Someday Summary - Wednesday

♥ After walking past the "Hummingbird Bakery" on Portobello Road in London too many times, and never actually stopping to investigate, I decided that last week, whilst visiting, I was going to go in & make a spontaneous purchase on cupcakes. I absolutely friggin love cupcakes. I never get enough time to make them, and mine never come out as amazing as the ones they have to offer, so I did treat myself. I think the one's I purchased were £1.95 each. They are of the basic vanilla & butter icing variety, but they did have other fancy ones. To be honest, I felt a little overwhelmed & felt like the ladies behind the counter were thinking "Hurry up woman, they're only blummin cupcakes, pick some". I'd also like to add, they were DELICIOUS & I definitely urge you to visit. If anyone knows anywhere besides "The Hummingbird Bakery" in London that offers scrumptious cupcakes, do share.

♥ After my last blogpost on Charity Shopping, it inspired me & the muvster (that's mum), to hit the charity shops. So that is exactly what we did today. We went to 4 different towns, and about 10 different charity shops (call us crazy if you must) and I picked up a fair few amazing garments, and a nice amount of books that some of you had reccommended to me after my book post. I will post up on my finds if you so wish.

♥ Whilst out today, we went into a little gift shop & I fell in love with the Valentines "Juicy Lucy" range. There were cards, chocolates & other little bits and pieces. I wanted all of it, but alas, I only have one boyfriend & so more than one card could be deemed somewhat naughty. I did buy a little pack of "Filthy Fairy Notes". Don't be alarmed, I do have a slight sense of humour & when it comes to silly things like Valentines day, you definitely won't see me buying huge cards with hearts all over them & gag-worthy lines like "To the one I love" or "To the very special man in my life". I'd rather buy something slightly less cheese. Some of these were surprisngly "filthy" but some were a little more softcore haha. So, If you're like me, and you prefer to have a slight laugh & not take Valentines too seriously or cheese-fest-ingly (Yes, i think i just made this word up) then check out the website. Or, yanno, if you do like being a big cheeseball, just stick to a 5ft teddybear.

A few of the cards they had that I liked. How adorable is the peanut one? haha

♥ I think I have a slight obsession with Jessie J. I've been following her on Youtube for what seems like years, so for her to now be playing on the radio is madness. I'm ever so pleased for her. I must admit, I find her mannerisms slightly distracting annoying but her voice is absolutely amazing. I've been listening to this song over & over, and I'm guessing it's going to be on the album in March as she's called it "Who You Are". Listen & Enjoy.

♥ I have also been a little obsessed over Iphone Photography apps. Mainly Instagram & Pudding Camera - Both free :) If you are a bit of a photography enthusiast & love photos with a retro/vintage feel, I urge you to get these Iphone apps and have a play around. 

♥ Currently Reading Little Chief Honeybee & Shutterbug

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Granny Chic on a Budget.

Handbag - Bootsale - £1 Silk Scarf - Bootsale - 20p

It became quite apparent to me, whilst strolling through Topshop on Oxford St, London (I literally get lost in there) that a lot of the things on sale for stupidly high prices, could be found at a fraction of the cost in charity shops all over the UK. I still have a very love-hate relationship with Topshop...

Affordable fashion? Really?
Long-Lasting? Questionable.
Unique? Not Always. Every girl & their mum has the same item.
Quality? Sometimes.

Overall it's pretty hit and miss, and i go through phases of wanting things from there, and then I go back to dissliking it again. If they dropped their prices slightly, I might be more inclined. Although the point of this post is not to go into detail about Topshop, it's simply to highlight other places you can grab similar things, for much, much less. This winter, I have mainly bought my jumpers and cardigans from Charity Shops. The prices in high street stores of winter clothing always shocks me. Especially if you want quality. I have had a bit of an obsession with 80's batwing jumpers. I wear them with leggings, or shorts, or a bandeau skirt.

Top photo: left - Batwing Jumper bought from Brick Lane for £5, Right - Cardigan from Charity shop for £6
Bottom photo: Vintage Beaded tops L-R - Charity Shop £5, Ebay £6

I'm also a big fan of the beaded "granny chic" evening tops. You don't really see anything similar on the high street the best place to find them is Charity shops and Ebay. I like to wear them with leggings. Just something a bit more exciting and different for a night out or evening do ;)

Top left photo: Both jumpers from a Charity shop, £3 & £4
Bottom left photo: Chairty shop again, £5 & £4
Mohair coat/jacket - Charity Shop £5

The mohair coat was such a find, I absolutely love it with my military boots and a messy updo, and it kept me warmer on minus freezing days than any other coats I own. I really can't encourage you enough to check out the Charity shops and bootsale's for vintage items, be it clothing or accessories. Even if none of this is your style, you will find something,to suit you and it's somehow a lot more satisfying.

