Catch up

Hello there! Hope you are all well and jolly! 

I'm afraid I have been rather useless at the whole blogging thing, just been getting carried away with the  fairies and all that and well time just runs away with you sometimes. 

It's been so long since I've blogged I'm a bit rusty, rust is a funny thing actually, it's everywhere. Not really sure why I'm talking about rust but why not hey! 

Are any of you netflix fans? I've become super addicted to it, it's all I seem to watch these days. I'm not even sure if I know what normal TV is anymore although I have been watching the great British bake off religiously! I don't about you guys but I love the bake off, it just makes me want to bake however whenever I try my masterpieces never seem to look like masterpieces like they do on the bake off! What is your favourite thing to bake? 

So one of the reasons I have not been blogging recently is because I have moved house and have got a couple of new ponies! Get ready for super cuteness! We have added two shetland ponies to our family called Teddy and Bear, who I am planning to start pony parties with soon so if you are after a pony party hola at me :) 

I've also somehow managed to find my better half! I'm not quite sure how but I have and well he is the best thing that has ever happened to me. Just want you other aspies out there to know that relationships are possible even if they are harder for us than others and there is someone out there for everyone that will except you for who you are even if you are a little crazy! 

Anyway that will be all for today as I'm watching Doc Martin as it is a long term favourite of mine! Will try my hardest to blog more often

Here is the Barney picture as well it's tradition to put one at the end of my blog! Barney says WOOF! 

Hope you are well and jolly :) 

Anna-Louise 

xx

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Lifestyle // 10 things that make me happy

Hello there :) 

How is everyone today! I hope everyone is feeling well and jolly and that you are all having super weeks. I'm away on holiday with my family in Wales and with Barney of course. We are staying next to this beautiful canal, which weirdly is up in a hill. You wouldn't think you could get canals in the hills would you, it seems a bizarre place to put one but there was obviously some logic to it many moons ago when they built it. 

I would just like to say a massive thank you to everyone who has supported my blog and followed it! I now have over 100 followers on bloglovin which I know is not much to some people but it means the world to me so thank you so much everyone! I will be holding a giveaway when I'm back from Wales so watch this space :) 

Today I thought I would do a post about the things that make me happy as I haven't been feeling overly happy recently and I always feel that it's important to focus on the positives and the things that make you smile so that's what I'm doing and I'm sharing them in a blog post with you :)

My Dog: Now I'm sure if you have been following my blog for a while now you probably would have guessed that Barney makes me happy. To me he is the best dog in the world and my best friend and he never fails to make me crack a smile. 

My Family: To me family are incredibly important and I'm so lucky to be surrounded by such a loving and supportive family who can make me smile even when my dad makes me climb scary big hills and I get grumpy. I love them all to pieces and well I'm incredibly grateful for everything they do for me the certainly do make me happy :)  

This is my great uncle Alan and great auntie Bet, It was Al's 70th birthday whilst we where away!

My Work: Now this might sound strange saying that my work makes me happy and makes me smile but a year ago I was too frightened to leave the house and having aspergers makes working and maintaining a job difficult and my work have welcomed me and made me feel like part of the family and given me a purpose every week  as well as improving my confidence and well that makes me happy :) 

My Bed: Now who's bed doesn't make them happy right?! I love my bed, we spend a lot of time together especially as I sleep a lot since having M.E. and well I look forward to getting into it every time. I smile to myself when I'm tucked up all warm in it, sad I know but hey ho :) 

My Blog: Although I am relatively new to this whole blogging thing my blog already makes me incredibly happy! I love my blog! I look forward to writing new posts and sharing things I love and general rambles and it has also helped me find my love for photography again as well as enabling me to interact with others and giving me another purpose to life. 

Makeup: Where do I start with makeup?! It's completely changed me and given me so much confidence as well as helping me to find a career path in life. I love everything to do with makeup from finding out and trying new products to putting it on and wearing it which I find incredibly therapeutic! I love wearing it and I always have some sort of a smile on my face when I'm doing anything to do with makeup. 

Photography: I have recently found my love for photography again and I'm so glad I did as I love capturing special moments in life, experimenting with different ways of taking photographs also taking photographs makes me smile and I love looking back on them. 

