Baby it's cold outside

So tomorrow September begins and with a change in month brings a change in season... normally! In my opinion, autumn already hit a week or 2 ago (except for a few lovely sunny days) and whilst I love the colder months and a chance to cuddle up in layers it'll be sad to say goodbye the short summer we had! Last week, on a particularly cold day I donned numerous layers with burgundy and grey tones in preparation for the colder months.

Asymmetric top, lace crop top, cardigan and skirt from Topshop
OTK boots from Office

It's pretty tragic that 80% of this outfit is from Topshop but there you go! I can't remember where these tights are from but they are a pretty standard winter colour so you can probably pick them up anywhere. I really like this outfit, all the colours and fabrics are very AW10 plus the different lengths of the clothes give it a bit of the cool factor (I think so anyway) and keep me warm on long cold days =)

You can see my leopard print Uggs in the background too which will probably get worn a lot this winter. I do love my Uggs but I try not wear them too much out and about because they are darn unattractive!!! I'm really looking forward to deep purple and red colours this winter with the addition of animal prints, wool and lace combinations and heavy coats and capes, mmmm joy!!!

Now that I'm back home in London for the majority of time there hopefully wont be many more of these horrible student room photos. Instead I can show you out giant pumpkin plant that is slowly taking over the garden at home!!! What are you guys most looking forward to this AW10 asides from falling leaves and mugs of hot chocolate bliss =)

Pub quiz time now x

Leeds Festival 2010

I had such a fantastic time in Leeds this weekend, despite the 6 hour car journey to get there! We got stuck in a ridiculous amount of traffic jams and even drove past a lorry carrying hay on fire... nevertheless the weekend was a total success and I got to spend some time with the boy =)

On Friday evening we went out for some cheap drinks. When a pint in London can cost £3.50+ a £2.50 cider in the Dry Dock was a marvel!! This pub was in an old boat and completely amazing! After a few pints and vodkas we went to the Fab Cafe which is a fantastic retro bar / club complete with Doctor Who and Star Wars memorabilia including an original Darlek!!!

Dress from River Island
Lace top from Tesco
Denim Jacket from Uniqlo
Bag from Urban Outfiters
Bow brooch from Topshop

I did some mighty dancing to Green Day in this place and would definitely recommend it if you like a bit of rock / pop punk / indie music plus £2.50 for a double vodka and lemonade was heaven!!!

Saturday was spent at the Leeds Festival where I got to witness some truly awesome bands! I've been to Reading loads of times before but this was my first trip to Leeds and I definitely think it's nicer, friendlier and generally more awesome than its Southern counterpart!!

Wellies from Primark, Office, Hunter

The weather was wonderful (we didn't really need our wellies) and the line up was brilliant (the reason we chose to buy Saturday tickets, obviously)!!!!

We saw:

The King Blue - awesome political punk band from London

Los Campesinos! - great for dancing too indie band from Cardiff

Limp Bizkit - hilarious, brilliant and totally reminiscent of my early teen days

The Like - incredible indie all girl band from the USA who are the pure essence of cool. They reminded me off a more rock version of the Pipettes

Cyprus Hill - insane in the brain

WEEZER - best band of the day, complete with Teenage Dirtbag cover and a mash up of Kids and Poker Face with a blonde wig. Rivers was hilariously mental and amazing, what a show

Paramore - boring as hell

Blink-182 - not as amazing as I was hoping they would be but still fun and got me dancing like a teenager

Dress from Topshop
Black hoodie from Uniqlo
Floral Raincoat from New Look

All in all the day was wonderful, especially when we got to go back stage after Blink-182 thanks to G and her contacts i.e. Weezer's production manager!!! Big shout out to Nasi for the backstage passes, THANK YOU!!!!!! You must be incredibly jealous but in all honesty we didn't get to meet anyone famous because they had all gone back to their hotels but we did get to snoop around and drink free beer.

My wellies have bows on the side!! I bought a programme and the sticker on the left is my backstage Weezer pass!!! I also got one of those Florence Welch floral headbands from a festival stall.

On Sunday we went to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park on the way home but I'll save that post for another day since I have a lot of photos!

I love festivals but sometimes I can't be bothered with the camping so going for the day was perfect and I would definitely got to Leeds again if the right bands were playing. It's handy having the boy live 20mins away from the festival site so it didn't cost too much to travel etc. I hope you all had a wonderful bank holiday weekend too?

Time to watch some Mad Men in bed x

House Take 2

Check it out, another pair of housey tights but this time it's white on black!

