31 August 2011

Curly curly curly : Tight Perm-style curls

In the pictures from the bank holiday weekend, you can see how much texture and volume my hair has, so I thought I would show you the progress of how my hair held the curls over 3 days and how I made it so curly in the first place.
I think it's just a given that if you have naturally curly hair, you want straight hair and vice versa! So, me having naturally dead straight hair, I always have wanted curly hair. My mom used to have a perm every few weeks and although this has appealed to me, with the bleach that is already on my hair due to highlights, I don't really think it's a good idea.

So, I have had to find a new way of making my hair get those tight permed curls, and these rollers be the solution! I found these sponge rollers on a local market for about 50p a pack (a pack is about 6 rollers) and thought I'd try them out. As you can see, I have bought maaany a pack since then - I think I have around 40 rollers now. I'm pretty sure you can buy these from places such as Superdrug & boots for a little bit more but they are very common, so you just need to keep your eye out! You can also get some from amazon here, but they are currently unavailable atm - get your act together amazon! tut tut.

They are very easy to put in, you take a section of your hair, wrap it around the sponge to the root and then clip the plastic over to keep it in place. The only downside I would say is that it is very easy to get a little dent where the plastic clip has been when you take them out. However, to tackle this problem, you can use little pieces of cotton wool placed in between the clip and hair. No problemo.

I ususally wash my hair on a night, comb some mousse through, rough dry it and put these in straight after drying then sleep in them. After taking them out on the morning, I just tip my head upside down and run my fingers through it to seperate the curls.
And this is the result..

Drum roll please.





I never know what to do with the front as I have a middle parting, the parts around my face are shorter and I hate having little ringlets on my forehead.. it would make people LOL if I went out like it. So I just take the front section and secure it back with a clip.
So, that was on the morning I took the rollers out.
To hold the style I used Tresemmé styling mousse and L'oreal elvive hair spray.



This was on the night, a few hours after. You can see it has dropped a little, but not too much, I'm pretty happy with the result.
I'm sorry about the shizen picture, as you can see I wasn't prepared for the photo, but it's the best one I have to show the hair.


I apologise agaain for the shizen picture, but I didn't plan on doing this at the time of the photo taking :(
However, you can see that after a nights sleep on the curls, they have dropped to more of a sort of touselled curl. when I got up, I scrunched some Vo5 matt gum clay through it to hold the remaining curls and to give it a beachy, messy sort of look, which I must say, does do its job very well!

This is on the night of the above picture, so about 2 days since I took the rollers out. More Vo5 matt gum clay has been scrunched in here, and I think it's holding out quite well. It's just a case of scrunching and teasing it to look like it's meant to be that way, not that curls have dropped out!

And finally, the last day. Where, as you can see, I have added a scarf to make my hair look it's best for how much product and messing had been going on. You can see, it has held up quite well and now looks toussled and more sea-hair-like, but all in all I'm happy with it!








What I'm wearing :
Morgan white linen blazer
F & F at Tesco purple dress
Shoes from Spanish market (seen in the bank holiday photos)
Earrings from Debenhams

:)

30 August 2011

When the light's out, it's less dangerous

What I'm wearing:
Mango red blazer
thrifted necklace, shorts & top
Primark shoes
Courtesy of the boyfriend ; Swarovski bracelet + watch

On a bank holiday it is scarce that we are blessed with nice weather in the Midlands so we decided to get away for the last national holiday of the summer [*sob]. So, this is a collection of the photos from our gallavants in my parents' campervan around the Dorset county. They aren't great outfit photos but I'm guessing you can see enough from them to see what I'm wearing.

I know what your thinking - "campervan..?!" - but it really is a great way of travelling around; there's always a place to sleep and shower, you can move if you don't like where you've stopped and you can park in the middle of the town (or if you're my dad, in the middle of a traffic island. Yes, this happened to be one place we resided for 2 days in a tour of Spain in said campervan)

The places we decided to take ourselves off to were Salcombe, Dartmouth, Brixham and Torquay. WOAH - beaucoup de places!! Oh yeah baby, all in one weekend!
And, from this weekend I have learnt a few things about such seaside towns:

1. There's a dresscode.

Women : Jack Wills hoody + shorts/jeans (preferably of the Jack Wills brand) + deck shoes + messy hair
Men : Check shirt + shorts (also preferably Jack Wills) + deck shoes + sweeping fringe + messy hair

Yeah, we hardly fitted these credentials, as you can see!
2. The indian restaurants are the best in the Midlands
Yes, being midlanders we are spoilt with our authentic cuisine, and on a weekend it is a neccesity to consume a healthy amount of the indian kind, however, they can never live up to the standard our boys set!

