A note about next year.... I'm getting married!!!

The 22nd of April next year is a Saturday. 

It's going to rain. 

Some might say that's a bold claim, but the thing is I've spent an awful lot of time thinking about the 22nd of April next year. 

Ramble: You don't ask, You don't get

Don't you just hate it when life goes haywire and you find yourself stuck between a rock and a hard place?

Yup that's me right now.

The trouble with being stuck between that rock and a hard place is that eventually there comes the point where you have to make a choice. Kind of like that guy that had that accident while climbing, you can sit there and die or you can take a chance, chop your own arm off and maybe, just maybe, you'll make it out ok.

Now obviously i'm not in any immediate mortal danger nor am i suggesting that i'll be chopping of any body parts anytime soon but more and more i'm being drawn to the old saying 'you don't ask, you don't get'

As I've got a bit older I've become more of a laid back, go with the flow, if it aint broke why fix it? type of person but sometimes that doesn't get me very far. Opportunities slip past and chances aren't taken and more and more life seems a bit like its just passing me by. And i don't like it.

The other day i decided to make some changes, I strolled into work asked for a meeting with my boss and asked for a promotion. I didn't get it but the point is i asked and now my boss is aware of my wish to progress and has paired me up with someone further on at the company to mentor me to be in a position to get the promotion when it  becomes available.

I asked and although i didn't get what i want immediately i am now in a much better position than just sitting hoping something would happen of its own accord.

Since this happened I've been seeing more and more opportunities popping up around me. Opportunities that have probably been there for a while but I've just not gone after. The most exciting thing about this is that i just pitched an idea that could give me the chance to do something I've wanted to do for a really really long time. If it works out it'll be incredible but if it doesn't work out? Well at least i tried.

As they say, You don't ask, you don't get!!!  ;-)

What are the words you live by?

Friday Favourite #7 My bedroom (and a big old philosophical ramble)

I mentioned in yesterdays post that i'd done a little bit of re-jigging in my flat.

I really love it all, it feels very me but the bit i'm loving most is definitely my bedroom.

You see I have a thing about the colour white, and before anyone says i know white is not really a colour. My entire place is painted white, i like it like that A: because it goes with everything B: because it makes my small flat feel airy and C: because i hate painting, this way if i fancy a change i can just change a few soft furnishings to get a completely different look.

My bedroom has always been a bit of an after thought on my home decorating crusade as well, its not really a room a parade of people get to see. So it was plain as could be, white walls, cream carpet, white bedding and dark wood furniture......boring.

But i can feel spring in the air! (though in Scotland at the moment spring seems to consist of rain and snow!)

And i wanted a fresh start, After all 'a change is as good as a holiday' and all that.

In my search for inspiration i was browsing the H&M website when i came across the cute Pink Flamingo Bedsheets and i instantly knew they were for me. The flamingos are quite the departure from plain white, but i find them fun and quite girly. They look exactly like something you might find in a Miami motel so i feel almost liek im on a nice summer holiday whenever i look at them.

The canvases on the wall are also new, well the canvases aren't, but the wording is. They may not look perfect but that's because i'm no artist.

If your wondering what they are all about it let me explain.

In the book Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy 42 is put forward as the answer to THE question of life universe and everything, no one is terribly sure what THE question is but hey ho! Its a bit of an odd idea but a long time ago i became a bit obsessed with it, i love the idea of the randomness of it and i think that is the answer to THE question: randomness.

Life-Random. Universe-Random. Everything -Random.

And that's why i wanted a constant reminder of that on my bedroom wall.

Offt I've gone all philosophical there....... but if you still with me, don't you think the flamingos are cute?

Does the change in seasons spur you on for a change?

Let me know in the comments,x

Not lost at all.....

You may have been forgiven for thinking i'd disappeared from the face of the planet.

I didn't.

I've just had a very busy/frustrating couple of weeks.

This is what i did....(i'll leave out the frustrating bits)

Last week went by in a blur of fun-ness (yes that's a word!)

In between working like a maniac:

I took some time to reorganise my flat, there will be a little post on the best bit of this on Friday ;-) but i'm 1 picture frame away from feeling totally happy with the place. I've lived here 7 years so it's certainly been a long time coming!!

