OOTF

Outfit Of The Flight Only a tiny post for today I just thought I’d share what I wore to the airport. I apologise for the horrendous photos I had to take them the night before because I know I would be super rushed in the morning. On the day I will do my hair in a style other than the messy bun that you can see.

Converse – Obviously I had to travel in my heavyset shoes and I plan to be doing a little bit of walking and caving on holiday so I need comfy shoes!

Tights – Primark

Shorts – River Island

Belt – Topshop

Vest top- River Island

Blazer – I refuse to travel in something I will not wear on holiday so even though I may freeze on the plane and when we return home this was the most clothing I was willing to take. The blazer is lovely dark grey with studded shoulders a real Primark classic.

I often see girls and sometimes guys travelling in beach wear – it’s a night flight I don’t get it? Also people who have “classy” names on the back of their shirts provide so much on flight entertainment. Last year we where sat behind a group of girl whom all had slogans on the back of their tops, my favourites where ‘RAT OUT’ ‘JUICY LIPS’ and the simple straight to the point ‘EASY’. Classy ladies indeed.


What do you wear to travel? Any golden rules? Am I missing a trick?


xx

Whats in the hand luggage?

I have never done a ‘what’s in the bag post ‘before but I love having a nosey and reading other people so I thought I would give it a go whilst I am away.




I spent a huge amount of time deciding what to take as had luggage. I mean do I take a sensible rucksack or something more stylish? Do I go for one huge bad or a smaller bag and a handbag?


After much deliberation I came to the conclusion that I would have to use my hand luggage primarily for taking things that would weigh too much to go in my suitcase!


So here goes the first what’s in my bag post. [The Blackpool to Crete edition.]

Glamour, Cosmopolitan and Oh Comely.

I subscribe to these magazines and I’ve been saving them for my holiday for a few weeks? Does anyone else save things for holiday?

Cold Light by Jenn Ashworth
Girlfriend In a Coma by Douglas Coupland
Black Rabbit In The NightTime by Kevin Brooks
Murder Most Fab by Julian Clairy

Red or Dead – For pleasure or leisure Blackpool Purse

Fan from Accesorize

Chanel Bronzer

A little bag of jewellery

Tickets and other documents

Havaianas Myself and my boyfriend have matching flipflops – how cute/sickening?!

Toms

Fisheye Camera and Digital Camera

Ipod

 Bobbles and hair grips and blister plasters

Mirror

Greek phrase book

Notepad and pen

Tote bag from Heidi Seeker and Leather bag is from TK Maxx

It’s all so heavy but distributed between two bags it’s not so bag and I don’t look too bulky!
What do you think of all the things I’ve packed? Have I forgotten anything – I hope not because its defiantly too late!

XX

διακοπες

Είμαι πρόκειται για διακοπές αύριο - I'm going on holiday tomorrow.
The title of this post is διακοπες whihc means 'holiday' in greek and is pronounced THee-ak-o -pes.
I have scheduled a two posts for whilst I am away so with any luck that should work but I will not be back online till the 5th of July. I want to say a huge thank you to everyone who commented on this post.. I am not packed and ready to go. My hand luggage is dead on the 5kg mark and my suit case is 14.7kg!


I’ve spent the past hour doing my ‘holiday nails’ although I am taking polish to change them after a few days.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

I’m going to Sissi, Crete. I have been before and loved it so I thought I would leave you with some past holiday snaps to give you an idea of what I will be getting up to.

Hope you all have as much fun as I will.I will have lots to blog about when I get home

xx

PS. My giveaway is running over the time I am away check it out Here

Packing problems

Firstly two bits of great news this week firstly I applied for an internship a few weeks ago and I’m now please to say I am officially an intern for a small but exciting publishers! Secondly I got some marks back today and for my final creative piece I got an 86! 70 is a first so I was thrilled. This is the best mark I have ever achieved and I honestly didn’t think I could do it!


