Christmas Part 2 - What I GAVE as presents

Hi All,

This is part 2 of my Christmas Haul post for all you hanging onto Christmas. This post may inspire you next year, so I hope you enjoy seeing what I gave for Christmas. I bought most of the presents from Westfield in London before I came home for Christmas.

I don't know about anyone else but I prefer giving presents to receiving them, in fact it may be my favourite part about Christmas. Last year at uni, I had so much time to look for presents, but this year with my job I got most of them all in one weekend. Next year I'd love to do more shopping!

If you would like to know any more about any of them, please let me know.



Mum
My mum's present was actually the first one I bought. She is a huge fan of Jo Malone as am I, but our hometown doesn't have a Jo Malone shop so she only has one of the perfumes. Her favourite is the pomegranate scent, which I recommend if you haven't smelt it.

I spotted this pomegranate gift set, complete with perfume, body lotion and bath oil which would be perfect for her. Jo Malone is quite expensive and I had to venture into the designer part of Westfield to pick this up but it is so lovely. She was delighted with this and loved her present as she doesn't always get to browse Jo Malone to buy new products from there.

Have any of you ever used Jo Malone, if so what do you think?

Sister

The first present I bought my sister was a Pandora bracelet and charm. Neither of us has had anything from Pandora before, but I know a lot of people who have to trust it was worth it. My sister has a lot of friendship bracelets and I wanted to get her something like that she could wear everyday so decided to go with the leather style. I personally prefer this as it's not too over the top and I chose a grey colour to match any outfit.

I decided on only 1 charm because firstly I wasn't sure if she would even wear it, and secondly I don't like the one's with loads of charms as they can get a bit too busy. She LOVED this which I was so pleased about, and wants to stick to one charm as the one I got her is meaningful, very happy!

Now, if you've seen my last blog post you'll know that we both bought each other Harry Potter tickets, which was my second present to my sister, but as we were told we both got the same thing I had to return these and get her some other little things which she loved. We are both very excited for Harry Potter!




Dad
Originally I had planned to get my Dad his favourite Creed aftershave, and left it till last minute because there was a shop at home that stocked it. However, when I went to the shop a few days before christmas, I was told they stopped suppling it and you could only get in it in London. Where I'd just come from!! TYPICAL So, I went on the hunt for more presents. He's a massive sweet tooth so the sweet shop from an American shop went down a treat.

The Waitrose Food Guide was also bought from him by me. My mum and dad love travelling around going to pubs for food so this will be perfect for them! He also used the Molton Brown range everyday so this is always needed. He was very happy indeed!

So these are my main presents I handed out to my family on the day. I framed my graduation photo's for my grandparents which they absolutely loved as well! I love shopping for people, and I love to make sure I've got them something which is relevant or personal as it makes it that bit more special. 

What did you give for christmas and would anyone you know like any of these presents?

Cya x

What I Got For Christmas

Hi All,

Firstly I hope you had a lovely Christmas and enjoyed your day whatever it was you were doing!

In today's post I will be sharing with you some of the lovely things I received for Christmas. I will be doing this post in 2 parts and will shortly be posting a 'What I Gave' blog post for you all. So on with the presents! Now I am not going to share with you EVERY present I got, so I am just going to share with you a selection of my favourites.

BaByliss Curl Secret

If you follow me, or know me at all, you will know I have been banging on about this for AGES. I asked for this for christmas and yes I finally got it. I am so excited to use this! A lot of you have asked me to do a review of this because I know it is highly sort after, but the price puts a lot of people off so I will be doing a review for you to let you know exactly what I think of it.


I have actually used this already as I was far too excited to try it and did a photo shoot with the after effects to show you. I am currently editing all the photos and videos now which is taking a lot of time so will be posting this in a few weeks for you.

Here's a sneak preview from the shoot <<


Now onto more presents..

Harry Potter

Now.. this was a funny one. Without knowing me and my sister bought each other one of the same presents. We are both HUGE Harry Potter fans and have been to Harry Potter land in America but haven't been to the studio tour in London yet. So.. for christmas we both accidentally got exactly that. Luckily before we both opened the same present for each other on christmas day my dad told us the situation once he found out and I was able to return them due to having already purchased tickets. 

