Tuesday, 29 March 2011

A Night on the Tiles.... :-)

Last night, we went to see a friend's gig in town. They're called The Hot Soles - Myspace them now! They were amazing, overall a really good night.

Little Rachael Collection - Necklaces on Sale! :-)

I feel the need to tell you that as I'm writing this, I'm really excitable. Jumping beans in my stomach excited! The first reason for it, I'm going to keep to myself for now, just in case it doesn't work out... (...but don't go thinking I'm pregnant or engaged or anything - it's not quite that dramatic!) Then there's te second reason...

Today I received my new order of jewellery making supplies: vintage-inspired charms and pendants, gold plated and silver plated chains, jump rings and connectors! I spent two hours sat making jewellery and another couple taking photos, editing and uploading everything to my Etsy Shop to sell! I only managed to get around to photographing and uploading half of the necklaces I've made, but it's definitely a start - Little Rachael is back in business! :-)

I sincerely hope you adore these items as much as I do! They would make great necklaces either alone or layered with other choices. They make perfect cute, unique presents too!

Without further stalling, here's the first few that I have up for sale! :-)

Large, Peach and White Vintage Style Cameo Pendant Necklace, £13.99, One Available

Large, Oval, Nautical, Ship Pendant Necklace, £13.99, One Available

Silvertone Retro Camera Charm Pendant Necklace, £5.99 , Two Available

Angel in Paris, Vintage Style Cute Charm Pendant Necklace, £9.99, Two Available

Do you like?! I'm in love with a few of them - so much so I almost want to keep them for myself :-) If you like them then all you have to do is click on the title and away you go ;-)

More to come soon: Watch this space.

Little Rachael xx

Sunday, 20 March 2011

Spotlight on: Miss Patina

After a mega-splurge on EBay, I've decided it's time to put my spending on hold for a while! I can't really afford to buy anything else until payday. Unfortunately, I just happened to stumble across a wonderful little London based brand, Miss Patina, that specialise in vintage-style clothing.... It can't help to just look, right?

Here's a few things from Miss Patina's collection that I'm adding to my "Lust List" ....

Premium Collection Luxurious Chanel Style Spring Dress (Pink)

Style Stalker: Emma Watson

Does anyone else remember the moment when Emma Watson transformed from sweet, young Hermione Granger into a chic sophisticated Chanel-wearing Vogue-cover-bearing young lady? The haircut transformed her, certainly, but her style epiphany happened well before that (remember those Burberry ads?). She's fast become one of my biggest style crushes.

And this is why:

A little splash of Colour....

Alexander McQueen - Autumn/Winter 11-12

Some of my favourites from the Alexander McQueen Autumn/Winter 2011-2012 collection:

I had a really good night out last night with a couple of friends I haven't seen for a while. You can't see it very well in the photo above, but I'm wearing a grey maxi dress from Asos which I'm a little bit in love with, even though it's quite a simple design (see the pictures below). I think I just find it exciting when I find a maxi dresses that fit me!. The kimono style cardigan is also a new buy of mine, from Dorothy Perkins. I don't usually go for animal-prints, to be honest, but something about the subtlety of the print and the way it falls made me love it!

I've been spending far too much time online shopping lately, I really need to calm down with it unless I want to end up bankrupt! ASOS and dorothyperkins.com are my paticular weaknesses - I like that with DP you can return things to the shop without having to post them back - big plus for me as I usually end up forgetting and never get a refund. I still have a beautiful dress hanging in my wardrobe that I should have sent back... no amount of praying is going to make it fit me! ;-) The other big advantage of both shops for me is that they shop plenty of size 6s! I find it quite difficult finding clothes that fit me on the main high street.

Anyway, here's a little taster of my guilty spending habits of late:

ASOS PETITE Exclusive Long Sleeve Seam Maxi Dress

ASOS Lace Insert Tights

ASOS Dobby Mesh Insert Sweetheart Sweat Top

Friday Finds.... Topshop 214 Magazine SS11

I wonder what Friday finds?

Little Rachael xx

Sunday, 6 March 2011

An Actual Update.

If I'm honest - It's been a really long time since I wrote a blog entry with any real detail. I've done a lot of fashion lust and inspiration posts, but have shared very little of my own life for several months. I admit it, I've become a little lazy and I've realised that I can't really expect anyone to identify with me as a blogger if I don't share a little bit more of myself.

So, with that in mind, here's a few snapshots of my life since October:

Paint print petite maxi dress - Asos. Grey wool knit - Miss Selfridge. Necklace - handmade, couture boutique, Bruge. Bracelet - Pandora.

The very first photo is of myself and a very good friend on my birthday in October. I adore the dress she wore that night (though don't have a better photo of it unfortunately) and although you can't see it very well in that photo, she's wearing one of my signature 'carousel' necklaces. :-) She was the first person I gave the carousel necklace to as I'd originally planned it with her tastes in mind! I only made a couple of the design and the others will be up for sale in my shop soon.

The second, third and fourth photos are of pictures from the middle of November and beginning of December. The one of Skin is from the Skunk Anansie gig Luke and I went to in Sheffield - she was absolutely incredible, her vocals and stage presence really are outstanding and she seems incredibly fit and youthful still!

By the start of December we were well into the "snow season" here in the North of England, which resulted in a few snow days off from work (always a nice surprise!). Luke and I went for a walk through the local park once it had gotten dark - mainly as it wasn't that dark at all! the light from the street lamps bouncing off this huge white blanket was truly beautiful. As for the photo of me in the snow - please bare in mind I was going for warmth above everything else, not fashion! haha.

The next four photos are from Christmas time when Luke and I went back to Whitley Hall (where Luke's sister got married in August) for a huge family meal. The night was lots of fun (the hall itself is a beautiful16th century mansion turned quaint hotel) and it was the first time I had chance to wear the maxi-dress I bought from Asos. My more regular readers may remember the 'Mini Maxi - Long Dresses for Short Girls' blog post I published back in October, where I was venting my frustration at the limited number of maxi dresses available for girls of my height. I also featured some of the better pieces available out there. I very nearly bought the floral type rainbow maxi dress from Asos featured in that post, which is basically the same dress as photographed, just in a slightly different print. Just before I bought it, Asos did me the very kind favour of releasing the dress in the gorgeous paint-type print photographed here. I'm in love with it!!

The last photo is just a shot of my Christmas tree at home. Don't get too excited by the amount of presents I appear to have... they're all other people's gifts that Luke and I bought!

Since the end of Christmas and the start of the new year, there seems to have been very little time for outings, blogging or decent weather (!!), but fortunately we did manage to find a dry, mild Saturday a couple of weekends ago to take a walk in nearby Derbyshire. We are very fortunate to live in an area of the country that has all the benefits of the City while being within half an hours drive of the countryside. We went with a couple of friends and parked up at the Three Merry Lads on the very outskirts of Sheffield, taking a walk around the area. I took my camera along and made the most of the opportunity to practise my photography. The more seasoned photographers out there will spot a lot of errors with my technique, I'm sure, but basically I just love to mess around with lighting, framing and the macro settings on my camera to the best of my inexperienced ability. :-) Add that to my self-taught basic Photoshop skills and here's a little sneak peak of some of the photographs I took that day: