Autumn is my damned favourite

Don't get me wrong I have loved my first summer comfortable enough with myself to wear body consider and go legs and arms out. I didn't quite get a chance to rock a bikini but I suppose it gives me something to look forward to next summer!

But I fricken love autumn. It's not as cold as winter but you get to bust out layers and scarves and comfy jumpers. This year has seen me build up a wardrobe of clothes that I've always wanted to wear and I am super excited for a new season and a whole new range of clothes to drive myself to bankruptcy with!

My first new obsession..jackets. As a big girl jacket shopping used to be a nightmare. And my parents did not help with that..they would constantly try to choose shapeless, boyish options to hide their shame. I remember trying on this beautiful fitted jacket one time and I loved it and my dad promptly told me it didn't suit but wouldn't say why.  My mam told me straight. It hit my bum in the wrong way and made it look massive apparently. I'm pretty sure I left with some ugly plain black jacket feeling thoroughly depressed. But that girl doesn't exist any more so let's not dwell..this year I shall be bang on trend. Of course I still have some restrictions. Unlike my friends I can't pop into penneys and pick something up and I am not made of money. So I need something fashionable and really really affordable.

My go to site for plus clothes is asos. It was the first site I shopped from and will always have a special place in my heart but I was thoroughly disappointed. Firstly nothing majorly popped for me. Yes I liked a lot but to be honest not as many as I thought I would.  And when I say affordable I mean I am not spending over forty quid on a jacket. I just don't have it. The sale items were good but again nothing nabbed me. There are some beautiful options, my favourite of which are below. But it was too steep for me to justify. So I went to me next stop. New Look.

1. Boyfriend Coat in Cocoon Fit - On Sale for €58.00/ 2. Boohoo plus Varsity Satin Bomber Jacket - On Sale for €24.00/ 3. New Look Plus Floral Bomber Jacket - €43.99/ 4. Misguided Plus Crushed Velvet Bomber - €46.67/ 5. New Look Embroidered Sateen Bomber Jacket - €46.65/ 6. Alice & You Winter Floral Bomber Jacket - €64.00/ 7. Daisy Street Plus Camo Utility Jacket With Pockets - €53.32/ 8. Asos Curve Ultimate Faux Leather Biker Jacket with Piped Detail - €64.00

I have more selections from asos however some of these are New Look jackets being sold through Asos as well as misguided and Boohoo jackets. In fact the leather jacket is the only one from the Asos Curve Range. I know this is kind of the point of Asos, however, I often find that the items are cheaper on the original sites themselves so its always worth checking the original site as well. Price wise these all range from €40 up to €65 and these are the lower priced ones that I chose. I don't see the point in adding in jackets that I would never buy myself because of the price!

And as usual recently New Look didn't disappoint. I loved every second jacket and almost snapped and impulsively bought, you know, all of them. The jackets, in my opinion, are more stand out and at forty euro on average they are way more in my price range. Obviously some of there's go higher but I felt like asos's average price was over €70 and New Looks was over €40.

1. Curves Blue Colour Block Sateen Bomber Jacket - €44.99/ 2. Curves Dark Green Sateen Bomber Jacket - €39.99/ 3.Curves Longline Bomber Jacket - €44.99/ 4. Curves Blue Borg Lined Denim Jacket - €39.99/ 5. Curves Velvet Bomber Jacket - €44.99

My favourites from New Look were kind of endless but I whittled them down.  Expect to see at least one of these in future hauls of mine! Can you tell I'm into this bomber fad that's about this season?

I love the fact that there were different options here and not just a lot of bombers. Also noteworthy is the fact that they are all under €45! That's a win in my books and I will definitely be purchasing some jackets from New Look this season.

I also had a look at Boohoo's website and was kind of shocked to find such a tiny selection of jackets. 

 Unfortunately I have the prices for these in £'s 1.Lilac/Grey Bomber - £15.00/ 2. Pink Bomber jacket - £15.00/ 3. Plus MA1 Black Bomber - £15.00/ 4. Plus Belted Shawl Collar Coat - £25.00

Obviously a big benefit here is price, even when converted to euros these would all be under €35. However I wasn't wowed by any in particular. That's not saying that for 20 quid I wouldn't pick up one of those bombers!

So that's my round up of my favorite plus size coats from those three websites. I know there are more websites but for us Irish and Uk girls these are some of the more accessible websites that don't have insane shipping costs!

Until next time!

The Next Great Adventure.

The title of my blog could not be more apt than for a post such as this.

In my life I have always looked on to the next great adventure, college, travel, art college, job choices etc. and I was doing good as a spontaneous wild young thing, that is until adult life caught up with me. As millions about the world will tell you, at certain points you tend to get stuck in a rut. For whatever reason I have found myself in one for far longer than I would like to admit. I'm not going to go too much into that because that is the boring part of all this, hence my feelings that some change is needed. My main excuse however, is important so I will tell you it. I never have time. Time is my excuse for everything. I would do that if only I had more time, I would go here if only I had more time. You get where I'm going with this.

