pop yo collar

For me, bank holidays are usually a bit drab. It seems to always bloody rain and all I can be bothered to do is watch Jeremy Kyle under a blanket while stuffing my face with custard creams. Having said that though, the weekend just past was actually pretty slamming! The only complaint I have is that it left my voice nice and husky from a mix of too much alcohol and early mornings. Just call me Barry white, really.

I helped out at a car boot sale on bank holiday Monday and managed to sneak off and have a peep at what some other stalls and I managed to get some really nice things!

Vintage Peter Pan collar dress £1, New Look Leopard Print collared Coat £3

Urban Outfitters t shirt 30p

I was pretty happy with my new buys! Considering I'd actually tried on the coat in a New Look store last winter and I'd wanted the Where the Wild Things Are tee for quite some time! So I got the whole lot for £4.30. Not shabby at all! What have you all been buying recently?

Polka dots!

It's been a while or two since I last posted here. I put this completely down to my shed load of other work that seems to pile up. I'm running several different jobs at the moment and i alwas seem to have additional homework to do on top! Having said that though, the time I devote to my 'homework' is actually broken up in to 85% me moaning about having to do it and 15% actually doing it, so as you can see I get a lot done. I have also been finding some brilliant ways to procrastinate and avoid doing work. These have included baking a Happy Hippo Cake (just a victoria sponge with 2 happy hippos awkwardly propped on top, watch yo back Delia) and by matching all the odd socks that have gathered in my sock drawer. Essential tasks that could only be completed when I have something really important to do. BTW- Does anyone else have an overwhelming number of Christmas socks?

Anyway, I took a trip to Petticoat Lane recently (one of my favourite places London has to offer!) and I always find tonnes I lurve.

Found this little polka dot blouse on one stall and asked the man how much it was, and his response was "£10, but for you £1." Fantastic. My kind of man, I thought as I passed him two 50p's, still thinking he was having me on.

I bloody love a bit of polka dot print and will be rocking this bad boy with a high waist skirt and a little ribbon tied at the collar.

Also- how lovely is this weather!? How have you been enjoying the sunshine?

Meooooow!

If I were to write a list of some of my virtuous qualities (omgz so vain) time keep would probably not be up there with 'generous', 'kind hearted' and 'undeniably sexy' HA I KID OF COURSE. Anyway from my birth 2 weeks later than scheduled up to yesterday when I was half a minute late for a train, it takes a bunch of effort for me not to leave the house organised and without a bit of toast hanging out my gob. The same goes for being on trend. I have always loved the Miu Miu Spring Summer collection from 2010 with the cutesy cat, dog and swallow printed pieces so it's no wonder than 2 years down the line I finally get an imitation pair of the shoes I have been lusting over!

Meooow! These are the beauties!

Man I love eBay. Bringing me and childish things that I don't really need together since about 2005.

Stevie Nicks: Style Steal

Crikey! it's been a little while since I was last acquainted with the 'posting' section on Blogger. And how I have missed it. I have had a few very busy months and have found nay time update this blog.. My final year of uni has been bloody mental so far so my dissertation has sadly been prioritised over blogging. Seems time management is not my strong point.. let me just sit and procrastinate now for a good hour or so about how good life would be if I owned Bernards watch.

Awesome. Right, well over Christmas I have had Fleetwood Mac pretty much on repeat on my ipod. I have come to realise that when I grow up I want to be Stevie Nicks and nothing else. But seeing as that is somewhat humanly impossible I have no other choice but to try and be as much like her as I can and hopefully stumble across a magic genie lamp. Probable? not really. So, instead I have decided to include a style steal post about Stevie Nicks as she dresses real nice.

Clockwise from left: Dress Urban Outfitters, Feather necklace Urban Outfitters, Peace necklace Asos, Waterfall skirt Topshop, Lace Sleeve top Warehouse.

 Stevie Nicks is the queen of 70s flared sleeves and draped dresses which have found their way back in to the highstreet recently. She knows how to layer perfectly and how to mix winter colours with warmer summer shades. Right I'm starting to sound like a painter and decorator so I will let some photos I have sourced from google do the talking.

 

ta ra! x

what a stud

I've seen a few really good DIY posts about studding different clothes on people's blogs recently. I especially loved Sophie Isobel's shirt DIY that she had been inspired to create after seeing Alexa Chung working a similar style.

I had some left over studs (as you do) from when I studded a leather jacket which you can see in this post here. These kind of studs are really cheap to get off eBay, you can pick up a pack for around £2/£3 depending on how many you want.

