Bowery Mural

Photo A Day Challenge: March 2012

Tuesday 28 February 2012

I cannot thank Chantelle from Fatmumslim enough for highlighting the Photoaday challenge. What started off as just January has now made it's way into March and she says will last all year. I am so loving this project. In mid February over 250,000 photos had been uploaded using the tag. Fantastic.

Last year i did try to do my own photo a day challenge but i didn't have a list to begin with so i kind of lost my way. I love that it's there on a list that i can check every day and compose, take and post my photo. I love different people's interpretations of the daily topics. It's great to see things through different eyes.

I'm trying to keep my Flickr page updated with my daily photo and mostly posting the photos via Instagram too, which helps. Why not join in too! Here is the list for March. My birthday month and the month the clocks go...forward? backwards? i always forget.

Happy snapping.


Angela x

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Essie Topless and Barefoot NOTD

Saturday 25 February 2012

I thought I'd do another post about my nails. They were in a bit of a state there for a few weeks. Still are really. I got a Shellac manicure offer from the Itision offer website and whilst the colour was nice, the application wasn't what i expected from a 2 week (normally £35!!) manicure. Shellac is meant to be a two week nail treatment that is set in place by a UV light. I chose the colour Red Baroness which was dark red burgundy with a slight gold shimmer. Lovely. But the application was messy and not up to my standard from a 'professional'. To be honest the whole experience put me off getting a professional manicure again. She was using the sawing back and forth action whilst filing my nails with an emery board. She then 'buffed' my nails to dehydrate them(!) with the gritty side of a nail buffer(!!!!!!!) and it was said that was so the Shellac colour would take to the nails. Surely the base coat would do that job? no? (beauty therapists help me out here). Anyway, i was disappointed. Not with the colour but the whole experience. It still cost me £19 on offer. So much so that after only a few days i decided to pick the colour off. Thankfully the colour came off in one pull. I realised that Shellac must mean that the colour is almost like some sort of vinyl paint. Anyway, underneath my poor nails were dry and you could see where she'd gone over them with that gritty buffer. Yuck. Surely that can't be good for your nails. Anyway i decided i was best to stick to my own nail colour and application.

So here they are...
Essie Topless and Barefoot. This is two coats, because I can't be bothered to do a third coat and wait on it drying again. It would benefit from a third coat i think. It's pretty good consistency, goes on smooth but you really do need 3 coats for perfect colour. It's a pale beige nude colour, has a hint of light peach in it in my opinion. It goes ok with my pale complexion. I have Deborah Lippman Naked colour which is similar but this one suits me better.
Essie Topless and Barefoot


Essie Topless and Barefoot

At the bottom, you can see i decided to spice it up with a coat of China Glaze Snow Globe over the top on the ring fingers on each hand. It's such a great combination as the Snow Globe is a subtle clear glitter polish with pastel blue, peach, yellow and pink glitter a hex glitter pieces. I would even go as far to say that I'd wear this combo on all fingers on both hands. It's that subtle.

What do you think?!



Essie Topless and Barefoot with China Glaze Snow Globe on top of ring finger

Angela x

5 Things on a Friday #8

Which again are typed on a Saturday! Oh what the heck, here goes...


  1. BRAVE. Disney Pixar's new summer 2012 movie. The trailer is ace. The stills looks amazing. This is one animated movie i cannot wait to see! See my previous post.
  2. My new Origins cleansing oil for my face. I got it a few weeks ago and love the feel of cleansing your face with oil. i have weird skin. Very dry but gets oily during the day. I've tried all sorts of cleansers and have yet to come up against one that does exactly what it says on the tin. You know the description.... leaves your skin feeling soft fresh brightened! Err. Nope. This one is a bit better but still not my holy grail of facial cleansing. But i love using it. It's the feeling of your fingers sliding over a normally dry face with such grace and elegance. Ok ok that but was shite but it's just a nice feeling giving yourself a facial massage every morning and evening. My face is still a bit dry afterwards (which was really disappointing) but i'll persevere. It may be the current weather and central heating causing it.
  3. Wearing heels to work. Well, heeled boots to be exact. I said to myself that this year i would try not to wear the Converse every single day of the year so for now I'm trying to be ladylike and proper 'work' attire...at least 3 days a week ;)
  4. Watched the cycling world cup at the Olympic Velodrome last weekend. Sir Chris Hoy won another few golds and the whole thing got me all excited and so looking forward to the Olympics! Cannae wait.
  5. Checked my online bank balance during the week and was slightly surprised that i had more money left his month than usual. Result! Pay day again on Tuesday too. Woo!


