Crystal cupcakes and leopard nails

Feeling questionably patriotic?

The wonderful people at Barry M have had a brief relapse of taste and started selling these three Nail Paints together for the discounted price of £6.50 (a saving of £2.35 ooh!) so that all of us can indulge our inner ladette and support the boys. Don't all rush at once...

Style Icon: Sailor Moon?

Well perhaps not... but as I stepped out in my over-the-knee socks along with a floaty dress, I felt like a cross between that and a Victorian schoolgirl. It takes some guts to go out wearing St Trinians style socks (apparently) and if it weren't for the scruffy boots and boyfriend jumper I would probably have walked around looking like the wrong side of jailbait (especially given the curls and headband combo).

Anyhow... considering I don't really do sexy or elegant or fashion forward I thought I'd post my take on cute.

How much longer can I get away with dressing like a teenager? Hopefully just a little bit longer.

Saturday Adventures

Who watched the football on Saturday? Who was forced to? I found myself coerced into a deal with the Boy whereby if I didn't cringe (too much) at the car flags and put up with the 'En-ger-lund' war cries at the pub, not to mention the middle aged men wearing football shirts that I would be taken on an adventure that morning.

As readers of this blog know, I am a girl who loves an adventure - not the hiking, camping type mind you, I'm much more the stately homes and cream tea type... Following the huge success of our adventure excursion last year, the Boy and I found ourselves the village of Corfe Castle, the beautifully picturesque hamlet that lies at the foot of castle ruins in Dorset. Having landed on the same day as 'Corfest' the usual £6 fee was wavered by the lovely old ladies from the National Trust (after a hefty yearly membership sales pitch) and we were able to ascend to the castle with the happiness only true freedom can bring.

At the entrance of the castle was a small market and makeshift dog show, so after watching the 'waggiest tail' entrants strut thier stuff(and get their bellies scratched), we took a stroll around the stalls. A jar of pickled eggs, chilli oil, tomato chutney and a bracelet later we moved on to a church book fair where I picked up a copy of The Alchemist for 50p - bargain!

My bracelet is actually intended to be a little girls necklace, but after opting to go for a 'B' bee rather then an 'E' elephant (or the 'P' piglet suggestion by the Boy) I thought I'd be fabulously bohemian/ kitsch and wrap it around my wrist, although I still haven't been able to tie a knot tight enough to get it to stay yet. Knot experts suggestions welcome...
After having a lovely pub lunch we headed to the coast and sat on a stone watching the world go by for a little bit...

... And made it home in plenty of time to watch England draw 1-1 against USA. I kept my promise and was on my best behaviour. Of course A bottle of rose was the perfect way to finish taking the edge off the beautiful game.

Doesn't the Boy look lovely in his sunglasses?

New Shoes!

Some say they're channelling Chloe others say Alexander Wang... I say nothing because I don't want too many people to know that they are in fact £35 from good ol' M&S.

Having seen them in a shoes campaign in the wonderful Stylist magazine, I knew they had to be mine. I know I should be saving money to spend on investment buys, but when the highstreet is this good I think that they're a fair investment in a good summer. Beyond? I'll think about that later.
My second pair of shoes is thanks to my lovely mother. Today we took a trip the the retail outlet in Ashford (so so chavtastic but they have a Kurt Geiger so I'm not complaining). My mum decided to buy two pair of shoes and thanks to a fantastic offer, you got a third pair for free. So I picked these bejewelled lovelies.

These shoes should see me through the summer, or at least the month but seeing as how I've now handed in my notice in order to taste freelance freedom, these will have to be the last shoes I buy for a while... I will ignore the horror of this situation by decorating my nails, watch this space.

Just needs the cream

I'm honing my skills... Since investing £25 in a set of nail pens after a fairly convincing sales pitch at Hamleys, I've been playing with them all week. I've run out of fingers (and toes!).

Seeing as its almost Wimbledon season, I thought that strawberries might be wonderfully appropriate... so here they are.

I might start charging soon.

Life's a beach

I don't want to be one of those boring people who go on and on about how amazing and culturally enriching their holidays are, luckily then that my recent trip was to the wonderful Brits abroad city of Alicante. This really is a completely separate point however.

The one simple piece of learning that I wanted to pass on is this:

Despite the exercising and dieting and fretting, the frantic bikini shopping, last minute daily tanning and excessive consumption of green tea... the moment you get on the sand wearing the same old bikini you always do, none of it matters anymore. So my belly is a belly not a washboard, my boobs aren't mountains and my hips are bigger than they should be... so what? I'm in the sun and along with the truly intoxicating smell of my factor 30 I'm happy.

This is what it comes down to at the end of the day. You will always be bigger than some and smaller than others.

Instead of thinking about the wobbling tummy instead I turned my attention to crazy tanned Germans in thongs (a man!) and people taking a dip actually wearing their underwear (seriously see-through) and countless other weird and wonderful things.... and not once did I regret having eaten that fish finger sandwich before I left.

