The sales have been pretty kind to me this year- not only did I score some complete bargains but I also managed to snap up a couple of items I’d had on my wish list full price and resigned myself to not being able to afford.

The cat print dress in this post is one of those finds. First bought to my attention by the wonderful (and ever so stylish) Laura a couple of months ago I knew straight away that I wanted this but at £45.99(ish) it was way out of my price range. After a quick online browse of the Zara sale I was excited to see the dress had gone down to £26.99 but still assumed I wouldn’t get it but left it in the hands of the shopping gods and decided that if the Bristol store had it in stock in my size I would buy it- but because I didn’t technically NEED another dress I wouldn’t order online.

Someone was smiling down on me the day I ventured in to the sales (and the Zara sale is one I tend to avoid because it gets so chaotic and often vicious in store!) as there was one cat printed dress left hanging there all alone. A size up from my usual but I tried it on and decided I didn’t care, I like the sloppy look and so I happily trotted off to pay.

These ankle boots are the third pair that have recently come in to my possession, but as my most worn flat black pair as starting to give up the ghost and I had a gift card from work I figured they were a worthy investment especially as they were reduced from £72 to £32. I’ve been after a pair of lace up ankle boots for a while and whilst the exact pair I got aren’t on the Office Shoes website any more I have linked to a very similar alternative for anyone else on the hunt.

This is probably one of my current favourite outfits. I’m a massive fan of longer length over-sized dresses at the moment and anything with a cat print on it is always going to be a winner in my eyes. I’ve already worn this dress several times so on a cost-per-wear basis it’s probably in the minus figures by now.

Thank you for all of the well wishes for my occupational health appointment, they were very much appreciated. It didn’t go exactly as I’d hoped- I suppose I thought that if I could get myself mentally a lot better I could somewhat overlook the physical side of things (and my first experience with occupational health seemed to confirm this). Alas this wasn’t the case so now I must face my biggest fear and hurdle in recovery and put on some weight before I can resume the job I love so much. I suppose I’m writing this down so I can’t back away from it. It’s so easy to get swept up in the disordered thinking of “well I already look healthy” but using my blog as a perspective I can see that I’m a way off looking like I did when I was last at a healthy weight (in this post for an example) and I’ve just got to man up and get on with it. I always struggle through the process of weight gain and seeing my body change but I know that when I get there I feel so much happier and more confident in myself- and the rest of my life becomes a lot more fun and fulfilling as a result. That has got to be worth toughing it out for. Hopefully it won’t be too long before I’m at a level where I can return to work, it’s so hard to know that the only thing holding you back from the one thing you really want to be able to do is yourself and yet you’re trapped by an illness that does it’s best to stop you achieving anything resembling a happy and healthy life.

Anyway, enough of that… tell me about your top sales purchases this year- or I suppose end of last year really!