one of a kind
Happy Halloween everyone! I decided to go for a simple but fun Jack-O-Lantern nail look for the day.
Unfortunately the first guy got a bit smudged but I’m going to pretend that it was meant to be like that!
Orange nail colour- Maybelline Color Show in Solar Fare
Black- Barry M Nail Art Pen
Top Coat- Catrice Gel Top Coat
Hope you all have a great night!
I love Halloween! Though at the moment, I have nothing planned this year. And I know I’m probably not alone. So I’ve decided to do a post featuring 2 easy face painting looks I did last year. If I need to put together a costume for this year, I’ll probably either try one of these again or another face painting idea (either a skeleton or pop art girl).
Sugar Skull
This is a very easy look to do. Apply white face paint, then using either a paint brush and black face paint or an old eyeliner (I used liquid) to sketch in the details. It’s up to you what colours you use, I used a lipstick for the red, though you could use face paint or eye shadow. Search Google Images, YouTube and Pinterest for ideas and inspiration.
Creepy Doll
I based this look off Siobhan’s creepy doll on Letzmakeup on YouTube (video here). I did it on my sister the Halloween 2011 and liked it so much that I decided to try it on myself last year. It’s a simple enough look. Again, white face paint. I then blocked out my eyebrows so I could draw in a new set. I used the liquid eyeliner.I only put on the look for hanging around my house Halloween (when waiting to see if I got any trick or treaters. I got one call, my brother!). If I had done this properly, I would have definitely applied false eyelashes, both above and below. I think they really do add to the look. I might also had some false freckles.
If you are looking for some more easy face ideas, Marian over at High Life of Mars has loads of really cool ones that are well worth looking up!
If you are looking for some more Halloween ideas on this blog, here are some links!
My Halloween Party Food and Decorations Ideas
Hopefully I’ll have one or two more Halloweeny posts up in the next day or two!
If you were to ask people what did they associate with the Mexican Day of the Dead (Día de Muertos) holiday, I bet most people would say sugar skulls or Calacas as they are also know. I love the idea and traditions that I know that surround Day of the Dead, how it’s a time for honouring the dead with edible sugar skulls, flowers, the favourite food and drink of the deceased and visiting the graves with these gifts. I love the colours and images used, so bright and fun and I couldn’t resist doing some nail designs.
Index Finger: Base Barry M Gelly Hi Shine in Guava, eyes NYC in Lincoln Lavender Square
Middle Finger: Base Catrice in Pinky and the Brain, eyes Angelica in Palma Violet, flowers from nail art set
Ring Finger: Base Essence in LOL, eyes Catrice in Blue Cara Ciao (blue), Maybelline Color Show in Solar Flare (orange), sequins from nail art set
Baby Finger: Base Angelica in Palma Violets, flowers are peel off nail art stickers
Thumb: Base Essence in Wanna Be Your Sunshine, eyes Maybelline Color Show in Solar Flare, bow from Dealz
Black and white used for all the nails are Barry M Nail Art Pens. When using, I give plenty of time for the base coat to dry, even an hour or two, before using. Allow nail art pen to dry before using a top coat (which is NEEDED as the nail art pen will rub and wear off)
I used the tutorial chart from Paper Thin Nails to help figure out how to do the skull outline, some inspiration from these nails on Maryam Maquillage and this video on YouTube from HelloMaphie. I had so much fun designing these and even though I want to do so many more Halloween looks, every time I look at them it just makes me happy! I think my favourite is the index finger, though I am really impressed with Catrice Pinky and the Brain, I had never used it before (I got it free off them when a nail varnish broke on me last year) and I was never inspired by just looking at it in the bottle.
My aunt asked me to bake something savoury, as well as some sweet baked goods using goats’ cheese, to bring along to the St. Tola Organic Goats’ Cheese Open Day. I knew I wanted to do a bread so I searched for ideas and came across this bread. It’s a Delia recipe so I knew it would be a goodun’! And it was a big hit, I was surprised at how good it actually tasted. I’m not a big fan of goats’ cheese but even I loved this bread. It sounds a bit ‘busy’, like my Guinness bread I made, but it really does all work together. I doubled Delia’s recipe, planning on making two loaves, but I found that they were quite small so I decided to just make it one big loaf.
