Confessions From a Style Blogger #1 ( & Passion4Fashion Linkup)

 I wanted to start a fun series of confessions. Honest little anecdotes from me that are really all about keeping it  real. In the social media led world we are so easily sucked in  the land of forever wanting .. Wanting to be thinner, richer, have a bigger house, have a better wardrobe, to portray that perfect life.
This is me calling perfection out. I am so far removed from perfection it is actually hilarious.
I am also so not a typical Style blogger it is also absolutely ridiculous, take last week, i fell over walking my dogs and actually bruised my arse. I had to walk back to my house with a soaking wet bum and walking like i'd had an accident in the underwear department. I looked like an incontinent crazy person.
So this I hope will be a glorious warts and all post, proving its still great to be you in a world where we are constantly bombarded with perfection.

1. I haven't worn mascara in about a week.. partly because i can't be bothered to take it off at night time, partly because i'm enjyoing the fresher faced look.

2. I've returned to my brunette ways and i'm really pleased! My husband and kids however are gutted i lost my super hero streak... major loss on the cool mum points. 

3. I'm 10lbs heavier than this time last year but i have absolutely no inclination to do anything about it.  I'm enjoying healthy foods, and i love walking my dogs but i just really don't want to diet or exercise in a gym.. so i'm not going to.

4. I've ditched the bra.. I know, possible TMI, but honestly i've never felt so liberated. See, here's the thing, I have tiny boobs and for years and years i've covered those puppies in padding just to give me more shape, to conform, to hide them away and to look socially acceptable. But i am done with it. This is actually a topic I'm going to go in to more next week, but yeh at 32 i'm finally accepting my body and actually being ok with it!

5. I've been fake tanning with one of those gradual build up tanners, I'm kinda liking it but i'm also terrible at it, what you can't see in these photos is the mahoosive streak down the back of one leg.. lush.

6. I took these pics last night after wearing this outfit to the vets. I was having a "I have nothing to wear in this gorgeous hot weather" moment so just threw this on. Its really comfy on and a delight to wear, just so easy, but once at the vets i had the comment of "Oh, you look nice, where are you off to dressed like that?" Blatantly all i was doing was sitting in the vets in a nice frock. I actually lied and said "Oh just out for dinner" instead of saying " This is just how i dress to go to my dogs vet appointment.. I'm sorry, is this not appropriate?"

And finally

7. I bought these shoes and i really love them, for a day to evening shoe, or even a day to vet appointment shoe they're great. However the first few times of wearing they rubbed my big toes so much i got home kicked one off which such vigour it flew off my foot and hit the dog (not the reason the dog was at the vets btw.. she was fine) I since started using some foot lube (i shit you not) and its really helped wear these bad boys in.

Outfit Details
Similar Black dress
Red Mules or These are Lovely

Newbridge Silver Jewellery Amy Collection
Similar Clutch

So tell me, do you have anything to confess?

An InLinkz Link-up

How Much Does Your Daily Makeup Cost?

How much is your daily face worth? Interesting question right? How much do we spend on our daily makeup products? I read this article in Look magazine a week ago and i was intrigued to see how much my daily face of makeup is worth.
Makeup to me is one of lifes little pleasures. I actually enjoy wearing it (the majority of the time, on the days i can't be bothered i simply dont), it makes me feel great, not in a "I need makeup to live" type way, but more in a " i am in control of how i look today" type way. Is that weird? It is isn't it.
I'm ok with that.

Not only do i love finding great product i also love the actual action of applying makeup, I would say maybe i missed my calling in life and should have been an MUA to the stars, but honestly i'm actually crap at it... really not good. I have the tried and tested look for my own face, which has taken me years to perfect, and even then its ok at best.
However, i enjoy the action of actually applying makeup. When i worked in an office environment and had myself and the kids to get ready of a morning, i would get up half an hour earlier, get a coffee and grab my makeup and take to the mirror. With my face on all i had to do was chuck my uniform on at the last minute. It gave me the sense of being ready for the world.
Now i work from home i go makeup free more days, which makes me love donning my makeup even more when i do do it.

So the matter in hand.. How much is my daily face of makeup worth? I am genuinely intrigued.
Lets find out shall we?

This is what i wear on my face whenever i wear makeup. I'm not overly adventurous, i will change the eye-shadow occasionally but generally keep it to a black eye liner then i go all in with the lipstick, usually bold red or pink. And the rest is for full face and ready to go!

Top Row Left to right

W7 Bronzer  £5.95

W7 Blush £6.95

Kiko Eyeshadow £5.95

Sleek Compact Powder £7.00

Bottom Row Left to Right

Embryolisse CC Cream £29.99

W7 Porefection £6.95

Collection Concealer £4.99

Elf Undereye Highlighter £4.50

W7 Eyeliner £4.95

W7 Mascara £4.95

W7 Lipstick £4.95

Total cost: £87.13

Amazing.. I would never have guessed that, less than £100 so that's pretty good and of course cost per wear brings each item down to pennies, but its amazing how much our daily face of product is worth and what us ladies spend our money on isn't it (this doesn't even include beauty prep items!).

I have to admit, a lot of these pieces are excellent value (W7 cosmetics in particular are amazing value, the mascara is the best i've ever used including all the designer ones i've tried over the many mascara wearing years!) so i feel pretty good about my daily face products.

