From ASOS with love

Woopsy I accidentally went shopping for one single blouse and instead came away with 2 blouses and 3 pretty little dresses!
I must say, I was bedazzled with the quality of this end of season sale, reflected in my purchases which of course never look as sassy on camera as they do on a person...

I couldn't resist the print of this dress, it's fabric is soft like rose petals and it's colours bold like summer, I think that there's a certain femininity with thin straps on dresses  that can't be found on strapless or more vest style dresses. I'll have to save this little gem as a treat for summertime!

 This is my absolute guilty pleasure dress, it is so Betty Boop with it's dropped waist and sweetheart neckline, I just cannot get enough of it. It's a bold black that the flash has washed out a little, it's also made from that comfy and stretchy jersey fabric, forgiving fabrics are always a favourite.

 What I came for.. a beautiful blouse, an even bigger bonus is the adorable colour and button accents- but the very best part is the cape affect that carries through from the sleeves to the back of the dress, I love little capes on clothes it adds instant fun!

 And then another perhaps less practical blouse, but the gold tipped collar was what sold it to me, but it has a front and back cut out which is great because with long hair back detailing never gets noticed but now it looks pretty from the back too. The connecting collars with a button create a 'bow tie' look from afar which is never a bad thing.

 Finally, a classic and comfortable (comfort is a recurring theme with me and dresses) jersey dress, it has a little bit of back detailing but it fits nicely, swishes around the hips and flatters the waist, it's casual style makes it great for afternoon and evening, shopping and parties and will probably become the most loved of all.

My Magical Primark Finds

Primark and I, our relationship isn't good.
It's not that we have had any particularly bad experiences in the past, I just find that a suggestion of visiting a Primark strikes fear into my heart because once I walk through those doors and the flourescent lights I just find a maze of chaos laid out before me, shoes and vest tops and dresses and blouses strewn from left to right with poor over worked staff running around trying to piece the store back together.

Every single branch that I have been to quite frankly always looks as though it is in a state of utter despair and a mini earthquake has made it's way around the store. The whole experience from the moment that I walk through the door is one of urgency to get around quickly, squeezing past obnoxious prams left in the middle of aisles and getting on my hands and knees to rummage for my size.

It has had one or two brand makeovers which have included a paper carrier bag opposed to plastic, and a new brighter blue font.
But the inside is still the same as ever, with the corners of changing rooms crammed with torn off tags from sticky fingered shoppers.
I won't even get into how Primark considers it's 'relaunch' of a brighter blue font to justify the 50% increase in prices for the same quality product...

Anywho, one fine day (today) my friend suggested that we nip into Primark- looking through those oversized glass windows to see the Christmas chaos inside and the queues stretching all the way to the pyjama department at the back of the store.
I took a deep breath and agreed, and I'd just stick to the main aisles, follow around my friend and not look at anything and try not to get involved in any eye contact confrontation with angry mothers.
As we pushed through the doors the warmth, lights and familiar sound of screaming toddlers filled the air.

I traveled around, in Primark you are essentially swept around with the general flow of people, if you miss your turning off into the knitwear or blouses, then you'll have to go up the escalator, come back down and try again. To my surprise, I saw some lovely little gems crammed on wall hooks that I didn't think I'd be able to get to.

I came across some cute designs for the winter collection including a baseball jersey with coca cola on, very seasonal I know.

A distressed tee with roses and little gold detailing

and finally, a Disney princess castle tee!

I did end up getting them all but I am well aware that after one wash, they will never look the same again and with each additional wash slowly fall to pieces.
More fool me, but I probably, hopefully won't make another trip for a year or so.

Nail polish floods shopping mall!

 It was my mums birthday yesterday and she got some vouchers so we decided to head to a shopping centre to get some fun bits and pieces for her, but before any of that, we were greeted by this giant acrylic shape in the middle of all the shops. From the ground level it just looks like a futuristic perspex shape, but from above you can clearly see that it's a spilt nail polish bottle oozing with a gooey pink river! It's a Models Own makeup booth, and I initially don't associate them immediately with nail polish as their iconic product, but I guess, perhaps they do!

After all that, we went on the lookout for some fun kitcheny stuff in Lakeland, I just love that shop it has so many cute and innovative products, my mum ended up getting a food processor and some cute ice cream ceramic dishes too, I on the other hand was delighted at this adorable sight.

