Yves Saint Laurent Oval Arty Ring Replacement

YSL Oval Arty Ring in Aqua Green - Via

Now, you'd think being in an office was a safe, spend-free zone wouldn't you?! Well, not for me! Not thanks to the Internet. I was browsing plenty of sites but then something in particular caught my eye. I've loved the Yves Saint Laurent Oval Arty ring for a long time now since I first spotted it on a few blogs.

Of course, as with SO many things I see and love, I didn't get it. It's a sad story isn't it! It's a bit pricey at around £140 to £160 ($240) for something I wouldn't wear all that often. I couldn't justify it, however hard I tried.

I'd been browsing at a couple of sites today and then I ended up at Accessorize. They have an awesome sale on right now which is what drew me in. Then I saw this beauty, a very good replacement for the YSL ring. I guess that was accessorizes' intention because I think it's a near copy of the YSL ring. What do you think? 

What makes it more beautiful in my mind is the fact it's a snippet of the cost. I spent a whole £12 ($18) on this bad boy! 

Completely justifiable. I actually consider this to mean I have saved myself money as opposed to spending it!

If you want an Arty Ring Replacement for yourself go to Accessorize and type in 'stone ring'. They ship internationally but the website does state that they're low in stock, so hurry! There's actually loads of other gorgeous rings on there at the moment too.

That's all I have time to share right now unfortunately. At least you know I am still alive now though. I know I usually post at least every two or three days and I haven't done this this week but I do promise I will get back to that next week!

xxx

Five Things From This Week.

This week I had my birthday so of course I had to show you some of my birthday gifts from friends this year. They took on a certain theme - accessories, MAC cosmetics and pink. I'm a bit concerned that people think I'm a little like Barbie. Hmmm. Having said that I do love all these things, OPI polish, MAC lip products, eyeshadow, pretty hair accessories, jewellery and a gorgeous scarf, I'm a happy girl with some lovely friends.

I'd like to have fresh flowers in my apartment all the time. Sadly I just never seem to get around to buying them. Luckily I have a person who likes to buy them for me every now and then. Fresh flowers can brighten any space and add a fresh point of interest to a room not to mention the beautiful scents.

Glitter French Manicure

I'm a big lover of brightly colored nail polishes and occasional nail art when my patience allows. Sometimes though a simple nail is nice. I love the look of a french manicure, it's so clean and sophisticated. Plus, you never have to worry about it clashing with your clothes (that bothers me so much I have to re-paint my nails before I leave my home, usually at the expense of being on time). A fine line of silver or gold glitter polish is a great twist on a french manicure. Who doesn't like a touch of sparkle?!

Christmas isn't too far away now. I saw this great idea on Melina's blog, it's a Secret Santa for bloggers. I thought it'd be great fun to take part and of course hopefully make a new friend in this little world. Take a peek by clicking on the picture if you too feel like getting in the festive spirit.

Kylie Minogue with Yves Saint Laurent (YSL) Black Tote Handbag.

Seemingly I am having a bit of a thing for Yves Saint Laurent right now. I spotted this tote in the store not so long ago and then this snap of Kylie Minogue with it. Lucky girl. Not sure about her velvet jacket and those pants. What do you think? It's not something I could get away with that's for sure. But the bag...oh the bag...that I could definitely get away with. It's such a versatile bag, clean lines, smooth leather and of course it's big enough to fit all my junk in. I would like this. A lot. Santa?

That's it for this week. I hope you all have an awesome weekend.

xxx

Big Bows, Birthdays & Balloons.

Imagine if your birthday granted you a free day off work, how incredible would that be?!
 

Hard luck, it doesn't! So instead I had to go to work. My day was made much more enjoyable though by my gorgeous work friends. They surprised me with a latte and cinnamon roll complete with candles (they know I never get round to breakfast in the morning) as well as gifts! It was so thoughtful and cute of them!
 

After work was out of the way my boyfriend had made reservations for dinner. People in Seoul tend to dress a lot more casually when you'd expect them to be smart. So although this restaurant is a fine dining experience, the dress code isn't. I'm often overdressed. This time I put together a cute smart casual look. Skater skirt, ruched shoulder cardigan and enough accessories to add a touch of glam, including my new bow hairband a friend gave me as a birthday gift. I got it just right this time. The restaurants on the 33rd floor so the views of the city are beautiful.

View from our table.

Oversized Bow Hairband - Accessorize. Cardigan & Necklace - H&M (currently loving it a bit too much!)

We ate a gorgeous meal and enjoyed the smooth live music. It was a perfect birthday meal (photos of the food after the jump if you care to make yourself hungry, seriously...they will!). After dinner I was keen to have a night-cap cocktail but my bf insisted he was too tired and wanted to get home. I really wanted to stay longer but appreciated what a lovely night it had been and decided not to kick up a fuss.

