Summer Outfit Inspiration 2013 For Girl

I'm a huge fan of putting together Polyvore style sets of outfits on Photoshop- there's something so satisfying about seeing an outfit all laid out together, not to mention the fact that you feel your wardrobe is the entire internet. You might remember i put together some Autumn Style Outfit Suggestions last year for Moneysupermarket's competition and it really helped me with my Autumn style, so when i saw Travelsupermarket were doing a similar challenge i thought i'd give it a bash too!

My first thoughts for the 'Clubbing in Ibiza' outfit involved a lot of high waisted shorts, crop tops and neon but then i suddenly realised i'm not 17 and my 'high school girls holiday' was ridiculously almost 7 years ago. In my (slightly) more mature years, Ibiza to me is now more about beautiful sunsets, chilled out bars and glamour than foam parties and getting spew on your flipflops so i decided to go for this slightly more sophisticated outfit. The pelmet skirt to me is perfect Ibiza- a little bit of glamour with a very cool aztec pattern and light colour pallet. I then paired it with a more sophisticated nod to the neon trend and some on trend edgy accessories to keep it stylish and clean. Not to be worn with face paint.

I spent a few weeks in New York and America's East Coast just before my 18th birthday and as a frequent barer, clubber and general drinker back home at the time, i was totally gutted not to be able to experience the real bright lights of the city that all the late 90s sitcoms had presented to me so beautifully. It's now firmly back on my list of 'to visits' and i'd be straight to the nearest bar. I actually hate the UK notion of 'going for cocktails' as it's all a bit faux-girly-fun, but in New York it's a different story. I imagine jugs of Sex on the Beach (with a straw) swapped for sophisticated concoctions made with beautiful spirits in the chicest of settings. This all calls for one thing- a LWD (little white dress.) A dangerous thing in the wrong hands, ive started to see white dresses as great chic, stylish alternatives to the overdone LBD. I've mixed it with some bright pops of colour, classic clean shapes and on trend accessories.

I'm probably one of the most uncomfortable people ever. I can't be doing with sore feet, itchy cardigans and coats that make you too warm and it's never worse than when shopping. With that in mind, i've gone for the most comfortable of options for the London Shopping outfit. I'm far from 'street' and im far from a Londoner but i decided to go for a simple take on the ever cool style with basic tee and jeans paired with this season's oversized denim jacket, Nike Blazers and chunky chain. I also added a 'big enough for shopping but not big enough to knock people over in Primark' bag and one of my favourite Mac Lipsticks to girly up the more masculine outfit.

Without hesitation, 'Sightseeing in Paris' to me equalled pastels. A trip to the romantic city just wouldn't be the same without some muted whimsical hues. I started with the latest Joni Jean offering- the perfect Summer vintage wash and paired it with this oversized slouchy lace style tee for an easy and comfortable base. I then added this mint boucle jacket which you'd never guess was from Primark because Paris always has to involve boucle and a nod to Coco, it's also just enough of a cover up for cooler Spring days but comfortable enough to allow you to freely skip around the City. Flats are also a necessity to keep comfy on the move so i opted for this gorgeous Zara pair for yet more girly chic. Topped off with the perfect sized bag for all the day's necessities, a statement necklace to remind everyone you're not quite ready for pearls, nude nails and a slick of a wearable day lipstick you're good to go.

To me Summer Holidays and in particular Thailand, has to involve some boho glamour. This high waisted bikini is perfectly on trend and enough to keep you feeling demure and comfy throughout the day while the Kaftan is statement enough on its own to wear from day to night and will make you stand out in a sea of denim shorts. Some dainty statement jewellery gives a more chic version of those beach friendship bracelets while a sturdy bag and shoes are practical but still on trend. All finished off with some neon orange nails and toes to match your body paint- obviously.

So there are my outfits! Sadly all it's done is made me want to go to each of these places! What do you think? Will you be entering the competition?