It's supposed to be the White House made out of white chocolate and using a standard gingerbread cottage mould (the kind you'd use at christmas) I already have the gingerbread cottage mould from last christmas but I never actually used it yet, and I never would have thought to have used it this way, It's of course in honour of the 4th of July and I just thought it was adorable and wanted to share it. If you click the picture to make it larger you can see a little mini Michelle and Barack Obama made out of chocolate!

 Then we went for lunch at Wagamamas which is such a relief as I'd been craving it for weeks. My mum had the Katsu curry but didn't eat all the rice as it is a mini mountain of rice, but it's essentially a chicken curry.
My mum also had the carrot and ginger juice, which made me feel nauseous, it honestly felt like I was drinking pasta sauce, maybe I'm just ignorant I  don't know. I on the other hand had the strawberry, apple and mint juice, it was so delicious, and tasted really fresh and raw.

 For lunch I had Cha Han which I believe is 77 on the menu, and besides it being delicious, I adore that it comes with a side of pickles, which are so incredibly delicious and tangy and crunchy and a miso soup aswell which I always drink last.

 I then went on to get some cards and gifts for birthdays and weddings coming up, and I was blown away at these gorgeous cards, the ones on the right are 3D cards that you make yourself, and behind the 3D dog you can perhaps make out the outline of a pirate ship which is another 3D card, and the pirate ship rocks from side to side!

Finally, just before I left Percy Pig sweets which are really really popular in the UK were celebrating his 21st birthday so they had a whole display stand with loads of variations of the Percy Pig sweets, one of the cute gifts was this piggy back, but I loved the grass on the bottom of it, so cute!

Tomorrow I am excited to be filming a brand new video for you guys to go up at the weekend!

Summer Stripes! - New Look & TK Maxx (Criminal Damage)

I am in the process of last-minute holiday shopping, and I came across some pretty little striped things to complete my holiday, and summer wardrobe!

First and best is this super cute tee from TK Maxx, but It's originally from Criminal Damage who do have the off cute thing that I like, sometimes their stuff is slightly too dark for me, but this is an exception. It's blue stripes have little doodles on them to look like waves and the starry sky, with blue sketches on the white stripes showing images of boats and tropical islands, but what really sold it to me was the rope detailing around the neck!
I adore that cute little feature, it's like a sailor bow, or knot and makes it a bit more special.

 TK Maxx only had two of these left and they were both in size XL, but this honestly fits me just fine. I wonder if that's why it was in TK Maxx because the sizing is off. I thought if it's a XL I'll just wear it as a dress but it fits very nicely as a tshirt. I know Criminal damage comes up small but I didn't think that small!!

Then next, my computer has done that fun(!) thing where it rotates a picture and I can't rotate it back, but this is a red and white striped vest from the kids section at New Look. This is in the size age 13 and fits really nicely, it doesn't cut under the arm pits, nor is it restricting along the back but it is a little short on the torso. I kind of like that look for summer. It's certainly not a crop top (I do not like that look)

Next I got something mostly for it's humorous factor but partly because of how smug I'd feel if it actually worked. My current highlighter is all but used up and I contemplated getting the Benefit High Beam instead but held off as it's a liquid consistency and I think I'd prefer a powder.

My first impressions are that the shimmer in it is a little too chunky, I prefer highlighters to just have a glimmer to them, rather than being able to distinguish specific bits of glitter.

Who knows, if I love it, I may have found the most perfect dupe!

Smoothie Drink Meeee!

We headed out shopping today but I'm so tired now I can't muster the energy to take a picture of my goodies and line them all up to look pretty but I got a lot of fabulous stuff that I'll show you laterrrrr!
In the meantime, I'll tell you about the best part of the day (besides buying my goodies) I got a magical, delicious, beautiful smoothie from the nearby smoothie bar.
It was called Strawberry dream I think and it had banana and strawberry and apple and yoghurt in it I think and oh my gawwwwwwwd, it was good!
It tasted like an ice cream, but a really good fresh ice cream, and the cup size was huge I never thought that I would finish it.

It was like a 750ml cup and it filled me up enough that I went to kfc with my friends and didn't eat kfc and instead just enjoyed my smoothie!
Can you spot my forever 21 bag in the background?

