The lovely people at money supermarket sure know how to run a good competition and this one is no exception! They are offering one lucky blogger the chance to win £1,000 to put towards crossing off something on their bucket list, and four more runners up will win £50! If that wasn't already generous enough, if they get over 50 entries, the grand prize will be doubled to £2,000! 

As you know I am currently following slimming world. I have mentioned before that I am by no means new at it, I have been doing slimming world for years. The last few months I have been so focused... I finally achieved my 2 stone award which after all the time I have been going, I have never achieved, in fact I always saw it as somewhat of a brick wall that no matter how hard I tried I could not get over!

The last few weeks I have had some really good weeks, the first week I lost 4 pounds then I stayed the same and the last 2 weeks I lost half a pound each week. When you have been so good, it's gutting the stay the same. The first week I was so gutted to stay the same. Then when I lost half last week, and the week before, and sitting in group, something clicked with me. At the time there was one of the young girls, a similar age to me talking about going with her friends. She was talking about how hard she finds it when she goes out with her friends because they all drink when they go out. Now I have never been one to go out drinking on the town but it made me think not just about drinking but being a young person in general. When I think about the stereotype of young "obese" generation of today it makes me think... There are so many people my age and younger who don't even think about keeping fit, healthy eating or things like that, a lot of it is fast food and take aways.

I may not be at the place I want to be, or happy but at least I am doing something about it. I think I would rather be losing half a pound a week than gaining pounds. I am really focused on being healthy  and making changes to my life that will help my future. I am going to take each day and week as it comes and stop being so hard on myself.

In my family we like to do daft little things. We sit around when the Eurovision Song Contest is on piece of paper in hand marking what we think and our own scores. So when the royal baby news first broke wayyyy back at the end of 2012 we all had tiny envelopes and made our royal guesses with sex, dates, weights etc. 

When I was going away to Florida, I didnt take a lot of make up products with me. In fact scratch that - this was I think the only item I took with me. I usually just go o-naturel when I am on holiday so I didnt bother taking a lot of make up with me. I usually tan quite quickly so I didnt think it would be a problem. I did however want to take a mascara with me just to give my eyes a bit of definition. I didnt want to spent a lot on one but I knew I wanted it to be waterproof.

Queue NYC Showtime Mascara.

You cant beat a bit of glitter on your nails but more recently i havent been wearing it. I fancied a change and wanted to do something different and I spyed a look like this over on pinterest (it is pinned on by nail art board if you want a look - here) - I am slowly becoming addicted to pinterest and as soon as I saw these I knew I wanted to give it a try. I had done something similar ageeeeees ago but with colour on my nails and thought i would try with a french mani look.

Here I am sporting Rimmel - Your majesty and Models own Juicy Jules. I start by putting the Rimmel shade which is a silver on the end like a normal french manicure. Then when this is dry i layer the glitter over the top in layers. Adding the silver first gives the end of the nails that slightly more opaque look so you dont need as much glitter to build the look up!

I really like this look. I am going to give it a try with some of the coloured glitters I have in my collection. I will be sure to share when I do.

Do you love this look? Whats your favourite colour combo?

I said wayyyyy back in January when I made my goals for this year that weight loss and fitness were one of my goals for 2013. I am really focussed in terms of weight loss at the moment, I am really embracing Slimming World and everything it has to offer. I said on the same post that I would think about joining the gym when I got back from my holiday and sure enough, I looked into the prices etc and yesterday we went for a look around.

The gym which I decided I wanted to join is quite a new gym.. well sort of. It has always been a gym / swimming baths which we have used for years but over the past 12-18 months they have had a new building built next door with all new equipment and all posh etc.

So I have mentioned quite a bit on here that I am currently doing slimming world. When I started this blog, including things about slimming world wasnt something which I envisaged doing although at the time, I dont think I really knew what I wanted.
At the moment Slimming World is quite a big part of my life. Now I am by know means a new member to slimming world as you know. I have been doing it on and off for years know, Ive lost a stone, slowly gained it back, given up, started again.
I seem to be *fingers crossed* on a roll at the moment and finally broke through what has always been a barrier for me, getting my 2 stone!

On instagram the other day, people were posting transformation posts during throw back thursday and I though I would join in. It isnt until you actually look back and see a photo of yourself now against an old photo you can really grasp how far you have come and i was quite shocked!

The photo on the left is me now, this photo as you may recognise was last weekend when I went to the Prom party. The photo on the right is New Year last year. I couldnt believe the difference when I saw it. It doesnt look massive but I can certainly see a difference.

Obviously losing just over 2 stone, i have obviously dropped a dress size (2 in some things) which thrills me. I think the best thing about losing weight is not just about the number on the scales but as someone who loves fashion, I love when I can get into smaller clothes. I know that my journey is far from over with Slimming World, but i know that I can only benefit from losing the excess weight, toning and getting fitter. However seeing photos like this only spurs me on more!

 Today 2 wonderful ladies in my life are both celebrating their birthdays; my lovely Nanna (above on the right with me) and my amazing mum (above on the left with me) so it only seemed right to share a lovely post with them for their birthday - not that even of them will see this!

