September shopping - so far

Here's how my current obsessions are manifesting themselves:

My vibe at the moment is very 90s mixed with modern internet goth.  I've started browsing through Wish and adding things to my basket throughout the month and then clicking 'Purchase' on the last day, which means that I get little surprise parcels from myself at the end of the following month.  The set of pins in the picture to the right are a Wish purchase, and so is the crystal necklace.  I'm disappointed with the necklace - it has a chip where the silver coating has come off and the 'crystal' part has kind of melted into the silver next to it which shows that it's definitely just plastic, plus it's much more translucent than I expected it to be.  However, it still reflects the light and I'll still wear it regularly.  I'm much happier with the pin set, I was worried that they would be really poorly made and illegible but they look just like the photo.  My favourites are the ghost and the 'Ugh.' heart which reminded me of The 1975's song of the same name.  I'm going to put the banner with "Sure. Fine. Whatever." on something I wear at work to point to when I can't be bothered answering someone's silly question. 
I found the Empire Records patch at Pie In The Sky in Edinburgh which has a wide range of patches, pins, band t-shirts and other cool stuff.  A lot of it is really pricey (they had some great Jarvis Cocker pins which were £8.50; other pins and patches in there are up to £20 each) but this one was £2.99 and will fit right in on my denim jacket which I've been embellishing all summer.  I was surprised to find it there because Empire Records is a totally underrated movie. 
They're all sitting on a checked background courtesy of some 'cosy' leggings I bought in Primark.  Their approach this season is apparently 'all tartan everything' - I'm not a fan of patterned trousers so I avoided those and went for the leggings instead, which I can wear under a skirt or short dress to keep warm this winter.

As everyone who knows me knows, I can't resist an armful of books, and I picked these ones up on two trips to my hometown charity shops.  Sylvia Plath is one of my favourite people of the 20th century; I've read The Bell Jar multiple times, along with her Letters Home and some of her poems, but I've never come across a copy of her Journals until now.  As much as I recognise her poetic genius, it's her letters and journal entries that enthral me the most - I don't believe there has been anyone who has written about the day-to-day experience of being a young woman as well as Plath did. 
I picked up the Oasis book to fulfil the '2 for 99p' offer that allowed me to take home the vintage copy of Lady Chatterley's Lover.  I like Oasis but they aren't my favourite of the Britpop set (more on Britpop later); I get the feeling that the best book about them would be one that the Gallagher brothers took turns writing so that it had the maximum amount of petty sibling drama, but we'll see. 
Persepolis is different to my usual reading material in that it's a graphic novel but I've heard so many interesting things about it over the years that it feels like something I should get round to reading.  I'm also looking forward to devouring the Jim Morrison story in No One Here Gets Out Alive, which I've passed over so many times but finally decided to purchase.
Finally, I can't resist old Penguin copies of classic books, even if they're falling apart, which is why I came home with a 60s edition of Lady Chatterley's Lover.  I do already have a copy as part of a DH Lawrence compendium, but this paperback is going to be much easier to handle as long as I don't lose any pages!  I also picked up a 70s copy of Franny & Zooey in the hope that I enjoy it more than The Catcher In The Rye, which I thought was a little overrated.

Now on to my favourite band of the summer, Elastica.  Even though they were active from approx. 1993-2001, I've been obsessively devouring any Elastica material I can find over the last few months.  They are the most underrated and overlooked of the Britpop 'big five' despite being the coolest of the bunch - there weren't and still aren't enough bands with three cool girls up front.  I'm currently collecting their discography on vinyl so pictured are this month's acquisitions: the 7" of their single 'Connection' and a promotional soundsheet of 'Vaseline'.  I think the soundsheet is particularly cool - it's a US item similar to the flexidiscs that used to occasionally come free with magazines over here but pressed onto a sheet of acetate rather than being disc-shaped.  I've listened to the first Elastica album so many times this summer that I feel like I know every single second of it so it's cool to have found pressings of two of my favourite songs from it. 