If you follow me on twitter you may already know that in 4 days time I’m off on holiday. I’m going to Crete for two weeks with my boyfriend. We are going to Sissi for the 4th time. Sissi is a little fishing village on the coast. ( A few miles along from Malia.) Sissi is our little bit of paradise and that’s one of the reasons we keep going back. I’m super excited about seeing all our friends out there and getting to try out all of the Greek that I’ve been learning!

Normally we pay the extra for 20kg luggage allowance but this year we decided (in a moment of madness) we shouldn’t pay the extra. So now I have 4 days to pack for 2 weeks with a 15kg luggage allowance. I’m panicking.

I’m allowed 5kg hand luggage.

I keep packing and unpacking I have 3 main problems:

1. I’m not the sort of girl who can plan outfits. I’m very unorganised and I normally decided what I’m going to wear as I am putting it on so asking me what I want to wear in 5 days makes my head spin.

2. I did a ‘hypothetical’ pack of what clothes I might take and just the clothes, no shoes, toiletries no GHD’s, nothing came to 13.3 kg

3. I don’t know where to start. Honestly I’m hopeless when I think about packing I get the same feeling I get when I think about growing up. (A sort of dizzy overwhelming sickness.)

So far I have decided:

1. I will buy body wash, shaving foam, toothpaste basically as much as I can at the airport to avoid it contributing to the weight of my luggage at check in.

2. I will dress like Mr T. I’m talking layers of clothes and all my jewellery on at once.

3. My books and camera charger will also be in my hand luggage because they weigh a ton.

4. I’m not bothered how I look in the day but I’d like to dress up at night. So I will only be taking a small selection of “day clothes” with some travel wash in favour of more choice for night.

I’m appealing for your help. How do you pack? Where to start, any tips?


Xx

Ps. A little more Blackpool Graffiti.

 

Girl Meets Dress

Just over a month ago I received an email of the stylish ladies at Girl Meets Dress offering me an interview for my blog. I’d heard of these ‘rent a posh frock’ websites before but I’d never really seriously considered them because I assumed all designer frocks would be too small for me, I’ve realised that however wrong it maybe if you’re not thin with a small bust you are often ignored by high end designer. (Don’t get me started on how annoying I find that.) However I took the opportunity to investigate and I found the Girl Meets dress stocks sizes 6-16, I was expecting 6-12 so I was pleasantly surprised!


Once I started looking I couldn’t stop. They do shoes and bags too. I decided to take them up on a tiny interview and ask them a few questions about Girl Meets Dress:

I edited the reply down by half the ladies at Girl Meets dress sure like writing there reply was huge.

You currently stock sizes 6-16 are you looking to increase this range?
At the moment our dresses range in size from UK 6-16, and in due course as our stock grows, we will be adding more sizes. As women of all sizes deserve to look beautiful. That is why our buyers take the sizes/shapes into consideration while adding new dresses to the collection. So that the dresses styles would look flattering and enhance the best features of the women.

I often find that I can vary in size depending on the cut of the dress and the designer, what would happen if I ordered a dress and it didn’t fit?
Once the courier arrives at your door and you have signed for the package, you would have 3 hours to try on the dress / dresses and notify us if you are happy with the items or if you want to return or exchange. Just email customersupport@girlmeetsdress.com with your preference, then fill out the form inside the box and post the box back to us before your local Post Office closes at 5pm Mon-Fri.

[So to cut a long story short if it doesn’t fit you can change it or get a refund aslong as your quick about it!]

How did Girl Meets Dress Start?

Girl Meets Dress was launched in 2009 by Co-founders Anna Bance and Xavier de Lecaros-Aquise after Anna left her career in Public Relations at Hermes.The vision to set up Girl Meets Dress came after she was inspired by the constant lending and borrowing of the collections which goes on behind closed doors within the fashion industry, - for either fashion shoots or for celebrities to wear to events.She thought it be wonderful if all women had access to this same service - the option and freedom to borrow any dress they wish for every event throughout the year. The luxury to have an endless closet.

