Tuesday 3 April 2012

Who needs the highstreet?

Where I'm from is not known for it's shopping. There's a tiny Topshop and Miss Selfridge and then a larger New Look and a Debenhams that stocks Warehouse. So my friends and I regularly go thrifting around charity shops ,as that's one thing we're not short of here. You also know that with a charity shop treasure you're not going to look the same as everyone else, it's a fraction of the price and the money is going to a good cause. So win/win in my eyes!

A couple of friends and I went round our favourite one last week - St Catherine's Hopsice and I managed to bag a couple of gems.

Starting with this dress for a fiver...

When I first bought it, it was past knee length as I'm assuming it once belonged to a sweet, old lady. But my friend helped me 'Gok Wan' it and we chopped it nice and short. It's perfect for this spring/summer as it's a lovely, pastel blue and has a cute, floral print. I wore it whilst on a night out and teamed it with silver jewellery, a tan, plaited belt, chunky heels and red lips to edge it up...





My second steal was a cool, crazy printed top for £4...





It grabbed my attention immediately and did make me wonder which senseless human being gave it away. The emerald green and royal blue work so well together and I cannot wait to print clash it with a flowery skirt over summer. However, I wore it on Saturday with some leather shorts that my friend got from H&M, ankle socks and debuted my Presley Topshop heels...




So excited that we have two, four day working weeks and a four day weekend. I just hope the weather bucks it's ideas up as easter egg hunts, beer gardens and BBQs are not so fun in the drizzle.

Hope you have some exciting easter plans organised!

Thanks for reading!
Love,
Jade x

Tuesday 27 March 2012

Leeds Festival

The weather recently has been absolutely lovely, I'm praying like I'm sure everyone else that it's going to last through the summer. It's also got me excited for Leeds Festival, so I thought I'd post a bit of creative writing I did about the festival as part of my third year of uni. Enjoy (apologies in advance for the cheesiness)...

        I peel open my make up smudged eyes. The morning sun that pushes through the thin material of the tent momentarily blinds me whilst the lingering taste of stale alcohol and barbecue super noodles (last night’s tea) make me feel nauseous, although that could be also due to the copious amounts of cider consumed the night before. I pull my sleeping bag down and slowly sit up, my neck and back sore from sleeping on the hard ground. As I scratch my matted hair, a wave of dizziness washes over me. I take a long deep breath to compose myself and reach for a bottle of deodorant and spray it profusely around me. The strong and surprisingly sweet smell of artificial lemon fills my nostrils and leaves a dusty mist hanging in the air of the cramped three man tent. I look next to me to see Lauren and Tilly still fast asleep, curled up close to each other, reminding me of two babies swaddled tight in blankets. I shimmy out of my sleeping bag, pull on my leopard print wellies, both caked in crusty mud, and pull down the icy metal zip of the tent. Cold water from the condensation that coats the door splashes my face which feels refreshing to my tired, dirty skin. I feel like a chick breaking free from its egg as I crawl uneasily out of the entrance of the tent.  

   I hear talking and laughing from a group of boys a few tents away from ours and the smell of grass and cooking sausages blows in the wind, my tummy rumbling in annoyance. Empty cans of Strongbow, packets of Super noodles and dirty bowls litter the area we have cornered off with tents. Memories of last night flash in my mind. I roll up my sleeves, and pull down my Leeds Festival 2009 band. Its thick grainy material scratches my wrist and I look at my watch: it’s 8.37 exactly. I stand up and look out towards the direction of the arena. A sea of tents stretches over the vast fields, a mixture of colours and patterns almost like a field of different flowers. Even though there are thousands of people here I still feel like I know everyone, as if we are part of a team, the love of music uniting us, branded by the band around our wrists. From behind me I hear a zip and a voice says: “Jamie T today, bring it on!” It’s Jess, another of my friends, her head of wild red hair untamed and in knots, sticks out of the tent.
          
