Wishlist: End of a spending ban

Tomorrow is the day we've all been waiting for. And by "all" I mean "me". It's Bethany's pay day, after a month long eternity of waiting for my spending ban to officially end! Naturally, that means a wishlist is in order, as all fashion bloggers will understand. It would be absolutely pointless to blow all of my freshly saved money on pretty little things that I've been lusting over for the past four weeks, so I will try to contain myself. I can't make any solid promises, though. 

Today's compilation is a mix of crop tops, things that match and things that I girl like myself just can't resist! 

Top: (left to right) Kate Floral Bandeau Top and Sian Floral Ruffle Hem Skirt, £12 each, boohoo.com // "Like a Moss" t-shirt, £22, cordelia.bigcartel //  Carmen Marble Print Slouchy Silky Jacket £22 and Leanne Silky Printed Runner Shorts £15, boohoo.com 

Bottom: (left to right) Cally spaghetti strap super crop top, £4, boohoo.com // Light pink velcro platform sandal, £18, lamodauk.com // Danii tie dye swing vest, £8, boohoo.com

Have a lovely week, 

Bethany Paige X

The Very Inspiring Blogger Award and some thanks

Statistics lie. It's sad but true that regardless of page views you can never really be sure whether the people visiting your latest haul or wishlist post actually enjoyed reading it. Of course, we have comments, but let's be honest we can't always be bothered to comment on every blog we loved reading because we are internet loving, lazy creatures and sometimes those "prove you're not a robot" codes are just too much! Maybe that's what makes getting comments and appreciation in any form for a new post so extremely lovely. So, when someone goes out of their way to not just comment but to nominate me for a blog award of some kind, I can't help but feel unbelievably happy. Not that I need constant validation or anything, but somebody reads and enjoys my blog! That's always nice to know, right?

Recently, I've been nominated for a few awards and I am extremely grateful to the beautiful bloggers behind that. Thanks to the Annabel at Teenage Fanatic  and Emily from Em's Neverland I was nominated for the Liebster award twice! I've been planning on doing some sort of post about this for a long time because these nominations were a while ago, but since I've already received a couple of Liebster Awards I didn't think I would do a full-on post this time around. I figure that now is the perfect opportunity to say a huge thank you to both of these ladies and to suggest that you all go and check their blogs out right now because they're both wonderful!

On another -still award related - note, a few days ago I got a nomination for a blog award that I hadn't yet received and honestly, hadn't really heard of! It follows the same sort of principle as most and I have the amazing Sophia from So-Phia to thank for nominating me for (and introducing me to) the Inspirational Blogger Award. Again, you should all go and follow her this instant!

Here are the rules for the award:

Seven facts about me: 

1) I have literally just realised how boring my life is as I am struggling to come up with 7 even vaguely interesting facts about myself... 

2) My bedroom is currently plastered in post-it notes (pink ones!) with various dates relating to the unification of Italy - I'm studying history as one of my AS Levels and I have exactly 3 weeks until my first exam today. Please do excuse my excessive sobbing. 

3) I own six pairs of black boots and the majority are far too tall to wear on a day-to-day basis. So sue me. 

4) I live in a converted monastery. No, I'm not joking.  

5) I have a huge obsession with coconut water that all began back in 2012 at The Clothes Show Live when they gave out free samples. So, for those that think love is not instantaneous - You're wrong. 

6) I just won "best 4:01sie comment" for my appearance on The 4:01 Show and you can check that out here.

7) I kind of love flowers, can you tell?

And my nominations are (cue drum roll):

Hannah from Daisies and DMs who will be an eternal favourite of mine and is just a wonderful lady. 

Jessica from JessicaWabbit who has OOTD posts that make me drool - the girl has serious style. 

Nicole from Sleek-Chic whom I have serious hair envy towards and who can pull off jelly shoes like no other. 

Zainab from The Seas of Fashion who literally has one of the prettiest blog designs I have ever seen. Ever. 

