DIY | Cats Whiskers | Halloween Brooch

 

If like me you have not had time to whip up an outfit for your Halloween party tonight why not take the express route and make my easy kitch diy cat brooch and my glam treat pouch for all those bon bons you will collect on route to your friends party.

 

For The Cats Whiskers Brooch - You Will Need

 

1. An old gauze jewelry pouch in black.

 

2.An old pair of black knickers.

 

3.A vintage pair of earrings, mine were a kindly gifted to me by Jon Richard and are part of the Butterfly collection by Matthew Williamson.   

 

4. A giant safety pin.

 

To Make - 

 

1. First turn the gauze bag inside out and push your choice of earring through the fabric about half way up the bag using the backs to fasten them to the fabric, then turn the back right side round so the earring are on the outside.

 

2.Next roll up your pants and pop inside, fasten the bag with the draw strings, the corners of the bag become the cats ears, you can add a mouth, nose and whiskers if you wish, but I prefer my brooch slightly naive looking with a touch a humour. 

 

3.Attach your giant pin and your good to go!

 

Just in case the lovely people at Jon Richard decide this is a good way to market their earrings sets this Christmas, you saw it here first! If you want to use this brooch diy as a Christmas gift idea also and you have a few more black gauze bags lurking amongst your jewellery. You could always pop a black velvet alice band in the bag as the stuffing for your brooch which would make a nice little set with the earrings for a friend.   

 

 

For The Treat Pouch-

 

Use a glamours small bag with a rope chain handle, tuck the handle inside the bag and fasten the flap over a nice thin bright belt then fasten over your coat and start collecting treats! I used a rose gold square bag and a purple velvet vintage inspired belt for my treat pouch.

 

 

 

Costume Drama I love!

 

I have just been watching Strictly Come Dancing the results show and getting my weekly dose of glamour, Paloma Faith performed her heart out and looked incredible in her Mexican inspired costume, complete with a head dress of giant brightly coloured flowers and a huge black feather skirt the girl done good!Are you a fan of the show? What's the most glamorous item in your wardrobe? Here are a few of my favourite pieces, if you like these you can find more on my pinterest boards here.  

 

 

 

 

 

Essential Accessories For Well Heeled Gothic Ladies

 

 

gold Prada sunglasses titanium frames -round black lenses

gun metal Prada sunglasses titanium frames -green lenses

As the dark nights start to draw in, I have been contemplating adding Gothic heroine to my costume/wardrobe wish list. I thought I might try and strip the look back, to just the key essentials  I need to pull this look together in a wearable way and leave myself with individual pieces that I can actually conceive myself wearing in the near future.

 The Goth catwalk this A/W12 was all about gaunt pale mask like make-up with a crimson mouth and no eye make-up what so ever, great for those with chiselled jaw lines, but not for me that relies heavily on the use of blusher and eye make up to define my bone structure, I thought the next best thing was enlisting the help of some oh so fabulous Prada sunglasses. Round frames have long been a favoured look amongst those recreating the Gothic look but these designer sunglasses have a touch of Steam Punk about them which I ADORE and at the same time have a regal feel that Prada is known for.The obvious choice is black, but I think by opting for gunmetal or gold my favourite coloured frames, I will add some necessary opulence to this look, also gold frames will help warm up my naturally pasty skin once winter kicks in and will work with the fresh pinks around next spring. 

The other key element to recreating this look convincingly is statement texture. So I'm going to make it a bit of a mission to find a fine black wool cape with plenty of embroidery, I may add a little further embellishment into my cape mix with the addition of some dark purple silk tassels from my local haberdashery store, I'm still thinking about that one, a black pleated skirt would work well also. I might be brave and add in some deep red long leather gloves. I have been promising myself a neat little Doctor bag for a while now and could kick myself for not picking up an authentic one I recently spotted at a charity shop but quite honestly I was scared it might fall to bits on me! I'm loving these Victorian style booties, with  flutterbyes running up the sides, both the cape and the boots would also do for the folklore look which I tend to put a spin on every year and particularly in winter. I love the idea of a black top hat, but I think it might detract from my Prada sunglasses and cost a pretty penny too, so instead I'm thinking of working a broad black velvet alice band and a large low bun in black spotted net.       

 

ornate black cape -shop bop

 

 

leather pleat skirt John Lewis

Gothic butterfly boot 

*Please note this post was kindly sponsored by Smart Buy Glasses but the words and ideas are my own, images sourced from Smart Buy Glasses, pinterest and the above named outlets.   