I have always considered myself quite lucky. I have a wonderful relationship with my mum, I am not ashamed to say that she is my best friend. I know that I can talk to her about absolutely anything and we have such a close relationship. Quite often on a saturday we can be found doing lunch and having a girlie shop in town. I love having such a close relationship with my mum and I am also very blessed that not only do I have this relationship with her but she has the same relationship with her mum (my lovely nanna) which in turn means I have a really close relationship with my nanna too! I cant imagine not being close to both of them and I feel very blessed to have the relationship i do with them!

I only hope one day I can be as good a mum and nanna to my own little girl and share the same relationship with her but for now i cherish every moment with these 2 wonderful ladies in my life :) Happy Birthday ladies :) 

Now first of all, I haven't been asked to write this post and I am not writing it because I have been to give blood a million times since I was 18 because I haven't.
Last weekend I went to give blood at one of the local pop up places which appears every couple of months. There are loads of different places that appear around the area I live in but I find one in particular better because it is on a Sunday and easy enough for me to walk to from home should I need to.
I first gave blood back in February of this year. It was something which I had wanted to do for a very long time - in fact I wanted to do it since I was old enough to at 18 but I just never got around to it. Plus it is only the last 12 - 18 months they have started to offer a Sunday at the particular place I wanted to go to. I went along in February after filling in the form and everything online and was able to give blood for the first time, however because of the crappy veins I have inherited (thanks mum, granddad) - they didn't get a full donation because they had to use a side vein in my arm. I was however determined not to give up and when I got the invitation just after I got back from Florida for Sunday 30th I was determined to go again and give it another go.
I went along and hoped and hoped. I had been drinking lots of water all week because I know that can have an effect on how good your veins are or not. I cant tell you how happy I was when it all went smoothly and I was able to give a full donation without any fuss!

Giving blood is one of those weird things, I have known I have always wanted to be a blood donor. Blood is one of things I often think we all take for granted. We wouldn't think twice about expecting to receive blood should we need it if we ever went in for surgery but that blood has to come from somewhere. I haven't personally ever been in the sort of situation where I needed to have any blood given to me but about 15 years ago at the young age of 42 my dad had to have surgery on his heart, quite complicated surgery which involved some complications where he was bleeding and if they hadn't had blood available during the surgery... well...  I knew there and then how important giving blood would be. Like I say we would all expect a surgeon to automatically use it if needed (dependant on religious beliefs of course) but we wouldn't think twice about it.
I am quite happy to donate what I would say is a small amount of something which - lets face it, my body is going to replace anyway - to help someone else. Who knows what the blood I donate could do? In fact I love the feeling that I am helping someone else, someone I don't even know or will never even meet but just another person, I have been thinking about other kinds of donation. There is something called component donation which you can do as often as every 2 weeks. Although there is only 24 donation places around the UK there is one local to me. I think when I get a car this is something I will defiantly be thinking about. There is also bone marrow donation which is something I haven't really taken much time to look at but I am always exploring ways that little me in my little bubble can help out. I'm not one to go all religious on you but God put us all on this earth and he gave us the tools to help each other out. If I can do something as little as donating something like blood, plasma or even bone marrow then why not?

Do you donate blood? If you would like to know more about donating blood head over to www.blood.co.uk to register and find your local donation centre.

When I got an invite for a family friend who was having a rock/prom party to celebrate a host of celebrations this year which had happened - a 50th Birthday, an 18th birthday and a 16th birthday all in the space of a few months - I knew I was going straight down the prom theme. I did briefly look at the rock side but who doesn't want the excuse to don a pretty dress and heels?

In the last few years, I have accumulated some lovely dresses what with one for my 18th, 2 lots of graduation and various weddings and parties I had a few to choose from. However yesterday when on the morning of the party I finally decided to sort out what I was going to wear I was shocked to find that 3 or 4 of my dresses were wayyyyyyy to big! Including one I brought at christmas I have only had on once! Heres what I went with...


What do you think about customising your clothes? Have you ever adding in a bit of detail to make something jazzed up a little??

Now I know its not just me who gets sucked into buying things when I go into Boots. Things I am defiantly sure I need and will use but still have a perfectly good equivalent at home! Its like some kind of addiction! Ever since I started reading blogs and eventually got into blogging myself, I cant go into Boots without checking out the new goodies they have on offer or the latest offerings from my favourite brands but truth be told, I dont really need anything!

Anyway me and mum were going to head off to IMATs this year, however as it fell the weekend I came back from Florida, we didnt end up going. We have however decided that we are going to go next year and so I have decided to start putting a little bit aside each month to pay for the trip.
However one thing I have thought about is using up some of the products I have in my stash. Assuming that IMATs is the same weekend it was this year - it should be just under 12 months away. And so my vow is to try and attempt to use a lot of the products that I have in my stash before I go out and purchase something the same but in a different brand! My make up bag is overflowing - i mean do I really need to be using 2 or 3 mascaras at once. The trouble I find with myself is I will be drawn into buying a new product when I am in town, then when I get home I want to try it so it goes in my make up bag, meaning that the other products i have that are the same stop getting used!

I know for a fact that I will not need to buy any mascara for the next 12 months at least, I brought 4 back from Orlando with me and I also have a couple of the Revlon one i love in my stash, a benefit one  i got free when I brought an eyeliner (full sized) and a couple of small travel they are real ones that have either come in gift sets or I have had free in magazines!

So for the next 12 months I shall be buying only essentials, I'll be shopping my stash more than actually shopping and trying my best to save as many pennies as I can for IMATs next year! :)