Leopard print. Cosy. Furry. Pink.

I actually wore this outfit a couple of weeks ago. It's like I could tell that, a few weeks later, it would get right cold again and be all snowy and that I'd want to bust out some weather appropriate shit on the blog. Man, I am like so forsightful. Intuitive? Whatever.

But seriously, unless you're in Devon (and gawd knows those guys deserve a break after all the rain they've taken), what's with it being so cold again. Though, I must say, I'm a big fan of seasons behaving as they're expected too. The 10c in January stuff we've had recently was starting to freak me out. I thought Scottish summer had come early. It might have. That might be it over. *cries*. Anyway, should you find yourself in need of warmth on a chilly day, might i recommend to you this get up:

Hat: Primark, Coat: eBay, Skirt: Topshop, Jumper: vintage, Nike trainers: schuh, Necklace: H&M (present)

Double leopard print, in different colours? Check.

Cosy and appropriately loud jumper? Check.

Big bold neck-piece? Check.

I am good to go!

Yet, ANOTHER new trainer obsession. For realz. I mean, you put leopard print on the trainer and there's a good chance I'll bite...

Top and bottom brooches, New York vintage market. Middle brooch: gift.

Kicking off ma boots. And a new jewellery find.

Meet Bob: my Chloe-tastic boots from schuh. They're sold out now but you can get dead similar ones in the sale here. I got them earlier this year and, how they haven't made the blog I've no idea as I wear them ALL the time! They've been all over this year - to Bestival, to see Blur, to work many times, up and down from London and, er, Colchester. Next year they can look forward to getting out and about all over again.

Here's me looking awfully prim by my standards:

Boots: schuh, Dress: Primark, Jumper: ASOS, Necklace: Suzywan Deluxe

One reason I love the boots so much is that, although they're a designer rip off (Chloe's Susanna), they don't feel dead flash in the pan. Chloe have had the boots out for ages and just keep re-releasing them. They're still £850 on Net-a-Porter! So I reckon I'll be wearing these guys for a loooong time! Another reason is that they are SO comfy. As you may know, I have a penchant for, er, interesting shoes that aren't always the most comfy so it's nice to love a pair that are!

This particular day, I decided to go a wee bit prim and buttoned up. Well, it's nice to be smartish sometimes, innit?

To keep the primness 'me' I added this necklace that I got from Suzywan Deluxe, - a French/Swedish label. I'd got a 20% discount from Effet Noemie and UK delivery was free, which is awesome given that they're in France. Being the crapass that I am, the picture hasn't quite caught the necklace right but it's a cosmic style backing with glitter and mirror perspex triangles attached. Being a lover of a bit of fancy perspex, this is right up my street! The shop is closed just now but I'll be checking it out again when it's back up!

I hope you all have super exciting New Year plans (apart from Vix who's had New Year already). We're having a house party (so the poor Christmas tree is down already in preparation) and I cannae wait. Once you've got past the bit where you do nothing but answer the buzzer and get first drinks for folk, it's great crack! Have a great one, whatever you're up to!

It's Christmas!

I can never decide if posts with Christmas (or Birthday) presents in them are crude but, in the absence of strong feeling either way, I decided to share some of mine. As well as my Christmas day outfit. My ideal Christmas Day would be spent in pyjamas. When I was a kid, I was never fussed for getting dressed at Christmas and did so begrudgingly. Now that I am old and spend Christmas visiting family and whatnot, pyjamas won't cut it. Yup, I am firmly in the 'pyjamas should only be worn in the house' camp. The only excusable exception to this are:

• Nipping to the corner shop for milk (etc) and, even then you should add trainers and a sufficiently outdoor appropriate hoodie or similar.
• Unexpectedly having to pick someone up from somewhere in the car - see rule above for making said pyjama wearing acceptable.
• Emergency shit like fire alarms or ambulance travel.
• Being aged 5 or under - embrace it small ones!

Now, my Christmas day wear needs to be:

• Comfortable with plenty room for a food baby.
• Still look 'me'
• Have some sparkle. Well, it is Christmas after all.

Here's what I went with:

Dress: vintage from Godiva in Edinburgh, Cardi: Primark, Belt: Accessorize, Glitter ankle boots: schuh, necklace: Plastique.

How weird does my nose look? It looks like I've had an odd extension to it. I haven't. 

This outfit basically ticks all the Christmas boxes for me: the dress is pretty but also comfy (elasticated waist) and demure enough for a day with in-laws and the belt's a bit loose so plenty room for Chrimbo munching. Those and the cardi are lurex threaded so there's your sparkle. And, there's extra sparkle in the glittery boots. Which also have a heel that's low enough for any Christmas Day walks that get chucked in. My gorgeous mirrored Plastique necklace adds a final statement. What did you wear? If you say pyjamas, I'll be sick with jealousy!