I first off DIYed this sleeveless denim waistcoat collar and thought it looked quite neat. Studding clothes could not be any easier, there's no art to it other than deciding where you want to place the studs and piercing them through the item. You really don't have to be Einstein to do it! (Do you think Einstein studded his clothes? I hope he did, he would go even higher in my estimations if he rocked a studded blazer.)

Oh and please excuse the poor quality last photo. Took it on ma webcam which is definitely no SLR lens let's put it that way...


As well as the little denim DIY I also wanted to customise this sheer black shirt. Picked it up at a car boot yonks ago for a quid and have wanted to do something with it ever since.
It went from this..

To this...

And the studs go all the way around the back of the collar too.

What do you think? Will you be studding your clothes any time soon?

Festival Frolics

The closest I will get to experiencing any festival action this year will be to place my face against the TV whilst it shows me repeats of the acts at Glastonbury. Why don't you just pay and go to a festival, Lillie? I hear you ask. Well, not only are they extremely costly but also I would be truly spoilt for choice. I would have loved to go to Coachella (sooo bloody much!) or Benicassim or Bestival, but alas maybe next year once I have a bit more dollar in my back pocket!

So, instead of experiencing the festival frolics this year, the muddy wellies, the damp tent, eating Heinz beans out a tin and drinking cheap cider til you can't remember any of the acts anyway (I'm a bit bitter about not going aren't I?) no, instead of all of this I will re-create some of my favourite celebrity festival looks and maybe pretend I am there...

 

Ah, Alexa Chung. How you pain me with your skinny legs and inability to ever dress badly. I would say Alexa has a fantastic style, never over dressing and always looking chic even if she is up to her knees in mud. Here she wears high waist denim shorts (bit of a wardrobe staple), Breton striped top and leather jacket.

Primark Leather jacket (I customised with studs) £10, Next Breton striped top via charity shop £2, vintage stone pendant necklace, Primark fringed bag £5, DIY denim high waist shorts- originally pair of jeans.

 Next up is TV presenter Jameela Jamil, another bit of an icon, she always seems to get it right and look cooler than any cucumber you could ever hope to come across. I think Jameela works both dressing up perfectly as well as laid back casual for festivals really well. Here she wears a casual black print dress with tan leather satchel and some black peep toe wedges.

Grey chiffon dress Oasis sale £10, Tan leather belt New Look £5, Beige wedge platforms Quiz £13, tan leather satchel - Car Boot £2, sun glasses Vintage, Necklaces Primark £2.

 

And finally Fearne Cotton. Always spotted at festivals around the globe looking too cool for school, if you will pardon that extremely over used expression. Here she wears an Iron Maiden t shirt with denim shorts and leopard print pumps. Really chic and simple and keeping it bang on trend this summer with a flower garland round that head of hers.

American Made vest Topshop £18, Denim shorts (as before), leopard print pumps Peacocks £10, vintage bag and flower garland Primark £2.

So there we have it, maybe if I were to go to a festival this year I would wear one of these three. Maybe.
Who are your festival style icons?

Leo leo leopard print

Recently I've been helping my sister bit by bit sort out her room for her leave. Shes buying a house with her boyf (awwwww) and I've been helping her get her stuff packed up and ready to go. We've been sorting stuff out to get rid of and decided that it would be a grand idea to have a stall at a carboot sale in order to give our junk new homes. Oh we iz so considerate. I also have lots of tings to get rid of, so it made sense to do so! It went very well, though there were some mega scary hardcore customers who just literally wanted to rummage through our car boot "umm... I know it's called a carboot, but srsly?!"

Anyway, at the end of the day we reached that point where we just wanted to get rid of stuff so we reduced our belongings to about 50p each. A stall nearby was selling off everything they had for 10p. Everything. Kinda had to have a look. I managed to pick up these boots! A little scruffy round the edges and probably belonged to a man but for 10p I really wasn't too fussed.

 

I felt a bit sorry for them, which surprised me as I don't think I've ever felt sorry for an inanimate object before. I saw them sat there looking all sad so I bought them. I saw a bit of potential in them too, possibly some kind of DIY?

Recently I've seen loads of banging leopard print boots in shops and been really interested in buying some. Here's a couple for you to feast your peepers on!

Using a bit of acrylic paint and a bit of elbow grease I ended up with this...

I'm a little undecided abuot them at the moment, you guys will have to let me know what you think! But for 10p can you really go wrong?!

