10 things I want to change...

Blogging is just like an online diary, so tonight I'm creating a list of 10 things I want to change. It is actually my 'homework' from the lovely Kayla (my online friend from Philadelphia, crazzzy!). She has asked me to create a list of everything I want to change in my life, then narrow it down to 10 but instead I'm just going to start with 10 now (I'll put pen to paper later Kayla). Kayla is an extremely positive girl, such an inspiration too. We have a lot in common and can really connect, I'm finding the time difference a little tricky. Waking up in the morning and going to reply to her message and then thinking 'poo, it's like 4am...don't message her now, you might wake her'. Since Kayla is helping me, I in return offered to help her. She wants to start a blog, I'm super excited to help her start blogging again. She previously blogged and has a youtube channel too but as annoying as it is, sometimes life happens and things change. Fingers crossed Kayla will be back on the social scene soon. When she gets her blog up and running I'll be asking her to get involved and maybe do a guest post for me. In the meantime, let's get cracking on with these 10 things. I'll try and keep them short and sweet otherwise this will get looooonnnnggggg.

1. No drinking fizzy pop.
This has to be the first since we came up with the idea of the list when I was feeling absolutely rubbish on Saturday night, thanks Kayla for being there by the way. Fizzy pop makes me feel soooo poorly and anxious, yet I still drink it...makes no sense to me.

2. Leave the past in the past.
No social media stalking ex boyfriends and old friends (hey, I'm human...don't make out like you don't do it). Focus on the now, need to focus on my own life and moving forward.

3. Exercise more.
I walk alot, but that doesn't really get my heart pumping so I'll be using our exercise bike to get my heart pumping more. Exercise is good for anxiety?

4. Stability? What even is that?
It's great that my days are never the same but I need some flippin stability and routine. I'd say blogging can give me that but then I freak cos the pressure.

5. Focus more on myself.
Well, that could come across as really selfish and rude but sometimes you've got to put yourself first. I can feel myself slipping back downhill and I don't want that so I'm going to focus on myself and build myself back up. I'm the main person in my recovery.

6. Spend a little less time on social media.
Social media can be great but it can also be the devil. I find myself automatically checking instagram and twitter in the morning like it's a daily paper, last thing at night it's the same. Whenever I'm bored during the day I'm back to refreshing my instagram feed. Too much of that isn't good.

7. Step out of my comfort zone.
I would say more but I hardly step out of it at all so we'll just opt for stepping out of it.

8. Manage my finances.
I'm not the best at this, hence why I want to change it. I don't have any savings so that will certainly be something I can start doing too, save them pennies. Save them pennies and they'll make pounds.

9. Get into work.
Work that I know the hours, work that I know I'll have plenty to do, work that doesn't involve my parents. I absolutely love them to bits but living with them and working with them is driving me crazy!

10. Gain a voice.
I'm very much a nodding dog sometimes, I don't like confrontation. When I say gain a voice, I don't mean be nasty, I just mean to stand up for myself.

♥

Ok, my homework list of 10 things is complete now Kayla. Now I'll be able to keep coming back and giving updates cos that's what blogs are for, right?! Speak to you soon and by soon I mean when you decide to reply! p.s. I know you're probably busy nannying, that made me sound rude...I didn't mean it rudely! X

- A

When Pretty Little Liars came onto our screens in the UK a couple of years ago I was so excited, it was such a good programme. I would easily go to say I was hooked, then for some reason the UK stopped showing it after 2 series...thanks for that UK TV.

Fast forward to January this year, I discovered Netflix have all the series up to date. Well, you can imagine my excitement. Every spare half an hour I had would be spent glued to the TV, only when I was home alone and not too late at night. I can't watch it when anyone else is in unless they are really quiet. If my mum is pottering about in the other room there is no chance of me watching it, it requires my full attention.

Now I'm all caught up until they upload a new episode, I thought I'd fill the Pretty Little Liars hole inside me with a Pretty Little Liars post. A little note before I go onto the post itself, if you don't watch Pretty Little Liars what are you playing at? It is fantastic, I bloomin' love it and it has got sooooo much better as the series have gone on.

I've decided to create a post sharing the things I've realized after watching a little bit too much of Pretty Little Liars...

