...having X Factor withdrawal

Well the X Factor is over for another year, booooo! I'm a loyal fan and I'm so glad Little Mix won! They have great style and I love the toyboy aspect to their outfits.  My favourite part though was their trainers!! I am a MASSIVE fan of Hi Tops of any brand or colour, especially the Nike iD ones where you can design your own. I think they will have to join the Michael Kors watch on the birthday list but for now, here's my top 5 Hi Top trainers out there just now...

Gold leather Nike Dunk. Classic, gold and shiny. Foot bling, if you will.

Red white and blue Excstacy Sleek. Narrower than  normal hi tops so not as bulky on your feet. Failsafe colours. A perfect everyday trainer.

For the fashionista in you. Sport Luxe. Nike Air Royalty in monochrome with cute ditsy print on the swoosh.

Not very girly but I love the Liberty aeroplane print on these Nike Dunks. Releasing my inner child, even though I had Barbies, not replica WWI fighter planes....

Not for the faint harted! Jesy Nelson of Little Mix has a pair of these Jeremy Scott for Adidas hi tops. The Mickey Mouse is a cute detail, and you would definitely get noticed in these!

...writing my Christmas list

I'm a humble girl and know the real value of Christmas. Being with friends and family is important to me. What is most important of all though, is that someone buys me this Michael Kors watch.

Thank you Santa,

Love Gingie x

...bargain hunting

It was my friends birthday yesterday so I decided to buy him some new trainers. Instead, I walked into Office to find a whole rack of shoes in the sale with the sign "Size 8's only". I think I may have shed a small tear of joy.  The result of this was me trying on pretty much every pair in the rack before finding these black encrusted shoe boots. They are Fabulous (Capital F intended). What made them even more Fabulous is that they were reduced from £100 to £20. It was physically impossible for me to say no. Have a look for yourself, would you have been able to resist a bargain of such epic proportions? I think not.

...finding the perfect party dress

As most of you will know, I'm a size 16 so picking the perfect party dress is a bit of a pain in my amply shaped derriere! I've been searching high and low, and have picked a few of my favourites from the high street, and a couple that are way out of my budget but that should be framed and hung on a wall with the title "Item of Outstanding Natural Beauty" underneath! As you can see, I love anything embellished with sequins, jewels or applique.

From top: 

Cream embellished tunic from Warehouse, £70

Black sequined skater dress from Oasis, £60

Cream embellished dress from Oasis £80 (Also available in black)

Now, if I was a rich girl, I would have a Chanel Couture gown. However, I may be tempted to settle for one of these works of art...

From top:

Embellished gown from Alice by Temperley, £2,800

Embellished gown from Kaufmanfranco, £9,450

A girl can dream...

Gingie x

...entering the skinny debate... sort of

It has been announced in the news that 15 year old Julia Schneider from Sweden has one this years Elite Model Look contest. This girl is a classic beauty, tall, lithe, blonde, jutting cheek bones... she undoubtedly deserves such an accolade.  My problem is her age.  At 15 she is, by any standards, very young.  My difficulty with this isn't the normal arguements "she should be at school" "she should be behaving like a normal child". My problem is that this girl will now grace the cover of Vogue and Elle and be featured in editorials, and be projected as an aspirational image.  How can an image of a 15 year old girl be aspirational?! The same goes for Hailee Steinfeld and Elle Fanning, while obviously very pretty girls, I have absolutely no desire to want to be more like them! At 23, I am myself very young as it is, however what about the late 20's and 30 somethings who still read Vogue and Elle? How are we supposed to compete with these ideals for youth as beauty? There are hundreds upon thousands of creams and procedures, but why should we? Competing with 13, 14 and 15 year old's is just getting plain ridiculous. I wonder what your thoughts are on this?  A little bit contentious for me, I know!

Gingie x

...pretending I'm Annie Leibowitz

As part my course we had to do a photoshoot and it was probably one of the most stressful experiences of my life! Not seen the finished result yet but from the few shots I took from my own camera I think the photos are going to look great! We had a modern take on the 60's theme, so had an amazing make up artist that did some incredible eye make up on the models. I had the less enviable task of doing their hair, and despite my complete lack of experience I think it turned out OK!  

