Floral Nails: Take 2

These are not my best nail art by far but it is such a simple and easy design that I thought I would post it. 

STEP BY STEP GUIDE

Step One: Gather your 'ingredients'

Racing Green: Barry M

Rio Nail Art Pens

Step Two: Paint your nails using 'Racing Green' from the Barry M range. 

Step Three: Using the yellow nail art pen, paint three dots on your nail at equal spacing to each other.

Step Four: Using the white nail art pen, draw little lines around the yellow dot like petals. I found this quite difficult. If you do too, try doing little dots.

AND VOILA!!  There you have it!

I'm getting a lot of practise doing nails so hopefully the only way is up!

Chloe x

10 Day 'You' Challenge: Day One

Ok, so I think I'm going to do this challenge, although it actually seems quite difficult haha!

Day One: 1 picture of yourself
Day Two: 2 songs
Day Three: 3 films
Day Four: 4 books
Day Five: 5 foods
Day Six: 6 places
Day Seven: 7 wants
Day Eight: 8 fears
Day Nine: 9 loves
Day Ten: 10 secrets

DAY ONE: ONE PICTURE OF YOURSELF

Here's a photo of me and my boyfriend Seb. I literally never take photos of me by myself so this is the most recent one where I look half decent! It was a 1950s party (i think we were the only ones who dressed up-rage!).

Edinburgh Fringe Festival

Edinburgh has had glorious sunshine this week (for once!) so I thought I may as well bask in this, and what better way to do that then at the fringe!

I can imagine that if I didn't live in Edinburgh, I would love the fringe 100x more than I do but if I'm just doing ordinary day activities, it can be super annoying! Especially trying to get from one place to another!

However, I do enjoy it the other times! I'm just going to write a little bit about the 3 shows/events that I went too. I think I'll probably go to more but I'm back home at my parents the now.

Show One: Potter Trail

This is the blurb 'Grab a wand and join your robed guide on the only tour in Edinburgh designed especially for Potter fans! You’ll discover the magical locations that inspired characters and scenes in the series, visit the places where JK Rowling wrote the books and even learn about the real-life witches and wizards of medieval Edinburgh'

The tour was actually very good, although at one point, I thought I could probably do a better job at it, than the tour guide! 

The tour focused on objects and places which might have had an influence on JK Rowling whilst she was writing Harry Potter so it technically wasn't factual BUT there was far too much evidence for it not to be.

Lord Voldemort's Grave

This is probably my favourite photograph. The grave of Lord Voldemort. Although Riddell is spelled differently in the film (probably to spell the anagram 'I AM LORD VOLDEMORT'. It did definitely feel that we were actually at the grave! But did JK Rowling actually walk around that graveyard? NOBODY KNOWS! So it's up to your own judgement really.

They also gave out wands....The inner child in me & my friends came out.

Overall Score: 7/10

Show Two: Jessie Cave: Bookworm

Many people know Jessie Cave as 'Lavender Brown' in Harry Potter. BUT she is so much more than that! She is a quirky, positive, hilarious girl that really does make you laugh! Her show was full of factual information PLUS lots of laughs! 

Overall Score: 9/10

Show Three: David O'Doherty- Seize the David O'Doherty

He is one of my favourite comedians!! Although he is not brilliant on the tv -because it's simply doesn't work with his act. He plays a little keyboard and sings songs that are soo good! I was in the front row this time and my neck did hurt a little but it was worth it because last year, he was a tiny little dot. 

A must see though, I laughed far too much!

Overall Score: 10/10

Have you seen many shows?

Florals.

Decided it was time to face the challenge and paint my nails flowery. I should have taken photos at each stage but I was just too excited to see how they would turn out. 

To be honest, they are not as hard as they look. A lot of people say that I must spend ages on my nails but it really only takes about 40 minutes max! 

1.2.

1. Soda Pop Pink- Models Own

2. Spring Green- Barry M

3.

