New Beginnings

It's been a long time since I've written a blog post on Alice and the Rose. A very very long time. For that I'm sorry. Third year sort of took over and I pushed the blog back.

The excuse of university isn't enough really. One of my projects was to create a website and write articles every few days, and that kind of stifled the writing on here. As well as that I also felt like I couldn't determine what to write on Alice and the Rose. 

I must admit that I didn't (and still don't) feel that this blog isn't up to my own standards. I feel like some of my posts were things I'm genuinely passionate about and love, but some posts were me just following the blogging crowd. 

I have missed blogging, and in the next few weeks I will try and get back into it. I just need to figure out how I really want my blog. So here's hoping Alice and the Rose will have a new look and feel about it!

The Past Few Weeks in Instagram Form (8 - extended edition)

                            Watching Shlomo                                                Preparing for a guest slot on the radio

                         Me & Emily off to Rocky Horror                                             My outfit

                         Visit from the mother                                                          Pretty purse

              Finally found some Gatsby inspired earrings                                    Another fox dress

                    Pretty ring from a Hull boutique                                     This is what I do in between lectures

                                   First time at Bingo                                                 Lincoln uni do froyo

                         Skyping Jake in the newsrooms                                             £1.50 roses

                    Moroccan tea & dissertation reading                                Lincolnshire Sausage Festival

                      White Rabbit teahouse                                                        Mackerel Pate

                         Rock Paper Scissors treats                                          Cupcake making for City Vibe

                          Beautiful print                                                          Free pumpkin pie vegan cupcake


Due to my lack of posting on here I thought I'd catch you all up. These photos are only half of what's been happening lately but they make a boring text post a lot prettier.

At the beginning of third year me and my friend Luke email interviewed Shlomo. Shlomo is a beat-boxer and was touring with his show Human Geekbox. Luke and I got press passes and went to see him. All I can say is that it was the strangest thing I've ever seen. Strange and wonderful that is. We met him afterwards and chatted to him. He was so friendly and kind. If he's touring in your city, definitely go and see him!

The journalism department at the University of Lincoln all know each other. One of my tutors from last year invited me on his show to discuss "Behind the Headlines". I've never been nervous about being on the radio before but I was then! It turned out to be an excellent experience and a great morning.

My friend Emily invited me up to Hull to go and see Rocky Horror at Hull New Theatre. Her mum kindly let me have her ticket as she didn't fancy going this year. I love Rocky Horror but seeing it live was amazing! One of the best parts was dressing up and seeing the audience's costumes as well.

A few weeks ago my mum came down on the train for a visit. My dad works on weekends so can't visit much but my mum likes to pop down every so often. We usually wander around the shops and have lunch. I took her to one of my favourite cafes, - Coffee Aroma, and she loved it. She was also kind enough to buy this gorgeous purse for me. As we were browsing the charity shops I found these beautiful Gatsby inspired earrings (see earlier post for more detail) and had to have them. I also ended up buying ANOTHER fox dress (I have a problem). And my last pretty purchase was this cameo ring from a Hull boutique I've talked about before called Tessie's.

I barely have lectures this year and on Monday we have 2. All the journo lot like to amuse each other with mental Snapchats (there are far weirder ones). This is just one of mine. Our atrium and canteen have also started doing frozen yoghurt which has made me very very happy.

Two of my housemates and I went to bingo for the first time a few Thursdays ago. It was such an odd experience. My friend Guppy also came along and laughed when we all accidentally played the wrong game. I'm still being taunted to this day by her...

I skyped my friend Jake from Paris in the newsrooms last Sunday for an interview. Being in a dark, cold newsroom at the weekend was an odd experience, but it was so nice to chat to Jake. Hopefully next year I'll have enough money to go and visit him for a few days.

Dissertation reading has began. It's so hard trying to fit it in around other university work but I've found reading and tea in bed is a good combination. Not excited to begin writing 10,000 words though...

Last weekend I also went to Lincoln's yearly Lincolnshire Sausage Festival and liveblogged it with my friend and group member Richard. The liveblog was for our website Lincoln & That and is our online project. The festival turned out to be a lot better than expected. I wandered to my favourite fruit and veg shop and bought myself some beautiful white roses for £1.50! So cheap!

One week when it wasn't City Vibe (our third year radio programme). Guppy, Laura, Emily and I went for a shopping spree in Nottingham. I bought a velvet green skirt from AA I've been wanting for years, browsed the MAC store and persuaded everyone we had to go to the White Rabbit teahouse. I had seen people recommend it and it was gorgeous. The decor, the food, the tea, everything! The mackerel pate, salad and toast which was so so good.

A lot of cake and tea has been consumed lately. Third year is taking it out on me (and everyone else for that matter). Luke and I decided to spend an hour away from the newsrooms in Rock Paper Scissors for tea and cake. Chocolate cake with chai icing/frosting is my new favourite thing.

Yet more cake was consumed for our City Vibe show the other week. We did our own Bake Off so I bought Peppa Pig cakes to make. I didn't enter them but recorded the cracking of eggs, whisking etc for noise effects.