3. Unless you have a boat/links to a person with a boat, you don't fit in, heaven forbid if you know no-one with a boat and aren't wearing Jack Wills apparel [*puts backhand to forehead and faints]
None the less, we had a grrrreat (in the words of Tony the Tiger) bank holiday and the weather was actually quite good, I would reccomend any of those places and now if you were to go, you have all the neccessary credentials to fit in!

I shall now leave you in the company of many photos of our delightful weekend!



This was a wonderful idea of my mother to stand on this boat and 'do a Kate Winslet in Titanic' whilst she delegated my boyfriend to the job of keeping watch out in case the owner of said boat came back.
First one just looks like I'm impersonating a baby bird about to try and take off for the first time - not a good look - but has amusement value all the same :)

About the hair - this was day 2 of the hold out of curls. I slept with my hair in rollers Friday night, took them out Saturday and this was Sunday, with some hair gum. I will do a future post on the progress of it so you can see what it was like straight after, how it was over 3 days & the products used. I did love the way it went each day, the texture and volume is really great.
I thought I would add this to show you how co-ordinated me & the boyfriend were, red white and blue, very fitting nautical-esque apparel for a seaside town. This wasn't planned or anything, just pure coincidence, maybe need more time apart, spooky brain wave connections.. oooo


Don't take in what I'm wearing on this one, it's really not one of the best outfits - I didn't pack for any cold weather, I know, how stupid when we were in England! - I just like the way my make up & hair are.

What I'm wearing:
New Look pale pink blazer
George at Asda white t shirt
Ethelaustin scarf (70p! I canny believe it!)
New Look necklace
Thrifted belt & jeans
Shoes from Spanish market
Topshop bag



P.S. Post title - Smells like teen spirit by Nirvana. It was on VH1 classics as I was writing this, VH1 has some a-may-zing songs on, if you're into a bit of the old stuff like me ;)

25 August 2011

Oh, where has the love gone?





After picking my holiday read, 'Captain Corelli's Mandolin', back up recently, the tiny flame of the romance kind has been reignited inside of me.
Being set in the war, there are many letters of love, lust and lonliness and all this begs the question;


"Where has romance gone?"


The internet and technology are amazing and I'm not criticising them for a second, however they do seem to have killed a bit of the ol' traditional romance.


Instead of meeting the love of your life by chance, now its in the hands of sites such as match.com and uniformdating.com (which I'm still a bit weirded out by but whatever, we all like a bit of fireman in our lives). Someone else is in charge of who you are compatible with and who you should, according to statistics, fall in love with. Don't they say opposites attract? I know for definite that that's what happened with me! But the I.T. technicians at the dating sites aren't going to add a filter for 'match opposite interests' are they?


And, when it so happens that we have met our true love, be it through dating sites, uniform fantasies or a chance rendezvous, the method of expression has now become very "modern", if you will. E-mail, online messaging and texts have all taken over our lives by way of convenience and efficiency. Expressing love through hand written pieces is now a thing of the past and it's sad [*wipes tear :'(]. There is nothing more romantic than a lovely, handwritten, perfumed-spritzed letter that expresses love, lust and/or passion.


To try and rekindle that traditional romance, I have asked my boyfriend if he would ever write me a love letter and, as expected, I got a blank expression and "whaaat..?!"
So, I am guilty of the non-romance, and tbh I don't think we ever really will write any love letters, but it would be nice to think that they were still a possibility!


I don't know what's the matter with me this week, I seem to be all loved-up! Not the romantic type normally, me! Maybe some planet has aligned with mine and the moons have changed or some shite that the star signs say :/ LOL.


I would love to know your most romantic moment, though..?

24 August 2011

Do you think our love can make miracles..? I do.







What I'm wearing:
Mango blazer from a market in Spain (5 euros - not that I wanna make you jealous of all the bargain goin on or anything :)!)
New Look striped top
French connection jeans

Shoes from the spanish market - I seem to be wearing these aaaalll the time at the minute. Note to self : must use more diverse range of footwear.
Bangles I think are from the same market..
Topshop bag
Thrifted scarf and belt


Post Title : Quote from one of my faaavourite films of all time 'The Notebook'. I know, it's sad and soppy but who doesn't like a bit of old school romance in their life?! I swear that film has everything; the forbidden love, the kissing in the rain, the 'one-of-them-goes-and-get- married-to-someone-else-and-will-they-come-back' oooh..
Oh how I long for a bit of old school romance.

