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Check headband - Burberry via Audrey
Half & half choker - Cinderela B via Steph of faiiint
Navy blazer - Zara via Barnardos charity shop £1.99
L/S top - Orla Kiely for Uniqlo around £14.90
Molotov Kenta skinny jeans - All Saints £85
Frankie flats - Sam Edelman Birthday gift
Gold & black leather chain bag - Vivienne Westwood via Ebay £102
Hello lovelies, I'm finally sharing my new hair with you! I had my hair done almost 5 weeks ago now, and I still love it just as much now as I did then. Me and my mum went to Paul Kavanagh Hair Studio nearby to where my mum lives. I've not had my hair salon coloured for many, many years, and I'm always reluctant to try someone new. Paul is a friend of the family, and my sister Willow's best friend's dad (did you get that?!).
On the whole I kept my hair my natural dark brown, and Paul put foils through the underneath - some caramel and some copper. It took a very long time (all day!!) and Paul was very precise, making sure everything was perfect and as we wanted it. He cut my hair too, and it's much more manageable now than before. I love it, it's exactly how I wanted it, colours and all! I love how subtle it is, but if I pin back the front section of my hair I can make it more noticeable.
I wore this lovely Burberry headband I won (thanks Audrey!), and loose straightener curls from the day before. I think this whole outfit has a Blair Waldorf feel to it - thanks mostly to the headband! How much of a bargain was this blazer?! In my local Barnardos, all clothes are £1.99 each!
Were you a Blair or Serena fan?
Don't forget my Ebay auctions end tonight!
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Hello lovely and loyal readers, thank you for coming back after I disappeared on you again! I've come back with a post of my wonderful and very thoughtful birthday gifts. I've been ill again in the last week, with some kind of Wintery bug where all I wanted to do was sleep to avoid feeling so bad. I'm much better now, but I do have to go for an ultrasound scan of my kidneys and bladder in January. The hospital actually wanted me to go in on Christmas eve for my colonoscopy, because my doctor said it was urgent, but I soon told them that wasn't possible! I'm home at my mum's now for Christmas (except a little trip to meet Mark in Liverpool on Saturday, because erm, I miss him already!). It's lovely to be able to see family & friends, and have cuddles with baby Belle.
♥ Happy birthday to my nephew McKenzie! ♥
I received so many lovely birthday cards that I had to share them! I'd like to thank anyone who send me a card, present, or birthday wishes :) it's much appreciated, I loved every single one!
My main gift from my mum was this beautiful Cosmic La Sardina Lomography camera and some films - I can't wait to try it out! I love the night sky so the pattern on this camera is perfect. Mark's gifts came in this artsy paintbrush covered bag which I am totally in love with! He was really thoughtful with his labels this year and wrote down postcodes of places we've been together - such as W1D 2DH, which was The Astoria in London (now closed) where we met for the very first time at Neverender in 2008 (even though we never spoke then!). I also received Gemma Correll's What I Wore Today book, a Paperchase voucher, bubble bath, a Luella lookbook, an Orla Kiely folder and lots of chocolate!
I got the cute Harrods bear pen & teddy bear from Mark's mum and dad (how sweet!) and the floral 'capture the moment' mug from my mumma (fitting with the camera don't you think!). Family friends Lynn and family got me the gorgeous silver bear trinket box, it's so special! I don't know what to put in there yet but I love just looking at it. I also received the beautiful silver and swarovski crystal feather brooch from my family, and the gorgeous bear necklace I wanted in this Handmade Mondays post from Mark.
I received these two absolutely beautiful prints (that I did choose myself, oops!) and a mini print in a necklace. I will share more about the artist here with you after Christmas in a Handmade Monday :) Mark also got me these super sweet Oysho pjs and socks - bears and embroidered clouds and raindrops!!! What more could a girl want..!
I was extremely, ridiculously, amazingly spoilt! My wonderful boyfriend got me this gorgeous, buttery soft leather Luella bag and I couldn't feel any luckier than I already do. It is my third Luella bag now, I got a pink Gisele from my mum for my 21st birthday, and Mark got me the tan Sandhurst luggage bag the Christmas before last. It's safe to say I'm in love! Considering Luella ceased trading a good while ago now, I've been lucky and managed to get bags in perfect, new/as new, condition. I love all of my presents so much and couldn't have chosen better myself :)
Have you got a favourite brand/label that you can't get enough of?
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When? Friday 13th
Where? Night & Day, Manchester
Wearing? left-to-dry natural wavy hair, Lupfer t-shirt, Zara jacket, Firetrap jeans, leather chelsea boots from TK Maxx
I bought Mark tickets for PTM for his birthday in June, and I booked us a hotel for 2 nights so we could make a weekend of it. We were so excited! We saw PTM a couple of years ago, in the same week as seeing Bon Iver for the first time. I was a first time PTM'er and I was truly converted. Despite the awe inspiring show we'd seen by Justin and his friends, Portugal. The Man just blew us away. It wasn't Mark's first time, but we both agreed it was the best show we'd ever been to. That is some mean feat! It was atmospheric, a spangly disco ball reflecting hypnotic colours everywhere. A small crowded room. Mesmerising voices and lyrics lulling you into a state of utter bliss. I think we floated all the way back to our hotel!
Fast forward two years and you find us inside the Night & Day cafe, after much driving around getting lost and finally having found a car park (£13!!). I like the feel of it, though I'm not quite sure about everyone in attendance. The majority being wonderful, the sparse few being very irritating, and most certainly on something. We arrived late, but we applauded the support act and eagerly awaited PTM. There wasn't as big a sense of anticipation as at the previous show, but we were excited enough for everyone!
