Nailed It! Rabbits

As requested by Clarissa, age 11 :)

Illustrating Mates! Aimee

You can find out more about Aimee, and check out her blog here

And she's used my Illustration on her About section :)

Nailed It! Strawberries

This week I've given myself strawberry nails! I tried out my new dotting tools that I bought off Ebay for the little yellow dots.

James' two year old niece saw my nails and said that she wanted to have strawberry nails to. I can't said no to a kid who says "peeeeeeeeeeease" so cutely! :) 

She kept her hands perfectly still for me whilst I did them for her.

Once I'd finished she then kept asking "are they dry yet??"...."are they dry now??"

Now she's saying to everyone "look at my strawberry nails!"

Illustrating Mates!

Yesterday I drew up and Photoshopped two more Illustrations in an effort to get myself back in to drawing and to learn more about Photoshop as I go.

This first one is of the elegantly lovely Burlesque performer Eliza Delite. British winner at the World Burlesque Games 2012.

 This second one is of Princess. I used the colours of the Ghana flag for her background. When I showed her she joked and said that she was "the black star in the middle!".

Princess has her own label 'Alchemy Love', where she makes and sells purses, bags and pillow cases.
You can view her Facebook page here

Nailed Daisies for my Mum!

My Mum had seen my daisy nails from a few weeks back and wanted them herself so when I stayed at hers this past weekend, I did them for her :)

She could only have them painted for the weekend, as she isn't allowed painted nails at work. 

My Week In Photos

* Drooled over the new fruity lunch box tin gift set from LUSH. I will get one before they go!! The tin will be perfect for keeping all my nail bits in!! :)

* Hung out with Miss Emily and took her for her very first Yo! Sushi experience. She blooming loved it!! I had chicken sushi, she had teriyaki salmon and lots of miso soup! yum!! We then browsed around Topshop!

* Some quite time at work resulted in me doodling my own hands. I then played around with it on Photoshop. Think I'll get back in to doing more frequent illustrations.

* Went home via St Pancras station. It's my favourite station in London! (probably because it can lead you out of the country to!! always tempting to hop on a train to France!)

* Bought Marie Claire Magazine (the free Ciate nail polish tempted me!!) and flicked through it on the train to Croydon.

* Stayed with my Mum for the weekend :) Lovely to see her!

* Took my Mum for her first Yo! Sushi experience and she blooming loved it to!! :) We both had katsu curries, dumplings, miso soup and chocolate mochi balls! :)

* I bought some more nail polishes and a nail art pen because of all the offers going on at Boots! With Barry M it was 'spend over £6 and get a free retro Barry M polish', so I got the new pink chameleon colour change polish, the new silvery lilac metallic and got the coral retro for free. With Models Own it was 'buy one get one half price' so I bought a yellow Wah Nail Art pen and got a jade green polish half price. I then got a No7 voucher so I bought a gold nail polish with that! :)

* I bought a new Aztec vest top from Dorothy Perkins for my holidays and Sziget Festival! :) I also got 2 other tops. My Mum bought me a sheer skull print vest from New Look and I bought a plain dark grey one from Topshop.

* Mum bought us some cookie dough Ben & Jerry's so we ate some of that with some strawberries and watched 27 Dresses.

* Mum showed me some old photos of me and my little broski Rory as wee little kiddies! 

* I met my old school friend Aimee for Coffee. She has a very cute wee boy now who loves to wriggle when you hold him! :) 

* I liked how I got a little smiley face on my cup :) The lady who served me had just complimented my nail art :)

* After coffee Aimee and I both went to Boots where I couldn't resist the urge to buy more nail polishes! (yes I'm an addict!!). I bought the Models Own Hedkandi neon Orange, a pink WAH Nail Art pen, and another No7 Polish (bought with a voucher again! They just keep dishing them out!!).

currently lusting over...

coca cola top - £20 - river island

leggings - £16 - river island

i'm still loving river island, and i'm hoping that come pay day these items will be mine! as a die hard coca cola fan, i think it's pretty much a given that the t-shirt will end up in my wardrobe...

Some thing's I've Been eyeing up...

                

                Aztec Watch - £20 ASOS                                 Tribal Maxi Dress - £28 Dorothy Perkins

                    

                      Nica Tote - £44 ASOS                                       Swan Leggings - £20 Topshop

                  

         Cherry Print Dress - £26 Dorothy Perkins           Strawberry Print Dress - £26 Dorothy Perkins

Nailed an Illustration!

