OOTD: Strong Enough To Love Someone

Oh hi a little bit of Mcfly in the title. I'm rather obsessed with this song at the moment!

Now, regular readers of this here blog will now I don't really do personal outfit posts (I think this is my first one...ever) but I quite liked my outfit today so I thought I'd take a leap and do one, even if it never happens again. Apologies in advance for the quality, nobody else was around in my flat this morning so I had to take it myself!

I haven't really been up to much today. There was a Fair Trade event at the Museum and Winter Gardens opposite the flat so I ventured across the road this morning to have a bit of a gander and see if I could pick up some Christmas presents (which I did). I've also covered it for the uni online magazine Detour (which launches next week, definitely looking forward to that).

The top is my freebie top from a gaming convention I took my boyfriend to this summer. It was a bad shape on me at first due to a horrid high neckline but after a little play about with my scissors it looks a lot better. For a bit of a girlish edge (as I was wearing jeans today thanks to horrible weather) I teamed the t-shirt with my H&M pink waistcoat.

Accessories wise I kept it pretty simple. My H&M headband and a few necklaces. The owl one is a bargain I snapped up in Topshop's sale for £3.75 and my Rock 'n' Rose scrabble tile one is a firm favourite out of all my necklaces.

I'm planning another weekend wonder post so I'll post a few pictures of items I bought today that aren't presents as part of it.

Style Crush: Taylor Swift

All pictures sourced from google images

Today I have managed to get my hands on some pre-sale Taylor Swift tickets. I'm so excited and am already impatient for March. I'm going with my good friend Michelle from Daisybutter as I always have. This will be our third Taylor concert.

So, in honour of my excitement of Taylor Swift concert-ness (general tickets are on sale Friday 22 from 9am) I present you, dear reader, with another style crush.

From running around on stage, guitar in hand, to attending award shows and walking the red carpet, Taylor always manages to look classy, beautiful and relaxed. She tends to wear things that are simple in design and have a look about them that make you think "yeah, I could see myself in something like that". A great example of this is the pink dress I've managed to get a picture of. I would totally wear a dress like that, and I'd probably rock it with a white cardigan the same way she has.

And the red dress she changed into at the VMAs the other year? If I still had a prom to go to, I'd consider wearing a dress in that style. (In fact, if you're interested mine was that style but longer and in an emerald green with black tuelle over the top of the skirt.)

I think this is a huge part of the appeal for me. Some people look great in ornate dresses which are more works of art than pieces of clothing but a lot of Taylor's outfits have a cute, girlish quality to them - which is appealing to someone like me - along with a bundle of wearability about them. Throw in a piece of understated but lovely jewellery and her free-flowing hair and you have a Taylor outfit. Beautiful, understated (becoming rare these days with certain people) and something that the majority of the time she's probably picked herself.

Bouncing Baby Thumper

Thumper Baby Set; Disney, £24.99

My brother's girlfriend has just gone into labour. I'm mega excited, even though I'm already an aunt to an absolutely adorable two year old girl. This baby is going to be a boy and potentially called Alfie. Now I went on a little baby present spree a few weeks ago and got a few practical bits because they got so many clothes I was banned from buying any. However if I was to buy something with clothes it totally would've been this set from the Disney Store. It comes in Thumper or 101 Dalmation but I adore the Thumper one so much.

Each set contains a bib, hat, bodysuit and PJ set for baby plus a mini character bean bag toy which isn't too bad value wise given the price of each thing individually.

Weekend Wonders

So this is the first of a (hopefully) regular post. I got the idea from the lovely Michelle over at daisybutter but thought I'd narrow it down from a week to the weekends as that's usually when I'm least busy, beautifully enough. So here is the first weekend wonder:

Top row l-r:

• I wrote out my Christmas list this weekend. One of my parents particularly hate Christmas and prefers to get all their shopping done before Christmas mania descends on town centres. It's made up mostly of fashion/journalism books and a few dvd box sets (the o.c., 90210 and gossip girl).
• This little cutie is my self-reward for being made Fashion and Beauty editor for my uni's online magazine Detour, which launches the end of this month. I'm absolutely chuffed about it!
• I did a food shop this afternoon and managed to get a ton of stuff for £13 in a cheap-but-decent shop called Heron (think Farmfoods but a bit cheaper). I probably would've spent an extra £10 had I gone to Tesco as I have been doing so far... I should probably stop buying food and actually use up the tins I've been buying though. Whoops!

Bottom row l-r:

• I spent my Saturday afternoon reading all the magazines I've bought this week. I have a really bad habit of buying them and never reading them which is really bad. It took me about four hours to get through them all but I've done it.
• Something about flowers really cheers me up. So I've been buying flowers a lot recently. The "vase" is a big ol' plastic tumbler cup from my local co-op back home. It only cost me about 60p as they were trying to get rid of the leftover summer BBQ stuff. Bargain. We have a little flower shop near the flat so I grab a fresh bunch every time my flowers die.
• My Bible (how huge is it!). Had an awesome day at church today. My friend Eric gave the sermon and he's hilarious when he does. Seriously though, my Bible is literally the size of the Oxford English Dictionary (y'know, the proper big version) but I wouldn't trade it for a smaller one. I've had this since I was baptised nearly three years ago so it's really special to me.

And that's the end of my first weekend wonders. Hope you enjoyed it!

Disney Mania

So within the past few weeks I've been super busy (sorry,I've been really absent from blogging) and have also spent a considerable amount of time in a fairly new shop to Sunderland. Over summer we got a Disney store in the shopping centre here called the Bridges. I adore Disney. I'm such a little geek!

