Split Personality

I've been loving my red Showbiz lipstick by 17 lately. I really think I need to wear lippie more as it helps me look more 'pale and interesting' than 'slightly ill'. My red lippie has served two different purposes in the last 2 days. 

Yesterday I used it to liven up my otherwise androgynous outfit. I bought the tee in the Urban Outfitters sale in Glasgow! It's huuuge and makes me look very Frumpsville but I love it. The brogues were a charity shop find and the little Jonathan Aston ankle socks were a gift from Tightsplease. 

(Notice Alex's out-of-all-control book habit which is driving a wedge between us!! He won't. stop. buying. them. I wouldn't care if we had more space, which we clearly don't!!)

Today I wore my lippie in a more girly context, with my floral Dotty P dress (freebE), H&M shrug, Dorothy Perkins sandals and my VERY worn out vintage bag. I look a bit dressed up for my trip into town to buy hair dye and milk, don't I? Oh well! The little round sunnies were sent to me by Sky as part of the press pack for their new 40's drama Mildred Pierce. Has anyone watched it? I can't wait to see it, bet the outfits are amazing in it! 

(The full skirt of this dress made it blow up constantly in town. Completely up, to my face!! Had to clutch onto it to keep it down to spare passersby the counselling-inducing view of my translucent leggings)

Right, I'm going to wash my hair dye off now as it is beginning to burn slightly! Just re-doing the roots dark brown but I have been yearning for a more adventurous look recently... Something bright. We'll see! 

♥

Monki Business

I have been drooling my head off over the latest issue of Monki Magazine. It's available digitally, but you can subscribe following the link and you'll get FREE printed versions of future editions! How ace is that? In the spirit of crediting all ideas great and small, Jade of Cellardoor Mag fame first told me about this amazing free mag situation. 

So who are Monki? Monki are a Swedish brand that I've been in lust with since reading about on the now defunct (and preggers, seemingly) Style Bytes blog a few years back. They are the sister brand of Cheap Monday and to me seem to sit somewhere between H&M and Topshop, product and price-wise, but with the personality of a small boutique, as evidenced by the genuinely covetable (and did I mention freeeee!) mag they provide. And their blogger-embracing stance!

The brand are finnnally getting a UK airing in September, as a concession in Selfridges. But for now, it's all about the wonderful Summer edition of their magazine, inspired by friendship. Did you ever dream of a magazine with the girly gorgeousness of Lula but without the £356000 price tag? Well, wakey wakey! 

Here are some snaps of my real life version, followed by some screengrabs of the digital edition... 

The letters on the title are all cut out to reveal the pattern on the next page!

Trend pages... The mag is between A4 and A5 by the way. 

A closeup to show you the texture of the paper. Not glossy but thin and... papery feeling. Does this make any sense at all? 

Digital version

Isn't that last page the cutest idea for a beachwear still life shoot? The sea is made of cling film!

See more here and FFS subscribe to the real edition! It's dreamy.

So what do you make of Monki Mag? Do you subscribe already? And has anyone bought from Monki before? What was the verdict there? So many questions!!

xo

Untitled

Well our whirlwind visit to Scotland is now over, and I'll be sharing pictures (and perhaps a mini documentary depending on quality of our footage) ASAP! 

Today we went to our friend Jen's dance show. She runs her own dance school in Ashford and it was their annual show - Snow White! Some of you may remember me tweeting a little while back about narrating for the show, which we did in the spare room of my flat using Garage Band for Mac. It was highly cringe to hear my story-telling and attempted gags (which went down to varying degrees of success...) in a huge room, but more importantly it was amazing to see all Jen's dancers (ranging from teeny to teenage!) performing. I'm so proud of my pint-sized pal. 

Here's what I wore to the matinee show today: 

The dress is from Tesco, bought with a voucher they sent attendees of their press show. The shrug is from H&M. I thought it was a bit of a mumsy item to buy, but I've worn it loads since buying it. Nice to have something to cover up the dreaded corned beef arms a bit! The scrummy brogues were a Bexhill charity shop find the other week. 

Sooo I'm just spending the rest of the day adjusting to being back home... Cooking a jacket potato, MAYBE unpacking and then watching a movie with Alex later. My finances are sickening, so I will also be doing some panic listing on eBay and organising a blog sale in the coming days! 

So what's new with you lot?! Having a good weekend? Had a good fortnight?! I feel so out of the loop!

I FINALLY have some free time now holiday and work experience is out of the way, so cannot wait to vegetate in front of the laptop for days on end catching up on everyone's blogs! Bring on 4pm pyjama wearing and body odour! 

♥ 

Sick bags and freebie nail art bags

Hello chums <3

I'm up (very up) in Scotland at the moment, having a rollercoaster time... We had an amazing couple of days in Glasgow visiting Alex's family (and meeting the lovely Ayden) and then drove up to Cullen to Alex's parent's house on Tuesday night. It's been lovely up here. There's so many funny little fishing villages round here (we're right on the coast) and we've been doing a lot of driving around to different towns. Mainly checking out the few charity shops! 

The downside was that at about half midnight last night I started violently vomiting and did so every half an hour until about 7am. I have narrowed culprits down to either Vodka, eating a bit of a chilli which I mistook for red pepper (ouch) and trying Roquefort cheese... So I've been in bed more or less all day and am feeling a lot better now. My back and ribs are really aching from the exertion of it all. 

