WHAT I WORE 2013...

 

Hello, I hope you've all had a lovely Christmas holiday!
As new year approaches, I've put together a little 'what I wore' 2013, featuring some of my favourite outfits from this year. At the start of this year, my blog was solely personal style, but as I look back I'm so happy with the way it's developed over the last year and I hope you've been able to see a bit of the real me. As ever I've loved writing my blog this year, and have literally shared my experiences wherever I went - including my visits to Paris, and London.

In January, I brought this lovely paisley dress with my birthday money, from River Island. I've worn it all year, as its so easy to wear for all occasions. Here, I wore the dress for a new year's celebration, with my Clark's heels - those kept me dancing all evening! In February, I received a lovely necklace from Little Birdie jewellery emporium. I wore it in an outfit post with my vibrant coloured flamingo jumper. I loved this outfit as it was super comfy, as I love to find an excuse to wear my Top Shop jeans. In March, I put together a little 'smart' outfit, that I liked wearing to sixth form. The blazer was an old H&M favourite that I've had in my wardrobe for years, and I brought the pencil skirt was from Dorothy Perkins. 

 April brought the first glimpse of spring, and with it my lovely floral Kath Kidston style tea dress. I loved this outfit as it's a lovely denim colour, and was easy to dress down for a day out with friends. I wore it with a cardigan from Next, which is also another wardrobe favourite of mine! In May, the sun was shinning so I wore a festival inspired outfit. I loved the Matalan shorts and wore them with a crop top from New Look and Primark jacket. For June, (which I missed a month due to exams) I've selected a photo from my visit to Paris in the Summer - I loved my double denim combination!

July was a crazy month, but I've chosen my little dress I wore on holiday as one of my favourite outfit posts! The dress was from Primark, and was definitely one of my summer essentials. In August, I attended V Festival for the first time, and with that my complete festival outfit. My New Look top complimented my vibrant orange River Island shorts. I also loved my Joules wellies, which had details of cute doggies on! As I started a new school year, I went for a cheeky day trip to London. I wore an cobalt blue skirt with OASAP denim jacket and Clark's boots. 

 From October, the sun disappeared, but I was still holding on to the summer floral in another 'smart' work wear post. I wore a Dorothy Perkins dress with a H&M green blazer. In November, I attended the Clothes Show Live, with press pass in hand and my lovely friend Emma-lee to keep me company. I wore a tartan dress from New Look, with a satchel from OASAP and my super comfy Clark's boots. Finally December saw my festive Rudolph jumper, which I wore for the majority of the month (whoops) - though can you blame me?

So there's my favourites of 2013, my favourite was probably November, because I loved wearing the felt hat. Keep your eyes peeled for a few posts later this week!

Lots of Love,

Christmas Wishes - Blogger Secret Santa...

Hello!
It's been a little too long, as UCAS applications and life in general has got the better of me recently. Since I last saw you I've had my first offer to study a history degree, (WAHOOO) which has put a huge smile of my face and I now have a desperate need to go celebratory shopping!

Today I received a little parcel in the post, covered in Christmas decoration - and despite knowingly opening it before Christmas day, I was so intrigued to find out what it was! I've taken part in a Secret Santa with a few other fellow bloggers. I won't tell you who mine is, as it will spoil the surprise, but my lovely parcel was from Donna from Polkadot-Pink...

oh and please ignore the photo quality - my cammera is currently on charge :(

 Donna sent me a lovely selection of goodies, including a wonderful scented Christmas Eve 'Yankee Candle,' which I've placed in my bedroom, ready to light at Christmas! It smells heavenly and was a lovely gesture! I also had a beautiful purse, with a camera detailed onto it - so she obviously recognised my love of photography! Inside the purse, was a beautiful pair of owl earrings (also one of my favourite animals) which I'm hoping to wear soon. Finally, my love of sweets has been rewarded with a big pack of EVERLASTING GOBSTOPPERS - so my Christmas is now sorted!

Thanks Donna for a lovely present, and I hope everyone else taking part loves their presents just as much as I do!

Lots of Love,

Fun in the Kitchen - Halloween themed cupcake ideas...

It's officially half term holiday - hooray!
If you know me well, you'll understand why so many people would be shocked to hear I've been baking (and managed not to set the house of fire). However, with the kind assistance of my (not so) little sister and a kind gift of icing supplies, which I'll be reviewing from Baking Mad, I've taken my cooking experience a step further with some Halloween themed cupcakes!

Placing myself as head decorator, I let my sister work her magic with the cake mixture, using this recipe (part of which is below) from the Baking Mad website. It was easy to follow and definitely suitable for baking with younger children too. 

The website also had great inspiration for Halloween Baking Recipe's and designs, which were really helpful when deciding how to decorate our cupcakes. My favourite gift was the chocolate icing pen, as it had a number of different shaped funnels, which I enjoyed experimenting with. First there was a larger piping tube, which was effective in creating a base for decoration, a thin tube which added detail and a lined tube which created interesting patterns. The purple colour of colour creator particularly stood out as it worked really well in contrast with the chocolate icing. 

