Awakening..

It has been quite some time. There have been so many and so few changes in that time, and sometimes real life gets in the way of this contrived Internet world. There has been much I have wanted to share, but little inclination to actually do it. This is beginning to change. There is an awakening taking place, and I hope this blog will continue throughout. The content may be a little different, but I think that's the nature of our lives - the basic foundations always remains the same, and it is the content that changes and grows.

Piledriver Waltz

Coat: Topshop
Dress: Topshop
Brooch: Cath Kidston
Scarf: Charity Shop
Bag: Cambridge Satchel Company
Shoes: Vintage, Charity shop (gifted)

So, this is my first Outfit post in a while, I've been feeling a little lack lustre recently - inspiration has escaped me. Winter always makes me feel this way, and with a huge degree work load, and an extra day at work it means I don't get much chance for the things I love. I miss walks and regular outdoors exercise, I end up feeling all blurgh and that hibernation must be the answer. Well, I'm really hoping to change that in the next couple of weeks and make some time for the things I want to do rather than the things I have to do.
Anyway moving on...I have a new hair cut which I'm not convinced by, I think it's a little too short, and for the first time ever I think I'm getting bored of blond, perhaps time for a change? On to the outfit...I'm terrible at casual outfits. I find it much easier to wear a fancy dress or skirt then to wear flats and jeans - working in an office was my ultimate dream clothing wise, you never needed an excuse to dress up; but here's my attempt at a casual outfit. I picked this scarf up in a charity shop a couple of weeks ago for 50p, I haven't really taken it off since, it goes with everything, leather jackets, my duffle coat, cardigans...everything. I'm enjoying the contrast of the check against the stripe, it makes me think of 'Submarine', which is never a bad thing.

A Tiny Telegram Review: No7 Beautiful Skin BB Cream

No7 Beautiful Skin BB cream £12.95*

So, a few weeks ago I picked up Boots new Beautiful Skin BB cream. I'm not one for wearing any sort of foundation, I can never get the colour or application right, and it's all a bit much like effort. Recently though I've felt the need for something a little extra to help my skin look less dull. So, I decided to give the new No7 one a go. This cream boasts a 3-in-1 formula which evens out and enhances skin tone, and hides imperfections, which sounds to good to be true...

I've been wearing it for a few weeks now, and while I do find the feel of the cream light and moisturising, I found that the pigmentation was perhaps a little to pink/orange for my complexion, which is a real shame.  It does a good job at evening out the skin tone quite subtly, without a cake-y finish, or noticeable blend lines, and lasts for most of the day without re-application - I do however, feel that the claim it 'hides imperfections' is a little exaggerated, it is really only a tinted moisturiser, not a full coverage foundation - so concealer would be needed.

Overall I would buy it again, though only when the No7 £5 voucher offer is running, as I think £12.95 is a little steep for a product which doesn't totally suit my complexion. I do think it would be beneficial to widen the tone range, as Fair or Medium seems a little limiting, especially as skin tone changes through out the year. If they did this I wouldn't hesitate to pay full price. As for my first foray into foundation - it wasn't bad at all.

*Bought with a £5 discount voucher for £7.95

All that glitters

After seeing these glitter heels from Topshop I decided I wanted a pair of my own, I didn't think however, that I would get enough wear out of them to warrant the £55 price tag; So instead, one evening  I had a go at making my own, and I'm pretty pleased with the results!

You will need:

One pair of shoes 

Strong, waterproof glue (I used builders PVA)

Glitter (I got 10g of rose gold glitter for 99p from ebay)

Low tack masking tape

brush

sandpaper

The making bit

*First make sure your chosen shoes are clean, I used a suede Primark pair - so I just wiped them with a damp cloth.

*If using a PVA or leather pair slightly buff with a fine grain sandpaper, this helps the glue to stick to the shoes.

*Mask off the area you want to glitter with tape.

*Using the brush paste glue onto the shoes and then quickly pour over the glitter, I did this over a lot of newspaper to minimise mess and save as much glitter as possible.

*Leave to dry completely, then brush another layer of glue over the top of the glitter to make the shoes water proof and reduce glitter loss.

*Lastly, once the top layer of glue is dry buff off any glitter that has stuck onto the soles of the shoes with the sandpaper. 

And that's it, it really was that simple, and actually quite fun. Nothing takes you back to your childhood more than messing about with glitter and glue.

I'm planning on wearing them with my 60's party dress, or black cigarette pants next time I go out. I think they're going to be super fun to dance in.

So here it is..

Green Check Dress: ASOS.     Leopard Print Dress: Topshop.   Stars and Moons Dress: Motel (via asos)

 So it's the time of year again, it's time to dig out the party dress. This year, more than any before it, I've really um-ed and ah-ed over my seasonal dress purchase. Usually I'm all about the pretty; beads, velvet, tailoring, bring it all on. But this year I wanted my dress to work harder for its place in my little wardrobe, I want it to be (boring word alert) functional. I want to be able to wear it after Christmas and through to the spring..basically I don't want it to date, or worse, to become 'that Christmas dress from last year' - like so many others that get worn over the festive season and then are never seen again after slowly migrating from wardrobe to drawer, drawer to under the bed storage, and from there to the big charity shop in the sky. So after many hours (exaggeration) debating dress pros and cons here is my list of finalists.

It seems to come down to print over block colour. I'm a sucker for a novelty print (even at 25) which makes me instantly drawn to the Motel stars and moons print tea dress, which panders to all my 1940's desires and is slowly moving its way up my favourites list, but equally I'm in love with the red, beaded collar Topshop dress, which is just so, so pretty, but perhaps a little less, you know, 'wearable', I hate that word. Needless to say, I want them all, and I'm not entirely sure how I'm going to work out the winner..

Red collared dress: Topshop.  Blue Ginny Dress: Monki.  Yellow Zanna dress: Monki

Study Break

So, there has been a little hiatus here on the blog. Alas, I have begun my next degree year and the work load is reading heavy, to say the least. This year is Nineteenth Century Literature, with a lot of Eliot, Zola, and Dickens. Not exactly easy going, but interesting none the less.

All my time has been consumed with working the day job (Urgh), sleeping, and studying. I'm trying my very best to time manage, I literally have all my days planned until Christmas, but somehow it never quite works out how I expect it to. 

 So it follows that I've been spending most of my time reading in my corner of the sofa, or here, in my little nook of our shared office space. I'm kind of in love with my white desk, I spent more time than I care to think about looking for the perfect work area, as it turned out Ikea solved my problem; it was the magnetic back board that got me. It's the one area of the house where I totally indulge my passion for all things tat, including Hello Kitty stickers, a framed parsnip crisp (yes crisp), and animal erasers.

I have a few posts planned for the next few weeks, including a homemade baby gift, an exciting project that includes glitter (and shoes), a couple of book reviews, and hopefully some festive outfit posts!

Shake it out

Even though the weather has turned, and the vitamin D deficiency has begun, I'm still not quite ready to revert back to wearing my traditional winter black and grey, instead I'm going to attempt to shake it up with blues, greens and red. Even after all these years I'm still in love with tea dresses and Mary-jane shoes, and this Polka dot midi from Topshop is on my wishlist at the moment. I know being of short stature the midi length would look ridiculous on me but I can't  help but imagine I'm 5ft 7" with relatively long legs.
All clothes Topshop.