Old, New, Borrowed, Blue

That title may be a little bit confusing to some people, but I've taken it from the traditional wedding rhyme 'something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue'. I want to tell you about my old and blue thing, it just happens to be the most precious thing I own. 

Most of you are probably wondering what the heck is going on right now, I'm not getting married nor am I anywhere near getting married. Glad we could clear that up. I'm posting this because I want to tell you a story, for fear that I'm the only person in the world that knows it. I'm putting it into writing incase I ever forget or if ever something were to happen to make me forget. 

My Nana passed away 3 years ago today, and it's by far, without exception, the worst day of my life. I miss her every single day. When she first passed away I kept thinking 'I'll go and visit Nana' and then I'd realise that she isn't here to visit anymore. But now when I think 'I'll go and visit Nana' I don't think about visiting her at home anymore, I think about visiting her little garden up at the Crematorium and leaving flowers for her, which upsets me, because I'm not ready to come to terms with the fact that I'm not going to see her again. This is why I am so eager to keep the details of her life and the stories she told me alive, even though I have maybe forgotten parts of what she said already.

So this little story is about a necklace. Nana gave me this necklace when I was 14, because she was 14 when she received it. Yes, that makes it 79 years old! Crikey! But it's a story that reminds me how proud I am of Nana and what an amazing woman she was.

Nana was 14 when she was given this necklace by her school teacher as a thank you present. She used to be fantastic at painting, she was all round artistic (you should see her embroidery!) so she was picked out of her class by her teacher to work on a special project. The project would entail sitting in the museum and painting a picture while people walked past. 

This is where the fine details of the story have disappeared slightly, I can't remember whether there was some sort of important or Royal visit on that day, and I think she might have been painting a vase, either on a vase or painting a picture of the vase. But anyway, she was painting and it might have involved a flower arrangement...

And my 14 year old Nana sat all day painting this image, and as far as Nana was aware, when she told me this story, the painting she did is still there. So this necklace was given to her as a thank you gift for all of her hard work.

And that's it, to most people that would be a really insignificant and uneventful story but to me it sort of means the world. Nana wanted me to have this necklace and then to pass it on when I get older too, in the hope that we might just keep passing it on. 

So I might not have a wedding booked, or a dress, or any idea of when in the future I might get married, but I do know what will be around my neck when I do. 

Feeling Glam with 'The Glam Guide'

There's been a couple of exciting book releases over the past few weeks and this was one that I have had pre-ordered since December, so was thrilled when it came through the post!

Fleur De Force is one of my all time favourite youtubers, I love tuning into her videos so naturally I had to purchase her book! And I was not disappointed- in fact I had completely underestimated how good it would actually be! 'The Glam Guide' covers everything from beauty and hair to travel, fitness, YouTube and 'everything in between' in amazing style with the help of gorgeous photographs and stunning illustrations- it's a pleasure both to read and to look at. A definite coffee table book! 

As one of Fleur's subscribers I know that she had a hard time putting together the front cover design for 'The Glam Guide', but it all paid off becuase the design of the whole book (including the front cover) has a really sophisticated, yet fun and girly, feel to it. I think that it's a book for everyone, it's suitable for people who are getting into makeup and beauty, but also in depth and 'grown up' enough to hold the interest of twenty-somethings like me and upwards. 

The book is really well written and I have to comment that the actual contents of the text is fantastic, it explores topics in a lot more depth than I would have expected, even discussing things like colour and ingredients to avoid when looking at make up. The addition of illustrations is also really useful, although most are just decorative, there are some that have been drawn as almost diagrams. They help to spell out to people like me where exactly on your face you put that piece of make up! 

Things I love:

•At the end of each section there is a '10 Quick Tips' double spread, I love it when books do this. These quick tips are great if you're looking for some quick inspiration or a speedy summary of the chapter. 

•Maybe I'm just nosey, but I always really enjoy reading other people's tips on love and being in a relationship. I don't know if it's because I appreciate being able to see something from another's perspective but I always enjoy them. Much like when I read 'Love Tanya', this part of the book was one of my favourite parts, and I especially love that some of Fleur's tips differ from what we've been offered before.

