Fitness Friday: 30 Day Ab and Squat Challenge

Today for Fitness Friday I wanted to share with you a great pin I found on Pinterest. I often use my Fitness Time Pinterest board for inspiration and and recording great mini-workouts to try out later:

This challenge looks like a nice mix of sit ups, crunches and squats. Although squats at home will never work as well as weighted squats, they're certainly better than nothing. Focus on your technique with all of the exercises, rather than rushing the set, to really feel the burn. I'd recommend printing off the challenge - I always stick these things on my wall and cross them off each day to keep me motivated. It looks so satisfying once you've completed it!

Let me know if you try the challenge! Do you like this kind of Fitness Friday post?

<3

xx

Elephants never forget

I haven't done an outfit post in SO long! Today, I finally got chance to take some snaps in my garden, and they even include a guest appearance!

Dress: Sugarhill Boutique (via Asos.) Sandals: Topshop. Necklace: c/o The Vintage Set. Headband: DIY.

I adore Sugarhill Boutique due to their fantastic quirky prints in such beautiful colours. However, my poor student budget can't support spending £55 on a dress, so I have to bide my time for their sales. I love this elephant print, with their cute heart-shaped entwined trunks, and the orange colour is vibrant and striking. Today I teamed the dress with my favourite Topshop sandals (which are now starting to fall apart *sob*) and simple jewellery. 

Half way through my photos, my dog decided to come and see what on earth I was doing. Any previous attempts to persuade her to pose with me have failed miserably, but today she played along and actually looked at the camera - even if she does look miserable! Nonetheless, I think I may have found my new favourite accessory...

<3

xx

Tie-Dye DIY

Last week, I had a lovely day learning to tie-dye in my back garden before my friend and I headed off to London for a few days. It was surprisingly easy to do so I thought I would share with you my tips:

You will need:

Dylon Hand Wash Fabric Dye

Large bowls

Measuring jug

Kettle

Salt

Rubber gloves

Elastic bands 

Scissors

White tshirts or other pieces of clothing to dye - we went to Primark and bought men's tshirts for £2.50 each

1. Follow the instructions on the dye packets to mix the dye together. We used large plastic bowls to mix the dye and used a mixture of cold and boiling water to get the right temperature. We chose French Lavender and Ocean Blue - the blue was lovely but the lavender was rather pale and faded quite quickly. If we did it again, I'd love to try a bright yellow or red and think about colours which would merge well too.

2. Decide on your pattern. I created a Pinterest board of my favourite tie-dye techniques and examples. which I found extremely useful. I started by trying a simple circle pattern - you pick the tshirt in the centre and then fold it. Wrap elastic bands around the tshirt at even intervals to create the circle pattern:



I also tried a sprial pattern. Pinch the tshirt in the centre and twist the fabric round and round. Randomly tie elastic bands around it in different directions:

3. Add your tshirt to the bucket of dye. The instructions state that you should stir the fabric for 15 minutes and then leave it in the dye for another 45. Frankly, we were too lazy to do this so we only dyed the fabrics for 15 minutes. However if you have the patience, dye the fabrics for longer as they will be less likely to fade later on.

4. Take your tshirt out of the dye and carefully cut off the elastic bands. We then hung our tshirts straight out to dry naturally in the sun. After they were dry, we washed them together in the washing machine on a cool wash and then immediately tumble dryed them. Some of the colour did wash out but I think that letting the materials dry naturally really helped them hold their colour. Here are some shots of the final results:

What do you think? As I say, I love the colours but if (ie. when) we do it again, I'd like to try some brighter colours. It's addictive stuff - we were soon trying to find anything white in the house that we could dye and then designing business plans so that we could tie-dye for the rest of our lives! It's the perfect weather to create some summery festival wear for a fraction of the price compared to in store. Give it a whirl!

<3
xx