Mid week pick-me-up

Sometimes the middle of the working week is a time for celebration (half way to the weekend!)
or a time for grumpyness (still got the other half of the week before the weekend...)

But never fear- a new video is here, and in this video the day looks much brighter and happier than my day today was!



For some reason I feel as though I look deathly pale in this video! I was using my Laura Mercier moisturising foundation that day, and perhaps it doesn't work so well on camera- at least I hope that's the case, wouldn't be great if I was walking around looking as though I have the flu that day!

Hope you have a great rest of the week- and if the thought of two more days in the working week is getting you down, just imagine that this weekend we're going shopping in the fanciest places in town- and we can all swan about the street with oodles of shopping bags on our arms (the posh ones made from card with cord handles) and then afterwards sip an over priced latte in a cafe as we rest our shopped out feet! Wouldn't it be nice!?

Mirror mirror on the tray...

Ever since I watched the 'Whatisstyletonickel' video on Youtube about his perfume collection (which I'll link below)  I fell in love with the mirrored tray he had his perfumes sat on.

It's from www.anangelatmytable.com ,which is an online store specialising in luxury french home decoration.
I'm not a major fan of gold home decor, but I loved the little feet on the tray, it gives it that cute little luxurious edge.
So I headed onto www.anangelatmytable.com and found the same beautiful tray in silver!

Everything about it was perfect except for the fact that it was 'temporarily out of stock' and £25.

I've been checking back pretty much every day for the past month wondering:

1. if it will be in stock 
2. if i can justify buying another decoration for my room that I don't actually need.

Upon my second search of the day on www.anangelatmytable.com just incase they'd updated their stock mid day- I was struck by the tempting offer that looked like this!

I clicked hurredly wondering just why this beautiful tray was 50% off and what made it a slight second- it turned out that it's due to 'slight marking' on the mirror tray part. 'No problemo' I thought, because I can just cover any marks with perfume bottles!

Although I clicked my way to the online check out faster than ever before in my life, it turns out I needn't have worried! As there are still some 50% off trays available in both silver AND gold! Although what makes the gold tray a 'slight second' is for a different reason to the silver trays (due to a gap between the mirror and the edge)

And here is the beautiful tray itself that arrived on my doorstep today, and honestly, truly I think it makes no difference with the 'slight markings' as long as the tray isn't empty, and who peers into empty trays in your bedroom/bathroom/any room anyway?

Here's a little close up of the pesky smudgy marking!

So perhaps your a perfectionist and you'd rather wait until the full priced one comes back in stock or for another tray altogether, but I'm super happy that it was out of stock now as it meant I had to wait until it was restocked at half off, I know this often isn't the case with lots of stores- if you don't snap it up when you see it, you regret it later when it's gone, and I predict it won't be much longer until even the 'slight seconds' are gone too!

Here's Richie Nickel's video!

Don't throw away your sweet wrappers!...

Wear them instead!!!

That's right, there are people that take recycling to a whooooole new level!
I give you...
The candy wrapper corset!

I'm not much of a corset wearer myself, but I might just make an exception for this one.
I can't quite decide if it's hobo-chic or sugary sweet though.
What do you think?

This one will set you back a pretty penny at £193.53 or $299 from here
But I'm pretty sure you could make one yourself providing you're willing to eat a few bags of sweets! I'm sure freinds will be willing to help with that.
Then preserve the wrappers and with a cheap corset (ebay) and a hot glue gun (craft store) you could put it together yourself for £10 or less!

You could go to a fancy dress party as a bag of sweets! With a little of everything you're sure to be everyones favourite!

Sunday Sum Up!

Beautiful sunny day:

CHECK!

Fun video this week:



CHECK!

Super duper cute baby bananas that look too adorable to eat (I used the lipstick as a size guide):

CHECK!

Sunny Shopping for Charity!

Here's what I looked like a little earlier today:

Sunglasses on my head, you best believe it's going to be a good day! Who doesn't love sunshine to put a little extra spring in your step!
Here's a closer look at my 'Queen of Aces' fancy shirt!

This is a little look at the treasures I picked up!
A black evening top from Warehouse (but actually from Demelza House)
A floral shirt from New look ( but actually from the red cross)
A black shoulder pad cropped jacked from H&M (but actually from Demelza House)
A fun print tassle scarf with no brand on it but came from good ol' Demelza house too!

