots. There’s something very fresh and fun about polka dots, which I like as someone who is known to dress quite ‘young’ as a rule! But they also work for just about any occasion, as I think these two outfits show (I use the term ‘outfit’ loosely, as the second is basically a dress and shoes). The first outfit was for fellow Domestic Slut Gail‘s gorgeous wedding, so required some serious accessorising. The second outfit was for work on a very, very windy and depressing day that called for a less-than-glamorous hairdo!

In My Wardrobe – Snakeskin and Shoe Saves

Only days after I’d joked to my fellow animal print advocate Sian than we’d have to ditch all our favourite frocks now that ‘snakeskin is the new leopard print’ (so say the glossies) I was given this snakeskin scarf as a leaving present at work. I took no time in giving my new accessory its first outing, at Gary‘s birthday drinks in Barnes. I have fond memories of Barnes as it’s the first place I lived when I moved to London (the dodgy bit by the station that’s actually Roehampton, not the scarily posh village bit). Anyway, back to the scarf, which I teamed with a black tee, my much-loved River Island boyfriend blazer, and super-skinny jeans from Primarni. Tres, tres boring I’m afraid…

Under 100! A Shoeper Challenge Update

I got slightly frightened when I saw on Shoeperwoman that we’re already on week 29 of the Shoeper Challenge! That means there are only another 23 weeks to work my way through my shoe collection, wear the shoes I’ve yet to ‘save’ and get photographs as proof. Going through the pictures, I’m slightly worried about the number of shoes I have actually worn, but not photographed (especially flats) so I need to get onto that and make sure the Summer shoes I still want to save get snapped asap. It’s gonna be tough! So while I update you with another shoe save, I thought I’d also show you the shoes I’ve dumped, the ones I’ve saved and the ones I still have to wear…

Four Shoeper Challenge Saves!

Forgive me for a bit of a boring post, but I’m really beginning to realise that we’re halfway through the year as far as the Shoeper Challenge goes, and I still have the majority of my footwear collection to wear and photograph if I don’t want to be chucking it all out come February. So I’ve been powering through and getting rid of a few ‘easy’ saves, mostly flats and practical shoes. I know, Zzzzz. I promise the next post will be more fun – it’s my birthday so there’s lots of excuses to dress up! But as I’m saving my gladrags for the next few days, this does mean you’ve seen most of these outfits before – they’re old faithful dresses I’ve worn a gazillion times – so feel free to move on and give this post a miss. I just need to be sure to record these shoe saves so I’m not forced to bin them unnecessarily…

Window shopping: Top Summer sale fashion finds!

It’s Summer sales time, and this year’s bad weather means there are even more items to choose from as people are a bit cautious of spending too much on flippy Summer dresses and strappy sandals when most days are still spend in tights and coats! It’s a great time to stock up – particularly if you have a Summer holiday coming – so I’ve picked some of my favourite sale finds to help you along. There are loads of lovely shoes and some fabulous Summer frocks, and nothing on this page costs more than £35 (except one pair of fabulous Carvela shoes I couldn’t resist including). Personally, I’ve got my eye on a pair of fabulous wedges that’ll give height with a bit of added comfort, and a really nice bright 50s dress to wear for my birthday in August. What’s new, eh?!

5 fab online shoe shops you may not have heard of…

If you’re a huge shoe fan, you’re probably well aware of the sites I’ve listed here. But if your online shoe shopping is usually restricted only to old faithfuls like Office and Schuh, or if you tend to buy everything offline, you may not have stumbled upon these great footwear emporiums yet. But trust me when I say they’re all worthy of your time, whether you want the perfect pair of brogues, a bargain on a boutique brand, a pair of knee high boots that actually fit, or someone to take all the hassle out of shoe shopping and pick the styles for you. These are some of my latest favourite shoe shops for easy online shopping and great choice…

In My Wardrobe: A day at the Races

It’s been a busy few weeks since I got back off holiday, so I haven’t really been able to take as many outfit pics as I’d like. But I did get pics of a couple of looks. I was invited, somewhat last minute, to the Investec Derby at Epsom, and had 48 hours to put together a races-friendly look. Now there’s nothing I love more than a girly dress, some OTT headwear and slightly matchy-matchy accessories, so I had great fun putting this outfit together and only had trouble choosing the exact dress to wear. In the end I went with the hot pink Escala prom dress by Fever. I was also lucky enough to have someone with some photography skills and a decent camera along for the ride, so thank you so much to Natalie for making this outfit post a little bit more fashion blogger-y than usual…