Music: I have always loved music, not playing it but listening to it, I dread to think how much money I have spent on it over the past years. I find that it helps calm me down when I'm stressed or angry and there is always a piece of music for every life situation. I think it would be cool if life was like high school musical and we popped into song at random times! Don't you? 

Aeroplanes: Now this may sound a strange thing to make me happy but I love planes and flying and everything to do with planes. I always wanted to be a pilot when I was older however circumstances have changed making this not possible but that hasn't stopped me loving flying and aeroplanes. I find them sooo interesting does anyone else? 

(this is me actually flying a real plane! I was trusted with full controls)

Food: Saying that food makes me happy makes me sound like I'm enormous I'm not I just love food who doesn't?! I'm always thinking about the next meal apart from lunch I'm not a fan of that! Breakfast and puddings are the best!! What's your favourite type of food? 

I hope you all enjoyed pancake day this week!! What did you have in your pancakes?

What things make you happy? :) 

Today's Barney picture is of him lying by the log burner where we are staying, I think he loves the warmth as he is always by it! Poor Barney has managed to get Swimmers Tail this week which means he has sprained his tail from too much swimming! So we had to have an emergency visit to the vets for some pain killers as he was in a lot of pain poor boy. It stopped him from being able to move his tail but he is on the mend and we are getting some small wags again, we just won't be going swimming again this holiday! 

Hope you are all well and jolly 

Anna-Louise

xx

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Beauty // My travel makeup bag

Hello there!! 

How is everyone today! Hope all is well and that you are smiley and happy :) A smile a day keeps the doctor away! I was recently in a local hospital waiting for an x-ray and on a white board there was a sign saying smile and something along the lines of it's good for you and people benefit from it. Anyway the funny thing was the receptionist was the grumpiest and most unfriendly person I have ever seen, I had to try so hard to not say anything and point out the whiteboard behind her. It sure did make me and my gran chuckle. 

Little update I have decided to change the days that I post to a Sunday, Wednesday and Friday as it suits my week a little better as I tend to write my posts on a Tuesday and Thursday as that is when Mum is at work and I have the most free time. 

Anyway I'm off on a family holiday to Wales this weekend! I've personally never been to Wales so I'm excited to see what it's like! Have any of you been to Wales or do you even live in Wales? I've said Wales a lot of times so now I'm thinking of Whales as in the ones that live in the sea! Have any of you seen the film Free Willy? Sounds weird I know but it's about a whale and setting it free etc! Was one of my favourite films as a child, we had it on video which probably tells you how old the film was! I have gone completely off topic now I do apologise. 

Right so today's post is going to be my travel make up bag and what I take with me on holiday :) obviously this changes at different types of  the year though so I'm sure I will do similar posts in the future. I always love being nosy and seeing what different make up people use and what they take away with them so thought this would be a great post today so I hope you all enjoy it :)

I'm never a fan of packing to go away but that's usually because I always want to take everything I own with me! I'm not very good at picking what things to take, and I always feel sorry for the things I leave behind. So I've had the difficult decision of choosing what make up to take away with me for a week. I tried to think logically about what to take whilst I was packing so I tried to pick little things and brought an eye-shadow and blush palette so I have lots of choice and can still do different looks without taking everything.

Primer : Now I'm still trying to decide whether I like primer or I don't. I have a couple at home but I decided to take Benefit's Porefessional as it's slightly smaller than the other ones I have so thought it would be perfect to travel with!

Foundation: I've been trying out a couple of different foundations over the past few months and I can finally say I have found my holy grail foundation! It's one that has been talked about loads by bloggers and vloggers and has lots of positive reviews so I thought why not give it a try! My new holy grail foundation is.......Nars sheer glow of course! After hearing so many good things about it I was very excited when I finally got my hands on a bottle and the colour match was great, the foundation feels amazing on my skin and doesn't bring me out in spots, it also gives a nice healthy glow to the skin and as I have dry skin this is what I want from a foundation! I'm in love with this stuff and could talk about it all day but I don't want to bore you and I think I may do a review post on it at some point! Have any of you tried it? What do you think of it?! 

