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Friday, September 28, 2012
neutral mix
Thursday, September 27, 2012
7 Things for 7 Days || September
Aloha Sprinklerinos,
How time flies!
I thought it might be nice to do another '7 Things' post because a) it encourages me to achieve my mini goals and b) I love reading about all of your targets and feeling inspired.
I have a really busy few weeks coming up, packed with guests, trips to London, a makeup artistry course (so excited!), a wisdom tooth removal, in laws, a Christening, playdates, and of course, all the normal things life has to offer.
I feel like I need to set myself some targets in order to create some sort of underlying structure and to keep me from becoming a scatty tornado of stress.
If you would like to join in with this post and write your own '7 Things', do feel free! You are welcome to use the image above but please link it back to here. You don't have to complete all your goals in 7 days, it's entirely up to you. A tres casual affair if you will. If you do write your own blog post, I'd love for you to link it in the comments so that we can all check each other's blogs out, feel inspired and make new chums. This is a very sparkly community after all.
7 Things for 7 Days
Drink Less :: Diet Coke. I am an absolute fiend for the fizzy stuff. If I could drink it all day, every day, I would. Sadly though, it leads to a pufffy face and worse, bad teeth. I'm having to have a wisdom tooth removed soon and unless I want all the rest pulled out, I need to cut back. This last 2 weeks I've managed to cut back to one can every couple of days but I'm going to now go to 2 cans a week, then 1 can, then cold turkey!
Eat More :: Fruit and veg. I always feel better when I eat fresh food but lately it's been pushed down my priority list. Time to pull my socks up and fuel myself with goodness.
Prepare :: For Christmas. Yes, I know it's September, but I like to have Christmas all wrapped up (excuse the pun) by November so that I can relax and enjoy the festivities without worrying if I have bought Jean-Next-Door's box of festive biscuits yet.
Recreate Something :: From Pinterest. I absolutely love the oh-so-inspiring site and update my boards daily, so it's about time I started doing some of the things I pin. I've tried a few projects in the past and enjoyed the experience so I'm looking forward to getting my glue gun out again!
Date :: My Husband. For our anniversary this month I made him date night vouchers and we are yet to do many of them. I'm going to make a concerted effort to spend quality time with him, because more often than not we just dash through life not stopping to enjoy our relationship. Shmoozy shmoozy.
Organise :: My wardrobe. Things have reached a critical state. I can't find anything, bras are in with socks, coats are in with dresses, leggins have gone walkabout and lordy knows where all my cami's are. This ends now! It's tidy-time!
Progress :: Baby Glitter. The little bug is fast transitioning from baby to toddler and is a lot more inquisitive and adventurous. I'm starting to do older activities with her (like colouring in) but I want to encourage her development further with more stimulating activities. I'm sure pinterest will come up trumps for fun ideas.
I'm really looking forward to working at these goals and hope that by sharing them with you, I have a better chance of achieving them all!
What do you hope to achieve?
Toodlepip!
xx
Monday, September 24, 2012
Lou's Reviews :: GHD Cherry Blossom Styler
Aloha Sprinklerinos,
In the past few months, I have received a great many questions about my hair, what it's like, how it is styled, favourite products to achieve certain looks, the list goes on.
I plan on getting round to answering these queries in good time, but today I'm going to talk about a brand of products that I have been happily using and trusting for about 7 years now. GHD aka Good Hair Day.
Unless you have been living under bald rock, you will have heard of GHD's. The British run company sell hair electrical hair tools as well as styling products to achieve every look you can think of. Initially selling products in salons (for the first two years of their business -2001 - 2003- they did no advertising and relied solely on excellent recommendations), they now have a full range of products on a beautifully laid out website and regularly bring out limited edition merchandise.
One such product is the GHD Cherry Blossom Styler* which retails for £129.00, with £10 going to Breakthrough Breast Cancer, a cause very close to my heart.
Just as much as I love my set of GHD Straighteners from 2004 (yes, still going strong, touch wood), I love these too. They have an array of lovely features, both cosmetic and functional. As a lover of all things pink and girly I am thrilled with the pretty pink blades, floral designed box and cherry blossom heat-resistant bag, which had enough space for hot blades and a divide to keep the wire safe- nobody wants melted electrics in their beauty kit! Yikes! I also like that you when the styler is on (indicated by the lit up GHD motto), it will automatically turn itself off after 30 minutes, so there is no acute panic when you're half way down the road and wondering if you remembered to turn them off. Zoe and I once had to turn a taxi to the station around to go back and check on mine, we hadn't turned them off! Uh oh!