Tunic and skirt from H&M
Tights from Henry Holland
Socks and necklace from Topshop
Doc Martins

I told you I loved tights didn't I? Well the black-on-white pair are my favourite but these are pretty cool too! I never really wear my DMs that much, I kind of regret buying them in pink because they don't really go with that much. Whilst a black pair would be more practical I do love how they pop out against the monochrome outfit.

I was meant to go to a clothes swapping party tonight but the weather in London is so hideous I decided against it and am staying in to watch Arrested Development with my little sister.

I'm going to Leeds tomorrow with G and C to visit the boy and be jolly at Leeds Festival on Saturday. I am so excited about seeing Blink-182, I've never seen them before so it'll be very fun and reminiscent of my youth... good times!!! I am packed for rain and shine so hopefully I'll be prepared but I'm pretty sure the wellies will have to be worn. This will be my first festival of the year since I had to return my Glasto tickets so it'll be great to catch up with some live music and dancing with strangers. I've been to Reading Festival 5 times before and whilst I feel I've out grown it (and can't handle the idiotic people) it'll be fun to try out Leeds.

It's so nice not having to work at the minute and this weekend plus bank holiday will be the first short break I've had for quite some time and I'm really looking forward to it. Do you guys have any plans? Any festivals or just relaxing?

I hope I don't get too muddy x

Housey legs

Hi, everyone, I'm back! Did you miss me? I missed blogging terribly, including writing and reading other peoples. I'm trying to catch up with posts and commenting but there is an awful lot I missed! Anyway, it sure feels good to not have to worry about work and I'm glad I can finally get back to blogging properly! I only have a viva left on September 10th and then I properly finish my masters and will never have to write an essay again. Unless of course I do a PhD but that's a different story! Now that the stress is over I can stop dressing like a slob. For a few days I managed to look like myself but by Sunday I was a full on trackie bum, baggy tee library slob!

Now that winter is fast approaching I can dig out my beloved tights, knits and deep colours. I love AW because I love dressing up in layers, hats, scarves and woolly clothes. There's nothing nice then get cozy on a cold day with a steaming hot chocolate. I wish it snowed more in London, makes winter even more exciting an gives you the excuse to wear silly hats and matching gloves =)

So, get ready to see my extensive collection of tights. I have a box full of them at the bottom of my bed in many different colours, patterns and styles. First out of the box is a beloved pair of Henry Holland tights complete with houses. I love his collection for Pretty Polly, the colours and styles are so much fun but my only criticism is the fact they tear so easily. I have already torn 3 pairs so replacing them is no cheap job! Since last year I must have spen £100+ on Henry Holland tights which is shocking!!!

Jumper, skirt and bow from Topshop

Tee from H&M
Pumps from River Island
Tights from Henry Holland

I love how the black houses look like they've been drawn on your legs, possibly one of my favourite pairs! I also like the clash of the checked skirt with the stripy tee. Another thing I love about winter is how it seems easier to clash patterns and colours, must be all those chunky knits and snow accessories! Winter = colourful tights too and thus my Gossip Girl obsession grows. FYI series 4 starts on 13th September!!!

You may have noticed my blog appearance looks different, well I changed it by mistake and can't get it back to the original layout! However, I have downloaded a photo editing tool and re-discovered my old photo bucket account so I think my pictures will be much bigger. Bear with me for a few days before I get the layout and everything right because I don't really like it at the minute. Back in the days of myspace I used photo bucket for editing my home page where I knew a lot about html too, not sure what happened cos as I've mentioned before I have no clue about that stuff now but I am slowly learning.

Besides from all the techno rubbish, what are you guys looking forward to wearing this winter?

Just remembered the Great British Bake Off is on tonight x

Finished!

Today I handed in all 21,000 words of my MSc Toxicology dissertation and to say I am relieved is a massive under statement. I have worked my stripy socks off the last week and am really happy with the end result. Of course more time would have been a luxury but we will always say that! I was up until 5am this morning doing all the final touches, making sure grammar and spelling was perfect and that formatting looked beautiful! I am completely exhausted so normal blogging will resume tomorrow!

In the meantime I leave you with a snapshot of last year when I was covered in pink for house party dressed as Happiny the Pokemon with my fellow team Hannah member!