   Slowly the rest of our group awakes and we begin to get ready for the day ahead. A breakfast of sticky cereal bars is washed down by sugary cider and black. Various shades of glitter are added to eyes, arms are filled with beads, chains and bracelets and thigh high socks and wellies are donned.ahh rightThis is a uniform for the majority of girls here. The excitement of today’s line up causes butterflies and pulses of adrenaline to rush through me and with the effect of the cider that has started to take over the time to head off to the arena cannot come soon enough.
    It’s surprisingly warm and sunny, rare for many British summers. We spend the time chatting about the day before, joking with people at the tent next to ours and playing an array of drinking games to get us in the mood to dance and sing. The noise of people shouting and laughing comes from all around. This is regularly interrupted by the sound of the small fairground that’s set about 800m away. The flashing lights and screams remind me of being at Scarborough fair not at a festival. Gradually from over the fields the sound of music starts to become audible, it rolls over the tents and the hairs on my arms stand on end and a tingle creeps up my spine. It’s time to head to the arena.
We set off along the winding path along with the other thousands of revellers following the sound of the music like the story of The Pied Piper. The buzz that’s in the air is electric, it seems to flow through everyone and has all of us in high spirits. The smell from the various food stalls billows out of the small metal trailers, the pungent smells of curry, sweet Chinese and burgers hangs in the air. The stream of people gets larger and busier, pushing and bustling, running and jumping, reminding me of herds of animals. I grab on to one of my friend’s hands, we make a chain to stop us from being separated. We giggle, shout and sing songs that we’re waiting to hear in a matter of hours.

We are nearing the arena. High metal walls and queues of people begin to be visible and the music coming from the many stages is getting louder causing the crowd to get rowdier and further doses of adrenaline to pulse through my body. ‘We are here!’ I scream at my friends and tug them forward. As you aren’t allowed to take alcohol from outside the arena to inside, we like many others begin downing the drinks we brought for the journey from the campsite. The cider feels too cold as I try and finish it in one, it gives me the achy feeling of brain freeze and along with it a wave of dizziness. We throw our cans in to the huge bins that have been set up by the entrance of the arena. I smile at my friends and look towards the arena entrance. My friend Lauren shouts: ‘Come on, let’s go!’ We grab hands once again and head off in to the arena.






Go have fun in the sun!!

Love
Jade x

ahh right

Tuesday 20 March 2012

Irish Eye's Are Smiling.

Took a lovely trip over to Belfast with my friend Rachel to visit our friend Christine. I hadn't seen Christine since Christmas which seems like soooo long ago. It was her birthday so the perfect excuse to see her and for some serious celebrations.

I love going over to see her as Belfast is an amazing city and her family always take really good care of us. Her mum is the cutest and spoils us rotten. Every time we arrive she always has a huge breakfast spread prepared and has us a little gift bag with chocolates, toiletries and other surprises.

The weekend was spent doing excessive amounts of partying, eating and laughing, it was one of the best weekends I'd had in a long time. We also managed to slip in a bit of culture by visiting the Giant's Causeway which is the result of an ancient volcanic eruption and is now classed as one of the UK's greatest natural wonders.




                         The Giant's Causeway


    Sukie - An Irish orange juice that my friend's from uni love.




I wore - American Apparel - Disco Pants/Dorothy Perkins - studded shirt/Topshop - boots/Selection of rings/Topshop - cross earrings

I'm not sure when I'm gonna see Christine again which is pretty sad, hopefully it'll be soon.

On a brighter note my friends and I have all bought Leeds Festival tickets! I'm so excited as we haven't been to festival in a few years. I can't wait to go shopping for patterned wellies, new levis, tassled kimonos and to braid and dip dye our hair. I'm thinking of going turquoise and pink! Here's the line up, it's pretty amazing, I can't wait to see Florence, Kasabian and the Maccabees again and to see The Vaccines and Foo Fighters for the first time. I'm hoping that Mumford and Sons and Ben Howard may be added later on, fingers crossed.

I hope you all have summer plans coming together, let's all hope that this one's gonna be a scorcher!

Love
Jade x

Thursday 15 March 2012

Daddy's Girl

So I have been very absent from the blogging world due to a visit from my lovely pappa who lives in Germany, a trip over the water to Ireland to celebrate one of my best university friend's 22nd birthday. I've also started a new job and squished in another cheeky trip to Leeds with my beautiful friend Jess to see The Maccabees and visit our friend whose just moved there. As you can see I have been super hectic!

I thought I'd focus this post on the few days I spent with my dad, which always revolves around our bellies! So the time was spent eating amazing food, I definitely finished the weekend with a serious food baby.


