Hair Journey

As the end of the year approaches I really wanted to make a time line of my hair this year... But I'm missing some of the photos from the start of the year from my phone!

So I'm making do with what I have.

At the start of the year I ombred my hair tips using bleach.  It worked well, but my aim was to dip dye it.  I went with purple - la riche voilet. The colour was dark and blended in too well with my all over colour.  I repeated the ombré half way through the year and I also tried blue and pink from Schwarzkopf LIVE Colour Ultra Brights.  They didn't last very long but the pink did look great.

I decided during the September holidays and just go the whole hog and really get the colour I wanted.  I went from this to this...

I felt like a spy changing the colour of my hair to escape the enemies. 

Then this happened.

So this is Manic Panic Ultra Violet mostly. Purple haze as used in the bottom half - never again.

Pretty soon the Purple Haze turned a funny colour:

While the voilet turned a silvery grey purple which I loved.

So I used a pot of the violet and put though a heap of foils.

For the first week of my Christmas holidays I stripped my hair using anti-dandruff shampoo until it looked like this:

Then I booked in and bleached again.

See how the purple turned into green-blue?  That's a hint at what was to come.

BOOM!

Check that colour out!  I was hoping for a darker teal and ended up with bright

Cyan - it's mostly Manic Panic Atomic Turquoise.

So there we have it - my new awesome hair colour.  I've washed it twice now and the colour runs like heck but the hair doesn't look as though it has changed.

Gelicious - Lady Lauren & Peel off

I really wanted to try out the peel-off gel and I thought I would try it with the one polish I have been dreading to use.

Lady Lauren is a glitter and since I struggle to remove normal Gelicious polish I really didn't want to,,, well,,, you know try and get rid of the GLITTER!

I don't know if it was the peel-off or LL but I made a hash of this mani.  The glitter pooled along the sides even as I was zapping them in the light.

Once I finished I attacked most of the edges with a file because it was so uncomfortable.  The worst is my thumb.

Anywhooo I'll see how it goes.

Alrighty - the results!

7 days in 2 nails lost their gel - both had thick ridges of gel down the side so I wasn't surprised.

Finally after 15 days I had had enough chipping from one nail - and I had stained the polish with hair dye - to remove it all.  My regrowth was also long.

Here you can see the already peeled polish, the chipped nail and my regrowth.

So I soaked. And the I peeled back a little and kept repeating. But unfortunately that gel must have set pretty hard over the fortnight.

I also couldn't spend much longer than because I needed to get to an appointment.  So I did start to stratch off when it started taking too long.

I wish I had more time to do it properly because I ended up damaging the top layer of my nails.  They have all since buffed out, except for a thumb nail, but I was pretty angry at myself.

So things I have learnt -

After a long shower or hair washing you may get a little lifting - leave it alone to dry and reset.

Thick edges that touch skin peel away easily 

It will last a fortnight 

It will take a long time to remove the polish if it has stayed in you nails for so long.

Verdict -

I will probably never use the other Gelicious clear coats again. Peel off for the win.

A5 2015 Faux Hobonichi printable

I've been pretty happy with my Kikki K diary insert this year but I wanted to have a go at a day per page.  I liked the idea of a Hobonichi but I'm committed to using my Filofax and Kikki K planners.

So I downloaded the source files from Philofaxy (how amazing is Philofaxy?) and had a go at recreating the layout, but kept it pretty simple.  It's been a while since I played with mail merge so it took me a fair bit of fiddling.

Anyway, just in case anyone else would like a copy, I'm sharing the original word file and the merged word and pdf files.

unmerged file - doc - you will need to get the source files I guess...

OMG - Google docs is taking forever!

I'm going to use drop box - click here to go to my folder - the password is hobonichi

Week 50

Start of the school holidays!

Using some Kikki K washi tape - I've never seen snow but it's so Christmassy to have show and snowmen isn't it?

I really want to draw more in my diary - I have some plans for next year I'm telling you!

Priceline makeup haul

With a 40% off sale how could I say no?

Bourjois was the first brand of eye shadow that I bought for myself.  I thought I would also try some blush.

I'm always surprised when I see that the shadow matches the casing.

The colours are nice and pigmented - the turqouise and green needed two swipes though.  I wore the shimmer (not the glitter) beige today over Urban Decay primer and you can still see it after 10 hours.

These are Physicians Formula Mineral Correcting Powders, in translucent and creamy natural.  

I used the translucent today and it seemed to work - I can certainly still feel it on my face.

Maybelline Super Stay 14 hour - on the left is Perpetual Peony - on the right is Fushia Forever.

I really like this line - doesn't last all over the lips for 14hra but long enough.  They also smell nice.

