Welcome to New York

In 2014 on one of my travels I was lucky enough to get to visit New York City for the first time. It was everything I ever dreamed it would be- right down to the smoking man hole covers and yellow school buses (as an English person who used to have an unhealthy obsession with American high school drama’s when I was younger- this was FAR too exciting for me), I fell in love instantly. I ate deliciously unhealthy foods and did a unhealthy amount of shopping, saw some gorgeous art and danced around outside Juliard- rode in several yellow taxis and became happily lost in snowy central park. It was magical. I promised myself that I wouldn’t stay away for long and thank goodness I will be back soon- I have another trip planned for October this year. Here are a couple of snaps I took along the way- I hope you enjoy!
^After a 5 hour delayed flight on only 2 hours sleep- free airport cocktails at 8am were gratefully accepted. I mean- it was 5pm somewhere right??   ^This is what I look like when I’ve been awake for 48 hours and decide to go for a walk down broadway after a full day of waiting in airports and flying. And when it’s -12 Celsius and nothing feels real- especially not Times Square and especially not finally being in the place you’ve always seen on TV.
^Sitting on the steps of the Met pretending to be Blair Waldorf was number 1 on my priority list of things to do.

^ My travel buddy and bad shopping influence Tiffany being oh so inspired by some modern art

^Breakfast of champions in Applebees  ^brrrrr chilly morning walk to get dunkin donuts

That’s all for now my lovelies- I hope you’ve had a wonderful start to 2015, because I sure have.

À bientôt~

Drifting

It’s been over a year since the last update of this blog, and let me tell you- its been an eventful one.

So much has happened in this past year that i’m at a point in my life where I barely recognise the girl that wrote some of these earlier blog posts anymore. The inspired motivated Holly has recently been quite hard to find.

However, this past year was probably one of the best of my life. It was a whirlwind of a year- I was so busy my feet barely touched the ground. I found passion in my work, fell in love, travelled to New York and Paris and ultimately was the happiest I have felt in a long time.

But a lot has changed recently and i’ve felt myself beginning to drift. I’ve moved away from everyone and everything that I know to start university, and lost not only one of my closest friends, but also been on the receiving end of a not too amicable break up- all within weeks of each other. It took its toll- so much change happening too quickly- and as someone that suffers with control issues engrained from years of various eating disorders, and as someone that always likes to know what is going on and have a plan- it hasn’t really been a great few months for me.

I’ve been feeling out of touch with myself. And that needs to change. I’ve made some amazing friends at uni and I have realised that being away from home has helped in some aspects. Being detached from everything that reminded me of her gave me time to distract myself and pretend everything was fine. Haa yeah- that’s something I do a lot too- pretending everything is fine even if I can tell it’s not. Something my ex could never get her head around was my inability to talk about feelings ever- I hated showing too much emotion if it wasn’t directed in a happy optimistic way- or as a joke. It’s something I need to change about myself. Which is why i’m writing this- something I absolutely never would have considered before- as I’m not one to open up often. I’d much rather just stick to my sarcastic jokes on twitter.

So it’s got me thinking that I need to throw myself back into this blog. Take more time to appreciate the small happinesses in life and to give me something to be enthusiastic about again. God that sounds mopey and pathetic. Sorry.

So expect exciting things from me! Or not too exciting because really how exciting can a broke fashion student’s life get?

Thank you x

Life has been a whirlwind recently! I thought i’d update you on some of the lovely things i’ve been keeping myself busy with.

I’ve been making plenty of paper dresses (it’s got to the point where I never want to fold paper ever again)….

(you have no idea how many newspapers I used doing this)

And i’ve been playing with fabric too 😉

How have you all been? And HAPPY OCTOBER!! 🙂

A Bientôt!

La Belle Vallée de la Loire

Once again.. long time no see my lovelies. How have you all been?

Recently life has been quite fabulous. I passed all of my A level exams, got into a college to do an Art foundation course and I got a new job! It’s all been happening in the life of Holly!

I was also lucky enough to spend 2 weeks in france visiting my Aunt in the extremely beautiful Loire Valley.

I met some wonderful people, practised my terrible french, and learnt a lot about enjoying the simple things in life while I was there, and I thought I would share a few photos of my adventures with you.

