A Vintage Family Heirloom

If you've been reading my blog since the beginning, you'll know that I've always had a thing for dainty vintage inspired jewellery boutiques, like DollyBowBow or JunkJewels 

At a family get together over the weekend, in celebration of my Mums birthday, we were talking about past relatives and my Mum mentioned that my Dads mother had left me a locket when she died.  I was quite shocked that I hadn't heard about this before but also quite excited that I'd be getting a Family heirloom, to pass onto my daughter one day. 

To me, an heirloom is better than being left money as it's a part of my Nan to keep forever and cherish.  I know that if I'd been given money, it would have been wasted on things that in a few years would have no meaning whatsoever.  The locket is real gold, although we aren't sure of how many carats.  It features an embellishment of a bird and some flowers, hanging from an 18inch (there abouts) chain.  

I popped the locket into some gold jewellery cleaner which certainly brightened it up, but on the inside I found no pictures.  I'd like to put a couple of pictures inside, maybe of both my Nan's but I'm not entirely sure yet.  For now I'm happy that I have a piece of my late Nan to cherish.  

Have you been given any family heirlooms in the past? 

It's all in the accessories.

It's pay day today, which has only got me lusting all things new and shiny.  I've been a jewellery mood recently and this evening i've been trawling the endless online boutiques.  My favourites by far are Regal Rose, Junk Jewels, Temporary:Secretary and DollyBowBow.  I thought I'd show you what's in my baskets currently.  

REGAL ROSE

Evil Eye. Hamsa Hand Ring; £5.00

I've had a thing for these little hands lately, and definitely feel that the silver ring could be a nice addition to my costume jewellery.  

Single Boho Peace Sign Necklace; £9.00

I've been after a long peace sign necklace for a while now, i'm starting to favour longer chains to shorter ones now, not entirely sure why!  

JUNK JEWELS

Silver Peace Friendship Bracelet; £6.00

I have a bit of a thing for peace signs at the moment (bet you couldn't tell).  I think it's what they represent more than anything else. 

Silver Wing Friendship Bracelet; £6.00

If you remember back a month or two, I was obsessing over birds, and I still think they are pretty cute when it comes to accessories.  These types of bracelets are best layered together and their coloured 'chains' make for easy styling with different outfits.  

DOLLYBOWBOW

Hamsa Hand Bracelet; £6.00

Although this is out of stock at the moment, I still like it.  Slightly different to the ring featured above, it would be quite cool layered with other bracelets.  

Teal Oversized Velvet Hair Bow; £6.00

I've been looking for a massive bow for my hair for a while.  I would only wear it with a top bun for decoration.  I like the colour, it's a bit different from the bog standard black.  

TEMPORARY:SECRETARY

Princess Ring; £12.00

Anyone who knows me, knows I love the Duchess of Cambridge.  This is more of a 'poke fun at self' choice, but seeing as i'm known as Kate in the office, thought it was pretty appropriate.  

Harmonica Necklace; £16.50

I featured these a while back, and I just love them.  I'm prone to play with my necklaces so this would be  a whole new world of amusement.   

Those are my basket of goodies, but what I need help with is finding a reasonably priced replica of this necklace:

I really like these necklaces but refuse to pay the hefty price tag now associated with them since becoming popular.  If you know any boutiques that do something similar please let me know!  Happy Friday everyone, I'm off to catch up on Pretty Little Liars!  I'll leave you with a cover I've been playing non stop lately by the lovely Rachel Furner - enjoy!

OOTD: Is it Spring or Winter? Weatherman, make up your mind!

I haven't done an outfit of the day for a while, so I thought I'd bring you one today.  I stood in front on my wardrobe, peering back and fourth from my bedroom window thinking, "What on earth should I wear today?!"  It has been one of those stupid spring days which starts off like a winter morning and chirps up after lunch. 

Jumper:  H&M

Dress:  H&M

Tights:  Primark

Necklace:  Primark

Bracelets: Links of London, DollyBowBow, H&M and Paris

I opted for a thin jumper over my LBD to keep me warm.  I absolutely adore this necklace, and unbelievably it was a Primark find!  I am getting my hair feathered next week just to further my love of feathers!  I'm thinking brown ones to contrast with my blonde locks in a natural way?  I will probably also get some 'blonde' ones put in too.  

We went out on the streets of Epsom today to film vox pops for a practice broadcast video.  The question on our lips was, 'what is your biggest fashion faux pas?'

This could be one of mine, a yellow tee and nappy combo.  Definitely a look I couldn't rock now!  I am however wearing some rather cute fake wayfarers.   Or maybe mine was the Spice Girls platform soled trainers... I wore those everywhere.  

So, what's yours?

I Spy! Something delicious...

Since this blog began I've been on the look out for relatively cheap, gorgeous, vintage inspired jewellery.  I've come across the likes of JunkJewels, DollyBowBow and Cupcake Jewels.  I received an email over night from Joanna Pointer who pointed (sorry) me in the direction of Delicious Secrets.  Their mission statement reads:

As usual I've gone and picked a few of my favourite items to give you lovelies a taste of what's instore.  

£4.99

First up is this vintage inspired rose necklace.  I think just by adding something as simple as this to an outfit would make it look just that bit more feminine.  I really like the delicacy to the design here.  

£3.99

You know me, I like a floral pattern or just a flower.  Daisy's happen to be one of my favourite types of flower so when I saw this and the price I couldn't help but love it.  My only grudge is that it looks a bit too plastic, maybe they should use a textured fabric like felt?

