Kelly Kapowski - POW being the operative word.

In the 90's TV was unreal. It was so entertaining, particularly 'Saved By The Bell'.

Kelly Kapowski is without doubt the teen pin up for adolescent boys everywhere, crude facebook groups are endless in her honour. But is there something in the idea that next to Screech anyone looks hot? Or was this teenage girl the object of lust for a valid reason? Have your say..

In breaking news - the lovely Kelly has been immortalised on a t-shirt in Urban Outfitters. Brilliant.

You can wear Kelly for a mere 34.95 eur

This is the only time you will see retro Kelly with rolls on her stomach. When the stacking of a pile of t-shirts makes us wish the optical illusion were true! ;)

Patch up your wardrobe or floordrobe!

There is nothing better than taking something you wear,

not just casually - but an item you would jazz up for cocktails - and customizing it, while adding a little bit of pizazz.  

For example, a fawn playsuit I picked up in Urban Outfitters last season. I love wearing it as it's comfortable and a colour that complements red lipstick and pale skin. So I can throw it on with tights and an oversized cardi for college or add a pair of funky tights and high heels and head to a night club wearing it. But I felt it was a blank canvas. It was a staple piece of my overflowing floordrobe rather than wardrobe that I wanted to rejuvenate.

 So.... I decided to strategically apply some iron - on patches strategically around the pocket detailing. 

These patches remind me of when I was little and my Mam sowed some in my flared dark denim jeans. In the Spice Girl era I felt like Baby Spice with my super cool jeans funny how thirteen years later I have revisited this idea of my own accord. Style is a bit of a spinning wheel, trends reappear on the catwalks and the streets time and time again, except modified, like the 50's poodle skirt or tying your hair up with a patterned scarf. 

These patches cost under a fiver and not only are they easy to use but look seriously cute and you will be very proud of your handiwork. I used three patches all in varying colours and ironed them on following the foolproof instructions. I selected a rose pattern, a russian doll and an ice- cream. 

My Russian Doll patch

Retro rose tattoo patch

You scream for ice- cream patch

And here is what the finished job looked like & was completed in about 5 minutes. You can find these patches in Hickeys on Henry St. and other stores Nationwide.

Happy customizing! ;)

The best things in life are free

The best things in life are of course free - But sometimes either not what we expect or very challenging and testing of our limits

I have decided to try and be an outdoorsy person - to the best of my ability - in 2012.

I started to realistically contemplate whether sitting in staring at my laptop for hours on end watching The Twilight Saga, The Vampire Diaries and True Blood was starting to affect my mindset.
If you spend enough time indoors  gawking at a computer screen you do begin to look like a vampire.
Not the glittery stunning kind, more the withdrawn- anaemic looking version. Not so hot.

So... I decided that I would visit the park and feed the ducks and take a few snapshots.

I love ducks from the yellow rubber kind to the real quacking kind. I didn't realise that in Stephen's Green Park there are seagulls marauding themselves as ducks. As I threw the big chunks of a sliced pan in the pond, feeling all serene and nice a battle ensued. And seagulls are massive they really look like swans except menacing! Stephen's Green Park is really pretty but it is jam packed with pigeons and seagulls.

Seagulls are kind of scary

The seagulls started to get vicious almost decapitating the innocent ducks who fled. It almost ruined the moment until I strategically threw little crumbs in for the little ducks.

My next attempt at an interesting outdoor pursuit was to climb Mt. Leinster. I thought I was seriously clever clad in my unattractive yet practical winter wear and bringing 3lb wrist weights that I sometimes use in the gym.


I felt like I was carrying two bags of sugar concrete up the mountain. As I slowly ascended the face of the mountain  - using muscles that had not been used in months - I condemned New Years Resolutions and craved a quad or a personal slave.

Needless to say I only made it three quarters of the way up. So my next escapade is Mt. Leinster round two in the next fortnight. Detoxing attempts and serious exercise are no craic in the month of January.

Hello Bunny

My new bunny iphone 4s Cover speaks volumes about how girly and a little odd I can be, it has gotten a few laughs and a few questions such as: 'Why did you dress up your phone as a bunny?'

