Friday 27 February 2015

Healthier choices.


This year one of my goals was to be be healthier. I'm pretty fussy when it comes to food especially with fruits and vegetables. Not so much with fruits there's quite a few fruits that I love but with vegetables I'd say the only ones I really like are Carrots, sweet corn and broccoli other than that I don't tend to have any other veg. But then again I'm pretty bad at including vegetables in my diet! So we as a family decided to get one of those nutri bullets which seem to be the trend at the moment. 
Since then I've been trying to have at least one smoothie every day I do admit I haven't actually had one EVERY day but I have definitely had a lot more than I would have done if we didn't have one of these. It's a great way to mix your fruit and veg and some of them actually taste really good! It comes with it's own recipe book for smoothies you can make which is great, although most of the time I tend to just throw in whatever! But I think this is a great way to keep your diet healthy and I definitely would recommend buying one if you haven't yet.
xxx


Beauty haul part one


Hey all! 
I went and did a bit of shopping. My make up bag and all the make up in it are starting to get really old and tatty now so I decided it was time to replace and update what's in there and also need to buy myself a new make up bag. 
I have yet to buy some more things which I need so I decided to do a part one and part two haul and of course I will post a part two when I buy them. 
So let's get started with the first bit! 

Soap & glory bubble bath £1.99
A lot of people rave about soap and glory and I've only ever tried two things from there both of which I have loved! So I wanted to go and try something else and this bubble bath really appealed to me. I've actually used it since I bought it and it smells so good! 

BB cream £6.99
I'm a newbie when it comes to BB cream   , I heard a lot of recommendations about it and wanted to try it out myself. 

Lip colour £5.99
I absolutely love these lip pencils and I wanted to go for something different because I normally tend to stick with natural colours. This one is a beautiful pink and it's perfect for summer or spring! 

Conditioner £2.79
I was in need of some conditioner and have purchased this one before so decided to buy it again.

Eye shadow £2.99
This eye shadow is a really pretty light pink and I think it's something I'll be wearing a lot of throughout spring and summer. 

So that's it for now! I'll keep you updated on the next few things I buy. 
Hope your week is going well! 
Xxx

Wednesday 25 February 2015

My Wish List


Not long till pay day for me! Here's what's on my wish list at the moment...



Keegan Allen - Live life beauty

I love Keegan in Pretty little liars and I cannot wait to get his book and take a look inside. As a photographer lover myself I'm so excited to see what's inside the pages and following his Instagram account he takes lovely pictures!

Barry M Eye shadow pallet & Make up bag 

My make up bag is starting to get a bit worn out now and a lot of my make up is running out so It's definitely time to update my make up and get a new make up bag all together. I noticed this cute make up bag online in boots and It's something I'm hoping to purhase soon I just think it's really pretty! I also think the eye shadow will be perfect for spring and summer which are on their way. 

Shoes 
While shopping in Marks & spencers the other day I fell in love with these ankle boots I love the buckles across the boots and think they would go with a lot of things. 

Cat
Okay, okay I realise that this won't happen for a long time yet but I just want one so badly just too cute! I can just dream for now eh?

Sony super zoom camera 

I wanted to buy myself a small compact camera so I wouldn't have to take my DSLR camera everywhere with me as much as I love it sometimes it can be a bit annoying to carry around. I've already tested this one out in a shop and It's just what i'm looking for! 

Mary berry baking book

I love to bake a lot and I actually do have quite a few baking books already but you can never have too many baking books! 

Waffle maker 

They're just so yummy! 


Tuesday 24 February 2015

My main recent playlist.

Hey all! 
I was going to do a post on my top favourite songs right now but I literally found it extremely hard to choose just a couple because there's so many I love! So thought I would just go ahead and share the playlist I mainly listen to at the moment. I have so many more songs that I love but I've been especially loving all these songs lately! 
xxx






My favourite Nail Varnishes.


