My week in pictures...

Bournemouth in the sunshine/ New shoes!/ Yummy lunch at St Peter's Finger

Skyfall/ Cake pops I made for #bmouthbloggers/ John Frieda goodies

LUSH lip gloss/ New Barry M Gelly varnishes/ Bournemouth Blogger meet up!

Bournemouth Bloggers

L-R Kim, Me, Faye, Georgie, Becca, Leanne, Megan, Emma, Hannah, Brogan, Laura, Wendy, Tamsin, Robyn and Rosie (photo taken by JK)

Yesterday I was invited to go to my first ever bloggers meet up with the Bournemouth bloggers! I was invited by the lovely Hannah who blogs at baileycakes and she organised a fantastic day for us!

We all met up at 12.30 at Yates bar in Bournemouth town centre and did an ice breaker session as some of us (including me) had never been to a meet up before. We had one minute to speak to someone we had never spoken to before and find out three facts about them. I had the lovely Emma who blogs at the Stylebox blog and she had me, then once our minute was up we went around the group at told everyone else the facts that we had learnt. It was a really clever way of getting to know everyone and it really put me at ease.

Then we ordered some food and drink and prepared ourselves for the quiz Hannah had made for us all! The quiz had three different sections, general knowledge, celebrity picture round and questions about blogging. We were put into teams and then answered the questions, unfortunately I'm pretty useless when it comes to quizzes but my team mates, Megan and Georgie were thankfully really good! Unfortunately we didn't win but there was a tie breaker question between our team and two others at the end and Georgie gave the closest answer so we came second! We were each given a prize and I got a John Frieda hair set with a full sized shampoo and conditioner and a hair dye which is exactly the colour I use!

The rugby was then being blasted over the TV screens in Yates so we decided it was time for a spot of shopping! Before we left Hannah kindly gave us all a goodie bag which contained some lovely products! Some of which were made by the ladies themselves!

Here is what was in my goodie bag!

A beautiful photo frame from NEXT

More John Frieda goodies

This gorgeous bow made by Georgie's company Beau XOXO

A lovely candle which is now sitting in my lounge

LUSH Lipgloss - I'd been lusting after this for ages!

Fat Face bracelet which is lovely!

Amazing amethyst necklace made by The Bohemian Collective

Lucky me! More goodies from The Bohemian Collective!

Lots of sweeties!

We broke off into groups and I wandered the shops with the lovely Robyn who blogs at Robsarella. It was so strange meeting her 'for real' after following her blog! Robyn bought a really cute Minnie Mouse onesie from Primark which I secretly wish I had got now too lol!

I picked up these nail wraps in Primark as I've used them before and love them and I did buy a top as well but put it in the wash before taking a photo of it - oops!

I also picked up these two new colours of Barry M Gelly Nail polish from Boots (I can't wait to try them, especially the Lychee one!)

At 4pm we all met back up at Debenhams and headed to the Benefit counter where the lovely sales assistant Sophie tried Fine One One on all of us. She also told us about some new exciting products which will be coming out in the next month including this eye palette which is one of three new palettes for different looks. I can't wait to try it!

Sorry that this post is so photo heavy but there was so much we had to fit into one day! 

I had a really good time and hopefully I'll be able to meet up with all the girls and JK again!

Have you ever been to a blog meet up before?

Blog Love #3

This week I am featuring Lizzie from Cupcakes & Cosmetics. I love Lizzie's blog. It's so girly and definitely contains everything that interests me. Her background is really cute and I love that there is lots of pink! Aesthetics aside, her blog is full of wonderful posts. They're all really informative and are usually products that are affordable and that are on the high street. I partuculary love her most recent review of LUSH products - so much so that I'll be purchasing them on my next LUSH visit.

All her photos are really large and clear and she posts a lot on Instagram which is great because I'm completely hooked on it (she also has the most adorable dog who features in a lot of her photos!)

Lizzie also features a lot of nail art which is something that I am also interested in. I love her Valentine's nails! I wish I could make mine look half as pretty as hers!

If you're into DIY tutorials you can also find these here, her chocolate present idea is really cute!

You check out Lizzie's blog here. Or follow her on Instagram by searching for Pixielizzieee.

Are you already a follower of Cupcakes & Cosmetics?

MUA Haul

A few weeks ago MUA were having a 50% off discount sale on their website. You had to spend £30 to qualify for the discount but I figured it was worth it as you were getting £30 of goodies for £15. I also got free delivery on my order although I'm not sure if I was actually meant to because somehow I managed to bypass the section on the website where you had to add the delivery charges! Thank god it still arrived! I had to wait over two weeks for the order to arrive as I don't think they had anticipated the popularity of the offer and had a lot of orders to fill, consequently I wasn't able to get all the products I wanted but I'm still happy with my buys.

Here is what I got...

MUA Heaven & Earth eye palette. I'd heard that this and the Undressed palette were similar to the Basics Palette by Urban Decay and decided that for £4 it was worth trying it out.

Two MUA primers which I'm hoping will be a good substitute for when my POREfessional runs out and haven't got enough money for another one!

