Thursday 29 August 2013

Oh! I do like to be beside the seaside



BLOUSE - Vintage // BOYFRIEND SHORTS - eBay // SHOES - Topshop via eBay // BAG - eBay
(Please excuse the poor quality pictures and messy hair, it was quick snap of a picture and I'd just gotten off a ride that span you around so my hair wasn't the tidiest of locks)








There's two significant things I love in life and that is a vintage find and a trip to the seaside on a sunny day. You can't beat the sweet smell of donuts and candyfloss, the tacky but somehow enjoyable fun fair, the array of noisy seagulls, the clear blue skies, the 99p ice creams, the visits to the beach and the harbour which allows you to feel fresh and welcomed and the stroll down the dainty streets with the neat hotels and cute little tea rooms.

If you saw one of my previous posts or my tweets you'll know that I stayed over in a caravan for the bank holiday and had a lovely weekend. It was nice to get away and have a change of scenery instead of sticking to the same old city sights. The Yorkshire countryside has to be one of the only remarkable reasons why I like being from here. After we checked out of the caravan site, we headed off to Bridlington for the day followed by a scrumptious meal at a local pub/restaurant to finish off the afternoon (I feel as though I have eaten my own density these past few days which certainly resulted in a weighty 'food baby' as the dictionary now states). Bridlington is a place I'm familiar with as my Grandma used to own a caravan not far from the centre and the majority of my childhood was spent on these platforms so to relive times here always makes me smile.

The shirt is from the vintage side of eBay and is the main reason I wanted to do this post. Once I had my eye on it, I had to get it and at only £5 you can't go wrong! Straight away I knew it'd be the ideal blouse to tuck into my oversized shorts and be paired (once again) with my favourite shoes which then formed together a typical, casual outfit for the brisk air at the seaside.


Lots of love...

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Wednesday 28 August 2013

Hey, I put some new shoes on and suddenly everything is right












DRESS - River Island via ASOS // CROP TOP - New Look via eBay // SOCKS - ASOS // SHOES - Topshop via eBay // BAG - eBay // NECKLACE - H&M // RING - ASOS Marketplace // BRACELETS - Claire's Accessories and Primark
As the title demonstrates, I've found my dream shoes and I've never had them off my feet since I purchased them. I'd been after some t-bar/geek shoes for so long and wasn't impressed that Topshop had sold out completely so I resulted in my not-so guilty pleasure of eBay bidding to finally win this divine pair. Doubled with these frilly socks made me feel like I was back in primary school. I never thought 10 years later it would be a fashion statement I'd be parading around in. I'm definitely making the most of outfits like this before I have to add tights and replace open shoes with boots but no amount of bad weather will erase my patterned dresses and overlays from my wardrobe. I suppose the thing I love the most about approaching Autumn is you don't have to dramatically change your colour code of clothing or completely pack away the crop tops and dresses - you'd easily get away with outfits like this as the browns, oranges and golds fit perfectly to the scheme and match the crusty leaves soon to be falling on the ground. Plus, Summer's not over yet so enjoy it whilst you can! I still have a couple more summer-type but acceptable Autumn wear outfits to share with you so be sure to look out for them this week. I'm having a major overload of blog ideas lately! I'm sure most of you will be familiar with that period of time between bloggers block and your brain fluctuating all these interesting ideas to your fingertips?

Lots of love...

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Tuesday 27 August 2013

This Is My Great Escape








LASER CUT TOP - New Look // SHORTS - Uniqlo // SHOES - ASOS // RUCKSACK - Matalan // BRACELETS - Forever 21 & Primark
Hello there! I'm more than a month late on displaying this outfit to the world but life being life, was a barrier along the way. I can't believe it will be 6 weeks tomorrow since I jetted off to Florida when it only seems like yesterday. I thought whilst the sun is sticking around and you can still brave shorts and a strapless top throughout the day before summer is over and done with, it was best to share this outfit with you.

This is what I travelled in when we were sitting through a 9 hour flight. Luckily, it was warm here so I didn't have to have the 'I don't want to be too cold in England but too hot when I arrive' debate with myself but I know that can be a problem for me (and most likely many other people) which is why I think it's important to just concentrate on the comfort instead of adding more stress onto the preparation of a holiday. Comfort is exactly what I went for with loose fit, cool clothing that I can relax in and not be too bustled up with. Even so, you can always layer it up with an extra item of clothing 'just in case' like a cardigan or a jumper and even a spare pair of tights.

The rucksack was my saviour for the entire duration of my holiday (especially to carry the necessities around the parks) and once again, I cooed over my favourite vintage floral style. I purchased this quite a while back actually but it's been a comeback item for most of the summer as well as the shorts which I can't seem to sever myself away from.

Has anyone else had a favourite summer accessory or piece of clothing they've found themselves repeatedly lusting over? I find myself doing that almost every year.

Lots of love...


