Nail marbling - fabulous is it works, a complete disaster if it doesn't...

With it being the holidays and me stuck for jubilee fashion, I decided to paint my nails for the occasion. The original plan was simple red, white and blue. What could possibly go wrong? Unfortunately, I'm prone to having big ideas, and decided to take it one step further. Nail marbling!

If you're unfamiliar with the concept, here's a quick video and picture to show you the desired intended effect:

Warning: Do not leap out of your seat with excitement and do it straight away, you'll just make a complete mess. Read the whole post to find out what happened to me...

And the desired effect...

Unfortunately mine ended up looking more like this...

Basically, I was unaware that the polish would form a film (which I now know to be the whole point) and on my first try picked all the film up on one finger and scrunched it into a mess. Wasn't going well.

Then, I realised that because I used glitter and normal nail polish from different brands, they weren't going to make a nice swirl. Instead, they each took their own side of the bowl and when I tried to mix them the same thing happened - the film clumped onto my brush and I had no choice but to (unsuccessfully) dump it onto one nail. At this point I'd exhausted all hope of doing my nails and was now cleaning the bathroom with my last remaining drop of nail polish remover (after knocking the bottle over) and trying to prise flakes of polish off my nails and the sink. What an epic fail, all for some nice nails...

So, before you try this. Think realistically. It probably won't work and you'll end up in a mess. On a more positive note, if anyone has had any nail art successes feel free to comment, I might summon you for a guest article on how to be a nail marbling hero...

Abandoned the blog :( BUT I'M BACK

Oh dear. The 'keeping up the blog' thing didn't quite work, but I'm back. I've had a quiet few months apart from various violin related ramblings. My exam is looming (3 weeks although I don't have an exact date) so I'm in crazy practice mode for that. I guess I'll have to start again with blog promotion and all that but that will be after I've done my practice. I have an exciting idea for a post, one which is very, very out of date but I've wanting to post for a while. I hope some of you read it.
Again, sosososo sorry for abandoning this, it was going quite well too :'(

Exciting Update!

I'm sorry I haven't posted for a while, but I have a few exciting posts planned for this weekend! Yaay, the weekend! This post is just to give some great news: I'm totally delighted that I was able to do a guest post for the blog Into Geek. My post is about stereotyping in the world of technology,which I guess is more serious than what I normally blog. If it gets good reviews then I might start writing more opinionated articles, I'll see how it goes. Anyway, again I'm sooo pleased that I got to do this post and hope it shows that I can blog in a more in depth way. My guest post can be found here.


In the meantime, please look back soon because I'll post some of my latest blog entries once I've actually written them...  (I'm going to write one now, may be up this evening)


Thank you to everyone who's reading my blog, whether you're a regular or have just stumbled across it. It's been a very successful first few weeks!


Have a nice weekend and remember to come back here for more posts!

What I'm listening to right now

I'm a musician, so inevitably my iPod is a complete jumble of pop music to folk and classical. I don't really believe everyone is confined to a certain music taste, and I think there's much link between what I like. I bet even if I were given a case of heavy metal CDs I'd find something I like.  Just make sure it has a strong melody and powerful lyrics (if it has lyrics at all) and I'm sure it gets a place on my random selection of music :)


So here's what I'm loving at the moment:


In the pop side of things, I UTTERLY LOVE Lana Del Rey. Her voice is so powerful yet sweet, and all the songs have wonderful meanings. My favourite song by her has to be 'blue jeans'. I think it is such a strong and mysterious song I find it so powerful to listen to. Have a listen and see what you think (and the video's pretty cool too):

Not sure if this has anything to do with the fact that I just watched the titanic but I also love Florence and the Machine's song 'never let me go'. Also, I read this great book with the same title, by Kazuo Ishiguro, a wonderful read. It really reminds me of the titanic story, and I think it was used in the recent BBC adaptation as well as being a lovely strong song. One of her best:

I play violin in a folk band, and this is one of my favourite pieces we play. I don't know much about the piece or the band, but I think it's a great introduction into folk music for someone who doesn't play it, and a great piece for someone who does. Even if this isn't your kind of thing, have a listen and hopefully enjoy this gorgeous tune (Bouree Les Poules Houpees, At Tambur):

So I hope you liked my selection of current 'most played' tracks. Comment your opinion and share some tracks of your own!