However, as much as I do long for the kissing in the rain, I think I'd be too concerned about my hair getting wet and getting to shelter rather than standing in it.
It really is wet wednesday, in all senses.
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23 August 2011

Celeb Double!






I saw this picture in Look magazine recently of Pixie Lott in her Lipsy Short Suit and immediately my own monochrome jacket popped into my mind. How alike are they?! The lipsy jacket that Pixie sports costs £55, whereas mine came from eBay for around £1.99 [what a saving!] about a year ago.

Just got to go out and find some shorts to match now to make my suit... Even though I still haven't made proper friends with my cankles. 

Sorry about the image, I know it's not great.. strange fake faceage going on.

22 August 2011

Everybody's looking for something







New Look pale pink blazer
Thrifted cream lace top- actually my moms, but I'm allowed to kind of steal it if it's in a pile of never worn, never will wear clothes, yeah? I think so.
Miss Selfridge pale green shorts- bought on Saturday for £7 (reduced from £32) in the sale - oh, I love a bargain!
Nude wedges from a market in Spain for about €10 and they're unbelievably comfortable
New look bangles
Thrifted necklace

Post Title - Sweet Dreams by the Eurythmics.  Really reminds me of American Pie: The Wedding. How much do you just want to learn the whole routine of the dance-off between Stifler and Bear?! Oh my god, so much! A great megamix + those a-ma-zing camp dance moves = perfect entertainment!
The song also has a pretty great/creepy video which involves orchestra instruments, farmyard animals and facemasks and also seems like they've just worked out how to edit videos, but not for the better.

 
So, I am officially a member of "The Cankle Family". I have always known that my legs are certainly not my best feature, being the place any unhealthy substances I intake make a beeline for, but for a while, I've been in much denial. Seeing my legs in shop windows and such like has made me think "they're not that bad!" but these photos confirm it. I do have the dreaded 'cankle'. And whilst it's quite a nice feeling to think that I have something in commom with Cheryl Cole and Mischa Barton, I wish it could've been something different! Y'know, the luscious locks of Cheryl would have been a much more satisfying feeling.
To be honest, I do know and I don't know why I have them. It does run in my family, unfortunately for my future children (if I have any), with both my parents sporting the look (my dad worse than my mom, strangely) but at the same time non of us fit the typical Englishman stereotype of sitting watching tele whilst eating chip shop takeaway and drinking beer every night. We all live a healthy lifestyle, go skiing pretty often, which I must say REALLY works those buggers, and still are cursed with the unshiftable ankle-fat!

So, after many google searches on how to target them, I think I may have to just get over it. I mean, doing 20 million squats and calf raises each day is no way to live, right?! They will never stop me bearing my legs, as conscious as I may get and no matter what I do, I think they're with me for life. Time to make some new friends, I think :/


P.S. I know I'm not looking the best in the last picture, but I felt it needed to go in as it shows the outfit from a nice angle :)

11 August 2011

The sunlight hurts my eyes..






Thrifted jumper, shirt and scarf (worn as bow around neck)
Topshop chinos
Primark shoes
Post title lyrics - The Sunlight Hurts My Eyes by Modestep - great new dubstep song!

I wore this to go shopping with my mom today and to go and teach keyboard to my cousins 2 girls, so I needed to be more comfortable than anything. I really like the colours together and the scarf worn as a bow around my neck just adds a little something different to the outfit.

There are some major sales on in New Look and Topshop atm! Only bought a sleeveless cardigan from Topshop, reduced to £10 from £40 - Bargain! You can see a picture here. It will be perfect for when these hot days start to get colder for autumn.

Think the job prospects might be looking up - I'm waiting for a call from a local bar where I have managed to bag an interview (due to knowing people who work there!) I'm just hoping all goes well!

Aimée

10 August 2011

All Natural

Primark shirt
Dolce & Gabbana thrifted belt

Zoo jeans
Marc B bag
Peacocks shoes




So, I wore this to meet my friend yesterday for afternoon coffee. I think the neutral colours and textures really complement one another.

It's amazing what you can find tucked away in your own little village- I didn't even know we had a coffee shop! They have all the flavours under the sun of coffee, cappuccino, hot chocolate...etc. I am glad I'm not at university at the moment though with the chaos around Birmingham city centre- it's really sad and my thoughts are with anyone affected across the country.

I'm still looking for a job since the beginning of July but it doesn't seem to be working out for me! I'm teaching my cousins kids twice a week, helping them with maths and english and teaching them to play keyboard. It's really good money but very tiring. Any help as to the best way of teaching timestables in a fun way?!

Some retail therapy is needed I think!