NOTD

Actually this is a picture of some Gellux nails I did for a client last night.  She is not really allowed anything on her nails for work but is being a Bridesmaid on Saturday so we kept things super simple with just a teeny tiny  basic flower in the colour of her dress.

She also went for some red Rockstar toes!


I hope you like them! x

Food shopping!

Happy Monday everybody! 

I saw this post by Lea at Its Such a Wonderful Life and wanted to do a similar one!  I absolutely love food shopping and always get excited on Sunday evenings when I am doing the shopping list ready for Monday, how sad am I??

Obviously we have more food in our cupboards, things such as spices, herbs, 

balsamic vinegar, rice, pasta etc, but this was just what I needed to replenish this week!

Firstly I have my fruit and veg, this is my most favourite section in Tescos and I love getting all the fresh goodies!  Pretty much every week I have to buy spinach, lettuce (this week I went for Romaine), celery, mushrooms, tomatoes and onions.  I tend to add these to most meals in the form of a small side salad or to bulk up the vegetables in a recipe!  This week I also need carrots, parsnips and spring onions.  Simon wants burritos on his birthday, which is this week, so I got a bag of mixed salad too.  I prefer to make my own but he will only eat salad from a mixed bag!  I also picked up some lemongrass stalks as I am making a chicken and lemongrass dish on Wednesday! 

For fruit I just picked up bananas, grapes, apples and blueberries this week.  We still have some raspberries and mixed summer berries in the fridge.  Thomas loves grapes and strawberries so I always make sure I have one or the other kicking about! He calls them 'bubbles' Cute!

So then we also picked up some bits for Simon's work lunches, he is so boring and has the same every single day!  Tandoori chicken in a roll, a Pepperami, a packet of crisps and a banana!  I have tried and failed to send him with something different!  We also got grated cheese for the burritos, this bag is massive so I will have to make some cheese salads or sarnies for Thomas and try not to keep nibbling mouthfuls of it here and there!  Mmmm, cheese!  There are some choccy mousses and some low fat yogurts.  We always have these as well, the mousse' are 90 calories and the yogurts are 100 calories so these make great puds if we fancy something sweet after dinner.  I always have these cheese strings in my fridge for Thomas too as they are useful if we go out and I need to take a snack pack!  I would prefer him to have real cheese but he is temperamental with it so I usually only try at home, I really don't want to end up out and about with a hungry toddler and nothing that he will eat!

In the next pic we have white pasta, Simon is resisting my brown pasta as well, so I needed to get him some more white!  I also got some quinoa for salads and to use as an alternative to rice, pasta or couscous  and almonds for snacking.  We have the essential squash, orange, lemon and apple & blackcurrant!  The tortillas and salsas are for Simon's birthday burritos!  I picked up some normal salsa, some refried beans and some green jalapeno relish, as I thought I would get a few extra since it is a special meal.  As you have probably guessed Simon can be fussy so he will either love or hate the extras, but I hope he likes them!

Coming to the end we have fridge basics, red milk for every day and a pint of blue milk for Thomas, although he usually will only drink Cow & Gate I am persisting with the cows milk to see if he comes round to it.  Pink grapefruit juice which I have one glass of every day with breakfast and then some Alpro Almond Milk and Hazelnut milk, which is a new addition to my every day diet and I will be doing a post on soon! 

Finally we have a few store cupboard standard items, chopped tomatoes and plum tomatoes.  I use the chopped ones for meals but I love having the whole plum tomatoes for lunch with cooked mushrooms, they are sooo juicy!!  Finally some beef stock cubes! 

As you can see I try and buy as much of the Value range as I can, with things such as fresh fruit and veg and tinned tomatoes, squash etc I just don't see the point in buying more expensive alternatives, especially as we are saving to move!

I hope you like this post and I would love to see some similar ones so please send me a link in the comments if you do one!  I am such a nosy parker but it would also give me some ideas for different meals and maybe foods I have not tried!

Sorry about all the pics being at the end and being higgeldy piggeldy!  I think I need a Blogger masterclass as I seem to be able to move them with no problem on some posts and on others have no chance!

Health and Fitness Tip #3 - Don't sweat the numbers

Rather than being a tip on something you can physically do or change this is a tip for your mind and happiness! Ahh!

For a very long time I was fixated on the 'numbers' What I mean is my dress size and the number on the scales.  I always wanted to be a smaller size and if the scales show a number that isn't round i.e exactly on a stone or a half stone, then I would think, if I can just get to that number I would be happy.

Sometimes though its just not possible or more important healthy, to chase these things!  Again this is so obvious but something I didn't acknowledge when I was younger, but not everyone can achieve size 8, 10 or 12 etc, even if they carry not an ounce of fat, because their bone structure or body shape just won't allow it!  For example I have fairly broad shoulders that are very straight, so I need a bigger size jacket.  If I pick up the smaller size it just doesn't sit well across my shoulders and then trying to squeeze a jumper underneath would be uncomfortable and does not look good!  There is no point in me being upset or annoyed that I have to get a bigger size, it is what it is and it really does not matter!  If I lost too much weight my shoulders would stick out and make me look like a scarecrow, haha!

I used to compare myself to people of my height, thinking if they can be that slim then surely I can too.  I now realise their bodies are a completely different make up to mine!  They may be blessed with a flat tummy, I may have thinner calves!  Everyone has something that others envy and that is worth remembering!

Being healthy and sexy is not all about being as tiny as you possibly can be, attractive girls come in all shapes, sizes, heights etc!