I went to a fashion show!

Glasgow School of Art has an amazing Fashion and Textile show every year that's run by the students to show off their wares. And this year I was an invited guest due to being involved with a charitable foundation that provides grants to some of the students. We got to sit in the front row which was a little cramped but the show itself was awesome, some very beautiful pieces were strutted down the catwalk along with some, er, more unusual designs. I really enjoyed being there. (Random Fact: When i started working i was firmly set on being in fashion in some way, i miss that now, follow your dreams kids!)


Also while i've been missing i had a couple of house guests, one of my dearest friends brought their boyfriend up to meet us Scottish lot for the first time. My friends can be a little much to take and i think we frightened him a bit but hopefully all will be forgiven by the time we go on holiday together in September...

We went to Khublai Khans which is legendary in Glasgow (and presumably Edinburgh as well). Its a Mongolian Barbecue restaurant and its one of those places where you can eat all sorts of unusual meat (not for the veggies really!) We had the feast option where you get a starter then you can go as many times as you want to the 'create your own' buffet and then a pudding. It was so much fun the boys all tried to out do each other with how much chilli they could down and everyone had a great time trying out all the different meats, my favourite is the springbok, but you can have just about anything, Kangaroo, Zebra, Ostrich etc and they had a big bowl of horse if anyone was missing having it in there frozen lasagne ;-)

Somehow we managed to spend 4 hours in there. I'm not sure how that happened but still we were well fed. then we headed out for a few drinks and a bit of dancing, one thing led to another and although many pictures were taken few are appropriate for public viewing....

Free lolly at the end of the night!

Me looking a hot mess, i presume this was an accidental selfie as i have no recollection of it being taken...

Needless to say it took a few days for me to recover.

Anyhoo, I'm back in action so hopefully i'll be able to get back to posting on a regular(ish) basis,x

And so it begins...

Today is a little bit of a difficult day for me.

Its Payday.

Its pathetic I know. Having a payday should be a reason for joy, laughter, merriment.

But this month, which i think is the first month ever, i'm filled with fear.

Last months musings about the state of my finances made me wonder about what im missing out on in life. Don't get me wrong i'm still definitely wanting to achieve those things but this fear im feeling is to do with the fear of not being able to not just run out and buy everything in sight.

The theory of not buying random stuff when you have no money is very easy to deal with, the reality of having money in the bank and trying to persuade yourself you still don't need those things is very different.

I knew this would be hard so I've assigned myself a small budget (£40) for buying a couple of new things so i  thought it'd be easy to start and make a change but there's a whole world of pretty things swirling around and my inner teenager is throwing a proper strop about not being let loose in Primark.

So I chopped my nails off....

Yeah, so kind of what the title says.

You may have noticed that this 'life and nails blog' has been a little short on the nails front recently.

There is a reason for this, i'm still as obsessed as ever with my polish collection, but my poor nails have decided to give up on me altogether.

I don't know if its because of the cold and my seeming lack of ability in wearing gloves. Or whether the fact that where im working at the moment means i never receive any sort of daylight) but my previously slightly peeling but not that bad nails have flat lined.

Bending peeling and breaking, you name it im suffering for it. I've tried using a multitude of nail treatments and i really thought i was getting somewhere with the Sally Hansen Miracle Cure but eventually enough was enough so as you can see i've cut them back to nothing. Its not terribly practical for my work and i have to grab a hairbrush every time i get an itch but i know ultimately that if i keep them short, out of harms way and give them a bit of pampering all will be well with the world once more.

I am hoping to get a few more nail posts up in the next while but please bare with me during this difficult time...

Does anyone have any suggestions on good polish colours that look nice on short nails? 

Friday Favourite #5 Burt's Bees Beeswax and Banana Hand Creme

Todays favourite is back to being beauty related, Hurrah!

I picked up this jar of Burts Bees Beeswax and Banana Hand Creme back in a haul last October, put it in a drawer and promptly forgot all about it. Honestly this happens to me so often.

Anyhoo i dusted it off last weekend....

