Bargain of the Week #3 - Super Handy Make Up Storage

Another week another bargain. This week my sister and I ventured out into the wilderness of London and did our big Christmas shop(because we are SUPER organised!) We did a pretty good job, bagging a lot of lovely gifts for everyone. But, quite shamefully, I also picked up a few bits for myself.

My irritating need for everything to be organised means that I am a sucker for storage so it’s a very pathetic fact that when I saw this I got rather excited:

Okay, yes, I admit, it’s technically just a fabric pot but you can’t judge a book by its cover. This diamond-find holds all of my daily make up (which turns out to be a lot more than I thought) and a bit more as well.

I’m particularly chuffed with this because I was getting really frustrated with the pot I was using. My new brushes were constantly getting crushed and misshapen by the bigger products I use but I didn’t want to have too many cosmetic bags floating about (clutter is not my friend.) With the compartments on this holder I can separate everything in an organised and completely geeky way! HURRAH!

Of a morning, before work, I tend to do my makeup in bed, if I’m heading out I’ll probably do it at my desk and if I’m just doing a good cleanse I’ll probably do that in front of the TV in the living room. So I absolutely love the fact that it’s sturdy and light enough to move about the house as and when I like.

I found this in a shop called Tiger in Kingston(whose website I will link below) for just £3. At first glance I thought Tiger was a gadget shop, which I was excited enough about, but on closer inspection I found that Tiger sell all sorts of goodies and is definitely worth a look if you're after Christmas presents. 

TIGER: http://www.tigerstores.co.uk/

Until next time!

  

Sunday Smiles #3 - NCTJ Diploma Delivery

I don’t feel that this week’s Sunday Smiles is quite conventional because it’s not something that has made me giddy or excited but has provided a certain kind of happiness. I was officially enrolled on a diploma, and the box arrived with all my books.

I graduated in July, and it’s safe to say that it took me until September to recover from my degree. Education has always been a huge part of my life but, at the same time, it exhausts me. That being said, it didn’t take long until I was dying to get my head in a book.

My degree is in History and Journalism and I would definitely recommend a joint honours to anybody considering Journalism or to anybody who can get easily frustrated. As well as being able to study one of the most interesting subjects, it was also refreshing to close a History book and start writing an essay about something entirely different.

That being said, it did mean that I didn’t graduate with the nationally recognised Journalism diploma from the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ) which is where you learn Shorthand and the like. Basically, it’s pretty important.

But now I’m enrolled in a distance learning course to get that diploma and learn all the skills that come with it. The NCTJ recommends that the course will take between 6 months and 2 years to complete but there is absolutely no pressure (something I find quite blissful). I can study in my own time, in my own home, and work full time as well!

I’ve started to make some progress on my four core modules and begun to wrap my head around the concept of Shorthand. Every time I start a new unit I feel a bit overwhelmed as if there is no way that I could possible teach this stuff to myself, but once I’ve completed all of the exercises and reached the end of the unit the satisfaction is immense.

Outside of Shorthand I am re-doing the Law module that I already did in my first year (which is useful because it’s so important but I have, sadly, forgotten a lot of the jargon) a public affairs module (which looks really interesting) and a reporting module (which gives a lot of good practice for practical journalism skills which should never be sniffed at.)

I’ve found that education has largely given me a sense of purpose and focus. I think I’d feel a bit lost if I wasn’t enrolled on one course or another. But for this week (and hopefully the weeks to come) I am given a smile by the interesting things I’m lucky enough to study.

Oh, and also, I’m not the only one enjoying the box that the books came in:

Until next time! 

Bargain of the Week #2 - Softest Makeup Brushes

At the end of October I was treated to a makeover photo shoot in Westminster. It was a birthday present from my mum which I had repeatedly avoided for about 7 months. In the end I found the experience to be stressful and, if I'm being honest, I didn't really rate the people who worked there.

That being said, I did get a lot of make-up tips and answers to questions I've had since I was about 13. The only problem is that to take all of that advice would have been pretty pricey (and I have a £25 bottle of primer to prove that.)  

