What I Ate Wednesday (30thApril14)

Hello everyone and welcome to today's What I Ate Wednesday brought to you from that's right folks, bed. Because I'm getting old now and I'm without a doubt in bed before half 8. It's depressing really. 

Today was another day off from work (I always seem to have Wednesdays off!) so food wasn't the most inventive as I'm a tad lazy when it comes to making stuff.

 Breakfast today was old faithful, my Fuel your 10K hours fruit and nut granola. I love this stuff so much. I have had a few weeks away from it having different types of granola and mistakenly one week picked up muesli, (bad move) but this is still the best. I had it with some strawberries and blueberries. Man I miss red currants.

Um… I missed lunch? Well the photograph anyways.. Sorry! I had chicken tikka subway and an oatmeal raisin cookie after a particularly horrible chest and arms session at the gym. But to make up for the lack of picture, here;

Have a hamster eating a hamster sized burrito!

Dinner on the other hand I do have a picture of! Tonight was sweet potato chips (addicted) with cajun pork loin steaks and mixed veg. Oh and some barbecue sauce, can't forget that. This was very yummy. Don't have pork enough if I'm honest!

Pudding was a glass of SunnyD (because yes I'm 20, but I will ALWAYS love it) and a weird yoghurt I bought in Tesco yesterday along with a little Jennifer Lawrence haul (American Hustle and both Hunger Games). It was a cadburys cherry cola fizz yoghurt.. had little cherry fizzy balls and cola cubes with some chocolate. So weird but pretty good!

I also had a banana and a bit of Easter egg for a snack when I first came up to bed. 

What did you all eat today? Feel free to post below! 

xo.

Just like Clockwork

Today's post is about a lovely little independent seller I've recently found on Etsy.com. 

I love Etsy, so many unique and original sellers, so many different things to buy… which for someone with an online shopping problem, isn't always a good thing.

Yes, Etsy has those sellers where you think; 'ummm WTF is that?' but there are times when you come across a truly great seller. My Clockwork Castle is one of them. A couple weeks back she was advertising about a lucky dip of two items for only £5 from her clearance section. I obviously took advantage of this and snapped up the last lucky dip!

Here's what I got! I bought it on the Sunday and received it by the Wednesday, so pretty fast shipping for only £1.50. I am pretty pleased that what I got is a little set, just makes it even more worth the money. I'm currently wearing the necklace now, and have been for most of the week, it's an amazing quality too, none of this marking your neck from cheap chains stuff, which I've had a problem with before from certain Etsy sellers. 

All in all, I am extremely happy with my purchase, who knew you could get your new favourite piece of jewellery for a fiver? She also has other amazing pieces, I've got my eye on the steampunk key necklace. Check out her pages here:

Instagram - http://instagram.com/myclockworkcastle

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/myclockworkcastle

Etsy - https://www.etsy.com/shop/MyClockworkCastle

Happy Monday everyone! xo.

Birchbox April 2014

Beauty box time! I've been toying around with Love me beauty box lately, if any of you have had it, let me know how it is! 

This month was the 'good enough to eat' box.

This is the boxes contents this month, not a bad haul really! 

I have an obsession with lip colouring at the moment, so this one was a definite yes for me! It's so cute as well, I love the vintage country vibe of it. I got the apple 'pie' flavour and it's a perfect shade for my lips. Just dark enough to show but light enough to not make my face look as pale as some reds can. It's pretty long lasting too!

This was the actual part of the 'Good Enough to Eat' box that you could in fact eat! The spoilers showed a vanilla and coconut flavour, but most people were receiving fiery Worcestershire sauce flavour, so I'm not going to complain. These were my snack last week whilst watching Dexter (no spoilers, I'm only on season 3!) and were pretty yummy! At 39 calories a bag, you can't go wrong either.

Another foodie type product we received was the Yes to cucumber soothing facial towelletes. We received the travel sized pack, which is ten wipes. They're pretty nice, quite wet, which I find a good thing. Sometimes I get wipes that are so dry, they don't work at all! They get make up off quite well too, and they're great for sensitive skin.