What started off as a doodle of my hands during the day....

.....became a quirky and colourful Illustration during an evening on Photoshop! :)

Nailed It! Aztec #2

My second go at Aztec nails!! It really does take some time and patience!! :)

I used the Leighton Denny 'Plush Pink' nail polish that I got free with Bazaar Magazine as a base :)

My Week In Photos

* Donned the jungle around my neck with my Elephant and Giraffe charm necklaces from Acessorize

* James bought me two new books to read for when I finish reading Jar City; Fifty Shades of Grey and Darkly Dreaming Dexter (been watching the Dexter boxsets right now! currently on season 6!!).

* I made a curry using everything in the fridge that needed eating! It tasted pretty darn good! 

* I wore my hair up!! (it's finally long enough to look decent enough in an up do)

* I bought the best top coat for my nails! Good old Seche Vite!! :)

* I booked a summer holiday back to Iceland!!! Yay!!! 10 days of midnight sunshine and wonderful Icelandic culture!! So excited!!! ALSO going to stay at a friends in Budapest for a week! Going to go to Sziget Festival and drink some home made Sour Cherry Liquor! :)

* Went to Off The Beaten Path cafe, admired the shelves of their many flavoured syrups and had a lovely hot chocolate with cherry syrup, and a scone with jam and cream! 

* Tried on a lovely tribal print dress in Dorothy Perkins (think I'll go back to buy it as my festival dress!) 

* Popped into Melton Mowbray and got a few bits. Bought Bazaar Magazine and got a free Leighton Denny  nail polish (Plush Pink). Used my Boots No7 £5 voucher and got a nude nail polish (So Simple). Bought another shower gel from the Little Bubble Co (Strawberry Sundae). Got Nail Tek Foundation II base coat and some half price earrings and charm bracelets from Dorothy Perkins :)

* Went to the Hyperama Wholesale Warehouse with James' Mum to help stock up on what seemed like a years supply of rice and noodles.

* Came across Banana Juice!!??? It's just not right!

* Noticed that a bunch of huge daisies have now bloomed in front of the house :)

* Bought a lovely 1990's swimsuit from the Beyond Retro Online Store!

a jubilee extravaganza in essex!

as promised, the photos from my jubilee party!

i celebrated in style...

...and made (and ate!) a few cakes in honour of our queen!

we had our barbeque huddled around the coal burner underneath the marquee, and despite the weather, i think my jubilee party was quite the success - due in part to my mother's contribution:

a smattering of union jacks, great british weather, and a diamond queen? i make that... pimm's o'clock!

god save the queen! hurrah!

Nailed it!! Aztec and Mint Leopard

This week I dabbled with a couple of different nail art designs (mainly because I had some new polishes and nail art pens that I wanted to play with!)

I tried out an Aztec design for the first time (the sides still needed tidying up after the photo was taken).

I'm definitely going to play around with different coloured Aztec designs in the future! It's something that takes quite a bit of patience though! :)

I then turned to 'The WAH Nails Book of Nail Art' and did the first project in the book, which is a Leopard Print design using a mint green nail polish (I used Barry M Mint Green), and white and black nail art pens.

my fortnight in poor quality phone photos!

as holly already mentioned, it was my birthday two weeks ago! i had a lovely meal out with holly, kate and my boyfriend jack, after which the girls and i ditched jack for a shopping spree down oxford street! here's a few pictures from the day:

me, with the floral tank kate stitched for me (picture stolen from her blog), the picture holly framed for me (featuring the fashion pack), and yummy sweets from the chinese supermarket (also from holly!)

i've also been looking after my neighbour's chickens! my favourite was pepper, who is the little fluffy one - she's so soft and small, you can pick her up and give her a stroke! whilst i was looking after them, they laid six little eggs!

other highlights have included making jubilee cakes with jack, wearing my new candy stripe dress which i won on ebay for the bargain price of £9.60, planning my outfit for spending a day out in london with jack, and indulging in a lush facemask whilst looking incredibly pissed off for no apparent reason on an evening off from work:

 

and last but not least, some pictures of food: my incredibly adult food shop and some super yummy indian sweets from pooja.

