So today I realised that I've fallen into that unforgivable female sin of calorie counting. I always hissed, well not hissed but disapproved of the woman who turns the can of baked beans over to read the nutrition wheel, but today as I was shopping in Aldi and last week when I was buying a boots meal deal I did exactly that. I chose the meal with fewest calories, I didn't put chocolate in my Hull survival kit and bought RYE bread instead. I am disgusted with myself, and yet I can't make myself stop. And as always this change in behaviour got me thinking about other things like coffee and opera and running and topshop - things I never did last year. I never went running, I never felt guilty about missing a gym session, I couldn't afford topshop and the sound of opera made me want to scream. 300 situps...HA I could do like 20 then I'd die. Past couple of days I've done 100 without pausing and 300 in three pauses. That's insane! I bought liquid eyeliner, I wear some form of foundation, I waxed my legs (which I will never do again cos it hurt so much and I STILL had a bush of hair from my knee to my ankle grrrrrr) I fell in love with green tea and americanos I want to study languages at uni, I'm taking my entire wardrobe to Hull with me and I have, as of today, turned into a Audrey Hepburn wannabee.
This is scary. I'm offically a "typical" girl. The sort I used to laugh at as I put up my poster of Lebron James, dressed in my basketaball shorts and Nike shirt, I mean I used to buy Men's tracksuit bottoms ( I still do this actually, good to know) Oh (!) and I never used to sew or bake, now I'm making two dresses and my cranberry cookies and blueberry muffins are stupidly popular. AAAAHHHRRRRGGGG. Soon I'll be trying to lose 3 extra pounds so I can fit into my mini-skirt, I'll be wanting to have extensions and fake eyelashes....oh my dayz and I fancy Jude Law! DAMMIT. Oh and I bought red lipstick the other day.
This all makes me very sad, but also excited. It might be quite nice to be a proper girl for once, it's probably about time for me to embrace my femininity and join in the footsteps of Millicent Fawcett and the Pankhurts without the whole man-hating thing...no I shall not hate men EVER. Only certain men, only certain men. Did I mention I can now do a french manicure BUT I have yet to enjoy false nails, I doubt I'll catch on to this craze. Ewww. Oh and I shampoo my hair twice - WHO DOES THAT!? And I just wrote a packing list and will be packed a whole day 2 days before I actually have to leave.
Anyway, instead of freaking out I will try and find this new stage of womanhood empowering, I now have pills to lighten my T-O-M, I've always had a good complexion, working out will only make me feel better and if I calorie count for most of my life I can totally eat an entire tub of Ben and Jerrys when I'm hormonal or have just been dumped. The liquid eyeliner is probably a phase, but it's definately cleaner and sharper than kohl and lipstick is the lipgloss of the mature woman. Languages will allow me to communicate with everybody in existence and 100 years ago this would have been a wonderful advantage when finding a rich and suitable husband. Making dresses saves me money and who cares if I find baking relaxing: everybody benefits. Opera is beautiful and classy, plus if you go properly you get to wear a gown and opera gloves - yay! So enough, I will allow myself to grow into a fusion of Hepburn and Fawcett a elegant, graceful and well dressed feminist, who drinks tea and does lady things but is also strong, intelligent and important. Yes. Woop.
Music
My friend listens to his music in albums. I'm generally more of a shuffle girl - Itunes=LOVE. However, I am known for flicking through ridiculous amounts of songs before I actually listen to a whole one, this is a waste of time and very annoying. Now, thanks to the Itunes genius that is GENIUS, I can now listen to my music on shuffle in a particular genre, so the music fits better. But that's not always my cup of tea, ideally my ipod will known exactly what I need to listen to and just play it, but they haven't invented that sort of thing yet. Rubbish. So, after reading my friend's blog I decided to listen try listening to my music in albums. It was a good experience, not mind blowing, not brilliant but...good. And it got me thinking about what makes an album a GREAT album and not just an album; for me, a great album is one where I can stick it on and not get bored or want to change tracks. That's not to say that all GREAT albums are full of the BEST songs, because some of my favourite albums don't always include my favourite songs. I also find that my favourite albums fall into two categories...those that are suitable for walking or dancing to and those that are best as background music. So without further ado, here are the albums that I can listen to ALL the way through in their categories.
WALKING/DANCING
WALKING/DANCING
- Alicia Keys - As I am
- Amy Winehouse - Back to Black
- Panic! At the Disco - A fever you can't sweat out
- The Magnets - Giving it all that
- The Kooks - Inside in/Inside out
- Michael Buble...in fact ANYTHING by him.