Powder: Now when I travel I always tend to take pressed powder rather than loose powder which I tend to use a fair bit at home! My pressed powder is also smaller and as it's pressed it's doesn't make much mess! So I decided to take my favourite powder with me which is the Rimmel Stay Matte. I love this powder I think it does the job well as the other great thing about it is the fact that it's a drugstore one so it's not too pricey :) 

Bronzer: Bronzer is definitely something that is a necessity in my travel make up bag so I decided to pack my all time favourite bronzer which is a KIKO one. If you haven't checked out KIKO cosmetics already I highly recommend that you do! I've been really impressed with everything I've purchased from there so far and they are high quality at an affordable price, what's not to love hey?!

Blush: I have a real thing for blush, I have so many of them so it's always hard to decide which one to pack so I want to take them all however there isn't always room for this. So this time I went away I found the perfect solution which was to take a blush palette, then you have a couple of different shades of blush for different make up looks and it's all together so it doesn't take up as much room well that's my theory  anyway. In my current travel make up bag I decided to take my hourglass Ambient Blush palette which ticks all the boxes for being a great one to travel with. 

Concealer: Now this is something I sometimes use when I'm away but it all depends on how much time I have and where I am and how much sleep I have. So I decided to pack one of my favourite concealer's which is a high coverage one so I have something if my bags under my eyes decided to be enormous one day or if my face decides it wants to have a breakout whilst I'm away. I decided to pack MAC's Pro Longwear concealer :)

Brows: Now I am obsessed with eyebrows, literally obsessed. I rarely ever go out the house without sorting out my brows first even if I have no other make up on I will have nice brows. So of course I have had to pack my daily brow products. I like to use Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Wizz and then I use NO7 lash and brow perfecter and these two products never fail to let me know so they had to come for a trip. 

Eyeshadow: I always find the easiest way to pick what eyeshadows to take away is by taking an eyeshadow palette as you then have a variety of shades and a palette is much easier to travel with rather than lots of individual eyeshadows. For the current holiday that I was packing for I decided to take my Too Faced Chocolate Bar Palette :)

Mascara: This is a beauty product they people take with them every where. Even if your not wearing any other make up mascara can make the world of difference, well it sure does to my eyes. The mascara that I have brought away with me this time is one that people have been talking about a lot recently in the blogging community and I can now see what the hype was all about! Of course it's Benefit's new Roller Lash Mascara and my goodness it sure does make your eyelashes look amazing! I'm in love with it. This was definitely a beauty product I was not going away without. The one I currently have is a tester one so it's a smaller one but that's great because it makes it the perfect colour to travel with. 

Lips: You always have to take some sort of lip product away with you, I tend to take some sort of lip product everywhere even in my handbag. Instead of taking a couple of different ones I made the brave decision to only take one lipstick and one lip gloss with me as it would then be less to pack and then I wouldn't be stuck for choice on what to wear on my lips when I was away. I tend to prefer nude and pink shades and these tend to go with most looks so I took my Urban Decay lipstick which is very pigmented and lasts a long while and my MAC lip gloss both of which are light pink shades. 

So this is everything I have taken away with me in my travel make up bag. Obviously it varies depending on where I go and what time of year it is, but as this was a holiday to Wales in February I have taken enough to do a full face of make up. I hope you have enjoyed this post, I love knowing what products other people use and what they take away with them so here is what I take with me! 

Where is your favourite place to go away to? What is your holy grail product that you take everywhere with you? 

The Barney picture today is one of him in the car the other day! Obviously it was too bright for him to have his eyes open! He is loving the canal next to where we are staying! He is in and out of the water all the time! I love watching him splash about in the water and have lots of fun!

Hope you are all well and jolly!

