So, lately I’ve been trying to gather up a few new things for summer, in particular light dresses, shorts and skirts, but I can’t find anything I like that actually looks good on me! I’ve looked in many different places, from mall stores to Salvation Army to high street fashion to more ‘up market’ thrift stores and online. Still, nada.

I guess I’m just having a little rant because I love clothes and I love dresses especially, but I do not like what I am seeing. I would love to be able to make exactly what I want, but once the patterns and fabric are bought it often ends up being more costly, and for a piece that may not, in the end, look that great on.

ANYWAY, on the topic of summery clothing, what are some of your favourite things to wear during the warmer months?

I am considering a change but I can’t decide on which I like best, so I need your help. Please vote on the poll below!

ETA Note: You can’t vote directly from Google Reader (not sure about other RSS readers), so go direct to the page. Sorry about that!

Thanks a bunch. ♥

Yesterday I ventured back to the Nike outlet store to get the right shoe, literally. My eldest sister actually called them after I did and tried to get them to send the correct shoe to me because it never should have happened in the first place and was technically more their fault than mine. But unfortunately I would have had to courier one shoe to them, then they would send the right one back to me and reinburse me for the trouble/postage. Or I could just go back to the store. I opted to go back in order to ensure I actually did get the correct shoe and to save the time and hassle of couriering. They gave me a 50% discount on any purchase I made while I was there, so I grabbed a sports bra which I needed anyway.

While I was at the mall I couldn’t help myself. I went back and got the creepy bride T.U.K. shoes from WildPair. Then I proceeded to prance around the supermarket wearing them. They are a hot pair of heels, let me tell you. No more shopping for me for awhile!

Speaking of shopping though, here’s a few photos of some recent purchases! LOL

Scarf, bought from uni market.

Badges, also from uni market.

Matryoshka doll, bought a few weeks ago.

Today I opted to skip my two classes and stay home after a restless night made worse by one of the cats howling for not apparent reason, for ages, in the middle of the night. Probably not the best idea on my part, but I could not face that damn bus as that time of the morning, feeling like the zombie I did. Now I shall go and do my statistics assignment!

As agonising as it is for me to admit when I’ve done something wonderfully stupid, I am going to admit it anyway, instead of entirely blaming it on other people.

Last week I decided I needed a new pair of gym sneakers and today, after having looked in the usual stores at my local mall, I went to an outlet mall 30 minutes from my house in order to hopefully find a bargain. After looking in the Addidas and New Balance stores with no luck, I finally found myself in the Nike store (did you know their logo has a name? It’s called a Swoosh). I walked past the high-tops that make feet look swollen (what? Those shoes have a lot of puff!) and saw what I was looking for: a great pair of good-looking, nicely priced crosstrainers (Lunarlite Speed model, if you must know). But were they comfortable?

Oh yes, yes they were. And, remarkably, the white silver ones were oh-so-much comfier than the white and blue pair! Who would have thought. It took me all of 5 seconds to make up my mind about purchasing. But wait, is that a slight mark on that beautiful pair of size 9s? Hm, no thank you very much, must change the pair. So, I get another size 9 box, checked the sizing of one shoe, decided all is well and went to the cashier.

The cashier. You either get a good one or a bad one. She was friendly enough, but the poor dear wasn’t able to tell if the shoes actually had a security tag on them or not and had to walk the box through the front doors’ security system in order to check. No beeping, thus I was safe from the embarrassment of setting alarms off as I left. Unfortunately our dear cashier neglected to check the sizing of the shoes, something I am of the opinion should be mandatory as a cashier in a store that sells shoes, even if the customer has assured them that they are indeed the size-x he or she is after.

No matter, I am oblivious. It is horribly WARM in this store. I am beginning to sweat. Maybe even smell a bit. Must leave quickly and go to the part of the mall where the air conditioning appears to working properly. So, shoes are paid for, cashier thanked, assured another employee for the 4th time that, no, I really didn’t want to get another pair of shoes for half price. I left store and trotted off to find some food with my sister, shopping complete and, I thought, successful.

I come home, excited to look at my new purchases, especially my gym shoes which I plan on wearing tomorrow for my workout. I even want to take a photo of them so I can upload it to my Flickr and share them on my blog, and maybe Twitter, Facebook and LiveJournal, too! I finish tying the laces up when it suddenly dawns on me… Are these….are these shoes two left shoes?

Hang on a minute, are they two left shoes and….different sizes? I hastily check the sizing in each shoe and find that, indeed, no only are they two left shoes, they are two completely different sizes. One size is a 9, the other is an 8. Oh shit. Ohshitohshitohshit. There is no way I’m going to be able to go back to the mall today to change them, so no new shoes for my workout tomorrow.

Now I’m sitting here, after having called the store in order to see if they could send the right pair to my local Nike store, but they are unable to. Something about them being an outlet store and my local one not. Fair enough. But now I have to go back there tomorrow, inconveniencing my mum because I can’t legally drive myself.

I could very easily blame it all on the cashier who didn’t check the sizing. Surely, if she had, she would have noticed they were different and two left shoes, thus avoiding this whole situation to begin with. But I am not going down that path, I am admitting that I should have checked thoroughly. After all, if I had noticed a mark on one shoe, I should be vigilant enough to notice two left shoes and two different sizes. I screwed up; I was an ‘unengaged consumer’. Now I have a pair of useless gym shoes. Pretty yes, but useless.

