Sunday Lust List #3

01. I’m not particularly adventurous when it comes to make up, and tend to stick to a smoky eyed look if I’m ever making that extra effort, which is why this palette looks great! I know that with this selection of colours, I could easily mix up the look in a way which would remain fairly neutral and not too over the top. Whilst I absolutely love wearing colour, as far as make up goes, I’m a bit scared I could end up looking like a drag queen or a dodgy 80’s throwback! I have heard great things about Urban Decay from friends, who know more about make up than I do, myself, so I’d take their word for it that this would be a good addition to my make up collection!

02. Dahlia is a brand I have been looking to for inspiration for quite a while now. I haven’t ever made a purchase for some reason, but I know that it is inevitable that I will! This style reminds me of Jean Seberg’s cute striped Dior number in ‘Breathless’, and since the nautical trend seems to come back around each summer, this would be perfect for a trip to the seaside, with lots of ice cream of course!

03. As a fashion fanatic, I’m proud to say that I share my birthplace with Mulberry! Living in a little town in the countryside, an established designer brand such as Mulberry is something I never would’ve considered possible in terms of its origination – anyone else from a small town can probably agree that ‘country folk’ aren’t all that fashion orientated! But nonetheless, Mulberry has is currently celebrating its 40th birthday, and what better way to do this than by publishing a book? Admittedly, at £55, even for what I imagine is a beautifully put together, glossy paged extravaganza, the price tag is still a little too steep to tempt me, but we can all dream, eh?

04. Ever since the days when I would watch The Little Mermaid at least once a day, I have been fascinated and enchanted by marine life. This has seemingly led to me having a bit of a thing for sealife inspired accessories, queue the goldfish ring on my first lust list, and now this adorable little Moby Dick coin purse by Gucci. I can’t think of a cuter contraption to keep my pennies in. I’m sure that if I had it my way, my whole life would probably end up looking like some sort of over sized fishbowl… no sharks though, please!

05. In celebration/mourning of the end of Harry Potter, and life as I’ve known it for 11 years, I feel like I should pay homage to a series that has meant so much to me, by being an ubergeek and adding a little golden snitch necklace to my jewellery box! My mum would possibly disown me for doing such a thing, I’m pretty sure she thinks I’m the most lame 21 year old on the planet for loving Harry Potter, but hey… HP fo’ lyfe! There are a lot of variations of this scattered about on Etsy, I’m yet to find my perfect snitch yet though, so I’ll be keeping an eye out!

06. I’ve always been a bit obsessed by feathery things… not birds so much, funnily enough, but if you put a feathered accessory in front of me I will attach myself to it. I’m currently on the lookout for a great little feathered collar, and whilst I’m not sure where this one is from, it pretty much fits the bill as far as I’m concerned! I would love one in either black, grey or dusky pink : ) or all of them, if I win the lottery?

07. Lula, Lula, Lula. Where do I begin? Possibly the most perfect magazine ever. The art direction is beautiful, and the clothes to die for, what’s not to love? Lula is like the magazine world’s answer to a wonderfully whimsical fairytale. I have been meaning to subscribe for like, forever… but somehow the pricepoint always puts me off a little bit. I think it’ll soon be time to bite the bullet, I don’t think I’ll regret it!

08. Boots are my favourite kind of shoe (Does that even make fashion-sense? Are they totally different things?) so each new season I seem to end up torturing myself over all of the amazing new ‘booty’ that comes into sight. These beauties from Topshop strike the perfect balance between feminine and that certain hard-edged clonkiness that I crave in a boot, that ignites endless style possibilities in my mind for each season! These may be my perfect boots. Reminiscent of jodphur boots, I’m reminded of my days mucking out horses in my riding days – not that these would be going anywhere near even a speck of mud if they were mine!

Berry Bomb

[Jacket Charity Shop, Heart Jewellery Primark, Nails Barry M 290]

I’m going to a party next week that is ‘charity shop’ fancy dress, which is easily my favourite theme! It’s always fun to see people’s crazy finds, and to see how everyone interprets it. Whilst scrounging around for my own outfit, I stumbled upon this great little jacket which was an amazing steal at £1.50! I know I said I’d be staving off from buying clothes, but this was just too good to miss. I love the summer berry print, a great variation from the usual florals we’re so accustomed to through the summer months! The label said that it needs some work done under the arms, but as far as I can see there’s nothing wrong with it, so I’m not really sure what they mean by this – perhaps I’ll get home later to find the whole thing has unraveled from the armpit upwards, leaving me looking like I got attacked by a shredder! We’ll see, haha : )

I’m heading off to a BBQ today for a bit of a summer suare, and am hoping that the weather will hold out long enough for us to spend some time in the garden! I think us Brits can all agree that the weather has been a bit temperamental lately – please have mercy on us, I’m still craving a day at the beach!

