Aventures Française: Botmeur

Botmeur is the commune in which the Boyf's parent's house is, and it's a lovely little village with pretty little houses and a church, as well as a shop that has the most delicious bread. The house itself is just too sweet for words; when they first got it, it was a run-down flooded little thing with mould everywhere and no electricity; you wouldn't think to look at it now! Wild boar and other animals wander into the garden at night, too, it's quite surreal.

DOTW: Peacocks Peter Pan Collar Dress

Peter Pan Collar Dress, £20

This dress is just the epitome of 60's cute; can't you just picture it with white heeled boots and black woolly tights? I think the tiny flowers are just too cute, and along with the contrast belt you don't need much to make it a complete outfit. Despite the description as 'drop-waist', the waist isn't so low as to be unflattering and could always be hitched up a little for a more hourglass silhouette.

To The Zoo

For Edd's Sister's birthday she went to the Zoo, and Edd and I tagged along. We had such a fun time! Bristol Zoo is lovely and they seem like they care for their animals well, not to mention they have two out of three of my favourite animals; Red Pandas and Okapi! No Axolotls, but you can see them in most pet shops. I thought I'd throw some photos up here since I don't know anyone who doesn't like looking at cute animals, especially the little Capybara who was snuggling up with the Tapir family. Oh, and a silly photo of the boyfriend (I don't think I ever manage to get a serious photo of him) to break it up a little.

Aventures Française: Bord du Lac

One of my favourite parts of the mini-holiday was this beautiful man-made lake we found, right near the house. It had lovely clear water and such cute little fish that nibbled on your toes if you went in the water! Not to mention how lovely and sunny it was and the tiny little beach there was to sit on. We arrived around 12-ish and it was deserted other than a couple tourists, which was wonderful; in Britanny between 12-2 is normally lunchtime so no-one goes out, meaning we had until about 3 to spread out and swim and eat picnics under the trees.

Shoe Picnic: Marian Pomone Marine/Grey

This is going to be the last Shoe Picnic, for a while at least, so I thought I'd better make it a good one! I have so much love for these Marian Pomone boots, they look like something Kirsten Dunst would've worn in Marie Antoinette; so elegant and just the perfect shoes for lolita edwardian type dresses too. So, so much want. I'd team these for a more victorian-modern twist with white tights, black pinstripe shorts and a deep blue blouse for a cute but practical outfit - think a female Adam Ant!

Aventures Française: Sizun Fest Noz

Fest Noz is Breton for 'Night Festival', and is a really lovely traditional event with lots of local businesses and farmers involved as well as lots of dancing, the style of which mostly dates back to medieval times. The one we attended in Sizun was great, with live music and great traditional costume and by the evening all the villagers (and some brave visitors) were joining in with the dancing and it just looked amazing. Unfortunately, this year there were no fireworks due to the church being still covered in scaffolding from the last time fireworks were launched off it. During the day there was a lot of sweet little stalls too, selling miel (honey) and baskets and cider. There were also lots of demonstrations like sheep shearing and rope making.

Grey Spotted

I nabbed this dress in a sale in the french chain shop cache cache; which is like the equivalent of new look over there. This frock was only €15 which really isn't a bad price, and it's so comfy too, even if it isn't the most flattering. The thing I like most about this outfit is the shoes; my long-suffering cat shoes finally kicked the bucket whilst I was over there (i.e. the sole came off almost entirely) so I had to nab these in a shoe shop in france; it's a little nerve wracking trying to buy shoes when you speak little to none of the language! I managed though. Super proud of myself. Ah, also you may notice my hair having changed a little too! I'm now officially 'dark auburn', and appropriate for placement starting in the new Uni year. I'm going to miss the bright colours, though... *sigh*

dress: cache cache / tights: topshop / shoes: random french shop

Review: Scott Cornwall 'Colour B4' Hair Colour Remover in 'Extra'

I love my hair. I love being able to dye it different colours and bleach it and mess it about with nearly no negative effect on my hair itself; it never seems to get dry and it's never fallen out, not even after a marathon 7-hour bleaching session at the hairdressers. However, I was a little apprehensive about using this as the dye I had on my hair previous to the red is elumen, and incredibly strong dye which is a moo to get out. I picked the 'extra' pack because I would consider my hair having colour build-up due to the red on top of the pink.

Following the instructions, I used almost a whole bottle on my hair (which was slight overkill but a waste otherwise, you get a lot). The liquid itself is clear though apparently it stains clothing and upholstery. One of the only things about this product I didn't like was the smell; it's very, very strong and chemical and after the hour of developing was up it was giving me a bit of a headache. However, without even washing my hair I could see lots of the colour lifting out already, even though the box states the colour is still there and just 'washes out' when you rinse your hair, due to the dye molecules shrinking. So, after rinsing my hair for 10 minutes, lathering this buffer shampoo in twice and rinsing that for a while, this is the result;

Not bad, right? It's stripped all of the red live xxl dye from my hair with ease and also has taken quite a bit of the elumen too, so you can see patches of hair that had been previously bleached. The box didn't actually recommend using this on unusual coloured hair but I thought the pink was so faded at this point it would be the red I was trying to remove. Overall, I'm really pleased with the result and my hair is ready to dye again! You can grab the 'Colour B4' box from between £10-13 and it's stocked in lots of high street beauty shops.

Aventures Française: Huelgoat

Since I took an impromptu trip to France with no time to stagger some posts over my 'away' time, I thought I needed to make up to it with a new four-part mini feature about my little break away, and the lovely places I visited. I found a lot of the things I did really fun and interesting and I hope you will too! My first port of call is Huelgoat (well-gwatt), a town I visited last time I was in Finistère but it's far better without torrential rain and general winter miserable-ness. It's a very pretty town with lots of ancient forest and a kind of mystical overtone with Devil's caves and Fairy Lakes as well as Mushroom Rocks.

Shoe Picnic: Melissa 'Wanting' Grey Ballerinas

I have a thing for grey shoes with bows. Well, any shoes with bows; but these are particularly sweet! And I really do have a soft spot for Melissa shoes. They're both waterproof (perfect for British weather) and nice-smelling, not really an essential but nice all the same. If I got these 'Wanting' flats on my feet I don't think they'd ever come off again.

A Little Punk

I kinda took a little impromptu break from blogging for a week; I don't know what it was but I just didn't feel up to it at all and ended up slobbing around a lot doing not much. Though we did end up going out the the pub on thursday with our lovely friends, and then to Bristol. It is lovely and sunny out today, but so so windy! It was hard to grab a good shot and these were all I ended up with, unfortunately. The sweet tartan shorts were a steal on eBay and since the brand the H! by Henry Holland I thought they'd be a little on the smaller side of the sizing scale, so I nabbed these 18s. However, they seem to be a size and a half too big, maybe even more, which is really unfortunate as they are super soft and cute. I don't know if it's the same for all this brand but these are sure on the big side of an 18!

dress: primark / tights: topshop / cardi: h&m / necklace: ? /

shorts: h! by henry holland via ebay / doc martens: c/o spartoo

Shoe Picnic: Irregular Choice 'Patty' Union Flag Heels

These shoes are just the embodiment of cute; and don't they remind anyone of the 90's so much? In a good way of course. Speaking from experience, Patty Heels are generally one of the more easily wearable and mixable shoes in the Irregular Choice collection, but they always have a cute colour pop or pattern to make up their relative ordinariness. I'd wear these cuties with a blue 60's tea dress and red accessories for a retro dance party type style.