London Haul- Primark, Forever 21, Victoria's Secret and Disney Store

What's a trip to London, without a little bit of shopping? 

When myself and Meg were in London we took it upon ourselves to buy so much stuff that we defiantly didn't, did need. 

Let's start with Primark. The Oxford Street Primark is both the most wonderful place, and the worst place. Wonderful, because of how much stuff they have there, and compared to my local Primark they have a hell of a lot of stuff. But its also the worst place, because of how busy it gets, and how cramped it gets, and how many clothes are thrown all over the floor. But me and Meg managed to look past all that and got some really cute bits. 

Starting with this pale green Summer dress. It has mesh parts on the straps, waist and hem of the dress. The back is also really pretty because part of it is cut out, but not the annoying kind of cut out where you can see half your bra. So I'm looking forward to wearing this in the Summer months.  

Pale green mesh dress- £13

For someone who hates birds (and believe me I do), I just couldn't help myself. It's so cute and for £3 it was a massive bargain! 

Flamingo canvas- £3

Primark's selection of plasic cups/ thermal cups is wonderful. I'd have them all if my Mum would let me. This cup will be perfect for me when I want to transport drinks during the Summer in my car. Plus its Frozen, so its super cute. 

Frozen cup- £2.50

Frilly socks are my weakness. I have a whole draw full of them, but whenever I see a pair its like; 'Well I haven't got this shade of purple'. But the ones with the sheep on are flipping adorable. 

Stripe frill socks- 75p
Sheer sheep socks- £1.50 

I'm someone who hates to have bare feet, so in the Summer pop socks become my best friend, because if you can't rock your cute ankle socks with your pair of shoes, then pop socks are my second choice. So when I saw these Lady and the Tramp ones I had to have them. 

Lady and the Tramp shoe liners- £2.50

Bit more Disney, because this is primarily a Disney blog after all. Plus I've been searching for these for ages. I love this style of Primark pyjama bottoms, because they are super comfy and cosy, and they have fitted ankles.  

Frozen pyjama bottoms- £7

Keeping with the pyjama theme, I picked up this pair of floral print shorts for the warmer weather, plus they were only £1. Bargain. 

Floral print pyjama shorts- £1 

They had a wide selection of shopper bags when I was there, they had a few Disney ones as well. But this one made me chuckle, and I thought it would make a good beach tote bag for when I go to Spain. 

Mermaid shopper bag- £1.50

Moving onto Forever 21. 

They had some lovely clothes, but nothing that I really looked at and thought 'I need that now', so I only picked up two jewellery items. One being this adorable little gold bunny necklace. Its really delicate and the rabbit reminded me of Peter Rabbit, so it was too cute not to buy.  

Rabbit necklace- £6

Then the second thing I brought was this princess crown ring, it is so damn pretty and looks like it should cost a lot more than it did. So Meg and I both got one. 

Meg's nails looking far more magical than mine

We then went to Victoria's Secret and they had a special offer on their fragrance mists, usually they are £13 each, but they were three for £24, so I got two and Meg got the free one. 

I spent forever trying to find the perfect scents, and these two were my favourite by far. Coconut Passion, smells how its sounds; of coconut. Then Pure Seduction is a mixture of red plum and freesia, and it smells SO GOOD. 

Victoria's Secret fragrance mists- £13 each, but discount meant
they were £8 each 

I've saved the most Disney for last. No London shopping trip would be complete without going to the Disney Store. We went to the Oxford Street one, and I show the store in a little more depth here. 

My birthday is coming up, so Meg was kind enough to get me one of my presents early, and that was the Alice in Wonderland soft toy doll. She brought me the Cheshire Cat for Christmas, and now I have an Alice to go with it. 

Alice soft doll- £16

When I went to Disneyland Paris in 2013 I brought a Lady soft toy, so I only felt it was right to buy a Tramp to go with her. 

My room is slowly turning into a five year old's room. 

Tramp plush- £18.95

That was everything that I brought from London, I am now saving the pennies for Summer.

Well attempting too. We will see how long it lasts. 

Cheerio!

Hannah

Spring Treasures- An April Charity Shops Haul

These are all the charity shop treasures I have collected over the month of April, and I thought I would share them with you. 

Starting with this black heart print dress from Primark. I love the added bow details on the pockets, and the style of dress makes me feel like someone from an American diner in the 50's.

Primark Heart Print Dress- £3.95

I love the pattern of this strappy Summer dress, and the white flower buttons are just too cute. It's quite short so I'll either have to wear black tights with it, or maybe little denim shorts underneath. 

