30 day blog challenge: day 2

Day 2 - A photo of something you ate today

Yummy! Ok so this mush of a food is actually sage and onion stuffing. I spent about an hour and a half today making sandwiches for the Christian Union Christmas meal tomorrow. Lots of turkey, bread, butter, cranberry sauce and stuffing were used and I managed to make three platters of sandwiches. Hopefully that's enough! Anyway I had some leftover stuffing so decided I should probably eat (it was about 4pm by this time and I had yet to have any food) so indulged in leftover stuffing.

I think I ended up buttering about 30 slices of bread...I could never be a caterer for events like that - I'd just end up never wanting to eat again. I think I might cry if I have to make another sandwich today.

30 day blog challenge: day 1

Okay so I've decided to do one of the numerous blog challenges floating around out there. I'm determined to post more regularly but have kind of hit a blog-writer's block, so hopefully this will help!

Day 1 - A photo of yourself and description of your day

Day 2 - A photo of something you ate today.

Day 3 - Your idea of the perfect first date.
Day 4 - Your favorite photograph of your best friend.
Day 5 - A photo of yourself two years ago.
Day 6 - A photo of an animal you'd love to keep as a pet.
Day 7 - Your dream wedding.
Day 8 - A song to match your mood.
Day 9 - A photo of the item you last purchased.
Day 10 - A photo of your favourite place to eat.
Day 11 - What's in your makeup bag.
Day 12 - A photograph of the town you live in.
Day 13 - Your favorite musician and why?
Day 14 - A TV show you're currently addicted to.
Day 15 - Something you don't leave the house without.
Day 16 - Your celebrity crush.
Day 17 - A photo of you and your family.
Day 18 - Something you crave a lot.
Day 19 - Another picture of yourself.
Day 20 - The meaning behind your blog name.
Day 21 - A photo of something that makes you happy.
Day 22 - A letter to someone who has hurt you recently.
Day 23 - 15 facts about you.
Day 24 - A photo of something that means a lot to you.
Day 25 - What's in your purse?
Day 26 - A photo of somewhere you've been to.
Day 27 - A picture of you last year and now and how you changed since then?
Day 28 - Your favorite movie.
Day 29 - Something you could never get tired of doing.
Day 30 - A photograph of yourself today + three good things that have happened in the past 30 days.

And so it begins!

Day 1 - A photo of yourself and description of your day

So here's my photo. I'm obviously not Kate Nash so I'd be the grinning girl on the left. This was taken 13 October in good ol' Newcastle where I went to see the aforementioned Kate Nash at Newcastle's O2 Academy with my lovely friend Emily. We hung around for a while afterwards and got to meet Kate, although we did then have to spend about an hour and a half travelling back (metro, bus, walk in the rain...we got back at 1am). So worth it though.

On with my day!Had one of those hideous 9am uni starts today so early rising was essential today (read: 8am). I walked in with Emily, who is also one of my flatmates, and got about halfway to uni with her before we took one look at the bridge and realised how ridiculous we were being when some woman could barely walk across it without falling over. Plus all metros into Sunderland were cancelled at that time and neither of us felt well, so we turned back. It started snowing again (yay/boo I'm kind of in a love/hate relationship with the snow at the moment) before we reached the flat. I've whiled away the hours since then paroozing the Internet and watching the first Harry Potter film (they all look so crazily young!).

I've just got in from a rather spontaneous trip to Wilkinsons where Emily wanted chocolate and I needed bread. We left with a lot more than that. I ended up with cookies, crisps and tinsel. So I've literally just settled down with some toast (yummy!) after getting back and decorating my room so it looks mildly festive.

Plans for the rest of the day include: reading for my fashion journalism essay, eating something that isn't toast (literally all I've eaten today) and potentially a Christian Union exec meeting about next year (I say potentially because it keeps snowing horribly and messing up the roads.Boo)

Wow, that wasn't so bad...rock on day two!

Harry Potter Habits

Unless you’ve been living under a very big, very heavy rock for the last decade I’m pretty sure you’ve heard of Harry Potter (if not, shame on you. Stop reading this and go to a library, bookshop or Google depending on your location and time of reading). I am, quite unashamedly, a huge Harry Potter fan.