I have what I call quite a huge collection of nail varnish. Before I started my job I used to wear nail varnish most of the time one of the reasons was because It would help me with my bad habit of picking my nails (yes I'm guilty of that horrible habit!) but since I started my job because we're not allowed to wear nail varnish I haven't been able to wear any as much as I used to do before and I actually miss wearing it. But from my collection of nail varnishes I thought I would share with you my top favourites which are in the picture above. 'Barry M' and 'Essie' are my favourites of all nail varnishes each of them stay on so well and have some really pretty colours.
I think for me my favourite colours to wear on my nails are sort of the purply/pinky colours. I have a lot of different shades of purples and pinks in my collection. But I also absolutely love this colour of blue It just reminds me of summer and it's such a pretty colour. The pink/peachy one on the end is actually more of a pinky shade than a peach colour the photo has just made it a little dark! But I do also love having natural colours on my nails a lot of the times and this is a perfect natural light pink which is also perfect for spring or summer too! But or course it's wearable for any seasons like every nail varnish.
I have many more, maybe I could do a Nail varnish collection post sometime? Let me know if you would like to see that.

Monday 23 February 2015

Quote of the day.


It's the beginning of the week which means why not make it better than the one before? Here's a motivational quote to get you all started for the week. I find quotes help me a lot, they always put me In a new frame of mind. Today I chose 'Life is what you make it' because recently there's been a few situations in my life where I've needed this kind of quote to change my attitude and the way I look on life sometimes. 
I know that so many things happen within our lives that maybe we can't necessarily control but the thing we can control is how we deal with them and how we look at that situation. If you go through every day feeling negative about every single thing, not believing in yourself and just doubting everything that happens to you your going to mostly live a miserable life. But if you look at things differently and decide to see the positive things in each situation then life for you would be a lot easier, healthier and happier. You and only you are in control of your own life, sure other people have opinions and help you make choices but at the end of the day It's you that makes your own decisions. 
Life is what you make it! 

Hope you all have a good rest of the week, I'm adventuring around London tomorrow as I have some days off work so thought I would just have some 'me' time and go where ever I feel like! Taking my camera with me because I am sure there will be loads of good photo opportunities. Have you got anything planned for the week? would love to hear them :)
xxx

Sunday 22 February 2015

Trust.

The name of this blog post is such a small word but has a huge meaning to it. I feel like today is a perfect day for me to write about this topic because it's always something that I've felt quite strongly about. I have to be completely honest I do find it hard to trust people there's been so many situations in my life that's either happened to me personally or that I've witnessed and it makes it very hard for me to trust just people in general. I wish it wasn't like that, I wish that I could put all my trust into anyone I meet like some people can but for me It's not that easy. Trust to me is one of the most important things, if not the most important to have in a relationship and I don't mean in just a couple's relation ship but in any relation ships like friends, family, people you work with or anyone you might just see every day. I usually have to make sure that I feel almost 100% comfortable with someone to open up and be my full self around them and If I don't feel like I can trust them even though I'll still talk to them I'll still be 'normal' with them but I won't be my full self around them or I won't say things to them because you never know what could be passed on.
There's been a lot of issues especially with my job's that I have had where I feel like I haven't really been able to trust any body as nice as they may seem to my face something happens and that gives me a reason not to trust them. And I mean not all of it is my own personal experience, a lot of the times it's also when I witness something else happening to someone else which makes me lose confidence in a lot of people. There's not really a point to this story, but lately this has been something that has been playing on my mind and I feel like writing it out could help me in some sort of way? I really wish that I could easily trust people and let my guard down to almost any one but I guess that's just something I have to work on.
What do you think? Who knows maybe any of you reading this may feel the same?
xxx

Friday 20 February 2015

Staying stress free, Relaxing & Choosing happiness.

We all have our moments when things build up and become too much I know I've had mine and ever since that year I was overly stressed about certain things I've put myself in a new frame of mind by trying not to let things get to me so easily and as much and I thought I would share with you my tips on how to relax and take that stress away and to be positive.
Okay so I am no where near an expert on this, because no I'm not always happy, no I'm not always positive and there are times still when I let things get to me. But what I have learnt is that there are certain ways of coping with these issues and how you can deal with them and how I've found ways that has helped me to just move on. I'd like to start of by sharing with you on ways which that help me push through the 'tough and stressful times' and maybe you might do these too? Or if not, maybe you could start trying these things to see if they help you.
  1. Take a nice long relaxing bubble bath - I often take my Iphone with me so I can read the books I'm reading on Ibook or it's a perfect time to catch up on YouTube video's. Or I'll listen to music during having a bath witch I find relaxing. Also get yourself some nice bubble bath or bath bombs to make it that extra bit relaxing for you.