To jump briefly back to clothes and from one set of iconic ladies to another, I picked up this blazer in Primark yesterday which, like most of the clothes in there at the moment, reminds me of the girls in 'Heathers'.  I took it into the dressing room expecting it to look terrible on me but instead I fell in love with it and will be wearing it to work all the time from now on.  I now have a conundrum though: do I go to work on October 31st dressed as Wednesday Addams or Veronica Sawyer??

Back to the music and the pile of CDs I've bought this month.  See what I mean when I said I had a 90s vibe going on at the moment? 
At the start of the summer I began reading the book 'The Last Party' by John Harris, which gives a history of the Britpop era and how it contributed to the election of Tony Blair.  The book covers Oasis, Blur, Suede and Elastica, which occasional mentions of Pulp, Menswear and a few other stars of the time.  I've been listening to Suede since I was about 6, when 'She's In Fashion' appeared amongst the boybands on a compilation I got free with a magazine.  Their self-titled debut album is what I've been listening to on the rare occasions that I'm not playing the Elastica album and this month I felt ready to graduate to their 1994 follow-up, Dog Man Star.  Unfortunately, the only song on it that really resonates with me is the beautiful 'The Wild Ones', so I probably won't spend much time with it before moving on to the next album in their discography.  (A Suede side-note that I have to mention - their singer Brett Anderson wrote the most wonderful coming-of-age memoir, Coal Black Mornings, this year and I got to meet him at the Edinburgh Book Festival last month. It was magical.) 
I'm almost ready to graduate to the 2nd Elastica album too, but not before listening to their 6 Track EP which came out just before.  They changed their line-up a lot between the two so I'm interested to see how the music sounds.  I have, however, listened to Weekend Swingers, which is a bootleg I picked up on eBay.  It includes a 1994 festival performance, 2 of their Peel Sessions and some other demos and live bits and pieces.  I was worried that the quality was going to be bad but thankfully the sound is really good and so is the live show that makes up the first half of the disc - I wish I could time travel to see them play!
It was while I was browsing the Elastica section of eBay that I came across the soundtrack to Gregg Araki's 'Nowhere', a film I've written about before on the blog that is one of my favourite obscure movies.  I had no idea that both Elastica and Suede had songs on the soundtrack and I ordered it straight away - I wish finding a DVD of the film was that easy. 
I've also finally managed to pick up the first two Oasis albums.  Even though I said they weren't my favourite of the Britpop bands, it's undeniable that they had some really good tunes, most of which are on these two CDs.  I picked up Pulp's 2001 album 'We Love Life' out of love for Jarvis Cocker, Mazzy Star's 'She Hangs Brightly' out of love for their song 'Fade Into You', Bis' 'Vs. The DIY Corps' EP out of love for Scottish indie and The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart's self-titled just because I've heard they're good.  Reviews to come someday when I've had time to listen to them!

A couple of magazines since I've been in Edinburgh: Bust is a feminist-leaning magazine that I found very charming and interesting when I first bought it, so I always have a look to see if there are any interesting features when I see a copy.  This month's cover star plays the lead in 'Crazy Rich Asians' which I'm planning on seeing soon, plus there are pieces on cults, Michelle Wolf and Tumblr culture which are all things I'm interested in.  

I also bought Dazed because M.I.A is on the cover.  I saw her documentary Matangi/Maya/M.I.A yesterday and found it incredible so now I'm on a mission to read everything I can about it. 

One final music item to finish off: I haven't talked about Depeche Mode in this post but I still love and adore them as much as I did at the start of the year.  I've collected most of their vinyl now so I don't spend as much time in the Depeche Mode part of eBay as I used to but I had a look the other day and caught a copy of Black Celebration on cassette about to end with 0 bids.  I put a bid in expecting someone else to be watching it, but nobody was and I won.  As luck would have it, the same seller had also just listed the Suede album which I also ended up winning.  I keep a cassette Walkman in my desk at work to listen to when I have nobody in the office to speak to - or when I need to drown out the people who are talking so I can concentrate - so both of these will be joining the collection in my drawer.  

Shopping Trip, January 2018

Last year I became very fond of using the Parks & Recreation motto "Treat Yo'Self" any time I wanted to go shopping, and that's a motto I've decided to carry with me into 2018.  I went up to Glasgow last weekend to see Paramore for my 25th birthday and while I was up there I had plenty of time to hit up my favourite shops and buy some bits and pieces.

