Wishlist

1.Daisy Print Flippy Dress 2.Studded Denim Backpack 3.Rust Seam Detail Biker Jacket 4.Gold Tone Ram Skull Ring 5.Sailor Long Sleeved T-Shirt 6.Neptune Stud Boots

This wishlist is looking distinctly autumnal, I'm definitely blaming the horrible weather for that. Although, to be honest, I much prefer autumn/winter clothes anyway. I always feel really uninspired by summery clothes but when it comes to autumn and there are lots of jumpers and scarves in the shops I can't stop buying things! I also much prefer autumn/winter colours; deep reds and rusty oranges are much more 'me' than white and pastel pink.

I've been after a leather jacket for ages but haven't yet found one I like and that suits me. A black jacket is probably a more sensible choice as it will go with everything, but I really love the colour of this rust one from Miss Selfridge.

I really need a pair of nice ankle boots for drizzly weather like this. I only seem to have ballet flats or big clunky boots and nothing inbetween. As much as I love my heavy duty boots (like in this post), they're not exactly elegant! I love the studded office ones, the heel looks nice and low so they would be fine for wearing during the day, but they also look dressy enough to wear out for dinner or to the pub.

Do you prefer summer or winter clothes? What's on your wishlist at the moment?

Gillian x

Sunday Summary #26

1.Grad ball dress 2.Strawberries 3.Waiting for the train 4.Twin Peaks 5.Cocktails at Bar Kohl 6.Rock of Ages 7.Unhealthy lunch, oops! 8.Skittles 9.Rain on the longest day of the year 10.Best beer ever 11.Glow in the dark stars on my ceiling 12.Enrapture curls 13.Chandelier in the Dragonfly 14.Rainbow at night time

I always feel like I'm really busy during the week but when it comes to writing my Sunday Summary posts all I have is pictures of food and drink! This week has been legitimately busy though as I've been trying to get ready for my graduation, which is on Thursday. Who knew there were so many forms to fill in and things to book and things to buy just to be able to graduate?! I went shopping earlier in the week to try and find a black skirt and some nice heels to wear but couldn't find anything I liked at all. I do, however, own about a million black dresses so I'm just going to dig one of them out instead. I also found a pair of heels under my bed that I don't think have ever been worn (I'm sure I bought them when I was still at school, so long ago!) so that will save me having to go on a panic hunt for shoes the day before.

It's the grad ball the day after my actual graduation so I've been getting ready for that too. I ordered my dress from an online vintage store and got my mum to do a few little alterations to it while I was at home last week. I think I'm finally happy with the fit of it now. I ordered a clutch bag to go with it from ASOS which should hopefully be delivered tomorrow, fingers crossed it looks as nice as it did in the photo! As much as I love how easy online shopping is, I hate not being able to try things on or see the exact colour/sizes of things. Talking of shopping, how rubbish are all the clothes shops at the moment?! When I was shopping this week all I ended up buying were several pairs of tights and a jumper I'm not even sure I like. There were lots of sales on but I couldn't find anything worth buying. I always feel like it's been such a waste of a shopping trip if I come home empty handed! What's on your wishlist at the moment?

On Wednesday my flatmate and I took advantage of Orange Wednesdays and went to the cinema to see Rock of Ages. It was a completely cheesy film but I was LOVING it, I'm such a big fan of 80s hair metal music! We went in the afternoon so there were only about 6 other people in the cinema, I was so tempted to sing along to all the songs but managed to restrain myself haha! It has made me really want to go CD shopping, it's been so long since I bought any new music. I never download stuff from iTunes, I think I must be just about the only person who still buys CDs!

What have you been up to this week?

Gillian x

Outfit: Capri

T-shirt: Next
Trousers: Primark
Necklace: Dorothy Perkinds
Rings: H&M
Bracelet: Forever Jewellery*
Shoes: Dorothy Perkins

I'm not usually a trouser person at all, but when I was shopping a couple of weeks ago I spotted these bright red capri style trousers and thought they would be perfect for summer. Unfortunately since then it hasn't really been summery enough weather to wear them, but it was nice and sunny yesterday morning so took the opportunity to give them an outing. I wish they were a little bit more fitted (they look a bit weird round the knees!) but for about £10 I can't really complain. I definitely think I'll be adding more brightly coloured trousers to my wardrobe soon, I think I'd like a pair of green ones next!

