New Years Eve!

New Years Eve is here, the vodka jelly is in the fridge and I have just returned from a last minute dress hunt. All that's left to do is tidy up, my nails, decorate the flat...eeek, for we are having a flat party.

The Christmas season here has been a very busy one, with trips up north to visit my family, a few days in West Sussex to visit my boyfriends family, and now my brother is staying with us! I have had a wonderful time, however am in denial about the fact I go back to work on Wednesday. Noooooooo...! Even more reason for a great party.

In the past I have found New Years Eve to be a big disappointment. I get so excited, and dream of being at an extravagent ball or boat party on the Thames, but in reality they have mostly been nights in a pub or at a friends house, with everyone just waiting for the fireworks to begin on tv! One day I WILL get my Cinderella moment...

In the meantime I will have to cope with the reality of everyday life (I jest)...My quick shopping trip this morning consisted of a rushed visit to Topshop as I was given some vouchers for Christmas. I am not normally one for Topshop, the sizes can be very strange and all seem geared for tall, straight up and down people, however I struck gold when I browsed through the sale and saw a very cute little dress sat all on its own crying out to me. I wanted a dress that wasn't too dressy, but still enough to get me into the party spirit. I found a black shirt dress that has the sweetest pattern, elbow length sleeves and finishes just above the knee, reduced to £30 from £55, so I snapped it up. I will post a picture on Twitter later when I am all ready!

I love this whimsical pattern all over the dress.

 

 

I was quite amazed at how quickly I had found a dress. I had imagined trekking around the shops all day having a nightmare, so something is bound to go wrong today! I then had a sneaky look in Primark, and picked up this lovely vest for £4.99 I think. It has a sweetheart neckline, removable straps and a built in bra, so I imagine I will wear this lots with a cardigan and skirts or trousers.

 

 

I then rushed home before any more impulse purchases happened!

 

I have began setting my hair to give a more 1940's look so I will upload a tutorial soon to show how I do it! You may have already seen the picture that I posted on my Twitter, it gives a lovely vintage look and lasts for days.

 

Have a wonderful evening and I wish all of you the very best for 2013! This year has been a very emotional, sad one and my family have really had a tough time this year. Things are looking up now, so hopefully 2013 can bring more luck and happiness for everyone.

 

Happy New Year!

 

Lots of love,

 

Hannah xxx



And Christmas is nearly upon us...

Hello everyone!

Christmas spirit is in full flow, and scarily enough, a week today it will all be over! I am so, so excited to get back up north to see my family, and I think it will only be then when the true Christmas excitement will take hold!

Over the past few nights I have been making the finishing touches to my Christmas decorations around our little flat, and it is really beginning to look lovely! I may also have been indulging in mince pies, stollen and mulled wine...

Good old M&S ripping me off slightly, 2 bottles for £10 but ah well...

Here is our completed paper chains (and homemade bunting!) that covers the entire flat, it's safe to say I got rather carried away! I have a feeling these won't be coming down for quite a while!

And here is our beautiful Christmas tree. We have it in pride of place in front of a window that overlooks the street. I absolutely love walking home in the evening and can see it shining away, although perhaps that's just too much mulled wine making me all mushy inside!

 My two favourite glass baubles, I love how the one below looks like a giant bubble!

And finally, you may have seen on Twitter (@ABrightonBelle_) that I have been making some teacup candles. I didn't want to just wrap these up in normal wrapping paper, as I was so scared that they would get all banged around and be broken, so instead bought my most beautiful tissue paper from Paperchase. Again, I am slightly ashamed at how much I was tricked into paying for this paper, but it is one of the most beautiful prints, I could just frame a section of this paper! Below you should be able to see it...

 

 

It is very delicate, almost hand sketched looking entwined leaves and flowers, with the most beautifully coloured birds sitting among it all. I sense a project coming for the new year, perhaps a charity shop rummage for a photo frame to paint to put some print in!

I hope you are well and wish you all the best for Christmas,

 

With lots of love from Brighton,

 

Hannah xxx

Day 12- A Very Busy but Fun Day!

Hello everyone!

So you may or may not have seen, but this morning I tweeted this picture to giveaway my location...

I have been at Bexhill De La War Pavilion for (drumroll please!) my first Dollydagger photoshoot! We were incredibly lucky to get amazing weather, despite the bitter cold, Mr Sunshine definitely came out to light everything up. We were joined by super stylists Simon and Hannah from Simon Webster hair, make up by Alessia Mancini and our photographer was Toby Amies. My partner in crime for the modelling was the gorgeous Esme Callaghan who looked absolutely stunning!

