Stella's Crafts update and ruby fruit nails

Hey y'all,

It's been a while since I've posted about my mother's woollen creations so I thought I'd showcase her latest project.

What with the winter now on its way and the cooling temperatures the time has come to stock up on our favourite winter warmers to get us through the cold months.
Inspired by her love of floral motifs and the warm autumn colours comes these cute little crocheted slipper socks.

These are only a prototype but they have turned out beautifully. You can see the multicoloured flowers attached to the front of the sock made with a mixture of rich autumn colour to suit the season. In keeping with the foliage-inspired theme is the green ribbon strung through it to add that delicate touch. 

Speaking of winter, yesterday I bought a new nail colour from the new Maxfactor 'Glossfinity' collection. 

I kept having those moments, y'know those ones where you want something so bad you feel like you see it everywhere? Yeah, so when I couldn't find a cheaper alternative for this exact colour (ruby fruit) I caved.

The pigment is so lush, it reminds me of mulled wine which is rather fitting with Christmas on its jolly way. Glossfinity promises to give a glossy finish- which it does. I didn't even need to use a topcoat, I love it! 

More stuff about nails.

Today I thought I'd treat myself... So I got my nails did. 

They're gel powder with OPI nail lacquer. The flower was etched onto the nail with considerable precision (how cool is that!) using acrylic. I thought I'd go for a darker colour what with the winter season, hence the deep shade of plum (no they're not black). I asked the lady to keep them as natural looking as possible as to avoid overtly fake (tacky) looking nails. I can't handle really long nails either so they're not too long- it took me long enough to get to grips with my Blackberry keyboard just at this length! I'm really happy with the way they look though I'm not sure about getting fillers at this point. I am on a student budget after all (cry, cry, cry). I'm also slightly worried about how much damage they'll potentially cause to my actual nails but I guess the only thing to right now is to enjoy them. Woot! 

Evidently my venture with the nail biting solution didn't last as long as I'd hoped. I got really sick of the stuff as it practically contaminated everything I touched. I was also still biting my nails.. funnily enough. 

Old habits die hard and all that...

A bit of a random post really but I thought I'd praise (rant about) this wonderful working solution to all nail biting habits (kind of). 

I've tried to stop biting my nails before through pure will power, but alas that didn't work. So here I am. At the last resort.

So far, it's proved itself quite well in keeping my fingers as far away from my face, let alone from my mouth, as possible. That might be why it's also recommended to parents as a way to stop their children from sucking their thumbs... (Now that's just harsh!)

Don't be fooled by its small size, this little little sucker is quite powerful, potent in its smell, which oddly is rather minty, and if it reaches your fingers it will taint pretty much anything you touch- take for example a grape, a crisp, your lips (do not put your fingers in you lip balm tin, I beg you!). I find myself retching after unconsciously putting my finger to my mouth. This thing really does provide the nasty taste it promises on the packet and can leave a bitter taste on your tongue for quite a while afterwards. 

All in all, this is a bit of a mixed review to be honest. I'm actually terrified of putting my hands anywhere near my face but yet I am actually glad of this result. At £4.20 it's not really so bad. It does what it promises, even if it does feel like a punishment. 

Now just to wait for the beautiful nails.. 

Shoreditch, curry, and nails.

Hey! :) This is just a random post about some of the stuff I've been up to this week that I thought I'd share with the rest of bloggersphere.
At the beginning of the week my friend Ellie came up from Bristol to stay at mine for a couple of days. We had a whale of time baking Hershey's and Nutella brownies, watching movies ('We Need to Talk About Kevin' is actually frightening) and trailing around Shoreditch to find the Victoria Miro art gallery so we could see Grayson Perry's latest exhibition on class and taste. While the first activity was a success (in so many ways), our mission to find the actual gallery was a bit of a failure. After an hour of walking around in circles and not really getting anywhere we soon gave up and headed straight to Brick lane for some lunch. (Evidently me and Ellie have poor navigation skills..) Naturally we went straight to a curry house and the food was lush. I have to say, there is something rather moreish about a flavour-fillled oily curry, but then again, you can't beat a good, tomatoey Rogan josh! As it wasn't the weekend there was sadly no market to browse but we still had a little look around some of the vintage outlets. I really do love this part of Shoreditch because there's this little mix of culture, art, and fashion that is really quite fascinating. We also went into Rough Trade to take pictures in their retro photo booth.

We obvs look so attractive here.. 

As for the exhibition, I've never really had an interest in folk art before but I really want to see Perry's interpretation of taste among the social classes and how he has visualized them into these massive tapestries. 
The exhibition ends in August so hopefully I find the time to go again before I have to leave for my trip to France at the end of this month.. Eek!

Other than that, I did my nails (YAY NAILS). I wanted to try something bright as it's so lacking in our lovely British seasonal weather, so I went for yellow with a crackle effect:

Isn't it pretty? In case you're wondering, I used lemon zest from the Rimmel 'I love lasting fruities' collection alongside the classic Barry M crackle effect polish. 

Well, that's all for now folks, thanks for reading! 

x