Miss Kirsty's Blog

#171 Hulk Smash(book)

2012-01-23T16:42:00.000Z

"Smash - for the moments and musings that stick."

What is a Smashbook?

Basically it's a range of goodies for scrapbooking and journalling created by K&Co.

The books come in a range of colours but they also have different insides. You see, the books aren't plain inside - they come with a range of papers. For example, black is "mod", blue is "retro and pink is "pretty". Each book comes with a Smash pen/glue stick.

On top of this, you can buy lots of accessories to use while you fill your book.

You can buy Smash Pads which come in their own range of themes, such as family, travel and special occassions.

There's also things less specific to the brand like decorative tapes, stickers and stamps.

I love the idea of scrapbooking but it's not something I find myself able to get into. I've tried. It's not for me. The reason I was drawn to Smashbook is that it feels more like journalling - which I do want to get into. I have a habit of picking up pretty flyers, saving scraps of notes and collecting little bits and bobs that I then have no use for. It's not like when I cut images out of magazines and use them as drawing references. It's more like how I save hundreds of images to my hard drive, but in reality.

So naturally I went off in search of Smash products and found them on Amazon, but thanks to browsing scrapbook forums, I found them on UK based craft site - CraftsULove for a lot less. (Amazon were selling pad for £6+, I got mine for £2.50!).

I can assure you that the shop is legit - I ordered on Wednesday, missed my package on Friday and it was redelivered today - SUPER QUICK!

So what did I get?

I got a pink Smashbook which is full of cute pages - there's some nice vintagey wallpaper type pages and old maps and birds. It's around A4 size but not quite which is ideal for either working at home or putting in a bag.

I got two additional pens - one in black and one in pink. Mainly because I think these are SUCH AN AMAZING IDEA and want to keep one in my bag with my sketchbook. They have a fineliner style tip and just a typical glue stick.

I got a selection of the pads, mainly because I think I'll probably use them outside of the journal as well. I got:

travel

family

blank

entertainment

quotes

& special occasions.

Examples of the pages - travel has where I've been/where I'd like to go, favourite cultural customs etc. Quotes has overheard, words to live by, favourite lyrics/joke, best advice.

They all have different colour bindings at the top but my one small complaint is that they were stickered closed so in peeling those off, the lovely vintage cover illustrations are ruined!

I got two packs of pockets even tho I only ordered one!

I also got a packet of paper tabs to bookmark pages or make notes. I also got metal clips to mark pages with.

Finally, my favourite thing is a stamp which I'm in love with because I know I'll use it all over.

It has a rotating date part with the month/day/year - fabulous. I already have a library stamp that I love. But this also has a selection of words/phrases including "I <3 this!" "to do" and "today is...". There's also "that warrants a fist pump" but my love of Jersey Shore can wait til later.

I have literally just recieved this parcel so I can't comment much on the stuff but I'm so excited to go play with it and I will update you.

I found out about Smashing from Holly Knitlightly but there's also a SmashBlog where people post their books and inspiration. Will definitely be browsing that all night!

Do you journal or scrapbook? Do you think you'd want to try out this product?

Tell me what you think!

#170

2012-01-18T17:14:00.001Z

It's meeee!

Have you missed me? I sure hope so.

Yes, I am in fact blogging.

and not just that, I'm blogging an outfit post!

It's a wee bit different tho.

I'm sure I mentioned before that I've been dabbling in burlesque and have done a few classes? Well, it's been a while since my first beginners class so I signed up to do it again.

I also signed up for bellydance classes which is where I'm off to when I've finished this.

shirt - "gift" from a boy that I cut up.

growl.

Wearing it over a vest so I can take it off if I'm too hot.

My legs are the horrifying bit...

I HATE THESE!

I don't get the aesthetic of them but bought a pair for dance as they're loose and comfy and I hate joggers.

my god are they comfy.

I think they look hideous worn with the crotch round your knees and such but these are small so it's not too bad.

They were £9.99 from h&m.

anyway I better get ready to go off and shake it.

Belly dance is a lot of fun so far but a bit difficult! I'm trying to get used to isolating my muscles (ie stomach) - I was doing it behind the bar in work the other night!
They don't sound like the biggest work out classes but I need to do something I enjoy and I certainly get hot and sweaty with my heart going which is good. At least I'm getting off my bum right?!

oh look, Beetlejuice!

If you can spot a ratty in the background then bonus points to you!

Are you doing any fitness type things for the new year?

#169 - Happy New Year

2012-01-10T23:03:00.000Z

Happy New Year bloggies!

I'm not personally a fan of new year - nothing drastically changes and it always seems to be...shit.

Thankfully I was working and actually had a lot of fun.

I worked every night from the 29th - 2nd I think - so tiring but I've been having a good time.

Like I've said before - this means my outfit photos consist of a green rugby shirt, white pinny and black short/skirt. Stylish!

As you know, I kept track of my books over 2011 and if I counted properly, I think I hit 145 which I'm rather pleased with!

Did you guys have any goals or challenges for yourselves? How did they go?

I'm starting all over again this year and as before, there's a page on the blog and I'll try to update every month.

I have the usual new year...let's call them goals.

I'm going to try to eat better and whatnot. I've signed up for burlesque again and am doing a beginners belly dancing course which I'm excited to start!

I plan to blog more and already have some ideas for new posts.

I'm going to stick in at college but I also want to make plans to go travelling and work abroad.

In a very un-Kirsty-like situation - I have yet to update my diary and get sorted stationary-wise for the new year so I need to pop to Paperchase tomorrow!

I hope you;re all doing well so far in 2012!

#168

2011-12-23T23:00:00.000Z

Hi guys!

Unfortunately everythings gone a bit quiet on the blog front the past few weeks.

I started a new job at an Irish bar in the centre of Edinburgh which has been really good so far.

I did a trial shift one Sunday night then heard back and got more shifts so I've been working away in there.

I've also caught a bit of a cold so my outfits are basically jammies and my fetching green rugby shirt and white apron!

The ratties got names!

I was playing with them last Saturday whilst browsing the Fancy Rats name ideas and finally decided on what to call them.

They are Lola and Poppy Munchkin!

and they both wish you a very Merry Christmas!

as do I!

I'm working tomorrow so probably won't post until after Christmas.

But I hope you all have a fabulous one and get lots of lovely presents!

#167

2011-12-13T11:52:00.000Z

Bloggies - meet the Ratties!!

I picked them up earlier this morning. They're currently about 6 weeks.

I held the lighter one first and she's very cute - she was inside my cardi and up the back of my coat.

The darker one is a bit more skittish but hopefully she'll relax.

They're both running around and exploring their cage just now which is adorable. I can't stop watching them!

Now I need to decide on names for them!!

I bought them a few bits on amazon which arrived yesterday.

They've got a wee tent - the fleecy base has already been pulled up and hidden under by the darker one.

Their suspension bridge seems to be good for climbing on and they've not made it up to their red and black sputnik house yet.

Oh they're incredibly cute.

I'll try not to take loads of pictures and spam the blog with them but I thought I'd introduce them.

Now...to give them names!!!

#166 - Ratties

2011-12-04T19:16:00.000Z

I have some news (which I'm sure you'll know if you follow me on twitter!)

but I'm soon to be the proud mumma to a pair of gorgeous ratties!

I'm in contact with a breeder who has informed me they will be ready around the 13th of December so I'm very excited.

I've got a cage which I got on gumtree and lots of toys and treats and things to play with.

But I'm stuck on names!

Now of course I won't name them until I see them but I want some ideas.

They're both going to be girls but that doesn't matter to me with names.

I have some ideas of my own but I want you to send me some suggestions!

Sid and Nancy

Jem and Scout (to kill a mockingbird)

Kreuger and ... (Voorhees?)

Cheese and Pickle

Nimbus and Bolt

Bludger and Snitch

Reagan and ...

Lily and Morticia

Morticia and Fester

Poison Ivy and Deadly Nightshade

You guys should know what I like by now - horror, harry potter, something a bit retro/rockabilly/punk, music or literature related.

Send me your ideas or let me know your favourites.

If I pick your names, I might send you a wee prize!

#165

2011-12-03T20:39:00.000Z

Evening bloggies!

I finally remembered to take some photos before heading out for the day - nothing exciting, just a bit of family visiting and shopping.

My hair is in desperate need of a cut and colour - looking a bit fluffy here.

Jumper - Topshop

Tee - Basic H&M

Skirt - Kreepsville 666

This is the first time I've worn my Kreepsville "cold dead hands" skirt and I love it!

I wore it with this sheer striped topshop jumper I bought a few weeks ago to dress it down a wee bit.

I wore this to my grandparents and think my grand-dad got a bit of a shock when he saw the back...

Gratuitous bum shot!

Felt well silly taking (and posting!) this but I felt it was an important feature of the skirt!

I would apologise for it being blurry but it hides the shame of the bum shot a wee bit!

#164 - November Reading

2011-12-01T22:15:00.000Z

Apologies for being a bit quiet on the blogging front recently!

Things have been a bit nyeh. College is busy busy busy and I haven't worn or done anything particularly blog worthy - lacking inspiration!

But for now I have my November book list, which is another thing I'm quite disappointed in.

6 BOOKS?! I can do way better than that! I'm putting it down to the fact I'm constantly shattered at night and fall asleep after a few pages. I also have like 3 books I'm part of the way thru but they're not finished so they don't count!

Tease - Immodesty Blaize

Darkness on the Edge of Town - Brian Keene

The Strain - Chuck Hogan

The Devil All the Time - Donald Ray Pollock

Every Man Dies Alone - Hans Fallada

Ruthless: An Extreme Shock Horror Collection

Bit of a mixed bag this month really. Tease is the story of a burlesque artist and was a bit of a trashy, chicklit type of book so not exactly challenging or enthralling.

The Darkness on the Edge of Town was interesting - really liked this one. Basically darkness decends all around this town and they don't seem to be able to get it and so things spiral out of control and we follow a couple of people as they try to survive. I won't go into detail but I was definitely hooked.

The Strain was interesting - a bit of a different take on the vampire/zombie apocalypse and definitely amazingly written and interesting. I loved the idea of the plane landing on the runway and just stopping with no lights, engines - nothing. It felt very spooky to me.

The Devil All the Time was one I wasn't sure about. I thought it was different from what it was and I don't think I would have read it if I was just told about it. However, I found myself wanting to know how these people linked together and what was going to happen with them. It wasn't the most capitvating and exciting story but it had enough of "something" to keep me reading.

Every Man Dies Alone was a beautiful, beautiful novel. I love things set in and around WW2 and this tells the story of an old German man and his wife who write postcards speaking out against the Nazi Party. I'm sure you can guess what happens when they ultimately get caught but it's still exciting even though you guess they will. There are other characters and little side stories which fit in with the main story which keeps it a bit varied but doesn't take away from it. I was so drawn to the main guy (whose name I can't remember!) and I really wanted him to succeed and be ok.

I read somewhere that Ruthless was a collection of "shock horror" which is always interesting for me. I like to think I've got quite a strong stomach and I certainly love my horror and gore and all that sort of stuff. This was like most short story anthologies I have picked up - some are amazing, some are ok and some are a bit rubbish. I will admit that there were a good few that had me squirming!

I'm hoping the long, cold, gloomy nights will allow me to read a bit more.

Also once I'm on holiday from college - that should definitely help! I've not counted how many books I've read overall this year so I'm excited to see how I've done and hopefully beat it next year.

I'm going to try and get my bum in gear and do some posts. I have a few ideas and want to share some of the work I've been doing at college.

I also have a couple of new additions coming into my family (which you may have heard about if you follow me on twitter!) so I'll introduce you to them once they arrive!!

Much love for now!

#163 - do the kreep

2011-11-13T13:06:00.000Z

Morning lovelies!

I made a wee order from Kreepsville 666 towards the end of last week.

It arrived on Friday morning - just in time to wear out.

Back to the Grave dress &

Hell Razor necklace - both Kreepsville 666.

I wore this to go see the Marvels supported by Run/Lucky/Free at Maggie's Chamber.

They were both fabulous as usual!

Sorry for the black and white - the photos were ridiculously dark but this at least makes them half ok.

Hope you're having a lovely Sunday.

I'll be spending it making mood boards and technical samples!

#162

2011-11-12T22:21:00.000Z

Ahoy chums!

This outfit is what I wore to college on Thursday.

Apologies for the photos not being great - if anyone has advice for taking photos at 7am in the winter gloom then please pass them on!

Tee - Darkside Red Label

Skirt - Topshop

I'm in love with this skirt. It's knee lengh, so quite long for me.

But it's really comfy and looks cute.

I'm sure it would look good dressed up as well.

I wore it with my Iron Fist purple zombie shoes.

I had such a productive day at college on Thursday - I love what we're doing at the moment.

It's really technical - like learning how to do pleats and quilting and stuff like that.

I enjoy the design aspect but I love sitting at the sewing machine and making things.

I really need to move my painting from the back of these photos...it's a bit creepy.

#161 - tackylicious

2011-11-06T22:50:00.000Z

I found this pair of really tacky earrings when I was clearing out my drawer.

They're pretty nasty aren't they??

Well I decided to try to make them wearable.

I picked a bottle of nail varnish from my collection.

I decided on Boots Naturla Collection in Hibiscus.

I wouldn't use anything expensive (unless you're minted!) and I think this is like £1.99 or something so its ideal.

I just painted them up, making sure I got into all of the nooks and crannies.

It dried really quickly which was nice.

I like that you still get a bit of a metallic sheen thru on them.

Once they're dry - WEAR THEM!

Ok so they're still a wee bit tacky, but they look a lot better in pink than gold.

Or so I think anyway.

What do you think?

Also, you know how Innocent smoothies have this thing where they come with a wee knitted hat

for charity? I picked a couple up in Sainsburys on 2 for £3 - yum.

But you might notice in the background that my Franky monster bobblehead is now nice

and cosy in a fetching pink and black winter hat!

#160

2011-11-05T17:59:00.000Z

I was planning to spend October reading Hallowe'en themed and scary books.

While I did read a few, I didn't get round to reading Dracula or Frankenstein which sucks but I will.

Also a few non-spooky ones slipped in but that's ok.

I did start others, including an amazing short story book and a Halloween encyclopedia but I'm not finished them yet so I can't count them for this month.

So what did I get through?

Switched - RL Stine

I'm sure everyone has read an RL Stine at some point in their lives and this was a nice quick read to get me into the mood for the month. It's not a masterpiece, it's easy to read but it was a kind of cool tale of bodyswapping.

Night of the Living Dead - Christopher Andrews

Didn't realise this was one of those "watch the movie and right it down" things so it kind of sucked but I love the film so I can't exactly fault it...

