Ebay goodies!

I know I haven't been posting much lately but then again, I never really did so what's new there!!
I've been buying some nail art stuff and baking supplies on EBay lately as they are so much cheaper than to buy here.  The first item that arrived on my doorstep this morning was this set of 15 nail art brushes which cost less than €3 and with free delivery! Here is the link http://www.ebay.ie/itm/300664264606?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649 to the EBay page where I got mine!
I'm planning on using some of these for nail art and some for cake decorating when I'm hand painting something, obviously I will keep them separate! ;) There is a good range of shapes and sizes so i may figure out which does what!

The second item I got this morning was a set of micro beads.  I know these are all the rage now so I wanted to pick up some cheapy ones to see what the fuss was all about! I'll use them in the next few days and try get a photo up! I actually snorted when i opened the pack, I really hadn't expected them to be THAT small, absolutely titchy!!
http://www.ebay.ie/itm/160687437501?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649 this is the link to the beads!

There was a dotting tool in the brush set so of course I had to test that out straight away, I'm gonna pick up a set of these soon cos they're Fab! Apologies for the cackness of my nails, they are in tatters lately!!

Anyway, short and sweet it is, I'm working on a couple more posts that I hope to get up soon!

mayday!

Hey everyone, I hope you're all doing well! Today is May Day aka 1st May.  I used to love may day, where I lived we used to have a HUGE bonfire in our estate and it was always a great way to get rid of any rubbish you had lying around the house!  We used to make our own bbq's and cook sausages and stuff on them and it was always great fun!

So, Aaron got over his chicken pox and is back to his usual noisy, can't sit still for a second self! Ryan woke up with them yesterday morning so hopefully he won't get too many of them because it will be a lot harder to stop him scratching than Aaron!  At least you could tell Aaron not to do it and he wouldnt! But try telling a 2 year old not to scratch something, best of luck with that one!  The weather has been miserable for what seems like forever and I'm just sick to the back teeth of it!  I've been out driving a couple of times but even if i wanted to drive at the minute I can't because G has a new job and needs the car for work so hopefully he'll pick up a cheap van for himself and i can get driving because I hate having to bring the kids out in this rain to go to school etc.

My big man Aaron earned his first belt in martial arts a couple of weeks ago, he's now a white yellow belt and is very proud of himself!  He's going to 3 classes a week now so he's taking it very seriously! I'm hoping he will keep it up, I'd love to have done that when i was younger! He even wants to be a martial arts teacher when he's older!

I've been very well behaved lately, I finally got to Gorey to visit the new Boots that opened late last year but all I bought was a 17 foundation and mascara!  One of the chemists down the street has started stocking NYC cosmetics so I picked up one of their foundations and a couple of nail polishes, its a very reasonable brand, the polishes were only €1.99 and the foundation was €3.49. A rival for my beloved CATRICE and Essence? Only time will tell!  I realised the other day how neglected my make up case is, I seem to only be using the things that are in the basket on top of it because mornings are always a 'rush to get out the door at 9am or we'll be late for school'  kinda scenario!  I'm going to make an effort to start using some more stuff from my case, I don't think my Mac palette has been touched in months thanks to my Inglot eyeshadow obsession!  I don't even wear eyeshadow now on weekdays, just bung on some foundation, fill in my eyebrows, throw on some eyeliner and mascara and I'm ready to run out the door!  I've been using my Real Techniques stippling brush to out my foundation on every day rather than the Inglot one, I just prefer the RT one as the bristles are shorter so you have more control over where its going etc.   I'm even thinking of purchasing a back up just in case anything ever happens to it!

We booked our first holiday in 10 years last week! We're going to Salou for a week in August, originally we were going to go as soon as Aaron got his holidays at the end of June but his martial arts grading is mid July so he can't be missing classes or he can't get his next belt!  I'm a bit nervous about entertaining Ryan on a plane for the 2.5 hours but our flight is at 9.30am so hopefully he'll just sleep most of the way!

I haven't been taking any photos lately, my hair is getting on my wick lately (I know I shouldn't complain because its better than no hair!) and i just want it to GROW, GROW, GROW already! I miss tying it up and just being able to do things with it! I know it will get there eventually but its very frustrating, all this WAITING!  My psoriasis is also acting up on me big time and that's really annoying me too!