We had twenty odd dresses ahead of us to model but we did in fine form, and even braved the sea breeze for some outdoor shots! Pictures will be all over the website, www.dollydagger.co.uk soon and I am so so excited to see them.

A sneak peek of two of todays shots are available on Dollydagger's instagram or twitter pages!

And here I am getting my hair prepared to be set into beautiful curls!

Very excitingly, I will also soon be posting a little bit on the Dollydagger website! Please keep your eye out for a full lowdown of todays shoot on there as it will be going up very shortly. For more behind the scenes pictures, please follow @dollydagger_ on twitter!

 

So that is my twelve days of Christmas over! How quickly has that gone! I have enjoyed writing all these posts so much, and have been surprised to learn a bit about myself too. I have definitely learnt what subjects I am more knowledgeable and passionate about, but also what it is that you all like to read. I do intend to keep posting very regularly so don't worry, I won't be disappearing yet!

 

With lots of love from a tired but happy Hannah

 

xxx

Day 11- A More Musical Evening!

Hello everyone!

 

So tonight I am off to the O2 Arena in London (the Millenium Dome, I've never been!) to see one of my all time favourite bands....Mumford and Sons!

 

I have absolutely loved this band for so many years, it is going to be amazing to actually get the chance to see them live! Unfortunately I wasn't able to get the full day off, so am rushing out of work at 4 to meet everyone up in London ready to squeeze in a drink or two before the music gets going!

 

There is two support acts, Post War Years at 7pm, and Dawes at 7.45, with Mumford and Sons coming onto stage at 9.

 

I will try to get a picture of my outfit and post it on Twitter, I plan to vintage it up!

 

I also have a very exciting day on Wednesday, so keep your eyes peeled for any behind the scenes pictures!

 

With love, from Hannah xxx

Day 10!

Good evening everyone!

 

It is safe to say that I am feeling much better tonight which is a huge relief!

 

So Christmas is officially here and the perfect accompaniment for the party season is some gorgeous nails to add some festive charm! Nail art is such a huge trend at the moment, and people seem to be unbelievably talented and can fit so many different patterns onto their nails. Whilst I am nowhere near that creative or talented, I do like to jazz up my nails with a retro pattern or a bit of glitter. I am a nail varnish addict, much to my boyfriends disgust! I store them in a tin that I was given a Cath Kidston mug in, however it is slightly overflowing now!

 

Around this time last year I had acrylic nails applied the the first (and last) time. I was absolutely gutted when I got them removed the discover the condition of my nails underneath, so thin and dehydrated. I have since always decided to simply paint my nails as I don't want to damage my nails.

 

Around Christmas, I particularly love some sparkle. You can go all over glitter, but one style I think looks particularly gorgeous is one finger on each hand all sparkly, with the others the matte shade. Another alternative can be to give yourself a glittery french tip! I particularly love these two Barry M shades, they are very reasonably priced and give a great colour! I recommend doing a base coat of the matte colour, then applying the glitter over the top to give the maximum coverage!

 

A more classic look can come from a neutral shade. One of my particular favourites colour is a stone grey. I think it looks very elegant and compliments all skin tones very well. Below are two of my favourites (and check out the bargain I got!). The OPI bargain is from Sally's on Western Road. You can snap up a serious bargain in there as it is generally a wholesaler for the beauty trade. They have a huge OPI range which is one of the more luxurious nail varnish brands. This shade is Suzi Take The Wheel, a very opaque gun metal grey with a very faint green undertone. The shade to the right is a more purple based grey. It is Essie in Chinchilly, which was an impulse purchase from Boots that I got away with! Again it has a very opaque coverage, so you could even get away with one coat if you were rushing!

Another favourite colour comes from Rimmel's 60 Seconds Range, shade 819 Green with Envy. It is perhaps the perfect shade of green! I adore it. An emeraldy-teal green, it has a slightly metallic sheen so looks different in different lights. The brush is slightly different to normal applicators, slighly flatter, which is supposed to make application only take 1 second, however I think this is a slight exaggeration as I would make such a mess if I was to take 1 second! It does make the process very easy though, as the shape of the nail varnish is much easier to form than with a thinner brush.

 

 

I also recently posted on Twitter about a nail varnish actually bought for me by my boyfriend! For my birthday he treated me to one of the one off Marilyn Monroe at MAC range, the nail varnish in Flaming Rose. It is actually a very true, classic red, despite looking slightly pink on this photo. I absolutely love this, and want to keep it for years to cherish!

