happy halloween

 my sister + I, town time, my friend laura + I at glam night club.

Hope you're all having a fun filled Halloween! I celebrated in town on Saturday with my friends so thought I'd share with you my DIY costume! With money being a little tight, I wanted to make a costume that would cost no more than £10. This was my interpretation of a Sugar Skullenton! I bought a black long sleeved body off eBay + a metre of felt from my local fabric shop + set to work cutting out the bones for my friends and my own costume, it took me an hour at the most! Super quick + super cheap!! We then bought some bone socks from our local fancy dress shop + some novelty bones which I made a collar from, ta da!! What are you dressing up as this year?

fancy dress; diy mermaid

I must admit, I do love a bit of fancy dress! Making an outfit gives me an opportunity to make the most of my crafty skills and to make something a little different! When I was younger I would skip along to the local costume store + easily spend £40+ on an outfit which would be worn only once + probably by a few people at the party, well not any more!! For my sister's 18th fancy dress party last weekend I chose to go as a mermaid (a little random I know!). By being a little creative + making use of my free time, this is what I came up with *drum roll*...

Tah-dah! What do you think? I loved making this costume + being a mermaid for the night!ha.. The whole thing cost me around £20 + a few hours of my time, totally worth it to have a completely unique outfit! The night was pretty much a whirl wind so I've only got these few with my sister (alice in wonderland) + her friend Bethan (mad hatter). I got inspiration from a variety of online images but in particular this makeup tutorial by Traci Hines, amazing! So this is how I set about transforming into a mermaid...

You will need;

Sequin Skirt

Two-tone Organza

White Bandeau Top

French Lavender + Tropical Green Dylon Fabric Dye

Mixed Bag of Pearl + Iridescent Sequins 

Various Sized Flat Back Pearls

Small Starfish

Handful of Shells
Pearl Necklace 
Glue (I used a UHU adhesive)

These little starfish slides were inspired by those in Traci's video. I did feel a bit off-ish about using real starfish but hey-ho! I bought the bag of mixed pearl + iridescent sequins from The Range for £1 and placed them into a Chinese take-away carton for easy storage. I also bought flat back pearls from eBay to decorate them with. I then used glue to stick the embellishment in place! I later used nail glue to attach bobby pins to the back et voila pearl encrusted starfish ready to wear in your mermaid hair!

I bought the bandeau top from eBay but really wouldn't recommend the seller I used. I ordered a cream bralet hoping to just stick on a shell + some pearls + be done, but when it arrived it was a tacky white colour + as I was so busy with uni' work I missed the time to exchange, GRR! Instead of wasting the awful thing I used fabric dyed which I had left over from past projects to rework it. I firstly dyed it all over lilac (to get rid of the white) then used basic tie dying techniques with a more saturated lilac mixture + the green. My idea was that it would look like anemone or sea urchins to keep in with the aquatic theme! I finally decorated it with pearls + iridescent sequins and added a few shells + starfish to the centre.

I followed Traci's tutorial for the make up + loved the way it turned out! Super easy + really effective!

I used my mad eBaying skills to hunt down this skirt; I did the super obvious of typing 'sequin skirt' into the search bar + watching every skirt that caught my eye! I didn't worry about what size they were as I knew I'd be able to adjust it to fit me when it arrived! The one I ended using I won for 99p, bargain! I then bought 2 lots two toned organza from my local fabric store + made the fin by cutting two rectangles with curved edges + sewing it to the bottom of the skirt! I made a make-shift belt out of a pearl necklace that I got from the Topshop sale to add a final mermaidy touch!


So what do you think? I hope I've not made it sound horribly difficult to do (I do ramble a bit!) but it really was super easy! My laptop charger arrived today so expect lots of posts from now on, yay!

PS Do you like my sister's 'Alice in Wonderland' costume, I made this for her too! *bragbragbrag* ahaha

DIY: OMBRÉ HAIR

As I mentioned briefly in my Sunday Post, I've finally Ombréd my hair! It's only taken me, what? Two years?!ha.. I watched a ton of Youtube tutorials before hand but honestly it's so simple I don't know why I was so scared! I'm pretty pleased with the outcome especially seeing as my hair isn't dry or dead or snapping from the bleach like I thought it would be, woo! I know this is a popular post so not to disappoint I thought I'd talk through how I went about colouring my hair + what I used to do it. Also this style isn't just for people with waist long hair so don't be afraid if you have shorter/medium style like me!

