Finnish design

Finnish design by tokyo_purple featuring leather shoulder bags

Colours and details

As said on the last post, I have no intent whatsoever to wear any pastel colour or fluffy things this spring or summer. It’s black and similar dark colours all the way.

What I do like as an idea, though, is using splashes of colour and detailing  in the accessories, and those I have aplenty.

As a total sideline, I am now facing a week with only £1 on my wallet. Payday looms on the 15th, but before that, thanks to bills bills bills, I am very much skint 9and no, that one pound is not an exaggeration at all, that is all I have). Still, you have to see the positive side – a forced diet of coffee, porridge and crisp bread, pretty much the only three things on my cupboard right now. That’s one way to get into a holiday shape, not eating *eye roll*.

I suppose it will be a good thing to keep myself out of trouble, food-wise, not eating things like chocolate or ready-made meals. And it’s only 9 days after all.

On other news, I have a cold of some sort, I am battling with Uni work and generally wondering about things. Grrr.

So, She’s Back

Hopefully my blog hiatus will now stop. It has been a wild ride, with Uni, work, a friend with cancer, getting registered as a stem cell/bone marrow donor..but with friend now in remission, the worst of the worst is over. Or atleast paused. And hopefully I can now blog to my hearts content (even though I have been Tumblr-ing occasionally), and maybe achieve some of the old-school me with a blog about life and not just fashion and style.

So, spring fashion and style?

I have not looked at the spring fashions that much, truth be told, probably because I have been busy wondering about my own ideas and own style. The truth is, even with the sunshine and lightness, I am a lady who wears black. Quite odd since I am definitely not a goth by nature, but nevertheless, I like my darkness and my structures.

OK, the sleeves on my jacket might be 3/4 lenght, and the material cotton, but I am not a floral person, or one who does pastel shades.

Spring, for me, is trousers, t-shirts, coats thrown on top. Maybe casual trainers or ballerinas, a pony tail and shades, light pink lipstick adding a touch of fluffiness.

I am not a huge believer in getting tanned probably because over the years I have seemed to have developed a slight sensitivity to the sun. So I shall remain pale and interesting, I suppose. Too bad I’m not a Twilight fan!

But now, life is so much more than fashion. Life is about studying and PhD application things… and more about those later!

Small Things

 

I am back. With no details, someone close to me is very ill, but one has to soldier on and hope for th best..

I shall return again

At the moment, my mind is on other things. Someone who’s become very dear and important to me in a very short time is in hospital with severe pneumonia, very ill and very scared. I may not be there in person, but my mind and my heart are. Hence why my thoughts really aren’t here at the moment.

I stress, I worry, I hope things will get better. I wait.

Promises, Resolutions, Whatever

In a typical manner, I feel I should indulge myself and make my January a guilt-ridden misery (just like everyone else) by doing resolutions for 2011.

I am not going to bore you with the usual ‘be nicer to people-lose weight-save money-live healthier-sleep more-don’t get involved with idiots’-resolutions I could do, but have decided to concentrate more on the superficial side of things, such as fashion and beauty.

In 2011, I will solemnly swear I will..

Edit my wardrobe: that means getting rid of dodgy underwear, ill-fitting shirts, jeans, stuff I have bought that really isn’t me (hello, that pale yellow trench coat)

Find ‘the One’: the one being the handbag of my dreams. One of my resolutions was to get out there and get a proper handbag. I was thinking that a Vuitton Speedy would be the right one for me, but thinking more, I really need a shoulder strap and a bag with pockets and some more structure. A Balenciaga City or Part-time would be ideal, but since I can’t just magic up over a grand of money at the moment, my eyes will be turned to the high street.

Find that elusive retro-esque hairstyle: I cannot deny it any longer. Much as I love fashion, I love style more, and unfortunately my style ideals go to the 1920s to 1940s, hair-wise. Victory rolls I doubt I’d ever bust out, but I am rather optimistic that I could totally bust out some other hairdos that look vintage. Just like below…

2011

Happy New Year to those reading this post. As opposed to spending the night in some glamorous location and/or drunk as a skunk, I have opted to spend the change of the year at home, typing away on my essay on schizophrenia and violence, and reading other people’s blogposts.

