Thursday, August 30, 2012

A Flash of Gold








Top: Topshop   Jeans: Zara   Collar: Asos   Handbag: Aldo   Boots: TKMaxx
Starburst Ring: House of Harlow   Turquoise Ring: YSL 

Aren't bank holidays just the best, it depresses me a bit there's not another "free" day off till Christmas now so I definitely made the most of this one, by spending the 3 days relaxing and catching up with the boy and friends. I must admit most of the weekend I spent in my PJ's watching films and baking but when I did venture out this is the outfit that managed to coax me out of my PJ's and into the "lovely" bank holiday weather, hence the less that summery outfit!

I'm still loving the peplum trend and so happy its still big looking forward to the Autumn/Winter 12 season, considering the amount of peplum pieces in my wardrobe! I think the shape of the peplum adds a little bit on interest to the outfit and the flashes of gold in the detailing lift my usual colour palette of black! 

How was your bank holiday weekend? What did you get up to?





Monday, August 27, 2012

Leopard Print - Nail Art Tutorial

Bank Holiday weekends are the perfect excuse to take sometime out and treat yourself to some "you" time, I took this weekend as an opportunity to indulge in one of my favourite past times, nail art! 
After purchasing a black nail art pen recently I wanted to try leopard print nail art and after a few friends asking me how I did it and asking me to also do their nails I decided to do a tutorial.

This design I've found works best with lighter colours and being a pastel lover myself I choose a pastel blue nail varnish, but you can choose which ever colour you wish, here are the products I used:


Jessica Nail Varnish 729 Barely Blueberry
Barry M Nail Varnish 321 Gold Nail Effects
Saffron London Black Nail Art Varnish
NYC 138 Classy Glassy Nail Varnish

Step 1: 
Firstly I applied false nails, as I'm not blessed with nice natural nails, if you are skip this step as the nail art will work just as well on natural nails, though the design will last longer on false nails as they chip less. The ones I use can be purchased here from Boots. 


Voila nice neat nails, I find the leopard print design works better on shorter nails.


Step 2:

I then painted 2 coats of my chosen nail colour on all my nails


Step 3:

Once the base colour had dried, I then used the gold nail varnish to put random gold dots on each nail, don't worry about the size do a few large and a few small randomly on each nail. I tend to do between 3 - 5 depending on the size of the nail. Spread them out, and make sure there not too centred — have some dots that start at the cuticle, some that start way off to the edge of the nail, and some that go off the tip to make sure it doesn't look too "done."


Step 4:

Once the gold has dried, I then used the black nail art brush (or you can use a nail-art pen, ) to turn the dots into leopard spots. I outlined each blob with the dark polish. This part was fairly easy because the wobblier the outline, the better! One trick is to break up the outline into two sections, leaving some of each spot outline-free. One section is a short, like a little "c", the other is longer, like a big "C." When you've outlined all your spots, look at the overall effect. I then looked at areas that seem too empty, and added a little dot or two — either between the larger blobs, or going off the tip. 


Step 5: 

Wait for the black outlines to dry (this is really important otherwise it will smudge) and then paint a top coat on each nail to seal the design.
This was the overall effect!


Here's a few other colour ways I've tried:



Follow me on Instagram for my latest nail art creations ( username Ella_nora) and let me know if you want me to do tutorials on any of them.



Thursday, August 23, 2012

Hey Stud!





Jacket: Australian Market  Dress c/o Manikinn  Scarf: Alexander McQueen Boots: Primark  
Watch: Michael Kors  Bracelet: Independent Boutique  Silver Ring: Next


One glance at my wardrobe and its pretty easy to see anything with skulls or studs and I have to have it! These boots are my latest purchase from Primark and they literally jumped off the shelf at me and demanded I take them home and I've hardly taken them off since! 

Another great addition to my wardrobe this week, is the striped Tee dress I'm wearing above, I have to admit I've been searching for one for sometime now, the sort of dress that you can throw on and look effortlessly styled, oversized and baggy yet doesn't make you look pregnant and can be dressed up or down and thanks to the lovely Hannah from Think PR she sent me my perfect Tee dress from the Australian brand Manikinn. Check out their website the brand is like wardrobe therapy, their tees have some seriously great motifs and designs to choose from.

They've also just launched a new jewellery line that is to die for, all crosses and spikes and basically the collection I would design if I had the chance, see it for yourself here and you'll know what I mean!

Monday, August 20, 2012

I Wear my Heart On My Sleeve






Jumper: c/o  Manikinn   Dress: (worn as skirt) Zara   Shoes: Primark   Bracelet: Mulberry   Watch: Michael Kors

I must admit when I first put this outfit together I felt like an American cheerleader from back in the day all cutesy with a dash of Lana Del Rey thrown in courtesy of my hair, but thanks to the lovely weather  and summer back drop I'm actually pretty happy with the end result. Its a little cutesy and sweeter than I'd normally style an outfit so I threw on my latest bargain my Primark studded flats to add a little bit of edge.