I bought a pair of ripped knee jeans a couple of years ago, conveniently around the time that I got into The 1975 which suited the aesthetic very well. I haven't worn them for a while because I feel like the time is coming when I sit down and the thigh splits open, which sadly happens to most of my jeans (the last time it happened they ripped open while I was trying to get tickets to an intimate Depeche Mode show. I didn't get the tickets). My nearest Primark hasn't had a replacement pair in my size at any point when I've visited over the last few months and other high street stores sell them for three times the price, so I've waited patiently to find them back in stock. They had them over the weekend but I also spotted these dark grey jeans with more holes and chose to buy them instead to make a change from my usual black. 

£12, Primark

As you might have noticed from previous blog posts, I love a lacy blouse to wear to the office, and I also love all things velvet. For those reasons, I was pleased to discover this purple lace blouse marked down to half price in my size in Primark. It has a cute little velvet necktie and it's a lovely colour - they had it in black too. 

£7 (sale price), Primark

As well as Primark, I also stopped in H&M which is probably my favourite place to pick up cute pieces. The new store on Buchanan Street is so huge that I barely even looked at the non-sale areas - there were so many sale rails that I ended up dragging half a dozen things into the changing room anyway. This black jumper is light and sparkly and I liked the cross-over in the front - it's something I can wear to work on dress-down and maybe even business dress days, and for the sale price it was hard to refuse.

£4 (sale price), H&M

I've been looking for a Nirvana shirt for a while; Primark never have my size left and H&M band shirts are usually more pricey than I'd like.  So, I was really pleased to find this In Utero vest reduced to only £3. Like the beloved Motley Crue vest I got for the same price in the store a few years ago, it's oversized and wrecked looking and I imagine I'll be wearing it all the time. 

£3 (sale price), H&M

Other things I picked up:

Leopard print tote bag, £1.49, H&M - the only bags I have at the moment are from bands that I don't listen to anymore or look dangerously close to falling apart so I've been looking for a new one for a while. Primark only have Harry Potter ones when I look (not for me, at all) so it was nice to find this - and it matches both of the camisoles I bought!

Camisoles, £1.80 (emerald)/£2.50 (striped), Primark - ideally I'd like a black and white striped t-shirt but I can't find one that doesn't have a weird design feature, so this will do. I wear one of these vests most days so I'm always happy to pick up more exciting colours.

Pink cardigan, £6, Primark - I like to throw on a cardigan for a cool day in the office. This one has a round neck so if I button it all the way up I can also wear it as a top in itself, which feels very 50s.

Sequin bumbag, £6, Primark - I got really jealous at festivals last summer of anyone who had a bumbag for their things instead of having to look after a shoulder bag, which is what I usually take to shows. It's not festival season for a while yet but now I'm prepared! This bag has pastel rainbow sequins which are silver on the underside for two looks in one and I feel like it's perfect for the 80s fest I want to go to this summer. 

Some non-clothes:

Cigarettes After Sex by Cigarettes After Sex - I've fallen in love with this group and Nothing's Gonna Hurt You Baby is my current favourite song, so I picked up their album. The advert I saw for it described them as 'dream noir', which is what I'm all about. They're soothing and hazy, like the vibe of Fade Into You by Mazzy Star, and despite their terrible band name I'll be telling anyone who wants to listen about them. 

Stripped: Depeche Mode by Jonathan Miller - I almost bought this book last summer before I became fully obsessed with all things Depeche and regretted leaving it in the store, so I've been praying to find it in HMV and luckily there was a copy left on the shelf waiting for me. It's a thick book covering the first three decades of Depeche Mode and I'm anxious to get started.

Classic Pop & NME - I always pick up NME in the city and this issue is the 100 artists to watch for 2018 which I'm going to do my best to check out. Classic Pop focuses mostly on 80s bands and this issue mentioned both Frankie Goes To Hollywood and Depeche Mode on the cover so it sounded promising - and something to read on the train home. 