2. Pamper - I think it's always important to have a pamper day where you can sit around using face masks, paint your nails, and basically just have some time for yourself. Try and forget everything that's going on around you and focus on what your doing there and then! 
My favourite face mask at the moment is this one from Boots my skin felt so smooth and refreshed after wards and it smells so good! 


3. Listening to music/Playing music - I find this really helps, there's something about music and when you put your headphones on I don't know about you but I'm in a whole other world where It's just me and that music playing in my ears. But It also really helps to clear my mind and my thoughts depending on what I listen to the lyrics that I'm listening to tend to inspire me and takes me to a different place. 
Do you play an instrument? For me personally I find playing the piano really relaxing, but any instrument I think helps!

4. Positivity and choosing happiness -
This is something that I have been really trying to focus on lately for this to work you have to put yourself in a new frame of mind, you have to try and let go of all that negativity with in you (I know that's easier said than done but you really have to try) I admit I'm not the most positive person because I used to think 'what's the point in being positive when you just get let down all the time?' but that's not the right attitude to have at all. 
What I've realised is that I've been relying on other people or other things to make me happy and I think that's something we all do it's something that we just do naturally. But the only thing that can really make us truly happy is ourselves and how we look at life. Choosing happiness is our own choice to make, no one else. If something that day has gone wrong or if it's been stressful try looking at the positive side of it and say to yourself 'I'm not going to let that bring me down today'. I also find that those cheesy life quotes actually really help me a lot, they're cheesy and cliché for a reason because they are so true. I live my life by a lot of cheesy quote one main one in particular is 'YOLO y'know You Only Live Once?' haha, I laugh but I personally think that's a good quote to live by because It's helped me make so many decisions. 


 Seeing your friends/Being with the people you love - 
Honestly I don't have a LOT of friends but the friends that I do have I have known for years! It's not always easy to see them but when I do It lets me forget about things for a while and just have a laugh and some good times with them!

 Baking/Hobbies -
Baking is one of my main hobbies it's something I do quite a lot and I love doing it. If you feel stressed try to go and do something that you love, it may not be baking but take a moment when you can enjoy doing your hobby where you can just focus on what your doing at that moment in time. 

Watching TV shows/Films
I do a lot of this anyway but definitely if I'm feeling a bit down I'll go and watch FRIENDS or just something that I love. It's one of those things where you can get lost in that story line and your mind is only focussed on what your watching. 

And those are some of my tips on how you can try and take the stress away and just relax! What kind of things do you do that help you stay positive? 
xxx

Thursday 19 February 2015

These are a few of my favourite things...

Recently there's been quite a few things that I have been loving so I thought I should share them with you! And who knows maybe you've been loving some of these too?


I bought this perfume last summer and wear it probably most days if not every day, it's lasted me so well and loving it a lot! You know everyone has their sort of 'signature perfumes' I think I've just found mine!


This has always been one of my favourite bracelets to wear, I just think it's so pretty with it's little jewels and the leafy pattern I can't remember how much this was but this was from Accessories (who do some lovely pieces of jewellery!) 


Another piece of jewellery which I've been wearing a lot of lately is this one I purchased from New Look, I love the 'Three in one' necklace look and thought this was really pretty. 


These little snacky bars are so good if you want just a little something to eat, made out of oats and chocolate chips yummy!


Just recently I signed up to Netflix and basically haven't stopped watching it since. I love the fact I can keep up to date with Pretty Little Liars, I'm also loving re watching 90210, Ugly Betty, and a lot of films! I also recently found 'Tracy Beaker' on there which I know yes I'm 22 but I don't know sometimes I love re watching films and tv show that I used to love when I was younger don't you? :)


I'm also loving the app 'IBooks' and I'm currently reading 'In real life' by Nev Schulman who you may have heard from the TV show 'Catfish' I'm only a few chapters of the way through but so far loving it! He talks about his personal experience of 'catfishing' and how we are so attached to the internet and how people pretend to be someone they're not, it's really eye opening and I'm definitely recommending it to you if you haven't read it.


We all know my love for this girl and I have not stopped playing this album since it came out!


This is just such a fun album! It's so catchy. I always for some reason feel like I'm sat in an American diner when listening to this album? But I really love how unique it is and how Meghan puts her own spin in 'pop'.




Wednesday 18 February 2015

Shopping fun! haul.

