Hello, and happy bank holiday weekend (if you're in the UK that is).

This week has felt like a fairly positive, yet lazy one for me.

What have I been up to?
I've had a fairly quiet week. I've just been working, filming, blogging and applying for jobs, of course. I did have a chilled evening in with a takeaway and friends one night which was lovely and went for Nando with Mum and Flo last night because of the whole CBA to cook thing - which was just nice to get out of the house.


My Blog
I was really pleased with the post I put up this week about style changes. I love how the photos turned out. All photographs on my blog, I take myself - including the ones which I am in, using the magic of a self-timer and a phone remote. I have no help at all, this blog is truly a one-woman army, and that is something I am beginning to release I should have more pride in.

I didn't post on Thursday, as I'd said previously, I wasn't going to post for the sake of post when I didn't feel I had anything worthy of posting - but I will be back on my full schedule next week hopefully, as the inspiration is flowing!

My Youtube Chanel
This week I also filmed a lookbook for my Youtube Channel - again, entirely by myself. I've never edited a lookbook before, so it's turning out to be quite a challenge, but I'm looking forward to seeing how it turns out. It should be live on my Youtube channel Wednesday 10th May.

This week I posted my first episode in my Dear Dad series - it was a very short vlog from last week, which would be amazing if you could check it out.


Reading - Books
I'm currently reading two new books, I've only just started reading both, so I can't give too much feedback as of yet. The first is On The Other Side by Carrie Hope Flecher. I'm very curious to see what direction this book is headed in. So far, I'm not sold, I just can't seem to buy into the idea yet.

The other book I just began reading is The Life-Changing Magic of not giving a F***k by Sarah Knight. I have a feeling this book may actually turn out to be life-changing. Being someone who worries a lot, I feel I could really benefit from this. I know this next point is extremely silly of me, and the cover is a complete giveaway - but I feel quite taken aback by how much the book says the word fuck.


Reading - Blogs
Holly Loves Simple Things - The Can't Relate Mentality
The Anna Edit - 5 Highlights from the past month


Reading - Articles 
Can we talk about Saturday nights by Dolly Alderton
The Generation Z Hit List, Itching for a Pic by Scarlett Curtis


Watching - Youtube
Arden Rose's Real Tips on Self Love
Steve Booker's Style Talks with Will Darbyshire
Lucy Moon - Reflecting on the Past Five Months 

Listening - Podcasts
Emma Gannon's CTRL ALT Delete with Gemma Cairney


Hope you've enjoyed your week! As always, let me know anything you've enjoyed this week.

Love,
C x

I used to be a strictly dresses and tights kinda girl - if I was feeling adventurous, I might go with shorts and tights - but never jeans or trousers for that matter. I didn't actually own any jeans, trousers, or even trainers. I just didn't feel like myself in them.

However, over the past few months, I've changed, as people do - and I felt myself feeling envious of girls who could pull off wearing a pair of jeans and a tee, and look so, effortlessly cool. I started noticed those rocking a more casual look, in fact,  everyone looked good in jeans.


So why couldn't I?
It was a time for a change, so slowly I've been introducing more casual items into my wardrobe, and I'm loving experimenting with styling my clothes more, now I've got more options. I first introduced these boyfriend fit jeans. Although I thought they looked great, I also felt super paranoid wearing them, but as so as I realise nobody was staring at me and knew I spent half of my life being a spokesperson for skirts and dresses, I just felt good. A change felt good.

More and more I've been embracing this new side to my wardrobe and exploring how I can style, jeans, trousers, trainers and all of the great pieces I avoided for so long.

Not only has it rescued me from my fashion rut, it's also made me realise how much we change, and you should be okay with being a different person to who you were yesterday.
Belt (Topshop)
Bag (Coach)
Jacket (Topshop)
Shoes (Adidas)
Glasses (Tom Ford)
Lipstick (Marc Jacobs Kiss Kiss Bang Bang)
Phone Case (Coconut Lane - 20% off entire website with the code chloeharriets)

I recently read Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert, and to be honest, it took me far longer than I like to admit to finish, I found I kept putting it down and then forgetting about it, until the next time I picked it up, however, as I read it, I found there were a lot of things which just clicked. This perspective on creativity just made a lot of sense to me.

In short, Big Magic explores the idea of living creatively and inspiration. If you're a creative person (especially a writer) I'd recommend having a read, if nothing else, it's a really interesting viewpoint.

In today post, I thought I'd tell you the things which really made me think "yeah that really makes sense, why have a never thought of it like that before" There were a lot of light bulb moments as I read, which I felt were worth sharing.


1) The whole idea of personifying inspiration - which is basically what Big Magic is. Inspiration finds us, and if we're not kind to it, it will leave us again. I find inspiration very much comes to me, and it decides what I'm doing. This just makes a lot of sense to me.

2) Don't expect your creativity to pay you. It's serving you already, you needn't demand money from it. “But to yell at your creativity, saying, “You must earn money for me!” is sort of like yelling at a cat; it has no idea what you’re talking about, and all you’re doing is scaring it away because you’re making really loud noises and your face looks weird when you do that.”  Expecting payment will scare your creativity away, you need a purpose beyond money to create.


