Wednesday Wish List

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Last week's Wednesday Wish List had an unintentional woodland animal theme, and this week's is different yet again. After piecing everything together, I noticed I'm already leaning towards Autumn and Winter friendly pieces... and black and white sea birds, apparently!

I don't want to wish the remainder of summer away; the thought of short days and dark evenings is already being dreaded, but I am looking forward to dressing for Autumn. I love the deep colours, the textures, the layering up in a winter coat with gloves and scarves... if only September to April wasn't so dark and gloomy!

My favourite finds this week are probably the classic tweed look cape and the heart print shirt dress, both from Dorothy Perkins. The cape is absolutely beautiful and would no doubt look effortlessly stylish over a great pair of jeans and boots season after season. (I want!) And the shirt dress is a great classic style with a fun print- it's just a shame it's almost sold out online. (I think it's just landed, too.) I hope I can find it in store.

I think the River Island bowler bags are stunning, too, especially the plum design, and I adore the green ASOS Curve duffel coat- there should be more clothes in that colour. I'm also quite taken with the penguin winter knits by People Tree. I have so many gloves and scarves already, but there will always be a place for penguins!

Honourable mention also goes to the gorgeous Breton striped Puffin tee by People Tree. Sadly it doesn't go larger than a size 14, but oh how I wish it did!

What are you coveting right now?

How To Make A Beauty Box For Family and Friends

Hey guys,

So, it's my (not-so) little sister's twenty-fifth birthday at the end of the month, and yesterday I was putting her birthday presents together. Before I continue... Sarah, if you're secretly reading my blog, stop reading now unless you want to spoil the surprise... If you're not my little sister, please continue!

So, this year, I've put a little box of goodies together for her. Now I'm a girl on a tight budget, but I also like to give as much as I can with what I have to spend without compromising on quality. I don't often buy from budget brands; but I've learnt how to find great products at budget prices! I want to show you how you can fill up a beauty box with quality beauty products without spending a fortune. The gift will look more substantial than if you picked up beauty products on the high street or bought a prepackaged beauty set, and is sure to be an instant hit with the ladies in your life!

So let's get started!

Materials Used To Create The Beauty Box

So, let's start with the materials I used to gift wrap everything, put it altogether, and make it look pretty.

Materials You May Wish To Use

♥ A gift box, or gift bag. (You could use a small sturdy cardboard box, and cover it with wrapping paper.)

♥ Wrapping paper to cover the box.

♥ Pretty tissue paper to line the box, encase the presents, and to wrap everything in. 

♥ Scissors, selotape, pens, and glue.

♥ Sticky labels and stickers to decorate and seal gifts

♥ Ribbon to decorate the box.

♥ A button corsage for a finishing touch (optional).

Gifts I Filled The Box With

The most important part of the beauty box is, of course, what you put in it. There are endless options, so let's start with what I put in this one to give you a few ideas.

Dainty Doll colourful powder eyeshadows (and here) x 5, Jemma Kidd liquid eyeliners x 3, Body Shop fruity soaps, Body Shop bath lily, Body Shop shower gel, L'Occitane mini shower gel, Anatomicals set of 3 facemasks, Moomin bath confetti, and novelty moustache erasers x 4. 

I bought the Dainty Doll and Jemma Kidd eyeliners from £1.99 on Fragrance Direct and Amazon (usually £10.50-£11.50), and used outlet stores for most of the rest. The remaining products were inexpensive and bought online.

How To Put It All Together

First, let's start with a gift bag, or box.

If you're using an old, used box like I am, you could cover it with wrapping paper, wall paper, or fabric. I used a sheet of bright and cheerful polka dot cupcake wrapping paper from Sainsburys.

Wrap the lid and the base of the box separately, fixing the paper in place with glue.

Now, you could just add everything to the box unwrapped, if you wanted to; it's really up to you.

Or, you could make everything prettier with coloured tissue paper. I recently discovered the prettiest packs of tissue paper from Hobbycraft, which cost about £1.79 for 10 huge sheets. This is a bargain compared to most you will find. I adore the colours in the green and blue pack above.

I used the five different colours in the photo above to make the beauty box bright, and colourful. The teal is particularly beautiful.

Add a sheet of tissue to the box, leaving enough to cover the contents when you've finished filling the box. Half a sheet of the Hobbycraft tissue paper was plenty for this one.

Wrap each gift up separately in the colourful tissue paper. I used cute stickers instead of selotape for sealing most of the presents.

I then arranged everything in the box, with an assortment of colours on show at the top. I also decorated a few of the items with Cath Kidston stickers to make them even prettier.

Cover everything with the remaining lengths of tissue.

Then fit the lid back on the box, and tie it with some ribbon.

For a final touch, I embellished the bow with a little rosette, which was from a pack of six from Hobbycraft.

And, voila! That is how to put a good quality beauty box together!

I spent just over £30 in total, although I only spent about £19.00 on the make up, and had many of the other items squirrelled away from earlier in the year, which I added to bulk it up. (I was originally intending to just give her the make up). I'm sure she's going to love her beauty box, and I can't wait to give it to her.

