The Friendliest Day of the Year!

With St.Patrick's day being next Sunday, I found myself thinking of last year and what I enjoyed and what I didn't and so I thought of writing my very own version of how to enjoy yourself at the friendliest day of the year without too much hassle.

My first suggestion would be to try to go to the pub or area you're meeting with your friends a bit earlier.  People tend to be more cheerful on this day and they walk around like there's no tomorrow, blocking the streets and causing traffic jams.  This year, St.Patrick's Day is going to be on a Sunday, so I'm guessing more people will turn up and so more traffic.

As those who've attended previous celebrations of this day know, you will meet lots of people so in typical 2013 style that means a photo with every person, which, come Monday morning, you'll find plastered on your Facebook wall.  So for those of us who love looking good, you want an outfit that looks good photographed but also that shows you're having fun.  Keep in mind that if you're going to be bar hopping, you're going to be on your feet a lot, so heels should be avoided, and if you're going to wear tights, try thicker styles to avoid them tearing half way through the day.  Also, wear something which would look good during the day but would be OK if you stay on 'till the evening.

Also a result of everyone being so friendly on this day, people will buy you drinks,specifically beer, and since people tend to meet up early and party on 'till late evening, you might want to take it easy.  Beer in the sun for 6 hours straight is not something which will give you sprinkles of fun the next day, so stick to lighter beer for cleaner fun.

I would say wear green but I look so hideous in green that no amount of pinching (people get to pinch you if you're not wearing green on this day) will make me ever wear anything green, in fact I don't own anything in that colour.  I would suggest though you try to get some sort of hat which they usually sell at pubs on the day, the big ones with lots of beer brands on them.  It's super fun walking around in one of those and you get to not worry about the state of your hair!

That's it basically! Enjoy your day, drink responsibly and most importantly, have fun!
Claire

Would you wear this?

I was just refreshing my Instagram feed this morning (not that I do that a lot or something) when I came across a pair of jeans Rihanna was wearing in a picture she shared.  I saw the jeans, thought 'What the hell?' and moved on.  But later in the afternoon, whilst browsing online I found several articles about this pair of jeans.  No, the area of interest was not the back of the jeans, but the front....

Rihanna wearing the jeans at last night's River Island collaboration launch 

Princess RiRi took double denim to a whole new level.  She wore this look at the launch of her collaboration with River Island and the jeans are part of this new collection.  I'm honestly not a fan of the whole double waistband thing, given how short I am, I'm sure it won't look good on me and make me look even shorter, but who knows if the trend will pick up.  I've seen weirder things become popular and they're only weird at first, we then seem to get used to them.

So what do you think? Would you wear these jeans? Or is it too much of a Rihanna-esque style which only she can pull off?

Not a Review: Life of Pi.

Hey there! I've never written about a movie here before, so I thought I'd give it a try.

Last night me and my boyfriend decided it's time to get our Films to Watch list out and pick a movie from it.  With the Oscars just over and having watched both Lincoln and Silver Linings Playbook, we had 4 major films remaining; Life of Pi, Wreck it Ralph, Argo and Zero Dark Thirty.

We decided on the first one.  Now I'm not going to say much or else I will ruin the whole story (hence the blog's title being 'NOT a review') plus it's a bit of a complicated story so I can't actually talk about it without giving much away.  Just to give an idea of what it's like, think Avatar meets Cast Away meets a film with an animal as a main character.  Now I'm not a fan of the whole Cast Away style movies, they tend to be a bit on the boring side for my tastes, but the animation in this movie is so beautiful that you just don't get bored.  Actually, I didn't want it to end.  The way they approach the animal aspect is so different from the usual animal films that you sort of forget that the tiger is what it is, making the movie more enjoyable, especially if you don't enjoy films with animals.

The only thing that annoyed me a bit was the accent.  The boy, Pi (no, the tiger is not called Pi, it's the boy) is Indian and although I'm a sucker for movies which are rich in culture, listening to the boy speak English with a heavy Indian accent for 2 hours did get a little tiring. Again, however, I got lost in the animation and that made me ignore the accent.

So, if you want a movie to watch on a Friday night, and haven't seen this one yet, you should.  I watched it at home, though I'm sure it would be even more amazing at the cinema!

Enjoy!
Claire

Come on in, the water's fine!

So as you can see, I've changed my layout a bit.  I felt the need to mix things up a little even though I don't really like change that much.  But I dived in, and the water's fine!  I'm no genius when it comes to page layouts and stuff like that so I basically just tweeked the templates and defaults around a little until I got what I like.

I chose the colour indigo as the main colour for the very simple reason that it's my favourite colour.  It's always been and I remember as a little girl, when someone asked me what my favourite colour was I used to feel like the coolest kid around answering with "Indigo" rather than pink or purple or any of the other usual colours.  Attention seeker that I am was.

I also changed the background a little.  I'm hoping it's not too busy, but given the title of my blog, I thought it appropriate to have doodles as my background image since my blogs come about from random thoughts I have, just like doodles do.  (I sound like a rooster now!)

That's it basically.  I hope you like the new look and if you don't, well that's a reason to leave a comment and tell me why you don't.


To change!

Claire

Wouldn't it be nice?

Hey there! So those of you who have been reading my posts from the start know how I go about; I take a random topic off the top of my head and if it feels right, I'll try and write about it.  Today's no exception and I had this thought come to mind "If I had to go back in time, to any era, what would I take with me?"