The Recipe we used:

150 grams - Butter
150 grams - Golden Caster Sugar
3 - Free Range Eggs
150 grams - Self Raising White Flour
0.50 tsp - Baking Powder + Lemon Zest

1. Heat the oven to 180°C, 160°C fan, gas 4. Line a cup cake tin with 12 paper cupcake cases.
2. Place the butter and sugar in a mixing bowl and beat with a wooden spoon or electric mixer until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in the eggs a little at a time until smooth, adding a little flour if the mixture curdles. 
3. Stir in the flour, baking powder and vanilla extract until smooth
4. Place heaped dessertspoon full in each cupcake case and bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown and just firm to the touch. 
5. Leave in the tins for 5 minutes, then place on a wire rack to cool

For the all important decoration, we decided to use the supplies of icing from Baking Mad, to add the Halloween touch to our cakes. This included two icing pens, that came with various sized ends for different areas of decoration, three colour creators used to add colour to icing, and almond flavouring, to add flavour to the cake.

I'm off now to demolish the lovely cupcakes that I hear calling my name. If you fancy making your own cakes, for Halloween or another occasion I definitely recommend taking a look at the Baking Mad website - I particularly like their cheesecake recipes.

 Get Baking!
Lots of Love...

Living like Royalty, Buckingham Palace...

Hello! So apart from being swallowed up by collage work in the last week, I took the chance to join a coach load of friends on an annual visit to London! 

For the trip, I wore my super comfy new boots from Clarks! It really pays of to have a great quality pair of shoes when your walking all day, and my boots didn't let me down! As we seem to have finally lost the summer sunshine, I opted for a denim jacket with my new tartan skirt to keep me warm and some thick socks too!

 I love London (but then again, who doesn't) and this time we planned a picnic in the park, to visit a few art gallery's for my art coursework and an all important trip to Buckingham palace. Unfortunately I wasn't allowed to use my camera in the palace (boo) but it was definitely worth the visit, as the state rooms are truly beautiful! It's hard not to be drawn into the golden magnificence of the palace with the decorative crystal chandeliers hanging overhead and I have to admit the audio guide background music even had me waving like a queen...

The history of the British monarchy is fascinating, and this is clearly a strong influence in the rooms open for public viewing, and the family portraits on show tell the story of generations of royals. 

I'd also recommend checking out the gardens and the all important gift shop - though I wasn't keen on the £10 pens.. When you arrive at the palace, there's lots of air port style security before your handed an audio guide, which you use through most of the rooms, it's also handy to know that if you accidentally loose your place on the audio guide each room has numbers which you can type in to refresh your guide. We were also treated to a fab view of the 'changing of the guards' along with hundreds of others hoping to see the parade. It's fab to see the guards in there swanky red uniforms and made me quite envious of their epic sense of rhythm!

As you already know my love of history is touch obsession, so I also visited the Imperial War Museum which although under construction, was fab! I'd strongly recommend the Holocaust exhibition and the Horrible History Spies area looks great too. One thing I would recommend is bringing your own food as museum cafe's are never cheap and getting the tube rather than warning as it's situated quite a way from the buzz of Westminster.

As for the rest of the day we caught a quick tube ride to Oxford Street, as every London trip requires a small dosage of shopping! We found a gem of a place to eat called 'st. Christopher's place' which was a little area just off Oxford Street which had loads of little eateries and boutique shops. I'd definitely recommend visiting during a intense shopping trip as it's not far from Oxford Street. After a gentle stroke through the designer handbags in Selfridges, we were soon back in the bus wishing we could have stayed a bit longer!

What Were Wearing:

Charlotte (left): Skirt/Boots - Top Shop, Jumper - Miss Selfridge.Myself (left in right photo): Jacket/Satchel - OASAP, Boots - Clarks, Skirt - Primark.
Lydia (right, in second photo down): Jeans - Primark, Military Jacket - H&M.
Sarah (middle in above photo): Playsuit - New Look, Shoes - Dorothy Perkins.
 So that's how I've been spending the weekend. If only every weekend was exciting, as my usually Saturdays consist of piles of homework and plodding around the house in pyjamas! 

Anybody else do anything interesting with their weekend? 

Lots of Love,

Guest Post: DollySnowFlake is taking over Blondie's Style Fix...

Hey Grace's viewers!

From reading the title you may be slightly confused of who/what dollysnowflake is. Well firstly let us just say hi, we're dollysnowflake (Olivia and Poppy) and we write our own fashion and beauty blog just like Graces! We are writing a post on Graces blog as she on holiday but wanted her lovely viewers to still have a post to read, so that is where we come in. If you would like to check out our blog click here and to read more about dollysnowflake go on the 'about us' section of our blog.

 So after that slightly rambly start we are going to write about back to school survival kit. I'm sure some of you have just gone back to school or some of you are going back some time soon (boo!) so we thought this would be the perfect post to write for you. For you who don't know what a survival kit is its basically items that you keep in your bag to keep you prepared for all possible situations. So to find out whats in our back to school survival kit stay tuned.