Angela x

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How Brave are you?

Thursday 23 February 2012

Brave is the new Disney Pixar movie due to be released in Summer 2012. It's a story about Princess Merida, and mostly based in Scotland (?). Determined to make her own path in life, Princess Merida defies a custom that brings chaos to her kingdom. Granted one wish, Merida must rely on her bravery and her archery skills to undo a beastly curse. She has long flowing ginger curls and a spirit that sees her through. I saw the trailer for the first time when i went to see The Muppets. It looks ace and the voices are Billy Connolly, Robbie Coltrane and a host of others.

Anyway, I saw some stills released on the Disney Pixar Twitter feed this week and I nearly fell about laughing when i saw these two little curly red headed characters sitting at a table. I immediately thought of my two goregous nephews, both fiery little redheads. Their red hair is legendary in our village. Thankfully Ryan (5) hasn't come up against any name calling or the likes at school. Hopefully he won't but you know what school kids are like sometimes. Heck, even on Twitter you often see folk making 'jokes' about gingers. I've never understood why? easy targets?

The Brit awards took place on Tuesday evening this week too. I happen to notice (in conjunction with finding the BRave trailer) that red heads appear to be in fashion just now. Ed Sheeran, Lana Del Ray, Adele (even though she's gone a bit blonder now!). I like it. For years red heads have often been the butt of jokes. I don't know why. My two nephews are ace and gorgeous and hopefully with the release of Brave and this band of ...well... brave characters, kids will not name call or taunt.

Anyway, for your pleasure. Here's the trailer. Enjoy.

 Angela x

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Cinema: an escape

Monday 20 February 2012

Getting a Cineworld monthly cinema card was the best idea I've ever had. It costs £14.99 per month and you can go to the cinema every day if you wish. There are extra charges for 3D movies but who likes those anyway. Personally all I get from 3D movies is a sore head. I wear glasses to see every day and so going to the cinema and putting 3D glass on top of my regular glasses is not the most appealing idea. Besides, of the few 3D movies I've seen I can't say my experience was enhanced by the 3D-ness or indeed that lack of it because lets face it less than half the film you can't actually tell if its is in 3D or not.

Anyway, that wasn't what it a showing to talk about. When I go to the cinema and see a movie it's like a form of escapism from the outside world. It's a chance to sit in a big dark room and watch a movie. I rarely choose to see a movie if it doesn't appeal to me. A recent example is The Artist. I have no desk whatsoever to go and see a black and white movie in which no one talks. I mean, seriously, is it really that good?... It doesn't appeal to me therefore I won't see it. No big deal.

I like all sorts of movies, although I'm not keen on stuff the is too sci-fi inspired. Like Star Warzzzzzzzzzz. Boring. To me that is, you may love them. And that's fine too. I really dislike cinema and music snobs. I like movies that have a story, are gripping sometimes oh and a nice male lead to look at is always a bonus. When people talk about movies and say the dialogue was weak or that the Plot was predicable I don't really get that. I'm not sure i could tell good dialogue from bad, and that doesn't make me a rubbish movie goer. Because like i said for me it's an escape, it's not a lesson in movie making. Of course you're there to see what hopefully will be a decent movie. I kinda like that you can predict the outcomes of some movies, it's all about how the director takes you there that can make the difference. For example, a rom com we know isn't going to be an intellectual adventure is it. But what it can give you is a laugh, a good (or bad) love story and two characters that may or not have a happy ending. Predictable? Yes. Good fun? Probably. Eye candy to look at? Sometimes.

