Recommended: Prairie Charms

Another 'Recommended' post! This time from Prairie Charms.

I loves me a charm bracelet. I have a whole jewellery box full of bracelets and beaded knick knacks in my bedroom. Prairie Charms are a small independent store that sell charming beaded bracelets, friendship wraps and most recently brooches and pins. Each piece is quirky, beautifully made and the best part about them is that they donate 10% of proceeds go to Great Ormond Street Hospital's 'Kiss It Better' campaign. 

So pretty bracelets AND giving a hand to charity. Brilliant, right? 

As part of Project Blogger, I picked out their 'Life is better when you're laughing' bracelet*. I was really drawn to the little gold leaf charms circling the bracelet and the fact that it's neutral colour will go with pretty much everything in my wardrobe. And another plus? It fits so well with my standard set of everyday bracelets too!

[Beaded bracelets assorted from New Look, Miss Selfridge and Prairie Charms]

Keep on wishing...

R.xoxo

*disclaimer: Bracelet was partially compensated, with 50% discount, as part of Project Blogger. Read more about it here. 

This Week...

What I wore: Top [Primark], Skirt [H&M], Sandals & belt [New Look], Necklace [Accessorize]

- Teen Choice Award red carpet blogging = standard - Sunshine! - Bright yellow hues - Afternoon spent boating at my friend's house - Beautiful view, beautiful day - Hot honey, lemon & orange - Working in my garden has it's advantages - My sister was watching Glee clips on her Wii (Woop for the Warblers) - Fringe is annoying, but good excuse for a pretty hair tie - Queen Rowling at the Olympic opening ceremony - My favourite part of the whole night - Exciting packages! - Beautiful bracelet from Prairie Charms - Demolishing pancakes this morning - Mum and sis found old family photos, definitely amusing! -

Follow me on Instragram [@rcagz] for my photo diary

Soundtrack: Muse - Survival

To me this week felt kind of unproductive, in a nice way, but I'm surprised how much actually happened. It kicked off getting back into a good old red carpet round up [check out the post here], is it bad I'm thirsting for January award show season already? 

The sunshine has been absolutely blissful this week as Summer seemed to finally arrive here in the UK. I spent Monday at my friend's house, which backs onto the river, and we spent a lazy afternoon drifting on a dingy. Despite having to get some boring admin-y type stuff done I've tried to spend as much of it outside, I even forwent my bus ride and walked to work instead [albeit in 30 degree heat at 1pm in the afternoon, wasn't the best plan in the world]. The forecast isn't looking great so I'm glad I got some rays before the gloom and doom of typical British rain returns. 

Thanks to the BBC coverage I've also been completely suckered into the Olympics again. The last time this happened I'd just finished my GCSE's and spent most of my time glued to the TV screen watching pretty much every event. But how good was the Opening Ceremony?! Danny Boyle had me won over when the Queen parachuted out of a helicopter with James Bond. Pretty much sums up the eccentricity of us Brits in a nutshell doesn't it. It's also gotten me really excited about heading to watch the Paralympic Games at the end of August. Can't wait to see the Stadium for myself. 

Outside of the games I received my lovely bracelet from Prairie Charms, as part of Project Blogger. I'm probably aiming to make a full post about it this week, so keep an eye out!

There's also two very exciting things coming up for me this week!

The first is participating in Camp Nanowrimo. For those who don't know the aim of Camp Nano is to pen a 50k novel in a month. Sounds hard but I did their November event for the first time last year and went over target! I'm really looking forward to writing my August novel. The idea and characters haven been rooted in my head for the past few weeks so it'll be good to get it all out on paper. 

The second is that as of this Wednesday I'll be starting my 12 month work placement, as part of my Uni course. I'm super excited and very nervous but hopefully it should be great experience to work in a full time marketing job for a year. This new routine may also mean a little shake up of my blog schedule, as well as what I blog about. But it does give a great opportunity to wade into the world of professional work wear ;) 

Keep on wishing...

R.xoxo

Wishlist Item[s]...Let The Games Begin!

Gold Rings [£43.21 from Etsy]

Silver Necklace [17.02 from Etsy]

Bronze Earrings [£5.24 from Etsy]

So the games begin (or have already begun depending on what sports you're personally watching] tonight at the Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games. With most people focusing on the actual fashion trends I thought I'd take some inspiration from the medals the athletes are pining after. After browsing Etsy for a while I've settled on these three pieces. All three are a bit different and I've tried to keep in the spirit of the games with the 'hoop' theme. 