3) You have to write you own permission slip - no one is going to tell you it's okay to do the creative thing you want to do, people have a habit of waiting until they feel as though they have permission to do something when we are the people capable of giving ourselves permission.

4) Curiosity is important. You should follow all curiosity, as it's got the potential to lead you to a great place.

5) Do something else creative. If your inspiration in your usual art is lacking, do something else creative - you'll soon get past that block.

6) It's not you baby, be less precious...“Done is better than good.” You will never finish something if you're obsessed with perfecting it. Also, other people will not love your art as much as you. Some people will dislike it and some people won't be so nice about it. As soon as you personify it as your baby, that all becomes a lot more hurtful.

7) It's important to show up... "Even if you feel like an idiot, you made it there.  But you must stubbornly walk into that room, regardless, and you must hold your head high. You made it; you get to put it out there. Never apologise for it, never explain it away, never be ashamed of it. You did your best with what you knew, and you worked with what you had, in the time that you were given. You were invited, and you showed up, and you simply cannot do more than that. They might throw you out - but then again, they might not."  The quote says it all, right?

8) What if you knew you were going to fail? You should love your art enough that success and failure become irrelevant, Failure is supposed to test us, it's about how we deal with the failure.
 “failure has a function. It asks you whether you really want to go on making things.”  
"What do you love doing so much that the words failure and success essentially become irrelevant?” 

9)  There are more important things. "You're not required to save the world with your creativity" Enjoy being creative, you might become successful from it, you might not. If you're doing what you love, you'll be happy because you're doing what you love, as long as you remember there are more important things.

10) Don't play the tortured artist. "Be the weirdo who dares to enjoy." Somewhere along the lines, we glorified this whole tortured artist idea, there is no shame in enjoying your art. You can be creative for the love of it and enjoy it.


As you might be able to tell, I took a lot away from this book. I'd recommend giving it a read, especially if you want some clarification on what I'm trying to say in any of the points above.

Happy Sunday.

I've been feeling a little more positive this week, besides one particularly anxiety-fueled day this week as been full of good vibes.

What have I been up to?
I got my hair done. It's lighter and I love it. I went to an actual Salon to have it done, something I rarely do as my mum is a hairdresser so it felt like a real luxury. I'm so happy with how it turned out. They also used Olaplex on it, which means the condition still feels great.


I also went to a Networking event arranged by Rife magazine, all about getting into publishing and writing. I went by myself which made me very nervous, however, I'm just forcing myself into these things, because what's the worse that can happen, right? I'm not going to get confidence without searching for it. The event was good, I'm glad I went. After awkwardly wandering by myself, being too shy to actually to talk to anyone, a lovely girl and guy invited me to sit with them (thank god there were no mean girls, you can't sit with us vibes), which was very much appreciated - and we spoke about poetry - it's lovely to find people who share the same joys as you.


My Blog
I've got back into the swing of blogging and I'm so happy that I have. I've been really pleased with all of the content I've put out over the last week. I've been trying to be a little more creative with the layout of my images on my blog, and I think it's making a big difference to how my posts are looking.

My Youtube Chanel
This week uploaded a video explaining my new series Dear Dad. After saying in the video the first episode wouldn't be up for a while, I decided I'm going to upload my first Dear Dad series next Wednesday, so make sure you're subscribed to my channel so you don't miss it.
I'm trying to be more creative with my video editing. You'll see in the next video I've experimented with adding (poor) illustrations onto the video - something which I'm teaching myself to do. I edit in iMovie, which is making this a little trickier - but as I become more experimental with my editing I'm considering getting final cut pro - let me know if it's worth it!
I'm also considering doing an every day May - uploading a video each day in May. The style of the video will vary, they may be vlogs, sit down videos, poems etc. However it's a lot of pressure to put myself under, especially as I have a small audience and do not earn from Youtube - but I'm enjoying it so much, I think it would be a great way to push myself creatively. Let know if you think I should do it, or whether I'd be spreading myself a bit too thin.


Reading - Books:
Finally, I've got back into reading books, I've even purchased a few new ones to help myself keep up with it (let me know if you'd like to me to do a reading list post soon!). This week I began re-reading 13 Reasons Why. After watching the series, I wanted to refresh my memory on the book. It's a short read and not as in-depth as the series. I love Clay's character in both book and series form. I prefer Hannah in the series and feel we get to know her better there. This book is very special to me. It was just a story that really touched me.

Blogs
Poppy Deyes - #yolo - I just could really relate to this, I am not a natural yolo-er at all, but it's not just let yourself relax a little.

Poppy Deyes - My New Outlook on Style (another one from Poppy, sorry I had a bit of a blog binge). I'm trying to have this outlook. I wear to want I like and what I want to without worrying. Of course, it's easier said than done.

SaltandChic - The Pressures of Regular Blogging - I found myself nodding along to everything said in this post.

The Anna Edits - How I'm Trying to Make Better Clothing Purchases - Anna just has some great tips if you're trying to be a bit more mindful with clothing purchases.


