Pink and Grey: An Outfit Challenge

Foxy ring // Peter Pan collar dress // Tights // Brogues

The Discount Coder is running a challenge competition to celebrate reaching (almost) 1000 followers on twitter! (So go follow them!) The competition is to create an outfit for £100 or less from the ASOS website in order to have a chance to win a £100 voucher they're kindly giving out to one lucky blogger! And I, as usual, left this till last minute! I had seen two or three other bloggers do this a few weeks ago and then I promptly forgot all about it until today!

I decided to go for a pink and grey colour scheme as those are my layout colours atm and I'm pretty partial to them. I picked some grey and pink brogues and built the outfit around them, as they are gorgeous! I love brogues and a grey pair is next on my list. Then I needed to find a dress ast I live in dresses, and like brogues, I love peter pan collars! The colour of the dress does actually match the shoes better than what it looks like, but I picked the wrong colour to do the banner and arrows, so it looks a bit bright. Considering the weather we're having though, the brightness of the dress would suit both sunny and cold days, depending on what else you're wearing with it. I went with a more of a cold theme, and picked sensible shoes and some pretty tights (I love the lightning bolt!). If it were sunny I'd probably go without tights and wear some nice sandals. And to top it off I paired it with a silver fox ring, since he's cute. I was going to add a necklace but I thought with the collar and belt it doesn't really need anything else there, and I'm recently getting into wearing (animal) rings lately, and  matches the shoes, and it all works out to be £94.50!

The competition is open until midnight so you still have time to do it, this took me less than half an hour!

Little bits of Summer

Sending off my giveaway parcel in the post office. Sparkly nails and a foxy ring. Swansea Beach. The Night Circus.
Heroes chocolates. Pub quiz. Shoes. Weird clown thing.
Krispy kreme trip. Mug drawing. My neighbours attention seeking cat. New necklace from Delilah Dust.
Still reading A Clash of Kings. Glossy Box. Mumbles Sunset. Sandal buddies.

So it turns out we're getting a bit of a summer right now, is everyone making the most of it? I am trying to but still not as much as I'd like considering it might not be here next week! Silly, mean British weather, y u no make up yr mind?! Anywho I didn't really know what to call this post other than 'Week in Instagram' so I called it 'Little bits of Summer' even though not everything is summery, ah well.

I've been to the beach of course, but they're more like evening or afternoon strolls with my boyfriend or my friend, not proper beach visits. I went to Cardiff for some shopping (was meant to go Ice Skating but we got there too late) and I tried my first ever twinkies (didn't like it) and my first ever Krispy Kreme donought, well two actually (they were heaven) so it was fun. I tried out a new pub quiz with my boyfriend and we double dated with his friend, me and his friends girlfriend just left it up to the boys and we came third! (Out of er...four oops!). On the way to Cardiff though they had all these street performers from the town centre to the train station which was a bit bizarre but a cool concept called 'A Welcome Disruption to Life'. I drew on a mug as a birthday present, and got a new necklace from Delilah dust which reminds me of being a teenager when I had loads of crystal necklaces, they're so pretty though. I won a box of Heroes in work for being super (well sorta) and I got this months Glossy box so I should do a review on that and She Said Beauty soon. I also stole cat cuddles with the neighbours cat who is an attention whore, but I love it. With my old cat she never really liked that much fuss so its novel to me for a cat to demand attention, it makes me happy.

I read The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern which is really good if you like realistic magical books which involves pov's from multiple characters and a Romeo and Juliet style romance. I half wish I was still reading it, as I didn't really want it to end. However I also need to finish A Clash of Kings which is the second in the Game of Thrones series by Geroge R. R. Martin. These books are taking me forever! The Night Circus I finished in less than 24 hours, I read it late at night over two nights. This is usually typical for me to read a book in one or two goes, but these books? Take forever. I think its because the pov changes every chapter and it takes awhile to get into it. I also put it down a lot since the end of each chapter is always an easy place to stop reading compared to other books as that section is done for the time being. I decided to stop reading it to finish watching the TV series as some things were out of order and I was getting confused. So I waited until I caught up on the TV show and started reading again. I will eventually finish these books, and hopefully if I read them before the next series start that'll be better. I only had this problem with Lotr when I was 11! I read the first book after watching the first film and that took awhile, but the second and third books I read before the films and they flew by so I'll have to do that now. Sorry for the little book essay, I like reading books!

