In Memory of Maddie

Posted on September 21, 2012 by admin

I haven’t been posting, tweeting or visiting my favourite blogs much over the last few weeks. I have been finding it difficult to do very much constructive at all lately. Last week my beautiful niece Madeleine passed away after a long fight in the intensive care unit at Bristol Children’s Hospital and Naomi House Hospice. She was such a special little girl and we are all going to miss her so much. Madeleine was only 15 years old but inspired everyone she met with her beautiful smile and infectious sense of humour which always shined through despite the massive challenges that she faced throughout her life.

Yesterday was Madeleine’s funeral and I feel that it is now time that I did do something constructive to help one of the organisations which did so much to help Madeleine and her family both during her life and also over the last few weeks, which have been incredibly difficult for everyone who loved and cared for Maddie.

I have decided to do a 12 hour blogathon in aid of Naomi House, the hospice for children and young adults with life limiting illness which helped Maddie and her family. You can find out more about Naomi House and the hugely important work that they do here.

I will post more details about the blogathan soon but basically, I plan to write 24 blog posts about ethical fashion brands in 12 hours (that is 2 per hour). Ethical or sustainable brands will be able to sponsor a post and all of the money raised will go to Naomi House. I would love to get other fashion bloggers involved as of course the more posts, the more money can be raised. It will of course also help to raise awareness of ethical and sustainable fashion, something I feel quite strongly about.

If you would like to get involved either by taking part (you don’t have to do the full 12 hours, perhaps just a few hours) or promoting the blogathon on Twitter/ Facebook etc please email me on ceri@heathcotecommunications.co.uk or Tweet me @StyleEyes.

With warmest wishes

Ceri x

In case you are wondering about the image – Maddie loved butterflies

Image credit

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Polka Dots and My Favourite Ethical Fashion Blogs

Posted on March 11, 2012 by admin

Today’s outfit is something I wore last weekend for a family birthday party. The dress is really old I bought it years ago and stored it in the loft when I put on a bit of weight with my second child. I recently discovered it again. I don’t think polka dots and spots ever go out of fashion or do classic and flattering styles! The cardigan is from a charity shop, red is my favourite colour and I seem to be wearing it with everything at the moment.

I thought I would share with you some of my favourite fashion blogs that also happen to be ethical (in no particular order)!

A Sense of Sublime
I have fairly recently come across this blog and love the way that Christina inspires with her ethical and sustainable outfits. She gives some great reviews of what is going on in the ethical fashion including everything from celebrity jumbles to fashion shows and also features vintage fashion, delicious vegetarian food and lots more.

Very Nice Threads
I first came across Christine’s posts in the Huffington Post but also really love her personal blog which features some of the best of upcoming ethical brands. Her blog covers some of the main ethical fashion industry events , she also features some fantastic street style.

Fashion Against Idealogy
Natalia’s blog features her amazing eclectic style which I really love. Bright colours, prints and statement accessories, all combined in beautifully photographed outfits.

Ms Wanda’s Wardrobe
Ms Wanda has all sorts of informative and thought provoking posts. If you want to find out about ethical fashion and some of the issues behind it, is a great place to start to looking. The blog is just about to relaunch so keep you eyes outfit for the new layout and some really interesting guest posts.

Oranges and Apples
I have been following Franca practically since I started blogging. I love her colourful outfits and hand knitted accessories. At first you might not realise that she features lots of ethical/ sustainable fashion on her blog, she also tackles all sorts of interesting topics including body image.

Vintage Vix
Vix has an amazing style not only inspired the seventies but featuring many vintage clothes from the seventies which is about as sustainable as it gets. She also mends, makes and upcycles with amazing results. I love that Vix wears exactly what she likes and also has some of the most amazing maxi dresses, she also often makes me really laugh along the way.

Sadies Wardrobe
Sadie is a fellow blogger at Oxfam fashion. I love her style and the way she incorporates charity shop and ethical pieces into her outfits. Her also has such pretty outfit photographs.

Finally, I have a little treat for those of you lucky enough to live in London and go to all the amazing stuff that goes in their (me, jealous?).

Don’t forget, the Vintage Fashion Fair in Primrose Hill next week on Mothers Day (18th March). The perfect afternoon out for mother and daughter. You can find out more at www.vintagefashionfairlondon.co.uk.

With warmest wishes

Ceri x

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Oxfam Fashion Blogger’s Meet Up

Posted on February 12, 2012 by admin

Yesterday was the Oxfam Fashion blogger’s meet, a fantastic opportunity for me to the other the others who blog for Oxfam Fashion, find out some more about Oxfam Fashion and talking ethical fashion, blogging and social media.