I fell in love with the books when I was nine and my grandma gave them to me, having originally bought them for herself but deciding they’d be “more suitable to your tastes”. She was right and I’ve been a fan ever since.

So, naturally, I’ve got all the books, and films released on DVD to date (the books are obviously better but the films are also magical, pardon the pun). I also ventured out for the last ever midnight launch for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and dream of going to Harry Potter land (I know the actual HP land isn’t real, I do mean the theme park).

So now the first of the two-part film adaption for Deathly hallows is out. Rather guttingly I’m unable to see it until tomorrow lunchtime but I’ve been inspired by some of the, mostly accessory, based fashion coming out of the franchise. I stumbled across all these items last night after a website I read posted about them. Unfortunately all of the necklaces has sold out and the headband won't ship to the UK. Boo. However for reference point...





l-r: Platform 9 3/4 necklace, Hogwarts acceptance letter necklace and Firebolt necklace from SixAstray on Etsy.com (all necklaces were sold out on 19/11/2010). Gryffindor headband from Summergirlsbowtique on Etsy.com (who also has Slytherin, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw headbands in stock)

Now, make up wise to get in a Harry Potter mood is actually very easy. Pick a house (Slytherin, Gryffindor, Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw) and then base your colour palette on the house colours. All products I mention are on sale now either online or in stores. Obviously I'll be using products and colours I already own but the majority of make up brands will have these colours.

Gryffindor
Starting with my favourite house, Gryffindor is home of the golden trio, and the Marauders before them. The house colours are maroon (a deep red) and gold. Gryffindor's animal is a lion.

Nails

• 17 fast finish nail polish in ‘Ruby Gem’
• Barry M glitter nail paint in 'Gold'
  

Eyes

• I'd reccomend sticking with just gold for this, or a light red eyeshadow with a sweeping of gold glitter dust over the top. Barry M 'Dazzle Dust' has various red and gold shades for you to pick from.

Slytherin

Gyrffindor's rival house, home to Draco Malfoy and recruiting grounds for the Death Eaters, Slytherin's colours are emerald green and silver like the serpent that represents their house.

Nails

• Barry M nail paint in 'Emerald Green'
• Barry M nail paint in 'Silver'

Eyes

• Again this is where my love for Barry M products is manifested, the trio eyeshadow in shade 'Divine Destiny' has both green and a blackish silver perfect for Slytherin colours. However 17 Starry Eyes Trio Shadow in Galactic also has a good selection of greens easily blended in with a silver eye shadow.

Ravenclaw

Home to Hogwart's resident brain-i-acs and Cho Chang and Luna Lovegood. Ravenclaw are represented by azure blue and bronze tones. Their animal is an eagle.

Nails

• Rimmel I Love Lasting Nail Polish in 'Azure'
• 17 Precious Metals Nail Polish (Limited Edition) or Barry M Nail Paint in 'Gold'

Eyes

• Barry M Dazzle Dust in 'Burnt Orange' or 'Bronze' to go on top of the blue found in Barry M Trio Eyeshadow set 'Paradise Passion' or 17 Solo Eye Shadow in 'Regal'

Hufflepuff

Last, but not least, is Hufflepuff. Traditionally known as the house with little rivalries to the other houses - except during the Triwizard tournament when relationships with Gryffindor were tested - and during Quidditch, Hufflepuff has been house to Tonks and Cedric Diggory. Their colours are yellow and black, the animal they are represented by is a badger.

Nails

• 17 Fast Finish Nail Polish in 'Go Go' with Barry M Nail Effects on top
• Or Barry M Nail Pain in 'Black' paired with the previously mentioned 'Go Go'

Eyes

• 17 Glitter Eye Shadow in 'Night Sky' with Barry M Dazzle Dust in 'Yellow' over the top

And that, my lovely readers, is a full breakdown of how to show your allegience to your favourite Harry Potter house, via the medium of make up, should you wish to enter into the spirit of things.

