A Week In The Life #3

Hello my lovelies!

Hope that all your weeks have been going well. Its been quite a quiet one for me, in fact I did wonder whether I should be doing this post, because there isn't all that much to share!

Work has been uncharactertistically quieter this week (it's normally manic), so I've really been enjoying finishing the day with a fully crossed-off to do list and actually leaving on time.

We're still house hunting, and we saw a place we liked enough to put an offer on this week, but it ended badly as we lost out. And it was only by a couple of thousand pounds, which is really frustrating. The place badly needed updating and the decor was all orange pine and brown carpets, but we could have made it nice.

We knew the bidding was going to go high, but we stopped a couple of thousand below our maximum offer, just so that we could afford to replace the ancient boiler the place had, but alas, it wasn't to be.

I'm getting really frustrated with house hunting at the moment, nothing seems to be going our way and it feels like we'll never be able to move. I never suspected it would be this hard when we first put our place up for sale!

But on to brighter things...

Salad Days

Following one of my New Year's Goals, I've been doing a lot more exercise this year, and I'm so pleased with myself that I've kept it up. I've been hitting the gym and have started running home from work. Enjoying the benefits of having more energy and just generally feeling better in myself, I was astonished to find I'd actually put on weight.

I'm not sure really if its muscle gain, or just as result of me not watching what I'm eating because I feel like I'm doing a lot, but either way I'm not happy! So I've resolved to have a three week push on healthy eating and see if it does make a difference of not.

Generally, I eat fairly healthily at home, plenty of vegetables and we make everything from scratch, but at work my weakness is always running to the shop at lunch and making bad choices or giving to all the cake and biscuits that seem to be in constant circulation around my office!

So this week was the week of the salad! I made a chicken, avocado and chickpea salad for lunch which was very tasty and really did keep me full. I even made my own dressing using red wine vinegar, olive oil, half a tablespoon of honey and one of mustard. Now the sun's out a bit more its nice to have something green and fresh anyway.

Bare Faced Cheek

My sister in law tagged me on Facebook to do the 'no make-up selfie' for Cancer Research. Now I know there's been quite a lot of debate on the internet about people who don't think this is right for whatever reason, but its hard to disagree with something that's raised over £2 million for such a good cause. Ultimately, whatever you really think of it, that money will go towards finding a cure for a disease that blights the lives of so many people.

When Ella first tagged me, I must admit that I panicked a bit! It's one thing sharing 'before' shots on a make-up blog, but it feels like another to put them out on personal social networks. I did feel a bit insecure, because I think I'm one of those people who looks quite different without make-up and it makes me feel vulnerable. It's weird, because I don't mind going to the gym without make-up but somehow, drawing people's attention to my bare face felt daunting.

But its a fantastic cause and I was really glad to help in a small way.

My Sweet Valetin (o)

Image from Wendy's Look Book

The fantasy wish list of luxury items that I carry around with me in my head at all times, just got larger. Check this beauty of a bag out. It's from Valentino and its my dream bag. I love the clear plastic, I love the gold chain strap, I love the taupe leather edging, I love the minimalist lock, and I love, love, love the chunky pyramid studs.

I feel like I must own this, but my bank account strongly disagrees. What I need is for Toppers to do a rip-off version. If anyone sees anything similar on the high street, please let me know! This picture is from Wendy's Look Book, which is one my favourites of the 'big-time' bloggers that I follow. I'm such a Wendy stan, I literally heart everything she wears, and I've never seen her put a foot wrong.

This bag is sheer perfection. I didn't know where else to put it, so I've added it on to this post, but I might do a post recently on all the style inspiration I'm loving right now.

Make Up Mafia Catch Up

This weekend, I met up with two lovely ladies - Amanda from Amanda in a Teacup and Sally from Rainy Day Faces, who I met at the Midlands Blogger Meet, and we had coffee and a good catch up. It was great to see them both and have a good natter.

