Life lately, in verbs part 2.

I can't believe it's April and I haven't written a blog post yet this year. I want to make this a catch up post but give it a bit of structure! I've done a life lately in verbs before and the original concept comes from Rosie :)

 

Feeling:: very strange. We are now just over one week out to ~the big day~ and in myself I haven't felt stressed however I've cried at work a few times and had some 'coming down with something' type symptoms for the past 2 weeks. I left quite a bit of the stuff I have to diy for this weekend and I would not recommend. Spread stuff out people. 

Writing:: an essay! What an idiot, this is a bit of an explanation for why I've been so absent. I decided to do a uni course with the exam and essay deadline in the same month as my wedding. I've been super fun to be around. 

Reading:: books by women, incidentally. I like to follow what I've been reading on Goodreads and bar one book so far this year I've been reading books exclusively by women. I've decided to try and maintain the trend. My fave so far has been Letters to my Fanny by Cherry Healey. 

Listening:: podcasts. I started off when everyone else did with podcasts by listening to Serial then kind of forgot about podcasts for a while. I can't remember what started it but I decided to start listening to the Woman's Hour podcast when walking Charlie and since then found a few that I've really enjoyed! It feels like I'm doing more for myself ~education wise~ than just listening to music. 

Eating:: bloody everything. I had my final dress fitting and then ate takeaway 3 times in one week. Normally I don't care about putting a bit of extra weight on around Christmas and easter etc as it usually balances out over the next few weeks. However this time, the wedding is single figures away and my goodness it feels strange to have such a snug fitting dress. You don't realise your clothes don't *fit* until you have something that is 100% fitted to your body. Strange concept. Don't worry, my dress will fit as everything people say about the stress keeping your weight stable/ making you accidentally lose weight in the weeks up to your wedding is true. Bodies are weird man. 

Buying:: bikinis! I have never in my life worn a bikini, isn't that a sad concept at 25 years old? I have been too self conscious to wear anything more revealing than the tankini I had at 10 years old until now. It feels stupid to say now and it makes me a bit sad but I've bought some killer bikinis for our Scottish mini moon (hello hot tub on the roof) and I'm looking forward to having some time alone to get used to wearing them before going full public with me bod. I say that like posting pics of myself in them on twitter isn't public ;) 

Yet again, ending a blog post with the whole 'hope I don't leave it so long next time' line again but I really don't. Thank you to Charlotte for giving me the kick up the bum I needed to get writing again. Unless there's a blog post between now and 26/04/2017 I reckon I'll have a pretty special day to update you on next time ;) 

My favourite (none bath bomb) Lush products!

I am a big Lush fan, huge. I know lots of people think it's overpriced, and I do admit that often it's expensive, however, I just can't stay away. I honestly think that very often for what you're getting the price is justified (if you'd have asked me if that was the case when I was a student I'd have said hell naw so I do understand each to their own etc).

These are my reasons for my love affair with Lush: I have fairly sensitive skin and don't like lots of chemical nasties in my products. I also like that you can trust the ethics of Lush, something which I've definitely paid more mind to in the last few years with regards to animal testing, and the last few months with my vegetarian-ish diet (i'm eating fish still at the moment but it's all a process in my eyes, I was a full blown, militant, trying to convert everyone veggie for a few years as a teen!).  Their products are honestly just good, they work! That's the main thing! 

Lush often gets the rep of just a place to buy things to have an indulgent treat yo'self bubble bath but their other products are just as good as their highly snapchat-able instagram-able bath bombs. These are my faves!

Cleansers::

First off, just going to apologise for that bottom picture of the exfoliating cleanser, maybe it's just me but those shiny finger scoop marks are grossing me out. So yeah, soz. These are the only 2 cleansers I ever use for my mug.

 I use Ultrabland, which I believe amongst Lush founder and staff is like the *ultimate* Lush product,  to take off my make up. Grab a scoop and rub it onto a dry face then remove with a nice warm flannel. It removes all make up even waterproof mascara (albeit sometimes with a second go) and leaves my skin feeling hydrated but not greasy. 

