I've been feeling a bit low the last few days and it's been a struggle to get up the motivation to dress up etc. I've also been finding it hard to leave the house. Not sure why I get bouts of this but it does happen now and again. It's really frustrating. I did have a phone call with HR at the beginning of the week which I was very nervous about and which I think might have triggered this. Although the call itself was not particularly scary it does have ramifications in my upcoming work life. I won't know anything for sure until the end of this week apparently but having it hanging over me does create a bit of a cloud.
I did nothing of note yesterday and so there are no outfits or anything to blog about. However, the day before I did manage to cobble something together so here it is!
I originally did my hair like the below - a suicide roll, old flower slide and a polka dot scarf:
However, I took this all out as was feeling really uninspired and was panicking about going outside with it. Seriously! I feel stupid writing that but there you go.
So, instead I tied my hair into a ponytail, then added a black chiffon scarf and I used my faberoo Babyliss Perfect Curl to curl it.
For some reason I felt better with my hair like this as it's not an exact style I've done before and it felt quite cute and Rockabilly.
I wore an old Dorothy Perkins teal tea dress that I bought eons ago in BHS. I have a lovely pale baby blue cropped cardigan from New Look that looked well with the dress and, as my feet are still recovering from my Miss L Fire sandals, I wore some comfy but ugly slip on black plimsolls.
I managed to drag myself and baby up to the post office in this. Dressing up can be really self affirming some days and other days it can make me feel very self conscious. I really enjoy it but there's those days when the voices crowd me a bit and I start second guessing everything. Sorry, this must be really boring to read!
I also used my new Benefit 'They're real; push up gel eyeliner' in beyond black and some of their new brow products ( they have a new range and now have 9 different products for girls and their brows). I will blog about them another time.
I decided to give this look ago as it's a classic Rockabilly style. I've noticed on Instagram that it's called 'Bumper Bangs' but in my Vintage Styling book (by Lauren Rennells) this look is called a Pompadour.
First thing I have to say on the subject is that it is easier than it looks...!
I've tried this a few times with zero success - this is genuinely the best it has gone. It's not too messy but you can see a lot of the pins, which in an ideal world, would be invisible.
I really like the view from the top though - it looks pretty good and the purple scarf is a nice contrast to my hair and completes the style.
I cheated slightly by creating a fake rat fill. For those who don't know what this is, it's a hair net filled with your own hair that you sort of harvest from your hair brush. This is then used to pad out the centre of your style. It's kind of gross to be honest and, as I change my hair colour all the time, I'd end up with a multicoloured rat fill. There's something a bit creepy about keeping scraps of your own hair but I know that is the traditional method. Who knows - I might come round to it.
So, the fake rat fill was made with a small bun ring that I tied with plastic hair bands into a tube shape.
The bonus is that hair pins go into it really easy and grip into it well. I don't know if this is something other people have used as I just came up with it while I struggled to create the hair shape. It worked at any rate, the biggest problem being that you can see it if you look closely at the ends of the roll.
I used hairspray to secure it and a tail comb to smooth over the roll and try to tidy it up. The hairspray is quite sticky so it was quite frustrating as sometimes it just stuck to the comb instead of smoothing down as I intended.
I think this style looks awesome on other people but I don't feel it suits me at all. It's too high up and away from my face - it's kind of floating over me. I wouldn't feel comfortable wearing it for real, especially not out of the house but I'm glad I tried it. Maybe I need to experiment with it further - perhaps make it larger and try to get it lower on my face...
At any rate I'm glad I was finally able to create one of these because it's been the bane of my hair trials, haha,
I'm not going to harp on about the appallingly named 'Brexit' results in the EU referendum. My feelings are fairly well summed up by the below. It is what it is and we'll just have to try and make it work - I just hope all the horrendous things predicted by this move away from the EU don't come to light or we could be in real trouble in little old Blighty.
