Noé of Couleur Spleen!

Congratulations (:

And thankyou so much to everyone who entered!

This post is going to be a bit of a Kate photodump haha. Just to update on my life, I can safely say I have been doing pretty much nothing since I last posted. Meaning, of course, that I have done nothing exciting, or worth posting about. A lot of work, essays, seminars, writing in general. Law stuff. You know, you know. That's not to say I haven't enjoyed the past month - I have. I think I enjoy life in two different ways. One is having fun, going places, dressing up, not 'thinking' about anything of import. But the other is when I feel like I'm really working, thinking, and being productive. It's not 'fun' and it doesn't look good in pictures, but it's fulfilling. So there you go. I am a really, really exciting person.

I was clearing out my computer the other day and found these pictures from May. SO long ago now actually... but pretty sure I look exactly the same now hoho. So I'm posting them before I delete them. Just reusing things I guess! As usual!

Blue dress... $4 from a secondhand store in Newtown, Sydney, which I've had for like five years and probably still wear once a week or so. Dress underneath - Heartbreaker Fashion, gift. Jacket n' shoes are vintage.

All other outfit-y things are from my phone.

 Sad I didn't get a proper photo of this! I was wearing a velvet dress, black and gold belt, fur collar, lion brooch and two gold necklaces. And a beehive. And dodgy eyeliner apparently? Haha. It was just to a uni formal, but was pretty much my only Christmas event so I decided to dress up!
These belts! You can't see them very well but I have two - a black one and a white one. I bought them together from Etsy last year for some ridiculously cheap price. One of me best purchases haha. They have big gold buckles with lions on them. Yes. Good.

Mulled wine at the Durham Christmas markets! I love mulled wine. Pretty sure my first wine mulling session this year was in November. It's just so wintry.

Also, Vivilli.com sent me this jacket! Which is great! I'll take a proper picture of this outfit at some point soon, but right now its too cold. Excuse the mirror. It's not my fault hoho. And my great big face.

So anyways, I'm in Durham for Christmas. Already visited my fam this summer and as it's a super expensive plane ticket and 23 hour journey away, once is enough. But it's okay! It'll be an experience. My sister and I are booked in for Christmas lunch, a tv on which to watch Carols at King's, and a small Christmas tree in the window, so we're set. Holding out for a non-white Christmas so I don't have to go through an ordeal similar to a few weeks ago when I had to crouch down and slide down my street on the soles of my shoes so as to get home unhurt.

Anyway, I can spend this break being productive! I have a lot of work to do, and I'm on day 5 of the 30 Day Shred! This is big news because I never exercise hoho. But I'm thinking it'll make life better to spend all day in cafes / the library getting work done but still know I'm moving around and not slowly morphing into a pale blob. Also, now that I've posted this on the internet, I have to actually finish it hoho.

Anyway, goodbye! And again, thanks for entering me giveaway. If I reach 1000 followers at some point in the near future I'll hold another one. Bye!

My first giveaway!

Hi!

I'm so excited to actually have a giveaway. It's so... blog-y, and as I'm terrible as blogging, this feels quite major to me hoho. So scroll down for the details and please enter!

Having a wonderful, very Sunday-ish Sunday. I woke up not too early, not too late, plodded off to Charlie's house, took some pictures, hung out, went grocery shopping, went to a cafe to work/consume a mince pie, then went home and had a nice night. It was good. Unfortunately, that familiar unease about impending deadlines has just begun to surface so soon sleep will be in order... but first, a post.

I haven't used a camera other than my iphone in so long. It's sad! I used to take photos all the time. The one thing is that my camera is getting 'Error 99' where I have to take out the battery / put it back in after every few photos. Why not get it fixed? It's not an emergency and I'm lazy hoho. So there you go. One day.

So I'm wearing this great dress from Motel. It actually has a high neck and a low back, but for some raisin I decided to wear it as a v neck dress. Idk. But it's pretty great. You can find it here!

I already took a photo of an outfit with this dress-shirt combo on instagram (@schwurlie), but I figured I should take my actual camera with me for once. So, goodness me, proper photos on my blog. There's something even more vain than usual about taking outfit pictures with an actual proper camera. But then, there is already something vain about having a blog.

So very mod. Except no. Because my shoes are totally not. But I guess I don't like taking pictures with my slightly dead loafer flat things, haha. Anyway. Here's Charlie looking warm.

Okay so...

I have a giveaway. At last. Brought to you by the very generous and lovely Sheinside!

Now, as I am not American, I do not celebrate Thanksgiving so it has crept up on me rather quickly without my knowledge. So let's treat this as a ... giveaway being begun to celebrate Thanksgiving. Not finishing on it. Yes? Yes. 

So this giveaway is for one of the eight sweaters pictured above! 

• One
• Two
• Three
• Four
• Five
• Six
• Seven
• Eight

Any of them you like! I will pick the winner at random, email them, and they can make their selection (:

The conditions are as follows:

• Follow my blog on Google Friend Connect
• Register at sheinside.com
• Comment here with your name and email address!

The winner will be announced on December 19!

900 followers! oh my goodness!

HI!

Oh wow. Long time no post. Very, very, very long time. I've been bizarrely busy. It seems everything I've been doing as of late has just torn me away from the internet. What a shame, what a shame! But hello! How are you?

Firstly, may I point out my new header by mermaidens, mistress of the most gloriously cotton candy coloured blog I have ever had the pleasure of laying my eyes on. I'm so very happy with it. It's much fun being turned into a drawing, so I do suggest you go to her for a header of your own.