Help Save Our #Bees Ban Pesticides





Honeycomb sponge Hokey Pokey- Lone Baker

We all love honey, honeycomb and the sound of bees lazily buzzing in our garden as they do their work during the summer months, only as you might already be aware we have not experienced as much buzzing or honey as we are generally used to, as a very wet UK summer and a unhealthy amounts of UK pesticides saw whole colonies of our bees wiped out this 2012 and beekeepers forced to drip feed starving bees sugar to keep them alive. The knock on effect on our food chain and our beautiful wildlife is already being felt, if you care about the beautiful country in which we live and our little friends the bees please read more here about the effects and or sign this petition to force our government to invest more in this crucial area of wildlife. If you want to help even more great! Share this post in a link with your readers or write your own,help spread the petition and save our bees!Were you aware of this issue what are your thoughts?  



 

Shoes Of Prey | Sweep Me Of My Feet!

My finished shoe design!

 

I was in need of a little pick me up recently, what could be better than a pair of glamorous shoes to do the job, sadly scrolling through row after row of designer shoes left me feeling a little worse for wear. I'm not great with really high heels, I tend to walk like I'm wearing stilts I blame my very flat feet, something I have shared here before and all the lower heeled options just don't seem to have the same glam factor. So unless I was to relent and use my newly purchased high heels purely as shoe art in my home and enjoy them from afar or only ever use them for my outfit blog posts on My Passport To Style, it was time to come up with another viable solution.So I was pretty thrilled when I happened upon Australian on line company Shoes of Prey a shoe mecca that embraces all types of shoe wearer from frustrated shoe designers to 5 inch heel phobics like me.

Miss Smarty Pants | Get Your #Bow On

 

 

Tis nearly the time for Christmas party season, I love any excuse to crack open my favourite coloured eye glitter, dust off my disco ball and crank up the music ready to practise my best dance moves. Usually when I'm in the kitchen cooking dinner for some reason! Have wok can dance should be my mantra.

 

Ever since I watched Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady I have always lusted after excessive plumage in my wardrobe,with giant bows of all kinds being top of my wish list.There is something feminine yet at the same time oh so slick about wearing a bow and as a fan of this classic accessory I could not resist devising my own Smarty Pants scale, to pin point the varying levels of cool sophistication that can be achieved depending on where or how a bow is positioned by the wearer. So here it is - 

 

 

 

  Smarty Pants Bow Guide

 

At number 1 is the mistress of the double bow, she is fearless in her pursuit of accessory bow perfection and no shrinking violet when it comes to wearing the bow, see the huge dramatic hair bow adorning her beehive and her tangerine shirt with a bow at the neck.In her eyes more is more! Her idol? The decadent Marie Antoinette.

 

At number 2 is the slinky subtle bow wearer, shrouded in a certain air of mystery this giant bow wearer, rather like the masked highway women that used to hold up the carriages of noble men and women in ye old times, likes to be exude a little chic, tempered by the trappings of being a free spirit. In this case the item is a soft grey wool rucksack tied with an airy black chiffon bow with tails that fly in the wind as the wearer zips through waiting traffic to her next party.   

 

At number 3 a little miss obvious, but who can resist the thrill of the gasp factor, this gals me to a T, the bigger and the plusher the bow the better, full of extravagant gestures from the colours she chooses to max her bow cred to how she walks when she wears it, halfway between a wiggle and a flutter, hey with a bow this big your halfway to being a butterfly it's pretty inevitable it will effect your swagger.Dita would be proud.

 

At number 4, our fourth bow wearer, likes getting her bow on slightly off centre on her best black party frock, very classy but understated, this bow wearer is a quiet intellectual with a fun sense of humour, great company at long boring dinner parties where you have to sit through five courses and using fingers is strictly forbidden. 

  

Will you be getting your bow on this Christmas and did you recognise which type of bow wearer you are in my Smart Pants Bow Guide?

 

 

  * images courtesy of pinterest

#Uniqlo A/W12 Campaign

illustrated by -Michel Simeon

illustrated by Michel Simeon

I have a soft spot for children's films and animations, my favourites have to be the Roald Dahl books, full of magic, fun, food humour and larger than life characters. It is interesting to see how major fashion brands such as Mulberry are increasingly using children's fiction as a point of reference in their fashion campaigns, so I was really excited when I came across this fashion campaign by Uniqlo I could be wrong, but I think James And The Giant peach may have inspired this shoot, I particularly love the clever use of colour, the gothic undertones and the nonchalant pose of dad holding the giant moths hand whilst looking at his son.

