Life Update #1

Just a quick post to let you in on what I've been up to recently!

Last week I took a trip up to Rockalily Cuts in Shoreditch to have a chat with the owner, Ree Ree Rockette and her hairdresser Lucie Luella about my hair. It was quite bizarre having followed them both on Twitter for a while and then meeting them in person - but I needn't of worried they are both absolutely lovely, and the salon was gorgeous too! 

I was just having a consultation as I've made a big decision with what to do with my hair. I want to dye it bright, electric BLUE. Yes, you did read that right. As in, Katy Perry style blue. I just figured that I want to do something crazy, that I feel I can best pull off while I'm still young, I don't want bright blue hair in my 40s (although I may have changed my mind by the time 20 years have passed!). As you may know, my hair at the moment is really long, and really, really black. Lucie told me that blue hair is out of the question for now, until I can fade it a bit and/or have it chemically stripped back to my mousey brown natural colour. So for the next few months I'll be washing it in washing up liquid and Head & Shoulders to try and fade the black dye as much as possible! It makes my hair feel really ropey and dry so I've been slathering it in Aussie conditioner and then a spray leave in one too. All for my bluehead mission!

 Do you think blue hair is a crazy idea or I should go for it?

I've been working like crazy over the past 6 weeks or so, and I'm so happy to say that this Friday I shall have finally paid off my overdraft, yippee! My next pay packet will then be actual money that is actually mine which is so exciting because I've been in my overdraft for what feels like forever. Damn student life! 

Other than that, my boyfriend got the news through that he has passed his degree with a 2.i and I literally am so proud I could burst. His dissertation caused him so much stress and worry, I'm so glad it was all worth it in the end! 

This is a silly photo of us that I love! 

To celebrate, we're taking a trip to Brighton for a couple of days as neither of us have been before. I'm doing my research on where we should visit but if you have any suggestions I'd love to hear from you! I've already got JB's Diner and Choccywoccydoodah's on the list :)

Much love x



(Katy Perry photos are from a Google search)

Sweete Harmonie Diamond Jubilee Celebration Gig

Some more videos of our latest gig for your eyes and ears to enjoy! A bit late, but better late than never at all.
Of course seeing as the year of the coronation was 1952, we decided that our 50s set would fit right in with the Jubilee celebrations. Three out of our seven members weren't able to attend but we carried on nevertheless, doing two sets at Wennington Church near Rainham, Essex which was holding an open day with videos of the Queen, live entertainment and tea and cake.
We did a few songs this time, and not all of them strictly from the 1950s but these are the one's my boyfriend's Mum managed to capture on video; Do Do Ron Ron - The Crystals, Will You Love Me Tomorrow - The Shirelles and Going To The Chapel - The Dixie Cups.

What do you think?

We still need a huge amount of work, especially with the overall rounding of all the parts. Nikki (the lady with the guitar) has a very strong voice and I can sometimes be drowned out up on the top part, and there are some problems with tuning but I'm sure we can work it out once we've practised and performed some more!

Our next gig is at Chingford Festival on the 30th June, so if you happen to be anywhere near there on that date, come and have a listen! And this time Nikki is on holiday so my lovely boyfriend will be stepping in to accompany us on guitar! I shall be dressing him up in all the 50s gear as well don't you worry ;)

Much love x

A BBQ and some random bits

Hi all! So much for my nice free summer of doing whatever I want, I've just been working non-stop! I need to save up for a last minute holiday in September and all my uni stuff, but hoo ha. It'll be worth it in the end.

So on a rare day off this weekend I went along with the boyfriend to a BBQ hosted by a couple he used to work with at our local radio station Time FM. It happened to coincide with their 1 year wedding anniversary so it was a big party with everyone they know - the drinks were flowing!
Here is what I wore.

 Yellow hair flower: Primark

Pineapple print dress: Simply Be

Yellow belt: Primark

Gold peeptoe slingbacks: Tesco

Somewhat sneakily, the dress is actually my Mum's and is a size 24! She has lost loads of weight so had never worn it and I loved the print so I nicked it. It's supposed to be a kind of smock tunic style thing but I've cinched it in with the belt - the sleeves now have a kind of bat wing effect. I don't think you can tell very easily that its actually almost 5 sizes too big for me! 

