Early Valentines Celebrations and Random Finds.

         I got my hands on the BEAUTIFUL shimmery contour/highlight/blush pallet from Revolution in Superdrug...it was only £6 (HERE) In the shade "Golden Sugar". I also found this beautiful smelling, unopened and unused Gloria Vanderbilt Dusting powder, there's no link as its apparently gone out of production and loads of people seem to be looking for it online so I may sell it. I only bought it for the pretty pink vintage packaging but if someone out there wants it so bad I feel bad hogging it.

   Due to our jobs neither of us really get to actually celebrate Valentines as we're both always working, so this year we took it upon ourselves to beat the rush and celebrate a week early. Although admittedly we wouldn't really be rushing anyway, as we are both well-aware you don't need a single day of the year to spoil each other. We try and do it as often as we can anyway and as often as we can afford. For example last month was a swanky hotel and a gig...this month...just so happened to coincide with valentines and was a meal out and a ring for me... (sqwee) It's a Pandora one I've wanted for aggesss. So i was super excited to get it! My treat to him is going to be towards the end of the month i'm taking him to see Deadpool (of course) and will be treating him like the princess he is. ;) 

PUDDING BONUS!!!

XOXO

Carnival Of Madness Gig/ Cardiff/ Awesome Hotel.

Cathedral 73 in Cardiff was a complete fluke of a find via Late Rooms. We had tickets to the Carnival of Madness tour opening night in Cardiff at the Motorpoint arena and realised the week before that we didnt actually have anywhere to stay. We got a double room booked for £89, No deposit required, pay upon arrival, and when we arrived we were blown away. After a good 4h travelling we had something to eat at the hotel and the manager came up and introduced himself then proceeded to tell us that Ed Sheeran had stayed there a month or two before...AND the cast of Sons of Anarchy! They even signed a limited edition book for him as a thank you!!! (pictured) as you can see from the photos of the lobby and the room it was completely luxurious and we felt completely under-dressed but the staff and managers especially made us feel completely at home. 

The Gig it's self was totally outstanding. 

We saw Halestorm, Shinedown and Black stone Cheery and it was just beyond words. I had a really bad flu at the time but i managed to have an excelled night and the next day we spent mooching around Cardiff itself. We know it quite well anyway from my uni days. The only downside to the whole thing was Dave losing his bank card and us having to cancel it to get a new one! slightly stressful! But despite the flu, chest infection and the bank card issues it was an excellent couple of days and I don't think I scrubbed up too badly either.

XOXO

Lindy Bop Review

   I have a new love, it's in the form of a website and their amazing dresses and clothing items. 
   This post/ review is not sponsored, I discovered the site completely by accident and I bought 3 dresses in their (up to) 70% off sale they had on boxing day/ for January.

   First off with Christmas money on boxing day after the Lush sale fail. (see previous post for that horror!) I wanted to make myself feel better so I perused the Lindy Bob Website and found a beautiful 50's style every-day dress In the style "Tara" in Midnight blue.

    Original Price was £34.00 (roughly) and it was reduced to £21.99 with free p&p. It arrived within a couple of days and I was so excited to put it on... and i do love it...BUT...because i'm short (5ft2") and I'm quite large busted I had to order it in a size 20 and it was way to long and too big... obviously i wore it regardless as the excess fabric just made the skirt bit feel even more fabulous.

    And the only other gripe i had with this dress was that the under-bust seam had loose threads that kept getting caught in the size zip that made it hard to do up...but it's easily fixable....as for the length, I may keep it at this length as it is the shortest of all the dresses I bought and I do quite like the length.
    But for the price and the overall quality is just amazing. I love it and have worn it a few times complete with proper 1950's underwear which I have posted over on my Instagram @Sway_pinup. This Midnight Blue "Tara" dress isn't available anymore as far as I can find and there's only a few odd sizes in other fabrics which I will link HERE. 

 And the other "midnight blue" alternatives I have linked HERE. 

   Next was a beautiful Tartan or Plaid dress that my Husband convinced me to buy in the style "Grace". Being part Scottish I feel a tad bit patriotic in this... but also a bit stereotypical haha all I need is a Deep-fried mars bar.
   As you can see this dress is long, too long on me. It's designed to be just below the knee, but its more mid-to almost ankle length on me. If its filled out with a petticoat it'll take up some of the length but I will need to re-hem it and take it up a good few inches. Again I had to get this in a size 20 to accommodate my Jubblies, but it actually fits quite well around the waist too. The zip is quite long and at the back, which for me is impossible to do up or undo alone...so I actually thread a piece of lace or ribbon through the zip so I can pull the zip up myself, obviously once done up I then take the lace off but here's a picture just as a useful hint for ladies with similar issues.

