Garden Chores Call for Pretty Garden Centres

Last week I went with my finacé and his mum, to Dobbies Garden Centre, it's maaaaasive :O

The building was made nearly entirely out of wood....very cool, even the bins were disguised in a really pretty wooden box thing lol

It didn't seem like an overly good garden centre, like, plant-wise...but it's really gimmicky.

Like the huge Cactus display, I've never seen so many Cacti in one place...and they had a lot of Bonsai Trees too, which is good because places like this usually only have one or two Cacti or Bonsai.

I really loved the pretty sand designs in the glass jars, but they were super expensive...I figured I could make my own for cheaper, I already have a couple of house plants, and Ikea have really cheap vases and coloured sands :)

Dobbies also have a huge farmer's market, and they have a really good variety of alternate foods, but check out those pasta bows! Aren't they adorable ^_^ Like little humbug bows...although the thought of mint pasta, doesn't sound great lol

But they were so super fussy about taking photos...I tried to explain it was for my blog, and that it would be good publicity, but they were just really rude, even when I apologised and told her I didn't realise I wasn't allowed :'(

I forgave them a little when I saw how many Paperchase books they had :D
I love these so much, only I have far too many of them already, I get one every birthday now....but Dobbies have new ones, so I shall have to inform my close family and friends ;)

However Dobbies real good point is it's restaurant....yum yum yum ^_^ Again very expensive, but wow they had so many different kinds of pastries and buns and desserts, it's one of those places where you want to have a little sampling of everything :)

Aren't they so sweet looking? I always think it's a shame to eat something so pretty x3

They were so weird about our lunch though...some days I'm a fairly fussy eater, and I didn't like the look of any of there lunch-food stuffs, the girl behind the counter saw me looking at all the hot foods for a bit, but I eventually decided to try some of their pie, which looked quite nice. So I went up to the counter but just as I got there she started putting things on a trolley, Colin asked could we order something, but she said (in quite an abrupt way) that hot food stopped at 3PM...I looked at my watch, IT WAS EXACTLY 3 ¬_¬
Why didn't she say something when I was making my mind up?! Gah.
Sorry that I'm ranting. just stuff like that really annoys me, plus to make things worse, when I decided on a new thing to get, they didn't have any of that *sigh*

But I eventually settled on a baked potato with prawns and Ann-Marie sauce...which was quite nice...but not worth how much it cost (like £6 something). I also got Capri-Sun which I haven't had in yeaaaaars :)

Colin got the Chicken Jalfrezi with Rice and Popadoms...again it was okay, but the chicken was really dried out :(

Free refills on drinks though!

After lunch we had another little wander about then went back for some dessert :)
I got a strawberry tart, which was sooo sweet, I could only manage half of it XD

And Colin got an awesome glittery cupcake.....it was really nice, I wish I had gotten one of those as well (but I did get share of his, hurray!)

You can't really see the glitter all that well :/

A tiny part of the huge restaurant, complete with palm tree...

And to finish some fruity cocktails, a Berry Blast and a Tropical....something, I forget now...unfortunately the berry one was horrible! But the tropical one was quite nice :)

Colin <3

Not much of an outfit post, but at least it does feature my new cardigan (I'll hopefully show it off properly in my next outfit post, keep posted!) I also wore my long floral top, black leggings and some purple Converse, comfy and casual :)

Sorry if I look a little ruffled, we had earlier been caught in a real rain storm (main reason why there's no full outfit post, dang weather ¬_¬).

And to finish, here's a picture of a really cute panda cake! Now I know this is definitely too cute to eat! :3

Plus that's a heck of a lot of icing!!

Oh also, if you wouldn't mind, could you please nominate me in the Cosmo Blog Awards, in the 'new blog' category? Thanks! xo

Walabean <3

Parlez-vous Français ?

Oh man, oh man...I am sooo tired *__*
So today my sister (Gillian) and her new boyfriend (Craig) came around to visit, which is tiring enough but they also brought round his adorable little 9 month old baby (Sammie) ^^,

She is sooooooo cute!! *brood brood brood* She just sits giggling, and rarely cries, and I got to fed her her lunch...ack, cuteness overload!
Anywho, we also walked to the supermarket to get some groceries for dinner, there was a sale, so I got loads of chicken and ribs and steaks, for next to nothing :D
I love bargains <3

So that's dinner fixed for like the next two weeks, woo! After Sammie got her lunch, Craig decided he would treat us to some fast food for our lunch...unfortunately we went to a chip shop we'd never tried before and it was quite horrible, and made me feel quite sick xP
(And of course the Ben And Jerry's Chocolate Fudge Brownie ice cream didn't help XD)

But I've got my lemon water, so I'm feeling a bit better now :)

So yes, this the outfit I wore yesterday, it's fairly French themed...I DIY'd my tee-shirt I got while on my last holiday to Blackpool. I love those off-shoulder tee-shirts that seem quite popular at the minute, but hadn't been able to find one that suited me, so I took the scissors to my 'francais' one. Hurray! And I'm so glad it worked out, I love this tee.

