Silver Anniversary NOTW Nails inc Electric Avenue and Edinburgh Gate

The other week we had amazing weather and it was a family celebration at chez dolliepop. My grandma was visiting from Germany and it was my parents 25th Wedding Anniversary, which meant one thing- lots of silver!!

What to do in order to mark the celebration had been discussed for months on end and because it had practically been winter until (sods law) that week, the garden party idea was off. So once I knew all the friends & neighbours would be having a meal at the local Italian on the Saturday I had to plan my nails & outfit...surely that's what everyone does?

I had wanted to try a less obvious silver and go for Topshop's Zodiac for a metallic look but instead I started with Nails inc Electric Avenue which is a silver micro glitter polish.

One coat of Electric Avenue

I really liked this and I'm not usually a silver sort of girl but in the sunlight it looked amazing, the pictures don't really captures how brightly the shone.

This has great coverage and one coat could almost be enough, dries in a flash too.

Sparkling in the sunlight

A little bit plain? A little bit of an obvious choice?

That is exactly what I thought so I saw this polish...

Nails inc Edinburgh Gate

Silver, Blue, Red & Green pieces of glitter

Now, I don't actually like this polish, every time I look at it I think 'why?' 

I don't like the colours in it together at all but for some reason I looked at it this time and thought 'yes'.

I used this as my second coat over Electric Avenue and it was just perfect, I might even go as far as saying it was love at first sight. It added a different depth to the plain silver before and was just right for a party.

You'll have to try it in person to see just how amazingly they worked together! I went without a top coat as I quite liked the textured look.

♥ all the champagne and flowers, if only every weekend could be so much fun!

Everyone came to our house for pre drinks and the atmosphere at the restaurant was amazing with nearly 30 of us there basically loving life, the waiters were hilarious and our neighbours were even funnier. My friend and I went out after the meal and went to bed fairly early compared to the rest of the 'oldies' who didn't leave ours until 4:30 in the morning. I guess they were showing us how it's done!

My fingers don't normally look like obese Witchetty grubs, I swear
Bag- Accessorize

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Cider in the Sunshine

Now, this is going back a couple of Saturdays and there isn't anything that interesting for you but I have some pictures and I like to put a bit of my 'life waffle' in my posts so they're more personal for any of you guys reading them.

Moo had their 30% off summer sale so I took advantage and ordered my business cards and of course, stickers too!! I placed my order on the Friday and they arrived the following Saturday morning, it was like Christmas morning when our postman rang the doorbell. My only gripe with their website is that the prices are before VAT, so you can get a bit of a shock when you get to checkout and your not too cheap cards are even more expensive and the postage isn't a bargain either. Saying that though, they only took one week to arrive and considering they had to print them all and they're just what I wanted, so really I should just be happy.

What's inside...

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Tadaaa!

Overall, I'm so pleased with all the cards and stickers, there are a couple of pictures that I won't be using again but I didn't know that until I ordered the first lot and everyone's been lovely about them all! Then again, I have been giving them to my friends and colleagues so they were only ever going to be nice...

It was an amazing morning, so sunny and anyone in the UK right now know how rare it is. I met up with my lovely friend that I haven't seen in a couple of months (I've been really bad at keeping in touch recently, it's not like me and I'm not sure why but oh boy have I been making up for that since then!)

Here's a quick accessory check for the day:

I bought this necklace over a month ago in New Look and wasn't sure if I should have or not but I definitely love it and it's a real statement piece, especially glistening in the sunshine! 

It has that funny metal smell and I don't know how to stop it because I don't think clear nail varnish will sort this beast out. Does anyone have any ideas??

New Look Limited gold drape necklace £14.99

Available here

Old turquoise ring
M&S Limited Collection nails in Pink
Topshop tee

Annnd then there was Saturday afternoon...

My friend lives behind a pub in the village nearby and they were putting on a Beer & Cider Festival. In the sunshine. Wahay.

Of course I only condone sensible drinking...know your limits cider drinkers

Now, if you've never had Black Rat cider before then heed the warnings from your friends, it is a devil. I ignored them and the first pint slipped down like apple juice and half way through the second, I was a goner. I should have listened, but having lived in Bristol and had it once before I thought it would be fine. Silly silly me.

Don't get me wrong, no one ended up a mess that night- it wasn't one of those sessions but at one point I was talking to a new friend who's dad had decided to turn stables into somewhere to keep falcons...

3 of us didn't go to sleep and what do you do when you've started in the pub garden at 4pm the day before and not been to sleep? The 3 of you link arms and walk the dog to the petrol station at 6am to buy some bacon for breakfast before bed. Look at the beautiful view on the walk ♥

♥ the song, ♥ the film the clips are from & ♥ the film this song plays at the end of.

M&S Limited Collection Quick Dry Nail Polish- Pink and Lilac

Hey guys, I just don't know where the days go at the moment. It's August already and I just can't keep up! I've been a bit MIA this past week or so at my friend's house. I thought I'd get a chance to catch up on my posts but instead I had even less time than usual as I was further away from work, the gym , pretty much all my friends and the family too...Note to self: don't move to the other side of town.

So, I was in M&s the other week with my mum and saw that their make up has had a bit of an update and they've introduced a Limited Collection range to match the clothing range of the same name. It's aimed at a younger demographic than you might expect when you think of Marks & Sparks, full of up to date colours and quite a range of products too. I'm a massive fan of M&S, especially when I was working there and as always the quality of these are great, they're a brilliant price and they're cruelty free...perfect.

