Little Gift From A Fan From Romania.. ♥

Last month I received an email from the boyfriend of a blog fan of mine. He said it was his girlfriend Claudia's 25th birthday, and he would love it if I could send her a birthday wish. Rather than just sending her a happy birthday email, I thought it would be nice to send her an actual birthday card, and I also sent her a few little gifts too :) Her boyfriend Sorin and her were both very pleased and grateful for the surprise, and they kindly sent me a little package back, all the way from Romania! Claudia had chose me some very thoughtful treats, I love them all! Thank you so much Claudia, and Sorin :)

Take a look at what she kindly sent me:

Lots of pretty goodies! She sent me a Shamrock pin brooch, 2 pairs of earrings, a ring, 3 perfume sachets, some hair clips, and a cute Fairy Cake tin sign! This is so adorable! It's my favourite, Claudia must know me well! It's like a postcard, where you can write a message on the back, but the front is made from tin. It looks so pretty and shabby chic! Just my style :) The pretty jewellery pieces she sent me: white rose studs, a cute cupcake ring, dangly birdcage earrings, and the four leaf clover brooch; maybe it will bring me luck :)

Thank you so much Claudia! I hope you liked your gifts as much as I love mine!

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Aztec Glamour From H&M - Support Fashion Against Aids.. ♥

As well as springtime pastels, I'm also loving this seasons summer brights! And my favourite trend is the Aztec theme. Teaming that with my love for the new H&M range, check out some of my favourite pieces from my favourite store! 

Most of these pieces come from the H&M Fashion Against Aids charity range. Fashion Against Aids is a collection aimed towards raising awareness of HIV/AIDS among youth. H&M has raised $6.5million dollars towards prevention projects so far. By buying from this collection you are showing your support, raising awareness, and most importantly a huge 25% of each purchase is donated to the charity.

1. Sunglasses £5.99
2. Hairband £9.99
3. Bustier £14.99
4. Necklace £9.99
5. Denim Shorts £19.99
6. 2 pack rings £3.99
7. Shoes £24.99
8. Skirt, £7.99
9. 10 pack plasters 99p
10. Sandals £9.99

What do you think of the collection? I love the tube skirt!

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Competition Win - Cake Pops.. ♥

I was recently lucky enough to win a cake pop bouquet by Say It On Sticks, from their Twitter page. The bouquet was carefully packaged so that when it was delivered to me via courier it was still intact.

Inside the parcel was this bouquet of little round cakes on sticks, and very nicely packaged with coloured tissue paper and a bow around the box. My bouquet contained 12 cake pops, with different designs and patterns on. Some are coated in white chocolate, and some have milk chocolate on. And some are decorated with coloured sprinkles, and some have a chocolate drizzle around them. They look very impressive! I think they would make a great gift.

Inside the chocolate is the sponge cake, they're a little sickly for my liking, so I'm going to take them for my neices 8th birthday party this weekend! I'm sure the little kiddies will love them!

 Have you tried cake pops?

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My Ikea Wishlist - The Shop Where My Dreams Come True! ♥

I have lots of love for Ikea, the Swedish homeware warehouse store. They sell a wide range of well-designed, functional home furnishing products at very low prices. The shop differs to others, because you basically walk through loads of different showrooms of different rooms within a house, and then at the end of the very long walk, you pick your own products from the warehouse! 

They also have a fabby restaurant, and a hot dog and ice cream bistro after the tills. You can get 10 Swedish meatballs for from the restaurant for £2.95! I'm yet to try them, but they look delicious. You can also get a full English fry up breakfast for only 99p with their Ikea Family card! The bistro does some great deals, for example you can get a hot dog and drink for £1.30, or a hot drink with free refills and two donuts for only 95p! Also noticed they have a limited time offer of pork BBQ ribs, fries and a drink for £4.95! Yummy, my favourite! Makes a perfect quick and tasty meal after all the walking and shopping.

Anyway, I am needing a couple of new bits of furniture as my old (Ikea) stuff is getting a bit worn out. I need a new deep chest of drawers, and a small desk/table for the corner of my room. I've found two gorgeous white wood-look pieces that will fit in just perfectly in my bedroom. But browsing around their website, I couldn't help but spy a few other bits and pieces I like the look of. I think a trip is due very soon! Take a look at the things I have put on my wish list from Ikea.

1. ASPELUND Chest of 3 drawers, £79

2. EVALILL Tea towel, rose £4.59  / 2 pack

3. TRIPP Tin with lid, set of 3, £3.29

4. EMMIE BLOM Cushion, £3.99

5. HEMNES Dressing table with mirror, £189

6. BÄRBAR Tray, £7.99

7. BORGSJÖ Desk, £35

8. KUNNIG Paper napkin, £1.59  / 30 pack

9. LÖNSBODA Scented candle in glass, £3.39

10. EMELINA KNOPP Quilt cover and 4 pillowcases, £15.99

11. YNGAREN Soap dispenser, £6.99

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New Virtue Sterling Silver Stacking Rings - Follow Your Heart.. ♥

I have recently been looking around to treat myself to something nice, and I thought jewellery is probably the best option, as I would get a lot of wear out of it and it's timeless. So after browsing some websites, I fell in love with Virtue sterling silver stacking rings. In particular, I loved the 'follow your heart' engraved ring that I saw.