- Carrie Underwood - Some Hearts
- Beyonce - Dangerously in Love
- Stacey Kent - Breakfast on the Morning Tram
- The Best of Stevie Wonder
- Harry Connick Jr. - We're in Love
BACKGROUND
- Stacey Kent - The Boy Next Door
- Norah Jones - Feels Like Home
- Lifehouse - No Name Face
- Dixie Chicks - Wide Open Spaces
- Coldplay - Viva la Vida
- Jamie Cullum - Twentysomething
- Diana Krall - When I look in Your Eyes
- Tim Hughes - When Silence Falls
For those of you who know me, you will notice that I haven't included any musical soundtracks. That's because I don't consider them albums...they are soundtracks, soundbites of a show that happened on a stage. It's meant to help you remember what happened on stage and when I listen to them, I often replay the entire musical in my head OR I'm trying to learn the songs and remember the dance routines.
So yeah, not the best blog....but meh. Night x
Wardrobe Woes
It's official, my clothes no longer fit in my wardrobe - and no (!) that's not because I have too many clothes, it's just that my "wardrobe" has outgrown my wardrobe and it's getting ridiculous! Every morning I trip over the same shoe and every morning I try to remove the shoe and put it into my shoe drawer (let me take this opportunity to have a moan about the fact that my parents get MASSES of shoe space downstairs and upstairs and complain when I have like ONE pair of shoes downstairs - URG ANNOYANCE!) anyway the shoe doesn't fit in the drawer so I shove it at the bottom of my wardrobe and when I go to put my clothes away it falls out again. And so the vicious cycle continues.
So yeah, all this trouble with clothes has got me thinking about what I would do if I could build my wardrobe from scratch - what would I keep? what would I get rid of? etc. etc. I also got thinking about Gok Wan (LOVE HIM) and how he has this STAPLE wardrobe etc etc. and just about the clothes I have in my wardrobe and all that jazz. I guess I have 2 problems with Gok's approach to improving people's wardrobes:
1) His wardrobe is a bit "old" for teenage girls
2) His "highstreet" is not MY highstreet (aka. Primark)
I think the most important thing when it comes to clothes is to find shapes and styles that flatter your figure rather than simply following a fashion trend. Gladiator sandals for example look awful on people who have short legs or fat ankles, however if you shop around there are some similar looking sandals that don't have as many buckles and have a light strap round the ankle, it's also best to have a lighter, metallic colour as this gives this illusion of longer slimmer legs...anyhoo, these look amazing and are often cheaper. It's also a good idea to invest in some good quality basics, like jeans, trousers, cardigans etc. think of these as the foundations to your look, then head to Primark, H&M or the Miss Selfridge sale for accessories to keep your look up-to date. My wardrobe is a real mixture of styles - I have dresses, skirts, leggings, charity shop cardigans, basketball shirts, keds, flipflops, board shorts...Vogue would be proud. I think?
I'm a MASSIVE fan of Topshop dresses. They seem to be the only place to stock simple dresses in gorgeous fabrics - I LOVE THEM. BUT, I have never, EVER bought one full price, I simple refuse to pay £40 for a dress that I could make for a tenner, howevs when I see it in the sale I put in an extra tenner as a service charge to justify buying them. If you're like me and love Topshop clothes then check out this website: www.missguided.co.uk (or .com, can't remember) anyways, they have loads of dresses that you would find in Topshop for HALF THE PRICE.
LEGGINGS rock. They're better than jeans, they're better than tights - but "jeggings" are sick and should be burnt! Only issue with leggings are the holes that appear around the crotch area, but this is easily fixed with a bit of thread and a needle. PLUS, they're super cheap amd proper comfy.
TUNICS are awesome. They hide a multitude of sins and look SOOOOO cute. Just make sure you don't look pregnant - the yummy mummy look is often frowned upon for girls under the age of 18.
Most of my clothes have been bought in sales or charity shops, I think the most expensive items I own are my jeans (£30) and my prom dress from last year (£160) In my opinion, it's not what you wear, it's HOW you wear it, so whether it's "SO LAST SEASON" or "SO THIS SEASON" or not in ANY season at all you can still look good. I know everyone always goes on and on about confidence, but it's totally true, if you're confident about what you're wearing, if you like what you're wearing, if you think you look good in what you're wearing then you've probably got it right. Of course, there are some exceptions to that rule especially those who think less is more (Jodie Marsh), those who cover up EVERYTHING (some yummy mummys) and those who are just incompetent (Ben Jiggins)
I guess it's difficult to come up with wardrobe staples for teenagers, because if there is ever a time to experiment with clothes and your appearance, you should probably get it out of the way before you reach 18. I think it's important to stay true to yourself and to be comfortable in your clothes I only ask that you wear things that FLATTER YOU. Also, if you're a size 10, stop buying a size 6-8 - it doesn't fit you, it looks awful and no one LOOKS at the tag anyway (unless it's sticking out of your jeans, which is unlikely cos they're clearly too tight!) so yeah, get over the whole size and shape issue. If you have massive boobs, please wear a bra...no seriously PLEASE wear a bra. It's not hard, Trinny and Susannah's are everywhere (I prefer Gok, he's nicer) there are plenty of resources on the web that give you and idea of clothes that will flatter your figure, MEN YOU ARE NOT EXCUSED.
