New Lengths

What I wore in St.Andrews, day 2. It was baking hot, for the UK in early June anyhow, so like I said in my last post, this beautiful hat was such a blessing. I burn easy and have a tendency to get sunstroke if I'm not careful, so having this as a sun hat was perfect, it was also lovely to feel covered up but still perfectly cool (long skirt).

I can not praise this skirt enough, I had been hunting for it for a couple on months now. I wanted it, I needed it, I thought I'd never find it, I gave up, and then there it was. I mean, not this actual skirt, but something exactly like it, although I wasn't sure it definitely existed. I dreamt of something long, chiffon-y, pleated, that sat high on the waist, was in a light, bright summery colour, and didn't cost the earth. I finally found something that fit the bill on Missguided but they were sold in my size (they now have some similar back in, but with a side split). I then stumbeld across this bad boy in a boutique called Thuder Egg on Oldham Street. I stupidly cut the tag off and threw it out, so I can't tell what the actual brand is!

It also came in cobalt blue and mustard yellow, I'm now considering buying one... as I love this one so much. What do you think is more wearable, blue or the yellow?

The jersey shirt/top is great too, a new purchase from Topshop, very comfy, has such a cute aztec style cross-stitch pattern around the neckline, and I love the extra roomy arm holes. I know that sound weird, but they're just that bit bigger, and kind of hang different, and I just think its a really contemporary design feature/'look'. (I snapped it up while they were doing 20% off for students last week!)

Hat - Charity Shop, Suglasses - RayBan, Top - Topshop (£26), Skirt - Thunder Egg (£25), Sandals - Zara, Bag - Vintage (my mum's)

Oh & I really need some new daytime summer sandals. I want something with a low heel, but not wedge (I'm just not a wedge fan) and versitile, so in like tan or cream or something. What do you think of these? I will definately snap them up next time I'm in town, if, a) they have my size in stock, b) they fit nicely and c) they're still down to £25! haha. Let me know if you see anything else that might fit the bill. I can't spend more than £30 really!


VW x

Pleats, Polka-dots & Daisy-chains

This is what I wore in St.Andrews (Scotland) on Thursday, it was a day of glorious sunshine, great friends and childish fun and frolics!

We bought food from Morrisons and had a massive feast of a picnic in the Botanical Gardens, it was the best lunch EVER, haha! We played 'dizzy races' like the mature 21 year olds we are, and wandered around the gardens soaking up the rays. It was really beautiful, and very hot! We then walked down to a stream and played for quite a while, it might sound silly but we all found it very thereputic, acting like a kid again is the perfect antidote to weeks of exams and the stress of finishing uni for ever, just what we needed! Everyone splashed around, Jamie built a dam, Fran collected pebbles and I made a daisy chain. On the way back home we saw a Heron which was cool, and stopped off at the beach which was COVERED in jelly fish, I've never seen anything like it, it was disgusting (I have a major phobia of fish & sea creatures, so found it particularly horrifying haha).

Jamie took the photos of me in the gardens, and many thanks to my wonderful bestie Michael for these beautiful pictures at the stream, his camera is sooo much better than mine!

Dress - Primark, Belt - Primark, Sandals - Zara (very old and falling apart now), Hat - Charity Shop, Cardigan - Vintage, Sunglasses - Ray Ban Clubmasters

I'm wearing a dress from Primark, which I'm sure a lot of you bloggers will recognise from their S/S campaign, it really is quite beautiful and comfy to wear, and was perfect for the sunny weather - im not really a huge fan of showing off my bare legs in the summer, so this longer/midi length is great. It's actually a size 10 as they were sold out of 8's, it maybe looks a bit bulky, but I don't mind too much! The hat I bought in an Edinburgh charity shop the day before and was perfect for protecting my rather fair skin from the sun :-) its a lovely sort of camel suede/felt, so will work in the winter too, only £3! (I put my daisy chain round it, but I think it will look nice with different scarfs and ribbons)

Did you guys enjoy some sun last week where you were? Do you guys ever just like acting like a child with your friends for the day?

