Boohoo blogger Challenge

Well I'm always late to the party aren't I? I'm doing the £50 Boohoo fashion voucher blogger challenge now with a few minutes to spare! Crazy! I know I've not been updating a lot either but I've been working loads of nights shifts and generally being like a vampire with the sleepING part, which isn't fun! I have loads of blog ideas in my head, and this was one of them. So in theme with the 'vampire' part, but not really, I decided to go for an all black outfit.

Fashion vouchers teamed up with Boohoo to do this competition, where you create an outfit under or up to £50. Up to four people can win £50 in vouchers to spend in Boohoo and could get the outfit they created!

Bascially, I just looked at the clearance page and wanted to buy ALL the things!! If I don't win, I really want to go on a shopping spree but I'm meant to be saving. I have mixed feelings about all the pretty clothes I could have since they're on sale, but would like to have money for Paris and Portugal, ah descisions! Anyway there were loads of different outfits I could have created, but as I said I went for all black as you can never go wrong with that.

I built the outfit around the leggings. I've wanted galaxy leggings for a while and will have to finally get some! Since they are quite a statement piece themselves I wanted to pick more simple items to go with it so it wouldn't clash with anything. So I added a beautiful side mixi skirt, with a mesh sleeve crop top that matches well with it I think. I wouldn't show my stomach with it, but I'd tuck the crop top into the mixi skirt since it's long enough to do so. To add some height with the very long skirt as I'm only 5'5" I picked some lace up boots. It says they're sporty which is 'on trend' but they don't look to sporty to me, but they're purdy anyway. I love heels but find it hard to walk in them usually, but these look sturdy enough with their chunky heels!

Altogether this outfit came to £47, which is just under the £50 budget! I would wear this outfit on a night out, or just going to the cinema to watch a film. It's casual but not too casual and would be great to wear in Winter with a nice warm coat on top. I can't wait to start layering up! And hopefully win a voucher to buy all these pretty things!

Just another manic Monday

On Monday I finished work early, and decided to go round the shops and had a mini shopping spree. I really need to stop doing those, but I figured since I'd been paid recently, and it should be fine s'long as I don't do it again for awhile (I'm trying to save up money for big things). Anyways since I picked up two extra shifts yesterday and today, and next weeks crazy, it kinda makes up for me finishing early and spending lots of money-ish. I didn't spend too long shopping as I was meeting my boyfriend, but I did go to Primark and New Look. Most of what I own is from Primark, New Look and H&M, I think I should branch out a bit... oh well, they have cheap pretty clothes! 

I've lusted after the studded collar dress from New Look for awhile now, and finally decided to buy it, since I had 20% vouchers off for being a store card member, and decided to get the t-shirt as well which is kinda   weird for New Look don't you think? It's all spacey with lepards and triangles saying 'MY WORLD' but 'world' is backwards. Anyway as I got to the till and pulled out the vouchers I realised they ran out the day before, gah! But I still bought them anyways!

In Primark I bought a few things (and a dress the other day but I don't have pictures) but these were the two main things (I did buy a scarf, socks, etc but they were a bit boring). I've wanted Dr Martens for years, but don't have the money to buy them, so bought these cheapy super shiny lookalikes from Primark for £18. I'm hoping they'll look better when scuffed up a bit, but I like them regardless of the shine, my boyfriend however hates them haha. I also got that flowery vest top too, since I have a similar vest from there in a see through aztec print which I love and wear all the time. I also figured I could potentially wear that if I worked in a school, since you never know I might get one eventually, but there's no jobs being advertised! Swansea sucks!

In Primark I also bought the false eyelashes, and nivea hand cream on the bottom left of the photo, since they were a pound each. I love the hand cream. It was an impulse buy in the queue, but I always run out of hand cream, and need ones that last me awhile, which this one does. What I mean by last for awhile, as in the effect it has on my hands, so I'm not reaching for the hand cream a million times a day, so then it will last longer too. As for the eyelashes, I haven't tried them out yet but they look more natural than the pair I got in my glossy box (i.e no rhinestones!). I really enjoyed wearing those, which was my first time so I'm looking forward to wearing more false eyelashes now that I've gotten over my 'fear' of applying them, since I thought they would be too hard to do.

