Cutting my own hair

The other week I was getting myself really frustrated at how awful the ends of my hair were. It was so frizzy and the ends were all split it was making all of my hair look unhealthy. Now I know that dying your hair a lot damages your hair anyway, but I've been keeping to a once a month routine (not out of consideration for my hair but out of sheer laziness) and it is always in gorgeous condition right after dying it.

I tried asking Kev to trim my hair, gave him strict instructions of how to do it but he wouldn't, he was scared of ruining it. I even tried showing him all of the bad haircuts I'd had in the past and cutting my hair funny doesn't bother me as long as I can style it until it grows out. Still no.

In a huff and feeling like something needed to be done I turned to Pinterest where I found this pin

This was it, from now on I was going to be in charge of my trims whilst trying to grow my hair out and THEN I would seek help from a hairdresser once the length I was after was reached.

It adds a lot of layers into the hair so I wouldn't recommend if that's not what you're after. I'm just pleased with how lovely and in such nice condition it is after my little trim.

Before

After

Steph xxx

Bella candle

Me being a fan of candles is an understatement. I love them. A while ago I tried an Imperial candle which were a bit on the pricier side but the candle was gorgeous and you were given the option to choose your ring size to avoid the jewellery not fitting and therefore being pointless.

The aim of Bella candles' game is the same concept as Imperial candles, that inside each one is a gift worth between £10-£500 and always sterling silver.

I'm not one for floral scents or vanilla or lavender, they give me a headache so I always opt for the fruity options when given a choice.

I happened to come across Bella Candles from an advert on Facebook (sucker) showing that they were having a sale and within 5 minutes I'd bought one, woops!

In hindsight I wish I had picked a more specific scent, because I went for the fruit explosion candle which as you can imagine is a mix of a whole load of fruits and it's really overpowering. The more I know though.

 

The packaging it came in is just lovely, a really nice touch. Made it feel and look a lot more expensive than it was.

I'm so impatient waiting for the ring so as soon as it started peeping it's little head out of the candle that was it, I was digging it out with a spoon - classy I know.

BUT THE RING, oh my god. I love it. It's worth £20 and it fits like a glove luckily, as on Bella's website it doesn't ask for ring size so I was a bit panicky in case it didn't fit.

 

8/10, would buy again. I love the mystery of the whole thing.

Steph xxx

Legs 11! - #BGOmeetup

On Thursday I was invited to attend a Joe Blogs event hosted at the lovely Jazz Café in Newcastle city centre hosted by BGO.

Before attending the event, the only information we were given in relation to the event was the name 'The Golden Age Of Bingo'.

If you know me at all I love bingo and relish the opportunity to play at any time.

I met up with Chloe and together we headed over to the venue. The event was hosted upstairs and when we got there we had a name tag and 4 drinks tokens awaiting for us each (great!).

They had a projection screen which displayed a game called Starburst in which they deposited £500 and let you play with it and any profit on the £500 would be donated to the Nepal earthquake relief fund - from a few spins I got a 'big win' and won £50 towards it!

Then we got down to the game, I was all geared up for normal bingo. I even taught Chloe how to play because she'd never played before. I was all ready, up until the bingo boards came out and it was filled with songs and artists - we were playing rock and roll bingo.

AND IT WAS SO FUN

It was almost like karaoke with the amount of cheese on the playlist.

I didn't win but had a fab night!

Thanks Joe Blogs and BGO

Steph
xxx

The Argos Challenge

Following on from my earlier post, Argos online got in touch with me on Twitter saying they wanted to give the challenge a go.

So they had £200 to make a living room pretty, there is already a couch and a television in the room so you don't have to blow the budget.

I got sent a LOT of item numbers from the people on the Twitter team, so I picked my favourites from the bunch.

This candle holder is so unique, I would put one on either side of my fireplace and make it a little more girly

I'd put this in my spare room which I'm planning on making a dressing room with a make up table and small single bed :)

I definitely want this, my current TV stand is too small for the TV (the woes of loving a massive telly) and the little boxes are dead cute.

I love the jug but I would probably change it for some really oversized sunflowers or daisies.

This is very similar to my 'Love is all you need' canvas and I adore the lights in it, really great.

On the pictures this seems so tiny but it's adorable, I would probably have loads though.

Now this is an idea I can get behind, I would put tea lights and photos on these, I love them so much.

I would love these in my house but having a curious kitten would not make this possible at all, there would be candle and water everywhere all the time.

This is a fantastic choice, it's really quirky and has a very good steampunk theme to it. 

Lastly this clock is right up my street because I'm blind as a bat for looking at things far away so the large numbers would really make things a whole lot easier for me.

Here were my choices and I honestly might look into getting the Daisy canvas for myself in the future, I've fallen in love with it. 

What would you choose?

Steph xxx

If I had £100... The Argos game

One of my favourite games to play online is something I like to call 'The Argos game'. You can either set yourself a monetary value and pick things up to that amount or, my favourite version, is to kit your whole house out with new furniture, regardless of costs.

I set myself a challenge of spending £100 in Argos, and decided that I really want to re-do the spare bedroom in my house into a proper dressing room with a better desk and a cleaner colour theme. I even came under budget! 

This is what I picked.

All totalling £96.95!