Ahhhhh!!!! More body lotion!! I'm sick of it. If you like body lotion, this Laura Mercier bottle would be a great gift, it smelled lovely and had a real creamy texture that makes your skin very soft. I didn't use it more than the once, and ended up giving it to my nan at the weekend, along with the rest of my body lotion hoard I do not use.

We got to choose this product! There was a choice of four, and I do wish I'd gone for the green, but this ones pretty nice for a metallic nude colour. My only problem was that mine wasn't done up tight enough and had leaked all down the bottle when I opened it, but still. 

I also got another pencil eyeliner, which I probably won't use all too often as pencil liners tend to make me feel like I've gotten stuff in my eyes, plus they don't last long for me. 

Overall, I'm pleased with the box, except for the leaky varnish and the body lotion. Other people got stuff like shampoo, so I'd have preferred that, but hey ho, what you gonna do. I'll stick with Birchbox for now, but only if I stop getting body lotions!! 

xo. 

What I ate Wednesday!

It's that time again! The day where the blogging world gets to nose at what everyone else has had for lunch :) aka one of my favourite posts of the week.. such a right foodie.

Ahh breakfast, my favourite meal of the day! Today I had my usual cinnamon porridge with a dollop of nutella, just as an experiment, couldn't really taste it but to be honest if I could I probably would have just wanted to take a spoon to the tub and eat the whole lot. I am in love. I had less fruit and more nuts in it today, so it actually does look like breakfast! 

I seem to be eating in bowls today.. It was my day off today, so I spent up til about 2pm doing uni work before I realised it was past lunch time! This was actually supposed to be my lunch for work yesterday, but it wouldn't fit in my bag with my gym stuff so I left it in the fridge and couldn't be bothered to make anything else today. Was just a simple chicken salad with vinaigrette and parmesan.

um yeah.. so this isn't the only chocolate I had today, I've had a pretty student-ish day today, just picking at things whilst studying and even I'd photographed every bit of easter egg I'd had today there'd be way too many. This is an almond ripple and a vanilla crisp cup from mine and my mums chocolates from my nan :)

To stick with my studenty day, I had a quick and easy spaghetti bolognese. I had it with normal bolognese sauce and just added some minced garlic and mixed herbs. Haven't had it in ages so it's all good :).

Pudding, which I am actually currently eating, was a banana and a maple and pecan plait with a glass of apple juice. I love pecans at the moment, but they're so expensive to buy on their own so I take them in whatever I can get. Plus, who doesn't love a pastry now and then?

How was everyone's Easter? I hope you were spoiled and had a great time. Feel free to link your WIAW's below! 

xo.

The bikini wish list.

So Summer is not far away, especially with this predicted heatwave we're supposed to get. Many of you, like me will be lucky enough to be jetting off for a week or two and obviously you're going to need those all important bikinis. And even if you're not going on holiday this year, we all like a bit of back garden sunbathing don't we?

I've been scouring the internet for bikinis and swimwear to buy, and there are so many nice ones! Here are a few of my favourites.

Forever 21 crocheted bikini bottoms £10.65 top £12.15 // Forever 21 £3.90 top and bottoms 

I don't usually shop at Forever 21, mainly because I just don't have one anywhere near me, which is a  shame. Triangle shaped bikinis are my favourite and these two are pretty cheap! This second one also comes in about 8 different colours, so if you're shopping on a budget, this could be the one for you.

Boohoo lasercut frill bikini £18 // Boohoo Colour-block swimsuit £20

Now, I am primarily a bikini girl. I don't know why, I just don't really like swimsuits, bit like I hate bodysuits I guess. But there's something about this one! I'm definitely adding it to my holiday wish list. 

Missguided Aztec bikini £23.99 // Missguided Tie-dye bikini £19.99

I always love a bit of Missguided. If you're a bit conscious of your sides, this first one is a bit of a longline bikini and would make you feel a bit more comfy! I also love the colour of this second one, it's just so bright and out there, definitely one to get you noticed on the beach.

Asos ditsy bikini top£10.99 // Asos ditsy bikni bottoms £10.99  Asos stripe bikini £60

This first one is actually NewLook at Asos and is by my favourite New Look designer - Miss Kelly Brook. It just looks so fitted and comfy and supportive, which is unusual for quite a lot of bikinis nowadays. There's always that fear of falling out! The second bikini also looks quite supportive, although £60 is a bit steep for me.

