Yet another outfit post from me! This is verging on becoming a regular feature… I will concede however, that these photos were taken during the same weekend as my Marks & Spencer Valentine’s Day outfit photos, but when you have both a location and a photographer (thanks Mum!), why waste the opportunity to get as many outfit photos as you can.

Today’s (aka Feb 15th) outfit features one of my favourite summer dresses ‘warmed up’ for wearing during the winter months. As the weather was sunny but cold I decided that layering was the best option to ensure that every weather-related possibility was covered. Over the top of the dress I wore a lightweight jumper and teamed this with my new trench coat and a fluffy faux-fur snood. I wore this outfit for a day meandering around London and my Moroccan boots proved to be a great choice for a day that involved spending several hours on my feet.

The dress itself is from Mint Velvet (yes, another MV purchase) and the jumper is from TU at Sainsburys. I bought them both at the end of last year, the dress was in the sale and reduced to less than half-price and the jumper was a bargain at £22 full-price! The Zara trench coat is a recent purchase, stolen inspired by a fellow blogger (Amanda - The Online Stylist), I absolutely love it and have barely taken it off since it arrived. The snood was from ASOS and although I know its faux-fur, the protesters outside of Harrods didn't and I was fully anticipating a bucket of paint to fly my way! At the last minute I also added a necklace from Wallis and my ever-faithful Miu Miu bag proved to be the perfect carrying companion as always.

Bold prints and bright colours; two common features of my wardrobe and subsequently the majority of my outfits. It’s very rare for me to choose an outfit with no colour at all, but I felt that the simple cut of this Lipsy dress along with the black bead embellishment was the perfect base for a purely monochrome ensemble.

During our adventures in London I wanted an elegant outfit for evening drinks and this proved to be the ideal choice. I’m a big fan of shift style dresses, not only are they flattering, but they’re also comfortable - an important consideration when you’re trekking round London on the tube. I’m also pleased to report that the beading along the front of the dress remained perfectly intact, which has not always been the case with some of my dresses in the past.

Lipsy is not a brand that I've bought much from in the past, but since discovering this dress that all might be about to change! For this evening look I teamed the Lipsy dress (similar styles here and here) with a black chiffon and sequin cover-up from Topshop, my grey Mango shoulder bag and simply black pumps from Dorothy Perkins.

Following on from my last post I’m delighted to reveal the dress I received as part of the M&S Valentine’s Challenge and how I wore it while in London at the weekend. The dress that was chosen for me is this wonderful abstract floral print number from M&S’s Limited Collection. If you've seen some of my blog posts from last year, you’ll know already that I’m a HUGE fan of this particular collection, so I was especially delighted that my secret blogger chose this dress for me.

I spent the weekend in London not at Fashion Week, but with my husband, parents and brother and sister-in-law, being tourists and enjoying the sights and sounds of the big city. Saturday night included a trip to the Apollo Victoria to see Wicked and I decided that this was the perfect opportunity to wear my new dress. Thankfully my Mum was willing to get behind the camera and take some outfit photos for me before we left for the theatre. The location of our apartment (on the Thames) made the perfect backdrop for a series of outfit photos. This is the second time we've stayed in an apartment in the St George Wharf building and I’m sure we’ll be back again!

I styled the dress with two Anton Heunis jewellery pieces; my mixed-metals necklace and ring, my suede ankle boots from Oasis and my new Jimmy Choo dusky pink Shadow bag. The dress is really comfortable and flattering, it’s also lined, which means that it’s warmer than it looks. I really love it and I’m sorely tempted to get the similar version with the stripes as well. Huge thank you to whoever chose it for me (I've yet to find out), I’m absolutely delighted.

I can also reveal the blogger I chose a dress for... I got paired with the lovely Hanna, who writes a blog called 'The Wardrobe Challenge'. If you would like to see how Hanna styled the dress I chose for her, then take a look at her blog post here.

My first blog post of 2013 and its February already! Apologies to anyone who has been waiting for an update since last year, all usual excuses apply; my ‘actual job’ has been keeping me busy and I’ve also been working with Stanwells’ as their affiliate marketing manager. As a result of all this feverish activity The ‘It’ Guide has had to take a bit of a backseat, but I’ve just about managed to get on top of everything and I’m ready to get blogging again.

Today’s outfit post was inspired by a visit to Marrakech (Morocco) back in January. The purpose of the trip was to celebrate my lovely friend Lucy’s (The Luxe Life) 30th birthday and I was delighted to be invited along. There were eight of us altogether and in addition to Lucy there were a couple more familiar faces from the blogging world; Briony from AGirlAStyle and Olivia from My New Favourite Thing (whose Cobra Society boots were part of the inspiration for this post).

On arrival in Marrakech we were ‘meeted’ and greeted at the airport and whisked off to our amazing riad. The Riad Meriem was situated in the heart of the medina and making our way through the winding streets and bustling markets was quite a culture shock!

We crammed in several activities over the three days we were there; quad biking, a trip to a hamman, a cookery lesson, several meals out and various trips around the medina and the souks. The sheer vibrancy of Marrakech is hard to narrate, if I had to associate one colour with the trip it would be the beautiful cobalt blue that featured throughout Yves Saint Laurent’s Jardin de Majorelle.

For my Moroccan inspired outfit I teamed my blue Marks and Spencers coat with a black shirt and cardigan from Mint Velvet, dark blue skinny jeans from Dorothy Perkins, my beloved Miu Miu bow bag and Jimmy Choo scarf and lastly my authentic Moroccan kilim boots bought in Marrakech.

Thanks to Olivia whose Marrakech photos I swiped for this post and a big thank you to my lovely brother-in-law who took my outfit photos for me on our trip to Richmond at the weekend.

You may remember I posted about my ‘eBay Challenge’ a few weeks ago, it’s taken me longer than I expected, but here is the final result!

The challenge itself was fairly straightforward; I had to purchase an outfit (not including underwear!) from eBay for less than £50. There were three possible outfits to choose from and I asked you guys to pick the final one. After you voted in your thousands (ahem...) the result was clear, the ensemble I had to find for less than £50 was a party outfit.

I set myself a deadline of two weeks to buy all of the items, which I managed to keep to, but I had to wait for the bag to be delivered as it was being sent from China. And then had to wait even longer for an opportunity to take the outfit photos, but I managed to get there in the end!

The dress was the critical element in planning this outfit, I knew once I had the dress that choosing and styling the rest should be reasonably straightforward. I must have spent a good four hours at the start of this challenge compiling a watch list of about twenty dresses and slowly narrowing it down to just five. I kept a beady eye on all the bids and eventually swooped in and nabbed this sequinned number from Warehouse for the bargain price of £24.99 - brand new with its tags still attached. A cost or jacket was next on my list and I managed to find this houndstooth coat, also from Warehouse, for only £11.49 - used, but still in great condition. The ankle boots were a complete steal costing only £5.50 and last but by no means least, the bag was a mere £4.99. Bringing my total spend to £46.97 - what a result!

Overall I’m delighted with the result of my first #ChallengeHelen. It shows that you don’t have to spend a fortune to find a great Christmas party outfit; it just takes a bit of time and some gutsy last-minute bidding!

As one challenge finishes another one starts, I'm currently taking part in MoneySupermarket.com’s Secret Santa Challenge. I've purchased my gifts and will be uploading a post all about the challenge and who I've been partnered with later this week, so keep an eye out for that.