I also bought this t-shirt last time I was shopping as my mum gave me a gift card for Next she had never used after returning some stuff at Christmas time. Next is never a shop I would normally look in as it strikes me as a bit middle aged, but I had a wander round anyway to see if I could find anything to spend my voucher on. They did have a few quite nice things but nothing that was particularly 'me' so I just ended up getting a couple of basic t-shirts. I like the slightly rolled up sleeves and the pocket (it's under my hair somewhere!) which make this a little bit nicer than your average white t-shirt. I bought it a couple sizes bigger than normal so it's nice and loose for relaxed summery outfits.

I'm loving these shoes at the moment, I think I'll get a lot of wear out of them this summer. I bought them last year but never really got much chance to wear them as it rained pretty much every day during August, but fingers crossed this year won't be so bad! They've got a slight wedge so aren't too hight and perfect for daytime. I'm not sure if they count as flatforms - perhaps I was ahead of my time with that trend? ha.

What do you think of bright trousers? Or do you prefer to stick to skirts?

Gillian x

Sunday Summary #25

1.Orchid 2.Grad ball shoes 3.Percy Pigs 4.Celebrating my degree results 5.Sambuca 6.Bright summer nights 7.Bath time 8.Lounging clothes 9.Cinema 10.Kopparberg
I finally got my degree results this week and I got a 2.1 which I'm so happy about! I haven't got back my individual exam/dissertation results yet though so I'm not sure exactly how I did but I'm glad to be able to say I will actually be graduating now! My graduation ceremony is less than two weeks away now. I'm more looking forward to the grad ball though if I'm honest, lots of my friends are moving away for jobs or postgrad courses so it will be nice to have one last big night out together.

I went into Aberdeen earlier this week with Morag and while we were there I managed to find some shoes to go with my grad ball dress. I got them half price in the Dune sale so they weren't too expensive, plus they're a really classic style so I'll definitely wear them again. We also went to the cinema to see Snow White and the Huntsman. It was alright for a bit of light entertainment but nothing too amazing - although I did love Charlize Theron's costumes in it... glittery capes, need I say more?! I'm looking forward to going to see Rock of Ages and Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter at the cinema soon. Both look like pretty terrible films but also amazing at the same time, films like that are a bit of a guilty pleasure for me! Have you seen any good movies recently?

This week has been another week of doing not very much, and I've been loving it! I've decided I'm definitely going to do a Masters course next year so that should leave me free to get a summer job (if I can find one!) once graduation is out of the way - hence why I'm enjoying days of doing nothing but reading books and watching TV while I can! I have definitely been abusing my Netflix subscription recently, it's so easy to get sucked into a TV series and end up watching the entire thing in a couple of days.

I'm heading back to Edinburgh on Tuesday so it will be nice to get back to civilisation and see my friends, although I will miss my mum making my tea for me!

What have you been up to this week?

Gillian x

Outfit: T-Shirt Dress

Dress: Primark
Belt: H&M
Shoes: Kurt Geiger
Necklace: H&M
Ring: Primark

I'm sure you all remember the grey t-shirt dress from Topshop which was doing the rounds on blogs a couple of months ago. I loved the dress at the time and even tried it on in the shop, but I was reluctant to pay nearly £30 for what is a very basic dress. I'm very glad I didn't end up buying it as when I was in Primark recently I spotted this very similar dress for a mere £3. Yes, £3! As well as this grey dress, I picked up a black and white striped version too (which, for some reason, cost £8 instead - I would really like to know the logic behind Primark's pricing system...) as they are perfect summer dresses but will also be great for layering with leggings and cardigans if the weather's not so great.

The shoes were a bit of a bargain too, I bought them ages ago in the Kurt Geiger sale. They were reduced from about £120 to £30-something. I couldn't say no! Usually I stick to cheap heels (New Look's are my favourite, I usually find them really comfy and easy to walk in) as I am the worst at making a huge mess of shoes on a night out, but I really liked these and decided they were too much of a bargain to pass up. I think I might reserve them for 'occasions' rather than just normal nights out, hopefully they'll stay in a better state that way! Or wear them to the pub, like I did with this outfit from a week or two ago, which is a much safer environment for nice shoes than a club!

Have you found any good bargains recently?

Gillian x

Top 5: Travel Makeup Essentials

Whether I'm off on holiday, visiting my family or going away for the weekend I always seem to ditch my usual makeup routine and go for something a bit quicker and easier. I used to take pretty much my whole makeup collection with me wherever I went, but I've learnt that if you choose carefully you can get away with using a handful of products and still scrub up not too badly. Obviously there are a few other things I take with me (like mascara, lip balm, liquid eyeliner) but these are my top 5 products which are essential for easy holiday makeup.

