New lengths

Unfortunately it looks like I was very wrong when I said I would be posting lots in study leave! Basically what happened was I decided to watch the Harry Potter films again, and then I thought 'hey I haven't read the books for a while, why not?!'. So I have barely turned on my laptop in the last two weeks because I've been reading, which means that now I have finished all of the books i'm back and have loads to catch up on, both on blogspot and tumblr.

I took these photos weeks ago, at the same time as the orange skirt in the previous post, but I never got around to actually sorting them out and showing you. After one of my exams I had a couple of hours to kill in town before work, so I went to the charity shop for the first time probably in at least two months. I swear they have re-arranged the store every time I go in! I tried on a floor length denim dress which looked kind of like dungarees, as well as a slightly-shorter-but-still-long Laura Ashley burgundy velvet dress. I was so close to buying the velvet dress because it had a cute cut-out bit at the back and a big bow, and I thought I could wear it to the sixth form ball next year (yes okay it's a long way away but oh well!), but it was very heavy and I thought really, will I still like it next year or will I feel frumpy? So I left the shop with the denim dress instead.

dress- charity shop, shirt- H&M, bag- Mischa Barton, shoes- New Look, sunglasses- Urban Outfitters

The front is quite dull I admit, but I really like the low back and straps. Obviously I have to wear it over some sort of top (trust me, I tried without anything and it's very revealing), but I don't think this shirt is quite right. Maybe a simple white t-shirt would be better? I defintely need to experiment more before I find that perfect combination, but I do love this dress.

Self Made Skirt

When I first saw the s/s '11 collections way back I, along with many others, fell completely in love with the floor sweeping brightly coloured skirts at Jil Sander. Because the shapes were so simple and elegant I thought 'hey I could make something like that', but I didn't want to copy the design too closely because that's basically stealing right? Luckily for me I had recently bought a vintage skirt pattern from a charity shop which had several different length options, so I decided just to make a simple skirt but with the brightest fabric I could find. I went for orange because my favourite skirt from the Jil Sander collection was the orange one, and I think it suits me better than pink or red- since then there has been a bit of an orange explosion in high street clothes, and make up!t-shirt - H&M, skirt- made by me, sandals- Clarks

I started making this probably about three months ago but wasn't that dedicated to getting it done quickly, and got stuck on a couple of bits (the instructions for the waistband and hem weren't so clear). I went for the shortest skirt pattern so as not to look too similar to the Jil Sander skirt, but since i'm quite short it's still knee length. The pattern said it was for size 12 but i'm a 10 and it fits pretty well, if anything a little large- I generally ignore vintage sizes because people years ago had much smaller waists!

I do love this skirt but it's a bit bright so I probably won't be wearing it all that often, and it creases so badly which is annoying. If anyone wants a more specific 'tutorial' on how I made the skirt I'll gladly make one, but it was very simple as i'm sure you can see from the design!

A Slight Obsession

Sorry I haven't been posting very regularly, I guess I have been using tumblr quite a lot because it's quicker to post there! However I will definitely still be posting on my blog, just not all of the time. Nothing particularly exciting has happened for me to show/tell you! As you can see, my liking of Dr Who has got pretty extreme:

These were free gifts with the Dr Who Monster Invasion magazine, which is awesome- although I still wouldn't consider myself to be a proper DW geek because that would be insulting to people who know everything about the show! Exciting news though; on July 9th i'm going down to London with a friend to a film con which Karen Gillan is attending!! We've both booked to get a photo with her, and we're also going to the Doctor Who Experience while we wait for the photos to develop since it's just across the road. The question for me now is what on earth am I going to wear?!

