NOTW - Daisies (:

So I paint my nails every week anyway (or thereabouts... Ok... Sometimes it may be something like every 5 days instead of every 7, but you get my drift!) and thought I'd start doing nail of the week posts! Showing you what I've done, and what I've used etc, so maybe you guys might get a little inspriation, or see something that you think you might like to try, or recreate! Or even a product you like the look of and want to go on the hunt for!

As you can tell by the title, this week I've done daisies!

 I decided to not do the whole hand, as I quite like the dainty lookof just a few little daisies on my thumb and wedding finger.

Up close of how I created them. Pretty much just a cluster of dots! I have some dotting tools coming to me in the post (which I've bought from amazon, and a few other bits too, which I'll be doing a little blog post about when they arrive!) but seeing as they're not here yet, I just used the top of a pin to create my yellow dots!

The other products I used were some crappy, cheapy clear polish that I've had for ages, and actually came in a set with a french manicure set - I use this for base and top coat, but I really need a better one!

 

Models Own Nail art pen in white. (£6)

Avon Nailwear Pro in Sunshine (£2-3, originally they are £6)

Avon Arabian glow Nailwear Pro in Electric green (£3, Normally £6)

I never actually buy any Avon nail polish full price, although they are indeed worth it!

 

And there we have it! Daisy nails (:

Hope you enjoyed!

xox

Baking :: Blueberry Loaf

Here's something abit different for you today!

My recipe for a blueberry loaf :)

 

Now, traditionally it should be blueberry muffins that people make with blueberries! But I like to do it in a loaf tin, because that way, you can cut different size pieces (sometimes and muffin just isn't big enough!), and also having it as one cake can also make a nice centre piece if you have guests etc.

 

So, here's what your going to need!

• 4 ounces (150g) of self raising flour
• 4 ounces (150g) of Stork (I like using this for cakes, as I really enjoy the flavour, and when its left to room temp, it mixes perfectly!)
• 2 ounces (56g) of caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 4 ounces (150g) of fresh blueberries
• A teaspoon of baking powder
• 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract (Vanilla essence if of course whheey better, but to be honest, I can quite afford £6 for a bottle of that at the moment, so thought id give extract a go - its not too bad! Could be better. So if you have essence, then just use 1 teaspoon!)

 

 

What I tend to do first, is melt my butter. 30 seconds in the microwave should do it. Leave it to one side whilst you prepare the rest!

In my mixer I put the flour, sugar, and baking powder. Gave that all a little mix through, then went in and added the wet ingrediants, so the eggs, butter, and vanilla extract.

I mixed that for about 3-5 minutes, making sure all the dry ingrediants have been absorbed into the wet.

This is where you grab your spoon now, and add your blueberries to your cake mix.

Gently fold the blueberries into your mixture making sure they are all coated.

The reason for doing this softly with a spoon is 1. So the blueberries dont brake and squish! & 2. So we dont over-work the cake batter.

Then you can pour it into your loaf tin! (or muffin cases, or any other tin you prefer!).

 

My loaf tin is about 2 inches or so deep.

 

Grease/line your tin, with butter and/or greaseproof paper. I just used some of the Stork.

Then bake on 160 degrees (gas mark 3.) for about 20-30 minutes, checking how its going after the 20!

 

Quick tip :: If you find your outside and edges are cooking quicker than your middle, put some tin foil over the top of it - works a treat!

 

And here's my finished loaf!

 

 

Hope you all enjoyed!

 

Toodlepip!

xox

 

 

 

 

 

Dotty Nails

When I reviewed my Models Own nail art pen, I was happy with it, and said that I ordered the white one too, and it arrived! Yippie!

That came in the post, and the day before my Barry M mint green polish turned up too! So I instantly wanted to try both of these out.

Barry M Mint green: £2.99           Models own pen: £6

This cute little design is what I came up with.

I painted on 2 coats of the mint green (if you want, 1 coat would be fine if you were going for a more sheer look).

Then using the fine nib of the nail art pen, I dotted ma nailz uupp!

:)

Thoughts :: Love love lurrrrrvve the mint green! Ive wanted this colour for rather a while now, and heard alot of good things about Barry M's one, and I was not disappointed.

As for the white nail art pen, Really great quality, and easy to use! Was really chuffed, and now I'm the owner of 2 decent nail art pens - hopefully soon to be a few more, I'm sure!

xox. 

Im now engaged!!

The biggest thing that’s ever happened to me!!

I still don’t even believe it, and its been a week already (I know, sorry it’s late, but I’ve gone back to work now… The holiday is over.)