 

1. My first tip for what to put in your survival kit would be a hand sanitiser. You can get these for as cheap as £1 which would be £1 very well spend as hand sanitisers can come in handy a lot at school. Think about how many germs there is on school keyboards, or the banisters on the stairs? Its always good to be the friend who everyone asks to borrow their hand sanitiser!

2. The next thing I would recommend is gum/mints. Some of my favourites would be Polos or Wrigleys which you can get basically anywhere. A lot of teachers won't let you eat/chew in class but it is always good to have in your school bag for in-between classes. You never know when the school cafeteria could be serving garlic bread and you don't want your breath to be smelling horrid. Also I think that gum and mints wake me up on a morning but I don't know about you!?

3.The next essential is a lip balm or some sort of lip product that we keep your lips looking nice and feeling hydrated through out the day. Two of our personal favourite lip products for school are the 'Revlon lip butters' we think these lipsticks are so nice and glossy but have just the right amount of colour for school, although some are a lot more pigmented than the others; Our other favourite lip product for school are the 'Maybelline baby lips' we adore these products as they are better for your lips than any lipstick and make them feel silky smooth too! They come in a range of sheer colours like pink, cherry and peach or you could choose one with no colour at all.

4. The last essential we are going to talk about today is for us the most important, its a snack of some
sort. Having something to eat at school is vital as it's very unhealthy to go 5-6 hours without anything to munch on. So we think having a cereal bar in your packed lunch box is key because they are healthy as well as filling and they will also give you lots of energy ( which everyone needs at school! ) We love nutri-grain bars because they are so tasty and come in a range of different flavors.

So, that was our top 4 things to keep in your survival kit! Here is a list of other things you could keep in your survival kit-

• plasters/bandaids
• bobbles and clips
• face wipes
• spare essential makeup
• spare pen/stationary for if you leave your pencil case at home
• tweezers
• compact mirror
• tissues
• paracetamol (check if your school allows it first though)

So that was our back to school survival kit essentials, we hope you enjoyed it and don't forget to click here to check out more of our posts on dollysnowflake. We'd also like to say thanks to Grace for letting us take over blondiestylefix!

Drop a comment to tell us whats in your survival kit, as we'd love to know!

Lots of love,

Poppy and Olivia x

dollysnowflake.blogspot.com

V Festival 2013 (day 2) - Festival Style...

Hello,

If you saw yesterday's post, you'll know I'm currently catching up on my highlights from last weekends V Festival at Western Park. It was such a fab weekend, so I thought I'd share a few photos of the real festival style - rather than just a glossy magazine of VIP's who are no way getting the true festival experience...

Today's post is day 2 of the V Festival, and the sun was shinning - so there were lots of photo opportunities! I decided to get a bit creative with the Neon UV paint, which got a bit messy (note to self - let the paint dry!) and obviously the festival framed sunnies were out for the occasion...

 

 For day 2, I chose to wear a pink bandeau from Republic (or whatever it's called now) and a white crochet top, which I brought from a little Spanish market while I was on holiday. Seeing as the floral head crowns have been a huge hit at this years festivals, I wore a cream headband from Primark - It was really comfy and helped tame my festival (a.k.a very wild) hair!

I stuck to my cutie wellies from Joules, but opted for a biscuit pair of knee high socks, and my Top Shop hot pants (tee hee) to complete my look! On a personal note, I was glad I took my jacket as it gets colder in the evenings, but once your in the crowds, it's so warm I felt like I was on a tropical Island!

 What I'm Wearing: Bandeau - Republic, Top - Spanish Market, Shorts - Top Shop, Wellies - Joules, Socks - River Island, Sun Glasses/Headband - Primark.

 

Best part of festivals is the way everyone expresses themselves through how they dress - even the wellies you wear show your personality!
For example my lovely friend Lauren, is such a girly girl, and with her Pink Wellies (below) you isn't afraid to show it.
Emily (above, left) dared to go wild with fringed crop top with her animal print rain Mac, and a lovely floral headband - which looked fab!
And Charlotte (above, right) also dared to try double denim: shorts and jacket, which she carried off effortlessly!

 

Jessie J is such an inspiration, she was amazing and really got the crowd going - I wouldn't want to be hated by her though, her new song It's My Party, is fab, but her haters are really getting an earful! Mwhaahha! I'm going to see her in October on her tour, and she'll be fab - as always! 

 So best part of the whole weekend (wait for it)... WAS BEYONCE! After wainting for nearly 8 hours, of standing up and with nothing more than a sausage roll to keep my going, She finally graced the stage! She was amazing, and it's fair to say she's the biggest DIVA ever! She sang some of the favourites: Single Ladies (yes my hand was up), Love on top, and yeah, it was fab! As you can see, we were about 5 rows back, and I'd have never got a place like that If I'd have ordered tickets for her tour, so I was very chuffed with myself!

 So that's all from me, I've got lots of packing to do, as I'm off (again) on a little family break!

Let me know if you've been to any festivals this year, I'd love to hear about them!

Lots of Love,