Suit up

I was lucky enough to wear this stunning Sadie Clayton suit during my recent trip to London for a  Boux Avenue event. The only reason I was able to wear it was because of the designer Rental site Wear The Walk. This site is a godsend, you simply find what you want, have it sent to you, wear it to your event and then it's collected! The site has amazing designers and real show stopping outfits.

I went for this Sadie Clayton Embroidered Suit because I love a good suit.

Sadie Clayton is a luxury sculptural womenswear label representing a unique aesthetic in the British fashion scene. The eponymous line was launched in 2015 after graduating from Kingston University in 2013 and exhibiting at Graduate Fashion Week, Clayton has gone on to show on the catwalks of London and Berlin and showcasing her ss16 collection at London Fashion Week at the Royal Academy of the Art, her aw16 showcased at the Hotel Cafe Royal London and returned to the Royal Academy of the Art for ss17 in collaboration with MHD holograms. 

Meet the Casas

After deciding that we would move in together, Chloe, Firdous, Adele and I had at least 10 flat viewings that we tried and failed to get. After thinking it wasn't meant to be an we would have nowhere to live come September, we found the perfect flat. We were so desperate that we would split up to view flats at the same time so Adele and I arrived early to a viewing, we were incredibly hungover and I was probably still drunk. As we were early the landlord let us see the flat first, despite it being a group viewing. Ten seconds after getting past the front door we gave eachother the "We need this flat look". The landlord explained that it was a first come first served viewing and we needed to get to the Estate agents and hand them the deposit before it could be ours. We jumped in the closest taxi and got the cash to the office just as another group arrived, to be told that we had already secured the flat.

 Casa billz is what we call our flat, we hashtag it and have no shame. 

  Meet the Casas:

Chloe/Mama Billz

Characteristics: 

Compassionate

Eccentric 

Loving

Hench 

Kind 

Casa billz would not be standing today without Chloe Ann Wilkes. Firdous Adele and I would have burnt it down by now. 

I've seen Chloe balance with one foot on a ladder and one foot on the top of a door to put up the flags in our living room. She's moved my wardrobe from one side of my room to the other cause I couldn't move it an inch. She cleans the house, cooks us banana bread and makes us tea. We both also share an affinity for shit reality TV and have been found on my bedroom floor binge watching things like love Island, towie and big brother for hours on end. Chloe isn't like anyone I've ever met before, she's eccentric and hilarious. She'd do anything for anyone and is incredibly kind and thoughtful and is more beautiful than she'll ever realise. I had always been amazed at how good chlo is at liquid liner so I asked her how she did it, the next day she came home after buying me the exact liner she uses so I could have the same one.

Neither Chloe or I made it out on our 21st birthdays. Canny hack it

 Firdous/Baby Billz
Characteristics: 

Hilarious 

Stylish 

Caring

My first memory of Firdous was the first day of freshers and she had the most beaut acrylic nails on and of course looked drop dead gorgeous. I swear on my hair firdous is one of the funniest people I know. She works incredibly hard at uni (she does fashion while Chloe Adele and I do fashion communication). Her garments are always amazing and I'm already excited for her final collection even though it's two years away. 

Firdy is crazy stylish and thinks of outfits I never could and is the tiniest of us even though she's a wee hungry monkey. Chlo and Del love the gym but firdous and I are allergic to it so sadly we don't share their passion. Her and her boyfriend Danny (Danny billz) are the cutest thing ever, last time we had a party I wouldn't leave their side cause they were entertaining me so much. Danny's going to be a doctor and firdous is going to be bigger than McQueen. Ya heard it here first.

Adele/ Della Billz
Characteristics: 
Loyal 

Creative 

Ambitious 

Spontaneous
Off her rocker

Del and I became close after the first few weeks of uni after discovering we had similar childhoods both losing at a parent at a young age (her mum my dad). Along with us both having a key interest in vodka & the same humour we were a match made in heaven. Del is a gorgeous tiny pixie like girl but has a big personality and is also, like Chloe, off her rocker. She's covered in tattoos (the only tattoos I've ever liked on someone) loves guacamole and action movies. Our favourite movies to watch together involve planes for some reason. (Watch red eye if you haven't already). Del is big into photography and is incredibly good at it, after doing a module in photography at uni I still don't know how to use my camera. Del has taken a lot of my pictures for the blog and even came with me on a shoot for uni to change my settings for me, I really am that bad. She's off to America to see her lovely girlfriend Rachel for 6 weeks and the flat won't be same without her. Especially cause you'd be able to hear her singing in the shower from Edinburgh to Belfast.

Del came to stay with me and my family in Belfast for a week over New Years after knowing me for about 2 months. We were either drunk or hungover the entire time. She's like a second daughter to my mum and a sister to me.

The best decision I ever made.

Just under two years ago I moved to bonny Scotland, completely on a whim. I thought for a long time that I never wanted to go to uni and that instead I work work and do internships to get where I wanted to be. What I didn't realise is that going to uni is as much about the degree as it is about the people you meet. 

I was still packing at 2am the night before I left when I started freaking out and began telling myself that I would move back to Belfast after a few weeks if it wasn't for me or if I didn't make any friends.

My mum and I arrived in Galashiels (a very small town in the Scottish Boarders where my uni is) and I automatically decided that I wasn't staying. You can walk from one side of Galashiels to another, and coming from living close to the city of Belfast it was a complete change, and not the kind I was after. My mum was pretending everything was going to be okay but saying things like "Theres an Iceland and a tesco over there! Theres a New Look eefs it can't be that bad if they have some shops!". She later revealed that she was freaking out and didn't want to leave me in such a quiet town but was just pretending for my sake. 