Love, VW x

Edinburgh

This week I spent a few days in Scotland with my wonderful best friends (Jamie aka The Boyf, Michael, Francesca & Daniel), it was a much needed mini-break just to relax with each other after exams etc! 

Here are a few photos from our day in Edinburgh - we all arrived on Tuesday night, but just went for a delish dinner at a cute BYO indian restaurant and a few drinks and a dance in the Opal Rooms before crashing in our hostel for the night. On Wednesday we wondered around the city, went to a few vintage shops and charity shops, went to Edinburgh Castle and had a coffee or two before getting the bus to St.Andrews where the boys are at Uni.

Cardigan - Vintage, Shorts - Vintage Levi 501s, Glasses - Gok Wan for Specsavers, Necklace - Vintage (My Grandma's), Shoes - Cow Vintage

My cardigan is a new 'vintage' purchase, £12 from Ryan's Vintage in Manchester and goes so well with most of my summer clothes, its such a cute minty green colour and the bead work is beautiful. Its originally Escada & has detachable shoulder pads hehe. Also rocking my new specs, what do you think? 

Yes we had candy floss like little kids, and I got excited by many strange Scottish souveneir displays!

I found a few great bargains in the charity shops which I will post about, and wore some new bits and pieces whilst in Scotland which I will post the photos of soon!

VW x

Back by Overwhelming Demand

There wasn't really any overwhelming demand, just The Boyf and my mum actually.. haha. So anyway, I'm back. I took a nice long break from the blog to sort out dissertation, then work experience, then revision and exams, but now all that has passed...

Here are a few snaps from way back when (the Easter holidays actually, so not that long ago), of the famously brilliant orange trousers. I hope they don't let you down... to me they really are the most amaing trousers I own. I even bought a pair in red 2 weeks ago because, well, who doesn't want red trousers? And they are so darn comfy and fit perfectly. Yes I'm going to get them in green too when they're back in stock in my size. Obsessed much.

Leather Jacket - Miss Selfridge
S/S knit jumper - H&M
Orange Trousers - Zara Kids
Heels - Vintage (BCBGirl)

My hair looks gross, really long and grown out. I didn't mind that much, as it was grown out for my friends wedding, and looked fab on the day. But then of course once the wedding was over I didn't have a woman to blow dry and style it for me, so it just looked far too plain and sensible for me, despite the compliments I had receieved. Naturally, I popped into Toni & Guy for a little demo modelling on Tuesday and had it all cut off, hurrah! I'll post pictures when I get round to it... but its quite simliar to this, same cut but no pink this time, more yellow with the orange.

 

Yea, I'm hiding my face in all these pictures, I wasn't wearing any makeup so just used my long blonde mop to block out my blotchy face, at least it was good for something ;-)

I'd like to introduce you my beautiful new shoes - they're orangey and metallic and made of soft worn in buttery leather, with a little platform and decent height heel. All things I am attracted to in a shoe to be honest, so when I saw them in the 'vintage' YMCA at home I couldn't resist trying them on. They didn't have a price on though, I didn't want or need them enough to pay £10-£20 (as the other shoes were labelled).

I went and asked the guy and he didn't really know and the manager was at lunch, so he just randomly said £5! When I got home I realised they said BCBGirl inside, turns out they're the old version of BCBGeneration, part of the BCBG Max Azaria company, the range retails for like $90 - $150 as a sort of youth diffusion line.

They're really comfy, and look perfect with my orange trews :-) I wore this outfit to the dentist to get a filling actually (ewww & ouchhyy) because it made me feel happy and confident. Then we spent the morning charity shopping to cheer me up and distract me until my mouth de-numbed and I was allowed to eat lunch. I bought another pair if shoes (£4) and a few bits and pieces that my mum collects, for mothers day - vintage war comics and buttons.