And so to the potentially tasteless gift flashing. I got some lovely gift from some awesome people, including gift cards (NEVER impersonal  - don't believe anyone who says otherwise!), rum, Grasmere gingerbread, nice smellies, useful notecards and note books and, (casual as you like), a pair of Charlotte Olympia Priscilla in glitter. Oh my days. I can't WAIT to wear them. Mind you, I did wear them about the house while I tidied up Christmas stuff last night...

I hope you all had an ace Christmas! Here's to a happy New Year next...

Night at the Museum

Actually it was a day but it was dark when we left so it looked like night. Mr Scribbler and I have been meaning to go visit the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh since it re-opened (it was closed for a couple of years to be totally gutted out inside and re-opened earlier this year or possibly even last year!) ages ago. We had a day off last week (well, I had the full week off cause it was my birfday - and it was last week when I started this post but it's now about a month ago. For shame!) and decided to finally get round to it! To give you an idea of the size of the place, we spent 3 1/2-4hrs there and didn't even get all the way round the ground floor. It's jam packed and huge. Here are some of my highlights...

Alpha bot finds letters on randomly placed blocks and spells your name. It's like a miracle occurring before your very eyes. Or, y'know, computer programming. Either way, it's hard to find stuff that has 'Llara' on it so I was most happy.

Here's me having an audience with Buddha. One of the cool things about the museum is that, when you're in the main atrium, they have lots of different displays on the walls so you get a wee taster before delving in. Plus it looks good too! Boots: schuh, Bag: Cambridge Satchel.

Grr! Daddy, daddy, can I have a pet leopard? I'll look after it.Oh, PLEASE!

The place is epicly beautiful. Look at all the light!

Look - you can weigh yourself and see what you weigh the same as, animal kingdom wise! Mr S is the same as something porpoisey. And there's me, Llara, with my name-sake the Llama. We nipped out for a late Pizza Express lunch cause they sent me an "it's your birthday - come see us for some free booze" and they SUCKED me in with it.

The rocks, the rocks! I bloody love the rocks. They're so pretty and so interesting. A bit like me! Or a DNA helix. Mr S was impressed by Jackie Stewart's car - I just wanted my picture taken inside a space suit. Well, I am the younger of us...

How to be a bag lady. Minus the bag...

Some days I look a  bit like a bag lady. It can't be helped. There's just some sort of edit thing missing in me. Like when whoever it was said that, before you leave the house, you should take off the last accessory you put on, I just can't do that. I'm just lacking in some kind of aesthetic vision. Therefore, I'll never be one of those dead chic minimalist folk (though, frankly, I wouldn't want to be) and it's more likely that I'll look ramshackle than put together - possibly because, regardless of what I've already got on, sometimes I just really want to wear a specific jumper or something and on it goes, without a proper thought about how it might look. So - here it is - my master class in how to get the bag lady look, without a single bag in sight...

Put on a pretty and summery vintage dress. Winterise with black tights...

...black shoes (Red or Dead from schuh)


...and a black belt. I can't remember where I got this but I enjoy the smoochy birds!

Whap on a giant shiny necklace. This one's from Primark.

And then...

Decide to wear a jumper (from ASOS) you love but that, with the dress, loses your waist and cuts you in half. Ideally you should have two, totally at odds, prints involved.

Then, for shits, giggles and warmth, cover it all with a parka (H&M). Ideally, if you can make like me and forget your eye make-up for that nice tired look, it works even better. I'm pretty fresh faced though and I'll take that!

How about we finish on the shoes again?

The EPIC cat t-shirt of awesome epicness

If you followed me on instagram (plug, plug @llarasnappedwhat. I'm bloody entertaining, as you'd expect) or Twitter (llara_has_2_Ls), you might already have met this chap...

It's a cat! With a crown, a red cape and a locket. I mean, he could be a queen, a superhero and a sorcerer all rolled into one by my reckoning.

But he's not real :(

He's just a print.

ON MY NEW T-SHIRT!

BAM!

cat t-shirt: eBay, coat: eBay, skirt: H&M, shoes: schuh

If I was you, I'd be so mind blown by its giant and immense epicness that I wouldn't bat an eyelid at the fact that Mr Scribbler's shoes are photo bombing me again or that I've barely a scrap of make up on, so drawn would I (as you, remember) be to the t-shirt. Cue pussy jokes.

I'd hoped it would be long enough to wear as a dress but it's not. And one pussy on display is quite enough, don't you think? I saw a picture of the t-shirt somewhere a few weeks ago and made it my mission to track it down. And track it down, I DID. It was only about £11 or £12, including delivery.