Secondly, somehow during the past two months of posting absolutely nothing, I have managed to reach 900 followers! Good heavens! I'm at 900 exactly so NOBODY UNFOLLOW ME haha.

To those who have recently bumped me up to this milestone, thankyou! To those who have followed me from the beginning, thankyou even more. I am so grateful. Awful at sounding it, but I truly am. Thankyou thankyou thankyou.

As is customary for blogs haha, I shall put together a giveaway to be ready by my next post (I promise it won't be 2 months this time). So stay tuned!

A small update, as it's quarter to midnight (I told myself I couldn't go on the computer until I'd finished my reading haha). Since my last post, the most major thing to happen to me is visiting Australia! I visited my parents, old friends, old places. Bizarrely enough, it's all pretty much exactly the same as I remember it. Here are some random photos I took, as usual.

So much tasty fresh food! The one big thing I miss about living in Australia is the fruit.

...an aesthetically appealing bubble tea chain haha.

The amazing Gould's bookstore in Newtown!

I totally forgot I hadn't seen these little guys in so long.

The old study spot - the State Library!

Daytime cocktails in Glebe.

Ginger and raspberry tea from Corelli's complete with a TINY TEDDY. They should sell this everywhere.

It was sunny and blue EVERY SINGLE DAY.

(necessary)

Anyway, so despite the fact I had a great time in Sydney, I felt homesick for the UK from literally the second day haha. It's weird that Sydney doesn't feel like my home anymore at all! I loved how warm and sunny it was, but I pretty much immediately started craving English autumn.

Here are some pictures from when I got back to the UK.

(twin)

Weird picture of Charlie and I at Seaton Delavel Hall! haha

A sweet pig from this farm we found in the middle of Newcastle! haha

And finally, me getting into the autumnal spirit.

So yes! It's definitely past my bedtime now (back at uni now) so I must be off! But I shall post again in the near future. I miss my blog! 

Bye for now!

Me travels - a very picture heavy post

Hi everyone!

I love this shirt from Chinadoll Boutique! I don't usually get super enthusiastic about things on my blog but it's the morning, I've had my cup of tea, I've made some important decisions and I feel really really good about life right now, and at this point in time, 'life' includes this shirt.

I have worn it in so many outfits haha but this is the only one I've taken a picture of. Firstly, because I was enjoy collared shirts. Secondly, because of the print! I don't usually like floral prints but this one is bold enough for it to look nice. Also, I'm not usually entirely into the whole shoulderless thing, especially because on me I fear it looks a bit like I'm pretentiously showing off my arm tattoo. However, it does make it look a little more fancy. Also, with the help of some safety pins, you can make it into a regular shirt, which I've already done a bunch of times haha. So it's good.

Everything else is vintage, including those shoes which I bought super cheap from my local Oxfam store. It's not often I find nice 60s vintage in good condition from a charity shop, especially the local Oxfam which is super expensive. So I'm pleased!

But anyway, let me tell you about what I've been doing as of late.

One of my best friends from Sydney visited me! I love it when people from Australia visit me, not only because spending time with good friends is always nice, but also because for some reason there are barely any Australians in Durham. In Brighton there were quite a few for some raisin. But not so up north. So we hung out. Ate a lot of food. Went to London and Brighton.

We also went to Edinburgh again! These are my only photos.

Excuse the instagram-ness. We walked around, searched for macarons for Elena, went to this slightly fancy area where everyone had pet dogs, missed our train by 30 seconds and had to go crying to East Coast office where we were kindly allowed on the next train (I'm an adult, yes I am).

Then we went to Spain! Unfortunately we had thought it would be a good idea to split our trip in half and spend a little time in Barcelona and a little time in Madrid, but as with any city, a little time is never enough. That being said, they were both absolutely amazing. Here are a few Barcelona pictures!

Amazing juice in the morning, Sangria during the day and at night, incredible buildings, the beach, tapas bars... it was a good holiday. We were really sad to leave, especially as there was obviously so much more to see. Then we went to Madrid!

Not even sure what photos to post. It was a beautiful city. We just did a lot of touristy stuff, and spent a lot of time trying to avoid the heat (it was 39 degrees while we were there). We also spent kind of a lot of time at our hotel cafe haha. Usually I would think that to do so is really depressing, but... it was a good one. This one waiter who worked in the afternoons made incredible gin and tonics (hohoho) and we got free tapas. So yeah. SPAIN!

A couple of days later, Charlie and I went to Germany. Once again we split it between two cities - Berlin and Cologne. I won't post too many photos of Berlin because I already have a bunch on this blog from last time. Basically we just saw a few touristy sights and wandered around some areas I hadn't been to already. And had my first vegan pizza in a few years haha.

And then we went to Cologne!

(our hotel in the background)

(the interior of our hotel! haha)

Cologne was actually so nice. We spent the whole time just walking around, getting drinks, and generally relaxing. Also, I just have to express that there are four things that we saw everywhere in Germany: Dunkin' Donuts, bubble tea, sushi, and vietnamese. Not what you'd expect!

So now I've bombarded you with photos, it's time for me to sign off. I'm back in Durham Starbucks, soon to get one of those new tasty limey drinks haha. Trying to relax and get a few things done before I leave for Australia in a couple of weeks! I haven't seen my family since Christmas break so quite exciting.

Bye!