Archive for December 2013

I hope everyone has had a lovely Christmas! It's been a bit quiet over here what with all the present-opening, eating, film-watching, family-visiting etc. Alllll the good stuff. I spent Christmas Day at home with my family. I have two nieces and they absolutely made Christmas for everyone with their infectious excitement. Cuties.

I look like I'm sponsored by Primark in these photos - can you tell a swish new Primani has opened up near me? Ha! There are some really good bits in store at the moment - lots of block colours which is great for beating the post-Christmas blues AND this lovely loose shift cut is perfect for hiding the ten extra champagne truffles I may have indulged in and the cheese and the biscuits and the mince pies. Plus the 60s vibe aids my ongoing quest to actually morph into Megan Draper. If you don't watch Mad Men, you'll never understand #girlcrush.

My cousin was staying with us over Christmas and today she flew back home - a depressing sign that Christmas is definitely over. She's South American but goes to university in France, so she stays with us for Christmas every year and there's always a deflated atmosphere in the house when she leaves! Oh well, we still have New Year to look forward to. I'm super organised this year and have had an outfit planned for weeks. Very unlike me! Last year I went to a massive party with my family then onto a a Salsa Bar with my cousins in Bogota. This year I'm looking forward to spending it at a house party with my best friends. What are you plans for New Years?

On Thursday I turned the grand old age of twenty-three. Twenty-three! When did that happen?! To cheer myself up, I headed to the shops for some, er, shopping. A massive new Primark has just opened up near me, so I was pretty excited to check it out! I've wanted a black fur coat for a while, so when I saw this one with leather sleeves I couldn't get to the till quick enough. I'm certain I'm going to get a lot of wear out of this; I love it paired with a dress and heels, but I'm also looking forward to dressing it down with tartan and jeans. So that was my birthday present to myself and some Bumble and Bumble products and a few other items of clothing and a new nail varnish. I had such a fantastic day spent with my family and I was completely spoilt by everyone. My boyfriend bought me this gorgeous Michael Kors watch and my parents treated me to these beautiful Vivienne Westwood earrings.

The best thing about being born in December is that after your birthday, you still have Christmas to look forward to! Just three more sleeps ahhhhh! After an amazing Christmas with my family in Colombia last year, I'm ridiculously excited for a more traditional Christmas at home this year. What are your plans for Christmas?

There are two things I find hard to resist in this life (aside from fast food, but we already established that in my last post): leopard print and studs. When the two are combined, well, that's just a Paypal transaction waiting to happen. I never used to be much of a shoe person; throughout university I pretty much lived in my Converse and I owned one pair of trusty black wedges for nights out, but since graduating I just can't resist a pretty pair of pumps. Welcome the latest addition to my collection: the Jeffrey Campbell Martini flats in Leopard print. I have recently been buying more flats/low heel shoes than ever before. Maybe I'm finally conceding to my parent's perception of 'sensible'? Hm, pretty all the same.

One of my housemates at university studied nutrition (read: food hippy). She was a full-on vegetable-promoting, seed-snacking, I'd-rather-have-frozen-yogurt-than-Cookie-Dough-ice-cream kinda gal (yeah, these people DO exist). She'd come back from her lectures cheerfully reciting fat-fuelled horror stories while I sat with a Domino's on my lap and she'd much rather be analysing diets on Supersize vs. Superskinny than tuning into Eastenders. If she wasn't one of my best friends evah, then I'd probably definitely hate her and her healthy eating ways.

...But only because while she was getting up at 6:30am to go for a run before lectures in the snow and eating super foods for lunch, I'd just about make it out the door at a much more laid-back 11:30 with a lunch consisting of an entire pack of Party Rings and a bottle of Mountain Dew. We lived together for three wonderful years and although I did try the healthy thing a couple of times, I failed miserably; omega 3 rich fish does not make for a happy lunchtime - unless it's cooked in batter and accompanied by chips. The truth: living with a health freak (albeit a lovely one) made me feel bad about my inability to stay away from fast food, biscuits, chocolate and fizzy drinks. Rather than try harder, I simply decided this: healthy food is a bit shit. And that's a philosophy I continue to live by.

From the pages of Kate Moss face-palm worthy quotes, one springs to mind: "nothing tastes as good as skinny feels." Typing "#EatRaw" into instagram is proof enough for me that many things taste better than skinny - and it hardly takes a genius to figure out anything you have to eat raw isn't going to taste that great. As sad as it may be, few things make me happier on a day-to-day basis than receiving a "McDonalds?" text from my boyfriend as he leaves work, or when my friends and I agree it's time to leave the club and head to the nearest chip shop (although said housemate would usually wait until we got home and snack on beans on toast or hummus and pita).

When girls go organic, there's usually only one place to turn: to your boy friends. Throughout university, those guys were always there to share a greasy pizza with, drive me to McDonalds, or accompany me on the long, harrowing walk to KFC. Maybe I'll become a proper lady and convert to salads and seeds eventually, sometime closer to my thirties...