Your Entire Christmas/New Years Outfit For €32 From Pennys!

It is rare to find a full length photo of me online, but for you special readers its worth the shame! I wore this lovely dress to the blogger dinner last weekend and couldn't resist sharing it with you guys. Everything I got was from Pennys so you know its going to be a bargain! Also Stephen took all these photos and complained the entire way through of being cold and not knowing what to photograph/how to use the camera, so apologies of my mid movement poses and dreadful close ups!

Firstly the dress for just €19 - A gorgeous (and very sheer - sorry!) cream top half surrounded by belt like gold beads and studding that snakes around into cut out sides. The lower half is a plain black skirt that has a nice flare if you spin! .. Totally didn't spin, I'm a big girl now. It has a plain back with a zip most of the way down so its easy to shimmy into! I also threw on a big knitted black cardi I've had for years and a pair of leggings as it was freezing cold.

 I was going matchy matchy so I got little gold pumps for €6 and a gold clutch bag that was €7. As you can see from the photos it also has a small gold chain if you prefer it on your shoulder. Its actually really big for a clutch which I was delighted about.

Lastly I went for dark plum lips and a brown/gold eye shadow. Just as the sun set and we were going back inside Dodie decided to come over and join in, I was clearly overly delighted by this and Stephen took a quick snap of the event. Hes really the best for putting up with me and taking all the photos I asked for - hes getting some nice Christmas pressies so he should be extra happy soon enough!

I hope everyone is getting super excited for Christmas and the new year ahead. Has everyone got their outfit sorted for the day? Personally I'll be spending the day in some comfy jammies and fluffy socks! Stay fab x

Smithfield Dublin, The Place To Be

Its not often that I am anywhere outside the main city center when I head up to the big shmoke but recently I find myself hanging around Smithfield more for various reasons. I was dragged along to a flea market in one of the big empty blocks that are right beside the luas stop and found lots of really lovely things to lust after and take photos of. I think retro and vintage are amazing and love that sort of stuff, but man things can have an unbelievable price tag! 

Some of the highlights of the day included spotting Dustin the turkey in a corner, seeing amazing funky lamps and revamped Mary and Joseph statues that I wanted so bad! I'm not religious in the slightest but they were so colourful and one was holding a banana! Le sigh, one day... 

Make sure and keep an eye out for pop up gallery's, hang outs and markets. You might stumble across something amazing like that perfect vintage dress you've been trying to find forever or just a cool place to spend the day with friends.

Just down the road from that I found my new favourite cafe in Dublin, Third Space. They have a great menu to choose from, a seriously chilled out atmosphere and nice staff. Theres book shelves that you can pick a book to read from or replace it with an old book you've read instead and take a new one home - cool idea! They had gorgeous candle lit lighting and theres even a space for small children to play and a chalk board to doodle on, so all mammies can breathe a sigh of relief that they aren't going to get 'dirty looks' if their children want to have a bit of a play about.  

I got a big pot of tea for €2 and a huge chocolate chip muffin for €2.20. One of my friends got the same and another had a lovely toastie cheese and ham sambo, I was jealous when I saw it! I'll be going back soon and wouldn't have a problem hiding in a corner with one of their books for an hour or two. You can find them on Facebook to get directions - happy hanging out!

Christmas Bloggers Meet Up

On Saturday night I had the pleasure of being invited to a Christmas blogger dinner all organized by the amazing Lisa from PinkSugarSparkles . She hosted the most loveliest (totally a real word) event and went above and beyond with all the preparations and getting amazing sponsors for it too! You can see her fab self above, along with one of our sponsors, wonderful girls from Preen hair and beauty on Dame Street. I expected a few fancy frocks considering it was so close to Christmas but all the girls turned up looking stunning - meow!

We went to Bel Cibo in Smithfield for some wonderful noms and lots of chatting and catching up with old and new faces. Above you can see I might have had a sneaky glass of wine along with some pasta. The restaurant was really bright and modern, I'd love to have a bite to eat in there again some time soon! After all the fun was had and the poor staff were trying to politely kick us out, someone got the bright idea to go for 'just the one' cocktail in Oscars bar right beside the restaurant. Best/worst idea that ever was! I had a total ball and myself, NurseFancyPants, AllTheBuzz,  GirlFriday and TotalMakeUpAddict all got a few drinks in, many many laughs and a lot of chatting that will forever stay a secret. I myself got a bit OTT with the G&T's so I must say sorry to bloggers, Sams poor friend that I had brief chats on the phone with, bar staff and men of the pub! 

