22 portraits

Oh god, I really need to be more organised with my blogging! Sorry guys! If I didn't have enough projects going on I've decided to tackle a new one! Recently I've been really inspired by the artist Emanuel De Souza ( @emanuelartist if you are on instagram) and his portraits. He does so many amazing ones and when they were all grouped together they had a really nice overall look and his style and personality really came through. I decided as I keep saying I wanted to practice portraits, a similar project would be perfect! Now, I previously ordered 22 canvas's to do some colour studies on, the colour study hype is over and I've decided to rework the canvas's into 22 portraits of musicians that inspire me. 
It's going to be a massive challenge and definitely NOT one that will be completed anytime soon with a trip home, mini trip to Budapest and Christmas but I may give myself a target of April. It's also going to be really hard because theres quite a few men I'd like to paint and I've never tried painting a beard before PLUS I still need to work on my style, colours and technique but I think it's going to be such an amazing challenge and I can't wait to get brainstorming for it! I already know a lot of people I want to paint like the lads from Bastille, Lapsley, Jack Garratt to name a few! I think I may use my time home to get sketching and brainstorming. I may do a timelapse video for some or even some prints of the painting or sketches if they come out decent! Of course I will be doing some posts inside my sketchbook and little updates as well!!
Are you guys working on any projects at the moment? 
Keep up to date with my latest posts by following me! :)
- Bloglovin - Twitter - Instagram - Pinterest - Youtube

The A->Z of Laura.

Not to long ago Jemma did a post about the A-z of her and I really loved it! Admittedly I had to sing myself the alphabet to get all the letters in order - surely I can't be the only one to do this?!
A- Abu Dhabi - My childhood home, I spent 10 years here but it feels like so much longer! I miss it everyday and it's my favourite place to recharge. When we first moved there we didn't even have malls and my first school was horrendous ( it had barbed wire..to stop students escaping.) but I wouldn't change it for the world!
B- Beanie Babies!I had over 200 of these!! I was obsessed as a child. I've sold a few at carboots recently but I'm still keeping all my favourites! 
C- CATS. I don't think I need to expand too much on this but I really am Bridget Jones with cats!
D- Dalmatians - my favourite animal in the world! As much of a cat lady I am, dalmatians will always hold that no. 1 spot in my heart. 
E-  Eating clean and plant based. I am really trying to eat as healthy as I can to see if it helps my symptoms. ( she says after stuffing herself with a chicken kebab and god knows what...) I'm also making anti inflammatory shakes to see if they help as well. 
F- Festivals - I freakin LOVE them! I really want to do more different ones around the world, my dream before I'm 30 would be able to festival hop from April - Sept and just try them ALL. 
G- Golf, I used to play golf every weekend when I first moved out! My bestie in grade 4 got me into it and we had to go to Emirates Golf Course in Dubai every weekend to play as Abu Dhabi didn't have a course yet.
H- Harry, my cat! Named after Mr Potter himself as he has a little lightening bolt above his eye.( I'm not kidding!) I love this little idiot even if he hates me and never wants to cuddle unless it's night he's the best! Even my patronus was a black and white cat! I also seriously love HP anyway, Hufflepuff and proud!
I- ILL. I've been ill since the end of May, it's undiagnosed and doing my head in! :(
J- Jokes - I love jokes, especially crappy jokes. A particular childhood favourite was ' what's brown and sticky? - a stick'..... enough said there.
K- Kayla Itsines, I started her plan this year and it has made such a difference to me, body wise and mentally.You can read about my progress here. I haven't been able to repeat the plan since being ill as it was too intense and I was getting too dizzy but I am going to try and push through and restart the plan this month. 
L- Luanna - who is currently one of my girl crushes - her haaaaair. oh my gawd. it's beautiful! She is so stylish. LIFE GOAL. 
M- Mcfly, my favourite band growing up! I got to see them last month and it was AMAZING. ( yes I went to all 3 nights!) I finally got to hear sorry's not good enough for the first time!
N- Needle and thread - I am SO obsessed and inspired by this brand at the moment! I wish I had the money for like 3 of there dresses and I want a fiance just to buy one of their wedding dresses! ahahaha!
O- Originality, I'm always tough on myself when it comes to art and I always feel like I'm not original enough especially when I see so many amazing artists out there. I know I shouldn't compare but I do sometimes..a lot, I've got quite a few ideas which I hope are original and I just need to keep working, taking inspiration and using it with my own ideas.
P-Painting, I love to paint and this year I started to go back to oils, I have so much to learn and I really need to get my arse into gear and practice and get some work made but I love it! I would love to do this full time. 
Q- QUEEN. I love calling people this! Also I recently got the lipstick from Charlotte Tilbury of the same name and it is GORGEOUS.
R- Reading - one of my all time favourite pastimes, espcially on holiday. I have so many books and so many more I want to read! My trip home next month is the perfect excuse to buy some and I have my eye on at least 3!
S- Short. I am very short, so short that people frequently like to remind me how short I am. As if I hadn't known my whole life... 
T- Travelling, I LOVE to travel. Experience different foods, ways of life, cultures. I just love it, I wish I could travel more but I know I am fortunate to have travelled how much I have so far. Next year I get to tick L.A and Bali off the list!
U- Urmston - Where I was born and where I live now! 
V- Violin - I used to play one as a child, I think I got to like grade 2 but I always wanted to play guitar and never really put much effort in. I'm debating trying to learn again, I had the most beautiful Violin as a child and let's be honest I haven't grown much since.
W- Weird, I'm a weird person, I accept it.
X- Xbox, I didn't really have anything to put here aha! So I went for X-box as I used to work in GAME for like 2 years!
Y- Yoga, a pastime I love but really need to put more time aside for.
Z- Zombieland - I'm watching it right now, it's alright so far! I'm not a mahoosive fan of Jessie Eisenberg though. ( he did grow on me slightly by the end) 
Geez, this was a lot harder than I thought!! Some letters I had like 3-4 words I could have used and surprisingly struggled on E, N and O! I kept wanting to write elephant! Even though I have like no associations with them!!   Ciao x
Keep up to date with my latest posts by following me! :)
- Bloglovin - Twitter - Instagram - Pinterest - Youtube

DIY Harry potter boxes

At the beginning of September my Auntie asked me to make some DIY boxes for her and my cousin and I couldn't wait, she had seen some in a market in London but they were quite pricey! I had been given  picture of the third year potions on one side of a box as the only guide and pretty much got to do what I want with the rest! I knew straight away I wanted to do the other box as if it came from a wizarding shop in Diagon Alley.