So.. after all that palaver, me and my sister will be going to the Harry Potter studios in February, so we just catch it whilst it's still in the snow. I'm SO excited eeek.

Little Mermaid
I'm a huge huge huge Disney fan and my favourite Disney film, although a hard choice is The Little Mermaid. Now for the past few years, this has been a nightmare to get hold of, but as it was released recently my sister managed to snap me up a copy and get me the boxset. Can't wait to watch this!

As well as the first film, this contains the second one which I equally love and a third one I didn't even know about!

Have you seen or heard of the 3rd Little Mermaid film?



Oribe Texturising Spray
This spray is something I have wanted to try for a while now after seeing many other bloggers talk about it. The spray is quite expensive at £38 a bottle but I'm excited to try it. Having long hair, I really hope this is worth the price! This is also something I may do a review on.

Understandably it is not an everyday purchase at that price as many other dry shampoo's and volumisers are cheaper. However, if it's worth it is may be an investment.

Let me know if you'd like me to do a review on it?

So, like those are the main presents I wanted to share with you. Find below a nice little photo of all my presents. Some include a flashing Paris canvas, many cupcake books and a lot of nail varnish and jewellery. I hope you all had a wonderful day, I certainly did. I just can't believe how quick it goes by!

I will be posting part 2 of this next week where I share with you what I gave for christmas and make sure to stay tuned for the curl secret review in the next few weeks.

Cya x

Christmas Singalong - Royal Albert Hall

Hi All,

As some of you may know, this weekend I went to 'A Christmas Carol Singalong' at the Royal Albert Hall. This was my first time here and seeing the show so I was very excited indeed. All my family came down to London for this which was lovely and a great way to get in the Christmas spirit.

What happens?

So, as I have never been to this before, I wasn't sure what to expect, a musical, an event? In fact, it was everyone gathered together singing christmas carols with a choir and orchestra. Now I am by no means a good singer, but I love a good sing song so this was right up my street. I love the sound of an orchestra and this along with the choir was just beautiful.

Which songs?

Luckily there was a song sheet incase anyone didn't know the lyrics. I am more a christmas song person rather than a christmas carol person and the show did a great job at mixing up a bit of both songs so that there was a bit of variety for all ages. My favourite christmas song is 'I wish it could be Christmas everyday' and this was one of the last to be played which was fantastic.

The Royal Albert Hall                        Like I said, this was my first time here and it was absolutely beautiful. As you will see from the photo's later it was beautifully lit and the staging was wonderful. I was lucky enough to be in a box with my family and some of the other boxes had decorated there's with lights which was lovely.

The show

The conductor was a wonderfully charismatic man who really got the crowd going but the person who stole the show for me was the female lead vocalist. I believe she was actually the understudy as the lady who normally does it couldn't be there, but she was fantastic, she absolutely made the songs and her voice was superb.

All in all it was a brilliant show, it lasted about 3/4 hours and I was so happy and was dancing around by the end of it. There was such a great atmosphere in the hall, everyone was dancing and singing together and it was a really great experience to be a part of. 

If you would like to know more about this, click HERE

Below are some photo's and videos I took during the show. Enjoy!

I have SO many videos of this night, but I thought I would share with you my favourite song as well as a quick Instagram mash up I did of around 5 songs. if you would like to see any more of the videos just let me know!

 Videos

Cya! x

Winter Wonderland

Hello,

It's Christmas very soon and I don't know why but this year I wasn't feeling Christmassy. That is until I went to WINTER WONDERLAND.

If you don't know what Winter Wonderland is it is a huge event in London held in Hyde park. I had heard of this before I lived in London and always wanted to go and now I have moved to London, I couldn't not see what it was all about. 

It is MUCH better than I expected it to be and it made me feel so chistmassy. I love stalls and little markets during Christmas and Winter Wonderland is full of them!! Full of food and gifts! As well as the section, there is also an ice skating rink, lots of bars, many game stalls where you can win cuddly toys and what not. However, my favorutire part of this was the rides.