Goats’ Cheese, Onion and Potato Bread with Rosemary
Adapted from deliaonline.com
Ingredients
Method
1. Pre-heat the oven to 190°C/375°F.
2. Cut any rind off cheese and cut into 1/2 inch cubes.
3. Sift flour, salt and cayenne pepper into a bowl. Peel potatoes and grate into bowl, using the large, coarse holes.
4. Add the scallions, thyme and 2/3 cheese into the bowl. Using a knife, blend everything together.
5. Beat the egg and milk together in a cup and add to the bowl and using the knife, bring together as a loose, rough dough.
6. Tip dough out of bowl and shape into a round. Dot the remainder of the cheese into the surface of the bread. Dust with a little flour and add some more thyme.
7. Bake for about 50 minutes, until golden brown and the bottom sounds hollow when tapped. Remove and allow to cool.
I’ve ben in a slump when it comes to writing posts, even though I have loads of topics and photos to post about. I thought posting about books might help me! This is going to be a post about books I’ve purchased recently, physical (new and second hand), audio and e-books.
Drunk Tank Pink: And Other Unexpected Forces That Shape How We Think, Feel, and Behave by Adam Alter
The title of this books really gives away a lot of what it’s about! I picked it up as I like books that ‘uncover’ the reasons why we behave a certain way and how our thoughts and decisions are sometimes influenced by strange and unconnected reasons, the psychology behind all this.
West End Girls by Jenny Colgan
I’ve enjoyed previous Colgan books and I picked this up cheaply thinking I’d need a book to read. Of course, I didn’t get around to reading it then!
Springtime for Germany: Or How I Learned To Love Lederhosen by Ben Donald
I picked this up cheaply in a charity shop. Well it would have been rude to leave empty handed right?! Main reason I picked this up is because I really like travel writing, specifically memoirs like this. In this book, the author goes to Germany to learn about different aspects of German culture. It does seem to have a few not so great reviews on Goodreads but I won’t let that stop me from giving it a go!
My second charity shop purchase. I had just finished The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith and was in the mood to give mystery stories a chance. This title rung a faint bell in my mind and sounded interesting (set in Victorian times, a family wakes one morning to find one member has been murdered and Jack Whicher from Scotland Yard has been sent in to crack the case).
I am so excited to get this! I’ve read two of Gladwell’s books so far (What The Dog Saw and Blink) and I love his style of writing. I decided to use up the last of the book voucher I got for my birthday last year and also got another Books Are My Bag tote bag! The book is about how the underdog succeed more than they should, the hidden dynamics that allow the weak and small overpower the strong and mighty. Really looking forward to getting stuck in
The Magic of Reality: How We Know What’s Really True by Richard Dawkins (not pictured)
I wrote about getting this book in my Books Are My Bag post. I don’t have the book at the moment as my aunt went walkies with it. She claims her dog Lucy is currently reading it!
Audio Books
Jim Henson: The Biography by Brian Jay Jones (narrated by Kirby Heyborne)
E-books
Amazon has had a lot of offers on, I couldn’t resist buying some books! I think my e-book collection to read is beginning to rival my physical books I own to read collection!
A Song of Fire and Ice series by G.R.R.Martin
I bought the first book (A Game of Thrones) during the summer when it was 99p but at the beginning of October the rest of the books went on offer for 99p each and I couldn’t resist getting them! I was going to buy the physical copies eventually and I still might if I enjoy the series but for now I’m happy I got the entire series for about the same price as just one of the books!
The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson
I actually ordered this from the library the same time as The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry (which I read last month) and when this came in to the library after, I couldn’t face reading it after just reading a book about a man doing an extraordinary walk. So when I saw this was on offer for 99p the same day it was due back from the library, I decided to purchase it so I can read it later on.
You Can Beat Your Brain by David McRaney
This book also goes by the title You Are Now Less Dumb (sidebar, I hate when the names of books are changed. I got all excited seeing a new book by Danny Wallace until I read the back and realised it was his last book under a new name!). Anyway, I finished McRaney’s previous book You Are Not So Smart in June, saw this on offer for 99p Saturday night on Amazon and decided I’d probably enjoy it since I liked the first book. It’s possibly still on offer this week if you head of to Amazon.
