My new laundry helper

Hooray for clothes airers!

If you've read my blog before, you may have seen that last week was a clothes drying-disaster, really really bad.

I did two big laods of washing only to realise I had nowhere to dry anything, I ended up hooking everything over every available surface and having to sleep in that, which I'm fairly certain is bad for your lungs, it can't be good to sleep with a bunch of damp clothes drying surely.

Anywho, you best believe I was online the next morning making sure the same shenanigan wouldn't happen again, and I found this little beauty for the sweet ol' price of £9.99 including postage and packaging off ebay, plus it was brand new! It folds up next to my laundry bag all neatly too

 

Damp clothes BE GONE

There's a new laundry hero in town!

How not to dry your washing

So I'm used to at home, hanging out my washed clothes on the line, and then the lovely British weather will either rain on them some more or the winds will whip them into shape and then they are dry

There's no such luck here, where I should have (note the key word here is should) purchased a clothes airer, but what did I do instead?

Two loads of washing, my lights and colours- waited the half hour for them to wash, came back down to collect them from the machines and then as I pry my drenched bed sheets from the washing machine I realise the error of my ways...

Where on earth will I dry all of this?

My poor friends clothes airer was already full as she'd done a wash with me and it was 11pm or so at night, so what creative, amazing, other-worldy solution did I come up with?

None,

None other than hanging every sheet, sock and shirt from any available hook, handle or cupboard door. My room looked like a neater(!) version of Primark and it gave off that same claustrophic feeling too, I really hate sleeping in a messy room and I ended up having to sleep surrounded by this:

Domestic goddess reporting for duty!

FALL into AUTUMN

Whatever you call it
Fall.. Autumn..When-the-leaves-go-brown
today is the start of that change in season, I don't really like the term 'fall' I don't think it sounds nearly as nice and as magical as Autumn, it's my favourite season where it's kind of magically chilly rather than 'frostbite all day every day' which it sometimes is in the depths of Winter here. Maybe it's called Fall because the leaves start to fall from the trees? I'm not sure... Anyway the official sciency reason why today is the beginning of Autumn is as follows...

"On the 23rd of September, the sun shines directly on the equator and the length of day and night are nearly equal in all parts of the world"

 

See.. and you probably thought there was nothing that special at all about this day today didn't you??

Well you can count on me to show you why each day is so super important!

 

When you think of Autumn or Fall what do you think of??

I think of the cosy clothes.. I love a wooly knit! And of that delicious 'crisp and clean' smell first thing in the morning where I can wear boots with my chunky ugly grey knit socks, also known as and referred to as my 'porridge socks' as the colour and texture reminds me of the porridge you would get in Oliver Twist times or something, I will share a lovely photo once I've pulled out my Autumn clothes, for now here is a much chic-er sock/legwarmer going into a much chic-er boot than my own, but it reminds me of Autumn nonetheless!

 

 



How to dress for an unexpected work out

The title should maybe say how NOT to dress haha
My sister and I opted for a last minute Zumba class, I should just always be prepared for when I'm at my sisters to stop me going to Zumba looking like this...

It may not look that bad from a distance but the picture is luckily quite blurry, I'm wearing an old white vest from H&M and a black bra that showed through...not a good look.
Black tracksuit bottoms that are a little on the short side haha
And old mens trainers in one size too big!

Hooray for looking super stylish at the gym!

A day of sweetness

I was caught off guard with the heat and since I'm staying away from home at the moment I had to make the best of what I had with me which was...jeans

Here I did a little improvisation and rolles the jeans up to mid-calf to give them a fresh summery look. These jeans are my trusty pastel pair that I have blogged about before many times, I got them from the kids section in Next

I matched it with my well-loved 'chocolate box' tshirt, it reminds me of fancy chocolate boxes because of the fancy ribbons!

To sweeten it up a little more and add more colours I'm wearing my triple pastel belt from New Look and it has all the sweetest colours in it!

 The sweetness doesn't stop there, for dessert that night we had chocolate mousse with a deliciously chocolatey base that's all biscuity and crumbly

 ...and a little box of heart chocolates and an umbrella chocolate! I think the umbrella is the funniest, what a random shape to decide to make a chocolate!

Now as you can imagine I'm bouncing off the walls in this sticky heat on a suagr rush!