#Black Beauty | #Favourite Accessories

black elements - mood board featuring Red or Dead purse, Kirk Geiger heels, leather bow, and star buttons

 

Black is a really difficult colour to wear head to toe as it can make you look washed out, the trick is to mix up black textures like my mood board here and use accessories to add edge and to punctuate your look.These are my three favourite black accessories at the moment, a Red or Dead black and gold large purse which has an image of Blackpool beach on the front and says for Leisure and Pleasure, this giant black leather studded hair bow which I wear as an oversized bow tie with a vest top and blazer and these Kirk Geiger black patent lace ups with cone heels. The Purse gets a lot of attention when I'm out and about as it has an unusual interior demonstated here

Beryls #Outfit Post #Belted Shawl Coat

 

 

 

I have been waiting for an opportunity to create a winter outfit using one of my favourite pieces in my wardrobe, this gorgeous lapis blue and emerald green mohair shawl.Apologise for using Beryl as my stand in yet again but she is so good at it, she stands very still, in fact she doesn't move a muscle, seriously though I'm waiting for a timer for my new camera once it arrives I should be able to be much more consistant with my outfit posts, so hope your ready to be inspired!

Outfit Post - Statement Greens

Olive shirt

Statement knit

I'm really enjoying all the shades of olive green around at the moment so I was pretty chuffed when I bagged two green trends with out even trying at my local charity shop last weekend. The first is this beautiful pure wool olive green italian shirt, I love the fact it is somewhere between a trench coat and a big shirt and does up just at the collar which creates a dramatic neckline. I've gone a little rock chic wearing it with a pair of M&S leopard jeans I dyed green, black patent Kirk Geiger cone heels, a utility belt, big Topshop earrings and stacked up some Jon Richard sparkly crystal bracelets in red, black and purple that I was kindly gifted.

#Lush Opening At #Lancaster

Great name, penny Lush!

Juice bike

Small but perfectly formed that's the city I live in, but it was definitely missing a little something until yesterday, and then ta da! That something arrived in the form of a newly opened Lush store, if you haven't ever stepped inside a Lush store before, prepare to have your senses assaulted in a good way,it's like a fairground and a delicious smelling cupcake shop in one! No matter how many times I walk into Lush I always walk out with a smile as well as whatever I couldn't resist, which has got to be good, my list of favourites includes, massage bars, henna dye, solid perfume, lip balms and a shampoo that is made of stout and lemons these have all found there way into my heart and my bathroom.

 So here are some of my favourite moments/products from the opening, embarrassingly I practically squealed with delight when I stumbled across this pile of crumbly brightly coloured lush play dough, aptly named Fun in their window, it smelt goood, I was already addicted to the regular stuff, but this was beyond regular! When your done playing you can crumble it in the bath. I loved the purple heart COOKIE cutters too.

What Makes A Blog Beautiful ?

I'm in the mood for a blog declutter and makeover, My Passport To Style is my little fashion and lifestyle bubble a place I cherish and can count on to brighten my mood as I revel in all things style related, but lately as I have been visiting more new blog's than usual, (thanks CosmoBlog awards for that!) I keep catching new stylish blog's with original fresh designs that jump out at me and leave me wondering at the possibilities,

Cosmo Blog Awards 2012

Topshop Best Brand Blog -Image courtesy Of Cosmo FB

  Some of you may know I was pleasantly surprised to discover I had been shortlisted for the Cosmo blog awards 2012. I love writing about the creative world of fashion and making it hopefully accessible and fun for anyone who reads or follows blog, but being a little tucked away in the North UK and away from the razzle dazzle of London you have to fight as a fashion blogger to get recognition, so its great that Cosmopolitan magazine a) recognises fashion bloggers in this way and b) is really inclusive in their search for new fashion bloggers and new blogger category's for the Cosmo Blog Awards.Some times writing about fashion and wearing all the hats required to run a fashion blog and working a day job is hard slog and a little isolating so being shortlisted has encouraged me to keep writing about fashion but also to keep improving the content I offer you, the lovely readers and followers of my blog.

Credit- Movie Met 

Although events transpired against me and Cinderella did'n't get to go to the ball, I caught up with exciting events of the night by checking out some of my favourite fashion bloggers who had also been nominated.It sounds like they had a blast and it was really fun night at Londons Rose Club with a fortune teller, lots of pampering and great goody bags.

Credit - Style Rawr

Thanks Cosmo magazine and thanks to Next for sponsoring the event.A massive big thank-you to everyone who was kind enough to take the time to nominate My Passport To Style, that in it self means so much to me. Here are the winners, there are some really talented new bloggers out there!! Were you at the Cosmo awards, what did you wear? Have you found a new juicy blog to read??