Going casual for a change

Hello everyone!! I am very excited because today is Thursday and that means it's my last day in work before the Easter holidays!! I get the Friday, Monday AND Tuesday off so 5 days in total - whoop. Also, the boyfriend is en-route home (he's currently on a lay-over in Abu Dhabi) and will be home tomorrow lunchtime!! HOORAH.

What are your plans for the Easter break?? I realised last night that this year will be the first year EVER that I only get one Easter egg!! Last year I was lucky enough to go back to Wales for Easter, and the year before I'd just left the UK to move to New Zealand and was actually in the Grand Canyon on Easter day - with the eggs my parents had given me before I left!

This weekend we fly to Auckland for a city break and then a possible road trip to some of the coastal areas I'm yet to see. I'm very excited but wonder how the boyfriend will cope with his jetlag!

Anyway I digress- last night I went to a pub quiz with friends. I wanted to wear something comfortable and casual so wore a long checked shirt, skinny jeans, boots, scarf and a leather jacket. I accessorised with some of my favourite silver jewellery and a fab bag!

Shirt, Primark; Jeans, hand me down from my sister!; boots, Bronx; Jacket, Just Jeans; Scarf, vintage from my mum; Bag, Max C at TK Maxx.

Bag, Max C at TK Maxx

My mum was throwing this scarf away a few years ago and I rescued it!

Look at the size of this bad boy!!

My Tiffany charm bracelet and a good luck / bon voyage bracelet I was given by a friend when I moved to NZ

I LOVE this ring! There's a story about it too - I was waiting for my friend in Wellington one rainy Saturday and popped into a store that sells NZ designer silver jewellery. I spotted the sales girl wearing an amazing ring and she said they had 2 for sale - at $450 NZD. I fell in love, but couldn't convince myself to spend that much on a whim!! I spent ALL weekend dreaming about the ring! Then on the Monday I was in town again after work by chance and went into the shop again. There was a 50% off EVERYTHING sale on for ONE DAY ONLY! They had never had a sale like it! I snapped the ring up with no second thoughts, and truly counted my blessings!!!! I'd been having a really really bad day - and finally my luck changed!

My Tiffany bracelet with charms. I bought the Fifth Ave and Rodeo Drive charms on holidays in New York and LA; the cupcake charm was a gift from my amaaaazing friends at the job I left to move to NZ and the little crown I bought with the money my late nan gave me just before she passed away :)

Bling bling :)

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On another note: The lovely Kimberly from City Style has given me an award!! Yay!! Thanks so much Kimberly :D

I love all the blogging friends I have made since starting my blog just over a month ago - thanks everyone!! I really enjoy reading and sharing everyones' blogs.

The rules are:
1. Thank the person who gave you the award.
2. Write a post about it.
3. Pass it on to 12 blogs that you think really deserve it.
4. Insert the link to their blog.
5. Send them a message to tell them about it.

I am very pleased to pass it on to these lovely people:

1. Welcome to my world

2. Missouri Daze

3. Positive Ponderings

4. Coco and Vera

5. Fash-uh-nee-stah

6. HandPckd by Nikona

7. Oh to Be a Muse

8. GLOW Academy

9. Miss Bias

10. Joanne Faith

11. Fabulous for 50 [and UNDER]!

12. The Hourglass

Congrats everyone :D

Katy Perry for OPI and THE pink blazer!

Hooray, I am feeling a lot better today. I didn't sleep well last night at all, so came to work a bit later. When i arrived I had a parcel waiting for me - the Katy Perry for OPI shatter nail varnish I'd ordered on Sunday! Hoorah! I put it on straight away and am impressed with it! I've wanted Minx nails for a little while, but don't know where to get them done here in NZ, so this is the next best thing. Have any of you tried Minx or shatter varnishes?

Here is my first attempt at shatter nail varnish (at work!):

Here are the pics of me wearing the vintage pink pinstripe blazer I told you about on Saturday. I washed and ironed it super quickly so that I could wear it to work and to dinner and the movies with my friend afterwards. 

(We went to see Scream 4 which I actually really enjoyed! I'm not a horror movie fan nowadays but really liked the film and it took me back to when the first ones came out 15 years ago...ahhh!). Has anyone else seen it?? What did you think? It was quite funny, cos when I came back to the house afterwards (the boyfriend is still away !), there was a light on! EEK! But I knew I must've left it on myself that morning so tried not to get too scared about it! Hahaha.

Jacket, thrifted at Recycle Boutique; Dress, Primark, Tights, Primark; Boots, TK Maxx, Watch, Guess.