The rest of the items I got from Superdrug, and I love most of them. The two dry shampoos were part of a deal which I couldn't resist but they are awful and make my hair look worse! Definitely would not recommend them! I was planning on keeping them in my locker in work to deal with my terrible hat hair but but I think I'll stick to batiste or tesco's own (which works just as well and is cheaper), but I like to get batiste if its on sale since it tends to smell nicer.

I love Aussie products but only buy them when they have deals on, and these were two for £6 or £7 I think. As I've mentioned in loads of posts I'm trying to look after my very long hair right now in order to eventually donate it, so I've been wanting to get a leave in conditioner or hair mask, and then I saw the miracle hair insurance leave in conditioner. Since there was a deal on I also bought the three minute miracle luscious long hair treatment conditioner, and both of these products are magical. My hair felt so soft afterwards, and smelt great too and the leave in conditioner wasn't even noticeable apart from the lovely smell and extra softness. I actually look forward to showering with these products, sad I know!

The two lipsticks were MUA and Beauty UK. I was introduced to MUA by Catherine in the blog package swap I took part in. For such cheap prices they're really fun to try out different shades of nail polish, eye shadow, lipstick and more but I've only bought a few lipsticks so far. I'm trying out new shades of lipstick atm to see what suits me, and decided to try out cheap lipstick first before I get the more expensive lipsticks to see what I like. The MUA one is perfect for the day, as its a subtle pale coral colour, and the Beauty UK, is more of an orangy colour, more noticeable but not too much so but I love it. I didn't think I'd like it that much even though I bought it! I thought it would be for more daring days, but I could easily wear this whenever and not feel self conscious about it. I think both were a pound so you can't really go wrong with them there can you?

The last thing I bought was a superdrug mud mask tube to use when I'm down my boyfriends since I can't really cart my lush face masks back and forth, especially since they need to stay in the fridge. I've used it once, and it reminds me of when I was younger and used to do mud masks. It dried really quickly on my face and as usual, left my skin feeling nice and soft. I'm aiming to use masks a lot more lately and see if it helps my skin over the long run, because it's horrible right now.

Anway thats my rambly post on my mini shopping haul, with some reviews thrown in too! What do you think of shopping haul posts? Do you like them, find them boring, too boastful or don't really care? I like seeing them, as I'm a nosey person, and also tend to buy things people suggest too that I wouldn't otherwise normally think to buy. Hope everyone's having a lovely time with the unexpected sun, want to take any bets on how long it'll last this time around? As this is being posted I'm currently at work where there are no windows, is that a good or a bad thing I'll never really know!

Pretty colours catch up

It's time for another 31 day fashion challenge catch up, where I'm doing day 14-20 which is seven days, but I've included an extra picture above of the nail varnishes. I didn't realise that all of the colours went together so well until now, I like it and think its pretty. I'm doing this on Instagram, and my usernames Lisamello.

001 - Item hardest to hunt down/buy - Now this was from New Look and I didn't get in when I originally saw it, and then when I went back to get it a few weeks later they were all sold out/changing the stock, I checked another shop and they didn't have it either. Then when I was visiting my boyfriends grandmother in a different town, we went shopping and I popped into New Look and this was in the sale, yay! I love wearing it with jeans for casual or dressy days. 

002 & 003 -  My nail varnish collection - Um... this is only half of it, or even less actually. I keep my most recent nail varnishes in an old glossy box but I'm actually missing about ten polishes, I have no clue where they are, and there's a few glitter ones, and Models Own which should be there too. I need to hunt them down. I laid them all out since it's fun to look through them all, and my favourites are the peachy or turquoise ones. 

004 - Customised item -  Now this isn't a properly customised item, yet! Well its half done, or a third done rather. This halter red polka dot dress was given to me by a friend and the halter neck of it looked horrible, so I've already cut half of that away, and plan on changing it to two straps. It's also quite long with ruffles on the bottom so I'll be cutting that off too and hemming. I can't wait to wear this in the Summer.

005 - Something you wear when sunny - Would be my sunglasses! I tend to think sunglasses don't suit my shape of face, so it's hard for me to find a pair I love. I bought these polka dot ones from H&M two summers ago I think and they were like £3 and have lasted me well. I'll be very sad if these break or get lost :(

006 - Brightest lipstick - I don't own many lipsticks and actually couldn't find my brightest shade (which is red) but this is a close second. A shimmery pink MUA lipstick given to me in my blog swap. It's so pretty!

