Tuesday 22 March 2011

Daywalker.

Finally after ten months, I am finally getting my hair cut tomorrow. In the ten months since my friend cut my hair into a bob with kitchen scissors; I have bleached and dyed my hair about a million times, spent three months in the hot Australian climate and generally not taken very good care of it. It’s disgusting I know, but from now on I promise I’ll change!

I’m not sure if I’ll have any sort of style cut into it to be honest, I think I just want to keep it simple so it can grow and repair a bit first. I also need to sort the colour out, which I’ve currently been using a combination of Nice and Easy in Natural Light Auburn and dye from the goth shop to ‘achieve’.

Hmmm.... time for some GINGESPERATION.
Some of my favourite celeb gingers...

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Clockwise from left: Jenny Lewis, Karen Gillan, Karen Elson, Neko Case, Paloma Faith, Christina Hendricks a.k.a. Joanie and Nicola Roberts.

And of course we couldn’t forget the Queen of all gingers...

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Zig-a-zig-ah indeed.

Claire
x

Monday 21 March 2011

I'm a carpetbagger baby, I'm coming to your town.

Today I popped into Primark under the pretence that I was only going to buy one thing. I was looking for a hair donut as I’d overheard a customer at work telling her friend how she’d bought one from there. I already own one, but I wanted another so I can create a giant donut, which will result in the world’s biggest hair bun (I know Boots sell them but I bought mine for a measly quid a few months ago and they’re now charging £4.60!).

So off I went to Primark. Bad idea. Twenty minutes later, £40 less well off and still without a hair bun I emerged. Primark just have so many nice things at the moment. I needed a large bag for carrying all my various bits and bobs when me and Bryden go down to Sheffield for the Blogger meet up this weekend. I spotted this carpet bag style weekend bag for only £12, which was perfect. It even kind of matches the vintage vanity case I bought a couple of months back.

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I’ve been after some new denim shorts for a while and at £8 with the added bonus of a belt I liked the look of these. Sadly they’re a bit on the tight side at the moment (Nothing a few more weeks at Slimming World will hopefully sort out). I also picked up some over the knee socks (£2 for two pairs) and this straw boater hat (£4), which was kind of bought as part of a personal joke between me and Bryden but I’m thinking it’ll be more wearable if I change the ribbon to a plain black one. The rest of my £40 spend was spent stock piling my favourite tan brogues, size sevens in Primark are like gold dust!

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I got myself a couple of lip treats today too. I had a £5 voucher for No 7 at Boots, I don’t think I’ve ever bought anything from that range before apart from some anti shine primer (which is average at best), but this lovely bright orangey/corally/reddy lipstick (Which ended up costing £5 with my voucher) caught my eye. The shade is the very camply named ‘Gay Geranium’ and I’ve had it on all day at work. It’s lasted really well and I have another £5 off voucher so I might try out another shade. I also bought a Bonne Bell Lip Smacker at Primark, so I can moisturise my lips like its 1996!

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Also today, I wore my new dress from Matalan I showed you in the last post for the first time and received loads of compliments. An old lady in the street even told me she liked it and that I looked very summery! Has anyone else had any bargain buys lately?

Claire

x

Tuesday 15 March 2011

Summer dreaming.

This weekend I went to stay at my parent’s house and on our way back to town we popped into Matalan at Killingworth (I know, I visit such glamorous shopping destinations). I’ve been shopping at Matalan for years, I remember when they used to sell designer stuff and I went wild for my mam to buy me some Calvin Klein jeans, but I haven’t really bought much from there recently.

I was actually really impressed with what they had to offer. Firstly they had a cracking sale on with 50% off; containing items that are current too, not just old winter stock.

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I tried on a few things, in particular I really wanted a denim shirt I’d picked up. Sadly they didn’t have any size 14’s in stock (Which was the case with quite a few items I looked at. What’s with that Matalan?), but I did however try this daisy print dress on by chance and ended up loving it. I’m pretty sure Topshop did dress similar to this recently I’m guessing it’ll have probably cost around three times as much as Matalan’s £14 price tag. I can’t wait for summer to wear it with bare legs, a denim jacket and my beloved new clogs.

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I also picked up this little red stone necklace for £2 in the sale, which goes really well with the turquoise jewellery I wear most days.

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Finally I bought this rucksack for £10, another purchase for the summer. I can’t wait to use it on trips to the beach and the park. The woman on the till commented “Eee that bag is dead canny. You could put sandwiches in there”. We’d only just met, but she knew me so well!

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This week I’ve also been rediscovering Barry M nail effects. I’ve been wearing it over Barry M nail paint in Mushroom for a few days and it’s lasting pretty well thanks to Seche Vite top coat.

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Bryden and I also received our train tickets today to go down to Sheffield next weekend for the Blogger meet up. We can’t wait to meet some fellow bloggers in real life. We’re already stressing over what to pack! Is anyone else going?

Claire

x

Monday 14 March 2011

Blast from the past.

Having grown up in the 90’s and early 00’s Bryden and I are always reminiscing over things from back in the day- music, fashion and lately make up and beauty products. After fondly remembering things such as the kids range from the Body Shop, Hard Candy nail varnish and hair mascara (!!!) I had a look on Ebay to see if any of my favourite products from my early teen years were still knocking about.

If you were a girl in the 90’s/early 00’s you almost definitely used Impulse body spray. I remember the P.E. changing room at school was practically toxic with the smell of it after lessons and once me and a friend once got thrown out of a branch of Superdrug for testing all the different scents (I think the shop assistant thought we were solvent abusing in the aisles). The main ones we remember were Zen (Which kind of smelt of Parma Violets) and Vanilla Kisses. There was even a limited edition Spice Girls fragrance (Which is selling on Ebay for crazy ‘Buy now’ prices.)

