about your Folksy: By Eilidh

I love a good mooch around Folksy, Etsy's smaller British cousin.  The range of products available, lovingly handmade or restored by wonderful creative people, never fails to tickle me.  I also like the fact you're buying directly from the seller; they (or some very kind friends or relatives of theirs) will be the ones to process and package up your order.  It's a nice change from the anonymity which has been created by the rise and rise of online shops, and it's a something I aim to replicate when people order from Aspire Style, where I manage the website*.

During one of my payday website wanderings, where I look for things to spend my hard-earned cash on, I found a lovely shop called By Eilidh.  Here's what she says about her Folksy shop:

"I'm an artist called Eilidh Ferguson (pronouced Ayley). I paint in acrylics and use mixed media, I also screen print and sew on to vintage clothing; taking something that has been pre-loved and hopefully selling to you so it can be re-loved! I'd like you to find something here that you like, but if not, commissions are always considered!"

This is the particular item which first caught my eye whilst I was perusing the clothes on Folksy.

Sadly for you, I made sure I bought it before posting this, but fret not, dear reader!  It was £15, which was an absolute bargain, and Eilidh has lots of other great value goodies on offer, like...

This wonderful sleeveless vintage cardigan, which Eilidh has printed with white pigeons (£15)...

...A pretty white cardigan with pink metallic damask print...

...And a lovely birdie bib for any small, messy humans you might know!

By Eilidh is a brilliant example of making something awesome out of something old, and the shop owner has a lovely eye for it.  If you wish to buy anything, be hasty - there's only one of everything, and I've got my eye on that red cardi...

*Apologies for the shameless plug.

about your cardigan: Rain Pools cardigan from Anthropologie

I know it's been literally the temperature of the sun the last few days, and my bright red hot-enough-to-fry-an-egg shoulders are a testament to this, but we need to face facts, people: it's not going to last.  Don't forget, this is Britain, not Florida.  This is why I'm considering buying this lovely Rain Pools cardigan from Anthropologie - it's in the sale, guys!

It's now £39.95, reduced from £78, and I think it's thick enough to warrant that jacket-esque price.  And it looks *so* soft.  My hands would fit very nicely into those pockets...

My head was also turned by this book by the artist Tina Berning, entitled '100 Girls On Cheap Paper', which I love the sound of.

It's £9.95, reduced from £16.95, and is described as "an expressive and beautiful celebration of fine art, fashion and womanhood".  You can check out more of Tina's work at her website here.

about your bag: Max C bags (bags galore!)

I do love Max C.  Their bags are every bit as pretty as their dresses, so it was impossible for me to write about just one.  Here's FIVE.

My Max C top five awesome bags chart (in descending order, like all good countdowns)


5) Vanina bag

It's funny because it's only one letter away from 'vagina'. It's also £35.

4) Two toned clutch

It's got 'internal contrast coloured dividers'. Sold, to the crazy girl with organisational OCD, for £25.

3) Art deco clutch

Like the two bags still to come, this clutch features the trademark Max C Art Deco-style detail, of which I am a massive fan.  It's £30.

2) Gwendoline bag

This bowling bag is nice and big, and comes with a handy cross-body strap as well.  Handy for me when I'm cycling home from work and my bike basket is full of wine and potatoes.  And it's only £22!

*Drumroll*

1) Honey Comb clutch

This bag has two 'feature' sides - the one pictured above and another with honeycomb-style circular gold studding around the edge.  I would keep that side hidden and force everyone to look at this one instead - it's much nicer.  And I swear, it's completely different from the art deco clutch!  At £35, it's also a fiver more expensive, but it's so worth it.

I felt a bit bad for cutting most of the models body off the picture, but I a) wanted focus on the bag itself, and b) was getting jealous that she had her grubby little mitts all over the pretty bag.  Slag.

I'm loving greys and light pinks right now, so that explains my choices, but there are different colour options for all five of the bags I've featured.

about your ring: Grandfather Clock Watch Ring

Well hellooooo, answer to my time-telling problems!

This lovely little Grandfather Clock Watch Ring (£12) from Accessorize became mine at approximately 1:20pm today, and is now sitting on my finger, poised to inform me of the hour whenever I should require such information.

