ON Saturday night I painted the city red.

(Kinda.) As part of early birthday celebrations (my big day is on Friday) I did a night of glamour in Leeds with some of my dearest pals. And I did it in a rather lovely red dress. I take absolutely no credit for finding this amazing dress from Matalan of all places! Nope, it was all the work of a dear Twitter and Instagram friend of mine. After struggling to find a budget friendly dress that screamed ‘glamour’ and ‘birthday’, I enlisted the help of Tracey, a gorgeous style guru if ever I’ve known one and asked her if she’d come across any super frocks of late. Thankfully she had and she pointed me in the direction of this fetching bandeau pencil dress from the Abbey Clancy collection. When I tried it on, it just whispered Hollywood old school glamour so I was then on a mission to find a necklace worthy of the Oscars. Thankfully I knew just the place and snapped up an incredible statement neck from YOSA, called ‘Heritage’. It looks like it’s sold out already (no surprise, it’s an amazing piece!) but it’s similar to this one and very beautiful. And I have to tell you I don’t think I’ve ever had as many compliments about a piece of jewellery in a loooonnngg time. In my ears I wore Swarovski and on my feet, I wore leopard print court shoes from Carvela. (After all, Hollywood glamour wouldn’t be complete without a touch of that.) Silly blogger that I am, I forgot to get a pic of my bag but it was large metallic fan shaped clutch from Warehouse that I’ve had for donkeys years. Here I am having a cuddle with Elsie just before leaving. I may have been dolled up to the nines, but Elsie still wanted picking up, fancy frock or not. Proof that you’re never really off duty when you’re a mum! Here she is admiring my earrings. The little lady has clearly got good taste already! I had, an INCREDIBLE night out with friends. We dined at Raymond Blanc’s Brasserie Blanc. (The food was delicious.) We wined (a lot), indulged in a cocktail and then hit the dance floor where we danced until our feet hurt and our taxi man arrived.  It’s a bit blurry (thanks phone!) but here we are altogether. I even managed to indulge in a bit of a chinwag over a tipple or two with the ever gorgeous Vicki from Honest Mum too and some of her lovely friends. As birthday nights out go, it’s up there with the best. And it just goes to show, that life is always that bit more fabulous when you up the glamour stakes. (Even if it is just for a few child-free hours).

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Pssst – apologies for the pics being a bit fuzzy and blurry. It’s pretty hard to take half decent pics on a phone on a winter evening no?! *looks for a handbag friendly camera as good as an SLR* x

With love,

Kate

 This post is linked up to: Passion For Fashion, Visible Monday and Reasons To Dress