To make the boxes you need:
- Plain pinewood box
- Wood dye (  I bought the georgian medium oak - from B&Q)
- sandpaper
- some paint ( I mixed brown and black to get this shade)
- thin paint brushes

Depending on how you want to put the words on.... you can draw them on, but I used
- tracing paper, oil pastel covered plain paper.

Firstly, you need to sand the boxes down to help the dye stick and it'll take two coats of the dye. ( the third pic down is the difference between the two coats! and the second pic is the difference between the original box and first coat) Then cover a piece of paper with a dark oil pastel, trace  your design onto it and then trace it on and paint! I used a really thin brush and just take your time,you can add any accents on that you want!  ( if you make any serious mistakes you can wipe them off with a watered down cloth - just be verrrryy careful) 

First the first box I went for the hogwarts school and third year potions my aunt had sent me a picture of and on the side I decided to add what any 3rd year may need - a cauldron, phials and of course - ingredients! Like I said for the second box  I wanted to do a shop from Diagon Alley, so I researched and found the name and then found some apothecary stickers on pinterest and adapted them to the design I wanted which was the dragon claws.

         Pretty simple and they look amazing! I really loved doing these and I may have to do a few                                                                    more for myself, I'm already brewing ideas!

                                                                            x
Keep up to date with my latest posts by following me! :)
- Bloglovin - Twitter - Instagram - Pinterest - Youtube

Rebrand.

If you've ever stumbled across this blog before you will notice that a change has gone on( hint: if you haven't been before it's a blog name/header change....). why?  Well, I've been in a life rut for a little while now, life, job/lack of creativity, money...being ill. It's all gotten a bit much and I just felt like I had nothing to write here. Life hasn't been all rainbows and butterflies for the past few months but it hasn't been entirely shit either. I just felt really stuck and lost on where I was going with this blog(and well life in general) and I just wanted to do...maybe a Sprinkle of Glitter here and just be a bit more personal, write about what 20 somethings do, talk about my flaws and goals. It's okay to fuck up and its okay to have no idea what's going on and I guess that's exactly what I want to say. I want to be able to write about the non-sugar coated parts of my life, I'm guess I'm just saying that there is more to me than beauty posts and I want my blog to reflect that ( not to say that there won't be some beauty posts - the charlotte tilbury obsession is still going strong.) I really want to progress my writing, I really used to love writing short stories and I still want to blog about art and fitness/health. So maybe a lot of content may stay the same but let's just take it all in a post at the time.  So, why nine lives club? Well, if you've seen my insta bio it's pretty much - bridget jones but with cats. That's pretty much my life the single cat lady. 1 cat down, 26 more to go until I have reached peak spinsterhood ( I joke...kind of) and I just thought a name change kinda fit. So there we are. Let's see how this goes. x L Keep up to date with my latest posts by following me! :)
- Bloglovin - Twitter - Instagram - Pinterest - Youtube

Macadamia - Deep repair masque

Excuse the incredibly lame photo up there but in between moving I needed a hair saviour and also didn't get much time for blogging. I hadn't really been taking the best care of my hair - especially with having bleached ends, if I don't put in additional love, my hair becomes an absolute mare. To make things worse I got conditioning bar from Lush which made everything 20 times worse. The bar just didn't condition my hair well no matter how I tried. The bleached ends were getting brittle, really knotty and just looked in bad condition. Some of my hair was snapping from putting it in a bun so much - my hair is so heavy!! I was going through a box of samples I had and came across this Macadamia one and thought it was perfect for the job! The sashay was quite large which I needed because my hair is preetttty long and also really thick so some tiny sashay just wasn't going to cut it!  The smell of this is quite nice, it's not my all time favourite smell but it wasn't awful and it's not a strong overwhelming smell. The packet managed to cover all of my hair and spread really easy so I managed to rub it in with product left to spare. It recommends you leave it on for 7 minutes after you've cleaned your hair so I swapped this in place of conditioner and I have to say my hair was SO soft after this, it felt heaps better!! I'm already looking at getting a large tub to do once a week to keep on top of it. Even the next day my hair was still much more manageable than before, it brushed really easily and still feels really soft so this is a definite winner for me! This and a fresh cut has just been an absolutely saviour to my hair. Do you guys have any hair masques you recommend?!  Keep up to date with my latest posts by following me! :)
- Bloglovin - Twitter - Instagram - Pinterest - Youtube

Kitty galore

A few weeks ago I managed to go to my DREAM place - a cat cafe! Although my house is a little like a cat cafe with Harry and Millie, I couldn't resist going to visit all the little cuties at the cafe. Disclaimer -  I think this is actually my most favourite place ever. 
Essentially, you pay for the time you are there its a quid for every 5 minutes ( so around £12 for an hour) and you can have tea and coffee or read a book they even do movie nights and cats just chill around you. If they are feeling playful there are heaps of toys on hand for you to play with them! The cats do have a home away from everyone to go a hide if its all a bit much, so you may not see all the cats when you are there. My favourites were Bert and then Aslan and Riley. Bert was an absolute mentalist and was sooo playful! I'm a sucker for a big fluffy ginger cat so I loved Aslan and Riley was so playful I had her and Savannah running round like mad men chasing toys on strings, I could have spent hours playing with them.

The drinks are free at the cafe and they do have cakes and cookies which you will need to pay for so it could make for a cheap little day out. They do have some lactose free options with the coffee and tea as well. None of the cats tried to go for the food, which was impressive! If that was Harry you wouldn't be able to put anything down without finding him eating it! The cafe does have some rules so you don't overwhelm the cats and you are given slippers to wear when you go in as well for hygiene reasons.

