The curly girl method: time to focus on my curls: plopping time

Beauty

We know I have big hair.

I love my curls and sometimes I just embrace the frizz but this curly girl method means that I don’t have to put up with it.

I am happy with my skincare.

I need to work on my makeup but this isn’t a priority!

My fitness eeek okay I need to put some more effort into my diet, running and exercise. I am not drinking Monday to Friday this week but let’s see how long that lasts.

Hair care

So my mum insisted I buy the Phillip Kingsley hair care. I did, it’s my mum ( she secretly works for QVC) Which is agreeing with my scalp so that’s good.

I still swear buy the boots hair curling creme.

But I am still having bad hair days and then I watched a YouTube video on the curly girl method.

The method simplified

  • No sulphates ( I am already cautious of this)
  • No heat ( I always let my hair dry naturally)
  • Lots of conditioner
  • Plopping ( drying your hair in a t-shirt) I knew about this but don’t do it!

That’s the main points I think.

This isn’t a new method so why haven’t I tried it?

Gav has just thrown out a few T-shirt’s so I am going to rescue one and turn it into my plopping towel

First plop, not bad

so except for the towel I follow pretty much all the rules.

Heat

I do have straighteners and a curling iron but I rarely used them maybe 4 times a year. So my frizz has nothing to do with heat but I have always tried to cut out the heat.

This is very hard in winter. So when it’s really cold I wake up an hour early, wash my hair then crawl back into bed for a snooze! My hair is still set but not soaking.

Long sleeve T-shirt is a winner!

No sulphates

Again I have been doing this for the last 10 years not because of my curls but because of my psoriasis. Sulphate irritates my poor scalp. So I am a bit concerned with the amount of product that is supposed to go on the roots.

I hope my hair can cope!

Washing my hair

I have to wet my hair every day because my curls go crazy when I sleep. I have found that now my hair is longer I actually get better hair days the next day. I look a bit like a fluffy lion but I quite like that look! I just don’t have the right products to tame my hair the day after so I will have to look into that!

I don’t actually wash my hair everyday day but I do condition and run my brush through when it’s wet. When it was shorter I didn’t brush at all just casually with my fingers and once a month when I ran a bath. But now it’s so long I have to brush it. I bought a massive paddle brush from Primark about 6 years ago and it’s great. So great in fact I bough a mini version for travelling.

New plopping wrap but it’s not working!

Summary

There are a few more rules to the curly girl method but I am just starting off. You are not supposed to use shampoo at all but with my scalp that will never work.

So I am following curly Susies method for beginners!

I do need to get some hair gel and other curly girls recommended Umberto and Sainsburies gel but I will be using a lot of it so I may have to find a cheaper alternative.

I will be using my boots curling creme up as I love it but I am happy to try other products if I get results!

This will be a journey for my curls!!

Makeup plan fail! Passport photos trying not to look like a pyscho!

Advice, Beauty, confidence, Travel

So I lost my passport and it’s been stressing me out. First world stress obviously as it’s for my hen do trip in just under 4 weeks.

So I thought hell I know I could write a little blog on what I did to prepare. Like a get ready with me plus prep.

I was so happy with how I looked a little extra mascara a bit more blusher. Umm no still looked like a pyscho.

Pre-care pamper session

So the night before I thought about it. I used the Philip Kingsley Eslastizer on my hair as a treatment rather than just a pre wash treatment.

Frank had a bath first of course. He gets jealous if I spend too much time in the bathroom. He loves a hot bath but I have to cool it down for him incase he cooks.

Any goo back to me!

Skincare

Used my Omorovicza cleanser. It’s gorgeous balancing luxurious and light. At the moments it’s replacing my Elemis, especially in the mornings if I was want to wake up rather than indulge.

So I haven’t used my baby facial in a few weeks. I was using it twice a week and then reduced it to once. I love it. I don’t find it too strong on my skin. I have had a few hormonal breakouts so my skin has been pretty grim.

I used my baby facial.

I love this stuff. It goes on and you feel a slight tingling and leave it as a mask for 20 minutes and wash it off.

