Uploading alllllll night long

I spent all night last night finishing off editing my Valentines day look, creating a video always begins as a simple feat, but so many new complications arise with each video, some of which included:

-Filming the whole tutorial then realising for pretty much all of it my eye is out of the camera shot
-Filming it again and it coming out blurry
-Editing it and waiting for it to upload before realising the whole end part is just a black screen with my voice chatting away!
-Re editing, saving and uploading again and realising that it's way past my bedtime but the uploading has already begun so I left my laptop on while youtube took so, so, so, so, soooo long to upload!

Anyway, after all that I proudly give you:




And I sure hope you enjoy it!
My next video is me going into a whole lot more detail on the fun little makeup treats that I've bought, most of which are used in this very look!

Valentines day countdown: 15 days!!

What I wore for Saturday shopping

Even though today is Sunday and I went shopping yesterday with my Aunt, by the time I got home I was too tired to upload pictures!
I wore a cream knit cardigan from Joe Browns
A brown skinny belt from Forever 21
Pattern leggings from Joe Browns
Black ankle boots with a buckle from New Look
Here's a little peek...

For makeup I went for full face coverage, a pale eye with a light brown thoroughly blended into the crease, brown eyeliner which I smudged with a brush to make it look more 'worn' and a rose coloured lip, this was how it turned out:

Saturday breakdown:

-First off, we went to Wahaca to eat, it was scrum diddly-umptious, we shared a grilled steak taco, winter vegetable taco, a chicken guajillo tostada, and a huitlacoche quesadilla - and noo I don't know how to pronounce any of those! All I know is that it was very delicious, and the only restuarant I've been to where they had a sink out in the front part allowing you to give your hands a good wash before your eat.
www.wahaca.co.uk

-Then with our bellys full we began shopping, I got a Ted Baker tote which I looove, a lipstick shirt from Punkyfish (it's so sparkly!) and some dullsville notecards for revision *yawn* Even with the sales on their were so many beautiful things that my lil' bank balance wouldnt be able to handle, things I fell in love with but had to leave on the shelf included:

- MAC Daphne Guiness gradient blusher

-Ted Baker gem ring

-Ted Baker Floral Jacket and shorts

We finished off by grabbing milkshakes from a fun milkshake bar called 'Sblended' where they blend your favourite sweets into a milkshake, but some flavours are so weird like a marmite milkshake! eww! I stuck to my plain ol' Cadbury cream egg milkshake.
Then we nipped into Frankie & Bennys since we had a long wait until the next showing at the cinema and ate a giant (I mean, size of a pizza base giant) garlic bread with melted cheese, it was delicious and we justified eating it by walking around shops all day.
Then we saw The Sitter at the cinema, which was...okay!

Then I curled up in bed watching trashy teleshopping!

Sweet, Scaley, Stitching

I always thought that being a mermaid sounded like the most amazing and fantastic species to be, just lounging on sea shells and making friends with the dolphins looking all wonderfully glamorous with long and wavy hair naturally touselled by the sea salt.

I got so crazy about finding an amazing mermaid costume when I came across this beauty!

She looks just like Ariel from The Little Mermaid! And guess what, you can rent the tail out!
www.mermaidrentals.us

Unfortunately I don't have my own private pool where I could splash about in this and not get strange looks, but it would be fun to dream that I did and we could all get together and waddle around in mermaid tails, I'm not even sure if you could walk in that, it doesn't look very flexible!

As an alternative, I thought it would be very fun to make a simple skirt with some scaley fabric of my own, this was the prettiest I found, it's so beautiful and shimmery, and I might get less strange looks wearing it.
http://www.joann.com/halloween-spirit-fabric-mermaid-foil-green/zprd_09226242a/?_requestid=367330
But my heart broke when I saw it was 'no longer available'

The hunt for a D.I.Y mermaid tail continues!...

Sad, mad or a just plain bad day?

Sometimes something happens at school, at work or at home between your boyfriend, bestfriend, mum, teacher, colleague, anyone! It might have been something that they said or did that just made you burn up inside, and now, the moment may have allowed them to move on and think nothing of their actions but we're still here, full of fury and clinging to it. When we fall into a spiral of anger towards another, suddenly everything that person has ever said or done can be manipulated into ammunition for another reason to be so mad at them.
We wrap ourselves up in ribbons and guess what? Absolutely nothing changes.

So let's not waste our time on anger towards people, or words that have hurt us, or something that made the balance of the world seem so unfair because dwelling on it allows for nothing to change.

Brush it away, right out of your hair, watch your burning anger disintegrate and float up into the sky until it is flecks of stardust shining down on us and lighting our way along a happier path.

Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessell in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured- Mark Twain

Deliciousness wrapped in ribbon

I spent the last night or so wrapping up my latest and most fun creations yet! Every vest I make is my new favourite, I love trying to put lots of colours on each vest so that they'll match every shade of belt, bangle or bracelet. These are the new ones of this month:

I got tons of Hello Kitty, Soft strawberries, Harajuku girls, Hello Kitty bows, Peppermint candies! And of course, lots and lots of rainbow ribbon hanging off!
Check out my store http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/alexias_closettt/m.html?item=320828592214&sspagename=STRK%3AMESELX%3AIT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649&_trksid=p4340.l2562

I ship worldwide and do custom creations!

Now you're just somebody that I used to know! OooOooh!

This song has been swirling round and around my head all day. I've had it playing on full and singing my heart out and although the nature of the song isn't especially happy (it's actually all about heartbreak from what I can gather) it's cheered me up on this mid-week day (mid weeks are the toughest!) and I hope it does the same for you.