Finally, I treated myself to a chocolate orange candle because it smelt exactly like chocolate! And usually i hate the scent of aritificial chocolate because it smells like sugary plastic. But this smelt like the REAL DEAL! And I sure love them chocolate oranges, so I'm not sure if this candle will do more harm than good and make me crave chocolate oranges!

That's a little bit of the fun we had today, Saturday shopping is great! especially when it does good things for charities and costs a fraction of what it does when you shop in the high street stores!

I'll upload a video soon that goes into a little more depth about our day!

Oranges to eat and orange bags to buff!

There was once upon a time when those little mesh fruit holer bags for your oranges were just practical to hold fruit, but not anymore!
Let the fruit make your insides pretty and the packaging make your outsides pretty!

You can buff your face to beautifulness with just a simple scrunch of the meshy stuff and a gentle hand. Here's my more in depth how to:



Remember!
-This is not a daily treatment, unless you want to scrub away every layer of your skin, haha!
-If you have dry skin be sure to use a face wash with natural moisturising properties
-All skin types should avoid combining this tough trick with a facial scrub as it'll be too much 'scrubby-ness'
-Have fun and let me know if it made your skin feel fabulous and fresh too!

Tired of untying necklace chains?

I've been on the look out for a new way to store my jewellery for a long while now. Lots of my necklaces, bracelets and earrings are cheap, but huge or have long chains or chunky plastic parts, so often they look silly on those delicate jewellery holders and don't fit too well into jewellery boxes, unless I wanted a giant one to take up lots of floor space, which I certainly don't!Last Christmas, I got this pretty little bow holder from Fenwicks. (a department store)

But even this poor ol' thing is looking weighed down, and that's just a little portion of my jewellery, the rest is in various carrier bags in drawers that get forgotten about and never see the light of day!

With this dilemma in mind, you can only imagine how my heart skipped a beat when I saw what all this time I had been looking for!
A jewellery display piece and organiser that goes up on the wall!



http://www.etsy.com/listing/60309756/printers-drawer-jewelry-display

This one is advertised as perfect for displaying jewellery at art shows and exhibitions! They clearly don't know that one girls bedroom has enough clothes, jewellery and cosmetics to fill a whole store sometimes!

http://www.etsy.com/listing/76172386/teal-vintage-type-drawer-jewelry-display

They come in all kinds of colours! Not just plain white or teal, you can get them in blues and purples, or if your nifty with a spray can or paintbrush, you could even re paint it yourself! I think a hot pink jewellery wall piece could be just the thing to work as something interesting visually and so super practical!

There are tons of variations of the same sort of thing, so head onto to www.etsy.com to browse around for one in your price bracket, your size and one that delivers to your country. Type in Jewellerry display or jewellery wall organiser and something along these lines will pop up.



http://www.etsy.com/listing/92594689/painted-jewellery-display-case-hand

I like how this one has two hooks in some boxes, to hold those super special pairs of dangly earrings.

I sure hope your heart got excited at mine did at the prospect of something being so practical with the ability to look so decorative, jewellery decorates us after all, why not let it decorate our walls too when we're not using it!?



Miles and miles and miles of ruffles!

There's nothing I love more than lots of bright colours, and ruffles but I never could have dreamt up wedding dresses like these...



It all comes from the television show 'My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding' Which I heard is going to be or already is airing in the US.
The dresses are out of this world, and unlike anything I have ever seen in my life! They are true Disney princess dresses that I never knew existed for people like you and me to own and wear!

The dress that might just be the most memorable is the famous 'cat dress' yes, this lady had an actual cat on her wedding dress! Inspired by the brand Baby Phatt- and the theme spread across to the cake too to make a 'cat cake'

The dress maker of lots of the dresses is situated in Liverpool UK and called Thelma Madine, her shop is called Nico.
For the dresses she makes she uses literally miles and miles of fabric and hundreds of thousands of crystals.
The process sounds so time consuming however I would love to be a fly on the wall in the work room just for a day! To oversee the extraordinary sight of having to pin and manage all that fabric under the single needle of a sewing machine.

Every show is not always so lighthearted and fun and lavishly scattered with crystals and rainbow coloured dresses; there's a serious side to the show in regards to the culture and lifestyle of travellers.