HD Brows Palette
I know I'm a little more preoccupied with eyebrows than the average sane person, but I honestly think filling in your eyebrows makes your face look much more 'finished', even if you're not wearing much other makeup. For holiday eyebrows, I tend to fill them in a little more lightly than usual to give a more natural look. The HD Brows palette is great as it has four different shades (which also double up as eyeshadow), an angled brush which fits inside the case and a relatively big mirror, which makes it ideal for travelling.

Garnier Miracle Skin Perfector BB Cream
If the rest of my makeup is pretty natural, it looks a bit ridiculous if my skin has a heavy foundation on it. A tinted moisturiser or BB cream is great for travel makeup as it doubles up as both a moisturiser and a foundation (of sorts) and leaves you with an evened out, but still natural looking, complexion. Just make sure you have a good concealer and you're good to go! The main problem I have with this product, however, is that it's slightly too dark for my skin - although this shouldn't be a problem if you've got a holiday tan!

Shu Uemura Eyelash Curler
If I'm not wearing my usual black cat-eye liner then long, curled lashes are important to make me look wide-awake and like I've at least put some sort of effort into getting ready. I bought these Shu Uemura curlers a few months ago and I love them, they give a huge curl without ending up looking unnatural. Make sure to use a good mascara afterwards to hold the curl - I'm still loving Benefit They're Real at the moment.

Benefit Girl Meets Pearl
For me, a highlighter is essential for relaxed, summery makeup. My favourite at the moment is Girl Meets Pearl as it's a gorgeous rosy gold colour which blends in really well with my skin to leave a healthy looking glow. I use it along the top of my cheekbones and a little bit on my browbone too. This miniature size came with the Porefessionally Pretty set and it's the perfect size for a travel makeup bag.

No7 Amazing Eyes Pencil
This is a really nice creamy pencil but the main reason I love it is because of the smudger brush, rather than the eyeliner itself. The eyeliner is really soft and blendable and looks really nice smudged out with the brush that's attached. The fact that it's both a liner and a brush is perfect for travelling and it makes it really quick and easy to do lazy eye makeup. Rather than using my favourite liquid eyeliner for a cat-eye flick, this gives a lovely smokey eye with minimum effort

What are your favourite travel makeup products?

Gillian x

Sunday Summary #24

1.Owl ornament 2.Percy Pig juice 3.Reading in bed 4.Lazy makeup 5.Puppy's favourite spot on the windowsill
I've had such a good week at home visiting my parents, I've been very lazy and have only left the house once so far! I think I'll stay here for another week or so, then I'll have to head back to Edinburgh to get sorted out for graduation. Absolutely everyone seems to have their degree results by now apart from me, I think the History department is the only one not to have published their results yet. So annoying! I'm about 99% sure I've got a 2:1 but not knowing is just so frustrating. There were rumours that they were going to be put up tomorrow, so fingers crossed they actually are! My graduation ceremony is on the 28th of June and the grad ball is the day after. I've got my ball dress sorted but still don't have an outfit to wear to graduation itself, anyone seen anything nice in the shops lately?

I'm afraid I don't have anything particularly exciting to tell you about this week, as I've spent most of my time reading, watching TV and playing with the dog. As much as I love being busy and going out with my friends, sometimes it's nice to have a few days of doing absolutely nothing. I started watching Girls a couple of days ago and have managed to watch all 8 episodes already, oops! I think it's really funny, definitely worth a watch. I have also come to the conclusion that I basically am Hannah's character, it's a bit scary how much I can relate to most of the things she does! What TV shows have you been loving recently?

A quick thank you to everyone who has complimented the new blog design, I love designing new layouts so it's nice to hear they are appreciated! You can also keep up to date with the blog on facebook now, big love to those of you who have already given it a 'like'!

Gillian x

Outfit: I'm Your National Anthem

Shorts: Glamorous*
T-Shirt: H&M
Necklace: Topshop
Boots: Ebay

How amazing are these shorts?! Thank you to Emily and Glamorous for sending me these shorts, I'm a little bit in love with them! I'm not usually a shorts and tshirt kind of girl, but they're a summer holiday staple so I thought it was high time I added some nice denim shorts to my wardrobe. I love the American flag pattern, so I've kept the rest of the outfit quite plain to let the stars and stripes stand out. These shorts would be perfect for wearing to festivals or on your summer holidays, or you could dress them up with heels and lots of jewellery for a night out. They are quite short though so I've worn them with some tights to avoid inflicting my pasty legs on people, sadly me and the sun don't get on so fake tan is my only hope!