How does it work?.

- Simply peruse our collection of over 100 designer brands (Halston Heritage, Herve Leger, Marc Jacobs...) and add up to 3 of your favourite dresses into your Shopping Bag to try on.
- Select the number of nights you would like them for (2 or 7 nights) and for a little extra peace of mind, add our optional insurance for just £7.
- Schedule a delivery date, and your dress will appear at the doorstep of your choice – home or office. Next-day and even same-day delivery (if you live in London) is available.. You can pre-order your dress or bag well ahead of your big night if you wish and we’ll send it to you in advance to try on so you have complete peace of mind and your outfit sorted!
- Let us know which one you have chosen so we can refund you the difference and then enjoy wearing it and bask in the compliments and admiring glances you will get.
- Once you are done, just pop your dress back into the pre-paid packaging and drop it into your local Post office.
There is no registration or monthly fees – neither are necessary, although if you do plan on using us, you can benefit from our membership option.
All in all I think it’s a good idea and if I have a super special event full of stylish individuals who would appreciate the effort, I would defiantly consider it in the future. However as things stands at the moment, even the rental prices (which are about a 5th of the dress price) are still out of my range.


However you can’t stop a girl from dreaming..

 
 
 
 
 
 
 


FENDI - Fendi Wrap Dress size 14 £129 to hire
Sara Berman Sally Zip Frill Clutch £19 to hire, £89 to buy
Elvira Sazech Simple Bracelet - £35 to buy

BUTTER by Nadia - Long Jersey Dress - Amethyst £79 One Size Fits 6-16 To hire

ANGEL JACKSON - Studded Sequin Satchel £39 To hire [I love this so much its beautiful.]

BLAGUETTE - Rosa £145 To Buy

All items can be found at Girl Meets Dress

Have you ever tried renting a frock? Could you be tempted?


xx






Giveaway

To celebrate reaching 100 followers I’ve decided to have a summer giveaway! Sorry it’s taken so long to sort out I wanted to choose prizes that I really like. All prizes were paid for and chosen by myself, I decided on:


Urban Decay lipstick in Voodoo because the packaging is so cute with the little dagger on the top and the shade is a deep shimmery red.

Eyeko lip gloss in Mayfair. I got this lip gloss in my surprise gift box (HERE) and loved it so much (I’ve used about half the tube already) I thought I’d get one to share with you.

Two W7 glitter nail varnishes. These are my favourite glitter polishes and they seem to only be available in limited colours online via Amazon. I am giving two away, Green dazzle and Cosmic mauve. You can see me wearing W7 glitter polish HERE

All you need to do to enter is:
first you must be a follower of a blog from blackpool by google friend connect, if you are not already the little follow button is on the right hand side then
Leave me a comment with your email address and/or blog url so I can let you know if you win! (1 entry)
For extra entries you can tweet something like this:

@_dani_elle is having a giveaway at http://www.ablogfromblackpool.com/2011/06/giveaway.html Urban Decay, Eyeko and W7!
(1 entry)

Or of course you can mention it (please include a link) on your own blog in a post or in the side bar, feel free to use the above image and please link back to this post.
(1 entry)

Please leave a separate comment for each entry.



This giveaway will run for 3 weeks because I am on holiday! I will be back on the 5th of July and that is when the giveaway will close. The winner will be chosen with random.org I will contact the winner soon after.

Thank you


xx

Saturday shopping #4

Firstly I had a great time meeting some lovely bloggers in Manchester I had the pleasure to meet mrsbossadoesthedo penny-blossoms fashionpearlsofwisdom oddsocksandprettyfrocks afeitar and dinoprincesschar

 I didn’t intend to buy anything because I’m saving all my pennies for holiday however on Friday I spent hours ( honestly) counting all the change in my piggy bank, bedside cabinet and various bags and coat pockets and it came to the super amazing grand total of £56. I decided to have a little look in Primark for what I call “holiday basics” I came away with two rather snazzy beach towels some underwear and a lovely blue swimming costume. I also got a “wonder woman” maxi-dress primarily because I wanted something cheap to chuck on over my swimming stuff when I’m heading to the bar but also because my OH is a huge comic book geek. I aim to please.