This weekend: The Dark Knight at the IMAX. Woooo.

Movies. An escape for a few hours. Fun, lots. Sometimes it's not but that's OK too.

Angela x

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5 things on a Friday #7

Friday 17 February 2012

I'm just gonna rattle on through these finve things because i don't have much time. Lunch time at work you see. There were so many good things about the week that has passed. Here are five though...

  1. THE MUPPETS movie. YES, in CAPITALS!! I saw it last Saturday afternoon sat in a cinema that was about 87% full of kids and there parents/grandparents. Once they'd calmed down and were quiet the movie started. Right from the get go it is an uplifting, joyful and happy hour and a bit spent in the cinema. Wowsers. I used to watch The Muppets way way back inthe day and this film was good. I smiled all the way through it. There too were some excellent cameo roles, one in particular I LOVED! I won't spoil it by telling you who but i think you'll like it too. Oh and I loved that Scooter has been working at Google. Nice touch. Oh and Jason Segel is brilliant. Amy Adams plays the same part she played os well in Enchanted. Another good family movie. Good see THE MUPPETS.
  2. All New People. Zach Braff's new play came to Glasgow via Manchester before he takes it to the West End. I spent Thursday night at the Kings Theatre in Glasgow watching it. It was funny and clever and the cast were excellent, particularly 'Emma'. If you can get tickets i'd recommend this one too!
  3. Week one of semester has begun again. It's normally a hectic time with over 700 students queueing up over 3-4 days to sign up to tutorial groups. I normally do this manually andmet every one of them but this year we've tried it online. I set it all up for them, set the modules to go 'live' at different times and prayed the technical glitches of last semester didnt happen again. Result! It worked, all fine. I saved myself a lot of stress and time and the students appear to like it too. Winning all around, high five!
  4. Friends: This week seems to have been filled wirth friends reappearing and it's nice. A few emails and texts from locations various. I really thought I was on my own for a while there.
  5. I found another cool blog to read, via someone i follow on Instagram. It's I Love You To The Moon Haven't had a chance to read much yet but i look forward to it over the weekend.

Here's a bonus number six...
I found the kids from PS22 school in New York on YouTube. They're a choral group and are so great and adorable. Millions of views on YouTube so not sure why i haven't seen them before. Anyway, now you can too!



Have a great weekend
Angela x

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It's a Love thing, Valentine

Tuesday 14 February 2012

Happy Tuesday! Ok, ok, it hasn't escaped my attention that it's also Valentine's Day. The day when couples and singles with crushes declare their love for each other. Blah blah blah. I've never been a fan of this day, even when i was with someone. There's too much pressure to buy things. Most of the time they're things you don't need. Then there's the dilemma of how much to spend. Does it depend on the length of time you've been together? 4 months equals a teddy with a rose in its mouth PLUS a meal from the Chinese. Who says romance is dead.

I'm not a fan of grand gestures. If I were lucky enough to have a Valentine (and I use that only because of the date), I'd be more than happy with a little handwritten post it note stuck to the fridge just before I opened it to get out the ice cold milk to pour over my cornflakes. That's what I'd like. I'm not a flower girl either. I boke at the thought of someone spending a fortune on a bunch of red roses that will wilt and bend over in the vase within a matter of days. Give me a handwritten letter any day.

I bought a card yesterday. This card.

It'll never be sent. Cowardly? yes. But is there any point in sending a card to someone and not putting your name on it. They'll never know and you'll be right exactly where you are just now. I could always write my name on it. OH no I couldn't! Can you imagine?! What if he totally recoiled in horror at the thought of me sending him a card?! yikes. Then were'd I be? Right where I am but with a pure beamer (no 17). Anyway, I don't know his address (excuse number one). He'd hate me (excuse number two). Imagine my embarrassment if anyone else ever found out excuse number three)... I'm running out of excuses, aren't I...