Make sure you take your camera -picture of the week can win you a free trip back! I came second with my photo of Riley ( just above)  - just loosing out to a great photo of my beloved Bert.  I honestly think this a really cheap and fun day out -perfect if you are on a budget! Even more perfect if you're in rented accommodation that doesn't allow pets and you need to get your cat fix!
Have you been?? who was your favourite?? 
x 
Keep up to date with my latest posts by following me! :)
- Bloglovin - Twitter - Instagram - Pinterest - Youtube

5 things .... Goals for the rest of the year!

I'm baaaaaaaack. After a month of no blogging - boy am I glad to be here! I won't lie the month off has left me totally unprepared and feeling like I'm back at square one but here I am.... In case any of you were wondering my month off was due to 1) moving house/ lack of internet 2) the fact my domain/blogger wouldn't sync up( THE MOST frustrating thing ever)3) chronic sinusitis - I was toying with the idea of a post on this but it is a pretty dull and uninspiring topic and I'm sure you all don't want to read a post about me moaning. I've decided to up my 5 things to not just 5 things about the week but 5 things in general every sunday so if I'm inconsistent with other blog posts hopefully I won't be with these!  I thought what better way to come back than with a post all about my plans and goals for the rest of the year, I'm sure you are all aware I do love a good goals post.  1. Get back on the fitness wagon, since being ill I have well and truly fallen back to my old ways and the fat/ generally being unfit is slowly creeping back. Sinusitis makes me incredibly lethargic and not exercises and eating crap isn't helping with my energy levels at all. I've kinda accept the idea I won't be able to do the half marathon I signed up for which I am gutted about but I just cannot commit to being able to train enough for this. I also can't jump back into my BBG plan because its just to intense for me at the moment so I'm looking to go back to yoga/ climbing/ the occasional run and weights! I've also found an exercise class based on drumming which I am really excited to try and hopefully I'll be able to manage!  2. Do something creative everyday - I really need to get off my arse here and start making work. A little part of me is terrified its all going to be crap and I'll be disappointed with myself but I miss making things and designing. I also have a new shop coming soon with my housemate which I am so excited for and there is A LOT to do. So I want to draw, paint and stitch at least a little everyday. 3. Learn calligraphy- Sliiiightly related to above but I really want to learn modern calligraphy.I've found an online course which I am hoping to start next month - I'll update you all on how I get on!  4. Get back on the blogging bandwagon well and truly - I need to get both blogs going and potentially I will be running another one with my housemate along our shop which means there is heaps of blog content I need to brainstorm and with a severe lack of funds I will really need to get that creative cap on. 5.Sort my shit out. Like get a nighttime routine, catch a Jolteon on pokemon go, get some savings going. get all the paintings in my room framed and hung that kinda thing. Work on my mindfulness and build my self confidence up again being ill for 3 months plus can really get you down! Adding getting better to this list as well! And aim to complete most of my resolutions list!   So that's where I'm at at the moment! There's a lot to do and it's gonna be a struggle but I'll just do what I can!  What goals do you have for the rest of the year?  x Keep up to date with my latest posts by following me! :)
- Bloglovin - Twitter - Instagram - Pinterest - Youtube

Resolutions - update!

It's CRAZY to think we are halfway through the year, like where is this year even going?! I am super excited it's summer( well....almost summer in Manchester...) and all the plans that I have!! 
I thought I would update you on my resolutions and how I've been getting on - you can read my resolutions post here. 
1) interiors - I'm even more obsessed with interiors and moving and getting new furniture now than I was at new years. This cannot be good! Apart from my hat wall I haven't done too much to my room sadly BUT I am going to be carbooting like mad this summer so hopefully I'll shift a lot of the stuff that I have lying around. I've also found the desk that I want from Made so it's just a matter of saving up and waiting for the right time! 
2) Getting back to hot yoga and salsa, I couldn't massively afford to do both with Thailand and then saving for a car and a trip home however the place I do hot yoga had a two month deal I couldn't refuse so I have around another 3 weeks there and I am going to aim to go 1-2 times a month and try to save to go more! 
3) get toned - so... if you had read my latest fitness post  you would know I've made really great headway with my weightloss! I've toned up quite a lot although there is still some fat on top of it I've managed to shrink quite a bit of fat down! I'm really pleased with how I've got on and can't wait to see what the next 6 months brings for this! 
4) Sort my money - I was doing really well with this...for like...2 weeks? ha! Then an impromptu trip to Thailand happened that I had like...3 months to save for, so that kinda destroyed all progess and made things a little worse. But with lots of hard work I will have halved all the damage by July which for 4 months work I think is pretty impressive! 
5) start some art collections and start selling, I've definitely been working a lot on my art these past months. I've been focusing on colourstudies and how colours can work together and also practising my drawings - you can see in my sketchbook here! I've got a few ideas for prints so I'm hoping to get a good quality printer in August and I'll start selling prints! Eek! 
6) Build my blogs - I'm getting there, the blog kinda got put on the sideline sadly while everything was going on but I'm trying to be better with my planning and I have at least 10 outfits planned for my style blog- so I'm estimating around 6-8 weeks worth of content! aah! I also got over 200 followers on bloglovin' which was something I felt I was never going to get to! I definitely need to get better at planning and also try to participate in chats a bit more! 
7) Lastly I'll go onto getting a car! - EEEK. I'm getting it in July, I've worked hard to get my money in a good place that I can afford the car as it's gonna be like 50 times more expensive than my bike but I'm really excited and also really nervous at driving such a large thing. I'm gonna have to get some more refresher lessons again as I'm convinced I've forgotten how to drive! 
How have you been getting on? 

