Shoe Challenge #6: Oh Dita!

Just a quick post about my latest shoe save. I created this outfit for the Project Blogway challenge of this week, we had to make a look inspired by our style icon! I have many style icons, and I didn't know who to choose. I have a file on my computer filled with inspirational fashion photos, but to choose my one and only style icon... I first thought the women from Mad Men, because that series really inspired me and made me want vintage dresses even more. But then I thought I didn't have an entire 'Mad Men' inspired outfit, so I decided to choose Dita Von Teese. I know she's not an easy fashion icon, because her style is very dressed-up: she goes to the supermarket wearing something a normal person would only wear on a fancy party! But the point isn't to copy her (I think it's just impossible) but to get inspired by her. I also choose Dita because she sort of marked the beginning of my 'getting interested in fashion, vintage style & blogs' - phase (although it's not really a phase, it started almost 2 years ago). I think it's great she has her own signature style, and says things like 'I fired my assistent after she suggested wearing those Louboutins with a jeans'. I admire her burlesque and striptease work, and I just think she's a fabulous woman! 


(This text is very vague, I know.)


Anyway, the photos are bad (as usual) but I like the outfit: When I saw the skirt I'm wearing today in store, it immediately made me think of Dita's outfit here:

She's always so glamorous, even when she's taking out the garbage. Way to go, Dita! Seriously, I don't think it's necessary to dress up every day, but some people really have to understand that going to the supermarket in your pajamas is a no-go!


My Dita inspired outfit:

Skirt: New Look
Top: H&M
Shoes: eBay, impulse buy :)

My face looks like I haven't slept for 5 days or something. Just look at the outfit, ok?

Hmmm, I really must learn to take proper pictures! I was home alone, so had to use the self-timer. I really miss my boyfriend/personal photographer now!


Now I just need her amazing figure and her collection of Louboutins, and I can totally rock Dita's look! Yes.


More Dita inspiration:

Do you like Dita? Who is your style icon?


Siel x

Holiday photo abundance pt. 1

Hello lovers! I didn't blog for over a week, but I have been busy with other stuff and some things happened in my family, but now I'm back! And I now proudly present the first part of my holiday photos, so be prepared for some serious picture overload...

The swimming pool & view from our house

The view, love that lonely tree ;)

We stayed in a house close to a little town called Villanueva de la Conception, where only one or two people could speak a few words English. Thank God I brought my 'Spanish for dummies' book, I learned quite a bit of Spanish while I was there!

Sister & me at Antequera & 'the Lover's Rock', rock that looks like a face!

Village of Antequera

Sign in Arabic, so proud I could read it!

On Sunday we visited Antequera, a nearby village. We ate some really good and cheap tapas (1,5euro per person, drinks included OMG!) and visited the ancient city and castle. It was built during the Moorish period in Andalusia, that's why of course I find very interesting because Moorish = Arabic and you all know I'm fascinated by the Arabic/islamic culture. Anyway, the next day we decided to do something active (because no, I'm not always that lazy) and went for a walk in a national park:

Animals! Also: huge thistles, over 2 metres high!

  

Me, cheesy!

My favourite picture so far! Acting crazy :)

The park is famous for its eh, animals and stones. God, my holiday is so interesting! Love those pancake-stones though.
A sunset photo to end the day:

Next day was my birthday (hooray!) so we went to visit Cordoba. Obligatory birthday girl picture:

Now, for the city: the main 'attraction' is the Mezquita, a cathedral and formal mosque, built in the 8th century:

tower of the Mezquita

typical coloured arches

The 'Mihrab', indicates the position of Mecca

Are you bored yet? I'm almost done, don't worry. The most important part of the day is yet to come:

Tapas! They were delicious, especially the orange soup/sauce in the left corner of the photo, it's called salmorejo and it's a cold soup and it's very famous in Andalusia. I also drunk some a lot of white wine. Hey, it was my birthday!


After the tapas we visited a Moroccan teahouse (told you I adore all things Arabic!):

The teahouse was very nice decorated, just look at those walls:

I want those tiles in my bathroom now.