Today is naturally a start of new things, what with a new year signifying a need to change things. And I suppose that is something that is current for me with this blog again. I have been awful at posting things, and my resolution is that this will have to change. I have also been posting a lot of beauty stuff, as opposed to things about style and fashion, so will re-route the blog onto those levels yet again. I don’t have those badges at the side of the blog for nothing, you know!

The general layout of the blog may also change a bit, if I get motivated to tweak it just that little bit.

So expect things.. better things.

But for now, I shall bid you adieu, and return to my essay and my coffee.

Elle est arrivée

According to fragrantica.com, it’s all about black rose, violet, ylang-ylang and musk. Gorgeous.

Inspiration

 

Christmas Day

This is what my Christmas Day has been about:

Work, essay writing, a teeny bit of chocolate and random earrings. Merry Christmas to those who celebrate us, and commiserations and much love to people like me who are away from their families and spending the festive season at work. Someone’s got to do it after all.

Yes, I Fell From Grace..

 

..lost my cool and my principles of using all the perfumes I already have..

.. fell in love.

This beauty will be winging its way to me next for the year 2011. New Year, new perfume, new me..

Transition Blues

Some of history’s most famous military leaders were not just coincidentally Dynamic Thinkers. Leadership is simply in your blood. You are self confident, energetic and determined to reach your goals and if it is up to you, there won’t be any shilly-shallying. You are equally important in your work efficiency and effectiveness. Strategic planning, long term considerations, creative problem solving, and absolutely exact case analyses are some of your strongest points. The quotation “I came, I saw and was victorious” (Caesar) could also be written on your flag. You comprehend even very complex situations quickly and completely, and immediately issue comprehensive instructions on how they must be dealt with.
The extroverted part of your personality provides you with excellent communication capabilities plus a certain charisma, making it easy for you to engage other people in your objectives. With all that, your visions are not limited to the existing and the contemporary, but frequently extend far into the future. For your professional satisfaction you need these objectives like you need air for breathing. You especially enjoy intellectual challenges and don’t care for victories too easily achieved.
Since you belong to the extroverted Thinker types, working in a solitary environment is not for you. In order to be happy, you need to be in the company of people, with new excitement and tasks plus a little action. Although this frequently provides for a great output the human (all too human) needs of your colleagues could easily end up being ignored. As an intuitive Thinker type, you are always focused on the objective of your task and the welfare of the company, respectively. You quickly have the number of those who are not disciplined and performance-oriented and prepared to work equally hard on the task.
As the boss, you would probably show that particular person the door; as a colleague, you make him sense your contempt for his “weak” demeanor. Especially the absence of competency or a challenged intellectual aptitude quickly causes you to get impatient. Frequently, this is the case when people with your type have achieved leadership positions without being aware of it. One of your favorite expressions is probably: “Leave it alone, I’ll take care of that.” Dynamic Thinkers simply shove everybody aside who in their opinion don’t perform and to their surprise find themselves heading the organization.

My profile on http://www.IPersonic.com

For those of you who don’t know, I am very much planning on leaving my current job at some point after graduation. Not that there is anything wrong with my job as such, but the long working weeks and shift work can be quite knackering indeed, let alone detrimental to my personal life.

I have been pestering our career advisor about issues relating to getting a graduate job at the grand old age of 31, and it’s not easy. She seems to thing I should go and hammer the market as someone with job experience who happens to be graduating at the same time.

Thinking of a career change is a daunting thing indeed, especially since all I have done has been quite samey in the past. All in the same sphere of things, same area of work. I’m not bad at what I do the slightest, I have such a background it makes getting employers interested in me easy. But for me, there are no prospects in my job, so a change is needed.

Taking those first steps is daunting, most probably because I have no idea what to go for. I have passions and things I love, but how and whether to pursue them is a different matter altogether. so here’s for the first steps.. here’s for progress and the future.

I Have To Admit..

..that I really really want to try this and somehow adapt it to my everyday look

For Fabulous Fun

Ah, raven.. why are you the woman I’d like to be ?

More History–Liverpool

Historical Notes–London

I have been busy sorting out some issues with my laptop recently, thanks to some weird and wonderful error messages. So I have defragged, removed programmes, downloaded programmes, deleted photos, reinstalled iTunes and generally been shattered, tired, narked off and panicky about my laptop breaking jus as I need it.

