Tag Archive | Houndstooth

February Favourites 2015!

I know, I know, this blog is 16 days late! Please forgive me as UL had it’s RAG week last week and this week, I am paying for RAG week antics as I am suffering with a verrrrrry bad flu! But I am on the mend! So here are my February favourites 🙂

Pink Hair

The first week of February, I got pink dip dye in my hair and I absolutely loved it. To be honest, I think the pink has been my favourite dip dye (I’ve had blue and purple previously). I think the pink suited me more, it went really well with the blonde and my complexion. The only annoying thing with dip dye is that it doesn’t stay in very long. I got 5 weeks out of it. I now face the decision of whether or not to get it back in? If I do, I might have to keep it for a good 4 or 5 months because of something that I am currently involved in. What do you reckon? Get the pink back in or go fully blonde again? Thoughts PLEASE!!

Book

My favorite book for the month was If I Stay. Stupidly, I watch the movie before reading the book so I knew the storyline. The book is based on a girl named Mia Hall and how she deals with the aftermath of a horrible car accident which all her family, including her, were involved in. She has an out of body experience where at first, she is beside her parents and brother’s bodies mangled and dead, being tended by paramedics. She then releases that she is infact not alive but fighting for her life. She is rushed to hospital and her ‘spirit’ goes too. She sees her grandparents, her parent’s friends, her best friend and her boyfriend all gather at the hospital to be by her side to remind her she still has a family when she wakes. Mia watches as her memories flash before her eyes as she comes to realize that she must decide if she should stay and lead a life far more difficult than she would of ever thought without her parents and little brother, or go, and leave everyone else behind, including her dreams. It is quite emotional. But DO NOT decide to read this book while you are in a car with your parents when it is snowing, it is a stupid idea!

Clothes/Outfit

First outfit!

Second outfit!

I have two outfits of the month and I wore them both in one day! Life of a fashionista eh?! First outfit is what I wore on my way to the GAA Congress in Cavan! I wore a oversized black t-shirt from Littlewoods, (€10, Click here), Houndstooth leggings also from Littlewoods (€24, Click here) and a coat from Born (with I think is out of stock at the moment!). I think is one of my favourite outfits at the moment as it is comfy but also stylish! I feel like a Black Little Red Riding Hood as my coat as the same hood as her cloak!

The second outfit I wore to dinner with my Mum on the first night of the GAA Congress. I wore a simple long sleeved black top from Pennys/Primark (which is €4 or €5 I think), black and white mid length skirt from Littlewoods (€29, Click here) and blue wedges from Pennys/Primark (€15).

Music

I think I will always find this a hard choice! But currently, I am loving Luke Friend’s debut single ‘Hole In My Heart’.

I am also LOVING Lawson’s new single ‘Roads’! I have missed these boys making music and can not wait to hear more!

Movie

Okay so 50 Shades of Grey has to be one of the favourites for the month. I had been craving for this movie since 2012! Once the movie was released, it got mixed reviews! For someone who loves the books, yes I do agree it’s different than books. The chemistry wasn’t as strong as I would of liked between Christian and Anna. I think Jamie Dornan done a good job. My problem was with Dakota Johnson. I cringed watching her at some parts of the movie. She did an okay job in some scenes such as the whipping scene and when he first brought her to the Red Room. Was it as good as I expected? No. Nowhere near as good as I thought it would be. Would I see it again/get it on DVD? Heck yeah!

I also finally got to watch Love, Rosie and I loved it. I read Where Rainbows End back in November and adored it. It is about two best friends, Rosie and Alex, and how Rosie was stupidly blind to the fact that Alex is mad about her and then when she releases, the timing is wrong. Along the way, life throws a lot of stuff at the both of them. That is it sums up in a few words basically. I laughed, cried, laughed and cried at the same time. It is cringe at times but in a cute way. I loved it. I also loved Sam Claflin ❤

For Christmas, I asked my parents to get me some of the Disney Classic Movies and my Mum has continued to buy me them! It’s on my Bucket List to have all the Disney Classics on DVD (I know its very childish but I love Disney!) I currently have 13 Classics and my Mum has made it her goal to have them all collect for me by the end of the year!

