Slimming world.

Hi,


   So I have been suspiciously quiet blog wise for quite a while now and this is due only to the fact that I haven't had a phone for over a month. My phone is my only source of a camera and it would be difficult to review anything without photos and I dislike using stock photos!

   Anyway on to the point of this post! For the last month now I have been quietly embarking on Slimming World. I'm proud to be a bigger lady and I'm not ashamed of who I am, however I have started to notice the beginnings of some health problems with I can only link with being obese and I feel it is time to do something about it. For me the starting point was seeing a picture of me when I was younger looking much healthier and I miss that. Also I'm looking towards the future and want to have a good foundation to work with if I decide to have children and so on and it makes sense to fix things now before I move on with life.

  It took me a really long time to build up the courage to actually go to a meeting and I said I was going to go many times before taking the plunge. But honestly I have not regretted it since, my group is lovely and supportive and I don't feel judged there.

I have lost 8.5 pounds in four weeks and last week I got the 'Slimmer of the Month' award!

I'm not saying it's easy, I have to exercise a lot of willpower and yesterday I cried because I couldn't eat the food that was bought for lunch. As someone who likes to plan and know what they're doing it's a big upheaval for me to be able to adapt and say no to things that used to be in my routine food wise, but I'm getting there :)

I don't plan to make regular updates about how much I have lost etc, apart from maybe when I get to the bigger milestones, but there's a little update on something I have been doing ^_^

Has anyone else been doing slimming world? Any good recipes or snacks.....Im always on the lookout!

xx

Revamping Furniture.

Hello!

 So I recently decided to redecorate my bedroom, I have wanted mint green walls in my room for a very long time and decided that I wanted mint green with coral and white accents. I will do a separate post to show off the room in all its glory but suffice to say I am in love with it!

When I was moving furniture I realised my old bedside table was cracked up the side, I wasn't too sad to get rid of it because it was a hideous Argos creation however it did mean I needed a new one! I was looking online and found one I quite liked but when I spoke to my Mum about it she said that my Grandma had exactly the same one and as she had two she might part with one.

She said yes, although skeptical when I said I wanted to do it up!

I didn't manage to get a photo so this one isn't mine, but its the same!

The first thing I did was take out the drawers and remove the handles from the drawers. The wood was quite dark so I wanted to paint a primer first. I sanded the surface lightly so that the paint would stick better. I apologise for the awful lighting!

I have nothing but good things to say about this primer, it's made by Glidden and the coverage was amazing! 

A note to say....this took me about 2 weeks all in all, it requires a lot of patience and some good weather! I used two coats of primer and waited a day between each coat. I then left it for four days, this isn't strictly necessary but I think the more drying time it has the better!

I then began painting on the colour, below is a drawer with just one coat! I did 3 coats in all along with some touch ups, again leaving a day between each coat. I used Forest Falls 3 by Dulux. On their official website you can get paint samples, I bought six for £4 and didn't even use them all, I think I had two left over. It's a really cheap way to paint things!

This is the finished product, a beautiful minty green side table, I absolutely loved the way it turned out. After it was painted it was left for 3 days, we then used a spray on varnish to held the paint stick and also because I didn't want it to chip!

The handles were from Amazon and at £1.57 they were an absolute steal! They also come in some different colours, they are very sturdy and easy to attach,wonderful!

Here it is in action with my coral table making a cheeky appearance!

I was so proud of this because I can't believe I managed to make something look so pretty! It has had so many compliments and even my Grandma liked it!

Do you do any sort of furniture revamps?

x

Nail Art Galore!

Hello!

I confess I am a bad blogger! I don't have a good enough excuse except that I find it difficult to follow through with projects, but I'm trying my best!

Ayway, I have been spending quite a lot of time on nail art in recent times, some more interesting than others so I decided for my return post I would show off a couple of the pieces I have done recently.


Confetti Nails: 

These are probably my favourite of all the recent nail art I have done. I thought I would include a picture of all the paraphernalia I used to create it! Basically all you do is either paint a white base coat or just a clear one, then using the dotting tool dot different colour varnish on your nails in a cluster at the top of your nail, its ok if they over lap. It's much easier to do one colour at a time, as in dotting all nails with one colour then moving onto the next. I used nine different colours, the more you use the more effective it is.

Mint Chocolate: 

I used the new Models Own Speckled Egg collection with this manicure. It was actually one of my friends who said it looks like Mint chocolate ice cream and I totally agree, I also used Models Own Blueberry Muffin on my other nails, I love the contrast.

