Deers + birdies

I must learn how to take better close-ups. The best part about this outfit is that the dress has swallows on it and the cardie's pocket has a stag's head, but I don't think I captured that very well!

How's everyone's November going? It hasn't really turned cold here yet so there haven't been great Winter layering opportunities. Although I have become obsessed with finding the perfect Winter coat. Well the problem is I've found it, but I can't find a way to buy it - it seems to be out of stock everywhere!

Yellow Raglan parka by Makia - it will be mine!

And the winner is....

The lucky winner of the prize from Paper Love Stationery is Lizzie Beth from Looking to Find!

Big thanks to Paper Love Stationery for providing the prize, check out the Etsy store if you haven't already, it's fab!

Paper Love Stationery Giveaway!

Hi folks, good news! The lovely Ardiana who owns Paper Love Stationery is sponsoring an awesome giveaway for you guys! You can win a super cute selection pack of her cards, which includes both owl and bicycle designs (clearly the best things you could put on a card).

You can see the rest of the designs here!

If you want to win, it couldn't be easier - to enter:

• Be a follower of this blog on Blogger or Bloglovin' (if you have another way to follow that you would prefer to use, let me know!)
• Leave a comment to say you follow, and include a way to contact you!
• For a second entry, follow Inflammatory Knit and Paper Love on Twitter and tweet about the giveaway - then comment again!

Paper Love will ship the prize worldwide (yay! I hate when competitions are just for the US) and I'll be taking entries until Wednesday September 19th.

Good luck!

Hello sailors!

Hi all! In an update to my last post - I got the job! And my tattoo is finished. It's still healing but I have a photo of that my artist (Lucy Pryor at Into You London) took just after it was finished - it's at the end of this post!

I honestly can't believe that the summer is over now. One very cool end of summer thing that happened in Dublin was the Tall Ships race. The ships are all "traditionally rigged" - meaning that they all have traditional masts and sails. It ALSO meant that there were sailors from all over the world hanging out in Dublin. I should definitely have stowed away!

Unfortunately I didn't have the foresight to wear my sailor top, I'm pretty sure I would have blended right in otherwise.

Photo by Lucy Pryor

Here's my tattoo! I love it. Please excuse my swollen arm though!

Preview

Hi folks! I've been super busy for the last couple of weeks. I went through a very stressful job interview (still haven't found out if I got the job!) I also went to London to see my sis.. and here's a little preview of what happened while I was there...

Photo courtesy of Into You Tattoo

Do you guys have any tattoos? This is my fourth but my only biggie!

July blues

Hi folks, I'm back from my hols! Can you believe it's nearly August? The summer goes so fast! Portugal was beautiful! We stayed in a place on the coast called Quarteira which is pretty much a beach with some shops and restaurants built up around it. All we did was lie around, eat, swim, eat and rest. It was perfect!

Apart from swimwear, the skirt in this picture is the only item of clothing I bought for my holiday. I'm really reluctant to buy summer clothes that I'll only wear once, so I always look for things that I can layer once I get back to Ireland and wear again.

Also I have a question for all of you bloggers! Which image hosting service do you use for your blogs? I just switched from Photobucket to Flickr and I'm finding it really confusing. Why does Flickr make it so hard to post images at the size you uploaded them at? I have seen a few bloggers recommend Flickr and I'm not sure why. Which site do you use? Another one entirely? Let me know!

Lovely things 4

The weather in Dublin has been completely insane for the past month - according to the Met office it was the wettest June on record. It makes it very difficult to take outfit photos! I'm off to the Algarve (south of Portugal tomorrow) so hopefully I'll be back soon with a nice tan to show off in some new outfit posts. For the moment, here are some more lovely things..

I adapted the Kate Davies owls pattern that I used for my owl jumper to make a little phone case for a friend of mine. I think it worked out pretty well! (If I do say so myself). I wanted to make a cute gif animation showing a phone coming out of the case but I realised that I can't take a photo of my phone, with my phone.. oh dear.

Photo by Use Real Butter

I've become a little bit obsessed with making banana icecream. I don't eat dairy products but frozen bananas make a really, really good icecream substitute! If you've never tried it, you'll be surprised by how creamy it tastes and you don't even need to add other ingredients. The recipe above from Use Real Butter suggests adding peanut butter or cocoa though, which both sound amazing!