Fashion Bedroom

I know i don't usually 'do' inspiration posts and trust me you're never going to find a picture of a 'model' in leather trousers with her boobs out that you can look at and ponder whether she's anorexic or 'naturally skinny' on this blog but i do genuinely peruse the internet for inspiration for outfits and particularly interiors. I absolutely love looking at houses and spend a good amount of time doing so and hand in hand with that comes a love of interiors. The first 'career' i ever claimed to aspire to was an interior designer [along with all the other young Changing Rooms viewers of my generation] and i think part of that has stayed with me, although the eye and skill has never quite come up to scratch. I live in a converted Victorian Townhouse and love that style, i can safely say you'll never find me living in a modern house but i love clean and fresh decor inside that's still gives a nod to the exterior of the building. I'm in a bit of a rutt with my bedroom at the moment so have gathered together some photos of stuff i'm loving. Not going to say i'm totally 'in to' the shabby chic look but as you can see i like bits of it but with a slightly smarter twist.

Maya Diab Tattoo Is Going Lady Gaga Weird

Maya Diab is a popular chick, a singer, a product promoter, and a TV hostess. She is a celebrity not non for anything in particular. But she seems to have seen a surge in popularity the past three years. She has been around for more than a decade now, but her time is now.

Her latest weirdness is a whole body tattoo done by an artist where it took him hours to do. This was a marketing stuns for makeup lines, more than 120 makeup artists took part of this show. Together they draw up/worked on more than 30 models. Maya Diab was the guest of honor as she is the sportsperson for that brand. Thanks the now infamous tattoo, the entire Arab world now knows of the brand--which I won't name here.

This is insane to see such events in the Arab world, such events are weird around the globe, they were received with mixed feedback. No wonder they chose the city of Beirut where tolerance is high as long as you can is art. Tattoo is a popular art from around the world, yet the religious communities in the Middle East and some here in the states continue to shun it.

I am happy they had the freedom to hold such bizarre show in downtown Beirut, still I think it;s weird what they are doing  

How to make money with fashion blog

Over recent years, lots of fashion bloggers have decided to turn their hobby into a money-earner alongside their full-time jobs.
For some, they produce a blog simply for the love of fashion and/or writing, but with money-making opportunities available, what’s the harm? Every couple of pounds you make is a bonus, right?


Publish a sponsored post
Brands or agencies working on behalf of brands often want to publish guest posts which have a link back to the brand’s website, which will help drive traffic to their website. So you could receive emails which ask you if you’ll either write a post for them, with a specified link, or if you can publish a pre-written post on your blog. This is something that more and more fashion bloggers are doing, and it’s a great way of making some money for doing very little!
If you’ve received payment – in money or products – in exchange for writing about something, you are required by law to tell your readers about it. An example of a disclosure statement is “Thanks to Zara for providing this post”.
Review a product for a brand
Similarly, as a fashion blogger you’re in the envious position of receiving clothing for free in exchange for writing a review about it. The brand or marketing agency that sends the item to you will simply want some promotion in return. Make it clear when arranging to review a product that you’ll give an honest review (if it’s not honest than what’s the point?), and it might even be worth stating this somewhere permanent on your blog (perhaps your contact page) so that agencies are aware of this up front.
Add ShopSense to your blog
Affiliate fashion website ShopStyle sells a range of brands, from designer to high street to suit all budgets. ShopSense is a service that ShopStyle has developed which you can add to your blog and will pay you whenever you send traffic to retail sites. You can access the API to have custom integration (you can add things like banner ads, photos of products and interactive shopping widgets) and you’ll get paid for each click. Now Magazine, InStyle and Banana Republic all use this service, so what are you waiting for?
Sell advertising with Google AdSense
Google AdSense will let you show targeted adverts on your blog and then earn revenue from the clicks that are sent through. It’s a completely free service which you can monitor and remove at any time. If you choose fashion-related ads, you’re more likely to get click-throughs (as you can make a pretty educated guess that you’re readers are going to be into fashion and are likely to click on fashion ads). You’re given an HTML code which you can insert into a text widget to display on your blog.
Affiliate schemes
Another way to monetise your blog is through affiliate promotions. For example, Amazon has an affiliate program where you can link to a product on their site and show information about it on your blog. There more products which are purchased via a click on your link, the more you can earn. Similarly, Apple’s app store and iTunes have an affiliate program which lets you link to songs and apps, and earn a commission on sales. If you’re promoting specific services or products that are related to the content on your blog post, then your readers won’t mind and the promotions won’t look out of place.
This post was brought to you by Afro Boudoir partner, ShopStyle.