Anyway being back up here with some money I may have been in a few times. I've accumulated a fair amount of stuff from there now. A couple of stuffed toys - I got Zero from Nightmare Before Christmas as a treat for myself and Princess Tiana from Princess and the Frog as a treat for a friend - as well as some DVDs (buy one get one free DVDs have always been a weakness of mine) and a few more home ware items.

So my home ware Disney haul consists entirely of old-school Mickey Mouse stuff. I much prefer old-school style Mickey to the more modern version you see on Playhouse Disney. The first item I picked up was more of a vital item because being in England it rains a lot, so an umbrella is pretty essential. A problem I've had in the past has been the wind up here, most umbrellas turn inside out in a matter of seconds. So, introducing *drum roll* my Mickey Mouse comic strip umbrella:

Not only is this umbrella amazing for its vintage Mickey comic strip, it only cost me £10 and is designed so it goes down a lot further than most umbrellas - minimising risk of blowing inside out and breaking.

On a further vintage Mickey comic strip note, I also caved in and bought this fun pillow:

I'm not sure why but I really like pillows. I impulse bought a light green pillow with white polka dots from Wilkinsons a few days before this simply because it was half price. Anyway, at £15 this was slightly more expensive than the umbrella but it's super, super soft.

The last Mickey-related item I bought was this little snow globe. For those of you who don't recognise it, it's from Steamboat Willie which is often accredited as Mickey's most famous episode. It was the cheapest of all the items I bought, at just £8, and it's got a proud place next to my mini TARDIS on my beautiful bedside table.

As if that wasn't enough, at the time of buying this stuff I was lucky enough to catch the end of an offer where you spent over £10 and had the choice of a Mickey or Minnie Mouse dinner set for half price (£5). My niece adores Mickey Mouse Club House and Minnie Mouse so I thought she might enjoy the Minnie one so I kinda jumped the gun and got her Christmas present rather early. The picture below is the Mickey version as that's the one pictured on the Disney Store website but I'm sure you can imagine Minnie's face instead of Mickey's. Oh and it's red instead of blue.

And that is my Disney Store haul. I've now banned myself from there until November where I shall be going to pick up my copy of Toy Story 3 on DVD which I pre-ordered from there for £9.99. Despite being at uni I'm obviously a bit kid at heart...

Street Style - Sunderland Uni.2

This outfit may initially appear simple but an outfit that's put together well looks miles better than something intricate and put together badly. I particularly like the boots, they were the first thing that drew my attention thanks to my new-found shoe habit. Add in to this the slightly oversized shirt with the sleeves casually rolled up and we have a winning outfit for uni.

Style Crush: Whitney Port

Photos l-r: a selection of Whitney's amazing outfits, Spring 2010 Whitney Eve, Teen Vogue shoot with Lauren Conrad

I own none of these, all photos were found via google

As an avid watcher of pre-Kristen The Hills (it just wasn’t the same without LC or Whitney) and The City, Whitney Port has always caught my eye due to her amazing ensembles. This is a girl who can take a simple dress and make it look stunning. She even makes jumpsuits – a trend I’d never dare to even contemplate attempting – look uber flattering.

Not only can she dress herself fashionably, but she also dresses other people fashionably. Well, she designs the clothes; it’s up to them how they use the pieces from her line. Whitney Eve is a beautiful range full of even more beautiful pieces. And an interview with Miss Port herself showed such this summer. I quite often avoid the Ibiza issue of Company magazine but was swayed to buy it this year, based solely on the fact Whitney was on the cover looking striking in a gorgeous blue dress (it doesn’t credit her cover outfit from my brief flick through but it’s stunning). I’ve added owning a piece from her collection to my list of things I want to achieve. Sorry Olivia (Whitney’s The City co-star who is often hailed as a style crush) but Whitney wins it for me.

All Apologies and an interior post

Hello everyone. Firstly let me apologise like mad about my distinct lack of updates for a while. I know, I know, bad blogger. I got caught up in fresher's week and the Christian Union events planning/advertising/running a surprising amount. Things are returning back to normal and I'm sure I'll soon return to spending my evenings twiddling my thumbs so I'll be persistently updating things here for you.

So, apology out of the way it's time for a "what Natasha bought" post with a slight twist. Tonight's post is not an item of jewellery or a pretty dress as it usually is. Tonight's post is about a very pretty bedside table.

A bedside table I hear you cry. She left us for all that time and now she's back to tell us about a table?!

But this is no ordinary bedside table. No, it doesn't lead to a magical land a'la Narnia (I wish). It is however an amazing find from a charity shop (and who doesn't love those?). Costing me just £25 from British Heart Foundation's Furniture Store I fell in love with this table as soon as I spotted it hidden away in the corner.

It looks/is vintage (we're not sure) and has both a cubby hole and cute little drawer complete with glass top. It's just what I needed for my uni room which hasn't got a bedside table. This is a problem for me because I like having certain things next/near to my bed such as water, pen and paper, my inhalors, glasses, mobile and ipod. I dislike leaving them on the floor in case I tread on them half asleep and break them, and I don't like leaving them on my windowsill because the blinds sometimes knock them off. A pretty table is the perfect solution.

I also bought a rather sweet picture from there for a barginous £5. In case you can't read the writing it says "Tree of love". It might not be a stunning piece of art like Picasso or Van Gough but in its own way it's really good, plus it's my kind of picture. I think the whole concept is adorable and the little blue heart branches/leaves are amazing. So this is also adorning my uni wall along with all my posters and collages.