Bookworm dress by the Velvet Bird

I'm sure lots of you are already aware of the beautiful Velvet Bird blog and her store. But if not, how sweet is this dress? Especially the elbow patches! I'm dying to order from her... one day, one day.

Since I'm off on holiday, I've spent a lot of time looking for interesting swimwear - how amazing is this swimsuit from We Are Handsome? Unfortunately, a) I don't live near a stockist and b) the range seems to be very expensive. But still, I don't know why there has to be such a large gap between the cheap high-street swimsuits that are basically a triangle of fabric held up with string, and the expensive designer swimsuits that look like they might be designed to flatter or be used for actual swimming. It's really hard to find something that's both nice and reasonably priced!

Finally, my friend Dorota has started an awesome style blog called Girl Scout. I highly recommend you check it out, she's just started but she looks like a total blogging pro. I think she's going places!

I hope every one is having a sunny July, do you have any travel plans?

Here come the Owls!

Hi folks! Big knitting news - I finally finished knitting the amazing Kate Davies' Owls sweater! It's the first jumper I've knitted and the first time I've done cabling so I'm very proud. I was knitting it back in March and I progressed pretty slowly - not because the pattern was super tricky, but because it seemed like each part was fairly straightforward and I was scared to go on to the next bit in case it suddenly got really hard!

I'm really happy with how it turned out, although I suppose it's not ideal to finish knitting a wool jumper in the middle of summer. This pattern is all over Ravelry so I know lots of people knit it - if any of you guys are planning to and would like some help/tips please let me know! There were definitely parts of the pattern that I found very confusing at first. 

I also booked a holiday to the Algarve in Portugal, we're going in a month and I can't wait! But let me tell you, it's IMPOSSIBLE to find a flattering tankini in this town. I don't think I'm asking for too much..!

Do you have any holidays planned? And do you knit in the summer or is it more of an Autumn/Winter thing?

Lomographic Brighton

I finally scanned the photographs I took in Brighton with my adorable Diana Mini! I forgot how nice it is to drop a roll of film in to be developed and not remember exactly what's on it. Although I did get "the fear" that none of the photos would come out - I did lose a lot of the roll as I hadn't anticipated how dark the indoor shots would be without a flash. You live and learn! My friend who I was away with was using Instagram on her iPhone (aka the cheater's lomography) and her photos came out much, much better than mine did! 

Do you ever take photos on film? Should I just give in and get Instagram?

Workwear #2

Hi folks! I'm just back from a trip to Brighton! If you don't know, it's a charming seaside town on the south coast of England. I'd never been there before but it totally lived up to my expectations! It was sunny, full of lovely friendly people, and we were staying in and B&B opposite a beach with cute multicoloured beach huts and wooden boats on the shore. I'm not a fancy schmancy blogger with Instagram but I did bring my lomographic camera, and I do have a scanner, so in a week or so I should have some lovely photos to show you all!
I decided to take this morning off work to have a nice post-holiday lie-in, which created the perfect opportunity to take some more photos of.. workwear!

I got this awesome nautical t-shirt in Cos in Brighton. I love it but the ruff does make me feel a little Elizabethan, or maybe a bit like a clown.

The hazards of wearing a ruff on a windy day!

Do you have any holidays or mini breaks coming up? How's the weather where you are? It's still crazy here and I'm starting to think that we won't have a proper summer at all!

Lovely things 3: birthday edition

Hi folks! My birthday and my trip to London are over and I had an amazing time! I was very spoiled. Which can only mean that it's time for some more.. Lovely things!

My boyfriend got me this adorable knitted brooch! I was very impressed by his present choosing skills, he took my love of knitting and my love of jewellery and came up with the perfect gift for me.

"A Little Owl Wearing Glasses" by Ashley Percival.

I had this amazing print pinned on my Pinterest for ages and my sneaky friend found it and ordered it for me. I just need to get a frame - and a place to hang it, my house is filling up with Etsy art. (Which is clearly a good thing).

Likewise my sister knew I had my eye on this metal necklace from Cos and she managed to track it down for me. Cos is one of my favourite shops but they only have a tiny concession in a shop in Dublin only stocks a very small selection of what's on the website. We went to the huge Cos in Westfield in London and I had to hold myself back - I just got a black jumper. But it's the perfect black jumper!

