still into you

 

 

I had a half day on Thursday, and so after getting sushi (favourite lunch ever) I went to Camden with a few of my friends and had my first ever bubble tea, which was really weird but really nice at the same time...it's like iced tea with little bubbles of flavoured juice at the bottom, though you can get chewy bubbles as well (but they were kind of slimy). I then had a day off on Friday, and after geography, art homework, cycling and baking cakes with my friends I went to see Paramore at Wembley arena. I discovered them back in 2008/09 when I was a huge fan of the Twilight series (they have two songs, decode and I caught myself on the first film's soundtrack) and since then have been a religious follower of everything they have done. I  love their light-hearted yet punk vibe and I would genuinely give my right arm to be Hayley Williams. She is my ultimate idol, although I love the whole band (my friend once pretended she had got Taylor York (the guitarist) to write me a birthday card). They're a pretty cool bunch and along with being fantastic musicians, have a great set of moral values - think vegetarian, vegan, anti-sexism and all that jazz. I have been waiting to see them for forever, and so I went full out and even wore my glasses to go in (despite having poor eyesight I never wear my glasses even though it would make my life 100 times easier).

 

 

 

 

 

 

I wore my pink granny glasses from Camden Market, Beyond Retro shirt and belt, Urban Outfitters silver crop top and socks, Rokit shorts, and boots from Brighton. All of my jewellery is second-hand from my mum (although the necklace is from Urban Outfitters). Despite looking slightly old-womanish I was pretty comfortable and was perfectly able to jump and dance all over the place, as I tend to do quite frequently at concerts. I was surprised by how laid-back everyone was - walking in, I didn't feel at all judged or intimidated by fellow fans as I have done at past concerts (seriously, at Green Day I could FEEL the eyes burning into my back) instead everyone was in really good spirits and seemed genuinely excited to see the show. On a side note, Paramore have some seriously well-dressed fans, and it was with great restraint (and the lack of my good camera) that I didn't ask everyone for photographs of what they were wearing.

 

 

 

 

(all images from punktastic)

The concert itself was absolutely phenomenal - they seemed to put absolutely 110% into their performance; running, jumping and dancing along whilst playing, and still managing to sound even better than on record. Hayley's vocals were insane, and I was completely blown away by her ability to belt out hit after hit with so much power and feeling, whilst really moving around and dancing like the rest of us. I was out of breath and hoarse after about three songs in, but they carried on for a good two hours at least. The two supporting acts (pictured below) were also really good...Eliza and the Bear came out first, and they played such a fantastic set it didn't matter that we didn't really know any of their music. They really got the crowd going and were by far the best supporting act I have seen for any band or artist. Charli XCX came on after them, and although she did put on a good show, her set sort of fell on deaf ears. We weren't sure who she was until she came out with 'I don't care' halfway through the set, at which point everyone sat up and started paying attention again. I liked her music and I can't fault her talent or performance, I just think it was a shame she didn't start with the song that we all knew. There is something so great about seeing a band live - nothing beats singing along to your favourite songs with the people that wrote them. I think all three acts were really good, and I had an amazing evening. (Well worth the four year wait to see them!)

 

 

 

I hope you are all having a good week! You can find out more about Paramore here, Eliza and the Bear here, and Charli XCX here. (Check them all out, they're fabulous!)

 

ellie xo

I feel the streets are all pulling me down

 

 

 

 

 

 

(shirt- to be worn again (in Brighton), skirt- Cha Cha Cha Vintage, Flowers in my hair from Hollie (I will send you that care package! I will!) Socks & shoes from Topshop)

 

Hello again. I just thought I'd post a few photos I took on Sunday whilst out on a last-minute shopping trip (I bought socks). I've been craving everything and anything pastel-coloured recently...I've always admired people like Sinead who manage to look perfectly cute seemingly 24/7, however I have this insatiable craving to go teen witch-y and gothic sometimes that prevents me from following my all-pastel dreams.
London Fashion Week has been and gone...and god how I wish I had been there. I am determined to get in next time (even if it means camping out in the cold and rain). Meadham Kirchhoff and Sister by Sibling were two of my favourites but all of the new collections looked fabulous...and god I am so excited for this oversized coat thing that seems to be a thing all of a sudden. Maybe big hand-me-downs will finally not have to be an embarrassment to wear after all. (I am dying for the dusty pink number by Topshop Unique.)
I hope you are all having a good week,

ellie xo

that's magic in a cheetah print coat

 

Hello again. I suppose I better start with an apology for not posting in a week - for some unknown reason I have suddenly become inundated with homework from all of my lessons which has eaten up all of my free time (especially since it took my friend and I about four hours to do one biology exam question because we were too busy trying to make temporary tattoo sleeves on ourselves with transfers). I am, however, not working right now and so thought it was a good opportunity to sit down and actually blog for once in my seemingly-but-not-actually busy life.

