Landing on your feet is the best thing ever

Its been a mixed week for me. I got my new tattoo last Monday, which for me was a celebration of my life as it is now, and by the end of the week things were all change. Pesky elections!! Still awaiting a final set of decisions that will affect the next 8 months for me, but, after some initial worry (and a lot of tears), things are looking better than ever and I feel incredibly positive about the future.

To continue the leopard print theme in my life, yesterday I bought a new carry on case for my travels. My other one is lovely, but weighs 5kg, and when carry on limits are 10kg, that's not entirely practical. So I have bought this:

Which weighs a teeny tiny 1.75kg and is nice and spacious. The material feels quite sturdy as well. I felt quite chic carrying it down the High Street yesteday, even if it is a little bit Bet Lynch!!

Today's shopping will involve a trip to the spa where I have my hair cut, in the hope that they have the new Jessica A/W nail colours in. I am loving all the green polishes around - Illamasqua's Hectic is a lovely snot green colour, but Jessica have a colour called Victorian Crush:

I love Jessica polishes, they are so pigmented and apply like a dream, so I am looking forward to getting my hands on this little beauty!! I am slightly obssessed with nail colours right now, and have put in an order with my USA bound Mother for MAC's Jade Dragon and Rain of Flowers from the new Jin Soon nail collection - hopefully she'll get to a MAC while she's there and hopefully they won't have sold out!!

It's all about the leopards...

I'm slightly in love with leopard print at the moment. Surprisingly for me, who is normally all about the greys and whites and neutrals to accompany the black. It all stems from a pair of leggings I purchased in the TU sale at Sainsbury's earlier at the beginning of the summer, which were grey leopard print, and a bargain at £6.
I've now purchased some leopard print undies from Knickerbox at Ann Summers. Fear not though, Bet Lynch is a million miles away!!

In other news, I have discovered this morning that Lush are discontinuing the only product I really continue to buy from them: Enchanted Eye Cream. Let me tell you why I love this product. Ever since I was a child I have suffered from excema on my eyelids, a condition that has never ever gone away. I struggled for years to find an eye cream that kept this at bay without being too greasy or oily. Add to this a slight propensity for dark circles under my eyes and that called for something of a firming tightening nature. Where could I find a product that combined all these features into one formula?
Enchanted Eye Cream does this job. And now it will be gone. Whether or not they will replace it with something worthy remains to be seen.

I will go and buy a bottle to keep in stock (almost run out of the bottle I have at the moment) and when that is gone I shall mourn the last drop of precious precious eye cream.

If anyone has a suggestion for something equally as good, then please, tell me!!

Ink!

Today I have been inked for the 3rd time, by the lovely Fleur at Cover'd in Exeter. I am now the proud owner of some song lyrics that I love on my inner biceps :)
I'm really pleased with how its come out - I spent a long time last night looking for the perfect font, which I wanted to be as close to the font used in sheet music as possible.

Here you go...

Right arm....

Left arm....

It wasn't that painful, but its a little ouchy right now!!

Nails and stuff and things

I am going shopping today. I have decluttered my overflowing wardrobe, and readied it for the challenge of filling it with lovely things for Autumn/Winter.
I have painted my nails in Baby Goth Girl (see left) and know what I want. So that will be an interesting expedition but I am not too concerned, its still early on in the season yet, and the weather is still too warm for much in the way of A/W wear.

However, I am going to try to go to Cardiff next week because I am looking at the new Illamasqua collection and positively wanting to get in the car and go NOW!! (Cardiff being the nearest place that stocks it, in Debenhams).
If you haven't heard of Illamasqua, and you are a make up junkie like me, then you should really visit their website and weep with joy: www.illamasqua.com
Not only are the colours fab looking, but the inspirations are to die for (Metropolis, 1920's Berlin and film noir to name a few). The overriding principles of Illamasqua seem to be to celebrate individual expression, and encouraging creativity through make up.
I've been a MAC fan since about 2005 and have remained loyal to the brand all this time. All my make up apart from mascara and some of my nail polishes is from them and I love love love it. Coveting Illamasqua feels like I'm cheating on my faithful partner.
Unfortunately MAC seem to be moving away from offering things like foundation and concealer in lighter colours and some of the colours aren't running as true as they used to in those products. Which makes it really difficult for a pale skinned person like me. Although I have yet to check out Illamasqua's foundation range in the flesh, if the website is to be believed, they cater for the lightest of skin tones.
Hopefully next weekend I can arrange that clandestine visit to the Illamasqua counter, and at least leave with the beautiful olive green nail varnish called Hectic.

Hot Lips.... Not quite.

Houlihans. 'Created' by JBrand, inspired by Major Margaret 'Hot Lips' Houlihan from M*A*S*H (left). 'Sexy army gear' as someone I know described them. Basically fitted cargo pants.

Celebs have been spotted left right and centre sporting these trousers. Which are quite fetching if you are indeed Major Houlihan, or a twig of a celebrity. Or have the £234 for a pair of JBrand ones. Now they are cropping up everywhere, including Primark. Apparently this makes them over, but that remains to be seen.

If however, you are a mere mortal woman, who does not posess legs like Cheryl Cole or Rachel Bilson, then please, please, please, steer clear of this trend. I have larger legs than the high street will cater for, but still in proportion to my size. I thought I'd try some on, see what they look like, you know, because its rude to say no without trying.

No. Just No. I have never coated my legs in something so unflattering as the Houlihan pant. And that includes the brightly coloured turquoise and white with a yellow shot check capri pants I sported whilst at sixth form. It was proper chicken drumstick territory. Pure comedy gold.

I think I'll stick to leggings and jeans thank you very much.

Tall and Proud

I stumbled across an article on the Daily Fail website today, written by a tall woman offering 'support' to Malia Obama, who has recently shot up and is almost as tall as her 5'11" mother Michelle. The article is supposed to offer words of wisdom to her to guide her through her teenage years but somehow the author confused the words 'support' and 'discourage'.

I was a tall teen. I pretty much stopped growing when I was 14 - I think I maybe grew an inch between then and turning 18/19. I'm now 5'11" and proud of it.

Being a teenager in the 90s at my height was tricky... shops like Long Tall Sally were virtually non existent back then (I remember being given my first Long Tall Sally catalogue by a similarly tall friend in 1998 and almost crying with relief!), and trying to find shoes for my proportionally large feet (size 9) was a nightmare.
But somehow I never let it get me down. I was a head and shoulders over practically everyone in my school at one point! I will never forget being lined up in height order for our whole school photo aged 14... guess what? I'm in the MIDDLE of the photo.

I have never slouched, never been ashamed of my height. Frustrated yes. Ashamed, never. When I went to see an orthopedic consultant about my hypermobility (yay, tall and super bendy!) and he was very impressed by my posture, which, thanks to years of my mother telling me to "stand up straight, shoulders back" is apparently very good for someone my height.

If I experience problems because of my height, like banging my head on the ceiling of a pub, or not fitting in an airline seat comfortably because my legs are too long - then its because the world is wrong, not because I am.
The boys at school used to call me bean pole. I told them to be more original. A friend starting calling me Elon (as in elongated) which I thought was cool, at least it was different.

I personally don't think it matters whether you are tall, short, fat, thin, clever, whatever, when you're a teenager there is always something that someone else will pick out and try to make fun of. The trick is to hold your head up high and be proud of who you are.

Like father like daughter: height runs in the family