smileitsfashion

Monthly Archives: May 2012


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Topshop Travelodge

As if I needed another reason to re-visit Edinburgh, it’s a beautiful city, there is another reason to go and I’d be killing two birds! Topshop and Travelodge have joined forces, it’s not the most obvious of collaborations to say the least.

Topshop’s Edinburgh flagship store has transformed its former stock room into a 96-room hotel, so you can quite literally shop then pop upstairs, and drop! And… rooms start from only £19!!

I have a feeling the hotel may notice a higher percentage of female visitors than what is usually found.


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Pretty Pinterest picks

It must be all this sunshine that’s bringing out my girly side because I’m wearing lighter colours with confidence (I’m normally too pale to get away with a cream dress but a weekend’s sunbathing has helped me out!), being attracted to florals and lace and pretty much all girlie things.

Thanks to Pinterest, yet again, I have been obsessing over my latest love and it makes it so easy! At this rate my house will be redecorated every other week and I will have a million and one photo frames lining every available piece of wall and surface due to the huge amount of gorgeous images! I’ll also be updating my wardrobe, getting creative and crafty, painting my nails, changing my hair and getting myself a bike with a basket… ahh breathe!

I love looking through the pictures and if you are looking for inspiration it is the most invaluable tool you’ll ever find, however there are downsides… You become insanely jealous of other people’s hair styles (which due to excessive straightening/ years of abuse, you cannot for the life of you achieve), you wish you lived in a house with little nooks to create seating areas, you want to be thin and fit but bake cakes simultaneously and there aren’t enough hours in the day to choose which trends you want to throw yourself into!

Below are my girlie picks, just a delight to look at, it’s almost calming to look back after the stress of browsing Pinterest…

From augustdiversions.blogspot.com – pinned by Sheri Larsen

From elhernandez.tumblr.com – pinned by Angela Hansen

From fyeah-history.tumblr.com – pinned by Clare G

From google.com – pinned by McKenzie Murray

From google.com – pinned by Samantha Christine

From gypsygranola.tumblr.com – pinned by Andie Amis

From imgfave.com – pinned by Joette Prich

From kuchnia-pelna-cudow.blogspot.com – pinned by Ann Palmer

From luxefinds.com – pinned by Ardith Goodwin

From meplusyouandus.tumblr.com – pinned by Ning Juang

From michaelpenneystyle.com – pinned by J Monroe

From mullaneyrshawan.tumblr.com – pinned by Magan Jeanmard

From parkseed.com – pinned by emily gunyou halaas

From seelanvin.tumblr.com – pinned by Grace Wu

From unknown – pinned by Carlie Simonek

From stacey-lane.tumblr.com – pinned by Jolene Ferguson

From sweetpaul.typepad.com – pinned by Jennifer Yeh

From tinywhitedaisies.tumblr.com – pinned by Bethany C

From unknown – pinned by Catarina Lopes

From unknown – pinned by Jamie Hylland

And just because this is the cutest thing ever…

From unknown – pinned by Monniie H.


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God save the Queen

Getting into the spirit of the Golden Jubilee and giving praise to good ol’ Liz by loving all things British, Jubilee and quaint! Below are a few things I’ve spotted whilst doing my usual browse of online shops and Pinterest. Literally everyone is going nuts for the Jubilee and every high street store has a Queen/ Jubilee/ Great Britain trend with the obvious Union Jack emblazoned clothing and accessories as well as the less obvious princess and queen style jewels and accessories. I’m actually pretty excited to get all patriotic with tea (or Pimms!) cucumber sandwiches and victoria sponge next week…

Jubilee – Taken from Pinterest (Jenny Holiday)

Golden Jubilee Cakes – Taken from Pinterest (our-favouriterecipes-blogspot-com)

Topshop – Jubilee badges

Next – Union Jack lanterns

ASOS – Union Jack sunglasses

New Look – Union Jack head scarf

Next – Cake stand

Religion – Union Jack cardigan

Topshop – Crown ring


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Oh Vienna!

I just spent a few days in Vienna with work and it was no where near enough! The place is beautiful, every building is gorgeous, every where is clean. It’s just heaven!

I was there for only 2 nights and there was a lot packed in work wise so I didn’t get to see much of the city but the bit I saw has made me want to re-visit very soon. This was the view from my window in the morning, it’s really strange as it always seems really quiet in comparison to how cities usually are. This was at 7:30am and I struggle to imagine somewhere like London being anywhere near this serene!!

On one of the evenings we went to a traditional Austrian pub/ restaurant and I really got into the spirit of things with a Austrian (award winning don’t you know?!) beer and a Wiener Schnitzel. As you can see the beer was HUGE! I struggled to pick the thing up!

One place I wanted to find time for before I had to leave for home was Stephensplatz to see the Stephansdom. I was treated to absolutely glorious sunshine and this just added to the beautiful scenery around me. The cathedral is something to really appreciate, it’s huge and really intricate. Outside there are quaint little market stalls and horse and carriages. I also found a whole shop selling the most amazing hazelnut cream filled wafers, Manner Original Neapolitaner Wafers.

All in all Vienna is beautiful and definitely worth a visit, I for sure will be having another trip over. The flight is 2 hours and would be rude not to, the underground is free to ride and super clean and efficient, the shops are great, the architecture amazing and is just a lovely lovely place!


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Zaggora hot pants heating up weight loss?

Ok so yes sometimes I can be naive and fall for fads and I’ve pretty much tried every crazy diet and miracle cure for losing weight over several years but I really think these could be different. Yes I’m aware that sounds naive again… but there’s proper tests and everything!

