Insta-life #1

February was a very busy but equally good month! Just compiled some of my instagram snaps to document the last month.

1) I managed to get back home last weekend and we celebrated my Grandma's birthday. My sister had made this cake for her, complete with Parrots as she loves birds.

2) Tried to get a photo of my dog Mallon and me, he wasn't too keen on sitting still though! He's such a cutie with the nicest personality, we've had him for about 6 years and got him from the RSPCA.

3) Posy self-shot in my new Zara top.

4) I finally branched into the ombre trend and did my hair with the L'oreal wild ombre kit, I took this the day after I had done it but it has faded so quickly in just over a week- bit disappointing!

5) Spring is definitely on its way and I couldn't resist these daffodils in Marks and Spencer the other week- they brightened up my desk and my mood whilst I was essay writing.

6) Reiss and Me on Valentine's Day before our yummy night in with Waitrose food.

7) Trevi Fountain in Rome, we were determined to not leave Rome without seeing the fountain. Such a gorgeous monument.

8) Annaliese, Georgia and Victoria- the gorgeous girls I went to Rome with and me before our last evening out for dinner.

9) The Sistine Chapel, so pleased to have finally seen the paintings. Interestingly two days after we left Rome the Pope resigned... coincidence?!

Let me know if you've done an instagram post recently and feel free to follow me on instagram- racheleprior

xxx

"Cover your eyes so you don't know the secret"

My hair is naturally pretty straight with a gentle wave if I don't blow dry it and I'm not particularly adventurous with it. So when one of my besties- Olivia offered to curl it for me before our night out yesterday I was pretty excited. With it being our last ever Fresher's Week (sob sob) it seemed the perfect opportunity. It took her a LONG time and I'm now convinced she must have the patience of a saint as there is so much of my hair.

 I felt so glamourous having my hair so BIG. As we were hitting the town I teamed my curls with this new playsuit from Primark which has a gorgeous cream coloured top panel with an embellished collar, cinched in at the waist with a slim belt and my trusty New Look heels- not bad for a highstreet outfit!

What do you think of the new hair 'do? Is it worth me investing in some curling tongs and can anyone suggest any good ones?

Summer evening outfits and a splash of the seaside

Top row: Me in my new blouse- Primark, shorts- Primark (Classy!) and me in the car

Bottom row: Boat on the beach at Aldeburgh and my sister in the dress I bought last week- Primark!

Oh the joys of having at field (or two) at the end of your garden! My sister and I quickly nipped there yesterday to take a couple of pictures before we went out for dinner with the rest of the family in Aldeburgh a really nice nearby seaside town.

This post definitely gives the impression of my sister and I being Primark addicts but it was purely the combination of my finds last week (which you can see in my vlog) and what we felt like wearing! Also how different do my sister and I look?! She is the only blonde in the family!

I teamed my new pink blouse with my old floral shorts creating a very girlie look, finished off nicely with my hair up in an up-do and a flower clip!

Despite the lovely heat at the moment once we got to Aldeburgh due to it being an easterly wind it was pretty chilly and none of my pictures came out great apart from this one of the boat! Also I threw in a random picture of me in the car on the way as I like the blurred background, absolutely love my sunglasses from Topshop. I bought them last summer but I reckon they can happily see me through this year!

How has everyone been making the most of the weather? xx

My first ever vlog!

Hi everyone, something a little bit different from me today.....recently I have really gotten into watching vlogs, I really like them because you can see an extra side to someone's personality and you aren't so restricted as you are with pictures. So after recording this video this morning then watching it back in horror at myself (why is hearing yourself on video so cringey?!) I decided to share it with you all, see what you think and let me know if it's something you would like me to do a little bit more.

I'm basically waffling on about my favourite things at the moment, I'll warn you all now I seem to say 'annnnd' a lot, hope I don't say it quite as normally when I'm not being recorded. I would love to know what you all think! xx

Small steps, they lead only to your heart

Happy Friday everyone! I have no idea where this week has gone, it went by so very very quickly and my exams are getting closer and closer. At the beginning of the week a friend and I went to stay with another friend who is studying at UEA in Norwich and had a lovely time. We went shopping, out for a few drinks and had a much needed catch up! I don't know if any of you have been to Norwich, it has some great shops and I was very surprised to see that Boux Avenue had just opened a store (us countryside folk need nice underwear too) so we popped inside and were blown away by their customer service, presentation, and the lovely products they had on offer. All of my friends ended up buying something, I got these and they were wrapped beautifully-

I couldn't resist taking a photo of the packaging before I opened my new undies! They also put scented petals in the bottom of the bag too. Have any of you been impressed by Boux Avenue too? We also spent a long time in H&M, their current collection is fabulous! I took a mountain of clothes into the changing rooms to try on and ended up buying this pretty sleeveless blouse-

It was only £12.99 and with my £5 voucher I had it was even cheaper, I also picked up this pretty flower hair clip at the till as I never normally wear that type of thing but I thought it would accompany the top quite nicely- what do you think? I fell in love with the faint flowers on the blouse. The blouse has a silky finish to it (and is also a little bit see-through!). Despite the weather probably not being quite up to scratch to wear this out by itself just yet I'm teaming it with coloured jeans and my cardigan or denim jacket. 

