An Early Start for a Sunday...with coffee, ducks and lipstick

Hello!

I hope you guys had a good weekend.  I took my camera out for a walk with me on Sunday.  It was a special day here, celebrating the beginning of a new school year.  It was quite busy in the cafe we went to because of this but we were so exhausted from work we had gone to bed quite early on Saturday night. This meant that we got out much earlier than usual for a Sunday, so I didn't mind sitting around waiting for our coffee to arrive.

I'm having a bit of an internal fight at the moment about whether or not I should try to stop drinking coffee.  Is caffeine really that bad for you?  At the moment though I'm only having one a day so I don't think that's so bad.  They don't really serve decaf over here as standard yet which would probably solve my problem as it's the taste and smell I love more than the effect.

I really love nice kitchen ware.  This is a cute milk jug they had at the cafe.

We went for a walk along the river which is where I caught sight of this duck dunking itself in the water, so cute!

A well worn looking bridge.

There are loads of pretty looking flower baskets out at the moment.  I think it's to compensate for the harsh and long winter we have.  I love seeing a blue sky too!

I wore a dress I've had for ages.  It was a present from my Mum.  It's by Henry Holland for Debenhams and has this really cute pattern on it.

It's a really wearable day dress.  Easy to throw on and look pretty.

I don't wear lipstick very often so I like to try to make myself wear it at the weekends.  I wore my favourite Art Deco lipstick in shade 36.  I love the matte creamy texture of this lipstick.  It's richly pigmented and fairly long lasting, although I do still have to re-apply it after eating or drinking.

It's a pretty wearable pink.  Not too bright but still pretty.

I wear these pink Accessorize earrings all the time.  I got them last summer and I seem to remember that they were a really good price!

When we got home it rained and rained so heavily.  I spent the evening sorting out the kitchen and making cupcakes.  When the weather changes and the nights get darker and longer it inspires me to bake.  I suppose because it makes home feel more cosy.  I definitely want to try and keep baking and experimenting in my new much more decent sized kitchen!

The evening is drawing in once more and it's another cloudy one.  I hope you enjoyed this peak in to my day.  I'll be ending mine drinking decaf tea in my kitchen and maybe catching up on some episodes of my favourite programmes.

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Till next time

Twirlybirdie :)

Mango clothing day

Hi there!  Well I said I would post a picture of the new jumper I bought from Mango in better light but it's been a grey couple of days so a not so bright indoor one will have to do.  It's a dark blue with black jewels which sparkle in the light and look really pretty.  I wore them with my lilac Topshop jeans.

I also wore my Mum's ring.  It's a pearl ring from a pearl she got out of an oyster she picked at an oyster farm she went to with my Dad.  It's sterling silver dipped in gold with two red gems on either side.  She got it when she was 21 so it's very precious to me.  I teamed it with some bronze and pearl bird earrings I made myself.

There you have it!  I would probably have worn the jumper with my khaki leggings but as it was -10 degrees outside I thought jeans would be a more sensible choice.

I love my Mum's ring.  It's so lovely to have something nice passed down to you to wear.  I love that it has it's own story about her going to the oyster farm to pick out the pearl.

If you like the earrings you can find some similar jewellery in my Twirlybirdie shop.  Check it out here! .

I hope you had a lovely day!

New wellies?

At the moment I'm trying to decide whether or not to send my footwear in a new direction with a pair of kitsch wellies.  I've been looking for shoes that will tolerate the current rainy weather whilst simultaneously looking cute and being comfortable on my feet which are suffering from 'beginning of the new ballet season' syndrome.

Cath Kidston

I've always dismissed them in the past as silly looking on anyone over the age of 12 but after spotting these cute Cath Kidston ones on Asos in the sale my inner twelve year old has kicked in and I'm sorely tempted!

Perhaps  if I team them with some more grown up plain clothes I can get away with it? Ah well who cares, I need a little lift in my mood on wet grey days and if cute patterned wellies do the trick, why not!

Cath Kidston Star Wellington Boots
Click here to purchase

Cath Kidstson

All this rainy weather has inspired me to make my rainy days necklace!  Check out this cute umberella charm necklace which you can buy from my Etsy shop for just £5.15!

Click here to purchase!

I think I should make one for myself to go perfectly with my new wellington boots.

Take care!  Twirlybirdie x

Quirky jewellery!

Recently I have been inspired by cuter vintage style charms on necklaces.  I decided I wanted to add some items in this vein to my Etsy shop.  I went cute charm hunting and came away with a few super cute tea cup and tea pot items.  I think they look great on a gold tone chain!

 Click here to purchase this cute teacup necklace!

Click here to buy this funky floral teapot necklace!

To purchase this necklace with quirky floral jug charm- click here!

I love the floral designs which give the charms a vintage feel!