Since I'm finished uni now (FOREVER!!), I'm just sitting at home searching for jobs, so I'll try to get posting regularly, I do have rather alot of new bits and pieces to show you! 

Ciao bellas,
VW x

Charity Case

I'M ALIVE!
Sorry I've been completely M.I.A these last few weeks... well almost a month out really! I have been thinking of you all, and have occasionally had a little read, but I just havn't had the time or energy to post myself!

NB: These plimsoles actually have a cute floral print all over them, but came out like fluorescent white in the pics :-S hmm

To catch you up, I had a few big deadlines at uni, including a presentation, urgh, and a stupid logistics assignment which I really struggled with :-( That coupled with writing my weekly College Fashionista articles (have you been keeping up? sign up to site for free and comment on you're favourite outfits/articles *mine* haha) and generally just trying to keep up with life -  nothing particularly interesting to be honest!

eek should have put some more lippy on! Oh and my fringe is so long and crazy in my eyes now, as you can see its sitting very strange against my raybans! Have had to start wearing it sweeped to the side instead of full fringe :-(

Oh of course, major stress last week was my laptop dieing! My beautfiul HP, it served me well, but alas it is dead. I was in such a tizz because i had so much work to get done, thankfully after a frantic phone call to Oz my wonderful parents transferred the money for me to buy a whole new laptop :-) I just got the cheapest full sized one they had in the shop at the time (couldn't handle one of those crazy little notebook things *technophobe*)! Lucky I havn't lost any of my files, and I got all my work handed in on time!

Hat - Miss Selfridge, Sunnies - Ray Ban Wayfarers (Chrissie pressie from Oz only £30 from an outlet mall), Shirt - Charity Shop, Leather Jacket - Miss Selfrideg, Denim Cut-offs - Vintage Levi's, Belt - Primark, Plimsoles - Australia (5 dollars)

I went for a little wonder the other week to discover some new charity shops, the kind that are down little side roads and are tiny and a bit 'scummy' with rails crammed with crap, but in amongst it all you can find some truly wonderful things at bargain prices! You know, the best kind of charity shop. I hate ones like the Oxfams on the highstreet, all newly fitted out with colour coded rails of completely overpriced stuff... the moneys going to charity for goodness sake, just take what you can get for it, don't charge us a tenner for a 2 seasons old dress from Primark that probably only cost 8 quid to start with!! haha. Found the floral shirt pictured for £4, I love that it has poppers instead of buttons, and it's little breast pockets. Buttoned all the way to the top, naturally.

Also got this blouse, I have no idea whats going on with the print but I was immediately drawn to it. The little doodles remind me of the margins of an old maths book or something. The inner workings of someones random imagination. I'm not crazy about the colour, but I couldn't resist for £2!

Got the navy heels for £2 aswell, they're real leather, fit perfectly and are in great condition, there's like barely any wear on the soles apart from a few little scuffs. No idea when I'm ever gona wear them, but what the heck!

I was gona add another photo here of my favourite purchase of the last few weeks (not from the charity shops though so didnt fit really anyway) but I am literally so obsessed I wrote like 3 paragraphs and have now decided that their own post is well deserved.. so I'll schedule that now.. love to keep you hanging ;-) haha you'll probably think I'm crazy actually...



Anyway... I'd love to be able to tell you I'm back on form, and you'll be seeing a load of beautiful outfit posts in the next couple of weeks, but.. that'd be a lie. My 9,000 word dissertation is due in 3 weeks...and we have our two amazing bestest friends Michael and Francesca coming to stay for a few days next weekend (Hi guys, I'm literally so excited, eeeee!!!), so... we'll see what happens!

Love love, VW x

Ps. Look at my yummy FREE Graze nibble box... someone on my facebook had a code, to get you're first box free and a second box for £1.75, so naturally, student, free food, ordered. So exciting getting yummo, free food posted through your letterbox and bonus its all healthy too! I recommend the 'chanachur panch phoron' which is kind of like bombay mix with a rew raisins and goji berreis thrown in and was literally polished off in 2 mins!! So my favourite thing.