Hope everyone has a lovely weekend, I'll be wokring later but had this day and tomorrow off so that makes me happy. Did anyone watch the Olympics Ceremony last night? How weird was that? It was like Loft at the start with the shire and then the fires haha, I saw so many comments on fb, twitter and instagram about how weird it was. It was good, but it took awhile didn't it? I really liked the Queen/James Bond bit, Mr Bean, the NHS moon bed bit, the flying bird cyclists and that guy from Two Door Cinema club singing as they lighted the 'Cauldron'. I thought it was really awesome how they did it and liked the fact that they let teenagers light it instead of themselves. So overall it was weird, with some good bits inbetween!

TRESemme Split Remedy Review

My mum came home the other day with two of the above samples, saying she got them from somewhere (I can't remember) and gave both of them to me as she usually does whenever she gets samples. Now I have seen a few reviews of these today on some blogs, where I think it came as part of a small beauty box? Which I don't get, so it's just a review of TRESemme. I have used it in the past about a few years ago and did like the products, but then never really bought them again, even though I didn't mind, but I don't usually buy shampoo. The new products are designed for helping repair split ends, which loads of other shampoos do too so I as a bit skeptical. I'm treating my hair better lately and trying out new things so I thought why not.

It comes in three steps, or three sachets rather. You use the shampoo, then the conditioner, and then once you're out of the shower, put the leave in conditioner. My hairs really long and thick so I used each sachet up on it, but you could half it if you have shorter hair. On the directions it says to use 2-3 pumps, which I think they mean from the full size bottles, which works out to be roughly the same size in the sachet so maybe you are meant to use all of it.

The consistency was nice, and there was a subtle smell (I'm not the best at sensing scents though!). The first time I used all three, I think I either put too much in my roots, or didn't wash it out enough because my hair looked greasy as soon as it was dry, not a good look. I usually shampoo the top half of my hair and then let the water run the rest of the shampoo through it (a tip I read somewhere) and then I condition the middle and the ends of my hair, as the top half can get greasy quite easily. I didn't do that this time as I put the conditioner everywhere before washing it out. Then I towel dried my hair and put in the leave in conditioner, mainly focusing on the ends as that's what its meant for. This was my first time using it so it was interesting to see how it would turn out. I didn't really notice it once my hair was dry, and it did feel soft but the top half of my hair greasy which was the conditioner's fault.

The second time I used it I had much better results. My hair wasn't greasy, as I didn't touch my roots except for the shampoo and made sure I rinsed everything out thoroughly. My hair felt soft again, and continued feeling soft the next day. However it's too short of a time to see if it made any difference to the ends of my hair, but it can't hurt to try. When I eventually cut all my hair off I'll ask the hairdressers what they think of it.

I probably won't buy the shampoo or conditioner, because sometimes I do condition the whole of my head and don't want it to be super greasy, but I did love the leave in conditioner as I didn't really notice it was in like I thought I would have, I thought it would feel heavier or I'd feel it once dry. It also made the parts of my hair I used it on really, really soft which is always nice. So I'll keep a look out if I see in the the shops. I hope you enjoyed this review, I'm going to watch the opening ceremony of the Olympics with my family now, is anyone else exciting for the show? I'm hoping Doctor Who will appear to light the torch! And yes I'm a geek :D

Patterns

My friend gave me a belated birthday present a few weeks ago, and I decided to try it out today. She gave me a kit to customise a mug which I think was from Paperchase. She didn't tell me, but I saw one in there the other day, but can't find it on the website if you want to get one. I love how she got me something crafty to do, I love presents like that! I thought up a few patterns to draw on it but was too scared to actually do them! So I bought some other plain white mugs to use for practice, which is the one you see above.

I'd seen this pattern somewhere before ages ago but I can't remember where, and decided to recreate it. Now I don't have a steady hand at all, so my lines were thick and wobbly which hopefully adds to it! And drawing on a mug wasn't as easy as I thought it would be, but it wasn't too bad. I can't wait to add to this collection, and the pen that comes with the mug is supposedly dishwasher safe after 72 hours. However I don't have a dishwasher so I won't know if that works!