Anna-Louise

xx

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The Liebster award

image source

Helloo there :) 

As you can already guess by the picture today's post is the Liebster Award which I was kindly nominated for by Agne. Thank you so much for nominating me, this post definitely seems like a bit of fun :) The Liebster Award was created as a way for people to discover new blogs :) 

The rules are as follows: 

1. Thank the person who nominated you and leave their link

2. Answer the questions from the person who nominated you

3. Nominate between 5 and 11 bloggers who have less than 200 followers 

4. Create 11 new questions for the people who you have nominated to answer 

5. Let your nominees know that you have nominated them

Below are the questions that Agne gave me and my answers to them: 

1. What is your most embarrassing memory of a lifetime? 

Whenever I get asked questions like this I always forget everything. The most embarrassing memory I can remember is a recent one. I went for a day trip to Go Ape with a friend and they have these zip wire type things that you use to get down from the trees on. When you get to the bottom you are meant to land on your feet only I didn't I landed backwards on my bum and this caused not only my trousers to be pulled down but also my pants! It was rather embarrassing to say the least! Especially as I then had to walk round with bark in my pants for the rest of the course. 

2. Favourite breakfast and Lunch dishes? 

Now this one is an easy one to answer as I LOVE breakfast! I would eat breakfast all day everyday if I could. My favourite breakfast however and I have it everyday is Weetabix Minis the chocolate ones mixed with some all bran and milk of course. I'm not a big fan of lunch so I don't have a favourite lunch dish. 

3. The best cosmetic brand for you is

This is a hard one as I love so many different brands for different reasons. It's a tough one but I think it would have to be MAC as that's where the largest section of my make up comes from. 

4. Family or career? And why? 

Now I'm a big family person so of course family first as that's just the way I am and family will always be the most important thing for me as they have been there through everything and they are incredibly supportive.

5. If you could choose between living a celebrity life or an ordinary people life, what would you choose? 

I have thought about this lots before, but I think I would always choose an ordinary life as I like to do things in certain ways and I'm not sure you would be able to do normal everyday things if you where famous. Having to deal with press and hate etc would drive me mad too. Although I wouldn't mind being a celebrity for one day just to see what it feels like. 

6. Imagine meeting your idol and you could ask just one question. What would you ask him/her? 

I don't really have idols but the person who I most look up to is my mum so I would ask her what I was having for dinner. 

7. Why did you start blogging? 

This is a great question! I started blogging as I wanted somewhere that I could write down what I'm thinking and share with people the things I do and don't like. I also love taking photographs and a blog is a great way to share them. Another reason was my Aspergers syndrome, I wanted to write posts to help others who might be in a similar situation to me. 

8. The best movie you have ever seen? 

Without a doubt my favourite movie ever is ELF! I love this film to pieces and I can't tell you how many times I have watched it and it never seems to get boring and always makes me laugh. 

9. What is your dream job? 

My dream job is to be retired! This is what I used to tell my teachers what I wanted to do when I left school. I'm not retired but the dream is still there! If I could have any job in the world I would love to be an airline pilot, I always wanted to do this when I was younger and have flown a couple of times and loved it however my medication unfortunately means I'm not able to fly but it doesn't stop it being my dream job. 

10. Three things you can't live without

The first thing I couldn't live without would be Barney of course! My dog is my best friend, I hate being away from him for even a couple of hours. The 2nd thing I couldn't live without is my mum, I don't know what I would do without her she is always there to pick me up when I'm down and she is unbelievably supportive. The 3rd thing I couldn't live without is chocolate milkshakes! I'm obsessed with chocolate milkshakes I have one everyday where ever I am. 

11. What can you wish for other bloggers? 

I wish that other bloggers are able to get everything out of their blog that they want to and that it is something they love doing :) 

The questions for my nominees are: 

1. What is your favourite colour? 

2. What noise does a giraffe make? 

3. What's your favourite pudding? 

4. If you could travel to anywhere in the world where would it be and why? 

5. What's your favourite animal? 

6. What's your favourite candle? 

7. What's your favourite TV programme? 

8. What is your favourite season; summer, spring, autumn or winter? And why?

9. What is your favourite way to relax and De-stress? 

10. What's the best joke you know? 

11. If you could be any celebrity for one day who would you be and why? 

My nominees are: 

1. Charlotte at http://www.basicisbeauty.blogspot.co.uk/

2. Laura at http://www.blameitontherainbeauty.com/

3. http://adayinstyle.blogspot.co.uk/

4. Niamh at http://beautybud3598.blogspot.ie/

5. Jadie at http://jadiespillett.com/

6. Karen at http://www.jinksybeauty.blogspot.co.uk/

Hope you guys enjoy this it's good fun :) make sure that you all check out each others blogs and pass this on as it's a great way for new bloggers to get their blogs out there a bit more and a great way to find new blogs!

