Writing Set

For my Birthday this year Christie got me some lovely gifts, including this Paperchase writing set.

Norwich Gluten Free Cafe

I was so excited when I found out that the Gluten free Shop at Hellesdon Barns was going to be opening up an all Gluten Free Cafe, with a shop over the top, right here in Norwich City centre!

Planning for my USA Trip in June/July 2016

As some of you may know I am dual notional which means in basic terms I am both a British and American Citizen. My Dad and his side of the family were born and live in America, my Mum married him when she was young and although they are no longer together I have got some contact with him.

How I Aim to be more Organised

Most people that know me, know that I like to be organised and can get very stressy when I am not. I hate being late above all else, even though that seems to be happening quite alot to me lately with 2and a half hours driving to work. So this year I have made a vow, not a New Years Resolution, to be more organised. This is something I am going to be doing not just in my personal life but in my work life as well.

First things first is to get yourself a Planner and a pen, from my experience you need to get one that you like the look of, that you can easily access and most importantly that is easy for YOU to write in. I make emphasis on the YOU part of that sentence because at the end of the day it is only you that will be writing in it and if you find it difficult because it doesn't open well or your hand gets in the way of the binding you wont use it and therefore will lose track of things.

Nutribix

Now as many Coeliacs will know it can be very frustrating to find nice tasting cereals, and you find yourself missing a lot of what you used to be able to have.

Again as my fellow Coeliacs know if you come across a new product in the Free From aisle you get instantly excited and want to shout about it and have to buy it straight away to give it a try, so when I came across this Nutribix in Tesco I had to have it!

I mean gluten free Weetabix!! After not having Weetabix for over 4 years I was elated!

Aloe Vera Gel from InstaNatural Review*

So I have received my first free product to try out and review, how exciting!

MOYOU London Nail Stamp Review

I am in Love with these nail stamps, they're such a great idea and I cant believe I have only recently discovered them. 

My Fellow Blogger and best friend Christie, went to the Suffolk Bloggers Meet sometime in November I think and got lots of freebies, she was kid enough to give some to me. It felt like Christmas come early getting a little bag of goodies. 

Within these freebies, she gave me a Moyou London Holy Shapes Starter Kit (Holy Shapes Plate 08 & White Knight nail stamping polish) retailing at £9.99. 

I don't think that's too bad for a kit which includes a plate, nail polish, stamp and scraper. 

I have recently purchased another starter kit  (Doodles Plate 03 & Blue Jay nail stamping polish) and additional plate (Fashionista Plate 11). 

Plates and nail stamping polishes are £4.99 each. 

I have done a mini video to illustrate how quick and easy the process is, once you have painted your base colour ion your nails and have let them dry the stamping process takes about 2 mins per hand.

You do need to clean the stamp and plate each time you use it with nail polish remover to ensure you get a perfect stamp each time. 

Once you have stamped all your fingers and got the desired effect you want, you will need to seal it with a top coat and clean up the excess nail polish on your fingers. 

With the starter kit you do get a little booklet which gives a guideline on how to use it. 

1. Start with a base colour, or don't its perfectly up to you. Make sure its dry.

2. Pick the design you want to use and paint some nail polish on the plate.

3. Scrape off the excess nail polish with the scraper at 45 deg. 

4. Roll the stamp onto the plate and careful roll onto your nail.

5. Clean the stamp and plate (using nail polish remover) and repeat steps 2-4, until you have got your desired result. 

6. Finish with a top coat and then tidy up the excess nail polish with a cotton bud. 

After you have trialled it, you will soon pick it up and the whole process can take less than 15 minutes, depending on drying time. 

I cannot recommend these nail stamps enough and will be purchasing these as gifts for some of my friends. Especially after receiving so many compliments and being able to quickly spruce up any look. Just be aware that they can be highly distracting as you'll find you keep looking at them. 

I hope you enjoyed reading this, let me know your thoughts. 

Always be kind, you never know what personal battle people are fighting.

Glossybox January 2016

This months box was the best yet in my opinion, nearly all the products I will actually use and best of all no cheap lipstick! The theme of this months box is all about giving more, seeing as our new years resolutions are usually about giving something up. 

First up was the Unani Dermo Defence Face Mask, Full-size retails at £11.36. So when I went to apply this face mask, I was shocked at the fact that it was a clear gel like consistency, I mean masks are usually clay like. It was actually really nice and refreshing, my skin felt so much more moisturised and cleansed. 