I snapped a sneaky photo of Chloe and Sam on the sly, don't they look lovely glammed up!? Also our drinks and a lovely photo on the wall - you are not alone. Struck a chord with me, I can get down a lot, even in the company of such great people so this was a nice reminder. After that I'm sad to say that not a lot of photos got taken but a lot of memories were made! 

 Lisa went a bit crazy getting all us bloogers some amazing goodie bags and really jazzing them up for us, such hard work that she really didn't have to do - total star! Above is one of the lovely surprises I got in my bag and honestly can not wait to wear it, a rose gold bow necklace from BettyandBiddy.com. I never ever wear gold or rose gold so this is such a treat!

How could I not add in photos of all the little extra special touches Lisa added in? Some cute and sparkly Christmas glittery snowflakes, snow men and lots more. She added beautiful glittery bows on the bags along with Christmas decorations and Christmasy tissue paper. How gorgeous an idea is that?! And I think we all know how much I love glittery little bits!

If the bows and sparkles weren't enough Lisa wrote us lovely little Christmas cards - Its a pink hello kitty, need I say more! One of my #Idie surprises was a Sigma eyeliner brush that is to die for, my pictures do not do it justice at all!

Other wonderful things L to R included; NYR mineral blusher and samples, a handy nail file, two amazing Body Shop perfume and shower gel set, Kardashian lipgloss, Zap omega body cream, Lots of Nimue goodies, two REN body products and a Ciate nail varnish (- squeals!!)

Also some Mane and Tail samples, Image skincare goodie bag and I won a Bia Beauty skincare gift set. Lisa had a prize for everyone which was so amazing of her - I've never won a thing in my life so I was pleased as punch!!

Photo credit to AllTheBuzz.com

My blog is now just a year old and when I signed up to Blogger this time last year I did not for one second think I would come to the end of 2013 with such amazing friends and such a supportive online community that are the girls and guys of the blogging world. Everyday it amazes me how lucky I am to know the wonderful people I do and I'm still meeting more and more daily. So to my blogger buddies and to all you fab readers, thank you for making my life extra great and special by being in it. x

N.B. GFC is now gone as you can see from the lack of it on my blog! If you still would like to follow my blog and see all my posts then find me on BlogLovin', or if you have a Google+ Account you can follow me here.

Rimmel Scandaleyes Eye Shadow Sticks

I've had these two for about 3 months and they have found a new home in my make up bag. I switch them up with my 17 eye shadow trio that you can see in my whats in my make up bag post. Rimmel the past 12-15 months they have been on the ball with things like their match perfection foundation and apocalips lip lacquer, just love this make up brand so much and they can do no wrong!

Theses are a beautiful creamy formula that are easy to apply and blend. The colour pay off is amazing too, something I was quite surprised about considering how creamy they are. The two I have are bulletproof beige and the darker brown is bad girl bronze. They are gorgeous to blend together and if I'm in a hurry or don't fancy spending ages fixing and blending loads of eye shadow these are my go to. Even the lighter bulltetproof beige works great on the water line and the inner eye to make them bigger and brighter to give you an overall brighter more awake look. Thank you please! The packaging is also sleek and easy to store away, just a quick pop off the lid and a swipe on the eye lids and your good!

The one down side to these is they don't tend to stick for the same hours as my normal eye shadow lasts. I find myself touching my eyes up more and if its any way warm then its off down my face with them! A litte does go a long way though, which is a plus. They come in five colours and are €5.95 but at the moment Rimmel have a 3 for 2 offer on in Boots, so you might be able to pick up a little something extra for yourself totally free. Now if thats not something to smile about then I don't know what is!

Hope everyone is keeping well and having a fab week - the weekend is in sight!

Glossy Woman Glossy Box November

Yeah, I know its the 11th of December, but I didn't want to do a post without trying out the products first to give you a mini review as I find limited edition box reviews a bit boring on their own.

This one was targeted more towards the slightly older women with day and night creams that 'rewind time', collagan booster and a spray for colour treated hair to name a few. I'm not at the stage yet where I need specialist anti aging creams (thank goodness!) but it never hurts to start when you can see fine lines and some serious worry lines on my forehead deeply etched in, someone pass me the cement mixture!  

