Camping; Tollymore

Hey everyone! Just an update I was supposed to do a couple of weeks ago, but I only got the photos yesterday. Sorry ^^'

So here it is; My sister and I went camping last month, when the weather was a little better, we were supposed to go for the whole of August, but I fear if we go we'll be washed away with all this rain :(

We usually go camping at least two or three times a year, and usually to the same place, Tollymore Forest Park, it's beautiful there...well I'll just show you the photos I took while there x

Our tent just before dusk, I love our big retro tent! :D

Oh we also went to this huuuge car boot sale, it was giant! And had such a wide mix of things, but I really loved the retro glassware and ceramics, they were just so pretty :)

I wish I'd have had more money with me, but unfortunately it was in a field and they usually don't have ATMs xP
But they had so many really cool clothes and shoes, and loads in my size too *sad face*

I love these glasses from the 60's, the whole set just cost £4! But I knew if I bought these, I'd just be taking pictures of them all the time, look how they distort, and make the weirdest shapes.

And of course you can't go to Newcastle without visiting the amusements, it was really good fun, and reminded me so much of my childhood (I even got some candy floss, and I won a cuddly toy sheep!)

Hah! These were great fun!! I haven't been on a swan boat in yeaaaaars! (If you don't know what these are, they're boats in the shape of swans that two people peddle around a man-made lake) My sister nearly broke her leg falling in the swan and at one point I nearly fell out! It was £3 a swan, and you could stay out for as long as you liked, so yes we were peddling that swan for hours, I swear! :)

(Plus our swan was a little broken so it kinda kept going around and around in circles, another reason we were out for so long lol)

Yes, so back to our campsite, when we go camping it's usually for a couple of weeks at a time, so we don't really rough it, We bring proper tables, and a cooker, and deck chairs...basically it becomes a home away from home. And it's really nice in the evening, we all gather around the campfire and sing songs/munch marshmallows/etc :D

The best thing about for me though, is being able to wake really early in the morning to beautiful scenes like the one below. As the campsite is right next to the Mourne Mountain /range, the scenery around there is beautiful! <3

The campsite in the evening is so peaceful, and the sunset was pretty ^^

Quite near to the campsite is a river running down from the mountain, it's a little chilly, but when we've had a few days of really sunny, warm weather, it's warm enough for swimming! So that's what we did, we all dived into one of the naturally formed pools, and after we'd been in for awhile, a lot of other people joined us, including a really adorable doggie, yay!

When my parents came to pick me up (I had to leave a day early) it became quite windy, and I took some shots of the waves hitting the piers, when we were down at Newcastle's front (roughly three miles from the campsite). It was scary looking but really beautiful to watch, kinda like a lava lamp lol

I can't believe the holidays are nearly over, I get my A Level results in 4 days! Eeck! And then it's no time at all before everyone's back to school and I start Uni!!! :O

Well hope everyone's enjoying the last of the Summer!

Walabean xox

4* Treatment

Sorry I haven't posted in a few days, I've been quite unwell, a bit of a tummy bug :(
I hate being sick, it stops everything, I haven't been able to blog, or post up any new looks...nothing to do but sit about (of course I got loads of new inspiration and I even found a new blog to follow, Tamara's Blog < < < You can check her out here. She's totally awesome, with a really great fashion sense! Plus she has the most adorable little sister, she's a mini fashionista too :) Check her out here!)

As I wasn't feeling too good, I thought a little bit of self-TLC would be good! I find there's nothing better than when you're sick, than a little relaxation and a few spa treatments :) Don't I realise I'm too busy to be sick! =)

First of all a touch of retail therapy, I ordered some bits and bobs from Tesco Direct last week, and it just so happens they arrived today :D

I got this gorgeous 1960's Style Trapeze Coat, it's such an unusual style, unfortunately I under estimated their sizes so it's a size or two big, but then there's room for a jumper or cardi, or I'll possibly see about taking it in a little. (I'm not returning it as it was in their end of season sale and 'cause I ordered it online, it's complicated >.>)

But I can't wait to wear this in a look, possibly not until, Autumn...although it's very light, and the weather here at the minute is quite chilly. Oh and I got a really good deal with this coat! It was £40, down to £15! Yay!