- You knew exactly what this post was going to be about just by looking at the title.

- 'A' has a whole new meaning! It isn't no longer just a letter, it doesn't just start the alphabet or the alphabet song, no, no, no. Far from it!

- You start to question literally every single character in the entire episode. I'm not kidding you, at all.

- Black gloves? Did you just think of something you wear to keep your hands warm? If you answered no then you too have watched too much pretty little liars! (Really glad I'm not alone in this addiction). Black gloves mean an absolute mystery, plus totally creepy and scary.

- When you wake up in the middle of the night, close your eyes to go back to sleep again and you see the black hooded figure. A faceless black hoody wearing figure, who happens to also rock a pair of matching gloves with their hoody.

- You find yourself casually,  randomly singing the theme tune. 'better lock it in your pocket, taking this one to the grave...'

- A red coat no longer reminds you of Santa, not at all. Red coat and black hooded figure are best friends...but who the hell are they?!

- When you catch something in the corner of your eye, automatically think it's red coat. No, it's just the postman. 

♥

My fellow Pretty Little Liars watchers out there, could you relate to any of these? Could you share your own? Let me know, I'd love to hear what you think!

p.s. if you don't watch Pretty Little Liars, give it a try...I don't think you'll regret it at all!

Red Nose Day inspired nails.

Ok, ok, firstly I did plan to put this up before the day itself but sometimes life doesn't go to plan. But yesterday morning I finally got round to creating the look and photographing it step by step. I've gone for a simple yet impressive look. p.s. please ignore the little imperfections on some of the photos, I'm not a professional. :)

To create this look you will need...

• A base coat.
• A red nail polish.
• A white nail polish.
• A black nail polish.
• A top coat.
• A dotting tool with a large end and a smaller end.
• Tin foil.
• Something to watch, read or listen to (completely optional).

Let's get on with the tutorial then shall we?

Really hoping you said yes!

Firstly, you need to prep your nails. File them, shape them to the right length for you, even out bumps, remove all your old nail polish and protect them with a clear base coat.

Once the base coat has dried you're ready for the next step.

Let's get adding some colour to them nails.

For this look I used all Barry M, you don't have to use Barry M. Barry M is just the majority of my polishes and my favourite go to. I used Bloody Orange, Matt White and Nightshade (later on).

For a better coverage be sure to apply two coats. If you decide to ever use one of Barry M's gelly polishes I'd definitely try to use less polish, I've found it's better if you use a couple thinner coats otherwise chances are it'll be so thick, it'll just smudge very easily. Take my word for it, I'm still to learn from this mistake.

Once you've left your nails to dry for plenty of time, we can move on to the next stage. When painting my nails I always find it a lot easier to watch something whilst I'm doing them because atleast you can leave them a lot longer without getting bored of waiting. It is quite literally like watching paint dry.

Before I created the dots I decided to give each nail a layer of top coat thinking it would save time later, think again. You can still do the top coat now and then at the end too, it's up to you.

Let's get dotty, spotty...

I decided to start with the big red dots. When I have dots on my nails people are always amazed that I've done them but honestly they are so simple to create. All you need is a dotting tool, some tin foil and your nail polish you're going to use for the dots.

The dots are created in 3 easy peasy steps.

Step 1. Blob some of your nail polish on to the tin foil.

Step 2. Dab your dotting tool end into the nail varnish.

Step 3. Dab it on to your nail.

tip: once you've dabbed it into the polish I find you have enough on the dotting tool to create atleast 2 maybe 3 dots before you have to re dab. 

Repeat the 3 steps as many times as you'd like until you have enough dots. I decided to start with 2 dots at the bottom then go into 3 dots, then back to 2, then back to 3 to make a pretty pattern.

Your nail should look like this...

Now we're on to the red dots. If you want to you can wipe your dotting tool clean to get rid of the previous polish. Admittedly I don't do this every time because it dries pretty quick and I just tend to forget.

Repeat the same 3 steps as before with your polish, dotting tool and tin foil. You'll be left with your mix match nails.

Are you mastering the dotting tool yet?

I hope so, if not we've got more practice coming up.