Let the good times roll is more of a scrub which I use most mornings because it's so gentle. It uses polenta to make it a scrub, so none of those awful plastic beads that are polluting everything! It says to use it as a body scrub too however my purse strings tighten a touch at the thought of that. It's around £7 for this 100g pot but honestly you only need to use about a fingernail sized scoop for your whole face so it lasts a long time! I can't talk about this one without talking about the amazing smell, it's like cinnamon-y, butter-y popcorn and smells good enough to eat. Yum! (don't eat it  pls).

These are the only products I really use for my face, I think they're a good price for what they are and how long they last, I don't use Lush moisturisers as for me they're a bit more than I'm willing to pay for. 

Shower gel::

Unless you live near the Lush Oxford Street store you're not going to like me for this one, this is honestly the best smelling shower gel on the planet. It's an Oxford Street exclusive at the moment, sometimes it's not even available there and you can only get it in limited runs on the Lush Kitchen! I buy in bulk for both myself and my future sister-in-law every time it's on there. I actually asked my best friend to go into the Lush Oxford street store to get me this big boy 1kg bottle and I almost cried when she agreed and got me it. What a bae. This is, for me, the most soothing smell I've ever come across, I would love it in a perfume, it's comforting and cosy. Sweet but not sickly. I'm real good at describing smells, ahem. If you get a chance, give this a whiff and then use it forever more in your evening showers. 

They do also make a bath bomb in this scent which is available everywhere so you can indulge in the mega relaxation fairly easily. 

Winter saviours, hands and lips::

Helping Hands is a fairly new addition to my Lush collection and although in this photo it looks untouched I've actually used it everyday since I got it about 3 weeks ago! It seems infinite!  I had never really suffered with dry hands before even with being a nurse and washing my hands 100x a day, however this is my first winter working as a community nurse and the cold along with washing my hands 100x a day seems to have done it! For saying how thick and moisturising this is it sinks in really well, something I need when I have 2 seconds to put it on before driving on to my next visit. Just a great, does what it says on the tin, product. Nothing fancy. 

Honey trap lip balm is an old favourite and was actually the first ever product I bought from Lush. Unlike other petroleum based lip products (stay away!) this one actually moisturises your lips rather than coating them and making them feel slippery/moisturised but not actually doing any good! It doesn't leave your lips white and cakey either, rather settling to a slight sheen.  

The lip scrub, Sugar Plum Fairy, just happens to be the one i'm using at the moment. I've tried others and didn't much like the taste. These are basically just sugar scrubs to remove dry skin from lips then lick off (yum). 

This is the one product I've included in this post that id say probably usually isn't worth the money if you have 30 minutes to look on pinterest and make your own. I bought it in desperation because of horrendously dry and rough lips, it really helps with the mixture of scrubbing sugar and moisturising oil but as I said, unless you like a little luxury, make your own (there are loads of recipes out there) but for a treat, go for it. 

There we have it! My ultimate Lush products that aren't bath bombs, I hope you've enjoyed this post, let me know if you try anything that I recommended! I'm currently in the process of writing about our brand new (4 year old) adopted ex racing greyhound Charlie and our experience of the adoption :) So check back for that, he's reet cute. 

October Round Up!

Oh, I did that thing again. I didn't blog for a month. It's been a very busy work month for all kinds of boring reasons and I'm still not very good at chasing myself and finding time for blogging. I thought I'd do a bit of an October round up / things I've been loving in my absence!

Invites!

We posted our wedding invites!! October signified the 6 month mark until our wedding, when I look back at something from 6 months ago it feels like no time at all so I know it will come in so quickly now. I designed/mocked up our invites myself around a week after we got engaged to check with myself whether I could do it. I could! (there were a few design changes after that original 5 minute mock up!). We used printed.com to get them well, printed and I would highly recommend them. For some reason the files corrupted the first few times they were uploaded, causing a bright green border on the RSVPs! Instead of just carrying on and printing them which would have been a nightmare they called me and checked with me whether it was right as they didn't think it matched the rest of the designs. It just felt really personal that someone was checking through everything. We've received a few RSVPs back and it's so exciting building our playlist from people's requests!