And last but not least That Cardiff Girl who successfully has ceaselessly entertaining lifestyle/musings posts, when usually all I read is fashion blogs! She is fabulous. 

There's probably another twenty people I could nominate because I love so many of your blogs,  but these are just the ladies that stuck out for this award in particular. So for those that I did nominate, feel free to continue the blogger love by taking the Very Inspiring Blogger Award over to your corner of the internet.

I hope you are all having a lovely week,

Bethany Paige X

Rainbow hair don't care

It seems to like to be a fashion blogger you need colourful hair. Seriously, I think it's a rule written in the holy book of blogging reserved for only those with over 10,000 followers! Problem is I'm a wuss. I have issues cutting my hair, let alone dying it several colours of the rainbow without a second thought. Plus, I'm so indecisive that I change outfit at least four times before a night out, and you can't exactly do that with hair especially once you've bleached it and made it reminiscent of candy floss.

Fortunately for me, I have a mother that understands such a dilemma and for Christmas 2013 she bought me a pack of hair chalks. Et Voila, colourful hair without the commitment! 

I finally got around to testing them out on Monday and they are so much fun! Obviously they don't give results like you've just used Bleach London products - up close you can see that it is, well, chalky - but I don't think that's the point. They aren't meant to be super professional, they're made to facilitate creativity. So I went for it. When you can wash it out the next day, why not go for half pink, half blue hair? I felt kind of like a Tumblr picture photoshopped into my history revision session at school with my mermaid hair.

As much as I was in love with it for the couple of days that it lasted, by the time it came to washing my hair properly I wasn't exactly despairing at the thought of going back to normal. As I said - I'm indecisive.

Bethany Paige X

Mid-month midi rings

I made it approximately half a month. Half a month without breaking my spending ban. Then came Primark, just as it does every time, tricking me into spending thanks to its insanely low prices and my lack of will power! As I mentioned in this post, I bagged myself a snazzy new swimming costume as well as a fair few midi rings. Honestly, I have no regrets.

I've been a fan of midi rings since my first Topshop one which was a cute heart with the letter B inside - may it rest in peace after I dropped it down a drain. The thing is, I lose them so quickly. I think it's because I have such tiny hands which causes more problems than you would anticipate, this probably being the most heart breaking. It means that I've never invested in rings that are too expensive after the sad departure of the Topshop one.

Enter, Primark.

Nail varnish: Natural Collection in Cosmic Crush with 

Rimmel London Pro Matte Finish topcoat

I bought two packs and unfortunately I muddled them up before taking these pictures so I have no idea whether the four on each hand came together or not! Either way, each pack was £1.50 so I didn't think it was too cheeky to buy both. Obviously, I got them in gold because I don't tend to wear silver jewellery and some of them also have "diamonds" on them. I absolutely adore the three bar one and the simple heart one, even though I'll probably wear them all to death or until I inevitably lose them.

So, I broke my spending ban, but at least my fingers don't feel naked anymore!

Bethany Paige X

La Moda life

A few days ago a friend of mine directed me towards La Moda UK's Instagram page and let's just say it was love at first sight. The particular picture that she wanted me to check out was of two divine pairs of pink shoes, some boots and some chunky sling-backs, both with white soles and both pretty enough to have me basically drooling on my phone screen. Even more amazingly though, a couple of hours after initially falling for the JC style shoes, I found out that La Moda were holding a giveaway for them. Free, pink shoes! 

Obviously I entered - I would have to be seriously unwell not to - and I can but just hope and pray that I win. And hope and pray again. 

Whilst still in a lustful daze I thought I would check out the rest of their website and honestly, do not read on if you don't want to fall in love with several pairs of shoes. For me it was like wonderland. Everything was chunky and either gothic black or sugary pink and white, which I think aptly represents my style in a few words!