I was expecting fair ground rides, but they are not little fairground rides.. These rides are suitablable for theme parks, hugeeee scary rides and there are so many it's brilliant. I am a huge fan of rides and this did not dissapoint! 

Winter Wonderland was amazing, the atmosphere was great, everyone was so happy and they were even blowing out fake snow! There was Christmas music being blasted out and a lot of mulled wine to go round.

The event itself is free to get into, however you have to pay to go on the rides, which can be very expensive. The average per ride is £6 so I only went on 3, but there are MANY rides I would've loved to go on! Winter Wonderland was a lot better than I was expecting, I can't get over the scale of it, it's split up into sections; the stalls, the food, the games, the ice kingdom, the ice rink, the rides and santa land. I would definitely go back, in fact I want to go back before christmas this year!

I would love to know if you've been and what you thought of it, or you haven't been and would like to go?

If you would like to find more out about Winter Wonderland, check out their website HERE where you can buy tickets and see what attractions they have.

Find some photos I snapped of the event below:

Check out the moose head on this pub

One of the very colourful rides

Mid spin during a very very fast ride

Now this is not the London Eye, it's their giant wheel

The carousel ride

I went on this drop ride and you could see the whole of London!

One of the roller coasters, this was amazing

Cya x

Graduation

Hi Lovelies,

The week before last I Graduated University, I got to have the big ceremony and yes that included me throwing my hat up in the air! It was such a lovely day. I wasn't really sure what to expect as I was only visualising what I had seen in movies, and I guess it was quite similar to that.

The ceremony was held in Guild Hall in Southampton. This hall was decorated beautifully and full of students in matching gowns and hats, as well as family & friends and we had to go onto stage to collect our award. This was a lot more nerve racking than you'd think as I was paranoid I was going to fall flat on my face. It was such a blur, I barely even remember going on stage! I DIDN'T TRIP!

Southampton

I had my graduation in Southampton as this is where I went to University. I miss southampton so much as always knew it was going to emotional going back as it is where I've spent the best 3 years of my life. I was so excited to see everyone again and I couldn't wait to go back, but it was always in the back of my mind, graduation was final. It was the final goodbye to uni and the closing of that chapter of my life.  However, I am so happy I was able to go to graduation knowing I was in a job and could start that new part of my life. It's still very upsetting not being a student anymore though! That was always a great excuse to have a nap, go out every night or get a discount from shops!

Gown

As soon as I arrived in Southampton I had to collect my gown, which was very excited but I had no idea how to put it on. I was so grateful that there were people allocated to dress you as I would have been lost. Soon after I was dressed in my gown I was swiftly moved onto the photos which I had done with my family and a single one of myself. I was pretty much put into position by the photographer & have the standard graduation photo of me holding the scroll, eeek I'm very excited to see it. 

Streaker

It was then photo time for me and my family and you can see some of the photos I captured dotted around this post. I am VERY grateful it didn't rain as it did on some other days. I am also grateful I was not graduating the day before as there was a STREAKER during that ceremony. Find a news article regarding that HERE. My reaction tweet is actually featured in the article, so check it out!

Ceremony

Anyway, it was then onto the ceremony and all I remember of this was waiting for the row to go in front of me as I knew I was next. As everyone worries about, all I was thinking was DO NOT FALL! And luckily I didn't. I can barely remember what the chancellor said to me but I remember being so relieved when I sat down and I hadn't made a fool of myself.

Overall

After the ceremony there were many more photos and of course the famous hat throwing. Overall Graduation was wonderful, the ceremony and the day went so swiftly and I had such a lovely time seeing and celebrating with everyone. 

I am very proud of myself and a few years ago I would never have seen myself where I am today and graduating with a 2:1 in Advertising. 

I absolutely loved my uni experience and would recommend it anyone thinking of going to University. You can read my post on University HERE. I am so thankful to all the people I have met over the past 3 years, they have made my time at uni the best it could have possibly been. 

If any of you have graduated recently I would love to know how your ceremony was and it anything funny or embarrassing happened during it! 