Blogsocks. 
Charlotte has made this brilliant blog to help people find their new favourite blogs, it's so great because I find it so hard to find blogs with a smaller following. I usually prefer these blogs because they're just a bit less polished and more personal. I've linked the round up above and this is the interview that I did, I felt like a bit of an idiot for being the only person to actually include recipes in mine but i hope if you try them you enjoy them!!

A big old change of a haircut.

A lot of people tried to talk me out of this haircut with it only being 6 months to the wedding, however, I have always been someone that has a fringe. It's only in this last year that I've managed to successfully grow out a fringe and keep it grown out for any length of time! I'm so happy with this change though and I'm sure I can figure a way to style it for the wedding. Ive basically given up on my eyebrows since having it cut and wearing not a stitch of make up day to day. It's kind of great.

Family visits. 

We had some family visits this month from Sam's fam and my future in laws and it was so lovely! We had a really nice day out in keswick, walking around, looking at the beautiful scenery and eating so much food. I had a vegetarian queasadila that I almost sent back because I was sure it had meat in it. It was very delicious but I'm not sure I enjoyed the uncertainty!!

We chose a great day for our visit, even though it was cold it was so bright and lovely. How lucky are we to live less than an hour from these views!

Absolute silliness. 

I don't know why but I feel like we have just had so many laughs this month. The top picture started off as me trying to get a nice selfie but I think these turned out so much better.
The bottom picture is proof that my personal training is paying off, we were kind of just messing around getting ready to go to the gym after work and I wondered (no idea why) if i could pick Sam up!! I honestly crack up laughing every time I look at this picture, Sam's face is hysterical, he looks so pleased. I'm also creasing up with laughter in the photo, if I hadn't been laughing so much maybe id have been able to squat while holding him up ;) I think this is a move that will have to happen on our wedding day ;)

I say this every time but I'm really going to try and keep up with blogging again now! I need to get back into practicing photography!!
Most of these pictures come from my Instagram which you can find here.
I'm also over on Twitter ranting out general life and talking about how much I love pizza.

Back soon!

16 things you know if you rent your home.

This evening Collette and I were discussing our separate rental properties and the landlord convention that they must have every year to keep up their huge cliches when I decided to start writing this post. I haven't had #inspiration to write a post so quickly in a while so I'm a bit excited about this. (I know, bit geeky).
I've rented a few places over the last couple of years and have definitely noticed some similarities. Here we go!

1. For some reason all of the walls will definitely be magnolia.

2. If you're lucky there might even be some kind of odd textured wallpaper that has had magnolia painted over the top of it.

3. You probably wouldn't actually dare paint over any part of it no matter how bland it may be because that deposit is a lot of money to not get back just for a slightly more aesthetically pleasing wall.

4. You've probably had a bit of a tiff with a landlord/ letting agency about not getting part of your deposit back. It is soul destroying when you've been a decent tenant and spent a whole day deep cleaning before you move out. So fuck you and your cleaner who charges £50 to get some limescale off a shower screen Janice. (Any resemblance to persons living or dead is merely coincidental.)

5. The carpets are usually some kind of shit brown/taupe/tan colour.

6. If they're not and you have cream carpets you spend all of your time on edge about spills.

7. At some point you will have looked at a house for sale on your street and worked out how much less per month you'd be paying for a mortgage. If only the rental market were less extortionate and you could save for a deposit. #millenialproblems

8. Your landlord probably has a 'handyman' that they use instead of getting actual work people in. It's probably their dad.

9. If your landlord is local, you may have lived with a problem for a while instead of having the stress of them coming to inspect it themselves and seeing how you live in their house.

10. You will never want to do anything major to the house to make it feel like your own. Usually because you're not allowed but also no matter how long you may be thinking of staying somewhere it always feels a bit temporary.

11. Every so often you get itchy feet and spend every spare minute on Zoopla or Right Move lusting after other places to rent near you. (Look this one has exposed brick, think of the Instagrams!)