Then an upside came when I logged onto my Uni website to find I will be graduating Uni with a first on 13th July :D If you knew me in real life, and knew some of the crap I endured at uni, you'll know how cathartic it feels for me to have come through it all with a first. I've always been a B or C-grade girl, so I'm feeling pretty chuffed.

Anyway, here's my sicky self (wearing only mascara) posing with something rather fab I received in Boots on Tuesday! 

(Bow - Primark, Dress - Charity Shop, Nails - Rimmel fruity scented 'Strawberry fizz' and my black and white Models Own x WAH nail pens)

The 'Nail Bar in a Bag' is a Boots freebie available when you buy two 17 products before July 12th. It comes with a leopard print nail file, pink leopard heart-shaped nail stickers (epic) and the Pink Grapefruit and Knockout Red polishes they seem to give away with all of their freebie sets! 

I couldn't pick what to buy, but on a whim I decided to put my Boots card in one of the machines to find out extra deals, and one was to receive a free Hide & Chic concealer pen with any 17 purchase. So with the promise of a free nail art bag AND concealer, I picked a couple of new polishes and cashed in on the freebs! 

Does anyone else check the Boots deal machines? I'm sure they must have a proper name... I'm going to keep doing it in the future!

Anyway, I'm going to go and snuggle with Alex and watch Hollyoaks. He's been such a dreamboat while I've been ill. Emptying my sick bucket and stroking my back whilst wretching... So romantic! Couldn't love that boy more.

♥

PS - Borrowing Alex's dad's camera seeing as mine exploded, but we don't have the lead to upload the pics, hence Photoboothing. Also trying to film a vid diary of our time up here on Alex's Flip-style camera to share with you all, seeing as my last video post was so well received :) 

PPS - What do you make of my new header? I made it on the 6.5 hour train up to Glasgow! The outline is a bit bumpy but I'll rectify it another time. Have never made my own header before! The nail polish was drawn by Emilie Lashmar for one of my uni projects. 

x

Lookbook LOVE: Topshop AW/11

** Thank you to those that willed Amazon to replace my busted camera. They are refunding me because it's discontinued now and I'm going to look for a new one in Scotland next week!**

SO much love for the new Topshop A/W lookbook! They have really tapped into some of my fave, fave  styles, making next season far more exciting to me than the past couple for me. Here are some of the best looks:

Psychobilly

This achingly cool trend is literally singing to me. Cropped bikers, skinny ankle swingers, leopard print, ankle socks and creepers. DREAMY. This is just such a strong statement, and kudos to Topshop for making it one of their major trends because it clearly isn't the most commercial look. I can't imagine the average Topshop shopper salivating over this like me (at least in Canterbury, anyway), so fingers crossed it ends up in the sale and I can swoop in and purchase it all! I'm also adding black lippie to my to-try list as of... now. 

Thrift

A bit of classic ironic granny chic, mixed with some seventies furry, flared and flowery vibes. Made all the more ironic by the fact we'll be paying ridonkulous prices for a trend named 'Thrift'! Lolz aside, I am highly inspired by the quirky animal knits and yet more skinny ankle swingers. I'm feeling the abundance of collars and polka dots, and am loving that every heel in these shots is a square chunky one. Perfect for clumsy oafs like me that don't want to skulk about in flats all the time! 

Glam Rock

This will no doubt be the more glamorous trend they release before christmas for the partay season. The clothing isn't my thing, but the pictures have an air of awesome, and the glittery boots are mesmerising! If I believed in night life, this is totally what I'd wear out. Bit much for my evenings of TV shows and takeaways!

[All images courtesy of Topshop, duh.]

So what do you make of it all? If you wanna see more, this is the link to the lookbook. Not sure if I'll get in trouble for sharing it or not, but I'll locate my inner Psychobilly badass and post it anyway. Until I get told off, anyway. 

♥

Quick video update on life!

I have been forced to 'vlog' (eww) after breaking my flaming camera tonight when I was trying to put it on the tripod. Boo! I think it worked out for the best in this instance because It's much easier to explain what I've been up to in a few minutes than to try and type it all. 

Here's my very off the cuff update! Complete with a roller coaster ride of emotions and an unexpected special guest who was assuming I'd edit him out! No editing here, pal! 

(Youtube always gives me the worst freeze frames!)

Miss you! 

xo

PS - Forgot to mention in the video, we're off to Scotland for a week on Sunday to see Alex's family. So excited! 

K.I.S.S

Today, I have been mostly: 

♥ Tidying my [half of the] bedroom  

♥ Getting myself organised for my work experience which starts tomorrow... (Again, not sure I should be saying exactly which newspaper I'll be working for, but a bit of digging will reveal the one it's most likely to be..!)

♥ Buying a £123 weekly train ticket for said work experience... :|

♥ Cooking a yummy feast for Alex & I. I tried to recreate his parents' famous Pork and Pasta dish, but I think I have some more practicing to do! The smoke alarm agrees...

A pretty simple Sunday to make up for what I'm sure will be a bit of a mad week! Funny to think in 12 hours I'll be starting my first day! Funnier to think in 10 hours I'll be zombified, painting my nails on the train (as ever) and feeling slightly out of place among the business-folk on the commute! 

Simple attire for the day: 

(DM's - c/o Very, Socks and Jeans - Topshop, Top and headscarf - H&M)

Better get to bed now as I can feel my Nytol kicking in!

Blog ya later... Wish me luck!! And minimal clumsiness. And minimum transport disruption. And maximum tea-making skills! 

♥