When we got back he suddenly dashed into the apartment and told me to wait a minute.When I went in he surprised me with flowers, birthday balloons, a few more presents (he'd already given me my presents earlier) and a birthday cake! I'd not expected anything else as he'd already done more than enough. I jumped around for a little while with excitement. Thought about how glad I was I didn't get miffed at him for wanting to go home. Then we grabbed forks and dug into the Black Forest Gateaux cake!

My surprise when we got back to our apartment! <3

It was a perfect birthday, I couldn't have asked for anything different, except not to have to work of course! Haha! I feel so thankful that I have such lovely friends and an amazing boyfriend too. They all helped make me feel a little bit better about getting another year older.

I hope I'm blessed enough to have them in my life every year to ease the pain!

xxx

PS: You can see the food we ate if you click below but I really should warn you that you'll probably have to go eat something after you look at them...or maybe I just don't have any willpower!?!!

I Wore: Diesel, Dream Catcher & Chloe Bag.

Hey Lovelies, how is Saturday treating you?

For me it's great but I do have a confession to make...it's almost 4pm and I'm not dressed yet. I'm bad ass like that! I am going to get dressed soon I swear but first I wanted to show you some pics that I'd forgotten to post previously. I took them only a few weeks ago as the summer was dwindling away.

I didn't know it at the time but this was the last time I got to go bare legged and wear my favorite denim skirt (love it, so comfy and casual, if you stick around you'll no doubt see it again next year). It actually seems like it was just last week but I'd freeze if I tried to wear this here now.

Paddington Saddle Bag - Chloe. Denim Skirt - Diesel. Cardigan - MS.

 

My boyfriend and I had popped out for a coffee in the late afternoon. I wore the skirt with a simple white tee and beige cardigan. I've had my Chloe saddle bag for years now, I love it so much and it's only getting better with age I think. Although, I have ditched the padlock from it because the bag itself is so heavy it gives me backache. The padlock feels like it doubles the weight. So that just sits in my house now instead. The scarf is from H&M, as is the dream catcher necklace. When I saw the necklace it instantly made me think of Fall, don't you think?!

Dream Catcher Necklace - H&M

Ummm, yeah, you might be noticing I can't stay away from cupcakes.

A mixture of different bracelets  - Accessorize.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Peachy nude ruffle bow flats - Zara.

Love the girliness of the ruffled bow.

 

Even though it's too cold for the skirt I can still wear the rest with jeans instead. Which is great because I love the color combination of soft pinks and browns together. Seems so fallish if you know what I mean.

Okay, so the boyfriends is fully ready to go out now and will start to get impatient/repulsed if I don't get off the couch and shower. Don't know what the plan for the day evening is but you can be sure I'll take some snaps if I see or do anything fun!

Please leave a comment and follow my blog. I'm planning my first giveaway for when I reach 50 followers, not a big number but I really appreciate every person who bothers to read my ramblings and you've got to start somewhere, right?!!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend everyone! xxx

Stress relief.

Another week has passed. I didn't mean to post so little this week but it seems that time got away from me. Earlier in the week I wrote about my 'Terrible Tuesday'. Because of that and because he's also lovely my boyfriend thought it would be nice to take me for a picnic by the river here in Seoul. He figured some vitamin D and fresh air (we live in a city of over 10 million people) might help cheer me up. I'm pleased to say he was right and the week has picked up a lot since then!

Casual and comfortable. Cream vest-H&M. Floral cream trimmed top-Forever 21. Denim skirt-Diesel.

Handbag-Zara.

Heart clasp bracelet-Boutique in Seoul. Tasseled crystal bracelet-Accessorize. Watch-Rolex. Assorted Bracelets-H&M

The lovely man with the plan! ♥

The grateful and now happier lady.

We ate our picnic laid on the grass watching the people go by. We stayed until the sun disappeared behind the city horizon. Sometimes I feel like I never switch off except for when I sleep. Internet, blogging, TV, phone, working, you know how it is. It was nice just to be still and quiet for a while.

Afterwards Steve drove us to Starbucks for a coffee hit. On the way we stopped and picked up one of my all-time favourite naughty treats, a cupcake! ☺ I guess Steve deemed it acceptable to be the enabler given my stressful week. They might not be healthy diet friendly food but boy they sure do make me happy!!

Non-fat latte with full fat cupcake. Haha!

'Funky Berry' cupcake.

Sadly for me the deal was I had to share the cupcake with Steve to save myself from the full calorie whack! At least now my sweet cravings have been satiated for a while. That's what I'm telling myself anyway.

So all in all it was a beautiful afternoon, a pleasant interlude during the weekly rat race.