 

 

I particularly love to work a classic Dita Von Teese look for a true retro style. She famously styles her nails in a 'half moon' style, which I think looks so demure and classy. You can buy the acrylic ones that she has released, however I prefer to just paint on the style.

 

I am going to get painting mine now, I have an exciting couple of days coming up!

 

With lots of love,

 

Hannah xxx

Day 9- A Sore Head!

Hello everyone!

Well last night turned out very well and I had an excellent time, however I am most definitely feeling it today! I was in such a rush and completely forgot to get a picture before I left which I am rather disappointed with myself about! I will have to see if any surface on Facebook as today goes on which could be a little dangerous, lets just say I embraced the Christmas spirit and was very merry!

It really does feel like Christmas is very very soon. Over this weekend we have put our tree up and it is looking spectacular! I posted a picture on Twitter last night of the tree in all its glory. I just need to finish making my own decorations and it will be complete!

We decided to buy a small selection of baubles as well which you can see here. The angel, lights, rocking horse and glittery Christmas tree are all from Berts Home Store on Western Road. I absolutely love that shop and it is so so Christmassy in there! I could quite easily buy everything that is in there.

The remaining ones are all from Butlers at the bottom of North Street. They have a great deal where if you buy four, you get the cheapest one free! My favourite is the vintage Mickey Mouse bauble or the glass reindeer scene, I can't decide!

We are also busy making paper chains to decorate the flat with. We are having a New Years Eve Party (eek) and so I want it all looking very festive and they are a cheap solution which looks great! All you need is lots of red and green paper and some pritt stick. Cut the paper into strips and you can easily make the interlocking loops, before you know it there is metres and metres of the stuff!

Here is our (nearly) finished tree for those that didn't catch the picture on Twitter...

I am now going to watch Elf, have some paracetamol and an early night as I am feeling very sorry for myself! I hope you have a lovely evening!

 

With love from a hungover Hannah xxx

Day Eight! Get Ready With Me!

Hello everyone,

Well what a busy busy day I have had! Breakfast out, Christmas tree shopping, candle making and getting ready for tonights Christmas Do, I feel more like putting my feet up than heels on!

I just want to thank every one of you who has been reading my blog and Tweets. I have just logged onto Blogger and had a lovely surprise, I have had the most blog views ever today so thank you!

Tonights post is geared towards getting done up for a glamourous night out. Over the last few weeks, I have gone over my favourite products that really get an excellent result, but tonight we are going to put it all together! The theme for tonights event is Hollywood Glamour, so I am going to make the most of it and show everyone how a vintage girl does glamour!


I am wearing a dress that I chose when I got into the top 8 in the Dollydagger competition. I normally steer clear from quite tight fitting dresses, however I adore this dress and it seems to make my more podgier (is that a word?!) areas disappear. I love the polka dot and super flattering neckline!You can get it directly from the Dollydagger website, it is called the Polka Dot Dolores Pencil Dress. My shoes were bought almost two years ago from Next for a mere £35. They have lasted so well and are extremely comfortable and looking quite well worn now.

My make up is inspired by a look that my favourite make up artist, Lisa Eldridge, created on her website. I decided to go for more of a Vintage Pin Up Girl look than the classic red lipstick as it is a look I often wear, and I fancied a change! You can see Lisa create the look below. I followed the video to apply my make up, something I regularly do to perfect a look as left to my own devices, I will forget to include a certain part! I don't own any of the products that Lisa uses here, however replaced them with similar ones of my own. I used a mixture of two lipsticks to create the darker grape/cherry shade on my lips. These were Rimmel Kate Moss in 107, a darker red shade, with Lancome French Touch in 306 Cherry Kiki. I mixed them simply by applying  a coat of each and blotting in between to really build up the colour. I began with the Lancome as it is the darkest, and did my first coat very thinly like Lisa describes, buffing it into the lip to almost build up a stain that will not shift!

 

My hair was done much earlier than most of my getting ready process. At about 5pm I curled all my hair using curling tongs, and then pinned them to create pin curls while still hot. I then left them in until the very last minute, so that they cool entirely. This means that the curl stays in much longer and is much glossier than if you just curled in then left the hair down to cool. A little backcombing and I was good to go!

I also fully embraced the pale look, with bare legs and no fake tan! I am very pale at the moment however I think this really finishes the vintage look and gives you a very classic, English rose appeal.

I had best get going now, fingers crossed it will be a good night! Free wine on the tables so I am not complaining!

I hope you have a great weekend,

 

Lots of love from Brighton,

 

Hannah xxx