Spin Spin Sugar

Dress: Primark
Shoes: Primark brogues
Blazer: Toast
Bag: Vintage
Necklaces: Debenhams tassel, vintage perfume bottle, Topshop skull, Tiffany Key.

A outfit for wandering about London today- New Cross for a jumble sale at the Amersham Arms and then a little browse through the V&A and a nice sit down in their garden with some clotted cream ice cream while a man played an accordion. Delicious.

Random pastel nails by Barry M because I couldn't settle on one colour, so I picked all 3.

Not much to report, apart from the fact that it is MY BIRTHDAY in less than a month! So excited. Ed has booked us a trip to York for 3 days over the August Bank holiday and I really cannot wait. Does anyone have any good recommendations for York? Please do share. I've heard so many good things about it!

Debenhams A/W 2010 & a few favourites!

Debenhams recently invited me to their Christmas Preview at Kettners in Soho and it was a little disorientating to say the least. Baubles on tress, crackers and shiny trinkets on a very warm day in July?! Slightly odd. But then I was utterly distracted by the shoes and accessories and forgot all about the weirdness.

The bags above were a mixture of Debenhams own brand and their in-house Designers at Debenhams ranges. Look at the little grey satchel in the bottom right corner! I LOVE it! I got very excited by the animal print bags too, I've been searching for a leopard holdall for a while.




The shoes were a real treat. Now, you will all know by now that I am a flats-only girl but the Special Collection corsage platforms above are just so pretty, I am in two minds whether to buy them when they're released just to display on my shelf!

Now, when Debenhams very kindly offered us a voucher to spend on the items in-store at the moment, I got very excited. I knew exactly what I wanted after lusting after it for the past couple of months and I skipped into the Oxford Street flagship praying they hadn't sold out.

If you remember my post about my love for Americana, you'll know I have wanted a varsity jacket for a long time. Red Herring have my dream incarnation of a vintage, fifties baseball jacket and it is now mine!



Apologies for the terrible photo, Ed is out and I struggled with my tripod- it was either too tall or too short and my patience wore thin.

I've been worrying it doesn't suit me or makes me look too boxy, but to be honest, I don't care. I love it too much to care! It is way too hot for this jacket at the minute but it will be a perfect autumn crossover cover-up and will look great with little tea-dresses or jeans.


Debenhams also asked me if there was anything I liked from the website and I instantly fell head over heels for the Red Herring Russian Doll sweater. It's such a bargain as well, it's on sale at the minute- everything in the Red Herring collection has 15% off at the minute.

I love the description too: 'bringing retro antiques to your everyday fashion.'


I promise to make these into proper outfits soon. I'm going to spend a little time thinking about what to pair this with, what do you think? A little pencil skirt? A floral skirt?


I've mentioned the H! By Henry Holland collection before, and although some of the items have been a little hit or miss in the past, there are some great pieces available at the moment. Some of my picks from the website:

Black Dobby Crop Shirt.



Tan Quentin Small Satchel

Grey Button up Cape.
This will be the winter I buy a cape, and I want to find one with a hood, exactly like this.


What do you think of my picks? Are you a cape & satchel girl?

I hope you are all well? It's Friday and I couldn't be happier. Drinks tonight with friends, maybe a cheeky cocktail or two and then a weekend of thrifting and jumble sales!

In London this weekend?

TEAM JUMBLE NEEDS YOU!

I'm doing the jumble sale again this Sunday 1st August AND IT IS THE LAST ONE FOR AGES so please come along and have a gander at all the bargains if you're in town!

Pack your bags and hop on board. This August we are all about the Getaway. Leave your everyday troubles behind and join us for Jumble Sale dedicated to that annual escape to the sun.

Along side the room service, traveller's cheques and suggestive postcards, we'll have stalls of vintage as well as bargain clothing, collectables, homemade food, craft, records, jewelery, books and more! With films screening and... music playing: it's the perfect Sunday Staycation.

**** FREE ENTRY ****

Sunday 1st August
12pm - 6pm
Bar Music Hall
134 Curtain Road
London EC2A 3AR

Facebook page

See you by the beach bar,

Team Jumble x

Tattoology

I got mega bored tonight and started playing around with a Sharpie and fantasising about future tattoos. The top two are mine. Suzanne Vega lyrics- 'Night is the cathedral' and a little hollow heart.

The rest all come from the most amazing tattoo blog called Tattoologist.

If you were going to get a tattoo, what would you get? And where would you get it?

We have a winner!

The winner of my Ark competition is...

JAZZABELLE FROM JAZZABELLE'S DIARY!

Well done lucky lady, email me at myneonlights@hotmail.com with your address details and I'll get the prizes sent out asap. Thank you to everyone who entered, I'm sure I'll be doing another giveaway soon!

Ark were kind enough to also gift me a pair of Hunter Wellington Boots for Latitude which I must say, were brilliant!

If any of you have any festivals coming up, I would really recommend them. Comfy, very hard-wearing, and of course- highly desirable (if you can call wellies desirable!) They will last me a lifetime of festivals and muddy car boot sales and are such a great investment if you are considering them.

A little luck and some housekeeping.

My lucky has really changed direction this month. I have never really won anything but so far this month I have won FOUR blog comps. I was amazed to see that I had won the second prize in Clare from Tweet's Tatty Devine giveaway this week. When it turned up on my doormat a couple of days later, like a kid at Christmas, I ripped the envelope open excitedly. A million Thank You's to Clare and Tatty Devine for my brilliant Moustache Ring, lollipop and pretty pink sticker. I love it and it fits perfectly!

Clare also tagged me in a recent post to answer these 8 questions and then choose 8 other bloggers to pass them too. I haven't done one of these in ages, so I thought I would give it a go.


