Domestic Goddess

Seeing as the only decent (in my opinion) pasty shops in Southampton are at least a 40 minute walk away from my house I decided to take matters into my own hands and make my own!

I'd never attempted to make a pasty before today so the outcome was looking a bit bleak.

The recipe I followed (vaguely) can be found here.

As I'm not a big mustard fan I substituted the mustard powder for piri piri flakes and added some chives in for a little added extra.

Our pasties contained Potatoes, Red Onions, Chives, Salt, Pepper, Piri Piri flakes, Cheese (obviously) and Chorizo for the non-veggie.

I decided to leave the crimping part to my friend as I wanted the pasties to at least look decent if they didn't taste it.

We changed the recipe slightly and made 6 larger pasties instead of 12 small ones as we're all fatties in this house. 

The finished article looked delish If I do say sos myself. I added a side of salad to make myself feel like I was eating healthily at least and surprisingly when it came down to eating the finished product, they tasted as good as they looked!

I'd totally recommend give pasties a go. They're a cheap and easy enough snack/meal to make and leave you feeling satisfied with your efforts come the end. 

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Sneak Peak

I was so happy with the new trainers I brought the other day I just had to do a short post about them.

These are my new beauties..

I've been after a pair of Nikes for AGES but being a student I'm on a penny saving diet. When I saw these in Office the other day in the SALE I knew it was fate. Yellow in particular mustard yellow is my favourite colour at the moment so when I saw these at a steal of a price of £30 down from £69.99 I could hardly say no could I??

Have you picked up any steals recently?

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Marwell Wildlife Park

Today I went to one of my favourite places to go on a day out, the zoo. I find it such a great place to go and just spent hours and hours walking round having to think about nothing but the animals. Since I'd moved to Southampton I hadn't made the journey out of town yet to find the zoo but today was such a beautiful day positioned within a grim looking week I couldn't not take advantage of it.

We spent 3 hours walking round the zoo looking like tourists with our cameras stuck to our faces. The zoo makes me snap happy and I managed to take over 180 photos. I think the animals I enjoyed the most were the meerkats (obviously, everyone loves meerkats, but this little mite below was like the star of the meerkats. He loved to pose for photos and be centre of attention), the snow leopards (they were just beautiful and I spent at least 15 minutes standing, watching the mother and her 2 cubs they had) and the penguins (who were put unusually at the beginning of the zoo. They did a great job of getting you excited, swimming right up to the wall to come and say hi).

Marwell House

Snow Leopards

Marwell also has a beautiful house and garden which I was just as excited about seeing and the weather that we were lucky enough to have made the house look even more amazing.

The zoo is just a fantastic day out for people of all ages and I'm personally never going to get tired of going there.

Marwell Zoo/Wildlife Park.

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New in:

And so, yet again I acted on impulse and brought myself a new duvet set today. Whilst doing my weekly shop, I came across this little beauty in ASDA! Truthfully, I had been looking for a duvet set for a while but when I saw this one it was perfect! It would go both with the vintage and pink aspects in my room and so I went ahead and brought it.

Duvet Set: ASDA, 'Clara Blueberry Duvet set', £12

With it being £12 and just amazing I couldn't not post about it and I can't wait to sleep in it tonight!
What kind of style have you gone for in your Uni or home rooms?



I also stopped off in H&M to grab a few essentials for a job interview I have coming up and on the way to the check out picked some nail varnish, as I'd never used their nail varnish before and I was to lazy to go to another shop to buy my usual I thought I'd give it a go.

Nail Polish: H&M, £2.99 (Concrete me)

I am actually really happy with the colour that you get from this nail varnish, I did end up applying two coats as I prefer the darker shades and so it wasn't too thin. 

I'd definitely recommend giving their brand a go if you're after a cheap nail varnish, but make sure you leave time for it to dry as it's not as quick drying as the brands I'm used to.

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Time to pursue:

For years now I've had an ambition to start experimenting with make-up. I thought about studying it as part of a beauty course at college but decided that it wasn't my style and I wouldn't fit it so I've chosen now to start teaching myself (which I know with me could be a long shot but anything's worth a try).

The first of my orders to arrive..

I'm still waiting for my book to arrive and choosing new products to buy but this is definitely how I'm going to spend my evening so I'll let you know how It goes.

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A Perfect Day: Southampton Vintage Fair

Lou Lou's Vintage Fair

Throughout the summer I've been obsessed with vintage. I decided that for my new room at uni I wanted to have vintage furniture and designs and so ever since then I've been looking for new additions for my room. 

As you walked through the doors you were hit by the musky smell of vintage clothes of which there was a lot of. The room filled with stalls selling vintage jewellery, accessories, clothing and home decor. It was full of people of all ages ranging from toddlers to grandparents which gave the atmosphere that extra buzz.

I didn't even know where to begin once in, confronted by so many stalls all appealing in their own right. We ended up starting with the jewellery, but with so much to choose from we were soon overwhelmed. There were necklaces with intricate designs and some more bold. Earrings with practically every design or pattern on you could imagine and enough broaches to fill the room. In the end though we ended up leaving those stalls empty handed as we were so stuck for choice. 

In the end I ended up taking a fancy to a LOT of bags for sale, I've become a lot more of a bagaholic over the past few months and I just couldn't help myself when I saw this beauty. 

Bag: Southampton Vintage Fair, £25

To finish of our day perfectly we headed over to 'Mabels Vintage Tea' Party to grab a slice of cake and a nice cuppa in the beautiful crockery they had.

        

Lou Lou's Vintage Fair returns to Southampton on November 2nd and also has dates in many other cities. If you're interested visit www.thevintagefair.com for more details. I'd definitely recommend a visit.

