Monday 19 March 2012

Primark Pastel Blazer

I know this has done its rounds on the blogosphere and possibly on youtube as well, but I can't not tell you guys about this great blazer!


I love using light, thin blazers as cover-ups or take the chill off come spring/summer but they're also great fashion pieces. The blazer in question is the fabulous milky pink blazer from primark which only cost £15. Come spring I love these ice cream shades and when payday finally rolls around I might end up going back for the mint green colour! Apart from those two shades they also do it in patterns, I've seen it in black with an elephant pattern on it, I've also seen it in a white colour which I won't be buying because I always seem to spill something on myself when I wear white! :(
Now I only bought this blazer on friday and I am in love with it already! I am size 12 with an hourglass figure, I was also fortunately...well unfortunately granted big boobs thanks to god and genetics and I love that this doesn't button up as it's more flattering on my figure. It's a lovely waterfall front with white inside so if you wanted to roll up the sleeves you have the white of the interior and then you see the pink colour through it. 


I wore this for mother's day which if you live in the UK was time for sunglasses and I stayed lovely and cool! I'm going to do a seperate post styling this blazer, I might do some more spring/summer styling posts/videos.
This is definitely going to be one of my spring/summer favourites cause it's such a light silky material which means you means you can fashionable while staying cool. I know Primark have been increasing their prices but I feel that the quality of the fabric and materials are getting better so I don't mind paying the extra! 


What are your key spring items?

Friday 16 March 2012

Collective Haul~Lush, Primark and Accessorize

Here's my latest video guys. Yes it's only a collective haul from Primark, Lush, Whsmiths and Accessorize, but I thought I'd start posting my latest uploads on here as well so you've all got more to read well see.
This was filmed a couple of weeks ago, yes I know it's getting a little bit old now! Although I will be filming a new video tomorrow which I will be writing a blog post about tomorrow for those of you that prefer to read blogs rather than watch videos :) 


Your all fabulous!




Fitness and Healthy Eating Routine

I'm doing a bit of a different post today. You guys probably won't know but in May I am actually running a 10K race in support of a charity, the charity I'm running for is The Olivia Rae Foundation. This charity is really close to my heart as it's was founded after the unfortunate passing of my best friend Olivia, her parents set up this charity as Livvy was really involved in the arts and this foundation supports projects in the arts in the local community. I will be doing another more in depth post about the charity later because it really is amazing!
So today I'm going to do a bit more of a fitness post, as attempting to run a 10k for someone who doesn't normally run will be a bit of a challenge but it'll give me something to look towards and hopefully it'll start me on the track to running more often because I've started to realise that I actually really like it.


I'll start of with the fitness side of it, I've started running in preparation for the 10K. I started on a Monday and run every other day, on the 'rest days' I still try to do some form of exercise. On the days where I run, I run for roughly 45-60 minutes as I am lucky to live 5-10 walk from the beach. I briskly walk down to the beach and the stretch once I reach it, I then run for 2-3 minutes and briskly walk for 1. I find this effective for me personally it also helps because I am new to running. I rarely go running without my ipod as I find I push myself further when I'm listening to music as I don't get as bored doing it. I try as run till I start to get tired or it starts to get too dark or my dog starts to get tired. I also walk my dog once a day for about 20-25 minutes (don't worry he gets more than one walk, we take it in turns).


On my 'rest days' I do activities like walking my dog, I do this once a day for 20-25 minutes. I also do my Pump It Up DVD, I try to do the warm-up and cool down as well as 3 out of the 5 workout sections. I also like to do a lot of household chores, your probably thinking what? You do household chores to burn calories! You can actually burn calories doing housework. For instance I'll try and hoover the whole house in one go, with having a dog and cat that is quite a task, stripping and making all the beds. Little things like that where I'm still burning calories but also being productive as well.


