Archive for January 2013

| Puma Pumps - Urban Outfitters £9 down from £30 |

Every year I go shopping in the sales after Christmas, and every year I end up getting frustrated with the mess and end up wasting all my Christmas giftcards on rubbish that I never wear. This year I decided to keep well away from the shops in a bid to simultaneously save my sanity and and my giftcards. However, January is such a long month and, really, how long is a girl expected to go without a little online browsing? Eventually I ended up buying a few bits in the online sales - sales without the stress and mess = easy browsing and well thought out purchases (kind of). Now, in the past I've always been a go-high-or-go-home kind of girl when it comes to heels, but over time this has resulted in an abundance of super high heels that are in no way suitable for daytime wear. So when I saw these adorable sparkly puma pumps in Urban Outfitters and at just £9 (!!!) I immediately purchased them. They're really different from anything else I have so I'm excited to wear them :)

Did you get any bargains this month? x

| Camera Bag - £33, eBay |

When I think of a camera bag, I tend to think of something like this; practical, durable, convenient...but let's be honest, it's not winning any style awards. I bought my Nikon way back in September and although I absolutely love it to death, I have neglected my responsibility to provide it with a nice, comfy bag to live in. I've basically been lugging it around in the box it came in (not exactly convenient) or carefully placing it in your run-of-the-mill handbag (not exactly safe). However, if you follow me on Instagram, you would have seen me very excitedly post a picture of this little beauty last week.

It wasn't until I searched 'Camera Satchel' into eBay that I found there are a whole host of cute, stylish camera bags in a range of colours perfect for the more fashion conscious photographer (although I would hardly refer to myself as a photographer - auto mode all the way!). I bought this one for about £33 and it was delivered for free all the way from China in just six days. On eBay it looks like a kind of coral-pinky colour, but when it arrived I was pleased to see it's actually a lovely eye-catching bright red. It's perfectly padded inside and has two separate compartments for the lense and the body, and it has a convenient pocket under the flap which is the perfect size for my purse. It's not leather despite being advertised as leather on eBay, but it looks pretty real and I did think £33 was quite cheap for real leather! It came with a little tassel but I thought it looked a bit rubbish so I took it off, but I I'm keeping my eyes peeled for something else to hang on it to make it a bit unique. I'm absolutely thrilled with my camera bag and cannot wait to take it on it's first proper outing to London Fashion Week next month! x

| Waiting on Spring with my new mint jumper | Hangin' with my top gal | Lovely belated birthday present from my best friend | SNOW | Playing in the snow with Carl #bigkids | McDonalds picnic and a movie | Drinks with the girls! | Hanging with Carl (I ran out of pictures) |

So this is more of a instaweek-and-a-half because I've been pretty boring this week and done basically nothing ha. I've loved the snow the last couple of days though! Usually I don't like touching it because it's too cold, but last night Carl's road was like an ice rink so we couldn't resit a few hand break turns in the car, a little snowball fight and skating around pretending to be professionals ;) all at 1am, we're very normal.

I'm heading back to uni tonight! I'm really looking forward to seeing my friends, but dreading the workload. And it's going to be so COLD in my flat! I started downloading audio book versions of my reading lists the other night which has been an absolute godsend! One book that would probably take me a few days to read can be read to me by a host of comical and animated voices and take just seven hours. It will save me so much time (because I get so bored of reading and am easily distracted) and hopefully I'll enjoy it a lot more. I've really enjoyed blogging more often this month, which is something I just did not have the time to do last semester. I'm hoping to carry it on, but we'll see how it goes! x

| Clinque Instant Lift for Brows - £15 |

If you know me in real life, or have been reading my blog for a while, then you'll probably know I have some pretty chronic issues with my eyebrows (see the full chronicles here). They're better now than what they once were, but I still rely on eyebrow fillers to make them look the way I like. It seems ridiculous to grumble about those two random strips of hair above our eyes, but I'm going to nonetheless! *grumble grumble*

The last eyebrow kit I bought was from ELF. It was cute, compact, convenient...and it was £3.50. And from there it pretty much all went downhill. Being so cheap, it was never going to be a miracle product that would forever solve my eyebrow woes but...it's just a bit rubbish. At first I thought the kit was OK, but now I've used the entire product and I've found the angled brush makes by brows look too harsh and sometimes 'drawn on' (greeeeaat) plus the staying power is rubbish and rubs off half way through the day.

I decided on this Clinique pencil because it's not an angled brush (can you tell?), it has great reviews and claims to last all day. I bought it in duty free last month so I got it a little bit cheaper but I don't think £15 is too bad anyway. The only drawback is the highlighter; I don't use it, not because it's bad (although it's not amazing) but just because I already have a highlighter I'm happy with. It is annoying that half the length of the pencil is taken up by the highlighter which I'm not going to use. I originally wanted to try the Superfine Liner which doesn't have a highlighter and is a bit cheaper, but they didn't have any in stock and both had good reviews so I just went for this one.

Overall, it is good; it stays put and gives a natural looking result, but I think the highlighter is a bit of a waste of space for me. Next time I'm going to try the Superfine Liner.
What are your favourite brow products? x

| Top : Zara | Disco Pants : American Apparel | Shoes : DaisyStreet | Necklace : Topshop |

I'm bordering on delirium as I write this; I've been having massive trouble sleeping the last few nights and it's starting to catch up with me. Then I had to wake up at the ungodly hour of SIX AM this morning to babysit my niece. We're now snuggled up on the sofa with a blanket watching CBeebies and it would be too easy to...just...nod...off...But I absolutely love spending time with her so it's all worth it. If you follow me on instagram (which you absolutely most definitely should: nataliecarmen_) then I'm sure you'll see some so-cute-I-could-eat-you-all-up-with-a-spoon pictures of her, she's a massive cutie!

