Collaboration and Update

Through contacting me on Polyvore (http://waitforclearskies.polyvore.com/) I am now collaborating with another blogger Regina on her blog http://onehauteprime.com/, please check it out to see some of my posts.
Also I'm sorry I haven't posted anything on here in forever but I've been busy recently with school and Christmas, I am thinking I want a revamp of this blog or to create a new one I just feel as if my thoughts and posts on things are really scattered, sometimes posting on tumblr, twitter, polyvore loads of things then this gets a little bit left behind. I'm trying to think of the best thing/site to use to start afresh and get everything together. Please leave comments if you have any ideas!
Merry Christmas,
hugs and kisses,
Em
x

Obsessed: Polyvore

You may have already noticed or are on the fabulous website yourself but the outfit collages on the right are from my page on Polyvore. It is a fashion based website drifting into art as well, (fashion is art anyway!) where you can put together outfits. I only joined it a few months ago but I am already addicted. Fashion I've always seen as one of the greatest ways to express yourself, it is a way of you putting on a different character everyday. My clothes reflect my feelings and they can change them also, there is no argument against the belief that if you think you look good you feel good. Basically this post is a recommendation for anyone with an interest in fashion or art to check the website out. Everyone on there is wonderful and it has a fantastic community feel about it, I haven't seen a negative comment once. Speaking of wonderful polyvore users the lovely 'jforjackie' is a fellow polyvore using blogger and you should all check her out. (her polyvore, her blog).
             One of the big positives of Polyvore for me is how it helps you find your own fashion sense, a lot of people change their opinions constantly and there's nothing wrong with that but I always find it satisfying to know what I like and polyvore just helps to make things clear in your mind and be like oh yeah that's my style.
I'm sure you can tell but yes I highly recommend it! If you do start using Polyvore make sure to  message me on there (link to my page) and i'll make sure to follow you.
Love,
Em
x

Some great music

There are a load of albums I want to buy at the moment and with watching Reading and Leeds Festivals on the TV I'm feeling very musically inspired. So I thought I'd make a post of basically just a load of music recommendations, I'll try and describe their sound so you can decide yourself which ones you'd like to listen to.

Band: Peace
Album to buy: In love
Song to listen to: Wraith, California Daze
Their sound: Classified as indie rock but with certain songs going heavier and a few as more light lullaby-esq sounding. They look fantastic live and are great at parties, wraith especially is a real sing along, dance til 3am kind of song. Peace have a dirty sort of sound in a really great way. A few songs have a feeling of Oasis and The Beatles to them as well.

Band: Passion Pit
Album to buy: Gossamer
Song to listen to: Carried Away, Cry like a Ghost
Their sound: Upbeat pop, synth-y sort of sound but really a fun band. With some meaningful lyrics though, not just fluffy pop they are a fantastic band I'm in love with. Such a great band which you can just put one song on and love it but are worth the effort of listening to the album back to back.

Band: Friendly Fires
Album to buy: Friendly Fires
Song to listen to: Kiss of Life, Hawaiian Air
Their sound: Honestly just watch the kiss of life music video or watch a few of their live shows and try not to fall in love with the lead singer, Ed Macfarlane's dancing. Other than that they have a really great summery sound, the kind of thing you can't help but dance or sing to. Feel good music.

Band: Vampire Weekend
Album to buy: Contra
Song to listen to: Diane Young, White Sky
Their sound: An indie band but with a unique sound, fresh sort of percussion feel, generally quite light but with catchy hooks you'll sing for days. Especially Diane Young you'll rarely find me not singing it.

Give them a try,
Love,
Em
x

Ready for School

Lots of people will be heading back to school soon so I thought it would be appropriate for me to make a post of all the tips I use to stop the back to school blues getting to you. If you're one of the lucky people who really loves school then good for you and you might want to do these things anyway just to make it extra great but this is basically for all the people who are dreading the return of homework, early mornings and people you don't like.

