FF LXXXVI

This bear cartoon made me laugh more than it should have done! 

Stephanie's photos from her spring walk are beautiful! 

London looks so cute with her cuddly llama! I want one! 

Adora's pretty student bedroom is gorgeous! 

Weekly wishlist

I must remember to buy Rich this rubber dinghy rapids t shirt for Christmas!
Who needs a wooden fawn clock in their life? Me! 
And a glitter faux-taxidermy unicorn bust of course!
Who wants to buy me this candy striped, sequinned, carrier bag-style Ashish delight?
Speaking of bags, look at this adorable Dracula tote! 
Paige is selling pom pom shoe clips and they're absolutely adorable! 
Give me the pug plugs!

Other favourites

I was expecting Our Gay Wedding: The Musical to be funny and cheesy. It was the most beautiful, amazing, emotional thing. I don't think I've ever cried so many happy tears over a TV show. If you haven't seen it, watch it now! 


I'll be at the South West Blog Social. Will you?

Here are some great tips on writing about difficult subjects.

Charlotte sent me this quiz: Will you ever give up listening to emo? My result was predictable!

This post contains some affiliate links which might help me earn a bit through my blog. 

Book review: The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde- Robert Louis Stevenson

After enjoying Frankenstein so much, especially the themes of identity, it made sense to read Jekyll and Hyde. This edition is an anthology of Stevenson's stories, with running themes of curses and bad fortune. Everyone knows the story of Jekyll and Hyde, of course: A scientist becomes obsessed with the concept of changing his identity but ultimately loses control over the creation he has made. Much like Frankenstein, this has overtones of morality religious symbolism: Creation betraying creator. However, I was disappointed to find that there was no twist to the story beyond that I already knew. Of course that's not Stevenson's fault, but it was pretty anticlimactic!

The other stories were new to me, so I had more of the experience that a Victorian reader would have had. Apart from the final story, Markheim, I find it difficult to recall the plot details of the other tales. This is mostly down to the rather dry, long-winded narrative. It's not a long book, and each story is only a few dozen pages long, but it felt like a long slog to get through it. The tales didn't grab me, I found it far too easy to let my mind wander as I read and, as a result, when I came back to the stories, I had no idea what I'd missed. I even found myself reading the same chapter twice because I had paid such little attention the first time that I had no idea!

I enjoyed The Bodysnatchers. It's a fairly straightforward ghost story which did a good job of building up suspense and creating a spooky mood. There was a creepy, if predictable, ending too. However, I couldn't tell you what The Bottle Imp is about as I have no recollection of it at all! 

I was really looking forward to reading this book so it's a real shame that it didn't live up to my expectations. It's an interesting insight into the morals and ideals of Victorian society but, other than that, it was just totally underwhelming for me. 

Rare London SS14 at Bounce

Let me tell you a little story. Back in summer 2012, I spent all day, every day watching the Olympics. I became a little bit obsessed and it was almost like Ian Thorpe became my ever-present friend (albeit one who didn't know of my existence!). One of the sports I really got into was table tennis and through Twitter I discovered a ping pong club in London called Bounce. For almost 2 years now, I have been desperate to visit Bounce. So imagine how excited I was when I got an invite to preview the Rare London SS14 collection at the ping pong club of wonders. Pretty clothes and table tennis? Count me in! 

I met up with the lovely Becca of The Cinnamon Slipper, who I briefly met at the Voucher Codes Swap Shop Party in February. Luckily, she was every bit as fun and hilarious as she seemed back then, and she was the perfect ping pong partner-in-crime! I also met some other lovely bloggers such as Sam of Nashbag, Racquel Stewart and Jaydee of Jaydee Stone. 

When we walked into Bounce, I was astounded at the size of it. It's an underground lair of a bar, so I was expecting a small, intimate place but it's massive! There's also a really fun, exciting environment and apparently the real Olympic ping pong table is there (probably the one with the Olympic rings below), which is pretty awesome if you ask me! 


We were treated to a photography masterclass with Katie Blench, who had some really great tips and advice, as well as the greatest pink hair! The examples of work that she had in her portfolio were absolutely stunning. It was a nice touch to have a little something unique at the event.

Of course, it goes without saying that the clothes were lovely! White lace dresses and pineapple-print playsuits in abundance. The colours are gorgeous and I love this little sequinned number!

