(wonderful shoes from chicnova)



Hi everyone!


As usual, long time no post. I've spent the past few weeks being simultaneously very busy and very bored. Like the short bursts of busyness have sucked away all desire to be productive during the periods of freedom haha. But that being said, I've enjoyed myself!



I moved into a cosy (though very studenty) apartment in the city centre with a couple of friends of mine, and a couple of days before that I went to Edinburgh for the night with a few people.



I didn't take my camera with me so thanks Micaela for letting me use her photos!





The view from outside our hostel!



The first day we just wandered around the Royal Mile / Grassmarket area, went to some pubs, had dinner, saw a film and then went out. Yeah.




And the day after we had a lovely breakfast (I had carrot juice for the first time in ages, yum), perused the shops and went over to ... The other side of the station (not sure what it's called) which was so lovely!







And back in Newcastle!

I hope this post works. I'm using the blogger app for the first time and there doesn't appear to be any rich text option hoho. So fingers crossed. Anyway, must go show Elena the sights. First we are going to the borough markets, then the Tate Modern, then the museums. Should be a long but enjoyable day!

Hello summer! ...for a week

Hi there. So the week after exams it was ridiculously hot. And by ridiculously hot, I mean quite warm - 22 degrees was the maximum temperature I believe? It may seem mild, but considering the fact that prior to that week it had been hovering around 12 for what seemed like an age, everyone was in exceptionally good spirits. Arms and legs were bared, sunscreen was applied, Asos sunglasses were purchased... Durham had been delivered a lovely little taste of summer! And yet for the past few days we have suffered a return to cool temperatures and misty rain. WHY??

Anyway, despite the awful weather, the other day I received a wonderful sundress from Dahlia. It's a brand you probably know, especially if you like to venture into the Oxford St Topshop, and one that always manages to come up with especially adorable things!

(I need to stop looking down in photos haha)

I was not able to wear it in a sunny way for long, but still. When the sun does shine again (which it seems to be kind of doing now, at last, at 7pm) I know to which dress I can turn. And when does the sun does not shine, it still makes for a cheerful outfit. So there! Thanks Dahlia!

Aaand here's what I wore yesterday. Pretty much worn this outfit many times before but yesterday I finally got out my feather pillbox! I've had it for months but had never worn it before yesterday. I wish I was wearing a better bag to go with this outfit but I didn't originally plan on taking pictures of it. On another note, I have also now discovered that I can take perfectly fine outfit pictures with my iphone. So bizarre that I have a fancy phone now considering I've lasted the last eight years or so with the cheapest ones I could find... but there you go. I now apparently have a reasonably good camera with me at all times, so I'm happy.

So, off I go. Spending the night wearing these...

As I always, without fail, leave costumes to the last minute. And now I must leave. Goodbye!

I am now 21!

Just a little update. How time does fly. I definitely do not feel 21. At all. But there you go! So I've finished my exams, and I have pretty much nothing to do for a couple of weeks. I have a few things in mind but as of yet have formed no concrete plans for anything other than moving into my new place come July and my trip to see my family.

I pretty much just want to work on my health and fitness and read as much as I possibly can for my courses next year, but I will also finally have time to do some more sewing and go on some more trips. The big one, of course, is Australia, where I'll get to see my family and do some work experience, so that will take up a big chunk of time. But also I'm going to Barcelona with my lovely friend Elena, and to Berlin and Cologne with Charlie. So I pretty much also have to spend this break being as frugal as I can possibly manage haha.

(Also, if you are from Berlin / Cologne or know them well, please recommend me places to go / things to do!)

From the time I spent preparing for exams I realised I was literally over £100 better off than I would otherwise have been at that time of the month simply because I spent pretty much all of my time either in my room or in the library studying, and spent no money on snacks, going out, train tickets, or anything. So I'm trying to be a little more careful now haha.

But in other news, apparently Summer has arrived in Durham because it is HOT. And when I say hot, I actually mean 22 DEGREES but considering how cold its been over the past few months, a mere 22 really does feel sweltering. It's good though. Really good. It feels as if we were finally able to wander around Newcastle properly without dashing from cafe to cafe for shelter. It is a little worrying though, in the sense that... if it feels hot at 22, how am I going to cope when it reaches 30? Christ.

But anyway. Here are some photos of the outfit I kind of posted in the below post?

 The shirt is from Sheinside. I am seriously in love with it. So clean and simple and just... idk perfect. You've In terms of the rest, the coat is vintage and the shoes are by Bertie.

Bye everyone!

tutorial: a lazy girl's beehive

So, being a lover of 50s / 60s fashion, there is only so much of this...

and this...

and this...

... a girl can take before she's popping down to Boots to get the cheapest hairspray she can find. So I've done this a couple of times, using tutorials I found on Youtube. It looked pretty good. But there was just one problem! The detangling process. I hate backcombing. It's irritating to do, it's irritating to get out, and you risk damaging your hair if you do it often (especially in my case, as my hair is bleached and not super strong).

Now there are lots and lots of tutorials out there for beehives, so this isn't anything super special. The only difference is that I'm doing absolutely zero backcombing, so it's something you can do every day, and it's really easy to take down.

What you need...

A hair doughnut (you can get them from Primark right now for a pound or two)

Hairspray

A million bobby pins

What you must do...

As you can see, I have relatively long hair. This is where all the fullness in the back comes from pretty much (though I definitely have more than I need), so if you have shorter than medium-length hair, you might need to use a different tutorial? I don't know!