In case you were wondering, Paramore were outstanding. They played so many of the songs I was hoping for, including Hard Times, Told You So, Idle Worship, Grow Up, Still Into You, Rose Coloured Boy and Ain't It Fun - when Told You So dropped I danced harder than ever before. I waited over 10 years to see them for the first time and now I've been twice in 12 months and I'm ready for them to come back anytime. 

Finally, here's one of those cliché Instagrammable shots of Glasgow, taken on my walk home from the Paramore show:

- R

Shopping treats, November 2017

About 18 months ago I made a blog post sharing some of the new clothes I'd bought for work. Since then I've found it kind of hard to find things to add to my office wardrobe, which isn't ideal when some of my favourite pieces are getting worn out. The Peter Pan collared blouses I adore have disappeared from the shelves and been replaced with ruffles and wide sleeves and off-shoulder tops and other things that are impractical and unflattering, so I've been pretty uninspired while shopping for the last while. Luckily, on my trip to Carlisle last weekend I finally found some cute things again:

These two blouses are both from Primark. I love embroidered things and I've tried a bunch of different things on over the last few months but this blouse is the first thing I've liked in the fitting room. It's made of a soft material and looks really informal but I plan to wear it to the office anyway. It comes in navy or khaki and costs £8.
I bought a sheer polka dot blouse from a charity shop a while ago and it's one of my favourites but unfortunately it has torn in a few places, leaving it unsuitable for work (but probably still suitable for punk shows). I've spent a long time searching for a replacement and Primark has finally answered my prayers with this, and for only £7. This blouse is less transparent than my old one but it still makes me feel like Harry Styles or Matty Healy (below) which is what I'm after in a patterned blouse - weird fashion icon choices for a girl to have, maybe, but choices I've made all the same.

Next up, two items that I picked up inspired by Stacey Duguid's article in The Pool last Monday - or more specifically, about the line "why save things for those ever-elusive “posh nights out”?". 

The top is from Primark (£8) and you probably can't tell from the photo but it has a black-on-black lace pattern. The t-shirt shape makes it just right for me to wear to work but it's also nice enough for me to wear to dinner. 

I picked up the velvet skirt in H&M (£12.99). I have a couple of skirts like this that I wear to work already but I've been looking for an excuse to wear velvet to work and I think this is it. Velvet is one of my favourite fabrics and it's been hard not to buy up everything I see so black velvet is starting to take over my wardrobe and I have no problem with it. 

 I've got a couple of H&M dresses in this shape that I wear to work and they make me feel like I mean business, so when I saw this navy and white striped one on the sale rail for £7 it felt right. I'm still searching for a black and white striped t-shirt but this will keep me going in the meantime.
Finally, I've been low-key wishing for a fuzzy black sweater for a couple of years now so I was happy to find one in H&M for £10. It looks really 90s and it's fluffy but not thick which is ideal for me because I am almost always too warm. Definitely one for Casual Friday.

Lastly, some new music and books, because I can never resist:

My dad signed the family up for a PureHMV card when they first came out and we've never gotten that much use out of it. Recently though, HMV have started an offer where they always have one record priced at £8.99 for their cardholders. In the past they've had albums by The Killers, Bob Marley and Guns N' Roses, and now they're phasing out their deal on Blondie's 'Parallel Lines' (which I already have, since my mum was a Blondie fan in the 70s) and offering Back To Black by Amy Winehouse at the discount price. 'Back To Black' is now 10 years old and I know a lot of the songs from it but had never listened to the album until I put it on my turntable yesterday. It was a worthwhile purchase, for sure. 

I also bought 'God's Favorite Band', the new greatest hits compilation from Green Day. Like God himself, I also consider Green Day to be my all-time favourite band so I already have all of their albums but it's been my tradition for the last few years to always go out and buy their latest release whenever they put something out. This compilation features lots of favourite songs, like She, Hitchin' A Ride, Holiday, Oh Love and Bang Bang, as well as a new one that I'm excited to hear. 

