Boho Chic in Dubai with Top Tier Style

For the purpose of this post I was given the following items for review. I like to be honest with my readers and make the disclaimer at the beginning.

I don't do many review posts and it's not something I search for, so I was very surprised to be contacted directly to ask if I'd review a pair of sunglasses, an item from the Boho fashion range and a cat t-shirt.

I have quite a few cat t-shirts that often feature in my blog, usually worn when I attend events with my dog Bob and I'm always happy to add another to my collection.

I've also been meaning to get a spare pair of sunglasses for a while as the ones I wear on a daily basis are by Tiffany and rather expensive to spend so much time falling off my head on the floor as Bob pulls me in all directions when I take him out for a walk. When the weather isn't so hot I like to cycle, even more so since we've relocated to the other side of Dubai and the roads are less busy. As you can imagine, there's a lot of choice for sunglasses in Dubai and the sales staff are quite pushy over here. I'm fortunate that most shapes and styles suit my face so it was nice and easy to choose a pair from the comfort of my own home. I now have a spare pair for when I walk Bob or go for a ride. They are polarised and I could choose the colour of the lens to suit the frame.

I wear a lot of dresses in Dubai all year round, regardless of where I'm going and what I'm doing, other than cycling. I prefer the longer style, but find most maxi dresses have spaghetti style straps, whilst I'm not breaking any cultural rules in Dubai by wearing these dresses out, I find in the summer my shoulders burn quite badly and in the winter it gets chilly in the day and wearing a pashmina to keep my shoulders warm and protect them from the sun is a flaff and I spend most of the day picking it up off the floor along with my sunglasses.

Delivery time was fast for all the items and they were packaged well. The t-shirt and dress came in a really small bag and I was concerned the items would be badly creased, but they weren't which would make them excellent items for packing into hand luggage and be able to wear without ironing at your holiday destination. The quality of the materials and the manufacture is excellent.

The dress was slightly see through, which could be a problem in Dubai, but I wore it with a slip underneath. Ordering was easy but I did find the size chart difficult to find on the website, however it was very accurate, the t-shirt fitted perfectly and I opted to get the dress in a larger size as it had adjustable ties round the waist.

The vintage steampunk sunglasses, boho fashion and cat t-shirt in this review were provided by Top Tier Style. If you would like to purchase your own use the coupon code BLOG15 for 15% OFF everything on their store!

Mother of the Groom

I need help and lots of it. On a normal day, it's no make up and hair scrapped up in a ponytail. This photo however was taken after a couple of hours with a make up artist, hairdresser, a professional photographer and with excellent lightening and probably some editing as it was for a national newspaper.

I can do dressed up, I love having my nails done, not such a big fan with my hair and make up as I can never recreate the look, but don’t do too bad by myself.

Next year Peter is best man at a friends wedding. I bought a dress, have shoes, jacket and a bag and wasn’t bothering with a hat. I made a hair appointment for the morning and I was good to go.

But now child 2 and 2a have announced they’re getting married in June 2018. I’ve gone into meltdown, there’s so much to do. I need a hat, my dress is lovely but it’s NOT Mother of the Groom, it’s Wife of the Best Man.

I’m chilled out about any help, guidance, support that the Bride and Groom want or need. I’ve been shown the guest list, been asked for my input into the cake, wedding dress, photographer,  bridesmaids etc although these decisions will mainly be decided upon by the Bride and her family.

I’ll appreciate any and all help/advice please that you have for me and my choice of outfit, including where to shop and recommendations on what I should avoid wearing (other than a full on white dress of course)

The grass isn't greener

I had a bit of a wobbly this morning on twitter. According to some, what makes you a good person, a popular person, a fun person, a person others aspire to be all comes down to the dress they wore at the ... event. And I find this very sad, sad that people think that getting the outfit right equates to being successful, popular, wonderful, brilliant etc, etc, etc.

We all need and seek attention and in our own minds it is justified. Sometimes we just want to let off steam about something, other times we geninually want help and other times we just want to know we are not alone.

The trouble is in 140 characters it's hard to express what the actual message is.

I deal with things with humour. I'll tweet a serious issue, concern, rant and at the end of the day when it's all come to an end I'll blog it.

You can read my blogs and tweets as informative, as a cry for help as someone who has had a very difficult time and just wants to let off steam or as someone who is attention seeking and wants people to say 'well done you, you've coped so well, aren't you wonderful and btw I love your dress'

And tbh I'm not actually seeking any kind of response from anyone. So why Blog? why tell everyone how hard your life is or how well you've coped. Keep an old fashioned diary if it helps just to write your feelings and frustrations down in.

Well that's what I'm doing but I do choose to publish it, my family and friends back in the UK only get to hear about the outcome, the lovely new house we've moved into or the wonderful trips we've been on and I was hoping that blogging it all would help them to understand, the grass isn't greener, I'm not lucky. I don't want them to say 'well done, I admire you, I could never have coped with that' I just want them to stop saying 'stop complaining, you have a fantastic life'

My life isn't fantastic but it's not shit either. I don't really fit in here, but then I didn't really fit in back in the UK. It's a fact. I'm not public school parent material nor do I fit the mould of being an expat wife. I've tried. I don't do lunches, coffee mornings, play golf or tennis. I can play the part for so long, fret over what clothes to wear, worry about what I look like, how I sound, mind my language. But I can't keep the pretence up for long, I get bored with it, pretending to be something I'm not and that's why I had a rant on twitter this morning.

I actually like being me, I don't want to be anyone else, I don't want their life, their clothes, their issues, hassles. I just about cope with the ones I have. I'm not worse off than anyone else any more than I'm luckier than anyone else.

It's just life and I've got to learn how to live it. I just need a voice to be heard and twitter and blogging gives me that opportunity. Some of you will slate me for it (unfollows) some will slag me off (blocks) and others will be my friends, offering support and advice.

But what I don't want to hear anymore is 'you're so lucky, I wish I could be more like you, I love the way you...... and btw WHERE DID YOU GET THAT DRESS?'