Lifestyle | Trip to Wales in photos

Hello there :) 

How is everyone today? It's nearly the weekend yay! Has anyone got any nice plans this weekend? I'm working, sleeping and walking Barney so nothing overly exciting but it's my idea of a good weekend. I don't know about you but where I am this morning we have got the most beautiful sunshine, and it's almost slightly warm when you are in the sun! There is a hint of spring in the air which is very exciting!! Me and my dad went for a lovely long dog walk this morning and I always think there is nothing better than being outside in the beautiful countryside on a sunny day, I find it very relaxing! 

So as some of you may know last week, me and my family went to Wales for the week on holiday and as I love to take pictures I went a bit snap happy and took lots of photos and thought I would share them with you as Wales is such a beautiful place and well I don't know about you but I love being nosey and looking at people's pictures of their holidays. The majority of these photos are going to be of Barney and the countryside as my family aren't huge photo takers of ourselves. So if you love looking at pictures of dogs or the countryside keep scrolling down :) 

There was this really cool public footpath tunnel that went underneath the house, you could hear when people were walking underneath it as you were able to hear them chatting whilst you were in the house. 

We celebrated my Great Uncle Alan's 70th birthday whilst we where away and he is obsessed with Mickey Mouse and Disney so my aunt made him this amazing cake! 

This is the beautiful house we stayed in :) 

If you made it through all the photos well done, took me ages to sort through and narrow them down I  just seem to get far too snap happy! I just love taking pictures and catching those special moments!!  I'm not going to do a specific Barney picture today as there were a good few for you to see above :) 

Have any of you been on holiday recently? Where did you go? 

As always hope you are all well and jolly! 

Anna-Louise 

xx

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Aspergers | Achievement #3

Hello there :) 

How is everyone today?! Hope you are all feeling great! Have you been up to anything exciting this week so far or have you got anything exciting planned?! Me and mum travelled up to London yesterday for a trip to Selfridges because we are cool like that! We didn't go to spend money we just wanted to look round and managed to spend over 2 hours on the first floor! There is just so much to look at in there it's a bit overwhelming. Luckily it wasn't very busy so we could look round easily. 

The main reason we went up to London was to go and look around The London School of Beauty, as I want to study to become a MUA (makeup artist). This is going to be a big thing for me as education and learning has always been a struggle for me. The London School of Beauty are able to cater for my specific needs which is fantastic as at last I will be able to start studying in a few weeks for my dream career path. However the school is in London which means I'm really going to have to step outside my comfort zone as I will have to travel to London by myself as mum won't be able to come all that way everyday but I feel ready for the challenge and I'm so passionate about makeup and becoming an MUA that I'm sure it will be worth it and it will be a gigantic achievement at the end of it!

Anyway enough of me rambling on about that! 

So today I thought I would share with you another one of my aspergers achievements, as my plan is to blog them and share them with others so I can look back to see the things I have achieved when things aren't going as well, remember positive thinking is the way forward well that's something I believe anyway. I also hope these posts may help others in similar situations. 

Like I have said in previous posts these achievements may sound silly to some people but to me they are incredibly big things. I have just been away on a lovely holiday to Wales with my family for a week and we had a lovely relaxing week. I'm incredibly grateful for my parents taking me with them on such a nice holiday. Wales is such a beautiful country, I think it's a country anyway, I always get confused with what is a country and what is a county they are spelt so similarly to confuse things further. We stayed in a beautiful house, which felt just like home which was a great thing as I get very unsettled and stressed in an unfamiliar environment but I settled in there almost straight away which meant the holiday went much smoother.

silly wind made me look like a lion!

Now previously when we have been on holiday, because I get stressed at the fact that I am in an unfamiliar environment and we are all together in one place for a period of time and well when I'm unsettled I'm quite good at winding the rest of my family up and starting arguments. Not on purpose I would like to add, I'm not purposefully awkward it's just part of me having aspergers and how it affects me.

These arguments never used to be small arguments, before I was on my current medication, my emotions would just take complete control over me and I would go crazy, I really couldn't help it, however the worst thing about it was that it would ruin our holidays, and I feel so guilty for that now mainly because I would make holidays difficult for my younger brother who is one of the sweetest and most patient young people going I think. To be honest I don't think I could ask for a better brother, I probably should tell him this more because he has put up with me and my quirks for so many years.

