British Bridal Exhibition 2011

I have spent the last two days working at the British Bridal Exhibition in Harrogate. I got the work experience through a tutor at Uni who is the owner of Eternity Group. He and his wife own the company that has a range of collections including Bridal gowns, Bridesmaids, Mother of the Bride and Prom. Eternity Group was exhibiting at the three day event, and I was able to go along and help dress the models for the catwalk shows that took place four times a day. I was very excited to be going to the exhibition, as it will be a great insight into the wedding industry, and should help with my bridal footwear project.

Eternity Group were showing 97 wedding dresses from their collection. They had four models for each catwalk, and a team of 7 people helping to dress the models and collect and return the dresses onto the rails. The first catwalk took over an hour, but by the end of the day we'd managed to shorten it to 45 minutes as we got used to the dresses and which ones fitted the models best. I found I was best at handing the dresses to the dressers, and then re-hanging them afterwards.

Although it was an exhausting experience, everyone was lovely, very friendly and welcoming, and I really enjoyed myself! I'd love to go back again in September!!

Something Blue goes live...

As part of my project, I have been designing a website for Something Blue Bridal Footwear. The proposal for my project is to create a brand specialising in wedding shoes. I have decided that I will launch the brand as a wholesaler rather than retailer, as this made the accounts business plan a little simpler for me. This also made the website less complicated, as I wont be creating an online shop, instead an online catalogue of the collections. So my very clever boyfriend has turned my Photoshop documents into a real website! There is still some work to do, and some more products to upload.... but I am too excited not to show it off!

Would love to know what people think! I still have a while until my deadline so if there are any good idea's I can make changes to make it better!

www.somethingbluefootwear.co.uk

Pizza night!

When I was younger, we often used to have 'pizza night'. We would each get to make our own pizza's, choosing the toppings and decorating them ourselves. So yesterday, I suggested to Christian (my boyfriend) that we make homemade pizza's for our tea! My idea of homemade, is buying the base, and then just adding all the toppings, but Christian got really into the idea, and decided not only to make the dough for the bases, but also he made the tomato sauce from scratch!

It took ages to prepare the dough, but the rest of it was easy! I was in-charge of chopping the veg (I can't be trusted with anything else apparently). But then it turned out I was a master in making dough balls with the left-over dough.

Although it cost about five times more than a supermarket frozen pizza, they ended up being the yummiest pizza's I've ever had! And we'll def be doing it again!

Here are some pics of the whole process...

Warning: these images will make you hungry!!

Making the tomato base...

The perfectly chopped veg!

A little helper!

Preparing the dough...

The base, nice and round!

My awesome dough balls, and dough ball initials :-)

The pizza's!! Guess which one I made!!

ASOS addiction

I am the first to admit, I have an ASOS addiction. I check their 'new in' section as often as I check my emails and facebook! I decided to restrain myself this time, and limited myself to around £30 (with student discount)

After a bit of an issue with Parcelforce, my order is now waiting for me at the Post Office... so I'm going to drag myself out of bed soon, and take Primrose for a walk with a detour!

Here are the things I chose... I will let you know what they're like!

Leopard scarf - £15

Vintage stud earrings - £6

Wave ring - £6

Swallow stretch hairband - £6

Models Own nail polish - £5

Moda in Pelle

I'm bound to be biased... seeing as I've worked for them for over three years now... but I am loving the new Spring/Summer range from Moda in Pelle. It is like Christmas every week when I see the new styles arriving into the office, ready to go into stores. I think this collection demonstrates a positive move for Moda, going for a mix of cutting edge fashion, alongside some more classic Moda in Pelle styles. I've put together some of my favourites below! They can all be found online at www.modainpelle.com.

Something Blue...continued

I've had a couple of days off work... and have used it to do some extra Uni work, and try and get on top of things. I have been particularly focussing on my shoe designs for my Bridal project (see post from last week) and trying to finish the collection. Here are some of my latest styles...

I would love you hear what you think... I am a bit nervous to be publishing my designs as I've no idea whether they're really any good or not. But in terms of my style/design skills and also my CAD and illustration skills, any thoughts are much appreciated!

Holiday wish-list

It is 14 weeks and one day until I go on my holiday to Marrakesh... and I am already counting how many sleeps! So whilst I'm sat, pondering over my dissertation, and finding any welcome distractions... my latest favourite is to start putting together a holiday wish-list.

I'm going away for a week, with my Mum. We're going to an all inclusive spa hotel for some pampering, but it's still within walking distance to the centre of town, for a bit of 'culture' and of course the famous markets!

So first on my list... swimwear.

Now usually I would wear a bikini... but since December I haven't been going to the gym (lack of time and funds) and I have been seeking comfort from Uni stress in Haribo (my ultimate weakness) so I have decided I will be going for a swimsuit.... and lucky me, there are loads of gorgeous summery styles appearing!

Today I spotted these, modelled by Crystal Renn for J-Crew. Inspired by 50's designs, I think these are just perfect... I can't decide which one I like the best, so these are now both officially on my holiday wish-list.