Zaggora hot pants are the hot (quite literally!) new work out wear and are linked to the amazing figures of celebs such as Fearne Cotton, Holly Willoughby, Tess Daly and The Saturdays. The shorts increase the wearer’s core body temperature so that you burn more calories when exercising, four times in fact! Then, as if that isn’t enough, they continue to burn calories at the rate of 16% even after you’ve stopped exercising! So… you can wear a pair of shorts and lose weight. Yes please!!

As far as exercise wear goes, they’re pretty cool too. They are mega bright and cheerful which can only help when you need that extra kick of motivation at the gym. And they’re a modest £44.99 – £69.99, yes that might sound steep for work out gear but when it comes with technology like this you can’t complain!

I am definitely trying these and will post back with results, apparently you can lose two jeans sizes in two weeks so we shall see…


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Grazing the day away

A friend of mine gave me a free sample code for Graze, the healthy snacks delivery company. Their tag line is nature delivered, that pretty much sums it up!

I’d heard about Graze before so thought that a free sample was the perfect opportunity to give it a whirl and see what all the fuss was about. You basically register using the unique code and then scroll your way through different ranges of food where you browse and rate by selecting ‘Bin’, ‘Try’, ‘Like’ or ‘Love’ on a wide variety of healthy treats. I selected a delivery date, only days away, no waiting for weeks like is quite often the case with freebies.

My little packages arrived through the letter box and it was very exciting to see what snack pots had been sent. The boxes themselves scream nature and are made from recycled materials and look all very organic and environmentally friendly. I love all the thought that is gone into the packaging to reflect the message Graze are trying to promote.

I opened up my two boxes, it even says on the back “Turn me over before you open me (or you’ll make a mess)”, every little detail is considered. Inside the organic theme is continued with the same card used to house the little snack pots and there is a lovely close up shot of some mega healthy looking foods. You also get a little personalised booklet within each box which is addressed to you by name which I think is a lovely personal touch. Within the booklets it tells you all the nutritional information for your selected snacks and enables the health/ weight conscious like me to keep on top of those pesky calories!

The foods that are sent are a good mixture, savoury, sweet and something in between. Nothing is greasy, fattening or unhealthy but everything I was sent was super yummy and trust me I am not a nuts and dried fruits kinda gal! You can opt to have weekly deliveries, which are pretty well priced at £3.79, or less often. You can also go for one off deliveries which I like, it means you don’t have to be signed up to a subscription.

I would definitely recommend giving it a go just to try the freebies and to have your cute little package delivered to your door. Who knew such healthy grub could sway even the worst fast food junkie (me!) and maybe even, dare I say it, change my mindset to healthy snacks! Sorry Hobnobs, you’ve been relegated…


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Slice of pie

Pie Boy clothing is a pretty damn sweet student fashion brand set up by entrepreneur Andrew Jervis who is a student at the University of Manchester. It came about due to the lack of cool university merchandising. Obviously Manchester is where the heart is, but Pie Boy have recently won big contracts with universities throughout the UK, meaning all students can have some decent momentos from their uni days.

I know when I myself was at uni I wasn’t remotely interested in the university merchandise, instead opting to go for society clothing which was designed by a much more creative set! Pie Boy clothing has a much more creative flair as opposed to the boring plain fonts and colours you tend to see in uni clothing, it’s much more reminiscent of something you’d find on the high street and that ‘non-students’ would be happy to wear too.

The clothing is now available in an online shop and I can see the likes of the beanie being immensly popular, watch this space as I think Andrew Jervis and the Pie Boy team are planning big things. I hope they do a Nottingham range…

Manchester Icon Shirt, £15

Grey Originals Manchester Sweats, £25


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Met Ball 2012

Metallic was definitely the resounding theme at the Met Ball 2012, female stars quite literally tried to outshine each other. Below are some of the sparkling beauties:

Cameron Diaz in Stella McCartney & Carey Mulligan in Prada

Jessica Alba in Michael Kors & Karolina Kurkova in Rachel Zoe

Dree Hemingway in a Topshop Unique & Nina Dobrev in Donna Karan

Lana Del Rey in Joseph Altuzarra & Malin Akerman in unknown

Bianca Brandolini D’Adda in a Dolce & Gabbana & Debra Messing in unknown

Michelle Dockery in Ralph Lauren & Gwyneth Paltrow in Prada


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Jewellery by Jaymie

I’ve found another cool little independent jewellery store online, the world wide web is full of little treats! I don’ t know about you but I get sick of buying costume jewellery from the same places, Topshop for something a little quirky, Accessorize for something girly, Primark for something cheap (and not always so cheerful!).

All these entrepreneurial ladies (and maybe gents?) are bringing us interesting pieces of jewellery, hand-made, one offs for mega low prices as they’re not big corporates and they work online and not in stores. You find things that are unusual and not what you’d find in high street stores that have to cater to the mass market.

So… drum roll… the latest fave is Jewellery by Jaymie. There are some really quirky pieces on here and a lot are hand drawn pieces, so personal! The latest collection to arrive on the site is ‘Grunge’ and there’s some crazy little pieces that would look great added together with other bangles, bracelets and rings for the ‘stacked’ look.

Check the site out as there are some really cool bits and support the independent and creative!

Grunge Armour Ring Bracelet

Grunge Collection: Studded Necklace

Grunge Collection: Illustrated Evil Eye

ICONS: Morrisey

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