What's in my bag?

I have a soft spot for bags, although I'm on a budget so haven't bought one in a while! I bought this one after much browsing as I wanted to find the perfect commuting bag; big enough to fit everything in but not so big that it hurts my back! Now, I don't think this is *quite* the perfect commuting bag- it doesn't have enough pockets and is perhaps a tad big, but it has served me well this winter! I admit, in these past winter months with sporadic snow and crap weather, I have taken to carrying a tote bag as well to store bulky scarfs/snow boots etc but this bag is still a winner.

 The bag itself... £35 from accessorize, in a lovely deep purple

 A little peek inside!

 Everything chucked out in a mess!

1. My new, first filofaz which I'm still getting used to using. 2. My purse... think I need a new one. 3. Current book, Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks. About 2/3 of the way through, it is incredible but very harrowing. 

4. Deoderant, so my commute doesn't make me stinky!

1. Essential hat for the cold weather! 2. Little notebook for messy ramblings. 3. Two of the yummiest lipbalms... it smells like caramel! 4. Inhaler for asthmatic moments. 5. Tissues! 6. Lavender scented wipes, which I've never used but stay in my bag!

1. Random pen. 2. Ipod Nano, quite beaten up after only having it for a year! 3. Train timetable, although I pretty much know the timings. 4. Rather good handcream 5. Railcard holder

Drug bag! I find it much easier to have all my pills in one bag rather than having to scramble around in my bag for little strips of medicine!

Including roll-on eye cream for puffy eyed mornings!

 My lovely phone, HTC wildfire

...complete with glow in the dark cat sticker!

All the rubbish in the bottom! Receipts, buttons, chocolate bar wrapper, work card holder, and a manky used tissue!

Now i'm off to browse for a possible summer bag...

A (very!) messy beehive

I'm not generally one for doing extravagant styles with my hair- its quite fine so even with mega hold hairspray my hair has a tendency to go flat! But after a bad experience trying to outgrow a graduated bob (soooo not me!) I am enjoying having hair long enough to play with again. I got the Mark Hill Sexy Waves and Curls wand for Christmas and have had fun transforming my straight hair into something a bit more wild! Although suffered a fair few burnt fingers in the process...

I saw Carrie from WishWishWish had posted a tutorial on how to do a Beehive hairdo I figured I'd give it a go this evening!

I seem to have taken the tutorial's "messy" description seriously, look at the back! But not bad for a first attempt, I think I will have to have a proper hair play this weekend and try and make it a bit neater!

Carrie's easy to follow tutorial is here if you want to have a go making a *neater* one yourself!

You said the sky would fall on you fall on you fall on you

This weekend I saw the Manic Street Preachers on both Friday and Saturday night in London with a friend and my other half.

I've been going to concerts regularly since I was 16, at which I went to a Red Hot Chili Peppers gig, and since then have only not gone to one Reading Festival. There's something about live music that I really love and some of my happiest moments have been crushed by a crowd, surrounded by good friends, a few drinks in, singing along to some of my favourite music. The last time I saw the Manics was May last year- the weather was just hotting up and my friend and I went for a pint in a Camden beer garden before the gig. I was wearing a pink sundress and we managed to get almost to the front of the crowd. I could hardly breathe throughout the gig and came out soaked in sweat, but absolutely elated from the experience.

 We started drinking on the train both nights

 Waiting outside the venue on Friday night...

It was freezing!

On Friday we got to the venue about an hour before the doors opened and were absolutely freezing! On Saturday we were much more sensible and went to Nandos and the pub, arriving at the venue just before the band was due to come on. We managed to get quite near the front both nights and had a brilliant view. Unfortunately my camera doesn't really like nighttime and the best photo I could get was this:

But hey at least you can see how close we were! They played a mixture of oldies and newer songs and we all had an absolutely brilliant time. I am of course now covered in random bruises and scratches but it was definately worth it! 

 Rather tipsy me in the pub on Saturday evening!

Leopard print nails!

Like everyone else and their dog, i've recently been experimenting with nail art. When I was about 10/11 my friends and I discovered nail polish and nail art. I had this book (image from amazon) and would spent ages looking through it! I also ventured into false nails (much to the hilarity i'm sure of my parents).

 Then one time I spilled purple nail polish all over my mum's new white kitchen table top. opps.

As I mentioned in my last post, I love nail polish and hate having naked nails! I managed polka dot fingertips for christmas and on Thursday night I used Gem's tutorial for leopard print nails, and was amazed that a clutz like me could get such good results!

This was my 3rd attepmt as I realised how important it is to pick the right colours! On my first two attempts the base colour I picked was too dark so the black stripes didn't show up well enough. In the pictures above, my base colour was nail's inc jermyn street and the coloured blobs were rimmel's coralicious. Gem recommends using black eyeliner for the stripes, but I found a black sharpie gave good results!

I saw the Manic Street Preacher's twice this weekend (post to follow sometime this week!) and now I'm having a lazy-ish Sunday watching films and doing some work.

Diet coke and Nails Inc

I had to dash into Boots today to pick up a prescription, and out of the corner of my eye I spied two of my favourite things...

 Left to Right: Caramel, Denim, Plum, Heather Grey

Diet Coke and Nail Polish!

I absolutely hate having naked nails! In my youth I worked a couple of food service jobs and wasn't allowed to wear nail polish for health and safety reasons, which was horrible! The jobs themselves are absolutely horrendous in themselves but the lack of nail polish really upset me! This is making me sounds like such a lame girl but I love having painted nails! It just makes me feel more polished and ready, and I think it can add a little something extra... and it cheers me up! I quite often paint my nails on a sunday, whilst watching chilled out tv, so i feel ready to face the working week!

And Diet Coke... I think I might be slightly hooked, I probably drink at least a litre a day! Occasionally people try and tell me horror stories about diet drinks corroding my insides and the dangers of artificial sweetener... but hey I think as vices go a Diet Coke addiction can't be that bad!

The promotion is that you get one of the 4 colours free when you buy 2 500ml bottles of diet coke. I almost got the blue colour (Denim) but decided to go for the Heather Grey colour. In the promotional shot above in looks very pink but in real life its a lovely purpley-grey

Please excuse the shitty manicure and nail polish all over the bottle!

I think I might go back and get the denim and plum colours!

You make me dizzy miss lizzy, The way you rock and roll

Right, so this being my first blog post that actually has some vague structure, I should introduce myself properly. My name is Lizzy, I'm 24 years old and live in Reading. I work full time in a hospital a train ride away and live with my boyfriend. Main things I hope to burble about on this blog are Clothes, Make-up, Music, Food and any other random things that interest me!

I sometimes look like this:

A few weeks ago I stumbled into the big tesco near us and found this rather lovely polka dot dress. I love polka dots and couldn't resist trying it on.

 Dress: Tescos

Necklace: Accessorize

Tights: M&S

The polka dots are a delicate goldy/beige colour and although i'm not the most photogenic person (i'm actually not very at all!) in real life its a very flattering dress which fits well, and hits just above my knees. Its one of those dresses which I think can be dressed up or down- I wore it to visist my grandparents last weekend but plan on wearing it down the pub tonight.  Best of all it was only £16! I'm planning on wearing it tonight with my beloved dorothy perkins "butterfly" flats. I always get lots of compliments when I wear these.

This weekend is going to be a lovely lazy one; i'm going to need it as I'm seeing the Manics twice next weekend!

Erm... so hello!

Hello there! I'm Lizzy and this is my first blog first! Still slightly unsure about what exactely I'll post on here, but we'll wait and see!