So my gift to you lovely readers, go to http://www.graze.com/ and sign up using my code - W8Z2TJ63 and you can get a free box too! You rate the things you like, and then they'll send you a 'balanced mix'.

90s Grunge Girl

It feels like forever since I last blogged!! I've missed it so much, but I've been crazy busy and with my laptop in for repair it was really awkward trying to upload photos etc! I have so much to tell you, so I'll try not to ramble on tooo much! My laptop is now fixed! YAY!

The really big exciting news is - I will be writing for CollegeFashionista this term as the first 'Style Guru' for Manchester Met Uni! My bestest friend Michael suggested I send in my CV a few weeks ago as he knows one of the 'gurus' at his uni, et voila, they wanted me! I will be writing a 'Style Advice of The Week' article every Monday, with a picture of some lucky fashionista/fashionisto from around MMU/Hollings/On their way to lectures etc. If you havn't heard of the site head over there now and check it out. It's all about street style at your campus (but of course you can look at others for inspiration!) and is totally awsome.

These photos were taken on Wednesday and basically I'm wearing my new stuff from shopping on Saturday! I went for a much overdue catch up with my lovely friend Charlotte, had a look round the shops and Nandos for tea, yum yum. I've been desperate for the elusive 'black leather biker jacket' but couldn't find a suitably cheap and beautiful one anywhere, since the aviator took over in Autumn. If found this baby in Miss Selfridge for £47 not bad, even if its only P.U. but as a bonus they have been running a 20% off for students recently, yipeee! I know I'm going to get so much wear out of it, in fact, I've worn it 4 times already. Saturdays in Manchester city centre are mad, now I remember why I never do it normally! They didn't have the jacket in my size in the normal store, so we went to top floor of Selfridges, which was blissful. So quiet and we could really have a look and not feel hot and bothered, ok so the concessions have reduced stock, but the selection was still good.

I bought the black peter-pan collar tunic dress in the sale at Topshop (in Selfridges too), it was down to £10.80 by the time I used my student discount, bargain. I always see you girls in beautiful peter-pan collars and am really jelous that my wardrobe was sadly lacking, so now I've caught up with the game!

I felt like I was wearing too much black already so desperately raided my draws for some bright tights and found these plaid babies. I've had them for a few years now and kept seeing them in my drawer and thought they had a hole or ladder in so havn't worn them in ages, they don't so I'm really happy and will be wearing them more! All of a sudden I was aware that I look pretty grunge and so tried to girly up the outfit with some dangly earrings and my light crochet boots (which my parents got me for Christmas, but maybe you havn't actually seen yet? I've scuffed the toes up so much already, oh dear. I might retire them for a while until there is less rain and mud to contend with). It didn't really work though did it? In fact the jewellery made it more early 90s grunge chick I think.

Anyway, this is what I was wearing for a very bizarre day, in which I met up with one of my oldest family friends Simon. He lives on the Isle of Man at the moment, and I hadn't seen him over 2 years, so it was a real treat, and such a good day catching up - even if he was horribly hungover and we spent 3 hours as the only white people in a cramped waiting room at the Pakistani Embassy! (Yes dressed like this, I got some looks!) Haha, I told you it was a weird day!

After dropping Simon at the train station in town at about 5.30 we made our way to the cinema to see Black Swan - which I thought was really good as a film, and I'm glad I saw it, but I'm not really into ballet AT ALL and don't really think it lived up to the rave reviews of 'visually stunning' bla bla, the dialogue was a bit stale, I giggled my way through every sex scene, and the ending was a bit implausible if you ask me (I don't want to give too much away in case you havn't seen it and don't know what I'm on about). What a review eh?!