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My personal favourite was o2, which was a citrus fragrance. I managed to buy one from Ebay for £1.60, an absolute bargain for bringing back those teen memories! I actually still really like the fragrance and it’s a bit of a shame they don’t make it anymore.

My second blast from the past came in the form of an R U lipstick. R U was part of the Rimmel brand, but was focused more towards the young market. There were lots of brightly coloured eye shadows and nail varnishes which all had labels on them with things like “R U READY?” and “R U UP 4 IT?” (Ahhh the early days of text speak). I remember that they were always giving away free gifts with the products like those fluffy photo frames everyone had in their rooms at the time and for one of my friend’s birthdays I bought her a bright orange eye shadow and nail varnish combo from the range (Lucky girl!).

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I got this lipstick in Amaze for £1.85 from Ebay and it’s actually a really nice bright pink.

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Does anyone else remember these brands or any other ones you loved?

Claire
x

Friday 4 March 2011

Woah woah woah wait a minute...

We realised that there is only one picture of us on this blog and there's nothing worse than not being able to put a face to the bloggers.

Here's some little snapshots to help you on your way:

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This is us in our local rock club (Which Claire HATES) Bryden is looking particulary smug here

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This is us in our local rock club probably after a couple of shots

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This is Claire with her beloved Newcastle Brown Ale

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This is what we like to do in our local clubs. Claire drew this on a boring shift at work. Skillz.

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We do like the odd cheeseburger aka MANY cheeseburgers after a night out. Here's Bryden trying to convey her sheer happiness at the sight of the wonderful McDonalds haul.

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We cook a lot for each other. This one was a joint effort.

So there we have it! A little insight to our lives. Bryden is thinking about posting a few cooking/recipe posts as she loves cooking. Watch this space!

Bryden and Claire x

Thursday 3 March 2011

Oh Alexa

Well hello there! Unfortunately this may be the last post you will see from me in a couple of weeks as again, I have left university work until the last minute and this time its not a quick 2000 word essay I've left to the last minute, its a 10000 word dissertation!

On the subject of bags, I think the most coveted bag in recent months has been the Mulberry Alexa bag. Unfortunately, I do not have the money, nor the time and patience to save up for one. I have a real Balenciaga First Bag which I'm terrified to take out as I don't want to ruin it. Buying a real Mulberry and doing the same to the Mulberry seems like a waste to me (personally). So when I saw the best dupe of a Mulberry Alexa I've seen for a while in a recent trip to TkMaxx. I had to snap it up!! The RRP price of the bag was noted as £56 and I managed to get this for a cool £24.99. The brand is Marina Galanti if anyone is interested in trying to find another on the interwebs. I'm not sure if the material is leather but it does feel decent, not the best of course, but very decent. It has kept it's shape quite well and is the PERFECT size.

Here it is!

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I added the scarf myself. I like to do this with a lot of my bags. I suppose it's a bit like a bag charm that can be taken off and used as a hood if it starts raining (at least that's how I look at it!).

If I ever see the same bag in brown/tan I'd be soo happy to pick up another one of these!

What do you think? Are you a fan of the Alexa style bags? Would you fork out on a real one?

Bryden x

Xposted to http://missbryden.blogspot.com/

Wednesday 2 March 2011

Clog on the Tyne.

Yesterday was the first sunny day, in which feels like years, around here. I decided to do a spot of charity shop shopping (Sorry, I really can’t bring myself to call it ‘thrifting’) so I hopped on the Metro to North Shields and then South Shields via the ferry. I was sat with my sunglasses lapping up the nice weather as if I was on a Caribbean cruise, not crossing the Tyne!

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How exotic.


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Sadly I didn’t really see anything particularly nice, so I decided to pop into Newcastle city centre on the way home and picked up a few bits and bobs.

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Clogs- H&M £29.99, Tights- Primark £2 each, Lace trimmed socks- Internacionale £2.50, Frankie magazine £5.50. Oh Comely magazine £4.

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I’d seen these clogs at around Christmas time, but because I haven’t worn heels since damaging the ligaments in my ankle last summer, I’d put off buying them. I saw that there were only two pairs left, (one being in my size) decided that it was fate and that I MUST spend £29.99 that I can’t really afford. Luckily due to the sturdy shape of the shoe and the wonder of modern medicine (God bless painkillers) I think my stupid ankle might be able to handle these little beauts. I’ll be wearing them with tights for now, but I can’t wait to pair them with summer dresses and shorts. Roll on summer!

I Noticed on Twitter the other day (Shameless plug alert: You can follow Trebles and a Mixer on Twitter @treblesandamixa. It’s mainly just me talking about celebs and what we’ve had for tea.) that Frankie magazine was coming to the UK. I spent last summer in Australia, most of the time I looked sweaty, sunburnt and wore pretty much the same pair of shorts for three months. I started reading Frankie Magazine while I was over there and was reminded that fashion and nice things still existed, even if I was living in a scummy hostel. It kind of reminds me of Bust and Nylon with a bit of Lula’s romanticism thrown in. Basically it’s a lovely mix of fashion, illustration, crafts. Yes, it ends up costing £5.50 because it’s imported, but it’s a delightful little read.

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While I was buying this at WH Smith’s I spotted Oh Comely magazine and picked it up. I’d never heard of it before but I’d say it’s quite similar to Frankie and well worth a look.

Some images from Frankie...
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And Oh Comely...


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Does anyone have any other suggestions for magazines that are a bit different from the normal celeb trash (Don’t get me wrong I love celeb trash) you find in newsagents?

Love

Claire
X

P.S. Its dissertation time for Bryden at the moment, don’t worry she’s not dead or anything. Luckily I only have a job I don’t really care about occupying my time so I’ll have plenty of time to blog!