Cya x

Pepper - New Puppy

Hi All,

Well to say that last week was busy is an understatement. In 4 days I spent over 17 hours in the car, 6 hours on a train, graduated, got a new puppy and went to see my sister for her birthday. Each day I spent in a different part of the country, Cheltenham, Southampton, Ipswich, Reading and London and by the end of it I was exhausted. However, it was so so worth it.

If you follow me on Twitter or Via this blog, you will know that on Thursday I Graduated University. This was a very proud day for me and I will shortly be doing a post on this with photos from the day. You may also know back at home my family were getting a new puppy and as I went home for my Graduation I was able to pick up the puppy with them.

We left to get Pepper (the name we finally decided on) at 6am as she was a very very long car journey away from my hometown. We actually got there so early to have first pick of the puppies as they were all going that day. However when we got there, having to choose was the most heartbreaking thing! They were all adorable and I wish we could have taken all of them home! We eventually settled on Pepper as she wasn't the boldest out of the pups but also wasn't the most shy, so we believed she was a good mix.

When we had seen the pups previously, they were only 4 weeks and barely moving, so at 8 weeks it was lovely to see them jumping around. During the car journey home, Pepper stayed in the back with me and was sick a few times, which is expected and similar to when we bought my other dog Daisy home for the first time. However, this time Pepper was sick over me, which was delightful. She was still very excited so didn't sleep very much. For the journey being as long as it was, she was very well behaved!

As we have another dog, Daisy, we hoped they would get on and take to each other, and they did which we were very happy with! Daisy is so lovely with Pepper, they are already playing together and we find them curled up together in the morning. Aww!

After the first day, Pepper became a lot more playful and her cheeky side is coming out. We have got her a LOT of toys and chew toys as she is already starting to nip a bit. She seems to love my slipper boots and the tassels! Unfortunately I do not live at home anymore, so I will not always see Pepper, but I am going home for Christmas so will make the most time I have with her and Daisy.

Pepper 8 weeks and Daisy 9 years old

Pepper is a Kerry Blue Terrier and they are known to grow very fast, so I'm sure she won't stay as little as she is for long! Do any of you have one? She is so perfect, so fluffy and so cute! She has the most beautiful eyes and is so dainty following you around everywhere. As she is jet black you can almost miss her on a black floor! She has learnt to sit and I even saw her watching TV the other day! I managed to catch a video of this the other day and put in some other clips too. See below for the video.

I have SO many video's of Pepper, but the two I will show you below are her of her in the car on the way and and when she was sat watching TV and then starts to play. She was obsessed with my graduation balloons! Enjoy!

Overall, we are VERY pleased with Pepper. She is so cute and anyone that see's her instantly falls in love with her! I will keep you updated on her progression.

Do any of you have a Kerry Blue Terrier? What do you think of Pepper?


Cya! x

November Updates

Hello,

I thought I would give you guys a few quick updates regarding my recent posts.


BaByliss Curl Secret
I'm so excited to say this has been bought! I got a phone call at the weekend to say it has been picked up and will be waiting under my tree when I go home for christmas. This is something I can't wait to try out, and I will definitely review it and let you know if it's worth it, which fingers crossed it will be. Check out my BaByliss Curl Secret post here.

Puppies Name
After a LOT of deliberation, me and my family think we have finally decided on a name for the puppy. We are going with Pepper. We all liked this name, and as she will start off as black colour, this name is quite fitting. I would love to know what you all think of the name, do you like it? If you would like to see the post regarding previous puppy names and photo's click here.

Christmas Advert
On Friday, I wrote a piece on the new John Lewis Christmas Advert before it's release on Saturday. Now you've hopefully all got a chance to see it, I would love to hear your thoughts on it. What did you think of it? Do you prefer any of their other Christmas adverts? If you still haven't seen the advert, click here for a full review and the advert itself.

Graduation
Now, this isn't regarding my old posts, but it will probably involve my new posts. At the end of November, I graduate University. This is a very scary thought as it is completely closing this chapter of my life and I am not ready to stop being a student yet. This will be a very special day and I will keep you updated on this and most probably blog my experience.