Until tomorrow, night night x

Europe 2009

Sorry about the lack of posts, I'm on the final leg of my dissertation now! Plenty of corrections to do and then I need to put everything together, check formatting, write an abstract, check the references and I'm done! Sounds like a lot still but I'm slowly getting there. My aim is do be finished by Saturday evening so I can get the dreaded thing bound on Sunday (maybe hit THE YARD SALE) and hand it in fresh faced on Monday before the 12 O' clock deadline!!!!

Anyway, it feels kinda nice to be writing something that isn't sciencey or requiring my brain to think outside it's teeny tiny box. I've found some really interesting results and my name will also be appearing ON A SCIENTIFIC JOURNAL..... some time in 2012/2013!!!! I'll keep you posted about that one cos whilst it may be a long time away its very exciting and also pretty good for the old CV.

I know you all love a good photo or two so to keep you occupied before I make an official return here are some photos of me when I was solo inter railing around Europe last summer.

Barcelona, Spain

Monte Carlo, Monaco

Milan, Italy

Florence, Italy

Pisa, Italy

Rome, Italy

Venice, Italy

Verona, Italy

Ljubljana, Slovenia

Zagreb, Croatia

Budapest, Hungary

Bratislava, Slovakia

Vienna, Austria

Krakow, Poland

Berlin, Germany

Copenhagen, Denmark

Oslo, Norway

Stockholm, Sweden

Helsinki, Finland

Phew, so that was everywhere I went during my wonderful 5 weeks of train journeys, hostels and little sleep. I wasn't going to upload photos of everywhere I went but I have so there you!! The photos are in the order of places I visited and to save you asking, yes I did go on my own because a. no one else was free / had the money etc and b. I really wanted to go travelling and Europe is a safe place to go by oneself. I went from mid August until mid September. My favourite places were Barcelona, Berlin and Florence and my least favourite place was Zagreb. I caught a plane to Spain then travelled around on train, got a ferry from Copenhagen to Oslo, a train to Stockholm and another ferry to Helsinki where I flew back home. God knows how much I spent, it was too depressing to calculate but probably in the region of £2000 including my inter rail ticket, 2 plane tickets, 2 ferry tickets and an awful lot of accommodation and food. I had an amazing time, saw so much, learnt loads and would recommend it to anyone. The experience was extraordinary!!!

I love the sequence of photos because you can tell how the weather changed from my outfits. I started in the South of Europe which was sweltering hot and ended up in the cold North. I had very few items of clothing we me and only one pair of trousers, jumper and jacket hence the repetition. You can also tell I lost weight as I went along =) but the masters has made me put it all (and more) on again =(

Can you see the hair band bow I'm wearing most of the time? Haha, I told you I've always been obsessed!!! Also, my hair is a gross colour because I had dyed it pink for Glasto 2009 and spent the summer washing it out so what you see is almost my natural hair colour!! Anyway, I must get back to work cos I've spent much longer on here than anticipated...

See you after this weekend from hell x

Check ma tache

Look what arrived today...

Necklace from eBay
Tee from H! by Henry Holland
Hair bow from Topshop

YES, my moustache necklace!! Look how wonderful and fun it is, I'm in love! Perfect with the matching ring... all I need is this mug now!

Apologies if you think I'm a freak but whatevs x

Scrabblous

So you know I love a bit of novelty jewellery, well my collection just got BIGGER! Oh yes my friends, who knew a person could look so cool in multiple scrabble tiles and moustaches!

Top from Topshop
Skirt from H&M
Tights from Henry Holland
Clogs from ASOS

If people insist on charging next to nothing for quirky fun on eBay than who am I to refuse them the joy of a couple pounds and a smile on my face =)

All this jewellery is from ebay and I'm so happy I bought it! Yes, it's completely ridiculous but I like how fun everything is. I love wearing the scrabble brooch and necklace together and am glad my name start with 'H' because I get four points instead of a rubbish 1 like you would get for 'A' names etc. Anyway, people who have really interesting names like Quinda or Zoogel (OK, I made those up) get to have EVEN MORE points, lucky them!!!! Gosh, I sound like a bit of a freak, a freak with a moustache on her finger!! I have a bit of love for these furry facial features and already have a tshirt with one on plus a necklace on the way...

Now that it's getting a bit cooled I can bring out the tights and my collection is rather vast. I love colourful and patterned tights and the Henry Holland collection for Pretty Polly is perfect. I have loads of these and whilst they are pretty delicate I love the housing detail and change in texture.

Today's outfit was pretty random wouldn't you agree? Oh well, that's what happens when you have a week of your dissertation left to go. Do you guys have any quirky fashion loves? Or am I the only jewellery freak out there?

6 days x