Next was the Teeez Cosmetics Oasis Gem Lipstick in Coral, Full-size retails at £11.93. Given that every month so far Glossybox have sent a cheap lipstick, I was really surprised and excited to receive a mid-range lipstick, which is in a lovely shade, perfect for everyday wear. It smelled sweet too. The wear/ coverage was really good and felt very moisturising. I even got my mums one as she doest really wear this shade, result. Have you seen the design, it is so cool to look at and really stands out. 

Angele Paris Red Nail Lacquer, Full-size retails at £6.32. I do love a red pedicure, as we all do I am sure. This colour is a classic red and applies really well, you only need one coat but it's always best to apply two. It does stay on for a few days, but with most nail polishes they chip fairly easily. I love the bottle design too. 

Exclusive Glossybox Eyeshadow in Glossy Mauve, Full-size retails at £7.10. This is my first exclusive Glossybox product, and I am very impressed thus far. The colour looks really dark, however when applied dry is really light and great for everyday wear; but if you apply it with a wet brush it goes really pigmented. The wear time isn't very good though, however I think if a good primer was used I am sure it would be better. 

Finally, Madara Cellular Repair Serum, Luxury-size retails at £38.00. This product was the only one I was disappointed with, it didn't really work with my skin and made me breakout a little bit. Even though I wasn't impressed, my Mum was she really liked the application and has noticed a difference with her skin. So I gave mine to her in exchange for the lipstick. 

I cannot wait for February's box, especially seeing as we have been given the option to choose a lipstick shade. I am also excited to see if there is a special edition box design. 

Always be kind, you never know what personal battle people are fighting.

Dealing with an Abusive Partner

This post is possibly one of the hardest things I will ever write and I am positive I will get some backlash from said person when he finds out about this, but I am done being scared and it's time I found my voice again.

December Lookback

This month has been the highlight of my entire year! So much has happened and is planned to happen, I am literally so happy, which is amazing and such a welcomed change.

So what have I been up to.....


Film
Myself and Christie became extras for a low budget film, Soldiers of Embers, produced by Bulldog Films. We had a fairly random day, and even got referred to as prostitutes! I made my first ever Vlog so that everyone could relive the day with us. We pretended to danced pretty much all day, which did wear my poor feet out. We will be returning to be part of the feature film, so watch this space. We now have IMDB Profiles too check us out, Christie and Kimberley.

Romance
Firstly I don't want to jinx anything but, I have started to see someone (Tye)! We went on our first date on the 12th December at the White Horse in Crostwick and it was really lovely. He came back to mine where we just watched movies and cuddled all night. I haven't felt this comfortable with someone in years and am extremely happy! We have seen each other a few times and I seriously can't get enough. I do hope that 2016 is my year :). He even bought me some Ted Baker Earrings for Christmas and came round to meet my Family on Christmas Eve and my best mate on Boxing Day, serious points for that!

Holiday
I booked flights to visit my Family in America with my brother!!! So exciting to have it actually booked, we will be going from 20th June - 7th July 2016. I will be doing Vlogs as much as possible. So we have this to look forward too, better start planning where to go like the One Tree Hill Filming Locations!!!!

Christmas Work Parties
I was very lucky this year and got to attend two separate work meals, as I work from two separate offices. So I went to the Hadleigh meal at The Crown in Stoke on Neyland and The last Wine Bar in Norwich for the, you guessed it, Norwich meal. The Hadleigh meal was better, but either way it was nice to go out.

Birthdays
December is always very busy for my family as we have My Birthday on the 14th my brothers, Adam, on the 18th and my cousins, Alexandra, on the 22nd. It was my Cousins 18th Birthday this year! I went to Cromer with my Mum and Brother for my Birthday for a Doggy Walk (check out my post) and treated my brother and his friend to Star Wars The Force Awakens in 3D for his Birthday. It was Awesome!!!

Goodies
I recieved my 2nd Glossybox and wasn't disappointed. The box was so pretty and all the items were great besides the cheap lipstick. If you want to check out my full review just follow this link.

I got a gorgeous new Fat Face scarf from my Nan and a new Superdry coat from my Mum for my Birthday. 

I also had another h&m haul, I am loving their jumpers at the moment.

Oh and I treated myself to a new Camera! It is amazing!!! The Nikon Coolpix P610, the picture quality is outstanding and I love the fact that I can link it to my phone and take the photos straight off of it and take pictures on my phone but with the camera.

Christmas Day
Christmas was lovely this year, Harley even got spoilt rotten. Check out my Christmas Present Haul Post to see what I got this year.

