COLLARLESS SHIRTS ARE THE BEST.

Coral shirt - Marks and Spencer - £29.50

I absolutely love these kinds of shirts, especially at this time of year in the UK with our ever changing weather! They're a light and airy material perfect for the hottest days of summer, which are then easy to layer up in spring and autumn. I find them slightly less formal than a traditional collared shirt, so they're also easy to transition from day to night if need be.

Flowery shirt - T.K.Maxx - £12.99

Red shirt - Primark - £10

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ADORABLE NECKLACE BY ORELIA.

I received this cute little necklace in my most recent order from ASOS. I'd been after a piece of jewellery by Orelia for a while now, but I was waiting until I'd found the perfect little necklace before committing to the purchase. If you have a look at the brand's own website, you'll see that their products can be a bit on the pricier side, but their selection of jewellery is very minimal and quite classic, so things aren't likely to go out of fashion. I really love this brand for this exact reason - their pieces are so timeless, whilst still being quite contemporary at the same time.

Disclaimer: This is not a sponsored post. All opinions are my own.

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STEAL OF THE WEEK: £3 DRESS FROM PRIMARK!

This post is a little later than planned, but I couldn't not tell you all about this amaaazing bargain from Primark! Originally priced at £13, this adorable embroidered dress was reduced to £7 in the end-of-summer sale. It was the very last one of its style on the rack, and was thankfully in my size. Phew! I very gladly tried it on (just to be on the safe side), and found that it fit beautifully. I emerged from the changing rooms beaming and queued up to pay for my wonderful new dress. When I got to the till, the price was corrected even more and the dress came up as only £3! Bargain or what? I just love it when that happens!

What bargains did you pick up in the end-of-summer sales?

A BOOTIFUL BUY.

My parents accompanied me into town the other day, as we were out gathering the last few bits and pieces that I needed for university. My mum said that she'd buy me a new pair of boots as the weather further up north will be even more rainy than it is where we live, and she wanted me to wear something other than my trusty-but-unfortunately-now-falling-apart-and-not-to-mention-pretty-grubby white converse-style pumps.

STEAL OF THE WEEK: SALE ITEMS FROM H&M.

The weather's cooling down in England at the moment, so I thought I'd tell you about some amazing bargains I found in the sales, which are perfect for autumn. I paid a visit to H&M and they had this crazy deal on: 2 for 1 on all sale items! I found this lovely dark green/teal jumper for £7 almost immediately, and I kept searching - I had to find something else to get for free, of course! I'd almost given up when I caught sight of this beautiful bodycon monochrome snakeskin-style print skirt. It was only £5 and I fell in love with it instantly, but was unsure whether I could pull off such a bold print. I tried it on and was pleasantly surprised with how it looked. It's a very flattering fit and it comes down to a modest length, especially on shorter ladies like moi!

What have you picked up in the sales recently?

5 FASHION ITEMS I COULDN'T HAVE LIVED WITHOUT ON HOLIDAY.

As you've probably guessed, I have indeed returned from my holiday to Spain. I spent a week with my family in one of Spain's most popular cities, Barcelona. It was pretty hot there with temperatures reaching 30 degrees Celsius, although on a couple of occasions we were caught out by rainstorms! Despite that, it was all in all a very enjoyable trip and a lovely way to spend some time with family before I head off to university in a month. There were a few specific fashion items that I seriously couldn't have done without during the week, so I thought I'd share these with you in today's post :)

1. A floppy sun hat. Although I had to make sure mine didn't fly off at some points in the summer breeze, it was great for keeping my head cool and providing a little bit of shade and protection from the sun.

2. Floaty patterned trousers. These are really useful when you need to cover up to go inside a religious building or cathedral, as well as being cool and airy. An added bonus is that you don't have to shave your legs on the day you wear them!

3. Birkenstock-style sandals. A last minute purchase from Primark but totally worth it for me, as this kind of sandal is super comfy and surprisingly mine didn't come off at all. I wore these pretty much every day in Barcelona - they were great for walking around the city in.

4. Kimono. These are cute, breezy and really good for protection from the sun. My shoulders are the bit of my body that are most likely to get burnt, so I just slung my kimono over them from time to time to give them a break from the sun's rays.

5. Maxi skirt. These have the same purpose as the patterned trousers. Also, they're pretty versatile fashion-wise - you can dress them up or down, both of which I did during my trip.

What are your fashion essentials for a summer holiday in the sun?

EVENING OUTFIT IDEA.

I just realised I haven't done an outfit post for almost two months! So I thought I'd get back into the swing of things with an outfit I love to wear on an evening out.