If you don't have a kit or fancy getting one, Elsie at A Beautiful Mess gives some tips to draw on your mugs with sharpies which I'll definitely try out for different colours, you put them in the oven to set the pattern and then you have to wash everything by hand. If you attempt or have attepted to draw on mugs, plates, bowls or whatever let me know, I like checking out things like that :)

Hope everyone has a lovely week, looks like the Sun has decided to visit us so enjoy it while it lasts!

Bristol Zoo Times

Last Saturday me and the boy went to Bristol Zoo! I've always wanted to go to the Zoo and now I finally have! I mean, I have gone when I was younger, and apparently to Bristol Zoo but I don't remember. I only remember bits and pieces from a trip to Longleat and I've been to Folly Farm in Wales but its not a zoo, it's a farm, albeit it has Giraffes though I think! We basically spent all day travelling to and from there and only about three hours in the zoo, and part of it was when we stopped to have lunch.

We just missed our train to Cardiff, and had to wait half an hour for another so I had a Costa hot chocolate, and then when we got to Bristol there was a Gay Pride festival on so all the buses were extremely late, about 40 minutes. Last time we went on a trip to explore Castles, there was a March on in Cardiff and all the buses were late then too! I think we're destined for transport to never go our way haha. When we left the zoo the buses were still late and it started raining, so we were soaked despite umbrellas and coats waiting at the bus stop, and then we just missed the train back to Cardiff so had to wait 20 minutes. Then we we finally got to Cardiff we had to change trains to Swansea and got on the wrong train heading back the way we'd just come! And then! The next train going to Swansea was going all the way to Llanelli first and then we had to change there and head back to Swansea. Oh. Em. Gee! It took us hours and hours and we were about two hours late returning back when we were meant to go to a BBQ. I don't even want to add up how long we spent travelling/or waiting for transport, it'll hurt my head. Anyway enough of the transport rant! Now onto the animals!

It was awesome! We didn't get to see everything we wanted, and skipped some animals since there were too many people around, but we did manage to see the penguins and sea lions getting fed, which was really cool, and funny. The animals all seem to know when it's feeding time, which is the same time every day. I took a cute video of the penguins all forming a line heading down a rock to show my nana who loves penguins. We saw a lot of fighting or stealing of fish during that, poor penguins. Then for the Sea lions or seals (I can't remember the difference oops) we saw them getting fed, and doing tricks. The one above was called Artex I think (Is that from The neverending story?) and he was doing all these neat little tricks, and there was a baby sea lion who kept having a temper tantrum since they were going to feed him last and kept making the funniest of nosies. He also kept close to his mother, keeping his face on her tail, even while she was 'walking', sooo cute!

We saw loads of animals, including a dog on the train. He was gorgeous, and reminds me of my dog from when I was younger, and he was a guide dog. We looked after him while the owner went to the toilet and so many people petted him as he walked past, I really wish I had a dog, I'm not allowed to have any pets, not even a hamster or fish! We saw a baby lemer being washed by his parents above, he was so tiny you can't really see him in any of the pictures I took since they were sheilding him from view. And one of the cutest animals there was a little deer, called a Pudu which was so adorable, I really want one as a pet. And Bristol Zoo even had dinosaurs roaming around! Okay, well not real dinosaurs, and they weren't roaming around but were fun the see. I took so many photos of the animals that my phone actually died even though I'd charged it up in the morning, and missed out on a lot of animals, but I still think I took about 300 photos! Yeeesh I think I have a problem haha.

All in all it was a really fun trip, and you should definitely check it out if you want to go to the Zoo. We also had two for one tickets using our student cards (there's no date on it so we can still use them!) if we showed we travelled by train, but tickets are only about £12 anyways. The next Zoo I want to go to now though is the one in London next time I'm up there. Has anyone been there before?

Giveaway winner

And the winner to my first bloggiversary giveaway is Angie! Which is kinda fitting since I awarded her along with two other bloggers a Liebster Award in my last post. I hope you enjoy it Angie I'll email you now. And thanks for everyone who entered, all six of you! I really enjoyed doing it, and want to do more, so might to a giveaway whenever I create my online shop, and if I ever get to 50 followers I probably would do one again, any excuse to do a giveaway! Hardly any of my friends have birthdays coming up and Christmas is too far away and I really like giving people presents. Is that a bit weird?