I remember sitting in my room at halls after moving in and being well aware that there were girls at either side of the wall but being frozen with fear when thinking about having to speak to them. The first few nights everyone in halls went out and got steaming, and I did have a good time but I'd end up steaming in my room on the phone to my brother saying I was going to move home.

It was at the end of the first week of freshers when everything started to seem a bit more okay.

I meet the best gals anyone could ask for. All on the same floor a team of 9 of us all became inseparable. What amazed me was how different we all were, and still are. There is a mix of Irish, Scottish and English and we all have different backgrounds and views which we loved to discuss over a Mc Donalds in a car park. My first year of university is now a blur of sitting in each others rooms in halls for hours on end, getting drunk and heading to the one and only club in Galashiels and squad trips to Edinburgh, Glasgow, Liverpool and the highlands. 

After a long summer apart we all moved into flats in Edinburgh, with myself, Chloe, Firdous and Adele in one and Sophie, Ilka, Jen and Rhona in another, Katy stayed in Gala but never misses a sesh. 

Making the last minute and not very thought out decision to move to Scotland and start university has meant that I met friends for life, I spent the summer in America with Adele and Sophie (which I never would have done). I've met loads of new and lovely people through working at office Edinburgh and it's also allowed me to meet Lewis, my very handsome and very Scottish boyfriend. He's made me realise that Scotland is well and truly my second home and I only go back to Belfast when he's next to me on the plane.

Travel // Croatia

We have just returned from an amazing week long holiday in Croatia with Jet 2 holidays.  

This was my first package holiday since Magaluf but this holiday and maga were very different, as you can imagine. We paid £455 each for a week, half board in The Medora Auri hotel, including transfers and hold luggage. 

Once we arrived into Split airport we were greeted by a Jet 2 representative and led to our coach transfer to our hotel. We got an envelope with all of our holiday details including things to do in Podgora, excursions, and details on our meal times as we were half board. 

Hotel: 

We stayed in the gorgeous Medora Auri Hotel in Podgora, Croatia. It had just gone under a massive renovation so everything is new and very clean. The beds were comfy, a kettle was provided (which we used for pot noodles rather than the camomile tea) and the rooms were cleaned every day.

The main hotel building was only a couple of minutes walk from the Pavilion and our room was just a few steps away from the beach. 

 The hotel itself is in an absolutely stunning location and designed so well that from everywhere you have the most amazing views out over the sea. 

The swimming pools, lobby bar and restaurant all have the same stunning views. The restaurant has the option to sit indoors or outdoors, we sat outdoors every time.  

Location: 

The hotel is in a quiet area but Lewis and I loved that. It wasn't overcrowded and you could really enjoy how beautiful it was. The promenade in front of the hotel is lined with restaurants, shops etc all the way down to the marina at the end (about a 20 minute walk) so plenty of choice of places to eat when you're there. We ate and drank a lot in the Banana bar which also had great live music. The food everywhere we went was super cheap and we didn't have a bad meal once. 

The beaches are all pebbly rather than sandy but this makes for the most amazing clear water to swim in. Most sections of the beach have sun loungers to hire if you want one and at the section of beach in front of the hotel they throw in a cocktail from the beach bar in the cost of the hire. The sun beds were 100 Kuna for two and included the free cocktails which works out at £12 in total. 

Food:

We were half board, it cost us £50 each to go half board with Jet2 and included our breakfast and dinner everyday. The food at the hotel was great, breakfast had different types of cold meat, cereals, a crazy amount of breads, croissants, eggs, bacon etc. Most mornings we had coffee and croissants or eggs. For dinner there were different types of meat every night which were cooked at live cooking stations, such as steak, grilled chicken, turkey etc. They also had things like garlic potatoes, pastas, fish, and tonnes of fruit and vegetables. Most nights I had grilled chicken and chips (stolen from the kids buffet) or chicken nuggets (also stolen from the kids buffet. Lewis ate alot of pasta, pizza and veg aswell. 

Things to do: 

There was plenty of boat trips to the islands leaving from Markarska, you can get them from Podgora too there was just more choice from Mararska. 

We rented a boat from the harbour in Podgora which cost us £45 for 6 hours and it was one of the best things we did. We brought sandwiches, a speaker and plenty of vodka and had great craic on the boat, so much so that we rented it again on one of the other days.

I will say that the busses from Podgora are not good, we waited for a bus to the next town (Markaska) for a good two hours before a lovely woman and her young son stopped at the bus stop and told us to jump in. The woman that stopped for us was easily the nicest person we met in Croatia and she also said Ireland is better than Scotland so a win win. 

We then got the bus from Markaska to split and it was great to see a big Croatian city, it was also great to do some shopping and we spent a good hour in Zara. We had lunch in a gorgeous little Italian called Pizzeria Portas that had "The best pizza in Split" on trip advisor. I had Spaghetti and Lewis had a pizza, both were gorgeous and we recommend you go there if you're in Split. 

Candy Man

Happy Wednesday!

Tomorrow is our last day in Croatia though we're trying not to think about it too much, it's so beautiful here we aren't quite ready to head back to Scotland.

I picked up this gorgeous playsuit in the Zara store in Split but you can buy it here online- I spotted it on the site a few weeks back but wasn't sold, though seeing it in person I knew I had to get it.

Photography by Lewis Strang x