Brainwashed

This is a post I've been meaning to make for a few weeks, but I just had SO MANY pictures it was a bit of a pain to transfer all the photos from my phone, and I've also been a very busy (and lazy) human. So.. better late than never eh!

Recently, my friend Mark and I were meant to head to a movie in town, but he suggested checking out this exhibition first... which was a GREAT idea.

Mr Brainwash is a Graffitti/Street/Pop Culture type artist who takes inspiration from other artists. Arguably most famous from Banksy's film Exit through the gift shop (Watch the trailer here).

Mr Brainwash, aka Thierry Guetta uses a lot of recognisable imagery & art and manipulates/adds to it, which is especially cool because, I think, it makes it relatable to most people. There's lots of reference to famous pop icons (Madonna, David Bowie, The Beatles, Elvis, etc) And loads of nods to Andy Warhol & Banksy himself.

The theme of the exhibition was "Life is Beautiful", and can I just say, the whole thing WAS beautiful! There was lashings of glorious colour everywhere, and the imagery played on sweet observations of life. I took SO MANY photos. I will try not to post too many.. enjoy!

Amazingly, the exhibition was free to get into, AND you got a free print & postcards when you left. How nice is that? that is VERY NICE!

Remember, follow your dreams! Ahh, inspirational much?

WIWT/OOTD

What I wore today! Or Outfit of the day!

#WIWT & #OOTD are trends that are big on the instagram circut, and I'm a fan..

Lately I've been getting into compiling montages of the outfits I whack together in the mornings before I go out. Lots of times I don't really have enough time to do this every day, but it's nice when I do have enough time to put my makeup on properly and spend a few minutes posing in the mirror!

Here are a few of the outfits I've rocked in the week that's just passed.

Last week it was still really nice weather (September and April often are strangely good weather months), so I made the most of the lingering sunshine by breaking out some colour. I felt a little bit 80s with all the pastel, but also very girly! and most of all, it matched my nails ;)

After lots of positive comments the day before about the pastel colour pallete, I tried to whip another pastelised outfit up. It came out kind of cat themed... I just ADORE my cat pumps! And they worked well with my tiger ring, necklace, and t shirt with panthers & animal print on it.. don't you think?!

I fear Saturday might have been the last day of sunshine for this summer, so I went all out bright in this semi strawberry themed outfit. Pink dress, strawberry clips (look here for all the beautiful clips Tiny Tangerines makes!), and big fat hidden wedge sneakers (LOVE!).

Sunday I headed out to brunch in Fulham and had to wrap up in my COAT for the first time since last Winter finished.. brrrr! My favourite blogger Tiny Tangerines sent me this polka dot bow with my latest order, and I thought it was the perfect finishing touch to go with the polka dot dress!

And then there was today, an Autumnal themed outfit merging browns and florals and blacks. I love these brogues which I treated myself to in Paris earlier this year (excellent buy, many comments today) (and SO COMFORTABLE!) (and real LEATHER). And I rocked my new cat clips from Tiny Tangerines. LOVE!

And best of all.. I think it even matched my nails!

Vogue's Fashion Night Out.

One night last week I had dinner with some friends to catch up with our beautiful friend Po who is here on holiday from Australia.

Hi Po!

I arrived in Covent Garden about 15 minutes early, and right opposite the Covent Garden tube station is an Oasis store which I ALWAYS end up taking a look in before meeting friends in Covent Garden. It’s the perfect place to kill ten minutes.

This day though, something was different! There were balloons, and champagne glasses, and a girl was sitting in the window making headbands, and it was just generally a bit of a party vibe. Turns out it was Vogue Fashion night out which was amazing! Oasis was offering FREE SHOES when you spent a certain amount in store... this was dangerous because I freakin love shoes.

So I perused the racks, with no real intention to buy anything, had a glass of champagne and then stumbled across the sale rack, which to my delight was populated with the London collection I'd read about the London collection at the beginning of summer when everyone was all amped up about the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and the Olympics etc and making things with a London theme. All these dresses have a print of London landmarks so they're very kitschy and a bit cute. So I was pretty excited that not only was it still around, but it was on sale! I picked my favourite dress (and a few others) and made for the changing rooms.

