Korea // The Final Chapter

Hello! I bet you were beginning to wonder if I was ever coming back, right?!

Well, I am, I've just been so much busier than I could have imagined. Guess I should known moving country would take a bit of work. Anyway, we've made it and so far we're absolutely loving it here. We've spent the first 10 days basically getting our new place organised.  To my absolute delight they have Zara home here. Needless to say, I lost control and my apartment now looks somewhat like an ad for them. Whoops!

Anyway, other than my new home I have lots more to fill you in on, but for the sake of leaving no big gaps I'm going to show you some pictures from my last few days in Korea. All were snapped in a hurry on my iPhone so please excuse the not so great quality!

I Wore: Hot Pink Blazer Because Love Isn't In The Air

Yesterday was 'White Day' here in Korea. Whilst the western world just has the one day dedicated to love over here in Korea they have three.

• February 14th, often called Red Day here, is when women give chocolates and gifts to the men. 
• March 14th, White Day, when men give gifts to the women. 
• My personal favorite, the final day, April 14th is for all the single people and it's called......

.....wait for it.....

...Black Day! Dun, dun, duuuuun!!!

There's no beating around the bush, if you're single, well...it's a dark, dark time for you clearly! 

Joking aside, I actually think the idea is quite good; single people go to restaurants to eat 'Jajangmyeon', a dish of noodles with black bean sauce - hence the real reason for the name! The idea being they get to celebrate singledom with other single people and who knows....maybe meet that special someone! Ahhhh!

With all that being said, what did I do yesterday to celebrate White Day, the day for the ladies??

Nothing! According to my fiance I can't use Valentines Day and White Day as excuses to get gifts. I get one, that's it. Dang it! It was worth a try I suppose!

Instead, the evening was spent doing our weekly shopping (so glamorous!) with all the singles. We did pop to Starbucks as well though and got to sit amongst a tonne of young love-stuck couples! Despite not receiving one measly little gift, I still thought it'd be nice to dress with the theme of love in mind by popping on my pink boyfriend blazer. 

Let me begin by showing you my unimpressed face...

"What do you mean I don't get gifts on Valentine's Day AND White Day?!!!"

White enamel watch - 'DKNY'. Gold Orb Pendant Necklace - 'Vivienne Westwood'. Bangles - 'Accessorize' & 'F21'

Hot Pink Blazer - 'Grey & Ousborn'. Oversized Black Bag - 'Bally'

Mint Nail Polish - 'The Face Shop'.

White Day, Korea - 14th March

So what do you make of the ways Korean people celebrate love here? What do you think of the idea of Black Day for single people?

xxx

PS: I passed 1000 followers on GFC a few days ago! I'm planning a giveaway to celebrate and a special thank you post but I wanted to mention it briefly now. I'm so thankful to everyone who shows support to me and my blog :) I remember back at the start of November, when I did my 50 follower giveaway, I thought it'd take me forever to get to 1000! Every day that new people visited my blog and followed me I got more and more excited. I half expect to wake up one day and find you've all come to your senses and un-followed me. But...until that day I want to say a huge thank you, your kind comments and interest in even my most boring of posts is what puts a smile on my face and makes blogging so much fun for me! Thank you everyone :) x

Better Late Than Never...Lippmann, Cupcakes & Other Lovely Stuff

I know I petty much missed the Happy Valentine's Day Bandwagon but it's better late than never right?!

So how was it? I hope that it was full of love and happiness with the special person in your life. And for those of you that don't have a special person at the moment, I hope you made the most of the opportunity to go to a bar and know, without any awkward questioning or an ounce of doubt, that every guy in there was most definitely single!

I spent mine at home since I have a fiancee who is away in Australia....boooo! He sent me some lovely gifts though including a cute little Koala Bear toy (yep, there's a big kid right here!) and a new nail polish - Deborah Lippmann 'Across The Universe'. I was toying with not mentioning that since I noticed my blog seems to be increasingly looking like a nail polish blog! It isn't though...really...I promise!

  

I drank some beautiful sparkling rose wine, enjoyed half of an M&S Dine In For Two (how sad does that sound?!!) and then finished off my romantic evening with myself by indulging in one of the total fail brown coloured Red Velvet cupcakes I made. 

They actually taste delicious, seriously, seriously good! I guess the English red food coloring just isn't as strong as the American stuff though?!

If you care to see if you have more luck the recipe I used is from the scrumptious (be warned though, you'll probably end up baking something and then eating the whole darn lot!) Bakerella.com!

xxx

 

Setting Things Straight: Google Friend Connect is NOT closing!