To start off when I opened the box I noticed the dark brownie colour that didn't appeal to me at all. Why is it so dark and off putting?? Not cool GlossyBox, try again. Other then that all the potions and lotions were shoved into a corner which makes me point some fingers at the post man! I loved the orange ribbon, that kind of made up for the awful box colour and the bad post man.

So the first thing that caught my eye was the Olehenriksen truth serum collagen booster in a bright orange. Not only does it look orange but it smells of fresh oranges - nom! It is their number one selling product worldwide and having used it I can see why. It has five sources of vitamin C boost collagen, dramatically brighten skin tone, hydrate and help prevent signs of aging. Sounds fancy huh? The consistency of this is quite watery but makes it very easy to apply and their GlossyBox tip is to pat vitamin C products onto the skin, never rub in. Its way harder to do then you'd think! But it feels very luxurious and I will admit since starting to use it I have noticed my skin is brighter which is surprising as I don't normally see a product working so quickly! The full size for a 30ml is a pocket pinching £47.

The next things that caught my eye were the two little black and white bottles of Lulu's Time Bomb Glory Days day cream recaptured youth and Flashback night cream rewind time. The day cream has rich borage oil, glucose and white flower oils that help to improve texture and even skin tone, making it smooth and tight.The night cream has ultra rich moisturisers and anti aging ingredients beneath an invisible rich bran wax barrier. 

Both of these creams smell really lovely and they sink into the skin well, but I have yet to see any amazing results. My skin does well nice after using them but I would be leaning toward the Olehenriksen still. The day cream is £12 and the night cream is £13.50, both 15ml bottles. 

The next product is Redken colour extend in a lovely red eye catching bottle. This one claims to offer 10 benefits to coloured hair in just one spray.It deeply cares for and prolongs the life of coloured hair for vibrant, lustrous and naturally reinforced locks. I have very coloured hair, I'm awful for dying it a billion colours every few months and I am really loving bright blues and pinks too, so I this would be a life saver for me. However this has been the biggest let down of all the products in the box. I have seen no difference in my hair or the colour, oh well! I will keep giving it a go for the next week or so but after that if I still see no improvement, to the bin it goes! This costs a pricey £20.80 for a 170ml bottle.

The last thing is the [Comfort Zone] glorious skin visible lifting tensor mask. A sublime gel mask, it visibly reduces expression lines and leaves even the most dehydrated skin super soft. The first thing I thought when reading that was score! My forehead is about to get an ironing out. But in reality its not as exciting as that. This has to be one of the most unpleasant smelling products I've tried in a long time, just ugh. It sinks in amazingly well though and the smell reduces after a minute or so. I haven't seen any mind blowing results but I do notice that my skin is soft after washing it off. This sleek bottle sets you back £34.75 for a 50ml bottle.

Thats all for now, I am waiting by the door every day bothering the post man for the December GlossyBox like a mad woman! As always, stay fab! x

Book Review: Revange Wears Prada; The Devil Retuns

I am a massive fan of The Devil Wears Prada, so when the squeal came out I was hesitant about reading it. If it didn't live up to my expectations it would be totally awful, hate when that sort of thing happens! But I couldn't resist Andy and her world for too long.

Its been nearly a decade since Andy quit her job working for the dreaded Miranda at Runway Magazine. Since then she has become the best of friends with the girl she once hated, Emily. Together they bonded over their shared hate for their old job, who could stand working like a slave at Runway anyway? They now have set up their own high end wedding magazine called the Plunge and its rising through the ranks, getting lots of notice from big names.

Not only are things working out in her career, but Andy is off down the aisle to marry the man of her dreams, Max. He is successful, high in society and to top it all off, drop dead gorgeous.  But just before the wedding she learns some devastating news that could effect the rest of her married life. What the hell is she going to do about her new in laws? And are the days of fearing Miranda Priestly really over or are old ghosts catching up on her?

I think I loved the idea of this book more then the story itself, it was kind of a let down if I'm honest! I would say to anyone who really enjoyed The Devil Wears Prada to pick up this just to continue on the story, but for first time readers maybe stay clear! I did enjoy how the book portrayed that women can be strong and stand on their own two feet, unlike some books where women need a knight in shining armour in order to deal with life. A few surprises that too that mostly made it worth the read. This was £3.99 on kindle that you can get on Amazon. 