Last photo of the day:

Posing like real models (not). I realise I look sort of pregnant in this dress, why???? I guess it was the tapas abundance :)


That's it for part 1! Hope you enjoyed it, there are lots more to come :)


Siel x


PS: I really need to change my blog layout, my pictures come out small and it annoys me. But being the html noob I am, it will probably take a few days weeks till I can fix this!

Project Blogway: Cow girl + Shoe Challenge!

I think we can all agree that this weekend isn't great. First the massacre in Norway who caused the death of over 90 people, then Amy Winehouse who died... May they all find peace and rest.
I'm listening to Amy Winehouse at the moment, and although I wasn't really a fan, I liked her music and I think she was a great artist, despite her drug and alcohol problems. It's sad she didn't find the help she needed when she had such troubles.


To cheer me (& you) up, I wanted to share some photos of my latest Project Blogway entry, the theme was Cow Girl and I didn't really have much inspiration, but it did work out quite well if I may say so!

I was very lucky to have my boyfriend with me this week so he could take photos! I'm just lucky to have him of course, but I like someone else taking my photos, the self-timer always ruins all my pics.


Now, I was wearing shoes, and so this is my fourth Shoe Challenge. I hardly ever wear my Allstars in public, except for walking on holiday and uhm, cow girl outfits. So, to do it properly:


What: Red Converse All Stars
When: On holiday in Spain, and cow girl outfit: Friday, July 22nd, 2011
With: Blue trousers: New Look, checked skirt: H&M (my sister's), hat: bought on holiday in France (my dad's)


I'm way behind with the shoe challenges. I have of course worn shoes, but I never bother to take pictures, or I think my outfit isn't pretty or special enough to show you. I'm lucky that I own not more than 15 pairs of shoes, so doing a shoe challenge is way easier for me than for someone like Shoeperwoman herself! Still, I wish I had her shoe closet... I mean, just look at THAT. Are you drooling too?

Looking like a real cow girl, no? 


At the moment I'm waiting for my parents and sister to come home from holiday. I did my best cleaning up the mess I made and doing the dishes:

Whoooops. It's all gone now, I promise!


And remember the tajine I was making last time? 

I don't mean to brag, but it was delicious! Can't wait to make it again. If you understand Dutch, you can find the recipe here. I did multiple the amount of spices, it really makes the tajine even more tasty!


Hope you have a great Sunday (or what's left of it)!
Siel x

Holiday rambling

Hi lovers! I'm back from a great holiday in Spain (already since Saturday evening, but I didn't have time to blog. I'm LAZY) and I didn't get tanned, like I promised. Ok, a little bit maybe, but I'm still the pale ginger girl I was before:

Yes, it's that picture again. I hate it when I take about a zillion pictures and then I load them onto my computer and I see only one or two actually worked out well. I'm really throwing my camera away and go and buy a DSLR camera! I'm still doubting which one to get, because there are so many options and everything, I have no idea which is the best camera for me. Any tips are welcome!


At the moment I am waiting for my tajine to get ready, it looks delicious if I may say so! I'm home alone this week, my parents are staying two weeks in Spain so this week I have the house for myself! And my boyfriend, who hangs around here for the whole week (I don't really mind :p) We went to Lille yesterday, a beautiful town in northern France. We weren't very lucky with the weather, but we had a nice day and also celebrated our 3 months anniversary, yay! 

We also did some shopping. (Me, a shopaholic? No, really...) I'll show you what I bought in a later post! I can show you my new coat that I bought two weeks ago, from the Topshop sale:

These photos are really bad, I tried to edit them a little but they're still poor quality. Makes me long for a new camera even more! Anyway, I love my new trenchcoat, it has cute dots (of course) and you can twirl around in it! As you can see on my uhm, beautiful photos. Also pictured: my new bag from H&M that I just couldn't resist, because of the lovely mustard yellow colour:

I'm also in love with our vintage garden furniture that my parents bought in Paris :)

Do you like my trench and bag?