The Bounce staff kept us supplied with pizzas which were absolutely divine. The pesto pizza was pretty much the greatest thing I have ever eaten in my life. I could probably eat it every day. I'll be heading back again just for that pizza, let alone the ping pong!
There was no way that I was leaving Bounce without playing ping pong, so we commandeered the table and went wild. It's safe to say we weren't very good! We played a few games of doubles (The Beckys vs Jaydee and Racquel), but the balls were hitting the ceiling and the floor more than the table or our bats. 

Since my phone battery was critical, I couldn't get a proper selfie so I improvised with a DSLR selfie on the tube. We were well and truly ping-ponged out! 

Huge thanks to Rare London and Bounce for such a fun, unusual blogging event. I had crazy amounts of fun, and I'm pretty sure I'll be dreaming about that pizza! 

Yankee Candle Wax Tarts Review

I love Yankee Candle wax tarts. Ever since Alyssia bought me some as my Secret Santa, I've been a little obsessed. They smell so much stronger than the candles and they're so cheap! Ok, they don't last anywhere near as long but the price definitely means you can buy a whole stack of them for the same amount as one candle! 

Baby Powder

I find a lot of the fragrances don't smell exactly like the one they're inspired by. This is different. It smells identical to Johnson & Johnson baby powder. It's such a lovely, clean, comforting scent, like being wrapped up in a wondeful snuggly blanket! The scent throws into a couple of rooms and it lasts for about 5 hours or so. 

Fruit Fusion

I didn't originally pick this out but I needed to buy one more tart in order to use my card. What a shame! I know summer is a little way off yet, but I thought it would be nice to choose a more fruity scent than my winter spices. It has a really strong scent of citrus fruits: Grapefruit and lime seem to be the most prominent notes. Although it's a lovely smell, it does sometimes come off a little bleachy. 

Sparkling Lemon

Lemon is one of those scents that just screams summer for me, so it felt right to try this with the lighter evenings and warmer weather. At first I thought it was a dud tart as I couldn't smell anything and then suddenly, BAM! The fragrance hit me. It's a lovely, uplifting fragrance with hints of lime and bergamot which gives it that lemonade hint. 

Word of April: Style

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When I started this little bloggy blog, way back in 2011, I intended it to be a personal style blog. It morphed into more of a shopping blog until about June 2012 when I realised it wasn't really my voice. Unfortunately, as the lifestyle side took over, the personal style posts got completely siedelined. I certainly don't miss the rubbish, hurriedly churned out, vaguely-style-related posts, I do really miss the OOTDs.

This month, I'm going to make a whole lot more effort. I've just got one simple goal this month: To post 3 OOTDs a week.

It sounds easy but I think it's going to be more challenging than it sounds. I'm out of the house 6:30am-6:30pm each weekday and it's getting dark by the time I'm home. However, with the lighter evenings and the 2-week Easter holidays, I should have a lot more time to take my photos. Wish me luck! 

365 84- 90

084 Delivery for Becky Emo.

085 Yankee Candle wax tarts are the best!

086 Is it just me or does this dude look like Rylan?

087 Clocks are going forward. Bring on the lighter evenings!

088 London, I love you!

089 It's so exciting when the clocks go forward. This was taken at 7:30pm!

090 Finally managed to get the mint lace Primark dress in my size!

March in review

Favourite outfit

I am obsessed with this My Little Pony jacket! 

Favourite book

All Quiet on the Western Front is an incredibly poignant account of First World War from the perspective of a German soldier.

Favourite day out

Malala Yousafzai was such an inspirational speaker at WOW London. 

Other favourites

Revisiting the emo years of my youth.

The Pixar PJ Party was so much fun! 

My secret talent? The world's smallest hands! 

I love exploring cemeteries.

Wedding magazines in 2000 were truly terrible! 

On the other hand, late-90s Mizz was awesome!

I was a bear for World Book Day. Roar! 

My OOTD outtakes was one of my favourite ever posts. 

Word of the month: Talk

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My aim this month was to communicate more. I think I did a fairly good job. Admittedly, it was just me and Laura at the Pixar PJ Party, so I didn't get to talk to as many people as I'd like, but it was still lovely meeting her! I also did a great job of replying to my blog comments every Sunday, except the weekend of the party when I pretty much got home and slept! Although I didn't get to speak to my inspirations, I wasn't expecting this anyway so, all in all, a good month I'd say!