cabin fever

I am so bored! I normally love lazy Sundays but I've been awake since 8 so I've run out of things to do, grr! One of the things I've kept myself busy with today was scrapbooking..

I won't include photos of every page of my scrapbook because that would make for one seriously picture heavy post.

The front of my scrapbook is dedicated to clothes and the back is for accessories but so far I've only stuck shoes in..

I'm still on the look out for another scrapbook for hair & make-up and another for interior design type things, but it's surprisingly hard to find a book with plain paper (rather than lined paper). Feel free to let me know if you come across any! Do you have any scrapbooks?

Hope you've all had a good weekend!

P.S. the nail varnish I have on in the pictures is Barry M Mint Green but it looks quite different in real life.

she's in a family full of eccentrics

Happy Friday, people! It doesn't feel like a Friday though, does it? Got any plans for the weekend?

shirt and necklace: h&m

t-shirt: tesco

shorts & belt: republic

bag: primark

tights: next?

ring: i've had it so long i can't remember

I had to go into Cardiff for a meeting today; ooh, get me ha. It sounds impressive but basically we just go into the office, drink coffee and have a catch up. The volunteer co-ordinator (this really lovely woman called Laura) said she's going to rope in me & my friend to build up some office skills throughout the summer, it's just something to do really since we both seem so incapable of getting jobs :( it'll look good on our CVs though! All in all, it's been a nice day.

Anyway, I'm off to drink seriously unhealthy amounts of Coke

and spend the night in front of the telly;

Living the dream!

wishlist wednesday on a thursday

I actually started this post yesterday but my boyfriend turned up unannounced & I accidentally deleted it, grr.

1. Said boyfriend brought back my favourite perfume (Paco Rabanne Lady Million FYI) when he went on holiday but I'd still like a new, fresh, summery scent. Any suggestions?

2. I really want some Nubar polishes as I haven't invested in them yet. They're available from this website for about £8. Feels like I haven't had a new nail varnish in ages! Any collections I should check out?

3. I'm still lusting after Lancome Hypnose Doll Eyes mascara. It looks brilliant in the adverts and it has good reviews on Boots. The only problem is that I don't feel I can justify spending about £20 on mascara when I should be saving for uni, boo!

4. This bag, £35 from Asos. Cute, yes?

5. A fair few things off Nasty Gal. I've seen it advertised on loads of blogs and eventually clicked on it the other day, I probably would've earlier but the name of it put me off hah. Sadly, most things are too expensive for me at the moment and shipping is also rather expensive *pouts*. This may be a job for Ebay!

saturdayyy

t-shirt: next

cardigan: "borrowed" from my mother. 2 years ago.

jeans: asos.

bag & ring: next

1. Just a casual outfit for going to Tesco & visiting my Nan. She's so funny, today she asked me to pick out a man for her from the nursing home hah!

2. I'm getting really annoyed with people saying "I can't believe Amy Winehouse is dead." I know it's sad and everything but if it's because of drugs then it's not all that unexpected. Also I think the people in Norway deserve far more sympathy than her.

3. My collarbone looks really weird in the pictures.

Anyone got any plans for the weekend?

"Would you rather" tag.

My first blog tag! Taken from frugalspender19 :)

1. Would you rather lose all of your mascaras, eyeliners, lipsticks, and lip glosses or lose all of your palettes and eyeshadows?

Palettes and eyeshadows, I don't really use them much anyway.

2. Would you rather chop off all your hair or never be able to cut it again?
Hm, as much as I love my long hair I think I'd chop it all off. I could wear wigs at first and then experiment with short hair :).

3. Would you rather have a coral cheek or a pink cheek?
Pink, I think coral cheeks work better on people with olive skintone and I'm just too pale.

4. If you had £1,000 to spend, would you rather buy clothes or makeup?
I'd split it but probably end up spending more on clothes.

5. Would you rather apply lipstick as eyeliner or eyeliner as lipstick?
Hm, I'm not sure. Lipstick as eyeliner could work with the right blush, but eyeliner as lipstick would be more understandable since people fill in their lips with lipliner anyway. I think I'll go for eyeliner as lipstick:).

6. Would you rather only shop Mac or Sephora?
Sephora, more variety.

7. Would you rather use only one eyeshadow color or one lip color for the rest of your life?
One eyeshadow. I don't really vary my eye make-up very much so I'd just pick a black eyeshadow so I could have a permanent smokey eye and just change the intensity depending on the occasion.