Food

Since my Dad had his heart attack, he has been on this strict healthy diet – which I also have to be on as the heart attack thing is in our genes! So one day, my Mum was telling me she found this healthy chicken and she was putting it on for my dinner. When she handed me the plate, I didn’t pay any attention to the food. It looked exactly like chicken. Smelt gorgeous and tasted devine! So then when we went shopping the next day, I asked Mam can we get more of that chicken and Dad brought me to where it was in the shop. You could just imagine my surprise/shock when I saw it was Quorn! I had no idea. It is so healthy for you and it tastes almost better than chicken in my opinion. My Dad isn’t a big fan of it but he is picky like that! I have been loving a lot of healthier foods that are now in my diet! I will included them in my March Favourites! This diet is great, and although I do miss some of my favourite foods, I have lost almost a stone in 6 weeks!!

Youtuber

I have been loving Joe Sugg a lot more recently on Youtube. He is Zoe Sugg’s younger (and beautiful!!) brother. He has three Youtube channels : ThatcherJoe, ThatcherJoeVlogs and ThatcherJoeGames. I only watch ThatcherJoe and ThatcherJoeVlogs as I am not really into gaming videos. Joe is a British YouTube Celebrity, blogger, and comedian with over three million subscribers. He is known for being ridiculously crazy and he is also very good at impressions. He lives with fellow Youtuber, Caspar Lee and their videos together are some of my favourite. I cry with laughter sometimes they are that good.

This is his recent main channel video.

This is his recent vlog.

See you in a month for my March Faves!

You Know You Love Me, XOXO,

X Factor Tour Dublin!

Feb17

Everyone knows I love X Factor and especially this season with the formation of my favourites, Stereo Kicks, and Only The Young being on the show! So when tickets went on sale for the tour, I snatched them up straight away!

X Factor Tour kicked off on Friday 13th February in Belfast and was there two nights before hitting Dublin on Sunday 15th of February. Only 8 acts made the Tour, Fleur East, Lauren Platt, Andrea Faustini, Jay James, Stevi Ritchie, Ben Haenow, Only The Young and Stereo Kicks!

Fleur. Image belongs to me.

Lauren. Image belongs to me.

Fleur opened the show with ‘Can’t Hold Us’. Lauren performed her slowed down version of ‘Happy’, which took me about a minute to know it was that because she was singing so low and I couldn’t hear the words! She then followed with ‘How Will I Know‘, and she danced a little bit. Jay sang ‘Changing’. Stevi performed ‘Livin’ La Vida Loca’. Andrea belted out ‘And I’m Telling You’, his voice is incredible.

Only The Young really got the arena going with their version of ‘I Wanna Be Like You’. They made me fall in love with that song again. They made it fresh and cool. They put the OTY Stamp on it. They put a few dance moves in there too. And I got a little excited and screamed ‘Gwan Charlie and Mikey!’. I am sorry you can hear me in my video (insert cover eyes monkey emoji here!).

My bae’s Stereo Kicks hit the stage and the place went crazy, with them receiving the loudest screams of the night. They sang their cover of ‘Let It Be/Hey Jude medley and their vocals live are just incredible. With the reaction they got all night, I firmly believe Stereo Kicks have a great future ahead. Who said 8 boys wouldn’t work? They are incredibly talented and so down to earth, they can’t believe everyone loves them.

Charlie from Only The Young. Image belongs to me.

Fleur proved she is a double threat when she returned to the stage to perform ‘All About That Bass’ and ‘Bang Bang’, with her killer moves and stellar vocals. Andrea then sang ‘Listen’. The last song of the first half of the show was a group ensemble, minus Ben! They sang Taylor Swift’s ‘Shake It Off’. Stevi donned his Freddie Mercury outfit and performed ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, probably his ‘best’ performance. Not much I can really say about Stevi. Fleur was back on stage to sing ‘Thriller’, she didn’t give it as much energy as she did on the show or her other performances on the night which was disappointing. Lauren sang Disney favourite ‘Let It Go’, which had everyone singing along as usual.

Only The Young sang ‘Blame It On The Boogie’ and I just wanted to get up on stage and dance with them! They are so energetic and have so much on stage, it is infectious. These guys are going places. They are unique and extremely talented. I am excited for their future!

Stereo Kicks. Image belongs to me.

