Winning

So this is a post I've been meaning to do since about 1986...

Way back in August, the very gorgeous Dani, of polkadani, had a giveaway on her blog. And you know what? I flippin' won it! I never ever win blog giveaways so it was a really lovely surprise when an email landed in my inbox informing me that I was the lucky winner! The prize was a really gorgeous pocket watch pendant from Urban Outfitters and a MeMeMe lip and cheek tint.

Winning. Now I know what it feels like to be Charlie Sheen...

If you're not familiar with MeMeMe, it's a brand that's quite Benefit-esque (but much cheaper) and is available in Superdrug. I've used one of their blushers before (which I reviewed ages ago here) but had never tried the tints so was excited to give one a go. Dani was actually kind enough to let me choose which tint I'd like as MeMeMe do two different ones; Pussy Cat, which is a dupe for BeneTint and Poppy Tint, which, you've guessed it, is a dupe for Posie Tint. As I've been LOVING the mini Posie Tint I got with Glamour magazine a while back, I went for Poppy Tint and have been really impressed with it. I'll be honest, I tried to photograph some swatches of it alongside Posie Tint, just to show how similar the two are, but my camera was having none of it and I just gave up out of sheer frustration. I do however, now have two lovely pink smudges on my hand which will not budge. Excellent.

Here's a close up of my pendant, it's so pretty and ornate! I've worn it loads since I got it; I'm really enjoying clicking the little button at the top to make the door open to check the time! It makes me feel like a Victorian gentleman. I just need a monacle now...

So a very belated THANK YOU to Dani for my prizes - I love them both!

Have you tried any MeMeMe products? What did you think? Also, should I get a monacle???

an April fool

So, in terms of blogging, I think we can safely say that March, for me, was a bit of a write-off. I just got into one of those slumps and I really didn't feel inspired at all. There was a couple of times when I sat down to write a blog post, but just wasn't really feeling it, so I knew that whatever I wrote would be a bit pointless and rubbish. I don't want to blog just for the sake of it so I didn't blog. Anyway, moan over, April is here so it's time for me to (in the words of Sister Mary Clarence, aka Deloris Van Cartier aka Whoopi Goldberg in Sister Act 2) wake up and pay attention. I promise I'll be better this month, I've already got plans, big plans, the biggest bloody plans this side of Kentucky, oh yeah!

I thought I'd do a bit of a summary type thing today; quite a lot of other bloggers do them, and I always enjoy reading them, so hey, let's give it a go.

I'm currently loving;

Polka dot nails (as seen above) The genius that is Gem Fatale did a marvellous Tuesday Tips post all about how to create perfect polka dot nails. Following her advice, I used the end of a hair grip to create mine. Still not absolutely perfect, but they're getting there. Sometimes I find it hard to decide what colours I want to put together - I have a stupid number of nail polishes but obviously, can't use them all, so this was a good opportunity to get lots of my favourites involved in one design. I was also inspired by this image;

Source

Sleek makeup. I managed to get my hands on the Avoir La Pêche palette and I'm loving it. I showed it to my sister, Izzi, and she wasn't a fan (pink eyeshadows can be a bit hit and miss) but I think it's beautiful and a lot of the colours can also be used as blushers, which is fine by me! Also, Sleek have gotten themselves into my good books this week, by FINALLY sending out the voucher codes they promised months ago after a lot of us had difficulties in the 50% off sale. I'll be treating myself to some super cheap goodies (as long as everything isn't sold out - eek!)

This video - I don't feel I need to really say anything about it, just watch. This guy is AMAZING.

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. I bought this book on a whim; it's really not the sort of genre I'd choose to read, but I'd heard a lot about the films and thought I'd give it a whirl. It's a bit of a slow-starter, but boy, once you get into it, it's hard to put down. I spent a good portion of yesterday afternoon reading it and have only got a couple more chapters to go until the end. I'd quite like to watch the film but am a bit worried about how violent/disturbing it is. We've already established that I'm a massive wimp and this book deals with some really dark and upsetting stuff, which I imagine would be pretty unpleasant to watch on screen. Even so, it's definitely worth a read if you haven't done so already.

Primark jewellery. I bought this ring a week or so ago and I absolutely love it! The majority of my rings are from Primark nowadays. At £2.50/£3.00 a pop, you can't really complain, especially when the equivalent in Topshop would be at least £8, probably more. Bloody love Primark.

