Your daily dose of pretty: Red Poppy peplum top from Dorothy Perkins

The Cold That Ate Manhatten is fading gradually. But I'm still defying winter by browsing pretty floral summery styles. I love the oversized poppy print on this top from Dorothy Perkins:

Gorgeous. The Red Poppy peplum top is £18.00 from Dorothy Perkins.

Your daily dose of pretty: Symphony for a Mermaid t-shirt from La Fraise

I'm still in the throes of The Cold That Ate Manhatten, so today's post is going to be short on words because my head hurts and is possibly about to explode. Plus I think I have a fever and my grip on reality may or may not be slightly tenuous. Does anybody else see the goblin in the corner?

So: t-shirt; mermaid; pretty:

The Symphony for a Mermaid t-shirt is €23 from La Fraise.

I'm going to go to sleep now, wake me if the goblin does anything suspicious, kthxbai.

Your daily dose of pretty: Betty dress by Natasha Bailie

Winter has started here in New Zealand. After a warmer than normal May the start of June marked not only the official beginning of winter, but also the beginning of the cold, wet, windy weather. Oh and another head cold for me. So, ummm, yay?

Miserable weather and a miserable cold can mean only one thing - browsing the internet for pretty flowery spring dresses. Of course. And look at this one:

Look at that plunging vee back and that gorgeous oversized bow! The Betty vintage styled dress is £120 from Natasha Bailie, a Singapore-based stockist of vintage clothing who have recently started producing their own range of vintage-styled dresses, of which the Betty is one.

Your daily dose of pretty: Copper Daisy Flower Earrings from Cinnamon Jewellery

Thanks to 12 Year Old Son (who spends more time watching videos on YouTube about his favourite video games than he spends actually playing the damn games), we've reached our internet cap for the month. Which means we're now reduced to dinosaur age dial-up speeds*. Pictures of pretty things take a very long time to load for me right now. Loading a picture goes something like this:

"Oooh, that thumbnail of a pretty [insert name of pretty thing here] looks lovely, I think I'll click on it to make it bigger." Click. Wait. Wait some more. Look at watch. Wait. Decide to make coffee. Realise we're out of coffee beans. Go to supermarket to get more coffee beans. Return. Grind coffee in ridiculously expensive coffee grinder that Eccentric English Boyfriend bought because he's a total coffee snob. Make coffee in coffee machine that cost considerably less than the ridiculously expensive coffee grinder that Eccentric English Boyfriend bought because he's a total coffee snob. While coffee is brewing check screen. Notice a sliver of picture has loaded. Get excited about apparent progress. Nothing further happens. Get annoyed at self for premature excitement. Drink coffee. Wait. Decide to change cat litter. Regain consciousness. Check watch. Considerable time has passed. Make mental note to change cats' diet. Check screen. Picture has loaded. And here it is:

Aren't they gorgeous? Totally worth the wait. The Copper Daisy Flower Earrings are £15.00 from Cinnamon Jewellery on Folksy.

And now I'm going to click "Publish" and make lunch while this post uploads. I'll probably have time to grow my own vegetables for the salad.


* Yes I realise they didn't have dial-up in the dinosaur age. I'm pretty certain they still had faster internet than what we currently have though.

Your daily dose of pretty: Marks & Spencer Limited Collection High Heel Bow Platform Shoes

I have a very long list of English shops which I would love to transplant to New Zealand. High on that list is M&S, and not just because their 5-pack cotton briefs are the best knickers ever. Although maybe not the sexiest.

One thing that surprised me about M&S was their shoe range - I didn't expect them to produce pretty shoes like these:

Bow and polka dots and platform oh my.

The Limited Collection High Heel Bow Platform Shoes are £29.50 from M&S, whose delivery charge to New Zealand is at the higher end of the spectrum at £15. Never mind, they'll have a whole variety of new summer shoes in when we go over next year. Also, did I mention we're going to England next year? Is it too early to be getting excited?