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The best things in life are free.

For a while now, I've been depotting my mac eye shadows & popping them into palettes, as it saves space & makes things a lot easier when looking for certain colours. Obviously not everyone thinks this way, and for those of you who prefer to have the indivdual pots, this blog post may sway you slightly. I'd been saving all my eye shadow pots in a little bag & I had then shoved them in a draw & completely forgot about them. It was always something on my "to do list". For those of you who aren't aware of the Back to Mac scheme, it's basically just a good way of recycling empty packaging & Mac give you something back in return for 6 empties. Usually a lipstick. I took along my 18 eye shadow empties & picked out 3 new colours. It would have cost me £40.50 but got 100% discount. Very satisfying indeed. These 3 are the colours that I had been oggling for a while, and obviously with the lipstick now retailing at £13.50 (stop mac, seriously, stop with the price increases) now is a good time to take back your empties. I picked up Chatterbox, Creme Cup & Shy Girl.

Lush also do a recycling scheme, where if you take back 5 empty black pots, you get a free fresh face mask. I don't find it very hard emptying any lush black pots, especially if you regularly buy the fresh face masks anyway, they only have a shelf (or fridge) life of 2-3 weeks, so after this time it should all be used up. I am definitely guilty of throwing a few away in the past...and now i regret it. I picked up "Catastrophe Cosmetic". It's my absolute favourite face mask. I love everything about it, the smell, the colour, the texture, the way it makes my skin look. I'll be buying these over and over and over, and then hopefully being rewarded for recyling buy recieving a free one every now and then :)

Overall, quite a satisfying little shop, since I ended up spending no money on things I actually want and love. So, ladies and gentlemen, the moral of this blog post is SAVE YOUR EMPTIES & SAVE THE PLANET. :)

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Someday Summary - Saturday

Sorry that i'm updating you on my not-so-exciting life again this evening, I wanted to show you a few bits i've bought recently but I got back from work & it was dark, so that will have to wait until tomorrow when I can actually take some photos in good lighting.

♥ The photos above were taken last night, My brother (Joe) was off to a masquerade ball and I was off out for drinks with my girlies. We don't have many photo's together, and any that we do have, are either stupid or old. Look how much we've changed! In the old photo, I believe I was about 5 & Joe was probabaly 3 or 4. I do hope you appreciate my crazed expression (I promise i'm not posessed) & my equally terriffic jumper. I just want to squish my brothers chubby little cheeks. I also find it quite funny that aged 5, i am sporting naturally ombred hair...
He will be off travelling on Wednesday & I've helped to create a blog so he can document his antics. So follow that HERE. Nothing on it yet, but he will be doing a post before he goes, and obviously posting lots whilst he's away for 3 months.
♥ My week is getting slightly better since Wednesday's "Bleurgh" post. Lots more work & distractions & a few hours of peeking sunshine.
♥ I have rekindled my love of Ebay. This is never a good thing. First purchase of the year on ebay is an oversized, vintage farm yard animal jumper. Not everyone's cup of tea i'm sure, but I would quite like to wear it with leggings, my boots & a bit of a messy barnet up-do. I'm sure i can work those farmyard animals somehow.
♥ Currently reading A Twenty-Something & Thats Peachy

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Samsung Photography Challenge

As some of you might be aware via twitter, I am part of the Samsung Photography Challenge.
I was contacted by a PR company working alongside Samsung to help promote the different digital cameras they have to offer. Photography being something I absolutely love, and have always loved, I was definitely up for it. I was provided with a Samsung digital camera & I've been placed in the "style" category. There are also 3 other Samsung camera triallers (who are all more advanced than little old me), each with different cameras. Every month, you can vote for what you'd like me to take a photograph of, and once the votes are all counted, I am then set the challenge of capturing the winning vote. I am doing this every month for 6 months. I really loved the idea of this. They could have just sent me over the camera, told me to have a play about with it, then written out a review. But instead, I love that we are all a little more involved & being challenged to take photographs we might not normally try and capture. It's like being back in A Level Photography & having homework. haha. The categories aren't easy either. They really are a "challenge". My first was to capture "celebrating in the form of singing and dancing". This could have been an even bigger struggle had it not been New Years Eve. Once my chosen photo is uploaded, you can then rate it out of 5. I don't win anything for gaining a high score, it's just there for you to express your love/hate for the photo. Although I should hope you would all be kind enough to rate me nicely. :)
Obviously, the purpose of the Challenges are for me to get a bit creative & try different things out with the camera. For any of you who are thinking of getting a new digital camera, you should definitely check out the site, and how well the 4 different camera models work. There's nothing more honest than the photo's themselves.

