PORRIDGE N PICKLES OFFICIAL BLOG

Hey everyone!

Today I received a little treat from Monki. The other day I had an email telling me about there new summer sale (which now looking at it, I think you need to go check out!) that had just started. At first I wasn't to bothered and just deleted the email, then after looking around a few other places for a plain white knit jumper I decided to take my chances and look there, low and behold they had one and today it arrived (yey!). This is the Monki Harmony Top.

I've never shopped at Monki before and I was a bit disappointed when it arrived to find two loose threads and a snag in one of the stitches at the front of the jumper. I was contemplating whether or not to send it back and get a replacement but my mum and her knitting skills came to the rescue and she thinks she's sorted the problems (yes!). Apart from those little hiccups, I am really happy with this purchase. The colour, style and down right softness of this jumper make it worth the £12.00 I paid for it. I'm planning on styling this with some Levi 501's cut into shorts and a denim shirt for those warmish days this summer and for when it get's a little colder with some high waisted jeans, maybe some disco pants and another collared shirt.

I will update you on some ways i'm going to style this shortly but for now, I will speak to you soon! :) x 

You can view this jumper on the Monki website by clicking here.

We've had a 19th birthday around here since I last spoke to you guys. It was filled with party food, cake and a whole lot of laughs; just what I like about birthdays! Happy Birthday Kie, you very special person! x

So I haven't posted anything to Instagram in what feels like forever, but with the introduction of my new iPhone 5 (wahooooooooo) i've kind of gone a little crazy on the Instagram front...

1. BN biscuits are just the best!
2. A bargain from ebay, I just can't get over this deal...
3. Pretty flowers in the garden.
4. The houses in Aberearon are the prettiest of colours.
5. Two little treats.
6. More pretty flowers in the garden. 

If you aren't currently following me on Instagram, you can do so by searching for @sybilmaee

See you soon! x

I forgot all about this last weekend, so here I am with week 21's photo.

A photo a week - The weather is so nice here, I don't remember it ever being this hot for this long.. Well at least not for a very, very long time!

Click here to visit my Flickr.

Hey Everyone!
So today I have for you, a 'what's in my bag?' post. You've probably seen loads of these on Youtube and other blogs, but I myself have never done one.

So the bag that I am currently using, is this faux leather studded number from Topshop. It isn't currently on the Topshop website (not sure why?) but I know it is in a few high street stores! It has a studded front, and a non studded back. This I like, if the studs don't really tie in with what i'm wearing then I can just spin the bag around to show the plain side. It is also this gorgeous tan colour which goes with just about everything.
So the cross body strap is supposed to be attached via the metal hardware on the side of the bag (seen above). However, i'm not really a fan of this. The attachment is really far down the side of the bag so when the bag is hanging from this strap, it reduces the amount of space within the bag by a lot.
Instead, I attach the cross body strap to the hardware loops which attach the carry handles to the bag. It does mean that the distance between the two ends of the cross body strap are closer together, making the whole smaller but I don't really find this a problem as I generally wear it over the shoulder rather than cross body.
Right, onto what I keep in it...



I have no wrappers in this bag! I like to keep my bags nice and tidy... I also have no receipts floating around in this bag, I keep those bad boys in my purse or filed away in my diary.
Firstly, i'd like to talk about what I keep in the little zipped pocket of the bag (sadly there is only one of these zipped pockets). It's mostly little things, mainly because they are the only things that fit in there. So I keep two lip balms, one has an SPF and one doesn't. I also have a pen (never know when you are going to need one of those!), hair grips (i'm always in need of these because I wear my hair up most of the time), Nurofen which is basically just a make of Ibuprofen (i'm sadly always getting headaches...) and finally the bra straps from my strapless bra (this is my favourite bra and I wear it with all of my strappy tops so I keep the spare straps in my bag just incase I need them).
Next, I thought i'd show you the cosmetic type of products (although I showed you the lip balms earlier). With me I carry sun cream (because it is getting quite hot here now), a small compact mirror (this one is from Estee Lauder and I just love it. It was a christmas present from my parents) and the Garnier BB cream that I am currently trying out (I currently have a love hate relationship with this...)
I then have my headphones and little speaker. I love both of these products. I probably don't need to keep my speaker in there on a day to day basis, but I like to listen to my music through it when in the car just because the sound quality is so much better than my car speakers.
This is as you can see, just my bits and bobs. I keep carrier bags on me most of the time because here in Wales, we have to pay for a carrier bag. It isn't much, but it is money that doesn't need to be spent in that way. I also keep a little drinks bottle on me, Coke Zero is de-lish! Tissues I keep with me just incase I get the sniffles or spill something, i'm really clumsy.
Finally there are the larger things that I carry with me. These include my purse (I talked about this here), my diary, sunglasses and phone. I generally carry these with me everywhere I go, they truly are my essentials.

