My Big Fat Royal Birthday!

On Friday, while all eyes were on Kate and Wills, I was feeling a little left out as it was a big birthday for me and my limelight had been well and truly stolen ... hmmph! ;p

I started my birthday weekend at a delightful hotel and spa in the Lake District.  This was my first visit to the Lakes and it was just lovely, I definitely want to go back and explore more of it.  We stayed at the Swan Hotel and Spa, an utterly charming and gorgeous hotel with wonderful decor where shabby chic meets modern country chic.  Stags heads and horns adorned the walls as well as colourful upholstery and floral wallpapers.  It was just gorgeous.

our very cute and country room 

The hotel was covered in patriotic bunting in celebration of the Royal Wedding and they even had a special showing of it and served up afternoon tea with cake and scones.  So very British and quaint.

After a morning of drooling over the Royal Wedding .... 'that' dress was just amazing, it was the ultimate in fairytale nuptials and even had me feeling a little emotional.  All this from someone who wasn't that bothered about watching other than to check out the dress and who designed it.  Long Live McQueen!  Sarah Burton did a wonderful job.

I spent the rest of the day mountain biking which was a first for me and was as much fun as it was physically challenging for a novice like me.  It has got me pondering the purchase of my own bike as it's such a great way to keep fit.

chilling out with my first vodka of many ;) 

Hello Kitty cake... for the mature 30 year old ;) 

Later that evening it was time to chill and I was treated to plentiful champagne and cake.   Before I knew it my couple of days retreat in the Lakes was over and it was back to the big smoke for a surprise bash where friends and family had kept schtum for weeks giving me no clues as to what they had planned.
Needless to say I am tired and slightly hungover today so thought I would let you in on some of the photos from my birthday weekend and let you see what I wore to my surprise bash.

I wore a gorgeous navy strapless jumpsuit from Topshop which I bought many months ago, loving it for it's slightly 70's studio 54 vibe.  I teamed with minimal gold and brown jewellery and brown moc croc heels from Aldo (barely seen in photo below).   I finally got the chance to wear my vintage fur cape which I adore and have been dying to wear since I bought it on eBay absolutely yonks ago!  It has a gaga-esque/Dynasty look about it.

 I went for a bronzey/navy make up look, similar to what I wore at New Year.  This time I chose to wear Ardell Demi Wispies false lashes and I absoluely loved them.  They were soft enough to give a fluttery finish but had the right balance between fake and natural.  I don't want to look like I am not wearing false lashes but I also don't want them taking over my eyes like tarantulas.  Ardell lashes are made from human hair which I think helps create that softer finish that sets them apart from other false lashes.

Emma a.k.a Jessica Rabbit and I 

Stacie (who is also my hair fairy!)

Mr Party Planner and his Mrs

I now can't quite believe the recent influx of bank holidays are over and normal working life will resume as off Tuesday :( I am not sure how I will get back into a routine or how I will get over the high of royal weddings, royal birthdays and royal lazing about.

How have you spent the bank holiday weekend?  Are you ready to return to the rat race?! 

x

Halloween Solstice Star

So, I hadn't planned to go out for Halloween, If I had, I would have made sure I had a kick ass outfit. However, we decided last minute to get together at a mates flat and obviously dress for the occasion. Our dressing up box (yes, we do have one) is at my mother in law's at the moment since we are packing up to move so I had to use the resources I had at hand. Mainly make up!

Initially I was going to go as a doll but then decided I wanted a more casual approach (read: I hadn't tanned or de-fuzzed the legs so a dress was a no-no!). So in the end, I decided to wear a black assymetric top with black bootleg trousers which had a bit of a 70s vibe to it.... make up wise I took inspiration from one of Kate Moss' birthday looks a few years back.
I love this look and have always wanted to try it. I had hardly any time to recreate it so what I managed to churn out is a bit shoddy but I now know what I would do differently.
To create the look I used a Bobbi Brown Foundation stick - this is definitely one thing I would change, the coverage just wasn't enough for this look. I then concealed and contoured with nars laguna.
I used Illamasqua Liquid Metal in Solstice for the star - which looked great to start with but as the night wore on it creased really badly over the lid. I drew a light outline fo the star to begin with then literally coloured it in with the Solstice.
I then lined my eyes with MAC Fluidline in blacktrack then added Ardell False Lashes.
On the lips I used Rimmel Foxy with Gosh Darling on top.

The Hair? Don't even go there - it was a flippin' disaster!!

So that was my last minute Halloween look - what did you guys dress up as?

x