•I ADORE that 'The Glam Guide' isn't just full of written 'advice' or 'tips'. Everything that she has included is completely relevant and useful but also includes things for you to actually do, including hairstyle tutorials, DIY face and hair masks and a solid guide for how to do a smokey eye.

To be honest, my only criticism of the whole thing is that it's not longer and I finished it really quickly. That's not me saying that the book itself was too short, that's me saying I just wanted more because I enjoyed it so much! In fact, as soon as I finished reading, I messaged my friend Leanne to tell her how much she needed it in her life! I'm such a bad influence. But she agrees, the book is fab! 

Can we have some more please? 

And where have you been?

Sometimes life gets you down. And sometimes we know it all too well. Have you ever felt filled with ambition and drive but then stop yourself from doing whatever for fear of falling flat on your face? Sound familiar? Yeah, me too. 

I want to explain why I haven't really posted for a while. There's been no posts because I've been reading other people's posts and exploring other people's blogs and I suddenly became really aware of the fact that their blogs are 1000x better than mine. 

I felt really deflated and subsequently, anything that I've written ready to publish has just seemed mediocre and a little bit crap. That's why I haven't posted anything over the past week as such. 

Obviously it's not a good place to be in, however one thing I've realised from it is that I can't let the feeling of not being good enough to compare to other people stop me from doing something I enjoy. If you let things like that get you down then you never will be good enough. 

Yes, my posts may be nothing spectacular. Yes, my actual blog may be of poor quality and lacking in even the basic buttons and links. But that's purely because I haven't got that far yet. Note the use of the word 'yet'. I'm not there 'yet' because I haven't learned that 'yet' or developed that 'yet' but so long as I carry on to work at it then one day it will be all of those things.

So here's a plea to the small amount of people that this will reach, don't let the fear of falling flat on your face put you off from striving for what you want. I nearly packed it all in this week, but I chose not to because it is something that I really want to continue and grow doing. Just remember, it may not be perfect yet, it will take time. 

My Basic Morning Routine

WARNING: this post contains pictures of me from first thing in the morning-once seen, they cannot be unseen! 

I'm going to start off by saying that I'm just going to break this down into what I actually do, rather than what I specifically use product-wise. I'm always changing around what I actually use in terms of skincare and make up that by tomorrow it would already be completely out of date. 

So here we go...

Tbh I don't look THAT bad for first thing in a morning in this picture, you must have caught me on a good day. So I pop on my glasses and grab some breakfast first of all. Gotta love a good bowl of Special K (no milk, god no) and a glass of chocolate almond milk. Yummy. And then I get on to trying to make myself looking half decent.

Step 1: Cleanse- I do a hot cloth cleanse most mornings. I simply tie all of my hair back, massage cleanser into my face and gently around the eye area and remove all of it with a warm flannel. If I'm feeling especially in need of it, I sometimes give my face a gentle scrub with my flannel. I find this leaves my skin lovely and soft and makeup free. 

Step 2: Exfoliate- So I've mentioned that I sometimes use my flannel to scrub away any leftover make up, however i always lightly exfoliate after cleansing anyway. Using a cotton pad (I like the big oval shaped ones) I sweep a 'clarifying lotion' or liquid exfoliant, containing AHAs, around my face to lightly remove any dead skin cells. Since I've started to include this step my skin has improved SO MUCH, I can't even tell you. And my large over-sized pores are slowly becoming smaller and less noticeable.

Step 3: Moisturise- As a teenager with oily skin I ALWAYS used to skip this step, little did I know that I was actually making my skin an absolute mess by not giving it the moisture that it needs! No matter how oily you think your skin may be, you need to replace the moisture you've removed. Funny as it sounds I actually learned that I had really dry skin whilst having my makeup done for a newspaper feature. The makeup artist just kept applying moisturiser to my face, and I was just sat there thinking 'just stop, you have no idea' and to my surprise my skin was actually normal for the rest of the day and not oily at all. That was the day I learned that I actually had dry skin! I know right?! My skin had actually been overcompensating for the lack of moisture I was giving it. Boom! Lesson: ALWAYS MOISTURISE YOUR FACE! 