1. Get yourself organised. As much as you may want to avoid it you are going to have to do some work and that work is much nicer when you have a load of lovely notebooks, pens and folders. It may just be me but I love buying stationary and getting everything organised.
2. If you can get a head start on some of your work. Even if it's only a tiny bit you'll be grateful you did when the work starts piling up. I'm going to the library tomorrow to plan some of my coursework just so it's not starting completely from square one at school.
3. If you're a non-uniform school or if you are in sixth form (like me) you get to wear your own clothes. Buy yourself an item of clothing that will make you excited to get dressed in the morning. There's nothing worse than waking up and not liking what you're wearing it just puts you in a bad mood for the rest of the day. It could even just be a necklace or some shoes but treat yourself.
4. Plan a great breakfast. It could be just for the first day of term or once you get your timetable plan it for your worst day every week. Go shopping the night before and buy a load of pancakes or fruit or croissants, whatever it is you like. It will put you in a good mood and it's proven a good breakfast helps you concentrate better at school.
5. Following with the food theme, make yourself a great lunch. Lunch is the best time of the day for a lot of people and it's so disappointing to have a soggy sandwich and carrot sticks. Mix things up, buy a little plastic box and pack some noodles or potato salad. A sandwich is not your only option and if it is at least make it a good one!
6. Pat yourself on the back for making it through the week. There is nothing wrong with congratulating yourself and you should be proud of yourself for doing little things, don't ever let anyone put you down for being happy that you did a little thing well. School can be really tough for a lot of people, so good for you for going and getting through each week. So plan something to treat yourself with at the end of the week. Even if it's a little thing like you're going to order pizza and watch your favourite film on a Friday night that is a lovely thing to look forward to.
7. Remember that it is not the end of the world. Getting a bad grade or having to do a presentation you don't want to are little things that when you're 40 you're not even going to remember so don't be too hard on yourself, honestly you're probably doing much better than you give yourself credit for.

Hope any of that has helped and have a look at my 'Things to do when you're sad #1 and #2' posts for more ideas to cheer yourself up with.
Love you,
Em
x

Things to do when you're sad #2

Plan a 'me' day. People will do things they want to do but very rarely will anyone dedicate an entire day to themselves. Tell whoever you live with when you are planning this for so they know not to bother you and either don't make any plans or make some depending on what you want to do that day, it's all up to you! Order takeaway or cook your favourite food for yourself. Watch your favourite film, anything you would enjoy doing. What's fun about this is that half of the fun is in planning this day! You can plan it for the end of a busy school or work week as a reward for yourself for getting through it. I did that when I had to do a presentation at school which I was nervous about I planned for that evening to buy some magazines, chocolate and have a bath. There is absolutely nothing wrong with being a bit selfish sometimes and you probably deserve it! Here are some ideas of things to do on your 'me' day:

• Go for a meal with friends
• Go to the cinema
• Have a movie/TV marathon of all your favourites at home- buy popcorn
• Bake for yourself- cookies, brownies or whatever you want
• Have a bath (see earlier 'things to do when your sad #1')
• Go for a walk/picnic
• Stay up as late or early as you wish
• Buy something you've wanted for a while for yourself
• Listen to all your favourite music, before your 'me' day you can create a playlist for it
• Get a treatment like a manicure, facial or massage
• pamper yourself, buy facemasks or any home beauty products you like

I hope one of you does this and it makes you happy! When I get round to my 'me' day I'll make a post of what I did.
Em
x

Band of the moment: Haim

Haim (pronounced to rhyme with time) are a band from California who I am in love with. From reading NME and watching Glastonbury I had heard their name around recently but hadn't properly listened to them and I started to the other week and they're fantastic. Normally compared to Fleetwood Mac, I guess you could call them folk but they're heavier than that. The band is made up of three sisters, Este, Danielle and Alana Haim. Danielle actually worked with Julian Casablancas (lead singer of The Strokes) on his solo album, Phrazes for the Young. You can see her in his music video for 11th Dimension (another great song).
               For a while I had kind of gone off music, not all together obviously I was still listening to it, I just never knew really what to listen to and I couldn't really get into anything in particular and listening to Haim has really gotten me back into it! I think it was the lack of a new band to like that meant I wasn't excited about music because I had listened to all of the stuff I had too much already. Haim have really gotten me excited about music again which is awesome. I find that for me to completely love a band I need to like them as well as their music and Haim just seem so great, in all of their interviews they seem so fun and I do think it's lovely to see some great female musicians in indie music not just as solo pop artists like Rihanna or anything like that. The video is them performing 'Go Slow' acoustically. It's not my favourite song of theirs but I think it's a great video to show their personalities as well.
Hope you enjoy!
Em
x