Since making changes to my diet I have lost weight but now that is not my goal, it is simply a bonus, I want my body in tip top condition so that I have more energy, better skin, shinier hair etc, these are the things that bring out your beauty, not a size 8 dress!

There are women out there who are a size 10 but are a bit podgy or soft and then there are size 16 girls who are perfectly toned.  Neither are better, neither are worse, they are both great and beautiful!

So remember, no chasing numbers, if you feel comfortable and confident and are living healthily (no calorie restricted diets please!) then that is the perfect place for you! xx

Keeping Busy!

I have been so busy over the last few days that I have not actually been able to put up a post!

There is a lot of exciting projects coming up and they after lots of planning and plotting things are starting to get moving!  Whoop!

I will tell you all about it once things are more concrete!  But definitely watch this space...

Here are a few pics of things we have been up to over last few days!

Do you like my Granny's glasses?

Enjoying lunch with my parents

Yay, bouncy castle fun!

Mum's Vintage find

Ready to meet friends on Saturday evening

How to keep your feet soft!

Have you ever noticed how men's feet tend to not have so much hard skin as women's?  Not fair is it!  This is usually due to the fact that men tend to wear socks with their shoes and don't often wear heels!

Keeping your feet callus free and looking smooth and beautiful is actually really simple, all you need to do is spend a few extra minutes in the shower and a few extra minutes moisturising!

Dry filing or using too much pressure can actually make the issue worse and the callus thicker, so be gentle with your feet!  When you are in the shower or bath take a foot file and swipe the skin using a medium pressure, remembering not to see saw the skin, use the same motion as you would to file your nails!

There are many different files and pumices out there and I personally prefer the kind that look like a giant nail file, these usually come with a courser side and a smoother side. 

Body Shop - £4.50

Lloyds Pharmacy £5.49

Amazon £3.24  Everready Footfile

Finally you need to moisturise your feet well and the best way is the old trick of moisturising before bedtime then popping on a pair of cotton socks over night.  I must admit though that I just cannot do socks in bed so I slather something on whilst I am moisturising the rest of my body after my morning shower and then wear socks around the house until I need to go out!

My preference is good old Vaseline, but again there are so many foot creams out there that I am sure you will find something you love!

 

Start adding these two quick and simple steps into your routine and you will see a difference almost immediately! Keep it up and you will never be embarrassed of your feet again!

Happy heel wearing everyone! x

Steak and Salad recipe - Delish!

Wowee, would you just look at what I had for dinner last night!  Now I don't like to blow my own trumpet but this was good!  

I have recently come across and added Eat-Yourself-Skinny and added her blog to my following list!  This blog is a great resource for low fat, healthy recipes which include snacks, main meals and puds! 

Kelly, who writes the blog, put up a recipe for Southwest Flank Steak with Peach Salsa, which just sounded so good!

Simon didn't fancy the salsa and I had intended to make that for me and do him something different but alas I was feeling lazy so I made the following, and just swapped the spinach on my plate for new potatoes on his! Ding dong it was good!

So in this picture we have :

 Raw spinach, which I eat at almost every meal as a little garnish or side salad, even if it is just a few leaves I can't seem to get enough and always have it! 

Mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, red pepper and onions.  I cooked these in one teaspoon of  GIA Garlic Puree, which is garlic in vegetable oil.  I pick this up in the tinned vegetable aisle of Tesco and we use it in most meals.  It is convenient, saves any raw garlic from going off and I use it instead of oil.  I do sometimes have to add a smidge more oil but for this recipe I didn't bother, mushrooms will happily dry fry, as will tomatoes and the peppers and onions are nice when they go a little bit smushy and charred.  Yum!

Then to the steak! We don't often have red meat as it is more expensive and not so healthy, but every once in a while in is great to have a treat! You can have a look at the link above for Kelly's original recipe which I did follow almost to the letter but had a teeny tiny few changes, mainly as I used what was in my cupboard!

So I simply mixed together 1 tsp chilli powder, 1tsp ground cumin, 1tsp balsamic vinegar, 1tsp garlic puree, 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce and 1tsp cayenne pepper.  I used far smaller quantities than Kelly but it was more then enough!  Then you just spoon the sauce over the steak and pop under the grill.  4 minutes on each side was good for us but the timings really depend on your own preference, and I am no gourmet chef to advise you I'm afraid!  Don't forget to add more sauce when you flip the steak! 

I can't tell you how yummy the whole meal was and I am already looking forward to having this again! 

I didn't count the calories but I believe the whole thing to be about 400 and definitely under 500 calories, which is fab for a main meal!  Add more if you are having the new potatoes!

I hope you like this recipe and urge you all to check out Eat Yourself Skinny for some more great ideas! 

Have you made anything especially yummy recently that you want to share? xx

FreeBra Update!

If you didn't see my post on my recent eBay purchase of a FreeBra then here it is for you: freebra

I just wanted to do a little update for you incase anyone was thinking of buying on from this seller!

I did send the seller a message to say what had happened, that they had sent me the wrong size and it initially took going backwards and forwards a few times for them to understand what was wrong, they kept saying 'But you ordered a D'! When they eventually got the picture they then would not believe me and said that the items get checked 3 times before being sent out, so I offered to send a photo of the packaging where it clearly states Size C but they have never replied with their email address so I am unable to do that!

For the price I paid its not the end of the world and my friend is able to make use of the bra, but I just think that the seller should have acknowledged the mistake!  I would not have sent it back aS it would have cost too much all the way to China and I would probably have ordered another but as they have been so unhelpful I am not going to bother!

Ho hum! Can't win them all!  x