Summer Roses

Hey guys,

I hope everybody has had a great weekend soaking up that summer sun. 

Summer has finally put in an appearance in England, and engulfed us in a sweltering, sticky heat wave. The sunshine and  blue skies have been lovely, but I've been finding the weather almost unbearable. It's been around 30 degrees, which wouldn't be so bad if the humidity wasn't so high- (it's currently 93% at 4:30am!)- and if I had access to air conditioning, the sea, or a swimming pool. This weather is so tropical, and not like England at all!

I haven't had the energy to do much but lie under my ceiling fan like a star fish these last few days, but on Saturday evening I did get out of the house for a couple of hours to enjoy the sunshine. My elder sister and brother-in-law, who now live just around the corner, invited my Mum, younger sister, and I over for a barbecue, so we spent a couple of hours together enjoying the weather with good food, cold drinks, and nineties classics. 

Earlier that day, the dress my Mum bought me for my birthday arrived from ASOS. I wore it yesterday.

The dress which I'm wearing is ASOS Curve's Smock Dress in Floral and Paisley Border, which had been on my wish list for months. This dress is so beautiful. 

The fabric is made up of vertical stripes of patterns- paisley, ditsy florals, and roses- with borders; and incorporates many different colours- black, white, red, sky blue, yellow, pinks, purples. When I look at this print, for some reason, I think of traditional Romany Gypsies, and beautiful ornate horse-driven caravans. (Ever since I read The Famous Five: Five Go Off In A Caravan when I was little, I've wanted to own a gypsy caravan!) The fabric is just so gorgeous.

The dress is actually a smock dress, and I was worried it was going to be incredibly loose with no shape, so settling on a size to order took a while. I normally size up with fitted waisted dresses, but I went for my normal size, and I'm glad I did! While the dress isn't an A-line smock, it is still loose fitting and relaxed. As you'll see below, it's a little big on me, especially on top, but with a belt for shape I don't feel that it swamps me. It's actually nice to have a loose-fitting dress for keeping cool on stifling hot days! It's made of a medium-weight viscose; a good heavy fabric, but light enough for keeping cool in the summer. It's also roughly knee length on me, and I'm 5'6''.

I wore the dress with my off-white Lovedrobe shrug, but it was far too hot for covering up inside. I couldn't bare to add cropped leggings, either, but both went on when I left the house. This is how I wore it indoors.

Isn't the fabric pretty?!

You can't really see in the outfit photos because my hair and the dress were hiding it, but I was wearing this shell button necklace. I bought it in Fat Face a few summers ago while on holiday in Cornwall.

I just had to wear my And Mary macaroon ring again.

And I wore my white ladybird studs for the first time. They are part of a set of three colours, and I bought them from Accessorize earlier this year.

My hand looks so strange close up. I'm so pale that sometimes my skin looks almost see-through!

And finally, I had this skinny patent Dorothy Perkins belt cinching me in.

Outfit Details

Dress-ASOS Curve // Shrug-Lovedrobe // Belt-Dorothy Perkins // Necklace-Fat Face // 

Earrings-Accessorize // Ring-And Mary

The dress is currently on sale for £21 down from £35, which you can find here, and it's also available in the straight size range for £18 down from £36 here. All I can say is, get your hands on one!

I hope you all have a great day. I'm going to say goodbye for now, as I need to attempt to sleep before my physio class this afternoon. Bye, guys.