Both of us had agreed prior to the show that we weren't as 'into' the new album Evil Friends yet as we are each of our favourite albums. That's the way it is with new music, it takes us a while to adapt to the new sounds. But there were several songs played live from the album that we enjoyed, I was surprised when I caught myself singing along to words I didn't know I knew. Then of course there were some of the anthemic tunes we know and love and enjoy hearing over and over again. Some songs just never get old. But after around 50 minutes or so onstage, we were thanked and left. That was it? That was it. There was no encore, despite other setlists listing lengthy sets and encores. John and the band left the stage with an attitude we hadn't seen before.
We left the venue bewildered and disappointed. All of our anticipation, and we were going back to the hotel at 10.30pm on a Friday night, our first night away. Disappointment evaporated into anger for Mark, as a massive and loyal fan he felt so let down! When we got back to the hotel his first impulse was to send an angry email directly to the band. He wasn't to be stopped, so I guided him in wording it, expressing our disappointment and what we'd hoped to see (again). Mark never expected a reply, he just wanted his opinion to be known. But the next morning Mark received a lengthy email directly from the band (John, we assume). It went along the lines of...
"I respect and appreciate what you have had to say on this and take note. We love our fans as an absolute. We respect you. ...We give a f__k. I am disappointed in myself for not performing to the best of my ability."
Needless to say, the band has regained any respect lost and Mark's life is complete, he was made up!
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Monday was one of my best friend, Leah's 24th birthday. It was also the day she started her new job as a nurse in the hospital (well done Leah!). Because Leah was working all day, we decided to meet up for drinks on Monday evening - it was myself, Leah, her boyfriend Chris, and our other best friend Nicola. We went to a lovely bar called Praha, and started our night off in true party-animal fashion with chocaholic hot chocolates, complete with a flake, marshmallows (and no cream for me!). It was lovely to catch-up with both Nicola and Leah, before Chris joined us later on after work. I don't get to see these two girls as much as I'd like to! It was a lovely atmosphere with some fab chilled-out songs on in the background (Of Monsters and Men anyone?).
Leah's birthday gift from me was something I knew she wanted, as she'd told me a couple of months earlier. I got Leah this Ted Baker Hollon iPhone case from WindyCase. I was made up with the service by WindyCase - it states on the site that the order can take 5-20 days to arrive, but it arrived in around a week. The shipping was free too - a real bargain! It was beautifully packaged, and Leah was very pleased with it!
Chris arrived with chocolate cookies and ordered himself a J20 as he'd work the next morning - congratulations to Chris on his new job, in a Vauxhall garage, too! Nicola & I decided to buy us girls a bottle of rosé, it was so nice to be able to sit and drink a couple of glasses of wine. Even though I knew I'd be risking a spell of vertigo, I decided to go for it anyway. I have barely touched any alcohol since I became ill at the end of 2011, and it was a welcome break from being careful! We very much enjoyed our evening, and I can't wait to see my gorgeous friends again. I did start to feel dizzy when I got into bed later on, and I was freezing cold, I had two options... 1. Get out of bed and take a prochlorperazine (anti-sickness tablet) and wait for the feelings to pass... or 2. Pull the quilt over me and hope to fall asleep immediately. I went for option 2, and luckily I was fine :)
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the most wonderful birthday weekend, getting to my mum's house late on Friday evening with Mark, seeing mum, Willow, Phoebe, Phoenix & Indigo, seeing Fluffy the house rabbit, snuggling up on the sofa to watch tv, waking up early on Saturday morning (my 24th birthday!!), getting into bed with Mark for a birthday snuggle, getting out of bed and heading downstairs much to Indigo's delight as this meant present time, having a mass of cards (even more than in the picture!) from all my fabulous friends & family, homemade cards from my brother and sisters (the best kind!), getting lots of presents, Indigo helping me open the presents, and actually opening most of them, Oysho cat mittens, a snuggly pom pom scarf, Kurt Halsey's 'works on paper', Kurt Halsey cards, Liberty Hello Kitty notes, cute notebooks, a new pink toothbrush, a lovely photo frame, bear cookie cutters, Sam Edelman Frankie ballet shoes, chocolates, make-up, the new Deftones album, a necklace, a moon top, a Dior 'H' pin, Tatty Devine fox brooch, a snuggly fox brooch, thick snuggly knitted socks, a manicure set, nail polishes, delicious smelling soap, shower goodies, a voucher, an illuminated compact mirror, a lovely tin, and last but not least MY NEW CAMERA!!! the Nikon J1 with 10-30mm lens + 30-110mm lens, plus the 10mm pancake lens :), being ridiculously spoilt!
♥
spending the rest of the day putting up the Christmas tree (it's tradition for it to go up on my birthday, and it was my dad's job, nobody else was allowed to touch it!!!), Mark untangling all the lights that somehow end up in a tangled mess each year, listening to a random but lovely playlist, hanging on all the decorations the kids made, adding chocolates to the tree once it was finished, being proud and pleased when it was all done, seeing my best friend Leah for an hour, getting home to more presents and friends and family, everyone having dinner with us (spaghetti bolognese - my favourite! - and jacket potatoes for the not-so-keen), birthday cake homemade by my little sister Willow - delicious, chocolate millionaire's cheesecake, Bailey's cream, watching the final I'm A Celeb and being glad Charlie won, X Factor, eating more cake, leaving Mark alone to watch Match of the Day whilst we all went up to bed, waking up and eating birthday cake for breakfast, doing the ironing for mumma bear, realising there were no trains on Sunday we could use our £46 returns for, still being glad we were staying another night, Sunday flying by, lots of jobs getting done, Chinese takeaway for dinner, watching Dragons Den, bed time, leaving at 8am Monday morning to catch a bus to catch two trains to catch a bus to be back on the Wirral for work at 1pm!