It was a complete surprise to me, I had no idea what-so-ever! Tom did a very good job on keeping it a secret, and organizing everything, and seeing as we live together (he lives with me and my mum!) he did very well in hiding everything –also especially seeing as I’m really quite nosey and like to know what people are up too, and what they’re doing!

So I thought that id share with you guys what happened that day :)

Saturday 11^th August 2012, mine and Thomas’s 2 year anniversary. For a start I couldn’t even believe it had been 2 years! Time had gone so fast, and it’s hard to think I met him on my 19^th birthday (a present I never got rid of!). 

We woke up, had a nice little cuddle, and a chat, and then we went downstairs, and Tom cooked us a lovely cooked breakfast – scrambled egg, sausages, bacon… The works! It was very yummy, and a nice little surprise to the start of the day!

He also gave me a haribo heart, and ring in a little enveloped with “I love you” written on it – we have this joke that the only kind of engagement ring we’d be able to afford is a haribo one, so hence the haribo!

In the afternoon my best friend Helena, asked if I wanted to meet for a bite to eat, and some shopping, unbeknown to me… She was in on the whole thing!!! She came up with a very plausible idea. She told me that Tom’s mum agreed to sign a sponsorship form for her for her uni application thingy (Helena’s training to be a midwife/nurse, and Tom’s mum is a nurse, so it sounded true to me!) anywho she was like, “Tom’s told me his mum is free at 5, so we’ll go round then!” I was cool with that – although I was in the middle of a poundshop hunt, so didn’t really want to leave!

We left, and got to Tom’s house, say hey to his mum, his dad, and then his sister was there too – and his mum asked if we wanted to stay for something to eat – to which Lena was like “Yeah sure!” I was surprised, as she was supposed to be meeting her cousin.

When we walked in the living room, Tom, my mum, and my friend Becky came bursting out the conservatory and shouted surprise! That’s when I thought… “What's going on here!?”

After a while, Tom turned the T.V off and asked me to stand up with him. My legs felt like jelly, I felt so hot, and I felt sick! I didn’t know what was about to happen, but I was nervous!

He gave a very nice speech to everyone there about us, and how much he loved me, that’s when the eyes started to well up, and then he went on one knee!

I was gobsmacked!!

He opened the box, and there was a beautiful ring there, which he took out, and popped the question! And of course I said yes!

And here we are!

I was shaking afterward, and like I said I still can’t believe it’s for real now! But I love Tom with all my heart, and couldn’t imagine a day without him there, let alone the rest of my life. I’m not saying it’s been an easy 2 years, because for us, it hasn’t. But it’s made us strong, and we value each other a lot more because of what we’ve been through. He’s now my fiancé, but he’s always, and will always be my best friend, and the person I tell everything too.

(This is us after... Not a great picture as the light was behind us.)

xox.

Eye roll on concealer - for 79p!

Whenever I see anything for under £1, I feel like I instantly have to buy it! Especially if its anything to do with make-up, nails, or books. My curiosty gets the better of me and I just become fascinated to see if it works, if its worth more than it is, or just to see if its better than what I may of shelled out a fiver for! 

So when I was just randomly wondering around in Savers one afternoon, I spotted this:

 Pretty:Perfect Eye Roll On Concealer. Light tint with citrus.

Im quite open to trying alot of concealers to be honest, as I hate the bluey/purpley rings I get under my eyes! Its a bit of a bug-bare of mine. So when I saw this for 79p, my first reaction was "Really!?"

After standing there for a while giving the box a read (all of which sounded plausable!), I thought to myself "For 79p, I'm really not going to regret it if it turns out to be poop!" So I bought it!

My overall view on this is 7 out of 10.

• Really easy to use, because of the rollerball
• Dispenses enough of the product
• Rather versatile as I've used this other places on my face, other than eyes. Only for the odd spot here and there or something :)
• Is abit yellow-ish... But once powder is put on top - I find it fine
• There will obviously be better out there, but tbh for 79p its good. I will probably buy more, if not one more for a spare in my handbag or something, because if I lose it, its only 79p, not like £7 or something.

TTFN! :)

xo

YouTube Channel up and running!

After many cursing words were spoken, and after my laptop was thrown on my bed in a huff many-a-time! Finally my YouTube channel is not only active, but I finally was able to upload a video!

Horrah!

http://www.youtube.com/user/booksbeautyandbeyond?feature=guide

There we have it!

I had so many problems to begin with, it was unreal! I was beginning to think "how the hell do people do this!?".

Filming the actual video wasnt too bad, (Im sure my technique will improve with time) for a first video I was really quite happy with the way it turned out. Then, the fun began!

