This is what boredom has done

Thursday 12 December 2013

Dating

So, my friend is back on the dating scene again after being in an 8 year relationship since she was 17. Her first date is with a guy she's been talking to online, and is tomorrow.

It's so exciting!

Then she came out with "It's going to be quite casual so I'll just wear jeans and a band t-shirt.

Band t-shirt? No! Jeans, yes. Cute pumps, yes. But a band t-shirt? Unless you're going to a gig, it's just like you're making no effort whatsoever. Save that for later, wear a smart top instead.

I've been reading the Bridget Jones book too, she goes through a big long list of funny dating rules in that.
I'm no expert on dating as I'm also in a long lasting relationship (and blissfully happy, by the way). So I'll just give my tips, rather than what the 'rules' should be.

#1: No band t-shirts.
#2: If at a meal, share a starter/pudding, rather than having individual ones.
#3: Take turns in arranging the dates. This way you both get to do what you like, rather than just one person making the ideas all the time!
#4: Try new things!

That's all I can thing of for now. What are your tips on dating?

Sunday 1 December 2013

Daily Food Fess #10

Who knows? Who cares!

I had a filling and healthy day yesterday and decided to take the alcohol out my weeklies. Completely lost count! I've guessed I used 18 on alcohol, it was a good night. Maybe I've underpointed, but I'm not planning to use all my remaining weeklies (30) so I should be alright. I had fried a crumpet soaked in egg as a snack for when we got home, it was so yummy!

Bee & Liz let me do their make-up for them last night. They looked lovely!! Once Liz uploads the picture of all three of us, I will share. For now, here is me and Bee.


Does anyone else always feel slimmer the day after a night out though? I don't have scales at home but it would be interesting to see.

Today I had fruit and Greek yoghurt with a coffee for breakfast. Lunch is vegetable and lentil soup if I can be bothered to make it, if not I have loads of other stuff. I just want to eat Shredded Wheat to be honest. I'm out for a meal tonight. It's a tapas restaurant but I had a cheeky look at the menu already, and they do a main dish of grilled salmon with tomato sauce. I'll use a few weeklies to cover oil etc, but otherwise it should be pretty good. Got a WW cheesecake in the freezer if I need it, and some WW bars, so I won't have pudding.

Friday 29 November 2013

Daily Food Fess #9

Well the filling and healthy week was a success - I lost 2lbs! I'm a happy girl.

TODAYS FOOD
I'm currently eating wholemeal pasta with tomato & veg sauce and ham. It is tasty. Breakfast was porridge oats, greek yoghurt, pineapple and cinnamon, dinner will be roasted fish, roast potatoes and vegetables. Snacks are fruit, boiled egg and a crumpet.

Boring part over!

I treated myself to some new make-up at lunchtime. I bought some eyeliner, mascara and eyeshadow from 17 and Bourjois. The 17 eyeshadow is a nice midnight blue shimmery one and the Bourjois is black and sparkly. I will wear them on my girls night out tomorrow I think.

Bee & Liz want me to do their make-up too - maybe I should take my business cards with me and they can be real life adverts for me haha.

New discovery: triple chocolate fingers dipped in peanut butter. YUM.

Thursday 28 November 2013

Daily Food Fess #8

Woohoo, I lasted a week!!

I've really enjoyed this filling and healthy plan. On Tuesday I was a bit worried as I felt soooo bloated, but had hardly eaten a thing. In the back of my mind I knew it was all down to that time of the month (yes ladies, you know what I'm talking about). I just didn't want to feel like that today, and I don't, so yay!

I remember last month I was having the worst cravings in a long time, but I haven't struggled at all this time. It's such a great feeling.

I made such a tasty stir fry last night. I just whacked 2 crushed gloves of garlic, 4x teaspoons soy sauce, 1 teaspoon of chinese 5 spice and 1 red chilli (optional) in a jug, and mixed some prawns in. Fried some veg in sesame oil and then mixed in the prawns and spinach, stir fried for a few minues and it was done. Unexpectedly moreish. Mmm mmm mmm.