Underable Lightness - Portia de Rossi

If you keep up with this then you know I've read a few books about eating disorders this year. In her memoirs, de Rossi talks about her stuggles with self-acceptance. Although she had a job on hit tv show Ally McBeal, that didn't mean she was comfortable with herself. I'd obviously heard of Portia de Rossi before I read this, which made it a bit different to the story of anonymous "regular" women.

Uncle Montague's Tales of Terror - Chris Priestley

This was a great little book. Edgar is a very solitary boy who often goes to visit his Uncle. They settle down for tea and cake and his uncle starts sharing stories, often relating to objects within his gothic house. The stories all feature a child protaganist and always have an interesting wee twist in them. The stories link into the larger tale of Edgar and his Uncle - the stories couldn't possibly be true?? This is a kids book and seeing as some of the stories gave me the willies, I'm sure they'd be a lot scarier for children.

The Shining - Stephen King (reread)

I remember we came back to my aunts after the end of the festival fireworks one year and I saw a clip of Jack Nicholson at the "heeeere's Johnny!" moment of this film. It scared the crap out of me and I was quite young so it stuck with me. I started reading Stephen King books in my first year at high school and remember thinking this was nicely creepy - like the bits with the wasps and the hedge animals. I enjoyed the book, but I'd yet to see the film. I rented it one night from Blockbuster, couldn't watch it, but waited until the next day and when I did, I couldn't see what I was so scared of! It was a great film, don't get me wrong but it wasn't as scary as my childlike imagination had made it out to be. On re-reading this, I was again a bit disappointed. It's a great book, but it's not as great as I remember.

Something Wicked this way comes - Ray Bradbury

LOVED this book so much. I'm a big lover of creepy carnivals and "freak shows" and this did not disappoint. It tells the story of Jim Nightshade (amazing name!) and William Holloway, two boys who get more involved in this carnival than they really wanted to. This was such a good book. I loved what it was about and how it was written...everything. I'm definitely going to check out Bradbury's other work and the film version of this.

A Monster calls - Patrick Ness

This is not what I thought it would be. I clearly read the general synopsis and thought it would be a bit like the Uncle Montague book but I was wrong. It's a children's book about coming to terms with loss, not monsters. Well, there is a monster involved but not like that.

Bedwetter - Sarah Silverman

I'm not sure why I downloaded this as I've seen bits of Sarah Silverman on tv but I didn't really like her. I thought this might be like the Chelsea Handler books I loved so much and it was in a way but not quite as good. Silverman's comedy is all about her being controversial and it does come thru in this book. It was a lightread - I got thru most of it in one night and it didn't suck - I just wanted a bit more from it. If it's actually true that she had a problem with bedwetter for so long then good on her. Some of the stories were more interesting than others, but that's usually the case. Sometimes it kind of felt like she was running out of things to write about so it was a bit...nyeh.

Skinjacker 1: Everlost - Neal Shusterman

Skinjacker 2: Everwild - Neal Shusterman

Skinjacker 3: Everfound - Neal Shusterman

I thought the concept of this book was interesting. What happens after we die - what if we don't make it into "the light"? Shusterman creates a whole new "inbetween" world called Everlost, which sits between the living world and "the light". The thing is, only children and youths seem to make it into Everlost - no adults allowed! I enjoyed the first book but I got a bit bored, especially in the last one. It just went on a bit too long. I love the idea that things that are loved and special in the living world can move into Everlost - for example the Twin Towers exist in all their glory in that world, as does the Hindenberg airship. I also like the idea of the adaptation of the old tradition of putting coins on the eyes of the dead so that they can pay their way into the next world. It definitely has some interesting points but I can't say I have fallen in love with the series.

#159

2011-11-02T17:23:00.000Z

Happy (belated) Hallowe'en blogchums!

I hope everyone had a lovely time - what did you all dress up as?

I went to Rani's party dressed as a cat - boring I know but it was a bit last minute!

I didn't go to any parties or anything on Hallowe'en but I did celebrate in another way!

The lovely Steph at Old Town Tattoo drew up a sheet of Hallowe'en flash which she was doing for £30 each.

I fell in love with a little mummy style moth that she had so couldn't resist booking myself in after college. I let her decide what colours to use and love what she did. He's got a wee green zombie face and purple bandages and I think he's adorable.

He's on the inside of my ankle, on the otherside from my swallow (NOT a fat pigeon as Kevin calls him).

Over the weekend, their other artist Nick posted his own flash sheet and I fell in love with a teeny wee voodoo doll. I asked if they could fit me in after my appointment with Steph and they could, so I ended up with him as well.

Here he is!

He looks so happy to have pins stuck in him, doesn't he?

He's on the side of my right wrist which wasn't as painful as I thought it would be actually.

It sucked when it was down near my hand/the veins on my wrist but it was fine.

I was in there from 5ish until about half 7 but I munched my way thru some of their lollies!

I'll take some better photos once they're healed - I took these on instagram to stick on twitter.

I'm up to 6 tattoos now since I started in April (or was it May?)

and still have more I want!

#158

2011-10-27T21:53:00.001+01:00

Evening!

Just a wee photo of my face tonight. Thanks to winter, it was too dark to take photos before I left for college this morning. I took this when I got home but that wasn't until 5ish and it was getting dark again so it's a bit gloomy looking.

I'm wearing this Poison Lover tee that I got from Pie in the Sky recently

and those black jeans I've taken a shine to.

Not particularly exciting as I couldn't really be bothered.

Was a bit chuffed when I went into the joke shop to buy Halloween bits and they complimented my top and my skeleton hand hairclips. Shame they didn't notice the blood stained finger nails!

College has been dull this week thanks to not having a tutor, which is annoying when you're supposed to start a new project!

Today was kind of fun tho. We had to make a skirt out of paper in teams - I felt like I was on Project Runway. Just needed Tim Gunn telling me to "make it work".

We also got introduced and signed up to style sight which I can tell is going to be my new obsession.

I'll post some moodboards later as I'll be playing with it over the weekend.

#157 My Darling Frankenstein

2011-10-26T23:01:00.001+01:00

You may remember that I posted before about the gorgeous Beetlejuice necklace I bought from etsy -

the one that started the conversation that resulted in a tattoo.

Well I love it so much that I made another order from the same shop, run by Kristina Kreep.

I check it regularly when I'm on etsy and thanks to my student loan finally coming in, I decided to treat myself to a few new bits and pieces.

While on her page I noticed that she had launched her own site at My Darling Frankenstein.

There were bits I wanted that were on etsy but not her site (and vice versa) so I ended up making two orders but it was definitely worth it.

Here's what I got -

Addams Family and Bride of Frankenstein necklaces.

I love the style of these and always get comments on them.

They're a lovely size and really well made.

Skeleton hand hair grips.

Have been wearing these all the time recently - I take a bit from either side and twist it back.

I'm sure it would look a lot nicer if my bleached streaks hadn't come out a funny colour!

(theyre currently pink to fend of the ginger!)

Beetlejuice and Freddy hair bows.

I love these. They're quite large but not too big which is nice.

Beetlejuice is the main reason I wanted to order from her site as well!

Zombie and Poison hair bows.

I honestly can't reccomend this lady enough.

I bought these on the 3rd of October, they were shipped out on the 5th and I got them maybe the week after so it was super speedy.

They're also all lovely quality and everything is reasonably priced.

So if this is your sort of thing (or if you fancy buying yours truely a present), go check her site out!

I know there have been a load of jewellery posts recently but it is my weakness!
I've been a bit boring with outfits but I'll get back on it, I promise.
And once we finally start doing some work at college, I'll post some of that too.

I wanted to say a massive thank you to everyone who follows the blog. I reached 100 blogspot followers and was insanely happy. It might not be many but I never thought people would ever want to follow my ramblings so it is a big deal! Thank you! If I can get my ass in gear, I will try to do something to thank you.

#156 BlaBlaBla

2011-10-21T17:40:00.001+01:00

I'm sure you'll have noticed the banner for BlaBlaBla shop on the side of my blog.

I've posted about this lovely wee jewellery shop before but with the launch of her new Autumn collection, I decided it was about time to catch up with what was going on in the world of BlaBlaBla.

Tell us a bit about the person behind the jewellery.

I don’t even know where to start. Well, I'm a student currently studying Costume Design and Making BA in Nottingham. Originally from a small town in Lincolnshire I'm very much a country girl at heart, I've always been quite a creative person and I think coming to University has given me the chance to expand those qualities.

Regarding my own personal style, I'd say I revel in the attitude that less is more and that you don’t need to spend a lot of money to have fabulous clothes (being a student, this is something I know all too well). I do follow trends, but only to an extent where I try and inject a portion of my own individuality into an outfit or style. As a passion, I hoard jewellery. I love pieces that are hideously tacky and find means of storing them in my 3 foot high chest of draws dedicated to my obsession. Although I never blog myself Im a massive follower, I have 101 blogs saved in my bookmarks.

How did you get started with your shop? What got you in to making jewellery?

For as long as I can remember I've always relished opportunities given to me and around Christmas time last year I came into some money so decided to start my own business. I have always loved jewellery and have over 200 pieces in my personal collection so the passion for this project was already there, I just had to release it. Starting it all was a lot easier than I initially thought, I found a fabulous business partner and together we created my SS 2011 collection. Designing and making jewellery is now one of many hopeful career prospects for me.

Alexandria necklace

How do you come up with new ideas for what to stock in your shop?

Historical costume is a great inspirer to me. Like any other girl of my age I read fashion magazines such a Company and Look, I think Iv only ever read two editions of Vogue cover to cover and I found them so intimidating!! Don’t get me wrong I do I love designers and their entire concept but its so unrealistic for me to be looking at Oscar de la Renta dresses at the age of 19.
Im a costume designer, so am constantly inspired by the dramatic arts and the theatricals. A lot of my inspiration also comes from Bridal Wear, reflections in Bridal trends can be found on the high street, not just in jewellery but in fabrics, silhouettes, bling and colours.
The majority of my inspiration is found in market research and fashion forecasting done whilst shopping with my mum, she’s my favourite shopping partner and I rarely go without her. Shes critically honest when looking at my work as well has having her own business head screwed on, she knows what sells and I wouldn’t be anywhere without her.

Marching Soldiers Necklace

Your jewellery is often very vintage inspired - how did this come about? Does it reflect your own style/taste?

I think that vintage inspired jewellery is everywhere online but nowhere on the high street. This is something I hope to change in years to come. Personally I have a very individual vintage style, so I find that plain necklaces and simple earrings can compliment an outfit in colour and shape. Colouring is key, every inch of my accessorising matches, going right down to the shade of my shoes and the colour of my belt loop. I believe accessories are key to completing an outfit, without which I would feel lost.

You've just launched your new Autumn collection, tell us a bit about that?

I think most of the Freedom @ Topshop jewellery is fabulous, on occasion my boyfriend has had to drag me away from the stand, but I often find it far too expensive, especially for the student market. Bla Bla Bla Shop’s main philosophy is to be affordable, I would hate for people to think just because items are cheap they’re craply made, LADIES Im doing to a favour!! Presenting you with gorgeous jewellery at affordable prices.
The Autumn Collection 2011 is my favourite so far, the Vintage Bronze Bat Double Finger Ring is stunning and perfect for Halloween. Admittedly I never buy fitted rings online because I like to check the size first but this ring is adjustable. One size fits all is a concept Iv tried to introduce within this collection. The Marching Soldiers Charm Necklace is also one of my favourites, it instantly makes me think of Christmas and The Nut Cracker Ballet. Alexandra is my favourite custom made piece within this collection.

Bronze Double Finger Bat Ring

What are your favourite things about the autumn season?

The weather that comes in Autumn makes it one of my least favourites, while I find the trends a much needed bonus. All my favourite the colours seem to come out: burgundy, greens and reds. As far as jewellery is concerned, this season I see a lot of feather earrings with bronze and gold metals, all concepts Iv tried to include within my collection. Another thing that helps me to enjoy autumn is that annual ‘New Coat’ shopping trip (which always guarantees buying me lots of other goodies as well)

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A big thank you to Beth from BlaBlaBla for having a chat to me.

I hope you're all going to go and check out the rest of the goodies in her shop now.

I definitely want to get my hands on a bat ring as well as a few other pieces!

Remember to quote the code "MissKirsty" to get 10% off your order!!

#155

2011-10-19T10:23:00.000+01:00

Jumper - Topshop

This photo is from last week but I'll be wearing this jumper a lot in the near future.

I picked it up in Topshop last week and it's so lovely, cosy and soft that I couldn't resist.

It was perfect for travelling to and from Kevin's and slouching about in the airport.

I had a black bodycon skirt on, a black body and my boots.

Hopefully you caught my first blog feature last week with the lovely Raffles Bizarre.

I picked up my first peice of jewellery from her in an ebay clear out as I knew this necklace had to be mine!

It came nicely packaged up in a Halloween bag and included a severed finger, but not in a creepy kidnapping type way!

I also couldnt resist taking advantage of a deal from Punky Pins which I heard about last week.

Unfortunately it seems to have finished now but if you spent £10 then you got a free spooky writing name necklace with your order. Such a good deal.

You didnt have to order another necklace, I just really liked it so went for my name in red and "Munster" in green for my freebie - you might have worked out by now I'm a massive fan of the Munsters and want to be adopted by Lily and Herman.

#154

2011-10-18T22:03:00.000+01:00

Onesie - Topshop

My outfit of the night, rather than the day.

I'm not going to lie - I've wanted a onesie for the past year or so but never found the right one until I spotted this skeleton one in Topshop. I had to have it!

I only bought this today so obviously I wasn't wearing it when I was out shopping!

But it's going down well while I'm cuddled up watching tv in bed.

Apologies again for the lack of blogging the past few days.

Can't remember if I said, but I flew down to visit Kevin on Thursday evening.

Ended up meeting him and crashing at his friends when I got in, which meant I got to go to work with him on Friday. He bought me breakfast too :) He works at Avinit in Orpington - if you're in that area go see him!

We didn't do much really, hung out together and visited his friends which was nice. I left Monday evening and had to get myself to Luton which was fun!

He redid my handweb and the microdermal on my wrist for me.

Not going to lie, it's currently a right pain when I'm doing my hair but I'm hoping it will settle!

Have a few posts up my sleeve over the next few days but right now, I'm going to catch up on the Walking Dead!

#153

2011-10-12T20:59:00.000+01:00

Is this some hideously tacky and sparkly Paperchase Christmas decoration I see before me?

Why yes it is!

I love Paperchase Christmas collections as there is always something glittery and slightly...odd.

I have my penguins, doe deer, Jesus and Mary that all sparkle, as well as my slightly odd crocodile in a tutu tree decoration.

I got chatting to the lady at the check out - beginning to wonder if she recognises me now!

She was saying how she liked them and about how they had life sized ones in before so I told her I was just adding to my collection.