The other reason I decided to do this was due to the fact that it's a fairly small tee, a size 8 in fact! Lol, so quite a bit too small XD But now that it's modified, it doesn't crush my breasts so much...thank goodness...

I wore my Black Wedges/Ebay, Denim Shorts/ASDA, Red PVC Belt/Liberty Blue, Black Tights/Topshop, Black Beret/Primark and my Modified Tee/Street Market.

You can hype my look here! Thanks xo

And now time for a silly picture of me looking a little bit like a puffer fish x3

Haha, Colin thought I was doing a really weird pose, I said 'No, look! A kitty!', 'Yeah, that's a great pose!', 'No silly!! Look! A kitty kat!!' XD

'Oooh...a caaat...awesome!' So yeah, our neighborhood has a cat! Yay! Where I used to live there's cats everywhere, but no one in the city has kitties or dogs :(
So it's great we have a neighbor cat :D

Also, this outfit give me the perfect opportunity to show off my new wedges :D
I got these on Ebay a couple of weeks ago (For like £4!!!), and maaaan I love them so much, they're the black suede wedges everyone seems to have lately...and they just work with so many outfits.

I really enjoyed taking these photos with Colin, it was really relaxed, mainly due to the fact we took them all in our front garden, it was nice not having to worry about people walking through the photos, like usually happens when we're in the park...but whatever, it was nice :)

Hope you're all having a nice mid-week,

Walabean x

I Miss Summer...

Ooh these pictures make me sad T_T
I took these about two months ago, when Northern Ireland was having it's annual out-of-Summer heatwave, and now when we're actually in Summer, it's doing nothing but raining constantly :'(
And it's not cold, so I can't wear a coat, or even a cosy jumper indoors, while watching the rain...it's really weird wearing shorts inside all day and not being able to leave the flat for fear of being washed away...

I wonder what it's like living in a really humid country all year round...? I haven't posted a new look today, mainly due to the fact that the weather is totally making me feel all icky.

When you get rained on first the thing in the morning, and you can't get dry all day = Hell. ¬_¬

So as a cunning distraction I'll just show you these lovely photos of ships, and castles, and pretty things :)

See? Summery things! :)

The Marina

The water was so beautiful that day, really had to resist the urge to just dive in...(see future blog posts for river diving! Tehe.)

Apart from the gorgeous weather, we had a great day too, we re-homed the abandoned fishies we were looking after, yay! (Also the reason why we traveled to Carrick-Fergus) And we also got treated to some delicious lunch at Pizza Hut, I haven't been there for yeeeeaaaars. I love how their latest advertising scheme is 'Free Salad For Everyone!'...who wants salad?! Free or not. Especially if you're going to PH?! Give us free pizza :D

Colin (looking weirdly grumpy) in front of Carrick's Castle.

Carrick Castle.

And I shall finish with my favorite photo of the day; Colin and I, sitting down by the waterside rocks, it was really cool, just below our feet, we could see little fish swimming about...although they moved too fast to get a proper picture of :(

I hope it stops raining soon....but awh well, at least it's not snowing :D

Pride '11

Hello Bloggers! Hope you're all doing well :)
I've had a great day, it was my flatmate's early birthday party, which also happens to coincide with Belfast's Pride Parade (yes he is gay, so it worked out quite well for him). I don't usually go to the parade, but seeing as he had asked me for his birthday, Colin and I tagged along.And I'm glad I did it was really good fun! :D
But before that, Colin and I headed over to Botanic Gardens for awhile, we've actually started getting some Summery weather here in Belfast, so we're taking full advance of it. Hehe.

I also brought my camera with us to try and get some shots of my new look for LB, (I'll be posting these shots within the next few days)...We also tried a few jump shots, and although I was absolutely useless, we managed to get one of Colin! (After what felt like a million tries lol.)

We had quite a few of this kind of picture (and worse!!) XD

But then we managed this one! This was probably are best...oh dear...more practising I say ;)

We then heeded into the city center, the parade would be passing right in front of City Hall, so we figured there would be a good place to be. The parade started at 2PM'ish and lasted for about 45mins, you would not believe the colours *_* (Just a warning, some of the following photos are ridiculously bright!)

With all this great weather I figure City Hall looks it's best, and I just can't help myself from taking loads of pictures of it...but it's such a beautiful building! Well you can see for yourself, although I'll just include the one this time :D

See it's pretty! :) (and very grey compared to these next pictures)

So I guess this is what the whole parade comes down to;

So yeah I think they got their message across, plus everyone had so much fun at the same time :D

The anti-protesters? Lol

Of course there were quite a few protesters, but they didn't cause much harm....But we'll not bother with them, here's some more colourful pictures! :)

I love rainbows so much ^_^ (gay or not)

It must have been pretty warm and uncomfortable wearing this for the whole parade...?