Today, the business park have arranged for people to do wreath making. I booked in for the 1.30pm slot, and I'm aiming to make a better wreath than last year! My previous effort ended up in the wreath being a bit droopy.

Food
Porridge, skimmed milk, apple, cinnamon and sweetener.
Coffee
Omelette and stir fry veg with soy sauce
Clementines x2
Pineapple, greek yoghurt and sweetener
Emergency snacks: boiled egg, 1x shredded wheat

Oh and I woke Jim and Bee up laughing so hard I sounded like I was crying this morning. Watched a video called "What the f*** have I just watched", it's some arty farty performance and is the weirdest thing I've ever seen. Laughing first thing in the morning is definitely something to get your good mood going!

Wednesday 27 November 2013

Daily Food Fess #7

General
Ah, gotta love a good walk. I'm aiming to get around the lake while I'm on my lunchbreak - having my iPod with me helps. Even if I do look a bit stupid with my massive headphones! They make the music sound 100x better than earphones do.

What's everyone listening to at the moment? My current choice on Spotify is Kings of Leon- Mechanical Bull. Brilliant album! I tried seeing them play at Shepherds Bush a few months ago, but tickets were £70 each! Gave that a miss. In my car I'm listening to a bunch of old HIM albums (nostalgia) and on my iPod is a Trance Sanctuary podcast. So a bit of a mix there really!

Food
2 slices of calorie controlled bread, toasted with marmite.
Porridge with skimmed milk, apple and sweetener.
Coffee x2
Red lentil, carrot and swede soup
Crumpet with marmite
Prawn and vegetable stir fry
Boiled egg, carrot sticks, 2x clementines, greek yoghurt and sweetener.

Exercise
I had planned to up my weights on the squat and back track, but I didn't feel up to it in the end. I'm glad I didn't! I did up my weights on the shoulder track though, so my upper body strength is definitely getting better.

I'm helping my friend move out tonight, so will try and do a little bit of a workout at home but if I run out of time, I'm not that bothered!

Tuesday 26 November 2013

Daily Food Fess #6

Oh my god work is so frustrating at the moment! There was an email switchover at the weekend and now a system I use to do most of my work won't let me connect from my laptop. It's happened to about 10 people. I've got a big list and can only do half of everything I need to do. So I'm making a start on arranging the work Christmas lunch instead. Fun! Also looking at Hotel Chocolat for gift ideas (I'm not pointing out what I would like at all, no.....). I'd love to go to their new restaurant - there's one in Leeds and one in London. The food looks quite interesting. Anyway, let's not talk about chocolate, it's too tempting. This morning my breakfast was scrambled eggs, tomatoes and ham. Lunch is soup again. Dinner is bulgar wheat, veg and chicken. Yum yum! Aerobics last night was covered by a newer instructor. I didn't like it that much. She just didn't get me sweaty and breathless....hmm that sounds a bit wrong!! But anyway, I even made sure I jumped around as much as I could and it just didn't work. Body Pump is tongiht though and I am planning to up my weights, so maybe it's a good thing I didn't go too mad..

Sunday 24 November 2013

Daily Food Fess #5

My calves are really tight and aching, like when you've got a cramp in the middle of the night and then pulled a muscle. It's weird! I made it to Body Pump this morning and upped my weight for the chest track. I think it's time to up my weight on the back track too! Possibly even the squats - that will be my heaviest weight the whole time I've been going. Didn't think that would happen! Today I've eaten porridge with skimmed milk, apple, cinnamon and sweetener. Yum yum. I love not having to weigh it out. It was about the same amount as usual and I'm not stuffed, actually still a little hungry. I'll see if it's thirst before I eat anything else though. We'd planned chinese stir fry for lunch, but plans have changed and my parents invited us to Wetherspoons for some food and then we'll watch the Christmas lights get turned on. I'll go for a jacket potato, but with baked beans or five-bean chilli I'm not sure. May be cheeky and have a little cheddar too, out of my weeklies. I've still got over 40 weekly points left and not planning to use them in the week at all, so it should be fine. I'll try and resist pudding and remember my skinny cow ice-cream sitting in the freezer! A few points will come out for alcohol as well, but I'm okay with that. If I'm hungry later, dinner will be salmon and sweetcorn salad with potatoes. I love this plan!

