Monday, May 21, 2012

Memories and Music: The Bee Gees

It’s been ages since I’ve done a post like this. My last one was the Lauryn Hill one. I’ve been meaning to do for ages but just never got around to it. Until now, when on Twitter I saw the sad news that Robin Gibb from The Bee Gees had passed away. That’s the second big music loss this week, the first being the passing away of Donna Summer. So since I’m now listening to Bee Gee songs, I felt compelled to write about my memories and experiences.

I can’t remember the first time I ever heard The Bee Gees. My Mum used to have a vinyl of theirs and she recorded some of the songs from it onto a cassette tape (the other side had some Kristy McColl songs). It was one of the staple tapes she had for car journeys (along with Elton John and Jimmy Sommerville!). Because it was recorded from a vinyl, the sound was low and scratchy but I still enjoyed listening to it (most of the time anyway! Sometimes we used to beg to listen to the radio for more modern songs!). Only recently my boyfriend said ‘I didn’t know Massachusetts was a Bee Gees song!’ which shocked me as how could you not know it was one of their songs?!

When we were in the house we used to play the vinyl, often when my older cousins were babysitting and we used to dance around to the upbeat songs (one favourite was You Should Be Dancing). The Bee Gees were still release songs when I was that age, NOW 36 was one of my first CDs and their song Alone was on it.

Even if I hadn’t heard any Bee Gees as a child, I couldn’t help but be surrounded by cover versions as a child and a teenager. One of the first songs I ever remember recording off the radio (ah, those were the days!) was How Deep Is Your Love by Take That. I still love both versions of that song. The of course there was the Boyzone cover of Words (Used to love the video to it!), 911 version of More Than A Woman (I remember listening to late night radio and falling asleep to that!), Steps version of Tragedy (I bought the single and I knew the dance!), Jimmy Sommerville’s version of To Love Somebody, I Started a Joke by The Wallflowers (from the Zoolander soundtrack). There just a handful of covers done out of the Bee Gees back catalogue. All the versions I mentioned were ones that I listened to regularly.

The Bees Gees were more than a band though. They also wrote loads of songs for other people. The ones that are closest to me are Chain Reaction for Diana Ross, for which they sang backing vocals for. Though the Steps cover version was probably how I first came across that song! Emotion by Destiny’s Child was also another one written by them, Islands in The Stream by Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton and Grease by Frankie Valli. This is my favourite song from Grease, I used to rewind the beginning of the VHS just so I could watch the beginning and listen to it again. And while we’re talking about films (and John Travolta ones at that!), how can you not mention Saturday Night Fever?! A bunch of Bee Gees (among others) rolled into one film with fabulous costumes and awesome dancing! Here’s a link to the iconic opening scene to Stayin’ Alive.

This Christmas gone by my siblings and I bought my aunt a Greatest Hits of Bee Gee songs. Which resulted in us all dancing around the kitchen to the music. And me doing gymnastic routines to Tragedy with the gymnastic ribbon my sister got as a present (best present ever!).

Thanks to Glee, a whole new generation have been introduced to Bee Gee songs. I hope they are inspired to go search out the originals. For more info on cover versions, go here, all of them are listed. I’ve added links to all the songs mentioned above (cover version links are under the name of the artist covering the song, the original versions are linked in the name of the song). There’s no denying that the Bee Gees have left an incredibly legacy and I’m grateful for all the memories they have given me.

Sunday, May 20, 2012

Nails of the Week!

I know I had the Essence Special Effect Toppers on earlier in the week but these are my Nails of the Week! This week it’s Rainbow Crackle Nails.

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Natural light, no flash

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With flash

Red- Art Club (Colour Club’s Nail Art sets) in Red

Orange- Catrice Ultimate Nail Lacquer in MAN, GO Tango

Yellow- Art Club in Yellow

Green- Art Club in Green

Blue- Wet n Wild Wild Shine in Denim Chrome

Purple- Eessence Multi Dimension XXXL Shine in Purple Cherry

Black Crackle- Barry M

Top Coat- Sally Hansen Insta-Dri

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Essence Nail Art Special Effect! Toppers

CLICK HERE FOR PART 2!