So I'm pretty pumped to watch the opening ceremony tonight and hoping Team GB & my ethnic country, the Philippines, can bring home some medals this year!

What about you guys? Excited about the games? Or excited to get them over and done with?

Keep on wishing...

R.xoxo

Teen Choice Awards 2012: Red Carpet Fashion Round Up

Pretty much the award show of the Summer is the Teen Choice Awards, held in L.A. last Sunday night. It was a barrage of bright colours, beaming sunshine and fresh looks on the purple carpet this year...

Glee's shining star, Lea Michele, definitely caught the eye of many in a glittering Atelier Versace mini. She's pulled this kind of look off before, but what really made me put her up for Best Dressed was her carefree Summer styling. I love her slightly lighter wavy locks [does this bode a hair change for a Ms Rachel Berry too?] plus her softer make up. For the first time I feel like she isn't trying too hard to impress and it works. 

Tied for Best Dressed with Ms Michele is relative newcomer to the red carpet, Holland Roden. I was pleasantly surprised by her vintage inspired look and fell pretty hard for this Alice + Olivia dress. Thought the print is very Autumnal, lighter styling helps keep this Summer event appropriate. 

This Week...

What I wore: Top [River Island], Jeans [Primark], Brogues, ring & necklace [New Look]

- Finally worked my way through Avatar: Legend of Korra - Had a bit of a freak out about Team Starkid's AVP3D:AVSY announcement - Loooong hair - Waiting to start work - Wednesday screening of Magic Mike - Boredom on the train - Krispy Creme with my friend Roushie - New shoes from TopShop! - Promising weather this week - 

Follow me on Instragram [@rcagz] for my photo diary

Soundtrack: KickthePJ - Tree Hugger [cover]

It seems like such a British thing to start talking about the weather right? But I definitely think the rain brought on the cold I've been fighting for the past week [see nothing good comes from bad weather!!]. I spent most of the week either working or sitting in my room with meds and hot honey/lemon drinks watching epic amounts of YouTube videos. Thankfully Summer seems to have reared it's lovely head just in time for my last week before I start my 12 month work placement. I'm super excited, albeit a little gutted I'm missing so much Summer. I'm starting to build up my work wardrobe, very slowly, and finally got my first pair of decent work shoes from TopShop. They were originally £50 but had gone all the way down to £15...BARGAIN! 

As for blogging shenanigans, I'm super gutted I couldn't make the Blogger's picnic in London yesterday. I was spying on people's Instagram photos for the majority of the day, looks like everyone had a great time. 

I may be making a few changes here and there on this blog. Nothing major! Most likely types of blogging content and my style of 'This Week' post, as I'll be working 9-5 in professional work wear for a year, there may not be so many outfits to shoot. Adjusting my blogging schedule and style to fit around work is certainly   going to be a challenge that I'm excited to take on! But never fear, the TCA's are on tonight so it's business as usual red carpet blogging/tweeting outfit opinions at 2am for now ;)

Keep on wishing...

R.xoxo

Hair Inspiration: The Faux Bob

[Images via Zimbio 1 & 2]

Something a little different! 

You guys should know by now that I can't resist a big ol' movie premiere. So when the cast of the Dark Knight Rises arrived in London this week, I was on hitting up my favourite gossip sites to get a glimpse of the red carpet style. But whilst everyone was gawping at Anne Hathaway her lovely glittering gown, I took note of the gorgeous Marion Cotillard. Not only was her styling choices on point, but her hairstyle really caught my attention. 

Marion usually sports long dark locks either loose or swept up into a chignon, but she went for volume in an amazing faux bob. 

If you remember, I made the New Year's Resolution to experiment with my hairstyles and this one seems like one for me to try out now that my hair's grown out.

[Images sourced via Pinterest]

The faux bob is a surprisingly popular style on the red carpet. Normally curled and paired with retro styling [a la Taylor Swift] or a messy alternative to the more formal up-do. It's perfect for those who are longing to try out the shorter hairstyle but aren't quite brave enough to go for the chop yet!

I've browsed around YouTube for a while for a decent tutorial and have embedded two of my favourites, one for a more 'everyday' look and the other for nights out. 

So what do you think? Will you be giving this look a go?

Keep on wishing...

