Arty Expedition

Hello! Hope you're having a lovely start to the weekend. I have been looking forward to it immensely, after having my first of last-year exams this week. Fortunately they went well, but the stress of it all (I am a wreck when it comes to exam worries) would definitely not have been missed. So this weekend I decided to cheer myself up and head to Birmingham's art galleries. Hopefully if you ever visit the city and are prone to being a 'culture-vulture' like myself, then this post may come in handy. First on the map was Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, which has my favourite art movement and guilty pleasure to offer - the Pre-Raphaelites and a cinnamon swirl! Here's a few (or many) snaps of what caught my eye; my particular favourites were the decorated tiles by William De Morgan and Rossetti's beautiful paintings. Which are yours?

After having a lovely explore through all the creative treasures (and having gotten a snap of my mundane outfit), my mom and I headed over to the Ikon Gallery which always has some interesting exhibitions. I often enjoy looking at people observing the pieces rather than looking at the pieces themselves. It may sound odd, yet I find it quite interesting! The galleries were ever so perfect to relax before my Sunday of work, and a great idea for a day out, no matter where you live. So many of them are free, and offer such a lot!

What's your favourite thing to do for 'de-stressing'?

Have a lovely weekend,

Eva xxx

Stripes in Spring

 (Coat - Charity Shop £5, Bag - Urban Outfitters, Striped Top - Forever 21, Boots - Office)

Hello! First of all, I hope you've had a lovely Easter and a cheery weekend. The last of the snow in England seems to have bid its final adieu and today the sun shone and birds chirped. It's truly Spring, at last! I took the opportunity to take a few photos to show my newly short hair and this weekend's outfit. I am, admittedly, becoming quite attached to this coat - it's ever so comfy and for five pounds, it's my prized bargain buy. My striped top is also becoming a recent favourite, which I pur-chased a few weeks ago from Forever 21. Although I have discovered an old treasure - this leather bag has been hidden in my wardrobe for the last year, and when I came across it, I knew it would come in plenty of use!
I've spent my first school-free days with a  l a z y  mentality - catching up on The Walking Dead and sleeping all day have taken priority over much-needed revision. Oh dear! For now, I am going to watch The Goonies for the thirtieth time and make a cuppa tea. School work can wait until tomorrow (always tomorrow)! How have you spent the weekend?

Also - I shakily recorded a couple of clips whilst outside in ode to Spring finally arriving! It's trés terrible, but I am quite happy to see the sunshine say a greeting so I thought I'd compile this and share. Hope you enjoy!

Have a wonderful week,

Eva xxx

Flowery Tights & Poetry

(Coat - Charity Shop - £5, Dress as Top - Urban Outfitters - £10, Skirt - Charity Shop - £2.50, Flowery Tights - BHS, Boots - Toggi)

Hello! This is a very overdue post indeed; I've missed blogging so much, so luckily this half-term break from school has given me chance to share this weekend's outfit. I'm quite nostalgic for the summer sun at the moment, but of course I can't dress like it's out when the weather's still so bitter cold. So my little fashion tribute to the warmer season has come in the form of summery-pattern tights, which I've tactfully borrowed off of my mother - who has an ever-growing collection of impressive tights. I also cannot stop wearing this skirt at the moment; I found the velvet wonder at my local charity shop, but it was at an odd ankle length. But with a bit (or a lot!) of shortening, I've come to love it quite a bit, especially as it was only at the expense of a couple of hundred pennies! The dress that I've paired with it has also been a trés bien buy of recent - for a tenner from U.O. I was hardly going to walk away!

These boots have also been a blessing. They were dusty and neglected seeing as I've only ever used them when volunteering at the stables, but I'm surprised I hadn't thought of wearing them out sooner - they're so comfortable and have definitely aided me with this busy weekend. I met up with some lovely people yesterday and today I had a peek at the University of Liverpool, and explored the wonderful city (it had already made my top choices shortlist after the head lecturer said: 'if you're a serious culture vulture like me, you can enjoy an evening of the Schubert quartet and a glass of Monte Blanco' and a student representative admitted that there's often a scrabble night!) and, although I'm pretty tired now, my feet aren't feeling any of the pain (I definitely recommend Toggi boots). I am also known to always carry a book around with me, and this weekend's companion was the 'Collected Poems of Ella Wheeler Wilcox'. My wonderful friend bought it me from the local second-hand bookshop after I fell in love with the pretty cover and Wilcox's lovely and optimistic words. I actually hadn't heard of her before coming across this little treasure, but I'm quite sure you can find some of her poems online if you're a bookworm/poetic soul.

Alas, I must away back to revision, but I'm sure I'll post sooner this time. How have you been spending your weekend?

 Have a wonderful week,

Eva xxx

Snowy Weekend

Jumper - £18 - Topshop, Hat - £1 - Cow Vintage, Trousers - H&M, Wellies - £7 - Primark, Coat - Urban Outfitters

Snow! It's finally made an appearance, which is both a welcome and a curse to me; although I love the snow, it's pretty difficult to get by when being such a klutz as myself (already fallen over five times this week, and still counting!). I tend to be a more carefree with what I wear when the winter arrives - I find comfy jumpers and a warm coat is my top priority. Also, these few weeks are trés stressful with work (I can't remember the last time I've posted without moaning about school, my apologies!) so I've found my outfits have been a little relaxed, such as this weekend outfit, which I thought I'd share it with you. This jumper was my little bargain for 18 pounds, and it's my favourite thing to wear at the moment. I bought it a few sizes above what I usually would, but I love oversized jumpers to be snug in.  I also paired it with my comfy pair of wellingtons that I cut up into an ankle pair - which, I think, were around 7 pounds from Primark. 

It was quite fun to goof around in the snow, however now I'm thawing out next to the fire with a much-anticipated cup of tea, before returning to my stack of coursework and revision (moan number 2!). I hope you have a lovely week, and that you're enjoying the snow if there's any nearby.

Eva xxx

"The first fall of snow is not only an event, it is a magical event. You go to bed in one kind of a world and wake up in another quite different, and if this is not enchantment then where is it to be found?"

J. B. Priestley

Capulet & A Big Hat

(Hat - French Connection, Dress - Forever 21, Wrap - Topshop, Boots - Office, Bag - Capulet London)
First of all, happy new year to you all! Hope you all had a wonderful holiday and have a wonderful 2013 - unfortunately mine will consist mainly of coursework stress and exam revision. Ghastly! This weekend, however, I found time to share my latest look with you. Capulet London contacted me recently to see if I'd like to put an outfit together with one of their clutches - an offer I quickly accepted! Their ranges are the perfect fashion companions to carry around your laptop or phone and, although I usually stick to shoulder bags, this clutch was wonderful to carry about. The rest of my outfit mainly consisted of snapped-up sale pieces. The Forever 21 dress was definitely worth the ten pound I got it for, as was the reduced wrap from Topshop! My new shoes were just over twenty from Office, so I'm looking forward to getting my wear out of those, and I thought I'd add my latest hat which I got for Christmas to the equation; I'm quickly becoming a hat fanatic. Alas, for now, I must return to history revision and english coursework - life is just too crazy! How have you spent your first week of 2013? 

Wishing you a wonderful 2013,

Eva xxx