Books

I have always been a big reader. I can't remember a time when I wasn't obsessed with a book series. I used to get through thick, and I mean thick, books in like, a day or so. Crazy.

(I think the books that has cause the most tears and trauma over the past years has been the Skulduggery Pleasant book series. God, those books had some pure evil plot twists that screwed you over again and again. And the characters were so realistic and brilliant and the kind of ones you loved to hate. I definitely recommend reading the series.)

Sorry. Big ol' digression

So after becoming a blogger it's become increasingly more important to have inspiration. I have put together three of my favourite style books/magazines that have been very lovely to flick through when I have almost no inspiration.

You probably know this one, or might've even read it. How to be Parisian is a really well written, lifestyle book written by four very successful women. The book covers romance, style and day to day tips that every Parisian lady apparently knows. I love the sarcastic, melancholy and slightly dreamlike way its written. It's *exactly* what I am like in real life.

I'm pretty sure I got this little book in Kyoto. It's completely written in Japanese, which I can't even begin to decipher, but that doesn't make it any less lovely to have.

Its written more or less in the style of interviews of different well known manga artists, and covers the styles of Kimono, La Mode, School girl and Realism. The illustrations are beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. And from what I get, all of them are hand drawn by the artist. That means all the chiffon and lace and all the other types of fabrics were made with just ink, but still look completely accurate.

I love Oh Comely. The magazine is dedicated to "keeping your curiosity sacred" and does so with a series of unique articles and photo sets. It also includes some pieces which are designed to make you think those 'deep thoughts' which make you end up lying on the floor in a state of semi-existential crisis (always worth putting some Danisnotonfire quotes in here. Shout out to any Danosaurs!)

See you soon guys
Strawberry x

Marc Nagtzaam

I've taken inspiration from Marc Nagtzaam's work this season. I love his monochrome tones and lazy, simple lines. They look gorgeous. Thankfully, Topshop has  a vast array of lovely pieces to fulfill my needs. I mean, I always love Topshop (I might not love their prices though. Ditto Urban Outfitters) and their pieces are always lovely, but this season, I think they've done very well. Check out their new stock and have a look!

Also, I found this app called Forest which basically lets you plant a digital tree, and this tree will grow in an allotted amount of time. This is sooooo helpful for me. I annoy the hell out of my friends and family by being on my phone all the time so with this, I am forced to socialize. Yay. (Even I don't know if that 'yay' is sarcastic....)

See ya soon guys
Strawberry x

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Spring '15

trench coat | grey beanie | striped top | denim top | white dress | alien sweatshirt | necklace | ripped jeans | drip sweatshirt | metallic shoes | cross earrings | blue jacket

Is this a wishlist or a guide...?

I love how Spring has such a positive effect on everyone. For example I did my D of E (I know. So middle class. Don't judge) hike/walk/mud swim today and it definitely went into my top 5 list of awesome days. If it had been any other weather it probably would have sucked, but as it was, everyone was happy.

Some highlights of the day were:

• My friends cornering me and then tickling me (cus' I was bored and kept complaining) so I kept kicking and thrashing and I managed to split my friend's lip. 
• Videos of my friends running down a hill.
• In the same video, my friends ran into each other's arms like in some bad cliche romance film.
• Falling into a KNEE DEEP POOL OF MUD.
• Getting lost at least 3 times.
• Singing songs, very, very badly. 

See ya soon guys

Strawberry x

The White Dress Wonderland

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 Thank every deity/god/celestial being for spring slowly arriving. I really need some kind of sunshine right now. I am sick to death of super thick jumpers, woolly tights, awkward jeans that don't fit and beanies that make me look like my head is a cross between a gnome and an alien. Is it too much to ask for weather that doesn't require a gazillion layers? Pretty please?

(Note: My evident grumpiness is due to my top brace being applied on Sunday. Only one more year of treatment...)

See ya soon guys
Strawberry x

Wear with...

hat | bag | scarf | shoes | necklace

Not quite there but nearly

coat | shoes | necklace | dress | bag 

That dress right there has been going in and out of stock for the last six months and its only NOW that I have finally ordered it. It's one of those things that you love dearly but every time you decide Yes. Today is the day. Today I shall treat myself and get the thing, you see that dreaded out of stock sign and all that anticipation just melts away and you are left there feeling slightly betrayed. How weird is that? You can feel betrayed by a pretty dress. Weird huh?

(I think I get the digression award here. Kudos if you made it through all that wittering.)

Also, I've changed my update schedule to Saturday. It's way more convenient than a Friday and means I can spend a lot time on the posts (which is good for you readers).

See ya soon guys
Strawberry x

Belfast

 I'm sorry that I didn't upload last week. I was away in Belfast being rained on. I can't complain too much though, because I SAW WHERE CASTLE BLACK IN GAME OF THRONES WAS FILMED. I also may have visited the giant's causeway too which was wayyyyyyyyyyy too awesome for my mediocre photography skills to capture. It's actually spread out quite a lot, if you haven't seen it, so it's not just this big clunky pile of hexagon shaped rocks like you imagine it to be, its actually a very wide expanse of hexagon shaped rocks that are stupidly slippy because the waves that drench them in water are extremely big. Like, seriously, I have never seen breakers that huge before. It's phenomenal, it really is.