3. Rio Professional Nail Art Kit- Amazon

How to achieve flowery nails:

1.  Firstly I painted all my nails in 'Spring Green' by Barry M. I love Barry M nail varnishes. They are cheap and come in all colours and they are pretty decent as well. Remember to put a base coat of clear nail varnish on!!!

2.  Using Model's Own 'Soda Pop Pink' I drew rough circles (about 4 per nail) on my nail, making sure there was enough space for leaves. Bit disappointed in this nail varnish. It is a lot lighter than advertised on the website. It looks like a peachy pink but I would say it's more a baby pink.

3.  Using the purple nail art pen from Rio, I drew random lines onto the pink circles. Not going to lie, it was just random squiggles however it actually worked!

4. Using the green nail art pen from Rio, I drew 2 leaves on each flower and hey presto, the nails were done!

This was actually one of my easier nails to do!

If you have any questions or enquiries, don't be afraid to ask!

Welcome Home Edmund!

I've been begging my parents for years to get me a pet. I genuinely feel like I was the only person in school that had never owned a pet EVER. So you can imagine how super excited I was when my mum decided that I could get a hamster and the funny thing is, my parents actually adore him and dote on him all the time.

I was so lucky because there was only 3 hamsters left at Pets at Home and the other 2 were pure white and had blood red eyes. It was a shame but they were very creepy looking...

Running on his wheel.

He is such a shy little guy. After two days of just stroking him and talking to him, we took him out of his cage and we let him run around the floor. He ran all over my hands...ahh he's just so cute!

look at him in his tube sleeping.

I can't wait until he gets more confident with me! Also I posted the above photo on facebook and someone commented like 'it's not good for hamsters to climb up tubes!! hamsters have rights too'
so I looked this up and no where online does it state that it's not safe. ALSO, the pet shop lady pretty much said we had picked the best cage so...I just don't know.

I love him so much already!

Chloe

x

I hope they win again, so this happens again.

TEARS IN MY EYES!!

Goodnight Sweetheart, Goodnight

I have just spent the last couple of weeks watching this gem of a tv program! I was first introduced to Goodnight Sweetheart when I was younger but I was only 2 when it came out and it ended when I was 7 so I was a bit too young to watch it then. However, I started catching it on ITV3 in the mornings and I instantly got addicted!! I absolutely love anything from the 30s & 40s. I love the style, the attitude and just the general 'we're in this togetherness'.

The show is based on Gary Sparrow (played by Nicholas Lyndhurst). One day Gary is casually walking down an alleyway and he somehow finds himself in 1939(?). He thinks he is dreaming at first but fortunately for us, he isn't! He returns back to the 90s to his wife Yvonne (played by Michelle Holmes) and his best friend Ron (Victor McGuire). He decides to keep going back to the war time, where he meets a young girl, Phoebe (Played by Dervla Kirwan) who he falls in love with. The whole series continues with Gary living two lives in two different times.

The show is split from series 1-3 and 4-6 when the two main female characters left and got replaced.

Season 1-3

L-R; Ron (Victor McGuire), Yvonne (Michelle Holmes), Gary (Nicholas Lyndhurst, Reg (Christopher Ettridge) and Phoebe (Dervla Kirwan)

Season 4-6

L-R; Reg, Yvonne (Emma Amos), Gary, Phoebe (Elizabeth Carling) and Ron

It was a bit hard to get used to the new characters at the start of series 4, just because we were all so used to the previous actresses.

Personally I prefered Michelle Holmes as Yvonne. I felt that when she left Yvonne's character completely changed. Michelle could be bitchy but you still loved her. Whereas when Emma was being mean, I started to dislike her.
I liked both Phoebes but I think Elizabeth Carling has a slight edge on it. For some reason I liked her more.

To be honest, there isn't really a character that I did dislike in this tv show. Everybody had funny lines and there was always a time when you felt sorry for the character.

