Resolutions

The New Year is approaching and the idea of a fresh start is forefront in my mind. 

But what do I want to change?

How do I become the best me I can be?

What can I change that will benefit me in the long term?

What experiences would I like to have and which would I prefer to not repeat?

With those questions in mind, what shall I add to my list of priorities for the year?

1. Moisturise more regularly, and I mean everyday not just when I remember. 

2. Take better care of my nails, they are in a total state right now splitting and breaking. 

3. Keep on top of the housework (this is a biggie)

4. Get organised, losing your diary is not the way forward.

5. Eat better, fell off my health wagon a bit this year. Getting your bum stuck in a chair at church is a pretty dramatic emphasis that you need to get back on that.

6. Read more books for fun. I read, I read a lot, for work... what happens on television is just not that interesting and frequently very badly spelt when I see it. 

7. Find THE perfect RED lipstick. 

Yes, the last one is a bit flippant, but really I have been looking for years. At least 5 of them and I still have yet to find THE perfect one, I have got close... just not quite there yet. 

What are you're plans/resolutions for the brand spanking new year?

Secret Santa

Do you do Secret Santa with your colleagues or friends?

This year my team with a budget of just £5 took on the challenge of purchasing a gift for a random team member drawn from a hat.

On our last shift together in the office we shared the bounty.

I like to think I'm easy to buy for, I have the feeling that the person who bought mine follows my instagram as they bought me my favourite Nivea Lip Butters and a make up bag. Result! 

I won't share what I bought for my person, except I will say I was lucky. At a team outing they shouted what they wanted!

Present Haul

Nail Art: Festive Foils

After the success of the Avon Candy Cane nail stickers I ordered a selection of nail stickers from eBay.

First up I chose these foils. My eye was drawn to the doves on the end. Sadly my nails are not long enough to reach those... in some cases they weren't even long enough for the 2nd pattern either.

They were really tricky take off their backing - which I'm sure is a good sign for the promised 11 day wear. Alas this didn't seem to transfer as well to my nail.

I'm starting to wonder if my nails are a tad on the curved side, as this is an issue I also had with the Avon stickers. Even using a cuticle pusher I still had some ripples and bubbles where the foil refused to adhere to my nail bed correctly.

So I took the 2 smallest stickers and added them to my pinkie finger nails and gave the rest a couple of coats of Barbara Daly nail polish in Scarlet. I think it works rather well.

I doubt I'll be buying foils for my fingernails, however I am still willing to try them on my toenails as I know that they are much flatter across the board and probably a much better canvas for the product.

Glimpses of My Family Christmas

Family Christmas Make up and Hair

Family parties are rife this time of year. We spent ours with my inlaws.

So I donned a shiny smokey eye, a hot pink lip and a textured top knot for some extra height. Plus, I find when I have to bend over to see to my kids that having my hair down is a bit of a hindrance.

To make this look I used the following products:

Avon's BB cream in Nude, MUA blush in Shade 01, Avon's Lash & Line, Glimmerstick eyeliner in Blackest Black, Color trend lipstick in ???? and GOSH's eyebrow palette, the wax is a god send.

For my eyes I used the MUA Immaculate Collection Palette, I covered the eye in the white, the bottom lid with the silver and smoked out with the darker grey. For more depth I added the teal to the inner corner.

I love this palette so much, the only thing that would make it better would be to have more matte shades in there. There is only so much glitter a girl can cope with. 

Getting Ready For Santa

What are your traditions at Christmas?

As a child, mum and I used to spend Christmas at my grandparents house. So when mum finished work we would dress our tree at home, wrap our gifts then go down to their house. Where we would decorate their tree and wrap some more gifts. Then we'd go to a Christingle service in town.

I would wake up Christmas morning, mum and gran would have already put the turkey in the oven. There would be a selection of cold meats and pickles on the table for breakfast. Pork pie and pate for breakfast how decadent can you get?

My uncle would arrive later and we would all have dinner. Not a lot changed over the years, first my uncle got married, so my aunt, cousin and later 3 cousins would also come for dinner. As we all grew the venue changed to my uncle's house in a nearby village. When I became a teenager I no longer slept at my gran's house and the traditional breakfast changed into bacon sandwiches at home with mum.

One year we even had Christmas in a pub, that one I approved of - even though I was driving.

Then things changed again, mum died. I lived with my mum, Christmas 2001 I got engaged and my now husband moved in. Gran and grandad began to spend Christmas day with my Aunt and Uncle and their great-grandchildren.

Then at Christmas 2005 I was poorly, and pregnant, and on a ward in a hospital in York. My first son was born December 28th. Pretty much against his will. As I recovered he got sicker. Surprisingly not my favourite Christmas in memory, that is still when I got my roller boots.

By 2007 we had 2 baby boys at home and the urge for tradition stuck back in, after years of having turkey curry and turkey and bacon sandwiches for Christmas dinner.

Christmas 2009 was the first one without Grandad. Gran continued to have her lunch with my Aunt and Uncle, I started to do a buffet on Boxing Day for my in laws and my gran.

