Festive Friday 2013 #1 and the Truly Polished Christmas Tag!

Hi Guys,

Doesn't it feel Christmassy today?! It's really cold here and we bought our Christmas tree today so I'm feeling very festive. We got a real tree this year, went to the garden centre to pick it out and everything, I'm feeling grown up and our house feels very homely now for our second Christmas here. Today is also the first Friday in December and I thought I'd bring back one of my favourite features from last year... Festive Fridays! Last year I did it for six weeks if I remember right, but this year I've been busy actually preparing for Christmas so I thought I'd keep it as a December thing this year.

For my first Festive Friday 2013 post I wanted to do a Christmas tag, but I couldn't really find one I liked, so I thought I would create one myself! It took me a little while, but here it is.

1. Sign that Christmas is coming?

2. Favourite Christmas song?

3. Favourite Christmas movie?

4. Opening presents... Morning or afternoon?

5. Smoky eyes and sequins for Christmas dinner or tacky jumpers all the way?

6. Christmas eve plans?

7. Favourite Christmas food and drink?

8. Favourite Christmas memory?

9. Who are you spending Christmas with this year?

10. Top of your wish list this year?

11. What's on your plate?

12. Must have nail polish for Christmas day?

13. Favourite Christmassy scent?

14. What is at the top of your tree?

15. Boxing Day?

16. Best thing about Christmas?

This is quite a long post, so click Read More to see my answers...

The Big Move - Goodbye Google Reader!

Hi Guys,

One thing you may have been hearing about recently is that Google Reader was retired on the 1st of July. Now, I'm not 100% sure what Google Reader is/was, as nothing seems to have changed on my Blogger page, but it's probably something totally different!

Anyway, if you would still like to follow me, then Bloglovin is the new place to be!

So if you're over there, click the link on the top right of this page, follow the link through to Bloglovin and click on the blue "follow" button.

If you don't know how to carry over your Google Reader list, then here are a few quick steps, it's very simple...

Create an archive of your reader. You do this on Google Takeout which you can find at www.google.com/takeout. Select Choose Services and you should see a page like this...

Click on Reader. Your page should look like this

Click Create Archive and your page should look like this... Click Download to get your whole Reader archive.

Next go onto Bloglovin. From the dropdown menu at the top of the home page, select Import from Google Reader.

In the archive folder, there will be a file called subscriptions.xml and that is the file you need. Click Choose File, select subscriptions.xml from the Takeout archive and attach it and press Upload.

Voila, all done! Now you are following all of your Google Reader subscriptions via Bloglovin, now wasn't that easy!

Don't forget, click the little button at the top of the right column to follow me!

My Week In Pictures #1

Hi Guys,

Tonight's post comes from a tired place. Sickness has taken hold of the Truly Polished family. My son has been ill for about a week and the last two days he's been chesty and coughing. And now it's my boyfriend's turn! Luckily I haven't caught it... Yet. I say yet because if you've been a long-term reader of my blog then you'll know I'm pretty much ill all the time! 

Anyway, I have a new feature to introduce today. It's been something I've been considering for quite some time so tonight is the night...

My Week In Pictures is my idea to keep my blog up to date with photos. If you follow me on Instagram, you'll probably have seen these already, but I know there are a lot of people who just read my blog, so I don't want people to miss out! I post so many photos to Instagram and it will be nice to share them here too.

This won't be a weekly thing, more of an "I've had an interesting week" kind of thing!

So here goes!

Valentine's Day, my boyfriend always knows the best cards to get me!
I loved this!

Some of my stash pre-organising

During the organising...
I CAN'T WAIT TO GET WOOD FLOORING!
GOODBYE TERRIBLE CARPET!

And then I found 5 more in my makeup bag...
And bought another 7...

Trying to eat healthily and get my Five A Day!

I got a lightbox, more of that soon

New Barry M textured polishes! 

Taping off areas to paint grass on my son's wall

After painting, we still have a couple of walls to do

Yesterday found out I won £250 to spend at ASOS in the eShores
Global Style Blogger Challenge, yay!
You can read my post here...

So that's that! My week in pictures! Let me know in the comments section or by email - trulypolishedblog@gmail.com - what you think of the new feature.

I'm hoping to get some swatching to do over the next two days because we're going away on Friday. I was dying for a holiday, but since my boyfriend got home, I have been having too much fun getting things done in the house. So instead of going abroad for a week or more, we're having a mini-break in Wales instead. We've rented a cottage for four days in Pembrokeshire. It's in a little complex of ten with an indoor pool and a soft play area for the kids. Sounds perfect for a change of scenery if nothing else. And we're going to stop in and see my boyfriend's sister in Swansea on the way home. It's over a seven hour drive but I just want a little break! 

