To The Beach - Collaboration With Twisted Beauty

Hey Guys!

Today I'm bringing you a surprise addition to my To The Beach series, a collaboration with a fellow blogger, the lovely Rachel from Twisted Beauty!

We had a chat about doing a post together and it just made so much sense to go with the beach theme as we've both struggled to find nice things to wear and feel confident in so we are going to be coming up with an outfit for each other to wear and sharing 5 awesome tips on feeling confident.

So I'll admit straight up, I did a bit of stalking on her blog and took some inspiration from this post which features lovely Cinderella themed items and this one featuring spring picks, further reinforcing that pastels could be the way to go!

Based on this I chose the below set from Forever 21, a plus size haven for swimwear. The ruching is super cute and I think the gorgeous aqua colour would look amazing next to her dark hair and light skin. What I love about this bikini is that it gives you coverage on the tummy then shows off your slimmest part in the middle so is super flattering.

I opted for a nice jazzy cover up from Asos Curve which has mint accents on the diamonds and I thought this gave the look a bit of an edgy aztec feel about it.

For the bag I wanted to choose a simple, classic design so as not to detract from the awesome pattern of the cover up and gorgeous colour of the swimwear so chose this beauty below from Hickory Hill Home. It's one of those bags that you can throw in everything you need and there's plenty of room for all your stuff like a towel and sun cream.

For footwear I've opted for these lovely metallic rose gold flip flops from Ipanema, after all who doesn't love rose gold?!

I hope Rachel likes my choices, I think they would look so good on a proper beach background, summery cocktail in hand. 

For the next part of this post I am going to be giving my top five tips for feeling confident at the beach, I really hope these relate to you guys and help in some way. 

1. Confidence comes from within. It's not so much something you can learn, it's more that you begin to accept yourself for the fabulous person you are and embrace your awesome figure. Everyone is different, and you are the only person out there rocking your body, so go for it, don't think about the opinion of anyone else and wear whatever you feel comfortable in.

2. Any of you can wear a bikini, there are some fabulous two pieces out there and it's a really outdated view that plus size women should hide away in a frumpy one piece. As you can see in the set I picked out for Rachel, high waisted briefs are a great compromise if you like extra coverage and the colour choices and patterns are just so exciting and exude confidence and style.  

3. Accessorise. Wear a cute necklace, pop on some sultry shades, have a fancy beach bag, whatever you want just go for it and look like a total fashionista.

4. Look after your hair and skin, scrunch in a little bit of mousse or use a sea salt spray for those killer beachy waves and don't forget to use sun cream, there's nothing cool about being bright lobster pink because you overcooked in the sun. 

5. Finally, just do whatever the hell you want to do. Let go, have fun, chill out, you're at the beach so just enjoy it and go with the flow. If you're like me, I spend so much of my time worrying about stuff and going over it in my head, it's so freeing to just put everything aside and just think, you know what I'm here, I'm going to have an awesome time and if people aren't on board with that they are the ones with the problem. Not you. 

I really hope you enjoyed this post, if you want to check out Rachel I have popped her links below including her post which completes this collaboration.

To The Beach (Rachel's post)

Twisted Beauty (blog)

Twisted Beauty (twitter)

Thanks for reading guys! Leave me a comment below if you have any tips to recommend or want to see more of this kind of thing on my blog.

Love Sally X

Pooch & Mutt - Calm & Relaxed Food Review

Hey Everyone!

I hope you're all well. 

Today's post will be reviewing a premium brand of grain free dry dog food called Pooch & Mutt and I will be assisted by my little helper Miley to give her thoughts on the product. 

There are five different types of food to choose from depending on your individual dogs needs which are: calm & relaxed, digestion & wind, move easy, slim & slender and fresh breath. 

I opted for calm & relaxed* as it looked to be the most suitable for Miley specifically and it contains the following ingredients for reference:

• 45% turkey; an L-tryptophan-rich protein source
• Sweet potato; which contains high levels of ‘anti-stress’
• B-vitamins and is both low gi and high in digestion-aiding fibre
• Chamomile; a traditional relaxation aid that has been used for centuries
• L-tryptophan; a natural amino acid that is used to form serotonin, the ‘feel good’ neurotransmitter
• Brewers yeast; rich in ‘anti-stress’ b-vitamins
• Probiotics and prebiotics; to aid digestion, as digestive discomfort can cause dogs to become stressed.

Also it's worth noting that only Pooch & Mutt foods contain a unique supplement called NUTRA-BIONIC that includes:

• Glucosamine and chondroitin to aid joint health probiotics and prebiotics to aid digestive health
• Omega 3&6, zinc and biotin to aid skin and coat
• Yucca which can help reduce stool odour
• Cranberry to aid urinary tract health
• A full vitamin & mineral package and antioxidants.

So now we have looked at whats in the food, let's see how it goes down with one of my toughest food critics!

I was kindly sent a huge 2kg bag to sample and the feeding guide suggests that for a dog of Miley's size they can have around 130-250g per day so you're looking at between 1-2 weeks worth of food.

The minute I put the bag down to take a photo she was over there giving it a once over and curious to see what was inside.

*Sniff Sniff*

And then success! She tucked in and seemed to really like the food, gobbling it up nicely.

