Winter Wonderland meetup #WWmeetup

so basically last year myself and Ellie decided we really wanted to go to Winter Wonderland but never actually got around to organising anything until it was too late. For 2013 we promised ourselves that we would organise a meetup as an excuse to go- so here it is!

It's just going to be a casual meetup with no goodybags etc but just a fun way to get to meet everyone and get to visit Winter Wonderland. If you don't know what it is, Winter Wonderland is a sort of Christmas fair set up in Hyde Park, London around Christmas time every year. It's full of festive things and is always really popular each year.

Admission to Winter Wonderland is free but you have to pay to go on most rides/ice skating etc with tokens which are available to purchase there. There's an Ice Kingdom, Giant wheel and even a Christmas market with loads and loads of stalls so definitely plenty to do. 

For more information on how to get there etc check out the Winter Wonderland website

We'll probably end up going for food and stuff afterwards but we thought we would just get a rough idea of numbers first so that can all be arranged later on!

We will be using the hash tag #WWmeetup on twitter so tweet on that to keep up with any arrangements

DETAILS:

date: Sunday 8th December

time: 11am

where: meeting at Hyde Park (exact details closer to the time) Green Park is the closest tube station

please share this around on #bbloggers and #fbloggers etc so we can get as many bloggers to come as we can!

If you're interested then please could leave a comment on this post with your email address so we can send you more information closer the time and don't forget to tweet on #WWmeeup. If you have any questions please leave a comment on here so I can get back to you!

StyleFruits UK fashion blogger top trump cards & GIVEAWAY

I was contacted a while back by StyleFruits to see if I wanted to be a part of their 2013 Brilliantly British fashion bloggers top trumps game, I was of course flattered by this and said yes immediately. I used to play top trumps all the time at school (I still remember Dennis the Menace was the best one from the Beano set) aaaaand now I have my very own card!
They have categories on them such as number of shoes owned, blog birthday and items in your makeup bag. Aswell as featuring loads of my favourite UK fashion bloggers I've now found some new ones I haven't seen before so I need to check those out as well!

StyleFruits have provided me with an extra pack to give away to one of you guys, just use the rafflecopter bellow to enter this competition! (open internationally too!)

This year StyleFruits are taking applications to be a part of the 2014 set, if this is something that would interest you just simply fill in a few details on their Brilliantly British fashion bloggers page for the chance to be featured!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

california sunrise

dress: choies*
boots: doc martin
lipstick: vivo 'pucker red'*
necklace: eBay (18" length)

okay so something a bit different for this post... basically when Choies contacted me to ask if I wanted to review something from their website I picked out this cute little daisy dress as it was just what I had been looking for in the highstreet shops but was yet to find. I decided to go for a size L as it had the measurements for the dress on the website and I was going by them. It arrived and it's literally a size 6 at the biggest- my little sister is a size 4-6 and it was really tight on her (it got to the point where I actually had to make a slit in the sleeve so she could get her arm in it...) so I hope you don't mind but she's modeling it instead for me! I pretty much dressed her up as me anyway with the bright red lipstick and my 'chav necklace' as she likes to call it. She's wearing her favourite red patent docs which she pretty much lives in.

Overall I really like the design of the dress but the quality of it is quite poor and the sizing comes up TINY (who knows what a size small would be like?!)

I've been wearing this Vivo 'pucker red' lots recently (it retails for £1.99, helloooo bargain!) and the colour lasts really well so I decided to make my sister wear it! It's the perfect shade for Autumn/Winter and you can't really go wrong with a red lip!

although the choies dress and vivo lipstick were sent to me for review purposes this does not influence my opinion of them and is 100% honest as always

if this feeling flows both ways

jumper: AX Paris contrast knit jumper*
treggings: topshop
necklace: eBay (18" one)
boots: clarks
socks: new look
lips: mac 'ruby woo'
nails: watermelon (watermelon nail art tutorial here)

can I just start off by saying HOW SUPER SOFT THIS AX PARIS JUMPER IS, there we go- I said it. I love how it's monochrome so will go with practically anything and it will never go out of style and it's perfect for any lazy days with jeans etc. There's 20% off with the code 'BLG20' too! I chose to wear it with these topshop 'treggings' (trousers/leggings- seriously what will they come up with next?!) which I bought at the beginning of the year but I've seen them in there recently so they're still doing them for AW13. I've done watermelon nails again as they're my favourite and there's a link above to a tutorial if you want to see how I do them. Recently I've brought out my trusty Clarks boots again that I bought last year, they're the perfect heel height to make them comfortable for wearing on a daily basis and match everything so I end up wearing them to sixth form all the time!

Don't forget to check out AX Paris, there's so many lovely pieces for Autumn/Winter and remember to use the code 'BLG20' for 20% off!

*although I was sent this AX Paris jumper to feature in a blog post this does not influence my opinion of it and is 100% honest as always*

DIY daisy sleeve dress

quite a while ago I read Caroline's DIY post which was showing you how to customise a dress like this so I thouhgt I would give it a go too. It's long overdue because of a mix up with my order when I was getting the dress which took a while to get sorted. It's like one which Motel Rocks are doing but a fraction of the price. The daisies are from eBay and you can find them here

here's the steps, as you can see it's very easy to do and you can either use a sewing machine or hand stitch it (thanks mum for doing it for me!) and it literally took about five minutes to do. I made a quick video tutorial which is below, showing you how to do it which makes it a bit clearer for you to see.

