Easter Break + Matalan Finds

Happy Easter! Slightly belated.. I know..

But I'm munching into my honeypot shaped egg that Ady found in the clearance section of Morrisons, Easter on the cheap, win!

I hope everyone enjoyed the lovely sunshine and generally had some fun. We got alot of silly chores done, things that needed cleaning, things that needed organising and tidying, etc. We also had naughty ice creams, went to a funfair that consisted of three rides, and ran across the Asda carpark in stormy rain. It was an awesome storm, but our flat was like an oven, and our Velux windows would let rain in, so we sat and roasted while watching The Million Pound Drop on tv.

Today we ran some errands, and I popped into Matalan while we were out. I'd read great things about their latest collections, and I was very impressed when I looked around.

Sitting proudly against some rather plain dresses was a floral dress, thee floral dress, absolutely beautiful print, perfect shape. I tried it on, and I fell in love, until I saw that it was falling apart and someone had taken scissors to the belt. Then I was far from impressed, grr.

However, I did find the dress online, and hopefully, in a few days, this little beauty will be mine :)

via Matalan

It's £14.00, which I think is pretty good. I found that the length was really good, and the detailing around the top was flattering for me. I teamed it with a turquoise blue cardigan in the changing room and thought it was a love match :)

I also loved this dress online, I saw the jumpsuit version in store and loved the print, so I got excited when I found it in dress form online, buuut alas, £25.00 is alot for a dress when I have far too many already.. ;)

via Matalan

Not sure if it would look too poofy on me, but it's very pretty.

I'll definitely be checking out Matalan on a regular basis, rather than once in a blue moon.

What did you get upto over Easter? :)

Love,

Fiona x

Ooh Pretty Nails! (001)

I've decided to create an 'ooh pretty nails' tag, something which I'll try to do once a week.

I'm rediscovering my love for nailart lately, and my recent nail look is some lovely Easter bunnies, inspired by Dainty Dresses. There's so many people doing so many beautifully creative things with their nails out there, and from googling I found so many gorgeous images that are so inspiring.

So here is a collection of gorgeous 'spring/summer' inspired nails.

Florals

via we heart it

I love love love florals. They remind me of vintage chic, summer days, happiness. I think this style is really quite effective too, it's almost like dots of colour and shading which make up roses. I also found a tutorial for mastering the style here. I'll hopefully be trying it out myself soon.

Cupcakes

via beautyhill

Yummy cupcake nails! I adore all things cupcake, so these are a real hit with me. They're perfect for spring when they're created with plenty of pastel colours. Click the link above to see loads of different styles. There are some really pretty polkadot and stripe ideas, as well as super fruity ones.

Prints

via we heart it

I'm not a huge fan of animal print, although I have grown fond of my hot pink zebra print pjs I had for christmas (sooo shexay, haha). I think hot pink can pull off anything, or vice versa. These are definitely versatile, and it's a design that could work with other colour schemes too.

Strawberries

via fashioncraz

Strawberries are the yummiest fruit, in my mind. So I love this nailart, it's so cutesy, especially with pink. To smarten it up a bit, all you need to do is swap pink for red, and voila. I love sporting a strawberry nail. I use Barry M mint green, a pink Barry M shade (can't remember the name), and a basic white for the dots. It's uber cute.

Aside nailart, I noticed that OPI have created a Designer Series range. I'm quite the OPI fan, although usually can't justify the price tag ;)

The Designer Series are extremely sparkly, I think the term is 'prismatic'. From what I've read and seen, they reflect lots of light, therefore creating a multicoloured nail. I'm quite taken with this colour...

It's called 'Opulence'

Looks like this on nails..

via google

I found them on Ebay for a pretty penny. But alas, I am not allowed to shop just yet ;)

Love,

Fiona x

A Huge Catch Up..

I haven't posted a thing in ages! Time has seriously flown by. Looooads to say...

I've spent my time focusing on getting my finances in order, so I've seriously cut back on jewellery supplies, I've sold alot of my non-sparklerose things through Ebay and car boot sales, and stopped shopping for any girly things I don't need. It's been going for a few weeks now, and although I would love to go on a big shopping trip, watching my bank balance improve is extremely motivating. However, we are having some treats, such as a London daytrip, and I did purchase a naughty bag, but generally they are at a minimum. Our focus is to save loads of money for our future.

Due to my little world being busier than usual, my time to sit and relax with beads and tools in my hands are becoming rare. I still enjoy it, and I love the things I make, but I definitely will be taking a backseat from it, for now anyway. I would love to explore other options of handmade goodies when I do have more time, and I'd like to remove the pressures of advertising/promotion that inevitably come with a small ''business''. I basically want to inject the fun back into it, and the best way for me to do this is to supply shops, as I'm doing with Milkwood Gallery, so for now, that'll be my main focus. I think when I started last year I tried to run before I could walk.

However, there will be more items to show in the future, when I'm finished with my other missions, and I will maintain an online shop as well as supplying. But for now, I'm somewhat taking a proper break :)

My missions:

- To sort myself out financially, from overtime in work, selling old things, being a cautious & thrifty spender.
- To get our flat looking perfect, by de-cluttering and reorganising sections of it.
- To generally focus on my life here, I still have more settling in to do.

So, here's what I've been upto the past few weeks...

We visited London on a very sunny Saturday and we decided to go to the Southbank Centre Square for a chocolate festival. We bought a box of delicious macaroons in the yummiest of flavours, like lemon & lime, and Malibu (very fruity). He also got us some huuuge cookies that tasted almost like flat circle brownies with loads of chocolate chips. I nibbled mine on the tube as we were heading to Kew Gardens. We spent most of the afternoon there. We're planning to make a daytrip there at some point.

I baked cupcakes :D and then decorated them badly with chocolate chips. They were meant to be like hearts, but it failed me. The buttercream was incredible, I finally got the consistency right, and the flavour was awesome. Just a dash of strawberry jam gave it a lovely strawberry flavour and a very faint pink colouring.

I did however purchase this very naughty bag from Cath Kidston. The boyfriend passed me some money while we were in the store, and told me to buy myself something, so I bought this :D I have sold alot of my older bags though, so I have been somewhat 'good'.

I've also started to clear alot of my toiletries. I seem to be part of a large amount of people who have hoarded loads of toiletries, like myself, and alot of people are talking about cutting their collections down. I started taking photos of the things that I've used up, so far for April I've got 12 photos. It's motivated me to use things I've held onto for no apparent reason, like samples and miniatures. Apart from things like toothpaste, shampoo+conditioner, and facial-based things, I haven't needed to buy any toiletries at all. The worst bit is the amount of lotions and body butters I have, eek.

Wow, I've written a ton, I'm going to stop now ;)

I've been seriously considering creating a blog sale for some of the things I'm selling. Any thoughts? :)

Love,

Fiona x