Nails
This is also an upcoming post update. I recently wrote a post regarding halloween nails and showed you quickly my penguin nails that I had previously done. This was requested and I have been asked to show you how I did them, so nearer to Christmas I will be taking you through the stages of completing this look. If you would like to see the penguin nails click here for the previous post.



So that's it for all the updates! There is a lot going on at the moment, so my blog is swaying a lot more to lifestyle around Christmas. I will be keeping you up to date and on the eye out for all the amazing Christmas adverts and will share the best ones with you!



(WARNING: Gushy part coming up)

I also just want to say a massive THANK YOU for all the support I have currently received regarding this Blog. I started this mid September and am astonished by how well everyone has taken to it. The support I get on my Blog Twitter is overwhelming, and you all tell me how much you love reading my posts which is so lovely and I am very grateful for that. There are now over 600 of you lovely people following Char's Insights and over 7000 page views, which is surreal to think about. I love hearing what you think and if you would like a specific post on something please do let me know and I'll happily do it.

If you don't already follow me on my blog twitter, I'm at Char's Insights and I post about updates regarding my blog, as well as interacting with you guys. I also love checking out other people's blog's so please feel free to send me yours and I'll take a look. Love you all and thank you again.


Cya x

The Making of the Bear and Hare

Hi Guys,

Quick little post today, I just had to share something with you.

My last post was about the new John Lewis Christmas Advert. If you haven't seen yet yet, WHY NOT. Take a look at my last blog post and you can see it there. Well anyway, a video has come out about the making of the advert and it is astonishing!

I cannot believe the amount of effort that went it to it, no wonder it cost 7 million! Each take a different movement and each piece of the set has been designed individually and from scratch. I thought it was computer animated, so seeing this has totally shocked me. The amount of time and effort put into this is incredible and they should be very proud of the result.

I want to share this with you all so click the link below and see the video of how this amazing, tearjerking advert was made. Enjoy!

http://player.vimeo.com/video/78254514

Cya x

John Lewis Christmas Advert

Hi All,

So, the wait is over. The John Lewis Christmas advert is here.

I wait all year for the Christmas adverts, it is the one time of year that retailers know they have to get right and pull out all the stops to outdo their competitors. John Lewis have held the top spot for a while in the UK, and their adverts have now become almost iconic with people waiting all year for them and waiting to see what emotive advert they produce. I am one of these people. I have loved John Lewis' adverts from the start and throughout the year, not even around christmas time, I find myself searching for all of the adverts on YouTube and watching them from beginning.

So, if you are wondering why I am writing this blog post when it isn't even Christmas yet, it is because John Lewis have released their christmas advert. Yes people, it's been released!! It is due to be released on TV during the X Factor on Saturday night, however it has been released online for all of us searching for it prior. John Lewis have actually bought out the entire advert break during X Factor, which the agreement of Simon Cowell, to make sure their advert is memorable and everyone is talking about. Which I'm sure they will. Watch the new 2013 John Lewis Christmas advert below:

The advert tells the story of a bear and a hare around Christmas time. The advert is animated so is quite different to anything they have done before. It shows the bear not in the Christmas spirit, whereas his best friend the hare is trying his very hardest to get his best friend in the spirit so they can enjoy it together. The advert shows all the other animals enjoying decorating the tree etc but the bear yawning. It is soon clear the bear is going into hibernation, and will always miss christmas due to his sleeping patterns and is therefore not aware of how enjoyable christmas can be.

The advert really pulls on your heartstrings when the hare is looking at all the other animals enjoying christmas day and he is so upset his best friend can't be there. The next thing, the bear comes along with a huge smile on his face after receiving the hare's present of an alarm clock to wake him up just in time for Christmas. And they all live happily ever after. Of course.

The advert cost a whopping 7 million so I do hope they sell a lot of those alarm clocks!

Something I think John Lewis do perfectly with their adverts is the music choices, this again is a perfect choice and I'm sure this cover of Keane's 'Somewhere Only We know' by Lily Allen will be a hit, as all the other iconic, slowed down, covers are. The music is so emotive and beautifully fits with the story. The music for last year's snowman advert particularly stood out to me because it was so entrancing, it made the advert.

