Clogs Or No Clogs?

A couple of days ago I popped into town with my parents to briefly check out the sales, so of course that included Topshop. I was really looking for a nice top since I seem to be lacking in that department, but after just a few seconds of looking at the sale rails I realised that really all that was on them was stuff that nobody wanted, and almost all of it was just weird or overpriced. Seeing as the shoes are over the other side of the shop and are almost always ridiculously expensive I never really look at them, but this time I did and I bought myself a pair of clogs. I was pretty surprised that there was anything in my size to be honest seeing as i'm a 5 and that seems to be the most common size. I've only ever bought two pairs of heels before in my life and they have been for balls (proms?) with school, so I really wanted to get a more casual pair. These were £60 full price which I would have never ever paid because they aren't particularly great quality, but they were reduced to £20 which I didn't think was too bad. They're only about 3 inches high and there's a platform in the toe so they aren't too hard to walk in, but i'm not sure whether to keep them or not. I know they were totally in fashion a couple of seasons ago but now I can't tell if they are just really weird and old ladyish. What do you guys think? I'd really appreciate your opinions! I'm sure if paired with the 'right' things then they would look good, but i'm also very aware that they could just look strange. I'm quite short (5'4" ish) and i'm not sure if heels this chunky and low will just make that more obvious. So far I think they look best with either a short dress and black tights, or with jeans with turnups so the ankles are showing.It took me a while to find this magazine issue since it's from March so was almost at the bottom of my pile (plus I didn't know if it was Elle, Vogue or Marie Claire), but I knew Alexa Chung was on a cover wearing clogs at some point. Hers are Chanel so obviously are far far superior to the ones I bought, but hey I can pretend mine would look that good! This does convince me more that clogs can look really cool rather than frumpy and weird, although mine do have lower heels than hers so that probably affects how they look a lot. I'm still not wholly convinced, but I must say that they are very appealing to me even though they aren't strictly in fashion any more.

Natural Bling

Both of my parents are self employed gardeners, and one of the benefits of this is that they often get free stuff like vegetables and fruit from the customer's gardens (stuff that isn't wanted- they don't steal things, haha). My brother has even been given a couple of bikes before! But a few weeks ago mum came home and announced that she had found a stone for me. Not going to like, I was a bit confused at first, but she picked it up because the thought I could paint it or something and put it on a chain for a necklace. As of yet I haven't painted it, firstly because I haven't had much time, but i'm not sure if I even want to now because the natural colour does lend itself to most of my clothes. I've got a lot of wear out of it already because it's so simple and very lightwear.

The other day I decided to use a bag which I hadn't used for a while, and found these four rocks inside which I must have collected from Hunstanton beach. These also all have holes in them, so I suppose I must have collected them for making necklaces too! This means that I can swap which one is on the chain depending on which goes best with my outfit/ which I fancy wearing! 3/4 are larger than the one above, which does make them a lot heavier and less easy to wear as everyday jewellery, but this means that they'll make more of a statement.

At the moment I've put this one on it, which hangs horizontally because of the shape of the hole and is rather heavy, but I do like how the little orangy bits on it add a splash of colour.

Now I have a necklace with five different inter-changeable natural pendants!

By the way, that L'Oreal nail polish lasted for about 4 days but it did get quite chipped, so it's better than Barry M but still not amazing!

I was about to get my ears pierced today when I was in town, since it's my birthday tomorrow, but I changed my mind just before we went to the tattoo parlour because I am incredibly indecisive and I wasn't sure that I would still like the piercings in a few weeks. But I think now that I do definitely want them doing so hopefully I'll go in the next couple of weeks, possibly I'll take a friend with me after school one day.

Frosty Mornings

I haven't been out to take photos for probably a month now, but the frost was insane today so I thought I should take advantage of it while is lasts. Seriously, I don't think I've ever seen itso frosty!

The spider's webs looked really amazing, like how they do when they're covered in dew but the frost meant they stood out even more. They looked kinda of eerie too, like Halloween decorations.

I didn't take tons of photos because it was absolutely freezing and I kept having to take my coat and gloves off, but i'm pretty pleased with the ones I did get. I'm going to buy a couple more rolls of film soon so hopefully I'll get a shoot or two organised and get them developed. I do like digital but nothing can really beat getting a roll of film back and being really pleased with the photos you got.

I'm wearing: cardigan and polo shirt- Joules, jeans- mini Boden, headband- Zara, brogues- New Look. That's also the L'Oreal nail polish from yesterday, it's doing better than Barry M so far!

A (brief) Journey Into The World Of Nail Art

Since I don't have school or work until next thursday, yesterday I thought I should seize the opportunity to paint my nails. And seeing as it's almost christmas I felt like making a bit of extra effort rather than the usual one coat of a colour. I wanted to try out one of the polishes I got from the clothes show, so went for the brown with a red to add the decoration. I don't have any fancy nail art pens so I just used the normal brush to add some festive (ish) red spots on the ends of my nails. I didn't even file my nails before so they're a bit messy, but i'm pleased with how they turned out! I also added some of this pale orange polish on top this morning just to make it more sparkly.