Anyways thanks everyone for reading and entering! I've just been for a Graduation meal for my brother, we went to the same place we did last year for mine, The Harvester, and I'm reminded that I should probably just get dessert since I never really like the vegetarian options. I also might be going out for a work friends leaving do, he's already had one but is properly leaving this time! But the point was I should probably get off my laptop and get ready! 

P.s I've updated my blog a bit. I was fed up of all the pink so muted it down with grey. I was actually going to go with white and aqua, but somehow matched my bloglovin' badge instead! I'm not sure on the banner, I may change it but can't find any fonts that I love just yet. And I deleted a few posts, but would like to clean up some more, but I have a hard time letting go (even of the terrible posts!).

Liebster Blog Award

Hey guess what? I've been nominated for my first ever blog award! Craaazy right? But I'm super happy, yay! Natasha over at The Tyrannosaur nominated me for it :) You should check out her blog since it has a) A cool name, b) she posts DIYs, c) pictures of pretty clothes and d) her paintings are good which make me very jealous! 

Now the Liebster Blog Award is given to your favourite blogs with less than 200 followers, which is a pretty sweet idea for us small bloggers. I'd never heard of the Liebster Blog Award until now, but I've always seen these type of awards and wished I had one, and now I do! What you have to do for is to list 11 facts about yourself, answer 11 questions and ask 11 questions which the rules below will explain in more depth. 

Rules

1. You must link back to the person who gave the award to you!

2. Post eleven things about yourself.

3. Answer the questions the person giving you the award has set for you.

4. Create 11 questions for the people to answer that you have given the award to.

5. Choose people to give the award to and link them in your post. 

6. Go to their blog and tell them

7. You can't give the award back to the blogger who gave it you you!

11 (boring) facts about me

1. I graduated uni last year and I'm still looking for jobs in schools!

2. I never watched TV when I was younger (just films) until I was about ten, so whenever people go on about well known shows from their childhood I usually don't have a clue what they are.

3. I have three brothers! They drive me crazy but I couldn't imagine having only one or two or none!

4. I've broken my left wrist three times and sprained it twice, so now I've learnt NOT to fall on it. 

5. I really want to join my local roller skating derby but I'm a bit too chicken to go just yet! Plus I'm really clumsy.

6. I work at a cinema, which means I get to see films for free!

 7. I'm super clumsy, in fact I won the award for that in work. People actually voted for me out of 30 people to win it, proudest day of my life! Joke...

8. My boyfriends moving to Portugal in September so depending on the job front here, or there, I might be moving sometime after Christmas. 

9. I'm in the process of making an etsy shop but I want to have loads of stock for it first.

10. I'm addicted to exclamation marks!!!

11. I'm a bookworm. I like to read books in one go if I can. However if I put it down more than 3 times then it actually takes me months to pick it up again.  

The Questions I have to answer

1. What was the first film you ever saw?

I can't really remember, this is probably wrong but I think it was The Land Before Time. They filled up a lot of my early childhood along with Disney.

2. Flats or heels?

Flats! I rarely wear heels, although I lust after them all the time but my feet thank me for it. Plus my boyfriends the same height as me and I don't like being taller than him!

3. Who is your fictional crush?

Oh I don't know, I tend to fall in love with characters easily! Hmm I might have to go with Peeta from The Hunger games because he is just all kinds of aww. 

4. What is your favourite pudding?

Angel delight, or chocolate mississippi mud pie.

5. What is your favourite quote?

It's hard to pick, but one I'll always remember is from when I studied King Lear in college. "It is the stars, the stars above us, govern our conditions".

6. If you could only eat one meal for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Egg fried rice, with sesame seeds adding in, yum!

7. Why did you start blogging/what keeps you blogging?

I've been blogging on and off since I was about 13 on various sites so I don't really know why I just always sort of have done. However they've mainly just been online diaries, so maybe they don't count. I love reading other peoples blogs and wanted to join in I guess? What keeps me blogging this time around is the social side of it which I never really had before. 

