Retro and Thrift: June 2014

Friday, 27 June 2014

Lincs Blog Meet | A lovely day in my hometown

I had such a lovely day last Saturday at the Lincs Blog Meet. Organised by Bel from Journeys Are My Diary and Amy from Cocktails in Teacups the plan was a treasure hunt around Lincoln, a delicious meal at Ask Italian, followed by a raffle, beauty swap and talks from Boots and Weleda. I got to meet some lovely local bloggers as well as catch up with the girls from Hull who I've sort of been adopted by the past few months! The weather was lovely and sunny (although arguably not such a good thing when we were trekking up Steep Hill) making the photos of the Cathedral quarter and the Lincolnshire Artists Market come out great. The meal was lovely too: Ask managed to organise it pretty well considering they were catering for about 20-25 people. I had a margareta pizza and a sprite because I'm not very adventurous (which is a good job on my student budget!). Before and after the meal we had talks from a company called Weleda and a skin specialist from Boots came in and gave us a whistle stop tour of the skin and gave us loads of samples and then I got lucky in the raffle and won some amazing PAPERSELF Paperlashes. I also managed to get loads of great new products in exchange for some of my old/brand new ones in the beauty swap. This post will be followed by a post of all the great products I received from Boots, the raffle, the beauty swap and the goody bag!

Once again thank you so much to the girls who organised it and the companies who were involved - you made my first blogger meet extra special.

Oh and one last thing, please make sure you check out the blogs of the girls and guys who came a long to the meet:

Bel from Journeys Are My Diary (@dontletmefade)

Amy from Cocktails in Teacups (@teacupcocktails)

Natalie from Twice the Mum (@twicethemum)

Rhiannon from The Sparkly Panda (@rie_rie_)

Kariss from Shy, Strange and a little bit Manic (@kariss_leigh)

Charley from Rambling of a Beauty Blogger (@charleylucy)

John from Mr Wharff (@mrwharff)

Sally from Sally Bee Makes (@sallybeemakes)

Emma from Made in Hunters (@madeinhunters)

Naomi from Think Fashion (@makeupbynaomix)

Siobhan from The Beauty Baker (@The_BeautyBaker)

Chloe from Alicia Deyes Writes (@_chloedeyes)

Kate from Pieces of Kate (@piecesofkate1)

Alex from Champagne and Lemonade (@lemonadelifeox)

Lucy from Lucy Jane (@lucyjane3110)

Megan from Student Style (@studentstylexo)

Jemma from Dreams of New York (@dreamsofnyorkx)

Eleanor from Creative Countryside (@creativecliving)

Jemma from Bamboozle Beauty (@bamboozlebeauty)

Cathedral/Castle Quarter and Lincolnshire Artists Market

Cathedral/Castle Quarter

A view of Steep Hill from the Cathedral/Castle Quarter

Steep Hill

Lovely tea rooms and Boutiques on Steep Hill

Free Cookbook and Tips courtesy of Ask

Bloggers begin to assemble at Ask

Raffle prizes are given out

"Mingling"

Change of URL | Introducing Retro and Thrift

As you may or may not have noticed I have changed up my blog a bit recently. I finally found a name that suited my blog well - Retro and Thrift and so I set to changing the URL from www.courtneyfarrow.com to www.retroandthrift.co.uk and changed up the layout a bit to mark this "new era". Hope you all like it! It's took me a few days but I feel it's well worth it. The downside is, because I had recently allowed "Google + Comments" on my blog, the change of URL meant all your recent lovely comments have been deleted (boo hate you Google +). Please let me know what you think!

Wednesday, 25 June 2014

Life | Relaxing Day in the Garden

I spent Sunday relaxing in the garden with my parents, working on blog posts and editing pictures and drinking tea - it was pure bliss! Thanks to my parents hard work and there love of gardening our small triangular space is full of hidden treasures and lots and lots of plants and flowers and is always an inspiring place to be. Admittedly it is not the most perfect or tidiest of gardens but it a great place for my Dad to grow his vegetables and hang his hanging baskets. We finished the day off with some yummy Piri Piri Chicken Kebabs and a nice salad eaten al fresco on the new wicker-glass table and chairs. Here are some pictures from the day - I felt truly inspired by the sunshine, the plants and the tranquillity of the day.

Outfit | Tartan and Black

Being quite a chubby bunny and also a little on the short side I have never owned a maxi skirt. However when I saw this simple black maxi skirt was only £14.99 from New Look I took the plunge and purchased one. Since then two weeks have passed and I have not yet found the right combination until now. I found this Primark tartan cropped blouse in the depths of my wardrobe and decided to pair them together and it worked (well I think so). This is a versatile look that one could wear in the winter and summer but I accessed with a floral "bun crown" also from Primark and matching nude T-Bars to give it more of a summery vibe.

BLOUSE - PRIMARK // MAXI SKIRT - NEW LOOK // FLORAL BUN CROWN - PRIMARK

"Woops I dropped something"

LIPSTICK - RUSSIAN RED BY MAC

FLORAL BUN CROWN - PRIMARK

Sunday, 22 June 2014

Life | The End Of Year Ball Post

So a few weeks ago I had my End Of Year Ball, marking the very sad end to my first year at University and an even more sad end to my life as a fresher. The year has been great (but that is for another post hehe) and the Ball was a perfect end to the perfect year - Hull Student Union certainly out did themselves with the decorating, activities and bands in my opinion. The Ball had a circus theme which was really cool and the whole union was decorated to match the theme, there were free fairground rides (probably the best bit for me as I am a child) and a free chocolate fountain (probably also one of the highlights as again, I am a child). The bands were great two, I am a fan of the Klaxons so was super excited for them to play and they certainly lived up to my expectations, Naughty Boy were also good and Sub Focus really did steal the show (perhaps had something to do with the fact I had consumed a lot more alcohol by the time they played). Anyway, without further adieu I will let my pictures speak for themselves (I also dabbled with a bit more editing than normal so I hope you enjoy that!). Also I told my flatmates if they allowed me to use pictures of them on my blog I would promote their twitter accounts so go follow them all - they are all amazing and I love them to pieces (but again, that's for another

post).

Wednesday, 18 June 2014

Life | The Download Festival Post

I spent last weekend with my best friend at the wonderful Download Festival in Donington Park, Derby and once again absolutely loved it. The mainstage headliners were Avenged Sevenfold, Linkin Park and Aerosmith amongst some other great bands such as Fall Out Boy, Steel Panther and Skindred. The weather was for once lovely and didn't rain too much - I even managed to get sunburn. I got to see 2 of my favourite bands as a teenager - Fall Out Boy and Avenged Sevenfold who were amazing. Take a peak at some of the photos I took over the weekend of the gorgeous food stands, the bands and the stages.