Other little features that make all the difference are the swivel cord which allows you to twist and turn the tool without being restricted or becoming tangled and the rounded barrel which allows you to create beautiful curls, waves and flicks.
The reason I love my GHD's (this lovely new pair and my older pair) so very much, aside from their reliability and ability to tame my insanely thick hair like non-other, is because you can create so many looks with them. They really can do everything! Hmmmm except crimp, but really, who wants to crimp their own hair? I had mine done once and it was NOT a good look haha!
I've put together a little 'hair collage' from pictures I had floating about of different styles I've had in my hair created by GHD's. Do excuse the posey faces and picture quality, some of these are instagram snaps or video screenshots. I'm pretty boring and usually go for the same kind of thing - wavy/curly/volumised/straight with a flick, but even when I'm having a 'hair up' sort of day, I will use my GHD's to tame little frizzy bits at the front or remove any annoying kinks.
In summary, I have nothing bad to say about GHD Stylers. I've loved them for years and hope I will continue doing so until I'm old and grey and my grandchildren are telling me that I look like mutton dressed as lamb with my big shmexy hair! Hahaha!
Are you a GHD lover like me?
Toodlepip!
xx
PS-
Told you I didn't look great crimped! Haha xx
the fisherman sweater
Sweater: Zara. Sunglasses: Burberry. Shoes: Zara. Watch: IWC. Lips: NARS 'Schiap'. Skirt: Zara.
Sweater: Zara. Shoes: Coach c/o. Sunglasses: Karen Walker 'Number One'. Pants: Zara. Purse: Coach. Jewelery: Jcrew, Hermes, Stella and Dot, David Yurman.
Sweater: Zara. Skirt: Cynthia Vincent. Shoes: Giuseppe Zanotti. Purse: Valentino. Sunglasses: Dior. Jewelry: Jcrew, Hermes, Stella and Dot, David Yurman.
Friday, September 21, 2012
Date Night FOTD
Aloha Sprinklerinos,
Since last fortnight was our second wedding anniversary, Matt was a little gem and organised a lovely night for us.
Naturally I made a bit of an effort seeing as it was a romantic occasion and whatnot and as the dedicated blogger I am, I made sure to get a quick snap or two. I must say though, this was hours after I applied my makeup and had eaten a lovely meal, so it's not as picture perfect as I would like, but that's why this is a blog and not an editorial magazine.
Face
MAC Studio Sculpt -NW20
MUFE HD Concealer -5
MAC Bronzing Pressed Powder
MAC MSF -Soft and Gentle
Lips
MAC Lipliner -Cherry (all over the lip)
Nars Larger Than Life Lipgloss -Norma
Eyes
A concoction of eyeshadow shades ranging from black on the outer corner to gold on the inner with violet in between. I have a lot of palettes so I just dipped around happily haphazardly.
Topshop Kohl -Coal
YSL Shocking Mascara -Blackest Black (Good grief I love this product! haha)
FasionistA Brow Kit (review coming soon).
And that's it.
I kept my hair simple in a top knot with 40's fringe, silver heart oversized studs (£2 from River Island- what a steal) and a swish new outfit that I will do an OOTD for if you would like it?
I am currently just LOVING red lips. I have been sporting them most days and is a look I think I will wear a lot this Autumn.
What are you loving this September?
Toodlepip!
xx
head to toe, nyfw flashback
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Happy Third Birthday, Blog!
Aloha Sprinklerinos,
Today my blog is 3. On this day, three years ago, I sat on the very same sofa, in the very same room that I am in now and decided to start a blog.
Last year on it's second birthday I wrote this ::
"Happy Birthday little blog, what a journey we've been on! First year a wedding, second year a baby, third year a ....?"
(Image : Pinterest)
Well it is the third year now and time to fill in a blank.
I think this year the new thing has been 'business'. After 2 years I was finally fortunate enough to be able to call Blogging (and making YouTube videos) my job. My actual proper job. It's like a dream!
Blogging is something I enjoy every aspect of. I enjoy buying and trying new products, I enjoy taking pictures and playing with editing software, I enjoy thinking up new features or lifey posts and tags, I enjoy tiptapping away on my keyboard and letting words flow out, I enjoy seeing it all in one post all put together, I enjoy reading your comments and tweets, I enjoy tweeting back, I enjoy reading other people's blogs, I enjoy all of it. Every single bit.