The print up close:

I was stressing over what to wear for ages as the weather has been pants but in the end it was lovely and sunny so I needn't have worried! This outfit is also really bright but I fancied it after being stuck in my work uniform for days on end. Here is my face:

Foundation: MaxFactor Lasting Performance in shade 101 Ivory Beige

Eyeliner: Soap & Glory 'Supercat!' 

Eyeshadow: from the MUA Heaven and Earth palette

Mascara: Collection 'Supersize'

Eyebrow pencil: Rimmel in black

Blush: Maybelline Dream Mousse Blush in 'Pink Frosting'

Lipstick: Rockalily 'Rockette Red'

Now for the random bits side! I was given this book by my boyfriend's Mum as she noticed that I like to collect recipes and want to get more into cooking. It's so cute! It's a book for you to make a note of your favourite recipes in order to keep them all in one place, and it has some already in there for you to get started with. 

I also purchased yet another red lipstick in a blog sale at Paperbacks + Postcards, I simply couldn't resist it. It's Revlon's 'True Red' and not very dissimilar to my classic Rockalily liptick in colour. The packaging is gorge and it's quite longlasting, although you definitely need to wear lip liner with it and it can slide and smudge quite easily.

 Not a terribly flattering photo with me wearing my Carolina Panthers NFL shirt and my hair scraped back with a bandana but you get the idea of how the lipstick looks in relation to my whole face! And Rosie and the Guinness toucan are in the background :)

 How cool are these sunglasses?! White with blue polka dots and a slight cats eye shape and all for £2 from Primark. I will probably live in these. (And go back for the brown leopard print ones...)

 Finally, I am a freak for slippers, I hate all kinds of slippers except for ones that are like ballet shoes. I couldn't find any in the shops or online that I liked so I literally just bought some actual ballet shoes! They are really comfy and great if you don't like fluffy things on your feet like me. Only five quid as well, from eBay.

That's all for now! I have some more videos of Sweete Harmonie's Diamond Jubilee Celebrations gig in Wennington that I should be putting up soon, and also stay tuned if you are a tattoo fan as there may be Tattoo #3 on my horizon very soon! I hope you're all well!

Much love x

Charity shop haul #1

Hi all, hope you're all having a good week!
I hadn't had a good shifty around my local charity shops in ages, so I jumped at the chance to go and have a good root around in the next town over's PDSA shop, which is managed by my aunt. She'd called me and said she'd been saving behind all the 'retro and vintage' items that had been donated to have a 'Retro Special' day and to get down there quickly! These are my spoils.

Two handbags, a tea set, a blouse, a Polaroid and two books!

I absolutely love the tea set. I think its quite quirky and I haven't seen another one like it. At only a fiver for 5 cups and saucers I had to snap it up. I'm going to enjoy having little tea parties, I'm such a dork haha! 

This shirt is pink and its got a polka dot pattern. And it was £3. Enough said!

These two books are amazing. The cookery book will give me some great easy to make but retro dinners and deserts and this 1950s housekeeping book is simply divine. It's Newnes 'Better Home Making'. It has tips and information on everything from how to keep your house clean to how to do your own manicure! The pictures and photos are lush. I'm going to consult it for any house-related problem I have in future :)

These two photos are taken from 'Better Home Making', the left on how to do your make up and the right on how to furnish your house!



I also got a 1940s style handbag and this white bag for £6 and £3.50 respectively. The white bag is perfect to use on nights out as the longish strap is attached by poppers so it can be used as a clutch! Genius. The black handbag is a great staple for when I'm dolled up in my vintage gear.

My favourite item is this Polaroid camera - its a Swinger Colour III which dates to the late 1970s or so. It still has film in it! It also still had some really old Duracell batteries in it which had leaked everywhere. I've given it to the boyfriend to see if he can sort it out but I'm also going to pop in to a camera shop and see what they can tell me. Even if we can't get it working it will still look cool sitting on my bookshelf, and it was only £7, can't go wrong really!




 All in all a good haul! Much love x

Update! Its been a long time...