Again with your white nail polish, take your dotting tool, dab it into the white (you might want to add more white to your tin foil, the other one might be all dry now). This time round you only need to do 2 dots, on your thumb.

This reminded me very much of Mickey Mouse's shorts.

Once you've created your two dots, these are going to be the eyes of your red nose. Leave them to dry for a little while, 5 minutes to be on the safe side. If you're watching something on telly or a youtube video that 5 minutes will fly by.

Five minutes has passed? On to the pupils of the eyes.

I blobbed some of the black nail polish on to the tin foil and then switched the dotting tool around to create smaller dots.

All you've got to do is blob them onto the white dots. They don't have to match, I always go for the googly eye look.

The look is almost complete!

I would say don't bother applying another top coat, cos I mean really? What are the chances of you smudging the dots?...

Cute googly eyes turn demon...not good! Just from putting on my boots to leave the house.

Learn from my mistake and apply a top coat, your look will last a lot longer. Trust me. :)

Finish off by removing the extra bits of polish around the edge, if there is any. I always manage to have polish around the edges, every single time.

♥

Well there we have it, step by step guide to create my Red Nose Day look for yourself. I hope you enjoyed it, waffle and all. If you decide to give it a go or are inspired by the look and create something new, share that with me too. :)

♥

one year, twelve goals...third month in.

At the beginning of the new year I decided to create myself a list of twelve goals, one goal for each month. Every 3 months I'm going to recap/catch up on them to see how I'm doing. We've just come into the 3rd month of the year already, crazily quick but what better time to recap than on a lazy Sunday? :)

Here goes then...

1. meet atleast 3 online friends.

Total of online friends I've met you ask? None, not a single bean. Hopefully that will begin to change over the upcoming months. Especially since there is talk of a meet up, yes Amy I'm looking at you! :)

2. attend one or more concerts.

Concerts attended? None.

Concerts planned? Three, three?!

Watch this space for more updates on that, I'll more than likely be blogging about them. Fingers crossed by the next catch up I'll have been to two of them. *crosses everything*. Number 3 on my list this year is The Vamps. It's an outdoor concert, my favourite kind so I'm going to love it, hopefully! The album is on repeat in my car at the minute, last summer it was my album for the summer and this year is going to be no different.

3. save more money than I spend.

With car insurance, road tax, mot, new tyres and wiper blades in one month I'm pretty sure that answers itself. No, so far I haven't managed to save more money than I've spent. Bank balance is looking extremely poorly. I need to learn money doesn't grow on trees, nor do I need to buy so much rubbish when I'm out and about.

4. take a weekend break.

No weekend break has been taken yet and none are planned for the near future neither.

5. read one book every month.

Third month already? Easy peasy, I'm on to my fourth book this year. I've read Girl Online by Zoe Sugg (Zoella), an extremely easy read book with a lovely story behind it. The Best Of Me by Nicholas Sparks, not his typical complete lovey dovey love story...watched the film afterwards, one word to sum that up, beautiful! Third book is Elizabeth Is Missing by Emma Healey, I'm not too sure how I feel about this book in all honesty. It left me feeling the same way that The Perks Of Being A Wallflower left me. Now I've started reading If I Stay by Gayle Forman.

6. tackle the stigma surrounding mental health more.

How can we tackle the stigma? Just talk, speak up. I've got a new blog post idea ready in my head, just need to get round to typing it up. This goal is pretty much just an ongoing, yearly goal.

7. drink more water.

It's a work in progress, I'm trying to drink more but sometimes other drinks just seem alot more appealing.

8. spread my blogging wings a little more.

I guess you could say I've spread them a little more, I've given another 'fashion' post ago (still struggling to refer myself to fashionable and fashion). I'll be trying to spread these little wings a little bit further.

9. keep my diary up to date.

What diary? Oh, that book that tends to just get switched from bag to bag and occasionally gets wrote in. Yeah, that's the one and no, it's not up to date.

10. cook more meals.

I'm trying to get better at this part. Over the past two months I have made a pretty good tuna pasta bake, without a jar or packet in sight...ooh check me out! I've also made lasagne from scratch, *high five*! All thanks to this book, I'm trying to work my way through it...hence the yellow sticky note strips.

11. enquire more about braces.