I won't spoil the rest of the plot but this is definitely a tv show that I would recommend. It's a great watch!

10/10

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LONDON: Wicked, Diamond Jubilee, Harry Potter

Last week (2nd-5th of June), my sister and I went to LONDON!! God I love that city soo much! I don't think I've found anything that I don't like about it (actually maybe the high prices!). We basically went down for an early birthday present for me although it didn't feel anything like that so I'll probably discount that.

Anyway I'm going to give you a quick(ish) overview of what we did etc etc!

Day One
I won't bore you with all the travel stuff! But we arrived in London at about 1ish but we couldn't book into our hotel until 3! So we had Burger King at Euston station and sat people watching for a good 2 hours. My pathetic phone died :( so it wasn't the best start! However after we got into our hotel we went to Victoria (to see WICKED!).
We went for dinner at Cafe Rouge (which I love so much) then we made our way to the Apollo Theatre!!



I can't even describe how good Wicked is. Seriously. It is beyond amazing!! Rachel Tucker & Gina Beck were spectacular! I can't stop listening to the soundtrack now, think it's annoying Seb & my flatmates but they do need to be introduced to good music some time...

Day Two

Gemma was desperate to go to the Thames Pageant. So we go up early and made our way to the Chelsea Embankment. Although on judgement now we probably should have got closer to Big Ben or Tower Bridge for a better atmosphere. However it was fine there. We go a good spot but it was only 12pm and it wasn't passing until 3pm! Unfortunately a couple behind us starting pushing us forward (they were like 70) and there was no one behind them so I have no idea why they were doing it. We decided to move because I couldn't stand this old mans stomach touching me all the time (ew perve). We walked along the embankment for 2 hours and then found a spot next to a screen.


Saw this cute little doggy!

Eventually the boats passed and it was exciting to see the royal barge and I did see the Royal Family but they were teeny! Thank god I have contacts!
We left shortly after the RF passed and made our way to Victoria station for some food. Think everybody had the same idea! It was mobbed but luckily we got a seat quickly at Garfunkels. Good food but that restaurant need to employ more staff & work on their customer service!

Day Three



IT WAS HARRY POTTER STUDIO DAY!!
This was truly amazing! So much to see! One of my friends spent apparently 6 hours in there which I think is a bit of an exaggeration! I only spent 3 hours in there and one hour of that was standing waiting for this:



I can't help but laugh everytime I see this! so so funny!

And that was really a quick overview of the holiday. Don't want to write too much or else I'll be here all day!

Chloe
x

LONG WEEK

It's been a very interesting week. Busy yet not at the same time.
Finally secured a flat wooohoooo! Think it will be nice to decorate it to my standards and know that Kirsty won't spoil it.

Here are my photos from the week:

On our way to sign our lease me and Seb stopped off at a little cafe and had some beautiful BEAUTIFUL chips!! Seriously, they were so crispy and just beautiful!! And only £2.50 for this beautifulness. LOL.

KANGAROO pasta from Australia!!

Week in Pictures

My WICKED album arrived!! So I can start practising all the songs!! 2 weeks tomorrow and I'll be going to see it! Super excited. I genuinely feel sorry for Seb and Nikki cause I listen to the songs all the time and pretty much never shut up about them.

Looking through my Dad's collection of coins! He had a lot of cool ones but they didn't photograph as well as this one! My Mum and I have started our own collection! It's going well already!

Bought this beautiful stuff for 50p!! Ok it did go out of date on the day I bought it but it was soo good and worth it! Usually it's around £7. Bargain!

Parma violet cocktails!! yum yum yum!

Got my Art Essay back today and I got 67& which is a record high for me!! Wooohoo!

May

I always seem to neglect this blog...I don't mean too but it has been a seriously busy couple of weeks since I last updated.

Love my last update about KONY 2012. Did people cover the night or did I miss that? oops.

My life has been very uninteresting of lately. I'll briefly talk about the highlights of my awful essay month.

