Thursday 29 November 2012

Christmas in Southampton






So.. it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas in Southampton! A normal walk into town these days usually involves spending quite a bit of money, or walking through on the way to work. One things for sure, my day is instantly brightened up once you see these German Christmas market stalls through town. They're mainly food stalls with hot chestnuts, hot dogs, Indian cuisine, crepes, waffles, doughnuts, a hog roast, pretty much every type of food you can think of, with small gift and handmade goods stalls. In the center there is a German bar, which I'm yet to visit for some mulled wine on a cold evening! As my home home is really the country, I love living in such a busy city center, where Christmas is BIG news!

Does where you live make a big deal about Christmas?

Wednesday 28 November 2012

OOTD 28/11/12

Hi guys, I just thought I'd do an outfit post! I really want to start doing these more often, unfortunetly I had to take them with my phone as my camera is out of battery and is charging, but I love an instagramed photo anyway!





Top - H&M, Wet look/Skiny leggings - Primark, Scarf - New Look, Necklace & Bracelets - Topshop, Boots - Office (You'll see me in these every single day!)

First of all - appologies for my untidy room! I have stuff everywhere haha! 

I haven't been up to much today really, I went into uni for 9am, only to find it was another useless seminar where we were let out early. I get so annoyed when I have to leave my cosy warm bed, and I have my boyfriend with me and always love to lie in with him. When i got home, James was still here, and he stayed with me for another hour or so cuddled up in bed before he left! :) Me and my friend Becky are going to a blogger event later on in Southampton run by our university, with successful fashion bloggers, and hints and tips, styling and refreshments. Really looking forward to it and hopefully get a few good tips to use on my own blog :) I've realized a deadline for another one of my projects is only a week away, so it's going to be another busy few days, with a photoshoot too on Sunday!

I found out as soon as I stepped outside (with my coat on of course) that I had not put enough clothes on to walk to uni, it was freeeeezing outside! My outfit today is quite plain, but I really like to mix textures and colours. These wet look/shiny leggings from primark were a total bargain at £6, and I'm practically living in them! The scarf I bought from New Look about a year ago in a sale. Its wool and is a tad itchy, but I love the colour and print, it's so autumnal! I wear a scarf pretty much every day, I have over 20 at least! I just think it's such a good way of mixing print and pattern, and it just adds another dimension to your outfit. My look has gone slightly grunge recently with tartan scarves, and crosses and wet look leggings, but that's all part of the current season trends I guess! :)

I think I'd better put some tights on under my leggings and a cardi before I face the cold outside again, or I might even pop on my fur hat!



Tuesday 27 November 2012

L'Oreal Wild Ombre - DIY dip dye

So I've pretty much had the same hair for about 4 years now. I've been growing it for the last year or so, and now I LOVE the length. I know I should probably get it cut but I wouldn't trust any hairdresser at this point! I've always thought about getting a fringe cut in, but the last time I had one, looking back it really did no suit me. Recently I've been quite fed up and wanted a slight change. I'd seen celebrities and people doing dip dying for a while now, and I really love how it looks on brunettes, with blonde ends. I'm too scared to wack bleach on my ends (as I've been dying my hair darkish brown for a a few years now) but when I saw L'Oreal had release it's own dip dye kit I thought 'wow that's such a good idea!' and really wanted to try it. I was curious to if it would actually work on my dyed hair, but I decided to give it a go. I thought if it went wrong I could just dye over it! So I decided to go for it, at £6 a box (the same as regular hair dye) I thought why not!




The kit comes with everything you need including good instructions on how to mix and apply the product. It was really easy to mix, pretty much the same as a normal hair dye really, and comes with a handy plastic comb to comb the product into your hair to get a gradual ombre effect. One thing I have to say is that the black gloves that came with it were horrible, and felt like bin bags on my hands!


