Outfit of the Day

The Watch Hut are one of the sponsors for the 2014 MAD Blog Awards. And they are running a competition for bloggers to write an ‘Outfit of the Day’ post including a watch from The Watch Hut website.

The Watch Hut is the UK’s largest online retailer of watches, offering a wide selection of timepieces. I have had a look around it previously for a couple of other blog posts, namely a Valentine’s Day Blogging Assignment and Win with The Watch Hut.

So here’s my outfit of the day. When I’m not in work clothes, I wear jeans most of the time, so I need to feel comfortable in them. My favourite style are high waisted ones, as they are more flattering to my figure. I’ve teamed these with a striped Breton knitted top. To finish off my look, I’ve chosen a pair of trainers, as I’m not happy if my feet are uncomfortable, since they blister very easily. And I don’t go anywhere without a bag, so I’ve chosen this black flap over shoulder bag for all my clutter.

Then I decided to choose the Marc by Marc Jacobs Ladies Pelly Black Rubber Strap Watch. The black leather strap will compliment my outfit of the day. This watch is currently retailing at £131.

This post is my entry into the The Watch Hut competition.

Win with The Watch Hut

The Watch Hut are sponsors of the Best Writer category in the 2014 MAD Blog Awards. And they are running a competition for bloggers to write a post about their favourite watch or accessory on The Watch Hut website upto £100.

The Watch Hut is the UK’s largest online retailer of watches, offering a wide selection of timepieces. I have had a browse around it previously for a Valentine’s Day Blogging Assignment, but chose higher priced watches that time. So back to the drawing board this time.

Whilst browsing I came across Eco-Drive watches. I’m always interested in anything eco. I hadn’t heard of Eco-Drive so I googled it and found out that these watches operate by converting light into energy. No battery needed. I have purchased wind-up watches in the past, but I have a tendency to either forget to wind-up or damage them by over-winding. The idea of Eco-Drive took my fancy.

I decided to choose the Citizen Ladies Eco-Drive 180 Watch EW1270-06A, as my favourite watch. The black leather strap will compliment all my outfits. This watch is currently retailing at £71, 21% off the RRP.

This post is my entry into the The Watch Hut competition.

Choosing a Sports Watch

The Watch Gallery are running a competition for bloggers to choose their favourite luxury sports watch. I previously entered their Valentine’s competition and I actually chose a sporting watch for my husband then. Didn’t win though. So this time I’m going to choose a watch for myself. Looking forward to some window shopping as I remember from last time that there were some watches priced at 6-figure amounts.

On browsing the site, I quickly realised it doesn’t have the functionality for looking for a sports watch for ladies. It does for men, but not for ladies. And since there are over 700 ladies watches on the website, I may have missed one that I like better.

But I’m happy with the one I have chosen which is the Ladies Montblanc Sport Watch with a white rubber strap, which is water resistant to 200m. It has 136 diamonds set in to the rim. I found out a new word today on their website. The watch rim is correctly known as the bezel. And currently this watch is on special offer at £5,050 instead of £10,100, a saving of 50%. I can’t tell you any more about it, since the website says to phone for more information.

Even at half price, it is about £5k more than I can afford to spend, but I do enjoy window shopping fun. And if I win, I could perhaps spend the £100 ASOS voucher prize on a cheaper watch which I could feel safe wearing. I would be too worried about losing a £5k watch.

Ladies Montblanc Sports Watch

Choosing a watch for Valentine’s

And here’s another watch competition. This time The Watch Gallery are running a competition for bloggers to choose a watch for a loved one.

I hadn’t visited this website before and the first thing that struck me was the very large banner about 0% finance options. Obviously going to be some very expensive watches here.  Good job it is only window shopping and shame that the prize isn’t one of their watches. But never mind, I’d still enjoy £50 of restaurant vouchers if I win.

And yes I was correct. The price brackets range from under £750 to over £20,000 and ranking by price reveals the most expensive gents watch appears to be £222,400 although there are a few listed as £POA. Wow.