A few ideas about what else you could fill a gift box with.

You could also add nail polishes, chocolates / sweets, body lotions, hair accessories, inexpensive costume jewellery, mix CDs, lipsticks, stationery, mini toiletries, lip glosses, lip balms, blushers... the possibilities are endless! You're only restricted by your imagination! Try to personalise each parcel for each person's individual tastes- it's a great way to show you care (and pay attention!), and will earn you major brownie points. Also, don't forget to add a hand written card or letter to the top before you seal the box!

If you're thinking about doing something similar for your loved ones, I've also got a few shopping tips that you might find useful for creating it on a budget.

And finally, a few tips for creating a box of goodies on a budget.

Shop with Fragrance Direct
They sell cut price make up, nail polish, and beauty products from a huge selection of brands. I've personally bought Dainty Doll and Jemma Kidd make up from as little as 99p- products which normally retail for over £10! It's also a great place to pick up Sally Hansen, Essie, and Opi nail polishes from just 99p too.

Shop on Amazon
Whatever it is you're looking to purchase, always do a little search on Amazon for it. They often sell cosmetics for less than the retail price. There are a lot of Dainty Doll products on there at the moment, which are fantastic.

Shop with ASOS
Check out their clearances and promotions, as they often have a sale of some description running. Bargain beauty products + free delivery = success!

Look out for 3 for 2 and buy one get one free offers
on make up and beauty products in pharmacies and supermarkets.

Pick up products in outlet shops and during sale time.

Use your Nectar points and Boots advantage point and the like to buy items for free!

Buy multi packs
of the same or similar items. They can be used for several beauty boxes if you have more than one person you'd like to create a box for.

I hope you've enjoyed this post. If you made it through the whole thing, thanks for reading- I know it's rather long-winded! Let me know if you decide to put something similar together for your loved ones!

Have you ever put together a beauty box for someone in your life? What did you put in it?

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Tonight The Foxes Hunt The Hounds

I was intending to save this dress until the beginning of Autumn for it's blog debut, so I could do it justice and dress it appropriately in gorgeous Autumn hues, but... I love this dress so much I felt I had to introduce it now while it's still in stock. I thought it would be cruel of me to tease you with a beautiful dress, only to find out it had sold out weeks earlier. Y'know, for a change.

When I saw this dress modelled by the lovely Vicky of The Curved Opinion on her blog last weekend, I actually squealed out loud and almost choked on my tongue with excitement. I was in such instantaneous love, I was missing laptop keys in my eagerness to scramble over to Very to buy one. I don't remember ever being so much in love with an item of clothing before, and this is me- the crazy dress lady!

This dress has already earned a place amongst my favourite dresses. Firstly, it is printed with lovely little red foxes with great attention to detail. Fox print! When I was a little girl, I was besotted with red foxes. Most little girls love ponies and dolphins; but I, always a little different, adored foxes. I think that was partly a result of The Animals of Farthing Wood cartoons, which I was also obsessed with.  So, to find a beautiful dress with those little critters on was like Christmas had come early. True love.

I adore the beautiful colour of the fabric. It's the deepest, dreamiest shade of cerise; a colour I can't wait to wear in Autumn and Winter to brighten up dull barren days. It's impossible to feel miserable wearing this colour. The fabric is polyester, but it's lined, and doesn't cling or seem to go static every two seconds. It has a fitted waist, and a sweetheart neckline with a lace panel to finish the dress off above it.

(Apologies for the bra straps; I know they ruin the look of the dress. I just don't own a good strapless bra. Also, in the chest shots, the dress looks too big on me, but it's not- it's actually a great fit!)

The lace part of the dress has a beautiful floral pattern, and it's also present at the back of the dress as well as at the front. I love the little capped sleeves which this dress also features; there's just something so pretty about those little finishing touches.

The dress is by a brand called South, and it's available to buy from Very in sizes 8-24 for £25 here. If print isn't your thing, they also have this dress is plain aubergine.

I'm head over heels in love with this dress, and can't wait to dress it up for Autumn. I think it'll look great with opaque tights in black, brown, or purple, with ankle boots, a boyfriend cardigan, and a good winter coat or biker jacket.

The main accessory I just had to dress this frock with was my daschund shaped bag from Mantaray. As soon as I first saw the dress, I knew I would have to pair them together. Not just because foxes and hounds go together, but also due to the Fall Out Boy lyrics I used for the title which I've barely stopped singing since April.

I also wore a Cath Kidston rose bracelet, and a jewel-coloured ring, keeping everything else simple to focus the attention on the dress.

Outfit Details

Dress- South for Very // Bag- Mantaray for Debenhams // Bracelet- Cath Kidston // 

Ring- Evans //

642 Things To Write About Book Review

I've got something a little bit different for you this morning; something I think might be of interest to the bloggers and creative writers among you. A review, of sorts, of a creative journal book.