And it may be small, but it's got all the numbers!

about your bag: Leather Slot Through satchel from ASOS

The wonderful bag I bought from M&S a few months ago is like a boyfriend everyone keeps telling me to break up with because he is broken, but I love SO much that I simply cannot bring myself to do it.  Basically, it's beautiful and functional, but keeps breaking.  Very sad.  So I'm always surreptitiously on the look out for a replacement.  Today, I think I might have found it:

I love the colour (very versatile), the shape, the fact it has two straps for when I'm feeling incapable of making important shoulder bag/across-body bag decisions. This leather slot through satchel (£60) from good old ASOS is even described as 'hard wearing', so if I do get it, hopefully I wouldn't have to go through the trauma of replacing it for a loooong time.  Or until I get bored.

about your playsuit: black lace playsuit by Topshop

I follow Topshop on Twitter, and yesterday they posted a link to a blog post written on Friday about the prettiest playsuit I ever did see.  I am not a playsuit wearer myself, because my pear-shape and I just cannot pull them off, but if I could, I would fully buy this:

And on one of the Topshop personal shoppers:

Christ, that's pretty.  £50 seems less expensive when you consider that it's shorts AND a top, all in one.  That's Ri-economics for you, right there.

Second picture taken from the Topshop blog

about my blog: help needed!

Are you a lovely person?

Do you like to make websites pretty?

Do you have too much time on your hands?

Do you like doing things for free?

If you answered yes to all of the above, or know someone who would, I'd love you to help me jazz up this here blog a little bit!  I'd love some kind of pretty background and banner, in return for which I shall sing, nay, shout your praises to all who will listen.  I'd also love someone to provide my work blog a similar makeover, for which I could hopefully offer more than just praise (possibly some goodies/discount).

Email me if you're interested!

Ria x 

about your necklace: The White Rabbit's Pocket Watch necklace from Love Hearts and Crosses

I do love clocks.  I'm not sure what it is about them; maybe it's the machinery - the cogs and intricate mechanisms - maybe it's the soft ticking, maybe it's the fact they limit my lateness so people don't get too angry at me.  At least not for being late, anyway.  I am, however, highly forgetful, and always forget to wear a watch.  The only two watches are own are crazy old ones which used to be my grandma's, and even if I did wear them, I'd almost certainly forget to wind them, and thus, there would be NO POINT.  Plus, I would naturally wear it on my left arm, and that's my tattoo wrist.  If I covered that up, I'd lose one of the many things about myself which annoys my dear mother, and that simply wouldn't do.

To get to the point, I like timepieces, but not watches.  Solution?  'The White Rabbit's Pocket Watch' necklace, available from lovely quirky jewellery seller Love Hearts and Crosses.

Things which are awesome about this piece:

1. It has all the numbers on.  I like this, because I'm really really *really* bad with numbers.
2. It's big enough for everyone within a five-foot radius for everyone so see, so weird people strangers don't need to ask you for the time.
3. It pops open when you press a button!  Yes, I am easily amused.
4. It's only £17.  And basically, you're getting a watch AND a necklace, so that's like buying two things for one price, right?

I also love this Mr Writer necklace - when I buy myself a pretty typewriter for stationary-making purposes, I shall buy this necklace to celebrate.

It's a real piece of paper, with teeny tiny writing!  It shall be all mine in exchange for £16.

about your dress: Red folk print tunic from Dorothy Perkins

I have to admit, I don't go to Dotty Ps or its website very often.  Mostly because it bores me, but also because it's one of those shops where there's just SO MUCH STUFF that I get overwhelmed and have to have a lie down.  A similar thing happens when I go to Topshop on Oxford Street.  I just don't know where to look.  I'm feeling panicky now at the mere though of it...

It's ok, I've got wine, I'm fine.  I can't remember how exactly I got there, but yesterday I ended up on the Dotty Ps website and found this gem for £30:

I've been looking for something kind of folksy like this for a while, and since I need a shiny new dress to wear to the Domestic Sluttery picnic in London next month, I decided to go into the Dotty Ps in Stratford after work today to try it on.