The jumper was sent to me along with some other goodies, from the lovely Hannah at Think Publicity, who introduced me to the amazing Australian brand Manikinn, founded in 2009 by Shereen Hubur who also moonlights as the singer Indigo, the label has a great selection of Tees, Jumpers and Dresses, with quirky motifs and bold print designs. Check them out for a serious wardrobe fix!

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Lets Paint A Pretty Picture




Dress: H&M  Blazer: Primark  Wedges: New Look  Clutch: Mango
Studded Bracelet: River Island  Necklace: H&M  Turquoise Ring: Spanish Market  Silver Ring: Next

Apologies for the lack of outfits post but I was hoping for some nice weather to take the photos outside, however the great British weather had other ideas so I had to settle for inside, however the mirror in my hall coincidently matches my dress pretty damn well. 

This dress has got to be one of the best purchases I've made in a while, I spotted this monochrome number in the window of my local H&M and fell in love with it and then when I found out it was only £12.99 it would of been rude not to take it home! Its also available in green which I'm sourly tempted to get as well, I've included the link because its an A-meh-zing dress and thought I'd share my find with you!


Sunday, August 12, 2012

Motel Rocks

Readers of my blog will know my love for a bargain by now, I put it down to my northern roots, its unknown   for a member of my family to show you their latest purchase without exclaiming "you'll never guess how much it was!! Such a bargain." So I decided to share my latest bargain with you. 

I recently discovered MotelRocks.com after seeing their amazing clothing being worn by many of the bloggers I follow. After a swift visit to their site and falling in love with pretty much everything, I decided I wanted in on the action and joined their street team. Which means as well as getting sneak peeks at their latest collections (bye bye bank balance) I can also offer friends 20% off all MotelRocks clothing and accessories. Simply add my unique code Ella_nora03 at the checkout and voila a cheeky discount! Pretty good bargain huh! I've also added their banner to my site (check out the right hand column) so if your low on money now, you can pop back and get the code as its valid at any time.

If your in need of some inspiration, here's my favourite pieces from the site so far...
£14


£38

£38


£48


£48



Tuesday, August 07, 2012

Autumn Leaves






Dress: Forever 21  Belt: Moschino  Clutch: Mulberry  Shoes: Sam Edelman
Necklace: H&M  Ring: House of Harlow  Cuff: TopShop

This little beauty I spotted at the brand new Forever 21 store in Manchester Trafford Centre, it was on one of the mannequins as I entered the store and I fell in love with it instantly and had to have it, the cut of the fabric is really flattering and I love the colour of the dress, it embodies autumn for me, hence the post title, which if this weather is anything to go by we might as well look forward to, as Summer is well and truly over folks!

Forever 21 only came to Manchester 2 weeks ago and I've already been every weekend since, its safe to say I'm hooked! I know why the Americans rave over it now, don't get me wrong theres the odd item thats not to my taste shall we say, (polite way of saying shockingly tarty/cheap) but on the whole the clothing's pretty great and I always end up with a pile of goodies at the end of my trip. If you haven't heard/been its a mix between Primark pricing and H&M quality and design, the price means you can buy loads and not feel guilty as after a few washes it isn't going to fall apart!

The downside however is they never restock on any items so once its sold out its gone, and they will never get it back in the store, which is why the dress had to come home with me and I allowed the cheeky purchase (I'm mean't to be saving). I've already had a play around and styled a few different ways and it looks great dressed up as it does dressed down, but heres my favourite styling of it so far.




Sunday, August 05, 2012

Makeover





So regular readers may have noticed that theres been a fair few changes on my blog of late! As much as I'd like to take credit for my lovely blog makeover, a massive thank you has to go to Jen from Jenny and the magic feather. URL's confuse and scare the complete hell out of me so its safe to say I'd never be able to make my blog this pretty by myself. 

I've been dying to get my blogged redesigned for sometime now but I hadn't come across any blog designers that I could either afford or felt they could put all my wants to paper, or screen as the case is! However when reading a friends blog one day I noticed that she'd had a little redesign and she was more than happy to put me in contact with the lovely lady who made it possible. 

After getting in touch with Jen she was more than happy to help with making my little space on the internet what I wanted it to be, she firstly asked me to send her some links to any blog designs I love and any pictures or ideas to help her put together a tailor made design. Any reservations I may of had, were well and truly blown out of the water, not only did she put together a brand new design for me in a day (yes one day) she put it together on a spare blog first this allowed me to see the design come together and no disruption to my actual blog. She actually encouraged me to check up on every little bit she made to make sure I was happy with every aspect and was happy to hear my input and thoughts on everything! Jen then put the whole thing together on my blog, which was a god send, if your confused read the above again! URLs + Nora = cold sweats.

If your looking to have your blog redesigned or just need little aspects tweaking I couldn't recommend her more! Her website has some great examples of her work and can be found here.


Now my blog looks exactly as I'd always hoped and I rejoin civilisation on Thursday (my new place gets internet) I can't wait to start blogging more seriously and I've got some exciting posts and possible collaborations planned.

I love to know your thoughts on the new and improved Hand Drawn Heart!