Samsung Challenge Page
Samsung Capture on Twitter

If you are interested in photography like me, or like I said, are looking to buy a new camera, then do check out the blog & get involved with voting for the challenges and rating the chosen images. I will be tweeting about it when the time comes each month, so keep an eye out. Obviously, you don't have to, but it would be great if you did.

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I am not affilated with Samsung, I haven't been compensated or asked to write this blog post & I am not being sponsored. I am simply using one of their cameras :)

Someday Summary - Wednesday

Last photo left in for comedic value. I wasnt even aware I could make that shape with my mouth.

♥ BLEURGH. This is how I am currently feeling. Just bleurgh. January is just so depressing. It's always the worst time of the year for me. No real reason, I just hate the weather, the lack of money etc etc. Even when the sun breaks through a dark horrible cloud on a very rare occasion I am instantly cheered up. I guess i'm one of those who's mood is greatly affected by weather, and because of this I have decided that I definitely need to either hibernate through the crappy first few months of the year OR move somewhere warm every winter. ;) This week has just been a pile of poop. Everything is going wrong. I need something good to happen before I self destruct.
♥ Anyone else think that Wednesday nights are the worst for good tv. Whilst doing my every-10-minutes-channel flicking in order to find something half decent to watch, I came across "Never Been Kissed"on E4. Great film. Gotta love those 90's chick flicks. What's your favourite?
♥ Excited for Adele's new album. Very excited in fact.
♥ I now have a tripod, so I can start attempting to do some half decent-ish outfit posts. Hoorah!
♥ Currently reading Stephanie Dreams and Sophia's Journal

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L'oreal Studio Secrets HD Foundation & MeMeMe blush

After my recent Superdrug haulage, a lot of you wanted a review on the foundation and the blush in particular. Since I have been wearing both everyday since they were added to my evergrowing collection I decided to *attempt* to photograph my face for you & to give you a mini review of each.

L'oreal Studio Secrets HD Foundation

This is not cheap. At all, in fact probably the most expensive "drugstore" foundation I have come across (there may be one that is more expensive - I just don't know about it). It retails in select Superdrug shops for £16.39. Cheaper than a lot of high end brands but definitely a lot more expensive than any other low end brand. Firstly, if you don't like using a brush to apply your foundation, skip this. Pretty standard. The coverage, although it's not stated anywhere, is definitely not full. I'd say it was light to medium but buildable. Perfect for me, but i know not everyone is comfortable enough with anything BUT heavy coverage. The website states that the foundation captures light and delivers a flawless satin-soft result. This is true, in photos I think the foundation looks fab. I can see why they called it the "smoothing HD foundation". However, if you have oily skin, or mega problem areas, stay well away from this foundation unless you have a primer or you use lots of powder post application, as it really is a very dewy-looking finish. Which personally, suffering with dryer skin than most, is my favourite finish. I started off really hating this foundation. I hated the streaky brush marks where the brush hadn't softened enough, I wasn't overly impressed with the packaging (clicking the bottom to push the foundation out just wasnt working, i found myself clicking for flipping ages, and then my clicker broke, which then meant everytime i wanted to click it up, i had to pull it back down first). I very nearly gave up on it, and thought "what a waste of flipping MOOLAH!", but my clicker started working again, and product came out 10x easier and the bristles had softened so applying it was a lot easier. I would definitely love this produt a lot more, if there was more than just 17ml for £16.39 (almost £1 per ml - ridiculous) and possibly just with a pump application. I like the brush, but it's not essential.

MeMeMe Blush in "Coral"

I don't have as much to say about this one. Mainly because I just love it & you all need it in your life. It's extremely pigmented, blends well & looks so pretty on. It retails in Superdrug for £8.50 which could be a little steep for a lower end brand once again, but it's very obvious that this is a mimick of a Benefit blush, which retails for over £23. I own both & can honestly say the only difference that I have noticed between the two, is that Coralista by Benefit has a much pinkier undertone and is a little more finely milled, thus blends a lot easier. It also has a diddy little brush & a mirror underneath the top lid. The only gripe I have with this, is that it takes up a lot of room in my makeup bag. That I can live with ;)

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