a blog award - thanks CP!

So, Caribbean Princess at MoaCP (blog name abbreviated as my fingers are very lazy today after a s**tload of revising of the immune system) very kindly gave me a blog award...with an awful, awful picture (I completely agree with your opinion on it, CP!)

Anyway, along with this award came some rules:

• The graphic (shown above) must be displayed. - I really didn't want to display it, but rules are rules.
• Five things must be listed about yourself; four of which must be lies.
• The award must be given to at least five other bloggers.

If the above rules aren't followed, something disastrous will happen, etc, etc.

Here goes.

1. I was selected for the U17s England netball team but chose not to go as it was too far from home!
2. I have Chinese regal blood in me.
3. My father is good friends with Jackie Chan and once had dinner with him.
4. I once shared a twelve hour flight to Hong Kong with the England cricket team.
5. My parents once bought so much Sunny Delight when we were younger, that my sister turned orange after drinking too much.

There you have it. Only one is real and with my young age, it must surely be quite easy to guess which is the true one ;) Don't worry, I won't hold it against you if you do get it wrong - I'm not the type to hold a grudge! 

I will reveal the true one in a few days time but in the meantime, feel free to comment with which one you find most probable.

As for passing this award one; I'm not going to pick and choose as I don't think I could choose five blogs! Therefore, I'm passing this onto anyone who reads this and wants to manifest their creativity into four lies and one truth (trust me, it's harder than it sounds).

i had a naughty weekend!

And not naughty in the dirty sense, seeing as Valentine's Day has just come and gone (more on that later), naughty in a financial sense!

Now, first. Valentine's Day. I hope you all had a good one - I spent mine doing a presentation in the afternoon after travelling back to London in the morning. Then, in the evening, I had a netball match but I did get a few interesting anonymous messages... I'm pretty sure I know who they are from but I'm too chicken to do anything about it! So, I will just leave the messages be.

Anyway, my naughtiness. You know the shopping ban I'm on? Well, I was a bit naughty... I came into some money after doing surveys, as well as an accumulation of vouchers from the previous few months of surveys. Because of this, I was itching to add some pieces that I would appreciate to my wardrobe so my sister and I decided to head to Westfield Shopping Centre in White City/Shepherd's Bush. It's only a 20 minute tube journey or 30 minute bus ride there so it's not too inconvenient.

The morning started off well when she dropped something off for me as a present!

Tell me that you don't think this is the cutest thing ever!

It is a hollow white chocolate duck from Marks and Spencers. We have a private joke between my family about ducks and our love of them, hence why this means so much (in case you're wondering). I'm hoping that (and what I'm about to say) does not make me come across as a complete weirdo but I really cannot bear to eat it! The expiry date is June 2011 so I will leave it until last minute before eating it I think. Of course, I'll share it with her!

Now, basically, at Westfields, I decided to head into Whistles to try on a few dresses I had seen on the website and really liked (but had not plucked up the courage to break my ban). However, I did not anticipate how much I would like one of the dresses and I ended up breaking my ban due to a 20% off voucher in Glamour magazine I knew about. (I even walked all the way to Waitrose after trying them to on, just to buy this magazine in order to return and buy this dress! How sad, but saving money is good as the money saved could go towards another dress...kidding! It would go towards those Louboutins obviously!)

From Whistles, they gave me a seriously sturdy cardboard bag for my purchase:

When I say sturdy, I mean sturdy. The cardboard is thick and it did not turn into mush in the torrential (well, maybe a slight exagerration there) rain. Now, my question is, what do I do with such a lovely bag? It would be such a shame to recycle or bin it as it would really hold a lot of things. I'm thinking of using it to cart textbooks back and forth from uni, or maybe carrying my netball or gym kit to games or the gym? This also leads me onto another bag I'm in possession of...

Again, the quality is top notch. But what do I do with it? The bag is massive and I don't think I'll ever cart around anything that big? I'm thinking of using it as a laundry bag to store my clothes and other stuff that need to be washed at the weekend; but it seems like such a waste? Ideas, anyone? What do you do with yours?

Next, I had Topshop vouchers to spend so I bought a pair of shoes and a ring. It worked out free in the end with a student discount - a definite win situation there!

So, an unsuccessful shopping ban...but if I'm honest, I'm surprised I managed to hold out for so long. I think I will start another wardrobe challenge once I've sorted out a capsule wardrobe for myself - something I've been researching about for a month or so now in order to figure out what the basics I need are.

cath kidston diaries!

Am I the only one wishing Cath Kidston did Filofax inserts?!

I never knew Cath Kidston did diaries until I decided to Google it one day (randomly, too!). Up popped several images...

The front cover looks adorable...

...and the inside also looks adorable. However, my only worry is that the spaces to write in for each day are not big enough for me. I'm not trying to come across as a busy bee, two of those days equals one for me in my current set up (my Filofax of course).

So, something I'd like to see on sale at Filofax would be some Cath Kidston diary refill inserts, please! Personal size would be much preferred also! What kind of inserts would you like to see?

wardrobe challenge: a success!

My wardrobe challenge was a success as I did not break any of the rules I set myself (I altered the rules slightly from the actual challenge but still kept the number of pieces at a minium).