Yesterday when I came online, I discovered that my last post had been featured on the target=”new”>Wordpress ‘Freshly Pressed’ page. I was puzzled for a while as to the sudden increase in visitors – what a lovely surprise! It may be a sign that I’m not a very good blogger, because I didn’t even know such thing existed until yesterday! Oooops. Nonetheless I am really grateful to everyone who has stopped by and visited my blog after spotting it on there, and indeed for anyone and everyone who drops by in general, it makes me really happy that even one person would find some amusement in reading my wafflings!

Keep your fingers crossed for me that our BBQ won’t turn into a washout! See you soon : )

Green with Envy

[Blazer Charity Shop, Top River Island, Skirt Giles Deacon @ New Look, Loafers Tesco, Ring Primark, Nails Barry M 290]

You will probably remember this blazer from my last post! I’ve been getting a lot of wear out of it since I bought it last week; think it may be my favourite summer buy! £3.99 well spent I say : ) my new lens seems to be showing up the creases well too, after I stuffed it into my bag earlier after the weather had one of it’s chilly to hot mood swings.

Sorry the blog has been a bit quiet over the last week *tumbleweed blows by* I had three days of working solid over the weekend at a great little outlet that has just opened up in my town, the owners needed extra staff for the opening weekend so I offered my services! It makes me realise how hard it can be sometimes to find time for blogging, and photo taking, if there are other commitments that come up, so kudos to anyone who has a full time job and still manages to keep their blog going!

This summer is great for me, because I’m not working at the moment, which means more time for blogging and fun… although I have jury duty coming up soon which I am less than enthusiastic about, wish me luck with my long bus journeys, boo!

Some of you may have noticed that my hair is looking a bit longer in these pictures. Unfortunately, I haven’t discovered some sort of hair ‘miracle grow’, but I do have new extensions! I’ve never been really obvious on the blog about the fact I wear extensions, not because I want to keep it a secret, just that I’ve been wearing them so long now that I kind of forget that I do! I feel much more myself with longer hair, too, for some reason! I’ve always been a serial ‘hair cutter-offer’ and find that wearing extensions is helping me to let my own hair grow, and lessens the damage in terms of straightening etc, and once it gets to a point I’m happy with, I won’t feel the need to wear them anymore : ) it’s always nice to have a bit more to play with too I find, when it comes to styling!

How cute is my new ring? I couldn’t resist it for 50p in Primark, matching earrings included! I rarely buy rings because they always turn my finger green, but this solves my problems because it’s plastic, woohoo! Its faux metal finish is pretty convincing too I’d say : )

New Old Buys

Having banned myself from shopping at Primark, in favour of being a bit more adventurous with my purchases, I was browsing Beyond Retro for inspiration the other morning and just had to make this cardigan my own! As much as I love shopping, I have actually been trying to buy less clothes lately, so this will be it for a while now – I’m definitely not one of those bloggers who can afford to buy new clothes all the time, and I do get a lot of wear out of the things I do own even : )

I really love a great statement cardi; I think you’ll agree that this crazy nautical creation definitely falls into that category! I love the ease and comfort of oversized jumpers and cardigans at the moment, and fell in love with this one as soon as I saw it. I’ve embraced my love of colour and although I felt that at £20 it was a bit of a steal; I know that Topshop (and most likely other high street retailers) often replicate vintage styles and sell them for much higher prices! I’m also a huge fan of vintage pieces, because I feel good knowing that I’m effectively recycling clothing – the same goes for charity shop finds, which brings me onto my next purchase…

For a while I’ve been looking for a great blazer, so I was extremely happy today to find this gorgeous emerald green wool beauty for just £3.99, crazy cheap, huh?! Not only is it made of wool, it was also made in the British Isles, which is something of a rarity these days when you’re shopping on a budget. I’m sure a lot of us can vouch for the fact that most of our clothes are ‘Made in China’ which often doesn’t exactly spell out great quality. I love the combination of the emerald green and gold buttons, music to my ears! I can see myself getting a lot of wear out of this one that’s for sure : ) I wanted to wear it this evening when I popped out, but my mum has been painting in the house today so I didn’t want to risk ending up with any stubborn stains the same day I brought it home!

