Just Smile

Exams start on Monday.

Need to stop stressing, and remember to smile.

(Photos taken by Callum Smith)

Trinity Ball

suit- River Island

shirt- Pull and Bear

Just a few snaps from last Friday's Trinity Ball. It's the biggest private party in Europe (pretty sure that's still the case anyways) and basically involves the vast majority of the student body dressed in black tie and dancing to popular music in marquees set up around campus. It really is much more glamourous than I make it out to sound, trust me!

After two years of wearing pretty dresses and being cold for the whole night, I opted for a suit this year and I gotta admit I'd be hard pushed to revert to a dress come next year. IT not only had warmth, but it had pockets, which meant I had no need to carry a bag around me all night and I did not lose anything. 

All in all, great success!

Above is one of the only photos of me with the jacket of the suit on where I'm not posing for "prom photos" with one of my housemates so this one'll have to make do. You get the idea anyways.

Thanks to Callum Smith and Rachel Kelly for all the awesome photos of the night, and to all my mates really, for being just great in general. 

P.S. If you're interested at all in my writing, here's a link to a Ball Guide for Girls I wrote for the college paper.

P.P.S. My blog got featured on another blog! Check it out here. Language barrier makes it a bit odd but you get the general gist! 

Hair Trilogy

2010

2011

2012

For the past three years I've been growing my hair. When I arrived in college as a bright eyed and bushy tailed Fresher I had a platinum blonde crop hairstyle, a la Agynesse Deyn 2008 if you will. Long story short, or short story long rather, short hair for me was of its time and made me look a little bit like a boy so I decided then and there to grow it. I'd already had it black and white and all shades in between previously but the platinum managed to keep for my whole first year at college, until that summer I decided my hair needed a break, so dyed it dark red. 

Word to the wise, if blonde hair suits you, don't dye it dark red. The red lasted all of three months before I was back blonde for the start of second year. The blonde has kept since then and not much has changed in my hair but its length, which has grown quite considerably I think you'll agree! Buuuut.....I'm bored again, and am very seriously considering going back platinum, but keeping the length this time for good measure (excuse the pun).

Any thoughts on platinum mid length hair?! I know Abbey Lee Kershaw can pull it off, but heck, we ain't all Abbey Lee Kershaw!

P.S. Excuse the hooded attire in all of these photos, they were all taken around this time each year, i.e. Exam Season!

London Day Three

mint jeans- River Island

Blazer- Forever21

crop top- H&M

flower garland- Primark/Penneys

On Saturday my parents got an early flight home which meant I had the day to roam around London on my own. I'd had great plans to head out to Camden Market or Brick Lane but ended up just hitting up Topshop on Oxford Circus and then getting tired and heading to the airport 4 hours early for my flight!

Note to self; next time wear more comfortable shoes!

Or else just stop for more coffees, like the one seen below, that I got in a lovely little coffee shop just off Carnaby Street that I sat outside and drank while studying Mechatronics. 

And thus ends my little sojourn to London. I'm now back home out West and trying desperately to get all this mountain of study done before the ten exams I have looming eve closer each day. 

I'll try keep blogging over the next few weeks but if I become lax, it will be down to me being bogged down with all this work. Though then again, blogging is a nice release from equations and formulae circling round my skull, so who knows.

Watch this space I guess!

London Day Two

skirt, top, rings- Topshop

leather jacket, sunglasses- Nasty Gal

Boots- Jeffrey Campbell Litas

bag- Mulberry Alexa

When else can you wear bold colours and leopard print but when you're in London I suppose?!

I love going to London as it gives me a chance to wear some things that I maybe wouldn't be so brave to wear back home in Ireland. No one looks at you in London when you dress how you want and I suppose I must admit that Dublin is starting to become more accepting, but we still have a long way to go.

Cheers for the candid snaps Mum!

Cheeky snoop around Harrods; always essential.