 This dress was £30 Reduced to £17.99. Again with free p&p and arrived in 2-3 days. There's loads of fabric, but the fabric does feel a bit thin. Excellent for spring though. It looks great on and I don't feel like i'm showing off too much boob. This style in this tartan is no longer available but I have linked other Tartan Dresses HERE. And other colour/fabric options for the "Grace"style of dress HERE.

   Last but not least is the best of them all...although first off let me say that originally I bought "Violetta" in a nude/ Champaign colour with black Polka dots.
   It was stunning and only £9.99 but I bought it in  a size 18 instead of a 20 as I wanted it to be more fitted on the waist...and it was but it didn't do up around the bust at all. Usually in shops like Primark and New Look I'm a size 16 and 18 in some non-stretch tops, so I thought i'd get away with it, but  I ended up having to return the dress and I exchanged it for a slinky wiggle dress my husband also chose in the style "Raven". I bought it in Red and it is also available in Black and Purple too and I think they are all in the sale still. The Red was reduced from £29.99 to just £8.99 WHICH IS INSANE so I ended up actually getting a refund of £1 too, but the Purple and Black colours in the same style are only reduced to £17.99 HERE.
   The dress however, as I again had to size up, is too big on the bottom half. I have included images of it with me holding the extra fabric so you can see what it will look like once i have altered it. I also again need to take the length up by about 3/4".

    As you can see on the left it fits lovely around the boobs but on the right I've pulled all the spare fabric back so you can see what it'll look like when I've taken off about 2". Proper fitting clothes really do make all the difference in your clothes ladies!
 
    Over all i'm so happy with the items. I guess the alterations for me aren't such a big deal as I am used to having to alter my clothing because of my figure. Larger boobs and a small waist are a bless and a a curse. The Raven dress makes me feel redicilously fab and its my favorite of all of the dresses so far, but i expect there will be more purchases. The have literally just got in all of their new spring lines and spring fabrics and they are drool-worthy. I find the majority of the things i've bought were well-made, fast p&p and their returns policy is easy to work and understand and quick, they keep you up to date and e-mail you and you can track your order via their website if you sign up. They have loads of offers on all the time, amazing clearance prices and adorable matching mother-daughter dresses, and do womens sizes 6-26!!! I think it's safe to say they get a huge thumbs up from this hour-glass short-ass.

XOXO

The Lush Boxing Day Haul/FAIL (wordy)