But it's the dresses and dress making that I love best! It makes me want to switch my life ambitions to become a dress maker for travellers! How fun would it be to make the kinds of things that you never even thought of into existance!

So perhaps the 'ruffle yourself mad' look wasn't on the catwalks of London Fashion week- but it was on our television screens at least and since it was never classified as 'in style' it can never go 'out of style!' Right!??

Jump into a painting!

You may remember a while back me posting about my friend who got engaged under the Eiffel Tower!
It sounded so perfect and fun that I wanted to combine that into what I would get them for an engagement present, I decided on maybe a canvas of the Eiffel Tower.

After looking around and feeling mostly uninspired by what I found I decided to commission a local artist to do the job properly!

Just a few days later I had this:

I love just about every little piece of it. The incredible detail of the structure must have had to have been done with the steadiest hand in the whole world!
Plus, the lush green lawn and blue skies make it seem like such a perfect, quiet place.

I want to be sitting between those neat hedges with you! We could be eating french pastry with the rumble of Paris traffic in the background while the sun shines on us!

Cakes can be art too!

My beautiful friend makes to most incredible cakes, they are so delicious and cute- with iddy bitty icing detail so perfect it looks like it's been modeled from clay.

The most amazing part is that she's had no professional training, she just taught herself!

But she has oodles of talent and creativity, I hate having to cut into beautiful cakes like these...

I love the detail on the motorbikes- that would be so fiddly and need such a steady hand!

My favourite part of these is the iddy bitty rubber ducks! They're so cute, and the ruffly icing- I never saw ruffles in icing before!

I love how this compiles so many of Gagas looks, with a little icing version of her shaking her hiney!

Does this remind anyone else of a real life Farmville! The perfect little rows of cabbage and the white picket fence, so dreamy!

I sure hope these pictures made your day a little sweeter! Personally, it's gotten me hungry for cake...

Which ones your favourite? Mine is the last one, the perfect garden!

Picture THIS!

A few weeks back I went to get some new pictures taken!

It was a long and sweaty day (under all the lamps, they make you sweat) and my face got a little sore from rubbing on and off makeup for the different looks. I talk a little more about it here since that was what I blogged the day of the shoot!

My favourite pictures are the block colour ones! They're so fun!

Here's a little looky at the untouched photos- I haven't cropped them or anything for now:

I'm excited to upload a video about it finally since I couldn't do any uploading while I was away- but I'm home now!

I hope you enjoyed seeing what I got up to!

Which jeans do you prefer? The lemon or raspberry?

Pssst... Everything was from Primark! (except the lollipops! and purple ring) 

I have bags under my eyes...

Designer bags that is!

I'm joking, I actaully have some of the grossest bags I have ever seen in my life before me (or under my eyes as such) haha!

If you follow me on the ol' twitter then you may know that I did a bit of a spring clean or winter clean really and got rid of soooo many old bags that I've had for maybe 4 or 5 or 6 years, some even older and I just sat and thought, what on earth are these doing in my room!? I'll never ever use these!

I don't know about you but I'm more of a 'two bags at a time' sort of girl, I'll have one practical for everyday, and one more dressy, and I use them both until they wear out or I get sick of them, then buy another two, but the problem was- I wasn't actually getting rid of them, I was just keeping them in a 'safe place' incase I needed them.

If I've not used them in a year, then quite simply, I'm never going to use them!

Feast your eyes upon these as the four most picture worthy:

The last remaining to hit the shelves of the charity stores, the hello Kitty bag is actually quite cute but it's much too little for me, the grey bag has a cheerleader on it with sticky out pom poms!
As for the playboy one... Maybe someone will want it for a fancy dress party to go as a playboy bunny? Haha, I'm not so sure.
The grey glitzy clutch actually still has a tag on it, and it is kind of nice, but it's good to be ruthless when cleaning out!

So there you go, a little peek into some of the worst of the worst, but I sure hope it made you smile, or at least made you remember maybe something that you store up to use 'another time' but that time will never come! So we can all have a clear out together!

Fancy Dress Dilemma...