I expected a lot of things to happen in my life. Like a lot of people I had notions about being different etc. And I'll be honest in the grand scheme of things, among my friend group I probably am. I have made a lot of choices people might have questioned because my focus in life is not having a large bank balance but rather loving what I do and I have been very lucky to do what I love for the last three years. I work with kids as a childminder. Many people, including my family, fairly openly look down on my work choice but it is my opinion that one facet of a persons life is not enough to judge them on. As I said I have loved the last three years of my life. After college I didn't pursue my degree area and I went from one boring job to another ending up in an accountants office working as a secretary. It was not for me, I am scatter brained and find it hard to apply myself to tasks for long periods of time and these are definitely are not traits that a good secretary should possess. Needless to say I was in trouble a lot and doing a bad job unintentionally. After a year of toil I left and found work as a child minder. I really wanted to work with kids but not having a qualification limited me. I was lucky enough to find work with two lovely families and have been there since.

I get to go for walks on the beach while others sit in cold dark offices. I get to play with building blocks while others photocopy the same page 500000000 times. I think I'm the luckiest person in the world. And I am good at my job. It all comes natural to me. I have always wanted to be a mother and the one resounding comment everyone makes to me is "I'd say it makes you think twice about having kids eh?" and I'll be honest, it does the exact opposite. I have never wanted kids more than I do now. I love my job and I can't wait to have my own little ones who I don't have to say goodbye to at the end of the day.

However, as is the nature of my job, things have changed. The kids are both in school now and that means a reduction in my hours and a change of my job requirements. My boyfriend and I are lucky enough to be able to accept this hour reduction without it being too detrimental to our lives. He has recently started a new job as a preschool teacher in an Irish school. This allows me work less hours. I have been enjoying the last couple of weeks but a few things have become apparent to me.

Unfortunately the new schedule in my job has relegated me to a glorified cleaner and babysitter. I barely get downtime with the kids and the schedule is quite tight and stressful. I have lost the part of my job that I loved and it is making me assess my decisions regarding how much longer I will stay where I am. Also my boyfriend is working in my dream job. I would love to be in a preschool all day every day and while I am so proud and happy for him it is reminding me that my initial thoughts going into childminding were that I would do it while I got qualified in childcare and then move on. This hasn't transpired. Life got busy. I was the sole provider in our house for much of the last three years as I helped put my boyfriend through college. My boyfriend is one hundred per cent behind  me and is happy to support us while I try and figure stuff out so I have been left with, for once, more time!

This in turn has made me aware of how much I have allowed life slip past me the last few years. I have become the person who will say "yes I'd love to do that" but won't actually take steps to do it.

I am most definitely lacking challenge in my life, in fact I have become scared of challenge.

I spent my life riding horses and believe me I fell off many times. I was never scared of falling, that is until I got good and went several years without falling. It became a massive object in my mind. I was scared of falling again. When I fell off all the time I knew it meant very little but the more I built it up in my mind the more terrifying it seemed. I have become afraid of falling in my life. I have gotten older and lost some of my childish bravery.

What if I'm not as smart as I was? What if I fluked my way through college the first time? What if our lives fall apart because I'm being selfish?

I'm here, in the rut, with many others and I want to change that.

I'm not going to start big. They say it takes a month to make or break a habit, however the habit I want to make in my life is fun, it's creativity. I want to say yes more.

Most people these days have some habit tracking app or something like that. My habits you ask?

1. Give up sugar.
2. Take your vitamins
3. Exercise.
4. Drink more water

I looked at them the other day and I thought..shit when did this happen? This isn't me.
Where did I lose my fun along the way? When did I lose my desire to challenge myself?

So I'm changing that,

Each thirty days I am going to pick a few things, small things to start and I am going to commit to them for 30 days. Just 30 days. I have more time. I have my whole life. If I can't give thirty days of my life to something fun then I have lost the essence of me.

I'm hoping to learn more about myself during this and maybe even find out what I want to do with my life who knows?

If your interested in seeing me push my boundaries then please feel free to join me. I might make you laugh you never know!

This month I am going to start with a few small things, some I will update daily about, others at the end of the week, others at the end of the month but everything will be documented here which brings me to my first task this month.

1. I will blog, EVERYDAY, for 30 days!

2. I will photograph the sunrise everyday for 30 days.

3. I will wear a different outfit everyday for 30 days.

4. I will wear a different lipstick everyday for 30 days.

That's it for these 30 days.

The only one with any addendum is to no.3 I will use the same jeans, leggings and tights as bases for each outfit but other than that I must wear something different everyday and I can repeat an item but not styled the same way!

And so I start my next great adventure!