I simply apply a generous helping of day cream to my face (possibly following a serum, if I've actually got any). 

Step 4: Prime- Back to the whole oily skin fandango, walking round as greasy as a frying pan taught me the importance of priming your face for make up. To do this I just gently pat a little primer into my T-zone, focusing on the really annoying wrinkle that I get straight across my forehead, and into the large pores on my cheeks. This 1) helps to make my makeup last so much longer, and 2) reduces the visibility of my fine lines and large pores. 

Step 5- Base- For my base I've been using a BB cream recently for a light coverage but sometimes, if I'm looking for something a bit heavier, I use a mixture of a few different foundations (as I can't for the life of me find the right colour to match my face). To do this I simply buff over the whole of my face using a buffing brush to achieve a smooth finish. (As I've been using AHAs on my face, I ensure that either my moisturiser or BB Cream- or both- contain an SPF, as AHAs reveal fresh skin cells that are incredibly vulnerable to UV rays). I then also buff in a little bit of a creamy concealer under my eyes to conceal any dark circles.

Step 6- Eyebrows- Using a slanted brow brush, I merely fill in my natural brows with a brow powder and lightly brush out with a spoolie to ensure that they don't look like caterpillars. 

Step 7- Bronze- I don't bother trying to contour because let's face it, my efforts would be laughable. However I do sweep a bit of bronzer under my cheek bones to at least give my face some shape! 

Step 8- Eyes- I try to keep my eye makeup really natural using 3 or 4 neutral coloured eyeshadows, a base colour, two darker shades to define the crease of my eye and a lighter (maybe slightly shimmery) shadow on my brow bone. Then, using an eyeliner pen with a felt tip end I create a straight line above my lashes, maybe with a cat flick if I've got the time. And then finish off with two coats of lengthening mascara, giving the wand a wiggle at the base of my lashes before sweeping it along the length of them. 

(I also brushed my hair at this point, as you may have noticed) 

Step 9- Do something with your god damn hair- today I used my curling tongs to create some loose curls which I then sprayed with a light covering of hairspray to help keep them intact for the rest of the day. At this point I also used a dry shampoo to firstly disguise the fact I didn't was my hair that morning and secondly to give the roots some volume.

And there we are. Ignoring the ridiculous facial expression in the last phot, there we have my basic morning routine broken down bit by bit. I don't know if this is useful to know, a bit TMI or just plain uninteresting but there it is. Enjoy. 

How to do you make yourself ready to face the world in the morning? Pop it down in the comments! 

Meet Indie Boo!

This is a pretty random out of the blue one today, especially since ALSFE has been quiet for over a week. But sometimes when you're feeling down and in a bit of a pickle then something has to give while you pick yourself back up again. So as a returning post, I thought I'd introduce you to my little ray of sunshine. And hey, everyone loves a good puppy post. She's not EXACTLY a puppy, she's actually 8, but she's my puppy so we'll leave it at that.

So, this is Indie (not actually called Indie Boo), she's technically my brother's dog, but she's lived with us for almost 7 years now and I'm glad that she does. She completely brightens my day, and makes me smile whenever I see her. Her cheeky little face, and 'butter wouldn't melt' expression is my favourite thing to see first thing in the morning.

Indie is a patterjack- a patterdale terrier crossed with a jack russell. She actually looks like a little sheep, she's tiny, super curly and is forever wagging her tail.

Boo (or Indie Boo, or Boo Boos, or Booseph, or one of the many other names that she recognises yet completely ignores) is one of those little dogs that does everything on her own terms. If she doesn't want to go for a walk in the morning because it's too cold or dark, she either hides in the cubbyhole (that's a pantry to normal people) or climbs into bed with someone.

She climbs onto the back of the sofa like some sort of mountain goat to retrieve cushions (that she's not allowed to sit on anyway) from hard to reach places.

You want a cuddle from the Boo? It's not happening, she uses you as a big cushion and source of warmth at the most inconvenient times possible- like wanting to eat your tea etc...but not when you are feeling poorly or less than human and are in need of some loving.

She sits behind the tv or under beds (for no apparent reason) and barks or whinges and refuses to come out. She is bad ass. She is untouchable and she totally rocks a Santa costume.