To say that something you enjoy a million percent is actually your job is fantastic because it never feels like work. It feels like I am allowed to spend time having fun and it helps to pay our bills. What more can a gal ask for??
I must say though, before anyone with a blog goes handing their notice in based on this blog post, that I wouldn't be able to call this my job without my YouTube channel as the two really do go hand in hand.
With all that aside, I am grateful to this blog for far, far more than the financial help it brings our household. It really truly has steered my life down a brilliantly sparkly path.
Firstly, because of the financial help, it allows me to stay at home with Baby Glitter instead of putting her in daycare and returning to the office. This is something that I am so thankful for as these are days I will cherish forever. I really am treasuring every little moment of her babyhood and am glad I am able to be her full time carer.
Secondly, I haven't felt alone in 3 years. I know that whatever time or day or night, because of this blog I will always have someone to chat to or interact with. I will always be able to to tweet or read comments or return emails, because you Sprinklerinos are so kind and have taken a little moment out of your day to talk to me. I'm sadly not able to reply to everything but if you were really keen to chat, twitter is your best bet.
Thirdly, I have inadvertently documented three years of my life. Three of the best! The run up to my wedding, newlywedness (real word there), pregnancy and mummyhood. Sometimes I go back and read older posts and remember all the little things I've done or made or reviewed or experienced and feel incredibly enriched.
Thank you to every single sparkly one of you who has read, followed, commented or joined in with this blog. I'm sure to most it is a blog like any other, but to me it is much, much more. It's magical.
So, like last year, Happy Birthday little blog. What a journey we've been on! First year a wedding, second year a baby, third year a business, fourth year a ...... . Who knows where we'll go next? I hope you will come with me.
Toodlepip!
xx
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
team spirit
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
baroque
Monday, September 17, 2012
Crayola Weekends
Aloha Sprinklerinos,
You may have noticed that I have been updating this here slice of the net a little less often than I'm accustomed to. I just thought I would say, 'Oh Haaii there Miss Noticer! You are right, I have been and I'm sorry'.
Life has been getting a little in the way of my tiptapping on this blog. Life is good.
This weekend was perfect.
There was nothing particularly groundbreaking about it, but to me, it was blissful. Since I loved it and I love you, I thought I'd share it with you. Is that alright?
This weekend was one of those perfect sunny weekends where nobody has made any plans and yet all the loose ends of activities tie together beautifully and it all turns into one giant hotpot of joyousness.
The highlight of my weekend had to be Saturday. We arranged to meet up with our lovely newlywed chums Mark and Clare in the afternoon for a mooch round Toyrs R Us and then a quick coffee in Starbucks. Nothing major. No big deal.
How wrong I was. SO MUCH FUN. We spent an eternity in the giant toy store delighting over childhood memories, laughing over Baby Glitter loving the sit-in toy cars and getting crazy excited for things that wizz and ding. I ended up buying Baby Glitter some crayola crayons (THIS set to be exact) and a colouring book and off we trotted to Starbucks next door.
In Starbucks we met up with Clare's chum and her Daughter who was possibly the cutest two year old I have ever seen and set to work with the important business of panini eating and chocolate creme frapoccino drinking. It turns out that those crayons went down as well with the adults as they did the tots! I had honestly forgotten how much I love colouring in and we sat happily for about an hour being artists (or in Mark's case, seeing how many he could stand up before Emily or Darcy knocked them over). It was just lovely. About half way through, I sat back and thought about all the times when I was pregnant that I had imagined the things I would do with Matt and our Daughter. All the little merry memories I would make for her and the special moments we would all cherish and thought, 'Yes, this is one of them'.
The memories I have with my own Mother are like precious gem stones kept in a jewellery box in my mind and it is my aim and pleasure to create as many as these for Baby Glitter as I can, so that her memory box of gems is overflowing and she can enjoy it well into her adulthood. Granted she won't remember the things we do now but I take a lot of photographs and I like to think she'll see the weekend Mummy wore red lipstick, Daddy bought her a special babycinno drink and we all coloured in for hours, and smile at how loved she is.
Amazing moments don't have to be seeing shooting stars or swimming with sharks (although those are nice too), they can be the time you spend with really good friends, colouring in with your children, mooching round toy shops, picking out potential Christmas presents and discussing why you love crayons so very, very much.
Watching Baby Glitter hold a teeny expresso cup of babyccino (it's free and is warm milk with froth- yum), standing in her darling clarks shoes and colouring her book just made me melt a little bit. If I could spend all my weekends doing that, I would.