Check. Consultation is over £50, costing is around £3,000. I'm not exactly rolling in it at the minute so I'm opting to get my oral health routine to its best in the meantime. Why couldn't I have a bloomin' dentist in my teens, under 18 and it's free...what?!

12. move...more.

Last week I ran three times, this week I've run....none at all. I've been on a few hour long brisk walks though so I'm moving, moving a little bit is better than not moving at all.

♥

how I look 'stylish' on a dog walk.

Stop, we are not taking a walk down the catwalk. No, today my friends we are talking a walk, on the dog walk.

I'm don't class myself as the most fashionable of people, I'm working on it though. I'm actually often complimented on my outfit in real life and I'm actually amazed to be honest. I'm trying to create different outfits. Instead of throwing on my typical jeans + tshirt/jumper combo.

I'm thinking of creating different outfits, maybe based on occasion.

*light bulb inside my head pings*

I'm not a party girl, far from it. I often feel pretty awkward at parties so there will be no Saturday night going out outfits. But instead here is my contribution to the outfit post world.

I'm not always 'stylish', some of my outfits when dog walking are extremely worrying.

What do I wear on a typical dog walk?

What was my favourite parker coat is now my dog walking coat. Does anyone else have a dog walking coat? Surely fellow dog walkers, you must.

So this lovely, warm, cosy, lined hooded coat it is....

I've probably had this coat for about five years now I'd say, I bought it from New Look. I decided to wear it for dog walking occasionally but once I'd noticed the inside of the pocket was beginning to rip (the dog treat smell didn't help matters) I thought it would be a perfect dog walking coat. It is fading a little in colour, has a few marks on it but oh my, it is just too lovely to get rid of. This wont be leaving me anytime soon.

In this weather the perfect base layer for under a coat is without a doubt a chunky jumper. I picked this chunky jumper up this winter, in the mens section in Matalan. Mens clothing is the way to go if you don't want something fitted, oversized is a pretty good look to rock if you ask me.

Jeans are the perfect leg wear choice for dog walking, there thick enough to stop you getting chilly. Leggings aren't something I'd recommend for walking, unless you put some tights on underneath. I've admittedly got home and can't be bothered to change out of my tights so I've just thrown leggings on, surprisingly pretty warm & cosy but they can become very hairy depending on the dogs you are near.

I love wearing my ripped, distressed looking jeans because I'm not overly bothered if they get the occasional mucky paw print on them or occasional dog dribble. Oh, delightful!

If you're a regular walker you'll know that wellies are an absolute must for this time of year. In the first few weeks of the new year I did see a couple (late teens) walking, the girl was wearing heels and didn't seem too impressed with the situation. Either that or it was their first time of meeting up and she wasn't impressed that he'd taken her on a country walk.

you know you've watched too much pretty little liars when you create this...

A few final musts for dog walking has to be a lead, a treat bag and a poo bag holder (filled with lots of poo bags)! I'm always wearing this around my neck like a medal. Oh and of course you need one happy, furry friend.

Another thing that I do occasionally throw on, depending on the weather is a wooly hat, scarf and gloves. Very rare I put gloves on actually, they just end up being more hassle.

Ooh, this post was actually pretty fun to put together and I enjoyed it. That is what blogging is about, having fun and expressing yourself.

The clogs in my brain are now going around as to what 'fashion' post I'm going to create next. I've got a Pretty Little Liars post in my head already creating itself, who else watches Pretty Little Liars?

♥

What's on my mind? (16/02/2015, 19:37)

I've been thinking an awful lot recently, too much if you ask me. I thought I'd blog about it and then hopefully I can look back in a few months time or even a years time and hopefully then whatever was bothering me has packed up its suitcases and left town.

When it comes to my anxiety I feel like I'm being slightly misjudged in real life. Funnily enough not everyone I know saw me at my worst, they just didn't see me at all. So trying to make them understand is a little bit tricky. I can't just hide my anxiety neither, it has made me the stronger person that I am today.

I'm currently in a bit of a battle with myself too. I want to help raise awareness and break down the stigma surrounding mental health but in the same breathe I don't want to become lost and that be all I'm known for. I'm more than my illness, I'm LOADS more.