Their adverts are so iconic, and are always known for being a tearjerking and emotional. They could be criticised for being very repetitive and following the same story, which is some cases they do. A lot of John Lewis christmas adverts follow the same story for finding the perfect christmas gift for your love ones, which this new advert follows too. However, John Lewis know if they feature products in their adverts, people will buy them, which is exactly what happens. This alarm clock will now be on everyones Christmas list.

As much as I do love this advert, and think the animation and disney like style really sets it apart from anything they have done before, I do prefer some of their other christmas adverts. My all time favourite one (and this is a hard choice) is 'The Long Wait' and I know this is a similar view of many others. The advert shows the boy impatiently waiting for Christmas and when the day is finally here, he cannot wait a minute longer. You assume he is waiting for Christmas all the time, but in fact he is waiting to give his parents the present he has bought him. It is such an emotive advert I do remember I did actually shed a tear at this one, because it is unexpected. Watch it below:

There have been many other brilliant John Lewis Christmas adverts and another favourite of mine is the Sweet Child Of Mine 2009 advert, I absolutely love the transition at the end, it works perfectly. Here are their 2008, 2010 and 2012 adverts for you to have a look, and probably cry at.

I'm sure there will be many more Christmas adverts I will love and I'll make sure to share the best ones with you! So that's it, another long year of waiting for the John Lewis Christmas advert is upon us.

And remember, give someone a Christmas present they'll never forget!


Cya x

Babyliss Curl Secret

Hello Lovelies,

Haircare blog post today! If you don't know, I have very long hair, like really long hair. I usually straighten my hair and that itself takes a good half hour to do well. On the odd occasion I curl it, it will take over an hour, as well as how long hair my hair is, it is also very thick so curling it is a huge amount of effort. I don't own tongs or anything, I just use my straighteners as I rarely curl my hair, but on the odd occasion I do it looks lovely.

I also have dip dyed hair, and the effects of dip dye often look nicer curled than straight. If you curl the ends of your dip dyed hair, the blonde will really stand out. As my hair is so long the dip dye now reached my hips so the ends curled would look lovely. The only issue is time, so I really want to invest in a good pair of curlers, that take minimal time and effort.

Bang. Enter Curl Secret.

BaByliss Curl Secret is a curler like no other. This device is like a magic wand and I am so excited to try it out. The curler sucks up your hair automatically and without any effort or time you have a perfect curl. Before I go into more detail about it, watch the video below showing it in action.

How amazing does that look!

It sucks up your hair, so you don't have to physically wrap it round, it heats up your hair depending on the softness of the curl and you have a curl in 10 seconds. This will take much less time to curl my hair and I think it will be very handy indeed in the morning! The one thing I was worrying about was it zapping up your hair and getting tangled but I have done A LOT of research on this and it is clear this is not an issue although everyone initially thought it would be.

What my hair is currently like- Dip Dye

Something else I am worrying about is the length of my hair and how this will effect the mechanism, as I have said it's super long, way past my hips now so I'm not sure how this will be in the curler and I might have to start quite far down. If you have the same problem or really long hair I would love to know your thoughts on this and if this issue has effected you?

The product is quite expensive and sits at roughly £120 which for a curler is a lot of money, however, I think with the amount of time and effort you will be saving, this will be worth it. I have asked for this as my christmas present to justify the price and I am sure I will love it.

I have read some reviews of this on other blogs and watched many videos and the response all seems very positive so far which is great. I would love to hear your thoughts on this and if you have it, what it's like? Would you recommend it? Or if you don't have it, would you buy it?

My hair is something which is very important to me, I take care of it and like to look after it. It is a big feature for me because of it's length and thickness and is something which many people comment on, even strangers. Personally I think it is a bit too long now, I'm close to being able to sit on it and it is a lot of effort to maintain, but I just can't seem to part with it, and I am not ready to cut off the dip dye just yet as it has faded to a lovely colour. As I am so precious about my hair I need to make sure this product is the right one for me so I would love some of your feedback on this.