Keep up to date with my latest posts by following me! :)
- Bloglovin - Twitter - Instagram - Pinterest - Youtube

The fitness update

It's happened... I've completed the BBG1!!! I can't believe it's over -I've honestly loved this plan! Although I didn't get in as much HIIT as I should have over the past few weeks ( weeks 9-12 introduces HIIT as well as your LISS workouts) I have definitely achieved something. The workouts stepped up like crazy in the last 4 weeks and ONCE and only once in the whole 12 weeks I didn't complete a circuit in time and I pushed myself harder to make sure I did it the second time around. I genuinely can't beleive some of the moves I've had to do!   I feel a lot stronger and although there is some fat still there I feel a lot more toned and I never thought I would be able to do 20 commando's easy! My thighs have shrunk quite a lot and so has my back fat and biceps! I even think my boobs have shrunk a little ( YAS! - big boobed girls you may know my pain I just want to be able to buy bra's in any store and not have to hold out for the DD+ shops!). It's been lovely hearing it from people at work that they can tell my hard work has paid off and getting to fit into clothes I never have is always a plus!  what's next? Well, I'm restarting the plan and upping my weights to 7-8kg, I'm toying with the idea of ankle weights and I'm also going to look at how to make the moves harder, although I'm redoing the plan I don't want to make it easy by any means! For the next month I'm still at hot yoga but I'm going to start adding in some running training! I hadn't wanted to properly start training till July for my half marathon but every little counts and I want to be able to do a 5k in 25 minutes and a 10K in around 55 in september! I also really need to focus more on my diet and cutting things out, although I have been quite healthy I want to have a more varied diet and really work harder at cutting out unnecessary sugars! Here's to the next 12 weeks! I'll keep updating you every 4 weeks with my progress! x Keep up to date with my latest posts by following me! :)
- Bloglovin - Twitter - Instagram - Pinterest - Youtube

5 things... 22.05.16

Oh my god, these posts were supposed to be weekly and I've already failed! I promise to try and do better, I need to find the time to sit and think of some fresh new idea's for the blog and posts I can write, I'm really falling behind and it is massively down to poor planning on my part! I also need to work on more than just scheduling tweets for my shop! But before I go on and on about this lets talk about 5 things this week! 1. This week I completed BBG 1.0!!! I can't beleive it! 12 weeks and pretraining and I'm done! I didn't properly do LISS or my HIIT workouts really in the last few weeks but it's so lovely when the girls at work comment and say they can tell I've lost weight and I can fit into clothes I've never fit into before! I'm redoing the plan doubling the weights and adding in some running as I've signed up to do a half marathon. I'm giving myself a goal of running 5k in 25 minutes by september! I honestly couldn't rate this plan enough and if I work more on my eating as well I'm hoping to shed the rest of me and tone up! I'll be doing a post on this in the next few days so keep an eye out! 2. I've started to properly sketch again, I did a sketch of Sansa which now looks like poop and I was quite disappointed. I want to find a sketching style that suits me so I attemped another drawing of Jon Snow ( I'm so inspired by GoT at the moment with it being back!) and I'm so pleased with it! My style needs a lot of work but it's come out really well! So more sketching and hopefully I'll get some kind of style down!  I'm hoping to get a few prints made to sell in the future and start adding art prints to my shop!  3. I had my first sale last week! I've been working so hard on my shop and promoting items, it hasn't been easy working 8-6s everyday plus the gym and yoga after work, I only have a few hours at night to get anything done but I have managed to try and promote it whilst creating new works! So getting my first sale was just an amazing feeling and made me feel like all this hard work will pay off! hopefully I'll get a few more before I start doing stalls in July! 
4. I'm feeling really rundown this week, I haven't really been on top of my diet and I think that everything has just all built up, I felt a bit ill last week and during the week, it's really hard to describe usually when I'm ill it's all at once but this is like a dull ache over time. I haven't really been properly ill since going veg/mostly veg now. Hopefully I'll be alright soon! 5. I've found my wedding dress guys. I'm not even lying. I'm obsessed with needle and thread, embroidered clothes is something I really want to get going this year and I've just become OBSESSED with it all. Just need to find me a boyfriend now.. hahahahahaaaaa. oh god. I've also found a house I want which is like horrendously out of a price range I could ever afford. - Dream big right?!? aha. 
Hope you're all well!  Keep up to date with my latest posts by following me! :)
- Bloglovin - Twitter - Instagram - Pinterest - Youtube

Learning to #eatpastarunfaster with Vapiano Mcr

On monday I was invited to Vapiano's in Manchester to learn about their new campaign promoting how eating carbs whilst training is actually good for you and also getting to try what was on offer on the menu. I had been to a Vapiano's in the Hague a few years back and was in love with it and had wanted to go back ever since so when one finally opened up in the triangle I was buzzin!  First I will go into the campaign a little then talk about my experience in the restaurant. Vapiano have teamed up with nutritionist Sarah Schenker to explain why pasta and it's slow releasing glycogen qualities are so good for you. This was perfect timing for me because I've just signed up to run a half marathon in October and I'm already doing the BBG plan which is quite intense. Mostly if you are running even a 5-10k it's really important to carb load the night before, this ensures that you have a good amount of energy stored for your entire run so you don't ' hit the wall' and struggle with low energy. Sarah Schenker recommends you carb load up to 3 days before any long run to make sure you have enough energy to last. I can fully vouch for this because I had a hot yoga session right after our meal and although it was one of the hardest classes I had ever been to but

 

I also performed pretty much the best I ever had. A few days later I went to a hot pilates class which isn't anywhere near as hard and I hadn't really prepped a meal that was going to store energy the way that pasta can and I honestly really struggled, I couldn't beleive it! Fuelling yourself properly is so important and you can read more about it here. 
NOW, onto the restaurant, as I said above I had been to a vapiano before and loved it and I also have a seriously deep love for all foods of the Italian variety so I knew this was going to be a great experience. Firstly one of the managers showed us around and gave us some extra little details like how they make the pasta fresh every morning and they even prep all the veg fresh in the morning as well!!  You can tell it's fresh just through the taste and although we had bread,pasta and pizza we didn't feel bloated at all, just nicely full which I was pleasantly surprised about. When I was getting a pasta dish made there was a little queue and the manager jumped on to cook my dish and later on the other manager told us that they have to spend 3 months on each station before they can get their position as manager which I really loved the idea of. I love it when managers understand and can do the actual jobs themselves! 

