Outfits in Instagrams

For about a month I was stuck in a rut.

Cold mornings. Jumpers. Jeans. Boots.

It was cold. I was bored. I didn’t care about getting dressed. I just wanted to get out of my cold flat and get to work.

I was conscious not only of the fact that I hadn’t blogged, but that I had nothing to blog about.

I hate the idea that you have to buy new things to get inspired but sometimes a couple of new things can completely change how you look at your wardrobe.

This was certainly the case for me. All it took was two roll neck jumpers, two new skirts and pulling out a dress I've owned for three years and never worn.

Suddenly I was creating outfits that I loved again. Feeling good about clothes again. Feeling good about what I was wearing.

However, when it came to dark nights and early morning marathon training and rushing out of the door for work, taking outfit photos hasn’t been an option.

Add to that, evenings spending up putting up not one, but two Christmas trees and being asked to be a bridesmaid and eating pizza with tortilla chips on, and weekends spent running and watching football and spending time with my family, time to blog just hasn’t happened.

But what has happened is Instagram. Whenever I’ve worn an outfit I’ve liked I’ve taken a quick snap for Instagram in my badly lit hall with my grubby mirror. And lately, that’s been enough. Not perfect, not ideal, but still a record of what I’ve worn and enough incentive for me to not slop around in jumpers and jeans every day.

So instead of nice photos in my living room with a good camera and a clean, white background, I have Instagram snaps of my outfits. And in the interest of not “wasting” them on Instagram, I thought I’d post them here too.

So here's what I've been wearing lately (you'll notice quite quickly there is a bit of a theme. Oh and I have like, 2 poses).

skirt - Joy, jumper - Primark, boots - Oasis, necklace - Debenhams

jumper - Zara, skirt - Warehouse, boots - Ugg

jumper - Oasis, skirt - Warehouse, boots as before

Everything as before (told you there was a theme...)

dress - Next, jumper as before

Fun fact - I've had this dress for three years and this was the first time I'd ever worn it!

jumper - Marks and Spencers, skirt - New Look, boots as before

skirt and jumper as before, coat- Miss Selfridge (bought in 2009!), hat - ASOS

jumper as before, boots as before, skirt - Warehouse via ASOS

Everything as before

I've felt for years like my style "peak" was in the autumn/winter of 2011, but recently I've finally been feeling good about my style and how it has developed. I'm definitely sticking to a rotation of the same items (A line skirts, tucked in jumpers, pinafore dresses) and a simple colour palette (brown, black, beige, maroon) but this feeling like a maturing of my style and I really like it. I'm inspired again and writing lists of potential outfits instead of just grabbing the first thing I see before rushing to work.

I've also started to really like wearing my hair up, which is really strange for me. My hair being up in the past has always just meant it's a not-washing-my-hair day and I'd shove it in a sock bun, but I've started putting it into a ponytail, backcombing it into oblivion and folding it into a messy bun. I really like to have my hair up when wearing a high-necked jumper.

I'd really like to capture some of these outfits properly for my blog, but between now and Christmas I'm super busy (as I know everyone is!). For example, Friday was my work's Christmas do (I won best baker! Yessss!), then I got up early for 9 miles on Saturday morning, spend Saturday at my parents' putting up their tree, then spent the evening at our family friends'. Sunday was a blur of errands and food shopping and listening to football and cooking and trying to relax. Then Monday I took a break from choir because I was so exhausted, last night I was out with my friend Shaunagh (when she officially asked me to be her bridesmaid!), tonight I had to bake for our Chirstmas bake at work on Friday because it was my only night in (I've made slightly undercooked Baileys brownies. They are insanely rich!), then tomorrow it's my Grandad's anniversary so I'm out with my family, Friday I'm getting my hair done and then going out with my Mum and then I should finally get a rest at the weekend!

I am so excited for Christmas though, but I don't quite feel that it's only a week away! I'm off after the 23rd so I'll be heading home and looking forward to spending some time at home at Christmas.

It's my blog's 6 year anniversary (!!) next week so I'll definitely have to write about that!

Hope you're having a wonderful week!

Charlotte x