I love sparkly things for nails! I’ve been lusting after the Catrice Million Styles Topcoats for ages but unfortunately I haven’t found any yet. When Googling them, I came across the Essence Nail Art Special Effect! Toppers. I hadn’t seen or heard about them in Ireland until I saw it on Behind Green Eyes blog. And boy did I get excited then! When I mentioned it on Twitter, Miss Green Eyes herself said she could post some to me. I swear, I didn’t think it could be possible to get so excited about nail varnish but I was practically bouncing up and down in my seat! She very kindly posted 4 of them to me: Night in Vegas (similar to the discontinued GOSH Rainbow), Circus Confetti, Disco Disco and Glorious Aquarius (my 4 favourite out of the 8!). Here’s some swatches
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Left to Right: Night in Vegas, Disco Disco, Circus Confetti and Glorious Aquarius (all one coat)
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Left to Right: Night in Vegas, Disco Disco, Circus Confetti and Glorious Aquarius (all two coats)
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Left to Right: Disco Disco, Circus Confetti and Glorious Aquarius (all 3 coats)
And now doing what they’re supposed to do, be topcoats!
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Left to right: Catrice I Wear My Sunglasses At Night topped with Circus Confetti, Wet N Wild Wild Shine in Denim Chrome topped with Glorious Aquarius, Essence Colour & Go in Luxury Secret topped with Disco Disco, Nails Inc in Bluebell (InStyle special) topped with Night in Vegas (one coat of top coat)
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Same as above with 2 layers of top coat (and a bit messy application, I was too excited to not take pictures!)
I can’t wait to try out different colour combinations! I definitely like the look with just one layer of top coat. I had fun picking out colours to go underneath and had picked out a different colour to go with Night in Vegas but switched last minute as I was drawn to the Nails Inc Bluebell. And now I know why! I saw it on Behind Green Eyes blog and it obviously stuck in my head! Check out her post here for her lovely swatches.
I’ll probably keep an eye out for the other top coats in this range (as well as the Catrice ones!!). What are your favourite shades at the moment? Let me know in the comments below!

Meatless May: Half Way Check Point!

As I mentioned briefly at the end of my 30 Days of Pinterest Look Back, I was doing a Meatless May. It’s part of my 25 Before 25 challenge and today marks the half way point. I thought I’d do a quick blog post about it.

So far it hasn’t been too hard, I’ve barely missed meat, except for maybe the familiarity of it and the meals I’d make using it. I haven’t tried a whole lot of new recipes, just tried to adapt favourite meals by removing the meat. I’ve made the Yaki Soba without the chicken, a delicious Spinach, Broccoli and Corn Pasta Bake (seriously yummy, I just changed my Spinach Gnocchi recipe to pasta instead of gnocchi and added more vegetables), Vegetable, Rice and Cheese Wraps, Chickpea Burgers and Veggie Burgers.

I’ve also tried some Quorn and Linda McCartney products. With the Quorn mince, I made a Bolognese sauce and also had Chilli Con Carne made for me at a friends house. I’ve tried the Linda McCartney Sausage Rolls (nice hot, not so good cool, which I how I prefer my sausage rolls!) and the Italian Sausages (tried them yesterday with mashed potatoes and mixed veg), they were delicious! Different in texture than normal sausages, not as oily as there’s not a lot of fat in them (not a bad thing!) but the flavours were so yummy! I bought more today, I could see them becoming a bit of a staple.

So for the next 2 weeks or so, I’m hoping to try out a few new recipes I haven’t tried before, have you any suggestions for me? Please leave a comment if you do! Also, I just discovered a few hours ago that next week is National Vegetarian Week in UK so that’s tied in nicely for me!

