Bright Coloured Coats & Satchel Backpacks

Hey everyone,

So Boohoo had a sale on...I think that's about all I need to say.

I found this really cute Satchel Backpack which I love. It's quite a thin, rectangular shape with a buckle on the front and a small zip pocket at the back.

I've chosen to wear it with a plain grey vest tucked into some high-waisted jeans turned up at the bottom, black leather loafers and a black hat.

I think this was around £20 and I got it in the sale for £12 which I am very happy with.

Vest: Primark

Jeans: River Island

Shoes: Urban Outfitters

Hat: H&M

Necklace: H&M

Nails: "Pom Pom" by Urban Outfitters

The other thing I bought was this bright yellow Oversized Boyfriend Coat.

I really like these style of coats, and I think you can dress them up or wear them casually. Make your own mind up as to what I've done with it here, I feel like this is smart-casual.

I chose to wear it with a grey & white striped t-shirt, high waisted jeans again, black velvet t-bar shoes, hat and sunglasses.

They also had this coat in pink, a pale blue and a coral colour. Despite this being a summery colour, it's definitely not a summer coat, 

This was £40 and I got it in the sale for £20.

Top: New Look

Jeans: River Island

Shoes: Topshop

Hat: H&M

Sunglasses: Primark

I hope you have enjoyed reading this and you like this coat and bag, unfortunately the bag is no longer available on boohoo but you can still get the coat. If you like it or are considering getting one, I would recommend it as they are really warm so in autumn and winter they will be great, maybe too warm for the day these photos were taken... I would also advise you to get it quickly as they may take them down off the website as the sale ends.

As I mentioned, it was a very hot day and it didn't help that the striped t-shirt was long sleeved. But it's bearable for a few photos. 

See you soon.

Aoife

Summer Lookbook

Hello everyone,

So I've been working on this for about two weeks now and I've finally put together my first ever lookbook. This is kind of my first attempt at fashion blogging but it's something that I've been thinking about doing for a long time. It's not great by any means but I like it and although I pictured things differently, I like how some of the photos have turned out.

I have chosen 4 outfits, all very different styles and different looks depending on what you like to wear in summer.
I'll list the pieces I'm wearing at the end of each outfit. I'll also add links if I can find them.

This is my first choice of outfit. A tie dye swing dress, sandals, floppy hat, casual bag & sunglasses.

You may recognise this bag and watch from a previous post. I've used the bag to show how you could style it.

I've heard the term 'Birk-a-likes' been thrown around and I suppose that's what these are but I love these because they go with so many things and they're so easy to slip on.

And finally some sunnies. I think this is a good beach outfit or just a good outfit for a sunny day so sunglasses are a must. 

You may also have notices that there is a posing person with my camera in the lens of my glasses. That's Kayleigh. I'd like to say a big Thank You to Kayleigh for shooting these photos for me, I know how tiring and boring it got...sorry, and thanks.

What I'm Wearing:

Dress - Boohoo

Sandals - Primark

Bag - Primark

Hat - Tu at Sainsbury's - http://www.sainsburys-live-well-for-less.co.uk/tu-clothing/products/women/floppy-beach-hat/

Sunglasses - Primark

This is my second outfit I chose. I have trouble explaining this one and why it has become how it is. 

I love how this outfit looks and I was immediately happy with the combination when I tried it. However, if it was sunny, you wouldn't wear a sweatshirt and if it was cold enough to wear a sweatshirt, you wouldn't wear shorts... Do you get my situation? 

Nevertheless, I like it and I'll wear it when I find a solution to my problem.

I paired these New Balance with this outfit as it's quite casual and the comfy sweatshirt needs some comfy shoes to go with it. I like the colour of these because you can get away with most colours to pair these with.

I accessorised this outfit with these flip-lens sunglasses, a casual zebra watch and powder blue nails.

What I'm Wearing:

Sweatshirt - Vintage/Thrift Shop find

Shorts - Dorothy Perkins - http://www.dorothyperkins.com/en/dpuk/product/clothing-203535/shorts-203566/midwash-plait-trim-denim-shorts-2916757?bi=1&ps=20

Shoes - Office (Sale)

Sunglasses - Vintage find

Watch - Paperchase

Nail Varnish - Barry M Hi Shine Gelly 'Huckleberry' - http://www.superdrug.com/Barry-M/Barry-M-Gelly-Nail-Paint-Huckleberry-19/p/883869#.U78UjpRdV6w

This is my third outfit. I don't know about you but I personally still like to wear jeans in summer. I feel like it's nicer to wear a more summery top and just have casual bottoms.