Skulls are chic all year round!

And of course, I couldn't help but pick up a free stationary bits and pieces!

I don't know when I developed this obession with stickers but I now have a case full of them.

I have no clue what I'm going to do with the index stickers...they just looked pretty and useful.

I mentioned before that I'm in love with their new "Babushka" collection but I resisted buying MORE notebooks when I was last in. Today I spotted this gorgeous boxed writing set and sticky notes. I like writing letters but kind of hate using up my pretty paper!

#152 - Raffles Bizarre Blog Feature

2011-10-10T20:11:00.000+01:00

Evening lovelies!

I have been lucky enough to meet the internet aquaintance of the lovely Jess - owner and creative mastermind behind online jewellery store Raffles Bizarre.

Jess creates a range of quirky, alternative handmade items which includes mini top hats and fascinators, as well as jewellery. She also has a selection of themes which includes Circus Freaks and a selection of hand-drawn illustrated pieces taken from her own artwork. She's just launched some new items as part of a Halloween collection and she kindly agreed to be a part of my first blog feature!

Firstly, can you tell us a bit about the person behind the jewellery?

I've always been artistic since I was very young, I would go to arts and crafts courses in the summer holidays and I took art and graphics through out education, ending with my degree is Model Design and Special Effects. I began making jewellery in 2007 at uni for friends and family and eventually thought I'd try selling some, not expecting much to come of it, but it took off straight away and I've been doing it ever since, but for the past year I've been running Raffles Bizarre as my full time occupation and I love it.

How do you come up with new ideas? Do you keep sketchbooks, scrapbooks or anything?

Oh my room and studio are covered in notepads, sketchpads, test pieces..you name it. If I'm out and about and see something inspiring I will take a photo of it or write a note on my phone. I find myself getting inspired by absolutely everything, but maybe only 10% of that ends up in a jewellery design.

Have you ever found yourself in a creative rutt and how did you deal with that?

Yeah I guess I have, but they've never lasted very long, I reckon just because I love what I do so it's never really a chore. Sometimes I'll get all my materials out and just stare at it, stuck for what to make, and have to sit and play around with it all for hours before I find something that works. However these days there is so much stock on my website I'm trying not to make as many new pieces...it's very hard though! ;)


Bloody Tooth necklace - £10, Brain ring - £8.

Your new collection is inspired by Halloween - what's your favourite thing about Halloween? What's been your best costume?

Ohhh I love absolutely everything about Halloween, it is definately my favourite day of the year. I'm a huge horror fanatic and as I'm also a makeup artist and have worked on a few Zombie films, I love getting messy, making freaky costumes and gorey makeup effects and scaring as many people as possible. My best costume was probably last year when I went as a Zombie cat. I did look pretty creepy.

You already have an existing horror collection on your site - are you a horror fan? What are your favourites?

Yes, there are a few things in the horror collection, when Halloween is over I'm going to move all that jewellery into the horror gallery so people can still buy it. Hmmm my favourite horrors? I love French horror films, they're always that little bit grittier, my favourite is probably Martyrs and Frontiers. Japanese horror films are always super fun and the gorier the better! Though I will watch any type of horror film and generally enjoy them, Ive seen some ridiculously stupid ones, which are just funny to watch. Zombeak was particularly special.

Dripping Blood necklace - £10, Jack o' Lantern brooch - £8

What are your personal favourites/ what are you most proud of from this new collection? What was the most fun to work on?

I enjoyed making the sculpted pieces the best as I used to work in this medium the most when I first started making jewellery but it's been a while since I've worked this way. I think my favourite piece is probably the tombstone..I'm not sure why, it was the first piece I sculpted up and I just think it's pretty neat. As soon as it hits the middle of September I begin sending all my orders out in special Halloween packaging, I get super excited about it.


Zombie necklace - £7, Bat necklace - £6 (both from the Horror collection)

Finally, do you have any advice for artsy types out there who might be looking to start getting crafty and creative?

Just going for it - I've made a lot of sacrifices to do this fulltime and I may not be able to keep it up forever but I've had such a fun, creative first year. Just use your imagination, if an idea seems too obvious, chances are someone has already done it and you don't want to be accused of copying. It's a lot of hard work but worth it if it's what you really want to do.

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So there you have my wee chat with Jess.

Please go and check out her new Halloween collection as well as the rest of her gorgeous shop.

Once my student funding is finally sorted out, I definitely have my eye on some pieces.

I love all things spooky - not just at Halloween - and the zombie and bat necklaces above are two of my personal favourites.

http://www.rafflesbizarre.co.uk/

#151

2011-10-04T18:07:00.000+01:00

Evening blog-bunnies!

Just a quick outfit post for you today.

I have to apologise that the photos kind of suck. I took some earlier and they were either blurry or I had a face on. By the time I got back from town, it was chucking it down and gloomy which is why they're a bit dark looking.

Dress - H&M

Necklace - My Darling Frankenstein

I wore this to pop into town to hand out some CVs.

I'm still looking for work and although I'd prefer bar work, places have started looking for Christmas temps and I couldn't resist applying to Paperchase!

I've doen my hair again - I had the hairdressers on Friday so it's properly black now and I got my fringe cut back in. I wanted to add in blonde Lily Munster/Bride of Frankie bits to the front but due to the insane amount of dye in my hair, they didn't come out right and need redone. Not sure if you can really see them. They're a kind of gingery baby pink...it's not as awful as it sounds.

I have my first college hand in next week so I'll be working away on that, but then it's the October break and I'm going down to visit Kevin again.

#150 - September Reads

2011-10-02T00:07:00.000+01:00

Image from tumblr.

Probably more appropriate for my October list as I'm planning on reading mainly horror books!

One Day - David Nicholls

Yes - everyone and their dog has ready read this but god knows why.

I read this because Rani asked if I wanted to go see the film. I declined because I'd heard it was "soppy" but she assured me the book was good. I liked it at first. I did. But it got old really quickly. I knew they'd be getting together at some point. I knew something would happen to stop them. It was just a bit depressing.

If you like smooshy, mooshy romantic stuff then by all means, read it. But I don't.

Thirteen Reasons Why - Jay Asher

Another fabulously cheery read! /sarcasm.

This is a young adult book, so was really easy to read. It's about a teenage girl who commits suicide and leaves a series of chain letter style tapes to explain why. The story is focussed on one boy who recieves the tapes, his reaction and how he works out her story. It was a bit different to the other teen depression/suicide books I've read and I can't say I didn't like it.

Hateland - Bernard O'Mahoney

This book was incredibly interesting. It tells O'Mahoney's story as a young Nazi punk. Obviously he doesn't come across as likeable - considering he's at a BNP sort of meeting when we first hear from him. We follow him as he serves in Northern Ireland during the troubles, then moves back to London where he's a bit of a football hooligan and generally nasty sounding person. But things start to change as he starts to change his ways and becomes a Nazi opposer. For someone who has a less than desireable background, he's very honest about things. I honestly found this hard to put down. I just wanted to keep reading it.

Kid Rex - Laura Moisin

I've read a few books about eating disorders over the past year and have really enjoyed some of them...not so much this one. I don't really know what to say about it to be honest. The authors of other books I've read know they have problem and are working to get help and sort themselves out. Moisin knows she has a problem, but tricks people, including her therapists, into thinking she's getting better when she isn't. I appreciate her honesty, but I felt like I couldn't feel sympathetic for her. I'm torn. I enjoyed the book but I...I'm not sure.

Apartment 16 - Adam Nevill

This book seemed like it could be good. American girl inherits an expensive London flat from her dead great-aunt or something and dodgy things are going on in the building. I thought it might be a bit "Rosemary's Baby" with the other residents being into witchcraft and culty tendancies. In a way, it did remind me of that but not as well done. When I got to the end, I felt like I totally missed some things. There's a hooded boy who appears, like a creepy Oasis bandmember and I spent the book having no idea how he fit in and who he was. It was...sort of...explained but I thought it felt a bit slapdash and last minute. I just didn't get it. I feel like it could have been good. It just wasn't. I loved the creepy, obscure artist and his artwork that the book centres around. It would have been even better if the book had some illustations and images to go with it.

Epic Win for Anonymous - Cole Styker

I picked this on the bus on the way back from London and it was an easy enough read for a 9.5hr bus journey. Like a lot of people, I'm aware of the website 4chan and who or what "Anonymous" are, but if you didn't, I'm sure you would understand after reading this book. What interested me, and drew me to this book was the idea of internet memes (which I learned is said to rhyme with "cream"), how the start and how they spread. If you're a fan of 4chan, are in internet geek or just have a love and interest in memes then I definifly suggest reading this. It was kind of fascinating.

I have definitely slowed down with my reading, thanks to college and actually getting to sleep at night.

I planned to get loads of reading done on my two 9.5hr bus trips and I did...but mainly trashy magazines. I read bizarre, front and skin deep but also the complete trash that is heat, closer, cosmo and glamour.

Oh dear.

So yes, October will be horror themed. I'm hoping to get thru some classics, like Dracula which I have attempted before but didn't do too well with. If anyone has any suggestions then please share!

#149

2011-09-30T15:05:00.001+01:00

How gorgeous is this snoozing fox bag from H&M??

I fell in love with it on one of the store models and hunted it down...no pun intended.

I don't really have any small bags for going out and always seem to cart my massive daily handbag around with me. This is small enough for a night out, but not so tiny that I have to change my regular sized purse out for a mini version.

H&M have a load of lovley animal themed stuff in at the moment including gloves, hats, jewellery and clothes. I have their woodland animal earrings and rings from before but got the new set - as £2.99 for 6 pairs of earrings is amazing. Think I might have posted those already.

I may have to go back in for one of the animal hats...

#148

2011-09-30T10:40:00.000+01:00

I'm sure all of you know by now that I am a massive stationary addict, with a preference for one shop in particular.

I haven't done one of these in a while because I'm broke but sometimes I can't resist a teeny wee treat so these are some things I've picked up from Paperchase recently.

How adorable are these little notebooks?

They're thin and flimsy, like school jotters and those retro covers are irresistable!

They were £4.50 each which is a little steep for how small they are but I'm in love.

Paperchase stickers are amazing. I used to collect stickers so maybe that's a childlike part of me hanging on in there. But I love that you can have something from a collection for as little as £1.

I put them on plain sketchbook covers, letters etc.

The middle ones are index stickers which will probably go in my filofax.

The bottom pack makes me wish I was back at school, sitting exams.

It's a study organising set with stickers and little memo pads. There's a clock for timetabling, a deadline sheet, don't forget, to check and a black one. Amazingly cute and was only £2.50.

I have a love of colouring books and have been oggling these street art/grafitti style ones for a while so I finally picked one up to keep me amused when college work seems too much.

I don't know if you remember the wrapping paper sheets I posted a while ago that now live on my wall?

Well these seem to be the new ones!

They're shiny, unlike my vintage style matte ones but they're gorgeous.

2 bird designs - one with flowers, one with teacups. The floral design, like the previous butterflies is a bit...meh. I do like it but it's not my favourite.

The final sheet is of old style buses. They are all decorated differently and are all the number 13 which is my favourite number!

Can't decide if I should switch them out for my other ones or what to do with them...running out of wall space!

Finally, I had a bit of a splurge on this one.

I absolutely adore stacking dolls so fell in love with the new "babushka" collection right away.

I picked up this fuzzy Kindle cover rather than the usual notebook. It was £12 I think, so a lot but I'll use it for longer! I'd be too scared to ruin a notebook so pretty.

Sssh! I'm working on a tattoo idea with these dolls!

So that's all for now. I noticed they are looking for some Christmas temps so I may have to apply but I'd probably hand most of my wages back to them in exchange for goodies!

#147

2011-09-29T22:40:00.000+01:00

I wanted to do another wee college update as I haven't done one for a while and I did say I would try to keep up with posting my work on here.

Our project is on multiples and we spent time finding, drawing and photographing them.

We've been drawing and working from our images - abstracting them and playing with them with the view of taking them in to patterns. It's also a monochromatic project which is quite interesting.

We did an activity today where we had to pick a geometric shape and make 6 bases of the same size, using prepared papers. We then had to work into them - adding bits on, cutting bits out, layering, sticking, sewing etc. I raided the scrap bins and various boxes our tutor put out and had a play around. Some are definitely more successful than others.

This afternoon we were taught some textile techniques, including reverse applique.

I had missed last weeks class, so my tutor went over setting up and using the sewing machine with me. I played around with the freehand embroidery settings (top right).

Then I went off and did some monoprints and dying.

I was using disperse dyes which you paint on to thin paper then heat and transfer to the fabric with a heat press. I just wanted to test it so did a quick rough copy of the stitched pattern to play with.

I also got my equipment pack which included basic tools like sewing machine parts - bobbins, needles etc - tracing wheel, measuring tape, embroidery hoop, pins, needles and so on.

As soon as I got home, I got out one of my sewing boxes and sorted it all out so that I can carry it all to college with me!

So that's all for now. Just a quick snippet of what I've been up to.

It's all very experimental and learning techniques which I enjoy but it can be a bit frustrating.

Might post some of my personal sketchbook soon too.

#146

2011-09-29T10:18:00.000+01:00

Thanks to some other bloggers, I found out that Boots 17 had released their new Autumn collection so I popped in today to have a look and fell in love with these nail colours.

L-R : Fury, Sulk and Revenge.

They're perfect wintery shades and definitely feel a bit Christmassy, which is weird considering how gorgeously sunny it's been these past few days.

All of these are 2 coats which they definitely needed but they're quite opaque after that.

I wasn't sure about buying Fury as I have the Models Own gold colour but it was 3 for 2 so I went for it and I'm glad I did. It's not as gold as MO and a little darker.

Sulk is possibly my favourite - it's a lovely metallic teal, peacocky colour.

Revenge is probably my least favourite. It doesn't look great in any of the photos I took.

It's a kind of aubergine purple. It does have a metallic look to it like the others but I don't think it shows up that well. The bottle looks like a really pretty shimmery purple but it's not quite the same. It might grow on me - I definitely don't dislike it.

On top of those, they've also released two new crackle top coats.

I know crackle is maybe a little past it now but I still quite like it for a quick and easy nail look that's a bit different.

First up is the purple colour which I layed over Revenge in the first picture and Fury in the second.

I like this a lot more than the Models Own purple.

It looks really nice oer both colours and shows up well. It's not matte like crackles can be - it has a nice metallic sheen.

The second crackle is a black crackle with gold glitter mixed in.

It's different! The glitter went everywhere when I took it off which wasn't so good, but it crackled nicely and the glitter seems to stick to the black so doesn't interfere with the base colour.

Definitely a nice one for the Christmas party season.

I've only just tested these so I can't comment on the wearability of them.