It did make me laugh though that the below sponsored ad turned up in my Instagram feed yesterday - very timely! My sister is living over there at the moment and if I wouldn't miss the rest of my family and friends so terribly I'd seriously think about moving my husband and kids over there. That might also be a bit of an emotional knee jerk reaction though, haha.
My hair was in dire need of a wash so I caught it back in a messy up do and tied a white chiffon scarf in a bow. It felt quite glam once I paired it with my Tortoise shell style earrings and it was a lovely hot sunny day for once so it also felt quite summery.
You can tell the sun is out here because so are my freckles. I used to hate them but I've made peace with them these days - I used to hate being described as cute and freckles can be pretty cute looking so I tried to cover them up a lot. But in hot weather heavy foundation is horrible! Even with the lighter Clinque CC cream I like to use as an alternative on days like this, it can feel a bit oily in the heat. There's nothing worse than the make-up slide when you've bothered to get made up.
I used a slick & a flick of Barry M liquid eyeliner in the 'forest' shade, which coincidentally matched my hair. I thought it would be a fun and lighter alternative to the darker lines and I find it easier to apply as for some reason it doesn't seem to require the same precision.
On my lips I wore a slightly less rich red lipstick from Make-up Revolution in 'Dare.' It's got a pinky undertone to it and I think it suits my complexion quite well. As it's lighter it is great to wear for day but I do find it comes off easily but as it's quick and foolproof to put more on it kind of cancels that out. I'd received this lippy as a gift so hadn't realised how cheap it was - I really like this colour and if I'd realised how much of a bargain it was I'd have probably bought a ton more of this lipstick in different shades! It's only £1... amazing.
The only downside of these beautiful items of footwear was that I ended up having to do a lot of walking yesterday and they rubbed the fuck out of my feet. I have blisters on my blisters. It was my own fault though - you don't wear new shoes on long walks. In my defence I thought I was simply going for a leisurely lunch but I ended up walking around Maidstone town centre for over an hour and then had to walk home pushing a pushchair. My feet were on FIRE. I can barely walk today because I have blisters on the soles of my feet. Ouch. I didn't even know you could get blisters there.
But they looked amazing. So it was kinda worth it.
We had a lovely lunch sitting in the beer garden of the White Rabbit. I had a burger and there really is no way to elegantly eat one is there? To be honest, it was that delicious I didn't care that I was stuffing my face. I wore a pair of my favourite sunglasses that I bought in TK Maxx last year.
A photo posted by My Rockabilly Summer 💋 (@myrockabillysummer) on
I also carried my leather and straw Gharani Strok satchel that I rediscovered in the top of my wardrobe. I bought this little beauty a while ago in TK Maxx as well... I love that shop for accessories.
So that was my day and my outfit. Thanks for reading.
Yesterday's outfit was somewhat inspired by the fact it was apparently National Pink Day (who makes these things a thing?). Now, anyone who knows me will know I'm not a big fan of pink on the whole, although I have been embracing it more and more. This outfit it about as pink as I get though!
The shell pink flower earrings are a New Look purchase and are larger than I would normally go for but I really like them. I used Benefit Dandelion face brightening make-up on my cheeks (pink) and on my eyelids to keep in with the pink theme. No eyeliner today but a couple of coats of mascara and my new favourite NYX 'Eden' matte red lip. It just felt too hot and sticky to have any heavy eye make-up, I could just imagine it slipping down my face gradually as the day went on.
My floral hair arrangement is one I got from ASOS and is on a barrette clip. Annoyingly the clip was broken from the moment I opened the packet but luckily it was nothing I couldn't fix with a pair of pliers. My bad luck also extended to my new top - I noticed as the day wore on that there was a hole under one arm. Especially annoying as it was the first time I'd worn it and I don't have any of the tags or original wrapping for it in order to be able to return it. I'll have to see if I can sew it.
It was a particularly humid day which meant make-up just wanted slide off my face. You'll have to excuse any shininess in the photos!