So it's that time when my favourite kind of party has come around and that is fancy dress or 'costume parties' as I hear they're called in the U.S
I love them so much because there's no pressure to look a certain way, you can literally dress like anything you want, you can look silly, colourful, ridiculous and no one will be rude or mean about you behind your back, they just think 'what a fun costume!'

In the past I've gone as many many many different variations of a Sailor Girl, I had (still do) a big crush on nautical fashion that I've just never grown out of! Spongebob Squarepants, Alice in Wonderland, Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz it goes on...

But I'm here to show you my most recent favourites and amazingly outstanding incredible new fun designs
(which you can often get for the half the price on ebay fyi... I've never paid more than £20 for a costume from there)

Katy Perry Sweetie costume! This is my absolute favourite! I love the ice creams on the bodice and the tutu rainbow layers!
or...

A bubble gum machine!!! I could pop bubbles all night, and hand them out too! 

 

Or maybe a giant pink crayon, haha! This one made me laugh the most although I would wear pink shoes, not those shiny black boots...

They have so many cute and fun novelty costumes at:

www.spirithalloween.com

It's good to go for inspiration first, then to try and find a cheaper alternative elsewhere.

So what do you guys think? Maybe you hate them all, maybe I won't even be able to find these crazy creations on ebay , but this site has the best selection of costumes I ever saw! Let me know what you guys think would be the best, or maybe a whole other costume all together!

emBRACE the Bracelet!

These home crafter thread bracelts are such a dream!

They remind me of summer holidays, crafy friends, and making wishes!


Anyway, I found these one's on Pinterest (Which I keep calling Pinteresting- not cool)
The blue waters in the background make me thirsty for summer!

http://pinterest.com/pin/148829962655616997/

I remember one time in Paris, someone who made these for tourists for a living approached me and began making one, and before he tied it closed on my wrist told me to make a wish, I did and... It came true! I don't know if it was a magical bracelet or not haha, at least I hope not because I think I threw it out...

I got another one for my 18th birthday, it didn't have fancy weaving in it (which I tried to do myself and... it didn't go well. I can barely do french braids haha) but it has little navy blue beads and one tiny Hello Kitty one, and in a weird way I kind of treasure it! I went through a phase of even showering with it on. But then It feels like it's getting grubby so I have to take it off, I often think that when I see people with fabric festival wristbands on that are two or three years old, how much sweat is sitting in the threads of them!?



That's my lil ol' Kitty bracelet!
She looks mighty cute and much more fitting to the cold season we're having right now.

So are you a thread bracelet liker? Or do you prefer them as souvenirs, or maybe not at all!

Sometimes I need to T.H.I.N.K

Before I speak
T-is it truthful?
H-is it helpful?
I-is it inspiring?
N-is it necessary?
K-is it kind?

Imagine if the world took these steps every day before we spoke, what a wonderful world we would live in! Full of kindness and honesty and a world where everyone motivates eachother, believes in eachother and inspires eachother.
Imagine what we could achieve in a world like this, how far we could all go and the wonderfullness that would blossom out of each and every person.

Perhaps someone has sprung to your mind while reading this, someone who does not follow any of these steps and is a grey cloud darkening your day.
Please know that just because they are acting that way towards you or maybe many people, it doesn't mean you have to pass it on. I know it can be hard and negativity can be super contagious but as long as in your heart you wash your hands of the things that they say each day then you are stunting the overcrowding of rainclouds that they want lurking around.

People that don't t.h.i.n.k thrive off of the things that they say spreading through numerous people until a whole morale is pulled down. Remember that like when someone around you has a cold, you have to just keep on washing your hands to ensure it doesn't spread to you, keep on t.h.i.n.king before you speak and eventually they'll go away, just like that sickness bug that's been 'going around'

I saw this T.H.I.N.K quote on Pinterest, and I believe it should be hung up in every school and work environment everywhere!

What do you think?

It's Valentines day!!

Happy Valentines Day 2012!
Maybe cupid has struck you with a bow, maybe you've sent a secret card to someone else- I hope that it works out wonderfully for you!
I found out about some fun Valentines day traditions that made me smile, and I hope they do you too.

Hundreds of years ago in England, many children dressed up as adults on Valentine's Day. They went singing from home to home. One verse they sang was:
Good morning to you, valentine;
Curl your locks as I do mine ---
Two before and three behind.
Good morning to you, valentine.

