Inspiration

I keep getting panicked writing this thing. I'll make a post, save it as a draft, then worry I sound silly and delete the whole thing!
It's been making it difficult to make outfit posts so I thought I'd cut the writing to a minimum and simply make a post sharing some things I draw inspiration from.

 

 

 

1/2/3/4/5/6-Virgin Suicides screencap/7-Craft Spells album artwork

And so it only seems logical to propose a question here to anyone reading this. What do you draw inspiration from?

Long time no see!

Sorry about the absence, I've been away and then as soon as I got back I fell ill. Not in fit shape for blogging! :(

But I'm here now. With an overdue outfit post and a very image-heavy holiday post.

As for the outfit!

 

Dress - H&M

Scarf - Accessorize

Shoes - Primark

Ever since getting this haircut I've been wanting to wear more and more clothes that remind me of what a modern flapper might wear, and this is one such outfit. This is one of those dresses that I seem unable to go wrong with, but I don't feel I wear enough. I might start building more outfits around it in the future just because I love it so much.

Now, outfit formalities out of the way, time to get to the part of this I was looking forward to. Holiday photos!

The boyfriend and I took a trip to the Isle of Wight last week to visit his sister. It is actually the most beautiful place, and I managed to get so many photos of lovely things along with finding the perfect cheesy chips. And pub crawls are a lot easier there as well! No stringent ID checking, just asking if we were both 18 (which we are! Don't worry, no underage drinking here.) and taking our word for it. If only it was that easy where I live.

Anyway, photos:

This one was actually taken by my boyfriend's sister, and is probably my favourite photo of my boyfriend and I together that exists.

The perfect cheesy chips

The boyfriend in his "geniune ray-bans" (knock-offs he got for £6 in Malia)

It really is the most lovely place! I want to go back someday - if not just to get some more of those chips.

Hopefully I'll be back to outfit posts soon, and I'll probably start doing some other kind of posts as well to keep this thing interesting once I'm well again. Until then, hope you've enjoyed my holiday photos!

Pink

For once I'm updating this before loobook! Largely because I'm entirely stuck for a title and cannot think of anything to call this look when I upload it, but I'm thinking, I'm thinking.

Cardigan - H&M
Dress - New Look
Shoes - Primark

I always think it's quite amusing I dress like this now considering I was such a tomboy growing up. When I was around 10 I hated the thoughts of dresses, skirts or anything pretty - I wonder what my 10 year old self would think of me now!
I don't think I started wearing dresses regularly until I was around 15 or 16. Until then I was purely  a jeans girl. I've come a long way in just a few years!

I was extremely bored last night and created a little poorly drawn gif of my outfits over the previous four days

Two of the outfits never made the lookbook/blog cut (although the jumper outfit without the skirt may be worn again in a day or two and photographed because I did rather like it.)

It's not particularly interesting, I just thought I'd include it here just because. It's not the peak of my artistic ability, just a quick little doodle to pass some time yesterday.

Polkadots

I'll start off with yesterday's outfit!

Jumper - My boyfriend's
Skirt - Primark
Shoes - Primark

I have such a little lost/innocent face in that second photo! It makes me laugh a little. I didn't intend for it to come out like that!
I really want to keep this jumper, but once the boyfriend returns from his holiday I think I have to give it back. It's soooo comfortable. I might go to Topman for my jumper shopping in the future because of it.
I'm beginning to  get used to the hair now, and my dad keeps commenting on how it looks quite 1920s, so I keep amusing myself by talking as if I'm in an F. Scott. Fitzgerald novel. 

... Anyway!

I think it's probably kind of obvious that I have a love of painting my nails, but I couldn't decide between two colours today so I compromised

 

 

Both colours are Barry M. One is Peach Melba, and the other Blueberry Ice Cream - it's probably kind of obvious which is which.
They're not the neatest polkadots, but I was using the end of a pen to do them so it's forgivable, right?

I'll have probably painted them another colour by the next post though! Such is life.

Mint Green

First outfit post with my new hair!