However I have been on my medication for 2 and half years now and it has worked wonders for me, it has helped me to be able to gain so much more control over my emotions, which means we have grown closer as a family so much and I love it :) Family are so important and now that I have got control over so many more things and understand more about aspergers and why I act the way I do we have been able to do so many lovely things as a family where things have gone okay and well our holiday to Wales was one of them.

We managed to go a whole week with no arguments, and I didn't ruin the holiday for Dom, we even went out for walks as a family without any arguments. Now to some of you this may all sound so silly but this really is a big achievement for me that I'm starting to be able to go on holiday and enjoy it, and my family enjoy it with no real big arguments.

We did have a small minor argument in the last couple of hours of the last day as we were packing up but now we all understand me and my ways so much more we were able to see what led up to me feeling the way I did, which were things like packing which I find stressful as things are changing, going home because I've not been feeling myself lately and I'm really struggling with friendships and am feeling very lonely and low at the moment and I was relaxed and happy where we were staying in Wales so wanted to stay. Now again these are only little things, but little things can lead to an explosion. This situation was dealt with by going for a walk with Barney and my mum following  along behind, as when I'm in a mood I'm best left alone to calm down.

My calm down walk with Barney along the beautiful canal! 

This really was only a minor thing and didn't ruin the holiday, In fact I think this holiday was one of the best as well as being stress and argument free ones we have ever had which resulted in us all having a great holiday and that is why to me this is another one of my achievements as a couple of years ago a holiday would have been more stress for everyone than it was worth and now we are able to all go away and have a fantastic time! Remember the little things are more often the big things so it's worth remembering them and celebrating them :) 

The Barney Picture today is one of him on one of the walks we did in Wales! He was obviously yawning and I managed to catch it in a photo, it makes me chuckle, looks like he is trying to say something! He is not however in my good books today as he has decided to roll in fox poo and he STINKS, literally the smell is so bad I can't even describe it we have had to open all the kitchen windows for air! Silly dog must have had a good old roll in it, me and mum are going to attempt to bath him later! Bath times aren't Barney's favourite thing!

Hope you are all well and jolly

Anna-Louise
xx

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Beauty | High end products worth the hype

Hello there :)

How is everyone today? Hope you are all fine and dandy :) I've just got back from a family holiday in Wales which I must say is a beautiful country, however I'm not such a fan of the steep hills, heights are not really my thing! Do any of you like heights? I'm currently writing this in front of a lovely warm log burner, I don't know what it is about log burners but there is just something very calm and relaxing about them and they also make me feel very homely. 

I'm really enjoying writing some beauty posts at the moment, and have really been enjoying the #bbloggers chats on Sundays and 8pm and Wednesdays at 8pm! I love finding out what others think about beauty products and also finding out about what products others think are worth the hype which is kind of what inspired me to do this post. I have also seen similar posts so thought I would share my thoughts on which high end beauty products I think are worth the hype. I find posts like this incredibly useful as high end products are never on the cheap side so it's useful to find out if you are going to get your money's worth. 

There are so many beauty products out there at the moment all claiming they are the best so it can sometimes be difficult to pick one! I tend to read a lot of reviews before I purchase something as I want to make sure others have loved it as then I'm more likely to get on with it and especially when they are products that are going to make me spend a few penny's. I have in the past rushed out to buy certain products that I have then not got on with and I wish I had researched more into before hand.  

There are a number of high end beauty products that have been raved about in the blogging community and I thought I would share with you today the ones that I thought where worth the hype! You may already have some of these products and love them or hate them or you may be tempted to buy them! Either way I hope this post is either  enjoyable to read or helps you :) 

Nars Sheer Glow Foundation: Now I'm sure you all have either heard about this product or have it yourself. It is certainly a product that has been talked about non stop in the blogging community and I'm not surprised why. I must admit I heard about it through other bloggers and vloggers and I'm so glad I did as this has easily become my new holy grail foundation. I have quite dry skin in the winter and fairly normal skin the rest of the year so I wasn't really after a heavy or matte foundation. I was after something that would provide me with light to medium coverage and give me a healthy looking glow and Nars sheer glow has definitely met all of my requirements. It's super easy to apply and blend and gives such a nice healthy looking finish. I've been impressed with this product since day one of owning it and I can't recommend it enough. The other great thing about it is that it lasts all day, which is great as there is nothing worse than wearing a foundation that slips off your face throughout the day. Although this foundation is not on the cheaper side of things I can definitely see why people rate it so highly and if you are thinking about purchasing this personally I feel it's worth a little spending splurge on. 

