Lifestyle- Time for a Re-vamp

I'm back! I've had a couple of weeks to start getting my life back on track now so I'm ready to get back to blogging properly now everything is a little clearer in my head.
Something that I'm finally getting round to doing after months of procrastination is a spot of decorating and de-cluttering. Clutter is something I seem to attract like a magnet but it stresses me like nothing else so its time for it to go...or at least be hidden and/or neatly organised so it doesn't make me sulk :P
So here's the plan!

1. Whilst I don't like cluttered surfaces, I do love having things on the wall so pretty mirrors are a must. I have a mirror very similar to this hiding somewhere in the house waiting to be cleaned off and hung above the bed side table against a newly papered wall.

2. As well as mirrors, pictures have a big space in my heart. Our house is a classic old Bath stone house with high ceilings and big walls just asking to hold artwork. This one is from Urban Outfitters...and may have to find its way to my home.

3. I'm doing my decorating on a budget but one thing I am willing to spend money and invest in is a lovely lamp for my dressing table. I spend a lot of time there both doing work and making myself look presentable so I think £15 for a functional and pretty funky looking lamp is allowed :)

4. If you read my previous "take a little snoop" post you may have noticed that all of my jewellery was previously hung on a large tree stand where it was all visible. The problem with this is that it had got to the point of being too full so it didn't look very nice any more so I'm on the hunt for a pretty vintage looking travel case to store it in all neat and tidy.

5. Once a clutterer always a clutterer. I'll never be able to resist pretty but impractical bits and pieces ;)

6. In the same way as I love mirrors and pictures, photos will always play a big part in decorating my home. At the moment though many are just stuck to the wall with blue tack so I bought these prety heart frames from ebay for £4.99 to organise my chaos better. One of my walls is a fab shade of fuchsia so I chose to buy white frames that will stand out nicely against the pink.

So what do you think of my action? I'll post some photos when I'm finished to show you the transformation. Todays task is to sort through my bulging wardrobe and cull some of the more neglected clothes and shoes that fill it and then its off for sushi with the lovely Kassi :)
Annie x

A Little New Phone Bling

My phone is one of my favourite possessions. Its the (rather large) Samsung Galaxy Note II and I've had it since november now. I was only recently though that I got around to giving it a shiny, blingtastic coat.

So here it is, my pretty new case. I am in love with it :)
My pretty case was made by a lovely lady who I found through the beauty swaps group that I am part of on facebook *she has a page you can find her portfolio on here* She makes the majority of her cases to order and each one is totally unique which I really love. It feels like I'm carrying around a piece of art in my hand :)

For my case I asked for pots of pink, purple and pearly bits and pieces and I wasn't disappointed! There is a lovely mix of big and smaller pieces all set in a whipped cream like fixing and Samantha is happy to let you choose the type of decorations you would like. Because of the size of my phone we decided to go for nothing too chunky. He's hiding in my photos above, but in Samantha's photo of the case below you can see my favourite decoration; the gingerbread man peeping out :)

I really do love my phone case and can't recommend Samantha's work enough- like I say, they're like your own little piece of art in your hand.
What do you think of my phone case? Is it something you'd like for your phone? Which is your favourite decoration from my case?
Annie xx

Life Lately

It feels like a long time since I've written anything here, and that makes me sad. I love my blog but life lately has been pretty full of stress and a bit of a battle to stay on top of things. I won't go into it too much but a mixture of work worries and some huge changes in my personal life have left me pretty drained and all I've wanted to do is sleep or go out socialising to try and relax a bit.

I haven't forgotten about my blog and I'm looking forward to when I feel ready to get back to it properly which should hopefully be by the end of next week when I know what's happening at work.
Try not to forget me, it feels like a lot of things I love are drifting away at the moment.

On a more positive note, heres a cute owl AND cat related photo for you :)

Annie xx

Makeup Mugshot- Just Another Manic Monday

I've had that song stuck in my head for hours now. It feels like a while since I've posted a mugshot so heres todays makeup from 7.30 this morning. It feels like spring is finally starting to show itself so I've been going for light and glowing the last few days :)

 I'm loving these Russian doll earrings at the moment, I like that they're nice and eye catching, especially worn against fairly subtle makeup.