So I ordered it, along with 3 other rings, from John Greed. Virtue is a new jewellery brand that has been created in the UK, and they have designed a range of collectable rings. Their rings are sterling silver or 9ct gold, with a mixture of cubic zirconia, freshwater pearls, and semi-precious stones. You can build the rings up with your favourite designs to create something to suit you.

The four Virtue rings I chose were: the bouquet ring, follow your heart ring, rose garden ring, and the enamel daisy ring. These each retail for £25 each, except the follow your heart ring, which is only £17. The follow your heart ring is actually my favourite one, and is the most meaningful.

My rings arrived from John Greed in a neat presentation box, with a little packet of Love Hearts, and a Virtue brochure with all the rings in.

Here are some close ups of each ring individually:

I love the designs I chose, and there are many more lovely ones. I am currently just wearing two at a time, the daisy and follow your heart ones, they are my favourite! I took a guess at my ring size being size L, and they fit perfectly! Yipee!

Although I bought my rings from a jewellers, you can also buy some of the Virtue rings from Aspire's website! And don't forget you can use my discount code VICTORIA to save 10% on any items!

What do you think of my new purchases?

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I&K Clip-in Hair Extensions from HairTrade.com ♥

I have been lucky enough to try out some clip-in human hair extensions from Hairtrade.com. Hairtrade.com provide a wide range of hair extension products and over 40 beauty, hair care and hair electrical brands. They have low prices, high quality products, prompt delivery and great customer service.

I chose the 18" I&K straight clip-ins in shade 18/22 which is an ash blonde colour with lighter blonde highlights. I thought this was best suited to my hair as my hair isn't bright blonde and it does have some (old) highlights running through it. Hairtrade.com sell this set for £59.99.

 

The set came with x2 6" pieces, x2 8", and x6 individual small pieces, all with clips attached, and then 2 spare pieces that came without clips. The I&K hair extensions are made from 100% high quality human hair.

The extensions feel so soft, and after giving them a brush to remove the stray hairs (quite a few came out), the majority of the hair is then strong. I was a bit worried that they highlights were very prominant in the extensions, but once they are in place, the highlights merge to give a much more natural look. 

I followed the helpful instruction video from the Hairtrade.com website, which showed you to first section your hair low down, and clip on one of the 6" pieces.

Then you section your hair a little higher up, and then clip in the other 6", and then repeat the process above these for the two 8" pieces. You then clip the individual strips onto the sides of your head to cover all over.

Here are some before and after shots of my hair once I'd put the extensions in:

As you can see, the extensions are very long, and not very well blended into my hair as my hair is feathered at the front. Therefore I gave the ends a trim to look more natural, and also tried to feather the extensions around the front of my hair so that it blended better. This worked well, the only negative is that I will have to check which pieces go where next time I put them in, as they are different lengths.

I then decided to experiment by curling my hair with my Remington wand, to see if my hair would blend better. I love the results! I think it looks amazing! This is exactly the type of hair I've always wanted, and I couldn't be happier with this look. It looks much more natural than when it's straight, and it isn't too long, but still a fair few inches longer than my natural hair. What do you think?

Which look do you prefer? Curly or straight?

Do you think I could pull these off for daytime/a night out?

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New Primark Summer Range Press Photos.. ♥

Primark have released more photo's of their summer 2012 fashion range, due to start hitting stores in the coming weeks. Their new pieces have bold, bright, summery prints to suit the new season. Here are some of their fabulous new photo's, including some swimwear. I love the model too!

 Images courtesy of Company.

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A Few Photos of Things.. ♥

I've had these photo's for a few weeks that don't quite fit into individually posts as they're a bit of a mix! So I thought I would put them all in one photo post :)

Girlies at the Hippy Haze festival last weekend! :)

A yummy milkshake by the Hippy Hippy Shake company with caramel shortbread, chocolate sauce and whipped cream!

I gave my sewing box a tidy up :) Lots of pretty fabric samples!

Mummy made yummy lasagna!

This was the inside of the Mothers Day cake I made :) It was sooo good! The top was carrot cake, and the bottom Victoria Sponge.

The new Spring edition of Cath Kidston magazine.

L'oreal samples.

A lovely perfume sample from Stella McCartney and Eucerin face cream sample.

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Barry M Ice Cream Nail Polishes.. ♥

I am such a huge pastel lover this season! As if you didn't already notice...

Check out these gorgeous ice cream shades from Barry M! I love shade 'Berry'!

Barry M cupcakes... yummy!

 

 These are all the ice cream range shades, which one is your favourite?

You can buy these and many more for only £2.99 from Superdrug :)

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