Let's start by appreciating the fact it's Friday! Good times.

Now I'd like to talk about something not related to fashion or beauty....Horrid and boring? Perhaps. Bare with me please though and read on because it could be really important to you!

Firstly, I got it back!!! Yep, after an age trying to work out how, several posts in the Blogger forum, an email to Blogger and absolutely no assistance from them whatsoever (thanks guys)...I DID IT! Me. All by myself. 

*breathes sigh of relief*   I'm just a regular tech junkie I guess, who knew!

I'm talking about my Google Friend Connect gadget if you hadn't worked that out yet. Which leads me  to the next point. On so many blogs I visit I see people talking about GFC closing, lamenting that it is no more.  I don't know if you know this or not but I studied journalism at University. So, as the big bad-ass journalism graduate that I am, I get bugged by inaccuarate news spreading. So I'm here to try and help people hear the truth....are you ready?? News flash people....

GOOGLE FRIEND CONNECT IS ONLY CLOSING FOR NON-BLOGGER SITES!

Paco Rabanne Lady Million and Five Hundred

I'm a bit of a perfume collector but as yet I've not dared to dedicate a post to any of my favorite scents to wear. The problem is no matter what I tell you, no matter how I try to verbalize the scents, the fact will always remain that you can't smell a blog post. So, with that in mind, I thought it'd be a great idea to try. Excellent logic on my part, no?!

I picked up Lady Million by Paco Rabanne yesterday. I first spied, or should I say, smelt this perfume on my way through Duty Free and regrettably didn't buy it. I would have saved myself a few pounds but having said that it wasn't too badly priced in comparison to some of my usual selections.

The perfume comes packaged in a beautiful gold box embossed with the name. The bottle itself has been inspired by a jewel and the name and atomizer are gilded with gold giving the impression of something luxurious. So that's the packaging described, now onto the smell. You'll have to forgive me here if I can't do this well. To be honest what I'd be inclined to say first is 'it's nice' but I know that doesn't suffice as a description. So here's my best effort...

  

Described as a sensual, seductive and a floral scent, when you first spray it the overall smell is most definitely floral. There's hints of Jasmine amongst the floral bouquet. Unfortunately my sense of smell and knowledge of flowers won't take us any further than that. After a few minutes the scent develops and you definitely can smell the notes of honey and orange. I find the smell to be rather sweet but not in a sickly way. It does, as the description states, seem quite sensual and I find it very smooth. I think it's a versatile scent that can be worn in Winter because of the honey and orange or Spring because of the brightness of the florals. But really that's down to personal opinion and preference though. 

As for staying power, the perfume envelops you nicely for the first few hours and then begins to fade, it can still be smelt if you're up close and personal but by the fourth or fifth hour you need to spritz yourself again to maintain it's strength.

Overall, I love everything about this perfume. The design is sophisticated but compact enough for me to sling it in my handbag easily. The scent is bold without being overpowering and it develops well over the first few hours. I'll be re-buying this again I think.

You can buy Paco Rabanne Lady Million from The Perfume Shop for £59.99 for the 80ml size I have or if you don't need quite so much, £32.99 for the 30ml. It's available from Sephora too, for people in the US and elsewhere, starting from $48.

Five Hundred

Now, enough talk of a million, 500 seems pretty good to me. This week I passed 500 followers! I was so thrilled, I never thought it would happen this quickly. For the first few months I didn't try to attract any readers (since I didn't have anything for them to read) but I remember when I finally passed 50 followers in November and it seemed huge to me. Now I've passed ten times that!!

I want to say thank you to all you lovely people who read my ramblings, comment and of course follow me!
Although I really enjoy blogging, knowing you lovely ladies are somewhere in the world actually paying attention to what I write is not only a strange feeling but is also an awesome, unbeatable feeling and great motivation to keep at it. Your kind words always bring a smile to my face and encourage me to try and make my blog better.

So a BIG thanks! Without you I'd probably have given up a long time ago!

xxx

Russian Ushanka, Recap & Resolutions.

I'm reaaally not sure how I feel about this hat. Not one bit. Apparently they're called Ushankas. Here's what goes through my head when I put it on...

Things I like:

It's soft. Like...oh wow kind of soft! Seriously, I want to sleep in it.
It's so warm and snuggly.
It's a bit unusual. 

Things I don't like:

I look like I'm going to Russia on a hunting trip.
It's a bit unusual.

Working the Russian Ushanka hat? Errr...no...not quite.

So go on....tell me what you think of my Ushanka? Love it....hate it? Would you wear one? It was a gift so you can be honest, I won't be offended! They don't read my blog either....don't worry!

