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!

I"m baaaack!

Wowahweewah.

That last post was years ago.. literally, YEARS ago! 2009? We're now in 2012! Time sure flies huh.

I've been looking for the motivation to blog properly for a long time, and I can't guarantee I've found it yet, but my gorgeous friend Erica is all over the blogosphere right now, she's even opened her own etsy! So I'm feeling inspired to keep it up, even if just for myself to look back on what I've been up to - kinda wishing I'd kept a track of all my London adventures, but something tells me there's going to be more to come!

I feel like I should "fill in the gap" from 2009 till now.. but let's face it, that's all a bit too hard basket. Topline we're talking about: Got a job at RBS, made heaps of great friends, drank loads, discovered I like rose wine, red wine, & cider, went to Paris, Croatia, Berlin, Spain, Holland, Milan, Morocco, Ibiza, Copenhagen, Barcelona, and lots more other places I can't remember off the top of my head, got a new job at Visa, said goodbye to old friends, made more new friends, drank way too much, Got another new job at an agency, went to Greece, got old, and the list goes on...

Watch this space for hopefully more frequent mildly exciting updates..

Bang Bang, there goes my mind!

So last night, after having a quick look at the Christmas lights in Oxford Circus & Regent Street, and a long pine in the shops where I can't afford to buy anything at (This currently includes cheapies such as H&M). I met Sasi pie and we headed out to Wimbledon for some crackers... fire crackers that is!

So amid all the things the English really have no clue about, they're pretty well up to play with how to celebrate guy fawkes.

I stood there, pressed up against the fence, with anticipation of fabulous fiareworks, and boy did I get it! I mean, how much of a geek do I sound, but I gasped out loud, and said "OH MY GOD THAT'S SO COOL!!!!" Multiple times! Often in unison with Sara too. We loved it.

It was freezing, it was packed, there were children all up in my bidness, but it was still awesome. And a totally English thing to do.

Every so often it hits me and I'm like, I can't believe I'm in London watching fireworks, with Sara!

After filming the finale of the sky rockets (in flight) set to STAR WARS theme tune, we bustled through the crowd to the FUN FAIR! And jumped on a couple of FUN rides!

It was awesome. Not because the rides were anything to write home about, or the display was the most stunningly executed display ever, but because the experience, all in all, being in London, tubing it out to Wimbledon, wrapping up warm with my scarf and gloves, being with my high school bff, and feeling so dizzy I had to sit down after last fun fair ride, was just so London, it was fabulous.

London has so much to offer it's inhabitants. It's just getting out there and taking advantage of it that's the issue.

This weekend I'm going to do something. I think perhaps an art show. Why not, if it's there, let's do it!

Surviving on charity.

Seriously, that's what I'm doing. Today I got a call from Eirene, who had free food for me that she'd scabbed from work. Yay! Went and met her on the tube, and voila! I have diner. Mmmmm Leek and potato soup.

Problem is, it cost about six or seven pounds to get all the way there and back cause I had to switch, so it pretty much totally negated the "free-ness" of the meal. Bummer huh.

Anyhow, have moved into new room which is to be home to me for the next three weeks. Yay. I just hope that by some miracle I have somewhere to go at the end of three weeks. I actually haven't a clue what I'm going to do when the three weeks is up. Like, at all.

Finding a job is way harder than I imagined, and I'm about ready to launch a terrorist attack on recruiters, who are quite obviously shit at their jobs.

Anyhow, that's my rant for the day.

On the bright side, James came by with some rose wine, and we enjoyed that in a spot of sunshine this afternoon, which was totally a good part of the day! Of course. How could it not be with wine! VINO!

Homeless and Unemployed.

So I did it. I left home. I left Lower Hutt. Lower effing Hutt.

Oh, Lower Effing Hutt will always hold a special place in my heart. But I'm yet to be convinced that I could be entirely content there. Here I am on the other side of the world, and yeah, you know what, I do miss "home".. But I think a lot of that is to do with the fact I currently don't have a home. That's right people, I'm ACTUALLY homeless.

And what's wierd about the whole thing is, the people I thought I could count on, the friends I thought would be sweet as to stay with, are the very ones who haven't really, not REALLY come through for me. Whereas other people have been absolute lifesavers.

Anyway. Am currently spending my time trying to a) figure out where I'm going to spend the next night b) not spend any money and c) find a freaking job.

I'm told August is a hard month as everyone's on summer holidays, so fingers crossed there. But am having serious trouble with annoying recruiters who won't put me forward for the roles I really want cause all I have is banking experience. My skills are TRANSFERRABLE people!

Well, there's my little rant. But you know what, there's something sort of "freeing" about this whole thing. I have no home, I'm an actual Nomad. I've travelled through LA, Phoenix, Vegas, Hollywood, London, Bristol, Paris, Switzerland, Nice, Rome, Venice, Florence, Austria, Amsterdam, Berlin, Edinburgh, and now Ireland.. and it's AMAZING.

I love it. My only wish is I didn't have debt tying me down. Without it I'd keep travelling. Pick fruit to get through each day. Not worry so much. It's simply my credit card payments which are making me fret, Ineed to get a job so I can pay them. Whereas, I'm actually quite happy just floating.

And wait for it... I wish I didn't have so many clothes! Oh my god. I have way too much crap. I want to post it all home and just pack a backpack and TRAVEL! I love it. It's liberating.

I wish Rebekah would pack up and join me, but I've come to terms with the fact she's happy at home and obviously doesn't want this anymore, and I miss her, but I'm still REALLY enjoying life. Loving it.

So, fingers crossed I won't be H & U for much longer, and savings are on. I've started this travelling thing, I never want to stop!