You will notice a little outfit change in these pictures - suddenly some huge heavy black biker boots appear out of thin air! I bought these from a Barnardo's charity shop near the station on the way to the cinema for £6.99. They're brand new, never been worn, and still had the paper stuffing in etc. They make my feet look huge I think, but I love them for that price, and they went so well with what I was already wearing I couldn't leave them. So I put them on for a few pics when we got home too. I bought the hat for £4 (down from £15) in the Miss Selfridge sale also on the way to the cinema just as the shops were all closing, so wore it home. I was totally inspired by a similar hat Charlotte bought when we were shopping on Saturday - although hers was a bargain £2 from Claires!

Ok I've talked and talked, so that's definately enough for now, I'll post again soon. Let me know what you think of Grunge Girl Voni?! Did you guys find any bargains this week?

Hat & Leather Jacket - Miss Selfridge, Tunic Dress - Topshop, Tights - H&M, Crochet Boots - ?? (Shoe Shop in Australia), Biker Boots - Charity Shop, Earrings - Marrakesh Souk, Necklace - Vintage (my Grandma's), Bag - Charity Shop (Australia)

Happy Saturday!

VW x

The Lady-like Look

Hello again chums, arn't you lucky, I'm getting rather frequent in my outfit posting - third one this week, wow! I have to admit, this was rather forward planning; I took the photos mid week, knowing I'd want to post this weekend but would probably be a slob and not want to show off my over-sized jumpers and leggings.

Dress - Vintage, Cardi - Roxy (Charity Shop), Bag - Vintage (My mums), Shoes - Primark, Earrings - Sportsgirl

This dress is one that sits nestled in my wardrobe, but is neglected for some reason. I think its because its so ladylike, and I don't often feel ladylike to be honest ;-) I kind of think of it as my 'librarian dress', but maybe thats a bit unfair, librarians I've met are rarely this well dressed. Haha.

It's incredibly hard to photograph, but this little vintage beautie is impecably cut, and has brilliant detailing. The wing tipped collar, single pearlescent button, puffed shoulders, perfect midi sleeve, a-line skirt, small peplum and tie up bow at waist <3 All made of slightly stretchy floral fabric, wowee. I really should start wearing it more! And it only cost £15, from my favourite vintage thrift store, almost two years ago now, oh goodness I'm getting old, I can't believe I'm graduating in 6 months, ahh!

Simply styling - classic black court shoes, and again my aran knit cardi. I wanted to wear grey longline cardi, but it was in the wash, and is maybe a little thin to wear just under my trench at the moment, as the last couple of days the cold snap seems to have returned! My friend at uni loved that my earrings almost look like they are made out of my dress fabric, I wish! I think next time I will be braver and wear red lipstick, my face looks a little plain. The bag was my mums, I assume from the 80's, but you can't fill it with anything too heavy or it pops open, how annoying.

Not much to say for once! Friday night TV is so boring, I guess its because most people are out having a life. The Boyf and I watched James Bond Golden Eye on DVD with some wine instead, he finally finished his exams and had an interview today, so its nice chill out time! Hot chocolate before snuggling up in bed, yes please.

I've just realised basically all my best shots are sans face, you're probably all sick of my ugly mug muscling in on the outfit posts anyway haha. I've also noticed I REALLY need to get my hair re-coloured, all these poses with my head down = really bad roots! I don't think I can get away with calling it 'ombre hair' do you?

Hope you all had a wonderful week!

Loves, VW x

I Wore it Twice This Week...

Bonjourno! I am having major technical issues today! My laptop is kind of broken, its doing this annoying thing where even though its plugged into charge its not charging, and you have to wiggle the power bit around for ages and then hold it in the exact right posistion and it charges for about 5 seconds, and then you have to start over, grr. The worse thing is that its one of those problems which is quite tiny (if really frustrating) but I'm sure will be damn expensive to fix, as my laptop is no longer under wararnty and it'll probable mean replacing the port to plug the charger cable thingy into, if it can even be replaced?! Anyway, I'm trying to type super speedy and upload pictures really fast etc before it all shuts down!

