The Shoe Girl Diaries 2011

A lot of bloggers have been doing round-ups of their blogging year and I have to admit, I haven't had time for that. However, I was browsing old posts on The Shoe Girl Diaries and felt it was worth doing, even if we are getting towards the end of January.  So for the past couple of days, I've been gathering together old pics and trying to remember all that happened in 2011 (pretty uneventful year for me).  I've highlighted my favourite outfits, hairstyles and obviously shoes of the year. I felt like The Shoe Girl Diaries really came into it's own last year and I'm enjoying posting there a little more than here, which is a first! The blog is constantly evolving, which is great-remember the days of the challenge to wear a different pair every day (with no repetitions) and when each post consisted solely of a shoe-image? It can be more than a little challenging finding time to manage posts on both blogs every day, but as long as I enjoy writing on both, I'll continue ; )

January: 2010 saw the winter that crippled the entire country. January is usually the time we get a lot of snow in Scotland, but we'd had more than our fair share in the months before. I had basically been housebound for months (there had been no posts since November and very few then), so it was nice to be able to get out again.

I wish I could remember which nail polish this is, because it's gorgeous. I had a quick look for it the other day, but couldn't find anything. Can you believe my hair was still bright pink this time last year? Seems like a lifetime ago now.

February: I mostly wore boots and shoe-boots. Towards the end of the month it got a little warmer and I could finally swap the scarf and gloves for sunglasses. My hair was still bright pink but then lilac, then pale pink, both of which were pretty but washed out almost immediately. It's strange to see it straight here as it's been curly ever since.

March: Blogger had layout issues with extra spaces all over the show. It annoyed me immensely until I converted to Google Chrome and got it to work perfectly (a ploy by Blogger I'm sure), not that I care, so long as it works. I seemed to permanently wear headscarves or hats, because my hair colour was such a mess (in preparation for the 'big change' next month). I managed to find the perfect pairing for my Primark (Prada inspired) beach dress with these Kandee Bubbly Gum platforms, which I was very excited about considering I'd been on 'the beach dress diet' in order to fit into the dress.

April: I broke out a more spring-like wardrobe. Wore lots of maxi-dresses and even (gasp) a jumpsuit! I played around with frilled socks and shoes and was (and still am) completely in awe of my Bertie 'Superstar' strappy wedges each time I wear them. Judging from the pics it was quite a good month. I also wore my Kandee Diamonds outdoors for the very first time!

I decided to go mega bold with a new hair colour, it was like an epiphany and the result was fantabulous. It was supposed to be turquoise with pink ends, but where the two colours met it unexpectedly turned purple. It was the best surprise in the world, I loved it. Like the shoes and outfits, it was a good month for hair and makeup. It seemed to be the 'month of the cool lip colours'! For anyone that wonders (I remember a few of you asking at the time), the deep glossy taupe is Dior Lipliner Pencil '883 Magenta Brown' (a deep plum), MAC 'Our Pick' lipstick (satin, dark taupe brown) and MAC Dazzleglass 'Comet Blue' (sparkling blue) on top!

May: My birthday month! The day itself was the worst b'day I've ever had, it was very stressful. My parents were supposed to be back from their holidays and flights were cancelled due to...now was it the ash cloud or strong winds? A bit of both if I recall. They couldn't get back-were led from pillar to post all day long and I was constantly trying to keep them updated with info, as they were me, so the entire 2 days were filled with non-stop texting. So much so that my sis and I had a very rushed birthday lunch in town. My Auntie also chose my birthday as the day to announce that her husband was dying (more quickly than we'd expected) and they'd been in the hospital along the road the entire week...which made me feel extremely guilty, but then again I'm not a mind reader and she's also very twisted, so the less said about that the better! The final straw came when my sister and I couldn't find candles for my cake...SADness! I did however debut my Bordello Teeze 20 that I'd searched for years for, on my birthday. I also wore a lovely girly outfit (Red Herring floral prom dress and Topshop Unique metallic heels) for a pre-birthday lunch with my mate. Sadly I had to sell these (and a million more) Kandee 'Glace Cherry' peep toes as they were just too tight for me....they are quite possibly the most gorgeous shoes ever!

I was in love with bright green nail polish, if I remember correctly-Topshop 'Green Room'. I seemed to live in sunglasses and it was quite a good month for jewellery. My hair desperately needed re-coloured but my Mummy wasn't there to help, however I managed to do it myself (very well, I might add) minus the bleaching and it was good enough to tide me over for another few weeks.

June: We had some boiling hot days and I can't stand the heat. My hair grew quite long. I had a backlog of posts to catch up on, then my computer broke (see July), so I struggled to blog on my sisters laptop and lost my backdrop for photos to a pile of new shoes! It wasn't a good month, I liked this one outfit though. Whether it was from May or June I'm not sure!

