Outfit | Perfect Parka

I’m so very happy I finally found the perfect parka! I used to have another one (see here) and held onto it about 3 years too long, because I couldn’t find the perfect one, but I finally have. I looove the chambray details, it gives just that little extra. Wearing an oversized jumper that I’ve borrowed from my boyfriend, which is ‘our’ favorite jumper now, and I would wear it all the time if he would let me. Luckily he did today. I love stealing my man’s clothes and then pairing the oversized item with short shorts and some heels to make it ‘me’. What do you think of the result? I’m so much enjoying the sun when it pops out lately, it’s great to already feel that spring vibe in March! But it also means a need for a wardrobe change, from winter to spring, which I find a pretty daunting task. I’m a jumper person, and I love knits and boots and oversized clothing, and wearing black and grey. Which is all not very spring-y I guess. So I’m in transition here, wearing spring whites already but still with black velvet trousers (velvet is making a comeback, mark my words). Still so hooked on this white coat by the way, I wear it all the time and it’s the perfect spring coat for now. How do you like my black and white ensemble? Yesterday I attended the River Island summer collection presentation, a fashion show organized by Oona. I have a lot of clothes from River Island and there are always pieces in River Island collections that I love, so it was nice to see the new collection ‘in full swing’ yesterday! My favorites were definitely the sleeveless denim shirt, the metallic top and the mint and white tie dye jeans in the last picture! I’m so going to stop by there soon because I’m very much in need of some summer wear! Was also lovely to meet up with all the gorgeous bloggers that were there, as you can see in the pictures, there were a lot of them!

Senior Pictures!

After months and months of waiting my senior pictures are finally here! Having them makes being a senior I guess... so...real. I've been thinking a lot lately about what it means to be a senior in high school. Simple things I take for granted now, such as sleeping in my own bed and seeing my family every day, will be taken away from me in just less than a year as I venture off by myself to college! The school year seems to be moving by at the speed of light... I already have two college applications completely filled out and I'm working on my third...my last homecoming is in such two short weeks... at the beginning of September I filled out my measurements for my cap and gown... All of this seems so surreal and I'm waiting for someone to pinch me to wake me up oasap womens cardigans! Anyways, enough chit chatting about all of my fears for now ;) I hope you all enjoy my senior pictures as much as I do! I couldn't be more happier with them and my photographer Cassidy did such an amazing job... It was so hard to pick which ones to order, and which ones to pick to show you all on here! All of the hard work of planning the session, picking out outfits, suffering in 100 degree heat, and driving two and a half hours away was well worth it though ❤It was such a beautiful and peaceful day out to take pictures. The leaves were gracefully falling from the tree branches as the wind picked up every now and then. Ohio has the most remarkable fall when the leaves start changing colors. I can't wait to be shooting this fall with my new camera because it captures color and mood so very well. Every day I fall in love with my camera a little bit more and more... Yesterday I had a complete and much needed 'Lauren' day. I had the most delicious hot chocolate, went thrifting, and visited the new coffee shop in town to do an interview for the school newspaper. I ended up thrifting three new cardigans that I was in need of rather badly. This beautiful deep green one in the pictures is just one of the three! Hope you all had a lovely weekend and continue to have a lovely start of the week tomorrow... With much love, Lauren.

Creampuff.

I wore this two days ago but been too swamped with school work to be able to post :( It's also gotten bitterly cold here in Ohio quite earlier than I expected or remember. All I can see is the pain on my face in these pictures as the icy wind blows at me...yikes, not a fun day hence the minimal amount of pictures! Back to wearing two pairs of tights with all of my dresses ♥ Things have been good just hectic lately here. At the end of the day nothing is better than just laying in my bed, daydreaming and staring at the glow in the dark stars above my head. I think we all need to do daydreaming sometimes just to keep sane. For one of my fashion classes I have 48 flats due by next Thursday. A flat is basically a very detailed design of a garment that is sent to the manufacturers so they know how to put together a designer's idea (here's an image of what they look like). You have to put seam lines, hems, darts, details, embellishments, ect, and also it has to be drawn proportionally and exact because if you mess up, then thousands of garments (or maybe even more) will be produced that way. Even though I'm in merchandising and flats are technically a designer's forte, I'm taking a required visuals class where I have to design my own collection with 24 original flats (but front and back). I'm nervous because up until a few weeks ago I didn't even know what a flat was outerwear for women, and frankly I've never even done one yet. They take hours to do; coming up with the design, perfecting it, then tracing it in ink. If you smudge, you have to start completely over. Even though it'll be a difficult assignment and one that is certainly going to test me, I'm ready for the challenge and am excited to expand my abilities. So, if you don't see me much this coming week, know it's because I am throwing my life into those darn flats!