£2.99

These are so gorgeous and so cheap too, they come in a range and other than this one which says 'love', the 'imagine' and 'dream' ones stood out to me the most.  I would quite happily buy the whole set for that price!  

So there's a sample of Delicious Secrets range, they also have a special candy range which looks too good to eat.  If you want to find out more or place an order then click here.  

OOTD: Pocahontas Chic

It wasn't the best of days weather wise today.  I decided to wear something slightly warmer both in colour and in clothing, than yesterday.  I felt a little bit like I should have come from the New World and have fallen in love with John Smith.  

Shirt:  Primark

Tank Tee: New Look

Leggings: H&M

Watch:  ASOS

Necklace: Primark

Bracelet(s): H&M and DollyBowBow

On my lips I decided to sport 'Belle', one of my new finds and my nails are Barry M Raspberry.  

Now to print out many a hand out and get on with a 1500 word draft.  Oh to be a student!

General chitta chatta'

I've just completed writing up my blog on a 3rd year - I promise to reveal who that is tomorrow! I thought I'd do a bit of a chit chat blog, fill you in on some amazing discoveries/happenings.

Firstly, one of my favourite boutiques, DollyBowBow, plans to launch her S/S collection in a week or so and we got a sneak preview today.

It's gorgeous and this isn't even all of it!  I have my eye on the ring, scissor necklace and the anchor necklace as well as the dolly bow!

In other news, I attended a meeting yesterday to volunteer for the British Heart Foundation's Mending Broken Hearts Appeal, which is a catwalk show.  I have been appointed head of Press and Promotion which sounds like an exciting challenge.  The event in itself is a genius idea - designers from my university will buy an item of clothing from a BHF charity shop and re-design to make it a bespoke garment.  This will then be modelled on the catwalk and then auctioned after.  I'm hoping to get some local businesses in on the cause.  

I have talked about this lovely girl many a time in blogs.  She's a friend of mine with an amazing voice and I'm going to be interviewing her at a gig on the 30th for my final interview brief! I'm really excited, it's my first gig of the years and I always have an amazing time with Rachel!  Check out a demo of her album track - 'Like Stars' here:

I have also bagged the lovely designer Sara Bro for my designer profile (another university brief).  I fell in love with her designs and I'm really looking forward to meeting up with her - she's just got back from Paris (it's alright for some!)

I also received an email earlier about an interview for an editorial internship, so there are some exciting things on the cards for myself.  What has this week brought for my lovely followers? 

A way with birds.

With any season, accessorising an outfit is key.  This season it's all about those little peckers that sing from tree tops, forests wide.  Birds.  No, not Tweety bird, but owls and swallows.  They are soaring in all over the high street, in the form of chunky rings or statement outfit-finishing pendants.  

I've always been fond of a bird accessory, I recently purchased a Swooping Swallow bracelet from DollyBowBow to go with my 'Vintage owl' necklace from Dorothy Perkins or my swallow waist belt from New Look.  

Here's a couple of accessories I've seen that I like:

£5.99 Cupcake Jewels (I wouldn't mind this little tweetheart for my birthday, hint hint...)

£8.50 Freedom at Topshop

This is nice as it is a bit different to the standard bird accessories.

£8.50 Freedom at Topshop

This is the classic owl pendant, I like the fact it's broken into different body parts.  

£8.50 Dorothy Perkins

Double rings and knuckledusters are a big accessory trend this season so with this ring you're killing two birds with one stone (pardon the pun).

£5.99 New Look

I thought this was really cute.  It's definitely a statement piece, you wouldn't need much more accessories with this on.  

£10 Accessorize

This is one of my favourites.  I like that the bird design is different and that its got this antique gold colour to it.  

What about you? Got any cool 'tweety' finds? 

Disjointed me.

(Jumper; Vintage | Skirt; H&M | Tights; Primark | Socks; New Look | Wedge Boots; New Look | Jewellery; DollyBowBow)

Vintage inspired gems.

I'm a big fan of vintage boutique DollyBowBow so I was excited when I came across a similar shop called JunkJewels.  Unlike DollyBowBow, JunkJewels has a stall on Portobello Market on a Saturday as well as their online shop.  

JunkJewels have celebrity clientele including Taylor Swift and Fearne Cotton.

Slightly more expensive but they are rather gorgeous.  Here are some of my favourites i've seen and may just well purchase...

Check out JunkJewels website for more unique finds!

Dollies and Bows Galore

I've talked bout this vintage jewellery boutique before, but a couple of weeks ago I bought some items from  them.  It arrived through my letter box this morning and as I opened the jiffy bag I was greeted by my favourite colour. Pink.  I knew this could only get better.  I unwrapped the pink tissue paper to find five little pink bags holding each of my items in, as well as a business card and some silver stars.  

I bought: 

1x Kitsch Initial Scrabble Tile Necklace; Letter 'N'

1x Pretty Little Letter Necklace; Letter 'N' (I'm frightened I might develop amnesia and forget my name...)

1x Swooping Swallows Bracelet 

1x Best Friends Bracelet Set

Gorgeous, aren't they?  They were surprisingly cheap also, the most I paid for one item was £6.99, complete bargain.  They are really sturdy and well made.  I'll give you a closer look in my upcoming January Shopping Haul vlog, which should be up on youtube no later than Wednesday. 

Like what you see? Head over to DollyBowBow now and order yourself some goodies.  Feel like getting to know the girl behind the jewellery? Visit her Blog or YouTube channel for news, tutorials, reviews and more!