Sod it, I'm shopping

I went to see Vix; a new dress was a bonus!

I've bought more clothes. I didn't manage to lose any weight before my holiday, which left me the choice between wearing stuff that's too small - a choice that comes with a side-order of self-loathing - or buying stuff that actually fits. I'm still going to do lots of walking, and I'm doing very well at laying off the cake and comfort food, but it's not having much effect yet and there's no way I'll go on a trip I've spent three years saving up for and spend it feeling bad about myself.
So, last week I bought four dresses, two new and two vintage. I'll start with the vintage as they're probably more interesting to you. Judy's Affordable Vintage Fair was in Bath on Sunday, and I went along mainly to say 'Hi' to Vix and Jon as Kinky Melon were among the traders. I wore the 1960s Horrockses dress I bought from them a while back; it's a gorgeous dress and I felt great.

Vix knows my size and showed me an amazing Global shirt dress, white with blue swirls, that I was absolutely unable to resist, especially for a mere £10. Vix reckons Global is one of Tania's favourite brands, and I can see why. The dress feels extremely sturdy and well made. I wore it to work yesterday and felt fab. (Unfortunately I only have a dreadful selfie for you. Still, the freshly-painted bathroom wall seems to make a good backdrop.) I paired the dress with the same cream bag and shoes I wore to the fair, but I don't think they go do well with white and blue/aqua, so I'll be keeping an eye out for accessories to go with the dresses.

Then wandering round the fair I spotted a stall with an amazing display of Welsh tapestry bags and coats/capes, and they had a fantastic print shift dress in fatgirl size for £15. It's a lot lighter in weight than the global dress, and Mr Robot reckons it does show off my tummy a bit, but hey: I have a fat tummy. And I adore that print. Hopefully it's busy enough that people will look at the print before noticing my wobbly bits. It's in big bands at the bottom, but gets sparser towards the shoulders.

The new dresses were both in the sales. One was a Seasalt one, the Talskiddy dress. I loved at full-price and even more at a discount. It's in a very 'me' print; abstract, with solid, toning colours. Graphic prints in block colours are definitely my thing. After looking at the dress' dimensions on the size guide, seeing the way it hangs on the model, and knowing the two tops I have from them are quite loose, I went down a size and it fits beautifully. I had intended to stop there, but then Collectif had a sale. I'd really liked the Aida Zak Phoebe dress when they had it for over £60, but I've found Collectif's quality to be really patchy in the past. For £17, though, it was worth a punt.

I think I make more sensible buying decisions nowadays. I'm more confident in the colours and prints that I like, and more aware of the shapes and styles that suit me. I've also learned the hard way not to get hung up at the number on the label. Fit is everything! To make room for these, a whole bag of old things went off to the charity shop, including the two Collectif dresses I already owned (one flapper dress that never hung right, and one 1940s-style dress that was too tight and not as nice as either of my House of Foxy 40s repro ones) and one Betty Jackson that I got with Debenhams vouchers but never felt quite right in. That said, if I'd known how many good things would be on sale at Judy's, I might still have bought the Seasalt dress, but I probably wouldn't have bothered with the Collectif one. I have definitely learned a lesson here: wait till Judy's is in town to go shopping – or wait till it goes to Oxford and drag Gisela out...

One odd aside – if you follow blogs via Bloglovin', do you get their emails? They're constantly recommending things to me that are completely irrelevant to my interests. I'm trying to decide whether the food or the fashion/makeup ones are funnier. While the constant barrage of Euro-fetishisation in the latter (French style, Italian smartness, Scandinavian skin etc) is entertaining, this week's juxtaposition of ways to have quinoa for dinner (my thought: don't) and recipes for cake 'you can have for breakfast' (my thought: that's any cake), PLUS a recipe for brussels sprout pizza (yes, really) is just comedy gold. I should really unsubscribe from these emails as I never want to read any of the posts they recommend, but they are kind of amusing in themselves.