Start off by vaguely sectioning off your hair at the front-sides and the top (behind your fringe). It doesn't have to be super precise...unless you want it to look super precise? idk. The top section should not include the hair on the crown of your head.

Tie up the front section so it's out of your way, and pin up the side sections in the direction of the crown.

Get your doughnut and, using the hair on the crown of your head only (leave the hair about half-way down the back of your head) create a bun with the doughnut just so the hair is covering it. Use your bobby pins to make sure it is secure, and hairspray it.

Hahaha, christ.

Get your front section and distribute it over the bun you just made so it sits on top in a round shape. You should do this quite loosely, and use a lot of hairspray. 

Keeping in mind the shape you want it to be, gather all of the hair from the back into a kind of ponytail type thing.

From the bottom of your hair, basically twist the ponytail around, but so it incorporates your hair on the sides with it. Do this more tightly at the nape of the neck, and more loosely as you go towards the bun. Tuck the excess hair into the twisted ponytail on the back of your head, and pin until it all feels secure. Hairspray!

Hooray, a beehive.

Plus accessories hoho, plus the blouse is from Sheinside.

Bye!

It's been a month. I have many photos.

All I can say is... it's the exam period. Oh god.

So in the past month, I have... traveled around England for a few days with Charlie, visited relatives in Leeds, and stayed with my sister in Cambridge for two weeks. But I am now back in my tiny room / nest / den / cranny in Durham, and glad for it.

Despite the fact that we were in London on three separate nights, I actually didn't take many photos at all while we were there. This is it haha. Charlie had more but... there you go. Anyway, so our next stop was Brighton where we stayed for three days.

 I know I already have a photo like this on my blog of my sister / me, but I need at least one Brightony picture in this post. So there you go. Anyway. It was weird to come back to Brighton as a tourist this time. When I went in Christmas my mother was still living there, but now our house is being rented out to some people we know so it was different! We stayed there but it was definitely not 'my house' anymore.

It was interesting to just do things I normally did from a touristy perspective too. Like going out to Street Thai felt like a little bit of an event (we did it on the night we got there) but when I actually lived in Brighton I went out there all the time after it opened. Come to think of it, the majority of our stay in Brighton revolved around food haha. For example...

... fresh mint tea from Tic Toc Cafe! So good. We also went to Food for Friends for dinner one night, had cocktails at Oki-Nami, breakfast at Taylor St Baristas... what else? I don't really remember, but the point is: I really miss living in Brighton.

So next stop was London again. I don't remember what exactly we did. Just wandered around really.

hohoho 

moving on

Bristol! 

On the first day...we had the most amazing falafel ever. Good god. It was perfect. We both agreed that we wish we had spent longer in Bristol because we really didn't get to see much. We also didn't really know what to do / where to go as we hadn't looked it up before we left. So once again, we just wandered. We walked so much. Did a bit of window shopping. We were so tired by the end of the day and it was our only night in a hotel so we ended up taking some wine back to the room with us and watching tv haha.

In the morning we went to Bath. I've been there so many times but I always love it. It's just such a beautiful city. We had breakfast there and then went to see some Bath-y sights. Lots of pictures from inside the Abbey, hope you don't mind haha.

Aaand then we went back to Bristol for dinner, collected our things and went back to London for the night, then went home! And that was our trip. Yeah.

So now a couple of outfits? Yes?

Funny that this feels like such an old photo now! 

Top (its a dress): I believe I got this in General Pants Co when I was like 15 haha

Skirt: charity shop

Belt: Etsy

Shoes: New Look

Aaand thankyou very much Rings and Tings for the gold bracelet! Buy it here.

And yesterday...

Just need to express that I've had that dress for over six years and it is still probably the one thing in my wardrobe I wear most often. It was AUD$4. Oh yeah. It literally goes with everything I own. But anyway...

Dress: second-hand

Boots: Beyond Retro (my one Brighton souvenir)

Bag: 'Primarni' as I heard someone call it the other day

Jacket: Siren - buy it here

 Okay, I think it's time for bed. Sorry for the sheer quantity of photographs in this blog post hoho.

Bye!

term has now ended

Hey everyone! I’m writing this on Word in a café right now (Blakes in Newcastle to be precise). The internet isn’t working for some raisin but I don’t want to waste any time in getting this done gosh darnit. I just ate a very expensive cookie (£1.50) and let me tell you that never again will I buy a cookie while oot and aboot because they are invariably disappointing. But the latte was good. So on we go.

We were bored the other day (as one tends to be in Durham when basically the entire town leaves for break) and went up to the Cathedral. If ever I become disillusioned with university life, the best thing to do is to get out of town for a bit. Hence my going to Newcastle a lot! If this is not an option due to being low on money, the next best thing is to go to the Cathedral. So that we did, and as the light was so nice and I just happened to have my camera with me (ohoho), we took some pictures.

The dress is from Sheinside.com... for which I have a coupon code! 

Enter Kate20 at checkout for 20% off.

...and also, the bag is from H&M, coat + fur is vintage! Charlie has recently started a Lookbook so click here to see it.

So what else can I ramble on about? WELL. Next week we're going on an Englandy holiday. We're going to London, then Brighton, then back to London, then to Bristol and Bath, and then back to London again. I can't wait! Many photos will be taken. The only downside is that we're going to London by coach which will probably be horrific, but still. I'm also going to Leeds the week after to visit some relatives which will be fun because I haven't been there for... what, 15 years?

New tutorial coming soon though. Yeah.

Also, click here for a little piece about schwurlie on Olivia Swash's blog!

Okay goodbye, I am off to find some dinner!