I'm currently hating;

Paper cuts. Yes, this is pathetic, but the other day I reached into my bag for my house keys and caught my finger on an insanely sharp bit of paper. I couldn't believe how much it hurt and my initial (clearly quite illogical) reaction was "oh my god, there's a knife in my bag". I just wanted to include this story to emphasise firstly how ridiculous I am when it comes to even the smallest injury and secondly that my brain works in the strangest ways.

My spending habits. I've decided that I am very naughty when it comes to spending and therefore, for the next month, I'm not allowed to buy any makeup at all. (once I've bought my Sleek stuff, obviously...) I realised this when I went into Superdrug last week, saw that Collection 2000 was offering a free Hot Looks nail varnish if you purchased £4 worth of products and decided that I HAD to find something to buy because I NEEDED another nail polish. Now I know that £4 isn't a lot of money at all, but I do this sort of thing way too often. Not only that, but I definitely did not need another nail polish. I have about 40 already. It took me ages to decide what to buy (because I really didn't need anything) and in the end I went for two Lock and Hold lipglosses, which are lovely, but completely unnecessary. Bad Franki. No more spending for you.

When stuff breaks for no reason. You may have noticed that I didn't do a POTM video for February. This is because my Flip Mino video camera broke for seemingly no reason whatsoever. It just won't turn on. I'm not happy, it was a birthday gift, so it's not even a year old yet. I don't know if I can get it fixed, but I certainly can't afford a new one, so for now, my vlogging will have to be put on hold, which is a shame, because I really enjoy doing those videos. Gosh this has turned out to be a lot longer than planned!

I thought I'd end with some blogs that I'm really enjoying at the moment - I'll try and make this more of a regular thing because there's so many amazing bloggers out there and it's nice to share the love. So, without further ado, five to follow;

Whimsy!

It's All Peachykeen

EFFIESMAKEUPBOX

I Need More Clothes

Where Are My Knees?

You can't catch me, I'm the Gingerbread Man

I've probably said it before, but one of the main things I love about blogging is the community aspect. While it's pretty much impossible to read every single amazing blog that exists at the moment (there must be thousands), with lots of bloggers now doing 'Follow Friday'-type posts, linking to their favourite blogs, I'm constantly discovering previously unexplored blogs. I also love clicking on new commentor's and subscriber's profiles to see if they also write a blog (which they usually do, because, like I said, there are THOUSANDS of the little buggers!) and it was this nosey endearingly inquisitive habit that led me to discover Dayner's blog, which in turn, led me to her adorable jewellery store, Mozzypop, thus giving me something to write about in this here blog post! It's the circle of blogging and it moves us all... (cue lots of elephants, giraffes and Elton John)

There's a real trend at the moment for quirky, unusual jewellery and online stores such as Etsy and Folksy make it that bit easier to seek out really unique items that nobody else will have. However, as with anything, with more and more people jumping on the handmade jewellery bandwagon, (which, to be fair, sounds like quite a fun bandwagon... what exactly IS a bandwagon?!) I find that a lot of the jewellery on sites like Folksy is starting to look a bit samey; perhaps a lot of sellers use the same suppliers for their materials, or they just realise that certain things are more likely to sell than others, whatever the reason, while there are still oodles of fabulous items on there, there's also quite a bit of rubbish.

Thankfully, Mozzypop is NOT rubbish at all, oh no; Dayner's designs are super cute and unique! I love that Dayner clearly has a bit of a sweet tooth, as some of her designs feature goodies such as donuts, ice cream and even a gingerbread man. I am completely sold, as I would go so far as to say that I don't just have a sweet tooth, I have a whole mouth full of sweet teeth, yes indeedy. A watch made of donuts? Don't mind if I do!

Rainbow Donut charm watch bracelet with Swarovski Elements - £17

Gingerbread Man charm necklace with gumdrop buttons - £8

Ghostie ring with Swarovski Elements - £6

Ice Cream bowl and wafers silver plated ring - £5

See? Cute! What's also really cool about Mozzypop is that, because Dayner makes the little charms herself, a lot of the jewellery is customisable, so for example, you could request different colour combinations for the Gingerbread Man's buttons or the donuts. Plus, it's all really reasonably priced and delivery in the UK is free! What's not to like? As it's Pay Day on Friday, I've already prepared a fairly massive wishlist in my head (I can't help it!), but that Ghostie ring may have just jumped to the top of it - he's so flippin' cute and sparkly!