Ebbs & Flows, Highs & Lows

Anyway, I didn't get dressed up to stay at home and feel sorry for myself. Hehe. I was still determined to make the most of the day. I wore my kick ass black zipper jacket and comfy panda sweater, then sealed the deal with a lightweight purple scarf. I'm also wearing my tried and true black Chicwish high-low skirt. I'm glad I decided to pay a bit extra for it. The quality is fantastic and the length is perfect. Underneath that lies my golden, glittery suspender tights and my short black boots which I have come to love so much and wear quite often womens cardigans. I also carried my braided black fringe purse from Chicnova and wore a gold filigree collar necklace and gold studded wrap watch, both of which are from TIL Darling. Don't worry! By now I've weathered the storm and I'm back to normal. I think it's natural to experience such ups and downs, even when there is apparently no reason for it. It gives me a chance to be a little more introspective and investigate my own thoughts and feelings so I can better understand myself. :PToday, I am contemporaneously reminded of my mortality and of my incredible oldness. I have been on this Earth for decades. I played with a clunky Polaroid camera as a kid (the birthday themed film was my fav, you guys); I saw the beginnings of the internet (AOL IRC ICQ LOL WTF BBQ); I actually know what "dial-up" is; I know what a "modem" looks like; I know what a "floppy disk" looks like (I had some good games on those); I made mix tapes as a young teen which included greats such as Depeche Mode, Jamiroquai, Janet Jackson & The Pointer Sisters (I had eclectic tastes, shut up! Heh). I enjoyed roller skates; I went to warehouse raves before they were trendy hoodies for women; I hated my parents; I hated being tall; I hated my feet; I hated my Christian private school; I hated a lot of things actually. Atheism predated the beginning of my menstrual cycles; angst drove me to fill countless notebooks with poetry. I devoured books like "The Boxcar Children," "Goosebumps" (so cool, you guys and borderline too creepy for kids..); "The Lord of the Rings," "Dragonlance," and various choose your own adventure books; I fell in love with English, Etymology and track and field; I went to college, where I became enamored with Philosophy; while there, I traveled alone to a foreign land; I learned a second language; I became inundated with wanderlust; I saw my future; I went to graduate school and here I am.

DIY Bear Pinafore Dress

Hey guys! This DIY design has been pinned on my wall for around 2 months now, and today I was finally inspired to create it, not least in part after seeing Kathryn from Kitsune-kun's amazing Raccoon dress and hence also getting the idea for putting claws on my pockets! This little bear-face pinafore is my current favourite DIY creation (although basically every new DIY I do ends up taking place as my favourite, haha) hoodies. I also kind of decided to change my clothes halfway through taking these photos, and now I can't decide which outfit I like best, so lucky you guys, you get to see both :) Hope you're all having a wonderful day. Right now, I'm heading off to see the Sydney Metropolitan Orchestra play songs from Dr Who and I am SO excited (River Song is going to be there, OMG) #supergeek. But before I go, here's a super cute science item sent to me by my friend Brenton. These awesome chemists Chanteau and Tour, in order to interest kids in Chemistry, synthesised and anthropomorphised an organic molecule and made it look like a little dancing man, dubbing it "The Nanokid". If you know anything about chemistry website , it's pretty interesting seeing all the steps they took to synthesize this molecule - and you can read the paper here. If you don't know much about chemistry: all the straight lines are carbon atoms in chains with hydrogen atoms coming off the sides, and the O's are oxygens annnd that still probably doesn't mean much to you but at least you can kind of pretend to know what's going on now :) For some reason I had the idea that making a video would be easier than taking photos (as my camera's wireless remote is broken). That was very much a fantastical idea, video editing takes ages! Yikes! I'm also quite scared of putting something on youtube because the commenting culture is basically the polar opposite of fashion blogs. Negative comments are basically NOT A THING on fashion blogs, whereas I can't ever bring myself to look at comments on youtube videos as most are usually along the lines of "I hate you and you're worse than hitler, please go die" (and its like on a video of baby ducks or something). So what I'm trying to say is: please be nice to me youtube :) Also, I always freak out when bloggers I follow for ages upload videos and their voices and affectations aren't anything like I imagined them to be. I want to know if my voice is anything like what you might have imagined and/or if I freaked you guys out ;) haha.

Love is Hard.