More book reviews:

Hurry Up And Wait

No-One Ever Has Sex On A Tuesday

The Woman Who Went To Bed For A Year

Take A Chance On Me

To My Gran, Happy Birthday

Not my normal kind of post, but today marks a very special day. Today is my grans birthday. She is the lady I have been named after, shes helped to raise and mind me. She taught me how to bake and how to tie my shoe laces. Even at 21 she is still teaching me, god help the poor woman!

Like many people, I never properly take a moment to fully appreciate the friends and family that I'm so lucky to have in my life and my gran is a big part of me. We fight and argue, but bond over The LateLate Show and the price of rashers in Lidi. We disagree about how to cook them, but we make up for it by giving each other big hot cups of coffee. We can both natter for hours about the weather and if its good drying today or if its too cold for the flowers to grow. And we both love a good gossip and warm fluffy socks.

My gran isn't 21 anymore, but she is an amazing woman who never stops and never lets anything get in the way of what she wants to do. Anyone who walks into the kitchen is met with tea and all the cooking and baking she has done that day. She is the heart and soul of my family and everyone loves her. I just wanted to share with you her glass house. My gran loves all different types of plants and special interest in cacti. She has green fingers, unlike me! So here is her little garden, all the pots, chairs and doors she even painted herself. My gran has a creative touch that always amazes me and an eye for things you'd never think of, like turning the blocks (below) into flower pots - tumblr move over, grans in town!

Make sure and click on the photos to enlarge them to get a better look at all the little details she has added to the flowers

I doubt she will ever see this (and if she does there could be murder!) but I couldn't not share with you such a special lady and granny. Happy birthday gran x

Some Blogs I Love #3

Hello there lovely people, I hope your all well and keeping happy despite the shorter days with little light. Can get you a bit down can't it? Well you are in luck as I have a magic list of new blogs to share with you, so you can snuggle up in bed and read lots of new exciting things. I really get so excited when I find a new blog that I like, its almost like getting a new friend to talk to and share thoughts with. Heres my first post and my second post in case you need lot of extra reading over the holidays. If you have a favourite blog or even your own, make sure and share it with me on my Twitter page and I'll give it a nosy while we have the chats!

Student Life: I found Hannah through Sprinkle of Glitter as she has been guest posting for her in recent times. My goodness I'm so glad I have found this girl, its like were on the same wave length! She is so funny, the kind of person you really want as your friend and reading her posts is like having a good natter over a cuppa with your bestie. Read a few of her posts, guarantee you'll be hooked! 

All The Buzz: Where do I start here, hmm. Samantha is one hell of a beautiful girly, she writes a really wides range of interesting posts that you will regularly hear a 'ohhhh' coming from me while reading and even her blogs layout is to die for. Not only that, but if you take to Twitter or her Facebook page to chat you will realise how lovely and wonderfully friendly she is. Go, read. You can thank me later.

Give The Bitch Her Chocolate: So this blog is in German, but once you get over the awful google translate, this is a really great blog to read. Its run by Lena and Jettie who do some nice lifestyle posts but what I visit for are the eye make up days. Oh mammy you will be pulling out all the palettes and brushes you own to try and recreate the gorgeous looks created. Sorry in advance, but your going to loose full days out of your week. 

Hardly Working Highlight Reel: You could call this cheating as this is my one and onlys blog, but to be fair I don't love him that much to blatantly lie on my blog to my followers (I'm dreadful I know, he'll get a shoulder massage out of this if he happens to read this!) But I really love reading about stuff besides beauty. Reviews of comics, games or films are right up my street as I'm an occasional gamer and big lover of comics (learn something new about me everyday!)

Tea Party Beauty: Hayley is a relatively new blog that I have come to love in the past few months. She writes about beauty, some lovely life bits and actually has a bundle of fancy giveaways happening at the moment too. If you fancy a lovely read with a nice cuppa, this girly is definitely for you. (Take a look at her reindeer cup cakes, so cute!)

Tete De Thon:  This blog is originally in French, but again once you get over google translate it is such a fantastic read. The make up, the beauty related posts... Ugh I just love it all and can never get enough! Also the photos on this blog are amazing and I am uber jealous of them. Love!