AliExpress Yourself With These Huge Statement Necklaces, None Costing More than £6

Ali Express is a website/app with everything under the sun at crazily low prices. I think it's because everything comes from Asia, but if you don't mind waiting six weeks for a purchase to arrive, you can find some real bargains.  

I've screenshotted some crackers I found, so you can see the price and what to search for to find it yourself. 

They are all under £6, and most sellers offer free shipping. 

This is so futuristic and cool

I love big, colourful statement necklaces like all those, but I also love a quirky acrylic laser cut style necklace too. 

Lastly, he doesn't fit in the under £6 category, but I had to include him. Tacky and magnificent.  

Going Potty For Lidl's £2.99 Retro Futuristic Planters

I hadn't been in Lidl in ages, then today I struck lucky and found these £2.99 pots in stock. 

£2.99 pot, 89p Parsley plant

Alternative prints, also pastel versions

I got the set of 2 for £2.99

There were also some cool bowls and servers, I think they were around a fiver. 

Eyeballs, Flamingoes & Mermaids: Fashion Meets Home at IKEA Belfast Tomorrow.

Last minute shout out about a handy little event running at IKEA Belfast tomorrow, just in case we have another washout of a day.

This Saturday 2nd April, the fashion and interiors industries will convene during an exclusive, one-off event, a live fashion installation with local stylist Sara O'Neill and photographer Khara Pringle. They are celebrating the launch of GILTIG, a new, limited edition collection of homewares designed in collaboration with London menswear designer Katie Eary.

What is truly unique about the installationis that Sara will be using only products from the collection – including tablecloths,coasters, napkins, lampshades and bowls - to create the unique look on model Kirsten, from 10am-12 noon. An IKEA hack you can wear? Sounds cool to me.

Sara O'Neill

Sara is a professional stylist from the North Coast of NI, sort of a Rachel Zoe of the Giant's Causeway. If you haven't heard of her, and her glorious Éadach silk fashion collection, then Sara's Instagram account is a beautiful place to start. Her eye for natural colouring & love for her surroundings is addictive and inspiring. I'm excited to see her collaboration with IKEA, she's definitely the best woman for this job!

GILTIG is the first of three fashion-inspired collections that will be launched by IKEA from April to September that will allow customers to furnish with fashion. It is an eclectic range of soft furnishings and dinnerware with fish, cat and eyeball prints at the forefront of the design aesthetic.

The Limited Edition collections focus on re-invigorating interior design, and push the boundaries of what can be achieved through large-scale production in the home furnishing sphere.

The GILTIG collection is on sale now, with GLӦDANDE following in June and SVÄRTAN in September.

My must-buy

You're Born Naked & The Rest is Drag... So Let's Accessorise With RuPaul's Drag Race Tote Bags, Shall We?

Bianca, Latrice, Alaska, Sharon, Adore, Pearl

I think I'm Northern Ireland's biggest RuPaul's Drag Race fan, and yes I would accept a challenge on that. I asked Instagram did anyone else share my passion, and a friend tagged a girl called Agnes, who definitely seems to be as keen as I to seek out the new season 8 episode on a Tuesday morning. 

Season 7 winner Violet

Even better, Agnes has an  Etsy store selling her own prints of the queens and she'll sell you a canvas tote with your favourite on it too. So all of us can walk into the room purse first, purse first, just like Bob The Drag Queen. Hooray!

Adore

Thorgy

My season 8 favourite Kim Chi

My season 7 favourite, Trixie Mattel

Ginger Minge

Katya

One of my all time favourites, Alyssa. Back rolls? 

Season 8's Acid Betty

Bianca

Pearl

Bendelacreme

Latrice

Miss Fame

Max

Jinkx as Little Edie

A Trip to Dublin

Smix and I drove down to Dublin on Wednesday, for a little getaway. We stayed in the Phoenix Park Travelodge again, which I would highly recommend for families visiting the city. We park there then get a bus into the city centre. They come along every five minutes past the back gate of the hotel, and for one adult and one child it costs just €4.20 to get into the city centre. 

Giant Toymaster store with an animatronic dinosaur! 

Temple Bar area

Yo Sushi for lunch

Johnnie Cupcakes in the Stephen's Green Shopping Centre

Vintage toys in 'Stock' 

Excellent breakfast in Temple Bar

Market Arcade

Future Farming at the Science Gallery

#EggsEverywhere ! Hop Along to your nearest National Trust Property for Chocolate Hunting Fun this Weekend.

Easter is early this year, but the weather is looking promising, should you wish to go egg hunting at the weekend. Cadbury have paired with The National Trust once again, to put on over 300 hunts across the country. Use the hunt locator on their site to see where your nearest event is being held.

It just so happened that we decided to take a spin to Mount Stewart today, one of the Northern Irish National Trust properties hosting a hunt. Their festivities run from Friday 23rd until Monday 25th, and for £1 each, your kids can take part in the lake lapping adventure. The parents get quite competitive at things too, as I remember from previous years! 

Bunny hadn't visited yet, but we had a nice visit and made a little video to share with you.

Coincidentlly we had planned to make our own treasure hunt for viewers of the Smix Brix YouTube channel. My friend Pamela had told me about an app that uses augmented reality called Aurasma.

How it works is person A takes a photo of say the harp, while standing at the red hand. They add the augmented reality aspect and save to Aurasma's database. Person B will come along, open their Aurasma app and stand where they've been told to stand, and point the screen's searching circles, which hopefully will circle in, then they will have the same augmented reality animation or video pop up on their phone. It's sort of like a trigger to make your device play a fun little gif or character.

The device you are searching with has to be online as it were. A non-sim iPad wouldn't work unless you somehow can connect to wifi or someone's phone's tethering. The video above will show you exactly where to stand, and what to point your device at to view the surprise animations. 

So Mount Stewart is a lot of fun this weekend. You may well bump into us again, as we will be back for the Cadbury hunt as usual.  also if you haven't been in a while it's worth going to see the house renovations. Touring the grand house is included in the entrance price.

Want To Get To Know Me Better....?

Tonight I'm being a bit meta and the topic I'm promoting is- myself!  My Instagram account to be exact. My username is @rudedoodle and on there you'll see snippets of what's coming up on here, but also bits and pieces you don't get to see on my blog.

For example this photo from last night, when Smix had a go at putting fake eyelashes on me. I was hoping that I might secretly have a little beauty technician living under my roof, but sadly not!

So you'll see me, more than I am in photographs on here. I also love snapping new and cool products when I'm out an about so my Instagram is a wonderful place for ideas. You will definitely see plenty of cliched food pictures, and the odd bit of beauty too. 

Mostly you will see what Smix & I get up to of a week, so  come on over, you'll be most welcome.

Have You Ever Been In a Room With 10,000 Balloons.....?

This evening Smix & I attended the strangest & quite possibly coolest blogging event yet. Studio Souk in Belfast has partnered with Yelp UK to create a room with 10,000 balloons. The floor and ceiling are covered with them.  

Smix was in his element diving amongst them. 

Studio Souk's balloon party will be open to the public all weekend, with balloon room yoga classes on Sunday as well as selfie competitions with spot prizes. Worth popping in just to say 'I've been in a room with 10,000 balloons'!