12. You will look on in awe at people 5+ (I'm 24) years younger than you buying their own houses and wondering if they sold their soul to do so.

13. There will always be someone who looks down on you for renting "it's dead money!". Fuck off, mate.

14. If you decide to get married or have a child before buying a house you will probably find yourself justifying it to everyone and yourself, constantly.

15. Sometimes when you're pretending you don't actually want to own your own house you can bring out the old "You know mortgage basically translates as death contract, right? I just don't want to be tied down!"

16. No (or hardly any) rental places in the UK allow pets and it's basically the most upsetting thing in my life at any given time.

Hope you liked my little listicle (isn't that what the cool cats over at Buzzfeed call them?) good bye for now from me and my patterned magnolia walls and shit brown carpet in my little rented terraced house that I love. 

 

How I did my make up in school.

Recently these videos of how people did their make up in school have been my absolute favourite to watch, probably because of the fact that no matter where you are now it's a reminder that we all started somewhere. I wish I was exaggerating with my make up looks but I'm honestly not. I even sent these to my Mum for her to look at and check. 

Age 12-13

This was the phase I had when I was desperately trying to fit in, if you didn't wear make up who even were you?? My Mum had banned me from wearing make up to school because in our school you weren't meant to wear it until Upper (year 10) I think! But I would sneak bronzer, eye shadow and eyeliner onto the bus with me, sometimes mascara if I was feeling brave. (It was harder to take off at the end of the day).
I wish I could remember the brand of (always baby pink) eye shadow that I used but I can't, it has been banned from my memory forever. This one is a maybelline colour tattoo that I actually love when I use it well. The bronzer I used to use was free on a magazine, and that was where I learned by bronzer SKILLZ (only put it where you naturally get tanned i.e. your nose, cheeks and forehead according to me)! Concealed lips, black eyeliner ONLY on the lower waterline you would so not put it on the top and a bit of mascara if I was brave.
My hair would be so slicked back with 2 little tendrils coming down, sometimes these would be gelled. All of this make up would then be removed with soap and water in the school toilet before I caught the bus home. Lovely. I don't have any pictures of me with my make up like this which I'm actually a little gutted about! I must have known even then that it would haunt me in the future.

Aged 14-15.

Myspace throwback anyone?! (Rawr means I love you in dinosaur). I think this happened to me when I discovered Greenday, took a trip to blue banana and just wanted to be myspace famous. My side parting couldn't be too deep and there could never be enough eyeliner. No joke, once I broke my black eyeliner and I asked Mum if I could have a day off sick because I couldn't handle it if the boy I fancied (who wore the skinniest black jeans and had the biggest black hair of course) saw me without it.
This was the time of band tees, black drainpipes and Vans. I even convinced my Nanna to buy me plain black Vans for school and they were LITERALLY PLIMSOLES. I'm so sorry Nanna. The brands of make up at this time however didn't matter it just needed to be the blackest it could be. I think bourjois did a mascara that was called blackest black so of course I used that but any black eye pencil was good. I didn't wear foundation day to day but when I did it was just the palest one I could find, gone were the bronzer days!
I do have some photos from this era:

I'm sure I was mortified by the gaps in my fringe at the time. 

The top picture isn't a good example of the eyeliner but it is peak fringe. My mum must have convinced me that masses of black eyeliner wasn't a good idea when we were at an outdoor gig in the heat. That was when we went to see Red Hot Chili Peppers, amazing. Or it could have been the start of the 'phase'. I'll have to confirm that one with mi madre.
The bottom one I remember being so mad at my mum for putting it up in our house because I was wearing a football shirt which so wasn't my vibe. It was at a family barbecue and we'd have a water fight I think which only added to my eyeliner goals.

I don't really remember the point where I stopped feeling like I had to put myself in a box but I know it happened while I was at school. Eventually I stopped wearing things to match some kind of image I was trying to build and stopped not wearing things for the same reason. I unapologetically listened to Greenday and Britney Spears. It's a way of being that has actually followed me well into adulthood in that I'll wear things if I like them, not just because they're trendy or someone else has one. I think it's a good way to be.