I don't know about you but I actually shop in Marks & Spencer's quite a lot and no not just because it has my last name in it! Often I think people get the idea that it's' mainly aimed for older people with the items that they sell but it really isn't at all. I mean yes there's lots for the older people to buy but there's also a lot for younger people too! Some of my favourite things I own are from Marks & Spencer's Today I went to a big one that's like four times as big as a normal sized one and ended up spending quite a bit but really pleased with the things that I purchased.


First things first I am just so in love with these cushions, cuteness overload right? I had to stop myself from buying them all because they were £20 each but I just couldn't decide which one to get so I just bought them both!


I know it's not exactly summer yet but it's been pretty sunny lately and found these sun glasses that I really liked, my other ones broke last summer so I needed some anyway and I think these were around £18 or so. I also really love the case they came with! 


I thought it was about time that I got myself a watch (not having had one since school!) and found this one that I loved, I love the colour of the light pink strap and the clock itself is really easy to read so it will be perfect for work!


 I've always loved their bag in Marks & Spencer they do such a variety of bags and spotted this one that I loved. I recently did buy another bag before this one which was a pretty big bag but thought it would be useful to have a smaller bag too in case I didn't want to carry round such a big bag with me. This is also a body bag too which comes in handy! 

Lastly I then needed a belt for my work trousers (which are a little bit too big for me haha) so basically just went for the cheapest and most appropriate colour for work and £5 suited me fine! 

And that's that! Over all I'm really happy with the things I purchased and definitely going to get a lot of use out of them. 
Hope your having a good week!
xxx


Have you been thinking about cutting your hair but your too scared? If so then don't worry because your not alone! I've been in that exact same position for a long time. Now I don't really like posting selfies of just myself but I wanted to show you my new hair cut, nope I didn't go to the hair dressers, yes I did cut it myself and no I have never ever cut myself or anyone else's hair before.
This year I wanted to have a bit of a change with my image, I want to try new things and this was one of them. For quite a long time I was debating whether to get a hair cut because for a lot of my life apart from when I was younger I've had long hair. But I was so used to my long hair that I became too scared to cut it in case I hated it. A couple of years ago I did have my hair cut once where I had long hair then I had it cut to the length that it is now maybe it was just a bit longer but I ended up hating it and I so desperately wanted my long hair back. So ever since my hair grew and eventually became longish I made a deal with myself that I would never cut it again (look how that turned out haha!)
Even though I love the look of having long hair it became such a pain and most days I would just end up sticking it in a bun, my hair would then get tangled really badly and I just didn't have the time to take proper care of it. So then it came to a day where I just gave in and decided to cut my hair off myself I mean how hard could it be? But in the end I'm actually really pleased with how it turned out and it's just a whole lot easier having short hair for me. It's easier to wash and dry, it doesn't take as long to tie it up or to brush through it. So if your sat there wanting to cut your hair but your too scared my advise is to just go for it. If worst comes to worse and you don't like it, hair grows back and there's other options like hair extensions...
Or if you have super long hair try cutting off a few inches at a time so it's not too drastic at first and then it'll be easier to tell whether you will like having very short hair. :)

Tuesday 17 February 2015

What's in my bag?

Hey guys!
I've been meaning to do this post for a while now but until now I used to mainly use a tiny body bag which barley fitted anything in so for me it was a bit pointless doing a 'what's in my bag' post as I hardly kept anything in there. I had been looking for a big bag for ages but just couldn't find one that I liked. But recently I went to John Lewis and spotted this bag, it was exactly what I was looking for and even though I would never usually buy bags from John Lewis because they're a bit pricey this one was in the sale (I've actually forgotten how much it was but I think I got it for around £60-70. I'm really pleased with it because it has so much room and has lots of little pockets and different sections of the bag and can fit a lot of things inside it.


This bag I think would also be perfect for taking it on holiday with you because you can fit most things if not everything you need in it.


You never know when a perfect polaroid picture opportunity will come up! Then of course I have my phone and my purse which If i remember rightly is from New Look? or it could be H&M, but It always reminds me of summer with the flowers. I then have my Ipod which I absolutely love I recently got it for my birthday and one thing I love about it (besides the fact it plays music) is that it can count how many steps you take each day which I find really interesting. Then from experience I've recently learnt that it's probably best for me to keep a spare contact lens case and solution because you never know when you could need it. A pen always comes in handy, and then I also keep this hair clip in my bag too. 