007 - Clothing/Jewellery that makes me feel great - I found this one to be hard as I don't want to repeat the same items in this challenge, so I went for my Katniss Pin since I LOVE it and I feel really happy when wearing it, yes I'm a geek!

008 - Shoes I love but hardly wear - I have a few shoes that I could have picked but I went for these pale brown (the Instagram filtre changed the colour oops) buckle brogues. I have no clue what they're called, sorry. They are much more delicate than my other brogues so I like wearing these with dresses and tights. However, I hardly wear them since the back hurts my heels if I wear them too long, sad times. 

That's it from me, I'm now off to bed whilst watching some Deathly Hallows and I have a live fire evacuation in work tomorrow morning, with real people! It should be er...fun?

31 day challenge catch up!

I've been a bit busy and haven't had a chance to do the 31 day fashion challenge for the past week, but I said from the start I would be doing it using Instagram and probably doing a few days at a time so here are the last seven days challenges. I found some of these hard to photograph so they're not the best pictures and I may as well do a grid since its a catch up after all. 

007 A special occasion outfit - This is a three quarter length black chiffon dress. I feel all grown up wearing it, and have worn it at my friends engagement party, and will be wearing it to my boyfriends uni society awards do. The dress is from Matalan.

008 Something you forget you have but love - This Kimono style dress is from Dorothy Perkins and I love it! I love the colours and how silky it feels. However I don't wear it a lot since I think people will remember it more and think I always wear it? Eh I don't know, but I put it in my wardrobe and forget I have it. 

009 The item at the top of your wishlist - I really really want a pair of creepers! I want them in black suede please and can't wait to wear them with pretty dresses. I might buy them if I have enough money at the end of the month!

010 Cute tights - They're sparkly, what more can I say? 

011 Your spring essential - Headbands in general but I can't wait to wear this feather headband or the flowers with wavy hair. My hair is really long atm and I'm going to chop it off and donate to charity soon so I want to make the most of my hair over the summer and actually style it!

012 The outfit you've had the best times in - This one was hard to pick, um, this is my go to black dress. I know everyone and their mother has it (hmm that might be a challenge later on this would have worked for, oh well) but I love lace. I waited awhile after the trend for this died down and got it from Tesco. I've worn it for lots of nights out, too many to count. 

013 Your lazy day at home with style (In front of your housemates/bf/visitors) outfit - This one was also hard to pick as people don't often come over my house, I usally go out or over my boyfriends. My lazy outfits when its cold are usually whatever I find that's warm with my monkey onesie on top, but if people came round I would never wear that in front of them lol (well except for the family and bf). I think this jumper is cute, who doesn't love bunnies with moustaches? It's from River Island and super comfy, the inside of it is so soft, and then I'd wear it with black jeggings or green jeans.

So there you go that's been my week in challenges. Also this week my baby brother turned 18 even though I told him he wasn't allowed to grow up (how rude!) so I was preparing for a party for him and working, and I also went to London over the weekend! 

31 day challenge!

I saw this really cool idea for a 31 day challenge on Selina's blog The Flying Saucer. Okay well technically it's a fashion blogger challenge, and I'm not one of those, (I'm not sure what kind of blogger I am but we'll go with personal blogger for the time being yes?), but I still want to do it, or at least attempt. I love things like this but never really follow through.

Anyways my goal is to do as many of them as I can, and it might just be a photo a day on Instagram (username is lisamello) and I'll round them up here maybe every week, rather than post every day since that doesn't seem that likely to be honest. 

So here is the list of challenges.

1st. Your wardrobe
2nd. You have the most...
3rd. Something you're wearing for the first time
4th. Your favourite print
5th. Your best bargain

6th. Something out of your comfort zone but you love it

7th. A special occassion outfit

8th. Something you forget you have but love

9th. The item at the top of your wishlist

10th. Cute tights

11th. Your spring essential

12th. The outfit you've had the best times in

13th. Your lazy day at home with style (in front of your housemates/bf/visitor) outfit

14th. The item that was hardest to hunt down/buy

15th. Nail art/your favourite polish and your nail varnish collection 

16th. A customised item

17th. Something you wear when it's sunny

18th. Your brightest lipstick

19th. An article of clothing/jewellery that instantly makes you feel great

20th. Shoes you love but hardly wear

21st. Something that is your favourite brand

22nd. A piece of clothing or jewelry that was a gift

23rd. Something from your favourite store

24th. The item that brings all the boys to the yard

25th. A totally YOU outfit

26th. What's in your bag

27th. Inspired by your style icon

28th. Something everyone has now

29th. Face of the day

30th. Pretty hair

31st. The thing you're obsessed with at the moment!