So where new fashion/style/beauty photos have not been taken, I have found some old ones on my laptop that I thought I’d post.

This I will Have..

Bobbi Brown 'Red' lipstick. Heavenly shade, absolutely so.



The blusher and bronzer- duo from E.L.F. because I love mimimalistic packaging, and with this I can pretend to be a lot more chich that I really am.



The organiser from E.L.F. Purely because I saw it on a 'what's in my purse'_vidoe, and throught it'd be handy for when I eventually find that dream handbag of mine where everything can be carried around forever and more (or until I get bored and get another handbag. Even though the plan is not to carry on constantly doing that - see previous post)

Minimalist Revamp

I was today perusing the blog of a finnish cosmetics blogger/ sales person extraordinaire, Virve, and the entry of her new apartment and the massive cull in the items she owns.

This, for me, resonates quite a lot at the moment. I am planning on moving to a new city next summer, in search of a new career as a graduate, as well as new adventures (all things going well!). Because of that, I have to seriosly look into the amount of things I own, use up my excess cosmetics, edit, edit, edit.

But also, I have half of my student fees to be paid off in January, which adds to the intrigue in its own way. Because of the fees, I have to save money, only using what I have to. No buying more clothes, no makeup as I have plenty (one day I will actually blog of my cosmetics shame), no handbags.. just the necessary food, no frivolities.

I have also recently ate lots of crap food, and feel it in my physical appearance. Clothes don't fit, I feel sluggish and tired, my skin's lacklustre. I definitely am in need of a health kick, that is a definite.
It all links together, but how, may you ask. Simple.

Need to save + need to minimize and sort out wardrobe + need for a health kink = Operation Run-Up. A run-up to Christmas, a run up to 2011, a run-up to the move..

Where as people put on weight leading to the end of the year thanks to the holiday excesses, I intend to lose it. Whereas people lose money because of the same festivities, I intend to save it. My theme for the end of the year will be about loss - loss of weight, loss of an impractical wardrobe, loss of excess spending, loss of all the cosmetics I have in the house.
I will blog about it, I will ponder it, I will be honest about it.. it'll be a pain in the ass, but hopefully, it will be somewhat useful, both for me, but also for someone who reads the entries.

The issues I will tackle are:

* my wardrobe: my current wardrobe is quite disjointed, and doesn't really reflect who I am. I am a minimalis at heart, like materials like leather and felt, dark colours like black, grey and purple, inky blue and dark blue-green. Strong colours, strong lines, character.
I will actually, when I am clearing out my stuff, go through all my old magazines and create myself a general mood board, and maybe identify some new trends in the things I like. Fingers crossed, anyway, maybe I will have some sort of a 'lightbulb moment'!

* my health: I have put on weight recently, thanks to the wonders of hormones and eating loads of food which is less than healthy. I have already imposed a ban on candy, chololate and crisps - in the name of enjoyment I will allow myself the occasional pastry as life is too short to eat food what tastes like cardboard.
I also need to crack on with my gym routine, but also re-start my exercise classes again. Hopefully I will take up something that is more holistic, as at the moment I feel about as flexible as an iron bar, sadly.

* my finances: saving up and paying uni fees, tackling existing debts, it's all about re-evaluating my relationship with money and consumption.

* my future: I have been doing a lot of thinking recently, having tackled allsorts of issues at work recently. Evaluated what I want out of life, and believe you me, working 80+ hours a week and doing shifts.. really not a nice thing at my ripe age (of 31, if you need to know)

So there, such will life be. Looking at my dining room table, it doesn't look any clearer. But the crisp/candy/cholocate ban has worked since sunday. Just don't mention the handbag I ordered tonight ;-)..small steps.



Ooh, metal. My future new bag from Next, my staple for everything these days :-).

Sad Sad Sad

Will be back. Have too much work, a fear that my old supervisor will be coming back, and minor heartache of a relationship I seem to have totally screwed up over the weekend.
Oh well, onwards and upwards, people :-).

Today I have Mainly been...

..panicking about what to wear to London next week (am going over for a few days), and playing with the new Barry M Instant Nail Effects polish - shown here on top of the Primark Beauty UV-reactive nailpolish in 'Candy'

 

Apologies for the grainy photographs, they were taken with a shaky hand at half past eight in the evening after a day of dentist and general stress..