My Aunt lives in a gorgeous village called Montreuil-Bellay. The architecture around is just unbelievable, and there is even a hogwarts-esque chateau right in the centre of the village!

On the third day I was there, the village was holding an art competition. I wandered around the village with my camera and tried to make friends with as many of the artists as possible haha! There was some beautiful work happening (and most of it made me feel quite unworthy to be honest), and I met some very interesting people, who then proceeded to nag me to enter the art competition (oops).

The man in the photograph below had one of the best ideas ever in my opinion. Instead of using paint, he painted only using Red Wine! I just thought this was such a fantastic idea- so original (and so very french, ha) I just wish I could remember his name.

The sunday market in the village was probably the busiest it ever gets in Montreuil-Bellay. It made a nice change to see all of the locals out and about, as they were usually tucked away inside their houses, or out doing other things in the week.

I have a slight obsession with french chateaus, so of course I had to take a visit to the famous Saumur Chateau, as the last time I went was almost 10 years ago. Lets just say, it totally lived up to my memories.

I also got to visit one of the exciting troglodyte cave villages they have scattered around the region! I have never visited one of these before, and I was completely amazed at the idea of people still living in caves until very recently. There was even an underground church located directly underneath the ‘real’ above-ground church of the non cave village. When the village church got burnt down during the protestant vs catholic disagreements in the past, this cave church became a secret place that only a select number of people knew about- and could secretly go and worship in. I found it fascinating and amazing, and if you ever get the chance to visit a cave village, definitely do it- you wont be disappointed.

Finally, on my last day I went to visit the beautiful walled village of the famous Cardinal Richelieu. As it was a monday, (and the french have to have their mondays off! haha) there wasn’t much happening, so after a quick look at Saint Bernard  in the church (Bernard being my second name, I couldn’t pass up the chance!) we decided to take a picnic to the Parc de Richelieu just a walk across from the gates of the town. It is such a beautiful park, and I had a lot of fun butterfly spotting!

I had forgotten how beautiful the Loire Valley is- the fields of sunflowers and roses at the sides of the roads, how remote you feel driving through the country roads- yet you are never far from a village with everything you could need (and you are never far from a Super U 😉 ) and just the pure beauty of the architecture and nature of the place- there is literally no place nicer to be during the summer time. Who needs beaches when you have all the beautiful picnic areas and rivers you could ever need?

I hope your summers have all been as perfect as mine has!

Speak soon~

Holly

We’re all quite mad here, you’ll fit right in

Is it normal for an 18 year old girl to have an Alice in Wonderland tea party on her own? Because that’s what I did yesterday. And it was great fun.

Ok, so I did actually have a reason for carrying all of this stuff into the woods- mainly for my photography exam next week (see this is how unorganised I am- my exam is next week and I only just started taking photos oops), but I thought I’d share some of the unedited original images with you before I completely ruin them next week with my appalling photoshop skills. Haha!

To be honest I did get a few weird looks from dog walkers. And that was probably wasn’t just down to the fact that I was taking pictures of cake, but because to get into the mindset of the mad hatter, I thought it would be a fantastic idea to walk around the woods wearing a top hat. I definitely think they should come into fashion- I would totally jump on that trend, haha!

 

I went back to the woods again today, and looked equally as insane, but it’s ok. The pictures from today’s adventure will be up very soon!

Ahh it feels good to be back! 🙂

À bientôt!!

Outfit of the day

(Sorry if this post sounds insane, I spent all day doing photography coursework and I think my brain has melted)

HI EVERYONE LONG TIME NO SEE AHHH

I feel like i’m neglecting you and i’m sorry. So here is a quick little outfit of the day post so you don’t all forget that I exist.

Recently I’ve started dressing in long skirts- which is pretty rare for me- I dont really own many long skirts (and I feel kind of like I look like a mad cat lady, but oh well it’s always fun to be original!)

So, I went to the woods the other day to hang all of my jewellery in a tree (please just don’t ask), and I felt like it would be the perfect opportunity to take some outfit photos.

