Life + Style Archives - Page 2 of 26

Drinks / Wimbledon-Inspired Strawberry & Ice Cream Creamy Milkshake

posted on June 27, 2016

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #CollectiveBias

There’s a lot about this post I don’t do often, from caring about sports to sharing recipes to trying to style a glass in a way that’s not massively boring. Low end of the learning curve here, for sure, on all accounts. But I do like tennis — along with gymnastics, it’s the only sport I ever make an effort to watch, and pay attention to — and Wimbledon has always been my favorite grand slam, probably due to the movie Wimbledon, it being played on grass (truly the best look for tennis, all right #shallow), and also the fact that my love of London goes way back and extends to most things even remotely within its borders.

I’m only vaguely aware of the strawberries & cream tradition for Wimbledon snacking, and mainly surprised y’all have strawberries in season that late in June; it was a quest and a half finding them now, which saddens me because I’m not ready to start making cold drinks until June, so I missed most of strawberry season this year. This has not always been the case, though, which is how this drink came to be one of the years I followed Wimbledon religiously.

This shoppertunity for SocialFabric seemed like a fantastic way to share the recipe with you, though, and I’m very glad I got to do so — all of two years after first mentioning it on a iced caramel coffee post.

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Closet Cosplay Fashion Life + Style Outfits

Style / Marigold

posted on June 24, 2016

The sun is up, the sky is blue, and I’m cozying up next to a fan in my room because the heat outside is already unbearable. I was made for kinder climates, and cities with Starbuckses in them. Whiny though it may be, I would like it to always be spring. I want to wear sundresses — the flimsiest of dresses — and not melt in them. Alas.

Continuing on the theme of how I’m a geek and stuff, here’s an outfit I put together based on, initially, the dress reminding me of Pushing Daisies, constantly staring at me every time I went into H&M looking for basic long-sleeve tees and whispering, “the facts were these: you began to want me two months, three weeks, five days, four hours, five minutes and thirty seconds ago.” I was helpless to its honey bee charms and my brain associations.

But then, far from closet cosplaying Chuck Charles, as I may or may not do at some point, I let the dress tell me it wanted retro glasses and maybe some black to balance out the sweetness a la Aria Montgomery, and then I picked up a book for a prop as I went out and suddenly I was a little bit more Belle than Chuck, embodying the disgusting cloying romance of:

1. summer
2. breaking out my new 6D
3. showing off my beautiful criss-cross ring from OneByOne Jewellery,
and 4. finally having something to show for my previously only hypothetical presence in a Disney Princess collaboration series on which I joined beauty youtubers Leah, Clare, Victoria — this is my first bit, but not my last.

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Home & Living Life + Style

Home & Style / Summer Lounging

posted on May 26, 2016

It appears the fight is slowly fizzling out of spring and summer is beginning to settle in, which, despite me being a massive homebody, somehow makes me want to be outside all the time. I have a small patio that’s a bit of a pain, and one of the things I’d like to do when I have the money is create a bit of a lounging space for summer nights (summer days are dangerously hot over here, let’s not even) to read and chat and have supper. I’ve put together some of my favorite looks from Pinterest, and found pieces you can use to get the vibe.

sources: 1 · 2 · 3 · 4

get the comfort: antilles daybed (omg gimme) / sunbed + coffee table / dining sets / outdoor fireplace / outdoor rug / floor lamp

And here’s an idea of what to wear during those lovely relaxing times:

maxi dresses / sunglasses / swimsuit / backpack / hat / shorts
sundress / shell top / espadrilles [find more offers for New Look]

This post is a PR collaboration.

Where do you like to hang out in the summer heat?

Things I'm Thinking

Life / Not Another Life Post

posted on May 15, 2016

Yes another life post. Duh.

It’s been a little while, and I don’t have relevant photos to break it down with as usual because I’m still working my way through those three days I spent not-in-my-hometown in March, so I’m going to jump right in:

1. I got Snapchat. I’m @lixhewett over there, predictably, and I post a lot of my face — with and without snapchat filters that make me look like a koala/goth/comic book character — and a lot of my cat. Sometimes there are glimpses at my notebooks and whatever I’m editing on my laptop at the time. Occasionally I whine. If you’re interested in seeing that kind of thing from me, you’re welcome to follow.

2. I finished my very first bullet journal, of sorts. I call it bullet journal because it’s a notebook that I use in specific ways, but it’s very very low-key — I draw up a 10-day chart for my habits every four or six pages, and then the rest of the pages are divided in two vertical halves to host a) daily to-dos and b) rolling to-dos. I have no intention of making it any more complicated. (I do want to start using my planner more, but that’s an entirely different thing). It’s not perfect, but it’s working well so far, and I’m just going to hold on to that for a bit.