Image and recipe from Heat Oven to 350

My sister also made me these incredible homemade peanut butter cups instead of a birthday cake. These were seriously amazing. The recipe was another Pinterest find and sometimes I'm sceptical about internet recipes. Will adding sugar, butter and peanut butter to graham crackers/digestive biscuits REALLY replicate a delicious Reese's Peanut Butter cup? The answer was yes! If you love peanut butter as much as I do you have to try these.

While in London I finally got to the Victoria and Albert Museum. Considering I'm an art history graduate, it's pretty disgraceful that I've never been before! I picked up an amazing pattern book in the shop which was one of a series. It's a book of beautiful extracts of patterns by designers including William Morris (one of my favourites) and the best part is that it comes with a cd-rom of high res images of the patterns. So you might see some of the patterns popping up on my blog soon!


I hope everyone had a fab couple of weeks - can you believe it's officially the start of summer tomorrow? The weather here has been horrific!

Red and red and red all over

It's my birthday on Thursday, I can't wait! I love my birthday, even though I'm getting very depressingly old (30 next year!). I got this dress as my birthday dress, it was only €13 in Forever 21 - economy birthday! I'm going out to dinner with a bunch of friends on my actual day, then this weekend I'm off to London. We booked a "top secret hotel" through Last Minute and when the email arrived it turned out to be the Hilton. So not a complete economy birthday after all?

Also, why is it that as soon as you find a product you like, it's discontinued or no shops stock it anymore. I finally found my perfect hair colour (L'Oreal Feria Mango Intense Copper) which I've blabbed on about before. Now, suddenly, I can't find it in the one shop in Dublin that used to sell it. The colour I have now is Feria Paprika Power, and if you look at the box it didn't turn out ANYTHING like it's supposed to. What a pain!

Does anyone else have a birthday coming up? Do you love yours as much as I love mine?

No iron day

Happy Easter folks! I don't have many Easter traditions, apart from eating plenty of chocolate. I started a little early by eating the ears and face off my Lindt bunny. My friends' families seem to have all sorts of fancy things happening - lamb dinners, egg hunts, Easter outfits.. do you have any Easter rituals?

In other news (using the term "news" lightly) my iron finally gave up this week. It made getting ready for work pretty interesting. Instead of giving in a buying a new iron, I tried to wear outfits that didn't require ironing. As you can see, I had a very crumpled week.

Are you an ironer? My boyfriend used to iron his t-shirts and I have a friend who irons tea towels and underwear (madness!) I only give in when it's silk, or a work shirt!
Hope everyone has a lovely Easter weekend!

March Featured Sponsor

Hi folks! From now on I'm hoping to have a feature post on one of my wonderful sponsors at the end of each month! 
First up is the lovely Cait from ...Sailing to Nowhere... I'm not sure how I came across Cait's blog originally, but it instantly caught my attention because of her pretty blog design (which has since changed but is still pretty!) Cait's blog stands out for me because she is such an articulate writer, and her posts are always more than just "here's what I'm wearing today". However if you're looking for outfit inspiration, she does have great style!
I asked Cait a few questions about her blog, so read on to learn a little about her!

What can users expect to find when they visit your blog?

I hope they will find somewhere where they want to hang around for a while, with pretty pictures and entertaining post they feel like engaging with. I mostly write about fashion and my personal style but I am always trying to diversify my content to include all sorts of topics that I am passionate about so hopefully there is something for everyone. I just hope people enjoy my blog even if they are just popping by.

How long have you been blogging for, and how did you get started?

My blog has just celebrated its first Birthday! I had briefly toyed with the idea of starting a blog and last year I decided to just go for it. One boring afternoon I started putting one together and I haven't looked back since. I had no idea what blogging was all about when I started or how much work it would be but I love it so much.

What are you looking forward to wearing this Spring/Summer?

I love all the pastel colours that are around for spring/summer and I love coloured jeans at the moment but I am really trying to cut back on buying new clothes. I am hoping to pick up more thrifted and vintage items instead of shopping on the high street. I have loads of lovely Liberty fabrics in my cupboard and when I eventually get chance I plan on turning them into vintage style summer dresses and blouses.

What are your hopes for your blog in 2012?

I hope I will continue to grow my blog in 2012, I want to post a little more often and bring more interesting content to my readers. Most of all I want to try really hard to be a kind blogger and show lots of blog love to all my bloggy friends and hopefully connect with lots of new friends.

Are there any other blogs you'd like to recommend?