I also picked up the new Maybelline Colossal Cat Eyes mascara to even up my 3 for 2 so I might try a post about that over the next few days.

Boots 17 polishes are £2.99 each which is really great and affordable. I keep going back to a lot of their colours and they're the only ones I seem to use up. The crackles were £3.99 each which is still reasonably cheap and they are a slightly bigger bottle I think.

#145 - London Tattoo & Rochester

2011-09-28T18:17:00.000+01:00

Hello blog bunnies!

I have a good reason for my lack of posting the past week - I've been away visiting my lovely Kevin.

Thanks to being completely broke, I got the Megabus as I used my dad's Tesco vouchers and got it for 70p. It wasn't actually as painful as I imagined. I left Edinburgh at 11am and got into London around half 9 that night, where Kevin was waiting for me. We got a train to his, devoured an 18inch pizza and went to bed - which was actually the floor.

Kevin gave me the tour of Rochester on Friday afternoon. It...didn't take long.

Don't get me wrong, Rochester was gorgeous but there wasn't all that much to do.

We walked through the castle gardens, saw Dickens' chalet and then ended up here -

Yes. The afternoon was spent in beer gardens - which was new to me.

I'm Scottish and it's late September. The sun went to bed months ago.

Kevin also showed me a shop that I was incredibly excited to visit.

Piercings and Cupcakes.

BODY PIERCING AND CUPCAKES. IN THE SAME SHOP.

It's like my two favourite things brought together.

We went out again on Saturday and saw the sights.

We went to the cathedral which was gorgeous and then to the Guild Hall museum.

My favourite bit was when Kevin took me to the largest (I think?) second hand book shop in England (or the UK?). I didn't get the details, I was too excited looking at books - they're my weakness. I managed not to buy any tho.

After that we ended up...in another pub beer garden.

What can I say? I like my Strongbow in the sunshine.

Sunday we got up early and got a train into London.

I was really excited as I've never been before. We popped into Kings Cross so I could see 9 and 3/4s and then I directed us on the tube to Wapping so we could go to the Tattoo Convention.

It's an old poster from last year but it's still pretty.

The Convention was at Tobacco Dock which was actually a really pretty building in it's own way.

There's an amazing pirate ship outside and it was lovely and sunny.

We had a wander around, looking at the different booths. It was really interesting. Some of the work people were doing was insanely good.

Kevin has some friends from Analog Tattoo in California so we met them, including Jim Miner. I'm in love with the chest piece he was doing all day. Gorgeous.

We met up with Kevin's work friends, had a few drinks and a bite to eat, listened to some music and perved on some scantily glad gorgeous tattooed ladies. I was fascinated people watching, mainly for pretty tattoos and the amazing outfits that some people were wearing.

I spotted Dan Smith and Nikko Hurtado from LA Ink...I'm not really familiar with many tattoo artists so they were the only ones I really knew!!

Although not working, Kevin introduced me to the work of Allan Graves which I'm now in love with. I had an idea for something I want done and he may be the perfect one to do it...I just need pennies!

I headed home on Monday - another painfully long bus journey where I munched Boots food and read 1 and a half books. So at least it was productive!

Think I'm going to save up and fly down next time tho!!

PS - None of these photos are mine. I somehow managed not to take any, so I nabbed them all from Google. Sorry if you own them - do let me know if you do!

#144

2011-09-21T19:53:00.000+01:00

Evening all!

I think this is the first time I managed to take outfit photos before I left for college this morning.

On the other hand, I was at the bus stop before I realised I had left my folder and therefore all of my work at home. Sigh. Go me.

Zombie Tee - Darkside bought from Pie in the Sky.

Cardi - M&S

Jeans - TRF at Zara

Shoes - New Look

I wore jeans! Like properly. All day. NO TIGHTS!

Wow.

I wear shorts but I don't really wear trousers. I haven't properly worn a pair that weren't jammies in...a while. I can't even remember when.

I bought these last summer if I remember correctly and have an identical pair in blue denim.

They come with a wee elasticated belt with a wee bow on it - this one is red with white spots so matched my outfit.

I'm actually falling for these. I don't think I'll be a convert into trousers quite yet but these are really cute, with a bit of a retro vibe.

Things might be a tad quiet as I'm popping off to Kent for a few days but I shall hopefully have lovely posts when I come back!

#143

2011-09-20T23:33:00.000+01:00

Hello!

I wouldn't usually write a new post so soon after my last one but I didn't want to join them up.

Firstly, I've been featured over on the lovely Rosie's blog - "A Rosie Outlook" as part of her Cheer Up Tuesdays series. I was so flattered when I got the email asking me to be a part of this. I definitely suggest you go read Rosie's blog and check out the other fabulous girls who have been involved in Cheer Up Tuesday including Charlene from Dainty Dresses and Ayden from Little Blog of Horrors.

Also, if you have popped in from over on Rosie's blog then hello! and thank you!

Being asked to write something for another blog got me thinking about something I want to try over here. It's nearly my favourite time of year - I love autumn and winter and of course, Halloween. I've already been buying craft stuff from Hobbycraft which I'll probably keep all year.

I've also just restarted burlesque classes so I'm even more into my pin-up, vintage sort of stuff than usual.

That's where YOU come in!

I was hoping to get some features and guest posts written up featuring some gorgeous people.

I'm thinking - tattoos, piercings, body mods, corsets, pinups, rockabilly, horror, crafty, artistic, creative, vintage, retro, glamourous, zombie, scary...sort of thing.

So maybe you make gorgeous jewellery inspired by horror films you think we might like

or if you're fabulous at makeup then you might like to do a burlesque/pin-up tutorial

or perhaps even some Halloween themed crafts.

I have a few people I'm going to ask to be inolved but I am also open to volunteers.

It doesn't even have to be you - if you know someone you think might be interested or can suggest someone I might like to look at then get in touch.

Please drop me a comment or an email at kirstydotburton{@}hotmail.co.uk

I won't bite!

#142 - horror nails

2011-09-20T23:17:00.001+01:00

I did a wee bit of nail art on my friend Helen a few nights ago (ok like, a wee ago but don't be picky).

I had the shakes as I was a little...dehydrated...*ahem*...so she had to help out and do some of them herself.

I pulled up Wah Nails for a bit of inspiration and we created a horror themed manicure.

Thumb - Skull. Boots 17 in Nightshade and white pen.

Index - Teeth - Boots 17 in Baked Cherry and white pen.

Middle - Eyeball - Boots 17 in Mini Skirt, Seabreeze and red pen.

Ring - Boots 17 in Seabreeze and yellow pen.

Pinky - Drips - Boots 17 in Baked Cherry and black pen.

My nail art pens are by Nails Supreme. I think I have a set of like 6 of them which my aunt bought me. They're double ended and come in a range of your typical colours - black, white, red, green, pink, yellow, blue, gold, silver etc! They have the pen tip as well as brushes.

A wee close up.

The white got dyed from washing her red hair which used to happen with my pink.

These are my current nails.

I used Eyeko Saucy polish as a base, then used guides and the black nail pen to do the tips.

If you're a Buffy fan then you might recognise that they're inspired by Drusilla's amazing nails.

Think I'm going to try black and white next time.

#141

2011-09-18T17:20:00.001+01:00

Evening lovelies!

It's been a bit of a quiet weekend in Kirsty-world but I'm working on some ideas and hopefully guest posts which will hopefully brighten up the blog!

I came home from a long day at college on Thursday to find a "package left in brown bin" card thru my letterbox and was very excited when I realised it was from my gorgeous chum Amii from Scarlet Pout!

She's been promising to write to me for ages but finally sent my letter. She also included a gorgeous wee peacock feather notebook which she added some pictures to and a sugar skull purse. There was also a peacock eyeshadow but it shattered so I didn't take a photo for fear of mess! I love it tho and am working on my reply already!

The most exciting thing I've done the past few days is paint my nails bright colours...

Am in a rut with thinking of blog post titles so will number them unless I can think of something fabulous!!

hair as black as ebony

2011-09-16T16:37:00.000+01:00

I have the feeling there's something different going on in these photos...but I'm not sure what??

Yes - the pink is gone! (for now anyway!)

I was sitting in bed unable to sleep the other night and was thinking about black hair

and thinking...

and then I remembered Helen had a black hair dye that she had decided not to use

so on a whim, I nicked it and on a whim, slapped it on. Or rather, my mother did.

It's a bit of a change and it's also a bit patchy as the pink is showing thru as purpley bits

but I think I like it!

What dyou guys think??

rhymes with nails

2011-09-11T18:33:00.001+01:00

Helen did my nails for me last night - I gave her free reign to do whatever she wanted and she came up with this insect theme. Very cute!

I did hers but haven't taken photos yet. Though actually it was more of a joint effort as I had majorly shaky hands and couldn't manage a straight line.

Ladybirds - Boots 17 in "Baked Cherry"

and black nail pen.

Caterpillar - Boots 17 in "Mint Choc Chip" (stained pink thanks to hair washing!)

Barry M in "Spring Green" and black, blue and white nail pens.

Maybe I can convince her to join up and do some more interesting nails with me?
It's always easier if someone else helps!

EDIT!
I've been so wrapped up in my own little world these past few days that I totally blanked on what day it is. I feel totally crappy for posting a trivial entry about my nails considering its the 10th anniversary of 9/11. Like most people, I remember exactly what I was doing that day and the footage is still clear in my mind. I wasn't personally effected by it but it is one of those massive incidents in my life time and an appalling tragedy.

aussie-versary

2011-09-09T14:36:00.000+01:00

I was woken up early by the postman banging on the door this morning

but I was happy to forgive him when I realised it was a parcel from Aussie!

I'm sure you'll have noticed the "Any Excuse to Party" giveaways run by the Aussie Angels that have been popping up across blogs recently.

Basically, to help celebrate 110 years of Australia being a country, Aussie were giving away a load of summer party backs which included party poppers, flip flops, fizz wizz, sunglasses and of course, a bottle of Aussie.

I won mine thanks to the lovely Charli over at Secrets Behind the Closet Door.

All you had to do was tell them your reason for celebrating. Mine was that I was about to start my new college course and was looking forward to settling back into learning after my rubbish time in Aberdeen.

I picked the Aussie 3 minute miracle reconstructor deep conditioner and I can't wait to try it out.

I only recently started using Aussie after I knicked some of my dad's and fell in love with it!

So a big thank you to Aussie and Charli for cheering up my rainy Friday!

board of nails

2011-09-09T11:21:00.002+01:00

I have Tuesdays off from college and was going to paint my nails.

I realised I often skip over polishes because I don't really know what they look like.

So armed with my spare false nails, a pen, a glue gun and a bit of cardboard, I created my nail board!

It's not the neatest thing in the world, but once you burn yourself a few times with hot glue, you stop trying to be neat!

I grouped it by brand and like that now I can have a quick glance and choose a colour rather than sticking to the same ones all of the time.

I also spotted this nail challenge on rebecca likes nails which I may try out.

I don't like repainting my nails every day so I might do them every few days instead.

or you know...when I remember...

It might give me a kick up the bum to try some different things with my nails.

I tend to stick to dark colours or pink/red and leopard.

sunshine lollipops and rainbows

2011-09-08T23:05:00.000+01:00

So I've just been informed that the lovely Kat from Legs Eleven has nominated me for a blog award, which is lovely considering how rubbish I've been lately!

I don't really know if I'm the blog award type but I've not chatted about bloggers I like for a while so this is an excuse to link some!

1. Thank the person who gave you this award and write a post about it.

2. Answer the following questions.
3. Pass it on to ten fabulous bloggers and send them a message to let them know.

1. Favourite Colour: Ohh I like pinks, reds and purples...but I also love green!

2. Favourite Animal:Cats. I also love most things that live in water, especially octopus.

3. Favourite Number: 13. It just is.

4: Favourite Drink: Is it really bad if I say cider and black? Or Jagermeister?

5. Facebook or Twitter: Twitter...but more people I'm friends with need to be on it.

6. Your Passion: Creativity.

7. Giving or Getting Presents: I do like giving presents but I absolutely suck at finding the right thing for people...sooooo...getting? :)

8. Favourite Pattern: Is leopard a pattern?

9. Favourite Flowers: Sunflowers and Daisies.
10: Favourite Day: ummmm...I like Fridays...I guess. Wednesdays but I don't know why.

So I'm supposed to pass this on to ten people but I can't think who....

ScarletPout, Cupcake Couture, Raffles Bizarre, Secrets Behind the Closet Door, Pearls Lace & Ruffles, Grazed Knees, French for Cupcake, A Rosie Outlook, Vintage Veronica...and anyone else who wants to do it!
I don't know if I'll message these girls to tell them but you should pop over to their blogs and have a read!

a little college work

2011-09-08T18:19:00.000+01:00

Hello blog-lovelies!

Firstly - I have once again pinked my hair.

I had a debate about going purple but decided to go for a different shade of pink.

I've been using "Directions" pots to dye it and have tried carnation, flamingo pink and now cerise.

This is cerise mixed with some left over flamingo. I'm finally getting it cut tomorrow which is good because it badly needs done.

So I have to apologise for my lack of blogging.

College has been completely wiping me out lately. I spend my evenings and days of being totally lazy. But I figured I'd post a wee bit of what I've been doing...

dont know why blogger refuses to put my vertical photos vertical...

but anyway this is one of my life drawings. I'm really enjoying life drawing - it's really loose and fun. This one was done without looking at the page and then without looking a the page but using our non-dominant hand. DIFFICULT! But I like how it came out.

Our theme for our project is multiples and we were drawing items with ink and a stick.

I've been working a bit like Elizabeth Blackadder - in the way that she doesn't set up a still life but picks one item, draws it, puts it away and selects another.

This was a continuous line drawing which I love doing but can be tricksy. I then turned it and did another on top in pink fountain pen. I used the same technique of just picking one item at a time.

We were inspired by Ingrid Calame (who is currently showing at the Fruitmarket in Edinburgh and is amazing! GO!) and traced shapes from the above drawing. Love this. It's also stitched into but you can't tell.

These are both from today. There was a still life set up in the class so we started off with a detailed tonal drawing which I hate hate hate doing but needs must. It doesn't look too bad...I hope.
The second was done this afternoon - a collage of the same still life. I decided not to draw mine out and just wing it so it's kind of...I dunno...abstract or something.

I feel a wee bit shy about posting work on here. I've never done it before but I kind of intended to once I got back to college. Not loads, just little bits and pieces I think are interesting. I have a habit of lacking confidence in my work so it's a big deal for me to share it - usually not even my parents see it! So a wee bit of feedback might be nice.