Saturday 23 November 2013

Daily Food Fess #4

Oooh I'm tired. Spent 5 hours today doing housework, including rearranging and hoovering/polishing the bedroom. A job well done! Needless to say I've changed my mind on the planned exercise routine- lugging around chests of drawers, bedside tables and a double bed is tiring enough! Today I've eaten well. Had a bowl of shredded wheat and skimmed milk for breakfast, baked beans and mushrooms on calorie controlled toast for lunch and dinner I've planned to have chicken and wholemeal pasta with tomato sauce. Also have jelly and clementines if I fancy something sweet. I was slightly tempted to eat the flapjack which was on the kitchen table, but at 14PP that's definitely a no go! So instead I heated up an apple, mixed it with a handful of porridge oats, some greek yoghurt, cinnamon and sweetener. Yum!! Very satisfying. I think tonight I'll continue watching South Park - there was one episode yesterday that made me laugh so much, I was crying! Oh and catch up with Celebrity, of course ;)

Friday 22 November 2013

Daily Food Fess #3: Filling and Healthy Friday

In my last post I admitted that this week I'll accept a gain, and gain I did. 2lbs on, in fact. Bit disappointed in myself, but I can only look forwards and try and undo this for next time. I've started eating at set times just for the sake of it, so I wanted to try a filling and healthy week so I'll only eat when hungry, like I used to. Luckily the meeting was about portion control, so we talked a lot about filling and healthy. My leader gave me a quick recipe at the end for a F&H 'flapjack' that I'm going to try. If I remember correctly, it was one mashed banana mixed with porridge oats and peaches, bake it in the oven for 20 mins at 160 degrees (maybe!) and you're done. Hopefully that + sugar free jelly = 1 satisfied Toni. One of the women at the meeting pointed out a few home truths. We were talking about what triggers us to want to eat, and people started listing their reasons. Then she said that dieters don't eat because of these reasons, they just look for a reason. It is so true - we eat when we're stressed/sad/happy/it's someone's birthday/it was there/it's a Friday...the list could go on and on. This person also said that for her, it's all or nothing i.e. she either has to be extremely good and cut out everything, or when she has 1 bad thing, that's it. I think it's the same for me as well, for example the other day I couldn.t just stop at 1 cake, I had 10! I'm glad I wasn't on my own here. Me and Liz had our usual treat night when we got back. This morning I looked at how much (or should I say little) of the cake we had brought was left and decided that last night was my own personal goodbye to the binge nights. I don't want to do it anymore. What's the point? I only have to work harder the next day to undo all the rubbish I put in my body. Don't get me wrong, I'll treat myself, but I just want the ONE thing. Last night I should have stopped after I'd eating the mars bar I had been craving all week. I got up as soon as my alarm went off to do a half hour exercise routine in my living room and I felt quite pleased with myself. I started with a quick warm up, did 2 sets of rocket jumps, star jumps, burpees and something else that I can't remember! I know I was sweaty and out of breath though. Then I did some crunches, oblique twists, planks and side planks. Got to work and ate some porridge with skimmed milk, apple, cinnamon and sweetener. For lunch I'm going to the pub for a jacket potato and baked beans, dinner is homemade turkey burgers, potato wedges and peas. I've got a boiled egg for a snack if I need it, as well as banana and greek yoghurt. Ooh, getting hungry now!

Thursday 21 November 2013

Daily Food Fess #2

It's been a lot better today!! This morning I had 1 slice of calorie controlled bread, a tiny bit of dairy free butter and 1 slice of ham. When I got to work I ate a bowl of Shredded Wheat. I was full until about 11.30 when I got sooo hungry all of a sudden. You know when you get so weak and light headed? I felt like that and couldn't wait until lunchtime, so I had 2 ryvita with light cream cheese. Then waited another half hour and ate my soup and another ryvita, which was delicious. Chorizo & red lentil, mmm mmm mmm. Oh I have to confess I had 1 custard cream, but am having no more! This afternoon I have a banana with some greek yoghurt and honey to eat and for dinner I am planning on buying an oven pizza to share with a couple of people after my weigh in. Will probably get rid of my chocolate craving too in time for my F&H week. I do not feel bad about this as I know I'm in the right frame of mind to have a good week next week. Hope everyone is having a good day!