I didn't manage to do it yesterday since I was going to do it after work, but then I stayed on till just after midnight and by the time I came home I was too tired so I've done the first two today. The photo at the top is of my wardrobe, which was the first day. It's got drawers on the bottom which are broken and empty, and only fits about a third of my clothes into it. I have an out of date Chinese calender I got for free on one door since its pretty and its easy to find out someones Chinese sign if I so wish. But I should probably change it soon. I also have some china ballerina slippers which you can barely see that I've had since I was about 8, which were given to me by my nana.

Above is a picture of inside my wardrobe, and I've already mentioned it holds about a third of my clothes, maybe even less! I need a bigger wardrobe or less clothes. It's mainly dresses hanging up, and I got that fabric compartment hanger thing from Ikea, it has mainly tops or jumpers in it which I hardly ever wear. At the bottom of the wardrobe I have a tesco bag full of shoes, and its really hard to take a picture of my wardrobe as there's a wall right behind me. I store the rest of my clothes in those mutli draw storage things, my mums wardrobe, suitcases, back of my door, a chair and of course on my floordrobe.  Looking at the above picture I really need to sort my clothes out, since I haven't worn half of those in over a year!

For day two, which is today, it was 'You have the most...' and I decided I have the most tights! This is a full drawer full of tights and I have more in various places too. I hardly wear these tights, I usually stick to black tights or leggings and I can't resist buying pretty tights! I used to keep them all neat but then I don't know what happened, I'm messy!! This is also something that needs to be sorted out. I should have tidied up beforehand but then I might never do this challenge, my bedrooms a crazy tiny room full of stuff!
Anyway I won't be doing this every day but I'll do a few days in one go or weekly roundups, but I will be taking pictures every day on my Instagram. If you feel like doing it too, join in, better late than never :)

Link Love

I've been inspired by so many different things on the internet that I decided I'd try to do a weekly post on it, called 'Link Love' getting the idea from various bloggers. Lately I've been inspired by the style of these bloggers and peoples lookbooks. Some I've followed for awhile, some are new but you should check out their blogs/lookbooks. I'm new to the whole lookbook thing and don't even have an account, I'm sorta in over my head kind of thing with that. Anyway I hope every has had a lovely Sunday, I've been chilling out, gathering pictures for this and updating my very old and abandoned Spotify account. I'm now obssessed with it and it only took me a few years!

Being Little 

I love her style of wearing skirts with cute tops, I'm looking for a skirt like one of these to try out since I usually wear dresses but would like to start wearing skirts again. 

 The Dainty Squid
I am so jealous of her hair! I'd love to dye my hair a crazy colour but I don't have the confidence to pull it off just yet. I also love the dress and the colour of that coat, so pretty. 

Wish Wish Wish

Her style is really elegant, I want all her clothes!

Lost in the Haze

I love polka dots, and how cute is that hat? I don't tend to wear hats unless its winter but I want to try in the future.

Mimis Lookbook
I want that skirt and cardigan now! Also the shoes, and the jumper... oh thats the whole outfit is it?

Rhiannon L's Lookbook

 Just look at those dresses and the shoes, and the hair! I'm half heatedly growing my hair dye out, but I am tempted to dye it back to dark brown again now.

What I wore #7

It's been awhile since I've done a "What I wore" post, so I thought why not? I really liked my outfit I wore the other night so decided to illustrate that. Not well I might add, I have the chunkiest legs, and a giraffe neck in that doode! Anyway I've been wearing my work uniform practically every day and that's too boring to draw! My hairs not really that long but it feels like it sometimes, I'm half debating to chop it all off like I usually do to my shoulders but I'm going to actually try styling it at some point since it's really long for me.