August Reads

2011-09-01T10:36:00.000+01:00

Off Season - Jack Ketchum
Hide and Seek - Jack Ketchum

I read my first book by Ketchum at the end of July and went straight and devoured these two and I loved them both. Off Season was just the right amounts of scary and gory. If you know the Scottish story of Sawney Bean then that will give you an idea of what this book is about. I would never go to a cabin in the woods. Ever. I know what happens when people do. Some of the details and descriptions in this book made me squirm, but that's a good thing.
Hide and Seek I didn't enjoy quite as much but it was still a good read. It's kind of in two parts and while I was reading the first part, all I could think was "GIVE ME THE HORROR!" but I guess some set up is often required. The second part I enjoyed a lot more. Everyone loves a good game of hide and seek....unless it's in an abandonded haunted house...

10 Urban Legends - Jeffery Fisher

Yeah ok, I downloaded this from Amazon because I'm pretty sure it was free.
Nothing I've not read before on the internet.

Spooky Little Girl - Laura Notaro

....This SO wasn't what I thought it was going to be. A bit of chick lit snuck up on me. I can't even remember the name of the main character, but everything in her life starts going wrong and then she dies. I love when people talk about "waking up dead" - have you heard that saying? It makes me giggle, but this woman does wake up dead and as a student of ghost school. Yeah, it's ridiculous. She gets sent back to Earth to "haunt" someone and can't move on until she finishes her mission. umm...yeah. I like things a little more sensible than this.

Mysterious Skin - Scott Heim

I actually really enjoyed this book. I don't want to spoil it because I think it's one of those books where you have to realise things along with the characters. It was a fabulous novel but the last section was incredibly hard to read. If you're a bit sensitive then you might not like it but I found it quite powerful and upsetting but really really good.

Snapped - Pamela Klaffke

This was a wee short thing, only a 100 or so pages but it was nice and chilled after the heavy subject matter of the last book. It's about a woman who co-founded a very hip magazine called Snap. She's in charge of the fashion Dos and Don'ts and has to go in search of photos but she's getting on a bit and starts to feel a bit too old to be fashionable. It was quite a nice wee story actually. I liked it because it was something I'm interested in and could relate to in a way. It was pretty funny in places and a bit emotional in others, so a good balance.

Devil's Knot - Mara Leveritt

I have to admit, I started reading this ages ago, maybe back in April/May. I started reading it again thanks to Kevin. It's all about the West Memphis Three. It tells the whole story from the beginning - with the murders of the three little boys and goes all thru the police investigation, court cases and appeals. It's obviously not up to date as the three have now been released (which was why I picked this up again). It's fascinating and I've now got the Paradise Lost films ready to watch when I get the chance. I'm so interested in this case and I'm so glad that they have been released. I was appalled at how much of a shambles the investigation and court cases were. It's definitely worth a read if you're interested in that sort of thing.

Anansi Boys - Neil Gaiman

Ok, I'm cheating a little here because I have like 10% of this left to read - I'm going to schedule this post so I will have finished it tonight but I don't yet know what happens! As you might know, I'm a huge fan of Neil and this is one of the few novels of his I haven't read already. I tried but just didn't seem to want to get into it but I powered on and now I'm there, as usual, I love it. It's about Fat Charlie and the time in his life where he finds out he has a brother and that his dad was a god. The usual Neil Gaiman subjects!!! I love it. If you didn't pay attention to my last post, pay attention now and go read his work.

l'eau de bedroom dancing

2011-08-31T19:32:00.000+01:00

I'm a bit of a nosy bugger and love posts like "what's in my bag?" and whatnot.

I gave my room a good tidy at the weekend and remembered a post I'd seen by Cowbiscuits which inspired me to take some quick photos of my room.

I'm currently at my parents so I'm back in the room I grew up in, tho without the Forever Friends wallpaper and bunkbeds.

I keep all my art stuff in a box at the end of my bed so that it's out of the way.

I have a wee collection of sweetie postcards if anyone feels like adding to that.

I also have some paper from Paperchase and some cut out butterflies I won in a blog giveaway.

I seriously lack storage space for the amount of clothes I have. This is it!

You can see I have a thing for glasses and earrings.

I also keep my pretty shoes on display, as well as Rockabilly Barbie!

Bookshelf is a little unloved since I moved to Kindle

but I have a lot of my art, design and craft books

as well as sketchbooks and a shelf for jewellery.

Do you like my Forest Gump license plate?

Also a sneak peak at some of my drawings there...

I love tacky ornaments, it's a bit of a weakness.

I pinned some clipboards to the wall and use them to hold stuff, including a card from Rani!

I don't really use my desk as a desk, more of a storage device...

and how typically Scottish do I look with my Irn Bru out?

Lastly my bed.

I just got a new mattress and am getting used to my 6.30am starts for college so I pretty much live in it at the moment!

I've got a bunch of things up here - cards from Paperchase, drawings by Helen, signed stuff and a Marilyn Monroe paper doll as well as cranes hanging from the ceiling.

Oh and my Frankenstein's Monster bobblehead which Kevin gave me. Who said romance is dead?

Is anyone else as nosy as I am?

Show me your bedrooms bloggers!!! :)

Amanda Fcking Palmer and Neil Fcking Gaiman

2011-08-28T11:08:00.000+01:00

If you don't know who this gorgeous couple are then what have you been up to?

Neil Gaiman is one of my most favourite authors ever - I've yet to find a book of his that I don't love. He's married to Amanda Palmer who happens to be one of my favourite musicians.

They've both been lurking around Edinburgh during the Fringe and I've been lucky enough to see them both a few times.

Last Sunday I had my one and only event at the Edinburgh Book Festival and it was to see Neil talk about American Gods. I obviously adore Neil's work but I will admit that it took me a few tries to get in to American Gods but once I did, it was so worth it. A few people I've spoken to had this issue so trust me. Stick with it. I queued up after the event for over an hour to get my book signed.

I love how he has different dedications that fit in with each book.

The bottom right is a copy of "Hanging out with the Dream King" which is a book about Neil and his collaborations. I got it signed by him on Thursday night after Amanda's gig at the HMV Picturehouse.

not my photo. credit to Marc Marnie. nicked from the picturehouse facebook.

I saw Amanda play the Picturehouse a few years ago but this was totally different. As we went in, Edinburgh band "The Horn Dogs" were playing on the dance floor. Bitter Ruin were the support band and then we got to see Amanda in a whole new way. Rather than just her, she was joined by the "Grand Theft Orchestra" which made her music sound all shiny and new. It was amazing. She had some new, upbeat, 80s inspired numbers which she played, but first, to get us warmed up for the dancing, we had to do some aerobics! During the "warm up" Amanda lept into the crowd and I may have grabbed her bottom. I was with my friend Xina about 2-3 people from the front and it was such an amazing gig.

I don't know WHY this photo is sideways, it's the right way up on my computer but anyway!

Like I said they did a signing after the show. I only had my Neil book and so Xina ran off to the merch stand and picked up some posters and CDs which we got signed. Amanda was such a sweetheart - she seems like such a nice, down to earth person.

To top off my day, I got replies from both of them on twitter. Amanda's was in reply to my dilemma about what to wear. I think it's very cool that she tweets asking people to bring clothes and turns them into her stage costume after collecting them from the queue.

I had apologised to Neil for touching his wife's bum and he replied too which made me have a total fangirl moment.

Sorry for gushing over this pair but I'm totally in love with the both of them at the moment.

If you haven't heard Amanda's music, please do check out her solo stuff or her work from the Dresden Dolls. You can find mp3 downloads on her website where you pay as much as you like, from as little as $1.

I also can't reccomend Neil's books enough. I didn't think I'd like him but maybe check out his short stories in Fragile Things. You probably know his work from the films Stardust and Coraline and I'm sure he's written some Dr Who...do it. Go read his stuff!

bad blogger

2011-08-27T17:58:00.000+01:00

shirt - Topshop

Hello lovlies!

Apologies for being a pretty rubbish blogger this week.

You might remember that I was starting my new course at college - I'm now officially an HND Textiles student! Woo!

I haven't really had classes yet. Monday was in induction with horrific ice-breakers and filling in lots of forms. We met on Wednesday to go to some galleries like the Fruitmarket. Tuesday and Thursday we had to do a "fashion art walk" which involved visiting different shops and galleries. I'm only going to be in Monday, Wednesday, Thursday which is nice and I have an afternoon of life drawing one day which will be good.

I wore my skull top on Monday for what ended up being a really short day!

Don't know how well you can see but I dyed my hair again, or rather Helen dyed it for me.

I picked a different pink this time "flamingo" instead of "carnation" and it is a lot brighter!

We both said "oh my god" when I took the towel off after washing it out.

I've been to a few amazing Fringe shows this week which I am going to tell you about.

The fringe is coming to a close now but they weren't acts that just perform at the Fringe so you'll be able to find out about them.

keepers of the night

2011-08-20T13:44:00.001+01:00

Hello lovelies!

Just a quick outfit post for you on this sunny Saturday.

I wore this out last night to meet two friends and see a couple of free fringe shows

dress - H&M

belt - topshop

shoes - converse

We headed to see a cabaret show (Kabarett!) at the Voodoo Rooms at 7.15pm. I definitely recommend it. Ours included juggling from Mat Ricardo, burlesque from the gorgeous Cat Aclysmic and music from Patti Plinko and the Maddening who were AMAZING.

Go listen to the drum song and whiskey six. They are fabulous!!!

We also caught a show called Test Tube comedy or something just round the corner in the hostel.

It was another mix of acts and was actually pretty good. I'm very impressed with the free fringe shows I've seen this year. And they had 2 brothers singing who were amazing. They did pirate pop songs and a computer shortcut love song - genius!!!

Also I had a bit of fear about wearing red lips with pink hair but I actually think it's ok don't you?? I suppose it wasn't a very bright red, just bourjois velvet finish lip cream which I love by the way!!

(guess who couldn't think of a title and picked lyrics from the song that's on???)

2011-08-19T17:04:00.000+01:00

tee - Topshop

Shorts - Topshop

Necklace - LLROK

Sunglasses - no idea.

I picked up this top yesterday as a wee "back to college" treat.

I know it's kind of silly but I like having something new to wear for my first day.

I also picked up a skull top and a pile of jewellery - which I definitely didn't need!

I find it odd that Topshop is selling these fake tunnels - especially these spike ones for £7.50. Don't do it kids, you can find them way cheaper if you don't actually want to stretch your ears!

In saying that I kind of fell in love with the skulls and tigers. I'm so indecisive about stretching my ears so these might tide me over, especially while my new lobe piercings heal up.

With starting college on Monday, today is technically my last day of summer holidays and I spent it with my dad!

Everytime we drive thru St Andrews (well just after it), we've always giggled at the signs for Scotland's "Secret Bunker" and today we decided to go and have a look. It's basically a nuclear bunker built during the Cold War, where important people could hide out and keep running the country. It's a lot bigger than I thought it would be and so interesting.

I do wonder what it would be like having to live and work down there...

back to school

2011-08-18T13:48:00.000+01:00

I would have hoped that by the age of 22, I would no longer have to be shopping for school supplies, especially not a "school bag".

But I start college on Monday and previous experience has taught me that I need a decent bag.

I have a massive problem with finding a reasonable bag to use to go to classes.

I usually end up carrying piles of junk, including sketchbooks, paint and other materials, as well as my usual purse, book, phone etc.

I've tried and ruined loads of bags in my time because they're too small or not sturdy enough.

This is just an idea of some of the bags I've gone thru.

The Primark bags were kind of a "thing" on my first course with a few of us having them. The only problem was that I found they only ever came in hideous patterns and colours.

The Cath Kidston bag was actually amazing. I could fit an A3 sketchbook in it along with all my other stuff.

I tried using tote/shopper bags before but ended up using them along with my handbag and looked like I was moving home when I went to classes.

I headed into town yesterday and decided to have a wander along Princes Street in search for a cheap but decent sized bag that I can use for college.

And I failed spectacularly. I ended up in Topshop but my choices were limited. Because I end up wrecking them with paint and graphite, I hate spending too much on a bag.

And I refuse to carry a leopard print "Tame Me" bag...

I ended up with this fox bag which is a variation of this otter bag which I actually wanted.

It's lovely and quite roomy...but the only problem is that Helen has the same one!

I'm hoping she'll forgive me as she won't be seeing me when I'm at college so we can pretend it's not the same.

I also popped into Paperchase - as you know I have an addiction to their stationary and back to college is a perfect excuse.

I bought a Wonderland notepad which has divided off sections and couldn't resist this Russian doll and peacock feather sketchbook! I also nabbed 3 packs of stickers from their new collections (the J-pop is particularly adorable, as is glittery wonderland). Not strictly college based but I picked up some packs of notecards and 2 adorable illustrated writing sets which were only £5 each which I thought was pretty good!

I'm so excited to start my new course on Monday - definitely be letting you know how I get on!

shake shake shake senora

2011-08-15T14:49:00.000+01:00

If you follow me on twitter then you might know that I spent Saturday getting a new tattoo! Yup - I'm on my 4th in just a few months!

I went to +48 in the St James Centre in Edinburgh. My male-friend was their piercer so I know the guys in there and I love their work.

I was in the pub with them last week and we got talking about my Beetlejuice cameo necklace. Dero said he would quite like to do a portrait tattoo of him so I volunteered my arm and here it is!

I'm completely in love with it. It's got a sandworm framing it down the bottom, and a skull moon around the back. He took some photos so hopefully he'll pop them on facebook and I'll post them. It's kinda hard getting decent photos of your own body!!!

It took about 4 hours over all which was a new experience for me. All of my others have taken around an hour so this was a big step up. I only had one wee break!

It wasn't too painful, more uncomfortable after a while and noone told me how bloody painful highlights are! That was definitely the worst bit!

So what do you think?

I'm completely in love with him and have already been talking to Dero about ideas for the rest of the arm!!

Check out their facebook and definitely go check them out if you're in or around Edinburgh!

vive le cabaret

2011-08-14T21:26:00.000+01:00

Yes the hair is pink once again!

I couldn't resist. I was feeling a bit meh after Kevin leaving and so decided it's very hard to be moody when you have pink hair.

Top - Tee & Cake @ Topshop

Skirt - H&M (black bodycon)

I wore this today to go to a discussion about cabaret which was incredibly interesting.

There was a panel of "performers and experts" on the subject which included the gorgeous Amanda Fucking Palmer, Des O'Connor, Frisky and Mannish and a guy from the cabaret section of Time Out London, amongst others whose names I have forgotten. Various topics were discussed, including what cabaret actually is. I found myself a little out of the loop with things as I'm not a cabaret performer, or really a performer in anyway but it's made me even more keen to stick in with burlesque, develop new ideas and perhaps perform.

