Collectif & Daffodils

Whew, finally back with an outfit post! As I said in my last post, I’ve been doing a lot of blog maintenance recently and I’ve ticked two big boxes off that list this week – broken links (which I’d never bothered to sort before and were into the thousands) and my Bloglovin’ reader. All I’ve got left to do now is finish going through all the posts I’ve ever published and tagging them (as these didn’t copy across from Blogger) and add in a Featured Image. Oh, and I also need to add Alt tags to my old images too, as I didn’t understand them back in my old blogging days – that’s a massive job though and not one I’m starting on right now!
Clearing out my Bloglovin’ reader was a big refresh though – I’ve been blogging for more than 6 years now and reading blogs even before that. I used to follow blogs using Google Friend Connect (GFC) , so they were all in my Google Reader. When that disappeared, I used Blogger as it had all those blogs still there. Over time though, blogs have stopped using Blogger so much so there isn’t often the option to follow that way. I also tend to follow on Bloglovin’ in the hopes that I’ll get a chance to use it properly, but I never had done. At one point, there was the threat of GFC disappearing so I transferred all the blogs I read to Bloglovin’, so there were all there but I didn’t really use it. Nowadays, I tend to read posts I see on Twitter or Facebook then go directly to blogs that I love reading daily. Sadly, it means I miss out on a lot thanks to Twitter being so super speedy and Facebook’s weird algorithms. So I made the decision that I would go through my Bloglovin’ follows and clear out any that I don’t read any more or that had disappeared over the years. There were hundreds in there!! I think over 700! A huge number of these had died a silent death years ago, and it was quite sad to go back through and recognise blogs I’d used to love that had disappeared one day and I hadn’t really noticed. There were those I was hoping would come back too, but never did. I’m now down to a list of those that I love reading and that’s far more manageable. Hopefully it will give me the chance to interact more again now.
I’ve also been busy offline with Brownies and life recently, as well as a course I’ve just started for work that’s on Monday and Wednesday evening (well, that’s online but in the “real” world!). My route to and from work is also a lot longer at the moment as they’ve closed a bridge on a back road, meaning I’m having to go the long way round – technically it doesn’t usually take a lot longer in time (about 40 minutes compared to 30), but it’s longer and needs more concentration as more of it is dual carriageway. It just means my days are slightly less convenient than usual!

Onto the outfit though! This is from last weekend now where I spent time at a couple of charity events – one was a gig locally where my sister played guitar in a band, the other was a fundraising meal at a local Indian restaurant. A family friend is taking part in a big “Pirate ship” row to Venice for Marie Curie, and they’re trying to reach their goal for that. This was the outfit I wore for the meal: a dress that’s pretty but slightly stretchy (for all the food!) and a brightly coloured cardigan. I didn’t realise I’d themed myself well with the Marie Curie with the yellow cardigan, but when they handed me the daffodil badge, it matched perfectly! I think it actually made the outfit work really well and I’m now thinking of reusing the badge as a brooch, since I don’t own any and I really really want to!
The dress was bought for me for Christmas by my parents – it’s the Collectif Trixie Doll dress. It’s quite low cut so for the occasion, I wore it with a black camisole underneath. I’ve also seen other bloggers using a brooch to pin it closed (another reason I need brooches!). The shape is super pretty with a very full skirt that holds its shape well thanks to the bengaline material which has a slight stretch. The bodice is also lovely and close fitting so it creates a very flattering shape for my hourglass figure. And of course, worn with the old trusty ASOS black heels! Did I tell you I finally managed to snap up a new pair on eBay in my size as replacements?!  is now pretty old but a favourite – in fact, it came out in a post about daffodils years ago too!

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Outfit Details

| Black Trixie Doll Dress: Collectif | Black Heels: ASOS ()