Now for the 'diet' side, I don't specifically diet or follow any diet. My 'diet' isn't a diet it's a change of lifestyle, a change of what I ate. This is what works for me and my body and my condition. Yes I have an invisible condition, to do with my blood. I am actually B12 deficient, now there are different types you can be and I will do a bigger post on my 'condition' later but for this post all your need to know is that my body doesn't carry B12 in my blood and doesn't absorb it from my food, therefore I have to have injections for it and to make sure I try and eat food that contains B12 in them.


On a usual day I try to follow this basic plan. I try to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner with two snacks, one between breakfast and lunch and the other between lunch and dinner. For my snacks I try to stick to snacks that are 200 calories or under, for the rest of my meals I try to stick to healthy options. For instance if I crave pizza I will make my own (so I can control exactly what is in it) but I will pair it with a salad. I love using Sweet Chilli sauce as a dressing and topping to give it that extra flavour and the one that I bought from tesco's is only 56 calories for 2 tablespoons and i generally use less than that! I am also a HUGE chicken person, I don't often eat a lot of red meats, only occasionally when I have spaghetti bolognese. I eat chicken after I been running especially for the protein. I also eat a lot of fruit and have recently got into eating salads as well. I try and stick to having some protein, carbs, veg and dairy at meals but more so with my evening meals.


With the snacks I did a lot of research as to different snacks that are 200 calories or under and healthier. I'll list a few that I like:

  • Apple slices with peanut butter and banana slices with peanut butter.
  • If I'm craving something salty e.g. crisps I'll have a handful of salted pretzels or a small bowl of salted popcorn.
  • If I fancy something sweet I'll have half a tube of smarties or 1-2 squares of dark chocolate.
  • I buy frozen fruit as well as fruit for use in smoothies or for desserts/breakfast as I find they last way longer, therefore there's no sudden rush to eat them.
  • I eat granola with yoghurt as a snack as well as for breakfast, I just half the portions.
  • I love picking up fresh fruit when I'm out rather than buying a chocolate bar or a bag of crisps or some pop.
These are some of the things that work best for me and my body in particular. I am in no way a dietitian or nutritionist, I am just saying what personally works for my body and my lifestyle, before you undergo anything like this it's best to sit down, think about it and plan it out. You need to think 'Can I commit to having 3 set meals a day or will my job get in the way?!' 'Can I commit myself to running 3/4 days a week and still doing exercises on my rest days?' If your saying no to questions like these, you need to sit there and do research, try different things out till you can figure out which questions you can actually say yes to!


I will be doing more fitness posts and more posts about my 10K journey I might even film some vlogs along the way when I'm running (well when I stop for a break!) but I just thought I'd put it in here for a break from all the beauty stuff all the time! I will be spreading these posts out, possibly one every two weeks as it's only 3 months till the actual race! Nerves!!!!


What do you guys do to stay fit? Don't forget your fabulous no matter what you look like!





Friday 2 March 2012

Nail Of The Day- French Manicure

So I though I'd take a crack at doing my own French manicure instead of spending money on getting acrylics or gels done. If Karen is reading this she might be slightly proud of this as we had a conversation about this! :)


This is what they look like, I used my OPI start to finish base and top coat then for the nude/ natural colour I use my 17 nail polish in forever. I've used this on its own a couple of times and I've found you have to use about 3 coats to get opaque and you can still see little bits of the tips underneath! For the white tip I used a polish I actually got in a prize from Karen, it's the Rimmel nail tip whitener with minerals. This polish has a slanted brush which I found made it easier to use and easier to get into the very corners on my tips.
Now I am not the best person in the world when it comes to painting my right hand, hence why I never try any nail designs. I will say bough that it took several goes at my right hand before I was left with something I'd be happy with for my first shot. It did take me close to an hour to complete this as my right hand was a big annoyance, but I'm going to keep practicing an hopefully get better! I do want to try doing different coloured French manicures.


What are you great tips for doing French tips when you do your nails?