It's snow fun

It's beginning to look a lot like christ.... oh wait, its January, and the fluffy white heavens have been well and truly opened here in the UK the past week. Damn, where was the festive atmosphere in December? Nevertheless as per usual the UK has struggled to come to terms with the weather. Why is it we seem to come to a hault when in snows? Crazy Aye. I for one still love the snow, albeit I've gone past the stage of wanting to go out for hours and play in it making endless snow angels and snow igloos pretending me and my friends lived in the Arctic (anyone else do that when they were little?!). So I settled for walk in the park right near to us with my mum on afternoon to take in the cold frosty air. Personally I love seeing snow pictures so here's a few I snapped whilst donning my wellies.

It really was so picturesque, and helped dejumble my mumbled brain for a short amount of time. And it also gave me a chance to wear my trusty £3 Primark bobble hat I've been living in, who says cosy has to be expensive. Hats off to anyone who had to brave the roads, I was lucky and got to stay in surrounded by my uni books/procrastinating with YouTube videos. Hope everyone stayed safe! Now let's hope it melts soon and we don't have to skate everywhere...

Happy Sunday

Lately, I've found myself in a bit of a motivational rut and letting myself plod along with lack of inspiration. But, its time I grabbed life by the reigns and let my positive self shine through. I woke up this Sunday feeling inspired. I see other people succeed at things, whether its a job, a hobby, a lifestyle choice, and find myself thinking if they can succeed why can't I? Don't get me wrong there's already a long list of things I'm happy to have succeeded at, but I'm excited to make new goals and dreams happen. I may not be the most experienced crayon in the box, or sharpest to the mark but the way I see it, if there's a will there's a way. If that smidgen of zest for something exciting and life changing if there then why shouldn't we let positivity run through us? So this is a bit of inspiration for myself and others looking for achieve things with determination, hard work, and a little sprinkle of love. The World is our oyster, so find the pearl.

2013 here we are...

So, it had been a couple of week since we also toasted our flutes and cheered in the new year, and so far its been quite a positive one for me. Not an immense amount has happened but more than anything I'm feeling quite excited and positive about the year ahead, here's hoping it's a good one!
I've had a few nice events to start of my new year happily. (apologies for the grainy photos, as they were all taken out I had to rely on my phone camera)

It feels like forever ago now but I celebrate New Years Eve with a delicious curry and a couple of glasses of wine with a few friends down the local pub. I've been out the past few years and just find it ridiculously overrated, expensive and a bit of a let down (I always feel really anxious building up to midnight, who knows why?!) is this just me? It was a nice relaxed night and I shall definitely be doing something similar next time. I wore a gold sequined open back top from Asos, which I absolutely love as it combines glitz and comfort.

                                       

I also had my work's staff party to look forward. I only work part time as a waitress when I'm not at Uni but everyone's so lovely and get's on so well so it's really nice to all get together outside of work. We had a meal (Christmas style of course, even though it was January - turkey overload) then all got our dancing shoes on and hit Birmingham. Fun night had by all. I wore a black midi dress from Topshop, such a good buy for only £28!

And finally, more recently I made a weekend trip to visit my chum Lottie in my favourite city,
London. We went to Koko in Camden on friday night which was fun. Really good music, and plenty of dancing, followed by an interesting bus journey home involving guitars and plenty of singing. On Saturday I made Lottie join me in being a tourist before crashing out watching a film on the evening (party animals!) The weekend definitely made me fall in love with London even more, although we definitely annoyed people on our journeys by singing renditions of Queen's bohemian rhapsody out loud. Anyone else sing a song they've got in their head out loud in a very out of tune manner and forget they're in public? No? I may need help.

Just a snippet round up as I always love seeing what other have been upto and seeing a few snaps. What have you been doing in the first couple weeks of New Year?

Lavender locks

Now this is a product I have been road testing for the past for weeks, and I must say, it has been a little life saver for my tresses.

For the life of me, I can't decide what colour I want my hair dyed, and whilst I continue to fret about this, Fudge purple shampoo has been keeping my hair fresh.

 I have bog standard highlighted hair that has a massive tendency to go extremely brassy and dull 4-6 weeks after having my roots done. Unfortunately my student funds don't stretch to me having it done this often - and let's face it my hair would become even more dried out. I love being blonde, but the upkeep is a pain in the...well just a pain!