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Friday 23 August 2013

Forever 21








TEE & SHORTS - Forever 21 // T-BAR SHOES - ASOS // HAIR RIBBON - Hand made




Let me just start off here by apologising for my dodgy poses in these pictures, I'm still new to blogging and I'm just about learning how to pull off the 'non-awkward model pose' hehe. I'll start on the hair ribbon first... I bought some lace at the beginning of the year from a Canadian shop just by searching on the internet. I bought it for my Grandma's friend who was going to kindly sew some lace onto some shorts for me but I ended up having lots of it left over and I've gradually used it for many random things over the months, including a hair ribbon. To me, it just completes the look of ponytail. It's a saviour for me to be quite honest as I tend to think my hair looks too dull without any accessory added on when my hair is tied up, so you can't go wrong with a bit of DIY!

Whilst in America I of course had to visit Forever 21, not only is it one of my favourite shops but apparently it's the American version of Primark and anyone in their right mind knows just how fabulous Primark is. We visited one of two of the biggest malls in Florida which was 'Florida Mall' it had all the shops I desired in there Forever 21, Zara, H&M, Urban Outfitters, Sephora, Bath & Body Works, Victoria's Secret etc etc but I have to say, I was slightly disappointed in a few (mainly the clothes shops) as they weren't as great as I expected and I honestly think the shops over here have a bonus on size and choice. Forever 21 was huge but the stock I'd seen online wasn't present in the shop at all. In fact, I think there were just one or two things I'd actually seen in there that I'd had my eye on online which I suppose is the case for back in England too. They never have as many things/the items you've seen in the shops as they do online. Does anyone else find this occurring way too often?

After a comical struggle trying everything in my power to reach for the tee which was on the top rail (yes I know I could have just asked for assistance but me being the difficult person I am, I went my way ha ha), I finally picked up these two items (plus a couple of other things); a lace tee and some geo print cotton shorts. I ended up wearing the shorts whilst I was over there as they are cool and light enough to prevent me from collapsing of heat exhaustion but also they're as pretty as picture, I seriously love them. They're the sort of shorts you can just chuck on when you have a 'can't be bothered' mood or you have no clue what to wear and the great thing is, they'll go with almost anything, including tights for those chillier days.

Speaking of chillier days, summer is slowly but surely drifting away into the Autumn/Winter and I'm dreading putting all this type of clothing away ready for the bitter months to follow. Although I've got to say that means another shopping trip for winter clothes and that has to be good right? Personally, I love winter fashion and it's just an excuse to go out spending again but then again, I think I just enjoy piecing outfits together in my head as I shape up for the seasons.

Which do you prefer, summer or winter? I hope the glorious weather keeps up for the latter end of August as I'm going away for a long weekend to a caravan park for the bank holiday in just a few hours which should be fun. It's nothing special, but it's another break away from the same old and I'm grateful for that. There's nothing like soaking in the fresh vibe of the seaside. Hope everyone else enjoys their bank holiday whatever you get up to! I have plenty more outfit posts planned out for when I come back (I'm just hoping the weather holds out).


Lots of love...


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Thursday 22 August 2013

Florida fun Part 8 - General moments to remember

Believe it or not, we did take a few days off from straining ourselves and it was gratifying and soothing to know you had a full day of relaxing around the pool and in the sizzling jacuzzi, eating a feast all cosied inside the villa or taking a break from feeling grubby and getting dressed up to eat out at a restaurant instead. I'll start by sharing a few generic around the pool pics which I'm much more satisfied with this year compared to last years'. It may have only been a few pounds I shredded but I certainly felt much more confident in a bikini not having to worry about that dreaded, annoying puppy fat. 

Please excuse my 'no make-up' face, it's unbelievable how haggard I look without it *sigh*
Small heads up here, I wasn't actually jumping in the pool because my body is way too fragile for that but jumping in the air beside the pool and allowing somebody else to click the capture button at the right time results in a pretty fooling picture.

Our villa was based on a long, striding lake which nearly had me falling asleep as the river rippled with the brief winds. I have honestly never been in such a gentle, peaceful location. It was home from home, it was laid back and we could do as we pleased and that's what I enjoy about my family holidays. Birds were everywhere at the side of our villa (including those whom species could not be identified through our lack of knowledge) but all villas had netting because of the insects and the animals around the lake, including alligators and baby turtles. I was gutted we never saw any turtles whatsoever in the two weeks we stayed there as the villa is called the turtle villa for a reason but I'm guessing it was either out of season, just our luck or they were being cheeky and hiding from us. Alligators on the other hand often bobbed their heads above the water and we had to concentrate or turn our heads in a flash otherwise we'd miss them. We could have taken a walk just by the side of the lake but I didn't fancy risking my life ha ha.

Watching the sunset was beautiful!
It wasn't always sunny, more or less every day we had a storm and the sky turned like this then half an hour later it was back bright. Florida definitely had bipolar weather!
On the Friday after we arrived and the day before we went home, we had our breakfast at Ponderosa which was an all you can eat buffet and definitely tickled my taste buds as well as baffling me. Chicken nuggets for breakfast, really? On those few days we also explored the gift shops and bought nearly all our souvenirs before we'd even got started into the holiday which is typical behaviour from me there. 