Applied a wee bit of Matryxal because it’s my favourite product ever I think!

Then you are left with baby plump skin straight away and in the morning!

After I applied that I used my Guerlan night mask just to give it an extra bit of cushioning.

Pre care hair and skin done!

Morning of the photo shoot ha ha

The next day I woke up to lovely skin. Myi was so happy. So I decided as this image has to se me through the next ten years I better look decent.

So I applied makeup.

You can’t wear too much in a photo but just enough to highlight your features.

What I forgot was that passport photo booths wash you out! They strip back all the effort and I was left looking, well, like a psycho.

For the next ten years!

I redid it 6 times.

I looked awful in all of them! So I picked the best of a rotten bunch.

This photo will haunt me for the next ten years but hey ho.

At least I get to keep my European passport if this crappy brexit ever does happen.

I look like a pyscho

I should have applied more makeup!

But I am a proud European!

I just read a terrible blog on the cons of wearing glasses on your wedding day! Here is my two cents

Beauty, Wedding

Seriously, this is what they wrote:

Con : you will be bespectacled forever

Con : it may be awkward when you kiss

Con: light reflection

.

Let’s break it down shall we!

This blog was obviously written on the bus to work! Ha ha little dig at myself there. By a moron, not me, who has never worn glasses in their perfect vision life.

So the first con

You will be bespectacled for ever! I have worn glasses since I was 10. Pretty sure every photo that has ever been taken of me was wearing glasses bar a few. So the day when I am surrounded by friends and family and the wedding of my dreams ( blood, sweat and tears) hell yes I am wearing glasses.

They are me.

It maybe awkward when you have the first kiss.

Seriously

Seriously someone wrote this. In all my glasses wearing years I have never, not once had an issue kissing with my glasses on. I mean, who is this person. Is Gavin going to suspend me upside down and kiss me because yes! Then there may be an issue with gravity and my face! My glasses may fall off!

But most other scenarios unless my niece high kicks me in the face it ain’t happening.

Pretty sure I can managed a kiss not a groping snog I front of my family without sideswiping the glasses from my face.

A clash of my head against Gavs is not going to happen!

Oh god what if my eyeballs fell out as well, that is more bloody likely.

Light reflection

Okay this one isn’t so bad. Except the fact that I have a million pictures of me wearing glasses without having weird light reflections and that not even with a special coatings my glasses. I chose this pic on purpose because I think the light actually looks cool!

But seriously, seriously.

Maybe not as many brides get married in there glasses but a million grooms do. I bet none of this vapid advice was suggested to any grooms getting married.

In conclusion

I am not saying you have to get married in your glasses because you wear them all the time. I am just saying that I want to look like me on my wedding day.

A pretty glasses wearing version of myself!

Without all these none existent, Glasses clashing nonsense.

My advise to you. Do what you want it’s your head and face and your body for that matter.

But don’t be put off by idiots who need to get a quick blog out without any thoughts in their none glasses wearing heads!

mirror mirror on the walls: Bargain hunt in homeware

interior design

Oh I love a thrift and a bargain!

I have 3 mirrors in my home all bought in local charity shops or vintage stores and all 3 for £100.

My first mirror has gorgeous green filigree. It is so heavy and large. It is the first mirror I bought for my house and I love it. Two but this mirror in a proper shop it would be over £300 the craftsman ship in it is stunning. I paid £20 for it!

It hangs in the upstairs hall way and I don’t think it’s appreciated enough!

My second mirror my dad bought for me at a local antiques shop. It was £40 and fills up most of my bedroom fireplace. The frame is like beaten metal panels. I have never seen a mirror like it and I love it. Again it is super heavy and the craftsmanship is incredible.

It hangs in our bedroom and I love it.

My third and last mirror I have bought was in the salvation aren’t store I bought my first mirror, just 7 years later!!

She was £40 and from a cool pub/ theatre me and Gav still go to.

I love a bargain and my three mirrors are all a part of history. They are so beautiful I am glad they never ended up in a tip. There is nothing like finding a bargain.

Kerb appeal, falling in love

interior design

Day14 outside kerb appeal.