Always hungry, and forever grumpy, who can say no to that face? 

Do I love 'Love Tanya'?

When Tanya Burr announced that she was releasing a book, I instantly got really excited. However after I found out that it was such a mixture of topics, including talking about her life, baking, make up, skincare and a bit of everything else, I did wonder whether it would be something that would interest me. But I preordered it anyway and despite my reservations, and it's not bad. Actually it's quite good.

Having preordered it on the 28th December (ready for the release on the 29th January), I expected to be one of the first people to receive the book on the release day, so naturally I was super annoyed when I found out that WHSmith had begun selling the book almost 5 days early...just getting that off my chest.

But the book itself is good. I wasn't overly fond of the idea that there would be autobiographical sections, but I actually really enjoyed them. Some of Tanya's experiences, like deciding whether or not to go to uni are completely relevant to me right now, I felt a little bit inspired and empowered.

I think it's always nice to read up on other people's priorities and such when it comes to looking after your hair and skin. So the skincare and make-up sections were nice to have a flick through, although there was nothing overly groundbreaking in there.

I loved the little baking section, again it was something that I wasn't keen on at first, but now I've had a read through I desperately want to have a good at go at the triple chocolate cookies and the healthy soup! 

My favourite parts:

•The section talking about YouTube and blogging, I love reading people's blog posts giving tips like these and these were super useful. I also love how there's a focus on starting up and maintaining a YouTube channel as I feel like there's not that many tips and advice about YouTube specifically. 

•I really enjoyed the section called 'Love', the lists about date ideas and relationship tips, I just love reading things like that and findin out what works for other people. 

•And lastly the photographs throughout are beautiful! Like, really! And I think that Tanya looks stunning in all of the pictures. Amazing! 

Have you read 'Love Tanya'? What did you think? 

Surviving the 30 Day Plank Challenge

I have decided that for each month of 2015 I am going to complete 1 (or 2) personal challenges or changes. These might not be anything particularly challenging or worth documenting for a lot of people, but from someone with no New Year's Resolutions it's a bit of a fun project I've set myself. 

So here's January's challenge...

(Insert generic fitness image here)

30 DAY PLANK CHALLENGE!! 

You can find these in abundance on the internet, I found mine on Instagram and it builds you up from 20 seconds to a whole 5 minutes in the space of 30 days! Here's my tips for finishing the month...

 Remember to do it everyday! This is actually harder than you think, sometimes life just gets in the way. But I promise you that it is 1000 times harder to find the motivation to put yourself through physical discomfort if you gave yourself a free pass yesterday. GET TO IT! 

 Take your mind off things. The worst thing you can do is watch the clock. I tried listening to music, watching YouTube videos, singing and all sorts to distract myself and it helps so much. Honestly the easiest plank I did in the whole 30 days was one when I was listening to my mum and sister stressing about being late (sort of wrong I know), but because their conversation took my mind off planking, I was completely fine and it was over before I even realised.

 Use music as your timer. This links directly into the last point. If you can find a song that is about the same length as the plank you need to do, e.g. 3.5 minutes, then you won't need to watch the clock. 

 Take it at your own pace and learn to enjoy it. Near to the end of the month I got up to my first 4 minute plank and I just couldn't make myself stay, so I came back to it later in the day when I was feeling less hot and bothered, but ultimately you have to make yourself do it. And I promise you, no amount of singing to Bohemian Rhapsody makes a 5 minute plank easy, it all comes down to you in the end. Aswell, remember that your body will quite happily hold itself for a lot longer than you think it will, your head will give up long before your body does! 

 Lastly, BREATHE FGS!! No seriously, 1) because holding your breathe for over 2 minutes actually gets quite difficult and 2) because holding your breath causes excess tension and the creation of lactic acid in your muscles. Not good! So just take a few deep breaths and BREATHE!

Did I notice a difference? Yes, my core feels so much stronger, even if the visual effect is only slight.

Would I do it again? Yes, it's something that I'm proud that I've finally stuck at and completed. And let's face it, it's not that bad...

Have you completed the 30 day plank challenge? Did you start and not finish it? What monthly challenges would you recomend trying?