R.xoxo

Wishlist Item[s]...Comic-al Jumpers

'Ka-Pow' Pullover & 'The Break Up' Sweater

by 3.1 Philip Lim

From Shopbop & Net-A-Porter

[Images sourced via Pinterest, Karen Gillan Comic Con photo:via Zimbio]

After a weekend of watching the goings on at San Diego Comic Con from my computer screen and getting pretty obsessed with the new The Amazing Spiderman film, the lure of the nerdy comic book world has definitely seeped onto my fashion blog. I completely fell for Karen Gillan's 3.1 Philip Lim jumper that she wore for the Dr Who panel. I knew as soon as I saw it I had to go on the search for more. I love 'The Break Up' design too and have actually owned a similar t-shirt in the past. Both of these are wonderfully quirky and perfect for slouching around...reading comic books of course! 

Keep on wishing...

R.xoxo

This Week...

15.07.2012

What I wore: Cardigan, brogues, ring & jeggings [New Look], Top [Zara], Necklace [Accessorize]

- Finishes off 'Dash & Lily's Book of Dares' by David Levithan & Rachel Cohn - Me & my friend's traditional Filipino outfits - Dancing at our town's local Cultural Festival - Chinese dragon - Muddy boots - Watching some of the other performers - RAIN! =( - Watched The Amazing Spiderman in 3D - Found this amusing, on a poster for Magic Mike - Lunchtime reading - Started reading Elegance by Kathleen Tessaro - Painting my nails...- The finished product - Movie day & pizza with friends - Lunch break at work - 

Follow me on Instagram @rcagz for my photo diary

Soundtrack: Newsies Original Broadway Cast - Carrying the banner

Despite the absolutely horrendous weather here in the UK, I've had a pretty good week. As I said in my last post I was at my town's local Cultural Mela Festival, helping out with the traditional Filipino dance my mum organised. The whole day was great even if it did seem to downpour every other hour and I did manage to get a little sickly towards the end. 

The rest of the week has been spent getting back to reading and planning my Camp Nano novel, as well as obsessively geeking out over The Amazing Spiderman, the Newsies soundtrack and Comic Con spoilers for Glee and Dr Who. I did have some friend's over on Friday who I used to do musical theatre with, it was so nice just catching up with all the drama and generally pigging out over horror films and RENT. 

I also tried out my Models Own Nail art pens, which I'm terrible at using at the moment. Definitely need to learn how to have steady hands.

I'm also on my two week countdown till my placement starts. I'm generally really excited but nerves really hit me the other day and I really need to get organising travel, admin and a working wardrobe too. 

Finally, I've also now have a page if you're interested in PR/Ad spots on my blog. It's the tab at the top of the page, just send me over an email if you're interested. 

Keep on wishing...

R.xoxo

Lookbook spotlight: Free People July 2012 Catalogue

I don't know about you but I adore Free People's lookbooks. Always wonderfully whimsical and a true free spirit of a brand, I fell hard for their spread in their July catalogue. It also helped that they showcases one of my girl model crushes Karlie Kloss and the ethereal looking Aline Weber. 

There's almost an Alice in Wonderland quality to the photos [shot by Chadwick Tyler], while a clear contrast of light and dark between the models. 

And in terms of actual looks I'm loving both the pretty pleated details on the dresses and skirts, as well as the harder edges of the tough looking denim pieces. 

Check out the lookbook in detail at Fashion Gone Rogue.

[All photos via Fashion Gone Rogue] 

What do you think about the collection/lookbook?

Keep on wishing...

R.xoxo

Wear the runway trend now...Fall Couture 2012 Gothic Glamour

[All images via Style.com 1.2.3.4.5]

I must be under the influence of this truly miserable rainy British weather but I'm sat here wishing it was Autumn already. Luckily for me fashion in always forward thinking and the Fall Couture 2012 collections were provided some much needed inspiration. 

Couture is always opulent and wonderfully dramatic but that doesn't mean elements can't be incorporated into your wardrobe. A running theme from this year's collections were one of Gothic Glamour. Think lace, velvet and satin all steeped in black, this time with a a hint of Evil Queen from Snow White. 

Below are some of my picks from around the web to help you take on the look now. 

[John Lewis Top, Dorothy Perkins Skirt, Forever 21 Necklace, Urban Outfitters EarringsTopShop Shorts, Oasis Top, Wildfox Dress]

Keep on wishing...

R.xoxo