2013? Bring it on.

Hiya!

Disclaimer: this post contains contradictions, things that don't make sense and will be confusing. I just typed it and hit the publish button so hopefully it contains some sort of meaning within it. If not - oh well.

First of all, I hope you all had an amazing Christmas and all got what you wanted out of the day. I for one had a lovely time with my family and friends and am now ready to face the new year.

So all kinds of TAGs and posts have been popping up all over the place about 2013 and everywhere people have been saying "I'm actually going to keep my resolutions this year" and "I'm seriously going to change this year" and stuff like that. Are you one of those people? Because I certainly am.

I don't really get why, but it seems that when there is an opportunity for a fresh start, it has to be a big thing. I make lists and give myself motivational talks in the mirror and tell myself "2013 is my year!". It's the prospect of it being a whole year that makes me so excited - it's such a long time and it's such a big thing and the idea that that big thing could be all mine to change in just gets me.

But this is also the downfall I suppose. In one year, so much happens that it swamps us and all of a sudden we're up to our eyebrows in stress and work and we'll maybe put on the few extra pounds that we promised we wouldn't only a few months ago. 

Why do we never say "Monday is my day" or even "2pm is my hour!"? Is it because there's something special and more thrilling about not being realistic? The fact that we could actually achieve something more difficult is somehow more motivating

All I am saying is that we are the only ones who can make it our year. There's no use saying that this new year will be amazing if we aren't going to work at it! This time next year I want to look at my old new years resolutions and think - yeah, I kept them because I wanted to and because I made it happen. 

To be perfectly honest, I have no idea what I just wrote; I just type-vomited and wrote what I was thinking without really knowing whether it even makes sense. I just hope that it got you thinking and hopefully will inspire you to make 2013 your year, even though it throws crap at you.

I love you guys, and hopefully, this time next year I will still be writing for my little piece on the internet and will be able to reflect on all the blessings that 2013 has brought and be ready for 2014!

Have a good night, enjoy yourself, don't get too plastered (you'll want to be able to remember it in the morning!) and I'll see you in 2013!!

xxxx

Sleigh bells ring, are you listenin'?

Hey there!

I'm so sorry I haven't really been alive recently - exams, college applications and life have just completely taken over and so if I haven't been revising or writing personal statements, I have been asleep or eating. 

Anyway! As you are probably all aware (unless you live under a rock) IT'S CHRISTMAS SOON! I'm am so excited you would not believe. So, in that spirit of things, I'm going to be answering a few Christmas related questions about past Christmases and traditions and that kind of thing! I may even shove in a couple of pictures if I can dig out any that aren't too embarrassing. Enjoy!

1. When do you start getting excited about Christmas?
As soon as summer ends and you can see your breath when breathe outside and you have to get out all your old winter hats and scarves and gloves and you need to turn the heating on, I get incredibly excited.

2. Do you still have advent calendars?
Yes of course! We always do them as a family after dinner or something.

3. What are your favourite Christmas films?
Elf I love and The Grinch of course. I used to hate The Snowman, but I'm starting to warm to it now. Also in our family we celebrate St Nicholas or Sinterklaas (click it if you want to know more) so we watch movies and TV episodes about that that my Dutch grandma records and sends to us :)

4. Do you have any funny Christmas memories?
Not really any specific memories, just being with friends and family, playing games and stuff. Everyone's always in a better mood on Christmas day so for some reason a lot of things just seem 10x funnier than they really are. Oh wait! One that I look back on now and laugh is when I was in nursery in the Netherlands. Who was I chosen to play in the class nativity? Out of all of the potential candidates there were in my whole entire class they chose me to play who? Friggin' Joseph. Will never ever forget that.

5. Talk us through your typical Christmas Day?
So this is for when we were younger..
Me and my sisters would get up quite early and maybe watch some Christmas TV or something. We don't really do stockings because we do Sinterklaas but in the morning we open some small presents before we get ready and then we go to church which is fun because it kind of brings you down to earth again to think about the real Christmas meaning like that it's not all about the presents (cheesy I know, but it's true)
Afterwards we come home and normally we either we used to go to my grandparents in Scotland or they would come to us. If we stayed at home then we would invite some friends round who maybe don't have anyone else to spend Christmas with or anywhere to go. Then after dinner we will open some more presents, maybe sing some Christmas songs and play games!

6. What do you eat for Christmas Dinner?
Standard turkey mostly, however, one year we went a bit wild and had a duck but for the most part, turkey all the way.


7. Do you have any Christmas traditions?
We always go to church, we always open presents as a family so that everyone can see what you got and we always watch the Queen's speech.


8. Which are your favourite Christmas songs?
Carol: O Come All Ye Faithful
Others: Have yourself a merry little Christmas, All I want for Christmas is YOU, Slade: Merry Christmas, generally anything on the Michael Bublé Christmas CD ;)

9. What is the best Christmas present you ever received?
Rollerblades with knee pads and elbow pads and the glove wrist protector things. The whole shabang. I was so excited I went out and rollerbladed straight away!