Wednesday 20 November 2013

Daily Food Fess: #1

I've decided to write on here daily to help myself keep on track. Even the bad days. The bad days can be a sort of confession time I suppose. Shall I start now? The day started well. I had such a tasty breakfast of 2 scrambled eggs, 1 slice of Hovis Wheatgerm toasted, a tiny amount of dairy free butter, 1 slice of ham and 1 slice of Emmental cheese. This kept me full until 12pm, when I had a clementine. I got annoyed while eating this as it had 12 seeds in total. 12! The whole time I was just trying to spit seeds out of my mouth as daintily as possible (which if you know me, was definitely not dainty at all). Then lunchtime came and it all went downhill from there. A lunch for the meeting hadn't turned up. Jo phoned the supplier and was told an order for us wasn't on the system, so Jo decided to go to Sainsbury's and pick up a load of sandwiches and quiches and cakes and fruit. While she was out, the buffet lunch arrived after all. In their error, they decided to give us the lunch for free. Jo returned with the goodies and I decided to go and eat my soup while they shared it out. There are only 3 tables in the kitchen and guess where the only space left was? The table with the buffet lunch. So I had my soup along with a quarter of smoked salmon and cream cheese sandwich. Then a quarter of an egg sandwich. Then the cakes came out. They were mini cakes. I decided to have 1 of each. Then another round. Then about 2 more. So all in all, 10 mini cakes! Oops. I've also already had a couple of biscuits today and have got friends coming over for dinner. I might just cook them dinner and not eat anything (I'm really not hungry). It was a last minute invite anyway. Anyway, the reason I'm telling you all this is because I want you all to learn from my mistakes and lack of self-control. I've felt bloated, sluggish, guilty and tired all afternoon and if I could go back in time, I definitely would have only eaten my soup. So if any of you feel like you're tempted and about to reach for the sweet treats, stop and think first. Can it come out of your weeklies? Will you only have the one, or will the one turn into ten? If so, step away, step away now! Don't undo all of your hard work for one stupid minute of pleasure, even if it does taste good.

Thursday 14 November 2013

Wednesday 13 November 2013

Xmas

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Why has everyone got such skinny legs lately?



Seriously, these are people's role models? They just look a bit ill to me.

Don't go thinking this is just the green eyed monster coming - I've got great legs (or so I'm told a lot). They're not skinny either, they're toned. Be HEALTHY, people.

Tuesday 12 November 2013

My Relationship with Food

I've just read a good blog post over at 59 Pounds To Go, talking about her plans on changing how she eats for the future.
my ultimate plan is to try and wean myself back onto the full fat, less processed versions. I have started by working real butter instead of low fat spread and using full fat feta and goats cheese in my salads. I also have not touched my fry lite in a few weeks. I have been using butter, olive oil and more recently coconut oil for my cooking and dressings. I have been afraid of fat for years, when really I think I need to put what I have learned about portion control and moderation from weight watchers, into practice with this!

This is definitely something I need to try. I'm now in the right mindset - I want good quality food in my body, rather than trying to cram in as much as I can eat on one go. I'm trying to have more satisfying meals in order to cut down on my snacking. My meal plan for next week is quite good for this - I'll give it a go and let you know the results!

Although, I'm not trying to lose any more as, wait for it, I brought my wedding dress at the weekend!! Such a good feeling.

Saturday 9 November 2013

Planning a Wedding: The Dress

Ooh exciting stuff (if not the most exciting part of planning), time to try on some dresses! I’m looking forward to having some girly time with my mum and best friend, even if that means I won’t get to drink the complimentary glass of champagne due to being the only driver out of the three of us.

