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Friday 8 July 2011

Swoooooosh

I love this skirt. I love the colour, I love the shape, I love the embroidery, but I really love the way it moves when I twirl in it.

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I do feel that I went a tad overboard with the patterns today between the tshirt and the tights. However, it was fine for a quick trip into town to tell the bank that I'm not graduating now.

Thursday 7 July 2011

Hot Pink

I don't wear bright pinks all that often, in part due to the clash with my hair. However, looking through my wardrobe for a jumper yesterday this particular top caught my eye and so was worn for the first time in months.

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This was my outfit for a cinema trip (yay for cinema vouchers courtesy of my dad!), admittedly not very well thought through. The burgendy tights probably weren't the best idea, but I did at least manage to match the pink of the jumper and the skirt's flowers.

Underneath was my favourite new t-shirt

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"Dr Hoo" from Threadless, with all 11 incarnations of the doctor portrayed as owls! I managed to get it for less than the advertised price as well which is always good since shipping from America is extortionate!

I also happen to be wearing an almost identical outfit today, but with black tights and a different t-short. I am nothing if not imaginative.

Sunday 3 July 2011

Summer Sun

Long time no post! I know I said I'd get some pony pictures while I was house sitting but the weather was pretty crap most of the time.

However, Friday was a glorious day! I needed to go to the uni Registry (my bank thinks I'm graduating this year rather than 2013), and we decided to go for some ice cream to take proper advantage of it.

In fact, it was so nice I even got a picture outside!

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I don't usually wear a lot of yellow, although this outfit seems to have a lot of it. The t-shirt is from Threadless and one of my favourites. I adore giraffes and this one was just too cute to pass up.

The skirt is several years old from back when collections at Topshop were a new idea (this is a Laura Lees one). As much as I love it, and its ladybird print, it's just too thin to be wearable most of the time in Glasgow.

This weekend the weather has only improved, to the extent I've been wandering around without my usual cardigan layer! I've been practicing driving for my test and I might have tanned just doing that. Glasgow might spend most of the time being gloomy and grey but when it really wants to be nice, it goes all out!

Sunday 12 June 2011

DIY Dye

I do all my hair dying myself, mostly because I can't afford to have it dyed professionally all the time but also because it gives me some more freedom in when I do it. After around three years of it I've developed a reasonable technique and have some hints and tips that might make it easier for anyone else wanting to do it themselves.

1. Work out where you're going to do this. Bathrooms are generally best because they tend to have mirrors and be reasonably easy to clean afterwards. The bigger the mirror the better, I'm currently using a mirror that is both tiny and above my eyeline which makes the process a lot harder than it needs to be. Mirrors above the sink are best as you can put the bottle down in the sink while you work on your hair (which saves getting it everywhere). The more ventilation the room has the better, I've used both a windowless bathroom with an extractor fan and a bathroom with a window, and the second is most definitely superior.

2. Prepare the area. It's a good idea to put an old sheet or something similar down to protect everything but I never bother. As long as you don't leave it sitting for too long I find that the dye wipes off tiled surfaces quite easily (both floors and walls). However, if you have carpet or wood then make sure you cover it, or are prepared to repaint. Make sure anything you would be heartbroken to get dye on is well out of the way just in case.

3. Pick your clothes with care. Old tshirts are the way to go! If you're really concerned then an old towel or sheet around your shoulders will help. Remember that unless your top has buttons you'll have to take it off over the dye. The other option is, of course, to not bother with a top but if you live with other people then that's not the best option.

4. Wait until everybody is out if you can! The chemicals in dye smell terrible and you'll be taking up the bathroom for quite a while. In addition to applying the dye (anything from 10 minutes upwards depending on the length of your hair and your skill level) and cleaning up, the rinsing takes a long while and most of the hot water.

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5. Two boxes of dye for long hair. Make sure that you test the dye before you use it!

