Ballin'

Dress ZARA // Shoes Dunnes // Family Jewellery // Clutch Bag Gift

At the start of April I attended the material society ball with a few of my course friends beings as we're going our separate ways next year; I'm studying in Hong Kong and they're doing placement years so we thought it'd be nice to go to the summer ball despite it being a main event for third years. 

I wore this beautiful navy crochet dress from Zara which wasn't too dressy but was dressy enough for such an event, the crochet detailing on it is gorgeous and I will definitely be able to wear this dress again! 

I accessorised subtly with nude heels, navy clutch and amber necklace and finished with a half up-do.

The summer ball was held in Manchester's Midland Hotel in Deansgate which was a gorgeous venue, one of our friends was too sick to come which was a shame but we had such a fab evening despite her absence! We were popped on a table with some lovely third year girls and had some ace food, including that bad boy cheesecake! The girls we met were definitely after my own heart as we manage to wrangle some extra free bottles of wine for our table, all in all it was a great evening and was a fab way to send off my second year of study at Manchester!

Hope you're all having a lovely start to summer with this beaut weather in the UK!

x

Cloud 23 - OOTD to Night

Top missguided // Pants Matalan // Shoes eBay // Necklace - Wishbone eBay, Cross gift

A few weeks ago it was my friend's 20th and she'd booked a table at the Hilton for drinks and told us to dress up (I didn't realise that the Hilton was Cloud 23 in Manchester where I've always wanted to go otherwise I'd have dressed up more!) So my daytime outfit was comprised of an old gem - Matalan gingham trousers from last summer which I'm so glad I didn't throw out, I think I bagged them for £6, they fit so well and are a perfect, lightweight summer pants option! I paired them with my new missguided pastel purple short sleeve high neck jumper which I absolutely love, and at around £14 it was an absolute steal. I am definitely contemplating getting this in another colour when payday rears its head. From wearing this item in the day to night I literally just changed my footwear from some trustry vintage Nikes to comfy black wedges and slapped some lippy on! What do you think of this outfit? Are you as hooked on the gingham trend as I am?

Cloud 23 was so picturesque and beautiful, I would love to go back in the daytime; definitely a perfect go to for a date or special occasion! We had such a lovely evening despite the sky high drinks prices. It panned out slightly strangely though with some part owners of Hull City football club buying us a few bottles of champers but we weren't complaining!

x

A Printed Smock Dress on a Surprise Mother's Day

Dress - Daisy Street
Necklace - Gift, Swarovski

Bracelets - Matalan
Shoes - New Look
Sunglasses - ASOS

I'd been planning to surprise my Mum for Mother's Day this year beings as I've not ventured home since the first week of January which is painfully long without all the home comforts. So I got up at the crack of dawn (6am which was technically 5 because the clocks went forward) when a few of my housemates were stumbling in after their school ball! 

With a bunch of flowers in tow and a bracelet charm as a prezzie I got two trains and two buses before finally arriving home at about half 11. Un-according to plan Mum had gone out so I let myself in (thankfully I found my keys before setting off), woke my lazy little brother up and put the flowers in water.

Mum got back not so long after this and was chuffed to see me (and vice versa!), we didn't do anything special, just went for a walk and chatted etc but it was ace to catch up and Mum took some outfit photos for my blog with her new posh camera (which neither of us know how to use so my photos are likely to look no different than usual!)

After being well-fed with a mandatory Sunday roast and well equipped with sandwiches and cake for the journey the next day I headed back to Manchester, went straight to a lecture and then back to work so I've only just really had chance to compose this post.

It was just a lovely end to the week and gave me a last little push for this week to get loads of work done before heading back for Easter this weekend. I was so glad I decided to go home even just for a day because I'd missed my fam and think Mum appreciated it and well who doesn't want to be with their Mum on Mother's Day?! Hope you all had a lovely weekend and are looking forward to the Easter break because I definitely am!

x

 

Mum's Vintage Oversize Shirt

I pinched this gorgeous number from my Mum a good couple of years ago but remember it literally drowning me at the time. I thought I was clever by making it into a crop top and skirt (see photo further down) but upon finding them in a draw I could not be more horrified in hindsight and came to realise I'd ruined a perfectly good shirt! So last night I set to work about salvaging it and piecing it back together and I don't think the outcome was too shabby!

Mum will probably kill me for dubbing this shirt as vintage but she had it in the good old 80s so let's face it is kind of is and what she doesn't know won't hurt her! She also felt slight regret about letting me have it when I wore it today. I don't think I've ever loved a print so much; the tones are quite autumnal and I love the subtle tie dye/bleached effect with a gorgeous mix of blues and purples. To give the oversized shirt more shape I paired it with a tan belt and tan shoes.

Love the old Topshop Label; I've not heard of the Coppernob label before but just searched for it and it's still around supplying for places like Tesco! I also love the fact that it was made in the UK as textiles production in the UK now is only a small slice of the magnitude of what it used to be because of the transference to overseas manufacture now.

However I think in the future we could potentially see productions migrating back onto home turf because the need for fashionable, disposible clothes could be fuelled more effectively with closer manufacture. Zara is an example who manufacture in neighbouring/closer countries and can get a product from the initial idea to store in 15 days! Putting this into perspective; overseas shipping alone takes around a month. Other stores like Topshop are also implementing similar fast fashion production methods! Anyway enough of my degree-related ramblings! 

