What's In My Bag ...

If you are an avid YouTube watcher or blog reader, You will probably have seen this a million and one times but never the less being the nosey person I am I decided to do the What's In My Bag Tag so if you are nosey like me, you can have a little look!!

The bag I am using at the moment is the one pictured above and I know it is very, very worn but I cannot seem to let go of it! I bought it for 5 Euros at Quarteira market in the Algarve, Portugal when I was working there in 2009 and I am still in love with it now although it is falling to bits. 

Just a side note, if anyone has seen a bag similar in any way PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE let me know where you have seen it as I am in desperate need of a replacement!

In the front little pocket, as you can see,  I don't keep very much. I have some paracetamol, a couple of cheap bracelets, some tic tacs and a 17 Lasting Fix lipstick in the shade Shell.

 

The compartment after that I have a bottle of Lucozade Revive in the orange flavour, a sample of the Kim Kardashian fragrance, Rimmel Apocalips in the shade Apocaliptic, a random cheapy brown lipstick with no lid and an Inika Lip Whip in the shade peach.

In the main compartment, as you can see this is where I keep most of my stuff ... I have:

• My Trusty Filofax, I have had this since I first went to work abroad in 2008 and as it has been all around Europe I really should invest in a new one as it is really worn.
• 5 packets of Wrigleys Extra Ice sugarfree gum.
• Halls Soothers
• Avon Advance Techniques Daily Shine Dry Ends Serum
• Soap And Glory Hand Food
• A 21st birthday badge as my little sister is 21 in two weeks
• An I love NY keyring all the way from New York City
• My purse
• A pink and green highlighter
• Revlon Colorstay Liquid Lipstick in the shade 070 Best Bubbly
• MUA Out There Lip Plumping Gloss in the shade Candy Pink
• My Samsung Galaxy S2

I usually also have my IPhone 5 in there too but I was using that to take the pictures. I have the IPhone as my personal phone and my Samsung is linked to all of my blog accounts and also I use it for business.

So there we have it, those are all the things I currently have in my bag!

What do you carry around with you? Is there anything you have to always take out with you?

More Tea? ...

As you will know by now, I have jumped back on the Slimming World train and I am generally on a quest to get skinny! I am going on my journey at full speed and I am trying to be generally more healthy in  all aspects of my life.

I am trying to incorporate excersise into my daily routine as well as my healthy eating programme. Today I decided I would take it one step further and start drinking green tea!! I have tried it in the past and I must admit that I can not stand green tea but I decided, to detox I would suck it up and at least try a flavoured one.

I bought two boxes, the first being Tesco own Green Tea with lemon. You get 20 tea bags in a box and it cost 75p! The second box I bought was Tesco Finest Green Tea with mint and again you get 20 bags in the box and this one cost around 90p.

I have given the Finest mint tea a go and I was pleasently surprised the mint takes away that obvious earthy tea like taste which I find green tea has.

I am also trying to drink more water throughout the day. I have downloaded an app on my phone called 'My Diet Coach' it is available on both the Iphone and Android phones. 

There are two versions, the free version and the pro version. Although the free app is still very good I decided to upgrade to the pro version as it has a weight tracker and you can also upload photos to inspire you. The great thing about this app is that it has reminders and one goes off every 2 hours on my phone which reminds me to drink some water. When this happens I tend to  have a pint of water as I don't always drink a lot.

Have you tried these flavoured teas? What is your favourite?



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Let's Just Be Friends ...

When two people break up, sometimes they want it to be as amicable as possible and use that god awful phrase 'Let's just be friends'. Now I have always been a firm believer that if you break up with someone and nothing horrible has been the cause of it that you should stay friends with that person.

Only now am I learning just how hard that can be. Now I have had a few relationships in the past but only two in which I would call 'proper relationships'. My most recent lasted for a year and as you may already be aware, ended around 8 weeks ago now.

Up until this point we have stayed friends, we were even living together for 6 weeks after until our lease on our house ended. Now I don't know if this is me being what I like to call 'a woman' but the past couple of days I have been getting really emotional about us finishing. It isn't even the fact that we have ended that has been getting me down, it is more the fact that the plans that we made won't happen now.