Gingie x

...painting my nails

Hola! I'm finding myself with more and more to talk about at the moment which can only be a good thing! 

Today I had a bash at nail art for the first time.  I don't really get to wear nail varnish because I'm a waitress and it's against Health & Safety (blah blah blah) so whenever I have a few days off I like to get some lacquer on!  My favourite brand is OPI but I'm finding myself falling a little bit in love with the new seasons Nails Inc collections like Paparazzi and Shadow Chic which contain dark greys, glitters, and deep jewel colours. Perfect for Christmas!  As a cheaper brand, Models Own are great for really on trend colours. They don't have quite the durability of some of the other more expensive brands but a good base coat helps.

So on to my experiment!  Since I knew I was going to take this off I didn't bother to use any of my "good" nail varnishes and used Gold Rush by Models Own, Sky High by Rimmel and Revlon One Perfect Coral.  I used two coats of Gold Rush as a base as it can be quite opaque with only one.  I did a diagonal tip with the Sky High and One Perfect Coral.  This wasn't a perfect line, but the gems covered this up.  I just used cheap gems from savers as I knew I wasn't going to keep the varnish on for long. 

Hopefully you guys like them! I think the green is more wintery and the coral will be lovely come summer time.  I think I might have to rethink my career choice and become a nail technician!


Gingie x

...buying vintage

Into the realms of vintage I have now ventured!  

I have never been someone who is against vintage, in fact, I enjoy rummaging around charity shops and places like Armstrong's in Edinburgh. My problem is that as a size 16, it's just not always easy to find something beautiful in my size without it looking like the proverbial potato sack. I think this probably has something to do with the fact woman are generally getting bigger due to the lifestyles we lead now compared to a few decades ago, but I digress. Barnardo's has come to my rescue! I found this amazing sequined top in their Take2 store on Union Street in Aberdeen. Obviously this piece isn't worth a fortune, and the gems are plastic but I absolutely love it! It's going to be my Christmas party outfit, definitely worth £20. And for a good cause too!


Gingie x

p.s. apologies for my photos - a photographer I will never be!

...nursing a cold

I have been plagued with a rather delightful cold over the past few days so haven't really been thinking about much other than how to stay warm.  It's October, the winter's drawing in and we're all now having to think about wrapping up against the weather.  All stores are starting to stock up on winter clothes, whether it be chunky arran sweaters, dresses with cable knit detailing, or thin cashmere sweaters to layer under your woolen coats... but there's one problem - we have lost the art of making these clothes ourselves!  I always remember having jumpers with ice skating teddy bears, and fair isle prints when I was younger, and I still get my mum to knit me my winter cardigans because a) no one else has one and b) they are half the price of the ones in the shops. So why not try Knitting for Dummies?  On cold nights, it's a great way to pass the time, and (hopefully) you will have something to wear at the end of it.


Gingie x

From top: My cardi; upclose of cables and sparkly buttons; and my coursemate Robyn wearing a jumper her granny knitted - It's not just me after all!

...discussing shoes

Everyone has a vice. Like many women, mine is shoes.  I tend to pay attention to someone's shoes more than anything else they are wearing, and research suggests a woman judges a man from the feet up. I would agree with this, but wished it was not the case when a man walked past me in shoes with toes, which I have now discovered to be Vibram "FiveFingers". Over the last century, various designers have created iconic pieces such as Louboutin's shoes with red soles, McQueen's Armadillo shoes and Vivienne Westwood's platforms which Naomi Campbell famously tripped up in.  Despite these not being to everyone's taste, and in some cases completely impractical, I did not see the future of shoe design turning down the route of defined toes.  Described as giving the imitation of walking barefoot, the comfort and practicality of these shoes is obviously greater than that of McQueen's Armadillo shoes, but this does not get around the fact that they are downright hideous.  They were first available in 2005, a year where I received 'toe socks' for Christmas. A match made in heaven, I hear you cry! Alas, my socks had individual pink glittery pom poms on each toe, rendering the five finger shoe impossible to wear. More's the pity.


Gingie x

I do not own any of these images.