But just when I had lost all hope of not looking like a clown every time I do my makeup, good old Poundland came to my rescue once again with a range of pretty epic brushes.

I should probably point out that this blog is in no way affiliated with Poundland, it’s just a fact that they are epic.

This isn't’t the first time I have bought a makeup brush from Poundland. In fact the first time I was bitterly disappointed. The bristles were already falling out and it wasn't exactly soft. But then I saw these:

I probably wouldn't have paid them much attention but I had just been looking at a set in Superdrug that were incredibly similar only they were three times more expensive and smaller.

So, in for a penny in for a pound (hahaha, pound…) and, luckily, it’s one of the best impulse buys I've ever made. The brushes, which are all sold separately, are made up of a foundation brush, powder brush, kabuki brush, angled blush brush and a double-ended angled eye brush.

The brushes’ incredibly soft bristles help makeup settle flawlessly and the angled blush brush and eye brush are essentials for contouring and eye-liner.

I've found the set to be incredibly and I'm completely chuffed that I got them for £1 each because the money I've saved on brushes help me feel more comfortable about buying expensive makeup.

All of the brushes can be viewed (but not purchased) on the Poundland website here:

http://www.poundland.co.uk/health-and-beauty/beauty-and-skincare/cosmetics

Until next time Internet!!

Sunday Smiles #2 - Mustard Seed Relief Mission, Love in a Box 2013

This week marked the official beginning of Christmas for me and there is no better way to kick off the festivities then to donate to charity.

This is the first year I’ve had a little bit of money floating about I decided that it was time I tried to help somebody else. I did a little digging around and found a charity called Mustard Seed Relief Mission who run a program called Love in a Box every year.

Mustard Seed is a UK based charity, now in its 20^th year of mission work. The idea of Love in a Box is that you get an average sized shoe box, fill it with Christmas presents, wrap it up and then Mustard Seed will make sure it gets to an under privileged child somewhere in Eastern Europe.

This is something I did as a child in Primary School and I’ve always remembered getting really excited about putting the box together because it was something I could get actively involved in. All these years later and I still got excited about the program because I’m still a big kid and sentimentality sometimes gets the better of me.

So I found myself a shoe box and got myself down to (big surprise) Poundland. As a rule, I don’t get a basket when I walk into Poundland for fear that I will leave the shelves bare if I do. But this week I threw all caution to the wind and ransacked that place as if it was closing down. I ended up with this little pile of gems:

Now I don’t know if it’s just me but if you had given me all of that when I was 4-years-old I would have been the happiest little chipmunk you ever did see. There are toys in there, books, crayons, sweets and a few essentials that Mustard Seed specifically suggest for the age range I chose (toothbrush, toothpaste, soap, face cloth.)

All of this would have been enough to make me smile but the sheer Christmas magic didn’t stop there. A few of the people I work with said that they wanted to get involved too and before I knew it I was carting 25 boxes over to a little village in Staines for Mustard Seed to collect.

I might point out that the really typical image you get when someone mentions the word ‘village’ is EXACTLY where I had to deliver the boxes to. I’m talking streams, farms, pub (singular), shop (again singular), dirt tracks and giant houses. It was cold, it was November and it was just about the most Christmassy thing I have ever done in my entire life.

So that was what plastered a smile on my face this week. It was a lot of fun and I will definitely be doing it again next year and perhaps I’ll even run a proper drive at work!

You can read all about Mustard Seed and Love in a Box here:

http://www.msrm.org.uk/liab.html

Till next time! 

   

Bargain of the Week #1 - £1 Hair Barrette's

Hello internet. This is the first instalment of Bargain of the Week, the second of three regular features that I'm trying out(the first being Sunday Smiles of course.)

Everyone, and I do mean everyone, loves shopping and there is nothing better than getting something at a good discounted price.

It’s no secret that my relationships with both pound shops and charity shops are incredibly beautiful ones. Some people call it an addiction, but I refuse to admit that being frugal is a bad thing.

So to celebrate my addi- *cough* frugality, I’ll use this space to share my favourite bargains of the week! Lets get cracking!