Wow, it's been so long since I posted anything, so much has been going on! I'm happy to say that my work placement for the year is over and now I have the entire summer to enjoy before I go back to university at the end of September. I was working 7 days a week, weekdays in central London and weekends at my part time job so I've been knackered, and there has been a lot of stuff going on at home too so no time to dedicate to my blog! But now this can all change and I can relax and have fun!

The first exciting thing that has happened since I finished my placement last week is that we, we being Sweete Harmonie, had our first gig of the summer! It was at Rainham Village May Fayre in Rainham, Essex, on the bank holiday just passed. Here we all are dressed in our Fifties gear! 

From l-r: Belinda, Phillipa, me, Nikki, Charlotte, Sue & Kath

We need to do a bit of work on our overall look but you get the idea! In my opinion we need to match a bit more and our hair needs to be much more styled! Three of us are wearing Vivien of Hollway dresses and Nikki is wearing one of my original vintage dresses so we are on the right track at least. What do you think?

We only had about 3 proper practise sessions before the actual day so we were all nervous, especially as this is new territory for us and completely different to our usual madrigals of Tudor and medieval origin. Although we did do a set of that as well, meaning we ended up rushing all over Rainham having to quick change from Tudor to 50s! Also, I haven't sung in public for quite a while so I had a bit of stage fright, not helped by the fact the boyfriend's parents had come to see us! Eek. Here is us mid-song wearing our Tudor get up, complete with Rebec, recorder and various percussion instruments.

You can't see my dress but never mind! 

Overall, I'd say the gig went well. The only problem we had was that the weather was a bit grim so were were freezing in our summer dresses and there was some issue with all the acts on before us overunning so were rushed on and off and the placing off the microphones was completely off. But hey ho it's our first time so we know for the future! We only did 4 songs for the 50s set but we had such a good reaction from the crowd that we are definitely going to expand it to fill 30mins, like our Tudor set. 

Overall a good day was had by all, and I managed to browse the many stalls on offer and purchase some homemade clotted cream and Baileys flavoured fudge and some homemade strawberry jam. Yum!

I'll leave you with our rendition of 'Lollipop' by The Chordettes. Forgive the lousy sound quality, my camera is just a normal digital one, nothing snazzy! Hope you like it!

I have a load of blog posts coming up over the coming week, including a charity haul, a clothes and make up haul, a FOTD and a post dedicated to my winnings from Ruby at Wake up, Make up! 's giveaway. So stay tuned if you're interested!

Much love x

Review: some new make up (and a new playsuit!)

I thought I would share some things I have acquired recently. It isn't a whole lot as I am seriously skint (what's new!) but I've managed to purchase a new foundation, got a new eyeliner free, and found a lipstick in the bottom of my make up I didn't realise I had. My boyfriend's Mum also treated me to a new playsuit!

So, the foundation. I finished my MAC Studio Sculpt in NW15 a few weeks ago and I simply couldn't afford to replace it much to my chagrin. I'm terrible at choosing foundation so I was at a loss to choose when faced with all the different brands in Boots but having recently read a review by a fellow blogger Courtney (I love her blog, her reviews are ace and I envy her wardrobe) I decided I'd give MaxFactor Lasting Performance (£9.99) a try, getting it in shade 102 Pastelle. It's quite a nice texture in that it's not too oily and it doesn't feel like its caked on even when I build the layers up to full coverage. Big plus! However, I do tend to touch my face a lot and it tends to rub off and look patchy around my chin and mouth. This is probably more my fault than the foundation but it isn't any more long-lasting in this respect than any other foundation I've used. I do think I'll buy it again once I've run out though!

My boyfriend's Mum gave me a No.7 Smoky Eyeliner (£9.75) she got free with another purchase and despite not yet finishing the Soap & Glory Supercat! pen eyeliner I'm currently using I thought I'd give it a try. I'm a lover of cat flicks so I thought I wouldn't be able to make a 'smoky' eyeliner work for me but I actually quite like the result. Rather than my usual strong, defined black line its a more smouldery effect that is different without feeling like I've majorly changed my usual look. 