My hat, coat and shoes are all from Topshop, my skirt is from Miss Selfridge, my gloves are cashmere ones from somewhere in Scotland (sorry that’s really not helpful),  and my scarf is from accessorize. And i’m sure you all know about my bag by now 😉

Are you all having a great weekend? I look forward to catching up on all of your blog posts really soon ❤

À bientôt!!

 

My Current Obsessions

Hi lovelies- its finally half term which means I finally have some time to relax and unwind. I thought that this would be a perfect opportunity to share with you some of the things that I love to do in my spare time (is it sad that most of them revolve around the internet? heh)

The first thing that I absolutely love is the ipad magazine “Just another fashion magazine”. Ipad magazines in general are really fascinating to me- I love how interactive they are- most of them giving off a really ‘bloggish’ feel and style. This one is relatively cheap, and really well put together, I always have fun looking through the articles, and the links to new websites that I would never have found without it! If you have an ipad (or an iphone- not that I have one, but I assume it’s available on there too), definitely check it out on the newsstand- some of the past issues are only 69p if you dont want to commit to spending £1.50 (or however much it is) until you are completely sure whether you like the style or not!

Amelie has always been one of my favourite films. One of my little habits when i’m bored is to watch clips of it on youtube (which usually results in me digging out my dvd and watching the whole film). Anyway, this clip is one of my absolute favourites from the whole film, just because it is so cute. If you’ve never seen Amelie go and watch it now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you are probably all aware, it’s London Fashion Week this week, which means I’m constantly online trying to keep up with the shows. I have such great fun doing this- maybe one year i’ll be lucky enough to actually physically attend (we can always hope right ha). You all know I am a huuuge fan of Mulberry- so here are a few photos from their Autumn Winter 2013 show. (Have I ever mentioned that I am completley and totally in love with Cara Delevingne before? But then again, who isn’t?)

And finally, this app is literally taking over my life. I even had a dream about it the other night. It’s called ‘triple town’, and if you’ve never tried it, you have to download it. It’s so simple, but its really fun- i’m not even a person that usually plays games on my phone- but this is brilliant ok. Hah.

The lovely Kareen from www.ziba-blog.com  has recently nominated me for a Liebster Award!! It’s such an honour coming from her, and I’ll make a post all about it really soon 🙂

That’s all for now- I hope you all had a great monday!

À bientôt!!

Macarons~

I once again apologise for dropping off the face of the earth for a whole week. Man I cant wait until my interview is out of the way!

Anyway, I finished all of my beautiful Laduree Macarons (yes all of them, Holly doesn’t share macarons), and can I just say they were perfect. I think I would marry them if it was socially acceptable.

The flavours that I got were Pistachio (Which was so so so nice, and the only one that I didn’t take any photos of because I took it to work with me to eat at lunch haha!), Vanilla, Lemon, Rasperry, Rose and Brazil Pure Origin Chocolate (one of their limited edition Macarons).

I treated myself to a gift box too, because the boxes are pretty, and I thought that I could keep little things in my room in there!

Ok, so the first one that I tried was Vanilla. Whilst it wasn’t my favourite from the box, it was still pretty lovely.

This is the Raspberry macaron and I’m actually shocked to say that it was my least favourite out of the ones I bought! It wasn’t horrible though, I dont think a macaron could be horrible even if it tried- lets just say, I wouldn’t buy this particular flavour again!

Lemon (anything lemon flavoured is yummy in my opinion).

This one was strange. Really really nice…. just in a strange way. In the shop it was named “Rose Petal” and I have no idea how to describe this, but the taste was actually somewhat like the smell of rose petals. It was interesting, and I would definitely buy this flavour again!

Ok so I saved the best for last. This one was insane. It kind of tasted like a macaron/ chocolate brownie and it was just perfect. It was so nice that I forgot to take a photo of the inside until I was almost 3/4 the way through haha! I’m sad that this is only a limited edition, because it was amazing- if you have the chance, definitely try one before they vanish again.

So overall, they were all gorgeous, and if you’ve never tried a Laduree macaron, I suggest that you fix that as soon as possible!

I apologise for the state of my nails in these photos, I didn’t realise quite how bad they were until I looked at the photos on my laptop. Oops.

I have lots of posts planned, and I promise I wont disappear for a week again!! How have you been? I’ve missed you all.