We started off at Divine, which is (usually) a nice, really chilled cafe in the Galleries of Justice. These are Nottingham's former law courts, but they're now a museum with actors strolling around in period costume. Divine does a mean chai latte and its usually quite quiet. But this time, two mice scampered out while we were mid-catch up! I don't really mind mice per se, but the thought of one scampering up my trouser leg wasn't very appealing, and it's not great in a cafe!

So we moved on to Wired, which is another great independent cafe-bar in the Creative Quater. When they brought Amanda's tea out, there was a little egg timer gadget to help you brew the perfect cup, which was so sweet. I had their white hot chocolate, which I'd been told was legendary and didn't disappoint, although being a chocoholic I would have added a few white chocolate buttons to it!

It's been so nice to make some new blogging friends, especially since most of friends live in other cities, so sometimes I don't get to see them as often as I'd like. Funnily enough, we found we're connected in some weird ways  - Amanda went to primary school with my husband and remembers his family, while Sally knew his cousins. Very small world. I had a lovely afternoon hanging out with the girls and talking about starting up the 'make-up mafia' in Nottingham -  so if you know any local bbloggers, get them to follow us!

Baby Face

On Saturday night, Seb and I were out for a meal with his family to celebrate his nana's birthday. I'm close to his lot and really enjoying spending time with them, so it was nice to all meet up. He has two sisters fairly close in age and their partners, so we used to all go out a fair bit, but since his older sister had our gorgeous niece and nephew, that's obviously been a bit rarer.

We had to choose somewhere child friendly, so we ended up at a place called The Goose. It had a soft play facility, so I was in there bouncing up and down with Annabel, my little niece. She's at such a lovely age now where you can start having conversations with her. After the ball bit, she wanted to sit on my lap while she ate her cake, which was so sweet. I also enjoyed having a good cuddle with my baby nephew, Jude. He was fascinated with my phone so I was showing him what we looked like on screen and snapped a selfie for him - doesn't he look surprised?

As an only child myself, its nice to have that sense of being in a family group that my in-laws provide me with. I'll always remember on his sister's hen weekend telling one of the girls that I was an only child, only for her to pipe up 'No you're not, you're a middle child now!'.

Minty Fresh

I'm not really much of a one for pastel anything. It's just not really my personality to go for things that are sweet -  I much prefer stuff with a bit of bite. But I was in Primark on my way to meet Sally and Amanda on Saturday (bad habit, 'popping in' to places on the way and getting swamped by massive queues), and coming down the escalator this dress was calling my name!

I think this mint green can be such a nice colour, and I liked the geometric embossing in the fabric.It's panelled so it looks as if the fit will be nice as well (haven't actually tried it on yet...) and it was only £13, even though I think it looks a lot more expensive due to the textured fabric.

My first thought was 'this is the perfect dress for being a wedding guest' even though none of my friends are even close to tying the knot! Typical justification! Hopefully I'll get some wear of it for work and things, or out for dinner. If I feel it's getting too girly, hopefully a leather jacket will toughen it up a bit.

Neutral Lines

I've been hunting for a while for a perfect nude shade for my lips, which can be so hard to find. After coffee, Sally and I popped into Space NK (it's very dangerous knowing other beauty bloggers!), and I headed to the Nars stand.

I've actually never bought anything from Nars before, which seems like a shocking oversight! I tried a couple of their nude shades, but the one that seemed a perfect fit was this shade, 'Biscayne Park'. It's one of their Satin Lip Pencils, which is a chunky crayon. I've said before I love anything in a stick format, because its so convenient. Also with lip products it means you can get a nice outline easily.

This is a warm, light medium colour, with pinkish beige tones. I preferred it to the more yellow nudes as it seemed more natural and flattering on my skintone. It's got a great opaque coverage that lasts well, and feels creamy and comfortable on the lips. I thought it would be a great match for more dramatic or bright and colourful eye looks. This was £18.00, but it seems like it will be fairly long lasting, and for the right neutral tone, its worth it!

I spotted a few shades I really liked, so I think I'll be back to the Nars counter at some point.

So, that was my quiet week! What have you been up to?