Party bus!!

They are oh-so-glamourous!

I love his Go-Go boots!! <3

I'll just finish off with some awesome colourful balloons!

BELFAST'S PRIDE PARADE 2011!

Featured!

Guess what? I was featured on a blog I follow! Awesome-feeling-time! :D

I entered the 'Florrie's Floral Festivities' competition with my 'I Didn't Promise You a Rose Garden' look (unfortunately I didn't win *sad face*) but I was still featured! I was in with a really good mix of other bloggers, and it was really great fun taking part :)

Thanks Florrie! x

The blog is Intrinsically Florrie and she's great, it's definitely worth checking her out. Oh if you do, totally check out her artwork, it's amazing! :)

Oh yes, something else that's new is my new outfit post on Lookbook and Chictopia. This is another photo from a couple of years ago, it's from a trip we took to Lady Dixon's park, in the middle of the Rose Week Festival. It happens once a year, and there's loads live music, bands, and other crazy entertainment (usually supplied by the circus school lol).

Seeing it was a flower festival and the middle of Summer, I couldn't resist the bright colours and general Summeryness of this outfit!

I'm wearing a bright Yellow Pop Art t-shirt from Primark./DIY shorts from Tesco./ Green Wellie boots from B&Q./ And my hat and bag are both from independent traders at craft fairs.

I've got a really good response to this outfit, so I'm hopefully just starting to make my mark on the online fashion world...eventually I'm hoping to build up a collection of followers on here...but for now mainly talking to myself xD

I'm off now to nom on some delicious spaghetti and meatballs, hope you're all enjoying these bright evenings!

Walabean x

Look Book: B&W Culloden Ball

Well this is my second look on LB, although this photo was taken about a year ago for my Middle Sixth Formal. It was Black and White themed and the River Island lace dress was just prefect! I couldn't resist getting it, and luckily my parents agreed to buy me it, which saved the £30 from escaping my pocket! x3

I paired it with, possibly my favorite pair of shoes of all time, my TUK polka dot heels, which only cost my £7 in TKMaxx! Bargain! They're also B&W and have cute little diamante stars on the sides. In this outfit I'm also wearing my tiny top-hat, I was searching for one of these for aaaages, then it turns out my best friend had one and she didn't want it, best present ever :)

I was quite apprehensive about the leather bag, as I rarely use a bag with such a short strap (that bag is actually my sisters) but it seemed to go best out of all the bags I own. Plus is was the prefect size to hold everything I needed for the night, bottle of water, lipstick, tissues, you know, all that stuff :)
To accessorize, I added some black beads and a white cashmere scarf, and of course a splash of bright red lipstick, so I didn't fade into the background of black and white. Tehe.

So hopefully this is the first (second) of many to come! Now that my internet is set up and fully working, I have no excuses! Lol. Although I do start uni in a month...but I'll not think about that yet! XD

Please hype on Lookbook.nu!

I'm back!

Hurray! I'm back into the world of on-line'ness! :)

As my regular followers know, I've just moved into my new apartment, it's awesome :D
But, trying to get internet connected took for-eeeeever. I mean it wouldn't have annoyed me so much, if we hadn't have given them two weeks advance warning >.>

But I'm in too good a mood to rant anymore at the moment, more about my lovely new apartment, It's huuuuge! I mean my old place wasn't tiny, but it would fit in here a couple of times! Tehe.

Especially the kitchen, Colin and I love experimenting and trying out new recipes, so it's so much fun cooking in a really big kitchen. Last week we made water-chestnut and bamboo-shoot Stir-Fry and I think it's my new favorite meal. Another awesome thing is the huge closet I've got now, I have everything so organised with matching hangers!! The only thing is, even with my huge wardrobe, I still have too many shoes...I may need to have a clear out, oh no! D: But hopefully with all this extra room to properly see all my clothes, it'll be easier to do some more looks, and start regularly updating this blog with everyday looks. Exciting! Lol.

I've really missed the internet, and coming back it's taken quite awhile to catch up on all the blogs I follow, but I also found some new blogs! So it wasn't all lost :) Speaking of which, you should totally check out this blog and this blog. I love them.

Ooo in other exciting news my fiancé's dog had puppies!! And they are so unbelievably cute! It's been so long since I've updated this blog, that two of the pups have actually been rehomed now :(
It's so sad when that time comes, but you can't keep every fluffy critter that comes by x3

The four pups!

Mummy-Dog 'Susie'

Daww, he fell asleep in my boater (as seen in previous look!)

...And in my camera bag...

This little guy just wanted something to nom :')

You see now why I wanted to take them all home! But unfortunately rented accommodation and puppies do not mix *sad face*

Oh and all these photos were taken with my new camera, the one I told you guys I bought on Ebay. It's fab! And really easy to use, I love it!

Well that's it for now, I'm off to try a recipe I found in Joyce's blog, I'll tell you how it goes!

Toodles xox