3. Over the month of April I tweeted a poem every day under the hashtag #aclassicnotion. For the most part, it’s free-verse work by female poets from the last hundred years. It’s all poetry I really, really love, because it’s my first time doing something like this and I had no reason not to reach for my favorites. If you decide to have a browse, I hope you find something that speaks to you.

4. I wrapped up week three of onefiftydips! It’s already been five days and I’ve not started week four yet. I’m keeping up with my exercise chart and everything, but the super low bar I have for workouts is about a fifth of a program workout, and everything else I do is flexibility and balance things; my endurance sucks, and dips are the only thing strength exercise I don’t hate. Still: progress!

5. Baking and being scared of feeling dirty do not mix smoothly. Thought y’all should know.

6. If my purpose in life were to be a pillow for cats, I would be happy. Just let me know, universe dear, so I can stop worrying about other shit.

Home & Living Life + Style

Wishlist / Decking Out The Perfect Reading Nook

posted on May 10, 2016

the chairs: baltic sea fitted chair (5) / linea riva armchair (2) / stoned linen slate gray
the side tables: aldo side table (6) / sauder edge water collection (1) / zuo modern zeon (find discounts for Kohls here!)

+ a nice pillow (10)

I’ve been looking for a laundry basket to serve as a side table since I got a tub chair for my room. I need both of those things, and I only have space for one, so I’m trying to find something that does both jobs at once, or two separate things that can be stacked together.

I’m not fussy about the laundry basket part; as long as I can haul it around and it doesn’t look like a garbage can, I’ll deal. I’m a little bit more preoccupied with the sturdiness of whatever surface I end up using as a table, because this is what I want it for:

1. Wine glasses (3). This is the main thing, really. Coffee mugs, too, and iced coffee glasses and tea cups occasionally, but it’s the wine glasses that really worry me. As I’ve got my tub chair set up now, the handiest place to put a glass is a shelf next to it, and I have to twist my arm to get the glass. It’s frankly shocking to me none of my glasses has yet ended up in bits all over my poor cat’s scratcher. I want a place I can reach without breaking my wrist… and maybe a place where it looks good for Instagram photos. What?

+ coasters, preferably in the shape of a kitty (9)

2. My phone. Duh. As my phone is a flat horizontal object, I usually leave it on my desk chair. It’s not terrible, but the thing keeps sliding off and hitting the floor because I have the focus and hand-eye coordination of a newborn child. I’ve always thought about getting myself a pretty case with my photography, but I think the most genuinely useful thing I could do is get a protective case (8) instead. So far the phone is holding up, bless its heart, but I’ve seen one too many cracked screens on public transport to leave my phone’s well-being up to chance.

3. Notebooks, pens. Notebooks are easily stacked; pens are easily provoked into rolling straight to the ground. I have a veritable collection of Minted notebooks from a giveaway win and a previous collaboration with them; the example on the board (4) is the design I picked for my blank white page sketchbook. In addition to that one, I always keep handy a pseudo bullet journal, my blog notebook, and my planner.

4. Speakers. My current ideal, or aesthetic guideline, is this Fastnet folding portable speaker (7) from Ted Baker. It’s compact, wireless, and lovely to look at, and I think my cat would play well with it — I may actually have mentioned this particular model before because I’m obsessed with it.

My cat is obviously a consideration in everything I do or acquire, but he’s generally well-behaved around technology. He has however knocked my speakers off the shelf by the door — his shelf, really — several times this year by getting caught up in the cables, so a wireless speaker on a bookcase shelf or a small side table should about get rid of that pesky risk.

5. Mobility. For it to serve my tub chair it would have to be in the middle of the room or blocking some drawers I use, so it needs to be something I can move over to the side of my bed as a nightstand of sorts at night, and whenever I want to plug something in.

Does this cover your reading nook needs? What makes the perfect relaxing corner for you?

Disclosure: This post is a PR collaboration.

Barcelona Fashion Life + Style Outfits

Style / Fuzzy Flare

posted on April 22, 2016

Flare jeans: the elusive love of my life. As I understand it, they’re coming back into fashion, but my hometown in Spain remains three years behind the rest of the world, so it’s still incredibly hard to find good pieces. Back in the January sales, however, I was determined to find a pair I loved… and I did. It was twice my budget for jeans, but it was beautiful. It fit perfectly. It looked amazing.

So I checked a few other stores, went home, thought it over, and came back that evening for them so I wouldn’t feel bad about my purchase. In hindsight, this was some A+ decision-making on my part, method included. Go Lix.

(I could do this during sale season because, see, Esprit? Not popular in Spain. The shop? A little ways away from the main chain store cluster. I was concerned, to be sure, but I knew I could risk it. The shop itself however may be gone already, and I am very saddened by this turn of events.)