Your daily dose of pretty: Victorian Framed Rose Hips Necklace from Fable and Fury

When I was little I thought rosehips and roses were two different plants. Mind you I also thought toadstools were actual toads' stools, so my gardening knowledge was hardly to be relied upon.

Now that I'm older and slightly more knowledgeable about gardening (only slightly, my dead plants outnumber the ones that have managed to stay alive), I appreciate rosehips because they're pretty. As is this necklace:

The Victorian Frame Rose Hips and Leaves silhouette necklace is made from silver satin stainless steel and is US$26.00 from FableAndFury on Etsy. It's also available in black or red stainless steel.

Some changes at Pretty Clever

Hello my pretties. You may have noticed that my posting at Pretty Clever over the last few months has been a bit sporadic, for one reason and another. During this time I've been mulling over the direction I want to take Pretty Clever in. When I first started Pretty Clever over two years ago my intention was to write a makeup and nail polish blog, but of its own accord (yes, my blog is sentient) Pretty Clever seemed to take itself more and more in the direction of being a blog about pretty things in fashion. And so I started to feel that posts about makeup didn't quite gel with the feeling of this blog.

Well in the serendipitious way that these things have of happening, Joanna from Pretty Pretty Pretty approached me and asked me to write for them. Now I've been reading Pretty Pretty Pretty since about the same time I started writing Pretty Clever. It's a New Zealand-based beauty blog that I love, and I've been lucky enough to become friends with a couple of the writers there, so writing for them seems like a great fit.

So what that means is, Pretty Clever will continue, and will be the place I blog about shoes and dresses and jewellery and all other things pretty in fashion - and hopefully the Daily Dose of Pretty will actually go back to being, you know, daily! Meanwhile, if you want to read about my nail polish and makeup adventures, join me and the other gorgeous ladies at Pretty Pretty Pretty.

Selina xx

Your daily dose of pretty: ASOS PREMIUM Pleat Shoulder Dress With Full Skirt

I'm couch-bound and slowly disappearing behind a mountain of wadded up tissues today my pretties, because I have a cold. If I had the energy to do anything other than reach pitifully for another tissue I'd be roundly cursing the universe for giving me this cold so soon after the last one. Obviously someone somewhere thinks I enjoy sneezing and sniffing and coughing. Great. Thanks.

Anyway, luckily for you the pretties don't have to stop because the always gorgeous and delightful Amber over at Fashion Police has posted a dress which I am utterly in love with, and I'm sure she won't mind me sharing it with you. The link that is, not the actual dress because that would cost an awful lot in postage.

The colour above is called Deep Peacock, which is gorgeous. I am also in love with the version in black - so much so that I would dearly love to buy both:

I just love the slash neckline and fitted waist. I find myself wondering if I could get away with buying both and claiming some sort of fever-related amnesia.

The ASOS PREMIUM Pleat Shoulder Dress With Full Skirt is £50.00.

Your daily dose of pretty: Brighton Belle Polka Dot Swing Dress from Dollydagger

There is a particular sound I make whenever I see a new pretty, that sounds something like "heep", said in a squeaky voice. It is also the same sound I make when I see cute puppy pictures.

This is not a puppy:

Ok so it's not the first retro-style swing dress I've shown you. It won't be the last either. But it has a bow people, which increases its awesomeness by eleventy-twelve percent*.

The Brighton Belle Polka Dot Swing Dress is £79.00 from Dollydagger, and also comes in blue and black.

* I totally used my calculator to work that out.

Your daily dose of pretty: Dark Jade Asian Style Floral Earrings by theshagbag on Etsy

I love the gorgeous embossed floral design on these earrings:

US$9.95 from theshagbag (oh how I would love to know the origins of that shop name!) on Etsy, where you can find a range of earrings and cuffs in different colours with Asian and floral inspired designs. I'll have one of each please!