I'LL try not to leave it so long next time and will try take a few photos!

Snow joke!

I'm really hoping that this forecasted snow is a late April Fools! I mean, the sun is shining and I'm actually WARM! How is it supposed to snow when people were going around in summer clothes just a few days ago? Typical Irish weather really I suppose! You really can have all 4 seasons in one day, or even an hour sometimes!

Anyway, I hope you are all well! We've got a very upset little boy -Aaron- in the house who woke up with the chicken pox and isn't able to go to his Easter GAA camp or Martial Arts! I'm hoping he doesn't get too many spots and I'm sure Ryan will have them sooner rather than later too! I'm itching like mad now too even though I've had the chicken pox when i was young. G isn't sure if he's had them or not so we may ask his Da!

I've been a very good girl lately and haven't bought much make up at all apart from a few Avon bits.  I've been flat out baking cakes and spent hours the other day making G a Man United jersey cake! I'm delighted with how it turned out and I know he was really impressed with it! I kept catching him in the kitchen admiring it!  Then our niece Hannah was 2 on Saturday and she's Curious George mad so i made her a giant cupcake with yellow buttercream and G spent 2 hours making George out of fondant. I made some bananas and a yellow hat (for the man in the yellow hat!). It looked lovely but I jusypt don't get the fascination with giant cupcakes, I found it hard to decorate and because I'd never made one before I was worried that it wasn't cooked properly or something! We brought it down to G's sister on Friday evening and she was delighted with it (so was Hannah!) But I just kept thinking that I wasn't happy with it so i got up early Saturday morning and made a fresh cream sponge and decorated it with butterflies and it just looked nice and I knew it was cooked properly! We brought it down Saturday afternoon and 5 slices later it was almost gone! I don't eat fresh cream but this was delicious!!  I'm decorating my fruit cakes later this week for Easter Sunday and then in 2 weeks time I'm making a christening cake for my cousins baby! I'm actually really nervous about doing it because people other than family will be eating it so I'm just hoping that it will look and taste nice!!

Aaron is now able to read everything and he's reading this out as I'm typing it and giggling away to himself! He's a funny little dude!

Mr Golden Sun!

Once again I apologise for my lack of posts recently. I've had a dose which took weeks to shift and Ryan hasn't been well for weeks either so its been a miserable house to say the least! I feeling better now but my poor little man is still coughing and spluttering out of him so hopefully he'll shift it soon! Its been a beautiful few days here in ireland, its been 18 degrees or more the last few days and as far as I know its to last another few days so I'm typing this while sitting outside on my front door step! My tablet won't let me upload photos to a blog post so I'm hoping to have time to boot up the laptop on Friday and maybe do a couple of posts! When i was sick my psoriasis flared up really badly so I'm trying my best to get it to clear up because I have 2 weddings coming up in the next couple of months and I want to wear something nice!

I've been feeling really tired lately and I'm not sure what's causing it because I've had blood tests and stuff done and everything came back ok but its so frustrating! I bring Aaron to school and have to sit down for half an hour when i get home to have the energy to do anything! Hopefully I'll get back to normal at some stage although I don't really know what 'normal' is anymore!

My hubby aka G is 32 on Thursday so tomorrow I'm going to attempt to make him a Manchester United jersey cake! I made my brother in law an Angry Birds one last week for his 30th birthday and I was delighted with how it turned out! I bought myself a few new decorating bits and pieces on eBay, I'm still amazed that food colouring is cheaper to buy from America than here or the UK!

I'm nearly at the end of my 3 month eyeshadow buying ban and to be honest it hasn't been that bad, its made me make more use of what I already have! Plus I've been buying more nail varnish instead! ;)

Step by Step Tutorial, my everyday look and new brushes!

I just did a quick step by step photo tutorial on how I've been doing my everyday makeup lately!

First, I apply foundation to the back of my hand and apply it to my face using a stippling foundation brush (more on this brush at the bottom of the page!) using circular motions until your foundation is well blended in.

 I've been using this Catrice Infinite Matt foundation lately and have just bought a 2nd bottle of it because I really like how it looks on my skin.  Its the lightest shade (010 Light Beige) and at €6.99 a bottle its hard to beat!!

