Friday 30 July 2010

Outfit Success?

Today I was dragged out of bed to go sit with an amigo, who, for the time being lives around the corner from me. Due to my severe 'can't be arsed-itus' at 10 am, I threw on the nearest fabric construction I could find, resulting in the following;
Pink butterfly
 embroidered tee
Dorothy Perkins
£20
Leather jacket
New Look
£45















The above pictured items were thrown on hazily with previously donned grey jeggins, a chunky gold link bangle, tiny gold heart pendant necklace, brown and white slouch bag, white plimpsoles, genuine vintage black strap watch and, of course, a vintage scarf tied around my head - 50's style. So off I plodded into the morning moisture to see Jack and Nina (the pug dog he's been minding), I stayed for an hour then shot on down to the job centre and sorted my shizz out and journeyed back to Jack - yes, I just said shizz and yes, I just rhymed 'Jack' with 'back'.

After about 2 hours of some much needed abuse giving/receiving, sandwich and tutti fruiti eating, I was whisked off my feet by Miss Jenkins to go traipsing around the glamourous Bikenhead in the sky-wee. First stop - Primark, vom - I just don't know why that store exists, but Charlotte had fun. Next stop - Dorothy Perkins where I purchased a striped t-shirt (£8), a baggy picture t-shirt pictured left (£12) and a curved hem jersey cardigan (£22). All for no reason atall except I wanted them, best reason, right? Then onto New Look, which, as always was disappointment with a hint of chav and the occasional acceptable item. I did however part with my pounds for a striped cardigan - I have just gone mad for stripes this week.

So now I'm home, and although I've had um-teen showers today to the point where my fringe looked like it had been swimming in the gulf of Mexico - Cheers great British terrain, I'm going to max it up in a nice hot one and maybe steal some Lynx showergel off my dad so I smell like boys. Then off for drinky-poos with Miss Jenkins and some other rabble.

Signing off for the weekend.

P & L
Voodle

Wednesday 28 July 2010

Aces for ASOS

I'm in love. I visited the dress section today on ASOS.com and I can safely say my family are in danger of being sold, as are my kidneys and/or any other unnecessary body parts. Although some of the frocks ASOS had to offer were definitely admire only, due to my body shape and lack of those round coins everyone seems to have except me, they still made the fabric feline inside me purr.

Twenty8Twelve by
s . miller Pratella Canas
I've never quite grasped the ability to wear underwear as outerwear because of the two rounded obstructions about six inches south of my chin, however, I think this dress would allow me to pull off the complicated trend without looking like I'm wearing it to earn the money to pay for it. Success? Not quite. This black beauty's company comes at a gasp-worthy £210, so for now, similar to how I'm dealing with my love for Johnny Knoxville, I'm on the look out for look-a-like.


Roger Sorger for ASOS
Venturing down the pound scale, is this embellished jersey dress, scoop-necking in at a splurging £145. The reason I love this sassy straight-up, straight-down, is the way the simpleness of the style, fabric and background contrasts with the thumb print sequin detail, allowing for both nighttime and daytime wear. For the daytime I'd more than likely throw on a simple boyfriend blazer, some thick wooly socks, boho boots and bedhead hair, then glam it up of an evening by letting the dress speak for itself with a tidy up-do, oversized clutch and ankle boots. I'm definitely crushing on this nude pink number but it's totally out of my price range. Damn.

Staple Silk Chiffon
shirt dress
I'm going to throw this out there, if you don't like it, send it right back; I want to be on this shirt dress. I wasn't a fan of the see through lace trend this winter gone (even though I donned it once in Newcastle), I just thought it was too easy to get it wrong and in my opinion, for the most part, people did. However, I have always supported sheer, from headbands to socks, I love it and this chiffon shirt is no exception. Available also in white, made from 100% silk and radiating pure 'wear with anything' elegance, it's only downfalls are it's food replacing price tag of £95 and the fact it can only be dry cleaned. Other than that, if that shirt was my boyfriend, I'd be giving it twenty-four hour smooches, buying it fancy dinners and hinting for a proposal; but that's just me.

ASOS Taffeta box pleat
dress
The winner, I think, winning in both glam factor and value for money, is this mink coloured box pleat dress sitting casually at a humble £38. Although I'd rarely wear this bad boy out in the day time, it still more than makes up for that in evening possibilities. Throw on a simple peacock feather headband, a slouch clutch bag and some open toed ankle boots for an indie/glam look or sport a pair of chunky black strapped heels, oversized gold jewellery and a powder pink feather clutch and, because of it's low cut back, you've got full on trendy sex kitten. Finally, it's simple yet sophisticated design makes it so easy to customize, it's like a blank canvas available in 3 sensational colours; mink, purple and navy, Smashing.

ASOS wins at life.

P & L
Voodle

Cupcake-tastic

Ok, so my friend came back from London on Monday after a 5 day visit and bought me back some mouth candy in the form of a Maya the bee cupcake.

Today, after admiring it for two days, I ate it, wow. My heart melted faster than the icing in my cake hole when he, not only, remembered I love cupcakes, purposely popped into Candy Cakes during his hectic visit to our capital, forked out a steep £2.90 for this cake-y bad boy and lugged it all the way back to our minimalistic peninsular without sustaining any damage to the hand decorated beauty, but he remembered watching Maya the bee with me about 7 years ago, which instantly made the gift that more meaningful.

Due to this magnificent spongey gesture, I can definitely confirm my respect for him has risen by 17%. I LOVE YOU BRADLEY.