Primark Blue Rose Summer Dress/top- £3.95
Havens Hospice 

This is a grey slouchy jumper from H&M, and I really liked the beaded embellishments, because they really jazz up what would have been a really dull grey jumper. 

 

H&M Grey Oversized Sweater/top- £3.95
Sue Ryder 

This is a corduroy skater skirt from Boohoo, and I really liked the colour of it. I thought it was really Autumnal, so this will probably be something I save for later on in the year. 

Booho Skater Skirt- £1.50
The Salvation Army 

These trousers were an absolute steal, they're from Topshop and they look pretty much brand new. I am in love with the colour, and I felt inspired by a similar pair that Patsy from Call the Midwife wore in an episode I'd watched recently. 

Topshop Cigarette Trousers- £4
Mind 

These's are possibly my favourite purchases of the month, they are little framed pictures of Hunca Munca (from Tale of Two Bad Mice), and the old woman who lived in a shoe (from Appley Dapply's Nursery Rhymes). These are two of my favourite Beatrix Potter illustrations, so I was very chuffed to find them. 

Beatrix Potter pictures- £1.50 each 

Another Beatrix Potter find was this lovely framed Tale of Johnny Town Mouse picture. I love her illustrations, so I had to snap this picture up for my room. 

Beatrix Potter picture- £4.99
British Heart 

Keeping with the same theme, my Beatrix Potter obsession has now spread to Jill Barklem's Brambly Hedge books. I loved reading them when I was younger, and I thought this Spring Story money box was really sweet. 

Brambly Hedge Money box- £4.99

Spring is here and Summer is just round the corner, so I thought I'd pick up this sunflower hair garland for 99p. Because who doesn't want to look like a fairy during the Summer? 

Flower Head band- 99p
Oxfam 

Coming from a girl that loves to bake I couldn't refuse this assortment of six biscuit cutters for £1.50! Especially since I was looking at similar ones on Etsy. 

Biscuit cutters- £1.50
Sue Ryder 

I seem to have a book buying obsession recently. I think its steamed from wanting to collect all Roald Dahl's books. I managed to pick up James and the Giant Peach, as well as Revolting Rhymes, which I remember listening to on cassette tape! (I feel so old). I also picked up Alexa Chung 'IT', which every girl on the internet seems to have, Call the Midwife by Jennifer Worth, The House at Pooh Corner by A.A.Milne and Confessions of an actor by Laurence Olivier, (the actor in me coming out). 

Books- 99p each
From; The Salvation Army and The Children's Society 

I found this fabulous Belle dress photo stand, I think it must be from one of the Disney Parks because it has a stamp on the bottom saying 'Authentic Original Disney Theme Park'. It's in such good condition, and I'm going to print off a polaroid picture of Meg and I at Disney to put in it. 

Belle Dress photograph stand- 99p
The Children's Society 

Then finally keeping with the Disney theme I found this Walt Disney quote tile and I thought it would go fabulously in my room. It did come with a different hanger, but it looked quite naff so I swapped it for some pink ribbon, which goes nicely with my room. I love this quote so much, so it's nice to have it on my wall to look at everyday. 

Walt Disney Quote Tile- £1.50
Haven's Hospice 

These are all the bits I've picked up in April, what treasures have you found this month? Let me know in the comments. 

As always; 

Cheerio! 

Hannah

'Have courage and be kind'- Cinderella Swarovski Exhibition

What better way to get myself back into the blogosphere than a good old Disney post? 

Now, unless you've been living on a Disney-less planet the past few months you'll have no idea about the new live action Cinderella film, and this whole post will be wasted on you. But for those who HAVE seen the film, well then you can swoon over Cinders spectacular blue dress with me (and boy did I swoon). 

When I watched the film in the Cinema first time round with my sister and nieces, one; I thought the film was fab, and Lily James played Cinderella, or 'Ella', sooo well, two Helena Bonham Carter was fabulous, as always, and three Cate Blanchett was so wickedly evil as Lady Tremaine. 

But what stole the film for me were the costumes. All of the costumes were incredible, but of course Cinderella's blue ball gown stole the show, and I found myself literally mesmerised during the ball scene where she dances with the prince. The way the material flowed and moved captivated me, it was the epitome of the perfect princess dress. 

So of course when I see that Swarovski are putting on an exhibition in London showcasing the costumes and the set designs from the new film I knew I HAD to go. 

And of course Mumma Drake came too. 