 The Ballet

dress- Topshop

jacket and bag- as before

shoes- Korkeys

So here's what I wore to the ballet on Friday night, the reason I was over in London in the first place. I got this dress in Topshop recently and although I know the highstreet is riddled with this style of dress at the moment, I can't help but love this one! It's so comfy and I feel really fancy when I wear it. 

Of course I spilled half my dinner down the front of it before the ballet. 

You can't bring me anywhere!

Also, these shoes, yeah, lasted all of ten minutes I'd say. Suffer for fashion or what.

London Day One

skirt- Urban outfitters

blazer- Forever 21

top- H&M

bag- Mulberry

So while I'm meant to be studying for my third year engineering exams, I went to London for the weekend with my parents to see the Royal Ballet's Alice in Wonderland (review to follow!). In fairness, I did get a bit of study done while I was there and the ballet was so spectacular that it was well worth the lost time studying. 

The Royal Ballet's Alice in Wonderland 

http://londondance.com/files/images/pageimage/17240.39e28a14/485x485.fitandcrop.jpg

Lunch in Sketch

Heading back home West now to get my head back into the books.

I miss London already!!!

"Come with me, and you'll be, in a world of pure imagination..."

It being Easter weekend, of course Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory was on tv; the original and best. Of course, I got entranced by Gene Wilder's voice and I was moved to do a Willy Wonka inspired post..... procrastination of the highest order, I know!

Who better to emulate I thought than the precocious little girl Veruca Salt (as seen below) with her black patent shoes, structured red dress, white blouse and fur. Although I may not actually wear such an outfit out in public ever, it was a nice way to wile away a lazy Easter Saturday hour!

Happy Easter Everyone!

Source: http://yourinspiringlife.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/veruca-salt-2.jpg

Veruca Salt

dress, fur hat- Asos

tights- H&M

shoes- Topshop

Corporate

waistcoat, blazer, skirt- Topshop

shirt- Penneys/Primark

As I mentioned, I've been horribly busy of late with college work and looming exams. Late nights staying up to meet deadlines have meant that I am now dying sick and am in fact writing this post from bed where I'm only now recovering from one of the busiest weeks of my life!

Anyways, on Monday night all our hard work paid off when the group that I'm in won a Trinity Engineering Entrepreneurial competition for a business we are in the process of setting up. I don't want to give away many details but it's in the industry of snowsports and I am really excited to see where this adventure takes us. 

This explains the outfit above. For the competition we had to dress smart, obviously, which I'm not great at doing! This was my take on something business-like and I guess considering we won it wasn't too inappropriate!

Paddington called...

... he wants his jacket back.

I picked up this coat in Primark/Penneys the other day for about €20. It is the only thing that brightened up the rainy days we had in Dublin this week. Luckily however, the sun shone over Trinity yesterday for a day of fun on the grass to celebrate my last day of third year! Now all I have to do is pass these ten exams I've got in three weeks time and it will once again be summer!

Where has the year gone?!

Tatty Divine

top- River Island

suit pants- Topshop

dinosaur nechlace- Tatty Divine

This little guy dangling round my neck was a late birthday present from my dog Freddie (thanks Mam!).

Being the attentitive dog that he is, he'd been listening to a feature on the radio about a company called "Tatty Divine" that had been involved in a law suit with Claire's Accesories over the rights to the design of the necklace you can see here. Apparently Claire's had produced a cheap copy that was similar in design and eventually Tatty Divine were awarded the case on terms of intellectual property or some sorts. You can read more about the story here.

The point is, that Freddie, once again being the type of dog to work on his intuition, thought the necklace sounded like something I would love and so bought me it as an extra little birthday present! What a good dog he is!

ALL the dinosaurs! 

(mugs courtesy of Conor O'Leary)

If you haven't heard of Tatty Divine yet, I implore you t check out their site. I am in serious want of their lobster necklace!

 P.S. Sorry for going AWOL of late, been running myself into the ground with college work and the like but it all paid off on Monday night! I'll explain in a future post..... I promise!