Love is Hard.I had been wanting a pair of crochet shorts for a while, and had my eye on this Zara pair, but I can never justify spending over £20 on a pair of shorts, especially as I already own so many, so when I saw this pair on Oasap, I snapped them up. They are a very budget friendly price at £16.56, and I think the scalloped tiers are very similar to the Zara ones. A downside is that they only come in one size, but they should fit a size 6-10 just fine (the measurements are on the website). I also love this H&M top that I picked up in the sale, it is so lightweight and easy to wear :) I am sorry that I am looking away in all these photos. My face just didn't want to co-operate today :( haha. On Thursday, July 5, Nelly.com are holding an event at Newz Bar in Liverpool. It starts at 10PM (over 18s only, sorryyy!) and the first 100 people through the door will be treated to a goodie bag, filled with treats from their sponsors womens blazers. Furthermore, the first 150 guests to arrive will get a free pair of shoes, courtesy of Nelly.com! Anybody can turn up to the event, but I have kindly been allowed five VIP passes to offer to my readers, which will grant you and a friend priority access to the party, meaning that you can get in before everybody else and claim your free shoes! To enter my giveaway, all you have to do is head over to my Facebook page and like it, and also like my post about this event :) I will select the five winners at random on Monday, July 2. It sounds like a great event so make sure you enter! If you are not in or near Liverpool, Nelly.com are holding these events in twelve different cities up and down the country, so check here to see if there will be one near you! You can also RSVP on that page to increase your chances of getting a VIP pass! I do like to try and be healthy, although I will be the first to raise my hand and say I am partial to some pizza and chocolate cake probably a little too often. I love eating fruit and veg, but I know how difficult it is sometimes to incorporate five portions in to your meals. Today I decided to dust off the blender that has been hiding away in the corner of my kitchen for the past couple of years and start making smoothies again, as they are a really good way of getting your recommended daily allowance of fruit and veg- a smoothie can count as up to two of your five-a-day. Now, fruit smoothies are pretty versatile, you can just throw in any combination of your favourite fruits and you're good to go! But recently, I was doing a little research in to some good recipes, and came across some that contained an ingredient that I never thought I would put in to a smoothie... Spinach.I have always loved spinach with my meals, ever since I was little and was convinced that eating lots of spinach would allow me to have superhuman strength, like Popeye. Including spinach in a blended fruit drink sounds bizarre though women outwear! However, I can assure you that it isn't as bad as it sounds. Lots of people include spinach in their smoothies as it is a superfood (meaning it is very good for you), but doesn't have a strong taste, therefore the spinach is masked by all the other ingredients but you are still getting all the health benefits from it. Just a handful of the health benefits from spinach are: Vitamin K to help strengthen bones Contains anti-oxidants such as beta-carotene and kaempferol, which fight heart disease, cancers and eye conditions such as cataracts Improves brain function and protects against aging Now I know my smoothie isn't exactly a green smoothie, I'm not brave enough yet to put enough vegetables in it to make it turn green. To be honest, a green smoothie probably looks more appetising than the pukey colour that mine turned (do you like my strawberry and raspberry garnishing and brightly coloured straws as an attempt to make it look a bit better?), but I promise you it tastes a lot better than it looks, it is essentially a strawberry and banana smoothie with a handful of spinach thrown in (just throw a few more berries in there to make it turn red haha!). Here is what I used:

VF's Closet: Layers

There's not many opportunities in Miami where I get to pack on the layers, but yesterday was one of them. The weather was absolutely gorgeous and chilly. I layered this chambray shirt with a yellow sweater along with these brown pants--something I can totally see myself wearing to the office. I went to the mall this weekend with the family (I took my newborn son for his first trip to the mall! I can't believe he already turned one month old!!) and I saw this similar outfit on a J.Crew mannequin. I always fall in love with their window displays---sigh women outwear. The award show Premio Lo Nuestro is only a few days away and one hair trend I'm predicting will be a big hit on the red carpet is the messy up-do. This style is a favorite among celebs including Jennifer Lopez and it’s personally one of my favorites as well. As a first-time mom I practically live in it. Not only is it easy to achieve, since it's not as structured as other up-do's, but it allows me to look classy and elegant for a red carpet affair, no matter how many activities I have to juggle at once. Here are some quick steps on how you can achieve the messy up-do. Use L’Oréal Paris Advanced Haircare Total Repair 5 shampoo and conditioner to cleanse and nurture your hair Apply L’Oréal Paris Total Repair 5 Multi Restorative Dry Oil to revitalize the hair from root to tip To add texture to the hair, apply a dime size amount of L’Oréal Paris EverStyle Texture Series Tousle Crème. This will create the appearance of a more sexy undone bed head look for your up-do Secure a loose ponytail at the nape of your neck making sure not to make the ponytail appear too structured or tight Use bobby pins to secure loose ends creating a messy up-do Finish the look by spraying L’Oréal Paris Elnett Hairspray 12 inches away from the head blazers for women No look is complete without gorgeous nails. Try L’Oréal Paris Nail Lingerie to add customized 3D nail effects to complete your look. These are great for new moms as they also help to elongate the length of your manicure in addition to adding a touch of glam to your fingertips.