Of course I couldn't come back home from holiday without buying anything (duh!), I seem to buy shoes on every holiday, so this year I bought these from Stradivarius:

Blue heels with tiny red spots? Count me in please! I wore them to the airport, thinking they'd be ok, but my feet were frozen after sitting in the plane for nearly three hours. But NO WAY I'm wearing socks with sandals because I have cold feet on the plane! (Yes dad, I'm talking to you!) Seriously, sometimes parents hit the ball very wrong when it comes to fashion :D


Now I'm off to enjoy my food (foodporn picture to follow) and some cuddling with the boyfriend! Don't you just love those days when you stay in bed till noon 2pm just cuddling and talking and kissing? I know I do!


See you later!


Siel x


PS: I would say it's great to be back, but actually looking outside the window and seeing the pouring rain and the temperature dropping below 18 degrees is just awful, especially after the hot Spanish weather...
PPS: I'm freaking out about the Project Blogway challenge of this week, the theme is 'cow girl' and I have no idea what to wear! I own about zero cow girl appropiate clothing, so I'm secretly waiting for the other girls' entries to get inspiration :D

I'll be back!

I'm leaving for Spain tomorrow! Or actually today, as it is already over 1am in the morning. I WAS planning to schedule some posts during my holiday, but I had to work two days and had so much stuff to do that I didn't have time to do that. Sorry! But I'm sure you'll survive one week without me, no?


I do have some great news: I got my exam results today and I passed everything!!! So now I'm having 3 months of holiday. Couldn't be more happy! 


I'm leaving you with one of my Project Blogway outfits, the theme of this week was Festival look:

I'll do an entire outfit and Shoe Challenge post about it when I'm back from holiday! Sorry for the short post but I have to get up in 4,5 hours but I really wanted to let you know that I'm gone for a week :) See you next Saturday!


Hasta la vista! ;)


Siel x


PS: The poll isn't open when I'm writing this now, but it will be in a few days (I think!) So would you do me a favour and vote for my festival look here (in the left sidebar)? I'll be forever grateful ;)

Vamos a España...

In less than a week I'll be on holiday in Andalusia, Spain! I'll be staying there for a week with my parents and sister, and I'm looking forward to it. We'll visit some beautiful cities like Cordoba and Seville and chill in our beautiful 'cottage':

Can't wait to be there! I'm very happy there's a pool, because over 30 degrees = I die. And if I stay in the sun for longer than 10 minutes without sunscreen, I look like her. But only worse. 
My mum told me there's also a hot tub in the house, say what? In case we're cold or what?

I'm especially excited to go to Cordoba, because it was one of the cities founded by the muslims on the conquest of 'Al-Andalus' in the Middle Ages. And you know I'm a sucker for all things related to the Arab and islamic world. There are some beautiful Arabic buildings in Cordoba, especially the Mezquita:  

Pretty, no? We'll also visit the Alcazar of Cordoba, a medieval castle:

I'll be celebrating my birthday on holiday! July 12th, fyi ;) So I can decide where we go and what we do on that day. I think I'll choose to go to Seville:

I've heard that you can do some great shopping in Sevilla, so I know where I'll be spending my birthday money...


The most difficult thing for me now is packing my suitcase! I'll be away for only one week, but I just want to take all of my dresses and skirts and shoes with me! I'm still having a quite busy weak ahead: two days of working at my dad's office, going to Leuven to clean my room and get my exam results, seeing my boyfriend again when he gets back from London (I couldn't be more jealous, seriously!) and having a reunion party with my friends of primary school. The hardest thing for me will be missing my boyfriend for more than a week, I didn't see him for two days and I already miss him so much! During school year we spent almost every minute together so not seeing each other for days is quite hard. Last Saturday we went to Antwerp and had a great time! I didn't buy anything in the sales (he did though) since I'm on a shopping ban for a while, but I must say I had a really hard time walking away from these beauties:

New Look, £27,99

They are really amazing in real life! I liked none of the shoes that were on sale, and the ones I did like were sold out in my size. Of course I loved all the 'new collection' shoes (that always happens to me when I'm sale shopping, all the pretty things I like are not on sale!), but I couldn't justify another shoe purchase... I hope the boyfriend brings them from London, haha ;)


Siel x