She Who Mums Wins

Today's blog is about work wear!  I mentioned previously that I haven't found that many smart outfits for work, when you see outfits online they tend to be pretty boring and if you have to be really smart for work I think you would have to fork out for some fairly expensive dresses.  I am really lucky that our business attire is smart casual, and so as long as I have a couple of good pairs of maternity jeans the main thing I need for work are some smart tops.  For the first trimester I was also able to wear a black H&M blazer I have had for yonks but I can't fit in that anymore, so now I am wearing cardigans and layering with a variety of snoods for warmth!  A couple of smart tops I have found are below: Pull and Bear - £7.99 (non maternity) New Look - £14.99 Dorothy Perkins - £11 Mothercare - £11  I only had the Mothercare one for a while and I was conscious everyone would notice I would wear the same top every meeting so bought the othe

A couple of weekends ago I hit Bristol to see if I could find any maternity gems in the sales, as a lot of the clothes I have ordered online have had to be sent straight back, either not fitting or too uncomfortable. I tweeted before shopping to see if anyone had any recommendations but without much success, the only stores that had maternity wear actually in the shop were Topshop and H&M . My mum bought me this cool t-shirt in the H&M sale for £10 and I have already worn it a few times, really comfy and definitely my style. The best finds were in Pull & Bear as they had a huge sale on, and a lot of items were only £5.99 or £7.99! I bought the following two tops / tunics which I hope should fit for quite a while and will still be worn in the Summer once the baby has arrived. Both of the below were £7.99 each. The last items I bought were some Primark maternity leggings for £5 which are really comfy and two pairs of sunglasses, which were £1 and £2 res

As we have established in previous posts I am very tight when it comes to spending money on clothes, and the same rule applies for underwear.  I had no idea pre-pregnancy that you weren't supposed to wear underwired bras when you're pregnant, I can't remember if I read it somewhere a few weeks in or whether it was the very nice lady in Marks and Spencer who told me (it's all about milk ducts apparently). Kudos to said lady in M&S as she also told me when I went to buy one that I shouldn't spend a lot of money on bras as I would be buying new ones a lot... I heeded her advice and she was completely right, I have been buying new ones every 3-4 weeks as they very quickly become uncomfortable and have been sticking to white, black and nude for maximum wear.  I did buy the first one in Marks and Spencer but because there haven't been any sales on in their underwear section for a while I have bought the rest at the following stores: Primark These

So far my posts have focussed on outfits I already have and where I bought the clothes from, so I thought today I would let you know where I find outfit inspiration.  I love finding individual pieces in the shops but am not great at putting them together and accessorising.  When you shop for maternity clothes online I have found that some of the outfits are quite boring and don't inspire me to want to buy the whole outfit, so I have been using Pinterest to search for outfit inspiration.  I began by searching for 'maternity fashion' and have pinned a few of my favourite outfits on this board -  maternity fashion - after that I went to the same search and started going through individual pinners' boards to find more outfits, these are a couple of my favourites:  A lot of denim and yellow in there - can't wait for Spring!  I have been trying to wear more necklaces to jazz up plain pieces and be braver in my outfit choices but still have a w

Today I thought I would blog about wearing my own clothes vs maternity clothes, as quite a few of you mentioned on Facebook that you would wear your own clothes for as long as you could and have a few key maternity pieces - thanks for the recommendations! I've found that some of my tops have been great, below I am wearing 2 tops I already had, particularly the denim shirt from Primark as it is a baggy fit and I wear it all the time, I don't think I will get a lot more wear out of the Ralph Lauren t-shirt I am wearing over the top, as it is a bit short for my preference over the Mothercare maternity jeans. I have added the image below as this shows me wearing a maternity top from H&M' s current season, I have it in spots and stripes and have worn them loads! (£7.99 each) I've worn them casually at the weekend or with a blazer and heels for work and I like that they come much lower over the jeans. I'm wearing them with a JoJo Maman Bebe jumper I

When I first found out that I was pregnant one of the first apps I used was ASOS and I went straight to their maternity section. I am a huge fan of jumpsuits and couldn't wait to see what they had in store. Some of the outfits were a bit random but I loved this jumpsuit: It was in the sale but I thought it was too early to start buying clothes and so saved it to favourites and forgot all about it.  Several weeks later I was ready to start buying clothes and knew I had an event in March when I would need a black tie outfit, I went straight back to ASOS but they had already sold out - I'm not surprised as it was only £15!  I hit eBay and kept searching for the same jumpsuit for a few days and it actually came up. So I got the jumpsuit above for £6.99 plus postage - with the tags on!  The jumpsuit is going to be perfect when I'm a bit bigger but last week I needed an outfit for a black tie dinner and I am now 17 weeks, too big for my regular clothes but not bi

I decided to start this blog this week as, having not had much success shopping in Cardiff for maternity wear, I decided to try shopping in Bristol. I sent out a few tweets in advance asking for shop recommendations and the response wasn't overly positive. Most people said that the only shops you could buy maternity wear in store were Topshop and H&M. It was the same in Cardiff, with Topshop having a very small range and the H&M range mainly covering what I would call basics. I was very surprised that John Lewis also only offers maternity  wear online.  Currently your main source of maternity wear has to be shopping online, Mothercare has a good range and they have a lot of shops but it is just one range, and if you are anything like me you don't buy all of your regular clothes from one shop.  I am now on a mission to find stylish maternity wear that doesn't break the bank, I usually buy all of my clothes in the sales and have been shocked at the mark up for