Traingl mint bikini $89 

Triangl is so hot right now. I've seen so many bloggers featuring them! They look so so nice, plus it's in mint green, which is my go to shade at the moment. I'd love to get one, I just don't think I can justify spending that much on a bikini! Maybe one day.. 

Are you all set for your holidays? What bikinis are you loving right now?

Let me know below :)

Don't forget, if you're a member of UNIDAYS then you can get a student discount on most of the products in this post!

xo. 

What I Ate Wednesday

Ahh another Wednesday, another food blog! 

I must say, although I love fashion and beauty to the ends of the earth, I do love writing these food blogs! I spend so long perusing the internet for recipes and pictures of food on Pinterest.. I think I may have a problem. Now before you think I was on a huge fruit craze today, I ate nothing but sweets and burgers and chips yesterday so I kinda had to be good! Anyways here's my food for today :)

Breakfast was, despite the misleading photograph, porridge! I have the original quaker oats wholegrain porridge which I add cinnamon too. I then had a few handfuls of berries, some nuts and a pinch from my seed mix. It's so so yummy! I actually weirdly now look most forward to breakfast, which come 2 years ago I never even used to eat, let alone class it as my favourite meal of the day!

Lunch was a tuna salad wrap, I did mix this with a tiny bit of mayo, but I've come to the conclusion I'm just really not a fan of it anymore! I also had a bowl of fruit as you can see. I have a very very weird obsession with bananas. I like crave them constantly, and I have no idea why! (Before any of my friends suggest, no I'm definitely not pregnant again! I used to crave things I hated while I was pregnant with Tayla, like pickle sandwiches.) Either way, I suppose it's better than me craving so much chocolate. Damn my sweet tooth.

For a little pre-gym snack I had some earl grey tea (of course) and a tiny bit of my chocolate heart I got for Mother's day. I've recently decided I need to get back into reading more often, I'm a huge geek so I read quite a lot but I tend to leave big breaks in between reading books so I've started this new series! Which I aim to finish before I go on holiday in June. It's only 3 (biggish) books, I can do it :).

 Dinner was old faithful, my lovely stir fry. Today's was beef with Chinese Bbq sauce, which I must say is definitely my favourite, I could have eaten this twice quite easily. 

Dessert today was supposed to be a crumble.. I layered some peach slices at the bottom of the ramekin and then added some raspberries and strawberries then a bit of granola mixed with golden syrup. It um, yeah wasn't cooked completely when I took it out of the oven after 7 minutes.. in my defence, my oven usually cooks things at warp speed. Even though it was just warmed through, was pretty tasty for a failed dessert! 

I'm also probably going to have one of those Ritz chocolate's when I go upstairs, they were on offer in Tesco so it would have been rude not to!

What did you eat today? Feel free to leave your links below!

xo.

Anatomicals face mask time!

I have mentioned before, my skin has issues. It's always dry then it's fine, then it gets spotty and it's literally unhappy three weeks out of four. I'm always trying new face masks, I don't know if they actually work, but I always feel better after a long soak in the bath with a face mask on. 

This time I've tried the Anatomicals range.

My face has been pretty oily lately, which is weird for me, as it's not usually the oiliest. But I thought that this 'Grease isn't the word' mattifying face mask would be good! It smells pretty good, and you get a lot in the packet, and considering they were about £1 from Asda, that's more than worth it!

The only problem is, this;

You end up looking like you've just tried your hand at being Shrek. It does come off pretty easily, just need a bit of a scrub. It does make your face quite soft and it did stop it from feeling greasy, so if greasy skin is what you suffer with, then I'd recommend this!

I can't resist a bit of chocolate. Whether it's to eat, in a face mask or whatever. I just love chocolate. This is supposed to be an anti-stress mask, and to be honest, if sitting there inhaling chocolate doesn't de-stress you, I don't know what will! Although.. you may end up feeling pretty hungry.

