Shorts, Sun, Sea & OOTD

Been in Spain for a week now on a family holiday. We've experienced some lovely weather, and apparently so had the UK! I prefer Spanish heat though, not humid at all. Here are a selection of photos I took today and of course what I wore. This is one of my casual holiday outfits; Shorts, Tee and Sandals...

Today I'm wearing:

Sunglasses - H&M

'White Light' Tank - H&M

Black Backpack - Primark

Denim Highwaisted Shorts - Wrangler

Tan and Colour Woven Sandals - Ecoute at Urban Outfitters

I hope everybody is having a lovely week. More posts later this week, or when I return from Spain x

Summer Haul

Went on a little spending spree today, due to my family holiday TOMORROW! I feel like i've barely been home over the last few weeks... University visits, College trips etc... Here are some photos of the items I've purchased and how I would style them. 

Topshop Purchases:

White and Red Rose Sundress - £36

Hawaiian Flower Suntop - £26

Tiedye Geometric Tank - £20

Salmon Pink Ballet Pumps - £16 

I haven't bought a lot of things from Topshop recently... I browse their website practically everyday but i only splash the cash in there for essentials or something that I can safely say will be worth the price. Since the majority of my wardrobe is dark colours I thought I'd buy some floral prints for the 'summer' and just to add some variation to what I wear.

What i'm wearing in today's Lookbook:

Top - Topshop (as seen above)

Gold chain Necklace - H&M

Black Maxi Skirt - DIY made myself

Black Suede Wedges - Newlook

H&M Purchases:

White Printed Strappy Top - £7.99

Black Low-back Dress - £12.99

Invisible socks - £4.99

Other Purchases:

Black Rucksack - Primark £9.00

Rose Pyjamma Shorts - Primark £3.00

These Salmon ballet pumps have been in Topshop for what seems like forever, but I have never bought them. I finally gave in and bought a pair, wow, I can see what all the hype is about... they are SO comfortable! Definitely a star purchase for holiday.

Hopefully I will get to blog throughout my holiday, but if I don't for a while, I hope everybody has a fab 'summer' or holiday OR whatever season it is where you live!

Florence - Day 3

Day 3 - Our last full day started off with visiting the world famous Uffizi Gallery. We saw the The Birth of Venus by Botticelli and many other paintings and statues of interest. Afterwards we sat in the cafe at the top of the galley.

View of the Cathedral from the Uffizi Gallery

After the museum we sat down for some well deserved lunch. This was my favourite lunch over the holiday as it was more traditional and tasted fab! Megan had a salmon platter with foccacia bread and salad (pictured left).

Me and Leonie had some rustic bruschetta with tomatoes and mozzarella (pictured right). Poppy had flat-bread filled with salmon, rocket and dressing (pictured below). We were so glad we discovered the restaurant as it was reasonably priced, and was under some shade!   

Throughout my stay in Florence i sticked to the same drink which was their 'Lemon Soda'. Even though it was in a can and wasn't anything extravagant it was extremely over priced, at between 4-7 euros a can! 

 After lunch we had until 5pm to look around the town, do some shopping and get ready for our last night out.


We headed towards to shops which were familiar to us - H&M, Zara etc. - and had a look around the sales (which were much better than the ones here in the UK). I ended up buying a top and a necklace from H&M and found loads of lovely things in Zara which i stopped myself from buying as I was on a tight budget.

After the high-street shops we looked around a market which had a large variety of leather goods and colourful masks. 

 At 5pm, after we'd got ready to go out, we visited our last museum, The Accademia, which hosted the famous 'Michelangelo David'. The museum was packed with tourists but unfortunately, like most of the churches and museums in Florence, we weren't allowed to take photos.

After the Accademia we all caught the local bus to San Miniato, which was a view point onto the whole of Florence.

For the last evening i wore:

Shiny Nude Tee - H&M

Gold chain Necklace - H&M

Leather Shorts - Blitz (borrowed)

Leather Sandals - Boohoo.com

We got the bus back down to Florence where our group of friends decided to go for a meal together in a restaurant tucked away in a side road.

We opted yet again for a traditional Italian meal - might as well when you're in Italy! Leonie and Megan had a Pesto Pasta, Poppy and I had (yet another) Lasagne, and some of the others had Pizza's, Carbonara's and Ravioli.

As it was our last night we all decided after our meal to go out to a bar in the centre of Florence. We'd been there the night before and had a great time, so why not spend the last night on a positive. 

Florence - Day 2

Day 2 - After having very little sleep due to the lack of air conditioning, we stumbled out of bed down to breakfast and discussed what we'd be doing today. 

We first of all headed off to the Medici Chapel, where we sketched and jotted down what we saw (as we were unable to take photos). Just before lunch we visited the St Maria Novella, which is a cathedral hosting the first recorded painting to use perspective.

