Happy Birthday to me

Tuesday, 31 August 2010

fashion and beauty at the little curly girl This is me on my 4th birthday, dressed as a nurse, with a slightly frightening Minnie Mouse birthday cake. Who knew that, nineteen years on, my love for Disney and dressing up would still be going strong?
Today's been very lovely, despite the fact I had to work (which has never in my life happened before as my birthday is in the summer holidays and often falls on the Bank Holiday Monday); Liv and I went for cocktails and pizza - a winning birthday combination I'm sure you'll agree. I'm also now the proud owner of a super snazzy new (purple!) camera! 14 megapixels! Things just got a whole lot more pixellated!
fashion and beauty at the little curly girl Seriously frightening. Compare the cake to the far more accurate drawing of Minnie on the tablecloth. The cake is like the drag-queen version.

Tin can at my feet, think I'll kick it down the street...

Monday, 30 August 2010

Well hello there! It's been a while hasn't it? How are you doing? Sit down, take the weight off, I'll put the kettle on and you can tell me all about what you've been up to!

...where have I been? Oh, well, that's a good question, you see I was...ummm...I had to...er...

I was being a bad blogger.

I've got no excuses really, I haven't been on holiday, or been kidnapped, my computer wasn't broken and I didn't decide to give up all my worldly possessions and become a Hare Krishna, I was simply being a big pile of rubbish when it came to the old blogging malarkey.

I don't know if anyone else ever gets like this but I've just been feeling massively uninspired recently. I keep a list of things that I want to blog about and even though the list currently has about seven trillion (no lie) things on it, none of them sounded particularly exciting and I couldn't think of anything new to talk about. So I didn't blog. And then the longer I went without blogging, the guiltier I felt, which in turn made me not even want to look at my blog because it would remind me how long it had been since my last post. I even started avoiding my Google Reader, because seeing everyone else in the Blogosphere, blogging away like merry little chipmunks, made me feel EVEN GUILTIER (is guiltier even a word? I'm looking at it and it looks ridiculous, so I doubt it, but still, who's to say what is and isn't a 'real word' anyway? Exactly). Basically, I was in a terrible guilt-shame spin cycle in the washing machine of life. If there is an image to sum up how I was feeling at that time, it would probably be this;

fashion and beauty at the little curly girl Yeah. I know.

I think perhaps one of the reasons why I've been so uninspired lately is because I've been in a bit of a rut with myself. Do you ever feel, when you open your wardrobe that you're just completely sick of all your clothes? I look at my clothes and just think

"urgh, I've worn you all!"

and I realise that I just wear the same few items every week. I think it's partly because I don't wear 'work clothes'. Although I do work in an office, there's no dress code and I hate traditional office attire so I just dress kind of smart/casual and end up wearing all my nice, interesting clothes for work, which makes them not seem particularly nice or interesting anymore. It's times like this I wish I worked back in my old horrible job in the sports cafe, where I had to wear a maroon polo shirt... actually, no, I really, really don't.

I suppose it's a good thing then, that Autumn is fast approaching, as it gives me an excuse to buy plenty of exciting new items. New coat, new boots, new knitwear, the opportunities are quite literally endless. Whenever I think about Autumn I get this image of me skipping down country lanes in a pair of sturdy tan knee boots, a big snuggly coat and a long chunky scarf, cheeks rosy from the wind, a bag of stale bread to feed the ducks and a song in my heart. In reality, it would probably be more a case of me stomping through puddles to get to the bus stop, only to realise that I've missed the bus and the song in my heart has become nothing more than a low, continuous droning of swear words.

Anyway, the point is, this is a very exciting time of year, the September issues of all the magazines have been out for about a month already, trends have been well and truly dictated (camel coats and shearling anyone? I think I might have heard that somewhere...) and the super organised fashionistas amongst us will have already been thinking about (if not already purchasing) their key items for the season. Of course, as Last Minute is actually my middle name (it's Swedish), my thoughts about key pieces for Autumn have so far consisted pretty much of me going "I'll probably be needing some new tights" and nothing more. However, I have decided that as I am now a proper grown up type (I'm 23 tomorrow - eeep!), I am going to be methodical and organised and make a list of what I'm going to buy for Autumn and actually stick to that list, instead of aimlessly wandering into H&M every now and then and going "ooh that's a nice dress I'll only ever wear once/shawl covered in pom poms/necklace made from twigs, gimme!"

In order to help me with my list, I'm going to try and do a lot more blog posts over the next week or so, discussing the big 'trends' for this season, how easy it is to translate them from catwalk to real life and where on the High Street we can find these 'key items' (the more I use that phrase, the wankier I sound. I feel like Trinny and Susanna. Feeling like two people when you're only one person is probably not a good thing) - your input will be muchly appreciated during this difficult time as I don't always have a very good brain.

