Hollie-Anne Brooks dresses for mornings and evenings in the sunshine.

I beat the clock today. Rather than feeling gutted that I had- in effect- lost an hour of sleep, I woke two hours earlier than normal and jumped into some lounge wear and headed for the garden. I spent an hour drinking a few cups of herbal tea and reading my book as my toes touched the morning dew and my legs stretched out onto the cool grass.



I had to depart from my literary bliss to go out shopping for the afternoon but this only resulted in a chance to purchase more things for my reading pleasure. In the case of today, I bought a Sunday paper and Psychologies magazine.



When I returned home this evening, around 630pm, I put on my favourite H&M hoodie and ventured out into the garden once more with my new stack of reading material, a glass of wine and another mug of herbal tea. Sitting on the bench and watching the sun go down, it made me think of how I need to pull myself out of this little low spell I've been feeling for a few days. I hope it goes away soon.

The floral maxi dress featured here (perfect for sunny afternoons) is by Charlotte Russe and I've added some gladiator heels by Nine West and a Topshop straw clutch. The two necklace here are also by Topshop, the earrings are ASOS and the bangles come from French Connection. Finally, you all know I love a floral ring and this Betsey Johnson one is so cute!



Newspapers in the garden. - by hollieanne on Polyvore.com

Hollie-Anne Brooks dresses for shopping for jeans.

All women will admit that the perfect jeans don't exist and searching for a pair that are just right can take hours. I'm sure you'll all agree on the power of the perfectly cut pair of denim jeans; dressed with flats for weekends, heels for work and a pretty top for dates. For me, it's vital I find a pair that are going to flatter my decent size arse, wrap around my hips just right so they look more like Beyonce and not beach whale (whales don't have hips, right?) and my jeans need to be long enough for my silly long legs.

So today my mother and I embarked on finding just the right pair. For a little over a year now I've been wearing a pair from a popular high street store that do just the job and I've wore them for work with a blazer and felt really great. But would they still exist? And even if they did, would they still look decent on me? Losing weight has change me from an apple shape to much more of an hourglass shape (yippee!). I love my figure right now but I find myself becoming nervous that the usual things I'd normally pick out just won't look the same.

But today was a success. I'm the girl who never wears trousers and I only tend to wear jeans once a week with the rest of the week being filled with skirts, dresses and tights. I found the right jeans today, though. They're actually the pair I've always worn but in a slightly darker denim and a two sizes down from normal. I bagged some lighter denim wide-leg jeans from H&M this week for a fiver and although they're fine, I think they'll just be my Sunday jeans for wearing when I'm just popping to the shops for the papers and milk.

My mother, the sweet little cuddle bug that she is, picked me out a nautical over sized tee with a red sequin anchor and I adore it. Thanks, Yummy Mummy. Oh, and whilst I'm onto thanking people, I think I should apologise for the post yesterday. I feel like I came down on MYB too much regarding silly Valentine's Day. We made up last night which was super gorgeous.

Anyway, outfit time? Go on then. Clearly I've picked the perfect jeans shopping outfit! The jeans featured here are hot new label Current/Elliot whom I've heard such great things about. The pretty hippy vest is See by Chloé and I've used an Alexander Wang blazer so it would be easy to visualise how the jeans would look for work and weekend. I think heels are important when shopping for jeans as to get the right leg length so I've used orange Miu Miu wedges for that extra height. I had great trouble today- 34 inch leg is apparently the largest stocked and they're just say fine, I could do with a longer length though. Accessories come from the wonderful Marc B with this orange bag, a sweet Nine West necklace and a Topshop ring that I have officially fallen for. Finally, some Tom Ford sunglasses because posing is fun!

PS/ How incredible was the Alexander Wang A/W show? STUNNING!


Shopping for jeans. - by hollieanne on Polyvore.com

Hollie-Anne Brooks dresses for an entire weekend of being ill.

As you can tell from my last two entries (or lack of, as the case may be), I've spent the entire weekend really ill. I was fine on Friday afternoon as I spoke to MYB whilst he was waiting in the departure lounge of an airport in the Isle of Man but between his flight taking off and landing, I was struck down with an awful sickness bug.

To be honest, my days have all blurred into one and I've had about six hours sleep in three days. I came down with the illness so suddenly but it lasted all weekend and I ended up throwing up all through the night. I've been totally weak for the past day or two and hardly have the energy to even type this out.

Looks like I'm going to have to cancel my morning meeting tomorrow as to try and make sure I'm fine for my evening lecture. I haven't been out the house all weekend and would kill for some fresh air hence the perfect Sunday afternoon walk outfit for Dressing For today.

How sweet is this Marc by Marc Jacobs knit? It's a perfect office to weekend piece and well worth the approximate price tag of £140. Pair with some simple dark jeans with white stitching, a Miss Selfridge sequin beret and some hoops from Nine West. This anchor necklace by Juicy Couture is going on my Christmas list but it's the shoes and handbag that are the real stars of the show. I'd kill to own some Louis Vuitton luggage but I think given the choice of any of their wonderful pieces of arm candy, I might have to opt for this shiny red number. What a beauty! Finally, a pair of Chanel flats. The pattern and gloss mix of the iconic leather two tone flats look stunning and as classy as any pair of high heels.


Weekend of being ill. by hollieanne