Watching- Netflix
Pretty Little Liars - it's back and I'm excited about it. The first episode with a little slow moving, but they always are. I think there's a lot of potential for the final 10 episodes.

Watching - Youtube
Wonderfuly0u - Let's talk about Depression
Lucy Moon - Know your worth
Hannah Whitton - How to get organise
The Michalak's North Coast 500 Video - feel like I'm cheating putting this on the Youtube section - although this is a youtube video, The Michalak's far exceed any expectations of a youtube video - in fact, the quality higher than a lot of what you see in film and TV. Just so beautiful, thought out content. This was a really great video of theirs.

Listening -  Podcasts
Crash on my Couch - again, Will and Arden are hilarious
Emma Gannon CTRL ALT DELETE with Seth Godin - just really inspiring.


Hope you've all had a fab week.
Chloe x

The clocks have gone forward, the evenings are getting lighter, and heck, I've even left my house without a coat. Summer is definitely (finally) coming.

Now, living amongst the great British weather, I know we do tend to see the sun peeping behind the clouds, get a tad overexcited and feel the desire to throw on our short strappy summer dresses, and strut around - usually before we get caught in a complete downpour.

So now the small talk weather chat is over, let's talk about the little things we can really be excited for this Summer because I think they're unappreciated but they might even beat those much anticipated 5 seconds of Sunshine, and definitely enhance those sun rays.

1) Everybody is happier during summer - please don't tell me I'm the only one to notice? As soon as people are given the option to get their legs out, positivity and good vibes seem to spread across the nation. This time of year just seems to give everyone a boost.

2) There is just so much more to do - Festivals, parties, events, day trips - everything seems to cater to this time of year. It's as though the world comes alive to greet the sun, which may, or may not make an appearance.

3) You don't need to spend money to have a good time. There's something a lot more indulging about going on a summer stroll with friends. Even if you wander around the local fruit and veg market, you get out of the house, get a bit of vitamin D, and get to enjoy those positive vibes I just mentioned.
4) Everything looks nicer. There are so many good views you might come across if you simply walk up a hill in the summer. The blue sky certainly compliments the world. And flowers. Who doesn't love flowers?! The world is colourful.

5) You can go outside without freezing your ass off. Nothing brings joy to my day quite like taking my book outdoors.

6) Ice Cream - I get that they're cold, so why would you want them in winter? but they're so delicious I'd love to eat them all year round. Summer is the best excuse for indulging in a scoop (or several) of your favourite Ice Cream.

7) Toning down the makeup - I feel like as soon as summer comes around, I find myself putting down the foundation and feeling great about it.

8) Water fights. Need I say more?

9) Longer evenings. The evenings are far too short in the winter. It's so nice to get home from work and not feel as though I need to get into bed because it's so bloody dark. I find myself staying up later because of the lighter evenings. It's as if the world is just blessing you with a little more time.

10) Summer clothes. I don't know about you, but I'm excited to pull out my pastel coloured tees and leave my jumper at home.

11) Other people also want to get outside this time of year - the world is definitely a less lonely place during the summer months. Everyone seems to be feeling more sociable. People tend to put down they're iPhones and enjoy the company of others this time of year which is definitely something special.





Outfit Details
Top: H&M (£8.99) (similar linked)
Pinafore Dress: Topshop (£45) (similar linked)
Trainers: Nike (£95) (similar linked)
Bag: Whistles (£189) (Navy Colour no longer in stock, sorry!)
Nail Polish - Nails Inc Old Park Lane (£15)




What are you looking forward to this Summer? Wearing this pinafore is definitely something I'm excited about!

When I was younger, I didn't really understand the term feminist. It has been portrayed to me as Women, who didn't shave their armpits, shouting loudly, about pretty much nothing. Thankfully, I am a lot more educated now. But isn't everyone to an extent? I'd like to think so. With Topshop and H&M selling tee with the word Feminist written across the front - being a feminist is pretty much a fashion statement.

Something which has baffled me is the negativity this has received. I've read articles which claim everyone's a feminist, and we wear the t-shirts to look cool. But isn't the ultimate goal for everyone to be a feminist. It's that what we're aiming for? To have people proudly show off their feminism? Objectify normal is still something we see normalised in day to day life - clearly everyone isn't a feminist, so we need to shout a little louder, so what is wearing a statement tee is a way we choose to do so.

Women deserve the same rights as men. I should not be afraid to lose my friends on a night out in case someone takes advantage of a 'girl who had too much to drink', and I am just as capable of doing a job as a man is. And on that note, there should not be shame around men who show their emotions. Men and woman should be treated as equal.

So my point - who gives a fuck if it's a fashion trend, isn't that what we're hoping for? We want everyone to hear about feminism, to do be educated. It's good to see so many people show they're proud to be feminist, even if it's through wearing a £20 Topshop tee or an international woman day hashtag on an Instagram, but let's make sure we continue to talk about it beyond a day when we see it follow through our social media accounts, and continue to support girls, and boys and women and men in whatever way we know.

As a fashion trend, I hope it does not go out of style.