This year is my first one without my grandparents. The first one where I won't step inside the house I visited every Christmas for 36 years where ever I lived in the country, the first one that the new family living there will spend in that house. I won't be doing a Boxing Day buffet.

However, this year I am taking the boys to see Santa, the boys are going to their first pantomime in York, I have dodged the is Santa real questions and watched some of my favourite Christmas films. I have had my Starbucks Red Cup, taken part in making another Christmas special magazine, and gone to Christingle... it's all about the orange, a candle and the sweets you can burn (okay not the definitive meaning of the Christingle, but it's a selling point for getting some into church). There have been works parties, parties with cubs and scouts, sneaky pub visits and familly get togethers.

All I have left to do (at the time of typing) is the Santa Spruce up. The big clean you do before the big guy in red arrives. If you don't have a tidy house/bedroom/clear floor Santa won't come. It's a health and safety issue don't you know! If he can't see the plate of mince pies on the table how can he eat them?

Happy Christmas Everyone.

Outfit of the Day: Christmas Dress Down Edition

In my office we have a dress down policy during December. As a whole this is due to the manic shift patterns that we work prior to the festive season.

So this is what I wore on my last official shift of 2013, photos taken in the mirror of our toilets!

Reindeer sweatshirt - Peacocks £12
Skinny Jeans - Yours Clothing £12.50
Animal print canvas shoes: George at Asda (last season)
Glasses: vintage frames

When I'm in work I tend to keep my make up to a minimum. Nice and simple and pretty much able to keep up with the eye rubbing a midnight finish entails.

So today I wore:

Eyeshadow: Avon True Colour Healthy Glow
Mascara: Seventeen Maximum Volume Mascara in Black (from Boots)
Eyeliner: SEVENTEEN Eye Kohl soft smudge pencil in Blackest Black.
Brows: GOSH eyebrow kit (I used the blonde one today)
Powder: George Ultra Matte pressed powder No, 1  porcelain.
Blush: Barbra Daly Cheek to Cheek Blush in Petal
lips: Nivea lip butter in Caramel Cream

What I Read: Good Husband Material by Trisha Ashley

This novel has been on my bookshelf for a while, my groaning bookshelf at that. I don't know what took me so long to pick it up. As with every other Trisha Ashley book I have read (which is almost all of them - I've just got 2 outstanding) it was a perfect piece of escapism.

Here we are introduced to Tish, a romance novelist, and her husband James, a seemingly straight-laced solicitor with big ideas. 

We first meet Tish as an idealistic 17 year old. She's been dating the dark and brooding next door neighbour Fergal Rocco for a year and is planning to go to university. Rocco drops the bombshell that he's moving overseas with his upcoming band. 

Not hearing from Rocco, Tish starts uni broken hearted. That is until she meets James. Good looking, dependable and perfect father material. It doesn't hurt that Tish's mother also likes him (she never approved of Rocco). 

Fast forward 10 years. James and Tish have been married for seven year and have just moved to a cottage in the countryside. In need of a lot of work Tish starts renovating the property, as James spends longer and longer at work and in the village pub. It soon becomes apparent, for Tish at least, that something isn't right. 

Rock star Rocco is filling the headlines with his celebrity lifestyle, but inside it's all feeling empty. He has travelled the world, had a girl waiting for him at every port, yet all he can think about is the girl that got away. Can he win his former love back, just as she is entering a new phase in her own life?

This novel is well paced and easy to read. It really pulls you in from the middle and races to the end making it difficult to put down. I finished reading this one morning at 2am, which I think is testament to how you get sucked into the world that Trisha Ashley has created.

To buy a copy from Amazon click here currently £3.85 for the paperback and £1.49 on Kindle.

You can also follow Trisha on Twitter just click here

Festive Top Ups

Headed into Hull to get some little bits and bobs for the Brothers Thing's Christmas Stockings and, looking back, to top up on festive menu fast food. Yummy diet-inducing badness!

Our main port of call in Hull was St Stephen's, with a stocking topping up session at Poundland... gosh I know how to live! I even got some adorable garlands to dress the 'subtle' tree this year.

I picked up some more of my favourite Nivea lip balm (the caramel one), not a clue where my last one disappeared to, discovered Nicole by O.P.I. and left sharpish before I tried to buy one of each.




Wandering through the shopping centre my eye was drawn to a chief elf tee in Peacocks just through the door. Totally adorable, shame that work's Christmas Jumper day was on the 13th December! Then I spotted this piece of retro, almost Americana gorgeousness. A creamy white thin sweatshirt with vibrant red arms and trim and a cute embellished fair isle reindeer. Guess what I'm going to be wearing to work soon.

Then I heard the call of the wild, well the call of the Starbucks at least. I got my first eggnog latte of the season. A venti at that, the Hubby did well. On the way back home we called by McDonalds and got the Festive Deluxe. I'm not the biggest McD's burger fan, however this one really did hit the spot. The fries however... least said.

