Paris Fashion Week - H&M

Last night the Rodin Museum in Paris held the H&M Fall/Winter 2013-2014 ready-to-wear collection show. It was the first time that Swedish designers H&M had their own show during Paris Fashion Week. These designs will be available from stores in September this year, prices starting from £9.99 (which we all know means that everything will be much closer to £20).
Below are pictures of my favourite designs from the collection but if you want to see a video of the event, click here or scroll down to the bottom of the post ...

                                                   

To view a video of all the best bits of the H&M show, click below:

G is for ...

G is for ... grips hanger

Yes of course 'grips hanger' is the technical name for this. Let's face it, 'hanger' is a little far fetched; it's a piece of string, but I do hang my grips on it.
Then again, this is a very important thing in my bedroom, considering how hair grips seem to have an unfortunate tendency to wander off. This lot started off as a pack of 50, which has now diminished to ... urmm ... 10.
Anyway, they will not go missing again as I have now created this clever little storage space for them. They are just hung on two screws that sit below my mirror (and should hold the mirror up, but for some reason ... well, don't). All you need is a piece of string and something to hang it off!

Artist of the month - February

Sally McKay:

Sally McKay is an artist who's main subjects are people dancing and has a very characteristic way of capturing their movements, through broad lines and stokes.
She usually works with the mediums of acrylics and oils or charcoal, but also does sculpture and etching pieces.
I love McKay's work because of the apparent simplicity of it all (though through experience, I know it is very hard to recreate) and the formation of the movement.

You can visit her website by clicking here or visit her blog by clicking here

F is for ...

F is for ... fairy lights

These were a present from Santa, which is strange as I was with my mum when we bought them. Apparently she had to take hers back ...

Summer please

Today, I have been so cold and grumpy that I've spent most of it, sitting in a very uncomfortable position just to have my back to the radiator. My question is, WHEN THE HELL DOES SUMMER GET HERE???

To be honest, I've also spent a fair amount of time asking Google that very same question. It couldn't answer me apart from to say that official summertime in England starts on Friday the 21st of June, which everyone British will know that's a lie and that it will rain for the entirety of June and July and August, but we'll have that random two weeks of heatwave in the middle of May.

But while I was moping around, thinking about moving to Italy, and how very British I am to be complaining about the weather, I had a little look through some of my holiday photos from Turkey last year and the memory of how overly hot it was made me happy again, so I thought I'd share them with you.

The place I visited was called Kalkan, a old fishing town on the Mediterranean coast:

It really is the most beautiful place, until you have to climb up several of the hills at three in the morning. It also was extremely hot. For the whole stay it was over 50 degrees, which even the local people said was abnormally not, as it wasn't full on summertime when we went, but it was still pretty damn lush.


The view from a cafe

This drink was disgusting ... but pretty

The view from our balcony



The only sandy beach we saw all week, which was incredibly busy and the sand
was so hot it burned your feet, even in the shade

My best friend and I (I went with her and her parents) being forced to take
an embarrassingly posed photo with these two guys because we wouldn't go into their cafe
(I'm on the right if you're wondering)





This is my favourite photo I've ever taken, which is why it's the background of this blog

And finally these are the nicest cocktails the world has ever known. Fact.

Ahh, I feel so much better now ...

E is for ...

E is for ... earrings

These earrings are something of a family heirloom, having been passed down from my Great-Grandmother I think. They're clip-on ones, which means I don't wear them very much - anyone who's ever worn clip on earrings will know how surprisingly painful they are - but they will hopefully be passed down my daughter, unless I only have sons, in which case, they will be having some embarrassing moments in their lives...

D is for ...

D is for ... ducks

Suprisingly D is quite a hard letter ... so ducks, yeah. They are quite adorable though. The one on the left was a birthday present which was named Louis, as we were in a French class at the time. The other isn't technically a duck, but more of a budgie ... with a hat on. My piano teacher knitted me it for some reason, maybe to distract me from attempting to play the piano, which, I admit, I was pretty terrible at ...

C is for ...

C is for ... cars

These are old replicas of the vans these companies used to have years ago, that my brother used to collect. They might even be valuable, who knows!

B is for ...

B is for ... Butterfly

This pretty little butterfly, according to my dad, is 'stolen goods', because it had fallen off a Christmas decoration so I took it. Living life on the edge that is ...

A is for ...

For the next 26 days, I've set myself the Alphabet Challenge. The Alphabet Challenge is basically to take a picture of a favourite thing of yours for every letter of the alphabet.

Now I thought that sounded pretty easy, so to make it harder, I've narrowed it down to things that are in my bedroom. So everyday I'll add a new item ... I'm dreading X ...

A is for ... Angel

This one sits on my bedside table and falls off a lot, but she's still pretty, even with slightly wonky wings. I should really think of a name for her ..... any suggestions?



February Blues

    So February eh? It's well dull. I'm sure I'm not the only one suffering from a bit of February blues (yes I know it's January blues but still ... ). For me, just the thought that there is 7 months until I can go back to college, 9 months until my birthday, and 10 whole months until Christmas is, frankly, depressing.