Elizabeth Arden 8 Hour Cream: Now I'm sure lots of you again either own this magical cream or have heard about it. This was another product that I had heard being rated so highly throughout the blogging community and as it's winter and my skin tends to suffer I wanted to give this a try to combat some of my worst dry spots and let me tell you I am extremely glad I did. This cream is so moisturising and is great for lips and those dry spots other products can't quite seem to sort out. I tend to use it when I do my morning and evening skincare routines and you don't need much of it for it to work it's magic. My lips have been super soft since I have been using it, and it has really helped some of the dry areas on my face. If I'm honest I'm not a fan of the taste but that's probably because your not meant to really eat it so I don't recommend trying that. If your thinking of purchasing this product I say go for it you won't be disappointed I certainly wasn't!

Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Wizz: Now I don't know about you guys but I'm obsessed with my brows and always have been since I was a young teen so am always on the hunt for the next best eyebrow product and well I think I may just have found it. I'm sure lots of you will have heard of the Anastasia Beverly Hills brow range as Anastasia is the queen of brows after all. I have tried a couple of other brow products on the market but nothing worked as well for me as her Brow Wizz has done! I'm officially in love with it, and the best thing about it is that it makes my brows look great without looking fake or drawn on. I really want to try the brow promenade but I don't quite trust myself with it as it's a gel and well me and gel products have a love hate relationship but it's something I want to try in the future for sure. The Brow Wizz has a wax pencil at one end and a spooley brush at the other end. It's a great product for filling in your brows quickly and easily. It's certainly a product I can see being in my make up bag for a very long time in the future. 

Benefit Roller Lash Mascara: Now I'm sure you will have all heard of this product! It has been talked about non stop recently in the blogging community as it is Benefits newest mascara and there was a free sample in the latest ELLE magazine which everyone including myself jumped at the chance of trying. When I first heard about this product I just thought it would be another one of those products claiming they can make your lashes look insane but always being disappointed when you actually try them. However Benefit have got this one just right, I have been beyond impressed with this mascara, and even my mum has who has short lashes with no real curl. Now we both have super long curled lashes and I can see why everyone was raving about it. I currently only have the tester version but both me and my mum will be purchasing the full size versions of this product. I have found my holy grail mascara.

Hourglass Ambient Blush Palette: Hourglass is a brand that I have only stumbled across in the past few months and I'm sure glad I did, the blogging community is partly to thank for this. They are a more expensive high end brand but the quality of their products is incredible. I stumbled across this palette and fell in love so got my aunt to pick it up from America for me for Christmas as it's much cheaper over there and I'm so glad she did. You get 3 different shades of blushes in this product; Luminous Flash which is a champagne rose colour, Incandescent Electra which is a peach colour and Mood Exposure which is a plum colour. All of these shades also have a illuminating powders in which make the colours look amazing. The great thing about these blushes is that a little product goes a long way which is great as it means this is hopefully going to be a long lasting palette that you get your money's worth from. I've been super impressed with this palette every time I have used it and is a great addition to my makeup collection. 

What high end products do you think are worth the hype? Have any of you managed to find any dupes for these products? 

Now today's Barney picture was taken by my lovely father, I thought I better give him credit for this photo as he took it and it will make him feel special! He's cute and reads all my blogs too so hi dad this photo is a shoutout to you! This Barney photo was taken on our last walk in Wales on our holiday, I think someone was holding a stick for Barney to pose like this, he loves sticks and there were plenty of them in the woods we walked in. Poor Barney did get a bit confused with what was a stick and what was actually still a tree at times. 

Hope you are all well and jolly :) 

Anna-Louise

xx

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Beauty | Current Favourite Makeup Brushes

Helloooo there :) 

How is everyone today?! Hope all is fine and dandy as always if not turn that frown upside down it's nearly the weekend :) Yay I hear you shout! Have any of you got any nice plans this weekend? I'm travelling back from a super holiday in Wales and then working :)

Today I thought I would do yet another beauty post, I'm really enjoying doing beauty posts as it's something I'm really passionate about so I find them easy to write and the words just flow from my mouth to my laptop or something like that!

Since collecting makeup has become a hobby of mine I have also started to build a collection of makeup brushes because the right tools are key for easy application of makeup, and well like makeup you can never have too many brushes so I thought I would share with you my current favourite brushes as I don't know about you but I'm always on the look out for new ways to apply my makeup. I'm also always on the hunt for soft and fluffy brushes as they are the best as they are unbelievably nice on the face.