My Modern Vintage, What Sadie Did, Books, Art and Sci Fi, Star Crossed Smile and Miss Kait Online are all daily reads for me as well as good blogging friends, and of course Inflammatory Knit!

So that was Cait... Now head on over to ...Sailing to Nowhere... and check it out!

If you are interested in becoming a sponsor or participating in a feature post then email me at inflammatoryknit AT gmail.com or tweet me at @IKnitBlog and let's chat about a button swap.

*That's right, sponsor for the low, low price of $0!)

Lazy knitter

I hope everyone had a delightful St. Patrick's day! If you have ever been to Dublin for St. Patrick's day you'll know that it's complete mayhem ("mayhem" being the polite word). It's basically an excuse for people to get incredibly drunk, the weather is pretty much always freezing - if not lashing rain, and the best part about the day in my opinion is that we get a public holiday. I had a sore throat over the weekend so I didn't partake in any drunken rampaging, but it did give me a chance to catch up on some knitting.


If you read this post way back in October, you might be wondering how that hat I was knitting turned out. Well wonder no more!

I gave it to my boyfriend for his birthday in December and only just robbed it back to take a photo. It turned out great, but I had made him one before that he had put through the washing machine and felted, so it wasn't my first time!


I'm very, very happy to say that I'm in the middle of knitting my first jumper at the moment! It's Kate Davies' amazing Owls pattern and if you're a knitter and/or a member of Ravelry then I'm sure you've seen it before. And if you are on Ravelry do add me!


This is how the finished sweater will look - just adorable. I don't care what anyone says, owls are not over!

Image from Kate Davies Designs

I'm knitting it in a light grey/pale blue colour and this is where I am so far - I haven't gotten to those tricky owls yet!

Are you crafting anything at the moment? Have you knitted yourself any items of clothing before? It seems like a real knitting rite of passage!

Stripes

I've been trying to grow out my cropped hair since I got it cut last February. Not that I don't like it, just that I like to change my hair all the time, so as soon as it was short, I wanted it long again! My hair grows incredibly slowly though, so I hadn't hair a haircut since July in an attempt to speed up the process. It had grown itself into a pudding-bowl-mullet type thing though, so this week I finally gave in and went for a trim. 

The idea was that I had layers put it so I could wear it curly, but unfortunately my hair refuses to cooperate as usual. I will have to go back to my previous styling method of blow drying it, straightening it, then putting on a hat until the whole thing has calmed down.

The weather here has gotten a little warmer, so jacket season is here again. Usually the weather here is freezing and unpredictable until after St. Patrick's day though, so I don't quite trust it. Is it jacket weather where you are yet? And if you have unmanageable hair, do you have any styling tips?

Fur & flowers

My internet has been down for the last week, it's really made it clear to me how addicted I am! It's pretty annoying not being able to check things like train times, cinema listings, what's in the Ikea catalogue before you set off on a furniture buying mission.. But most of all I missed blogging! Blog-reading as opposed to blog writing - felt so disconnected!

Last weekend was also the first birthday of Film Fatale, the adorable vintage film screening/club that I regularly attend. I've been to screenings of Roman Holiday, Double Indemnity and Singin' in the Rain. This month's was Breakfast at Tiffany's and.. it sold out before I could get a ticket! Don't you hate when something you love becomes too popular? So instead my friends and I are having our own Breakfast at Tiffany's screening tonight! In case you can't tell, I'm not dressing up as Audrey Hepburn for it!

This is also the first time I've styled the adorable fox bag from this post. I'm terrible! I love the bag but I can only leave the house if I have a massive sack crammed with junk, umbrella even if it's sunny, mp3 player plus Kindle even though they both play music (in case one dies), huge heavy purse full of coins because I never like spending my 1c, 2c, and 5c in case shopkeepers get mad, notebook that I never use, etc, etc. Are you able to travel light?

Goth

I've had this River Island skirt since the January sales (€10!) but I've had trouble deciding what to pair it with. I tried a silky white shirt but it just looked too 80s for me. So today I put on my Primark cape and it all went a little bit gothic.. or do I mean 90s grunge?

It's strange when there are combinations in your wardrobe that, when put together, create a style that's not really what you intended at all. It was very chilly today, despite the sun, so when I left the house I put on a black leather jacket and a grey wool hat and felt like an emo teenager! But sometimes it's nice to be a little outside your fashion comfort zone.

Is there anything in your wardrobe that you find it difficult to style?