Well as I’m window shopping, I’ll ignore the price tags and choose the one I think my husband would like best. Especially as he has a bad habit of losing items like wallets and phones, so the same may apply to watches.  He actually hasn’t worn a watch in years, so probably true.

Spoilt for choice but I’m selecting the Ralph Lauren Sporting Watch. This costs £2,150, so about two grand more than I could actually afford to spend, but I can dream can’t I? Sadly it doesn’t tell you much about the product on the website, but I have to say if I was spending that much money, I’d want to buy it at a shop not online.

Ralph Lauren Sporting Watch

Valentine’s Day Blogging Assignment

The Watch Hut are running a competition for bloggers to pair together a gents and ladies watch.

The Watch Hut is the UK’s largest online retailer of watches, offering a wide selection of timepieces, so this assignment took some time for me to choose. Ladies and Gents watches are very different in style naturally, so after some deliberation I decided to choose two watches from the same brand. I opted for the brand Guess, to link in with guessing what the surprise Valentines watches might be. Then I chose something sparkly for the lady with black, white and pink interchangeable straps, so she can change the colour to coordinate with her outfit. And a stylish black watch for the gent. Both watches have leather straps.

Happy Valentines Day by x2mum featuring guess watches

GUESS Ladies Mini Sparkle Watch
£121 – thewatchhut.co.uk

GUESS Gents Rigor Black Leather Strap Watch
£111.75 – thewatchhut.co.uk

Valentines Gifts In Unusual Places

Now SportsDirect might not be the first shop which comes to mind when you are thinking of where to buy a present for Valentines Day. But SportsDirect.com are hosting a competition for bloggers to find five Valentines Day gifts for their partner. There is a catch though – each gift must be under £20.

So for my entry I took a look at the categories on SportsDirect to see if anything leapt out at me in terms of Valentines gifts. The only category that fitted my idea of a typical Valentines gift was watches, but I ruled that out, as I wouldn’t want to give a watch that cost less than £20.

So thinking outside the norm, I decided to look at underwear since we ladies like to receive lingerie as a Valentines gift, so why not give undies to the man in my life. Lots of choice, but nothing struck me as sexy, so I opted for a 2-pack of trunks including a red pair. Red is the colour typically associated with Valentines. There was a Looney Tunes pair with a “I’m a lover not a biter” slogan that caught my eye for a joke, but I know he would hate all the cartoon underwear, so ruled that out too.

Having chosen an item of underwear, my thoughts moved onto pyjamas. I’d been surprised to notice this as one of the categories on SportsDirect. I didn’t know that they sold more than just sports clothes. Easy one this time. Obviously the red pair of pyjamas.

Whilst looking at the pyjama category, I saw it also included onesies. My husband expressed an interest in onesies a couple of months, so this is a definite choice for Valentines. I already have a onesie myself, so we’ll be able to snuggle up on the sofa in our onesies together.

So I’ve done underwear, nightwear and onesie. The next category is swimwear and I see 2 red pairs. Swim shorts or speedos. Absolutely no no no to the speedos. I’ve been dropping hints to my husband for several years to ditch brief swimwear. Seriously I’m doing him a big favour to get him swim shorts.

Just one more item to choose and I want it to be a nice piece of clothing. So I’ve opted for a stylish pair of casual chinos, that he’ll be able to wear for Valentines dinner.

Happy Valentines Day by x2mum on Polyvore

Giorgio All In One Suit Mens – SportsDirect.com
£11.99 – sportsdirect.com

Firetrap Long Sleeve Pyjama Set Mens – SportsDirect.com
£10.99 – sportsdirect.com

Speedo Leisure Shorts Mens – SportsDirect.com
£10.99 – sportsdirect.com

Soviet Bass Chinos – SportsDirect.com
£15 – sportsdirect.com

Firetrap 2 Pack Trunks Mens – SportsDirect.com
£12.99 – sportsdirect.com