WHAT WE ATE.  So we took their advice and decided to try a little of everything - the best thing about Vapiano's is that they make it all in front of you so you can edit the dishes to suit your tastes -perfect for any dietary requirements or allergies! 
ANTIPASTI - we shared the Piatto Antipasti and this was gorgeous, put together in seconds with delicious meats, breads( perfect for teaming with the oils on the table) veg, mozzarella and bruschetta. We got the smaller size and it's perfect for 2-3 people and really not overly filling for a starter.
PASTA - we had the Rucola Ravioli - this was gorgeous ravioli with a ricotta stuffing with cherry tomato's, rocket and pine nuts. I had some extra garlic and a little chili thrown in as well. This was lovely and was a massive hit with my friend! I'm not 100% sure if I would order this for myself again, I found it a little rich and thought it may be a bit much to have the whole dish to myself but I would definitely share it with some one because it was delish! ( this dish is actually one of Dr Schenkers dishes on her plan as one of the recovery meals as the natural whey protein from the ricotta is perfect for helping repair your muscles!)
PIZZA - I'm calling it guys. this was THE BEST pizza I have ever had. All my favourite things combined onto one pizza and it was heaven. We went for the Carne Pizza - chorizo, chicken( the most tender fall apart chicken...) peppers and onion. Although there is so much I want to try there, I am 100% ordering this pizza when I go back.
DOLCI - we couldn't pick between the desserts, I wanted something chocolately and my friend was drawn in by the strawberry and cream combo. Luckily they offer smaller options for some of their desserts so we got two mini desserts - Panna Cotta & Crema Di Fraggola - both absolutely amazing- if I had to pick one of the two I would go for the Crema Di Fraggola. I picked the death by chocolate which was gorgeous and rich but not to overwhelming the way a rich chocolate cake can be. I am deffo getting the Cioccolata foresta nera next time because it sounds heavenly and I was torn between the two and took the waiters recommendation this time. 
DRINKS - we decided to try the white tea & elderflower and also the Green tea & lemony drinks both really lovely and refreshing. If Vapiano's sell these separate I'm stocking up! The white tea does have mint in which I was a little concerned about as I'm not a massive mint flavour fan but it was really subtle - this is a really nice alternative to a white wine if you aren't drinking.
The restaurant had a really lovely easy going feel perfect for going out with your friends and sharing food the way that we did. It honestly wouldn't take much to convince me to go back, I'm already dreaming of that pizza!! The pricing is really reasonable as well - for 3 drinks, starter, two mains and the 3 desserts it came to £40 so £20 each which I think is an amazing bargain for what we got! 
Have you been? Which dishes did you try? 
xx Keep up to date with my latest posts by following me! :)
- Bloglovin - Twitter - Instagram - Pinterest - Youtube

Koh Samui - things to do

Next up is Koh Samui, I definitely loved it here more of the two places and really could have spent more time here! I can't wait for the day I get to go back! Here's a few things we got up to...

1. Tamarind Spa We saw this place on an airport billboard and after 2 minutes of googling decided we HAD TO go. We opted just to use the springs and steam caves as we couldn't afford the massage package. When you get there all phones and cameras are taken away so you can totally relax. So outside the spa was all we could take photos of, I think you can see how stunning it is anyway! so there are a couple of cool springs which has the freshest water I think I've ever been in, my hair felt so soft after being in them. Then you have two steam caves at two different temperatures. The steam cave with the lower temp. had some body scrubs outside you could scrub onto yourself to then go into the cave and let all those good ingredients sink into your skin. Afterward they even provided us with a light snack and drinks which was crab cakes and tofu spring rolls. I would 100% recommend to come here! 

2. Zenses Spa So we booked this spa as a little treat and oh my gosh it was gorgeousss. We got the hot coconut oil massages and this was hands down the best massage I've ever had. I honestly came out feeling like a whole new person. The massage was around 1200 or 1600 Baht I can't remember but honestly although its like 1000 Baht more than other places it's totally worth it! This is just down the road from Ark bar and that general strip. 

3. Potato beach club - we stumbled upon this place accidentally, but bean bags on the beach? banging tunes and decent food? this place was a hit with me! You could even get massages on the beach as well! I could have easily spent all day here! 

4. Bars - Ark Bar/ Green Mango/ Hush Of all the bars Ark bar seemed the most well known and was rammed with people, we kinda used it as a pre drink place but it was a really great place to meet people and one night they even had fire dancers, it was mostly house music when we were there. Most nights we went to green mango which played more chart music, this place actually had two different djs but we never ventured that far into the club and stayed near the front. Lastly we went to hush, we kept going past and I kept hearing all these banging tunes - old school r'n'b and hip hop so I convinced us all to go and it was so good! they didn't have much in the way of AC so it was freakin boiling in there but at one point everyone was in a circle having a dance off! 5. Diving/ snorkelling trip to Koh Tao. 

6. Trip to Koh Pagan - You can get the Ferry from Samui to Koh Pagan for around 300 Baht, on our boat on the way there we got to watch Mr Bean! aha! We only had one night in Koh Pagan but we went to Amsterdam Bar which is a mooch up a hill but look at that view ( ...see photo above...) it was stunning!! - totally worth going just for that - Especially at sunset! It was also coincidentally the half moon party! Expect a lot of house music but it was really good! It wasn't so much my friends scene and to be fair it wasn't really the kinda house I like but I still really enjoyed it! And the paint designs are crazzzy though if you aren't at the ' main stage' the paint is a little redundant. Keep up to date with my latest posts by following me! :)
- Bloglovin - Twitter - Instagram - Pinterest - Youtube