Revlon ColorStay in Silhouette.  I really haven't tried this line - I have one other colour I think, but haven't used it.

Australis Make-up Finishing Spritz smells lovely.  It had mixed reviews but I'll give it a go.

Jewellry

I got a new ring today!  I love it.  It has 'moon child' engraved upon it, and is sterling silver.  I bought it from Dixi - shopdixi.com.  I was surprised at how quickly it arrived since it came from the UK.  I also bought some Christmas presents from there and I'm pretty happy with them.

It was actually a good mail day, my order from Priceline which I post about tomorrow.

Aussie Curves - night out

The last few weeks of school mean lots of night outs; speech night, senior formal, spectacular, Christmas carols.  Most of my photos have turned out too dark :(

I'm on the left.  My dress, not that you can see it, is from Asos.

Last night was our staff Christmas party.

It was meant to be a costume party but only my husband and I really wore costumes, although there were a few Christmassy outfits.

We don't mind being the only ones dressed up though because our costumes rocked...

Yeah check that out!

I got the dress and isis wings from eBay.  My sandals are from The Iconic.

Week 47

Long time no filofax post.  

That's not to say that I haven't been using my planner or decorating - well maybe not every week. I've just been busy busy busy!

I've got some secrets that I'm keeping - lets just say Minnie is part of one of them.

Aussie Curves - Skirt

Skirt!  

Last year on Aussie Curves someone shared a link to Punyus and I fell in love with the eggcellent egg skirt. Sorry - I'll make it my first and last pun.  Behold the sunny side up eggs:

No skirt has ever yelled louder to me then this one, "You must have me!"  But I figured it was going to be too hard to buy it.  I would make it myself, all be it with any large egg print I could find.

 I found this print on eBay, and put it in my watch list, and then forgot about it.

Anyway, recently I finally bought some fabric and got my sew on.  

I used quilting fabric but I interlined it with cotton silk so it would make the fabric wear nicer.  It also feels nicer. 

I sewed in pockets.

My outfit got a mixed review at work - some people just don't get the idea of wearing food prints obviously.  I have some watermelon fabric next up and am looking for pizza, maybe doughnuts.  To be honest, Katy Perry's video clip for "This is how we do" is influencing my wardrobe somewhat.  I'm including it below, just in case you have never seen it.

Aussie Curves - Then and Now

My very first Aussie Curves was 'pastel' back in November 2012.  My style really hasn't changed much - I still don't wear a lot of pastels and I still really like that outfit. I wonder where that dress is?

What has changed?

Recently I decided that I would stop wishing for purple hair and using boxed plummy colours, that I would bleach and actually use purple dye.  I love my hair now, I have chunky streaks at moment.

More photos. 

What I look like in photographs doesn't match up to what I see in the mirror or how I see myself. Someone suggested that it may be a form of body dysmorphia and I have to agree.  I hated all photos of me.

Part of my own personal challenge was that I would only take between 5-10 photos and share the ones I liked the most.  If I ended up with 10 really bad photos I still had to share.  

I'm never going to get the perfect photo of me, but doing this has really helped me be okay with the way I look in photos. 

Does that make any sense to anyone else but me?

Look at that double chin - thanks Dad for that gene. Can't hide it, may as well photograph it.

See my hair all mermaidy and such?  

Nice looking ground there.

These are new sandals - they gave me a small blister :(

Sandals - I got them The Iconic
Jeans - Crossroads
Shirt - Target
Necklace - City Chic I think - I got it for a buck or so because it was broken
Sunnies - RayBan prescription
Fashion rings - Najo and Ikecho

My current thoughts about my style.

My boss told me recently that he wished he could ban jeans and make us all wear corporate clothing.  Sorry, but just because you wear 'professional' looking clothes doesn't mean you will act professionally. 

Someone once told me, I forget who so maybe I read it, that if you want students to pay attention to you, you have to be the most interesting thing in the room.  I took that to heart, so not only do I grab their attention with my teaching, but also my wardrobe.  Even if I go with a subdued look like above, the small details always capture their attention. Accessories, always the accessories.

That's not to say that my style is dictated by what I think my students like. It just gives me permission to buy the things I like, in colours I like, always the colours, even if sometimes others don't think it's flattering, or professional, as long as I am comfortable, and covering all the bits they need to, and I can get my job done, then I'll wear it.

Bellabox October

Good mail day today.  

Squish pounced on the sample pack by Model Co - must have smelt nice.

Most of the samples will be thrown away because I usually lose them anyway; the Rimmel lipstick looks like it will work for me.  Red nail polish... I have so much that it's going into my piles of little presents that I keep for other people - I don't think this is a case of regifting since I did pay for it.  Sunscreen will be great but I don't need another shampoo and conditioner sample.