My camera films in HD, and apparently, windows live movie maker doesn't quite like that. So it decided not to work! After hunting high and low for something I could edit my HD video on, I found nothing! Nada. Zilch. So decided - what the heck! I'll just upload it to YouTube as it is!

But that didnt want to work for me either... Saying it was going to take upto 456 minutes or something ridiculous! I carried on however, and left my laptop on overnight for it to do so, just to wake in the morning to find out internet explorer had stopped responding on 83% !!!

I was livid, and starting to perhaps come to terms with the fact id have to re-film in a lower resolution. (which I didnt want to do, as I didnt want to lose all that '1st video' ness!)

Anywho, after doing some research I find a video converter online (which is free to download, and free to use), which converts HD video to smaller resolutions! Viola!

When I did that, and went to upload, it only took 20 minutes! (much better!)

And there we have it, my first video story! :)

I am fully aware that I do need to work on a few things, eg camera postion, editing, light, and resolution. But I was rather pleased with it.

If you have a YouTube account it would be great to have you subscribe, or even if you do YouTube videos yourselfs, I'd love to take a look!

xo.

Models Own nail art pen - WAH Nails.

So, as you may have noticed I'm a wee bit addicted to nails, nail polish, nail art (anything to do with nails really!), and considering this addiction, I realised I dont actually own a nail art pen!! Not even one! :O

Ive always seen them packs of 'Rio' nail art pens in Argos for something like £25, and you get like 8 colours, but I've always thought "are they actually any good!?"

After doing abit of looking around, I spotted that models own had done a collab with WAH nails, and thought I'd try this instead. Least I'd only have to buy one individual one, instead of a whole pack!

 I got mine for £6, from Very.com, you can get them from like boots, superdrug and online for the same price.

 When I opened the envelope the packaging hit me first. Everyside of the box is a different pattern, and colour. I'm being a bit biased and only showing you my fav sides. The side I wasnt showing you (as the back is black with instructions on), was just like a bright yellow camoflage kind of thing. The top of the box was some weird bloodshot eye (tad odd!).

This is the pen itself. The nib is fine, and is really good for adding detail, and for doing little dots and things like that. Then once you unscrew that, there's a really fine brush (which is taking me a little while to get the hang off...). I just got the black on to begin with, as you can do most designs with that - but I do actually have the white one in the post as we speak!

So I guess that would tell you my answer on what I thought of it/would I buy other colours :)

I did really like the pen, and it was easy to use. A great first time one for people just wanting to play around and try some things out, as you do only have to buy the one, and not waste £20+ on a whole set if there not going to be for you.

If you follow my on instagram (@alexheaney), then you would have seen my first little play with it.

If you guys have these nail art pens, tell me what you think! Or if you know of any others arouund, or even if you've tried the 'Rio' ones - im interested in it all!

TTFN. xo.

Nail Polish By H&M - Dust and Diamonds.

So, I was just casually shopping in town the other day, (whilst I was waiting on the boyfriend to finish in the dreaded dentist!) and I decided to pop into H&M. They were having a sale, and I was like "Meh, lets have a butchers!"

Strolling around... Go upstairs... and BAM! My nail polish addicted takes hold (again!), and I saw this...

 To me, in the packaging it looked like milk chocolate or something, so I thought to myself "Ooh Yum!". When I saw it painted on my nails, thats exactly what it looked like!

 H&M nail varnishes are normally around the £2.99-£5 mark, depending on whether your buying individual, or sets.

This was reduced to £1. So for that I cant complain.

Its really nice to paint on, and the colour is very true to how it appears in the bottle.

I didnt use a top-coat, purely because I dont have one, and I've been trying to shop around and find a good one! So anyone know of any.. Leave a comment pweez :) It took around about 2 days to start chipping big style, and that includes me wearing it to work! So not bad going.

Moral of this blog post, I think I will purchase more nail polishes from H&M!

xo.



Time to get serious!

The time to start blogging has commenced!

Since looking around at peoples blogs and things, I've noticed that they're all so pretty, and well laid out! Mine, on the other hand.. hasnt really found it's feet yet.

I do admit since starting I have been abit neglectful :/

But this will all change as of now!

Im going to learn bits and bobs to help change it a little (as I pretty much still know nothing about this!) So just a little heads up for the upcoming changes!

The YouTube channel must start! A.S.A.P!

As I'm realising I have a voice, and a need to speak to everyone in a bigger way than just typing!

I also have a lot of things in the pipe line that I want to blog about, so these shall also be happening!

It's exciting times, and also nervous ones as I'm actually about to venture into the world of video..

Lets hope this turns out well!

Hope you enjoy the journey with me.

:)

xo