5 things - 01.05.2016

I've been inspired by Kate La Vie to start a 5 things post every Sunday, maybe about the week that's gone or the week coming up!  1. Yesterday I got to go to the #NWmeet 2.0 - it was so lovely getting to see a lot of the Liverpudlian girls again! We always have a good laugh and I got to meet quite a few new bloggers as well which was lovely! We raised nearly £200 for the charity MIND which is unbelievable! and I even won some gorgeous furless face brushes which are SO freakin' soft!  2. The return to Tattu - if you are wondering where that beautiful purple tree is from it's here! Now that I'm not full time veggie I was buzzing to be able to eat some venison wontons! I didn't realise there had been a menu change and thus, my beloved wontons were taken off and I will never know how they taste. I really recommend the mushroom spring rolls and the soy and orange chicken!  3. I finally finished my Audrey Hepburn inspired painting, I tested out painting with magneta to shade and found I LOVED it. I've still go so much to learn with painting but I really liked the way this came out. I had originally intended to add some piercings and bindi's to her but couldn't bear to in case I messed it up. I'm going to look to get some prints made of her and I'm so inspired to get stuck into proper portrait painting again. I've also decided to start sketching again and working on my drawing. I really want to get out my debt, afford a car and start saving for a house and then eventually be able to do art full time. I've seen a house I like which is suuuppperr expensive ( aha! expect anything less from me?) so I know I won't get it but it's something to work toward.  4.  I got Mcfly tickets!! aaaah. I've been a fan of the guys since pre-room on the 3rd floor! I remember getting the first album - I had asked my dad to pick it up on a trip back to the UK and he pretended he forgot to buy it and I had to try and act all casual like it wasn't soul destroying. Then there it was and I legged it to my neighbours so we could listen to it together. I ended up with the 3 gig ticket and I am SOOOO excited to FINALLY here 'sorrys not good enough' they NEVER play it live and it's the song I've always wanted to hear! I'm also having to trek to Glasgow to see them as the Manc dates are at the same times as Glastonbury.  5.  Lastly, I've fallen a little in love with http://www.inthestyle.com/ this week, I just want everything for festival season! I ordered a few pieces on payday so I can't wait to get some outfit posts on my fashion blog. I've fallen a bit with that one but hopefully over summer I'm going to try to aim to do an outfit post a week - with some extra posts in between - so keep an eye out! What has been going on with you guys? x Keep up to date with my latest posts by following me! :)
- Bloglovin - Twitter - Instagram - Pinterest - Youtube

Phuket - Things to do

Second instalment, holiday blues are strroonngg right now. It's been 3 weeks, I can't believe it! I just want to go back esp as Manchester is freezing right now! In this post I thought I would talk about what we got up to in Phuket! 

1. Day trip to Phi Phi Islands & Maya bay - This was our first day trip, we went snorkelling around some of the islands - there were 3 stops in total. The boat wasn't huge and it was pretty cramped and uncomfortable to be honest but they did have snacks and food for everyone, though there wasn't much choice. The first island was pretty touristy so they had shops and a bar available and the snorkelling was nice. We paid 1200 Baht for this. 

2. Canoeing trip to James bond island - this was my favourite of the two day trips! We paid around 1200 baht for this trip and it was just stunning, the islands were amazing and you went on the canoes twice with a guy steering you round, The first place we went in this cave which had insanely love ceilings, some crazy green glowing light and a statue of Buddha that had formed out of water dripping. The second trip we went through a kind of tunnel and came out at the most stunning scene a kind of alcove, I'm not sure how to describe it but we were surrounded by rock and plants with the sun coming from above. Then we came out into a stunning view of giant rocks coming out the water - randomly though there were two chickens just chilling there ahahaaa! The boat wasn't too cramped and they provided some delicious food and drinks for us all. I even jumped off the boat whiiich did take quite a bit of convincing as I am seriously scared of heights. Same as the first boat trip we got a deal where we paid 1200 Baht.

3. Bangla Road - this is the party road, full of bars, strip clubs and all sorts! Be prepared for some sights but all in all this road had some really good bars - we passed on all the ping pong shows. A LOT of live bands who were more than willing to play any requests and were all so lovely. We had a little bar crawl and loved them all! Just off Bangla road to the right are some restaurants and I really recommend No. 5 ( yes that's it's name) - Just get the Pad Thai! 

4. Patong beach - The beach is stunning and you can get umbrellas and seats for around £150 per umbrella. They have people coming round with water and fruit you can buy and there are even beach view massages and jet ski's for hire. The beach at sunset is beaaautiful. Just behind are heaps of shops as well! 5. Simon Cabaret - you will see this advertised everywhere and it was really good. The set production was insane and so were the costumes, They did an array of english, Thai and even Russian dances. There was one lady who did an insane rendition of 'single ladies' and a crazy bigger lady who was hilaairious coming into the crowd and striking fear in most of the men that she was coming for a kiss! ahaaa. All of a sudden the beginning of cell block tango came on and I was buzzzin, me and my friends had all gone to see chicago live a few years back and we all love it...but then... IT WAS THE DISNEY VERSION. oh my god. YASSS. At the end of the show you can pay to have pictures with them all, be careful as they can easily con you into paying a little more by getting more people in the photo or a friend but it was all good fun so I would really recommend this. If you have been to Phuket let me know where you recommend to go!  Ciao x Keep up to date with my latest posts by following me! :)
- Bloglovin - Twitter - Instagram - Pinterest - Youtube