Rushing Rushing Rushing

My day was not especially exciting, I ended up running around a lot of shops gathering together last little Christmas bits and pieces and I wish I could stress how cold it was, literally super duper cold... thats as specific and scientific as I can get regarding temperatures.

But even when I'm shopping for everyone else, I will show you what ends up happening to my hand.. I can't help it, it;s like a disease:

 

I get lipgloss smears, and eyeliner testers and lipsticks and all the rest of it all over my hand because I can't resist to have a 'touch and feel' Even though colours look very different on your hand to your face, the textures can be pretty well judged still.. so here is my YSL, Urban Decay, Benefit and all other kinds of brands and products that I wish I could have got for myself today but had to leave them where they were... on the shelf!

So who else ends up with smeary tester-y hands even without meaning to? Raise your mucky-colourful hand in the air!

And...

A final picture to warm your cold self is this cuuute but mostly funny 'alternative' nativity I saw in a shops display

 

 

I'm gon' be a bridesmaid!

I've posted more than once about my sister getting married next year!

_-~* Insert my gushing face!*~-_

Since 'the dress' has already been purchased, now we can move onto 'the other important dress' which is that of the bridesmaids!

Today was day 1 of many in terms of shopping, we're looking at the dresses in the American brand 'Forever Yours' they do very stereotypically 'American' bridesmaid and flower girl dresses if that makes sense?

I guess I mean the styles, the cheesy green screen backdrops of some of the photo shoots too!

Here's the initial dress that we thought would be 'the one' or 'the other one' haha but not this colour.

Tried on it lookes different, and we just didn't love it as much as the picture, also in the shop it was in a candyfloss pink colour so I felt like a candy floss-ballerina-fairy type thing, not a sophisticated and chic bridesmaid...

The search continues!

Here's a look at the ones I was trying on today:

Guess if you can!



ASOS Sale Fail

Asos had a big sale going on and I nosed around to see if anything appealed. Unfortanetly a whole lot more appealed than I intended and this is what I came away with:

 A fun piano clutch to match my music note dress to wear to a wedding this month!

 A frilly bikini top, I love the foamy flowers they look like sweeties! I didn't buy the matching bottoms because I prefer when they mismatch

 Pretty heart pumps that I thought would look cute with my pastel jeans

Even though I got these cute gems a lot had to go back including another bikini top because it was too small, a bag in the shape of an encyclopedia because it had a horrible brown panel, a cute bunny watch with a gross ink stain across it and a dress with cupcakes on it that felt cheap and thin!
Ah well, then I can save those pretty pennies to spend on something that I do like, hooray for free returns!

Chained up dress?!?

Ted Baker is the place of secret dreams for me!
I know to a lot of people, Ted Baker is still very much a High Street store as there branches pop up all over the place rather than in exclusive areas, but to me I consider Ted Baker to be a designer dream and New Look, Topshop, Forever21 and H&M as the standard High Street stores, for me at least

I had a little wishful looky inside- the only thing I've ever bought was a bag in the sale from £75 to £35- A beautiful white dress covered with crystals caught my eye and so I picked it up off the rail to show my Aunite (my shopping pal) and I was startled that the dress pulled me back, I turned around to see that the dress was CHAINED to the rail!!

I was so startled that it was chained I remember thinking -holy smokes how much IS this dress worth?- I had a little look for a price tag but couldn't see one which usually means something is super duper expensive, in my head at least, so that was when I decided the smart thing to do would be to promptly put it back on the rail and back away slowly...

Instead I admired it online

It's called the Wilz dress and costs...wait for it... £999!

A dress that I actually tried on was this one

I fell in love with it so bad I didn't want to take it off, but again it had no price which made me a bit nervous! But it was £399 so out of my price range but the detailing and pleats on the skirt was so so lovely- the colour in real life is nicer too, more of a dusty rose than a baby pink!

Tell me, what's the most you'd ever spend on a dress!?

The funnest jumper ever!

It only seemed right that I had a little down time after all this intensity of schooling, and i for sure felt I got the most out of my day, we headed to East Algate to go to a fab vintage fair where I picked up the cutest jumper with pictures of makeup and perfume on it.

