Jingle jangle

 

"Jewellery takes people's attention off your wrinkles" Sarah Phillips

 

Light H&M Denim Shirt

Striped Jumper Topshop-Similar here

Zara Navy Blazer

Navy Topshop Leigh skinny jeans

 

 

For a girl who used to get ready in 3mins flat as I was too lazy to get out of bed before quarter past 9 when I start work at half 9 & it takes 12mins to walk to work, the fact that I was out of bed was as amazing as when moses spread the red sea. Why you ask? I was lucky enough to be asked to attend the Argento Summer Catalogue shoot for a sneak peek at some of their gorgeous jewellery. A known favourite on the high street in the UK and Ireland showcasing the finest jewellery including Alex and Ani, Pandora, Pilgrim, Thomas Sabo and many more. All girls love a bit of sparkle and bling bling, as I type this I am jingle jangling with my Alex and Ani bracelets so an opportunity to have a trying on session with the up and coming pieces for the summer was worth getting out of bed for.

 

 

However, this smiling face is not someone you want to see early on a Tuesday morning when your eyes are still puffy and you feel groggy. The lovely girls from Argento had a brief for the shoot and simply put, it was to be as natural as possible. Promoting the products and helping to enhance them with laid-bare beauty, no fuss, no frills. Soft, simple but defined who better to compliment the jewellery that the gorgeous Naoise Tan. Now I have worked with Naoise before, (I actually did a catwalk with Naoise and 3 other girls were I was driving & I went to pick them up & all of them were wearing their school uniforms. God did I feel the mummy of the group.) A regular at BFW & face of BT2 in Dublin, not only is she gorgeous, lovely to talk to but she is smart. We had a quick catch up as she is trying to decide on degrees or to take a year out, medicine and law were mentioned. (Yesterday morning I had no hoover bags left so sat outside picking the dust out of the old one. The joys of picking a PR degree!!)

 

 

My main man, Mr Paddy McGurgan was doing the makeup. As natural as possible, Paddy focused mainly on the foundation as he wanted to reflect the light & having Naoise skin glowing. Hair was soft curls gently styled into place by the legendary Joe McGivern. The photos were being taken by the genius that is Khara Pringle.  Now less about the gorgeous model and more about the jewellery!!!

 

So here's a sneak peek of the jewellery for the morning part of the shoot.  All of Argento's own brands, gorgeous bracelets by Karma, Nakamol wrap bracelets, Dirty Ruby rings, I wanted to steal them all. I fell in love with this arrow ring (ignore my grubby five year old style dirty nails).  One of the girls on the shoot, Sarah then pointed out that she had designed it herself.  Imagine that feeling of seeing people wearing and loving your designs! Def going on my wishlist!

 

 

Below are photos from the afternoon shoot including jewellery brands like Alex and Ani, Hely designs, Antonio Ben Chimol and Nakamol. All of these are available in Argento stores and online.

 

 

 

Stacking bracelets is totally in this season.  Check out these gorgeous colours of aqua, silver and beige, perfect colours for coming into the mid season! I loved these wrap bracelets paired with Alex and Ani bracelets. To have a nosey at the full collections, check out Argento's website: Argento Website or keep an eye out for the Summer catalogue featuring the gorgeous Naoise. 

What goes around, comes around.

"So soon that a fashion is universal, it is out of date" Marie Von Ebner-Eschenbach

 White Shirt

True Religion jeans 

Topshop studded pumps 

Sandwich Scarf

The secret to fashion is that nothing really ever goes out of fashion. Everything is always coming back into trend, maybe years, decades or even a century in time. This was the highly intellectual conversation that my friend Zoe and I were having on Sunday night after we had been to the pictures to see Tween rom-com Beautiful Creatures. (a movie not to drag your boyfriend to ladies, that would just be cruel.) Here are a few of my favourite recurring trends that I want to recreate over the next few weeks. It can be a game, guess what trend I am wearing today!

Trend number one

Monochrome: striped, checked, different sleeves, different trousers legs. You name it, if it is black and white, it is bang on trend. As seen previously in my blog, I have achieve the monochrome look without buying anything new this season. I'm down with the kids.

Trend number two

Shift: no this is not slang for kissing someone (to shift someone is to kiss them right?? Or did I just make this up??) Shift clothing is a box shaped like attire for example shift dresses. I don't really have that many shift style clothing items as it doesn't really suit my shape as I am so small and it drowns me. But I do have a few shift shirts that I like to tuck into pencil skirts or skinnies. Totally rocking the swinging sixties. Especially if it is a bright colour, far out dude. Check out this shift dress from Asos

Trend number three

The nineties: think spice girls, think all saints, think b*witched and their double denim. C'est la vie! The nineties are back although it seems only yesterday that they were actually here. Back in the day I was rocking my Adidas poppers (aw remember these, the tracksuit bottoms with the buttons the whole way up them) but this trend is truly rocking the doc martins and dungarees look! I'm not sure if this one I am going to be able to achieve or even pull off it without fully looking like I am my 12 year old tomboy self again.

Trend number four

Flares: omg, can it be true?!? Bloggers from all over the world have been working the flare wide leg trousers for the past couple of seasons but flare jeans are finally coming back into fashion! Spotted on the catwalk at New York Fashion Week, I will be dusting off my denim flares that have been huffing with me at the back of my wardrobe for the past couple of years. No more skinnies which are a nightmare to get off. Sexy undressing in these is impossible. It has gotten to the point where I try not to wear skinnies if Connor is coming over to my house to stay if you know what I mean ;)

Rebecca Minkoff at New York Fashion week

Yeah so, trend spotting for 2013 by wearing fashion from previous years. This can't qualify as vintage can it?!?