So, like most of you Lushie's out there. The boxing day sale is THE place to be to get all of your favorite seasonal items at half price or better, including some of their awesome gift boxes.
    And like most for the past 3/4 years now it has been a long-standing tradition of mine to treat myself using either Christmas money or my own hard earned December overtime money (if you work in retail over Christmas you'll know what i'm talking about)...i usually hit their website around 8am...or if i have work as i get up and get myself ready i'll load it up...but this year it wouldn't load. The web page had multiple errors... i was putting items in my basked that had been on my favorites for a month or so and they'd disappear right before my eyes... but i gave Lush the benefit of the doubt, Thought to myself "i'm working all day, i'll have another try on my lunch break they usually dont start selling out until the next day or so."
So that's exactly what i did, i took my lunch break around 12, sat in Costa, got myself some lunch on the go, a coffee, sat in the warm and relaxed, loaded up Lush.com to see it was crashed completely...hummm this has never happened before.
   So i went onto their Twitter feed, and saw they had announced technical difficulties but it should be back within a few hours, which was fine, my beloved lush was keeping me up to date, i'd just try again when i got home.
   I got home around 7pm. fired up the P.C...Lush.com... and VOILA!!! it was alive...but had a que system in place... ahh. Well i'll join that and get dinner on... "estimated time 4 hours and 50 min"
   Right then i wanted to face-palm, but by now i'm determined. It's become a past-time, a TRADITION. i will get some things in the lush online sale (i should probably note here there is no lush store within a 40-mile radius of where i live, and i cant drive so i rely on online services and have never ever been failed before, plus i was born in the UK...ques are my life.)
   So...the time passed, by this point i wasn't sure i actually wanted anything that bad anymore but it was out of sheer stubbornness that i was in a que and i was going to make it to the end...and i did... i was exhausted...tired...sleepy and cranky by the time 12 pm rolled around and i finally got in, i added my stuff to my basked and purchased my gift boxes i wanted, as well as my HUGE bottle of snow fairy and a few bath bombs. As far as i was concerned i was lucky i got everything i wanted and more...then at the checkout as payment was processing... the site almost like refreshed and suddenly i was back to square one, no order number, nothing in my basket, no money had come out of my bank, no confirmation e-mail. I took a photo as evidence and tried again but the same thing kept happening.
   I took to twitter to join the other people asking who had similar experiences and i was IGNORED. = STRIKE ONE....yet other people around me were being answered fine... so i e-mailed them and over a week and half passed= STRIKE TWO, and the response e-mail was polite yet completely over-looked my question, my problem and where my items were and if i could still have them even though for whatever reason the website was breaking every time i tried to use it...well by the time they had replied the website was fine again but nothing i had wanted or had ordered was left.
   Their response was "to visit your nearest Lush store to see if any of the items you want are still available" or to "purchase similar items on the website"- which weren't in the sale, nor what i had ordered in the first place so = STRIKE 3.
THEN to add insult to injury, people OUTSIDE OF THE UK were receiving their orders they'd done through the UK website and sharing all of their lovely images on Instagram and twitter... rubbing it in my face. I was not impressed at all. after all these years i was let down and i didn't like it...LUSH, THAT WAS SO NOT COOL. = STRIKE 4.
   So needless to say, Lush and i are in a complicated relationship. My bottle of snow fairy i purchased way before Christmas is dwindling, i have no bath bombs left, no face moisturizer or shaving cream, i even ran out of perfume. But i'm on strike. I am genuinely (and sadly) so un-trusting of their website now. And there seem to be a lot of people in the same situation. Im just going to have to wait until i can travel to my nearest store. But that totally doesn't help the situation with the fact im now sans-lush. POUT.
xoxo

Hair Update (again) JUST LEAVE IT ALONE

I swear, my hair has been so good to me the past two years. I've been Black, ginger, blonde, white, pink, lilac, red, blonde again, brown, dark brown, red, purple, purple and green ombre, then ginger (with green tinge) then finally submitting that i'd have to go more red to get rid of the tinge. Well its gone. FINALLY and i still have all of my hair. I'm very fortunate that my hair has taken this abuse where most others' would have broken, snapped and fallen out around the blonde/white era, but i am now beginning to see affects...let me explain...

I am now finally near my 3 year long goal of "fire hair" (taking inspiration from one of my favorite bloggers Lua P, and her blog "Le Happy"...i have had photos of this woman's hair saved on my computer and phone for years. Originally i cut off my long locks and stripped the black out of my hair two years ago with the mindset to grow it back out in a lighter colour so that when it was long again i could fire it up. (literally) 

But as my hair got so light i figured i'd play around with the pastels etc while i could. i had it cut back into a pixie cut a few times so i could minimize damage...etc... so recently as its now shoulder length again i decided to dye it that epic fire colour I've always wanted. but i've now seen so many people with that colour i though rather than copy i'd do like my own version. So my Hair is now this EPIC red mix my sister mixed for me using Wella Colour touch.

The colours used are 66/46 and 77/44 with a 5/0 toner mixed in with the roots colour to stop them from going too red. Then she's put hilights though my hair using a 20vol peroxide to get maximum lift without my hair giving up and running away....turns out the only thing running away is my blooming colour. The Wella colour touch is fantastic. I cannot fault it at all, but because the end 3'' or so of my hair have been bleached so much, what with being white, then ombred etc... now it seems no dye EVER will stick to it. I'm aware the wella colours are only temporary, which is deliberate as my hair is so damaged i wanted to use something less harsh and more conditioning. So i realize the colour will wash out and fade...but the ends of my hair lose colour in the blink of an eye. But looking at it from a positive point of view at least its kind of ombreing itself..?! haha so hopefully before Christmas or just after im just going to get it ombred properly then i'll FINALLY after all this time be the colour i've idolized for so long. then all i have to do is occasional root-regrowth but LEAVE IT ALONE. hahah so lets see how well that works out.

xoxo