 

My Week In Photos

* Got some new leggings by The Orphans Arms. They have white rabbits and the word FOLLOW printed all over them :)

* Made Leek and Potato soup! Yum!!

* Played with paints with James' 2 year old niece Ella.

* Went to Bishops Stortford for the night.

* Had a girls night in with Kelly and had a good old catch up with her :) We felt like students again for the night. We ate pizza, had chocolate, watched films, and I painted skulls on her nails :)

* I finally got to see and hold the Royal Television Award that we (our University production group) won for Best Fiction, for our film 'State of Mind'.

* I slept in the comfiest bed in the world in Kelly's spare room. Jack the Pumpkin king watches you while you sleep!

* The nail art pens that I ordered from Hong Kong arrived!!! Lots more nail play for me now!! :)

Nailed it! Skulls

Yesterday I went to see my good friend Kelly. She wanted me to do skulls on her nails, so skulls were what she got :)

Nailed It! Bows

I tried out my new color club nail polishes this week. My favourite being 'Blue Light' (pictured below).

Using this colour for the base, I decided to add bows to my nails this week :)

My Week In Photos

* Jess' Mum made me a crochet alpaca!!! His name is Ali 'Shaneeqah' Alpacaman and I love him!! :)

* I bought 3 new nail polishes by Color Club. Pucci-Licious (purple), Blue light, and Almost Famous (yellow).

* After Jess' Birthday lunch and London shopping, Jess, Kate and I went for coffee and chit chat before parting ways.

* I departed London from Kings Cross Station instead of St Pancras (as I usually do). I admired a bit of the architecture there.

* I purchased and read 'THE WAH NAILS BOOK OF NAIL ART'. It's given me lots of inspiring new ideas to try out!! :)

* I met my old friend Smoph (from my Art Foundation days in Cornwall) in Leicester for food and a catch up :)

* Smoph gave me a pretty house box with 4 lovely cupcakes inside that she had made :) They tasted AMAZING!!!

* I made Wontons!! and they tasted gooood!

* I browsed the crime section of Waterstones with James.

* I went to Birmingham Bull Ring shopping centre for the first time. They had dressed the bull in a Union Jack outfit for the Jubilee!

* I found, and browsed around vintage shop COW. I loved how the rails of clothing were arranged by the colour spectrum :)

* I tried a bubble tea from Moo-Cha! I had Green Apple with green tea and strawberry jellies. It was delicious!! I'm going to have to try out more combinations!

* Because of the Jubilee Weekend I saw Union Jack flags EVERYWHERE!!! (I saw a few Queen masked people to!)

* I got in to the Jubilee spirit with my Jubilee nails and a cupcake :)

Nailed it for the Jubilee!

In preparation for the Jubilee weekend I've gone and done Union Jack nails! :)

GIRL POWER AND ALL THAT JAZZ!!!!

God save the Queen!

working 9-5, what a way to make a living!

well, my shifts are actually less conventional but it's still making a living. that's right, after six months of unemployed boredom, i finally started my new job as a support worker in a care home, and i'm loving it - despite the early starts/late nights! my first few days have involved lots of paperwork and cups of sugary tea, but i'm finally getting into the caring side of things and it is amazing. i'm working with some wonderful guys; no amount of superlatives can do them justice - i'm just so happy!

as holly has already mentioned, tuesday was my birthday! i got some lovely pressies, some queen-related (in preparation for my upcoming jubilee party!) and a special unexpected somewhat spam-like birthday email from blingee featuring this masterpiece:

i was quite surprised, if i'm honest. they've pretty much summed up my interests: cats, cake, pink, heart shapes, butterflies, cocktails... it's all there. throw in a hamster and a bit more glitter and it would be an almost accurate representation of my brain.

my posts are still lacking pictures in comparison to holly's - today's excuse is "i've been working!" I.O.U one outfit post pre-birthday, one outfit post post-shopping with my mother, and one birthday present special. all in due course! my next day off is monday, which is scheduled to be my jubilee party, but i'm planning to get on it like a car bonnet asap! i can, however, contribute two little gems from my recent photographic exploits. the first is an amazing bag my mother found last week when she took me shopping for birthday presents (we didn't buy it as my mother is an incredible knitter and crocheter - she's going to make it for me instead!) and the second is an impulse buy from asda, that i just couldn't live without, indulging my love of royalty, and sleep. enjoy!