This beautiful beautiful Amelie print is from The Ritz Cinema and Theatre (previous post on this is here). It's by a local artist called Melly Em Clark. I spotted it and had to buy it straight away. Amelie is a favourite film of mine and I'm in love with this print.

Once again it's cake again... This time in the form of Yellowbellys of Bailgate's vegan pumpkin pie cupcakes. You've probably read my thoughts on Yellowbellys before (one of the best shops in Lincoln). 3 of us from City Vibe went up the other day as we're going vegetarian and vegan 5 days before Lincoln's Veggie Fair. Linda (the woman who owns Yellowbellys) was so lovely to us and gave us free cupcakes! Vegan cake is so delicious, especially when it's pumpkin pie flavour!

Hope everyone else has had a mad/exciting past few weeks like I have!

Alice
  x

MAC Eyeshadow: Cranberry Frost

First and foremost, sorry once again for lacking on the posting! As I've said in previous posts, university work eats up a lot of my time. For the past few weeks I've spent 95% of the time in the newsroom, with the other 5% being a mix of eating, sleeping and visiting my friend's flat.

Don't worry though, I haven't forgotten about Alice and the Rose! My future posts may be a bit sporadic but I'll still be here. It just seems that my spare time has either been spent having meetings for group work or sleeping... Although last Friday a few of us decided we'd have a day off and go to Nottingham for the day.

I've been to Nottingham a couple of times and for shopping it's amazing. Nottingham is humongous compared to Lincoln and it has 5 x the amount of high street shops that we have. Amongst the big high street brands are cute little boutiques and cafes so you also get the best of both worlds.

After having a good wander round and falling into several shops, I spotted the MAC sign round the corner. I've only ever used MAC lipsticks and nothing else. For a while now I've been curious about trying their eye shadows, and after having a look round, Cranberry Frost caught my eye.

A rich, shimmery pinky-purple shade, Cranberry Frost reminded me of Queen, a similar coloured shadow from my Alice in Wonderland Urban Decay kit. I used to use Queen all the time when going on nights out in Sheffield and it was a gorgeous shade. Surprisingly Cranberry Frost turned out to be just as good.

Cranberry Frost is easy to apply and is fairly subtle at first until you build it up. I blended it with a shimmery gold shadow & they complemented each other wonderfully. I think Cranberry Frost would also work well if you wanted to do a different take on the classic smokey eye. For my first MAC eye shadow, it's a pretty good one. I might have to branch out and try some others... 

Have you tried MAC's Cranberry Frost before? If not, do you have a favourite MAC eye shadow?

Alice

  x

Weekly Wantings: Pink Coats

Pink Coats by alicelucyrose-1

I know I know. I'm behind on the whole pink coat trend. To be honest when I first saw people on Instagram, Twitter, Bloglovin etc discussing pink coats, I thought they were awful. Fast forward a few months or so, and now I desperately want one. 

At first when I heard about pink coats, an automatic disgusted expression appeared on my face. All I could envisage were hideous hot-pink or Barbie-pink coloured coats. Now I know I'm a girl but I've never been a big fan of pink clothes. Pink lipsticks and blushers are fine, but a hot-pink dress? Not a fan. 

However when I spotted pastel pink coat photos floating around the web I changed my mind. Gone were the ideas of walking Barbies and in replacement was the image of an elegant Audrey Hepburn lookalike. 

The pastel pink coat is elegant looking and wonderful for Winter. I love the different shapes and styles of the coats too. Some, such as the ASOS coat in the top right of my Polyvore collage, is a vintage-style cocoon coat. It's beautiful and long-line and would have been perfect for Holly to wear in Breakfast at Tiffany's. Sadly long-line coats never look right on me as I'm 5 ft 3 with tiny legs so they swamp me. But if you are tall and looking for a beautiful pink coat, this is the one for you.

I also love the two coats on the bottom even though they're mohair which I've never been too keen on. The Topshop one is more of a light pink than pastel but I love the shape of it (sadly it isn't on their website anymore). The boyfriend one from New Look is one of my favourites due to the shape of the collar and style of the sleeves. Boyfriend coats are also incredibly comfy and are easy to layer up. 

My favourite of all the pink coats is the Zara woolen overcoat on the top left. I'm desperate to find this coat as all sizes are sold out online. Anyway, I prefer woolen coats to mohair and this one is a shorter style so it won't make me look smaller than I already am. The buttons and style of this coat make it classy but beautiful. It's only £79.99 as well which I'd say is good for a coat. I definitely need a pink coat this year so let the hunt for the perfect one begin!

Do you like pastel pink coats?

Alice

  x

The Ritz Cinema & Theatre

It's only the second week of university and it's so hectic already. Welcome to third year I guess. I haven't had a lot of time in the house to sit down and relax so I will post on here whenever I find the time. Being busy is something I love but juggling everything around is proving a little tough at the moment.

Although the past two weeks have been busy, my Sunday afternoons have been spent at my local independent cinema.

The Ritz Cinema and Theatre first opened in the 1930s but closed down in the late 90s and turned into a Wetherspoons. Last year however, a team of people and local artists put in lots of hard work to renovate the upstairs area of The Ritz and turn it back into a cinema.