Mushrooms:

This manicure was waaaay back just after my birthday, I had a woodland theme birthday party so these nails went well! I had a really tough time finding a good colour background that wouldnt change the colour of the red on the mushrooms. In the end I went for Models Own Apple Pie, I then drew the mushrooms on and used a dotting tool to create the spots, I thought it was really sweet!


Ombre:

I have a huge love for ombre nails and even though they're a complete faff to do I love the end result so much. To do these ombre nails I used coral, pink and orange together to create a sunset effect. You will need some make up sponges (the type that are triangles) cut off the tip so you have a wide flat space, stripe the nail varnish in three lines side by side with each other, then press onto the nail. To get a better effect dab onto the nail under the colour is vivid.


Clouds and Rainbows:

Honestly....I just wanted a chance to do cloud nails again, I love the effect and they are so easy! I decided that rainbows would be easy to do and they went with the theme. My boyfriend approved of these ones as well which means I'm definitely on to a winner with that boy ^_^

 Dotty:

These are simple but effective, I was actually complimented by a number of people and have been told by more than one person that they look like Yoshi Eggs! I used Blueberry Muffin by Models Own as a base and the dots were in Turquoise Hyper gel by Models Own, I love them!

So there you are....a journey through my recent nail art, I'm noticing that my skills are improving and I am quite a lot of time to practice. I of course have had some mishaps but have learnt to take deep breaths and try try again!

I hope you have been rocking some fabulous nail art recently! I promise to post more prolifically in the future!

x

Balloons and Clouds.

Hello,

   This is just a quick little manicure post as I have a long birthday one to publish tomorrow. It was my birthday today and I decided I wanted to have a fun manicure for it. Balloons really speak birthday to me but I also wanted it to be more obvious that they were supposed to be in the sky....all will be revealed!

These are the polishes I used:

L-R Feeling Blue,Clear base, Snow White, Balloon House and Barry Ms Nail Art Pen.

I did a bottom coat of white and then a coat of sky blue, Models Own nail polish has really good coverage, because I used the white underneath I only needed one coat of Feeling Blue.

Then I used a piece of cardboard and poured a teeny bit of Snow White onto the card. Using a dotting tool I did clusters of white dots to make clouds, this is so easy to do, you will see how I did the placement in the next photo. I had 2 accent nails where I clustered discs of rainbow coloured glitter at the top of my nails to look like balloons. I did this by scooping out pieces of glitter and then putting them on the cardboard. I picked up each piece with the dotting tool and placed it on the nail.

I then added squiggly black lines for the balloon strings and it was done! I hope you can see how easy it was to make the clouds. I may do a step by step tutorial of them in the future.

Not the best picture, but I love this manicure, its super cute and makes me think even more of UP then I did before! The only issue I had was the glitter discs coming off but that is easily repaired!

Would you do a fun manicure like this? Have you tried to draw clouds before?

x

Etsy Purchase.

Hello,


    My parents will have been married for 30 years this year, which is their Pearl Anniversary. I wanted to get them a unique card that was a bit different from the usual. Etsy is my go to place for quirky things so I had a quick search and came across KatieLouiseAllen's Shop. She makes a range of handcrafted products for a reasonable price and so I knew I would have to buy something!

I ordered my purchases on the 27th Feb and it was shipped the next day. It arrived in the post this morning so it was only 3 days in total! I was really impressed because I sometimes have issues with Etsy sellers delivery times.

It came in a really cute package envelope and she had written my address in different fonts which was a really nice touch!

I had to remove some of my address and I apologise for my cat getting involved, he can't help himself!!

 I ordered a lucky dip bag, as well as a card for my parents.

Katie also included a cute postcard to say thank you for ordering from her, which again was a lovely touch.

This is the card I bought my parents, I love it so much because its different. I didn't want to buy a cream/pearly coloured card and I think the quote is just so beautiful, I really hope they like it!

In my lucky dip bag there was:

3 post cards, a card and a little book which I **think** is Katies artwork although I am not 100% sure! It was really cool to flick through.

I also got a little group of cards about Apollo 11 which are really cute, a gift tag and some stickers!

Katie also very nicely gave me a code for 20% off my next purchase which I thought was really sweet and awesome!

I would definitely recommend giving her stuff a look, she also makes prints/brooches and all sorts of lovely things, I would definitely repurchase!

What sort of things do you buy from independent sellers?Have you given Etsy a look?

x

Ruffle Nail Manicure.

Hello!

   Now that I have my dotting tools I'm far more adept at doing nail art, however I don't claim to be an expert by far! I first saw the ruffle manicure on Chalkboard Nails. All of her manicures are so amazing and her nails are perfect, she must have really steady hands!