And, in the interests of not flashing anything inappropriate, I wore the t-shirt with a nice shiny silver mini skirt and stuck my belting H&M necklace over it:

And it seemed only appropriate to complement kitty with some interesting shoes. So I busted out these gorgeous gold wedges that I got for a song in the schuh sale last year. Stick on some socks (it's bloody freezing in Scotland, don't you know!?) and you are ready to rock and roll!

I think Mr Kitty approves...

Storing my shoe collection - it's complicated

My shoe collection is pretty big. I haven't counted the pairs but it's safe to say there are a LOT. Ideally, I'd love a giant walk in closet a la sex and the city where the shoes are all out of their boxes and lined up beautifully and somehow staying dust free. That's the dream. Being that we're a little restricted space-wise and that I've spent all my money on shoes already, that's not really an option right now. Or maybe ever. However, this weekend, driven by desires to actually see my bedroom floor again and to not break my neck falling over rogue shoes, I decided to get it all sorted out. Here's how they all (just about) fit in...

Apologies for the truly shite blurry pic. I took it and didn't realise how bad it was until it was on the computer. And I am lazy! Technically, this wardrobe is Mr Scribbler's. However, I have wangled a shoe rack and a couple of jackets in there. This "hangy thing" came from Ikea and is ideal for squishing in flats and, to be honest, shoes that are maybe a bit past their best that you don't mind not being in boxes. You can get a prettier version here. At this point I should tell you that piles of shoes in the bottom of a wardrobe makes me cry on the inside and feel a bit sick. It's just so wrong! Care for thy shoes! Which kind of goes some way to explaining this...

The tremendous shoe cabinet of awesomeness. AKA the home of my favourite and designer shoes. I update the contents fairly regularly cause I'm fickle and change my mind all the time about my faves. If you've been reading a while, you'll have seen the cabinet before, so proud of it am I. If you haven't you can check out it's transformation from orphan rescued (for free! FREE!) from a rainy street, to tremendous shoe cabinet of awesomeness -> here. It's a touching story.

Observe though, that the storage above does not finish with the TSCoA. Oh no. We also have stackable transparent shoe boxes. These things are genius: they're clear(ish) so you can see what's in them, they stack and slot into each other so you can pile 'em high, they're smaller than a lot of shoe boxes so save space AND they fold so if you have spares they stash away neatly! Just google 'transparent stackable shoe boxes' or similar and do some price comparison. I think mine came through eBay in the end but do make sure you look for the ridgy ones that slot together!

Along with the TSCoA, I also do actually have a walk in cupboard that has boxes of shoes stacked up in it. It is called the shoe closet. Like the normal person's version of the SATC scenario. The washing basket lives in here too so it is a bit of a jam but it keeps this little lot out of the way. Some of the shoes aren't in their original boxes but in smaller boxes I have, with their name/description written on the front. Every centimetre counts! And so does ease of shoe finding. There's a shelf on the wall in there too that takes a surprising amount of shoe weight:

My, so tonal!

One of my latest storage solutions is this over the door (hanging into the shoe closet) hanging thang with pockets from Argos. It fits 10 pairs of shoes in (mine are mainly size 7s) but you could probably get pairs of flip flops or smooshed up flats in one pocket if you felt the urge. I got it today for £6.99 (here it is - man I am helpful with my links) and am pleasantly surprised by it as a few of the reviewers said it only fit kids shoes in. It doesn't. Yay! You wouldn't get heels in or anything but it does the job for flats.

 

And finally, in a rare glimpse into the man side of my life, here are Mr Scribbler's shoes:

Yup, he's nearly as shoe daft as me these days (which makes my habit SO much easier to justify) and I finally had to get him some more rack space. The ones on the left we got today in Argos. It's actually two stacked together and they were £4.99 each. Bargain! They're nowt fancy but totally do the job. And, as I type this, he's actually filled them up.

So, now we don't have shoes lying about the bedroom and living room but we do have them on racks in the hall, in the wardrobe in the spare room, in a cabinet in the bedroom, hanging over a door and inside the shoe closet. Neat, non? If you have any space saving shoe storage tips, feel free to share them with me. Otherwise, I hope some of this was useful for you if, like me, your collection is somewhat unruly!

Tell me a-boot it...stud.

Ahahahahaha! That's me laughing at how funny I am. Cause I'm wearing studded boots in this post. Anyone for an ironic ass MEGALOL. When it comes to LOLZ, I only ever do them with lashings of smug and superior irony. It's the only way. Do you want me to stop chatting shite and show you the shoes? OK then.