See you in a couple of days! Don't forget you can see a lot more of what I'm up to on Instagram, find me at @truly_polished!

Introducing... Sweetaholic Charms!

Hi Guys,

Sorry for the lack of posts, everything has been really up in the air lately! My boyfriend is home now and so we've had a lot to do! Plus his car broke down yesterday while we were on the way out for dinner last night, typical, and so three hours of waiting around for the RAC and a tow-truck meant a blog post was not on the cards!

Anyway, onto bigger and better things! Allow me to introduce you to... Sweetaholic Charms!

One of my favourite bloggers, Rachel from Life of a Sweetaholic, recently started her own business making charm bracelets. They are sooo pretty, simple, subtle, and everything I love in jewellery. Best of all they are handmade, so each one is extra special. 

She very kindly sent me two bracelets of my choice to review and I picked the cupcake (of course!) on white waxed cotton and the heart on teal. And here they are! Each order comes with a little sweet treat, as you can see in the photos, they were so yummy!

Beautiful wrapping! And sweets!

My cupcake bracelet*

Heart bracelet*

Beautiful charms!*

Here is the size of the charms* in relation to my index finger nail

Aren't they pretty? These would make great presents!

The length of the waxed cotton is 30cm, so you can adjust or trim the bracelet to create the perfect fit.

The colours available are: white, teal, lilac, baby pink and dark pink. They are all gorgeous, I struggled to choose between them!

You can choose between flower beads, or a butterfly, heart or cupcake charm.

Prices for these bracelets range from 75p to £1.20, so they are super affordable. You could have one of each charm in each colour and mix and match.

I love wearing my two bracelets together, the teal and white looks great together, and after all, I do heart cupcakes!

You can check out Rachel's online store here:

SWEETAHOLIC CHARMS

Right now she is only shipping in the UK, but she hopes to expand to other countries in the future. All orders will be sent out Royal Mail First Class within 48 hours. I couldn't believe how fast the shipping was, Rachel sent my bracelets in the afternoon and I received them the next morning! 

Keep your eyes peeled on here, because I will be doing an OOTD post before too long featuring these, they look perfect with everything I wear!

The product(s) included in this post were provided to me for an unbiased review. Please see my disclosure page for more information.

VALENCIA... Global Style Blogger Challenge

Hi Guys,

I was recently contacted on behalf of eShores to ask if I wanted to enter a style competition to win £250 of ASOS vouchers. As you all probably know, I love a good style competition, and this one has a twist. You can read more about it here.

The clincher for me was that you had to pick a stylish city that you love shopping in...

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before or not, but I used to live in Spain. In fact, this year marks ten years since my family moved there. July 2003-September 2008, five years, and most of my teens (nearly 13-just turned 18). I loved it, learned a different language, had my own transport (a moped - Peugeot Speedfight 2 Silversport!) and became who I am today!

So, without further ado, let me present my style capital...

Valencia has the amazing Fallas festival in March, holds the Formula 1 in the summer, the Moto GP in the Autumn, and countless festivals in between. It has a great beach and so much going for it!

Most of all, Valencia was the city that taught me to shop!

I had a 30-40 stop in the city every morning and evening between trains to/from school and I used to love popping over the road to have an early morning browse! 

So... What do I love about shopping in Valencia? There is something for everyone! And I mean everyone! It doesn't matter about your budget or taste, you'll find something for you.

Before I go onto the main part of this post, here is my outfit! 

I've kept it simple. The colour scheme is my favourite kind of neutral, grey, with metallic hints of silver and champagne to take it from daytime to evening. It can be really sunny even in the winter there, so I made sure to pick out some sunglasses. As far as the dress goes, you could get away with no tights on a nice day, even in January, but on a cooler day I would add over the knee black socks, or black opaque tights. The bag is the perfect size to fit in a few small shopping items, and all my usual essentials, plus a bottle of water to stay hydrated for my whole day shopping!

Underneath the picture you will find links to each item. Fortunately, some of the items are available in the UK!