The winning parts of this burger was marriage of the smoked bacon, peppered mayonnaise and bbq glaze (oh and cheese, American cheese is one of my guilty good pleasures).

Is anyone else craving vegetables yet?

What I Ate Wednesday: Festive Edition

Merry Christmas

This going to be a picture heavy but short.

Breakfast:

Freshly baked pastries. Bought from Langlands Farm Shop and baked this morning by my fair self.

Lunch:

Traditional lunch. A mix of Turkey and Pork with potatoes, swede, apple & onion stuffing and Yorkshire pudding.

Supper:

Baileys coffee & slice of Christmas cake.

Snacks:

Cherry & Baileys liqueur chocolates.

Christmas Nails

I bought these nail stickers from Avon quite a while ago when they were on offer.



Question is... did mine look like this after I stuck them on? How easy are they to apply? How long will they last and look good for?

So far I have had mine on for 5 days. They've not exactly been looked after... That is once I got them on.

As directed I cleaned and dried my nails. Chose the appropriate-sized sticker for each nail and trimmed them to fit. I peeled the strong plastic backing off and attached the thin sticker to the nail. They went on easily with little bubbling and smoothed out well. Then as directed, I smoothed it over the end of my nail and then filed the ends of to shape to fit.

I did this for both hands. It was quick and easy and looked really good.

Then I had a couple of problems with the left hand. It appears that on the batch I got there was a lack of glue. Some of the stickers just slid off my fingers. So I cleaned my nails with acetone and did a little buffing/scuffing up of the nail bed and reapplied 3 stickers. This seems to have done the trick they've not budged much since then.

So what sort of wear have I had? Well, there was the party on Saturday night, not counting the accidental scorching the palm of my right hand on my turning tongs. Ouch... lots of holding under cold water ran over that hand, followed by drying then repeating, I washed up (without the aid of rubber gloves) after a party for 20 children! I've done the usual mum thing of picking up, cleaning and other generalness.

Now they look like this...

I've really enjoyed this style of nail covering. No drying time, no clean up afterwards. Even better no fumes, I have a highly sensitive nose.

I already have some other nail stickers added to my next Avon order, not to mention some others I have found on eBay too.

You can buy these stickers here in the current campaign

Christmas Shopping

Like pretty much the rest of the world I've been shopping for some seasonal goods. 

Slightly under the weather, I battled the stand-still traffic of Hull Road to get into York's city centre for a bit of a festive meander. 

First I went for a look around New Look, I've been loving the Christmas jumper selection there this year, I saw three that I loved and couldn't decide which to buy, so went off to McDonalds for a Hot Mocha while I made my mind up. I finally decided on this sheepy number. It will have life after Christmas.

It's super soft, with the sheep's fleece being an eyelash yarn and a scoop neck. It will keep me nice and warm and snuggly.

I bought a few other bits and bobs, before I went on a window shopping and continued my mocha drinking mission in Starbucks, while waiting for the other half to meet me. 

I picked up these fantastic penguin ear muffs on a stall in Coney Street, and have pretty much been attached to my ears ever since. Blooming ear ache, one year I'll manage to not get sick either on the run up to, or on, Christmas.

I hightailed it over to Superdrug and found myself gazing in wonder at the Essie nail bar and the MUA counter, where I picked up the new matte eyeshadow palette Ever After. I've been hankering after this for a while. Then found some other items for my other half's stocking.

So far I'm thinking this will get used even more than my Heaven & Earth palette, which I hammered somewhat.

I then headed over to Poundworld to stock up for a children's party I was arranging and these cheeky items just jumped into my basket! I love the glass, it will be my wine glass of choice this season (even if right now it's only holding some Pepsi Max Cherry). 

I had a little bit of time leftover so I took to wandering around TK Maxx, Paperchase and Pylones, I love Pylones so much. So many funky little items. Not particularly useful ones, but oh so pretty and quirky. 

I really shouldn't leave it so long before I go into York again. 

Christmas Party Time

'tis the season to be jolly... faa la la la la la la la
So we go out and look like wallies.

Yes Christmas Party season is upon us. This weekend alone I have been to two, and have another three this this week.

By the time we reach the big day itself I'll not only be serving Christmas Pudding, I will be looking like one too.

The first jaunt of the weekend was my office's event at Aspire in Leeds. It was a fabulous venue, we had the whole of the downstairs, check out their tree. 

With a hot buffet & pudding platter, a night of dancing and some The Mighty Boof photo booth action.

My make up was a mix of MUA's Undressed Palette, Avon's Cashmere foundation, Supershock mascara and No17 Lasting Colour in Red Chilli. Lashes from eBay.

Hello, Good Evening and Welcome

It's been a while since I did any free-style writing.

I've sat and wondered about topics and themes. Not one thing came to me, many things did. So all I can say is this is going to be a place where my flights of fancy exist.

Some days I can think of nothing but make up, other days I obsess over a book. So overall here will be where I post just what I have done and fancy doing. Hence calling it What BeeBee Did. In essence I'm rebranding. Twitter and Instagram are following suit as well.

Sit tight for a magical mystery tour of my mind.