The square where our hotel was located

  

Today i wore:

Sunglasses - H&M

White lace body - Vintage

Black maxi skirt - (Made myself)

Poppy wears: Sunglasses (Primark), Top (Topshop), Skirt (Topshop)
Leonie wears: Sunglasses (Topshop), Top (topshop), Skirt (Zara)

After our visit to the St Maria Novella we were sent off on our own to look around the shops and have some lunch. We came across the 'expensive' district with shops such as Louis Vuitton, Mui Mui and Gucci. 

  For lunch we stopped off at a small cafe near our hotel to have a panini and a lemon soda. The afternoon consisted of visiting the Bargello Museum and relaxing by our hotel.

In the evening we went on another evening walk to the Ponte Veccio as a group, then went off to dinner at our own leisure 

Outfit of the evening:

Top - Vintage (borrowed)

Shorts - Beyond Retro

Sandals - Urban Outfitters

For dinner the three of us and another group of girls decided to have dinner at a very elegant looking restaurant. After opening the menu we discovered why it looked so nice... it was a little overpriced (55 euros for a small steak). Luckily the pasta wasn't too expensive so i decided to have my first Lasagne which was quite possibly the nicest Lasagne i've EVER had. 










The other girls had pasta and sandwiches, trying to stick to a budget! All of the dishes were made with home-made pasta. Fortunately we got 20% off our meal for being students...

Florence - Day 1

Over the next few posts I will be sharing with you numerous photos of my college trip to Florence. 

Day 1 - Woke up at 5.30 to head over to my friends house to go to the airport. After overestimating the amount of traffic we thought there was going to be, we arrived at the airport 45minutes before we were supposed to meet everyone.. opps! The whole airport procedure was pretty average and ran smoothly apart from the 30minute flight delay. 

As we arrived in Pisa airport, our whole group came to terms with how HOT it was going to be. England has been awful over the past few weeks so stepping out into 30 degree heat was a shock. 

Before taking a coach to our hotel in Florence we stopped off in Pisa to visit the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa and the 'Piazza Dei Miracoli' (which is a walled area containing Pisa's Cathedral, Baptistery and the Bell tower itself)

To travel in I wore:

Jumper - H&M

White Tee - Topshop

Harem Trousers - ASOS Marketplace

Sandals - ASOS

What Leonie and Poppy wore (left to right):
Leonie wore: Trousers (H&M), Top (Urban Outfitters),  Sunglasses (Topshop).
Poppy wore: Trousers (H&M), Top (Topshop), Sunglasses (Primark) 

We checked into our hotel and went out for a walk to explore the city and go out for dinner. 

 Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore

As it was the first night, we decided to play it safe and went to a popular Italian restaurant and have a pizza. Then we ventured around town, went to the 'Ponte Vecchio' (famous bridge) to find an ice cream. I chose to have Cookies and Cream with Chocolate Mousse - Yum Yum Yum!

Holiday Packing!

Holiday time!!! PACKING! which means the annoying questions; how many pairs of shorts should I take? will I need smart tops or casual tops? shoes for every occasion? do I need cover-ups for religious venues? Way too much to think about. The first thing I tend to look at is the weather forecast for the upcoming week. Luckily (and unluckily) the weather in Florence is due to be 30-36oc for most of the week... This is good as it will be a lovely change from the disgusting weather we are having in the UK at the moment. But it is also not so good as I don't handle heat very well.

I first decided on clothes and shoes: 

three pairs of shorts, five tops (two smart, three casual), jumpsuit, midi dress, maxi skirt, pyjamas, wedges, loafers and sandals. (I know all of this may seem very excessive, but i'm a typical girl, I need options!)

Extras:

towels, toiletries, travel sick tablets, tissues. (alliteration to the max)

Toiletries (and the image below) are pretty self-explanatory to what i'm taking. However I did take the opportunity in buying the miniature toiletries which are just adorable! As you can see I am bringing an excessive amount of plasters, i am PRONE to blisters, cuts, grazes, you name it.

Hand luggage, this can sometimes be my favourite, and sometimes my least favourite thing to pack. This time it hasn't been too bad as i'm only going for a few days so won't need that much (and the flight is short). 

My hand luggage consists of:

Bag - H&M, Company, A5 Sketch pad - WHSmith, Pencil Case - Cath Kidston , Sunglasses - H&M

Makeup - Lipsticks (No.7 and Rimmel), Nail Vanish (Barry M)

Purse, Ipod

Spare shorts - H&M, Fedora Hat - Asos, Scarf - Vintage

I'm off tomorrow morning, and won't be brining my laptop. Therefore I won't be blogging whilst away but as soon as i'm back you can be sure there will be numerous posts of outfits, sights and probably loads of photos of the yummy yummy italian food (can't wait) 

Addio, Ciao, Arrivederci!

OOTD: 3/7/12

With Britain having the wettest June of ALL TIME, I hoped that the beginning of July would give us some confidence that we would have some form of decent weather. I was wrong, July began and still is a wash out. After regrettably buying numerous summer clothes i have decided to start putting together some outfits for when the show really does shine.

Today I'm wearing:
Headband - Charity Shop
Pink Blouse with Peter Pan collar - Topshop
Hightwaisted Hawaiian Shorts - Beyond Retro
Black Socks - American Apparel
Black Boots - Topshop