iTunes festival - Lana Del Rey

In my second ever iTunes festival win I scored tickets to see Lana Del Rey on Tuesday night.(My first win was for Rebecca Ferguson - less famous, but arguably a better singer... write up to come soon!).

I was pretty excited about seeing Lana because I've seen YouTube videos of her singing live and let's just say it wasn't pretty.. So of course I wanted to know the score, was this girl was all marketing or what?!

When Lana came on stage, she seemed casual, shy, and a bit nervous to be honest. Her hair was long, loose, and seemingly unstyled. She was wearing jeans and a baggy sweatshirt.. not really what you'd expect given her recent advertising campaign for H&M

Unfortunately, Bekah's face says it all.. When Lana began to sing, there was something missing. There's no denying she has a smouldering velvety voice, but it's like she was trying to switch between keys and the gears were getting stuck. She sounded a bit off pitch, and the the song seemed as if it just wasn't patching together very well... eeeeek! How long were we going to endure this?

Luckily though, a couple of songs into it Lana seemed to get her swag back, and her singing became rather impressive. Maybe she just needed to warm up.

One thing's for sure though, the crowd LOVED her. Everybody seemed to be well into it, and shouting her name and just generally really fan-like. There were a coupld of chicks near us who were skyping their mate during the concert so she could see Lana... and when that failed, they called her and held the phone up (I'm presuming it was the same girl.. I did think to myself, if your friend was THAT much of a fan... wouldn't you take her?) Anyway.. yes, she was much adored.

I'm sure I was annoying the people behind me with my penchant for getting a good shot (this new Samsung S3 phone has a great camera on it!) but I managed to get a couple of goodies to share, so lucky you!

One of the things I liked about Lana's concert was the stage set & lights.. lots and lots of colourful lights. Paired with palm trees and a Florida feel and string musicians, very pretty!

Now we'd heard that a friend of a friend had been to a Lana Del Rey gig before, and apparently Lana only did a half hour set.. so after Rebecca Ferguson's impressing hour and a half the previous week we were interested to see how much airtime Lana would give.

The answer? Roughly 45 minutes.. probably slightly less as she was on a little bit late. I don't know about you, but I rate that as kind of poor.. she's a global star and only has 45 minutes on stage? Oh well, whatever, I was tired and looking forward to bed anyway, so fine by me!

I actually took some video at the concert, and wanted to upload for you so you could feel like you were there experiencing the concert first hand! But apparently I can't email it from my phone to here to upload... so I'm going to need to do some technical learning to figure that one out.. stay tuned!

London Tattoo Convention 2012

This Saturday I headed off to the London Tattoo convention with Rebekah, LP, Erica, and Marc. Even though I only have one very small tattoo that doesn't even really count, I absolutely adore them. If I had the guts I would just go for it and cover myself in bubblegum colours and pretty pictures. I need to meet someone who can draw me up a design which I fall in love with, but until then, I shall have to just covet from afar.

So I met LP, Bex & Marc at West Kensington station, where LP was hungover/drunk and armed with a bottle of Prosecco to take the day on.. classy as ever!

Even though it was a tattoo convention, tattoos actually also mean all things cute! cue the cupcakes! I was super excited because there were these cookie monster cupcakes! I've seen these going around the internet, and this absolutely CRACKS ME UP. haha NAILED IT!

Erica opted for a sweet strawberry cupcake with a bow.. ADorbs!

A lot of our day was spent outside in the sun drinking cider... and pulling faces.

Now getting onto the real reason we were there, we finally peeled ourselves away from the sunshine and headed in to see the artists. Cue AMI JAMES! Ami is from Miami Ink fame and had a huuuuuge crowd around him as he was sworking hard, but I still managed to sneak a pic like a true geek fan.

And fellow Kiwi man DAN SMITH! Dan works for Kat Von D at High Voltage (and is also in a band, swoon!). He was sooo smiley (pic speaks for itself!) and even came over to have a bit of a chat with us, what a nice guy! He sold me my signed Hide your heart print which I love! It's even better that Dan handed it to me himself, yay!

Rebekah had tried to get an appointment with Dan but after initial hope in the form of an email from his assistant asking what she wanted done, she didn't hear back till the day of the convention with a message saying he was fully booked.. boo!
She was stoked though, because we totally embarrassed her and asked Mr Smith to pose with her for a photo, which he was more than obliging to do, yay! She giggled like a school girl, complete fan breakdown. Naww.

A selection of sketches by Dan. Cute!

We knew another Kiwi was in the house as well, and went looking for Miss NICOLE LOWE of London Ink fame. She loves good times, but wasn't as forthcoming to pose for a picture... instead seemed more interested in a picking a lip gloss, but hey, who doesn't love a good lipgloss?

And last but not least Mister PHIL KYLE also of London Ink fame, was spotted doing a rockabilly girl & guy piece on a nice girls calves. The stencils looked SO CUTE, would love to see the finished piece. He's only in Brighton, so totally achievable to visit him if the need arises (and the waiting list obliges).

Was a really nice day out full of friends, fun, sunshine, cider, art, tattoo'd goodness, and cute cute cute things!
I shall leave you with a shot of these CUUUUTE Iron Fist shoes, they have cupcakes and candy on them! Love.

WIWTW

Continuing on with my OOTD obsession here's a peek into what I wore this week..

Monday morning's autumnal outfit has already been documented, so Tuesday saw a black and white theme emerge, peplum zebra top from Oasis, and white hidden wedge sneakers from River Island. The shoes were pre-planned as concert going shoes as I was headed to Lana Del Rey at the itunes festival after work.

Being an idiot I was playing around with taking photos and managed to snap this shot of me looking like Jack Nicholson from the shining. haha

Wednesday's I have a client meeting every morning, but I also knew I was headed to a tea party that afternoon with Esme - who had suggested we wear floral to mark the occassion - so I opted for floral Forever 21 dress paired with green cardi and belt (both from Primark), and Vivienne Westwood pumps...ooooh.

Wednesday was also really rather cold.. so on top of the cardi, I wore a blazer, and on top of the blazer, I wore a coat... and a scarf. Autumn layering huh!

Thursday I was suuuuuuuuper tired. I can't remember what I wore, but I did snap a pic of me sitting on my bed before leaving the house with my eyes closed. Did the whole, get up, in the shower, and then back into bed thing that day... I suppose the cold doesn't help with getting out of bed..

Friday came around so fast! I was headed out to a work event for a bit to meet Nic and then for dinner with Glen and the gang after work on Friday so I opted for a black dress with peplum from Boohoo which would work well in the office or at the bar. Paired that with black and gold belt from Primark, and black and gold shoes from New Look. Chuck it all together with a leopard print scarf, and Bam! Note also the Stolen Girlfriends Club bow ring which I just adore.

Saturday was the day of the Tattoo Convention.. so I went for leopard print shirt from Boohoo, with some funky Jewellery for interest sakes. Ring from Tree by Tee at Camden Market (I figure it's close enough to Christmas to get away with this now). Revolver necklace was a gift from my mama (thanks mama!). And studded loafers from Primark. Yeow.

Being artistic as ever, I thought this was a cool shot of the ring in the mirror. It's like I"m holding hands with myself! Naww.