Once again, there's loads in the packet so you end up covered in the stuff. And it did kind of make my bath water a murky brown sort of colour, but it doesn't stain, so don't worry. It does actually look like you've smeared chocolate mousse on your face, but I'm guessing it unfortunately doesn't taste like it.. It's a bit like the chocolate face mask from Lush if I'm honest, but for like 5 times less the price. 

Again, my face did feel soft, but I don't know whether it's because I'm having a bit of a spotty week, but it did feel a bit stingy when I first put it on.. It was fine after that though, probably just my skin being weird!

Anyone else found any good face masks lately?

xo.

Fitness Friday!

If you're one of those people who don't really like reading about fitness and such and prefer my fashion posts, that's cool, you don't have to read, but for those of you who don't mind, read ahead! :)

Since January I've been going to the gym, trying to eat healthy and generally been trying to have an all around better lifestyle. I did actually start this healthy kick in order to slim down and tone up for my holiday in June, but I actually love exercising! I never ever thought I'd say that. I mean, I'm a girl who loves to sit on her ass munching an entire pick and mix and binge watching a TV series. But I do love exercise!

Well, when I say I love exercise, I mean I love the gym. I know you get those people who are literally addicted to going and go everyday and then you get those people, guys mostly who like only train their arms and end up looking like lightbulbs, but there are those normal people who just go in, do their workout and go home and enjoy an everyday life! 

I've not actually lost any weight as such since January, but I actually got banned from weighing myself by my trainer and I ended up not caring anymore. I haven't actually measured myself in a few weeks, but last time I did I'd lost at least half an inch from everywhere and lost an inch around my bum! So trust me when I say; The scales do not matter!! You could be heavier than when you started working out and actually look and feel healthier and thinner (if that's what you're going for), it's muscle weight girls!

Now I know a lot and I mean a LOT of women seem to think if they go to the gym and start lifting weights they'll end up looking like a bodybuilder, but that's so wrong! You just tone up, I mean nobody really wants bingo wings now do they? 

Since I started I've actually gotten a hell of a lot stronger and I didn't even realise. I, as I've mentioned do have a personal trainer who I see once a week, and he's helped me so much and I don't think I'd feel as good without him, but if you can't afford one, that's fine. You just have to be motivated. If you're motivated you can do anything you set your mind to! 

In January, 10kg squats were killing me and I'm now up to 30kg easily, which, I might add doesn't sound like much, but it's half my body weight which impresses me quite a bit! Squats are my favourite exercise mine you. Also, when I started the gym I was used to only my baby (and I mean baby, Tayla often tries to run off with them) 1kg hand weights that really don't do anything. I'm now up to about 15-25kg with my upper body, depending on the exercise, but I have quite weak arms to be honest so that doesn't bother me. 

Of course, you can't just exercise alone and expect to see a difference you do unfortunately have to eat healthily. That doesn't mean that you have to wake up and eat a lettuce leaf, or live solely on vegetables. There are plenty of amazing recipes that are so healthy and taste so so good! Plus, we all deserve a cheat day, I'm sat writing this after a chippy and some chocolate. See? It's fine to eat what you want every now and then! 

My chocolate raspberry lava cake - only 178 calories! 

If you've always wanted to start the gym, and have been intimidated, or have no idea what to do, just try it. Trust me, I was petrified, I was googling all around to try and find out Gym Etiquette and what exercises to do. And to be honest, I would recommend a personal trainer, even just for your first session, although most gyms offer an induction service where you can get a personal one on one session with an instructor and they'll write up a personal plan for you. I know it looks daunting, but it's not as scary as you think, just give it a go, you might love it! 

I haven't posted any personal pictures of myself, purely because I'm writing this post on a whim and I am having a very lazy day and have not showered.. we all have pyjama days now and then! :) If people like the post, I'll try and pluck up the courage to post some progress pics next time. 

Hope you enjoyed my little fitness update, I enjoyed sharing it with you and if you'd like to read more then let me know! 

Don't forget to follow me on Instagram for all things fitness, I'm always posting my food and stuff on there!

Have a great weekend everyone! 

xo.

P.s. As a side note, I'm not trying to get you to go to the gym, I'm not saying you need to, you're all amazing just the way you are and if you are happy in your own skin that's amazing, just sharing my opinions and advice for anyone looking for it! x.o.