In Other News

I've been a little MIA for the last few days. Do you ever go through spells where you have so much to do you end up doing NOTHING productive?!

I feel like my life's gone crazy. Not in a bad way. Just crazily busy. Not just for a few days but what feels like the last three weeks actually. Moving from Korea, blogging, Christmas shopping, blogging, getting engaged blogging, Christmas, blogging, New Year, blogging, catching up with friends and family I've not seen for the last two and a half years and a bit more blogging.

And...breathe.

It's been fun but the drawback is I've missed telling you about loads of bits. So I'll try to start filling in the gaps here and there. Firstly, because I'm most excited about it, I started planning my wedding. Yep, I know I still haven't told you the proposal story, it's on my 'to-do' list though! We've set a provisional date of March 2013, on a beach, somewhere warm, possibly Thailand! I'm hoping it's going to look something like this; 

I also took part in a Blogger's Secret Santa at Christmas. It was run by the lovely Melina. I received my gift few days ago, all the way from Australia! I got paired up with a very stylish lady who goes by the name of Professor Barbie. Here's the lovely girl herself in a beautiful outfit;

Ummm, how much do I wish the weather here right now was right for that outfit? 100 Mile an hour winds and pouring rain....A LOT! Got to love England! Anyway, she sent me a little parcel of goodies. All so cute and pretty, I will try to take photos to show you soon. She also wrote a cute message and filled the card with sparkly gold stars. You know that made me happy! Check out her fashion and beauty blog Professor Barbie in the Playground. 

So that's clued you in on a few bits and bobs that have been going on with me. What's been happening with you since New Year? Have you made any resolutions?

I have, they're horrible. Really horrible. Save money, diet and work harder. Fun huh?!

xxx

Happy New Year : Deborah Lippmann, Drinks and a Dress.

My New Years Eve Nails - 'Candy Shop' Deborah Lippmann

'Get This Party Started' - Deborah Lippman

Champagne ready and waiting.

Metallic pink wrap dress with shoulder pads - ASOS - Link Here!

New beginnings.

I've spent my last day of 2011 painting my nails. As if by a stroke of magic the aptly named nail set 'Get This Party Started' by Deborah Lippmann arrived on my doorstep today, over a week before the estimated delivery date. I chose the colour 'Candy Shop' for tonight, I will post about the whole set in more detail another day.

Of course when I say 'I spent the day' I actually mean a few hours,whilst tooling around in between doing various other things. I've spent a lot of time today thinking about the year that has just passed and the things that have happened. I have been living in Korea for the third year so that's been a big experience. I've learnt a lot more about the cultures there and made many more great friends. I also had my mum visit me which was a highlight of the summer. And now I have the pleasure of being back in England with my friends and family here. There's been two big events that stand out for me though. Steve and I got engaged (still smiling) just a few weeks ago and in August I began this blog.

The five months since I first created this little piece of internet feel like they've flown by but I couldn't be happier with how my blog is growing. I'd like to take this chance to thank you all for your support over the last few months. I am so grateful to all of you who read, comment and follow my blog!

I wish you all the very best for the New Year. I hope that with a new year comes lots of fresh new opportunities and great experiences for you all. Have a fantastic night tonight, celebrate the new beginning in style whatever you do (I know you all will)! Make sure you come back in the New Year because I have lots more to share with you and I aim to make my blog better and better.

Happy New Year Lovlies! xxx

China Glaze Snow Globe, Blue Years Eve & Let It Snow Winner

Silver charm bracelet - Links of London. Silver ring and Bangle - Mont Blanc.

This was my main reason for purchasing the China Glaze 'Let It Snow' gift set. I'd been eying up the color Snow Globe and thinking about how it would look layered over white. As we all know by now I'm a big advocate of a little sparkle, on nails in particular! So when I spotted a swatch of the white, very iridescent Snow Globe I had to get it. Up close it has gorgeous flecks of pink, blue and soft yellow glitter.

I had a vision in my head of a white base coat with a thick coat of the glitter over the top turning out like a snowy looking type of nail.

Well....I think it worked! I'm sort of surprised because usually my imagination does a better job than I can ever do in real life. Sadly, as with most glitter polishes, the pictures don't capture how it twinkles under the light. But let me tell you, it's very eye catching and...I love it! It looks like winter, in my head anyway. What do you reckon?

White polish base coat with China Glaze 'Snow Globe'.

Before going ahead and doing this I actually tested out both of the colours (Snow Globe and Blue Years Eve) in the 'Let It Snow' gift set. I get a bit over excited about new polishes and have to try them as soon as possible.