My face! I'm wearing the foundation, eyeliner and lipstick

As I said, I found a lipstick in the bottom of my make up bag that I'd completely forgotten about, I don't even remember how or where I came by it. It's Estée Lauder Pure Colour in 118 Bois de Rose (£18.50) and its a lovely shade of dusky pink with a glossy shine. I always wear bright lipstick, usually red, and usually matte so this is a bit of a deviation from the norm on my part but again despite being different to my usual look I actually really like it. It's such a wearable shade and goes with everything so it's perfect for work when bright red would seem a tad too loud. It's very good quality as well, staying put for ages even after a few drinks.

I'm quite chuffed I managed to get a more expensive eyeliner than I'd usually buy for free and to find what I'd consider a really expensive lipstick that I'm quite sure I myself didn't buy just floating around in my bedroom somewhere!

Finally, here is my new playsuit from Primark. It was only a fiver so you really can't go wrong with that!

Here is the print up close

P.S. Please excuse my hair in all these photos it is badly in need of a hairdresser's attention!

Much love! x

Eleven Questions Tag!

Hi there!

The lovely Fern at Little Green Shoes tagged me in her 11 Questions blog post so here I am writing an answering post. Her blog is about all things girly, hair and make up etc and its great so check it out if you haven't already!
I have to give you 11 pieces of information about myself, answer her questions then set 11 more for the people I choose to tag to answer. So here goes!

First up is 11 random nuggets of information about me...

1. I'm a Psychology undergrad at Cardiff Uni but I'm on placement in London for a year, living at home in Essex

2. I've been blonde, plum, chesnut, dark brunette, red and now black haired!

3. I've been with my boyfriend Jack for more than 5 years, we got together two weeks before my 16th birthday

4. I love Guinness!

5. My favourite colour is pink

6. When I was 17 I went to Botswana to do some charity work and it literally changed my life

7. I have two black cats called Salem and Sabrina. Yes they are named after the TV programme!

8. I am deathly afraid of bees and wasps, they frighten the life out of me

9. I love everything to do with the 1940s-1960s, and all things vintage and rockabilly

10. I'm a singer and have been most of my life

11. I love cows, I don't know why but I do!

And the answers to Fern's questions...

1. If you could go any place in the world where would it be?

Walt Disney World in Florida. I've been four times and its my favourite place ever. It just makes me happy, I love Disney and I love theme parks so the two combined is perfect!

2. What make-up item could you not live without?

Liquid eyeliner. I wear it everyday and I feel weird without it.

3. What made you start your blog?

See my first blog post for the answer to this!

4. Have you ever been to LUSH and what's your favourite item there?

I can honestly say I've never been in. Whenever I walk past I always make a mental note to go in and have a look at some point but I always forget! I will one day.

5. Who's your celebrity crush?

Hmmm. I love Jake Gyllenhal and I once had a huge crush on Orlando Bloom. I have a massive girl crush on both Katy Perry and Zooey Deschanel as well, if they count!

6. What's your favourite perfume?

I love all the Escada perfumes as fruity scents are my favourite. I got Katy Perry - Purr last year and I love that too, it smells like peaches and vanilla! I would like to branch out and try a Poison though.

7. Where is your favourite place to shop?

I have an unhealthy obsession with shopping in Primark and if I haven't been for a while I start experiencing my own personal Primark withdrawal symptoms! I also love vintage shops and fairs and boot sales for the odd piece too, and vintage reproduction and rockabilly lines.

8. If you had to pick one make-up item to use forever what would it be?

Red lipstick, definitely. It's my go-to product to give me a self-confidence boost and make me feel glamorous.

9. What is your dream job?

At the moment, I'm hoping to do a PhD in either clinical research or clinical psychology. Subject to change!

10. What's your favourite item of clothing in your wardrobe?

Difficult! I don't think I have only one item that is my ultimate favourite. Perhaps my burgundy high waisted shorts with big gold buttons, I seem to be wearing them a lot recently.

11. What's your favourite TV show?

I have a few! Doctor Who, The Big Bang Theory, Friends, The Mighty Boosh, all period dramas and New Girl!

The questions that I've set are...