We met at the showrooms of Foundation PR which was crammed with rails of amazing ethical fashion, definitely a feast for the eyes. My lovely fellow bloggers and the team at Oxfam included Kathryn of Kat Got the Cream, Jen of Little Bird, Emma Waight, Sadie of Sadies Wardrobe, Rupy Kaur, Emily of Erose and Hattie of Inside the Mind of a Disco Ball Thea, Caroline and Belle. It was great to meet everyone and have a chat over lunch. I was truly inspired by how passionate everyone was about ethical fashion, recycling and Oxfam. We had some realy interesting conversations about why people buy do and don’t buy ethical and charity shop fashion, some food for thought and perhaps a few ideas for blog posts there. I would definitely recommend checking out their blogs and posts.

I wanted to share with you a little that I learnt about Oxfam Fashion as even though I work for them as a volunteer, I never even realised all of this!

Oxfam will be at London Fashion Week

oxfamfashion lookbook Oxfam Fashion Bloggers Meet Up

Image from Oxfam Fashion SS12 look book. Photographer: Chris Mosey

Well sort of! Oxfam Fashion will be at The Good Fashion Show on Saturday, the biggest off schedule event during LFW. They will be hosting a pop-up boutique selling a range of winter (the cold is not over yet) and spring clothing, including accessories and handbags. They will also be featuring 5 of the outfits from their recent lookbook in the catwalk show.

Oxfam have some great resources for Upcyclers

Oxfam actively promote reuse of clothing and one way that we can do that is by upcycling or customising a charity shop piece to make it individual and unique. Last June Oxfam launched their first DIY Boutique in Camden, which is a bespoke fashion destination which inspires individuality and clothing customisation . They also have a DIY collection, designed by stylist Mrs Jones and have some great DIY tutorials on their website as well as some cards which I believe will be in the shops. They have some great craft supplies including pieces which can be used to embellish clothing, buttons and craft kits which are availble online and from the shops. Check out the Oxfam Fashion DIY pages for more information.

Virtually Nothing Gets Wasted at Oxfam

At Oxfam, even the clothing that doesn’t get sold at the shops does not go to landfill. Everything that is not sold goes to Wastesaver, Oxfam’s own clothing recycling plant which also maximises the revenue from clothing that has been donate. The clothes are sorted by specialist who pick out the different types of clothes which are then sent to different high street shops (sometimes more specialist or boutiques), sold through the online shop or Oxfam Festival Shop or go to designers who work with recycled garments. Anything that cannot be used in the UK will go abroad to markets in Europe, Africa or Asia or Oxfam’s social enterprise projects. Finally the lowest grades will be used for industrial use like car sound proofing or matress stuffing.

A big thanks to the team at Oxfam Fashion for a lovely day! You can check out Oxfam Fashion blog and online shop here.

I hope you are having a lovely weekend.

With warmest wishes

Ceri X

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Ethical Outfit Competition – The Winners!

Posted on November 30, 2011 by admin

I have been absolutely amazed by the response to my ethical outfit competition. Not only did we have some amazing outfits but it was also great to see how much discussion there was about ethical outfits and sustainable fashion along the way. I really didn’t realise quite how many bloggers were already wearing ethical and sustainable fashion in their own unique way and it is also great to see those who aren’t making a special effort for the competition. A massive thank you to all those who have entered. It has been so difficult to pick just 8 winners and I wish I could have given prizes to everyone.

There are 8 prizes which I have listed at the bottom of the post and the winners each get to choose their prize with the first choosing first followed by each subsequent winner. I will be contacting you all individually in turn so it may take a little time, don’t worry if I don’t get in touch today, I will be in touch asap and I haven’t forgotton you!

1. Vicky of #GollyGosh - I loved the thrifted jacket and the way Vicky has styled blouse and DIY cutoffs.

2. Second prize goes to Vintage Passions Just Like Mine- Such a bold and colourful outfit, I am definitely inspired by the leopard skin/ floral pattern mix.

Ethical Outfit Competition The Winners!

3. Sophie of Story of My Life - A very pretty orange dress (secondhand from ebay) and the vintage handbag and scarf are the perfect finishing touch to the outfit.

Ethical Outfit Competition The Winners!

4. Franca of Oranges and Apples – an amazing effort with a 100% thrifted outfit including shoes! I love the skirt and the pretty accessories.

5. Rachel of Cold Knees - another completely thrifted outfit. I love the jumper for adding a bit of sparkle to a cold winters day.

6. Nicole of nicoleymoo.blogspot.com - I am a big fan of thrifted pencil skirts and this one looks fabulous on Nicole.

7. Vix of Vintage Vixen – another 100% vintage and thrifted outfit, The skirt is so beautiful and unique and the Vix has some fabulous accessories. Even her make up is second hand and nail varnish cruelty free!