So I put it on,  I was quite nervous as to what it was actually going to do... I used the comb to brush it in at the ends, but I found brushing it actually tangled my long thick hair, so I ended up just using the gloves and kind of stroked the dye upwards to blend it into my dark hair. I use  It looks really light on here because the actual dye is white, but It didn't look as if it was doing much after 25 minutes. I left it on for the maximum time (45 minutes) because I wanted it as light as possible. I was really disappointed when I washed it out, it looked no different! Until I dried it that was..



Before/After

So this is how it came out, I was surprised to see it had lightened quite a bit! (As the second photo is instagrammed it looks more blonde, but it was very ginger in real life!) I was a bit disappointed that it hadn't gone more blonde really, but more of a light brown/copper/red/ginger type colour. Although I think this is because I have been dying my hair dark brown/reddish brown for a few years now, and it's revealed the reddy tones in the lengths of my hair. I was unsure and wanted to see it in daylight. These are a few photos from the day after:




I was actually really happy with the colour! I wasn't expecting it to go so red, but that's toned down in the last few days after I've been washing it, so it's more of a light brown. I may repeat it again in a week or so to see if I can get it lighter, or I might even try bleach to get it blonde, but for now it's a really lovely subtle ombre effect. I'm glad I did it :) It hasn't really left my hair any drier or in a worse condition then it was, although I do condition my hair regularly. 


Heres a bit of a better photo that shows it off a bit better. (I did a few modeling/outfit test shots for my friend Becky's photo shoot, I look a bit silly haha!) It definetly has lightened it a good few shades, in daylight and you can really see the ombre effect! 

Have you tried or wanted to try a dip dye style?



Saturday 24 November 2012

Catch Up

Hello hello hello! Once again I apologize for my lack of posts. I didn't realize how busy I'd actually be in my 2nd year of uni. It seems like I'm constantly on the go with uni, my projects and my social life! Guess I shouldn't complain really :) I'm really going to try harder to keep my blog more up to date, and thank you to all 9 of you who are following me! :)
Once again here are a few photos from my life recently:

A hilarious photo of my friend Caroline on a night we were drinking - she looks like a goblin.. and she's going to love me for putting this on my blog haha!

 Some fashion designs in my sketchbook for one of my projects

Autumn leaves in a park in Southampton

Me on the train home back to Somerset last weekend

Pretty sunset on the train home

A bottle of wine shared with my friend Lorren at a local pub at home.. we ended up having one each as it was so nice! Not a nice price at £11 a bottle mind!

This happened tonight to my hair! Review to follow! :)
 Me getting ready to go out on thursday - wearing my new Topshop black midi dress, studded belt and neon necklace from H&M 

 Constant gray skies and rain in Southampton.. It's getting difficult to get up early!

This wad of paper has been the stress of my life these last few weeks! It's been the most academic thing I've done since starting uni, and did find it difficult at times, but I'm so proud of myself that I've written a 40 page business report, with proper marketing analysis and referencing. All printed and ready to hand in Monday!
 

We've had a really busy 2 weeks, with our management and marketing deadline looming, but my flat mates and I have also secured our student house next year - which is so exciting! We're currently living in a 3 story flat with a hole in the ceiling that is dripping as I write this.. and our current agency is absolutely useless with sorting out our problems and we had an absolute nightmare of a month when we moved in (probably the worst of our lives!)... It's a long story. But basically were refused to stay with them another year, and pay them even more money, so we looked around some other local student property agency's. We viewed several houses, some REALLY good (and extremely expensive!) and some very bad, but when we saw this one we had a good feeling about it. No damp, no mould (which if your a uni student you know how most student houses are covered in) and everything we wanted, including a garden, and really lovely bedrooms, and a new bathroom. We secured our little house with the deposit, and we're all set to move in next year! 

 

 

 

Looks good, right? We're so happy to have found somewhere so nice and well looked after! It'll be a hell of a lot better then where we're currently living. It's so stressful having to think about things so far in advance, and having to be really grown up and sensible! It's unbelievable we'll be in our 3rd and last years next year.. I don't want to grow up!!