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How a Fashion Blogger Makes Money

 

I always appreciate getting a “behind the scenes” look at income breakdowns and the nuts & bolts of making a living as a blogger, so I thought I’d get on the other side of it today and give you a peek inside my income stream over the last 5 years. I was inspired by the ProBlogger’s recent income stream post, and although I don’t have 12 streams like he does, I think it’s interesting to look at how the income streams I do have have changed over the years.
To keep it easy, I just measured from January 1 to May 15th of each year:
2013:

This year is the first year I’ve had any freelancing income. And I also just added Google Adsense back into my sites late last year, so that is a relatively new income stream. I used Adsense in the very beginning back in 2004-2005, and it was good income for me, but never “great,” and back then it wasn’t as easy to control or manage, and they were mostly text ads. As soon as I started getting a lot of weight loss ads show up I took all the ads down and didn’t put them back on my site until last year. Google Adsense is always most profitable on sites that get a LOT of traffic, and you’ve heard stories about bloggers making many thousands of dollars from Adsense, but the reality is that for most bloggers, it’s more like hundreds of dollars.

In 2012, direct ad sales made up 34.9% of my income and affiliate commissions made up 65.1%.
In 2011, ad sales made up 47.9% and affiliate commission made up 52.1%.

It kind of goes like this back until 2008 and years prior when the majority of my income came from direct ad sales instead of affiliate commission:

I only have numbers beginning in 2008 when I started using Quickbooks to do my accounting (which I recommend highly), before that, I don’t even want to remember what I was doing!! But I think it’s very interesting to note the shift occurring between more of my income coming from direct ad sales vs. affiliate commission.
There are a few reasons for this:

• In 2008, affiliate programs weren’t new by any means, but they were still relatively under-developed, and definitely not as focused on attracting fashion bloggers. Now, with Reward Style and Skimlinks, it’s so much easier to use affiliate links and create content around them, that I simply use them more often.
• More and more smaller boutiques are taking part in affiliate programs now than were doing so in 2008; they’re so much easier to maintain now, and it’s a great way for a boutique or designer to make sure they are getting a satisfactory return. Several boutiques I worked with as advertisers prior to 2008 switched to an affiliate relationship with me, which led to the shift from ad income to affiliate income.
• Direct ad sales is a lot of work. In the beginning, I spent a great deal of time seeking out and communicating with potential advertisers. It proved productive for me, but in recent years, I haven’t devoted as much time to that as I would need to to keep ad sales up. I also cut the number of ads I show on my sites to only 2-3 because I wanted to work very closely with my advertisers and give them more space to speak to my readers. Honestly, I appreciate that quite a bit of my affiliate income is passive, which makes it easier for me to focus on other projects.

While I don’t have 12 income streams like ProBlogger, I have 4 and I’d like to see that number increase, especially after really seeing how much my overall income has gone down slightly the last several years. A lot of things have changed in the world of blogging generally and for me specifically that have contributed to that:

• The sheer number of fashion blogs out there now as compared to 2008 or before is staggering. I simply have much more competition now. Not that I’m complaining, but it definitely has an impact on my ability to make as much money as I used to.
• I had to remove a large, very lucrative component of one of my sites several years ago, which I’ve never really been able to recover from. That was a BIG mistake and I regret it everyday, but I am trying to pick up and move on.
• I am spending much more time creating content than I am reaching out to potential advertisers. I enjoy that more, but it has definitely contributed to a drop in income.

Overall, I’d like to do more consulting and freelancing to diversify my income quite a bit. I do feel like I’ve already let myself sort of fall behind on that, just trying to keep up with blogging, but my goal for this year is to add at least “consulting” to my income stream. In six months I’ll do a follow-up on this post so you can see how it goes!
What are your top income streams for your blog? Do you see a large % difference in ad sales & affiliate commissions?

Huge Clothing Haul May 2013 Featuring Zara

Zara Orange Shopper Bag - £22

This might just be the most perfect bag I have ever laid my eyes on, I can't believe it was only £22 - I would have happily paid much more. I cannot wait to wear it.

Zara Brown Sandles - £19.99

These are absolutely perfect for my holiday and go with almost all the outfits I have planned. I did make this Zara order online and the sandles came in there own separate white bag inside the delivery box, it was such a nice touch.

I hope you have enjoyed having a nosey at what I've been buying - feel free to share your opinion and let me know If you have any of these items.

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Kim Kardashian Before and After

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