Anniversary Crafting: The Strongs

An anniversary card for my lovely friends Eimear and Thew :D

Anniversary Embroidery - Mr & Mrs Giannini

The colours are a little dark but it's dark green stitching with a dark red heart.

Anniversary card for Marco and Alison, can;t believe it's been 2 years already! xx

Glossybox: The Harrods Edition March 2012

The beautiful Harrods box came in white this month which is great for gals like me who don;t really love pink all that much! And I have another pretty ribbon to add to my collection, needless to say this went straight in my hair while I was perusing the contents!



I was super happy with the contents this month, and very chuffed that I got a mini Burberry lipstick.




So first off the Erno Laszlo Hollywood Collection. The five piece cream gift set comprising of morning beauty rescue, refresh moisture infusion, instant eye repair cream, intensive porcelain veil and velvet night cream.

This collection was put together to celebrate 85 years of Erno Laszlo.

First off I tried the Refresh Moisture Infusion cream which was gorgeous, it smell great and I really did feel like my skin had had a dousing after using this, it wasn't too thick either which is a plus for me, I hate that heavy cream feeling on my face.

Next was the Instant Eye Repair cream, which went on like a dream but I did feel like it made my eyes tingle a little and left them sticky for a fair while. Not a massive problem at all but it wasn't my favourite cream, in fact with the tingling I decided not to use any more of it after that first application.

The Velvet Night Cream  was great too, thick but not too greasy and absorbed quickly into my skin leaving it soft and nourished.

The next morning I tried the Morning Beauty Rescue which was lovely, nice and fresh, quickly absorbed and shimmery making my skin look radiant. I should point out this is a gel rather than a cream. This was definitely my favourite out of the five creams.

Lastly I tried the Intensive Porcelain Veil last, and this morning in fact. It had a lovely cucumber smell to it, was lovely and fresh and did actually hydrate my skin better than any cream I've used for a long time. Super impressed by this!

I'm not sure I'd have the cash to stump up for this beauty collection being the equivalent or a rather gorgeous dress or nice pair of shoes in my eyes which I'd much rather go for if I had the spare cash.




I have received Clarins products through Glossybox before, namely the anti-ageing day and night cream and I was very happy with them. This extra firming body cream retails at just under £40 an expense which I might just give in to. I've tried a lot of firming creams in the past but this one seems to actually give results. I used it mainly on my arms and tummy for a few days as I wanted to see if it would work with a few uses and it did. The cream was quite thick but luxurious and made my skin silky soft.


Fan di Fendi is a beautiful perfume and exactly to my taste, it;s light, fresh and doesn't hum of vanilla which is a bonus in my eyes! It does reminds me of an adult version of CK1 (remember the great CK1 summer of 1994 when pretty much everyone reeked of the stuff? Ah to be a teenager of the 90s!) which I loved when I as younger but I feel it's far too young for me now. I will definitely be splashing the cash on this (retails at £36 - £40 in various stores)


The Burberry Lip Cover I received was in Rosewood (no. 4). It;'s a beautiful colour against my English rose skin, has great staying power and isn't too greasy/glossy. I hadn't tried Burberry's range of lipsticks before but it's definitely something I'm willing to spend my cash on rather than trotting off to the MAC counter straight away.

The lipsticks retail at £23 at Harrods or £22.50 direct from Burberry online



Ojon Damage Reverse Instant Restorative Hair Serum was something I was more than happy to try out. Being a hair dyer for many years I do suffer from dry hair every now and then. I also like the fact you can use it to protect against heat damage when styling your hair. Something I try not to do that often (I usually use foam rollers or pin curls) but when I do reach for the hot rollers or tongs I'll be using this.

It smells lovely and application's a doddle, I did feel like it left my hair silkier than before, but having only dried ir and not put a hot roller set in yet there's not much else I can say. I'll update when I do, but first impressions are good.

It retails at £22 (for 50ml) which is really not a lot considering you need only use a couple of drops per application.