Because these jeans are high-waisted, I felt a little bit more daring and I paired them with my cropped watermelon print vest. 

As you can see, I have chosen my white 'Birk-a-likes' sandals to go with this outfit to make it more summery. Also I wore mirrored lens sunglasses that you may have seen in this post.

I like this outfit because it's simple and I would wear jeans in any season of the year.

What I'm Wearing:

Top - H&M - http://www.hm.com/gb/product/29757?article=29757-B

Jeans - Zara (without braces) - http://www.zara.com/uk/en/sale/jeans-with-suspenders-c643503p1667144.html?sharedProduct=true

Sandals - Primark

Sunglasses - Primark

And this is my final outfit. I love this because it's such a comfortable, easy-to-wear outfit. 

Patterned trousers, simple vest with a pocket on the left, sandals, sunglasses.

Although it's summer, I still like to wear pants/trousers. These harem trousers are really light and thin so if you don't feel like wearing shorts or a dress, these are a really good choice.

I paired them with a black pair of birk-a-likes which I love. I don't feel like my black ones are as easy to put with things, I always seem to choose the white ones, but that's a personal preference and I like them with this outfit.

I also chose these sunglasses, which I've previously mentioned, to go with this outfit.

And finally I added a black velvet scrunchie, which looks a bit difficult to see on here because of the trees behind me, but I took the top and side pieces of hair and tied them back to keep my hair off my face and when it's sunny it's an easy way to keep cool.

What I'm Wearing:
Vest - F&F at Tesco
Trousers - Primark
Sandals - Primark
Sunglasses - Vintage
Scrunchie - Urban Outfitters - http://www.urbanoutfitters.com/uk/catalog/productdetail.jsp?id=5417411360038&parentid=WOMENS-HAIR-ACCESSORIES-EU
Lips - Tanya Burr Lipgloss in 'Chic' - http://www.superdrug.com/b/Tanya%20Burr#.U8gaJ5RdV6w mixed with Rimmel Kate Moss Lipstick in 'Shade 01' - http://www.superdrug.com/Make-Up/Lips/Lipstick/Rimmel-Kate-Lipstick-Shade-1/p/301252#.U8gahZRdV6w

I hope you enjoyed that, a little bit different from the usual thing I post but I really enjoyed trying it out and I hope I do some more fashion things. I hope this may give you some inspiration for summer outfits and experiment with pairing things together.

See you soon

Aoife

The Serenity of Sunset

Ooh, look at this, a cheeky late Friday night post.

This was just something that's been on my mind for a few days and I wanted to share it. 
Fortunately, I am able to watch the sun set from my bedroom window every night. From around 6-7 O'Clock I'll watch it until it sets and the sky gets dark.

I love sitting/lying on my bed with my blinds open and no lights on waiting for the sky to go from blue to orange and pinks and the occasional bit of purple cloud sometimes. I think it's one of the most beautiful, peaceful, relaxing things to do/watch.

I've been taking some photos each night for about 3 days because I was half planning to write this and share them.

This one was taken through my window on my phone. This was just as set, you can see the orange glow central in the image and the sky was turning a dark shade of blue.

These two above are amazing. These are my favourite. I love the ombre sky, these photos are just so calming and relaxing. 

I was much cloudier when I took the above two but it still looks really good. The clouds are the separation between the yellow sun setting and the blue sky going dark.

I've made a pact with myself that I will go to the beach one evening and watch the sun set and take some pictures. But for now, that's all. If you can or if you're fortunate to have the sun set from your bedroom window, watch it one night and see how beautiful it is.

It makes me think about how beautiful and good the world can be, yet it's continually ruined by the bad people. I always say I want to move somewhere nicer and prettier but when you see the natural world, it makes you think just how beautiful it is even if you don't particularly like where you live.

It'll be nearly Saturday before I get this up if I keep rambling.

Goodnight, and have a great weekend!

See you soon

Aoife

Cactus | My Collection

Hello!

Before we go anywhere with this, how is it already July!?!

So recently I bought some more Cactuses - before you correct me, 'Cactuses' and 'Cacti' are plural for Cactus. Now that that's out of the way, I wanted to share the new Cactuses that I have. I have a deep love for Cactuses and Succulents and when I get my own house or apartment in years to come I will have LOTS of them.

So I was in Ikea and I saw these and oh my goodness, how was I supposed to just leave them there on the shelf?

This how they came in this little trio.

I love the white pots that they come in. I have another cactus that is in a yellow pot and it bothers me that there's one odd colour. I'd rather they were all white or all mismatched colours. I'm thinking about spray painting them different colours so I may do a post about that.