Have you visited Mozzypop yet? Has anything caught your eye?

Can you feel the love tonight?

Eeek I can't flippin' believe we're nearly at the end of October! I don't know whether it's because I seem to do nothing but work at the moment (my life is pretty much a tragedy right now), but it just feels like the last few months have flown over! Actually, the whole year has gone by crazily quickly! Last year, I worked as stage crew for a pantomime in Scotland from November to the beginning of January and it honestly feels like it was only yesterday - I can remember virtually every detail about that time as it was such a fun/crazy/physically and emotionally exhausting experience and yet it's very nearly a year since I was up there! It's like someone just pushed the fast forward button on 2010! Madness.

Me backstage at the panto last year with the giant - look at the size of him!

Ah well, as we near the end of October we're also nearing Halloween, Bonfire Night and, of course, Crimbo! I moan about Winter all the time, because I hate cold weather with a passion, but it really does have all the best Holidays. (I don't think Halloween and Bonfire night are really considered "Holidays" but you know what I mean!) What are you dressing as for Halloween? One of my friends told me yesterday on Twitter that he was thinking of going as Gamu from X Factor! I've got a few ideas but it depends on whether I go for a scary or a non-scary costume. I don't even definitely know what I'm doing for Halloween yet, but it has to involve fancy dress in some way, that's my only criteria. Even if I just stay at home handing out sweets to the little scallywags children who come trick or treating, as long as I'm in fancy dress, I'll be happy. Of course, when I say 'fancy dress', I mean PROPER fancy dress, not slutty fancy dress, which infuriates me beyond belief. If you want some good ideas for costumes, Beth who writes the blog Anchor Rose (which I've just recently come across and I'm loving) did a brilliant post about some of the things she's dressed up as in the past - Billy Doll from the Saw movies is probably my favourite - SO CREEPY!

This is a bit of a random post tonight - just feel like having a ramble really! Also, have you noticed? This is my fourth post in four days! I'm getting better at being a good blogger! I'm really trying to post more frequently at the moment because my followers are slowly starting to creep up on me (not literally - I know there's only 55 of them but that would still be bloody scary if they were ALL creeping up on me!) and I'm starting to get regular readers and well, I want to give them something to read and make sure they keep coming back! I've had loads of positive comments lately and I just want you all to know (and I never get sentimental, so this is a big moment guys) that I read every single one and it honestly means so much to me when people take the time to comment and say something nice! I don't think you should blog just to get followers or comments, they're more like the cherry on the cake, but I do think the 'blogosphere' (goodness me that sounds a bit wanky) is full of amazingly sweet, friendly and witty people and I love getting to interact with them all! Anyway, that's tonight's Hallmark moment over and done with, now onto more pressing matters!

Sticking with the subject of blogging, I thought I'd share the love (I'm literally turning into Barney the Dinosaur - make it stop!) even more and mention a couple of other bloggers who are brilliant and wonderful!

Firstly, Victoria, who writes the blog VIPXO, is a self-confessed Scrabble fanatic and has decided to channel her love of the board game into making the cutest Scrabble jewellery - I ordered my bracelet the week before last and it arrived last Tuesday and I love it! Look at the picture! It's got my name on it! I don't own anything else that says "Franki" on it, so it's all very exciting! (My name adds up to 13 - not bad! Or is that actually unlucky? :S) Prices vary depending on how many letters you want, but mine was less then £10 and delivery was free! I think Victoria is also planning on making rings - you can contact her at vipxoblog@gmail.com for more information. Also, check out her blog because it is lovely and so is she!

Secondly, Ayden, who writes Little Blog Of Horrors (as a serious musical geek, I love that that's what her blog is called), is having a giveaway to celebrate getting to 400 followers - well done Ayden you superstar! Ayden's blog has fast become one of my favourite reads out of all the blogs I follow; she has a really open style of writing that I really admire and she comes across as such a sweet, genuine girl. Check her out, pronto!

Right, that's enough gushiness for one post - I promise I'll be back to my moody, sarcastic self tomorrow ;) I'm off to watch the rest of Hollyoaks Later now, it's so crap but so good!