 

Last Saturday I discovered Cha Cha Cha Vintage whilst walking through a small local fair that was going on, and couldn't help popping back this morning to arrange a little photoshoot for this blog. I instantly fell in love with the huge collection of dresses, skirts, shoes, and retro memorabilia which decorates the shop's interior, and ended up buying the cutest 80's patchwork skirt and some postcards for my wall/journal (I haven't decided what I want to do with them yet). Everything was very well priced and in perfect condition, and it was only with great restraint that I only walked away with one piece of clothing (if money was no obstacle I would have purchased the entire shop). The owner was so lovely too, and didn't mind me pottering about in the background taking odd pictures every now and again.

 

 

 

 

If you are ever around the muswell hill area, I totally recommend you check out Cha Cha Cha, simply as it is just so retro and fabulous and is like stepping into a time capsule. I'll leave their links at the end of this post.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I got the cutest patchwork denim skirt and two postcards. I will never say no to a bit of 80's style and I've been wanting a denim skirt for ages, so this is the perfect combination.

After my trip to Cha Cha Cha, I went on a bit of a charity shop crawl and spent a good half hour or so buying £3 shirts and the like, before heading off shopping in Soho, Oxford Street and Covent Garden. I needed to get a few bits for my geography field trip on monday (aka I needed toothpaste) and managed to persuade my parents to drive me down to central London for the afternoon. I had a good shop in Beyond Retro and Rokit, and managed to get some really gorgeous things that I will photograph and show you all later in the week. We then stopped in my favourite café in Berwick Street. It has the biggest selection of herbal teas, and they're all laid out for you to smell them before you decide which one you'd like to have.

 

(painting on a wall that I liked)

 

(stairs in the café...I loved the colours. So 70s and autumnal)

 

(the choice of tea is incredible...I had a Jasmine and Ginger White Tea, and am intent on trying as many as humanly possible)

 

 

I hope you are all having a good weekend...I'm off on a field trip to Surrey on monday (queue 34 disposable photos of me looking cold) but will be back (I mean it this time!) with another post before the week is out.

 

ellie xo

 

CHECK OUT CHA CHA CHA VINTAGE: Twitter: @chachachavintag, Facebook: Cha Cha Cha Vintage.



it was a promise of summer

 

 







Hi guys! I know my last post was all writing so I thought I'd try and make up for it today with some pictures from a shoot I did whilst on holiday in France. The fields around us were full of bright yellow sunflowers, and I couldn't help dragging the camera down to one of the country roads and taking a few photos for you guys. I'm wearing levi shorts, a vest from the east end thrift store, glasses from H&M, shoes from office and a shirt/dress from rokit.
I started back at school on Wednesday (sigh) and am now really missing summer...sitting by the pool drinking peach ice tea, strolling through antique markets, going on evening bike rides...it feels like such a long time ago, when in reality it has only been two weeks since we came home. Time flies, eh?
I want to apologise again for the layout of my page at the moment...I just found trying to keep my posts matching my background etc way too stressful and so thought I'd try to make my blog as minimalist as possible so I can focus on content instead. I know it looks plain and ugly but stick with it, hopefully I might sort it out sometime. I hope you are all having a good start back at school...I've just got my new planner and am dying to decorate it (I'm saving space for Rookie yearbook 2 stickers) and so if anyone has any cool personalised notebooks/folders they want to show me for inspiration that would be fabulous (I will post them on my blog and link them if I get a few)

ellie xo

(p.s I have more posts lined up so I will be back asap!)

Lately

Hi everyone. I've never done a text post on here before, but I feel like a have a lot to say before summer ends and I have to get back into some kind of routine (instead of hanging out with friends and watching movies 24/7 like I have all summer)

Basically, I've recently felt like I've kind of lost control with this blog and what I want it to be. I started writing in November last year with the clear goal of being a 'fashion blogger'...however I wasn't really sure at the time exactly what that was, so for a few months ended up just sort of floating around the blogosphere posting odd little outfit posts every now and again. I then began to properly read other teen blogs, and realised it was that sort of thing I wanted to do, more of an online journal rather than just posting what I was wearing. I then began to post more inspiration with my outfit posts, show my art and collages, and experiment with film photography, and my blog kind of became what it is today. I met other bloggers, and started getting more attention on my page...and it felt like I had finally started to achieve my original goal.