 But, nevertheless, I have defended my recent purchase with the same vigour as if I would my family pet, Coco. Sorry Coco.

You can pick up these snazzy, customised covers in The Company Shop, Ltd located on Dame St. Dublin, and also online.

You can justify it as the time of the Easter Bunny is just around the corner....
Festive accessorizing isn't just about tinsel around Christmas time! ;)

Style

Personal style can be hit and miss but that's what makes it so fun. When I get dressed for a night out I always aim to wear what I want to wear -  not what everyone else is wearing. We can fall into a trap of falling victim to a fashion trend that everyone else might think is the bee's knees, but when your heart isn't in your styling I think you wear that fact on your face. My favourite fashion mixture is retro and current. I have always been influenced more by urban wear than catwalk simply because it's more easily accessible and I can identify with it and have always loved funky dressy casual because you can party it up with feathery peeptoes or studded heeled boots and you ultimately have a fresh look.

In Ireland, the fashion isn't really 'out there'. Our style icons tend to be overseas. We're not versatile in comparison to our foreign counterparts. The funny thing about Ireland is that the 'street-style' is usually way more appealing than what we see in magazines. I get when models have a killer body they are trying to 'sell' themselves and wearing a body-con mini dress is undeniably their motif but sometimes it would be nice to see something more edgy and inspiring.
If you walk down the streets of Tokyo, Paris or New York you can witness where our trends stem from sometimes years in advance of them ending up on our backs. Playing with vintage and high street is a winning formula - like a fashion wedding union! something old, something new.

Parisian style - elegant with cabaret undertones

New york style - brought to the attention of the world through Patricia Field who cemented New Yorkers 'style status as fun frivolous and subtly and not overtly sexy.

I am venturing to New York in the coming weeks and I am going to keep a 'style diary'. I am going to visit the legendary vintage shops and make a visit to Patricia Field's store. As a beyond in-demand stylist, an Emmy-award winning costume designer who has worked on shows such as Sex and the City, Ugly Betty, Confessions of a Shopaholic, The Devil Wears Prada I am pretty sure I will be like a child on Christmas Day trawling through the goldmine that is Field's selections. But I will document my experience so I can share it with all you fashionistas out there.

This feisty lady sure can  illustrate style. She depicts how fashion is all about lifestyle and surroundings also:

"The way you dress yourself is a form of self-expression, and a way of communicating to others who you are. But style is broader than just fashion — it’s not only the way you dress, but how you decorate your home, the books you read. It all runs together. The more ways you can express yourself the better, because then you are communicating at a higher level."

Extra, Extra - Read all about it!

I have some man candy this weekend for all you gossipers out there! Enjoy ;)




Click here to read and hear an exclusive interview with Pierce Brosnan

Click here to read and hear an exclusive interview with Daithi O Se who has found 'the One'

Charlotte's Tower - A Short Story

Charlotte woke up propped up on four fluffy cream pillows. The puffy Tower Hotel ones that you sink your face into. To Charlotte the Tower Hotel is her home. She has lived there since the age of five. She always felt like the missing kid in home alone as she slid down the banisters and nicked miniature bottles of shampoo off the room service lady’s cart. Her Dad owns the 'Towers' or 'Towers of Doom' as she affectionately calls the hotel. Charlotte has long caramel blonde hair and bright green eyes but the porcelain doll comparisons get very annoying when repeated so often. Truthfully, Charlotte feels lonely a lot of the time. Arriving back home from boarding school for the summer makes her feel isolated and agitated. Also, it doesn't help that her Dad is psychotically overprotective. He is so powerful and intimidating that at age eighteen no boy has dared approach Charlotte, let alone kiss her. 

