Asymmetric hem love

I've been really attracted to asymmetric hems lately (is this the word for long at back, short at front? I kinda want to call it a 'mullet hem'!) I got this blouse from the Topshop sale the other day, as a slightly more interesting option to bung on with leggings or jeans. Or jeggings as I'm wearing here!

(The necklace is from H&M, the jeggings are H&M Kids)

Meet my new boots, they're called Abbi from ASOS and were only £38! They're not real leather but they look pretty good for it and are just SO comfy. They are total dupes for Topshop's Allegras, and I remember when Lily once mentioned to me that she considered her Allegras as flats because they were that easy to walk in, I remember thinking that I couldn't imagine ever saying that about heels and that she must be kraykray, but the girl was right! These are comfier than my eBay cheapies which are less of a high heel. Needless to say I've barely taken these bad boys off since they arrived! Just perfect for every day wear when you want something a bit fancier than flats.

In other news, all is fab with me! The job continues to amaze me... I interviewed Mark Fast the other day (and confessed that I blagged my way to third row behind Kanye at LFW without an invite... Me and my big mouth! Luckily he took it in good humour!), have been going to loads of cool beauty events and may be going to the premiere of Katy Perry's movie next week. I still can't believe it all!

I'm off to buy some bread for the teeny baby ducks that have just hatched in the river by my house! I could watch them all day, they're just so cute!

Xx

 

My week in photos!

I joined Instagram last weekend (search gem_fatale) and am embarrassed to reveal that I am hooked... I don't actually mind reading bloggers' Instagram/'week in photos' style posts as I'm a nosey git, so hopefully you won't mind mine! Anyway, I'm not quite the cliché Instagram addict yet - I ate 2 Laduree macarons the other day and downed them without thinking to take ANY sepia framed reminder! #hipsterfail

- Going in the car to Herne Bay to pick up my engagement ring last Sunday!

- Token cat warp photo...

- Roxy sunbathing on the garden table.

- I went to a Company cover shoot in Monday, with Whitney Port being the cover star! My role was to get lots of behind the scenes video footage and pics! It was soooo nerve-wracking, but she was lovely so I relaxed fairly quickly. I was using my Canon G12, and she said she has the same camera! These were some of the clothes for the shoot.

- There was a whole table of jewellery and hair accessories for the shoot - I was taken with this panther necklace!

- After the shoot, it was home for curry with the fiancé! Couldn't help but notice our naans formed the perfect heart!

- A train outfit post of sorts! Blouse from h&m, necklace from New Look.

- And another. Top from River Island, jacket - mum's from 80s!

- Meatballs and Risotto courtesy of Rekordelig cider who are doing a 'taste tour' around the country until August, offering Swedish snacks to compliment their Swedish cider!

- Gorgeous flowers given to me by Company's editor, Vic, to thank me for taking part on the panel of the Company fashion breakfast on Thursday! We were discussing the influence of blogs on our magazine, it was a really fab morning! There were logographic fisheye cameras in the goody bags and I got one! Eee!

- Snuggling down to watch Big Brother with Alex :)

- Were spent Saturday bus hopping around the surrounding towns, Herne bay and Whistable!

- Roxy chillaxing in her fave spot on the bedroom windowsill!

- I got some American candy from a funny little hut in the harbour at Whitstable!

- I made some tuna pasta salad today to have for lunch at work next week... I've put on 3lbs since Paris so I am attempting to get back on track. Anyone got any healthy lunch ideas for a snack addict like me?

- Pretty snap of the river from outside my house. Canterbury isn't always so pretty, mind. We had a couple shagging against the side of our house the other night! We couldnt see them but you could hear it. :| Naturally I made awkward comments out of the window ("Eurgh, who's shagging?!" and blowing raspberries as a passion deterrent... I suppose I'm a bit weird really! Poor Alex!)

- Today's nails, tutorial coming tomorrow on company.co.uk!

- My sweeties from Whiststable turned my tongue blue earlier! Tres exciting!

That's you all filled in on my life in pics! Now to watch the footie... Come on Engerlannnddd!

