Confidence

A little while I was going through a some what low ebb (not helped by the stress of bday outfits! ;)) however I searched through our own personal library, otherwise known as what was the spare room!, I found http://www.amazon.co.uk/Indestructible-Self-belief-Seven-Getting-Keeping/dp/0749924950 by Fiona Harrold and http://www.amazon.co.uk/Change-Your-Life-Seven-Days/dp/059305055X by Paul McKenna. Books I had bought a earlier times to read but had never got round to, and I wish I had! I read Fiona Harrold's in one day and then Paul McKenna's over the next seven consecutive days. They are both such great reads and I feel like they have actually changed my outlook.
Harrold's book focuses on self belief, of which confidence is a factor, full of encouragement, activities to change your beliefs and very inspiring stories! McKenna's is much broader and more about changing your life as a whole however that of course adds to confidence! So two very recommended reads there! :)

Crocs

Also I have had several weeks with my lovely new Crocs and I think that once mum gets the money back for her Crocs, which unfortunately were too small (I think Crocs are quite fitting as I'm an 8.5 however my 9s fit perfectly!) probably due to the style, and she orders her second pair (you cant exchange) I am going to buy a second pair! One for outside, one for in! ;) haha!

Birthday!!

I had a lovely birthday yesterday, full of food-going out for a lovely lunch at http://www.wokandgrill.co.uk/ , a Greek salad for tea (although with the new Tesco salads range has a very disgusting and off putting 'summer' bag-gritty bits in lettuce! not good!) and a yummy homemade cake with coffee sponge, coffee butter cream in the middle and just to mix it up Betty Crocker chocolate fudge on top xD haha!
Also lots of lovely presents from mum-several DVDs, some Eco brushes, eyeliner, hair grips and lots of books including Qi books, Gok Wan through thick and thin, Eat, Pray, Love, dress up your cupcakes and several other craft books, a massive set of novels inc. some novels on Cupcakes! ;) Expect lots of reviews coming soon as well, as some catch up posts and pictures! :)

Why I should be in the front row at the Look show at Westfield Stratford City!!! :)

While reading my lovely Look magazine the other day I came across a competition that was right up my street, especially as a newly addicted blogger! ;) Look magazine is giving five, extremely lucky, readers to blog from the front row of their A/W11 show (which indecently is being held in the new Westfield shopping centre near the Olympic park!)!
This show really epitomises my love of fashion as it shows trends on different sized models, with different body shapes and takes on the trend in a more wearable style than many of the couture fashion shows. Plus all clothes are high street therefore affordable!!! Yay to that! ;) I'm a complete shopping addict with four wardrobes bursting to breaking point however I know the second I see the A/W11 trends in Look I wont be able to resist a few more essentials! (especially now the oppressiveness of school uniforms are over!! haha! ;P)
I really enjoy looking at the fashion trends however my own focus is on style and what suits my body shape. I'm interested in becoming a image consultant and always love helping friends and family pick out key pieces for their body shape, plus I love the way everyone always comes to me for fashion advice and a trend report! haha XD I think that Look magazines really encapsulates that mentality and isn't just another magazine encouraging stick thin models, throw away fashion and unaffordable buys! This is one of the many reasons I'm so excited about this particular show!
I also really enjoying looking at the trends to see what make-up, hair and nails compliment them. I have recently trained as a make-up artist fuelled by my love of fashion so its really interesting seeing how make-up transcends from the catwalk (and films and media), to celebrities, to the everyday etc. Make-up can be so free and creative, fuelled by the slightest bit of inspiration. I also try to work out what trends will be in for the next season as this will help me in the future with my career! haha- and I haven't been too bad with my guesses so far (bet I've jinxed it now! haha)!! ;) The fact that I'm a trained make-up artist could give me a different viewpoint to the interpretation of the show then some of the other bloggers' perhaps.
In the future I want to develop these make-up skills and follow a creative career path; next year I have a place to study for a degree in fashion promotion with media.

"high street fashions direct from the factory"

This is the link to the local store where I bought my gorgeous birthday day dress from (...well Mum payed! Thank you btw :)), its well worth a visit if your local and have never been before esp atm as all the lovely dress are on saaaalllleeee! :D (one of my favourite words along with 'try it', 'buy one get one free' and '50% off!' ;) haha). Their online shop has a range but does nothing compared to the actual range available in store. The one thing is to get the timings right, as its closed on Mondays and Sundays I think, and not miss the turning! Or as we have done ever since we read about it at least a year ago (!) drive down the wrong road wondering where it is and whether you've gone mad!!
They don't have a picture of the dress I bought so I will post it later, possibly once I'm back from Royston-shopping again! whats a girl to do?!
Here's a link to their fb page in the mean time... http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=106038559899#!/group.php?gid=106038559899 ... I love that green dress on the right <3

Faaaashion! XD

Majorly excited for LFW A/W11 :) however in the mean time while looking for a dress for my birthday over the last two days I have been enjoying all the lovely sales. Went to tk maxx yesterday and got a lovely dress for £12 from £35 which isnt too.bad! ;) however it will need some slight adjustments and it may be slightly to 'summer do' rather than bday...so still not sure what Im going to wear! I also hit the lovely evans/dp/boots (source shower gel for a £1 wooop ;) haha) on the cambridge retail park! And I visited a.local shop in meldreth for the first time selling 'high street clothes at factory prices' and got a amazing dress which I will wear on my bday day me thinks :D. Im a total convert to the shop and will be back!! Haha! Links and pics to follow...