First off the scent this product has is quite strong, this doesn't bother me but if you've got a sensitive nose it could be a little much. The other thing about the scent is that its FULL ON foam Bananas. If your unsure what a foam banana is, its a kind of sweet shaped like a banana and it has the most synthetic banana sugary sweet chewy foam texture. They are awesome.

 

I love the scent, and i love this product i think it leaves my hands lovely and soft. It is really quite greasy so if your after a sinks in and your ready to go kind of product i'd maybe not suggest splurging on this as it is pricey for a hand cream, but if your after a good treatment for your hands or something to use with some cotton gloves this is definitely worth a look.

I keep it on my nightstand and apply it, liberally, before i go to bed, and in the morning i wake up to soft smooth hands.

Happy days :-)

Whats your favourite this week?

I got a little bored....

I am an intrinsically impulsive person.

I get an idea in my head then i set about doing it.

I woke yesterday morning and decided i wanted a haircut. Now while most people would call a hairdresser, make an appointment and so forth...... I decided i wanted it now. I probably could've got a standby appointment at a place in town but every penny i have at the moment is ear marked for feeding me until payday.

Now I happen to own a basic pair of hair scissors so well one thing led to another.....

And now i have a jaw length bob. Its by no means perfect, but i reckon it could pass for 'shaggy' and it'll certainly do just now. I decided to curl it, which maybe wasn't the best move, i think it'd look better wavy, but either way i think the messier i make  it the cuter it'll look :-)

Its actually a wee bit shorter than it looks in that photo. And don't i look grumpy, lol!

Have you ever had a go at cutting your own hair?

Friday Favourite #4 The Golden Girls

This week I rediscovered a classic.

The wonderful world of the Golden Girls.

If your unfamiliar with the concept it's a bunch of old ladies living together in Miami in the 80s. Not the most exciting of situations I hear you say but if you haven't watched before I urge you to give it a try.

As much as I live the likes of The Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother I sometimes suffer from a bit of "beautiful people all complaining about how hard their awesome looking lives are" overload. There's something comforting about a funny sitcom that is basically about friendship and making the best of what you've got.  This is my TV equivalent of a giant cup of tea, plate of cake and a cozy blanket.

It's sweet, touching and marvellously retro even if you don't find it as funny as I do the outfits should keep you coming back for more, it's 80s shoulder pads and bright prints a go-go!

What's your go-to comfort TV?

Meanwhile in another world....

So my last post was perhaps slightly heavy in the self indulgent wittering front.......this is about to continue.

Since than I've become a little bit obsessed with the concept that the life i would love to live is not actually that far out of my grasp.

I took stock of my bank account, yes ladies  in the cold harsh light of day i took that big bull, grabbed it by the horns and stared it square in the eye (that's a saying right?)

Horrified doesn't cover it. 

I reckon on average I spend nearly £300 a month on unnecessary rubbish. Part of this spent on paying off previous 'buying stuff' misdemeanors (which obviously needs to be done) and part is caused by getting over excited when there's a deal on in Boots (which, not matter how i justify, does not need to be done).

Now some people will think oh that's not so bad, but others, like myself, will see that number and feel a little bit sick.

Imagine for a moment that money didn't wander off every month. 

I wonder what i could do....*if blogs went fuzzy and into dream mode that would happen here*

If i had £300:

I could get myself 'Trev', my beloved imaginary fiat 500- I could even afford the insurance and filling him with petrol and probably the odd day trip, maybe a jaunt to Ikea or visiting friends that i hardly ever see due to public transport being utter poop.

Mind you i'd also quite fancy a weekend in Rome

or

I could spend a week in Marrakech!

or if i could be bothered to hold off for a whole month £600 would get me

A weekend in NEW YORK!! I could be that annoying person that goes to New York all the time, oh how i want to be that person.

Once i get to 3 months worth (£900) things get crazy that would get me

8 nights in Sri Lanka - Random fact: my Grandmother lived in Sri Lanka when she was a child, i'd LOVE to visit there. 

And in 4 months i'd have enough for a ROUND THE WORLD plane ticket.

All this stuff is pretty travel orientated but there really is a whole world out there and i want to see it. I want to be the granny in the old peoples home with albums and albums full of photos bothering the nurses by retelling the anecdote about how i once stayed awake all night because i could've sworn i saw a scorpion in my tent, though that's already happened, but you get my drift.