HAIR HISTORY

A bit of background on my hair before I start; I've had blonde highlights done by a hairdresser for years but around September last year I started to box dye my hair myself to tone down the blonde + give my hair chance to grow. I naturally have very dark hair so the upkeep of highlights was seriously damaging my locks! I've been using the Nice N Easy Permanent Colour Blend Foam in number 7 Dark Blonde to colour my hair so the upper/darker half of my would be this colour. Would totally recommend anyone to the foam dyes as it's so easy to apply yourself.

Everything in this list isn't essential but it's what I've used so didn't want to leave anything out! As you can see I took full advantage of the Boots 3 for 2 offer so now is the perfect time to take the plunge!

Jerome Russell B Blonde Hair Lightener Kit; £5.61 Boots - This little kit is perfect for Ombré-ing! It's essentially a bleaching kit so I'd be a bit weary if your hair is already dry/damaged but it didn't damage my hair one bit! I basically used the same technique as everyone else; I separated my hair in half, one over each shoulder + start applying the bleach to the ends of my hair, leaving for a little bit then adding a bit more further up until I was happy with the length of the Ombré. I didn't want the straight-line-look so used the little applicator brush to sort of messily streak it up my hair. I had my sister check over my hair before I finished + found that the back was a bit lower so she evened it out, always good to have a second pair of eyes! In total I had the bleach on my hair for around a hour before I washed it off. I always shampoo twice + condition once after dying to make sure all the chemicals are washed out properly.

Sun-In Spray in Lightener; £5.77 Boots - I've only used this twice since dying my hair but it's a great product to lighten your hair further without using another colour. This also contains peroxide so again be careful not to overuse! You simply spray the product onto clean, wet hair, blow-dry then wash out! Easy peasy! It reacts to the heat when blow drying so you have got to be careful where you apply it to. I think I have this product to thank for the natural blend of my Ombré, think I'm going to do a separate post for this little gem as I think it's pretty unknown!

Pro:Voke Silver Shampoo; £2.29 Lloyds Pharmacy - Silver shampoo, another great product to help get your Ombré that little more blonde! You can find this in most local chemists + it's super cheap! I felt quite uneasy massaging this bright purple liquid into my freshly dyed hair but it's brilliant! It removes rusty, yellow tones + helps you get that platinum blonde whilst improving the condition of your hair, what more could you ask for?!

Aussie 3 Minute Miracle Reconstructor Conditioner - £4.99 + Aussie Heat Protection + Leave In Spray; £3.99 both Superdrug - I am such an Aussie fan + swear that these products have helped keep my hair in good condition. Love, love, love the 3 minute conditioners + use them most days. The Reconstructor one is by far my favourite + has helped keep my hair silky smooth! The leave in spray is again another one I can't live without, I squirt this into my hair after washing which helps my brush glide through it with minimum damage!

Tangle Teaser; £10.99 Boots - If you don't own one of these by now, GO BUY ONE! I swear by this brush + sure it's the reason why my hair is in half decent condition! I bought one as a Christmas present for my sister + she admitted it to helping her hair grow too, so much love for Tangle Teaser!!

Wow this post has turned out pretty long! At least I don't think I've missed anything out!ha.. I know I'm late on the band wagon but hope this helps you out if you have decided to go Ombré!

BIRTHDAY NIGHT OUT 80'S STYLE...

001. Me & my sister all eightied up - 002. My friends & I on the way into town - 003. My DIY shoesies! - 004. The girlies with our mic's (excuse the weird face!) - 005. Me & the lads

It's crazy that my birthday has been & gone after I was planning & looking forward to it for over a month! The preparation certainly paid off as it was an amazing night! Of course there was a few hiccups including me losing/having my purse stolen, NIGHTMARE! Luckily there was only money in there & no cards, but I never lose money so was kinda frustrated that I lost over £30! That still didn't manage to ruin my night though. If you're going out for a birthday & fancy something different, go to Reflex! I pre-booked a birthday package online (absolutely free to do!) which meant we had queue jump, free entry, 3 complimentary bottles of pink bubbly & goody bags with fancy dress items. Totally worth it, singing the Grease Mega Mix into inflatable microphone will never get old! After we polished off our free drinks we moved onto Oceana & spent the rest of the night in the karaoke & disco room. One of my best birthdays to date & I must say we looked pretty swag in our 80's costumes!