Gifts

"I don't want expensive gifts; I don't want to be bought. I have everything I want. I just want someone to be there for me, to make me feel safe and secure." Princess Diana

  

Red Jumper Zara- similar here

Light Denim Shirt Primark - similar here

Topshop Leigh Skinny Jeans

I survived! Friday night was messy but I awoke on Saturday morning with only puffy stuck together eyes and a headache, saved by Dragon again!! (Dragon Rendezvous, a lovely Chinese restaurant in Belfast where drunkards like myself can go enjoy a proper sit down meal at half 2 in the morning.  Have you ever tried to use a knife & fork when you are drunk???)  Keeping with the Spring 2013 key trends, I went for a monochrome look.

White Blazer Zara

Black Leather Dress Zara

As you can clearly see from the top photo, my bedroom mirrors definitely need a good clean!! This dress was actually one of many dresses that is in my wardrobe with the tags on it! I was so excited to wear it as well, as I had got it for Christmas from my darling mother.  However, I didn't even really get to show it off as I didn't take my blazer off all night.  Oh well, I'm sure it will get another outing this year!

This weekend was a big weekend for me, this weekend I got my first clothing items of 2013. Ok, I am going to refer you back to one of my 1st posts before anyone starts arguing with me THE RULES I refer you to rule number 4 and 5, no hinting or slipping people money to buy me clothes but gifting is ok.  This weekend I got my first gifts, both were a complete surprise and unnecessary! But I accepted them with grace (I did not sleep with them in bed with me last night, hugging them for dear life...)

The first was from my dearest & nearest Mr Cocopops aka Connor.  I came back from work on Friday to this sitting on my bed

My first thought was Omg is someone watching me?!? I promise it wasn't me!!! I don't know where this came, please believe me!! Have I been shopping in my sleep??  But no, a cute note was attached & a t-shirt I had pined after was in the bag. (You don't need to know the soppiness this early on a Monday) Completely overwhelmed, it went straight on me & didn't come off all weekend.  Now at the weekends I usually take a break from blogging so it never even crossed my mind to take a photo of me wearing it.  But here it is on the All Saints website. All Saints grey Tshirt Why out of not buying anything for 6 weeks and potentially for the next 46 weeks would I crave a grey t-shirt so much that it penetrated my boyfriend's mind and clicked with him that it might be nice to get this for me?? a) he is an absolute sweetheart *sigh* b) from not buying things and looking up new ways to piece my wardrobe together, you learn the basics that you need to do this.  I did not have a grey tshirt, I now do and can now do 50 million new outfits with this 1 piece of clothing. (ok, maybe not 50 million but I've so many ideas that I may have to write them down so I don't forget)

The second item of clothing I received was a sympathy gift.  On Saturday I went up home as my aunt was visiting my mum and celebrating her 50th birthday!  Sorry I just announced your age on my blog Auntie Lisa!!! I arrived on sunday to my mum's house to be greeted by my mum in her outfit from saturday night, classy mum, classy.  She still looked great though! My aunt had purchased a red dress from Asos, that she wasn't sure about so I got it instead!!!  She said she couldn't be bothered to send it back but I think she just felt sorry for me as I stared at it longingly, the Asos tag hypnotising me, calling my name.  Now it's a size 8, and as I have the body of 14 year old boy, it could potentially not even fit but here it is.

 

Asos Midi Red dress

So can I just state that I still haven't bought any clothes or accessoires for myself in the year 2013. I promise, turn around, touch the ground, no comment about it.....

Bit of bling bling

"I have a very classic take on fashion. I like my accessories to pop, but in general, my style is pretty classic." Ashley Greene 

 

White T-shirt H&M 

Plum Midi Skirt Topshop 

I'm snotty, wheezy and sneezy.  Thanks for making me sick little brother.  I don't think he will be reading this as he is 9 years old but still, cheers. 

So I'm sick & I'm wearing a t-shirt... I'm blonde, not the smartest crayon in the box.  Today though, my aim was to accessorise to the max!  Accessorising is not one of my strong point to be honest.  My dad gave me a gorgeous diamond necklace on my 18th, my mum gave me the earrings to match on my 21st & that is my stable jewellery.  I hate taking them off so I just wear them all the time.  I have costume jewellery, but as many things in my wardrobe, it is covered in dust. Today though, no no no, it was like decorating my christmas tree again.  Arm is covered in pretty bracelets, I'm wearing a lovely gold belt & a spikey necklace. No earrings though, kinda forgot but I think that would have been too much. 

 

Spikey Necklace; Zara  

Gold Belt, primark 

Assortment of Bracelets

Here is a lovely close up of my pink, pale skin & the accessories I'm wearing today.  Now as I said accessorising isn't one of my strong points so I'm simply don't buy them.  Most of these have been lovely gifts so I have given alternatives on the links. 

Advantages to accessorises so far:

1. Complimented in the shop on my necklace, great start to the day

2. It helps make this normal t-shirt & tube skirt a really funky outfit

3. I feel all pretty, like I have actually made a real effort today

4.  Elasticated belt so it moves with my expanding belly full of the supernoodles I'm currently having for lunch

Disadvantages to accessories so far:

1. Necklace kept getting caught in my scarf this morning, which pulled the material of the scarf. (sorry connor as the scarf is yours hahaha)

2. My bracelets are annoying making noises every single time I type or move my hand to the mouse.

3. Necklace is slightly rubbing my skin as you can see from the pinkness of my skin. I'm a man though & can take it.  Lies, I'm a delicate flower & it hurts so I'm tugging my t-shirt up. This is in turn giving me a hunchback in my t-shirt.