Now just to save my pennies and get it all bought.

Steph xxx

Seeing Saturn

This week we went camping to Kielder for Kev's birthday so I thought I would tell you all about our adventure.

We arrived on Thursday afternoon and after putting up the tent (in about 2 minutes, hello pop up!) we then played cards for about an hour and then headed over to the pub about 3 minutes walk away and had ourselves some burgers and some pints at the Anglers Arms. While we waited for our food we were joined by some pub dogs who sat with us for a while. 

Me and Kev then must have slept for a good 10 hours each. After the first 3 hours we were let down by our air bed, there was no visible punctures but nevertheless we were laying on the floor. 

Friday morning we started the day at the pub for a breakfast with our favourite puppies. 

Then headed up to the Kielder Castle, which wasn't really much of anything. So we went for a drive, first to the Kielder lake dam, which is the birth place of the Tyne, it's pretty spectacular to look at.

We then found a viewing point, which you could see for miles but it was pretty drizzly so the pictures weren't that great.

On a whim we went on a trip to Hawick to see Kev's auntie Carol and her husband Derek, we'd attended their wedding just over a year ago. They didn't expect us showing up but treat us to our dinner at a Spoons. It was a lovely afternoon. 

Instead of staying overnight we decided to pack up the tent and go home after the event we were going to that night.

The observatory was really the main reason which we went to Kielder, I'd booked us a place on the 'deep space observation' event at the observatory. Kielder is in a dark skies protected area, which means that there is a strict red light policy so there are no streetlights, no house lights visible and very few car lights. The observatory is miles away from everything so there's no light pollution at all. It means that at night there's SO many stars visible to the naked eye compared with at home. It was extraordinary. I think my most used phrases were 'oh my god' 'that is amazing' 'I am in awe'.

In the evening I saw SATURN with my own two eyes...

I saw the Whirlpool Galaxy

I also saw a cluster of stars which were 23 million lightyears away called M13

I would recommend ANYONE going at all, no matter what understanding of space and science you have. Kev could talk your head off about space, whereas I have a general understanding of space. We both got a lot out of it and thouroughly enjoyed ourselves. We 100% want to go again.

Steph xxx

Our house, in the middle of our street

As promised, my house tour. We got our blinds fitted and now I'm so house proud so I'm gonna show it off.

 

We use our back door more than the front so this is what you would see when you first get in the house.

This is the massive freezer which I got from freecycle and (probably as you can see) its huge. When it's empty I can get in it and shut the lid!

Moving down from the dining room onto the living room and the sideboard, again another freebie, this one was from gumtree.

The couch looks massive because it's a corner couch with a cushioned footstool pushed into the crevasse to create.... MEGACOUCH (the footstool, free from freecycle)

Not enough shoes live under here

Hello Kev! Along with his Lego PC case which he built last week.

Snuggle kitten :)

It's quite plain but I'll get there at some point.

And finally my little dressing room/spare room. All my make up strewn all over the place. I'm going to move the bed soon and get a new dressing table and make it look cleaner and more welcoming.

That's my little house and I'm so happy with it and the area and living with my fiancé :D

Steph xxx

We ought to have a catch up

So, it looks like I have been AWOL for abut a year now. In that time a lot of this have changed so I thought it would probably be rude of me if I didnt catch you all up on the things tht have happened.

To make things easier for myself, I will try and bullet point all the main things that have happened and then in true blogger fashion then follow these up with some photos to demonstrate and show you all these things that have happened.

Here goes.

1. I have moved jobs, working in the same field as before however a lot more specialised. Apparently I do alright as the team I'm working in have been winning the bonus giftcards. 2 months in a row so far. All the treats for me!

We had a Hawaiian themed Thursday not too long ago

Thanks work!

2. Me and Kevan are still together only now we've moved house! We're still living in Newcastle though so I can continue to be a fake Geordie.

This was the state of the house when we just moved in

 

3. We got a brown little hamster and called her Brown Bear but she only lasted 2 short weeks before I came downstairs and she had died, so sad.

4. We got a kitten, called Jonesy. As in the cat from Alien. She was supposed to be a ginger cat but the opportunity arose for this little black and white beauty and I couldn't resist. My hopes is to get another little one and call her Ripley.

5. I can't remember if I ever mentioned this the last time I was here (I don't suppose I did as it happened last September) but me and Kevan are now engaged, but plans for a long engagement are in place because when we get around to saving for a wedding I really want to do it right.

6. Last year bother my grandparents passed away, actually come to think of it last year was really unlucky for me so hopfully my luck is turning around.

We got this card delivered the day after my Granda had died which means one of the last things he did was write the card for us to congratulate us before he passed. Something to treasure.

 

7. I've also joined a gym (not the first time mind you) and am really on a health kick now. Really trying to get in shape and get healthier. The last time I joined a gym I could count on 2 hands just exactly how many times I visited. I've really been enjoying it think time around and I think it's all to do with the people at work who have all been going together and also that the actualy gym is on the way home from work so I have no excuse when I pass it, but to go in.

8. I've also became a redhead again, and got new glasses. Love it!

Im planning on doing a house tour when we get our blinds fitted and we don't have ugly curtains up, can't wait to show you my lovely little home.

Nice catching up!

Stephanie xxx