So recently, these Letterman Jackets have appeared in common high street stores like Topshop. To be honest, I have wanted one of these jackets for sooooooooo long you have NO idea but i've never been able to get my hands on one. From what i've seen they appear to be an American High School thing(?) but I may be wrong. Anyway, when I spotted this in store I jumped right on it!



When I got it home and looked into my wardrobe though, I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to pair it with and so I looked to lookbook.nu for some inspiration...

To view any of the above styles, just click on the image.

If you are interested in taking a look at the styles that Topshop are currently running with you can click on any of the images below and it will take you to the web page.

For a while now there has been a little heart icon in the page selection bar right up there ^.
Until now, there hasn't been much on there but today I finally added the first episode in the 'I love' series. Just to explain what that is, each episode is going to consist of what i'm currently loving at the moment, basically. Each item will be linked to the online page where the item can be found so you can go and check them out. Each time a new episode is added there will be a blog post on it, and the blog post will be added to the link shown in the screen shot above so that it can always be found easily. (Disclaimer: this is not a sponsored feature and all views are my own personal opinion)

Episode One -

| 1. Casual Ticking Stripe Shirt
| 2. Moto Blue Joni Jeans
| 3. Knitted Short Grunge Cardi
| 4. Polka Dot Sweater - By Illustrated People
| 5. Soft Cami - Cream
| 6. All Star Oxford White Trainers
| 7. Long Sleeve Spot Shirt - Beige
| 8. Lips In Beatnik - Dirty Pink
| 9. High Waisted Denim Look Skater Skirt

So i'm currently loving really basic pieces that will pretty much go with anything. I love a casual outfit that can be dressed up or down with just a few simple tweaks. The weather here in the UK is a bit temperamental at the moment as well, one minute we have glorious sunshine, the next minute it's raining cats and dogs, either way it isn't quite hot here yet...

So i'm always a little late jumping on these style 'band wagons', but lately i've really been into the trend of chain necklaces. I saved a bit of money not splashing out cash on this trend though! The other day me and my mum were searching through my grandmas jewellery; she passed away when I was only little so everything we have left of her is kind of special to me. So anyway, I happened across this vintage costume jewellery piece, at least I don't think it's gold plated. I just love it, it isn't anything like what i've seen in the shops at the moment. I also like that it has a centre piece, that way when it is worn under a collared shirt it peeps out between the middle of the collar.




I teamed this gold chain necklace with a:

• Blue and white striped shirt
• White Converse
• Blue Joni jeans
• Vintage costume jewellery bracelet
• Vintage gold band

So I have a bit of catching up to do on the 'a photo a week' posts, in fact I missed out on three while I was away, so here, finally, is this weeks.

Week 20:
A photo a week - These tomatoes just looked so tempting.

Click here to visit my flickr.

...I made a visit to a hardware store/garden centre which also had a fish department. As a child I always enjoyed going to places like this, just so I could gaze at the fish.







There was a really large black and white fish which kept bobbing out of the water to say 'hello', or maybe it was just hungry and thought we might feed it... Anyway, if you placed your hand in the water, it brushed its head up against your hand, kind of like a dog or a cat would; come to think of it, it might have been a Dog Fish...