Finally clean after a dirty weekend at Reading...

Festival season, as well as our summer is officially over. :( 

This weekend was the Reading & Leeds Festival, in my opinion the best UK festival (and that's not just because I'm a Reading local!) With headliners including The Cure, Kasabian and Foo Fighters and the festival falling on the weekend of mine and one of my best friend's 19th birthdays, could the weekend get any better?

Reading Festival is a street style dream, with so many different styles with of course the standard festival outfit of short shorts, cute tee's and wellies. However the rain held off mostly and I actually made it all weekend without wearing wellies! Shocking I know, although my black biker boots were given a new look with ten or so layers of dust and dirt on them! 

All Time Low, You Me At Six, The Horrors and We Are The In Crowd are some of my highlights from the festival - aaaand of course the legendary Foo Fighters! Who ridiculously good was their set? The perfect end to an amazing weekend!  

If you went to Reading, let me know your highlights! 

The awkward mid-length.

For the first time in about eight months today I've been able to tie my hair up. Reeessuult. The only downside? I'm not stuck in the awkward growing out mid-length hair slump. 

I always had low maintenance straight long blonde hair. In fact the only work I ever put into my hair was washing and blow drying (and the occasional blonde boost!) 

Then some freedom in the form of moving to university made me crave a change. And off went my long blonde hair in favour of an above the shoulder blunt bob. There was a point when I cried on the phone to my mum because I hated it that much but I have since learnt to embrace (and style) it, eventually.

Which is probably why I was so excited that, on this what could be described as hot (I don't want to jinx this English weather) night, I actually managed to get most of my thin but thick hair off my face and standing proud in a top bun. 

Luscious long Lauren Conrad style waves, here I come. 

Out with the old, no wait...

Moving is a big deal, with lots of packing and unpacking, it's very easy to get lost rediscovering all the amazing pieces you forgot about. This is one of mine.

I have to warn you, it's nothing spectacular. It is in fact from Marks & Spencer and is basically an oversized black shrug. I bet you're bored already.

Hoooowever, as with all good pieces there is a story. This shrug belonged to my darling Grandmother and was given to me while I was sorting through the last of her clothes when she passed last year. Very casually "oh do you want this, take it!" and this massively comfy piece was mine.

From what I can tell by the label, this shrug is as old as I am, and yet is still in immaculate condition, even holding a faint smell of my Nana's Chanel perfume. The perfect comfort blanket.

So I should probably tell you about the woman behind the shrug. My Nana - she was a woman of fine taste, from wine to jewellery - it was only the best. She was one of those effortlessly beautiful women who really knew how to look glamourous, something I will always admire her for. She was the wife of a hugely successful business man that would rock classy corporate events just the same as she worked her way with 5 kids (how she still looked amazing I will never know, fair play to her). 

Her death caught me at a difficult transition point of my life, two weeks before I started university. Moving away and having not much to hold onto made it much more difficult, until I acquired this ultimate comfort blanket/winter must have. So thank you for the shrug Nana, I'll try to keep rocking some of your classic style.

That new bag feeling...

Grown up shopping. I don't mean home shopping or even sexy shopping, I mean the time when your mum stops shopping for you and you get to do it on your own. Not to go all Confessions of a Shopaholic on you, but shopping gives me a massive buzz. The exciting feeling in my stomach, like a first kiss, but better. Finding a piece that you simply adore, whether it's Primark or Prada is an unmistakeable feeling to a fashion girl. 

I don't get this feeling often; I think the best case of it was finding some Vivienne Westwood Melissa silver heels in the Selfridges sale for under £30 - I do remember there being actual squealing. And again with my Urban Outfitters flatforms and now my latest purchase - the oversized tote. 

The pale Zara tote I blogged about recently unfortunately was not meant to be on my last trip to West Quay, but after a terrifying - I'm not even kidding, I nearly kissed the ground when I got off that thing-  bus ride to the next town in Tenerife I found myself hunting the bag down once again. Not available in the original colour I had fallen in love with, but in black (too grown up) or a nude with orange colour blocking and red handles there, I found myself drawn to the nude version with, yep, that excited schoolgirl feeling. 

Hence why I've been strutting around like the cat that caught the cream the past few days with my lovely new bag in tow. I. love. shopping. 

Mission accomplished, I actually have a tan!

Excuse the fact that I have no make up on, but anyone who knows me will know I have basically been the colour of a ghost for about 3 years and find it impossible to even burn/tan. 

So you cannot even imagine my excitement that after two days in Tenerife I am now sporting some actual colour on my face (with a burnt nose) and even have tan lines (check those bad boys out - I don't even care that I'm really burnt right now). 

After endless fake tan products failed me, I am so excited to have a bit of a glow about me. 

Now, back to that Piña Colada.