Love her style: Jemima Kirke

I hadn't seen her in anything until I watched the HBO show 'Girls' (highly recommend, I'm probably going to make another post just about the TV show itself) and now I'm slightly obsessed with Jemima Kirke and her style, she's an actress and artist, born in London but raised in New York her style is very laid back but effortlessly beautiful. I love the whole boho, almost hippy style but then she'll wear heels with it and looks stunning but as if she wasn't trying too hard. I've always believed that people generally look their best when they just throw something on and feel comfortable in it, there is nothing worse than someone in a skin tight dress who looks really conscious of the fact they are in a skin tight dress. T-shirt dresses, wavy hair and flip flops all the way. I just find Jemima does that look perfectly. Less is more. If you want to get her look what I advise is:
1) Toni & Guy- Salt Spray, I bought it the other day and just spray it onto dry hair and you get beachy waves, Jemima doesn't do much to her hair except plaiting it or a messy bun. If it takes more than 10 minutes don't do it.
2) Red Lipstick- Any brand just get a matte red lip going and you're halfway there.
3) Prints. Whatever item of clothing it is, make sure it's baggy and has a print on it, don't mix prints too much or there will be too much going on but go for a single statement piece.
Basically just wear what you love and what you feel comfortable in, shop around in charity stores and you're bound to find some great items which are unique, add a statement necklace and the first 2 tips and you're good to go.
Love,
Em
x

You're hot

At the beginning of the summer I got a temp job with Monsoon/Accessorize and they were moving their store down the high street so I was helping out with the move and all that stuff, and one day we were setting up the new store and there was so much to do a load of girls came from some of the other stores to help out, so there were basically 50 or so different girls, all about 15-30. Basically the point I'm getting to is it was so fascinating to watch everyone (I'm a people watcher anyway, so this was fab) and see how every single girl has their own fashion sense, hair style and makeup and everyone looked awesome and lovely in their own way. It was one of the only opportunities I've had to see so many different styles at once and it is so true that if someone looks comfortable in themselves then they generally look fantastic. Basically the epiphany I had was that there is so not one way to be beautiful, you don't have to be a certain size or a certain style, as these girls demonstrated, each and everyone one was rocking their own thing.
What I'm saying is you're hot, and you're the hottest you there is.
Em
x

Things to do when you're sad #1

Take a bath, make sure you have some great music with you. I recommend Ben Howard, Every Kingdom is a great album to play back to back but Foals- Spanish Sahara is unbeatable as a summery relaxing song. Buy yourself a magazine or some bubble bath (or both, both is good) basically treat yourself to something that you are going to have in the bath, it could be a book or some chocolate. You are the most important person in your own life, in your head when you read that you may have thought of someone else for a second, someone you would do anything for. Yes other people can mean everything to you but they aren't the most important. A bath is a private thing where you can be any emotion, do anything and release some stress. If you just want to wallow in the water and be sad then go for it. Do what you want to, just for an hour or so.
Hope this has helped anyone,
Em
x

My Angle

I clicked 'new post' because I've been really excited today to get started on posting more. Then I was like well I could do a post about fashion, or makeup, or art maybe but then I just feel as if that isn't anything different. Then I started to think what this blog is actually meant to be, what is my purpose, one of my friends has a fashion photography style blog so she knows exactly what she wants to be posting about but I just do this for my own enjoyment and so what do I post about? What do I want to talk about and what do I think would be the most helpful or fun for you guys. Basically I have no clue, I think I just like talking about life, giving advice and different views on things. Yes I will make posts about makeup and fashion because those are things I love but I just feel like I need a focus for this blog.
I'll work it out
Em
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