Ooh it’s been a very peculiar day. Not in a very bad way,  just kind of overloaded with informations and communications. Every phone call is either VERY EXCITING! or VERY SCARY! Peculiar day. I think the only thing is to go out and say hello to my mother. She’s guaranteed give these shorts the side-eye and then all will be right with the world once more. 

Shorts made from jeans - €5 Penneys menswear. (They’re on a sale rail in Penneys, Mary St. Dublin at the moment…I cut them with a serrated bread knife to get the roughed up look.)

Bandanna as belt - €5.90 H&M

Pony t-shirt - €2.00 charity shop

Grey velour tracksuit top - €4.00 charity shop.

Cream studded jacket with sleeves cut off - €19.00 Penneys

(I’m not really feeling these as jackets anymore, but as waistcoat thingys, yes…so out the scissors comes once more…any excuse!)

Necklace - €5.00 Lucy’s Lounge, Temple Bar.

Navy Hat - €4.50 charity shop. 

Shoes - €106.00 Gift bought in Topshop. 

Hope you all had a lovely day, 

xBlanaid

A quick outfit post before Irish week starts! Irish week? Yes - it may seem odd to have such a week in a random part of the month of August but it’s because the Irish Independent property section is back from the Summer break this week. So to celebrate the return of my weekly column ‘Put Your Stamp On It,’ I’ll be featuring all things Irish this week. (Yes it was meant to start this morning but eh…life got in the way!)

I’ll be posting about some Irish shops, designers and blogs…so please do pop by every now and again if you can to check them all out and to show them some lovely support!

xBlanaid

Dress (from previous post >here<) - €13.00 Penneys - cut up. 

Underskirt - €5.00 Charity shop. 

Denim jacket - €5.00 Charity shop. 

Green crop top worn as sleeves - €8.00 Bershka

Shoes (gift) - apx€100 Topshop

Necklace - €5.00 Lucy’s Lounge

Belt - €18.00 River Island. 

“Love is a dress that you made long to hide your knees. love to say this to your face, ”I’ll love you only.” for your days and excitement, what will you keep for to wear? someday drawing you different, may I be weaved in your hair.” Iron & Wine.

I think my most favourite people in the world are those who make sure that no-one at the party is being ignored - who’ll leave a group conversation to go over and talk to someone who may be sitting on their own and feeling awkward. 

Then there are people who will decide to buy you something just because. Just because they want to make your day special, or make you smile. So they ask your friend what shoe size you are and they go in to town, and walk in to Topshop, and buy you the shoes that you have long lusted after and present them to you at the start of an evening out…just because.

Just because you are most lovely and I am most lucky indeed. 

xBlanaid

Shoes : Wisteria wedges, bought in Topshop. 

White dress : €5.00 Charity shop

Leggings : €9.00 H&M

Belt : €20.00 (?) River Island menswear

Vest underneath : €19.00 American Apparel 

Necklace : €5.00 Lucy’s Lounge, Temple Bar

Faux fur cape : €5.00 Charity shop

Disclaimer: I was heading to the 2manydjs gig in Langtons’, and if that wasn’t an excuse to wear something a little odd, then I may never find that excuse anywhere ever again so long as I live and breathe. : )

To the gig, well, a brilliant set, a perfect venue, and a really fantastic crowd….it was that word that is overused by myself in particular - epic.

Emer, on the left, is my Canadian friend, who surprised me by sauntering in to the studio unannounced the other day! It was like something out of a fil-im. That’s my sister Roisin on the right - she has the most perfect body of any woman to walk the face of the earth and she will kill me for saying that - but everyone has to die sometime. She’s wearing a Zara dress belonging to me which I think rightfully belongs to her figure now…

Purple top - €3.00 charity shop, originally Urban Outfitters.

Black and white leotard - apx €20.00 Topshop

Leggings - €4.oo charity shop, originally Urban Outfitters.

Boots - apx €80…yes, the Zara ones again. It’s an addiction.

Necklace apx €30.00 Topshop.

xBlanaid

…as it’s not much of an outfit…it’s really just an excuse to repeat something my mother said. I robbed  this very soft vintage jumper from her and have been wearing it continuously.  Anyway, I wore it to London with my denim cut off shorts, then arrived back at my parents’ house..eh..still wearing it. This was the little conversation my mother had with me about the outfit… I’m not sure if it’s funny if you don’t know her, but she’s just very cute sometimes :

‘Did you wear your jumper to London!’

‘I did’

‘…and did the all the people in London say you were very West of Ireland?!?’

xBlanaid

I had a work type trip to London recently - which happily coincided with the Lovebox festival. And a long overdue visit to my lovely friends Pa and Nico. And a return to the ‘having a good time’ thing that has been wrapped in a ball of sleep and effort for the last month or so….and what a lovely way to come back…

Here’s a little round up of the clothes from the trip, working from the top down: 

Sleeveless denim jacket : Charity shop €5.00

Sequinned dress : Charity shop €5.00

50’s style clear glasses : Penneys.

Studded belt : Bay Trading €12.00

Silver bangles : Charity shop €2.00

Boots : Zara €80.00

Black hat : H&M menswear £1.oo

Stripy sequinned waistcoat : H&M £10.00

Black t-shirt : H&M €6.00

Black mini skirt : Penneys €4.00

Tights cut in to knee socks : Penneys €2.50

Little black fringed bag (belonging to Laura) : Penneys

Green hat : Charity shop €5.00 (..ish…?)