I first started by picking out my nail colours: 

L-R: Apple Pie, Blue Moon, Berry Ice cream, Strawberry Ice Cream, Peach Melba and Lemon Ice Cream.

As you can see I'm the biggest pastel freak ever, I love these colours and thought they would all work well together, plus I thought that if the lines weren't straight it's less detectable with light colours.

For this manicure you will need the following:

Nail polish remover, some tissue, some cotton pads, your nail varnish selection and your set of dotting tools, also a strip of cardboard would be useful depending on how you use your dotting tools!


I started with a base coat of Lemon Ice Cream, mostly because it's my least favourite colour:

Next you need to dab your dotting tool in the first nail varnish you want to use. Personally I pour a teeny bit onto some cardboard and dab it on from there. Although in this picture I have picked up the white dotting tool I cannot stress enough that using the biggest dotting tool you have is the best option, if you have the same set as me the biggest dotter is green!

You need to start with the polish you want to use, start from the bottom of the nail but leave a gap to show the yellow. You dot in a line with the dots touching, then using the next colour start another line of dotting, you need to slightly overlap the first line so it looks like a ruffle.

The picture above is three rows in, you could leave it with a band of the base colour on either side of the ruffles, it still looks cute!

This is the finished product, I think the colours are cute, they remind me of Easter eggs! They're not perfect but since this was my first try I think they turned out pretty good, I would definitely try it again!

What have you been doing to your nails this week?

x

Hotel Chocolat Cocoa Juvenate Eau De Parfum.

Hello!

 So, I don't ever need an excuse to go to Hotel Chocolat but I usually don't because their chocolate is on the pricey side. However this week I went in to get a present for someone, as well as picking up a little 6 pack of gin truffles for me!

 When I went to the till the lovely lady there gave me two little perfume samples, I actually didn't hear exactly what she said until I had a look when I got home! I didn't even know that Hotel Chocolat did fragrance, but apparently there is a whole range of spa things which you can find on their website. The two samples I received were called Repose and the other Revive.

L-R Repose and Revive.

The tester come in cute little cardboard containers, one is bronze and black and the other is silver and white.

It has a little tab at the top inviting you to pull, once you do the packaging puffs out, giving it enough room to be squeezed for a spray of perfume.

Here you can see it puffed out, sorry for the blur. You can also see my toadstool manicure which I will do a review on when I have mastered it!

Revive.

On the website the description of the fragrance is a little thin on the ground, it doesn't have what each one is supposed to smell like. I guess that isn't so much of a problem but I do think it makes it more difficult to decide what to buy.

The back of the packet has a little description, it says ' An invigorating scent inspired by freshly cut cocoa pods with an uplifting, enlivening fusion of bergamot, green tea and citrus notes, blended seamlessly with the rich aromas of jasmine, neroli and rose, resting on a base of warm sandalwood and sensual musk.' Phew what a mouthful! It sounds like a complex fragrance, I love bergamot so this sounds lovely to me.

The little sample has 0.01 fl oz so it is literally a teeny amount of product, but obviously for a free sample that is fine! It also has an ingredients list and says it can be kept for 12 months. I believe this product is made in St Lucia.

When sprayed this immediately smells like a female perfume, it actually has a hint of lime which I really love. It smells quite soapy which I'm not surprised at because bergamot does have a soapy smell to it, the rose also comes through slightly. I haven't been wearing it long enough to really gauge if it smells musky but I think the citrus may stop that happening.

I don't think I would buy this one, not because I don't like it but because I have quite a few citrus perfumes and I don't think it would get used. It is really unusual though and I can't stop sniffing it!

Repose.

I really like the colour scheme on repose, the scent itself is a lot deeper than Revive so I feel like they got the colour scheme really accurate in regards to this.

The back of Repose says 'A warm, intriguing scent inspired by the richness of roasted cocoa, luxuriously blending a heady and sensual, exotic bouquet of spiced white florals with a base of must, sandalwood and leather.' Now as we know I don't ever pay much mind to product descriptions in regards to scent, however I have to say this one is bang on!

When first sprayed, it smells like cut stalks of cocoa and immediately begins to settle into a slightly smoky warm fragrance. It has spicy undertones with a musky feel, it smells masculine but sweet too, I think men could actually get away with this, I reckon if it were sprayed on a man it would pick up the masculine smell. It's absolutely lovely.

I would definitely buy Repose, however it costs £47 for 50ml....which I really cannot justify!But it is beautiful and would've made a lovely Valentines present for a lady (if I had got my review out on time!)


Would you buy these perfumes? Have you ever bought anything from Hotel Chocolat?

x