I think it's safe to say that Pooch & Mutt definitely have Miley's seal of approval (and by extension mine of course). I'm really pleased to have been introduced to the brand as it wasn't one that I was familiar with before.

If you want to check Pooch&Mutt out head on over to www.poochandmutt.com where you can view all of their different products and varieties. Also they have a great option where you can order a 50g sample pack for just £1 which comes with a voucher for £1 off your next order of food making it essentially free! I would definitely recommend this if you are looking to trial a new, healthy food brand. Here is the link: Samples

I hope you enjoyed this post as much I enjoyed writing it. Thanks for reading and speak soon!

Love Sally X

To The Beach - Tips And Tricks

Hey Everyone!

Today marks the end of my short but sweet To The Beach mini series. I've really enjoyed doing it and have a couple more series to come out in the near future, if you have any suggestions or things you want to see, as always pop them in the comments below and I will aim to get those done for you!

This particular post is going to be little tips and tricks to make your trip as awesome as possible, I hope some of these are helpful.

I would love to hear your tips, if you are happy to share them please leave them in a comment below so we can all check out your amazing ideas!

Thanks for reading. Love Sally X

To The Beach - Bags, Shoes and Accessories

Hey Guys!

So in my last post we looked at cute swimsuits to wear on the beach, today we are going to pick out the perfect beach bags, shoes and accessories to go with them. I've purposely picked brands (where possible) that are outside of the standard high street names to give us a bit of variety and introduce you to some great companies you might not have heard of. Let me know if this is something you like and I will continue this in future posts.

Let's start with my top 3 beach bags. A beach bag by definition has to be big enough to hold a towel and all your bits and bobs, a nice sturdy material and preferably in a cute pattern or design. Here are the ones I liked the most!

Large Beach Bag Striped - The Nautical Company

 

Brighton Beach Bag - Ollie & Nic

Sequinned French Tote Bag & Purse - Ville & Campagne

Next are my favourite flip flops!

This first brand Gandys is especially cool, not only because they partnered up with Proudlock from MIC to design the below, but because the brand has a fantastic back story and they use a percentage of their profits to build orphanages. You can read here if you want to know more about who they are and what they do.

Serge 4 Gandys Flipflops - Gandys

Womens Slim Metal Grega - Havianas

Gisele Bundchen Admiral Black - Ipanema

And lastly, accessories!

Adventure Kindle Cover - The Contemporary Home

Happy Jackson Instant Genius Glasses Case - Mollie&Fred

Dusk Blue Bird Print Crinkle Scarf - The Nautical Company

Seal Necklace - In-Spaces

 Gold Friendship Bracelet - Misskukie

Ruby Gemstone Bracelet - Misskukie

I hope these picks give you some cool ideas for your beach trips this summer, let me know your favourite below in the comments.

Thanks for reading and see you soon for the final part of To The Beach!

Love Sally X

Check out previous posts for To The Beach here: Plus Size Swimwear and Homeware

To The Beach - Plus Size Swimwear

Hey Guys!

Today is the second part of "To The Beach" and will be a round up of the cutest plus size swimwear I can find on the internet. Things have changed a lot in the past couple of years in terms of plus size women demanding better options and more colour, gone are the days of choosing from a selection of plain black one pieces. 

Here are my choices!

Marisota
Sea by Melissa Odabash Sarong Animal Print
Sea by Melissa Odabash Bikini Set Animal Print/Chocolate

Fashionworld
Liz McClarnon Swimdress Coral Spot
Liz McClarnon Classic Swimsuit Bird Print
Liz McClarnon Bikini Set Watermelon

Evans
Aztec Swimsuit - coming soon
Aztec Kaftan - coming soon
Tropical Swimsuit - coming soon

Simply Be

Pour Moi Aloha Control Halter Suit Spearmint

Magisculpt The Bum Lifter Swimsuit Red/White Spot

Simply Yours Mesh Classic Swimsuit Black

I hope these picks give you some food for thought, let me know what you think below. 

See you in the next part of To The Beach and thanks for reading. 

Love Sally X

Check out the last To The Beach post on homewares here

The Eternal Thistle

Hey Guys!

Wow it feels really strange writing again, In February I made the decision to take a bit of time out for a few reasons but I'll cover that in a post of it's own at a later date. It's great to be back though and I've missed you all terribly.

Today I am bringing out an outfit of the day post that has been sat in my drafts for a while and I'm not even sure why because I actually really like the pictures, especially this one of the flowers:

Anyway, on to the outfit!

I am wearing:

Simply Be Grey Floral Scuba Skirt - Link

Simply Be Grey Floral Scuba Crop Top - Link

Necklace - Zara (old season)

In retrospect, I think the two pieces work possibly better independently than together and I would have kept the top as just my black long sleeve one but I still really like the look. The scuba material is nice and stretchy and comfortable and the print is really different to anything else I have because usually my florals are vividly bright or pastel colours.

I hope you liked this outfit post and if you did please feel free to comment below with your thoughts. I'm in the process of building up a new posting schedule too so let me know if there is anything you would like to see in the next few weeks!

Until next time, thanks for reading.

Love Sally X