8. Would you rather wear winter clothes in the summer or summer clothes in the winter?
Winter clothes in the summer! I prefer winter clothes and since we don't really have much of a summer in Britain it wouldn't be too hard ha.

9. Would you rather have dark nails or bright nails all year round?
Ooh that's a tricky one, I change my nail varnish way too often! Probably dark though.

10. Would you rather only be able to wear your hair in a pony tail or a messy bun?
A messy bun, no question about it!

11. Would you rather never be able to paint your nails again or never use lip gloss.
Never use lipgloss.

12. Would you rather shave your eyebrows and have none at all or sharpie them in every day?
Haha, what a question. Suppose I'd sharpie them in!

13. Would you rather live without makeup or nail polish?

Argh, without nail polish if I absolutely had to.

wishlist wednesday

My h&m A/W catalogue turned up yesterday morning so I won't bore you with the amount of stuff I want from there - there really is a lot of stuff. The catalogue and the weather has really made me lust after lots of winter items, including:

1. This jumper, £35 from Asos. Though if I did buy it, I'd get it in a few sizes up.

2. This one, £66 from American Apparel at Asos. Love.

3. I also really want Peter Pan collars that I can attach to various things. Asos have a few but they cost £15 and I'm not sure I want to pay that much for them :/ But I suppose I could wear them with so many different things so that may justify it a bit.

On another note, have you heard Beyonce's supposed to be in a remake of A Star Is Born? I'm really not sure what to make of it, she doesn't seem all that suitable for the role but it could actually be a really smart move. But there's already THREE versions of this film, why make another?!

superstar, where y' from, how's it going?

My nails are based on this post from Beauty By Kayla Shevonne. Now obviously I'm nowhere near as good as she is so my nails are far worse but I don't think I did too bad for a first attempt.

.

I used different colours to Kayla because I didn't have a white polish good enough for the base. The base is OPI Pearl Of Wisdom, the cobalt blue is Blue My Mind by H&M and the turquoise colour is For Audrey by China Glaze, one of my all time favourite polishes. Then I used a Models Own top coat. The colours Kayla used are so much better than the ones I used, and I also forgot to do the little spots, but it still looks alright, ish haha.

P.S. if you don't already follow Super Gorgeous then you should check it out, she's just passed 500 GFC followers so she's doing a giveaway!

I LOVE SALES SHOPPING

I am one of those crazy people that is there waiting for the doors to open, which was at 5am on Saturday. I'm not really sure why I like it so much, think it's just for the whole experience. Plus there are some awesome bargains!

The Next sale is my favourite. It's a shop that's known for being good quality and they do actually have a lot of really nice stuff! This is what I got..

one of them was £10 and the other was £12

sorry about the feet in the bottom haha. The top with the feet was £8, the other two were £6, I think.

originally £10, down to £3.

originally £8, now £4.

I don't remember how much these were (they were all together by the way)

Pretty sure this was £2.50.

These shoes are my babies! I saw them in two other colours for £14 but these didn't have a sale tag on it, so naturally I asked someone if they were on sale and she said yes. But they weren't. But that didn't stop me.

They were £28 :).

I also got a few other bits that weren't really worth photographing (a few pairs of earrings, and some plain t-shirts).

Then after the sale I was waiting at Starbucks for it to open (it was either 7 or 7:30) and recovered with a grande classic hot chocolate with cream and a giant chocolate cookie :).

wishlist wednesday

Moral of the story: browsing the internet is bad for you, it make you want to buy things you can't afford.

1. I want these wedges, £70 from topshop. If only..

2. Lancome Hypnose Doll Eyes mascara, £20.50 from boots. There was an advert for it in this month's Elle that made it look really good, and it didn't mention anything about lash inserts or post production enhancement. Definitely sounds worth a try!

3. A time machine. I've said this before and I'll probably keep saying it haha. This time it's because I want to go to a Bon Jovi concert in the '80s. I have such a crush on him!

image taken from here.

Isn't he a babe?

Montagne Jeunesse is a brand I've known for as long as I can remember, and I'm sure most people have seen it in some supermarket or other. Most people know them for their facemasks & that's what I'm going to review today :)

This is the chocolate masque. The website says it costs £1.09 but I think I had it from asda for £1, not that it really matters. It's supposedly suitable for normal, dry, and t-zone skin, and it's "deep cleansing". It's also moisturising - it has cocoa butter and shea butter.

You put it on for 10-15 minutes or until it's dry. I used the whole sachet and had it on for about 20 minutes without it completely drying and making my face feel tight. When I took it off, my skin definitely felt softer and more moisturised. I used it in the evening and the next morning my skin was more moisturised than usual.

