My Brush Collection

I really love to experiment and try out new hair styles and have found that you definitely need the right tools when trying to achieve certain looks! Therefore I have found myself with the beginnings of a hairbrush and comb collection so thought I would share these with you and let you know what I use each one for!

Starting from left to right we have :

Detangling comb by Pro-tip 08 I use this comb when I am conditioning my hair to make sure that the product is evenly distributed 

Head Jog 80 Ionic Ceramic barrel brush.  This brush is brilliant for getting volume into hair during the drying process.  The brush retains heat to help set the hair and add volume as you blow dry.

Denman D3 general brush.  This is my favourite all time brush for general smoothing, detangling and brushing out your hair.  It really helps to get a smooth look for ponytails and buns and I believe everybody should have one as their all purpose brush!

Backcomb brush.  I use this brush when I want to backcomb sections of my hair to create volume and pouffs etc.

Paddle brush.  This is a rubber cushioned paddle brush and is also great for smoothing out your hair and adding shine.  I also like to use these on my hair extensions and find it pulls less on the clip ins when I have my hair extensions in.

General pink brush.  This is just an everyday general brush which I like to keep in my handbag to use when I am out and about. 

Pro-top 05 rat-tail comb.  This comb is great for creating neat partings in my hair if I want a polished look.  I also like to use this for sectioning hair whilst blow-drying or sectioning off hair whilst styling and back combing.

Comb.  General comb that I use sometimes for smoothing out my fringe or when I am out and about!

I am sure that I will find lots more useful combs and tools over time as I try out new styles and let me know if you have any different brushes/combs that you cannot live without!

OOTN!

I went out for dinner to Prezzo last night and this is what I wore!

My maroon asymmetrical dress is from InLoveWithFashion.co.uk and the belt actually came with it.  I got this a while ago so can't remember the price but I think it was about £30.  You can enter your details the first time you log onto their website and they will send you a code to get £10 off which I think is really good, I used mine when I bought this dress!  I got the animal print blazer in Next and I think that was also around £30.  The shoes are from New Look and my sister kindly lent those to me as they match the belt so well, and I think the girly cut out design looks lovely paired with this dress!  Finally my bag was from Warehouse and I got that for a bargain £12 in the sales!
I hope you like the look!

Little bargains

I needed to get some new earphones and there is a shop near me which sells just about everything so I popped in this afternoon and picked up these cute pink bear ones! I then went to Superdrugs and got these 2 Barry M polishes, in Flamingo Pink and Mint Green for £2.99 each!  I love all the Barry M colours and can't help buying a new one everytime I pop to the shops!

Baby's 1st Birthday!

I just wanted to do a quick post to show you the Pirate Feast we had to celebrate my son's first birthday!  We also had savory treats but they did not look so Piratey!  We had a great day with lots of friends and family visiting, but I am not looking forward to the clear up today so much! Arrrrrr

How to Make Rocky Road treats and Valentines sweets

In preparation for my son's 1st birthday party I have made some Rocky Road treats and thought that I would treat my family to some sweeties at the same time!
What you will need:

 

For the Rocky Road treats I used milk chocolate, white chocolate, chopped nuts, marshmallows and dried apricots.  And for the sweets I used Silver Spoon flavoured buttons in orange and strawberry, plus a sprinkle selection.
I also used a chocolate fondue melting machine but you can melt the chocolate in a bowl placed over a pan of hot water. Finally I had several moulds and I choose to use the heart and butterfly shapes as well as the first initial of my parents and sisters!

The first thing I did was place the milk chocolate into the pan, whilst this was melting I chopped up the apricots and mixed up these with the nuts and marshmallows.  Next I simply poured over the milk chocolate and mixed this in with the 'Rocks'.  I wiped over the pan and melted some of the white chocolate and whilst this was happening I had an opportunity to shape the treats into similar sized balls, the beauty of this dessert is that it is supposed to look rocky and therefore presentation is very easy!! Here is how the treats turned out:

  
As you can see I ended up with quite a lot as I did use 2 bars of chocolate and all of the extras, so I hope everyone will like them!

Next I made my sweets, which are even easier than the Rocky Roads!  So I simply melted the buttons in the fondue pan as you can see.  Whilst this was happening I placed a few decorations in my moulds.

I stuck to sprinkles for ease but you can use icing writing pens for a more detailed design if you like!!  Next I simply poured over the melted buttons into my moulds and put them into the fridge for a few hours to re-harden!