The outside of the exhibition

The exhibition was from the 21st of March till the 10th of April 2015 in the Leicester Square Gardens, and there were 22 amazing costumes and 100's of original props from the film. 

The Heritage Gallery:

This was the first room of the exhibition and this was where they showcased Disney's animated version of Cinderella, and they had loads of original never before seen artwork and archive artefacts from the Disney Vault. 

Cinderella's Home:

This was the second room, and this was where you saw the costumes that Lady Tremaine, Anastasia and Drisella arrived at Cinderella's home in, as well as her father's study, original props from when she is a little girl at the beginning of the film, and family portraits. 

I love that throughout the film each stepsister has a signature colour for each of their costumes, pink/peach for Anastasia and yellow for Drisella. 

What I particularly love about these dresses is that each flower was hand painted on. So it shows how much time an effort went into each costume. 

Lady Tremaine's costumes are brilliant, because they are dramatic to bring out the evil stepmother character, but they are also elegant, so it doesn't make her seem pantomime-like. 

Interesting fact about Lady Tremaine's costumes are that the colour green was a key theme in most of her dresses to highlight the envy and jealousy she feels towards Cinderella. 

Cinderella's Father's Study

Cinderella's childhood toys

The Cellar:

This was where you saw Cinderella's first costume, her blue rags dress. Which I actually really like. I love the simplicity of the dress, and the detail at the bottom is a lovely touch, because it contrasts nicely with the stepsisters extravagant brightly coloured dresses. 

Actual bells from the film

Cinderella's mice friends. 

The Garden:

This was where the magic starts to kick in, first you see Cinderella's torn pink dress, along with the un-transformed Fairy Godmother cloak. 

Then as you turn you see the Fairy Godmothers sparkling glittery white dress. The hair, dress and make-up shimmer with more than 10,000 Swarovski crystals! I wish it was social acceptable for me to wear sparkly crystals in my hair everyday. I somehow think certain people may not be so accepting of that desire. 

The Palace Forecourt 

So magical 

As you came out the other side of the carriage you entered the ball, and midnight changes everything. 

The Royal Ball:

Now here's the moment we've all been waiting for... 

Cinderella's breath taking blue ball gown. 

It's created from 24 layers of tulle, has a circumference of 11.6 metres and is embellished with over 10,000 iridescent Aurora Borealis Swarovski crystals. 

I bet Lily James felt like a giant disco ball wearing that dress! But who wouldn't want to sparkle all night long. 

Who knew someone could fan-girl so much over a dress? 

As I said earlier, the colours of the stepsisters ball gowns match the dresses they wear earlier in the film. Which to me symbolises how their characters do not change or grow. Where as Cinderella's change from the plain rags dress, into the beautiful ball gown shows how her dress now matches her inner beauty and kindness. (That is literally just my opinion, it is probably completely wrong, ha!). 

Stepsisters ball gowns. 

Lady Tremaine's ball gown

Then came one of the most beautiful sights I've ever seen. Coming from a girl who loves shoes and all things sparkly, these really were a treat for the eyes. 

Considering they are one of the key elements of the Cinderella story I think that they are incredible, and having them made from solid Swarovski crystal really gave them the wow factor.  

Sandy Powell designed the shoes and the costumes, and Swarovski created the slippers. They took 150 hours of design time and six versions were created before they got the perfect shoe. They are based on a shoe design from the 1890's. They're not an actual size, e.g. like a size 4 or 5, because they are apparently sculpted to Lily James' feet. 

Once I'd managed to gather myself and drag myself away from all the sparkly dresses, we moved into the final room of the exhibition which was where they had some more information on the costumes, with pictures of the dresses in the film, with their design sketches next to them. 

I love comparing design sketches to the final outcome. I find it so amazing how something on paper can be brought to life and look so beautiful. 

I clearly did not want to leave. 

There was a gift shop, so obviously I had to buy something, mainly because I have no self control, but still. They had loads of beautiful Cinderella dresses, but sadly they didn't have any sizes to cater to a 19 year old, funny that. So I settled on this gorgeous statement necklace instead. It was £30, which was quite pricey, but my reasoning was that; statement necklaces are on trend, so I can be stylish and still feel like a princess. Win, win. 

Plus you can literally pay like £20 for some on the high street anyway. 

Princess necklace

So that was the Cinderella exhibition, I'm so happy I went and I cannot get over how incredible all the costumes are. Round of applause for Sandy Powell please, what a talented woman. 

That's all for now! 

But remember; 

'Have courage and be kind. For where there is kindness there is goodness, and where there is goodness there is magic'

Cheerio! 

Hannah