Thanks for the day off!

Been feeling really lucky today - mainly because I found my camera under the sofa!!! Yay! I so nearly bought a new one today in John Lewis. So, the picture above is actually from the day I lost my camera when I went to my Dad's house.

 These pictures have ended up totally out of order! This is what I bought today in Boots on the 3 for 2 make up offer. I've tried them this evening and they all work beautifully :)  Not bad for £10.

Here was what I wore today. You can't really tell, but I have a few cute plaits in my hair. Let me know if you want to know where any of my clothes are from!
I went in to town today with the boyfriend as I had 3 viewings on my house and needed to be out! We met up with my Dad and my family on that side for a lovely Italian lunch and then me and the boyf went to the Andy Warhol exhibition in Southampton.
It was pretty good - the gallery at the Guildhall has a few other modern paintings that I really liked. Sadly, you aren't allowed to take pictures in there but I took a few downstairs of the prints:

I very artistically managed to capture the reflection of the railings..

Upstairs was an activity room where you could try dressing up in random clothes!

This is my Andy Warhol look!

My boyf doing Del boy!

I wanted to "borrow" this velvet jacket..

So that was all quite good fun. We also bought this:

Going back in time to Friday, I watched the Royal Wedding (as you can see from my previous post) then went to the pub for lunch. There is currently a funfair on in the Common which was not particularly good!

I almost forgot....in case some of you have not been to Southampton, then here is an aerial view for you!

Lol. This is a model in the Guildhall. My house is over the back left somewhere.....  :)

A Right Royal Wedding...

I'm currently watching the Royal Wedding along with about 2 billion other people around the world......I'm actually finding it quite exciting and very sweet.
  I especially love Beatrice's Philip Treacy hat - can't find any pictures of it yet on the Internet though. I have however found a picture of her wearing an amazing butterfly headpiece..

Shame she looks so confused! Or is that boredom?

That has been a lot of speculation over Kate's wedding dress. She is wearing a beautiful Alexander McQueen gown...

It is a little bit old fashioned for my tastes but she wears it well. I would prefer something like this:

A girl can dream....

I want to break free!

Went to see "We will rock you" last night at the theatre....definitely recommended! Here's what I wore:

My dress is from Debenhams and my shoes are from Dune. I put on a cream pashmina and tan leather jacket to keep warm. The theatre is very impressive....I've been there a few times over the years.

I'm having to type this one handed as my cat is lying on my other arm! Pesky little thing. I'm also being distracted by My Big Fat Royal Gypsy Wedding so I'm going to go now!

Voyeuristic!

Just a quick post....to let you know that my post of me in my bikini is my second most viewed post! You nosey people! (My most popular post so far is still "Interview with Hannah from Hannah Banana Bakery.)
I'm glad so many of you are interested enough to click on a picture of me in my bikini - own up, how many of you thought something nasty when you looked at the photo! Of course, if you happened to think I look ok then you are more than welcome to let me know and boost my confidence/ego !! :)

I eventually found a setting on the camera that let me photograph my pastel nails....here they are:

You can see from this photo that my cuticles are pretty rubbish at the moment. Luckily my Gran has given me some wonder hand cream that she thinks will make my nails amazing! It's called Smooth and Healthy hand cream by Tesco. I've been using it twice a day since Sunday so we'll see what happens!
Watch this space...
Ps On my nails I used Beth's Blue by Models Own and pink (can' remember the name) by Models Own.

And we'll have fun fun fun....

How gorgeous was the weather today?! Surely that's unheard of for a Bank holiday weekend? I spent several hours this morning in the garden in my bikini, just relaxing. Then me and the boy drove to my Gran's house for tea. Lovely!

I got a couple of Easter eggs to munch on.....they're currently in the fridge until the weather cools down!
I wanted to post a picture of my pastel coloured nail polish but I've left it too late in the day and this camera is complaining about low light. I want my old one back :( it's still M.I.A.

However I do have a picture for you.....me in my bikini! This is probably blogging suicide but I thought that it would make everyone feel better about their own bodies - lol. As a girl with insecurities I know that other girls and going to look at this picture and instantly pick holes in my figure! Be honest, that's what girls do!
I'd just like to say that yes, I would like to be half a stone thinner and a few inches taller. Who doesn't? But generally I'm happy enough with the way look and not bothered enough to join a gym. So here it is:

Let's face it - it could be worse!