I’m crazy about feathers (perhaps I was an ostrich in my past life?) which meant that I couldn’t resist this one! You might remember this other knit I own which has a similar feathered neck on it? As I said, I’m trying to be a bit more adventurous with my clothing, and thought that this cardigan could help jazz up an outfit nicely in the winter months! I really envy people who wear winter clothes well, because with myself I feel like I often end up just piling on lots of layers in a very unstylish and unflattering way! Hopefully the addition of the two new cardigans in this post, I might be able to feel a bit more myself this winter.

Anyway, I refuse to discuss the ‘w’ word any further for the next few months, because Summer is here and I don’t want to forget about it and depress myself thinking of cold weather again… brr! Would love to see some of your favourite charity shop/vintage purchases if any of you care to leave some links in a comment : ) take it easy everyone! x

Layzee Dayze

So my new 50mm lens arrived today, yippee! I’ve been hankering after some sort of camera upgrade lately, and this has done the job or the time being! After 5 years with the same camera and lens, I am really happy to have a nice change : ) I would really recommend this lens – I know it’s quite popular with some other bloggers I know. The detail the lens can capture is really great, and thanks to the f1.8 aperture, the quality of light is fab! Great for macro and portrait shots.

I got this knit top yesterday (not sure whether it counts as a jumper!) for £5 from New Look. As you can see, the back has come undone a little bit, which my mum said she can ‘pick up’ for me (knitting term… for any non-knitters like me, haha) so it should look good as new in no time! I’ve kind of been trying to discourage myself from bargain binge buys recently, but after I’d had my eye one these before it seemed too good to miss. The soft, slouchy fit is great for lazy days like I’ve had today, too! And lightweight enough to ensure that I don’t get totally drenched on dashes to the coffee shop in the rain… boo.

As you can see, Bug is making his second appearance on the blog this week! It’s a surprise to me that he hasn’t been making appearances on here more often, because he is my favourite and #1 camera subject! Quite the little poser! As you can see, the new lens has captured him in all his staffie x whippet glory… quite the ‘pedigree chum’, eh? Haha. Maybe he’ll be getting his own blog soon, if any brands reading this would like to send him some designer doggy coats? Haha ❤

Hope you've all had a fab Monday! x

Sunday Lust List #2

01. There is possibly no more stylish way to bike-ride than on a gorgeous Pashley creation, I think you’ll agree. Perfectly elegant and ladylike, I have been wishing for a Pashley bicycle ever since I stumbled across the brand during one of my first year university projects. I can just imagine riding one of these beauties along the edge of a canal on a warm summer’s day, wind in my hair, and a nice box of yummy treats in the basket!

02. I remember hearing about bubble tea (I think it is also referred to sometimes as ‘pearl tea’) a couple of years ago now, but never really discovering it anywhere! I think it is perhaps more of a ‘thing’ in the USA than in the UK at the moment. I have recently heard about a place in London which specialises in the stuff, and am dying to go there to try one for myself – I hear that they come in different fruity flavours, including apple, which to me sounds absolutely delicious!

03. I’m a huge fan of wearing earrings, as you may have noticed! The more unusual, the better. I really like these because it’s kind of an optical illusion – they look like leopard print, but it’s actually just a series of little black rectangles. Clever, eh? I’m a fan of animal print accessories, and actually used to have some earrings similar to this with a zebra print pattern, which I wore to death and think I may have lost one of them – so I think these would be a great replacement!

04. Need I even explain myself on this one? These are the most badass sunglasses I’ve seen in a long time! Perfectly retro and endlessly quirky, these Prada shades are worth doing a double take over. They clearly belong somewhere in a Tim Burton film, I mean, wow…

05. After watching Rio, I seem to have gone a bit parrot mad! I love the 50’s feel to this cute little playsuit, and the colours are more than summery enough to make up for the bad weather we’ve been having in the UK the past couple of weeks. I’m hoping to make a trip to Las Vegas this October, and feel like this may be a great little addition to my holiday wardrobe!