After the discussion, there was a wee bit of mingling, drinking and nibbles followed by a performace by various performance acts. Des started things off with a fabulous song about how normal doesn't exist and we're all freaks. He was followed by a selection of acts including Amanda, Piff the Magic Dragon and the Jane Austen Argument. All of the acts were fabulous but I think I remembered these ones as my favourites. Piff was fabulous but his fringe show is all sold out. JAA were amazing and sang some gorgeous songs. We laughed, sang, danced, wooped, cheered....oh it was a lovely wee afternoon!

I will probably be wearing this again tonight to go to a ninja gig that Amanda has organised!

Very excited. I think Mr Neil Gaiman might be there as well so there will definitely be a blog post to follow that one.

Also if you follow me on twitter and know about my new addition then...well, there's a post coming later! I don't want to do two in one day (tho I might!).

look guys!

2011-08-12T23:55:00.000+01:00

Just in case you're viewing the blog on google reader or something,

I thought I'd let you know that I've been working on the blog layout for the past few days.

Helen drew me some lovely horror pin-ups and I used photoshop to edit them

and turn them into a blog banner.

I'm using the same layout from pugly pixel but have edited the colours.

The pale pink is gone!!!

Barry M

2011-08-12T15:24:00.001+01:00

I added three new polishes to my ever expanding collection this week.

I don't know why but I don't have much Barry M in my collection - I think it's just the black crackle polish.

I was looking for a nice bright green and this "Spring Green" has not disappointed.

I'm definitely using it as a base for zombie nail art and more blood splatters.

Not that I need more red nail varnish but I promise I don't have this shade!

It's called "raspberry" and that's exactly what it reminds me off.

Finally I spotted this "Bright Purple" and couldn't resist giving it a go.

I thought it might work nicely with the spring green so I'll need to try that.

All of these have 2 coats which is perfect for the green and red but it looks like the purple might need a third.

I am definitely becoming a bit of a convert to Barry M polishes - I didn't know what I've been missing out on! They have a great range of colours, are good quality and reasonably priced. My green has been on 2 days now and has yet to chip. Also they seem to have frequent deals on, like the current 2 polishes for £4.99 when they're usually £2.99 each so there's no excuse not to give them a try.

Sleek Makeup

2011-08-11T00:46:00.001+01:00

I popped into Superdrug a few days ago to buy a tint brush. I decided I couldn't put £1.49 on my debit card so ended up picking up some makeup as well.

I saw this Sleek "Acid" eyeshadow palette thanks to Leesha at xsparkage.

I don't wear eyeshadow very often but I had to buy it. It's so bright!

You can see her post about it and swatches here.

I think it was around £6.49 which I don't think is too bad to be honest.

I'm working on my makeup skills so will definitely be trying out Leesha's Electric Candy tutorial.

I saw these mentioned on a few blogs and people saying they were similar to the OCC lip tars so couldn't resist picking up a couple. I went for pinkini (left) and port.

Trying to show off the colours but didn't come out too well.

Pinkini is a gorgeous bright pink, with port as a more purpley-pink.

They certainly aren't lying when they call them lip stains - I can't get the mark off of my hand!!!

My lips also still had a pink tinge when I woke up, although I did forget to take my makeup off after the pub - terrible habit of mine!

a mix of the two shades

You can apply these straight as they are, or mix them with other shades which is a great idea as you can find the right one for you. The range includes blue and white as well.

For £4.99 (I think) they're reasonably priced. I used a tiny amount and it goes a long way so you definitely get your moneys worth.

I know I'm not beauty blogger so hopefully this post isn't too awful!

Let me know what you think :)

library chic

2011-08-10T17:41:00.002+01:00

well hello there...

This is what I wore for a failed trip to the library to work in my summer project for college.

Although I didn't actually wear the librarian glasses.

Body - Topshop

Skirt - H&M

Necklace - etsy

I don't usually take photos of my shoes but I was wearing one of my favourite pairs of flats - my Iron Fist zombie shoes! I picked these up last year when they were on offer for about £15 from Schuh.

My library visit was a total fail because I was supposed to be researching a list of artists, except I left the list on my bed and couldn't remember any of them. Oops. I'll be spending the next few days back in the library and visiting galleries before starting work on my visual diary.

I swapped the skirt and top for a plain black dress to go to the pub last night. My friend and I had dinner and a few pints before meeting up with Helen and catching a Fringe show - my first of the Festival. It was called Setlist and was on in the basement of the Tron. It was a bit like "who's line is it anyway?" - the comedians are given a random setlist and have 15 seconds to come up with material. I think the lineup changes most nights and ours included Dave Gorman and Tim Vine.

Our tickets were on 2 for 1 so it wasn't too bad for £4.

Nails of the Week

2011-08-09T11:42:00.003+01:00

I did a reverse of the snow leopard nails I posted last week - white spots on black nails.

They didn't come out quite as well as I would have liked.

I used Boots 17 in Nightshade but it's going kind of gloopy. I used the white konad polish and messed up a lot as my spots ended up really blurry. The coloured spots didn't show up as well on the black either.

These are my bloody zombie nails and I'm in love with them!

I have seen these a few times but remembered that the gorgeous Amii from ScarletPout did a post about them.

Rather than leave my nails bare, I used Topshop "Poison Ivy" which is a dark zombie green.

I originally used my red nail pen to do the blood but it didn't come out very well. I used the technique Amii suggested and did my drips with Boots 17 Knockout Red and an opened out kirby grip which worked a lot better.

I might try using a different green next time as this one is really dark so the red didn't show up that well. Any suggestions for a nice green polish??

I hate having naked nails at the moment so I'll hopefully keep up posting them on here!

Illegal Jacks

2011-08-08T10:38:00.004+01:00

Last Monday, Helen and I were trying to think of somewhere to go eat and I remembered that it has been way too long since I went to Illegal Jacks and I'm so glad we went.

In case you don't know, Jack's is a lovely wee independent "south west grill" on Lothian Road.

You pick up a menu on the way in and order at the counter once you're ready.

They have a selection of tex-mex favourites and I love the fact that you can customise it to exactly how you want it. You can even add a Scottish twist with a bit of haggis.

I had a chicken quesadilla with no beans and hot salsa with a side of tortilla chips and dip cause I was starving! Helen had a monster of a chicken burrito. Everything was ready incredibly quickly which was great.

You pick up your cutlery, napkins and of course, hot sauce, at a wee counter. You also pick up your own drinks and can add a refill for an extra 50p which is definitely needed after being a bit too heavy handed with the hot sauce and getting it in your new smiley piercing!

Helen enjoying her dinner.

It's lovely and relaxing inside - Helen needed a wee break mid-burrito and we were quite happy sitting there nibbling chips and chatting.

We also had a lovely twitter conversation with "Jack" himself while we ate - and someone got in trouble for not following the instructions and eating her burrito with a knife and fork. He's an incredibly helpful chap and even offered to reserve us a table.

If you're looking for somewhere casual to eat then I definitely reccommend Illegal Jacks. The food was delicious and afforable with generous portions and the staff and atmosphere are both lovely.

Check out their website, facebook and twitter to find out more.

I'm already in the mood for another visit after writing this post! It's made me really hungry.

needles and pins

2011-08-07T23:30:00.001+01:00

Dress - Urban Outfitters

Shirt - Topshop

Shoes (leopard print flats) - New Look

Earrings - Topshop

Necklace - etsy

I wore this last night to sit around +48 with my boy and then have some drinks with him and his friends.

He's gone back down to Kent which SUCKS! I knew he was leaving but doesn't make a difference.

My lack of blogging this week has been due to spending all of my time with him, watching horror films and eating too much pizza, so I apologise for that.

I've had an interesting week for piercings.

Aforementioned boy is a piercer so I went to him to get them done.

On Monday I got my lobes, belly button and my smiley which you can see in the above photo. I was told my rook piercing was growing out so I removed that. I got my hand web pierced but the ball came off and it was slipping out and too painful to put back in. OUCH! But it was gorgeous. I will redo it once my hand is healed up again. I also lost the top of the microdermal on my wrist so need to go get that sorted. eep!

such a cute wee piercing! definitely redoing it.

I've got a couple of posts planned for this week - mainly because I meant to do them last week!
I need to work on my summer project for college too.

July Reading

2011-08-03T13:23:00.001+01:00

saved from tumblr

I'm a teeny bit disappointed with my small list this month but I've been crashing at friends and sleeping quite well for me which is why it's gone down!

Deadline - Mira Grant

I read "Feed" back in December last year and this is the second novel in the trilogy. This continues after the death of George and so this time the focus is on her brother Shaun. I really enjoyed Feed and this was an excellent sequel but I didn't love it quite as much. I think maybe it's because I liked George a lot more than Shaun. Well, to be honest, she had a lot more focus than Shaun so it makes sense. He took a bit of getting used to. He's obviously cut up about the death of his sister and actually he still talks to her...which is...odd. The story was a bit nyeh but it was still good. I enjoyed it, it's just the usual slight let down of the sequel never being as good.

City of Bones (Mortal Instruments) - Cassandra Clare

City of Ashes (Mortal Instruments) - Cassandra Clare

City of Glass (Mortal Instruments) - Cassandra Clare

oh my gosh I haven't loved a book series this much since the Hunger Games. 15 year old Clary is in a club when she sees a group of odd looking teenagers. Things get weirder when she sees them commit a murder. Clary's world is turned upside down when she discovers that demons and various supernatural creatures are real and worse still, that her and her mother are involved in this world. Oh this is one of those ones where I'm worried I'll say too much and spoil things for people. It's one of those fantasy - monsters are actually real and living in our world and there are people who protect us from them - type of things. It's incredibly good. I didn't enjoy the second one as much as felt I was just pushing thru it but the first and third ones were amazing. I need to read the fourth.

Baby's first book of seriously f**ked up sh*t - Robert Devereaux

I loved this book! Stories of unborn baby beauty competitions and orgies between God, Satan, Adam & Eve - this is a book of weird and wonderful short stories. I love it. They're insanely entertaining with just enough uncomfortable squirming.

Tweaked: Growing up on meth - Nic Sheff

This is an autobiography so it's one of those books where the story is often so horrifically difficult, emotional and hard to read that you want it to be fiction. Any book about drugs is obviously going to have moments that are hard to read and this is no different. I found there were odd moments of wanting Nic to succeed in a situation you just don't want him to be in, like when he gets ripped off buying bulk drugs to both use and sell on. You know what he's doing is wrong but you don't want him to get hurt. He tries to give up drugs a few times and I was right there with him, cheering him on. It frustrated me when he got together with this girl who dragged him back in to the drug world. You can see he is making a horrible decision and you think he might know too but he does it anyway. Even so, when he gets clean and gives up both her and the drugs, you're thrilled for him. I really enjoyed Nic's writing style and he's very honest about what he's been thru.

In my skin - Kate Holden

I have a habit of reading books in a similar genre and this one follows on nicely from tweak. Kate is your typical good girl who doesn't do drugs, does well in classes and doesn't seem to get up to much mischief. Then she tries drugs and ends up spiralling into a world of heroin addiction. She seems like such a sweet girl that you want to shake her and yell at her not to do it but you know what's going to happen. Her addiction gets increasingly worse until she does try to give up. Typically, she fails, or there wouldn't be much of a book. Her story gets worse when she starts working on the streets as a prostitute. She then ends up working in a brothel which is a lot better for her but things still go wrong. I found that this wasn't so much about a struggle with drugs which made it a bit different from Tweak. Her relationship with her family was particularly difficult to read, with them accepting her drug use. I think for me the fact that Kate was a successful, intelligent arts graduate made this book different from other drug memoirs I have read and made it easier to relate to.

It was over when... - Robert K Elder
I thought this book would be a wee bit depressing but it was actually quite cute and funny. "It was over when" is a website similar to "f my life" and tells tales of romantic dead ends and the moment you know that the relationship is over. Some of them are sad and end up in divorce but a lot of them are quite amusing. Worth a wee look at the website at least.

The Girl Next Door - Jack Ketchum
On reading the review quotes at the start of this book, I realised that Ketchum was being praised for being a fabulous horror writer - perfect. It tells the tale of a group of kids during their summer break and is told from the point of view of one boy looking back years later. As it went on, I couldn't quite work out what the horror aspect would be - would it be vampires, ghosts, witches? Ultimately I was wrong as this is the story of real life horror. It's loosely based on the true murder of Syliva Likens. In the book, Meg and her sister were left in the care of their aunt Ruth after the death of their parents. Ruth's mental state becomes increasingly unstable and Meg finds herself tortured at the hands of her aunt and her children. It's horrific and uncomfortable to read but it's an incredible book. Because the narrator is looking back on events, he has the ability to edit and at one point says he cannot bare to talk about certain things which leave it up to your imagination. Definitely worth reading if you're into this sort of book.

While we're on the subject of books, has anyone signed up for Pottermore?
Or more importantly, did anyone go on and find the magic quill to sort out early registration??

I did!
I checked facebook when I woke up on Monday morning and someone mentioned Pottermore so I went on and the question was still open. I managed to find it and enter all my details and got my email not long after so now I'm just waiting on early access! Helen did it too so hopefully we'll be on it at the same time. I'm ridiculously excited for this, mainly to get sorted!

mixed up

2011-07-30T09:06:00.001+01:00

A few days ago, I got my first cd from the Goodnight Little Spoon mix cd swap.

This one came all the way from the city of Orem in Utah.

There wasn't a note or anything so I have no idea who sent me this and can't tell you anything about them except that they have fab taste in music!

1. Why do you let me stay here? - She & Him

2. Paper Aeroplane - Angus & Julia Stone

3. Pursuit of Happiness - Kid Kudi ft MGMT & Ratatat

4. Red Rabbits - The Shins

5. Naked as we come - Iron & Wine

6. On Melancholy Hill - Gorillaz

7. The Kids don't stand a chance - Miike Snow

8. The Cave - Mumford and Sons

9. Heartbeats - Jose Gonzales

10. Touch me I'm going to scream part 2 - My Morning Jacket.

I have pretty much all of these songs on my ipod already and if not, then I definitely have something by the same artist.

Even though I am familiar with the artists, I still love this cd. I think it's the idea of getting a mix cd in the post which has been made for you and nicely decorated that is the main point.

And it's still a lovely playlist so I'll definitely copy it on to my ipod and keep listening to it.

i want to break free

2011-07-29T10:47:00.003+01:00

I wore this outfit to my friend's flatwarming over the weekend

but I wore it yesterday to go meet Kevin to go to the cinema and remembered to take photos this time.

Top- Tee and Cake at Topshop

Vest top - H&M

Skirt - H&M

Shirt - Topshop (denim shirt instead of a coat)

This top is one of my favourites. I love Tee and Cake shirts anyway but this is a definite winner.

Tee and Cake create tees with iconic retro scenes from music and films. I have other items by them including my jumper with a Carry On Camping Babs Winsdor and a Jarvis Cocker tee. What I love most about this top is that it looks like a plain old tee from the front...

but it has this gorgeous slashed and tied up back.