But before I talk about the wardrobe challenge, I must first apologise for a lack of blogging in the past week. I had a deadline on Friday the 18th for three (yes, three) pieces of coursework and was busy doing that as unfortunately, in the two weeks previous to that, I had been busy with applying for internships, preparing for assessment tests along with good old netball.

As proof, this was my week before it started:

And my week after it had ended:

Next, this was the past week - also a busy one!

Onto the outfits now! For those not interested in fashion or what I wore, you can stop reading now. The rest of the post is image heavy! Don't say I didn't warn you.

This was the Monday. The Dahlia playsuit and French Connection boots.

And a close up of the print and the buttons on the top half - love it!

Next, Tuesday's outfit: Whistles blazer, Sparkle and Fade top, Whistles skirt and Topshop boots.

Close up of the necklace I chose to accessorize this outfit with. The necklace is from FCUK about two seasons ago now.

And Wednesday's outfit: Topshop blouse, ASOS cardigan, Benetton skirt and Aldo shoes.

Unfortunately, I have no pictures for Thursday and Friday. Thursday because I had to change my outfit accordingly for an assessment test at some posh offices in London. I stuck to my list of items for the wardrobe challenge though! And for Friday, I took the train home from college so I didn't have time to snap an outfit as I literally crawled into bed as soon as I got home. It had been a bad week in terms of sleep!

Finally, I must apologise for my image editing skills! They leave a lot to be desired and I'm fairly rusty too, clearly! Anyway, more blogging to come as no more deadlines for another month or so!

wardrobe challenge: the pieces

So here are my pieces for the Wardrobe Challenge (see here for the first time I mentioned it). As it's only for seven days, I've only included shoes in my 'five accessories' section.

1) ASOS Men's cardigan (my sister's, but we traded some items from each of our wardrobes!)
2) Grey Benetton skirt. I've had this skirt for almost four years now and I've worn it so many times!
3) Sparkle and Fade at Urban Outfitters pleated front top (sister's)
4) Topshop oatmeal sweatshirt (sister's)
5) H&M oatmeal cardigan (years old!)
6) Topshop blouse (years old!)
7) Whistles silk skirt (Christmas present)
8) Primark jeans (I don't wear jeans often enough to justify splashing out more than a tenner on a pair of jeans! They are also years old!)
9) Dahlia playsuit (Christmas present)
10) Whistles camel wool coat (Birthday present)

And now, the five accessories which are shoes.

1) Chestnut Ugg Australia boots (over a year old)
2) Aldo flat leather pumps (gift)
3) Topshop leather boots (years old)
4) Topshop vintage style leather boots (years old)
5) French Connection UK leather boots (gift - and a bargain, reduced to 31.50 from 180GBP!)

Stay tuned to see how I will arrange these items of clothing into an outfit! (Also, socks, tights, underwear and the like don't count. I also haven't included my netball match day and training kit as that would just be stupid as I don't wear those items of clothing outside of netball anyway! And also, my Longchamp bag isn't included as that's the only bag I use nowadays anyway.) The challenge starts tomorrow so, on your marks, get set...go!

how busy must a life be before it can be 'organised'?

I was thinking about this the other day: how busy must a life be before it can be organised? Clearly, we need a marker to define what 'organised' and 'busy' mean. At the moment, my life is pretty hectic (I know, you might not believe me as I'm still only a university student! But I promise you, I feel like I have no spare time) and to organise it, I have to balance lab reports, netball, social things - like going to the Union, lunch with friends who I don't see as often as I did last year as well as revising lecture notes and preparing for tutorials and the like. I feel quite organised though as I've managed to organise all these in my Filofax. Just looking at my Filofax makes me happy as it looks like someone who has a busy schedule but also plans it well! (Of course I would say that as I organise my own time).

But, say someone had literally nothing to do - well, maybe aside from, let's say, some work life related events. I don't want to offend anyone here, so I'll be general! Let's say that the only thing they have preoccupying their time is something that doesn't involve any 'take home' work. Would you say that their life is organised? It's not busy, that's for sure.

I recognise that the above paragraph may have confused some of you. What I'm trying to say is: must one's life be busy before it can be organised? Or can one's life be organised although there is little to do on a day to day basis? I, myself, have no answer to this. I think it can work both ways; after all, there is always something to do - be it chores, general household admin and whatnot.

On a completely unrelated note, I am totally and utterly in love with these babies:

There is no way on earth I can justify buying a pair of them though, unfortunately. (As they are a whopping 375GBP!). However, I promised myself that if I graduated with a decent grade (well, 2.1 or above - and let me tell you, a 2.1 at Imperial College London is not as easy as it sounds), I'll buy myself a pair for the graduation ceremony. And with graduation for me being next year (2012), think I'd better start saving now.
(Though, I do keep telling myself that they are classics, that they will never go out of style, etc, etc, but at the end of the day, I do realise that I'm only kidding myself!).

If you're also lusting after something right now which comes at an extortionate price, what will you do to save up? Give up going out until you save up enough? Scrimp and save on food? Not buy any other items of clothing? Not buy anymore Filofaxes (hard, I know)? I'm trying to get ideas on how I could save up 375GBP in a year and a half, and considering I'm living in Central London (in one of the poshest areas as well, mind you), I'll need all the ideas I can get!