My dream dress is Claire Pettibone ‘Larissa’. Unfortunately, my dress budget is small, so I’ve already accepted the fact that I’ll never wear this dress (even with pre-owned prices). Sigh. My attitude is that I may as well be laid back when searching for my dress, no point in being picky if I can’t have my dream one.

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Larissa by Claire Pettibone

You’d think this means I would see loads of dresses that I like, right? WRONG. I’ve seen a few fashion shows recently at local wedding fairs, and most of the dresses were horrible. This is going to be hard.

I’m going to two shops this weekend knowing that I won’t be able to buy anything. My aim instead is to find out what style actually suits me the most. So in shop #1, I am going to try on as many styles and shapes as possible, even the hideously meringue-ey ones (you never know!).

According to the Perfect Wedding website, the shape I am most like is petite (short waist), so styles that will elongate my body will look good.

Shop #2: Ideally I would have figured out what suits me by now, so I’ll try and narrow the choices down and try on a select few. It’s risky business knowing I can’t buy any yet, but if I do find one I love, I’ll just write it down and look for it on eBay or at sample sales. Wish me luck!

Sunday 20 October 2013

Sunday 13 October 2013

Trends I don't understand

People wearing tracksuit bottoms with one of the legs rolled up. Or tracksuit bottoms out in public full stop. They're for lounging around, or the gym.

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Friday 11 October 2013

Make-up lovers will like this countdown to Christmas

Benefit have created an advent calendar for 2013...time to start hinting to the other half I think!
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It's only available at certain stores, ask at your nearest one for more details.

Friday 27 September 2013

Sunday 25 August 2013

Photoshoot//Manor House

It's an understatement to say that I'm very proud of this shoot. I've been told it's definitely going to be published on fashionising.com but not sure when.

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Photography by Jake Hicks Models are Kimi Frances, La Petite Phenix & Meg O'Duffy.

Black & white

I've been trying to find a dress that I can wear to work, and on an evening out. Finally found this one by AX Paris - love it! The length is perfect as it's not too short for work and I can team it with a blazer, thick tights and brogues for the colder weather when it arrives.
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Hope everyone is enjoying the bank holiday weekend - even with the usual piddly weather!

Sunday 21 July 2013

Photoshoot// Sophie Rankin

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Photographer: J. Tuliniemi Photography Model: Sophie Rankin

Sunday 14 July 2013

Photoshoot//Manor House Shoot June 2013

I recently had the pleasure of working with a fantastic team of people on a Manor House shoot. I'm still waiting for some pictures to come back, but it was great fun to meet everybody and I can't wait any longer to share some of the results with you! You'll find more photos and information on Jeff's blog .

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Photographers: Jeff Mahoney, Jake Hicks
Models: Kimi Frances, Meg O'Duffy
Stylist: Cheryl Curtis

Thursday 4 July 2013

Benefit Cosmetics Audition Process

Hi guys, So today I thought I would tell you about my experience of applying for a counter job with Benefit Cosmetics. Every now and then I try and get a counter job, but as most of my experience is office work, I never get far.
However, I got through to the recruitment day stage and it was actually a lot of fun. If any of you aspire to work for a make-up counter, this should hopefully be a helpful read!

Stage One: Online application

If you've had a browse on the Benefit Cosmetics UK website, you've probably seen that you can create an account and a profile, to buy products and/or apply for jobs. My tips for this stage is to look at the job description to see what type of person they are looking for and try and fit in your descriptions and experience around this. I haven't had sales experience, but I have had to work to targets in one of my jobs before, so I described that part of it as being determined to meet targets and knowing how important they are. I also handed in my CV and cover letter to a department store near where I live, and again made sure in my cover letter I talked about the relevant experience and what I could bring to the role. The main thing is to just come across as enthusiastic, hard working and fun and that'll be fine!

Stage Two: Telephone interview

I have to admit that I was caught off guard at this part!! I'd received a message explaining that someone wanted to talk to me about my application so I rang them back and on the spot they asked if they could interview me for 5 minutes! I can't remember every question, as I blagged my way through most of it. I can tell you that they asked me to name some of the products, why I wanted to work for Benefit Cosmetics, what I liked about the brand and a few questions on how I would attract customers to the counter. A bit of prep helps but it wasn't anything too hard.

