I follow some of the most beautiful people on instagram.
From their hair, to their makeup, to their clothes, their work out routines - I follow like the nosey bugger I am watching intently for a bit of inspiration.
This week I had a good look through an instagram account that I had been following for a while who posts cute outfits that are mainly based around her beloved Timberland boots.
I don't know quite why I love them so much, maybe it's the layout, maybe it's because I know it would never suit me and my thighs, maybe it's knowing I will never afford a pair of Timberland's myself...
Get following her - she sings too, with a UKULELE (even better!)
EEEK! It's here! Finally something to promote those with a smaller blog following!
Upon being nominated I feel like I should bring out my carefully worded Oscar speech that I definitely have not had ready for the past 8 years and definitely do not have written on my best paper in my best glittery purple gel pen in my best handwriting where all the letters link together...
I would like to thank my parents and brother, for always believing in me...you guys are my world and NO DON'T CUT TO THE MUSIC
I have been nominated by one of the most adorable people I know who's blog I envy (how DOES she find the time for so many amazing posts?!) Kassiella <3 Please go and look at her blog - I promise you it is much much better than my own!
The rules for this are simple:
✶ You must answer 11 questions given to you by the person who nominated you
✶ You must link back to the person that nominated you ✶ You must nominate 11 bloggers (with under 200 followers) and give them 11 new questions ✶ You can not nominate the person who nominated you ✶ You need to leave your nominees a link to your post so they can know what to do
Sounds simple enough for me I should think...
Question 1 - What is your holy grail drugstore beauty product?
I have one product that nothing else can compare to and that is my beloved Collection 2000 Fast Stroke Eyeliner (the waterproof one of course because I am a permanent emotional wreck). I first used this product aged 12 when I was bored at home one day and discovered my mum's extensive makeup draw (she had one before they were a bblogger craze!!) It has taken me until now to get my liner even, 'flicky' enough and the right thickness, but not once has this little gem ever let me down. I have used so many other liners out of curiosity and none have come even close to the pigment, texture, wear and price of this absolute beauty of a product....excuse the pun.
Question 2 - Where is your favourite place to eat?
Ah...'where do you fancy going to eat?'is possibly the only question that can cause an argument between myself and my boyfriend. It's such a hard question and usually comes down to what we fancy eating at the time... but even then it turns into the below:
However somewhere you just cant beat is Frankie and Benny's - I just love the place, I love the theme, I love the music they play, I love the uniform the staff wear, I even love the fact they play Italian translation music whilst your sat on the loo! But mostly, I love their Californian Pizza; creamy goat's cheese, caramelised onions, rocket....I don't leave a crumb.
Question 3 - What is your most treasured possession?
Again this is a difficult one, I would definitely describe myself as a hoarder; you know the type of person that keeps Christmas and Birthday cards from their 8th Birthday purely 'because'. I'm going to say a couple of my most treasured things - my Great Grandma's beautiful vintage brush set, which sits proudly on my dressing table - she used to use them everyday but to me they are too special to be used so they sit pretty and safe and pristine. My Pandora jewellery, although now cliche and something every girl and their dog has; the whole idea of Pandora is that each charm or piece tells a story and my bracelet and ring certainly do. They remind me of fun, love, pride, friendship and sadly - some mistakes made too - but in the best possible way.
Question 4 - What, in your opinion, is the biggest fashion faux pas?
I'm probably not the best person to answer this question as I wouldn't class myself as a fashion expert in any way, shape or form - I simply aim to look like a celebrity and in real life look like celery.
However - something I cannot stand: clothes that are far too tight. I'm a culprit - I try to fit my junk (aka my bottom) into a small trunk (aka - Topshop joni jeans) and fail miserably. 'WEAR A BIGGER SIZE...DUH' I hear you shout.. yes I could - but the next size up feels like a tent on my waist and is baggy on my actual legs; so we go for the *I cannot sit down* look instead. However some take it too far for it to be acceptable - a double bum cheek isn't the nicest sight in the world and a sign to go shopping for new underwear (which is the best kind of shopping - so no excuses). If it feels like circulation is being cut off from your limbs, you cant fill your lungs to full capacity without popping a button and you feel like everything is on show - that is probably the case.
