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.

I was originally going to title this post ‘A Money Supermarket Christmas’, but worried that it would be misinterpreted to suggest that I opted to buy people car insurance as gifts this year. This post is actually the second in my #MSMSecretSanta series and I finally get to share with you the lovely gifts I received from 'The Girl About Town', aka Sarah.

I resisted opening them until Christmas day (lord knows how) which meant I had to explain the #MSMSecretSanta concept to family members at least three times, but nevertheless, the wait proved more than worthwhile. I was delighted to open the first gift to find a beautiful illustration of me (cue expanding ego) commissioned by Sarah and drawn by the talented Jaymie O'Callaghan. A wonderfully unique gift idea and something that I’ll treasure as a testament to my blogging days long after I've hung up my SLR. The second gift was the perfect accompaniment to the Christmas day festivities; Charbonnel et Walker's Handbag & Heel's chocolates (#NomNomNom). Needless to say they didn't last very long.

I can also now reveal the gift that I chose for Sarah and just as importantly, the gift I chose for her cat Hugo. As mentioned in my first post, I spent a fair amount of time reading through her blog, studying her Twitter feed and generally being as nosey as possible in the hope that I’d stumble across a good idea. A few days in I noticed a couple of tweets mentioning her new iPhone 5 and her struggle to find a suitable case for it. I knew Audrey Hepburn was one of her style icons, that she liked cats (obvs) and appreciated illustrations; judging by the lovely depictions on her site (also drawn by Jaymie). So when I came across an iPhone 5 cover that included all of the above I couldn't believe my luck.

Once I'd ordered the iPhone case I then set about researching a gift for Hugo. This involved a trip to Pets At Home; where I proceeded to wander the aisles aimlessly, looking like a complete moron plonker (I'm not responsible enough to own pets… not even fish). After finally arriving at the cat section, I spent another fifteen minutes looking at the insurmountable stack of cat-related festive gifts. You wouldn't believe the choice, it was far harder choosing something for Hugo than it was for Sarah. It took me the best part of my lunch hour to finally make a selection, but I was pleased with my ultimate choice; a ‘Catmess’ stocking full of everything a cat could dream of at Christmas.

After merrily posting everything I happened to be browsing Sarah’s Instagram feed when I came across a picture she’d uploaded (and I’d previously missed) of her new Audrey Hepburn iPhone case… arghhhhh! Thankfully the one I chose was slightly different and she has since assured me that she does like the one I bought her regardless - phew!

Enough rambling from me, just time to say a quick thank you to Sarah for my lovely gifts and to MoneySupermarket for organising this fun and inventive competition! I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas and I will see you again in 2013!

As one challenge ends, another begins... today I'm excited to reveal the details of my Moneysupermarket.com Secret Santa Challenge and who I've been partnered with!

For those of you who haven’t seen various discussions with the tag #MSMSecretSanta whizzing by on Twitter I’ll give you a quick bit of background information. Back in November I was contacted by the rather lovely Ben from Moneysupermarket.com to ask whether I’d like to get involved with their Secret Santa campaign. The challenge was simple; they would give each participating blogger £25 to buy a Secret Santa present for a fellow blogger. The pairings would be entirely random, organised by MoneySupermarket.com to help introduce you to new bloggers and challenge you to buy a gift for someone you've never met.

So how do you go about choosing a gift for someone you've never met before?! Well if they’re a prolific blogger you can easily employ the power of the ‘cyberstalk’. Follow them on Twitter, find them on Facebook, subscribe to their blog and generally learn as much about them as you can. I have spent the last week engrossed in oodles of blog posts and hundreds of tweets trying to establish likes/dislikes of my chosen blogger and think of a great Secret Santa gift idea.

Now while I'm not allowed to give away any details about the gift/gifts that I have purchased, I am allowed to reveal who I've been purchasing them for. So here goes... drum roll please... I have been partnered with the fabulous Sarah, who writes a blog called ‘The Girl About Town’. Over the past week I feel I've got to know Sarah quite well (albeit without her knowledge), she loves fashion and photography, has a cat called Hugo and owns a vast collection of lipsticks. Hey Sarah!

This week I will be wrapping and packaging my Secret Santa gift ready to post to Sarah. Once she receives it she will write a blog post about how much she loves or hates it (fingers crossed it won’t be the latter!), so keep an eye on her blog to find out what I chose. I’ll be doing the same when I receive my own gift, I've yet to find out who my Secret Santa is, so I'm excited to see who has been ‘cyberstalking’ me.

Do you remember the old days when magazines included vouchers and coupons which could be cut out and used to get a discount on certain products? Well, they are back, but instead of being printed in magazines or newspapers you can find them online now. This way, you can look for specific offers online and just print the vouchers at home before you use one to purchase this specific item. These online shopping vouchers really are a great help and guarantee huge savings on a variety of things, be it fashion items, electronic products or even furniture.

The probably most famous website for vouchers is Groupon, a platform that gives great discounts on various items as long as a certain number of people make use of the deal. Many fashion addicts use it on a regular basis to score shopping vouchers for getting great deals on clothes. It is so easy: You see an offer that interests you and make sure it is still valid and that there are still coupons available for it. Then you hope that enough other people make use of the same voucher so that the deal comes into effect. Fortunately it is very rare that deals don’t come into effect since they are just too good of a bargain.

Deals for whatever you want
Many people are pleasantly surprised when they learn that some coupons can even be used for getting a discount on various events and activities. Among the most sought after vouchers are vouchers for spa deals in London! Real wellness enthusiasts are always keen on spending a nice day full of beauty treatments, which is a great thing to do especially now that it gets colder and darker outside. This way, one can help the body to a real treat, aside from pampering it with cozy and beautiful clothes and fabrics, of course.

Always check for vouchers
Before planning a spa weekend or any other activity it is really advisable to go online and check for bargains on the web. Just use your smartphone to quickly check if there are any deals available for what you are looking for. Otherwise you might miss out on excellent opportunities to save a good amount of money. You can then use the saved money to buy other things you’d like to own or to finance an event or a certain activity you have always wanted to attend.

* Guest editorial *

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.