Lastly, I stopped by the Oxfam book shop to browse the shelves. It's one of my favourite charity places - in the past I've picked up A Clockwork Orange, the Edie Sedgwick biography and the 12" single of 21st Century Boy by Sigue Sigue Sputnik there, and once there was a cat in the shop - so I always visit when I'm in the city. This time I bought 'The Penguin Book Of The Beats' (£2.49) which has excerpts from all of the most famous works and authors of the Beat Generation, and 'The Last Party' by John Harris, which documents the Britpop era of the mid-nineties. At £3.49 it was a little more than I like to pay for a second hand book but as I've been so into Trainspotting and Jarvis Cocker and Elastica and Britpop this year and also because I love pop music non-fiction, I figured I'd treat myself. 

Shopping aside, I was in Carlisle to see The Smyths, who you might've been able to guess are a tribute act recreating the sound of The Smiths. I saw them last year and was so impressed that I've been desperate for them to come back for 12 months. Unlike the real Morrissey who has been giving his terrible opinions again, The Smyths did not disappoint. 12 months to go until they come back... 

Paris Summer: a shopping round-up

Over the past month I've found myself in the city a lot which means I've indulged in a lot of shopping recently. Here are some of the things I've treated myself to lately:

The above tops are all from Primark and cost me £2-£3 each in the sale section, which is hard to argue with. At this point I've more or less removed colour from my wardrobe altogether to project a faux-intellectual Parisian Wednesday Addams aesthetic with plenty of stripes and Peter Pan collars. They're all perfect for me to wear to work aside from the long sleeve adorned with little Eiffel Towers which will be my friend on colder days. 

These dresses both came from the H&M sales (grey dress £5, black dress £10). 

The grey one is thick and wintry and not seasonally appropriate at all but I'll keep it stored away until it gets cold again - or possibly not because when it gets sunny outside my office turns the AC on and freezes us! 

I passed the black lace dress by the first time I went into the store because the mid-section has no underlay and I didn't think the peek-a-boo would look good on me. However when I tried it on I decided to throw caution to the wind and take it home and I'm glad I did... now I just need to find an occasion to wear it to!

The black jacket is another piece from the H&M sale which I picked up for £10 (sharing a coat hanger with a Primark jersey which proves I have clothes that aren't black). It hangs open the way I wear my much-loved leather jacket but I can wear it inside the office, which has already been a blessing on the aforementioned AC days.

I've recently reverted back to jeans after a spell wearing jeggings; I've always found that the jeans which fit my thighs are too big in the waist so the stretchy elasticated waistband of jeggings seemed like the ideal fix. Then I tried on Primark's Super High Waist Skinnies and I haven't worn anything else for months. I bought a pair with ripped knees which I've been living in but I'm growing tired of the jokes about my clothes having holes in them so I just picked up a normal pair, which are down from £10 to £8 at the moment for a little added bonus.

I bought a pair of round sunglasses in H&M a few years ago and they fast became my favourite shape so since Primark currently have them on sale for £1 I grabbed a spare pair. 

New in my nail polish box are two Barry M shades: Black Grape which is a dark blue Gelly polish and Crush which is a matte red. I really wanted a deep red colour and the photos of Crush look darker than it does in the bottle so hopefully it won't disappoint - plus it's matte which means it dries really quickly so there's a minimal window for me to smudge them. I've yet to try the Gelly polishes but I wear dark blue quite a lot so I'm looking forward to testing it soon. 

The third bottle in the photo is a True Brit shade called It's A Monthly Thing, which came in this month's Pink Parcel and was part of the reason why I reactivated by subscription. It's a super pale grey colour which looks really sophisticated and which I plan to use instead of white for a while.

I don't blog about it much but I have a little bit of an obsession with cute stationery. I have a pile of notebooks waiting to be used, a collection of different journals, a fascination with Paperchase and a fineliner selection spanning the whole rainbow. I picked up this huge set of fineliners in The Works for £6, mostly because it has such a great selection of pinks, including a peach shade which means I don't have to use brown and orange to colour skin when I'm doodling anymore. 

The glitter gel pens were £2 and they make me so nostalgic for a childhood where gel pens were a must-have item. I take them to work where I scrawl important Post-Its in sparkling cursive, the only downside is now all my colleagues want to use them too! Next up on the list: scented gel pens...