X

Putting A Ring On It

We went to collect my engagement ring that we had custom made at M & M Jewellers today! I decided on an opal ring surrounded by diamonds, as I think opal stones are so beautiful with all the different colours running through them. My rationale was that it would go with anything seeing as it has so many colours in it!

The pictures don't do justice to how vivid the colours look in the light. Flecks of shimmery orange, purple turquoise and blue. So gorgeous!

(These pics were taken on the iPad - I am so impressed with the quality!)

It feels lovely to feel 'properly' engaged now. I felt guilty that Alex shelled out for my ring and I haven't had to buy him anything so I did what any good fiancée would do. I treated him to a Nando's tonight!

I'm off to prepare for a trés exciting day tomorrow... I'm filming and tweeting from behind the scenes on a Company cover shoot!! Eek! *Be cool, Gem*


Xo

 

Blogging from an iPad: A Beginner's Guide!

Soooo, my loved ones were extremely generous on my birthday this year and clubbed together to get me an iPad 3! I am IN LOVE with it. Whether or not I'd be able to blog effectively from it was a really big factor in me deciding to get an iPad, and articles online made it sound like it was not easy. But (with the help of recommendations from Twitter peeps) I have found a few things that have made blogging super easy and enjoyable from the iPad!

I'll show you my 'kit' first, then move onto a review of Blogsy, an amazing blogging app.

First up is this incredible invention which I had no idea existed until Alex stumbled upon it on eBay (and will silence iPad naysayers that whine about the lack of USB ports...). It's a 5 in 1 connection kit which you can put USB leads/sticks and also camera memory cards into! It only cost £2.29 and will be perfect for blogging on the go, as I can take it on the train with me and take my camera pics directly off it.

Next up, the case. @Little_Nells recommended this one to me on Twitter. It's £14.99 down from £50 and is apparently a dupe of Apple's own cases. It's super streamlined and the top can be folded in different ways to make a stand (great for watching movies or blogging, depending on which way round you stand it!)

(This angle is great for blogging on a surface, which I will be in the train!)

Onto Blogsy! Their how-to vids will go into more detail about this £2.99 app than I could possibly blog, so they are well worth a watch if you're interested in the app. It's basically a publishing application that lets you compose blog posts for Wordpress, Blogger and Tumblr. It has all the usual formatting options, but has incredible icons down the side of the publishing interface which let you open Safari/Picasa/Flickr/YouTube/your Photostream and drag and drop images straight into the blog post! The ability to browse Safari in-app is so useful for adding hyperlinks into posts as I have in this (this post has been created entirely with Blogsy!)

One hiccup I did have was that some images I was dragging and dropping from my Photostream were low res, but brainiac @TheSammersaurus told me that all you need to do is switch the HTML screen and change the 's500' towards the end if the image code to 's800' or 's1024' (which I use). A bit of a faff but in the grand scheme of how mind-blowingly awesome this app is, it's something I can live with. @BlogsyApp saw me discussing this problem on Twitter and have asked me to email them about it, so I shall and hopefully it will be fixed in an update some time! They are really sweet on Twitter and always reply to tweets and thank people praising this app. It deserves praise as it puts Blogger's own app to shame!

Here's how it looks:

I didn't want to bombard you guys with an actual tutorial as it's a bit of a niche topic, but do feel free to ask any questions in the comments and I'll reply to them!

Ooh, a note about the iPad itself: Alex bought it on the university Apple store, which meant he got 3% discount (oh Apple, u so generous) and it has 1 year's free Apple Care! If you're a student (or are shacked up with one like moi!) you must take advantage of this cheeky discount!

Oh, and as I have a 3G version to use on the go, I researched and found GiffGaff (owned by O2) to be the cheapest pay as you go data providers. They sell 'gigabags' of data for as little as £5 a month and there's no contract. I have only just signed up so can't properly review it, but it was certainly the best deal I could find! Time will tell whether I bought the right amount of data to cope with lots of blog viewing...

