Do Good & Be Inspired

Colour me Friday: Red Nose Day

2 Comments

Yippee! It’s Red Nose Day! For any non-UK readers who haven’t heard of it before, it’s an awesome day of fun to raise money for Comic Relief. the money raised is spent to transform the lives of millions of people, both at home in the UK and across Africa, and is much beloved by us Brits. Comic Relief alternates every other year with Sport Relief, which raises money for the same good causes, but with less custard pies and more hard graft. Basically, it doesn’t matter what you do, just do something funny for money! If you can’t do, watch Comic Relief all of Friday evening on the BBC, and give some money! Continue reading Colour me Friday: Red Nose Day →

DIY & Craft

Vintage Headboard Upcycle

10 Comments

It has bugged me for ages that our double divan bed doesn’t have a headboard (I know, first world problems, right?). I had never really seen one that I loved, was of good quality and could afford, and I really love one-off pieces, so I decided to see if I could upcycle one as an experiment…

Step 1 – Find a headboard! If, like me, you’re fairly new to upcycling, you don’t want to spend  much (or any) money on your headboard. Unless you plan on wrestling one away from your sleeping granny, try Freecycle or Freegle. Failing that, Ebay or your local charity/thrift furniture stores. I got mine on the Newcastle Freecycle website. As a special lucky bonus, the couple who were giving it away had a pick-up truck, some free time and a lot of kindness, and delivered it to my house for free. It’s a 1950’s wood and velvetine French regency style headboard in peach and white, which, on first appearance, Chandler from Friends would probably describe as “a Reject from the Liberace House of Crap”. However, closer inspection reveals that it’s in great condition with high quality materials and workmanship. Perfect for my upcycling experiment. Continue reading Vintage Headboard Upcycle →

Fashion

Colour Me Friday: #Colour Me March

8 Comments

The lovely people at the etail PR Blogger Network are holding a completion to win a pair of tickets to Cheltenham Races Ladies Day on 11th March – and given that the competition is called #ColourMeMarch, what could be better than for this week’s Colour Me Friday to be my competition entry, and at the same time provide a little colour inspiration! The look is inspired by the Lana Del Rey song “off to the Races”. Here goes, wish me luck!

What Would I Wear To Ladies Day? My Wish List

FotorCreated
Dress: ASOS £40; Cape: Ted Baker £99; Lipstick: MAC Rebel £15.50; Orchid hair clips: Accessorise £8; Shoes: ASOS £35; Necklace: Accessorise £12.

Fashion

Colour me Friday – How to Wear Yellow

6 Comments

Yellow, that notoriously-avoided-by-brunettes shade, is predicted to be BIG this year, and has been widely seen in recent fashion weeks – both S/S 2015 and A/W 2015. It was on tops, coats, skirts and scarves at J. Crew; shoes, jewellery and dresses at Mary Katrantzou; coats and bags at Michael Kors; and a bit bonkers at Vivienne Westwood.

00140h_426x639
Michael Kors Spring 2015
Jonathan Saunders A/W 2015, Style.com
mary kratz style.com2
Mary Katrantzou A/W 2015, Style.com
j-crew-007-1366
J. Crew A/W 2015, Style.com

Great – but how do I, as a normal human (brunette), wear yellow? I tend to avoid it like the plague because it -well – makes me look like I have the plague. OK, not the plague, but as I have olive skin I’ve always thought it would make me look sallow and sickly. Well, following my triumph with one of my new year’s resolutions last year – “try yellow eyeshadow” (for which I can heartily recommend Clarins Sunny Yellow) – the key for me will be to avoid what I would describe as “1980s C&A pale pastel lemon” (memories of a bargain sale oversized-and-not-in-a-good-way pale lemon blouson ski jacket still haunt me). Continue reading Colour me Friday – How to Wear Yellow →

Health & Beauty

The Weird World of ASMR

6 Comments

In my endless quest to end my insomnia (give my brain even the slightest excuse and it will wake me up; it’s beyond annoying), a friend recently told me about ASMR. Neither of us had ever heard of it, and it’s likely you haven’t either. Over the next couple of days we each watched a couple of ASMR videos and reported back via text – about how weird it was, yet we were slightly embarrassed to admit that it did have an affect on us both. For me, if I watch it at night it immediately relaxes me and I would struggle to watch a 20 minute video without falling asleep – result! Continue reading The Weird World of ASMR →

Art & Photography

Colour me Friday – Candy Pink Fashion Illustration

8 Comments

100 yrs of fashion ill

I spent time yesterday reading the beautiful “100 years of Fashion Illustration” by Cally Blackman. Fashion illustration combines two of my favourite worlds – fashion and art – and is often overlooked in today’s world of digital photography. Yet I think it still has an important place – it allows our imagination to flow freely and celebrates the beauty and creativity of fashion design. There are so many amazing fashion illustrators out there – a good starting place to check out their work is at fashionillustrationgallery and iloveillustration. Here a a few of my favourites, in candy pink: Continue reading Colour me Friday – Candy Pink Fashion Illustration →

LifeStories

LifeStories: Elsa Schiaparelli

5 Comments
elsa_schiaparelli-corbis-AU002879_352-288-300x245
Schiap and friend

Elsa Schiaparelli (1890–1973) was an Italian fashion designer, affectionally known as Schiap. Between the two World Wars, she was arguably as powerful and influential as Coco Chanel – and yet today, while Chanel remains a huge and iconic fashion force, dominating magazines and catwalks, Schiap languishes as a footnote in fashion history. So who was this intriguing woman? And just how big is her almost forgotten legacy? Using bold patterns, geometric shapes and collaborations with Dali and Cocteau, Schiap fused the worlds of art and fashion together in a way that is widely accepted today, but was beyond avant garde at the time. Think Alexander McQueen, Peter Pilotto and Raf Simons – now imagine a woman doing this in the middle of the last century. She was closely associated with the Dada and Surrealist movements, and her most famous creation, the beautiful Lobster Dress, could easily be worn today. Continue reading LifeStories: Elsa Schiaparelli →

Do Good & Be Inspired

Liebster and Sisterhood of the World Bloggers award Mash-up!

13 Comments

Liebster    sisterhood1

I’ve been nominated for the Liebster and Sisterhood of the World bloggers awards! Thank you so much to Gem Livia and Sarahanne14 for the nominations, so grateful! Please check out their gorgeous blogs, especially Gem’s post on The Seven Deadly Sins of Beauty (great idea, think I’m going to take up her challenge and do a post on this myself)  and Sarah’s beautiful Valentine’s Day Nails. Continue reading Liebster and Sisterhood of the World Bloggers award Mash-up! →

"In order to be irreplaceable one must always be different" – Coco Chanel