I must note, however, that my shopping adventures weren’t completely unsuccessful. I did pay a visit to Wild Pair shoe store where I found the most fantastic range of shoes: T.U.K Shoes. At first I wanted to get the pair of heels with the creepy bride on them, but decided on the cupcake wedges. I do plan on going back though…and also raiding their online store.

Just got back for a wee shopping expidition. There are two birthdays next week, one of which is my dear cousin’s 21st! Sadly, I only got one gift as I couldn’t decide on what to get the other person. However, I did reward myself with a few things after my horribly hectic week! Because beauty products make me happy, as ridiculous as that sounds.

Don’t you just love moustaches? Especially pink ones?

So, clockwise we have: Schwarzkopf Hair Repair leave-in conditioner for coloured hair, L’Oreal Casting Creme Gloss in ‘Iced Chocolate’, Revlon Beyond Natural primer, Revlon PhotoReady foundation in ‘Shell’ and Studex gold studs with a blue stone.

After I had had enough of shopping (yes, there is a limit for me) I thought I might catch a movie, but Dear John, the one I wanted to see, isn’t showing until late afternoon. Poopy!

Anyway, here are a couple of web cam shots of Tyler and I. He was four months yesterday! I love Fridays because it’s my day off uni and my mum looks after Ty, so I get to play with him.

He’s the best monkey, ever!

I’ve developed quite a thing for nail polish over the last few months and today I added to my collection after raiding the Rimmel stand in Kmart. Not only is Rimmel cheap in comparison to other brands, but I actually find their varnishes pretty good quality. Generally better than the more expensive ones, in fact.

The beigey-bronze shade is #378 ‘Posh Trash’ and the orange is #050 ‘Tangerine Queen’. Of course I also had to pick up some eye shadow, too! Shade #004 ‘Smokey Blue’.

I got told off in Kmart by an employer for testing out the colours… Naughty of me because they didn’t actually have any testers, but I refuse to spend money on nail colour without knowing what it looks like on! Some colours end up being too sheer or whatever, which is very annoying. There should always be testers for that reason, otherwise you they will get annoying customers such as myself who will take the product back and demand a refund.

Do you where nail polish? What are some of your favourite brands and colours?

I hope you all had a very nice Thursday!

*It comes from here.

After months of letting it do its thing, I finally got my hair cut today. Over summer I don’t like to have a fringe because I find that I get too hot and it sticks to my forehead or just bugs me, but now that it’s starting to kind of cool down I decided to get the fringe back.

Last Sunday my guy and I went to see Lady Gaga. It was quite enjoyable despite our horrible seats. She really put on a great show and I was most pleased with having gone. I didn’t really get her when she first appeared on the international music scene, and it’s really only been over the last six months that I’ve been coming to the conclusion she’s not actually a useless over-commercialised, untallented idiot. She actually writes her songs, plays instruments and, as I was witness to it, can sing (very well, actually). While dancing almost continuously, I might add, which is incredibly difficult (trust me, I’ve tried doing it while home alone and it’s pretty freakin’ exhausting). So, basically, I love her now. And I can’t stop listening to her albums, either. She’s the first woman I’ve seen live, too, which is kind of cool, I think.

Anyway, this week has been pretty busy at university, but it’s going to get much busier over the coming weeks. I have mid-terms coming up and assignments to start/finish, etc. To keep my sanity I’ve been reading for leisure daily, but I don’t get to do much in terms of hobbies (i.e. finish crocheting fingerless gloves) and that makes me feel a bit off. Luckily I don’t have much time to think about it.

I shall leave you with a little What I Wore Today thing. I don’t do this nearly as much as I should, but now that I have a decent camera on my phone I think I’ll be more inclined to, haha.

Top from Glassons.
Skirt made by me from a New Look pattern.
Black pantyhose.
Not pictured are the black ballet flats and the black cardigan with pink ribbon detail.

I love the pockets on the skirt because they are so super-handy!

Yes, I am preparing for winter by making winter accessories now, such as hats. The latest in my crochet accessory collection is a neck warmer/cowl, the idea of which came from Holly’s guest D.I.Y at A Beautiful Mess. I’m a scarf girl and would wear them all year round if it wasn’t so hot during summer, so I when I saw this idea I knew I’d love it!

It took me a little while to get the hang of making ‘granny squares’ and I ended up resorting to YouTube as I found most written instructions a bit confusing. I learn better by seeing someone do something anyway, and following along as necessary. Once I figured it out, they were a breeze to make. I will definitely being adding my cowl collection and crocheting some colourful ones!

Please excuse my tired looking self. I woke up before 5am this morning, naturally, so instead of going back to sleep and waking to my alarm at seven, I decided to get up and do some yoga instead. I love waking up early without an alarm because I always feel like I’ve had a much better sleep and so I feel fresh and ready to start the day. Alarms are evil! If only I could rely on my body to wake up naturally early.

Have a lovely Monday (or Sunday if it still is in your part of the world)!

The fabulous Fleur of Diary of a Vintage Girl is giving away a gorgeous lingerie set from Kiss Me Deadly to one lucky reader!

All you have to do to enter is comment on Fleur’s post. But, to up your chances you can also blog about the giveaway and re-tweet her announcement!

Good luck to all those who have entered! This set of lingerie is truly delicious.