8. Cait of Sailing to Nowhere - if you read my blog, you will know I am partial to a bit of floral print. This dress is so pretty and I love the way that Cait has shortened it so it is just right and contrasted it with a neutral coat – all thrifted!

If you would like to see further photographs and close ups of accessories for each of the outfits, I would definitely recommend that you follow the links to each of the blogs.

The Prizes

£100 of Spartoo Vouchers

£50 People Tree Vouchers

Lilygrace Originals Earrings

£50 voucher for Daisy Hill (when you spend £100)

A pair of Simple Shoes

3 X Posh Swaps goody bags

Please check out the original competition post here for further details of each of the prizes and the competition sponsors.Once again a massive thank you to all those that have entered and helped to promote this competition and the companies that have donated such fabulous prizes.

Tomorrow, I will be launching a new series for December – 30 Days of Ethical Fashion, I will be showcasing a different ethical or sustainable fashion brand every day in December except for Christmas day when I will be far too busy opening pressies and eating turkey.

With warmest wishes

Ceri X

IFB Crystals and Crumpets

Posted on September 17, 2011 by admin

Yesterday, I was lucky enough to get to go to to Crystal and Crumpets, a fashion bloggers event hosted by Independent Fashion Bloggers and Swarovski Crystallized. I have been wishing for a while that I could attend one of the IFB conferences but so far they have all been in the US. So when I heard that there was going to be an event in London, I had to be there. Despite the fact that I have been blogging for years, I have never managed to meet up with any other fashion bloggers as travel details, family or work have always made it impossible to get along. This time I could actually go so I was beyond excited!

I met with the lovely Kari of East London Style at Cafe Liberty before for a quick coffee and chat about families, fashion and blogging before moving onto the mad hatters tea party held at the Swarovski Crystal lounge.

I got the chance to meet so many amazing and stylish bloggers. Unfortunately there wasn’t time to speak to and get photos of everyone in their fabulous outfits and hats. It didn’t help that my camera has been intermittently playing up and decided to stopped working properly resulting in some dark and fuzzy pictures.

Sian of Rebel Angel and Charlotte of Girl Next Door

Sara of Daily Polish and Suzie Peron

The IFB Girls Jennine of The Coveted and Christine

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Anna from The Quarter Life Tales of Annie Bean

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Megan Weston of Catlongsighs.blogspot.com

I also met A Thrifty Mrs, Winnie of Diamond Canopy, Bangs and a Bun, Viviana of The Lean Times, The Fashion Recruit, Kristabel of I Want You To Know, The Online Stylist and Jackie of Made With Love.

We ate sandwiches, drank Prosecco and got to chat before sitting down for the panel discussion which featured Susie Bubble of Style Bubble, Shini of Park and Cube, Nadia Sanwar of FrouFrou, YM Ousely of Signature9 and Mattias Senson of Bloglovin on how blogging can shape your career .

It was so amazing to see and hear from some of the bloggers that I have been following for a long time. In fact it was Susie who inspired me to start my blog. I have come away with the opinion that there is definitely no right or wrong way to be a fashion blogger, every one is doing things in a slightly (or very different) way and that is what makes each blog interesting. What does really matter though is that you do with because you love it and do it with passion. Some really interesting points came up including the amount of hard work it takes to build a successful blog and the different ways of making money through a blog (its not just about advertising).

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We were invited to get dressed up and wear a hat to the party, after all it was a Mad Hatters tea party. I didn’t need much persuasion to get dressed up and wear my bird fascinator that I got from The Libertarian at Vintage a Goodwood last year. I missed out on wearing it to a Burlesque event at Christmas because of the snow and have been waiting for a reason to wear it every since.I will write more about my outfit in another post as I don’t have any full length pictures yet due to camera issues.

The exciting thing was that I won the hat contest and got to pick out £200 of jewellery from Swarovski Crystalized. I was completely shell shocked as I never ever win anything and there was definitely some really fabulous hats there.

There was so much amazing jewellery in the show room, with designer collections from Chistopher Kane, Catherine Malandrino and Mark Fast and many other designers all crafted by hand. If you are looking for a really beautiful piece of jewellery, I would highly recommend checking out the shop which is opposite Liberty London or the website.

With so much sparkle in one room, trying to pick something was an impossible task. I am indecisive at the best of times but after a few glasses of fizz and the excitement of meeting so many people, It took me ages to decide. An incredibly helpful and very patient sales assistant let me try on loads of different pieces before I finally came to a decision. I decided to go for something that I could wear to add a little sparkle to everyday outfits. I chose a double necklace by Camila Klein, gold dragonfly necklace and a pretty bracelet. Will definitely be featuring these in some outfits very soon.