I'm aware that this post has been very wordy, so here's a picture of some nice blue eye makeup that I scanned from the latest ASOS Magazine;

fashion, beauty and catwalk trends at the little curly girl

The line down the middle is the fold from the magazine, as it was a double page spread, but I didn't want to rip the pages out because it's Liv's magazine and I'm very considerate about what I do and don't rip.

Here's looking forward to a new season and a new, better, bloggier little curly girl. 23 and never been kissed (not really). To infinity and be-bloody-yond

"How can you be so mean to me when I only managed to line one eye?"

Monday, 26 July 2010

When it comes to putting the days of the week in order according to popularity (because we all do that, right?), Monday comes right at the bottom of the scale, somewhere between traffic wardens and Kanye West.

Sorry Monday, that's just the way it is.

weird and wonderful ramblings at the little curly girl

I call this picture "The Happy Days?" - note how one of the days looks vaguely psychotic. That's Wednesday, obviously.

However, at the moment, Monday, no matter how dismal it may seem, is always perked up, when it suddenly dawns on me that there's a new episode of True Blood out. Joy joy joy!

The main reason why a Monday evening viewing of True Blood is just so darn marvellous?

True-Blood

Jason Stackhouse, aka Ryan Kwanten, aka Vinnie from Home & Away!

Forget about the cold, pale undead; for me, this show is all about Jason, his adorable accent, his tanned arms and his lovely confused face. In fact, I'm going to go and watch the newest episode right now, swoon swoony swoon...

[Image of Jason from truebloodguide.com, stick man drawing by yours truly. And believe me, it took A LOT longer than you'd think.]

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

Saturday, 24 July 2010

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.
fashion and beauty at the little curly girl

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.fashion and beauty at the little curly girl

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.



fashion and beauty at the little curly girl

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?!

I wish this was my hand

fashion and beauty at the little curly girlCan I just say OH and then add MY GOD. Of all the nail art designs that WAH Nails have posted on their blog, this could well be my absolute favourite ever ever ever. MINNIE MOUSE BOWS! As soon as my nails grow a bit, I am SO trying this out. I will probably be disappointed as there's no way I've got a steady enough hand to draw bows so perfectly, but still, I have to try because this is just too cute!
Just thought I'd share this lovely snippet of conversation from last night when myself, my parents and my sister were trying to decide what film to watch (yes, that is how exciting my life is at the moment...)
Me: Is The Dark Knight scary though?
Mum: No, it's just very... dark.
[EDIT - I just re-read this and realised it's not actually very funny, I think it's one of those things where you had to be there... take my word for it though, it WAS funny!]
I hope this partially explains why I'm the way I am. Blame the parents, always blame the parents.

If I only had a brain

Friday, 23 July 2010

I warn you in advance, this is kind of just a random post of random thoughts because I can't really be bothered using my brain properly today.
I've just finished reading The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides, which I bought on a whim in HMV last week. I've not seen the film (which was directed by Sofia Coppola and stars Kirsten Dunst) but after reading the novel, I'd quite like to see it. Anyway, I thoroughly recommend the book, it's lovely and tragic.

fashion and beauty at the little curly girl

"The Lisbon girls were thirteen (Cecilia), and fourteen (Lux), and fifteen (Bonnie), and sixteen (Mary), and seventeen (Therese). They were short, round-buttocked in denim, with rounded cheeks that recalled some dorsal softness. Whenever we got a glimpse, their faces looked indecently revealed, as though we were used to seeing women in veils."

I scanned the image from the cover of my copy (you know how I love to scan!). I really like the shoes in that photo!

I'm currently on a mission to read all the books. While I was at uni, I read a lot of books, but they were mostly books I had to read because of my course, so now I'm trying to make up for that by reading everything I can get my hands on. Got any recommendations? Please share!

I realised last week that the beautiful floral pieces from the Dior Couture show reminded me of the Flower Fairies poetry books I used to read when I was about twelve. Yes, I know, it all sounds very twee, but when I was younger I loved looking through the pages upon pages of pretty pictures and reading the silly, whimsical little poems that went along with them. You may recognise the images or at least the style of drawing, as I think a lot of them are now used on the front of greetings cards and notebooks etc. Anyway, FYI, each photo corresponds to a poem about a particular type of flower fairy and the author, Cicely Mary Barker penned and illustrated hundreds of them.
fashion and beauty at the little curly girl

The Narcissus Fairy

fashion and beauty at the little curly girl
fashion and beauty at the little curly girl

The Scilla Fairy (Have you ever heard of the 'Scilla' flower? No me neither...)

(Images scanned from "A Flower Fairies Treasury" by Cicely Mary Barker)

Cute, aren't they? I know, they're hardly Dior Couture, but I do like that blue hood/cloak thing in the last picture. Galliano, take note!