So with me in this emotional state ... obviously, to me, the most logical thing for me to do is send him a message that purely reads... 'I miss you xxx'. 

WHAT WAS I THINKING?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!!?

I know we won't be getting back together and in a way I am ok with that because when I look back I realise  that maybe it was the best thing for us and I wasn't as happy as I would have like but that doesn't stop me missing him as a person.

He has been very diplomatic about it all and he has said all the right things to try and make me feel better  and, well, to be fair he actually sent me a message back but my whole point is ... can we actually stay friends? Or would it be best for me and my sanity to cut all ties. We have known each other for 9 years so naturally I don't want to lose him as he has been such a big part of my life and especially my love life as he was my first boyfriend too.

This subject is well documented in movies and TV shows, the most recent example is in the US show 'How I  Met Your Mother'. Two of the lead male characters have had a relationship with one of the female lead characters and both relationships have ended and all has been fine, they have all got on great and remained friends. We all know that subjects TV shows and movies touch on are glorified but the question still remains, can we stay friends with an ex or will feelings always be there? Have you managed to come out of a relationship and stayed friends with an ex? I would love to hear your thoughts on this subject.

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Skinny Minnie Monday #1 ...

Hello all!

Welcome to my first proper post in the 'Skinny Minnie Monday' series.

This week has been easier than I thought. Usually I have to ease myself into a diet but this time around I haven't wanted to gorge on crisps and chocolate. This said, At the weekend I did have a bit of a blow out and I was out Friday, Saturday and Sunday which was obviously calorific!

I have not struggled with meals and I have, if anything, over eaten but I have been keeping to the Slimming World plan. I have eaten things like creamy curry, lasagne and burger and chips ALL syn free!

Overall though a fab week with fab results ... I have lost a whopping 3lbs!!! I am so pleased and even more determined to do better this next coming week. Excersize may be an issue though as on Saturday I slipped on a spilt drink and I have now sprained my ankle badly...it was quite hilarious.

Now time for the vital stats :

Starting Weight: 186 lbs

Goal Weight: 140 lbs

Current Weight : 183 lbs

Total Weight Lost: 3lbs


xxx

 

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Shopping, Shopping, Shopping ...

Today I spent the day going around a couple of towns on the outskirts of where I live. I have never shopped in these towns and although most of the shops were the same as in my hometown, they seemed to have so many more products!

I didn't particularly set out to spend a lot and for the things I did buy, I managed to bag myself some pretty good bargains!

I shall give you the run down of what I bought, where I bought them from and how much they cost.

Beyonce Midnight Heat Eau De Parfum 50ml - This perfume is one I have owned before. It retails at around £32 but I managed to pick it up at B&M Bargains for an amazing £9.99, that is less than the 30ml retails for! I couldn't believe it was that cheap! I was tempted to getr several but I had to restrain myself.

Katy Perry Eyelashes by Eyelure 'Oh Honey' - I have not tried any of the Katy Perry lashes before but Eyelure is one of my favourite brands and I love the Girls Aloud ones so I figured I would see what these Katy ones are all about. At first look they do look extremely similar to the Kimberly Walsh lashes from the Girls Aloud line. I bought these from Asda and they were reduced from £5.95 to £2.97.

Rimmel Apocalips Lip Laquer 'Apocaliptic' - These Lip Laquers are relatively new from Rimmel and have been receiving so much positive press that I just had to try one out. I have been looking for a bright pink coloured lipstick for the last few days and wanted one with real staying power. I am really looking forward to trying this out. I bought it from Superdrug for £5.99 and I think it is an absolute steal, I may just have to buy more! 

Pink Tease DIY Acrylic Nail Kit  - As someone who does their own gel nails at home, I tend to walk past kits like this as I don't usually have any need for them. I am however at the moment waiting for more wipe off solution to be delivered so I thought I would give this kit a go. It cost me £4.99 from B&M Bargain. To be honest I don't have high hopes for it but some nails are better than no nails as I always say.

Verbatim 4GB USB Drive - This is probably the least exciting purchase of the day but I needed one and I bought it from Asda for a steal at £5.