What would you do if you had the money?

I promise i'll back to more of the lighter nail polish/beauty/tea posts soon but by golly imagine how cool it would be to incorporate some of the above on here????

Birchbox Uk January 2013

I'm sure by now everyone and their granny has seen a post (or 70) about the January Birchbox, the first one under the Birchbox branding to be released in the UK.I'd been tempted by Joliebox a couple of times but when it changed to Birchbox i thought i'd give it a punt.

I'll not bore you with the ins and outs of the whole Joliebox/Birchbox thing :-) But to keep things interesting I've held off from doing this post until I've actually used the products so its less 'this is what i got' and more 'this is what i thought' (let me know if you like this idea in the comments!)

I have previously subscribed to Glossybox which, in my opinion, started great and went downhill rapidly, and i unsubscribed after a few months. I then signed up for the feelunique.com box, i absolutely LOVED every one of those boxes and i was really disappointed when they scrapped the beauty box idea and i haven't ventured back into the subscription box world since.

Until now....

Here is what my box looked like:

Onto the reviews (from left to right):

Reverence de Bastien Unguent for nails and cuticles: this stuff smells AMAZING like berry flavoured sweets. I've only used it the once but it did the job well, and it certainly smells much nicer than what i'd usually use.

Fresh Sugar Lip Treatment in Rose: This was actually the first thing i spied when i opened the box. I've been wanting to try this for ages so i immediately had a shot. Its nice, i'm not sure what i was expecting but it makes my lips soft so that's good. I do find the lemony scent a little off putting though, to me its a little reminiscent of Lemsip, I've now got this in my bag as i will use it up but i probably wont be forking out for a full size, so if nothing else this box has let me try something i thought i wanted but now i know i can do without :-)

Teapigs Chamomile Flowers tea:  I adore Herbal tea so this was right up my street although i can see why it wouldn't be everyones cup of tea (see what i did there). I'm actually drinking this as i type, its nice, the bag is quite different, less bag of dust more bag of dried flowers. It certainly looked pretty floating around.

Wei Royal Ming firming and hydrating cream: This sample was positively teeny tiny, but since everything else was a decent size i'll overlook that. I'm actually glad it was small because i really didn't like this. After i got over the hilarious name (Ming means something nasty where i'm from) I found it was thick, kind of sticky and took forever to sink into my skin and even then my skin didn't look or feel any better than usual. I'll be giving this a miss.

And last but certainly not least..

KMS Add Volume spray: When i read on the card that this had a eucalyptus scent i was a bit concerned as i'm not usually big on that but when you spray it its not overpowering and it doesn't stick around in my hair. This did give a nice amount of volume to my flat hair and it made my hair extra shiny so happy days all round.

All in all i'm really happy with this box, i didn't love everything but they were all things i was more than happy to try. And the products we're all of a good enough size to actually try more than once, well except the tea obviously!

So how have you found your box?
If you've not subscribed are you tempted?

If your interested i have a refer a friend link: http://birchbox.co.uk/?raf=9794

I feel i should point out i'm not affiliated with birch box in any way,x

Friday Favourite #2 (Naked Basics Palette Giveaway)

So as i mentioned in last weeks version of this my Friday favourite is not always going to be polish related, and this week is definitely one of those weeks.

You see this weeks favourite is YOU GUYS!

I might not be the most diciplined blogger in the word with a fancy schedule and the latest never before seen products but i started this wee slice of the internet to catalouge the random things i do like, kind of like an online snapshot of my mere existence on this little planet (ooft now thats getting a bit deep!)

But the best thing i've found so far about this blogging malark is that i've found a community of people that like the same things as me. And the very idea that people are actually interested enough in what i have to say to make the decision to click a button so they stay updated is mind boggling. But it is nice to know im not just wittering on to myself.

Anyway, i would like to say thankyou to the people that smile at me from the sidebar on my blog and i thought what better way to say thanks than with some lovely makeup.

I went and got this today for one of you:

How do you win i here you say?

