Are you buying in to Black Friday? Or like me thinking more about calm over chaos? As a budget lifestyle and shopping expert I can tell you without doubt there are millions of ways to pay less than Black Friday deals, just by thinking outside the box.

OK I have to write a blog like this every November, the month our thoughts go to the growing tyre around the middle and dusting off the LBD hidden at the back of the closet, remembering you never actually got into it last year. It is going to take four weeks of hell, discipline and facing denial, in order to look and feel amazing through the party season in December and hopefully this time, the penny will finally drop, yo-yo dieting and torture is not the only way to...

For the last 15 years I have worked to make a difference, helping people as a lifecoach supportedand paid for by my amazing loyal customers of my fashion business Venus Cow

2019 has just passed by and now we are at the first day of a New Year again, bright eyed bushy tailed and ready to make massive changes, just like we say every New Year’s Eve at midnight. So how are you all feeling today and what are those changes?

I could make a list of...

How to get a free upgrade is the question on every budget conscious traveller. Planning ahead before you travel can reap you big rewards like an airline upgrade. Here are my simple steps to ensure you always travel in style.

Peace on Earth may be an unrealistic Christmas wish but is it too much to think this year is the year we are going to do things differently.

I was walking around my local City Centre the other day and was shocked to see how many women still had see through cheap leggings on. There is nothing more unflattering, no matter how thin or amazing your bottom is, than being able to see flesh or underwear under your clothes. It is just not stylish.

When I designed the PBL perfect black leggings it was because I could never find a pair that did everything I wanted from, no see through, to fitting me comfortably...

Fashion Revolution Week a global movement calling for greater transparency, sustainability and ethics in the fashion industry. Read how Shirley get's involved.

Social entrepreneur Shirley Yanez has been fighting against exploitation and unethical practise in the fashion business since 2013. This week as H&M, pioneers of fast fashion, jump on the ethical bandwagon with a "#recycleyourclothes week" new marketing campaign piggy backed on the wider initiative #worldrecycleweek to entice customers back in store with a discount coupon in exchange for their discarded clothes in order they say to reduce the amount of textile waste going to landfill, Shirley asks "When will big brands stop treating us like we are all stupid?"

Everywhere you look women are wearing black leggings and trainers and yet it's the one garment everyone complains about and stumbling across a decent pair still seems more unlikely than winning the lottery.

When you work at something you are passionate about it's very normal to talk about it. A good saleswoman can close a deal but it takes a good deal more self promtion to build an empire but how do you self promote without looking desperate or cheesy?

This week I decided to treat myself to a new dress because I had been invited to Ascot by the lovely Sinitta for a corporate fun lunch and like all women, I didn't have a thing to wear.

I thought about wearing my own Venus Cow black lace...

Starting your own business is not easy, especially if you want to offer something unique in order to brand out from the crowd.

The fashion industry, a business I decided to enter is in reality a closed shop. Once you have designed your garment, in my case, the PBL, a made in England black legging the first stage, having created it is to let the world know about it.

You would imagine it would be easy to get magazines and the media to rave about...

When you change the way you look at things the things you look at change.

Last night I watched a new program on Channel 4, The World’s Most Expensive Foods and I have to say it made me laugh. A private jet company decided to try and produce the world’s most expensive pudding for their in-flight billionaire dining experience, clearly for customers with more money than sense.

Searching the world for rare valuable commodities...

To be number one you have to be odd. There are two ways to look at that sentence. Some people read it and don’t actually understand it. Other people read it and recognise it’s actually a mathematical fact as the number one is never even.

Often when we think it is in a one dimensional way as we are programmed by what we see around us and what we believe to be true but when you change the way you look at things the things you look at...

I was watching Channel 4 the other evening when a program called Plus Sized Wars caught my attention. I was excited. As you all know I am creating clothes for the curvier woman with my perfect black leggings.

After spending the day rushing around central London I had spotted pretty much every girl in either active wear, yoga pants or black leggings so I was quite interested in seeing what this program had to say about Plus Size fashion and where it was going....

For years Leicester, UK was at the forefront of quality garment fashion manufacturing but brands moving production overseas for better margins has meant the proud red brick buildings of a once glorious industrial age has been replaced by poor ethics and shattered reputations for British manufacturing. New shoots are breaking through with companies like Ethically Sourced Products making things sustainably for ethical fashion brands made in Leicester.

The global sports wear clothing market which includes the active wear and yoga pant market for women is booming in the US and by 2019 it is set to be worth around $178 billion dollars so says Trefis a market research firm based in Boston. So Venus Cow and the PBL Perfect black leggings are on track to join this fast growing phenomenon as a desire for function in fashion surpasses just plain old...

Fashion Police - non see through leggings assistance required immediately for athleisure styling.

The first week of a New Year is always for many a bit of a let-down, often because the long drawn out climax of the Christmas period comes and goes with the blink of an eye, leaving us with massive credit cards bills looming to pay for it all. It makes me laugh every New Year to hear people saying they have a list of resolutions, like quitting smoking or giving up booze because unless you implemented these new regimes on December the 31st, you immediately fail...