So, I've survived the first three shifts of Breaking Dawn Hell! It's not been that bad, but my legs are aching so much and I've gathered a few new scars on my arms and hands because I just attract those kind of injuries! My dreams of being a hand model are over :P I had a day shift today instead of a day/night shift so I've actually had time to do stuff except for eat and sleep, and draw that little post. Sorry for the blurryness of the photo, but it was the best of a bunch. I'm watching Twilight while I surf the net, terrible I know but I have this urge to watch them all again and its just on in the background anyway. Then it'll be food, shower, bed and back in for work tomorrow morning. My life is just that exciting!

Recent Haul

Well I've been meaning to post things I've bought since I started this blog, but never really get round to it. So I thought I'd post a bit of what I've bought in the past week, plus some presents I've had :) It's cheered me up, but I still feel angry/sad at the thing I can't change, but I can't do anything about it so I need to try and get over it, or vent a lot to my friends. Haven't done that yet but I'm having a girly chat up with my uni friends tomorrow so yay. So onto some pictures then yes?

Had to use flash since without flash I couldn't get a non blurry photo. Feels good to use my camera again. I've been using my boyfriends iPhone lately and its okay, but I can't edit the photos when I use his laptop. I should just take my laptop down there, which is why I bought that red bag above. It's from Primark and I love it! I bought it to be like a laptop bag, but, alas, my laptop is too big! I can fit it in but not shut the clasps, but for short journeys to the car that may be okay? The little bag is a present from my Nana for no reason, so sweet of her :D The cards I got for free from work, their from Ben & Jerry's, I love free stuff! My boyfriend got me a card and some chocolates from Thorntons <3 He does stuff like that every now and then, I'm quite lucky with him. Last but not least in that picture is the tin box that looks like a retro radio. Here's a close up of it below.

It's a chocolate box which I bought solely so I could have the tin! It's so cute, I love collecting tins and boxes to keep things in, it even looks like a radio on the back and the top, I love little details like that. Its from Sainsburys if anyone's interested in getting it for like £5 or £6 I can't remember. I'm going to keep nail varnishes or makeup in there or something like that. Currently my nail varnishes are in a little bucket.

I bought clothes! Since it's getting colder I need warmer things, like this cute little moustached bunny from River Island £20 and these coloured jeans from New Look £16.99. I need a decent pair of jeans since its too cold to just wear jeggings or tights sometimes, and I've wanted coloured jeans for awhile. I'd say these are teal coloured, which isn't too crazy for my first coloured jeans foray. I've also been lusting after that beaded top from New Look for awhile too and finally bought it. Oh yeah I had a discount voucher for 20% and to top was originally about £22. I'm planning on wearing it over a black body con dress for any Christmas parties I might go to.

I am in love with this playsuit and dress from Dorothy Perkins. I've never had a playsuit, and bought this on sale for £18, it feels very 80's when I wear it so I might add sparkly tights to it when I wear it out. The dress I used the 25% VIP code that had been running all week (last day is tomorrow I think?) and it was originally  £24. I have the same dress in the dusty rose colour, and have been wanting it in emerald for ages! Both of these things I can't wait to wear out over Christmas. It'll be my luck to not go out at all now! Since my holidays (I think I had alcohol poisoning) I haven't really wanted to drink that much, and when I have gone out its been a low key affair or with people who I know will look after me, aka my boyfriend. Anyway! I've started to want to go out again, and dress up with heels and all that jazz, so there'd better be things on, but there usually are.

So those are a few things that I've had and have cheered me up. I love getting new clothes, but I really have no where to put them *sigh*. I'm in the process of cleaning my room at the moment but procrastinating by writing this entry instead! But its the third day of NaBloPoMo! So I'd better write this before the days over. I haven't actually joined the site I linked to a few posts ago, so I'm just doing this as a personal challenge. About Nanowrimo I still haven't started yet, but I traditionally start that really late anyway. Hmm maybe thats why I haven't won properly yet, ooops.

What I wore #4, #5 and #6

Not the most creative of titles but that's what it's about. I'm behind on blogging, as in what I wanted to do. I did a to-do list the Wednesday before which I was meant to review the Wednesday just gone, but I haven't, oh well. I've been busy working or down my boyfriends, so haven't had that much time to post. One of the things I wanted to do, was illustrate my outfits every day for a week, like Ellamasters. This I have done, but I haven't painted the last two and I'm too tired to do that now, so you just get three. Plus, I think it'll look nicer than posting them ALL at once, three and two are better than five in a row. So here we go! They're not that interesting.