Boots from schuh

They're probably one of the best boots ever. They're called Bob, they're from schuh, they're a belting ringer for the Chloe ones and pretty well everyone has a version of them this season. I couldn't give a crap about my mainstream-ness though because they look so good and they're so friggin' comfy. I've worn them an absolute crap tonne since I got them. And, they have taken a battering so far and haven't shed a single stud.

One day I wore them with this lot:

Dress: Primark | Jumper: H&M

Gawd, I am looking a bit pasty. Best starting upping the blusher - I'm not likely to pick up any flush of colour (unless you count a ruddy cheek) between now and June. And in keeping with the cold theme, I went for blue nails. I am not a nail art girl. I have neither the skill or patience. If I can get a colour on and not chip it, I'm happy.

Topshop nail polish.

And finally: can I remember where this necklace is from? Can I heck. I don't think it was high street but I truly can't remember. All I know is that I don't much fancy smelling of Paris. Whenever I've been, it's been something of a whiffy place. I imagine Paris scented perfume would be a bit of a pumps and flowers type mix. Maybe folk would go for it...

Bestival - yay!

Gawd, I'm late to the "I went to Bestival" bandwagon aren't I? It was only, er, about a month ago. Jeez Llara! What can I say? I'm a busy chick and I don't always have time to do the blogging.

Something else you should know about me is that, when I've had a few, I find it acceptable to pull this face in pictures...

Note the long since faded and very much past its best rainbow on my face. I'm obsessed with rainbows lately. We've had SO many recently in Edinburgh. Don't believe me? Check out my instagram @llarasnappedwhat (plug, plug).

So, once we'd made the journey to Southampton (taxi, flight, train, bus) ferry terminal, we hopped on the ferry. They had cider in the car park and everything, which was nice. Another thing you should know - not about me this time: it seems that everyone, everyone on the south coast owns a boat. Regardez (I can say that cause it's so close to France):

Boats, boats, boats everywhere!

And so to Bestival. It's an ace festival. A tiny bit big for my liking, if anything, but so visual and captivating and stuff going on everywhere. You could spend the whole weekend doing stuff that didn't involve seeing bands at big stages. Like...going to the cinema, starring in your own film, going on a helter skelter, climbing up the inside of an odd wooden house, watching the fancy dress parade, polka-ing to a crazy Romanian gypsy sounding DJ in the polka tent, mooching about the forest, tobogganing, shopping and generally filling your face with all kinds of delicious food. I love festival food these days!

Cinema | tents | swan on a stick, obvs | Africa bar | make your own blockbuster | amazing view across the festival

At night, the festival becomes so atmospheric with parties in what look like ramshackle houses, the smallest bar ever (in something resembling a garden shed), faux abandoned cars peeking out of mist and all kinds of other goodness!

All kinds of neon crap. By crap, I means AWESOMENESS. I climbed to the top window of the little house. How I didn't do myself a mischief, I do not know.

In spite of there being some huge acts at the festival (hello Stevie Wonder. Totally brill, as it happens), my favourite ones were Scroobius Pip and a random flamenco band with some guy Sadie Frost used to shag in it. Scroobius was just mesmerising and SO much fun. Ditto the flamenco band. We danced our asses off to those guys! Give me that lot over Florence and her wailing ear splitting machine any day! Sorry Flo fans...

Left: flamenco guys | middle: Scroobius Pip. I wonder if that's his real name | right: spooky shit.

Absorb the colour and strangeness...I'd like to hang glittery stars all over my house. I'm not sure how Mr Scribbler would feel about that.

And finally (cause everyone loves and 'and finally' story, right? Especially ones that involve small animals or local initiatives. This involves neither.), here I am promoting the ass off the schuh Welly Exchange in my specially-customised-so-as-to-maximise-warm-sun-on-pasty-Scottish-skin t-shirt. It was such a warm weekend. I miss the warmth.

Who's got orange glittery fingernails and a message for you guys? This gal!

Could you be...the most beautiful boots in the world?

Look, I'm just gonna dive right in with this one. Check these boots OUT!

Boots Red or Dead @ Schuh

They're big, black, fierce, tall, spiky, made of super soft suede and covered in glittery stars! Even the zip has a star on it. What's not to love?

 Oh, and they're on a pink table. As with all good boots, these babies need to be worn. And wear them I have. Several times. This time with a black Uniqlo t-dress and a Monsoon (I know, I must be getting old, right?) jumper covered in teeny beads that look like bubbles!

Aah! Bubbles!

You should know though that this thing may as well be a real live cat, because it sheds on everything. Like a bitch. If you love having pale grey fluff on stuff though, it's a total winner.

And one last shot of the boots in action...

Should you so wish, you can get them here: here