Overall 

I'm very happy with my Glossybox this month, in fact I've been subscribing for around six months now and I'm very happy with their service and the products they send out. Big thumbs up Glossybox!

No more boozez for a whilez

I’m off the booze for a few months.

I’ve been thinking about this for a while and one of the reasons for writing this blog is because I no doubt will get a little backlash from some people who will now decide I am boring.

I have always had a tumultuous relationship with alcohol, namely due to the fact I can’t handle my drink. I never have been able to.

When I drank as a teenager it often resulted in blackouts, complete loss of any memory of a night even when I was reminded what happened I’d not remember at all.  It was enough to put me off drinking for years.

And then I started again. Now don’t get me wrong I’m not one of these people who think I’m some kind of alcoholic because of these blackouts or the fact I, on occasion, drink to excess. I can go for weeks/months without drinking but the majority of the time when I do it turns me into someone I don’t like very much.

I am super annoying, I say stupid things, I have on occasion upset people through thoughtlessness or just the fact they’re being left to manage me because I’ve got myself into such a state that I can’t manage myself.

Then there’s the waking up and that horrible sinking feeling of knowing that I don’t know how I got there but knowing full well that I have definitely done something stupid as being in the state where I blackout inevitably means I was super drunk.

It’s also not a good sign when people give your drunk self a name all of its own. “Party Stacey” makes me cringe, especially considering she’s so completely at contrast with sober me. Loud, brash, constantly wanting to be the centre of attention, not shutting up and letting anyone else speak, falling over, doing really stupid things. Sometimes I feel so despairing about it all I could cry.

I think of certain things that have happened when I’m drunk, things I am not so proud of that I’ve said or things that I’ve done that  other people might find funny but inside I just want to curl up tight into a ball and hide somewhere until no one can remember them.

It would all be okay if I could actually stop after a couple of drinks but I don’t seem to be able to do it, as soon as I get that fuzzy glow then that’s it. I’d like another drink, and then another etc.

I don’t know anyone who consistently acts like me when they are drunk. I have honestly never met anyone who does. I am the drunk mentalist, the Uncle Knobhead of my group of friends if you will.

The reason I’m sharing this:

Please don’t try and tell me to drink because you’d prefer it if I did, or that I’m being a spoilsport, or that you’d have more fun if I did.

Please don’t look at me with non alcoholic beverage in hand and think I’m boring, or that I think I’m better than anyone else or think I was more of a laugh when I did drink. These are all criticisms that will hurt my feelings.

Think about the times I’ve annoyed you, or the times I’ve done something stupid, or the times I’ve sat there with a hangover constantly worrying and doing your head in.

Think about how different you are to me when you’re drunk and the stuff I do that you don’t do.

And please understand that drinking really isn’t suited to everyone, especially a lightweight like me!

xxxxx 

Mother's Day Card Embroidery

This was my Mother's Day card for my step-ma Jackie. She loves all things 1920s and art deco so I thought this design would be suitable. As you've probably guessed I did not draw this!

I bought the design from Sublime Stitching, they have amazing designs, only problem is, I want them all!

Apart from the couple of crap french knots on the skit (I misjudged where I should have poked the holes and they ended up joining up...argh!) I was really happy with this and Jackie was uber impressed (also with the cakes she got!)

She opened it last night when we went over to see her and Dad and ate curry and got a composting bin they no longer need, it was lovely to see them both and I'm super happy Jackie liked her gift.

Good Luck Card Embroidery

I made this card as a leaving girft (along with some scrummy choc cupcakes from The Hummingbird Bakery cookbook) for my work chum Cassy.

Drawn freehand, I was slightly worried the horseshoe might look like a magnet but I think adding the stitches inside make it legg magnetlike She was thrilled with it, I'm really going to miss her.

Birthday Card Embroidery: Dinotastic

This card was made for my lovely amazing bestical of a mate Frenchi, she LOVES dinosaurs. Her favourite film is Jurassic Park so I thought what better way to illustrate this than a stegosaurus?

This is probably the first time I've drawn a dinosaur since I was a kid so I don't think I did too bad a job.