I can't believe it's had so many millions of listeners and I'd never even heard it before! I feel insanely out of touch. If you have a feet phobia, or just think they're gross then maybe look away for the first few seconds of the video. But the rest are insanely pretty, the kaleidescopic pattern reminds me of the 70s (even though I wasn't alive then!) and the body painting looks like it would have taken a looong long time. If i close my eyes the female singer sounds like Katy Perry to me.

Dreaming of Paris

One of my closest friends got engaged around christmas underneth the Eiffel Tower, it sounded so beautiful and picturesque that she's let me share some special photos with you of what the tower looked like at the time. I've been lucky enough to travel all over different parts of France at various points in my life but I never really loved Paris like I felt I should, everytime I went it felt like a glamourised London with more erratic traffic. But seeing these pictures reminds me of what a wonderful place it is, and that perhaps I was looking at it before through juvenile eyes without appreciating what makes Paris so special.
I want to eat macaroons at the top of the tower overlooking all the twinkly lights below, waving to everyone at the bottom!

Why today has been wonderfully lucky...

1.My beautiful patches from the other side of the world arrived! In an envelope covered with exotic stamps, here's a little peek of the patches!

Expect to see lots of wonderful Hello Kitty and Harajuku designs up soon, meanwhile, you can see the current treats I have for sale here:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/alexias_closettt/m.html?item=320828592214&sspagename=STRK%3AMESELX%3AIT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649&_trksid=p4340.l2562

2. I was able to rescue my videos from my camera!

3. While editing, I saved my video for the first time once it was nearly all edited and then thirty seconds later the software crashed!

4. Some footage that wasn't importing correctly suddenly decided to import correctly once the programme had crashed.

5. My friend has leant me the book 'One day' which I'm really excited to read although I've heard mixed thoughts- some people love it, others have said it's mediocre, I'm not sure where my thoughts are on this one!

I can't fit a carousel in my bedroom!

When decorating a room, I love to white wash the walls, the ceiling and to have bare floorboars, so that it feels like a truly blank canvas where you can dash colour all over the walls, the furniture every which way with throws, pictures, cushions, curtains and linen. Because then you can remove it all so easily, and you have a beautiful fresh canvas to start with all over again. Perhaps in summer I might prefer candy pink bedsheets and my picture of silk ballet shoes, and in winter I use my ruby red linen instead and hang a poster of the London skyline.

One picture that would look stunning in my summer colour scheme if I chose it to be that, is this:


I adore carousels, they evoke so many sensory reactions, the scent of spinning candy floss sugar, the charming but sometimes haunting 'chime' of the music they play, the old fashioned gold horses each with their own name.

We have a fair that stops by twice a year and the carousel has returned time and time again since before I was even old enough to go on.

This picture was taken in the North of France, but I'm trying to justify why I should treat myself!?

If you've fallen head over heels for this picture like me, then you can get one here:
http://www.etsy.com/listing/84782172/french-carousel-photography-carnival

New Video! 'No Makeup' Makeup Tutorial

Hoo-rah, I've uploaded a video all about using mineral makeup, it's technology has exploded in other regions and is leaking further afield as the hype is spreading. I've done a blog before on Bare Minerals and how much I love them so it was fun to use their products entirely for a whole video. I think the before and after is refreshing, I dont look glooped up with makeup (don't get me wrong, sometimes I love being glooped up with makeup for nights out) I just look like me only much better, less blotchy and tired version.



I don't want anyone to think that I'm turning my back on the mainstream drugstore type liquid foundation, nuh-uh not a chance, still my favourite form of foundation always this was just a refreshing change to afterwars not feel as though I'm buried under eyeshadow and shimmer and waxy, creamy textures.

Birthdays and Camera troubles

Today I've been wrestling with my camera once again to recover lost videos that I've had recorded for some time now, I'm not going to give in and share what they are yet because I still have hope of them being edited and uploaded, but my camera at present is refusing to turn on.

After the frustrations of that I went to dinner for my friends birthday and then a group of us stayed at her house, it was fun to have a slumber party like back when we were little. I sported a cow print onesie for jammies, it was a christmas present and it came from Primark, they did all other kids of fun prints, tigers, paw prints and blue stars! I liked my cow one the best and it kept me snug because there wasn't much bedding between eight of us and it's pretty freezing in Janurary to sleep without a blanket!

Last night was a great night for inspiration as I've been waiting for a great Valentines day makeup tutorial to pop into my head and a little something came together in my thoughts yesterday so I'm looking foward to filming that and showing you guys what I've come up with!
I love taking requests so show me what you've got and I'll try and make it happen (trying to avoid the smokey eyes though, Youtube is all smoked out!)
Whatever time it is where you are, have a great rest of your day and I'll 'blog you later!'
(instead of see you later, geddit?)

Chapped Cheeks

I've been battling with my oily skin since I hit my early teens, I tried all sorts to change it including drying it out with the most vicious remedies possible before coming to the conclusion that I could throw any paste, formula or lotion at it and at the end of the day, I would still have oily skin.

It's like dying your hair, you can dye it a rainbow of colours, but it doesn't stop your hair from being the colour it truly is underneath all that dye.

However, this winter is the first time my skin has been dry for a prolonged period and it's right along the top of my cheekbones where I put my highlight colour when I'm doing my makeup.As a result I've had to give up powder foundation for a while and go back to my Laura Mercier tinted moisuriser but the chapping has eased a little since, I've also been going to bed with a streak of Bio Oil across the dry patches too.That's my simple but magic-make-shift remedy for chapped cheeks!