that overwhelming feeling

The last few times I've come back from holiday I've found I've suffered some kind of panic attack whilst away. When I was in Malta last year I woke up at 4am with a tight chest, hardly able to breathe a few times. When I was home - at home I am usually much calmer and more at peace with life, it wasn't until the last night I was struck with the overwhelming feeling that even when I was to go home again and regardless it will always be home to me, now that my parents have moved back it wasn't going to quite be the same again -queue tight chest. When I was in Thailand, one of my last days me and a friend decided to have a nap before going out one last time, I was struck with the overwhelming feeling of going back to problems and a job that was never going to change. The thought started when I was thinking of what an amazing holiday I had had and how to had to come back again, then the next thought was - how will I ever afford it? and then? how will I afford to go home? - not just when I want to, but when I NEED to. Home is a place that I can recharge myself from the uk when I find it gets a little too much for me and I need to remind myself of me. Then I went into a downward spiral, trying to calm myself with breathing techniques and positive thoughts. I tried to joke about it and laugh it off. 
But since I've been back I've been struck with that tight painful chest and hard breathing and I just can't seem to shake it. I'm so overwhelmed with what I need to do for my shop  all the paintings I want to do, keeping on top of my fitness, doing overtime to help pay back Thailand and also the blogs. It just became too much, something was always getting left behind, mostly this blog. I had this constant feeling I was always going to be stuck in a bad place and that I was never going to have enough time to do all the things I wanted to to get me out of it. I am so fortunate I have supportive friends like Jemma who helped me when I went a little off the rails and ranty about my problems - sometimes it helps to just get it out. 
And today? well today I started writing out lists ( I LOVE a good list) of what I can do and I suddenly thought, why shouldn't I be excited about all the things I have to do? Of course its going to be hard and of course I'm going to be exhausted trying to find more time then I have now. But I love all these extra things I do outside my job and I need to start being excited about them and not so pressured, although I do still enjoy them. So I've decided when I get this tight feeling, which I anticipate I won't loose for some time I'm going to smile and think of all the things I have to look forward to once this hard work pays off. I'm going to write 50000 lists if I have to to calm me down and I'm going to pray that by the end of the year I won't ever suffering this overwhelming feeling again.  x
Keep up to date with my latest posts by following me! :)
- Bloglovin - Twitter - Instagram - Pinterest - Youtube

Phuket - Places to stay

Here comes the first instalment on my Thailand series - I can't beleive it's been a week! I have such blues :( - but I thought I would start with where to stay, I had the opportunity to stay in 3 hotels while I was in Phuket so I thought I would give you the low down on them all. 

1. Aspery Hotel - This was the first hotel I stayed in, I pretty much booked it because it had a rooftop infinity pool overlooking the sea...or so I thought, since the picture had been taken a new hotel popped up slightly blocking the view from the pool but the poolside did have 3 tiers so you could still get that sea view. The room itself was really nice, tv, double bed, really nice bathroom - so I was pretty chuffed with it! The hotel is about a 3 minute walk from Patong beach and has some 7/11s close by. It's also a 10-15 minute walk to Bangla road ( I have a post on this coming in a few days!) The hotel itself also has a mini spa which has got decent prices and I had a Thai massage there which was really good ( even though I got stood on by a giant Thai lady!! it was 200 Baht) - it also has a restaurant on the ground floor and the staff were really lovely and helpful. I arrived several hours before check in and they took 15 minutes to get the room ready and even upgraded me! The hotel was £54 for two days(£13.5 for one person if you are a pair) which I think is a really decent price for the location and quality of the hotel. 

2. Wyndham sea pearl resort- oh my god. this hotel - it's what dreams are made of. This hotel is stunning, honestly, it's got amazing views of the mountains and the sea. Our suite had a Jacuzzi for each room and then a 2 minute walk away was a pool between our block. The rooms and overall decor throughout the hotel was just stunning. The breakfast here was really decent as well! The only slight downside to this hotel is that it is a little bit of a mooch from town so you aren't able to walk anywhere but tuk tuks were 200 Baht during the day and sometimes 200-300 a night which isn't heaps. The hotel itself has a spa and it does offer some discounts on activities but we did find that a lot of things were cheaper outside of the hotel - esp getting a taxi to the airport. The prices for this hotel varies on what style of room you book and the pool/jacuzzi situation but for 1 night between 2 for a jacuzzi it was £69 - so around £34.50 each. -  I honestly think it's worth it though!! Even if you only do it a couple of nights!

3. Sira Grande hotel - this one I stayed in last and of all of them it was my least favourite. It was a decent room, the bed was huuuuge it fit 3 of us comfortably but the shower leaked all over the floor which wasn't great. The pool was stunning and was really lovely,it also had a mini gym on top if you want to stick to your fitness on holiday. The location is good though, it's a 5 minute walk from the Robinson mall and around 5-10 minute walk to Bangla road as well. I  got 2 nights for £48 and one night for £53 which didn't make sense! It was still a decent hotel but if I was going back I probably wouldn't stay here again as I enjoyed the other two so much more!  Keep up to date with my latest posts by following me! :)
- Bloglovin - Twitter - Instagram - Pinterest - Youtube

When it's okay to smell like wet dog

I love lush, I do... and I do love this product - there is just one thing...the smell. It smells like wet dog...a spicy wet dog. And that's okay... to smell like a wet dog for a few minutes while you cleanse your face. The other day I spoke about cleansing your face with a cleansing brush so I wanted a good cleanser to go with it. A lot of people had talked about Clinique but at £20 a go and a holiday to save for I just couldn't do it. At the last blogger meet up we were kindly given little samples from lush and this was one of them. I felt the sample didn't do the product justice so decided to get the full large sized product. Smell aside this is a really great product and to be fair the smell isn't that bad, I feel like once you recognise the smell though there is no going back... so...SORRY if it never hit you before and now all you smell is wet dog. 
It's got a thick consistency kinda like wax and does feel oily when you put it on but my skin doesn't feel oily at all after using this. It feels really smooth and fresh and the smell doesn't linger I promise! Though this teams perfectly with the cleansing brush you will need a damp cloth to get it off completely, when I first tried without it, due to the oils I found it difficult to feel like I had gotten it all off and was scrubbing for some time. The pot is around just under £6 and has lasted quite some time so it's definitely good value for money. Would I repurchase? Yes! - Unless someone can recommend a nicer smelling good value cleanser then I may reconsider! x
Keep up to date with my latest posts by following me! :)
- Bloglovin - Twitter - Instagram - Pinterest - Youtube

A lazy girls way to cleanse...