Two MUA single eyeshadows in a light cream colour and a muddy brown, similar to those in the UD palette

Two blushers, one in Shade 4 which is a cream blusher and another new Shimmer Kisses Blusher which has shimmer in which will hopefully highlight my cheeks and stop me looking pasty!

9 nail polishes - okay I know 9 is a little bit obsessive but I just love nail varnish. On first impressions I'm not overly keen which is a shame. They come out a little watery but I'm sure once I apply a few coats it will be ok. For £1 each I can't really complain. I picked up two of the Love Hearts collection in Love U 24/7 which is a light lilac colour and I <3 U which is a light pink colour, perfect for spring. I also got the pink shade of the fairy dust nails which apparently only needs one coat per application (we shall see what happens when I try this) All the other shades were part of their normal range.

So instead of spending £30 on products I wanted to try I only spent £15. I'd recommend liking MUA's Facebook page as thats where I heard about the discount.

Have you got any MUA products? What do you think of them?

My week in pictures...

My beautiful rattie Honey | No peeking! | Inside the box |

Beautiful Valentine's tulips | Valentine's breakfast | I heart Krispy Kreme

I shopped | Rattie Pandora charm | Benefit goodies!

My latest haul...

I'm not doing a spending ban or anything but funds have been a bit tight recently due to hubby's birthday, Valentine's and a week off work but on Saturday I just couldn't help myself! I've been lusting over so many things lately and I thought it was about time that I had a few little treats.

We got up early on Saturday and went to my favourite place to go shopping, West Quay in Southampton. There is a large shopping centre and also a high street outside with all my favourite shops on. Here is a piccy of everything I bought.

Debenhams

Debenhams were holding a 10% off event for the weekend so I took advantage of it and picked up the Urban Decay Naked 2 Palette, then I went past the Benefit counter and thought that I'd just pick up another tube of POREfessional. I ended up chatting to the girl at the counter and also picked up Fine One One and their brow kit after she tried them out on me - oops! Because I'd spent quite a bit in there she also popped in a load of free perfume samples (I'm still after Flowerbomb though which wasn't included)

Boots

Whilst at the Benefit counter in Debenhams the girl also used High Beam on me but I was a bit cheeky as I knew that I had enough Boots points to pick one up there so I headed over the road to Boots. I also picked up some John Freda Hair dye as my grey hairs are starting to appear (the joys of getting old!)

Primark

I wanted to pick up something new to wear to the Bournemouth Bloggers meet up at the weekend but already had an outfit in mind so I chose these black studded pumps and a cute little bracelet to go with it.

John Lewis

I've been wanting to try Liz Earle's Cleanse and Polish after reading about it on quite a few blogs so picked up a starter kit which has an 100ml bottle and two muslin cloths.

Lush

I popped into Lush looking for the Cupcake facemask but after giving it a good sniff I didn't think I was going to be able to handle the strong chocolate smell all over my face! So I picked up this lovely smelling bath bomb instead. Apparently you get quite a few uses out of it because you only need a small amount and it foams up really nicely.

Pandora

Finally I picked up the little rat charm which I featured in my February Wishlist which you can read here. I've popped it on my bracelet and it looks so cute!

So mr bank man won't be too happy that I had a little spending spree but I feel happy that I've been able to get a few things I've wanted for ages!

Have you bought anything recently? What do you think to my buys?

Blog Love #2

Hello lovely bloggers! Today is the second edition of blog love and I will be featuring another blog which was one of the first I started following - islaay.com

Islay loves nail art and I love reading her posts where she's created fabulous nail designs. She has even given me some pointers on how to do my own nails!
She also does tutorials so you can recreate her nail designs. 

She is currently running a giveaway on her blog for reaching 600 followers!

I definitely recommend taking a peek at her blog or taking a look at her YouTube channel, I love watching her videos of haul posts! The first video I watched on her channel was her Nail Wheel video and from then on I was hooked!

Are you a followers of Islay's blog?

What I got up to for Valentine's...

My apologies if you don't want to read about this but I've never blogged about Valentine's Day before.

Every year I've always said that hubby and I don't celebrate Valentine's Day but something he said got me thinking, I always assumed that celebrating Valentine's Day included grand romantic gestures like a meal out and gifts of presents and expensive bunches of flowers...but it appears my vision was wrong (I hope my husband isn't reading this to hear me say I was wrong!) He said that Valentine's Day is about spending time with the person you love and that doing something together was far more romantic and meaningful and I saw his point (deep down I always knew that, but who doesn't love to get presents?)

We decided that this year we would cook a Valentine's breakfast together, something we hadn't done for Valentine's before. So we popped to the shops the night before and picked up everything we would need, sausages, bacon, eggs, giant mushroom and beans (for hubby) and spaghetti shapes for me (I hate beans and I'm still a kid at heart so I had them in shapes from the Disney movie Cars!) We also had fried toast which I cut into heart shapes (just because!)

It was really nice creating the breakfast together and I realised it wasn't about getting gifts and chocolates. I cut out some red hearts using my heart punch and scattered them over our breakfast table and got our "love" sign that we had at our wedding and popped that on the table too.