And then for the beauty Items I find cleansing wipes always come in handy even though they're mainly used for the face they're always good for when if you spill something down you or you get sticky hands. I really love these baby lip balms and they're so quick and easy to apply if you need it. I then also have some eye brow pencil, hand cream and this deodorant which smells so good and this is something I've been purchasing over and over again.


The bag has three sections and then it also has a couple of little pockets inside those which are always useful.

While we're on the topic of bags, I recently uploaded a new video to my channel of my Bag & shoe collection so feel free to go and check that out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8JPZYtK60s

Hope your all having a good week so far! Bye for now :)
xxx

How to make Chocolate S'mores


I tried a new recipe today and even though Valentines day was a few days ago now I'm still sticking with the 'Valentines' theme so here's a recipe that I found from Wait rose for you all.

For this recipe you will need

  • 150g Plain flour
  • 25g cocoa powder
  • 60g lurpack cooks baking range 
  • 60g Light brown Muscovado sugar
  • 70g Golden syrup
  • 6 pink & white marshmallows
  • 50g Milk chocolate
Pre heat your oven at 180 degrees, place the flour, cocoa powder, lurpack, and sugar into a food processor and mix until well blended. Add the syrup and mix again to make a smooth dough.

Roll the dough out between 2 sheets of baking parchment then using a 5cm heart shaped cutter stamp out 24 shapes. Transfer to a large parchment lined baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes.



Place half of your biscuits onto a cooling rack. With your marshmallows cut them in half and place in the centre of the biscuit so when it melts it will even out nicely. Put the biscuits with the marshmallows on them back into the oven for just 2 minutes. 



Once you've taken out your biscuits from the oven take your plain biscuits and place them on top of the biscuits with the marshmallows. 


(Your biscuits should look like this once the marshmallow's are melted)


Next you will need to melt your chocolate so place the chocolate into the microwave until it's nicely melted and then you can start decorating your S'mores 

And there you have it! For me personally the Wait rose recipe was a tiny bit confusing so I wanted to try and make the recipe a bit more simple for you and tell you exactly how I did it. 

I should also add that for me it didn't make 24 It made 12 biscuits all together but once you put them all into sandwiches it only made about 6 so I advise you to double everything if you wish to bake more :)
xxx



Sunday 15 February 2015

Hey every one!
I absolutely love taking photo's sometimes I just go around taking photo's of anything. So I decided to share with you some of the photo's I've taken recently. Hope you like them! Also feel free to follow me on Instagram where I upload a lot of my photography IG - BryonyGrace13



I was walking along our local river and noticed these roses attatched to some wood...

The note attached said 'Missing you xx' and It reminded me how important love
 and life is with the note representing love and loss.


Bokeh effect 

Bokeh effect is one of my favourite effects (if not my favourite) effect to use when taking photo's, especially with lights. I think it just makes lights look so pretty don't you think?











Boots Haul

Hey all!
I recently went to Boots and went on a little shopping spree there which I haven't done in a while. Boot's is one of my favourite shops and It's a place where I can just look around for ages. I love to try new things from there and there's also a lot of products there that I buy over and over again.


Lately my skin has been breaking out quite a bit, I'm normally pretty lucky when it comes to spots although recently I have been getting a few. So I wanted to buy some Skin Care products to try. I spotted this 'Spot wand' which is packaged like some concearlers are and it has a little brush bit on the end where you dap that onto your spot. 

I then saw this Simple moisturesure and decided to try it out along with the 'Visable clear pink grapefruit daily scrub' which I haven't yet tried so I'm looking forward to seeing what that's like. 
I'm having quite a few days of work so I thought that would be a great way to 'relax' and pamper myself so I just picked up a couple face masks.


I also purchased another one of those 'baby lip balms' I already have one which I use quite a lot and I love it so wanted to try out another one. I also picked up this Rimmel Kate lipstick which is a really neautral colour in the shade '003' 


I've got really pale skin, I always have had pale skin and I just wanted to try out some fake tan. For me personally I don't think there's anything wrong with using a bit of fake tan, as long as it's not too orange and it doesn't look tacky or cheap I think it's okay to use. I didn't go for one of the most expensive ones because it's my first time using fake tan, so I went for one that was around £13 I believe, If you use fake tan I would love to hear what ones you'd recommend if you want a more natural tanned look. 

xxx


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