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New in:

So today is the day us students look forward to at the beginning of the new year (well at least me and my friends do), the student shop-in. We head down to West Quay with our newly acquired loans on the hunt for a bargain or five. We queue for hours in lines the length of shops fighting each other for the last of each item telling ourselves that this will be the only time we'll go shopping because we need to save our loans for things that our key to our survival, food etc. This however is rarely the case come the end of the year.

I set out with the intention of buying one item in particular, a grey skater dress, and maybe a few accessories to go with it.

                                                  

Beanie: H&M, £6.99

Dress: H&M, £12.99

Brown belt: H&M, £2.99

Black belt: H&M, £3.99

After spending hours walking round trying to find a grey dress I finally came across this one in the last shop I went into, H&M.

I have a thing about skater dress at the moment, they can be so diverse. You can dress them up or down for any occasion and they're simple so you can add your own mark with statement accessories. I had a set outfit idea in my head involving a pair of shoes which I brought a week ago from river island, again, another piece I'd wanted for ages but had only just got round to buying. I'll upload a photo of the whole outfit soon. 

The beanie was more of an impulse buy. I'd seen one a similar colour and style online but with the way I am wanted to scout around on the high street to see if I could find one somewhere else first, luckily for me I did. Mustard yellow has been my favourite colour throughout summer and I'm glad to be able to carry it on into winter too. Hopefully my new accessory will brighten up those darker winter days. 

Ignoring the awkward 'selfie' pose, the dirty mirror and the messy uni room, I put some of my items together to create this outfit to wear to the vintage fair in a few days time. I wanted something that would show the transition in the weather towards winter but seeing as the weather has still be treating us to some warm spells I didn't want to get too into the winter warmers. I felt that the hat with the long sleeved skater dress and creepers allowed me to be comfortable enough in the weather.  

                                     

   

Knitted Jumper: H&M, £14.99

This little number for my impulse buy for the day. I wasn't sure what I would put it with but it looked so appealing and cosy on the hanger that I just couldn't refuse. It's one of those lounge round jumpers that'll make you look good whether you've just got out of bed or are headed out for the day and at £14.99 it was a steal. The dual length style of long at the back and short at the front means you can feel comfortable wearing it with just about anything. 

This isn't the first knitted jumper I've brought from H&M in the last few weeks, I've seen a number that I've liked which would look good on anyone so if you're looking for that winter jumper I'd definitely recommend giving H&M a go.

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This Weeks Reads:

So this year, one of my chosen topics for my university course is 'The Styled Portrait'. We collaborate on this topic with students from the 'Fashion Styling' course and so me being me I saw this as a justification for buying loads of magazines to use for inspiration and mood boards.

My magazines of choice:

Glamour UK - October 2013 issue

Grazia - 7th October 2013 issue

LOVE - 5th Anniversary issue

The Essential Guide To Portraits - 4th Edition, 

(which is about the only magazine that is actually justifiable)

All magazines available to buy from W H Smith stores.

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Summer Blues:

So it's been a while coming that I actually got round to starting up my blog but seeing as it's the start ofa new year it seems like a fitting time to start. 

I've never been again good at these types of things but you've got to start somewhere. I thought I'd start with the highlight of my summer, so when things get a bit dull theres something to look back on that'll brighten things up a bit.

This year I finally dug deep and splashed the cash getting myself a ticket for Reading Festival. It's been a long time coming and it was well worth the wait. I'm used to going to gigs but had never before got round to going to a weekend festival but as soon as my friend showed me the line up I was sold.

The main stage acts were enough for me to not even think twice. Bands that I'd waited for years to see and bands that I'd already seen and who were amazing previous times that I'd seen them. I went with one of my friends from home, she's the only person I know who has love and obsession for the same bands as me, being at uni without her is a nightmare!

We went up with early bird tickets to make the most of our summer get away. It was forecast for amazing weather all weekend so why not?

With our essentials of dry shampoo, baby wipes, cereal bars and beer packed we couldn't of been better set.

Even though the whole weekend was amazing there were certainly highlights for me and I was surprised coming away at some of the bands I enjoyed most. For starters, Eminem, I mean prior to Reading I can't say I was all that fussed listening to his stuff but after being front row for his headline performance my opinions completely changed. The atmosphere for starts left nothing to be desired. I found myself in amongst some of the craziest fans you could meet which definitely for me added to the experience. I went away from the Saturday night definitely wanting more, the atmosphere back at camp suggested that I wasn't the only one left feeling this way. 

There were so many bands that I went home raving about after the weekend but a few of the most memorable other than the unexpected was for sure Don Broco. After seeing them a few months before I new what I was getting myself into and I came out the other side of their set battered and sweaty but wanting to do it all over again. It's safe to say for some of those around me who hadn't seen Broco before weren't going to forget the events any time soon. 

Generic crowd selfie.

The end of Don Broco's set symbolised that the moment that I'd been looking forward to the most over the entire weekend was drawing ever closer. I set out on the Sunday with the intention of being front row for Fall Out Boy. A band who I'd loved for years but had never been fortunate enough to see. We spent over 7 hours holding our position in the crowd with me, stubborn as ever refusing to go anywhere until the end of Fall Out Boy's set. I can say without a doubt they didn't let me down and I was glad I waited so long suffering knocks, dehydration and sweaty bodies to see them. Their set came and went in such a flash but the buzz from the whole crowd was unbelievable. I don't think there was a single person not singing (as we believed we were doing) along the entire way through.

There were so many points over the 5 days we were at Reading Festival I could go on about but unless you're their you'll never know the true feeling. From someone who until this year (I am ashamed to say) had never been to a festival, I would recommend going at least once at some point. You won't regret or forget the experience for a long time. 

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