And that is each one individually, I just think they're really nice and you can get cactuses and succulents anywhere, garden centres, supermarkets sometimes, or ikea like these ones. They also had different colour pots. I'll leave the links at the end to ikea's website.

That's all for now. I hope you've enjoyed this and it's inspired you to get some for yourself.

I don't know if any of you know about/use bloglovin' - maybe you're reading this via bloglovin' - but if not, you can follow me on bloglovin' here and see posts that I've liked and you can follow other blogs that you like to read and have all your feed from them in one place on this app/website.

You can find me on most social media @connellaoife - instagram etc (add _ to the end for twitter)

Hope I can see some of you over there. Bye for now.

See you soon

Aoife

UK Website - http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/ 

USA Website - http://www.ikea.com/us/en/

Grass Head Egg Plants

Hello everyone,

So if you've only read the title of this post so far, you may well be very confused. I apologise for that. But if you continue to read, everything with make sense. 

Originally, I started using these egg shells to plant flowers in to give my nan as a gift for Easter, however, 1 out of 6 was successful and I was left with 5 others that were going nowhere. So I decided to jazz them up a bit.

I put grass seeds in, watered them and just hoped for the best. After a good few weeks/months or so, they had grown really well and the grass had become long like hair, so what else was I to do with them than to draw faces on them and give them personalities....and names too.

Let's introduce you to Norman, Betty, Pepe, Larry & Erik.

This is Norman. He's always quiet & sad and doesn't fit in with everyone else.

This is Betty. She's outgoing and flirty and gets on well with everyone. 

This is Pepe. He's the cool, Spanish surfer that gets on well with Betty.

This is Larry, he's very loud and over dramatic and a little bit crazy. He will be friends with anyone.

This is Erik. He's always very angry and shocked. You don't want to get on the wrong side of him.

Although this is not my usual kind of post, I just thought it was something fun that I'd share. It could be a bit of a DIY but I haven't really given very clear steps to making them.

If you'd like to make your own it is really simple, I'll give a little quick step-by-step that you could follow.

1) Take some eggs (as many as you choose) and gently tap it with a spoon to break the top off.

2) Empty out the yolk and egg white from inside. Either put it in a bowl to keep hold of or throw it out if you don't want it.

3) Gently swish some water around inside the shell to clean it and tip it out.

4) Fill your shells with some soil and sprinkle grass seeds fairly into them.

5) Continue to water them each day, don't give them too much water though.

6) Wait for them to grow some hair, you can cut it and style it in any way you like and draw faces on with a marker to give them personalities.

Hope you've enjoyed this and if you think it's a good idea or something fun to do, give it a go and see what faces you can make.

See you soon

Aoife

African Oyé Festival & Exciting Vintage Finds

Hello everybody,

I feel like I haven't posted in ages because since I've left school, I've been off everyday doing my own stuff and I feel like I should have posted by now. So that I don't run out of ideas I'm going to post once a week or maybe twice if I feel like.

Anyway, I've left this weekends post until today rather than yesterday because today I went to the African Oyé Festival so I wanted to post that this weekend. There also happened to be a Vintage Fair on, turned out to be a successful visit and I will get around to explaining why. I took my trusty companion along with me so there will be pictures - in which case, let's get to it.

There were lots of traditional things like this that I came across and I was mesmerised by the handmade things that the men and women had carved and created. 

These were cute parasols with lovely details and patterns on. I saw a girl sitting in the field with one and it looked lovely.

These were more things that had been made from wood and I just think they are so amazing.

These were huge bowls and plates - not to eat from - that I think had been made by the lady on the stall. I'm not sure what you used these for but they look good.

So as I mentioned at the beginning, I went to a Vintage Fair. I had this exciting find, flip lens sunglasses. I have seen people with these a few times and I think they're really cool and unusual so I bought them. I was also given a leaflet about the vintage fairs from the lady I spoke to on this stall. I'm led to believe it was run by Pillbox Vintage. They have a website where you can find out when their fairs are on if you live near them or around Merseyside in the UK - I'll leave their link at the end.

On an excitement scale of 1-10, I was a solid....8/9. How cute is it!?

This is the first model Kodak Brownie 127 from the 1950's - My other good find. I will be attending their fairs again to see what else I can find as I was very impressed and the people I spoke to were lovely too, good customer service!

So that's everything from today, I hope you've enjoyed reading and you got excited about those funky sunglasses and cute little camera. Unfortunately the weekends over so I can't wish you a lovely weekend but I hope it's been great and it's been lovely having you here.

See you soon

Aoife

Vintage Fair Website: http://www.pillboxvintage.com/home.html