IT WAS BEAUTIFUL.  So I bought it.  But when I showed it to Abbey at work at lunch today, I saw that Dotty Ps had 20% off online for today only, so being the bargain hunter I am, I dashed home and made my purchase from the comfort of my lounge.  WIN.

about your dress: STOCK UPDATE heart print dress from Joy

The beautiful heart print dress from Joy is now available in sizes 8-14.  When I blogged about it before, they only had size 12s left, so I had come to terms with it never being mine.  But now, I'm seriously, seriously tempted...

about your cardigan: Ballerina print cardigan from Joy AND Max C

Whilst perusing Joy for inspiration for a post, I came across this pretty ballerina print cardigan for £39:

The reason it caught my eye is because I own a dress in the exact same pattern by Max C:

You're right, it '*is* very pretty.  And it's got magnificent pockets.  I completely ignored Birmingham uni's 'black skirt, white shirt' "advice" and wore this to my Masters graduation.  Annoyingly, it's on the newly-launched Max C website for £42, which is £7 less than I paid for it a in a rival shop in Stratford (who shall remain nameless).  Grr...

Anyways, because I'd not been to the Max C website since it became open to the public, I had a look around.  Look what I found!

The ballerina print cardigan!  For £14 less than Joy!  Ok, it is a different colour, but that's not really the point. And I suppose it could be a different material/poorer quality design, but enough to warrant a price difference that big?  Hmmmm, that's all I have to say.  Mighty suspicious.

I love Max C; they're one of my favourite brands and I nearly wet myself with excitement when we first got them in at work.  I'm really glad their website's now open to the public because we only get a very small selection of their range in our shops, and none at all in our Stratford store which I work above (because of their exclusivity with our rival shop, who only ever order about four styles anyway).  They're reasonably priced for a brand of their nature, and I look forward to exploring their site more and bringing you more goodies in posts to come!

P.S. And they have good sales.

about your shoes: Ripper Pirate Boot from French Connection

I'm not sure how I feel about the French Connection website.  The bearded fellow on the home page is, in my mind, what Jesus would look like if he landed in London today and no one believed he was the Messiah and instead shunned him as a homeless mad tramp, like this:

But not like this:

Because I don't reckon Jesus knows HTML.

Anyway, I seem to have become side-tracked.  Once you steer past the homeless Jesus, and the strange quotes (which probably sound better in French), you can look at all the pretty!  Ok, so these boots aren't pretty, but I'm not confused about my feelings for them:

They're ace.  And they're called the Ripper Pirate boot, which makes them even more ace.  Now give me £110 so I can buy them.  PLEASE.

about your purse: ASOS Leather Lock Detail Purse

I could spend hours trawling ASOS.  If I didn't have a job, or something that resembles a social life, or an already unhealthy addiction to Twitter, I would probably become like those gamers who forget to eat and keep buckets by the computer for when they need to wee.  Ok, that's not true; I'd never forget to eat.

ASOS have powers beyond my comprehension. Take, for example, this leather lock detail purse:

I love my damask leather purse which I got from work, I really do.  It has exactly the right number of pockets and compartments!  People compliment it when I get it out pay for stuff!  I am proud to be seen with it!  Basically, my purse and I have a healthy, passionate relationship, which has weathered storms and flings with other purses.  But today, my head was turned by the above purse from ASOS, and it wasn't like the other times.  It was... different.  For the first time, I felt genuine feelings for another purse; feelings that went further than lust.  I'm actually considering forking out the £15 for it and retiring my damask purse.  ASOS, damn you for bewitching me!  DAMN YOU TO HELL!

P.S. Please don't tell my purse about this, I'm not sure it'd be able to handle it.  It's best I choose the right moment to tell it.

about your jacket: Slouch Pocket Blazer from River Island

Yes, River Island.  I know my last blog post on River Island barely managed to conceal my disdain for the brand, but you've got to kiss a lot of frogs before you find a prince.  And by kiss, I mean look through, and by frogs, I mean shit-ugly hooker dresses, and by prince, I mean something wearable.  I think this blazer is wearable, and then some:

It has pockets, which you may have heard me mention my love for before, and it's not black, which means I can justify it (I already have a black blazer) and apparently it IS black, but it's much more casual than my Laura Ashley blazer, which means I can justify it.  AND it's only £35.99!  I think it looks so nice they could have easily charged more than this, but as I am a near-expert in editing clothes in Photoshop for work now, I may have to hold off buying this until I see it in the flesh.