This is basicly a whole new outfit, and I LOVE everything about it, I've actually worn it twice this week, once for a lovely meal to a tiny korean restaurant round the corner with The Boyf (it was soooo yummy, and cheap, like £20 for 2 mains, side dish, drinks and miso soup each hehe, so going there more often!), and then once to lectures.

I picked up this dress in a Salvo's at Christmas on my last day in Perth. My mum took me around all the charity shops and it was quite an adventure, as she hadn't driven to a lot of the places yet. Kylie the aussie satnav took us to some wonderful places and I got a few bargain treasures. This dress was really long, almost ankle length and when I picked it up my mum made one of those faces... 'its..a, uh, nice.. pattern' haha, well I defiantly tried it on, hitched up the botton threw my belt round it and walked out, ta dah! Well she thought it was pretty cute then didn't she, but alas, who was going to take it up for me, the only sewing machine I've got is a 100 year old singer, which probably wouldn't do the job... But I took it to the till anyway, $13 dollars isn't bad I thought, bam it was half-price, so I basically like £4 in the end, yay!

Stupidly I didn't take any pictures of the original product before my day of handywork (yes it took all day, turns out I'm not so handy - the old wind up singer might have been faster in hindsight haha) but it has come out all right huh? Its pretty straight if I do say so myself, luckily it has those nice lines to follow. I ended up wonder-webbing it, or whatever its called, and then just did some simple tacking stiches, the problem is, I didn't take it up enough the first time I used the iron on stuff, as I didn't try it on before hand because I was all wrapped up in a million layers as its so bloody freezing in bloody Manchester! Cue doing the cutting, folding & iron on bit all over again, practice makes perfect ay?!

I know, I know, it buttons up all the way again, tehe, obsessed! The dress is teamed with my other aussie charity shop purchase, a lovely Roxy cardi, $7.99, I've wanted one like this all autumn/winter, but refused to pay £50 for one in Topshop or something, so I'm glad I found this, its not got the chunky aran knit on the back panel though, but who cares! When I find some I want to replace the buttons with some cute leather knot ones.

Also being debuted is my lovely little navy leather bag, which ma & pa got me for Christmas (I found it in a charity shop for about $12 a couple of days before) so many bloggers etc have been showing off those little chiltern-esque satchels, which I do love, but are just getting a bit popular for my liking haha, so I think this baby is just right for me. It's so boxy and square with enough room for all the essentials (purse, keys, phone etc), is real leather (made in India) and has a brilliant tartan lining, love it!

Brogues/oxfords also new for Christmas, they were $10 dollars and are quite similar to ones they had in Primark, with elasticated lace bits, so they just slip on. I got a pair the same in a cute white floral pattern which were only $5 too, but I'm keeping those clean and dry ready for warmer weather.

Oh, I'm also wearing my pink GOSH soft 'n' shine lip balm, its bloody brilliant and I am wearing it everyday at the moment, even if bright shiny pink doesn't really go with my outfit, so I popped into Superdrug to see if there was another shade I fancied and lo and behold they're half-priced until tuesday, yipee! I would have bought 2 there and then, but typically because of the offer they were kind of wiped out, so I'm going to town on Monday, where hopefully the bigger store will have more!

Dress, Cardigan , Bag - Vintage (Various Salvos), Shoes - Rubi, Coat - Zara, Necklace - Vintage (My Grandma's), Belt - Vintage (My Mum's) 

Let me know what you think? Hope everyone has had a good week? I've got a group presentation at uni coming up, so we've been meeting a lot to sort out ideas, and I really need to be getting on with my dissertation! On the plus side I got my grade back for my Creative Communications 'fact file' which I stayed up for 19 hours doing last term and got 68% woohoo! Nearly a 1st! I'm so chuffed!


VW x