The first answer is easy.  Clothes.  I'm not going to go all hipster and say I'm a huge vintage clothes lover because although I love the style, I don't have the time and funds to be really invested into it.  I do however appreciate how well they dressed back in the day.  I would probably pick one of those huge dresses, Pride and Prejudice style you know, with the puffy skirts and layers of fabric.  Then I'd go forward in time a bit and maybe snatch away some gorgeous 60s dresses and blouses just because that style is wearable today.

Half of those I own similar versions so....

Next thing I'd get is music.  It's not something I can actually get or something which I can't really find nowadays, but I would get the people from back in the day to try and come and speak to people today and explain to them how to make some great music.  Not that I don't think we have good music today, but all my favourite songs are ones from the 80s or before so I'd love to get some great artists back with me and have them release new material just for me.

                                                    One of my favourite songs of all time!
I might also snatch a car or two, after all, vintage cars are worth a lot of money right?(As you may have gathered, my knowledge of cars is merely on the basis of "Wow that's preeeety") And I'm sure my boyfriend or my brother would love that, so yeah, I'd get a couple of cars with me, have the boys drool over them, and I'd just be their pretty passenger wearing a huge dress and listening to all the classic songs I love so much.

Before you guys think I'm crazy...(if there is actually anyone who managed to reach the end of this weird post and not die of boredom) I'm going to stop here. I'm sure I'll think of other old stuff I'd want to get with me if did go back in time, but these would be the first on my list.  So please, if you know of someone who has a time machine, let this crazy girl know!

-Claire

Confessions of an onlineshopaholic.

To stop myself from doing too much harm to my visa, I decided to write about online shopping rather than actually doing the oh-so dangerous act.  Ever since I got myself a Visa and PayPal account I can say that I do most of my shopping online.

For electronics and other non-fashion related stuff, the reason is simple, stuff are much more expensive in Malta with quality being only a fraction of that online, given that you know where to look. For clothes, shoes and accessories, the reasons are much more.  First of all, I tend to find the selection in Malta a bit too restricting.  We have in general improved over the years and there are much better options today then a couple of years back.  But as a nation in general, we tend to stick with one particular trend and showcase it all over the island.  I want diversity.  I tend to check out what trends there are at the moment, and then give them my own twist, but shops in Malta tend to be a bit limiting in that aspect.

Another reason is most certainly comfort.  It's way more easy to switch on my laptop or phone, think of something I want, type it in and I have 200 items to choose from.  That easy.  Of course some may say they're scared of sizes and such, but once you get the hang of it, reading other people's reviews and knowing what the sizes are like for which site, you're good to go.

Prices.  Being a student on a budget, I must say that a blazer which cost Eur.40 in Malta bought at Eur.15 online is amazing.  Of course, not all things online are cheap, but again once you get the hang of where to look, finding bargains unfortunately for my visa  becomes second nature.

Looking for bargains is easy.  You can go to ebay, type "blazer" and get hundreds of pages worth of blazers.  But of course, quality would not be that great.  So I tend to stick to a couple of favourite, trustworthy websites.  First off is ASOS.com.  I've been buying off this site for years now and I'm used to the sizes and styles and what brand is better.  An added bonus is that shipping is free.  Similar to that is boohoo.com though I must be honest and say that I have yet to order something from there.  I also look out for other sites which don't usually offer free delivery to Malta because sometimes shipping is still worth it and they also have days where shipping is free; RiverIsland is one of the many and they almost have a free shipping day each month.

Of course, like normal shopping, online shopping is usually a spur of the moment thing (or a symptom of stress) for me and there are tons of other sites I love to explore which I didn't mention above.

-Claire

Hello 2013!

Hey there! Hope you had a fantastic time these holidays.  We're approaching the end of the first week of the year which means we have to put the tree away, eat what mince pies are left quickly and get back to our dear friend real life.

Now I can't write the first post of the year without talking about New Year's resolutions.  We all do them right? I mean the only reason people don't do them is either because they never keep them or because they love their life just the way it is.  But unless they are Bruno Mars, I'm guessing the last reason is not so common.

But for those who believe in new year's resolution, this time of year is crucial.  You have to properly plan out the year by listing things you want to achieve and if you don't, you've wasted a whole year of your life, right? Ok, sarcasm aside.  I actually did keep last year's resolution.  Yes, I'm that kind of person who could only think of one thing I could improve, and that was to remove and stay away from negative energy, where possible of course.  I actually think I was very successful.  I stayed away from things which were not worth the energy, people who only brought about negativity and I can say, in general, I think that really helped improve my life in a way.

This year's resolution is something I must work harder on.  No, it's not going to the gym every day.  In that area I'm actually doing the opposite because I'm staying away from the gym all through January. Reasons being: A. I'm recovering from a foot injury.  B. I have exams in a few weeks and I'd rather spend the time studying C. The gym is going to be full of people attempting to fulfill their new year's resolution of hitting the gym.  And I can't be around people in sweats who are proud of themselves whilst I'm still stuffing my face with Xmas log.  So yeah, gym sessions resume in February.

This year I shall try to be less paranoid.  I am a terribly paranoid person.  For example, if I find a missed call on my phone I immediately think something bad has happened.  In fact, my friends and relatives have clear instruction to send me a text saying nothing's wrong but please call back.  The same can be said for when somebody tells me "we need to talk about something".  I seriously start sweating and feel dizzy.  So yeah, this year I shall try to be less paranoid.

Apart from that I look forward to new opportunities I'm hoping come my way, getting back to the studio (damn injury) and of course, be happy.

Hello 2013!
Claire