Much love,

Holly

London

So today I decided to take a break from everything and treat myself and my mum to a shopping spree in London. I always feel that shopping sprees are the perfect excuse for lots of food and coffee, I mean, you cant walk about all day on an empty stomach can you?

So after an shamefully chocolatey breakfast at my favourite patisserie, we walked to the train station to begin our day. Our first stop was covent garden, because I have a stupid obsession with macarons, and they have a Laduree store there, and I was dying to try some of their famous macarons. I bought a box of 6, and once I have tried all of them i’m going to make a separate blog post dedicated to them, trust me they deserve it hah!

As it is nearing valentines day, the people at covent garden have set up this adorable place where couples can go, and padlock hearts and messages to metal cages spelling the word love. I know that they have a similar thing to this in korea, and I have always thought it was the most adorable idea.

(More food hahaha!) I got a delicious Red Velvet cupcake from Candy Cakes and it was fabulous. The icing was perfection, and the fact that it had glitter on it make it 50 thousand times cooler ah 😉

I ended up spending quite a lot of money, and it was a lot of fun, so I thought that I would show you a mini haul (to be honest I gave up taking photos of london once I had a few shopping bags because I’m lazy oops)

Here are the macarons I bought, i’m just so excited about tasting them all. I paid a little extra to have them put in a box, but I think its worth it because the box really is pretty, and I will definitely be able to find a use for it in my room.

I’m such a sucker for anything cute that I can hang from things like drawer knobs and handles. I dont really know what I’m going to do with the bucket, but I just couldn’t resist the colour and the polka dots (plus it was only 99p, a bargain right?)

I bought this hand cream from L’occitane. I have never actually purchased anything from this brand before, but I tried one of the testers and just instantly fell in love- it smells really lovely, and unlike some hand creams it doesn’t leave your hands feeling sticky or greasy after you use it.

So… I found a Cath Kidston shop… and as you can see.. I went a little bit mad. Their shops are always so pretty and I just cant resist and I decide that I need to buy everything and ah it doesn’t go well for me hah.

I bought the 2013 diary because it was half price, and plus it’s already February so I suppose that it is about time that I accepted the fact that it actually is 2013.

The edges of the pages are printed with different patterns, and there is a lovely little plastic zip wallet attached to the back cover so you can keep loose bits of paper safe if you have no where else to put them.

I bought the passport holder because I actually use my passport as my form of ID- I dont have a drivers licence so I have to carry it with me if i’m going to buy anything age restricted. I thought that getting a passport holder might make it slightly safer and make it look less passport like (ok I dont know it was just cute ok).

The tissues were only 89p it would be a crime not to buy them really…

I bought this lanyard to attach to my college locker keys- they always seem to get lost at the bottom of my bag, and I hope with this I will be able to find them a bit quicker (probably wont work).

Gah ok this lip balm is so so so nice. I really cant explain the smell but it is literally the most perfect thing in the world.

Paperchase is another weakness I have in my life. I mean really, who can resist cute stationary? There is actually a paperchase literally 5 minutes away from my college which I spend my life in, and it was nice to go in a different one for a change (even if they sold the same stuff…)

I feel that highlighters with cats on them are a necessity in life ok just look at them.

Ha ok so I thought these would be fun for a future blog post where I can fail at making cookies again!!

My hands are permanently cold. Seriously, even in the summer my hands are cold- and they have been ever since I was a baby. So when I saw this cute little hand warmer I had to buy it! It has an owl on it what more do I need to say really.

So, it was a really great day, my mum even decided that she wanted a mulberry purse so I had great fun helping her choose that (can I just get a full time job as a personal shopper that would be great thank you).

Did you all have a good day?

À bientôt!!

P.S Can I just say how happy I am about parliament finally approving gay marriage. It gives me a little bit more faith in humanity.

Paperman

Hi guys,

I’m in the middle of portfolio/coursework madness, but I feel so so bad about not updating for ages.

So here is an adorable little animation that I stumbled across a few days ago, it’s cute so if you have a spare 5 minutes give it a watch 🙂

I should be back to normal posts this week hopefully!!

Thanks for sticking with me ❤

-Holly x