I wore this outfit shopping today in Milton Keynes; I bought a cheap jumper and skirt and the top left ring from Claire's for £2.50. I always recommend Claire's as it always seems to be preconceived as a child's accessory shop (which admittedly I did for a substantial amount of time) but they have some really good stuff in there for reasonable prices. I also applied some new nail wraps that a friend bought me for my birthday which I love!

Here's the horrific skirt and top I made the shirt into initially, what was I thinking! I even made the waist elasticated on the skirt which looks really unflattering on me and the crop top is way too cropped, I never even wore them! This outfit's got me even more in the mood for Autumn fashion with the colours in the print but it was still scorching today and I even regretted wearing tights (never thought I'd say this in September!).

x

OOTD Trend Mix; Sporty Meets Grunge

(Sorry for the poor quality photos)

I love sporty and grunge trends; this outfit kind of happened by accident. Both tops were hung up on the outside of my wardrobe and I loved how the fringing looked behind the sports tee so I tried in on and voila. I'm not too sure if the outfit looks borderline silly but I liked it when I put it on this morning and thought I would put it up as an outfit post to gauge people's thoughts!

Both tops I bought at bargain sale prices;
RI Wildcats Sporty Tee £7
Primark Fringed Top £3

I paired the tops with plain staple black jeans to add to the grunge feel and so the fringe had a background to stand out against.

I've seen countless AW posts recently which are getting me more and more excited for the upcoming season; leather, tartan and plaid are definitely on top of my winter wishlist and I can't wait for new season pieces to hit the high street that you've all been blogging about!

I got a bit ahead of myself and ordered some tartan nail wraps which I think look a bit too wintery right now but oh well I love tartan! Picked up these wraps for £1.25 on eBay and still have loads left to redo them.
I've always had a pet hate for long and fake nails; I just can't stand the feel of them but I do think they look nice and beings as I'm celebrating my 19th birthday this weekend I thought why not get some cheap DIY ones to put the wraps on.

x

Trip to London ft Next Trousers

Last week a friend and a I went on quite a spur of the moment trip to London as my friend's friend had won VIP tickets to a club in London so essentially we only had to pay for train fares which was an offer I couldn't refuse! I've been meaning to write this post sooner but I've been suffering with woman flu (yes, apparantly men actually do get it worse!) 

I bought these lovely crepe trousers from the Next Sale for a bargain £7! I've been after some trousers in this style for ages so couldn't believe my luck at this price! I bought them in a long 8 so I could roll them up and think this makes a better shape with the trousers but then also gives me the option of wearing them long too. This has been my favourite purchase recently as they're so comfortable and flattering (contradictory to these photos which make me look smaller than ever but trust me!) I can see myself wearing these for formal occasions, workwear and nights out; they're so versatile! I definitely think I'll go to Next for trouser shopping in the future as the cut and tailoring is perfect which I think's really difficult to find in trousers!

I bought this top from River Island especially to go with the trousers and love the 80s feel to it! At a closer look there's leopards (I think!) integrated into the quirky leopard print which I love. I added some old wedges, new H&M necklace an a tan belt to finish off the outfit. I didn't want to dress up too much because we had to travel back in the morning so thought these Next trousers would be the perfect option!

The journey to London was quite eventful with delayed trains and coach transfers; especially with wine added to the mix! My friend wore a lovely white playsuit from Missguided with cut out detail which really suited her as she's far more tanned than I am! 

As you can see we didn't really manage to get any nice photos of the night, unfortunately but I thought I would do an outfit post about it anyway as we had such an ace time. My friend's friend that won the tickets who let's say isn't very short of cash kindly let us stay at the hotel suite he'd booked for the night which had a gorgeous view of the London skyline (which made waking up a whole lot easier! Never set foot in such a posh hotel in my life and probably never will again haha!) Disappointed that the photos don't do it justice but the sun was beaming and it was lovely!

x

My Weekend in Blue & White

Had a lovely weekend celebrating my friend's 19th on Saturday after a long day at work and enjoying the sun on my day off at a friend's barbeque! For my friend's birthday night out I wore plain black jeans with a blue and white tile print blouse from Primark which I bought from London and is featured in my recent Primark Haul post. I accessorised with black cut out wedges from eBay that I bagged for around 12 pounds last year that seem to be more in line with trends now than ever since I bought them (glad I never chucked them or sold them) and a 20p style necklace which I've had since I was born, love wearing sentimental jewellery.

To the BBQ I wore printed jeans from H&M at a bargain £9.99! I'm in love with blue and white prints at the moment as you can probably tell. Old shoes from Next, plain crop tee from Primark which I plainly accessorized with a Claire's gold chain, tan belt and tortoiseshell sunglasses.

 I'm embarrassingly pale at the moment which is why I wore jeans for the majority of the weekend despite the gorgeous weather! Although if I always have this mentality I'll probably remain pale forever more hahah. Hope the weather doesn't fizzle out anytime soon so I can get some colour at some point!

x

Vintage Denim and Clashing Prints

Outfit of the Day - Vintage Denim and Clashing Prints.

Top - ASOS old

Necklace - Claire's Accessories £4

Skirt - eBay £10

Shoes - Primark £5
Belt - Vintage (Mum's)

Latching onto what seems to be the remnants of our short lived summer weather in the UK, I opted for a floral summer crop top and vintage skirt and belt. 

Believe it or not the necklace is from Claire's Accessories, I know it seems like this shop is only suitable for 12 year old's and should stay well in our childhood but don't underestimate Claire's! There's loads of great jewellery for reasonable prices, I've not seen a similar chain necklace for so cheap so get yourselves down there!

I can't get enough of collar/necklace combinations but I desperately need to invest in more necklaces, skint life of a student!

x