Question 5 - Describe your dream house
My grammar/punctuation police brain is screaming *that's not a question*.. but we will let that slide.
In my current job I see beautiful new-build properties being bought on a day-to-day basis and they are absolutely beautiful - but very out of my price range. I would love a cottage somewhere far away from the hustle and bustle of a smoggy city, where every room has been designed by myself and my boyfriend so it is very specific to us...I follow two people on Instagram who have done something similar with what was a pretty run-down house and turned it into an incredible home. They are Stacie Johns and her husband-to-be Jordan Franklin. Their home looks like this.....(excuse me whilst I scrape my jaw off the floor):
Question 6 - What is your current go-to outfit?
I'm a winter baby. Seriously - I was born less than a month before Christmas. So I find dressing for the summer a task and a half; combine that with my body shape and confidence and the fact I can't tan and you have a pale covered-up girl sweating in the shade. The autumn is finally rolling in however, so I am coming back into my element! My go to outfit would be black skinny jeans or leggings, chunky black boots, an over-sized t-shirt and an over-sized coat. I always have to have a statement bag too - one day I will have enough money for a designer one, but for now - I am very impressed with Primark's current bag stock. My current favourite is a structured light grey tote which was only £10 but looks like 10x that!!!
Question 7 - Who/What inspired you to start blogging?
The obvious and very popular answers are the usual names you see - Zoella, Sprinkle of Glitter (The lovely Louise), Pointless Blog TV (Alfie), Tanya Burr etc but also a few less well-known names including the most stunning and fashionable person I have ever come across - Shirley Beniang. Of course I knew my blog wouldn't be an instant hit as all of the above's weren't, and to me it wasn't about fame and fortune - it was almost a test to see if anyone would even read it, never mind come back to read another post or be kind enough to follow me! I have had a youtube account for a while now, mainly for my cover videos but I do eventually want to move on to vlogging - I just have an awfully annoying voice and a slight lisp so we shall leave that for now!
Question 9 - What is the first memory you can recall?
Right - I'll be honest with you, I was a hot blooded child in the sense that I stripped off at every opportunity. You will all be pleased to know I no longer do that, if you haven't already noticed. But I literally was that little naked troll with a honey blonde afro strolling confidently into the sea when it's the middle of November whilst her parents and brother look on in shame wrapped up in their wellies and coats....
So my first memory that I can recall right now is my brother shouting 'NAKED SISTERRRRRR' down the beach in Norfolk in sheer horror. I could probably remember further back than this but it's 11.30pm and my brain won't co-operate.
Question 10 - Do you have any tattoos? If not, would you get any in the future?
Currently, I am ink free for 2 reasons: 1) I have a severe needle phobia and 2) my parents would go insane.
Yes I am 18 and therefore a legal adult who pays board each and every month and has a right to her own decisions and skin, but I respect my parents' opinion's more than anything. Some tattoos are absolutely incredible, some are mediocre and some are just plain laughable - but they are on you for life! My boyfriend currently has a large tattoo on his rib and has half completed his first sleeve. He is keen to get it completed and move on to his other arm and I absolutely love his tattoos. It's weird looking back at pictures of us together when he didn't have them and it wouldn't make a difference to me if he had them or not - his tattoo artist is truly an artist - people from all over the world come to the tattoo parlour he goes to; so the quality is as good as it gets. Yet I still cannot pluck up the courage to get one myself.
If I did man up - I already know exactly what and where...but you will have to watch this space.
Question 11 - What is your best physical feature?
This is one of those questions where whatever you say - you will get someone whining going 'oh my godddddd you're so full of yourself' even if I was truthful and admitted - look I really don't like any part of myself.
But if I had to answer - I would say my eyes or lips. My eyes change colour depending on the weather (Green in the summer and Grey in the winter) and my lips just suit my face! MWAH!
hahahahaa just got to the end of this and realised I was supposed to answer the question's Kassi had detailed at the end of her post......Oh my well that will be another post next week (sorry angel!)
