Breton stripes with a twist

bikini - New Look

So, continuing from my last bikini post where I raved on about my new found love for New Look and their bargain deals on really on trend and cute pieces, here's another New Look beauty. I love the retro feel of this bikini with the super on-trend bardot style neckline, the quirky double off-shoulder strap that modernises the bikini and the classic breton stripes, which - let's face it - will never be out of style. 

I'm a big fan of high waisted bikini bottoms, but had only previously owned black ones. I have only worn my black ones once as they do give monster tan lines which is just a nightmare but I thought these were super cute so I bought them anyway. Although I probably won't wear this bikini as much (for the reason I just mentioned) while sunbathing, you can be sure I'll get my wear out of it while at a beach bar or lounging around a pool. The best thing about this bikini is because of the classic breton stripe, I can pair the top with a different pair of cute bikini bottoms in blue or white or vise versa and the bikini will still look great so by mixing and matching you can get way more wear out of a bikini and have more choices! This is definitely what I'll be doing on my travels! 

Do you like this retro bikini or do you prefer a more classic triangle style? 

Grace

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Denim Loving

playsuit - Zara, necklace - H&M, watch - Casio, ring (red centre) - Pandora, trainers - Adidas

Hey guys, Im 5 again. I feel so young in this romper because it reminds me of the clothes I used to wear as a toddler (awkward) but I fell in love with this denim playsuit as soon as I tried it on so I just had to have it. It's so casual and can be thrown over a bikini or paired with anything meaning it's a great staple to have in your wardrobe and a good alternative to dungarees. I will definitely be taking this on my travels with me! 

Being a hot day, I just accessorised with simple jewellery, a cool retro watch and obviously, my Stan Smiths and I was good to go. 

Which do you prefer - playsuits or dungarees? 

Grace 

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Raw Edge

Dress - Zara, shoes - Primark, ring (red centre) - Pandora

Oh to shoot on the beach everyday, isn't that the dream? I wish I could but sadly now I'm back in England where the weather does whatever it wants (today it seems to be sunny though - yay!) 

Denim is huge this season. Probably the biggest it's been in a long time, coming up strong behind lace up's and crochet. It all seems to be about raw edges or flares and so when I was greeted with a beautiful white denim raw edged denim shift dress/tunic, I couldn't resist. I had been hoping to get my hands on the mid wash version from Monki but I never got round to it and thought this was a good alternative and for £5 cheaper. I still like the Monki one though, so I'll probably end up buying that one too! Unfortunately it's not on the website anymore so below I've linked a few similar... 

here | here | here | here 

Which is your favourite trend this Summer? 

Grace 

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WHTE

bikini - New Look, cover up - Zara

Here's another post from my holiday in Guadeloupe, this OOTD was a little bit skimpy today... due to lounging by the pool all day but I thought that was the perfect opportunity to show you my beautifully embroidered cover up and one of the (what seems like) hundreds of new bikinis I've recently bought.

I've always had a problem with bikinis because I'm not a huge fan of certain parts of my body (boobies) so when a trend came about with bikini tops where it was 'trendy' to cover up more up top, I was all for it - especially when I've been wanting these kind of bikinis for a while but because they weren't in trend, I could never find any. Queue me buying 17 bikinis in the space of 3 days. I have quite an 'athletic' figure, by which I mean I lack curves and so I'll be uploading a few posts similar to this one featuring bikinis that are great for this type of body type. 

I've never really taken a great deal of time searching through New Look but I found myself on their website looking at bikinis after I saw FashionInFlux blog about a retro style bikini they sold (which I also bought!) and found this sweet little 2 piece. The top is padded, something I don't really like, but it's not obvious at all so I don't mind it too much but I would advise going up a size because I am always a size 4/6 up top but the size 6 is extremely tight while the cup size fits me perfectly. The mesh details on the top and bottom make a simple white bikini looks effortlessly classy. I'm going to make sure I regularly check New Look's website from now on and see which other bargains I can grab! 

I should really do a haul post for all the bikinis and other summer items I've bought in the last month. In fact, I promised myself that when I hit 500 followers on BlogLovin' I would start vlogging. It's something that I've always wanted to do but I speak very quickly and it's slightly out of my comfort zone but I think I'm going to do it and since I'm over 560 followers now... watch this space - there may be a haul in the form of a vlog coming to your laptop screen any day now. 

Have you seen any great bikinis that I should check out (just in case I need to add another one to the ever growing collection)? 

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Deshaies' Botanical Garden

If you follow me on Instagram (if you don't, follow me on @gracemellor), you'd know that I recently spent 3 weeks on the beautiful French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe. I visited a lot of Caribbean islands late last year, early this year and whilst I did explore the likes of St. Lucia, St. Kitts, St. Vincent, Dominica, Grand Turk, Tortola, Barbados and a couple more, we skipped out Guadeloupe. I thought this was weird, it was one of the bigger Islands so I thought there would be more to explore... but either way, I got to explore it this Summer. 

 

Guadeloupe is shaped like a butterfly and so has 2 parts to it, the West side (where I stayed) was a hilly, volcanic rainforest which homed the Guadeloupe National Park and is called Basse-Terre whereas the East side, called Grande-Terre, is home to the more luxurious hotels and the whiter beaches. 

Some facts about Guadeloupe: 

Language - French (Officially, but some sign posts have creole on them and some of the locals speak it too)  
Population - just over 403,000
Size - just over 1,500km squared

If you read my first OOTD post from Guadeloupe (the only one I managed to upload before the wifi completely failed on me), you might have noticed that I shot the photographs in a botanical garden... and what a garden it was. I have always been a fan of botanical gardens and seeing the flora that thrives in countries other than my own - they always seem more exotic and more fascinating. I was staying at a villa in Pointe Allegre, near Saint Rose but my mum works in Deshaies so I went there everyday and so Jardin Botanique de Deshaies seemed like a great, relaxing first trip out to do. I paid €14.50, which I thought was quite a lot to see a garden, so I expected so see some beautiful plants and flowers and I was not disappointed. As soon as I entered the gardens I was surrounded by tropical plants and beautiful scenery. The gardens are really well kept and there are descriptive and informative sign posts everywhere (bare in mind these are french) which I thought was really good because it meant that I got to understand the history or at least a bit of knowledge about all the magnificent plant around me. The garden is very big and you can easily spend half a day there, so it's worth the money! And if you're worried about getting tired, there are seating areas all over the place so you can sit and just soak up the beauty of the trees etc. I'd recommend it to everyone, even if you're not a huge plant fan because it's incredible seeing exotic flowers and how they differ from the ones back home and it's an easy task to do for any age or physical ability, the whole family can do it! 

I hope you enjoy looking at the images of the exotic flora, I realise this post is super image heavy but I couldn't pick just a few images! They're all too cool. 

What's your favourite exotic flower or plant? 

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