As you can most likely work out for yourself, the top left photo is just half of our Walmart shop AND that was only our first trip to the supermarket. We often stopped off to pick up a few extra groceries on our way back from the parks too which meant we had so much food left over when it was time to go home. As predicted really, I think we went a teeny weeny bit over the top! In the villa there was a garage which had been made into a games room with a table football and a pool table to become way too competitive over. Me and my brother spent a lot of time in there challenging each other but often found it hard to breathe with how stuffy it was. The last picture is all the girls and I showing off our Disney pyjamas, even my grandma gave in to being the odd one out and bought some in 'Bargain World' :)

It wasn't just birds that were found around the lake, lizards appeared here, there and everywhere and came in all shapes and sizes. It was our daily entertainment as we studied the lizards gazing at the ants and then stretching its long, floppy tongue to give it a good old munch. It was pretty amusing to watch! Another thing is this red/yellow thing that popped out of its neck, it was fascinating yet interesting and I ended up having to research it to see what the hell it was!
Now I'm going to tell you about one of the funniest days of the whole holiday, the events which were supposed to be equaled out over the 2 weeks all happened on one occasion and this was it. We went to Aquatica water park as that was the family choice and I'm so glad we did, I had so much fun and laughed no matter what we got up to even when I suffered a near death experience near enough 4 times. It started off with me catapulting out of the rubber ring as me and Chloe went down one of the slides (and not to mention this was one of the smaller ones) I lifted my bum up at the end to prevent me from grazing myself but that was a mistake as I flew straight up in the air and into the middle of the pool where I attempted to swim out but couldn't move as Chloe was layered on top of me in the rubber ring so every time I lifted my head, I was stuck. It was scary yet extremely amusing just like when I lost control in the wave pool and had to swim my way to shore! 

However, nothing beats the moment we persuaded my Grandma and my Mum to come on the river rapids. You had no chance once you set foot in there with your life jacket on, you just let the rapids do the work as you swerved and turned aggressively. Awesome was an understatement! We didn't let on that it was like this when we tested it out as both my mum and grandma aren't too keen on water. It was impossible to keep up to everyone as you braved the water and before I knew it I'd reached the beginning again with plenty of laughs following; along came my mum and grandma soaked to the skin, clinging on for life and striving for the exit but that didn't happen... the rapids were so forceful it took them back round again, my brother had to try and go in for the 3rd time and stop them but it ended up taking all three of them then. I was in absolute hysterics and I just wish my camera wasn't cooped up in a locker as that so would have been a You've Been Framed moment!

If that wasn't enough, we got back to the villa after a tiresome, eventful day and decided to have a glass of wine in the jacuzzi. After a general conversation, my Grandma decided to just nip out of the tub and turn the light on as it was getting dark when all of a sudden, she randomly flies into the jacuzzi mid chat, goes right underneath in slow motion and we all go silent and worry as we thought she may have hurt herself or panicked because she can't swim but then we all just die of laughter when she comes up dramatically gasping for air, her face a picture. We couldn't get it out of our heads for days and kept picturing the snippets all over again. Being the lightweight she is, she blamed it on the wine but I honestly thought we'd accidentally brought a dolphin home with us instead of my Grandma!

Aquatica had a 'false' beach, so as we never got the opportunity to visit a Florida beach, we took advantage of the pretend one instead and even that was gorgeous.
As you entered the parks, the first thing in close view was the slide which was a tube and dolphins were swimming underneath in a glass tank. They were such unusual dolphins (I can't remember the name) but they swam upside down and looked more like baby sharks. I didn't manage to get a clear picture of them, so here's another Florida tradition of cutting hedges into a shape or an object, in this case it was a dolphin.
That's me on the far right. I was originally supposed to be coming down at the same time as my brother but I got stuck at the top and had to wait for the next turn with my brother in hysterics as I finally got going. Another hilarious moment!
On the 28th July which was my brother's 16th birthday, we celebrated with a night in style at International Drive. As America is so huge and confusing, we weren't sure which part to go to but in the end we settled with Pointe Orlando which had everything we needed; restaurants, gift shops and other various things. You weren't spoilt for choice with the restaurants but guess what we all went for? TGI Fridays, which you can get back at home but I'm 100% sure the food was ten times as good as here. It was the only meal I truly enjoyed!

This is Wonderworks which was an upside down house/attraction with various activities to do inside. Everything was inverted, and I think it may have been a good thing that we weren't able to go inside as, as fabulous as it was, it made our heads spin. 
Eagle Pointe is the name of the complex we stayed on and just this simple photo holds so many exhilarating memories. If anyone is planning on going to the Kissimmee area of Florida, I'd definitely recommend a villa on here or anywhere nearby which I'm sure is just as beautiful. I think now the whole adventure has come to an end both in real world and blogging world, I'm going to miss it more than ever. All that preparing and building up to it and then it's over in two weeks. That was the only disappointing thing about it!

Lots of love...

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