An Adorable Easter

Hiya! Everyone enjoying the sun? I know I am. My outfit for today was quite summery....my tan is coming along slowly but surely. I went to Winchester with my mum and had a lovely day out, mostly window shopping.
I used to live in Winchester when I was an art student at the Winchester School of Art and found it to be quite a boring place to live! However, the shopping has improved a lot over the last few years and Winchester now has a very Guildford feel to it. Very cosmopolitan! I always used to feel a bit inadequate compared to the hip, glamorous people that live there and now it feels even more that way!
Here's what I wore:

Top: Gap, skirt: Primark, sandals: Primark, bag: charity shop.

This is the first time this year that I have used one of my favourite bags. It's leather and I got it for £2 in my local charity shop! Absolute bargain. I really need to start photo-shop-ing my photos!
Here's a close up of the little details:

The necklace is from Mikey - I've had it for a few years so you won't be able to buy it now!
  I only bought 2 things today. The first is yet another can of Batiste - an absolute wonder product in my opinion! This is a new scent called "Brit" which I haven't tried yet so no idea what it smells like...

I just thought the packaging was appropriate with the Royal wedding coming up!
The second thing I bought was a coat which I'm hiding as I probably shouldn't have bought it. In my defence it was 70% off and it's designer - Ben De Lisi for Principles. Too good to pass up. You'll have to wait for winter to see it!
I fell in love with several things in Jigsaw, a shop I have never been in before today. It's definitely on the pricey side but the clothes are classic and beautiful quality. I also went into Hobbs and found some equally gorgeous clothes. I'll post some things from their website next time I blog.
Until then, have a Happy Easter weekend! x

Fashion for Easter

I went on a mini shopping spree today! It wasn't intentional.....I went into town with the boy and ended up trying on lots of lovely shoes in Primark. Then we went to check out the River Island sale as it is 50% off sale prices at the moment. I some how ended up with 3 new pairs of shoes and a hat.
And here they are!

My new Primarni summer sandals. One pair was £8, the other were £10. Not sure which way round.. They are reasonably comfortable......and oh so pretty! My lovely boyfriend bought me one of the pairs.  :)
Here are my River Island bargains.....

The boots were from the winter collection and I have been lusting after them for ages so I was quite happy to find them labelled at £25 - therefore only £12.50 on the half price offer! They were actually wrongly labelled as the should have been £50 down to £25 but the lovely manager overided the price for me! Good service from River Island Southampton!
The hat was also wrongly labelled (!) at £5 instead of £7 so I got it for £2.50. Score!
My boyfriend got some boots for just £6:

Hopefully they'll look pretty good with dark jeans. So a lucky day all round!

Girl crush

As I don't have any of my own outfits to post (been tied up with work) I thought I would focus instead on my current "girl crushes." If you're not down with the lingo, a girl crush is when you admire a girls' style or personality and want to be just like them, or best friends with them!
  I'm currently loving Olivia Palermo (from "The City") although she comes across as quite bitchy so I'll settle for stealing her style!

I think it's criminal for someone to be that pretty.....Now, who else??
Who remembers those few episodes of The O.C where Mischa Barton fell for Olivia Wilde? They are both absolutely gorgeous and would no doubt have beautiful children if nature found a way!!

Well, there you go. Feeling inadequate now??! These pictures make me want to grow my hair again....and not eat! But hey, they're probably not happy!

A little restyle...

Had my haircut today as it was looking a bit drab. Not sure if I like it yet.....it's very short! It is what I asked for but until I dry it myself I will remain unconvinced. Also, the price has gone up to something ludicrous.
Here it is:

Ha, you can tell from my expression that I'm not sure about it! Watch this space....

How to tea stain your bra!

Yay! I now have a whole 10 followers! Thanks to Cait at http://sailing-to-nowhere.blogspot.com/ for being number 10.
Today's blog post is going to be "how to tea dye your underwear" and "is it worth the effort?" I had a t-shirt bra that I wear all the time but it started out white and ended up a bit grey.....so I thought I would try and tea stain it to a skin colour......This is how I did it:
1) Find a big pot and fill it with boiling water and 2 tea bags. I used Yorkshire Tea teabags for hard water!
Let it seep for about 10 mins..
2) Take out the teabags and put in your bra or underwear. Stir. Leave for about 10 mins.
3) Take out your underwear and leave to dry. Et Voila!