I'm a Pisces. A romantic so the horoscopes say. They also say blue/green are my colours and I should be working in the caring profession. One of those might be true, but the rest is null and void. I am a romantic. A hopeless romantic in fact. In all situations in life I almost always try to take the view that everything will be fine and then i get smacked in the face with the ten ton hammer of reality. But a girl can dream can't she. Sure she can. She can dream that one day, whilst she's not searching (the movies say it happens when you least expect it) that he'll come along and sweep her off her feet. That's if the hammer hasn't knocked her flying to the pavement first.

I know that we're not all lucky enough to have a husband, wife, partner, boyfriend, girlfriend and so to all you lovely single unattached people out there, you are all wonderful and your day will come (if that's what you want). It will!

In the mean time, from me to you with love and a hug,
Happy Valentine's Day

Angela xx
...and an extra one for luck, X

5 Things on a Friday #6

Monday 13 February 2012

I know, I know. It's not Friday. It's Monday, but to be honest last week was pretty rubbish and I was tired and excuse, excuse, excuse... So here they are 5 things (not) on a Friday #6.
  1. Superbowl 46 and my day off. I decided ages ago that I'd stay up and watch the Superbowl live on BBC1 and so ever the planner, i booked a day off on Monday. It was great having a weekend safe in the knowledge that you didn't have to get up for work on Monday. The Superbowl was Giants v Patriots. Giants won. I began to understand how the game works and in my opinion Tom Brady was single-handedly ruling certain parts of that game. Madonna was the half time show. Miming. Not keen on her new song though. Are you? My Superbowl experience was pretty cool. The day off next day was better. Spin class, late breakfast and a trip to Ikea to buy nothing that was on my list. I did however purchase a toilet seat for £7.99. Bargain.
  2. I put three bags of clothes i don't wear any more to the charity shop. They'd been laying around the place for so long and finally i deposited them at a place more needier than me. My drawers are a little less bulgy and I can find trousers in my wardrobe much easier. Good all round.
  3. I found some of the most inspiring videos on YoutTube and the web this week. From beauty tutorials and hauls to proper bona fide entrepreneurs. Proper ones. Not some of those bullshitters you find around. Totally inspiring and telling it like it is from real success stories. But back to the beauty hauls... I am obsessed with this stuff in the past 6 months. One I found via a blog i read called Buy now Blog Later and Laura. A Brit living in Dubai. She has style and a good sense of the latest items. Anyway she tweeted last Sunday evening about Make Up Never Sleeps channel. I hopped over to YouTube and spent the next 3 hours watching her videos. They are funny and a bit tongue in cheek but there ain't no bullshit. We likey.
  4. I excelled myself again with 4 spin classes, 2 back to back on Wednesday. Rawr. Except on Friday someone stole 'my' bike. Grrr. On the plus side i found a new one right at the front of class and it'll give me a great view.... if you know what I mean.
  5. I realised that I need to be a bit less naive when it come to people. It's a hard lesson to learn let me tell you. I mean how many times can you be disappointed because people won't go that extra mile for you when you'd run to the end of the earth for them. Serious. Anyway, it's now time to look after number one (me, obvs) and get a handle on being better at life in general. Are you with me?

Angela x

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Pinterest

Saturday 11 February 2012

I thought it was about time to add my own thoughts about Pinterest since everyone seems to have only just jumped on the bandwagon. Get with the programme kids, you're almost too late! There's a frenzy of pinning going on in certain quarters



First of all it is not new. Pinterest is somewhere I visit most days and I've been using it since October 2010 having got an early entry log in to it. I use it to catalogue lots of gorgeous things I've found on the web that inspire me, give me ideas, clothes i love, hair i love, architecture and design inspiration plus lots more. I've even used to it to put together boards of birthday and Christmas wish lists, and it worked. Someone actually got me a gift last year from my birthday wish list. I can get lost in Pinterest for hours if i let myself with the 'see more pins' button.