Monday, May 14, 2012

Facebook Flashback Part 2!

Back in March I did my first Facebook Flashback and I held back until after 30 Days of Pinterest to post another. While the first one concentrated more on me, I decided this one would be centred around my family. And mainly some of the silly things that have been said by them!

atlantis

He hasn’t told me though.

blackberry

So close! But for my technophobic Dad (who can just about send a text message), the fact he knows what a Blackberry is is a miracle!

happyfeet

You know those microwaveable heating bags you can get shaped like animals and the likes? Well, we had a Happy Feet one. Until he almost caught fire one day for being in the microwave too long. I can not even begin to describe the stink in the house after this!

measuring tape

Some times it takes the easiest of things to baffle someone!

paper

The sign of a true college student? When they forget they might need things like paper and pens to record notes in lectures. Mind was obviously elsewhere (more than likely on parties and freedom!).

 

robbers

As the saying goes ‘Out of the mouth of babes come all wise sayings’. It funny the things kids pick up on. In this case, my brother seems to have it bang on!

starling

Traumatic to say the least! The terror of birds flapping around your head. And then after this we discovered one of my brothers upstairs. Had I known that before hand, I would have made him go in!

radioactive

I’m beginning to doubt that he actually knows where Atlantis is…

Monday, May 7, 2012

Things I Like: #3 Bunting

It’s been over a year since I did one of these posts! I don’t know what it is, but I just adore bunting! I love when it’s put up around the town (usually for St. Patrick’s Day), I feel it just perks the place up. Lately I’ve been a bit bunting obsessed! Perhaps it’s because Queen Elizabeth’s Jubilee is around the corner and I keep seeing it featured in magazines! Whatever it is, I found some of my favourite bunting items from the interwebs!

This ADORABLE cake bunting is from Like Mam Used To Bake. I think I actually squealed with delight when I first saw it! If you go to to the post (click here), you’ll find a step by step guide to making your own. 

I think these nails are possibly the cutest I’ve ever seen. They come from Japanese blog hokuri, where there’s loads more nail photos (from what I can gather it’s actually a salon). It could be possibly to recreate them with some DIY Nail Art Stickers by The Beauty Department and a glitter nail art pen.

Next is this super fun bunting cushion from Debenhams. I think I might try recreate my own with some fabric scraps.

Of course, I couldn’t do a post about bunting without actually showing some proper bunting! Here’s a DIY post from Chez Larrson for making your own paper bunting.

If paper bunting is not for you and you’d like some reusable fabric bunting, Decor It Yourself on Threadbanger has this perfect tutorial for you!

Things I Like: #1 Cute Animal Pictures

Things I Like: #2 Smell

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

30 Days of Pinterest: A Look Back

Phew, it’s over! What a month. It’s a pity I got sick at the beginning as my motivation dropped a bit due to that. And there were times I thought I wouldn’t finish it but I’m glad I did! It’s the first challenge I’ve finished on time and it’s helped me in a number of ways. First off, it was good to write every day, I hope I’ll be more motivated to keep posting on a regular basis. Secondly, it was good to be a bit creative and to try new things. I enjoyed actually putting pins to use and will continue to do so.

The thing I enjoyed most was probably doing my nails. I used to have really short ones (due to biting) up until a few years ago. I’m only getting used to having long nails now!

I will probably do some more challenges, in fact this month I’m having a ‘Meatless May’, a month of no meat. It’s for my 25 Before 25 Challenge. I won’t be posting it about every day but I might do a few updates and recipes along the way. Two days in and so far I’m not missing meat. Here’s hoping there’s no BBQs this month!

Thanks to everyone who read and commented on my posts during the 30 Days of Pinterest. Whenever I felt like giving up and not posting something, I thought of all of you and it kept me going. So thanks again!

Have you ever done a challenge on your blog? Let me know and I might take inspiration for it next time I decide to do one!

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