Discover your holiday style!

Hi guys,
Easter weekend is nearly upon us (the perfect time for a long weekend away), the week after Easter Mike and I are heading to Disneyland Paris for three nights in the Disney Hotel New York and endless disney character fun, and last night we started brainstorming ideas for locations for our long summer holiday. I think it's fair to say that holiday season has officially begun!!

I love holidays and I really love the adventure of travel, but I am officially the worst suitcase packer ever! When I headed out to live in Beijing for a while my poor dad paid a small countries national debt in excess baggage for my luggage. And Mike bought me extra luggage allowance as a present before we even flew on our honeymoon. Travelling light is not in my vocabulary!

Now packing for the trip to Disneyland is easy: 4 Mickey Mouse T shirts and my comfiest pumps will probably do it! But packing for a long summer holiday is more problematic. Enter Style-Passport.com

Style Passport are celebrating their first birthday this month. And although i've only just discovered them (late to the table as usual!) I'm already slightly in love! The website offers you capsule wardrobe and beauty suggestions for different holiday options. SO for example I inputted that I was heading for a beach holiday and this is what it came up with:

You can then click to buy, shop, and explore more options. More useful than the shopping aspect though is just the knowing what to pack aspect! I'm going skiing in Scotland with my parents in the New Year, and i've never been skiing before. So I have no idea of the kind of things I'll need. Just two minutes on the ski pages though, and I had loads of ideas!

And if you haven't decided where to take your next holiday to, the site also includes recommendations, top tips, and destination ideas (as well as what to wear when you get there of course!) It's like the optimism of summer bottled up and created in website form!

I'm feeling inspired to trawl through my wardrobe and start packing some suitcases: starting, of course, which 4 matching his 'n' hers Mickey Mouse T shirts, and two pairs of comedy ears!

Love Tor xx

Please don’t forget to buy travel insurance!

Hi guys,
Holiday season is upon us! The weather might not be screaming summer yet, but everyone I know is booking their summer breaks, and the shops are full of bikinis and sunhats. My spare room is full of bikinis and sunhats too: I’ve spent the last couple of months buying everything I need for my big trip: My honeymoon is feeling so close I can almost taste it! But I almost didn’t get to go on my big holiday this year…..why, I hear you ask? Because we almost didn’t get any travel insurance!

I’m going to tell you a little story about stupidity and tears and a conflict about Egypt (which happened at the same time as the conflict in Egypt. This isn’t a coincidence) You remember, no doubt, when the Egyptian people revolted? The joy for everyone as they overthrew their leader and demanded freedom, and better pay etc?

Whilst I was happy for the Egyptian people, this news story made me thoroughly miserable. Because all the airlines were stopping flights to many of the countries airports. And that was where we were due to go on honeymoon. And we didn’t have any travel insurance! None at all. Just a note on a to-do list that said “book travel insurance” and had promptly been ignored! I was completely distraught.

Luckily the conflict died down, and we got our insurance booked immediately. But nothing was worth that week of panic – I was in tears because I was convinced we weren’t going to get a honeymoon, and without the insurance paying out (which wouldn’t happen, because we didn’t have any!) we couldn’t afford to book to go anywhere else. It was one of the most stressful weeks of my life.

So my advice, for what it’s worth, is before you start choosing that slinky bikini or splashing out on tanning lotions, book your travel insurance! I know your 99% sure you won’t need it (we were too!) but it just isn’t worth taking the risk and experiencing the heartache is something does go wrong. Then hit the shops: there’s nothing nicer than a new holiday wardrobe! Now all we have left to worry about is the dreaded Sharm Shark….

Love, Tor x

*This is a sponsored post

What do you wear on a first holiday with a new boyfriend?

In the last installment of our "what do you wear" series I asked you guys to come up with other stressful situations that you have no idea what you should wear for! This post is taken from one of those and was thought up by the lovely Rai: "What do you wear on your first holiday with a new boyfriend?"

I loved this question because this time last year Mike and I went on our first holiday to Turkey together (the couple of nights in a tent in Yarmouth the year before don't count, as i'm trying to wipe the horror from my mind!) and it both made me smile, and make me remember the stress I had putting my suitcase together. So here are some suggestions. This post is working on the assumption that you're going on a typical beach holiday with a couple of "cultural" day trips. I'm going to do a city break one later in the month (based on lessons learnt from our trip last month to Paris)

I've tried to put together a capsule wardrobe, and I genuinely think this is all you need for a seven day break! Lots of pieces that work together and are easy to throw on are key, especially if you guys don't live together: he doesn't need to know it takes you an hour to get ready every morning. This way you can keep it bright, breezy, and speedy, because you don't have a hundred choices. Even now, when waiting hours for me to get ready for dinner, Mike laments that it didn't take me anywhere near as long when we were away. Lull him into thinking you're a low maintanance gal: then unleash the real you on him later!

I've made denim culottes the centrepiece of the wardrobe because they're so versitile: feminine and flattering they'll look good over a bikini, with sandals and a t shirt for a day of sightseeing, or dressed up for the evening. I've also used a neutral tan base colour because that way even if things don't quite match by the time you get to the end of the week it still looks put together. The satchel bag is perfect for sightseeing or evening. And everything else can be worn for any ocassion ensuring you always look hot!

I also went for bikinis that would mix and match well together - nothing worse than having to throw on bottoms that have a soggy gusset!

Love, Tor xx

Everything in the picture is from Topshop

It wasn't so itsy bitsy teeny weeny a bikini!!

As I wrote the other day, most of the time i'm pretty comfortable, even proud of my curvy body. But if there's one time of year where thoughts of my curves turn me into a quivering wreck and drive me to starvation diets and exercising myself to exhaustion then its this one: Mike and I have just booked our summer holiday.

We're spending a week on the Venetian riviera. And i'm really looking forward to it, i've even started planning what I want to pack: Floaty sun dresses for wandering around Venice? Check! Perfect day to night wear for lazy days around leather markets followed by dusky evenings eating pasta? Check! A bikini for lazing on the beach and visiting Europes largest water park? Nope! Na ha! No way!!

Whilst i'm perfectly happy with my body behind closed doors and dont mind showing it off when it's covered in fabric, the thought of donning a bikini turns me into a nervous wreck! There's no where to hide! I don't have a "bikini body" and I don't think 3 months is enough time to change the habits of a lifetime and go out and get one! Besides, I actually like not feeling hungry!

But I do want to sun myself on the beach and splash in the sea; its a quandry! Maybe one of these Herve Leger by Max Azria swimsuits would help ease the pain:

It doesn't matter if you don't look thin if you ooze high end crazy fashion, right??!! Right.

Love, Tor x