If I do get this BaByliss Curl Secret, I will do a tutorial and review on the product for you. Hopefully I will be amazed and it will be a good as everybody says it is!

Cya x

Halloween Nails

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!

Last year, I went all out with Halloween, outfit, nails, the lot. This year I have neglected Halloween a bit due to my busy schedule, but I couldn't resist looking at a few nails online. Last year I did pumpkin halloween nails however last year I was still at uni so this was acceptable. This year I spent my Halloween in client meetings so had to stick with a plan nude, no pumpkin nails this year for me.

I am going to share with you some of my favourite halloween nail art I have found online when researching. I LOVE nail art and have previously done penguin nails which I will show you at the end of the blog. I always have my nails painted, regardless. I normally go for purply and pinky shades, but at the moment I am loving nude shades. I am currently wearing a muddy nude/brown colour and it goes with everything. I also love bold colours such a minty green as they can really stand out from an outfit.

In the Halloween season, these are some of my favourite nail designs:

Let me know which one these nail art's are your favourite and which you would try. Also if you have tried any before let me know, I tried pumpkins last year, but I love the skeleton and fake blood effect. These type of nails would only be suitable on Halloween however, and I do not recommend these for everyday nail. Unless you like fake blood and skeletons of course.

Penguin Nails

As I said earlier in the post, I have painted my nails like penguins before. I also did this last year and have now done this twice as it was such a massive hit with people. I love penguins and when I found out how to paint my nails like them I was super excited. They did look really good, but the only thing was the time it took. Obviously as you all know nails can take a while to do well, and my worst pet hate is when nails smudge. 

The penguin nails were done in about 5 stages and each stage the varnish had to be completely dry because I was painting white on black. In total the nails took about 4 hours to do, but the result is really good.

These nail's weren't stick on and a lot of people thought they were fake but I promise you I did them myself. The black varnish went on first and then I painted half my nail with white nail varnish and filled in the rest with a hair grip of orange, white and black to make the features of the penguin. See the final outcome below:

If you would like I can do a blog post on how to get these penguin nails looks and the stages of me doing it, let me know if this is something you would like to see and I would be happy to do it. Plus it gives me a chance to do my nails again.

So, I hope you enjoyed this post and have a great halloween whatever your plans!

Cya x

Puppies Names- Help Needed

Hello you lovely people,

I have a lovely little dog called Daisy back at home. She is a wire haired fox terrier and is the sweetest little dog, she will sit around at your feet but she needs a friend. I have now moved out, and with my sister away at University it was decided that Daisy should have a little play mate, a new puppy.

We decided to go with another terrier as it was the same breed as Daisy, but a different type because we didn't want two of the same dog. We got a call that there was a litter of the breed that we wanted and at the weekend we went to visit them and the mum. I remember the first time we saw Daisy and she was so tiny, I couldn't wait to see this new litter.

The litter was all the way in Ipswich which is very very far from my hometown, and about 3 hours from London which is were my Dad picked me up from. We EVENTUALLY got there, and were greeted straight away by Freya, the mum of the pups, a lovely looking dog with the most beautiful eyes looking up at us. Another thing I noticed was how fluffy she was!

After a lot of playing with Freya, it was time to see the pups. They were so cute! They were absolutely tiny as they were only 4 weeks old were about the same size as your hand. Look at your hand right now, they could fit in that. The puppies were jet black and were falling all over each other, trying to scramble around. We were not able to pick a specific puppy, but the rest had all been sold already and we were guaranteed one. We decided to go with a girl, as we already have one. We are not allowed to pick the puppy up till 8 weeks, so when we see it next time, it should be a lot different.


The next big debate we had was the name. This process is MUCH harder than it seems and we are still undecided on a name. As our current dog is called Daisy, we didn't want one too similar to that, and a lot of the nice dogs names we were picking out ended in an 'e' sound. It got to the stage where one of us always hated the name. We firstly decided on boo, then seeing the dog it was changed to Ivy or Willow. I thought it was stuck on Ivy till I got a phone call saying I now had a choice between 5 name which has Irish connections because of my family's heritage and the dog's heritage.