Here are the websites. Don't let me catch you looking bad EVER AGAIN.
MEN:
http://uk.askmen.com/fashion/fashiontip/32_fashion_advice.html
http://www.lifeinitaly.com/fashion/male-body-type
WOMEN:
http://www.trinnyandsusannah.com/rules/
http://www.dorothyperkins.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CategoryDisplay?catalogId=20552&storeId=12552&categoryId=155967&parent_category_rn=119404&langId=-1&top=Y
So yeah, all this trouble with clothes has got me thinking about what I would do if I could build my wardrobe from scratch - what would I keep? what would I get rid of? etc. etc. I also got thinking about Gok Wan (LOVE HIM) and how he has this STAPLE wardrobe etc etc. and just about the clothes I have in my wardrobe and all that jazz. I guess I have 2 problems with Gok's approach to improving people's wardrobes:
1) His wardrobe is a bit "old" for teenage girls
2) His "highstreet" is not MY highstreet (aka. Primark)
I think the most important thing when it comes to clothes is to find shapes and styles that flatter your figure rather than simply following a fashion trend. Gladiator sandals for example look awful on people who have short legs or fat ankles, however if you shop around there are some similar looking sandals that don't have as many buckles and have a light strap round the ankle, it's also best to have a lighter, metallic colour as this gives this illusion of longer slimmer legs...anyhoo, these look amazing and are often cheaper. It's also a good idea to invest in some good quality basics, like jeans, trousers, cardigans etc. think of these as the foundations to your look, then head to Primark, H&M or the Miss Selfridge sale for accessories to keep your look up-to date. My wardrobe is a real mixture of styles - I have dresses, skirts, leggings, charity shop cardigans, basketball shirts, keds, flipflops, board shorts...Vogue would be proud. I think?
I'm a MASSIVE fan of Topshop dresses. They seem to be the only place to stock simple dresses in gorgeous fabrics - I LOVE THEM. BUT, I have never, EVER bought one full price, I simple refuse to pay £40 for a dress that I could make for a tenner, howevs when I see it in the sale I put in an extra tenner as a service charge to justify buying them. If you're like me and love Topshop clothes then check out this website: www.missguided.co.uk (or .com, can't remember) anyways, they have loads of dresses that you would find in Topshop for HALF THE PRICE.
LEGGINGS rock. They're better than jeans, they're better than tights - but "jeggings" are sick and should be burnt! Only issue with leggings are the holes that appear around the crotch area, but this is easily fixed with a bit of thread and a needle. PLUS, they're super cheap amd proper comfy.
TUNICS are awesome. They hide a multitude of sins and look SOOOOO cute. Just make sure you don't look pregnant - the yummy mummy look is often frowned upon for girls under the age of 18.
Most of my clothes have been bought in sales or charity shops, I think the most expensive items I own are my jeans (£30) and my prom dress from last year (£160) In my opinion, it's not what you wear, it's HOW you wear it, so whether it's "SO LAST SEASON" or "SO THIS SEASON" or not in ANY season at all you can still look good. I know everyone always goes on and on about confidence, but it's totally true, if you're confident about what you're wearing, if you like what you're wearing, if you think you look good in what you're wearing then you've probably got it right. Of course, there are some exceptions to that rule especially those who think less is more (Jodie Marsh), those who cover up EVERYTHING (some yummy mummys) and those who are just incompetent (Ben Jiggins)
I guess it's difficult to come up with wardrobe staples for teenagers, because if there is ever a time to experiment with clothes and your appearance, you should probably get it out of the way before you reach 18. I think it's important to stay true to yourself and to be comfortable in your clothes I only ask that you wear things that FLATTER YOU. Also, if you're a size 10, stop buying a size 6-8 - it doesn't fit you, it looks awful and no one LOOKS at the tag anyway (unless it's sticking out of your jeans, which is unlikely cos they're clearly too tight!) so yeah, get over the whole size and shape issue. If you have massive boobs, please wear a bra...no seriously PLEASE wear a bra. It's not hard, Trinny and Susannah's are everywhere (I prefer Gok, he's nicer) there are plenty of resources on the web that give you and idea of clothes that will flatter your figure, MEN YOU ARE NOT EXCUSED.
Here are the websites. Don't let me catch you looking bad EVER AGAIN.
MEN:
http://uk.askmen.com/fashion/fashiontip/32_fashion_advice.html
http://www.lifeinitaly.com/fashion/male-body-type
WOMEN:
http://www.trinnyandsusannah.com/rules/
http://www.dorothyperkins.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CategoryDisplay?catalogId=20552&storeId=12552&categoryId=155967&parent_category_rn=119404&langId=-1&top=Y
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