See ya soon guys
Strawberry x

For the Love of Valentine

watch | bag | ring

dress |  jacket | jumper

shoes | ring | skirt

Tomorrow, pushing through the onslaught of  Valentine's day blog posts will be tiring. There's just so many of them. There's 734930943740484 more beauty, fashion, how tos and tags to wade through just because it's the day of love.

And maybe, just maybe, the reason I find this all so funny/boring is because I'm an awkward 14 year old with absolutely no interest in all that yet because she'd still rather fangirl over some weird anime or watch gaming videos on youtube by various funny hosts. Huh.

But happy valentine's day guys! Whatever you're doing, wherever you are and who you with, I hope you have an awesome time!

See ya soon guys
Strawberry x

The French Mistake

Ignore those update times I said I woulds stick to. Pfffffff who needs good time management anyway?

*cries in corner*

I am, actually, very sorry about that. I had parents evening (buckets of thrilling family fun) and another school thingy on Friday and like, some weird essay that I completely forgot about until Sunday night when I looked at what I needed for Monday and hey look there's this big homework that I've neglected. YAY.

Is there an award for complaining? I'd probably get it.

See ya soon guys
Strawberry x

Somewhere pretty to rest your head....

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lazy oaf

Perhaps it's down to the fact that I love to put outfits together that I love to put rooms together. It's a deep rooted aesthetic thing probably. But I do, I really do. It's only recently that I have finished painting my room a lovely shade of Scandinavian-y light blue (kudos to my Mum for that, she's pro at painting) and have bought one of those clothes hanger things that you find in clothes shops. I'm not sure what it is, but in Spring there's a need for everything to be clean, tidy and organised (which is my normal mindset really, but as my parents can confirm, I almost NEVER get it done. Cue the whole "MADDY TIDY YOUR ROOM RIGHT NOW!" affair.)

So what's your guys take on it? Any of you feel like the urge to complete change your space?

See ya soon guys
Strawberry x

Can my hair please do the thing?

 Not gonna lie, the thought of lopping all my hair off is very tempting. But it's scary, isn't it? I mean, I've had super-long dead straight hair forever and I have always been in a very strong love/hate relationship with it. Its just so awkward.

And yet I've seen examples of short-ish hair done right. Ellie from ellie's favourite things for example. There are girls at my school who look friggin fabulous with it. There are literally hundreds of examples of people with damn awesome hair everywhere.

I think (and this is what I always end up doing) that I'm probably going to take it agonisingly slow and cut off a few inches every couple of months. I'm not sure. I think if I did take the plunge THIS is what my reaction would be:

See ya soon guys
Strawberry x

All hail the 70s

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To be quite honest,  I was never one of those people who were *ahem* bold enough to go for the 70s look. The closest I ever got was perhaps a flower crown and I'm not even sure that counts. I would have cringed at the thought of wearing wooden wedges and mustard colored pieces. I would never, NOT EVER be seen dead in THAT.

But times have changed.

And frankly my younger self should have at least tried it because (if done subtly) it can be awesome as hell. For example, my favourite coat has a lovely 70s/80s feel to it and I wear it with my roll neck jumper, my mary janes that I got from a charity shop and my ripped light blue skinny jeans.  I personally think it looks very cute and quite spring-ish.

See ya soon guys
Strawberry

The Unicorn Hotel

I often find that when I'm thinking up posts, I have all these creative ideas and I can't wait to execute them. The only issue is that when it gets down to actually doing it, I either,

A: procrastinate and never get the project done,

B: Find that when I'm doing the photography for the post the lighting is so poor and I give up completely, or,

C: the background for the post is totally awful and I end up searching around the house WILLING for there to be decent floor/wall to do it in with adequate lightning but end up getting so frustrated so I just flop down on my bed in a mixture of despair and irritability and wonder why I even bother.

Please say that someone agrees with me and struggles with this! I often wonder how people actually get those perfectly white walls that look like they're straight out of a fashion magazine. How do people DO this?? 

*sigh*

See ya soon guys
Strawberry xx

Dawn of the Pretentious Slippers

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AGhhhhhhj;dsnjkcnsdcmdl.

I had my teeth out today. OH. MY. GOD. It was just awful. But at least its over. Its (supposed) to be a smooth downhill slope from here. Wish me luck.

But anyway, I think this is one of my more... mature-ish outfits. I say this because of the frankly, weird shoes. What the hell are you meant to do with your heel? They remind me of pretentious-slippers quite honestly. What do you think?
I do really wish I had a gorgeous gigantic jumper like that one though. I would love to snuggle to up in that, read bizarre fanfiction and try not to spill tea on myself in that.

(I was clearly meant for Fashion Week as you can tell.)

See ya soon guys
Strawberry xx

Leafy Appreciation

I'm getting used to dragging my camera out everywhere I go now. I mean, its still seriously awkward just doing random photography in the middle of Nottingham and I still prefer going out to quieter places (ie Clumber Park)  but I'm getting used to it.

If I could, all my photos would be of fluffy puppies. There was a stupid amount of dogs that I both cuddled and photographed that day. There are lots of failed photos saved of blurry pups cus' THEY KEEP MOVING. Don't get me wrong, it's cute as hell, but it would be nice to get a decent photo of a living pom-pom for once...

See ya soon guys
Strawberry x