April Outfit Round Up

Outfit posts have always been my favourite – we all know I can waffle till the cows come home and ranting about public transport or the weather seems to be a particular skill of mine – but it was style and fashion that led me to start my humble little blog and it still remains a major passion. Sadly though, what with this growing another human, trying to get our house in order for it’s arrival, nailing the final bits of learning to drive and trying to be a general girl boss at work, finding the time to do some proper outfit shoots has been challenging. It’s not impossible, of course, and I’m busy editing some shots to bring you some posts all about how I’m finding maternity dressing very soon, but I realised recently that while the pages of this blog have been missing sartorial content lately, I’ve been religiously posting a photo a day on Instagram of what I’ve been wearing, and sometimes those outfits turn out to be some of my best, so I’ve decided to start bringing you a round up of the highlights! You’re welcome…! So here we go!

April has been a typically British month, weather wise. We had frost, torrential rain, gale force winds care of Storm Hannah, and of course no-one could forget the incredibly rare and unexpected Easter Bank Holiday of uninterrupted, glorious sunshine! So it’s not been the easiest month to outfit plan for, particularly when a few days a week I’m living out of a suitcase. On top of the usual uncertainty of what the weather might be doing by Friday, I’ve had to factor in my growing bump, which seems to change by the minute right now, and my ongoing mission to buy as little maternity wear as I can! It’s a challenge, but so far I’m doing well and have really been enjoying experimenting with new ideas and looks.

The nice and temperate one minute then freezing cold the next climate we seem to have experienced for most of April meant that my old favourite midi dresses and skirts really came into their own. My pregnancy has been very well timed, style wise, as just as I was learning that I was expecting my impending offspring, styles seemed to begin leaning quite heavily towards looser fitting dresses that were just perfect for accomodating a growing bump, and thankfully that trend seems to be continuing, making it very easy for me to get use of my existing ones, plus pick up a few new ones that I can be confident I’ll still be wearing after the baby comes. My favourites at the moment have to be my navy blue spotty button through dress by Monsoon, which I picked up for a fiver on eBay earlier this year, and my beautiful GP & J Baker for H&M dress with it’s stunning Eastern inspired print – I was crazy for this collection last year and can’t see me getting bored of it any time soon! Skirts have started to get on the snug side now and a little uncomfortable to wear for long periods, but luckily I still have a handful with soft, stretchy waistbands which should see me through a little while longer yet.

On the opposite end of the scale, I’ve also fallen completely back in love with stretchy tube dresses and skirts! I had a few languishing in my wardrobe from my skinnier days, but hadn’t worn them in an age due to feeling self conscious about my tum and thighs. Of course, these days my expanding tum is very much a normal part of life and I’ve actually found myself feeling the most confident I’ve ever been about my body and showing it off! This is good news, because this style is just so comfortable, and very easily dressed up or down depending on the occasion. My favourite of this lot of outfits has to be my bargain 99p red tube dress from Primark which was another eBay buy, paired with a cute little cherry print blouse knotted over the top to keep it work appropriate. I’m really loving the slightly retro vibe of this look, and I suspect you’ll be seeing a lot more of it in posts to come!

Finally, I genuinely couldn’t have gotten through (happily, anyway…) the last month or so without my beloved maternity jeans! I tried to put off buying these for the longest time, as having an already extensive collection of jeans and jeggings, it felt a little extravagant to spend money on something I’ll only be wearing for a while. Quite quickly though it became apparent I was going to have to unless I wanted to freeze on the colder days, because the only pair of trousers I could still do up were boyfriend jeans that just weren’t suitable for the office! After polling my Insta-friends for their recommendations I decided to go with H&M since they came with glowing reviews and were nicely purse friendly compared to others, and can honestly say it was the best decision – they fit like a glove, are comfortable all day, and frankly have been an absolute god send! I’ve stuck to black, white and blue to give me a little variety, though I have to say I still kind of miss the choice my rainbow array of jeggings gives me, but sensibility must prevail!

Buy of the Month

As above, I’ve managed to bag myself some absolute bargains lately, but this H&M dress has to be the best of the bunch, even though it wasn’t the cheapest. I’d been hankering after it for a while after seeing it on more than a handful of my favourite Instagram ladies, but was really trying to avoid buying anything new. By some sort of fluke though I spotted one on eBay Buy It Now for £15 which just seemed too good to ignore! It didn’t have the tags on, but I figured with it still in the stores currently it couldn’t have been worn all that much so was thrilled to be able to bag it for nearly half price! I absolutely love the soft fabric, and even though I might not get too much more wear of it this side of the birth, I just know it’s a dress I’ll be reaching for plenty in years to come.

Outfit of the Month

Special mention had to go for this get up here! Not only did I feel super pretty and sweet in these pastel hues, I was super chuffed that it’s made up entirely of old pieces I’ve been wearing for an age – in fact, you may remember I featured this exact same outfit, minus the bump, a couple of years ago on this very blog here! Not bad going for 20 plus weeks!

So that’s April! Looking forward to seeing what style challenges this bubba brings me next month!

Love,

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