Make Up Milestone

I wanted to share a recent milestone.  This may not be a big deal to some people but it is for me.    

I bought my first lipstick!  Round of applause, please.  Thank you.  

Make up and I are not best friends.  We get on alright but we've never been super tight.  I guess you could say we're in the same friendship group but not bffs.  As I've got older I've found myself relying on this friend a little more and I'd quite like to get to know them a little better.  

The problem with my face and lipstick is that I really don't think any colour suits me.  It's as though as soon as I apply it my whole face changes and I don't even recognise the person looking back at me in the mirror.  When I had my make up trial for our wedding, the lovely make up artist applied a pink shade of lipstick and as soon as I saw it I almost screamed for her to take it off.  In the end, I didn't wear any colour on my lips for our big day.  Just a simple slick of Vaseline. It felt more me.   

Cue me entering the Selfridges make up hall resembling a wide eyed bunny rabbit in headlights.  Thankfully I wasn't alone and two close friends helped cajole me into trying a few shades.  

My friends eventually steered me toward the Nars counter and we were greeted by a lovely lady named Jess.  She immediately picked out the shade that I eventually went on to buy.  A sheer, coral coloured lipstick named Barbarella.  Certainly not the most adventurous of colours but I felt good wearing it.  

Barbarella - my new buddy

You may be wanting to see the product on my actual face.  Or you may be expecting a review of the product at this point.  Firstly, I am not yet brave enough to post a close up pic of my face on these web pages and secondly, as for the review, I don't really have anything to compare it to.  However, here's what I do have to say:

• It doesn't feel like you're wearing lipstick when you put it on.  
• I don't really know about reapplication requirements because I basically forget it's on my face as soon as I'm out the door and thus never reapply.  

Female fail.  One step at a time, ladies!  

Claire x

#WeBlogMCR

Twitter is blummin' amazing.  (You can follow me here.)

All thanks to this wonderful social media tool I ended up at The Whim Wham Cafe last Wednesday evening for the first #WeBlogMCR meet up with a bunch of other brilliant, North West-based bloggers.  And what a lovely evening it was too.  

The extremely lovely Holly Wood of Holly Goes Lightly set out with the objective of creating a new, casual and fun event for bloggers of all persuasions to come together and have a good old time, whist sharing tips and maybe making a friend or two.  

This was my first blogger meet up and I'm really glad that I took the time to go and do it.  Everyone was super friendly.  There was a really good mix of fashion, beauty, food, health and lifestyle bloggers.  It was inspiring to share a drink or two with such a blog-savvy group of ladies.  (Check out their blog links below!)

The Whamble.  Probably the most popular cocktail of the night.  It was rather yummy.
Haymans Gin, Raspberry Puree and Lemon Juice over ice and drizzled with Apricot Liqueur

If you're thinking about attending an event similar to this one then I would definitely recommend it. 

Claire x

www.spamellab.com

www.thewolfinthecity.com

www.catgirlblogs.wordpress.com

www.seeingspots.co.uk

www.andreasmake-upartistry.blogspot.co.uk

www.fashiondough.com

www.glutenfreestudentcookbook.co.uk

www.missdanielle.com

@amyconlock

www.greedysisters.com

www.thequickredfox.co.uk

www.misspond.com

www.smileatstyle.blogspot.co.uk

@FashionMusicAB

www.lilacghosts.com

Want / Need 4

Want/

One particular bedroom trend that I would like to follow is that of the Moroccan Wedding blanket. I think one of these beauties would look rather swish adorning our new bed (when we actually get to the stage of buying a new bed).  However, they verge on the side of expensive and so it may be something that I have to save up for.  I would love to have the opportunity to actually go and source one in Marrakech.  Maybe one day!

Source

Need/

A bedroom item that we most certainly do need is new bedding.  I've noticed that the blogging world is full of crisp white bed sheets, and they do look rather wonderful, but I know that this is not an option for us. This is thanks to our lovely little fur ball, Bella.  She always sleeps on our bed and so I want something that wont show up her fur quite as much as pure white bed sheets would.  I found this light brown and beige striped option over at Urbanara.  They're really reasonably priced too!  

Source

Claire x

Cloudy

It's been a little cloudy lately.  

Have a good Friday.

Claire x

Source

Art Print Passion

I love love love cute art prints.  I've become quite obsessed with them.  

Here are a few that I've recently fallen for:

Hot Pink Heart // Made By Girl

Love 5 x 7 // Made By Girl

Unnamed // Ink Inc

Friends // PULDEFRANCK
These words are taken from a song by The Temper Trap called 'Sweet Disposition', which my husband and I had as one of our wedding songs.  As soon as I came across this print on Nordic Design Collective, I knew we had to have it.  Sorry for the cheese-factor.

I promise that once these prints have an actual home, on a wall, I will share a photo of them in-situ.  

Claire x

two years

Two years ago today was a very good day.  

Claire x

Rollercoaster

The past few months have been a bit of a rollercoaster and hence my blogging schedule (if you can call sporadic, unplanned posting a 'schedule') has all but completely vanished.  

Our English Springer Spaniel Zara has given us quite the scare recently and so I've been a bit all over the place.  Allow me to explain...

Zara was coming up to two years old and we decided to get her spayed.  The operation went smoothly and she was allowed home the same day.  However, the rest of her recovery has not been quite so straight-forward.  There have been several rushed trips to our vet, the emergency vet and in the end a referral to The University of Liverpool veterinary school where she was seen at the Leahurst campus in the small animal teaching hospital.  They found out that she had an internal bleed caused by a dislodged suture which resulted in her requiring an emergency operation.  After this second op we thought she was on the road to recovery, unfortunately we were wrong and nobody quite knew why.  She underwent lots of tests and several potential diagnosis were mentioned.  It was thought that she had a genetic blood disorder which prevented her blood from clotting.  The treatment for which was intravenously fed plasma.  After a couple of weeks at Leahurst and close to 10 bags of plasma her blood results were still not improving.  The vet called us in.  Arriving in that consultation room was a bittersweet moment.  We were delighted to see her after what felt like forever but the news from the vet was not good.  They said that they could not stop the internal bleed and that she was not reacting to the treatment.  There was nothing more they could do.  They advised us to take her home and make her comfortable but that she would deteriorate at an unknown pace and eventually need putting to sleep.  

Poorly pup

My husband and I were complete wrecks.  We might not be parents to human babies just yet but our pets are our family and feel like our children.  We brought her home and decided to make sure she enjoyed whatever time she had left.  The first thing we changed was her diet, no more kibble for Zara, oh no.  She dined on steak, black pudding and liver as well as many other fine doggy treats.  We took her on small lead walks and captured a ridiculous amount of photographs.  

It was difficult to remain positive during this time.  Every day I expected the worse.  I couldn't concentrate at work.  I found it difficult to eat and was almost constantly nauseous.  Zara hadn't quite finished shocking us just yet.  The vets in Liverpool had sent her bloodwork to a specialist in America.  When we eventually got the results, everyone was shocked.  They were normal.  

The vets still don't know what or if there's something wrong with Zara's blood but she is currently happy, healthy and as bonkers as ever.  Her swollen blood-filled stomach has completely vanished as her body has reabsorbed the blood.  She looks and acts exactly as she did before the operation.  We're baffled but in a very good way.  

Happy pup

We understand that she might not necessarily be entirely out of the woods yet but we're certainly feeling much more positive than we did a few weeks ago.  We keep counting our blessings.  

I'd like to say a massive THANK YOU to all our friends and family that have really been there for us during this extremely stressful time.  I'm hoping with a bit more stability at home I'll be able to hop back on the 'blog-waggon'.

CB x