Reading Festival 2012

WHAT A WEEKEND. Oh my I cannot express to you guys how much I love festivals, and Reading fest this year was quite an experience. I have come home with multiple bruises, swollen feet, burnt arms and back and a possible chest infections... but it was totally worth it. This year I camped with a large group of mates from college right in the heart of Purple Camp (which if you aren't familiar with the colours, is the central campsite and usually the most popular). Apart from the music one of the favourite parts of Reading Festival is the people. Everyone is so like minded at Reading Festival and everyone looks out for each other it just makes the atmosphere incredible.  Over the weekend I saw a variety of acts to definitely get my money's worth:

Friday consisted of:

• Friends
• Spector
• The Hives
• Lucy Rose
• Alt J
• Bombay Bicycle Club (pictured left)
• Foster the people
• The Maccabees 

The only thing I don't like about festivals is the lack of sleep I get. I sound like such a wimp but I need my sleep sooo much hahaha! Forgetting my roll matt this year was quite possibly the worst thing to happen! Throughout the weekend I went for the popular 'Festival Wardrobe' which consisted of: Levi Short x2, Wrangler Shorts x1, Black low-back Dress and a variety of tank tops and shirts.

After an extremely full day on Friday, I woke up Saturday with a slightly sore throat from all the screaming and 'singing' and decided to go and queue for my FREE BREAKFAST (yes you heard correctly). This year, Reading Festival were giving every weekend camper a free breakfast, which was quite possibly the best idea anyone could've though of. That sausage bap went down a treat, and was needed for the next surprise that was about to happen...

GREEN FRICKIN' DAY LADIES AND GENTLEMEN. GREEN DAY!!!!!!!! I'd heard and seen internet rumours but I only thought they were rumours... but no it was really happening! From a distance at about 10.30 we heard a band sound checking... which was quite early for a sound check... Then it clicked... GREEN DAY WERE ACTUALLY HERE. At that moment myself and a few of the boys full on sprinted from our camp site to the arena barriers, through the guards and into the NME/Radio 1 tent, where GREEN DAY WERE PLAYING. The guards shut the gates after about 4000-5000 people were in the arena, practically making the gig intimate. They blew the crowd away with all their hits, starting with 'Welcome to Paradise'. I have never been so happy in my life, seeing my favourite Childhood rockband, the first band to ever go onto my only white ipod shuffle, right infront of my eyes! 

Green Day blew my mind, as the guards only let in a certain number of people, the unlucky thousands who were stuck behind the barriers had to watch from afar. They opened the barriers one song from the end and the crowds came running faster than no crowd i've seen run before! Anyway... as you can gather, I thought they were amazing...

Our makeup as a result of the rain (During Florence and the Machine)

For the rest of Saturday I saw:

• Theme Park
• Mystery Jets
• Odd Future (OFWGKTA)
• The Vaccines
• Florence and the Machine
• Metronomy

 

The Rest of Saturday consisted of great music and rain! Torrential downpours left us frozen and quite frankly soaking! But this didn't dampen our spirits... After Florence and the Machine a few of us went back to get changed and the headed to see Metronomy over Kasabian. Quite a lot of people think i'm crazy to have done that, but oh well, I love Metronomy!

Charlie ready to go for a number two! This photo cracks me up every time haha!

 Sunday morning is the morning that I dread, the beginning of the last day. Today was the day that i woke up with practically no voice but that wasn't going to let that stop me! Today was the day of the FOO FIGHTERS. 

Tribes

Sunday's music consisted of:

• Of Monster's and Men
• Band of Skulls
• Django Django
• Tribes (pictured left)
• Kaiser Chiefs 
• The Black Keys
• Foo Fighters 

Face paint time! Watching Tribes.

Sunday morning consisted of a line up of bands which then, luckily, was followed by a few hours of rest before the long evening ahead. We fuelled up on some food and drink and headed down to the main stage to start with the Kaiser Chiefs. Playing their hits they got they definitely got the crowd going. Once the Kaiser's had finished I mentally, emotionally and physically prepared myself for the next two acts. I had been waiting ALL weekend for these two bands, THE BLACK KEYS and the FOO FIGHTERS. 

WOW WOW WOWOWOWOWOWOOWOWWWWWWWWW. Words cannot express how amazing they both were, The Black keys played their most recent hits (unfortunately not 'Thickfreakness' but 'Little Black Submarine' was amazing). I did get head butted in a Black Key's mosh pit, but to be honest it was definitely worth it!  

The Foo Fighters followed. This was the one band I had been waiting for ALL year, this is no exaggeration. Seeing Dave Grohl and the rest of the band left me speechless. Oh gosh even thinking about their set right now makes me so happy, it was quite honestly the best gig I have EVER and i mean EVER EVER EVER EVER been to in my whole entire life. I was on my friend's shoulders during 'Best of you' and cried my eyes out (I think the fact that i was extremely tired and in awe at seeing the foo's just made me have a mini emotional breakdown hehe). Foo Fighters - Best of you - Reading Festival 2012 (hopefully this link shows up, the video may be removed from YouTube at some point).

The Black Keys

Foo Fighters

Overall Reading Festival 2012 was a pretty darn good festival. The people were AMAZING, the line up was AMAZING, the atmosphere was AMAZING and I cannot wait to go next year... my aim for next year is to go to: Glastonbury, Benicassim, Latitude, Reading and Bestival (highly unlikely but I can dream).

I hope everyone else who went to Reading had a fantastic time aswell, let me know if the comments below who your favourite band was and how you enjoyed your weekend.