Now that I'm home however, all the old insecurities are back, they are an inevitable part of who I am but at least now I can see that half the battle is in my head... the other half? Most probably needs to get back on the cross trainer.

Florence chic

Yesterday I went to see Florence live at Hammersmith, so I thought I'd make a little Florence inspired tableaux... I totally wore flowered tights and plastic flowers in my hair. Love It.

What to wear to see Florence by Ellie_Girl featuring Monsoon accessories

If you had to...

Seeing as my blog doesn't really touch on the political very often (read: ever) I thought that I'd extend a fun office game to my blog. The rules are fairly simple: if you had to, which of our country's top political leaders would you take back to your castle/bedroom/duck house (delete as appropriate) ?

'Down with the kids' David?


Nick 'Number 2' Clegg?


Or David 'pick me' Miliband?

I know who gets my vote (tee hee) who gets yours?

And people say politics isn't sexy....

Rainbow nails

In my attempt to start at awesome new trend, I've been painting my nails in a rainbow of colours recently. Above is my latest go... a trend worth following if I ever saw one...

C'mon, you know you want to.

Topshop gives good face

OMG's all round... So I'm a week late off the mark but I thought I'd inform everyone just how much I LOVE Topshop's new makeup range. Last Thursday lunchtime about eight fellow fashionistas and I ventured to our closest branch of the holy fashion store to sample the sacred goods. We weren't disappointed. Featuring a range of glitter-filled, rainbow-bright, deliciously gooey concoctions and a nail varnish collection that makes Barry M look gaudy and brash (sorry Barry!) I had to set myself a budget.

So after working my way through the green glitter eye crayon and trying nearly every shade of the mint flavoured lip glosses, including orange which in conjunction with the green eyeliner = not so good, I finally decided on my £15 worth of purchases. A black glitter eye crayon, coral nail varnish and 'Hollywood' pink lipgloss later, and £1 over budget its all I'm going to be able to do not to go back again in a few days for my next hit.

Prices start at a teeny weeny £4 and I have it on good authority that they are being made by the wonderful fairies at the MAC factory (oh yes!) these are well worth the money.

Is it Aladdin? Is it Captain Jack? No, it's my harem pants...

I finally caved to the fashion deities and bought a pair of harem pants a few weeks ago, and as Saturday proved warm enough to show leg flesh, I thought I'd take them for a spin...

Much to the amusement of my family.

I teamed them with a striped cropped T-shirt and white plimsolls to which my mother artfully observed 'I see you've gone for a Parisian pirate look...' Not completely encouraging.

This however was nothing compared to the belly shaking guffaws coming from my sister's boyfriend. Hugely amusing comments along the lines of 'Would you like a sword with that?', 'Where's Abu?' and 'You're not going to tuck them into boots are you?' (Mum) made my house descend into a veritable asylum-worthy laughing fit.

Not to be confused for somebody who takes fashion too seriously, and can't laugh at themselves... I promptly walked out.(On a side note, whilst searching for relevant Aladdin images I've learned that there are some sick people out there who clearly have very strange compulsions to give cartoons body parts they really shouldn't have...)

Uniqlo shopping event

Upon being informed that thanks to replying to a marketing email from Uniqlo I had 'won' a ticket to their shopping event, I thought I'd drag a friend along for a peruse..

Excited about the free offerings from Yo! Sushi, Paul & Joe makeovers and Vitamin water, and ever so slightly miffed at the fact that they weren't offering any sort of discount, my friend and I joined the mad crowds gathering by the candy coloured jeans (vaguely remeniscant of fruit Mentos btw) . After consuming a tiny (chicken) sushi thing, and collecting my water, my disappointment was almost tangible, until that is we stumbled upon the Paul & Joe Beaute UT T-shirt collection.

Floral, retro and super feminine, I picked a Parisian-esque cat and stripes tee for £12.99, my friend the floral number above, which in turn enabled us to pick up our goody bags (yay!).

How I miss the days that goody bags were de rigeur!

Inside this one:

• Jelly Belly jelly beans (yum!)

• Malteasers

• A romantic chick-lit novel

• Aveeno body cream sample

• Red 'Victoria & Albert' Nails Inc. nail varnish

• Special K cereal bites (eaten before I could take a photo!)

• Various vouchers for makeovers I will never claim and discounts I'll never use
  

The sheer amount of food involved (very un fashion darling) makes me wonder what kind of audience this event was aimed at... the fact I have since consumed all three (sorry diet) means it was probably perfect for me.

Nautical stuff and nonsense

Spring Stripes by Ellie_Girl featuring Chanel bags

Items in this set:
Acne Wonder stripe t-shirt, 65 GBP
Nautical Striped Sweater Top, $16
Striped cotton skirt, $165
Red Nautical Denim Rope Wedges by See by Chloe Shoes, 165 GBP
Classic nautical loafer, 35 GBP

Double Take

Work slightly questionable and possibly very ironic cowboy chic this summer...

Above the cool much sought after D&G cowboy boot vest top £90... Below New Look's attempt to ride this trend like the bad wild horse that it is £10.

Yeeha!