I usually pick up a magazine every time I go somewhere; as a kid I read Girl Talk and Top Of The Pops, then Kerrang! through my teenage years, but now I mostly go for fashion magazines - both the mainstream and alternative kind. I really like NME since they relaunched it as a free publication but sadly I live an hour away from the nearest stockist so I can only get it when I'm in HMV which means I miss out on most issues. 

I like Vanity Fair for the articles, they print content about old Hollywood and 20th century icons as well as current stars like Amy Schumer and it makes for great company on long journeys. I bought Pop because I missed the bus home one day and had some time to kill; I still haven't finished reading it because it's a few inches thick. I've been chasing the Fame Issue of Wonderland for months since it has great photos of Matty Healy in its pages, so I finally got that today and I'm looking forward to flicking through it because Wonderland is always great. 

Finally I ordered tmrw magazine online because their main feature is on The 1975 (Matty again...) and it has a homemade feel that I really like. I haven't read the cover feature yet but they've also published pieces on emo culture and the vinyl resurgence which sadly I found to be quite poorly written. The photos, however, are gorgeous - plus they sent me a couple of prints of The 1975 to sweeten the deal. 

Lastly, books and music. I've picked up a lot of 2nd hand books and vinyl lately but I'm just going to concentrate on the things I've bought as new. I read Less Than Zero earlier this year and absolutely loved it, so I was glad to find another Bret Easton Ellis book, The Rules Of Attraction, on sale in HMV. 

I enjoyed both Zayn's Mind Of Mine and Drake's Views when I streamed them so I picked up both of those, as well as Communion by Years & Years, which I haven't listened to all the way through yet but have high hopes for. I pre-ordered The F Bomb by Sonic Boom Six years ago (or does it just seem that long?) when they announced it on PledgeMusic and it finally arrived this week - it's been a while since I've really listened to them so hopefully the feminist-themed new material will kickstart the love I had for them in 2013. 

Finally, I used some of the vouchers I won from work to pick up the gorgeous vinyl edition of I Like It When You Sleep For You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware Of It by The 1975. It's my favourite album this year and I urge you to listen to it if you haven't yet, it combines so many genres and pretty sounds and feelings and I can't get enough. The HMV version of the album comes in a pastel pink slipcase which hides 2 discs of clear vinyl. 

A work wardrobe for Autumn

This Monday I'm making the transition from unemployed graduate to working woman as I start a full-time job. Being a t-shirts and skinny jeans sort of girl I didn't have much in my wardrobe that fits the 'business casual' dress code that I'll be following so I've been trawling the shops to find cute pieces to wear to the office. A lot of the styles that are in this season tend to go one way or the other: half of the tops are sleeveless and the other half are cosy jumpers, neither of which are really what I wanted, so I was starting to despair a little. Luckily I was able to catch the bus up to Edinburgh today though and God bless Primark for having plenty of cute blouses and tops for me to choose from! Here's what I picked up (excuse the lighting and the blurriness of some of my pictures!):

Red checked Peter Pan collar t-shirt, £6.00

I thought this top was really cute, it's more or less a t-shirt so it's comfortable but it has a sweet tartan print and a Peter Pan collar which I really like. This style is available in another print, black with white swallows, but I thought this was more colourful and sophisticated.

Double pocket shirt, £10.00

I wanted a white shirt but not one that made me feel like I was back in my school uniform, so this is perfect. I thought the black details were really striking and I really like the gold buttons. 

Supersoft V-neck jumper, £6.00

I grabbed this jumper in both this deep red and black when I first entered the store but in the fitting room I decided to go for the coloured version, which looks brighter in person. I like this colour which comes around every Autumn and a jumper like this will come in handy for commuting on colder days.

Cut & sew top in grey, £7.00

There are variations of this top in most of the high-street stores, often in baby pink which white lace (which Primark also has) but I'm still a teen goth at heart so I went for the grey version instead. The lace has really cute daisies and even though the top is sheer I think it'll be quite warm for winter.