Bag, Witchery

I wore the jacket with a floral printed tea-dress, thick black tights and black suede heeled working man-style boots. I wanted to keep it toned down a bit more so kept the accessories to a minimum and wore my metallic Witchery bag. Every time I went to the bathroom and saw my huge shoulder pads I had to crack up!! :D

Short and Sweet: Pimp My Ride

I'm not feeling very well today so am going to keep my post short and sweet. One thing I am going to share with you is this...

I have two sisters, and my youngest sister Alice has a boyfriend called Ed. He's just had his car pimped on Pimp My Ride! It was for the launch of the new VW Beetle, and MTV pimped his kronked out Beetle as part of the promotion!

Tags: Volkswagen 21st Century Beetle Revealed

When I went back to Wales in Jan / Feb this year, Ed had been contacted and he and Alice had to go down to London where he MAY have been chosen for the show. It was all very exciting and we couldn't wait to hear if he'd been picked. He was! They took the car to Berlin and did their thang!

Ed and Alice :)

Both Alice and Ed were flying to Berlin yesterday for the MTV World Stage launch party. BUT poor Alice got food poisoning the night before they were due to leave at 6am so COULDN'T GO :( I spoke to her and she was devastated. I am devastated FOR her :( But I told her there's nothing worse than being ill away from home.

So that's all! Hopefully I will be back to my perky self tomorrow to share the pics of the pink blazer combo I wore yesterday! :D

Denim Ruffle Loveliness

Quite frankly I was getting cheesed off of not being able to post my outfits because the boyfriend is away and I have no-one to photograph me. So I've resorted to self-mirror pics in my bedroom! I hope you still get to see the outfit in a decent way, as I had trouble getting good shots (the main reason being because our wardrobe is an antique Italian wardrobe and the mirror in it is very old and not too clear). Other problems I had were that the bed ends just before the mirror, so I had to squeeze in front to take a reasonable shot, AND to top it off, it was a grey, dull day so the lighting was pants. 

Anyway - about the outfit! I bought this denim dress in the summer as I thought it was really cute! When I went back to Wales where it was mid-winter, I paired it with tights, boots and a cardigan for extra warmth (and also wore it with a short fur jacket, but it hasn't reached that coldness here yet). So this is how I wore it again this week.

 

 

 

 

Dress, Tempt; Shrug, Belt and Tights, Primark; Boots, Matalan.

Just to give you an idea of the area I was working with!!

So after five days of the boyfriend being away, I've still got five to go. I'm enjoying catching up with friends, shopping, eating out and watching plenty of Desperate Housewives (LOVE IT!), but I'm missing having someone to come home and actually TALK TO! It's weird!!! But only 5 days left....

A spot of vintage shopping in Wellington

Today it rained. Bah. But I quite like rainy days sometimes. You don't have to feel guilty about wasting a day full of sunshine cuddled up at home or rummaging around shops. I met some girlfriends for brunch and we decided to have a poke around some of the vintage clothing stores in Wellington. 

Wellington has a growing number of shops selling vintage clothes, bags and shoes. But most of them aren't cheap and can be quite 'picked over' so you don't always get the best treasures. A lot of them are found on Cuba Street, the arty, bohemian area of town.

We made an excellent start at Recycle Boutique, which is like an eBay kinda shop - they sell your clothes for you with a commission. I spotted a pink and grey over sized blazer on the vintage rail but couldn't see a price and assumed it must be expensive as it was such a beauty and was still on the rail (it was a Saturday afternoon and the shop was rammed so I thought someone would have snapped it up if it was affordable).

After I walked past it again, I had another look and noticed the tag was on the back - it was $30 but had a red dot on it. Red dots = half price!!! WOW! I swiftly made my way to the changing rooms!

WOOHOO!

So the blazer was $15!! I am already excited about wearing this to work on Monday!

Then we went on to a couple of cute independent shops before visiting the Fringe Market. Here I bought a silk scarf and two lace doilies for $5. I received a great craft book for my birthday and one of the projects I'm keen to do in there involves a LOT of doilies. So here is the first of my collection - it may take me some time as so far it's taken me two months to hunt out those!

The scarf is for another online craft swap

We also checked out Paperbag Princess where everything is under $20 (I've never found anything worth buying in here though).

The last shop we visited was Missy's Room. This is an amazing shop for vintage dresses galore! I sneakily took a few snaps as I wasn't sure if I was allowed, so couldn't get pics of all of the fabulous things in there!

Trinkets, scarves and bags

I love the patterns in vintage clothing!

 

This blouse was lovely :)

My poor wet tootsies!!

I found myself another pinstriped jacket. Yes I'm a fan of them!

Looks terrible with this outfit but it has potential no!?

I'm a nautical fan!

 

 

This blazer / shirt (I'm not sure what it's classed as!) was $32, so not as cheap as the first one but still pretty good!

PS You may notice I've dyed my hair a darker brown! I'm quite liking it - though it was damp and rain-poufed today! ;)