So in my error - I will list the questions that Kassi asked me to answer below for you to answer instead: ✶ What genre of blog do you read the most? Beauty, fashion, lifestyle, or other? ✶ Are you a Summer or a Winter person? ✶ What's one thing people many not know about you? ✶ What are your top three travel essentials? ✶ If you could time travel to another era, where/when would you go? ✶ If you were the opposite sex, how different do you think you'd be? ✶ What's the one beauty product that you wish you'd never bought? ✶ How would you describe your fashion style? ✶ What are your top five films? ✶ Do you have a happy place? If not, describe what your happy place would be like ✶ Post a selfie!
And of course I will do that myself in a later blog post!
If you have made it this far reading this- you are my favourite <3
As you may remember me mentioning in a previous post - me and my boyfriend Ryan booked a holiday to Rhodes to celebrate our first anniversary together. I wrote about the fears I had for something going wrong and I wrote about the excitement I had, especially for the hotel we had booked.
If you can't already tell - we are back alive and kicking, with only a few minor things going wrong, but definitely feeling the holiday blues as the night draws in...
So as we sit here looking at our holiday photos for the billionth time - I thought I would post a quick blog review on Rhodes, Faliraki and most importantly The Kouros Exclusive - which I have to say, blew us away.
For all you normal humans who aren't totally obsessed with Geography like me - Rhodes is an island located off the coast of Greece in the Aegean sea. It is northeast of Crete, southeast of Athens and just off the coast of Turkey. Shaped like a spear head, it is actually only 1,400 square kilometres in total. It only has one airport - so you're pretty set for getting there.
Faliraki (as you can see from the above) is situated on the North East coast of Rhodes. It used to be very popular for 'party holidays' back in the day - think Magaluf or Malia now, but way more wild (seriously) - it has now died right down after the locals and governing body in Faliraki got fed up of the tourist's behaviour and demanded things changed. These days it still has a lot of bars, clubs. shops and restaurants and a 'strip' designed to cater for tourists (and there are still a lot of lads and girls holidays out for a wild time) but is clean, tidy and really pleasant - even at night.
The beach is spotless, with a stunning clear blue sea, delicious restaurants where you can eat whilst the sun sets and quite possibly the hottest sand I have ever experienced in my life - it was brilliant to see everyone walk, well - sprint, from their sun loungers to the sea to avoid burning their soles. And there are numerous hidden jewells such as Anthony Quinn Bay with it's deep emerald water - only accessible by boat or by trekking on foot for a while. We were lucky enough to get on board a diving boat that dropped us off on a mini cruise around these coves - meaning we could dive/snorkel in each one and experience the secluded beauty.
We stayed in the most wonderful hotel - The Kouros Exclusive. They made us so incredibly welcome right from the second we arrived, with advice on where to go and visit and how to get there, what food and drink to try, surprise cocktails and best of all.....the treat of being upgraded to two suites during the week as they got wind of our anniversary.
Each night we went and had cocktails on the terrace next to the pool as you can see from the photo just above before we either had dinner there (the food is so fresh it's to die for) or went for a wander in the town to have a look at whatever took our fancy. We never stayed out too late as we didn't want to run into the drunken groups - so we headed home to top-up the after sun each night and either sit out on our cushion or watch a film in English (with greek subtitles) on the tv with a glass of wine.
Faliraki has it's own water park - which is either a short bus or taxi ride away - the taxi's are extortionate unless you demand the meter to be used, so make sure if you do go - make sure you ask for the meter to be switched on before you ask for your destination so you don't get ripped off. Anyway, the water park was one of the best days we had - and we bumped into some friend's of mine from college - of all the places and 2000 miles from home there they were! We got ridiculously burnt and scared ourselves silly - but it was soooo much fun and I would recommend it to anyone!
We also managed to fit in a visit to Rodos - the capital 'city' of Rhodes which is entirely walled, with hundreds and hundreds of Taverna's, stalls and gelatto shops - vivid colours and flavours every where you turned. There are also really interesting ruins that you can climb to get a great view of the stunning water there - although they smell of wee..
We also dreamt of fame and fortune whilst we looked at all of the yachts docked in the bay...
All in all - we fell in love with the entire place and will be returning as soon as possible to enjoy the parts we simply didn't have the time to get around to doing - but I would recommend going 100000000%