It's no secret that the past month or so has been insanely busy for me so I needed a way to be able to cleanse my skin quickly. Although I have always cleansed my skin I did want to step it up a little because I was just using a cleanser on a wipe and I was still getting some spots. I really wanted something like a magnitone because I've heard good things but for the price I just couldn't justify it as I wasn't even sure how much use I would get so at christmas I spotted this cheaper version by No. 7 and asked my parents for it.
 Personally I've never tried a Magnitone so I can't compare the two but I do really love this one by No. 7. It's got two speed settings and paired with Lush's ultrabland it manages to get all my make up off and my face smooth and soft  though I did feel the brush head was a little rough at first I think it was just the way I was angling it. This really doesn't take long to do and I actually really enjoy it! I got two extra brush heads with this as well and it's so easy to clean with some warm water and soap. Since using the two, along with an improvement in diet my skin has cleared up so much and those annoying under the skin spots on my chin are starting to show less and less. If you're looking for a cleansing brush but don't want to pay a fortune I would really recommend this! 
Ultrabland review coming in the next few days! xx
Keep up to date with my latest posts by following me! :)
- Bloglovin - Twitter - Instagram - Pinterest - Youtube

BBG 1.0 Weeks 1-4 update

Left after week 4 and right is just after pre-training!
I am totally a week late with this update SORRY! I explained in the last post life got a little mental! I've tried sticking to the plan as much as I can! I've started properly doing LISS by doing 35-45 minutes on a treadmill - doing a fast walk uphill incline, I've been watching TED talks at the same time to get my mind going as well. I won't lie I had a bit of a lapse one week, I was just super run down, I hadn't noticed a lot of progress and I cut the week short and drank a little too much and had one to many takeaways. A few days later I brushed it off and pushed on again re-motivated with how awful I felt eating badly. Progress was starting to be seen again! mostly on my thighs and also I am building some serious guns man! Slowly but surely the waist is shrinking but I think that's going to make the most change in weeks 9-12 though I have seen a lot of peoples progress in weeks 6-7 so I'ld be excited to see what happens before Thailand. The plan is getting harder and I've had to start going to the gym properly as I need all the equipement, I was a little nervous at first but now I just put everything I need in a corner and get on with it, I actually think I do much better at my workouts at the gym with people there to see if I try to give up too early. Things I've acheived is being able to do 15 push ups in a row easy. EASY. I didn't think that would be possible and I'm getting better at how many commando's I can do. So the outside progress may be slower than how I feel on the inside but I honestly feel so much stronger and better!! 
Here's to the next 4 weeks! 
Keep up to date with my latest posts by following me! :)
- Bloglovin - Twitter - Instagram - Pinterest - Youtube

Goal wishlist

So...life has been mental, I've kinda gone into overdrive into making and painting for my shop with working 20-30 hours overtime and gymming as well, safe to safe I AM exhausted, I'm telling myself its a good kind of exhausted but I need to get better at time management because I need to squeeze in that time for blog posts - I am getting a teeeeeeeeny bit better at posting on my fashion blog - okay I'm rambling. So last week in all the chaos of life I tried to spend some time reading blog posts and I LOVED this one by reinventing Neesha where she talked about her goals and beauty things she would reward herself if she achieved them. It made me think of all the million and one things I want and how I could push myself to work harder to earn them. - I didn't want to focus on one thing so I've made goals for all aspects of my life blog/art/ money. 
So some goal/treat ideas
1. ADIDAS cheetah stan smiths. BEAUT BEAUT BEAUT. I can purchase these once I have properly completed BBG 1.0 this means sticking to my LISS and doing ALL my resistance and HIIT when it gets introduced. These kind of shoes NEED to be earnt. 
2. Triple helix piercing, I've wanted this for a while and was going to go last month but realised that money for Thailand was much more important so I decided to make this a goal. I can get this once I have sold my first 10 jars. 
3. Foot tattoo's I saw a pic of a blogger with some simple traditional flowers on both her ankles and I've really loved the idea, I would have to work it around my current foot tattoo but decided to treat myself once I've finally gotten rid of that pesky overdraft.
4. Olivia Burton tortoiseshell watch, oh my god this is my dream watch, I want to start doing stall's so decided that I can do this once I've made £500 at a stall. ( I'm going to re-assess this once I've started stalling incase that's just a bit unobtainable...)
5. Get some black and white Nike Roshe Runs, I have a pair of these to send back because the tick is silver and maybe that sounds weird but if I am paying £70 for a pair of black and white shoes I want my tick to be WHITE. so decided to put these off  until I have completed BBG 1.0 for the second time with higher weights. 
6. Buy a Charlotte Tilbury highlighter, a girl tried this out on my when I tested for my foundation and I have never wanted a highlighter so much, oh my god. Can't get this until I've gotten 500 bloglovin followers!  -C'mon and help me out folks aha! 
7. Get Gallance Dore's book Live Life Love - I've wanted this for ages so decided this can be a treat once I have gotten up to 500 twitter followers. 
8. Get a leopard print triangl bikini, I've lusted after this for so long but agreed to myself I wouldn't get this until I had nicely toned up - it's going to take a lot of work but it'll be worth it! 
9. Get grey/pastel hair, I've wanted this for tiiiiime, but the up keep is something I just can't afford at the moment. so decided this one is happening when I pay off my credit card. ( I may also treat myself to a Charlotte Tilbury magic cream..... you can never have enough CT!) 
10.  Nars cruella lip pencil, something else I've wanted for ages, named after one of my favourite and most stylish villians. I can treat myself once I have 500 instagram followers. 
11. Olivia burton bee watch - Sell 30 paintings, I've become obsessed with colour study paintings, they will be coming to the shop this weekend once they are dry, at the moment I have 11 canvas's but I hope to order a lot more in april for when I do the stalls. 
12. Treat myself to some topshop jeans, I've honestly not worn jeans for years now because of inner thigh chaffing and just generally being uncomfortable. So I decided when I have shrunk my inner thighs a little more I'm going to treat myself to my first pair of jeans in ages. Through the BBG plan I have managed to shrink the things A LOT, I'm so happy with it, I definitely feel more confident so perhaps by the end of the plan I'll have a pair of jeans! 
That's all I've got so far, making this list has been so much fun, I may do a post in 6 months time with an update on how I got on with all my goals- or I may come back and slash them off when done. Have you written a list like this? what's on your wishlist? xx
Keep up to date with my latest posts by following me! :)
- Bloglovin - Twitter - Instagram - Pinterest - Youtube