Have you ever totalled your daily face up? Id love to know yours!

The Perfect Little Red Dress (& #Passion4Fashion Linkup)

Summer made an appearance here in the welsh hills this week and what a mood changer its been! I've been waking up to glorious rays of sunshine streaming through and warmth to heat you through. We have this weather so rarely here in the UK so i feel we all lap up every second when it does show up. And not only do we lap up every second, but we also get to wear some summer fashion finally!

I have so many summer dresses but this one from Bows Boutique has become an instant winner on the favourite dress front. It's stylish on-trend bardot cut fits perfectly and doesn't do the pesky crawling up the arms thing, it just sits,skims and hangs perfectly. Perfect for those summer bbq's and parties as it skims the tummy area without adding lots of voluminous fabric.

Dress perfection!

I absolutely love wearing this dress, i can see it working for an evening meal as much as on the beach with sandals, which makes this perfect for holidays as well as stay-cations and days at home.

Now all i need is for the sunshine to stick around a while so i can get plenty of wear out of this beauty. Summer dressing is just so easy isn't it? Dress, shoes, done! 

What are you wearing to get in to the summer mood lately?

Outfit Details:
Dress: thanks to Bows Boutique
Wedges
Denim Jacket
Cream Bag
Red Tassel Earrings

Ps 10 points to anyone who spots my sunburn.. wear sunblock kids, let my crabstick impression be a lesson to all 😉

An InLinkz Link-up

May Love List

May has been a bit of a wash out of a month, I think.. its all a bit of a blur, but i distinctly remember rain and lots of it, but the forecast is saying sunshine for the next few days and i can not wait to see the old current bun once again. There are a few things i have loved this month but what i'm really looking forward to is getting out and about again once the nice weather appears (it came, and then it went sadly!), Plus next week is half term here with the kids and i have some exciting plans with Neo, so June could be quite a fun month!
Have you had a nice May so far? Are there any standout moments for you this month?

1.Fashion

This month I have been all about the maxi's.. maxi dresses and maxi skirts gimme gimme gimme. I think it's because for the in-between weather these still provide that bit of coverage but satisfy my mind on the whole "It's spring, get out of jeans already" front
I am loving this Dr Denim skirt i bought, so much so I wore it 2 days on the trot and could actually have worn it for the whole week. Skirt love, completely and utterly. Its just the perfect transition from jeans to skirt, plus its super versatile.

2.Eats

This month has been the same old same old on repeat it would seem. But i have been enjoying making big old pots of stews and minestrone. In particular the Deliciously Ella Sweet Potato and Chickpea stew is an absolute favourite in this house

3. Beauty

I've been wracking my brain as to if i've used anything new this month, then i remembered I did my whole base layer post and that would probably be my favourites right now, as getting the base right is so important for me and my crappy skin

4. Media

Struggling to get in to a good book at the moment. But I can't not mention Guardians of the Galaxy 2! To put some context here, as a family GOTG1 it is probably our most watched film. If you're ever a guest in our house for the evening and we're vegging out watching movies, our suggestion has always been GOTG. We have the soundtrack, Neo has a Peter Quill outfit and a toy Milano. We love it. It was fun, quirky sci-fi and just brilliantly written. We were SO excited to see GOTG 2 that we went the day it came out and waited for half an hour before the trailers even started so that we got good seat (yes, we are major geeks).
So was it good? Yes, it was.
Was it as good as 1? No.
Simply put, it just wasn't as good for me (or us as a family, we all actually agreed). I think where the first one had humour in the right places with side jokes and funny moments here and there it was all perfectly timed. I really feel like they went full comedy mode on this one and found some of the jokes didn't need to be in there. A lot of Drax's character traits had changed and he had suddenly become this constant joke cracking character and laughing a lot. I mean i get character development, but this seemed a lot in a really different direction to how he originally was. I enjoyed the Father story-line, i'm a big Kurt Russell fan, and his part was acted so well, really enjoyed seeing him on the screen again too. But it did feel like there was a lot of side stories going on, with Rocket, Nebula and of course Yondu, that took away from Peter Quill somewhat.

Overall an absolute must see, and i think maybe when it comes out on DVD and i watch it again, maybe i'll grow to love it a bit more, its just that when the first was so good, 2 had bog shoes to fill and it just didn't make it for me.  However, still a really enjoyable film and definitely worth a watch!

5. Life

We planted our vegetable garden about 6-8 weeks ago it is doing so so well. I am absolutely loving it and so is the husband. We spent about 5 hours potching and planting on Sunday together in the sun, chatting and talking. Not only is it satisfying to see the things we planted growing each week, but its lovely to spend time together and have a hobby we both enjoy. We've already learned so much and are making plans to extend the plot this autumn winter in preparation for Spring enabling us to plant more going forward. So far we have cucumbers, courgettes, tomatoes, spinach, beetroot, broad beans, onions, carrots, peas and potatoes.  I'm so excited to eat something that we grew from seed ourselves. I shall, of course, keep you posted. But yeh, majorly rewarding and enjoyable! Highly recommend, even if you only have some pots to plant, do it it! Watching your seeds grow is a brilliant feeling
(and this is coming from a previous serial plant killer!).

And thats it!  A quiet month, but none the less its flown by!

Looking forward to what June has in store.

What have you loved this month?
Let me know in the comments, i really love to hear about what you've been up to!