Top row (left to right) - £18, £18, £1 

Bottom row (left to right) - £30, £25, £39.99

Someone take away my debit card, please.
Bethany Paige X

The perfect one-piece

I have been searching for a nice one-piece swimming costume for literally forever (a few months)! I hunted through Topshop, New look, ASOS and Blackmilk as well as more obscure online boutiques. As usual, I'm picky enough to need something that I consider perfect but poor enough to have to say tearful goodbyes to those that are. I would never have thought to look in Primark of all places, yet, here we are. 

Before work today I decided to have a wander round town and unsurprisingly popped into the aforementioned shop. I was actually in search of some midi rings because mine go missing quicker than I get drawn into buying shoes - that's pretty quickly, in case you didn't know. I did manage to find some in actual fact but I thought I'd save those for another post, mainly because I would have to paint my nails for the pictures and then take it off again because I have work tomorrow. Hey, I'm lazy but at least I'm honest. What I wasn't expecting to stumble upon on my Primark visit was a one-piece that had me absolutely head over heals:

I mean come on, it has horses majestically running through the breaking waves on a palm tree covered beach in a so-tacky-it's-cool kind of way, what's not to love? More surprisingly perhaps is the beautiful cut. It has a dropped back and sides which I adore. Overall it seems like a really good quality too, with my only concern being how see-through it will be on the lighter areas once wet. At £10 though, I really can't complain!

I can't say until I've tested this bad boy out at the beach, but I think I got a winner. 

Have any of you bought Primark swimwear before? 

Bethany Paige X

You're only a real fashion blogger if...

You have pastel hair 

Source 

We fashion bloggers account for at least 80% of Bleach London's profit margin. Fact : Blondes do not have more fun than Aqua Marines.

You eat macaroons on a daily basis

Source 

And instagram them on a floral plate of some description with a coyly placed designer item or two in the corner.

You own a clear plastic clutch

Source

So you can showcase your white iPhone 5, Mac lipstick in Russian Red, a pair of reflective sunglasses and maybe a packet of macaroons to the whole world!

You have a cat

Source

Don't even ask me why, it's just a rule. Also make sure to put the phrase "cat lover" in your bios on blogger/tumblr/twitter/write it across your forehead in Sharpie.

Your only posts on Instagram contain the words "link in bio" 

My Instagram (@paigeoffashion)

Or "new on the blog" for that matter.

You have nightmares about HTML

Source

Need I explain myself?

You have a boyfriend that is a professional photographer 

Source

Because let's be honest, you could never get that result with a tripod and your iPhone. The only other profession acceptable for a fashion blogger's significant other is perhaps a Parisian baker that has a steady supply of macaroons.

You understand and practice the art that is #fblogger language

"Just got my photographer bf to take a picture of me on the frow in my diffusion line co-ord. Totes uploading this to insta ... #lfw #AW14 #OOTD #eek"

You have forgotten how to look at the camera when having your picture taken

Source: Own OOTD

It gives a mysterious look to your pictures, right? Plus, it hides uneven eyeliner.

You find "fashpiration" literally everywhere 

Oh a lampost with an artsy sticker on it *picture*! Mildly inspirational, occasionally offensive graffitti *picture*! Old book *picture*! Dog turd *picture*!

You purposely buy a few more items so that you can title a post "haul" 

and if you can't buy more then you add the word "mini" to the beginning of the title and all is good again.

You have holes in your jeans 

Another picture from my Instagram...

because fabric that is not distressed is not fashion blogger enough

So if you don't do all these things, please kindly remove yourself from the world of fashion blogging. You can't sit with us.

Bethany Paige X

Disclaimer: I'm sure you've all realised already, but this post was written with as many doses of sarcasm as there are macaroons in the blogging world (and as we've established, that's a lot). 

March in magazines

I hope March was a beautiful month for you all (shall we ignore the fact that we're 9 days into April?) and was full of magazines to match!

Bethany Paige X