I'm kinda gutted I didn't get a full length photo' of me in my 80's gear but as it was my actual birthday day I didn't stop preparing for the night & it was basically one mad rush to make sure everything was sorted for when the bus came! I'm really please with how my outfit turned out though, especially my shoes! They were originally a deep purple colour & after around 6 layers of glitter glue turned out super sparkly! Might even dedicate another post to them. I had the earrings & lashes (you can't really see but they had silver polka dots & multi-coloured sparkly bits on them) as part of my birthday box from my family, will share my other presents with you tomorrow! The rest of my outfit is basically all from eBay, self confessed eBay addict here! All in all I've had an amazing couple of days & now it's back to reality as I start back to university tomorrow, bring on year two...

DIY LACE TRIM SHORTS...

So the first of my holiday DIY's is a pair of denim lace trim short that I made yesterday inspired by this picture. They were so easy to make & took me no time at all! I made them slightly longer than the inspiration image as I don't think I could pull off a bum cheek bearing pair! This is how I made them...

To start off with you will need;

• An old pair of jeans - I used an old pair of Newlook skinny jeans. I think an indigo colour work best as the dark denim contrasts with the white cotton lace. 
• 1.5/2m of lace trim - I bought this from a local fabric store, it was just 80p a metre! 
• Scissors. 
• Navy & white cotton. 
• Pins. 
• Chalk. 
• Sewing machine

Firstly I tried on the jeans and marked them with the chalk to the length I wanted. I added an additional length of around 2cm so I could turn them up. I then simply cut along the line I marked so they looked like this...

Once I cut them I tried them on again and turn the hem up so that the shorts were the length that I wanted. When I was happy I pinned the hem in place, like so...

I then used the sewing machine & the navy cotton to sew the hems up. I sewed all around the leg 1cm in, I turned the shorts inside out to make this easier. Once finished I trimmed the excess material so it was nice & neat (I'm a bit of a perfectionist!)...

Now for the lace! You can do this one of two ways; lace in or out. As demonstrated in these images...

I thought that with my particular lace & shorts the outer style looked better so pinned it in place ready to be sewn. Again I turned them inside out and carefully stitched them in place with the white cotton. If I chose the other method I would use the navy cotton so it would have looked nice & neat. Once both legs have been sewn, you're finished...

I'm really happy with how they've turned out! So simple & only cost me £1.60 to make! I'm not quite sure how I'm going to wear them yet. Do you guys have any suggestions? Today I'm going to create a sheer maxi skirt & make more jeans into shorts, I think I have the DIY bug...

ORANGE OR PINK...

So I have my Topshop Jaime Ultimate Skinny Jeans that I mentioned about transforming in to shorts yesterday. I had them in the sale for £10 about a year or two ago and as per they still have their tags attached! I don't know why I thought I'd wear white skinny jeans for, another impulse purchase! Now I need your guys help to decide whether to dye them Goldfish Orange or Flamingo Pink. The packets in the image are hand dyes but I'll probably buy the machine dye (if my mum will let me use fabric dye in her washing machine!) as it'll produce a more solid colour. I think I'm probably swaying towards the orange but wanted your opinion before I went ahead and bought the dye. I'm also debating dying them before I cut them into shorts to see what they look like as jeans or might just acquire another pair of cheapy white jeans to try this out, decisions decisions!


The reason for the late posting is that I've been to the cinema to see the 'Hangover 2', such a funny film! I would recommend it to anyone, laughed all the way through! I did schedule this post but it didn't go up for some reason, typical blogger. Would put it tomorrow but got a little outfit post in mind as I'm going to see Take That, woo! I need to go to bed now as the Nando's & popcorn has wiped me out, zzz...

LIKE TOY SOLDIERS...