10.Real or fake Christmas tree?
Real real real. I have never had a fake Christmas tree in all my life.

Short, fat and odd, but I loves it.

So that's it! I do quite like doing these questionanny type posts so do let me know what you think of them! Anyway, have an excellent Christmas and a fabdab New Year; stay safe and enjoy yourself! I'll be revising most of the time, but I'll try to write another post in a week or so. 

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

xxxx

Change up for the barnet: Ombré Part 1

Hey guys!

So I am officially back on here after being away for I don't even want to know how long - I feel very out of it so please bear with me. I'm going to kick off my return with some special news.
I have ombréd my hair. 
I jumped on the bandwagon on Friday with the help of my amazing friend Shannon, who happens to work in a hair
dressers (how coincidentally useful right?). 

A few disclaimers:
I had never dyed my hair before so if you have already dyed hair, ask someone who is more expertly
informed on that!
This review will be 100% honest and truthful to my real opinion, so please bare that in mind
when you read this.
This is about DIYing ombre hair, so not about getting it done professionally.

Anyway, this post is just to tell you guys how I did it if any of you are interested, perhaps to show you a few 
pictures of the process and to review the product I used.
Enjoy!

What you will need:

- Some form of bleaching kit. You CANNOT use blond hair dye, because unfortuately, you need to really lift the 
colour of your hair and only bleach will do the trick. I used the L'Oréal Paris Preference Wild Ombrés box.
- An old towel that you don't mind getting dirty. A lighter one is best as you won't notice the bleaching as much.
- An old T-shirt that you again don't mind getting dirty.
- A window that you can open because the smell will probably be filthy. 
- An available shower or bath where you can wash the dye out.

The kit that I used:

RRP: £6.99 from Tesco - what a bargain! 

I chose to use Ombre No.1 even though I have medium brown hair so technically I should have gone with Ombre No. 2. I chose this primarily because it had better reviews and I didn't want it toooo blond. Also, it was the only one available in the shop. :)

What do you get in the box?

- The brush that you use to apply the product

- One sachet of lightening powder (1)

- One bottle of developer creme (2)

- One tube of lightening creme (3)

- One mini bottle of conditioning shampoo (4)

- A set of instructions

- A little capsule containing a pair of plastic gloves

First of all, you pour all of the powder into the bottle of developer creme. Then, you open the tube of lightening creme and squeeze all that you can into the same bottle and first roll it between your hands, then shake it well. At this point, make sure you crack open a window, because it really does smell awful.

Then you put on the gloves, unscrew the tip of the bottle and apply a lot of the dye to the brush and brush it through the tips of your hair. I chose to do this first and leave it on for about 5 minutes because I wanted the ends of my hair to be the blondest. I kept moving up my hair, each time leaving it for 3-5 minutes, eventually stopping around where my chin was. This was to create a natural, gradient effect. As well as applying it with the brush, we also scrunched the product with our hands to make it look more messy which adds to the intended effect of ombre. In total, I left it for about half an hour before washing it out with the shampoo they gave me, and it gave me a beautiful caramel blonde colour which wasn't unnatural or harsh at all.

It did make the ends of my hair slightly dry, but as I was due for a haircut anyway, I decided to wait until the day after I dyed my hair to go to the hairdressers and get it styled, conditioned and fixed if anything did go wrong (which it didn't!)

So here are some pictures of the process and the results!

As well as combing it through, Shannon also applied it directly to my hair

The final stages of the process, where she was just making sure she didn't miss any bits

Washing it out!

The end result straight after washing and blow drying. You can see
the damage, but it wasn't anything that couldn't be repaired or treated.

The colour of my ends up close

The natural colour of my hair before (please excuse
my appearance, this was taken over a year ago.)

Finally! This is with no effect or enhancement to the picture. As you can see, it's hardly even noticeable,
but still a really pretty gradient that is natural.

So I think that is all! I hope you have found this at least a little bit useful if you want to do this yourself, or even if you're interested in my new hair. It was quite a big step for me as it was the first time dying my hair, but I think this was the perfect thing to do; it was cheap, it was easy and I LOVE it! Do consider giving it a go if you're looking for something fun and easy to do and if you're super nervous about messing it up, get it done professionally!
In a few weeks, I will do Part 2 of this topic where I will talk about the way I care for my ombre hair and what products have worked the best for me, so keep your eyes out for that. 
For now, thanks for reading. Bye!

xxxx

EDIT:: Since then I have had my hair cut (just trimmed) to take off most of the damage which I thought would be good to do to make sure it was as healthy as it could be.

However, I should probably also mention that I actually re-did my hair about a week after I wrote that post. Now, the reason for this is because I just didn't feel like the blonde was noticeable enough. The colour was so gradiented (if that's even a word) that you hardly noticed it in certain lights and I just wanted it blonder. I knew that it would damage my hair but since I'd just had it cut, I decided to do it again. I used the same L'Oreal kit but this time I actually did it myself and used No.3 for blonde hair. I left it in for about 45 minutes and I love the way it turned out. It's a lot blonder but still looks natural and not too much at all.