Pinterest Spamterest

Pinterest is a great ol' hub of creativity mixing together, if you are a bride to be then you need to make your way over to Pinterest.com for every creative, beautiful, money saving, romance making, awe inducing creations, themes, colour schemes, locations and dresses from the most stylish and savvy brides of the world!

I have created seperate virtual pin boards for clothes from my dreams, places I thought were only in fantasy lands, foods that are so pretty I want to coat them in a clear preserve to look at them forever and other boards just to collect all the crazy and outlandish world statistics that I never knew about and others are there to gather the craft projects of my dreams, I wish we didn't need to always be in the real world and going to the places that we have to go to like work and school and instead we could have months of empty time just to make and stick and stitch and paint.

Just lately though my boards have been corrupted by spam, I don't even know how it could have happened but my account has just given birth to brand new boards all by itself titled completely lame things like 'The best paid jobs in the US' ... i don't even live in the US- that's not something that I would put on my lovely array of pin boards! And the more I delete it, more boards seem to spring up that I didn't even create!
I just hope if i keep reporting it, it will go away but I won't let it plague my oasis of favourite things on my pin boards.
Here are some of my favourites!

www.pinterest.com/alexiaesque

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!

Throwback Sunday!

You know those days when everything is just breezy and casual and you don't want to wear a scrap of makeup?
Today was one of those days for me- So here it is!

Bare faced!

I put my hair in a scruffy side-pony because man-alive is it smoking hot outside!

My attire is a striped blue long, baggy shirt from H&M (but I got it from ebay because it's cheaper there!)

black leggings underneth from the kids section at H&M and plain black pumps

For walking around i tied a thin brown belt from forever21 around the waist

Under my blue shirt for modesty sake I wore a white strappy top from New Look

Whew- staying cool and comfortable in the sun!

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!

Natural School & Work Makeup and smart outfit!

Isn't is the nicest when you have a little extra time in the mornings to 'do things properly'
My morning wasn't the usual flurry of pulling on my clothes while spoon feeding myself cereal  and I got to breathe a sigh of releif and take it slowly!

So here's whats on my face:
Bare Minerals foundation in shade Fairly Light
Blusher on my cheek bones in shade Well Dressed by MAC
Tiniest bit of bronzer in my cheek hollows product is by Bare Minerals and called Warmth (I don't believe thats the name of the shade, just the nameof the products)
Body Shop Red lip tint on my lips
Slick of vaseline over the top!
Cosmic brown eyeliner by Avon
Black Mascara by Bare Escentuals

How did you do your hair?
Read my old blog post here (it has a bazillion pictures and is so super easy)


The scoop on my outfit:

Pretty blue knitted jumper came from a Next outlet store , very pretty and comfy but also smart when paired with a suit

Grey wool suit came from the regular Next store, it's comfy but the skirt shifts about the wasit through the day as it has no elastic in the waist which can make it a little uncomfy and impractical at times, but I like that it hits just right on the leg (it's hard to tell from the awkward picture angle) and that it's not pleated, but kind of wavy and girly rather than standard straight pencil skirts



I pair it with a matching blazer, black opaque tights and some black flat shoes and a few rings on each hand and I'm good to go!



I HEART your corset

So you're going to:

a) Alice in Wonderland Fancy Dress party
b) Tea party
c) Relax in the garden?

and you have a:
a) Few packs of playing cards
b) Ribbon
c) Hole punch
d) Staple/Glue gun


Then you can join in on this crafty creation!

-Get a willing model (the same size as you) and shape the cards around their torso
-Staple or glue gun the cards as you go, be careful not to injure your willing model
-Try and keep the cards in line for a neat patterns, or if you don't mind a 'scattered' look then attach the cards with less care and more haste
-Don't join the cards to fully meet in a circle so that the whole torso is covered as you need a gap about the width of a playing card to thread the ribbon
-Remove the corset of cards and evenly hole punch down the side
-Thread through a red ribbon

Wallah!

If you're feeling brave, you could try and master a skirt too!

Top tip:
You can buy playing cards super cheap from charity shops (literally pennies!)
You can create a theme by only using cards from on suit, but then you'll need more cards!
Wear a strapless cotton top underneth your corset for comfort, the edges can be sharp (and modesty incase any cards tear!)

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!

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!