Lately, since folk have jumped on the bandwagon, I'm beginning to see some negativity towards it. This is sad to me. For me it's one of the places I'd rather go on the web and I'm scared it'll become ruined by over eager lazy marketers using it as an easy way to get their brand on there.than anywhere else

I seem to say this a lot about social networks but you shouldn't force it. It should grow naturally, organically. I don't want to be almost duped by brands on there. For example, I've read countless posts by various marketing bods in the past week or so. One came via Mashable and it highlighted top brands using Pinterest best (even the thought of that title creeps me out). Anyone, one such player is apparently Oreck. Not a lot of people may know who Oreck are (lets' face it, they ain't no Dyson!) but I've seen their vacuum cleaners on sale on the shopping channel QVC. You might have seen them on the back page of a free magazine you get with a Sunday paper. Anyway, Oreck have lots of boards. Some of their products, some of nice floors but there's one called Furry Friends. Furry Friends contains lots of pictures of cute cats and dogs (if that's your thing). They've linked it in some obscure way by saying that these furry friends make a mess which you need to clean with your new shiny Oreck machine. To me this is the wrong way to promote your brand. This is just my opinion remember folks. Everyone knows that cute animals pictures will get you big hits anywhere on the web. It's like a cheap way to get people to notice your brand. And it probably works. So if your brand is only about the number of hits and not about the customer, go right ahead and follow this model. But you know what i like. I like brands that are honest and have integrity, that are engaging with customers (and not just rich sleb customers btw), who give something back every once in a while and who appreciate their customers. I'm not saying Oreck do none of the above but you know that 'let's use cute animal pictures to get traffic' thing just doesn't sit right with me. All fur coat and no knickers you might say.

Another bad example I found was when i searched the Everything: Print and Posters section. In it is lots of posters, typography, illustrations and other stuff. But!! I discovered LOTS and LOTS of pins clogging up that section from an advertising agency. It was from all of their clients. They had even written it below each pin. Obviously an over zealous person trying to quickly fill up their boards in that "lets fill up the boards so that we can show our potential clients that we too use Pinterest and are down with the cool kids". I've no problem with them doing this but perhaps it would've been better done in stages rather than spamming like that. I looked at it as spam because i saw they were all from the same source. So, think on that. Pin but beware on how it looks on the actual platform. It's like when someone tweets loads of tweets in succession. I immediately scroll over them because I can't be bothered to read them, spam.

I'm scared Pinterest will become filled with cheap give away competitions and brands trying to grab your attention. Maybe they should focus on the pinners who are actually pinning their brands onto their boards too. If I pin an item from a  brand onto one of my boards it means that i really like, love even, what they are about and I'd want to highlight them. For example, I pinned some new TOMS ballet shoes that I LOVE and that had just launched a few days back. It was immediately repinned by about 10 other people. That's what i like about Pinterest. Natural pinning. Not forced. In my head Pinterest is some virgin lush Hawaiian in summary landscape, untouched by the nasty property developers (The Descendants movie reference there). It's an oasis of calm where I can be inspired and find some of the coolest things shared from the people i follow. It gives me endless pleasure and I'm scared that will be spoilt soon. But only if I follow brands, which i currently don't do at the moment. I prefer to follow real people and find brands through those channels (if i really have to).

Sometimes less is more.

Angela x

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Yo shorty it's your birthday...You're Twitter birthday at least

Wednesday 8 February 2012

Yes, that's right. Three whole years have passed since I joined Twitter. I can't actually tell you when my first tweet was though. Maybe I just lurked about there for a few days. Can you find out? One of the first people I followed, and still do to this day, is Ashton Kutcher. We all follow Ashton, right? along with the soon to be ex Mrs Kutcher. I liked their tweets. Still do. We got (get) to see a side of celebs that we wouldn't normally get to see. I like that.

I would recommend anyone to get themselves a Twitter account. But my biggest piece of advice I could give to you is just to be yourself. Be honest. Be you. Tweet what you want, when you want - just don't be nasty or vile or harassing. Watch yourself on that, kids.

Engage with people (I've a whole blog post on engagement coming soon). In my mind it's how you get the best out of it for yourself. I don't go in for that thing of limiting the number of tweets you send per day. Who's counting anyway? Granted, there are times when people are constantly retweeting stuff and it looks like spam so I just scroll past it. Find your happy medium. Find cool, interesting, fun people to engage with and to make your world that little bit better. I've found a few. The faithfuls. The ones I can reply on to tweet some of the good shit or to just bring a smile to your face.