1. What is your favourite film of all time and why?

2. Why is your best friend exactly that?

3. If you won the lottery, what is the first thing you would do?

4. What do you think is great about yourself?

5. What is your go-to beauty buy that you could never live without?

6. What is your favourite pair of shoes?

7. Where do you see yourself in 5 years time?

8. Favourite ice cream flavour?

9. How did you get into blogging and why?

10. Do you have anything that if given the chance, you would choose to go back and change?

11. Who is your role model and why?

I tag everyone who follows me! Thanks for doing so :) Also, this post has been really wordy so I promise my next post will contain many more pictures for your beady eyes to feast on!

Much love! x

Singing and the 1950's...and me!

Hello everyone!

I'm well aware that I haven't posted anything in absolutely ages - the past couple of weeks have been a bit manic with work etc so I haven't had the time to sit and think about what I want to write! I've had a few ideas now though so hopefully I can devote a few hours over the next week :)

So...!

Something has happened that I am REALLY excited about. I'm a singer and have been since I was 6, mainly singing choral music and show tunes. When I was 14 I joined a group called 'Ye Essex Baebes' (I know, cheesy name right?) who sing medieval and Tudor music - and dress up in medieval and Tudor dresses!

This is a picture from a quick Google search that shows a dress really similar to the one I wore.

 It is actually really fun, we have such a good laugh and have loads of lovely feedback from people who come to watch us at our gigs. After a name change to Sweete Harmonie, Nikki our sort of 'choir mistress' recently decided to go in a different direction having felt the Tudor and medieval stuff had run its course and decided to concentrate on a different era...the 1950s!!!!

We are learning some of the music sung by girl groups in the Fifties such as The Beverly Sisters, The Chordettes and some later ones such as The Chiffons and The Marvelettes. Amazing!

The earliest one we are doing is one of my favourite songs - Rum and Coca Cola by The Andrews Sisters. We're also thinking of learning Don't Sit Under The Apple Tree as well.

It's so catchy and makes me feel summery!

My next favourite is It's Illegal, It's Immoral Or It Makes You Fat by The Beverly Sisters. This song is absolutely hilarious, the lyrics are genius! In addition, we've included Long Black Nylons and a few others I can't remember the names of right now.

This is a recording from 1962, I love how giggly they are.

And of course, our 50s vocal set just would not be complete without a rendition of Mr Sandman by The Chordettes, the ultimate 1950s song. This has been the hardest one to learn of the entire set as the harmonies are really hard to pick up and gel together as a group. Lollipop is another classic we're going to add to our repertoire, and also a slower one called Eddie My Love.

I love how glamorous they are!

After the music itself, I'm ridiculously excited about our styling! Obviously we are gonna deck ourselves out in 1950s gear. I for one am going to wear my lovely Vivien of Holloway dress, and I'm pretty sure the other Charlotte in the group is going to purchase one sometime soon as I've converted her! We're all going to set our hair before every gig and wear a staple red lipstick but we're going to wear different dresses. Mine is black with a red and pink rose pattern. Its a circle skirt with a halterneck so its quite dressy! This is a photo I've nabbed off their website. Lush ain't it!

We have a few gigs lined up over the summer, mainly fairs over Essex but after we rehearse some more we're hoping to approach some more fairs across London - including vintage ones!

So, I hope you've enjoyed reading about my singing exploits and listening to the music of the 1950s. Are any of these songs your favourites? Would you enjoy and appreciate a vocal group singing this music live?

Much love! x

Beautiful shoes thanks to Dolly Mixture Clothing...

I won something! And best of all I won a fabulous pair of high heels! I am one happy girl, that's for sure. These are the Iron Fist All Hope Abandoned Heels and I won them courtesy of  Dolly Mixture Clothing. Their website offers 1950s style clothing, handmade kitsch jewellery and footwear by Iron Fist and TUK. After reaching a certain amount of followers on Twitter, they decided to hold a giveaway for a free pair of Iron Fists to one follower picked at random, and it happened to be me :)

I got a choice of which ones I wanted and All Hope Abandoned were the definite winners seeing as they have a Mexican sugar skull type print on them which I love! I've not owned a pair of Iron Fists before but I think I've been converted! 

Dolly Mixture Clothing have been absolutely brilliant, their customer service is impeccable and they are so friendly and nice! Even when I was being a complete nuisance as it took ages to pick my package up from the postie. I simply cannot recommend them highly enough.