I can't even begin to talk about how much I love this teapot! My Mum bought it for me for a 21st birthday present but my birthdays not until August so she decided I should just have it now! SO IN LOVE!! It's actually amazing! Definitely has made my essay writing experience just a little bit better.

I was in Dobbies and I noticed they had a jigsaw selection so decided I had to buy one! It was 1000 pieces! Such a good detailed jigsaw though and not too hard! But it took me and Seb 3 hours. But we did it! So much fun!

I went to see Calendar Girls with Gemma and my mum! I really wasn't looking forward to it at all just because I really didn't want to see naked ladies prancing about on stage BUT it was awesome! Although I felt super sick and was probably the youngest one there in the theatre it was one of the best things I've seen! I wasn't expecting it to bed soo funny! Sadly this is the last time it's touring (no idea why- it's great!) Hopefully one day it will come back.

So I have 1500 more words to do on my last essay! Definitely think I'm resitting my education exam but oh well! Have to think about that when the time comes!

Will try and post more often

C x

Invisible Children

I hate when things like this happen. I don't know what to believe. People are saying that the Invisible Children organisation is just a scam but others are bigging it up.

I've signed the pledge and I've also donated because I wasn't informed about the darker side of it until later on. Now I wish I could get a refund on that bracelet.

Awkward blog post.

Haldane Dinner

So on Friday night, the long awaited Haldane dinner finally came.
Goodness, I am not even joking when I say this but I felt incredibly sick and nervous all day! Total nightmare!! I had to sit and watch Coach Trip and My Big Fat Gyspy Wedding (mind-numbing tv) just to keep my mind off of it!

Eventually it came to 5pm so I had to get ready! I took my time though cause I still felt incredibly sick (haha). I finally got my make up and dress on and Nikki did my hair (which may I add was soo good-I'll post more photos once I get her camera!). Seb came round and got suited and booted up! I do have to say that I thought we looked very good haha!

Ok so it was time to go! I was talking sooo fast! SOOO NERVOUS! Our taxi arrived and we made our way down to Old College. Everyone looked lovely and my nerves calmed a little. A lot of Seb's male friends shook my hand and said hi. I felt that a lot of the girls were glad to finally see me because apparently Seb talks about me all the time (HA-HA!). It was nice to meet people that I've heard so much about but I did feel slightly under pressure to live up to my expectations. I felt like Daisy in Gatsby. I was on that pedestal! Overall though I think I coped pretty well and I tried to make a big effort to talk a lot to the girls. With boys it's easy because they aren't judging you (well probably judging looks but hey I looked good that night).

Anyway back to the dinner! Apparently we were supposed to be getting champagne but we never. A lot of people complained about that but I was just glad I didn't add any unnecessary liquids to my bladder as there was only one comfort break (after about 3 hours!). We stood behind our seats for 1 hour! One of the big army guys (I don't know the order of the ranks, I am going to guess Colonel but I think I'm wrong) was late! Eventually the important people came walking in to the sound of bagpipes. Such a funny atmosphere! We shook hands and finally sat down! People arrived late, however and we had to stand up again which was such a nuisance as my dress kept getting stuck under my chair(!).

The starter was already at the table. It was parsnip panacotta which was just all sorts of wrong. It was surrounded by peppers so I ate that but the parsnip thing had such a terrible texture that I couldn't manage it. Forgot to add that we weren't allowed to eat until the important person at our table did so. I wasn't too fussed if he didn't eat cause the food was awful! The main was a salmon dish with potatoes and mushy peas. I tried to eat a bit of salmon but I just couldn't! That's right- I HATE FISH! The potatoes and mushy peas were good! The wine at our table was delicious too and was going down a treat! Thank god the dessert was cheesecake! It was so yummy!

After the meal we had to stand up and toast the Queen and Prince Philip whilst the national anthem played. I found this absolutely hilarious as the old army guy at my table looked so emotional! Oops giggle alert! Thankfully we got to sit down and listen to some speeches which weren't too bad! The finale came! Two boys in the OTC played their bagpipes for about 15 minutes non stop, walking inbetween the tables, deafening us! Good players and well done to them but seriously one song would have been enough! NOT 5! THE DINNER WAS NOW OVER HURRAH!

We made our way onto buses to go to the barracks! Now, Seb has been talking about the barracks forever and the image he had painted in my head was nothing to what I saw! They were massive and looked very old with some nice architecture! We made our way into them and headed straight for the photo area! I wanted a photo done before I looked drunk! The photo we ended up with is actually very nice! We then went to the bar and I had a lot of drinks! We danced a little and I talked to some people. We did good and stayed there for 4 hours! But enough was enough, I was bloody shattered, so we went home at 4am. Gutted though because after we left they had a ceilidh and did Scottish Country Dancing which is my fave :(

Overall a good night and I woke up without a hangover so all was good!

James McAvoy

I'm surprised I haven't blogged about this sooner. This time last week I was in a class at Uni when Nikki texts me to tell me that James McAvoy is currently filming Filth (by Irvine Welsh) on the Grassmarket. THE GRASSMARKET IS 5 MINUTES AWAY FROM MY UNI BUILDING!!

I couldn't skive Uni there and then because Tuesdays are always an important day (grr) but I went as soon as it had finished but sadly he was gone :( I was so sad that Seb took me to the pub and bought me a cider!

Anyway I knew that he was filming the next day so I thought I would chance my luck. I was supposed to meet my group at 10.30. My lecture was at 9 but I decided that I would just have a lie in and get the bus to uni (which I never EVER do). When I was on the bus, I realised that it stops right next to the Grassmarket so I obviously got off and went straight there! HE WAS THERE FILMING!!!
Oh my goodness I just stared and watched him for ages until I realised I would have to go meet my group (booo!).

After Uni I met my friend Nikki and because she hadn't seen James yet, we decided to go see if he was still there- and HE WAS!!!
We watched him for about an hour and we were going to go but thought nah let's just wait until the very end. THANK GOD WE DID!!!
I ran over to him and got my photo taken with him!!
This is how our conversation went:

Me: You're like my favourite actor!
James: You are very kind.
Me: .....on the floor....

SERIOUSLY BEST DAY EVER!!!!

Anne Frank

My Auntie has just returned from visiting Aushwitz. i've always wanted to go there because World War 2 is a period in history that I'm extremely interested in.
The only experience I have had relating to WW2 is when I visited Anne Frank's House. Since studying WW2 in Primary 7+, I became engrossed with Anne's story. I bought her diary and read it in a couple of days. I have seen pretty much every adaptation of it. I know quite a lot about her!

When I went to Amsterdam last year, I got the opportunity to visit her ACTUAL house. We queued for about 20 minutes to get in; it was absolutely packed! I couldn't believe how large the building was! I always imagined her to live in the smallest attic ever but it was actually rather big (although still small for the amount of people who lived there). Sadly we weren't allowed to take photos which was a shame but oh well. The above picture is of the bookcase and the secret staircase. If I was any fatter I would not have managed to get up those stairs! Definitely made for skinny people!

It was fascinating to see the rooms that I have imagined so many times. I found the whole experience rather emotional. The worst part for me was the large picture of Otto Frank staring into the annexe. I just felt so sorry for him. He had lost his whole family because of one brainwashing man. Just shocking really.

Kevin Bridges:

my favourite comedian atm.

Born This Way Ball

I am unbelievably excited for Lady Gaga's new tour.
The Monster Ball was probably one of the best experiences of my life and there is no way in hell that I will miss this tour!

Tonight she released the first 11 dates of her tour (which were in Asia and Australia) so hopefully she'll release the Europe dates soon so I can plan!!

Hurry up Gaga!