 

Black Vest - DIY

Skirt - Topshop

Necklace - River Island

I have such a weakness for pastel coloured nails, and mint green is one of my favourites. The ever trusty Barry M that is. I own 20 different Barry M shades now, it's getting to the stage of obsession!

I won't write too much on the outfit, because I was quite interested in doing a music post today. I quite wanted to share a few of my favourite songs for summer, so here goes:

Craft Spells - Scandinavian Crush




Tennis - Seafarer


Summer Camp - Veronica Sawyer



Los Campesinos! - A Heat Rash In The Shape Of The Show Me State Or, Letters From Me To Charlotte


Geographer - Verona

All brilliant for summer and some of my favourite songs!

Hair Cut!

First off, sorry about the delay in posting! I've been meaning to get around to it but certain things have been getting in the way. Apologies for that.

Secondly, I have new hair!

 

Much shorter! Shorter than I asked as well, but nothing I can do now.

I'm still slightly undecided. Long hair was my thing for a while, plus I've lost the ombre/dip-dye but I needed a lot of really poorly conditioned hair to go, and now I've finally done it so it's in much better condition plus it's kind of cute, right?

Thirdly! I get asked this quite often so I'll put it here now

The camera I use is  a Sony-DSC W90. Specific factors, such as the orangey tinge to most of my photos, are added afterwards in photoshop. I hope this clears any questions about that up! :)

"Real Women"

Not a full post, I just wanted to share this link in case anyone hasn't seen this.

http://www.hanneblank.com/blog/2011/06/23/real-women/

It's wonderfully eloquent, and I think an important read for anyone who has ever been told they're not a "real woman" because of their appearance.

Alpines

Agh I have such an obsession with anything that reminds me of old-fashioned tennis uniforms at the moment, and my new Primark skirt certainly ticks the box:

Top - Topshop
Skirt - Primark
Shoes - H&M

I had something planned to say about this but my mind has gone entirely blank now I'm trying to write something and so I can't think of anything. This is the skirt I mentioned yesterday, the one bought with the money from returning the ill-fitting Topshop dress.
As much as it pains me to know that dress will never be mine, I suppose this is an almost fitting substitute.

As I said, part of the reason I love it so much is because pleated skirts like this remind me of old fashioned tennis uniforms and that's something I have a weakness for.

photos from http://www.flickr.com/photos/37090329@N07/sets/72157624970084471

I don't play tennis, I can't play tennis (one of my favourite bands is called Tennis, but that's another matter), but I'd still love to be there, dressed like that with those girls in those photos. They look so lovely!

One a final note, can I just post this video because I am entirely in love with Alpines at the moment. I saw them playing live in May and they are absolutely stunning, as is this video:

enjoy!

Nerves

I have a dress from H&M that I bought last year. The first time I ever wore it I managed to get a biro stain on it, and it still has not budged. Really quite disheartening

Dress - H&M
Shirt - Primark
Sunglasses - Primark

This happens to be the dress with the unfortunate stain.
I remember when I bought it I made a resolution that I would have to wear it to a beach one day, and that day still hasn't arisen - but one day it will! I swear.

An unfortunate thing has happened. I have had to return that Topshop dress I posted a few posts back. I had accidentally picked up the wrong size (such a rookie error!) and mistaken a normal size 6 for a petite size 6. This one small error meant the dress was entirely unwearable and so I had to do something about it.
The problem is I am so useless talking to people in shops and get so nervous about returning things that the conversation went a little like this:

“Um hi I bought this yesterday, or erm not yesterday the day before, no wait not the day before maybe um… recently, no it was the day before yesterday or whenever Sunday was. But yeah I bought this then and I picked up the wrong size and I wondered if I could… um… return… it.”

“Has it been worn?”

“No, no, um there are tags and everything well obviously I wore it once to see if it fitted but then it didn’t which is why I’m bringing it back because I mean I thought it would fit but it was er yeah. No I’ve not worn it.”

“Um ok… well did you want to exchange it?”

“No, no just a return because er… yeah.”and I just rambled on being nervous, shy and ridiculous.

I did manage to return it though. Spent half the money from its return on a Primark skirt I've had my eye on for a while, and the rest (all £7...) has been saved for an emergency. (Although I am not really sure what emergencies would only require £7. An emergency McDonalds trip perhaps.)