Last summer I picked up a Miami Pop Limited edition 17 nail polish from Boots in Palm beach. I thought it looked like a nice pink, I have so many pink polishes but you know what it's like when it's an ever so slightly different shade to your other 12 and so that makes it OK. Then I wore it and fell in love, it has more blue in it than my other pinks and it reminds me of the kind of pink I would imagine Barbie wearing. You can imagine that I was pretty gutted when half way through the bottle it's started to go gloopy and I can't find a replacement anywhere so when I saw this I was so so happy!

I wasn't sure how close it would be and as it happens I think it's a pretty good dupe.

I picked up two colours, Pink and Lilac (not very original names, I know) for £3.50 each which I think was a bargain really.

L-R, Palm beach, Pink, Lilac

You can see that the Limited Collection pink is slightly lighter in the bottle but once they've dried you can barely tell the difference and I'm really pleased with the shade of it.

L-R, Palm beach , Pink, Lilac

Here's the hand shot. It's paints on very nicely, it has a lovely smooth consistency, opaque in pretty much 1 coat but 2 coats finished it off nicely. It dries very quickly which impressed me and was quite hard wearing too, it probably lasted nearly a week until I went swimming again which just ruins everything...

Next up is Lilac, I was hoping this could be a dupe for Topshop's Chase but it definitely is not. In the bottle it is a medium lilac with a subtle gold glitter/shimmer to it, quite pretty.

I really like this colour but when it's dry it is quite an unusual shade. In some lights it is lilac and others gold and even a sort of greige. If you're looking for a definite lilac then this isn't it but I do really like it. I might try a purple base coat under this next time to see if that makes it a little more purple like I had expected. One coat looked quite ethereal and delicate.

Just as with the pink shade, this dries very quickly and is nice and hard wearing, I would definitely buy more polishes from the Marks & Spencer Limited Collection range!

I can't stop listening to this right now, it's just makes me want to go out all night and not go to bed until the sun comes up...

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NOTD China Glaze- Purple Panic

Hey sausages, 

I hope everyone here in the UK is enjoying the amazing weather we're having at the moment, I can't believe how hot it's been! I'm currently house sitting for a friend to look after her cat and I've taken a sick day at work so I thought I'd catch up on my blogging.

I borrowed this nail varnish from a friend at work after seeing it on her and falling in love with it (I have bought my own now...)

It's from China Glaze's neon collection so it dries matte without a top coat like most neon polishes but I like it both ways really. I almost think it's brighter on its own.

Without top coat

I can't really describe in words or show you in pictures just what an amazing colour this is, I'm so so in love with it and it's in my top 5 now! Its more pink than purple I would say but in different lights it definitely has a purple tint. It's glows and I've recieved lots of compliments on it- it's the perfect summer pink ♥ 

Action shot trying to show off the vibrancy

And I made some smartie cupcakes for my best friend at work's last day :( Miss you sazzle

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Just amazing

I love everything about these, the gold, the turquoise, the purple and the pearls...they are just perfect.

Picture courtesy of www.benna.co.uk

Mawi- pearl and emerald teardop earrings £210

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Outfit of the day & Caviar manicure

Ok, so I've not done an outfit of the day post before because I just can't really take a picture of myself and during the week I just wear my work stuff and then it's just gym gear or onesie time. 

This is basically what I wore to lovebox the other weekend, minus the wellies and dream catcher earrings in my previous post.

Speckle neppy sweat top- Topshop
Heart necklace- Lola Rose
Polka dot dress- H&M
Tights-M&S
Moccasins- Primark

I love Lola Rose jewellery but I really don't like necklaces that are too short and sometimes I find that theirs can come up a little too high. I bought some more beads from Hobby craft which amazingly were a perfect match and made a sort of extender so that it's ended up the just the right length, for me anyway.

I've wanted some Minnetonka moccasins for ages and couldn't figure out which size to get so when I saw these doppelgängers at Christmas in Primark for £12 (I think) I couldn't resist! They are suede and probably the comfiest shoes I've owned in a long time, they did other colours and bootee style ones too which I wish I'd picked up. I always find that with the leather and suede Primark shoes, I should buy 3 pairs of each because I wear them to death and for £40 less than the Minnetonka ones they were a complete bargain.

Caviar Manicure

After what has been about 3 months, the mini steel beads that I bought on eBay have arrived from China and I can have a go at the hundreds & thousands style nails that Ciate have recently made so popular. I've had to order about 5 more packs though because there are so many different colour variations I've been trying out and just need enough beads to do a whole pair of paws!

First attempt at the 'caviar manicure' but the camera just hasn't captured how nice and colourful it looked

I love hearing this whenever I go into Marks & Spencer...listen out next time you pop in.

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I've been baking again

Here's a selection of cakes that I've made recently, I'm quite pleased because I think the flowers that I'm making are starting to improve. It's just getting the right sort of photographs of them I'm no pro at...

A sample cake for a lady at work who was after some anniversary party cakes

Thank You cakes for my Chelsea mad manager

The final lot of anniversary cupcakes

I think that now I have some more photos of my cakes I am going to make up my business cards from MOO which is this lush website where you can get stickers made up with your pictures too so I think I'll be choosing that as well... you're never too old for stickers!!

Has anyone else been in the baking mood? I'd really like to have a Strawberry Tea Party soon to raise some money for Breast Cancer Awareness. Watch this space.

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