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:

What do you think?

Happy Sunday everyone,

Little Rachael
xxxxx