Trapeze Coat:£15

I also got a gel push up bra, I've never tried one of these before, as nature usually takes care of that, but as this was in their sale, and has a beautiful lace detailing design, in a soft latte pink colour, I thought I'd treat myself. Again, it was really reduced down to just £4!

I also got the matching lace pants (very fancy), and two pairs of 'shorties', which have no seams, so they're perfect for figure hugging dresses etc. The last thing I bought is a pair of khaki-style skinnies, they fit perfectly and have a cute little zip at each ankle. Another look is progress :)

Underwear set:£5.50/Pack of two 'shorties':£3/Khaki Skinnies:£11

Now, time for the real pampering! My sister had bought me a couple of those face masks mud packs, and I decided I'd try one out, I haven't tried this particular brand before (although it was very affordable) but it smelt delicious when I opened it, it was the Montagne Jeunesse Fruit Smoothie Face Mask, my sister also had given me some cucumber relaxing eye....patches? Which really cooled my eyelids and the surrounding area.

****WARNING! NOT-THE-MOST-ATTRACTIVE-PICTURE COMING UP!****

Lol, yes that's me, safely in my jammies, with no make-up, and shower-wet hair. The very essence of beauty XD

As scary as the picture above is, the whole treatment was very relaxing and my skin felt incredibly soft afterwards. I may as well do a quick product review;

Packaging: ★★☆☆☆ / ☆☆☆☆☆

Smell: ★★★★☆ / ☆☆☆☆☆

Effectiveness: ★★★☆☆ / ☆☆☆☆☆

Price: ★★★★☆ / ☆☆☆☆☆ (four for £3)

I've marked the packaging quite low as it was tricky to use and hard to get it all out unfortunately :(

Next I tried some pore strips (apparently blackheads worst enemy!) I've used these before, and have always found them veeery effective, I won't be showing you a picture of the results.

I think this was one of the Beauty Formulas pore strips...very effective, like I said lol

Also my skin looks so pink and fresh in these two photos (above and below) these were taken after the face mask! Hurray!

The night was completed with gentle music playing in the background, burning incense, candles and an amazing neck rub from Colin (See? Fiancés are really handy for that lol)

Breakfast Noms! Lemon Water/Banana/Green Tea with Honey/Cereal.

And I shall hopefully (fingers crossed) be up to my usual healthy breakfast tomorrow :D

Hope you all are feeling a bit better than me!

Walabean x

Polka Dots & Bowler Hat

Hello everyone! Hope you're all having a nice week. It's been quite a busy week for me, it was my house-mate's birthday this weekend, he turned 21, so it's quite an important one :)
He love scented candles, so we got him one of those Yankee Candle sets, which he loved, and also some antique chop sticks, which were so cool I got myself a set XD

So this is what I wore to his party, although these photos were taken a couple of hours after, when we went back to my fiancé's farm.I'm wearing; Polka Dot Dress/Thrifted, Waterfall Cardigan/Thrifted, Military-Style Boots/Ebay, Black Bowler Hat/Grandfathers and Black Tights.

He has a lamp post in his garden next to a little stone bench and a...big rock waterfall? Maybe not it's technical name, but you can see what I mean. Which was the perfect setting for what I was wearing I felt like I was in London again but with way less traffic.
I'm wearing several of my favorite things in this shoot, and luckily they all went really well together.
I got the beautiful polka dot dress last month, in a charity shop just outside of the city, I think if had been in the city center other vintage hunters would have got to it before me. That's why I always check the less busy charity shops :D
Also isn't my bowler hat lovely? It's one of two (unfortunately the other is too small) that my grandfather gave me recently, that his father had given to him, so they're vintage family heirlooms! How awesome is that? 
And they're from a really fancy men's wear store in London's, Pound Street. Stevens&Sons...so yes they have quickly become one of my favorite hats.



This is the last remaining puppy of the litter I told you about here. All the others have been adopted, but I think this little guy is going to remain here (Yay!) Now we're just thinking of a name for him...possibly Henry? But it's not final, anyone any suggestions? He's such a tubby wee cutie-pie ^_^ (sorry about the slight blurriness, another doggie jumped up on Colin just as he took this picture lol)

Jeremy looking dapper :) 

Happy Birthday Jeremy! <3

This is the final look for Lookbook and Chictopia, don't forget to hype and favorite please?  

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