I really enjoyed just chilling with my family and eating lots of junk food and playing with my new toy (Camera). I can't believe that it came round so quickly, however I have a feeling that with the way things are going for me that it will be Christmas much sooner this time around. I mean they do say time flys when you're having fun.

New Years Eve
This year I spent New Years Eve with Tye and we went to Holkham Beach during the day, despite it being very cold it was a lovely walk. It is so comforting to have someone that likes to play with Harley and really makes it just that little bit more special. 

We saw the evening in with Suz and Kyle, watching celebrity juice and playing pranks on poor Kyle who struggled to stay awake after his long work hours. Needless to say I am sure he will pay me back at some point. Either way it was an awesome way to start the new year with a few of my closest friends, (I missed Christie though). 

Always be kind, you never know what personal battle people are fighting.

Christening Gift Ideas

As some of you may know I recently became a Godparent to Tudor and thought I would take the opportunity to share some gift ideas for a christening. These are home made (partially) and don't take much time at all.

Wish Jar

I got this idea when myself and Christie were wandering one lunch time and found a cute little shop in the Castle Mall Norwich, they had a stack of jars which were basically a glass jar with stickers on them with labels inside. There were many uses for these, for example a Birthday Jar, ones for Weddings and so on; but I was dram to the Wish Jar and thought that would be a lovely idea.

The idea of the Wish Jar is that you write down your wishes to the recipient for them to look back on later on.

I went to a grocery store and bought myself a glass jar, commonly used for food storage.

I then created my own labels, by very naughtily going onto Vista Print and creating an address Label and screen shotting the preview and then copying it into Word to be printed off.

The next step was to create the jar label, so I used the same steps as this tutorial and attached it to the jar with some straw type string, to give an authentic look. 

I hope you like it as much as I do. 

Another great idea for a christening present is a Memory Box, from what I gather new parents cant receive enough of these and if you make them yourself they are that little bit more special. 

For this I simply bought a box from Hobbycraft and some Decoupage paper along with Modpdoge Glue and a brush. I also cheated for the top piece and bought it from Clintons Cards and glued it to the top. 

I will do a separate post on how to Decoupage and will link it to this post for ease of reference, but the basics are to rip up the Decoupage paper and glue it to the box until you get the desired result. 

I hope you like these ideas, which can be used as new baby presents/ baby shower gifts and so on. 

Always be kind, you never know what personal battle people are fighting.

25 Facts About Me

I thought I would do something a little bit different and give you all a chance to learn a little bit about me. Some of which most people don't know and some people know all too well. I hope you enjoy the read.

1. I’m a Coeliac, have Reynaud’s Disease and suffer from Chronic Headaches. These can be a right pain and I have to take medication and have had to change my whole diet. You can check out my rant here. 

2. I am allergic to Plasters and Nickel. Yep that's right I have to carry around my own plasters and makes you look such a dork. 

3. I suffer from anxiety, which means that I often wear a confidence mask. I never used to be as bad as I am now until my Ex. I will pretend to be confident and always hyper to give the façade that I am confident and out there.

4. I can also be a little mental at times, where I become extremely hyper and can seem like I am on one. So I guess most people won’t know the difference between when I am putting it on or when I am actually just going a little mental. I have often been told on a night out that I am not allowed to drive home because I am wasted, when in reality I am T Total!

5. I never drink alcohol! Why? Because ever since I became a Coeliac it makes me feel really ill, my right arm goes dead and I get a horrible pain in my chest. Plus I get drunk on the atmosphere so I don't need it. 

6. I can be very abrupt and speak before thinking majority of the time. This will mean that I often have rants about anything and everything and can get very opinionated. I can be very hard to reason with at these particular moments. I guess you would say that this is my biggest flaw.

7. I am a structural Engineer, basically we design structures to withstand stresses and pressures imposed through environmental conditions and human use. We ensure buildings and other structures do not deflect (bend), rotate, vibrate excessively or collapse and that they remain stable and secure throughout their use.  

8. I always try to do my very best in whatever I am doing.

9. I am a massive animal lover, and especially Love my Dog. She is my entire world! Would you believe that I used to be a cat person until I got her! 

10. I am dual national, Half British Half American. Great for cheap holidays.  

11. I am a God Mother, to my Best friends Suzanne and Kyles Son Tudor! He is so gorgeous!!! 

12. My favourite colour is pink, however I hardly ever wear pink or have anything that is pink as I will opt for Purple instead.. which is my second favourite colour.

