To Edit or not to Edit?

I got this dress in a charity shop for £2! However I didn't try it on and didn't see a size so I thought it was bigger than it was! When I got home and tried it on I realised and though maybe I could cut slits in the side seams to make it a bit looser or go the opposite way and make it more fitted... Any ideas? I did get a compliment about how it looked today but personally I just felt a tad chunky, like the cling around my belly was quite unflattering! Not sure about the socks with the outfit but the leggings are actually just under knee length with lace at the bottom, which looked a tad weird with my knee high brown boots! The hat however is my favourite purchases in like the last 6 months! £25, suits every outfit and also seemingly every person! 

Long Sleeved Top - Primark, Leggings - Unknown,
 Socks - H&M, Hat - Topshop

Very natural make-up and hair!

Love Steph xxx

Empty?

I haven't been here in a while and I feel kinda stupid for it...I moved to London in September, as I previously posted about, and since then I have found it quite difficult to make friends and fill my time with worthwhile things...

HOWEVER I think this blog is a worthwhile thing and I vow to take the time and effort to nurture my creative side by writing, photography, sketch booking and sewing as I feel it would give me a better sense of worth and would be a better way to spend my evenings  (or what I have left of them after work, the gym and dinner!) and it may even end up a way to meet people (there are millions of people in london, there has to be other lonely people out there!) It also helps that after this brilliant Christmas I have a fully functional brand new sewing machine from the boyf and a lavely tripod to aid with photography from my dad :)

On to more cheerful subjects, I have a brilliant haul from Monsoon to share! I have never really thought much of monsoon due to its slightly confused demographic and higher price range, I tend to only consider the shop if I have a specific posh family event or the like... So anyways the family that I live with (I'm a live in nanny, if I hadn't mentioned that before!) bought me a coat from Monsoon for Christmas, it was quite a nice grey thick affair, but not really my style as I tend to speed walk everywhere and get hot very quickly! So I politely explained this once I came back to London and ask for the opportunity to exchange the coat and I am SO glad I did! For the one £120 exchanged item I got 6 in return! 

 I absolutely adore these two items! They are both from the Fusion range, an amazing collection aimed at younger females I believe, featuring a combination of really fashionable pieces that are well cut and in cute prints and high quality fabrics. The dress fits perfectly and although I originally was not sure about the 'pantomime' sleeves they grew on me quickly! It feels so luxurious and girly to wear, I pranced around a fair amount yesterday despite the cold! The jumper also evokes a mood upon wearing it, as its so soft and cosy, despite being a very loose knit. I think its going to be a very versatile piece, I'm thinking maybe over a white shirt and black jeans? Any other ideas for it?

I was so happy to find this! It's the EXACT size that I need for going back to Zummersettt at the weekends, would fit 2 pairs of clothes, some shoes and a laptop quite happily andddd the pattern is so me! It helps that my weekend handbag has the same brown leather accents (Its a beige Mary Poppins esque bag, photos to come, it was an Urban Outfitters steal!) and therefore they kind of pass as a mix and match luggage set... Kind of...
I haven't photographed the other pieces yet but I also bought pajama trousers, a black coat and a grey cardigan with crocheted detailing.

My other recent purchases have included these beauties for a tenner in New Look, and a few pairs of trousers from there too... I told myself that in January I would be much better with my spending but these sales have been so good that my bank account barely seems to blink at my indulgences!

If anyone else is a bit lonely, even if you aren't in London, drop me a line and maybe we could be pen pals or something! Hahah I love getting post and you would probably receive a few crafted items every now and again :)

Steph xxx

A stroll in Kensington Gardens

Just a quick outfit post from a few weeks ago (i swear trying to make me keep on track with uploading is gonna take a while, but nothing grows unless you nurture it hey?!)

Scarf - Camden (£2!!)  Top and Cardigan - Tescos
Skirt - American Apparel  Shoes - Sports Direct!

Necklace - Originally Urban Outfitters but I nabbed it in a charity shop for a few quid!
Earrings - Primark

The skirt I'm wearing was another purchase from the American Apparel warehouse sale, pretty good find, only £12 there but £30 here! This outfit is ver y me to be honest, I like a lot of black but with a few coloured pieces to break it up! I like to think it allows me to look slimmer and fairly fashionable but at the same time not too 'out there' or dull! haha let me know what you think :) xxx

Am attempting to fulfill my destiny of becoming a domestic goddess this week ;)

(I'm glad you can't taste over the internet, I couldn't face that judgement!)

So this week I have made;

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds with Butter and Salt - Word of mouth idea, I had no idea what I was doing, I've never even eaten a pumpkin seed before... Pretty yummy though!

Pumpkin Soup - I love making soups as you don't need a recipe and can pretty much do everything to taste, this batch was seasoned with back pepper, tumeric and cumin, and it tasted pretty good if I do say so myself!

Blueberry Muffins - Another first, I made the mistake of over mixing the batter so I had tough muffins with plenty of peaks and tunnels :( bad times, but I'm gonna give them another go at some point so I can get it right! Recipe found here.




Pan Fried Rainbow Trout with Bulgar Wheat and Cider Vinegar - I also added sweetcorn, onions and fresh tomatoes to this, completely thrown together but considering i didn't know what rainbow trout tasted like before it was pretty yummy!