More post from me about back to college next week! 

All the best guys!

DIY - Skeleton/Ribcage Cut-out Tee

Over the summer I've really been getting into DIY video blogs on YouTube. They opened my eyes to a great range of ideas to personalise and create some individual clothing. Today I decided to create my own cut-out tee that has been seen in a variety of shops such as Urban Outfitters and Topshop, but for a fraction of the cost.

What you'll need:
Plain Oversized Tee - Colour of your choice (I've chosen a men's black tee from Primark)
Brown Paper or Sugar Paper
Pencil
Pins
Tailors Chalk
Fabric Shears/Sharp Scissors 

Step 1: Turn your tee over and inside-out. Measure out the amount of Brown Paper you'll need and cut/rip it off.

Step 2: For my design I am doing a Ribcage and therefore I want it equal on both side. 

If you'd like to do this design - fold your paper in half and draw half a Ribcage with the fold almost touching the side of your drawing.

Step 3: Cut out your pattern (in this case the 'bones' of the Ribcage) and lay onto the back/inside of your tee.

Step 4: Secure your pattern in place on your tee with small heavy objects or pins. 

Step 5: Lightly start to trace the inside of your pattern with Tailors Chalk or some form of pen that will easily come off in the wash - even though its being traced on the inside of the top, it can still easily come off on your skin or show through if your top is a light colour.

Step 6: Carefully with Fabric Shears or very sharp scissors start to cut out your pattern (making sure that you only cut ONE side of the tee and that the front isn't caught underneath).

Bare in mind, especially with the Ribcage design, that you may not what to cut out all of the individual 'bones', so keep trying on the tee after several sections are cut out... I did this and actually decided I didn't want or need the bottom five sections... so just left it as it is shown below.

Step 7: Neaten off all rough edges with smaller scissors or a scalpel if you have one (again, please be careful and only use a scalpel on a suitable board)

This is my final design:

I hope you've enjoyed this quick DIY, I've got a lot more planned over the next few weeks so will keep you updated with how they are going.

I hope everyone is having a lovely week/summer break x

OOTD/OOTE: 3/8/12

Last night I went up to O2 Islington, London to support a band competing in the Surface Festival Semi-finals.  After a successful performance they got through to the Regional Final and hoping to get through to the International Final! So check them out: Jungle Doctors 

Last night I wore a dress, which for me is different as to gig's I usually wear shorts and sneakers for comfort. But I love this dress and the low-back so thought I'd take a risk!

Fedora - ASOS

Gold Chain Chocker - Vintage

Black low-back Dress - H&M

Black Suede Wedges - Newlook

July Favourites - Top 5

Its the end of July already, wow, this year is going fast! I've been lucky to spend the majority of this month on holiday in Europe so my favourites are all consisting on items that translate the hot weather. At the start of the month I went to Florence (Florence Day 1 , Florence Day 2 , Florence Day 3) with my college, where we spend most of our time looking around museums and walking around the city. 

I was considering putting my 'Ecoute Urban Outfitters' woven sandals into my favourites but through-out Florence they hurt SO incredibly much. Luckily by the time I got to Spain my sandals had worn in and I could wear them comfortably but they won't make my top 5 this month... Anyway, here are my top five items of July 2012...

1. Woven and Tan Leather Rucksack is my first favourite for this month. After visiting a weekly market in Spain I was determined to get either a leather satchel or rucksack. 

When I saw this bag I instantly fell in love! the Aztec/woven pattern is to die for, and is definitely large enough for my books when I go back to college. With gold hardware and three smaller front pockets, it would be perfect for a day trip up to London or a day at the beach. 

The only let down to this bag is the smell... yes the smell... its that ghastly over the top leather market smell AHHH. it won't go away! I've tried everything! Deodrant, Draw scenters, Fabric spray, polish... it won't go away. So, if anyone has any ideas to how I can get rid of this smell then please let me know.

But anyways, i LOVE LOVE LOVE this bag and can't wait to start using it (after the smell has gone!)

 

 2. John Frieda 'Lightening Spray'. as many of you know I decided to dye my hair just over a month ago and my roots have started to come through. When I dyed my hair I did originally want to dye it in stages instead of going a really light blonde straight away, and I hoped that on holiday it would go slightly lighter... To speed up the process I purchased John Frieda's lightening spray which has worked a dream!

As the diagram shows below, you can use it in different ways to achieve different things. I wanted to lighten my roots so applied to my roots every few days and occasionally did the back of my hair and my fringe. Fortunately its worked a dream and my fringe is getting a lot lighter (and my roots are fading back to blonde).

I'd fully recommend this if you want to lighten your hair, however I do think its worked so well as i did have the powerful sun to aid it.

3. Floral Violet Bikini. I am very particular about my bikinis and this one is just perfect. I bought it from Marks & Spencer last year but only started wearing it this summer. 

I tend to wear it with short beach shorts and a cover-up to and from the pool/beach. It has also been one of my top five June favourites due to the floral pattern on the waistband. 

4. my new H&M Sunglasses have been a definite essential to this month and I've worn them practically everyday. I can't really say much more about these sunglasses apart from the fact they do what they're meant to do and I love the slight cat eye shape they have.

5. Finally the Beige and Red floral Scarf which I have been wearing in my hair to keep it out of my eyes and using it to sit on and tie around my bag.

This concludes my July Favourites - Top 5. August for me consists of work for second year at college (yes i know, work during a holiday!), some shopping, thrifting and of course READING FESTIVAL! i will be doing some festival looks in the next few weeks.

I hope everyone is having a great week! See you soon x

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.