Thing is, by this afternoon I had chips on two of my nails! I was pretty disappointed to be honest, as i'd expected it to last at least four or five days- it's not like it's the cheapest of all polishes, although it obviously isn't the most expensive. I went to town this afternoon with mum, so I tried to plait my hair into a fishtail and it sort of worked! My layers meant that it kind of fell apart at the top and was very messy, but it wasn't too bad at the bottom. I don't usually look as dopey as I do in this photo, I had just started to blink!

We went to Boots and had a look around at nail polish, but really I think it's hard to tell how good it will be until you actually try it out, so I bought this one by L'Oreal. I've never tried their polishes before but it seems nice so far, and almost exactly the same colour as an YSL one I was looking at before. I've just done one plain coat and i'm going to see how long it lasts, I'll keep you updated on that!

Also had a look at the hair products, because my hair is really quite long and all I do is wash it with shampoo and then condition it once or twice a week. It's not too dry or anything, but for example when I did my hair into that fishtail I had lots of flyaway hairs which I wanted to smooth down, and when I put it up into a bun the same thing happens so I wanted to find something which could 'fix' that- other than using about four hairbands! The first time we looked around the hair care section I got so confused that mum just bought some shampoo and we were going to leave, but she got a £2 off haircare voucher when she bought it so we went back! My friends have mentioned Umberto Giannini before, and I found this product which seemed to be just what I was looking for. It says that it's for finishing off hair to salon standards, curing frizz and taming flyaways, and that less is more which is awesome because it will last longer, haha. Although it wasn't even too expensive, under £4 with the voucher.

Only six days left until Christmas!!

Clothes Show Live '10

(I started this last night, so I actually went to CSL yesterday)

Each year the textiles department does a gcse and a-level trip to the Clothes Show Live in Birmingham, and I wasn't intending to go this year originally since really it's just shopping and a fairly un-fashion focused catwalk show, but I thought I may as well! Finally an opportunity to wear non- uniform on a weekday, so I took some outfit shots for you. I bought this jumper from Topshop yesterday; my mum found it originally and I actually really like the shape. Normally I dislike clothes which just have one row of frills right at the bottom because I don't think they look that flattering, but I think because it's such a light knit it hangs really well so it works!

jumper- Topshop, scarf- charity shop, jeans- mini Boden

And now onto what I bought! I only spent £16 altogether which i'm really pleased about, since i'm going to London this saturday so it means I have more money to spend then. This vintage belt was only £3; it's a sort of burgundy colour made of rubber, but it's really long so if I wanted to wear it through my jeans i'd have to put a couple more holes in it. I prefer to wear it around my waist knotted like this: I also got a necklace for £3 which is quite cute, it reminds me of the one in the Yves Saint Laurent ad campaign if you guys know what i'm talking about? It's not exactly the best quality necklace around but it was only cheap so I don't mind, it's just a bit of fun really. There were several different designs like flower fairies and dolls, but I preferred the pin up type ones (though they had more clothes on than actual pin ups, otherwise i'm not sure mum would approve of my wearing it!).

Two for £5 on Barry M nail varnish, I wanted some lilac anyway so I thought I may as well get some of this brown colour- it looks just like chocolate which is weird! I'm kind of wondering why I actually bought that brown now since really I only wanted the purple, but I was probably tempted by the bargainous prices haha. Maybe in the christmas holidays i'll actually have time to do my nails really nicely with patterns and stuff, and I can use it over/ under another colour.

And now onto what was undoubtedly the best bargain of the day. As soon as I saw Henry Holland's new collection for Pretty Polly I knew that my favourite design was the lacy pattern tights with opaque block sections, but it seemed to be that in every shop I looked in they stocked every design except this one! I saw this Pretty Polly stand at the clothes show and thought i'd just take a look, thought to be honest I expected them to either not have them or that they'd be sold out. But they weren't, and now they're mine haha! The best bit? These are £12 in stores, but I only paid £5 for them because wednesday is discount day at the show, AND they came with a free pair of HH socks too! I'd seen the socks before in River Island and considered buying them, but at £10 I really didn't think it was worth it (those ones were in black and the gold chain pattern was around the calf). There were a few different options for which socks you could have so I went for these grey ones which have the chain around the ankle. I'm going to London on saturday so I want to wear one of these purchases- probably the socks over plain tights since it'll be cold.

The tights even had this warning/advice on the pack to prevent you from laddering them, which is super helpful since when I got some HH tights from his first collection they got ripped the first time I wore them! I am pretty bad with tights in general actually, especially the natural and black ones I wear to school as last year I managed to ruin at least a pair a week.

Christopher Kane resort '11 - very late!