My favourite dress was just a bit too tinchy to fit which was sad because it was sooooo beautiful! Pink! And 50s pin up styles! And I loved it! I contemplated buying it and never eating again so I could wear it, but decided that was a silly idea. So when I returned it to the girl on the door I spotted another one hanging on the returns rack ready to go back to the shop floor, and lo and behold IT WAS MY SIZE! That never happens! Obviously this was a sign from god (who may or may not exist) so I ran with it to the counter. By this point i was running late for dinner so grabbed a top to add to the transaction to bring me up to the threshold for FREE SHOES! I plan to return the top next week, thus sneakily scoring myself a beautiful new dress at bargain sale prices plus free shoes! Sneaky sneaky!

My new dress hanging up and waiting for a special ocassion...

We had dinner at Cafe Pacifico and it was the second time I’ve been there. To be honest, not as nice as the first time I don’t think – but that might be because the first time I was already slightly drunk by the time we arrived and we were more focussed on the Margheritas than the meal! Mmmmmm Margheritas! (I just loooooove the Mango).

Mmmmmm Mango!

After dinner we went for a wander around Covent Garden to see what was going on. There were carol singers! And CHANEL VENDING MACHINES! And pretty lights, and DJ’s and music, and free hair do’s, and free manicures, and just lots and lots of FUN STUFF!

I think there might have been people inside of the Chanel vending machines... so super cute!

As if I wasn’t already like a kid in a candy store.... I stumbled upon a pop up store for Melissa! Melissa are the shoe people who make the shoes for Vivienne Westwood which I covet. I have wanted a pair of their Dragonheart shoes for forever, but this Spring/Summer they launched the flocked skyscrapers which I also fell in love with. And given we’re coming into Winter, I figure are a better investment for now. (But watchout Dragonheart, I will be back for you later!). So I ran (literally, ran) into the store, was offered champagne & sushi (downed he champers) and rushed to try on the skyscrapers in red & fuschia, the two colours I havebeen struggling to decide between.

Amazing choir singers, DJ's inside a shop, the chanel vending machines, pretty decorations outside a shop, and me pleased as punch!

The shop assistant was so nice, and my friends were really very pateient with me while I tried each colour on 2 or 3 times befoe finally deciding on the RED. Yeow! I just LOVE them. I adore Vivienne Westwood as a designer, and shoes are my favouritest thing, and these particular shoes I have been after for such a long time that I was giddy with excitement. Apparently I made faces no one has ever seen before I was so happy!

I managed to score 20% off AND a free balloon, so I was a very happy girl!

Shoes and balloon in my room all packaged up and waiting for the right moment to debut. Weeeee!

Absolutely love stumbling upon goodness like that in London, thank you Vogue!

Specsy

I'm a big fan of contact lenses, they make me look like I have 20/20 vision and allow me to wear sunglasses to shield my precious peepers from the sun. As if being an emotionally sensitive cancerian wasn't enough, I appear to have "extremely large retinas" which means that even when it's grey skies outside I have to squint so hard I get a new wrinkle every time.

Sometimes contacts can get fiddly though, and lately I've found they've been popping out at their own will. I'm just sitting there (or standing there), minding my own business and POP! all of a sudden I'm an eye down. Less than ideal...

Anyway, so today I wore my glasses to work and the reaction was positive. Very positive! Mind you, out of anywhere, work really is the place to crank the spectacles - instant brain booster.

The one pair of glasses I own are 6 years old. And they're kind of smudgy and battered, and old style.... so.. TIME FOR NEW GLASSES!

So, I went on a Specsavers mission after work only to be sorely disappointed that there was no Specsavers at the mall. Wah! But there was a Vision Express where I got my self portrait on. Now I just CAN'T DECIDE! Help! What do you think?!

These are my favourite four here...

I never have been any good at making decisions!