06. Barry M never lets me down when I’m looking to add a burst of colour to an outfit via my nails, and these are the latest shades (‘Yellow’ and ‘Tangerine’) I’m looking to add to my collection! I aso find that Barry M stays chip proof much longer than other brands I’ve used, which means at £2.99 a pot I think they’re very reasonable.

07. I’ve always been really into statement jewellery. I rarely indulge in it, but always enjoy browsing for great pieces! I was lucky enough to stumble upon Les Nereides on one very confused trip to Covent Garden. I got lost about four times trying to find the place I was meant to be going to, but it was totally worth it because of this little discovery!

08. Having spotted an advert on TV for the Next summer sale, I thought I’d head on over to the website and see if there were any bargains to be had! I’ve been looking for some cute heels to wear through the summer months, needing them to be comfortable and practical enough to trek about town in, and also stylish enough to complete a simple summer outfit. I thought that these would be perfect, since they have enough of a platform to ensure that my feet won’t be unhappy in them! I’m a huge fan of the ‘cloggish’ styles that are about at the moment – I used to live in clogs on holidays when I was younger, so this more grown up version is definitely welcome in my wardrobe!

TGIF

[Dress Primark, Shoes Tesco, Earrings New Look, Watch Guess]

Part of me feels like I should be dressed in Hogwarts robes today (Gryffindor of course, duh…) in celebration of the release of the new Harry Potter film… (soo excited!) but unfortunately I had a job interview today so I don’t think it’d have gone down too well in the office!

I haven’t seen the film yet, and am quite jealous of anyone who’s already seen it! I’ve been reading, re-reading and re-re-reading the books since I was 10 (nerd alert!) so this film ends the mark of an era for me, and I know many others of you out there. That’s why, in one respect, I’m in no particular hurry to see the film… because once I have, it’s all over and I have no more films to look forward to, which makes me feel a bit sad! It’s probably funny to anyone out there who isn’t a Potter fan, seeing how emotional the rest of us get over it! Haha. I won’t be able to hold out too long without seeing it though, so I’ll be going within the next few days I’m sure : )

This dress is probably my best ever Primark buy! The good thing about living in the town I’m in at university, is that a lot of the people around (minus my fellow students) aren’t very into fashion. This means that the pieces I like, which are probably deemed too ‘wacky’ to the general town folk, often end up in the sales which has meant that some unbelievable bargains have been offered up. I know, right… Primark sales? It’s incredible that their clothing could get any cheaper! I have actually put myself on a Primark ban for the rest of the year, minus fancy dress, holiday clothes and shoe buys (suddenly starting to look like a pretty rubbish ban…) – the amount of pairs of flats I go through, they’re often a necessary buy!

You can probably all tell which designer this dress was inspired by… my favourite, Chanel! No one ever believes me that this is from Primark, which just goes to show that you don’t have to spend a lot, to look like you have.

I’m so happy to finally have some money (tax return <3) which means I’ve finally been able to buy the lens I’ve been wanting for years! This means higher quality photo’s from now on, yay! : ) As you can me my cute little dog, Bug, wanted to join in with the photo’s, what a little poser! His interference also means that I have now revealed to the world just how bad my roots are at the moment, oooops… Happy Friday everyone : ) x

Marchesa Spring 2011

Considering how much I love fashion, I rarely ever seem to post collections I love on the blog! I think I worry sometimes that these posts can end up looking like ‘fillers’ for when I have nothing else to write about… but that will never be the case, promises!

This collection really just got me so excited! I’m often frustrated when I see garments going down the catwalk that are generic or ‘high street’ looking, and that don’t seem to have had much creative thought put into them. I’m not referring to any particular designers, it’s just one of those thoughts I have from time to time – and not one that makes me love fashion any less! However, I do love it when I see a collection that pushes all of my style-aesthetic buttons, and this is one of them…

I think it’s fair to say that Marchesa are often quite quirky in their designs, which is a quality I enjoy very much so in all elements of fashion, and otherwise. Not to mention, the kind of workmanship that goes into these showstoppers is obviously painstaking! Everything, from the beautiful baroque jewels, through to the dress that turns it’s wearer into a walking, talking pompom, (you’ll know by now how much I love pompoms!) is genius in it’s execution and absolutely, breathtakingly to die for.