Midnight screenings are a popular feature at The Ritz, as well as the Kid Clubs. Last month stand-up comedian Adam Buxton put on a show and there was also a Doctor Who convention (hence the Tardis and K-9 in my photos).

A lot of the midnight screenings that me and my friends wanted to see were showing in the summer so we didn't get a chance to see them. However my friend Guppy spotted a Studio Ghibli season ticket. Five films across five weekends. And all on a Sunday. It was BOGOF on the season tickets so we both decided to go. Each ticket was beautifully designed and a photo of mine is on my last Instagram post.

The cinema is only one screen but the layout looks amazing. I took my camera with me on the first Ghibli screening to take some photos and ended up going a little mad...

The bar and waiting area is so quaint and nice with it's selection of uncomfortable (but actually very comfy) looking seats. I didn't actually take a photo of the bar as it was a little busy; but they have a selection of chocolates, pop and alcoholic beverages. They also do Poppets and cherry Tango which I got a little over excited about.

My favourite bit of The Ritz is it's memorabilia room. Filled with hundreds of DVDS, some amazing film postcards, figurines and posters designed by local artists it really is a feast for the eyes. I think my favourite thing of all was the cushion, which I spent a good ten minutes laughing at. The framed tickets (on the last photo) are actually from The old Ritz cinema.

Have you ever visited The Ritz Cinema in Lincoln? Or do you have one like it where you come from?

You can read more about The Ritz here.

Alice

  x

The Past Few Weeks in Instagram Form (7)

                     The Brayford in the sunshine                                               Studio Ghibli

                        

                                   Fred                                                                         Homemade burgers

                                 The best thing ever                                                     Lincoln is pretty

                                Krishna and fur                                                            Prettiest book

                          Wishing to be tall                                                              Adorable designs

Apologies for the lack of posts lately. University has caught up with me even though I haven't actually properly began my third year yet. To be honest this post should be titled "The Past Week in Instagram Form" but I wanted to stick with my theme. Being back in Lincoln has been hectic (in a good way of course). I've celebrated freshers week with my friends and had the best time. This year's freshers has even topped first years. Every day was jam packed with seeing friends, outings, nights out and interviews.

I've been spending a lot of time just sitting and chatting to my friends and going to our local hangouts. Our particular favourite is a pub situated on campus called The Shed. It overlooks the Brayford and sitting outside when it's warm/sunny is lovely.  

Lincoln has a small and independent cinema and theatre called The Ritz. Me and my friend Guppy found out they were showing a Studio Ghibli film each Sunday for five weekends and had to get a season pass. The Ritz designed such beautiful passes. 

I always miss Betty when I'm in Lincoln but spotted this fella in our back yard the other day and decided to name him Fred. Now I'm tempted to convince my housemates we need to adopt him.

Being back in Lincoln and having a bigger house means we now have a bigger kitchen as well. I'm also trying to eat a lot healthier so am cooking from scratch. I made cheesy bean burgers the other day using a recipe from an ASDA magazine and they were delicious. I'll put up some quick and easy recipes on the blog soon.

My friend had a pub crawl belated birthday event and we ended up in a lovely little pub called Widow Cullen's Well. Her housemate suggested the Chocolate Stout and the rest is history. I'm in love.

I'm at the side of Lincoln where I can easily go up Steep Hill. I pass these benches every time I go swimming and I always think the view looks so pretty. 

Freshers week has been pretty hectic, I've been out most nights but have also had some brilliant interviewing opportunities. On Wednesday I interviewed Jameela Jamil with my friend (and yes Jameela is beautiful in real life) and on Friday I interviewed one of the members of Kids in Glass Houses and met them all. It's been amazing. On Friday my friend Krishna came down to visit for the KIGH gig (one of the best gigs I've ever been to) and we went round all the little boutiques the next day. She tried on a gorgeous fur coat but didn't end up buying it. 

We also ended up in an antiques shop which had some amazing books. I spent 20 minutes reading this one which was called Roses are Red and was about love and scorn in Victorian times. The illustrations were beautiful and I nearly bought it, but then realised I had no real purpose for it. 

After ambling back down Steep Hill we wandered into one of my favourite vintage shops called Ego and tried loads of things on. These platforms have been there ages and I had to try them on. The height they gave me was amazing but the thought of breaking my ankle was not. What I'd give to be taller...

These prints caught my eye because of the cute and quirky design. They were on sale at The Ritz and I may have to go back and buy one.

So that was a snippet of the past week and a bit. Right now I'm writing up a to-do list for beginning back at university tomorrow and tidying my room (yay).

How has your week been?

Alice

  x 

Weekly Wantings: Kanken Backpacks

Kanken Backpacks by alicelucyrose-1

Fjallraven Kanken is a Swedish brand of backpack that I've been spotting all over the blogging world currently. Having never heard of the brand before I was first drawn to them by their extensive range of colours. I love how classic they look, and their backpacks are stylish yet practical. I particularly love the lilac and burgundy one. Tempted to invest in one for travelling...

Do you like Kanken backpacks?

Alice

   x