Why Justin, Why?

Posted on May 16, 2012 by Hayley

Back in the day (I’m in a very reminis-y mood lately, and yes I know thats not a word) I was a huge *NSync fan. (To the extent that see how I wrote it there? With the asterisk? Without thinking. Loser.) I remember buying the No Strings Attached album from Our Price (I’m showing my age now) and playing it too much – I still have the CD in my tiny collection of CD’s.

Celebrity was a slight change in style, but for the better – who doesn’t love Pop or Girlfriend? (Lets not mention the album title track though, with one of my favourite ever lyrics “If I couldn’t have cheese like everyday, would you still want to be with me?” Any girl who dumps a bloke because he can’t eat cheese every day is just weird.) Celebrity was a good change, a more grown up sound, and it lead the way for Justin’s solo career very well.

The solo projects came along, and JT’s (yeah, we’re close) first album was one of the overplayed soundtracks to my first year in uni. Even now, I hear the opening to Senorita and think of Aber. The second album wasn’t quite to my taste at the time – I’d rather listen to JC Chasez’s album. (Soundtrack to my second year at uni)

Movies is an obvious next step for most singers, and while I’ve only seen in him The Social Network and a bit of Bad Teacher, he wasn’t as awful as some singers who become actors. (You know I’m thinking of Crossroads right now, right?)

But while all these things make sense, and even things like investments (although MySpace? Seriously? That place is still around?!) and endorsements, theres one thing thats making me stroppy. Justin Timberlake is an interior designer now.

Justin. JT. Dude! Reform *NSync. I think some of the others could do with it. You could do with it. I want more rubbish songs, more silly dance moves and more crazy outfits. Maybe you could get back with Britney. Lets all remember the good times when JT and Brit Brit were a couple.

As a reminder of why Justin needs to get back to what he does best, here are my two favourite songs.

Posted in Song of the Moment | 1 Comment

HtCC: Kate Spade Stationery

Posted on May 14, 2012 by Hayley

I used to have a few pen pals when I was younger, and loved writing long letters then waiting for the replies. (OK, I didn’t enjoy the *waiting* for replies, but I was always excited to receive one!) One of the first things I did when getting an email address of my own was to sign up to a email pen pal service (which didn’t really go to plan…I ended up with photos of naked men. I did not tell my parents about that one.) but as the Internet has evolved, it is so much easier to send a quick message via Facebook or Twitter instead of writing an actual email or *gasp* a letter.

However, with beautiful notecards like this from Kate Spade, I’m tempted to start again!

The All Wrapped Up ($20) set is so gorgeously bright pink, if not completely practical (OK, for me, at least – the only ink that would look good would be black, and I have a strange dislike for black ink. I don’t know.)

As soon as I saw the Hello Sunshine cards ($20), I immediately thought of sending one to Sarah – its such a happy card to send just to say hello!

The Snail Mail set ($25) is so cute, and seems very apt for this form of communication! I’d send this to an old school friend, who used to hate snails enough to throw them into her neighbours garden. It would be difficult to hate this snail though!

If all else fails, this All Occasion box set ($35) is good as an emergency back up when you need to get a card into the post right now. (You’ve not had that? You don’t have a small stash of cards at home in case you need to pull one out quickly? No, er, neither do I…) Once all the cards are used up, you could always use the box again to organise your non existant card collection.

If only Kate Spade delivered to the UK – I think a trip to one of the London stores is due!

Posted in Hide the Credit Card | 3 Comments

May Ball

Posted on May 13, 2012 by Hayley

When I was at uni, the May Ball was the event of the year. I love dressing up in big fancy dresses, I miss not having any reason to do that anymore! (Sure, I can dress up for peoples weddings, but when is a floor length gown acceptable? Never. You may end up being punched by the bride.) I’ve blogged before about the fun we had each year but apparently I’ve never shared my dresses on the blog. These are some fashion mistakes that need to be shared. So in lieu of an outfit post (I’m getting so lazy with those), here are my four ball gowns (including my sixth form leaving ball, because I loved that dress)


So back in sixth form, I was a twig. Its very weird to look at this photo, and realise that it was 10 years ago. I don’t know why I look so bloody smug here either. My mums sister made this dress, and I remember being so excited picking out the different fabrics. I had my hair and nails done at the hairdressers as well  - this was before Chester heard of such things as proms, so it was quite unusual for any of us to make this much effort.


I found this dress in Zara at the Trafford Centre in the January sales reduced from about £70 to £15 because one of the straps at the back had ripped. It only needed a few stitches to fix, so I wore it to my first year May Ball. I remember running down into town on the morning to pick up these long gloves from the party shop because I couldn’t be bothered to paint my nails then heading over to the Wife’s house in PJM so she could curl my hair. It took 3 hours for Lou to curl it all which I then ruined within 5 minutes by going on a ride at the fair. Chesney Hawkes was the main attraction at this ball (oh, and David Sneddon, but no one ever remembers him)


In my second year, I ordered this dress from delias.com which was far too exciting…buying clothes online was still a relatively new thing in 2003/4 to me, despite going to uni in the wilderness of Aberystwyth (I think the only clothes shops we had were a tiny New Look, a small Dorothy Perkins, a small Peacocks and a few independents). I begged my dad to buy this for me, which he did eventually, then waited about a month for it to be delivered. It was a very frilly, pink, sparkly dress that I never wore again, and that got a little ruined at the bottom from all the spilt drinks in the union. Boo drunk students.

I have no idea what this pose is.


In my final year, I spotted this dress in a new independent that had opened up on the Aber high street, and would go in every few days to try it on and think how pretty it was (and took photos to torture myself about it). I had no money to buy it and didn’t think I would so I just filed it away in my head as a want (this is obviously back in the days before wishlists were commonplace on blogs…actually, it was 2006, so before blogs were commonplace really!) A week or two before the ball, my dad phoned me and said he would be putting in a bit of money into my bank account because he had received my mums life insurance payout. I thought it would be a small amount, that would just about cover my overdraft and pretty much forgot about it. A few days after that, I was in my econometrics tutorial, and idly clicked over to my online banking. I nearly whooped in the middle of the tutorial when I saw how much had appeared  - enough to cover my overdraft, a loan I had, a credit card and enough left over to buy a few pretty things. As soon as the tutorial finished, I pretty much ran down the hill, straight to the bank to pay everything off, then straight to the shop to buy the dress!

Can someone have a big formal party please so I have an excuse to wear a pretty dress? Thanks.

Posted in Outfit Post | 4 Comments