After a drink with the bloggers we hit the vintage shops of Manchester. Whilst the girls were looking at pretty vintage dresses the scruffy tomboy in me fell for some old vintage cut off Levi’s and I snapped them up for £10. I can’t decide if I should hem them or leave the ends frayed?( Later I saw pretty much the same cut off for £18 in COW)

After a good rummage around and some hilarious jumpsuit based antics I had to head home to sunny little Blackpool

But not before dropping in on my super friend Jess who was working in Next.

 When I arrived home I had a package waiting for me from Waterstones. I ordered Cold Light by Jenn Asworth because I read a lot on holiday and whilst I have a huge to read pile she is defiantly one of my favourites so her new book needed to be on my holiday list. Cold Light is her second book her first was A Kind Of Intimecy.  I urge you to get your hands on a copy I love her writing style. www.jennashworth.co.uk/

How’s your weekend been? Buy anything nice?


xx

[Moan of the day: When I got on the train it was bright sunshine. When I got off the train it was pouring down. I was dresses for summer I got soaked and had to spend the day with horrible lank hair. I ran to the nearest Poundland to get an emergency umbrella then it stopped raining and the sun came out. JUST MY LUCK.]

The tale of the Toms

Last week I bought some Toms I’m pretty sure most people know what toms are but is you don’t:


Toms are cute little pump like shoes and for every pair bought a pair are donated to a child in need. Nice yeah? That is the main reason why I fancied buying a pair, that and they look cute like gym shoes, and the come in lots and lots of different designs. Also (slightly strange reason) My boyfriend is called tom. Cute yes? Maybe.

Anyways I had an urge to buy a pair from the moment I saw their cute little material exterior. I fancied a pattered pair of maybe a glittery pair; I toyed with the idea of a bright bold colour to offset my usually black wardrobe! However I have big feet that range between a 7-8 and guessing my shoe size always leads to trouble so I never ordered any.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Over time I spied Toms in all different designs but never in person always online. I looked longingly at the beautiful prints and imagined outfits with bright toms and ripped shorts. I spotted a crochet pair in a magazine (look, I think,) and I pictured summer dresses and bare legs. This was until a came face to face with a wall full of toms. I was out with my boyfriend at the time in the little town near his house and that was when I found it. Toms all neatly displayed inside a little shop I’d barely noticed before. I saw the pretty crochet pair I had seen in the magazine. I tried them on. Firstly the sizes aren’t huge I needed an 8, but oh my, they are very comfortable. It was at this point when I looked at the price – they aren’t cheap. Not in my books anyway £45 for crochet pumps is not cheap at all. But it was too late I was already trying to calculate if my bank balance could take the hit. The a little voice (I’m assuming some sort of inner financial advisor.) the voice said “£45 pound for light cream pumps – you know what you are like – you will get them dirty and ruined within the first few wears!” I couldn’t deny it white/cream is not good on me. I’m clumsy and I spill things, if there is any mud with in a 10m radius I will be sure to trample through it. The more I thought about it the stronger the urge became to try on almost every pair in the shop.


So I did. Here is the bit where you find out a lot about me...I tried on or admired every style in every colour thinking about that I could wear it with and how often then I decided on the plain black Toms.

I like black, it isn’t a crime. I’m comfortable in black and black goes with many things. I like to think classic not dull. I tell myself I’m stylishly practical not boring. I’m happy. The more I wear them the happier I feel with my decision. The cream pair would have been great for the fictional Danielle that lives in my head wearing floral summer dresses and never spilling anything but the real me wearing old skinny jeans with ink on my hands prefers the good old plain black pair Thank you very much!