Sleeveless lace Peter Pan collar blouse, £6.00

This is my favourite of all the pieces I picked up today, it's just so pretty! It's hard to see from the picture but the top is white lace, front and back, with another Peter Pan collar. I'm already thinking about getting camisoles in different colours to wear underneath this. 

Classic canvas black shoes and black slipper shoes, both £6.00

The Chuck Taylor style shoes aren't for work but I had an old New Look pair which I just had to throw out and I wear them a lot so I needed a replacement. They're half the price of my previous pair, which themselves are half the price of a Converse pair so I'm happy with the bargain.

I don't wear pumps at all because I find that they don't stay on my feet. Over the last few days I've tried shoes on in almost every store in town and I couldn't find a pair that fit me at all. These slipper-style shoes are the best that I've found so hopefully they'll serve me well - if not I'll be off to work in pretty dresses and chunky boots like my 90s faves from Beverly Hills 90210!

Stretch cami in black, £1.80, & long sleeve stretch scoop neck top in slate, £3.50

A lot of the tops above are sheer so I picked up a black camisole to wear underneath - I'd have taken a white one too but there was only one size left and sadly it wasn't mine. 

I bought another of these long-sleeve tops on a previous visit in another colour (purple with black stars printed on) and it's serving me well so I picked up another in this more neutral shade today. 

There are lots of colour options for both of these styles, as well as vests and t-shirts, so plenty to choose from!

Lace trim socks, £1.00; invisible socks (2 pairs), £1.50; cotton rich socks (5 pairs), £2.00

I know this looks like a lot of black socks but I swear they're all different. I bought the 'invisible' socks last time I was in and I wear them a lot so it turned out that 2 pairs wasn't enough.

I didn't have any regular black socks to wear with my transparent rain boots or on days when I don't want my socks to be obvious so I picked up a plain pack.
Finally I was passing a sale basket when I spotted the black-on-black lace trim socks that I've admired for a while so I treated myself since they were on sale. I love the juxtaposition of the feminine lace with studded creepers or other thick shoes but I only have lacy socks in pastel and white shades so now I have something more goth to wear too.

I also had a look in H&M but I didn't see any clothes that I loved, just these cute necklaces:

Choker, £1.99 and necklaces, £9.99

I like to wear necklaces but most of the ones I own are band merchandise and they're not really work-friendly. I really like the 90s chokers that are back in style just now, I've been wearing one of the woven ones almost every day for the last few weeks so I wanted a little more variety. The necklace on the left is velvet with a little gold charm, they also had styles with different colours and charms but this was my favourite.

There were a couple of the sets of necklaces to choose from and I almost went for the other one which had different charms but instead I opted for the one above. The five necklaces are all separate but they go together: there's a choker, a diamante-encrusted eye on a leather string, a tiny arrowhead on a silver chain, a piece of turquoise on a braided leather string and a gold peace sign on a long chain. The four pendants are all really dainty which should mean I can wear them with anything and in any combination, and I really like them all so I think they were a good buy.

NME, free; Harpers Bazaar US edition, £4.95

Finally, although they're not clothing, I also picked up these magazines today. I'm not a city girl so I've not been able to get my hands on NME since it became a free publication so I'm looking forward to seeing the changes that have taken place since I last bought it.

I like to flick through the proper fashion magazines and make collages with my favourite pictures so every time I'm in Edinburgh I go into Waterstones to look at their magazine section - the Princes St branch is the only one I've come across that stocks magazines and they have a selection that I can't find anywhere else. They didn't have US Vogue, which I like at this time of year because it often has 1000 pages, so I went for Harpers Bazaar instead which is also thick with gorgeous pictures... plus it mentioned Kendall & Kylie on the cover and I unashamedly keep up with the Kardashians. I'm looking forward to flicking through both of these in bed later.

So now I think I have everything I need to start work next week, I'm excited about starting a new adventure especially after having been largely inactive since I finished Uni. Hopefully I'll still have time to blog, but if not at least you know I'll be well-dressed!

A Glasgow shopping trip

A few weeks back I headed up to Glasgow, where my brother now lives, for a change of scenery from the small town where I live. My main cause for a visit was to check out one of Glasgow's museums, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't looking forward to a little retail therapy while I was in the big city. 

