More ballet gear

I felt it was time to double my leotard collection. Don't panic - it was only a collection of one!

I bought this simple but lovely one:

Not me. I wasn't about to take a photo of me modelling the leotard!

Although I nearly ended up with three..

I prefered it in black.

A year ago, I wouldn't have even considered this style with the high, wide neckline. Spending time in dance classes seems to have changed my tastes! For now, this is on my want list with the proviso that I work more on my back - it needs to be consistently straight and the muscles need to be working harder otherwise this leotard will look a bit rubbish.

Yup, I actually want it in this colour!

I also fell in love with a warm-up/cover-up type jumper-y thing, but they didn't have it in the right size :( May have to order it online...

It doesn't look like much in this picture, but I promise it is very cute :)

Choosing colours

I got carried away again.

It all started with a feeling that I had been neglecting my crochet. It's such a relaxing,take-your-mind-off-everything activity that it would be good for me to continue.

I realised that fab as my granny squares were, I didn't have enough wool to make a whole blanket so progress ground to a halt.

Luckily, I got re-inspired by Lucy at Attic 24 and hunted out a yarn shop. One field trip and of 15mins um-ing and ah-ing later, I'd spent more than I'd meant to on a very pretty collection of yarns...

The plan started with summery/hot colours, so I grabbed a yellow, orange and red...

Then I experimented with other colours to add to the mix. The hot pink was a definite...

Then I tried out various other colours, rejecting those that made the combination too dark , too dreary or too red...

They look worse altogether! As individual colours, they almost worked but just dragged the summery colours down a bit.

Following Lucy's advice, I kept playing with the colours until the mix felt right. This did involve me feeling slightly idiotic and self conscious as I basically kept grabbing balls of wool and fiddling with them on the table, occassionally putting one back or swapping it for a different one. It seemed to work though, as I ended up with a lovely combination of colours. Here's my final selection:

Dance clothing obsessed

I have been expanding my ballet horizons! Over the summer, my local ballet school is closed (boo!) so I've had to be brave and venture further afield.

Special thanks go to Dave (@davetriesballet) who babysat me through my first "strange" class.

As well as meeting new teachers and being exposed to different teaching approaches (which can only be a good thing), my clothing horizons have also been widened...

At my regular class, it's dark coloured leotards and pink ballet tights, but the world of ballet wear seems to extend far and wide from those humble beginnings: there's skirts, shorts, tights over leotards, socks, legwarmers, vest tops, t-shirts, leggings and even a wide selection of shoes. It's a veritable fashion parade! Not that I entirely appreciate some of the looks (e.g. to my mind, tights over a leotard looks odd, but that might simply be because I'm not used to it).

So what's a girl to do? Accessorise of course! One trip to Primark later (and a whole £4.50 spent!), and I have a couple of pieces to mix and match with my leotard:

Add a few old tops and a pair of leggings to my new purchases and I suddenly own a vast range of ballet wear!

How hard is it to dress?!

You'd have thought I was quite an easy shape to dress: almost six foot tall and kind-of skinny (not in a model-skinny way, but relatively slim). However, that couldn't be further from the truth!

In a month or so I've got a fun evening out with the girls planned; it's a bit of a posh event so we decided it'd be fun to buy a new dress. Not being one of those girls who loves shopping and feels comfortable spending hours in a shopping mall or department store, I was a bit apprehensive. As it turns out, it was quite a laugh, and included a well-timed cream tea break to recharge our batteries!

Pretty window shopping

It didn't take long for me to "break" - after three ballet lessons wearing leggings and a top I was heard to be uttering the words: "Maybe I should buy a leotard..."

Of course, this threw up more questions than it answered - can I really face wearing a leotard and pink tights at my age?! Where can I buy one? Will I feel stupid trying them on?

And then I started an absent-minded internet browse. I didn't realise how many different designs there are - it's a far leap from wearing a regulation (and not exactly stylish) dusty-pink leotard for grade lessons as a teenager! So I got carried away (as usual)...

Shiny and sparkly

My wrists are sporting some new bling :)

I've needed a new watch for a while now. About 10 shops later (without trying on a single one), I spotted this one. Suddenly everything fell into place and I knew it was mine :)

 A wonderful present - so perfect (exactly what I would have chosen for myself) and a lovely surprise.

Are you sporting any new purchases? Or something a bit shiny?

Cushions, lamps and other exciting bits

After the whole moving house process (which I think I'm still recovering from!) comes the more exciting task of shopping for new furnishings. So far, there have been two exciting trips:

IKEA

TESCO HOME

Seriously - how cool are these chairs?! I want them both so badly!

I love rainbows!