S H O P P I N G - we're SHOPPING!

Everywhere I go, there seems to be reminders from ASOS telling me that they've got a sale on. Well... I say 'everywhere I go', I mean everywhere I go on the Internet; it's not as if there's some kind of Derren Brown-esque subliminal messaging situation going on, where I'm sitting on the bus and all the billboards I drive past are telling me in some kind of clever, subliminal way to spend all my money on celebrity-inspired fashion, oh no (just in case that's what you were thinking). In fact, it's actually my own fault, because I follow them on Facebook AND Twitter and also recieve their newsletter; so at the moment I'm being bombarded with Tweets and updates and newsletters that are basically just going BUY BUY BUY! I tried to ignore it; I was good for a week or so but then, yesterday afternoon, I thought "I'll just go and have a look". It was all perfectly innocent really, I mean, I'm not even that keen on buying clothes online, because, as I've mentioned before, my size varies from shop to shop and I hate all the hassle of sending stuff back if it doesn't fit. But ASOS doesn't just sell clothes does it? Oh no, ASOS sells EVERYTHING! And do you know what I always need? New accessories!

So I bought a few little trinkets. The good thing about the ASOS sale is that they actually do reduce the prices significantly; it's not like French Connection, where they knock about £2 off and expect you to be really grateful, oh no, at ASOS they understand that a sale is a SALE and I want to be able to buy a whole new wardrobe for less than £30 and still have change leftover for a steak dinner and a ride on the ferry (WHAT? I don't even know...)

Anyway, because my poor little camera seems to have inexplicably died a death, I figured that when my new items arrive, I'm not going to be able to photograph them to show them off, so I'll just post the images from the site. They're due to arrive the week after next because I chose the free delivery method (see? I'm very good at this thrifty thing!) so for now I shall look at the pictures and imagine all the fun that my items and I will have together.

ASOS Star Quilted Padlock Bag - I need a good black bag that can fit a lot of stuff in (no small bags for me, no thank you) and this looks like a decent size and shape to suit my needs. Plus, I'm hoping that even though it's quite cheap, it actually looks fairly expensive in person, thus making me look a lot fancier than I really am. If this isn't the case, and it actually just looks a bit tacky, I'm kind of ok with that too.

ASOS Paint by Ciate nail varnish in Chloe and Lily - you know I love nail varnish, so there's not much explanation needed for these. I just thought the colours looked pretty and I've had my eye on the Ciate varnishes for ages but not gotten around to buying them. Will probably do a review of these when they arrive.

ASOS Enamelled Starburst Ring - I know that this looks kind of tacky, but again, I'm kind of ok with that; I'm in a very tacky frame of mind at the moment (I'm sure I should be worried about this). Plus I love how pink it is, reminds me of Barbie!

See? I didn't get too carried away; just bought a few items, that I desperately need to have in my life and really didn't cost much AT ALL. Plus, ASOS are also offering an extra 10% off if you enter the code ASOSTreats at the checkout. So really, it would be a crime not to buy anything, wouldn't it? Wouldn't it?!

My ears are ringin'

Is it just me, or does Sunday come around WAY too fast? It’s like, your weekend starts, you’re all excited about getting the chance to relax and unwind, enjoy the sunshine (seriously, how much are you LOVING this weather?!), have some laughs and then, before you know it, it’s Sunday evening and you’re getting ready for work the next day. Bleurgh! This weekend feels like it’s been particularly unproductive for me, because I spent a good deal of it chasing round after an extremely troublesome ginger cat.

He's being stealthy

My sister has named him Balthazar. I don’t know where he came from, but he’s been hanging around our street for about a week and he doesn’t have a collar. On Friday, the neighbourhood children were chasing him and he looked really scared, so I had to tell them off. He obviously recognized me as his saviour because I was woken up by him yesterday morning at half 7; I looked out of the window and there he was, sitting on the drive, staring up at me and meowing. It sounded like he was saying “Franki!” So he’s kind of spent the weekend chilling in the garden, getting up to mischief and generally being cute. There was a scary moment on Saturday morning when he climbed up a very tall tree and angered some magpies, but he was ok. Silly Balthazar. We think he might be lost because he seems a bit confused, so I think the plan is to take him to the vet tomorrow to find out if he has a microchip. If anyone in the West Derby area of Liverpool is missing a very pretty, very vocal ginger cat, this is probably him!