8. Do you have a party trick or secret talent?

Not really, but I suppose this might count.  You know how some people can bend their thumbs forward to their wrists? I can do that, but I can also bend it backwards so its parallel to my arm. Apparently that's a bit weird and freaks people out. 

9. What is the most expensive item in your wardrobe?

No clue,  I usually buy my clothes from Primark, H&M, Dorothy Perkins and New Look. Oh wait, maybe my prom dress? 

10. What is the biggest bargain in your wardrobe?

I bought a dress from Debenhams for £5 but it originally cost £85. 

11. What is your favourite social networking site?

Does Instagram count? I <3 Instagram! 

Questions for you to answer!

1. What did you want to be when you grew up?

2. What item of clothing (or shoes) is at the top of your wishlist?

3. What features do you like to read on blogs? I.e Wishlists, Instagram posts, Outfit posts etc

4. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be? 

5. What's your best beauty tip?

6. Where would you go on Holiday if money wasn't an issue?

7. What celebrity would you love to meet?

8. What was one of the first blogs you started to read/follow?

9. What made you start blogging?

10. Do you prefer books or films?

11. If you could have any super hero power, what would it be? And no, you can't have multi powers or the ability to use other peoples powers. 

I'm not sure how many people I have to tag, so I'll copy Natasha and tag three people. I'm tagging Samantha, Jen, and Angie. I love reading their blogs, they all have regular features I like to read and are lovely people, so check them out pretty please :)

P.S My giveaway ends at Midnight tonight so check it out if you want to enter! 

Week in Instagram

DIY shorts disaster. Watching Charlie St.Cloud. Mini sales shopping Haul. Rabbit ring.
He loves me/he loves me not necklace. Flowers from the boy. Tea Time. New pink dress.
Tried new eye make up and hair style. My view. She Said Beauty Box. The Grape and Olive tower.
Waiting for new tyres in my car. Jelly baby cocktail! My favourite aisle in B&Q. New bag.

Just a quick Instagram post, I've got work soon (I'm closing :( ) and tomorrow I should either be going to Bristol Zoo or ice skating depending on the weather, and if I remember my rail card which last time I did not! I've already posted about the DIY disasters here, and my mini sales shopping haul here, but I'm still including them in my Week in Instagram post. Do you find it hard to represent what you've actually done over the week? I think I take a lot of photos, but then sometimes I think I don't take nearly enough, or forget to. Oh well .

I actually had a nice four days off work, no holidays or anything it just worked out that way so I've spent the time relaxing and doing fun things, or things that I've needed to done. I've had a few film nights with my boyfriend (watching Charlie St.Cloud, not usually a fan of Zac Efron but wow I kinda love him in this) going for walks by the marina, beach (it rained), having cocktails etc. Or I've been practising hair and make up styles from The Beauty Department, lots of fun, been buying pretty new things, getting my tyres done finally and going to B&Q and walking down my favourite aisle, with all the lights. The weathers been mostly sucky so I've had lots of tea whilst watching Lost, and see the odd patch of sunlight occasionally. I've also seen my friends but didn't take any pictures but had a few catch up drinks, where we're all poor and buy the refillable ones from The Cockle Shell! So all in all, a nice quiet week, but I think I need next week to be a bit busier!

P.s hope you all have a lucky Friday the 13th! And don't forget to enter my giveaway, only two days left!

DIY Disasters

Oh my days I am having some problems with spray paint! I thought it would be easy, turns out its not! I bought some spray paint off ebay thinking I could do some American type shorts, plain stars and Union jack shorts but there were lots of problems. With the cans, the problem was that the second time I went to use them above, the blue ran out! That's how much I got on the shorts, it's ridiculous! I had used them on the shorts below (and a bit on paper to keep the pressure even) but that is such a stupid small amount for almost £7! Now the shorts are kinda ruined unless I find some fabric paint as dyeing them with dylon wash dye won't really work. I definitely wouldn't recommend the sprays I linked to! I know they're meant for kids but I thought I'd at least get a few goes out of them. I'm too scared to use the red in case that runs out too since I used more of that the first time. And I spent ages cutting out stars and making sure none of the spray would go where I wouldn't because of the disaster below, and it was all for nothing.