We ended up visiting the Glasgow Museum of Modern Art because it was the most central and after a long morning of buses and trains I just didn't fancy making the trip up to the far more exciting sounding Kelvingrove museum, which is at the top of a very long street. Outside the Modern Art museum is a statue which has become modern art itself; the Duke Of Wellington sitting proud on his horse outside the museum acquired a traffic cone hat somewhere around the 1980s and every time the council remove the cone another soon appears in its place. The cone-wearing statue has become as iconic to Glasgow as the Castle is to Edinburgh! 

The museum itself was far less exciting that I'd hoped it would be, perhaps I'm just not interested in modern art but there was nothing particularly memorable about any of the displays. One was focused on women's art and I found it the most compelling although most of it was, if I'm being honest, rather dull. The main gallery on the ground floor had been taken over by a moving image exhibit which isn't my thing so we quickly abandoned the gallery and headed for the shops.

As you can see from the above Instagram pic the shops suited me better than the art gallery did and I had a very successful trip! I bought a handful of CDs and DVDs in Cex, including 3 movies I loved that I plan to talk about in later blogs (Chappie, Spring Breakers and Pride), and also managed to fit in a Primark shop to pick up a few things I'd been after for a while before I headed home on Friday.

Leather (sort of) jacket, £14

I've wanted a leather jacket for a very long time, probably since I started listening to Green Day and saw Billie Joe Armstrong in one (looking back, Billie Joe has been the inspiration between a lot of my fashion choices, from Converse All-Stars and brothel creepers to black skinny jeans!), but I've never actually owned one until now. At that price it obviously isn't real leather but I'm happy to have both a lower price tag and an animal-friendly garment. I've worn it a few times since I brought it home and I'm really happy with it so I'm really glad I found it in the store!

Indigo Denim Shorts, £3.90

Shorts are one of my wardrobe staples and Primark have pairs in pretty much every colour you can imagine. When I was in store their basic shorts were reduced from £5 to £3.90 so I tried on these and a black pair, but decided to buy the classic blue denim. They're comfortable and not too short; I think they're just as good as the New Look shorts I've been wearing which cost twice as much while on sale. 

Transparent Rain Boots, £10 (and socks, £2.50)

You might remember seeing these boots on my wishlist a few posts back, so you can imagine my delight when I walked into Primark and found the exact pair that I was looking for. eBay has these boots with soles in all colours of the rainbow but I couldn't find a black pair online, and now I guess it's because Primark bought them all up (they're also selling the peachy-pink soles but I thought black would be more versatile). I'm lucky enough not to have had to venture out in heavy rain yet so I haven't actually worn these boots outside,but hopefully they'll be comfortable and waterproof. Either way, it's saved me paying twice the Primark price to have them shipped from China so I'm pretty pleased, I just hope their availability doesn't lead to everyone I know buying them too! Oh, and of course since they're transparent I had to buy a pack of socks in all my favourite colours to wear under them. 

Matte Top Coat nail polish, £1

I've been after some matte polish for a while and I was excited to see that Primark were selling bottles for only £1 so I bought one, not sure whether it would actually work. As you can hopefully see from the above photo of my stubby fingers, it didn't work at all on the silver polish I was wearing - and this was with two coats of the matte polish. It did leave little bubbles on top of my nails but they were as shiny as ever and the thickness of the polish made it chip off really easily. It also has a really weird smell, almost fruity but still artificial and chemical, which I didn't like at all. On the upside it dries really quickly which is ideal for someone like me who constantly smudges my nails, but the finish isn't nearly as attractive as with a fast-drying top coat. I'll try it out with other polishes to see if it has a different effect but in future if I want matte nails I think I'll stick to the Barry M black matte polish I have, or try a more trusted brand.

Although it's definitely not from Primark, you might have noticed in the above photo that the Fashion Conscious Clothing t-shirt that I included on my last wishlist is now in my possession - the package was waiting for me when I got back from Glasgow. I've had it on a couple of times and I love it, plus it was posted really quickly, so if you haven't checked them out yet please do, I can't fault them!