I've been wanting to make a large envelope clutch for a while now, and the other day I had the greatest idea of making one in Tardis blue and painting a gold '5' on the flap! If you don't watch the show then that won't make any sense, but I think it's awesome haha. Hopefully I'll have some interesting things to share with you soon! x

Having A Ball

I'm sure that I said ages ago I would post photos of my ball dress but then I completely forgot, so here they finally are! It's a vintage 80's dress which I bought from a fair in Norfolk for £25, worn with some long vintage gloves from a charity shop for £5. All in all a cheap outfit, which was good since the actual ticket was pretty expensive! The food was also awful, but that didn't bother me too much because this dress is pretty tight; I could do the zip up fine but it wasn't exactly comfortable. Whilst I know quite a few people lost some weight before the ball, if I so much as think the word 'diet' my body panics and I have to eat everything in sight!
The dress itself is navy blue with a v-shaped bodice, and the hem falls just above my ankles. The skirt is also navy blue but has black polka dot netting over the top- cute! Unfortunately the netting got ripped at some point in the night, I assume it got caught on something, but it's not like I'll ever wear it again anyway.This is the 'official' looking photo from the night, i'm on the right with two of my friends. Can't say it's my favourite photo ever, but oh well. The dress worn in the middle is the girl's mum's bridesmaid dress from her wedding in the 80's. Also, I just made a tumblr for those of you who are interested! I'm not sure that I chose exactly the best time since i'm in the middle of exams and should be doing lots of revision, but with any luck I won't turn into one of those depraved tumblr obsessives who go into hibernation whenever the site goes down (though this appears to happen to all users, so I guess it's inevitable). I will obviously still carry on posting as usual here, but my tumblr will be more of an inspiration board rather than me saving photos from across the internet.

Sharp and to the Point

You have seen this shirt before when I first got it, but since then i've taken the fabric scissors to it! Since it was a size 12 it was too big and also a bit too long, and I wasn't happy with how unbalanced it looked because of the large shoulders. In the previous outfit post I wore it with the front knotted up and high waisted shorts, which was okay but didn't quite work. I decided to make it into a cropped shirt, but rather than a straight hem I decided make it slanted. It took literally twenty minutes- really quick and easy!shirt- Topshop, trouserse- H&M, shoes- New Look, necklace- V&AThis necklace is incredible, I got it from the V&A when I was on the csm short course for £8. It's such a great statement piece but it's also really lightweight, unlike some necklaces which are dripping in beads and jewels so are so uncomfortable to wear! I wore it on the last day of the course and both of the course leaders complimented me on it, so it's definitely a winner for me. You could probably make one yourself with a short length of fringing and

Slithering Around

I got very bored revising this morning so thought I would take a few photos of my new top for you (I also watched Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone due to my boredom, but that's a separate matter). I bought it last friday, when I was browsing Topshop before work because I wanted some new sunglasses. I am going to return the sunglasses this week because they are too big, but whilst I was wandering around I stumbled on this top. It was the snakeskin print which first attracted me, and I really like how it's slightly sheer- although I must admit I didn't realise just how sheer until I looked at these photos!top- Topshop, trousers- Mini Boden, boots/bag/bangle- charity shops

As you can see the arm holes are very low which means your bra is completely on show, so generally I would pair this with a plain vest top or long sleeved top. What I really like is how the top is so floaty and feminine, but the snakeskin print makes it feel way edgier.

I'd quite like to get some new jeans soon, I fancy a skinny black pair because these are quite blue. I'd love to get a different style of jean but because i'm only 5'3" they don't really suit me, so i'll just have to stick with the skinnies! In my dream world I'd love to own a pair of the black skinny jeans by Georgia May Jagger which are slightly high waisted and have lace up side seams (they were in Vogue a couple of months ago I think). But it's getting a bit close to summer to be buying black jeans, so maybe i'll have to wait until autumn.

A paler shade of black

Just a very short post to show you my new nail polish! I popped into town today as mum had booked me a Clinique appointment to sort out which products I should use for my skin, becuse I literally use nothing on it at the moment! While that was happening I was sat opposite the Chanel counter and noticed that they seemed to have way more nail polishes in than the last time I looked, so when I was done I went over to have a look. There was a 10% price match on plus I get my discount (this was in John Lewis) so I thought I would get one while the price was so low. The lady behind the counter was really lovely and let me try a few colours on my nails, and in the end I went for 'Black Pearl'. From a distance it looked like a dark green but it's actually more like a dark silver; I don't know if any of you have watched 'Red Riding Hood' but it looks just like Solomon's silver fingernails. I really like the colour but I must say i'm not especially impressed with the quality of the polish so far, it seems really watery so it's hard to get it neat. It also took ages to dry so I kept knocking it, which was even worse considering it took two coats to get the colour even and strong.