In the Middle Ages, young men and women drew names from a bowl to see who their valentines would be. They would wear these names on their sleeves for one week. To wear your heart on your sleeve now means that it is easy for other people to know how you are feeling.

Here's a little look into the fun things I bought for St Valentines big day:

Bunting decoration to hang between my windows!

Two peas in a pod fluffy keychain!

I thought this card was so funny, I got it from Paperchase! But I think it says a valid point too, if we have no one to love on valentines day, who better to love than ourselves!?

For more on what kind of crazy silliness I got up to today (including special shaped toast) check my twitter for updates all day!

And just incase you missed it, this years Valentines day makeup tutorial:




Whether you spent today with your family, or friends, or partner, or pet goldfish I hope you had a day bubbling over with love! xxx

The stylish alternative to a Kindle...

A read it on-the-go gold cuff!
I'm just kidding of course, but these really are super stylish and fun

I came across this baby at
 http://www.etsy.com/listing/62366640/wuthering-heights-book-emily-brontes

My heart nearly skipped a beat!
I've never seen something so beautiful and unusual and sophisticated and classic and timeless all in once piece! It contains the quote from Wuthering heights scribed on in red swishy writing "Whatever our souls are made of his and mine are the same"
It's so cute!

Although reading Wuthering Heights in school sure was no fun to me, It's pieces like this that help keep classics like that going on and on forever for generation after generation to read.
The people behind this company have all kinds of interesting designs, they have cuffs printed with music notes if your more of a musical kind of person, or roses, or alice in wonderland illustrations.
So many! Plus I love that it's free shipping all over the world!

This one is my other favourite and it reads "You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you" from Pride and Prejudice

I can't decide on my favourite! Until I know what one I definately love the most I can't buy as I don't want to do an 'impulse buy' especially as it's £25 a pop

Let me know your favourite piece from the whole collection, here's their storefront:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/JezebelCharms?ref=seller_info

Here's what Winston Churchill has to say to YOU!

The bigger we dream, the more things there our stood in our path.
Usually it's people tattling in our ear, taking great joy in telling us that we can only succeed 'so far' or maybe that we've 'reached our potential' and already given the best that we can give and they can't see us being able to deliver more, or maybe they claim to have had no faith in you in the beginning.

It might be academic achievement, maybe you want to work in a competitive industry,entrepreneurial achievement, maybe you dream of starting your own business, or personal achievement, maybe you want to fit back into those jeans.

It's so important to realise that absolutely no one, no professional, no know-it-all, no one, can comprehend how unlimited your capacity to be amazing is.

The directory of Blue Books modelling agency told Marilyn Monroe "You better learn secretarial work, or else get married"

Beethoven was called 'hopeless' as a composer

Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team

Elvis Presley was told "you ain't going nowhere, You ought to go back to driving a truck"

J.K Rowling was penniless and on welfare, severely depressed and divorced when she wrote her first Harry Potter book

Einstein's teachers called him "mentally slow"

Oprah was fired as a television host and reported as being 'unfit for tv'

Walt Disney was fired by a newspaper because he "lacked imagination and had no good ideas"

Dream it, keep dreaming it, and never stop dreaming it until it is your reality.

and most importantly:

"Never, never, never, never give up" - Winston Churchill

You deserve victory!

'Cup of tea guvna?'

Whilst I'm not intending to fulfill the British stereotype as being a tea lover (I myself am not fond of them unless they're the herbal kind, and sometimes even not then)
I do like to drink peppermint tea a lot, a lot, a lot sometimes I have four mugs of it a day!

I used think that it was just something delicious to drink but then I discovered lots of awesome health benefits so I upped my intake of the beverage.

Health benefits include:
Improvement of all kinds of belly trouble, whether indigestion, upset stomach, stomach aches, travel sickness, nervous stomach, butterflies in your belly, abdominal pain headaches and even improve concentration!

I had a mug before I took my driving test when my belly was indeed very nervous and I went through a phase of being prone to stomach aches and depended on peppermint tea to relax the muscles then too.
My favourite brand is Pukka three mint tea:

It's delicious and I love the spearmint taste of it, plus it leaves you with spear-minty breath which has got to be a good thing!

Here's the mug I'm working my way through now, is it totally gross that I find it really refreshing to drink it cold too? Haha, I'm not sure, let me know.