To finish this post off, I just wanted to share more of my wall.
It's one of my favourite background touches of my photos for here and lookbook, and mostly consists of NME pages with a few Vogue pages thrown in for good measure. I have a stack of things to add to it but I've run out of blue tack at the moment (perhaps this is when the emergency £7 could come in handy.)

Until next time! x

Super Monkey Ball

As promised yesterday, one of the Topshop sale purchases!

Shirt - Topshop
Skirt - Topshop
Shoes - H&M

This skirt, auuuugh! This skirt!
I don't think I can possibly express my love for this skirt.
To paraphrase Animal Farm, although I love all my skirts equally, I do love some more equally than others.
Turns out this skirt isn't a lucky charm for Super Monkey Ball, however. Met up with a friend and the boyfriend today, it turned into a mini Super Monkey Ball tournament and I came only 9 points away from last place. (So I could optimistically say I came second, but really I was only 9 points from losing entirely.)

And as an added point of interest because I'm afraid this post wasn't very long, I am completely in love with this photo taken by my boyfriend's sister:

Isn't it just the most gorgeous thing?

Shopping!

Such gorgeous weather today! It's been too chilly recently for my liking, so it's nice to actually have some sunny weather for once!

 Striped dress worn as a top: H&M
Skirt: New Look
Brogues: Primark
Scarf: Accessorize

This dress (/worn as a top here but it feels weird calling it a top) always reminds me of old fashioned English seaside holidays, and beach huts, piers and ice cream! Hasn't really been warm enough to wear it recently, which is a shame, because it hasn't had many outings yet.

Despite the practically tropical weather today, the boyfriend and I kept up our plan to go shopping today. I needed to peruse the Topshop sale and he needed to check a few charity shops. I can't usually afford to shop in Topshop unless there is a sale on - Primark is more my price range -  but luckily there is currently a sale and so I was able to shop and not just stare at items of clothing wistfully.

I actually managed to find some amazing bargains:

This skirt. Was £32, now £12! When I got home my mum said it reminded her of an old woman's sofa, and that just made me love it more. Personally I see it as more a carpet-bag in skirt form and therefore I love it.

I've had my eye on this dress for so many months, but have never had the money spare to justify buying it. In the sale I managed to buy it for £15!
I kept seeing it in a size 10 or a size 12 which was rather disheartening because both would be massively too large on me. However, after persistent searching I found a size 6! Day = Made. I love this dress far too much. It reminds me of 1930s tennis players and other lovely things.

Also in a sale, but not a Topshop sale, were these wonderful little shoes from H&M. Whilst waiting for my boyfriend to finish trying some shorts on, I took myself and my final £5 around H&M's sale to see if anything would fall into my price range, when a massive red "£3" caught my eye. Under the sign lay these little shoes which were, much to my amusement, all in my size! Being a ridiculously small person, I have ridiculously small and narrow feet. The problem is a size 3 always feels slightly too small and a size 4 always feels slightly too large, so I usually just settle on buying whichever is the least uncomfortable of the two for a specific shoe when footwear shopping. Bizarrely, all of these were a size "3.5". And when I say all, I mean around 15 of them. Oh, and one lone size 4 sitting by itself.

Next stop on the shopping trip was my favourite charity shop in Swindon. It's not great for clothes, but it is wonderful for bizarre nick-nacks. It is brilliant for searching for old, rubbish vinyls in so here is a quick selection of the weird and wonderful vinyl sleeves found today:

Underneath the boxes of vinyls was a crate full of old cameras. The boyfriend bought me an old disposable camera with film that expired in 2003 in it! I'm tempted to go back for the polaroid cameras in there (they all cost under £3!).

Final purchase of the day was by the boyfriend.

Casette tapes, for some bizarre reason! Turns out he actually has the means to play them and apparently fully intends to.
Excuse my poorly painted nails in the second picture there. That coat of peach melba has stayed on so long that it's growing out before it chips!

Hopefully will have pictures of me wearing at least one of the new sale purchases tomorrow. Until then, have a nice rest-of-Sunday!