Well let me explain, its quite simple, i've even created a rafflecopter thingy so its nice and straightforward. For this giveaway you can follow by GFC or follow on Hello Cotton you MUST follow on at least one of these platforms to be eligible to win (i'll work on adding extra platforms for the next one, but this is my first time doing this!x) and then for extra entries you can tweet about the giveaway once a day, the details of what to tweet are in the widget.

The giveaway is open internationaly, but make sure that if your under 18 you have the permission of a parent or guardian to enter as i will need your name and mailing address for you to get your prize if you win!

Be sure to use the rafflcopter widget to enter, leaving a comment below without doing this will not count.

It'll start at midnight tonight (25th Jan) and run for 1 week.

a Rafflecopter giveaway




The winner will be announced on here once the giveaway has finished and will be notifed by email, make sure you use an email address you check regularily, as winners will have 72 hours to respond before a new winner is picked.

Good Luck!xxxx

The soon to be giveaway....

Hello my lovelies!

I'm in a really very jolly mood today :-)

I have an entire week off work so i'm going to spend it doing all the things i love sleeping, eating, spending time with friends and once payday hits SHOPPING!!

Now over the past few months I've grown quite attached to my little blog here and I've even managed to get a few of you to join in.

I'd like to thank those that have clicked the button to keep up to date with my crazy going ons, so to combine the shopping i'm doing this week i'm planing on picking up a little follower giveaway present, an Urban Decay Naked Basics palette to be precise.

There will be a post letting you know when this giveaway gets going so i suggest you click on the GFC button over there -------> so you can make sure to get your entry in.

The giveaway will begin once i hit 50 friends on GFC so make sure you let others know by sharing this post on twitter, google+ etc as the quicker we get to that point the quicker someone will win!!


And on a completely unrelated point.....

Should i reinstate my crazy short fringe?

I know it looks a bit 'out there' but i'm dying for a hair cut! (sorry for the awful quality of the photo, old skool camera phones and dingey clubs don't mix well!)

Favourite Friday #1

Welcome to a new semi-regular series that i'm planning!

The title of  this series is pretty self explanatory, on Fridays i'm going to blog about a favourite.

I know this is not an entirely new concept in the blogging world but i always really enjoy reading about what people are loving right now. So hopefully other folk feel the same.

The topic of this post may vary wildly depending on what i feel like i'm loving at the moment so expect posts on beauty, lifestyle, food, fashion, and everything else in between!

I'm one of those people that once i like something i stick to it like glue, well at least until something else catches my eye,just ask my folks about the time i'd eat nothing but fish fingers!.

This week my main love has been... Essie Tea and Crumpets

Firstly lets take a moment to bask in the cuteness of its name, i mean who doesn't love a nice mug of tea with a wee crumpet on the side. The name itself screams comfort and security, and that's exactly what this polish offers.

Its nude enough to make even stumpy nails look lady like, even if it does get a bit of tip wear it still manages to look classy and the best part is it goes with EVERYTHING!

Whats your current favourite?

A little catch up...

Hey, how are you?!

First off i'd like to thank all you you that left me a comment or sent me a tweet about my last post.

The night out didn't really go as planned but i ended up having an absolutely awesome night with my friends so all was not lost. We had a few (too many) drinks and at the end of the night there was a pair of ear muffs, no one can quite remember where we picked them up from (i have a horrible feeling they were abandoned on the the street, ewww!) but we all had a shot at wearing them, which amused us immensely.

Sorry for the blurfest but, as i said, we'd had a drink or 7.

Blogmas obviously fell by the way side slightly but due to a bit of a hiccup at work and trying to fit in a teeny bit of Christmas pub going fun i ended up with no time. I did do a festive mani that i had meant to blog about so here's a wee pic here....

New Year was an interesting one, I headed to a local pub/club with one of my mates. There were drinks, there was dancing but thankfully because we'd stayed local there wasn't a 4 hour wait for a taxi home :-)

Did you make any new years resolutions? Are you managing to stick to them?

The only thing i resolved to do this year was pay off my credit cards, its not got off to a great start with me booking a holiday for later this year but i haven't left the country in literally years so i could really go some snoozing on a sun lounger on a beach. We're heading for Bulgaria (does that make anyone else instantly think of the wombles? showing my age a bit there). We're going to be staying at Helena Park in Sunny Beach...