I leave the tea bag in the mug of boiling water for as long as possible to get a really super strong flavour, but if you like your a little weaker then take it out quicker of course!

So if you need a new hot drink in your life or trying to wean yourself off regular tea or coffee and need a beverage replacement, then try peppermint tea.
Or just try it if you like the taste of toothpaste!

I'm packing!

Probably one of my most least favourite things to do! I find it near on impossible to effectively gather everything I'll need for a week, into a limited space.
I've decided these are my top space saving tips!
-Bring one pair of versatile shoes (mine are my little ankle boots with a buckle, can be dressed up or down)
-Do not bring every makeup brush, I can double up uses for some if i think about it especially with eye shadow blending brushes
-Do not bring every eyeshadow, a neutral pallette can be adapted for night time, just add more of the dark colour and blend etc
-Do not bring every ring and necklace I own

...that's all I've got!

Here's a little peek at what I'm packing:

Clothes! Trying to strategiacally organise..

Magical Pink suitcase, unfortunately it doesn't sparkle in real life, but I had you thinking it did didn't I!?

Hair supplies, a few rings and a charm bracelet

Makeup! The complete essentials and only one lip colour! Body Shops Lip Tint

My makeup bag I've got to fit it all into! I love this thing because it's wipe clean fabric and there's sure to be an explosion somewhere along the way...

I maybe dislike packing mostly because then the morning of when you're leaving you think 'oh I need that hairbrush' then you remember 'oh darn it's in my bag' and have to use a awful comb you found in a drawer.
Then on the way to where you're heading you're sat there thinking 'Have i got everything?' 'I'm sure I forgot something'
I remember one time I forgot a headband, and I thought this would be no big deal- it turned out to be so irritating to not have one to wash my face at night time, and holding my hair back just got it all wet!
I still need to pack leggings, pjs, work, camera, pressed powder makeup (goes in a smaller bag that I carry to stop it from breaking or getting crushed in the pan in a big bag)
I'm still waiting for some stuff to get out the wash so it can be ready and I leave tomorrow!

Throughout this week uploading videos won't be possible, but.... I'll have captured lots of fun footage to put up the following week and of course I'll be blogging every day still.

Hope you enjoyed packing with me!

It's sNOw joke!

A cloud of icing sugar snow cascaded across England making everything everywhere so beautiful!

I woke up around 2 in the morning and quickly whipped out my camera to show you guys, I know that sounds so silly because snow is such a common thing to most people, so I've no idea why I'm still fascinated with it!

Here I do a super quick outfit of the day, and I'm warning you- while it may not be 'mountain climber gear' dull it's certainly not 'Kim Kardashian glam' or anything like that.
So come and see the snowy adventure at my house!
I finished off the day with making a snow-woman in the garden! It was for sure a girl because she has on a pink polka dot scarf and hat! She's named Princess I sure hope she likes the cold!

I hope you're watching this while your snuggled up inside with a warm duvet over you (if it's cold where you are at least)

Clouds of mint green

I am very excited that pastel colours are deemed the 'in' colours of this and next season. I've always had a huge love for that pastel mint colour, a kind of bluey-green that is just delicious to look at but findig clothes in such a specific colour is not always so easy, until now!
I came across this jacket which I am just drooling over

I love the stud detail, and the colour is just so perfect! I found it on Pinterest, so where it came from will probably be forever a mystery!

I love this mint satchel

http://www.asos.com/ASOS/ASOS-Leather-And-Suede-Tucklock-Satchel/Prod/pgeproduct.aspx?iid=1853398&SearchQuery=mint&sh=0&pge=2&pgesize=20&sort=-1&clr=Mint

Although I put my bags through their paces so I imagine the suede would get grubby pretty quickly

and finally, what I love the most are these mint jeans, which unfortunately look as though they've sold out, which is too bad as I imagine these to look perfect with some crisp white shoes!

http://www.asos.com/ASOS-Petite/ASOS-PETITE-Zip-Back-Denim-Tee/Prod/pgeproduct.aspx?iid=1899451&SearchQuery=mint&sh=0&pge=2&pgesize=20&sort=-1&clr=Mintgreen

Sweet peppermint dreams! And do you like the pastel trend?