Charlotte longed for the romance that she was enthralled with in Bronte novels as she was growing up and old black and white movies. Like an eightie’s pop song - I want you to want me. Boom. But no, life doesn't really work that way. I guess that’s the problem when your Dad runs a hotel Empire and your mother ran away with her Puerto Rican gym instructor. Your elitist father may, or may not become serially neurotic and paranoid. Charlotte pondered over her life reminiscing what it felt like when she was little and her parents were really in love. It scared her that it didn't last forever. In the movies the happy ending was imminent and comforting and expected. Charlotte sighed and decided a scrumptious breakfast was in order. She called up room service and decided she deserved something very fattening... ''Hi It's Char here, I'm in the Penthouse Suite, could you please ask Ricardo if he could muster me up a Tuscan grilled cheese sandwich with oyster puree. Oh, and a green tea. Thank you!''

Charlotte realised she hadn't let the lady at the desk get a word in edgeways, but it wasn't intentional. Charlotte hadn't mastered the fact that a telephone conversation shouldn't be a monologue.
She slid out of the bed in her pink silk dressing gown and fished for the TV remote. A movie day was in order. 'How to Marry a Millionaire' was on. She breathed a sigh of delight. She adored Marilyn Monroe, she was so glamorous and alluring but there was something mysterious about her. Charlotte had always wanted to be an actress; she had been born with her mother's good looks and a serious flair for the dramatic. She liked to pretend her life was a movie and she was the star in it. It was bizarre but amusing to her. There was a knock at the door and a husky voice said 'room service'. Her breakfast was very fast. Charlotte strolled to the door in a nonchalant manner then twisted the door knob and flung it open. Seriously dramatic. The boy who was delivering the order spilled the green tea all over his uniform including his formerly pristine white shirt. Charlotte couldn't help it. She giggled. He looked up and saw the most beautiful girl he had ever seen in his whole life. She had long, thick shiny caramel blonde hair and piercing emerald-green eyes. She was wearing a pink silk robe and had the most dazzling smile he had ever seen. Could this girl be real?
'Oh my god I am Charlotte! I mean, I am sorry! sorry' Charlotte exclaimed ' Please come in I will help you get rid of that stain...'
John followed the beautiful blonde into her suite and marvelled at the extravagance of the huge four poster bed, burgundy satin couches and most of all, the stunning mysterious girl who was definitely the most fascinating thing in the room. He took a seat on the couch awkwardly and waited for Charlotte to approach him. It's funny how people look like their names. This girl just looked like a Charlotte. She approached him soda water in hand with a towel at explained how this would draw the green stain out. 'What is your name?' Charlotte enquired batting her eyelashes. 'I'm John, I am new I just started working at the Towers a month ago. Are you on Holidays?' Charlotte smiled and whispered ‘yes I guess you could say that’. Their chemistry was instantaneous. It was like something out of a black and white film, but not in a clichéd way. John was tall, dark and handsome and clearly besotted and Charlotte was trying to be calm, cool and collected but gushed about her life, father, school, favourite colour. Every single thing under the sun basically. This made John like her even more. Her erratic personality, naiveté and natural beauty had John shell shocked. But she was the boss’s daughter. He was a glorified bellboy. How could it ever work? It was evident Charlotte didn’t care. John told her about school and how his Dad had lost his job and his Mother passed when he was a baby. He explained how he liked working in the Hotel because he felt not only independence but he could support himself and help his Dad. Charlotte gazed at him with adamant admiration and jealousy. She longed for freedom to be free of the clutches of her over protective Dad who resented how much she looked like her Mother, even though her would never admit it out loud it was constantly written all over his face.

Charlotte wanted to leave the Towers and live her own life. She longed to live somewhere with a garden with flowers and a residence where someone doesn’t change the towels daily or leave a chocolate on your pillow, a place where it is not essential to leave a ‘do not disturb’ sign to ensure a little privacy.
As Charlotte gazed into John’s eyes she saw a new path, a world of infinite possibility. And as she quickly dressed and went on her first real date with John to a quiet café. A cup of hot chocolate out of the Towers down a quiet street made her feel warmed up inside out. Charlotte and John strolled hand in hand and she realised not only did she feel liberated but finally found someone who not only inspired her, but who she could share her freedom with. It helped that he was cute too...

To Be Continued.....

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xo L