You can see here the letters, butterflies and hearts.  I have placed mine into little boxes to give to my family tomorrow but they would also like nice in clear plastic bags tied up with a ribbon.  These are great as Valentine or Mother's Day gifts or just as little thank yous!  The sweets also taste really great and my favourite  is the orange which does taste just little orange chocolate! 

I got all my supplies from Tesco's but you can also buy Candy Melts on the internet which come in a variety colours.

I hope you all have fun making your sweets and treats!

Small Primark & H&M Haul

I popped into town this week as I wanted to have a look in Primark for a few cheapy tops.  I got back to my pre-baby weight 5 months ago and have not been on a strict diet since however we seem to have carried on eating a lot more healthily than we did before and I happy that as a result I am still losing weight! Its not a massive difference but even a few pounds makes you feel good when you didn't even mean to diet!  Anyway I wanted to get a few pieces in a smaller (hooray) size but didn't want to spend too much money!

Here is what I got:

 I got this cute cardigan in H&M and I think it was a bargain at £7.99.  I really like this preppy style and find these so useful for just throwing over any outfit, or they look nice with jeans or skinny trousers buttoned up to the top! H&M had lots of different colours so I may be tempted to back and get a couple more!

 

 

Sorry that these pics are up the wrong way, I am not sure how to turn them!!  These 4 tops were all from Primark and I went for styles that I will be able to wear throughout the Spring and Summer.  The first one looks really nice with high waisted jeans and has a cute gold button at the back, this was only £6 which is a great price and I think this looks nice with a cardigan over the top like the one above.  The next top was £7, it is also available in coral for £6.  This one is slightly sheer, but not enough to worry about putting something underneath if you don't want to, however it does look sweet layered over a vest.  I am planning to wear this with a grey bandage pencil skirt that I have as well as more casually with shorts and jeans.  The dotty crop top was only £4 which I think is such a good price, they have this top in several colour ways and patterns so I may be tempted to return for more of these as well!  I will wear this mostly with high waisted jeans or shorts so that my mummy tummy and stretch marks are not on show but I like that it is a basic everyday t-shirt with a bit of a difference with the length and scalloped edges.  Finally I got this bright pink top, again for easy to throw on every day wear.  This one is very sheer so I will wear it over a white vest, or a pastel coloured vest. I also plan to cinch this with a skinny belt for a variation on the look.  I believe this was also £4.
I was very pleased with my purchases and think I did well to get so many pretty things without spending much money!

How to Make Glitter Nail Polish

This is a really easy idea which is a great way to recycle unused or old clear nail polishes!

You will need:

Some old clear nail polish, nail polish remover or nail polish thinner, a selection of glitters.




My bottle of nail polish had a lot of hard product around the lid and was hard to open, so the first thing I did was clean around the bottle using a cotton wool pad and some nail polish remover.  Next I poured a few drops of nail polish remover into the bottle to thin out the polish.  Make sure you only add a few drops at a time to ensure that you don't make the polish too thin! The bottle I had was very old and therefore the polish had gone really gloopy, but you can miss out this step if your polish is still thin enough to use.  Give the bottle a good shake, the best technique to use is to put the bottle between your palms and roll it, as this will prevent the neck of the bottle becoming stuck like mine was!

Next you need to choose your colours, I wanted to stay away from the usual golds and silvers and create a playful look.  I also used 3 different sized glitters for a bit of variety.

Now the fun part! Pour in a little bit of each chosen colour into the bottle, I have a handy little funnel which I got with a random hot chocolate gift set but you can just carefully pour straight into the bottle, just make sure you don't pour in too much!
I would also suggest doing one colour at a time and mixing the glitters using either the rolling technique or a wooden skewer in between each new colour.  This is because the effect does not always end up as you imagined so you may decide to skip a few colours!

Once you are happy with the colour mix you can simple mix the bottle well, this may take a few minutes as the glitter tends to stick at the bottom of the bottle!  Hey presto your own homemade glitter polish!

Here is the finished polish on my nails, this is just one coat, I could apply more layers for the polish to become more sparkly!! Excuse the red line, I am not sure where that came from!!

Things to note: Some glitters will bleed colour into the polish, so the base may be tainted.  You can see in the picture above where this has happened and the polish has a brown tinge to it.

I got my glitters from Tesco's and The Range.

I am going to keep a look out for different sized, shaped and colour glitters. What colours will you try?