I suppose I'd better get used to early mornings and late nights as I'm heading back to uni this weekend which I am absolutely dreading. It's my final semester and I just cannot wait to graduate now! I'm so sick of constantly having to work on something that I don't enjoy/never having any money/not having any time to myself. Not long to go now...x

| Jumper : Pronto | Disco Pants : American Apparel | Shoes : Jeffrey Campbell | Necklace : Pronto |

This is a bit of a cheat because I'm not actually wearing this today (bit OTT for daytime even by my standards ha!). I wore this out last week when I went into London for dinner and drinks with a couple of friends. We went to Covent Garden for dinner then over to Leicester Square for cocktails. It was a looooovely evening full of over-indulgences and lots of laughs (all the best ones are). The jumper and necklace are from Pronto, a lovely shop I discovered in Colombia and really liked. I also bought a new leather jacket from there which I love and am sure will make an appearance on here before long! My best friend is heading back to uni today so I'm going to pop round hers for a bit, sit on her bed and watch her pack. I might throw a tantrum and hide all her stuff so she can't leave MUHAHA. I'm just going to try a enjoy my last week at home as much as I can before I have to move back to London for my last ever semester. Not looking forward to it and I still have a tonne of reading to plough through before Sunday! Wish me luck x

'Misconception' unfortunately seems to have become Colombia's middle name; believe it or not, not everyone in Colombia is a drug dealer or a kidnapper, nor do they live in mud huts or drive carts led by donkeys (well, some of them do but most people have cars). I went to Colombia for a couple of weeks last month to spend Christmas and New Year with my family in Bogotá and, although I've been there many times before, I really had THE most fantastic time. The oh-so-original jokes concerning drugs that I'm faced with every time I mention Colombia, despite being hilariously funny, are actually ill founded/really irritating.

While most of my family live in the more modern, wealthier North of Bogotá, we stayed with my grandparents, who have always lived in the South. Complete in our super-skinny jeans and over-groomed appearance, we definitely didn't look like locals on the streets of South Bogotá amongst the stray dogs and road-side stalls selling pineapples and pandeyuca (cheesy bread made from the root plant 'yuca' - most delicious).

However, drive half an hour towards the North and you might as well be in a different country for all the similarities you'll find. The pineapple stalls are swapped for huge American malls full of designer shops, beautiful national parks and luxury apartments. It's actually rather nice.

Bogotá is set in a plateau in the Andes mountains, over 2600 meters above sea level which makes the average temperate about sixteen degrees all year round, although during my visit it was about 20ish everyday. The Andes make any journey out of the capital rather time-consuming, although very beautiful. We drove through the Andes mountains on Boxing (as you do) and left Bogotá to stay in Villavicencio for four days. The mountains were incredible and I ran my camera battery down from taking too many pictures!

We stayed in a huge villa in Villavicencio which can only be described as paradise. There was acres of land, a big swimming pool with a pool house, a football pitch, a volleyball pitch (?), hammocks, a huge forest area to explore the wildlife (small bears, monkeys and giant ants if you're into that kind of thing) and it was 32 degrees. There were fifteen of us and between Christmas and New Year we played in the pool, drank mojitos and went horse riding. Bliss.

This post doesn't really do my trip justice, I can't explain in words and images what a fantastic time we had and what a beautiful country Colombia really is. It was so good to spend time with my family that I don't get to see very often. It's hard to believe I've been back a whole week already; it's zoomed by in a blur of very late mornings (thanks jet lag) and university reading (back to reality). And I'll leave you with a few more holiday snaps to look at :) x

Here is a picture of my legs donning my most favouritest item of clothing (for now). For Christmas/my birthday this last year (the two are so close together they seem to blur into one single event) I was spoilt rotten once again by my long-suffering boyfriend, who granted me almost every wish on my wishlist *love* including my very own pair of Black Milk Rainbow Galaxy print leggings! If you haven't heard of Black Milk before then you should certainly hang your head in shame and scurry off to marvel at the beauty that is the Black Milk Online Store. In short, Black Milk is an Australian based company which produces garments made with 100% shiny, stretchy, sexy goodness; manufactured mostly from polyester, their leggings are super tight and give the illusion of being 'sprayed on', which banishes the undesirable and downright dreadful 'saggy' look of your average cotton legging. But what attracts most to the cult-like brand is the individuality of the loud, colourful, eye-popping prints; the designs are plentiful and expanse from Van Gogh to Star Wars with a good measure of weird and wonderful in between. These Rainbow Galaxy leggings are made from actual photographs of Orion's Belt taken by NASA - and I love them! They're such good quality and are really comfortable. Of course Black Milk wouldn't limit themselves to just leggings; they stock not only the usual dresses and tops, but also garments ranging from swimsuits to catsuits to suspenders. Enjoy!

So I haven't blogged in a few weeks because I was away for Christmas and New Year in Colombia and only arrived home a few days ago. I'm definitely going to blog about the amazing time I had with my family, but it would be a pretty expansive post and it's hard to find the time when I have so much reading for uni to be getting on with! Thus is life! Only four months to go #eyeofthetiger x