As usual hope you are all well and jolly :)

Anna-Louise 

xx

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My go to shoes

Helloo there :) 

How are you all today? I hope you are all fine and dandy and that you had a great weekend! Did you get up to anything exciting? I spent most of my time working, sleeping, watching Call the Midwife (does anyone watch that?!) and taking part in the bloggers chats that were on over the weekend. Did any of you take part in the bloggers chat's this weekend on twitter?! If so which ones? 

Instead of the typical go to make up looks etc I thought I would be a bit different and do a post about my go to shoes. Thought it's nice to do something a little different and well I hope you guys will enjoy reading this one. Let me know what you think :) 

So like most girls out there I LOVE shoes, like make up and clothes I think you can never have too many shoes. There is always a new pair that will look great in your wardrobe right?! Over time I have collected a number of shoes and today I want to share with you my favourites, my go to ones, the ones I can't live without you get where I'm coming from! I will warn you now though, there are no heels or sandles in this collection. No heels because I can't walk in them and find them uncomfortable so don't see the point in getting them when I can have my feet firmly and comfortably on the ground in a nice flat pair of shoes. No sandles because well I hate feet! I don't know what it is about them but I hate them! They give me the creepy crawlies, all feet even my own! I will even not use public swimming pools because of the feet and well because I don't want to swim past a plaster eww yuck! Sometimes in the summer when I'm feeling brave and my feet are tanned and my toes are painted I wear sandles but usually only when I'm on holiday. I obviously also wear flip flops by the pool on holiday otherwise I would boil but again toes have to be painted and my theory is that because I'm out in the open and so is everyone else feet are clean. Weird theory that doesn't make sense I know but that's just me :) 

My face at the thought of feet!!! 

Now to some of you my go to shoes may look well rather boring and bland but I love them to pieces! I love pretty little ballet pumps etc but it seems to be that my go to shoes seem to be of more of a bland colour, maybe it's the time of the year, perhaps I will do a summer go to shoe collection who knows. 

UGG boots!! Who doesn't love them?! I certainly love them to pieces, I constantly wear them in the winter especially when it's chilly as they keep my toes all nice and warm. 

Timberland boots! These have become incredibly popular over the past couple of years again! I think they must have been popular when I was a young kid as well as I remember owning a pair and thinking I was the coolest kid about. I treated myself to a pair last year again and they are just so comfortable and water proof which for me as a dog owner is great! 

Now these shoes are known as deck shoes and these particular ones are the Chatham Deck Lady.  I find them so comfortable to wear and their colour means that they go with most my outfits perfect. I have a similar style by the same make in pink too but they mainly only come out in the summer. These are not to everyone's taste I will admit that but I'm a country girl and well these are just up my street. 

My go to trainers are my Nike blazers. I love trainers always have done probably always will do they are just so comfy and I love the material and the style of the Nike blazers. I have a couple of the high top ones as well but these have to be my favourite.

I have a little bit of a thing about plimsolls too. I love them with a pair of jeans or shorts or even a dress or skirt, you can pretty much make them work with anything and again they are comfortable. Shoes being comfortable is a big thing for me. 

Dubarry Boots. What can I say about these apart from they are my pride and joy. I spent my first ever pay check on these and 3 years down the line still have no regrets. I never used to be a fan of long boots until I had these probably because I have short legs and could never find a comfortable pair, but these boots changed my whole opinion of them. Now they are a countryside boot so would probably appeal more to those looking for that type of boot but I wear them everywhere even out for dinner. Give them a good clean and theses boots can look rather smart. 

Let me know what you guys thing to this post. Do any of you have the same shoes? What are your go to shoes? 

The Barney picture today is another one of him snoozing lazy thing. Safe to say when he's not eating, walking or pooping he's snoozing! 

Hope you are all well and jolly

Anna-Louise 

xx

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January Favourites

Hellooo!

How are you all today?! Hope all is well and that you have all had a great week! We actually got a bit more than a dusting of snow where I am this week, nothing to get excited about but enough to go for a snowy walk! Barney met his first snowman too, which was rather funny for us to watch. 