So that's a little insight into my iPad/blogging set up! I hope I haven't bored the tits of those of you that just come around here to see my outfit pics!

Have you thought abut buying an iPad? If you already have one, do you have any iPad tips to share with a new iPad mum?

xo

My €1 dress!

When we were in Paris, one of the highlights was rooting through the €1 boxes in a vintage store in Le Marais. We got absolutely HEAPS of stuff! This is just a really oversized orange spotty blouse which I cinched in and wore with my trusty biker! It's a bit creased as this pic was taken after work and my job does involve a lot of sitting!

(jacket - H&M, boots - charity shop)

My incredible Pug necklace was an unexpected gift a little while back from Cheap Frills!

So this is the first blog post from my new iPad! I'm using a seemingly INCREDIBLE app called Blogsy! I had put the feelers out a week or so ago on Twitter to see if anyone recommended it before I shelled out £2.99, and only a couple of people seemed to sing its praises, but from my initial experience, every blogger with an iPad needs this in their life! I'm planning an iPad post this weekend to show you guys my new baby and the little blogger kit I've amassed, and will try and go into more detail about Blogsy benefits!

I've had a mental week and am aiming to do a little diary type post this weekend to show you some camera snippets of it all! Am loving it, but am looking forward to a nice chilled weekend with the fiancé!

I feel the need to tell you that Alex has just DEAFENED me by shrieking at the telly because England scored... I never knew he could hit such a high note! Any other girlfriends out there had their tv remote rights revoked due to the Euro 2012? I'm trying to embrace it but the screaming is really not necessary. One prog I definitely am behind this year is BB! Guilty pleasure!

Hope you all have a lovely weekend planned!

X

 

Backstreet's Back!

One of my thrifty finds in Paris was this battered old Backstreet Boys tee for 5€! I wore it to work yesterday because if anyone can appreciate 90s nostalgia its the Company Mag team (in fact, Alexxsia wrote a spiffing article all about it in the new issue which is out today!)

As you can tell from my poses, I'm a bit excited about my new tee... 

(Head scarf - charity shop, jeans - Primark, shoes - 'Nuff Said' by Office, sold out now!)

In my last few outfit posts, people have been commenting that I'm looking slimmer and I did notice that my pins look a bit more pin-like than in real life in these pics... Before you all go thinking I'm buckling to the body pressures of the media industry, the opposite is occurring! I am putting on weight from this job - cupcakes, Krispy Kremes and sweets are practically on tap and I have no self control when it comes to this! So I have not lost weight, I'm expanding by the week but after nearly 5 years of blogging, seem to know the right ways to stand(/things to wear) to hide this fact!

I'm off to nip into town to see if I can find some pretty new clothes and then am heading to Bexhill to hit the legendary charity shops by day and see the fam by night. Then maybe having a celebratory dinner with friends tomorrow night re: being a future wifey! Thanks for the wonderful comments on my last post regarding my engagement, btw!

Hope y'all have a lovely weekend, gang!

xo

Fabuleux Destin

Well I'm back from my holiday in Paris and as you may have seen on Twitter, I am now an engaged woman! My amazing boyf of nearly 7 years popped the question in one of our favourite places and it was perfect.

(This wasn't where he did it, btw! We're on the giant escalator at the Pompidou centre!)

No ring to show off just yet as one of my besties' family business is a jewellers so she is going to have my engagement ring custom made exactly how I want it! Dream dot com! 

I am not going to blog about the semantics of the proposal as it's something we've decided to keep between friends and family. But you can bet your bottom dollar I'll no doubt be blogging and pinning my head off with wedding inspo in the future..! We're not even thinking about a date yet but what with my new career and Alex establishing his own (as the next Karl Marx, he hopes!), we're probably going to relax and enjoy our engaged status for a couple of years yet! 

Whew! I honestly think I have fulfilled my JOY quota for the foreseeable future! If one more good thing happens I might just evaporate!

Off to unpack now! I'll be blogging a couple of different Paris posts in the coming weeks, including my favourite bargain shopping destinations so keep an eye out for those! 

♥