Obsession: Ombre

Helloo my little chickadees :)

I tend to go through phases of liking things: certain chocolate bars, certain hairstyles, certain colours... And when I like these things, I become obsessed with them. OBSESSED.

Currently I am LOVING the ombre trend. Ombre is the french term for "shaded" and is a faded colour, using different shades of the same colour, from light to dark. 

There are lots of ways to create this effect, and boy, have I been trying them out! 

I thought I would start out small, and as I have been trying out nail art, I decided I would ombre-glitter my nails:

All you need to do to create this look is to pick your base coat, do a few coats of this and leave to dry, then paint the bottom half of your nails with glitter, then paint the bottom third with glitter, then the bottom quarter etc. Do a top coat et voila!

I also own a lot of pairs of denim shorts (7 at my last count...another obsession of mine), so I ombre-bleached a few of these:

Once lilac shorts, they now fade to a gorgeous pink

Light denim with a light fade

Dark denim blue fading to 80s white

It was a bit trial and error, but I found that the best way is definitely to soak the shorts in plain water first, then hang them in a bucket of bleach/water mix (I used a coathanger to hang them) until you achieve the desired effect.

I also ombre-bleached a plain rust coloured dress I bought in the New Look sale:

More of an orange colour now, fading to peach

And finally, as I have been growing my hair out from a pixie crop, I need new ways to make my barnet exciting - I bet you can't guess how.. that's right, OMBRE!

I began by colouring all of my hair to get rid of my roots with L'oreal's Florida Honey Blonde, and then attempted the lighter colour with their Lightest Natural Blonde, colouring an inch of the bottom for 20 minutes, then a further inch up PLUS the bottom inch for another 25 minutes... with no result! Ben, as usual, came to my rescue after sourcing a very 90s looking highlighting kit in Tesco while I sat at home in my PJS:

I was dubious, but... this time it worked!

I now have lovely ombre hair to match my lovely ombre clothes and nails! 

I think my next ombre adventure will involve fabric dye and plain dresses...

P.S. I apologise for the awful quality pictures - I am going to have to steal Ben's proper camera and take some pretty pictures for the next post!

Maisie the Mischief Maker & THE bike!

Maisie was, at long last, microchipped and neutered in February, after which came a two week recovery period, inclusive of a plastic cone: 

Poor Maisie felt very sorry for herself; she couldn't clean herself, so she just cleaned the inside of the cone continuously, and she got a few itches in her ear that even I couldn't remedy with my silly non-claw hands - so the cone did come off a few times. Luckily the stitch remained intact, although her pride didn't - especially when she kept bumping into doors and chair legs due to her whiskers being stuck inside the cone. 

Snoozing on the most comfortable cushion...

We were both very happy when the cone came off, and finally she could be let outside.

I received Maisie after she was found in a boiler house with her sisters and brothers when she was only a few weeks old. The caretaker had said he would need to get rid of them, so after being weaned onto solid food, Ben brought her home to me at just four weeks old.

 

We thought she would be a wild cat, even though she was very nervous and shaky when she first came home, and when she was a bit older it seemed that we were right - she would scratch at the doors to go outside and sit on the windowsills meowing at the birds. 

I had taken her outside a few times on her lead though, and she had been very timid, but when she was allowed to be outdoors on her own, I set her down outside and left her for a few hours.

The garden is edged by tall trees and, as you can guess, Maisie found these highly entertaining. Three times we have had to rescue her from the tallest one (about 20 feet high), and the neighbours have rescued her once when I was out - only for her to climb back up and get stuck again ready for when I got home. 

She got herself up the tree again yesterday and we left her for five hours (until it got dark), and she managed to climb a quarter of the way down. 

After her adventures in the tree, she is less eager to go out, and it is much quieter in the house. I will keep putting her out though, and she can get herself out of the tree! I am sure that one day she will work her way all the way down and then she can go out as often as she pleases.

Looking like butter wouldn't melt

In other news, my bike was finished! Sod's law means that the weather's been awful since I got it though, so I haven't yet been on a bike ride with it.

Before

Hannah-ised!