However, the results weren't long lasting. It's definitely good for the price though, I'd recommend it for before a night out or something similar. You can't really expect the results to be long lasting when it's so cheap, but it is a really good quick fix :).

something different

So this isn't like what I normally post, but I was deleting e-mails earlier and came across a chain-mail i received way back in 2009 but didn't delete. I didn't delete it because it puts a smile on my face every time I come across it and I think everyone should read it.

It was written for an American newspaper by a lady called Regina Brett to celebrate her growing old; if you google it you'll get a version that's slightly different to this one. I'm a little bit impatient with the lines relating to God but I still think it's worth a read. My particular favourites are numbers 2, 11, 17, 21, 22, 26, 29, 40 and 43 :).

1. Life isn't fair, but it's still good.

2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.

3. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.

4. Your job won't take care of you when you're sick. Your friends and your parents will. Stay in touch.

5. Pay off your credit cards every month.

6. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.

7. Cry with someone. It's more healing than crying alone.

8. It's okay to get angry with God. He can take it.

9. Save for retirement starting from your first paycheck.

10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.

11. Make peace with your past so it won't screw up your present.

12. It's okay to let your children see you cry.

13. Don't compare your life to others'. You have no idea what their journey is about.

14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn't be in it.

15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye. But don't worry; God never blinks.

16. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.

17. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.

18. Whatever doesn't kill you really does make you stronger.

19. It's never too late to have a second childhood, but the second one is up to you.

20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don't take no for an answer.

21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the nice lingerie. Don't save it for a special occasion; today is special.

22. Over prepare, then go with the flow.

23. Be eccentric now. Don't wait until old age to wear purple.

24. The most important sex organ is the brain.

25. No-one is in charge of your happiness but you.

26. Frame any so-called disaster with the words "in five years time, will this matter?"

27. Always choose life.

28. Forgive everyone everything.

29. What other people think of you is none of your business.

30. Time heals almost everything. Give time time.

31. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.

32. Don't take yourself so seriously. No-one else does.

33. Believe in miracles.

34. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn't do.

35. Don't audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.

36. Growing old beats the alternative - dying young.

37. Your children only get one childhood.

38. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.

39. Get outside everyday. Miracles are waiting everywhere.

40. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else's, we'd grab ours back.

41. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.

42. The best is yet to come.

43. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.

44. Yield.

45. Life isn't tied with a bow, but it's still a gift.

you and i are just walking disasters

I admit it, I'm a hoarder. It's a bad habit, I know, but I don't like throwing things out "just in case". This explains why I currently have a year's worth of various magazines taking up precious space in my already too small bedroom.

So, in a bid to get more space and get my blogging mo-jo back I've decided to finally put them to use.

I'm going to flick through them, cutting out anything that takes my fancy, and then make a few scrap books for inspiration. I'm thinking one for outfits, one for make-up looks, one for hair styles, one for products I must remember to buy, and one for interior design inspiration.

On another note, how good is Beyonce's new album?! I'm loving it! Asides from that, I'm currently listening to a lot of Noah & the Whale and The Wombats, as well as loving Ed Sheeran. This song stands out as a favourite, it's where the title of this post comes from :).

umberto giannini salt spray

Umberto Giannini Glam Hair Grunge Glamour Tousled Salt Spray is a bit of a mouthful, so I'll just refer to it as Umberto Giannini's Salt Spray :). Apparently it's suitable for all hair types, and they describe the look as "You know the look..it's morning after, it's seduction at its cleverest, the look that says you haven't tried, you just are this gorgeous!"

Personally, I love the sound of that look and it's something I always aim for. The suggested technique is "spray evenly through damp hair and dry naturally or with a diffuser." I've tried it a few different ways. First, I sprayed it on damp hair and used my hair dryer whilst fussing with my hair and trying to tease some curls out of it. I tried the same thing but with towel drying instead.

Next I tried it on damp hair & dried it with a hair dryer, but this time I didn't fuss around with my hair. Then, I put it on damp hair and went to bed. Thennn I put it on damp hair and left it to dry on its own for a while.

The result was always the same - a let down. All it did was make my hair smell nice and change texture a bit. It could be because I have quite thick hair, but if that's the case then they should say it's suitable for fine hair rather than "All hair types." I'd say it's worth a try if you have thin hair because it does seem to have the potential to be a really good product.

I got mine when Boots had all Umberto Giannini products for 2 for £5 but you can get it from boots for £5.61. It has a few good reviews on the boots website so I think it's just my hair being stubborn..