And that’s it for now! I really do need to start digging into books, I’m going to try put an ordering ban on library books until I get through some of the books I own. Though that might prove to be hard seeing as I’ve already gone through my Goodreads and marked the books that are in the Manchester Libraries for when I move there next month! Help, I have a reading addiction! I suppose it could always be worse though.
This week I’ve decided to stick with videos that revolve around music in one way or another. Hope you enjoy!
Of course, the internet has been ablaze with Miley Cyrus for a while now and it amped up once Sinead O’Connor decided to write a series of open letters. I’m not going to dwell on that, instead listen to this Wrecking Ball and Nothing Compares 2U mashup, I love it!
Sticking with Miley for the second video, here she is singing with The Roots and Jimmy Fallon in an acapella version of We Won’t Stop. I prefer it to the original!
Coolio popped up this week, singing Gangsta’s Paradise with some University of Central Lancashire students in Preston. Bizarre in some ways but totally worth a watch.
I can’t even explain how awesome this video is. Sweet Child o’ Mine played on a http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guzhengguzheng, a Chinse zither instrument. It’s epic!
I’ve shown videos before from CDZA, I love them. This one is the Journey of Guitar Solo, they also have a drums one too.
Finally Clare celebrate winning the All Ireland Hurling Championship by having Brendan Bugler play on the accordion, some dancing and some singing. I guess Anthony Daly was right, we DO love our traditional music as well as our hurling! As someone who was at that match, it was a fantastic day and I just loved seeing this video after.
And that’s it for this week!
Books Are My Bag is a campaign that was launched mid September that runs until Christmas 2013 to promote local bookshops. The idea is that the local bookshop is the best places to touch, smell and browse books, a place where you can meet and talk to other book lovers and get recommendations. Loads of celebrities have gotten involved too!
Dawn O’ Porter and Chris O’Dowd ; Marian Keyes
Stephen Hawking; Neil Gaiman
Like a lot of people these days, I have bought books online and also ebooks, though nothing beats being in a book shop. I could spend hours browsing in one, I much prefer to go book shopping over than clothes shopping. I love looking from section to section, trying to find a bargain. My favourite sections are probably the science and pop psychology books, cooking section, humour section and travel section, particularly travel memoirs. I do of course browse the fiction books too. I’m quite dangerous when left alone in a bookshop with a large amount of money. I remember being on work placement in Kilkenny in 2009, feeling a bit low and miserable one week, so I went to Dubray Books and bought 7 books. I really wish I could do that more often!
I remember trying to convince my Mum to buy us a new Harry Potter book from Tesco on her way back from her night shift, as the book shops wouldn’t be open. And she didn’t want to, as she didn’t like the idea of a supermarket taking trade from a bookshop. And I must say, that idea has grown on me. If you bought all your meat, your music and your books from a supermarket, then it’s taking trade from butchers, music shops and book shops. I’m not saying that people need to go to a butchers, a bakers, a green grocers etc. in order to get all their shopping, while it might suit some, it definitely won’t suit others. But I try as best as I can to at least buy books in bookshops. Like I said, I’m not perfect, I have bought the odd book from a supermarket or online but overall I’d much, MUCH prefer to go and support a bookshop. Which is why I think Books Are My Bag is a great campaign and I was delighted to see my local bookshop was taking part, as it meant that once I bought a book I’d get my free tote bag! I picked up The Magic of Reality by Richard Dawkins. I’ve never read any of this books and I’ve been curious to read this aimed at a younger crowd book ever since I saw a 12 year old girl reading it in A&E back in January! I thought it might be a good place to start with Dawkins.
This campaign runs until Christmas, so when you’re in a bookshop, ask if they have any totes left and when you make a purchase you will get one!
All celebrity images taken from Books Are My Bag website or their Facebook page. They also have a Twitter and Pinterest page if you are interested in following those.
Also check out Nurse Fancy Pants’ post on this campaign to see what books she got to put inside her bag. Check it out HERE.