After breakfast we exchanged cards and hubby even got me a chocolate rose and some red tulips (tulips are my favourite flowers - I'd have them over roses anyday!)

I had a lovely morning and am so glad we did it together rather than one of us making all the effort.

Did you celebrate Valentine's Day this year or Singles Awareness Day?

Life lately...

Happy Valentine's Day lovely readers!

This week hubby and I have been off work...due to lack of funds (like always) we haven't been able to do much so have been doing lots of free things and cashing in all our vouchers that we got for christmas and birthdays!

On Monday we took a trip to Christchurch our local town for a wander and went for a yummy Pizza Express courtesy of a voucher Bradley had received from one of his friends. We also had a voucher from Money Saving Expert to get one pizza for £2.50 when you paid in full for the other one so I had the Pollo ad Astra which had chicken, sweet peppers, onion and cajun spices while Bradley had the American Hot which had pepperoni, mozarella, tomato and jalapeno peppers. We also got a side of polenta chips, which I'd never tried before but they were really nice. Then for dessert we both had a yummy sundae! While we were in the restaurant it started snowing! It was lovely walking around by the priory after in the snow!

On Tuesday we took a trip to see the Cerne Abbas Giant near Dorchester which is a giant carved out into the hill side, he is supposed to bless couples with good fertility so we'll see how that works out! It was quite amusing seeing it...I'm sure you can see why from the photos! We tried to climb up the hill to see him closer but it was so muddy due to the rain and snow we'd had the previous day that it was so slippery, I managed to get myself stuck in some mud and cut my hand on some brambles whilst trying to stop myself from falling over! On the way back we stopped at Highcliffe Castle which is where we got married last year - we have a membership card which is valid until our anniversary this year so decided to take a little visit to remind us of our special day.

Yesterday was a pretty uneventful day - we sorted out our spare room which has been housing all the things we were going to take to a car boot sale. We managed to get some things onto Gumtree and eBay and then went on envirophone to see how much we could get for our old phones and now have £80 on the way to us. We also checked out Music Magpie and made another £60 on there! Can't wait to receive the cheques!

Have you been anywhere lately? Are you on a spending ban or saving so can't do much?

My February Wishlist...

Why is it that when you have no money there are loads of things you want, but when you do have money to spend there is nothing you like?

Anyhow...I have quite a few lovely things on my wishlist this month, some still from my January wishlist which you can see here. 

First up is the Bobbi Brown Makeup Manual, I have seen review of this book on a few blogs and I'd love to get it and learn about all the techniques, I'm still a novice when it comes to brushes etc so this would be really helpful.

I love these Dirty Works Eyelash Curlers, mine have mysteriously gone missing, I used to have a nice No7 pair but I love the pink handles and rubber strip, they'd look lovely in my makeup bag!

Next up is Flowerbomb perfume by Viktor & Rolf - I'm still after this perfume since last month and was keeping my eye on the Boots January sale online as it was £36 for a gift set with the perfume and shower gel but it was out of stock for ages and then disappeared :( I also tried about 5 Boots stores too to find it but no joy - at £45 for 30ml its a bit too expensive for me to buy on a whim. Too bad my birthday isn't for another 7 months!

I love this MAC eyeshadow in Shroom, I wore this on my Wedding day - luckily my make up artist for the day wrote down all the products she used so I can recreate my Wedding look again.

I think I must be the only beauty blogger that doesn't yet own a Naked Basic's Eye Palette by Urban Decay. I've seen so many bloggers say that this is their must have eye palette and I desperately want to try it but compared to MUA's Undressed Palette or Heaven & Earth for £4 each, I just can't afford the £35 price tag.

 I'm loving the idea of these Strawberry Curls Rollers, I have absolutely no time to curl my hair in the mornings before work so if I had these I'd be able to pop them in the night before, sleep on them because they're completely spongy and then wake up in the morning with gorgeous curls! I heard about these on Twitter and would love to get my hands on a pair, they're a complete must have in my opinion!

How adorable is this Rat Charm from Pandora? I know rats aren't everyone's cup of tea for a pet, but I love my ratties to bits and would love to add this charm to my collection. This charm is part of their Chinese New Year collection and even though I was born in the year of the Tiger, I just can't stop wanting this! Hubby has promised to get my a charm for our Wedding anniversary every year because he bought me the starter pack as a Wedding gift, but thats still 4 months away - boo!

Finally I'd love to get this Strawberry Buttercream Yankee Candle. I spent at least half an hour in Clintons last week sniffing all the candle scents and this was definitely the nicest one by far! It would be great in my lounge for when I'm cuddled up on the sofa!

Have you got any of these products? Or are you lusting after them like me?

100 Follower Giveaway Winner

Thank-you to all of you who entered my 100 follower giveway over the past few weeks! I can't believe I received over 200 entries! I've generated the winner using Rafflecopter and Random.org and i'm pleased to announce that the winner is....Becca from Becca's Fashion & Life! Congratulations!

You've won the Beever Moulding Clay, Barry M Glitter Polish and Rimmel Apocalips in Celestial!

Please get in touch with me to sort out getting your prize!