6. Lemony Flutter from Lush. This is a cuticle cream but it's also great for putting around the hairline to prevent your face being stained by the dye. Just make sure you don't get any on your hair unless you want random patches of natural colour.

7. Clingfilm. Trust me on this one! Once you've finished dying your hair wrap it in clingfilm. This keeps it out of the way and off your back so that you can spend the developing time doing other things without worrying about staining everything.

8. Hair clips. Separating out your hair makes it easier to get everything covered with the dye. I like to put my hair into bunches so that I can use one box on each side but using layers is also a good option.

9. Gloves. Most dyes do come with gloves but I find them much too big and too stiff to be really useful. Supermarkets sell lab-type gloves in latex and latex free versions which are much better. The only thing is that they don't cover quite as far up the wrist so you might end up with orange arms!

10.Condition, condition, condition. Whilst washing the dye out consider conditioning more than once. I do the first condition around halfway through then continue to rinse and condition again at the end. Dye isn't good for your hair and the more protection you can give it the better.


This isn't an exhaustive list and I'm sure I've forgotten something! Anyone else got any handy ideas to make home hair dying as easy as possible?

Friday 10 June 2011

More sun!

A second nice day in Glasgow? Excellent! Today's outfit was aimed at the cooler points (in the shade and/or wind) since Glasgow never stays warm for long, but is still a summery sort of outfit.  Please excuse the terrible hair, it could do with a wash but I'm holding out until tomorrow to actually get it done.

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The skirt is from Tesco, it's a silky underskirt with an embroidered net topskirt. The t-shirt is from Threadless (which is probably where a good 50% of my tshirts come from), much loved because of the combination of green (yay!) and giraffes (yay!).

Other than that, I have done very little. For some reason I am inexplicably tired pretty much all the time at the moment, however much sleep I get. Terribly annoying, and not great for productivity. Bother.

The weather has now started to return to being grey and horrible. Hopefully it'll clear up from this weekend - my family are heading off on holiday so I'll be house-and-pony-sitting for them which is a lot more enjoyable when the weather's nice!

Thursday 9 June 2011

Way behind!

I can't believe how far behind I'm getting with outfits.  Especially because I have nothing pressing to do at the moment.  This outfit is actually from last Friday when my boyfriend and I took advantage of the lovely weather to go to the Botanic Gardens (via Thorntons, the raspberry swirl icecream is incredible by the way!).

The skirt is from Very, my first purchase from them (and I won't be using the Collect+ service again, absolute nightmare!). I'd been eying it for a while then saw Sherin over at Hi Fashion wearing it and couldn't resist it any longer.

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It's a lovely colour and length, and the embroidery is so nice (I have a soft spot for magpies). Sizing wise - some reviews say it comes up large and some don't, I went for an 8 rather than the 10 I'd usually go for and it fits the same way as the rose print skirt from New Look a few posts back in a 10. It could probably do with an iron, but we don't have an ironing board in our flat (not that I would iron it anyway...).

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I teamed it with a plain purple top that I've had for years and blue leather French Connection flats bought last year from Kurt Geiger in the sale (I have the same pair in green). Maybe not my best idea - they aren't properly broken in yet so I ended up with a lot of blisters, not great when I then ended up running the Race For Life 5k on Sunday (photos of me looking delightfully exhausted will be appearing soon)!

It does cost more than I would usually pay for a skirt (more than I would pay for most anything other than shoes actually, barring special occassions), but I think I'm going to get a lot of use out of it so worth it.

Thursday 2 June 2011

If I can't have a real cat...

I'll have to settle for covering myself in them!

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Excuse the awkward posing. I picked this up the other day in New Look (whilst looking for something else entirely of course). It's from one of their concessions - Pussycat London - and I have to admit I wasn't 100% sold when I saw it initially but the print pulled me in. I love it on!

The print that convinced me:

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And the jewellery I added for a cinema trip, TARDIS necklace and fortune cookie earrings.

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Glasgow finally seems to be clearing up a bit so you might get some outside outfit shots again soon!