Life, Updates and Achievements.

Hey there, remember me? Nope I didn't think so. I haven't done a post in a very long time, and to those of you who love reading my posts and keep telling me to do more I apologise, I have been meaning to do one for some time now I just haven't got round to it. I'm lazy haha.

So what's been going on? well quite a lot actually, I didn't even realise just how far a long things had come until I read my first ever post which was January 2014, a whole year and a half away almost. Time goes so quickly now I'm older and maybe because I'm enjoying life more.

In that post I set myself goals to complete for the year, they were as follows:

Goals for 2014: 

1. Get a bus on my own (Haven't done that in 4 years) 
2. Start driving
3. Lose weight 
4. Work on going to college or getting into work
5. Say YES to more things and not let opportunities slide.

I'm actually quite surprised reading them, I mean the first goal I honestly thought there was no way in hell's chance I'd be able to get on a bus by myself again, but I did it! Not only did I accomplish that, I am now a regular bus user, I rarely get panicky or anxious getting the bus now and that's just crazy to me. Occasionally I get days where I struggle and don't feel like doing it but that's bound to happen, the difference is I don't give up, I try again another day.

I even go out on my own more, I don't mean crazy nights out, but to the shops, or appointments etc, I do it on my OWN. 

I got the train up to Lincoln on my own to meet my sister at uni once as well, (which I'm sure I will be doing again sometime soon).

I haven't started driving yet, but that's fine I have plans to start, It's just taking that first step right? I'm not sure when that will be, but It will be someday.

Losing weight, the bane of my life, *sigh*. I've lost a few pounds, nothing major, but I do eat so much better now, I use to be a huge coca-cola addict, I was drinking maybe 1L a day, and cutting that down was not easy, The headaches were awful, I was constantly tired and exhausted, I was so grumpy, It took a while, I'm still not coke free ( haha doesn't that sound dodgy) but I now drink fizzy drinks with sweeteners rather than sugar and I don't drink a whole lot of them neither, I've replaced them with, Smoothies/Juices, (Thanks nutribullet) and Water (Still and Flavoured). I've replaced all my carbs for wholemeal ones, I eat more protein, and I rarely snack now. I go on walks with my little dog, Charlie, and I do some workouts at home, I may not have lost a lot of weight but the main thing is I feel so much better in myself, mentally and physically.

I didn't go back to college as I decided it just wasn't for me, so I started a course online in veterinary nursing, which is what I've wanted to do for a while now, It's so interesting, I've almost finished and then I'll have my final test, Once I pass I'm going to ask around my local vets for voluntary work to gain practical experience, as of course the online course is only the theory side. 

Say YES to more, this has always been a difficult one, deep down I want to say Yes, I want to just not give a fuck and be happy and have fun, but sometimes the mind doesn't allow that. However I have made a bit more of an effort to not turn down opportunities, like when I get invited out I try my best to go and have fun, most of the time I do, sometimes not so much, Having a panic attack in the middle of whether spoons wasn't very nice, but everyone was so supportive and understanding. Took me a while to get back out there, but I did it, and I shall continue to do so. 

Overall I feel more positive, I try to not let negative people get in my way now, I just block them out, why should I have someone around me if they make me feel so bad, it's just not worth it. 

I still have a way to go, but i'm getting higher up on my little ladder :)

Let me know if you prefer these kind of life update posts, or do you like my beauty and random related ones more? 

I'll try not leave it so long before my next post. (No promises, I know what I'm like ha)

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Pamper Yourself At Home, Go On, You Deserve It.

I'm a firm believer in that we should all make time for ourselves to de-stress, relax and to feel beautiful, now for me, to achieve that "arhhhhh" feeling I have a good old pamper evening. There is nothing more blissful and satisfying than treating your skin and mind to a well deserved break. I guess I would probably do this routine once a fortnight, sometimes even once a week if it's been a bad one.