Back in August my hair straighteners died an incredibly sudden death and everyone I knew began to realise that I was, in fact, a Lion in disguise. It became necessary to find the equipment capable of pinning the mane down! I spent a ridiculously long time looking for a good barrette clip to do the job but, for some reason, I just couldn't find one.

Then I went to Poundland! Oh good old Poundland, the trusty shop where so many of my dreams have been fulfilled. I found not one but three barrette clips that were perfect for £1 each (well obviously, they were in Poundland.)

I've tried out all of them now and they do a fantastic job of holding the mane in place all day. They don’t let any stray hairs out and, impressively, they don’t move about at all. And also, they happen to be really pretty. 

They are made by a company called Millie Accessories, who don't appear to have a website, so your best bet is to get down to your local Poundland (because you can't buy anything off of the Poundland website either.) 

One thing that I didn't realise before I bought them was that the patterned clip is MAMMOTH! If there’s anything better than a bargain it’s finding out that it’s even better then you originally thought it was.

The sheer size of this beast means that all fiddly-ness is gone! The silver clips can be a bit of a pain to secure but this one is a two-second-jobby! Blow dry hair, clip in, out the door. Perfect for getting ready for work and pretending that I didn't wake up half an hour ago.

So I think that perfect hair saviours for £1 is a pretty decent bargain. Once again, Poundland saves the day.

Catch you later internet.  

Sunday Smiles #1 - Sherlock/Cumberbatch Goodies!

Welcome to the first ever Sunday Smiles! I'm so excited to get this weekly post up and running and I'm also pleased as punch that I have something to share so soon!  

But first, I’ll tell you what Sunday Smiles is all about. Like I said in my last post, I'm really keen to write about the little things that make me smile because I think it’s important to remember them. So, every Sunday (hopefully) I’ll share the thing (or things) that have made my week a happy one. Nice and simple. So lets get cracking!  

This week has actually been a bit stressful what with work and bills and all of that other grown up malarkey that makes up my life nowadays.

But yesterday my dad popped round to the flat I share with my sister. He doesn't visit very often and I usually get quite anxious when he does because typically we have a rather strained relationship. To be honest yesterday was no different on that score.

However, my dad does have rare moments of genius and when he says he’ll do something you can trust that it will be done. Never have I been more grateful for that then when I got home from work and found this in my living room:

Yeah. That’s right. It’s a giant Benedict Cumberbatch face. It’s the most brilliantly insane thing I have ever owned and it’s safe to say that I am completely chuffed.

Before you start to think that my dad is some sort of hugely talented artist (to my knowledge he is not) I should probably clarify that this was once on the side of a bus and that my dad works at a bus garage. When the time comes for promo posters to go to the big skip in the sky (as it will for all promo posters) dad gets a chance to rummage through them and save some. Giant-Cumber-Face is the most recent survivor, and the first for a while.

I know exactly what you’re thinking, and you’re right, I'm balancing on the line between sane and bat-poop-crazy. Oh but what’s this?! Turns out dad bought me another present:

The several hundreds of thousands of ‘Sherlock’ fans around the world will know exactly what this is. If you don’t then I strongly suggest you find out before the third series starts. Just trust me on that one.

So this week I smiled because I was given a Giant-Cumber-Face and a Sherlock hoodie to wear whilst admiring it (which is also super useful because it’s sodding cold here.) Thanks daddi-o! 

Well, this was fun! Catch you next time internet! 

Hello from Hayley!

Hello everyone! Lets give this blogging lark another go!

This isn't my first blog but it is incredibly different to what I have done in the past. The reason for that is a bit sappy but, in a nutshell, I've realised that I've never really done something just because I thought it would be fun for me! So here it is! My fun blog.

I will be writing about the little things that make me smile every day because I think it’s worth documenting them lest I forget them.

That being said, no holds are barred. I might even get serious once in a while (WARNING: THIS IS INCREDIBLY LIKELY.) I've even got a few regular features planned which, I must say, I'm getting ever so excited about.  

So that’s my plan and my hope is that it can come and sit next to me on this roller-coaster I find myself on. And hey, if some of you want to join us, then that really would be dandy too.