Products Used:

Face-
Rimmel Wake Me Up foundation in True Ivory
Seventeen Oh So Spring blusher in coral
Lush Emotional Brilliance face powder
Benefit High Beam highlighter

Eyes-
Bobbi Brown mahogany on brows
MAC Paint pot in Painterly
Soap and Glory Thick and Fast mascara

Lips-
Lush Mint Julips lip scrub
Seventeen Honey Trap lipstick

What do you think of todays mugshot? Have you posted any looks recently? What look have you been going for?
Annie xx

17 Oh so Spring! Cheek Stamp Blusher Review

I first saw this blusher featured on All That Slap a few weeks ago and got hopelessly over excited at the idea of stamp on makeup, I think it might be the child in me coming to the surface. In short though, I KNEW I had to have one.

The idea is a simple one, the product comes as a powder pan blusher with a screw on lid, however, instead of coming with a brush like some blushers do, this product comes with a rounded sponge built in to the lid that springs up as you unscrew the top. There's also a handy little mirror on the lid of the product which means that you can easily stamp and blend whilst on the go.

The product is amazingly easy to use; you just stamp on to the apple of the cheek and blend with your fingers to get a soft, spring ready colour. Before blending you do look like a badly painted china doll, or maybe a slightly more subtley toned clown but the inner child resurfaced and I just found this to be part of the novelty of the blusher.

Once blended out onto the cheeks you are left with a gorgeous soft glow that isn't too heavy. My worry was that there would still be a visible circle from the stamp however I'm happy to say that isn't the case at all. The powder is nice and finely milled and blends in very easily. I've also found that the colour is nice and long lasting on the cheeks, and still sits nicely even after a long day at work.
Price wise this is a bargain at just £4.99 and I think the fact that it is limited edition makes it feel that little bit extra special to me. You can get this blusher in two shades; pink and coral (the one shown above is coral).

What do you think of the new 17 spring blushers? Do you find the novelty of the product as exciting as I do? Have you tried them yet? I think I might have to go back and get the pink version...and possibly hoard another of the coral!
Annie x

Benefit Feelin' Dandy Perk Me Up Kit

 The beautiful make up from Benefit never fails to entice me, and I think this kit actually has to be my favourite item in my entire makeup collection at the moment. It is so beautifully designed and contains nearly everything I need to be able to do my makeup in the mornings.

 The Feelin' Dandy kit contains a 4ml bottle of both Posie tint lip and cheek stain and High Beam highlighter, a 3g Dandelion blusher cake and a 6.5ml tube of Dandelion lip gloss. As well as this you also get a mini blush brush, a tips and tricks leaflet and a mirror built in to the lid of the kit :)
Each makeup item in the kit is numbered to correspond with the tips in the leaflet. I'll be honest though, the real reason I love this kit is simply that it contains all of my favourite products and means that I can easily use them together, even when I'm on the go.

Feelin' Dandy is the kit designed for fair skin tones and the shades are all pretty, pastel pinks designed to blend together beautifully. I've found myself reaching for this kit nearly every day for the last couple of months and using the Posie tint and Dandelion blusher combination to contour my cheeks and then the High Beam to highlight around my brows. I've never been a huge gloss fan so I haven't been using the Dandelion lip gloss as much, but I have popped a bit on top of my lipstick a few times for a little extra glow :)

At £25.50 I think that the convenience of this kit makes it very worth the investment. At first the bottles look fairly small but even after using them almost daily for several months now, there is still plenty left. Everyone knows that the quality of Benefit makeup is high and a favourite of a lot of makeup junkies like me so all in all, a great quality, very functionable, fairly reasonably priced kit that would make a great gift as well :)

What do you think of the Feelin' Dandy kit? Have you tried any of the perk me up kits? Would the price put you off?
Annie xx