We ate at incredible, cute village pubs - The Anvil in Sawdon and The Pipe and Glass Inn in Dalton which actually won the Michelin Pub of the Year award (very fancy). Where we devoured wholesome plates of country gub - venison, steak and fresh vegetables, creamy fish pie and sickly desserts (sticky toffee pudding pictured above). We spent a day in York picking at tapas at Ambiente - bowls of crispy calamari, chorizo and potato, lamb meatballs and dates wrapped in proscuitto as well as other Spanish specialities. Then followed that by visiting one of my favourite places in the world, Patisserie Valerie, there's always too much choice and it took me forever to finally decide on a strawberry tart. It was delicious! In between gorging ourselves I did get to do a spot of shopping and my lovely dad treated me to some Vans, yayyy! I have been dying for a pair for aaaages and I haven't taken them off my feet since, they're so comfy.


I can't wait to wear these in the summer with pretty, girly dresses and levis and vests!

My new job is a twilight shift for yell writing websites for businesses so it gives me plenty of time during the day to get my act together and start blogging again.

Hope you are all ok.
Thanks for reading!
Jade x

Wednesday 22 February 2012

One Too Many

I thought I would post a few cheeky photos from when me and my friends went to Leeds for Jess' birthday night out. It was so much fun and a lovely chance to do something different, get away from home and let loose. We went down Call Lane which is crowded with quirky cocktail bars-we took full advantage of. We all awoke with foggy memories and serious hangovers which we attempted to cure in the Slug and Lettuce.



We started with pre drinks in the hotel - Etap-very unglamourous but diiiiirt cheap. You can kind of tell in this photo that I've dip dyed my pony tail blue using soft pastels. Me and my friends had seen it on a blog before so thought we'd give it a go. It looked good but rubbed off on our clothes and skin so if you give it a go wear black and keep dyed hair off skin.


Obligatory group self timer shot. I wore my sparkly Topshop dress, sparkly socks, Topshop boots and Dorothy Perkins necklace.


Looking sober and behaving whilst drinking cocktails in Revolution.


Beyond tipsy at this point - drinking Clover Club cocktails (they have egg whites and gin in, sounds vile but are surprisingy tasty) in Neon Cactus.

                     
                          I love my friends :)

I leave for Ireland tomorrow for another friend's birthday so I shall take my camera and get lots of photos as Belfast is a really cool place. I have lots of clothes to do a show and tell with you all too. Hope you all have a lovely weekend and have some exciting plans.

Love
Jade x

p.s
Hope you are all still recovering from eating a ridiculous amount of pancakes yesterday, it's definitely a day where eating yourself in to a food coma is law.

Monday 20 February 2012

Nail Art Attack

I love nail painting, whether its just a simple slick of colour or covering my nails in gems and glitter, I always have something keeping the ends of my fingers looking pretty. My friends have recently been getting arty with their paint with aztec prints and leopard spots, so thought I best give it a go too. I decided to go for a cute and easy to start with strawberry. I'd seen them done in Thailand and thought they looked really cool. Here's my first attempt :)...




I don't think they look too bad at all. Especially as I don't have any proper utensils so had to make do with cocktail sticks and being as delicate as possible with normal nail polish brushes. I used 'Snatch' by Ciate for the base, 'Holly-Day' by China Glaze for the stalky bit and then 'Beautifully Black' by No.7 for the spots.

I'm going to buy some brushes and get a bit more adventurous with this nail art malarky. I've already found some designs on weheartit.com that have caught my eye...



                                  Marbled Madness




                Harry Potter-definitely want to do these!


Delicate Florals - think this must be a nail wrap as it's so intricate.


                          SPONGEBOB SQUARE PANTS!!


                               Detailed Aztec


Mermaid's Tail - think this will be the next design I have a go at!

Thanks for reading!
Love
Jade x

Sunday 19 February 2012

Outfit Post

I would like to apologise for my recent lack of posting. I've had a very stressful, busy but successful week. I passed my driving test (wooh!), had an interview got the job-it's a 'proper' one too (yesss!) and have also just been to Leeds with my friends for a night out which was so much fun, lots of cocktails, dancing and laughing (photos to follow soon). I thought I would just do a quick outfit post today and tomorrow do something a bit more exciting.


Leather jacket-Muubaa/Shirt-Topshop/Maxi skirt-Topshop/Boots-Topshop/Necklace and belt-borrowed


This is my friend Lauren's belt,I love it and want one too, need to get ebaying! I've been naughty and done lots of shopping recently, ooooopsy, I keep telling myself it's in celebration of my driving test and job but I think I can only use that excuse for so long. I will upload photos of them all soon.

My step dad has finished watching the rugby (yawn) which means I can watch my future husband, Ashley Banjo do his thing on 'Got To Dance'.

Take care
Jade x