I found this outfit really hard to draw, the dress/top tunic was really difficult. I hate drawing the sleeves, but this was the best I could do. Also my owl necklace kept looking like a fish >.< and I need to work on the hair ooops, was meant to be a messy bun.

I really liked this one, wish the legs were more symmetrical but I don't really mind, but the colour is off by a lot. It wasn't so off when I painted it, but its meant to be more brown, way more brown than here, where it looks orange! I love my onesie though :)

Hate this drawing! My drawings seem to be getting smaller and smaller! Not what I wanted to do at all. The pen I used seemed to be runny, so I hate the outlines, but I loved wearing that outfit. It was perfect for a not so sunny day. I have two more, I think, to round up the week, then I'll only do it when I feel like it, so the blog won't be bombarded with them! Hopefully I'll be getting the scanner to work by then too so it'll be prettier on here! 

I'm going to be busy the next few days so I won't be posting much. Working tomorrow, which I wish I wasn't. I fell down the stairs yesterday and now my big toe is swollen and bruised, and working tonight for only four and a half hours hurt a bit, so tomorrow will be worse :( Then have a mock driving test, then watching The Lion King 3D with my boyfriend, can't wait! I haven't seen it in years. Then on Sunday I'll be going to the races for my boyfriends brothers birthday. Never been before so that'll be interesting, I hope it doesn't rain! Then Monday I have my real driving test, so I'm really nervous. Hopefully the next post will say I've passed. It's my second attempt, and I failed the last one since I was so nervous, I went into first gear from sixth gear TWICE! Damn shaky hands, I really don't blame him for failing me. If I fail this time though, I'm taking medication next time, wish me luck!

What I wore #2 and #3

My equipment! Paints are from when I was in college, and a hello kitty pencil I've had for awhile! I bought a sharpener and paintbrush set today after work so I can actually drawn and paint yay! I've got two posts up, since I'm trying to draw what I've worn every day, but I'm not including todays since I haven't done it yet, so that'll be in tomorrow along with other stuff hopefully. Oh I just realised I forgot to put the pen in, ah well.

I still need to work on the whole editing thing and possibly scanning, since the blurryness kills me! and I have to use flash to make it less blurry and I'd rather not. Anyway first attempt at a watercolour outfit. I think I need some more practice but overall I like it. Colours of the skirt should be more red but I'd painted on that patch too much and it was soggy and ripped a bit, so I gave up. As written above I had lots of fun! And I think my costume was a better outfit that what I wore that day.

I wish I hadn't inked around the cheeks now, but you live and you learn I guess. I hate drawing legs and arms and hands and feet so they're rather shapeless. I tried drawing hands like Ellamasters shows you in her tutorial, but they just looked freaky when I drew them like that, wah. I really love that smocky top above, which I have in black too. They are perfect for hot sunny days, I just wish I had them in more colours!  The friend is actually my mums friends daughter who spent a lot of time living in France and Hungary recently, so it could be from another country or from here, who knows, I don't recognize the label inside.

Anywho! I'm hoping that my drawing skills will increase! and painting skills and editing skills and whatnot. I've also bought another little sketch book today I'll use for writing down random thoughts, lists and doodles.

What I wore #1

After reading this post from Ellamasters blog, I decided to try my hand at drawing what I wear, since I'm not hugely confident in taking outfit pictures yet. I haven't really drawn for awhile, plus my hands were shaky (I'd forgotten to eat today, had food after I finished the drawing) and I couldn't find a single paintbrush in my house! I seem to have lost them all :( So instead of using watercolours like Ella, which I really wanted to, I used my pencils. However, guess what! They were all blunt, I couldn't find a single sharpener either :( I really need to get down to an art shop pronto so hopefully I'll have better drawings in the future!

I also need to work out how to use my scanner, since my camera is terrible! I tried editing it in photofiltre (a free photo editing program) to make it look better but meh. The camera made it blurry and the colours look better on paper. I also got rid of what I'd written and rewrote it since I know my handwriting sucks, but I didn't know how bad till I saw it on my screen!

The next one will be better! I swear! Oh well I'm off to a fancy dress make your own superhero costume birthday party! Maybe that should be my next outfit post :P