China Glaze 'Let It Snow' nail polish set - 'Snow Globe' and 'Blue Year's Eve'.

I'm a big fan of the blue on it's own as a block color. It has a very metallic foil like finish. For me it doesn't seem to work with Snow globe though. I feel like it's too fussy and the colors don't seem to compliment one another. Just my two cents. I'm excited to try Snow globe over a lilac though. I think it will go well with the soft pastel colors in the glitter. I've seen it over black too which looked cool so I may possibly try that at some point.

One lucky person has won the giveaway for a China Glaze 'Let It Snow' gift set all for them. The lucky lady is...

Bri!

Congratulations Bri! I hope you like the colors and find a way you like wearing them best.

Thank you to everyone else for entering and for all of your support. Reading everyone's lovely comments is what keeps me blogging so thank you all very much!

xxx

Silver Linings and Lakes Outfits

Let me start by telling you the silver lining...I have lots of time to dedicate to you now. Why? Because last night I said goodbye to my lovely fiancee (still seems strange calling him that but I'm so happy I can!). He is heading back to Korea for work reasons. It means that I'm not able to see him for the next eight weeks. It's hard to face the idea of not being with him for so long (especially at Christmas), we spend so much of our time together. The bright side is I can finally get back to blogging properly.

Now it's time to slow down and fill you in on my last two weeks. Staring with the most important thing in that time, the trip to the Lake District. We drove up through the gorgeous rolling hills of the English countryside (how I've missed those!) and arrived at our hotel, the equally charming Holbeck Ghyll Country House Hotel. It's pearched on the hill with panoramic views of the Lake Windemere and the mountains beyond. Really an absolute must-visit place in England! Despite visiting The Lakes so many times over my life, it really never fails to take your breath away!

Coat and scarf - both F21. I'm so grateful to be back in England now so that I can start shopping somewhere else!

The country house hotel we stayed at - Holbeck Ghyll. Gorgeous, highly recommend it.

The view from our private terrace.

Trivia: Renee Zellweger stayed in this suite when she was filming Beatrix Potter.

Under floor heating in here gets the win for the best bathroom I've ever used.

Getting ready for dinner on the first night.

Skirt - Zara. Soft pink shirt - ASOS. Wedges - F21.

Gold Sequin clutch - Zara. Studded Bangle and 'love' bangle - F21. Watch - Rolex. Other bracelets - Accessorize.

I actually got ready for dinner early just so I could get some pics with the view. Unfortunately the light was already going so they didn't come out great. The skirt has nice diagonal pleat detailing but you can't see it, blame the short daylight hours not me...pretty please?!

In other news: 

3 sleeps until Christmas!! Is anyone getting excited? Have you finished your Christmas shopping? I haven't!

The China Glaze 'Let It Snow' nail polish sets arrived. If you haven't entered the GIVEAWAY to win a set for yourself do so here!

xxx

Recipe: Festive White Chocolate and Peppermint Treats

Since it's nearly Christmas there really is no better time to make yourself some festive treats. I've been really busy since arriving back in England but these white chocolate and candy cane treats are so quick and easy to make. I whipped them up yesterday. It is after all the one time of year where over-indulging is actually expected! You can also package these up nicely and give them away as homemade gifts, you're friends will love you for it!

There isn't really a recipe, I just adapted it from something else I'd made before. All you need is white chocolate (melt it down in the microwave for 2 minutes) and candy canes (which are surprisingly difficult to find in England but if you're living in America it should be much easier). Smash the candy canes up inside a plastic bag to make small fragments.

Put the candy cane pieces into a strainer and sift into the white chocolate. This means you only get the smallest pieces in the mixture.

 Mix it together thoroughly to get an even distribution of the peppermint pieces.

Next you need to tip the mix out onto a cookie sheet lined with greaseproof paper. Sprinkle the larger pieces of the candy canes on top of the chocolate. Then, put the whole lot into the fridge for about 15 minutes or until it has set.

Take it out and break it into large chunks then try not to eat it all at once!

I actually decided to do this version after I made a Festive Chocolate Treat with pistachios and cranberries for a guest post I did for the lovely Daryl at Roots, Wings, and Other Things. The recipe and method for it (with lots of pictures) is on there from later today. So make sure you go check it out! Here's how it looks, it tastes just as good as you imagine!

Pistachio and Cranberry Chocolate Bark - Check out the link above for my guest post about this.

Packaged up nicely as a DIY Homemade Christmas Gift.

I have another very busy day ahead of me but I promise in the next few days I'll be posting pictures from my lake district trip!

Not long until Christmas now, I'm getting excited, are you?

xxx