My current favourite brushes are all face and eye brushes not that you can really get many other ones, I have also said they are my current favourites as they are the ones that work best with my everyday makeup that I'm wearing at the moment as I have found that some makeup goes on better with some brushes than others do. Does anyone else find this? 

Real Techniques Stippling Brush: Now I can imagine most of you will have come across real techniques brushes, who  have been created by the lovely Sam and Nic Chapman who also have a super youtube channel called Pixiwoo where they upload lots of really helpful makeup tips and tricks. I've so far only got a couple of their brushes but I have my eye on their bold metals collection! The great thing about real techniques brushes is that they are high quality brushes at a reasonably affordable price so what's not to love about that?! Now my current favourite brush of theirs is the Stippling Brush. I cannot sing this brush's praises enough, I love it, in fact it's probably my all time favourite face brush too. I use it every day to either put on foundation or tinted moisturiser and it always helps to give me a flawless look finish. I have tried other brushes but always come back to this one, it just helps to blend in my makeup so nicely and easily.

Nanshy Blush Brush: Nanshy is a brand I came across in the summer after hearing some bloggers and vloggers rave about the brand, and I'm so glad I invested in some, I've been super impressed with them and they even rate higher than some of my more higher end brushes. I went for their masterful collection in pearlescent white (I thought the white was a really cute colour for a make up brush) as I wanted both face brushes and eye brushes and I have both their face brush set and eye brush set on my wish list. Their brushes are so soft and help to apply make up beautifully. One of my favourite brushes from the masterful collection and one of my current favourite brush for applying brush is the Nanshy Blush brush. It is a really nice shape for applying blusher and is also really soft, I have tried a number of blush brushes but this is my definite favourite.

Nanshy Powder Brush: Another Nanshy brush!! I just love all their brushes but their powder brush is currently one of my favourite brushes. Their brushes are almost magically soft and this particular one just makes applying powder super easy and almost an enjoyable experience. I'd be lost without this brush for applying my powder!

Zoeva 101 Luxe Face Definier: Now I'm sure most of you will have herd of Zoeva makeup brushes, maybe the rose gold collection in particular. My current favourite is not one from this collection, I'm afraid I don't really like rose gold! Sorry I'm a silver and white gold type of girl. This brush is a fairly new one to my collection but I'm already a big fan of it. I mainly use it for my bronzer or contouring as the shape of it makes it great for this. Like all Zoeva brushes it is super soft and high quality making it easy to apply my makeup with.

MAC 217: Now I can't rate this brush highly enough it has helped to teach me what blending is all about and well I'm grateful to MAC for bringing out a brush for this purpose. I don't think there are many other brushes out there they are as great for blending as the 217 is. I'm a big fan of blending, and this brush has just made the experience of blending eyeshadows enjoyable. If you're after a brush for blending eyeshadows I recommend this brush 100%.

Zoeva 221 Luxe Soft Crease: In my opinion you can never have enough eye brushes as the more you have the less often you have to clean them, but I'm just lazy! I really like blending out my eyeshadows so this brush is another one of my favourites for that purpose and it sure does it's job well.  It's super soft and big and fluffy which makes blending out really easy and you don't have to use much pressure for it to do it's job. I probably use blending brushes more than actual shading brushes as I just find them so easy to use and this is another one of them. I use both this and the 217 on an almost daily basis.

Nanshy Shader: Another Nanshy brush I know but I just love them so much like I've said further up the post! This Nanshy brush is a flat shader which makes it perfect for applying eyeshadow easily to your lid with almost one sweep. I love this brush because it is a flat shader which means I find it easy to apply a good coverage of eyeshadow without it going everywhere. It's hard to describe this brush really as once you try it for the first time the brush speaks for itself! It's such a good quality brush and next to my blender brushes is my most used eyeshadow brush which is why it's one of my favourites I guess. 

What are your favourite makeup brushes? Are any of them ones that I have mentioned? I really want to try a beauty blender as I have heard they are great for applying foundation, have any of you tried them? 

The Barney picture today is one of him the other day whilst we were on a walk where my dad made me climb a scary big hill. Barney didn't find it scary instead he thought it was great fun and raced up it. He is pretty much fully recovered from his swimmers tail now thankfully so he is a much happier chap again! 

Hope you are all well and jolly :) 

Anna-Louise 

xx

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