Easter Cupcakes

Ok, so it may be a little late, but what's Easter without a good recipe. If you're bored of chocolate, this could be your lucky day.


I found this recipe on the Good Food Channel website, and thought they look so nice I'll post it to my blog. Enjoy!

Ingredients

For the cakes:

• 250 g unsalted butter, softened
• 250 g caster sugar
• 4 eggs                                                          
• 1 tsp natural vanilla extract
• 185 g self-raising flour
• 60 g plain flour
• 185 ml milk

For the icing:

• 250 g white chocolate chips
• 300 ml soured cream
• raspberries or sweets, to decorate

Method

1. For the cakes: preheat the oven to 180C/gas 4. Grease a 12-hole 125ml non-stick muffin tray.

2. Put the butter and sugar in a bowl and beat until pale and creamy. Add the eggs, one at a time, then add the vanilla and beat until well combined. Sift the flours together and fold in while adding the milk. Stir until almost smooth.

3. Divide the mixture between the muffin holes then bake for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and leave to sit for 10 minutes in the tin. Turn the cakes out onto a wire rack to cool.

4. For the icing: while the cakes are cooling put the white chocolate in a bowl over gently simmering water.

5. Once the chocolate has melted stir until smooth and remove from the heat to cool slightly. Gently beat in the sour cream until you have a thick creamy icing.

6. Spread the cooled cakes with the icing and top with raspberries or sweets.

High street browsing: coloured jeans!

These are totally in at the moment, everyone seems to be wearing them in some form or another. I guess it's because you can wear plain tops with them and still look bright and colourful. They show off personality and are just so cool. 
So, where are some of the best places to get them from? First, here are the ones I own:

From topshop, patterned floral. I utterly love them. They have replaced my old favourite jeans (which had a hole in the knee :( ) as my favourites!








Topshop is also great for solid colour, here are just a few of 
my favourites:

MOTO Supersoft Leigh Jean (Topshop, £40) from left: dirty rasberry, lavender, turquoise


If you want something slightly less expensive, New Look is also great for coloured/patterned jeans:

These are available for £12.99 in colours:
Purple (pictured) < to me that's more pink, but that's the name in the shop :)
Yellow
Green
Rich Purple
Purple Overdyed
Red Overdyed
Coral

So, enjoy spicing your outfits up with colour, and if you can't decide which colour brings out your personality, here's a little quiz to help:
Apparently I'm green, not too sure about that ;)
(Source: quizmeme.com)

     

Never judge a sparkly dress before you've tried it on...

Well, I guess this blog needs some content! 


Yesterday I was with my friend in town, browsing clothes. We decided to play 'try on something we'd never EVER wear'. So we see this CRAZY SPARKLY dress in Topshop. I mean CRAZY... So, after an awkward moment wondering whether we would a) annoy and b) seem weird to the shop assistant we decided to hide in a bundle of normal clothes we were 'thinking of buying'. It was a good plan and we tried them on. WOW I actually thought the dress was pretty AMAZING (if not slightly itchy). Now I reaaalllly want it, so, see what you think:




You can find the dress here

The moral of this anecdote: Some dresses look much better on that off :)

Hellooo :)

Hi, I'm Freya :) 14 years old


I'm writing a blog, something I've tried before but have never had the patience to persevere with. I love writing, and I'd like to think I'm quite good at it, so what better use of the skill to address a whole community online. I hope people will notice this, and read my posts because infront of an online world this huge, I am but a speck. 


So, what this first post is trying to say is HI NON EXISTENT READERS I hope you exist soon :)