What makes your favourite weekend?
Toodlepip!
xx
PS
Since Saturday I have become a crayola enthusiast! No other brand is as lovely (believe me, we've sampled a fair few) and no other brand has such a colour array. We bought a pack of 24 and with Baby Glitter beginning to walk (and standing on them) or bum shuffling over them, there have been about 6 waxy casualties. I'm considering buying THIS big set of 288 because I know they'll last forever and I'm far to excited for all the different colours. Also, it wouldn't be right for our house to not have a set of glittery crayolas in it, would it? Haha xx
neon/neon
Saturday, September 15, 2012
Lou's Reviews || Diptyque Travel Collection
Aloha Sprinklerinos,
A few weeks ago, I was invited to a very beautiful smelling event with Diptyque. As is customary (and a brilliant perk) of blogger events, we were sent away with a gorgeous little goodie bag of Diptyque products to test and play with.
I don't always feature the products I am gifted, sometimes because they aren't all that amazing or sometimes because they don't really suit the genre of this slice of the web, but these had to be shared. It's love. Super scented love.
This set is The Art Of Body Care Travel Collection which retails for £35.00.
It consists of luxurious body lotion, hand balm, revitalising bath and shower gel and a little pot of smoothing body polish. I have spent a few weeks trying all of these out and have thoroughly enjoyed them. With many beauty or toiletry products it is a matter of, 'do they work? do they do the job in hand?' and if they do then it's happy days. With this little kit it has not just been a matter of functionality but it has been a pleasure to incorporate them into my beauty regime.
The hero product from this set for me is the hand balm. With a gentle scent of apricot, this hand cream soaks in beautifully leaving no greasy film (urgh, I hate that), my hands feel smooth and plump and most importantly, thoroughly moisturised. I love that this kit supplies it in a miniature which is perfect for popping in your handbag or keeping in the car glove box for quick applications on the go. In times of need I've also used a little bit of it on my face and thought it was lovely, although clearly this is not it's main purpose.
The other three items in this travel kit have all been above par and I really do feel that the price tag reflects the quality of these charming little pamper products. All in all, I am thrilled with this beautifully packaged back of gorgeousness.
Have you tried any of Diptyque's products? Would you pay a little bit more for luxury?
Toodlepip!
xx
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
little miss
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
fling
Monday, September 10, 2012
Treasure
Aloha Sprinklerinos,
Ooohhhhh I love a little rummage through ebay. I'm not really one for second hand things (I don't mind charity shops because I can really get a feel for the item) so tend to stick to new products on there, and these are plentiful!
This week's (not sure if I will make this a regular feature or a once in a while thing) ebay treasure is Silver Moon. This is a little eshop full of cutesie shabby chic bits and pieces to make your house feel like a home.
Are you an ebay fan? If you would like to run this feature on your own blog, do feel free to use my image but please do link it back to this blog.
What's the best thing you have ever bought from ebay?
Toodlepip!
xx
move it
Sunday, September 9, 2012
Summer Summary
Aloha Sprinklerinos,
To me, September symbolises the rise of Autumn and the fall of Summer and a happy transition from sandals to pumps to boots. Hurrah!
It seems that this weekend is firmly in the Summer camp with warm weather, the smell of neighbours BBQ's and the sound of lawn mowers lingering in the atmosphere.
I thought I would take this seasonal opportunity to sum up Summer 2012, tuck it into it's low tog bed and look forward to a time of orange leaves and cosy blankets.
May was a good month. I forced myself to take time out and be creative. I absolutely love crafting but all too often a million other things on my 'to do' list push it to the bottom on the pile and I never have a moment to whip out my needle and thread and enjoy it. As part of my '7 Things' series I challenged myself to create and made this very easy no-sew tutu. Yay.
June was a sunny month but not too hot, thank goodness. I made my Dad and Matt some arty-photo Father's Day gifts which they both loved. Aside from the usual things like seeing chums, spending time with family, playing with Baby Glitter and trying out lots of lovely beauty products, the thing I enjoyed most about June was mine and Matt's rather windy (the in-the-sky kind of wind, not the bottom kind haha!) patio date. It was just blissful to sit, eat and not think about the day to day gripes of life. We have been doing that more often and very much benefiting from it.
July was the month I went barmy and decided to write 2 blog posts a day. I kept it up for about 4 weeks but then I came to my senses and realised that although it was a fun short term challenge, it wasn't a realistically sustainable long term goal! This month I pouted away in Revlon's Just Bitten Kissable Balmstains and after having my Instragram pictures printed, made this huge framed collage for the landing.