As for the pair above, that was my own fault. I used cardboard for the stars which worked perfectly, and for the stripes I just used clear tape. But my table was on a bit of a slant, and the red paint was really runny and so my stripes were aweful, and barely there and such a mess. So I decided to just spray the whole half of it red and maybe try to work it out later (I haven't touched them since though), and the red bled through to the back of the shorts since it ran so much, and that's why the first photo there was cardboard everywhere! Sigh.  They look okay from the front, but the back has a small patch and the sides over the seam. Anyway, I thought I'd share a few of my DIY disasters with DIYing shorts, as I seem to can't get these right!

I'd also like to say thanks to all my new followers, I now have 20! I know its such a small number compared to other blogs, but to me it feels like loads, so thanks for following me! :) Also, as another thanks don't forget to enter my giveaway. Only five people have entered so the odds for winning are really high! And on another note, I'm slowly catching up with blog reading and general internet life, it's taking forever! Every time I think I've nearly caught up on my blog reading, there's a whole new batch of them to read! Does anyone else have that problem?

Boots: Face and Hair Masks

Over the past few months I've started getting into face masks, and recently into hair masks. I love using face masks (my favourite being from Lush) but decided to try these little sachets from Boots. As you all probably know, Boots do 3-for-2 deals all the time, and I snagged these up but they only cost about £1 each. They also have another face mask in strawberry but I didn't get it as I mainly wanted the hair masks and because of the 3-for-2 thing. I will get it eventually.

With the face mask, I never use the whole of one up in a sachet as half of it will cover my face just fine and make it last longer. I've used it twice now and it's lovely. It's made up of Rosemary and Witch Hazel. I've always known witch hazel's meant to be good for the skin, but never really thought about rosemary. It obviously smells nice, and it's a thick paste which spreads evenly across your face. I left it on for a bit longer than five minutes, and it was dry and easy to wash off leaving my skin feeling lovely and soft. I don't know if it's doing anything special for my skin compared to other masks though, but I enjoy using them and find my skin does look better whenever I use them, I just have terrible skin in general anyway.

With the hair masks, well they weren't both hair masks but I'm calling them that, they both made my hair feel better. I'm trying to take better care of my hair lately, as eventually I want to donate it. It's long enough to cover my breasts if I want to go all Lady Godiva, which I won't! I used to dye it all the time since I was about 12 or 13, so that's nearly ten years I've been dying it! Okay so I wasn't bleaching it all the time, but since I've stopped it does feel and look better, and now I'm using these hair masks to help it feel even softer. I also don't straighten it much anymore, and only half dry my hair with the hair dryer.

The samphire & Sea Minerals Hydrating hair mask, and Mango & Papaya Hi-Shine conditioner both made my hair feel super soft after using them! And also a little bit shinier. I didn't use them both at the same time though, I was scared of using too much on my hair. I've adopted the less is more with my hair shampoo, but lather the ends of it in conditioner and didn't want to use anything else. Unlike the face mask, I used all of these sachets up in one go, since my hair is so long, but could probably half them if my hair was shoulder length. It really does work on my hair though, for some strange reason (probably because I use to dye it?) the hair by the nape of my neck is coarser than the rest of my hair and when shorter it has more of a kink to it, and these products really helped soften it, I can't stop running my hands through my hair!

So if you fancy having little mini spa days for cheap, pop into Boots and get these. They're fun to try out and I might get them every now and then, but will probably invest in products that have a few goes in them in the long run rather than buying little sachets all the time. And if you would like some for free, they're also part of my giveaway, check it out!

Sale goodies (and some other nice stuff too)

I kinda sorta accidentally went on a mini sales shopping spree the other day after work. You see I'm trying to save money for Hen do weekends away, car stuff and to visit my boyfriend when he moves to Portugal in September, so I've not been spending that much lately, but I couldn't resist everything above! Okay so the Aztec bag from H&M wasn't from a sale or anything, but it's gorgeous and I used a voucher so only spent £2 on it!

So the point of this post is to say there are some really good deals on! In Boots, they're still doing 3 for 2 on certain products, and Bourjois Paris are giving away a free pair of sunglasses plus the cute case if you buy three items! But technically you're only paying for two! It's awesome, I love the glasses and the bag, and need some new blusher, wanted a smokey eyes kit in black (I've been using brown a lot lately) and the middle eyeshadow is sparkly and pretty and I can wear it in the day too. 