New Season Trends!! :)

I was reading an article in my, fairly!, recent edition of Look Magazine about "Autumns hottest trends" full of 'buy now wear, forever wonders' as usual (Does that even fit a fashion ethos? style ethos maybe...) when I surprised myself by own excitement for the make-up, hair and especially nail trends over the fashion side! In fact I could probably already recite the make-up trends off by heart but I'm not sure I could the fashion trends yet, however I  must point out I ha vent read the actual words yet just the pretty pictures XD



Prada
hhmmm... good look?
harry potter inspired? ;)
based on the Skinny models?...
haha ;P



Alberta Ferretti
that's a no from me...

So fashion wise there is is"golden tones", "retro", "new sequins" (are sequins ever new for winter?!?!), "sheers", "retro 40's" (hello again!), "tunics over trousers" (really?! just because the designers do so doesn't make it right!), "Snakeskin" (again really?! :S), "polka dots", "emerald" and "boyish tailoring"! phew that's one way to look 'kitsch' ;) haha!

While I do like the thought of 40's, polka dots and sequins some of the others are not quite me lets say...

My graphic eyes with a 20's Spin




Graphic eyes with a futuristic spin
(for my final look)



Akris
Rust eyes and contoured cheeks



The Make-up for next season is quite well paired really with some of the trends (though I think I prefer the make-up!) such as Bardot pink lips and black eyes will be perfect with retro, extremely contoured cheeks will be perfect with a tailored look, coloured smoky eyes in greens/blues/purples will be perfect with emerald colours, sheer fabrics and sequins (just right for the 'party season'!) however there aren't any snakeskin print eyes... if only I had been doing the make-up ;) haha. Other trends to feast your eyes, and lips and cheeks for that matter include...red lips both of the bright and berry variety (very Christmas!), rust eyeshadow (yes red eyeshadow! a cardinal sin?! or will it work with the brown twist?), dewy skin, graphic eyes (I did a somewhat similar version for my course work earlier in the year...), shiny eyeshadow (already been rocking that since the start of summer, totally because I knew it was coming into fashion... ;) haha), natural looking blow dries, buns (another favourite-see I knew it wasn't just laziness!) , slicked back ponytails and posh nails with glimmer and glitter :D









Use of redcurrants-2!

Last week, after hosting was over and all the that food was gone!, I decided to use up some more Redcurrants (we recently defrosted, cleaned and organised the freezers (and melted a lot of ice cream! :/) we have about 10 bags of redcurrants left amongst 20 bags of pumpkin and and 15 or so of other fruits...) so I thought I would give a red current pie a go! Savoury of course and you can tell from the pictures I hadn't started my health kick!

For this I used two bags of redcurrants, whole packet of quorn chicken pieces, one packet of puff pastry and a whole Camembert!!! oh and half an onion and the teeniest amount of cream...

Add a little bit of sugar to the Recurrants

Quorn and Onion on the left...

...combine...

with CHEEESE!

pie admirer!

finished (and half eaten!) pie

Simple dog bed!

With a bit of duvet and a throw.old piece of material it is very easy to make a quick, cheap dog bed that our canine friends will love...

Cut Duvet (etc) to size and sew up all loose edges...

Arrange the Duvet in the cloth so you know how it will fit, you can double it up to make it thicker...

Remember to leave a gap to remove filling to wash and attach (strong!) poppers

Popper up and your finished

One happy, messy customer! :)

Yearly Excercise Kick

So its already August and almost my Birthday! We are well into summer once again (even if the weather doesnt agree!) and time is slipping away! So its time for my yearly attempt to "get fit" this years spin being an app for my smart phone and a pair of toning shoes! I have had the (free!) app for a week now, weigh in tonight!!!, and I have actually used a lot...quite compulsivly infact! In fact "Noom", as it is called, eats (haha!) most of my battery power every day leading to frequent recharging however I am recording everything (no lie!) I eat for once (not doing ba on calhories just havent got my 'red/yellow/green' balance quite right and it works out how many cals I burn when working out like the worlds best pedometer :) (approx 3063 cals since I started on tues I'll have you know ;) ). Step two is toning trainers... after spending days and days of my life trying to find some in Size 9 (that you can buy in England! Stupid Skechers!) I have bought some crocs, yes I have succumed to CROCS! But the nice kind! ;) no fit flops, mbts or Skechers for me! I was torn between these somewhat cheaper trainers http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ladies-Avia-Walking-Fitness-Trainers/dp/B005EZAEBQ/ref=sr_1_12?s=shoes&ie=UTF8&qid=1312490453&sr=1-12 and these crocs I just stumbled on http://www.crocs.co.uk/crocs-crocs-tone-skylar-flat/11416,en_GB,pd.html?cid=62S&q=tone. I went for the crocs (in Oyster) even though they were more money because I think I would wear them more in the long run rather than trainers and they are so pretty!! :)
I'll post a review once I've received them! wish me luck...

<3

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