5 things for under £5

 Hello! I am hugely procrastinating at the moment. It's about 8 minutes in to the day (Tuesday), I have work tomorrow, well today now (it's not the next day until I've slept- I do abide by this rule) and a few minutes ago I was rummaging through the mountain of clothes that has formed on my bed, as you do, yawning, having a cheeky stretch before bed, and what else do I see before I'm about to tidy this mound up but a cream coloured spider popping his head out of my scrawled up trousers to say hi. Instead of try and evacuate mr. spidey out of the room or to shake out the trousers, think I'm just going to cotch at my computer and write a blog post in hope that in the time it takes me to write this he'll kindly surrender and leave my trouser leg and go and chill in his web with his homies. Fingers crossed.


Now, getting round to the point of this post! I have snapped up some seriously good bargains of late and I thought I could share some of them with you. The best part about it all? No item listed here cost me any more than a fiver. Yup you heard that right it's all under five of your British pounds.

 First are these lovely leather wooden wedge heel platforms by Dune. I remember seeing these on ASOS for £90 link here! a while back. However, I picked up these beauties (in my size too!) for £3.50 in a charity shop. Literally can't wait for the first excuse to wear them out.

Next is this vintage chiffon cream blouse with floral embroidered collar. Not everyone's cup of tea I'm definitely aware, but it happens to be right up my street. Can't wait to bust it out with high waist shorts to take its sort of 'Granny' esque edge off it. Picked this up at a car boot sale a few weeks ago for a pound!

Converse. Yes, I stumbled across some of these bad boys for just £2 at the same sale as above. Literally couldn't believe it when the lady said the price. Pretty pleased, they're a wince too big but never mind, I will still be wearing!

The only really high street thing on this list! You must visit Dorothy Perkins this week if you do one thing! Their jewellery range is beautiful and it's buy one get one free at the moment. I got this lovely purple wrap bracelet with stone and turquoise feather bracelet and earrings set all for 2 squid!

And finally these floral shorts from a Charity shop. I know summer is drawing to a bit of a close now (boo!) but I can see myself wearing tights beneath these bad boys in A/W. Check me out with my fashion abbreviation lingo. Only £2. Belt not included!

What have your best buys been recently?

oh and spell check informed me that 'nextly' isn't a word.

Americano Americano

Hello! I feel like I've not blogged in a little while.. I spent last week down in Brighton, soaking up the sun,  exploring the lanes, making marshmallow and butterscotch pancakes (mega noms) and eating waaay too much spag bol! If I get round to it I might post about it! I say "if I get round to it", I spend most of my days in my pj's eating Ben and Jerry's out the tub. I really should be more productive.

Recently, I've really wanted a pair of the American flag style shorts as seen in Topshop quite some time ago, they are about £35. If I had that money to squander on shorts then suuure ting I would buy them, however I decided to make my own! You know me, if there is a way around spending money then I will probably try it. Unless it's theft, theft I would not try nor recommend.

I started off with a pair of old shorts that were originally jeans that I cut and then turned up. I bought some blue and white star print fabric as well the red and white striped from ebay. Both were really cheap for about a quarter of a meter, meaning that I spent no more than about £4/£5 on the making of these! That's abuot £30 cheaper than the Topshop ones!


All I did was measure up the lengths of the shorts, cut and sew the material on to them accordingly, literally couldn't be any easier. I might add some studs to the belt loops or try and distress the material to give it more of a 'worn' effect.

  

Tried to take some photos wearing them but they didn't really do them much justice! I wore them with a black chiffon collared blouse and a tan leather belt.  I think plain white vests look great with this style of short.

What do you think? Is this something you would ever try out?

Cosmic Continued!

Hullo! (Does anyone else find it really difficult to word the start of a blog post? I've just been sat at my computer writing things like 'Hello, How are you?' but being a blog and not a human conversation a question isn't really the right lexical choice.) Anyway, after that minor tangent I will arrive at the point of this blog post soon I promise.

Basically, after my previous post where I created / DIYed a t shirt based on the lovely Your Eyes Lie cosmic designs, I decided to branch out and create a bag in a similar style!

In true customisation style, here is a picture of before and after:

I took my inspiration for this design from another cosmic print t shirt design on the Your Eyes Lie website:

Man I love this t shirt so much! This top can be bought from YEL for 32 British pounds.So in order to create a bag in a similar style, here is my mini tutorial!:

 

You might also need a plate and some newspaper!

Pretty darn simple really! Once it's dry you'll be ready to hit the streetz with you new and really cheap but ultra cool bag! And you definitely don't have to be Van Gogh to create it, you can spray and paint in any which way you like and I can guarantee you it will look awesomez.

Me modelling my bag! This photo is an accurate representation of how I carry all of my bags.

cheeky close up of my painted bag

Thank you for reading! If you have any questions or fancy making your own, I'd love to see how it has turned out!