Then we went to a huge shop called 'Beyond Retro' which was stacked to the high heavens with retro sweaters, and dresses and tops and aprons and cowboy boots!

Then just around the corner we had out photo taken in the booth of music store Rough Trade

By some sort of chance we ended up in Angel and had the most amazing Mexican food, it was the same set up as a Subway, where it is made before your eyes and it tasted so, so good!
With our energy revived we went onto Oxford Street but was overwhelmed by the aggresive shoppers in the Topshop sale and had more luck picking up cute things in H&M.

I got a trusty black cardigan, and a mint tee for about £4

By the end of the day I also had a lipstick from MAC in shade 'Pervette' a lipgloss in 'Pretty plush' and a bronzer in 'Matte Bronze'

Whew, by the time I got home my feet were throbbing as though I had been doing star jumps in heels all day long!

Amazing clothes & amazing causes

Shopping in charity shops is one thing, but there are lots of reasons why some people don't - Maybe one of these reasons sums up you?

1. The idea of used clothes isn't appealing to me

2. I never find anything that I like

3. There aren't any charity shops near me

4. Just going into those places makes me feel overwhelmed the amount of junk on display

5. I don't feel strongly enough about the charity to draw me inside

if this is YOU stay tuned- you are in for a treat!

http://sevenly.org/

is an amazing website, where a tshirt and hoodie design is made and produced and on sale for one week- and the proceeds go towards one specific charity; there's details on who the charity are, what they're about and what your purchase (i.e money) can do to help someone else.

Maybe you don't like this weeks design?

No problemo!

Next week they'll be a new design!
Supporting a new charity! (it can be solutions to sex trafficking, hunger, disease)

The best part?
The designs are beautiful, charming, whimsical and wearable

The price?

$22 for a shirt, $35 for a hoodie they often sell one design in a variety of shirt designs, sometimes jumpers too and in male and female designs

'Do they ship to me?'
I hear you cry!
YES! They ship worldwide!!

So while you're stocking up on clothes for summer, visit sevenly for new designs along with asos, forever21, H&M, Topshop- and wherever else you're shopping!

SHOPPING HURTS!

It hurts our purse, feet, and shoulders, carrying all those bags
But prom season is upon us!

So a video is in order on how to get your perfect prom dress and not have the process be so gosh darn painful!

For those of us who are not buying prom dresses, these tips are universal for every kind of shopping trip! Nowadays, I tend to do more little bits here and there online than a big shop in stores because it's so gosh darn tiring.

Here's the video:


Prom perfection tips:

-Avoid the temptation to get your dress online, photographs of clothes are not the same as wearing it on yourself as you want to look at your absolute best!

-If you are buying your dress online, be wary of websites that are based in China, often the dresses are immitations of the ones pictures rather than the actual one photographed and the quality suffers because of this, think shoddy stitching and uneven seams and you'll get what I mean

Bits & Bobs for Mothers Day and Easter!

Here's a lil' (albeit very pixelated) peek at what I picked up today for Easter, Mothers Day and a few practical pieces for me.
Along the top, you can see 3 little easter eggs- they are so fun! I love the Mr potato head one because it has all the chocolate facial features.
I love the pink chocolate on the Percy Pig egg and the millions of sprinkles that make up Hello Kitty's dress! They came from Marks and Spencers and were £6 each or 3 for the price of 2!

Other little easter treats include:
2 bags of mini kinder eggs
2 packets of Malteaser rabbits
3 Lindt gold bunny rabbits
and something so yummy it deserves it's own picture:

A bath bomb from Lush in the shape of an egg! It's scented the same as Snow Fairy, which is my sisters favourite fragrance so I'm excited to give this to her!
and I got a dragon soap to celebrate Chinese New Year- it's fragrance is Karma and it's coated in gold dust, but it's a present so I don't want to unpackage it!

Other practical things I got:
Batisee dry shampoo in fragrance Original
Another bottle of Simple light facial moisturiser
Cupcake and Polka dot folders!

And finally...

The packet under the aerosal is kind of a 'jokey' Mothers day present to go alongside her actual one. It's a kit  to make a vase of roses out of foam!
It's meant for little chidren to give their mums I think- but it will be cute because they'll never die like real flowers!
The best part? It cost £2 from Morrisons!!!

Here's how I make them:

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!