1. What never fails to cheer you up?
Edward's jokes. His favourite programme is Lovejoy, an early nineties show about the japes of a wheeling-dealing antiques trader. Odd. Need I say more? My friends, most of whom I have known forever, make me happy every single day. If human beings are otherwise engaged, I turn to my Phoenix Nights DVDs, put Le Tigre or Primal Scream on and have a dance in my tiny living room!

2. If you could live one day of your life over again what would it be?
I’m not sure if this question means to improve something that day or just get to live it again because it was so awesome. If the latter, probably a Christmas Day from the last few years- all of which have been non-eventful but really precious. I love Christmas so incredibly much, it’s a bit weird. I’m already looking forward to it again and we’re in July!

3. What do you like best about yourself?
Physically speaking, I’m not a particularly confident person and the only thing I particularly like about myself is my eyes. But I really like, and am proud of, my sense of humour, my creative streak, my inability to ever get bored and my stubborn persistence.

4. What would you change about yourself?
My passionate loathing for exercise, my eyesight and at times, my lack of motivation.

5. What have you enjoyed most about blogging?
Writing, first and foremost. I didn’t go to university, so I miss writing critically and one of my aims for the blog is to write at least one article a month on a random subject. The friends I have made & met and the knowledge I have gained from other blogs is also something I never expected but love about blogging.

6. Who or what is your ultimate source of inspiration?
My friends are amazing. Because we have grown up together, I have seen them evolve and chose their own styles. The street/Tube is great in London, sitting or having a cigarette watching the world walk-by. Old fairytales, print-books, adverts and various other ephemera is also something I collect. Museums and exhibitions. And obviously, other blogs are a massive source of inspiration to me.

7. If you could be anywhere in the world where would you be?
Right now, probably road-tripping across America with friends. Ideally visiting Salem, Washington, New Orleans, Seattle, LA and Vegas. I don't even know if it's possible to visit all of those places in one trip, but I will try damn hard. I have started saving and currently have about a quarter of what I need but we’re planning on going next autumn so I better stop spending all my wages on charity shop tat.

8. Who would you invite to your ideal dinner party?
Ok, quite a toughy but my oddball choices would be- Frida Kahlo, Miranda July, Hans Christian Andersen, Roald Dahl, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Enid Bylton with Tom Hardy and Ezra Koenig for the hotness.

I would like to pass this on to eight fantastic, lovely bloggers-

Sarah at The Enchanted Hunters
Avalonne at The Girl from HK, LDN & SF
Alice at An Alien World
Tory at Curve in the Mode
Ella at Ella Masters
Georgina at Glitterbird
Jazzabelle at Jazzabelle's Diary
Sarah at Silence Sweetheart

I also received this pretty in pink giveaway prize from Emma at Passion for Fashion and love it all! Thank you Emma! There were also Percy Pig sweeties, but I'm sure you can imagine what happened to them. I can't wait to try out the Soap & Glory hand cream and the Henry Holland tights.

A sign of love.

One of my favourite pastimes of late is spotting pretty road names in London. I saw this one earlier today near my flat and I had to take a photo.

I dedicate it to my favourite illustrator/blogger who is easily destined for big things, the wonderful Ella Masters.



Visit her blog and you will find her delightful illustrations, magical prints and a possible up and coming portrait necklace project! This is one very talented lady and guess who I've chosen to paint my new blog header?! Exciting stuff.

Giveaway heads up and pretty pieces!

Happy Wednesday my lovelies! First day back at work today and I am a tired girl this evening. After dashing to the Debenhams Christmas preview (more on this soon!) and the TK Maxx flagship store launch in Soho I am pooped (and also suffering the realisation that I am very rubbish at press events) but I wanted to do a quick post to alert you all to an amazing competition running at the minute!

My BFF Amy is having a great giveaway over at her blog Wolf Whistle. Go check it out here to see the gorgeous pieces you can win!

Which reminds me...if you haven't entered my Ark competition yet, why not?!
You only have until midnight on Saturday 24th July to enter so get commenting you wonderful people and THANK YOU to all who have entered so far!

Also, so this post isn't one of those ever-so-boring, picture-free jobbies, here are so more of my finds from last weekend!

Skull ring £2 Topshop sale
Huge pink rose cuff £2 Primark

Agate gem pendant £1.95 Oxfam


Hand painted, huge wooden jewellery box £3 Oxfam

Epic Festival Post. Sorry.

I'm back from Latitude Festival for the fourth year in a row, clean, rested and suffering from a serious case of the post-festival blues. I took so many photos (350 or so), here are a few- somewhat rubbish quality-photos, some brilliant bands and a few sheep.







The Oxfam vintage scarf-arch. House of Fairytales. Neon tree signs. Art in the woods. Models getting ready for the Central St Martins fashion show. Coffee van. Pastel Tim Walker-style sheep. So many oddities dotted around, so much fun spotting them all!



Lilac hippies. Tiger-zebras. Thousands of girls wearing floral garlands. A very crap-tastic, slightly stalkerish photo of Sadie Frost and Nick Grimshaw. Because, you know, I'm wowed by celebs.





Four good bands. Laura Marling. Eddie Argos- so brilliant. The Horrors. Gaggle. From these photos I've learnt my camera is not great at zoom. Apologies for the quality.



Campfires and twilight lanterns. Why can't we do this all the time? Because it wouldn't feel special and we would get fed up of the smell of smoke in our hair probably.


Just one of outfit of a pretty shabby bunch. One thing I've learnt is that some girls can look fabulous for the whole festival, through sweaty tents, drunken downpours and a million babywipes. I am not one of them.

Another thing I've realised is that at festivals, there is always time for multi-coloured feathers, indian head-dresses and floral hairbands. I wish I could wear them everyday, but once a year it is I guess. See you next year Latitude, missing you already.