Don't forget to check out Caroline's post and her blog too (so many nail tutorials and outfit posts along with other DIY posts!)

I've had my hair cut!

 I'm a typical girl and can be over protective over my hair, due to this I haven't had it cut in a year... I decided it had just got far too long and had started looking unhealthy so I booked myself in for a hair appointment. I just went to my local salon Creations in Chichester which I usually go to (they do the best head massages around!). I asked for quite a bit off of the length (I think 5" was taken off), a few layers to be put in and for it to frame my face a bit more. As you can see above- this is what it ended up looking like! I really like it and I think it looks so much healthier than it did before, I just wish I could recreate the blow dry that the stylist did in my hair at home as I really like how it's sitting in the photo above which was taken just after I'd got back home from the salon.

Next time I promise I won't leave it as long in between cuts (you should of seen the look on the stylist's face when I said I hadn't had it done in a year...) but she said she was surprised how good the contition of it was. I've got moroccan oil and not using much heat on it to thank for that I think!

*this isn't a sponsored post, I just wanted to show you my hair!*

What do you think of my new hair? Is it an improvement?

this is my great escape

top: primark (current season)
jeans: american apparel easy jeans
shoes: river island (last year)
bag: kipling 'alvar shoulder bag'*
necklace: eBay (18" length)
scarf on bag: vintage from brick lane


last week I went up to London for the day with mum to have a look around Greenwich Uni (I'm thinking of doing a marketing/PR course if you were wondering!) and this is what I wore. I think jeans are the perfect thing for walking about in and this top is casual but smart at the same time. I bought it in primark last week so it's their current AW13 stock and should hopefully still be in there. I like the pattern on it, the tiny stars are so cute and it's a nice fabric too and isn't see through so gold stars all round for primark!
I was sent the Kipling Avlar shoulder bag from Bagable Bags. When I was around 13 I bought myself my own pink Kipling bag which was a similar shape to this but maybe a bit smaller and I wore it to death so I'm so happy to have another one. My grandma is also a massive fan of them too and I hate to think how many she has collected over the years! The Avlar is the perfect size to fit everything in (but not too big so that you're carrying around a load of junk which I'm always guilty of) and all the multiple zip pockets make it so easy to organise everything. The zips also make it nice and secure if you're going somewhere like London where you're likely to get your stuff stolen on the underground and in the busy streets. It's black so it's very versatile and goes with everything but Bagable have 23 different colours/patterns so there's something for everyone. Oh and I forgot to mention, it's currently 10% off of the RRP too bringing it down to £49.50, yay! I can speak from experience that these bags just last and last as they are made so well, my pink one put up with a couple of years of being used as a school bag which is pretty heavy duty in my books!
My outfit was looking a bit bland so I added this scarf which I bought in a little shop on brick lane around a year or so ago, it's pink and it has flowers on so it's perfect for me! I think it makes the outfit a bit more casual and summery.


ps I've totally copied Sophie's poses as she always does funny ones and I was getting a bit bored of the usual 'moody face' I pull so go check her out, her blog is super awesome and I know you'll all love it!






I was sent the Kipling Avlar shoulder bag to feature in a blog post, however this does not affect my opinion on it and it is 100% honest as always

an introduction to my YouTube channel islaayx

If you've either been living under a rock for ages or you're a new follower of my blog you might not know that I have a YouTube channel. I've been doing it for almost a year now (crazy) and I thought it was about time I should do an introductory video so you can see what sort of thing I have on my channel. I would love it if you could subscribe for me and let me know in a comment if you have so I can check out your blog/YouTube etc! 

Here is a direct link to my channel islaayx, I hope you like it as much as I enjoy making videos for you all to watch!

The video is literally only two minutes long so I hope you enjoy!

primark haul!

I haven't made a trip to primark to buy clothes in forever so when I had a day off yesterday and it was super sunny and I'd just been paid I thought I'd take the opportunity to visit my local Primark with my little sister. They had rubbish sizes in most things and quite a few pieces that I wanted (pretty patterend skater dresses and cami tops) they only had size 6/8 or 18 left so I had to leave them (boooo). I did however end up with quite a few things so I've put them into a haul for you, I hope you enjoy!

My YouTube channel is linked in the sidebar or you can click here, I'd love for you to subscribe

There's still time to enter my giveaway too!

easy polkadot, stripe and rose nail art

I feel like I haven't done a nail art post in forever! Anyway I'm sorry this isn't a tutorial or anything but I was painting them late at night (as always) so I didn't get any decent photos of them until the next morning. I do have a rose nail art tutorial post and polkadot nail art video tutorial and if you can do both of them then you'll be able to do these easily.

I first saw this nail art on Pinterest and I did these nails before a while back and I really liked them so I thought I would recreate them again. I like the simplicity of them with the plain designs and only the hint of colour in them. 

I used the Rio nail art pens and complete nail artist set* for the details which you can enter my giveaway to win here.