001. The birthday boy, me, my sister & Ryan at the pre drinks party, we have a weird friendship but we love it! I'm wearing a head wrap and top made by me. Primark aviators and Miss Selfridge shorts - 002. Me & Alice on the coach, yes we had a 52 seater into town! - 003. Nothing better than a bit of free bubbly! - 004. Me a little steams in Oceana - 005. Taking a tumble during the army toy soldier drinking game and taking the boyf' with me! - 006. Live action pose courtesy of Glam nightclub 

Last night a group of camouflage clad guys and girls hit the big smoke of Cardiff to celebrate a friends 18th birthday. My sister Alice and I grew up with the birthday boy James and his brother Ryan. Our parents lived next door to each other and became best friends resulting in us growing up like brothers and sisters; from hanging out on days off school to holidaying together and now going out to town! A night of army paint, free champagne, drinking games and dance tunes has taken it's toll, resulting in me basically not leaving my bed all day plus a suspected broken toe! It was such a good night spent with friends I wouldn't normally go clubbing with. We played the legendary game where you have to pick a toy soldier from a bag and when the whistle is blown take on the pose that your soldier is doing. Sounds easy enough but once several pints of pear cider & 6 inch heels have been added it becomes a dangerously funny game (as you can see from the photo)! I am proud to say that I came home with my soldier and aviators too, shame I wasn't so protective over my monies! I only decided to go out on Wednesday and so glad that I did, was an amazing night! I need to order a pizza and snuggle in my duvet now, hopefully the side effects of the amount of alcohol I drunk would have worn off by tomorrow...

DIP DYE DIY: WHITE TO LILAC VEST

Hope you guys enjoy this tutorial; I now have a new jazzy vest to wear which didn't cost me a penny, woo! It was pretty simple to do however if you do use purple dye like me remember to stir the mixture well as I have a few red & blue spots where the concentrated dye landed on the damp top. Other than that it's perfect! I may re-dye it soon bringing the lilac further up but for now it's spot on! Hope you've enjoyed my little DIY... 

SHUT UP AND MOVE WITH ME...

As predicted the typical British weather has delayed my DIY post but I thought I'd share the 'before garment' with you guys as fingers crossed it shall be finished tomorrow! I came across this top during my wardrobe blitz. I used to wear it with a coloured boob tube underneath, what can I say, I thought it was trendy?ha. To make it a bit more 2011 I have decided to dip-dye it; it's currently soaking in a bucket of lilac dye out my garden! The how to post will hopefully be up tomorrow depending upon the weather will be nice enough for the top to dry and me having time between another little project I got going on. It's my friends birthday tomorrow and we're going out on the weekend all dressed in an army theme, I have two days to throw together an outfit, challenge accepted!! I'm also hoping to do a little outfit post with my re-invented top, haven't had chance to do one in so long, time to get back into the swing of things...

P.S. What do you guys think of my blog re-vamp so far, ye' or nay?

I need a dollar...

L-R; Topshop, H&M and MOLYNEUXOXO

These are my three favourite rings at the moment, but whenever I wear them I end up with green rings around my fingers (not the best look!). They've also transformed from their original gold colour to a rusted copper state, again not so appealing! The other week I came across a post on Gem Fatale's Style Blog which would solve my annoying problem with ease! I've heard of the trick to paint the inside of the ring with clear nail varnish to keep the green finger syndrome at bay but never thought to re-paint jewellery...

The gold nail varnish is a very old Collection 2000 one that I found at the bottom of my nail varnish basket, I think it's done it's job quite well. It is a little glittery compared to it's original state but looks a million times better than the red, rusted colour! An easy DIY to save your favourite jewellery from being reluctantly thrown away. I need to stop procrastinating and get on with some work now, deadlines a-looming!...

Let the sunshine baby...

001 . Rock from Porthcawl - 002 . Chillen on the beach - 003. DIY shorts - 004 . New Primark sandals £2.50! 

Apologise for my absence over the past couple of days; had a few days of spontaneous adventures with my mates to make the most out of the beautiful weather! I went to the beer garden after shopping on Thursday, beach & Nando's on Friday and a BBQ after work yesterday which ended up going on until the very early hours! Will of course make it up to you guys and I have rediscovered a few summery outfits which will be shared with you very soon. For now here are some of my snaps from the beach on Friday, love busting out the shorts I made last summer! Got two old pairs of jeans to re-invent this year too. Hope you all enjoy your Easter Sunday; if you follow me on Twitter you would already know that the easter bunny was kind enough to bring me Adele tickets for later this year, who needs chocolate aye! My Sunday roast is ready now, NOMNOMNOM...