I'm constantly looking for new ways to challenge and occupy myself. With most of my time confined to bed day after day, my life does tend to get quite repetitive, so I try to throw something different in to the mix every so often to keep myself on my toes.

So, for that reason, I was doing some research on Smash journals on Amazon last week, thinking about purchasing one, when something else caught my eye. It was a book called 642 Things To Write About .

642 Things To Write About is by The San Francisco Writers' Grotto, and is quite simply, a book filled with 642 writing prompts to spur your creativity and inspire you out of your writer's block. That's right, 642! Now you might be thinking, there's no way that there can possibly be that many original ideas to write about, but I can assure you, this book will prove you wrong.

This book has page after page of ideas to evoke the writer within. The book is the thickness of your average paperback, although the pages are much larger- so that's a lot of inspiration to play with!

Each page has one to four unique prompts to respond to, with either lined or blank paper beneath it to write your tale.

The ideas themselves are in a variety of different styles of creative writing, from fiction and memoirs to personal opinions, and challenges. If you enjoy creative writing, I'm confident you'll be inspired by many- if not all- of the prompts laid out in this book. The following photos show just a selection of them.

Here are just some of my favourites:

♥ Think of a person you despise. Now describe all the wonderful things about that person.

♥ Write your obituary.

♥ The thought of the first man to eat an oyster.

♥ Choose how you will die.

♥ Write an anonymous letter to a stranger detailing the things you've learnt about life.

♥ You realise you have inadvertently become a stalker.

♥ A piece of clothing you keep just for the memory.

♥ You wake up in an open field wearing an astronaut suit and lying on a surf board. What happened?

♥ Describe the sinking of Titanic from the point of view of the musicians playing in the ballroom...

♥ Write a story that ends with the line "And this is the room where it happened."

I've personally enjoyed creative writing for as long as I can remember, although it had been a couple of years since I last wrote any. I was intrigued and fascinated with the idea of this book, and I can happily say that this book didn't disappoint when it made it's way in to my hands. It's filled with ideas which have been provoking an endless stream of thoughts on to paper, and it's been encouraging me to think out of the box and break away from my usual style of writing for a while. I think this book is really fun to kick back with for a while each day, and I'm enjoying writing creatively again.

While the book is a fun creative writing journal, I believe that a lot of the prompts could be turned in to blog post themes, and others could easily be tweaked for blogging, too. There's are so many ideas that could be interpreted in any way you please to get you thinking outside of your comfort zone, and could easily be turned in to interesting blog content. So if you enjoy creative writing or are perhaps looking for some new ideas for your blog, I recommend you check out 642 Things To Write About.

I can't wait to work my way through my copy!

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The Story of the Accessorize Owl Bag

Hey folks,

Well, I finally got around to taking and editing some photos of my new Accessorize owl bag to share with you, so today that's exactly what I'm here to do. This is the fifth and final of the new bags which have joined my bag collection in the last six weeks, but just because I'm blogging about this one last, it doesn't mean I deliberately picked him last for sports. I'm sorry, owlet, I love you!

I first saw this Woolly Yenzi X Body Bag in Accessorize back in May, and my sister had to prise it from my arms as I wanted to take him home with me there and then, but couldn't. Thankfully, my very lovely, generous best friend bought him for my birthday last month after demanding I tell her what I wanted. I eventually gave in (I hate asking others for gifts), and gave her a few ideas, and on my birthday, this beautiful bag arrived on my doorstep.

The love for this bag was instantaneous. I mean, seriously- it's an owl shaped bag, and he's wearing glasses! What's not to love? That's right: nothing!

The bag is mostly navy faux leather with a matching adjustable navy cross-body strap, and with brown pieces making up the head, wings, and feet. Yes, feet!

It has cream eyes, rimmed with red scallops, over which is a magnificent pair of gold Wayfarer style spectacles. He certainly likes to be noticed!

On his torso he's decorated with pink buttons, and pink and mustard stitches. 

He even has two little feet poking out at the bottom of the bag! The attention to detail with this bag is fantastic. I love that the feet and ears have been sewn on separately; I feel it adds more character to the design than if they'd just been sewn flat on the main body of the bag. I also love the use of stitching on the wings to create a simple feathered look.

The bag closes with a magnetic popper concealed between the owl's eyes. It's a small day bag, but big enough for carrying around the necessities. In my case that would be my purse, phone, ipod, keys, lip balm, and a blister pack of each of my medicines. I could probably get my camera in there, too. 

The shoulder strap is reasonably long, and can be adjusted to several different lengths depending on your needs or preference. It could be worn on the shoulder or across the body.

So, I think it's clear that I adore this owl bag. It's adorable, and the quirkiness of the design is so my style. The quality is great, and I can't wait to use this bag with all my Autumn outfits. I think it will be perfect for wearing when the leaves begin to fall. 

The Woolly Yenzi X Body bag is still available online here at Accessorize, and is currently retailing for £25, which I think is very reasonable for a beautiful little day bag. 

What do you think? Will you be buying one for yourself?