over the pond.

Each time the door rang this week, I would run down the stairs, normally in nothing but my towel, and then return to my room, disappointed, at the fact that my boots had not arrived.

Earlier this month I put holes in the soles of my nicest shoes and was left with the cobalt blue faux converse that I panic bought in Budapest when I realised that I was going to do a lot of walking. So I was in desperate need of new shoes. Normally, I take a little trip to the nearest Primark and buy a pair of shoes around £10 and wear them until they break, inevitably around two months later. It's not that I'm against spending money on shoes, but simply that I always seem to break my shoes, no matter how much I pay!

This week I made an exception and bought this gorgeous pair of Dr Martens reduced from £120 to £60.



I knew that I needed some shoes that were going to actually last and that were durable enough to cope with the hills and steps at my university in Pennsylvania, and after visiting the Dr Martens shop in Norwich with Adam, I decided that they were worth the investment. In store, they were all £100+, so I originally planned on finding some second hand on ebay, but found these ones in the sale instead. I fell completely in love. I didn't want shoes that were overly garish, so the muted red tone and the brown laced soles suited me to a tee. They were low in stock, so after dithering for a milisecond over whether I could really afford to buy them, I ordered them. However, on Tuesday, instead of arriving home to a shoe box, I got home after Holiday Club to an email saying that they had messed up and no longer had the stock and would be refunding my money.

I was, in a word, devastated.

The ever present voice of reason in my life, my mother, told me to google the exact style to see whether I could get them from another provider. Crisis averted, I found them on Amazon sold through the official Dr Martens vendor for £60! In fact, on Amazon, there was a wider range of colours. I struggled to decide between my original maroon or these brown ones and ended up ordering the brown ones instead. I was worried that I would regret my decision, but when they finally arrived today I knew I had made the right choice. I absolutely love this colour, I think they'll go with almost anything and look lovely and warm.

I hope they will cope with pounding the appalachian trail and trekking up the many steps at university and that they last longer than a couple of months! A week today I will board the plane with a gorgeous new pair of shoes and I can't wait.

This blog post is actually just a personal consolidation for the fact that tickets for Bombo were sold out so I am stuck unceremoniously showcasing this outfit at Vensday. Instead of going to a black tie cocktail event I am writing this blog post under my duvet whilst Adam sits next to me doing colouring. But at least I still get to show off my jumpsuit. Every cloud...

At the CUFF after party, I saw several people rocking the jumpsuit. It was a black tie event and they managed to look sophisticated and dressy without being really over the top. As I am only 5"2', I kind of just assumed that I would never be able to pull one off. Then one day in an hour of boredom, I found myself browsing ASOS as you do and found this one. I absolutely loved the bodice and how it wasn't too flashy, but neither was it really plain and boring. However, as I have never tried one on before I really didn't know whether to get it or not, as I thought that the torso proportions wouldn't work for me. If it wasn't for the 'LOW STOCK!' sign, I would not have bought it and lived forever in regret. I figured I might as well just buy it and then send it back if it didn't fit, and I absolutely love it! I even considered wearing it to the summer ball next weekend! The fit is really good, and even having a zip down the back (usually the biggest problem with non-petite products) doesn't look odd!

I love that the bodice is intricate enough that it doesn't need any jewelry to dress it up, and plain black heels are enough to make it look like I have made an effort. And it has pockets! What more could I want!

It was definitely a good spontaneous decision. and even if it isn't fully appreciated by the lacklustre student serving at the shot bar on Wednesday, at least I will know that I look good. And I really hope that you appreciate that I have now got rid of the pizza boxes that have featured in my previous outfit posts!

I also got a winter coat in a gorgeous green and a polka dot shirt. All in all, a good haul! The clothes cost me just £12, but I really must factor in £25.30 for the train fare to London and a travelcard. I really worried that the day would flop, that the stock would be disappointing, that we'd have to queue for ages, that we'd miss a train and be stuck in rainy ol' London forever, but it didn't. It was such a good day! It felt productive and purposeful and fun. It was definitely worth the early morning trek!

One thing this blog post has done is remind me how different this blog is to my last one. I would never have been happy with grainy iphone photos before!

I'm not really sure what direction I want to take my blog in at the moment. It is currently a jumble of thoughts, experiences and life, and when I go to Lehigh it will obviously center around my year abroad. But what about now? I want it to be a space I can enjoy and use and be proud of. So I might try and do an outfit post for all of my two (if that) readers with proper photos, just like I used to. Just to see if that is what I want this space to be.

Two weeks ago I was having a casual conversation with Adam when I asked him whether or not he'd mind if I got my nose pierced. He shrugged with a smile and told me that I could if I wanted to.

So I did.

I had originally planned just to go to the piercing place and inquire about it, see how much it would cost, whether I needed to book etc. but then when I was there I just sort of did it.

And it was such a good decision!

Here is the high quality selfie you've all been waiting for.

This was one of approximately a million selfies I took straight after getting it done, this one of the square on, pursed lips variety.

I really, really wanted to get a nose ring but for some reason everything I found online suggested that I should get a stud to start with. However, when I braved the scary staircase in Third Eye up to the piercing shop, the woman reassured me that I could just go right ahead and get a ring.

So I did.

And it really, really hurt. My eyes were literally streaming afterwards, but it was definitely not unbearable.

My main concern was whether I could really pull off a nose ring. Don't you have to be super-cool and edgy? Would I need to purchase a full wardrobe of urban outfitters and cut in a blunt fringe? Any hope of suddenly becoming the brooding, edgy instagram queen was destroyed the moment Adam walked into our house and I bounced around excitedly with a cheshire-cat grin on my face asking him repeatedly if I was edgy yet.

But luckily for me, it still suits a smile.

At the moment I am completely obsessed with hair. For the past 2 years I have been "growing my hair" and it has got to the stage where I just. want. it. to. be. long! I cut it all off at the beginning of 2012 and absolutely loved it. (I have to apologise for the millions of selfies in this post- I only have early photos from my extremely vain instagram account!) This is what it initially looked like: