Frills 'n' Spills

Alphabetights

The day before yesterday I was super pleased as I managed to find my Henry Holland 'Alphabetights' which I bought with some of my birthday money in late October. When they arrived through my letter box, I was SO excited and opened them immediately.

Then DISASTER! I lost them when I came home for Christmas and although I looked absolutely everywhere, I couldn't find them and had to go back to uni without them. Recently though I have really been into patterned sheer tights and so I made a concerted effort... and FOUND THEM! Of course I had to wear them as I love them so much :)

I wore them with my new purple skirt that I wore to my girly meet-up and a black top that I got from T K Maxx last year that I have worn about once. The top was just loose enough to not look slutty (hopefully!) with the rather short skirt.

Excuse my crazy facial expression and weird hand! I was trying to show you the lovely plaited detail around the neckline and my ring and nail varnish (Opi Pamplona Purple)

UTTER GORM

Yes, my hair is naturally this huge :)

NOM. I love them so much!

These tights also provided me with a welcome break from my HORRIBLE Roman economy essay...I shouldn't have left it until the last minute (as usual!) but I have found it really difficult. The question is horrible and I missed a load of lectures as I was ill, does anyone have any tips for catching up? Or any knowledge about the Roman economy for that matter?! ;) Luckily my younger sister made some chocolate cakes the other day, the perfect antidote to essay despair!

Luckily, there are plenty more of these bundles of joy to keep me going!

What has been bothering you recently? What is cheering you up?

Girly pals...

On Friday night I was lucky enough to go out with my friends from the nurseries, Sophie, Jenny, Gemma, Sally and Dawn and had a really really fun night. Weirdly enough, we all brought cameras and no-one took any photos as we were all enjoying eating and drinking too much to bother! It was lovely to see Gemma as none of us had seen her for about a year and to catch up on what was going on in each others lives.

Apologies for the lack of full length shots but I have no tripod to take photos with and my usual photographer (i.e. my sister) was out!

I over-blinged a little but oh well!

Why oh WHY do I always have such a goofy expression?! Trying to show off my bling and my nails :)

I was trying to get a pic of my make-up because I was really happy with it, and my mum was too (Shock horror!)

I wore:
♥ L'Oreal Infallible concealer in 01 Vanilla
♥ 'Non fiction' foundation in Volume 1 by Benefit
♥ Jemma Kidd (Face) Perfect Tan Bronzing Trio
♥ False Lash Effect Mascara by Max Factor in Black
♥ Natural Collection eyeshadow in Midnight
♥ 'Eye Bright' by Benefit (from Benefit Primpcess palette)
♥ Lightest colour eyeshadow (from Benefit Primpcess palette)
♥ Cath Kidston Lipsalve in Lemon and Geranium
♥ Chloé perfume

I was really impressed with the Natural Collection eyeshadow. I had bought it that day because I had left my usual 'smokey eye' eyeshadow (black Max Factor) at uni and wanted to have smokey eys for when I went out. The colour was intense but I was able to build it up to create a dramatic effect.

Apologies for the huge close up but I wanted to show you how you can vary the colour from light to dark!

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

I also wanted to introduce you all to some lovely ladies (who are also bloggers) who I got to know a bit better on the wonder that is Twitter.

(♥)

♥ Polka Dot Stripes
♥ Intrinsically Florrie
♥ Fashionable Dreams
♥ A little bird told me...
♥ Lily loves Lola
♥ A storm in a teacup
♥ Miss Lucy Loves
♥ French for Cupcake
♥ Pearls and Poodles
♥ Messy Carla
♥ Buttons, bows and brogues
♥ Sarah's
♥ Yes and Yes
♥ Diamond Canopy
♥ LLYMLRS
♥ Peluxe
♥ Lady Danger Makeup
♥ Confessions of a fashion editor
♥ Hot tramp, I love you so
♥ Voguish

All of these blogs are so well researched and written and I wait eagerly for each new update. Swing over to their blogs and see for yourself... :)

What have you all been up to? Do you have any blog recommendations?

P.S. When we get to 50 followers, we will be having a giveaway, so get following peeps!

Oh to be nine again...

Yesterday was my little cousins 9th birthday. She of course felt super-grown up, and couldn't believe she was but one year away from the big one-oh. I on the other hand spent many a quiet minute trying desperately to remember what it felt like to be so young, carefree and fearless. You've gotta admire that inquisitive side of kids (and I suppose our former, smaller selves!) really, I mean nothing, nothing seems to scare them. Other than the stylings of their own imagination...another thing which seems to drift away with age! Anyway, before this turns into a "well, back in my day..." sort of ramble, I've made a vow to try and inject some of that childlike impishness into my day. Whether it's a quick skip in the rain or just a cheeky splash of colour in my work, I'm going to find my inner child :)

With that in mind, I ended up choosing a pretty boring outfit for the party, before adding a sheer colour-flash to brighten things up a tad. There's something quite comforting about primary colours...in all their lurid glory. I guess it's another hark back to the good old days of poster paint, overalls, and trying desperately to paint an accurate picture of next doors pet cat ...or something like that. Of course, it always came out looking like a lollipop gone wrong, but it's the effort that counts!