When my foundation is on I usually fill in my eyebrows using a dark brow matt eyeshadow and an angled brush.  Between years of using creams for psoriasis and the chemo I had last year my eyebrows aren't very noticeable any more so I like to fill them in!

Next I put some Too Faced Shadow Insurance on my eyes to stop it creasing or disappearing from my eyes!  I've been using this Collection 2000 Peep Show eyeshadow palette for the last couple of weeks, its really great and best of all it was FREE when you bought the mascara!  The 4 colours are great for creating neutral looks!  I applied the lightest colour to my eyelids and then added some of the brown on the bottom row to the outside of my eyes and blended it using my new Inglot blending brush.  I sometimes add a little of the black colour to the crease to darken it up, I don't really do the barely there look!!!

 Next I took my new Urban Decay 24/7 eyeliner in the blackest of black shade 'Perversion' and applied it to my waterline and a small line on the top of my eyelid.  Then I put on my Collection 2000 Peep Show Mascara.

Next step was blusher, I used a small amount of this Catrice one which I've been using every day since I bought it a few months ago!

Then I slapped on some pink lippie (forgot to take a pic!!) and we're done!

I bought some new brushes recently, I was up in Dublin last week so I picked up a couple of brushes in Inglot.  Below is a photo of my new blending brush and stippling brush.  The brushes are so soft and I really love using them!  The foundation brush was €30 and the blending one was €18 (I'm nearly sure it was anyway!) and I used my 20% Meteor discount again so it was €38 altogether which is still much cheaper than Mac!!

I had originally been looking to pick up the newly released Real Techniques stippling brush (€16.59) but the Boots in the Jervis Centre was sold out.  Thanks to the power of Facebook my aunt informed me that they had them in stock in my nearest Boots which is about 20 minutes away and luckily a friend was going there the following day and she kindly picked up one for me! This brush is really something else, its so soft that you just want to pet it (I kid you not! I actually spent about 5 minutes stroking the brush hairs after I got it!!) and I really like how your foundation comes out using it.  The head of the brush is a lot smaller than the Inglot one and is stiffer so you really have a lot of control when you're using it! I'd seriously give this brush 10/10 and have been using it almost every day for the last week!  At just over half the price of the Inglot brush this is well worth the money and I really really recommend you get one if you haven't already!

Just another photo comparing the 2 foundation brushes!

I know this is my longest post in a long time and I appreciate those of you who have stuck with me!  Between hospital appointments and sick bambinos I just haven't had the time lately but hopefully I'll get back into the swing of it soon!

Once again, thanks for reading!

Another catch up post!

I had my 2 week post-op checkup on friday and the plastic surgeon was very happy with how rounded my boob looks now so the next stage is to come back in 3 months time to discuss nipple reconstruction!  I know its gonna be a few months before its all done and matching up again but I'm looking forward to it!

I haven't been reading as many blogs lately and I know I haven't done any tutorials in forever but I'm hoping to get back to normal soon! Its almost a year now since I finished chemo but my energy levels are still zero!

Poor Ryan hasn't been well all week, he has a chest infection and his nose is like a tap! He's on the mend now though and after 6 nights of no sleep, we've all slept better the last couple of nights! Aaron had the dose on his 6th birthday the poor pet but thankfully he's ok now too!  However, I'm feeling like death warmed up at the minute and am starting to cough as well so I've started popping pills to try kill it off before it gets too cosy!!  It took me 6 weeks to shift the dose I had before christmas, my immune system must still be low!

I want to post about the new bits I've picked up but may wait til I'm on the laptop as I can't seem to upload photos on my tablet!I've gotten a couple of new brushes which I'm loving!   I got a couple of Inglot brushes and a Real Teachniques one!

I also want to post some photos of the birthday cakes I made for the boys!  G is gonna be 32 next month and I'm going to make him a Man United jersey shaped cake so that should be fun! I'll have to pick up some more red food colouring on ebay and some edible man utd cupcake toppers to use as the crest on the cake!  I'm sitting here trying to think of something nice to bake tomorrow for valentines day, I THINK I'm gonna do a sponge cake with baileys buttercream but that could all change, you never know with me!

Blog giveaway winner!!

Hey all, the winner of my blog giveaway was entry number 11, the Allen Family, who follow by email! Congratulations!!!