Pretty much everything I said in this post at the beginning of 2011 still stands. Have a read. If you want to.

Here's a few people I like following:

@Joey7Barton Before Twitter I'd have turned my nose up at the mention of his name. Joey Barton was that footballer who always seemed to be getting himself into bother on and off the pitch. Now, having followed his tweets for a good few months i can honestly say he's been a revelation. He take some abuse on it but is fit for the protagonists. Much of what he tweets about is true, in my opinion. He's often getting into trouble with the powers that be of the FA but he doesn't care much. I find it refreshing that he seems to tweet so freely and can back up what he says.

@JohnPrescott  The Lord himself. Starts lots of funny little hashtag games, although admittedly I do find them annoying at times. He seems a lot of fun. You only need to check out his avatar - boxing robe and all!

@Audi my dream car manufacturer and they 'do' Twitter so well. Engaging with (lucky) customers and those of us who lust after an Audi in equal measure. The tone of the account is fun and informative and who doesn't love a picture of a new R8 to lust over.

That's all I'm listing just now. I might come back later and add a few more.

Angela x

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5 Things on a Friday #5

Friday 3 February 2012

 Friday again. Five things again. Enjoy.

  1. Well I somehow found myself included in a tweet by @bengoldacre and this little ol' blog has had its biggest views since its inception. It was my post is written on Sunday morning whilst watching the Australian open tennis final. There was the story about Facebook tearing families apart which i think is a load of bull. I blogged my thoughts. I think he must've liked it and gave the link in one of his tweets! WOWSERS. So that was quite nice. Downside is the two comments I got on it were anonymous and silly. I kept them there though. I may rethink that strategy. But yeah that was a nice start to the week.
  2. Two cinema visits this week. Shame with Michael Fassbender on Monday and The Descendants with George Clooney on Thursday. Shame: an18, lots of nekedness, he doesn't do a lot of talking but a strong performance from Fassnbender. Carey Mulligan was good too but I hate to say it, I'm getting really bored of her. She seems to play the same part in all her movies. Quiet, moody, sad. If I was her i'd take a more upbeat role next. The Descendents: a lovely movie. Clooney is fab as usual, although Oscar-worthy? Not sure. He plays the part well but the youngest daughter 'Scotty' stole the show for me. So funny and exactly like someone I know when they were wee. I choked up at a few bits so for me that's a good sign that a film has got to me. Two thoroughly different but equally as good films. Oh by the way, Shame is not a first date movie. Just a head up there.
  3. Had myself a nice little afternoon tea at a nice little tea room in Glasgow. Kimbles. The tea is by good and they do great hot scones with cream and jam. I have it minus the jam. I've never eaten jam #AngeFact Anyway that's become a regular haunt whenever I'm in Glasgow.
  4. Drive came out on Monday. I'd forgotten so never pre ordered it. When I came out the cinema I decided to take a detour to Tesco see if it was in stock. It wasn't, what's that all about? But I did take the opportunity to buy Crazy Stupid Love. Loved that film at the cinema and, of course, you can never have too many DVDs which The Gosling stars in. Noice. For the record, I ordered Drive from amazon and it was delivered today. yay! I'll be having me some of that soon. 
  5. Doubled up on spin classes on Wednesday night again. The first one is with Julie. She's so good at taking the class. Really motivating. The second class is with Tim, I think he's a fireman. I know this because he came in with that uniform on.... I'll leave that thought with you just for a minute....*wink*... Anyway, I'm loving the two classes in a row so it's definitely becoming part of my routine. LOVE IT.

That's is for this week. Share yours please?

Wait!!! An extra number 6. I've booked a ticket to see Zach Braff of Scrubs fame at the Kings Theatre in Glasgow. He's bringing a new play that he's wrote and starring in. Can't wait. I liked that film he was in with Summer from The OC. Exciting. 

Angela x

 

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