It really helped me relax and step back from everything for long enough to realize that I have no real reason for getting stressed, it does no good. In fact I highly recommend you switch off you're computer now and go do something to help yourself relax and tune out. If you're feeling really stressed treat yourself to a little (yes, little..not a lot) of whatever makes you smile. It will work wonders.

Actually, I think on that note I'm going to switch off now. Don't worry I'll be back to share more soon. I'm going out tonight for my friends birthday. So excited to get dressed up. Pictures will follow soon I'm sure!

Have a lovely relaxing weekend and make sure you go make the most of it!

xxx

Practicing self control in Forever 21 and Accessorize. Plus metallic nails!

So with yesterday being the first Saturday after my pay day *woooohoooooo* naturally I decided I had to buy some new things. Not that I don't buy new things during the rest of the month. It just feels necessary and justifiable to do it when you've just been paid!

So, here in Korea there aren't hundreds of shops that stock my size, everyone here is so darn petite!! You can imagine what I look like by comparison, 5'11'' and sadly NOT petite at all :'( *sob sob*

Thankfully they have H&M, Zara, Mango, and Forever 21 here so all is not lost! Actually it's not even close to lost, I LOVE all these stores! Haha! What makes me feel even better is that if I were in England I'd have to be living in Birmingham or London to experience the joy that is Forever 21. The London location only opened on the 27th of July this year.

I read an article on the Daily Mail about the 'scores of shoppers' lining up in the street to get in and it actually made me smile, a little triumphant that I've been shopping in Forever 21 happily line-less for about 2 years here! Hehe!

So here is what I picked up:



Forever 21 - Short floral dress



I love that this dress has built in moulded cups!

The dress I bought is here, it's $22.80. I can't seem to find it on the UK site only the American site, sorry :(

I also bought a scarf. Yes, yes...I know, it's summer! You don't have to tell me that, it's 32 degrees Celsius here today. It's just that I'm kind of obsessed with scarves and when it comes around to autumn I'll want a leopard one just like this and I won't be able to find it in any of the shops. So it seemed to make sense to just buy it now.



It's really light material with a ruched effect.

I actually did amazingly well not to buy a lot LOT LOT LOT more. Forever 21 is more expensive here in Korea than in the U.S. but it's still pretty damn cheap in the scheme of things. Sometimes that fact lures me into a bit of a buying frenzy. It goes like this....

I see something...'ooh that's pretty' I think...I kind of like it....I definitely don't LOVE it. 'No, it's not 'wow', I'm not getting it...I'm walking away now...but...'Oh wait...how much is it?...'It's how much??!!...'Oh what the hell, it's only blah blah £/$s' ...It's in my basket!

I'm finally at the checkout now...the shop assistant says to me: 'The total is $200 (£120)'...My face grimaces....I think to myself...'a a h ...Sh*t! I've done it AGAIN'!!

And that's how Forever 21 goes for me.  Every.  Bloody.  Time.

I actually bought the same maxi dress in two different colors a little while ago along with two maxi skirts that I've worn once. Basically the cheapness usually entirely voids me of my ability to shop discriminately. Do you see the problem I face??!

Anyway...if you're not lucky unlucky enough to live near a Forever 21 like me you can shop on their U.S. website or U.K. website. I warn you, you may spend more money than you mean to!

I also visited my favorite British export here, Accessorize! Another mistake. As the name suggests it's an accessory shop. My lack of control in Forever 21 pales into insignificance when compared with this place. It's just all so sparkly and pretty!!

Accessorize goodies!! The photo doesn't show how nicely
the crystal bracelets twinkle. Trust me though... they're so pretty
and they won't tarnish either (I HATE when that happens!)

Finally, I picked up some new nail polishes to add to my ever growing collection ~ which quite frankly is worrying! My mum said I have a nail polish hoarding problem when she visited and saw how many I have. She's probably right but I'd rather have that problem than the problem of FUGLY hands and feet!! Hehe ;)

I've been hoping to find a place that sells the Minx nails but have yet to do so. If you don't know what Minx Nails are then take a look here but I warn you it may cause serious cases of nail envy!

I think I may have to order from the Internet instead. But I did find these metallic nail polishes to use in the meantime. They create a fairly good shiny metal effect, nothing like Minx does, but it'll have to do in the meantime.

Nail polish from The Face Shop.

I bought these from a Korean store called 'The Face Shop' but I know that they're really similar to metallic polishes that brands like Orly and O.P.I make so you'll be able to find them if you do an Internet search.

Here's what the metallic rose pink looks like (on my feet though, sorry, feet are odd, I'll do finger nails in future!):

Rose pink metallic nail polish - It's no Minx but it is pretty.

Right, I'm off to find other things to spend my pay check on. Please feel free to leave a comment if you read this and follow my blog. I will happily follow you back :)

Have a great Sunday everyone!

xxx