If I could fall into my own little Wonderland, I would hope to see people inside it dressed like this! I am absolutely in love with the bottom left creation, which would most definitely be one of my Wonderland dresses of choice! The way the skirt falls in such a ‘light as a feather’ way is just so dreamy… the girls who get to wear these dresses are very lucky!

Dear winner of the Euromillions jackpot… if you’re reading this and fancy making my fashion dream come true, call me!

If you would like to see more, you can view the full collection here, I strongly suggest you do, the whole collection is divine!

Have Your Cake and Eat It!

Because cakes were invented for pure pleasure for our taste-buds, I thought it was about time I put my culinary skills food processor to the test, and baked my first ever cake! I can’t believe that 21 years down the line, I have never successfully made a cake without anyone else’s help… something I think had left me with a bit of a ‘cake-complex’, and which could only be fixed by some serious lone-baking!

I spotted this recipe for Walnut and Coffee cake on Helen’s blog a little while back. For anyone who reads Afeitar, you will know that Helen is an amazing cook, and unlike me, her presentation is always pristine!

The selling point was when Helen mentioned that this particular recipe required little skill, and that you could petty much artfully toss the ingredients into the food processor and a cake would come out! I rarely cook food from scratch (although I’m working to change that!) and certainly never usually bake cakes, so this was like music to my ears… or like sugar to my sweet tooth, as we should probably say when referring to this kind of thing?

For someone who is an absolute amateur when it comes to cooking, the result was pretty impressive – big up my food processor! I don’t feel I can take much credit because I didn’t do much ‘stirring’ etc myself, which makes me feel like I cheated a bit! The recipe was extremely easy to follow, and it made my family like me a little bit more for the day so all around, I’d say, a good result! Haha. Thanks Nigella!

I’m currently plotting my next attack on my family’s tastebuds, and am really excited to get back in the kitchen! I know that some people would say that baking cakes is a bit of a ‘cliche’ thing for a blogger to do, and we can all agree that nothing gets us to an event faster than the mention of ‘cupcakes!’ (woo!) … but this is something I love about the Blogosphere, it has opened me up to some great new hobbies which I really enjoy – so thank you everyone for making my summer that little bit more interesting! Who ever said cliche was a bad thing, anyway?

Happy baking people – be sure to share a picture with me if you decide to try out this recipe! : )

P.S the butter icing tasted AMAZING. I’m not usually a huge fan of coffee cake but I really enjoyed nibbling away at this!

Sunday Lust List #1

01. The colour of this dress just screams summer! Simple but extremely appealing, and with the right accessories, I think this could be the basis for a killer outfit. Yummy!

02. After drooling over the new Polly bags in Selfridges a couple of weeks ago, I have rather fallen in love with the style and ‘pumpkin’ colour sported by the style! I concluded that, having bought a Mulberry Neely under a month ago, it would be greedy of me to be lusting over the bag itself; so since I haven’t bought a new purse in nearly 4 years I thought I would allow myself to drool over this one instead!

03. These amazing leopard print platforms have been on my radar for over a month now, and I ADORE them. There’s no chance of me making a £70 purchase at the current time, but it doesn’t hurt to dream. These are my perfect shoes!

04. I love crazy jewellery, and I actually used to have a plastic goldfish ring when I was at school, I seem to remember… or possibly a keyring. Either way, this got me feeling all nostalgic and feels to me like a more ‘grown up’ version (as grown up as you can be, wearing a goldfish ring, anyway!) I’m in love!

05. I’ve been on the lookout for a deep, darker shade of red lipstick to try out for a while, and Diva by Mac seems to be screaming to me at the moment. Perfectly vampish, without being full on ‘goth’, this seems to be a shade that could bring out some serious Femma Fatale attitude!

06. Butler & Wilson… oh they’ve done it again! One of my best friends actually owns this necklace, and being the magpie I am, I’ve had my beady eye on it ever since the first time she showed it to me. I’m dying to get my hands on one for myself! I love my jewellery over the top, seriously sparkly and a little bit tacky, so this is perfect!

07. Because who wouldn’t want to spend the summer months looking like a glam 70’s goddess?!

08. It’s actually kind of ridiculous how delicious this perfume is. So heavenly! Ever since my run in with a sample in a magazine during my first year at university, I’ve been hooked! Unfortunately, I ran out a few months back, booo… so it’s only a matter of time before a new bottle takes pride of place on my dressing table!