You may have noticed that I've added a 'legal stuff' page to the blog. This is mainly due to the fact that I recently joined the IFB and have spent a lot of today and yesterday reading articles about blog copyright and other important, serious things that you might not think about as a blogger, but really should. Anyway, I doubt that I'll ever need to enforce my 'copyright regulations' because I'm such a tiny wee blog really, but it's better to be safe than sorry. Potential copycats, bugger off! How do other people feel about blog copyright etc? I'd be interested to hear other bloggers' thoughts on the matter because I think it's quite an important issue.

Bloomin' lovely

Saturday, 17 July 2010

I'd been so caught up in all the fabulous Resort shows that had been happening recently, that I hadn't even noticed that the Fall Couture shows had started. Silly Franki. Fortunately, my beautious friend Lauren brought this fact to my attention - thanks Lauren. (Lauren also has a blog, which can be read here, but she hasn't posted anything in a LONG time. Everyone, I think you should join me in saying "Lauren, please blog again. You are funny and the world needs funny. Do it for the good of the world!")

Of course, as soon as I heard about the Dior show, I knew I had to post about it because, as previous posts on here may suggest, I FRIKKIN LOVE DIOR!

I think part of the reason why I love Dior so much, is that the shows never fail to surprise me. When everyone else is doing dark, muted colours and subtle tailoring, John Galliano wraps the models heads up in cellophane, goes completely mental with a pair of pinking shears and then, just to make things REALLY CRAZY, comes out at the end of the show in what I can only imagine is a couture version of an Edwardian beekeeping suit. It's just so exciting!

Inspired, quite obviously, by flowers, this show was literally an explosion of colours and textures. Rather than focusing solely on floral prints, which we've been seeing everywhere since...well...since forever, Galliano actually created pieces that looked like they were made from flowers - the colours, the shapes, the textures, every garment had some kind of clear reference to a particular type of flower. I especially love the strapless white dress (third photo down) that has a splash of deep blue, which kind of fades out at the edges; it really reminds me of how lilies have the same kind of thing - really deep pink in the centre of the flower that fades out onto the petals. They also pointed out on Style.com how the cellophane headpieces and raffia belts seem to be inspired by the wrappings you get on bouquets. It was like the Chelsea Flower Show does Couture! I always say this when I post on Dior, but just go to Style.com and have a look at the full collection; I've posted a selection but you really need to seem them all!

As usual, they've also done crazy amazing hair and makeup - does anyone else find the hairstyles remind them a bit of something from Dr Seuss?!


A dress of petals!



Venus-fly-trap-tulle-dress-creation-madness

All images from Style.com

Oh beauty!

Also, can I just say thank you to everyone who commented on my last post - I'm glad I got such a positive response, was a bit worried I'd get a load of Twilight fans cursing me and burning curly haired effegies of me as a sacrifice to Edward Cullen... and quite frankly, I just don't need that...

Meyer, Meyer, Meyer

Sunday, 11 July 2010

So, remember how I said that even though I wasn't particularly fussed on Edward Cullen and his nauseous little face, I was still going to give the Twilight books a go, because I want to know what all the fuss is about? Well I'm currently reading the first book and I have to say it is quite readable. It hasn't changed my life or anything, but it definitely hasn't been a chore to read. I still think it's massively overrated though. Maybe it's because I'm 22, not 15, or maybe it's because I'm massively cynical about love and romance in general, but I do think that Edward and Bella's relationship, right from the get-go is completely ridiculous and weird. And Bella is really f***ing annoying. I can't see how any teenage girls could relate to her, she's a nob. But yeah, I'm enjoying it...

Anyway, I was reading it on the bus the other day, and I got to the part where Edward and Bella go on a little trip to the woods (as you do) and she describes what he's wearing, and I suddenly read a sentence that made me pause and question Stephenie Meyer as a credible human living in the 21st century;

"His white shirt was sleeveless, and he wore it unbuttoned, so that the smooth white skin of his throat flowed uninterrupted over the marble contours of his chest,"

Does anyone else see the problem here? No seventeen year old boy, regardless of whether or not he happens to be a vampire, would go gallavanting around in an unbuttoned sleeveless shirt. I can't even imagine what that would look like, because nobody would EVER wear it. I'm not even talking about fashion here - they live in a small town, there probably isn't much in the way of reputable fashion stores, that's fine, I accept that. But unless the only store in a one hundred mile radius is the Jean Paul Gaultier Sailor Suit Cast Offs Store, there is no excuse for Edward wearing that shirt. No excuse. Stephenie Meyer, I don't know what kind of weird-ass, sartorially challenged world you're dreaming up, but you need to sort it out. Sure, the whole Twilight 'world' is full of mythical creatures (vampires, werewolves, Dakota Fanning) so obviously, we don't have to see it as completely realistic, but Steph, please at least try and be credible with the stuff that you actually can be credible with.

I feel like Carrie in that episode of SATC where Burger writes about the woman wearing a scrunchie. But at least some people actually own scrunchies.
No. Just no.
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