Why so serious?

A little splash of colour...

et voila! Smiles all round

I've also been trying to wear less make-up over the holidays, as my skin seems to have its own ideas of regressing back to years gone by. Unfortunately, it's stopped abruptly at the early teenage years and so pimples are a go-go. To try and complement this toned down approach, I've also been looking for new ways to do eye make-up. I've been utterly stuck in a smokey-eyed rut for the past year, and so decided to try a quick slick of 1920's style eyeliner yesterday, or for want of a better description..FLICKY EYE

Well... I did try. Honestly I did, but it didn't quite seem to work. This was probably due to the lack of liquid eyeliner in my make-up box [excuses, excuses] and so i went out and bought a cheap one today to make a better attempt. But I'm not really sure what the flicky-eye protocol is....I mean, inside to outside or vice-versa? Thick line or thin line? Eyes open or closed? AAAARGH the possibilities are endless, and I'd greatly appreciate a little help if anyone has any tips :)

I'll have to love you and leave you I'm afraid, as Brownies is looming [no, I'm not actually a seven year old, as much as I'm trying to feel like it! I'm a leader of a local pack] but I really wanted to recommend some muscial nectar in the form of Pheonix, their latest album is a beaut - it will definitely be making an appearance on my revision playlist. Go go gooo!

Hello stranger

Gooood morning - long time no see! I have to start with truly sincere apologies for my complete lack of communication recently. My usually reliable computer decided to have a little holiday of its own, and completely closed in on itself. Normally I'd be grateful for a little nudge away from the computer screen, as it's all I seem to stare at recently, but I had no way of accessing all my degree work and was in a minor panic about having to rewrite everything. Luckily, super-dad and his work friends managed to sort it out for me [in a way that only true computer geeks can do] and I am finally back on track with everything!

I feel like I've let Maria and all you lovely readers down, especially as we start to move the blog along - and I have to thank Miss. Fallon for all her tweaking and prettifying; I think the new layout is fab, and am ultra excited about getting up and running with twitter (Don't forget to check out Maria's British Style Bloggers post here... I'm very proud!!). For all this neglect I'm sorry, and hope to make extra efforts this month!

So, now the apologies are well and truly established, I can make an attempt at showing you what on earth I've been up to during my laptop-lockdown. It's amazing how a sudden lack of technology can remind you of that little thing called fresh air, and I've been taking full advantage of the distinct lack of April showers this week (please god don't say I've jinxed it!). I love random wanderings, whether it's on my own, with friends or family, I find I can just let go and properly relax...and of course for me that means taking lots of pictures.

Naturally, when the sun breaks out here in England, the ice-lollies follow and I've certainly been getting my fair share :). Summer sunshine (although I'm aware it's barely spring!) always makes me pine after strawberries and cream too, but a distinct lack of cream meant I had to get a little imaginative...

Granola + sunshine = LOVE. In between eating ice-lollies and concocting random bowls of loveliness, I've also been spending lots of time with family and friends. Nothing out of the ordinary; cinema trips, shopping, film nights etc, but right now I think it's exactly these ordinary things that will make memories. Extraordinary can wait.

Watching district 9 on the Conservatory wall... not exactly Odeon but close enough!

Having a boogie with the girlies

Watching the big debate... my vote's definitely with Ben, or maybe Jerry?!

Well that's my April so far just about summed up, I hope the lack of earlier posts has been made up by the excess of random photos!

What's your April been like so far? Are you looking forward to Summer?

British Style Bloggers

Recently, you may have noticed that Frills 'n' Spills have joined Twitter and I am addicted! I literally spend all of my time on there and it has taken over from Facebook as my procrastination of choice. I have also met some really lovely bloggers on there and am going to do a post devoted to these lovely ladies VERY SOON. However, I also found an amazing site called British Style Bloggers that is dedicated to all things stylish in lil old Blighty.

Basically, it is a place for British fashion/beauty/style bloggers to meet up, discuss ideas and share just how fab they are. There is also the option of guest blogging and I volunteered to do a post on 'Style Icons' for the site. (You can read my post HERE) Please let me know what you think and send me some feedback :)

Apologies if my posting is a little sporadic for the next couple of weeks, I have a lot going on at home and I also have deadlines and exams looming, meaning that there's not a lot of time spare. I am hopefully moving back to uni next Sunday which I am obviously excited about but I will miss my family and being home lots. Where I live is so pretty, especially in the spring sunshine and I will miss how pretty it is when I am back in grey, concrete-filled Coventry.

However, I will endeavour to post as much as I possibly can but I don't like just posting 'filler' so I will probably not be posting as much as I have been these past couple of weeks. Once my exams are over I should have a few weeks before I start my internship so I will be blogging more then! I know that both Danni and I are so grateful for all the lovely people who take time to read and comment and follow our blog and I am so lucky to have met all these lovely new bloggy friends! (Yes I AM being soppy but oh well!)

Recent outfit choices...

On the day we all met up to do some filming I decided to wear my favourite nude Miss Selfridge top and my brown H&M shorts accessorized with my giant ring and my current favourite lipstick; Rimmel Colour Show off in 030 'Tell No One'.