July: Or was it June or maybe even May? Remember my computer broke and we hassled the computer shop for weeks and months and they kept giving us excuses? They destroyed my hard-drive for 'security reasons', even although that wasn't the problem-so I lost everything (for nothing). They were clueless as to what the issue was and we vowed never to use them again. Karma kicked their butt and they shut down last year (haha), then re-opened under a new name (whether it is the same people I don't know). There were therefore very few posts and I had no idea when these pics were taken...my hair was very pretty in this one though ; )

August: I was a little more adventurous with my photo-taking, snapping away in Topshop, Primark, outdoors, on the bus and in coffee shops! I wore my Lady Dragon skull shoes a lot and was beside myself waiting for ASOS to get in the tapestry Ablaze wedges (which I bought immediately). Heels and platforms went sky-high with these bright yellow New Look wedges designed by London College of Fashion. I also made my first TSGD video, to prove I really do wear, what I say I do each day! New midi-length dresses meant I got my legs out a lot (well it was summer) and I fell in love with this coral lace dress-actually it was possibly my favourite look of the year. I had a massive clear-out selling lots of shoes (well really that happened a lot last year). It also saw the start of a lot of changes to the blog layout. I began using effects on my images and uploaded them via Photobucket so they appeared larger on the blog without the need to click to enlarge. I was finally content with the set-up, it felt more uniform and had better flow.

I got a new shorter bubble hair cut, which meant saying goodbye to the pink ends. It was hard at first, as the pink will always be "me", but the turquoise and purple together has definitely grown on me.

September: Saw my very first themed month. I had been growing a little tired of the same old thing and felt I needed another challenge and what better brand to shake things up than Irregular Choice? The largest part of my collection is IC, so a month wearing their fabulous shoes was fun to say the least. It definitely got me excited about blogging again and only enticed me to add to my ever-growing collection (naughty, naughty). I also featured you, my readers, wearing your IC's too, another first. I'm seriously considering another theme (very soon) or maybe going for Irregular Choice again as you and I loved it! I found the perfect partner for my Wing Invadors with this floral New Look dress and loved (another New Look dress) with my Prada stockings and wine Whitney's.

If I could have bottled my hair this month, I would've. It was pretty much perfect every day-I was completely in love with it. The colour was much more vibrant and it just sat beautifully day in, day out. Shame it didn't last! I had a shopping spree in Claire's where I got some pretty items including this fox brooch, glasses and a horse pendant.

it was also the start of my fascination with nail art

October: Was the month my camera broke (and I still haven't found a replacement). Images were taken with my phone or my sisters camera where possible. It was challenging but I found I could take 'outfit' shots in the mirror with my phone (my old camera either was too dark or flashed back), so you eventually got to see a little more of me! It had turned colder, I was into tights and boots and my nails seemed to feature some sort of nail art throughout the entire month. It was also my nephew's christening and as his Godmother I needed the perfect 'wow' outfit! I'd finally started to notice the weight I'd lost in the year and was ecstatic to find I could fit into the Pearl Lowe 'Peggy' lace prom dress. The perfect heels to match were Corso Como by Kurt Geiger Fashionistas, they took a lot of practise to walk in but were worth it.  Speaking of 'breaking in' shoes, I tried to wear my So-Yeon Sarah/Irregular Choice pair, that I'd spent an obscene amount on in July, but never worn because I found them uncomfortable.  Their current status is better, but I still need to try and wear them around the house more.

It was quite a good month for hair and makeup. I had days when I achieved the perfect eyeliner flicks (love days like that), see 2nd image below and I seemed to get very adventurous with hair scarves wearing them in all sort of guises. Was this the month I made the tutorial on how to do the turban roll?

November: I got my very first pair of Jeffrey Campbell (Lita's), after lusting after them for how long? I settled with a colourway I wasn't super excited about but got them for a decent enough price-turns out the black patent was the best buy ever because I can wear them with anything and love their shiny-ness. I will never part with these! The perfect partner for my Bertie wedges were these Myleene Klass leopard nail wraps-is there anything that wouldn't look right with these shoes?

November was a good hair and makeup month judging from the photos, even if it didn't particularly feel like that at the time. Even when my hair needed re-coloured it seemed to sit nicely and I just seemed very happy and comfortable in the pics.

December: I was pretty excited that it was December and we didn't have any white stuff on the ground, especially after the bad winter the year before. So I got to wear a lot of heels. I thought fleece lined tights were the bees knees and tights in general were my staple along with Pearl Lowe dresses (em, actually that's every month of the year). I finally bought Longer Lashes boots by Irregular Choice (for a bargain price) and my Jeffrey Campbell collection went from one to three with the addition of some heel-less Night Walks and floral Lita's this month. I found the perfect Christmas shoes which have the ability to cheer you up just by looking at them and stroking them!

Towards the end of the month, I added a super big purple stripe to the front of my hair and re-did the purple ends as I'd pretty much been purely turquoise after a haircut. It rejuvenated my zest for both of the colours after feeling a little tired of my hair. I was getting a lot of wear out of my new Primark hats.

So that's it, a mammoth post!  Hopefully you've enjoyed looking back over the year and remembering old looks if you usually follow the blog.   If you haven't visited TSGD before, then you're very welcome to browse and comment : )