Top - Matalan - £6

Culottes - ASOS - £15

Chunky heels - Primark - £12

Necklace - USC - £3

Bag - ASOS - £12

HUUUGE PRIMARK HAUL.

I find it kinda annoying that Primark doesn't have an online store that you can browse around on for hours, or use to see what's in store before actually going shopping, so I thought a haul post showing you all some of the things that they're selling at the moment would probably be quite useful. This post is basically a cumulation of all the trips I've made to Primark over the last few weeks, which means that this will inevitably be a pretty long and picture-heavy post! Bear with me though, it'll definitely be worth your while - some of this stuff is seriously nice… and super cheap too! :)

White summer dress - £5. Such a bargain.

Formal tailored playsuit - £14. Loving the contrasting collar on this one :)

Chiffon-y shirt - £9. Yup, another collar.

Raglan top - £2. Great for lazy days.

Hogwarts T-shirt - £6. As a HP fan, I just couldn't resist this one!

Monochrome oriental-esque top - £4. I really love the print on this one.

Aztec print shorts - £4. So light and floaty.

Abstract print shorts - £4. Loving the cobalt blue edging.

Teal bodycon skirt - £2. Gotta love teal.

Nude flats - £4. These are seriously versatile.

When I went into Primark, I was kinda intending to buy lots of things for my upcoming family holiday to Spain - like shorts, dresses and floatier tops - but I just couldn't resist some of these bargains! I really hope this post helps give you all an idea of what's in Primark stores at the moment!

ONE SWIMSUIT TO RULE THEM ALL.

Last week, I was shopping with my mum for stuff for our family holiday, and we took a quick trip to M&S, seeing as its my mum's favourite shop. Typically, you only find stuff there for the middle-aged/older woman, however in the past, I have actually found the odd nice thing there for myself. This trip was no exception. I found this beautiful all-in-one swimsuit in the sale section, and was so relieved when the only one there was my size! I just love it when that happens, don't you?

I'd been looking round for a decent swimsuit for a while, seeing as I'm not really confident enough at the moment to wear a bikini on holiday. Firstly, because I'm just not too keen on my stomach area, and secondly, I've had bad experiences with bikinis in the past, such as diving off a boat and my pants going walkabouts in the sea :') how embarrassing… So for me, a nice summery swimsuit is most definitely the way forward!

This one has blue and cream stripes and a rope-like string to tie around your neck - it actually has quite a nautical feel to it. It also has grippy strips around the top edges, so it definitely won't come down. When I tried it on in the changing room, I was extremely surprised, because it actually looked nice on me! I felt comfortable in it too, which I think is essential when choosing swimwear. It was £20, reduced from £35, but even so, it was more than I was expecting to pay for a holiday swimsuit. However, M&S are pretty famous for selling only items of the best quality, so I'd much rather pay a little more than usual for a good quality swimsuit from this shop, than a cheaper one from elsewhere on the high street.

MAXI DRESSES FOR PETITES?

At the ripe old age of 18(!), I am reluctantly coming to terms with the fact that I will probably not grow any taller. However, I cannot actually recall having any kind of growth spurt during my pubescent years, so I do still remain quietly hopeful (somewhat naively) for a couple more inches. Or centimetres. Or just one centimetre… please...? Still, my immediate problem is to do with buying clothes, more specifically maxi dresses, designed for the more petite ones amongst us.

ASOS usually have a decent selection of petite maxi dresses - they have just over 50 different styles in stock right now. The thing is: as soon as you remove the word 'petite' from your search, you find that there are over 1000 different maxi dresses to choose from. I'd say that this is approximately proportional to what you'd find in the shops, i.e. for every 20 maxi dresses you spot in the normal height section, you find about one in the petite section. This really annoys me because most of the time, you see a maxi dress in the normal section that you really like, but then you realise that it would be ridiculous for you to even consider buying it, as it would simply be dragging along the floor the entire time you wore it. That is unless you wear huuuuge platform heels, which I'm pretty sure none of us really wanna do when we're just chillin' on holiday. And if the one design that they actually do have in the petite section just isn't your thing, then where does that leave you?

This whole thing also bothers me because the average height for women in the UK is about 5'3" to 5'4". This means that there has to be a whole load of women smaller than the average in order for it to even be an average (hell yeah, statistics skills finally coming in useful!) - so why can't shops reflect that in what they sell, instead of always having a minuscule petite section?!

Anyway, rant over! These are my picks from the current selection of petite maxi dresses on ASOS:

Is it just the shops where I live that have teeny tiny petite sections, or do any of you guys have this same problem? Feel free to comment if we're in the same boat!