Image Credit www.firstchoice.co.uk

I've never been before but the hotel has good reviews, its all inclusive and i'll be there for my birthday so i'm super excited. Absolutely cant wait to do a 'holiday haul', i have a bit of an obsession with those miniature toiletries......

Have you ever been to Bulgaria? Do you have any tips for places to go/things to do?

I'll hopefully have a new review up on sunday, i picked up some MUA fur effects recently so i'm keen to have a go.

Is there any other new products you think i should check out? Leave a comment below or send me a tweet(link in the sidebar) and i'll check them out.

What happened next.....

 

Early in the week I posted about my adventures in the ombré hair world.

As I mentioned I didn't stop at the typical brown to blonde/ginger locks that I pictured at the end of that post.

Here is my hair as of today...

 

 

It turned my ends dark pink.

I did this by using my old favourite Dark Tulip from Directions

I love it so much.

I miss having my pink hair but for up keep and professional reasons a full head isn't really practical so this satisfies my cravings while balancing the real world nicely.

Tomorrow night is my work night out, so I'm not sure I'll be getting a post up :-( I've never been very good with the whole scheduling thing on blogger.

It's an evening that could go either way in terms of it being brilliant or dire. And there's one person in particular that I'm really a bit worried about seeing while the drinks are flowing....

If your reading this on Saturday evening please send me some words of encouragement/your best chat up lines ;-) on twitter.

I'll let you know how it goes,x

 

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That was the day that was...

Tonight my dears this blogmas post will be short.

I've had the day from hell and I am getting comfy in a slightly saggy couch in a bar as we speak.

So tonight's question is....

What are you having?

In my case I'm having a watermelon martini.

It's got fruit on the glass so I'm classifying it as one of my 5 a day ;-)

 

Until tomorrow my dears, CHEERS!

 

Posted with Blogsy

Merry Blogmas!

Now first off is Blogmas one S or two?

Answers on a postcard.


I won't make promises on this as I work in retail and have been known to come in from work and immediately hide under my duvet (while still wearing my coat) due to the utter craziness that is work. But I feel I have been quite rubbish of late on the old blog front so I'd like to get a little more back on track.

 

I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with Christmas.

I love all the obvious fun stuff like parties, Starbucks red cups, giving people I love presents and eating so much I might explode.


 

But I do have a couple of things that I'm really not so keen on like being so skint from buying presents that I'm drinking tap water at the work Christmas party, waiting on the bus in a complete blizzard and the inevitable awkward trip to see some relatives you only ever see once a year.

 

And don't even start me on having to perpetually answer the age old question "so have you found yourself a nice young man yet?" (which reminds me I really should pick up some mistletoe.....)

But most of the time I'll be that annoying one running around singing along to Mariah Carey and making everyone eat mince pies.

 

Are you a holiday lover or are you a bit of a Scrooge?

 

On a completely unrelated note does anyone else find Brad Pitt totally cringe-worthy in that Chanel advert?


 

Posted with Blogsy

Fat Girl Slim Week 3 Update

So this week has been traumatic. There's no getting round the stress that's happening right now.

I'm just off another 12 hour shift at work. But at least tomorrow I'll get to shine there (loooooong story)

So on with the update, the last thing i though about this week was healthy eating. Between work and the none work stuff I've just been stuffing things in as and when i remember. You'd think that would help with weight loss but instead when i have eaten its been bags of marshmallows and Big Macs.

At least the scales say I've stayed the same.....

Should really probably buy new batteries for it though......

But with things looking on the up at both the work and personal fronts, and the fact i have a huge event to attend at the end of next month (and a dress for it that wont do up) I'm determined to achieve my goals on this.

Oooooo Cocktails......

P.S Don't ever eat cheese on toast then immediately attempt the 30 day shred. It does not end well.

Onesie Party OOTN

Just a quick post today as I'm off out for the evening.


Instead of the traditional Halloween party my friend its having a onesie party.


Here I am in my sexy onesie ready to go.

Oh dear, just realised, I'm about to leave the house wearing a onesie!


What are you dressing up as this Halloween?

(this onesie was £25 HERE )