My Style Era

Online quizzes are something I love doing just out of curiosity of what result I'll get, so when this quiz came to my attention by Glitzy Secrets on what is your true style era I had to give it a go. Amazingly my result is the Funky 70's which fits perfectly as that is what a lot of my style has been about recently so I have put together a little post for you all about what I love about 70's style and pieces on the high street now that are inspired from the era. You can take the quiz with Glitzy Secrets here and see what your Style era is.

I absolutely love the bright shirts, big hats and volume crazy hair styles. The 70's were definitely an inspiring era filled with amazing fashion styles! I recently did a 70's inspired shoot which was incredible and these are two of my favourite images. I wore all original 70's pieces but definitely an outfit I'd wear all the time now. The bold patterns are making a glorious come back which aren't to everyones taste but there will always be something for everyone. More photos from this shoot can be found in the latest issue of Vintage Life Magazine.

Not long after that shoot I was lucky enough to shoot in an original 70's wedding dress and it was incredible. Now we'd call this more boho but the floaty frill at the top and the ways it hangs, everything was stunning about this, why wouldn't you want to wear this now?

As well as original pieces being absolutely fabulous, the 70's have broken back into some of my favourite high street stores updating the pieces a little creating a modern 70's style. The 70's are definitely coming back so get in now to stay on trend and super funky.  Here is some of my favourite pulls from our high street stores.

Spring Into Baby Blue

This week has been crazy busy with shoots and it's no where near over yet. I have been helping my lovely girl Holly Kenyon (check her out +Holly Kenyon) with her first ever lookbook this week and I'm so proud of her. These are all her images, and only a little snippet of the outfits and looks we went for, I'll be showing them all over the next couple of weeks amongst other shoots. 

As you had all seen and heard whites and blue are my spring fling this year so this outfit is a new fave of mine. My new baby blue coat is absolutely beautiful and I cannot get enough of the colour. It's time to wean myself off the blacks and dark colours of winter and come into to bright happy colours and this outfit is the perfect way to welcome in the sunshine. 

Outfit Details:

Coat - Miss Selfridge

Shirt - Jack Wills

Jeans - Topshop

Shoes/Hat - Topshop

Bangle - DuttsonRocks

Watch - Daniel Wellington

Loads more exciting features with Holly coming up soon including another swimwear shoot. Keep up with shoots, behind the scenes and everything I get up to on my instagram page @crystallily1 

Spring Has Sprung

Spring is one of the prettiest seasons in my opinion, the bright colours, the sunshine, the warm sun with a chillier breeze. The perfect space for thawing us out from winter and pushing us into summer. This spring shoot was a perfect example of that. The spring sunshine was wonderful with a fresh breeze that was so light it kept us from being too cold. 

Lots of you liked the vlog I shared with you all when I took you behind the scenes of one of my shoots so I thought this would be a beautiful one to vlog and get you feeling ready for spring. I was lucky enough to wear an original 70s dress which was actually worn as a wedding dress. It floated effortlessly in the breeze and the sun made it look even more magical. Such an amazing boho feel in a sea of bright yellow daffodils.

These are some of the final images and they are so summery it's making me so excited for the sumer sun, late evenings on the beach and road trips. What are your favourite things about summer? 

Loads of exciting shoots happening this week so keep up to date with behind the scenes of them and more of what I get up to on my Instagram (@crystallily1) and twitter (@crystallily1)

Photography by my favourite Griffin Photography!

Watch the vlog on this shoot now! 

It's A London Christmas

 After a busy few in London I fancied a day in central London finding some festive spirit to share with you all on here. I embraced the busy roads and crowds of people in Selfridges to get some christmas shopping done and I even bumped into Santa who couldn't help posing for a photo. This time of year in London is always my favourite, even if there are a silly amount of people in shops and the queues are massive but I love to suck it all up and see the bright lights, colours and excited little children running around pointing out what they want from Santa.

I usually go for my traditional Starbucks just off Oxford St. that I always visit when I'm in London but this time I fancied something different and came across a lovely juice bar just down from Oxford St. Joe and the Juice is an awesome juice and sandwich bar, perfect place to hide away from people and do some blogging. I tried a Stress Less Juice which was strawberry, apple and ginger with a mozzarella, tomato, turkey and pesto flatbread. I have to say this is somewhere I will definitely be visiting again and not stupidly over priced either. The boys working there were all very friendly and chatty, which is always a blessing in cities to find people who are happy and rub off on you.

After lunch I went on to explore and hunt down more festive experiences and sites in London. Visiting Leicester Square was so lovely, with rides, and stalls, a mini christmas market was exactly what I needed. It's almost like little towns pop up over Christmas with cute little houses selling sweets and beautifully made little gifts. It's like a whole new world at this time of year. It was also amazing not to be budged out the way because of the amount of people as it wasn't too busy. For my final stop of the day I went to Covent Garden to see what the decorations were like this year, last year was impressive but this year was just full of festive spirit. I had to show you the lego reindeer and Santa, it made my afternoon, and was super impressive. London is a wonderful to explore at any time of yea but after months of uni stress a day wondering around by myself and bumping into some friends was just what the doctor ordered. 

Pretty Feet Happy Soul

Introducing you all to these wonderful heels courtesy of Dune and Marie Claire for the Oxford Street Launch! Perfect for dressing up or down and here is show I styled them. (All elements of this outfit are listed below) 

These will be perfect for blogging events, days out shopping at Oxford Street or just dinner dates. The perfect pair of heels for any event in your life, I couldn't recommend them more. You know they are a great pair of heels when they make you feel confident and classy. Such a beautiful shape to compliment your feet and really add a subtle wow factor to any outfit, my new shoeporn. These are also the perfect show to take on any holiday to give you sexy legs in the sunshine. 

Thanks again Dune and Marie Claire, I'm so in love with them! You'll be seeing these in a lot more shoots in the future.

Dress: Topshop

Bag: Warehouse

Hat: Zara

Bracelet: Pandora

Shoes: Dune

Photos: Ian Mutley Heyworth

Doi Suthep Temple

Being blessed with the amount of wondrous temples we have come across in Chiang Mai, we decided to go find another breathtaking experience we had heard about. Known as the golden temple, the Doi Suthep temple is found up the mountains in Chiang Mai, through the rainforest and situated at the top of over 300 steps.

After a great work out to reach the top the first thoughts were you were walking straight inside a huge temple. To my delight the doors I walked through opened up into a large courtyard with smaller temples, statues, walls of candles all surrounding a glowing golden temple. With the sun shining off it all over allowing it to glow in gold it almost looked like it was the sun of Thailand. 

For the most part of this adventure I was speechless, everything was so perfectly crafted even on a huge scale. The talent was incredible. Stumbling across a room where a monk sat and anyone can go inside to be blessed was something I needed to experience. No photos were allowed to be taken whilst sitting in front of the monk so I wasn't able to show you myself getting blessed but the experience was wonderful. Taking part in things like really make the journey that little bit more meaningful and spiritual. I had to close my eyes in the prayer position and the feeling of complete calm fell over me again as he chanted and flicked water over us whilst praying. He then called us forward and showed us to the right of him where we were giving bracelets which would protect us and give us goodluck. 

If you are travelling, embrace every opportunity that presents itself to you, you never know what it might mean to you.