August was my crazy-busy-don't-sit-down-for-a-second month! We spent a happy week in the North, greeting our brand new baby niece, shopping, mooching round museums, letting Baby Glitter spend quality time with her Grandparents and I took a little break from the internet. Then, after some relaxed family time it was all systems go and Zoe and I trotted off to London for 2 amazing days at Summer In The City (a rather fabulous YouTube gathering) where we were able to meet so many of our brilliant YouTube viewers and see our other YouTube chums and catch up on all their news. Lots of other things happened this month which you can see on my blog and channels but those were the two biggies and I won't bore you by going on and on. And on. And on. Etc.
And here we are, September. A time of back to school enthusiasm, my wedding anniversary, blogger events, the dilemma of 'do I finally treat myself to some good quality boots?' and a whole heap of blogger motivation!
I feel like I am brimming with ideas and posts for the next few months and am itching to put finger to keyboard and get going!
How has your Summer been? What are you looking forward to this season?
Toodlepip!
xx
Saturday, September 8, 2012
Instagram Effects
Aloha Sprinklerinos,
As a lot of you with smart phones may know, there is a photo sharing social network app called Instagram which, in my humble opinion, is AMAZING.
My username on it is @Sprinkleofglitr (like my twitter) and I go on it, scroll through, 'like' things, comment on other images and upload my on photos multiple times a day. I think it's fair to say, I have an addiction.
At least once a day, I am asked what effects I use to make my pictures look the way they do and so I thought that this might help a lot of people who enquire (although I will continue answering on Instagram too for those that don't read this blog).
For images like the three above, I have simply used the filters that Instagram offers. I find these to be full and varied and enjoy the different warmths of colour you can create. You can really make images feel cosy. I tend to stick to 'Rise' (brightens the image with a buttery tone), 'X-pro II' (darkens round the edges and increases shadow depth) and 'Walden' (adds a cool tone). Once you have the app, you can play around and see which filters you find appealing and you'll develop your own insta-style. Oohhh, see what I did there? Haha.
After a while, you might want to spread your wings a bit from the Instagram-provided filters and stretch your wings a bit to something more fanciful.
You can create these filters and light effects by downloading an app called Picfx from the app store. I believe it is about £1.49 (app prices often vary over time) but I think it was money well spent. This app is simple pimple to use, has a huge array of filters and plenty of light effects to choose from. It also automatically crops your picture to instagram size so you can rest assured that whilst you are creating your masterpiece you won't loose any of it when you upload it. Instagram images are always square.
I absolutely adore the sense of magic and whimsy you can add to your snaps with these effects. Even if you aren't on Instagram, you could buy this app and play with your existing pictures just for your own amusement. It certainly makes you feel like a little photographer!
And then there are all the other little tricks you can do on your phone to make interesting or fun instragram pictures. I'm sure there are a million and one different things you can do, but above I have features some of mine.
The top picture is a collage I made on Nostalgio (this app was free when I downloaded it but I believe you have to pay for it now) and Picfx. I took a picture of myself (vain!), played with filters and saved 4 images that I liked the colours of, put the chosen 4 into Nostalgio in the collage format I liked (a simple quad) and tada! Uploaded to Instagram. I thought it looked a little pop-arty and I felt so artistic!
The second picture is a really simple way to share blog images (I use picmonkey.com to hlp with those) and all I did was hopped onto the internet on my phone and took a screenshot of my blog. By doing this you are sharing a sneak peak of your new blog post with your instagram audience and can let them know there is something new to read if they fancy it. It's a double bonus because you are playing on Instragram (which suits my addiction) and promoting yourself too! Yay!
The last image is a new app I have found and is a whole heap of fun! This is 'Tiny Planet' and it allows you to take any picture and turn it into a (as the name would suggest) tiny planet! It's not something I use on a lot of my photos as I tend to take a lot of close up pictures but I think it's really fun for far away shots and makes for interesting results!
As well as the artistic license that Instagram affords you, I really love that you can link up all your updates to other social networking platforms (facebook and twitter to name but two) as this allows you to share the joy a bit and also means you have more places to nose at other people's creations.
In summary, I'm an instragramaholic and like any good 'aholic'!
Are you on Instagram? Would you be interested in playing a little Instagram-Blog game with me? Feel free to leave your Instagram name below too.
Toodlepip!
xx