Change of Direction

My internet has been down most of today. It crashed just after lunchtime so all afternoon I’ve been left without a distraction. In a way it’s been annoying, I have a piece of portfolio work due in on Wednesday and I was waiting on an email to allow me to do the work, so that kinda sucks but I have all tomorrow to work on it. However not having the internet also means I haven’t been mindlessly trawling websites and refreshing Facebook every five seconds, wasting the entire day.

In the time since the internet went down earlier I have:

· Made another mood board

I made a new one last night after a session at uni where we made one and I found an old one I made last year. I decided I’d start it up again and ended up with a whole load of images (thanks to my backdated magazine collection) and I’ve got enough to make a third one.

· Watched some recently purchased films

I bought a lot of films a few weeks ago in the entertainment exchange and a local pawn shop but with work and life in general being hectic I hadn’t been able to watch them. So today I have been able to begin working through them. I’ve watched The Princess Diaries (which technically I have seen before, but not since I bought it on DVD), Funny Face (from my Audrey Hepburn collection, we watched a few clips in fashion journalism the other week and I’ve wanted to watch the whole film since then), and the first half of my Glee season 1 boxset (I’m a Gleek and had only intended watching a few but ended up watching all the way to the end of Road to Sectionals)

· Read part of a new book

On the weekend away I got back from last night (I’m writing this on a Monday) I ended up – as I usually do – with a whole load of new books. The one I started reading is called Mirror Mirror and is about self-image and a Biblical way for Christians to view themselves. It’s really interesting so far, I’m looking forward to reading more!

· Wrote this blog post

In a fit of forward planning I decided to draft up this in Word, save it and post it tomorrow when a) the internet works or b) I’m in uni. Either way it’s going up tomorrow. I’m determined to blog more regularly!

Which brings me on to my next thought. During a bit of quiet time today I realised a lot of my blog is me going “look at this, it’s pretty. I bought it, yay pretty things!” While this is great (for me) it’s not where I really want to go with this. So from now I’m going to stick to my style crush posts, and I will still post anything particularly lovely I buy, but I’m going to incorporate a few new ideas into my blog. I might post a few work pieces up, I’ll probably link to Detour the uni magazine online I write for, but something I want to do specifically is profiles of independent fashion businesses or designers I like/who influence my style as well as the odd opinion piece or two, related in some way or other to fashion.

I’m aiming (internet and free time willing) to get a review piece up here on Barry M nail effects, a recent personal discovery. As it’s something I’ve had in the pipeline since I bought it and after that I’ve got an opinion piece brewing inside of me.

That is pretty much it for now. Just to let my readers know what’s going on with my blog from now on.

All Apologies, baby news and a weekend trip

I am so sorry for abandoning you recently my lovely readers. Things here have been absolute manic with two big deadlines on the same day, organisation and editing for the uni's online magazine Detour as well as last minute organisation for the Christian Union's weekend away. Basically I've been one busy bee!

I got back from the weekend away a few hours ago. I'm absolutely shattered thanks to about eight hours sleep over the past two nights. My essay and portfolio piece have both been handed in and I've dealt with the majority of the editing stuff I have to for now.

On the baby news, my nephew Alfie was finally born Friday 5 November a little bit before 3am. My brother's girlfriend had to be induced in the end. I go home next weekend to meet him and I'm super excited. In the meantime I have to make do with a picture:

On the weekend front, I didn't really take that many pictures (for me anyway) and only ended up with about 50, mostly of the evening cabaret I organised and a few random ones of the walk we did on the first night.

So the photo on the left is the prop table for the evening cabaret. There were about 35 of us on the weekend (Sunderland uni Christian Union, Stockton's and Teeside's) which saw us all staying at a youth hostel in a town known as Keswick in the Lake District area. It's beautiful there. Anyway, the photo on the right is my friend's Jen and Laura and myself outside a pretty shop during a shopping trip. Some sweet random man stopped and offered to take a picture of all of us when he saw me taking the photo of Jen and Laura which was really nice of him. You can see mine and Jen's beautiful wellies in this picture too, always a bonus!

With that I shall leave you now, I need some food and sleep if I'm to be able to get in for my 9am start at uni tomorrow! I promise I'll update better from now on.

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.