For a while I used this shampoo, which I was quite disappointing by. It took a good few weeks of use for results to start showing, and even them my hair looked less brightened and more dark/dull, albeit quite ash toned. So I started the hunt for something better and came across Fudge, which had some cracking reviews, and was quite affordable I must say. My Mother actually kindly found me some in a beauty store near us, but plenty of online sites carry it.

         





































Fudge violet toning shampoo 300ML - varying from £8-12

After following simple directions, I have interchanged using it with my regular shampoo, leaving on for 3-5 minutes at a time, and the results are great.

As a WARNING: Do not leave on for too long. You may end up with sections of the hair looking slightly purple tinted, you don't want to look like you copied your grandma and had a blue rinse now do you!
 Taking head of this precaution, if you want an affordable product that will last a while (I've had this for six weeks now and still going strong) and help condition your dry hair as well as restore ash toned brightness, give it a whirl. I haven't looked back, and have even had compliments on my hair looking a good colour. Pah, who needs dye!

Affordable find #1

Recently, I have been oohing and ahhing over numerous beauty products that right now my budget doesn't seem to stretch to as I'm trying to be good and save for ONCE in my life in preparation for travelling next year.
So because of this I've been on the hunt for products on the cheaper sides of things, whether new out or old, that are good enough replacements until I find that money trees do exist. I'm going to come up with a list of my favourite affordable range of products. My knowledge on beauty and skincare isn't top notch, but as a student who likes to dabble in the area I thought, why not!
To start of with is my favourite body moisturisers, and this definitely wasn't a hard one for me, as I absolutely love and have been using for a good while now the Body Shop body butters. They've been around for years, and have certainly been mentioned before, but I adore them as a reliable go to, and they really do last forever.

  I've tried other body butters, but always seem to go back to the Body Shop's range, possibly because of the bright colourful packaging and the fact they smelt so yummy, but for my skin they seem to do the trick.
They smell gorgeous and although at first feel quite thick, really do sink into the skin and feel really moisturising.

They usually retail at around £12.50 for the big tubs, which yes isn't THAT cheap but they last for ages and often have sales on where they retail for half the price, and if I'm correct, theres one on now! Go to http://www.thebodyshop.co.uk/

TRESemme Haircare

A couple of days ago, I touched back down on the British Isles to the view of beautiful torrential rain and storms, oh the joys living on our small island brings us. Luckily I had been able to escape the weather on a break to Spain for the week with my family, with was indeed lovely and relaxing. Even the hotel my mum picked which just so happened to cater of an age range between 60-80 didn't put a dampener on the week (don't we all love bingo around the pool and cheesy Rod Stewart impersonators for the evening entertainment).
Unfortunately, my hair tends to channel Monica off Friends in the humidity,and until I can muster up the courage to try corn-rows, I was determined to find some miracle to save my hair from the extra heat I usually have to put on to style.
I have tried a lot of Aussie products, mainly the 3-minute wonder treatment, and as good as I think it is, when I last took it away it just didn't seem to do the trick on my hair. So, I looked else where and found myself looking in the way of keratin products. Having tried other products, including Kerastase, I know the intense protein works on my hair. However, on a budget I found myself in boots purchasing the new TRESemme Keratin Smooth range on 3 for 2, the restoring shampoo and conditioner and deep treatment mask.

The products promise to restore the natural Keratin in your hair and create a soft and silky finish.
Unfortunately I discovered after purchasing that the products only contained hydrolyzed keratin, which is far from the real stuff. I suppose it's the price you pay when buying on a whim and into some new advertising scheme, but then again I definitely didn't expect it to turn out to be some wonder treatment (these use Replicine Functional Keratin technology) Regardless of this after using the products my hair did look shinier which is unusual for my bleached hair, and the mask really created a softer feeling to my hair. For now it's staying in my hair care regime, and as a budget substitute product it has done the trick for me. 


Has anyone else tried the TRESemme products?

Blanco

As the sun in the sky dissappears for now (bleugh), I'm still determined to dress as summery as I can my sporting my new favourite nails. Simple white with glitter over the top. I really want to get my hands on a multicoloured one (looking at OPI) but for now this pretty silver is keeping the look how I want.

Models Own - Juicy Jules    Number 17 - Mini Skirt, both from Boots.