    Being the extremely productive person that I am, I've taken the time (procrastinated the time I should say, I have loads of things I really need to do) to have a little search on Pinterest for some motivational quotes and things to get me in a happier mood and mindset. I definitely need to remember some of these in my day-to-day life.

    So just in case there's anyone else out there, who's feeling a little down right now, here's a list of my favourites to help cheer you up ...

Lent ... 2 days down, 38 to go

    So we're already on the second day of Lent! My cousin ruined his alcohol fast a mere 19 hours after it started, but I'm still going strong!

    For those of you who have no idea what Lent actually is, here's a little background history. Lent takes place from Ash Wednesday (the day after Pancake Day) to the day before Easter Friday, which is 40 days. Traditionally, people fast, or give up luxuries as a form of penitence and repentance before celebrating Easter. These days though, I think it is more widely viewed as a challenge and a way to improve your general lifestyle. But for me as a Christian, it's a pretty important time of year.

    Usually, I like to go pretty manic when it comes to Lent. I guess I'm just the sort of person who likes a challenge. A couple of years ago, I only drank water for the whole six weeks, which I must say was insanely hard work. This year however, I've set the bar a little lower.

    The thing I'm trying to give up this year is time. Sounds pretty easy right? Apparently not. Now I can't really say that I have much of a busy life. Having been forced to drop out of college earlier this year due to illness, I spend most of my time sitting around the house and getting under my mother's feet. I work one day a week at the moment but even on those days there are plenty of hours where I basically just procrastinate doing anything useful.

    A lady in my church suggested that for the 40 days of Lent, we take some time out of our day to day routine and just sit and think for five minutes. No radio, no television, no other people, just you and your thoughts. She then handed out candles to everyone, suggesting that we light them and use them to help us relax and not get distracted.

    To be honest, at the time, I was secretly thinking 'there is no way I'll ever do that'. Firstly, I happen to be terrified of lighting matches after accidentally setting my own hair on fire once. But I also thought that I would have nothing to think of and that after, a few minutes, I would just get bored and give up .

    But yesterday, after a little persuading from my father I did shut myself in my room with some matches and the candle. After a few minutes I even built up the courage to light the candle, but when I actually sat down and took the time to think I found that I actually had quite a few things running through my head, and that I was actually quite enjoying myself.

    Being a Christian, I took most of the time to have a little chat with God. I've always been pretty rubbish at things like praying. I usually feel pretty silly and get distracted within a few seconds. But I found that having the candle to look at kept my mind from wondering off on some unrelated tangent.

    Doing it again today, made me realise a lot more that this was something that could be very useful in my life. At this point in my life a lot of things seem to be very confusing and not going in the way I had planned. I never thought I would end up having a year off from school and being stuck at home, unable to do all the things I wanted to do this year. But after just ten minutes of sitting and thinking, I've already decided to do something I've been putting off for a while, but really do need to do, and I'm really thankful for that.

    So if you haven't done anything for Lent, or even if you have, I would really recommend doing something like this. You don't have to pray or even light a candle, you could just think. Make a list of things you'd like to do; think of all the things you're thankful for; just take some time to reflect on the things in your life, because sometimes, when our lives seem to be racing by, we can often forget what's important and what's not.

The perfect home manicure ...

Hello!

So the French Manicure is the mother of all things nail painting. It originated in 18th-century Paris and has been popular ever since. However, it can get very expensive to get them done professionally at a salon, so here's a little guide to how you can do your own at home ...

Make sure you have:

Emery board nail file
Nail buffer
Hand moisturiser
Bowl of warm, soapy water
Nail polish remover
Cotton pads
Cotton buds
Cocktail stick
Clear Nail Varnish
White tip nail varnish

File the nails into curves. Always file your nails in one direction to get a smoother finish. Also, try not to apply too much pressure as this damages the nail.

Use a nail buffer on the top surface of the nail to take away ridges and give a high-quality shine. Most nail buffers have three sides; buff, smooth and shine. Ensure you use all three to get the best results

Soak your fingertips in warm soapy water for around three minutes. This cleans away any dust left from filing and softens the cuticles

Use a cuticle pusher (or if you don't have one, a cocktail stick) to gently push back the cuticles. The cuticle is the soft pinky skin that protects the divide between the finger and nail, but can grow over the top part of the nail

Moisturise your hands and nails, being careful to rub it into the remaining cuticles. Make sure it is fully soaked in before the next step. Then take your nail polish remover and quickly rub it over your nails. Having moisturiser on your nails when you try to paint them will mean the varnish can't stick properly

Apply a clear base colour and allow to dry completely

Apply the white tip polish, following the natural curve of the skin under the nail. It is easiest the start in the middle, then move out to both sides

Now I discovered this little tip completely by accident but if you run a cocktail stick along the curve as soon as you have applied a white tip, it replaces a wobbly top with a smooth, professional-looking line 

Use a cotton bud to remove any excess varnish from the sides of the nail

Once the tips are dry apply a top coat of clear nail varnish to protect them from chipping and produce a high-shine effect

Finished! The perfect home French manicure, and maybe a little treat for your dear mothers in a few weeks ....?