American Apparel

Another thing I did this weekend was to visit the American Apparel Market Place in Brick Lane, which is a 5 day sale event with up to 90% of their ridiculously over priced clothes! Usually I'm not a fan of this brand, mainly  due to their prices and tendency of making anyone over size 10 feel the size of a house.... HOWEVER due to the promise of cheaper items I decided to give it a go, over all I was pretty happy with the experience (if you ignore the ridiculous trouser sizing they seem to have, unisex items help nothing...) I bought 5 items for £49, two of which were just presents for friends, small items but 3 were for me, the first of which being...

LE SAC DRESS

I had never heard of this item prior to buying it but the sign above it showed me that it was a garment that could be altered into many different styles (which I of course looked on upon as a challenge!) I had a lot of fun trying to create styles and researching ones that other people have found and have come to the conclusion that although at first it seemed a novelty piece it also is a truly innovative piece of design. I paid £12 at the sale for mine but it is retailing at £34 currently, and was previously £45. I urge you all to check out the styles I managed to document and see what you think, although I wouldn't pay the original price I think £34 is a good price for what you can get from the dress! Just think we all go looking for that little black dress that works for every occasion but then curse it when we have run out of new ways to style it! Maybe American Apparel have hit the nail on the head with this one!

The only thing I can comment about negatively is the amount of rearranging need to ensure the there are no weird bunched up bits of material at either front of back, but once you have straightened all these out you're good to go!

You can buy your Le Sac dress here in a variation of colours.

Also with the dress I am wearing a new pair of leggings from there which you can buy here but there'll be a better outfit post involving them soon :)

ANNNNNND She's Back :)

Having just bought a new SLR you'll be seeing alot more of me I hope :)

So many things to blog about!
So I moved to London and became a Nanny in Fulham, the kids are lovely and most of the time I find my new career path very fulfilling.

However this domain is a place for my artsy chatty side so look forward to a lot of photography from out and about in London and hopefully when I get my sewing machine back a hilarious insight into me teaching myself techniques...

Hahahahahahaha its good to be back.

This weekend I've met up with a bunch of friends and been trying out the new camera, which is a Nikon D3100. I'm loving it so far but I'm only 4 days into trying out all the settings etc. These are a bunch of photos from out and about in London, namely Brick Lane, Portobello and Kensington. The photos are RAW images so I'm sorry if any don't work or take too long to load, I'm still working out how to make the images smaller to upload them!

I don't want to do college work so instead I will talk about artists and blogs and sale items.

I hate portfolios. And Unis. And Interviews. :(

However...Miranda July.
I love this woman. My arty farty friend Kendal got me to watch 'Me, You and Everyone we know' last night and, although there are so many things that either have no relevance to the world or are so deep that I just don't get them... I believe, in the hour or so that the film was played I connected with her amazing sense of humor and view of everything around her. The music is great, the characters are great and she is more than great. (I sound like an arty lesbian...)

After googling her today I found this quote which kinda sums up how I feel about the world -


"Life is just this way, broken, and I am crazy to hope for something else." 

So yeah...Not much more to say on this subject, I'll move on before I start rambling about love and life and stuff...

Screenshots of the Film - Credit

Another amazing thing I found today was this blog, or more specifically this post - Blair on a Budget - on Primark Latest offerings... I swear today is a day for extremes...I was SO HAPPY. I can't wait to go to primark..I especially love, on another of her posts, an amazing pair of high waisted skinny black jeans (something I've been on the lookout for, along with a few *perfect* blouses...) The other of my favourite items is the AHmazing floppy straw sun hat with the black band... I clearly plan to parade around all summer in beauifully printed dresses and crazy hats. Alot like this -

Right then - Sale Buys and Christmas Presents :D :D :D

 An outfit that looks much better on but I have had the chance to do an outfit post on it yet! The cardigan is from a Joules Outlet store, in the sale :) I'm not usually a joules fan but this cardigan caught my eye in the cold weather due to the thick knit and beautifully shiny gold buttons... This is actually a size 18 as I felt the 12 just was too short and I'm particularly partial to longer cardigans. The dress was from the amazingly chavvy company '24 Studio' (no offence to any fans, its just not usually to me taste...) but yes, another shock find, a beautiful ditsy print tea dress, fitted at the waist with a modest neckline. However I was disappointed by the length of this dress as it comes up just a little to short to wear without leggings when it gets warmer... Hmph!

 Been on the lookout for a nice winter coat for a while now, after losing mine sometime while looking for winter coats in town..FAIL. This one is amazing though, the teal colour sets off the crazy red hair I'm currently sporting while flattering my hourglass figure :) Win at £25 in the sale I think.

I was fairly amazed by the prices of these items, New Look and Republic were my favourite two sale shops this winter :D The shoes, from New Look, cost me a tiny FIVE POUNDS! I was so happy to find them as my giant size 8 feet rarely do well in the sales for actually nice shoes... I'm not sure when I'll pluck up the courage to go out in sky high heels though... :( 

The two Republic necklaces were kind of impulse buys, I love jewellery and have loads of it, even though I rarely seem to wear half of it (it just looks nice!) but who's going to say no to £2 a piece necklaces?!

I've been on the lookout for some kind of hair fascinator/headband thing for a while now, and this one was just so pretty :) I love that its an autumn/winter piece based on a crinkled autumn leaf :D Also, like the necklaces, it only cost £2 from Republic :)

So there you go, the ramblings of my procrastination... (i'm clearly not going to get into Uni if I do this much more...) Oh well, living up to the blog name I guess!

Steph xxx