Sneak Peek

To be continued...

NOTD: Blues

I have a huge (to me at least) collection of nail polishes and decided recently it was about time I started to use them all at least once.

This week for my manicure I couldn't decide which new one to wear so I just chose a variety of random blues. I was initially thinking of doing a gradient manicure but at the last minute decided to go for a random pattern instead. 

From left to right:

Beauty UK - Jade (No. 52)

Barry M - Cobalt Blue (291)

17 Lasting Fix - SeaBreeze

Missguided - Misstique

Collection 2000 - Button Moon (33)

Avon Nail Experts Liquid Freeze Spray

E.L.F. Clear Polish

Barry M Crackle in Blue (315) 

The finished look! I quite like it! I chose to only do the crackle on the ring finger as a sort of accent nail. Do excuse the poor picture and the state of my fingers! I am a nervous biter and was rushing to take pictures before I went to work :( 

The Living Daylights - Free Album!

The Living Daylights are a four piece band hailing from Lincoln in the United Kingdom. Danny Harrison - the lead vocalist - has been friends with my boyfriend for a long time and has also become a friend to me through an old workplace, so I wanted to take this opportunity to do what little promotion I can offer in return for just being a great person. 

Image courtesy of The Living Daylights tumblr

They have just released a new album titled 'What Keeps You Breathing' and also have a self titled album which was released a few yeas back (and is available to listen to on Spotify). They have toured all over the UK (and are currently on tour promoting their new album) and Europe and have also made appearances at both Reading and Leeds festivals.

As an act of huge generosity the band have made their latest album available to download for FREE from their tumblr: http://thelivingdaylightsuk.tumblr.com/

I would wholeheartedly recommend you download this album, not just because Danny is a friend, but because they make awesome music that I genuinely feel everyone needs in their life. 

Their tumblr also contains information about the band itself as well as a shop and updates on their tour etc.

(I would just like to point out that this was done without their knowledge and I wasn't compensated for this in any way, shape or form)

A Week In Pictures

The past week (and a couple extra days) has been quite busy for me. It's weird how filled up my time is this summer compared to last. And that's despite the fact I had two jobs last summer! Anyway, I'm not complaining, it makes a change to have things to do. 


I thought I would upload a few pictures taken over the last week or so for a quick blog post. 

One of the IT Technicians amazing car! Highlight of my morning was definitely walking past this in the car park. 

Well, I thought I had rotated this but clearly it failed. Read this little fact in cosmo and am currently figuring out whether it's got some truth behind it! 

Gorgeous little bracelet my boyfriends sister brought back from Turkey for me :)  I'm a sucker for quirky bracelets and the turquoise stones are very in fashion at the moment! 

Enjoying the luxury that is having a bath whilst visiting my mum for the weekend! (We only have a shower in my student house)

Enjoying winding up my Grandma's budgie for what could be the last time.
Last time I saw him in May he had managed to rip a claw off whilst in his cage, we didn't think he'd pull through as he bled a LOT and was very timid afterwards. He still hasn't healed properly and is still in pain a lot of the time. It makes me very sad leaving him every time knowing it could well be the last time I see him. He's been a part of my life for such a long time despite budgies supposedly having short life spans, it'll be odd going to my Grandma's and him not being there. 

Cooking Mum Sunday lunch! I will admit it doesn't look that amazing in this picture, but I can assure you once it was drowning in gravy it was delicious.

Randomly spotting old friends in the paper! (Adam, on the left)

Wondering why Lidl were selling equestrian accessories (especially in a city like mine where people don't really have a lot of money)

Stock take yet again - possibly the worst part of my job.

New manicure (details to come) and handmade (by me) scrabble ring! 

Magazine Freebies

Just thought I'd write a quick post on this months cosmopolitan magazine. It has Rihanna on the cover (awesome woman!) and comes with a free Missguided nail polish. 

My first HDR picture! 

There are three colours to choose from - a gorgeous blue, a red and a pink (possibly, I can't remember!) 

I chose to get the blue polish as it's quite a unique colour and not one I seem to have in my collection. 

In this picture it looks sort of like a slightly darker Tiffany blue due to the flash. I think it's really cool that they decided not to play it so safe with their colour choices too, usually you find that magazines only give away neutral-ish colours.

I will put swatches and a review up sometime within the next week!

Holiday 2011

Today my boyfriend and I decided we're definitely going to go on holiday this year :)! 


We have been debating quite regularly on whether we could afford to go or not, where we would go, when etc etc. It was getting frustrating and weary and quite frankly at one point I just thought "is this really going to be worth it?" 


Then last night I revisited an old idea we had first discussed a few months back - backpacking in Italy. The boy's older sister has been backpacking around Asia/Australia for almost a year now and filled we envy we came up with the idea to do the same, just on a smaller scale, back near Christmas. The idea never came to fruition and we never touched on the subject again. 


Until I stumbled upon this website: Plus Camping Michelangelo 


Located next to the Piazzale Michelangelo on a hillside not too far from the centre of Florence, Italy, it is a camp site/hostel type accommodation with a difference. You stay in decent sized tents but for the price of a hostel. We will end up paying around £13 a night each for a private two man tent and will share other facilities with the rest of the camp site. 


There are also a number of other Plus Camp Sites located not only around Italy but also in several other countries. 


We are so excited to be going and there are lots of different things we are looking into doing whilst we're there. Although we only have a week we will certainly be making the most of it. From visiting the local tourist attractions to taking a day trip to Pompeii and the bay of Naples, it's going to be an amazing experience for us both. 

Image courtesy of Google Images

Library Wishlist

This week I joined the library. I have always been an avid reader but the town I grew up in didn't really have a decent library. Unless you wanted fiction, there wasn't much to borrow and I tired quickly of reading trashy chick-lit. I do already have a large pile of books at home to read so I thought to start with, I'd borrow some non-fiction books. Here are a couple of titles I intend to borrow within the next month or so.

Jemma Kidd Make-Up Masterclass: Beauty Bible of Professional Techniques and Wearable Looks

I'd love to read this simply because I've never really looked at a make-up book before and I think it could be quite interesting to see what techniques I can pick up from it.

Curves: Permanent Results Without Permanent Dieting

This looks like a really old 80's diet book but I think it could be quite interesting. I'm really keen to lose a stone by the time I hopefully go to Florence with the other half in September. But I don't want to lose my shape ( I struggle to have boobs as it is LOL). Could this be the answer?

Any other suggestions fiction/non-fiction for me?

Life As We Know It...

I would like to apologise for the lack of blog posts recently. I had every intention of doing a week long series about festival attire/beauty etc. However, as you may have assumed, life got in the way. I have had a two week period of hell at work and have been so stressed that I've literally been getting home, eating and falling to sleep. It's not been nice, it's not been pretty and I certainly don't get paid enough to cope with that sort of stress. 


But, life must go on and so I am back. I feel a lot less stressed and in a place to rejuvenate my blog somewhat. I've got several ideas in the pipeline and lots of different features I hope you will enjoy. It may be a slow start getting back into the swing of things  but I'll get there!


In other news, I received my second year results today and am delighted to say I achieved a mid 2:2 :) Not as good as I was hoping for but I had a few rough patches this year as I didn't like my course much. So to do as well as I did is such a huge feeling of joy/relief to me. I'm definitely looking forward to my third and final year, doing the part of the joint degree I actually like (as I have now dropped the accounts part and am just doing finance).


Sorry for the slight essay and I hope you continue to look out for my posts :)