To begin with I normally give my hands a bit of love. In the winter months your hands can become dry and cracked. So I like to give myself a mini manicure, I start off by removing the polish I'm currently wearing, file my nails until they are roughly the same length, then I give my hands a good old soak in a lovely moisturising soap. I apply cuticle oil, and a generous amount of hand lotion/oil, leave for 5-10 minutes, rinse off making sure all oil is free from my nails, then apply a base coat, I highly recommend OPI's Nail Envy. Apply two coats of your colour of choice and finish with a top coat, I use Seche Vites, it dries so quickly.
On this particular occasion I chose a lovely nude toffee colour which has gold glitter sparkles, I normally go for quite bright colours so this colour was quite neutral for me but I actually love it. It's by elf, I'm not sure what the name or number of it as it came in a set which my my mum got for Christmas. I'm normally a big fan of Barry M's High Shine Gel Effect. Here is a picture:

TOP TIP : Don't worry too much if you get polish over the edges of your nails, as once you've had a long soak in the bath, it peels straight off leaving your nails looking neat and tidy. That's why I always paint my nails and hour or so before I have a bath as I'm pretty messy at it ha. 

Next I like to run myself a lovely hot bath. Surrounded by candle light it gives that extra luxury feel.

While my bath is running, I would normally apply a facemask, but on this occasion I chose not to as my skin was in pretty good condition and as it's quite sensitive I didn't want to disturb it, so I just opted for a face cleanser instead.

On the left are the two masks I would normally use, Cupcake is my absolute favourite, it smells gorgeous I just want to eat it! I normally use cupcake when my skin is a bit on the oily side and i'm getting quite a few breakouts, it really helps to restore a natural balance in your skin. Mask of Magnaminty is green in colour and feels so soothing/cooling on your face. I normally use this when I have those big nasty red sports which are deep under the skin. The green colour helps to reduce the redness and I found it's best for toning down the appearance of the deep rooted ones. On the right is soap and glory's hot cloth cleanser, I'm really loving this cleanser at the moment, It's so creamy, it melts into your face and smells divine but then again everything from soap and glory smells ridiculously nice. This product comes with a muslin cloth but I personally didn't like it, it was too flimsy and cheap, I prefer using a sponge, I just wet the sponge; squeezing most of the water out and pat off the cleanser from my face.

TOP TIP: IF YOU DON'T HAVE A FACE MASK, YOU CAN MAKE A SIMPLE ONE USING JUST HONEY AND GROUND CINNAMON. IT'S GREAT FOR ACNE PRONE/SENSITIVE SKIN.

In the middle we have a bath bomb from Lush - Santa's Grotto. My ultimate must have item when having a relaxing hour in the bath is to have a Lush bath product, they're literally amazing. The bath bombs make your bathroom smell like heaven and they make your bath water change into all kinds of colours, it's magical. I still had Santa's Grotto left over from Christmas as I did get a huge amount of Lush products. Here it is in action:

I really wish you could smell it. I urge you all to go in a lush store just once, I promise you will come out buying at least one item as the smells are so alluring. If you can't smell then I'm really sorry as you're missing out on something amazing and trying to explain smells is impossible.

Once i've spent a good amount of time relaxing and soaking away the days stresses I give my hair a good old clean. At the moment I'm really into John Frieda's Volumising shampoo and conditioner.

Even though I have a lot of hair, and my sister thinks my hair is thick (I'm not so sure) I always lack life in my hair, it's always so flat, I have naturally straight hair so I find it hard to get a little bit of oomph in it, but this duo is working wonders at the moment. Once a week I apply a deep conditioning treatment as the weather, heat appliances and even brushing all take a toll on your hair. I've been using John Frieda's Full Repair Conditioning Mask and it's pretty good, it makes my hair feel super soft but I only really use it on the ends as it can make my hair quite greasy which isn't nice. 

TOP TIP: WARMING UP A BIT OF EXTRA VIRGIN OLIVE OIL AND MASSAGING INTO YOUR HAIR WORKS JUST AS GOOD AS ANY OTHER HOT OIL TREATMENT, JUST MAKE SURE YOU RINSE IT OUT THOROUGHLY.

After my bath, I apply my usual face moisturiser which is Simple's Kind To Skin Hydrating Light Moisturiser. If my skin is feeling a bit dry I use Soap and Glory's Beauty Sleep Accelerator. I also apply Soap and Glory's Righteous Butter on to dry patches of my body (Knees, Elbows etc) as normally Lush's bath products are packed with moisturizing goodness for your skin. I apply my argan oil and John Frieda's heat defense to my hair, then give it a good old blow dry because sleeping on wet hair is horrible. I get myself in a cosy set of pj's, and normally watch a movie or read a book. Then I slumber away feeling all nice and refreshed ready to face the day/week. 

What do you do to help you relax? I don't know about you, but after writing this I really want to have a bath!

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