As you can see, it came out a slightly grotty colour. It looks a little bit better in real life but not good enough to save it from going in the bin. I should have left it grey/white or dyed it hot pink or something! I've seen a skin coloured bra for £5 in Tesco so I think I will just replace it. My advice is not to waste nice teabags on old underwear. You might have more luck with different types of fabric - my bra was some kind of synthetic material.
The other photos I have to share with you are my mum's photos from our day at the zoo. One of my outfit for the day and one of the baby guinea pigs which I LOVED!

Dress from Dorothy Perkins, other items as before.

Have you ever seen anything so adorable? Like a hamster but a squeaky one! Ok, enough rambling!
Let me know if you have any luck with tea staining!

Staying out for the summer....

After a horrifically long journey home form Wales yesterday, I was super looking forward to sunbathing today.....then I woke up this morning and felt SERIOUSLY ill. Luckily it only lasted about half an hour but it was touch and go there for a while! Thought I was dying and muttered the words "take me to a and e!"
  When i had finished being dramatic, I enjoyed several hours on sunshine (although I have the ability to tan) and then had a lovely bbq dinner of chicken tikka kebabs. Lush.
  A little update on my Saturday....before getting the train home, my mum took me to a flea market in Bangor where I had previously picked up a retro coffee table for £7. This time I came away with a retro chair for £10! I absolutely love it although it needs sanding down and I also need to pick up some gorgeous fabric to re-upholster the cushions. Here it is:

What you can't tell from this picture is that it is also a rocking chair. It's super comfy and I love it to bits. Not sure what my other half will say as I haven't shown him yet......It's currently still at my mum's house as I didn't have room for it on the train! She is going to bring it down at Easter but then I will have to find somewhere to store it until I have moved house.
  I only have one picture from the Mountain Zoo as the rest are on my mum's camera. I have still "misplaced" mine. Sad face.
One of my favourite animals at the zoo were the baby guinea pigs! And also several of the little monkeys. But here are the guinea pigs:

I was going to put one in each of my cardigan pockets but my mum wouldn't let me :(   I might get a house guinea pig when I move...
The only other picture I have at the moment is one I took on the train when I was experimenting with a new retro camera app. It's of a shopping bag I got in Tesco's for only £4. It's by Orla Kiely so I'm hoping they are going to do a range of them like they did with the Cath Kidston bags.

You can't really tell but the print is of pears - very retro. I will probably get something like this to cover my chair cushions.
I had a quick look on Etsy www.etsy.com for some retro furniture and fabrics. Never thought to look on Etsy for furniture before but I was quite surprised to find some lovely items. I'm currently starting a love affair with Scandinavian fabrics and furniture....Here are some of my favourite picks from Etsy...

Eames Era Lounge Chair and Ottoman £438 from Barefootdwelling

Booma-rang coffee table £103 by lunarloungedesign

Cushion Pillow Cover £13 Handmade Orla

I hope you like retro as it's certainly my taste! Certain items from the 60s and 70s still look great today....

Getting crafty!

Let me just say before I show you this, that I got the idea from someone else! Gemma from http://www.gemfatale.blogspot.com/
She has a very popular blog so you will probably see these "no sew" purses popping up everywhere! They are so easy to make and cheap to so I couldn't resist giving it a go. I managed to find white sticky tape and some scrap fabric (which isn't particularly beautiful..)
Here they are:

It's a purse and clutch bag. I know they don't look too exciting but they're my first attempts! I also didn't have any fabric that I really liked...I'm planning to make some more and decorate them with buttons and ribbons.
Here's what you need to make them:

And some fabric of course....I'll let Gem explain how to make them as she has a great video on her blog.

We didn't get to the zoo today as the weather wasn't great so we will be going tomorrow whatever the weather! Instead we went to the local shops where I bought the materials and also this months Elle magazine. I tried on some lovely trousers in the New Look sale but they didn't quite fit! Their sizing is on the mean side...



They were similar to this but only about £12 in the sale. I'll have a look in my local New Look when I get home.....
We also went to the pet shop to get some new fish (exciting times!) and I picked this angel fish as it's got metallic scales and I thought it looked very "this season" ...lol.

I think that if you wanted to get fashion inspiration from nature then this fish is the way forward!
I've also found a new favourite snack which partly a favourite for it's appearance!

Party rings now come in mini packets! I absolutely adore party rings and they're quite low in calories which is a bonus....although that normally means I eat a whole packet....Not so good!
Tomorrow hopefully will bring zoo animal pictures!