The first time I saw my house was on a viewing to see another house two roads down.

I causally said.

I could live here!

We loved the house a few roads down it was a Victorian end of terrace with room to improve. It was bigger than ours but the owners appears reluctant to sell and we couldn’t get hold of them.

That’s fate.

Then we found our house

I fell in love the first time I saw it listed.

I was trying to arrange a viewing on the Thursday but the estate agent said that it would be sold by Thursday.

He was right!

We bought it! Me and Gav were elated after we saw it. It had everything and was beautiful and liveable. He even left it in a good state.

The first time we stepped inside we knew. It had to be ours.

My four walls mean a lot to me. It’s the home that me nd Gav are building together.

Thank you house!

Be Bold: feeling the insta-worthy pressure

confidence, Personal Experience

Be bold

Is the theme of today’s blog but today I am feeling beige not bold. I feel like I have taken on too much with this challenge. Its not that I don’t have enough time to write it just that I feel like my writing and content is suffering.

Taking on too much is not going to improve my blog it is just going to make it messy.

 I love interior design I do. But I feel like all the images I am putting up are just not good enough. The lights not right and I don’t have any time to fix that.

The writing of the blog is easy but the planning that goes into it and trust me there is a lot of planning.

So, I am not going to stop I am just going to write about what I really care about which isn’t my lovely slightly disheveled house at the moment.

We all know that I am completely obsessed with skincare. Cant stop wont stop. I really love it and I am my skincare regime has turned me into a crazy pharmaceutical scientist. This morning I put all my bottle I was using on the sink. A bit of this, a bit of that. Is that a scientist or a Witch? I don’t mind either comparison.

The wedding was the reason that I started the blog

My running which hasn’t been happening because I just got too freakin lazy! I have run once this week so I am okay with that but I need to start running for 6 miles soon!

Instagram is just so disheartening. I don’t understand what their point of view is any more. My friend told me that she felt like giving up/ disheartened because other account similar to hers where doing amazing and her beautiful account wants. So I gave her some advice and forgot to listen to myself. So I am going to stop.

It’s all too much

Facebook is just a waste of space, I don’t know why they mess with that either. I don’t know many friends who are still active on it. Some one needs to come up with a new Instagram idea where they don’t introduce a new algorithm every 5 minutes. I would join in a heartbeat.

So this blog is about being bold and my house is packed full of boldness. However the boldest thing about my home is me! Yes, I am saying it.

So I need to just be me and stop trying to juggle so many balls in the air.

At the moment my home will never be instaworthy for this 30 day challenge. I am going to work on being in a little Insta community and to be truthful I already have it with some of the girls I talk to on Insta.

So it’s back to me!

Nature inspired interior let’s talk about pineapples

french bulldog, interior design

Today’s blog is on nature inspired so I thought a trip down memory lane may be a good idea!

Not my memory but the Victorians in there interior architecture. Nature was inspired with every fleur de ly, every sconce and carpet runner pole.

They brought nature inside without being too obvious. And round my house is no different.

We have a ceiling Rose that is in desperate need of some TLC the paint needs to come off and a light perhaps installed.

In the hallway maybe my favourite room of the house we have a carpet runner in a plush green carpet. It feels lovely underfoot on our steep Victorian stairs.

The runners are brass. When we first looked around the house I declared look Gav they even have pineapples on them. The owner laughed at me and said if you buy the house you can call them pineapples if you like.

They are obvious not pineapples but thistles. Beautiful brass thistles that contrast beautifuly with the green carpet. They do look a wee bit like pineapples and it does remind me of the billy Connelly story where a Scottish man in Asian tattoo artist for Scotland forever and a big thistle on his back.

The man didn’t know what a thistle was so the Scotsman drew it out for him. And so the tattoo artist wrote Scotland forever and a giant pineapple on this back!

I love this story. I also love pineapples and tropical prints.

I upcycled this little chest of drawers and Becky bought me my gold pineapple! We also insulted most of Spain buy buying these sombreros on a trip to Barcelona!

Note to self sombrero are Mexican not Spanish!

As you can see I love colour, pineapples and prints and they are all Seychelles inspired!