I hope you like them!

Cute shoes of the day!

Sindy Blue Polka Dot Platform Sandals

We can't always buy all the shoes that we want but we can upload a picture of them and dream!  These Topshop shoes are sexy and retro cute in one!  A cute 50's bow on sky high platforms of the brightest blue. Even a bit of polka dot has managed to squeeze in there.  I can imagine Katy Perry in these neon beauties!

Red hair

Hello!

Even though it's summer here it's not been particularly warm yet.  I'm really hoping it will heat up soon!  As I've been spending a bit more time indoors I've had the chance to make a few more pairs of earrings :)

The past year I've been dying my hair red.  I had a bad reaction to some highlights I had put in my hair as a teen and had been too afraid to have it dyed since.  However I became desperate to have red hair a couple of years ago and after some internet research decided to try the least toxic sounding one I could find.  I took the necessary precautions (allergy test etc.) and luckily it turned out just fine!  All the reviews that people have written on the internet of their experiences with various hair dyes were so useful that I wanted to share my own.
First I used HennaPlus Long Lasting Colour in Henna Red.  I really wanted a dark red colour and although this is what I got initially it faded pretty quickly to more of a warm ginger red.  Luckily I still really liked this colour and it seemed to warm my skin tone and suit the summery weather.  I was expecting the dye to ruin my hair but my hair seemed to be in really good condition after using this dye.  The hair colour really stayed in my hair so when my darker roots grew through I decided to re-dye it with the same dye again as I liked the colour so much!
A few months later I decided I wanted to try a darker colour so that when it grew out my roots would be less obvious. I went for Tints of Nature Dark Henna Red as it contained no ammonia.  This dye actually seemed a bit more chemical than the HennaPlus one and my hair didn't feel as nice after using it.  The colour was a bit more purple than red and quite soon after using it I felt that I needed to use a lot of treatment to repair my damaged hair.  It was darker but not as dark as I would have liked and it faded pretty quickly to a colour between the warm coppery one from HennaPlus and the darker shade.  I did get a few compliments on the colour of my hair at this time but I wasn't satisfied with the colour so a couple of months later I decided to really go for it and bought some Garnier semi-permanent dye called Glowing Red with no ammonia that was really quite bright on the box but just what I was after.
I did some more research on getting the best results from your dye which told me to do some intensive hair conditioning for a few days before the dye as well as getting it cut.  I also washed my hair the day before with as little conditioner as possible to give the colour a chance to grab on to my hair and didn't wash it for 3(!) days after colouring it.
I love the colour it is now!  It's bright and bold and very me.  Hopefully I will get some pictures of it up soon.  Now I just have to figure out how to hold on to the colour as long as possible!  My research has led to me upgrading my shampoo and conditioner to slightly more expensive 'sulphate-free' versions that shouldn't strip hair colour.
 

Red Swarovski Crystal Drop Earrings

Now for my latest earrings!  Going with the red theme I've created these pretty little red Swarovski crystal drop earrings with sterling silver chain and ball and post ear studs.  It's the first time I've used a ball and post finding and I really like the security they give to the earring. 

I just can't get enough of Swarovski crystal drops, they're so pretty :)  I've also made some for myself of course!

Summer is here!

Summer has arrived at last and things at work have really wound down.  At the moment we're performing Abba which doesn't involve too much dancing for me.  Consequently I have had some time to finally sit down and start making some earrings again!

Crystal Quartz and Freshwater pearl earrings

I have had some beautiful crystal quartz multi-faceted beads hanging around for a while and decided to combine these with beautiful magenta freshwater pearls for a simple, pretty earring.  Once I'd made them I  liked them so much I quickly used another pair of the crystal beads for myself.  A friend commented on how much she liked them straight away in ballet class so I know they're great :)



At the end of April we had a ballet gala here and I was desperate to perform something balletic and new for it.  Luckily for me my boyfriend has begun choreographing recently so I asked him to create a pas de deux for us to a piece of my favourite music, the pas de deux from Act II of Cinderella.

He decided to dance the part of the prince and we worked together on the choreography finally finishing the piece just in time for the gala.  I was really pleased with how it turned out; just as I had imagined and it was really special to perform.  We worked out the costume for my dress as well with the costume department here and it turned out great, a sort of 50's style dress with a knee length puffy skirt in purple.

Cinderella earrings

Thinking about the pas de deux inspired me to create some Cinderella themed earrings, especially as I had some shoe charms lying around!  I combined them with a swarovski light blue star, representing the midnight sky and also the stars that traditionally appear in the ballet.  Also a larger 8mm swarovski clear crystal to add a bit of sparkle to Cinderella's shoe.  Both of these earrings are on sale at my Twirlybirdie Etsy shop http://www.etsy.com/shop/twirlybirdie .