1. Cut-out shoulder dress - Zara - £29.99

2. Wayfarer style sunglasses - Mango - £17.99

3. Brooch to be used as hair clip - Stradivarius - €7.95

4. Necklace - Bershka - £14.99

5. Essence Colour and Go 140 - Beautik - €1.95 

6. Bag - Stradivarius - €29.95

7. Ankle boots - Zara - £49.99

(Some prices in £GBP because they are available to buy online in the UK) 

Click "Read More" to read the details of this post, it's pretty long!

What's Your #partypose?

Hi Guys,

I hope you all had a fabulous weekend! I had a nightmare of a Sunday evening, my son turned into a crazy person and wouldn't sleep, so I caught up with the lost hours with an early night yesterday!

Recently I've seen a couple of my favourite bloggers doing these posts, and I couldn't help myself, I just LOVE virtual shopping. Boohoo is one of my favourite online stores, I shop there all the time. Their clothes are affordable and really good quality! You can check out their clothes here, the new range is so gorgeous!

You can read all about this competition here but in a nutshell, if you're a blogger and you can create the perfect party look for under £100, you could be in with a chance of winning £100, and £250 for one lucky reader!

I've gone for a really classic glam look, perfect for the party season! I'm so in love with the dress I picked, it would be so perfect for New Years' Eve. I'm writing this post at 11.30 and since I started, it has gone out of stock, but I'm really hoping it will come back in. I'd love to buy it! Thats the problem with these blogger competitions, I always end up buying things (like the playsuit in this challenge)!

Here goes, all the details and links will be under the photo!

1. Lottie Mixi Dress - £25

2. Gemma Clutch - £12

3. Millie Earrings - £4

4. Eudora Deep Sea Nail Polish - £4

5. Sophie Big Smoke Makeup Set - £10

6. Mia Cuff - £8

7. Rosana Shoes - £35

How did you like my outfit? I wanted to make it as complete as possible by adding the makeup and nail polish. I think this is absolutely perfect!

I can't believe that my dress has sold out in the last half an hour! I literally decided to do this post an hour ago, found everything, put the image together, and just when I was doing the links underneath, it said the dress was out of stock, outrageous! I really hope it comes back in stock, I can really imagine myself wearing it! And for £25 it's such a bargain, I'll be checking the website every five minutes, they're bound to have it in stock again before New Year.

The winner is drawn on the 14th of December, so fingers crossed, and one of you lovelies could win too!

If you're a blogger, head on over to the competition link I posted earlier, and then check out the Boohoo site to create your outfit.

£100 ASOS Blogger Challenge!

Hi Guys!

I've had such a lovely day today. I took my son to a new playgroup, which he really enjoyed, and it was sunny all day so I managed to fit in a bit of sunbathing this afternoon! I also had my first driving lesson since November 2010 this morning... I've been learning to drive for 4 years and have yet to take my test. I keep getting to the point of booking/taking my test then stopping for whatever reason. I'm determined that this will be my last set of lessons, and today went really well. My new instructor said my driving was good and I can book my test for 6/7 weeks time. I really need to be able to drive, it's really affecting my life now!

Anyway, today's post is something different. I've seen these posts on a few blogs and I really wanted to have a go myself. Discountcoder.com is having a £100 ASOS giveaway. You can find out more here but the basic concept is that you go to ASOS, create an outfit amounting to no more than £100 and then blog about it! ASOS is my favourite online retailer, at least half of my purchases are made from there, so I jumped at the chance to choose my favourite items. 

So that's what I have done! Here are my picks!

1. Rare Halterneck Playsuit - £18

2. ASOS Wedges - £17

3. ASOS Watch - £10

4. French Connection Bracelet - £8

5. ASOS Dice Earrings - £1.50

6. And Mary Geek Owl Necklace - £10

7. Pieces Bag - £9

TOTAL SPEND = £73.50

I tried to choose something similar to what I would wear on a night out. I love playsuits, and I like to stick with a black colour scheme with subtle colour injections.


I've seen a lot of bloggers saying they struggled with getting things for under £100, but I didn't struggle at all! The rules state no discount codes or student discount, so I just chose sale items to make my money go further.


I spend a lot of time browsing the ASOS site, so I could have done this challenge ten times over! They have amazing clothes and if you've been living under a rock for years and haven't heard of ASOS, you need to check it out now!

My favourite items are the shoes, which I think I might buy anyway (£17 is too cheap to turn down), the earrings (which I've had my eye on for months) and the watch! I'm so tempted to buy the watch, but my Dad bought me one for my graduation last year and so I don't think he'd be impressed if I turned up wearing something worth £10!

If you're a blogger and you'd like to have a try at this, find out more here and head to ASOS to create your look!