I also thought I would share with you a song I am really liking at the moment (and it's where the title for this post came from) by Jessie Ware, she's gradually getting a bigger name for herself and has a really different edge to her, give it a listen and let me know what you think :) xxx

Tell me I'm your national anthem

Wow the notorious April showers are certainly sticking to tradition! I'm staying down in Devon this week with my grandparents, we went through a huge hail storm earlier! I seem to of resorted back to my winter wardrobe a little bit today by getting out my trusty cream knit jumper which is so warm. Also my sister curled my hair a little bit and this is how it came out- (excuse the bottom left one!!). I am loving my Topshop lipstick and wearing it literally every day now, you can see my review about it here.

To avoid the rain we went to the museum in Exeter today (Royal Albert Memorial Museum) which has recently re-opened, despite everyone having the same idea as us and taking their young screaming children along it was actually really good and with a wide variety of exhibitions. Being the classics nerd that I am my highlight was their art exhibition 'the road to Rome' which had some fabulous Italian paintings. 

We then went and had a nibble to eat in the Cathedral cafe (Exeter has a gorgeous cafe!), I've recently been carrying my camera around with me everywhere and I took these pictures-

I hope everyone had a lovely Bank Holiday Monday, what are you all finding to do with the weather being a bit shower-y? Also I thought I would share with everyone this picture, I love Lana Del Rey so found it hilarious when I saw this!! xxx

picture source: here

A little Topshop treat

Having handed in my last essay of the term today, which is the last one I will write during my second year (scary how fast time is flying by) as well as a test this morning I treated myself to a haircut this afternoon and a little cheeky trip into Topshop. I don't know why sometimes when you go in literally everything you see you could quite happily buy and this was definitely the case this afternoon. Walking around feeling a little bit like Kate Middleton with my bouncy blow dried and newly cut hair I quickly ended up with a collection of clothes I wanted to try on. My definite favourite was this beauty of a playsuit:

It is so pretty (my rubbish Blackberry camera does not do it justice) and the loose fit at the top of the legs really does make it look like a dress. However at £48 I just could not quite justify it, maybe once I've been working at my local pub back home a bit over Easter I'll treat myself (if anyone wants to see it on their website just click here). However I didn't leave empty handed, I spent a long time at their make-up counter and finally chose one of their lipsticks in 'Brighton Rock', I'd seen that a few other bloggers have bought this shade and really like the pinky shade (normally I'm a red lippie girl). It is a nice creamy consistency and doesn't dry out my lips which others can tend to do.

Has anyone else had a rather weak moment in Topshop recently? I think their collection this season is really good and such a varied mix. Also who is everyone's hair inspiration at the moment? Kate Middleton seems to be sweeping the nation with her luscious locks- I'm very jealous!

"Warm in the cold night air" - Rachel's week

Hi everyone! Rather than doing lots of mini little posts I thought I would collate this weeks happenings into one. Has everyone been enjoying the sunny weather this weekend? I had a lovely shop around Canterbury yesterday.

1) Obviously this isn't me! But I wanted to share with everyone how lovely my friend Alice looked on Friday night before she went out for the evening. I did her hair,  after several failed attempts at creating curls with straighteners on previous nights out we were adamant we would finally crack the technique.....and we did! It took a lot of patience but she looked great in the end.

2) + 3) These are my belated Valentines presents from my boyfriend that arrived yesterday! He asked way back in February what I wanted so I suggested a watch. The one that he initially got me though from Urban Outfitters was meant to have the letter 'R' on the face of the watch, instead they sent an 'F' after weeks of telephoning they finally said they didn't have any more watches with the 'R' (so annoying and a useless customer service department). But this is the happy ending, he found me an alternative and I now have this beautiful watch from ASOS (and the pretty earrings in pic 3 too- I'm a lucky girl).

4) This was my face of the evening for a meal out with friends on Thursday night, we had the most amazing Chinese and Indian food (all you can eat as well- BONUS for a greedy person like me!). I had dyed my hair the day beforehand and it has gone a lot darker than what I was actually hoping for, it's growing on me though! (I used Dark Chocolate by L'oreal Casting Creme Gloss). See pic below for my full outfit! It's difficult to tell from the picture but the skirt is actually covered in black sequins. I've had the skirt for years and never had a suitable top to wear with it but after re-discovering it last week I was adamant on wearing it so Alice kindly lent me the her white t-shirt from Topshop. Does anyone else have a sequin skirt? 


5) A pic of me and my friends out at the meal enjoying our cocktails (I decided to let my hair down after taking the initial pic in number 4 but it was the same night!).

6) These cheeky things have been keeping me going with my essay all week, the excuse of it practically being Easter seems to be just about justifying it. What are everyone's favourite sweet treat?

T-shirt: Topshop, Skirt: H+M, Necklace: Topshop, Bracelet: Urban Outfitters

Also I've recently got back into Twitter, if any of you want to follow me I'm @racheleprior xx