13. I am an Eeyore Fan.

14. I am a TV Junkie!!! To name a few....

15. I love stationary and pretty stationary like Paperblanks and Paperchase!

16. I like to read before bedtime.

17. I have a major sweet tooth, and American sweets are the best!

18. I love minions!!! I mean I am actually a little over the top with it. My Car has been called Stuart because I have a toy of Stuart the Minion in it. I bought all of the Macdonald’s toys from EBay because I wanted the whole collection!

19. I am an absolute B**** if I have had no sleep and am hungry, one or the other still makes me someone that you don’t want to be around, but combined!!! Just lock me away and throw food at me, I seriously turn into a red eye monster!

20. I am a major sun worshiper.

21. I have found a new passion, sewing, I have stolen my mums old sewing machine and love it! I’ve hemmed my own jeans J.

22. I don’t know how to swim!

23. I still have trouble reading the time on a dial watch!

24. I love make-up especially lippes!!!

25. I believe in ghosts and aliens.

Always be kind, you never know what personal battle people are fighting.

My 2015 Lookback

2015 has been a major rollercoaster ride and as much as I like the ups and downs and upside downs of a rollercoaster this one I am happy to get off.
I may not be able to remember everything that has happened this year, but I will do my very best and I hope you enjoy the read.


New Arrivals 
Firstly I would just like to say how truly proud and inspired I am with my best friend Suzanne and her Husband Kyle, for going though IVF to get their gorgeous miracle baby boy, my Godson Tudor. They are a really amazing couple and have proven the odds for so many reasons, I only hope that I can have a relationship like theirs. Tudor was Born in July, I was so happy and he brings happiness overtime I see him.

Secondly my friend Kat and her partner Craig had a handsome full head of hair boy, called Henry. He was also a miracle baby, he had a defect which meant that he had a whole in his diaphragm which pushed his intestines up squishing one of his lungs and pushing his heart to the other side. As soon as he was born he was prepped for surgery, which he came out of a healthy specimen and is going strong at home with his mummy.

These two women are truly an inspiration to me and many of our friends and family.

Pet Achievements
Harley passed her Bronze and Silver test in the Kennel Clubs Good Citezen Dog Training Scheme with Wensum Dog Club. Bring on the Gold test in 2016!

We have also performed extremely well in Agilty and have actually managed to complete full courses without mistakes, or biting.

Job
I can't believe I moved companies this year, it feels like it has been much longer than a year, but I started at Richard Jackson Ltd in January. It is much more time consuming and comes with more responsibility, but I like that as it gives me far more jab satisfaction than my previous positions. I have met some wonderful people too, that I consider to be much more than work colleagues. The only downside is that it is part time in Haleigh and part time in Norwich, and living in Norwich I would much prefer to be in my home town full time.

Love Life
This subject has got to be the pinpoint of my entire year, as many of my friends and family will know I have made the stupid mistake of going back to my Ex time and time again. Each time saying I won't do that again, and yet finding my way back to him. I can say with certainty that that will never be happening again, the last time I went back helped to finally open my eyes to see what a true pitiful excuse of a man he really is. I will in time do a post on recognising the signs of an abusive partner but still need time to process it all.

This last time we went to counselling to try and resolve what issues we had, which at the time, I thought was all me. The counselling made me realise what a worthless piece of trash he was and how he had made me feel so small and not worthy of even a handful of his time, he even made me think that I was going insane, seriously I was considering driving off of the road one night driving home. I think that is the point I started to finally question everything, wow I haven't told anyone that and I have just told the world (well the handful of people that read this).

So after finally calling it quits, and giving myself some time to start to sort myself out, I started talking to guys again and found my way to a genuinely nice gentleman, which now seems to be blossoming into a great relationship (his words). So here's hoping that 2016 will finally be my year to follow in my friends footsteps.

Health
I think with all the stress and pain I had put my body through and the new long work hours and driving, my body finally had enough. I started suffering from headaches every day non stop, so I went to have a check up and got a brain scan which thankfully came back normal. (Me normal... doesn't really go in the same sentence) I was diagnosed with chronic migraine, which is basically a constant headache, I was prescribed some tablets and they have been working a treat for me.

Blogging
This year I thought I would really try and take blogging seriously and have had some help from one of my best friends Christie, as I am sure you are aware if you have read my November lookback. I can honestly say I never thought I would enjoy it as much as I have, so heres to keeping it up.

So that's all folks, I am so happy that this year is over and I can finally start looking forward to a bright 2016 and all it brings.

Always be kind, you never know what personal battle people are fighting.