Red Hair Appreciation

For as long as I can remember, I have always wanted red hair. My mum has red hair, and when I was younger I was hugely jealous of her gorgeous hair. I feel that redheads get a bad press (the whole "ginger-minger" thing), which I completely unfair, and makes me wonder why no-one discriminates against the blondes or brunettes. 

There's a definite trend for having red hair at the moment, which really first started when Cheryl Cole dyed her hair that purpley-red colour. But since I don't really like her colour (it's too fake), here is the original red-headed Girls Aloud member, Nicola Roberts: 

 Christina Hendricks aka Joan from Mad Men has definitely been influential. I mean, who wouldn't want to look like that? Or at the very least, have hair that colour?

Rihanna's red hair, for her softer new look (timed perfectly to go with the release of her album) has made three people I know dye their hair.

And then there's the models, who've been redheads for ages:

Lily Cole

Grace Coddington (she was a model and she's my hero so she's going on here)

and Karen Elson (inspiration for my haircut)

I have dyed my hair red before. It looked like this (ignore the weird face I'm pulling):

Because my hair is so dark, the red dye went an orangey colour, and made my skin look sallow. So it seems I am doomed to have dull brown hair instead of gorgeous red hair. Until I can afford to buy a decent wig. 

Basically, what I'm trying to say is, red hair is beautiful, and here to stay. 

Christmas Nails.

I've been doing working all day, every day all week (my first day off in a week will be Christmas Day!), and I've barely spent anytime at home or with my friends. I did find time to give my nails a little festive makeover though:

I used Model Own in Red Red Wine with a layer of Barry M red glitter that "Santa" (aka my mother) left in my stocking last year. It's lasted really well, especially given the pressure my nails are put under at work. 

I hope everyone has a lovely Christmas. 

Flo x

That's enough snow, thanks.

Thanks to the snow, it took me two hours to get home from work tonight (the journey normally takes me 20 minutes). Luckily I was all wrapped up in several winter layers. 

I finally found a big cosy man-style coat (I've been looking for one for ages) in Topshop a couple of weeks ago. It's got lots of lovely pockets to keep my hands warm, but it means that when I get back to my flat, I have to spend ages hunting for my keys, which are always inevitably in the last pocket I look in.

My coat and hat are from Topshop, my scarf was a birthday present and my desert boots are from Office (I raved about them here). 

I'm sure everyone is doing this, but here's a picture of the snow in Canterbury - I'm back at home for Christmas break, so I was at work when the snow started. It had been snowing for about 45 minutes at this point:

While I was keeping warm in Topshop on my lunch break, I bumped into Gem, who writes Gem Fatale's Style Blog. She was so lovely and chatted to me for a few minutes - you should definitely go and check out her blog if you have a chance.

The best shoes in the world.

I think the whole of Britain is aware of the fact that its snowing. And there is a lot of said snow. However, this morning when I left home for work, there was no snow, so I left my welly boots in the car. Big mistake. 

However, I made a sensible shoe choice today - my beautiful black heeled desert boots from Office (I wrote about them here, but I haven't posted anything more about them, which is odd, given the huge number of times I've worn them).

Here are the blue ones (they also come in grey):

I work for Office, and I got my pair of these back in September, but although they're sold out in most stores now, there are some small sizes left on the website in the blue and grey (no sign of the black ones).

The rubber sole had perfect grip on the snow and I didn't slip over once (even on the ice on the hill) when I walked back to my car, and the laces kept my feet nice and snug in my shoes. I thought I couldn't love these shoes more than I already do, but I was wrong. When they come back into stock, I'm buying myself another pair. 

Tall Ships

Last week my friends and I went to see a band called Tall Ships (have a look at their Myspace here) at the Hippodrome in Kingston.They were brilliant. Tall Ships were the first band I saw when I came to university, so it was really nice to see them again, especially now that I've got some of their songs on my iPod.

(Photo by Charlotte)

Not only did the band sound excellent, but they were really lovely when I met them afterwards, and seemed so pleased that everyone was enjoying their music. 

Central.

My friends and I made an impromptu trip to central London on Friday afternoon. I can't remember the last time I went to so many shops without spending all money. 

We spent a lot of time on Carnaby Street, especially in the Lomography shop. But because James and I don't have Lomography cameras, we played with our Hipstamatic apps instead.

James' photos:

My photos:

Lydia, Nathan and I in Carnaby Street: 

Happy Birthday Nathan

My friend Nathan, who writes the blog Real Horrorshow Tunez, turned 19 on Friday. We had planned to go to a roller disco (complete with 80s outfits), but the snow put a stop to that. Instead, we went to a little club in Kingston where Amerie (of '1 Thing' fame) was performing. She came, sang three songs, and left (so there was no time for anyone to take any decent pictures). 

James and Lydia (who had refused to give up on the 80s theme): 

Laura, laughing because I reminded her about this:

Laura and I in our Topshop dresses:

The birthday boy:

Snow: Then and Now.

Then: 

Now: