NOTD

I haven't done one of these for a while as I've only been painting them plain colours mostly and I guess that could get quite boring. Today I sat down and realised I could be bothered to give one of the many I've seen and loved on Pinterest (@xtiffyxx - follow me!) a go. So I did!

Base coat: Maybelline - Express Finish, Base & Top Coat.

Pink: Models Own - Sophie's Pink.

White: Barry M - Matt White.

Black: a cheap liquid eyeliner from Asda.

Top coat: China Glaze - First & Last.

First, I applied my base coat. Once dry, I applied the pink on all nails apart from the white ones, which obviously I done white :) I let these dry before applying a second coat. Next I done blobs of pink on the white nails and when they were dry I went round them with the black liquid eyeliner plus a couple of plain black blobs. Last of all, I applied my top coat to help it last a bit longer :)

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here kitty kitty kitty!

Since my cat Bruno got run over when I was at middle school, I've wanted another kitty. Dad never let me and at mine n Aarons first house we weren't allowed pets. Now we have a good landlord who lets us decorate, said we can put a new kitchen in, hang things on the walls, change fixtures etc. and said I can have a cat (and laughed when he saw how excited I was!)

Our neighbour had 2 kittens but for over a month we didn't see him. Every time we passed, the kittens were at the door/window and I felt so sorry for them. I said to Aaron I wanted them even if it was just to look after them til we found them a loving home.. We got home Wednesday evening and saw the neighbour was in so Aaron knocked on his door and asked if he wanted the kittens. He said he wanted to get rid of them and was taking them to the vets the next day and if they didn't have places for them, they'd be put down. Not on my nelly!!!

(please note: the carpet is getting changed sooon, we hate it - very 90s!)

Dotty & Callie

Straight away Aaron said we'll have them and we took them there and then :) they were extremely timid at first but are slowly getting used to us. They love playing and if you have some string they will come straight over but they're not too keen on being picked up yet and if you get up and walk past them they are a little scared but this is easing. If you sit on the floor they will come over and let you stroke them and when we're sitting on sofas they'll jump up and come to us sometimes so I'm sure it won't be long before they're less wary.

Dotty

Both kitties are girls and are sisters and they have very different personalities! Naming Dotty was easy - she is dotty (as in scatty) and is always running and jumping around, the first to explore and the more outgoing of the 2. I think she sort of has a screw loose sometimes, she's nutty. If you put a cuppa down she's the first to come and try to get a lick and has taken quite a liking to Aarons slippers but only when they're on his feet!

Callie

Callie got her name just because its cute, she's cute and I liked it! She is more quiet, preferring to sit and watch/observe, sleep or sprawl in the middle of the floor! She will play if you give her the chance though - and Dotty doesn't come and take over! She is the shiest of the 2 but she is very clever (Dotty is such a dingbat!) if you play a game, she will work it out quicker than Dotty every time.

When they're not play fighting with each other, chasing each other in a loop (round the sofas, round the kitchen, up and down the stairs and back again), trying to drink Aarons cuppa or playing with us or the toys we got them, they can be found under the coffee table, snuggled up together having a snooze - they look SO adorable when they do this :)

I love my kitties so much. Aaron is more like Dotty and I'm more like Callie lol.. so we say Dotty is his and Callie is mine! We bought them some really nice bits this weekend so I'll take pics of them for another post :) I'm off to watch Xfactor now :D so will leave you with a few more pics :)

 - Dont forget to enter my first giveaway if you haven't already! (or if you have, you can earn extra entries by tweeting again each day!)

 

 

Gosh Holographic Hero

There has been quite a bit of hype around this little pot of shiny stuff, hasn't there!
Unfortunately it didn't blow my socks off :(

It looks gorgeous in the bottle and when the light catches it and it has lasted me longer than 24 hours, no chipping or anything yet (just over a days wear including a shower, washing up and cleaning) It seems a little easier to get hold of this time too (if my little Superdrug stocks it everyone else should be okay!!?) It is £4.99.

I'd read it made it less holographic to use a top coat but I tried it anyway, with 3 different base coats and 3 different top coats and it did look slightly better without a top coat. I have read about people layering it up with base/top coats then a top coat of the holographic to make it last but I cant confirm if this works or not or how it looks. The pics I took are 3 coats of the holographic polish without a base coat or top coat.

Talk about hard to photograph! :/

It's no way near as holographic as I was expecting. You reallllyyyy have to look close to see the holographic and its only when light catches it. Unless you're in good daylight, it looks like a plain silver polish.

Being labelled as "one night wear" gives the impression of wearing it for a night out.. But it only looks good in good day light so you may as well just wear a standard silver at night. Maybe it should have been called a "one day wear" ;)

One thing I can definitely say is that I didn't manage to get my nails to look anything like the pictures I'd seen on Google images - the pictures that pushed me to buy it! At no point has it looked like the picture below:

Picture from Google images ^

Maybe in summer when the sun is really shining, it might look better but for now I can say I'm not overly amazed by it and wouldn't repurchase. Is it different this time round to last time in regards to how holographic it is? Have you tried it? - What are your thoughts?

- Dont forget to enter my first giveaway if you haven't already! (or if you have, you can earn extra entries by tweeting again each day!)

Holiday - I'm back!

So, if you follow me on Twitter (@xtiffyxx) then you'll know I'm back from our week away in Wales.
By the way, I've really got the hang of this Twitter thing now, I tweet most days so tweeeeet meee :)
Anyway, it was really nice having a week away with Aaron, on our own and away from home and everything "normal" we both said we just wanted a chill out break and that is exactly what we had.

please excuse my terrible roots!!

Unfortunately we didn't enjoy west Wales as there isn't a great deal to do and the roads (up and down, up and down.. ears popping/aching with pressure and bends and sharp turns every 5 mins) left us feeling like we'd been on loads of rides at the fairground which is not nice! Literally after each journey we felt spinny!

I would jump at the chance to live in south Wales but I don't intend of ever going back to the west coast. We made of it what we could and it wasn't as bad as Cornwall but we still drove home a day early.. The 6 hour car drive wasn't so bad on the way home as we stopped at Ikea, oohyeah!

Everywhere we visited this time round.. How very organised of me!

We stayed in a coastal village called New Quay but as I said there wasn't really anything to do for us so we ventured out every day. My favourite days was when we visited Carmarthen and Betws-y-Coed. They're completely different from each other though - Carmarthen was good for shopping and restaurants and Betws-y-Coed was just really beautiful and great for pictures.
I can imagine the area we stayed is brilliant in the summer for those with children as the beaches are real nice but in October, it just didn't look very special. It stayed dry nearly every day but it rained like nothing I'd heard before every single night.

New Quay

View of Aberystwyth

We took the cliff train up a hill on the edge of Aberystwyth one day, the views were great :) - pics don't do it justice. We had tea and cakes in the cafe at the top where we made friends.. They were 80-something and took a real liking to us, bless them! We heard stories about all sorts like how their pension is rubbish - so rubbish they were on holiday..!

Cwmystwyth

Its not Wales without sheeps!

Barmouth

 

The day we visited Barmouth was the warmest day. We were told by the oldies we got talking to in Aberystwyth (we called it wiff wiff as its quicker and Aaron was struggling to say it haha) that it was a really nice place. It's a dump! I don't know if we just have high expectations because of where we live (Suffolk) but it really was grotty.. The beach bit was pretty but the shops were not.

Betws-y-Coed

Betws-y-Coed

Betws-y-Coed is in the heart of Snowdonia and is really pretty :) There isn't really anything there but that is a good thing, its unspoilt. Its basically a river through a small village but its picture perfect. I wish we'd had longer there but it started to get dark and we were over 2 hours from New Quay.

 

I didn't get many good pictures and I know it doesn't sound the most thrilling of holidays but we had quality time away together and that's what we wanted :)

What really topped the holiday off for me was going to Ikea on the way home. Is that sad?! I can't help it, I love the place! Although the Birmingham one didn't seem quite as good/big as Milton Keynes or Thurrock/Lakeside. Is this the case or is it just me?! Does anyone know which one in the UK is the best one?! Ooh please let me know if you know!

Meatballs at IKEA. YUM!

Anyway, we still managed to spend 3 hours (but included in this was meatball eating time! - you cannot go to Ikea and not have them, it's law, surely?! They're so yummm.. mmmmm!) in there which meant we caught all the rush hour traffic the rest of the way home. Nightmare!!! The M6/A14 was terrible and it was drizzling too which didn't help matters. We got real fed up of the traffic crawling along and stopped for dinner at some services somewhere and eventually got home at 8pm (we'd left New Quay just after 10am!)

I'll do a seperate post on things we bought or this post will be mahoosive :O

Unfortunately one bad thing is that our car started playing up whilst away. We think the head gasket is on its way out as there is pink fluid leaking over the engine and it's starting to overheat slightly. Oh and the dials don't always work now.. and high beam won't stay on. Poor little puglet :( (Pug 206) Thankfully my mother dearest loves us lots and is lending us some monies to get another car (as I'm not working at the mo we'd never be able to afford it!) so that is a big worry off our shoulders.. Just hope it doesn't die til we have a new one! *fingers crossed/touch wood etc*

- Dont forget to enter my first giveaway if you haven't already! (or if you have, you can earn extra entries by tweeting again each day!)

Models Own buys

I think every man and this dog took advantage of the Models Own 50% off sale. How could you not?! Part of me wanted to order it all, possibly through sheer excitement! - But thankfully for Aarons bank account, I had my sensible hat on ;)

From L-R: Vintage Pink, Naked Shimmer, Pink Blush, 3 in 1 and Lashed Up Volumiser Mascara.

Now, I don't know if it's my computer screen or my eyes but the colours I got did not match with the colours shown on their website. (If anyone else agrees/disagrees with this do let me know so I know if the problem is my end or theirs!) Although annoyed by the colours not matching between my order and the website, other than Pink Blush I'm super duper happy with my items..

- Vintage Pink came out more reddish brown than the pinky/browny/bare colour I saw on screen.
If I saw this colour on the shelf, I probably wouldn't pick it up but I put it on my nails and decided that actually it's a really nice, creamy autumn colour and it will definitely be getting lots of use!

- Naked Shimmer was slightly lighter than shown on screen.
BUT it's a gorgeous colour and has become one of my favourites - the website doesn't do it justice. In the bottle it has a pretty golden shimmer to it although once on the nails you can't see it unless you look closely but this doesn't bother me, I still love it!

 

 - Pink Blush was the most disappointing. Its worth putting in here - I always look on Google for swatches before buying nail polish online.. The Models Own website shows Pink Blush to be a babyish pink on the little blob then you click and it looks like a medium, creamy, pastely pink.. What I received was almost neon pink!
The good thing to come from this one was that I emailed Models Own about it and they're sending me 2 free polishes to ease my disappointment which I think is really good of them :)

- The 3 in 1 polish has a blue tint (looks like it might be UV?), which isn't mentioned online and can really change a colour - I put it on top of the Naked Shimmer and it looked light purple :/ - Which you can really see in the pic of the 3 colours on my nails at the top.
Although I won't be wearing this on top of Naked Shimmer again, I will be able to wear it with almost every other colour I own (around 100 now) so it's no biggie!

This was the item I was the most chuffed with! I wasn't expecting it to blow my socks off and thought as it was half price, it wouldn't hurt to give it a go and I'm so glad I did! It has replaced all my other mascaras and I just use this one now, I love it! I'll be honest, I only picked it cause it was pink!! It does a good job at showing off my lashes, without looking too boring natural or too fake over the top, a very, very happy medium. Without a doubt, I will repurchase this (good excuse to order more nail polish too, right? :) Normal price is £6 which I think is more than fair.

- Dont forget to enter my first giveaway if you haven't already! (or if you have, you can earn extra entries by tweeting again each day!)