What I Ate Wednesday x2!

So I've been a bit M.I.A lately I actually did take all the photos for a WIAW last week and then ended up too busy to actually write/post it so I thought I'd give you guys a bit of a double whammy tonight!

The reason I've been so busy is because I've recently started working for a wonderful Startup company called HypeBadger (click the link and sign up, like their Facebook and follow on Twitter, pretty please!) as a social media and content production intern. The site tracks all of your favourite shows, movies, games, books and more as well as notifying you of new upcoming projects and then notifies you of any news on release dates etc. It's a great site and I'm really enjoying working for them, it's just a tad time consuming when you have a 3 year old, gym to go to and uni as well so my blog seems to have taken a back seat lately, I've not forgotten about you I promise!

Anyways there's my little life update, still on the hunt for a paid position somewhere just nowhere seems to think I'm suitable, tis a pain! But now on with the food!

Breakfast 

This is last week's breakfast, yes it's my usual fruit granola with added fruit. They didn't have my red currants in Asda last week so I had to settle for raspberries which aren't my favourites but ah well. I also had my drinking yoghurt and tea of course.

Lunch

Okay so I've been told that if I want to have pasta to have it at lunch time (I don't remember if I've mentioned that..memory like a sieve) so I decided to have my spaghetti bolognese for lunch. Actually thinking about it, this first day is actually a What I ate Thursday, hence the pasta. I always tend to have something a bit more carby on a Tuesday or Thursday so that it doesn't matter as much as I work it off at the gym an hour or so later. 

Dinner

After the carb fuelled lunch, I had a pretty healthy stir fry (I can't help it, I'm addicted) which does actually have a tonne of veg in, the noodles just always end up on top. Also had a few prawn crackers as I'm one of those weird people who needs something salty and crunchy with a meal.

Snack/Dessert

Yes. I am still a child. I don't care how old I am, I will always love jelly and ice cream. Me and my friend were actually saying they should sell it in restaurants.. maybe one day!

Now for this weeks :) 

Breakfast

I do eat other things for breakfast! I decided that I fancied something a bit different and I remember my Aunt had posted a recipe on Facebook for her super healthy pancakes. These are made with 2 eggs and a mashed banana. Yep, that's all folks! I didn't believe it would work either but they were bloomin' lovely as she'd say! I also topped it with a handful of strawberries, blueberries and red currants as well as a little lemon juice and touch of syrup.

Lunch 

I've really got to try to stop buying subways for lunch on a Wednesday just because it's easier, so today I put a jacket potato in the oven for when I got back from taking Tayla to nursery. I'm not always a fan of jackets because sometimes the potatoes aren't the best, but this one was perfect! All crispy and fluffy. I topped it with some tuna mayo and served with a salad, apple and pear green tea and a yummy clementine

Snack

Umm.. I got hungry after picking Tayla up. Usually I can wait until dinner for food, but she was having one and it looked delicious so I had to have one too! I have my scones plain because that's just how I prefer them. I do like them warmed up,  but my microwave's broke at the moment, so cold had to do. 

I try and drink more water, but milk and fruit juice always seem so much more appetising.

Dinner

Looking back, my lunch should have been my dinner.. In my defence, I didn't know I was having this until about 6pm as I didn't have anything else to eat. It's chicken, mozzarella and smoked pancetta filled pasta with chicken. I know it looks really fattening and yes I am healthy 90% of the time but tis hard to have veg and that when my mum's bought this! I probably shouldn't have had it due to my cold giving me another stupid cold sore and you're not supposed to eat pasta when you have them but hey. I made my own sauce with WeightWatchers garlic onion and chive cream cheese and some milk, was lovely! 

I also had a glass of apple juice and a chocolate mousse, but didn't think to photograph them. 

What did you eat today?

Leave yours below and I'll happily read them :)

xo

Homemade Face mask

So considering I'm currently unattached (boohoo and all that) I spent my Valentines night in with the family. But to be fair a Chinese takeaway and then watching the Notebook with your girl friend (across the internet, weirdly enough) is just as good for me!

Due to the darn weather, my skins not been doing so well of late, so I was in dire need of some TLC and thought I'd try my hand at a homemade face mask. We can all get stressed sometimes and there's nothing I like more than having a nice long bath with some candles and a face mask. I've never made anything like this before so I was a bit skeptical. I researched quite a lot and came across the Lemon and honey sugar scrub. I've been ill quite a lot lately so I had an abundance of lemon and honey in the house.