I would have taken a better picture of me wearing the shoes but I've not been feeling too great over the past couple of days and I look awful! 

Do you own any Iron Fists? And if so which pair?

Much love! x

(Almost) Mid-Week Wants!

I am rather skint at the moment but that doesn't stop me from daydreaming about all the lovely things on my wishlist that will (hopefully) become a reality once payday arrives!

First up is this gorgeous Rhonda Dress in Dot Flock by Collectif. It's so classy, hugs in all the right places, has a polka dot print...and it's only £25! WANT. As it comes in lots of colours, I'll have a hard time picking just one.

Next up are some black platform plimsolls from H&M, priced at £12.99. They aren't the kind of shoes I would typically wear being quite chunky and more like trainers than my usual brogues (plus the boyfriend hates them!). Buuuuut, they look comfy and remind me of a similar pair I owned once upon a time when the Spice Girls ruled. So on the wishlist they go. I tried to link them but for some reason they aren't listed on the website at the moment, so here is a picture of some random ones that look pretty much the same to visualise them!


I'm sure many of you have heard of and possibly own a few Rockalily lipsticks, and as a self-confessed lipstick obsessive I cannot sing it's praises loud enough! I already own Rockette Red and have now set my sights on the new ZOMG! Limited Edition lipstick. It's such a lush shade of pink that I must own it - I've read a few great reviews of this shade already and they have convinced me. Unfortunately this one is currently out of stock but I'm praying it'll come back in. If you haven't heard of Rockalily then may I suggest you head over the the website and have a look for yourself!

A more practical item is next on the list, namely this pretty flask from Paperchase. I commute into London from Essex everyday for work and so on the train in the morning I'm dreaming of a piping hot cup of tea or coffee to wake me up. This will keep me awake and double up as hand candy at the same time!





And finally (drumroll please!) is the ultimate item on my wishlist, the one I've wanted for ever but am ALWAYS too skint to buy...is the famous Kit Cat Clock! I LOVE IT SO MUCH. You always see one in the background in American films and I just think they are hilarious. I'm a bit of a catlady as well so cat memorabilia is always welcome in my house! At £48 its very much out of my price range until the day comes when I can afford it and buy it for myself once and for all! Available now from Tatty Devine.

What do you think of my wishlist? And what's on yours?

Much love! x

50th Birthday Party and a day trip to Liverpool...

I had been looking forward to this weekend for absolutely ages and now it's practically over I can breathe a sigh of contentment as it sure didn't disappoint! 

Yesterday was my boyfriend's Mum's cousin Alison's 50th birthday (phew, that is complicated isn't it!) and she celebrated in style with a big bash at a local rugby club near Manchester. I love any excuse to dress up so I took the opportunity to channel my inner 50s vixen as you can see from my outfit below, and the boy looked pretty dapper in his suit and bow tie too!

I spent about an hour trying to pin my hair in a vintage style and managed to get them looking kinda like victory rolls but I'm not sure how successful I was! 

The night included a performance by Alison's husband's band Newton and a brilliant performance by her 19 year old daughter Kate's band The Lottery Winners. I absolutely recommend checking TLW out - they won "Live and Unsigned" a few years ago and are on their way to stardom!

Today we spent the day in Liverpool, which I'd never been to before and it was absolutely WICKED. I'm a massive Beatles fan so I was so excited this morning I wanted to set off as early as possible! We visited the Beatles museum 'The Beatles Story' first. It was full of memorabilia and contained the full story of the beginnings of the Beatles, their rise to the top and their eventual break up, all narrated by John Lennon's sister by way of a little headset.

After that we made our way over to Mathew Street, the so-called 'Birthplace of The Beatles' to see the Cavern Club. The philistine that I am I didn't realise it was still an actual club so I was really happy that we could go in and have a drink! A half pint of John Smith's went down nicely! Here is a dashing photo of me and the boy grinning outside before we went in.

We even did the pose from the cover for 'Help!' as we found a good bit of wall to do it against - a nice German lady thought we were so hilarious she had a picture with us too! 

All in all, this weekend has been a blast! How was your weekend? And are you a Beatles fan too?

Much love! x