Stereo Kicks got the girls (and boys) screaming again when they sang ‘Everybody’. It was during this that I couldn’t contain myself and shouted ‘Casey you are fit’ and ‘Tom you are fit’ several times. They look gorgeous though, so you couldn’t blame me! My SK buddy Tania is very proud of me 😛

Jay sang Skyfall. Jay did nearly put me to sleep during this but that is simply because he doesn’t mean anything to me. He has incredible vocals but I am just not a fan. Jay got quite emotional after his performance. Stevi sang Footloose. To be honest, he ruined the song for me. I know he is the guilty pleasure act and he does proved entertainment but… I can’t even say anything. There are no words. Stevi is a genuinely nice guy and very pleasant when I met him. Fleur sang her only ballad ‘If I Ain’t Got You’ and she proved she can slay the slow songs too.

Only The Young performed one of my favourites of the night ‘Jailhouse Rock/Twist and Shout’. Charlie’s vocals were seriously on point all night but he’s parts in this song were incredible. Mikey looked so hot (love heart eyes emoji here) and he even wore my favourite Houndstooth shirt!!!

Lauren. Image belongs to me.

Lauren’s final song was ‘Don’t You Worry Child’. Apart from ‘How Will I Know’, this was my favourite performance from her. After her throat problems recently, I doubted if she was vocally ready for the show but she was and she sang incredibly. She also looked very beautiful.

Stereo Kicks stole the show with the song that started their journey, ‘Run’ and 6 months later they are on an arena tour! I was so proud, there were tears! Chris made a little speech at the end of their performance and I was so proud of him. I’ve known him for over 3 years from his days in Level 5 and met him at Niall Horan’s birthday party in 2012. I was also extremely proud to see Tom Mann on stage. I’ve been supporting him for nearly 3 years too. He’s really fit. I might have mentioned that before but I am just making sure you know it. Casey Johnson is also fit. Okay Stereo Kicks are fit.

Casey Johnson and James Graham. Imaage belongs to me.

Casey Johnson and James Graham. Image belongs to me.

Tom Mann and Jake Sims. Image belongs to me.

Chris Leonard and Barclay Beales. Image belongs to me.

Reece Bibby and Charlie Jones. Image belongs to me.

Fleur performed her outstanding performance of ‘Uptown Funk’, wow that woman can dance!!!

Ben Haenow. Image belongs to me.

Finally the winner graced the stage! Ben Haenow (HAENOW, HAENOW, DON’T DREAM IT’S OVER!) started his set with ‘Come Together’. Ben also sang ‘Thinking Out Loud’, ‘Highway to Hell’, ‘Jealous Guy’ and ‘Demons’ before closing his set with his winner single ‘Something I Need’.

All 8 acts closed the show with a group performance of ‘Never Forget’ and seemed to happy with the response they got in Dublin on the first night!

If you are a fan of X Factor, you will adore this concert! Ben, Only The Young and Stereo Kicks were my stand out favourites and the three acts I heard the majority of people talk about after the show.

So the Irish leg of the tour may be over but if you live in the United Kingdom, tickets are still available for some of the shows. Go get them ASAP!! A show not to be missed, especially if you want to say you’ve been there from day one for OTY and Stereo Kicks 😉

I have a few more videos to add but I am currently in Laois and Wifi is slow. I will add the rest of the videos when I get to University with fast internet!! ❤

Check out my X Factor Blog from when I went to London here.

Houndstooth – My latest obsession!

Jan21

One of my favourite things in fashion at the moment is the Houndstooth pattern. I don’t know why I love it so much, maybe because it is quite flattering when on or maybe it’s the colours, I simply just love it! Okay if you have no idea what Houndstooth is, I’ll explain. Houndstooth is a duotone textile pattern defined by broken check or abstract four pointed shapes, usually in black and white, although it is available in other colours but it looks so classy in black and white. Even though it first came into fashion back in the 1880’s, it made a comeback in 2014 and I don’t think it is going anywhere soon throughout 2015. If you need more convincing to love Houndstooth, it is visible throughout the majority of seasons of Gossip Girl (and I know Gossip Girl came out 8 years ago, it has become relevant and loved by many recently!). So if Blair and Chuck are wearing it, so should you! Don’t believe me? Here’s proof!