Gift wrapping time!

Just got around to wrapping my christmas prezzies up ready - and have had a ridiculous amount of fun doing so! I bought my paper a little while ago from Paperchase in  3 for 2 deal (which is always good) and decided to mix and match my usual brown-paper with some nordic-esque print.

 IT FEELS SO CHRISTMASSY I MIGHT JUST KEEL OVER FROM JOY.

I found some gorgeous printable labels by the incredibly talented Lia Griffith through my pinterest (which I'm currently hopelessly addicted to) -- I'd totally recommend them if you're on a budget and would rather not dish out for bought labels. :)

Busy busy busy!

Been working on my college project all day from home.. and I'm literally bouncing - I'm that happy! Gotten so much done! Admittedly, it's not finished yet - there's still a crinoline overskirt and some vertebrae to make - but the belt itself is finished. Yay!

All put together..

And up close!

My handmade chains - ready to be attached to their fastenings. 

Added toggle clasps - the other end needs sewing to the side panels of the belt.

Hand stitching the join between the lining and outer fabric with invisible thread.

Enamel spray paint.. going to get messy!

Aaaand there's the mess: chains and fastenings all coated evenly.

Detail. :)

Aaaand how it all fits! Still having to hold it in place in this as the velcro panels weren't sewn in at this point.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Just got back from another lovely (but cold) weekend in London! Was a bit of a mess getting down there on Friday night as I managed to miss my coach (finished late at college and my train home was delayed - grr!) and had to rebook for later one in the evening which then managed to be just over an hour late getting into Sheffield, leaving me sat sniffling - I have a pretty nasty cold at the moment - in the waiting room at Meadowhell interchange all on my onesie. I did eventually get there, though! 

Not going to lie - part of the reason I wanted to go to London this weekend (it might not have been totally just to see Nick - sorry!) was to have a look at the christmas decor.. Aside from the sheer madness of Oxford Street, it was pretty stunning! 

Selfidges - it was never going to be anything but extravagant, was it?

Giant perfume bottle.. Guess the price tag of that bugger!

Going up the escalators.. Was genuinely so excited at this point - I must have looked a right idiot gawping at everything! 

Santa, taking refuge from the extreme price tags in a conveniently placed phone box.

I wanted to take all these cuties home.. Nick bonded with the little wolf as well - not quite as bah humbug after all, aha!

Pretty decorations that I wish I could afford...

...But definitely can't! 

Words can't accurately explain how much fun I had with this stuff.. Thinking of getting some to put along Nick's windowsill so that inside of pools of water from the condensation we'll have pretty snow instead! Perhaps not the wisest of ideas, but a fun one at the very least...

Had a minor fangirl moment over the Illamasqua counter!

Cute Christmas sweet treats! It was around this point that I hatched my plan to hide in the toilets and just live in Selfidges forever and ever - unfortunately, Nick didn't reckon much to it.

Light snacks....?!

Some more Oxford Street decor - this time House of Fraser and John Lewis to the right (just out of shot). They were honestly like a pair of competitive neighbours with their christmas lights! 

One of my favourite window displays - Accessorize. I adored those little reindeer. So cute!

Boots' decorations were also amazing - and very, very big! 

 On the way home from the tube we passed this pretty suspect building.. with the cutest sign outside! Think the building itself is full of squatters - but, hey, at least they're complimentary!

I like you too, chair.

Still rambling along..

I've been off college for the past few days (I never thought the day would come when I'd rather be at college than at home!) due to a realllllly inconvenient allergic reaction that's done a bitch of a number on my skin. Oh, god: it burns. I've been trying to keep busy so as not to literally scratch my own skin off  and keep up with college work -  but mainly the former. 

My workspace... clutter everywhere! The coffee cup is the epicentre of the madness, I think.

Some ideas and references for my college project. It probably doesn't make a helluva lot of sense if you're not me, but I'm rather fond of it! I really like having a tangible copy of my ideas all in one place - especially if I'm having to make something. It's a pain in the arse having to google search everything ever time I need a reference, ugh.

Also been trying to crack on with this.. I need some more recent pieces for my portfolio. It's going reaaaaally slow - mainly, I think, because I'm so ridiculously fussy over everything. Bleh. :(

On a non-work related note, I've been listening to some awesome mixes on 8tracks while I'm getting stuff sorted (like the good girl I am) - they've kept me on 'track', so to speak! 

Taobao Haul!

Aaaah, I'm so excited! A few months ago I made an order with taobaoring to purchase some goodies from the taobao marketplace.. and it arrived this morning! If I had to express my emotions right now, whatever words I'd come up with would be punctuated with a vast number of exclamation marks, not going to lie. It was like christmas..

Box opening time!

The star of my haul... A bull terrier tee! Words cannot express my slightly nerdy glee over this shirt. Hnnng.

A gorgeous chiffon-y shirt/dress. It's double layered - one sheer and one opaque. Needs ironing yet but it's so gorgeous and.. floaty. Very floaty.

Collar detail!

Now... I don't really know what to say about this jumper other than that I absolutely adore it. It's a wool knit with a crochet collar sewn into the hem of the jumper. 

Look how gorgeous it is!

Then there's this little sheer varsity-style jacket. Again, pretty sure it's chiffon-y - which is a fabric I've never been too fond of in the past but seem to be buying an awful lot of recently.

The text on the back - cheesy but cute!

Little peplum-style top. It's slightly short (somewhere between crop-length and normal) so I'm thinking it would be great with high waisted disco pants!

Black and gold watch. Can't believe this was 99p, holy cow.

Another little jumper - not a knit this time! Instead, this is a nice bold floral print that really reminded me of Cath Kidston's patterns. 

So pretty!

Some tights! I have something very similar to these already (without the little bows, though) but at 50p I couldn't resist. 

Open day!

Forgot to mention in my last post that I went to my first uni open day on saturday while I was in London - UAL! I was reeeeallly excited about visiting - since the illustration course at Camberwell college is pretty heavily hyped up. After the open day and the illustration talk - well, I can definitely see why! Loooooved it so much!

My bag of goodies...

A cute little badge that Nick was determined to grafitti with an 'f' at the beginning... Pinned it on my new knit jumper from H&M. 

Loooots of reading to do!