I've also been thinking about blogging, I'd thought about sharing what I'd recently bought but I'm not like that. I tried it once, it won't be happening again. I'm going to instead try to put outfits together to share, mainly because I tend to throw on the same style/kind of outfit, not good.

My mood & sparkle seems to have disappeared a little too. Too much rubbish food and drinks plus little exercise probably doesn't help this. I'm working on making changes though, change doesn't happen overnight. Well not good change, only bad shitty change can turn your world upside down within seconds.

My blog was created to share what was in my head, so that's it for today.

Until next time.

♥

LOVE inspired nails ♥

If you aren't a fan of Valentines Day I'm guessing you'll be glad when it is all over & has passed. But in the meantime it is here & I'm going to embrace it. I love, love. I don't just mean love, love. Relationship love. I mean love, in general. The love you might feel for your family, the love you might feel towards a friend. The feeling of love. Basically just love.

Did I make it clear enough? Tonight I'm bringing to you a post, 
a nail post...inspired by l o v e, love...

Over the past couple of weeks I've felt myself struggling, mentally which then seems to be effecting me physically. I've been feeling judged, misunderstood a little bit too. I'm not going to go into it all in this post, I've come here to talk about something that isn't mental health related. There is more to me than my illness, I'm quite the fan of doing my nails too. So here we are.

Tonight, I'm going to show you how to create this look...

Firstly I know for some people this might seem so simple but for others, not so much. We all have different abilities so I thought I'd just create a simple look. 

Secondly, I was going to apologize for the changing of quality, well lighting (lack of it as you get further in the post) but I can't quite help the light outside. I suppose I could of done them earlier, I shall learn from my mistakes. But I'm not apologizing for something so little, it isn't a big deal & I'm learning to not say sorry so much.

To create this look you will need:

    ♥ a base coat

    ♥ a red nail polish (I've used Ruby Gem by Seventeen, it's gorgeous!)

    ♥ a pink polish (I've used Pink Grapefruit by Seventeen, it's beautiful!)

    ♥ top coat (I used Barry M's Matte Top Coat)

    ♥ a dotting tool

    ♥ tin foil

    ♥ cotton wool sticks & nail varnish remover.

(You don't have to use exactly the same colours & brands, jazz it up abit & use what you've got)

Step one... Before you paint your nails you should always prep them (remove old nail varnish, file & all that jazz). Once your nails are fresh & prepped, you need to apply your base coat.

Step two... Once your base coat has dried you are now ready to paint your nails, for this look you'll need to paint all your nails pink.

Step three... For full coverage be sure to apply two coats, or maybe even three thin coats if two just isn't enough. Once your nails are fully dry, it's now time for the top coat.

Step four... It's now time to change your nail look, from glossy to matte. I absolutely love my matte top coats.

Step five... Wait for your top coat to dry. I've learnt now the best way to do my nails & make sure they have plenty of time to dry is catch up on your favourite tv show (hello, pretty little liars!) or maybe even read a magazine or two.

Step six... As soon as your nails are dry it's time to grab that red nail varnish, dotting tool & tin foil. All you need to do basically now is to tip a little bit of your red nail varnish onto a piece of tin foil (I've also found it's easier to just take the nail varnish brush out the bottle & blop it onto the tin foil, less messy), get your dotting tool & just dab it into the polish, then on to your nail.

Step seven... For this look you just need to dab your dotting tool into your polish, dab it on to your nail & just create the shape of a love heart. I didn't manage to take photos of me dabbing & the steps to create the shape, oooops! I decided to just create the shape before it dried up. 

A little tip for you, I found it easier to start with the middle of the heart & then work my way around. I did the top part of the heart first & then joined it together at the bottom.

Step eight... After I'd created the love heart I decided against adding a top coat over it because I was a little scared it might smudge & let's be honest, the background colour would chip before the design & that is already protected so all is good. All that is left to do is to get rid of any nasty little bits of polish that have dried around your nail & your nails are now completed.

TA DAAAA!!!

Love inspired nails, complete!

Well putting my time & effort into this post has improved my mood a little. If you happen to decide to give these a go, please do share them with me.

I'll be back in a couple of hours, maybe days to create another post. All about how I'm feeling. Oooh, aren't you in for a treat.

♥