On Sunday I got a phone call from my Mum and Dad saying they had chosen 5 names, and me and my sister needed to rank them on a scoring system as they had and from favourite scoring 5 points and least scoring 1. At this point, I thought this was getting to extreme and turning into a game show. But it was funny how it has come to this and I rang my sister to explain what she had to do. How can a dog's name cause so much fuss!

The 5 names were shortened down to
1. Erin
2. Cara
3. Orla
4. Tara
5. Kirby

Now, I was still in favour of Ivy, but out of these my favourites were Erin & Orla. We thought this scoring system would actually solve the issue, but in fact it ended up as a tie. It was between Erin & Orla, so now we are back in the same position and stuck between names.


So I put it to you! PLEASE HELP US choose a name for our puppy. Do you have a favourite of our shortened down list? Or any favourites yourself? We would preferably like an Irish name and one that can be called easily for the puppy to recognise her name, matching it with a distinctive sound.

We won't pick the puppies up till 8 weeks old, and I won't actually be home till around christmas time to be with the puppy, but will keep you updated on the name situation and will take lots and lots of photos of her for you.

Below I am also going to share a video with you of the puppies at 4 weeks. So much cuteness!

Cya x

Banksy- New York

I am a huge fan of Banksy, I love his work, and I love the fact his identity is kept a mystery. I think it's fascinating that no body knows who he is, and wonder how much longer he will remain unmasked. There are many theories out there to who is he is and one has come out very recently actually if you are keeping up to date with his latest antics in New York.

If you aren't aware, Banksy has taken over New York during October, hosting an open air exhibition entitled 'Better Out Than In.' He is attempting a piece a day and many pieces around the city have already been spotted and captured. However what I find shocking is that most of the pieces have already been vandalised. I find this very disrespectful and have watched the video of graffiti artist named 'Omar' ruining the recent ballon piece Banksy has created. The footage was captured, and rightfully there is a huge backlash against this jealous artist. As well as this, many of his pieces in New York have also been vandalised and the majority of them have been ruined.

Of course this is expected and Banksy openly admits he knows he is hated by other artists, but I find it so disrespectful. It is ruining it for other people who would like to see his work and does not do anything for the person who is defacing it, you are coming across as jealous. So just stop.

On the other hand people are saying that Banksy would love the interaction, many artists are now getting involved and the walls are so full surrounding his pieces, the original graffiti is barely recognisable. As not much is revealed about Banksy, is it unable to know his thoughts on this. Personally I think it is inevitable this will happen because he puts his work so openly to the public, and there are no rules to stop this, I just think artists should show respect for each other. Which are the moment, they really aren't.

ANYWAY, enough of my rant. Below I will be sharing with you some of the Banksy pieces which have been seen and captured in New York City.


Sirens of the Lambs
This first video I am going to share with you is Banksy stunt entitled 'Sirens of the Lambs.' It is a stunt in which stuffed animals are driven round in a slaughtering van around the city and parked outside a butchers. It is a very shocking statement, and you can see children are horrified in the video. The stuffed animals are actually seen to be moving so may be motorised, which is quite scary in itself and could give children the impression this is real.

This is very controversial by Banksy, but that is his style and it certainly gets the message across. It has got a huge amount of media coverage and this video has been viewed over 3 million views on YouTube.

Selling his Art

Another Banksy stunt which has got huge coverage is him selling his orginal pieces for only $60 in Central Park. His pieces are usually worth hundreds of thousands of dollars so for the people that actually bought them from the vender, they must have got a very big shock.

The seller is not Banksy (well we don't know that) and the stall seems to the public to be knock off Banksy work, with only a selection of people looking or purchasing the pieces. After it was revealed they were actually Banksy pieces, many people were kicking themselves they did not buy the pieces and had walked past without a second look. A very clever stunt by Banksy. This video has over 4 million views on YouTube now. How weird would it be to see yourself walking past ignoring it. Well done to the people who bought the pieces, you are now very lucky indeed. 

Below are some of his other pieces he has done in New York this month. I will be updating you with any more of his work I find interesting later on in the month. Hope you enjoy! x

Cya x