Tonight make it magnificent.

Cropped pale blue jumper: £10, Primark. Blouse: £13.50, Miss Selfridge (old). Joni jeans: £30, Topshop. Anna boots: £76.50, Topshop. Socks: Primark (part of pack). Holiday bag: gift, Cath Kidston. Lipstick: MAC Ravishing.

This time last week I was on a train (the novelty of that mode of transport wore of a long, long time ago) heading northwards to visit Claire, Gem, Maria, Sarah and Emma in Birmingham. I can't say I've explored the city too much in my many times visiting as I somehow always end up in Selfridges and the Mailbox, but what I have seen makes me want to find out more about the rest of it. The above photos were taken by Claire just outside the grounds of the cathedral, and I added the typical touristy photo of the town hall - you can't complain about its architecture at all! As I knew we'd be doing a fair amount of wandering around the city, I thought I'd wear a sensible outfit (for once), donning my trusted Topshop anna boots, joni jeans (which I'm actually less than impressed with regarding wear, has anyone else had issues with them once they've been washed?), a cheaper and purposefully less fluffy version of that Topshop jumper, and my "bag that everything fits in" which I've been using since I got it for my birthday nearly two years ago, perfect for carrying pyjamas, playsuits and, um, vodka.

We spent the day wandering round the town centre, before calling into GBK for burgers (come on, we are bloggers) and a catch up. Sadly Emma and Sarah had to leave us after the meal to do important grown-up things like sleep, but the rest of us returned to Snobs for a night of dancing on broken glass and requesting Blondie. Leaving the next morning (read: afternoon) was made substantially better with nachos and orange juice, and I didn't even have any annoying passengers on my train home! This weekend is being spent a little closer to home, as I've just spent the morning making triangular sandwiches ready for a DIY afternoon tea. Thug life, right?

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Birmingham's Christmas Markets.

Last Saturday I hopped on a train heading South, and, when it terminated in Birmingham, I packed my copy of "The Wrongs of Woman" firmly in my bag till the homeward journey. Once out of the station, I met Eloise, Claire, Emma, Kim, Becca, Maria, and Victoria, to have a quick coffee catch-up, Nando's (fyi, I had a medium halloumi and mushroom wrap, chips, and macho peas), and a mooch around the shops. We then, of course, had a look round the christmas markets, which involved scary amounts of nutcrackers and winter Pimm's! Armed with their DSLRs, and my ever faithful point and shoot, we had a quick opportunity for outfit photos, and Eloise took some of me, despite my protestations that no one would want to see an outfit they'd seen countless times before. But, you know, you don't have a willing photographer every day! I can't wait for the christmas markets to open in Liverpool, anyone for glühwein?

Also, I set up a blog shop (which I'll be adding to as and when I have the time), so if you could have a look I'd really appreciate it!

xxx

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When I was a child running in the night I was afraid of what might be

1. Hungry for the Breakfast Club

2. Patisserie Valerie

3. Reflections upon Liverpool

4. Me, Claire, Sian, and Bel in Birmingham

5. Bukowski

6. Bracing ourselves for Sabby's birthday

7. Brownstock 2011

It certainly has been a while since I've posted any of my film "photography" on my blog. In fact, I still have a set to scan, and a few rolls of film waiting impatiently to be developed, but I like to think this'll only heighten the surprise/shame when I do finally see what delights are trapped inside the feared negatives. I don't see myself as a photographer, and leave the technical stuff to Jazzy, Lily, Laura and Sophie, but I still like to have a camera (or two, or three...) in my bag to capture moments in time. I know that a lot of people think bloggers ought to have a pricey DSLR to be worth taking up precious pixels, but my little point and shoot and I are plodding along just fine. The above photos were taken with a job lot of expired disposable cameras purchased from ebay, working out as well under one British pound each. They may not grace the pages of a glossy magazine, but I'd rather have a stack of these than a floor to ceiling pile of Vogues any day.

Today marks the end of a summer of interning. Three months of commuting past the Olympics - done! I'm being a little cheeky and leaving early today, in order to get to Brownstock festival before the ticket office closes. It's becoming tradition to end my summer sitting on a ground sheet surrounded by a buzzing bassline from afar, friends cross-legged playing guitar as the sun sets, and dancing to unknown (and familiar!) bands. I may have dreams of Coachella, but I really don't think anyone can do a music festival like the brits!

Enough romanticising, and a quick mention of romance - I'd just quickly like to say congratulations to the newly wedded Mr & Mrs Wren. I wouldn't put it past Eloise to make her first dance a Pitbull tune...

xxx

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..___ _____ .____ .____

1. Skulking round Bloomsbury, February. 

2. Regressing in the Raz's toilets, March. 

3. Well..., June. 

4. L'Oréal advert in Hooga, August. 

5. Oh, memories!, August. 

6. Discovering it's 85p for a single to Stratford from Hampstead Heath, September. 

7. With Sian, Char, Hayley, Eloise, Michelle and Emma at the Brimingham Christmas markets, November. 

8. End of film madness with Josh and Amy at our old school's reunion dinner, December.

You know people make YouTube videos of all the stuff they bought that week and call it a "haul"? Well, this is my haul of 2011, so sorry for the massive overload of photos, but it was so, so difficult to narrow it down to these eight.
I've written about ten drafts of text to accompany this post, yet everything I write is so sentimental that it ends up sounding insincere. So, in its simplest form, I'd just like to thank everyone who reads whatever rubbish I write here. It truly does mean a lot to read through comments, have ridiculous conversations on Twitter, and even meet up with you lovely lot. I hope you all have a fantastic NYE, can't wait to read all about it!
My resolutions for 2011 were to "stop acting like a dick and wear more glitter", might have to carry those ones over to 2012...


xxx


ps, pixel cookie for whoever can work out what the title of this post means.

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panic on the streets of birmingham

we started as we ended - the pallasades' starbucks. havoc in the form of yellow max c bags slowly took over with their frappucinos. add to that the tote bags (you can never have enough totes, trust me) courtesy of missguided and motel, plus tesco clothing goodies, and i think you'll understand why i had some fetching red marks on my shoulder. these are the only photos i took (claire and i decided that we just couldn't leave those fur coats behind. in july.), so i'll leave the "professional" shots to the others.

it was so, so lovely to finally meet some of the girls i've been tweeting for months over mushroom risotto at red peppers and a fair bit of vodka at the hmv institute. admittedly, i did quite enjoy the wetherspoons breakfast (and gallons of orange juice) the next morning. heaven in a juicer. i keep checking the #brumbloggermeet hashtag and discovering even more wonderful (and not so flattering!) photos. even if i did start to feel quite nervous the night before, i am so, so glad i went, so massive love for claire and fritha for organising it all! hello to sara, gem, emma, selina, gemma, and (of course!) emma who witnessed my excuse for dancing to the smiths in the little hours, as well as elizabeth, florrie, and hattie who explored birmingham's culinary delights with me. another (even bigger?) hello to char, clare, danni, eloise, hayley, joy, lily, louise, maria and sarah who i didn't really get to spend so much time with, i think we need another reunion to rectify this. anyone up for it? ;)

okay, i'm just going to stop gushing now. yeah.

xxx

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