I'm a bit of a Queen lover as well. I remember my dad playing me A Night at the Opera on vinyl and watching the live at Wembly video with me, telling me how he'd taped it off the radio onto cassette.

I still have a Wayne's World moment when I listen to Bohemian Rhapsody.

snow leopard

2011-07-28T10:36:00.004+01:00

I haven't done anything interesting with my nails for a while

and I'm really happy with how this manicure turned out so I thought I'd try something a wee bit different and post a tutorial.

I didn't think so take photos while I did them so I'll show you on some falsies.

If you're doing it on false nails, you might want to check out Gem's Tuesday Tip for painting them.

I started off by giving my nails two coats of 17 Lasting Fix nail polish in mini skirt.

Once that was dry, I whipped out my Konad kit.

You might decide to paint your leopard print freehand, if you have a nail pen and, seeing as she's a bit of a whizz-kid, here's another Gem link for leopard nails.

I bought my Konad from the UK site and I got special polish in black and white, a double ended stamper, scraper and am using the super popular m57 plate which has leopard, zebra, fishnet and lace.

Konad is incredibly easy and quick to use once you get the hang of it. You apply the polish to the plate, scrap it off then apply to the stamper. You then roll this across your nail to transfer the design. I learned about Konad from Leesha at xsparkage. You should watch her how to video and her FAQ video before you get started. She explains everything better than I can!

One my Konad print was done, I used these Kiss nail art paints that I bought in Walgreens in Florida. They came in a three pack, along with round and pointy nail tip guides (like for a french manicure) and a sheet of crystals for around $8. Not bad!

The colours are (l-r)

soft purple, beach pink and soft blue.

They have a super thin striper brush which I'm still getting used to.

The polish has a bad habit of pooling down to the end of the brush and I've had a couple of incidents were I have messy blobs but if you keep wiping it on the bottle, it's all good.

I used all three colours to place teeny dots in some of the leopard print holes - not all of them.

I also like that the Konad has some filled in spots, some with open centres and some that aren't complete. It's a nice mixed up leopard.

Oh I should point out, I used the giant thumb nail which doesn't fit my fingers so the Konad stamp didn't cover all of it as it was just too big. But it's fine on actual nails.

To finish, I used Seche Vite as a top coat.

I don't usually put a top coat over Konad as I've heard it can smudge the print but Seche Vite is perfect and doesn't mess it up.

So hopefully you enjoyed my wee tutorial.

Let me know if you think I should try this more often and if you give this a go then please send me photos!

stop wait a minute mister postman

2011-07-27T19:51:00.004+01:00

I've had a few very exciting things thru the mail recently.

I love getting post but it's always nice to get something that isn't junk mail.

I got this gorgeous letter from Rosie at A Rosie Outlook.

It makes me feel bad tho because when I wrote to her I'm pretty sure my paper and envelope were plain white :( I will tart things up in the future!

I also got my first mix from the Goodnight Little Spoon mix swap, as well as another cd in return for one of the ones I sent out. I think I'm going to do seperate posts for those tho, as I want to post the playlists and my opinions on them!

I've also sent out some letters of my own.

I have finally written back to one of my penfriends which is about 2 months over due.

I have also aquired a new pen friend thru the Forever Young Adult blog penpal program so I've sent my first letter to her. I also popped a quick card in the post to say thank you for the mix cd I recieved.

If you fancy sending me some mail or swapping letters/postcards/anything then please

feel free to drop me an email or something!

sunshine

2011-07-27T14:29:00.001+01:00

Yesterday was spent sitting on our garden swing, eating ham sandwiches and reading on my Kindle.

The cat is Domino - he comes over to visit us, lounge around and share my ham.

I may have to retreat back to the swing today as the weather looks lovely!

one pill makes you larger

2011-07-26T22:21:00.001+01:00

Slightly different outfit post for you today!

Helen and I spent the afternoon at Camera Obscura on Monday.

I've never been before and really enjoyed it. We spent ages playing around with things, including the distoring mirrors, the infinity room and all the optical illusions.

I'm wearing:

Boat Dress - Topshop

Shirt - H&M

Converse.

I love this dress - it's so cute and girly and very dressy. Perfect for the nice sunny weather we had.
But I kind of hate sleeveless things and it was slightly chilly so I popped the light shirt on over the top.

Helen is wearing:
Tee - ASOS
Shirt - unknown but probably Topshop.
Jeans - Topshop
Converse.

We ended up in the pub for dinner which was moderately disappointing.
Helen had to go to a rehersal as she's in a Fringe show and I headed to meet Kevin and some others in another pub!
Our nice afternoon out with a picnic turned into a teeny bit of drunken debauchery in our favourite clubs.

be your own hero

2011-07-24T12:34:00.001+01:00

I recently downloaded an app called "Strip Design" for my iphone and some photos taken of Helen and I messing around with Harry Potter wands were perfect for testing out what it could do.

Helen had Voldemort's wand and I had the Elder Wand

and of course, as the good guy, I won the battle!

And celebrated with a tankard of Butterbeer...or a Jagerbomb.

We also used our tattoos to see if we could summon each other a la the Deatheaters' Dark Marks.

It didn't work...

I'm wearing:

Queen Tee - Tee and Cake from Topshop

Black Skirt - H&M

Shirt - Topshop

We were at a flatwarming for a few of my friends so it was just a reasonably casual outfit for a Saturday night.

It was actually quite nice to have a quiet night in a flat for once, having a few drinks with some lovely people.

ctrl + alt + DELETE

2011-07-22T14:52:00.001+01:00

OOPS!

My face was quite similar to this when I realised all of the photos from my blog were missing.

I'm working on editing all my posts but it's a pain in the bum so it might take me a wee bit to get thru.

I also managed to delete the header for the blog and can't find it on my computer which is annoying! I don't have photoshop or anything so can't go about making a new one. If anyone can be of service then do let me know! :)

Buffalo Grill

2011-07-21T19:04:00.002+01:00

My parents and I usually go out for dinner on my birthday and this year we were joined by my aunt and uncle and Helen.

I decided to go for somewhere I haven't been in ages and picked the Buffalo Grill in Stockbridge.

It's quite a small restaurant right on the corner but it's lovely inside with a slight Western feel.

I went for shrimp tempura as my starter and they were delicious. Nice and big with a gorgeous batter and sweet chili dip. I also sampled my mum's crispy beef and Helen's gaucamole which were both good too. Helen's came with a tonne of tortilla chips so we ended up all digging in to hers and having a "do we actually like guacamole?" debate.

Most of us picked steak as our main meal - of course!

I went for the Steak Chipotle which came with a gorgeous but spicy tomato sauce. There was enough to flavour but not drown out the steak, which was yummy. I don't think I had any tough bits.

Helen had the BG's French steak which looked good for something with mushrooms and came with a massive pile of chips.

I think only three of us managed desert and my mum didn't even finish hers.

I had toffee dime bar cake which was to die for. Helen wanted to try it and I was not keen to share!

no photos of dinner, so here's one from Monday!

The Buffalo Grill is probably a little more expensive than my student budget stretches too but it was a special occasion!

They have another location up by Edinburgh Uni which is obviously just as handy for town but the only issue I have is that it's not licensed, so Stockbridge won on that aspect. I think you can take your own bottles and they charge corkage though so don't let it put you off.

We had a pre dinner drink in Hectors and headed off to Henry J Beans afterwards.

I think my mum and aunt enjoyed their cocktails, but for around £3 each, who wouldn't??

Buffalo Grill website.

american makeup

2011-07-21T17:26:00.001+01:00

So this post is completely overdue. I apologise.

I was trying to think of something to post about and spotted these photos on my camera and realised I forgot to post about the makeup I bought when I was in Florida.

Now I cannot claim to be a makeup whizz. I live in eyeliner, mascara, powder and red lipstick

but I feel I should be branching out and am trying to improve at putting my face on!

First up are my more expensive buys.

There was a Sephora in one of the malls we went to and I couldn't resist it.

I headed for the Benefit section as I've heard good things and it was a lot cheaper than home. I think one thing was like $15 compared to about £20 here.

I got an "exclusive to Sephora" 3 pack of mini Posie tint, High Beam and Bene-tint but Glamour kind of made that less exciting...cheers guys. I also got the "Finding Mr Bright" box and lemon aid. One of my friends told me that lemon aid "makes your eyes not look hungover when you actually are" so I had to try it!

I also picked up a 2 pack of Jack Black intense therapy lip balms after Leesha at xsparkage mentioned them. You can see a bottle of Sephora own brand makeup primer which is actually for Rani at Cupcake Couture. Maybe if she'll be nice and write me something about it!

Finally, I couldn't resist hitting up the Kat Von D section.

I have a massive crush on Kat and my parents brought me some of her stuff back from Vegas last year. I got an autograph liner and a tattoo liner - both in black and a red lipstick. I tested her autograph liner pencil on my hand and when it was still there at the end of the day, I decided I needed it. Unfortunately they had no black left but they did have a box set which included 5 full size products for $55, including the eyeliner. I'm pretty sure the pencil was around $20, so for not much more I got a lipstick, eyeshadow palette and 2 primers. Not bad!

Everytime we went into Walgreens, I could be found lurking near the makeup.

I resisted a lot and, as you can see, stuck to nail stuff.

I picked up 3 sinful colours polishes for $2 each and the pack of Kiss nail art pens was around $7 I think.

I got 2 lots of leopard nail wraps, some Kiss stickers and a pack of false nails and a Seche Vite topcoat which I think was a bit cheaper than here. I spent around $50 in Walgreens which isn't too bad for what I picked up.

Like I said, I don't think I know enough about makeup to write the sort of post a beauty blogger would but I am going to write other posts about some of these products.

two little ducks

2011-07-18T12:20:00.001+01:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MEEEEEE!!!

Today is my 22nd birthday. I suddenly feel all mature, like a good cheese...

I bought this shirt on Friday when I was looking for a birthday outfit in Topshop.

I spotted the dino version of this tee and cake shirt on Rani and Lily

but they only had this shark version which I still love!

I'm wearing it with a black bodycon skirt to go meet a friend for birthday lunch at TGIs!

card from the wife. I do love a bit of Rob Ryan!

wee purse from the wife too.

I obviously live up to my Blondie reputation!

moose pasta!

flying swallows from the wife.

I love those retro flying ducks but these swallows are even better!!

Just a quick post for now as I'm heading out

but I'll get some photos of my outfit for later!

MUMS comfort food

2011-07-16T16:12:00.003+01:00

I ended up going out for dinner with a friend last night and we decided to head to MUMS on Forest Road.

I'd been here when it was Monster Mash and from what I remember things aren't too different.

It's a reasonably small, cosy little cafe with a slight retro feel. It was really comfortable and relaxed.

They claim to serve great comfort food which is exactly what was on offer, with a selection including pies, burgers, macaroni cheese and sausages.

I decided to go for sausages with mash and gravy.

You can have traditional pork sausages or choose from their selection of specials. I went for one pork and sweet chili (which was amazing!) and a pork and leek.

Then they have 16 types of mash to go with your sausages. This was a pretty tough call to be honest.

I'm a big fan of cheesy mash so decided to go for chipotle and cheese which was yummy. Just a little bit spicy which went well with the sausages.

Finally they have three types of gravy - classic, onion or tomato and thyme. I'm a bit of an onion fiend so there wasn't much deliberation there.

It was £6.95 for my meal which I think is incredibly good. I had 2 large sausages and a very decent sized portion of mash. It was so filling!

On top of that, we made good friends with their selection of milkshakes.

I had a mint aero one and a reese's cups one. They were so good! Not quite how I like them as I like them thick with lots of ice cream but still yummy.

If you're in the mood for homey comfort food at reasonable prices then I definitely suggest checking out MUMS. The food was delicious, the staff were lovely AND they give you a blackjack and a fruit salad with your bill!

Check out the MUMS website.

Horcruxes and Hallows

2011-07-15T11:41:00.003+01:00

Snippets of what we wore to see Harry Potter last night.

Helen did her nails in Slytherin and Gryffindor colours too and had little lightning bolts at her eyes.

I wore lightning bolt tights and my glasses. I had on stag earrings, an owl necklace and of course my Deathly Hallows necklace.

We thought we were arriving pretty early by getting there just after 11. Unfortunately our screen was already in and nearly full! We got two seats near the back but off to one side.

We drank Polyjuice Potion (coke) and ate cockroach clusters (popcorn) and fizzy wands.

I don't want to talk much about the film because I know a lot of you won't have seen it yet.

The main word I found to describe my feelings was "deflated".

As the final installment of the movie series, it was great, but I can't let go of how different it is from the book. Maybe if I hadn't reread it so recently...I don't know. I wanted more from it.

Helen and I both agreed that the scenes with the Ressurection Stone and Kings Cross were perfect.

I did cry, but I don't think it was necessarily because the film made me - more that I knew what was going on from the book. Some parts deserved more than they got and what seem like slight changes were a big deal to me.

I wanted to feel both sad that it was over but happy with how the final film came out (because you're supposed to be happy that the bad guy gets defeated & Harry has a kid called Albus Severus!), but I just didn't. I felt kind of...flat.

Maybe I'll feel different when I see it again.

I don't know.

I'm going to go mourn my childhood.

expecto patronum

2011-07-14T17:05:00.002+01:00

Are you a complete Muggle and not at all interested in the release of Deathly Hallows Part 2 - the final Harry Potter film?

or are you a super over excited young wizard who has their hankies at the ready, like me?

I'm sure you've already guessed that I am a massive Harry Potter fan.

When I was 10, we were in the James Thin bookshop in the Gyle and a woman in my dad's work had recommended I read these new "Harry Potter" books. I picked up all three (Prisoner was not long out in hardback), even tho my dad said I should just buy one to see if I liked them.

And that's how I first got into Harry and I've been a massive fan ever since.

I have mixed feelings about the films. They're not the same as the books and never will be.

I've come to look at them on their own and love them in a different way

but it will always be about the books.

My shirt in this first photo is from a discount store in Florida.

My Deathly Hallows necklace was bought on etsy and I bought my friend Helen a matching one.

The wand is a replica of Harry's that I picked up in Hogsmeade and my glasses are Urban Outfitters.

I'm going to the midnight showing of Harry tonight with Helen and I'm incredibly sad about it.

I don't want it to be over. I know I'm going to cry.

I painted my nails Gryffindor and Slytherin colours because of course I'm supporting Team Harry, but at the same time, Severus Snape is one of my favourites. I love him and do not want to watch that scene!

I used Models Own 24 carat gold and sterling silver, Topshop poison ivy and Eyeko saucy polish.

So what about you - are you a Harry lover?

bettlejuice, beetlejuice, beetlej....

2011-07-14T10:14:00.002+01:00

You may have noticed my lovely Beetlejuice necklace from Tuesdays outfit post.

I had some pennies left on my paypal from selling my Laura Marling gig ticket so spent it on two necklaces from etsy.

They arrived in the post just as I was leaving for my job interview so I decided to toughen up

my girly floral dress with a bit of Beetlejuice!

I ordered these beauties from My Darling Frankenstein, the shop of Kristina Kreep.

According to her bio, she loves horror, old Hollywood and pin-ups and that is exactly what her jewellery reflects.

I actually saw her Beetlejuice hair bow on a blog I think which is what lured me in, but it was out of stock, which is why I went for the necklace. Then I spotted Lily and had to have her as I love the Munsters!

Here's a peek at her business card with her details.

I can't reccomend her enough. I think I ordered towards the start of last week so it was very quick in being shipped out and delivered. They're also really good quality and a nice size - not too small which is always a good thing!

i am a butterfly

2011-07-13T21:57:00.002+01:00

A not-very exciting outfit post but hey, I promised to post more!

I wore this today to go into town with Kevin and sit in the sunshine.

I then ate McDonald's and ice cream in the gardens with Helen. Easy-peasy day!

Dress - H&M

Shirt - Topshop

Need to work on my photo faces! Learning process!

I've been living in this shirt the past few days. It's been nice in Edinburgh - warm but not quite nice enough to be without a jacket or cardi so this is a nice inbetween.

I got a new pretty!

I popped in to visit Kevin who pierces at Plus48 in Edinburgh - go visit them!
I've not been pierced since Kevin did my septum last September.
I hate needles and this is a wee bit different as it's a microdermal on my wrist.
I made a wee bit of a fuss but he calmed me down and did it and I don't know why I was being so dramatic! It didn't hurt half as much as most of my other piercings did, and he was very quick which helped.

The title of this blog comes from a Die Antwoord song. They're like...South African hip hop and are a little weird and explicit, just in case you decide to youtube.
This has been stuck in my head all day.

flower power

2011-07-12T21:10:00.002+01:00

This is my outfit from today.

It looked so gloomy when I left the house but it turned out to be quite warm so I regretted wearing tights!

I wore this to go to a job interview for a vintage, Hawaiian themed bar and to have lunch with my friend Tex at Gourmet Burger Kitchen. I have a major weakness for their garlic mayo - so strong.

I ended up meeting my wee chum Kevin for a few pints and we ended up heading down to Cramond for a drink and a walk along the river to the waterfall. Lovely :)

Dress - Topshop

Shirt - Topshop

Shoes - Converse

Necklace - Etsy (post to follow!)

ugh, my face.

These photos kind of suck I know...sorry.

I don't know if I mentioned that I got a summer project before starting my college course

so naturally I had to hit up Paperchase.

I've been eyeing up these accordian sketchbooks for a while and noticed they were in the sale at 50% off so picked up a black one and a red one, as well as a pretty green covered sketchbook for around £10 which isn't bad. Quite looking forward to getting started now.

mix it up

2011-07-11T14:00:00.004+01:00

I'm sure I've posted before about the gorgeous blog Goodnight Little Spoon.

I started reading it a few months back and I love it. It's an excellent source of inspiration and it got me interested in mail art.

Back at the start of June, she posted about having a mix share swap, where you send two cds and recieve two in return.

I totally forgot I signed up but it was nice to get the email with my addresses a few weeks ago!

Except then I was totally stuck on what to do with my mix.

I am not one of those people with a talent for putting together impressive playlists and mixes.

I considered a theme, using my favourite songs or genres...but nothing seemed right.

I settled on being inspired by GLS's suggestion of creating a mix that you would be happy to recieve. So I created a mix using small, largely unsigned Scottish artists and bands, because I'd rather hear some unknown local music than big artists I would already know.

My playlist includes the likes of my friends Run/Lucky/Free and Dirty Modern Hero.

They've been sent out to Brooklyn, New York and Singapore so hopefully they enjoy them!

I found white paper cd envelopes in a drawer and decorated those with paper, magazine cut outs and stickers. I used a paperchase postcard to write a short note and wrote the tracklisting on the outside of the envelope. I wish I hadn't left it so late so I had more time to work on these but I think they look quite cute.

The swap is now closed but you can read about it here. There's a flickr account for posting images of mixes you send and recieve and lots of lovely inspiration. If you become inspired to make your own pretty mixes then feel free to send them my way!

Did anyone else take part in this?

I love things like this so if you know of any lurking on blogs, let me know!

I'm really excited to get my mixes in return now!!!

2011-07-10T01:09:00.002+01:00

Recent picture from when my hair matched my Pygmy Puff.

The pink is pretty much gone now, tho my hair has a slight tinge. I wish I could have kept it but I don't think it helped the job hunting, so maybe once I'm settled in somewhere that will let me do it.

Things have been a bit quiet recently.

I have a summer project for college which I'm looking forward to getting in to.

I have to research various artists and create a visual diary for a week. I try to do a page a day in one of my sketchbooks, which usually ends up being a very quick doodle but I think it's useful and such anyway. I should really take pictures of those!

I think this week I might head up to the art floor of the central library and hang out. Not the ideal summer activity but I'm desperate to get back into studying! We'll see how long that lasts.

I know I say it every post but I'm going to try to post every day this week from Monday.

Challenge!

fly like paper get high like planes

2011-07-04T23:46:00.003+01:00

Allow me to introduce you to my good friend Helen.

We met when we both started working at the same club and she is now my wife.

Hopefully she doesn't mind me posting her face on here but she's a very important part in my new tattoo tale!

I know it was just a few days ago I posted about my peacock feather tattoo which is barely a month old, but I have a new one!

Helen and I were in the pub last week and we got talking about paper crane tattoos. We both really really like paper cranes and I had talked about getting one before. A visit, a few drawings and an afternoon at Old Town Tattoo later and we both have pretty new cranes!
We went to Old Town which is where I got my swallow from Nick. This time Helen went with Nick and I went with Steph which helped make them more unique. Helen did both of the drawings so I have a piece of her on my arm forever! D'aaaw!

Helen's crane with blossoms.

My kissing cranes.
I wanted them in different but similar colours so pink and purple seemed perfect.

Here's both of us together!

Obviously they're incredibly similar but I think they're unique enough to each of us that it's not quite so obvious.

So yeah...three tattoos in about two months? For the girl who is terrified of needles and had to be dragged to get my first one, that's...a big step up don't you think? Oh deary. I'm in love.
Helen is a bad influence - she was talking about starting my sleeve on the bus home from getting these. These posts are accidentally becoming a regular thing on my blog! oops!

June Reading

2011-07-04T20:28:00.003+01:00

Dead to the World - Charlaine Harris

Dead as a Doornail - Charlaine Harris

Definitely Dead - Charlaine Harris

All together Dead - Charlaine Harris

From Dead to Worse - Charlaine Harris

Dead and Gone - Charlaine Harris

Dead in the Family - Charlaine Harris

Dead Reckoning - Charlaine Harris

I started reading the True Blood books at the end of last month when I was incredibly jetlagged and it only took me about a week to finish them. I bought and read the first a while ago when I got into the tv series and I did not like it at all. I decided to give them another go and while they definitely aren't as good as the tv version of True Blood, they aren't as bad as I thought. I kind of expected them to be a bit more grown up than they were - they felt like a bit of a young adult read at times but that's not necessarily a bad thing, was just a bit unexpected. I'm glad I stuck with them and I'm now looking forward to seeing some of the storylines hopefully coming into True Blood...like more naked Eric Northman.

The Psychopath Test - Jon Ronson

This is one of those non-fiction books that deals with a serious matter in a light, easy to read and sometimes amusing manner. It all starts with this weird book which has been recieved by a number of people around the world, most of whom are related to the world of psychiatry. Ronson starts looking into the origins of this book and this leads him to meet some interesting people, like Tony who is in Broadmoor prison but claims he actually faked being insane. Ronson looks at what it means to be a psychopath and how people come to that conclusion. It was very easy to read but thought-provoking at the same time.

The Girl who was on fire - Various Authors

I read the Hunger Games series not that long ago and loved it, so I was quick to download this book of essays about the series. It's written by various authors and looks at various aspects of the series. Some of them were interesting, like how fashion influenced the rebellion and why Katniss chose Peeta but to be honest, overall, I was kind of bored. Some of the essays felt repetitive and it just wasn't as interesting as I wanted it to be.

The Five Minute Iliad - Greg Nagan

This book is a series of condensed (5 minute!) versions of well known stories and books. It's light and funny and I did enjoy it. I think it's better if you have read the books it includes. I had read a lot of them but the ones I hadn't read were the ones I found least interesting and didn't "get". Each book comes with a short introduction so you have an idea of the author and what's going on which is handy if you haven't read them. I don't think it was necessarily bad, it just wasn't great.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children - Ransom Riggs

This book wasn't what I expected at all but I really liked it. I thought it would be something about a creepy ophanage or something but it so wasn't. The story focuses on Jacob, a well off American teen with a close relationship to his grandfather. His grandfather used to tell him stories and show him odd photos to go along with them and Jacob didn't quite believe him until after he died. What I loved most about this book is that it has amazing photos within it, so you dont have to imagine what Jacob saw. I got totally sucked into this and read it in a few hours one night. It was so interesting and had lovely little twists and turns and actually got me a wee bit scared at times, which is unusual!

Bumped - Megan McCafferty

Another book I really enjoyed and read in one sitting. It's the future and there's a virus which renders people infertile after the age of 20. This means that fertile young girls are a valuable comodity with would-be parents bidding on them to create conception contracts. 16 year old Melody has the desirable qualities a mum needs and so has a very good contract with a rich family. It's all going well until her estranged twin Harmony, who happens to be religious and against this idea of "pregging", shows up. A review on Amazon described this as "A Handmaid's Tale meets Sweet Valley High" which is a perfect description! Like A Handmaid's Tale, it's pretty believable and deals with teen pregnancy in a different way.

The A List - Hollywood Royalty - Zoey Dean

The A List - Sunset Boulevard - Zoey Dean

The A List - City of Angels - Zoey Dean

Oh trash trash trash. I hate to say I quite enjoyed these books but I did! The shame! They're about a group of Hollywood teens who have famous parents or are famous in their own right. Amelie Adams is a well behaved, Hannah Montana like child star who refuses to be seen out drinking and partying. Myla is the adopted daughter of a "Brangelina" type couple who have a hoarde of adopted babies from around the world, but then their biological daughter Jojo appears and shakes everything up. It's a little Gossip Girly, but not as good. It is very teenagery, obviously - it's a young adult book but I still kind of enjoyed them. They're quick and easy to read without much effort.

Ultraviolet - RJ Anderson

I really loved this book at first. It's the story of Alison who thinks she dissolves a girl and ends up in a mental institution. It seems obvious there's something wrong with her if she thinks she's dissolved someone, but Tori is missing and there's no evidence of her anywhere. She starts having meetings with a visiting therapist who determines that Ali has synesthesia, meaning her senses are joined. She can taste when people are lying and numbers have colours and the stars sing. It turns out that her new therapist friend isn't actually a therapist at all which is where I started disliking this book. It turned into that move, you know "Knowing"? Yeah...was good up until then. (edited - I wrote the happening, I meant knowing. There's no freaky plants in this book)

By the time you read this, I'll be dead - Julie Anne Peters
Daelyn Rice has attempted to commit suicide on many occasions, the latest of which has left her with a neck brace and unable to talk. She discovers a website for "completers" which she starts visiting regularly. She's determined to die this time. Because she's on suicide watch, she has to wait for one of her parents to pick her up from school and so she sits on a bench and reads. A boy, Santana, notices her and begins to come over and talk to her. Daelyn tries to avoid him but can't help but get involved. The topic of this book is a very delicate subject and it is hard to read at times. We get to hear Daelyn's reasons, what pushes her on and what would hold her back and it is interesting to see how things we might not think about affect others. There are "tips" on suicide from the website she visits which are...detailed. I thought the fact she couldn't talk from swallowing ammonia was an incredibly interesting idea. At the same time Santana annoyed me. He gets no encouragment from her but he keeps trying and comes off as totally annoying at times.

Peter and Max (a Fables novel) - Bill Willingham
I got into the Fables comics a few years ago and I can't remember why I stopped, especially now I read this book. The general idea is that all of those storybook characters we know and love/hate are real and they lived in a world alternate to ours. However their world ended up in a big old war and lots of them came into our world, where they live in secret. So yeah, anyway, this is a wee novel related to the whole Fables series dealing with Peter Piper and his brother Max. It was weird reading it as a novel rather than with pictures - when I first started reading Fables, it annoyed me that it wasn't a book but I kind of missed them. Anyway, the point is that I enjoyed this and I now want to reread Fables. You could probably still enjoy it if you haven't read Fables.

Bright Young Things - Anna Godbersen

This book was actually a bit better than I expected. It's like Gossip Girl meets the Great Gatsby. Two small town Ohio girls sneak off to New York, one to become famous and the other to find her dad, who just happens to be a bit of a gangster involved in providing alcohol during prohibition. I've just learned two things about it - one. it's a teen book which makes SO MUCH sense! two. it's the first in a series, so I'm off in search of the rest of them.

Phew. So a few days late on this but hey, it was the weekend and I had better things to do.

Hopefully you're not all ridiculously bored of these book posts but I'm finding they push me to read more which is only a good thing!

Miss Kirsty's Blog

#171 Hulk Smash(book)

#170

#169 - Happy New Year

#168

#167

#166 - Ratties

#165

#164 - November Reading

#163 - do the kreep

#162

#161 - tackylicious

#160

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#157 My Darling Frankenstein

#156 BlaBlaBla

#155

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#152 - Raffles Bizarre Blog Feature

#151

#150 - September Reads

#149

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#145 - London Tattoo & Rochester

#144

#143

#142 - horror nails

#141

hair as black as ebony

rhymes with nails

aussie-versary

board of nails

sunshine lollipops and rainbows

a little college work

August Reads

l'eau de bedroom dancing

Amanda F*cking Palmer and Neil F*cking Gaiman

bad blogger

keepers of the night

back to school

shake shake shake senora

vive le cabaret

look guys!

Barry M

Sleek Makeup

library chic

Nails of the Week

Illegal Jacks

needles and pins

July Reading

mixed up

i want to break free

snow leopard

stop wait a minute mister postman

sunshine

one pill makes you larger

be your own hero

ctrl + alt + DELETE

Buffalo Grill

american makeup

two little ducks

MUMS comfort food

Horcruxes and Hallows

expecto patronum

bettlejuice, beetlejuice, beetlej....

i am a butterfly

flower power

mix it up

fly like paper get high like planes

June Reading

Amanda Fcking Palmer and Neil Fcking Gaiman