I wear these jeans on a weekly basis, and they were one of the two pairs I took to Barcelona last month. For my second day there — a long walk around the city, hitting some architectural spots, a museum of modern art and, unbeknownst to me, the Cathedral of Barcelona, as well as a weird art gallery and some bits and pieces from my leisurely photo walk back to the hotel I’ve yet to identify — I paired the flare jeans with a beautiful pair of flats from Yull, thick Pimkie socks that matched my cardigan and helped me pretend I was not breaking in a new pair of flats on a major city walk, a fuzzy cardigan I was sent last year by Blue Vanilla, bless them, and one of my many standardfare long-sleeve cotton t-shirts, this one from Sfera, which, believe it or not, has some real gems if you look hard enough.

(I wouldn’t call anything in my collection of long-sleeve t-shirts a gem; I’m talking about other pieces. But I rely on long-sleeve t-shirts to be comfortable, and I have an identical shirt to this one in a sweet dark blue-green color. Both were on sale, both are comfortable as all get-out, both I wear so often I am wearing this red one again today.)

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Barcelona Fashion Life + Style Outfits

Style / Seaport

posted on April 15, 2016

I’ve wanted a floppy hat since I started watching Pretty Little Liars — all the way back in 2010. Spencer wore a burgundy wool (felt?) hat in an episode and looked hot as burning, and a floppy hat in another episode (the first was a cloche, if I recall), and an obsession was born. Justifying the expense of a hat is hard for me for two reasons: a) I know myself, and I know I’ll rarely wear it no matter how much I like the look, and b) it’s kind of hard to find hats that don’t engulf my entire tiny head, face included. There’s a reason most of the hats I own are custom knits.

But just days before my birthday, there was one available in multiple sizes at Pimkie, and they sent me a voucher because I have a loyalty card, and the rest is history.

Actually, the rest is: if that hat had been in my mind for a long time, this location? Was getting there. Back in September, I visited Barcelona with my best friend, and we ended up hitting Maremagnum for a quick t-shirt shop on our last night there. Maremagnum is a mall situated on one of the long docks parallel to the port by Passeig de Colom. At night, with the streets lit up, the boats moored, the soft summer breeze and the mild resignation that my camera would never capture it well, I just wanted to breathe it all in.

Well, breathe it all in, and come back sometime in daylight to photograph someone in it.

And so it was, predictably, the first place I suggested to Megan when it was time to pick a location for our first outfit shots.

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Diaries Life + Style

Life / A Fortnight In Pictures And Also Words

posted on March 14, 2016

You read that right: I’m giving you words AND pictures! Get pumped.

March so far:

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Diaries Life + Style

Life / A Fortnight In Pictures #1 (The One Before My Camera Broke)

posted on February 8, 2016

One of my goals for the new year was to take a picture every day. If you have a fancy camera you may be familiar with the situation — when you travel or do something fun it gets a ton of use, but then you’re home and you go transfer the photos and you realize you’ve shot two days in three months. I wanted to challenge myself to get better photos of everyday things, as well as find beauty in the common.

I did a fairly good job for sixteen days; on the sixteenth day, my camera made a whirring sound and said, “Error 99!” And that was that. I have now borrowed a Nikon camera from a friend, which should hold me over until I figure out what to do with my Canon. I’m waiting to hear whether it can be repaired at all, and how much it will cost me to do so. If all else fails, I can probably afford a 700D body. I’m telling myself it’s not the same as spending on a laptop that won’t last; it’s always good to have multiple camera bodies, so the 700D won’t be left in the dust whenever I have enough money to buy my dream 5D Mark — but it’s still money I wasn’t planning to spend.

What this means on a practical, blog-front level — I will hopefully have another fortnight in pictures for the middle of February, but I skipped three weeks. I still kept up with many other habits, so it’s all a work in progress and I’m not too fussed about it. I take plenty of photos — I’m a bit compulsive as a shooter — so there’s never much of an obvious gap. And here’s a summary of my January — at least the first half.

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Fashion Life + Style Outfits

Style / Icicles

posted on January 11, 2016

The icicles are each one of my individual limbs. To be clear there.

Since I moved home I’ve gone shopping more often than I used to, mainly because I keep running out of clothes to wear while I wait for them to finish drying, and even if I could afford a dryer I wouldn’t have a place to put it. This was one such time. I always look significantly better put together on laundry day, because when I have things to choose from, I always choose the same stuff. And I like that stuff! So on Saturday, while I was waiting for my jeans to dry, I scavenged around my closet for something to wear under my new shiny green coat — a gift from a friend — and go find myself a new pair of jeans, and shoot an interesting outfit while I was at it, since me wearing interesting outfits is such a rare occurrence.

It was cold and rushed and while I was editing the photos, I kept rumbling, “I can’t believe I wore tights for this.” But that’s week 1 of 52 self-portraits complete! (I haven’t picked the One yet. Possibly the one above?) And the coat is awesome, shopping was quite successful, and my jeans were dry when I came back.

It’s possible, however, that I lost the tights and the hairdo around Zara, and walked around in mismatched socks and bare legs in the middle of winter for about an hour. You guys, tights suck. Why do they have to look good?

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