OOTD 20.09.2012

Hello blog. I haven't posted an 'outfit of the day' post in an age, like many things on this blog. So in a bid to prove I've returned, here is one. Ok, I wore this yesterday, and not even all day, but I liked this combination so I'm sharing it with you.

I find the dip hem skirt a great twist on the maxi skirt. You get the best of both worlds of a midi and a maxi and the asymmetric effect is effortlessly pretty and girly. I'm not one to do completely girly though, so I love to toughen it up with a t-shirt and wedge shoe boots. I do realise I'm about as tough as a bag of marshmallows but you get what I mean...

 I'm in desperate need of a haircut, roll on my Tuesday booking.

T-shirt: 'Tee and Cake' from Topshop.

Skirt: Dorothy Perkins.

Shoe Boots: New Look.

Belt: taken from a 'Louche' dress from Joy.

Thought I'd share a couple of snaps with you from last weekend aswell. I took an impromptu visit to Oxford, somewhere I've never been before, and what a beautiful city it is. I also took a lot of pictures on my Diana so  bear with me, they will be here maybe before Christmas!!

Have a fabulous weekend!

xXx

Birthday Schtuff

My birthday was actually nearly a month ago now, but here I am just getting round to showing you my lovely presents. For a while, I've been interested in photography and have been intrigued by the analogue revival. I've frequently gone into the Lomography stores around town, telling myself  I'll buy one, 'one day', but then never actually got round to purchasing one. I was very pleasantly surprised on my birthday to open the Diana Mini in pretty much the most perfect colour - Coral Fusion, complete with flash and colour gels for adding a flash of colour.

Also in the picture is the gorgeous perfume Un air d'escapade by Givenchy. I saw this at duty free in Croatia and was tempted to buy it, partly because I loved it and partly because the limited edition-ness of it was appealing, I don't like to smell like everyone else! Luckily I didn't buy it, otherwise I would've had two bottles, but again this was a very well thought out and well received present.

Next, presents from my lovely housemates. I am doubting the boys of the house had little to do with the choice of these presents - a Cath Kidston mug and a Nails Inc nail polish, both of which I love. 

I mean seriously, LOOK at this bottle! It's stunning...more photos of it on my nails to come. It's in the colour Jubilee which is red, silver and blue glitter particles.

This foot spray is really refreshing after being on your feet all day, and a good idea for a gift aswell I thought, I often forget to pamper my feet. I also really like this bracelet, which is magnetic and you can alter the size of it as you wrap it around your wrist.

Some essential film for Diana, it takes the standard 35mm film, you don't necessarily need the Lomography's own brand, although they do seem high on the colour count compared to others I've seen, 800 as opposed to 400 or 200.

Diana in all her glory. She's been on a few adventures with me already, and hopefully a lot more to come. I haven't actually got a film developed yet, I have however, drastically ruined my first attempt because I loaded the film incorrectly and it ended up tearing. At least I didn't take too many photographs as I was experimenting, but that was a lesson learned. I'm sure some people will fail to see the point of this camera when we live in such a digital age, but for me that's kind of the point. We forget how to do things manually and picture taking has become rather stale, I quite like the fact that I don't know how these photos will turn out, and I will actually have to get them developed and printed, I couldn't tell you the last time I printed photos that I could hold in my hand!! There's also lots of cool tricks you can do with a Diana and the other Lomography cameras, I'm having a go at some double exposures, where you layer two shots on to one...we'll see how that goes.

So long Summer...

Every year I try to go abroad, and last year, for one reason or another, I didn't get to go. This year, as part of my new year's resolutions, I was going somewhere abroad, anywhere, and I really didn't care where. My criteria were very few: hot, coastal, not UK.

My friend and I had chatted briefly about going to Croatia, I knew little about it, but enough to know it was somewhere that appealed, and it met my unfussy criteria, so it was a hit. It took little more than a phone call and a quick internet search while we were on the phone, and suddenly, we were booked on a flight. I think that bar all the trips I went on whilst living in America, this was my first holiday abroad with a friend rather than a partner or family.

In Dubrovnik

Luckily, we had similar ideas of what we wanted to see and do, and in the 9 days we were there, managed to fit in lots of travel and sight-seeing as well as, of course, a bit of beach lounging.

We started in Dubrovnik, a beautiful walled city with lots of ancient history...caught a coach to Split – another equally as beautiful and old city, and in my opinion much underrated, there’s lots to see and do here. We then caught a catamaran to the glitzy of Hvar where we also made a couple of day boat trips to neighbouring smaller islands. The coast is beautiful, the Adriatic Sea crystal clear and pleasantly warm to swim in. Croatia is a very interesting place to visit, it’s on the cusp of all things Euro, still maintaining its own authentic identity and has many different influences depending where you are geographically in the country, something that makes it unique. If you want a Mediterranean style holiday somewhere still relatively untapped by tourists, especially in comparison to Italy then go to Croatia. I would love to go back, whether I will anytime soon...I haven’t decided, there’s still too many places I haven’t been on my wish list to warrant going back just yet. But I’m definitely starting to think about my next holiday already and thinking about going to somewhere like Bulgaria or Hungary, I have garnered an interest in middle Europe now!

Now I shall bore you with some snaps, sorry if this is too pictorially heavy for you.

It's lucky to rub his nose apparently.

Al fresco dining on every side street.

Around the city walls.

I'm in a bath.

Dumbledore.

The local brewski.

The beautiful Hvar.