Anyway, that’s not really anything to do with anything, it’s just my pet-deprived inner-five-year-old wanting to tell you about the cute kitty. I thought I’d do a post today about another one of my obsessions...

Earrings

This is my current collection of earrings, twenty two pairs (notice how many big, jangly ones there are? I’m secretly a gypsy), although that’s not counting some of the older pairs that I don’t really wear anymore and are in a different jewellery box and all the single ones I’ve kept hold of even though I’ve lost their partners (don’t you just HATE it when you lose an earring? Especially when you’re actually wearing them and one just sneakily falls out!). They're pretty much all cheap ones from the high street or random little jewellery shops; nothing crazy expensive because, like I said, I have been known to lose them quite easily. My absolute favourites at the moment are these Big Ben ones from Topshop;

I would love it if these actually had working clocks in them, imagine "Have you got the time?" "Yes, let me just check my ears!"

I didn’t actually get my ears pierced until I was 14, which is quite old, considering my little sister and I had them done at the same time and she was only 7. Even though you’re supposed to keep your studs in for about six weeks afterwards, I took mine out a couple of weeks later because we had a none-uniform day at school and my friend convinced me to wear a massive pair of hoops. Despite the fact that my ears actually bled and the earrings were really heavy, I thought the hoops looked fabulous and soon I was obsessed with earrings (thinking back, how utterly stupid was I? Bleeding ears and I thought it looked wonderful! Teenagers are such idiots...)
In my opinion, earrings are one of those things that haven’t really had their “moment” in fashion for some time. I know "statement jewellery" in general has been really popular for a while now, but, browsing through some images from the Spring runway shows, the majority of designers went with statement necklaces and rings more than anything else. Apart from a brief flirtation with chandelier earrings a little while back, I don’t think the fashion world has really been bothered with earrings since, well, I don’t know when, the 80s?!
I wonder if it’s because a lot of people seem to focus more on hair nowadays, and they don’t want a big pair of crazy earrings drawing attention away from the hair? Or maybe big hair AND big earrings can seem like overkill?
I don’t know, nor do I really care; let the fashionistas have their cocktail rings and bejewelled bibs, I’ll stick with my jingly jangly earrings, for I love them and would choose them over any other piece of jewellery. I can’t explain why, but I really think they make your face look better. (it might be because I have a really big face, so big earrings maybe make it seem smaller!)They also draw attention to your eyes and make your neck look more slender if you wear them with your hair up. Plus, a really plain outfit becomes ten times more interesting if you add a funky pair of earrings. I think you get the point, I am an earring junkie.
Thought I'd have a little look at what sort of ear decor is available online at the moment, and there is a lot out there; lots of variation in sizes, shapes, materials and colours. I suppose that's the beauty of jewellery design, there's not really any rules or limitations to what can be created.

Here's a few of my favourite finds;

'First Kiss' Earrings, $28 Old Gold Boutique
Pink Swarovski Skull Earrings, £29 Talullah Tu

Pearl Statement Chandelier Earrings, £24 Talullah Tu. Seriously, check out the Talullah Tu website, all of the jewellery is beautiful!
Roberto Cavalli Swarovski Frog Earrings, £365 Net-A-Porter. Yeah so £365 is an insane amount to pay for earrings, but I just had to share these! Swarovski froggies!

Turquoise Freshwater Pearl Dagger Earrings, £8.50 Gimme That Thing, Folksy

By the way, if you haven't already come across it, Folksy is a brilliant website which allows people to set up an online store and sell handmade jewellery/clothes/greetings cards etc. There's already an American version, called Etsy, which I think is generally more of a big deal and more people know about it, but Folksy is all UK-based sellers, so, obviously, if you're based in the UK yourself, delivery rates will be much cheaper. I think some sellers actually sell on both sites, but the majority sell on either one or the other, (depending on where they're from), so you will find stuff on one site that you can't get on the other. Even so, there is literally thousands of items for sale, I could spend hours on there browsing through all the different stores. In addition to the turquoise earrings above, I found so many other gorgeous pieces, from dangly, beaded earrings, to vintage ones, to cute and quirky little studs. I even a found a pair that was literally two tiny Polly Pocket figurines attached to ear hooks! It's a sure-fire way of finding a really unique piece of jewellery for a reasonable price.