I did buy a top and a jersey blazer from Asda too but I havent even got them out of the bag, let alone tried them on or photographed them! The top has short sleeves and is navy and has ruching all down the front. At the top on the back it has some gorgeous black lace that just gives this plain top a little something extra. It only cost £8 and is perfect for work or everyday. The jersey blazer is gorgeous. It is grey in colour, has big shoulders and on the collar it has some small silver studs. The blazer cost £15 and I know I will get loads of wear out of it.

 

All in all a rather successful shopping trip. If you would like reviews on any of the things I purchased just let me know in the comments section and I shall let you know my thoughts and opinions!

Ciao for now!

xxx

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It's Not You It's Me ...

Break Ups, like it or not, they happen in life! So far in my nearly 24 years, I am yet to do the breaking up in a relationship, I have always been on the receiving end ... which in hindsight doesn't really say much about me. (I have now just gone into a long thought process about if I am doing something wrong)!

As you are more than fully aware, I have recently been through one myself. Now just to give you a little background...

My ex and I started seeing each other about 9 years ago and we were on and off for 2 years. We called it quits and stayed friends and always kept in touch. I went to work abroad for 4 years, I come back and we meet up and hit it off again and started seeing each other.

Fast forward just over a year and you are right back to the present day, sitting with me typing this on my couch! At first I was heartbroken, to be honest I still am a little bit but I have had time to heal.

Everyone deals with things differently and break ups are no exception to that rule! Generally for me I have found that you go through several steps after a break up.

Step 1: The emotional stage (On average lasts for about 3 days)

Step 2: The denial stage (We have ALL thought that if you did some big gesture your ex will take you back)

Step 3: The angry stage (The urge to throw out/burn/destroy everything of the ex's that remains in your life)

Step 4: The makeover stage (You want to reinvent yourself and have a complete change)

Step 5: The slutty stage (You go out to bars and talk to random guys and ... well who knows the rest!)

Step 6: The confused stage (There are days where you still miss the ex and think you are still only on stages 1 or 2 but you are feeling a lot more positive about life)

I think if you tackle each stage one by one and keep control over your emotions you will be able to cope far more easy. That's what I have done and it has certainly helped. 

When you break up with someone, the first thing you want to do is sit on the sofa watching movies with you trusty break up companions Ben & Jerry! My personal recommendation is that you do this for no more than 2 days and you invite your best friend over and instead of them telling you things like 'there are plenty more fish in the sea' or 'things will get better', they sit with you and complain at just how rubbish the opposite sex are!

Another top tip for you is not to put anything on Facebook. I know the first thing you will probably want to do is write something about how upset you are or how angry you are but it is best to put yourself on a weeks facebook ban. Also instead of changing your relationship status to single, remove it completely, that way you won't get a million and one comments like 'Hugs xxx', 'What happened?', 'you ok? x', and you don't have to reply and cause yourself more heartache!

In all honesty I didn't think I was going to get over the heartache for a long time, I certainly didn't expect it to be now but I am certainly feeling a lot more chirpier! Of course I miss my ex and like most people I would love to have the chance to take him back ... but only time will tell on this one!!

How have you dealt with break ups?

Has this helped a little?





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When We Are At Our Lowest Point, We Are Open To Life's Greatest Changes ...

The title of this post, I happened to stumble apon during an instagram browse and I couldn't have seen it at a more fitting time.

 To set the scene, I have been suffering greatly at the moment with Endemetriosis and I have a ridiculous amount of pain in my lower stomach and also in my back which has resulted in me being signed off work for about 6 weeks now. Also at the same time as this was happening, my boyfriend decided to end our relationship (I won't go into all of the details of the whys and hows) which I obviously was upset about. His reasons were genuine and we were able to end things on good terms and we are still friends now. This has meant that I have had to move back in with my Mum and my two sisters.

As you can imagine I haven't had the best time of it the past few months and life has got me down somewhat. Anyhoo ... I am FINALLY starting to feel better about everything and well ... I suppose the point of this whole entire post is the fact that I HAVE A NEW JOB!!! Now for some I can understand why this would not seem to be exciting but the prospects of it are SO much better than my previous job. So today I gave my current employer my notice and I couldn't feel more happy about it.



I feel like this is the start of a new and improved version of myself.

It really does prove that WHEN WE ARE AT OUR LOWEST POINT, WE ARE OPEN TO LIFE'S GREATEST CHANGES.


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