And as I was taking some photos my gorgeous little pudge woke up from his nap and I couldn't resist getting a few shots with him. He's such a smiley little man!
I'm really enjoying putting together the outfits and sharing them on Instagram. And I'm getting better at venturing out of the house without editing myself - although I have to confess on this day I changed out of the skirt and took the flowers out of my hair as it was so hot & humid but it was raining too so I schleped the double buggy to and from nursery in jeans and rain mac. So glamourous!
Yesterday I was lucky enough to have a wonderful massage at The Fig Tree Spa in Lenham, Kent. I was very kindly bought a voucher by my Sister in Law and finally got around to utilising it... and boy was it ever needed. I'm sure the poor woman's fingers must have hurt trying to tackle the mega knots in my shoulders and whilst she did a great job I think it would take at least 20 massages to get those bad boys out. I'm also pretty sure my two year old undid all her good work within minutes when he insisted I carry him on a walk around the picturesque village. Ahhhh, but it was lovely and relaxing and so nice to have a few minutes of being pampered. I was so groggy afterwards I think I would have quite happily slept on that table for hours. My legs went numb and my hands tingled so clearly my back is in need of some serious attention - I wonder if I can persuade the Husband to make it a weekly thing?! In my dreams. I must get back there soon though, it was too nice.
As I was going to be undressing and my neck, shoulders and back were going to be massaged and covered in oils I decided to forego doing anything much with my hair. I just washed it and caught the sides back with some plain black hair combs I bought recently on Amazon.
I wore my super bargainous peachy/pinky coloured ribbon-esque earrings discovered accidently on a quick shopping trip in a Sainsbury's supermarket.
Make-up was a little flirty flick of the eyeliner in my Barry M liquid liner in plum and a red lip. My lipstick was a matte one from NYX in gorgeous shade called 'Eden.' I've had this lippy for a while but this is the first time I've worn it and I love it. It's super pigmented and doesn't feel dry on my lips.
The weather was grey and fairly humid to boot so I wore my black ankle grazer jeans from H&M which I rolled up and paired with my black and white striped Bardot top (also H&M and currently in the sale for only £6.49). I love a Bardot style top as it feels quite glamourous without being over the top. My only issue was getting it to sit right - it takes a while when you first put it on to get the 'flap' to fold all the way around at the top of it which is quite difficult to do on your own. Then, it's getting it to stay put. I think I was fiddling with it the whole day as it moved very easily whilst I was going about my usual activities (running around after a toddler and picking up & playing with the baby for example).
I then helped to define my waist and add a little pop of colour with my 2" Vivien of Holloway belt in blue. I was originally going to put on my black one but couldn't find it but actually think the blue looks better in the end.
Over all I liked this outfit and I think wearing more form fitting styles suits me and makes the most of what I have. Nipping my waist in and not hiding under baggy options definitely looks better but can make me feel a little self conscious. The top is lovely but a little irritating, not sure if there's a way around it moving so much. Was contemplating sewing it in place but not sure how well the stretchy material will take to that nor whether my sewing skills are up to the challenge. I felt very hour glassy which is a nice feeling and I'm proud of myself for going out in public wearing it and not shying away from my figure and people looking at me. I had to pop to the garage to fill the car up with fuel before heading to the spa and it was slightly tortuous standing in the queue waiting to pay and it feeling like everyone was side-eyeing me - really need to get over that! Need to work on my confidence more but I'm improving slowly everyday. I'm actually wearing my bright red lippy out of the house - a big step for me, haha.
Oh and quite weirdly but very flatteringly, someone on Instagram was inspired by one of my posts to create a painting of it.
A photo posted by My Rockabilly Summer 💋 (@myrockabillysummer) on
And here's the painting - can you spot the difference?! :D
Oh and very excitingly for a brief glimmer of time my OOTD post was featured in the top posts section of Instagram for #retrostyle alongside the likes of @kirstiemydear and @missvictoryviolet. Nearly died.