Sticking with the American theme, I've worn it with an eagle claw necklace from Topshop. Well, I'm not sure if it's actually an eagle claw but it's definitely some kind of bird! This is one of my favourite necklaces, I love the little turquoise stone, and the fact that it's on a really long chain. There's nothing I hate more than necklaces which stop just at the neckline and end up getting hidden underneath my top!

These American flag shorts are such a bargain compared to Topshop's version, and at the moment Glamorous are offering free worldwide shipping too. Plus you can get 20% off everything with the code GLAMOROUS20. There's no excuse not to order yourself a little treat!

Do you like denim shorts? What's on your wishlist from Glamorous?

Gillian x

Sunday Summary #23

1.Misty moon 2.Home-made Thai noodle salad 3.Powercut in the pub 4.This place is too cold for hell 5.Fake Percy Pigs 6.Glamorous shorts - outfit post next week! 7.Chinese food
You may notice something a bit different about the blog today? I started working on a new blog design ages ago but finally got some time to finish the illustration and code the layout this week, and spent yesterday afternoon putting it up and doing a few final tweaks. What do you think of the new look? I've added some new pages too, like About and FAQ, so if there's anything you'd like to know or any questions you'd like answered, please get in touch! I also created a Facebook page for the blog, which you can find here. I will love you forever if you could give it a like!

I went shopping for new clothes earlier in the week, which I haven't done for months. I do love buying new clothes but I hate actually going shopping, anyone else?! Especially if it's busy and there are people everywhere and lots of queues. Yuck. I always start off really keen but half way through I get really bored and just want to sit down for a bit haha. On the way home, I met my flatmate at the Red Squirrel for a few drinks and some food which perked me up though. There was a powercut in the pub while we were there, had to eat our burgers by candlelight! The food was really nice though, would definitely recommend it if you're in Edinburgh! I got a few nice summery things while I was shopping but, typically, the sunny weather has disappeared and it's been pretty grey and horrible all week. Fingers crossed the sunny weather comes back soon so I can ditch the tights and jumpers again!

The rest of this week has mostly been spent trying (and failing) to sort out my life for after graduation and having duvet days at home with Netflix or a good book. I'm really enjoying having time to read novels again, which I can never really be bothered to do during term time. I started a Goodreads account here which will hopefully motivate me to finish books I've started and find new books to read. Let me know if you have an account too and we can be pals!

I'm going home to visit my parents tomorrow for a week or two which will be nice, looking forward to getting my meals cooked for me and such! I'm taking my grad ball dress with me so my mum can do few alterations to it. I'm way too useless with a needle and thread to attempt it myself!

Hope you all have a lovely long weekend, anyone got anything nice planned?

Gillian x

Recipe: Chocolate Brownie Cake

Something a little bit different today - a recipe post! Personally I love reading recipes/food posts on blogs, perhaps I should make this a more regular thing? Anyway, on to the recipe. I'm not really a huge fan of chocolate desserts or cakes, but for some reason I just can't get enough of chocolate brownies. I've adapted my failsafe brownie recipe from the Hummingbird Bakery into a cake with delicious strawberry frosting sandwiched between the layers. Unfortunately I didn't realise I only had about 30g of icing sugar left when I started making this, so the icing was a bit of a failure but it still tastes amazing!

You will need:

For the brownies:		For the icing:
200g dark chocolate		100g icing sugar
175g butter		35g butter
325g caster sugar		2 tablespoons cream cheese
130g plain flour		6-8 strawberries
3 large eggs

Method:

1. Pre-heat oven to 170 degrees C, then melt the butter and chocolate in a large bowl over a pan of boiling water.
2. Once completely melted, add the sugar and mix until well incorporated.
3. Add the flour and mix well. Finally, add the eggs and beat until the mixture is smooth.
4. Divide the mixture equally between two small cake tins (I used ones 8 inches across by 1 inch deep) lined with greasproof paper.
5. Put in the oven and leave to bake for approximately 40 minutes.
6. For the icing, beat together the icing sugar and butter until there are no lumps.
7. Mash some strawberries with a fork (or put them in the blender for a few seconds) and add those to the bowl along with the cream cheese and mix well.
8. Once the brownies are cooked, remove from the oven and leave to cool. Once cooled completely, spread the top of one half with the icing and place the other half on top.
9. Decorate with sprinkles, chocolate shavings or strawberries.

YUM SO GOOD. This would be great to make if you're having a party or picnic this weekend as it's easy to slice up and share. Unfortunately my icing turned out really runny but if you actually check you have the right ingredients before starting, it should turn out soft but quite stiff so it shouldn't be too messy when you cut it up.

Are you a fan of chocolate brownies?

Gillian x