I cannot physically explain how much I love this collection! I know it was released months ago and isn't even his most recent, but I reckon Christopher Kane is my favourite designer right now and considering that I also adore stars and space-y stuff it was kinda of guaranteed that this collection would be a winner for me. I would wear any of the three in the first photo in a heartbeat, as they shapes look so wearable for me and the patterns aren't too 'out there' either, compared with some of the others. The one on the left actually reminds me (for some reason) of an American ranch from the movies or something like that, and not actually like space at all! The colours of these ones are gorgeous too, as well as the high necklines.With these three designs I like the way he has combined a 50's silhouette with the digital print, and then just made the upper body section more interesting. I think the t-shirt in the middle looks really cool, although personally I could never wear it since I don't have a flat stomach (by a long way..)! Still though I can appreciate how gorgeous they all look. These three are all designs which again, I could wear straight away. I think the far right is my favourite purely because of the little orange bit in the print which goes so well with the blues, but then again I do like how the second one has leather sleeves! I'm getting quite into leather recently which is weird since I've never thought about it much before, but there was a 50's style skirt in this charity shop the other day which I almost bought but I was worried the waist wasn't big enough, and since was in a rush I couldn't try it on so had to let it go. I'm always wary of buying leather on the high street because you have to spend a lot to get good quality, and I never like spending too much money on one garment!
I even love the fluffy shoes as well, which is weird because I reckon if I saw them in a shop without having seen the rest of the collection i'd pass them off as tacky. I think that the pink ones are actually appealing to me the most which is possibly even stranger- like the tackyness and childishness all collides to create a super attractive shoe! They're all just so darn cute.

A Dilemma of Lengthy Proportions!

I am of course referring to hair lengths, specifically my own hair. I am probably one of the most indecisive people you could ever meet, and lately I've been wondering whether I actually like my hair how it is at the minute- long with a full fringe. When I was younger, say around 5 or 6, my hair was really long and I could sit on it, but gradually we cut it shorter and shorter until when I was about 14 my hairdresser cut it wayyy too short and it was only just below my shoulders! Since then I've been growing it out but it takes such a long time and means that my hair is quite flat on top compared to how it was when it was a few inches shorter than now, which I don't like so much. But at the same time, I love how having long hair is more of a feature and I think that a fringe definitely suits my face shape better. A big bonus of having quite long hair too is that I can tie it up on top of my head right out of the way, and then I don't have to worry about it falling in my face or anything. Maybe it's just the cut which is bothering me, like maybe I need more layers or something? I really have no clue about hairdressing! I've been trawling through blogs and tumblr's looking for inspiration so I thought I'd share a few of my favourite images on here.

images from: The Clothes Horse (tumblr), Alice Point, Canned Fashion, Style Bubble, The Stylish Wanderer

The last few are some examples I found along the way of how shorter hair can look really good- I especially love the mad curls in the image second from bottom! I'm wondering if it's not actually the hair length which I don't love any more, but the colour- note how the last few photos all seem to be ginger or have a slightly ginger-ish tint to them. I do definitely love ginger hair, but I don't know if i'd be brave enough to dye it, or if my mum would let me! Perhaps next summer i'll try a temporary dye, at least then if I hate it I can just stay at home until it washes out and nobody will have to see it!

When I was on holiday in York back in the summer I found a Minolta film slr at a car boot sale for £5, and I was desperate to use it straight away. But I spent ages using up the first roll of film, and then when I was winding it back up it snapped and so I accidentally wiped everything. I decided to have another go, but this time I would use up the film quickly just to see if it actually worked. This time I took the whole camera into Boots and the lady showed me what I had done wrong the first time (there's a little button underneath that you have to press to release the film!), and lucky for me the film turned out well. These are some of the photos I took last saturday morning at a photoshoot with my friend for my a- level art project, and I thought I would share. I'm crazy busy at the moment with art work, but as it's being collected in this friday to be marked I won't be able to do any this weekend, so hopefully i'll get some blogging done! I miss being here!dress from Jack Wills (mine, I styled her)

dress from Topshop

I used to collect minerals, and I needed to use up the film roll, so I arranged pretty things inside an old suitcase.

I officially have the coolest friends ever, at the (late) Halloween party I went to last saturday my friend had carved a Harry Potter face onto her pumpkin! It's also the cutest little face ever, a double win!

Happy Hallowe'en!

Happy Hallowe'en Everyone!I don't really know why we celebrate Hallowe'en, but this year it's been a good excuse for making cakes and generally having fun! First we baked cakes in orange cases and iced them in green with chocolate sprinkles and sour worms on top:They do look a bit strange! Then we also had some caramel shortbread squares from Tesco which had cute little Hallowe'en pictures on them in white:

And then just for decoration we had a large cake stand on the table covered in little gourds:

Next weekend i'm going to a belated Hallowe'en party at my friend's house, which I can't wait for as we haven't all been together for ages. I'm not dressing up, but I shall wear the Nightmare Before Christmas ankle socks which I bought from Disneyland Paris!