Stage Three: Recruitment Audition Process

Once you've passed the telephone interview, you're invited to take part in a recruitment day. The only information I got was the location, date and time, to wear all black clothing, and no open toe shoes.
Google Benefit recruitment process and you'll find a load of blogs and forums where people detailed what they went through. It involved traffic stopping customers. Okay, this time I was scared s***less.
After reading through tonnes of information, the main thing was to not worry about having the make-up skills, just concentrate on being friendly, smiley, enthusiastic, stand out and approach every single customer.
On the day I was slightly late, due to having to arrive straight from my job 40 minutes drive away and not knowing the town centre at all. They seemed fine about it though. You get taken upstairs to the training room after signing in and storing your bags. There were only 3 other girls and we were all going for jobs in different stores, so that fact relaxed me a little. The trainer went through what the day entailed and explained how to traffic stop customers. We went through the different answers people could give and what we would say to try and persuade them to come to the counter. When I was reading about the auditions, people were saying you have to be quite pushy and they didn't like it, but it wasn't like that at all. The opening line was "Have you heard of Benefit Cosmetics?" and so the customer can only give a yes or no answer. Then if they didn't want to come to the counter, all you do is ask them why politely and try and persuade them gently one more time. If it's still a no, then that's fine and you move on to someone else.

Example:
"Hello, have you heard of Benefit Cosmetics?"
"Yes."
"Oh brilliant, well we're giving out free makeovers today, come with me and I'll show you a few products."
"I haven't got time."
"How long do you have?"
"10 minutes."
"It will only take 5 minutes at the most and you get a bit of pampering."


Something along those lines. Then if the customer says no again, you just thank them and tell them to enjoy their day. So once you've learnt how to bring people to the customer, the trainer will go through the products you will be using on customers, and demonstrates how to apply them and what to say. I liked the way they did it actually. You apply one product at a time to half the face, showing the customer the result after each product so they can see what difference each one makes, as it's quite subtle. You also explain how to apply the product and what each of them is for, and after a few goes you do remember a lot of information and end up constantly talking to the customer. It's important not to worry about not remembering every single fact; after all, you already know more than the customer so you will look like you know what you're talking about.

The products we used were:
It's Potent Eye Cream
Porefessional
You Rebel
Benetint
High Beam

In the training room, you practise on each other and talk as if you are the customer, so you're not just thrown into the deep end out on the shop floor!! Once you've done half the face, you carry on with the other half but talking to the customer about their day and just general chit chat. You are encouraged to find out what product they liked and bring it over to see if they wanted to buy it.
The thing I was a bit frustrated about was that when customers asked how much things cost, I realised we hadn't been informed of the prices and there were no stickers on them. So it helps to research prices a little bit before the day, however no need to worry if you aren't sure. If a customer loves the product, the price won't matter to them!

I thought I would HATE traffic stopping customers but I actually really enjoyed it. No one is rude to you and the people that do come to the counter are actually really lovely!! I was also surprised with some of the people that did come to the counter, so really do ask everybody. It could see the girls on other make-up counters smirking if they heard you trying to get customers, but they were standing around doing nothing while ours was the busiest, so I didn't feel silly.
I think overall I sat about 7 or 8 people down and sold a couple of products, so I was pretty pleased.

However, I didn't get the job. My feedback was great, they said I gave the customers a great experience, and that it was nice to see the different age ranges I was bringing to the counter. There I was waiting for the inevitable 'but' which ended up being that they had filled my position with someone internal, so will keep my details on file and contact me if anything else comes up. Gutted!! I haven't got my hopes up, as she ended the call with "good luck for the future." Yeah thanks. I'll keep trying though.

Anyway, I hope this information helped you and gave you a bit more insight to recruitment processes.
Ciao for now!