Note awful tan line near anklet.



How's your week been? Who is coming to the NW bloggers meet tomorrow? Who owns a pair of Toms- aren't they comfortable?

XX

Aunty Social

Aunty social is a new and exciting non profit organisation set up in Blackpool with the aim of Giving people in Blackpool and the Fylde Coast an opportunity to come together meet new friends through positive activities. When I heard about the organisation I thought it was a great idea I’m always look for fun things to do in Blackpool and I contacted the brains behind the idea to ask if I could ask them a few questions and this is what I found out.

Who came up with the idea and what inspired such an ambitious project?

Aunty Social began as a small group of friends who were concerned that there was nowhere in Blackpool to go to meet other people of a similar age. Socialising seems to revolve around bars, pubs and nightclubs. We decided to draw up a programme of arts and cultural activities designed to bring people together and get them talking, whether it’s film club, screen-printing, DJing classes or craft nights, we want to get people out of the house, away from the computer or television, sharing skills/interests, developing social skills and generally having a good time together.

The idea for Aunty Social was formed in February 2011 and core members met to discuss and plan future activities and search for startup funding. Interest in Aunty Social and potential activities has already started to grow, with other organisations approaching us to run various workshops. Aunty Social now has a website HERE , Facebook page HERE and Twitter account HERE To date, we have nearly 200 followers on Facebook and over 100 followers on Twitter.

As an organisation what do you want to achieve through Aunty Social?

Our mission is to create a vibrant, active and diverse community for the Fylde Coast area through positive, sustainable arts and cultural activities, tea and cake. Aunty Social wants to give people (primarily aged 16-40) opportunities to meet new friends through positive and creative activities.

So we want to address this by creating friendly spaces where young people can just connect and engage through friendly conversation, arts activities, tea and cake. Why tea and cake? Food culture has always been a way of bringing people together, and all communities, cultures, age groups like a good cup of tea.

What events have you got planned and how can people get involved?

Oh, there are so many! To date we’ve had a dead/felt-work workshop, Connected (social media surgery) and Knittaz with Attitude (our new-wave,yarn-bombing, cake snaffling knitting group). In the future we are planning to do more of the same , widening our offer of crafts to include screen-printing, bag making, monster-making, ceramic painting and badge making. We’d also like to diversify into dj-ing workshops and set up a film club.

We have been lucky in securing a venue through the Blackpool Culture Shops project which will be revealed soon. The Grundy Art gallery has kindly agreed to host some of the workshops as has Blackpool Central Library (when the renovation work is complete), Barista (Birley St) and the Number 5 cafe (Cedar Square).

Anyone is welcome to get involved and they can get on touch via Facebook or Twitter, or just email us on info@auntysocial.co.uk and say what you’re interested in. We’re a friendly bunch, so what’s stopping you?

What do you see in the future for aunty social?

Who knows? We’ve had lots of encouragement and the ideas just keep on coming. We are lucky to have lots of members with a variety of different skills, so I’m confident that we will continue to develop our activities, learning as we go along. Today Blackpool, tomorrow?...Poulton...no, the world!

What have the highlights been so far?

We’ve had fantastic turn-outs at our events so far and lots of positive feedback. It’s also been great meeting lots of new people with similar interests (and I don’t just mean cake!). It’s also been fun raising money to get started, getting up early to run a pitch at car boot sales so that we can pay for basics such as business cards and insurance.

Looking at the response to our activities to date, it looks like we’ll be very busy and having plenty more fun in the future.

Personally I think that it’s a great idea I have always loved arts and crafts and learning new things, the idea of DJing lessons really appeals to me too. As someone who doesn’t drink that often I agree it’s hard to be sociable without going to places where everyone else is drunk! I’m really looking forward to attending some of the events over summer, having fun and being creative. I’m also really impressed with the way Aunty Social started and I think it’s a fantastic example of what can be achieved by a group of friends if you are passionate and willing to put in the hard work. Well done Aunty!


What do you think? Would you like something like this in your area? Does anything like this already exist?


xx

Pretty pennies

You may have noticed I have a mild false eyelash addiction. I wear false lashes about 4 days a week. I have been doing for years and I’m quite good at sticking them on well and quickly. One of my first posts was about False eyelashes and you can read that HERE.


I don’t know how many times people reuse false lashes but I try and get about 2 weeks use out of each pair, sometimes I manage this but sometimes the lashes fall apart or a loose them! (I honestly don’t know if this is usual of a little dirty.)

I spend between £3 - £6 per pair so when I saw 60 pairs of lashes for £6 on Ebay I thought I’d give then ago.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The where sent from China and took about 10 working days which I think is pretty good. I received six boxes of 10 pairs. Each box is a little different and I’m really happy with 4/6 styles. The remaining styles are too thin for my liking but I guess this is because I then to go for thick ‘drag queen’ style lashes!


They did come with a small tube of glue but I’m a little sceptical about putting super cheap glue on my already sensitive eyes.

The lashes seem to be of decent quality for the price and I have no major complaints, I’ve had to trim them down quite a lot to make them fit my little beady eyes! Saying that I think I will only be able to get a single use out of each pair and they seem to be a little stiff so they take longer to apply.


 



Verdict: For 10p a pair they are good value and I’m glad I bought them however they aren’t quite as good as my usual buys but I can hardly expect the same quality for only I tiny fraction of the price. I do find them fiddly but I’m hoping after a few more attempts I will get the hand of applying them.

Over the past few days I’ve been very busy on Friday I spent the day with my best friend and her family sunbathing and having water fights in the garden, Saturday  went to a funfair and parade in my local village and on Saturday I went to Bury for a girly sleepover with my university friends. We watched a ton of films, played lots of drinking games and the night finished in the early hours with face painting !

How was your weekend?

xx

Sand, Sea & Spray, Blackpool

"Sand, Sea & Spray brings to Blackpool an amazing Art Event, painting 'Live' on Saturday 21st May 2011 will be 40 of the top Urban artists in the world, travelling from Europe, Canada and across the UK to paint in Blackpool, the first of a truly unique event. A gallery will be established on North Pier until 4th June showing the artists work." - S,S&S event page.

Always last to the party I missed the opening event but last week I went in to town with my cameras to have a look at the art. I had a great time wandering around Blackpool and because the work was in 4 separate locations I ended up walking all over town including to the end of north pier.  I haven’t been up north pier in years but unlike the other two piers it’s not been modernised and it retains its old charm including a beautiful old fashioned carousel that I really wanted a go on.  

This was just a small selection of the picture I took but the work was amazing the pictures really don’t do it justice. Afterwards I headed to the Grundy Art museum which is free and in the centre of town, the exhibits change pretty much every two months and I hadn’t been for a while. The current exhibit showed what I would call abstract art by Mike Pratt in contrast to very traditional paintings from the galleries own collection. There were some great sculptures too.

I love that there’s always something going in Blackpool, I’ve recently been hearing plans for ‘Wordpool’ The literature festival in autumn and Gay Pride Festival is next week.

I have to admit I caved in and bought an ‘I love Blackpool’ hoodie from the Visit Blackpool shop. Yes I live there and yes my mum laughed at me but it’s lovely a snugly and warm and I do love Blackpool, can you tell?

I hope you have all had a lovely weekend?

Xx

Ps. I’ve planned a giveaway to say thank you to my readers the prize includes items I’ve talked about on my blog I hope you all like it.
Pps. Since writing my last post i realised I'd missed off two bag. One is in the shape of a car and the other is in the shape of a bus - They are from Octopus in manchester and i forgot about them because they both live on top of my wardrobe.