Oh I forgot to say happy February everyone! Pinch punch first of the month and all that! January sure did fly by, time definitely goes quicker as you get older I think. I hope you all had a great January :) Now that January is all done with it's time for a January favourites, I'm sure you will be reading lots of these at the moment so here is another one for you to read.  

I'm so sleepy writing this, I can feel my eyes shutting zzzzzzzzzz. 

There have been lots of things I have liked this January, however there are only a few that stand out as favourites so I'm going to share them with you! You may love some of these things to or you may not but either way let me know would love to know your opinion. 

It's been super chilly this January and I don't know about you but I just love getting in comfy cosies of an evening and wrapping up warm so therefore I thought I would treat myself to a dressing gown in the sale and oh my word I love it, I don't take it off! It is so warm and cosy and soft and fluffy, "It's so fluffy I'm gonna die!" Couldn't resist that quote from Despicable me, which is a great film, what do you lot think of it?! Anyway back to my dressing gown, it's kind of a blue/grey colour with white spots over it. The other great think about it was that it was in the sale at John Lewis and who doesn't love a sale purchase hey so this definitely had to make my January favourites. It's so cosy and warm it makes me sleepy well more sleepy.

My next favourite is the Lush Cosmetics lip scrub! I have herd lots of good things about these from other bloggers and vloggers so thought I would try one myself and well let me tell you it is amazing! I wish I had tried one of these sooner, it is sooooooo yummy, not that you eat it but you know what I mean. It also smells delicious and works great on your lips, one of my best purchases in a long while.

Another thing I have been loving this January is the LORAC PRO palette. I was given this for Christmas and well it's currently my favourite eyeshadow palette. The colours are incredibly pigmented and there is a good range from light subtle colours to dark colours so pretty much something for every occassion! The packaging of the palette is also really smooth to touch and well I like that. 

 I've been suffering from really dry skin this winter so my Grandma bless her recommended me Liz Earle products and I'm really glad she did as I have become a big fan and they have saved my skin! Thanks Grandma! The product that I've been loving the most though this January is the Hot Cloth cleanse and polish which I spoke about in previous blog and you can read that here. Taking make up off has never been so easy and quick!

I love different perfumes and body sprays etc, and my current favourite is the YSL Black Opium. I absolutely love it! I was given a tester a few months back and then got the actual one for Christmas and it's definitely become my scent. I can't describe smells so I'm not going to try but they describe it as a combination of black coffee, white floral's and vanilla, I describe it as delicious. Have any of you tried this yet? 

So when January starts it's all about getting fit and doing lots of exercise, everyone wants to lose the Christmas puddings, and the roast potatoes, the extra mince pies etc. Anyway despite all that I love exercise and am very keen on trying to keep fit and stay in good shape especially as I'm on medication that makes me put on weight.  I used to do a lot of horse riding however I have lost a lot of interest over the years from bad experiences and a bad back has got in the way so I wanted to find a new way to exercise that was the gym or an exercise glass as I'm not a social person and I don't like people or being around them really! Good old aspergers for you! My dad being my well dad very kindly treated me Charlotte's 3 minute belly blitz. ( Charlotte from Geordie shore) It's honestly one of the best and most fun ways of exercising I have ever done, it's great me and mum rearrange the living room 4x a week and start our routine! They are great and easy to work through although they do make you work hard, me and mum have a right laugh along the way. 

My last January favourite is something I'm sure a lot of you in the blogging and vlogging community have been talking about, it's Tanya Burr's new book Love Tanya. I love this book, I think Tanya has done amazing with it. It's full of lots of useful tips and hints as well as things about her life, it's like the perfect book to help you with growing up and life :) I also spoke about this book in my last blog (here). 

Have you guys been loving any of these products let me know!

Yay I have just realised it's Sunday therefore it is Call the Midwife later, I love that programme. 

Barney is not in my good books today, whilst I was at work he decided he didn't like my room how it was and thought he would redecorate by pulling a big chunk of my wallpaper off thanks a lot Barney. Naughty dog. I'm going to include some pictures of Barney in the snow because he looks cute and so does the snow!

Barney playing with our other dog Katie :)

Hope you are all well and jolly 

Anna-Louise 

xx

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