Sunday 23 June 2013

Manor House Shoot Inspiration

I'm shooting at a very impressive Manor House next weekend, with 4 models, designers, another make-up artist and 2 photographers. They want to submit the finished images to hopefully get published, so I'm really excited! Here is some inspiration images. I will name the other people I'm collaborating with on this shoot, I just haven't got a lot of time to blog at the moment so this is a bit of a rush post!
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Wednesday 29 May 2013

Lellia

Someone buy me this Ted Baker dress please.

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Monday 27 May 2013

Holiday Make-up

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So this time next week I'll be in sunny Spain (Cortijo Grande to be precise), and I cannot wait!! This afternoon I went through my clothes and packed most of my things, so I thought I would show you my holiday make-up kit. I don't want to take too much with me, and brushes take up the most room so I've decided to bring products I can use with my fingers.

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Image from women.fit2fat2fit.com

I'm forgoing foundation, it'll be too hot for that and my skin is pretty clear anyway. I will just use a primer if needed, which I still need to buy. I think I'll go with Benefit 'That Gal' Primer again.

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I've got a load of eyeliner and shadow pencils to take with me in different colours, including Gosh, Avon and Borjouis. Lots of variety. Of course I'll be using my Benefit 'They're Real!' mascara, my all time fave! No false lashes as I can't be bothered with faffing around, it'll eat up my drinking time! For my lips I have some Sleek Pout Polish's in pinky shades, and a red Maxfactor lip pencil if I feel like going a bit more glam.

My brows are quite dark so usually I just brush them but I've got a dark brown NYC brow pencil just in case. Then for my cheeks, a red toned Virgin Vie cream blush, a pink shade by Boots Natural Collection and Benefit High Beam to highlight. All that's needed is some blotting papers to take shine away, can anyone recommend some?

Saturday 25 May 2013

Lisa Eldridge//Smokey Eyes

How lovely does Lisa Eldridge look with smokey eyes? You can find the tutorial here

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Friday 24 May 2013

Wedding Planning Update: Still Finding the Venue

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Image from trekforhannah.co.uk

Oh how I wish that money was mine! Nothing really to report. We've looked at about 6 venues now. It's hard to choose! If we had unlimited money, I would have booked it long ago, but I keep trying to find the good points in all of them just so we keep the budget down. Jim doesn't seem to want to do that. I'm not getting the wedding I want anyway, so I just want to book wherever now. I'm going to apply for some evening & weekend jobs to start asap, as I won't be able to save a thing otherwise.

Song of the Week//May 24th 2013



And if you want to watch a programme ever with a brilliant soundtrack, check out My Mad Fat Diary.

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Image from www.three-blind-mice.co.uk

Saturday 18 May 2013

A post mainly for myself

Okay, so I got to goal weight in March 2012, with Weight Watchers. I've managed to stay within 5lbs of my goal, but lately I've been struggling a lot. My main problem is that I eat really healthily for a while, but for some reason I decide that when I'm happy with myself, I'll eat bad foods and far too much of them. It was my birthday last week and I went away for the weekend, which was loads of fun.

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Now my trousers are tighter and the belly bulge is back. Sigh! Another one of my many 'last suppers' at the parent's tonight, and tomorrow I'll be back on track, but this time I'm logging everything on here. Holiday in 2 weeks time and I will NOT feel guilty about eating crap and putting on weight then, because to me that's what holidays are about and I'll regret it more if I don't! I just don't want to eat like that normally. 2 years to lose approximately 10lbs, easily done!

Maxfactor Colour Elixir Giant Pen Stick


Image from spohszine.com

I saw this picture for the advert for Maxfactor Colour Elixir Giant Pen Stick and just fell in love with the colour (hair and lip!). I thought I would treat myself to a nice red one, as I usually go for pink. I'm really impressed with how bright this turns out once applied. It doesn't last all night (I didn't expect it to with the price), but being a pen stick it's handy to take with you and reapply. It doesn't wear off completely though and does leave a nice stain on your lips, but comes off easily when using a make-up wipe. It didn't dry my lips out either. A good bargain buy I think!

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Saturday 4 May 2013

I've always loved dungarees

I definitely want these babies from Monki.

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Lovely jubbly.