Things that also weren't on sale, was a cheapy concealer from natural collection, it does it's job and two dual nail polish packs and the blue from H&M (I couldn't decide on the colours so got both, gold and pink with the glitters, and the blue was so pretty). I love H&M make up stuff, it's inexpensive, good value and has cute packaging, what more can a girl want?

I popped into Outfits too, and headed over to the Dorothy Perkins department where I bought the bow and the sandals. I'd wanted the bow for awhile, but omg the sandals! I got them for £5! And kinda want to go back and buy them in more colours, they are so comfy! I know I can't wear them till it's warm but I'm willing to wait! I also bought a 'He loves me/He loves me not' necklace, it's really sweet and reminds me of when you're younger and do that with flower petals, or use a pendant, did anyone else do that? Or just me and my friends? I love tacky jewellery and so I also got those rings! My ring collection is slowly building up, and most of it is made up of animals! I have a panda ring, rabbit ear ring, mouse ring, then I bought this set, with a rabbit, frog, horse and fox! Can't wait to try them out, they're all different sizes though and a bit small. But they fit better than the medium/large ones so I got them and can wear some on my pinky. 

So yeah, I really love everything, but now I need to be more careful about my spending habits, and no more shopping spree's for awhile! But I think it's worth a look to go into Outfit because they have a great sale on. I didn't check the clothes 'cause I want to loose some weight and get fit first, but there were so many great deals going on with the accessories. I wanted to buy so much more, and the prices are crazy cheap. Most of the jewellery I liked was between £1-4 and it wasn't just the old ugly stuff that nobody buys! So go in but beware, you will spend loads of money!

Hope everyone has a lovely weekend, I'm working all weekend but work was dead tonight so somehow I'm hoping no one will want to watch anything over the weekend! And you can still enter my giveaway here. I forgot to add it's open internationally, so I'll edit that now too!

My life in Instagram

I cut my fringe to short so clipped it back. My boyfriend got a star wars xbox kinect and I've played it loads.  Had my first ever wedding invite! Had a chocolate Sundae in Verdi's.
My friends dog shortly before he died :( I won Lucy's giveaway! I tried doing Americana shorts and failed. Three men in a boat in Mumbles.
Lots of dessert in Verdi's. Painted my nails red from Lucy's giveaway. My outfit whilst Castle exploring. Castell Coch.
Starry ceiling in Castell Coch. Stained glass in Castell Coch. Caerphilly Castell. Snapshot of my giveaway.
Mini make up shopping haul. I made gingerbread men. I went Paintball with work. My book arrived, I've been reading this series for years!

So it's actually been awhile since I did an Instagram diary like post, and this has been over the past few weeks. I went to Mumbles a few times which was nice when the sun popped out for like a day or two, I love going to Verdi's, the ice cream is always so yummy. I had a nice catch up with some uni friends and got a wedding invite off one of them, who I'm also planning a baby shower for!

I tried DIYing some shorts but it didn't work out, so I'll have to try again the next dry, sunny day that we have since I do them outside, and there's some photos of things I've bought/won/will be giving away. I went over my friends the other day and took this photo of her dog Sioni, I love him but sadly he died the next day so it's kinda bittersweet this last photo of him, but wasn't he cute?

I also went Castle exploring with my boyfriend, he's really sweet. He's thought up all of these activities we can do before he leaves for Portugal in September, and wrote them in different cards. Then each time we do an activity, he'll give me another three cards to pick from, like in a TV show! Next on the list should be a trip to Bristol Zoo, but we can only go on Saturdays as he works weekdays, but I tend to work weekends and can't book another one off till three weeks! Insane! We went to Castell Coch and Caerphilly Castell (my spelling may be wrong on the last one) and it was fun. I took loads of pictures and learnt a lot about Lord Bute who restored these castles plus Cardiff Castle. 

I also went Paintballing with work on Monday which was so much fun! Despite the fact that it was raining, I got covered in mud, bruised and these random four mean guys played with us. They cheated SO much it drove the rest of us mad as it was meant to be a group booking of just us. Oh well. I had to go to work straight after though for a close and I was SO tired, and only just had enough time to shower and eat food, and I have a weird cut bruise on my arm when I surrendered! I got hit twice, and each time had my hands and gun up and walked to the dead zone, and each time I got shot THREE times! When you're not meant to get shot at, so I was fuming! In the end if I got hit or ran out of paintballs I stayed where I was because it was ridiculous how much the other team cheated! Anyway I'm ranting to much, oops, but it was fun. 