P & L
Voodle

Tuesday 27 July 2010

The curious case of Emma Jones

Ever noticed that the best things are from your childhood? Lately, I feel like I'm ageing backwards and I find myself acting immature (where appropriate) and opting for OAProducts. Don't get me wrong, I love technology and the way it's progressing, I couldn't live without my laptop or my phone, but just because 150,000,000 of those round coins I lack have been spent researching it, doesn't mean it's better than it's pre-decessors. I'm not sure if it's my stubbornness toward change, a not so subtle attempt at holding on to my childhood or just my love for retro/vintage products, but it's happening and I'm embracing it.

Digital (R)age...
The sophistication of digital cameras, in my opinion, is going too far and it's unnecessary. Personally, I don't see the point in spending a ridiculous amount of money on a camera just so I can focus on a road sign behind my friends head or stand at the South coast of Italy and give a Sicilian fellow a quick dental check with the zoom. Photography is about capturing a moment so you can look back and remember how you felt, yet with all these knobs, buttons and lenses to adjust, by the time you're ready to take the picture the moment has gone. So I've decided I'm ditching the digital and donning the disposable. I miss the anticipation of waiting for my photo's to be developed and the moments going through them for the first time with the characters involved in my chemically developed story, laughing like a pack of hyenas. Plus, I don't know about you, but when I'm drunk, I lose things easily... and often (I've already lost 4 dig-cams) and when you lose a digital camera, you don't only have to fork out another £100 for a replacement only to lose it again, you lose all of the stored pictures on it.
You know what really grinds my gears: people (mostly girls) these days seem to take pictures solely to upload onto their social network, proving that they were at an event, or to act as evidence of how 'totally bangin'' they looked that night; there's nothing more annoying than taking a picture then having bodies flocked around you looking at it saying "delete it, I look gross" - Well deleting it is not going to improve your looks is it?

GO DISPOSABLE!


P & L
Voodle

Outfit success?

Berserker oversized sweater
(totally stolen from my friend Jack)
I only ventured to The Job Centre, The Post office and then Greggs for thee most delish mango chicken sandwich ever - glorified mouth heaven. Anyway, I digress, I don't want to fit in style-wise here in knob-vile so i donned some pretty sweet threads in the style of grunge to match my un-made-up facial area - a good mix as I did not want to look like an orange chav that had been kicked through Urban outfitters, neither am I fond of dressing up with no make-up and looking like I'm embarking on the infamous 'walk of shame'. This entry dedicated to the outcome.

Armed with my adopted long sleeved friend, I wore grey stonewash jeggins to cover my boot-ay and teamed this with some understated white plimp soles, a ring on a necklace, oversized brown long-strapped bag and aviators, all from Dorothy Perkins. Finished the look off with a vintage thin strapped black watch and scarf (tied around my head in a 50's style) both given to me by my great Nanny-Mac - Queen of vintage.
 
So concluded my 'productive' day, I got everything I needed done AND I ran into my friend who I've been meaning to call to get my Foals CD back - BONUS! 



P & L 
Voodle


Monday 26 July 2010

Urban 'on it's way' Outfitters?

Ok, so yeah, the rain has pretty much left me nothing to do but exercise my qwerty digits which inevitably resulted in a venture onto the Urban Outfitters' website to explore the new women's clothing line and get my vintage fix; www.urbanoutfitters.co.uk
I found myself a little disappointed as the usual quirky, trend setting designs had been somewhat replaced with simple, safe, 'seen it before' tees and cardis that I could probably find in most high-street shops with half the price tag. As of late, I have disallowed myself to go into the actual store in L1 'cause I find myself asking the question 'this or food?' far too much as well as finding myself wishing they provided trollies to save my shoppers arm and money trees for purchasing, but after getting to the last page out of a usually pleasant, yet purse crippling 3, 'shopping basket - empty' still lingered on my page. Nothing made me think 'I must have this in my life', in fact, I only once clicked on 'see in more detail' and even that was a disappointment after seeing the amateur, 'de-ja-vu', Primark-ish design of a Johann Earl Lace Frill Dress (left) closer.


Just when I thought it might be safe for me to become a regular at the UO's store once again, I looked at the jewellery and shoes. I think it's safe to say UO have not lost their touch in providing serial shoppers with their fix of quirky pendants, original design head huggers and heart melting shoes bordering on foot porn. Suddenly I was back to familiarity with my shopping basket and wish-list's accessory population multiplying faster than the spiderwebs in my purse. I found myself rooting under the couch for spare pounds and pennies to put towards saving for these Retro Super Future Havana Glasses (right)...


...and selling my Nan became an option for these lacy, cream pretties (left) which are also available in black.

At an account raping price of £140 for the glasses and more like an account heavy petting £80 for the shoes, they may remain a distant dream in my student lifestyle, but definitely my eye candy for at least the next few months.



"Urban 'on it's way' Outfitters?
Not just yet, in my eyes. The store ban will remain in place, there's only so many micro-noodles a girl can eat.

P & L
Voodle

Ear Candy


Best Coast - Crazy for you (released July 27th '10)
Chilled out and different. Best Coast purposely produced 'Crazy for you' in a retro fashion but rarely digressed from the garage-rock mould. The lyrics aren't sophisticated or complicated, a handful of which and a few bars are more than often put on a loop making for a frustratingly repetitive listen, but perfect for background music or vegging in the sun. I opted for listening to it whilst dancing around in the kitchen in pyjama shorts with a whisk, cooking pasta'n'sauce. I don't think it will be a cue-creator at HMV but it's definitely worth a listen.

Read an interview with lead singer Bethany Cosentine and get free album streaming at http://blog.urbanoutfitters.com/features/best_coast


P & L
Voodle