Ingredients - 1 and a half tbsp honey

1 and a half tbsp sugar (granulated)

1 tbsp lemon juice

You pretty much just mix it all together until it thickens slightly. I actually made mine a tad too runny and it ended up slipping off my face so I'd say you want as little lemon juice as possible, just add it bit by bit. Apply a small amount to your face and neck, leave it for 5 minutes and then rinse off with a warm flannel. It left my skin feeling quite tingly and very soft, so I recommend it highly! And it's so easy to do as well.

Have you ever tried to make your own face masks?

Hope you've had a great weekend!

xo

Birchbox #2 February

Month two of Birchbox and another six items in the box!

First up is the Gilchrist and Soames shower gel. It's a pretty good size for a sample bottle would probably last me about 3 showers. I've used it the once and I'm not the bigger fan of the fragrance, I love my fruity fragrances for shower gel but this was a nice sample :)

I was actually saying to myself I really need some more exfoliator as my skin's been really dry lately and hey presto, Birchbox to the rescue! It uses all natural ingredients so it's perfect for my sensitive skin. I've been using a garnier one lately but it's been weirdly aggravating my skin so I had to stop, which is a shame as it smells amazing.

This exfoliator is to be used up to twice a week, for fresh soft skin. Plus a little goes a long way so I think this sample could definitely last a few weeks.

Apologies for the poor picture, always difficult to photograph see through bottles! This is the Beauty Protector protect & oil. It's been a bit of a blogger fave according to their site and it smells of coconuts. I adore coconut scented things so this is great for me! I've used it the once in damp hair as suggested and I was pleasantly surprised, whether it protected my hair I'm not sure, it made it smell great and didn't make it greasy like most oils can. 

This is the Leighton Denny Message in a Bottle nail polish. It retails at £11 and this sample is actually the full sized bottle! I love getting nail polish, especially when it's free, well sort of free considering it's nearly the price of the full box. There were a number of different colours you could get and to be hones this wouldn't have been one that I picked up in store, but I do like it! I painted my nails on Friday without a base or top coat (as I'm out, mine went a tad gloopy) and it's not chipped yet. My initial thought when I was painting my nails strangely was that it reminded me of a mermaid.. which is apt considering the name of the colour.

The star product of the box was the Eyeko skinny liquid liner. I've never been a fan of liquid liner, but this is sort of more a liquid liner pen and it's pretty great. It's £12 for the full size, I think I got the half size which is still good. I've used it a few times since receiving it and I'm definitely a fan, it's very long lasting and very easy to apply. 

The lifestyle extra this month was this dainty little bar of Green & Black's 70% cocoa solids dark chocolate. Which was eaten up literally 30 seconds after this picture was taken.

So in conclusion my second Birchbox was even more of a hit than my first! I'm definitely excited to see what's in next months box, and seeing the star product, as they've partnered up with Lulu Guiness. 

What did you get in your Birchbox this month?

xo.

Obsessions

As I've been on a bit of a 'all about me' kick at the moment, I thought I'd give you a little insight into the things I'm completely obsessed with at the moment. 

Spotify

Music is a big part of my life. I'm forever trying to find new artists and new songs to fall in love with. Spotify came out a while back but had a very limited use unless you actually paid for the £9.99 monthly subscription. Now they've introduced a free version where you get pretty much all of the use of Spotify for free, the only disadvantages are that you have to listen to adverts every couple of songs and can't listen offline. This being said, the free version is still pretty good and definitely a new obsession of mine. I haven't listened to my iPod or iTunes in weeks!

Pinterest

Pinterest is a great way to find inspiration, new things and interact with people who love the same things as you! I actually do use Pinterest a lot. Mainly for when I'm bored, or hungry as I find loads of recipes on there. As the picture says; it's a place to waste a lot of time. But if you don't mind spending hours looking at pictures of everything and anything that interests you, this should be one of your bookmarked sites. You can check out my Pinterest and all my boards here.

Pendant necklaces

Ahh this is almost as big an obsession as my eyeshadow collection (which I have managed to quieten down, haven't bought anything new in ages!). I have well over 20 different pendant necklaces. They just go with anything and everything and add that little extra something to your outfits. I seem to have a big thing with animal pendants at the moment, my owl, eagle and elephant necklaces are among my most worn. I just can't help it, when I see a cute little pendant necklace I have to get it!