And lastly I've been reading that book. It's the latest in the Stravaganza series by Mary Hoffman which I've been reading since I was like 13 and they come out every two years or so I'm happy it's finally come out, and I need something new to read. I haven't read anything since The Hunger Games so my goal of reading more slipped. Speaking of The Hunger Games, I've made all three of my brothers read it, and my friends, and they've made their girlfriends read etc, its fun! My youngest brother's just starting the third book which makes me happy since he never reads anything and the rest of us are bookworms. We're planning a Hunger Games film night when the DVD comes out, which is nice. I never really do anything with all my brothers, and we never really all love the same thing, at most three of us will like something but one won't so it's pretty cool. And if you haven't read them yet, then you should! :P

P.S Sorry for this very random post and I am slowly catching up with blog reading, but every blog I go on has about four posts on average so it's taking awhile.

P.P.S Don't forget to enter my first bloggiversary giveaway!

P.P.P.S! Happy fourth of July American readers!

Hearts

Sorry for the blurryness of the photo above, not the best picture, or illustration but I find it fun to do. I'm wearing a fake leather jacket from Primark and a pint heart dress from H&M. I love it! The cut of it is so flattering especially on girls with bigger busts, and it feels really dainty and feminim but I added the jacket to toughen it up a bit. I would have got it in blue but they didn't have my size and I'm kinda glad I didn't since I've been on a peach/coral/pink kick lately. Does anyone else do that? Tend to dress in certain colours for awhile? Or buy certain colours? I always go through phases. Anyway, I wore this outfit when I went to London to see my friend, we just went to a local pub after going to Thorpe Park. I also wore my creepers, and drew them in but you couldn't see them after editing, which is mainly Instagram. I know it's not the best but I like using it for these pictures.

P.S! Don't forget to enter my bloggiversary giveaway! It's open till the 15th of July! :)

1st year Bloggiversary Giveaway!

UPDATE! THE GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED!

Today is my blogs first birthday! Or my first bloggiversary if you will! Lisamello (the blog, not me) is now one years old, and it feels like I just started my blog the other day. I've only recently started getting into it, if you know what I mean, by trying to blog consistently, have features, customise the layout and branch out into reading more blogs and commenting more over the last few months. It's been fun and I'm still not where I want to be with the blog as it's a WIP, but I have a few ideas up in this head of mine for it which I want to do within the next year. I'm hoping I'll still have this blog  next year as I used to change blogs ALL the time and never really stuck them out. My longest blog was for two years, but I only updated it every now and then, so this blog is the longest I've frequently updated and I want to stick with it.

Anyway! I really love entering giveaways, and winning them (Just the one, but it was so nice!) and creating parcels full of presents for Christmas, birthdays or blog swaps! So I decided ages ago that I'd do a giveaway for my bloggiversary, which is today! (Sorry for all the exclamation marks, I'm an exciteable person!!) It's not much but its a few little things that I personally like, or would like! And its just to say thanks for reading my blog!

You can win a face mask, hair mask and conditioner from Boots, a Barry M Gold Foil Effects Nail Varnish, a bird necklace and some lovebird earrings.

I love the products from Boots, they smell lovely, haven't tried this polish before but love the brand and I picked gold to match the jewellery, I have that necklace, it looks a bit like a Hummingbird but without the long beak, and it has a really long chain which I put a knot in mine, so you can wear it at any length really, and those earrings are cute, and remind me that I need to re-pierce my ears! As I like to 'Theme' my gifts sometimes, it's a somewhat gold bird theme, with hair stuff added in! I know, not very themey, but the jewellery is to do with birds and the nail varnish matches the jewellery!

All you have to do to win is be a follower of my blog via GFC and leave a comment with your email address! Simples! The giveaway will end on the 15th of July at Midnight and I'll hopefully be able to post it within the week after it.

And thanks for reading! :)

UPDATE: It's open internationally too! :) And I'll reply to the comments after its finished so its easier to keep track of.