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Hey everyone, hope your weekends are going well! I feel like I’ve hardly stopped – this has been a very busy weekend! It all started on Friday night when I decided to have a massive clear out of my wardrobe. I’d been thinking for a while that I really needed to be quite ruthless. I had so much stuff that either no longer fitted me or suited my style. I filled two huge bags:

Before I started I decided to have a think about what I usually tend to wear. I identified that my favourite items are:

• basic cotton t shirts and vests
• stripy t shirts and vests
• floral dresses
• statement necklaces
• brightly coloured scarves and belts
• brightly coloured cardigans
• black slim leg trousers
• slim leg dark denim jeans

As well as classic things like my cream blazer, ballet pumps, denim jacket, converse trainers, leather boots, leather jacket etc.

I was pretty ruthless at getting rid of almost everything that wasn’t one of the above and boy did it feel liberating! I do think that I finally ‘get’ what my style is now, and armed with this knowledge I hit the shops in search of a few new things:

Cream trench style coat: Warehouse (on sale), deep grey basic tee: H&M, bright jewel necklace: H&M, basic black dress with gold zip feature: H&M

Stripy vest: French Connection (on sale), white sheer blouse top: H&M, fine cream knit jumper: H&M

I also got a few more t shirts and vests that are similar to the ones above. I thought I’d invest in the coat from Warehouse while it was on sale as I think that style is so wearable. I also realised that my wardrobe was missing an LBD and the basic one from H&M can easily be styled up or down with the right accessories. I’m really happy with what I bought and the fact that I managed to stick within the budget I’d set myself – H&M is affordable and seems to be perfect for what I’m into right now. My wardrobe feels so much more organised!

Before the shopping started I enjoyed a trip to the hairdresser! I’ll be blogging more on that soon but you can kind of see my new style in my OOTD from yesterday:

Leather hooded jacket: Topshop, scarf: Urban Outfitters, coral vest top: H&M, slim leg jeans: Mango, brown boots: New Look, bird ring: Primark, arm candy: various bangles and bracelets including sparkly ones from River Island and Accessorize 

I’d also been thinking about getting some better quality products for my hair. I’ve been having a fair few bad hair days and all in the name of smartening myself up I took a trip to Aveda:

I love Aveda but as with most high end products they aren’t cheap, however they had 10% off the whole range yesterday :-) After a chat with the very helpful sales assistant I settled on these products which I feel will give me maximum impact for my money. I purchased the colour conserve shampoo and conditioner, the phomollient volumising styling foam and the madder root colour conditioner to use once a week to keep my red colour vibrant.

After getting my hair done and hitting the shops I was off to see my parents and best friends, by the time I got home I was exhausted! When I woke up this morning to go on my long run and when I saw that it was chucking it down, as well as having a painful blister on my toe, I decided to give myself some slack and do a shorter run than my planned 10 miles. I did 4 miles and plan to do my long run during the week. I’m glad I decided to be a bit kinder to myself for a change :-)

When I came home I probably would have been better off having something warm but all I fancied was the usual smoothie!

Romaine, frozen blueberries, chocolate amazing grass amazing meal powder, ground flax, maca powder, ice, water topped with roast almonds, goji berries and bee pollen

Other tastiness from the weekend has included:

Starbucks soy latte with vanilla syrup – perfection!

A full punnet of Scottish strawberries from the market topped with a delicious Alpro Dark Chocolate pudding

Chickpea and Aubergine Curry (but with the aubergine added in chunks instead of roasted), brown rice and broccoli

I’ve also been on a matcha green tea kick. I made some matcha overnight oats with chia seeds and soy milk layered with a chopped banana, some goji berries and a little agave nectar:

This morning I made myself a matcha latte with soy milk and stevia:

So happy to be getting my matcha fix again!

It seems that the ‘clear out’ mentality has been with me all weekend as this morning I decided to tackle my CD / DVD / book collection:

See what you can spot!

We have a vintage wooden chest in the living room where I store a lot of stuff – between me and James we have a few piles of things to get rid of. We decided that instead of trying to eBay it all we are going to give family and friends first dibs then donate what’s left to charity. I also tidied my kitchen cupboards and the ‘crap’ cupboard in our hall way. It feels fantastic to have so much less clutter, living in a one bed flat it makes a massive difference!

How has your weekend been? I’m glad I went easy on myself with my run this morning, usually I would feel awfully guilty for not completing a planned workout. My training for the Great North Run is going well so missing a long run isn’t the end of the world, and I need to remind myself that I still did get out and do something! When was the last time you didn’t complete a planned workout and how did you feel?

I’m also feeling so good about the clear out, like a big weight has been lifted! When was the last time you had a big clear out?