Tattoos

Yes I am a bit of a girly girl, I do love a bit of pink and I do love my fashion (hence the blog!) but I have a huge tattoo obsession. Well, I'd call it more of an addiction than an obsession. I have 8 and have many more planned, but as the picture says; who cares? It's my body. I don't understand the huge prejudice against people with tattoos. Nobody cares about people displaying art around their homes, I just display mine on my body :). Unless they're offensive, they shouldn't bother people! Well that's my opinion anyways!

Books

I love to read! I don't read as often as I want to, but that's just because I can't find the time.. or I get too distracted via searching on websites for random crap. I'll read anything from crime novels to 50 Shades of Grey (it's like marmite that book, I had to give it a go). Considering I'm a literature student, I suppose the love of reading is pretty good. I'm currently reading a book called Knockemstiff (as mentioned in my TMI tag) although my favourite books are the Fever series by Karen Moning. 

Photography

Photography is one of my great loves also. I did a photography course in college, but had to leave due to having Tayla. I absolutely love taking photographs of things, and I really need to get back into it. I think the obsession with photography coincides with my obsession to travel. I'd love to travel the world one day and just photograph what I see. I love how you can convey so much emotion in one tiny picture. 

Just another little insight into me and my obsessions. What are you currently obsessed with?

xo

Birchbox #1 January 2014

So this is my first Birchbox, I realise that the majority of you beauty box subscribers have already gotten yours and have read loads of review on it, but ah well, here's mine. 

First impressions on the box is it's considerably smaller than that of Glossybox, although this definitely didn't mean less in quantity! I received 6 items as opposed to the usual 4 maybe 5 items I'm used to. Also the Birchbox leaflet tells you all about the products and how to use them.

First up is the Lavera hand cream. It contains organic shea butter and almond oil to protect and nourish winter hands. I don't personally use hand creams, I just have no need but it smells quite nice and did make my hands quite soft. This is probably a product I'll pass on to my mother and her ginormous collection of hand creams.

Second is the Itsu Miso Soup. I must say this one was a surprise to get in the box, but I have seen Birchbox giving away chocolate before so there you go. I did actually try this last Wednesday and umm.. yeah, did not like so much, okay, AT ALL. Yes it's only 42 calories and yes it's all healthy and what not but nope. Do not like miso soup.

Another body lotion from Bee Kind. Cute name but I'm really not a fan of body lotion, I buy it, try it and then never end up using it again so find it a great waste of money. This one smells of lovely lemon (one of my favourite scents) and actually is one of few body lotions where a little goes a long way. A little bigger than a pea-sized amount actually did my whole leg! 

This is the 'blanc cachemire, crème de jour protectrice' which is a moisturiser from as you might have guessed; France. It's a protective day cream that retails at around £54.75 so this was a pretty good sample! I've been using it most days over the past week and my skin definitely hasn't succumbed to drying out during this harsh, horrible, dreary weather that needs to go away already.

The Phillip Kingsley moisture balancing conditioner was a great surprise. I love haircare products as I'm always trying to find new things to refresh my forever dyed locks. It smells lovely and although I was very pleased to receive it, my hair is pretty long now, and pretty thick so this did about a quarter of my hair and I used my Vo5 on the rest so I can't quite say just how moisturising it is. 

The star product of this month was the Benefit POREfessional primer. I am ashamed to admit this is my first benefit product! I just can't afford the brand :(. I did love it, and it keeps my make up staying all day long and does actually give me a smoother look. But, on the downside if my face is dry, it does tend to feel a little like it's rolling off and flaking up if you know what I mean, which you probably don't as that was a rubbish way of explaining what I mean. But even still, I like it!

The verdict for the first Birchbox: 8/10. I like all the products (except the soup) so I'm definitely glad I switched over, looking forward to what I get next (well this) month!

xo.

TMI Tag

      

Hey everyone, so I finally did it and made my first YouTube video! Granted it's not the best quality and also the silly audio messes up halfway through so I apologise for that. I'll try and record on a better program next time. This is the TMI Tag I've seen so many bloggers out there doing. Links in the video on YouTube. Hope you enjoy!

xo.