Black jeans cut in to shorts : H&M €19.99 (apx)

Gold cuffs : Charity shop €5.00 each. 

Coral ring on little finger : K Kajoux €20.00

Green ring : YSL (birthday present)

Fringed leggings : £13.00 Public Beware, Brick Lane, London (incredible shop!)

Paisley be-shoulder-padded jacket : £31.00 Public Beware. 

Also I would particularly recommend falling in love with Chromeo, who played at Lovebox. Dave told me about them a few times, but you really do have to go and see them live to fully fall into that said same love. They’re playing Tripod in November - maybe see you there!

Thanks to Pa & Nico & Juanita for having me to stay! The backs of your heads are ridickulas! Ok-er-er-er-er?

xBlanaid

Morning after the night before. Studio and head a complete mess. Showing off the pole dancing eh..’skills’ I tried very hard not to show people the night before. Loose clothes. Hat. Sore eyes. 

Lovely, lovely day : lunch at Zuni with Dave, Heather, Dave 2, Roisin and Naomi (mother of baby Zarah in above photo.) Then..trip to Penneys. Cleaned the studio. Sent in press shots. Bed. 

Rabbit felt Hat - apx €5.00 Charity shop

Top - €12.00 Urban Outfitters

Black bandeau bra - €3.00 Dunnes Stores

Shorts - €3.00 Charity shop

Boots - €80.00 Zara

YSL Ring - Gift 

xBlanaid

Photos by Dave Coffey. Thanks D!

…with Eoin (above left) …and organising an impromptu ‘wedding’..

..with my brothers and sister Aran, Roisin and Eoin and Grandfather Paschal.

I am afraid my blog has become a mix of Fancy Fridays and outfit posts - I think I burned out on the interiors through the amount of work we just did on the studio - but I’ll be back on that side of things this week. 

Speaking of the studio (What?! Never!…I’ll stop soon, honest…) we had our launch on Saturday night - got ready at the verrrry last minute as always. Had this gúna on the styling rail in said same studio, grabbed and donned etc. Currently bingeing on these boots, I’ll aim to change them soon… but not until after the next outfit post, which is the ‘hangover’ outfit from today.

Dress - €5.00 Charity Shop

Belt - €12.00 Bay trading

Boots - €80.00 Zara

Ring - Gift.. Yves Saint Laurent

I also just want to say, from the bottom of this cold, dark heart of mine, thank you so much to everyone who came to our launch party. I cannot say enough how overwhelmed we have been by all of the support shown to our little business, and how wonderful and helpful our friends have been…Thank you times 400 million. If I could sing, I’d serenade you all with songs of love and gratitude. (Did I mention I was hungover…? I think I’ll stop typing now.)

xBlanaid

Images courtesy of Donal Foley

before…

after…

Laura and I, as The Stylebitches, have signed with Bulmers Light - and as part of the campaign, we did a little presentation before the screening of ‘Sex and the City 2.’ I was running late so had to grab something quickly from the rail in the studio. Ended up looking a bit like Samantha in the 80’s bit of the film, but how and ever! The boots and necklace are pretty much glued to me at the moment, hence the recurrence from the last post…

Before outfit: 

Shorts : Cut up jeans from H&M (still cutting…)

Top : Cut up sun dress from Penneys. Think it was €5.00. (still cutting part 2)

Denim Jacket : Charity shop €5.00

Necklace : Topshop €38.00

Boots: Zara €80.00 

Bracelets : Mix of charity shop and Accessorize.

After outfit: 

Same as before but;

Dress : €3.00 Charity shop. 

Man, I look tired in these photos.

xBlanaid

My 30th birthday has been most kind to me indeed. Yes, that is the Yves Saint Laurent Arty ring that I posted about back in January - you know, the one I said I’d love as an engagement ring? Well, no engagement, but my lovely brothers and sister, Eoin, Roisin and Aran clubbed together their hard earned monies to buy me something that I’d have for the rest of my life - something I could say ‘I got this for my 30th birthday’ about…it turns out my friends were all in on it too - telling me it was sold out, secretly sizing it, keeping me from saving up for it…etc. I am so thrilled. So, so thrilled. 

My luck continued -  my very thoughtful friend Dave presented me with a new ipod to replace the one that was stolen from my car… add this to the clothes pictured here, polka dot camping chairs, tie dye dress, vinyl records, jumpsuit, and my parents surprising me with the most incredibly generous gift - (more on that one next week) I’m feeling incredibly lucky, loving my thirties, and enjoying the sunshine. …To top it all, I have my studio launch/30th party to look forward to on the 5th of June. Life is good! ..and thank you for all the birthday wishes, whether it was here, facebook, text or email (all the mod-her-in technology!) - I really do appreciate it.

T-shirt - €20.00 River Island

Shorts - €30.00 River Island

Necklace - €28.00 Topshop

Ankle Boots - €80.00 Zara

Bracelets - charity shop/accessorize.

Ring - permanently glued to finger.

P.S Those are birthmarks on my leg - not bizarre sunburn! : ) 

xBlanaid