However, I realised I had totally lost sight of what my 'goal' even was...I have been trying so hard to shape and squeeze this blog into a particular 'theme' and 'category' that I have neglected the actual content of my posts, and instead been focusing more on the layout of my blog or how many page views I get per day. This desperation to have the perfect blog and have constant approval of my work has had nothing but a negative impact on my attitude towards the things I enjoy, like blogging, and so I have come to the conclusion that I need to sort myself out once and for all before I continue being such a try-hard (and feeling like a fraud).

Not much is going to change if I'm honest...I'm still going to post outfits. They still probably won't be that great. I'm just going to try and post more of what I want to post, and not what I think other people want me to post. I changed my layout back to a very plain affair with this in mind; I want to post whatever I want to share with you guys without worrying that the pictures do not colour-match with my background or something. I want this blog to get bigger and better because people are enjoying what I do, whatever that is. I hope you guys understand, although I don't think you'll mind too much as I'm not really doing anything drastic. I'm just going to start posting more frequently and more calmly, without worrying about what sort of reaction what I post will get. I'm not going to care any less about the content - if anything, my content should improve, as I'm trying to focus more on what I post rather than when I post or how many people will comment on it.

I'm going back to school tomorrow, and hopefully will begin balancing blogging and homework much more effectively than I have done in the past. I also hope to play around with photography more and do some shoots with other bloggers, and improve the quality of my posts as well as hopefully doing more work in other corners of the internet (I contribute towards the wandering collective and purr mag, and want to start an etsy).

So yeah. I just had to get that off my chest, and get you all up to date with where I am.

Thanks for reading (and sticking around)

ellie xo

hey, must be a devil between us

 

 

Hi guys! It seems like forever since I actually got to sit and write out a proper post for you all...this summer has been so busy, but I'm all yours now for the foreseeable future so you never know, my punctuality might improve (I can dream right?) Anyway, after an incredibly hectic three weeks, my family and I went off to our annual summer holiday to south-west france for two weeks. For some unknown reason, this year was the first year I've ever actually needed a holiday...before, I've always just happily plodded along enjoying the sunshine, but this time I really had to just take my makeup off, slap on some sunscreen (factor 50 obviously...being a redhead and all) grab a book and just sit doing nothing. I've never enjoyed doing nothing before, but sitting in 30 degrees by the pool drinking sugar-free peach ice tea with a gorgeous view of the sunflower fields I felt happier and more content than I have done in years. Sometimes you really just need a break.

 

 

 

There is a monthly Saturday morning antique fair in the town near the house we were staying in, and so obviously I spent the whole morning trawling through all the gorgeous bric-a-brac and taking pictures of my favourite stalls and displays. Everything was so beautiful, and pretty much all in exquisite condition. Among lopsided baby dolls, fading comic books, ice skates and more I found probably the best thing I have ever come across in a market: a white porcelain jar about half a hand in height, with pale pink and green painted flowers decorating the front, where in black paint it said quite clearly 'Cocaine.' A cocaine jar. How fantastic is that?! You never find things like that in England. And before you get the wrong idea, I don't have an obsession with drug memorabilia or anything, I just love things like that that are so pretty and then have something not traditionally 'pretty' like cocaine written across the front. That and the fact it would make a fantastic pot to put sherbet or tic tacs in...just to scare the parents, you know the deal.

 

 

I spent basically my entire holiday in these short dungarees from Beyond Retro, which I cut into a dress shortly before I left. They are the comfiest things and so easy to wear as there is literally nothing they won't go over. My top is from the east end thrift store, and so ended up costing me less than a pound. Score.

In other news, I read five books whilst I was away: Other Voices Other Rooms, Lolita, A Clockwork Orange, The Catcher in the Rye and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. All five were fantastic (Lolita and OFOTCN especially) and reading that many was definitely an achievement for me (I used to read about three books per day but recently have barely managed to concentrate on one paragraph, let alone a whole novel) I'm gradually becoming a bookworm again and I love it.

 

 

On a bit of a sidenote, I was wondering if I could ask your opinions on what I should do for my etsy. I've been wanted to set one up for ages just to sell some of my clothes and little crafty things, however I haven't decided on what to make. I can do hand-painted or illustrated prints and postcards, photograph postcards/prints (my own photography), flower crowns or quirky pins and badges...what sort of things out of that list would you prefer me to sell? Or do you have any other suggestions?

 

ellie xo

 

REALLY COOL NOTE - One of my favourite vintage stores Beyond Retro asked me to do a summer edit for their website, and it is up on their blog now. I would totally love if you could check it out - I really enjoyed putting it together and their clothes are amazing (and really well-priced). Thanks!

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